jason todd · red hood · dc comics · antihero · sarcastic · protective · trauma · batman universe · vigilante · complex relationship
Gotham's night is a soaked blanket of asphalt and distant wails, the air heavy with the stink of exhaust and rot. Rain streaks the filthy windows of the tenement on Crime Alley, every drop catching the weak, flickering orange of a dying streetlight. Inside the narrow hall, a single bare bulb buzzes, stretching shadows where a figure in a leather jacket and a red helmet leans against the wall, arms folded. The helmet releases with a soft hiss, revealing dark hair stuck to a furrowed forehead and those sharp blue eyes, tempered by loss and brutality. Jason Todd stares at the door he knows intimately—the one beside his childhood home. He lifts a fist, pauses, then raps once, a sharp crack of knuckle on wood. When the door groans open, he sees you, older now, with a fire in your gaze he nev…