His eyes opened into slivers and he groaned gently. Was it morning already? Something told him it was too early to start functioning. Yup, definitely too early. Jason closed his eyes and felt himself sink back into groggy bliss.

Suddenly another barrage of knocks erupted at his door. Jason's body gave a jolt. He sat up, his joints feeling like lead.

"Muh?" he groaned, rubbing an eye with his palm. The door opened, and light poured in. No, not the sunlight! Go away!

"My apologies, Master Todd," he heard Alfred say as he entered the room. "But Master Grayson is on the phone. He wishes to speak with you." He placed the phone on the nightstand, and then rested something on the covers over Jason's legs.

"What's that?" Jason mumbled as he took the phone.

"The Gotham Gazette, sir. You might find it quite interesting. Breakfast will be ready when you get up." With that, Alfred slipped out of the room and closed the door behind him. Letting out a huff, Jason fell back onto the pillow and rested the phone against his ear.

"What's up, little man?" he heard a cheery, familiar voice greet him on the other end.

"I was sleeping," Jason replied grumpily.

"I know," Dick replied. "Alfred wanted me to call back, but I explicitly told him to wake you up."

"Asshole."

"Aw, poor sleepy weepy! Did wittle baby not clock in his eight hours? I wonder why! Maybe itty bitty Jason was too busy being a man!" Jason's eyes opened. What was that supposed to mean?

"Actually, when I first heard about you making the front page, I was a little worried. Knowing you," Dick continued. "But this? This is just hilarious. You're so adorable."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Alfred gave you a copy of this morning's paper, right? I'm surprised you haven't looked at it yet."

Jason propped himself up with an arm and slowly pushed himself back up into a sitting position, bringing the phone with him. "No, I'm a little slow this morning. I think it has something to do with hearing your voice and my brain cells dying." He grabbed the newspaper and pulled it closer to him. The room was too dark to read it. Jason looked over his shoulder and reached out to pull the curtains open a crack. He glanced back down at the newspaper and read the large, bold print that jumped out at him.

"GOTHAM'S BOY WONDER: FROM ROBIN TO LOVEBIRD?"

Beneath the headline were a few columns of text. But what caught Jason's eyes immediately were the two black and white pictures that were nestled within the text. They were shots of yesterday's little event at the Duvale; namely, after things had gone to shit. One picture showed Robin seconds after he had caught the Specter out of the air. The second one was much larger. They were shown on the rooftop. Jason remembered that moment: it had been when the Specter had buckled and grabbed him for support. But… at that angle, it definitely looked as if they were embracing.

"What the…" Jason muttered incredulously.

"Jason and strange girl sitting on a roof," Dick said in a teasing tone. "K-I-S—wait, that doesn't rhyme. Well, you get the point."

Jason let out a breathy laugh and tossed the newspaper aside. "Hey, you're just jealous," he said. "All your years in the hero business and you've never scored like I have."

"What, you think you can do better than me?"

"Already have," Jason replied smugly. "Guess who I'm meeting later today?"

"What? Fuck you," Dick said with a chuckle. "Well just be careful, man. Those hero chicks can get real conceited. Take this one; apparently she thought she could take Two Face on her own."

"Take on Two Face? Is that what the article says? Man, Dick, you should know better than to trust the papers these days. She was trying to make a deal with Two Face. Oh, and the money she tried to use was made by stealing from the Batcave."

There was silence on the other end. Finally, Dick said, "And you asked her out?" He chortled. "Sounds like you. Chasing after the bad girls."

"She's not…" Jason began, but trailed off. He looked back down at the newspaper, at the rooftop picture. "She's not bad, Dick."

"Is that right? I guess a sea lion would see nothing wrong with a seal. Well, at least the paper got something right."

"What?"

"You, dummy. You're completely twitterpated."

"I'm twitter—what?"

"You…" Dick's voice became faint. "You've never seen Bambi? You uncultured swine." Suddenly, there was a loud buzz on his end. "Well! Gotta go; duty calls! Tell you what, maybe I'll drop into Gotham some time and you can introduce me to that gal of yours."

Jason grinned at the remark, even though he knew Dick wouldn't be able to tell. "No. You stay away from her."

"Oh, afraid that I'm the smoother ladies' man?" He let out a warm laugh. "Kidding. All right, talk to you later, Jay."

"Bye, Dick." No sooner had he pressed the disconnect button, his head hit the pillow and he was fast asleep.

It hardly felt like a second had passed and Jason felt himself being gently shaken awake. He let out a stifled grunt into the pillow and felt his breath warm up the cloth.

"Master Todd? Master Todd, it is high time you arose," he heard Alfred say as the butler gave his shoulder another nudge. Jason didn't move. "Sir, I do believe you have an appointment with a young lady at half past two today. It would behoove you to check the current time." How Alfred knew about his date with Jocelyn was beyond him. But that's what made Alfred, well, Alfred.

Jason lifted his woozy face from the pillow and squinted at the alarm clock. His eyes popped wide open when he saw the LED numbers 2:20 shine back at him.

"Oh shit, shit!" he cried as he leaped out of bed.

"Mind your words if you will, young man. Women usually don't appreciate an ill-fitted tongue," Alfred lectured as the boy dashed out of the room.

Gotham Espress-O was one of the lesser-known cafes in the city, mainly due to the fact that there were so many bigger brand names to compete with. In fact, as Jason took a glance at it before walking in, it looked like a mom and pop place. There were still quite a few customers inside. It took Jason a few seconds to spot her. She was sitting at a table by the large window, resting a cheek against her propped arm. Her eyes were lowered to the phone in her hand, and a drink rested beside her. It was probably one of those strange coffees that had eighty words in its name. He noticed, with an internal cringe, that it was already mostly gone.

Jason dug his hands into his pockets and sauntered over. As he took his seat across from her, Jocelyn's eyes flickered upwards to him. She turned the phone face down and placed it on the table. There was an uncomfortable silence as she took another sip of the drink.

Flashing a cocky grin, Jason greeted, "Hey there, gorgeous."

Jocelyn sat back, draping an arm over the back of her chair and holding the drink by its rim. She regarded him with a flat smile. "So we're going to pretend the last 20 minutes didn't happen?" she asked. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy. Jason's hands began to grow a little clammy.

"Well, I…" he began uneasily.

Jocelyn placed the cup down. Her smile became warm. "Oh please," she said. "Yeah, you messed up. But I'm not going to get upset over a little thing like that. Now I can't remember exactly who told me this, but we all fuck up sometimes, right?"

Relieved, Jason leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. "Whoever said that must have been real smart. And handsome. And awesome."

"Okay, you can stop now," Jocelyn said. The phone on the table buzzed with an incoming text. Jason glanced down at it, but Jocelyn ignored it. "Sorry for being rude, but you look like you just got out of bed." The phone buzzed again.

Was it really that noticeable? He felt bad, comparing himself with Jocelyn in her sleeveless top and earrings. "Um, yeah. That's exactly it," he admitted sheepishly.

"I guess that little scuffle last night tuckered you out," Jocelyn mused. Another buzz. "But what do you know? I kinda like that look on you. It seems today I've found out that I have a weakness for dark, messy hair."

"That right?" Jason ran a hand through his hair. He was glad that he had ignored Alfred insistence on using a comb.

"Mmm," Jocelyn answered as she watched him ruffle his hair. The phone buzzed two more times. Jason's eyes returned to it.

"Someone trying to reach you?" he wondered.

"No." Jocelyn took the phone and slipped it out of view. Jason caught the name 'Verl' on the screen. "Someone's trying to be funny." Then she laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them. "So, Jason. This is a first date, which means we're obliged to tell each other about ourselves. Go on."

"Ladies first."

Jocelyn gave him a look. "Fine," she agreed. "My name is Jocelyn Drei. Sometimes I'm a normal girl, sometimes I like to pretend to be a spooky scary ghost."

"That's something I bet your folks didn't expect from you."

Jocelyn wiggled the straw in her drink, her eyes growing distant. "Actually, I don't know who my parents are," she answered quietly. "I have no memories of them whatsoever."

"Then where did you grow up?" Jason asked.

"I moved around a lot. Verlix took care of me."

"Verlix? That's a strange name."

"It's very befitting of him," Jocelyn said with a small smile. Jason noticed that she appeared to be watching his face nervously. When their eyes met, she lowered hers. "Sorry," she apologized. "It's just that when I mention that I don't know my parents, people get weirded out."

"I'm not like that. I didn't really know my dad," Jason offered. "And, well… my mom died when I was young."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jocelyn said.

"It's all right. Someone found me and took care of me too. Well, look at that. We've got similar upbringings, and we both kick ass. We got more in common than I thought."

"I suppose," Jocelyn said. "Except I've never sprayed graffiti before."

"Oh, it's a blast. You wanna go and try it?"

A wave of excitement passed over Jocelyn's face. She quickly tried to suppress it as she cleared her throat. Then, a childish smile crept back onto her face. "Sure, why the hell not?" she agreed.

"That's what I'm talking about." They both stood and left the table. As they exited through the door, the woman behind the counter called out, "See ya, Jo!"

Jason found himself out onto the bustling streets of Gotham again. The afternoon was melting into evening, and the roads were jam-packed with cars trying to return home. Jocelyn stood beside him.

"Jo?" he repeated, looking at her. "Hmm… Jo. That's cute. Can I call you that?"

Jocelyn shrugged playfully as she took his hand and began leading him down the sidewalk. "I'm not stopping you."

His heart skipped a beat. You're in the green, Jason! Go for it! In a brazen burst, he pulled his hand away and instead wrapped his arm around her waist. Jocelyn responded by pressing closer to him. Jason's insides felt fuzzy, and he hoped that his face wasn't as red as it felt.

Holy hell, I am the man, totally the man. Dick was right. I'm completely fucking tatterpitted.

Addendum: Cover pic is finally up. Yes, those distortions were made by hand. Yes, it was painful. But I like it, and I hope you like it too. However, FFN has been pretty glitchy lately in that cover pics will occasionally disappear. Hopefully that will stop soon. Get your act together, FFN.

Also, don't be misled. Even though Jo was chill with it, showing up late for dates is pretty rude. Don't do it.

Tatterpitted.