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sadlybeans · 1 year ago

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Batman is dating The Red Hood!?

An AU brought by yours truly (not a ship!)

Apologies in advance for the long post

The Red Hood arrived in Gotham one day to turn the city upside down and create chaos. In just a few months, he had taken over gangs and dealers, killing those who stood in his way.

In another universe, Batman and his associates followed him and fell into a complex trap that would see his revenge fulfilled.

In another universe, Robin would almost die and Batman would be faced with the choice of betraying his morals or lose his son all over again.

In another universe, Jason Todd would never forgive Batman.

This is not that universe.

After a very emotional and difficult confrontation, Bruce and Jason agree to a truce of sorts, parting ways with the understanding that they might never see each other again. There was no Nightwing or Robin involved in said conflict.

They see each other again, across rooftops and in the news.

Maybe one day they happen to work together, and Jason doesn’t say no to a coffee break.

It’s slow, hard work, but slowly it starts working. Bruce tries to look past Jason’s violent actions. Jason tries to hold his rage back as best as he can.

Dick and Tim know something’s up.

Bruce keeps dismissing their concerns over the latest Red Hood news, he’s rearranged their patrols to not go over Crime Alley, where the aforementioned rogue works.

“We have an understanding” he says when they ask.

Batman doesn’t just have an understanding with any rogues.

Maybe there’s something going on?

They’re a little close, aren’t they? Dick doesn’t remember Bruce ever being this close with anyone.

He keeps snacks for him in his belt???

And there’s absolutely no way Red Hood’s tech is the same as theirs….

Oh my god.

Bruce is dating Red Hood

Jason isn’t ready to let anyone know he’s not dead, and though Bruce wishes he could bring him back home, he respects that boundary. It’s already hard enough to think about his death, so not talking about it sort of helps both of them. Still, it doesn’t occur to either of them that not mentioning who Jason is might cause trouble.

Soon the news spread like wildfire, even the JLA thinks there’s something up between them; Batman changed Red Hood’s status from enemy to ally in their files, he hasn’t mentioned anything about him being a threat at all. Last month, everyone noticed when Red Hood appeared in brand new gear with a clear bat on his chest.

They’re definitely flirting, it’s so obvious! B is the least expressive man on Earth and yet!!! He smiled at Red Hood the other day!!! A real smile!!! He laughed at his joke!!! He never laughs at Dick’s jokes!!!

There’s no way Bruce can keep this hidden, they have to make him slip up, but he never talks about their relationship! They’ve tried everything but he doesn’t catch up on the subtlety.

The public has even started thinking they’re together too but nobody dares post any stories on the news because they’re terrified of Red Hood.

They have no idea.

One day Jason’s out shopping for groceries and who does he run into but Dick fucking Grayson and Tim Drake? He panics for a moment but… they don’t recognise him at all. Well, it sort of makes sense? He was only fifteen when he died and his growth spurt didn’t hit until seventeen. Besides, he has that white streak on his hair now, and his eyes are green instead of blue.

They don’t suspect anything. They don’t even react to the name Jason.

It’s a little funny to him that they don’t know who he is so he decides there’s no harm in hanging around them— he did miss Dick, even if he would never say so out loud, and Tim isn’t that awful once you get to know him.

Alright fine, he likes Tim. He’s sort of funny sometimes and he definitely needs supervision, it’s a miracle this idiot hasn’t gotten himself killed.

Ok fine, a trip to the manor won’t be too bad… and he does miss Alfred’s cookies.

There’s definitely something weird. Something is up. Bruce and Jason seem to know each other…

Did Alfred just call him Master Jason?

Oh no.

He is the Red Hood isn’t he?

He’s dating Bruce.

Maybe— maybe he’ll eventually tell them if they’re patient enough and get to know him? He’s a little volatile sometimes but mostly he’s nice and he loves Alfred and he knows how to cook too, Bruce could do so much worse.

They like Jason, Jason can stay. It’s a little disturbing that their father is dating a man closer to Dick’s age but they’re adults, right? And Jason is not a damsel in distress, if Bruce ever does something to break his heart they’ll help him hide the body.

Everything is weird still, but they can live with it.

Jason introduces himself as Jason Wayne one day on a party.

Dick and Tim are so mad that nobody told them they eloped but they can’t exactly call them out on it because they haven’t even admitted they’re in a relationship.

This is fine, they have to tell them eventually.

Wait who is this kid who claims to be B’s son?

Damian is a bit hard to get with and he seems to want to kill both of them in equal parts so they’re sort of scared to let him meet Jason because they like him and don’t want to scare him off but—

Damian knows Jason.

Damian calls Jason baba.

(Damian, of course, knows Jason from the League of Assassins— he raised him when his mother was too busy and told him about the father he had never met)

Who was ever going to tell them they have a son!?

I mean, it’s obvious that Damian is only B’s biologically, but he calls Jason his father too and he spends every other week with Jason so they obviously share custody and he is both their son!!!

(It never crosses their mind to ask why they don’t live together if they’re supposedly married)

Damian thinks Dick and Tim are just insane and weird.

Why would he even suspect they think his father and older brother are married?

The best part?

Bruce and Jason still have no fucking clue everyone thinks they’re a couple.

#batfam #batman #batkids #dick grayson #tim drake #bruce wayne #jason todd #red hood #BatHood AU #everyone thinks bruce and jason are dating #damian wayne #damian wayne and jason todd are brothers #jason todd raised damian wayne #au #crack

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redjaybathood · 3 years ago

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added some more chapters, Words:6839

and here's a cut scene, the WHY Dick and Barbara was so sure and convinced the others, that bathood was a thing

For the first time in days since the rumors of Batman’s demise hit the Gotham streets running, Barbara was sleeping in bed. Dinah, who was spooning her right that moment, wasn’t faring much better. Tonight was the worst night for Scarecrow to start capitalizing on his marketable chemical skills. A gang of robbers bought several gallons worth of fear toxin from him and put it in vents of a high-end building on the East Side. Birds of Prey spent the whole evening corralling the panicking residents. Someone called the cops and, with Barbara’s girls being practically unknown in Batman’s city, it was an unpleasant showdown. Huntress, Batgirl, and Spoiler ended up tracking the gang and retrieving the loot. The next shift, belonging to Knight and Squire, started only three hours ago, which meant they were in bed less for two hours.

So no, Barbara did not appreciate Dick Grayson waking her up.

Someone better be dying, she didn’t say. Inappropriate words, in their lieu of work. Someone probably was dying, and chances were, it was someone they knew and loved and had no idea how to live without.

“Who?.. I mean,” she fumbled for the glasses and for some degree of control. “What is it?”

He was crouching beside her bed. Dick’s eyes were on the same level as hers, and she now saw perfectly the unhealthy shine in it. Dick was pulling double-shifts, triple, if you count Damian and Tim. Didn’t seem like he was to bed at all.

“You know how you were telling me today about taking up Batman?”

Did she? Barbara wasn’t sure. The longer this went on, the more recent past became blurred. She might have said to Dick, Gotham needs Batman. She might have said, nothing ever going to fix this city, it might as well burn.

“Bruce had to have some kind of contingency plan,” Dick whispered hotly. “There’s no way he hadn't foreseen the effect his death will take on Gotham. So I looked it up. Remember the video he left for me?”

“The one where he empathically tells you not to become Batman?” she clarified.

“Yes! And, you know, I thought, if he doesn’t want me to take up the suit, then who? And I found several more videos.”

“Tim? Cassandra?”

“No, and no. Actually, there’s a video for Tim, but there’s nothing about Batman, so it’s not useful. And Cass didn’t have a video.”

Cass didn’t have a video? Bruce didn’t leave her anything? Barbara pulled herself from the bed and into the chair. It seemed like a conversation was going into the shouting category, and she really didn’t want to wake Dinah up.

She wheeled herself to the kitchen. Dick tried to ��help’, probably thinking that it would go faster. She smacked his hand and made him make coffee instead.

“You know, I always thought he would leave the suit to her. He was always, Cassandra is the same as me, lives and breathes the job, even better than me because she doesn’t have a real life! I wish everyone was more like Cassandra!’ And he didn’t leave her even a message?”

“I don’t know, he didn’t. Maybe he thought there was no need for words between them,” Dick said absent-mindedly. “But listen.”

“There is no need to always come up with excuses for him, Dick. And yes, there is a need for healthy communication between allies, not to mention family. He adopted her, didn’t he say that to you? I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised. Not the first time.”

“Okay, Babs, no — can we be angry at Bruce at some other time? When we all well-rested and well-fed and all the bad guys are behind Blackgate or Arkham bars?”

“Arkham doesn’t have bars. They have plexiglass, shatterproof walls and…”

“And neither does Blackgate. Listen. He didn’t leave a message for Cassandra, but you know who he did record a word from the grave for?”

“You, Tim,” Barbara took the steaming cup and knocked her nails on the side of it. A sound made it easier to focus on the question. “Damian, probably. Maybe Selina, they were still together, right? Hm. Alfred. Does it have anything to do with Bruce’s contingency plans for Batman?”

Dick laughed shortly. He looked like a maniac.

“No. I mean, no it doesn’t, not directly. But also no, neither of the people you listed. So it’s me, it’s Tim, and it’s Red Hood.”

Barbara was taken aback.

“The steal Joker’s alias first, kill Joker later, drug lord Red Hood?”

“Yes.”

“Rescue Spoiler, shoot Black Mask in the face Red Hood?”

“Yep.”

“Eleven severed heads in one duffle bag Red Hood?”

“I think it was seven, but don’t quote me on it. Bruce kept the files relating to Red Hood very close to the chest. I know only bare bones. What’s publicly available plus GCPD database.”

“Okay,” Barbara said calmly.

Because why wouldn’t she be calm? It made sense that Batman didn’t leave a message to his daughter, or his newfound biological son, or the man he raised, the woman dated, or, you know, Barbara.

“So what was in it?”

“It’s the craziest thing, Babs,” Dick said.

His hair was wild because he was running a hand through it every two minutes. The shine in his eyes was probably hysterical tears. She ought to have him drink chamomile.

“I think they — well. Maybe you should watch it yourself.”

He shoved his phone at her. The video played automatically the second she unlocked the screen, and she fumbled for headphones.

“...the right to call you by your name. You’ve said so yourself. Never I’ve regretted anything more. Not even our years apart. Because this, I did to myself — and to you. To my grave I will go, knowing that I could have had you back, and left you bleeding on the floor instead.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry for so many things. For wanting you to be more like me and being afraid of you, for you, when I succeeded. For promising to never leave, and making you leave me. For demanding your blind trust and betraying yours. For choosing other people over you, over and over again. For letting you die — for killing you. For never telling — showing you how much you mean to me.

If I could turn back time — I think you would have been happier if you never met me. But I wouldn’t be able to stay away. I would try to do better. To be better, for you.

It’s never going to happen, between us, now. Reconciliation. I know that while you love me still, you will never forgive me. But this one thing I ask, even if I have no right to ask anything from you anymore.

Don’t shut yourself off. This life you lead, it’s lonely. It’s damaging. If you ever want to reach out to other people I am leaving behind, I know that they will accept you. Because you’re good, so good, in your core. Your empathy, your drive to help people is what make you you. That makes me love you.

I just want you to allow yourself to be loved. You deserve it. I didn’t deserve you.

Goodbye. Red Hood. God, I hate this name. But I love you.”

That was a surreal experience.

Barbara hit replay.

“Red Hood,” Bruce in the video started, solemn. “I’ve lost the right to call you by your name...”

“Red Hood,” Bruce in the video was blinking tears away. “God, I hate this name…”

Oh god.

“How many times did Bruce say he loved him?” Dick in the kitchen said.

“Two,” Barbara replied absent-mindedly, still processing. “What?.. Dick, I’m not sure…”

“Huh,” Dick mussed his hair again. “I remember more — it felt like at least five, honestly.”

“Dick,” Barbara clicked her fingers. “Focus. What the hell is this? Do you want me to check if it’s fake?”

“Nah. I mean, if you want, but I already checked, it was him, it was shot in the Cave, no editing. It’s as true as Bruce can be.”

“God, it must have been going on for years. Do you know who it is?”

“I mean, I could name several women he had an affair with, that could also fit the profile. Including Talia al Ghul. But they are women, so. No, I do not know who Red Hood is. That I do know, they were in love.”

Barbara blinked at Dick. No, still here, still real. Still talking nonsense.

“Bruce wasn’t in love with Red Hood, Dick.”

“He said so himself.”

“He said he ‘loved him’, not ‘in love with him’. Important distinction.”

“Like you and…” Dick didn’t finish the sentence, thank god, so Barbara didn’t need to kill and dismember him in her own kitchen. He did take a glance at the closed bedroom door. “Okay. You’re right, I’m wrong, there are a lot of different kinds of love. Friends, family, comrades in arms. Riddle me this, Oracle — what kind of relationships did they have, then?”

That wasn’t a question Barbara wanted to consider closely.

“Okay then. Tragic, doomed romance it is.”

“Yes! Trust, betrayal, and you heard how Bruce said Red Hood was good, and he didn’t deserve him? How Red Hood would have been better off without him, but Bruce wouldn’t be able to stay away? And how he knew Red Hood loved him too?”

There was that, yes. It did sound rather suggestive. Barbara sighed.

“Who cares? Whatever went down between the two of them, it doesn’t make a difference to us, does it? Unless it would make Red Hood less inclined to kill us, unlike all the other Gotham villains.”

Dick grinned slowly and meanly.

“No,” Barbara said.

She wasn’t yet sure what exactly she has been disagreeing with, but she knew that smile.

“Batman always made us stay away from Hood and Park Row, right?” Dick said. “Well, Hood never went out to bother any of us either. In fact, if you remember Spoiler and Black Mask…”

“Of course I remember, she went vegetarian for a year, Dick!”

“He saved her.”

“He was taking over Black Mask’s people and resources. It made sense for him to kill Sionis.”

“It didn’t make sense to leave Spoiler alive. That was his first sighting in Gotham, right?”

“Who knows? Maybe Bruce knew where he was in any given moment, before and after. Maybe they went on really fucked-up dates and that’s why he routinely cleaned up all footage of his fights with Red Hood.”

“Maybe, just maybe, he saved Spoiler because she was one of Bruce’s.”

“Or because it was the right thing to do! She wasn’t Bruce’s at that moment if you remember. He fired her.”

“Oh well. Whatever it was, her being one of Bruce’s people, or Bruce letting her down, or sheer altruism, we can work with that.”

“Work to what end?”

“Peace and order in Gotham.”

Barbara rubbed her temples trying to stave off the headache.

“Red Hood can bring you the order only at a gunpoint.”

“Red Hood — yes. But Batman…”

That was Dick’s plan. Barbara was right, she wasn’t ever going to like it.

In fact, nobody liked it the next day, when Dick and Barbara gathered all who weren’t patrolling or asleep somewhere. Tim, Alfred, Cassandra, Stephanie, Selina, and Damian. Dick played the video and explained the bare bones of his reasoning: Bruce wanted Red Hood to join the team. Dick wanted to put Red Hood in Batman’s suit.

“One more ally, one less foe to fight,” he explained. “Thoughts?”

“Are you mad?” Damian shouted. “If you need Batman, let me don the suit!”

“No,” Cassandra said, very succinctly.

She probably meant the Red Hood thing. Or both.

“I mean,” Stephanie said. “I kinda owe the dude a bit, it’s true. But would I believe in magical powers of Batman’s dick turning people to the side of light? No offense, Selina.”

“None taken,” Selina was as unperturbed by rudeness as by her boyfriend confessing to another man on tape. “It really doesn’t seem like their break-up was amicable. Even if Bruce did have a magical dick, I’m not sure that it would work.”

“But,” Tim said. “It might just work. We are overwhelmed, despite the numbers of operatives being the highest Gotham ever seen together at the same time. Mostly because most of them aren’t Gotham residents, and it’s hard to adapt to the city. We’re just barely holding on. One city-wide event and we’re done. So, if a Batman appears again, it would give us a briefer at least. And, it’s not the first time someone was standing in for Bruce.”

“Because that went swimmingly with Azrael,” Alfred noted dryly.

“We’re not leaving Red Hood alone,” Dick raised his hands in a calming gesture. “And we will have a no-killing rule. I think, given the impression I got from the tape, Red Hood will agree to it in the memory of Bruce. Plus, I was thinking about assigning Batgirl as his partner, instead of Robin.”

“Whoa,” Stephanie said. “I’m her partner.”

“I don’t want Spoiler around him,” Cassandra added quickly.

“I can patrol with you, Steph,” Tim said. “It’s fine.”

“Except for how you didn’t want me to become a vigilante again, remember? Not until you need all the people you could get.”

“Guys, guys,” Dick tried to quiet them down, but the shouting was just getting started.

Until Selina, looking at her nails with evident boredom, said.

“I think you didn’t consider one crucial element of this plan.” When everyone turned to her, she continued. “Bruce might have loved him, might have been in love with him, doesn’t matter — but what does Red Hood feel? He’s the one you will need to convince.”

“Well,” Dick said. “You heard Bruce yourself. Red Hood loved him too.”

“I heard also a lot about blood and betrayal. All the best doomed tragic romances have that. But it doesn’t really motivate to do good, does it?”

“But Bruce said, he was already trying to do good, right?” Tim said. “I think he meant that Red Hood was controlling crime in Crime Alley. Bruce kept intel on Red Hood behind a lock and key, but I know how to read data. Violent crime rates dropped in the last year and a half. School enrollment and graduation rate raised. Several shelters were opened. I think that’s what Bruce meant.”

“Still don’t trust him,” Cass said.

“And this is exactly why you will be perfect as his partner.”

They voted. Damian, Cassandra, Alfred, Stephanie — against, Tim, Barbara, Dick, Selina — for. Love didn’t win that day, and Barbara offered to gather more information on Red Hood and reconvene in a week. If the votes didn’t shift, they agreed to let this idea go.

In this week, Barbara managed to unlock Bruce’s archive on Red Hood. There was a lot of footage to go through. Damian volunteered to help. As much as he found an idea of putting Red Hood in his father’s suit insulting (or it was Bruce and Red Hood’s relationships that he found so objectionable), he noticed bits and pieces that Barbara might have otherwise missed.

“Here,” Damian pointed at the freeze-frame. “It’s a kriss. My mother has exactly the same make. Perhaps, he’s a decoy from my grandfather. Or, a deserter, who was at the League at the same time when my father studied there.”

“Any chance you can contact her, see if she knows him? We don’t need classified information, I don’t think. A psychological profile would be enough.”

“I don’t need to bother my mother for this,” Damian scoffed. “He’s obsessed with Father. Wants to keep his attention strictly on himself. He could have quietly gone through Gotham’s scum, killing and hiding the bodies, so he could operate here for years with no one the wiser. If cleaning up Gotham was his real, or only purpose. So yes, I believe Grayson’s assessment was right. That man would do pretty much anything to get acknowledgment. If not from Father himself, then it’s feasible that his family would suffice as a substitute. But make no mistake.”

He turned his too serious for his age eyes on her.

“Even if I think this could work. I will never endorse this idea.”

Yeah, well. He didn't have to. The one who changed the vote turned out to be Cassandra.

“I don’t like him,” she explained at the next vote. “But I do think that people can change. And I think we owe it to Batman. Let him have this chance.”

Dick left to give Red Hood the proverbial invitation. Barbara stayed at Clocktower, hoping that she will never regret it.

And for a long time, she didn’t.

read on ao3: This Should (not) Have Been a Love Story Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, other Batfam members, WIP, Words: 2,440 Chapters: 1/5, T Bruce Wayne never revealed that he knew Red Hood's real identity to anyone. In fact, he took such great pains to keep others out of the loop that people started to speculate (Dick, mostly, and Barbara, and then all the others — it just made sense at the time). So, when Batman dies, and Gotham City is in chaos, Nightwing decides to use an unlikely ally to fight the good fight. There's no way Red Hood won't agree to help, being in love with Batman as he was.

Dick

Dick found him on the roof of the building, perched beside a gargoyle. If his helmet had ears on top of it, it would have been easy to mistake his shadow for Bruce. He heard Dick, that’s for sure. Dick wasn’t trying for subtle. But he didn’t even change his pose, staring at the distance as the sirens were going off in the distance and something was lit on fire yet again. It seemed like the intelligence Oracle gathered has been right; Red Hood was the only one who did not take the opportunity that Batman’s death provided to carve a bigger piece of the city. He was grieving. A luxury Dick didn’t have time for right now.

What convinced him the most to go through with this mad scheme was the bottle of whiskey he was griping in his hand. The same label Bruce liked. And it didn’t seem like Red Hood was drinking any of that.

Sentimental, Dick thought. I can work with that.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said out loud.

That, and not the simple fact that a vigilante was at his back when he was alone and vulnerable, made Red Hood tense. The man turned his head to the right, still without looking directly at Dick. After a minute, he spoke.

“Shouldn’t it be my words for you?”

Dick shrugged, trying to keep his tone light and not at all bitter.

“The last few years, you have seen more of him than I had.”

“Only because he didn’t want you around this city, around me, and every other scum that plagues it. He wanted you safe.”

Yeah, Dick knew that, on a rational level. But this wasn’t about him and Bruce.

“What he wanted the most,” Dick sat down a little farther away from Red Hood. “Is to keep this city safe.”

“He was good at it, mostly.”

“Two weeks after he died, and it all went belly up.”

“Oh, bird boy, it went to shit immediately, like every second of every day — he just isn’t here to do anything about it. You know what gets me?”

Dick felt Red Hood’s gaze on him for the first time since they started talking. Was he expecting Dick to know the answer? No, apparently he didn’t, because Red Hood continued.

“I wanted, planned to kill him, even. Changed my mind at the last minute, of course, but. When I did want that, I was thinking I would be doing something good, something meaningful. That Gotham would be better without him, I would be better without him.”

“But everything went to shit, and you’re feeling shitty,” Dick nodded. It was surprisingly familiar, what Hood described, and he used that. “I know the feeling. Not wanting to kill him — but sometimes I thought that I would be better off without him.”

“You are, though.”

It was Dick’s turn to look at Red Hood.

“How do you figure?”

“Just saying. I don’t know you, but you look like a normal person.”

Dick felt a tang inside his chest.

“I had my moments.”

“Had them less and less after leaving Bruce, though.”

“Bruce, huh?” Dick’s insides went cold. It’s fine, he told himself. He wasn’t expecting precisely that, but he knew Red Hood and Batman were close. He just… “You know, it took him about seven years before he told Catwoman his name. And he asked for my blessing beforehand.”

Red Hood scoffed.

“It’s not that big of a secret. Harvey Dent knew, Joker knew, League of Assassins, Deathstroke… Oh, and Hush — I am pretty sure he became a supervillain just for him.”

“Same as you, then?” Dick pressed while it was hot. “Batman did say that it was personal between you and him when he deigned to answer any questions about you. Said that he created you, in a way.”

Red Hood reeled.

“I have never heard anything more disgusting in my life,” he said. “No, wait — when Joker claimed to create me. Ugh. No, they did not create me, this city did.”

He went back to swinging his legs off the ledge and staring at the distance. Shit. Dick needed to continue to engage him, when slowly broaching the topic, making it seem like it’s his own idea...

“Why are you here, Nightwing? You aren’t here to arrest me, and you’re sure as hell not here to trade memories about the old man.”

Fuck it, Dick thought. I’m going all in.

“Within these two weeks, since the word got out that Batman died, your gang had significantly diminished its activities.”

“With the Big Bad Bat dead, we gave ourselves a holiday to celebrate, what about it?” Red Hood immediately refuted — and Dick didn’t even insinuate anything yet. “There’s, you know, no rush anymore.”

“Others seem to disagree. The city is drowning in strife and chaos, Hood. I won’t lie to you — I have all hands on deck for this one, everyone who’s been an ally, is here. And we’re still over our heads. I’m tired. I am one hair away from some kind of mental breakdown, and I can’t. I have responsibilities that he left behind. The city and…”

“The kid,” Hood said, and that should have not been as surprising as it was, that he knew about Damian’s existence if he knew Bruce Wayne’s name. “Yeah, it’s really shitty timing for a family reunion. So?”

“So I need help.” There, he said it.

It didn’t go exactly as planned. But the distance Bruce put between them in the last few years might have been not all for the better: his emotional manipulation skills became rusty.

“I’m listening,” Hood gestured with the whiskey bottle. “Not agreeing to anything yet, but I’m listening.”

“When you first came to the city and took over Black Mask’s holdings, it took you a few months. Then you had some kind of showdown between you, Batman, and Joker, and disappeared from Gotham for a bit…”

“I was dead but continue.”

Dick’s curiosity wanted him to dig into that — but not today. He filed it for future use.

“And after that, you have been much more low-profile. You’re based in Crime Alley now…”

“Park Row, please.”

“Park Row. And you seemingly being uninterested in other districts and avenues of profit except drug running, it made other gangs crop up, made some rogues retain the positions they had before Roman Sionis came to power. The situation festered until it blew up, after Batman’s death.”

“You’re not seriously telling me it’s my fault.”

Dick smirked.

“It’s interesting that you’d think that — do you think it’s your fault? But no, I am just saying, you could have taken over the whole city, if you wanted to.”

“Sure,” Hood drawled. “So could you. Or your Big Brother. What are you saying, Nightwing?”

“I think you know.”

“I just want you to say it. Do you want me to, what, take over the crime in Gotham? Like was my plan all along when I returned to the city — the plan Batman stopped? No,” Hood pointed a finger at him when Dick tried to interrupt. “I don’t think you realize. I killed a lot of people. It made tactical sense, at the time. Intimidation goes a long way in Gotham. Bruce knew that already, that’s why Batman existed — he just didn’t want to take that one final step. I don’t blame him — I’ve seen how it plays out, in another universe. Gotham is the safest place on Earth, in that one, and he was fucking miserable. I never wanted that for him. That’s why I was doing it myself, what he couldn’t. So he won’t ever have to. But he didn’t want that — he said I was a coward and looking for an easy way out. And all I ever wanted was to keep my city safe.”

Dick listened to the rant. Hood seemed like he needed to get that off the chest. Maybe, it will make him more susceptible to his offer.

“So what do you want from me, Dickie? Things just got a little too real for you, and you want me to finish what I started? Kill every bastard in this forsaken city? Kill them all and see how it makes no fucking difference because it can’t make any difference because it can’t bring him back?”

“Uh,” Dick said. He knew that if Red Hood was aware of Batman’s identity, his own would be a very quick calculation. It still made him feel strangely naked when Hood called him by his name. “I want you to join the team. But without all the killing, preferably.”

It made Hood, who was gesturing wildly during his little speech, screech to a stop.

He seemed to think about, really think about it. Unfortunately, Dick could see his face, and his body language reading abilities were not on par with Cass, so he didn’t know what exactly Hood’s been thinking.

“Killing is my MO, though,” he said after what seemed like an eternity but was actually two minutes. “If that makes me a coward, psycho, evil, whatever, it doesn’t matter, but I sincerely believe in stopping threats permanently before they can hurt more people.”

That wasn’t a no. Dick moved in for a kill.

“You will get to wear a Batsuit,” he said. “And Batman doesn’t kill, sure. But if you want to track someone down in your free time as Red Hood — well, we all are overworked and overtired, we just can’t be everywhere at once to stop you.”

Hood drew back, and his left hand slipped from where it was clutching the roof. He was fast to regain a more firm position, thankfully.

“What? Why would I — why are you offering me the Batsuit? Are you possessed? Quick, tell me something only Nightwing would know.”

“How would you know something only Nightwing would know?”

“But — you’re his successor.”

Dick scrunched his nose.

“I’m not, actually. And we don’t need a successor right now. We need an illusion that Batman is still alive. And you have the same body shape as him, it’s uncanny. I half expect that under this helmet you’re his clone.”

“Ew,” Hood said. “But really? You want to work with a villain?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time we had done it. Two-Face, Catwoman, Luthor, Deathstroke. Me, Batman, Justice League, we all worked with villains sometimes. And, our goals are aligned, aren’t they? You and me, we just want Gotham safe. You are even willing to kill for it. That’s dedication.”

“But you’re not going to let me actually kill anyone,” Hood said. “All that talk about how I can use Batman at nights and Red Hood at days — I need to sleep too, you know. If I’m doing it, Red Hood has to go.”

Well, yes. That was exactly what Dick has been thinking. Though, if Red Hood did slip here and there, it wasn’t the worst what could happen, Dick figured. It all came down to comparison. This, how the city has been doing right now — and how it was only going to be worse when their allies start to get back to their own perches because Dick had no right to ask anyone to put their own lives on hold for his sake… Versus a bargain with Hood that maybe, just maybe can reel them a jackpot.

It would not be the first time when working alongside heroes made a villain change his ways, after all. Especially if Dick could continue using his feelings for Bruce against him.

“That’s your decision,” he said. “Just don’t step over my bottom line, don’t kill anyone in Batman’s suit, don’t kill anyone who could be stopped without it, and we’re all good, basically.”

“Huh.”

“Exactly.”

“But I can kill people who couldn’t be stopped otherwise, right? Like, random example here — Joker?”

“I mean, sure. I killed him once. It didn’t take, and I felt really, really shitty about it… But yeah.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah. So you’re in?” Dick got up and offered Red Hood a hand.

“Okay, whatever,” Hood said, clasping it back and getting on his feet. “I reserve the right to go back to murder and mayhem the second I want to.”

“If it’s adding more chaos to Gotham, I reserve the right to stop you. But yeah, it’s a deal.”

After this tentative truce, all that was left was to set up a rendezvous, where Hood could get the suit, meet the team, and participate in the briefing. Oracle was getting the materials ready — they needed to be sure that everyone was on the same page. She also was preparing a schedule for the new Batman. He will not have any time left to be Red Hood, that was for sure.

After they exchanged the details of the next meeting, Dick was ready to go down. Before he reached the roof exit, Hood’s words stopped him.

“You know Batman would have hated it?” Hood said. “Just so we clear. He would never, ever forgive you for this — or me. I think the one thing he would hate more than me in his suit if you went to Joker with this proposal.”

Dick really thought Hood was exaggerating. The small crumbles of information he received from Batman about Red Hood… And it was very, very little, just like the times when he tried to keep things about Talia al Ghul, or Catwoman, from Dick. He could never figure out if Bruce thought he was protecting Dick or them. He liked to think it was the first.

“I don’t think he hated you that much,” he said instead. “But either way, if he didn’t want someone he didn’t like filling in his suit — shouldn’t have died, then.”

Dick got a little more vicious when he thought he had in him. But it was true, in a way. He was pissed at Bruce for putting himself in harm’s way. Yeah, that’s what his whole life was about, being a hero, and that was why Dick loved him so much. But he wished Bruce didn’t do it, that he stayed alive for Dick instead.

Hood nodded, jerkily.

“Makes sense,” he said. “Don’t die if you don’t want to be replaced. That tracks.”

Dick thought Hood understood him, then. That he was as pissed at Bruce as Dick was. So he didn’t put a lot of thought into this and left. Didn’t question the exchange further.

Looking back at things, it always made Dick feel funny, in “ha-ha ouch” kind of way. But that was later.

#this should (not) have been a love story

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