The Prodigal Nightmare
Chapter 3: Jason Todd's Day Off
"Hey, Barbie."
"Jason?"
The Red Hood grinned at her, his half-smile that was once reserved for her whenever he flirted with her when he was Robin back in the day. That smile that she had missed so much when he went missing, finding out later that night that The Joker had mercilessly murdered him. She nearly chilled at the thought if she wasn't already frozen at his current presence.
"You okay, Barbie? You look like you've seen a ghost, and I don't think Deadman likes to visit Gotham just to go to a Mexican restaurant at 3 o'clock in the morning," Jason said as he sat in front of her on the other side of the booth, his grin never fading from his pale face.
Her mouth was still open. Her mind was in a million places at once, asking a million questions at the same time, all involving the situation before her. Why was he here? How long had he been in Gotham? Did she know she was feeling lonely and came to console her? Even if that was true, how on Earth did he know where to find her? Was there a tracking device on her? She hadn't even made any sort of physical contact in months, and they only resulted in hugs with their uniforms on. Maybe there was a homing device on her Batgirl outfit and she didn't even know. But she washed the thing yesterday, so what could be a possible explanation for him being here? And why won't he stop smiling at her?
"This place is open 24 hours, you know. I could wait here all day," Jason said.
Barbara gulped hard, finally closing her mouth so that she could speak, though the shock still remained, causing her to stutter.
"W-Why are y-you here?" Barbara asked, careful to enunciate each word properly so he could understand through her stuttering.
He chuckled lightly, finding her surprised look and the way she talked rather cute, and with her glasses on and her hair styled into a fiery red ponytail just made her all the more adorable. It's almost a mystery how someone who looks like a sweet, innocent, nerdy ginger could be one of the strongest, most confident, most intelligent vigilante the city had ever seen. She was Batgirl long before he even knew how to work the TV; she was Oracle when he was busy venting his rage at Batman and his idiotic morals by destroying the criminals' hold on the city his way. The right way. At least, that's what he used to think.
"What, can't a guy who makes a living being a gun slinging vigilante pay one of his most honest friends a visit two days before Christmas?" he asked jokingly as he set his arms down on the table, waiting for her response.
"What I mean is, how did you know I was here?" she asked, her normal demeanor returning as the conversation continued.
"Honestly, I didn't," Jason said, still smiling. "I normally come here when I had a bad day or when I have some free time on my hands. That was when I was still running here in Gotham, but since I hang with the Outlaws, I've got neither, but tonight's different."
"How so?" she asked curiously
"Today's my day off," Jason finally said.
"Jason Todd, The Red Hood, the black sheep of the Batfamily, taking a day off?" Barbara asked, almost not believing him. "What, you got tired of putting bullet-holes on the bad people of the world?"
"You kidding? Me not killing some scumbag who deserves it is like saying Tim is the equivalent to Fabio, or saying Damian is the freakin' Pope," Jason said, making himself and Babs chuckle a little. "No, but seriously. I thought I could take a little break from my hero work so I could, you know, spend the holidays and not have to worry about some stupid whack-job super-villain trying to take over the city or some crap like that."
"Roy and Kori aren't gonna celebrate Christmas with you?"
"Oh, they're celebrating, all right, but more likely 'behind closed doors' if you get my drift."
"Ah. Say no more."
Silence came between them, but it wasn't an awkward one, rather it was a comfortable quiet between two friends, with a lot of hidden sexual tension on both parts, though they were either too proud or too nervous to admit it out loud.
Barbara had just remembered she still had her shrimp tacos on the plate in front of her and, after finding out they were still warm, decided to devour them, as she was still burdened with an empty stomach. The food, though not as warm as before, was still quit delicious. Shrimp, cilantro and tortilla took over her senses, save for those small times when she would wash it all down with the crisp but heavy taste of her Bud Light.
Jason just watched her, letting her take her time filling up her stomach with grilled Mexican delicacies, enjoying just being in her presence and happy to know that he was with her tonight. He saw the look on her face before she dozed off after she gave her menu to the waitress. Actually, he saw her face when she walked through the front door, because he was in the shadowed corner of the restaurant, away from the other consumers, thinking about his own past and life choices. Especially about his former mentor.
Jason used to think that since Bruce never avenged his death by killing the man who took his life, he thought Bruce never cared for him, never bothered to come looking for him after he died. That was his mind set for a long time, until one day, he decided to leave the city, tired of being hunted down constantly by Batman and his little bat-posse, to look for a place where he could actually be respected and belonged, where there was no Batman, no Justice League, no hero wanting to stop him from doing what he did. That's where he found Roy Harper and Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran.
Roy, AKA Arsenal, was living on the island where his mentor, Green Arrow, resided before he went back to Star City after a long five years of training and surviving. Roy was with a friend of his and someone Jason knew before he had died. Joseph Wilson, also known as Jericho. Apparently, they were both trying to rebuild a new team of Titans after defeating Deathstroke's hold on them, but found it rather difficult and gave up, joining the Titans in San Francisco where Logan, now named Changeling, was leader. But after being suspended by Changeling and Raven, co-leader of the Titans and Logan's fiancée, after killing a long time villain of theirs, Plasmus, he quit the team and moved away to New York where the old Titan's Tower used to be and set up shop there. Jason worked with him on a case that involved some big-time drug smuggling ring, and were inseparable ever since. Though it would've been better if Roy had an off-button so he would shut up for once.
Kory, as she is nicknamed when they don't call her Starfire, was doing a little rebuilding of her own.
After founding out that a new Tamaran had been created, she, with the aid of the Green Lantern Corps, had taken the opportunity to help the people who lived there and become their queen, a title she would've been given if she wasn't sold to a rival species as a peace offering, a plan created by her sister, Komand'r, Blackfire in Tamaranian, so she could take the title all for herself. Two years after her coronation, she felt that being queen wasn't all it was cracked up to be, as she had spent half her life protecting the innocent as a superhero, and gave the crown to her loyal brother, Ryand'r, as he was more qualified and not a superhero, making him the perfect king. She then spent many months all to herself in an island far away from civilization, until Jason had to ruin her peace and quiet by crash landing on her private spacecraft after being shot down by a couple of lowlifes who made money in the arms dealing business he was meant to execute, but failed miserably, basically ending up on her doorstep.
After many trials and twice as many errors, the three of them took it upon themselves to become the Outlaws, a well-oiled, trigger-happy, barely law-abiding machine. Jason was the leader, Roy was the comedian, much to everyone's dismay, and Kory was the muscle. They were the family they had been wanted for many years, and as long as they were together, nothing could separate them.
Unless that nothing was Barbara Gordon.
She hadn't done anything to Jason and his Outlaws, but even if she hadn't managed to cripple them physically, she had managed to found her to a certain Red Hood's heart recently, distracting him from his job and his priorities. There was even a time where Jason decided that one of their targets should get a fair trial after being caught by them, instead of getting his forehead bedazzled with bullets, all because his heart was telling him, screaming from the top its lungs, to forget about bloodshed and think about what Barbara would do. And that has been his motto ever since.
What would Barbara do?
She finally finished her meal and her beer, shamelessly wiping the grease on her mouth her sleeve, ignoring the napkin in front of her, then looked up at the boy rebel in front of her, realizing she had company when she did that.
"Sorry," she said, blushing in embarrassment.
"No worries. You're even cuter when you don't care," Jason said.
"I don't think I've ever been accused of being cute."
"Well, I think it's about time, don't you think? You deserve to have someone to remind you how attractive you are."
Barbara looked away from her plate and set her eyes on him. His smile wasn't there anymore, but his face was still sincere, which was almost unheard unless you've spent a day with the guy. His eyes were soft and focused solely on her, the colors of his irises were bright blue, but if you looked more closely, you could see a tint of green, a result from his dip in the Lazarus Pit, like the white section of his black hair. His cheeks were a soft red, probably trying to warm themselves up from the cold outside or remembering those few but greatly emotional times where they had spent their most sincere moments of friendship together, wishing for something more. Maybe that was just in her head, but she honestly didn't care. She didn't care because he was here. He didn't forget her like Grayson. He didn't leave her hanging like Bruce. He was here and she would not take that for granted ever again.
"Do you want to take a walk?" she asked nervously.
"I thought you'd never ask," he said, his warm smile returning.
They got up from their booth and began to walk towards the front door when Jason stopped her.
"You forgetting something, Barbie?" he asked as he pointed back to the lady at the cash register with his thumb, signaling that they forgot to pay.
"Right. Sorry." She walked towards another lady who was dressed the same as the waitress, though a little bigger and had an older face. They paid for the meal and walked out the door, thanking them for the food.
The bitter cold bit down on them once again, but it seemed Jason was unaffected by the relentless beating of the late December winds, while Barbara had to wrap her own arms around herself so she could keep warm. Her own warmth seemed to be her main priority as they got out, but she laid her eyes at Jason once again and stayed that way for a good minute until he turned his head at her, catching her in the act.
"Why are you staring at me? Not that I mind, anyway," Jason asked cheekily.
"I always thought you would be the one to forget to pay after eating at a restaurant," she responded honestly.
"I'm a wanted vigilante across the entire country, not some rude jerk who's as blunt as a stick. In fact, I can be quite the civilized individual."
"Oh, yeah. Breaking a guy's kneecaps instead of their necks is very civilized," she said sarcastically.
"At least they'd still alive, so I like to think so."
They chuckled together, a rare thing to happen between the two of them, but neither of them cared. Times like this only happen once in every two blue moons. Batgirl and Red Hood. A complete juxtaposition of attitudes, mind sets, and on one or two occasions, even sanity. But on that morning, nothing could be more promising than a good start to a cold Christmas Eve.
Jason and Barbara got off of their motorbikes as they finally reached her apartment, about to make their way inside when Jason made one of his many questionable remarks.
"Why, Miss Gordon, already letting me into your apartment? But we've never even had our first date yet," said Jason jokingly with that annoying grin on his face.
"First off, you keep smiling like that, your face is going to get stuck, and second, what made you think you were going to be having 'fun' tonight?" replied Barbara with an equally joking smile on her face.
"Hey, can't blame a guy for trying," he said, raising his arms in surrender.
They walked up the stairs to apartment door, and as she was about to put her key into the key slot, she remembered something important.
"Oh, my God! I totally forgot!" she practically screamed.
"What?" Jason asked with a worried look on his face.
"It's almost four in the morning, my roommate is probably inside right now."
"So?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"So she hasn't seen me walk through the front door hours before sunrise. She'll know something's up."
Jason rolled his eyes and decided to swipe the keys to her apartment away from her hand and quickly unlocked the door for her, opening it wide for him to see the inside of her domain.
The room seemed cozy, but he couldn't tell with it being dark, but it shouldn't take long for his eyes to adjust. He did used to live in a cave, after all. The floor was littered with small tank-tops, t-shirts and underwear of different kinds, which Barbara insisted were mostly her roommate's. The living room consisted of a red loveseat and a TV with a home entertainment system that didn't look to shabby or expensive, but still a stable choice. The kitchen was also small but still a bit homey. On either side of the apartment were differently decorated doors, probably leading to their respected rooms and their bathrooms.
"Nice place you got here," Jason said.
"I knew I should've cleaned up before I left. I keep wanting to but I always put it off," Barbara said with cheeks red with embarrassment.
"You think this is bad, you should see Roy's room. It looks like a tornado ran over a Goodwill. Trust me, Barbie, this is fine."
Barbara looked at him again, surprised that he was so cool with her having a dirty looking apartment.
Well, he is a guy, she thought. What'd you expect?
She made a small trek to the kitchen and looked inside the refrigerator, hoping to find something for them to consume while he was here. She found a couple of beers and day old Chinese food still in their white boxes. After getting them out, along with a couple of forks from the drawer, she made her way back to the small couch where Jason was currently sitting on.
"I hope you like day old white rice," Barbara said with her blush still apparent on her cheeks.
"I love the stuff," Jason replied as he took off his brown leather jacket, leaving him in his tight-fitting, small-sleeved, gray t-shirt, and threw the jacket on the floor with all of the other articles of clothing, saying "If you're roommate can do it, so can I."
After finishing their slightly cold rice, following some small talk about some missions they had to do, the people they met, how annoying their partners are, and other things of the sort, they simply sat comfortably on the loveseat, trying to fight off the sleep in their eyes but was proving to be a rather difficult job. But when Barbara remembered that it was a weekend that day, she let the sleep takeover her just as the sun rose from the industrialized horizon of Gotham's skyline and slept away.
On Jason's shoulder.
