#c: thatsjasonfkntodd | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ibroughtanarsenal · 5 years ago

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shakespearean

WHO: Roy and Jason (@thatsjasonfkntodd) WHERE: The hospital. WHEN: Backdated to April 29th, 2020. WHAT: Jason sneaks into the hospital like a fool.

JASON: As soon as Dick had sent that text, Jason had wanted to go to the hospital. On an ordinary day when everything wasn’t already upside down, he would have. But so far, all within just a few hours, he’d left a handful of bodies at the docks with Deathstroke, got roped into Kiteman and Joker’s scheme, and had his identity revealed with a god damned puppet. So as much as he wanted to go make sure Dick wasn’t just sugar coating everything to keep him away, he did not want to spend the rest of the day (or longer) being hauled in for some kind of interrogation.

After exercising an uncharacteristic amount of patience, he entered the hospital well after visiting hours and when the nursing staff would be making fewer rounds into patient rooms. It took hugging a few walls to get where he needed to go without being stopped, but he was eventually able to let himself into Roy’s room. It immediately reminded him how much he hated hospitals - the sterile smell, the cold, the glow and sound from machines. Hospital gowns also just had an uncanny way of making anyone wearing them look helpless, and he hated that the most.

Roy looked like he was sleeping, so Jason closed the door silently behind him and walked over to drag one of the chairs closer to the bed. “Probably can’t stay long,” he said in a low voice, not loud enough to wake him if he was actually asleep.

ROY: By the time the park was secure enough for EMS to get to them, Roy had been too out of it to give them much information other than his name. He barely remembered reaching the ambulance at all. The next time he was aware of his surroundings it was hours later. He woke up in the hospital, with Dick in the room, and over the next hour he asked more questions than he was able to answer.

Jason's identity was out. He couldn't remember the details about how it happened, just that it did, and that was the only thing that mattered. He wasn't expecting him to come to the hospital because of the possible risks involved. There wasn't much he could do but sleep. They'd given him something for the pain while he'd been out. He felt it immediately upon waking. The first thing he should have done was tell the nurses his history, he fucking told people that all the time, but the light, calm feeling felt good. He could just let himself have it for today.

He was drifting in and out when Jason's voice broke through the haze and Roy opened his eyes, confused. When he saw that he was actually there, he sat up on the elbow that wasn't bandaged, and thought the lights were much too bright in here. "You shouldn't be here." It was a damn relief to see him, though, after hearing how the day played out. JASON: He moved to the edge of the chair and sat up straighter. Just to do something with his hands, he caught the edge of the blanket they’d draped over Roy. Those things were always too rough in a place where comfort would’ve actually done some good. He didn’t even like looking at them. They were always some sickly pastel color.

“Yeah, yeah, already got that from Dick so don’t waste your breath. I was careful coming in.” The last thing he’d wanted to do was get caught before he even made it to the room. He’d have to face everything sooner or later, but he was fine with it being later. “I didn’t know if he was just feeding me bullshit to keep me from coming, but it doesn’t look like you’re dead.” ROY: "He told me what happened." At the... theater? Maybe? Roy didn't add that detail just in case he wasn't remembering it correctly. It didn't matter. What mattered was the people who'd be gunning for Jason now that he knew who - and where - he was. He didn't care so much about the local SCPD. Dick hadn't done anything. Not yet, anyway.

He snorted softly and let his arm rest on the plastic railing. "Shouldn't be here long. The whole thing... stupid. I was meeting some lawyer about a patient. Guy got both of us." It took him entirely off guard and he hadn't been prepared for a random gunman in the park. "Couldn't go out like that. Too anticlimactic." He closed his eyes, trying to focus, and took a deep breath. "What are you gonna do, Jaybird?" JASON: “Bleeding out from a shoulder wound would’ve been a real let down. I’d bring you back just so you could put on a better show.” He have a humorless little snort of laughter. While he was no stranger to joking about death, and it was usually even his first choice, right then he was in no mood to think about Roy getting killed. He hadn’t even been around. He’d been at the damn docks, fighting some idiot gang members. Dead ones, now, which was a much bigger problem for him than it had seemed like at the time,

Jason ran his free hand down his face and sat forward far enough that his forehead almost rested against Roy’s arm. “I’ll figure it out. Get my shit out of my apartment though, that’s for sure.” While he did have some added security there, it wasn’t nearly enough. Red Hood had been active for years and he’d pissed off a lot of people. Sometimes they managed to track him anyway, but with his name? His real name? He was going to have to come up with a much better strategy to avoid them. ROY: "Appreciate the sentiment." Roy had to joke about it after being with Foggy for the last couple hours. He tried to keep him distracted by asking him questions, but even that stopped working eventually. Not having his phone on him was the biggest annoyance. He thought he'd be at the park for ten, maybe fifteen minutes tops. As far as he knew it was still in the car where he'd left it. Plugged in, too, since he had the tendency to let it die for hours.

Frowning, he didn't ask if Jason were going to leave the city. Roy just assumed he would have to. It seemed like the safer option. He opened his eyes when he heard Jason move, watching him for a few seconds without speaking, but then he sighed quietly and moved his hand back just enough that the tips of his fingers brushed over Jason's temple. "Don't drag your feet. If I get out of here only for you to go in, I'll be pissed." He did wonder before if Jason's name was still legally useable, but it wasn't a question he'd ever asked. JASON: “Funerals suck, so I’d appreciate you keeping up the trend of not making me go to one.” He swallowed as he felt Roy’s hand and abruptly reached up to catch his fingers. Of course some kind of bullshit was going to happen right when he was trying to start over with something he wanted. Story of his life.

“I just need to get an actual safehouse together in the city. There are places. I wasn’t counting on needing one yet,” but he could do it. “Gotta figure out where to lay low until then.” Loathe as he was to admit that Dick was right about keeping a low profile, it was the only real option for a little while. He had an idea, but it made him want to throw up. It might be the best one. ROY: Roy laughed softly. "Deal." He definitely didn't plan on dying anytime soon, although he was well aware it was a difficult promise to keep in a city like this. When Jason caught his fingers he pressed the side of his hand, the touch oddly sobering. He didn't really want to joke about it anymore. Even though he did his best to write off Foggy's talk of death, it did make him think about the things he hadn't said.

"You want to stay here?" It wouldn't have mattered to him. Roy wasn't the type who got attached to jobs or apartments or cities. If Jason wanted to go then he would go, but he knew he could have his own reasons to stay. JASON: “I don’t know if I want to, but I’m not leaving while that fucking clown still thinks he can just pick us off like flies.” He’d already gone after Damian, and Steph had a run in with him, too. Jason wasn’t going to tuck tail and run just because Joker had decided to out him (and all the rest of them). Jason wasn’t letting him win.

More than that, and more than he was going to say, was that Roy was...settled. At least a little. He had the rehab clinic. He was doing alright. Jason both didn’t want to upend that or walk away from it when he’d just walked back into it. “I’m sticking around,” was all he ended up saying. ROY: Family dynamics were complicated. Roy knew that better than most. Oliver hadn't shown his face in his own city the entire time he'd been here, not that he expected him to, but having Dinah around again made him feel more attached than usual. It bothered him that Joker had the obsession with Bruce and anyone who'd ever sidekicked with him. There were a lot of targets, but Jason was the only one he'd ever killed. From what he'd heard from Dick, it seemed like Joker could have killed Damian and chose not to. It made him wonder what the endgame was supposed to be.

He finally nodded, frowning. "Okay, just..." There were a lot of things he wanted to advise him to do, remind him about, but Jason knew it all already and he'd be wasting his breath. It was hard to keep his thoughts straight. "Be careful," he finally said, his voice quiet. JASON: “Pft, me? I’m always careful. Jason Careful Todd.” An absolute lie, but what he didn’t plan on doing was dying again anytime soon. It hadn’t been a cakewalk the first time around and he wanted at least another decade or two before the sequel.

He shifted the hold that he had on Roy’s hand and turned his head to press his lips against the other’s palm. The whole day had been so fucked, and capping it off with Dick telling him Roy was shot had jarred him enough for some uncharacteristic sentimentality. “Just don’t get too comfortable in here. Whole place gives me hives and the windows don’t open.” ROY: "That's some bullshit." Roy didn't worry about Jason because he knew he was capable, but he wasn't dumb enough to think he was ever careful. Sometimes he got cocky. They were both a little guilty of that. It didn't help that the enhanced abilities Jason had from the Pit wouldn't be there to serve him.

He bit the tip of his tongue when he felt how Jason kissed his palm, his fingers moving against his jaw even in the few seconds his hand was there, and it was much harder not saying what he'd thought to say (not just now, but in the past). The words might sound slurred and he didn't want it to sound like that. "Guess that means you can't scale my wall like some tragic Shakespearean figure. Must be killing you." JASON: It was some bullshit, but he still didn't plan to be reckless. He wasn't incapable of laying low, it just wasn't his preferred method of...anything, really. Jason didn't run from problems if he couldn't plant himself right in front of them. This problem, though, was impossible to see the entire scope of on day one. He wasn't going to gamble with it.

He smirked, unable to help it. The day was too heavy. "With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do that dares love attempt." He let go of Roy's hand and pressed his palm against his own chest, reciting Romeo's words by rote. Why the fuck he remembered them rather than using that space for something more useful or that he cared about, he had no idea, but they were in there anyway. He just wanted to see the reaction. ROY: The situation was unpredictable. It made Roy feel a little better to know about the power dampeners, even though it was a strange thing to be happy about, because that left Jason as one of the most well-trained people in the city (and the rest of his family.) Maybe this was the best place to be for the time being.

The recitation made him open his eyes and he stared, unable to keep himself from smirking as his hand lowered back to the rail. "I would say I'm surprised you have that memorized, but I'd be lying." He remembered how much Jason liked books. Back when they shared the same space, Roy had even made a point of making room for some. He read from time to time, too, but rarely finished unless it really got his attention. "Careful, Jaybird. That almost sounded like a declaration of love." JASON: Being brought back by Talia and the Lazarus Pit had given him an edge over people in a lot of ways. He was a little faster, a little stronger, he could heal from things that probably would have killed him again, and being taken down a notch was going to be an adjustment if it was long term. Even with that, though, Jason had never let up on his training. He never slipped, never took a break, never let himself be less than in case that was the moment it would bite him in the ass. He’d spent most of his life comparing himself to other people and trying to stack up, and even though that wasn’t the driving factor anymore (not in the same way) he kept himself at a hundred percent in all the ways that counted in the field. All he needed was a roof with a little extra security for awhile.

“I’m full of surprises.” Whether that was supposed to be a response to him having the text memorized or the declaration of love, he didn’t bother to clarify. He wasn’t doing that in a hospital room with a bunch of monitors and Roy on fuck only knew what. Had they given him something? Did he let them? He didn’t ask. It definitely wasn’t the time for that, either. ROY: It was getting hard for Roy to keep his eyes open, even though he was doing his best to stay focused in the present. It wasn't like Jason could stay long and he hated missing out on that small window of time, especially because he wasn't sure when he'd be released. The doctors were optimistic about it, but it was still a shitty situation and he didn't want to deal with the recovery time. He especially didn't want to deal with his co-workers and the comments they'd make about getting back into the swing of things. They talked about things that were a little too personal and he didn't want the questions.

"I know it. One day I'll surprise you, just wait." Sometimes he thought the surprise wouldn't be necessarily a good one. That was something he kept to himself. "Tell me another one." Even though Roy was doing his best to stay focused, he was already feeling himself drifting back to sleep. The soft beeping the monitors did weren't exactly helping, either. JASON: “What, you want more Shakespeare?” Jason remembered bits and pieces more. Roy looked like he was on his way out, though, so he didn’t spend too long thinking about it. In all likelihood, he only had a couple of minutes before the nurses would start making their nightly rounds and he’d have to slip out.

He reached forward and idly straightened the corner of the blanket that covered Roy’s leg closest to him before reciting the next piece, with less gusto and mocking than the first time around. “I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight; And but thou love me, let them find me here: My life were better ended by their hate, Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.” Maybe now that it had served some purpose, he could dump it from his head and put something more useful there. ROY: "Yeah." Roy's voice was barely audible, but he knew he wanted Jason to keep talking so he had something in his head that wasn't machines.

Even though he tried to listen, it was difficult to understand the meaning behind the words when he was slipping into unconsciousness. It was something he would remember later with surprising clarity, however. By the time Jason finished speaking he was already asleep. JASON: Jason stayed about half a minute longer, until he was sure that Roy was well and truly out, before he got to his feet and pushed the chair back into place against the wall. He paused by the bed and pushed back an errant red curl before making his exit. Sure enough, he narrowly missed the night nurse heading toward his room.

#c: thatsjasonfkntodd #jason todd #roy harper

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