𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 | jason todd

xix. silent goodbyes

Cats also tended to disappear for days on end. Which annoyed him because he didn't like not knowing things. The unknown was dangerous. And he knew nothing about Athena's past which annoyed him further. Granted she knew nothing about his either. Bruce never spoke or shared any of their pasts with anyone. It was an in-house agreement and it certainly wasn't anyone's business either. Their history was erased as soon as they stepped foot into the guild. A clean slate. Good riddance, too; it would only hold them back.

          But Jason couldn't shake the need to find out more about Athena. It had to be linked. The pain. Such raw emotions. He'd grown up with her, been around her since they were both adolescents and he'd never seen her act out like this before. And he knew, from his own experiences, that there was only one thing that could make anyone act like that.

         Family.

         In saying that, he did try once—to find out something about Athena's past. He'd snuck into Bruce's office, hot headed after Athena had one-upped him in training exercise. He'd been winning, too. But he got too cocky, and Athena noticed his arrogance shine through his movement and used that to her advantage, knocking him off his feet and landing blow after blow until he gave in when her blade was at his throat. He was furious. Directing all his anger at Athena rather than his own lack of composure. So, later that day, he snuck into Bruce's office while he was away and shuffled through the paper and files until he reached the compartment of all the assassins at the den. Usually, it wouldn't have been this easy. But the Boss had been stifling through it early in the day because Dick needed some clearance check for police work or some shit like that. Jason hadn't bothered to find out; he just wondered why Dick didn't just forge the information he needed instead of inconveniencing Bruce to find accurate data. But yet again, this was Dick he was talking about. Righteous bastard.

          He'd found Athena's file and with a snicker, he opened the envelope. To his disappointment, there lacked a significant amount of information. It contained her age, date of birth, place of birth and personality traits. Stubborn, careless, pessimistic, reckless, short tempered, proud, brash, honest, impatient—hell, he might as well be looking at his own file.

          But her past was short.

         House fire. Family deceased. On the run.

         It didn't make sense to him.

         Why was there so little about her? Where were her family details? Did she have any siblings? Mum? Dad? How did the fire start? How did she even end up here? How did she make it out alive? What did she look like that young? How did Bruce even find her?

His thoughts ran short as the cat trotted over to him, curling itself between his legs. Jason had to physically restrain himself  from kicking his leg out and sending the furball flying. Athena was smiling, following the cats approach until she realised who the feline had cuddled against. Her smile dropped.

          "Stop that," she said.

          "Stop what?" He replied, removing his stare from the cat to her.

          "Doing that face."

          "What face? I'm smiling."

          He couldn't even understand himself why he was smiling. Why the grimace had turned to a soft grin when Athena had finally acknowledged him.