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It started two months ago
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“There’s an intelligent wolf-like creature with strange abilities fighting crime in Gotham.”
The shinaniganry that was happening across the cave froze.
They’d been brought in for an all hands meeting about Scarecrow, but B was still on the streets. And that was the first thing he said when he walked in.
Damian tried to hide his excitement, Duke and Stephanie’s faces screwed up with various expressions. Dick used that moment to finally separate Tim and Jason. The younger of the two had been badgering Jason for information on his personal life again, and he’d become fed up.
Cass signed her question to Bruce, as he took off the cowl and he marched up to the computer, pulling up video feed.
The recording played, from the position it looked like B had been slumped against a wall surrounded with fear gas and Scarecrow closing in.
A guttural growl from off screen, a blur of black and white fur and scarecrow was pinned under the actual wolf.
Definitely not a dog like Cass had asked. It would probably stand at chest height on Jason, who was the tallest of them.
Dark black fur made up the majority of its coat, even if its pattern looked like a tuxedo cat as it growled in Scarecrow’s face.
The color of the wolf's fur shifted slightly, edges where the black met white, turned white. And the existing white turned bright neon green.
It was back to normal as soon as it was there, and Scarecrow was passed out under him.
The creature chuffed, making its way toward B, it towered over him from his position. It ducked its head, sliding it under his arm and lifting slightly, not going further than that. B’s arm tightened around its neck and shoulders, and it helped him make his way out of the fear gas.
The video feed ended.
“After this, the wolf retrieved the other victims, one or two at a time. Seeming to be both immune to the fear gas, and was able to calm the victims despite its appearance and size.”
“...It’s the full moon,” Duke looked up from his phone, looking perturbed.
Steph back handed his chest. “You did not just suggest werewolves in Gotham?!”
-
Since that, the wolf showed up more and more, helping them out and leading them to crime and villains. It had taken harm on their behalf on more occasions than should’ve been necessary.
Damian named him Badla, a shortened form for tuxedo in Arabic. It was kinda wholesome considering it was Damian who named him.
The only one who had yet to interact with Badla was Jason, and he was really hoping the Wolf would do that strange appearing out of thin air trick he did sometimes, and help him out of the predicament.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are. Let’s see if you can come back from the grave twice,” the Joker laughed.
Red Hood pressed his back against the wall, his comms were out, down to a magazine and a half after the earlier fire fight with Black Mask.
The laugh echoed through the building, and through his skull as he did his best to push back the memories and the raw fear they brought with them. He wasn’t so lucky as he felt the barrel of a gun pressed against skin into the conjuncture between his helmet and his armor.
“Drop the guns, and walk with me, won’t you?”
His body tensed, but did as he was told and that fucking laugh was all he could hear as he was tied to a chair, helmet removed, and left to squirm for a moment.
Joker said something about a crowbar.
His mind was screaming. He was going to do it again. The Joker was going to kill him again. No. No. No. It can’t end like this again. Would Bruce even kill the Joker this time? Or would the man keep doing this, would he get his siblings next?
Thoughts shoved at him and he felt buried in an avalanche of intrusive thoughts and memories once again marring reality.
Then it all stilled, he could think, could see in front of him. Badla as there, directly in front of him and staring at him intently. He pressed his nose to Jason’s chest, rumbling content as if he recognized it.
Badla’s head moved alert, his vision over Jason's shoulder. He growled before softening his eyes on Jason and pressing his forehead against his and drawing his tongue on his face.
He then faded, becoming invisible again. Though Jason could still tell he was there, he was still being influenced by his calm presence.
The scraping of the crowbar against concrete drew his attention, but instead of the panic attack that should have been there, he felt smug knowing Joker was about to get bit. The look on his face said as much.
The Joker didn’t like the look and swung like a batter. Jason couldn’t help but close his eyes and brace.
The resounding clatter of the crowbar, and scream from Gotham’s prince of crime gave him more pleasure than he cared to admit. He opened his eyes to find Badla’s jaw wrapped around Joker’s upper arm and shoulder. He threw his head and tossed him to the other side of the warehouse.
Joker’s body was limp after his collision with the wall.
Jason watched Badla stalk over, much like the predator he was, but shifted to hind legs as his form changed to a biped humanoid.. It looked like he was checking for vitals.
The flash of white still showed sharp teeth grinning as he kicked the Joker in the stomach, then stomped on his leg with a resounding snap. He grabbed his good ankle and started dragging the man back toward Jason.
Badla dropped the body a ways away from Jason and kept moving forward.
He removed his restraints with sharp claws. He seemed to be stretching his jaw, and caught Jason off guard when he spoke in a scratchy low-rumbling voice.
“You know, had you told me you were the Red Hood, we could have avoided a cat’s name, miscommunication, rainchecks, and soooo many missed opportunities to mess with your family, Hood.” He smiled up at him with those sharp teeth as he cut the ropes around his ankles.
“What…?” He was honestly just reeling from the fact that Duke was right about the werewolf thing.
He rubbed at his wrists and stood as soon as the rest of the ropes were cut. Badla stood and glanced over at Joker who was trying to drag himself away with his good arm.
His ears were pinned as he turned to face him. “As a revrent, you need someone else to kill him for you, someone to avenge you. It’s why you haven’t done it yourself, right?”
“I don’t know what a revrent is,” Jason frowned. “But the rest is correct.”
Badla nodded, a somehow familiar intensity in the green eyes. “May I kill him? For what he’s done to others, and more importantly to me, for what he’s done to you.”
“Why is that important to you? This is the first time we’ve met.”
Badla’s ears drooped along with his tail, his head tilted in thought, then smirked, his sharp white teeth flashing again. “I know Spilling my coffee on you wasn’t the best opening line, but don’t tell me you’ve forgotten. We're coming up on our 7 month anniversary. I thought you cared more.”
Jason’s jaw dropped and his eyes bugged behind his domino mask. He had to stop himself from shouting his partner’s name out loud.
“Well uh… love, I wasn’t expecting… werewolf, when you said you had secrets,” he was gaping like a fish, only slightly.
Danny looked between him and the Joker who was gasping as he tried to get away at an inchworm's pace. Then he walked up to him, digitigrade legs making the lightest steps as his long tail followed behind him. His ears were forward as his clawed hands cupped his cheek, the fluffy tail wrapped behind one of Jason’s legs and he spoke through a low rumble.
His face held a serious edge, even as his eyes sparkled. “Red Hood, my love, may I have the privilege of killing your murderer? It would bring me no greater joy than to be the one to do that for you.”
They were words he’d wanted, no… Words he needed to hear for so long. He was more than overwhelmed with emotion and felt unable to speak. So he nodded.
“How shall I dispatch him?”
“It’s… It’s probably too much for-” Danny cut him off. Pinching his chin with the claw of his thumb on his bottom lip as he tilted Jason’s head to look at him. Danny peeled the Domino back from Jason’s face and his eyes turned back to the blue he knew.
“No act of violence or gore is too much for me. Even if you asked me to torture him, I would do it happily for you. For this instance, it’s the retribution he deserves. Now…” He pressed his forehead to Jason’s. “How would you like the blood of your killer to mar the walls tonight?”
His grin was malevolent and sharp, and somehow so full of care.
Jason didn’t really recognize how much he loved Danny till that moment. His heart might as well burst from his chest with how fast it was beating. “Your… Your wolf form, treat him like pray. Like the rat he is.”
“I’ll rip his throat out for you, my love.”
Danny walked away and his form shifted as he fell on his fours. The familiar colors faded fully to the white and green that the bats had sometimes seen in small doses. Though he sported a new pattern with the green making up the shape of a wolf's skeleton over all white fur.
Danny growled and snarled, loud enough the Joker was trying to cover his ears as his eyes filled with pure unfiltered terror.
Voices cast from all around the warehouse began speaking, more and more joining by the second as Danny stalked closer to the clown.
“For the lives you’ve taken unjustly, for the upset in the balance of life and death you have caused, and for your greatest crime of daring to recreate the death of our patron of justice, our spirit of sanctuary, our RED HOOD… You are sentenced to death by the hand of our king.”
And then he lunged. His jaws bloodied as he bit into the Jokers throat, the rip of his windpipe being torn into and pulled violently from his body. And finally the sounds of the man who killed him, drowning in his own blood.
The indescribable feeling of peace flooded him.
Danny spit the gore out and growled, hackles still raised and tense posture. He lunged again, just past the body and pinned a vague shape of a person to the warehouse floor. His snout wrinkled as he growled and the shape flashed. A solid orb left behind.
Danny shifted back to his feet, his fur still white and green, but his skin was now gray, speckled with freckles he thought might be constellations. His boyfriend loved the stars more than almost anything else.
Danny picked up the sickly colored greenish yellow orb, turning to him. “What would you like done to his soul, Jason?” He asked, cleaning the blood from his face.
“His soul?” He eyed the sphere, just smaller than a tennis ball.
“I can destroy it, have it be sent to a realm of his worst fears for eternity, I could even serve it for you to devour him,” he smirked in a very Danny way. “Though… mortals devouring souls never goes well, so I’d advise against it. I could eat it for you, if you’d like?”
Jason didn’t miss the way his blue eyes sparkled and his tail wagged as he suggested the last one. But something else was more pressing to him.
“Are you not… mortal?” He stepped closer, his voice trembled.
Danny frowned, but also moved to close the distance. “You know me as Danny Nightengale. That form is mortal. It’s what I was born with, and I will grow old with it till that body dies. But what I am, my mind, my core, my spirit? As a whole, I have not been mortal since I was 14.”
He dared look Jason in the eyes, his tail was still, but ears forward as he held out his hand.
“I hope you’ll still have me as your partner. Because I love you in ways I know I can’t put into words, Jason.”
Jason took his hand, stepping closer to his side and gestured at the sphere. “What do you want to do to the clown’s soul? You seemed keen on the idea of eating it.”
In a very puppy like manner, Danny nodded as his tail wagged rapidly behind him. “It’s a delicacy, and frowned upon in most situations, but you giving me permission is…” he averted his eyes, a faint green dusting his cheeks.
“It’s what?”
“It means something more cementing, in my culture, but that means nothing in a situation where you don’t know,” he smiled softly, still looking away.
“Consider it a gift for now, for you to do whatever you want with it,” Jason smiled. He pulled Danny closer, sliding his arm around his waist and pressing a kiss between two very soft ears.
Danny nuzzled, again - in a very puppy like manner, against his armored shoulder.
He held the soul in his clawed, white hands, an echo entering his voice.
“For your crimes against the living, and your crimes against the revrent Red Hood, I hereby proclaim this your end. And with it the suffering you’ve brought to this realm.”
With no further fanfare, Danny closed his fist around the orb and it shattered, shards fell from his hand but dissipated before they hit the ground. As he unclenched his fist, the pieces left turned to liquid and he lifted his cupped hand to his lips, drinking it down then licking his hand clean, his tongue very much like a dog’s still.
Danny’s tongue gilded over his teeth to clean both the blood and liquid soul from them, humming as he smiled at Jason. “And now, he doesn't exist. Never again will he harm you, my love.”
“You don’t need words,” Jason said. He wrapped his hands around Danny’s neck. “And you didn’t need to, but you’ve proved it twice over in the past 10 minutes. But tell me anyway?”
Danny grinned, and those teeth, still slightly bloodied and sharp, drew his attention too well, as he set sharp hands on his waist “Hmmm, can I tell you what you are to me, for every part of what I am?”
“Please?” (Jason didn’t beg, he didn’t squeak, and he wasn’t desperate to hear it. Those are all lies.)
“As a mortal, my heart beats for you, it’s the reason it persists. My spirit resonates with your own.
“As a wolf, I’ve imprinted on you. And your safety is paramount.
“As a ghost, you’ve given me more reasons to stick around. I might as well be haunting you at this point,” he chuckled.
“And as the Ancient of the Cosmos, I’ve created entire constellations and even galaxies as monuments to you.”
Jason didn’t move, he couldn’t feel much of anything past his heart pounding in his chest, and where Danny’s hands were on his waist. His touch was cold, just like it always had been.
Danny once again averted his gaze. “I understand that my devotion, my love, for you may be overwhelming, or off putting. But with everything I am, I feel more than others do. And I only ask you to stay to let me,” he looked back, eyes pleading.
Jason pulled him forward, smashing their lips together. Danny’s surprise had his lower lip catch on one of his longer fangs, but he didn’t pull away even as he felt some blood trickle down his chin because Danny melted into the kiss.
He felt Danny’s tail wagging as he hummed against him.
One of his ears twitched, and he forced himself to pull away, lifting his nose to the air. Jason watched his colors fade back to the black and white. “Your family is almost here. I’m going to shift. If you’re touching me, I can speak to you, somewhat telepathically. I’m not ready for them to know about me.”
Danny licked the blood from his chin and lip before stepping back and shifting again, moving to his hands as he once again became the large wolf creature, he sat down curved slightly behind Jason with his head at his side, his tail sat around his feet.
He settled his hand on his scruff, but didn’t hear anything as his family burst in one at a time from all sides.
Cass and Tim froze the second they’d landed from the roof access, Bruce did the same from the main entrance.
“Jaybird!” Dick called, running towards him.
Damian also ran in their direction, but he knew it was to check on Badla… Danny, the wolf… yeah, he might have gotten lost in the moment. His head was reeling again.
Tim spoke up. “Is that…”
“Did Badla kill the Joker?” Batman asked, in the tone that said it was Batman and not Bruce.
Jason’s lip curled into a sneer. “What? Someone finally kills the fucker to protect me, and you’re mad?”
“We’re not having this discussion again,” Batman growled.
“Yeah, you want to know why? Cause he’s dead, Da… Badla killed him. He saved me as I was about to get my face bashed in by a crowbar. Again.”
Danny… (Jason struggled to think of him like this, as Danny, while his family was here.)
The wolf chuffed, trying to get his attention. His green eyes found his, and then he pushed him back a bit with his snout. Then carefully gripped his hand in his mouth, moving slow as the bats were watching, and removing the glove.
“Oh…” Jason said. The direct contact should have been obvious. He settled his hand on his scruff, a strange pressure at the back of his skull.
If you’re telling me that they knew Joker killed you, and let him live…
He snarled, standing and shaking his form to release some tension.
“Jaylad,” Bruce started.
“No. It’s been a fucking nightmare of a night. And I almost died again. So I’ll tell you what's going to happen. You all can deal with this, and I’m leaving. I’m going to go tell my partner that I love him, and tell him that I’m the Red Hood because life is too fucking short for secrets like that from the people you care about.”
He started walking when Danny slid his form between his legs and lifted him up, walking towards the exit without another word to the others.
A little late for revealing things, don’t you think?
The wolf’s body shook slightly, as if he were laughing as they slipped into the night.
“It was on the agenda if I made it out of that shit show before I realized you were a wolf,” Jason said, slumping forward and pressing his face into Danny’s fur.
He let out a long sigh, exhaustion hitting him and his body as he was practically limp on the wolf's back.
“I have a lot of questions…”
I’ll answer them.
Jason could feel the apprehension from Danny in the statement.
He hummed as he ran his fingers through the dark fur. “I may not feel things as strongly as you say you do, or in the ways you can, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love you with everything I’m capable of, I’m not going anywhere.”
Danny was still silent as he walked, and Jason fell unconscious soon after. He woke only briefly in Danny’s apartment being cuddled by the full size wolf in his bed.
He’d deal with the questions he had later, for now. This was bliss.
END.