̶G̶o̶o̶d̶ Bad Habits Run In The Family (DISCONTINUED)

Your Hospitality Scares Me

It had been about three weeks since Danny had ended up in Gotham, and he was still hiding out in Red Hood’s base. Danny should have left by now. He shouldn’t wake up every day and expect to see the other man, or wonder what food he’ll bring, or wait to see what book he’ll let Danny read to keep him busy. He was surprised that the anti-hero had let him stay this long, and the fact he allowed himself to stay there.

Now that it had been around three weeks, Danny couldn’t really tell time anymore, but he knew that he was overstaying his welcome. Red Hood was a genuinely nice guy, almost too nice sometimes, especially for his reputation as the “big bad crime lord”. Danny snorted at the thought, looking at the pile of books that he had already read, knowing that all of them had to belong to the Hood. Who would have thought that Gotham’s own well known anti-hero was a bookworm? Sometimes he even came off as a nerd, going on rants and debates with Danny about some of the books he seemed particularly passionate about. Danny didn’t really read before Red Hood lended him some books, let alone participate in deep conversations about them, but he had to admit it was nice.

Danny sighed, folding the blanket and laying it on top of the mattress. He shouldn’t be thinking of that right now, he didn’t want to make this harder than it should be. He should have never let himself get attached.

He looked at the notebook that Red had left for him a few days ago after hearing that Danny liked to draw sometimes. Danny only drew a few times in it, mostly little doodles or something to do with the books he read. Now though, he was writing a small note with a page he tore out.

Danny knew it wasn’t really fair. To leave the older male like this after everything he’s done for him without giving anything back. He was just trying to save Red Hood from the extra trouble, from all the baggage that he came with. It was the only thing that he could do to repay him at the moment, making this the easiest option. Maybe one day he’ll come back and properly thank him. He doesn’t know if he’ll even be around to see that day, but he’ll try, even if he can’t promise it.

After trying to clean up the warehouse as best as he could, he gave it a last look around. None of the things in there belonged to him, not even the clothes he had on, so he didn’t have anything to pack up. He had stacked the books up, leaving his farewell note on it, and rolled up the mattress he slept on. His wound was fully healed, not even leaving a scar, almost like nothing ever happened, and he had all of his energy back.

There wasn’t anything keeping him here anymore, no other excuses he could give himself to stay. Not that he should. He’s already been here too long. It was only a matter of time before all of his foolish actions followed him here, and he didn’t want anybody else in the crossfire, especially Red Hood. He didn’t want to admit it, didn’t want it to be true, but he cares about the man and he’s gotten far too close. It was one of the things making it so hard to leave.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the very familiar silent footsteps from the entrance of the warehouse. He was about to leave when he realized that these quiet steps were different from Red Hood’s, the pattern of them were too, and nowadays the man announced that he was there in order to not scare Danny. This wasn’t Red Hood, this was somebody else, and by the sounds of it they were trying to be careful, meaning that they weren't meant to be in here. Danny knew that he wouldn’t be safe here forever, that eventually somebody would find him. It was luck that it happened to be today while he was leaving.

Now on the verge of panicking, Danny went invisible and turned around to the wall, going intangible. He had a quick thought about taking the note in order to leave less of a trace, but went against it as there was plenty of other evidence he was here. He walked through the wall and flailed for a second as he realized he was pretty high up, before centering himself to float, not looking back at the intruder to even risk getting a look. He had to leave, before he was caught. He may be invisible at the moment, but he knows from experience that there were plenty of people with the technology to find him anyway, including an entire government branch.