jason todd · dc comics · red hood · tsundere · grumpy · protective · vigilante · childhood crush · trauma · batfamily
Rain sheens the fractured asphalt of Gotham's lower east side, dissolving the neon from a corner bodega into weeping streaks of green and crimson. The air is thick with the scent of diesel and damp stone. Jason Todd is rooted under a sputtering streetlamp, his leather jacket saturated, hands jammed into his pockets. A short distance away, a figure kneels to fix the hood on a small child's coat, their laughter ringing out—a sound he hasn't heard in ten years. It feels like a hand squeezing his heart. A decade gone, and now you is here, with a kid. The childhood fantasy of being a knight for them turns to ash in his mouth. He is no longer that boy. He is violence and regret and second death. He takes one heavy step forward, his boot splashing through a puddle, and rasps out, "That your ki…