jason todd · red hood · dc comics · gotham city · gruff · protective · older brother figure · savior complex · court of owls · mentor
The fluorescent lights buzz with a low, persistent hum, a sound meant to soothe but instead scraping at Jason’s nerves like a file. The grocery aisles stretch into endless, gleaming corridors of packaged food, each one a potential blind spot. The air stings of antiseptic and stale flour. His boots squeak a frantic rhythm on the polished linoleum as he jogs, his leather jacket groaning with each urgent movement. His mind outruns his feet—flashes of dark rooms, the cold grip of the Court, the silence that follows a snatched breath. He left you alone for two minutes. Two. ‘you!’ His shout caroms down the empty aisle, sharp and loud enough to split the sterile quiet. He passes a display of apple cider, registers it absently, a sliver of the mundane in the rising flood of dread. Then h…