Chapter Text
Tim sighed a breath of relief once he was fully out of the suit and back upstairs. How was he supposed to process something like this? His very first soulmate and it was the freaking Red Hood, the latest scourge of Gotham, crime boss extraordinaire, and decapitator of unfortunate rivals.
No one could know.
A week later and Tim hadn’t seen or heard anything more from Hood. Maybe the man had decided he didn’t want to be soulmates with Tim? Tim tried to focus on the relief at that possibility rather than the pang of disappointment at the thought that he finally had a soulmate only for them to not want him.
Typical.
Just as he was thinking of all possible scenarios Bruce burst upstairs.
“He’s dead.”
“What?”
“Joker’s dead.”
Tim and Alfred both stared at Bruce for a moment before dashing (walking in a very dignified manner in Alfred’s case) to the nearest tv remote.
It was on the very first channel that popped up.
The Joker was dead?
Huh.
Tim was confused, but he certainly wasn’t sad.
“Good,” Alfred said firmly, nodding his head once before turning around and heading out of the room. Tim hoped he was going for a glass of champagne in celebration or something.
Bruce’s opinion was a little harder to parse out.
He looked… Shocked? Relieved? Angry? Gleeful?
It was a strange combination of emotions to be sure and to see them all on the rarely emotive face of Batman was a thing to behold.
“Do you think Dick knows?”
Bruce continued staring at the screen for a moment before he finally answered. “I’ll let him know.”
Joker was dead. Jason would happily set aside all his plans if it meant the clown wouldn’t ever be able to hurt his perfect little soulmate. Bruce didn’t matter anymore. He could go rot in a cave for all Jason cared. He had only one goal in life now and that was to watch the baby bird run circles around the old man. And control crime in Gotham. Two goals. He had two goals.
Bruce was busy in the cave analyzing Joker’s death and Dick was prancing around the manor looking like he was trying to hide the fact that he was beyond overjoyed at the news of Joker’s demise. An effort he was failing at miserably if that was, in fact, what he was attempting to do.
Tim couldn’t blame him.
Upon hearing the doorbell ring Tim rolled himself off the sofa and made his way to the front door. It wasn’t his house, but everyone else was busy celebrating and/or brooding so they probably wouldn’t mind.
He opened the door only to see a man that was as big as Bruce standing there grinning.
“Umm, hi? Can I help you?”
“Hi, Tim. I’m Jason. We’re soulmates? We met last week.”
What.
It took Tim a minute to realize what was going on, but eventually, he put the pieces together.
Red Hood was his soulmate.
Red Hood was standing in Bruce’s entryway.
Red Hood was Jason Todd.
Jason Todd was not dead.
Jason Todd was Tim’s soulmate.
Jason Todd was not dead and was Tim’s soulmate and was also a crime boss who killed people.
Jason had not prepared himself for hugs. Why was everyone hugging him?
Bruce didn’t even immediately begin interrogating him. It was weird. Dick and Alfred were both crying, Bruce looked suspiciously close to doing so, and Tim was just standing there with his mouth hanging open. This was not how this was supposed to go.
“Oh, and I killed the Joker, by the way.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I had this whole plan to make Bruce kill the Joker and everything, but then I saw Tim tranq B and it was the best thing I’ve ever seen and then it turned out we were soulmates. Couldn’t let Joker get to baby bird here, so I just sped a few things up.”
“I have so many questions.”
“Only if I can see pictures of Deathstroke babysitting you, Dickwing.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“…the best. You’ll love him, promise. So when do you think you’ll come? Mom said she’d leave it up to you now.”
“Who are you talking to?” Dick asked.
Jason held up a finger on the hand not holding the phone to tell Dick to wait.
“Uh-huh. Yeah, I’ll be there. Love you, you little gremlin.”
After Jason ended the call Dick motioned for answers.
“That was just Damian. He’s B and Talia’s kid. He’s going to come visit next week.”
Tim was beginning to understand Jason a little bit in that Jason loved to create chaos, particularly for Bruce and Dick.
On the bright side, Jason’s constant earth-shattering revelations over the past few days had let Bruce and Dick both spend more time in the upstairs portion of the manor than they had at any point since Tim had known them. He was positive Alfred had snuck Jason an extra cookie or two for that.
Tim was beginning to see why they were soulmates.
“This is your so-called perfect soulmate? Tt. He’s a disaster, Todd.”
“You didn’t see him tranq Batman.”
Damian huffed but Jason continued to grin. Damian would come around.
“I suppose it is impressive for someone of his stature to prevail against so worthy an opponent.”
“See?”
“However,” Damian said, turning his adorable little glare back towards Jason, “he still managed to walk into three doors, pour salt into his coffee, and reveal his identity to the clone in less than a week.”
“Concussion, mislabeled containers thanks to you, and extenuating circumstances.”
“Tt.”
“Tranqed Batman.”
“You are rather obsessed with that point, aren’t you. Fine, I suppose I shall have to care for your soulmate, seeing as you are blind to his faults.”
“Fine by me, baby bat, fine by me.”