blingblandfanfic

[blingblandfanfic]

What is Hood doing here? They had a truce. They don’t bother Hood, Hood doesn’t bother them. Dick had been-- happy. With the terms. Happy that he didn’t have to worry about finding his surviving brother broken and bleeding on the ground again. Happy that he didn’t have to watch Hood spit in the face of everything Jason believed in, happy that he can pretend that Hood never appeared in the first place. That his little brother didn’t come back so horribly, horribly wrong. Hood’s gun shines where it points at the Clock King’s face, and Dick does his best to hold back the urge to vomit. Dick lets out a long, slow breath, “Hood–” Hood flinches, “Night–” Pain explodes in his back, and his world goes white. He wakes up in the Titans tower. Or Dick accidentally gets sent back five years in the past, before Jason died. It's up to him to save his little brother, and maybe learn to see him in a different light. What is Hood doing here? They had a truce. They don’t bother Hood, Hood doesn’t bother them. Dick had been-- happy. With the terms. Happy that he didn’t have to worry about finding his surviving brother broken and bleeding on the ground again. Happy that he didn’t have to watch Hood spit in the face of everything Jason believed in, happy that he can pretend that Hood never appeared in the first place. That his little brother didn’t come back so horribly, horribly wrong. Hood’s gun shines where it points at the Clock King’s face, and Dick does his best to hold back the urge to vomit. Dick lets out a long, slow breath, “Hood–” Hood flinches, “Night–” Pain explodes in his back, and his world goes white. He wakes up in the Titans tower. Or Dick accidentally gets sent back five years in the past, before Jason died. It's up to him to save his little brother, and maybe learn to see him in a different light.

My first participation in the @batfam-big-bang! thank you @bamboozled-and-alone for your lovely art and thank you @exhausted-leaf for betaing my fic! i had a lot of fun with you guys <3

[blingblandfanfic]

My art for Batfam Big Bang 2024!!!! It’s been a pleasure to work with this amazing team.

Here is the link to the AMAZING fic by @blingbland

Image ID under the cut-

[Image ID]

Dick Grayson is hugging a young Jason Todd, both of them wearing civilian clothing. Jason is confused while Dick looks distraught. They are in Jason’s bedroom, with Jason’s unfinished homework on his desk, some of the paper crumpled up. There is also a small Batman plushie, a book, a photograph of Jason and Bruce, and a ball cap that has a K on the front sitting on the desk. [end ID]

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

COMPLETE! thanks to everyone who followed along <3

[blingblandfanfic]

here are the floor plans for He Ain't Heavy! if you notice anything illogical, no you didn't <3

some notes:

-charon's shop remains basically unchanged

-than’s room is the one next to the living room, i forgot to label it 😔

-i knew logically that the characters were cramped in their previous arrangement but i did not realise HOW cramped until i actually drew what i had in my head

-charon and Hermes expected a massive fight when it came to choosing the rooms, but it was actually pretty simple. Than wanted to be away from Dio and Hypnos, Dio wanted the biggest room, hypnos was happy with anything.

-the epic teen den took months to cultivate. the only reason they have a tv is because Charon found an ancient one when looking for antiques. sometimes it makes a large buzzing noise and they have to hit it to make it stop, much to the discontent of Charon and hermes next door.

-Charon's stress levels goes down approximately 40% now the kitchen, dining room, and living room doesn't have to be pushed in one room.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

He aint heavy deleted scene

i couldn't decided whether to make chapter 22 Dio or Hermes' pov, and i eventually settled on Hermes, but here's Dio's pov if you still want to read it! Hermes' pov can be read here

Hermes sighs, rubbing his face as he looks at Dio, probably thinking about how much he regrets taking him in, he bets. He keeps his arms crossed, analyzing the wood grain as he kicks the leg of the table. It feels good to move, to take out his anxiety on something when a tongue lashing is imminent. Maybe a real lashing. He doesn’t know. He’s only known Hermes for like, a year. 

“So,” Hermes says, when he feels that Dio has squirmed long enough, “you snuck out to drink, huh? I gotta be honest, I didn't expect that behavior for a few more years.”

It’s a joke, and Dio takes it, smirking as he continues to kick at the leg. There’s a cup of water on the table, and he likes seeing how it ripples. 

“Last night wasn’t even the first time you snuck out, huh?” Hermes sighs. 

“You’re such a heavy sleeper, dude. Like, it’s almost impressive. One time I made myself popcorn at midnight and you didn’t even stir.”

Hermes makes a face like he’s suppressing a smile, and he’s not happy about it, “have you been drinking, every time you’ve been out?”

Dio stays quiet. He just feels like shit. He wants Hermes to get to the point.

“Do you know how bad drinking is for kids?” Dio can’t help but roll his eyes. 

“Oh my god, yeah, it’s bad for your development, you’re gonna become an addict when you grow up, whatever, I've heard it all before.”

“This isn’t a fucking joke, Dio!” Hermes snaps, and Dio jumps at the sudden volume, his heart stuttering, “even if you stopped now your life could be affected forever– god, not even getting into brain development, you’re wandering around the city of Athens drunk by yourself! Not even adults feel safe doing that! Do you have any idea the kind of risk you’re taking, every night, just to get drunk?”

He hunches his shoulders, his face flushing. Hermes is so overreacting, he was fine. He’d always stuck to the touristy places, he knew not to talk to strangers, he’s not a child.

He stays quiet as Hermes looks at him, not wanting to satisfy him with an answer. Not even knowing what to say. 

Hermes sighs, letting his hand fall on the table, “how long have you been drinking?”

Dio shrugs.

“Since you moved in with Dad?”

He can’t help but look up at hermes in surprise, but he quickly catches himself, looking away. 

Hermes smiles, but it’s sad, “it’s easy to drink with dad, isn’t it? He’s so damn careless, he just leaves out his drinks everywhere. He even asks you to bring him a drink, and he never comments on it when you grab two.”

Dio stares at Hermes with wide eyes. 

Hermes lets out a huff of air that could be a laugh “yeah, I know what it’s like. I never really got into drinking. Just wasn’t my scene. I’ve seen our other siblings fall into it, though. You should’ve seen Apollo when he was a teen, oof.”

Apollo. One of his siblings. He’s still not exactly sure how many of them he has. It’s not like he’s met any other than Hermes. They don’t give a shit about him. 

Still, he can’t help but desperately want to hear more about him.

“You know, Apollo and Artemis, they were also like you. Their Mom also died. Hera dumped her in the middle of nowhere when she promised to give her a ride to the hospital.”

“Oh,” Dio breathes. His stepmom never liked him that much. He’s still stunned that she would do something like that. 

“Yeah. Hera swears up and down she thought that she had her phone with her, but it doesn’t even matter what the truth is, the result was the same,” Hermes sighs, “when they found out, Artemis just withdrew in herself, stayed out of the house as much as possible, but Apollo,” Hermes shrugs, “he basically did the same as you. I remember once he told me that it was because drinking was the only thing that made him feel okay. Made him able to stand Hera’s presence.” 

That’s… almost like him. 

“And, you know, after a while, he couldn’t not drink. He’d get sick when he couldn’t. Get all shaky, and nauseous. Sometimes he hallucinated.”

His heart pounded in his ears, matching the pounding in his head. 

“... I thought there was something wrong with me,” Dio breathes. He’d thought that he was crazy, that he had some sort of undiscovered disease that could only be fixed with alcohol. That he’d be sent off to a psych ward the moment he breathed a word. “What– what happened to him?”

“He’s doing pretty good for himself, right now,” Dio lets out a slow breath, tension that he hadn’t even noticed receding almost immediately, “don’t get me wrong, it got pretty bad for him. He got into some other stuff, and he had to hit rock bottom to realize that he needed to change. He quit everything, got sober, and now he’s a doctor. Or a musician? Man, he’s changed his career so many times I can't keep track. The point is, he’s happy. I think he’s like, fifteen years sober now.”

“Wow,” Dio murmurs, “and he didn’t, like– he got better?” whenever he tried to quit, he thought he was dying. No, he didn’t think it. He knew he was. He needed to drink. How could anyone get better? 

Hermes blinks, “what do you mean?”

Dio shrugs, feeling deeply uncomfortable, “... I get sick when I don't drink. Like, really, really sick. I thought I was dying,” his eyes sting with tears and Hermes leans forwards, something like concern in his expression.

“No, no, no, no, I promise, Dio, you’re not. It’s just withdrawal. Your body’s become dependent on drinking to function, so when alcohol is taken away, there’s an adjustment period. Withdrawal absolutely sucks, but you get through to the other side, okay?”

“Okay,” Dio mumbles. 

Hermes sighs, “how much have you been drinking?”

“Not as much recently.”

“Before you moved in with me?”

Dio shrugs, “I would like… pretty much everything I drank was a drink of some kind.”

“Okay,” Hermes sighs, “and now?”

“Like, I dunno. It depended on what I had. At least a few every day.”

“Okay,” Hermes rubs his face, “we got some options for what to do, here. You obviously can’t keep drinking–”

Dio’s scowls.

“Dio,” Hermes sighs, “did you not listen to me talk about all the dangers?”

“Half the dangers would be cut if you gave me alcohol,” he mumbles, shrugging his shoulders.

“I’m obviously not gonna do that.”

“Whatever,” Dio shrugs, “I'm gonna move back in with Dad soon, anyway, so what do you care? I’ll just start drinking again.”

“You think I'm gonna let you move back in with Dad?” Dio blinks, snapping his head to look at Hermes. There’s no sign of a joke on his face.

“what?

“Letting kids drink is child abuse. Child neglect, at the very least. They won’t let you go back, even if Dad wins the case.”

Child neglect? It’s really not that serious… right? 

“… won’t I… go to foster care?” he mumbles. That’s always what he figured, if dad lost the case. Hermes wouldn’t want to deal with him full time. 

“Not when you have a willing guardian, sitting right here,” Hermes smiles, but Dio’s face feels paralyzed. 

“… oh,” for so long, he’d been working on the assumption that he wouldn’t be staying here. That it was all temporary, as everything has been since Mom died. It’s trippy as hell to suddenly have to consider like, staying here. Permanently. There’s no way.

“Yeah. And since letting you drink isn’t an option, we need to figure out the best way to help you stop.”

If he stays here, he’ll have to stop drinking, and the thought is so horrible he can’t help the way his face crumples,“why? Why do I have to stop?”

“Dio–”

“It’s the only thing that makes me feel better! I can’t– I can't breathe when I don't drink, I can't do anything because I just feel so– empty. Drinking makes it go away, Hermes, I need to drink.”

“That’s grief, bud,” Hermes sighs, “it’s the– worst feeling in the world. It’s so tempting to just take something to make it go away, huh?”

Dio nods frantically, wiping away tears. 

“That doesn’t work, though. Drinking to avoid feeling it is, like,” he waves his hand, “like ignoring a wound. It feels like it’s helping, it’s nice to pretend that it isn’t there, but it is, and it’s not gonna get any better, not until you deal with it.”

Dio’s tears are now coming so fast that wiping them away is futile, “but I don't know how.”

“I can help you, Dio, there’s people who can help. You have to do all the heavy lifting yourself, but there’s people who can give you the tools. Give it time, and work, and sometime in the future, it’ll start feeling like you can breathe again. But the first step is to stop drinking.”

He can’t stop himself, and he covers his face as he lets out a little sob. He wants a hug, but he doesn’t want hermes. He wants his mom. He wants to go back to before all this. Before he started drinking. Before any of this ever happened. 

Hermes stays where he is, and eventually, Dio manages to get himself under control. He has to spend a good minute breathing, before he can finally bring himself to ask, “what are the options?”

Hermes lets out a big, almost relieved sigh, “the first one is, you can go to rehab– it’s not like how it is in the media!” Hermes hastily says at Dio’s expression, “Apollo went, he can tell you what it’s like, if you want? You’d be there for about a month, but they can give you great tools to help you deal with your grief, and they can help you through the withdrawals. There’ll be lots of people there in the same position as you who understand what it’s like as well.”

He… kind of likes the idea of meeting Apollo, but he’ll probably hate him, so maybe not. He doesn’t like the idea of another change. Staying in another place, with people he doesn’t know. What if at the end, Hermes just doesn’t pick him up? What would they do with him then?

Dio crosses his arms, “what’s the other option?”

Hermes sighs, “I guess… the other option is that you try to stop by yourself. Quitting instantly is dangerous, so we’d have to wean you off onto lighter drinks to make the withdrawal less intense. I’ll find you a therapist as well, and they can help you with it.”

Dio nods, “I like that one a lot more.” he’d get to stay here, at least. 

Hermes frowns, “the downsides are that you have a lot more opportunity to relapse–” Dio blinks at the strange word, “slip back into drinking. You know how to sneak out, you know that I'm a heavy sleeper. It’ll be way too easy for you. There won’t be anyone else who gets it, either. You’ll just have me, a therapist, and maybe Apollo, if he’s up for it.”

“I want to do that one,” Dio insists, and Hermes sighs. 

“Okay. but– Dio, you only get a certain amount of chances, okay? If you relapse too many times, then that means it’s not working, and that we need to try rehab, okay?”

“Okay,” Dio mumbles. Would he be able to keep himself from relapsing? Already, all he wants is another drink, so he doesn’t feel hungover anymore. How will he feel in a few days?

“Okay,” Hermes sighs, “I love you, kid.”

Dio blinks, “you haven’t even known me for more than a year.”

“And I still love you. Crazy how that works, huh?”

Dio looks down at his lap, his face feeling hot. Hermes is lying, obviously, you can’t love someone that fast, but–

It’s still really nice to hear it. 

“You don’t need to say it back, or anything. Just know that I got your back, no matter what, okay? I’m gonna help you with this.”

“Okay,” Dio sighs, “I'm really tired.”

“Yeah,” Hermes huffs, “you’re probably overdue a nap, huh? C’mon, let's see if they’re done talking.”

Right, Hypnos is going through his own talk with his older brother. He hopes he’s okay. He wordlessly follows him out of the room, almost wanting to loop his arm through Hermes’ arm, just like how he did with mom. 

He doesn’t. He’s too tired for any of that.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

i've been MIA here for a while mainly bc of school workload, but also because since i've started writing my chapters ahead of time, it kinda became defunct to update my word count since it won't be posted for weeks sdfhgfdsgf

still, if you're interested, i've written up to chapter 22! or chapter 24, depending on how you count it :) these chapters will last me until uni ends with more to spare, so i'm hoping that i'll be able to maintain a consistent update schedule every two weeks!

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.

[blingblandfanfic]

It's been three months since Nyx left, and the power's finally turned off. Not knowing what else to do, Hypnos calls Charon for help. _ Charon is living his best life. He has a good boyfriend, a shop that makes just enough to keep them afloat, and there's an incessant voice in his head that's insisting this will all crash around him. one phone call later, he's been proved right.