Work Text:
What a fucked up day he's had. First, the supposed lead Jason and the Outlaws had was a bust with every last bit of evidence in that god-forbidden warehouse gone from sight and burned to ash. Then, after that, when he went out on his own to take down some thug working for Roman Sionis, he lost his cool and the guy got away. Sure, he'd managed to destroy the shipment of guns and explosives before he could get away with it, but the guy still got away, and Jason can't forget that.
And now, as he sits in the pouring rain, barely sheltered by the heavily spray-painted bus stop, his lighter won't light. He holds a cigarette between his lips as he flicks the lighter several times before growing frustrated, slamming the metal casing on the bench next to him. Through the heaving rain smacking violently against the roof, Jason can somehow make out the sound of footsteps, but he doesn't care enough to look over until he hears the person's voice.
"You need a light?" The voice comes out gravely and deep.
Jason lifts his head, finding Two-Face, Harvey Dent, standing beside him with a lighter in his hand, holding it out. "Yeah."
Dent flicks the cap off the lighter with his thumb, flicking at it before the flame lights. Jason takes his cigarette from his lips between his two fingers and holds the end to the open flame. He doesn't move it back until he sees the smoke float up from the lit end. He pulls the end to his lips and inhales longly, his eyes closing as he sighs the smoke out from his mouth. He can hear slight ruffling before he hears the cap of the lighter close back down. Opening his eyes half-lidded, he glances at Harvey and finds him to be smoking too.
"You don't mind if I join, do you?"
Jason takes his Red Hood helmet off from the bench and sets it between his feet, inviting him to join without words being said. Harvey takes the invite by sitting down next to Jason, leaving a space between them as they both smoke. Neither says anything for a while. They sit next to each other for a while, just breathing in smoke, then huffing it out in a sigh. The silence is a little tense at times, but it isn't too hard to spark conversation with someone like Harvey when you're in Gotham City.
"It's a shame you never got into office," Jason starts, earning Harvey's attention while he looks off to his left side where Harvey isn't. "I've heard you would've been great for this city. God knows Gotham needs someone like that these days."
Dent sits with Jason, sighing as he leans back into the glass of the bus stop. "Gotham always needed someone. I'm more disappointed it never got that person. People started shying away from the office when they saw what happened to me."
"You could always run again."
Harvey looks over at Jason, surprised by that response. Jason looks over in return, sitting up from leaning forward into his knees.
"What? You could."
"No," Harvey argues, "I couldn't. Not like this. I'd never be able to after the shit I've done."
"You could be reformed. Get some therapy. Maybe after that, you can run for office again." Jason brings the cigarette to his lips and inhales, holding the smoke for a while before he huffs it out in front of him, away from Harvey.
Harvey thinks about the possibility for a moment, taking a drag of his cigarette after. Once upon a time, Harvey never would've smoked. He used to be a goody-two-shoes who followed every law and every general rule of thumb. He never smoked, he hardly drank, he tried to be a good husband and hardly swore. He never sped when driving and never littered, he separated his recycling and garbage and listened to every person who ever mentioned what needed to be changed in Gotham. Everyone in Gotham looked up to him. Men wanted to be him, women admired him, kids wanted to be like him when they were older, and police loved him and were always friendly with him.
And he had friends. At the time, Jim Gordon was the police captain, not commissioner. He was also Harvey's friend at the time, along with Bruce Wayne and, later, Batman. He'd worked with Batman and Gordon for a long time when crime was high. At first, he considered it against the law to let a vigilante of the night go out and beat criminals to get inadmissible evidence for a case. But then, it turned out that having a master detective like him was convenient and pretty useful. And despite not saying a lot, he listened. Batman was a good listener and alright company. Harvey thinks his wards all have their own little spunk to them as well. Truly he doesn't mind them. It turns out, that Bruce Wayne really was Batman. He'd heard the theories, but he knew Bruce. Or so he thought, anyway. While Bruce was smart, strong, and looked tired most of the time, he always excused that as late-night partying and wanting to stay healthy or good-looking. Dent had no reason not to believe him, so he took his word for it. Now that he thinks about it, maybe he was a little too trusting of the words of his friends. But then again, maybe they were too.
"Where'd you hear I'd be good for Gotham?" Harvey has to ask. He needs to know where the Red Hood heard he'd be good in office.
"Bruce," Jason answers simply. "You were one of his best friends, apparently. What happened there?"
Harvey shrugs. "What always happens. Someone goes through a life-changing experience, loses a little sanity and becomes the new psycho to throw into Arkham."
"Yeah. I know that feeling."
"Do you?"
Jason shrugs back. "Sort of. I mean, I died and came back. Then all of a sudden, when I was angry enough to kill the people that can't be reformed, I was just another enemy. He said I was "just another criminal." The guy he called his son years prior. Is it weird to be a little pissed about that?"
"Nah. It would be more unusual if you weren't. Bruce is... Well, he's an oddball, that's for sure."
Jason moves to lean back as well, looking over at Harvey. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"He's not your average person," Harvey looks back at Jason while explaining. "Sure, he's got the billionaire playboy persona, but then there's the Batman persona. He's a tough guy to understand. Emotionally distant, y'know?"
"Yeah. I know." Jason sinks down into his seat, looking out at the rain.
Harvey joins him in looking out at the rain, crossing his legs at the ankles. "He's not that bad a guy, though. He might use methods that go against the law, but maybe that's necessary. Some people just won't listen to the law, so why give it to them easy?"
Jason hums in response. "He told me a lot of stories about the things you did and planned to do for Gotham. Pretty admirable to try to fix a whole city like this."
"Well, that's what you're doing too, isn't it? Cleaning up Gotham?"
There's a moment of silence. Jason couldn't help but pause. No one besides himself and maybe the Outlaws has ever phrased it that way: Cleaning up Gotham. It's how he tried to describe what he was doing to Bruce. He wasn't killing people for no reason. He was doing it because people needed the closure of knowing those horrible people were dealt with. He needed that closure and never got it. He needed that closure more than anything. So now, he gives it to others in hopes that they don't feel half as lonely as he did.
"Uh, yeah. I like to think I am." Jason finally answers.
The surprise in the boy's voice forces a smile to bring upon Harvey's face, a chuckle not short to follow. "From what I've seen? You're doing good, kid."
He pauses again. He hasn't heard those words in a long time. He can't help but think about them for a while.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah," Harvey breathes out a mouthful of smoke, "seriously. Crime won't stop, but it's slowed. Haven't heard of a jailbreak in a while, only the big names. Joker, Scarecrow, Bane. Those folks."
Jason huffs. "That's hardly because of me. B is still around with all his birds."
"There hasn't been this big of an effect since the Red Hood came through. People got used to Batman. They expect him. So much so that they're terrified when they're not met with him and are met with you instead."
Jason grins a little, his ego steadily being boosted. "Oh yeah?"
"I'm not one to lie. Believe it or not."
He laughs a little, seeing Harvey smile some from that. "I'll take your word for it."
"Good."
The two continue to sit in silence for a while, going through one whole cigarette each before both going to the next, lighting them over the same flame. The flame Harvey's lighter provides that Jason's won't. He'd know, he tried again. And again. And another time after that.
"Maybe it's time to get a new one," he finally gives up lighting it, leaning back into the glass again.
"Or maybe you just need to change the butane."
"I don't know how to do that," Jason admitted.
"I'll teach you," Harvey offered, his tone more a question than anything.
Jason considers it for a moment before shrugging. "Sure. Couldn't hurt to know."
Harvey straightens up, extending out his left hand. Jason looks at it for a moment before setting the lighter in his palm, drawing his hand back after. Harvey turns the lighter upside down and Jason sits up, looking at the lighter.
"You'll just have to turn the flame adjuster knob as low as it'll go, push the refilling valve down and put the stem of the can in. You should shake the butane first though."
"Just that easy, huh?"
"Just that easy. You ever need an example, I can help with that." Harvey hands the lighter back over to Jason.
Jason takes the lighter back. "Thanks. I'll... keep that in mind."
The two ease back down, silence filling the space again. The silence, Jason has found, has become steadily more comfortable though.
"He should be proud of you."
Jason's attention is barely present on anything but his thoughts. "I'm sorry?"
"Bruce, I mean. He should be proud of you." Harvey talks so calmly, looking off to his right.
Jason stays looking to his left, his gaze finding the floor. He stays silent for a while before speaking up again. "Should he be?"
"I mean, why not? You're doing a damn good job of clearing Gotham's streets. I respect his choice not to kill people, it's admirable, but sometimes, people can't be saved. Sometimes those people create more risk to leave alive than it ever would killing them."
"That's what I've tried to tell him," Jason agrees, "but I don't think he wants to listen. Maybe it's because he wants to think he can save everyone, or maybe it's because he doesn't trust me anymore. I can't tell."
"Who knows? This is Bruce Wayne we're talking about."
"True."
Harvey looks to the boy next to him before looking back out at the rain, admiring the way it carries the streetlight. "Maybe I could run for office again."
"Oh yeah? You think so?" Jason pushes the butt of his cigarette into the empty space on the bench, putting it out.
"If the Red Hood thinks I can be better, maybe I can. It might take a while, but so did getting to be district attorney and I still did that. Maybe it's worth a shot."
"That's the spirit."
"Maybe it'd be worth it for you to talk to your family too," Harvey suggests.
Jason scoffs out a laugh, looking away from him. "That's if they'd even want to see me. I've screwed them all over. It's not worth it."
"You sure?" Harvey looks back over to him, taking one last drag from his cigarette before putting the butt out under his foot.
"Yes, I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I could understand why... Tim, right?"
"Yeah," Jason looks down. "Tim."
"Then I could understand why you'd think Tim wouldn't want to see you, but Grayson? Bruce himself? I'm sure they would. They weren't too happy about your whole dying thing," Harvey explains.
"So I've heard."
"So you know the story?"
Jason pauses momentarily. "No. I don't."
"Do you want to know?"
Again, he pauses. "No. I don't. Not really, anyway."
"Alright," Harvey nods, leaving silence to air between them.
Maybe they both are lost causes, but even still, it's nice to have some kind of hope even if it doesn't end up used on something. Especially when that hope is provided by someone you wouldn't naturally talk with. Originally, Jason thought he wouldn't be the type to trust any of the Arkham escapees, but maybe Dent isn't half bad. Maybe the Harvey Dent Bruce told him about is still in there somewhere. Maybe this is some kind of progress or maybe he'll take his words seriously and actually get some help.
A bus pulls up to the stop, its doors opening to the two on the stop. Jason can see the clock on the screen of the bus reads "6:00 am." He watches as Harvey stands, walking up to the bus before looking back at Jason.
"It was nice talking to you, kid. But I should go. Maybe keep this between us, yeah?"
"Uh, sure. Nice talking to you."
Jason watches as Harvey enters the bus, flipping a coin on his thumb as he does. He fears the worst until he sees Harvey paying the fee for the bus, standing next to a pole. He leans on the pole, saluting to Jason through the window as the doors close. Jason returns the salute, watching the bus driver drive off with Harvey Dent in it.