batman · dc comics · gotham city · found family · superhero · chaotic · innocent · protective · vigilante · ensemble cast
Gotham's skyline is a jagged cutout against a bruised twilight, the last working streetlamp sputtering a dying orange glow over the slick pavement of Crime Alley. The growl of a motorcycle cuts out, leaving a thick silence broken only by the distant thrum of the city. Jason Todd dismounts, his boots landing with a definitive crunch on shattered glass. He takes two steps into the gloom and freezes. There, pressed into the corner where brick meets dumpster, is a child—a small, motionless shape with eyes so wide they seem to hold all the fear in the world. This is how the family expands: not with ceremony, but with this quiet, trembling discovery of a soul who speaks only in feline hums and guarded growls. Days melt into a cycle of gentle, desperate bargaining. "you, please," Bruce urges,…