Chapter Text
Ten fucking years. He could barely believe how long it had been. The city, still deprived of a functioning law system, crimes waiting to happen around every corner and yet, somehow, he felt oddly at home as he gazed out over the city.
Jason was straddled over his harley, helmet resting in front of him as he let his eyes wander over the view that most would describe as a mix of wonder and disgust. The city was known for its infamous villains and those who made sure to put them behind bars. Batman… No matter how much he wanted to ignore it, the ache still stung painfully in his chest as he thought of his old family. But that’s just what they were. His old family. They were in the past and he was no longer a part of the past.
Jason wasn’t Robin anymore. He’d been resigned that title the day a warehouse exploded with an injured young boy, still inside. Now, he was the Red Hood. A criminal in the eyes of society, an outlaw, gun nut. Of course, Gotham city didn’t know of this yet. But they were soon to find out, just how much havoc one ghost behind a red helmet could cause.
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7 months later (thursday morning)
“Kitten, you need to wake up.” A purring, familiar voice whispered whilst slowly stroking the side of the boy’s arm.
“If I don’t remember wrong, this one has an exam in a few hours.” The gentle touch disappeared, much to the boy’s disliking.
Tim groaned as he twisted around in the blanket. He was still laying on the same couch he’d crashed on top of the night before, just with the blanket as an added detail. Selina must have wrapped him in it once she found him.
Last night had been long. It had started out with a simple art robbery at the request of Selina but then turned into a long and tiresome chase through the city. Batman had, for some reason, found an interest in him, more than usual at least. And instead of sending his demon spawn after him as usual, he’d shown up himself. Not that Tim couldn’t escape the big bad bat with ease, he’d done that many times. But last night, there had been a variable he had not accounted for. Batman had asked something of him, that Tim was in no way ever going to get into.
“He’s a danger to us all.”
“Then why haven’t you tracked him down yet? Aren’t you the greatest detective in the world?” he’d purred, toying with the man as a means of distraction. But Batman wasn’t as easy to distract as that hormonal monster he called son.
“You may be a thief Stray, but you know that he needs to be stopped, just as much as I do.” The sentence had caused a twitch at the edge of Stray’s smirk but he’d played it of as if it never happened, just as Selina had thought him.
“Oh I don’t know, B” he teased the man, knowing very well that Stray had the power to reveal all their identities.
“I think he seems to be just about what this city needs… Considering you and your little minions don’t have the balls to do what really needs to be done.” And with that he’d started running. If Bruce had taken offense, he hadn’t shown it, to no bigger surprise. But he had chased after him, more persistent than usual. The city was big and Stray knew every inch of it, but so did the Bat. He may originally have been a little rich boy but he had certainly taken his time to learn every creak as he grew up into the role of the Dark Knight, that’s what he though at least. Tim had just gotten enough of a head start to make it to one of Selina’s apartments later that night. He’d slipped through the window and collapsed on the floor, breathless and aching all over after having run around, up and down buildings, for what felt like hours.
Luckily the bat hadn’t seen his lithe figure slip through the crack of the window and he’d gotten away. But it bothered him how much Bruce really wanted to capture this Hood figure. Stray knew he was a bit of an extreme character, but he wasn’t sure if it was for the worse or not. All he knew was that the Bat wanted him, and he was willing to chase around a cat through the city for an entire night just to get to him.
He ruffled his own wild hair in an attempt to feel somewhat more awake and peered around the room. Selina was standing over at the kitchen making coffee. God bless her. Tim sat up, rubbing his eyes, then letting his arms fall down onto his lap.
The Red Hood… He really didn’t know much of him. All he knew was that he had appeared a couple of months back, taking down the biggest and baddest of Gotham as if it was childsplay. Several gangs now answered to him, and still, there was no trace nor sign of where he was or who he was. The man was like a ghost. A ghost most people clearly feared from the way people talked of him, the whispers you heard on the streets, the news articles flashing on the front of every magazine or newspaper. Even Batman seemed almost… afraid? Who was this man?
“Is my little kitty cat in trouble with the big bad bat?” Selina sat down in the armchair next to the couch, elegantly crossing her bare legs after having placed one of the coffee cups on the table in front of them.
Tim grabbed it and started drinking, immediately feeling better as the stream of caffeine entered his tired body. He leaned back on the couch and pulled his hair back with a deep sigh.
“I don’t know yet, the Bat seems pretty on edge about this whole Red Hood ordeal.”
The name even sparked a glimmer in Selina’s warm emerald eyes. Her jet black curls were unkempt from having slept for more than just a few hours for once and the white t-shirt she had pulled over was covered in different forms of cat hair. Honestly, Tim didn’t even know how many cats the woman considered her own anymore. She never said she owned them, they owned her. But no matter the amount of cat hair or unkempt curls, she was still as beautiful as ever.
“What do you think about him?” She asked, curious to see how the boy himself felt about the newest addition to Gotham’s criminal underground. Selina was good, she never revealed her true feeling to anyone. But Tim had learnt to read her, as the woman was basically the closest thing to what he’d call a mother.
His own mother had passed at his own young age of nine and his father took his own life by drinking and other substances, not long after.
He could see the worry in her eyes, no matter how much she tried to conceal it. Tim knew that she trusted him and knew he could take care of himself so he wasn't too bothered by it. Selina wasn’t - thank god - anything like Bruce with his kids. She might not show much of her own trail of thought, but she wasn’t emotionally crippled and she was definitely determined to show her trust in him.
“He seems… different.” Tim chose his words carefully. He hated making any statement at all without solid facts to back him up, but he had been thinking about it.
“Dangerous, of course. But there’s something about him. I don’t know what it is… yet.” He was determined to figure out though. If he hadn’t been before, than the debacle with the bat last night had certainly peaked his interest, if not kicked it to a whole other level.
What was it with The Red Hood that seemed rock the whole city, even Batman?
Selina gave him a smirk as she got up from her seat and ruffled his hair, just after it had finally found a nice resting place. “Don’t let curiosity kill the cat, Tim.” She moved graciously away from the living room area, toward the kitchen.
“I won’t.” He reassured and finished the beverage, trying to fix his hair again, feeling less like a zombie as he stood up. His Stray suit laid on the floor from last night and he stepped over it as he walked over to a drawer where he usually kept some civilian clothes around.
“Did you study for your exam today?” Selina asked, dropping of her mug at the sink and getting out food for the several cats who were now walking in through different windows. Breakfast time for everyone I guess.
“You know, I might as well teach classes at that college right? I can hack into every computer system in the world, I think I can manage this test.” he said and raised his eyebrows in a cocky manner as he slipped into a pair of black skinny jeans, with rips in them.
“Perhaps, but appearance is everything Tim, and you know that.” Selina said as she disappeared into her bedroom.
Appearance was everything, and he did know that. Stray was a famous thief, the one you went to for information or a job that had to be done in the shadows. At the right price of course.
But Timothy Drake, he was a top of his class collage student and a nerd. In no way would that scranny kid ever manage to break into the Met and steal million dollars worth of paintings without even being caught. The only reason people knew that it had been Stray was because of the fact that he’d left a note with a paw print on it. Hey, might as well take credit when performing a master heist.
“I won’t ditch, I promise.” he chuckled as he pulled a white t-shirt over his head with a small line of text one it, if you can read this, you’re too close. He had to swing by his own apartment, not far away from this one, and pick up his things. His whole life was on his computer and that was also his way of getting any information regarding what was going on in town.
“I’ll see you later Selina! Love you!” He called out through the apartment as he exited and ran down the many flights of stairs. With a backpack strapped over his shoulders, where inside it, the Stray suit rested.
---
“I want a name by tomorrow.” He hung up the phone and threw it across the small slightly torn down apartment in frustration. Getting a new one wouldn’t be a hassle, money wasn’t a problem for the reigning crime lord of Gotham. In just seven months he’d managed to do what Batman still hadn’t accomplished. There was a pride in that thought, hell it was a turn on really.
But something had made its way into his perfect plan, or more precisely, someone. People called him Stray, a man who seemed to have the power to track down anyone, which wasn’t boding well for Jason. He’d made sure to drop hints of who he really was around Nightwing and Batman, just to screw with them. He wanted Bruce to know that it was him, his failure, who had come back from the grave and done the job he never had the guts to do. But it had to take some time and he couldn’t be caught, not yet. So when he learnt that B had contacted this Stray, he wasn’t too pleased. If this unknown player - of what was all really one big game - was as good as people made him out to be, then he was trouble.
He’d sent out his men to find him, or a name, or really anything. Surprisingly, no one had known of his real name or how to get to him. Apparently he found you. And Jason didn’t have time for that. Admittedly, he was impressed by how he’d managed to stay out of the spotlight for so long, according to stories he seemed to have surfaced some time after Jason’s disappearance and that meant he'd been in the game for some time now. And not even Batman knew who he was.
Master detective my ass. He fell down onto the couch with a thud and let his feet rest up on the coffee table in front of him. The place looked like shit but Jason didn’t mind, he’d been staying at way worse places throughout his life. And he did own some nicer apartments, he just had to keep moving around. He was wealthy now, it kind of came with the job. But he knew the risk that came with buying pricey estates. It was one sure ticket to getting discovered and that’s just how he’d taken down the entire infrastructure that was Gotham’s underground when he’d arrived.
Showing off your money, bathing in it. It was the biggest mistake you could possibly make if you cared about your head. There were a few rules you had to follow, but besides that, taking Gotham was a piece of cake.
Don’t show you face, not to anyone. And that included anything that could become a signature or distinguish you. Like your voice, handwriting, the way you moved or laughed. That’s why Jason kept his helmet on at all times, even during meetings. The several layers of the ventilation filters made sure to distort his voice just enough beyond recognition to the untrained ear. And believe me, there were a lot of those.
You had to keep up a public face, you can’t just exist as your alias. This had been the most taxing rule, the one that exhausted Jason the most. Because Jason was still young. He was 23 and that meant that most around his age, didn’t have a proper job or spent time reading, drinking tea. No, he had to live the life of a college student.
To the public he was Peter Jonson, a college student who had been living overseas with his parents for three years, to now return home alone for the college experience.
This all meant that he had to keep up the act of a college kid during the day and then a Gotham crime lord by night. He couldn’t believe how much work was dropped onto college kids, onto him. He was even late for a meeting with the Penguin once because, guess what? He had homework. It was ridiculous. It made being a crime lord seem easy. Not that Jason wasn’t smart, he’d always been smart. But it was exhausting.
Bing.
The sound of an email came through his computer that was placed open on the table, next to his feet. He reached forward and opened the message.
-As we attempted to find Stray we got slightly closer, but he sent us a virus and all our servers are down for at least twelve hours.
“Shit.” Jason let the world slip past his lips without even acknowledging it. This kid is good.
Which wasn’t good for The Hood. He closed the computer and got up, he couldn’t help but dwell in the thought of who this Stray was, as he got ready to head out. He had an exam in a few hours.
---
Tim sat sipping a caramel macchiato at the Starbucks near one of his apartments, spiked with three shots of espresso, as he hit enter with a smirk, sending the virus to those who were trying to intrude on his privacy. Not that they were even close of getting any form of information, but he liked to remind those who tried that he saw everything and nothing could slip passt him.
He had retrieved his computer, among other things, from his apartment and then headed out to take some time for himself at the coffee shop before the exam. With the trip back to his apartment he'd put on some fake piercings, including a lip, some ear piercings, and an eyebrow. He was also wearing a red beanie now, a black oversized long sleeve and the same ripped jeans as he’d found at Selina’s apartment.
You see, Tim wasn’t just one person. It switched depending on his company. In case he was hanging around the less fancy and more torn down parts of town - like the one Selina’s apartment had been in and the one he was at now - then he’d add some extra volume to his hair, piercings and dress in a way that one might describe as grunge meets emo/punk. And his name was no longer Tim, it was James.
Tim was the upper class boy who went to college and spent his time mostly to himself with books and computers surrounding him, day and night. He wore his hair back in a small bun, although only the top part of his hair would be able to be tied back. He also wore a lot of nerdy t-shirts, and he was not nearly as stylish och outgoing as James.
James you’d see walking down the street, not caring if he bumped into people because he was too busy with his music that was just loud enough to leak out of the headphones. He’d also be seen with a camera at times, taking pictures of people or his surrounding. Tim wasn’t much for being outside at all. He’d spend his time at the library, barely interacting with anyone. No one was interested in a social hermit, a rich kid who saw himself above others or too good to spend time with anyone. But James, he knew everyone.
It was perfect. No one was interested in the real identity of Stray because he was boring. Too good for others. Tim Drake was a nobody in the eyes of society, except a kid with high expectations. But when Tim wanted to actually have a life, friends or do things. Then James was the perfect cover. James was everything the real Tim would’ve been. He was a caffeine addict who loved to take pictures and could talk to anyone, even though he was selective in his choice of company. These two people were like night and day.
“Hey James!” A blonde girl called out as she walked over towards him with a broad smile. Every time she did that, Tim couldn’t help but smile back, her smile really was contagious but there was also something else, entertaining his mind.
“Hey Stephanie.” He smiled and let the girl take a seat across from him. He made a few taps on his computer and the coding that had once been there was now gone, replaced with a youtube video that seemed paused midway.
“What’s up?” He leaned back against the wall behind him and sipped his coffee.
“Oh I’m just grabbing a drink on my way to work.” She said with a gesture towards the register as she had just placed an order and was waiting for them to call out her name.
“Don’t you work at at cafe?” Tim asked confused and lifted an eyebrow, as he sat down the cup of coffee. Or more like caffeine bomb really.
“Well, yeah. But they just serve black coffee with sugar or milk. I need my daily dose of diabetes.” She giggled slightly. She was cute, Tim had to admit. In another life he could have definitely seen them together. But not in this one. Steph missed one important factor, something between her legs. Once the girl had realized that, she had almost seemed even more invested his hers and Jame’s friendship. Something about being tired of all the straight guys constantly hitting on her.
At first Tim had tried avoiding the girl, he even stopped coming to starbucks for a while. After all, Stephanie Brown was Batgirl. And Batgirl hated Stray. Stray never really had anything against the girl but she had definitely made it very clear that he was a lying thief, not worthy of any sympathy. It was out of character for the mostly loving girl but once he found out that Cluemaster was her father, he understood it. Stray seemed to hit a sore spot every time he left a clue of his involvement of a robbery or heist of some kind. He mostly did it so no one else could take the blame, but the girl had taken it personal. Probably thinking it was a mockery aimed towards her. So he played along, letting Batgirl hate Stray and letting Stephanie love James.
Besides, it was kind of nice having someone to talk about normal things with.
“Julia Roberts!” a worker called out with a small sigh as she placed the cup of ‘to go’ coffee on the counter for Julia Roberts to pick up.
“Still sticking with the celebrity theme?” Tim chuckled as Stephanie got up.
“Yup, yesterday I was Leonardo DiCaprio.” She winked and went over to grab her beverage.
“I hate to leave you here but I have to get to work now.” She said upon her return.
“Oh, don’t worry. I got class in…” He looked down at his watch. “Twenty minutes, shit.” He chugged the rest of the coffee and threw his computer into his shoulder bag. Steph just laughed as he ran past her, out of the shop.
“I’ll see you later!” He called out and the girl waved back in response as she headed down the street, towards the opposite direction of Tim.