Wearing the Red Hood

Chapter 17:

This chapter is dedicated to joanie_romea23 Thank you so much for all the support!!! You don't know how much it means to me <3 And guys!!! If you haven't checked out her book entitled "Black Cat" like I told you too, you totes should. You have no idea what you're missing if you don't!!! 

Razel

Jason ignored me for the rest of breakfast.

It was as if the morning's earlier events hadn't happened. Then again, I knew I had to get my shit together before I worried about helping Jason. Everything was so complicated. I was thankful when I swallowed the last bite of my cinnamon roll. Quietly excusing myself from the table, I brought my plate and disappeared with it to the kitchen.

However, as soon as I left the dining room and stood in one of the lone, maze-like hallways, I realized I had no idea where the kitchen was. Real smart Razel.

"Lost?" asked an all too familiar voice.

I turned to meet steely grey eyes and fiery red hair. Asteria was wearing an amused smirk on her beautiful, exotic face. It made me feel stupider. "Yeah," I mumbled, looking down and hiding behind my hair.

Asteria chucked, and I heard her footsteps approaching until her feet were visible on the floor. "Come on," she said and slung an arm across my shoulders. It was like she wasn't threatening me a few minutes ago. "I'll show you to the kitchen. I know how hard it is getting used to living in a huge place. I was always getting lost in Wayne Manor."

"You haven't been living there long?" I asked, finally peeking up at her to see she had an easy smile on her face.

"No," she replied with a snort. "I only met Dick last year."

My eyes widened at the news. Last year, and they were already getting married and having a baby? Asteria answered my unspoken question, as if she could read my mind. Or maybe my expression just gave me away. "Don't look so surprised. Love isn't supposed to be so complicated. I know I love Dick. So why wait two or three more years?"

She looked pointedly at me after asking the question, but her arm remained on my shoulder, so I was close to her scrutinizing gaze. "What if you don't know Dick as well as you thought?"

"Then we'll have the rest of our lives to get to know each other some more," she replied with a shrug, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "You don't marry someone because you know them like the back of your hand, do you? You marry because you love them."

"But it's not that simple," I argued.

"Of course it is," she said in a know- it- all tone. "It's other people who make it so complicated."

She finally released me as we reached a small, wooden door and she pushed it open. I clutched the plate in my hand tightly, running over what Asteria said. It wasn't that simple, was it? No, of course it's not. "What if you don't like him once you get to know him some more," I pitched as I followed after Asteria into the kitchen. She was by the sink, also depositing her plate.

Laughing, she turned to me. "Like and love aren't the same thing."

"Of course not," I replied with a frown, approaching her and putting my plate on top of hers. "I knew that."

"You don't have to like everything about someone to love them," Asteria said, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the sink.

My frown deepened at her words. "I'm not following."

Asteria rolled her eyes at my words. "I don't like everything about Dick. I don't like how messy he is, leaving all sorts of stuff lying around in our apartment or room. I don't like that he is so protective sometimes, like he doesn't already know I can fend for myself. And I hate that he snores. But I still love him." As Asteria told me about the things she disliked about Dick, there was a wistful look on her face and a faraway look in her eyes, as if she wasn't fully there with me in the moment. And I knew she was telling the truth. Seeming to snap back to the present, she looked me directly in the eyes. "Everyone has flaws. But the challenge of loving someone is not just loving them for the good things about them. It's about loving their flaws, too."