Work Text:
It was a nice night out. Patrol was going smoothly, and Jason was taking a moment to enjoy the calm.
Calm wasn't normal for Gotham, especially his part of Gotham, so it wasn't surprising when motion caught his eye. A little girl waved at him. He waved back but paused when she waved again.
Suspicious, he grappled over and balanced on a neighboring windowsill.
"Are you Red Hood? My classmates said you play soccer with them." She brushed her neatly braided hair behind her and gave a hesitant smile. She looked to be around six.
"I think it might be a little late for games," Jason chuckled, but it was garbled by the modulator in his helmet. "What's your name?"
The girl shook her head, laughing quietly. "I can't play soccer in pajamas, but my name's Katie."
He nodded because, of course, the pajamas were the problem. "Well, Katie, if you don't want to play soccer, what can I help with?" He leaned against the building as best he could, still perched on the windowsill. Katie left the window and pushed a corner of her mattress up before returning with a piece of paper.
"Can you give this to my mom? I haven't seen her in a few weeks, 'cause my aunt says she isn't working hard enough," She proudly held out a colorful pencil drawing, with indents in the page from the amount of pressure while coloring.
That gave Jason pause. Maybe her mom lived far away and transportation was an issue, but he had an idea of what might be happening from the wording, and he didn't like it. When Jason took the page, he saw a drawing of two people that were a step more complex than stick figures. One had long black hair and a dress that Katie had clearly tried to fix the length of with a white colored pencil. The other figure had a long braid that was clearly exaggerated, but was meant to represent Katie. It was cute in it's imperfections and it made Jason smile.
"Yeah, I can take it to her. How often do you see your mom, Katie?" He kept holding the picture, unsure if it'd be rude to fold and put it in one of his pouches. She thought for a moment before telling Jason she only saw her mom once a month. When she told Jason the name of the restaurant her mom worked at, he decided he'd check it out the next day.
Jason smiled, even though she couldn't see it, and told Katie good night, before he grappled off the ledge. When he landed he neatly folded the drawing to safely tuck away and looked up the address to the restaurant.
Around noon, Jason entered the small, local restaurant. This was just a visit to gain information so he left the helmet at home. He read the sign on the door advertising opening work position in a few languages. It made sense with the variety of residents, but Jason still noted it.
When he walked up to the hostess stand, a blonde woman in her early twenties greeted him. She had her hair in a neat bun, and she smiled, saying her name was Alyssa.
Alyssa brought him to a booth closer to the kitchen after Jason asked to be further from the door. The request had gotten him an odd look but Jason assumed it was more from his volume than the question itself. He'd probably come off as some anxious kid, which Jason preferred over people staring at the scar on his throat.
Bruce's batarang left permanent damage to his vocal chords. While Jason could still talk, his voice had gotten quieter to avoid strain. It didn't cause him many issues in his civilian life, with most his friends and neighbors being unbothered by his softer tone. Outside of his circles he got confused looks, especially when people took his appearance into account, but the collar of his jacket hid the jagged silver line on his neck. He preferred the looks over questions.
The menu was a mix of different cuisines, clearly trying to come off as more fancy but still draw a casual crowd. Nothing was overly eye catching, though that could be said about the establishment as a whole. Dim lights, and quiet music, with minimal decor. The whole place screamed "flying under the radar", but the atmosphere still aimed for families looking for a small celebration.
Jason kept his order simple and listened to the chatter from the kitchen. Unsurprisingly it consisted mostly of work related chatter. New orders, food ready to serve, warnings when rounding corners, and the likes, though the mix of words from different languages caught his attention. Not uncommon, especially in restaurant work, but another detail to be added to his investigation.
The food was good, and while Jason ate, a group of three sat down in a booth nearby. Keeping his eyes on his food, Jason listened in. It sounded like a job interview which definitely caught his attention.
The interviewee was a young, Hispanic man, likely around Jason's age. He was sitting on the inside of the booth and spoke to a person to their right who sat on the outside, effectively blocking the man in. The interviewer was facing the entrance and was a woman with dark brown, curly hair. She spoke in a smooth cadence but mostly spoke to the person next to the young man. What really sent alarms going in Jason's head was when the woman mentioned that lodging would be included. This place didn't possibly make enough money to promise that, but the man thanked his interviewer. After the interview seemingly finished, everyone went into the kitchen and the young man was seemingly put to work.
Jason would need to come back later in his Red Hood gear. Something really wasn't right.
It was dark out now. The restaurant would either be closed, or almost so. When Jason crept up to the windows he saw that the lights were off. A good sign. The lock on the door was laughably simple and Jason made quick work of it. He didn't make it far into the restaurant when he spotted a form lying on one of the booths. If anyone asked, Jason didn't jump. He surveyed the rest of the seating area, and found more people asleep in the booths.
When Jason went to enter the kitchen, he was stopped by someone stirring from their sleep. They let out a startled noise upon seeing him and immediately started apologizing. Jason was confused. He was the one sneaking in. It was a woman, with long dark hair in a loose braid. She reminded him of Katie.
Reaching into his pouch, Jason pulled out the drawing, comparing the woman too it. It wasn't a police sketch, but looking at Katie's drawing let him remember her face more and make connections to the woman in front of him. He could be wrong, but he interrupted her apologies by handing her the drawing. She froze, staring at Jason's helmet with wide eyes.
"Katie or um…your daughter says hi," Was Katie even her name? This whole situation was making him think otherwise. She immediately hugged him and her please turned into thanks.
She didn't speak much English but that wasn't a problem for Jason's list of fluencies. Xiu was her name. When she had first seen Jason, she thought he was there to kill her. Her employer Emily Nelson had told her some of Jason's reputation, like how he sometimes killed criminals, which Xiu, who's immigration paperwork had been "lost" was. Emily had promised it wasn't a problem as long as she stayed there, even offered to "help" Xiu get her paperwork fixed and take care of her daughter until she found a place. This started a year ago for the mother and daughter.
Jason promised to return the following night. But when he arrived and the lights were all on, Jason wasn't sure what to make of the situation. When he peeked through the window, the last person he expected to see was Emily, yelling at her "employees" in some weird kind of meeting. He couldn't get there words but he didn't really need to in order to guess it was about his visit last night.
That was only solidified when she saw Jason and ran for the back door. Lucky for Jason, and unlucky for Emily, that's exactly what he expected.
Jason watched as the brunette burst through the back door and made it one step before crashing to the ground, thanks to the tripwire Jason rigged. She scrambledto sit up when he dropped down, standing over her. Sometimes he was happy with his towering appearance. He didn't look small by any means and it was great for moments like these.
"I ran a brief labor survey with your employees, and I think you might know you didn't score very high." He crouched down, helmet inches from her face. "I also heard you were using me as a threat to keep them quiet, but that was probably your own fear talking." He zip-tied her hands and dragged her back inside the kitchen before attaching the ties to the leg of one of the steel counters.
"I'll be back for you later." He looked over her before walking away, keeping his footsteps loud. He could hear begging and please as he left, echoing through the empty kitchen.
When he returned to everyone in the dining area it was quiet. Not out of fear, but some hesitant hope. He supposes these were the reasons he'd set up all of those shelters and apartments. To keep that hope from disappearing.
He got everyone's names written and any family they had in the area. He didn'tcare where they were, he'dget them out of their bad situations too. First was prepping people's information to get around their citizenship paperwork stuck in limbo whether it existed or not. Then, he directed everyone to shelters they could stay at for the night with promises of actual work and residence later in the morning or that week at the latest.
When everyone was gone besides Xiu, he asked her to wait outside with her ears covered. It didn't stop the gunshot in the kitchen from being heard by her, but he hoped it would help.
Katie raced down the stairs and leaped into her mom's arms. She was in her pajamas, the same one's from when Jason had first seen her. The two of them had their hair in braids and Jason wondered if Xiu had taught her daughter how to do it. She let go of her mom long enough to hug Jason before clinging to her mom again.
Jason would hold onto that feeling forever. Both of their smiles and tears. The feeling of Katie's arms warped around him. It was a warm feeling that radiated through him and all he could do was smile.
But there was still work to be done. Everyone still needed homes and jobs. And most importantly, operations like these weren't the work of only one person. He needed to get back to his apartment and start making a list of all Emily's known associates.
It didn't take long to find the people working for Emily. News of her death had spread quickly and it was easily connected to Red Hood. He'd found most of them trying to flee Gotham and quickly took care of them.
After Jason made sure that Emily's business wouldn't make a recurrence, he left to go check in on some people from the restaurant.
The young man he'd seen interviewing was named Sam. Jason had made some arrangements so he could attend college, in hopes of Sam getting a better job. When Jason came to check on him, Sam was studying at his desk. He'd given Jason a cup of coffee, which he drank sitting on the roof later. He wished same luck and gave him a business card with only a phone number on it, saying he'd be happy to help with any English assignments.
After he'd visited most of the other people from the restaurant, he stopped at the door of an apartment. He took a breath before knocking and Katie excitedly opened the door.
"Your mom should really be the one opening the door for strangers" Jason chuckled, the noise coming out staticy through his helmet.
"But I knew it was you" Katie immediately handed a piece of paper to Jason.
His first thought was wondering if he was visiting another family member, but when he flipped it over, he saw himself. Or Red Hood to be exact. A drawn version of Katie with her exaggerated rapunzel braid was holding hands with her mom, Xiu, and Jason. His helmet had been colored in with a red marker in comparison to the rest of the colored pencil drawing. He was also holding what Jason could only assume was a soccer ball. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. It'd been so long since he'd received a gift like this. He was still Robin the last time.
He took a shaky breath before crouching down. "Thank you, Katie. I love it." He carefully folded the paper and put it in the chest pocket of his jacket. It'd be safer there.
Katie left again before returning with a soccer ball and handed it to Jason. "I'm not in pajamas. You go downstairs and I'll get the other kids so we can all play!" She had this huge, bright grin, and Jason couldn't possibly deny her.
Before he left, Xiu appeared in the door. She didn't say much. She gave Jason a tight hug and said "Thank you,". Where they container of food materialized from after the hug, he wasn't sure, but he was excited to try more of Xiu's cooking.
There was an impatient call for Red Hood down the hall, likely from Katie. He laughed as he headed towards the energetic voices. As soon as he'd made it to the outside of the apartment building, Katie immediately kicked the ball at him.
"We haven't picked the goals yet!" A blond boy yelled, which caused Jason to smile, before listening to the kids bicker about where the goals were.
Despite being a piece of paper, Jason could feel the weight from Katie's drawing in his pocket, the warmth from Xiu's cooking, and joy being around all these kids that were excited to see him. He needed to hold onto this.
And he needed to put the container of food somewhere the kids wouldn't hit it with the soccer ball.