All he had to say was that he was setting up a team and Roy was already in. Well, part of it might have been because the Red Hood busted him out of prison in Qurac and after a throurough flipping off of their pursuers the identity of his rescuer came to light...and disbelief kicked in.
Even now days later in their lair...? Headquarters?...Hide out?...he was still looking at Jason in disbelief.
“Look man I ain’t even sorry, last time I seen ya you were a lil pipsqueak and look at ya now? You’ve doubled in size-” he even slapped Jason’s chest twice to bring attention to the fact that Jason was both taller and wider.
“Did ya get dropped in a vat of radioactive protein powder?” He put his tatty bag pack down by his bow in the communal area and still kept looking at him. “It’s gonna take some gettin’ used to.”
“Little Jason a fuckin’ merc. Who woulda thought” he muttered while tossing out the contents of said back pack into two piles, clean and needing laundry.
“We got a machine or a cleaner...? Or chores on rotation what’s the deal.” Washing arrangements first, questions about the team later.
Of all the monikers to adopt, the red hood.
“Batman fucking owes me a dollar. I knew you weren’t dead. Knew it.” he had not acknowledged that time in Gotham in a decade. “Do these smell clean to you?” he asked throwing a sock right to Jason’s face.
That’s when he stopped right in front of the kitchen and gripped the counter.
Robin’s death was not the height of his addiction but it certainly contributed to it, it played a part of wanting to escape the harsh reality of the world.
He grabbed a fizzy drink from the fridge and almost punched Jason to the groin, clearly the man had good reflexes when it came to protecting his jewels. “That’s for making me fucking cry at your casket dickweed. Fuckin’ balled my fucking eyes out for you, humiliated myself trying to prove ya weren’t dead.”
“Now...now we even” One dick punch later he deemed Jason punished for it all and slumped on the couch.
“So what’s our deal. What’s the mission, who’s in the team, are we recruiting others-” The real question he wanted to ask was how are you alive...but such conversations needed their time.
That streak though, that streak right where...
Roy caught himself looking at it and then cleared his throat.
“I really felt it ya know. Ya should know..I did not take your ...absence well. Since you’re reacquainting with old faces ya should know I ain’t too welcome in Gotham, mask or no. I’ll still fucking follow ya till the end of the line cause I don’t give a shit but you should know I ain’t welcome there in case you wanted to be...”
“Well I guess subtle went out the window years ago Hood but if you wanted a low profile or whatever, the Bat and me got issues. Personal issues.” he sucked on his teeth.
One of them owed the other an apology and Roy for sure wasn’t the one in his opinion.
“I got a little kid. Lian. She’s the most beautiful angel, I kinda made her a promise I would do better. This...works out for me.” Should Jason think it was all because he rescued him.
"She’s in Seattle for now. She’s safer there-you will love her if you got to meet her, everyone does. Unless if ya hate penguins then ya in trouble-” he rummaged through his bag to find a picture from one of those photo booths you found in malls.
A reminder to stay clean. He had to for her.
“I got into some shit, I am tellin’ ya cause ya might want better people on that team of yours. I’ve always been a bit.. well ya know”
Reckless? Hot headed? A liability?
