(no subject)

[prodigaljaybird]

The set-up's taken weeks, but the Red Hood is as patient as Jason is not, waiting and planning, gathering intel and distributing false data, wiring bombs and executing his plan to perfection. Five Lobos lieutenants, one captain, and in a stroke of luck, two high ranking Mad Men are all gathered in a small room of long abandoned warehouse 56.

The block is empty. The doors are shut. Inside the men are in varying degrees of inebriation, helped along by a little something Jason slipped into Aguilar's flask. Jason waits.

And waits.

And waits. And when he's completely satisfied, he sets the timer on the explosive charges and turns to leave, checking his outside feed one last time.

He's planned every detail to the last. Which is why it shouldn't truly be a surprise that fucking Allison Argent is in the alleyway outside.

"Dammit," Jason swears, looking at his timer. He could stop this, but any moment now, Allison's going to get the attention of the bangers inside, and Jason doesn't know when he'll get an opportunity like this again. "Dammit," he swears again, and flies swift and silent through the window into the outside air.

"Get out of here." The words ring clear and sudden through the night, for all that they're barely above a whisper. "I mean it. Go right now."

Comments

[theresalwayshope]

One of the lieutenants was Allison's quarry. She'd been stalking him for over a week after a botched confrontation with him, and two of his subordinates that left her unhappy.

When he'd begun spreading stories calling her 'La Puta Roja,' she was amused. When he sent five more guys after her two nights ago, she'd gotten annoyed...and when she found out that he was part of a team making a deal with another local scumbag conglomerate dealing in underage prostitution, she'd gotten pissed.

It was a little last minute, but when she'd heard about the meet the night before, she followed her prey to the warehouse, armed with both her bow and her taser so she wasn't as tempted to kill anyone.

She wanted to bring her man in...and she had a great vantage point to start firing when her favorite superhero stalker showed up to warn her off.

Allison turned towards the sound of the familiar voice, eyes shadowed under her hood as she narrowed them.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to bother an animal when it's about to eat?" She hissed. "I've got a wannabe wolf in there to have for dinner, back off."

[prodigaljaybird]

"No, you've got half a wolf pack about to get cooked," Jason returns, harder and angrier than he's ever let himself get with her. Inside, the counter is ticking down. Jason doesn't need to see it to know how long they have. It's in the beat of his heart, numbers ticking down against the backs of his eyes the longer he looks at her, standing there so determined and purposeful and ignorant of just how wrong this could go.

"This is my meeting, Alpha," he grinds out, not tripping over his words because no matter how angry he gets, he'll never betray her by speaking her name on the streets. "And you're about to ruin it."

Worse, she's about to die, and Jason can't let her get any closer. Not even if it means ruining things between her and the Red Hood forever. Face tight behind his mask, Jason draws his gun, holding it loose against his side. "Leave or die with them. Those are the only options left."

[theresalwayshope]

Reflex alone had Allison drawing an arrow and raising the bow in her hand to aim a shot at the Red Hood. The shock and the alarmingly deep lance of hurt that cut through her when he drew his gun would have left her dumbstruck and helpless otherwise, and she had no doubt that he would level that weapon at her and fire.

She'd seen him in action. She knew what he was capable of...and yet it hurt that he would turn on her over a kill.

"You pull a weapon, you had better aim it at your target, Red." She shot back coldly, head tipping so she could line up her shot. It made her eyes a little more visible in the low light, her gaze icy but touched with that sense of betrayal.

She knew better. She really did...but something about the whole thing still made her heart break a little and something in the back of her mind scream why?

"You're either getting sloppy, or you must really like me." She went on caustically. "You want to put a bullet in everyone else's head? I won't stop you, but Tiny Reyes is mine...you kill him? I'll cripple you."

[prodigaljaybird]

"He's already dead."

As good as, so it's not a lie, but the gun in Jason's hand is. There are more than a dozen places he could put a bullet in her body to stop her, slow her down, but Jason already knows he won't. He can't. And he should have known the sight of his gun wouldn't scare her.

The seconds left are dwindling, and panic is beginning to war with Jason's nerve, stabs of fear like sharp little fingers peeling his control away. She makes him vulnerable, she always has - and for the first time in Jason's short, angry life he understands why Bruce kept everyone at arm's length.

He clears his throat against the lump, hand beginning to shake around the grip of his gun. "So you can cripple me later if you want, but what's happening tonight is above your pay grade."

[theresalwayshope]

Allison's gaze flicked over her target, so she saw his hand shake. It gave her hope, a sick and urgent feeling in her gut mixed with something else, something that was whispering at her, danger danger danger...not unlike that first night when she got mugged, when she'd ignored her hunter's instinct...when being normal was more important than being ready.

"I'm the Alpha." she shot back, but with less venom even as she took a bold step towards him, bow still aimed right at the sliver of space that sat between helmet and collar, covered by his leathers but not impenetrable. "Nothing is above my pay grade."

Danger danger danger danger danger...

It was the gun.

For all his cruel posturing, she knew the Red Hood. In her gut, she knew him. She'd seen him kill, seen him save lives...she knew he had a heart, and she knew that any hand that could wield a blade like he did would never lay hands on a weapon he was too afraid to wield.

So she took a breath, her bow hand steady as she regarded him with a moment of doubt...then swallowed thickly and finally lowered her weapon, taking another step towards him.

"What the hell did you do, idiot stick?" she hissed, her own heart starting to beat faster in her chest.

[prodigaljaybird]

She doesn't know.

She thinks she does, and maybe one day she will, but for everything that Allison's seen she doesn't know how wrong this line of work can go.

"You don't know how bad it gets."

Tick tock.

Time's up, and she's closer than ever, well within the blast radius with him. The counter's at the point of no return, and the only thing left to do is try to outrun what's coming.

There isn't even time to holster his gun. Jason lets it drop and takes off at a dead run, barreling towards her to strike with an impact he can't afford to soften. Even as he feels the wind go out of her, Jason hears the whine as the mechanism locks behind him, the "No!" a strangled shout in his throat, and then they're flying as he leaps for every desperate inch he can get between them and the blast.

It hits like a fist between his armored shoulderblades, not pain at first but a hand that grabs and carries him off his feet. He twists against the force of it, contorting to cover as much of Allison as he can, but it seems to go on forever, a great wall of silence that finally cracks over into a deafening noise.

He feels heat at his neck, hears a rattle that doesn't belong in his helmet, and just like that the moment breaks. Hurtling downward, Jason twists one last time, absorbing their impact with the ground against his own body.

[theresalwayshope]

When his body collided with hers, for a second the world went mad as the air left her lungs. For a terrifying moment, she was the victim again and he was sweeping in, sweeping her away, and though she couldn't breathe she felt absolutely safe...

Then the explosion wiped out everything.

She didn't lose consciousness, but it felt like she had. It wasn't the heat, she'd felt pure fire that terrifying night at the Glen Capri, living flame with the single-minded purpose of not just destroying, but killing. It was more the sound, and the concussive outward pressure of the explosion that sent them both flying, overwhelming her senses and her self-awareness so completely she couldn't think, couldn't function. The sound was worse than a thousand howling werewolves calling to a thousand screaming banshees, and the force of the blast was harder than any superhuman blow she'd ever been dealt, even with the Red Hood's body to buffer her from the worst of it--

Red.

Panic crept into her chest at the moment they fell, even though she was physically stunned, still fighting for breath in the aftermath of that oxygen-stealing heat. It felt like years, but was more like a full minute before she could force her limbs to function enough that she could push herself off his body, now under her.

"Red?"

Her ears were ringing, loud enough that she had to check for blood. Finding none, she had to trust that the dull, muted sound of her own voice was loud enough to be heard, not realizing she was shouting just to do more than feel her own vocal chords vibrate.

"Red?!"

Her voice was still a high, shaky wheeze, nearly a shriek as her hands skimmed over his arms, shoulders, chest, searching for injuries and finding nothing visible. There's something more to his gear, beneath the yield of leather, over the warmth of skin...armor. Obviously.

Thread the needle. His life depends on it.

Pushing back her hood, her own domino was all that hid her as her hand sat in the middle of his chest. Face streaked with soot, eyes glistening with unshed tears of panic, she left it there, warring with herself for a long moment as she stared down into his masked face.

Maybe he was stunned. She didn't even know if he was conscious.

His life depends on it.

"Red, talk to me." she urged, voice still too loud as her hands finally went to his helmet, dimly recalling his warning that it was rigged with explosives as her fingers slid down to the base, searching for some kind of release mechanism.

If he spoke to her, she could stop. If he said something, she wouldn't have to do it.

If he could prove he was all right, she'd never have to know...but if he couldn't...

One way or another, she had to make sure the Red Hood was alive.

[prodigaljaybird]

There's something hard against his back, a faint pressure on his chest.

It's as much as Jason can gather for long moments. The smoke comes next, rising up around him, the muted thuds of something small but heavy falling over and over - bricks - a noise that's growing louder in his ears.

The more he comes to, the more everything hurts. Licking a lip he's bitten, Jason performs a sluggish inventory. Concussion likely, one cheek a solid bruise, three ribs contused if not cracked, right knee twisted, hands heavy, but he can almost lift one, the situation dire, but not unsalvageable if he can get out of here before the cops show with -

Allison. Jason jerks, finally recognizing the pressure against his sternum as her hand, the murky shape above him resolving to her frightened face. She's crying, but from fear or from pain Jason can't tell, cheeks filthy and blood behind her ear. A cut or something worse? He doesn't know, can't tell from this angle, and Jason's heart picks up until he's dizzy with it.

Fumbling a hand from the ground, he reaches for her cheek, intent on turning it so he can see, but the ground lurches beneath him, becomes a sucking maw that pulls him down, down. He can't make it stop, can't get his feet under him, and with a quiet sound of distress, Jason lets his hand fall, lost to the blackness that's rising up to claim him.

[theresalwayshope]

Allison was ready to push his hand aside when it dropped, falling bit by bit, landing limp at his side with the rest of him as he tried and failed to rise...

His life depends on it.

Swallowing a sob that threatened, Allison redoubled her efforts, finally curling a hand at his nape and lifting him to tip his head back, desperate to find a catch. It took some fumbling, and she might never truly recall what she did, but when she was rewarded with a hiss and a seam in the helmet, allowing her to slide it off, she felt like she could breathe again...

Until she looked into the Red Hood's face for the first time.

...I knew it was you.

Surprise, confusion, even anger...none of those were the first thing she felt. Only that sudden, strange sense of calm that settled over her, because she had known. Down in her gut, in all the most primitive parts of her that came alive when she'd been a werewolf...in her heart, she'd known.

How safe she felt. That attraction. I trust you. Even now, she trusted him.

...and there it was. The anger, the shock, the betrayal.

Jason Todd was the Red Hood...but Jason wasn't safe, he was the Red Hood. Unconscious, bleeding, possibly dying.

Thread the needle. Help him. Kill him later, but for now help him.

Gathering his face between her hands, she shook him gently.

"Red?" she got out. She had to be careful, just in case. "Red, can you hear me?!"

When she got no answer, Allison swallowed past the bile in her throat, then leaned in to speak directly into his ear...just in case, just in case, she had to protect him just in case...

"Jason...can you hear me?"

[prodigaljaybird]

It's a voice that could call him back from anywhere, and Jason struggles towards it, pushing past layers of pain and exhaustion and nausea to reach her. Her hands are cool against his burning cheeks, which is wrong, he knows, but can't remember why past the balm of her touch. He blinks his eyes open, for a long moment relieved that she's okay, she's talking. And then the wind whips at his cheek and Jason goes cold all over.

Staggering upright, he curls one arm around his middle even as he touches his own face, the domino intact beneath his fingertips, but he can tell by the look on Allison's face that it isn't enough.

She'd called him Jason.

Trapped in some muddled place between horror and despair, Jason gapes at her, and for all his planning he's never planned for this - not to be unmasked against his will, against design, had never planned to let the Hood get so vulnerable that it could be a danger, and now.

And now the building behind them is collapsing inwards, sirens distant but getting closer, and Jason holds out a gloved hand in tatters, hoping beyond reason that she'll at least let him get her out of here.

[theresalwayshope]

Through the haze of emotion, adrenaline, and raw fear, there was still something left in Allison that hurt for him as he roused himself, realizing he'd been exposed. Anyone that didn't know him like she did, the domino might be enough to screw with a police description...but she knew those lips, those eyes, that brow...all she would ever need to do was touch that face, and with no eyes, no other senses, she could name him, pluck him from a crowd, claim him as her own, her Jason...

The one I love.

Taking a deep breath, she watched him as he offered her his hand, just like that first night...giving her that choice again as if she had one. That hurt the worst, because there was no choice. Not now that she knew, not now that she knew that she loved him...

I trust you. God help me, you son of a bitch, I still trust you. I love you. I'm going to make you sorry you were ever born, but you're pack, you're mine, and I still trust you.

Her jaw set, nostrils flared with rage as she drew her hood back over her head. The anger, the wounded pride was written openly across her face, but just like that first night, she took his hand...not meekly and gratefully, but with a grip that could shatter stone.

And, with her free hand, she very deliberately reached out and grabbed his helmet before he could even think about hiding his face again.

[prodigaljaybird]

What relief he feels at her touch is quickly dispelled by her iron grip, the sight of his helmet dangling from her fingers almost enough to take Jason off his feet again. Fortunately, the approaching sirens provide enough peril that he doesn't have to deal with that quite yet.

Curling an arm around her waist, Jason steadies himself to aim and fires a line, grunting as the sudden journey upwards tugs at his ribs. He doesn't stop with the first roof, not the second or the third, finally slowing near the tenth to land in an empty alley. He's breathing hard, rare sweat on his face from pain and a terror that only rises the longer he stands next to her, dragging breath after breath into his lungs.

"Allison," he says, but he doesn't know where to start. The only thing Jason knows right now is where it might end, and he can't bring himself to make that come around any faster. Slumping against the brick wall behind them, Jason stares at her.

[theresalwayshope]

When they landed, when Jason was slumped against a wall (Jason, the Red Hood, the same man) looking half dead and terrified, Allison walked right up to him, yanking back her hood, then her own domino so she could be fully seen.

The anger. The betrayal. Every emotion laid bare for his viewing.

She stood there, seething, staring...

...then drew back and threw a punch right at his jaw. Almost immediately, she grabbed him by the collar, hanging on as the angry tears in her eyes finally slipped free.

"Allison? Really?" she hissed, barely a whisper. "You could have died tonight...died any given night, and after everything...after the mugger, the fire bees, every night you're out here with me, risking your neck while I have no idea...all you can say is my name?!?" Her grip shifted, fingers grabbing him roughly by the hair as her voice rose to something like a scream, her control faltering.

"What part of I love you did you not understand, you arrogant fucking jackass?!?"

And, just to make the source of her fury very clear, Allison dragged him in so she could kiss him...tasting blood and not caring, her abused lungs protesting while she kept kissing him...clinging to him like a lifeline, because he was.

She wasn't sure she could ever forgive him for this...but she would kill every last soul in Darrow before she would ever let him go.

Even over this.

[prodigaljaybird]

His head snaps with the punch, the force of it against already abraded skin enough to black his vision, but it's nothing compared to the pain he feels at the sight of her face. It's not just the blood he put there, or the grime - he put that anger there, too, that fear and those tears, put that tremor in her voice.

And then she hauls him in and kisses him and it's like being punched all over again, all the moreso when she releases him and Jason still can't decide which part of this was a mistake.

Letting her see his face? Or starting this at all?

"I wasn't to hurt you," he finally ekes out. "Allison." You don't know how bad it gets. Even as she's clinging to him, Jason can't decide if she's going to leave. He knows very well what it is to love someone with all your heart and still turn away, to run for the slim chance that you can still make it out intact, and for a moment he almost wants that for her.

She'd be safer.

The thought of it still feels like bleeding out.

"It wasn't."

[theresalwayshope]

"Well, guess what: it did. You did." she spat when the kiss broke, staying close enough to touch, to hold...never really letting go as she grabbed his shoulders and shook him, features contorted with fury and eyes star-bright with angry tears as she kept talking. "You sit there and you tell me how much you love how dangerous I am...and then what? You try to protect me from the Red Hood? I get not telling me about your past, I understand that..."

She trailed off, her face twisting with a fresh surge of anger just before she suddenly flung herself into his arms.

She needed to walk away. Step back, be furious, hate him for a while. She didn't want to give into the urge to just keep punching him until he understood, or slapping him until he felt every single shred of betrayal that was in her. She needed to lance this wound, let it drain safely...then yell at him.

And keep yelling until he understood.

The fear wouldn't let her walk away, though, because Jason had just saved her life. He'd nearly died, saving her life and all she could envision was his death, and her never knowing where Jason had gone or what had happened to him, because he'd been blown to bits in an explosion rigged by his own alter ego.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, the helmet falling forgotten on the ground, she pressed her face to his neck and finally let the tears fall as she held on.

"I swear to God, if you ever go trolling for bad guys without at least calling from now on, I am breaking up with you on the spot, you fucking jerk." she hissed against his neck, giving him another little shake before drawing back to meet his gaze. "Because let's get one thing clear: this is not your Get Out Of Jail Free card. This just means the Red Hood got himself a new partner, and...I need a few days to cool off so I don't kill you. I can't kill you now, you're hurt--Jesus, you're hurt. Do you need a hospital? God, if I have to take you to the hospital like this--goddamnit, if I didn't love you so much I'd hate your fucking guts right now..."

[prodigaljaybird]

Jason keeps his good leg locked, all of his weight and most of hers distributed between it and the wall, and he lets her cry. He lets her rage, not disagreeing in words or even thoughts for the most part, even if he can't let her be a partner. Not yet, if ever, not like she wants, but then she doesn't know what she's asking for. Not completely.

"We're covered in evidence," he says when her threats become questions. "No hospital." His ribs hurt worse than ever after their flight, but he's used to it. This is what he does, and for all her anger Allison doesn't understand.

"I was trained by the League of Assassins," he says, wishing she knew his world, knew to be scared just for his association with that name, let alone membership. "By the All Caste. The worst of what I can do is necessary, but it's dirty, Allison. I don't want to ruin you. I know you think you know what that means, but you don't."

Grimacing with pain, he holds her back just far enough to look at her. "The things I do aren't good, and you are, even when you're tough or cruel. Jason isn't the whole me." He touches her cheek like he'd tried to before, half expecting to be struck, but he can't help himself. He loves her, and he hasn't let her know him. He'd tried to be like Bucky, tried to hold at arm's length the people that needed to stay there for their own good, but of course he's fucked it up. Allison's been part of him from that first look, and no mask was ever going to stop that.

"I just wanted to give you the good parts. When you see the rest, you might not love me anymore."

[theresalwayshope]

"Idiot." she growled between her teeth, eyes shutting and leaning greedily into his touch as his hand found her cheek. More tears slid from her eyes as she reached up to catch his hand, turning her head to kiss his gloved palm before those furious eyes met his again. "God, I can't let you do anything without supervision...you don't know anything about women, do you? Either one of the stupid halves of your stupid personality!"

To make her point, she looked down and nudged the helmet with the toe of her boot, careful not to kick it too hard before she looked up at him again.

"I've wanted him, didn't you realize that? I've been terrified of how he made me feel, I...God, I honestly thought I could love two guys at once, I had to be so goddamn careful about how I acted around Helmet Head..."

She blamed how mad she was for the sudden, blistering fantasy that flickered through her head right then of tearing off that body armor and taking him right in the alley...and if he weren't injured, she might have at least tormented him with that. Instead, she kicked his good leg, sharp but not hard enough to take him down.

"I love the man that killed for me as much as the boy who asked my permission for our first kiss. And the only way you're getting rid of me is to aim that gun at my face the next time you draw on me...so I'm getting you home, I'm getting you patched up, and then you are going to leave me the hell alone for about a week while I decide if I'm going to let you live this down." She was already softening, some part of her already forgiving him, and Allison hated herself for it.

She needed to be angry. She couldn't let him do this again, shelter her from his dark side when all she wanted was to lose herself in all of him and never find her way back to the light.

"And if you argue with me about any of that, Red," she finished with a little growl, dragging him back in to press her forehead against his, "I'll break your wrist, I swear to God."

[prodigaljaybird]

He's dizzy with it, so much he hadn't hoped for suddenly in his lap and threatening him with broken bones, her determination almost enough to make him believe the impossible - that he won't fuck her up, won't get her killed, that he won't be something Allison has to turn from in the end. Her forehead meets his, and Jason's expression crumples, shock sucking at his composure until it's one tiny thread and ready to unravel.

He has no idea what to do. He misses Bucky like a hole in his heart, misses Steve and Natalia perversely when they're right here in the city and don't know him. On the island, any one of them would have known exactly what to do, but here...Here Jason's just lost.

"I don't know about women," he finally concedes, voice a mangled thing between them. "I don't know about anything." And he hurts, not just in his heart but in his body, functions he can't regulate when his head is so fucked up, and every anxious breath he takes more painful than the last.

"I'm sorry," he says, tears spilling down his cheeks, and a part of him knows it isn't fair, to cry when she's the one he's hurt, but he can't help it. The sob is almost boyish when it comes, and Jason hiccups it down, straightening himself up for the piteous journey home.