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Jazz blinked and smiled wider, shoulders relaxed, face open, eyes looking straight at him.

She had to project an aura of calm and don't make the vigilante - and wasn't that a thought! - suspicious of her. More than he already was, since he was looking at her with a weird expression on his face.

"Jason!" She said, "Food is ready!"

He looked away from her and noticed the risotto already cooling in the pan. Jazz took the opportunity to quickly clean the blood from her fingers in the rag she picked up before. Her smile was still in place when he looked back at her.

"Do you mind setting up the plates? I need to wash my hands."

He blinked his remaining confusion away and finally smiled at her. "Sure."

Jazz tried not to walk funny or show her nervousness at her recent revelation as she passed by him on her way to the bathroom. She really hoped that if he noticed something he assumed she was nervous, or chose to let it go like all the other times she slipped and said something weird.

Once she took shelter in the bathroom she locked the door and sat on the closed lid of the toilet, hands tangled in her hair.

What the hell.

What the actual hell?

Okay, deep breaths. Jazz, you got this. No big deal. The cute neighbor that is pretty jacked and she usually found awake at odd hours and was suspiciously silent in his apartment; that neighbor… Red Hood?

She pulled out the knife she had on her at all times and unfolded it, enjoying the clicking noise of the mechanism. She closed it again, remembering how hesitant the vigilante had been about letting her go that time. They haven't actually met since he gifted her the knife, but she had seen him around doing his thing, even stopping after he beat up some guys trying to molest a woman in an alley to wave back at her.

She also sometimes had the sensation that she was being watched. At first she suspected a ghost, but her pseudo ghost sense - excessive watering of her eyes, Team Phantom joked it was an allergic reaction to ghosts - didn't activate at all; instead, she just had the chill in her spine and a perpetual feeling that someone was watching her.

Was it him? Was it Jason looking after her like some kind of guardian angel?

She had conflicted feelings about it, if that was the case. Even if the intentions were kind and innocent, she didn't appreciate being watched and followed around. It was also true that she hadn't been followed before he gave her a ride-

Was he onto her? Was he investigating her? Oh no. Oh fuck.

It'd be so messed up if he was being so sweet and nice and cute and-

If all of this was because the Red Hood was suspicious about her she wanted to scream and get violent.

(Who was she kidding, she would be so heartbroken.)

Deep breaths. She didn't even have definite proof that Jason Todd was Red Hood. Sure, both were liminal; but all the other clues were at best circumstantial - the disappearances, how he didn't have a job but was out the entire day or night (sometimes both), how he looked like an athlete but his house didn't have any trophies.

Think, Jasmine. Think.

She quickly pulled up the research she had about Red Hood and Jason Todd in her mind.

The vigilante came out of nowhere, killed a lot of people, took down Black Mask's empire and settled as the head of Gotham's crime underworld. Batman had tried to stop him numerous times, but after a while he just stopped and tolerated the vigilante as long as his operations didn't get out of Crime Alley and the Narrows.

Jason Todd was Bruce Wayne's second adopted son, rescued from a life in the streets by the billionaire and with a promising future ahead of him - until he was presumed dead after a mysterious accident overseas.

At first this perplexed her - Jason Todd was supposed to be dead, but he was living next door? It wouldn't be that weird if two people had the same name, but she saw a photo of the kid before the accident and he had the same deep blue eyes and black curly hair. Sans the white streak.

If she were another person, she would have dismissed it as a coincidence. Who would believe that a dead man looked so alive?

She would, of course.

Of course there were a lot of holes in the timeline, specifically the years between the death of Jason Todd and the sudden appearance of a new vigilante using one of Joker's old aliases - but it wasn't such a crazy idea, the more she thought about it.

"It's just a flesh wound," her mind supplied the memory, first her encounter with the vigilante all that time ago (weeks, mere weeks), and then now when he cut his hand chopping parsley.

It made so much sense as well why he had so many swords just hanging on the wall, too. They looked used and very much real.

Red Hood killed people. Jason killed people.

She stood up at the revelation.

It was shocking, but not something she found hard to process - death was a constant in her life, and lately she hung out more with the dead in the Infinite Realms than in the world of the living. Until she moved to Gotham, of course.

Focus, Jazz.

Jason had killed people and was a crime lord. The crime lord of Gotham, overlooking all the drug trades and other shady situations that happened around here. She knew Red Hood was kind with the people under his protection, but it was stupid to think that there could be one without the other, that it was possible to be kind without needing to be ruthless.

In her research, she had also investigated his targets, his methods. As the vigilante that dealt with the worst of the worst this city had to offer, she took a natural interest in how he chose his victims. She remembered being impressed when all of them were dirty one way or another; that after dealing with Black Mask, he started cleaning the city of drug cartels that targeted children, prostitution rings that mistreated their sex workers, arms dealers that didn't care if a kid bought a gun, everything. He took out the brains and the money behind the operations and all of them crumbled in on themselves in a matter of days. It wasn't senseless killing - it was calculated and methodical.

Jazz looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, finding her cheeks painted red.

She liked that man a lot. Love, maybe. She wouldn't mind it. She had liked him as a vigilante and as a civilian, and now that she knew that both were one and the same, she felt like loving him was only a matter of letting herself fall.

What if he is investigating you? A voice said in her head, circling back to the initial panic. What if he got close to you because he is after your brother?

No.

First, what the hell did the vigilante need anything from her brother? Even if he were looking for answers about his liminality, there was no way on this Earth that he could get information about ghosts, Amity Park and Danny Phantom unless he physically went to her hometown. Tucker, with the help of a reluctant Technus, had taken care of cleaning the wide web of proof that anything about the ghost situation was real.

Second, Jason wouldn't do that. Not to her. She was dense in the matters of the heart, but in the time they had to know each other, he had been so open and kind and nice and -

No. She refused to believe he had ill intentions regarding her.

That left the question of who the hell was following her… but she had to take care of that another moment that wasn't now.

She had a dinner date to come back to and she was taking too long in the bathroom.

She washed her hands as promised and then splashed cold water on her face in an attempt to cool her nerves and the blush on her cheeks. Even if she had the realization of her life (her neighbor was Red Hood AND she was in love with him) that didn't mean she had to make it obvious.

Soon she was back to the main area of the apartment. It still shocked her how, despite having the same distribution, their living spaces were radically different. His apartment had barely the minimum to call it an apartment, the least personality, with the exception of the added kitchen island instead of a proper dinner table.

On the island, Jason had set up two plates, two empty wine glasses and two sets of cutlery one in front of the other. He was waiting for her, sitting in one of the stools. He was looking at his phone, a slight frown in his face as he furiously typed and scoffed before blocking the phone and putting it face down and out of reach.

"Hey."

Her heart skipped a beat when the frown quickly melted into a smile when he looked at her.

"Hey." He made a gesture towards her plate of risotto. "Your feast awaits, princess."

She rolled her eyes, biting back the comment that he wasn't that far with that expression. Jazz had already let slip too many remarks of that kind, hinting at her double life as the liminal older sister of the High King of the Ghosts, and she really should watch what she said.

"I think I prefer 'darling'." She said instead as she sat down, feeling her face still a bit warm.

"Really?" He leaned down to pick something from the floor. "Wine? I wasn't sure if you liked it so I waited to ask."

She wasn't a big fan of wine, but it painted a more romantic scene and she had decided that she wasn't going to dance around the issue anymore. If they fell into love, then let it fall.

"Sure," she nodded. "And about pet names, 'princess' is too close to what my father calls me and I'm not that ready to call you 'daddy', so pass."

He choked and had to put the wine bottle on the table to laugh without making a mess. She laughed with him, enjoying how his cheeks and ears were red - she wasn't usually this forward with her flirting, but he didn't know that she had been holding back.

"Never call me that, thank you." He managed to say, still giggling, but able to pour wine in their glasses without spilling it all over the place.

"What should I call you, then?"

When he looked up at her his blue eyes were shining with mirth. She loved how his emotions were so clear, how he wasn't afraid of letting her see what he thought in his eyes and smiles.

"Jay is fine."

"Jay-bear, then."

He bit his lip, his body shaking with another fit of laughter.

"Do that and I'll keep calling you princess."

Jazz chuckled, picking up her spoon to finally taste the promised risotto. She didn't know if it was because she was so hungry already, if she was floating on the realization that she loved Jason or if she was used to bland food; but it was the best thing she had ever tasted.

Apparently she showed it on her face, because Jay started crackling at her expression, his fork halfway to his mouth.

"Is it good?"

"Jay, this is amazing!" She rushed to get more of the delicious risotto in her mouth, chewing with delight at the flavors and textures. "I didn't know rice could taste this good!"

"It can, it can. It's the magic of spices." He was so proud as he ate, albeit at a more normal and slower pace.

"Spices?"

"Yeah, cinnamon, cayenne, paprika, the like." He lifted an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah of course!" She shoved more food in to hide the fact that she only recognized the cinnamon and because she liked the cinnamon rolls from the bakery a few streets down.

"Jasmine Fenton, do you not use spices in your food?" He put his fork down, like this was a high offense.

"I… uh," she looked down at her plate. She was halfway done already and Jason only had eaten a few bites. "I put salt? And pepper, when I remember."

There was silence. She dared look up from her plate, finding a very offended neighbor glaring at her.

"That's it. You are forbidden from the kitchen."

"Forever?" She followed with a joking tone.

He scoffed. "Forever and ever. I will only allow you to get those prepackaged and ready to serve meals from the supermarket. You have a microwave, yeah?"

Jazz nodded, taking a sip of her wine. "I can't live off pre-made food forever, though."

"I can feed you," he hid his slight blush behind the wine glass as he sipped as well. "I have proven to be the superior chef between us, so it's my duty to show you how it's done."

"Are you asking me to come back for more dinner dates, Mr. Todd?"

She saw all the emotions happen behind his eyes. Finally, he settled for not showing her his thoughts and went back to his food.

"What if I am?" He carefully chewed with his eyes fixed on his plate.

She smiled despite knowing he wouldn't see it. "Then I'd be delighted to accept your offer." She let the hand that wasn't occupied by the spoon slide on the surface of the island towards him, palm facing up.

He took it without hesitation, a spark of something passing between them at the soft touch.

Jason went for another bite of rice and chewed in contemplative silence, his eyes now stuck on their joined hands. She could feel he had something to say, so she waited patiently.

"What if-" he stopped, rethought his words and shook his head. She could almost hear 'fuck it' in his inner voice from where she was. "What if I wanted more dates? Not only to make sure you eat real food-"

"Hey!" She complained softly, enjoying when he finally looked up at her and smirked.

"- but more like dates, dates. Actual dates. With movies and nice walks and milkshakes and that kind of romantic shit."

Jazz felt her heart start beating so fast it would fly out of her chest. This was happening. It was not a drill.

"And handholding and kisses and cute selfies?" She asked.

His hand twitched over hers.

"Yeah. That, too. If you like that kind of stuff, of course."

Jazz took another bite of her food, chewing very slowly as she acted like she was considering what to say. He started looking more and more nervous every second she took to finish chewing and swallowing.

"Are you asking me out, Mr. Todd?" Her voice wasn't mocking, but soft.

"I… Yes?" She really liked how he tried so hard to keep the hope out of his expression. "Only if you want to. Go out with me, I mean."

Jazz could hear her own heart beating at full speed behind her ears. She could barely hear herself as she nodded and said: "Of course I want to, Jay. I like you. A lot."

The smile he had at her words was small, but transformed his face completely. He looked so vulnerable, so hopeful, so young. She had glimpsed a troubled childhood and a difficult life, beyond the obvious years in the streets, when he had opened up about his past during their dates. With the new context of a ruthless vigilante, she could understand that lately he didn't have that many chances at being happy.

She wanted to protect that smile at all cost. She wanted to make him smile like that all the time.

"I also like you a lot." He finally said, his hand still in hers giving a little squeeze. "When do you want to give it a first run at this romantic dating thing?" He picked up his fork.

Oh, right. Food.

She stuffed more risotto into her mouth as she thought about when she was free in her schedule.

"Tomorrow?" She asked after she swallowed.

He frowned a little. "Busy. Friday?"

She would bet he had Red Hood business tomorrow and she wanted to know what they were. Ahhh. She had to wait until he told her himself to ask about his other life. If it was annoying when she found out about Danny this was worse - she wanted to know so bad!

"Friday is fine. Any specific plans?"

"Would a walk in the park and dinner in a fancy restaurant be too cliché?"

She made a face. "Nothing too fancy."

He thought about it for a moment. "Cool, I know a place."

They spend the rest of the dinner working out some details, like the time and where to meet, finally deciding that going from their apartment and then on his bike to the park was fine. Then, the conversation derailed into friendly arguments about food preferences and how they learned to cook - he was vague about it, saying something about a kind person taking the time to teach him, but she got the feeling that this 'person' was someone important. She didn't pry, but saved the question for another time.

He did seem worried when she made a passing comment about how bland food gave her a sense of security, but she quickly told him that her mother wasn't a very good cook and it was a family trait. She could still see that he made a mental note about it.

Soon it was getting late and she had work the following day, so despite being so comfortable in their happy bubble, she had to make the first move and say goodbye.

"I should be heading home," Jazz sighed after a lull in the conversation. "This was amazing, Jay. Thank you for sharing your delicious food with me."

He blinked, noticing how late it was for the first time. "Anytime." He stood up and started collecting the dirty dishes.

"Let me help-"

"Nah."

"Hey!" She protested, going to grab her plate, but he was faster than her.

"Too slow." He grinned at her like it was a competition or something. Once again she was struck with the need to protect his smile. To hide her blush, she crossed her arms and acted offended. "You are cute when you pout like that." He added.

Despite her best efforts, she felt her face burn at his words. She wasn't the only one that had been holding back on the flirting, apparently.

"I can't be mad at you if you say things like that."

Jason put the dishes on the sink to wash later and walked back to her, softly flicking the frown between her eyebrows.

"You look like an angry kitten when you frown."

She didn't comment on how his hand stayed on her cheek, his thumb mindlessly caressing the blush she was sure was still visible.

Jazz lifted an eyebrow. "Is that another pet name?"

"Kitten?" He cringed. "No thank you, that gives me some serious psychic damage."

"I still like 'darling'," she said, sneaking one hand to touch the white curls falling into his face, "is not that cheesy and I like how it sounds when you say it."

"Darling."

"Yes?" She didn't miss how he was leaning in slowly, on how his eyes went to her lips when she spoke.

"I just wanted to say it."

He was close now. She would only need to tip toe a bit to reach his lips for a kiss. It wasn't the first time they were this close or that she thought they would kiss; but all the other times she chickened out because she wasn't sure if that was what he wanted.

Jazz realized she could just ask.

"Can I kiss you?"

He licked his lips, nodding with clear relief. "Yeah."

So she did, meeting him halfway for the kiss. It was soft and chaste, just a slight press of lips to test how it felt for both of them, and Jazz decided she liked it very much. She had closed her eyes, letting the sensation of his warm lips on hers occupy her mind, letting herself feel his hand still cupping her cheek, her fingers getting tangled on his curls.

When they parted she opened her eyes, finding him looking at her with those intense blue eyes. She saw a slight green tint swirl in them for a moment, making her smile at the familiarity.

"See you on Friday?" She finally said.

"Huh."

"Friday. Date. Us."

He finished rebooting, finally understanding what she said. She giggled. "Yeah. Of course."

"Thanks for the dinner, darling." She pulled his hair a little until he got the message that he needed to lean down. She kissed him again, but this time it was quicker. "Good night."

"'Night."

To say she ran away would be an understatement, but Jazz was really about to scream into a pillow and needed a cold shower and needed to talk to someone about this. She didn't look back as she unlocked his door, got out into the hallway and speed walked towards her apartment.

Jazz ignored the light switch, she didn't need to turn the lights on to see, choosing instead to beeline to the bathroom to get that cold shower and calm down before attempting to sleep.

She stopped at the mirror.

Glowing eyes looked back at her, reflecting the scarce rays of moonlight illuminating her dark apartment. It wasn't the first time she saw her eyes do the whole tapetum lucidum 'cat eyes' routine in the dark. It came with the territory of being liminal, after all.

It's just-

She turned on the lights in the bathroom. When she blinked her eyes were back to their usual teal, but she knew there was nothing normal about them.

All the warmth and good feelings vanished from her chest.

There was nothing normal about her - she was tangentially human, she was liminal, she needed to eat ectoplasm to survive. Her crazy life had led her to become a person she never thought she'd ever be, very far from the normal goals she once upon a time had of becoming a child trauma psychologist, maybe get a Nobel Prize, maybe settle down in Amity with her own office. She scraped all that the moment she had to step up with Team Phantom and train to be the warriors his brother needed.

Jazz angrily shed the sweater and the shirt under it, watching her body in the mirror. Her scars. She had many, after fighting alongside Danny to defend the throne from the people that didn't want him to rule. She still remembered where she got each one of them.

She sighed, picking up her toothbrush and spreading some toothpaste on it. If she had killed her mood at least she could start getting ready for bed.

It was as she was brushing around her fangs that she had the realization -

She had fangs. She was used to it by now, despite Danny's teasing about her becoming one of the characters from her crappy teenage vampire novels. She didn't hide them when she was in the Castle, but learned to hide them when she came back to the living world.

She had kissed Jason. They are dating now and she wanted more kisses in the future.

Jazz heard the toothbrush clatter in the sink, making her look down at her hands, her heart beating fast in her chest for completely different reasons than the sweet kiss they shared.

She couldn't kiss him, not if she didn't want him to know who - what she really was. She got carried away with his warmth and the sense of security he gave her, but at the end of the day she was still hiding something this important from him.

She shouldn't have kissed him. She should have left his apartment. She shouldn't have gotten so addicted to his soft smiles and delicious food and his companionship.

Jazz looked back at her reflection in the mirror, her teal eyes now shining toxic green with ectoplasm, her mouth open with her sharp fangs peeking through. Her scarred body she usually hid under her clothes. Her baggage as a princess from what some would call Hell.

She wasn't supposed to fall for anybody. She had been so caught up in the euphoria of her discovery that she forgot she had a mission here, that all of this was temporary, that she was taking a vacation from Zone business to learn more about dealing with dangerous criminals.

Love was not part of the plan, and never was.


Jason would later admit that he stood there like an idiot for a good minute or two, touching his lips as he replayed what happened again and again in his brain.

They had kissed.

They had kissed and it was the best thing ever.

They had kissed and they were a couple and they had a date next Friday and how did his afternoon go from almost burning dinner to this?

Not that he was complaining.

He could still feel the ghost of her touch on his lips, of her hand in his hair. He could still hear her voice asking if she could kiss him, making sure it was something he wanted despite having openly flirted with her and asked her out that same evening.

It made him feel… It made him feel so many emotions. Secure. Warm. Loved.

Undeserving.

He frowned at the thought, but he knew where it came from. He wasn't stupid, he knew he had issues with stuff like this - the first few months after Bruce adopted him he was waiting for the moment he decided Jason was not what he wanted, or that he was regretting taking him in, or that he had found another kid that fit better in the family. The moment never came and eventually he believed him when he said he was welcome to stay forever if he so desired.

Being with Jazz felt kind of like that. She was too kind, too pure, too understanding. She pushed him when she saw he wanted to say something, but let it go when it became too much. She was comfortable to be around, she was someone he didn't need to be so on guard with, someone to share his thoughts without being judged about it.

And now he was so scared of losing it. He was scared of her deciding one day that he was too much to deal with, that he wasn't as open as she needed him to be, that he wasn't as reliable as what she looked for in a boyfriend.

He couldn't even entertain the thought of telling her about his other life. He wasn't like the others, a self-righteous hero that jumped around Gotham's rooftops stopping crime and punching thugs. He was a crime lord. He oversaw all the shady business in the worst parts of the city. He killed people, for fucks sake.

Jasmine didn't need that in her life. She deserved better, someone more heroic-

(Someone like his perfect older brother, the Golden Boy.)

- but for some reason she wanted to be with him. And he didn't want to let her go, not after being hooked to the feeling of her company.

His phone screen lit with chat notifications, interrupting his spiraling thoughts. He had muted the stupid 'batkids' groupchat the moment he joined out of necessity, so it had to be someone else.

Speak of the Devil. Dick was asking if he was still up for patrol tonight. Somehow it felt like a trap, especially since the damn family dinner was that Friday.

Ha. Jokes on them. He had already made plans for that day. He smiled, thinking about Dick's face once he turned down the offer for good, now that he had a 'real reason'.

But again, he would want to know all about this date. And then he would tell the others like the damn gossip he was, and then they would follow them like they have done the other dates while they thought he didn't notice them watching.

Stupid family, getting their noses in other people's business.

He grumbled all the way to his room and as he prepared to do the stupid patrol with his brother. He did owe them all the favor for looking after Jazz when he couldn't, so he could put up with Dickie's nagging for a few hours.

He wasn't going to sleep anyway.

He was still replaying the kiss in his mind even as he jumped out of his window and into the cold night, lowkey wondering if she was doing the same.

He also wondered if she would be up to many many more kisses.