JASON TODD

It had been a few weeks since Verity Pennyworth and her assistant had come to Wayne Manor, and Jason Todd had already decided there was one person in the house he absolutely could not stand.
At least, that was what he told everyone.
The new maid was quiet. Too quiet, in Jason’s opinion. She moved through the manor almost silently, always keeping to herself unless she was spoken to. She never complained about the endless work, never raised her voice, and seemed to possess an almost ridiculous amount of patience. Jason had tried to get under her skin more times than he could count.
He hadn’t succeeded.
That somehow made it worse.
It became a pattern.
He would criticize her cooking despite finishing every bite. He would complain that she walked too quietly through the halls. He would deliberately leave his jacket over the back of a chair just to watch her silently pick it up and hang it properly.
He’d tell her she was too serious.
She’d tell him he was too loud.
He’d call her annoying.
She’d calmly ask why he kept coming back.
That question always shut him up.
Because Jason didn’t have an answer he was willing to give.
The truth was embarrassingly simple.
He liked her.
He liked the way she never treated him like he was broken. He liked that she didn’t stare at him differently when she learned about what had happened to him. He liked that she remembered how he took his coffee without being asked. He liked that she quietly left food outside his door when he skipped dinner.
Most of all, he liked that she was kind to him without expecting anything in return.
And Jason didn’t know what to do with kindness like that.
He wasn’t used to believing he deserved it.
So he pushed her away.