Ohana

Doggone It

This chapter wasn't supposed to go here. I put it here anyway. Have a character I wasn't expecting to introduce yet.

xXx

The lamp had been on for a solid hour now, and the backlit figure visible in the cracked-open window had been in the room nearly the entire time. The powerful, sleek car had roared out of the cave half an hour ago, and the two figures in the kitchen hadn't moved for the past forty-five minutes. Now was as good a time as any.

Jason slid down the tree trunk, careful not to make any noise so as to avoid triggering one of many security measures utilized by the billionaire owner of the manor. He could have disabled them all, but he figured it would have been harder to cover the hacking of the entire system than a few key parts.

He scaled the drainpipe (reinforced for that very purpose, believe it or not) and latched onto the windowsill, setting his jaw. This was it.

He slid open the window and sat up on the sill.

The lanky teen inside had his right arm and wing stretched toward the ceiling, leaning to the left as he murmured something under his breath-- counting or a mantra, Jason couldn't tell. His back was mottled a light shade of pink surrounding the giant wings protruding from it, and Jason winced at the sight of the backwards J between them. Each wing looked dark in the evening light, but the illumination from the lamp occasionally caught them and they gleamed a golden brown.

"Hey, kid," Jason greeted. "Whatcha doing?"

Tim whirled around, almost catching the edge of his desk with one of his wings as he turned. His eyes were wide with alarm, but he was quickly composing himself, analyzing the strange intruder. "Who are you?" he asked distrustfully.

Jason slipped down from the window and took a few steps toward the younger vigilante, stopping just out of wing-whacking distance. "Red Hood. You might have heard of me?"

The winged teen's eyes darted over him, reading him as all associates of Batman are trained to do. Jason wasn't sure of everything he picked up, but it was probably enough to both dissuade and arouse suspicion. "I have," Tim answered shortly, not giving anything away.

When in doubt, play it close to the chest, Jason supposed. "How much has Bruce told you?" he asked.

"About you? Why would he talk about you?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "Evidently not much. I know all about you and Bruce and Dick and the whole Bat-gig. You don't need to protect anyone's identity."

Tim's eyes narrowed. "Then what do you want?"

Still suspicious. Bats really hasn't changed. "I wanted to talk to you before Bruce did."

The wings on his back shifted, and he placed a hand on the back of the chair at his desk, almost casually. Jason couldn't tell if it was to give him something to do with his hands or to help him keep his balance. "Talk to me about what?"

Jason placed his hands on the base of his helmet and released the mechanism holding it in place. There was a quiet hiss, and he lifted it off, revealing a maskless face framed by dark hair. His furry brown ears twitched, relieved to be free from the confines of the hood. "My name is Jason Todd."

Tim probably would have fallen over if he wasn't holding onto the chair. "Wait, you're-- as in--"

"Previous Robin, former Boy Wonder and partner of Batman until my unfortunate passing, yeah. That Jason." One of his ears involuntarily flicked back in amusement. "Next question."

"How are you not dead?" Tim managed to ask through his shock. He seemed to be taking the news relatively well. At least better than Bruce did, but Bruce was also in a far worse emotional state.