and maybe she made him die twice

a sea of green

You have never been loved. I can tell. 

Chapter Three

Their first encounter was an accident. 

"Y'know, cutie, the only crime here is that you and I haven't gone out on a-"

Cue eye blast to the face. The scorch of the burn left him unable to sleep for a week. 

Their second encounter was an afterthought.

"Tell Robin we're even. For now." 

He saluted her and Raven from the rim of the bus, crossing his name off the list of race contestants for Robin's precious case. 

Their third encounter, however, moved on from the amusing, affirming 'A's.'

It became a 'B'.

Beginning. 

"Halt, thief!" 

Oh, boy.

He pivoted around. He'd just crossed the threshold of Jump City's resident teen haven: the convenience store. The team had anointed her with the sacred quest of getting chips, so she had a reason to be here. They always did. 

On the other hand, his motive for visiting had scattered to the wind. Maybe he just decided to step down the crime scale to 'loitering.' Maybe it was because he knew she'd be here. 

"For the record, I bought this." He taunted a receipt in the air, lifting his mask up to his nose to slurp down a bubbly soda. "Hate to break it to you, princess, but I don't think you can arrest me for drinking a coke." 

"P-put your hands up and comply in an orderly fashion." She sputtered like the police, flushing furiously at her blunder. "You have many past crimes, which you are still wanted for—"

"Oh, so you found out about the sex trafficking ring, the donut shop, and the girl scouts? I'm terrified." Even the dreary humdrum of Jason's tone couldn't hide his smug grin. "Besides, I did twinkle toes a favor, remember? We're even." 

"The 'twinkling of toes' still does not trust you." She cracked open a can of freshly-bought ice cream, squirting mustard onto it. "He feels that we do not know what side you are on." 

"You wanna know what side I'm on? I'll tell you." He punched in figures on his keypad. "816-226-1111. Put those numbers in your phone and it'll tell you everything you need to know about me." He winked.

"A code?" Starfire tried every combination to decrypt the message until she realized that the only thing these digits would unlock was the opportunity to call her. "H-hey! This is the contact to your phone of cells!" 

His unbridled laughter could be heard in cacophonies all the way down the street. 

Their fourth encounter—or perhaps more—was a digital one. Maybe he was surprised he got a text from her. Maybe he was secretly lolling about for days, begging for the notification to ping.

<X of the Red?>

<I require a service.>

< Of COURSE I'll buy you the red lingerie. I'll even bring the wine.>

<There shall be nothing of the sort. I simply wish to meet at the warehouse of our first battle at midnight.>

<fineeeee.>

"Fancy meeting you here, cutie." He stopped obsessively re-reading their exchange and checked the time, trying to play it cool. 12:10 AM. She was late.