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Last place I was, coffee beans were close to extinct. If you wanted to drink it, you had to pay enough to cover rent for a good-sized apartment for a cup.

( with a smarmy little grin, before he's taking a sip of his own coffee. black, because he's not desperate enough for espresso yet. jason presses an elbow against the table, holds his coffee up in that hand. )

You. I wanna know what you've been up to. How long you've been here. What bullshit you've seen go on.

[ kyle blinks. where even is that? an elseworld? ]

Not long. A few months, at most. Bruce was here briefly, but I didn't get the chance to catch up with him. And from the looks of things, the others seem to be marching to the beat of their own drum and I've left them to it.

[ until they're stupid about it. ]

Are you saying I've been here a year and haven't tried overtaking the criminal underground yet? Or are you saying you figured that battle wasn't worth it?

( an important distinction to make here. )

J2 has been giving it the old college try, with his bar and everything but . . . [ kyle trails off for a moment. he had laid it into jason before, with how reckless he was behaving. the erratic mood swings, lashing out in anger. like a child. and kyle gets it, of course. it's the Trauma. kyle has enough of it to know.

but that doesn't make it acceptable. ]

. . . I don't think he'll get very far.

I've never been more disappointed in myself. ( deadpan; he doesn't really give a shit either way. either jason does or doesn't, and this jason isn't going to be doing jack shit. not for a while. he's got other shit to do first. )

He's calmer than I'd figure him for. Only pretend shot at me, didn't even reach for a knife. Gives him points over the other two.

( the angry robin and the angrier, sadder, super fucked over jason. and look: he came out of it with no black eyes, no bruises, and no blood. )

Could'a just been because Timber was lurking around in the shadows though.

Maybe. Like I said, I leave them to it.

[ not really his jurisdiction and kyle's never been that kind of person, to constantly mind and meddle in other people's business. he'll draw a line if necessary, but not before that. ]

'cause I'm your favorite( pain in the ass ), right?

( snickering, before he's taking his elbow off the table for another good drink of coffee. )

Getting bored? Doesn't look like much of your crew is around.

[ kyle rolls his eyes. ]

Guess I'm more used to galactic pain in the asses than normal pain in the asses. Feels like bullying to take them on.

( they've been at the same table for more than four seconds and haven't tried to kill each other, so jason's pretty sure this is going well. ish.

because he wanted rayner to piss him off to justify starting a fight, everything sucks and he hates this. )

Bet I could make it more fun for you.

[ he narrows his eyes briefly. kyle can practically see the wheels turning. ]

I dunno, you're kind of in the low end.

I've got time and a city full of carnage. Maybe not as good as Gotham, but I could manage to pull together a good enough team. Hand out the right toys, hit the right spot.

( it'd be stepping on the red hood's toes but why not start a fight with himself? )

[ he sighs. maybe it was worth seeing jason get punched. that never gets old. ]

That desperate for a fight, huh? What feeling are you trying to expunge?

( this is why he hates kyle, isn't it. he should have remembered that it was because they're both, occasionally, the same kind of asshole. coffee down on the table, and he's pinching his nose between his thumb and index finger. takes a breath and on the exhale, loses the smarmy grin. )

'm so tired, of all of this. I find something, somewhere, finally settle into it and everything goes to shit. I liked where I was and chances of me getting back are null. There's a dumber, younger me going 'round here doing stupid shit and I could go an' try to kick him down but he's already fucked over my ability to use my own face an' now I get why J was such an asshat about everything.

[ there is a flicker of sympathy because kyle has always held onto a bleeding heart, even when it burns him on the inside. he may not grasp the situation, but laid out like that, he can see why it's a frustrating one. ]

So you can't rebrand and you can't start over, so you want to start a fight? Fine. But you know the odds.

I didn't say I can't. I said I don't want to.

( how many times has he started fights he knew he'd lose because he just wanted the fight itself? more times than he can count. )

You're such an ass.

Yeah, but you knew that already.

[ he takes a sip of his expresso. ]

So what are your plans?

Ruin your life, obviously.

( if it's going to be like that, jason's gonna reach across the table to try and take kyle's espresso. because he can. )

I've got nothing better to do.

[ kyle splutters. ]

You're lucky we're in public, asshole.

You wanna take it outside?

( the grin is back, his moment of vulnerability over. jason can go back to that later when he isn't dicking around with kyle. )

I don't have my gear ( mostly. ) so you'd better bully me gently.

Yeah, not sure there's anything in it for me.

[ he never really got into the machismo stuff. ]

One of these days I'll win an' you'll feel real stupid.

( he's landed punches before, which clearly is good enough to count for something. there's no real need to plot out how to take out kyle but he's betting, somewhere, bruce has a well-mapped and excessively thought over 'how to take out a lantern in case of emergencies or if/when hal really pisses him off' plan jotted down somewhere.

but jason isn't bruce and at some point they're going to devolve into punching and throwing insults and he'd put his chances of winning at less than 5%. which isn't zero, fuck off kyle. )

Maybe I've got secrets, ( who doesn't. ) a plan. Maybe I want you to underestimate me so I can pull out my secret weapon.

[ bruce certainly had plans. however, kyle has seen those plans. it was a Whole Big Thing when ra's al ghul stole and used them against the justice league. not that it wouldn't surprise him that bruce would create new ones. it's not something he holds against batman.

kyle snorts. ]

And you're doing a great job of selling it.

Also all part of my plan.

( he's going to have to follow kyle around central city. figure out what he gets up to in his down time. find just the right way to ruin it. maybe he's got some idiot baby-faced other jason waltzing around being an idiot surrounded by his hoard of stalkers, but does he have the fun of a pseudo-nemesis? at least a few actual enemies, but those don't come with the fun of fucking someone over just because it sounds like a good time.

jason pulls himself up to his feet, one hand shoved into his pocket and the other holding onto an empty cup. )

I've taken out badder than you.

Yeah like the time you took on Darkseid.

Oh wait, that never happened.

Space business is your department. I'm not doing your job for you.

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