Fill My Lungs | J. Todd ✔

[07] Debunking Rumors

She was still perched up on the counter, enjoying the pancakes he had made. But whilst they were having breakfast and Jason was thinking about how to strike up a conversation, she spoke up, "if you wanna do this often then I must know at least something about you. My friends are worried that I am spending my time with dangerous people."

He raised an eyebrow skeptically, "dangerous... Me?"

"I mean you're sweet to me, you're an awesome cook and I like to spend time with you. But I still don't know anything about you, not even your full name," she remarked, taking the chocolate syrup to drizzle more on her pancakes.

"Valerie, I don't know anything about you either."

"And some people assume you're a serial killer so that makes things slightly difficult for me to explain to my friends," she resumed as if she hadn't heard his remark and he almost choked on his bite at that statement.

A serial killer would be too far even for his standards but he could guess why some people would get that vibe from him. He was a crime lord, he had been controlling Gotham's drug mafia and he had seventeen murders to his name currently.

Alleged but not proved; all seventeen of them had been henchmen for the other crime bosses who he had threatened to surrender back when he had first returned to Gotham after his resurrection.

It was surely not the best part of his life and not something he wanted to remember right then.

"Sorry, I thought you'd take it as a joke," she filled up a glass of water and gave it to him, "clearly, you didn't..."

"It just... Caught me off-guard," he replied after drinking from the offered glass.

"Right," her grey eyes were observing his expression closely and she added, "but seriously, you're not a serial killer, right? I am not in some Jeffrey Dahmer kinda situation, am I?"

She looked cute with her wide grey eyes and her teeth biting her lower lip. He shook his head, shoving all those past memories into the back of his head, "no, you're not. I am not going to hurt you."

"Good," she smiled, letting out the breath she was holding.

"I can tell you a little bit about myself in exchange for you telling me a bit too," he offered and she readily agreed, leaning closer to listen, "my name is Jason Todd and I used to live in Gotham before I moved here."

"Oh... And where do you work? I mean, you know I work at the supermarket and you've definitely read my name tag..."

"I don't have a fixed job," he considered how to explain it to her, "it's kind of a contract work situation. I have a team and we are hired when our services are required."

She looked rather curious at his cryptic choice of words. "So you're in the construction industry?"

He considered but then decided to let her believe that, "sort of."

"You definitely have those builder biceps," she mumbled but then blushed, realizing she had said that out loud.

It was a quirk of hers to think out loud and he found it endearing as a smile threatened to play upon his lips as well, "I usually supervise things. But it's good to know you like my biceps."

"Jason, stop," she blushed deeper but then decided to focus on the rest of her pancakes and diverted the conversation down a different track, "so you're from Gotham... I've heard it's a very dangerous place."

"Depends on who you are, if you really ask me. It was worse when I was a kid, does not seem so bad now."

"Right..." She waited for him to add something but when he didn't, she felt it was time for her to tell him a bit about herself. "Well, you know my name already and I work at the supermarket. I was studying privately a few years back but things got too much to handle with my job so I dropped out. Now I live with my best friend who thinks you're dangerous and I should stay away from you."