summary: You draw flowers around jason's scars in hopes of making him feel better about them.
pairing: Jason Todd x Artist! fem!reader
author's note: Jason has the Y-shaped scar, inaccuracies, body painting, flower symbolism, had this in my drafts for weeks and I just wanted this out lmao. Maybe OOC. soft fluff (hurt/comfort) , one mention of ER but nothing happens. Not really happy with this tho :( wc: 1.3k
Comments and reblogs appreciated!
The first time Jason Todd is shirtless in front of you, his emerald eyes don't meet yours. They fleet and lock on to anything except you, a flush spreading through his body.
No, this was not that Jason was flustered; it was different.
Almost like he was ashamed.
It's 3 AM in the morning when the sound of heavy boots padding across your living room fills the silence of the house. Jason was home early today, which was a little unusual as his patrol tends to stretch beyond timings due to Gotham being Gotham.
You step into the hallway, his shirt loose on your body. It had been only a few months into your relationship. His black shirt is a tad bit loose on your body, causing you to hug yourself when you feel the cool air from the window reach your skin through the crevices of your attire.
"Fuck", He groans, holding his stomach and his other hand gripping the counter of your kitchen.
"Jason, are you okay?"
"Hey baby", he straightens up, his hair a mess and face devoid of any indication of hurt, like he was not groaning seconds ago. "I thought you'd be asleep."
"I tried, but — wait, is that blood?" You had come a little closer while answering him, and the dim lights above had finally cast enough light for you to see the dampened fabric of his suit . Jason can see the way the edges of your lips turn downward, the skin at your forehead crease —a frown in place .
He hated that. He hated that he made you worried.
"It's nothing —" Jason tries moving to the bathroom, but you immediately shift, standing in front of him with your arms crossed and jaw tight.
"Nope," you say, placing your arm on his bicep." Come on, I'll patch you up."
Now he is sitting on the toilet seat as you place the first aid kit onto the counter. Jason had suffered a cut on the side of his stomach, nothing major that needed you to go to the ER. You wash your hands and place a clean bandage on the injury as Jason takes a deep breath. Even if one is used to injuries, it doesn't exclude the pain every time.
You clean the wound, rinsing it with water and the surrounding area with soap. Usually, Jason liked talking, especially when you would treat his wounds on his arm or leg. But today, he had been quiet. You peeked glances at his face to see if he was in pain, but all you could notice was his green eyes not looking at you.
"Jay, am I doing something wrong?" you ask, your voice softened with anxiety. The only sound that filled the expanse on the small bathroom was your shared breathing and the occasional rustling of the first aid kit as you took out various components of it.
Silence makes you think, especially when silence wasn't common.
Whenever you two were together, the house was filled with giggles and love laced with sarcasm when needed. And even if there were to be silence, it was calm, almost like a weighted blanket that helped you sleep during the night.
But this was different; it was rather filled with doubts and red, akin to the helmet that lay on the counter.
"No, of course not. It's just my scars."
You can see the insecurity behind his eyes, taking the gruesome shape of a monster.
Jason trusted you more than anyone else. But almost like a reflex action of removing your hand away from a hot pan, he would always go to Dr Thompkins' clinic or patch them up himself. He knew you wouldn't judge him; in fact, one day, you had kissed all the scars on his face. Yet, he still couldn't bring himself to you, to show you the one laid across his chest. Today had been an exception with Dr Tompkins being out of Gotham and his pain a little too unbearable to be patched up on the streets.
" You are a beautiful man, you know that, right?" you ask, cupping his face gently. "I love all your scars , all of them."
Jason can see the truth gleaming through your eyes, a small smile tugging at his lips. But you knew better; some thoughts just don't go away like that.
But maybe you could help.
It's a Sunday evening, the setting sun illuminating the living room while soft jazz music floats through the space. Jason is sitting upright on the couch, back stiff as you giggle looking at him. You had planned this for weeks, hoping it would ease his thoughts in some way or form.
Jason is shirtless, Grey sweatpants hugging his lower body. Small cans of body paint lay scattered around you while you are on your knees, a paintbrush clutched in your hand.
"Do you trust me ?" you ask him, and you have never been more certain than now about his love for you as his eyes fill with confidence. He intertwines your hands, his thumb brushing circles on the back of your palm.
"With my life." you shake your head, letting a giggle pass from your lips, before dipping the brush into the tin can.
"Just sit still for some time. It will be worth it."
Jason had really no idea of what you were doing. Perhaps body painting was a new hobby you picked up recently. You were an artist — the evidence catalogued in multiple sketchbooks over the years and some framed on the walls of your home.
He can see the way your eyebrows scrunch in concentration as you mouth the lyrics to whatever song was playing on the speaker. The golden rays splay across your body, constructing a halo with the shadows on the opposite wall. He could see tiny paint streaks on your forearm, an artist's signature.
Hours passed by, and Jason didn't even need to look at his phone; after all, the process of an artist making art is art in itself.
"Done!" You stretch your arms above your head, looking at your creation. Jason could see flowers and a lot of them. But before he could ponder more, you pull him by the arm, dragging him to your bedroom. Standing in front of the mirror, he could see the alternating patterns of red and pink flora, lined along the arms of his Y-shaped scar -- almost like the flowers were sprouting from his scar.
You stand beside him now, only your hands visible in the mirror as you point at the white flower.
"This is gladiolus," you stare at his face before continuing ", It symbolises strength."
Jason stands almost dumbfounded, his hands firmly at his sides while he looks at his own body in the mirror. This is probably the longest he has stood across it without grimacing or immediately covering it up with a shirt. Your voice, like a melody, continues, finger pointing at the heart-shaped flower with an elongated end ,"This pink one, they are called bleeding hearts. It symbolises love and empathy."
"Jay, this is what you're to me." You whisper, "I hope you let the flowers grow from the deepest parts of you, the ones that you wish to cover from others and yourself."
Your heart beats at your chest. The idea had come after you had seen the way Jason acted the day he had a cut on his stomach. You were not sure how helpful this would be, whether you were doing the right thing or something stupid. Silence envelopes the room, and Jason has been staring at the flowers without even blinking once in the past few minutes.
"Jay, are you unco—"
There's a blur of your surroundings before your cheek is pressed against his chest, hands at your waist as his head slots itself between your neck and shoulder. You rub his back in circles, as you feel a drop of liquid on the expanse of your skin at your shoulder. Time passes, the sun sets completely, now illuminating the room with the golden from the streetlights. He murmurs before placing a kiss.
"Thank you"
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taglist:
for all works: @milkybbun @champagnesbiggestproblem @itachisrealm @batwngs @starr-jazz @arfemiz @goonette5 @currentblasphemy
Jason Todd: @caterppillar @kisses717
When it comes to the discussion of whether or not Tim should still be Robin, especially when I see so many comic book site articles about it--it bugs me. It's almost always written from the perspective of artificial rules, rather than the characters themselves.
And I won't lie to you.
That's sort of dumb.
I think if you write your characters based on superficial rules and not what they'd naturally do, you are almost definitely not a good character writer. You're instead kind of a hack.
If you wanna be convinced that Tim should be Robin still, you'll probably want to read this. We go through it all, from origins, to character development. To even bringing up Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, EDDIE BROCK, and even FLASH THOMPSON. To make the point as clear as it can be. So strap in, or strap on if you really have to do that while you read this. What ever floats your boat Time management is important and I hear that's been a lucrative industry for quite some time now.
Originally I was just going to be annoying and force this post to be super long on your dash and in the tags, but I don't have the heart to do that. But please, check out what's said down below.
Robin was never meant to be specifically a children's role, there was no reason to believe Dick would ever stop being Robin, until the 80s, when continuity was held in lot stronger regard, and they cared possibly way too much about the marketability of Batman and Robin as a duo.
Any time they showed an older Dick beforehand, if he wasn't already Batman to take the place of Bruce specifically, he was still Robin, because why would he not be? Seriously, why wouldn't he be? This is what was going to be expected from Robin.
So they made another Robin, in this case Jason, to be the Robin of Batman and Robin, and they honestly just got pretty lucky Dick at that point had been in a continuing character arc about getting out of Batman's shadow to begin with. So wanting a name less associated with Batman worked.
They got lucky that worked as well as it did.
And people still complained, because let's face it, it's kind of stupid to a degree. But there was enough logic that it stuck.
And then readers and writers didn't like Jason. Sure, maybe the vote was rigged. But there has been enough stated that would still greatly imply enough people didn't like Jason enough to motivate the idea to have the vote to kill him off to begin with. You simply don't normally do that with a beloved character.
So they made Tim Drake, a character who's entire existence, revolves around being Robin.
And allow me to explain what I mean by that, because given nearly every Robin was made with the intention to be Robin, that sounds like a pretty stupid statement.
For example.
Why is Dick Robin?
Because he is Robin. That was his crimefighter alias. What are you talking about?
Stupid question.
Why was Jason Robin?
Better question.
Because he was taken in, and depending on the continuity, was either gifted the title from Dick, or just plain freaking gave it by Batman, because, boy I don't know why they went with that. Certainly didn't help Jason's case when they were in the process of making him a rough around the edges character, people weren't gonna naturally like when his violent tendencies were revealed.
Why was Tim Robin?
Marv Wolfman basically had to make sure this character HAD to be Robin when making him. If they had another child die on Batman, Bruce may be seen as an f'n sadist for picking up more orphans almost as if he got enjoyment out of it.
Tim's life story was basically leading up to the point he became the third Robin.
He was there when the Grayson's fell, he figured out Batman and Robin's identity, he tracked down Dick to try and get him to be Robin again because he believed in Robin so much. He loved Robin over Batman.
And as even stated by Marv Wolfman himself, had no aspirations to be anything but Robin.
So do you now hopefully see the difference between a character that was made Robin, and a character that was made specifically to be the defacto Robin going forward, with his entire real world backstory entirely designed to be Robin, where as other characters were made to be themselves first and for most? (after post-crisis for Jason, but still.)
Robin was just who Dick was.
Robin was what Jason was given to try something new after Pre-Crisis Jason was a creative failure.
Robin was everything that motivated and powered who Tim is as a person and character.
You can take Robin away from Jason, and he'd still be who he is, just not Robin. A street kid, with bad mental health, but a heroic heart.
You take Robin away from Tim and what are you left with? Nobody really. Because so much of who Tim is, is specifically dictated by ROBIN.
Now obviously character development is a thing, but if you try to look at me straight in the eye and tried to convince me that DC handled everything amazingly in the transition from Tim to Damian, I'll laugh straight in your face.
Writers can write whatever they want. These characters aren't real people. I'm not gonna take what just any writer wrote as gospel, because this is a creative medium, and I can have my own opinions on rather or not I think an art piece achieved its goals. And I think having characters contradict past behaviors and beliefs to make something happen is some pretty awful character writing.
Seriously, I dare you to read Tim's entire Robin existence and act like you can give it a character analysis the same way you could a character like Jesse Pinkman or someone.
You'd be lying to yourself if you said you could because you couldn't. After a while they couldn't even keep consistency between series. Read Tim during One Year Later, both in Teen Titans, and his own Robin series, it's like two totally separate people. You'd have to do mental gymnastics to try and make it work.
We had mentally worn down, but still idealistic Boy Detective Tim going on the same time as--
Angsty, miserable, obsessive super genius scientist Tim--
Tim had never even been a scientist before, he's just a bit geeky. How the hell did he do this?
So let's not bother, shall we?
If we're gonna talk quality decisions, we have to deal with quality writing.
And I actually like Damian as Dick's Robin. It's the only time that character personally worked for me. But the way they handled it happening was absolutely terrible. This is not me hating on the character. You'll catch me shitting on a lot of Damian comics, nearly all of them even, but the character himself? I actually quite liked him when Grant Morrison was writing him, and I don't normally like their stuff.
Hell, I'd make the argument Damian should move on from Robin.
Maybe that sounds stupid to some. 'Oh but he's still a kid' some of you may say.
To which I say, okay cool, if that's still how you feel. But I'm gonna apply the same logic to him as I do Tim and say his character doesn't revolve around the role of Robin, if anything he was made to be the anti-Robin, which was the charm of the Dick-Bats Batman and Robin series.
Damian wanted to be Robin initially during his first appearance, because he thought it would get him closer to his father.
Then he found out that was a superficial belief he only believed because the League of Assassins taught him a superficial belief, and it was a cool moment that sparked the beginning of Damian's evolution as a person.
Damian only became an official Robin because marketing wise it looked better than 'Batman, and the Son of Batman, but not the Son of this Batman, the Son of That Other Batman, The Other Specifically Believed To Be Dead Batman That In Fact Isn't Actually Dead'.
And it would be less confusing why Robin, in this hypothetical Tim, isn't with Batman, and this other guy is, because companies have to assume everyone isn't gonna spend the time to research it. They wanna coax you into an impulse purchase, that helps money be made. Making you have to think about what the title means takes away the impulse part of the impulse purchase. Or even worse, confuses you enough if you take a gander inside to the point you back off entirely because it seems far too complicated. That's no way to do business.
Now, of course, all Robins are made with potential dollar signs in DC's eyes. We're not going to kid ourselves here either. It's just pretty obviously done to a whole different extent with Damian.
And to a degree that's fine, because that's how comics often work, because it's a floundering industry and people get desperate, so they throw something that's bound to get immediate attention in your face in hopes you'll get curious enough to purchase it.
But we're talking about the writing here.
Giving an entitled child what they want after nearly murdering a character is absolutely stupid logic though. Certainly when your writing characters that are meant to be very intelligent. Gets even worse when you realize within the universe's own timeline, they show Tim regularly calls Dick to discuss his mental health only weeks (months at best) prior.
And Dick was also there when Tim said he doesn't want to be anything, but Robin.
So they end up making Dick look either apathetic, or like an idiot, or even worse, an apathetic idiot, who makes bad decisions.
Because given the context that Tim was very mentally ill (even not then, honestly. it'd still be crooked), and barely recovered (or not at all recovered depending on the series you were reading) from his depression, and that's before Bruce was believed to be dead--How else is he supposed to take this beyond being kicked to the curb.
Grieving makes you care more about the ones you love, not do something that'll 'cause the low-key suicidal kid to maybe jump off a roof.
Why would an intelligent, and caring, downright protective person like Dick Grayson make a decision like this? Saying 'because Damian needed it' doesn't quite cut it when you look at more of the details, and is quite a narrow minded excuse that only looks at a minor percentage of it.
People make excuses for this, mostly because they love Dick and hate the idea of him looking bad, but let's take a moment to ground ourselves and be real. These are not real people, and they do not make their own decisions. Writers make their decisions. Characters are illusions of personalities and physical appearances created by consistency and expectations of what these characters look, do, and say.
This is how we have the term 'out of character'.
And no character is safe from that fate forever.
Dick can say he views Tim as an equal to do it, and the artist can randomly draw Tim to look more mature and adult despite that completely contradicting known things about the character (made all the worse when you have the same exact artist that drew Tim being called out for being baby faced and short drawing him to look like Season 4 Sam Winchester when only weeks passed by, by the end of the Robin series). But you don't even have to take a look that far back in the past and you can see neither of those things were done because it was a natural development--it was done because they wanted an excuse to shove Tim out of the role.
Hence why this is considered out of character.
Does this help you see the logic of the issue now?
And that isn't me criticizing the character of Damian, because that's just who he is, and I like who Damian is. I hate comics that seem to hate having to write Damian for who he is actually. I'm criticizing the writer's decisions in the process of making this transition, and the aftermath, and effect it has to this very day with these characters.
Damian existing is fine.
Some might argue it's not, but oh well.
It's the writing quality and real world decision making that isn't fine, when it concerns our primarily topic.
But point being is Tim's entire motivation as a character revolves around being Robin, being there for Batman, the entire symbolism of the character Robin. It was him who defined the role out loud for readers who were starting to not understand why Robin should even be around still, to understand why Robin is still around.
I don't care how unimportant Tim's been in recent history--Tim is, as far as the role itself is concerned, possibly the second most important Robin in history after Dick.
But being the character who was able to do that is huge.
Jason's death is clearly important, but for years more so do to the effect it had on Batman's personality, not the role of Robin and what it represents, given it was not that long before Tim became Robin. Understand me from that context. I don't know if people think there was a larger space between them, but there wasn't. So they went from murder of a kid to 'Batman Needs a Robin' pretty fast.
And I don't care if someone is a woman, or a blood son in the role. That furthers their own characters, but ultimately does nothing for the role itself outside of themselves. Once they're done being in that role, that aspect of the role is gone.
Tim's addition retroactively yet thankfully accurately and thoughtfully established important aspects of the role that gave people a whole new perspective of the role, granting a new level of popularity to something that was beginning to grow tired. That's permanently seared into the character legacy now thanks to Tim. To the point bad writers have Dick to be the one to say it, either because their bad at their job, or they just assumed.
That's how important Tim Drake is to Robin.
I can't think of anything that would be more important to the history of Robin past being created at all than that.
To be honest, thinking Tim shouldn't be Robin anymore, shows a lack of understanding of Tim as a character, what he wants, what makes him tick, what makes him feel successful.
He would become extremely boring and generic without Robin. Think of all the aspects of his drama, thought processes, motivations that would be removed. I know he'd still have other aspects to him that'd remain, he isn't literally only Robin and nothing but...but he's going to suffer a whole lot worse than any other character taken away from Robin.
This doesn't make him a bad character like some may claim. I'd argue against the notion very much. All characters simply aren't created for the same purposes. Tim is a magnificent character when handled well, and works amazing when allowed to be in the role he was built to be in.
We're not gonna start pulling artificial standards of what makes a good character, like we aren't obviously all aware Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were made for totally different purposes, and are still both extraordinary characters in their own right.
Don't play dumb.
And I say that with respect, despite the harsh wording, because I understand not everyone is going to be familiar with these decade old comics, and interviews you have to search out to find. I'm not a crazy person. Well, I am a bit, for caring this much, but I have limits to my insanity.
And I used the word dumb to keep your attention, because this post is going on for an unusually long amount of time, but it's a subject I am passionate about. So please excuse me for that.
A lot of you will likely have came in during the time Tim wasn't Robin, and would have no reason to assume there's anything inherently odd with Tim not being Robin. We are humans, and aren't granted the ability of omni-knowledge of all things.
Think of it like Venom--yes, Venom is often not Eddie, but it always goes back to him, yeah? Because these detours can be fun, but ultimately Venom was meant to be with Eddie.
You can bring up Tim not being the original Robin. I can hear some of you thinking that right now.
(Yes, I can hear thoughts, it's my cross to bear. And for that person in particular, close that tab, you know that's morally wrong, don't try to excuse it.)
But also it was Peter Parker that first had Venom wasn't it?
(I know the symbiote by itself isn't supposed to be called Venom, and how that's a modern thing, but I'm not gonna talk about a completely irrelevant topic so I can make this point.)
And we didn't even know the 'suit' as it was known as at the time was even sentient.
It's an example of a thing growing and becoming more developed, with logic and great character work backing it up, to make it a good development that can be long lasting, because it was built with a good base to keep the structure up. Like building a long lasting house.
Not one of those Amazon build a houses, that would get blown over in a mildly harsh breeze.
And I don't mean that as an insult to Stephanie or Damian, but it is factual to my knowledge that these characters were made Robin to be killed. They were both literally killed, and we have to acknowledge this truth to their characters. These weren't even decisions made to last.
You can like them in that role, but it doesn't change the facts.
If anything I think both characters are blessed that they have enough to them, to be brought back, and they have lots of potential...if they'd let them actually be expanded. They aren't cemented to Robin in anyway the same way Tim is for better or worse, and they don't have to be Robin to work to their full ability like how it is for Tim.
Besides if the character is worth it, they stick around in a different way.
Agent Anti-Venom for Flash Thompson as an example. Agent Venom was great, but it was time for Venom to go back to Eddie. But we gave him a place to stay around and he's great there too.
This was sort of what Red Robin was going to be turned into for Tim when they realized having Tim go against everything he stood for was a really bizarre decision that likely wouldn't last with any lasting success, but it was just kind of weird to have the person that fills the role of Robin not just be Robin, while the other person is going around mostly doing their own thing.
Why should Tim Drake actually not be Robin really? He's not even as old as Dick was when he stopped being Robin if you wanna bring up the Robin is a kid's role thing.
And I do know Dick said Robin was a kid's thing after all, but you are aware that these Robins are individuals and not all the same person, right?
Tim isn't Dick, and clearly has a very different opinion of what Robin is to him. Otherwise why wouldn't Dick become Robin again himself? See what I'm saying?
Dick literally implied Robin was a kid's role to Tim's face, in Tim's origin story, and Tim continued to not give a shit, because Tim still believed what he believed despite that.
If you like Tim being something other than Robin, and you like those identities, and series, I am happy for you. Because more enjoyment in the world is a positive thing.
But ultimately even Red Robin was never anything more than a very-very modest success the more it went on, it made enough to stay afloat, yet not enough to carry it past the reboot (though Didio hating legacy characters he wasn't involved with may have to do with that) and the entire theme of the book was "What if we have Tim do things Tim would never do" to the point it's out right said in the book. Which sounds like a terrible model of what Tim should be to me.
If you wouldn't want that same fate with any major character like an Avenger or Justice Leaguer, or your own favorite character whoever that may be, why would you want that with Tim beyond you just not caring as much? And if you don't care that much, why are you so concerned with what Tim is or isn't?
I just want it to be understood from a more objective (if you can even call it that, because, I know, strong word to use here. i'm not ignorant of that, nor that arrogant) point of view, based on the simple idea that, hmm maybe the best character writing is just writing the characters being the characters--it makes the most sense for Tim to be the Robin that stays aboard as Robin.
So, I say to you, humble reader, let Tim Drake remain Robin. It's what works best.
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