Mood Ring

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/7665508.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Batman (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics), Red Hood and the
Outlaws (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Relationship: Roy Harper/Jason Todd
Character: Jason Todd, Roy Harper, Dick Grayson
Additional Tags: Accidental Engagement, Fluff, Wedding Planning
Stats: Published: 2016-08-03 Completed: 2019-10-26 Chapters: 6/6 Words:
7647

Mood Ring
by DramaticMarvel

Summary

Jason just wanted to eat some cereal, not explain to a grown man that a mood ring is not an
engagement ring.

Notes
See the end of the work for notes
 Chapter 1

There was a loud crash followed by a string of swears that even impressed Jason, as he set the two
bowls on the tablet. “If you put another hole in the wall I put a whole in you.” He called out
casually as he took a seat at the head of table. Reaching out, he grabbed the box of cereal with
some animated character that Roy had picked out last time he was in charge of doing the grocery
shopping. It was partly his own fault that they ended up with this sort of food in the cupboards, he
was the one who kept letting Roy go shopping without any kind of supervision. Sure there was the
one time he brought Dick with him, but Dick was a walking monster of ramen noodles and chips
which left Jason baffled on how Dick still stayed in shape.

If he were honest though, he actually kind of enjoyed the artificially colored cereal. There was a
small plop as he poured he cereal. Looking in his bowl, there was a gaudy looking mood ring that
looked more garish than something you could buy out of a candy machine. Putting it to the side, he
finished pouring his cereal before setting the mostly empty box in front of the other bowl.

Two bites into his own cereal, there was a loud explosion but this time Roy poked his head in the
door. “I swear I didn’t break anything.”

“Sure you didn’t.” Jason hummed, swallowing a spoon full of cereal. “Just patch it up before I see
it.”

Roy nodded, taking a seat in the chair next to him, pouring the rest of the cereal box into his bowl.
He frowned taking the box and holding it closer for inspection, “No prize? That sucks. See if I ever
buy this brand again. The chocolate ones always have prizes.”

“I didn’t realize you were such a cereal connoisseur.” He quipped with an eye roll. “And if you had
gotten here earlier, then you would have gotten it.” It wasn’t his fault Roy decided to spend all
morning working on his lately project which Jason prayed to any deity that he wasn’t going to be
the test subject. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Roy, he had nothing but faith that he could pull off
whatever it was that he was working on. No, it was more the collateral damage that everything else
around him seemed to suffer.

Suddenly no longer interested in his breakfast, Roy’s attention was all on Jason. “Wait you mean
there was a prize? What was it? Can I have it.”

He would have kept his mouth shut. Now that he had gotten Roy’s attention, there was no way he
was going to give in anytime soon. “Why should I give it to you? You snooze you lose.”

“What are you six?” Roy said as if he had room to judge. “You don’t even like the prizes.”

“Maybe I like this one.” He said with a smirk. He may not have liked the prize, but he did like
winding Roy up. It was easy and funny.

Roy put on his best puppy dog face, “Please Jaybird?”

His cereal was getting soggy and he was hungry so he gave a small sigh before holding out the ring
to Roy. “Marry me?” He joked lightly.

However, Roy’s face had lit up. It was just a stupid ring; Jason couldn’t figure out what was so
exciting about it. But Roy snatched the ring out of his hand and adjusted the bendable metal so it
slid onto his left hand.
Leaning in, Roy planted a huge kiss on his cheek. “Of course I’ll marry you, you asshole!” He
exclaimed loudly, beaming happily at Jason who sat there with his mouth opening and closing like
a fish.

“Wait what?” Jason blinked. It was a mood ring, not an engagement rings.

Roy jumped up from the table, ignoring Jason’s confusion as he ran back to his work station
looking for something. “Oh man I have to call Dick, he’s going to die.”

“Seriously it is a mood ring. Stop looking for your phone Harper,” Jason said, jumping up and
following Roy who had just exclaimed something very excitedly. “I swear you better not be calling
him.” He couldn’t tell which was worse: Dick thinking he proposed to Roy without telling him or
him thinking that Roy would propose with a mood ring.

“Oh come on. You know he’s going to be so excited.”

“Yeah and he’s going to be excited over nothing. Because it is a fucking mood ring. A mood ring is
not an engagement ring.” This was not something Jason ever thought he would have to explain
before noon on a Tuesday to a grown man.

“You should have thought of that before you proposed to me.” Roy said with a shrug as he took his
camera and turned it to take a picture of himself ring prominently displayed in the frame.

Suddenly Jason no longer cared about his cereal getting soggy. No, what he needed was beer and
possibly to kidnap Dick before Roy had a chance to tell him the story.

The sound of his own phone ringing brought Jason out of his thoughts. Not looking at who was
calling he just swiped and muttered hello. There was a loud scream on the other end followed by
loud cries begging to know why he wasn’t told that his little brother was going to marry one of his
best friends.

Somewhere in the other room Roy was laughing. Jason was going to have to kill him, that was the
only solution.
 Chapter 2
Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

It had been a week since Roy had mention their engagement and while he had refuse-d to take off
the stupid ring, Jason was starting to believe that they might be past the whole thing. He already
had to endure every single member of the Titan’s calling about the picture Roy posted, worst of all
he had to listen to Dick cry about how happy he was and how sad he was that they didn’t tell him.
How Dick managed to feel so many different things all the time without being exhausted was a
mystery Jason had no desire to solve.

Walking into the small apartment attached to their warehouse, arms full of groceries, Jason was
greeted with nothing but silence. Something turned in the pit of his stomach at the empty sound. He
had lived alone for plenty of years, in fact he even liked it most of that time, not having to deal with
other people. But sometime between now and then he had accustomed to sounds of explosion and
soap operas and trashy reality television full blast, he isn’t even sure when that happened. What
was even stranger was how much he actually enjoyed those sounds, they were comforting in a way
that he had never found before.

In the silence he unpacked the groceries, hiding a few of the sweet items for Roy to find during his
three am version of a midnight snack. Jason already planned to fully deny every buying those
items, after all it wasn’t that odd for Roy to misplace a snack or two in a half asleep daze after a
night on patrol or trying to work on a project. At least that was the story he was sticking with.

Once he was done unpacked he decided the best way to block out the silence was going to try to
find one of those trashy house flip shows that Roy made him marathon when he was too tired for
sleep. Except when he walked into the living room, he was stopped in his tracks by Roy spread
across their moth eaten rug with half a dozen magazines spread out around him. He had on a baggy
hoodie and his headphones slipped over his hat, his fingers alternating between idly flipping the
pages on the magazine in front of him and giving an air drum solo.

Jason leaned against the door frame trying not to smile. It was hard to fight the smile, looking at
Roy completely open and relaxed laying on their floor. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his
phone snapping a quick picture, cursing as the flash made Roy look up, blinking owlishly at him
before his lips twisted up in a grin.

“Hey when did you get home?” He asked he peeled his headphones off his head.

“Like twenty minutes ago. If I had known you were here, I would have made you unpack that shit.
But I didn’t hear any explosions or drilling so I thought you were out.” Jason said, coming in and
taking a seat on the couch, swinging his feet up on the small coffee table. “What are you reading?”
Apparently those were the magic word because Roy seemed to light up as he held up the magazine
he was currently flipping through.

If Jason had to guess, he would have guessed that he was looking for inspiration for his latest
project with flamethrower arrows or parasol grenades but this was much worse than anything he
could have imagined. On the front of the magazine was an overly cheerful couple and the words
‘Gotham Bride’ in swirly lettering.

“Please tell me someone we know is getting married.” Jason said, letting his head rollback and hit
the top of the couch.
 Roy laughed, tossing the magazine at him. “Of course someone is getting married, why else do
you buy wedding magazines?”

“Who is getting married?” Jason asked cautiously, unsure if he actually wanted to know the
answer.

“Us dummy.” Roy said, holding up his left hand and wiggling his ring finger at him. “Did you hit
those bricks that hard last night?” Jason was tempted to wiggle a different finger of his own right
back.

“No.” He said, holding up the magazine as if it could infect him, but still he flipped through and
looked at all the tacky pastels and felt sick to his stomach.

Roy seemed to pick up on this and nudged his leg slightly. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on actually
using anything from that magazine. It’s all country weddings where people get married in a barn
and sit around on hay. I don’t think either of us are a country wedding type.”

Jason tried to picture this country wedding and shuddered. “Yeah fuck that. Also how many times
do I have to tell you we aren’t engaged?”

“You should have thought of that before you proposed.” Roy suggested. “But I was thinking either
a city wedding or a beach wedding. I’m was thinking a beach wedding but I feel like you’d rather
have a city wedding.”

“What is it going to take for you to believe me that I didn’t propose? I mean it was a toy from a
cereal box? There is nothing romantic about that.” Jason groaned into his hands.

“Tell me honestly that you don’t love me.”

“I don’t love you.” Jason said, firmly even though the words left a weird taste in his mouth. There
was no conviction in his voice.

Roy grinned victoriously as he pushed himself up. “I don’t believe you.” He leaned over and
placed a chaste kiss on Jason’s lips. “But I do love you too.”

Jason pouted, even though he would deny it, as Roy laughed, turning towards the entrance to the
main part of the warehouse. “Where are you going now?”

“Pintrest. I’ve already started ten boards for planning our special day. I just have to dig through all
the country crap to find the good stuff.”

“I swear to fucking god Harper I didn’t fucking propose.”

“Lalala. Can’t hear you, Mr. Fiancé.” Roy said, slipping his headphones back on.

Chapter End Notes

Thanks for all of the positive feedback. I've decided to continue this. I should have
about 6 more chapters unless I think of something else to add.

Feel free to come say hi or drop a prompt on tumblr here

 Chapter 3
Chapter Summary

Dick is the worst. Jason regrets everything.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Jason had no idea how he ended up here, in a room full of people he didn’t know, wearing a suit
and tie like some ‘proper kid’. Actually that wasn’t true, he knew how he ended up here, Dick
fucking Grayson. Like most mistakes in his life, this one could be traced back to Dick, though to be
fair some of those mistakes were just him finding a way to blame Dick. Of course this actually was
Dick’s fault, he had just stopped by to ask for the contact information for a client he and Roy were
working with and somehow that had lead to Dick withholding the information unless he promised
to come to some Wayne benefit. While this seemed like the easier way at the time, he was
beginning to have second thoughts.

Really, he could have blamed Roy, who was also the one who said it would be easier plus then he
could “bond with his brothers”. That should have been a clue that dying again might be preferable
to this evening. So far he had spend most of the evening hiding in the back of the room with a glass
of wine and a plate of hors d'oeuvre that he had swiped with Tim. Unfortunately for Tim he had
been caught up by someone recognized one of the Wayne children and had dragged him off to
dance with their daughter, and Jason didn’t dare intervene especially since it was so much more fun
to watch Tim twirling some pretty blond girl as if he didn’t have a boyfriend waiting for him at
home.

“Having fun?” Jason turned to see Dick standing next to him. Honestly he was surprised he was
able to pull away, he was usually the star of these things. Good looks and a charming personality
and enough money to make the world go round, that’s what they people thrived on.

“Tim looks pretty miserable and I got a tray of food so I guess this could be worse.” Jason said
with a shrug. Okay it wasn’t the worst way to spend the evening, in fact he’s pretty sure it would
almost be fun if he had dragged Roy like he originally planned so they could make fun of all the
insufferable rich people.

Dick laughed, “High praise coming from you. I’m surprised you didn’t try to drag Roy with you.”

“I don’t hate Roy enough to do that too him.” Jason said lightly, though that was exactly why he
didn’t bring Roy. Roy may be able to rock a suit a little more than Jason would care to admit, but
Roy wasn’t really a suit kind of guy which worked really well for Jason who would have loved to
trade his slacks for jeans any day.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t realize Dick was staring at him with a huge grin
on his face. “What?” He asked roughly. Dick happy never lead to good things, at least from
Jason’s point of view.

Dick just threw his hands up in the air, “Nothing. Nothing at all.” There was a moment of silence
between the two before Dick started again. “You look nice in that suit by the way."
 “That’s a fucking creepy thing to say.” Jason said popping one of the cheese hors d'oeuvre into his
mouth.

“No it’s not, I’m just saying it’s nice to see you in something not your uniform.” Dick said. “So are
you going to wear that to the wedding?” The cheese had been a bad idea because as soon as the
word wedding was uttered, Jason started to choke. Dick slammed on his back until he was able to
cough up the cheese of betrayal.

Jason coughed for a few more moments, taking a sip of the drink Dick offered, which both helped
and hurt as it was more alcohol than anything else. Once he was able to recover he turned to look
at Dick. “What wedding?”

“Yours and Roy’s? I don’t think choking and mess with your memory.” He teased.

“We are not getting married.” Jason said very slowly, hoping each word would drill it into Dick’s
mind. He would also have to repeat this to Roy when he got home.

“Sure you are, Roy showed me his ring. Really thought you’d get him something classier than a
mood ring.” Dick said with a shrug.

Jason growled. “Of course I’d get him something nice, if I actually proposed. But I didn’t. I just
gave him a stupid cereal prize. I wasn’t even a good cereal prize.”

“Then why did he he get excited when I gave him those wedding magazines?”

“You gave him those.” Jason screeched, a few people turning to look at them, including Bruce who
gave a stern look to which Jason really wanted to act out more.

Dick smiled and Jason was really ready to punch that smile off of his face. “Of course! I figured
the sooner I get in on this wedding the better chance I have at being best man.”

“I hate you.” Jason said plainly. “And we’re not getting married. I’m out of here.” He said
grabbing his jacket. No contact information was worth sitting around talking to Dick about
wedding plans. There were limits to his sanity.

“Okay, I’ll message you the phone number.” Dick called after him. “And tell Roy country
weddings are really in style right now.”

Jason couldn’t help but turning back just for one second. “We are not having a country wedding.”

“So you are having a wedding?” Dick said raising his eyebrow.

Either Jason was going to punch Dick or he needed to leave. While he knew it would be very
satisfying to hit Dick, he knew that Roy would be less than pleased about it. So instead he turned
and stormed out of the ballroom. It wasn’t until he got downstairs that he noticed that Dick had
sent him the contact information he wanted, along with the number of a highly recommended
wedding planner. He didn’t know what he was more mad about the fact that he had been sent a
wedding planner for a wedding that wasn’t happening or the fact that Dick didn’t think he and Roy
could plan their own wedding.

Chapter End Notes

Yes three years and I finally update. I lost all my notes and gave up but I'm back on a
kick so here we are. I don't know how many people are still reading this but here we
go again. Also sorry for the lack of Roy in this chapter.
 Chapter 4
Chapter Summary

“You know,” Roy said, his head rolling over to look at Jason. “I’m kinda thinking
maybe we should get a wedding singer for our wedding. Do you think we can get one
that looks like Adam Sandler?”

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

It was Friday night, and for some odd reason that had become movie night for Roy and Jason.
Jason wasn’t even sure when they started the tradition or when he started to actually look forward
to their quiet Friday night tradition. It wasn’t even a causal enjoyment but rather something that he
looked forward to all week. Usually if he was in charge of picking the movies he would spend all
week thinking of what horror, and he did mean horror, he was going to put Roy through that week.
If he was in charge of picking out the food he would go back and forth about where to get take out
from and always planned on getting some sweet treat that he would pretend he just casually saw on
the way home and absolutely did not order in advance.

This Friday it as Jason’s turn to bring the takeout, in this case tacos with tres leche cake from the
new bakery on the corner that Roy keep talking about trying. They had spread a large blanket
across the floor of the living room and stacked pillows against the couch as almost a makeshift
picnic. In the middle of the blanket was Jason’s seriously outdated laptop that Tim begged him to
let him upgrade every single time he stopped by. But they had Roy’s larger desktop that they used
for actual work, the laptop was more for watching stupid animal videos on nights where both of
them were too caffeinated to actually sleep.

“Remind me again why we are having movie night on the floor with a laptop instead of on the
couch with the TV?” Jason asked as he poured some more salsa on his taco.

“Don’t you remember last Sunday you knocked it over and snapped the cord?” Roy remind him,
entering the room with a rather large stack of movies.

“I thought you were going to fix it?” Jason said as Roy sat down spreading out his collection of
movies next to him.

Roy laughed. “I’m so glad you have total faith in my handy man abilities, I know that’s why
you’re marrying me.” Jason gave him a pointed look, which just made Roy laugh harder. It wasn’t
worth his breath to remind him they were engaged every time he brought it up. “But no, I was busy
picking out the movies for this week. So we will have to do this the old fashioned way.”
“I’m pretty sure the TV is the old fashioned way,” Jason reminded him. “So if it took you all week
does that mean you came up with something that would top my night of The Room and The
Disaster Artist?” That was a night Jason was quite proud of, awful movies that Roy and him spent
the whole time mocking ruthlessly.

Giving a small bow of his head, “I will never be able to beat your mastery” Roy conceded. “But I
offer you a choice of five movies.”
“I get a choice?” Jason asked, narrowing his eyes, “Why? What’s the catch?”

“You brought me cake?” Roy responded with more of a question. “I thought it would be fun? I
love you? Take your pick.”

Jason rolled his eyes at Roy, “What are my options?”

“Okay so here we go.” He said gleefully spreading out five boxes before him. “We got Wedding
Crashers, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Four WeddIngs and a Funeral, The Wedding
Singer, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

Jason let out a groan. He should have known there would be a catch. “Do you have anything
without the word ‘wedding’ in it.” Spitting out wedding like it was a curse word, and not one of the
fun ones like fuck or shit.

“Nope.” Roy said far too cheerfully for someone who ruined Jason’s favorite night of the week.

It was a toss up between trying to out stubborn Roy by being silent or picking a movie and getting
it over with. It was times like these Jason really hated that Roy was almost as much of a stubborn
bastard as him. “Fine.” Jason said drawing it out. “I guess The Wedding Singer.”

It was also times like these Jason really wanted to hit the smug grin off his face as he put in the
movie. “You know I didn’t expect you to go for the down right romantic comedy. I like seeing this
side of you.”

“Next week I’m renting the Human Centipede and I’m going to lock my door that night so you can
suffer.” Jason swore but there was very little heat behind the words. Roy could easily take off his
door in the dark, or at least that's the excuse Jason would give when he didn’t lock his door
because the Human Centipede thing was definitely happening.

“Whatever you say Jaybird.” Roy said, as he put the movie in and leaned over Jason to grab a taco.
“For now we have a night of lovely wedding movies to watch.”

Four tacos later and an hour later, the two had moved onto the cake. Not bothering to actually cut
it, the two each just casually dipped their fork into the giant cake between the two of them. It saved
time on dishes, or at least that was Roy’s suggestion and after all the tacos it didn’t sound bad.

“You know,” Roy said, his head rolling over to look at Jason. “I’m kinda thinking maybe we
should get a wedding singer for our wedding. Do you think we can get one that looks like Adam
Sandler?”

“No,” Jason said plainly before turning back to the movie.

“I guess they don’t have to look like Adam Sandler.” Roy mused.

“We are not hiring a wedding singer because we’re not getting married.” Jason said not taking his
eyes off the movie. “Maybe if you’re nice and stop mentioning this wedding stuff I’ll get you one
for your birthday.”

“Absolutely not.” Roy said, putting his hand to his chest. “I mean I think a wedding singer would
be funny but if you want a DJ I’m okay with that too. After all, it is your wedding too.”

“No its not.” Jason said firmly.

“Sure it is.” Roy said leaning into Jason, resting his head on his shoulder and looking up with a shit
 eating grin. “After all, all I care about is marrying you. I’d be find doing it in a dump with seagulls
as our witnesses.”

“Keep holding your breath.” Jason muttered, trying to shrug Roy off his shoulder only to have it
come back like a boomerang. After a second attempt he figured it wasn’t worth the effort.

As the movie got near the end Jason felt like adding. “Shit like this is why you’re better off with a
DJ.”

“Then we will get a DJ.” Roy hummed, his eyes closed as he leaned against Jason’s arm.

“We’re not getting married.” Jason reminded him.

“Tell that to the DJ I’m hiring.” Roy teased followed by a groan. Roy was definitely going to be
subjected to Human Centipede need week. Maybe he could convince Roy to invite Dick to join
them, it would look less suspicious if Roy did the inviting.

Chapter End Notes

Two more chapters left...possibly three depending on how I break up the last one.
 Chapter 5
Chapter Summary

“I don’t know what you mean by torturing him.” Roy said, munching on the last of his
fries.

Dick rolled his eyes. “He’s going to murder you in your sleep one night, you know that
right.”

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

“So how long do you think you can keep torturing Jason?” Dick asked slurping down his
milkshake. The two had plans to talk about a case Dick was working, though that conversation
lasted a whole five minutes before they got distracted by the latest gossip. It was probably for the
best that Jason suddenly disappeared when Roy asked if Jason wanted to join them for lunch. Not
that Roy had planned for Jason to accept the invite, but it was always amusing to see how he tried
to get out of the meal. So far Jason’s best attempt involved fire, a replica popemobile, and the
Spice Girls.

“I don’t know what you mean by torturing him.” Roy said, munching on the last of his fries.

Dick rolled his eyes. “He’s going to murder you in your sleep one night, you know that right.” He
said very seriously, or at least as serious as Dick could be with milkshake on his chin.

“Oh I think you underestimate his love for me.” Roy teased. And to be fair, he did have a point.
Jason had a very low tolerance for people at the best of times but somehow Roy and all his
schemes were tolerated to the point of begrudging amusement.

“I think you underestimate his love of shooting things.” Dick pointed out.

“If he was going to shoot me it would have been after I brought him some wedding dresses to try
on.”

Dick’s jaw dropped and Roy took that opportunity to steal one of Dick’s fries. “Please tell me you
didn’t. Actually, no. Please tell me you got pictures. Lots of pictures that you would be willing to
share.” There was a gleeful look in Dick’s eye.

“You think I was actually able to get him in the dresses?” Roy asked raising his eyebrow. “Nah,
though he did convince me to try them on.” He said, dipping the pilfered fry in the ketchup.
“Though he told me there was no way either of us would wear white.”

“Well he has a point.” Dick hummed in agreement. “You know, now that I think of it, maybe he
will go through with this whole wedding thing.”

“Nah,” Roy said softly, fidgeting with the ring on his finger. “I mean let’s face I don’t think we
were even dating. Or are dating.”

“Hey,” Dick said getting serious. “Did you two ever...you know...talk about this sorta thing?”
Roy just shrugged, “Talking may work in your relationships but Jason and I aren’t really talkers.
Talking usually either ends up with someone in handcuffs.”

“Part of me wants to ask if you mean jail wise or kinky wise.” Dick mused slowly. “But I’m
thinking either way I really don’t want to know.”

“I don’t know, some of those stories are pretty epic.” Roy teased.

“Your my best friend, and he’s my brother...I am sure I don’t want to know.” Dick exclaimed,
covering his eyes as if it would block out the mental image that his brain was creating. Though
Roy was pretty sure whatever his brain was thinking wouldn’t even scratch the surface of some of
their stories.

Roy laughed, “Well if you change your mind, you know where to find me. Or Jason, I’m sure he’d
love to tell you about the time-”

Dick stuck his fingers in his ears, “La La La I can’t hear you.” A few patrons of the diner turned to
look at the pair.

Roy held up his hands in defence, “Fine, I’ll let you win this one. But only because you’re my
future in-law and I think I’m supposed to kiss up to you or something like that.” He said pointing to
the ring which was a bright green at the moment.

“If that is true please come over for dinner one night. I’d love to see you tell Bruce about these
stories.” Dick joked slightly.

“Hey I’m trying to be nice, not suicidal. If that happened we’d never get to the wedding.” Roy
said, knowing fully well if that happened Jason might just tell a few of those stories just to spite
Bruce. And if that happened there was no way Roy would want to be in the same state as him let
alone the same room.

“So you want there to be a wedding?” Dick pestered.

Roy grabbed the last of Dick’s fries and chucked one at him. “You do realize weddings require two
people right?”

Dick opened his mouth but before he could say anything else his phone beeped. “Shit, that’s
work.”

“Go, it's my turn to buy anyway.” Roy said, waving his hand dismissively. “The world needs you
do go catch all the mall flashers.”

Dick laughed as he stood and put his phone in his pocket. “You know usually when I hear there is
a flasher I always feel like it's going to be you.” He said leaning down and giving Roy a peck on
the cheek.

“You wish you were that lucky.” Roy teased.

Dick turned to leave, only stop at the edge of the booth to look back and add. “Stop fucking with
my brother.”

“I like fucking your brother.” Roy yelled back before realizing he might have said that loud enough
for the whole diner to hear. Dick must have planned that because he laughed the whole way to the
door. Roy now felt less bad about Jason tricking him into watching Human Centipede with them.
 Leaning over, Roy waved down the waitress for the check. As much as he hated to admit it, Dick
was right. He really needed to stop torturing Jason over this. Last thing he needed to do was over
play the joke to the point of losing his best friend over it. Maybe he would do one last gag, like a
bachelor party or cake tasting before he let Jason off the hook. Either one of those options could be
a lot of fun. Strippers or cake, that was the best kind of decision to make. Roy was sure if he
thought long enough he would be able to fit those two into one. Maybe strippers popping out of a
cake. Yeah that could be a great-

All Roy heard was a loud BOOM and then darkness.

Chapter End Notes

One more chapter to go...

 Chapter 6
Chapter Summary

Roy is missing something after the explosion.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

“Where the fuck is he?” Jason said, bursting through the double doors, turning the heads of a few
others in the waiting room. In any other situation Dick would have been amused by Jason’s
dramatics. But in this case, as the person on the other side of his rage, Dick felt it was the best idea
to put his hands up in defence as Jason stormed across the room, leaving muddy footprints across
the sterile white floors of the hospital. It was best in these situations to try not to have security
called, mostly because judging by how red Jason’s face was and how white his knuckles were
there would be blood and while the hospital is an ideal place to get hurt it wasn’t somewhere you
wanted to get thrown out of.

“Breathe,” Dick said as calming as he could. Wishing this was Tim or Damian that could pull into
a great big hug to help. Again, that might lead to getting stabbed which was not on Dick’s list of
things to do that day. “The doctors all said he is going to be fine. He has a mild concussion, a few
broken ribs and a broken wrist.”

“You were going for lunch. How did he get into an explosion at lunch?” Jason said, frustrated, but
Dick knew it was more at the situation. Plus this was the world they lived in, one of the reasons
they went out at night to try to make the cities safer.

Dick shrugged. “It seems like a former employee didn’t like the management.”

“I need to strangle Roy for always pulling this bullshit. Where is he?” Jason asked and Dick tried
not to smile, mostly because he was pretty sure Jason would start going after him next.

“I don’t actually know, they said they were getting him a room. I thought it was best to wait for
you.” Dick explained.

Jason groaned, pushing Dick out of his way as he made his way over to the reception desk. “Do
you know how many stupid things Roy can do in that time unsupervised?” He asked before turning
to the nurse at the desk. “Can you tell me which room Roy Harper is in? Please.” He added for
good measure.

The nurse looked him up and down, lowering her glasses as if sizing him up, clearly having seen
the scene he made along with the dirt he dragged across her waiting room. “And you are?”

“His fiance.” Jason blurted out without a second thought. She paused but that seemed to be the
right thing to say because she gave him the number and pointed down the hall. To which Jason
took off down without missing a beat, leaving Dick standing in the waiting room speechless.

Roy’s room was small, there was an empty bed in the corner of the room. Jason always hated
hospital rooms, he couldn’t really imagine anyone that would actually like them. But they were a
necessary evil, especially in their line of work. Or in the case of now, Roy being a trouble magnet
of the worst kind because apparently the only case he needed was lunch in order to wind up getting
hurt. If Jason didn’t know better he would think Roy did things like this on purpose just to wind
him up, but Jason did know Roy better and knew that even Roy had limits to just how much he
would do to wind Jason up.

Rubbing his hand over his face, Jason took a seat in the chair pulled up next to the bed. Taking
Roy’s good hand into his he ran his thumb over the back of his hand feeling all the old scars and
calluses on his hand from years of wear and work with his bow.

“Jay?” Roy’s eyes stayed closed as he mumbled the sleep heavy words. It reminded Jason so much
of the few mornings when their alarm would actually go off before they got up and Roy would
mutter something while trying to throw his body over Jason’s to keep them in bed just a little bit
longer.

Jason squeezed his hand to anchor him. “Right here. Go back to sleep you’re going to need your
energy for when I murder you when you get home in a few days.”

“K,” Roy mumbled before Jason felt his hand go slack again.

It ended up being one day later until Roy got home, which was not a moment too soon because
once Roy woke up he was hard to keep entertained and in bed. So as soon as he was cleared of
problems Jason was charged with taking Roy home, which Jason was more than happy to do. After
all, he too was already ready to be done with the hospital after the first hour of sitting in the small
chair watching reruns of soap operas while Roy slept on and off. It was much easier when they
could both sit on the bed together.

Roy had been suspiciously quiet since returning home from the hospital, to the point where Jason
was starting to wonder if he needed to take Roy back to the hospital. The breaking point had been
when he looked up from the book he was reading to notice Roy was mindlessly flipping through
one of the old wedding magazines's Dick had been so unhelpful in donating to Roy. While it wasn’t
odd that Roy was flipping through the magazine, he had been doing it often lately and they did
have a lot of pictures which was helpful while he recovered. What was odd was that fact that Roy
was usually loved to share all the stupid and cheesey pictures with Jason trying to get a rise out of
him, which he was very good at to a level unmatched by anyone else. But judging by the point he
was in the pages, he hadn’t just started and he had been quiet which was another sign.

“Do you need to go back to the hospital?” Jason asked bluntly, already trying to think where he left
his keys.

Roy looked up and tilted his head slightly. “No.” He paused thinking for a moment. “No. Why?”

Jason pointed at the magazine. “That.”

“Are you threatening me?” Roy asked slowly. It wasn’t uncommon for Jason to threaten him, he
just usually did it in more creative ways.

“What? No.” Jason exclaimed with a sigh, getting nowhere. “It’s just usually you’re always trying
to drive me nuts when you read those and wave your ring around like an idiot.”

“Well that’s because I can’t.” Roy said trying to make it sound like a laugh, but Jason could hear
the pull at his words. But he watched as Roy held up his broken hand, it was then Jason realized
that there was no ring on the finger. “I guess it broke off when I broke my wrist.”
Jason rolled his eyes. “That’s why people don’t propose with cereal box prizes.”

Roy looked down at his ringless finger. “Yeah I guess so. It was fun while it lasted but I guess this
means you’re off the hook for the proposal.”

“Finally.” Jason exclaimed, wishing he could be a bit more excited. It would have been a lot more
victorious if Roy wasn’t trying so hard to keep the smile on his face. It was moments like this
Jason really wished he couldn’t read Roy as well as he could. “I’m thinking this calls for Victory
Burgers, I’ll even buy. The usually?”

The smile on Roy’s face grew a little less sad. “Yeah, with extra fries.”

Jason laughed, “I know to get you extra fries, otherwise you eat half of mine.”

“Yours always taste better.” Roy said as Jason rolled off the bed.

“Yeah well you’re an idiot.” Jason said, too preoccupied with finding his shoes to think of a good
retort.

The burger shop should have only taken a half an hour, but the side detour to the grocery store on
the way extended it by a half an hour. When Jason got home an hour later, Roy had managed to
move himself from their bedroom to the couch with the same magazine spread out on his lap.
Jason dropped the burgers on the coffee table, handing Roy’s to him so he wouldn’t have to jostle
his ribs too much. The burger, fries and milkshake seemed to put Roy into a better mood, not that
he was too surprised knowing full well a milkshake and waffle cut fries were the way to Roy’s
heart.

After dinner, Jason took the wrappers to the kitchen and dumped them into the trash but also
grabbed the two boxes out of his bag. Putting on in each of his back pocket he walked back to the
living room where Roy was sitting. “So since you have been not an asshole for a whole day I
picked you up something while I was out.”

“It better not be more food.” Roy groaned rubbing his stomach. “Even I have my limits on food.”

“Its not.” Jason said, pulling his arms behind his back. “Pick a hand.”

Roy eyed him suspiciously, “You’re not going to punch me are you?”

“Oh my god” Jason exclaimed exasperated, “why would I punch you?” His eyes narrowed.
“Should I punch you?”

“No.” Roy said quickly. “You just usually don’t do surprises.”

“Just pick a hand before I change my mind and punch you.”

Roy thought for a moment before pointing at his right hand. That seemed to amuse Jason who let
out a laughed and brought his hand forward and turned his hand palm up. Sitting in his hand was a
small plastic mood ring that he had to go through three cereal boxes in the car to find. It was worth
it to watch as realization of what was in front of Roy as his face went from cautious to excited to
soft to something Jason couldn’t put his finger on as Roy slowly reached out and went and grabbed
the ring, placing it on his good hand.

Looking from the ring to Jason, Roy grinned wider than Jason could recall. “I can’t believe you got
me another ring.”
“Yeah well…” Jason said, unsure what to say next. “You seemed to miss it.”

“Yeah. I did.” Roy agreed, looking down at his ring before looking up at Jason. “What would I
have got if I picked other hand?”

Jason took a deep breath before holding out a small wooden box, holding it out for Roy. Roy stared
at the box, unsure of what to make for it. Instead he took it into his hands turning the smooth wood
in his hand before noticing the hinges. As soon as he cracked open the box Roy let out a gasp as he
dropped the box quickly as if he had been burned. Luckily Jason had been there to catch the box
and keep it upright so the titanium ring stayed nestled between the red velvet in the box. The ring
wasn’t overly flashy, but it had two small red rubys at the top between an engraved arrow, which
Jason couldn’t fully decide if that was cheesy or not. Judging by the look Roy’s face it wasn’t
cheesy at all.

In fact, Roy looked like he was having trouble breathing, and not just because of his broken ribs.
Instead his eyes kept moving from the box to Jason who looked like he was waiting for his report
card. “What? I...is that?” Roy asked, trying to find the words for what he was looking at.

“Marry me?” Jason said, followed shortly by, “fuck I was supposed to do that on one knee.”

Roy grabbed him before he could finish kneeling, and pulled him towards him in a long kiss.
“Fuck yes.” He muttered against Jason’s lips.

“Thank god.” Jason said, reaching out and taking the mood ring off Roy’s hand and replaced it
with his new ring.

Roy held his hand up, watching the way the ring glistened in the light. “When the hell did you get
this done?” Trying to think of a time recently that Jason could have had time to go out and get a
ring designed.

“About three weeks before I gave you the mood ring.” Jason said, rubbing his neck trying not to
look at Roy who burst out laughing. “Well I mean I wasn’t sure if you were going to say yes. I
thought it would be a safe way to test if you were interested in a non joking way.”

“You’re an idiot,” Roy laughed, dragging him in for another kiss. “But you know this means we
actually have to plan a real wedding now.”

Jason groaned. “Yeah...we don’t have to invite our families right?”

“Of course not.” Roy placated, knowing there was no way either of their families would let that
happen. “Though we should take a selfie to send to Dick.”

“Do we have to?” Jason asked.

Roy shrugged. “I mean it might blow his mind.” Then he added. “If you do it, we can go make out
like horny teenagers.”

Jason grabbed his phone. “You’re the worst.”

“But I’m yours.” Roy said, placing a kiss on Jason’s cheek as he snapped the picture with his hand
held up against his own cheek.

“Yeah yeah...you’re mine.” Jason said as he sent out the photo to all his contacts with the caption
‘my idiot fiance’ before clicking the phone off knowing that when he turned it on he would have
hundreds of messages from just about everyone they knew. But Roy was smiling at him as he
 played with the ring on his finger. Things were never easy with Roy, but even the complicated
bullshit and arguing parts were worth it with Roy. And yeah, there was going to be a huge world
wind of their familes, and planning a stupid wedding, and trying to live happily ever that it was
going to be a nightmare, but if it meant Jason got to do it with Roy it would at least be slightly less
terrible. There was nobody else Jason would rather spend his life with and has he leaned forward
and pressed his lips into Roy’s he hoped his kiss said all of that.

Chapter End Notes

I don't think I will have this end chapter ever as I picture it in my head but I needed to
get it out there. I also needed Jason and Roy to get their nice happy ending. I had
hoped to get it out sooner but I started a new job.

I just want to thank everyone for reading this and all your kind words and kudos. Even
just seeing that more than one person read this story kept me wanting to finish this
thing.

End Notes

You can find me on tumblr here

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