Slade doesn't get attached.

He takes a contract, does it, and gets paid. Thats that.

Sure, maybe once or twice he'll have fun with a target, whether to lure them on or just because they were cute, but it never means anything.

...or at least it didn't.

Slade wishes he knew better than to take a contract in Gotham. They're rare, and it's even rarer they get completed because of Batmans Iron Fist rule of the place.

But this one was different. This one went after not one of those robins - though Slade knows that the target was a robin at some point - but a crime lord.

He's taken down crime lords before, but nothing prepared him for Red Hood. A kid, barely half his age with enough skill to go hand-to-hand with him. it was invigorating

having a good fight, a stalemate was a delicious feeling. Slade liked it.

Red Hood was a competent little fucker, and he was good. probably why his contract wanted the kid alive rather than dead or crippled.

he was far more useful alive. Besides, he's pretty sure most of the villains in Gotham - aside from that fucking joker guy - have some kind of hate boner for the kid.

there are plenty of bounties on that kid's head, but every single one wanted him alive.

From everyone Slade's talked to trying to get information, from Sionis to Lex Luthur, everyone just seemed to agree that Red Hood, despite how the kid would fuck their business deals up, kill their men and blow up their warehouses, he was far better alive than dead.

Slade agrees.

And now, staring down at Red Hood's tied-up body on his couch, for the first time in a long, long time, Slade had the urge to keep.

After all, having a partner, an equal who's able to keep up with him as long as he did? Who injured Slade enough to get him to post-pone his contract but leave him alive?

delicious.

The kid would fight him to hell and back, his contractor would be pissed, and he'd have to make sure to avoid Gotham's rouges when they find out where they're favourite crime lord is, but it's so worth it