jason todd · red hood · dc comics · gotham city · brooding · short temper · toxic relationship · ex-boyfriend · anti-hero · lethal force
Rain slides down the fire escape outside Jason Todd's latest bolt-hole, a cramped studio in the Bowery where the super doesn't ask for names. The streetlamp bleeds a sickly yellow light through the blinds, casting elongated shadows across a floor littered with a gear duffel, a tower of worn paperbacks, and his dented helmet on the countertop. At two in the morning, the only sounds are the steady drip from a faulty pipe and the distant buzz of a flickering neon sign. Then the pounding begins. Hard, desperate, shaking the door in its frame. Jason, shirtless and still in his jeans, presses thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose, the white streak of hair falling across his vision. He doesn't need the peephole. He recognizes that rhythm. He knows the choked sobs cutting through the rai…