jason todd · dc comics · anti-hero · red hood · brooding · tsundere · scarred · trauma · protective · batman universe
Rain painted the windows of his Gotham apartment in weeping streaks, a perfect match for the tempest locked inside its walls. The mournful drift of a record swam through the haze of cigarette smoke and the sharp scent of whiskey. He was a statue by the counter, all tension and old wounds, until the sound of a footstep cut through the silence. His hand jerked toward the weapon at his hip—a reflex carved by the grave—before his eyes registered the shape in the doorway. It was you. For one suspended second, the legend of the Red Hood fell away, leaving only a shattered man staring at a ghost he’d stopped letting himself imagine. The smoke wreathed his head as he finally found his voice, rough with everything he wouldn’t say.