reddeadbird (reddeadbird) wrote in newalliance, @ 2014-06-05 12:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | red hood, speedy ii |
Who: Mia Dearden & Jason Todd
When: May 10, after midnight
Where: Mia’s university apartment in NYC
What: Jason finally decides to leave Gotham and visit Mia…
Rating: PG-13, language. Completed in GDoc
Jason wasn’t one to leave Gotham. In fact, he hadn’t left Gotham since returning from his training and his rebirth as the Red Hood. There was too much work to be done. Too much to clean up from Batman’s mess of not doing jackshit.
So, he shouldn’t have been distracted from his mission.
And yet, here he was. Reclining on the balcony ledge of Mia’s university apartment, tap tap tapping at the glass window. While he’d stashed his red helmet somewhere safe already, the crimson domino mask was still firmly fastened to his face.
However, Mia was not his sole purpose for coming to NYC. Once he took over as leader of the Sprang Bridge gang, there was certain information he became privy to that few others had, including the whereabouts of some of the meth making laboratories. One of which happened to be in an abandoned shoe warehouse in the NYC highline area.
Unfortunately, the destruction of said warehouse didn’t go down as smoothly as he’d hoped. He’d suffered a superficial knife wound to his upper left shoulder. Nothing too deep, and nothing that hurt really, but one could see the bloodstains even now through the hasty bandage he’d applied. He expected he would just bandage it up better to heal the wound properly after he got somewhere he could sit down and have a mirror in front of him.
And for some reason, that somewhere happened to be Mia’s apartment.
***********************
Mia had been attempting to study. She was laying on her stomach on her bed with her book out in front of her. She had her iPod on, but really she was having trouble concentrating. Mostly she had her pen bouncing between her fingers and tapping at the book.
She didn’t notice anyone tapping at her window right away. It wasn’t until a few second gap between songs that she heard it. What the hell? Everyone she knew used her door. She looked up. It was dark, but she could definitely make out who it was at her window. She pulled the earbuds from her ears. She didn’t even know what to think about him showing up at her place. Thankfully, no one else was here.
She unlatched the window and opened it up. “Get your ass in here before someone sees you.” Once he was inside she locked the window back up. “Why are you here? Do you have a weird sixth sense that I ordered a pizza five minutes ago…”
It was only when she turned around that she got a really good look at him, noticing a bandage peaking out of his neckline. “You’re hurt.” Obvious.
**************************
A smirk grew on his face as Mia ordered him inside, sliding in through the window. “Nice outfit. You didn’t have to go and get your jimjams on just for me,” he said, nodding at her pink and green pajama ensemble, his smirk widening into a grin.
The reason why he showed up was fairly complicated, but if she was going to go with pizza, then he was OK rolling with that. “I have a sixth sense for a lot of things. Delicious food happens to be one of them.”
He shrugged out of his black leather jacket once she noticed the bloodied bandage. Dual red glocks were holstered under his arms and his Kris knife was neatly tucked into a sheath in the back of his own utility belt. There were no logos on Jason; he was no Bat.
He replied to her comment with a nonchalant glance at the wounded area. “It’s nothing. ...What are you working on?” His perceptive eyes darted around the room, spying the homework on the bed.
**********************
“Because I totally knew you were stopping by and pick my clothes accordingly.” Her eyes just about rolled out of her head at that joke. She quirked a bit of a smile though. “There could be worse sixth senses to have.”
She was already poking at his shoulder. The bandage was very red. “Nothing.” She repeated sounding completely unimpressed. She understood wounds not even hurting. Sometimes adrenaline or just a tolerance to pain worked that way. And while she wouldn’t say the wound was bleeding profusely, there seemed to be more blood than there should be. “Save me the male machismo bullshit.” She said, shaking her head.
She ignored what she was working on. He was using it to change the subject. Instead she walked to the side of her bed and pulled out a long box which had a bow and quiver inside. But she reached back again for a rather large box with a red cross on it. “Drop the weapons, take the shirt off.” she motioned to the door. “Next door on the right is the bathroom.”
************************
Jason moved ever so slightly so that Mia wasn’t poking directly at the wound, but rather just to the side of it. Even if she had poked a nagging finger at the wound, it wasn’t likely he’d have made a pained sound; he was trained -- just like Bruce -- in foregoing pain.
His grin didn’t fade even as he removed his weapons and set them on her desk chair. He didn’t really think too much about removing them, but there was a hypercritical part of his brain that noted he wouldn’t have simply let loose his guard -- or his guns for that matter -- around anyone else. Still, he set that aside.
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied jovially as he made his way past the short blonde and into the bathroom and leaving the door slightly ajar behind him. Since he needed to disinfect the wound anyways, he jumped in the shower. After less than five minutes, he was out again, towelling off with Mia’s own PowerPuff Girls towel (an absolutely delightful find).
He threw on his black pants and ran a quick hand through his black hair while he rummaged for a sewing kit. The wound wasn’t big; it only needed between six to eight stitches, something he could easily do in under 20 minutes on his own. When he couldn’t find one, he called out to Mia: “Hey. Where d’you keep your first aid kit?”
******************
Mia hadn’t expected to hear the shower run, but the placement of the wound probably required it. That or he was trying to be annoying. She shook her head. It didn’t really matter. But he was in the shower long enough for the pizza to come and do a few other things. When she heard him call for her. She grabbed a rather large kit from her room. She set it on the bathroom sink.
Opening it up, it was more mini mobile infirmary than a kit that would be in a regular house. She flipped the seat down on the toilet. “Sit.” She said not unkindly. “Now, I’ve actually got something to give you.” She said holding up a little vial. “Or we can do this the stubborn way.”
She already knew the answer, she pulled out other things. “This isn’t too terribly bad.” She said pulling out some antiseptic. She dabbed his cut, trying to be a bit gentle. She knew for a fact it probably stung. “I think six’ll do it.” She tossed the antiseptic pad in the trash. And stepped up closer to him so she could better see what she was doing.
His skin was warm, but not overly so to be worried about inflammation from an infection. “Next time? Next time you should definitely try to not get stabbed.”
************************
He’d protested and told Mia he was fine, that it was really nothing, but she already managed to get him seated and let her not just inspect the wound, but start to clean it and thread the stitching needle.
Jason was left wondering just how exactly he managed to find himself in this position as Mia bent down over him, her oversized pajama t-shirt leaving an open gap at the neck. Her chest caught his gaze, but he looked away, trying to respect her privacy.
He focused instead on her slender neck and the way her long hair -- almost always held up in a ponytail -- was swept over her shoulder. He made no sound as the antiseptic stung his skin and firmly gritted his teeth when she began threading the needle through his skin. Absently -- and perhaps, in his mind for stabilization -- he placed his right hand at the side of her waist, just above her hip.
“Well, even the Ba --” he paused, gritting his teeth again, but this time with distinct annoyance, “the best suffer a wound once in awhile.”
*********************
She tensed for a second when he grabbed her waist. She hadn’t been expecting him to touch her, and really it probably was overly familiar, but she didn’t say anything. It seemed to stop the teeny little involuntary twitches muscles could make under someone else’s hands, and that was helpful.
She rolled her eyes but only a little and she went for the second stitch and then the third. She was kind of old hat at this. And really there was nothing complicated about simple sutures. “How did you get this one?” She asked. She was a little unsure if she wanted to know, but hey get his mind off of Batman would be nothing but a good thing probably. She smirked. “I’ll tell you about one of mine.”
***********************
He was quiet for a moment as Mia finished the last few stitches, his calloused thumb absently rubbing against her soft skin. He had an urge to tell her things that he might not tell anyone else, but he had a much more powerful inner voice telling him not to reveal too much to her. Mia was one of his only friends in the world and he had already caused a rift in her trusting him when she'd found out on her own that he was the Red Hood. And the Red Hood... Well, Jason didn't play by the "cape" rules.
"...Stabbed. During a scuffle. Nothing I couldn't handle," he finally responded. That all was true, in spite of him leaving out the ...extraneous details. "Oh really? Does yours also involve your shirt being off?" He gave her a signature smirk as his eyes briefly dropped down to gesture at his bare chest.
***************
Well, that was incredibly brief and truthful. She didn’t know why she was expecting a story. She cut the string off the last suture and turned slightly to put it away to the side of the sink before digging out some bandages and medical tape. She felt his thumb move against her skin, and she had an automatic response to that, which was to sway a bit out of his reach, while stifling a giggle. It sounded more like snort. She didn’t say anything about it though.
She rolled her eyes, and she couldn’t help it when her eyes followed when he gestured at his chest. “I was in my pajamas.” Well for the one she’d tell him about at least. She finished bandaging up his wound. She smoothed down the tape.
She lifted her right shoulder up and pulled the large collar of her shirt down. There was a scar there, no bigger than the a thumbnail. She turned quickly to show the matching one of the other side that was a little smaller, though not much. “Arrow. Straight through the shoulder. Hurt like a bitch.” There it was the same amount of information he’d given without the fun details.
***************
Jason liked getting a reaction out of people. And he was really good at it. As Robin, he would he get fascination or derision. But as the Red Hood, he was getting a much more varied response: fear, anger, betrayal. It wasn’t often that when he was just Jason that he got such a reaction, but the most positive reactions he’d had in his life since his return from the dead were from Mia.
His signature smirk stayed in place, but he found himself genuinely enjoying the way his touch tickled her and the way her nose wrinkled when she tried to feign off a giggle. But then, Mia was distracting herself and she pulled down her shirt a bit to reveal the scar on her shoulder.
“An arrow, huh? Not a bad first scar,” Jason reached up with his right hand, taking it off her waist and ran that same thumb along the scar. He looked up at her and she was so close to him right now. Which made him realize that perhaps he actively sought Mia out for her positive reactions for a …reason.
But, he could distract himself, too. “So. You gonna show me the damage you did?”
******************
She didn’t correct him. It wasn’t her first scar. It was just definitely the first one that had a story she might be willing to tell about, outside of the very faded barely there scar on her calf from a bike accident as a kid.
She glanced down at his thumb tracing said scar, and she swallowed. Suddenly, she was a little bit uncomfortable with the closeness. Her eyes flickered back at him looking at her and she shrugged as if it was a natural part of their conversation, but the movement did shrug her neckline back to where it should be.
“I wish I could say, you should see the other guy.” After all that asshole Drakon had gotten away. “Anyway that’s all the info you get, considering the info you gave me.” She said with a bit of a snort. She was teasing, and she didn’t really need to know his business..
She stepped back and started packing the first aid kit up, before squatting down to stash it under the sink. “I suppose I don’t have to give you the lecture on proper suture care.” She joked. “You know, keep it dry and clean, wear a bandage if you having something on that’ll rub it. I’d probably keep them in a couple weeks since it’s a stretchy joint area.” She looked up at him. “So pizza?” He might need to take off. She didn’t mind being a pit stop either.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was something that felt comfortable and at the same time very awkward about how close they were. Mia shrugged her shirt back in place and Jason pulled his hand away, feeling suddenly off-kilter and a little… hurt? He couldn’t pinpoint the feeling at the moment, and frankly didn’t want to, so he naturally shrugged it off as well.
“Drakon, huh? What’d you do to him?” He said, standing up and pointedly ignoring that she was teasing him about the lack of information he’d given her. All things considered, he was giving her a hell of a lot of information. Certainly more than he was prepared to give anyone else.
He picked his undershirt up off the floor and pulled it on before inspecting the stitched up wound in the mirror. It was actually a really clean stitch, which he shouldn’t have been so surprised about, though the look on his face would have suggested otherwise. “Thanks for the tips, babe,” he replied, as he let his own shirt slide back into place. “Does this mean I can count on you as my own personal doctor?”
She then suggested pizza, and he had considered taking off, but was now clean and bandaged and settled, so why not? “Sure…” he said, following her out of the bathroom.
***************************
She was quiet for a second letting a bit of an awkward moment pass. Though she didn’t know why it felt so awkward in the first place.
“Nothing but be a proper little hostage.” She said. “At the time he was… very much above my skillset.” She sounded a bit bitter, but it had happened so soon after moving in, and she really was ill equipped. Thinking about it still kind of rankled. Although she supposed being able to keep your cool and head when being a hostage was an important skill. She just didn’t like thinking about how that particular skill had been honed in her.
But she didn’t like thinking about any of that, to say the least. She much prefered her life now. She gave him a bit of a look. “I should give you my resume. I’m also pretty good with bullet removal as well.” If it wasn’t a place you needed to instantly go to the hospital for at any rate.
She watched as he put his shirt back on. “Um…” It was kind of gross considering the blood stain on it. “Do you want me to run that through the wash?”
She walked into the kitchen and started pulling a couple of cups and plates down from the cupboards. “Serious note? In Hell’s Kitchen, there’s a doctor. Everyone calls her the Night Nurse. Anyway she specializes in people like us and their injuries.” She grinned over her shoulder. “You know, so you’re ass doesn’t actually bleed out somewhere.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
Jason gave a slight frown behind her as she suggested she could wash his shirt. For starters, he didn’t think a bit of blood on his shirt was that big a deal. And, he could wash it on his own. And for another thing, he didn’t want Mia thinking he had shown up to see her so she could play his nurse and handmaiden.
He certainly hoped she realised he respected her a lot more than that. “...Nah,” he said as he took one of the offered plates and put two slices of pizza on it. “It’s fine.”
He took a bite of the pizza and swallowed as she told him about the doctor in Hell’s Kitchen. Rolling his eyes behind her back, he quipped: “Well, then I wouldn’t be able to come to you to play doctor, now could I?”
Not that he had come to her to play doctor in the first place. But he was not about to see some random doctor in Hell’s Kitchen. If the situation was that bad, he knew a certain Dr. Thompkins would have a better contact for him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“True.” She said with a shrug as she got some ice and a soda from her fridge. “But that way there’s not blood stains all over a place it’d be nice to get the security deposit back for.” Although now that might be a major problem considering Cassie and Cissie both moving in.
She took her stuff to the coffee table and flopped down on the couch. She grabbed the remote. “You better like Dog Cops.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~