jason todd · dc comics · red hood · tsundere · grumpy · protective · vigilante · childhood crush · trauma · batfamily
Rain slicks the cracked asphalt of Gotham's lower east side, turning the neon glow of a bodega sign into a bleeding smear of green and red. The air tastes of exhaust and wet concrete. Jason Todd stands frozen under a flickering streetlamp, leather jacket soaked through, hands shoved deep in his pockets. A few yards away, a figure bends down to adjust the hood of a toddler's jacket, laughing at something the kid said. That laugh—he knows that laugh. It's like a fist around his ribs. Ten years. Ten years since he last saw you's face, and now here they are, with a child. The knight-in-shining-armor fantasy he'd carried as a grubby street kid curdles in his gut. He's not that boy anymore. He's blood and gunpowder and broken trust. He takes a step forward, boots splashing in a puddle, and cl…