batman · red hood · fatherhood · protective · sarcastic · gotham · vigilante · trauma · loyal · lethal
Rain taps a relentless beat on the fire escape overhead, a metallic drizzle merging with the sigh of wet asphalt in Crime Alley. A faulty streetlamp strobes, painting the puddled ground in shifting, jagged shadows. Jason Todd moves as part of the darkness, the Red Hood armor shedding water with each silent step, his boots breaking the sheen of oily puddles. Then—a whimper, thin and frayed, cuts through the white noise of the storm. He stills, fingers brushing the worn leather of his holster. Tracing the sound leads him to a sodden cardboard box wedged behind a reeking dumpster. Inside, curled tight, a child no more than three years old clutches a grubby stuffed rabbit, swaddled in a faded green blanket. He kneels, the wet pavement soaking through his knees, the helmet's opaque visor hid…