A crystal necklace; that’s all you had to break into this warehouse to get but look at you now cornered by THE Red Hood. Gun aimed at you and his head cocked to the side, analyzing you. He hasn’t said a word but he’s stepping closer.
“Y/N?” The mask distorts his voice, but the tone isn’t harsh, not one bit.
Your eyes widen, “how do you know who I am?”
He puts away the gun, he's still watching you but realizes you’re barely a threat, showing he has some level of trust in you. “Been a long time.”
You’re unsure as to what to do but look him up and down in hopes that something on him will allow you to recognize him, but between the suit and the red helmet that completely hides his face you come up with nothing. “Are you stalking me?”
He scoffs in response before stepping closer to you. “Crime alley.”
The words take you back to when you were 11 years old and you and your friend would wait together in Crime Alley in hopes of a nice car stopping there to steal the tires off of to sell for tomorrow's food. You hadn’t heard from said friend since, you saw him once getting into a car driven by Bruce Wayne as he was leaving his school with a big old grin on his face and a book in hand he hadn’t even noticed you waving from across the street. ‘Of course, he’d gotten lucky enough to get adopted by some rich family,’ you had thought to yourself back then, you had been so jealous and angry.
“Todd?” The words come out with a hint of excitement, you know this is possibly the worst way you could have reconnected with him.
He raises a hand to his helmet and you hear air gushing after he presses something, clearly disengaging the helmet before removing it and holding it by his side. “There ya go.” You notice how much he’s changed. He's so tall and broad now, there’s a scar on his neck you can barely see from this angle, a white streak in the front of his hair, but his eyes though are the same blue eyes you remember from back then.
“You look… rough.” He almost looks embarrassed at your words, last time you saw him you were both scrawny little kids helping each other make some cash.
“You’ve barely changed, blunt as always.” He’s teasing, and he has a slight smile on his face.
A laugh escapes you, a small part of you is still the hurt kid who got ignored by their best friend when they moved up in life, but realistically you know now as an adult that wasn’t the situation. “Damn and here I thought you’d forgotten all about me already, Jase.”
His smile grows at the use of the nickname, one not heard in years. “I could never.” He fakes offense, placing a hand on his chest and raising an eyebrow, the same move he’d make back when you were kids.
“You took up crime-fighting, I see.” You’ve read about Red Hood in the papers, and you know he is not a ‘hero.’ The papers love to use the term ‘anti-hero’ or ‘vigilante’ for him.
You look behind him to the safe where the necklace you came here for is, as nice as it is to see him again after so long you’re working right, he notices and looks at you and then to the safe, he’s intrigued by whatever it is you came here for. “I see you’re still in the same ‘profession.’”
“Not all of us got Wayne’s money to fall back on.” You lean against the wall, he doesn't know about that day you saw him, and even though you don’t resent him it still hurts how he hasn’t contacted you since then.
He tenses up at the mention of Bruce Wayne. “I don’t.” His voice is dry and the response is short and quick, you hit a sore spot, and it's obvious.
His jaw is clenched as he moves away from you and toward the safe, leaning against it before looking back at you. Your curiosity about what has happened to him over these last few years grows as time passes, this is not the attitude or ‘work field’ of someone who is happily enjoying life in a big manor and has been able to enjoy all the luxuries of life, he matches more someone mad at life, just as you do.
“What are you here for?” His voice is still cold, clearly wanting to change topics.
You move closer to the safe. You look at it instead of him, you almost feel embarrassed to make a living this way. “A crystal necklace, it's in there, some Gotham elite keeps their valuables here, and I got a tip about it along with the code.”
He doesn’t respond for a while before moving off the safe, you turn to him and he’s motioning you to go ahead and open it. This whole situation is so confusing, you shake your head and input the code. It opens with a click, you look at him again, he’s just watching you as you open the door. You begin to reach for jewels when he places a hand on your arm, you freeze at the touch.
“You can take that, I don't give a damn about those rich bastards anyway most of them make their money in one shady way or another, but I want to make you an offer.”
Your interest is quipped and you raise an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
He crosses his arm over his chest, “Work with me.” The way he says is barely a question as if he knows you wouldn’t pass up his offer.
“Why should I?” You mock his attitude by posing like him, he doesn't fail to notice this and a small smirk appears on his face.
“We’re both down on our luck and have been ‘partners’ before, all you’d have to do is join me on patrols, and be on the ‘good’ side of Gotham’s nightlife.” He’s cocky about it, but he’s read you so well in just this short reunion. Anyone who saw what you’re doing would be able to.
The offer is good you have to be honest with yourself about it, you look from him back to the necklace as you think. “What assures me you won’t disappear on me again?”
He does a thoughtful nod acknowledging you’re making a fair point on your part, before leaning in close. “You know who I am, you could go to any police station or any bounty hunter you know and turn me in and you’d be assured a fair sum.” He places a hand on your shoulder, “But if you do go to the police I’ll have to turn you in for that with me,” he nods toward the necklace.
You weigh the odds internally you don’t know much about current Jason, all you know is the murmurs Gotham has about Red Hood and its minimal amount of mentions in papers and the news, all of those always focus on Batman and Robin or whoever is the latest mad scientist running around causing mayhem. But not only do you not know him, he doesn’t know you anymore. The passage of time is so evident in both of you, both having outgrown one another, but by seeing each other again after so long you two want to rekindle a friendship that might not be possible anymore. It’s a tough decision to make not one you’d like to do so quickly, but you know ultimately what your choice will be: him.
As you move away from the safe you give the necklace one last glance before shutting the door on it once more, you look back up at him and smile. “What exactly do we do on patrols?”
A satisfied grin is on his face, he’s happy to have you in his life once more.
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You joined him on patrols close to a year ago now, you two had so much to catch up on. He was slow to talk about his teenage years, you’d mainly be the one talking and catching him up over what you’ve been up to the last 11 years. The night he finally opened up was after a quick mission where his youngest brother Damian brought up ‘the accident’, Jason had frozen and played it off at the time as you looked over at him with a concerned and confused expression, Damian simply raised an eyebrow at his older brother before looking back at you and saying ‘I see’ leaving you even more confused.
Jason was silent the whole ride to your place after, it broke you seeing like this, he wasn’t fine but refused to open up. When you two arrived at your apartment he just stormed into your bathroom, the one private area in your cheap crappy studio apartment, and stayed in there for a long time. You eventually knocked on the door when worry started getting the best of you, you needed to know if he was fine. When he opened that door you could tell he was in a sort of numb and disassociated state, he crumpled onto you for comfort. This was an entirely new side of him, one you wouldn’t have expected. He finally opened up about his teen years once you moved him onto the foot of your bed, he admitted he didn’t tell you because without you knowing he felt normal, almost like he did before the accident. That night he’d fallen asleep on your bed, and you had debated whether to stay next to him or not but ultimately decided to go to the couch. You could tell not only did he know, but so did his body, that he is safe with you and can let his guard down.
The next morning you’d woken up to him gone, you didn’t remember hearing any movement, but you shrugged it off. You were both exhausted and he had had both a physically and emotionally rough night, it's not crazy to assume he wanted to leave and have some time to himself after all.
But since that night he had changed around you, he wasn’t as talkative and teasing the same anymore, it felt as if he was suddenly keeping you at arms length from him. His cold attitude was more often than ever before with you, and any time you tried to get him to talk something always came up.
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It’s been weeks of this now, you feel as if he broke his promise about ‘not disappearing on you’ again by being this way. But at the same time, you two are just friends and you know just how you did back when you took him up on the deal that you both had changed so much since you were kids.
Your head was buried in your arms on the desk at Wayne Enterprises’ sales office reception desk, thanks to working with Jason on patrols at night you got to know Bruce, you’d told him about your life and how you were turning over a new leaf, and he found this admirable and once he’d grown to trust you he’d offered you a job as a receptionist. Not a second was wasted accepting his offer, you were much more than eager to quit the waitressing job you’d taken up for cash when you quit stealing.
Last night’s patrol had been the same as they had all been the last few weeks, watching areas of the town with Jason only having minimal communication the whole night, a silent ride to your place, and lastly, saying goodbye to each other. Between having to get up early and his tenseness you felt exhausted, luckily it was a slow day today.
You heard the elevator ding, making you sit upright and quickly fix your hair. Relief washed over you when you saw it was just Grayson, he has no reason to be here he refuses any of Wayne’s money to help him make a living, leading to him having a crappy apartment of his own over in Bludhaven. He waves at you with his classic smile on his face and in his other hand you notice a bag of takeout, oh how happy seeing that food makes you. Your coworker who’s just been on her phone the last hour looks from him then to you and nods at you to go ahead and take your lunch break.
You move the food around in your take-out dish, lost in thought about how much Jason’s attitude has changed around you. You have to be honest with yourself and accept the fact that it hurts you, as much as you try to convince yourself you understand him.
“You there?” Grayson’s voice snaps you back into the present he’s taking a sip from his drink looking at you with a raised eyebrow.
As you sigh you place down your fork and slump down in your chair, “It's Jase.” He hums at the mention, you hadn’t said anything about it to anyone yet but you knew they could tell the change between the two of you. “He’s changed since the last mission, he only talks to me when he has to he’s still his sarcastic self at the very least, but he-” You look at him as he’s taking a bite of his food, “he’s been treating me how he treats you guys.”
Grayson just stares at you as he chews, his brows slowly furrowing. “How he treats us?”
You nod, it's obvious he doesn’t get what you’re saying, his younger brother is just the same old sarcastic grouchy guy that he’d do anything to protect.
Eventually, after giving it some thought while he continued eating, he cocks his head to the side, “I can’t ever get the best read on him, but I do know he cares about you even if he’s being like this, don’t give up on him he’ll come around give him some time.”
You nod thoughtfully, you know Grayson’s visits always have a reason, rarely just to chitchat. “What’s the reason for the visit?”
“Can’t a guy stop to say hi to his friend?” You pretend to reflect on his last visit and he rolls his eyes. “Need you to accompany me to a gala.” His tone is casual as if he doesn’t know that stuffy environment makes you want to jump out the nearest window.
It’s now your turn to raise an eyebrow at him while you sip your drink, “With those high society bastards, hell no.”
“C’mon I need a date and Babs isn’t an option because she’ll be working behind the scenes anyway and I need it to be a member of our group or at the least someone who happens to work for B’s company. No one else is even of age so they can’t go anyway.” He’s almost pleading with you now.
“I want an excuse to skip an awkward night with Jase so to hell with it I’ll join you, but you owe me.” As much as you want to try to talk with Jason if you could avoid his clear ignoring you’re more than happy to take up this offer.
He nods adding a thumbs up for reassurance as he chews the last bite of his food. “Deal.”
“Send me the details and stuff later.” You finish up your food and gather your now empty cups and take-out boxes to throw away, it’s time to get back to work so with a quick goodbye you head back over to the reception desk where your coworker is faking being busy by refreshing her email to see if anything has come through.
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Friday night, 7 pm
You’re in the car with Grayson up a long paved driveway to the house where the gala is being held. His suit accents your outfit nicely, everything is well thought out and designer, of course, to help fit in. He’s catching you up on the mission, he explains it’s getting info on a weapon shipment coming in. You know a big reason he asked you to come has to also do with the fact no one here knows you, so you won’t attract attention, you’re not paying much attention to what he’s saying mainly because you two already went over the plan before heading out.
He finally parks the car and the two of you walk in together arms intertwined, you are his ‘date’ after all. As soon as you two walk in you see the moment where his ‘playboy’ act turns on and he picks up a couple of glasses of champagne for you both, you look around at everyone taking in all the rich pricks in the room. As you’re taking a long sip of champagne you spot a figure you recognize and freeze. You move the cup down trying to hide your shock as you lightly tap Grayson on his arm as he’s already begun mingling about. He gives you a smile with a bit of a concerned look in his eyes.
“You didn’t think to mention Jason was gonna be here?” You whisper to him with a polite smile plastered to your face to not attract attention.
“Huh?” He turns the way you’re looking and his eyes widen noticing Jason over by the bar, drink in hand as he seems to be putting on his socialite act, something you’ve never seen, but find interesting that they all have their own ‘Playboy’ sort of act for this type of stuff. “What the hell?” he mumbles as the two of you just look back at each other for a second before he motions you to go investigate before you know it he’s already back in conversation again as if the interaction didn’t just happen.
You’re walking over to him as you finish your drink a waiter notices and takes the empty glass from you before offering you another which you gladly accept. Jason notices you coming over from the corner of his eye while he’s talking with some guests and you see his act falter for a second. You lean onto the bar on the other side of him awaiting for his conversation to end, you look at the men he’s talking to and give them a wink as you place a hand on Jason’s arm, they chuckle to each other ending the conversation and head over to the food table.
“Fancy seeing you here.” His words match the act, but his tone is not happy as he says those words turning towards you.
“The same could be said for you, thought you were watching tonight.” You try your best to keep the conversation vague given the fact the bartender is in front of the two of you right now.
“Tim’s covering.” He picks up his glass of whiskey and takes a sip.
You tap your fingers on the counter with one hand and place your head on the other. “Didn’t bother to tell me?”
He tenses up as he places his glass down, “I thought you had a work dinner.”
You nod, acknowledging that he’s making a fair point. You did lie to him. “Technically, I am. I’m here with Grayson for business.” The bartender moves away to grab the orders of guests at the other side of the bar.
He rolls his eyes, he’s clearly not surprised who brought you to this. “Well, Dick’s talking to all the right people.” You look back over to Grayson and see he’s talking to the men who were just talking to Jason.
You take a swing of your drink before speaking. “Bastard.” You hate to admit it, but the drinks have given you some courage to try and confront Jason about how he’s been the last few weeks.
He turns to you his eyebrows furrowed, “The hell?”
“This is the most I’ve heard you speak in a night in weeks, and it's still only about work.” Frustration is clear in your tone.
He places a hand on your arm and grabs the glass from your hand, “Shut it.”
You can’t help but laugh a little, he’s still being cold, it's irritating. You shove your arm away and head back to Grayson deciding to refocus on the mission instead of letting Jason distract you.
As you head over you notice something on the neck of the date of the man Grayson is currently talking to, you’d recognize it anywhere because that necklace is what got you here in the first place months ago. That crystal necklace draws all your attention as you intertwine your arm with your ‘dates.’ She notices that it catches your attention and begins going on and on about the story behind it and its value, unsurprisingly you don’t care one bit about that much less anything else she’s saying. That necklace takes you back to when you finally found your best friend again. Seeing that necklace makes you feel bad about your previous actions and you decide that once Grayson gives you the sign that he’s gotten everything he needs you will pull Jason aside and confront him without berating him.
Two hours go by before you know it and Grayson signals to you a thumbs up as he heads over to the food table, the jobs done. You look around to spot Jason, but your luck fails you. As you wander out of the wing where the gala is being held and down a hallway with really only staff around you, you get yanked into a room by someone. As luck would have it though your luck didn't fail you after all because you realize you got pulled into a bathroom by Jason.
He leans against the sink as you note how large this bathroom is. You’ve been to Wayne Manor a couple of times, but the size of the rooms in these houses still amazes you.
“I’m sorry,” his words cut through the air, he’s not cold for once in so long.
Your eyes widen in shock at the suddenness of his apology you’re about to talk when he continues.
“Without you knowing about my accident you were the one person who wrote my current self as just having grown up, not pitied me over the fact I’ve been tortured and died, or feared me for the anger I had when I came back. I was just Jason Todd who happens to be Red Hood instead of Red Hood who is the fucked up version of the dead second Robin.” His voice shakes as he blurts out his feelings.
Your gaze on him softens and you softly place a hand on his. You give him the ground to talk and say everything he needs to say to you.
“To all of them, I’m not Jason, I’m just Red Hood. Hell, some days even I ask myself if that was really me. I wonder if I’m me in general.” He drops his gaze to the ground, being this vulnerable, especially for him is new and painful, in its own sort of therapeutic way. “I just didn’t want to lose that feeling.”
You move in closer and wrap your arms around him, holding him tightly. He freezes for a minute before slowly wrapping his own arms around you, burying his face in your hair. “You’re not losing me.” You hadn’t hugged him since you were kids you note how different he feels now, he’s much taller now for one, he’s muscular, and even through his suit, you can almost make out the feeling of a scar on his back.
To those words, you feel his hold tight. “Thank you.” It's muffled in your hair but it makes you smile, you’re glad that he opened up to you.
As he takes a deep breath, you glance up at him. His eyes are shut, and he’s calming down. His breathing is steadying. “Same shampoo after all these years?” He says it so quietly, almost in disbelief he remembers the scent of it.
You move your head away from him a bit, causing his eyes to open. It admittedly flusters you that he even noticed that. “I mean, it still happens to be the cheapest, force of habit and all.”
A small smile forms on his face, “I like it.”
Warmth washes over your face and you let go of him try to act unphased by his words by checking yourself in the mirror and quickly fixing your hair. “We should head back out before Grayson comes looking for us.”
His arms snake their way around your torso while your hands are up moving a strand of hair off your face. “Oh screw Dick, I bet he’s too busy flirting with guests out there.” He leans down and rests his chin on your shoulder.
You move a hand onto his head lightly ruffling his hair, to which he smirks. Looking in the mirror you find the whole situation unbelievable, you had missed him so much. As you turn around you place your arms on to his shoulders. “You suggesting something to me Jase?”
The use of that nickname always causes a smile even if small onto his face, “I love it when you call me that.” He’s leaning in closer as one of his hands moves up your side, sending shivers down your spine.
You close the distance and let your fingers run through his hair, he groans at the feelings. Before you know it he lifts you onto the sink counter, he’s standing between your legs as he kisses you deeply. You pull away and trace kisses along his neck, his own hands continue to wander around feeling every inch available. You start to unbutton his shirt and as you do so you notice the scar on his neck the same one you had noticed way back when you two had reunited, you move toward it and place a soft kiss on it, and he lets out a moan at the sensation. He gently grabs your chin and kisses you again it’s almost as if he has been needing this since that night. As you are halfway done unbuttoning his shirt you hear a knock at the door causing you both to freeze.
“Y/N?” Grayson’s voice asks from the other side of the door. You and Jason look back at each other eyes wide open in shock. Both of your hairs are messed up and your clothing is all messed up especially Jason’s shirt with it being half open.
He quickly moves away letting you get off the counter you’re both quickly trying to fix up in the mirror. “Uh yeah?” You respond trying to sound as normal as you possibly can right now.
“I’m ready to head out when you are,” Grayson says back.
Jason has gotten his shirt closed by now and is fixing his hair, you’re just waiting on him. “Just one sec!” He gives you a thumbs up letting you know he’s ready. You reach for the door handle and open the door, Grayson is leaning against the wall across the hall and raises an eyebrow seeing Jason walk out behind you.
“He was telling about the info he gathered during the night.”
Grayson hums at your response and a smirk forms on his face, “Yeah I’m sure of that.” He steps towards Jason and taps a finger onto his chest before continuing down the hall. “You should fix your shirt.”
Jason looks down and realizes he buttoned the second button in the hole of the first one and sighs at the fact Grayson noticed that.
“I’m gonna head out, think he’s more than happy to take you.” He shoots the two of you a wink before disappearing down another hallway.
You turn back toward him and reach up to fix his shirt for him, his cheeks are flushed red and he’s smiling down at you with a goofish look. He’s not just your childhood friend anymore, it's clear you’re something more but for now, there is no label, but you know you’re the most important person in each other's lives right now and you thank that damned necklace for bringing him back to you.