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Jason didn’t like it when Bruce brought her home all bloody burned broken He didn’t like how Bruce and Alfred felt the need to take care of her to feel bad for her fed her tried to make her feel safe and at home he hated the way that when ever anyone earned a rare smile from her just for a moment and she looked like him but worse of all he hated how hard she made it for him to hate her she just was to scared all the time she screamed every night as memories plagued her dreams and stupidly he found himself wanting to take the pain the memories away from her but he buried that he couldn’t think that way feel bad for the girl who’s father did so much to him so much to to many people so he buried it wasn’t to hard to pretend to hate her because he did well at least he didn’t like her and acting brash around her or just flat out ignore her was easy enough but whenever he saw her sitting by herself wrapped up in blankets looking dead inside unshed tears sparkling in her eyes and different memories fought for dominance or when he heard her terrified screaming ringing down the hall until Alfred or Bruce came to comfort her he could remember that she was just a girl with matching scars… she always wanders around the manner like a ghost all frizzy hair new clothes that brusce bought that no matter what seemed to fit all wrong silver and purple scars cutting across her face and whatever flesh she allowed people to see. It’s been a month since she came here and it felt like forever and yet no time at all Jason was hanging out in the garage replacing the oil filter on his bike he noticed her walking walk past the door her bear feet making no sound agenst the floors it struck him again for the millionth time how close yet different she looks from the joker same smile that she never gave not to him at least same eyes though hers are bigger more innocent even after everything that’s happened to her her eyes still remain innocent to him that felt like a miracle and a curse. she’s smart enough or scared enough to know not to go in but he almost found himself wishing that she did then he got mad at himself for thinking that he hates her or at least hates her dad and she can (though deep down he knows she won’t he knows that she hates him more then anyone) she’s not pretty persay to scarred and scared but he finds himself drawn to her in a way he couldn’t name maybe it was the way she was the only person who could truly know parts of his pain on a different level but still it’s something a something to make his chest stear with something strange he wasn’t in the mood to acknowledge well thinking all that he dropped the old oil filter onto his jeans leaving a large black stain on his jeans “shit” he mumbles dabbing the excess oil off but he finds himself glancing over at the door checking if shes still there naturally she isn’t probably half way across the manor or hideing somewhere or fallowing Bruce or Alfred around silently
Anywho time skip like two hours it’s dinner she’s sitting in her spot she always either is picking at her food or eating like she’s never seen food before right now it’s the former Tim, Alfred and Bruce try to make conversation Damien is looking at her like shes beneath him
Because she is Jason reminds himself
Though he looks at every one that way so it’s no shocker
It shouldn’t be a shocker in general the blood of the worst type of man runs though her. gosh he hates that Bruce brought her home as if their relationship wasn’t messed up enough
she is quiet like always and he is watching her and eating quickly he has patrol tonight. he finds himself not wanting to leave her to her nightmares that plague her nights even though he never comes in to comfort her but sometimes he imagines he does and holds her protects her from the memories
Oh woah buddy back up don’t forget yourself remember what she did to you. “But she didn’t do anything to you it wasn’t her” a annoying little voice in the back of his head says that sounds remarkably like him when he was just robin “shut up nobody likes you” the stronger red hood part of him says and thankfully it works
Jason pretends to join in on the conversation but he keeps stealing glances at her to figure her out he tells himself what her motive for being here is
“So how did the book report turn out” he asked Tim he spent far too long and had far to much fun helping him with it considering it was on one of his all time favourite books “the book thief” that makes him think his life isn’t all that bad but then he quickly realizes his mistakes everyone turns to look at him even her with either confusion or sadness for his mental well being (Damien) obviously he said something miles off topic and was just proving to them that he was lost in la la land (as Alfred likes to call it) thankfully Tim chooses this time not to be little shit and says “pretty good Ms. Willis said I did good at least but I’m not getting my grades back until Monday though”
Jason nods and Bruce says “good that’s good” then he does decide to be a little shit and ask practically announcing that Jason wasn’t paying attention (maybe he’s reading to much into it, whatever) “but back to the gala next week are you going to be there Jason?”
“Yeah I’ll clear my schedule” he says without thinking his brain on auto pilot why did he agree he hates those things and since when did he have a schedule (he stopped having one of those after he stopped running his gang)
Anywho time skip part two he walks into his room after a relatively uneventful night only like three crime stopped he stripped his uniform off and throws his helmets on his chair pulling on a pair of gray sweat pants flopping down on his bed arms crossed behind his head after a moment he realized how quiet it is usually theres whimpers and gasps and the occasional scream coming from Amali’s room that he’s become accustomed to but it’s quiet for a moment he is glad maybe no nightmares but then he hears a muffled sob coming from her room he lays there for like fifteen minutes before it gets to much and now he can hear her having a full on panic attack he tries to stay stoic and stay waiting for it to pass but it doesn’t (obviously) and he just gets more worked up so he gets up runs a hand though his hair hating that he cares grabs a glass of water from his bedside table just about to walk to her room he hears Alfred walking and inevitably going to her wake her up make her better he stands there felling a strange sensation regret? Disappointed? But then he scolded himself reminding himself that he hates her he lays back down in bed reminding himself of that but it’s only after Alfred managed to calm her down and he hears the soft voices muffled by the thick walls of the manner and a small laugh that makes his chest feel funny he goes back to sleep but only after he hears Alfred leaving signaling that she’s gone back to sleep (a minor miracle on Alfreds part) dose he manage to fall asleep himself
Jason woke up the next morning from the harsh sunlight filtering through his window cursing at himself for not closing his curtains like a sane person would obviously he’s not. Walking down to breakfast he just so happens to walk past her room (just because it’s the quicker way to the kitchen) he notices that her door isn’t all the way closed probably because Alfred didn’t wanna close it in case it woke her up because everyone knows how rare it is for her to get over four hours of sleep in a row
Jason finds himself peaking in “just to see if she’s still there” one of the voices say “yeah totes definitely not because you are worried about her nightmares last night and wanna see if she’s okay” his other voice says “shut up nobody likes you still”
when jason finally does peek his head through the door (after he convinces himself that is doesn’t mean anything) he sees her still sleeping a slight frown playing on her lips hair splayed across her face he finds himself walking over to her reaching out to move it out of the way then freezes after he realizes what the heck he’s doing and backs out of the room mumbling about every curse word he knows but of course he just had to bump into Tim who has a eyebrow raised
“Don’t say a word” Jason says before Tim can give him a stupid two bit remark
“I didn’t see anything but my bike is having some problems with the suspension and it would be so great if someone could take a look and make the problem disappear” Tim says probably making up for not being a little shit at dinner last night
“Yep and I hate you” Jason says pushing past him mentally cursing himself out and his luck
“I also need winter tires” Tim calls after him grinning
“I hate you even more” Jason says shaking his head trying not too smile with full intentions to do everything he asked to be completely honest he still feels bad for beating up Tim after he came back and everything he did after that and well even though everyone has forgiven him he’s still trying to make up for every shitty thing he did in his whole bad guy phase
The rest of the day is well uneventful he went back to to his apartment in crime alley just to make sure everything is fine there but eventually he goes back to the manor everything pretty much the same Alfred cooking dinner Bruce working on a new case Damien teaching amali how to fight Tim helping Bruc- wait what is the demon spawn doing helping the literal demon spawn. It doesn’t make sense Damien being nice on pur
But before he can get to far in his head Dick walks up to him “hey Jaybird what got you looking at Bruce so hard fo- ohhhh you ain’t looking at him your looking at his shadow classy though she’s not your usual type but who is”
Jason shoved Dicks shoulder “shut up Dickhead” he Jason says glaring at his brother “and why the hell you doing here I thought you were to busy Blüdhaven to pay us Gotham folk a visit”
“Oh you know to see my little brother” Dick says laughing when Jason give him a really look “yeah yeah your right it’s to see if B would really bring her to one of these things so quickly and woah he did so soon I didn’t go to one until at least two months after”
“Yeah I don’t know man Bruce probably wants her to get used to existing in the real world as quick as possible not very smart on his part but who knows”
“Probably but well she’s not hiding under a table throwing food at everyone so progress” Dick says chucking at the thought
“Hey man she’s been through a lot and she is progressing lots Damien is even teaching her how to fight a few times a week” Jason says shocking himself with the sudden tightness in his chest protectiveness? Maybe
Dick just laughed even more “Damien really thats a thought makes no sense and careful jaybird you almost sounded” Jason shuts him up with a glare “okay okay gees I’m not saying anything and uhh ooh there’s someone I need to speak to” Dick says before walking over to a pretty brunette that is dressed much less modestly then Amali (though so is everyone maybe except the amish)
The night goes predictably slow he makes a few bets at the silent auction a girl tries to talk to him but he shoots her down not because shes ugly far from it but because he’s to busy watching Amali making sure that she doesn’t shut down or runs away (just because he doesn’t want her ruining the event or making a fool of herself, totally)
A hour in he spots a boy going up to her Bruce is busy talking to a bunch of other rich people she look predictably uncomfortable (again just because he doesn’t want to see her ruin the event) walks closer pretending to speak to Bruce but really hes glaring daggers at the boy who is asking amali to dance and she’s just kinda standing there once the glaring doesn’t work he walks over and throws a arm over her shoulder feeling her tense up then relaxes slightly
“Oh hey woah sorry man didn’t know she was taken.” The guy says Jason has to give him something because he did leave and not be like hey we’re just talking but he did feel funny about the whole being taken thing and by him gross.
Jason takes his arm off her shoulders looks at her and asks “you good”
“Yeah I’m fine thanks” she says with a small thankful smile
A smile Jason hasn’t gotten that from her before it makes him feel a little fluffy not what usually happens when he sees her smile not a trace of the joker
“Yeah uhh no problem” Jason says hands hovering over her shoulders not exactly knowing what to do with him self he’s never fumbled because of a girl before well other then in like middle school
Bruce looks over at the pare eyebrows raised most likely already being a mental detective figure if out something Jason hadn’t even figured out but then hes pulled back to a boring conversation with some random rich people
“So uhh I’m just gonna assume that you hate these things as much as I do” Jason asks trying to leaning nonchalantly against the wall but he ends up stumbling underestimating the distance between the wall and himself
“I mean yeah there pretty boring” she says smiling again and even though it’s at his expense the same fuzzy feeling happens
Before Jason can lose his nerve (why would he ever lose his nerve because of her. strange) he takes her hand liking the way it feels in his “woah buddy back up” he tells himself pulling her up the stairs and over to a hidden balcony he found years ago when he was hiding from one of these thing
“I don’t like them either” he says leaning against the railing (though this time he estimates the differences properly)
“Yeah I figured that since you pulled me away from one” she says a light snow has started to fall since the gala started ans the snow is clinging to her hair on top if her pale skin and flushed cheeks like shes a snow princess or something (but Jason doesn’t think that Nooooo definitely not)
With out thinking Jason shrugged off his blazer and puts it over her shoulders “oh thank you but I’m not cold” she says but the way she holds it close to herself definitely goes against her statement
“Yeah you are”
“But aren’t you”
“I run hot” Jason says even though he is chilly he likes to see her look safe even if it is just a jacket
“So why did you bring me here” she asked braking the silence that Jason didn’t realized settled
“You looked bored” he says (and it’s definitely not because he wanted to just be alone with her nooooo he would never do that)
“I was bored and it was weird you know being around people like” she says stuffing her hands in the pockets of his blazer and leaning against the railing next to him
“Yeah I get that” he says a little awkwardly he didn’t realize now that he was alone with her how nervous he would be definitely strange
They stand in a comfortable silence for a moment then Jason looks over and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear his face close to hers close enough to see every detail of her face “you have pretty eyes” he breaths then he jumps back realizing what he just did what he just said but all she does is say “thanks so do you”
Weird
She’s weird
This is weird
He looks over at her on more time and she’s looking up watching the snow fall “I used to hate the snow it meant everything was going to be cold”
Jason doesn’t know what she means by that so he asks “what do you think about it now”
“It’s Pretty”
'Your pretty' woah buddy back up it’s official dying has messed up his brain
She glances over at him the snow sticking to her hair in clumps now without thinking (maybe a little bit) he reach’s out and dusts the snow off “yeah it is” he says finally and goes to the room next to his hers and he finds you as expected blankets thrown off trapped in a horrible half sleep have awake state frozen with fear he sighed scrubbing his hands over his face setting the cup down and walked over to her freezing as he noticed her shirt has ridden up and he sees something that makes him sick a criss cross pattern of scars all over her torso burns cuts punctures broken skin all in different levels of healing what gets him the most is her ribs misshaped from being broken to many times and not allowed to heal he shakes his head trying to clear or at least sort out his thoughts and he makes his way over to her pulls down her shirt assuming that she doesn’t want anyone to see that. she shoots awake almost hitting him in the face with hers the panic doesn’t stop in waking if anything it gets worse “he was there right there where is he” she repeated over and over coated in a cold sweat curling up in a ball tears rolling down her cheeks looking like she saw a ghost “hey hey hey it’s okay hes not here only me it’s okay it’s okay” he say hands hovering over her awkwardly not good at the whole comforting thing even though she clearly needs it and he feels the need to comfort her “but but he was there I saw him he was going to take me home”
“I know I know it was a dream it’s okay your staying here forever it’s only me nobody else”
“I-i can’t breathe he was there I want him gone gone please make him leave” she says lost in her mind obviously not able to listening to reason she can’t in this state he kneels there for a moment still very awkwardly sits her up pushing her forward by the back of her neck making her
forehead rest against his chest starting to get used this whole comforting thing for her at least the sound of her choking on sobs bringing him back to reality and he freezes realizing what he just did mentally freaking out then his brain works on autopilot and he pulls her closer sitting up on her bed running a hand through her hair “it’s okay breath breath breath breath breathe”
“But he was there I saw him I heard him he’s still there” she says squeezing her eyes shut trying to block out whatever is inevitably echoing through her mind and then it hits him how deep the joker cut here he was acting like he was the most hard done by that the joker hurt him the worst that killing him was the worse thing he could do to someone yet here she was the product of having the man that changed him for the worst be the only thing she ever known that she could never go back to a time when she could laugh and smile freely without the sound of the Joker haunting her memories a time when green and purple were just colors and loud booms were for fireworks. A time where she was just a kid and dammit he wanted to give that to her
she nods against his chest tears damping his chest and then he pulls her down laying on her pillows playing with her hair (and for the record she dose fit nicely in his arms) “just go to sleep I got you” he says
They end up staying up another hour she tells him about her dream he holds her coaxing her to sleep and eventually he does and he eventually dose to and just luck Tim finds them and if it wasn’t her laying there finally having rest full sleep he would be laughing his ass off but he just razing a brow thinking up ways to tease him later and he hears him laughing walking down the hall but he found himself not caring just holding her still sleeping form against him definitely not hating this