A/N First: I do not own Red Hood or Young Justice nor do I own any of the characters therein. Second: The concept for this story came from an gret Percy Jackson Fanfic I read some years back called "A New Life" (10/10 would recommend) though events play out very differently the setup and circumstances are somewhat similar and with that enjoy!

CHAPTER 1

The sun crept in through the window of my apartment and woke me up. It did this very thing once a day on this particular day my friend was leaning on the door frame his name was Conner Kent and he was munching on a red muffin looking at me with a detached sort of interest. Conner was sixteen and going to Gotham north. He also had a job at the diner we were currently standing above which by the way is called Mt. Justice for some strange reason. I was a chef and friends with the owner and so she let me rent out the apartment space above the diner. Conner himself lived with his family most of the time but sometimes he found his absent older brother and irritable sister and her friends hard to deal with and so he crashed with me for about half the time and with his parents for the rest.

I looked at Conner and asked, "Why did I give you the key to my apartment again?

Conner looked taken aback and said, "You didn't know? You know everything Jason."

"Can't say I do."

"Weird it's been the talk of the town!"

"What?" Ask exasperated.

"You secretly love me" He said his face dead serious. It remained that way all the way until the words were finished hanging in the air and then we both started laughing.

After a minute I managed to gasp out, "I'm gonna shower don't damage my living space too severely."

Connor looked disappointed "All right I will refrain from burning our place of work to the ground. I chuckle as I head into the shower and allow the grime of the previous day to wash off of my skin the needles turning from ice to fire on my skin as I bask in the heat for a few minutes before my shift. As I head down dressed casually, being a cook I wear a whit t-shirt and jeans, I feel a cold draft coming from the kitchen and run back for my jacket. A black and white leather affair with a red hood and a bastardized version of my family crest which was redesigned by my dad our crest was a black bat on a yellow field. I decided I didn't like it a year and a half ago and put a red diamond with wings on the back of my black and white leather jacket and that was that house Todd. I had a hat that I wore also had the crest on it but that is currently irrelevant. As I walked down into the kitchen I saw the other cook Violet Harper who was an immigrant from the middle east. A little country off the coast of Africa called Bealia which was steeped in the civil war that raged between two dictators one who called herself Queen Bee and one who went by Psymon. They were both weird characters.

As I saw the girl I reflected how the diner was made up of strays and runaways; people who had things they would rather avoid. I was snapped out of my reverie when violet, said, "Jason one day I'm gonna get you to tell me the secret to your red food."

I grinned devilishly back at her and said, "There is a list of ingredients in a rather famous book."

She perked up "What book?'

"Macbeth"

"Jason that's horrible!' Chided a vice from outside it was Zatanna a good friend of mine and the only one who knew my secret my family. She continued I heard you practicing through the floorboards

I cringed at that, "Piano or guitar?" My dad made me learn piano and I liked it so much I decided that I wanted to try something else.

"Piano" Violet chimed in from the corner where she was dicing peppers for an omelet. A favorite of hers she usually made it for herself and her boyfriend before she did anything "It was very good Brion and I danced to it." The girls laughed at my discomfort and I set to work.

—Jump Cut—

Several hours into my shift I brought a hamburger and shake more to get out of the kitchen then anything else. The man who ordered the food was named Bill Finger he ordered the same thing for lunch every day I greeted him in a chipper mood which disappeared as I saw three familiar figures ambling down the street I handed Mr finger his food and slipped into the back without anyone noticing and got back to work in silence.

—3rd person POV—

Zatanna was having a pretty good shift until they showed up Jason used to hang around them. How could he not after all they were his brothers. They were arguing when they came in. Well not really arguing so much as Damian complaining and Tim and Dick were humoring him. All in all, they seemed to be in a very good mood. And then he saw me his face went pale and his eyes widened. "Zatanna?"

I struggled to keep the emotion she felt out of my voice and through a monumental effort I managed it "Hello Dick." The steadiness of her voice was undermined by the look in her eyes the three year old hurt brimming in them.

They looked at each other for a good thirty seconds until Dick said, "Want to eat lunch with us?" The question caught her off guard and she looked at the manager John Smyth who as usual was dressed in bright red oddly enough he always seemed to wear the same shirt and Zatanna privately thought he had a closet of nothing but red shirts with yellow arrows on them. John nodded and said, "Take the rest of the day off."

She nodded gratefully and sat down across from the boys ordering a burger and a shake more because she knew these would keep Jason busy. She looked at Dick who looked back in an uneasy manner. Zatanna wondered how long it would take Dick to say something or whether she would have to say something. They as in an awkward silence until Conner brought them all food Dick still silent tasted the shake (which was a vibrant red). When the cool liquid passed his lips his eyebrows shot up in surprise

—Three years earlier—

Jason liked being in the kitchen. It made him feel normal. More than that it reminded him of his mother who had been a cook before she died. She had been killed when a group of gangsters disguised themselves as the catering staff and well… there can't be two of every member of the catering staff that would lead to award questions. They decided to shoot the staff and so his mother had died before she died though she had taught Jason how to cook she taught him recipes that her restaurant used and ones she made. Her last gift to him had been a cookbook from her restaurant with additional flavors and seasonings and some of her own recipes. He memorized that book but he still used it he cooked most of his own meals disregarding the social norms for boys in his place in society. He often ate with Alfred rather than with his family. If he was honest with himself Alfred always felt closer to his father than his emotionally distant guardian. He talked to the butler bringing his questions about the world around him and walking away with what felt like more information than he could use.

Every so often he would make one of his brothers. He didn't mind in fact he quite liked it. Dick had been especially fond of his red shakes and or smoothies (depending on his mood)

—Present Day—

"Dick are you alright?" Zatanna looked at her ex-boyfriend with concern.

Dick shook himself out of his reverie and smiled weakly "Yeah… just remembering"

Zatanna decided not to press the subject instead asking "So what are you boys doing all the way out in my little corner of Gotham?"

Dick grinned at the question "Dad is helping working with Oliver Queen on some business matter and Alfred is helping him plan his niece's birthday party."

Zatanna coughed into her smoothie "Arty is turning 18!" She exclaimed through her laughing fit. She and Artemis Crock had been good friends when she was dating Dick though recently they hadn't been talking much. She had gone out with Jason on more than one occasion and confided in Zatanna at least sixty million times that she thought Jason hot Zatanna had always found this very funny whenever it came up. "But why are you here?" She asked again.

"These little rascals were going insane so I took them out to wander around the city for a bit" Dick said tousling Damian's hair. Damian complained lightly and fixed his hair.

Tim piped up eager to fill the lull in the conversation lest the silence became awkward once again, "Yeah! I mean do you have any idea how boring board meetings can be? I mean how can people talk for hours and hours about absolutely nothing?"

Zatanna laughed "Yeah dad's business used to drive me nuts when I was a kid" Zatanna's dad Zatara was an actor.

Dick chuckled recalling moments of boredom before Jason moved in. His face quickly grew sad and Zatanna's heart went out to him but she refrained from telling him all the same. Dick seemed lost Zatanna knew he was wondering what had happened to Jason

—Two years and six months ago—

Jason had been in the hospital for nearly three weeks and still his brother's hadn't come to see him he was due to be released that night but he had already decided that he wasn't going home he was going to run away; finish high school at Gotham West get a job and never interact with his family. Alfred had come to visit him and so had Bruce if only briefly but not his brothers. Not once. He had been in a coma for two weeks. The doctors thought he would die. He had a broken jaw and more than half his ribs had been broken. Not to mention the internal bleeding and the broken arms. The doctors had allowed him a tape recorder when they were sure he didn't have a collapsed lung. He asked for the devices specifically because he didn't know of a way to change tapes he liked the finality of it. He sent one to his father, and one to each of his brothers, he sent one to Helena the mobster's daughter, he sent one to Artemis, one to Roy, he sent one to Alfred, and one to the rest of the staff at Wayne manor.

When Damian got his he would write it off as a prank but when Jason didn't come home that night he ran and cried in Dick's arms for a very long time, When Tim got his he would call the hospital, when Bruce got his he would do something he only did for birthdays he took the day off; Bruce would look for, months they all would, when Artemis got hers she cried for a week, when Dick got his he went to a friend of the family police commissioner Gordon, when Alfred received his he did nothing for a very long time he simply sat and turned on some of Jason's favorite music a jazz/blues combination on an old Zune the one Dick had given him. He listened to the whole thing from start to finish and never mentioned it again. He mailed the Zune to an old associate of his telling him to give it to Jason and then forget where Jason was.

None of this mattered to Jason that night all that mattered was that he couldn't go home not after what had happened he had to find a new place to call home.