sugar, we're going down swinging

Roy grimaced at the pounding in his temples. He shifted in the sheets, taking stock - no injuries, no missing appendages - and brought a hand up to rub his face. He did a quick mental recap. Roy Harper. Archer. Red Arrow. Formerly Speedy. Clone. Currently feeling like roadkill. Opening his eyes fully proved difficult as he squinted against the sunlight pouring in through the open window, and he immediately knew something was wrong. Besides his tragic hangover, he wasn't even at home. His dingy Star City apartment didn't get this much sun ever, not even on good days.

Vegas. Alcohol. Pain. Right. Wally’s “birthday week”. He groaned at the ceiling, which prompted movement in the mess of white standard hotel bedsheets beside him. His adrenaline spiked and his eyes popped open. He spied his bow and quiver resting against the bedside table and in a flash, he was out of the bed and aiming an arrow at the lump in the bed, ignoring the fact that his spinning head had caused him to stumble. He resisted the urge to groan in frustration again. What did he do?

The lump shifted and he glimpsed black hair. Oh, no. Pale shoulders. No no no no no no…

The woman finally twisted over to face him, a smirk tacked firmly onto her lips. “Well, definitely not the worst thing to wake up to in the morning.” He scowled. “Cheshire.” “Oh don’t be like that Roy, I think we’ve definitely passed the first-name basis hurdle.” She ran her eyes up and down his body and he felt like it was a legitimate possibility that there had been bedbugs in the sheets. Feeling unusually unrestricted, he looked down and yelped. His bow clattered to the floor in favour of a pillow he snatched to cover himself. Judging from the heat climbing up his neck, he was pretty sure his face was as red as the dress tossed over the TV set. Jade’s, he assumed. That’s when he noticed the crumpled piece of paper on the nightstand.

Shit.

Jade stretched languorously and let out a lazy yawn, her signature infuriating air of smugness never leaving her. She rolled out of the bed, her black hair disheveled, her back a long, smooth line. “Roy! Hey, man, you in there?” Dick’s voice startled him as it drifted in from the other side of the door, along with a short knock. “Y-yeah, I’m awake. I’ll meet up with you guys later.” He responded to the - locked, thankfully - door and in the few seconds it took for him to look away and back, her dress was gone, and so was she.

---

The League had conceded that yeah, they’d helped save the entire world from being annihilated by a gigantic mobile weapons planet, so they’d put them up at a fancy-but-not-too-fancy four-star hotel for the duration of their vacation. Complimentary breakfast buffet, too. Something everyone was taking full advantage of when Roy walked into the dining area.

Jade was wearing jeans and a white tank top under a rust-coloured button-down he prayed no one recognised as his.

“Where did you get that?” He hissed, cornering her at the chicken sausages. He wasn't sure why he asked since he already had a pretty good idea. She looked down at the toasted wholegrain on her plate. “Next to the orange juice. Over there.” She gestured over her shoulder, head tilting innocently. He shot her a dry look. She grinned. “What, isn't it some kind of tradition? Wearing the guy’s shirt, after you - ” She stopped short at Roy’s warning growl, but she smirked slyly. “Calm down, Red. No one’s actually going to realise this is yours.”

“Still! Put it back!”

“I don’t know, I kind of like it. Suits me, don’t you think?”

Exasperated, he threw his hands up in the air and went for the stack of empty plates. Away from Cheshire. He remembered the folded piece of paper in his pocket - deep in his pocket - and his stomach churned. Maybe eating wasn't such a good idea just yet.

Why is she even here.

They’d landed in Vegas the afternoon before - sans Rocket, who had a newborn to take care of -and Wally had immediately declared that they would be going out that night. And she’d just shown up, all knowing smiles and sharp eyes, mentioned what a coincidence it was. She was even staying at the same hotel. Artemis had been livid, but eventually made peace with the fact that her sister did whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.

All of them had been…apprehensive, for lack of a better word but as it became clearer that she wouldn't cause any trouble, they mostly just awkwardly acknowledged her presence. Superboy just glared. She had tried to kill them, after all. Incapacitate, not kill, Jade had drawled, like it made much of a difference.

“Hey, Roy!” Wally waved him over to their table, energetic as ever. His plate looked like it could pass for a small mountain in South-East Asia.

“Ugh, Wally. You’re hurting my ears.” Artemis grumbled beside him, slouched in her seat. Her blonde hair was in a neat ponytail but her eyes were squinted with fatigue. “Why are we up so early anyway?”

“I know you’re cranky because of your hangover babe, but breakfast is only until 10:30 and - ”

Roy looked around. Zatanna was absent - she decided to sleep in, huh, wish he’d thought of that. The rest of them didn’t look much better; save for Wally, most of them looked similar to Artemis - sleep-deprived and hungover. Even Superboy, half-Kryptonian or not. He grimaced at the thought of what he looked like - he hadn’t even looked in the mirror yet, he’d left his room as soon as he pulled on his clothes.

He set his plate down lightly, ignoring Wally’s comments on how little food there was on it. “Where’s Grayson?”

“No clue. Haven’t seen him since last night.” Wally said in between mouthfuls of food. “Hey, uh, Jade.” His hand rose in a stiff wave, his gaze trained over Roy’s shoulder. She chose to sit next to him and Roy could barely stop himself from gripping his fork so hard it bent in half. Everyone mumbled their respective greetings. It was almost laughable how none of them made eye contact.

“Good morning everyone. Everyone sleep well?” Jade asked, but she didn't stop for an answer. “I for one had a great night.” Roy felt heat climbing up his neck, and instinctively adjusted the collar of his jacket. He surreptitiously shot her a glare which she returned with a mischievous smile.

“Sounds great, Jade, really. Spare me the details.” Artemis retorted, not unkindly, as the rest of them continued to eat in awkward silence.

Dick chose to show up then, taking the seat opposite Roy. “Hey man, where’d you go last night?”

“What do you mean?” Man, the amnesia thing was getting old real fast. Roy’s headache increased in magnitude and he winced, rubbing in between his eyes.

Dick’s expression turned curious. “Some time after we did shots - the second time - I looked for you and you were gone. Don’t you remember?”

“Not really. I must have been pretty out of it. Made it back to my room okay, though, since I was there this morning.”

“Yeah, you were.” Dick’s expression sent a vague sense of unease creeping up his spine at how similar it looked to Cheshire’s.

The rest of the breakfast passed in relative smoothness. They’d landed in Vegas the morning before - the bioship was currently in compact mode and taking up a quarter of M’gann’s room - and after the night they’d had, no one was eager to party much that day. The girls set off for a spa day, but before Jade could leave Roy caught her shoulder. “What is it, Red? Round two?”

He growled, his blush flaring back to life. “No.”

“Kidding. Loosen up a little, would you?”

He snatched the wedding certificate out of his pocket and shoved it in her face. She barely flinched. Her unimpressed eyes found his from behind the paper. “Why are you showing me a used napkin?”

He pointed angrily at the words. Her eyes widened minutely. Huh, so she didn't remember anything either.

“First things first.”

---

“Looks like your pettiness got us somewhere after all.”

They stood outside the Clark County Marriage Bureau. The skinny kid behind the front desk had nervously told them that their names weren’t in the database, which meant they weren’t legally married, i.e. the certificate was a fake. He stared at their names, printed neatly on the page. Jade Nguyen-Harper.

“I don’t get it. Why would someone want us to believe that we were married? To go as far as to forge a marriage certificate?”

Jade shrugged. “For shits and giggles? Who knows why? Better question: why do we care? It was just a prank, move on.”

“But I don’t remember anything about last night. I never get that drunk.” Although his hangover told a different story. “Do you remember anything?” She frowned. “No.”

Jade sighed, and leaned against the brick facade of the shop lot where the marriage bureau was located. “Fine. Let’s say there’s something fishy going on, and the marriage thing was to trip us up, make us waste our time, preoccupy us. Next step is to figure out what we did and get our memories back.”

It made sense. Either that, or the fact that he’d (supposedly) slept with Cheshire was making him go insane. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“The club. You?”

“Me too.” They’d gone to Intrigue, a club near their hotel, just to have some fun - drink and dance the night away. Exclusive place too; they’d used their…influence to get a place on the list and jump the unbelievably long line. Not usually his scene, but then again, a lot of things Wally had planned to do that week weren’t.

“Surveillance tapes. It had pretty tight security, there should be cameras we can check out.”

When they got to the club, the front doors were locked and they couldn't see inside even when they had their faces pressed to the glass. Roy looked around. The entire immediate vicinity was deserted and all the neon lights that were lit up at night were off; most of the establishments in the area opened their doors at night, so nobody was around to see what he was about to do. He crept into the dark alleyway beside the building, to the side door he had noticed from the night before and jiggled the handle. Locked.

He lifted his leg, preparing to kick the door in, when it opened, and instead his foot bounced off a very hard chest. A large man in a cheap suit glowered down at him, crossed arms like tree trunks, gold earring sparkling menacingly.