Concealed

Reunited

"X of the Red?" Starfire's squeak ran up and down octaves skeptically, hanging on to every syllable of my name as if my presence was a hallucination.

The toasted sunbeams eclipsing the terrace were like distant constellations compared to the shine of my grin. I liked that she could see it. 

I clasped our hands together in a firm mock shake, fondling her palm with a coy similarity to those meeting each other for the first time.

And I guess, in a way we were.

"Call me Jason."

-

Chapter Two

"Taste!"

Red X swerved to the left, doing everything in his power to avoid the spooned ravioli Starfire prodded at his mouth.

It was nice to have the comforting respite of a routine. Their little gatherings had been few and far between, with Star swamped by world-domination wannabes and the implied motherly duties of being the only sane one in the bunch, it was hard for her to slip away unnoticed. X had scheduling conflicts too, even if they weren't exactly legal. 

But even if their eatery choice was an alleyway canopy, and sweat pooled from their required spandex costumes, they could always count on a weekly, ordinary date night. 

Even if Jason had to slip Control Freak a small bribe to make sure there wouldn't be any distractions.

"No." The greasy cheese slipped off her three-tonged fork, and creamy alfredo absorbed into the flimsy napkin on his knees. 

"I fail to understand earthlings and their tendency to be so picky." Starfire wiped the dribble of dairy from X's lips, rotating his chin up and down so he chewed. "Personally, I find the combination of spaghetti and mustard rather tasty." 

X mock gagged and spewed the unholy blend of flavors into his towelette. "Well cutie, when everyone expects you to be six feet under, your restaurant options are pretty limited." He smirked, ceremoniously shoving the takeout box to her side of the picnic blanket. "Hope you like Italian." 

Starfire slurped up the noodles until her cheeks were stuffed, a dabble of red sauce hanging off her gold button nose. "Is...is it hard?"

Red X cringed, the clench of his jaw stinging the J-shaped carve that coiled around his cheekbones. It was an unspoken rule that rough questions were to be avoided during their shared pocket of time, instead they turned to light, airy topics of conversation like funny sights from cities he'd visited or what beastboy had belched up for lunch today.

"You were there for the worst of it." Starfire intertwined her fingers with his, a gesture that indicated it was okay not to continue if he didn't want to. "But yeah, it is. Practically nobody I want to know I'm alive knows. And somehow, everyone I'd rather not see has figured it out." 

Jason rattled off a dismissive joke, hoping a warm chuckle would disguise his ground teeth and whittled nails. "Except you, of course." 

"Of course." Star's sun-kissed lips scrunched into a sour purse, like she was teetering on the tightrope of shelving her concerns and dropping the matter.  

"And you are not..." Starfire released each syllable as you would a bullet and wished she could vacuum the untethered curiosity back to her throat.

"Stealing? No." Truth.  "The suit is just a crutch to keep me hidden now."

Lie.

"Nor attempting to extinguish your abuser?" She ventured deeper into the trenches of their past, careful not to step on any landmines.