Chapter Text
Everything was fine. Better than fine, actually. It was good. Jason Peter Todd was finally okay. He was fixing his relationship with his family, vigilante stuff was going well, he hadn’t killed anyone. Actually, he was able to keep the pit rage almost entirely in control.
Of course there were still times when something would happen and he would lose it. But Dick and Roy were there for him when that happened. Jason Todd is really thankful for Roy Harper now that he thinks of it. And Dick too, he supposes.
Tonight was the same as any other night, Jason was going to go on patrol, come home, smoke a cigarette, watch garbage tv and go to bed.
Jason got dressed and put on his helmet. He unlatched his window and jumped out of it, grappling to an adjacent building just before he hit the ground. Flawless.
As he was getting his motorcycle out of the old parking garage he left it in, he heard someone land to his left. He didn’t even have to look up to know who it was.
“Hey little wing”
“Dickhead. What do you want?” Jason finally looked at the voice, he saw Dick in his Nightwing suit, standing next to him, with that stupid ‘charming’ smile.
“Needed help with something, so I thought I'd ask my favorite younger brother.” Dick reached out to ruffle Jason’s hair but he dodged and elbowed Dick in the chest instead.
Jason sighed and sat on his bike, kicking up the kickstand and putting his hands on the bars. “I'm gonna drive away if you don't spit it out.”
“Woah woahwoah there, no need to get snappy with me.” Dick leaned against the wall, propping one leg up against it. “B wanted me to ask you to come home for Christmas.”
“couldn’t do it himself?” Jason sneered, “he needs you to do his dirty work for him?”
“Little wing-”
“no”
“What?” Dick stood straight up “You’re not even going to consider it?”
“If B wants me to go to his ‘family dinner’ or whatever he’s calling that purgatory party, he can ask me himself.” Jason turns on his bike and drives off before Dick can get a word in.
Wow. Seriously? They wanted Jason at a family dinner? For Christmas? Family. That's certainly not the right word for whatever has been going on between them. I mean, Jason is trying. He is. But, family?
They’re never going to get back to ‘family’. Not after everything.
Jason finds himself speeding up as he gets on the highway, he swerves in between two cars and gets the middle finger in return. He’s tempted to throw the bird back but resists and focuses on the road.
Okay, this is fine. Still a perfectly normal night. Patrol, home, smoke, garbage tv, bed. It’s fine. Why is Jason so worked up about this? Why can’t he just be normal around his- colleagues? Yeah… colleagues that's the right word for what this is.
He takes a turn, leading him directly into Crime Alley. There has been a bit of a drive after B insisted that Jason cannot live in his Crime Alley safe house anymore, after it got its twelfth bomb threat. Which was totally unreasonable by the way, because Crime Alley got bomb threats all the time. Jason listened to him anyway. The drive was only a few minutes, and it made Roy feel better too, so that was a win.
He parks his bike in the small alley behind Leslie’s clinic. People don’t usually go near the clinic;Batman would protect it with his life, which makes it a really good spot to hide a rather expensive motorcycle.
Jason grapples to the nearest rooftop and sits there for a while, before eventually going on his regular patrol route.
After a few hours, he decided that tonight was rather quiet, at least for Gotham standards. A mugging here, an armed robbery there, honestly Jason was hoping for something crazy to happen. Maybe it would get his mind off the whole family thing.
Why is he still bothered by that?
Jason stops dead in his tracks. There’s a woman in the alleyway below him. She looks homeless. It's cold out tonight, now that he thinks about it, and all she has is a small blanket.
He jumps off the roof and eases his way down with his grapple. He looks at the woman, she’s lanky and malnourished. She looks young, maybe in her 20s?
“Red Hood?” Her voice is soft, you can hear the brokenness in it. It breaks Jason's heart, one in the same.
“The one and only” he replied, not in a cocky way though. That wasn’t cocky right? Jason is bad at comforting people. “I saw you here, wanted to see if I could help,” Jason added. Why is he so bad at this?
“That’s kind of you. It’s okay though.” She seems defeated, like the world has crushed her over and over again and she’s too tired to get back up.
“I could walk you to the homeless shelter? Hypothermia is a pain in the ass.” That got a small laugh out of her.
“I’ll be okay. I don't have great experience with shelters.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“No thank you.”
“Alright.”
Jason sat on the ground next to her. “You have nowhere to go?”
“Nowhere.”
“Can I take you to the clinic?”
“They won't let me stay.”
“Leslie will let you stay the night.”
She smiled. “That… would be nice, then.”
Jason walked her to the clinic in silence. When they got to the clinic, Leslie gave her a meal and a bed to sleep in. The woman offered to give Jason his coat back but he told her to keep it, to consider it a gift. He also wrote down his phone number and told her to call him if she ever needed anything.
After getting back to his bike, he looked at the time, it was already 2 a.m. Jason got on his bike and headed back to his safe house.
Jason climbed through the window, being careful not to set off any alarms. He found his phone plugged in, still only at 20% for some reason. He seriously should get a new charger.
Checking his messages was uneventful, until he looked at what Alfred sent him.
Alfred: Master Jason, I would like to inform you that we are holding a family gathering this Christmas at 5 o’clock sharp. Bruce would like to see you there.
He rolled his eyes even though no one could see him. Seriously B, anyone but yourself? Jason tapped on the icon for Bruce, and started writing
Jason: B, You wanna ask me anything?
Jason watched as the bubbles appeared and disappeared a few times.
Bruce: Nope.
Jason: So you don’t want me to come to your ‘family dinner’?
Bruce: I assumed if I asked you would say no. So i got Dick and Alfred to ask because you actually like both of them
Jason: Fair. You are insufferable.
Bruce: Dick tells me you seemed upset at the idea
Jason: I would rather die than have dinner in Wayne Manor.
Bruce: I would rather you didn’t die. The first time was hard enough.
Jason: asshole
Bruce: You brought it up.
Bruce: You can bring a plus one to be a buffer?I really want the whole family together for Christmas. Alfred does too.
There’s that word again. Family. It feels wrong. But also- right? This is confusing. This is stupid actually. They don’t want Jason as family. They gave that up a long time ago, Jason made sure that bridge was well burned. But now B wanted him over for family dinner? Why is this so upsetting? Why does Jason feel like this?
Bringing a buffer doesn’t seem like a bad idea. That way, he doesn’t have to interact one on one with his fa- colleagues. If it would make Alfred happy, it might be worth it. Plus, he hasn’t seen the Replacement in a while. It might be nice.
Maybe Jason does want to see his family. Maybe he does want those relationships back. Maybe those bridges can be rebuilt. Maybe. No. This is stupid. He can’t fix anything. He’ll go for the food, and for Alfred, and totally not because he loves his family and wants to spend Christmas with them. That would be crazy.
Jason took another moment to think before he typed out his message.
Jason: I can bring Roy?
Bruce: Yeah, you can bring Lian too if you want.
Jason: Fine. I’ll be there. Not for your sake though. I’m only going for Alfred’s cooking.
Bruce: Sure buddy.
Jason: Don't call me buddy.
Bruce: See you then.
Family. What an odd concept. Maybe Jason could get used to it... Probably not though. At least Roy would be there.