Hero, Civilian
It had happened completely by accident. The Red Hood had been staking out a warehouse that had been showing signs of criminal activity, Gotham criminal activity to be specific. Black Mask had apparently moved out to New York once he’d been driven out of Gotham and decided that a rebranded Crime Alley was the place to go.
Jason had been keeping an eye on this particular warehouse for a while, and had heard word of something big going down tonight. He hadn’t quite figured out how to get in touch with Daredevil, if he hadn’t already heard about it already, but he decided that it would be beneficial to go regardless. Either Daredevil was there and they both took Black Mask down together with extra back up (and Jason got to watch the man fight again), or Red Hood would show up alone and take Black mask down once again.
Daredevil and Red Hood had had a couple other successful team-ups since that first time, though no other heart to hearts on quiet rooftops, which he was grateful for. Jason and Matt had also had an amazing time walking around the zoo as well as a nice coffee date. Jason hadn’t asked if they were dating or anything, it seemed too early for that yet (then again what did he know? He was dead or training with assassins during what were supposed to be his preliminary dating years, and he was busy chopping off heads and scaring people in his late teens and early 20s, he didn’t have time for it then either). He shook his head, forcing himself to pay attention to the stakeout at hand.
It started normally. He arrived about half an hour before whatever was supposed to happen and waited until people started showing up, until finally the man himself, Black Mask, rolled up in a black car and walked into the building. Now the real fun could start. Deciding to play it stealthy for once, Jason started slowly taking out the guards at the entrances, taking them out and dragging them into the nearby shadows where he bound and gagged them.
Then, he made his way inside, starting from the higher floors, working his way through as quietly as he could as quickly as he could, knocking out guards and tying them up, thankful Alfred had sent over a fuck ton of those stupid yet efficient zip ties that B had always used when he apprehended criminals. He worked his way down through the floors until he got to the ground floor where anger almost clouded his vision completely.
Boy was he glad he’d showed up because right in the middle of the mostly empty warehouse was Matt, tied to a chair and gagged with his head lolling back. To say the he was unhappy was an understatement. Taking a moment to assess the situation, Jason started taking out goons slowly, making sure not to alert Sionis, who he still hadn’t spotted, that anything was wrong.
Once he was about halfway done clearing the ground floor, Sionis finally made an appearance. He opened the door to a side office with three guards in tow and walked up to Matt. He bent down to him, grabbed his face with one hand. Matt groaned, and it was only then that Jason realized how injured Matt was. He was covered in bruises, like when he’d been abducted he’d tried to fight and failed. His nose was bleeding and he had a black eye, his hair was greasy with sweat and he looked all around terrible. Sionis just smiled.
“Well, I would have thought the people The Man in the Mask surrounded himself with would be better fighters. Apparently I was wrong.” Black Mask laughed at himself as he let go of Matt’s face. Matt was clearly conscious but his head fell forward limply and Jason couldn’t help but picture him as just a body tied to a chair, another loved one he’d have to bury.
Black Mask went on for a little longer about how easy it was to kidnap Matt and drag him here, before revealing his ‘master plan’: use Matt as bait to trap Daredevil and take control over Hell’s Kitchen by killing it’s protector. Overall it didn’t seem too bad, (and Jason noticed the similarities between what he’d done to take over Crime Alley and what Black Mask wanted to do) but there was just one problem. Black Mask wasn’t getting Daredevil, or even Red Hood, he was getting Jason Todd.
When he’d had enough of hiding in the shadows, Jason shot one bullet dangerously close to Black Mask’s head, a warning shot (he wouldn’t get out so easily). Black Mask whipped around and spotted Jason immediately, tensing up but trying to cover it up.
“Red Hood! You’re rather far from Crime Alley. Aren’t you supposed to be watching some sex workers or something?” Jason just scoffed.
“I’ve got Black Bat covering for me, they’ll be fine. If you must know, I’m on vacation, or supposed to be. I’d like to get back to that, but I need you to let this guy go.” His voice was flatter than usual, even with the voice distorted by the helmet. Black Mask gulped.
“Yes well, I have business with the Devil of Hell’s Kitche-!” He was cut off as Jason lunged forward and kicked him square in the chest, sending him sprawling across the floor. The three goons looked between themselves and him before attacking him. He didn’t spare any expense bar murder, taking them out quickly and painfully. Thanks to his earlier stealth, there were only ten more goons swarming him from other entrances, which Jason just used his guns for (also ruthlessly but without any lethal blows. As angry as he was he knew Matt wouldn’t appreciate someone killing on his behalf), hitting their knees and ankles until they were just laying on the ground moaning in pain. Speaking of which, Matt let out a pained groan from the chair, reminding Jason why he was so mad.
Jason rushed over to Matt’s side, taking a knife from one of his boots and cutting his restraints. Matt fell loosely onto Jason, letting all his weight rest on him. Jason sighed as he stood up, pulling Matt with him and helping him walk.
“Come on buddy. We gotta get you to a hospital to get you treated.” Jason said as he moved towards an exit.
“No hospitals.” Matt mumbled, as he leaned heavily into Jason.
“Are you sure? I don’t know how hurt you are and you’ll definitely fare better if we get you to a hospital.” Jason tried again, not particularly wanting to patch Matt up in his apartment.
Matt stopped walking for a second and tilted his head for a second (a very familiar head tilt) as if he were listening for something. “No internal bleeding, bruised ribs, some other surface level wounds. No hospitals.” Jason barely held back his flinch when Matt described his injuries.
“Fine, no hospitals. I’m takin’ ya’ to my apartment instead then. I’m not gonna ask how you know that right now, but just know that you owe me an explanation when you can stand on your own. Got it?” Jason wasn’t expecting any reply, but especially not the reply he got.
“Alright. Thanks Jason.” Matt said. Jason froze.
“What?” Matt just tilted his head, confused.
“Your name is Jason.” Matt pouted (and Jason couldn’t help think about how cute he was doing so). “Don’t deny it. I know.” Jason just sighed.
“I’m not getting a straight answer from you until I patch you up am I?” Matt stayed quiet. “Alright then.” It was quite the whole way to his apartment, other that Jason telling Matt that he had to hold on tighter as they rode his motorcycle through the mostly empty streets (he didn’t thing about how as soon as he’d said that Matt had happily snuggled up against his back, pressing their bodies together tightly).
As Jason bandaged Matt up with the utmost care, he had plenty of time to think. The second time he and Matt went on a date, Matt had asked about his ankle. He hadn’t realized it at the time but looking back on it now, Jason hadn’t been limping at all. In fact, the bruise from when that pipe had hit him the night before had healed at that point due to his accelerated healing for, the Lazarus Pits. There was no way for Matt to have known that Jason had had an injury to his ankle recently. Unless he’d been there when it happened.
He looked back at everything, the familiar head tilt, the laughing at things no regular human should be able to hear, the fact that he’d had hardly any trouble moving around unfamiliar spaces, how Matt had been able to tell almost exactly where all the animals were in the enclosures. It all pointed to one thing. And as Jason pulled the covers on his bed over Matt’s sleeping form, he couldn’t convince himself that it was a bad thing. He’d flirted with death many times, why not the Devil?