HBIC

“My bad?” Chloe said with a small shrug, even though she wasn’t exactly sorry about it. “Second. It’s been that kind of day.”

“Eh, if you want we can go find even more fun?” she suggested. Jae wasn’t so good with feelings, but she was good at punching the pain away. “Or we can stay here so you can drink yourself into a stupor and I can join in. Your choice.” 

“Yeah! Yeah, I’d like that a lot actually. I think it would be good to get our minds off of everything too. So- where to?”

“What do you say we take them to this place I know that let’s us do some fun finger paintings with the kids, and then we can also experiment with making baby food. I think it would be fun, we can catch up and let the babies meet up and play. Am I forcing a friendship between babies? I sure am,” Jae said with a laugh. She felt like JJ needed to make friends outside his mom, dad and the gang. 

“Oh thank god. You’re a life savor. Trust me. Not that I don’t love Jules. She’s a joy and god’s gift to earth and what not, but if I don’t take tonight off, I have a very strong feeling that I might end up locking myself in a closet and having a nervous breakdown about how I’m doing everything wrong. And… now we have to do the spa day! I can be one to take Spa virginity. It will so much fun and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Oh I love JJ and I would love to take him everywhere always, but I do enjoy some me time away. So I have absolutely no judgment I wanted my little man from the moment he kicked in the womb, but sometimes Mama is tired. That’s saying a lot because I don’t tire easily. So what does this whole spa day entail? What am I getting myself into?”  

“Uhuh. Sure, you are,” Noah rolled his eyes lightly over. “Really? You sure about that?” He asked, still finding it hard to believe that one day Jae wouldn’t realize there was something better for her waiting around the corner. “But, there is no word in which I’d want to ever get rid of you. Not now, not ever,” He promised her. “Seriously?” Noah laughed at the thought. “Who know Jayden Todd was such a dork?” He couldn’t help, but grin into the kiss. “Then stop saying ‘stop’. Promise?” He asked, giving her his best puppy dog look as he tilted her chin up to meet his. “I mean I’m not going to say no to being your batman. You know that,” He chuckled. “Yes in public and yes to recording it,” He argued, poking her lightly in the cheek as he did. “But- but that’s like saying Aquaman is your favorite superhero because you like Jason Momoa. I mean we all like Jason Momoa, but that doesn’t change the fact that comic book Aquaman is known to be a joke. I mean he’s a white dude in Spandex who straddles a dolphin as his superpower for crying out loud.  And comic book Oliver is a player dressed up as Robin Hood. Ehh. That still doesn’t make me feel much better,” He said with a scrunch of his nose.

“I’m positive. I think that you don’t realize that I’ve waited for the moment that you’d love me like this, that you’d look at me like this for a very long time. Why would I ever leave you? And this?” he wondered. “We have something incredible. I want to do so much with you. I want to grow old with you. I want to make our son annoyed because even when we’re old we’re still being us.” An uncharacteristic giggle left her when he called her a dork. “I think that deep deep down you should have suspected. Of all the gang members I spent my time around?  You just so happen to be the one that I wanted. You the cutest, sexiest, dorks that I’ve ever laid eyes.” When he lifted her gaze to his challenging her to stop saying no, giving her those eyes that practically made her knees weak. “You know that those eyes are unfair.” She leaned in to place another kiss on his lips. “Promise I won’t say stop anymore...and if I slip and I do say it, just know that I don’t mean it.” She sighed. “Fine in public and recorded. How did you learn how to push all my buttons and get what you want?” she asked, knowingly. “But it wasn’t that it’s because the actor is hot. I enjoy this take. It’s darker, he wasn’t so much of a joke, but I wanted to be the Black Canary wear the cool jacket and the entire outfit really.” Jae kissed his nose. “Noah!” she pouted. “What can I do to make this better?” 

“Oh. Welp, in that case, never mind. Please ignore everything I just said,” He told Jae with an uneasy smile. “What?! No. We would never. Okay, maybe a small surprise. But, it’s a good one. I swear.”

“Ignore everything you just said? You do know that it’s kind of hard to ignore, especially now since I’m very curious about all of the people that know things that I don’t. Especially JJ,” she said with the raise of a brow. “I thought he and I had a mother-son bond, where we would tell each other everything. A small but good surprise? Okay, I won’t let my curiosity get the best of me, even though I’m tempted to.” She had a feeling based on what she had said before, and his response to it that she knew what this surprise was going to be. Though knowing Noah even if she did have an idea, she would have no clue how he would execute it. “You are lucky that he can’t say much, but he and mama have been working on talking. So soon, depending on which comes first, I will know all about this surprise,” she vowed.

“That’s good. I really am happy for you, Arty,” Hayden promised her. She had always wanted her friend to have everything and, with everything that the two of them had gone threw, it was nice to know that at least things were somewhat looking up for her. “I’m glad I have you back too. Even though I don’t know if that’s um, true? I mean you’re happy with Noah, right?” She asked, giving her childhood best friend a light nudge as she did. “I uh I don’t know if I’d go that far. Compared to a skull hand, a rose seems pretty basic ‘white’ girl to me. I uh, I am? Still? After everything?” Hayden asked with a small smile. “I’d uh… I’d like that too. And like I could ever say no to you.”

“I am happy with Noah, but I met Noah, feeling like I was missing a limb. Feeling like there was a part of me that had died and until recently, he didn’t know that I used to be a cheerleader, or that I had posters on my wall or aqua colored walls. Because it hurt to even think about it. That kind of devastation. But here you are, and I feel like that limb I was missing is growing back. I feel like that family I was missing is whole again. I think you underestimate how important you are to me, and how much losing you devastated me.” Jae laughed. “Oh, you want to see my most embarrassing tattoo?” She pulled down her bottom lip to show Hayden the word Daddy tattooed on the inside. “It was an inside joke with Noah, but that should probably make you feel better about the rose. You will always be my sister. You always have been.” 

“Hey,” Astrid said with a half-assed attempt at a smile as she opened the door for her sister. “Thanks for stopping by,” She said softly, before giving her sister a small shrug. “And I don’t know? I just… I’m trying to give him his space with everything? Let him come to me when he wants to talk and until then just try to give him the best birthday ever, but… I don’t know. I don’t really know what else I can do? I guess I just feel fairly helpless right now? I just want to make things better for him. But, I don’t know if going all agent mode right now to at least help cut down on some of the gossip is the best move?”

“Of course I’d stop by. You’re my sister. I’m sure if the shoe was on the other foot and Noah was the one in something like this you’d be checking on me.” Jae smiled. For a moment she debated whether or not she should say this about Astrid’s guy but when had she ever held her tongue? “I mean this as nicely as possible, when has D ever come to you when he wants to talk? He seems like the suffer in silence type. Just being there for him is really all you can do. It’s not like this can be fixed. But has he talked about it at all?” 

Iz sighed. While he wasn’t surprised at the random pop up from Jay. He did appreciate it. On a Pack Master to Pack Master level. He respected it. Iz nodded, listening as Jay spoke. “I want you to hear it from me. No. You don’t need to worry about me. Or my pack. I’m not with the Revelationists, their bullshit or any of the terrorist ass fuck shit they’ve done. Didn’t stand with them before and I’m sure as fuck not gonna stand for them now that I’ve been fucked by ‘em. You and me, our packs? We’re still good for as long as you want us to be. …That good enough for ya?”

“But you’re in a magically binding contract, which means there may come a time when blackmail or any other thing may come your way. We can peacefully co-exist, until there’s a reason to do otherwise. I don’t go to war lightly, but we’re in unprecedented times and with unpredictable shit happening. Bold shit.” 

“So you’re, uh, you’re basically telling me I’m screwed now, huh?” Michaela asked Jae with a small smile. “Seems like she’s not half bad at it. The um, the whole matchmake thing. So, how are you two, anyways? It’s just weird, I guess? Not a bad weird or anything, but the entire time I knew you, it was just you and I. You were like my sister and now, you have this whole family of your own. It’s just crazy to think about is all. And I know. I just sometimes wish it could? Maybe just one thing? But, you should never feel guilty for letting yourself be carefree and happy, Arty. You don’t need me to be that girl. She’s always been with you, just waiting to come out,” Hayden promised her. Scrunching up her nose lightly as Jae asked her what her tattoo was, turning around and hiking up the back of her shirt to reveal a watercolor wilting rose tattoo where half of the rose where the wilting and falling petals were black and white and the few petals still clinging to life were in different shades of rosy pink. “Before you say it, I know roses as basic, but I was drun-” She stopped herself mid lie. Letting out a deep breath before starting again, “Manic and I guess a dying flower just felt right at the time. I don’t really remember getting it much? And um, seeing that I was also dealing with nymph stuff for the first time, that would have been a fairly uh, long list. And, you don’t really have to say anything. It’s not really anything to be there for… it’s just me? My brain just works a bit differently. But, um… can you not, uh, tell anyone? I just don’t really feel like I can be some bipolar spokesperson in the media?”

“What? Shit. Astrid blabbed, didn’t she? Or was it Damien? Jake? I’m gonna kill them,” Noah mumbled under his breath, running his fingers back through his hair as he pouted. “No one in this family knows how to keep their mouth shut but you, huh JJ?” He grumbled some more. The corner of his lips tilting up ever so slightly as JJ reached up towards him. 

“No, no no. She didn’t blab. I’m just saying I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. Wait, did all these people know something I don’t know?” she wondered. “Does JJ also know something I don’t know?” She looked over at her boys. “Are my boys keeping secrets from me?” 

“Yeah… you’ve definitely hit your head at some point. I’m sure of it,” Noah chuckled, blinking over her is shock as she went on. “And that’s not stupid. It’s cute. And hide where? We live together and sleep in the same bed? Where are you planning on going and you’re not allowed to say leaving me,” He told her as he reached over and weaved his hand through hers and gave it a little squeeze. Noah couldn’t help, but smile as an idiot as he held up their interlaced fingers towards her and kissed her skeleton tattoo. “No. Not moving on. I like mushy romantic you. It makes me feel like I can pull out all the stops and do some overly cheesy romance move like get up on a coffee cart and profess my love to you or hang from a roof wearing a spideysuit. See? You’ll like gang romances. It’s like us but in cartoon form. You most definitely will. Actually can you do it in public? Like a whole routine right now in your cheer uniform in front of the whole set? And if the answer is no, then can I at least film it for prosperity? And you can try, but I can get it off the black market. That or get Astrid to make it for me seeing that she is a witch now and all or beg Nat. It’s our bedroom, so technically it’s our shine. And nope. No. Like I get being into Stephen Amell, but Green Arrow? I mean if you like the CW Green Arrow, then your favorite superhero is really batman cause Green Arrow is just a knock off Batman. I mean I literally have batman tats all over me. And superman tats, but no arrows. I mean your last name is literally Todd! Our kid’s name is literally Jason Todd. I know his last name is actually St. Claire, but still, your favorite is the Arrow? Say it again?”

“Babe, no. I’m perfectly fine.” Her eyes met his. “I would never even joke about leaving you. You can’t get rid of me that easy.” Jae felt her cheeks heat when he reached out for her hand and kissed her tattoo. “Yeah...it was everything that I ever imagined holding your hand would be.” She lifted their joined hands up and kissed each of his knuckles, whispering ‘I love you’, each time her lips touched his skin. “You can pull out all the stops and be overly romantic. Just because I get embarrassed or say stop doesn’t mean I hate it. I actually love it.” She reached up, framing his face leaning in to kiss him passionately. “Oh please dress up like Spiderman. Actually...also could you dress up like Batman too?” Her brow rose in question, a smirk prominent on her features. “No, not in public. But yes you can record it.” She playfully rolled her eyes. “But he doesn’t have to be your favorite. He’s mine. But even more than that my favorite real life superhero is Noah St. Claire. And I love you more than the Green Arrow,” she said once more.

A bubble of laughter left Talia. She was surprised at the offer. It wasn’t something she’d considered. “I’m curious now. To see how they’d look.” Talia paused, looking over the blonde. “Well, whomever you did consult about your look, did a great job. I wouldn’t have known you weren’t into fashion simply from looking. Is there an area nearby where I can make sure that a new pair of shoes is all that I need?

Jae held out her hand for the heel. She was no stranger to heels and the annoyance of them breaking. She had become something of an expert at ripping them. Though ripping her clothes had been a thing for her regardless, being that she often turned into a wolf. She looked down at her dress, and shook her head. “Oh no, I’m trying to add more color and such into my wardrobe, because it’s all black and leather, but I’m definitely not fashion forward. I took many pictures of dresses and mulled over which one made me look like the “princess” my boyfriend refers to me as. But if you tell anyone I said that…I might have to kill you, so keep that between us please.” Her voice was light and she hoped it was evident that she was sort of joking. “The new pair would probably be at the gift bag station, so let’s head that way and see if we can swipe you another pair.”