Recovery

[badbutsadboy]

Who: Hunter badbutsadboy and his CR
What: Hunter recovering
When: After he gets out of the hospital
Where: Jason's Safehouse
Content Warnings: N/A for now

[He's only in the hospital a few days. Vascular injuries are bad but the artery wasn't completely severed, the muscle was only nicked, and the rest was mostly a flesh wound. It was a low speed, small caliber handgun of some kind.]

[Hunter spends a lot of his recovery sleeping on the pull out couch where he can be checked on. At some point, he plans to ask Nico if Will can heal him (though he wouldn't be shocked if Nico brought him around soon on his own) but Flapjack chases away everyone so he can sleep first.]

[So he spends a lot of time just knocked the hell out on pain meds, until one day he feels like he's rested enough.]

[And then he's left at a crossroads. Huvrye wanted him to stay with someone and he knows he meant an adult. But...]

[But he's still feeling so unsure about it. Even with adults rushing him to a hospital, even with them staying by his side while injured.]

[So whenever he gets a visitor they find him sitting up on the couch, in sweats and fuzzy socks, his arm in its sling packed with ice packs. He sits, staring forward at the TV, expression troubled, lost in thought.]

[The TV is off.]

[Flapjack is squished next to his thigh on the couch and the fingers of his good hand gently pet his fathers.]

Comments

[robintohood]

[Jason recognizes the gesture Hunter is doing and appreciates it. It's a sign of someone wanting to give comfort but not used to doing it and wanting to give respectful distance. It makes sense to Jason, given what he knows about Hunter. He's also coming from his own personal experience. It's been years since he received or done any affectionate physical gestures.

Jason gently places his own hand over Hunter's.]

No matter what that monster thinks and even though you look like someone else, you're your own person with your own memories and experiences. No one can take those away from you.

[badbutsadboy]

[He doesn't pull his hand away. He lets it be held. Then fingers wind their way through Jason's.]

I'm trying to think that.

[It would maybe he easier if he knew more about Caleb. About Grimwalkers. About the other Golden Guards.]

It would be easier to figure out if I could talk to them. Somehow. Find out what they were like. But he was never going to let that happen with the Golden Guards.

I at least know we have one thing in common, though, and I guess it's a good thing. All of us rebelled against him. I just...was the only one that survived doing it. Thanks to my friends.

That's what made him kill them. Every time he did, he just made a new one. He tried to do the same to me but Luz and the Owl Lady made it so I got away.

[He has a lot of complicated feelings about the others. The sheer horror of how they were made and what they were all made for. The sadness they faced such terrible fates. Even slight guilt he just happened to have the luck to survive and they didn't.]

[But maybe a little pride. Maybe there isn't just horror there.]

[Being in this world of heroes and realizing there are some that follow in the footsteps of others, he understands there is such thing as a legacy. If their legacy was rebellion alongside death, at least it wasn't death alone.]

I should thank her for that. I wasn't... I wasn't in a good place to. At the time.

[robintohood]

She probably already knows and understand that you've been occupied. You still have time.

It makes such a huge difference having people you can go to for support after something like that. I'm glad you have people who try care about you.

[Jason means it with all sincerity. Jason knows he's already spent too many years alone and has already set his own path. But at least another kid still has a chance for a better future with a true support network]

[badbutsadboy]

[He briefly squeezes Jason's hand before finally letting go.]

You have people that care about you too.

[robintohood]

[It's strange. Jason wants to focus on Hunter's recovery but he keeps getting words of support from him in return. It's not as though he's been looking for it. He's supposed to be the adult and trying to be one of Hunter's pillars.

But he gets that Hunter's a good kid and wants to help. He appreciates the intention. Though Jason's also feeling a twinge in his chest as even fewer people know what he does as the Red Hood. It's not something one shares with just anyone, much less a kid.]

Thanks, Hunter. That's still something I'm getting used to.

[It's a miracle he's managed a truce with some of the other BatFamily]