[Closed-ish] July birthdays!

[robintohood]

Who: All BatFamily members and friends of BatFamily
What: Birthday party for both Tim Drakes
When: July 19th
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: N/A

[Today is both Tim Drakes' birthday. In honor of this, Descendant Karaoke Bar and Lounge is closed for the night for a "private event."

On the ground floor where the bar is and where there's the most open space, most of the tables and chairs have been pushed aside while some have been rearranged to accommodate the party. A taco bar is lined up on one side. Hard and soft shells are available, along with a variety of fillings people can choose to make their own tacos.

A projector screen has been set up in front of the bar, alongside a laptop loaded with a movie library.

The birthday cake is a coffee and chocolate ice cream cake with vanilla frosting. It's safely stashed in the kitchen's fridge until it's time for dessert.

Though this family is absolutely dysfunctional and its members don't all come from the same universe or timeline, they're going to make sure two family members have a good birthday party today. Jackass guilds be damned]

((OOC: Mingle with each other!))

Comments

[torchbearer]

[ kyle squints. ]

A grenade?

[reneger]

For grenade emergencies.

( because those are definitely a thing. maybe less so here than in gotham, but grenade emergencies means he needs grenades. in his jacket, at birthday parties, where he drank a little too much because a room full of bats is a room full of too much drama. )

[torchbearer]

At your brother's birthday party?

[reneger]

Especially at my brother's birthday party.

( someone could have sent ninjas. or bane. or another assassin from here, tim is good at making enemies. )

[torchbearer]

Isn't that a bit much? Everyone there was a trained vigilante.

[reneger]

Vigilantes who're great at collecting enemies. Red Hood's got a gang under his control, an' made enemies of the mob. Tim's shady, I don't know what he's been up to but I can guarantee he's been causing shit.

( therefore, grenades. )

I pissed off a cult and the Alliance and it's a shit idea to go out as-is.

[torchbearer]

I'm not saying no weapons.

[ nor is he dismissing the paranoia, though he still feels it's a bit much. ]

Grenades are just. Big firepower.

[reneger]

I've got bigger.

( not on him. but he's been working up his weapon stash, including snatching some shit off of junior from his safehouses. though that part's mostly for fun. jason turns a smile over towards kyle, tosses the grenade up before catching it. )

Didn't bring the C4 this time.

[torchbearer]

[ dryly. ]

Really not something to brag about.

[reneger]

So says you.

( especially considering how often jason does carry around heavy explosives. just in case. he--looks over in the direction of the bar. decides it's far enough away to walk his way over to kyle.

not that he hadn't been fucking with him while they were close enough that all someone'd need to do is walk outside to see them. )

[torchbearer]

Me and probably anyone else outside the circle.

[ kyle glances at him curiously. ]

[reneger]

( the grenade goes back into his pocket, and jason--stops maybe a couple feet away from kyle. close enough to touch, but he's not reaching out. )

What do you want?

( throwing kyle's words right back at him. if kyle's going to ask jason, jason'll make space to ask him, too. )

[torchbearer]

[ kyle looks out the window. the large panoramic one the enterprise had on the show. he can do anything. he can be anything. sometimes, he feels it. ion's power. just lurking under the surface. it is no evil and it does no harm. it does not scare him.

but it'll be a kind of death. different from the ones before. a totality he barely slipped from the last time.

so what does kyle rayner, while he is still kyle rayner want?

the answer is simple, at its heart. because his heart has always been all he is. ]

I want to be loved.

[ he folds his arms in front of himself. ]

Jenny broke up with me, you know. She was cheating on me. I spent too long in space, trying to get the Corps functioning and she felt I hadn't done enough. Maybe she was right. I don't know.

And then she died.

[reneger]

( it's a heavier answer than he was anticipating. jason asked, expecting close to the same short answer from before. expected something lighthearted, but kyle drops a heavy answer with heavier shit attached, and jason has a little too much whiskey in him for this.

he bites on the inside of his lower lip. resists the urge to just open his mouth and say the first thing that comes to mind, because jason knows how shit that'd turn out. for him, not for kyle. kyle can handle whatever he can throw, but jason can't. so he takes a moment to mull it over, eyes focusing on kyle's arms across his chest for a moment before they move back up to look into kyle's own. )

I don't date.

( he has, once or twice. but it's always ended shitty, and jason doesn't handle that kind of emotional weight well. he crushes on people, he holds onto that for forever, pining, waiting for them to say something because he--he'll flirt and play around but making that first step towards something solid is hard. and when they do make the first step, he takes off because it's too much. the couple times he hasn't--has always turned out bad. given him plenty of reasons to avoid ever getting into shit again. kyle managed to worm his way in under jason's skin, found just the right way to break him open. )

And I don't fuck around. People always get hurt when they stick around me, an' I've got too much shit going on to waste time on things that aren't gonna matter longterm. I'm not like you or Grayson, ( he realizes, two seconds too late, that it sounds a little callous. not the tone he was going for here. jason shakes his head, tries it again, ) I can't just go for things 'cause I want it.

( jason todd doesn't exist, anymore. hasn't since he was fifteen. he has nothing to give anyone. red hood is all pain, death, and vengeance. here in the middle, jason's--a little unsure what he's supposed to be. he's finding his footing. had it almost, before he'd ended up here.

hands reach up, so he can cup kyle's face between palms. jason takes a step forward into him, to press his forehead against kyle's own. )

I'm an asshole with a shit temper and chances're high I'll find another roof to throw you off of 'cause you're also an asshole. But you've got me. All of me. For as long as you want it.

[torchbearer]

I want all of you.

[ that much isn't difficult to say. his voice doesn't stick in his throat, there's no real hesitation. he knows, of course, the hangups jason has. the fears. kyle slips his arms around him. a part of him can't quite help being clingy. it's hard to let go, which is why he's struggled to initiate things at times. he feels so overwhelmingly desperate. unraveling. he presses his cheek to jason's hand, soaking it up. ]

[reneger]

( a year and a half ago, the clinginess would have bothered him. physical affection isn't something he'd really had the chance to get used to, before. jason's always communicated with fists and violence, ever since he was a kid. and it'd only gotten worse with age. but he's--adjusted, a little. gotten used to soft touches, to people holding onto him, leaning into him. it works out in kyle's favor here, because he doesn't stiffen up or move to shove him off. doesn't follow the instinctive need to get out of any hold that could constrain him that the hug immediately triggers.

leans into it instead. )

Good. 'cause I'm not the kind of experience you can just take bites of. You get all of me or none at all.

[torchbearer]

[ kyle can't help but huff. he squeezes a little, his fingers brushing back the back of jason's neck. ]

Again with the biting thing.

[reneger]

I only bit you once, and it was 'cause you were being overly dramatic about bleeding.

( nipping him clearly doesn't count. )

[torchbearer]

Bleeding is a big deal!

[reneger]

No it ain't. I bleed all the time and I'm fine.

( is he joking? is he not? the default fucking around grin on his face doesn't make it any easier to tell. )

[torchbearer]

Since when are you fine??

[reneger]

( that's fair.

and he tries to think of a decent response to that which does sound similar to i'm fine except he's got nothing. there is nothing he can say that even mildly sounds like i'm fine.

hands fall away from kyle's cheeks, but he doesn't move away. )

You have a point.

[torchbearer]

[ kyle sighs, hands shifting to rest on jason's shoulders. ]

It wasn't that kind of point.

It is fine not to be. And to live with that.

[reneger]

I know. I've accepted that I'm the fuck up.

( not quite what kyle meant, and he knows that. but it works for jason anyway. )

You're all kinds of not fine too.

[torchbearer]

[ kyle grins. ]

Oh, I know. I'm a big mess.