Feeling The Aster | DC Imagines

purple twilight

The sky was purple that night. That last night. Not that you had known that yet.

You watched the sun set just beyond the horizon from atop the less than lackluster rooftops that were common among the buildings of Gotham Heights. After nearly two years of climbing out of your bedroom so routinely, the windowsill and drainpipe were bound to have the shape of your hands and feet imprinted in.

During those minutes where the sun hadn't fully quite set but was invisible from view, those were the moments you cherished. That day more than most.

A purple twilight. Not entirely uncommon in the polluted skies of Gotham City, but still beautiful. It was rare enough that any color looked vibrant in the city's sky, so to see a myriad of the tones blooming across the horizon seemed recherché. And that night, it all felt oh so different. It was your mistake, thinking it had been a special night. A trick of the young mind. A teenager seeing through a rose colored lens, blinded by the buddings of what you believed so firmly to be nothing other than your first love.

It had been a particularly cool April night. The rooftop underneath you had still been damp from the previous night's rain shower, and a chill raised goosebumps on your skin, but the weather was pleasant, nonetheless. It always would be because of the company you shared, no matter the weather. No matter fire or ice.

The footsteps that sounded behind you had slowly evolved over time from being nearly silent on landing to just loud enough to alert you and only you. A practice that both of you were nearly masters of.

Resisting the urge to turn around, a soft grin spread across your lips as a figure clad in red, yellow, and green plopped down by your side with an over-animated sigh.

"Missed me that much, huh?" He had teased before you felt his shoulder bump into yours. "Ya can't even spare a glance at me an' my beauty."

"Oh, shut up." You retorted in a snort, mimicking his greeting and finally looking at the boy beside you. You were normally always met with the white lenses of his domino mask, but you knew just beneath lied the most beautiful pale blue eyes you had ever seen.

Gotham knew the costumed boy as Robin, the nighttime sidekick of her most infamous vigilante Batman. The second to take up the mantle, seeing Robin dash across the high-rises of the city was already synonymous with hope and the city's rebirth. A powerful title for someone so young.

But despite the sight before you, you knew the hero by the name of Jason Todd. The straight A's literature nerd who was sometimes too cocky for his own good but deep down was the most genuine and caring person you could ever meet. And even deeper down, a young man with a fierce drive to protect others the way he could never protect himself growing up.

"A little early, don't you think?" You mused out loud, tilting your head onto his shoulder. His arm involuntarily curled around your waist. An extended branch of comfort.

"I could say the same, yeah?" He pulled you closer to him, a green boot knocking into the slipper covering your foot. "B's the one that's gotta use the shadows to operate. A few shades lighter, and I'd be wearing neon!" You smiled, but there was something about his tone that seemed artificial and forced.

There was a pause, the air taking a turn that you couldn't quite call sour but was something akin. Jason had hesitated, and your brow furrowed, trying to figure out the context as to why. But no matter what it was, you knew the reason for his ahead of schedule arrival. It was always the same.

"You're leaving again, aren't you?"

Jason's chin dipped just slightly. He hadn't quite hung his head, but he might as well have. He was putting walls up, but for what you didn't exactly know yet.