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Kyle woke up confused, he didn’t remember going to sleep. Last thing he could remember they were still searching for the ever elusive Ray Palmer, he had just had a blow up with Jason Todd, big shocker, and stormed out. Now he was in a comfy bed, with arms wrapped around his waist.
He didn’t remember thinking about going to a bar, but had he? Had he taken home some random hook up? He’d never been drunk enough to black out before. Nausea churned in his stomach at the idea of not remembering having sex, if he was too drunk to remember it he was too drunk to consent.
Kyle gently removed the arm wrapped around him, he could tell that neither he nor the man, man! He wasn’t even gay. But they were both nude. He tried to scoot his way out of the bed, but the guy stirred.
“Too early, come back to bed babe.” That voice, he knew it. Jason Todd. Why the fuck was he naked and in bed with Jason Todd?
“The fuck?” He said softly, Jason reached out and snagged his arm, pulling him down and into the other man. They were now face to face. Jason looked different, he hadn’t made a habit out of studying his face, but he had sketched him enough to know it. There were a few more small scars, including on bisecting his left eyebrow. He had new wrinkles around his eyes. He looked happy, that was the biggest change.
“What the hell Todd?” He wanted answers and he wanted them now.
“What’s got you so pissy this morning? You never call me Todd.” Jason leaned back, studying his face with a perplexed gaze.
“I call you Todd all the time.”
“Not since you won the coin toss and I took your name. You never hesitate to call me Rayner and rub it in.” Kyle jerked back in shock. What coin toss, why would Jason take his name?
“I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t like it.” Kyle said sitting up against the headboard, Jason soon followed him, not concerned with where the blankets fell, exposing himself. Kyle could feel himself blushing as he quickly yanked the covers up to preserve both their modesty. Jason just raised a brow.
“What’s the problem?” Jason asked.
“The problem is I don’t know how I got here, the last thing I remember was walking out after we had a fight while in that one dimension with the vampires.” Jason’s eyes widened.
“That was five years ago.” He said and Kyle choked on his spit. Five years! This had to be a dream, more like a nightmare, maybe he was trapped in a dreamscape by some alien. There’s no way his subconscious would have come up with him being with Jason Todd.
“How do I know you’re not lying? This could all be some elaborate prank or something.” Kyle ranted. “I would never be with you, I can barely tolerate you, and I’m not gay. Even if I was, there is a line of dude’s I’d rather sleep with before I’d lower myself to dating you.” Jason’s face hardened, his eyes went flinty. That was an expression Kyle was very familiar with. Jason twisted and reached over to his bedside table, and shoved a silver picture frame into Kyle’s hands.
It was him and Jason, both in suits, beaming at the camera. God he’d never looked so happy in his life. But he still couldn’t believe it.
“Pictures can be faked.” He said, handing the photograph back.
“Call Donna, or Connor, or any of the Green Lanterns, they were all there when we got married.” Now that was a good idea, Hal and Guy might go along with a prank, but Connor and Donna, never. He searched for his phone, but all he found was a thin piece of technology. “That’s your phone genius.” Jason said when he asked where his phone was.
Kyle picked up the supposed phone, it was sleek, black and silver, it didn’t flip open. He ran a finger over the screen and it lit up, asking for a password.
“Zero, six, one, one, our anniversary.” Jason supplied without being asked. He put in the passcode and the phone opened. Revealing another picture of him and Jason, this time on what looked like a beach. Jason had to show him how to find the contact list. But Connor’s number was still the same. He answered on the second ring.
“Connor, you have to help me.” Kyle started.
“What have you got into now? I thought it was Jason’s job to help you now.” Connor asked, sounding exasperated. Kyle stuttered for a moment, Connor had brought up Jason unprompted.
“I don’t remember, I can’t remember anything in the past five years. Jason Todd is in bed with me, he says we’re married, but I don’t believe him.” Kyle explained.
“Oh buddy, why is it always you? You are married to Jason. You have been for nearly two years.” How could that be possible? In what reality did he fall in love with Jason Todd?
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“I was at the wedding, I helped you write your vows, I’m very sure.” Connor responded.
“Thanks, I guess, I’m going to figure this all out.” Kyle told him before hanging up.
He proceeded to have the same discussion with Donna, Hal, Guy and John, Jason informed him there were two other Earth Lanterns but he didn’t remember a Simon or Jessica.
Sometime during the call to Donna Jason had gotten up. Kyle had sputtered over his unabashed nakedness on display. He could suppose that if he was gay Jason’s body would be a major turn on. The man was built. He stumbled over his words for a second before tearing his eyes away from Jason’s well-muscled back.
After the five phone calls he had to admit defeat, he was five years in the future, and apparently happily married to the biggest asshole he’d ever met. What had happened to his life?
Jason directed him to his clothes and made breakfast. While they were eating he told Kyle he was going to trace his day yesterday and see if he ran into any trouble. This could be alien, magic or injury, Jason was determined to figure it out. Maybe more determined than Kyle.
Without Kyle able to give him a run down of his day Jason got on his laptop and started pulling up the security cameras around their place. Jason patiently followed Kyle throughout the city. Only losing him here and there. It was a much more skilled endeavor than Kyle would have given him credit for previously. He thought Jason was really only good for violence.
He got bored and freaked out watching his body doing things he couldn’t remember so he got up and started wandering the house. The living room was pretty standard, television, bookshelves stuffed with books, there were art pieces placed proudly around the room, Kyle didn’t recognize them but he knew his style well enough. There were also more photos, he didn’t look at them long, they were filled with friends and family, Jason and Kyle being happy together. Things that confused and aggravated him.
He walked down the hall, ignoring the bedroom. There were three more doors, one a bathroom, another a guest room, and the third was his studio. It was larger than the spare bedroom, and had more windows. The sunlight it got was awesome, Kyle studied the pieces he had in progress, blushing when he came to a nude study of Jason. Kyle could recognize the love and tenderness he’d put into it. God he must actually really care about Jason Todd, how the hell did this happen?
“I think I’ve got something,” Jason said from the door, his eyes caught on the portrait as well, but he said nothing.
“Cool, let's see it.” Kyle said, following Jason back to the living room and settling next to him on the couch.
Kyle watched as he ordered a coffee, and was bumped into by a young lady. She was pretty in a girl next door sort of way, but nothing special. There was no sound so he couldn’t hear their conversation. She must be apologizing for knocking his coffee everywhere, she brought him napkins then dropped them, when she stood back up from collecting them she was blood red, but Kyle didn’t know why. He noticed his own face was twisted in disgust. But he smoothed it out quickly. He took the napkins and walked away.
As he walked off he noticed the girl whispering something, she made a complicated little hand movement and her eyes glowed for a second.
“Magic then,” he said. “How do we fix this?” Jason looked at him softly.
“We call in the magic guns.” He said.
“I’m not killing anyone over some amnesia.” Kyle snapped.
“Not real guns, idiot,” Jason sighed, “Zatanna.”
“Oh, yeah that sounds good, will she answer for us, I don’t really know her that well.” Kyle admitted.
“Yeah, me neither, but she owes Bruce a few favors and I am willing to use him to call one in.”
Jason willing to work with Bruce, a miracle. He must really want Kyle’s memory back.
Jason paced as they waited for Zatanna, god he hoped this worked, he needed his husband back. This cocky, hateful version of Kyle that they had worked so hard to get past was… painful. This Kyle didn’t trust him, didn’t believe him, didn’t love him. He could barely stand this. Jason was in his Red Hood gear, he had easily hacked the coffee shops security cameras and the girl from yesterday was there. She looked up every time the bells over the doors went off like she was waiting on someone.
Soon enough Zatanna was there, they waited in the alley beside the coffee shop and Kyle walked by the shop, loitering a little while in front of the window. The girl must have seen him because she was soon rocketing out of the door and hurrying after him. As she passed his hiding place he snatched her up and dragged her in.
“Let me go or I’ll scream,” she threatened.
“It's Gotham,” Jason said, “no one will come to investigate.”
“Red Hood?” The girl said, shaking in fear. Kyle placed a hand on his shoulder, he wasn’t going to hurt the girl, though he dearly wanted to.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” He told her. “But I need you to undo the spell you did yesterday. You stole five years of his life.” He nodded his head at Kyle.
“I don’t know how,” she pleaded, “I’ve never tried it before, I just was trying to erase our conversation, honest, not all that time. I was just so embarrassed and he’s so cute.”
“He’s also very married, to me.” The girl started shaking again. Thankfully Zatanna stepped in.
“Can you tell me the spell? I can probably reverse it.” She instructed the girl. Jason didn’t like the probably in her sentence.
Kyle looked over at him while the women talked together, his eyes devoid of their normal love and affection. Jason looked away quickly.
“Pretty soon you’ll have your husband back.” Kyle said. Jason nodded, not opening his mouth, his husband was right there in front of him. “It kind of feels like dying.” Jason hadn’t thought of it that way. Hadn’t imagined what it might feel like for this version of Kyle. It was sad in a way, but it was outweighed by how much he missed his Kyle.
“I can’t say I’m sorry,” Jason said, the voice changer on the Hood making it sound more menacing than it was supposed to be.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Kyle admitted. They stood in awkward silence for a few more minutes until Zatanna came back. She did her normal, hand waving, backwards talking thing. Jason watched and waited carefully. Looking for any sign that his husband was back.
Kyle began to blink and twitch, when he swayed on the spot Jason rushed to wrap an arm around his waist to hold him upright.
“Ouch.”
“You back with me?” Jason asked, heart in his throat. Kyle looked over at him with teary eyes.
“Yeah, baby I’m back,” Jason wasted no time sweeping him up in his arms and holding him tightly. He yanked off the hood so he could kiss his husband, not even paying attention to the girl who would be seeing his face.
“I’m so sorry,” Kyle whispered to him after they broke their kiss, “I said some awful things, you know I don’t mean them.”
“I know, sweetheart, I know.” Jason soothed, brushing his hair back with a gentle hand.
“I’m really sorry,” the girl interrupted, “I promise I won’t try anything like that again.” Jason still wanted more than just a promise, one that might be broken when the next hot guy came along. He sent a look at Zatanna, which she picked up on very quickly. It clearly said ‘you deal with this or I do’. Zatanna chose to deal with it.
“I’d like to meet with you once a week, train you a little, running around with magic and having no idea what you’re doing is dangerous.” Zatanna said, in a tone that refused no for an answer.
“Oh my god, really? That would be amazing.” The girl gushed, Jason took that as his cue, and guided Kyle out of the alley, after replacing the hood.
Jason had big plans for his husband, and he couldn’t wait to get started.