Batman United

One Cold December Night

Jason Todd PoV

I'll admit it, I got my ass kicked. I was bloody, swollen, broken and bruised as I traipsed through the freezing streets of Blüdhaven, beaten and defeated. I scowled at the people innocently doing their Christmas shopping, holding my probably broken arm as I tried desperately to find the address I'd stolen from the BatComputer.

Arsenal and Starfire had abandoned me, leaving me alone to freeze to death as they fled from Black Mask, knowing he had defeated me in the stand off. My guns were faulty, that's all, and if they had helped me just a little maybe we would have won. I barely got away with my life, my helmet was all cracked and I could barely see through it anymore.

Where was I meant to go back to, huh? The Outlaws? Probably hiding all over the East Coast by now, and I was never going back to those traitor cowards anyway. The League of Shadows? Who knows how Talia Al Ghul would react to seeing my again, and they were probably too busy doing terrorist stuff to help anyway. Bruce? No way. That just left him.

If I knew him at all, he would fuss over me a little, clean up my wounds and feed me and try and get me to sleep over. In the middle of the night, I'll just sneak away and that will be all the problems solved. Then, I go after my incompetent team mates.

Knock Knock. I leant heavily against the banister, exhausted from the seven story climb in my current state. He came to the door, wearing his usual blue sweater, regarding me in confusion.

"Dick" I muttered, reaching out to him.

"How do you know my name?" he demanded, ready to punch me if I was going to cause trouble.

"Shit, wait a minute" I asked, pulling my red helmet off my head.

"Jason? Oh... Oh my god. I... I thought you were dead"

"Shut up, I'm not dead, I'm very much alive" I snapped, growing impatient about whether he was going to let me in or not.

"Wow... Bruce said you were back but I didn't think it was true!" he cried, pouncing forward to hug me tight. "And your hair, it's brown"

"Yeah, I didn't have a chance do dye it black for a long while, then I didn't want to be part of Bruce's stupid little family anymore, so I left it its natural colour"

"Natural? You have a pure white streak"

"Listen, I need help. I've been shot to pieces by Black Mask" I said, brushing over his comment.

"Oh god, yeah, sorry" he apologised, pulling me inside and sitting me down on his arm chair.

I winced as he dabbed the antiseptic into my wounds, wrapping them up in bandages.

"So, you're Red Hood now?" he inquired as he attempted to stitch up the more major cuts where I had met Black Masks knife.

"Yeah" I answered, uninterested in his further questions.

He asked some more, but after realising there was no way I was listening anymore, he shut up.

"There, that's the last of the wounds. I'll get you some of my soup and make up a bed for you to stay in for a few days.

"I suppose you are going to tell Bruce, aren't you?" I uttered, not looking up at him.

"Well... I think I should, but if you don't want me to, I won't"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I just want you to be safe, Little Wing"

"Don't call me that"