#so Jason left to go home (crime alley) and that's when he found out | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

envysparkler · 17 days

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Jason tucked himself deeper into his hoodie and tried not to shiver. His fingers were numb around the tire iron, more from panic than the chill in the air, and he felt like he was being turned to ice, inch by painful inch.

He could still see the cold look on Johnny Six-Fingers’ face, the reek of tobacco, the ultimatum ringing through the air and echoing inside his head.

Jason had a debt to pay, and Six-Fingers had gotten tired of waiting. Jason had one night to scrounge up two grand in cash, or he’d have to pay it off the usual way. By standing on street corners.

Six-Fingers didn’t care that Jason was only twelve and didn’t have any way to get a real job. He didn’t care that the money had all been funneled into the black hole of Jason’s mother’s hospital expenses. He didn’t care that the money hadn’t even worked, that Jason’s mom had died, wasting away with every breath, and Jason was left with no parents, no home, and a debt to one of Crime Alley’s most infamous money-lenders and pimps.

He didn’t care that there was no way Jason could scramble together two grand in cash in one fucking night.

The wind was biting on his cheeks and Jason took a few deep breaths as his eyes prickled. No. No. There—there had to be a way. Jason wasn’t going to become a whore. He’d find the two grand—he’d steal it if he had to, he wouldn’t become one of the empty-eyed men and women standing on the streets, lighting up to detach themselves from reality.

But it was late. Very late. No one was out on the streets this late at night, not when the Batman lurked. Most people in Gotham had better sense than to get in the way of a prowling nightmare of darkness and claws, lest they end up as another bloody body in a gutter.

Jason unfortunately had to sacrifice sense for speed. The one skill he was very good at was jacking tires, and they didn’t sell for much, but if he found a really good score, he could maybe bargain with Tony at the shop to get the two grand. He’d owe Tony then, but the mechanic would let him pay it off by working at the shop.

It was a horrible plan. It relied on Jason basically stumbling upon a pot of gold, and avoiding Gotham’s most infamous murderer while he was at it. Jason was usually careful to jack tires during the day—if Batman ever caught him, Jason would be seeing his own insides.

At the moment, it was a risk he was willing to take.

It was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine. He was going to find some tires, sell them, get Six-Fingers his money, and then maybe his mom would come back to life and tuck him into bed. Jason exhaled harshly and tightened his fingers on the tire iron.

He needed to get the cash.

Crime Alley was quiet. The pubs had closed an hour ago, which left no one on the streets. There weren’t many cars here, and none of them had tires that would sell for more than a hundred bucks. Jason was consciously aware of his heart pounding in his ears, like a ticking clock counting down his fate.

Tick tock.

He had to find something.

Tick tock.

He wouldn’t become a whore. He wouldn’t.

Tick tock.

Please—he had to find something, please—

Tick tock.

He wanted his mom. He wanted his dad. He wanted someone, anyone, to tell him it was going to be okay.

Tick tock.

He wanted to find a car that was gleaming and dark and all tricked-up, with massive tires and novelty rims, and—oh shit, that was the Batmobile.

Fuck. Everyone knew of Batman’s tank of a car, how easily he evaded police and gangs and everyone, blasting through Gotham like he owned the goddamn city. And given that no one had been able to stop him even once in the last decade, he probably did.

Jason had already turned to flee before his mind caught up to his legs and reminded him that he hadn’t done anything illegal. Yet. Running would be suspicious.

He let himself casually ogle the car as he took inching steps backwards, his heart pounding so loud he was surprised it wasn’t echoing in the alley. Every fraction of his attention was focused on listening for a whisper of a cape, or perhaps the hiss of claws scything through air, his tire iron clutched firmly to his chest. He was going to get out of the alley calmly and carefully, and—and if Batman was prowling around Crime Alley, Jason’s chances of getting that two grand had just vanished, and he didn’t want to go back to Six Fingers, and—

Those…were nice tires. Fancy tires. The kind of tires that would totally be worth two grand. No sane person would want anything to do with Batman’s tires, but Tony did work for the Families too, and some of them could be interested in trophies.

If Jason actually managed to get the tires off without being murdered or having a heart attack.

He didn’t want to. He desperately didn’t want to. But the choice was between Batman and Six-Fingers, and Batman wasn’t here.

“You can do this,” he whispered to himself, his fingers twisting on the tire iron. Steady and careful. Silent and quick. “You have to do this.”

Jason checked one last time for shining claws and white eyes in the darkness, and got to work.

~#~

The combination of fear, dread, and panic helped Jason work faster than he ever had in his life. He unscrewed the bolts, kicked the tires off, and rolled them to the next alley to hide them below a stack of cardboard. It was going to be tricky to get them all the way to Tony’s shop, but first Jason had to get them off. The minutes ticked by, agonizingly slow, as his fingers grew clammier and his breaths grew shorter.

The world had narrowed down to his numb fingers, the bolts, the tires, and his distressingly loud heartbeat.

Jason, working away at the third tire, didn’t realize he had company until he heard the low growl, right behind him—“What are you doing?”

Nerves strained to the breaking point, Jason reacted on instinct. He jerked away from the tire, yanking the tire iron back with him, and shifted his grip as he spun and swung with the movement.

The tire iron crashed into a nightmare.

The nightmare staggered back with a grunt.

Jason allowed himself a split second to feel—oh no oh fuck oh no—before booking it.

There was a time to fight and a time to flee the fucking country, oh fuck, he attacked Batman, he was going to die, he didn’t want to die and the pulsing sound of his heartbeat was overridden by the too-loud sound of his shoes smacking against loose asphalt. He didn’t hear Batman, but he hadn’t heard the monster before he spoke up, and there was no fucking way Jason was looking back to check what’d happened.

Run, screamed every cell in his body, run and hide, adrenaline coursing through him and narrowing his focus on the desperate effort to get away.

If Jason had been slightly less panicked, he might’ve remembered that this alley was a dead-end before he nearly brained himself smacking against the brick wall.

Run, everything inside him insisted, and Jason clawed at the wall in an attempt to climb it, but there were no handholds, nowhere he could jam his fingers and hoist himself up. The chill down his spine grew to a sharp, vicious ache as the weight of silent regard grew heavier and heavier.

Jason stared blankly at the brick wall and felt his face begin to prickle.

He was going to die. It wasn’t a theoretical. Batman murdered criminals, everyone knew it, and no one could stop him. Certainly no one would care if he murdered Jason. Jason was dead, and every breath he took could be his last.

His face was wet, and he was trembling all over. He felt curiously detached from his body, like he was in a dream, and when he blinked, the world went dark for a stretching moment. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t want it to hurt. He desperately didn’t want to feel pain.

A footstep echoed right behind him.

“Please,” Jason’s voice said hollowly, the words spilling from his mouth without permission. Everything was blurry. “Make it quick.”

One punch of the claws through his back, and Batman could rip his heart out. It would be done. He couldn’t hear Batman move, but the presence behind him intensified, and the world retreated a little bit more when a gauntleted, clawed hand settled on his shoulder

A slash of razor-sharp metal through his throat would be equally fast. Jason let himself be maneuvered, let the threatening grip turn him around, let cold and bloody claws tip his chin up to look at Death.

It was terrifying. This was the last thing many people saw before they died. A hulking outline of shadows looming above them, a full-face mask with pointed ears and glowing white eyes, red glinting ever so darkly against the black armor.

“What’s your name?” the growl ground out, distorted and echoey. It sounded like what monsters in the closet were made of.

“Jason,” he forced out through trembling lips. Dead boys had no need of names. A fresh wave of prickling crawled across his face, and everything went blurry again.

“Where are your parents, Jason?” Oh, Batman was really pissed. Luckily, Jason had no family for the monster to take it out on.

“Dead.”

Something changed in Batman’s posture, a tightening that some instinctive part of Jason recognized as anger. There was nowhere to hide though, no kitchen table to crawl under with a dog to wait out the rage, and Jason just cowered against the brick wall.

“Who do you live with?”

“N-no one,” Jason stuttered. Batman was determined to vent his fury. Well, a little voice spoke up in his head, you did steal his tires. What did you expect?

Batman was silent for a stretching moment, studying him. Jason waited for his verdict, shivering despite his hoodie, cold with more than just the wind. When Batman spoke, it was worse than all the horrible things Jason was imagining.

“I will take you to a social worker,” intoned the low growl, and Jason felt a new kind of terror rush through his veins.

“No,” he said automatically, his mind screaming in horror—at least with Six-Fingers he would just be a whore, he wouldn’t be a pet, he wouldn’t be owned—“Please—please don’t—”

“Jason—”

Jason was aware that he was interrupting, aware that this was Batman he was arguing with, but Jason was dead anyway, what more did he have to lose? “Please,” he begged, dropping to his knees to plead for any mercy this nightmare possessed, “Please, just—just kill me, please, don’t—don’t give me to the traffickers, please, I’ll do anything.” Jason had to break off to shudder through a sob, but before he could resume begging, Batman was moving.

The Terror of Gotham knelt in front of him to look Jason in the eyes. The shock was enough to startle Jason into silence.

“Jason, I’m not going to kill you,” the growling voice said, “And I’m certainly not going to give you to traffickers.”

Jason…couldn’t tell which one of those was the lie.

“I know of a trusted foster parent that would give you a safe place to stay while I look into these traffickers,” Batman’s voice rang out firmly, “Would you like to stay with him?”

No, Jason would very much not like to stay with a buddy of Batman’s. It was a trap, that much was obvious, but Jason had no choice but to walk straight into it. This was Batman.

Jason nodded meekly, and took Batman’s proffered claw-tipped hand—slick with drying blood—to be pulled up to his feet. “You can wait in the car while I put the tires back on,” Batman said, opening the door to reveal the darkened interior.

Jason wanted to protest, wanted to take his chances to run at the opposite end of the alley, wanted to wheedle his way into getting the tires himself so he could escape, but those glowing white eyes had transfixed him, and Jason’s fingers were sticky with someone’s blood, and he didn’t feel up to arguing.

He silently got in the car. The tears didn’t stop.

#my snippets #jason&bruce #jason steals the tires au #in a world where batman kills

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yandereforme · 3 months

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Yan Jason x Joker’s Kid! Reader (Non-binary Reader)

You found out about your parentage when you were 16. Your mom, the woman who had raised you, had never indicated you weren’t her flesh and blood until that day.

Your mom had gone to school with Harley, and they had been close. They lost touch after a while, however, and didn’t see each other again until Harley was admitted to Arkham during her relationship with the Joker.

Harley hadn’t told anyone she was pregnant, and it was kept need to know. As far as most knew, she was being kept away from others due to illness.

When Harley gave birth, she asked your mom to raise you. Even though she was still somewhat blinded by her love for the Joker, she could still see that raising a kid with the Joker wasn’t a good idea.

Your mom was infertile, and had always wanted a kid. So, after that day, and after Harley was broken out of Arkham, your mom took you and left Arkham, only stopping to have a friend of hers forge papers making you her kid. Only five people knew about you, and her coworkers who helped deliver you died not long after, only leaving three to remember where you came from.

The reason your mom was telling you was because she had been diagnosed with an illness, and would require full time care in a facility, meaning you would have had to go into foster care, since your only ‘relative’ was your goon uncle, who would never be cleared to take care of you. She managed to sort out papers to emancipate you, but she knew that she couldn’t let you leave without his telling you the truth.

Fast forward to the Red Hood Era, you are a book shop owner, having inherited a building from your uncle when he died, and turned it into a bookshop, just on the edge of Crime Alley. You were known to offering homeless people jobs like delivering books or helping you stock shelves in exchange for food, money, clothes, and/or a place to sleep, depending on preference. Your good reputation with the street kids was what made Jason learn about you.

He decided to visit as Jason and make sure you didn’t have any nefarious purposes for your deeds. Not only do you two hit it off immediately, but you also care about the street kids, and aren’t taking advantage of their desperation.

Jason started visiting you every other day, often walking you home at night. He has a few of his men watch your house, and even has them make sure you get home safe when he can’t. However, he was still in heavy denial about his feelings….

Until the Joker Broke out of Arkham

Notes: In this au, the Batfam know Jason is Red Hood. Also, the Batfam will become yandere for you too, don’t worry. Probably won’t be posting much, I’m traveling a lot over the next couple weeks, but I will try. Let me know what you think!

#yandere #yandere batfam x reader #romantic yandere #platonic yandere #yandere jason todd #yandere Jason x joker’s kid #non binary darling

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phantom-dc · 10 months

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Jason is 9 years old.

Today was his favorite day of the year. Even better than his birthday. He managed to find a bedsheet that was white and (sort of) clean, and had painted 2 black circles on it. He wasn’t going to cut holes in a perfectly good bedsheet. Who knows when he’d find another one? In Crime Alley lucky finds like these were rare. He got up, put the sheet in his backpack and left for Burnley. It was close, and yet the place wasn’t as crime infested as its surroundings. The rich guys there had the cops in their pockets, so they patrolled extra there. But that just made it perfect for today.

Halloween.

The day he could get candy for free.

When Jason got to Burnley, he already saw several other kids going around with their parents. He didn’t want to admit it, but it stung. He wanted to go with his mom too, but Catherine had been too out of it, and he didn’t even know where his dad was. Prison, most likely. It didn’t matter. He put on his sheet. Dressed as a ghost he’d try to get as much candy as he could.

Suddenly he heard someone shout: SPOOK! The next thing he knew he was covered in a weird, green glowing goop. 2 people in weird suits pointed weapons on him. Jason tried to run, but the goop was slippery and he fell. Suddenly a boy stood in front of him. The boy scolded his parents, explaining that Jason wasn’t a ghost but a boy in a costume. Why did he have to explain that? It was Halloween! Of course he was wearing a costume! Ghosts don’t even exist! Jason took of the sheet. He was about to cry, it was ruined! How was he supposed to enjoy today at all? No one would give him anything without a costume! While a girl with red hair scolded the 2 adults that had attacked him, the boy held out his hand to help Jason up. He apologized for his parents. They are weird. Jason was about to go home, when the boy had an idea. His parents brought hazmat suits for him and Jazzy. If they wear that they can pretend to be ghostbusters together! They’ll get more candy if they wear a co-op costume. Jason thinks about it, and agrees. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

A few minutes later they are both dressed up, wearing weird suits and weirder weapons strapped to their belts. As they go around collecting candy Jason asks what’s up with his parents. He gets Halloween is awesome, but no one should be so into it that they’d try to hurt a kid. The boy sheepishly rubs his neck. His parents aren’t dressed up. They are really ghostbusters. He doesn’t like it. The other kids at school think it’s weird and bully him for it. This kid Dash locked him up in the school’s janitor closet once. It took 3 hours before someone found him. Jason advices him to punch the guy in the nose. The boy doesn’t think that’s a good idea. Jason advices then to finish it off with a kick in the groin.

After they have raided the district, Jason and the boy return to the van. Jazzy tells her brother to get in before their parents forget him and leave. He says goodbye to Jason and that he had great fun! Jason can keep the suit, maybe he can use it again next year? As the van drives off, Jason notices that the kid left his bag behind. Jason feels bad for him, but now he has twice as much candy! He promises to enjoy it twice as much, and takes it home. In the van Jazzy asks where Danny’s candy went. Danny says he gave it to his friend. He seemed hungry, and with dad driving he’d only throw it back up anyway.

Next - AO3

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dc x dp #dp x dc #red hood #jason todd #dead on main

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luxaofhesperides · 6 months

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ghostlights prompt with "it's okay, you're safe now" hurt/comfort?

It takes over a month to find Danny.

Thirty seven days of panic and ever growing dread, searching for him every single day. Duke hasn’t felt this way since he was in foster care, running away from whatever home he got placed in to search for his parents.

The first week was spent trying to find any trace of Danny, working on nothing but his last few messages and a voicemail he left Duke, where all he said was a whispered, Call me back when you can. I might just be paranoid, but I think someone’s following me. I’m walking home right now. I… I don’t know, I feel a little sick, Duke, I— And then static before the voicemail ends.

There hadn’t been any sign that Danny made it home. No cameras caught sight of him after he walked past a bus stop. No one around on the streets to tell him what happened.

One moment, Danny was there. The next, he was gone.

He had to recruit the rest of the Bats into searching for Danny, and his guilt of outing Danny as a meta (half ghost, as Danny called himself) was easily buried under his desperation. Duke knows the statistics. The chances of finding someone after three days drop drastically, and after enough time, it’s safe to assume they’re dead even if people keep searching.

Jason promised to interrogate some traffickers moving outside of Crime Alley, updating Duke weekly on any other kidnappings that might be related to Danny’s case. Tim had been checking around Danny’s neighborhood, slipping in and out of spaces to gather information, leaving behind cameras and bugs on the off chance the kidnappers came back to the area. Barbara hacked her way into the messages of traffickers, trying to find any mention of Danny. Even Bruce had gotten involved, looking into Danny’s background to see if there was anyone that might be connected to his disappearance.

Vlad Masters wasn’t a lead. He had no idea Danny was missing when they called, and he ended the call immediately to begin his own search.

Thirty seven days.

Duke didn’t want to lose hope, but all he could think about were the empty spaces in his life where Danny once was.

And now, on the thirty eighth day, Duke jerks awake as his cell phone rings at max volume and he scrambles to get it. He’s not risking another missed call, not after Danny disappeared.

He doesn’t have time to say anything once he accepts the call before Jason is saying, “We found him Duke. Babs is sending the location to the GPS of your motorcycle. Suit up and meet us here.”

“Is he okay?”

“He’s…” Jason hesitates. “He’ll live. But these fuckers did a number on him, from what we've read in their files. We’re waiting for you and the others to get here, and then we’ll take them out while you get your boy to safety.”

“I’m on my way,” Duke says, already pulling his suit out to get changed. He hasn’t bothered to bring it to the Batcave for weeks, spending most of his time out on the streets as the Signal. It’s just easier to have it on hand than to go to the Batcave to suit up, or to leave it in the Hatch. He chucks his phone back onto his bed and is jumping out the window of his apartment just a minute later, dropping down to street level just as his motorcycle pulls up on the street.

He’ll have to remember to get Babs a gift basket or something when this is all over. It’s the least he can do after she’s helped him so much over the past month.

“Thanks, Babs,” Duke says into his comm, switching it to a private line with Oracle. She hums an acknowledgement, but otherwise doesn’t respond. Not that Duke has much in him for conversation; all his focus is on Danny, Danny, Danny.

The GPS on the motorcycle leads him to the outskirts of GCU campus, in one of the buildings that had been closed off after a fire earlier in the year that they still haven’t fixed due to the amount of mobsters who liked to pass through it, using it as a drop sight for arms deals. Red Hood leans on the chain link fence surrounding it, watching as he approaches.

Duke all but jumps off the motorcycle to reach Red Hood, barely remembering to turn on the cloaking to hide it from sight.

“Where is he?”

“Basement,” Red Hood answers, and even through the helmet, Duke can hear the tightness in his voice that means he’s doing his best to hold back his rage. “Red Robin and the Batgirls are in there, getting Oracle access to their computers. They’re going to make sure no one slips by us. I’m going to make them wish I had been kind enough to kill them, and you’re going to take your boy straight to the Batcave where the Doc is waiting with Alfred.”

It’s not much of a plan, but Duke trusts the others to do what they need to do. All he cares about is getting Danny out of there.

“Lead the way.”

They scale the fence easily, and there’s no one on the upper levels when they walk in. Not even a single camera to alert anyone to their entrance. Red Hood leads him down a stairwell, ignoring the way the shadows around them move on their own, Duke’s agitation making them twist into some dark nightmare.

He sees the flicker of light as soon as they step out into the basement hallway. All the light bulbs above their head are broken, covering the floor in sharp glass, and doors going down the hall are all left open, some barely hanging onto their hinges. The building is a wreck, graffiti decorating portions of the wall, and it looks abandoned. He would bet even mobsters avoid coming down here; it’s all sorts of health hazards.

Normally, he’d be cautious. He would sneak through the wall, sticking to the shadows and staying hidden as he went deeper in, ready for anything.

Duke hasn’t been thinking clearly in weeks. He sees the light, the soft white glow he associates with Danny, and tears after it like a man possessed.

Distantly, he hears Red Hood curse behind him, and then he’s turning the corner, feeling the familiar burn in his eyes as his powers kick in and let him see the small ball of light flickering weakly as it guides him through the basement level.

Red Robin and Batgirl’s voices fill his helmet and Duke doesn’t waste a second in muting his comm; if there’s a problem, they can work it out with Red Hood. Now that he’s so close to Danny, he’s not letting anything get in his way.

The first guy he runs into is a surprise. Clearly a scientist, judging by the lab coat and the notebook in his hands, paired with the dark circles stamped beneath his eyes. He barely has time to open his mouth, looking alarmed, before Duke slams into him, tackling him to the floor and knocking him out with a quick hit to the temple.

A vent in the ceiling falls down, and Red Robin pops out.

“They’re keeping him in the back, locked in. I’m warning you now, it’s not a pretty sight.”

“I don’t care,” Duke snaps, “I’m getting him back.”

“We’ll clear the way and keep them from stopping you,” Red Robin says.

He whips out his bo staff and sprints away, kicking in a door. Duke follows after him, ignoring the yells from the other scientists gathered in there, leaving them to Red Robin’s tender mercies.

The light leads him to a room hidden away in the lab, a small window in the door that is too dirty to see through. The door is locked, so Duke feels out the shadows around him and uses one to slip into the room.

And Danny’s there.

Danny, never without a smile, glowing and funny and so, so sweet, is lying curled up on the floor. There are shackles around his ankles, keeping him trapped in the room with the chain nailed into the wall. His wrists are bound in meta suppressant cuffs, leaving him weak and vulnerable. That’s not the worst thing.

The worst thing is the visible wounds Duke can see on him, sluggishly bleeding. There are blood stains all over the floor, cuts along his arms and thighs, clothes torn into nothing but dirty rags. There’s a large incision on his chest, going down from his collarbone to his navel, hastily stitched together in a way that only keeps it slightly closed, the stitches loose enough to be pulled out with a single pull.

As if sensing his gaze, Danny blinks his eyes open, staring at the space next to Duke. Slowly, his gaze slides over, eyes hazy with pain and exhaustion. He opens his mouth, but no sound comes out.

Duke kneels next to him, pulling off his gloves to cup Danny’s cheek as gently as he can.

“Hey,” he whispers, overcome with both grief at the pain Danny had to go through, and relief at finally finding him. “Hey, it’s okay, you’re safe now.”

Danny doesn’t try to speak again. Instead, he closes his eyes and leans into Duke’s touch, relaxing.

“I got you honey, it’s alright. I’m gonna get you out of here and take you to some people who can patch you up.”

He slides his arms beneath Danny’s body, lifting him into his arms.

He doesn’t remember much of what happens next; it’s all a blur of movement and feeling blood slide over his hands. Later, he’ll hear the others give their report, telling of how they found Danny following the trail of a university professor bragging about a paper that would make him famous for a deeper understanding of meta biology. They’ll recount their scouting, the information they stole, how many people they fought and captured. They’ll talk about how the shadows completely overwhelmed the basement when Duke left with Danny, traveling through shadows at a speed he had never achieved before, going farther than he’s ever been able to.

Leslie and Alfred input their own medical reports of the torture done to Danny and how long he’ll need to be in recovery, checking for infection and possible side effects to his powers.

All of that will be important later.

Duke doesn’t care about anything at all when he’s finally able to return to Danny’s side once Alfred and Leslie are done patching him up. The weight that’s been on his shoulders for the past thirty seven days is gone. The sight of Danny’s blue eyes fluttering open is the most beautiful he’ll ever see.

“Hey, honey,” he says softly, holding Danny’s hand as he wakes.

Danny smiles at him. “Duke,” he whispers, “I knew you’d find me.”

“Always, honey. Always.”

. . .

[send me a ghostlights prompt!]

#ghostlights #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdc #prompt fill #my writing #mostly hurt not much comfort but just imagine duke cuddling danny and hand feeding him after this!!!#thank u for the prompt!! very happy to make this the first prompt fill to buff up the ghostlights tag

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josnhoes · 10 months

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Dc knak au with the batfam and a fem!disabled reader.

[ Part 1 , Part 2 (here)]

Warning: yandere (knak aus are by base yandere), mentions of illness, mentions of poor mental health

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Being adopted by Bruce Wayne *the* Batman wasn't what you expected to happen after the fundraiser. You'd been grumpy and kinda mean to Dick so you thought the family would have ignored you. If it wasn't for the fact the memory from your other life told you *who* he was, and that he wouldn't have just adopted the problem child to show how kind he was, that stopped you from lashing out at their behavior.

They all came on really strong, all of them already calling you sister instead of your name, save Bruce and Alfred whom used your name but often referred to you as daughter or granddaughter. It would have been sweet if it didn't make you feel so guilty. Sure they weren't telling you about their night lives, but compared to the secret of your origins they seemed honest and open. So instead of opening up you built your walls higher scared of if they learned the parts of you hid so strongly.

They'd figure it out maybe. But you gave them some truths, like you'd told them your true age. Tried to say you old life. They found nothing on it so they swiftly assumed you were just a kid pretending. Plus they'd already been warned of this habit by the matron of the group home you had been in. The woman obviously wad trying to dissuade them from her because she wasn't a normal kid.

They loved how you were like a little adult. It was a case of 6 or 60. The way you behaved was different then when Damien tried to seem mature. He acted like an upperclass snob assumption a kid would paint an adult as. Where as you, well you gave of the eternally tired done with life retail worker who just got told their local store no longer stocked their comfort food.

It was cute and funny, the family made various memes out of you sharing them in the various group chats. But then it got not as funny. It had been several weeks and you hadn't stopped and acted like a kid once.

Bruce while planning to find out why you behaved like this, sent you to a therapist with Dick. Bruce figured it could have been a serious case of abuse that left you so aged inside so he was going digging for your past.

Dick was happy to take you to any appointment. He tried to make it a brother sister outing. You'd go to whichever doctor you saw that day, mental or physical, and then you'd do something based on the energy you had left. Sometimes it was just getting a Robin meal at his favorite Batburger, sometimes he took you shopping and got you a toy. The later was helpful in figuring out your preferred entertainment and aesthetic. He was so going to earn the title of best big brother. Or so he planned. If it wasn't for his work as a cop and not having someone like Alfred to help out in the house he would have adopted you himself. His precious little chickadee. He'd be your favorite and he'd definitely make his title of favorite known.

Jason was the one who'd gotten the title as your favorite. You didn't expect him to be around often. He still had his issues with Bruce and his own worries with crime alley and the pit rage. But since you joined the family he was noticeably around since you met him.

He treated you like an adult for the most part. The exceptions were things he thought were dangerous and laughing when you swore. He has a video of you saved on his phone giving a quiet heart filled fuck me as you looked at your fallen ice cream. He loves to mimic it from time to time when bad things happened. Lord help anyone who tried to harm *his* baby sister. He'd gotten his hands dirty for less.

Tim was the distant one, he almost seemed timid at first to approach you. Really he'd just been observing you and learning all your habits. At first while he thought you were cute he didn't get the bond. Then the incident happened. You'd been begging everyone to let you have coffee. He'd nearly choked on his when you whined about having too much blood in your caffeine system. So thinking you'd react like most kids, disgusted, if he gave some coffee he did. He wasn't expected to see you look visibly at peace as you drank it. He also watched as you bit Duke when he tried to take the coffee away from you. Maybe you *were* his sister, by blood even! Logically not but you and him shared a wave length!

Tim runs several DNA tests and each time it didn't match but he knew better it was a match the computer was just glitching or the sample was bad.

#dc knak au #yandere #platonic yandere

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klbwriting · 2 months

Text

Not Romeo, Not Juliet

Chapter 4: But Given Unsought

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!reader

Warnings: some violence

Summary: Jason goes to Big Belly Burger to see YN after a couple weeks away, realizes he is head over heels

Notes: the incident in this chapter actually happened to me when I was working at McDonald's in 2005 because a filet o fish HAD CHEESE, life feeds art right?

Love sought, is good; but given unsought, is better — Twelfth Night, Act 3 Scene 1

Jason had kept himself busy for the next couple weeks, knowing that if he went to find YN at her home or job everyday it would be creepy. He wanted to talk to YN, figure out how he could explain himself to her and get her to forgive him for being with those people at the open mic, but he didn't know how without you thinking he was some kind of stalker. So he waited, did rehearsal, actually found himself doing well, until one Friday after rehearsal he decided to go visit Big Belly Burger. Just once, see what her reaction was. If she was entirely against seeing him he would leave and let her be, but if she wasn't so angry maybe he would try to get her number, just talk to her. He felt so stupid, why would she want to talk to him? He was just some guy who had ruined her night, some guy who couldn't even make friends when people were throwing themselves at him, he wasn't a good brother, had been a terrible son, and now, what was he? He sighed, the self loathing getting more intense as he drove the motorcycle into Crime Alley. He parked it in an alley a few streets away and walked the rest of the way, entering the fast food joint and waiting in the short line. Not too many people were out on Friday nights in Crime Alley, anyone who went out went to a safer part of Gotham, and everyone else stayed locked up in their homes. The person in front of him left with their order and Jason came face to face with YN.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, looking surprised to see him. She probably thought he had given up after their last meeting. Jason put on what he hoped was a friendly smile and after a second YN gave him a small smile back. Hopefully that was a good sign and not just her customer service skills taking over. He ordered, surprising her with how much he wanted. She didn't say anything, just dutifully took his card and tapped it. "It'll be out shortly." Her customer service voice was kind of cute and he chuckled a little. That was the wrong move, she glared at him.

"Sorry, just you sound different..." he said, trying to explain himself. She looked at hard at him and turned to the staging area to wait for his tray. He sighed, wanting to smack himself. How was he such an ass without meaning to be? She turned again and set his food down. He took the tray and went to sit down, making sure he was near the door, back to the wall so he could see everything in the room. He could feel her eyes on him as she went to a closet in near the bathrooms and pulled out a broom. She swept her way through the empty restaurant down to where he was sitting.

"So why did you come here again? Seeing how the other half lives with our menial jobs?" she asked, but her voice lacked the annoyed edge it usually had with him. He looked at her and found she had stopped actually sweeping, she was leaning on the broom, watching him.

"No, I told you I used to live around here so sometimes I come back, check things out," he said. Which was true, he was trying to find a way to help around there without resorting to Robin-like antics. He didn't need Batman finding him.

"Ok, say I believe you, there are other fast food places around, why this one?" she asked. He looked at her, popping a fry in his mouth to give him time to think of something that wasn't just 'I think you're adorable and want to talk to you'.

"I like your fries," he said. "And the company isn't so bad either." She blushed a little, turning to sweep at imaginary dust and he smiled, liking the reaction. "YN, maybe you'd want to talk? I..."

"Can I get service here?" someone from the register yelled. YN froze and turned, sighing a little as she set the broom out of the way and went to the customer.

"Sorry about that, can I help you?" she asked, plastering on a fake smile. The guy ordered in an annoyed tone and then waited for his order. She brought the bag to him and he opened it up, frowning. "Is there something wrong?" she asked before the sandwich went flying, hitting her in the face. She let out a cry of surprise, grabbing the counter so she didn't slip. The guy's hand shot out and grabbed her arm.

"I didn't say to put cheese on my fucking sandwich," he snarled. She stared at him like he was nuts. Before she could even answer Jason was across the room, gripping the guy's shoulder hard, forcing him to let go. Jason psychically turned the guy around to put himself between YN and the customer.

"How about we talk to the employee's with some respect," Jason said, voice a dangerous bass. He was fighting the rage that was growing in him, eyes drifting towards green, that strange power that coursed through him begging to be unleashed. The guy glared at him, clearly not wanting a fight. He backed up towards the door and Jason looked at YN. "Are you ok?" She nodded and he heard the small ding of the door.

"Your boyfriend won't be here all the time bitch," the guy said. Jason turned, eyes now a flaring emerald, and the guy ran, Jason giving chase. He was a block away before Jason caught up, tackling him to the ground, rolling the guy over.

"Don't you ever go back in there again," Jason said, fist slamming into the guys face. He heard a crunch and stood up, needing to get away before he killed the guy. He could feel the desire, the need for blood in his veins. He went to where he parked the bike, punching the brick wall several times, beating it with the side of his fists, until the rage subsided and he could breathe again. He panted, looking at his bloodied arms and shook his head, driving back home.

Dick was waiting when he came in and he immediately saw the blood.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, walking over. Jason stepped back before he could touch him. He looked at Dick, looking for signs of anger. Bruce would have been pissed if he had come back bloody like this. Dick just looked concerned.

"I almost lost it on some guy, but instead I beat up a wall," Jason said. Dick nodded, and pointed to the bathroom, a strange look in his eyes.

"Get cleaned up, how about tomorrow morning we do some boxing and you can tell me what actually happened," he said. Jason sighed and just shrugged, knowing he didn't have much of a choice.

Bright and early Dick had Jason gloved up at the local gym he owned. He had made sure the place was closed that morning so that he and Jason could really talk without disruption. They went for about half an hour with just sparring, getting warmed up and feeling each other out. Jason knew that the serious talk was coming when Dick slowed down and let him get a jab to his face in. Jason smirked, that felt good, he always liked getting on over on his big brother. If truth be told Jason was a better brawler, could overwhelm Dick if he got more than two shots in a row in, but Dick was fast, which made him a hard target to hit.

"Can we talk?" Dick asked, recovering from the hit and removing his gloves. Jason sighed and sat in the middle of the ring, leaning back on his hands. Dick stood in the corner, leaning on a turnbuckle. "So what actually happened last night?" Jason let out a sigh, he might as well tell the truth.

"I went to Crime Alley to see someone, they go to Gotham Academy and she's well, kind of amazing," Jason said. Dick's eyebrows went up. "She works at a Big Belly Burger near my old apartment so I went there for dinner, try to talk to her, see when I went to that open mic with the seniors from theater they played a horrible prank on her and she thought I was involved so I tried apologizing again, and I think she forgave me? We talked a little, then this guy came in and was such a dick, he threw a sandwich at her and grabbed her. I was seeing red and so angry, I stopped him from hurting her, then he threatened to come back for her so I chased him, I punched him, just once and then I went to beat up a wall before I really hurt him," Jason rambled. Dick stood silent, staring for a solid minute once he was done.

"Ok, I'm going to try and follow this. You met a girl, who you clearly have a thing for," he started. Jason nodded, might as well admit that he was crushing hard on YN. "Then some guy threatened her and you chased him, punched him, then hit a wall?" "Pretty much," he said. Dick nodded and them smiled.

"What's her name?" his brother asked. Jason felt his cheeks heating up. He knew he had to spill now, but he had liked keeping her to himself for a moment, if he said her name then his feelings were real and he did not like having feelings to begin with, let alone ones like this.

"YN," he said. He saw the change in Dick's face, saw him doing some thinking.

"Is her mother sick?" he asked suddenly and Jason stared at him. Did he know YN? Jason nodded. "You should stay away from her, in fact I demand you stay away from her." Jason looked confused, standing.

"Why?" he asked. Dick looked conflicted.

"Just, do as I say, please, she's trouble," he said. Jason shook his head. Figures, another 'father' wanting to control him, not trusting his judgement. He ripped his pads off, throwing them at the floor and walking out of the gym, annoyed.

The sun was high in the sky when Jason got to Crime Alley. He didn't remember that YN was at practice until he was almost at her work. Of course, it would have been weird to just show up after he had ghosted the day before, what would she even think? He sighed and turned back, meaning to go back to the apartment and force Dick to tell him what he was on about with YN when he heard someone cry out nearby. He looked down the alley, seeing a guy with a knife and a woman, clutching her hand to her chest, purse already on the ground, the contents scattered.

"Give me the ring or I'm going to cut it off you," the guy said. Jason glared, sliding the hockey mask he always carried out of his pocket, putting it on, and putting up his hood. He marched down the alley, rolling up his sleeves. The guy looked at him, brandishing the knife at him. "What are you supposed to -" he didn't finish as Jason kicked him in the stomach, knocking him into the wall. He grabbed the guy's wrist, forcing him to drop the knife and then put a forearm to the guy's throat before turning to the woman.

"Get your stuff and go," he said. She wearily gathered her things and ran out of the alley. Jason looked back at the mugger, who was now passed out and let him drop to the ground. He went to the mouth of the alley, calling the police, making sure he heard sirens before he ran off, putting the mask away and heading home. That felt good, helping that woman, protecting her, that felt really good.

#jason todd #jasontodd #jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #jason todd x y/n #redhood #red hood #red hood x reader #red hood x you #red hood x y/n #notromeo

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kittymaine · 1 year

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Free Tire Removal Service

Note: I wrote this for the 40th Anniversary Jason Todd Exchange. This was my gift for G_of_Thorn.

-----

The first time Jason Todd stole the wheels off the Batmobile he was fifteen and it nearly cost him his life. You would think that he would know better than to do it again.

But, Jason wasn’t a fifteen year old kid helpless in the mean streets of Gotham’s seediest districts anymore. He was the big bad Red Hood and he wasn't afraid of the Bat or Two Face or even the Joker (especially the Joker). So, the first time he saw the Batmobile parked in HIS DISTRICT (the nerve, seriously) Jason didn’t hesitate to jack those big beautiful truck tires. Seriously, he didn’t even know they made them that big. He didn’t stick around to see what the Bat would do once he found his ride up on cinder blocks. He rolled those big ass tires all the way to the nearest chop shop, sold them for a mint (because really who was going to try and rip off the Red Hood) and took the money straight to Abuela Gutierrez. She could put the money to good use.

The second time he ran into the Batmobile it was in Tricorner. Not his usual stomping grounds, but he had a hot tip that Carmine Falcone was storing his heroine in a storage unit there and had made a short trip to the island to wire up a little c4 and blow the whole unit to kingdom come. On the way back, he happened to see something glossy black in a narrow alleyway behind a Thai restaurant that had him doing a u-turn on his bike. There she was, the Batmobile, so glossy black it looked like candy paint.

It wasn’t the Bowery, not even close to it. But, Jason ws burning with curiosity about whether the Bat had taken any precautions after his last tidy haul. Besides, he had a collapsible tire iron in his saddlebag.

(The bat had taken precautions and added alarms on all the tires. But, Jason was no amateur and he disabled them before removing all the tires and rolling them the two city blocks to the water's edge and pushing them in.)

The third time wasn’t even him. He was out of town handling a shipment of epi-pens, mifepristone and other needed medications being shipped in from Canada hush hush like through a friend of a friend. He had two clinics set up in the Bowery by then, but keeping them stocked with the real essentials was a pain in the ass that a little bit of smuggling could easily solve for him. Fuck tariffs anyway they could eat his entire ass.

When he came back to Gotham, everyone was talking about how four kids no older than thirteen were seen rolling tires almost as big as them away from crime alley, all of them wearing red hoodies. Jason was so proud he could have cried. There was real hope in the next generation.

He sent a cake and a metric ton of burritos to the houses of each kid and made an announcement to all his guys. Any bat vehicle parked in the bowery was fair game. If any bat tried to give any of his people trouble for fucking with their cars, bikes or fucking unicycles, they could rest assured that the Red Hood would have their back.

Jason had expected that to be the beginning of open season. He was spoiling for a fight, if he was honest. It was either the Bats or Carmine Falcone and honestly he wasn’t all that interested in trying to go up against Falcone yet. He had been funneling the money he made from drugs (only non-addictives), drag races, and gambling dens back into the community. He had set up homeless shelters, free childcare centers, clinics, and children’s homes all throughout the Bowery, all with good people who he knew could be trusted. Anything that was leftover went straight to families that needed it. The Bowery was big, but it was also close and everyone basically lived in everyone else’s pockets. They kept things insular and they took care of their own and it was never hard to ask a few abuelas or nanas about who in the community could use his help the most. Still, that didn’t leave a lot of money left over to invest in weapons or hiring outside goons to go throw themselves into the line of fire.

The bats were the next best thing. The only problem was that they weren’t biting.

Jason had gotten a visit from Batman early on in his campaign to take over the Bowery. It was a joke, honestly. Jason had just started to wage a bloody one man war against Black Mask to push him out of the Bowery. He didn’t have a gang yet, just a duffle bag full of impressive weaponry and a death wish. And one night there Batman was perching on his window all dark and foreboding. Instead of fucking off when Jason took a few pot shots at him, he just started droning on about how Jason was a criminal and if he didn’t stop with all the violence and bloodshed, he would be getting another visit from him and next time he wouldn’t be so nice.

Oh, so scared. /s

What a douchebag.

Jason didn’t pay him any mind. Partially because he already thought that Batman was a grandstanding jackass who only ever showed up if he could get a big front page piece written about him in the Gotham Gazette. Where was Batman when his dad was beating him? Or when his mom was passing out on street corners? It didn’t even have to be particularly his mom and dad. When had Batman ever helped anyone who lived in the Bowery, in the poorest part of the city, like him? Never, as far as he knew. Batman barely ever set foot in the Bowery. The rest of his reason was because he wanted Batman to pick a fight with him. It had been a while since Jason met someone he couldn't beat in a fair fight and he was looking forward to punching the Bat in the face.

Jason succeeded in not just pushing Black Mask out of Gotham, but actually spun his ass out so bad that he was lucky to own one shitty strip club and a bar out in the West End. Batman never showed up again. Jason mostly forgot about him and focused on his own shit.

Until now. Who knew that Jason could still be disappointed in Batman even after all these years?

Despite the open invitation to come fuck with him, no Batman ever showed his face in the Bowery. Batman and all of his associates weren’t seen in the Bowery for months after the kids stole his tires. It was a bummer. Most of his people seemed happy about it though. They were all patting themselves on the back for scaring off the big bad bat. So, Jason shrugged it off. At least it was good for morale.

Until finally one of them showed up.

A late night in May, under cold drizzling spring rain, Jason spotted a bright red spot of color shooting down the streets toward Otisburg, cutting right through the center of the Bowery. He followed it on the rooftops for a while before it pulled into what he thought was a locked underground garage and disappeared. Intrigued, Jason followed.

The garage was locked when he got to it, but he was able to enter the building it was built under and access the garage from there. Inside was a lot of garbage, a few abandoned cars and oh hello. A glossy red coupe with a definitely illegal tint on the windows. Not to mention a garishly obvious stylized R painted on the hood. Jesus. Way to keep a low profile.

Still, Jason was so pumped to finally get a chance to take another pot shot at the Bats that he didn’t just take the tires off. No, he also removed the suicide doors, the bucket seats, and was under the hood working on detaching and lifting out the engine with a chain tossed over a metal support beam in the ceiling when the boy wonder himself finally came back.

“Hey! HEY!” Robin shouted, sprinting at Jason from somewhere in the dark garage, his voice sounding a lot more frantic the closer he got. “OH MY GOD! What have you done to MY CAR?!” he screeched by the time he came to a sliding stop a few feet away from the car itself. Jason had carefully placed each piece he removed from the car beside it so it looked like a halo of car parts surrounding the chassis up on cinder blocks.

“Oh, well look who it is!” Jason sang as he popped up from under the hood holding an adjustable wrench in his hand. “If it isn’t the bird brained idiot who parked his car in my territory. How’s it going, bird brained idiot? Catch any ne’er do wells today?”

“How did you do all this? The seats? THE STEREO?!” Robin bemoaned, going from one item on the ground to the next like he didn’t know where to look.

“Oh my god,” Jason sighed, rolling his eyes so hard he thought he might have seen his brain for a second. He dropped the radiator to the ground with a loud clang and walked over to where the chain hooked around the engine was hanging from a beam in the ceiling and gave it a testing pull. It was still attached in a few spots, since he wasn’t actually ready to take it out yet. But, he could probably pull off his big coup de grace well enough. He had the core strength for it.

“HEY ASSHOLE” Jason shouted and Robin’s head popped up, his face a comic masterpiece of crestfallen and confused.

Once Jason had his attention, he gave a powerful pull on the chain and the whole front of the car lifted off the ground for one brief glorious moment before with a horrendous sound of wrenching metal and torn vinyl piping the last few bits and bobs connecting the engine to the rest of the car gave out and the whole thing ripped free of the chassis, dropping the car back onto the front cinder blocks with a loud clang.

Robin wailed a distraught “NO STOP WHAT ARE YOU-” but froze as his car came crashing down to Earth with an ear shattering bang.

Jason guided the engine block down off the chain and onto the dirty garage floor and then dusted his hands off on his jeans. Robin was still frozen in shock, his hand still half raised toward his car. Jason tapped his adjustable wrench on Robin’s shoulder as he went by him.

“Stay out of the Bowery, twerp,” he said brightly and then strolled out of the garage humming a merry tune.

-----

Jason was exceedingly pleased with how well pranking Robin had gone, but he assumed that would be the end of it for the bats for a while. Batman had obviously gotten the message loud and clear and Jason would eat his own shoe if Robin so much as saw the word Bowery in a book and didn’t shudder in terror. Surely, they had the message now that no bat was safe in the Bowery and he wouldn’t have to worry about seeing any more after that.

Except that Jason developed a shadow just a few days after his run in with Robin.

Once the sun went down and Jason put his helmet on, he could feel that he was being followed. He couldn’t see whoever was following him, but he could feel them. Like a breath on the back of your neck or a sense of foreboding, he knew he was being followed everywhere by unblinking eyes as soon as he donned the Red Hood.

It took a week before Jason finally admitted that he wouldn’t be able to catch whoever it was who was watching them. No amount of turning around or taking strange turns or changing up his routine could shake the feeling of being watched. But, he could at least let them know that he knew he was being watched.

He was on top of his own apartment building, sitting between planters full of cherry tomato and pepper plants still small in their big five gallon pots when he called out, “I know you’re there! You could at least come out and say hello!”

He wasn’t wearing his helmet. It was the end of his night, so he had taken it off and was dragging on a cigarette before heading inside. But, he was still armed and in his body armor and it had been an easy night, except for the constant eyes always putting him on edge. If this was likely to work, he didn’t see why he shouldn’t try it then. Not that he was actually expecting ‘asking nicely’ to work.

So, imagine his surprise when a thin dark figure separated itself from the shadows at the far end of the roof and stepped toward him.

Jason startled so hard he almost dropped his cigarette over the side of the roof. Almost.

“Whoa! Ah, okay, hi hello. I really didn’t think that would work,” Jason stumbled over his words.

The shadow tilted its head at him and oh look it had little bat ears. Guess that answered that.

“You broke Robin’s car,” the shadow said in halting uncertain speech. They also had the voice of a young girl.

“I didn’t break his car, I just disassembled it. He can put it back together,” Jason said with a wry grin. He was tempted to take another drag of his cigarette but wanted to be ready if she lunged at him.

“You stole Batman’s tires,” the little shadow added, stalking closer but staying at the edges of the roof.

“Okay, I did do that. Multiple times, even,” Jason said, his grin turning smug as he remembered the satisfied feeling he had each time he rolled those tires away from that shining black monster of a vehicle.

“Can’t steal my tires,” the little shadow said, it’s voice lilting up in a teasing tone.

“Oho,” Jason laughed, some of the tension bleeding out of his body. He wasn’t sure he could take such a sneaky shadow in a fair fight, but if she just wanted to play, then that was fine with him. “Pretty confident, huh? What makes you say that?”

“Don’t drive,” she said with such a perfectly innocent shrug that it made Jason bray out a loud uncontrolled laugh.

“You got me there!” he said, once he caught his breath. “But, bats and birds still aren’t allowed in the Bowery. I’ll figure something out,” Jason said with a dangerous grin. “I’m the Red Hood, by the way. Don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” he added with a genteel little sketch of a bow.

“You’re Jason Todd,” the little shadow said confidently and Jason was so shocked he almost fell over. But, luckily he was leaning against the low wall around the roof, so he didn’t. That would have been embarrassing.

“I’m Black Bat,” she said, holding out one slim hand encased completely in ink black kevlar.

Jason took her hand and shook it firmly. She squeezed his hand just as strongly back. “You’re scary as hell, but don’t think I won’t find a way to get the best of you,” he said.

“Good luck,” she tittered and then was gone almost before he could blink.

-----

Jason pondered for a good long while how to catch the Black Bat. If she didn’t drive, then his current method of fucking with the bats was out. He considered just fighting her, as that was normally his go to for dealing with people who didn't listen to him. But, he also liked her and even if she was scary as hell she was also tiny and sounded feminine. He was not ignorant of the optics of a huge tank of a guy like him fighting a girl as tiny as her. That tossed out most of the physical stuff and put him back in prank territory. Something he didn’t have much experience with, if he was honest with himself. So, off to YouTube he went.

There were a staggering array of options when it came to pranking someone, Jason found out. Jason would never admit it, but he lost hour upon hour looking up all the different kinds of pranks people played on each other. A lot of them weren’t options because they were either too mean or required you to live with the person, but finally he settled on one he thought a young girl would probably appreciate. Buying the crafts was a fun experience in ribbing, but Mrs. Cotilla who ran the dollar store was nice enough not to give him too hard of a time for all the weird shit he was buying.

Then, all he had to do was wait for her to show up. Or, for him to feel her eyes on the back of his head and call her down, more than likely.

So again imagine his surprise when he felt eyes on his back but also heard footsteps. Was she getting sloppy? Or was she trying to give him a chance? If that was the case he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Reaching into the pouch on his hip where he had been keeping his secret ammo just for her, Jason whirled as fast as he could and chucked the pouch at where he had heard her coming up on him as hard as he could.

The first thing he saw was an explosion of red and black glitter as his glitter bomb collided with something. The second thing he realized was that the thing his bomb had collided with was not a young girl all in black but a young girl all in eggplant purple who was gaping at him while she was covered head to toe in red glitter.

“DID YOU JUST GLITTER BOMB ME!” she shrieked holding her arms out at her side.

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE BLACK BAT!” he shouted back, holding his hands out palms up.

“Glitter! For me?” Black Bat called, her voice all excitement and teasing as she separated herself from the shadow of a water tank and jumped as light as a cat to stand beside the girl in purple. She picked up the glitter bomb from the ground and gasped in delight as she squeezed it and it rained more sparkling plastic pieces.

Jason pressed a hand to his chest and tried to slow his beating heart. “Shit. Yes,” he gasped, taking a deep breath. “I told you I was gonna get you somehow!” he shouted once he realized that she was there and the glitter trap had finally been sprung.

“You didn’t get her though! You got me!” purple girl shouted, trying to brush the glitter off of her front and only succeeding in grinding it into the fabric more. “God dammit! And it had to be red?”

“Never would have got me,” Black Bat said, tossing the glitter bomb to the ground once it was no longer making little puffs of red sparkles when she squeezed it.

“I’ve still got plenty more of these things. I’ll get you. You’ll see,” Jason blustered, putting his hands on his hips.

“I want the glitter,” Black Bat said, holding her hand out and putting her other hand on her hip mirroring Jason. “Give.”

“What? Fuck. No,” he said, confused and on the backfoot. “Why would I give you the glitter? Hell no.” But she just kept standing there with her hand out looking tiny and threatening. And, Jason had made them for her. And, there was no way in hell he was going to hit her with one of these things. She could at least enjoy his hard work, he guessed. “Goddammit,” he spit and handed her the pouch full of glitter bombs.

She hummed happily as she pawed through the pouch, sending up more little poofs of red glitter dust before selecting a glitter bomb. She weighed it in her hand, tossing it up and down and then whipped it at Jason as hard as a baseball pitcher nailing him square in the forehead. Luckily the glitter bombs were just made of cotton balls, red and black glitter and burlap so he didn’t feel anything but a rain of glitter sprinkle down his face and chest.

“Jesus fuck,” he groaned, not even bothering to try and get the dust off. He knew from experience that it would take days for it to leave his skin and hair.

“Avenged,” Black Bat said to the purple girl.

“That’s why you’re my actual best friend,” purple girl sang.

“This is my friend,” Black Bat said to Jason, gesturing at purple girl with the pouch of glitter bombs she still held in her hand.

“Spoiler,” Purple girl added.

“Spoiler for what?” Jason asked, his nose wrinkling as he frowned and tried to shake glitter out of his bangs.

“No, like, my name is Spoiler. Like, I spoil all your evil plans! Get it?”

“Seriously?” he turned to Black Bat. “You guys let her go out with a name like that?”

“Hey! Like you have any room to talk! You’re not even wearing a hood right now that’s a fucking domino!”

“Hey, this isn’t feedback hour, okay? My name is ironic,” Jason spat back.

“YOU STARTED IT!” purple girl shouted back.

“Hey,” Black Bat interrupted them, poking Jason in the side which gave him a little start because okay when did she get so close. “Spoiler has a bike.”

“Huh? Uh, yeah. Why does that matter?” purple girl asked looking confused.

Jason was also confused for a second before the clouds parted and God smiled down on his poor bedazzled ass and he realized what Black Bat was getting at.

“Did you park it in the Bowery?” he asked with what he knew had to be a truly unhinged looking grin.

“Uh. Yeah? Why?” purple girl answered, but she wouldn’t get an answer. Jason was already sprinting off the roof toward the road scanning for any hint of purple he could see. This girl had a theme and he doubted that her bike had escaped it’s eggplant grasp.

What followed was probably the most fun and chaos Jason had had since ever probably. He was methodically grappling across the Bowery looking for Spoiler’s bike while being chased by a frantic Spoiler who had at some point gotten Jason’s bag of glitter bombs so he was being spiked with them every time she got too close. Black Bat was also zipping along beside them, sometimes helping Jason, sometimes helping Spoiler and just generally being a force of uncertainty.

Jason eventually found the bike parked down near the water but before he could do more than plant his butt on it, Black Bat was flinging him off it. But, for his trouble, she had given him the bag of glitter bombs. So, Jason got to chase Spoiler back across the Bowery pelting her with as many glitter bombs as she had hit him with.

Once both Spoiler and Jason were laying flat on their backs exhausted on a rooftop near Otisburg, Black Bat sat down on Jason’s chest and showed him his pouch filled with all the glitter bombs they must have lost as they chased each other up and down the Bowery. He had no idea how Black Bat had had time to gather them all back up and put them back in the pouch while still chasing the two of them, but she had.

“Now me,” she said with finality and plunked the bag down between the two of them.

So, Red Hood and Spoiler took turns tossing red glitter bombs at Black Bat while she performed what Jason guessed was probably a dance from Swan Lake with all the fluttering of hands. By the time the sun was starting to peak over the edge of the water, turning it into a diaspora of glitter itself, they were all completely covered with a metric ton of glitter.

“Fun,” Black Bat sighed happily, turning her arms in the warm morning daylight and watching them sparkle.

“Yeah. You two are cool,” Jason agreed. He was exhausted. Chasing those two girls all across the city was a tougher workout than any fight he’d ever had. “You can hang with me. But, no boys!” he added loudly.

Spoiler barked a laugh. “No boys allowed!” she agreed. “Only hot girls and homicidal crime bosses.”

“Amen,” Jason said.

-----

Jason was added to a group chat titled ‘two girls and a criminal’ by the next morning. He was more than a little tickled by the name and was glad that one of them had thought to open up a line of communication. That way they could let him know when they were flying through his district and he could warn them about any skeevy shit he heard about through his own channels. He also put the word out with his gang that purple girl and the little shadow were cool and not included in his Fuck Batman five point plan.

Even if that was the intention they mostly just sent memes to him and he mostly just sent pics of his tomatoes and the kids in his after school group, which they fawned over appreciatively anyway.

Spoiler came by irregularly, usually while chasing a case. Despite acting wild and fun in person, she was surprisingly no nonsense about her cases. Most of which were about hustling the other gangs still messing with the lower income areas of Gotham that weren’t under his protection, so Jason was more than happy to feed her whatever information she wanted. Even if he could tell that half the info she was fishing for wasn’t for herself. He didn’t know if it was for Batman or someone else that she was gathering intel and he didn’t particularly care. He trusted Spoiler enough to deal with her regardless.

Black Bat showed up all the time. He wasn’t really sure what her deal was, but she was fun and scary smart and the kids in the Bowery immediately fell in love with her. If the kids liked her, then that was good enough for him. Their asshole radar was honed as sharp as scalpels, so their positive assessment was worth its weight in gold to him.

Plus, she always came along with him to get greasy chili dogs at the hot dog stand outside Papi’s Strip Club which made her a hit with not just him but all the girls and customers there. Within a few months she was as good as any Bowery native, born and raised, as far as the people on the street were concerned.

And then one night at the end of summer Black Bat and Spoiler showed up together, which always spelled trouble, with one more kid in tow.

The three of them landed on Jason’s roof, their feet making hardly any sound on the sunbaked bitumen. Somehow Robin looked smaller and slighter than both the girls, though that might have been because of how they stood in front of him with their backs straight and their shoulders thrown back while he seemed ready to fold in on himself any moment.

“Hey, I thought we said only hot girls and crime bosses,” Jason said mildly, stubbing his cigarette out on the sole of his boot before slowly hauling himself out of the folding chair he had been lounging in.

He didn’t really mind them bringing Robin along. They both mentioned him pretty often, so it wasn’t hard to figure out the three of them were pretty tight. He had figured that it wouldn’t be long before they brought him into their little cadre of crime fighters and criminal.

“Robin basically counts as a girl,” Spoiler quipped, though not a muscle in her body relaxed and her feet remained planted firmly like she was waiting to take a hit.

“Hey,” Robin said weakly from behind her. “In my defense, I don’t even want to be here,” the last bit mostly directed at Jason.

“Robin is good,” Black Bat said, her body language loose and easy. Though for her she could be doing the splits and still be ready for anything. “And, we need him.”

“Oh yeah?” Jason drawled. “What for?”

“For the prank to end all pranks,” Spoiler added with a shark toothed grin that Jason could see even under her full face mask.

“We’ll need his brains,” Black Bat added with a solemn nod.

Jason snorted. “Well then, you kids have come to the right place!” Jason said with a grand sweep of his arm. “As my feathered friend there can tell you, I am the king of pranks! Did you ever put your car back together, by the way?”

“Yes,” Robin snapped out, looking alive for the first time since they dropped down. “No thanks to you.”

“I knew you could do it, kid,” Jason said with a wink that made Robin look so wrong footed and flustered that he almost laughed again. “So, what do you have in mind,” he asked Spoiler.

“We’re going to prank the most untouchable of us all,” she said with a solemn expression. Jason frowned, expecting her to say Batman. He wasn’t above pranking Batman, but he kept so far out of the Bowery lately that he expected he would have to go pretty far afield to get him. Though, if the kids helped him maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. “Nightwing!” Spoiler finished.

“Nightwing?” Jason repeated, totally lost. That definitely wasn’t what he was suspecting. “That guy from Bludhaven? Why him? I thought for sure you were gonna say Batman.”

Spoiler snorted. “Bats has to be the easiest guy in the world to prank. One time I put mouthwash in his mug instead of coffee and I swear he drank from it three times before he poured it out.”

“Last week I put glow in the dark hello kitty stickers all over the back of his cape and he did a whole patrol like that,” Tim chipped in.

“Whipped cream. Up nose,” Black Bat added with a snort and a mime of shooting a can of something up her own nose.

“Jesus,” Jason said, not sure if he should be impressed by their savagery or sympathetic for Batman.

“Nightwing is the real get. He’s the oldest of us and the only one who’s graduated to having his own city to protect and everything. And he’s not beaten down and exhausted like Bats yet. We’ve all tried to get him, but it’s like he has eyes on the back of his head! It’s ridiculous!” Spoiler complained, waving her arms around in frustration.

“He’s a nice guy, though! He’s like my big brother,” Robin added hesitantly. “So, like, we don’t want to go too hard on him.”

“Yes go hard,” Black Bat added.

Jason snorted.

“You’re our ace in the hole,” Spoiler hissed. “You got all of us-”

“Not me,” Black Bat interrupted.

“All of us MORTALS,” Spoiler corrected herself with a haughty glance at a pleased looking Black Bat. “With you we can finally get his ass!”

Jason made a show of thinking about it for a second. There were plenty of reasons not to do it. For one, Jason had negative interest in anything happening outside of Gotham. For another, he knew next to nothing about this Nightwing guy. For third, it might not be wise to make enemies of some unknown mask, even if the other Bat kids were down for it.

But, who was he kidding. He knew he was in from the second they asked.

“I’m in,” he said finally, eliciting a whoop of delight from Spoiler, a little hopping dance from Black Bat and a begrudging look of satisfaction from Robin. “Let’s get to planning. I’ll make pancakes.”

-----

They eventually decided on a multi-prong approach. The girls wanted to go hard on this guy, so they decided to each play to their strengths. Each of them would go after this guy with a prank they felt was the best match for their skills with Jason as the unexpected coup de grace.

They all jumped in the back of one of Jason’s shit cars and rode together for the quick one hour drive on the interstate into Bludhaven. Once they were there, they all jumped on a comm together and then took off in different directions. The game was on.

Jason went straight to his objective. His job was going to take the longest, but he was more than confident he could get it done in time. After the kids piled out, Jason took the car deeper into the city. Bludhaven really was a shithole, even by Bowery standards. At least the Bowery had character and history. Bludhaven was all strip malls and square cheaply built office buildings piled up beside shitty hipster bars stacked beside gaudy department stores. Nothing was much older than thirty years old, yet everything looked run down and dirty. The sidewalks were miniscule, with no room for kids to ride bikes or even walk or cross the streets. Jason drove for over thirty minutes before he saw a single grocery store. Seriously. These people should eat their elected representatives for breakfast.

Eventually he reached the small security door that Robin had marked on the map for him. He pulled his shitty truck up to the alley and hopped out. Just like Robin had advised him, there was a keypad beside the door and entering in the code caused the door to lift up and in like a garage door rather than a normal door. Jason raised his eyebrows behind his domino mask. Swanky. He grabbed his toolbox and welding kit from the back of the truck before heading down the narrow ramp hidden behind the door.

At the bottom of the ramp he pushed through swinging plastic sheeting and found himself in a hidden garage with a bunch of tools and junk strewn around but the crown was definitely the gleaming glossy dark blue bike siting square in the center.

“Hello, baby. I am going to do some truly terrible things to you,” Jason sang.

As Jason got down to work, the earpiece he was wearing crackled to life and the plan finally began.

Tim was the first leg of the plan because, as the girls had assured Jason, he was by far the best liar of all of them. He would get Nightwing to where they needed him to be.

“A great night for patrol, don’t you think?” Nightwing was saying, grunting like he was stretching or climbing over the comms.

“A perfect night,” Robin agreed. “Spoiler’s hot tip is over on Baltic Avenue. Let’s head over and pick out a good spot to stake out.”

Robin and Nightwing kept up a friendly chatter as they ran the rooftops to get to the fake lookout spot that Spoiler had ‘tipped Robin off about’. Jason worked away as he listened, happily disconnecting transmission lines and removing brake pads.

Once they got to Baltic Avenue, Steph’s leg of the plan took over. Robin led Nightwing easy as could be to the roof of an old multiplex. They both laid down on their bellies and pulled out binoculars to keep an eye on a boarded up office building across the street. Robin really was an excellent liar. Jason couldn’t find a hint of deceit in his voice and he already knew he was lying. Maybe Nightwing knew him better, but if he thought anything was off he wasn't giving any hints either.

After letting them lay there and get comfortable for a few minutes, Jason heard a bit of metallic banging and then Spoiler called out “YOU’VE YEE’ED YOUR LAST HAW, PARTNER!” which made Jason laugh so hard that he almost choked on his own spit.

From the other comms he heard a similar guffaw of startled laughter before the sound of something going Shoom! A deep hollow sound came faintly over the comm. There was a wet splat sound and then Nightwing shouting “OH MY GOD” and a much lower, “Dammit Steph,” from Robin. Which Jason took to mean that she had succeeded in nailing them both with her t-shirt canon loaded with hand towels soaked in purple fabric paint.

Nightwing burst out into laughter and the sound of slapping came over the call, so Jason figured he was trying to brush the paint off his suit. But, since it was fabric paint, he was only going to make it worse. That shit was never going to come out.

“Haha, Spoiler! How- Were you there the whole time?” Nightwing laughed, sounding way too pleased for this prank to be working correctly.

“YOU HAVE BEEN BETRAYED!” Spoiler continued to shout. There was a clatter as she tossed her t-shirt canon aside. “BUT THE BETRAYAL DOESN’T STOP HERE!”

“Haha, what the fuck,” Jason heard Nightwing say quietly to himself.

“HARK!” Spoiler shouted. “THE HARBINGER OF YOUR DEMISE!”

At that the sound of absolute chaos took over the comms, the volume getting so loud that the audio started clipping. Jason heard a shout of “CASS!” and “No! It’s in my mouth!” and “AH! NOT ME!” in beats and snatches. He guessed they didn’t care much about secret identities anymore. Not that he cared. They probably already knew his social security number and the last time he had his flu shot.

Jason would have taken his time to really soak in the truly glorious amount of chaos Black Bat was causing, but the fact that she was out lobbing yellow glitter bombs designed by the great Red Hood himself meant that the last part of the plan was in motion. Black Bat's job was to drive Nightwing (and possibly Robin if Nightwing hadn’t yet realized he was untrustworthy yet) to the garage Jason was hiding in, in the hopes of outrunning her on his bike.

Which meant that Jason only had a few minutes tops to put the final touches on his part of the plan. Luckily, in case it wasn’t already evident, Jason was fast as fuck with a wrench and a welding torch and he was very nearly done.

He was just stepping back and wiping sweat from his brow to admire his work when he heard Nightwing and Robin crash down into the alley outside the fake security door. Black Bat and Spoiler were right on their asses, their cackling laughter echoing strangely as they were picked up by multiple mics on the call. Jason took up a spot behind the bike, his arms crossed over his chest in a way he knew made the muscles in his biceps bulge impressively.

Nightwing and Robin scrambled down the ramp into the garage and Nightwing skidded to a halt three or four feet into the garage when he saw Jason and what was left of his bike. Robin almost ran into the back of him, but was able to stop himself and lean around Nightwing with a demonically pleased grin stretching his little gremlin face.

“May I present to you,” Jason said with aplomb. “The Night Cycle!” and here he swept a hand out to indicate the motorcycle that he had masterfully converted into a motorized unicycle. Still a motorcycle, technically! But now more suited to clowns with an adrenaline addiction than to a vigilante.

“Oh my god,” Robin laughed lowly, walking slowly around Nightwing so that he could circle the bike and admire it from all sides.

“Oh My God!” Nightwing exclaimed, sounding a lot more distressed than Robin had.

And now Jason finally took a second to look at Nightwing. He looked ridiculous, splattered all over with pastel purple paint which was covered again with shimmering primary yellow glitter. But, under all of that, he was also probably the fittest guy Jason had ever seen wearing a skin tight kevlar suit of all black accented in bright sky blue with thick dark wavy hair and the kind of jaw and mouth that Jason thought only movie stars from black and white films had.

Excuse me, why did these children not inform him that their ‘brother’ was a walking sexual awakening on legs? They were truly menaces.

Black Bat and Spoiler were by then sprinting into the garage and not bothering to skid to a stop before slamming into Nightwing’s back, who by the power of a core so shredded you could probably grate cheese on those abs, held himself still under their combined weight. They popped up around him to take in Jason’s masterpiece and their reactions were the butter to his toast.

Spoiler screamed in laughter and fell to the ground on her back, laughing so hard it sounded painful. Black Bat was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her grin spread so wide Jason could see it even under her full face mask.

“I want to ride,” Black Bat said, bouncing over to Jason.

“No!” Nightwing exclaimed, speaking for the first time since he saw his new bike. “Wait, no, please! That has to be so dangerous.”

“Aw, let the little lady take it for a spin,” Jason said, holding a hand out to Black Bat to help her up onto the unicycle. Which she took but didn’t use at all as she hopped up.

“Yeehaw. Motherfuckers,” she said before gunning the engine so hard even Jason lunged to stop her from smacking her face full force into the concrete floor. But, she just leaned forward and shot out of the garage full speed up the ramp, screaming all the way.

“Shit, wait!” Spoiler shouted, sprinting after her. Robin was tight on her heels, leaving Jason and Nightwing alone in the garage staring at each other.

“Are you … the Red Hood?” Nightwing asked slowly, moving to put his hands on how hips and then to cross them and then giving up and letting them hang free.

“Yep. That’s me,” Jason said awkwardly.

“How’d they rope you into this?” Nightwing asked, frowning around at the remnants of his bike. He was taking the destruction of his property surprisingly well.

“We’re buds,” Jason answered easily.

“Buds?” Nightwing asked, sounding really stumped, his head popping up to pin Jason with an unreadable look.

“Yep,” Jason said, popping the p on the word. “I failed to prank Black Bat and it was the beginning of the end. I’m one of them now, I guess.” What he just said sunk in a second after he said it and Jason rushed on to add, “A chaos goblin, I mean! Not a bat. Fucking perish the thought.”

Nightwing laughed, a real laugh not a fake or nervous one and Jason’s already battered sexual orientation took another hard hit. Good to know that all the bats were a menace in their own right.

“Well, I guess I should say welcome to the team. Of goblins, I mean,” Nightwing said, sticking out a hand.

Jason took it and Nightwing squeezed his hand tightly on the shake. Jason’s sexuality trembled. “I didn’t know you were a part of the team,” Jason said, resolutely keeping his eyes on Nightwing’s pleasantly smiling face.

“I’m the founding member,” he replied with a toothy grin.

“Oh,” Jason said intelligently, finally letting go of Nightwing’s hand.

“Anyway, why don’t you help me wrangle the rest of the goblins? They’re bound to have wracked up enough property damage for one night anyway,” Nightwing suggested, jerking a thumb over his shoulder back toward the ramp.

“Oh. Yeah. We can take my truck,” Jason grunted, following Nightwing out of the garage.

“Cool,” Nightwing smiled.

Jason’s sexual orientation crumbled with a sigh.

#jason todd #red hood #batfam #Fanfiction #Jason Todd is not adopted #Bamf Jason Todd #kittywrites

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maribatz-2k · 1 year

Text

Day 2: Parent

Note:: Short as hell but also more of a rush job. Lol. I wrote the third day out thinking it would work. But nope, so I had to come u with a second day on the fly. Lmao. So tired.

---------------------

Marinette meets Jason while protecting a child in crime alley. Why she was there? Well she was stalking this ten year old for about a mile or so. Apparently he decided she was the target for a pickpocket gone wrong and now she just wanted her purse back. So she followed him all the way to crime alley and meeting more shady beings.

The child has slipped into a warehouse meeting what appears to be the boss of a group of children who dropped all their victim's belonging in the center for approval. When no one showed up with enough bounty the man showed distaste and unapproved discipline. That made Mari's blood boil. She stepped into the warehouse, no weapon, no plan. Just walk in. The leader looked over, pushing his victim to the side then hold up his knife pointing it right to her. Marinette blinked at the man confused by his actions, eyeing the children and motioning for them to move away.

Some of the children reached down to grab their bounty and more before we running off. The others found a corner or hiding space and hid. The ten year old boy who snagged her purse remained laying there on the floor looking at her with confusion. Marinette smiled then walked closer to the leader watching him now to see what will happen. The man was a fool some reason his hand began to shake, fear radiated off of him. When he realized she wasn't going to stop he grabbed for the kid and held the knife to his neck. This stopped her.

A loud crash was heard from behind earning screams from the hidden children. The man turned his head leaving Mari an opening to charge. She knocked the knife out of his hand and pulled the kid to her, burring him into her chest as she kicked the man away. She leaned down, grabbed her purse and held the boy behind her not letting go. Red hood stepped forward, guns reholstered and staring at the Mari. His helmet covered his facial features so she wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad that he was there. He grabbed the man and just left leaving them all alone after that. Or so she thought.

A couple months later and a house full of kids. Mari was in the kitchen with the ten year old boy and one of the other kids she adopted making dinner. One of the children answered the door, letting in a burley man with a tuff of white hair near the front. Apparently a couple of the children invited him over to eat, and secretly playing match maker for their mom, but we won't talk about it. To their surprise a few more dinners and even some dates outside of house of kids and Jason had become their full time dad. He eventually moved into Mari's home helping her take care of all five adopted and then some children that come and go. Their life couldn't be any easier, he thought. Until Mari was pregnant with their first baby.

This should be easy right? It's like parenting the older ones. Right?

@maribatserver

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #jasonette #maribat march 2023

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arachnesbich · 2 years

Text

What if Jason didn't reveal his identity to the family after coming back from the dead?

He comes back to Gotham, becomes the Red Hood, but doesn't reveal his identity and ends up building a sort of love-hate relationship with the Bats. Over time, Hood end up working with them more often than against them.

Like, one day he's shooting(rubber bullets) at Batman, and the next he's giving Robin advice on his English homework and how to deal with his classmates.

(Damian and Jason met in the League, before Jason left to train more and become the Red Hood. So Damian knows Jason is alive, but thinks he's still traveling, training, and going on missions.)

Hood does somethings that remind Batman and Nightwing of Jason, but they don't dig too deep on it. (Just because someone makes a comment that reminds you of someone who died doesn't mean they're back from the dead.)

Hood does things that remind Damian of Jason as well, but Damian assumes that Hood may have met Jason in the League and they may have fought alongside each other.

Until Hood makes a reference to something that happened in the League, something Jason wouldn't tell a temporary ally.

(At first Jason didn't care if the Bats found out who he was, but after he started spending more (less violent) time with the Bat he started trying harder to hide his identity.) (Like, he felt like revealing who he was would potentially ruin the small amount of good he managed to make with the Bats and Gotham)

Damian spends his free time looking into where Jason could be and finds evidence to support that Jason was not only in the same city, but around the hotel Hood was staying at when he went on a mission in New York.

(Hood is in a good enough place with the Bats to go on missions with them and trust they can watch Crime Alley when he goes on missions without them)

Looking back further, Damian can find something linking Hood and Jason more than half the time he goes on a solo mission outside of Gotham. Things like: Jason showing up on some camera in the city; various receipts paid with an alias that is some variation of Jason Peter Todd; and, the most pressing, security footage of Jason undercover, sitting with the mission targets, then leaving ten minutes before Hood arrives.

Damian doesn't plan on telling his family, but does plan on confronting Hood and convincing him to let him see Jason. What actually happens is, Barbra finds him using her system to find someone using various alias' based around Jason's name and brings it to Dick's attention.

Dick asks him about it, the truth comes out and a family meeting is called.

(Bruce and Alfred are told first and they call a meeting after digging up Jason's grave)

Finding out Jason is alive is, at first, fantastic and then saddening. Talia brought Jason back with the Lazarus Pit and turned him into an assassin, but Jason was well enough to travel and visit Hood at the drop of a hat. Where was he? Why wouldn't he come back to them? If nothing was stopping him from going where he wanted and doing what he wanted, then why wouldn't he come home?

The only connection they have to Jason is the Red Hood, so they dig into it. The only way they're bringing Jason home is if they find out where he is and why he's staying away.

Putting Hoods behavior since he arrived in Gotham under a microscope with the added context of being close to Jason, a few instances seem to make more sense.

The familiar nicknames Hood would occasionally call Bruce, Dick, and Damian could have been picked up from Jason. The Hood's innate hatred for the Joker and intense anger at Batman for not avenging his second Robin's death, he must know Jason was Robin and about his tragic death. Calling Tim "Replacement" was obviously a reference to the second Robin as well.

With the way Hood acts defensively (protectively?) in reference to everything involving Jason and the fact Jason visits him and tells him details about their family, they must be really close.

It's Stephanie who suggests they're dating.

Stephanie: "So Hood met Jason in the League, they train and fight people together, fall in love, start dating and stay in touch when Hood comes to Gotham. That still doesn't explain why Hood came to Gotham and Jason didn't."

Tim: "Fall in love?"

Bruce: "You think the Hood is in a relationship with my son?"

Stephanie: "I thought we were all thinking that. I mean, its clear Hood is very protective of Jason."

Damian: "... Well, Todd didn't seem dis-interested in men. Hood could have drawn his interest."

Tim: "So Hood comes to Gotham, cleans up Crime Alley, where Jason grew up. He wanted Batman, Jason's father, to kill the Joker, Jason's murderer, to prove he cared and when B didn't he tried to do it himself. As an act of love and support?"

Dick: "This... makes an unfortunate amount of sense."

Bruce: "How so?"

Dick: "Jason comes back to life and finds out Tim is Robin and the Joker is still alive, thinking B replaced them would be pretty devastating. He might be too scared to come back to Gotham at all with the Joker still alive, even when you put him in Arkham he gets out. Jason tells Hood and eventually Hood comes to clean up Gotham while Jason does his own thing, away from Gotham."

Bruce: *Grunts sadly in Bat*

I want to continue writing this at some point, but I feel like I've fleshed out the beginning of the AU

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viccyfics · 4 months

Text

Jason's piercings

Words: 574

Chapter: 1/6 (Lobes)

Summary: The five times someone noticed Jason's piercings and the one time he and Bruce went to get piercings together

Read here or on AO3

At thirteen, Jason was no stranger to facing danger on the streets both as Robin and growing up in Crime Alley, but the prospect of piercing his own ears brought a different kind of anxiety.

Rummaging through Alfred's sewing box, Jason's fingers were unsteady as they sifted through spools of thread and buttons.

When his searching hands finally found what he was looking for, a needle, he couldn't suppress the grin that played on his lips.

He had already found a pair of silver stud earrings in Dick's room, most likely belonging to one of the many girls he brought home.

It was easy for him to swipe them after they were left behind.

Quickly heading back to his bedroom to use the en-suite, Jason kept looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was going to catch him.

Once reaching his bedroom and rushing into the bathroom, Jason locked the door and carefully laid out the stolen silver studs on the bathroom counter.

His gaze fixated on the needle in his hand, He reached down to pull open one of the cabinet draws pulling out one of his hidden lighters to heat the needle.

The silver studs glinting softly in the bright light, Jason looked around the room to check if he needed anything else as he placed the needle down next to them.

He was ready.

Taking a steadying breath, Jason turned his attention to the reflection in the bathroom mirror. The boy who stared back at him was smiling wide.

With a focused gaze, he aligned the needle with the lobe of his left ear. Pushing through with slight resistance, Jason winced, but the grin on his face spoke of triumph as the first stud found its place.

Moving on to the right ear, he repeated the process, the second piercing finding its place inside his ear.

He had wanted his ears pierced for years, and finally, he'd done it.

Once the studs were in place, Jason admired the reflection, the silver studs, standing out against the mess of his black hair.

"What are those, Master Jason?" Alfred asked, his eyes on Jason's ears as he set down the breakfast in front of the boy.

Bruce on the other side of the table, lifted his head.

Dick on the opposite him was too busy starting to devour his toast to pay attention to what was going on.

"Oh, my earrings?" Jason replied a smirk on his lips, "They're new."

"I can see that, Although I'm not so sure if they're new to you."

Jason's smirk dropped.

"What do you mean they're not new?" Bruce queried staring at the boy in confusion.

"You didn't go to a Crime Alley piercing place did you?"

Dick was now fully paying attention.

"No," Jason sighed "I did them myself…"

"Master Jason, if you wanted to get your ears pierced, Master Dick would have taken you to a reputable piercing studio," Alfred spoke.

"When did you do them?" Dick asked, sitting up from his seat to walk over to his brother.

"Before bed."

Dick tucked some hair behind Jason's ear to get a better look.

"They don't look bad just keep cleaning them and they should be fine by the time they heal."

With that, Dick headed back to his breakfast. "Oh, Jay?"

Jason looked back up at him a small bite of toast between his teeth.

"I'll let Roy know I found his earrings.

#Jason todd #Dick grayson #alfred pennyworth #Bruce wayne #Batfam #Batfam fanfic #Piercings #Vic fics #Batman #Batman fanfiction

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thrushforreal · 1 year

Text

It happened a few weeks after the Twins figured out Gotham's Vigilantes identities. In hindsight, it was obvious that Richard was planning on leaving. Robin went out with Batman on patrols less often, and when he did more often than not they were tense with each other. And than one night Robin was gone, and there were reports of a new vigilante in the next town over. Three days after, Richard Grayson, ward of Bruce Wayne, moved to Bludhaven.

But that’s not what got the whole town talking. No, that honor goes to the child that Bruce Wayne adopted two weeks after Richard left. Appearing out of nowhere from streets, High Society left wondering what this street kid did to get Brucie Wayne to adopt him. Well, all of High Society except for two children.

It wasn’t hard to connect the newly minted Jason Todd-Wayne to the new Robin that popped up not long after. The twins were just sad that they weren’t there on the first night of his debut.

It became clear that this Robin was quickly becoming Tims favorite. His photos being dominated by the bird themed hero. The two didn’t actually get to meet, or well ‘be saved by’, Jason until a year into his tenure as Robin. Surprising that night they weren’t out on rooftops for pictures. Trace had managed to get Tim to agree to take a night off to go to an arcade and diner. They had to go into some of the more seedy parts of Gotham for them not to be asked where their parent’s were but it was worth it in the end.

They stayed longer than they had intended, and the night isn’t exactly kind to two kids. So being backed into an alleyway with a gun leveled at them was to be expected really. Although it wasn’t like the thief was listening to them when they told him that they only had a couple bucks on them. The safety clicked off the gun when there was a voice above them. “Going after kids?” Two heads shot up to look at the voice, and one cracked to the side. A tooth knocked out by Robins foot. As Jason tied up the thief, throwing the gun to the side, he looked at the two kids. “Ya’ both ‘aight?” His crime alley accent bleeding through.

“Mhm.” was all Trace and Tim were able to say, Tim from excitement at Robin being right there in front of them and Trace from the shock of being held at gunpoint. Jason seemed to take it as shock from both of them, reaching up to his ear for him com.

“B?” He said, pausing for a moment for Batman to respond. “I’ve got a criminal tied up and police on the way, I’m gonna escort the victims home.” If Batman responded Robin didn’t indicate that he listened to it. Instead he grabbed onto a hand from both Trace and Tim and said to lead the way. So that's what they did, eventually coming out of their shells, talking excitedly. Tim had the foresight to lead them too a home just far enough into the safer area of Gotham.

So honestly they should have expected to be recognized the next time they saw Jason. They were just unlucky that the next time happened to be to be at a Wayne Gala. Usually their parents were either not in the country for the Galas, or they wouldn’t take them. But now, as their parents will tell them, there is a reason for their children to come with them. They can help them get close to Bruce Wayne by getting close to his son, despite Janet and Jack not approving of the childs...origins.

That is how Trace and Tim found themselves sneaking around the edges of the ballroom, grabbing snack off of tables as they go. Eventually they found themselves next to one Jason Todd-Wayne, having decided to stick to the walls instead of put up with pinched cheeks. It is Trace that goes up to him, basically pulling his arm as he protests at first before going silent. “Hi!,” they said, bringing him into the shadowed area that Tim was waiting in. “I’m Trace, although my parents call be Tracey, and this is my brother Tim Drake. He’s older by a minute but don’t let that fool you.”

There's not much to say after that, they did get close with Jason, not as close as their parents wanted. Although that friendship really only stayed within the bounds of balls a galas over the years.

~~~

this is kinda bad, but oh well. its my mental illness and this is the delusion i want

#batman #batman and robin #Batman Oc #trace drake #trace drake-wayne #Tim Drake #Tim Drake-Wayne #Jason Todd

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twinhood-2dot0 · 1 year

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A Shallow Dive into: The Batfam

Welcome to another episode of Alia-rants-about-stuff-she’s-passionate-about. Today, we’re exploring the Batfamily. You already know that this cast of characters is near and dear to my heart, but why exactly? That’s what you’re going to be seeing today. I wrote a post about the entire history of DC but it got too long and boring so I switched topics :P

Meet The Cast

Batman - The most iconic and second ever comic book superhero ever. Bruce Wayne was your typical rich kid, until one day while returning home from watching The Mask Of Zorro (most adaptations skip this detail but I’m pretty sure it’s canon in the comics), Thomas Wayne decided to take a shortcut FROM CRIME ALLEY, WHY DIDN’T THAT MAKE YOU RECONSIDER??? And a guy gunned down both his parents while trying to mug them but got jumpy. He vowed to war on crime and went around the world to learn literally everything he could that could help him. He returns, tries to stop a crime, gets almost killed, returns home and is sitting in a chair when a bat accidentally flew into his manor, and he took it as a sign to dress as a bat. In some versions (there are a lot of versions to this simple story somehow) Bruce had a fear of bats which also compelled him to turn his fear into criminals’ fear.

His superpowers?

And he’s extremely smart, trained in every martial art, mastery of every weapon, even an expert marksman even though he refuses to use guns, because parents (like everything about him). In Detective Comics #1000 we see him melt down the gun that Joe Chill used to kill his parents and use it to make the symbol on his suit. He has degrees in forensic fields and engineering and computer science and probably other sciences too. He’s at peak human capabilities. I could list everything he can do but I’ll shorten it to he’s the best at everything a human is capable of doing. If you do wanna know everything, I don’t know why you would but you can check it out here.

Robin - Robin is a mantle donned by several characters. His name came from Robin Hood. I don’t know why else a Bat would have a bird sidekick. 5 characters have taken up the mantle in main continuity, namely, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and the latest, Damian Wayne.

Dick Grayson - Son of the Flying Graysons, trapeze artists famous for their circus appearances where they would perform without a net. Their lives came to a tragic end when Anthony Zucco tampered with the trapezes resulting in them falling to their deaths. Bruce Wayne happened to be in the audience, and took Dick in, because he didn’t want him to turn into what he did and help him find justice.

He’s a founding member of the Teen Titans, starting the trend. He’s the comedic contrast to Batman, as made apparent by his costume choice. He eventually grows out of Batman’s shadow and becomes a hero in his own right, Nightwing.

Jason Todd - Considered by many as the most interesting Robin, he did not start out so popular. After Dick left Batman’s side, Batman picked up a juvenile delinquent who attempted to steal the Batmobile’s tires as his next Robin. Fans did not like him, presumably because they felt he was usurping Dick. So, DC decided to kill him off. They published the highly influential story of “A Death In The Family” at the end of which there was a phone number fans could call and vote whether to kill him or not. Yeah, the fans really did not like him, as he was voted to die.

He later came back in “Batman: Hush”, but it was Clayface (a Batman villain with a clay body and ability to change into people), in a ploy to psychologically break Batman by Hush. Nevertheless, it was revealed that Jason’s grave was empty, in a lead up to “Under The Red Hood”, in which it was revealed that Jason was resurrected and claimed the identity of Red Hood, his killer Joker’s identity before an accident turned him into Joker. He became a murderous vigilante which did not sit right with Batman. After Batman’s death in Final Crisis, he creates an armoured Batsuit and becomes a, again, murderous Batman. Murderous is a recurring theme until recently. Dick defeats him and is forced to take up the mantle. A while after Dick became Batman, he resurfaces and goes on a very public murderous rampage leaving notes saying “Let the punishment fit the crime”. He is defeated yet again and arrested this time.

He becomes an ally of Batman following the New 52 reboot and stops killing in an effort to gain Batman’s respect. Sorry this got so long, you can see why he’s so loved now though.

Tim Drake - Tim Drake was just a normal high school kid, but he was an exceptional detective and deduced the identity of Batman and Robin, and following Jason’s death, he approached Batman to become Robin as he felt Batman was a little unhinged without Jason. Tim may not be as strong or a great fighter like Nightwing and Red Hood. He is ummm… I don’t know much about him, except that he was replaced by Damian when Dick became Batman and has other identities of Red Robin and Talon and has gone back to Robin in Rebirth??? Yeah, it’s weird.

Stephanie Brown - A Robin not many talk about. She was the girlfriend of Tim and the daughter of Cluemaster, a super-villain. When Tim’s identity was uncovered by his dad he’s forced to hang up the cape, and Steph offered to fill in for him. She became Batgirl later on along with Cassandra Cain who I’ll talk about later. She was Spoiler before she became Robin. I don’t know much again, but she is kinda rebellious.

Damian Wayne - He’s the sometimes consensual, sometimes not son of Bruce and Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s al Ghul. He was trained from birth to be an assassin then just given to Bruce I think. Then Bruce died and he became Dick’s Robin. I love their sibling dynamic though, I love seeing Dick act like an older brother.

Batgirl - The first Batgirl was Barbara Gordon, my personal favourite batfam member, the daughter of Commissioner Jim Gordon, one of the few not incorruptible cop in the GCPD. On a Halloween she dressed up in a Batman costume and fought off Killer Moth, attracting the attention of Batman. While at first not appreciative he slowly warmed up to her. She works as a librarian and is a computer genius. When crippled waist down by the Joker, she assumed the role of Oracle, an information broker to help in the batfam’s crusades.

Cassandra Cain - Cassandra is the second Batgirl. I have yet to read the very influential “No Man’s Land” event, but her first appearance was in that event. She is the daughter of David Cain, a skillful assassin. He raised her only to kill. She wasn’t even taught spoken language so that the language processing part of the brain could read body language so she could react to every action before it happens. This made her second best if not best martial artist on the planet. However a mind reading metahuman rewired her brain so she could speak, and she lost her abilities and she had to ask Lady Shiva to help her regain her abilities.

Batwoman - Katherine Kane is the maternal cousin of Bruce Wayne raised by a Colonel. She is probably the most influential LGBTQ+ comic book superhero, being lesbian. She was in the army until she was booted for being lesbian. She was attacked by a mugger in Gotham and fends him off but Batman still arrives and inspires her.

Azrael - Jean Paul Valley was brainwashed by “The Sacred Order of Saint Dumas” as their vengeance enacter. He crosses paths with Batman who helped him break out of his conditioning. He then helps Batman in his crime fighting endeavour. He is famous for taking up the mantle of Batman when he had his back broken by Bane in the “Knightfall” storyline. He becomes a brutal version of Batman and had to be defeated after Bruce recovered.

Alfred - Arguably the most important member of the Batfamily, he’s the Wayne family butler who practically raised Batman and his wards. He’s the man in Batpeople’s ears feeding them information and quips

Alex, I'll see you on Thursday.

-Alia

#batman #dc comics #jason todd #dick grayson #red hood #nightwing #batfam

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dccomicsimagines · 3 years

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The Kid and the Bum - Batfamily Imagine

Part One.Five Part Two Part Three

Requested by Anon - Can I request a imagine where the reader(girl 6-8) is found by Jason Todd. He takes her home and they develop an older brother/younger sister relationship and Jason takes her to meet the batfam for the first time and she’s really scared?

***

“Hey mister, do you want to buy today’s paper?” Jason stopped in his tracks. A slightly beat-up newspaper was waved in front of his face. “It will only cost twenty-five cents.”

Jason sighed, raising an eyebrow. He pushed the paper out of the way to get a look at the little ragamuffin. You were young, about six or seven by Jason’s guess. Your clothes were dirty, some too small, others too big. Jason saw the familiar hunger in your eyes. Street kid.

“Nah, kid, but here.” He took five bucks out of his pockets. “Take it.”

Your eyes went wide. “What do you want me to do?” You backed away from him, already on guard. “I’m no whore.”

Jason ran a hand through his hair, swearing under his breath. He glanced around. This neighborhood could even give Crime Alley a bad name. Who would have thought there was a city worse than Gotham? “Kid, I don’t want anything from you. Just take the money and go get some food, huh?”

You eyed him carefully before snatching the five bucks away from him and quickly stuffing it down your shirt. Jason chuckled, kneeling down in front of you. “I do need some information though. I bet you know everything that goes on here.”

“Maybe.” You studied him. “What do you want to know, bum?”

“I’m a bum, huh?” Jason shook his head. “What a mouth on you, kid.” He took out another five bucks. “Have you seen any new people around? Some men in suits?”

You glanced around nervously. “Some people in suits. They came and talked to the old man on the corner. He grows stuff in his house.” You shrank when you noticed said old man was watching the two of you from his front step. “But I don’t know nothing.” Suddenly, you kicked Jason’s shin and snatched the five dollars from his hand.

“Kid!” You sprinted off. Jason tried to chase you, but the pain in his shin was too intense. He groaned, dropping to his knee to rub his leg. “Little brat.” A smile tugged on his face. You had quite a little kick. He stood back up, meeting the old man’s eye. The old man nodded at him before going back inside his house. Jason hummed. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard after all?

***

Jason left the old man’s house with a bag of...well, unsavory stuff. He pursed his lips. All he needed to do was go back to his safe house and test the stuff to see if there was fear toxin infused.

Usually, Jason would have someone with him to back him up. However, due to a recent falling out with the family once again, he was alone. Jason sighed, pulling his jacket closer to his body as a cold wind blew down the street. He would find out who was selling drugs with fear toxin on his own. After all, the rest of the family didn’t even notice the rise in drug induced attacks. All sparked by intense fear reactions.

He was about a block from his safe house when he felt someone following him. Careful, Jason causally glanced over his shoulder. No one was behind him. The street was empty. He frowned. It was three in the afternoon. Where was everyone?

“Move it, bum.” A little ball of energy slammed into his leg from the side. Jason grabbed the ball’s arm to find it was you again.

“What are you talking about, kid?” Jason looked around. Goosebumps formed on his arms. Something was off here.

“They’re coming!” You grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the nearest building.

Jason’s eyes widened. He felt you shaking like a leaf. Pupils dilated. “Alright.” He scooped you up under his arm and sprinted the rest of the block to his safe house.

You clung to his arm, nails digging into his leather jacket. Jason unlocked the door quickly and hurried inside. He set you down once the door was shut and securely locked again. You ran to the windows, closing the curtains.

“Kid, what the hell was that about?” Jason raised an eyebrow at you. You ran around, clearly still panicked. He moved to the window. Leaning against the wall, he opened the curtain with one finger to peek out to see several black cars turn and drive down the street.

“Don’t look.” You jumped on him, tugging on his jacket to get him away from the window. “They’re looking for new people.”

Jason pushed you away from him. “Calm down, kid. You’re safe here with me.” You ran to hide behind the couch. He sighed. The cars moved down the street, slowing as they passed. Jason hummed, frowning at the tinted windows. Expensive cars. His stomach soured when he caught the Gotham dealership plate on the last car.

“I knew it. Sionis, you dumb ass.” Jason shook his head. “You made a deal with the Scarecrow, didn’t you?” He left the window to go to his bedroom. Little eyes followed him. One press to the door frame of the closet caused thumbprint scanner to pop out. He smirked, hearing a little gasp from the bedroom doorway.

He pressed his thumb to the scanner and the wall flipped to reveal a secret computer built into the wall. Jason smirked, proud of his operation. He didn’t need anyone else anyway. “Are you the fuzz or something?” You appeared at his side, staring at the computer with wide eyes.

“Or something.” Jason took the drug out of his inner jacket pocket and started running tests.

You watched. “Like a James Bond something?” Jason glanced down at you to see a spark of mischief in your eye.

“Aren’t you a little young for James Bond?” Jason ruffled your hair. “Now tell me about the black cars.”

You glanced over your shoulder, suddenly jumpy. “They are bad people.”

“I know.” He turned away from the computer to kneel down to your level. “I’m here to stop them, but I need to know what’s going on.” You pursed your lips, crossing your arms. “Look, you owe me for the five bucks anyway and I’ll let you go ham in the kitchen.” He chuckled when you licked your lips. “Tell me what you know, kid.”

You began to tell him what you knew as the computer ran the tests to confirm what Jason already suspected.

***

“You can’t run, Black Mask.” Red Hood kicked open the doors to a fancy office. Very different from the old, dirty warehouse it was located in.

“Neither can you.” Black Mask jumped out from behind his desk with a gun in hand. “You aren’t messing this up for me too. This isn’t Gotham.”

Jason snorted, pulling out his own gun. “You pulled a gun on the wrong guy.” He shot the gun out of Black Mask’s hand faster than he could blink. Within moments, Black Mask was unconscious at Jason’s feet. “Dumb ass.” Jason shook his head, rolling his shoulder. He was about to pick up Black Mask to tie him up for the cops when he heard a scream.

His blood ran cold as bullets followed the scream. He handcuffed Black Mask to the leg of his desk before sprinting out of the room.

A crumpled form, surrounded by a dark puddle, laid by the door to the warehouse. Jason neared only to recognize the clothes. “Kid.” He slid to a stop beside you, putting pressure on the gunshot wound in your stomach. “Why the fuck are you here?! I told you to stay away!”

“They...” You coughed, struggling to keep your eyes open. “They were going to blow everything up.” Your little hand pointed to a pillar. Jason’s eyes widened when he saw a bomb strapped to it. A flash of another bomb in another warehouse appeared before his eyes, but he shook his head and focused on the present.

“It’s fine, kid. I’ll get you out of here.” He scooped you up in his arms and ran out of the warehouse. “You’ll be fine, kid.” Jason’s heart threatened to stop when your eyes closed and you fell limp in his arms.

***

Jason sat with his head in his hands next to your bedside. The hospital was loud and busy. You were in a crowded room with only a curtain for privacy. Apparently, the warehouse explosion caused more injuries than Jason thought it would. He couldn’t find it in his heart to care when you were so listless and weak.

The surgery went well and you were recovering nicely. Jason hovered nearby, taking the time to change out of his Red Hood suit into civvies.

A nurse opened the curtain and stepped inside with a clipboard. “Hi,” she whispered, coming over to check your vitals. You hadn’t woken up yet. Jason ran a hand through his hair. He couldn’t relax until you opened your eyes. “We still need paperwork filled out.” The nurse was suddenly handing Jason a clipboard with several papers piled on it. He blinked, confused. “You are family, correct?”

Jason glanced at you. “Yeah,” he answered carefully, taking the paperwork. “She’s my...sister.”

“Fill it all out. If you have any questions, ask the front desk.” The nurse disappeared through the curtains when an alarm went off nearby. Jason glanced through the paperwork, sick to his stomach. What was he supposed to do? He didn’t even know your full name.

“Bum?” Your eyes opened, looking around for him. Jason dropped the paperwork and took your hand.

“Hey kid.” Jason squeezed your hand, smiling when your eyes lit up to find him nearby. His heart melted. Damn, he was getting attached. Very attached.

“It hurts.” Your lips trembled, eyes filling with tears.

Jason hushed you. “I know, but you’re okay, kid.”

“Are we in the hospital?” Your eyes went wide, taking in your surroundings. “They’re going to put me back in the system.”

Jason’s stomach dropped to his feet, recognizing the look in your eye. He was the same way. The system was rarely a good place for a kid. “Don’t worry. You’re going to be staying with me.”

“With you?” A little spark of hope flashed in your eyes.

“Yeah.” Jason cleared his throat. He’ll figure out how to take you home with him. You relaxed, wrapping your little fingers around his. Jason smiled. It wouldn’t be so hard. After all, if Bruce could do it, why couldn’t Jason?

***

“This is home sweet home for now.” Jason opened the door to his Gotham apartment, wondering if he was doing the right thing. You peeked around him. He flicked on a light.

“Cool.” You wandered inside slowly, still recovering from your gunshot wound. Jason picked up the bags and headed inside. “So you aren’t a bum after all?” You stopped to stare at his rather big TV.

“No.” Jason chuckled, looking at the TV with you. He got it when he took over the Penguin’s Iceberg Lounge for a while. It was one of many things he took when he abandoned the place.

You sat down on his leather couch, another thing he took from the Penguin. Jason smiled. You seemed very content with the whole situation. Of course, the new clothes and toys he bought you helped a lot. “I should have figured.”

“Why don’t you rest on the couch here, kid? I got to go out to get some stuff for your room.” Jason ruffled your hair. You smiled, melting at the touch. “Take a nap. I won’t be gone more than an hour at most.”

“Okay, Jay.” You curled up on the couch and went to sleep almost instantly. Jason chuckled, grabbing the new throw blanket he bought you from out of the bags and draped it over you. He knew your wound was still bothering you. Sleep will hold off the pain until he could fill your prescriptions.

He leaned down to kiss your forehead before he could stop himself. “Okay.” He grabbed his motorcycle keys and wallet as he headed out the door.

***

“You hungry, kid?” Jason asked, rubbing your leg to wake you up. He had gotten home hours ago with everything he needed. “I made some spaghetti.”

“Mmm.” You opened your eyes. “I’m hungry.” The smile on your lips made Jason chuckle. He helped you up and led you to the kitchen.

Jason served you and himself. The two of you started eating in silence. “I made up your room. You can go check it out after you’re done. If you don’t like it, we can change it up.”

“Thank you.” You took a big bite of spaghetti. “This is the best day of my life.” Your mouth was full, so Jason almost missed your words.

He snorted, remembering when he said those words. It was his first day as Robin. He shook his head. “You’ll always have a home with me, kid.” Jason nudged your foot with his.

You smirked back at him once you swallowed. “Good.” Jason looked into your eyes, wondering if he gave Bruce the same look you were giving him now. A smile pulled at his lips. It made him never want to let you go. He sighed. You were here to stay.

***

Months later, Jason was frying up some burgers in the kitchen for dinner. You were at the table, working on your homework. Jason got you enrolled in school, despite having no real legal documents for you. You even went by (Y/N) Todd at school, much to his pride.

“What’s this?” You asked suddenly. Jason turned to look at you. He frowned when he saw you holding an envelope with Alfred’s neat cursive on it.

“Where did you get that?” Jason frowned, glancing at the mail piled on the table as if it betrayed him.

“It was under the newspaper.” You studied the envelope. “Can I open it?”

Jason grunted, turning back to the stove. “Work on your homework, kid.”

“Come on, Jay. Can I open it?” You appeared at his side, hugging his leg. “Please.”

A sigh escaped him. He didn’t want to explain the rest of the family to you yet, but how could he say no to you? “Fine.”

You cheered. He heard you rip open the envelope. “Master Jason? Who would call you that? You’re a bum.”

Jason flicked your head. “That’s just how Alfred addresses people, okay?” He flipped a burger. “What else does it say?”

“It says...he’s inviting you to Thanksgiving Dinner.” You pressed against his leg again. “Are you going to go?”

“I don’t know.” Jason snorted. “Besides, if I go, you go.” He shooed you away. “I’ll think about it. Go back to your homework. Dinner’s almost ready.”

You hummed, going back to the table. Jason saw the letter on the counter next to the stove. He read it. Alfred invited him to Thanksgiving, wanting to bury the hatchet so to speak. He knew Bruce probably didn’t know about his invitation. Alfred was doing it again. Manipulating Jason and Bruce into thinking the other made the first step.

However, he glanced back at you. Alfred must not know about you yet since you weren’t mentioned in the invitation. Bruce probably did though. He shivered. No, he’ll keep you away from them. You won’t get hurt by the family like he had.

***

Jason, dressed as Red Hood, peered down from a rooftop at a carjacking taking place below. He shook his head. “Dumb asses. That’s not even a nice car.” He took out his guns.

With one step, he dropped off the roof and landed on the first carjacker. They fell like a rock. The second dropped the crowbar he was holding before running. Jason sighed. “Always got to run.” He held up one of his guns without looking and fired. It hit the man’s leg, causing him to tumble to the ground. “No one carjacks in this neighborhood.” Jason picked up the one he landed on and handcuffed them to the street post.

The one he shot crawled away. Jason shook his head, jogging over to drag him over to join his partner. “Now sit tight. Cops will be here in five.” Jason grappled up to the nearest roof top and started to jog toward home.

You should be in bed, asleep. He reminded himself to be quiet when he got home. Despite the months with you, he was still getting used to the idea of having someone to take care of.

Two blocks from the apartment, a boom echoed in the distance. Jason slid to a stop. Several blocks away, a orange glow came from one of the buildings on the lower east side. Jason swore under breath. “Of course.” He took out his grapple gun and swung toward the orange glow.

***

Flames were everywhere as Jason broke through a window of the apartment building. Screams came from the hallway. His helmet helped him breathe through the smoke. One tap to the side of his helmet activated night vision, giving him a clear view of the building through the smoke.

He found the people in the stairwell. Flames trapped them inside. Two women and four children. One of the kids was your age. His heart was in his throat. “Gather the kids and hold on to me,” he ordered. He pushed the kids into the women’s arms. They were scared enough to obey him without question. The first woman grabbed the back of Jason’s jacket and he led them out to the window he came in from.

Using his grapple gun, Jason made a zipline to the ground. He secured the line to the top of the window frame. “Kids, hold on tight, and lady, don’t let go until your feet touch the ground.” He grabbed a wooden bat lying nearby.

“I don’t know if I can,” the woman whispered, terrified as Jason guided her hands to hold either side of the bat. It was a makeshift escape, but it would have to do.

“You can or you die.” Jason pushed the woman out the window. She and the kids holding onto her screamed all the way to the ground. Police first on the scene ran over to help them.

“Oh god, oh god.” The other woman was looking around frantically with one kid in her arms. “I’m missing Lydia.” Jason took in the situation. Damn it. He was missing a kid.

“I’ll find her, but you two got to go.” Jason grabbed a side table and broken off the leg. He put the woman’s hands on either side and shoved her out the window with the one kid hanging off her neck.

Jason spun around. The smoke was getting thicker, flames creeping around. “Lydia!” He got to a closed door and broke it down to find a empty bathroom. “Stupid kid!” He searched frantically. Panic set in. It was getting harder for him to breathe, even with his helmet to help.

He found her in a bedroom far far away from the window he set up the zipline from. Lydia was curled up on the floor, crying with a blanket around her. “Kid, this is not the time.” He scooped her up and ran out. The smoke was too thick even for his mask. He coughed, flames suddenly burst from the doorway he passed.

Taking more of the heat, he protected Lydia, struggling to get to the window. The building moaned around him. “Shit.” Jason recognized that sound. The building was going to collapse. He held the kid tight to his chest. With all his might, he sprinted toward a window he saw out of the corner of his eyes and burst through just as the building gave away.

The blast and rubble sent Jason and Lydia flying. Time slowed. Well, now all he had to figure out was how to land.

***

Jason crawled through his bedroom window just as the sun was rising. He moaned softly, taking off his helmet. Soot fell off it and scattered on the carpet. He sighed as more dirt and grim fell off his suit.

A whimper from the bed made Jason jump out of his skin. He pulled his gun on reflex, but stopped himself when he saw you curled up under his covers. “Aww, kid.” He ran a hand through his hair.

After a quick shower and tossing his suit in the wash, he crawled into bed next to you. You immediately cuddled closer to him, drawn by his warmth. Jason noticed the tear stains on your cheeks. He frowned. Within a moment, it hit him like a freight train.

What if he didn’t come home? After all, it was always a possibility. Tonight was an example of that. That landing would have killed him and the kid if he didn’t see a pile of trash bags on the street to break his fall. He never thought he would be grateful for a garbage strike.

Jason shook his head. What would happen to you if he didn’t come home? He felt like throwing up. You would wait for him and he wouldn’t come. Eventually, you would probably end up on the street or in the system again.

He wrapped an arm around you to pull you closer to him. Maybe he would take up the invite from Alfred and go to Thanksgiving? You could meet the family and that way, if for some reason Jason didn’t come home, there would be someone to take care of you.

***

Jason felt the tension in your body as you rode in front of him on the motorcycle. He had to drag you out of the apartment to even get you this far. The roads to the manor were slightly icy due to the freezing rain from the night before.

You grabbed Jason’s sleeve tightly when the manor came into view. Jason remembered when he first saw this place. He imagined you were having the same thoughts he did.

Jason parked the bike in the garage. “Jay, I’m scared.” You pulled off your helmet the moment the bike stopped.

“Kid, you don’t have to be scared. I’ll be with you the whole time.” He pulled off his own helmet once he put the bike on it’s kickstand. “They aren’t so bad.” He lifted you off the bike. “Besides, Alfred is an amazing cook, so the food will be worth it.”

You bit your lip, shaking. Jason sighed, running a hand through his hair. He scooped you up and set you on his hip. Your arms wrapped around his neck. Jason choked. “Sorry,” you whispered, but you didn’t loosen your grip.

Jason walked into the manor, nervous himself. Just when he was about to lose his nerve, Dick came around an corner with a baby in his arms. “Jay, you came.” Dick smiled before freezing when he saw you. You stared back at him with big eyes. “Who’s this?”

“I see you spawned.” Jason ignored Dick’s question, nodding to the baby. Dick rolled his eyes. “This is (Y/N).” Jason bounced you on his hip. “Say hi,” he whispered in your ear when you didn’t react.

“Hi,” you squeaked. You hid your face in Jason’s shoulder, shaking violently. Jason wondered if you were on the verge of a panic attack.

Dick smiled. “Hi (Y/N).” Jason could see the curiosity in his eyes. “Jay, (Y/N), this is Mar’i. Mar’i, this is your uncle Jay.” He held up Mar’i. Jason smirked when he saw her glowing green eyes and dark hair.

“At least she got your hair. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know she was yours.” Jason chuckled. Dick just raised an eyebrow.

Mar’i started to fuss. “Well, I better go change her. Alfred is in the kitchen. You better go let him know there will be an extra for dinner.” Dick gave you and Jason another suspicious look before walking off.

“See that wasn’t bad.” Jason soothed. “I mean he’s kinda a tool, but not bad at all.”

“He was looking at me funny.” You looked at Jason with tears in your eyes.

“That’s because he didn’t know who you were.” Jason snorted. “I didn’t tell them about you until now.” Your lips trembled. “Hey, don’t cry now. We’ll be fine.” He kissed your cheek. “Now let’s go meet Alfred. You’ll like him and he will definitely like you.”

You hid your face into his shoulder again. Jason sighed, heading toward the kitchen.

“Master Tim, please remove the pies from the oven,” Alfred said as Jason stepped into the room. Tim and Kon were with Alfred, helping out. Kon was peeling potatoes while Tim handled the oven. Alfred looked up from stove. He smiled when he saw Jason and you. “Master Jason, I’m glad you decided to join us and you brought Miss (Y/N) too.”

Jason raised an eyebrow in surprise. You perked up at the sound of your name, peeking out at Alfred. “You know about (Y/N)?”

“Of course.” Alfred wiped his hands on a dish towel and came over. “Hello, Miss (Y/N). I am Alfred.” He smiled. Jason set you down. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.”

You bit your lip shyly. Alfred took your hand and led you over to the counter where he offered you a cookie, making you comfortable. Tim set the pies out to cool before coming over to Jason. “Who is that?” he asked, nodding to you.

“Who is that? Your boyfriend?” Jason nodded to Kon. Kon narrowed his eyes at Jason.

“Yeah, it is.” Tim crossed his arms, winking over at Kon. Kon relaxed, smirking as he went back to peeling potatoes. “Now who is that?” Tim looked to you. You were happily munching on a cookie. Alfred poured you a glass of milk.

“That’s (Y/N). She’s my...kid...I guess.” Jason pursed his lips, wincing at the shocked look on Tim’s face.

“Like she’s yours? Like from a one night stand or something?” Tim glanced between you and Jason. Kon laughed, clearly listening in. Jason glared at him.

Jason took out his phone, debating if he should just grab you and leave right now. “No...I found her on the streets of a city worse than Gotham and one thing led to another and I took her home.” He put his phone back into his pocket. Couldn’t leave now if he wanted to, you would be confused and you were having a good time with Alfred.

“So you adopted her?” Tim’s eyebrows raised high enough to hide in his hairline. “How did you manage that?”

Jason ran a hand through his hair, blushing again. “Well, I didn’t really adopt (Y/N). I got some fake documents made for her saying she’s my kid sister.”

Tim groaned, rubbing his temples. “That’s not going to last. I’ll help you out. Fake documents are no good if you don’t have evidence to back it up.”

“Thanks.” Jason smiled. You ran over to him, offering him a cookie too. “You good, kid?”

“I’m good.” You nibbled on your cookie before eyeing Tim.

“This is Tim. Tim, this is (Y/N).” Jason took a bite of his cookie, almost groaning at the taste. He missed Alfred’s cookies.

“Hi, (Y/N).” Tim waved at you. You just looked back at him blankly. “She’s got your look down cold.”

Jason copied your blank look. “What look?”

Tim laughed. “Never mind.” He went over to help Kon with the potatoes. You watched him go.

“Are they together?” You finished your cookie, wiping your hand on your jeans. Jason shook his head at you.

“First, don’t do that here. Alfred will get after you.” He pointed to your hand. “And second, yes, they are. I’m surprised. I thought Tim would never come out of the closet.”

You blinked confused. “Master Jason, will you do me a favor and make sure Master Bruce and Master Damian are awake?” Alfred asked with a secretive smile.

Jason was about to suggest you stay with Alfred, but you attached yourself to his leg. “Alright then.” He left, walking with you hanging onto his leg.

Voices from the one of the dens caused Jason to stop there first. He smiled when he saw Kori, Cass, and Steph inside. “Hello ladies,” he chuckled from the doorway.

Steph groaned when she saw him. Cass waved. Kori just smiled and shook her head. “Hello Jason. I am pleased you are here. Alfred was worried you wouldn’t come,” Kori said, rolling some dice. The women were playing Monopoly. Jason raised an eyebrow at the sight.

“And who is that?” Steph asked, pointing to you. You hid your face into Jason’s leg, refusing to let go. Jason ruffled your hair.

“This is (Y/N).” Jason detached you from his leg and set you on his hip. You immediately choked him again. “What are you three doing playing a game while Tim and Superboy are in the kitchen with Alfred?”

Steph smirked. “They lost the bet.” She frowned when Kori bought another railroad. “So we get to hang out until dinner is ready.”

Cass stared at Jason and you for a long moment. “Will (Y/N) like to join us?” she asked quietly. Kori and Steph looked at her, stunned that Cass would make such an offer.

Jason hummed. You peeked out at Cass. He moved to set you down next to her. Much to his surprise, you actually let him go. “Sure, (Y/N), this is Cass, Steph, and Kori.” You settled next to Cass, shaking slightly less than before. “Kori is the mother of the baby we saw earlier.”

You stared at Kori. “Are you an alien?” Everyone laughed. You flinched. Jason ruffled your hair.

“I am not from this planet, but I have made my home here.” Kori smiled at you. Jason felt you relax under his hand. Dick came back in with a happy Mar’i and sat down next to Kori.

“Good thing I was already bankrupt, because Mar’i made quite a mess.” Dick blew a raspberry on Mar’i’s cheek. She laughed in delight. Jason rolled his eyes, moving to leave the room. You watched him go anxiously.

Cass read your anxiety and took your hand. When Jason glanced back to check on you one last time, he smiled to see you calmed and enjoying the game. He sighed in relief. With a moment to gather his courage, he headed upstairs to wake Bruce and Damian.

***

Jason left Damian’s room with Damian growling and complaining behind him. Like the devil he was, Jason skipped the gentle wakeup call and went straight to pouring water on Damian’s head. He might have poked the demon, but at least he got a laugh out of it.

Next he wandered to Bruce’s room. He paused outside the door with his hand raised to knock. Why did he have to face Bruce? He shouldn’t have come. Losing his nerve, Jason turned to leave only for Bruce’s door to open and reveal the man himself.

“Jason?” Bruce asked. He blinked, confused. “I didn’t expect you to come.”

“Yeah well, I was just leaving. This was a mistake.” Jason kept his back to him. Fear ate at Jason’s stomach. He should go down and collect you.

“No, Jason. It is not a mistake.” Bruce cleared his throat, stepping out of his room. “I’m glad you’re here.” Jason peeked back at Bruce. “I missed you, son. I’m sorry for reacting the way I did.”

Jason shrugged. “Well, it’s in the past now.” He crossed his arms, turning to face Bruce. “I actually do have something to ask you if you have time.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow, glancing around. “Alfred forced me to take today off. I have nothing, but time.” He adjusted his shirt. Jason was surprised Bruce was already dressed for the day. “We can speak in my office.” Bruce led the way down the stairs, pausing when he heard Damian slamming around. “Did you wake up Damian?”

“I did.” Jason smirked. “He’s hitting the bad teenage years hard, isn’t he?”

Bruce shook his head. “No worse than you.” Jason’s jaw dropped as Bruce kept moving.

The two made it to Bruce’s office without another word. Both walking on eggshells to not ruin the peace they just brokered. “So...I guess you probably know about (Y/N)?” Jason began once they were seated.

“I do only because your fake documents were careless.” Bruce folded his hands on his desk. “You could have asked me for help.”

“We weren’t talking at the time.” Jason crossed his arms. “Besides, I knew you wouldn’t approve of me taking in a kid.”

Bruce hummed, sitting back in his seat. “I just worry that you didn’t think this all the way through.”

Jason bit his lip, holding down the temptation to snap at Bruce. Why was he so smug all the time? Always worrying. Jason was always wrong when he was around. “I did. It might have been a spur of the moment decision, but I did think it through. I haven’t regretted taking in (Y/N). She’s just...the light of my life, really.” A lump formed in Jason’s throat. He had to swallow it down.

“Good.” Bruce smiled with approval. Jason hated how good he felt to see that from Bruce. “Now what did you want to ask me? I assume it wasn’t just that I knew about (Y/N).”

Jason cleared his throat, shifting in his chair. “Tim already offered to help me with the documents and evidence and stuff, but I guess what I need from you...is a promise that you’ll take care of (Y/N) if anything happens to me.” Bruce tensed. “What I mean is if I don’t come back from patrol or a mission, I want to know that someone will take (Y/N) in and keep her off the streets. I want to know that she’ll be safe no matter what happens to me.”

Bruce blinked. “Jason, (Y/N) will be safe. We would have never left her alone. As far as I’m concerned, she is part of the family now.” He smiled. “You have my word. (Y/N) will be taken care of no matter what.”

It was like a weight was lifted off Jason’s shoulders. He relaxed into his chair. “Good.”

“See there’s Jason. You have nothing to be worried about,” Steph said, opening the door. You ran to Jason and climbed into his lap. “She had a little incident with Damian.” Steph waved her hand, giggling.

Bruce sighed. “What did Damian do?” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Nothing. Just growled when (Y/N) bumped into him.” Steph shrugged. “She’s a nervous kid.”

“He looked like a demon,” you mumbled to Jason, hiding your face in his shoulder. Jason chuckled.

“He’s just mad he had to wake up. Don’t worry about it.” Jason rubbed your back. “Did you have fun with the others?” You shrugged. “Yeah, I know they’re bums.”

“So are you, so I guess that makes sense since you’re all related.” You smirked, playfully. Jason tickled you in retaliation.

Bruce watched the interaction with a smile. Steph left the room, giggling away. Jason stopped tickling you and turned you to see Bruce. “(Y/N), this is Bruce, my...dad, I guess.” Bruce’s eyes lit up at Jason’s words. “Bruce, this is (Y/N) the kid.”

“The kid? You make her sound like an outlaw in a western.” Bruce chuckled, winking at you. You giggled. Jason noticed you didn’t tense at the sight of Bruce like you did everyone else. Perhaps you were finally getting more comfortable?

“She is basically an outlaw. Always pickpocketing me.” Jason tickled you again. You giggled, wiggling around to try to get away from him.

You took a wallet out of your pocket and handed it to Jason. His eyes widened when he opened it to see Dick’s ID. “He didn’t even notice.”

Jason laughed. “Good job, but you have to give this back to him. We can’t be that mean.” He handed the wallet back to you. Bruce frowned.

“I assume you aren’t encouraging (Y/N) to pickpocket, are you?” Bruce asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No.” Jason looked at you with mock sternness. “No pickpocketing.” You pouted slightly.

“Master Jason, I could use some help in the kitchen,” Alfred said, poking his head into the room.

Jason got up, putting you on his hip again. “Come on, kid. You can help me help Alfred after we give Dick his wallet back.” He looked at Bruce. “Thank you.”

Bruce nodded, getting to his feet. “You’re welcome, son.” He put his hand on Jason’s shoulder as the three of you left the office.

***

“Jay, how can there be so much food?” you whispered, staring at the table in awe.

Jason chuckled. “Well, it is Thanksgiving.” He kissed your temple, setting you in the chair next to him. Cass sat on your other side. She helped to fill your plate with everything on the table.

You smiled, digging in. Jason smiled, filling his own plate. “She eats like it’s her last meal. You used to do that too,” Bruce whispered, watching you.

“She’s still not used to having food all the time yet.” Jason placed a hand on your back. You slowed down. He poured you a cup of milk.

“This food is great, Alfred,” Dick said from his seat across the table. He made sure to stay away from you after you had given him his wallet back. Kori had found the whole situation hilarious. Jason wondered if he should help you steal it again.

“Yeah, Tim and Kon didn’t wreck it.” Steph poked Tim’s side. Tim glared at her.

“Hey, we just did the manual labor,” Kon said, kissing Tim’s cheek. Tim relaxed.

You watched the interaction with wide eyes. “TT.” Damian huffed from his seat next to Dick. You eyed him. Jason studied you out of the corner of his eye when you suddenly slipped under the table.

Cass noticed, glancing at Jason. Jason smirked and shrugged his shoulders. You appeared a second later. Jason ruffled your hair.

“I think this is getting close to being the best day in my life.” You smiled up at Jason.

“Good.” Jason kissed your temple again before focusing on his food and spending time with the family.

It wasn’t until the end of the meal that Jason discover what you had done under the table. Damian got up with his plate only to trip and fall. “Who the fuck tied my shoe to the chair?!” he shouted. Jason pressed his lips together to prevent a laugh. You giggled, quickly crawling into Jason’s lap for protection. Jason rested his chin on the top of your head. Yep, you were one of the family now.

#batfamily #batfamily imagine #batfamily x reader #jason todd #jason todd imagine #red hood #red hood imagine #dc comics imagines #dc reader insert #batsiblings #batsiblings imagines #thanksgiving

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mischiefandspirits · 2 years

Text

Before the Red Hood

In a world where Bruce’s acquisition of his kids isn’t as legal, but is just as well-meaning, Batman becomes a repeat offender when he kidnaps Jason Todd.

This takes place about two years after the events of Nightwings and Talons

Click here for more of this AU

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Listen, Jason knew it was stupid. He knew he should have kept walking.

But come on! It was the Batmobile. The Batmobile was just sitting there, unprotected, in Crime Alley. Honestly, how could he not steal from it?

The engine compartment and the inside were all too well protected, but the security on the wheels was way easier to circumvent. He’d gotten three off before he heard something behind him and swung around.

Batman stepped back just in time to avoid a tire iron to the knee.

Jason cursed and tried to run, but the Bat caught him easily.

“That’s enough,” he said, taking the tire iron away before Jason could try to hit him again.

“So what now? Juvie?” the boy growled and Batman set him back down.

“Now you’re going to put them back where you found them.”

Jason snorted and crossed his arms. “Why should I?”

“Simple. You put them on, I take you home. You don’t, we wait here for the police while I do it.”

“Well, if I’m going to lose either way then I’ll go with the one where you have to do the work.” Jason felt a shiver go down his back at the Bat’s glare, but glared back anyways.

“Where do you want to go, then?”

Jason frowned. “That’s it? You’re not going to insist I go home?”

“In my experience, children don’t purposefully choose juvie over home unless there’s a good reason.”

Jason’s nose scrunched up and he looked away.

“So where do you want to go?”

He considered how he wanted to answer as he glared at the ground. Then he shrugged and said, “Africa.”

“Africa?” Batman asked incredulously.

“Hey, you’re the one who asked.”

“Why Africa?”

“None of your business.”

Batman grunted and crossed his arms. “Anywhere specific or do you want to be left on a random dune in the middle of the Sahara?”

Jason blinked. “Was that a joke?”

“No. Answer the question.”

“I don’t know. Just Africa.”

“It’s a large continent.”

“I know that! I’m not stupid! I just… All I know is she’s in Africa. I’ll figure it out from there.”

“She?” Jason scowled at the man and he sighed. He knelt and tried to grab Jason’s shoulder, but he jerked away before the man could touch him. If that upset the Bat, he didn’t show it. “Lad, I can’t just drop you off in the middle of a foreign continent, not without a good reason.”

“I wouldn’t be the first kid you’ve kidnapped,” Jason muttered.

Batman stood. “Alright, I’ll call the police then.”

The boy scuffed his foot against the floor. “Whatever.”

The Bat watched him for a moment then nodded and stepped off to the side. He raised a hand to his ear.

“My mom,” Jason said and Batman turned back to him. “After my mom -- my step-mom -- died, whenever he’d catch me being upset, my dad would tell me to stop complaining because she wasn’t even my real mom. He’d say my birth mom ran off to Africa. Figured whoever she is, she has to be better than him.”

“And your dad is?”

“Willis Todd.”

Batman nodded. “I’ve heard of him.”

“Did you hear he was dealing with Ennio Terzi?”

It was so subtle that Jason almost didn’t notice even though he was looking for it, but Batman stiffened.

“Yeah,” the boy scoffed. “He was going to introduce us.”

“I see.” He held out the tire iron. “I’ll see what I can find on both your parents.”

Jason considered telling the Bat exactly where he could shove the tool, but this was probably his best chance at actually tracking down his mom. Who could find her faster than the so-called World’s Greatest Detective? And if he did get kidnapped and brainwashed into being the next Nightwing, well, that still sounded better than Willis.

Honestly, it sounded better than juvie too. Willis had enough connections to get to him there.

Jason took the tire iron and got to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Batman studied the boy he’d caught stealing his tires as he asked Batgirl -- who was at the cave working on a case -- to pull up what they had on Willis Todd.

The boy looked to be around eleven, though there were hints of malnourishment that could be making him look younger. He was fair-skinned with freckles across his cheeks and nose alongside a thin, recent-looking scar. His hair was wavy and naturally black, but sunbleached to the point it leaned more towards red. He was thin, but his frame spoke of a height and broadness that was being held back by a lack of food. He was practiced in stealing, given how fast and sure his hands were as he dealt with the tires. It was a shame, really, given he was very smart, having managed to get the tires off the Batmobile without triggering anything.

Batman hoped he could get the boy settled somewhere where he would be safe to rise to his full potential.

“Short version, not much,” Batgirl said when Jason was finishing up the first tire.

Calling Todd an eel would be an insult to eels. On the surface, he was an upstanding citizen and the proud owner of one of Gotham’s biggest casinos. Under the surface, he was one of the lesser crime bosses in Gotham. He didn’t have any of the fancy gimmicks of the big names and he didn’t have the power of shadowy people like Thorne, but he was slippery, slimy, and careful with plenty of people lined up to take the fall if something didn’t pan out. Everything they had on him was circumstantial at best, but it was enough to tell Batman what kind of man Todd was. There were also signs that Todd and Terzi had been in talks, though it hadn’t gone anywhere which Batman could now put down to Todd’s bargaining chip disappearing.

The boy, Jason, was registered as being the son of Willis and his late wife Catherine. Catherine had died in prison, having taken the blame for her husband after the FBI got too close. The boy had disappeared a year earlier while being transported to his father’s casino. There were differing accounts on if the boy had been taken or had ran, though Batman was now sure it was the latter.

“I don’t think this one’s going to be solved in a night, B.”

“Agreed.”

“Which means you better figure out a place for the kid quick. You’ve been spotted. The call just went out, but the nearest car isn’t far. I’d give it five minutes at most, but probably less.”

Batman turned back to Jason to see him moving onto the last tire. He dropped down next to the boy to help him finish. He was surprised the boy didn’t flinch away, though he did scowl at the man. Once they were done, he stood up and said, “I need to go. There’s a youth shelter a block north of here that’s safe. I’ll find you once I’ve tracked down your mother.”

The boy grunted and Batman opened the car. Police sirens filled the air as he slid inside.

“Um, B?” Batgirl said over the car’s comm once he was racing away, amusement tingeing her voice.

He grunted.

“You know, the guy that called you in? He was still on the phone. He… Well, hear for yourself,” she snickered before an audio file appeared on the car’s media screen and started playing near the end.

“- just standing there a-Hoy sh-There’s a kid down there!” a man’s voice said.

“A kid?” a woman’s voice asked.

“A boy.”

“Nightwing?”

“Younger. He’s talking to him, kneeling near the car.”

“Can you give me a description?”

“Uh, maybe. It’s dark. Um, he’s White. Got black hair, a red jacket. His clothes are kinda baggy. He-OH NO!”

“Sir?”

“He just got into the car, and the kid got in after him. He’s taking the kid!”

Batman stopped the audio and turned on the autopilot before swinging around to glare at the backseat.

Jason glared back at him despite the fear in the boy’s eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

“The police were coming. I wasn’t going to stay there and get picked up.”

“I told you to go to the shelter.”

“There’s no such thing as a safe shelter,” Jason scoffed. “You’re just trying to get out of our deal.”

“I’m not.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Batman shot the camera above the screen a look when Batgirl’s poorly muffled laughter came through the comms. “You’re not helping.”

“Sorry, but you’re officially a repeat offender, B. Wing’s going to be upset, you know. Especially with the timing.”

“He’s not staying.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you find my mom,” Jason argued, apparently having his confidence boosted by the young woman’s teasing. He crawled into the front seat to better give Batman a defiant look.

“Kid, you have to stay somewhere.”

“Keep me wherever you keep Nightwing,” he said with a shrug.

“Nightwing lives with his family.” Dick had moved up into the manor once Dick Wayne had become public knowledge. His old room was still there, but no one had touched it since.

“Yeah, sure,” Jason said, not sounding convinced. “But you said you’d take me to my mother if I put the stupid tires back on.”

“I have to find her first.”

“And I’m sticking with you until you do.”

“Kid -”

“I’m not going to some stupid shelter so CP&P or one of my dad’s guys can find me.”

Batman sighed and conceded that point. The shelter he’d recommended was a safe place, but that didn’t mean Willis couldn’t have one of his men keeping an eye on it in case Jason showed up.

“Batgirl, contact Bastion and bring him up to speed,” he said and directed the car into the nearest entrance to the cave, ignoring the small victorious sound that came from next to him.

“He’s not going to be happy. This is going to cause a new wave of people protesting to have you brought in.”

“I know. He’ll be even worse if you don’t give him a heads up.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sending the message now… You don’t think they’ll try to rescind the ban on the League, do you?”

“After what happened last time, I would hope not.”

“Who’s that?” Jason asked.

“The Nest.”

“Will Master Jason be staying in Master Nightwing’s old room?”

“Oh Wing will love that.”

Batman had planned to have Jason stay there, but Batgirl’s comment made him rethink. She always was the best with emotions. If she thought it would upset Dick… “Set up one of the beds in the infirmary for him. He won’t be with us long.”

“Of course, Sir.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason’s head was on a swivel as they pulled into a massive cave Batman told him was called the Batcave. He thought it was a stupid name, but the fact that it was the secret headquarters for the guy who’d managed to escape capture from both the Teen Titans and the Justice League probably made up for it.

If it didn’t, the cave itself did.

There was a giant computer with a ton of different screens in different sizes. There were motorcycles modeled after Batman, Batgirl, and Nightwing. There were tall glass cases against a wall, all empty except the one with Nightwing’s old suit hanging in it. There was some sort of museum thing that had a bunch of stuff, including a giant penny and a robotic t-rex.

Then there was Batgirl and The Nest waiting for them.

Batgirl looked the same as ever while Jason had never heard of The Nest. Which probably made sense, since he didn’t exactly look like he was about to go kick butt. He looked really old and wore a fancy masquerade mask instead of the practical cowls or domino masks the others wore. It was black with swirling silver designs that looked a bit like bats and birds while dark gray ribbons kept it on his face. He also wore a neat suit that made him look like the butler in a book Jason had read while hiding in the library.

He was even holding a tray with a plate of food and a glass of juice on it. Jason looked up at the Bat as he remembered how The Nest had called him Sir. “Is he your butler?”

He couldn’t figure out if Batman being rich made no sense or too much sense. Sure, he had a lot of cool stuff, but why would a rich guy risk getting himself killed to help people? Rich people only cared about themselves.

Unless he was an adrenaline junky. That’d probably explain the whole kidnapping thing too. Tick off everyone and all that. But then why help Jason?

“Be respectful,” was all Batman said before turning to Batgirl. “Did you get a hold of Bastion?”

She nodded. “He’s not happy, as expected. He said if Jason ends up in a suit and we don’t give enough warning for him to get vacation time during the reveal, then he’s handing us over to the wolves.”

“He’s not staying and he’s definitely not getting a suit.

The Nest hummed.

Batman gave him a look while Batgirl fought down a smile.

Jason was led to the infirmary by The Nest while Batman and Batgirl went to whisper at the computer. He showed him to the bed that had been prepared, apologizing that it was only a medical bed. Jason accepted the tray of food without pointing out how he’d been sleeping in boxes or on the floor of abandoned buildings for the past year.

He may have given the man a look that said that, though.

He ate the food then passed out. If asked, he'd say it was a calculated move.

When he woke up, the cave was empty. Unfortunately, he couldn’t access the computer. Or the motorcycles. Or the gadgets. Or Batgirl and Batman’s suits, which hung in their own cases next to Nightwing’s. He could, however, look around the museum at all the supervillain swag (even if he still couldn’t touch anything!).

He also found what he assumed was “Nightwing’s old room.” It was pretty bare, just a bed, wardrobe, and a dresser with a large flatscreen on top. As he searched the drawers and found them empty, he wondered where Nightwing had moved to. He knew the younger vigilante spent most of his time in Blüdhaven, but he’d figured Batman would still keep him close at hand. Wasn’t that important for the whole kidnap and brainwash thing?

Even better than Nightwing’s room, though, was finding the awesome gymnastics and acrobatics setup in a small cavern off the main cave. He knew Nightwing had been a circus kid before the abduction, so he assumed it was for him.

Jason spent a good hour practicing the parkour and freerunning skills he’d picked up on the streets before he realized he was being watched. He turned to see The Nest sitting on a bench, watching him as he sipped at a cup of tea.

“How long have you been there?”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on you since you awoke. Would you like some breakfast now?”

He frowned at the idea of the guy creeping on him, but nodded anyway.

“Any preferences?”

Jason faltered. How long had it been since he’d had the pick of what he could eat? Before he’d run away? Before his mom -- his step-mom -- had been taken away? Before she’d started using?

Had he ever had that choice?

“Uh, pancakes?”

“Of course. Do you want something in them or would you prefer them plain? Perhaps blueberries or strawberries? Bananas?”

“Chocolate chips?”

The sigh he gave told Jason that was the answer he’d expected, but he was still disappointed.

Why did Jason feel bad for disappointing the random butler guy?

“Very well. Anything else?”

“Maple syrup? Oh, and orange juice! Um, please.”

“Right away. Feel free to continue amusing yourself in here. I believe Master Nightwing’s old television is still connected if you’d prefer to watch that as well. We can discuss other entertainment options once breakfast is over.”

Other entertainment options turned out to be a handful of movies and books as well as a soccer ball (which The Nest stubbornly called a football) that Jason brought into the gym to play a fun mix of Keep It Up and the Floor is Lava. The Nest also offered to bring down some of Nightwing’s video games from wherever he disappeared to that Jason wasn’t allowed to follow (he was pretty sure the cave connected to Batman’s house, but The Nest refused to answer his questions), but Jason had never played a video game before so he didn’t know what he would like.

Jason was reading a fancy edition of the Odyssey (it looked old with an expensive-looking leather cover and pretty watercolor illustrations every few pages) when a teenager came marching into the cave. He had warm olive skin with messy brown-black hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a black dress shirt with gray slacks and a blue sweater vest.

Jason realized he must be Nightwing just before the older boy yelled, “Hey, old man! You in here, you jerk?”

Noting the anger in his voice, Jason tucked himself further into the little hidden alcove he’d climbed up to.

“Master Batman got home shortly before yourself. He will be down in a moment,” The Nest said, slipping into the cave from a different entrance. “You did not return here last night. Are you injured?”

“I’m fine. I was just tired so I stayed at the safehouse. But if I’d known the night Dad had, I would have come home instead. What the hell, Alfie?”

The Nest cleared his throat. “As I’m sure you’ve heard, we have company.”

He nodded his head to the side and Nightwing’s turned until his gaze locked onto Jason. “Shi-”

“Language.”

“Shoot. He really did it.”

“He did. I would suggest putting on a mask, but I fear that it might be too late.”

Nightwing chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck as he turned back to The Nest. “In my defense, I would have worn a mask if someone had thought to tell me Dad kidnapped another kid and had him in the cave.”

“That isn’t quite what happened. Your father will explain. Do you have homework?”

“No.” The Nest stared Nightwing down. “Maybe, but it can wait until after Dad tells me what the he-eck is going on.”

The man tutted, but dropped it. Instead, he turned to the younger boy. “Master Jason, please come down and introduce yourself.”

Jason considered his options, then stuffed the book into his jacket and climbed down.

It was Nightwing. The guy could get up to his hiding spot in seconds if he really wanted to attack Jason.

When he was on the floor, he walked over to the two. He frowned as he spotted the blue and gray tie hanging loose from Nightwing’s neck and the golden emblem of Gotham Academy on his vest’s left breast. Batman sent his kidnapped kid to (rich, snobby) school? How did that work?

“I’m Jason,” he says, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Nightwing.”

“You know I know you’re Richard Grayson, right?”

“Not my name,” Nightwing huffed, turning to The Nest. “Didn’t you guys explain anything to him?”

“We’re not keeping him,” Batman said and Jason jumped. The three of them turned to see him walking in, already suited up.

Which was weird because his suit was definitely still in the case.

“Hey, B! Why the heck did I have to learn you kidnapped a kid from the gossip mongers at school?”

“Why aren’t you wearing a mask?”

“Because I had to learn you kidnapped a kid from the gossip mongers at school! I didn’t know I had to wear a mask in the cave!” Nightwing threw his hands in the air to exaggerate his point as he began to pace. “What the f-heck, B? I make one comment about moving out in August to live closer to university and you get a new kid? Seriously?”

Oh, that’s what Batgirl meant by timing, Jason thought with a snicker.

Wait, why would Batman let him leave? Unless...

Batman wanted someone younger. Someone easier to control.

Jason narrowed his eyes at the two.

Meanwhile, Nightwing was still going.

“I’m going to Gotham State! I’ll be right over the river! I already promised to come by every weekend or so! And you still felt the need to replace me? What the -”

“This has nothing to do with you,” Batman finally cut in, grabbing his shoulder to stop him. “And I’m not replacing you. I told you, he’s not staying.”

“Then why’s he here?”

“I’m tracking down his mother. The kidnapping was a misunderstanding.” Batman sent Jason a look. “He snuck into the Batmobile.”

Jason flipped him off.

Nightwing gave a cough that was very poorly hiding a snort. “So he’s not getting a suit?”

“No.”

“Because that’s one hell of an origin story.”

“No.”

“He caught the kid stealing the tires off his baby,” Batgirl said, popping up out of nowhere.

How did she get her suit out of the case without me seeing? Jason thought, glancing over at the cases to see hers was missing, unlike Batman’s.

“He did what?” Nightwing laughed as Jason contemplated the Bats’ power. He focused back in when Nightwing turned to him and slapped his shoulder playfully. “Kid, you’ve got a death wish and I love it!”

“Had three of them off before he even got there,” Jason said, puffing out his chest.

“We really need to upgrade the security on the Batmobile,” Batgirl chuckled as she stepped away from Nightwing’s attempt to use her as a crutch, causing him to fall over in his laughter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took Bruce a little over a week to narrow down Jason’s possible mothers to Sheila Haywood. Although he didn’t let it show in front of Jason, this left him a little unsettled. The woman had put a little too much effort into trying to cover her tracks for Bruce’s comfort. He asked Barbara to look further into her before he left for Ethiopia with Dick and Jason.

He hadn’t planned to bring his son, but the boy was on winter break and there were reports that Joker had connections in the region that Batman figured they could look into while they were there.

Nightwing chaperoned the meeting between mother and son, both for the boy’s safety and as moral support. Not wanting Dick Wayne to be seen in Africa, he’d worn sunglasses and covered the bottom half of his face with a scarf while Jason had used temporary dye on his hair to give him his natural black so they could pose as brothers. He stayed back when they found her and kept watch, but he thought it went alright.

He didn’t realize that she’d spotted him. That she was in contact with the Joker. That she’d overheard the clown discussing the rumors of Batman’s recent abduction of a black-haired child. That she’d connected it to her son’s miraculous ability to track her down.

After the meeting, Nightwing took Jason back to the hotel room to meet back up with Batman while Sheila went to a warehouse to meet up with Joker.

The boys were in high spirits when they got to the room, which waned when they were greeted by Batgirl telling Batman, “- wanted on Haywood.”

“Why are you talking about my mom?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For reference, Bastion is the codename the Bats use for Commissioner Gordon since they don't want anyone to accidentally hear something and find out he's still working with them, which would compromise his job. Likewise, The Nest is the codename Alfred uses. I know Agent A is more common, but I couldn't actually find evidence of him using that name. More importantly, though, I felt like his Nest alias was more fitting since it's harder to tie back to him and it symbolizes how the bats think of him as home.

#batman #bruce wayne #dick grayson #Jason Todd #red hood #fanfiction #witness protection: vigilante style #batnapping au

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