#*mydc

“You– ” Kyle cut himself off with a grunt and a kick to the gravel. A couple of stones rolled away from them, and he racked two hands through his hair, tugged on the strands before letting them fall by his side. “I don’t understand you.”

With another push, Jason ended up on his haunches, hip throbbing and shoulder screaming at him. He clenched his teeth and focused on his breathing, let the pain come through him and ride the wave. He made it out of the factory in mostly one piece, only slightly worse for wear but that was expected, it’s Kyle’s construct slamming him through the wall that got him down and stunted him. The scuffle that followed did not help.

“No one asked you to.” Jason risked an eye open when the rolling waves of pain settled some and his stomach stopped cramping, only to be greeted by Kyle crouching near him. A good pace away, safe from any fists, but closer than he would have liked.

“Why? Why did you do that?”

“It was the only way.” Jason wiped his chin with the back of his sleeve, flinched when the cuff caught on something there, most likely a cut.

“It was not.” And Kyle was right, there were other ways to stop that maniac from blowing up the city, and with it their ticket into the next world.

“It was the fastest then. The easiest. The most effective. Take your pick.” He shrugged, dismissing him.

Silence followed, and Jason ignored Kyle’s gaze on him. Since meeting him, this was the first time Kyle appeared calm, or at least level-headed. Maybe it was the week-long nonstop chase across time and space, this universe and its unnerving lack of respective selves and how it all seemed much more peaceful than their own earth (Donna had headed on wordlessly, only her eyes betrayed her thoughts, Kyle cracked empty jokes while toeing around the subjects and Jason, well.) Or maybe it was just the elbow he took to the head.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” Kyle spoke in the deafening silence that followed any detonation. Jason threw him a glare, wishing for nothing more than quiet and space from others, but Kyle ignored it like always. “You seem so hell-bent on fighting, on hitting first and always hitting back, on getting this done and doing the most.”

“I do hope we’re all on the same page, then," he bit back.

“And yet, you sure act like you’d rather die.”

Jason stilled. His eyes found Kyle, who looked– He looked not sad, but a near thing. There was a twist in his eyebrows, a shine in his eyes that Jason did not like.

“What is it to you,” he snarled.

“You are alive when you should not be,” Kyle said, and Jason only narrowly avoided flinching at his words. “And yet, despite the gift that it is, you spend your time running around with a target strapped to your head, undertaking suicidal plans and gambling with your life like a desperate man.” Jason felt every hit of his words, spoken so calmly and yet thrown like sharp arrows. He had never seen him like that before, all their spats outspoken and violent. He was not ready to face mind games with this nerd, and he now pays the price as his lungs locked up and dread pooled in his guts. “Why?”

“You don’t know anything.” Jason felt his mouth move, but his tongue was lead, ears filled with cotton as a shaky hand wound tight around his knife, the one tucked by his hip. The weight of the grip filled his hand but did not ground him.

“You want to die so bad, and yet you fight like a stray cat that clings to his shitty, miserable life. I don’t understand you, Jason Todd.”

And as taught by his short and yet longer-than-expected life, Jason struck back in kind.

“Just because you can’t save the people you love doesn’t mean you have to act like a saviour to the rest of the world.” He stared down Kyle who flinched. Good. “Maybe if you weren’t such a bad son, the world would be free of your pathetic attempts at heroism.” He saw the instant Kyle flipped, when the arrogant pity in his eyes turned cold and hard, and Jason grinned. “Keep your hands to yourself, and maybe you’ll get to keep ’em.” He pushed himself to his feet, finally felt his lungs fill with air when he got to tower over Kyle who sat crouched in his spot.

“You’re an asshole, Jason.” He said, and Jason scoffed, climbed down the rumbles and back toward the rest of their band.