deadbirdarising | Ba, Bitches

1.An apology text after a late night hangry rage punch turned into shooting lessons.

Edited 2025-09-13 03:49 (UTC)

Thursday at 7PM found Jason exactly where he'd promised he'd be: In the parking lot of his favorite gun range, leaning against his bike and smoking as he waited for his company to arrive. The familiar motion of fingers to lips and warm air filling his lungs was a comfort against the knot that was tucked in his guts. Steph was cool...but Steph was still very much a Bat and there was a part of him that was still a little hung up on that whole colony. Meeting up on the field to cover each other's backs during the work? That was one thing.

Meeting up in plain clothes at a place that would cause that vein in Bruce's forehead to outright explode was another. He was low key expecting Bruce to jump out of the bushes any minute, a lecture on his lips and judgement in his eyes. It made him a little tense and he frowned a little as he flicked the ash off the end of his smoke to keep it from falling on his clothes. He was being stupid, but he was still there.

And once they were inside and into his comfort zone, he'd relax. He hoped.

It was only a minute or two after 7PM when Stephanie pulled her own motorcycle--the same older and slightly beat up bike she's ridden around town since she was fifteen and wasn't actually supposed to be driving yet--into the parking lot at the address Jason had sent her. Driving slower since she was in a parking lot, she spotted him easily and pulled into the spot beside his.

Honestly, Steph wasn't entirely sure how this was going to go. Their lives never really overlapped all that often, only really interacting when she was out doing her Batgirl thing a few times, but she didn't actually know him all that well. But they'd never tried to kill each other, and he was one of the only ones who never told her she needed to give up trying to be a vigilante, so she figured it was worth a shot. What was the worst that could happen?

She pulled off her helmet and hung it on her handlebars for a moment as she reached up to retighten her ponytail. "Hey!" she said, her smile bright and cheerful as she turned to him, a far cry from most of the other Bats who leaned more towards doom and gloom.

Bruce would have had a fit over those few minutes, but Jason only raised a hand in greeting when he clocked that battered bike heading in his direction. While Steph parked and dealt with her helmet hair, Jason finished his smoke and pinched the cherry out with his fingertips before pocketing the filter. Paranoid? Yes. But also valid considering the people he occasionally associated with.

Last thing he needed was Talia cloning him so she could raise him up without any of those pesky emotions she'd tried to brain wash out of him. He was enough of a weapon, k'thnx.

"Hey. How was the drive?" Small talk didn't come easy to him, he was an introvert on the best of days, but the promise of getting to shoot had him in a good mood. Plus, Steph was neutral ground, right? He'd never tried to kill her, she'd never tried to control him... it was promising. As long as they could get through the next few hours without her lecturing him about his everything, they'd be golden.

He had hope. It was well guarded and his expectations were so low he might trip over them, but it was still hope. After all, she tolerated him enough to have stolen one of his hoodies from a safehouse. Though, most of the Bats stole clothes, so maybe that wasn't as promising of a tell as he wanted it to be.

Climbing off her bike, Stephanie pulled off her jacket (her own, not Jason's, his was too comfy to risk) and stowed it away in one of the saddle bags before pulling her messenger bag out of the other one, thankful that she finally got around to attaching those things. "Eh, you know how it is. It's never great, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been." Her work vehicles had better ways to get around--or over--bad traffic, but they were a bit more noticeable, so she generally didn't use them when she was off the clock very often.

Stephanie grabbed her helmet off the handlebars to carry in with her as she walked around the bike. It was one thing to risk a GU hoodie getting stolen, it was another for someone to take her favorite helmet. "You're not about to chew me out for not getting here at exactly seven, are you?" Really, she didn't think he would. Bruce did, Tim did sometimes, Babs and Dick were usually okay about it. Cass... was Cass.

Not that it would upset her if he did or anything. She was well into the era of ignoring people while they chewed her out.

He smirked, nodding as little as he stood up proper. Unlike her, he rode in proper gear and he had zero intention of leaving his leather jacket in a saddlebag. Even if it wasn't his work jacket, he had important shit in there. Plus, if he took it off he'd have to deal with people being able to see the grip of his back up from it's inner pants holster at the small of his back.

"Do I look that anal to you?" He arched a brow, leveling a look in her direction before he grabbed his helmet and started for the heavy door. "You make me twiddle my thumbs for half an hour without a good excuse and we'll have words. Until then... eh. Just means your lesson gets cut short. No skin off my nose."

He moved through the door first, flicking his gaze over each corner as he reached back to prop the door open for her. The place was occasionally a little rough, being in the Bowery and all, but tonight it was quiet. A well illuminated little lobby with a heavy metal door in the back corner and a reinforced window to give access to the woman behind. She was flipping through a magazine when the door opened, but when she saw who it was that walked in, she straightened and immediately glared.

"Nu-uh. No. Get your ass outta here, Jace. I'm paid up and you can go tell your boss to shove it up his ass." She crossed her arms and Jason let out a soft chuckle that Steph was no doubt close enough to hear.

"You know, I don't think you want me to do that." His voice was different. His accent was thick, all East End Gotham as opposed to his normal hybrid of East End and Bristol, but also his voice was pitched just a touch higher. It matched the cheeky grin that he flashed the woman that was nothing like the rare lopsided smiles he occasionally offered the Bats. "Relax, Linda. I'm here to shoot, not bust your chops. Off the clock and everything. See?" He pulled out his wallet and gave it a little wave and she narrowed her eyes but relaxed a little.

"Fine, but I'm charging your friend full price."

"Good. Set her up with a full membership, will ya?"

Linda glared a little longer before finally shifting her gaze over to Stephanie and huffing out a sigh.

"Sure thing. Come on up here, sweetheart. I've got some paperwork for you to fill out and I need a copy of your ID. Also, a little bit of advice woman to woman? Drop this asshole. You deserve better."

Edited 2025-09-13 22:42 (UTC)

Chuckling, Stephanie followed Jason into the building, digging her wallet out of her bag as she looked around, taking note of the people and exits. Being the least paranoid Robin didn't mean that she never took in her surroundings, she just knew how to be subtle about it. You didn't grow up in a household like hers without learning to always know where the escapes were, among other things.

Hearing the way Jason's accent changed and spotting the grin he gave the woman, Stephanie raised a brow just slightly at him as she listened to the conversation. Clearly, something was up with that, the accent and the boss and the "paid up", but she wasn't about to blow whatever it was he had going on. Instead, when the woman turned her attention to Steph she dropped the perked brow and gave her a sweet smile and wide eyes instead. If nothing else, Stephanie was well aware of how people saw her. Blonde, short, young, all things that usually made people jump to assuming she would be on the ditzy idiot end of the spectrum, and she usually let them think that.

"Aww, I don't know," she began, chuckling softly as she slid her ID under the glass partition to Linda and took the paper she needed to fill out. "He doesn't seem that bad." She picked up a pen and started filling everything out, making a little bit of smalltalk as she did so. Name: Stephanie Lyla Allen Brown. Age: 20. Address: etc.

Jason smirked at her innocent act, shaking his head a little as he slipped his card through the exchange slot before she could offer her own. Linda took it, expression softening a little before she rolled her eyes.

"He's not, but he's mixed up in some dangerous shit. If you don't know that, now you do." She really was just looking out for Steph's well being and Jason's cheeky grin faded a little into something a bit more like his own.

"She's just a friend, Linda. It's not like that. You know I only got eyes for you." He let his voice get sickly sweet at that last bit, letting out a snort of laughter when she gagged in his direction. "'Sides, you like Hood."

"....He's not the worst." It was a begrudging agreement at best, but it earned another grin from Jason. "Don't get cheeky, you little shit." He held up his hands in surrender and she gave him another glare before turning back to Stephanie. As soon as she finished the paperwork, Linda collected and turned her back to both of them, inputting things into the computer with the ease of practice. Somewhere behind her a machine whirred to life and she ran his card before sliding it back under the partition.

Jace Peters. After all, Jason Todd was dead.

"Don't let her fool you. Linda is a hell of a business woman and good people. She's patched Hood up a couple times after a few bad dust ups, she's just salty because she can't take advantage of the boss man's teenager clause." The smirk he gave Steph was far more genuine than the flashy smiles he'd given Linda. Apparently, his day to day alias had him working for Red Hood. As covers went, it wasn't Brucie Wayne...but it also let him do some of his work out of the helmet.

Edited 2025-09-13 23:39 (UTC)

"I coulda paid for myself, Jace," Steph argued, but she wasn't overly forceful about it cause, okay, yeah, maybe she was on the way more broke end of the Bat scales. Like, all the way at the bottom end. She did have more than enough to cover it, though, and she hadn't been expecting him to pay for anything.

When Linda slid her copy of the paperwork and the license back to her, Steph gave her an upbeat, "Thanks!" as she picked them up and tucked them away in her bag. Linda actually did seem pretty nice overall with her whole trying-to-warn-the-nice-girl-off thing.

"Your boss has some kind of teenager clause?" she asked, genuinely curious as she turned to look up at him while shifting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. That part, she had genuinely no idea about. It could mean anything from "kick out all teenagers who try to come in" to "hey give them a job" or... well, any number of things, really.

To be fair, none of the Bats knew anything about a 'teenager clause'. None of the Bats knew anything about how Hood did his business, after all. Bruce tried and Tim liked to spy on what he could, but Jason knew both their tricks and had done a fairly good job at keeping himself covered in front of his would be 'family'.

Except for now, apparently. He still wasn't sure what she counted as, but whatever it was, he was giving her a glimpse of the man behind the curtain.

"Eh, it's not that big'a deal. Local shops can hire a high schooler. Legally and all above board. Give 'em a chance to earn something other than working for the more dodgy folks or on a corner somewhere. Shops do that, they get a discount." Jay rolled one shoulder in a half assed shrug and Linda rolled her eyes as she pushed a card out from under the glass.

"I can't hire anyone under 18, dipshit." Her tone was dry, but she didn't sound as cut up about things as she could have. The card was a club membership ID, Steph's general info printed neatly and a big green stamp proclaiming her as 'Full Member'. "This'll get you one handgun rental per visit. Anything more than that and you'll have a 10% discount. It'll also open that door. Just swipe it and come on through and we'll get you set up with something that'll fit in those dainty little hands of yours."

Jason snorted a small laugh, shaking his head as he gestured for Steph to lead the way. 'Dainty'. Honestly, the blond was either going to punch the woman or get all giddy and he was more than a little mildly curious about which it was going to be.

The smile Stephanie gave Jason when he explained the 'teenager clause' was a bit more genuine than the ones she had been giving Linda. Of course it was. If anyone would support giving teenagers better options than getting into trouble or staying home more often if it was a bad environment, it would be Stephanie. She had started spending as much of her free time at the Widowstone Creek area YMCA as she could pretty much as soon as she was old enough to ride her bike there on her own. Not only was that where she first picked up gymnastics and learned how to swing a bat, but it was also a safe place to spend her days and evenings away from the screaming, violence, and being locked in closets at home. "Sounds like a pretty good clause to me."

Turning back to Linda, she took the card and nodded along, committing the perks of the card to memory. "Have you thought about hiring like, a senior? A lot of seniors are 18. I was 18 when I was a senior." Sure, she actually should have graduated when she was 16, but when you have to take half a year off for certain medical reasons, then have to take another year off while you're pretending you're still dead and healing from the actual temporary death, apparently they won't just handwave that away and let you continue on as scheduled. Who woulda guessed?

"You hear that, Jace?" she said, giggling a bit as she turned and took a couple of steps backwards towards the door she'd been pointed towards, wiggling the fingers of her free hand at him, bruises just barely visible across the backs of her knuckles. "I'm dainty." With a smirk, she turned, swiped her new card, and stepped through the door. She wasn't being subtle about looking around as she moved towards the counter that time, taking in the people and details in the room.

Giddy it was, then.

Jason chuckled as he followed her through the buzzed open door. While she took in her fill of the weapons that lined the counter that cut through the middle of the room, Linda on the other side to help her find a grip that fit, he moved over to the bank of lockers that sat on the opposite wall. A key appeared from the inner pocket of his jacket and then the locker was swinging open and Jason was shrugging out of the black leather to put it inside.

"Gimme your helmet, Blondie." He reached out a hand expectantly, smirking at the fact that Linda was trying to talk over him about what kind of grips she liked.

Once Linda was satisfied that the newcomer would be good with the little Firestar she'd chosen and after she'd checked over the gun that Jay had pulled from it's holster at the small of his back, she'd handed them both a set of heavy ear protection and then, finally, it was Jason's turn to take Stephanie back into the range itself. It wasn't busy, being a weekday evening, and he made sure there was a little bit of distance between them and the other woman shooting.

"Thanks. For...going with me, back there."

Stephanie had paid close attention to Lynda's explanation about the gun, only pausing to turn and toss her helmet to Jason. Then, with a big smile and a thanks, she took the gun and ear protection and followed Jason into the range.

"It's no problem, Jace," she said with a more genuine grin and a shrug when he thanked her. "I know how bad it can go if you've got something going on and then someone comes in and ruins it." It wasn't some big thing like Jason seemed to have going, but Steph had a whole plan worked out at one point, and everything was going perfectly until Matches Malone (who she later found out was Bruce all along) didn't show up for an arranged meeting, which led to a city-wide gang war. Yay. "Besides, I'm so not as much of a stickler for rules or whatever as some people we know."

Once they reached a counter, Steph carefully set down the gun before dropping her messenger bag on the ground, out of the way but in front of her, then hung the ear protection around her neck. "Alright, time to teach me your ways."

Ba, Bitches

From Memes

A Lesson in Shooting Your Shot

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