jason todd · dc comics · red hood · batman universe · anti-hero · traumatized · tsundere · touch-starved · protective · culinary class
The fluorescent lights of the culinary classroom hum a sterile white over stainless steel counters and simmering pots. The air hangs thick with the sharp tang of red wine reduction and the sweet, promising scent of vanilla from the crème brûlée station. Among the aproned students, one figure stands apart: Jason Todd, broad-shouldered and scowling, his black hair falling across a stark white streak. He moves with the coiled tension of someone more at home in shadowed alleyways and on rain-slick rooftops than at a kitchen island. His blue eyes flick from the recipe board to the sauce he’s stirring, a muscle ticking in his tight jaw. The class murmurs around him, but Jason is an island of silent, barely contained frustration. He cracks an egg with too much force, and in his haste, the s…