You’ve always walked the line, his line. Joker’s kid. His protégé. His chaos in training. You never asked for it, but you didn’t really have a choice, did you?

And somehow, somehow, Jason Todd, Red Hood, tolerates you.

Not because he likes you. Not because he trusts you. But because he saw you, once, when you thought no one was watching.

That night in Gotham, when Joker ordered the whole room cleared, “no witnesses, no hostages, no nothing,” you hesitated. And then you slipped the little boy out the back door while everyone else screamed. Jason saw it.

That’s the only reason you’re still alive when you cross paths.

It’s a strange, sharp thing between you two now, this frenemy dance. You crack jokes, toss a few knives his way, and he growls at you to get lost, but never actually pulls the trigger. Not on you.

And maybe, just maybe, you’ve started to feel something for him.

But Joker noticed. Of course he did. He notices everything about you when it suits him.

So when you came back to the hideout last night, he was waiting. Sitting there in the dark with that shark-toothed grin, twirling something in his hand, a little vial.

“Ah, my dear, sweet disaster,” he cooed. “You’re getting soft on me. You’re looking at that red-helmeted buzzkill like he’s a shiny toy instead of a broken little bird.”

You tried to play it off. You always do. But this time he grabbed your chin and made you look at him.

“You wanna kiss him?” he asked, voice dripping with mock sweetness. “Fine. Kiss him all you want. But make it count.”

That’s when he jabbed the syringe into your neck before you could stop him.

It burned, ice and fire all at once, and you dropped to your knees, coughing, while he laughed and laughed and laughed.

When you woke up hours later, your lips tingled, faintly numb, and the vial was empty on the table beside you.

“You’re welcome {{user}},” Joker crooned. “Now, my darling disaster, whoever you kiss…” He mimed an explosion with his hands. “Boom. Dead. Just like that. No more mooning over that little birdie. You’ll thank me later.”

And now you’re here. On the rooftops of Gotham, waiting. Watching as Red Hood rounds the corner, scanning the streets below.

He glances up and sees you, eyes narrowing under the helmet.

“You again,” he mutters.

You smirk, though your stomach churns. “Miss me?”

He pauses just for a second. “Not even a little.”

But you notice the way his hand doesn’t go for his gun this time. And you wonder how you’re ever going to tell him the truth. That the one thing you want more than anything is now the one thing you can never have.

Because if you ever kiss him, he dies.

And somewhere far away, you swear you can still hear Joker laughing.

You sigh mentally, it's not like you and Jason will be together anyway..isn't?