Summary: Living in that old house by yourself is lonely they said. Get a roommate they said. It would be fun they said. Yes well fortunately for herself the clowns, sirens, doctors, lawyers, armed assassins, birds, and even bats have decided to make her big "scary house" Gothams #1 crashing pad, how lucky. She should've just opened that damn coffee shop instead

Disclaimer: I do not own/affiliated with DC comics etc

A/N: Sorry for the delay! I was attending Wizard World this past weekend and I had originally meant to post this but I was con crunching haha!

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She hadn't been sure why the red-haired woman she met yesterday was still in her home. In fact, Stephanie Claue was unsure about a lot of things, and she knew for a fact it's all because she went outside.

After the late-night encounter with the Red Hood, as he said the papers called him (she had then proceeded to google him), he had told her to upgrade her security. He claimed that 'a woman like you shouldn't be alone in a place like this, who knows what she could be up to,' and claiming her security was ''fucking shit' therefore had taken it upon himself to not only upgrade but rewired her entire security system for her. The action was, nice, did Stephanie want it? No, absolutely not but it wasn't as if she was going to say no to a would be the assassin that could kill her 30 different ways in under a minute.

It was the following night, after his break-in, that he returned with cases of different wires and tools and had not only upgraded her security around the property but had made a nest in her basement what she could only think of was like a man cave. The whole thing happened so quickly that she didn't even realize what he had done to it all until she had brought him food one night only to get face to face with walls of computer monitors, cameras and an assortment of different gadgets the likes she'd never seen before.

"What the fuck is this?" She asked the man who had graciously taken the food from her hand's he wheeled back to what he was doing.

"Oh, this? Nothing much, just a few things of no importance." He replied munching on the sandwich and typing something she could only presume was code onto one of the screens.

"Okay," she drawled out stepping over a few of the wires towards the Red Hood, "that still isn't much you know, let me rephrase, what the FUCK is this?!" She asked gesturing to the whole of her basement.

The man spun around to face her, his eyes boring into her own dark ones, "Do you really want to know?" He asked her seriously his eyebrows narrowing almost egging her to say ''yes'.

She sighed knowing that, of course, because she did a good thing by saving some man and then BAM! He turns out to be some crazed tech genius that killed people, it was only in Gotham something like that would happen. The mysterious man who called himself the Red Hood, a silly name in her opinion though she knew it could've been far worse, was some vigilante that was only recently making headlines in the last few months in both Gotham and Bludhaven. Her researching the man only caused her more issues from the more she had found out about what he did and was still doing, almost getting a heart attack when he had popped up behind with a deep 'Boo'. While he didn't disclose much to her, she gauged a few things from him and little by little he revealed small details to her, even still there was a lot she didn't know about him, he wasn't a hero but he wasn't some heinous villain either.

She shook her head, "Nevermind," in truth the less she knew the better, especially with both Commissioner Gordon and Barbara dropping by every now again, "If anyone asks I knew nothing."

The Red Hooded nodded, before turning back to his hundreds of monitors, dismissing her, "Smart answer, spoken a true Gothamite." Rolling her eyes she took the empty plate and made her way upstairs only to falter by a quiet but clear, "Thank you". She left the basement with a smile on her face, even if he was eating everything in her home.

After that interaction, Stephanie didn't see the Red Hood again for several days. Not that she minded though, as the man had seemingly eaten more food then she had in two months in the span of a week, and while she would have upped the amount of food she could order to be delivered, it was a tad too suspicious. She wouldn't put it past the police force to be monitoring her online orders, which included food (it was no secret the number of bizarre things rich people bought which usually ended up being part of some villainous scheme). And she knew, that being a five foot five woman who could barely eat everything she ordered for the last seven months to all of a sudden stockpiling and tripling the amount she purchased previously it either meant she was creating an apocalypse bunker, hiding a fugitive, or possibly pregnant. And from those options, two of which seemed a lot more (sadly) reasonable than the other.

Rallying up her courage, she grabbed the car keys and drove off to purchase more food. Unfortunately for herself, Stephanie had forgotten to clean out the blood that a certain stray she picked up left. Although fate seemed to have been looking down on her, as she was able to complete her shopping quickly, no crazy clown gangs, no massive robots or aliens, not even a bank robbery, yet. While she did have to chase a few kids away from her car, they had been trying to break in which was a normal after school activity many from Gotham public did, everything seemed to be going just fine.

The sky was clear, sun shining, and Stephanie had decided, what with her good luck riding off the high of not being involved in some criminal activity, had detoured to a small flower shop. Her garnderś birthday was in a few days and thought it would do well to get new supplies and seeds for the older man.

When she entered the green painted shop, she was met with a strange loud bang coming from the back room, almost causing her to bolt but stayed where she was when smiling, but a slightly dissolved looking woman came out and asked if she needed help finding anything.

After telling the woman what she was searching for, the woman had quickly gathered up the items as Stephanie went to purchase. The woman was friendly enough, her long red hair was pulled in a messy bun while the large glasses on the bridge of her nose kept slipping off, but she paid no attention to it, even in hindsight was a bit suspicious.

She should guess something was up when the woman's fingers lingered on the name of her credit card, probably recognizing the name Claue much to Stephanieś embarrassment with the whole affair. When another noise came from the back room, almost like yelling and a broken cry, the woman had quickly left to check on it when Stephanie caught a glimpse of something green curling out from beneath of the woman's shirt. It didn't take much else for her to come to the glaring realization that something was very, very, very wrong and as fast as she could out a hasty 'thank you' before driving off home.

The sound of the front door opening jolted Stephanie awake as she looked at the time on her phone which read 11:39 pm. Knowing that no one else had (or should have) the password combos, she didn't bother to go check on it.

"There's food in the kitchen if your hungry" she called out assuming that by the time it had to be her nightly visitor, as the door to her study open, her back facing away from it, "Something you needed Red Hood-?"

"Oh Red Hood? Why I haven't that name in a while, do you mean Jason Todd?"

Stephanie whipped around as fast as she could, her eyes widening as instead of her late night acquaintance stood the beautiful woman she had seen early that day. The one whose hair was redder than blood, none other than Poison Ivy.

While Stephanie never made a note to know any names of heroes (unless it was the big three) nor their villains (except for a few like the Joker, Lex Luthor, and Brainiac) that was until she met the Red Hood or Jason Todd she supposed. After then she had searched up everything she could on the villains that plagued both Gotham and some of the surrounding cities. She should've known that woman was Poison Ivy, one of the infamous Gotham City Sirens, a criminal that had been around since she was in high school and even a little before then.

She looked confused at the woman's entrance, still startled by her appearance, "What are you doing here?" She stuttered, "not like I'm mad or anything- well actually yes how did you even get in?" She recalled the new security upgrade the Red Hood had done, saying it was impossible to break in though clearly, it was false as the villainess was stood in front of her.

The red-haired seductress arched a brow, "Oh that was easy. It's odd that you've got a very similar security that a bat I know has, how interesting," she mused her bright green eyes staring deeply into hers as she leisurely walked towards her smiling, "I'm here because, I heard from the vines that you were looking for a roommate and I thought I'd come by to see the place, Ms. Claue."

Standing her ground, though the fear and nervousness seemed to eat her resolve quickly inside she stuttered out a what, "I'm sorry Ms uh-"

"Ivy, Poison Ivy as I'm sure you've guessed by now."

Reaching towards her desk drawer just in case, only to remember the gun she had was still in her bedroom after the last break-in. Cursing silently she reverting her attention back to the waiting-woman, "Right, Ivy, well I'm not sure how you or where you heard that but I'm no longer looking for a roommate and to be honest I wasn't in need of one before. I'm sorry if you wasted your time coming here."

Instead of looking dejected, Poison Ivy let out a chuckle, "I see. Well, I suppose I should be on my way but unfortunately, I find myself with no place to stay, and I was so dead set on staying here at least for the night. And you don't seem like the person to throw a poor woman out at this hour, who knows what could happen to someone like me and well," she paused coming even closer as the older woman pulled out a large back and dumping it on her desk, "I have enough to pay for the night at least."

Stephanie eyed the bag surprise and confusion hitting her face, "If you have the money why don't you get a place to stay? Or a hotel perhaps-" she gave her a look as if asking if she was stupid, "-Oh right no that was a silly thing to say," forgetting the woman was a criminal and therefore it would be hard to find a repeatable place to live or stay and any other places would no doubt sell her out to the cops or other villains at a higher price. Knowing her hands were tied, much like how it was with the Red Hood's she resigned.

Ivy, feeling Stephanie's submission only smiled, "So tell me," she leaned into Stephanie's face to the point where she could feel her breath brush up and tickle her skin, her fingers tracing the stacks of money she had placed down, "do I get to stay?"

If she hadn't been blushing before, she certainly was now, her face she only guessed was beyond scarlet, "Yes. But only until you can find a place alright? And I have ground rules you will follow." The woman nodded before going off on her own to find a room much to Stephanie's ire of screaming to wait for her, silently cursing and hoping the poisonous villainess left as soon as she could.

"No, you can stay as long as you need to and I don't get dragged into something illegal alright?" Stephanie found herself telling the woman while disinfecting the stabbed woman on Poison Ivy's' leg.

For three days, Stephanie had avoided the woman in her manor, keeping away when she could. She didn't hate Poison Ivy, but she didn't have much love for the villain either, although the same went vice versa. The villainess had stayed longer than Stephanie would have liked, and while there was plenty of room for more people, the maximum amount the Claue Manor could hold was a couple dozen residents (though most of the rooms were unfinished and in no state for guests), it didn't mean she wanted her in her home, not like she would throw her out.

It was on the third day when a loud crash had interrupted Stephanie, startling her quickly as she hurried down to the foyer where she saw a window broken and blood on the floor. When she had a closer look, past the couch was Ivy, covered in glass shards, what looked like a set of frozen restraints and blood pooling around her, she had been stabbed, twice.

Before she knew it, she had the red-haired woman in her arms, a first aid kit beside her and was plucking out and disinfecting the glass took a while to convince the woman that she meant no harm, having to avoid the venomous vines that tried to swipe at her in vain.

After a few minutes of fussing and avoiding being impaled by plants, Ivy had finally calmed down and had begrudgingly allowed Stephanie to tend to the wounds. With the suffocating silence, she had gathered up enough courage to speak to the injured woman. It took a while for her to open up back but once she did Ivy had begun conversing back. While Stephanie hadn't meant to feel sympathy for her, she ended up relating and almost pitying what occurred to her and decided to let her stay at the manor with her.

"And you can take the money you gave me back alright? The universe knows I have plenty of it and probably most of it is blood money I don't need more of."

"Yes, the Claue's were known for supporting many ventures that endangered and killed many people. They funded the asylum," Ivy stated bitterly, eyes darkening.

Sterilizing the needle she only nodded agreeing, "Yes, that was one of the reasons I ranaw-uh left though it didn't do much good as I'm back in Gotham surviving off my parent's endeavors."

Silence fell between the two as the woman looked off distantly before replying with a soft, "Good parents are hard to come by."

"True, we make do with what we got," she paused, "This is going to hurt do you want pain killers or-?"

"No, those things don't work on me, not after everything that's happened to my body."

"Right."

She raised a brow hissing a bit from the stitching, "Something you find amusing Ms. Claue?"

She shook her head smiling a bit, "Yeah, this is the second time in the last month I've stitched a stranger back together, the last time before then, was back in high school."

"High school?" she asked intrigued though clenched her teeth in pain.

Before she could answer Stephanie was interrupted by the sound of the front door to the manor swing open again with a loud ''slam'. Ivy and her exchanged looks as a set of heavy sounding footsteps approached.

"Oi Stephanie glad to see my upgrades to the security are still in place but a message popped up saying that there was a recorded breac-What the fuck-?"

Stephanie sheepishly looked at the newcomer, clad in his trademark black and red, the Red Hood otherwise known as Jason Todd, "Jason, didn't think I'd see you so soon. Why not come in and make yourself at home, not like you haven't done that all week."

Ignoring her commented, Jason walked past her, stopping in front of Ivy and pushing Stephanie in behind himself in what was almost a protective stance, "You shouldn't be here, Pamela. What is your plan? Trying to manipulate the Claue heiress? Seduce her naive nature and then kill her for her money? She's a Gothamite, loaded with cash, well her parent's money she didn't really do shit-"

Ivy laughed, "Oh please! I'm not the kind to kill women, but that is a very good point, I can make exceptions to my rules. Besides, you are right, she is a bit too kind-hearted seeing how she saved both of us bat boy."

Jason whipped out one of the guns on his side holster aiming it straight in Ivy's face, though she paid no attention to it, "I'm. Not. A. Fucking. Bat. Boy. I will never be that man's sidekick ever again, you hear me? Or should I pull a few more ear holes for ya?" He glared through the mask rolling his eyes, "Makes sense, she's terrible at keeping to herself, her luck must be awful to run into us."

It was Stephanie's turn to glare at the two, her cheeks turning bright red as she tried speaking up, "Now wait just a minute if I hadn't-"

"Agreed, her niceness is going to get her killed, next time she'll probably tale home Killer Croc!" the redhead added, the venus fly trap on her back opening up and smiling menacingly at Jason.

"Nah, she's fucking scared of the big lizard, some dumb shit story about from her childhood involving sewers, it's real stupid. Knowing her she'll run into like Atrocious and-"

"-And this rich naive girl is right here so you can both shut up now?" She piped through the latter part coming out as a question when her two 'roommates' turned to her at the same time, their selective weapons both turning towards her, "And to answer your question, Ivy is here to rent out one of the rooms, as we all are aware the manor has dozens because my great grandfather was dropped on his head and had to sleep in a different room each night or he would kill himself cause-" the two gave her look, "Right rambling, uh she's staying here and so since you two seem to have" she coughed, "history I have decided that as long as you are in the Claue Manor you are forbidden to fight, got it?" Stephanie added, finally being able to find her voice and placing her foot door on the matter.

Ivy's fly trap closed its mouth, curling back up and scurrying back under her hair as she nodded, agreeing to the terms, "Reasonable, but I ask the same rules extend to the greenhouse and the gardens, other than that I agree to the terms and I'm sure little baby Jason does to."

Said man only groaned under his mask pushing past both women, "You know what? I'm just going to go downstairs, I'm too sober to deal with this shit right now-" he paused, "You have alcohol right?"

Stephanie nodded still processing the events that just happened, "Uh yeah my dad owned a vineyard in Smallville, we have cases down-"

And quick like a bat, Jason hurried out of her study calling out a fast thanks and that he will try to leave some for her. "-stairs. Oh great, I've got a drunk vigilante living in my basement, just kill me now."

"As long as I'm first on your will, I'll do it."

Stephanie screeched.