A retired magician raises a bucket daily

Christmas is a major festival for this country where most people believe in Christianity, so that people have already started to hang Christmas decorations on commercial streets or in front of their homes half a month earlier, so before Christmas When Christmas Day is only two or three days away, the whole city of Gotham is like a sea of ​​red and green, with fancy Christmas trees standing in it, and the streets are full of crisp nursery rhymes with jingle bells.

But superheroes don't have public holidays, at least while Reid is busy with publishers, illustrations for new books, and apple pies from neighbors who have just moved in, Jason has a lot to do every day, and it seems that at the end of the year, criminals also It seemed as if he was about to start rushing towards performance, and became active again. Mr. Red Hood was either beating criminals or on his way to beating criminals.

The new neighbor who moved in was a warm old lady who lived alone. After learning that there were only three of them on this floor, she always brought the apple pie she baked in the morning to Reed and the others.Reed was still worried about the safety of the other party at the beginning. After all, the surrounding area of ​​the apartment is still lively. Although he has never experienced the burglary, he has heard of it—until he saw the old lady always kept a pistol in the exquisite satchel. ...As expected of the honest and honest Gotham City.

"Jason hasn't got off work yet? Oh, it's so late." The old lady figured out the relationship between Jason and Reed within two days. Although she still didn't know what Jason did, but It seems that Jason is regarded as an employee working in the company.

"It should be soon," Reed looked at the sky that was about to darken. The towering buildings blocked the last bit of bright light, blurring a dilapidated dark red. He turned his head and smiled at the old lady. His smile There is always a bit of conciliatory and well-behaved meaning, like the top student in the school, the obedient child in the mouth of other children's parents, no matter what he says, there is a convincing feeling for no reason, "He even boasted before going out in the morning Mrs. Max's baked apple pie is very delicious, please accept this if you don't mind."

Reed handed the old lady the small biscuits packed in a packaging bag in his hand. They were the cookies he baked in his spare time in the afternoon, and they were extruded into the shape of gingerbread men with decorating flowers.The old lady touched her mouth in surprise, and then took it with a smile on her face.

Recently, the danger factor in Gotham has risen sharply. Humans are a kind of forgetful creatures. The recent prison break has only subsided, and the reconstruction of Arkham Asylum has been completed.Sometimes Jason came back with some wounds on his body, and Reid just didn't look so friendly and silently helped him heal the wounds.

Jason also seemed to realize that Reed didn't like to see himself injured, so he would go back to his safe house before going home, and first manually treat those serious-looking wounds on his body, so that they can see It doesn't sound so exaggerated, and then go home.

—This discovery was made by Dick and Reed.

Because Nightwing who stayed in Gotham once borrowed the safe house of a nearby brother, who knew that when he walked in, he was taken a step back by the blood inside, and Jason, who was sitting on the sofa changing his own bandages, grinned and stared at him, I want to know how he got into his safe house again, but because of the wounds on his body, his facial muscles are so sore, he can't speak for a while.

It was Dick who hurried to help, wrapping his bandages and administering his medicine.

"Did you quarrel with Reed?" Comrade Ye Yi, who is experienced in this field, asked him. After all, this scene was too similar to the scene where he had to make do with a safe house after he had a fight with his girlfriend and couldn't go home.

"No." Jason lowered his head and touched the white bandage wrapped around his lower abdomen. The strong smell of the potion made him frown, thinking that he would be lectured by Reed if he went back like this.

"Then he's on a business trip?" Dick continued to speculate.

"No." Seeing that the intruder had a good attitude, Jason didn't show his face to Dick. "He doesn't like to see me get hurt."

"..." Dick, who is currently in the vacant period, withdrew his hand with an aggrieved face, and responded dryly: "Oh."

Jason continued, "I don't want to make him angry."

Dick: "..."

Dick wanted to shake Jason's head, what's wrong?Did you just come back from a mission in Atlantis?Why do you hear the sound of water inside?

The other party is a vampire, he is as sensitive to blood as the death knell is to his ass, what do you think you can hide?

Brother, why did you become so stupid after falling in love? !

Dick hated iron for being weak, and after Jason left, he turned around and reported the situation to Reid.

He used to do this kind of stupid thing too, hiding his wounds and not wanting the people around him to know about it, in the name of not letting them worry.It's not just him, Bruce also likes to do this, or the old guy still has this habit. If it weren't for Alfred watching, Dick felt that Bruce would be able to toss himself for the rest of his life. bed.

Ye Yi, who was worried about his younger brother, sighed.I hope Jason can understand the seriousness of this matter.

It's already midnight when I got home today.Jason guessed that Reed should have fallen asleep, after all, the magician has been talking about adjusting his schedule recently.

But when he opened the door and walked in, there was still a small dim floor lamp in the living room. Reed curled up on the sofa with a ball of thin velvet quilt, leaning his head on the backrest like a kitten.The book he was reading earlier had slipped to the floor. Jason walked over lightly, picked up the book that had fallen on the carpet and put it on the table.

"Back?" Reed came out behind him with a sleepy voice.

"Well, why are you sleeping here?" Jason turned around and twisted the thin blanket, "Go to bed and sleep."

Reed rubbed his eyes and stretched, "Waiting for you—"

He drawled his voice, and grabbed Jason's clothes with his hand protruding from the blanket, "You're hurt again."

The tall man lowered his head slightly, moved to the corner of Reed's mouth and asked him for a shallow kiss, and said in a low voice, "It's not a big problem."

Reed quickly lifted up his clothes, and frowned at the bandages wrapped around it, "Ha, isn't that a big problem?"

The wound heals very slowly in winter, and the wound has not yet scabbed over the past period of time, and a little blood has faintly leaked from the bandage.

"Have you forgotten the last time I lost too much blood and I picked it up on the ground?" Reid asked him.

"I don't want you to worry," Jason explained, "I used to come here like this, and it will be fine in a few days."

"That's what worries me, you don't tell me anything." Reed glared at him coldly, let him sit on the sofa and lowered his head to start untying the bandages on his body, "Bruce really taught you badly .”

The magician thinks his temper is not bad, at least he has been certified by all the members of the Clock Tower, but since he met Jason, he has felt angry and helpless more times than he and Melvin have bickered .

The damn Batman.Bloody Bruce Wayne!

"......Feel sorry."

"You can rely on my...Jason, I don't want you to feel that I need protection." Reed said softly, sending magic power into Jason's body little by little, looking at the The hideous scar slowly grew flesh.Now he is not as comfortable using magic as before. The powerful magic power that burst out at the moment of forcibly changing the existence of the Holy Grail almost burned out his last few remaining magic circuits. Now he can only maintain the sage carefully. The balance between the stone and your body, and then wait for those magic circuits to gradually return to normal over time.

"I'm not against everything you want to do, but just one thing...don't let yourself get hurt."

Jason clenched his hands, then released them, and responded in a low voice: "Okay."

The wound healed quickly, but Reed's face looked a little pale. He licked his dry lips and stopped before his mind became dizzy.Reed looked at the few remaining weak wounds, then dug out the medical kit, applied iodophor and wound medicine on it, and finally wrapped Jason with a bandage.

The warm dim light illuminated a small area around the two of them. This scene seemed familiar, like a warm scene that only appeared in his dreams.Jason pulled out of his trance, and when he looked down, he realized that Reed had finally tied his arm in a beautiful, delicate bow with a bandage.

"Come on, Richard..." Jason couldn't laugh or cry, the bow was like two wings, rising and falling slightly with the shaking of his arms.

"It's called punishment, boy." Reed added slowly. "Maybe your ex-girlfriends...or ex-boyfriends, they may like you (protection), but I don't use it, and I don't like it."

"...no ex-boyfriends," Jason whispered, "and no ex-girlfriends, two...uh, three."

Jason looked away in embarrassment, cursing in his heart: And they all seem to be pretty good at fighting.

Reed was pleased by Jason's innocence, the corners of his mouth turned up a little, he put his hands on his cheeks, and leaned closer to him and said, "You know I don't care about this, boy."

The magician let out a long sigh, "I only care about whether you are happy or not."

There was a garland hanging on the door of their bedroom, Jason squinted and asked Reid what it was, the surrounding was too dark, the moonlight was so distant and deserted.

Reed bought it when he went to the flower shop not long ago. It was only a few days before Christmas, so he hung it up. Reed smiled, "Mistletoe."

According to legend, the mistletoe hanging in the house can ward off witchcraft and curses. Considering that they have been devastated by these things before, Reed finally chose this among the lush and colorful flowers in the florist.

Of course, there are other legends about mistletoe besides this.

"Gotham still has this?" Jason looked down and saw Reed, who was only a fist away from him, with a smile in his eyes, "Then do you know what we are going to do when we are under the mistletoe?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Reid stretched out his arms and wrapped them around his neck, and his amber gentle eyes greeted him.The vampire, who was a little shorter than him, stood on tiptoe, and all the voices disappeared in the tight lips and teeth.

When two people meet under the mistletoe, they kiss.If lovers kiss under the mistletoe, it symbolizes that this relationship will lead to marriage and grow old together.

Love will overcome death.

When they opened their hands, what they embraced was their last longing for the world.