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In retrospect, it couldn't have ended any other way.

There was no requiem when Jason Todd died, a ghost in the glass forced to watch from the sidelines as the world moved on without him. After the dissolution of Black Mask's syndicate organisation, the entirety of Gotham's underworld is scrambling to fill the vacuum. Finally emancipated from Bruce Wayne's sideshow for good, Jason is still paying the piper, chasing down blood in the umbrage of his new alias.

The Red Hood's new life begins here, in Gotham's filthy underbelly. Back to square one, throwing himself head-first into the gauntlet again, trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life for a fresh start without the Joker, without Batman.

Until a misstep almost costs him his second shot at revenge. Jason doesn't believe much in luck, but he can't deny that he didn't stumble through Devon's bedroom window on purpose. Half lucid and barely hanging onto his consciousness by a thread, he leaves her only with one command—no police, no hospitals—and then he's out like a light.

Pre-Veterinary Medicine student Devon Lam doesn't really care what happens as long as she passes her finals. 

Despite the multiple misgivings of Gotham City, getting caught in the crossfire of a turf war every month or so on her commute home, and the fact that her childhood still tails her no matter how far she runs, Devon is determined to make it. Semester by semester, class by class, day by day. She keeps her head down and focuses on the books. This is enough. It has to be enough.

When a bloodied Anti-Hero crashes through her window at 2AM, torn to shreds, and three bullet wounds in his body, the last thing she wants is to get caught up in whatever this strange man's business is. After all, she's got a midterm lit review due in a week. But Devon can't simply let him die on her mother's Persian rug like this. Not when she knows how to save him. This wouldn't be her first time fixing someone up this way.

And this is where, Devon thinks, she will leave the Red Hood. Once he's awake, once he's brought in a friend to fix her window and replace the blood-soaked rug with no charge, they're even. He will return to the streets and she will resume slinging back cans of Monster to get her through another all-nighter before her weekend shifts at the emergency vet clinic.

Until Devon's past threatens to darken her doorstep again.

And maybe Jason isn't quite done with the reclusive, hard-hearted girl with the big dreams, who'd patched him back up and all but chased him out of her home.

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SOUNDTRACK.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE.

so. i watched better days (2019) and oh my goddd the permanent brain damage is real. chinese movies just know how to hit you in a way that no other movies can. so i wanted to write about violent devotion. about a person who earns the loyalty of someone who only knows how to pay it back with violence (toward others ofc). and while devon is a strong fmc in her own right, she's definitely not a conventional fighter. she's a healer (maybe for animals, mainly), but she's not soft. she's a civilian, and while she isn't helpless or innocent in any way, she's living in a place heavily infested with crime - and there's the whole thing with her past. which. i'll get into in the fic. but i can guarantee its a very civilian problem too.

so jason's there. and she saved his life. and even though he's fixed up everything he'd broken or damaged in the midst of their first meeting, he's indebted to her in a way he can't explain. she'd left him on the couch all fixed up, his mask still covering his face, cleaned his wounds and fixed fresh bandages, and she's earned his respect. and after awhile he can't help but notice that she's not who she seems.

this fic takes place right after the events of Batman: Under the Red Hood, and jason is kinda having to deal with the fact that his batman/robin days are over. he's still heartbroken and angry about batman's perceived betrayal, and he's living a groundhog day type situation where he's definitely having an identity crisis, definitely depressed, and he's without an anchor now that the joker's been put away. he's lost. he's adrift in gotham. he's trying to figure out his purpose outside of revenge.

and now there's devon. is it healthy? maybe not. but she's probably the first person in his life who asks him if it hurts.