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To the sound of chirping birds and the sensation of a cool breeze across her back, Kori opened her eyes and was immediately faced with a broad, scarred back and a head of black hair.
It was a familiar and welcomed sight. Face down on the pillows, hair spread in a messy tangle across her back, she watched Jason's wide torso rise and fall as he breathed in his sleep. She couldn't see Roy behind his bulk but could hear him muttering in his sleep.
With a nail, she danced it across Jason's back in feather-light touches, tracing the gnarled wounds and white lines and bullet scares and brands in the shape of J's. She already knew every expanse of skin, had already mapped every freckle and scar and mole, but she never got tired of looking at him.
When he began to shift under her gentle ministrations, she reluctantly pulled away and detangled herself from the bedsheets. She reached for the nearest item of clothing and slipped Jason's hoodie over her head.
Once she stood, she was finally able to see Roy, from where he was mostly hidden behind Jason. He was curled up into Jason's chest, his fingers hooked into the waistband of his pyjama pants, his hair spread in a halo across the pillows.
Just as she had with Jason, she paused a moment to watch the steady rise and fall of Roy's chest. His milky white skin was flecked with freckles and scars. Not quite as many as Jason, but enough for her to cast her eyes over and feel sorrow because she knew the reason behind most of his scars, and the knowledge alone pained her.
But her favourite scars were the scars that were put there by her own hands, the ones put there in a fit of passion that would fade gradually over time- the handprints burned into Roy's back and shoulders after a night of lovemaking, stark in contrast to his pale skin. All impermeant, all soon to fade, all made in a fit of love and a testament to how much she adored these two men who she shared her days with.
The juxtaposition was astounding as she glanced around that room. Jason's clothes were thrown haphazardly across the ground, discarded in piles of rumpled fabric, his Red Hood uniform tossed in a corner. Roy's belongings were folded meticulously and neatly placed on his side of the room with military precision, his Arsenal uniform carefully hung up in the wardrobe. The difference between Jason having been tended to by a butler for many years before his death, and then Roy fighting for his life on the streets without nobody to take care of him but himself. It made her smile to know that Jason was comfortable enough in their home to be messy, and Roy was comfortable enough to be particular.
She crossed on bare feet towards the door and exited as silently as she could muster. The latch caught, and Jason stirred at the sound, and Kori waited with bated breath until he settled back down and tightened his arms around Roy.
The loungeroom was in as much disarray as it was the night before. Blankets were strewn across the couches, pillows discarded on the ground, and dirty dishes littered across every available surface. She quietly tidied up the room, folding the blankets, returning the pillows to the couch, collecting the dishes and placing them in the sink. She threw open all the curtains and washed the room in warm sunlight.
It was so beautiful outside. The sunlight was warm on her skin, tantalizing and compelling. She was drawn to the front door like a siren's song, and hardly without thought, her feet left the ground and soared right into the sky toward the sun like Icarus.
The wind whipped across her face, her hair flowed out behind her, the heat warming her from where it danced across her skin. She was weightless as she drifted across the clouds, high above the tops of the trees. She allowed her eyes to fall shut as she followed her instincts, twisting and sailing and dancing between the clouds.
But then she thought about her boy's collective scars, of her handprint seared into Roy's skin, of Jason's loud snores, of their living space messy and full of love, and was hit with a sense of longing so strong that it drove her back home.
When Kori touched down on the soft, lush grasses outside of their home, she was immediately hit by the warm, inviting smell of cooking wafting through the open window. She smiled to herself as she pushed open the door and walked inside.
Jason was in the kitchen, up to his elbows in sudsy water as he washed dishes. He was wearing nothing but his pyjama pants and his customary socks and slippers, the ones he only wore because of how much the sight annoyed Roy. On the stove, bacon sizzled, eggs cooked, and mini pancakes slowly browned. His head was bent, and he didn't notice her as she floated across the short distance and wrapped her arms around his torso from above. He hummed as she placed a kiss on his crown. "Morning, Princess," he rumbled. She couldn't see his face but she knew that he was smiling. "Had a nice flight?"
"It was lovely. The weather is quite nice," she brushed the white strands of Jason's hair off of his forehead. She continued the gentle patting motion when he leant into the touch. "Have you been up long?"
"Not really. Just long enough to get a start on breakfast," Jason wiped his wet hands off on a dish towel. "It's almost done."
As Jason moved to tend to the food on the stove, Kori went through the familiar ministrations of setting the table for breakfast. She laid out three plates, and three sets of cutlery and folded three serviettes into origami shames- a swan, a lotus flower, a bowtie. She heated the kettle and got three mugs ready, one with her tea of choice, one with enough sugar and milk to give a dentist a heart attack, and one so black and strong that it was bitter.
It was only when Jason was putting the food on the table that she realised that the number of plates and cutlery didn't match the number of people in the room. "Is Roy still in bed? It's not like him to sleep in once you've started cooking."
"He's up," Jason said. His voice was even but Kori could tell he was tense. "He's in his workshop."
Kori couldn't help but frown. "Already?"
"Yep," Jason sighed. "Practically rolled out of bed and walked right into the workshop. I don't know if I could have stopped him. You know how he gets."
The whole intention of the previous night, of the good food and the pillow fort on the couch and popcorn while watching a movie and the marathon sex afterwards until they were all exhausted, was purely an attempt to get Roy out of his head. They had hoped that they'd be able to convince him to stop spending so much time in his workshop tending to his current obsessive project.
After no food or water for three days and no sleep for every longer, Jason and Kori had finally put their foot down. An intervention of sorts, though they would never call it that. They thought that they had gotten through to him, but apparently not.
But Kori was nothing if not stubborn, and at this moment, that morphed into persistence.
Wordlessly, she turned away from the breakfast spread and Jason's confused frown and stalked down the hallway with sure, determined feet until she came to a stop outside the closed, reinforced steel door littered with handmade warning signs that listed dangers and plenty of reasons not to enter. She hated this door.
After a moment, she heard Jason's feet hurrying after her, and a wink later, he appeared at her elbow. "What's the plan here, Princess?"
"I'm going to persuade him to join us for breakfast," After a moment of consideration, she reached for the handle. She was stopped abruptly by calloused fingers wrapped carefully around her wrist. "What is it?"
Jason looked genuinely confused. "What are you doing?"
Equally as perplexed, Kori lowered her hand to frown at Jason. "I'm going in to speak with him."
"You're not going to knock?" He questioned.
"Why would I knock?" Kori was getting annoyed now. They were going around and around in circles but not making any headway.
"Do you remember all the times that Roy has warned us about barging into his workshop without knocking in case he's working on something dangerous?"
"But if we knock before we enter, then he'll just refuse us entry, whereas if we enter without knocking, then he won't be able to get the chance."
She knew that she was right, so when it looked as if Jason was going to continue arguing, she just reached for the handle and pushed her way into the room, knowing that either Jason would follow or he wouldn't.
The workshop was a mess of organised chaos, with half-finished projects on one side and well-loved tools and equipment on the other side. In the middle, Roy sat behind a desk, surrounded by blueprints, his head bowed, wearing a tank-top and a pair of exercise shorts, and the pink bunny slippers that Kori had brought him as a joke that Roy unironically loved.
She made her way across the workshop floor on near-silent feet and graced her hand across the back of Roy's neck, playing with the baby hairs that hadn't been tied up in his bun. "I thought that we already had a discussion about you doing this to yourself, Roytoy."
Blinking owlishly, Roy glanced up and tilted his head so he could meet her eyes. "I thought you already knew that you should knock before you come in," he said mildly before he glared pointedly at Jason. "And I thought you knew better."
"Hey," Jason raised his arms, hands pointed outwards in a placating gesture, but he was laughing. "I tried to warn her, but have you ever willingly got in her way?"
Humming, Kori inched her hands higher and removed the hair tie from around Roy's silken strands, and with deft fingers, she shook out his hair until it fell around his face in that delicious way that she so loved. "Last night, you promised us that you were going to put away the project that you've been obsessing over, and you were going to start taking better care of yourself. But then we find you back here, first thing in the morning after you promised you'd take a break."
With a lazy grin, Roy leaned back in his chair until he was looking up at Kori. "And I've kept that promise, Princess," he purred, gesturing closely to be cabinet at the other end of the room that they knew was filled with projects half-finished and blue-prints in progress. "I put it away, just like you asked. I'd never break a promise, especially not so soon."
Her confusion must have been palpable because when she glanced up at Jason, his confusion was written plainly across his face, clear for all to see. "Then what the hell are you doing in here?" He pressed.
Silently, Roy cleared his desk a little and spun around the sheet of paper he was sketching on to show them. "Lian's birthday present. It's in a couple of months and I've still got no plans. I'm thinking about maybe building her a bicycle."
"A bicycle?" Jason mused as he scanned the doodles. "That's a bit of a step down from your usual crazy Roy Harper flair, isn't it? No death ray, no weapon of mass destruction? Does this bicycle have a rocket booster feature?"
Smirking, Roy's fingers fluttered over the page and pointed at a couple of doodles in the corner, many of which seemingly looked weaponed-shaped. "I've certainly been toying with this idea."
"You are not going to give your child a weapon," Kori chided lightly. "I think that a bicycle is a lovely idea."
"Great," Roy said, chewing on the end of his pencil. "Are we ready to have breakfast, now? I can smell food and I'm starving."
Laughing, Kori took Roy's hand in hers and urged him out of his chair. Jason led them out of the workshop, shaking his head at their antics as Roy paused in the hallway just long enough to grab Kori's hand and spin her around in a dramatic dance. She couldn't help but laugh as he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off her feet.
And if Kori floated just a little bit to make it slightly easier for him, then who really cared?
Back at the kitchen table, Jason had already piled their plates with their preferred breakfast items, and Kori pressed the still steaming sugared milk abomination into Roy's hands, which he supped from gratefully. "You always know exactly how I like it, Princess. And Jaybird-"
Before Roy could utter another word, Jason hurriedly crammed a fork topped with buttered pancake pieces slathered in dripping maple syrup into Roy's open mouth. "Shut up, Roytoy, and eat your breakfast."
But somehow, even with this very effective way of silencing him, Roy turned to Kori in a silent plead for her help and his eyes went wide. "Kori," He said, his voice muffled by all the food in his mouth. "Why aren't you wearing pants?
Kori couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all, and Jason followed her lead after a moment, and despite his cheeks bulging like chipmunks with all the pancakes as he chewed, Roy's laughter was the loudest of them all.
Laughter echoed around their kitchen on this early morning, and Kori couldn't remember a time when she had been happier.