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

Warnings: Mentions of fighting, death, explosions, and mayhem, the usual in Gotham tbh

It was an odd relationship the three residents of the Claue Manor shared.

On one hand, it was somewhat nice for Stephanie, having the company while at the same time she couldn't help the creeping feeling that she was just waiting for a tie bomb to erupt from her 'roommates'. After the first few days, once both Jason and Ivy (although the villainess didn't particularly mind her calling her Pamela, had threatened to castrate Jason if he called her that) gotten past the whole 'you're the villain/problem/good guy (?)' thing the two ended up on an agreement.

What kind of agreement was it? Well since neither would let Stephanie in on it, she could only assume it was something to do with her home becoming a neutral grounds of sorts, ensuring both her and her manor's safety and well being. However, that still didn't stop the daily exchange of glares, sneers, and not so subtle insults, the later of which was from Ivy as the vigilante didn't quite know what that word meant.

It was on one of those days that Stephanie, once again found herself needing to go out into the Gotham streets to grab a few items (like things to repair a giant gaping hole in the basement floor, more gardening tools, and compost since somehow they're all gone, another wi-fi monitor since the last three all stopped for totally normal and unrelated reasons, and somehow all 269 bottles of wine her father had stowed away were all empty, who knows how).

And so getting into her car and driving back into Gotham, she made sure not to go out of her way to do anything this time. No last minute shops r creepy buildings, no alleyways or back routes, she had one thing in mind, no more roommates.

Of course, that wasn't to say that she didn't enjoy their company. It was nice having a man who could you 42 different ways with a pencil and a woman who could literally become mother nature and torture you with the most painful poisons in the world as your roommate, certainly, it was a grand time. But in Stephanie's mind, two was probably enough people, it wasn't like she was some hotel service or crashing pad, the thought sends shivers down her spine.

So with that all in mind, she went about her afternoon shopping fairly quickly and by early evening she was practically done. Sure there were times she could've stopped, the aquarium had just been rebuilt and its grand opening was that day, the museum just received new cat shaped artifacts from Egypt, Gotham University's science department was unveiling a new space rock discovery. While all were interesting, to say the least, she couldn't help but steer clear of the events, having automatically sorted them under ''potential danger and villain encounters' list.

Now Stephanie probably should've gone straight home, there was a need to stay in the city any longer but necessary, despite that she decided to pop into one of the new boutiques that opened up in the Glass Towers. What was the harm in a little clothes shopping?

…..

As it turned out, shopping was not a good idea. Who would've thought some foreign rich woman would decide to shop at the Glass Towers, the exact same time as Stephanie? Who would've guessed that the woman's fiance was part of a foreign mafia which he oh so happened to be the leader of. And of course, no one could have foreseen that he had a few billion dollars on his head.

It was completely logical and not at all stupid that the pair thought that Gotham, the city of crime, thievery, death, and the monopoly over the criminal underground for all the United States, was the perfect place to go on a shopping spree of course.

And to everyone's shock and absolute horror, a group of generic low-life hitman and kidnappers came after the rich woman and had conveniently decided to hold everyone in the store hostage. Then when the mafia fiance refused to pay the ransom even at the threat of murdering his beloved fiance, well, things quickly exploded, literally.

Stephanie wasn't sure when the gunfire started or when the smoke bombs where released but amidst the chaos she had somehow found the emergency stairs, bolting down them to escape. However, while fleeing down, she came to an abrupt halt at the sight of an armored clad man.

Dressed in black and orange armor, rounds of bullets hung from his shoulders and an assortment of blades and guns were strapped all over his body, from his back to chest to his thick thighs. His muscles bulged underneath his suit while his face was hidden by a hood like mask similar to a certain vigilante she knew.

Cursing both fate and her mouth, Stephanie didn't even register the soft question of, "..Jason..?" escape her lips before she quickly covered her mouth in horror. Of course, this man wasn't Jason, even if he did look like the red hood, the colors were wrong, though her voice did grab his attention as the man's head snapped towards her. Without another thought, she darted back up the stairs away from the man.

In what felt like a few moments, Stephanie burst through the roof doors with a loud bang. However, the burst of adrenaline that was once coursing through her vanished like that when she came face to face with the man she had tried to run from, lovely.

Her throat tightens and eyes widened unsure what to do. Though before anything could leave her mouth, he pulled a gun off his back and pointed it at her as he pulled the trigger. When the gun went off, Stephanie felt nothing but the roaring sound of the bullet chamber releasing straight into her eardrums as she felt the pressure of a hand wrap around her wrist yanking her forward and slamming her against something stiff and hard.

Cracking open her eyes, she realized that one, she wasn't dead, and two, catching a quick glimpse behind her as her eyes caught the sight of the mafia leader and his fiance, surrounded by bodyguards. There was nothing else she could do as the man, who she believed had to have been one of the many hitman and assassins that plagued the world, began unleashing his a round of bullets onto them without a second thought.

It couldn't have been more than ten seconds before the screaming, cries, and bangs ended. When she was sure she wouldn't end up in the fray of fighting, Stephanie cocked her head, forehead leaning up against the underside of the man's hood like mask.

Unsure what to do, Stephanie did and said the only thing that came to mind at that moment. "So uh- come here often?"

The assassin only stared at her through his mask, she could only imagine what he was thinking as he proceeded to throw her off the rooftop.

Before a single syllable or sound could erupt from her throat the man had quickly grabbed her as he swung them to the ground, Stephanie having been forced into a hazardous somersault, "What the flying fuc-"

BOOM

Before she could finish her sentence, the sky above became enveloped in crawling yellow and orange flames. Debris and glass rained down as the large smoke cloud covered the night air, no doubt gaining the attention of the resident's heroes who would be there in a few minutes if that. Regaining her footing, Stephanie couldn't help but shoot a look at the black and orange colored man as he could only watch the scene as he chatted in some other language through an earpiece, completely ignoring her.

Debating whether or not to stick around, yeah like hell she would, Stephanie as quietly and fastly as she could hobble, ventured down the alleyway, only for mere moments later to feel the ground shake beneath her as another startling explosion went off, causing her to fall face forward into the filth covered ground.

Lifting her head up, her hair most certainly looks liking rats nest by that point, groaned as she tried to push herself off the pavement only for something large and heavy smack into the back of her head. Her face once again being smashed against the alleyway before her vision cut out into black.

Very similar to the movies, Stephanie awoke to bright warm lights spilling into her senses as it took her a few minutes to catch her bearings. Finding herself laying face up in her bedroom, and not in some jail cell as she thought she might've been, it posed a new concern, how and more importantly, what the fuck happened. A part of her wondered if she had been in jail and her, oh so lovely roommates who would never and have never broken out of jail before, contributed to how she got back to the Claue manor. However, after thinking it over, the idea though logical was rather stupid as if that were the case the police would've easily tracked her down again, considering she was unconscious (although given some of the cops who were part of the Gotham task force, she wouldn't have been too surprised).

Rolling out of bed, noticing that thankfully her clothes had been changed (which she assumed hopefully must've been Ivy), Stephanie quickly changed into more presentable clothing, and checking the extent of her injuries which was only a few scratches and cuts and just a football-sized bump on the back of her head nothing much, she made her way downstairs. Finding both the parlor and the ballroom empty, she entered the kitchen to find a most bizarre and almost cartoon-like scene.

Lounging on the kitchen island sat her red-haired roommate Ivy, poised and camera ready, watering the plants that she had installed a few days prior to 'liven up' and 'add extra security since Jason's system is hackable'. In front of her, reading the morning paper with, was 100% not coffee, sat her vigilante resident, Jason. However, what surprised her the most was standing behind the stove, back turned to her was a tall gray-haired man with a beard and the same black and orange armored man had one of her mother's old aprons tied around his waist and was, flipping pancakes?

Most likely having noticed her approach, the trio all turned around or looked up to face her in the same moment, nearly freaking Stephanie out in the process. "Good morning everyone, I guess?" She guessed, assuming that it had to have been the following day since the 'incident that unceremonially knocked her out'.

Jason laughed first, "Its actually 10 pm you've been out cold for" he rolled his eyes to the stove clock, "-about 18 hours, good job Claue, you got k.o. by a piece of wood, I'm very proud of you."

Ignoring his added comment, she only huffed as her attention fell upon Starcity's resident assassin Deathstroke. Having noted her interest the man only nodded, "You were knocked out pretty hard. Didn't think your friends here would be too pleased with me leaving you in the alleyway right underneath a murder and arson investigation. I unlocked your phone found where you lived, and since I had a pre-existing need to talk with Red Hood here, I stayed for a bit. Pancake?"

She could only stare at him and his offer of pancakes as she nodded slightly while he plated them for her. Ivy, having jumped off the counter with ease and grace, stalked over to Stephanie, the action still causing butterflies to grow amass in her gut, as the woman noted the sorry state of her hair before telling her that she'll take her somewhere to get it fixed that night, as "they only work at night when it's the safest too" after which she then sauntered out of the kitchen to put on a bit more clothing.

After sitting down at the table with a stack of pancakes and chowing down on them while Jason and Deathstroke, no first or last name as it may pose a threat to her not as if her housing him was any better, fell into a discussion about things that Stephanie truly didn't need or should know, at least from the sounds of it as they were using hushed voices and some variation of a code.

When she was done, having washed up the dishes Deathstroke had left the room, and most likely down to one of the main rooms, left only herself and Jason alone together.

His hand was on top of the table, his legs spread out in the chair as a very empty expression befell his face, she did as he usually does in that situation where he would close off, she tried to slip out of the room. However, as she made it passed the threshold of the white double doors, a loud 'slam' echoed through the kitchen as she could hear his hands smack the table, and his chair scooting.

Jason huffed grabbing Stephanie's attention. Pulling her back towards the kitchen, while grabbing one of the apples, "I'll be going somewhere tomorrow morning and I will most likely be gone a week at least. I'm telling you this so you don't get worried when I don't show up for a week or two, God knows you fuss." He told her staring straight into her eyes before biting into the apple. "And telling your renter if you leave is normal right?"

She only raised a brow, "Thanks for... telling...me?" Stephanie asked before smacking him on his shoulder, "Hey wait a minute! Renter?! You're not even paying rent, you just show up here randomly at least Ivy pays rent! And Deathstroke, well, he made breakfast so he contributes...I think...?" She added, the last part coming off as a question rather than a statement as she thought about while also recalling that she did tell her not to pay rent, not like Jason needed to know that fact.

Sputtering Jason almost looked offended by her claim, admittedly shaking his head, his eyes narrowing behind his eye mask, "Oh no, don't you fucking say that! I upgraded your security system, that itself is worth at least a year of rent! No one else in the world has that system, it's like an upgraded version of Batmans and-"

"Hold the phone! Batman? What does that mean? Did you hack into Batmans? Actually, don't answer that, I do not want to know-" she paused stepping towards him as he walked back from her, bumping into the kitchen island, trapping him behind it, "-And no one asked you to upgrade the system! You did that on your own Jason-!"

Muttering under his breath something along the lines of 'doing a good deed' and 'fuck heroism', "Yea yea whatever, not the point. Just don't go sending out a missing person on me if I don't come back by next week alight?" He restated taking his hand and placing it on the brunettes head as he physically moved her to his side. Making his way to the backdoor exit he added, "Don't do anything stupid okay? No more going out to town and almost getting blown up, you're not some hero got it? And no more bringing home strays alright? Pamela and Slade I'll let slide but no more got it Claue?"

Before Stephanie could answer him, the red and black-clad male disappeared into the dark Gotham night, leaving her standing alone in the kitchen eyes staring at where he was only moments ago.

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A/N: Meant to get this chapter out earlier but I got busy with school haha. Anyways are there any specific villains/heroes/characters from DC ya'll be interested in seeing? I do have a list though I'm curious if there are any specific ones I should add!