A/N: Originally posted on ao3 under the pen name youngjusticewriter.
"He should have let me kill them before it came to this," the Red Hood confesses to the man who was silently walking towards him.
By the time Batman reaches him and the graves neither says anything. Not even a smart ass comment about the blood seeping from the Red Hood's leather jacket. They both lost loved ones and that outweighs the need to argue. Even about morals rather it be white, grey, and black or Batman, Red Hood, and Joker.
Which one is right?
Neither are sure anymore because they both failed in the end; they both lost the person they loved even if they had been long gone before their deaths. In the end there had been red and now there is grey of the gravestone that is front of them. If the Red Hood hadn't endured enough laughter (mad, sickening, wrong laughter) for the rest of his life he might laugh at how morbid the irony was.
Both the Joker and the Red Hood had filled this graveyard. Now he and Batman were the ones who were suffering; all the others were dead.
Silently, suddenly - or maybe it's been building all the years - it breaks. The silence breaks and so does Batman.
"I loved her," Batman confesses brokenly and for once the Red Hood doesn't snap back in anger, in hatred, in abandonment.
"I loved him." But that hadn't stopped the Red Hood from doing what he should have done years ago. "How's the kid?"
"My brother is as good as one can except," was Batman's short answer. The Batman always gave short answers. Less one can deduce from a short answer compared to a long one.
The older man snorted in disbelief. "He's your brother now?"
There was silence for a minute before the Red Hood was answered.
"History has tragically repeated in this family for far too long. I intend to learn from it."
"Take care of the kid. Even if the Joker is dead there's more who would love to kill a Robin."
"Tt-tt. A fool would try such an attempt on McGinnis. I told you already once. I intend to learn from the history, the death, the tragedy that has befallen this family."
There it was: the urge to laugh at life. How many times had the Red Hood wished for a Batman like this? "Will you kill the fool that does succeed?" He needs to know before he dies.
"The Joker was no fool and there are fates worth than death. You of all people should know that Todd."
"You're a better man than your father." It's not a promise of death, no, it's a promise of so much worse. And the sad thing was if Bruce had given that promise to the Joker they wouldn't be here.
Though saddest thing was that if the Red Hood had done what he was suppose to do originally (to kill the Joker) than they wouldn't be here. In the end, the Red Hood had done it too late and a wrong Joker instead of a dollar short. Gotham would be fine - well as fine as Gotham can be. Gotham had Damian and Terry. There was no more Jokers.
The Red Hood could die now and Jason Todd had been dead for years to the world. Hopefully Jason Todd could finally be at peace in hell with the man he loved.