It Takes One to Know One [Jason Todd x Reader]

2 // Bitches Get Stitches

It had been a solid few hours since you forgot about the naked man in your dorm, focusing on classes and food with Roy, the two of you squished into a booth at a nearby pizza joint that had good reviews online. Between bites of the pizzas you two bought, you and Roy told one another about your days, giggles ensuing.

"So anyway, as I was saying—" Roy swallowed a bite— "Dick and I were assigned as lab partners in chemistry, and he managed to fuck up super badly, and put the base straight into the indicator, completely fucking up out stoichiometry lab, and we didn't have enough time to redo it, so we rolled with it. Feigning stupidity, which with Wally in our group it was easy."

"Shit man, I remember the anatomy class stories from your high school, when he dropped half the sheep's brain and nobody noticed?"

"Oh ______, you don't even know the half of it—"

You deadpanned, throwing a balled up napkin at Roy. "You're utterly ridiculous, Harper."

He smiled back. "You know it."

Phones, such distracting things. Baby boomers hated them, gen z lived off them. And Roy? Well, he fished his out of his pocket after it buzzed, his eyebrows raising as he read whatever text he just received. "Hey, so. I hate having to do this, but I gotta blast." He looked back up at you, apologetic.

You waved him off. "No worries, go. I'll be okay. Want me to bring home the leftovers?"

His smile returned once more. "Yes please, you're a lifesaver!" He pressed a chaste kiss to your cheek before dashing out of the restaurant and down the street, and for once, you were aware of how serious his expression had turned.

Asking for a box, you packed up yours and Roy's leftover slices, and set out back to the dorms. The walk wouldn't be more than half an hour at most, it was only a mile with some big streets. Seeing as though it was night, it might be faster since traffic wouldn't really be an issue. You were a bit afraid of the dark, if you were to be honest, and decided to take the longer yet better lit way to the dorms. Better safe than sorry, and late than dead.

That's something Roy taught you, stressing it that you should never ever be out on the streets of Gotham after 10 pm, that's when stuff gets shady. It seems like he forgot what time it was when he left you, though. And so you walked on, cooling pizza in cardboard boxes in your arms as you went block after block, staying in the light of the street lamps. You didn't dare wear your earbuds now, if what Roy said was true, you'd need to keep a keen ear and eye out to make sure you weren't mugged, raped, or worse yet, murdered.

Yeah, that was a Thing here in Gotham, and you were slowly learning just how dangerous this city was. It was a ticking time bomb, only showing its true face at night. The drug cartels, the brothels, the bounties and murders, and the absolute chaos. It all came out once the sun danced away, like every Purge movie but somehow so much more worse. Probably because you were living it now.

Tires squealing pulled you out of your intense hyper focus on your surroundings, and you threw yourself away from the curb and against a building seconds before a black van rounded the corner way too quickly. The van rocked as it turned, slamming down onto four tires once again as you heard people yelling from inside. A man popped himself out of the passenger window, gun in hand, shooting at something behind the van.

Or someone.

Your eyebrows shot up as a red red Jeep skirted the corner at a slightly more respectable speed, a man dressed solidly in red driving, a flatcap not unlike Roy's perched on his head like a beacon of suspicion. A man in a leather jacket and a red helmet was shooting back at the van, surprisingly trying to go for the wheels. And just as fast as they came, they left.