Wayne Foundation Galas were awful. Dressing up, going somewhere to watch a bunch of rich people play charity chicken. None of them did it out of the goodness of their hearts, but to impress the people who read the tabloids, or maybe to get a bigger tax cut. But regardless, none of them were doing anything truly charitable.

As per Bruce's instructions, Jason did his best to hide his disgust as he stood near the punch table in his tux. It was even more unfortunate that he was so identifiable, what with the white streak in his hair and all. It wasn't able to be colored, and rich people saw it and immediately knew he was Bruce Wayne's mysterious second son, who went away for several years and then came back. People always came up to him and asked where he'd been for those years. Was it boarding school? Had he just run away? Where had the mysterious Jason Todd gone?

It seemed unfair, honestly. Jason always had to deal with these things alone. No one was there to give him answers of deflect questions. He usually just chuckled a little bit and said he was off on personal matters, because his pre-Robin life was mostly a public secret, so most people just left it at that.

The onslaught of curious bourgeois was proving to be annoying, however, so Jason moved away from the drink table and wandered up the stairs, glass of whiskey in hand. There was a spot in the banquet hall where you could sneak into the wall, and there was a secret passage. It went up to the balcony that was high enough you could see everyone in the room, but they couldn't see you.

He used to sneak up there with Barbara during these dumb banquets, and they used to bring extra changes of clothes so they didn't have to wear their fancy clothes while they made fun of all the snobs.

But today, Barbara was there with her date. He didn't want to bring her date up to their secret banquet place, and he didn't want to drag her away from her date, so he went alone today. She'd asked him why he hadn't brought a date, and he'd laughed and said no one was good enough for him, but they both knew that wasn't exactly true.

Barbara's date was someone she went to college with. A tall guy, blonde hair and nice smile. His name was Travis, Trent maybe… Something with a T. He seemed nice enough. Not nearly good enough for Barbara but that wasn't really Jason's business.

Jason was sitting on this balcony now, his feet swaying over the ledge. He could see the two of them dancing, Barbara wearing a glimmering white dress and her hair pulled to one side in a wavy, elegant ponytail. He had his hand gently resting on her waist, his other hand holding hers up as if she was a dainty little flower. She deserved to be held with a gentle hand, but not like that. She didn't need someone to open her jars for her or kill the spider. She needed someone to hold her and remind her that she was strong enough to do those things for herself. Jason knew it wasn't this guy.

He sighed. Barbara laughed, throwing her head back and then leaning forward and placing it on his shoulder as he swept her through the crowd of other dancers. Jason had hoped that she would not have a date, and that maybe she'd go home with him.

He'd hoped tonight would've been the time he could finally make his move.

Sipping his whiskey, he closed his eyes. The alcohol burned his throat as it went down but it also promised to take away the pain. After this stupid event, he'd probably go to a bar or something and drink his problems away, maybe find a drunk girl and take her home. Maybe he'd find a drunk girl here and take her home. Then Barbara would see it and she would maybe realize that she had feelings for him too, and maybe something would happen.

That was unlikely, but Jason could hope. For now, he sat on the floor of the balcony sipping his whiskey and watching the love of his life dance with another man.

Wayne Foundation Galas were awful.