Civilian, Civilian
Honestly, Jason was tired. He was tired of Dick begging him to be part of the family again, tired of Bruce being overbearing in the way only he could, tired of Damian’s adamant hatred of him, tired of feeling like an outsider in what should have been his own home.
His only saving grace was Alfred and Tim, who despite the rocky start had actually been the best about treating him like a person. Alfred of course was great as usual, but Tim had been a surprise (for obvious reasons). Both of them had encouraged him to take a break away from Gotham for a bit, Tim promising to take care of Crime Alley and Alfred promising to keep the other bats off his back for the remainder of his vacation (not in so many words, but that was the gist of the message).
So, despite having his doubts, Jason took a bus out to New York, a city that also had crime but wasn’t quite as weird about it as Gotham was, while also not being like Metropolis. Jason rolled his eyes at the idea of staying in Metropolis for any period of time as he set his bag down on the couch of his safe house. He’d gotten a few in some major cities nearby, in case he was called away on a case and had to stay longer than planned. New York happened to be one of the cities he chose. The apartment was in Hell’s Kitchen, New York’s equivalent of Crime Alley, and home to Daredevil, Hell’s Kitchen’s equivalent to Red Hood, though with a lot less blood shed.
Jason had decided early on that he wanted to help people while he was here, and he knew that the best way to do that was to get to know the community and learn what those issues were instead of just throwing money at something (cough cough B cough cough). With that in mind, once he’d gotten all his stuff situated in his apartment, he’d volunteered at a local orphanage.
The orphanage was run by a church which reminded him of the good days of his childhood when his mother wasn’t off in the clouds and his father wasn’t in jail which was a nice side effect. He liked the priest there, he reminded him of Alfred. He had the same tired grandfather look like he always knew when you’d broken a rule but would let you take a cookie anyway.
Jason had always loved kids, he’d based his whole Red Hood persona around keeping them safe, so being able to work with them first hand was great. It brought him back to when he’d help some of the younger kids on the street learn which streets to stay away from when he was Robin. The younger ones liked him almost immediately, with the funny voiced he could do during the stories he’d tell of Batman and Robin. They also liked the piggyback rides he would give. One of the best uses of his size in his opinion was being able to pick up and carry around six kids and listen to them laugh the whole way.
Jason had also decided to go to church on Sundays, despite the early mornings. It was a good way of getting to know the community, and the things people confessed during prayer were hilarious. During his first Sunday going, he learned about a couple’s divorce because both partners had cheated on each other with two other married people who were also getting divorced because of it. The best part was neither partnership had kids so there wasn’t anyone to suffer the fallout. People were always honest when they didn’t think anyone was listening. Jason had never been so glad for his enhanced hearing.
Halfway through listening to a young boy pray for the downfall of his English teacher, he heard a quiet snort from behind him. He didn’t turn around but he did wonder who else would have good enough hearing to listen to the young man’s… creative insults for Ms. Johnson. He decided not to worry too much about it for the time being as Father Lantom asked the congregession to stand.
Later that day, after he’d said hello to the kids and was walking around the town, he spotted two men following a slightly familiar, sharply dressed blind men around. He sighed. It seemed like every city had people willing to take advantage of people they saw as lesser than them. He followed them from a distance, pretending to be on his phone, before the men managed to coral the man into an alley. As he came up on the alley, he picked up a brick and banged it against a metal dumpster by the entrance of the alley, scaring the attempted robbers as they reached the “we won’t hurt you” part of their little speach.
“Hey, why don’t you pick on someone who looks like an asshole, assholes.” He knew he looked intimidating, his upbringing made sure of it, so it wasn’t a surprise when the men ran passed him out of the alley, mumbling apologies. He turned to the man and dropped the brick, sighing. “Sorry about that. I’m sure you could have handled them yourself but I didn’t want to risk it. Did they get anything off ya? Are ya hurt?”
The man smiled, “No I’m alright. Thank you though.” Jason looked him up and down and nodded.
“Good. You wanna walk with me for a couple blocks? If anything it’ll make me feel better that they aren’t gonna try to jump you again.” Jason knew what it was like to have people doubt your abilities for something you couldn’t control, he had enough of that in the school Bruce had made him attend as well as being Robin around other adult heroes, but he also knew that people were assholes and persistent ones at that. Thankfully, the man just smiled.
“I think I’ll take you up on that offer. I don’t have anything else to do today.” He made his way through the alley way and stopped right next to Jason. “I’m Matt, nice to meet you.” He switched his stick to his other hand and held his right up for a handshake..
Jason took his hand and said, “Jason, nice to meet you too. I’m new to town so you might need to show me where to go. Is there any good places for coffee around here?”
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Matt hadn’t been able to make it to church last week due to Foggy grounding him to heal on orders from Claire, saying that he would somehow find a way to rebreak his rib on his walk to the church when he tried to argue. Which, he had thought wasn’t fair, though that was before two men had attempted to rob him (though he argued that was on his walk back from church, not too church). Thankfully, the new guy at his church had saved him a lecture on self-preservation.
Jason had followed them for a few blocks and Matt had been initially worried that he would join the men in attempting to mug him, instead he had scared them off with a brick and his (apparently) intimidating stature. When the man had offered to walk around with him for a little while, Matt had at first been hesitant, but agreed, if for no other reason than to figure this guy out. During church, when Matt had laughed at Jeffrey cursing out his teacher without cursing her out and remembering doing a very similar thing to the same teacher when he was younger, Jason’s heartbeat had ticked up, which was strange since he knew no one with normal hearing would be able to hear him.
The two had a lovely time walking around, as Matt introduced Jason to some of the many local shops. Neither of them would be willing to admit it any time soon, but it was the most enjoyable day either of them had had in a while.