Early in their relationship, news about Kyle and Jason dating somehow reaches other people's ears, and suddenly Jason has an abundance of heroes giving him the shovel talk.
Jason doesn't really care about it because people threatening him and having negative opinions about him is nothing new.
At first, Kyle thinks it isn't a big deal and even finds it kind of funny whenever Jason retells those stories, because that's what Jason thinks about it and that's how Jason tells it from his point of view. Kyle also thinks about how eventually he's going to be the one receiving the shovel talk from Jason's side, so he jokes with Jason, saying that he's excited to see who is going to threaten him on Jason's behalf. But then Jason just says,
"Sorry to disappoint you, but there's no one."
Kyle is confused. Because... what? But Jason just acts nonchalant and repeats himself, saying that there's no one. And that's when Kyle really realizes that Jason has no one. He has no support system, no safety net, no friends that he can truly rely on, and no family. Jason maybe has a few "friends," but they aren't like what Kyle has.
Realizing that, and seeing how unbothered Jason is by it, while also remembering all the things people always think and say about Jason, about Red Hood, makes Kyle want to puke and maybe also hug Jason and never let him go.
Because even though their relationship has only been a few months old and their reconciliation after the whole multiverse travel thing has only reached two years, Kyle suddenly realizes that, oh. He's the only person Jason has been consistently in contact with for these past two years.
God. Kyle is so stupid. How did he not realize that? His boyfriend has been by himself this whole time, and Kyle didn't even notice.
Kyle sometimes asks about Jason's work, whether he's spending time with friends or family, not in a straightforward way but more like a passing thought, but Jason always skillfully changes the subject.
Even when they first started dating and Kyle jokingly asked whether he needed to ask for anyone's blessing, Jason had just said,
"Nah, there's no one."
And Kyle had thought Jason was joking because Jason is sometimes in Gotham, and sometimes he works with the Bats, but gosh, it suddenly seems like Jason was never really a part of them. Maybe just an acquaintance they work with whenever there's a job to be done, but nothing more than that.
Kyle has heard about the Outlaws too, but from what he has seen, Jason hasn't had any contact with them during these two years.
Okay, there's Rose Wilson, but that's Rose Wilson, Deathstroke's freaking daughter, and Jason said that Rose is busy with her father, and Kyle doesn't even know if Rose counts as a support system or a safe person for Jason.
People can argue that others have had it much worse than Jason, but those others, those heroes, still have people around them. They have their own friends or family, or maybe just one person. But Jason has none.
Oh God. Kyle really needs to think back on all of this and reevaluate things. Because one thing is realizing that Jason has no one. The other thing is realizing that Jason is so used to being judged that he genuinely thinks these shovel talks are deserved. And then Kyle has to think back on himself too. Why didn't he realize how serious this was? How did he just let this happen?
