#I think Jason looks so cute with his original strawberry blonde hair and well we need some variety with these boys.

[loopyarts]

Two little Robin hoods.

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Post-College Prom

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG/K+

Original Idea: The past is loosely based on my actual past, with names changed to protect the idiots innocents involved. The present is based on an event happening in the future XD

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) *emerges from the depths of the internet to break hiatus for a moment* Hello! I’m back! For the first time in a while, I have something to write! I’ve been working on a lot of original projects recently, but with the virus outbreak and the social distancing/quarantine thing, I had an idea to make a one-shot! Shoutout to @welovegroot for checking in on me and making sure I’m still writing XD @jason-redhood @jason-todd-squad

^^^^^

I wanted to have a nice post-college prom night. I didn’t expect to spend most of the night peering around at the small crowd for my ex. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of him being there until Jason and I were already there.

My good friend from high school, Freddie, was throwing a prom night because his “greatest regret in life so far” was not taking his then-crush, now-wife to prom. So he decided to rent out an elementary school’s gymnasium to host a prom that he could take his wife to. So, despite the fact that I had graduated college, I was going to prom. Which was just as well. I hadn’t been asked to prom in high school so I’d gone stag with some friends of mine—and we had a fun time regardless even though it had been raining that night and we got lost on the way to the venue and I nearly ruined my sister’s heels.

As soon as Freddie emailed me and told me about post-college prom, I called Jason to ask if he’d be my date. We’d only been officially dating for about a month, but by the time prom came around, we’d been officially together for six. Mostly due to rogues delaying the date of the dance.

“Freddie!” I exclaimed, clenching Jason’s hand tighter and dragging him behind me. I slowed to a stop in front of my friend and his wife, Kelsey. She’d been a friend of mine in high school too and I always thought they’d be cute together.

“Hey!” Freddie replied brightly. “Good to see you!” He gave me a big hug that I quickly transferred to Kelsey.

“Freddie, Kels, I’d like to introduce you to my boyfriend. Jason. Jay, this is Freddie and Kelsey, my friends from high school that I’ve told you about a couple times before,” I said, smiling between my boyfriend and my old friends. I hadn’t even seen Freddie and Kelsey in at least two years. Apart from their occasional Facebook updates that I saw even less frequently than they made them since I was never on Facebook anymore.

“Oh yeah,” Jason said with a good natured smile. “Freddie’s the one who tried to do a full-T with you in swing club and almost dropped you, right?”

My right ankle throbbed just thinking about it as Freddie went red. “Yeah,” I said.

Jason stuck his hand out to shake Freddie’s. “Nice to meet the reason she doesn’t trust me when I pick her up.”

Freddie shook Jason’s hand with cautious confusion. “She doesn’t trust… you?”

I could understand his bewilderment. Jason and Freddie weren’t the same build. At all. Freddie was stronger than he looked, but he was still a scrawny, skinny guy who looked like a strawberry-blond Benedict Cumberbatch (it was the mouth, nose, and blue eyes probably). Jason was at least three inches taller, and built like freaking Superman. Muscular, sturdy.

I snorted. “Thanks Jay. He didn’t need to know that,” I said. “And it’s not that I don’t trust you to pick me up, it’s just that I don’t like my feet being off the ground for more than a few seconds in general.”

Jason chuckled. “Alright, alright. Well, it was nice to meet you both,” he said.

“You too,” Kelsey put in with a grin. She was one of the only people I’d ever met who was smaller than me and fully-grown.

Jason and I made our way back to the coat rack and slung off our overcoats. They were jackets, really. It was evening in late spring and it was almost warm enough not to need one. But it was never quite that warm. Not in Gotham, anyway.

As Jason hung my jacket, I glanced around, noticing a bunch the old swing club members from high school.

A thought struck me.

Davey and I started seeing each other—without ever officially deeming us “together”—because he’d sat next to me in a class and I convinced him to join swing club after he expressed a passing interest in learning to dance.

I tried to shake the fear off as we wandered the small crowd—that also consisted of some of Freddie and Kelsey’s friends from college that I didn’t know—but I couldn’t get the anxiety out of my head. Had Freddie invited Davey? Was Davey coming? I assumed he was still in Metropolis for college since I was roughly a year-and-a-half ahead of him. He’d done a gap year right out of high school and then a humanitarian thing somewhere overseas for a year before going back to school. Maybe he couldn’t make it to Gotham for the prom night.

Davey and I parted on less-than-friendly terms and I hadn’t heard from him in… nearly three years.

“Babe?” Jason asked as he pulled me onto the dancefloor. “Something on your mind?”

I craned my neck around at the crowd. Davey was nowhere to be seen. “Kinda,” I said, looking back to Jason. “Just hoping my ex doesn’t show up.”

Jason just grunted and started to spin me around, wasting no time in breaking out the swing dance moves he somehow knew before he even met me. He wouldn’t tell me, though, how a vigilante came to learn how to swing dance. I’d always just guessed it was because Jason was a closet nerd.

We danced for a long while before I was too tired to go on and needed a break for at least one song. Maybe two. Luckily there were chairs lining the room. Adult-sized chairs, thankfully.

“You okay?” Jason asked. “You’re all red.”

“Happens when I work out,” I teased.

We hung out for two songs before getting up to talk to the few folks who weren’t dancing. Jason did most of the talking, despite the fact that he knew no one at the prom, since he was the one genuinely interested in who all these people were. I looked around and just waited for Davey to walk through the door.

Prom had been going on for an hour before I finally relaxed. If he hadn’t arrived already, he probably wasn’t coming.

Jason and I were in the middle of a waltz when he lifted his hand from my shoulder blade to wave at someone. “Hey, I know that guy,” he said. “Wonder how Freddie does.” He spun me under his arm too fast for me to see who he was talking about. “We were in a couple engineering classes at Metropolis City University together.”

I scrunched my eyebrows at Jason. “You went to MCU? I thought you were a GCU guy?”

“I am. But I got my Associate’s at MCU. They have a great engineering program. Thought I was going to get my Bachelor’s in engineering before swapping to literature and transferring back home,” Jason explained.

He waved over his friend. “David! Come here! I want you to meet my girlfriend!”

My entire circulatory system turned chill. My blood ran so cold it felt like my capillaries were turning to ice. I tried to remind myself that David was a common name, but David, MCU, and engineering. One similarity to my ex was interesting. Two was a coincidence. But three was a pattern. There was too much there. I was going to be even more surprised if I turned around and wasn’t face-to-face with the guy who broke my heart nearly three years ago.

Jason spun me around to face his classmate from Metropolis.

Davey was even goofier-looking than I remembered. His teeth had always been too big for his face, but when we were in high school he hadn’t grown into his features yet. And by the looks of things, he still hadn’t five years later. His dirty-blond hair was so short it made his head look long and rectangular on the sides, which contrasted sharply with his narrow chin. His teeth were still too big for his face and his overbite had never quite been fixed by his braces. His angular nose seemed to have had a nostril-widening.

The biggest difference though was his glasses. In high school he exclusively wore contacts. At some point, though, he’d switched to his glasses.

There was also a girl on his arm. My mom would jump to my defense immediately and say she wasn’t as pretty as I was and that Davey really missed out on me, but she was cute in a different way than I was.

Davey bit my name past his lips with an, “Oh hi,” tacked on at the front like he was surprised to see me. As if I wouldn’t show up to Freddie’s event. Even though I was a swing club member first. I put on my most tightly cordial smile and gave a respectful head-nod of greeting to his significant other first, completely ignoring him.

“Hello there. You must be his… partner,” I said.

“Yes. I’m Rachel. I’m his wife.”

I nodded. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she said. She gave me a smile, and I realized she was what Davey needed. A quiet person. A listener. He and I had both been talkers.

“Wait,” Jason interrupted. “How do you two know each other?”

I bit back a surge of bitterness at the way Davey broke off our relationship. I was happy with Jason but that didn’t mean Davey hadn’t hurt me worse than I’d ever been hurt before. “Jay, this is Davey—the other one I told you about,” I said. My hand tightened in his grip. “My old dance partner from swing club.”

“Oh,” he said as realization struck. He squeezed my hand. “Well, then, David, I guess you already know my girlfriend.”

“Guess so,” Davey said.

“Well, Rachel, it was nice to meet you,” I said. It wasn’t her fault Davey was tactless and immature when he broke up with me, leaving me with lots of bitter feelings.

“It was nice to meet you too,” she said before Jason whisked me back onto the dancefloor—on the opposite side from Davey and Rachel.

“You never told me your ex was in engineering at MCU!” Jason hissed.

“It was never relevant!” I hissed back. “And he was in environmental engineering! I didn’t think you two would have ever met! I also had no clue you even went to MCU until a few minutes ago!”

“Yeah, okay, fair,” Jason said. He spun me under his arm, making my skirt flare out. “But I’m sorry to have put you through that awkwardness.”

“Thanks,” I said.

We danced for a few more minutes before Jason stopped abruptly and pulled his phone out of his inside jacket pocket. His eyes widened as he read the text. “Update from Red Robin,” he said quietly, pulling me off the dancefloor by the hand toward the coat rack. “There’s a robbery at Gotham First City Bank. Possible Joker thugs. I have to go—”

“I’m coming too.”

“Babe, no. You wanted this night. Don’t let me ruin—”

“It’d be ruined the second you left me alone here with David,” I put in sharply.

Jason seemed to think about that for a moment. “Fair point,” he said. He grabbed our coats and we ducked out of the gym. “We can try and come back when we’ve dealt with the bank.”

“We’ll see,” I said.

[madduchessal]

FAHC Fic - Pris une Alouette

Read on AO3!

I honestly forgot I wrote this! But looking back, I was pretty proud of it at the time... I should probably work on a follow up sometime, haha.

Original tags on Discord: REVEEEEEENGE, torture, past murder, MentallyUnhealthy!Ryan, FAHCverse, mentioned child death

Additional tags: gore, finger/tooth trauma, murder

~~~

Ryan never told the other Fakes what he was doing.

He simply snuck out of the penthouse one night and began his week-long 'sessions' with an old friend of his. Well, he supposed 'friend' was a bit of a stretch, but they had a history together that words couldn't adequately describe.

Murdering a whole family can do that.

Ryan skulked into the warehouse, shutting and firmly locking the door behind him. As has been the case for the last week, a man was tied to a chair in the middle of the room with a single lightbulb illuminating him in a eerie spotlight. His formerly blonde hair was a tacky red like strawberry jam, his brown eyes contrasted with light pink sclera, and his once toned body was marred with criss-crosses of scars and wounds.

Ryan picked up a crowbar and beat it against a barrel, the noise shocking the man to awareness. "Wakey wakey, Jason." He called out. "You know what time it is!"

The man weakly raised his head. "...J-Just... what do y-you... want...!?" 'Jason' questioned, his voice like sandpaper. "Y-You can't just... fucking kidnap me... and n-not say shit!"

Ryan laughed, walking towards his captive and throwing the crowbar onto a wooden table nearby. "Well, it's your lucky day! I've gotten bored, so I can tell you everything." He said. "But... let's play one last time."

"F-Fuck you!" Jason squawked.

The man whined as Ryan grabbed hold of his chin, forcing their eyes to lock. "...Do you know any children's songs, Jason Lander?" He asked calmly. "I know one. Have you heard 'Alouette'?"

"The fuck... d-does that have anything to do w-with...?"

"Oh, it sounds like a cute song, but it's quite sinister if you realise what it all means." The Vagabond let go of his captive and instead picked up a set of pliers. "You see, people didn't like skylarks. Thought they were noisy. Gossips. Know-it-alls... so a lot of people liked the idea of tearing the feathers off."

Realisation dawned on Jason's face, the implications forming a terrified assumption. "Wait! Y-You're not gonna...!"

Ryan only laughed as he took hold of one of Jason's fingernails with the pliers, pulling gently. "Sing along if you know the words!" He mocked... and pulled .

Jason howled as his left pinkie's nail came out easily, the sound just barely drowning out Ryan's melodic voice. " Alouette, gentille alouette. Alouette, je te plumerai. " He sang as he moved onto the next nail and pulled that out too.

" Je te plumerai la tête, je te plumerai la tête. " Ryan continued as he progressed through all of the fingernails on the left hand, moving onto the next. " Et la tête! Et la tête! Alouette, Alouette! " Ryan soon examined the bloodied stumps that used to be fingernails before kneeling down and taking hold of Jason's left foot, grabbing hold of the little toenail. " Je te plumerai le bec, je te plumerai le bec... " He sang, pulling off the nail with some resistance. But even as his captive screamed in agony, he only continued to sing. " Et la Bec! Et la bec! Et la tête! Et la tête! Alouette, alouette... "

The Vagabond feel into an easy rhythm singing the song as he removed Jason's toenails one by one and when he finished, he stood back up and took out four of his teeth. And when he was done with that, he ripped out clumps of the hair on Jason's head.

And he didn't stop singing.

He could have sworn that he felt a small hand tugging at his jacket, and a familiar voice singing along with him.

As he reached the end, Ryan threw the pliers back to the table and examined the brutalised 'man' before him. "You don't look so good." He sneered, looking back at the tools on hand and picking an unlabelled bottle. "I think I can help you wake up a bit."

Without any hesitation, Ryan picked up the bottle and poured the off-white liquid over Jason's head. The vagabond smiled as he was rewarded with cries of pain and his captive writhing in a useless attempt of escape. Lemon juice was a real bitch to get in cuts though.

Ryan carelessly tossed the now empty bottle aside, his hands flying up to his infamous mask and all but ripping it off his head. He panted heavily as the screams distorted in his skull, the single sound of suffering splintering into several more, unique sounds…

"...May 18th, 2005. There was a party of twenty-two people. Only one survived. The rest were all murdered." Ryan began, fading back into his present reality. He looked down at Jason with dull eyes. "The perpetrator was never found... until now, anyway."

The captive looked up, blood and lemon juice coating his face. "What the fuck are you talking about...?"

"It was an attack orchestrated by a wannabe gang... the one you led, remember? Before you decided to suck the Randoms' dicks and join them." He hissed, picking up a hammer and weighing it in his hand. "The idea was to kill a suspected mercenary who was supposed to be there... I don't think you would remember any of the names... but there are four you'll need to know."

Jason trembled. "What're the names?"

Ryan leaned forward, until his face was directly in front of his captive's, and he could taste and smell the fear radiating off of them.

"Tamara Haywood. Louisa Haywood. Evan Haywood." Ryan listed off, the cloud of his eyes becoming tinged with fury. "...And James Haywood."

Jason's eyes widened. "Wait... that was you ...!?"

"You ordered the attack. You murdered my wife. My children ." Ryan's voice had shifted; the fury was still there, but it was slowly drowning in a potent sense of grief. "I couldn't protect them... but now... I can deal with you."

Ryan pulled back and swung the hammer, screaming as it smashed across his captive's cheek, sending him to the floor. The Vagabond pounced on the still bound man, raising the hammer and bringing it back down.

The violent swings didn't cease for a single moment. Crack. Crack. Crack.

Ryan's facepaint ran in streaks. The tears in his eyes wouldn't stop.

His throat was burning. He couldn't shut out the screams coming forth.

The screams slowly distorted into mournful wails and the hammer swings became sloppy, but still unceasing, even though Jason had already died from the first strike.

Ryan's mind was filled with images of that sweet past; coming home to his beautiful wife. Helping his handsome little boy paint his treehouse. Testing his adorable little girl on fractions. Pancakes on Sunday mornings. Ice cream on Friday evenings. Going to sleep with his family in his arms and warmth in his heart.

All gone.

Ryan barely noticed that anyone had come in, but soon collapsed into whoever it was that pried the hammer out of his hands and pulled him away from the desecrated corpse. He looked up and saw a fluffy beard and sad eyes through his tears, deaf to the words of comfort.

"Jack... is he okay...?" Another voice asked, someone in a suit walking over.

'Jack' shook his head. "He's... it doesn't look good. We need to get back."

Ryan allowed the two Gents to lift him to his feet and gently lead him out of the warehouse, leaving behind the aftermath of his long-desired revenge and the fragments of his damaged heart.