Chapter Text
"Ow," Jason whined.
Kyle spun around to find Jason sitting down on the rink.
He was wearing a pair of form fitting black jeans with a seafoam green tee-shirt and a black leather jacket pulled on over it. There were a pair of bulky white roller skates with dirty orange wheels on his feet. He had his legs stretched out in front of him in a v while his hands were braced behind him.
"You fell again," Kyle said.
"Yeah." Jason moved his hands, reaching them out towards Kyle and flexing his fingers in a grab-y motion. "Help me get back up."
Kyle didn't hesitate to skate closer to Jason and take his hands in his own. Jason's palms were warm. They were calloused and cut, leftovers from injuries he'd sustained during his time as Robin thus far.
As he pulled Jason up, he said, "I'm sorry I chose something that results in injuries when you're bad at it."
"It's okay. I'll pick it up eventually," Jason said, giving a shrug. Then, with a small shy smile on his lips, he said, "I'm too happy about you asking me out in the first place to be upset about falling on my ass a few times."
Kyle felt his face heat up.
He was sure there was an embarrassing bright, red blush dusting his face.
He'd chosen the roller rink for their first date because it was something neither of them had done before. They'd spent a lot of time together over the past year and Kyle had wanted to make sure that when they had their first date it didn't feel like something that they'd done before.
At the beginning of the day, there had been a lot of awkward gesturing and fumbling words. It was like they'd completely forgotten how to interact with each other and how to talk to each other in the wake of their relationship changing. Things had, thankfully, smoothed out a bit once they'd gotten their skates on and moved onto the rink. Things were a little more normal after that. There were still moments when they fumbled a bit, but it was easier to talk and tease.
"I'm glad I did too," Kyle said. He was still holding Jason's hands. He didn't really want to let go. Butterflies flying in his stomach, Kyle said, "Do you want to skate together?"
"We've been skating together."
"No like..." He tightened his grip on Jason's hand. "I thought we could skate like this. Then, if you fall I could stop you."
"Or you could just end up going down with me."
"Yeah, but-" Kyle cut himself off. He felt his face heat, his blush probably darkening. He really liked the way Jason's hand felt in his, though, so he forced himself to speak despite his embarrassment, "I kinda just wanna hold your hand, Jay. Even if it means we both end up on our asses."
"Oh." Jason's face colored a dark red. Kyle wondered if his own blush was the same color. If it was, he didn't think it looked as cute as it did on Jason. "I'd like that too actually..."
"Good." There was a moment where they just seemed to stare at each other with shy, dopey smiles on their faces before Kyle cleared his throat. He gave Jason's hand a light tug, "Come on. Maybe if we skate together, you'll make it around without falling."
"I'm not that bad!" Jason objected. With their hands locked, Jason was skating right beside Kyle instead of slightly behind him like he had been. Kyle was careful to keep his pace a little slow. He was essentially just pulling Jason along, but he didn't want to go to fast and have Jason lose his balance. "I've definitely made it around at least once."
"Are you sure about that?"
Jason was quiet for a moment before saying, "Okay, no, but-"
For the first few weeks of their relationship, things were a little awkward.
They both wanted to be with each other, but they had gotten used to being with each other in a different way. Their friendship had been a little more than just a friendship for a while, their crushes had changed things even if neither of them had had any intention of acting on them originally, but it hadn't been a relationship like it was now. Their friendship could have survived anything, but their relationship was so new that they couldn't be sure it was the same way. There was more pressure to do the right thing.
On top of that, there was the fact that neither of them had any experience with dating.
Kyle had a few playground girlfriends when he was little, but he'd gotten his ring when he was only fourteen. There had suddenly been entire galaxies that were relying on him for protection. It hadn't left him much time for dating. After the other Lanterns were back, there was time for it but it had just never happened. Then he'd met Jason and the idea of dating, and therefore spending less time with Jason, hadn't seemed important.
Jason hadn't even had the little bit of experience Kyle had. As a child, he'd been too busy taking care of his mother and trying to survive to care about which neighborhood girls were batting their eyes at him. There'd been crushes, of course, but he'd never passed a note asking a girl to check yes or no. Some of the girls at Gotham Academy looked at him, Kyle hadn't really been surprised the first time Jason had mentioned it because Jason was kinda of a heartthrob with those baby blues and Jason's arms noticeable from a mile away, but the kids at Gotham Academy saw Jason as different and for that reason he had never gotten anything more than glances.
Kyle hated that Jason was alone at school, but there was a tiny part of him that was happy that no one had noticed how amazing Jason was. He didn't know if he'd be able to compete with the beautiful, rich teens Jason went to school with.
Their lack of experience and the difficulty of adjusting to a different type of relationship made their first few dates a little awkward, but as time went on things smoothed out.
It got easier to spend time with each other without second guessing what they were doing.
They went to a Gotham Blades game together. Bruce had been reluctant to let them go to a hockey game alone given how rowdy fans could get, but Jason had argued that it wasn't really a date if Bruce or Alfred tagged along. Kyle didn't really mind regardless as long as Jason was there, but in the end Jason and Bruce found a compromise. Bruce got the two of them seats in the lower bowl, used his own suite instead of sitting with them, and allowed Kyle to fly the two of them to the stadium instead of making them ride with him. When Kyle showed up to pick Jason up the day of the game, he found Jason completely decked out from head to toe. He had a jersey, face paint, a little winter hat with a pom-pom. The whole thing was unfairly cute. Kyle spent the evening holding Jason's hand, not caring at all when Jason jumped to his feet to celebrate a goal and lifted Kyle's hand too quickly because he hadn't thought to let go.
One day, when the two of them were in LA near Kyle's house instead of Gotham, they went to a dollar store and bought a bunch of cheap art supplies. They spent their evening sitting on the beach with their shoulders touching as they drew portraits of what they were looking at. Jason's wasn't bad, but he wasn't the artist Kyle was and it showed. When Jason pouted about being so clearly out-done, Kyle bought him hot chocolate and a sno-cone. Jason refused to let Kyle have any of his hot chocolate, but he shared the sno-cone with him, occasionally holding his spoon out for Kyle to take what was on it. When he was getting ready to go back to Gotham, Jason insisted that Kyle let him keep his painting and Kyle had agreed because he'd always liked giving his paintings to people that he loved.
Once they made plans to go ice skating, something they'd done together before and enjoyed, but the temperature had dropped so sharply that Alfred had told Kyle as soon as he stepped inside Wayne Manor that he wasn't going to allow either of them outside for such a long time in weather that bad. Instead the two of them ended up spending their evening in the kitchen baking. At the end, there was three trays of cookies and a giant gingerbread house covered in far too much icing. There was laughter in Alfred's voice when he scolded them for how much of a mess they made. Afterwards, they were shooed from the kitchen. They spent that evening watching the third Santa Clause movie. It was warm and comfortable. Kyle couldn't figure out if that was because of the soft, fuzzy blanket Jason had pulled over the two of them or it if was from the heat radiating off Jason where their thighs and shoulders touched.
Things were fun and easy in the same way that they had been before they'd started dating.
Kyle found himself understanding the things he'd heard people say about how great it was to be in a relationship with their best friend.
Things with Jason were good, great even, and he couldn't think of anyone he wanted to be with more than he wanted to be with Jason.
"Did I miss it?" Jason asked as he slipped back into the living room, his hands wrapped around a fresh mug of hot chocolate.
It was New Years Eve. Kyle had been on Earth longer than usual since it was the holiday season, but he was headed back to Oa soon. He had wanted to spend a little more time with Jason before he left so the two of them were watching the Time Square ball drop together.
"No," Kyle said, shaking his head. As Jason approached the couch, Kyle kicked up the end of the blanket so Jason could grab it and slip under it with him. Kyle had his legs up on the couch, swung to the side as he leaned against the arm of the couch, so Jason squeezed into the space behind Kyle's knees and leaned against Kyle's side. He liked the warm, heavy weight of Jason against him. "That took you longer than I thought it would."
"Bruce was in there grabbing more coffee," Jason said. "He made me sit in there and listen to the rules again."
It was Kyle's first time staying over since they'd become dating and the change in their relationship meant a whole new set of rules.
The biggest one was that they weren't allowed to sleep in the same room anymore. Alfred had made up one of the guest rooms for Kyle and he was supposed to sleep there instead of in Jason's room like he usually did. Kyle thought it was a little ridiculous. He knew they were teenage boys, but Jason was only fourteen. There were a lot of things that Kyle thought about when it came to Jason, but there wasn't anything that he'd actually do until Jason was older, until Jason was ready.
"That explains it," Kyle said. Bruce had been taking enforcement of their new restrictions very seriously, so he wasn't surprised that Jason had gotten a mini-lecture. Focusing on the TV, Kyle said, "One minute."
"Really? I didn't think I'd been gone that long."
"You were gone for like ten minutes."
Jason groaned, throwing his head back. "I can't believe he lectured me for ten minutes about us not sharing a bedroom."
Kyle gave a little hum. He agreed that Bruce was being ridiculous, but he understood at the same time. His mother probably would have given him a shorter version of the same speech if they were at his place. He imagined part of the reason it'd taken so long was because Jason had started arguing with Bruce about it.
Instead of saying anything about that, Kyle nudged Jason with his elbow. "It's starting."
As the crowd of people gathered at Time Square started counting, so did they.
"Ten,
nine,
eight,
seven,
six,
five,
four,
three,
two,
one."
Kyle turned towards Jason to wish him a happy New Year, but before he could get the words out Jason had leaned forward and slotted their lips together.
The kiss was quick, just a soft peck, and a little uncoordinated, Jason had caught him a little too off guard for the angle of it to be very good, but it was enough for Kyle to freeze, caught off guard by the action.
Jason leaned away from Kyle. His face was a hot, fire engine red and there was a nervousness in his eyes.
"That's not fair," Kyle said. Before Jason could misinterpret his words, he continued, "I wasn't expecting that. We have to do it again."
Kyle had thought about kissing Jason far too many times for their first kiss to be something that he lost in his shock about it.
They had to do it again so that he could remember it better.
Jason seemed surprised for a moment, but then his shyness seemed to melt away. A smile as bright as the sun settled over his lips. "Okay."
This time it was Kyle who leaned in first.
The kissing kept happening.
When they saw each other for the first time after Kyle got back on planet, Jason would pull away from their usual hug to give Kyle a quick kiss. When they met up for a date, Kyle would lean in to press a kiss against Jason's lips. Both of them were passionate people, so they took to using kisses to shush the other one for a moment. Usually, Jason responded by returning Kyle's kiss with a second one and then rambling on as if it had never happened. It didn't bother Kyle as long as Jason took a second to breathe and let Kyle wrap his mind around whatever he was talking about. When Jason did it to Kyle, he would laugh a little and reach for Jason's hand if they weren't already holding hands. He'd switch the subject, taking the time to draw Jason into an actual conversation instead of just rambling at him. Their approaches were different, but it worked for each of them and neither of them ever felt bad afterwards.
The kisses weren't limited to lips either. If Kyle came back to the planet and found Jason was particularly bruised from his nights as Robin, he would brush kisses against Jason's split knuckles or the underside of Jason's occasional black eye. Jason was catching up to Kyle's height quickly, Kyle had been around five and half feet since they'd first met but Jason had had a recent growth spurt that brought him up near him, and he liked to take advantage of it by pressing kisses to places he couldn't reach before. If they were walking together and Kyle said something that rose warm, fond amusement in him, then Jason would sling his arm around Kyle's shoulders, pulling him down the little bit necessary for Jason to reach his temple and press a kiss there. Sometimes if Kyle said something particularly ridiculous or particularly sappy or something that just infuriated Jason so much that he needed Kyle to shut up, Jason would put his hands on either side of Kyle's face and reel him in to press a kiss against Kyle's forehead.
It never went beyond pecks, but Kyle was more than okay with that. He liked the addition of the kisses to their relationship regardless of what kinds of kisses they were.
Kissing Jason, or being kissed by Jason, always made his chest warm with affection. The first few times they'd done it, his lips seemed to tingle for the entire day afterwards. It was nice and fantastic and amazing.
Before Kyle knew it, two months had passed since their first date and it was Valentines Day.
Kyle was off world for the actual day, but he tried to make up for it when he got back.
After asking at least five times to make sure it was okay with Alfred, Kyle spent the morning he got back from Oa in the kitchen with the older man learning how to make Jason's favorite blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes. By the time he finally made a few that Alfred deemed edible, Jason had already woken up and come downstairs looking for food. He'd been surprised to see Kyle in the manor, but after the initial shock wore off a bright smile had fallen over his face and he'd happily leaned in for a kiss.
After breakfast, while Jason was eating Alfred had been kind enough to make Kyle a few pancakes as well even though Kyle had insisted he was fine with eating some of his less terrible failures, the two of them sat around the house for the afternoon. They watched a movie, neither of them had seen the Clone Wars movie since things had been awkward between them when it came out and it has slipped from their minds, and played a couple games of Scrabble, Jason was giant cheater so Kyle usually refused to play with him.
When it got dark outside, they bundled up and Kyle flew the two of them to a nearby ice rink for the ice skating date that they'd had to cancel early last month. Despite it no longer being Valentines day, the rink was still covered in fairy lights that gave it a soft glow and there was a radio somewhere that was playing soft, pop songs that all seemed to be vaguely romantic in their nature. It was all a little cheesy, but Jason's eyes seemed to sparkle under the lights and when he laughed at the entire thing Kyle felt a little bit like he'd been staring at the sun for too long. They spent the night skating until their cheeks and noses were bright cherry red from the cold. Their palms were warm from having spent the entire night pressed together.
When Kyle dropped Jason back off at Wayne Manor, just barely before Jason's curfew, Jason had dropped a kiss against his lips and thanked him for such a great night and swore that he was going to come up with something just as amazing to do for Kyle the next year. Kyle had tried to argue, but Jason had just kissed him again before turning around to dart into the house before he ended up banned from patrol for missing curfew.
Kyle still felt a little bad that he'd been off planet on Valentines Day, but he thought that it'd been a really amazing day even if it had been a little late.
Kyle peeked his head into the watchtower's library, scanning the room until he found who he had been looking for.
Jason was sitting in his favorite chair, a large lounger that had practically dwarfed Jason when he was thirteen and first visited the tower but which now seemed to fit Jason perfectly, with a book in his hand. He was wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a loose dark red hoodie. His hair looked a little damp and like someone had recently run their hands through it. It was pretty early in the day, but looking at Jason it was clear that he had probably been here for a while. He and Bruce had probably come to the tower straight from their patrol.
Kyle wondered what could've drawn them up in such a hurry that Bruce hadn't thought to drop Jason off at home so he could sleep for a few hours. He'd just been in the central room with John, Barry, Clark, and a bunch of others but it hadn't seemed like any of them were in a particular hurry. If something had been wrong, Kyle figured Clark would have done a bit more than smile and point him towards Jason.
"Hey," Jason said, drawing Kyle out of his thoughts.
"Hey," Kyle said, a smile coming over his lips. He stepped fully into the room, crossing so he could reach Jason. "I didn't expect to see you until later."
"We found something on patrol that B couldn't find a match for in our database. He thinks might be space-y," Jason told him. "We came up here for him to talk to some of the others."
Kyle hummed a bit. "Should I go find him?"
"You came down with John right?" Kyle nodded. "He'll ask John for help."
"Good thing I didn't bring Hal with me," Kyle said, laughing a bit. Jason had already marked his place in his book, setting it aside, so when Kyle reached him he put his palms down on the arms of the chair and leaned into Jason's space. He requested, "Kiss?"
"Kiss," Jason agreed.
Jason lifted up a bit to press their lips together.
When he pulled away after a moment, Kyle said, "Come to the cafeteria with me? We can get breakfast together before I go see my mom."
"I'm supposed to be waiting for B," Jason said.
"John was still with Clark and a bunch of the others last I saw him," Kyle said. He didn't have a problem pushing since Jason hadn't really said it in a way that made Kyle believe that Jason was at all concerned with following Bruce's orders. Jason was, honestly, very rarely concerned with following Bruce's orders. "We have plenty of time to get something to eat before they finish. And even if we don't, I don't think Bruce is going to object to you getting breakfast."
"Okay," Jason said, easy to convince in that way that he always was when he'd only been arguing about something for the sake of at least looking like he was going to do what Bruce told him to. He reached up, putting his hands on Kyle's chest and pushing just a bit. "Move so I can get up."
Kyle tilted his head down to press a kiss against one of Jason's wrists then took a step back. "There's usually scrambled eggs and sausage here, right? A breakfast burrito sounds really good."