Quick recap, because it's been ages: Jason is hiding out at one of his safehouses with Donna and Cassie after the Arkham incident. Right after getting the other two holed up, he goes to get coffee.
Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, and Damian al Ghul are laying low in an apartment in Gotham for reasons currently unknown to us. (well, to you.) Woken up at a positively unholy time by the missile blowing up Arkham, a decision is made to go for coffee.
Whatever could such unrelated events lead to?
Coffee Run
Gotham City
March 19th
22:24 EDT
Jason Todd, like most members of the Bat Family, has long fostered an unhealthy dependence on caffeine. If you asked any member of the former Team how he takes it, their answer would probably be "Oh, he drinks coffee as black as his soul sweetened with the tears of small children."
He has worked dang hard to cultivate that impression, thank you very much.
"Welcome to Starbucks, can I take your order?"
"Yeah, can I get a venti caramel latte, a grande iced mocha, and a venti cinnamon dolce frappucino, to go?"
Cassie likes caramel, Donna has a thing for iced mochas, and neither of them particularly cares for frappucinos.
One, they have no idea what they're missing. Two, they must never know.
He pays for the drinks and moves to a table in the corner, watching idly out the window as Gotham slowly, sluggishly stirs from a two-year long sleep. A citywide crackdown at the start hadn't been easy—they hadn't really expected it to be, not here—but it had been done. Still—there are some things that defy suppression.
Like how most citizens haven't had the chance for the good old-fashioned widespread panic they were so fond of in a couple of years. An explosion in the harbor where it's a widely known "secret" the Lords have a base should be pretty good at doing that.
He sees Batwoman making her way down the street and immediately grabs a newspaper to shield his face, or more importantly, his hair. The white streak tends to make him noticeable. Maybe he'll dye it.
A small hand smacks down on the table next to his arm, and he lowers the newspaper with raised eyebrows. A ten-year-old boy with a distinctly Arabic nose is scowling at him. Something about his face looks vaguely familiar.
"Can I help you?"
"Return that to me at once."
"Easy, do you want the funny pages or something?"
The kid's glower increases to Bruce-worthy levels. "Tt. Don't malign my intelligence. It is far superior to yours."
"Okay, someone is up past their bedtime."
The kid tenses up and Jason will swear that he hears a growl. "Why, you—"
Before he can do anything other than growl, a smooth shadow moves into place and Jason finds himself blinking up at an attractive young woman with Asian features and dark hair cut in a bob.
"Sorry for…brother. Anger…issues."
Her English is stilted enough that he's willing to lay money on it being at least her second language, and there is a vague resemblance between the two.
"I do not have anger issues! He stole my newspaper!"
"Whoa, whoa," Jason holds up the offending paper after a discreet glance outside proves that Batwoman has moved on. "I just found it on the table."
The girls turns a gaze on her companion that makes him actually duck his head and look away.
Okay, those two are definitely siblings.
"Yours?"
"I…no. But I was going to read it!"
Now, Jason could do the nice thing here, and give the kid the paper. Does he really need it? No. Could he get another one? Probably.
Is he going to do that? Absolutely not.
Hey, he just spent three hours freezing his butt off before fighting a battle, getting knocked out by one of his supposed friends, and seeing his girlfriend get attacked.
And all this before coffee.
Plus, he hasn't read the book reviews yet.
So while the kid is receiving the patented Older-Sister-Look-Of-Disappointment, Jason Todd, Professional Asshole, stands up, tucks the paper under his arm, and walks away.
"Hey!"
"You snooze, you lose, kid," he calls over his shoulder. He catches a glimpse in the window of the girl clamping a hand onto the kid's hood to keep him from coming after Jason.
And since there's a look in his eyes 0Jason has only ever seen in the mirror after nightmares…he might be grateful.
"Order for Todd?"
"Yeah, that's me." He goes up to grab it, nimbly avoiding a blonde girl rushing past him to where the two siblings are having a whispered argument and the other girl has yet to remove her hand from the boy's hood.
He picks up the coffees in a neat little tray thing balanced on top of the newspaper in one hand and strolls casually toward the door.
He stops to glance over his shoulder at where the two girls are talking and the kid is biting into a cake pop like it's personally offended him.
If Jason continued looking back, he might have seen a certain pair of almost-familiar blue eyes glaring at him.
But he didn't.
So instead, he wanders down the street with the coffees until he has a good spot to lean against a wall, read the reviews, and keep an eye on the sky.
He's not really paying particular attention to the street level, so he while he sees two girls looking vaguely familiar walk past, he doesn't notice the shadow scurrying in their wake until the tray of coffee in his hands is shoved up from the bottom and splashes all over his coat.
"Son of a bitch!" he swears, futilely trying to mop at the excess liquid with the newspaper before giving chase. "Hey, you asshole, that was my coffee!"
The shorter figure has already hurried to catch up with the two in front of him. The three turn in unison before spinning back around and running away as fast as they can.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit—"
He finally corners them in an alley, half out of breath and madder than a bat out of hell, and is somehow not as surprised as he should be that it's the kid from the coffee shop, already being furiously scolded by his sister's—friend? Girlfriend? His sister's something.
"What the actual fuck, I don't even know you, you pint-sized asshole."
The sister is glaring at both him and the brother, and once again reaches out to snag the hood of the kid's jacket as her something steps forward, palms out.
"Hey, Todd—can I call you Todd? Look, I'm so very sorry about the kid, he has anger issues, doesn't really get how to behave around normal people yet—"
"How dare you Brown, I will rip your mmmph rrf mmphur."
The sister shrugs from where she's got the other hand firmly anchored over the kid's mouth and 'Brown' sighs.
"—so how about, y'know, I just pay for your coffee and maybe some dry cleaning and we can all go home and forget that this crazy night ever happened, huh?"
Her grin is slightly strained at the edges and looks a bit too practiced, but it's disarming all the same.
Before he can open his mouth to respond, there's a rumble of engine and wheels from the edge of the alley, and they all freeze.
Only the feds drive after ten at night, and this scene is pretty clearly confrontational.
Jason freezes. He can't afford to be brought in, and from the way the other three do the same, they can't either.
They all stand there, tensed up, until the sounds have passed.
Jason sighs, and drags one hand over his face. "Keep the damn money. Just…get outta here, get home, stay outta trouble. And kid, pro tip: most people aren't as nice as me. Don't be an asshole."
He turns around and stomps off in the direction of the safe-house, cursing some more and hoping his vest is still dry. Wet Kevlar chafes like fuck-all.
(It isn't. Stupid kid.)
Things I had to Google for this chapter: Starbucks menu, time changes, whether or not green tea lattes were a thing (ok that may have been for me), does wet Kevlar chafe (no conclusive answer; mine's funnier), word for when cloth rubs against skin scrape tip of my tongue CHAFE
I swear I am so, so sorry for the wait, and extra sorry that this one little update is so short. My muse went AWOL and my life—and, you don't care right. Long story short, I finally managed to crank this out, I'm working on the next chapter for the main story, which should hopefully be sometime within the next month. (I WILL TRY. I PROMISE.)
Thanks go out to sass-mistress-lucifer for advising!
