Ok so im invested (tasted like damnation is my aftg side blog) so here's something im chewing on with kevin day x jason todd: kevin is still in a way owned by the moriyamas in the way that hes giving them a portion of his salary right? Well i think having ties to a new england based crime syndicate while in new jersey (gotham) would be something that piques the interest of one local crime lord who is very protective of his city. Perhaps thats what makes Jason approach him?
oooh i like this.
kevin's in a new city, and for the first time, he's fully on his own. no riko, no tetsuji, no andrew or neil or the rest of the foxes. like this is the first time since his mother's death that he actually has to be somewhere without anyone who knows the real him. it's scary, but it's also a way to maybe start new. to act, at least for a bit, that there's nothing wrong with him, so to speak. to actually live the way the media/fans think he's been living.
and he tries it, and for a little while, he kind of feels that it's not so bad (if he ignores all the fear). but less than a week into the new city, on his way home from a late game, he gets cornered by someone. and he obviously knows gotham's reputation, and has heard of the vigilantes that fight crime better than the police force itself. but he didn't really think it was real (not surprising, considering his past and the evil people he's been surrounded with. no one came to save him.)
and at first, when jason's questioning him, kevin tries so hard to put that media personality forward. he deflects any veiled mention of the moriyamas (because that's been like the one condition of his sort-of-pardon-while-being-owned.) jason is initially annoyed/mad, and he does corner kevin against the wall in an alley. but even with a knife pressed to his ribs, he doesn't budge on that. and well, jason is intrigued. the annoyance shifts because he can sense that kevin is scared, under all of that media training, but he will never give anything up about the moriyamas. it's not about being a soldier for a crime syndicate, it's much more... complicated than jason could've imagined.
so he lets him go, but with a veiled threat that he'll be watching him. and he does. sees kevin with that media trained personality everywhere. everywhere. jason starts to drop in sometimes, walking home with him while subtly trying to pry more information. it becomes a habit of sorts, even if kevin is very tactfully mum about the entire moriyama situation.
maybe at some point, another person from gotham's underworld learns of this connection and tries to hurt kevin (?). jason expects the moriyamas to save him/to retaliate, but when they don't, jason at least realizes that whatever is going on is very one way. kevin is indebted to the moriyamas, but they don't care for him. for reasons unknown to himself, that's when jason offers his protection to kevin. says he can make sure no one from gotham comes after him.
maybe for the first time in his life, kevin says no. not because he doesn't need the protection, but because he enjoys having at least one person to talk to that he doesn't have any debt towards. (even if he won't admit it himself).
jason still joins him on walks to or from practice sometimes. jason still tries to pry about the moriyamas, even if it's halfhearted. but the conversations start to shift slowly. towards talking about exy practices, and recent attacks.... towards the closest thing to normal either of them have had in a long time.
