A/N - Steph expresses some allosexual concerns about being in a romantic relationship with someone who's potentially asexual, which may be upsetting for some.

"Do I wanna know?" Rich affection filled Red Hood's unhooded voice as he leaned out in a domino over the topmost gargoyle on Gotham Cathedral, from which Steph and Kite-Man were precariously dangling like unbalanced scales, two flies tangled in a web of kite strings and grappling lines.

"You Bats," Kite-Man sulked as Red Hood double checked his safety line before crawling out towards the dizzy duo.

"Wasn't talkin' to you," Red Hood snarked with a sharp flick of annoyed fingers against Kite-Man's spinning forehead.

"Ouch!" the D-lister yelped. "Careful! We could fall!"

"I'm not gonna let Batgirl fall," Red Hood scoffed.

"What about me?" Kite-Man shrieked.

"Hell, yeah," Red Hood smirked in a damn good Kite-Man impression. He slid his gaze over to Steph and gave her a secret wink while the corner of his mouth crinkled the merest millimeter. Steph didn't smile. "You ok?" he asked her under his breath a second later, when he bent down to secure the tether around her waist first.

Well, no wonder he was asking.

"Yeah," she mumbled, clearing her throat. "Thanks for the rescue," she managed to get out.

"Anytime, Blondie," Jason smiled at her. He huffed an annoyed sigh at Kite-Man when he turned to strap the villain securely to a tether, too, before starting to cut them free from their snares. It was only a few minutes before Steph's feet were solidly planted on the tower terrace, but instead of feeling grounded, she felt like she was tumbling in a terrifying free fall.

Jason had said her words.

"Steph!" Tim cried, bounding over to hug her tight. She squeezed him back gratefully, pleased he'd come over to her apartment to check on her after her somewhat disastrous patrol.

He was a good boyfriend. A great boyfriend, even. Her best friend and her fellow Bat. Smart, sassy, and sympathetic, in just the right measures, and Tim always had her back.

Sure, they weren't each other's soulmates, but so what, really? They loved each other deeply, got along great, and had a terrific relationship, so they'd both decided that holding onto what they had was way more important than some nebulous, far-off, might-never-meet-them-anyway soulmate.

Soulmates were so hit or miss, was the thing. A person's soulwords would be spoken by their soulmate immediately after their soulmate had fallen in love with them. Which sounded great, sure - except for all the people who dated and fell in love only to get crushed by the discovery that they weren't, in fact, their beloved's soulmate.

This persnickety little problem was the reason why most of the population kept their soulwords covered, even in their intimate relationships. No one wanted to be duped by a false soulmate, or have to uncomfortably admit to not quite being in love back if their soulmate spoke their words first. And most especially, no one wanted the mutual pressure of deciding whether or not to call off an otherwise perfectly good relationship if an "I love you" hadn't been preceded by one's soulwords.

Tim and Steph, though they hadn't shared their specific words with each other, had said and meant their "I love you's" a long time ago, and, like the besties they were, had freely admitted to each other that the more magical words had not, in fact, also been spoken by the other.

It was fine.

"Who needs soulmates?" Tim was in the habit of grinning up at Steph whenever the mood struck - whether they were curled up on the couch watching a movie, or lounging on a rooftop in full costume, or right after they'd kicked the villain of the week's ass in perfect tandem.

"Not us!" Steph always cheerfully answered.

She'd always been so sure of them, of her and Tim. Soulmates seemed silly and statistically speaking, less than a third of the population ever found their matches, anyway. Most people preferred, like her and Tim, to happily lean into the good or great non-soulmate loves they did find rather than throwing away their chances and hearts and lives on a maybe.

And Steph was so happy with Tim.

She was.

Mostly.

Almost perfectly.

Except for one tiny, little thing.

"Are you ok?" Tim asked into her hair as he hugged her. "Jason said you seemed kind of shaken up."

"You talked to Jason?" Steph stammered as her heart started pounding again.

"Yeah, he called and asked me to come check on you after I finished patrol," Tim said easily. "He was worried. Said you seemed off."

"Y-yeah," Steph answered shakily. "I guess I was, kinda. Am."

"It was a pretty close call, huh?" Tim said sympathetically, rubbing her arms as he let her go. "I would've been scared, too."

"Yeah," Steph mumbled, because it was easier than spitting out the truth. Truth that she wasn't even sure yet was true!

Her soulwords were a pretty common phrase, after all. It was probably just coincidence that Jason had said them. It wasn't like it was the first time that someone had accidentally said her words - but it was the first time when it was maybe halfway conceivable that the person might possibly be in love with her.

But that was absurd. Absolutely absurd. Jason wasn't in love with her! She was his brother's girlfriend! Sure, he hung out with them sometimes, and once in awhile they'd team up for a mission, but Jason, in love with her? The longer Steph thought about it, the more farfetched it seemed.

"I'll make you some hot chocolate while you change," Tim offered with a warm smile.

"Thanks," Steph smiled back at him, forcing her lips into the curve despite the churning in her stomach.

"Tim, can I ask you something?" Steph said hesitantly once she was cozy in pajamas, curled up in a blanket on the couch and holding her cup of hot chocolate and marshmallows in both hands.

"Duh," Tim grinned at her from her side, leaning in to bump their shoulders together. "You can always ask me anything."

"Why haven't we had sex yet?" she asked way more bluntly than she meant to. Tim's eyes flared with panic before his face went blank. "It's totally fine that you're not ready yet," she said quickly. "That's not what I meant. I guess I was just wondering if you had a timetable for when you might be ready," she fumbled.

"Or if there was a reason why you wanted to wait," she went on. "Because, like, if you want to get married first, that's totally cool and we can, but maybe we could start making like a three-to-five year plan in that case? Or," she diverted, when Tim's eyes widened in something that suspiciously resembled horror, "I didn't know if maybe you were figuring out that you're asexual? 'Cause I want to support you however I can, but I'd also kind of like to know what I can expect out of a sex life in the future."

"Not that I'm saying I'd definitely break up with you!" Steph quickly assured him, when he dropped his eyes and looked down into his mug. "I don't want to! I just - I don't know - I'd like to eventually have a sex life, ya know? So I would have to think about it - about us - but if I knew where you were at, that would really help, and -"

"Steph?" Tim interrupted really, really quietly.

"Yeah, Timmers?" she said gently. He took a deep breath and let it out in a shaky exhale.

"Please don't be mad at me," he begged.

"Timmy, I'd never be mad at you, and especially not for something you can't help," she assured him. "Promise."

"I didn't want to be this way," he began in a trembling voice. "I didn't think I was, until recently. I thought I just wasn't ready for sex."

"Lots of people aren't ready when they're teenagers," Steph nodded. "That's totally normal. That's why I didn't even ask before," she shrugged. "It's just we're both twenty-one now, and I've been wondering if maybe you might be ready soon, but we haven't even talked about it yet."

"Yeah, um," Tim said. He set his mug down on the side table and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. "I'm so in love with you, Steph," he rasped out.

"I'm in love with you, too, Tim," she said warmly. She reached out and pulled one of his hands off of his eyes and squeezed it in hers. "I want to figure this out with you. I do. If you could just tell me what you know about yourself so far, and where you're at -"

"Steph, I'm not ace," Tim gulped out in a strangled voice. "God, I wish I was," he sobbed, taking his hand back from her and covering his face again. "Then maybe we could work it out. I didn't want to break up with you. I don't. I love you, Steph, and I've been wishing and praying that I'm wrong, that I'm not -" Steph felt her insides freeze.

"- gay," Tim said.

Steph heard the gravel crunch on the rooftop behind her, and she half hoped it was Tim, despite their agreement to cut contact for a month while they both dealt with the grief from their breakup.

Maybe he wasn't really gay - maybe he'd come to tell her that he was wrong, that they could be together after all. Or maybe he would manage to convince her that they could both swear off sex forever for the sake of being together, that their love was stronger than their physical desires, that -

Yeah, right. She didn't mean to sniff.

"Hey, Blondie," Red Hood's mechanized voice said, kindly not commenting on her misery as he dropped down to sit beside her on the roof ledge.

"Hey, Hood," Steph mumbled back. She heard the air hiss as Jason took his helmet off and set it down beside him.

"So, uh, Tim came out to me," he said without preamble. "Told me that's why you broke up."

"Yeah," Steph whispered.

"I'm so sorry, honey," Jason said with deep empathy.

"You are?" Steph asked him curiously, finally turning her head to look at him.

She didn't exactly regret having her godawful conversation with Tim, because the fact was, Tim was gay and they had to break up. Ripping the bandaid off now was undoubtedly way better than doing it in six months, or a year, or whenever she might have found the courage to ask about their lack of sex life if Jason hadn't said her words and made her wonder.

But if Jason was in love with her, then why was he sorry she'd broken up with Tim?

"Of course I'm sorry," Jason answered, sounding surprised she had to ask. "You deserve all the happiness in the world, Steph." He sounded awfully sincere. But did that mean he loved her?

And did she even care if he did? Her heart was broken and bleeding and she missed Tim so, so much, and it had only been two weeks.

She knew they were being smart and doing the mature thing to give each other some space, but God, the giant hole ripped inside of her soul was enormous. Hours that she'd normally passed texting or calling Tim went by so slowly now. Every other minute she'd think of something she wanted to tell him, before remembering that she couldn't.

"I know how much you and Timmers love each other," Jason was saying. Yeah. They did. And that was what sucked the most. Tim had cried and cried (well, she had, too), and Tim had tried to argue that maybe they didn't need to break up, maybe sex didn't matter - but Steph knew it did.

She had honestly already been pretty worried about him being ace. Because as much as she would have wanted to say that it was fine and she could live without sex, the truth was, she did want a sex life. She wasn't at all sure that she could stand a lifelong commitment without sex, even if it made her miserable to admit that.

Besides, Tim had been all too clear that he wasn't ace, which meant he'd been thinking about wanting sex, too, so they couldn't doom themselves by trying to stay together. Deep down in his heart, he'd known what they had to do, but it fucking sucked.

"You must be going through hell," Jason said sympathetically. She was also going through Purgatory, because now she had no idea if Jason was her soulmate or not, but she wasn't about to share that with little detail with him.

"Yeah," she sniffed instead. "I am."

"Which is why I brought ice cream," Jason nodded as he deposited a paper bag in her lap. The bag was cold, but a tiny spark of warmth flared to life in Steph's chest.

"Thanks, Jase," she said in surprise. She lifted out the pint sized container and felt a genuine smile light up her face. "You got peanut butter cup? That's my favorite!"

"I know," he smiled at her.

"You do?" Steph stared at him. "How?"

"I'm a Bat," Jason nonchalantly shrugged. "I know things."

"Do you know how long it's gonna take me to get over Tim? Cause that's something I'd really like the answer to," she asked in a scratchy voice, feeling the tears clog her throat again. Jason hummed.

"I mean, I know it would take longer without ice cream," he offered with a sad chuckle. Steph gave a half-laugh back as she pulled the lid off and felt around in the bag for the spoon.

"Can't argue with that," she agreed, digging in for a hearty mouthful. "Mm," she groaned as it hit her tongue. "Than' you," she mumbled with her mouth full.

"Anytime, Blondie," Jason said. "Seriously," he added after a second. "Anytime you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm here, ok?" He sounded kind, but not the slightest bit romantic or flirty, she couldn't help but notice.

That was partly why she was so confused and half doubtful that Jason was her soulmate. He'd never hit on her, never flirted, never held her gaze for too long or touched her for no reason. He'd never been anything but warmly friendly and completely respectful of the fact that she was Tim's girlfriend. It didn't make sense.

But Jason didn't have to be her soulmate to be her friend, and dammit, she could use a friend tonight.

"Could I use that shoulder right now?" Steph asked him, leaning over hopefully. He grinned and raised his arm up to tuck it around her. She smiled back and snuggled in, letting herself take comfort in the embrace. "Here," she offered, holding a spoonful of ice cream up to his mouth.

"Mm-hm," he hummed appreciatively as he licked it off. They didn't end up talking anymore as they slowly shared the ice cream, but for the first time all week, Steph felt less like she was alone in the void. When the carton was finally empty, she didn't make to move out from under Jason's arm, and he didn't get up, either.

The night stretched on as they sat not talking, but oddly comfortable in the silence. His arm felt nice, Steph had to admit. And Jason was nice. It wasn't that she didn't like him - she'd just never considered him as anything more than a friend, her boyfriend's brother, and a fellow Bat.

And maybe that's all he was and all he wanted to be. Maybe him saying her words was nothing except the catalyst for the end of her and Tim.

Maybe that was an awfully depressing thought. Jason was a good snuggle buddy, though, Steph had to give it to him. He was warm, too, and his chest was way bulkier and cuddlier than Tim's.

When she yawned for the third time in a row, he chuckled.

"Lemme give you a ride home," he said.

"Mm-kay," she sleepily mumbled.

"Don't fall off," he warned her when they'd descended to pavement level and she was seated behind him on his bike, but sagging rather alarmingly limply against his back. "Make sure you hang on tight."

"I will," Steph promised him. Jason tugged her arms firmer around his waist.

"Squeeze," he ordered her.

"Fine," she grumbled - but - oh. Well. She was sleepy, but squeezing Jason's waist tighter was not exactly an unpleasant chore, was it? Hm. Soulmate or not, she was definitely slotting him into her now-vacant cuddle spot.

She was surprised - again - at Jason's thoughtfulness when he got off his bike at her apartment and wrapped his arms around her waist, this time.

"Hang on," he grinned, raising his grappling gun. A second later, they were being pulled up to her top floor fire escape.

"What service," Steph laughed into his eyes when they landed.

"I aim to please," Jason winked back at her. "Also, you're so sleepy, you might have had another Kite-Man situation if you tried to grapple yourself up." Steph gasped.

"How dare you!" she mock-hissed, making him giggle. Which, huh. Pretty damn cute. All right, Jason Todd, Steph thought to herself. She wasn't looking for a new boyfriend - hell, she wanted her old one back, in some magical fairy tale fantasy world where Tim was straight - but - well - she wouldn't mind spending a little more time with Jason in the meantime.

He actually walked in (well, crawled in the window) with her once she'd unlocked it with her security code. At first she thought he was just puttering around while she stumbled her way out of her Batsuit and towards the bedroom, but something in the way he began methodically opening all of her closet doors gave her pause.

"Oh, my God," she said in shocked awe. "Are you checking for threats?" Jason glanced at her and shrugged noncommittally. "You are," she declared. "Jason! That's very sweet of you!" she beamed at him. "Unnecessary," she added, "but sweet."

"Not unnecessary when you're too sleepy to even stand up straight," he scoffed. "What would you do if Deathstroke popped out from under your bed right now, huh?"

"Tell him he was in the wrong apartment and give him Dick's address," she said dryly. Jason choked with laughter, the corners of his eyes crinkling up as he giggled. "Seriously, are they soulmates?" Steph giggled back. "I say yes."

"I dunno," Jason wheezed. "Maybe, but they'd have to actually fall in love first to find out, and fat chance of that ever happening." He paused. "I guess you and Tim weren't soulmates, huh?" he asked kind of awkwardly. "I'd always assumed you were."

"No, we knew we weren't, but we didn't mind," she sighed. "Maybe we should have," she added a little bitterly.

"Aw, no, you loved each other. That's worth staying together for," Jason said. "You had no way to know Timmers was gonna end up gay."

"Maybe he would've figured it out sooner if we hadn't been so invested in staying together," Steph said softly.

"Maybe," Jason said philosophically, "but then you both would have missed out on all the good years you spent together."

"Yeah, but at least then I wouldn't hurt so bad right now," she whispered as her voice cracked.

"Aw, shit, I didn't mean to make you sad again," Jason said in distress. "I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm sorry," he said helplessly.

"Not your fault," Steph shook her head.

"What can I do?" Jason persisted. "I was trying to help you feel better tonight and now I messed it all up."

"Hey," Steph said gently. "You didn't mess anything up, Jase. I was gonna cry again after you left anyway."

"Aw, no. Really?" he sighed. Steph nodded dismally. "Well - you want me to stay til you fall asleep? I could. If you want. If it would help you not cry yourself to sleep," he offered. Steph paused.

"Really? You would?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"Hell, yeah," Jason swore in his Kite-Man voice.

"Never do that again," she warned him, holding a finger up. "But if you wanted to stay… that would be awesome, actually."

It was something much more than awesome, Steph discovered. After she'd changed for bed, Jason insisted on literally tucking her in - which - hello, heart, stop beating so fast, you're broken - and then he plopped down on top of the covers next to her, sitting up against her headboard and stretching his legs out while he pulled out his phone in the dark.

"I'll stay and read til you're asleep," he promised her.

"Thanks," she said softly. "Whatcha reading?" she asked him as she burrowed more comfortably into her pillow. He hesitated.

"Please don't laugh," he mumbled. Steph's heart lurched, because Jason's tone said he'd been bullied way too often for his reading choices. The Narrows wasn't the kindest place for a nerdy, smart kid to grow up, she knew; and she doubted that the kids at the rich prep school that Bruce had sent him to had been any kinder.

"I won't laugh," she reassured him. "You have good taste in books."

"Maybe," he muttered. "I'm rereading Little Women," he sighed, like he still doubted her reaction. He shouldn't have worried. Steph squealed.

"I love Little Women!" she exclaimed."Will you read it to me? While I fall asleep?" Jason swiveled his head down to look at her. In the dim glow of his phone screen, Steph saw the tiny smile that brushed the corner of his lips.

"Yeah," he said, clearing his throat. "Ok." Steph made a happy little noise and wriggled in excitement under the covers.

"What part are we at?" she demanded.

"Jo's about to cut off her hair," Jason smiled.

"Oh, Jo!" Steph groaned in empathy. "I loved my hair, too, as a kid. I cried for her when she cut it off."

"Me, too," Jason admitted. "Not about her actual hair so much, but what it meant to her, how it was the one thing she liked about herself."

Steph would've happily launched into an hours long discussion about the complex fabulosity of one Miss Jo March, but another sleepy yawn overtook her. Jason grinned at her and reached over to scritch her head, which felt incredibly nice.

"Sleepy time," he insisted. "Books should be read at night and discussed in the sunshine over baked goods and caffeine."

"You saying we should get coffee tomorrow?" Steph mumbled sleepily. There was only the slightest pause.

"Sure," Jason said. His voice sounded the slightest bit funny, which was probably only due to her sleepy ears misinterpreting late-night sounds. "Yeah. I mean - we can. If you want to. Tomorrow at two?"

"Sounds good," she hummed.

"Ok," Jason said breathlessly. Breathlessly? Did that mean - but he started reading, and her eyes closed, and for the first time all week, Steph did not cry herself to sleep over Tim.

She cried over Jo's hair, instead.

The End

A/N - Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Tumblr at River9Noble