Chapter Text
It had been eight months.
Eight months since Tim had jumped from the WE building. Eight since Jason had caught him, drugged him, and brought him home. Seven since Tim had started therapy. Six since he had felt like part of a family again. Four since he had first told Jason that he didn’t want to leave. Two since he’d gone out on patrol, alone, and was ambushed by Batman.
Of all the situations he had planned for that involved seeing Batman again, tonight’s Arkham breakout had not been one of them.
Okay, to be fair, this WAS a pretty big breakout; Ivy, Quinn, and a handful of subpar villains had escaped with the idea of a “girl’s night out”. They were spreading to other jails to break out commonplace riffraff; just hired muscle, essentially, but a lot of it. This amount of trouble meant that all the Bats were on deck tonight. (The last time Ivy had escaped had ended in twenty-six victims hospitalized. So.)
Tim had insisted on following Red Hood onto the streets tonight. This was big. So what if it would be Tim’s second night as Red Robin in eight months? He had a bad feeling about letting Jason work alone this time, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I want you to come home,” Tim had snapped when Jason protested. Alive went unsaid, but it was heavily implied. Jason did not protest again.
So, really, this situation was Tim’s fault. Of COURSE he would run into some of the Bats tonight. He just hadn’t expected it to be so many. In such a big fight. On such a dark street. Near the very edge of Crime Alley.
“Shit,” Hood cursed eloquently, dodging one of Ivy’s vines as he & Red Robin entered the edges of the fray. “What are YOU doing here?!”
“Did you want us to let them waltz into your neighborhood?” Nightwing called incredulously as he flipped away from a pink-clad villain with a sparkly gun. (Red remembered her. Underwhelming.)
Hood punched out the closest thug he could reach, growling. His voice-modulator made him sound scarier than usual, but the helmet was good protection, so Tim had insisted that Jason wear it tonight.
If Hood had noticed the uptick in Red’s anxious body-language, he said nothing.
“What are YOU doing here?” Robin snarled as he whirled past, locked in brutal combat with one of Ivy’s huge vines.
“It’s OUR territory,” Red shouted back, but he wasn’t sure his voice was strong enough to carry. He focused on covering Hood’s back as they waded into the fray, using smoke-bombs as distraction & knocking out as many thugs as he could reach with his staff. His movements were precise & deadly. Still, how had this many men escaped the prisons? It had only been an hour since the breakout.
“Just work together to get this done quickly,” Oracle’s voice was saying as she logged the Reds into the Bats’ open channel.
“The sooner we finish, the sooner we can leave,” Nightwing’s voice pointed out. He was too far away in the fight for Red to see him.
Hood growled a few curses before falling completely into the fight. He whirled on his heel as he shot, covering Red’s left back; his weakest blind-spot. Red gratefully took over with the faster attacks, leaping, dodging, and occasionally using Hood as a springboard in his offensive movements. They’d never been out on the field together before, not like this, but somehow all the training in their basement was paying off. They worked well together, like two pieces of a perfectly oiled machine. When Hood swung around to shoot past Red, the younger vigilante knew exactly where to duck & pivot. When Red leaped off of Hood’s back or needed them to move in a different direction, Hood responded to the slightest change in body-language, completing the silent request immediately.
“Red Robin,” Spoiler greeted coldly as she passed, flinging three explosive batarangs into one of the biggest plants. Her simple comment caught Red off-guard for about two seconds, and he failed to move out of the blast radius in time.
Hood grabbed Red’s cape, hauling him around a corner, and curled around him protectively as the explosion went off, shielding Red Robin with his bulk.
Red released a breath, squeezing his brother’s arm. He didn’t dare shove the older man away. He knew how Hood felt about explosions. “Sorry.”
Hood took a few extra seconds to force himself to let go, but Red was patient. When the bigger vigilante finally moved back into the fight, Red stuck extra close. Orphan whirled past, helping them take down a knot of especially violent men, and Nightwing flipped past somewhere to the left. It was a lot to keep up with. Robin tried to keep Robin in his sights, but the fight was moving too fast, and it was too dark. Batman wasn’t visible, either.
Forget about Batman. Focus.
Then Hood was suddenly not there, and Red barely dodged a deadly punch to the gut as he realized it. He found a car to shield his back, moving as fast as he could to take down the men coming his way. Why were there so many of them? Where was Hood? When had Red Robin suddenly been alone?
Another explosion suddenly ruptured somewhere to the left, and Red Robin vaulted over the car, taking cover. Ivy’s plants were screeching in agony, and Ivy herself was screaming bloody murder. He could hear Harley Quinn, too, if he really focused. They didn’t sound happy. Were the Bats winning?
His thoughts were cut short by a hulking shadow that rolled behind the car next to him; Batman, panting harshly in all his dark glory. Red Robin felt his whole body grow numb. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t… Was that blood?
Robin suddenly lunged out of the darkness, shoving Red backwards. “Get AWAY from him!!!”
Red tripped, stumbled, and threw himself into a back-handspring to gain proper distance. Did Robin think he was attacking Batman? That blood had already been there!!! He wasn’t---
True fear shot through Red’s body when he landed within two inches of Spoiler, who shoved him away from her with a spluttered, “What the HELL?”
Out of directions to go & losing his balance from the second shove, Red swayed back towards Robin, diving under his right arm & spinning as soon as he came up, kicking the kid into Spoiler’s arms. Batman was getting to his feet on the left, looking murderous, and Robin was still yelling at him and Spoiler sounded indignant and Orphan was appearing around the other side of the car and---
Red turned to flee, promptly coming up against a solid wall of armor. Huge arms closed around his frame, shielding, but not pinning, and an angry voice yelled over his head. “ENOUGH!!!”
Red pushed himself away from the embrace, checking only long enough to be sure that it was Hood before whirling to face the others. He distantly noticed that he was in a deadly defensive position, and that he was also in the middle of a fight-or-flight reaction, but neither piece of information helped. Everything was too MUCH. No one was speaking, but Spoiler was glaring daggers and Robin was snarling vehemently as he edged closer and---
Hood raised his right pistol above Red’s shoulder, ice dripping from his tone. “I would think VERY carefully before moving closer, bat brat.”
“Everyone CALM,” Orphan admonished, holding her slender hands up in a gesture of peace.
“Red jumped Robin!!!” Spoiler accused harshly, pointing.
“What?” Red choked out, crouching lower. “HE jumped ME!!!”
“He was too close to father!!!” Robin protested immediately, though he was frozen under Hood’s aim. “We can not trust him after he has been so long with the enemy!!!”
“Guys,” Nightwing’s voice cut in from further down the street, urgent. “Everyone is a little tense right now, that’s all. If we---”
Batman stepped forward, his mouth open to speak, and Red’s heart shot into his throat.
Hood instantly drew his other gun, snarling. “Don’t. MOVE.”
Batman immediately froze. Spoiler crouched lower. Orphan stepped back. Robin’s hand inched towards his belt. Red Robin struggled to think, to decide on an action, to BREATHE. Batman was hurt, and his team felt threatened. This was just a misunderstanding, right?
Robin threw a batarang, and the tension snapped. Hood knocked it away with a mighty swing. The weapon exploded in the air above them, and chaos ensued. Batman ran for Robin, the girls threw themselves away from the blast, and Hood pushed Red to his knees, shielding him.
Red lost his grip on reality as he covered his ears. Someone was yelling. The air vibrated with noise, and he could barely feel his body.
The noises finally stopped. Red felt two large hands cover his own, and a shameless whimper escaped his chest. I can’t breathe, he didn’t say, because he couldn’t.
The large hands left Red’s ears, taking his own hands with them. One of his trembling palms was pressed against something hard that rose & fell in dramatic movements. Red clutched the other hand tight, refusing to let go. Don’t leave me, the wordless plea begged.
Hood bumped their foreheads together, gentle. The helmet was gone. He wasn’t leaving.
A gasping breath entered Red’s burning lungs. Then one more. And one more. Then he was hyperventilating, but the movement under his hand was so steady, and he KNEW that movement, and it was helping. He could breathe.
“Good,” a hoarse voice hummed, vibrating against Red’s gloved fingertips. “You’re doing so good, baby bird. Just keep breathing.”
Red narrowed his focus. His breaths began to even out, and he inhaled as deeply as he could. He’d freaked out. God, he’d freaked out in front of EVERYONE, and he’d been trying so hard to push through, to make this work---
“Stop thinking so hard,” Hood rumbled quietly, his gloved thumb rubbing over Red’s knuckles. “Just breathe for me.”
Red’s entire body shuddered, and he tipped forward instinctively. His head rested against the collar of Hood’s armor.
“You’re not hurt,” the voice hummed soothingly. “I’m not hurt. We are not in danger; we won, and you’re safe now.”
“Oh God,” Red gasped out, finally able to speak. “I didn’t MEAN to… I was… just trying to help, but…”
“I know,” Hood assured him, his tone carefully gentle. “I know you were trying, baby bird, and you did so good. I’m sorry they scared you.”
“Not your fault,” the teen mumbled, distantly aware that he was trembling. “I’m sorry… I…”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Hood’s voice rumbled. “Do you hear me? Nothing.” A slight pause followed. Then, “May I hug you?”
Red nodded once more, allowing himself to relax as he was pulled against Hood’s broad chest. He was aware enough to realize that he was being watched, but he hid his face against the jacket that smelled like gunpowder and leather and smoke. The firm hand rubbing circles into his back helped to chase the rest of the panic away, and Red exhaled shakily. Jason was right here. Jason would keep him safe. Jason had promised.
“This has been… an unfortunate misunderstanding,” Batman’s voice rumbled, sounding distant.
“Consider this a warning,” Hood growled out. “Stay away from Crime Alley. If I see you past 1st again, I won’t ask why before shooting you.”
“Jason,” Red Robin murmured, trying his hardest to keep his voice steady. He felt several pairs of eyes snap back to his hunched frame. It did not help.
(Surprisingly, no one corrected him on names.)
“Yeah?” Hood hummed softly.
Red fisted handfuls of the brown jacket, swallowing. “Can we just… go home?”
Hood made a noise of agreement, slowly standing. His arms stayed around Red’s shoulders, simultaneously helping him up while bracketing him from the others. “We’re due for dinner, buddy. Thai or pizza?”
“Pizza,” Red muttered uncertainly, focusing on the aim of his grapple-gun. Once he made the roof, he forced his eyes straight ahead to the next building, distantly aware of Hood following right behind him. He knew the other Bats were still watching, and he felt their judging stares long after the ruined street had vanished from sight.