AKA "Investigating the culprit cleaning up Crime Alley would be a lot easier for Red Hood, if the shockingly beautiful and sharp-tongued Jasmine Fenton would stop distracting him." DPxDC Anger Management prompt!
Embarrassingly enough, Jason doesn't actually realize anything has changed until he ends up helmet-first in the dumpster outside of his apartment. (Gotham rooftops are slippery, okay?) Jason is just cutting off his comms, and Tim's hysterical laughter, when he realizes that it's... bright. Suspiciously bright.
When he climbs out of the dumpster, he realizes the entire skinny four-foot-wide alleyway is illuminated in a soft orange glow from lights affixed to the building wall. Which definitely hadn't been there before. Even more suspicious is that there's no trash bags, broken glass, or heaps of squishy, rancid identifiable shit littering the alleyway. Somebody cleaned and put up outdoor lights.
After that, Jason starts noticing weird things around his apartment complex. Plants on the fire escape, curtains open, and a honest-to-god bulletin board with helpful resources hung up near the mail room. There's information for food pantries, domestic violence and sexual assault shelters, addresses to free healthcare clinics, and more (mostly funded by Red Hood or the Martha Wayne Foundation). The most damning evidence was the fact that the bold headline read Park Row Resources.
That's when Jason starts thoroughly investigating because no Gothamite in their right mind still considers Crime Alley to be Park Row. Except. Every lead bumps right into a certain red-headed menace who has more cutthroat comments about his "old man white hair" than common sense.
Jason's investigating somebody building Little Libraries? Jasmine is there, squeezing the Percy Jackson series into the little wood box. They argue about Greek mythology the entire time Jason walks her home to their her apartment. He's investigating somebody hosting an "After Hours Tutoring" class at the Gotham Public Library? Jasmine is there, quietly reciting information on the Silk Road to a group of middle schoolers. He ends up helping a couple of kids with their English homework since he's already there. He may as well help out. (Babs gives him a half-incredulous, half-exasperated stare when he tells her his problem with the Cleaning Culprit.)
It gets to the point where Jason as Red Hood is hearing his goons gossiping how helpful the community garden is (and where the hell is that??) and how this "Jazz" person donated several dozen packs of bottled water to the community center after Scarecrow micro-dosed the water supply with Fear Toxin. Advocating for sanitary crews, petitioning to defund the corrupt police in GCPD and re-allocate funds to social services, and more. (Quietly, Jason wonders if Crime Alley really could change for the better. Maybe it won't be like Park Row ever again, but it doesn't have to be.)
All thoughts of the Cleaning Culprit disappear the second Jasmine's apartment door opens and her bright blue eyes crinkle in happiness. She waves him in (and his homemade Alfred-approved pasta), talks about her newest obsession with hydroponic gardens, and he doesn't even hear as many gunshots outside. When they lounge on the couch to watch Grey Ghost together and her fingers gently, carefully, comb through Jason's hair... he thinks maybe the investigation doesn't really matter after all.
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