Falling Through The Hourglass | Jason Todd x Male Reader

Prologue(?)

You were an unstoppable force of bad luck. No, you weren't struck with constant bad luck, necessarily. You inflicted it on others, whether or not you meant to. You discovered this when you were much younger, anybody who spent too much time with you seemed to be suddenly afflicted with terrible luck.

And of course, your parents were the first to get the worst of it. One day, when you were about eleven, they just didn't return. When you really think about it, you're glad you don't know what happened. Not knowing meant there was maybe a small chance that their disappearance wasn't related to you.

You weren't the first orphan living in Crime Alley, of course. In Gotham that was only natural. This did mean that, while you would protect and stick up for each other, you would also have to resort to stealing from each other. And that's how you realised you could also curse people with bad luck intentionally.

One kid would take your food right out of your hands, and you would wish bad luck on them and said bad luck was always delivered. You only knew the real consequences of purposefully cursing people when you were sixteen.

At sixteen, you managed to get a job and provide for yourself without breaking the law. But that day, you had a particularly bad day of work. Your boss had you work overtime you weren't even sure you were getting paid for, and your one co-worker that was supposed to be there that day decided to ditch work, leaving you to do their job.

At the end of the work day, you noticed that there was a bunch of product missing, and it hadn't been accounted for. You just knew your boss was going to take it out of your paycheck. To dampen your mood even more, you didn't see Batman perched on the building across from the one you worked at.

You could usually see him and Robin on top of the building across from the one you worked at while you locked up. You liked seeing them there. They gave you peace of mind, even if they weren't looking back. And they weren't there tonight.

The final straw was pulled when a guy harshly bumped your shoulder, causing you to drop your water bottle. And he kept walking as you picked it up, completely unbothered. Didn't even try looking back.

"You could say sorry you know!"

"Nah, I'm good."

He turned to shoot a quick smirk your way before turning back around and walking away again. You then decided to curse him with bad luck. Sure, it was a tad bit irresponsible of you, but it was just a little bad luck, what was the worst that could happen? With that reasoning and a satisfied smile on your face, you continued your walk to your apartment complex.

You got that answer a few days later, the news announcing the sudden and unfortunate passing of Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne's adopted son. You weren't sure how you hadn't recognized who he was on the street, maybe it was just the blind rage, but that didn't matter. You later noticed that Robin was no longer with Batman on the rooftop.

The suspicious timeline of events made you start comparing Jason Todd and Robin. It could be seen as completely irrational, but you just had to know. After weeks of comparing their physique, mannerisms, and voice clips, you came to a dreadful conclusion.

You killed Robin.

It didn't matter how he died, you were sure that if you hadn't cursed him, he would still be alive. You weren't sure what to do now, you were just so racked with guilt. After further research, you found out he was killed by the Joker. That's when you made the decision four years ago that brought you to where you are now.

For once, Scarecrow had the upper hand against Batman. Despite everything that had gone wrong tonight, he managed to get Batman to drop and lose his gas mask. After a small monolog from Scarecrow, he reached out to spray his fear toxin, but nothing happened.

Scarecrow shook his hand aggressively in a vain attempt to get the spray mechanism in the glove unstuck, which of course, did nothing. At that point, you knew what would happen and slunk away while Batman's focus was still on Scarecrow. Back your apartment, you watched as Scarecrow was taken back into custody on the news.

Was deciding to ruin the crimes of the Gotham Rogues potentially dangerous? Sure, but when they didn't know it was you causing their bad luck and intentionally ruining their plots, it was more funny than anything. Most importantly though, you felt like you were doing Jason justice.

You knew you would never forgive yourself for being so uncaring and letting your emotions get the better of you, but messing with the Gotham Rogues, especially the Joker, made you feel a little better. You knew Robin would mess with them in the exact same way.