Our Strange Duet
Chapter 8: Jealous
Fandom: Red Hood
Pairing: Jason Todd x f!reader
Warnings: none
Summary: Jason is moody for six weeks but gets his cast off and a new feeling arises in YN
Taglist: @deans-spinster-witch @amberpanda99
I wasn't jealous before we met Now every woman I see is a potential threat And I'm possessive, it isn't nice - Mamma Mia
It was a long six weeks for everyone in the penthouse as Jason was unable to do much besides school and provide Dick with home-based assistance as Nightwing. He was irritable, snapping at everyone, even YN sometimes, and just downright sulky. Dick constantly would look at YN and ask if she still wanted to put up with his bullshit, to which she would just shrug and say something about it being annoying but sometimes the real Jason came through and that made it worth it. Like when he made dinner for them, hobbling around in front of the stove, listening to music, and sometimes, if he thought no one was looking, dancing as much as he could with the cast. Or maybe when he was reading something really interesting, and YN would just lay her head in his lap and listen to him read quietly to himself. Those moments made her remember that Jason wasn’t just some vigilante with nothing to do, he was a person, and he was struggling. She remembered her mom being this way, so angry some days, so sad others, but the moments in between are the ones that were most vivid in her memory. She held out hope that whenever she thought back to this time, she would just remember the good things, like Jason singing her to sleep some nights or them meeting up before theater practice to kiss backstage. Jason took these moments to heart, knowing he would remember them, needing them these things to make this time not feel so wasted, make him not feel so useless.
The only thing Jason really could do, was research that drug that Maroni had gotten into the streets. He, Dick, and YN had all come up with a plan to at least get information directly from the source. YN contact Sal, offering to start trying to learn his business, maybe join him. She put on that she was nearly homeless, needed help, was desperate enough to start the work. Sal had gladly accepted, and she spent weekends and sometimes evenings with Sal and his cronies, learning things about both Sal’s underworld business and his legitimate cover business. It bothered Jason that she was being thrown into that world, but she wanted to help, and they didn’t have much of a choice, they needed a contact. YN was a good sport about it, coming back with real information for them, working hard to be helpful. Dick often asked Jason if he had asked YN to officially move in yet, wondering if her eagerness to be useful was something rubbed off from Jason or her need to feel like she wasn’t a charity case. Jason wasn’t sure, but he was terrified of asking her to stay. Of her saying no, telling him that she wasn’t going to stay long, that he wasn’t what she wanted for the long run, so he never asked, skirting the question with excuses or just running out of the room as fast as he could hobble.
All the stress from school, the musical, and being a coach vigilante was clearly getting to the breaking point when Jason got his cast removed. He was fitted with a boot and given another 2 weeks before he could be free of it. Just two more weeks and he would be back out there, being Red Hood, actually doing something that mattered in the city. It was giving him something to hope for, but he still felt so pathetic, and everyone noticed. And as older teenagers do, when they see someone who clearly needs a night to blow off steam, the theater group decided to have a party. Halle, the junior playing Christine, had an off-campus house that she shared with a few other theater people, so she volunteered to throw a party specifically for Jason getting his cast off. She announced it at Friday practice that the party would be that evening and Jason of course had to come. YN was off in the wings, having come back from the music area to tell Jason she could find another way home, she was needing to stay late, when she heard about the party.
“If you can’t come, I’m not going,” Jason said, folding his arms as he leaned against the backstage wall. She sighed, seeing him picking absently at his sleeve while his other hand scratched at his elbow. Nervous energy was pretty much wafting off him. He needed a night off to let off some steam.
“I will come, I will be late, go have fun,” YN said, gently rubbing his arms, making him instantly put his hands on her hips and pulling her close. He leaned his head to hers. “I’ll only be another hour and then tomorrow you have to listen to my arrangement of ‘The Point of No Return’ and sing to it so I know its working out right ok?”
“Anything you want sweetness,” he said. “You promise you’ll come?”
“An hour Jason, now go have fun. I promise it won’t kill you,” she said. Jason smiled a little and kissed her gently, a hand holding her face after he pulled back. “I have to get back, love you, now smile and have fun.” He couldn’t help smiling a little before heading off to join the rest of the cast.
Jealousy wasn’t something that YN had a lot of experience with. She had never expected to experience it, she didn’t really date in high school, beyond Jason, and she never had trouble with losing out on parts during theater, she understood her limitations most of the time. But the raging fire that she was feeling when she entered the party and saw Jason, Halle, and Mike, the guy playing Raoul, doing a terrible karaoke version of ‘The Boy is Mine’ but singing it to Halle, was completely new. She had no idea how to control it, letting it fester as she grabbed a drink and sat down in the back of the main living room. Theater nerds were a strange lot, their parties weren’t always loud music and drinking to excess, a lot of times it was karaoke or random jam sessions with food and maybe a few beers. YN had been to a few of these in high school and normally she participated, but right now she didn’t feel like it. She was quiet, pretending not to be there until the song ended and Halle kissed Jason’s cheek before Mike’s and that kind of set YN off. She had been so understanding of everything and this wasn’t something crazy, not like they were making out in front of her, but something snapped inside her. All the stress of dealing with Jason’s mood swings, with him being hot and cold on their relationship, overflowed and she stood up, moving towards the door, getting out of the house and into the cooler night air. If this is finally what made him happy, if Halle’s attention was what made him happy, then she would walk back to the apartment that night.
“YN?” she heard behind her, Jason coming down the front steps of the house. “Hey, I saw you…why are you leaving?” She stopped and looked at him, those eyes seeping into her and melting the iciness that had settled over her heart.
“I see you took my advice to have fun…” she said, folding her arms and looking at her feet. Jason looked confused, why did she seem mad about that? Then it dawned on him, another girl, hanging off him, getting close. O, o jeez. No one had ever been jealous about him before, and he felt both pride and guilt. He hadn’t meant to make her feel that way, but he couldn’t lie, he wanted to see how jealous she was, his ego liked that idea.
“Ya, well we thought it was funny, you know the whole fighting over a girl thing…” he said. “It was just supposed to be cute, Halle thought it would be fun.” His rambling and shrugging in an ‘ah shucks’ sort of way seemed to just annoy her more.
“Sure, well I don’t want to cramp your style, get back to your fun. I’m going to see if I can help Dick or something,” she said, turning and starting to stomp away. Jason reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her back to him. She stumbled, catching herself on his chest, hands settling there as she looked up to see him smirking down at her. He looked smug and it was both hot and aggravating.
“Sweetness are you jealous?” he asked, leaning in a little. She glared at him, but it was half-hearted. “You know I will follow you home right now, if you’re not at the party then I don’t want to be there either.”
“I’ve never seen you like that…you looked happy, I don’t remember the last time you seemed happy,” she said softly. That stopped him in his tracks, his smile dropping. She thought someone else made him happy? And she thought that she didn’t. O fuck he had been such an asshole. He had been so focused on pouting and self-pity that he hadn’t noticed her efforts. She always tried to make him laugh, finding all his favorite movies to watch, listening to him read, sometimes for hours, not moving so she didn’t disturb him. She brought him snacks, for fuck’s sake, she was going into Sal Maroni’s world to help him and Dick.
“YN, I’m sorry,” he whispered. She looked at him confused. “I should have noticed that I was being so awful to you, and you were just trying to help me. Let’s go home, I don’t want to go back to the party.”
“No, I want to go, I want us to have fun together. No more of you stewing in your self-loathing, you’re Jason fucking Todd and you should be proud and happy about that. And if you’re not, be happy you have a loving girlfriend who literally deals with her asshole dad every day for him,” YN said. Jason took a step back at the venom in her voice.
“I wouldn’t be happier with anyone else. No one else has done so much for me, well no one but Dick but I doubt he kisses like you,” he said, which caused YN to burst out laughing, making him smile. “Alright sweetness, we’ll go back to the party, only if you agree to move in and stop the whole trying to get a job and move out thing. You’re mine and you’re staying with me. Or, if you want, I’m moving with you somewhere, maybe somewhere we could have more privacy…” he trailed off as his fingers ran down her sides to yank her closer. She let out an adorable squeak of surprise before he kissed her deeply, her hand weaving into his hair.
“I’ll move in, I won’t try to leave anymore,” she said as Jason, ignoring that they were right in front of a house full of college kids, kissed to her ear and down her neck, hands finding purchase on her ass, squeezing. “As much as I’d like to continue this, we are being watched…and honestly I never thought of voyeurism as hot unless you were in your other outfit.” Jason stilled, now having an entirely new thought in his mind.
“When I get this boot off that is happening, I know a few places it would be fun to make you melt in,” he whispered, pulling back and taking her hand to head back to the party.
After a couple hours Jason got a text from Dick, telling them to get home, they needed to talk immediately. Jason found her, pulling her close and kissing her ear. He whispered what Dick texted, freezing a fake smile on her face she looked at him, nodding.
“Going somewhere?” Halle asked as they started to leave. Jason smirked, pulling YN back to him.
“I’ve been trying to take her home all night, finally wore her down,” he said. It was sleezy, and very unlike Jason to talk like this but Halle just shrugged, probably assuming he had been drinking. YN just laughed and shook her head.
“I’m getting him home before he drinks anymore, he’s heavy and I can’t carry him,” she said. Jason shrugged and they headed back to the apartment.
“Where have you guys been?” Dick asked as they came in. Jason explained about the party and Dick looked a little impressed that they were doing something normal instead of trying to search for a criminal hideout or something. He showed them his computer where Barbara was on camera.
“Hey lovebirds, just found all the evidence we need against Maroni,” she said. YN let out a sigh of relief, maybe she would be free from that man finally.
“What’s the catch?” Jason asked, always knowing that good names came with pain in the ass news. Barbara nodded.
“We can see the data, but I can’t copy it or screenshot in. It can only be copied from the computer in Maroni’s office,” she said. Everyone looked at YN who deflated. She knew she could get it, but she would probably get caught so they discussed a plan to make sure she got away with the data, all the while making sure Maroni would think he foiled her plans. Pain in the ass news, am I right?