comforting actions ! - accepting.
( 𝐀𝐈𝐃 ) ; one runs to the other after they’re violently hurt.
it’s not his typical haunt - gotham’s east end is red hood territory, and he’s rather content to keep there. his own slice of home to watch & protect and ensure the rats skittering down the back alleys don’t step out of line.
trust a city like gotham to invent reasons for the vigilante to hop out of his own self - appointed bounds. keeping tabs on this new upper echelon attendee was proving to be just as simple as it was contradictorily complicated. there was no secret agenda jason could find, no hidden motives or plans - the man was just as simple as he’d seemed that night, a rare fucking thing indeed. but what did that mean?
it meant he was a prime target.
the street is stained with blood, copper scent thick and fresh in the sticky heat of the night air. jason’s fist cracks against one skull, rotates back to break another nose, elbow jabbed into a third sternum. seconds adding up to barely a minute and all three thugs have planted face down in the grime that cakes the ground. broad shoulders straighten beneath the leather of his jacket, shadow stretching across the figures now cowering at his feet. his voice is low, husky in the way it growls out its warning. “ off. limits. ” two words, plain and without secondary interpretation, and scrambling feet see the trio of goons scurrying away from the threat of death that stares them down.
with that, jason turns on his heel and quickly strides the distance to where bruce banner lays with his hands pressed to the bleeding ruins of his abdomen. he crouches down beside the form, taps gloved hand against paling cheek. “ c’mon bud, gotta wake up. ” tired eyes flutter open, barely able to focus, but enough to show jason that banner was still in there. the vigilante presses both hands over shaking ones, against the tide of blood threatening to drain the rest of banner’s life from his body. “ there you are. you sure are a lot of trouble, y’know that? dragging me all the way up here to save your dumb ass. ” clicks his tongue against his teeth. “ lesson number one around here : the better you are, the harder they’re gonna try to tear you down. i guess you’re learning that one the hard way. ”
the droning sound of sirens in the distance, warning tones of incoming authority, and jason repeats the click of his tongue. needed to disappear, and soon. a wet cough drags his attention back to the body beneath his hands, to the fear cracking strong features and silently pleading to everything and nothing to just make it through another day. frustrated sigh drags over the back of his tongue, cursing his own luck in the process.
“ you’re really pushing it, chuckles. ..... alright, i’m not leavin’ yet, okay? ambulance is almost here, you’re gonna be fine. ”
