Been on a sudden strong Eddie kick the last couple of days - Gotta love religious iconography, no? I'm actually really proud of the lighting in this, ngl - it came out exactly how I wanted. -`♡´-
…Eddie never forgives Steph for the fight at the Tower.
(CW: Yeah, this one gets borderline graphic with Jason’s injuries after the Tower fight, and especially Eddie needing to cauterize one of them.)
Jason & Steph work through their lingering issues after she saves Jason from the Joker (neither of them puts the word ‘forgiveness’ to it, but they come to an understanding, recognize how things got to that point, how they got to from there to where they are now, and figure out how to move forwards. This is seriously the most emotionally fraught & complicated purely interpersonal conflict in the story, and there’s no way to summarize or breeze past it without sounding pithy, so we’re just going to acknowledge that and move on, okay?)
The rest of the family, they only saw the aftermath once Eddie was done patching Jason up and could call for help, and to a certain degree that is overridden by the image of Steph carrying Jason’s broken-but-still-breathing body back to them so careful & gentle, and of Steph hovering around Jason for weeks as he worked through his recovery, always there the second he needed her but always careful of his space. The other Titans, they were off on other missions (or possibly cursed to sleep for a couple days,) and didn’t even get to see Jason until well into his recovery, and so only know how bad it got by hearsay—when Jason says it’s cool and Steph’s his sister now, it’s weird & disconcerting, but they can come to terms with it.
But Eddie. Eddie watched her stab Jason, saw the blood spray out of a major artery. Eddie had to burn his best friend with his own hands, just to make sure Jason lived long enough to make it to medical. Eddie had to listen to Jason bite back screams, while the person who hurt Jason walked out of the Tower like it was nothing. Eddie will forever be haunted by the feeling of Jason’s leg trying to jerk away from his touch, of pinning it down while the flesh sizzled, of the smell. Eddie patched Jason up while Jason cried himself out over his childhood hero hating him. Eddie held Jason while Jason got it “all out of his system” before he had to explain things to the rest of the family. Eddie washed the vomit off Jason’s face & suit. Eddie sat there, alone, after Jason finally passed out, waiting for someone (anyone) to come help them.
No. No, Eddie will never forgive Steph for what she’s done. Eddie will never trust Steph, no matter what. Maybe once in a while on a joint mission, he can “trust” her to get the job done, but beyond that? Were it not for the whole Batfamily standing between them, that boy would’ve smote her on sight.
(After Steph helps save Eddie from Hell, Jason thinks the two have made their peace. In a way, Jason’s right. What happened was: Eddie found Steph alone sometime in the next day or so, thanked her for her help, but also told her, “Don’t think this changes anything.” That all the help in the world can never make up for what she did, that Jay’s too big-hearted for his own good, that Eddie knows what it’s like when your personal hero rips your heart out and leaves you for dead, and it’s not something you get over. That no matter what happens, no matter how ‘good’ the relationship gets, Jason’s going to have to carry that hurt for the rest of his life, and there’s nothing she can do to change that. Eddie tells Steph he won’t move against her because Jason wouldn’t want him to, but that Eddie will never forgive her. And if she ever hurts Jay again, there isn’t a force in the multiverse that will stop Eddie from hunting her down—not Red Devil, not Kid Devil, not any other identity he might take on, Edward Bloomberg will hunt Stephanie Brown down—and dragging her back to Hell.
Eddie stands there, trembling, fists clenched, smoke curling off his skin, glaring Steph down as she stops sharpening her swords and stares cooly back at him.
“Thank god,” Steph says, “someone in this community still has common sense! I thought everyone had lost their minds while I was dead.” Eddie stares in shock. Steph shakes her head. “Red, I have done more fucked up shit than you will ever know about. And I’m going to keep doing fucked up shit, because honestly? I don’t regret most of it. I still think it was the right thing to do.” She looks down at her reflection in her sword and frowns. “Hurting Jay is not one of those things. It was wrong. I can’t take it back, but I—no. No, no ‘but’s. No justifications, no excuses.”
Steph looks up, meeting Eddie’s eyes. “You want to hold me to account? Good. I’ll hold you to that.”
She spits in her hand and holds it out to shake. Eddie does the same, smirking a little when Steph winces at the near-scorching heat of his skin.
“I’m glad Jay’s got someone like you looking out for him,” Steph says.
“When he lets me,” Eddie grumbles, unable to keep the fond exasperation out of his voice.
Steph snorts. “Tell me about it! Fucking brat just can’t stay out of trouble, can he?”
The single, slightly-trippy moment of 3am conciliation is interrupted by Jason shuffling into the room with a yawn and a muttered, “You better not be talking ‘bout me.”
“Of course we were,” Steph says before Eddie can even open his mouth. “I was just about to show him your baby pictures, actually. Do you want to join us, mini-me?”
Jason mutters something about fuckin’ traitors and gets a snack from the fridge, then grabs Eddie by the arm on his way back out.
Eddie gives Steph a shrug. “I’ve been summoned. Goodnight or something, I guess.”
“You kids be safe!” she calls after them. Jason doesn’t even look back, just flips her off over his shoulder. Steph laughs.)
.
(Eddie soon finds himself laying down with Jason protectively curled around him, softly snoring into Eddie’s shoulder. And Eddie realizes that, for the first time in years, he has his whole future ahead of him—no time limit, no conditions—and feels a little dizzy with it. He wonders how he got so lucky, just to have Jason in his life at all.)
