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Jason was in the bar drinking away. It was his fifth double shot of straight whisky that night and he was well on his way to a drunken stupor. Today was the anniversary of her death, and he felt like he deserved a drink, or eight. He looked across the bar to Jon and Cindy who were also having a rough time of it. Plagg was curled up in his shirt pocket purring away, and he was here drinking himself stupid until Jon cut him off.
He thought back to the first time he saw her, in this very bar. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen walked in and behind the bar, she must have been new to Gotham because she was smiling. Well new or crazy, but she didn’t look crazy.
He waved her down and she came over reasonably quickly. She was wearing a low-cut maroon top and tight black pants. Modest for most of the girls working at the bar, but she pulled it off sexy enough that he was sure she had no problem getting tips.
“What can I get you?” Her voice was bright and cheery and definitely had a french accent, so new it was.
“Another double shot of whisky, please.” He handed her a twenty-dollar bill for the six-dollar drink. “Keep the change.” He gave her a wink and she smiled and giggled the way most of the girls did. He knew it was all an act, but damn if he wasn’t pulled in like a sucker.
She brought over his drink and a glass of water. “Jon says you’re cut off. So this last drink and then some water.”
He made a face at Jon and she rolled her eyes. “Just doin’ what the boss man says. You don’t want to get me into trouble do you?”
He winked at her again. “Only if I get to choose the kind of trouble.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Smooth one, lover boy. Try talking to me when you’re sober and you might have a chance.”
---
Two days later had found Jason going to his favorite used books store. He wanted something new, something with character, and used books always smelled better than new books, the worn pages calling out for their next reader. He went up to the counter and saw the bartender from the other night.
“Fancy seeing you here.” She said as he approached the counter. “Don’t know many hardcore drinkers who find themselves in a used book store. I hope you’re not following me.” She said it carefree and with a small wink, but Jason felt bad knowing that it kinda looked like that.
He was saved from the awkwardness by the owner of the shop coming out from the back office. “Jason? Is that you?” Clara called out to him and then rushed behind the counter to grab a book in a paper bag. “Marinette, this is Jason, my best customer.”
“You don’t have to be nice Miss Clara.” He ducked his head.
“Oh shh,” she said as she waved him off. “Jason here will buy even the saddest of our finds, that’s why I’m able to take in so many books.”
“A well worn book is a well loved book, I like to try to see what the original owner saw in the pages that caused it to fall apart like that.” He smiled at the girl, Marinette. “The best things in this world are often overlooked because they are too plain or not shiny and new.”
Clara smiled and handed him the bag. “This poor dear has fallen off his binding, the pages are all there, I checked, but they are being held together by rubber bands.”
He smiled and pulled out his wallet. “I’ll take it, how much?”
“You know the deal, for a sad book like this it’s just pay what the worth is to you.” She smiled and walked back around the counter. “I have to get some things done in the office now. Thank you for coming in, Jason, I’ll keep a lookout for the next one.”
“See you later Clara.” He smiled and went back to the counter to Marinette. “Here, make sure she takes it and doesn’t try to give it back to me.” He handed her a few twenty dollar bills. “She runs this place as a pet project, and I don’t want to see her ever go out of business.”
“So you have a heart behind that flirty attitude huh?” She smiled at him and he couldn’t help but smile back.
He decided to try his luck. “You said I’d have a chance to pick the trouble you should get into if I was sober. Does the offer still stand?”
“Depends, are you doing anything at six?” She answered him with her own question.
“Not tonight.” He made a mental note to ask Dick or Tim to cover his turf tonight. Red Hood could take a night off every once in a while.
“Perfect. Meet me here and you can pick the trouble.” She handed him a receipt with her number written on the back. “See you later lover boy.”
“See ya Pixie Pop.”
---
He showed up at six and she was waiting for him. She was wearing black skinny jeans again this time paired with a crimson top. Red really was her color. Maybe it was a sign from up above that he had a proper chance with her.
“So, what kind of trouble are we getting into?” She asked him as he strolled up.
“You’ll see when we get there.” He smiled at her and led her to his bike.
He took them to an arcade near the nicer part of town if Gotham technically had a nicer side of town. But Bruce and Damian were patrolling over here tonight so Babs would have the whole place cased.
“An arcade?” Her face light up. “Do you think they have UMS5?”
“UMS?” He asked.
“Ultra Mecha Strike 5,” she explained. “I was a reigning champion in Paris when I was a kid.”
They found the game and she kicked his ass all night. When it was time to say goodbye he held her close.
“Would it be presumptuous to kiss you on the first date?”
“I think I’d like that actually.” She brought her hands up around his shoulders and he leaned in to give her a caste kiss.
“When can I see you again, fair lady?”
She laughed at the name. “Does Wednesday work for you? I don’t usually get weekends off.”
“Wednesday is perfect.” He kissed the back of her hand and bid her farewell.
---
They texted all the time, and he learned a lot about her. Her favorite color is pink, she loves video games, and she’s actually working two jobs to help pay her way through college where she is majoring in Fashion. She’s in Gotham because she needed to get away from home and the crime-riddled city felt like the perfect change in pace. He laughed at that one, but she seemed serious. She grew up in a bakery and thought it was a crime that he didn’t know how to make bread.
Wednesday came around and they had their second date, this one was a late night baking class that he had found out about from Steph.
“You brought me to a baking class?” She laughed as they pulled up. “Don’t you think I’ll blow away the other students?”
“Don’t worry, it’s a couple’s baking class, I’ll be your handicap.” He winked at her and earned another laugh.
“You’d be surprised how well I can do with a handicap.” She said cryptically and he needed to know the story behind that one.
---
“So you have done this before!” He asked her after the class was over. Even with him doing his utmost best to ruin the cookies they still have the best batch in the group.
“My best friend was the worst in the kitchen, but my papa eventually taught him how to bake reasonably well. He still couldn’t make a meal to save his life, but if you could live on just bread and cookies he would have been fine.” She was smiling fondly at the memory but he saw the pain in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he pulled her into a hug.
She pulled away after a moment and he could see that she had discreetly wiped her tears away. “What for?
“I know that look, you lost him, and it still hurts,” he replied.
She sighed and nodded. “Two years ago now. It still feels like he’ll walk through my door any moment and tease me about my design studio.”
He gave her another hug. “I’m sorry, the feeling never fully goes away really.”
She gave a little shrug. “That’s why I moved so far away. This city reminds me of him in some ways, but I don’t look for him over every park bench and on every street corner like I did in Paris.”
Jason kissed the top of her head and then took her hand in his and started walking them towards the pier. He wanted to show her the way Gotham looked from up above, and short of taking her to the top of the tower the ferris wheel was the highest he could get them.
She sighed as they reached the top. “It’s not the same as Paris, but Gotham’s night life is beautiful too.”
“I love to get up here and see the lights. Know that each of those people is a small light against the darkness of the streets.” He gestured to his city.
“That’s beautiful Jason,” she said looking out at the city.
“I grew up out here, on these streets. Before Bruce took me in I lived in a little apartment right over there.” He pointed towards the narrows. “Street kids were in awe when I was picked up by Batman. I tried to steal the tires off his car.”
“You didn’t!”
“I did.” He nodded. “I wasn’t sure what he was gonna do when he caught me. Figured he would throw me back in child protective services, but he didn’t.”
“He didn’t?” She tilted her head.
“Nope, the big bad bat dropped me off at Wayne Manor. Almost gave me a heart attack.” He laughed.
She scrunched up her nose. “Why would he take you to Wayne Manor?”
“Bruce has a soft spot for orphans, it was well known at the time that he had taken in Dick, my older brother, but the rumors were all I knew about him. After Dick had basically run away from home the rumours had picked back up again so I was terrified.”
“Rumours?” She asked.
“An eccentric billionaire takes in a kid from the circus? Then the kid leaves home the moment he turns eighteen? People talked, and it wasn’t good.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Batman may save people and be better known now, but back then he was a scary figure that people were just afraid of. Especially street kids who had already run off from bad foster homes. So him bringing me to a man who had rumors attached to his name, I almost ran again. Took me weeks to see that Bruce really did just want to help me.”
They got off the ferris wheel and started walking towards town again.
“He saved your life.” She smiled.
“He really did.”
“I’ll have to thank him one day.”
He smirked at the thought. “Hopefully you never have to meet the big bad bat.”
She laughed. “That’s a good point. I have yet to be a part of a major villain’s scheme and I would like to keep it that way.”
He walked her home in a comfortable silence. It was easy to enjoy the quiet moments with her. They didn’t need chatter to keep them going because they were just comfortable in each other’s presence.
“Farewell sweet lady, I bid you adieu,” he said as he bowed to her.
“Goodnight.” She kissed his cheek and then he turned to capture her chin in his hand.
“May I kiss you?” he asked softly.
“Kiss me like you mean it,” she replied.
So he did. The kiss was soft at first, then he licked her bottom lip and she opened her mouth. He plundered her mouth, tasting every bit of her, drinking her in. When he pulled away she was flushed and smiling.
“I’d invite you in, but-”
He placed a finger on her lips. “No explanation needed. You’ll invite me in when you’re ready to.”
She smiled and kissed his finger. “You’re such a gentleman.”
“I try darlin’ ” He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and leaned in to kiss her again. “Can I see you again soon?”
“Does next thursday work?”
“Perfectly. See you at six?”
“Seven thirty actually. I want to make dinner for you.”
“I’ll come hungry then.”
“See you then.”
They shared one last kiss and then he let her go.
---
Thursday dinner turned into friday morning breakfast, turned into friday lunch turned into him staying at her apartment above the bookshop most nights. Jason drove her to the bar and picked her up after her shift. He had to go patrol while she was working, but it was worth it.
Jason would drop her off then ride his day bike back to her place and leave via the fire escape. She seemed to not notice that he had moved in more and more, but he was pretty sure it was just her not wanting to scare him off.
He knew that sometime soon he was going to have to tell her that he was Red Hood, but couldn’t bring himself to yet. She was so innocent and he didn’t want to take that from her.
---
He didn’t realise that Joker’s goons had been watching him closer. He had become a little complacent and had moved his normal patrol route to not just cover the bar but also her little apartment. Someone had noticed that the Red Hood was following around the girl with the dark hair and the bright smile.
Jason showed up at the bar to pick up Marinette from her shift when one of the other servers came running to him.
“Jay! They took her!” Cindy was crying and holding a piece of paper in her hand. “They came in and they took Marinette!”
“Woah, slow down. Who took her?” He held onto her so she was facing him.
“Joker’s goons. They said- they said that this message is for Red Hood, a-a-and they said if we didn’t get it to him they would kill her.” She was sobbing now and Jason slowly pulled the note from her hands.
“I can find him, Cindy. He has been patrolling near her apartment the past couple of weeks. I’ll get it to him. She’s going to be okay.”
Jason started running before even unfolding the note, when he did his blood ran cold.
If you want her back you’ll bring me Robin
-Joker
“Dick, pick up. Now!” He yelled into the two way radio they shared. It was a little old school, but better protected than any other communicator.
“Jay? What is it?”
“Joker took her! Joker has Marinette. I’ll be in the cave in ten minutes, be there, and make sure everyone else is there too. I’m not losing her!”
“Okay but Bruce is off world.”
“Screw him, we’re saving her.”
True to his word Jason was in the cave ten minutes later. He pulled in and got off his bike already jogging to the briefing table.
“Joker got Marinette. She’s been taken hostage and he’s demanding Robin in exchange for her.” Jason slammed the note on the table.
“Well we can’t give him Robin.” Dick spoke first.
Jason glared at him. “Obviously. You think I don’t know that? After what he did to me? After what he did to Tim?”
Dick put his hands up. “You don’t have to bite my head off.”
“It’s clearly a trap, for who is yet to be seen.” Tim was working on the batcomputer as fast as he could. “I haven’t even been able to pinpoint where she is yet.”
“Work faster.” Jason growled out. “How do we give him Robin without giving him Robin?”
“We don’t.” Damian piped in. “Clearly to save this civilian I will need to be handed over as a trade.”
“No!” All three of the brothers yelled.
“Dami, I’m not losing another brother to that man.” Dick crouched in front of him. “You’re not stronger than that psychopath, and we’re not losing you.”
Jason went over to the cameras when Babs’ voice came over the intercom. “Guys I’ve got her”
“Where?” Jason waited for her to pinpoint it and throw it onto the batcomputer screen.
“He has her at Amusement Mile. She’s on the ferris wheel. It’s bad guys, you need to figure out what you’re doing and get there now. The whole thing is rigged to blow.”
“I’m going. If anyone wants to stop me, speak now or forever hold your peace. If she’s hurt at all I’m going to kill the clown, B can’t stop me and if you try to I’m not holding back.”
“Jay, don’t go by yourself.” Tim stepped forward. “I can wear the suit. Damian and I are about the same size, and it’s not like Joker can do anything to me that he hasn’t done already.”
“Tim no. Jason stop. There is a way to go into this thinking.” Dick stepped forward and got between him and his bike.
“Dick, I’m not going to wait it out. I’m going, and I’m going now.”
Jason shoved past him and got on his bike. “No other birds have to get hurt, you can all stay safe.”
Tim ran over to his bike and got on. “I’m coming with you anyway.”
Jason put back on his helmet and revved his engine. It was a fast ride, and when he realised that the batmobile was following him he breathed a sigh of relief. Having Dick to back him up really would help in the long run.
---
“Well, well, well! Looks like your protector isn’t coming for you after all my dear.” Joker was standing close to her and breathing in her face. He was exactly as terrifying as she expected him to be. The worst part was that whatever hallucinogenic he had injected into her was working its way through her body and causing her to see things.
“M’lady, you need to get up.” Adrien had been sitting by her side since Joker put her into the cart.
“Not now kitty, I need to rest just a moment.” She tried to wave him off but remembered her hands were tied together behind her.
Joker laughed at her. “Look at that, boys! Poor girl is so frightened she can’t even speak english!”
“Poor little barmaid, waiting for her knight in shiny red armor.”
“Chat’s right here though, and he’s wearing black.” She tried to look at Joker but he was swimming before her eyes.
“Oh? What’s that? The sound of Birds on their way.” Joker was dancing in front of her and Marinette thought she might be sick. “Send her up!”
Then the world was moving, or maybe she was just moving. In any case she was going to be sick. As she went up suddenly her arms were free.
“Come on pigtails, stay with me. I can’t fix this by myself. You need an antidote and fast.” Plagg was flying around her. Checking all the bombs in the basket.
“You can’t be seen Plagg.” She swatted at him but he just phased through her hand.
“I said be quiet.” he hissed at her and kept looking at the bombs. “I think I can get these.”
Marinette turned to look at Adrien, but he wasn’t there. “Adrien? Kitty? Where are you?”
Plagg flew into her face. “Marinette, I need you to look at me.”
“Plagg, where did Adrien go? Where is Tikki?”
“Tikki is in the box, remember?” Plagg was talking and she was trying to understand.
“My head hurts. Plagg, I think I need to nap.”
“Oh no you don’t! Kit, I need you to stay awake. Talk to me, tell me about Jason.” Plagg was spinning through the air, or maybe the air was spinning around her.
“I think Jason is Red Hood.” She commented like it was nothing. “Plagg, I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“I’m going to give him the guardianship if I die, but I think he’s afraid of magic. But I don’t trust anyone else to keep you all safe.”
---
Joker was laughing. Marinette was at the top of the ferris wheel and Joker was laughing holding the deadman’s switch.
“Do it Hood. Shoot me! Watch your little girlfriend blow up! Wouldn’t that be poetry, first I blew you up, and now I get to do the same to her. Good times Jason, wouldn’t want to miss out on reliving them.”
“Joker, Let. Her. Go.” Jason growled out.
Tim was somewhere close by, hopefully working on disarming the damn thing. Dick was in the cowl standing next to him, and Damian was behind him.
“I see you brought the little bird like I asked.” Joker laughed again. “Come on out little birdy, you don’t want to miss all the fun hiding behind the big guys.”
“Joker, let her go now!” Dick growled out this time.
“No can do! You see, she’s already dying, there’s nothing you can do about it!” He started laughing again. “I gave her a new drug. Call it a test run! I’d say it’s doing perfectly in trial.”
“Bomb is down.” Tim’s voice crackled in his ear and Jason stalked forward to grab Joker.
“What is it?” He held Joker by the throat.
“Don’t know really. Strange cooked it up for me, told me it would make her giggly and then kill her.” Joker shrugged and Jason punched him in the face.
“Get her down here now!” Tim started up the wheel and she came into view sitting there crying.
“Kitty, where did you go?” She was speaking in French and Jason had never thanked his league training more. Knowing the language meant that maybe he would have a chance to save her.
---
Jason had been awake for 48 hours now. Marinette was still on death’s door, but every time her heart would stop it would suddenly jump and keep going. She was fighting to survive, Alfred said it was a miracle that was keeping her alive, but had warned them that miracles couldn’t always last forever.
“Jason?”
Jason scrambled to get closer to her. “Marinette?”
She had no color to her face, and her eyes were glassy, but she was awake and talking and that hadn’t happened yet. “Plagg has done all he can. I need you to protect him. I need you to protect all of them. Jason Todd, I name you the next guardian of the miracle box, take care of them and they will take care of you.”
“Marinette, what are you talking about?”
“I love you Jason, I always will.” She breathed out once more and her chest didn’t rise again.
“No! Mari! Mari!” Jason cried out and started CPR. He was trying to get her heart to start working again, but it wasn’t enough. Joker had won, he had killed her.
“Kid, kid come on, you gotta stop. She’s gone, her spirit has passed on.” There was a flying cat shoving against him now.
“No!”
Alfred had come running when he had started yelling and was holding him now. “My dear boy, you’ve done all you could, you have to let her go.”
The cat thing grabbed the ring from her hand and gave it to him. “Come on Kit, we have a lot to talk about.”
“Plagg, I think now isn’t the best time.”
“He needs to know Alfie.”
Jason just sat there staring at Marinette’s body. Her soul was goine, the cat thing had said so.
“You did everything you could, lad.” Bruce placed his hand on Jason’s shoulder and Jason shuddered out a cry.
His tears started to fall and he screamed. There was nothing else he could have done, and she still died.