An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“No hurting each other,” Jason said, but he leaned back again, ready to ignore them for a while longer.
“Pain is—“ Damian started, but Jason wasn’t hearing it.
“No hurting each other,” he boomed, sitting back up to give Damian a severe look, “I mean it. Not even a scratch.”
“Fine,” Damian snapped back, scowling as he did, “her training will be inadequate then.”
Jason looked over at Mara as he sat back, and saw her still sitting there, seething, anger just etched right into her face. He rolled his eyes and then shut them, begging his brain to just put him straight to sleep. Ignore everything and everyone.
But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t, because Mara’s seething was way too damn loud. Her stewing and her brooding and her pouting over who even knew what.
Well, okay. Jason knew what. Her not being in the league anymore and having to follow him all over the world. But this was better and she knew it.
Or would. Eventually. So she should get over it.
After several more minutes of trying in vain to ignore her, Jason sighed loudly and sat back up. He grabbed his backpack and started digging through it. Mara glanced his way, but quickly looked away again when Jason caught her eye.
“Want to play a game,” Jason asked, once he found what he’d been looking for in the back. He pulled one of the decks out and held it up for Mara to see.
“What?” she asked, furrowing her brow, but not looking over at him.
“A game,” he repeated. He opened the deck and fanned the cards out, before scowling at the card right on top. Fuck that card, why do manufacturers even include it anymore? He snatched the joker card out and tore it into tiny pieces before shoving it into a pocket in his backpack. He would burn that if he got the chance.
He really hoped he got the chance.
Mara looked at him with a bewildered expression, but then shook her head as if to clear a thought and asked, “What kind of game?”













