(no subject)
Tim/Jason April Fool's Day 5/5
batsmarts: This of course, left them tangled around each other in a very awkward position. With Kon's hand behind Tim's head and Tim's arms around Kon's neck. And Jason looking through Kon's eyes to meet Tim's meant that Tim's breath jumped. Because it was Kon's face, and it didn't look, for just a second, like Jason was in there. That's right. Yeah. That's the only reason why Tim sort of barely started to smile. "My balance is fine. If you'd pulled at a different angle, you'dve dislocated my shoulder."
redbutnotrobin: "And that would have been such a shame." Jason tried to figure out how to disentangle the two of them even as he spoke, seeing if he could stretch out his (Kon's) legs enough to push the heels against the wall and scoot them back a little. Kon's feet were still bare, and the sight of the toenails struck Jason with a wicked idea, causing a smirk to curl over his lips as he tried to twist around and see if he could get Tim's arm off him without dislocating it. Turning to the side, Jason asked Tim casually, "What do you think Superboy would do if I painted his toenails bright, glittery red?"
batsmarts: "I think he'd yell at you and call you a freak," Tim snorted. "Which is about what he'd do if you did just about anything else. Like, put him in a dress, or made him wear pretty red lipstick. He'd yell at you. And maybe throw something." If Kon knew that Jason had. . .well, HAD Tim, though, he'd probably end him. Rip him apart, if given half the chance. Jason should start carrying a little green K with him whenever, if he wants to keep all his limbs, and his life. Tim hissed a little as they shifted, his arm sore and scraped up from where it'd slid hard along the wall.
redbutnotrobin: "You're giving me ideas now." Jason speculated for a few seconds about if it was even possible to get dresses that would slide over Kon's shoulders, and decided that maybe a short jacket would be best. And a wig. And a padded bra. And some makeup. Lots of makeup. And fake nails. And a feather boa. And a sequinned handbag. And high-heeled shoes. ...Yeah. Superboy was going to be Superqueen before the day was over, if Jason had a say in it. The smirk on his lips flickered to an annoyed frown at the hiss from Tim, and Jason was deliberately rough as he pulled Tim a little closer to him, intending to angle Tim's arm behind his head - Tim needed to stop being such a baby. He ought to act like a real Robin.
batsmarts: Tim's gaze darted back up to Kon's eyes at the sudden shift in weight. Tim used Jason as a brace, to sort of pull himself up into a kind of sort of sitting position. Even though that sort of put him. . . across Kon's lap, since Jason had gone ahead and straightened out those legs. Tim shifted a little, uncomfortably. Having his elbow scraped hard and fast across brick hurt. He was allowed to hiss! During a fight, things were different. Out of uniform and just plain bumming around, Tim could express discomfort!
redbutnotrobin: "Weakling." The word would have been affectionate from anyone else's mouth, or contemptuous. Something clearcut. With Jason, it was different; it dripped with disdain, but there was a sour streak of satisfaction in it as well. Tim's inability to take a little pain just proved even further what Jason knew; Tim wasn't ready to be Robin. He wasn't strong enough, wasn't tough enough, wasn't even fast or flexible emough. He wasn't Jason enough, wasn't Dick enough. Tim was just Tim, and somehow, that twisted inside Jason, bitter and angry and not-good-enough (forgotten, forgotten, not-worth-remembering), even as he untwisted Kon's arm from around Tim's shoulders and eyed him with that fierce, angry intensity. He wasn't even thinking of heat vision now; it hadn't occured to him to be scared that he'd trigger it.
batsmarts: It occurred to Tim as soon as he heard that odd, sweetly-satisfied citrus sting in Jason's voice. "Easy," he said, hand against Kon's chest in half a moment, fingers flaring against that big red S. "You'll lose control of it again," Tim warned, a kind of alertness in his eyes that was very Tim. He was as fast as Dick. Faster, occording to the Gauntlet records, but no. he wasn't as flexible, and he wasn't as strong as Jason had ever been. He probably wouldn't ever be as strong as Jason, or as good at hand-to-hand as Cass. Tim was all kinds of not-good-enough. And yet, Bruce chose him, and stuck with him. Why, Tim wasn't sure. But he knew that on some level, compared to each of them, he was the better baby-bat. Bruce wouldn't tolerate less than the best.
redbutnotrobin: "No. I won't." And Jason's tone was oddly sure, considering how little control he'd had over the heat vision - and even worse, the X-Ray vision - as he met Tim's eyes dead on, Kon's goodnatured gaze dark and angry that wasn't Kon at all. Kon never had fought his way out of a grave; he'd never had to crawl with his stomach against the dirt and a mouthful of blood, trying to get back home only to find himself unavenged. Forgotten. Replaced. Jason's had a lot more reasons to hate than Kon did, and right then, even thought it was Kon's face that stared at Tim's, it was Jason's emotions that showed behind them. The mask normally hid Jason's face and behind that, the white-lensed domino mask kept Jason's eyes concealed. But this wasn't Jason's body, and even the dark blue gaze that acted as a third layer to conceal his emotions was missing. It was just Kon's face, all open and exposed, and because of that, it was very hard to make it hide what Jason felt.
batsmarts: Tim kissed him. Just leaned in, and closed his eyes, and pressed his lips against Kon's all warm and soft and way too affectionate. He was surprised at himself, even as he broke the kiss and pulled back, confusion in his own eyes for just a moment. It was his best friend, projecting all that pent-up hurt inside of Jason. And Tim honestly felt for Jason - he'd had a horrible reawakening. He'd had a horrible series of disappointments. And he was upset. Maybe it was just that the expressions were clearly painted across Kon's face, but whatever the reason, Tim had wanted, at least for a moment, to make it better. Somehow.
redbutnotrobin: "..." Tim had kissed him. Again. And this time, Jason was pretty sure that there wasn't any sex honey involved. Which made it all the weirder, really. If it could get any weirder than getting kissed in the body of his replacement's best friend, by his replacement. It probably could, but Jason couldn't exactly think how right now; it was too much like every brain cell he had had temporarily decided to go on vacation at the exact same time, as if the light touch of Tim's lips to his had been the signal for them to all check out to some seaside resort. With beach bunnies. And now Jason was thinking of Tim as a beach bunny, and that wasn't exactly helpful, and oh fuck- "X-Ray vision is on again." Jason commented, and darted a pointed look down at Tim's crotch before looking him in the eye again and giving him a smug smirk. Hah. Take that. If Tim had meant to get rid of that dreadfully bitter anger, it had worked. Somewhat. It wasn't gone but for the moment, it was submerged.
batsmarts: Tim licked his lips. He wasn't blushing, or trying to cover himself up. He was thinking. Analyzing. "That's what you get for looking so sad," he said without even realizing that he was talking. He swallowed. And realized that Conner was going to kill him he found out he'd kissed Jason. That he was kissing Jason. Because, sure enough. Tim was just barely leaning in and he caught himself trying to do it again. What the hell was going on? There was definately no honey involved. Tim's breath hitched, and he stopped, though. JUST in time. Because one kiss he might could explain away. Two. . two would've been something else entirely.
redbutnotrobin: It wasn't, though - it wasn't just in time. Because Tim had been leaning in, and Jason had been watching him, and even though Jason was trying to be an ass, he was also analyzing Tim. And he recognized the way that Tim had shifted forwards slightly, knew what the slight catch in Tim's breath had signified, and most of all, could expect the next step. Except he wasn't going to let himself be caught offguard twice, not by Tim (fake Robin, imposter, replacement), so even as Tim tried to stop himself, Jason leaned forwards, one of Kon's strong hands grabbing at Tim's arm and jerking the boy into a kiss. It wasn't like the desperate, honey-forced kisses from before, and it wasn't the light, nearly tentative touch of Tim's lips against Kon's that Jason had just experienced. This was awkward, nearly clumsy as Jason tried to adjust to both their respective positioning and the fact that this really wasn't his body. At all. And while that thought might have been enough to make him stop normally because he had a reputation to keep up as someone that could kiss, and this probably wasn't anywhere near as good as usual, but Tim had said that Jason looked 'sad'. And he didn't. Because Jason didn't do sad. Self-pity was for losers. So. Kon's fingers curled over Tim's bicep, Kon's lips pressed against Tim's mouth, and Jason shut his eyes and focused on trying to figure out how to kiss with Superboy's body, messy and hot and altogether weird (the only thing familar was that it was Tim that he was kissing and in a way, that freaked Jason out more than anything else).
batsmarts: The little jostle did more than Jason meant it to. Tim yelped into the kiss, a frightened sound, ripped right out of the center of him. His arm had crinkled under Kon's grip, and Tim found himself with the breath knocked out of him at the sudden stubborn pain in his arm. Broken. It had to be. "F-fuck," he blurted. He'd hissed with pain at a scrape from a brick wall, and he wasn't even wincing at his arm. Just starting down at it and struggling for breath. What was worse, Jason had been kissing him back at the time. And that had made Tim's heart do a weird flip in his chest and made his stomach go all to butterflies.
redbutnotrobin: On one hand, Tim's arm was broken. On the other hand, his too-blue eyes were wide, his pupils were dilated, and he had made a beautifully started little sound, terrified and shocked together. ...Jason decided to focus on the second part, and kissed Tim again, hard and viciously demanding - he told himself it was because Tim looked too pretty not to kiss. It wasn't a distraction from the pain in Tim's arm; not in the least. It was just the logical conclusion of Tim looking so pretty when he was hurt. Tim had cried last time, tears that made his eyelashes stick together. Could Jason make him cry again? Kon's hand squeezed tighter on the broken arm, right over the break, and Jason kissed Tim as if he wanted to swallow every sound that his replacement could make.
batsmarts: Tim whimpered into the kiss, and that quickly escalated with the ferocity of Jason's grip on his arm. It was a harsh whine against Jason's lips and tongue until Tim started biting, hard enough to make his teeth ache, trying to break the kiss. If all Jason had wanted was to make Tim cry, he had done a good job of that. His grip was so tight that Tim couldn't feel his fingertips, and sure enough, tears were seeping out the corners of his tightly-shut eyes. Tim had to tear himself away from the kiss, choking out a sob as he snarled, "F-for fuck's sake, not so hard!"
redbutnotrobin:Jason let go of Tim's arm, the sound of Tim's whine still buzzing inside his mouth, making his teeth tingle oddly as Jason swallowed, then licked over Kon's lips. Tim- Tim had said not so hard. Not to stop, but to not kiss him so hard. Or to not hold him so hard, Jason wasn't sure which but suspected it was the latter. Either way, it still involved Tim not actually telling Jason to stop, even though he was crying, and pretty, and had a broken arm that Jason just wanted to grab and twist, to wring out more of those choked sobs that sounded the way that Tim's tears looked, all sparkly and clean and wet like the kiss they're just shared. Jason licked over Kon's lips again, and stared at Tim thoughtfully, almost as if he had X-Ray vision on again; he didn't, but he didn't want it. He liked the way that Tim looked in full color, blue eyes and dark hair and tear trails slightly darker against his skin. With a laugh to his voice, Jason pointed out what he'd just thought, "You didn't tell me to stop, just to be gentler." Pause, and then the mocking title, "Princess."
batsmarts: Tim hissed through his teeth, trying to bite back his tears unsuccessfully. Blinking them away wasn't working, either. Jason must've made the break worse. Tim felt like his whole arm was gone, and that terrified him. Tim knew that Kon was strong enough to tear it right off with little effort. He swallowed thickly, reaching up to wipe his tears away with one hand as he said, "I meant, j-just let i>go," Tim breathed. He never said anything about not kissing.
redbutnotrobin: "I already did, Princess." Jason held both of Kon's arms up in the air, the gesture one of mock-surrender, then let a mocking smirk play over his lips, too cruel to suit Kon's face. "Or did you mean that you wanted me to keep kissing you?" He was being mean, and he knew it. Tim was crying. Jason ought to just kiss it better, lick the tears away and apologize, take him to a hospital and get that arm mended. Jason ought to, but he wasn't Robin anymore. He was through doing what he should; these days, he did what he wanted. And what he wanted right now was to make Tim beg, to have him ask Jason (in his best friend's body and how sick was that?) to kiss him again.
batsmarts: Tim was trying to think through the pain. He was shaking, by time Jason tossed a smirk at him (with Kon's lips). He could feel himself getting cold and strangely tingly in his fingertips, and Jason was playing games with him. Calling him names and talking with false sweetness in CONNER'S voice. Tim slumped forward against his best friend's chest, still crying, and he growled, "Damn it,Jason.... just. Just don't... sit there." He didn't want Jason to just watch him, with Kon's eyes. It made him feel like he was on display, and that made him nervous. Nervous was not a good thing to be, when your pulse was shot through the roof and one arm was curled limp and helplessly across your lap. It didn't help that Tim's lips, puffy and aching, were still tingly and slightly sweet from the taste of the kiss.
redbutnotrobin: If Jason had been Kon, he would have been worried about the broken arm. If he'd been Dick, he'd be in an agony of guilt. Bruce - Jason didn't even want to think about Bruce, let alone what Bruce would do in this position (Bruce had held Tim after Tim's father died, but Jason doubted that Bruce had kissed him before it - for all that he called Tim the Batwhore, Jason didn't want to believe that of Bruce, of Tim). But he wasn't any of them. He was Jason. Red Hood. Little Red Riding Hood. Robin Hood. Somewhere inbetween the two, the fairy tale victim (innocent child in pixie boots) that had grown up to be a wolf-slayer (but wolves were an endangered species and you had to treat them with care and not even the woodchopper-man understood the girl he'd rescued once upon a time and then failed). Defend the poor, defend the rich, kill those who cross you and those who try to protect them. Poverty wasn't his enemy; crime was. And even as Jason bent his head forwards to take another kiss from Tim, he wondered what Tim would do if their roles were reversed.
batsmarts: Tim let out a small, twisting sob against Jason's lips, trembling as he returned the kiss and kept his eyes tightly closed. Tim was crumpled up, against Kon's chest, chin tipped up to accept the kiss, and he felt completely helpless and completely numb. He felt light-headed, but wasn't sure if that was because of the kiss or the pain. For all he knew, it was both. "T-take care of me?" he whimpered, his voice wavering as he began to try and blink away the darkness looming on the edge of his vision. "I'm gonna.... " black out was the end of that sentence. Tim didn't faint, just sobbed again, his whole body feeling heavy from pain and shock. Tim worried that Jason had torn a nerve or a tendon or even a blood vessel. He felt totally helpless.
redbutnotrobin: Take CARE of Tim?! Jason was not the type to take care of people. Give them a field dressing after stabbing them in the shoulder, sure. Drag them to a vetinarian after beating the crap out of them with a crowbar, fine. Make sure someone would find the body after challenging them to see who was the better Robin? Doable. But taking care of someone was totally different. Jason wasn't a bloody NURSE. "Gonna what? Come? It's a little soon for that." Tim's unfinished sentence made Jason frown slightly though, X-Ray vision slotting in automatically so that he could look at the other's arm. ...Fuck. He really had crushed it. Jason nearly winced out of sympathy, then started thinking of how to fix that. Ryuuji knew healing magic as he'd demonstrated in France, but since he didn't think Ryuuji was in his own body, that was out of the question. Who else in the school would possibly help Tim and Kon? Nightwing, except Nightwing had been busy sucking face with Ryuuji. Terry? Who didn't know magic. But the school had an infirmary, right? He could just take Tim there...
batsmarts: Tim only made a small keening sound, the fingers of his good hand finding their way to the back of Kon's neck, where he squeezed with what he THOUGHT was urgency. "Cold," he said, "and dizzy." He halfway tipped his chin up though, lips parted, and pressed a little, trembling kiss to Jason's lips. He'd only asked for the older boy to take care of him because Tim wasn't sure that he'd be okay on his own. In fact, he was pretty sure if Jason just left him right then, he would end up very, very not okay.
redbutnotrobin: They weren't on school grounds. Tim could die. Tim could die, because of Jason. Tim could die because of Jason, and Jason's carelessness with Kon's superstrength, and Jason's sadistic streak and Jason's desire to make Tim cry. There was a difference between wanting someone to cry, though, and wanting them to die. Jason, like he kept telling Tim, didn't want Tim dead. Not in the least. If he had, he would have just killed Tim back at the Tower, when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to eliminate the unconscious boy. ...Killing Tim was not in the plan. Jason had to fix this. Scooping Tim more closely to his chest, Jason muttered gruffly, "Stop kissing me, you idiot. I'm taking you back to the infirmary to get fixed." He paused for a second to make sure that Tim was secured, jostling the broken arm a little further, and then leapt off the building. Ten minutes of straight, urgent flight had him at the infirmary, where he deposited Tim with something close to gentleness on a bed, then called out loudly, "Nurse! Is there a doctor here?"
batsmarts: Tim felt a little better once they were back on school grounds, and he almost smiled up at Jason when the older boy set him down so carefully on one of the beds. There was no answer from inside the infirmary, but here at least Tim couldn't die. And eventually, the nurse HAD to come back. "You big pussycat," Tim accused half-heartedly. Conner was the big kitten. Not Jason. But that didn't stop Tim from kind of sort of half-smiling in spite of the quickly-drying tears on his cheeks.
redbutnotrobin: "No. I just didn't want you to die; I already told you that I had no intention of killing you." Jason's tone was surprisingly neutral as he fluffed a pillow under Tim's head, grabbing a corner of the blanket and using it to wipe away the half-dried tears on Tim's cheeks. Almost absently, he mentioned, "People need to listen to me more." A nurse bustled up at that point, and asked what was wrong - by way of response, Jason wordlessly pointed at Tim, prone on the bed with a near-mangled arm. While she gasped with horror and bustled forwards, Jason slipped away, exiting through a window, fully intent on heading back to London. He couldn't do any good for Tim, and there was no point in staying around if all that would happen is that Tim would try to kiss him again (and Jason still didn't understand why Tim was kissing him at all). He might as well put Superboy's body to better use; London's gutters would be dyed red with blood before Jason was done.
batsmarts: The nurse, with a quick charm, knocked Tim out. She had to mend his bones and re-grow some of the muscle, a task that would take longer than a simple fracture would to fix. He woke up nearly five hours later, with a jolt. Jason must have left. Jason probably getting blood on Conner's hands, Tim was thinking, and that made him nervous and a little bit sick to his stomach. "J-jason?" he blurted out, throat dry as parchment, when he first woke up in the infirmary.
redbutnotrobin: "Here." Jason casually waved at Tim with one hand, fingernails painted the same bright, glittery red that coated his lips. His eyelids were dusted with a golden shimmer powder, and Kon's short hair had been streaked with red and a metallic gold. A short, pleated skirt of gold lame barely covered the tops of Kon's musclar thighs, and the black t-shirt with red ruffles had come from the plus-size department, Jason unable to find anything else that would fit Kon. Black, ripped fishnets were worn under the shirt, and Jason had managed to squeeze Kon's feet into open-toed red sparkly shoes that Dorothy would have loved, gold-painted toenails peeking out from under them. With a smirk, unable to hide his glee at having thoroughly defiled Kon's body, Jason asked Tim mock-innocently, "What do you think?"
batsmarts: Tim . . . had no idea what to say to that. He blinked. Twice. And then closed his eyes, and counted to five, and opened them again. And Jason was still in Kon's body, and Kon's body was still dressed up for all the world like the world's worst drag queen. ". . . Conner makes an ugly girl," Tim finally said with a groan, and shook his head at Jason. "You? You're sick." With that, he propped himself up and looked down at his newly-mended arm. It was still a little sore, but it was intact and worked well, and the bruises were gone. He rubbed it, frowning, before he moved to get out of bed. He felt.. exhausted, even though he'd been sleeping, and really, just looking at his best friend dressed up like that was NOT doing good things for his brain. "He's gonna kill you," Tim warned, looking around until he found his shoes.
redbutnotrobin: "When I tell him his body missed out on getting a fuck from you because I killed people while in his body? Yeah, the big bad cloneboy would probably get pissy over that." Jason jeered, even as he kicked Tim's shoes in Tim's general direction. He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, and heard it creak warningly, making Jason move Kon's body out of it for fear that it would break. Hands resting on both sides of his hips, he stood up and got out of the way to let Tim leave the room, adding as he shifted, "And I'm not sick. Just getting creative with uses for this body. I figure that he'll have to switch back eventually, and if not, at least I can take some pictures of him dressed like this. Or walk in front of him and watch his brain explode."
batsmarts: Tim stiffened when Jason said that he'd killed someone in Kon's body. The whoring comments he'd almost expected, but he'd HOPED that Jason hadn't actually hurt anyone with his best friend's hands. "You didn't," he said warily, even though.. he knew in his gut that Jason was telling the truth. He shoved his feet into his shoes and shot Jason-in-Kon one hell of a glare. It was ... familiar, that glare. That Bruce-is-disappointed-in-you frown, with some sort of hurt and let-down in his blue eyes. Tim was way too good at making faced like Bruce. It probably wasn't the best way to get Jason to repent.
redbutnotrobin: "...Fuck you. They deserved it." The words were spat out angrily, the glare rubbing rawly against Jason. It was Kon's body, and the fact that Kon felt the instinctive need to cringe under the Batglare didn't help with Jason's viciously angry reaction to having it turned on him. He felt the slow boil behind his eyeballs that spoke of heat vision, and instantly shut them tightly. Infimary. Sick people. Medical supplies. Jason was a bastard, but that didn't mean he'd go breaking things in a hospital just because Tim had managed to pull off a Bruce-imitation. Not when other, presumably innocent, people could need it in the future or near future. Kon's hands balled into fists, and Jason kept Kon's gold-slicked eyelids tightly shut.
batsmarts: Tim sighed. He couldn't help that look. He just tended to look that way when he was frustrated, or feeling let down. Not that he'd ever expected Jason, really, to keep himself at bay. Tim had kind of hoped though. Which was a very, very dumb thing to do, yes. "Murderers that the law won't punish deserve to die. Rapists that won't ever be caught deserve to die. Muggers and general street-scum deserve to have the crap kicked out of them in an alley, and be dropped off for the police to deal with." Tim's shoulders slumped. "Whatever," he said, glancing back at Jason and really, really hoping that poor Kon didn't actually ever find out about that outfit.
redbutnotrobin: Eyes still closed, not noticing the way that Tim's shoulders had slouched, Jason still picked up on the change in Tim's tone. Resigned, not scolding, and Jason risked letting Kon's hand uncurl out of the tight fists that he'd kept them in. He didn't open his eyes though, still remembering how the heat vision had blazed right through the wall, across the room, and then through the wall again. Even if Jason knew where Tim was, after all, that didn't mean that there couldn't be someone in a different room that would get hit by the blast, and despite the no-kill rule supposedly keeping everyone animated, no matter what, Jason still didn't want to risk accidentally killing someone. Hm. Wait. That reminded him of the popcorn, the child molestor and the genocidal terrorist case he had been working on. Maybe Kon's heat vision would be able to break through those seemingly impermeable 'glass' cases? At least he might as well put it to good use. Or more good use, since Kon's superstrength had come in handy already during the fights they'd had. Focusing on that thought, Jason snapped back, "Rapists that were caught by me do die. Attempted rapists as well. Why let them live just so that they can be acquitted and ruin someone els's life?"
batsmarts: "The point is," Tim said, his voice softer, now, "that you give the law a chance to bring justice on its own. And if the law can't, then you step in. You observe, you keep track, and you prevent. But, when things can be done legally, they should be. Crossing that boundary yourself when its unnecessary... it just. It makes it harder to justify what you're doing. You give the law a chance, and when it fails you , then you step forward." Tim shook his head. "I know I'm not going to change your mind about this." Jason just wasn't listening. Or maybe he was listening, and rejecting. "I.. I'm going to my room."
redbutnotrobin: Jason opened his eyes as Tim spoke, the prickly, burning feeling having slowly seeped away, and watched the other boy intently. For a second, he thought of himself as Robin, and of Felipe Garzonas, and of a girl that he'd seen swinging from her ceiling, in her own bedroom. The law had failed her, and it had turned lethal. She had died because it had failed her. Why wait for the law to fail if it meant that innocents would die before the guilty received their punishment? And that was assuming that guilty people were punished properly, which Jason didn't think was the case. That viewpoint just didn't make sense to Jason. If someone was guilty, you killed them. Not just because they were guilty, but because it would protect innocent people from dying. Revenge, protection, and prevention. Three good reasons. But Tim wouldn't understand that, would he? A mocking smirk curved Kon's lips and Jason wished the other sardonically, "Sleep well, Princess. Dream your little fairytales as much as you like; I'll stick with reality."
batsmarts: "It isn't some bedtime story, Jason," Tim said sharply, lashing out. "It's practical, and it saves unnecessary bloodshed on YOUR hands. It saves YOU from looking just as guilty as the criminals you're dispatching. It's not about people living happily ever after. It's about closure and why the law is important in the first place. If you're going to go around killing everyone you think is guilty of anything, you're going to tear apart the legal system as it stands. No, it isn't perfect. No, it doesn't always work. Yes, sometimes guilty men and woman go free, but that doesn't make it completely invalid." Tim oepned his mouth to say something else, and then closed it again, just grinding his teeth together and curling his hands into tight little fists, before he turned on his heel and headed briskly down the hall.
batsmarts: This of course, left them tangled around each other in a very awkward position. With Kon's hand behind Tim's head and Tim's arms around Kon's neck. And Jason looking through Kon's eyes to meet Tim's meant that Tim's breath jumped. Because it was Kon's face, and it didn't look, for just a second, like Jason was in there. That's right. Yeah. That's the only reason why Tim sort of barely started to smile. "My balance is fine. If you'd pulled at a different angle, you'dve dislocated my shoulder."
redbutnotrobin: "And that would have been such a shame." Jason tried to figure out how to disentangle the two of them even as he spoke, seeing if he could stretch out his (Kon's) legs enough to push the heels against the wall and scoot them back a little. Kon's feet were still bare, and the sight of the toenails struck Jason with a wicked idea, causing a smirk to curl over his lips as he tried to twist around and see if he could get Tim's arm off him without dislocating it. Turning to the side, Jason asked Tim casually, "What do you think Superboy would do if I painted his toenails bright, glittery red?"
batsmarts: "I think he'd yell at you and call you a freak," Tim snorted. "Which is about what he'd do if you did just about anything else. Like, put him in a dress, or made him wear pretty red lipstick. He'd yell at you. And maybe throw something." If Kon knew that Jason had. . .well, HAD Tim, though, he'd probably end him. Rip him apart, if given half the chance. Jason should start carrying a little green K with him whenever, if he wants to keep all his limbs, and his life. Tim hissed a little as they shifted, his arm sore and scraped up from where it'd slid hard along the wall.
redbutnotrobin: "You're giving me ideas now." Jason speculated for a few seconds about if it was even possible to get dresses that would slide over Kon's shoulders, and decided that maybe a short jacket would be best. And a wig. And a padded bra. And some makeup. Lots of makeup. And fake nails. And a feather boa. And a sequinned handbag. And high-heeled shoes. ...Yeah. Superboy was going to be Superqueen before the day was over, if Jason had a say in it. The smirk on his lips flickered to an annoyed frown at the hiss from Tim, and Jason was deliberately rough as he pulled Tim a little closer to him, intending to angle Tim's arm behind his head - Tim needed to stop being such a baby. He ought to act like a real Robin.
batsmarts: Tim's gaze darted back up to Kon's eyes at the sudden shift in weight. Tim used Jason as a brace, to sort of pull himself up into a kind of sort of sitting position. Even though that sort of put him. . . across Kon's lap, since Jason had gone ahead and straightened out those legs. Tim shifted a little, uncomfortably. Having his elbow scraped hard and fast across brick hurt. He was allowed to hiss! During a fight, things were different. Out of uniform and just plain bumming around, Tim could express discomfort!
redbutnotrobin: "Weakling." The word would have been affectionate from anyone else's mouth, or contemptuous. Something clearcut. With Jason, it was different; it dripped with disdain, but there was a sour streak of satisfaction in it as well. Tim's inability to take a little pain just proved even further what Jason knew; Tim wasn't ready to be Robin. He wasn't strong enough, wasn't tough enough, wasn't even fast or flexible emough. He wasn't Jason enough, wasn't Dick enough. Tim was just Tim, and somehow, that twisted inside Jason, bitter and angry and not-good-enough (forgotten, forgotten, not-worth-remembering), even as he untwisted Kon's arm from around Tim's shoulders and eyed him with that fierce, angry intensity. He wasn't even thinking of heat vision now; it hadn't occured to him to be scared that he'd trigger it.
batsmarts: It occurred to Tim as soon as he heard that odd, sweetly-satisfied citrus sting in Jason's voice. "Easy," he said, hand against Kon's chest in half a moment, fingers flaring against that big red S. "You'll lose control of it again," Tim warned, a kind of alertness in his eyes that was very Tim. He was as fast as Dick. Faster, occording to the Gauntlet records, but no. he wasn't as flexible, and he wasn't as strong as Jason had ever been. He probably wouldn't ever be as strong as Jason, or as good at hand-to-hand as Cass. Tim was all kinds of not-good-enough. And yet, Bruce chose him, and stuck with him. Why, Tim wasn't sure. But he knew that on some level, compared to each of them, he was the better baby-bat. Bruce wouldn't tolerate less than the best.
redbutnotrobin: "No. I won't." And Jason's tone was oddly sure, considering how little control he'd had over the heat vision - and even worse, the X-Ray vision - as he met Tim's eyes dead on, Kon's goodnatured gaze dark and angry that wasn't Kon at all. Kon never had fought his way out of a grave; he'd never had to crawl with his stomach against the dirt and a mouthful of blood, trying to get back home only to find himself unavenged. Forgotten. Replaced. Jason's had a lot more reasons to hate than Kon did, and right then, even thought it was Kon's face that stared at Tim's, it was Jason's emotions that showed behind them. The mask normally hid Jason's face and behind that, the white-lensed domino mask kept Jason's eyes concealed. But this wasn't Jason's body, and even the dark blue gaze that acted as a third layer to conceal his emotions was missing. It was just Kon's face, all open and exposed, and because of that, it was very hard to make it hide what Jason felt.
batsmarts: Tim kissed him. Just leaned in, and closed his eyes, and pressed his lips against Kon's all warm and soft and way too affectionate. He was surprised at himself, even as he broke the kiss and pulled back, confusion in his own eyes for just a moment. It was his best friend, projecting all that pent-up hurt inside of Jason. And Tim honestly felt for Jason - he'd had a horrible reawakening. He'd had a horrible series of disappointments. And he was upset. Maybe it was just that the expressions were clearly painted across Kon's face, but whatever the reason, Tim had wanted, at least for a moment, to make it better. Somehow.
redbutnotrobin: "..." Tim had kissed him. Again. And this time, Jason was pretty sure that there wasn't any sex honey involved. Which made it all the weirder, really. If it could get any weirder than getting kissed in the body of his replacement's best friend, by his replacement. It probably could, but Jason couldn't exactly think how right now; it was too much like every brain cell he had had temporarily decided to go on vacation at the exact same time, as if the light touch of Tim's lips to his had been the signal for them to all check out to some seaside resort. With beach bunnies. And now Jason was thinking of Tim as a beach bunny, and that wasn't exactly helpful, and oh fuck- "X-Ray vision is on again." Jason commented, and darted a pointed look down at Tim's crotch before looking him in the eye again and giving him a smug smirk. Hah. Take that. If Tim had meant to get rid of that dreadfully bitter anger, it had worked. Somewhat. It wasn't gone but for the moment, it was submerged.
batsmarts: Tim licked his lips. He wasn't blushing, or trying to cover himself up. He was thinking. Analyzing. "That's what you get for looking so sad," he said without even realizing that he was talking. He swallowed. And realized that Conner was going to kill him he found out he'd kissed Jason. That he was kissing Jason. Because, sure enough. Tim was just barely leaning in and he caught himself trying to do it again. What the hell was going on? There was definately no honey involved. Tim's breath hitched, and he stopped, though. JUST in time. Because one kiss he might could explain away. Two. . two would've been something else entirely.
redbutnotrobin: It wasn't, though - it wasn't just in time. Because Tim had been leaning in, and Jason had been watching him, and even though Jason was trying to be an ass, he was also analyzing Tim. And he recognized the way that Tim had shifted forwards slightly, knew what the slight catch in Tim's breath had signified, and most of all, could expect the next step. Except he wasn't going to let himself be caught offguard twice, not by Tim (fake Robin, imposter, replacement), so even as Tim tried to stop himself, Jason leaned forwards, one of Kon's strong hands grabbing at Tim's arm and jerking the boy into a kiss. It wasn't like the desperate, honey-forced kisses from before, and it wasn't the light, nearly tentative touch of Tim's lips against Kon's that Jason had just experienced. This was awkward, nearly clumsy as Jason tried to adjust to both their respective positioning and the fact that this really wasn't his body. At all. And while that thought might have been enough to make him stop normally because he had a reputation to keep up as someone that could kiss, and this probably wasn't anywhere near as good as usual, but Tim had said that Jason looked 'sad'. And he didn't. Because Jason didn't do sad. Self-pity was for losers. So. Kon's fingers curled over Tim's bicep, Kon's lips pressed against Tim's mouth, and Jason shut his eyes and focused on trying to figure out how to kiss with Superboy's body, messy and hot and altogether weird (the only thing familar was that it was Tim that he was kissing and in a way, that freaked Jason out more than anything else).
batsmarts: The little jostle did more than Jason meant it to. Tim yelped into the kiss, a frightened sound, ripped right out of the center of him. His arm had crinkled under Kon's grip, and Tim found himself with the breath knocked out of him at the sudden stubborn pain in his arm. Broken. It had to be. "F-fuck," he blurted. He'd hissed with pain at a scrape from a brick wall, and he wasn't even wincing at his arm. Just starting down at it and struggling for breath. What was worse, Jason had been kissing him back at the time. And that had made Tim's heart do a weird flip in his chest and made his stomach go all to butterflies.
redbutnotrobin: On one hand, Tim's arm was broken. On the other hand, his too-blue eyes were wide, his pupils were dilated, and he had made a beautifully started little sound, terrified and shocked together. ...Jason decided to focus on the second part, and kissed Tim again, hard and viciously demanding - he told himself it was because Tim looked too pretty not to kiss. It wasn't a distraction from the pain in Tim's arm; not in the least. It was just the logical conclusion of Tim looking so pretty when he was hurt. Tim had cried last time, tears that made his eyelashes stick together. Could Jason make him cry again? Kon's hand squeezed tighter on the broken arm, right over the break, and Jason kissed Tim as if he wanted to swallow every sound that his replacement could make.
batsmarts: Tim whimpered into the kiss, and that quickly escalated with the ferocity of Jason's grip on his arm. It was a harsh whine against Jason's lips and tongue until Tim started biting, hard enough to make his teeth ache, trying to break the kiss. If all Jason had wanted was to make Tim cry, he had done a good job of that. His grip was so tight that Tim couldn't feel his fingertips, and sure enough, tears were seeping out the corners of his tightly-shut eyes. Tim had to tear himself away from the kiss, choking out a sob as he snarled, "F-for fuck's sake, not so hard!"
redbutnotrobin:Jason let go of Tim's arm, the sound of Tim's whine still buzzing inside his mouth, making his teeth tingle oddly as Jason swallowed, then licked over Kon's lips. Tim- Tim had said not so hard. Not to stop, but to not kiss him so hard. Or to not hold him so hard, Jason wasn't sure which but suspected it was the latter. Either way, it still involved Tim not actually telling Jason to stop, even though he was crying, and pretty, and had a broken arm that Jason just wanted to grab and twist, to wring out more of those choked sobs that sounded the way that Tim's tears looked, all sparkly and clean and wet like the kiss they're just shared. Jason licked over Kon's lips again, and stared at Tim thoughtfully, almost as if he had X-Ray vision on again; he didn't, but he didn't want it. He liked the way that Tim looked in full color, blue eyes and dark hair and tear trails slightly darker against his skin. With a laugh to his voice, Jason pointed out what he'd just thought, "You didn't tell me to stop, just to be gentler." Pause, and then the mocking title, "Princess."
batsmarts: Tim hissed through his teeth, trying to bite back his tears unsuccessfully. Blinking them away wasn't working, either. Jason must've made the break worse. Tim felt like his whole arm was gone, and that terrified him. Tim knew that Kon was strong enough to tear it right off with little effort. He swallowed thickly, reaching up to wipe his tears away with one hand as he said, "I meant, j-just let i>go," Tim breathed. He never said anything about not kissing.
redbutnotrobin: "I already did, Princess." Jason held both of Kon's arms up in the air, the gesture one of mock-surrender, then let a mocking smirk play over his lips, too cruel to suit Kon's face. "Or did you mean that you wanted me to keep kissing you?" He was being mean, and he knew it. Tim was crying. Jason ought to just kiss it better, lick the tears away and apologize, take him to a hospital and get that arm mended. Jason ought to, but he wasn't Robin anymore. He was through doing what he should; these days, he did what he wanted. And what he wanted right now was to make Tim beg, to have him ask Jason (in his best friend's body and how sick was that?) to kiss him again.
batsmarts: Tim was trying to think through the pain. He was shaking, by time Jason tossed a smirk at him (with Kon's lips). He could feel himself getting cold and strangely tingly in his fingertips, and Jason was playing games with him. Calling him names and talking with false sweetness in CONNER'S voice. Tim slumped forward against his best friend's chest, still crying, and he growled, "Damn it,Jason.... just. Just don't... sit there." He didn't want Jason to just watch him, with Kon's eyes. It made him feel like he was on display, and that made him nervous. Nervous was not a good thing to be, when your pulse was shot through the roof and one arm was curled limp and helplessly across your lap. It didn't help that Tim's lips, puffy and aching, were still tingly and slightly sweet from the taste of the kiss.
redbutnotrobin: If Jason had been Kon, he would have been worried about the broken arm. If he'd been Dick, he'd be in an agony of guilt. Bruce - Jason didn't even want to think about Bruce, let alone what Bruce would do in this position (Bruce had held Tim after Tim's father died, but Jason doubted that Bruce had kissed him before it - for all that he called Tim the Batwhore, Jason didn't want to believe that of Bruce, of Tim). But he wasn't any of them. He was Jason. Red Hood. Little Red Riding Hood. Robin Hood. Somewhere inbetween the two, the fairy tale victim (innocent child in pixie boots) that had grown up to be a wolf-slayer (but wolves were an endangered species and you had to treat them with care and not even the woodchopper-man understood the girl he'd rescued once upon a time and then failed). Defend the poor, defend the rich, kill those who cross you and those who try to protect them. Poverty wasn't his enemy; crime was. And even as Jason bent his head forwards to take another kiss from Tim, he wondered what Tim would do if their roles were reversed.
batsmarts: Tim let out a small, twisting sob against Jason's lips, trembling as he returned the kiss and kept his eyes tightly closed. Tim was crumpled up, against Kon's chest, chin tipped up to accept the kiss, and he felt completely helpless and completely numb. He felt light-headed, but wasn't sure if that was because of the kiss or the pain. For all he knew, it was both. "T-take care of me?" he whimpered, his voice wavering as he began to try and blink away the darkness looming on the edge of his vision. "I'm gonna.... " black out was the end of that sentence. Tim didn't faint, just sobbed again, his whole body feeling heavy from pain and shock. Tim worried that Jason had torn a nerve or a tendon or even a blood vessel. He felt totally helpless.
redbutnotrobin: Take CARE of Tim?! Jason was not the type to take care of people. Give them a field dressing after stabbing them in the shoulder, sure. Drag them to a vetinarian after beating the crap out of them with a crowbar, fine. Make sure someone would find the body after challenging them to see who was the better Robin? Doable. But taking care of someone was totally different. Jason wasn't a bloody NURSE. "Gonna what? Come? It's a little soon for that." Tim's unfinished sentence made Jason frown slightly though, X-Ray vision slotting in automatically so that he could look at the other's arm. ...Fuck. He really had crushed it. Jason nearly winced out of sympathy, then started thinking of how to fix that. Ryuuji knew healing magic as he'd demonstrated in France, but since he didn't think Ryuuji was in his own body, that was out of the question. Who else in the school would possibly help Tim and Kon? Nightwing, except Nightwing had been busy sucking face with Ryuuji. Terry? Who didn't know magic. But the school had an infirmary, right? He could just take Tim there...
batsmarts: Tim only made a small keening sound, the fingers of his good hand finding their way to the back of Kon's neck, where he squeezed with what he THOUGHT was urgency. "Cold," he said, "and dizzy." He halfway tipped his chin up though, lips parted, and pressed a little, trembling kiss to Jason's lips. He'd only asked for the older boy to take care of him because Tim wasn't sure that he'd be okay on his own. In fact, he was pretty sure if Jason just left him right then, he would end up very, very not okay.
redbutnotrobin: They weren't on school grounds. Tim could die. Tim could die, because of Jason. Tim could die because of Jason, and Jason's carelessness with Kon's superstrength, and Jason's sadistic streak and Jason's desire to make Tim cry. There was a difference between wanting someone to cry, though, and wanting them to die. Jason, like he kept telling Tim, didn't want Tim dead. Not in the least. If he had, he would have just killed Tim back at the Tower, when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to eliminate the unconscious boy. ...Killing Tim was not in the plan. Jason had to fix this. Scooping Tim more closely to his chest, Jason muttered gruffly, "Stop kissing me, you idiot. I'm taking you back to the infirmary to get fixed." He paused for a second to make sure that Tim was secured, jostling the broken arm a little further, and then leapt off the building. Ten minutes of straight, urgent flight had him at the infirmary, where he deposited Tim with something close to gentleness on a bed, then called out loudly, "Nurse! Is there a doctor here?"
batsmarts: Tim felt a little better once they were back on school grounds, and he almost smiled up at Jason when the older boy set him down so carefully on one of the beds. There was no answer from inside the infirmary, but here at least Tim couldn't die. And eventually, the nurse HAD to come back. "You big pussycat," Tim accused half-heartedly. Conner was the big kitten. Not Jason. But that didn't stop Tim from kind of sort of half-smiling in spite of the quickly-drying tears on his cheeks.
redbutnotrobin: "No. I just didn't want you to die; I already told you that I had no intention of killing you." Jason's tone was surprisingly neutral as he fluffed a pillow under Tim's head, grabbing a corner of the blanket and using it to wipe away the half-dried tears on Tim's cheeks. Almost absently, he mentioned, "People need to listen to me more." A nurse bustled up at that point, and asked what was wrong - by way of response, Jason wordlessly pointed at Tim, prone on the bed with a near-mangled arm. While she gasped with horror and bustled forwards, Jason slipped away, exiting through a window, fully intent on heading back to London. He couldn't do any good for Tim, and there was no point in staying around if all that would happen is that Tim would try to kiss him again (and Jason still didn't understand why Tim was kissing him at all). He might as well put Superboy's body to better use; London's gutters would be dyed red with blood before Jason was done.
batsmarts: The nurse, with a quick charm, knocked Tim out. She had to mend his bones and re-grow some of the muscle, a task that would take longer than a simple fracture would to fix. He woke up nearly five hours later, with a jolt. Jason must have left. Jason probably getting blood on Conner's hands, Tim was thinking, and that made him nervous and a little bit sick to his stomach. "J-jason?" he blurted out, throat dry as parchment, when he first woke up in the infirmary.
redbutnotrobin: "Here." Jason casually waved at Tim with one hand, fingernails painted the same bright, glittery red that coated his lips. His eyelids were dusted with a golden shimmer powder, and Kon's short hair had been streaked with red and a metallic gold. A short, pleated skirt of gold lame barely covered the tops of Kon's musclar thighs, and the black t-shirt with red ruffles had come from the plus-size department, Jason unable to find anything else that would fit Kon. Black, ripped fishnets were worn under the shirt, and Jason had managed to squeeze Kon's feet into open-toed red sparkly shoes that Dorothy would have loved, gold-painted toenails peeking out from under them. With a smirk, unable to hide his glee at having thoroughly defiled Kon's body, Jason asked Tim mock-innocently, "What do you think?"
batsmarts: Tim . . . had no idea what to say to that. He blinked. Twice. And then closed his eyes, and counted to five, and opened them again. And Jason was still in Kon's body, and Kon's body was still dressed up for all the world like the world's worst drag queen. ". . . Conner makes an ugly girl," Tim finally said with a groan, and shook his head at Jason. "You? You're sick." With that, he propped himself up and looked down at his newly-mended arm. It was still a little sore, but it was intact and worked well, and the bruises were gone. He rubbed it, frowning, before he moved to get out of bed. He felt.. exhausted, even though he'd been sleeping, and really, just looking at his best friend dressed up like that was NOT doing good things for his brain. "He's gonna kill you," Tim warned, looking around until he found his shoes.
redbutnotrobin: "When I tell him his body missed out on getting a fuck from you because I killed people while in his body? Yeah, the big bad cloneboy would probably get pissy over that." Jason jeered, even as he kicked Tim's shoes in Tim's general direction. He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, and heard it creak warningly, making Jason move Kon's body out of it for fear that it would break. Hands resting on both sides of his hips, he stood up and got out of the way to let Tim leave the room, adding as he shifted, "And I'm not sick. Just getting creative with uses for this body. I figure that he'll have to switch back eventually, and if not, at least I can take some pictures of him dressed like this. Or walk in front of him and watch his brain explode."
batsmarts: Tim stiffened when Jason said that he'd killed someone in Kon's body. The whoring comments he'd almost expected, but he'd HOPED that Jason hadn't actually hurt anyone with his best friend's hands. "You didn't," he said warily, even though.. he knew in his gut that Jason was telling the truth. He shoved his feet into his shoes and shot Jason-in-Kon one hell of a glare. It was ... familiar, that glare. That Bruce-is-disappointed-in-you frown, with some sort of hurt and let-down in his blue eyes. Tim was way too good at making faced like Bruce. It probably wasn't the best way to get Jason to repent.
redbutnotrobin: "...Fuck you. They deserved it." The words were spat out angrily, the glare rubbing rawly against Jason. It was Kon's body, and the fact that Kon felt the instinctive need to cringe under the Batglare didn't help with Jason's viciously angry reaction to having it turned on him. He felt the slow boil behind his eyeballs that spoke of heat vision, and instantly shut them tightly. Infimary. Sick people. Medical supplies. Jason was a bastard, but that didn't mean he'd go breaking things in a hospital just because Tim had managed to pull off a Bruce-imitation. Not when other, presumably innocent, people could need it in the future or near future. Kon's hands balled into fists, and Jason kept Kon's gold-slicked eyelids tightly shut.
batsmarts: Tim sighed. He couldn't help that look. He just tended to look that way when he was frustrated, or feeling let down. Not that he'd ever expected Jason, really, to keep himself at bay. Tim had kind of hoped though. Which was a very, very dumb thing to do, yes. "Murderers that the law won't punish deserve to die. Rapists that won't ever be caught deserve to die. Muggers and general street-scum deserve to have the crap kicked out of them in an alley, and be dropped off for the police to deal with." Tim's shoulders slumped. "Whatever," he said, glancing back at Jason and really, really hoping that poor Kon didn't actually ever find out about that outfit.
redbutnotrobin: Eyes still closed, not noticing the way that Tim's shoulders had slouched, Jason still picked up on the change in Tim's tone. Resigned, not scolding, and Jason risked letting Kon's hand uncurl out of the tight fists that he'd kept them in. He didn't open his eyes though, still remembering how the heat vision had blazed right through the wall, across the room, and then through the wall again. Even if Jason knew where Tim was, after all, that didn't mean that there couldn't be someone in a different room that would get hit by the blast, and despite the no-kill rule supposedly keeping everyone animated, no matter what, Jason still didn't want to risk accidentally killing someone. Hm. Wait. That reminded him of the popcorn, the child molestor and the genocidal terrorist case he had been working on. Maybe Kon's heat vision would be able to break through those seemingly impermeable 'glass' cases? At least he might as well put it to good use. Or more good use, since Kon's superstrength had come in handy already during the fights they'd had. Focusing on that thought, Jason snapped back, "Rapists that were caught by me do die. Attempted rapists as well. Why let them live just so that they can be acquitted and ruin someone els's life?"
batsmarts: "The point is," Tim said, his voice softer, now, "that you give the law a chance to bring justice on its own. And if the law can't, then you step in. You observe, you keep track, and you prevent. But, when things can be done legally, they should be. Crossing that boundary yourself when its unnecessary... it just. It makes it harder to justify what you're doing. You give the law a chance, and when it fails you , then you step forward." Tim shook his head. "I know I'm not going to change your mind about this." Jason just wasn't listening. Or maybe he was listening, and rejecting. "I.. I'm going to my room."
redbutnotrobin: Jason opened his eyes as Tim spoke, the prickly, burning feeling having slowly seeped away, and watched the other boy intently. For a second, he thought of himself as Robin, and of Felipe Garzonas, and of a girl that he'd seen swinging from her ceiling, in her own bedroom. The law had failed her, and it had turned lethal. She had died because it had failed her. Why wait for the law to fail if it meant that innocents would die before the guilty received their punishment? And that was assuming that guilty people were punished properly, which Jason didn't think was the case. That viewpoint just didn't make sense to Jason. If someone was guilty, you killed them. Not just because they were guilty, but because it would protect innocent people from dying. Revenge, protection, and prevention. Three good reasons. But Tim wouldn't understand that, would he? A mocking smirk curved Kon's lips and Jason wished the other sardonically, "Sleep well, Princess. Dream your little fairytales as much as you like; I'll stick with reality."
batsmarts: "It isn't some bedtime story, Jason," Tim said sharply, lashing out. "It's practical, and it saves unnecessary bloodshed on YOUR hands. It saves YOU from looking just as guilty as the criminals you're dispatching. It's not about people living happily ever after. It's about closure and why the law is important in the first place. If you're going to go around killing everyone you think is guilty of anything, you're going to tear apart the legal system as it stands. No, it isn't perfect. No, it doesn't always work. Yes, sometimes guilty men and woman go free, but that doesn't make it completely invalid." Tim oepned his mouth to say something else, and then closed it again, just grinding his teeth together and curling his hands into tight little fists, before he turned on his heel and headed briskly down the hall.