Hero, Hero
Jason’s stay in New York was going better than expected. He’d gotten a volunteering position at a local library as well as the orphanage and he’d started getting to know more of the local people and integrating himself into their community. It felt nice, to not be so worried about expectations or if someone was going to stab him in the back. (He was also getting closer with Matt, hanging out more as well as sitting with him at church. And being true to his bat training he was ignoring how every interaction made him slightly giddy inside). All this to say, it was only a matter of time until something ‘work’ related had to ruin it.
Jason had gotten a call from Tim, explaining he’d uncovered a NYC based operation that had decided to ship into Gotham after Red Hood’s decreasing appearances. Jason had sighed but agreed to take care of it, taking out the extra suit and helmet he’d brought along just for cases like this.
Uncreatively, the operation was in a warehouse by the docks at night. Silently cursing whoever had first decided rarely-used warehouses at night was the best place for illegal drug sales, Jason made his way over roofs towards the meeting place. As soon as he got there he noticed that there were already men knocked out around the building. Great, someone else had gotten to these idiots before he had.
Cursing quietly, Jason grappled onto the roof and looked down through the windows (had these idiots never had a vigilante crash through their roofs before?). Daredevil was fighting has way through the mass of people, doing flips as well as barreling into the men. Before he could get too mesmerized, Jason jumped through the window and landed on top of one of the guys attempting to shoot the Devil from behind a box of merchandise, causing a satisfying groan as the man’s head hit the box in front of him.
Jason had decided before moving here that he didn’t want to attract the, no doubt righteous, fury Daredevil had against killing (if his confrontation with Frank Castle was any confirmation). So, he shot the guy in the knee and moved on.
The fight passed in a blur. The two vigilante’s stayed mostly on opposite sides of the warehouse but shouted at each other every so often to give a heads up. At one point they ended up back to back, surrounded by a circle of oncoming men. Jason glanced over his shoulder at Daredevil and they both nodded, jumping forward to meet the men but always keeping each other at their backs.
Jason couldn’t remember the last time he’d trusted a perfect stranger to guard his back this much. Of course he wasn’t letting his guard down the whole time, but he was more willing to let it drop for a second or two to focus on the guys in front of him. It was as concerning as it was invigorating. He kept catching glimpses of Daredevil out of the corner of his eye (he refused to admit he was worried about the guy being ok) and almost getting distracted. He’d seen the beat up three men in an alley but watching him in an actual fight? He was beautiful. Jason smiled under his mask, maybe staying in New York for an extended period of time wouldn’t be that bad after all.
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Matt hadn’t been expecting help, he certainly didn’t need it. Yet he couldn’t find it in himself to be upset at Jason joining him on his trafficking bust. He was relieved to finally get some sort of answer for why Jason was so weird, but Matt had so many new questions. Pushing them to the back of his mind as usual, he focused on beating the criminals up as ruthlessly as he could. This particular group trafficked lots of things, drugs being one of the main ones, but they had recently branched out into living merchandise. It made his blood boil to listen to the scared little hearts flutter as the children, as well as adults, curled up and tried to hide from the fighting in the corners of the various rooms they were locked in.
Punching the current man extra hard, he landed back to back with Jason, who looked at him as they both nodded. They had the same idea it seemed. Splitting up, Matt kept Jason at his back as he lept around the warehouse floor around the new onslaught of men. Where did they always come from? He sighed minutely as he used one man as a springboard and kicked several others in the face as he fell gracefully into a roll, knocking over more men and springing back up.
He kept an ear on Jason, worried about his potentially lethal methods given the guns (he already had to fight with Frank about murder and he wasn’t in the mood to debate it again), but he seemed perfectly fine shooting goons in the knees and pistol whipping them as well as using a mix of different martial arts styles as he took them down with brutal efficiency speaking to years of training. Matt’s heart twinged at the thought of a possibly prepubescent Jason training to fight men three times his size (at the time. Adult Jason clearly didn’t have that problem now). That story sounded all too familiar and if Matt’s read on Jason’s possible age (and he most likely was), he would need to have started training when he was around 10.
Matt let himself hit the last few men a bit harder at the mental image of a child Jason training with Stick the same as he had before taking a deep breath and turning to face the man himself as he finished with his batch of men. Once he was done, he spun his guns around his fingers before slotting them into their holsters on his thighs and turning to face Matt.
“Daredevil I assume? The name’s Red Hood. You might recognize my name from Gotham but I assure you, I won’t be killin’ anyone in your territory, I’m just here for a little vacation. This was just a house call, these guys were startin’ to move onto my territory back home. We don’t need anymore drugs on our streets so I needed to put a stop to ‘em. A hope you understand.” Matt nodded and tilted his head. He wasn’t lying, but he hadn’t mentioned any human trafficking.. did he not know about that part?
“That’s alright, as long as I don’t find you killing we’ll be fine. You mentioned that they were moving onto your territory? Have you noticed an uptick in missing persons cases?” Red Hood tensed up immediately, finger twitching the same way Matt had noticed Frank’s do when he was angry.
“Why.” That definitely wasn’t a question, more like confirmation. There had been more cases then.
“Because there’s about 20 people bound in locked rooms in this warehouse. I’d appreciate some help.” Without waiting for a response Matt was off towards the rooms. He heard Red Hood follow after a second. They made quick work of the doors and rope that trapped the people, luckily the worst injury was some bloody noses. Red Hood found a phone and called the police, Matt told him to request Officer Bret Mahoney. They were out of the building ten minutes before the police arrived.
They waited for the tell tale police sirens on a nearby roof before making their way over the rooftops away from the harbor. They stopped on a roof nearby Matt’s apartment, not that Red Hood knew that, and just sat there for a few minutes before Jason spoke.
“You know, every time I get some hope in humanity I find another reason to despise it.” And Matt knew the feeling. He didn’t say anything, just nodded. He didn’t know much about Red Hood, he had been busy with Fisk when he’d been popular in the news, but from what he’d heard from the vigilante side of things was he didn’t mess around with kids. Sure he killed but also beat the rapists and pedophiles the hardest, often leaving people who selled to kids in comas if not dead. Matt didn’t agree with killing in the slightest, but he couldn’t argue that the people Red Hood killed were all people who were awful people.
“I get that, but it’s the things that give us hope that we should live for.” He thought of Foggy and Karen, who’d stuck by his side even when he definitely deserved for them to leave. He thought of Father Lantom who had been a light in his life since childhood. They were the people he lived for. They were the reason he was Daredevil.
Jason scoffed, “Yeah I thought you would say something like that.” But his heart didn’t say he disagreed. He chuckled. “You know, the reason I’m here is because my- I guess they’re my family. My family’s been really overbearing recently. They won’t leave me alone.
“My older brother keeps insisting that I need to join them again, but my old man’s been making it really clear he doesn’t want me. He wants the me I was when I was a kid and he won’t accept that that kid is dead.” A wet laugh came from Jason as he pulled off the helmet and sighed, “I don’t even know why I’m tellin’ you of all people this, you seem the type to be hella emotionally repressed. That seems to come with the mask anyway.” Matt chuckled.
“Yeah that much is true. For what it’s worth I kinda get it. I had this.. mentor.. who looked after me when I was younger. He left when I got older and only recently came back, saying he needed me for something. The whole time he was here we were fighting because he didn’t understand why I am the way I am. He wanted the old me back too.
“I also get the overbearing family, in a way. My friends have been pestering me for months now, and I used to be a little annoyed, but now I’m just grateful to have them in my life at all. I was an asshole and they didn’t leave. So while I don’t know you’re situation, I hope you can find the people who will be overbearing because they know what’s good for you. Certainly helped me stop being so ‘emotionally repressed’ as you said.” Matt smiled in Jason’s direction, listening to his heart beat in his chest, listening to his muscles shift as he processed Matt’s words.
Matt was mature enough to admit to himself that he was falling for this man. Falling for this heavily traumatized, violent man that could, and had, killed for the things he believed in. And he couldn’t truly find it in himself to care.
The two parted ways soon after, Matt tracking Jason’s heart from his apartment and Jason making it home, taking off his gear, before flopping down in his bed with a lot to think about.