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Jason Todd sat on the bed, his breathing hard and a thin layer of sweat covering his skin.
He trembled in the darkness of the room, bitting his lips in order to muffle the strangled sobs his body released whilst his mind was plagued by horrid nightmares.
The eleven years old took a moment to calm himself down, regulate his pulse and stop shuddering with fright.
Nightmares are recurrent.
However, waking up wearing comfortable pajamas, lying on a bed in a bedroom at an apartment where he felt safe, is new. It propelled him back at the distant era he lived in the Narrows with his mother and father. Before his mother vanished, before his father abandoned him, before he became a street kid who fought every day just to survive in this grim, depressing city.
Jay put his feet on the ground, he prudently crossed the small space between the bed and the door he opened. He should have taken a bottle with him, not to have to travel to the kitchen or the bathroom to drink water.
It's only the fourth night he spends in this small, kinda messy flat with his very unusual yet... sincerely endearing host. Jason smiled a bit. Eddie may be a complete weirdo, who stalks a grown man dressed as a bat in his free time, he's been... literally the nicest, most considerate person he ever met.
The first person he crossed paths with who genuinely offered him a hand.
"... Is everything alright?" Jason checked, blinking rapidly when he noticed the minuscule American kitchen was lighted... and Edward had sat at the table for two with an half-emptied mug of hot cocoat in front of him, the expression to be at a loss painted onto his face.
The kid frowned upon spotting the fresh tracks of salty water on his round cheeks.
"Oh, hu... Hi Jason...." the adult blushed, hastily wiping more traitorous tears that gathered in his castleton green eyes to the point they spilled out. "Did... did I wake you up? S-s-sorry, I p-probably made... too much noise..."
"Hey, it's fine. Ya're not ta blame, nightmares woke me up," he corrected, addressing his sorta-pal a reassuring smile. "What 'bout ya? If you... don't mind me askin'?"
Without being invited to do so, Jason perched on the chair facing him. He felt an... unknown type of fondness towards this strange man, who let him into his place without asking for anything in return, bought stuff for him (including these pajamas...) and has been such a delightful company while nothing compelled him to get involved.
The guy even let him his bedroom, he sleeps on the old cracked couch in the cramped living-room for the past four nights.
"... Nightmares as well. Childhood memories starring people who... hurt me, a lot, both physically and psychologically," Eddie whispered, sounding utterly miserable. "Mixed with... lingering insecurities and current concerns I have. About myself, about my Batman... about Stephanie..."
"Because of her father?" The dark-haired kid isolated.
Ed sent him a questioning gaze.
"I live in da streets for nearly five years," the boy shrugged. "Ya may convince her with lies, those don't work on me: Steph's dad and ya are engaged in some unsavory, illegal business together, aren't you?"
Jason noticed the way Edward's fingers were shaking violently when he clutched the ceramic mug.
"With other people as well," he sniffed, close to tears again. "It's... complex, and... even if I somehow quit by not... fulfilling the first step of our 'plan', the whole thing risks to... re-emerge, sooner than later. Before the elections."
Jay nodded quietly, albeit he didn't know precisely what Ed referred to.
"Can ya stop it?"
"I... I don't know... Not on my own."
"What if you... called your beloved Batman to da rescue? He'd take yar case."
"... Maybe... Do you want a hot chocolate too?"
Jason smiled slightly at this evident maneuver to distract himself from the main topic.
"That'd be with pleasure."
Afterwards they moved to the sofa, Ed pushed the sheets he set for himself on the couch to the side and showed Jason lines of computer encoding he created himself, introducing this as a 'fascinating area'. After under fifteen minutes of listening to the man infodumping excitedly about computer programs, Jason was sound asleep and leaned against Edward on the couch.
Whereas he felt a hint vexed the boy found him so boring he passed out, Eddie didn't disrupt his slumber, he rather adjusted the blanket he had placed on the headrest over the kid's sleeping form.
Looks like he is definitely becoming the kind of babysitter who gets mistaken by children for a cuddly pillow.
Talk about a great upgrade.