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Things had been rocky in the beginning, it took a while to get past the Red Hood issue. There had been a whole host of issues that first year as they learned to navigate ‘not keeping secrets’ versus ‘plausible deniability’ and ‘you don’t want to know’.
While Neal had said he wanted to know what Hood and his Hoodlums were doing, they both quickly realized that Neal had no stomach for the kind of work they did. He vastly preferred only hearing the broad strokes of Hood’s operations rather than knowing any details, much less seeing it in person or helping with it.
One of the biggest things they argued about was Neal learning how to use all the weapons that Hood owned. Finally, Neal agreed to learn how to use them but he refused to carry more than a couple of knives on him. If he was in danger at their house he could grab any of the multitude of firearms or other weapons that Jason stashed everywhere.
The next thing they had fought over was Neal’s new habit of heist and switch. Not that Jason was against it. He knew damn well that Neal’s work was good enough for a museum. No, what he had a problem was a) he didn’t want him pulling a heist in Gotham -the less the bats had reason to know who Neal Caffrey was the better. And b) he didn’t want Neal traveling alone- he wanted to send a few of his most trusted men as a protection squad.
That resulted in a series of complex negotiations and fights that left Gotham smoking. When Jason was mad at Neal, the Black Mask had another warehouse go boom. Every time Neal was mad at Jason, none of the Hoodlums dared to come near him until the two of them made up. Last June, they had hardly dared breathe around Hood for the whole first two weeks as the two fought over Neal’s protection squad. Mask lost four warehouses that month and the less said about the bloodbath that was the Human trafficking ring that thought they could snatch Alley kids the better. More than one of the men lost their lunch at the sight of the gruesome scene that Hood had left behind.
The Hoodlums learned really quickly to recognize Neal. The first and only time they tried to ‘arrest’ Neal, left the Hoodlums reeling. One man made the mistake of roughing him up before they took him to the boss. Hood shot him in the hand so fast no one even saw him draw his gun. After the three hours of yelling that followed- two at the Hoodlums by Hood and one at Hood by Neal- the first thing every new member learned was to memorize Neal’s face and always let him see the boss.
Neal did his work outside of Gotham, occasionally allowing Jason to send an escort with him but mostly relying on the trackers and SOS beacons that Jason had insisted on as a compromise. Jason stayed at home and controlled all the criminal operations in Crime Alley. The two worked best when they didn’t mix their criminal endeavors.
Today was a rare day that neither of them had plans in the works that needed their immediate attention. They had started the day off with Jason serving Neal breakfast in bed and good morning sex. When they finally decided to pull themselves out of bed they went down to the farmers market to see what Jason could find fresh to cook with this week.
They spent most of the day wandering the stalls just being two men in love. They traded lazy kisses as Jason licked the sugar cinnamon dust off Neal’s lips after they ate churros. Neal sighed and rolled his eyes when he lost Jason for almost an hour as he dug through piles and piles of used books looking for more dusty books to fill their already overflowing bookshelves. (The only thing they had more of than books were weapons, or possibly paints.) Jason wrapped his arms around Neal and rested his chin on his shoulder as he talked color theory and shading to a pair of artists who were painting onsite and taking commissions. They were content just to be together.
After the farmer’s market they gathered up a bunch of supplies: small toiletries, sturdy backpacks, old clothes in all sizes, non-perishable foods, a half dozen small toys and water bottles. And because this was Gotham: gas masks with extra filters, portable water bottle filters, mini first aid kits, and of course a collection of knives perfect for smaller hands.
The Red Hood had found out that a group of street kids had actually hid in one of his lesser used warehouses. After strict orders for the kids to be left alone Hood had carefully made contact to check in on them and see if they needed anything.
Today they were going to drop off a few more items, he’d already set them up with a couple of industrial sized fridges, a decent kitchen, showers, beds and a weekly grocery order. Now they were just stocking up on the stuff for the kids' stashes.
Somewhere along the line the kids had started calling him Papa Hood, some of them even called Neal Mama Hood which always made him laugh. Everyone knew the street kids were under his protection, now some of them were literally under his protection. Any kid could stay for any reason, just no drugs or booze allowed on site.
Watching Jason get swarmed by half a dozen kids shouting for their Papa Hood and giggling the whole time made every bit of heartache brought by the Red Hood worth it. He showed the kids how to properly use their knives, gas masks and water bottles plus how to change the filters. Anything to give the kids a fighting chance on the streets.
Neal draws them pictures of their favorite cartoons or helps them improve their own skills; be it drawing, pickpocketing or lockpicking. He cheers when they finally manage to get his wallet without him noticing and laughs when it comes back $20 lighter.
Nowadays, things are a lot more peaceful. The biggest thing they seemed to argue about now was Chinese vs Pizza.