#[Tim at least talking to her sister first of his plan wanting to run by of 'to cheesy or?']

[dragontamer05]

@seaglassmarigold

[2 thoughts either Song played at their wedding or the Sappy Romantic Goober that he is Tim putting on this song/ playing along to it before proposing, like as it reaches the end to the line 'If you'll marry me' he just pulls out ring]

[ew-selfish-art]

My brain is unwilling to let go of Twin AU prompts. Sorry for the long post lmao.

Jazz and Jason are getting pretty serious in their relationship, and honestly, they’ve both been hesitant to introduce their family members to one another despite constantly talking about them. They’ve been dating since she started her doctoral studies at Gotham U and she’s about to defend her dissertation, so it really is about time. He saved her in her first week as the Red Hood and he immediately felt at home with her (something, something liminal), she runs into him the next day at a coffee shop and thanks him for taking the time to help her. 

Identities are obviously blown. Jason knows that her brother works in ‘politics’ and her younger sister is a travel blogger, and that the three of them don’t talk to her mad scientist parents anymore. Jazz knows that he came back from the dead, his adoptive family had a slew of issues in addition to their hero-complexes and that he would be prepared to kill for any one of his siblings. Their communication skills are top notch. 

But then came the issue of actually meeting the family. Like Jazz knows all of the drama between the siblings but could not pick them out of a line up, or more importantly, know who to talk to if an emergency situation came up. Jason agrees, that yeah, it would probably be for the best if he could at least identify her little brother and sister if they had to like, meet at hospital or something. 

So that was the plan. Invite just siblings over to their shared apartment, no parents and no fuss. (She even called Danny ahead of time to tell him not to portal straight into the apartment, he needed to walk in the door like a normal person. They could share Ghost King secrets later.) 

Tim arrives first, he’d been working a case nearby and Jazz & Jason live pretty close to a nice coffeeshop, so he stopped along the way. He’d done some creeping to figure out that she drinks Chai so he brought one for her. Creepy and yet, endearing. 

Ellie comes in second from the window, launching into a story about how annoying it was to find the place with all the gloom, didn’t this city have any respect for the dead? Tim doesn’t get it but Jason is laughing along so Tim files it away for later. 

Dick comes in with a shit ton of Pizza he panic ordered, a fruit bouquet and two bottles of wine from Bruce’s cellar. Duke came along with him, a large tupperware of Alfred’s cookies. 

Then Steph, Babs and Cass show up, immediately treating Jazz like family while also being hella suspicious about the whole thing. She notices them looking at her hands and Jazz explains that no, they weren’t doing this because Jason proposed. Steph and Cass are annoyed at Jason but tell Jazz she could do better if she wanted. Babs is happy they aren’t rushing into anything (she’s the only one besides Tim that knows how long they’ve been dating- this is just to throw out a red herring for the others)

Everyone is getting along and having a great time, Ellie being a natural entertainer along side Dick, everyone trying to tell embarrassing stories about Jason. Loud noises are coming from the hallway when they realize that neither Damian nor Danny had arrived. 

Rushing out the door, the boys are alternating putting each other into choke holds and arguing about not being clones. Danny keeps phasing out of Damian’s grip and Damian keeps pulling out more knives. The hallway looks like it had been blown up and the two are continuing to yell at one another about going to a family dinner. Jason and Jazz just stare at them from the doorway, and wouldn’t you know it, they look like fucking twins. 

Jazz grabs Danny, Jason grabs Damian, and everyone is fucking confused. Both sides of the family can confirm growing up with the twins, that neither are a clone. Ellie helpfully supplies that she’s the clone and that opens a whole other bag of chaos. 

Eventually they get everyone to sit down for dinner and the night gets weirder from there. 

[starflirts]

NO GRAVE CAN HOLD MY BODY DOWN (I'LL CRAWL HOME TO HER)

in which luke is determined to keep you close to him forever. luke castellan x fem! reader, wc: 1.36k, warning: swearing, note: first post dedicated to my favorite villain... enjoy !

"Wha-... what the fuck are you talking about Luke ?" From the edge of his bunk bed, your boyfriend avoids your stare, looking anywhere but at your face. "Look at me ! You can't just drop this upon me and act like nothing is happening !" He can hear the hurt and the confusion in your voice and decides to get closer to you. He wants to hold you tight and never let you go but settles for holding your hand.

"Babe, listen to me. please." He’s the one to look at you with pleading eyes this time, one hand circling yours and the other resting on the nape of your neck. "You know how much I hate Olympus and how they toy with us just for their own benefit. I know you feel the same way, watching kids barely getting here safely only to never be claimed or only when their parent deems it convenient ! Do you think it's fair ? To be used as a puppet so you can finally be worthy in the eyes of mom or dad ? Risking your life to fix their shortcomings ?"

His emphasis on dad doesn't intrigue you, you already know. Everyone knows. His eyes are full of resentment and his scar seems so red, a stark contrast with the unmarred skin. Luke goes on and on about his supposedly great plan and you can only watch in horror as the boy in front of you looks nothing like the one you fell in love summers ago.

Hand reaching for the one still laid on your nape, you look up, brows furrowed. "Does Annabeth know ?"

These three words are enough to make him flinch. He opens and closes his mouth and that tells you everything you need to know. Your face twists with disgust and anger as you shove his shoulder enough for him to stumble back, away from you.

"Fuck off Luke !" you spit, tears cornering at your lash line. "How dare you turn your back on your little sister, on me ?" Your voice cracks but you try to put up a brave front, wiping the corner of your eyes. You can only stare at him in disbelief, even though your hands itch to bring him closer to you, to hold him and to at least try to understand his sudden change of heart.

Luke attempts to step forward but you pull back and he can hear his own heart breaking. He runs a hand over his face before answering you with a shaky sigh: "Look, I’m doing this for everyone at camp, for us ! I want us to live free of that burden. We deserve so much more than what the gods have to give !" His voice falters and he clears his throat. "I don't want to wake up one morning and find out you're gone because of them, because you went on a stupid quest for the sake of your parent who can't even bother to acknowledge you !" He looks at you fondly and sighs. "Do you remember the time I came back from the quest Hermes sent me on ? You were so scared something had happened to me. I can't let that happen again. I can't let that happen to you. I want to protect you, to protect us ! You- you're all I have."

Tears fall freely as you shake your head, hugging yourself in an attempt to calm down. "There’s got to be another way, you can’t… You can’t do this Luke ! I-" you sob.

And you feel so afraid yet you don’t know whether you’re more scared of Luke himself or of the thought of losing him to something this insane. The cogs in your brain turn and turn but you can't bring yourself to drive him out of your life, not when you've seen him at his best and at his worst, when you've been by his side for so long you can't even remember.

In a few steps, Luke is engulfing you in a hug and all resolve you had to push him away crumbles within seconds. He rests his chin on the crown of your head while you cling to his shirt. He holds you tight, as if the mere thought of you walking out of his cabin would become true and you might vanish with the wind.

"Hey hey, it’s okay, we’ll… we’ll figure it out, we still have time." he whispers in your ear and you want to believe him, you really do.

Slightly pulling back, he rests his forehead against yours, hands coming up to cup your face. With a sad smile, Luke's thumbs wipe your tearstained cheeks.

"There, don't cry," he tells you softly, "my pretty, pretty girl. You know I'll never let you go right ? I love you too much to be able to live without you."

His smile is genuine as his hand cautiously takes your own to place it on his chest, right where you can feel his heartbeat. "You’re here, always and forever, no matter what."

Luke's world had crumbled a long time ago, ever since he realized the gods were monsters in disguise. But now that he has you in his life, whatever's left of that sparkle of hope he had when he was fourteen (and when the world seemed so big yet so full of chances) shines brighter. You were the one who rebuilt everything from scratch, who fixed the gaping hole in his heart.

Your free hand comes up to brush his cheek, thumb trailing his scar. You wish you could close your eyes and pretend that the world isn't on the brink of disaster, that your Luke isn't about to change its course.

The love of your life starts again: "I'll be with you at any cost, believe me. And if anyone, so much as the gods or that new forbidden kid attempt to separate us, I'll walk- heck I'll drag myself back to you !"

His promise is sealed with a kiss and you're certain you'd follow him in a heartbeat: "for better or worse ?" you ask in a small voice, lips hovering over his.

He answers you with a smile and shiny eyes: "for better or worse."

[infinit-world]

Don't worry darling

Pairing: Jenna Ortega X Fem!Reader

Word count: 2.41k

Summary: You have a surprise for Jenna's birthday, but soon your plan falls apart.

I've written this while being sick so I'm sorry if it doesn't make a lot of sense. Like always, if you see a mistake, please let me know.

You walk to the entrance of Wednesday’s set with a huge smile, going through your plan in your head. Today is Jenna’s birthday and you’re so excited about it. You greet your teammates while you go to the dressing room, where you spot Jenna’s bag on the corner. Making sure the room is empty, you walk to it and stick a little note inside, before leaving your own bag and walking out.

You see Jenna and the rest of the cast chatting in one of the lounge areas. You’re walking to them with the idea of saying happy birthday to your girlfriend but Tim stops you midway. “I need to go through one of the scenes with you, we’ve made some changes.” You slump a little, bummed that you won’t be able to talk with Jenna before starting to work, but you nod and follow him nevertheless.

You spend the next few hours running around the set, shooting your scenes and changing outfits when it’s necessary. By the time you finally have a reprieve, it’s almost lunchtime. You’re a little disappointed. You knew today was going to be a very busy day and you wouldn’t have any scenes with Jenna, so you wouldn’t be able to talk with her until work was finished. But, you thought at least you could be with her a little before starting.

You look around, trying to find Jenna, knowing that she should have finished shooting her scenes by now too. You don’t see her, but you do see her parents and her sister Mia waiting at the entrance. A smile forms on your lips. Jenna told you how much she’s been missing her family and how she wished she could spend her birthday with them. You wait in your spot, wanting to see Jenna’s reaction when she sees them. As you expected, Jenna immediately runs to them with a happy expression. They exchange hugs and a few words before you hear her dad saying they had a reservation in her favourite restaurant for lunch.

Your face falls a little after hearing that, your plan falling apart.

You and Jenna started dating a couple of months ago but no one knew about your relationship yet. You’re Jenna’s first girlfriend, so when you started dating she asked you for a little time for her to come out. You obviously agreed, knowing how hard it can be, especially being actresses. 

So, for her birthday, you decided to have a picnic where you asked her to be your girlfriend. It was a clearing in a forest near the city. Not a lot of people knew about it, so you knew it would aloud you to have a little alone time without having to worry about someone recognising you. It’s ok, we can still have the picnic in the evening. She deserves time with her family.

You talk with some people for a while before deciding to call it a day and go back to your apartment, knowing Jenna would meet you there after reading the note you left in her bag. You just got your things when you hear Percy and Georgie talking. “Everything is ready. Her parents will drive her to the party after they finish lunch.”  You approach them with a confused face. “You’re throwing a birthday party for Jenna?” Percy looks at you surprised. “Yeah” “Oh, no one told me. Where it is?” Georgie looks confused while Percy has a smug look. “Yeah well, that’s because you aren’t invited.” “Percy!” Georgie looks at him with anger. You have a dumbfounded expression. You don’t know how to feel about it. You’re angry at his words, you know Percy feels something for Jenna, he couldn’t be more obvious about it, and he’s jealous of you so you think it’s his doing. But then sadness and hurt washes over you. The whole cast knew about the party, and they haven’t told you anything. You started working on Wednesday just three months ago so you’re not really close with them yet, but you thought they were your friends.

You start walking fast to the exit with your head low, trying to stop your tears. You’re almost outside when Joy stops you with her hand on your arm. “Hey, where you’re going? I tho-” She stops herself when she sees your state. “Y/N, what happened?” You yank your arm from her before storming out, leaving Joy very confused and worried.

She looks where you came from, seeing an angry Georgie talking with Percy. She gets closer to them, knowing they’re the reason why you left like that. “What the hell happened?” “Nothing, she’s just too emotional!” Georgie is fuming after hearing Percy’s words. “This idiot here didn't tell Y/N about the party. She heard us talk about it and when she asked Percy told her she wasn't invited.” 

“You did what?” The three of them jump when they hear Jenna. Percy starts sputtering nonsense, trying to justify himself before Joy interrupts him. After telling her everything Jenna takes her phone from her bag with the intention of calling you but sees a note falling to the ground. Curious, she grabs it, seeing your handwriting on it. She had planned a surprise for me. How I didn’t think about it?

She turns around and starts walking to the exit without saying anything. She wants to get to you as fast as possible, knowing how hurt and disappointed you have to feel right now. She fetches her car’s key from her bag with the idea of driving to your house but her parents stop her. “Jenna, what’s going on? Where are you going?” “Later.” Before she can continue, her dad takes the keys from her hand. “You’re too shaken up to drive safely right now. Tell me where you need to go and we will drive you.” She wants to protest but she knows she won’t win, not with this, so with a sigh, she gives him your direction.

When they arrive, Jenna opens the door with her spare keys. She calls your name without a response. When she enters the living room she finds another note on the table. Jenna loves mysteries, so your idea was to leave notes with clues in them around the house. She chuckles when she reads the note.

Look where we failed the first time.

FLASHBACK

You and Jenna arrived from work an hour ago. You just got out of the shower and see Jenna lying on the sofa scrolling through Netflix. “Hey there.” She greets you with a pout. “What happened?” “I ordered pizza but I forgot I wanted cookies.” You laugh at that. When Jenna was tired, she acted adorable. “It’s ok baby, we can place another order for them.” “But we can’t! It’s too late.” You look at the clock to see that she’s right. It’s 11:13 pm and the max time to place orders it’s at 11. She’s still pouting and your heart melts at it. “Aww. I’m sorry darling.” You kiss her temple after that, taking a seat on the sofa and putting her legs on your lap. 

You stay in silence for a couple of seconds before she talks again. “Can we bake some?” You’re going to say no when you see her looking at you with a hopeful expression. “Love, we don’t know how to bake. I can’t even cook pasta without fucking it up and you expect us to make cookies?” “Please?” When she gives you puppy eyes, you sight in defeat. You can’t say no to her when she does that. “Fine, but you’re cleaning tomorrow.” Jenna squeals in excitement before getting up and going to the kitchen.

You search a recipe and take out all the ingredients while Jenna preps the oven. Everything went fine until you put the cookies in the oven. The pizza arrived at that moment and you two completely forgot about them until a burned smell spread through your apartment. “Shit! The cookies!” You go running to the kitchen, turning off the oven and getting the cookies out. They were completely burned. Jenna laughs when she sees your face. “I think we both failed at baking love.” She kisses your cheek before helping you clean the kitchen.

END FLASHBACK

Jenna starts searching the notes. Inside the oven, under the coffee table, inside the bathroom cabinet, behind a painting in the hall… Finally, the last clue brings her to your room. On top of the bed, there’s a box. She gasps when she opens it. Inside there’s a beautiful summer dress that she’s been wanting for a long time. She takes it out of the box, admiring it with a soft smile. Suddenly she hears a whistle. She looks at the door to find Mia and her parents looking at her with smiles on their faces. She was so wrapped up in your surprise she forgot her family was with her. “I suppose you and Y/N are more than friends?” She looks at her mom with wide eyes before gulping down. “We’ve been together for two months now.” She’s nervous about their reaction, but she’s relieved they finally know. She loves you too much and she’s tired of hiding. “She looks like a keeper, you better treat her right.” She smiles after that, knowing that her family fully supports her.

She looks back to the dress, wondering where you at, when she notices another note in the box. “I know where is she. Can you let me change before driving me there?” Her family nod before closing the door.

Thirty minutes later, they arrive at the spot. Jenna hops down before the car fully stops, ignoring her parents’ protests, and starts running with her heels in her hands. You’re seated on the ground, face full of dried tears, while you look intently at the small stream in front. You whip your head to the side when you hear her yelling your name. Her body collides with yours and you feel her lips.

The kiss is fast and a little desperate with all your hurt and her worry rolling off in waves. After a few seconds (or minutes, you don’t really know), you start to slow the kiss, enjoying her warmth. You give her a few short pecs before looking at her with a lovestruck expression. “Hi” She giggles before greeting you. “What are you doing here? I thought you would be at your party?” Her hands are on your cheeks caressing them and you lean into her touch, wanting to feel her as close as possible. She sighs before looking at you with soft eyes. “After we finished lunch I realised I left something in the set. When I got back, I saw Georgie and Joy arguing with Percy. They told me everything. I’m so sorry darling.” 

You flinch a little after hearing his name, still angry and hurt. She kisses your temple, before resting her forehead on yours. When you talk, your voice is weak. “You shouldn’t have come here. You should be having fun with your friends at your birthday party.” “Hey no, look at me please.” You do what she asks. “I prefer spending my birthday with my amazing girlfriend in this beautiful place than at a party. I should have known that you had prepared something. Sorry for not thinking about it.” “Stop apologising, it’s not your fault. But, you should go to the party, they worked hard for it.” You give her a smile, feeling better after hearing her. “Come with me.” You stammer a little after that. “I don’t think they want me there Jen.” “I’m sure that’s not true. But, even if it was, it’s my birthday and I want you to be there with me. I have an incredible girlfriend to show.” You look at her with wide eyes after that, afraid that you misunderstood her. “What? You’re sure? I don’t want you to feel press-” She kisses you before you can finish. 

“Jenna, we are running late!” She turns her head to throw daggers at her sister. You giggle, before getting up, offering your arm to her. “Well, we can’t have that can we?” She smiles, seeing how your mood has improved, before wrapping her arm in yours and start walking to the car. “I’m sorry it took me two months to tell someone about us.” “Don’t worry darling, I would wait forever for you to be ready.” You kiss her cheek before entering the car.

When you arrive at the place the party was held, you get a little bit nervous, but you calm a little when you feel Jenna’s hand intertwine with yours. Emma and Naomi come to greet you both. “There you are! We thought you got lost.” Emma has a playful grin and you bark a laugh at her words. “And miss the party? Never pup.” 

You enter the local, your mouth hanging open looking at the decorations. The party is held on the roof, the breathtaking view of the city getting your attention for a minute. Everything is decorated in blue, white and gold, giving it a sophisticated look. “This is amazing girls.” You nod at Jenna’s words, still taking everything in. When everyone comes to you so they can congratulate her, you take a step back, giving them space.

You walk to the end of the roof, resting your hands on the glass fence, and look at the city. You feel a presence on your right and when you look, you see Georgie with a remorseful look. “I’m sorry about earlier, Percy was in charge of the guest. We all thought you already knew about it.” You give him a small smile. “It’s ok.” You talk for a little bit before Jenna comes you your side. She grabs your hand before talking. “Want to dance with me?” You pay attention to the music and realised a slow song is playing. Your smile widens and you nod, letting her drag you to the dance floor in the middle.

You look at each other through the whole song, and when it finishes, Jenna gets close to you, kissing you soft and slow. You can feel your cheeks grow warmer when you hear some cheers from the cast, but you don’t pay them any attention, deciding instead to deepen the kiss. In the end, a little embarrassment it’s worth it if you can continue to kiss Jenna.

[sickofthistoxicshit]

Here's the thing, I have nothing against Lou/Tommy, but the accessive enthusiasm of him returning and everyone already talking about him showing up for next season,

Which if any of you watched for the last 7 seasons, it is very possible because writers love to drag temps over to the next seasons because apparently breakups are for season beginners, mostly (except for taylor),

is very off-putting.

1. Because the dude literally just showed up and they haven't even had one worthy make out session to even call it a situationship.

2. Buck hurt Eddie physically to get into Tommy's mouth and pants, which ruined it for me from the start tbh and Tommy had nothing to do with it, he was just there.

3. Buck has made Maddie's day, his coming out party - that is a big NO in my book. Because one, dude you literally came out, what if you decide eventually that you don't want this or don't want this with this specific first-guy-ever anymore? And two SHE IS YOUR SISTER THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS HAVE HER LEAVE ON HER HONEYMOON BEFORE YOU KILL YOUR PARENTS OF A HEART- ATTACK.

Even if they "seem accepting" to Buck’s face, this takes time to process, something better revealed in time and in private, once one is sure. Not thinking and talking about this the whole wedding!

And yes, I know, Buck is impulsive, but think for a second, would you want your baby brother to hijacke your wedding after so long of planning it? I know I would have killed him.

Would have told him in advance that if he's bringing his new boyfriend to my wedding, he better tell our parents first. Because this is my fucking day!

I love Buck, but his self-centered personality rubs me the wrong way this season.

Maybe because I wanted to see him growing the fuck up after 7 years and so many traumas and experiences and therapy that he went through, but nope, same old Buck, only instead of the dating the girl who gave him attention, he's seeing the guy who gave him attention.

It's annoying, it's off putting and frankly I am so mad at the writers and Tim for this because these characters deserved better.

And don't talk to me about representation because Shonda did the bi representation in Station 19 perfectly to the point that I was bummed that Travis and Eli didn't end up as endgame even though I loved Emmett with Travis.

Again somehow the 911 writers managed to taint for me what should have been and amazing experience, independent completely of buddie, but no they managed to not only mix Eddie and Buck with Tommy, the whole thing came at the expense of Eddie, physically and mentally, because not only did Buck not apologized to Eddie, Eddie also lost his new friend who now fawns over Buck.

So screw this storyline, I hate it and I hate how everyone is OK with everything that happened in the story, just because Buck is doing a dude(kissing really, there was no doing yet).

There's a lot of blocking in my future, most are just ppl who either came in now because of bi Buck or those who came from other disappointing fandoms and are just here for the rep not the actual story.

But some of us have been here since S1, we want the rep, but we want it to be complimenting, we want to fall in love with the character before it turns into a LI, we want the emotion, the connection, the obvious love building over several years.

Like Casey and Gabby and Severide and Stella, like Maya and Carina, like Travis and Emmett (even though I liked Eli better for him) like Sullivan and Natasha.

I want an emotional payout, give up the surprises, and the wrecked trucks and ships, just tell a good story!

And for the love of all that's holy, enough with the last-minute changes, those never turn out well in the long run. They literally started from scratch when they made the switch between Eddie and Buck.

Also in my opinion, Eddie had a LOT more chemistry with Lou/Tommy than Buck. It would have made so much more sense, in the catholic guilt and internal homophobia department, the nun and supposedly commitment issues was weak at best.

It could have been epic. 😩

And yes, Buck could have started the season single, no harm in that, maybe make him, I don't know, actually growing into something that he would like without someone else to pet his ego? Go back to therapy, work for the LT. exams, be interim captain, realize his worth and learn to love himself for him, not because someone else gave him attention and that made him preen, get him somewhere worthy. Even lessons with Tommy without involving Eddie in this would have been great.

Just something that shows character development, because up until now all I get is S2/S3 Buck and I've seen that movie before, I want my money back.

I realize this is harsh, and normally, I would stick to the light and fun and ignore the rest, but this had to be said out loud so I can go back to that.

That being said, as I said, I will watch Madney wedding purely for Madney. Anything else is just a bonus. I can't wait for that bachelor party and see wth happens to Chimney.

Happy Monday, my loves. ❤️

[hereghostslive]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

thanks for the tag @lemonlyman-dotcom !!

1. How many works do you have an AO3? 19

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 29,507

3. What fandoms do you write for? 911 Lone Star, 911, The Old Guard, Shadowhunters, RWRB

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

victories, defined | a 911 Season 7 coda to the medal ceremony. Tommy confronts Gerrard (i dont really like this one tbh)

hitchcokian | a 911 season 7 coda. buck calls Tommy right after he runs into Kim. (this one is okay, but i fear i wasted the title "hitchcockian" on this when it would be cool do a genre-bending thing. idk)

echoes | 911 Lone Star Season 1. Carlos waits in the hospital after TK is shot and really talks to the 126 for the first time.

why | 911 Lone Star. the silliest thing i've ever written, and it's all @lemonlyman-dotcom's fault. Carlos buys Lou II pajamas and then realizes he has to put the pajamas ... on Lou II and regrets every decision that led him there.

halted beginnings | 911 Lone Star. post-engagement. Carlos is in love. But he's forgotten about something.

5. Do you respond to comments? I do, although I think im kinda behind on doing so? I do forget to sometimes.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? i think it's a tie between halted beginnings (linked above) and fundamental. they are essentially sister stories, with fundamental being the meta-verison of halted beginnings. they both tackle Carlos forgetting about Iris when he says yes to TK's proposal. halted beginnings is more of a character introspection into how, in the moment, Carlos might have forgotten about Iris. fundamental takes the meta-approach that Carlos/Iris were never planned from the beginning and is written as if Carlos, the character from season 1-3, knows someone else is rewriting his history (the writer, or "Tim," as I called him in the annotations lol). Both fics end on a heavy note, with Carlos either putting off telling TK (halted beginnings) or a rewritten version of Carlos taking over Seasons 1-3 Carlos (fundamental).

7. What is the fic your wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably "why" (linked above). TK and Lou II in matching pajamas ... couldn't be better!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't, and I hope it stays that way.

9. Do you write smut? not really

10. Do you write crossovers? No, but I would like to

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? no. but open to that if anyone wanted to translate

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nooooooo, but I would love to collaborate on something!!!! Idk how to find a person to collaborate with though lol

16. What are your writing strengths? i really don't know ... someone else tell me. i feel like i always want to make people feel like they are in the room with the character, and i thiiiiiink i do that. or at least im getting better at it.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? plotting, finishing wips lol

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I don't do it, but I definitely could be better at adding in there.

19. First fandom you wrote for? for this question I'll take into account my past fan fic writing life, which was a long time ago. Angel

20. Favorite fics you've written?

In no particular order:

large popcorn with a bag of m&ms | an Old Guard fic I wrote in 2021 that I really want to turn into a longer series. It's Nile-centric and about how she misses her real family while adjusting to her new immortal life.

peace | a 911 Lone Star fic that is actually pretty angsty too, haha. it's very short, but I was stretching some more poetic writing muscles I hadnt used in a long time. This is Carlos, after the breakup

Staring at ghosts | my newest one, 911, bucktommy. It's a wip, but I really love the first chapter, and I'm really excited about the rest of it I have outlined and partly written. Buck and Tommy are still in the fairly early stages of their relationship, and Buck doesn't really know how to open up when he starts having dreams about the lightning strike.

--

no pressure tagging: @rmd-writes @welcometololaland @reyesstrand @bonheur-cafe @paperstorm

@alrightbuckaroo @carlos-tk @carlos-in-glasses

[wandixx]

Ok, so.

Yeah, it escalated. 40 pages. 20 000+ words...

Hope you'll like it

*****

Ok. So, Tim was in no shape to deal with what he saw. Really, he was just wrapping up a case on a Batcomputer after workaholic binge that got him a breakthrough and his sleep deprived brain got curious how his newest brother was handling his things. They all got separate spaces in database to work in, but everyone had access to them in case their cases were connected. They just all knew to not mess with each other files like they knew to not touch Alfred’s porcelain service or to not discuss cape matters during meals. So Tim just wanted to see if Danny, still getting used to looking for troubles and not just fighting them when they got too hard to ignore, needed any help. However he was doing quite well for newbie. He was working on some chain of suspicious bank robberies with the Signal as those two were patrolling together until Danny got all necessary skills on Bat approved level. Tim had to admit, two metas were doing wonders at keeping this hell of a city at bay during the day. He was about to click out and head up to the Manor to get some well deserved sleep when his eyes landed on folder called contingencies.

So, they all got folder like this, Bruce was really serious about them and learning how to make good contingency plans was one of the first thing Batman’s protégée had to do, so he wasn’t really surprised. Tim himself had at least three folders like this, hidden and encrypted so much that only him and maybe Oracle could get inside, with hundreds of contingencies for every known hero in case anything went wrong. Babs didn’t know about all of them, obviously, he needed some ways to stop her and she couldn’t know about it.

Danny didn’t encrypt his folder any more than simple password, which was literally Ph4n70m. He changed his moniker once he joined their merry company but really, Tim needed to make one heck of a PowerPoint about cyber safety and he needed to make it soon. Red Robin smiled when he saw sea of non-lethal plans for everyone they knew and some ghosts. Most of them weren’t even supposed to hurt, just hold them in place long enough to mind-control to stop working or to talk them down if they were going rogue. He even had some contact info to multiple counselors and psychologists with note that they had been all checked by his sister and deemed fit to handle superhero type of problems and instructions on how to break mind control. Note under this said that all instructions were tested before being put in the file, which was mildly concerning but Tim’s brain was a little too fried to really understand what it implied.

Every plan he saw so far was as safe as possible to person of concern. Danny was cute like that. He even refused to beat down rogues often saying he just didn’t know how to fight humans and refused to kill anyone on accident (which was its own can of bizarre worms that somehow made sense). They were getting him some actual combat training and in the meantime he stuck on evacuation duty and such which he honestly loved. Yeah, Danny was adorable like that. His whole files were regularly interrupted by mentions on how boy wished they never come in hand and how he wished there was more peaceful way of doing it if plan actually required punching someone. It was just wholesome to look at (also, bait plans were just funny to think about even if so naïve, that Bruce would probably repeat his lecture about contingencies being realistic if he knew about it).

Then Tim saw The Thing.

Alright, so, it’s not like he didn’t know their newest brother had issues. All of them had, it was easiest way of becoming Bruce’s kid other than running around streets of Gotham and beating up villains (honestly, isn’t it a sign of issues itself?). Well known joke of “blue eye, black hair, Brucie got you there” was funny but not really true. You had to have issues.

They even knew roots of his issues, after all kid’s whole support system died in explosion and he run away to Gotham, the crime capital of the world, to avoid his abusive godfather. Plus, he was doing this whole vigilante shtick back in his hometown as an underappreciated ghost hero Phantom but they learned better than to pry about it after first time he tried to run away when confronted with the fact that they knew about his hero persona. Though they weren’t called best detectives for nothing, they didn’t need him to tell them things to know what was up.

Not when he had days when he just couldn’t find it in him to even get out of the bed.

Not when they knew all his smiles were faked for their sake.

Not when they had to get him through panic attacks.

Not when he was so terrified whenever they got injured or were in life threatening situation.

Not when he would seem to do better only to shut down when something reminded him of his past life.

Not when after day shift he would try to tail Tim, Steph or Cass on their patrols so he wouldn’t have to go sleep.

Not when they saw him brighten up at smallest praise.

Not when he was almost moaning when he was eating Alfred’s food and was surprised by things like fruits on pancakes.

Not when he run straight at villain with no regards of his own safety only to protect.

Not when he ignored his injuries or told them he probably deserved them.

Not when he didn’t even try to defend himself when attacked be it by mean people at BatBurger or tugs in the allay.

Not when he screamed when he was finally forced to go to bed. Apologized for killing his loved ones. Not for being the only one to stay or not being able to safe them. For killing. Bats knew he had nothing to do with the explosion.

They all knew, their newest brother was depressed at best and had survivors guilt whispering in the back of his mind, infecting his thoughts, hopes, dreams and nightmares. However despite some of his behaviors, Tim wanted to believe Danny wasn’t intentionally suicidal. He knew boy probably wouldn’t be mad if something or someone killed him all the way but he wanted to believe his brother wouldn’t get out of his way to make it happen.

Looking at the contingencies Danny collected on himself, Red Robin had to admit, he was wrong.

He was looking at terabaits after terabaits of ways to hurt or kill his younger brother with blueprints of weapons, information Poison Ivy would need to brought back extinct flower that literally burnt ghost if near them and ways it could be implemented into food so he couldn’t run away before it burnt him out of existence. All Danny’s powers he refused to tell them about unless they became handy in field. All his weaknesses. Geotags of all bases and contact information of organization that hunted ghosts and all known competent ghost hunters. Plans of Gotham and Manor itself with marked places where he hid actual anti-ghost weapons with description of how to use them. Personalized weapons for each of their family to use what they were most comfortable with. Some tidbits about halfas’ biology to let them know where to hit to hurt him the most.

All described in cold, detached words, like scientific document.

First thing every Bat adjusted person learned about contingencies was the fact that they had to be physically realistic. For example they could just use normal rope to stop Superman. Second thing they learned about contingencies was the fact that they had to be mentally capable of using it. That was the reason Bruce had little to no plans against his kids. He knew he wouldn’t be able to use it.

Danny seemed to think that someone in their family would use any of the crazy shit he prepared.

Yeah, hell no, Tim was in no shape to deal with this alone.

You: Guys I need you all in cave now

Discowing: wassup Baby Bird

Discowing: im commin fir thw resq

Well, despite how horrendous was his texting culture Tim was just glad that Dick wasn’t in Bludhaven right then.

Demon child: Tt, Drake, I hope you are aware that if it turns out being something not truly urgent I will not hesitate to stab you.

Resident Zombie: I’ll cough in your face next time I got cold if it’s a prank Timbers

PurpleTurtle: It’s like translation from Demon’s to petty English

Jumpscare but human: Fact

Now, normally Tim would at least smile looking at his siblings shenanigans but it was not a normal situation. He just wished they would get there faster.

You: Just get your asses here

Bat Signal the kid: Tim, what’s wrong

Bat Signal the kid: Is Danny alright?

It wasn’t weird thing to ask since Tim did use no-Danny batkids group chat (in their defense, there always has been at least one chat without each one of them, though mostly used as place to plan pranks and share gossip). However it also wasn’t thing to share over a group chat.

Demon child: Obviously not, Daniel hadn’t been in good shape of mind and body since we met him. The question should be if he got worse.

Demon child: What did you do, Drake?

Discowing: u gpt Baby Bat worried

PurpleTurtle: Yeah he’ll break his phone if he squeeze it any harder

Jumpscare but human: Me Steph Duke Dick Damian in lift

EyeInTheSky: Tim, am I seeing what I’m seeing on Batcomputer screen?

EyeInTheSky: I really fucking wish I’m not

When they all finally got to the Batcave and to the computer (Jason probably broke every traffic law in existence on his way, he cared about his fellow undead brother), Tim just finished putting each of their contingencies in Danny’s files up on the screen. Someone would call him dramatic. That’s simply not true. He just needed them to get context before he showed them The Thing.

Babs, please stop screaming at him trough comm., his head was already killing him.

“Read it” he simply said when they were all there. For once, they listened, each getting through their part of the file with growing smiles on their faces. Except Damian, he looked offended when he had read part about bribing him to the good side with ghost animals.

“Baby Ghost is adorable.” Dick cooed, getting enthusiastic nods from everyone.

“And naïve.” Damian added, scowling “I still don’t understand why Daniel’s lack of ability to create realistic contingencies is such urgent matter.” Wait, from when did Damian started calling Danny by his first name? “We did deal with Zabini three days ago.”

Zabini was Danny’s absolutely horrible teacher from whom ghost refused to protect himself, giving them half hearted excuses like ‘I’m used to it’ or ‘Who will expect Fenton looser to be Gotham’s newest cape crusader, I protect our identities’ etc. Demon kid finally had enough and used his League training to get this nuisance from his brother’s back. Everyone else may or may not helped with it (blinking lights weren’t Duke’s doing, not at all). Dick could be scary if he really wanted to.

Yes, they could just use Bruce’s influence and money and get Danny different teacher for his online classes but it was way funnier and way better way of dealing with it.

“It’s not all. All his files look like these with sole exception of three people. One of them is his godfather, second Plasimus. Now close your files” Tim just sighed, getting up from the chair to let them see screen better.”Read this. These are contingencies Danny collected for third person, the most lethal ones”

They read in silence, dread and determination growing with every word. Whoever pissed ghost child enough to deserve such files was on instant on shoot without hesitation list.

Jason was grabbing his gun. Damian’s knife was already in his hands. Lights went a little funky, reacting to Duke’s distress. Steph’s fingers were twitching as if she was restraining herself from choking someone. Cass went inhumanly still, like predator ready to attack. Dick tried to get his escrima sticks but was out of suit so obviously he didn’t got them.

Batman’s no kill rule didn’t work outside Gotham, did it?

“These are the files Danny created for himself.”

It took them a moment to comprehend.

Then the hell broke loose with everyone speaking over each other which wasn’t nice to Tim’s very much sleep deprived brain and migraine.

“Well fuck.”

“Shit just got serious.”

“Tim you dramatic little bitch!”

“Drake I know you are not always in your right mind however I believed fathers training made you understand phrase ‘bury the lede’ and you learned why it is a bad thing. Clearly I overestimated your capabilities again.”

“Baby Bird please tell me it’s a joke.”

“It sure as hell isn’t Dick. I just checked logs.” Babs answered, hijacking Batcomputer’s speakers. “Danny was creating these files since he got access to database, before he did anything else. Though he named it some random keyboard smash before B got him through contingencies files and then he created plans for Vlad and Plasimus almost instantly after classes and then created other files.”

“Told you” Cass announced, speaking up first time since she got to the Cave, which actually wasn’t weird to her and maybe Tim shouldn’t focus on it so much.” Scared of powers.”

“Yeah, I get it, getting powers can be horrifying but also-“ Duke didn’t finish, probably not sure how to do it but tried again” Becoming meta is quite an experience and he just lost very important people to him but- how- I- he-“ he had taken a deep breath before he finally forced out whispered “ How can he hate part of himself so much? He is at peace when he is flying. Almost happy. How can he do that while being so scared of himself? How could he use it at all if he is so scared?”

Duke’s face was grayer than usual as he run hand trough his hair. Dick squeezed his shoulder in reassuring gesture.

Right, Signal and Lar had been bonding over being only super powered individuals in the family. Hate towards ones abilities was probably straight up disturbing especially if Danny managed to hide it for so long. They were probably playing with their powers during patrols. Did Duke feel bad for it now, knowing that his brother hated them so much?

Did he feel bad for not realizing earlier?

“You have to remember Thomas that all of his opponents had similar if not same power set as he does. Daniel could create some senseless connections between his abilities and moral code especially if we consider lower than normal percentage of metas in his hometown.”

Nobody knew how to react to that.

“Alright, so” Steph took deep breath before continuing “what do we do now? I’m afraid that Alfred’s chocolate, Damian’s pets and fluffy blanket may not be enough this time.”

Nobody as much as smirked but Tim was kind of grateful that she tried to ease the tension. It was weak joke but they weren’t in shape to do better.

What do they do? Great part of being a hero was going along the lines of ‘why is nobody dealing with it, well I can do it if nobody better does’ which meant that they often faced this question with nobody willing to answer.

“Let’s start with deleting this fucking files. I don’t give a shit if he’ll recreate them or something, I will smash computer if it’s not gone right fucking know."

For once Tim could agree with Jason. Maybe not on a ‘destroying batcomputer’ part but they shared rest of the sentiment.

“Cannot be alone for long” Cass stated and really, nobody could argue with that either.

“Maybe we should get him to talk with Black Canary?” Dick proposed hopefully. “I know, he doesn’t want to talk with counselors but she is a hero, maybe he’ll agree.”

Tim sighed at naivety of his oldest brother. It was understandable since he spent more time in Bludhaven than with them and hadn’t seen battles they had over therapy but still, it was so naïve.

“He’ll just call us out on our issues and ask why we didn’t talk to her if she is so great. We tried like seven dozen times already.”

“You don’t want to hear him calling us out on our issues Dickhead. He made Cass cry.”

“He cornered and scared and angry. Fast apologized.”

“Yeah, but my point still stands. You can’t get him to see therapist. Everyone was a mess after trying.”

“Well, we have to do something but also we can’t exactly confront him. He’ll run away again and we can’t let him. Not after we learned this.” Steph stressed.”We need to reassure him that we love him, that we care about him and that we won’t use any of this on him.”

“We can empty all his hiding spots from weaponry one by one and destroy it in front of him in some not obvious way. Daniel may not be the brightest when lacking sleep but he is not stupid, we need to make it look like he walked on us getting rid of means to harm him and not like we started breaking it down the moment he entered the room.”

“Demon brat I can’t believe I’m saying it but that’s actually not a bad idea.”

“Thank you Todd.”

Tim quirked his lips in almost invisible smile. He knew getting his siblings on case was a great move.

“Love languages!” Dick yelled as if he just discovered new element or something. He raised hands like cartoon character almost hitting still-not-well Duke in the process “You heard about them, right? Let’s use them. All of them.” Sounded like a threat.

“Dibs on gifts! I gotta use Alfie’s cookies and books about stars” Steph grinned, slamming her open palm on the table.

“Well if we want to actually give him food, I am the only one still allowed in the kitchen-”

“Shut up Jason.”

“Don’t get your feathers ruffled, you can share.”

“Touch.” Cass announced and nobody was willing to fight her on that. She was the best at hugs.

“I shall use quality time technique and get him to share his exceptional knowledge about space. He seems to be at peace when doing it.”

“Oh fuck, Demon child cares like, really hard.” Steph muttered probably to herself (or to Cass who knew it all along) but it hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“Tt, of course Brown. He painted all of Mother’s blades with neon pink paint first time he met her and said he will do it again until she leaves me alone unless I invite her to Gotham by myself. It was paint that would cause metal to rust faster so Mother spend next day and a half cleaning all her weapons. He kept his promise, next time he painted them in Richard’s blue and recently he asked me what color I would like to see on her next. This is service I shall repay for.”

They were all stunned after that, not quite sure what shocked them the most. Damian having someone other than Bruce and League in such high regards, Talia being victim of petty pranks or Danny repeatedly pulling such prank on literal trained assassin.

Well that explained first name basis with their resident devil incarnate.

“Kid is fucking incredible”

“I’m so gonna drown him in compliments.” Tim shrugged, partially as answer to Damian’s story and partially continuing on previous games of dibs.

“Right here with you Baby Bird.”

“Acts of service” Babs chimed. Nobody was going to fight her on it either. She could crush them without even being in the same room. Not risking that.

“Ok, great, so-” Dick clapped but didn’t get to finish.

“Hey guys-” Duke interrupted quietly, hand still halfway raised as he was waiting for someone to let him speak and just lose patience. He was so quiet that Tim kind of forgot he was still there. Don’t blame him, he was roughly on fiftieth hour without sleep, his brain wasn’t working on his whole capabilities.

“Speak up Narrows it ain’t school to raise your hand”

Duke ignored Jason’s bullshit as everyone should.

“I get that planning it all is fun or something but, like, if we’re all here, who makes sure Danny is safe like right now.”

Well shit.

Rest probably shared similar thoughts if their rapid paling was anything to go off.

Tim nearly jumped back to computer to check where was Danny’s phone, comm and panic button. Of fucking course they were in three different places with panic button localized somewhere in the severs under Crime Alley. How that even happened?!

Lift pinged, announcing someone’s arrival to the cave. Tim out of habit closed all files with contingencies which turned out to be right call.

“Oh, and here they are, whole colony working together!” Danny yelled not stepping out of elevator.

“It’s not whole colony work without resident ghost” Steph answered without losing a bit which sometimes wasn’t a good think. Boy tensed before ignoring her comment like he always did when they tried to include him.

“Hey Jason, I didn’t know you’re here today! By the way Alfred says lunch is ready!”

There were very few ways to make them stop what they’re doing and go somewhere else. Alfred was one of them. Food was also important part of his power.

Danny eyed Tim with concern when everyone tried to squeezed themselves inside the lift.

“After lunch you’re going to sleep Tim and don’t wake up before the patrol. Breakthrough in your case isn’t worth your well being.”

“Rich coming from you dude.”

“Can’t kill what’s already dead.”

“You’re still halfway alive, try not to lose it on something stupid.”

Danny didn’t answer for a moment.

“Will do.”

Tim really wished he could still believe that.

*~*~*

Danny was seriously considering running away again. Living and working with Waynes known also as Bats and Birds was getting harder. He was getting attached and he couldn’t afford that. Last time he did and he lost them, it was tragedy for the whole world and he was actively trying to avoid it happening again. And not think about it too much if possible. Waynes were at so much higher death risk than his family and friends had been. So not getting attached it is.

All they did, was as if they tried to actively laugh his resolution in the face.

They always were overly friendly and unnecessarily concerned towards him but recently they got even worse.

He wasn’t the brightest, he knew that, but even he could see that something happened and now they were showering him in positive attention whenever they saw him. And they refused to leave him alone for more than one god damn hour unless they thought sure he was sleeping. Like, he was nearly sure they bugged his room but he just couldn’t get himself to care enough to do anything about it.

He also couldn’t get himself to care enough to ask them to stop or something. He probably should since they refused to see non verbal signals but he really couldn’t muster enough emotional energy to have talk like this. They would ask too many questions and he always didn’t like to have The Talks anyway. There was a reason why he erased his parents memories after Freakshow incident.

Also it was nice to have people caring about him like this.

Though he was running away if he got too attached. Not yet but probably soon. After he ghostproofs Manor, Batcave, Babs’ Clocktower and other safe places. Maybe he should create some bunkers for the civilians? Yeah that was probably good idea. After that? They would be as safe as he could make them. Then he needed to leave. It was kind of the bummer, it was nice to have enough food, someone who cared about him and he cared about and safe-ish bed to rest again. Even if he didn’t use last one too often.

Danny stretched, joints popping, muscles singing in relief after Ancients know how many hours in position of the shrimp. He finally finished working on schematics, three prototypes and one finished product of anti-ghost shield because of course he, like an idiot he is, hadn’t retrieved them when he was running away from home so he needed to recreate them from memory, which was bitch and a half. On a bright side, he managed to make them better! Now there was no floor phasing tricks and even in human form he couldn’t get through it and got zapped instead. Future evil him didn’t have human form so some would call this precaution paranoid but it wasn’t. Really, it wasn’t exactly the same scenario, however since Danny knew he was becoming monster like this, it was better be prepared for villain halfa with all his powers and tricks.

He checked the time. 5:17 AM. Huh, he missed lunch and dinner again. No point in going back to sleep though. What could he do until it was late enough to go get some food?

Wait, Dick was visiting Gotham and nobody knew when will be next time he does. Danny should get him at least one shield in case they didn’t meet again before everything goes wrong. Yeah, that was good idea.

It was so much easier to make it second time around. He already knew what worked and how to connect everything. It was almost nice.

Next time he could focus on anything other than metal parts infused with ectoplasm from his cut forearm (thank Ancients it was fall and he could wear long sleeves without looking suspicious) was when he finished second shield. His eyes were a little watery so he rubbed them. He checked the time again. 9:34 AM. Yeah, it was good time for breakfast. His whole body ached from sitting in this horrible position for what was nearly twenty hours so he stretched again. Twenty? No, it wasn’t twenty, he got something wrong. Eighteen? Maybe it was eighteen, maybe twenty two, he was a little too tired to care and actually count.

He stood up and immediately had to seat down with how hard world started spinning around him. His vision was almost absolutely obscured by colorful dots blinking and moving like terrified ants. He closed his eyes and took few careful breaths before slowly getting up again. Yeah, he definitely needed to eat.

He didn’t actually remember his way to the kitchen.

“Hey Baby Ghost you look like a zombie.” Danny didn’t almost jump from his own skin, thank you very much.

“Morning Dick, you got wrong type of undead. For zombie go to Jason.”

Wait, he had a shield for Dick. He made it this morning. Where… Right, he left it in his room. Wait, no, he had something in his ha- right, for some reason he took it with him, clutching on it like a lifebelt. Well, at least he doesn’t have to go back to his room. He marched inside kitchen, swaying so hard he needed to lean on a wall to not fall face first on a ground.

Next thing he knew, Dick was carefully maneuvering him to sit on a chair and franticly asking if he was okay or something.

“ ’M fine” he muttered, not actually caring what was the question. He put ghost shield generator on the table for man to see better. “Remember when Mr. Wayne said-”

“You can call him Bruce or just B., he likes that.”

Danny choose to ignore this interruption and bit a sandwich Mr. Pennyworth gave him with disappointed look on his old face full of wisdom. It was weird to call good adults from outside of the family by their names.

“- that fact that every potentially hostile ghost can get inside Batcave without a trouble is serious security risk and that he will contact Constantine with this tone his uses when he really is mad at someone and hates asking them for anything but he has to anyway? The one he used when he agreed for me to join your night part-time business? You know what I’m talking about?” if look on Dick’s face was anything to go by, he knew and didn’t like that tone too. It was a little reassuring “He haven’t answered yet and Mr. Wayne was getting anxious, so I tried to get my last three brain cells to work properly and recreate ghost shields they used back in Amity. This one is for you ‘cause I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. If you stay for the dinner I’ll make you two or three more to ghostproof some spaces for civilians in Bludhaven.” He took another bite of his breakfast, Dick still next to him and not touching his bowl of cereals.

“Congrats Danny, I knew there is a genius under these messy tufts of yours.”

“ ‘M not a genius”

Man just ruffled his hair with blinding smile and Danny tried not to get too happy at the praise and affectionate gesture. Something in his chest, in place mirroring his heart, sung with delight. But he knew better. Don’t get used to it. Don’t get attached. Don’t-

“But maybe it will be better if you get some sleep before going back to work? I’ll stay up to tomorrow dinner if you do so.”

Boy blinked slowly few times.

Why did he use his longer stay like a price? It wasn’t good thing for him to be out of his city for so long. So many things could go wrong and Danny wasn’t the one to take others away from their responsibilities unless he took their place to ensure nothing happens. Only Ancients and probably Babs know, how many times he got one of the Waynes to sleep and took their patrol route instead. Danny couldn’t really go Bludhaven to ensure it was alright though. He didn’t want Nightwing to be away for too long.

Wait, did Dick misinterpreted Danny’s promise as some twisted not straightforward ask to spend more time together?

Man returned to his place at the table and ate his cereal, still keeping an eye on the teen.

“I’ll make ten if you stay so long and sleep only if I pass out in the meantime.” Boy admitted honestly. He finished his sandwich and drank his orange juice. Mr. Pennyworth refused to let him even nearby coffeemaker. It was okay. He was more of a energy drink enjoyer and had coffee alliance with Tim. Also nothing stopped him from phasing drinks inside walls and retrieving them later. He could make due. He checked time on his too damn bright phone. “I have an forty minutes before patrol so I’ll give you quick tutorial on how to use this shield, okay?”

“Maybe take a nap instead?”

“So, this button turns it on and here you can input radius and height.” Danny started, ignoring Dick’s concern “It’s like a dome. For presentation sake I’ll make it small” he input some random digits and dome in size of the big school back pack appeared on a table. Mr. Pennyworth coughed trying to remind boy about ‘No cape talks at the table’ but Danny ignored him too, way too excited talking about product of his hard work. “but it should be able to cover whole Manor. Anything larger I wouldn’t risk ‘cause it would weaken it but you can try. Now, whole purpose of ghost shield is to keep ghost out or in but I wouldn’t risk in scenario because they could just turn it off and I didn’t work out how to prevent it and don’t die while building it. Maybe I could think of something later if someone else is building it. Never mind ” Dick looked like he very much minded “This shield is better than ones back in Amity because I had to learn how hijack these to get home and such but I have no idea how to go inside this one other than brute force. But fear not, since I added things to make it electrocute every ghost that touches it, it would more likely break me before I break it.” He announced with proud smile.

He did it! He made it better! It was horrifying, his heart was beating way faster than it should, knowing that even slightest touch would send familiar shock through him. The thing, in place where heart would be if his organs were mirrored, was painfully twisted because he used his own blood, his own ectoplasm to create this.

It was wonderful. It made people safe from him.

He was his parents child after all, he was ecstatic that his creation was working more than he was scared of what it could do.

“Baby Ghost, no-”

“I also made sure that I couldn’t cross it in human form which was also lacking in previous ones and that it don’t stop on the floor. In Amity ghosts sometimes just phased through floor and flew up inside. But not with this one! Try to phase? Get zapped and maybe for few seconds powerless underground, see how you like slowly suffocating on earth and little stones, crushed by tones of material above yo-” he sounded like maniac, he was maniac, replaying out loud one of his worst nightmares from the time his powers where developing. He stopped himself with awkward cough “Sorry, got carried away, anyway I didn’t have a way to test how it reacts to overshadowed people.” He continued to ramble, a little stressed over unknown factor about his creation. Mr. Wayne made it clear that he didn’t like unknowns and his protégées all shared this sentiment.“Ghosts still get zapped because I know in human form it’s hard to say if I’m halfa or just overshadowed by something and I get zapped anyway but I don’t know if host wouldn’t get harmed in the process. I don’t think it’s likely but until I can test it I suggest checking people you suspect of having spectral co-pilot and freeing them from it before you make them walk under shield. For normal humans it won’t do a thing, maybe cause a shiver but nothing more. It’s absolutely safe for you and other people to walk through it after it’s turned on, so in case of emergency you can turn it on immediately and-”

“That’s all great Danny but you shouldn’t work on this instead of sleeping.” Dick was cautious and pleading at the same time.

“And eating.” Mr. Pennyworth added in most deadpan tone boy heard since Sam. “I truly hope that you had some snacks in your room and this isn’t your first meal since yesterday breakfast Master Danny.”

Teen just grinned, rubbing back of his neck. Elderly man just gave him more sandwiches with disappointed look on his face. Dick paled.

“Probably? I’m sorry I kinda hyperfocused and lost track of the time. Finally nobody was bothering me so I just kept working and before I realized it was next morning.”

“That’s it!” Dick shouted almost offended, clapping his hands and standing up again “We weren’t bothering you because it was your day off and we thought you were finally resting but since you didn’t you’re doing it today.”

“But-” Danny started, although he was standing up as prompted by firm hand on his back.

“No buts, let’s go,” They started slowly walking to the door “you’re worse than me and I have, like, three Nightwing cases and seven officer Grayson cases to keep me up at night. We’re going to make you sleep.”

Boy straighten up, freezing like deer in the headlights.

“Do you need help? I mean, I’m half dead I probably need only half amount of sleep I can handle going to Bludhaven few nights in week if you-”

“No, Baby Ghost, stop right now. Just stop. I don’t need your help and even if I do, I don’t want it to be given by sleep deprived disaster. Your wellbeing is priority right now.”

Dick made him walk further.

“Ghosts see a lot of things living don’t.” Boy tried to tempt “I could ask around and get you a lead in at least half of your cases if not all of them. Just give me a few nights and you’re clear. Just ask and I’ll do it.”

“Alright Danny, I get it. I don’t need your help now but I’ll remember to ask you if I do.”

Teen didn’t quite believed it but he let it slide for now.

“If you need any help, you can tell us too, you know? We will be more than happy to help.”

Boy froze again.

“You know right?”

He wished he didn’t. If they were so eager to help him, it meant that despite his greatest attempts they grew attached to him. It meant that when he becomes evil, they won’t stop him or they’ll hesitate until it’ll be too late.

It was his role to protect them not the other way around.

He messed up so bad!

He could feel when all blood left his face.

“Please tell me you understand, you aren’t a burden to any of us. We can and will fight a god for you if you need us to. Do you understand?”

Oh, Ancients, Dick just wouldn’t stop until Danny didn’t agree, would he?

“Yeah, right.” He managed to whisper.

“No matter what type of problem it is.” Shit, Danny didn’t muster enough enthusiasm to stop it? “You feel sad? You can tell us. You sprained your ankle and it hurts? You can tell us. Relationship troubles? Tell us. Homework is too hard? Tell us. Anything you want, anything that’s troubling you, you can tell us and we’ll help. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do. I’ll tell you if anything happens.” He said, nodding enthusiastically to make Dick quit talking.

Danny didn’t need to hear it. He didn’t want to hear it. Something in his chest was almost singing at the affection and promises but he couldn’t let them close. It was better both for him, to not hurt so badly if something happened to them and for them to not hurt so badly when he inevitably goes evil.

“I sure hope you do. From experience I can tell you, too many things can go wrong if you go alone. Now go to sleep. Well rested brain works better. And with all due respect, I don’t want anything you created so exhausted. It’ll more likely explode than work properly.”

Whatever Dick tried to achieve by this comment, failed miserably.

Danny’s blood boiled. He could take insults about his height, his idiocy, his lack of multiple skills, you name it. He could be beaten, laughed up, spit at and he couldn’t care less.

He would not ignore someone suggesting something he made wasn’t working.

“More likely to explode?!” He yelled, rage flowing out of every pour in his skin, ringing in his voice and posture.“FUCKING WATCH ME!”

And before his survival instinct kicked in, Danny punched his shield with full furious ghostly strength. Dick needed to know that it worked. He, Danny, needed to make sure he knew. He-

There was electricity dancing and burning across his nerves. His body couldn’t move, overflowing with pain. There was ectoplasm filling out his veins and lungs like liquid fire and evaporated ice, burning and freezing at the same time, drowning him with every attempted breath. Scream that came out as pathetic bubble. His chest was crushed by unimaginable weight, exploding from inside at the same time. Billions of millions cries of pain as if every inhabitant of Ghost Zone wanted to be heard all at once, all both inside and outside his head. His body was getting destroyed, very atoms of his existence were changed, rearranged, his cells killed and built again while his mind was still lucid enough to try and comprehend it. He was waiting for Death, dark and brutal, mother of all ghost he was taught to hate and he wished she wouldn’t wait for so long. He knew her since young age, was taught all there is to know about her murderous children and he couldn’t help but see her as a familiar face in this painful, horrifying, wrong, wrong, wrong situation. However it felt like hours before her cold fingers finally ripped out his last breath away, stopped his racing heart, let him finally get rest.

And then for a moment everything was as it’s supposed to be. There was calm, soothing darkness, silence and coldness. It’s what should have happened to him after he died. He should just stay in this nothingness and then slowly form somewhere in the depths of the Ghost Zone and latch on some older ghost for help and advice until he was ready to survive on his own. He should be mourned and get a grave and feel happy thrill whenever someone laid flowers there.

“-ny”

Instead there were voices but different than last time. Last time there were two high pitched voices of panicking children barely out of middle school. This time there was a lot of older, male voices, calm but with concerned and scared undertones. One was really angry.

“-sponsive, call doctor Thompkins and take him to the cave.”

“THE FUCK YOU DID DICK?!”

He opened his eyes and blinked few times to make world clear again. He laid on a floor, head on someone’s lap. There were warm hands on sides of his face, keeping it secure.

“On it B.”

“Nothing Jay, I promise I just tried to force him to go to sleep.”

Danny tried to seat with a groan but hands held him in place. All conversations stopped at the same moment. Where was he? Who were they? Where were his friends?

“Lay down Baby Ghost. It’s okay, you’re okay.” Person who was holding him whispered in soothing tone.

Oh right, his friends were in cemetery in Amity, these were Waynes aka Bats and he was laying on their kitchen floor having flashbacks of his own fucking death after he oh so smartly electrocuted himself. They were probably not panicking only because of their training. The one who held his head on his laps was Dick.

“I didn’t know I could do this.” He joked, trying to ease older vigilantes. “Sorry for spooking you guys.”

“Kid in the love of the fucking god, don’t you joke on us right know. You screamed like you were fucking dying.”

Huh, from what Sam and Tuck told him, he hadn’t screamed when he was actually dying. He knew he couldn’t because the ectoplasm in his throat was drowning and he couldn’t breathe let alone scream, despite how much he wanted to, but it looked like flashback didn’t include that.

“What was that Danny?” Mr. Wayne asked calmly and boy only then realized that man was crouching next to him. Why?

“Caused by electricity, PTSD related reactions” Tim said and Danny remembered it was down to word quote from his contingency files.

“Oh, you finally read it! Great! Is it enough in depth or should I add something?” Was he desperately trying to change a topic of the conversation to anything but his attack? Yeah, but also he was genuinely curious, which was, probably, a sign of some issues. Whatever.

Tim ignored it anyway and started interrogating him instead.

“You wrote it yourself, what do you mean you didn’t expect this?”

“Yeah I knew something’ll happen, but all the times before when I got zapped I, like, froze, had some minor panic attack or got really anxious, not whatever the hell was that.” He thought for a moment, forcing himself to seat despite Dick’s protest “ It’s probably because I mixed ectoplasm with electricity, it enhanced my reaction. You know, shit suddenly hit a little too close to home. Even though I was the one hitting.” He grinned. Grandfather clock in some other room played to announce 10 AM.

Danny grinned even wider. It was perfect, excuse to escape this conversation just presented itself on a silver plate. He knew they would press him about it later but it was problem for future Danny. Not an evil future Danny, just few hours older Danny, of course.

“Well, that’s my clue, I need to suit up before the patrol, again, sorry for scaring you all” He slowly started to phase through a floor, snickering as all vigilantes tried to stop him.

“Right, Dick I forgot to tell you. On button is also an off button. You can safely shut it down now, since I can’t do a presentation anymore.”

As soon as he left kitchen, Danny let out a breath he didn’t even knew he was holding.

He felt awful, remains of electricity still making his hands twitchy and his body shiver in terror. He wished that patrol would be relatively calm. He needed a moment to get himself back together.

He took another shaky breath descending to the Batcave.

He could do it.

He had to.

*~*~*

Dick was certainly having a day, an awful day at that. He slept in some weird position so when he woke up his muscles were tense and twisted. Before he even ate breakfast, he had to stop fight between Damian and Tim, forcing younger boy to walk Titus to calm down without injuring anyone. Man always hated when his siblings were fighting, so it was enough to turn whole day into something far from good. Then he got to the kitchen, where Alfred gave him his favorite cereals which lightened up his mood a bit. Then Danny, his precious, newest, suicidal younger brother, stumbled inside, looking like he would fall face first on a ground without any help. He actually nearly did. They talked. Dick didn’t liked what he heard.

Though it was nice to see boy so excited about anything. Since they first met him Dick felt like majority of reactions he showed and almost all positive ones were faked for their sake. Maybe it was a little naïve, but man wanted to believe it was sign of healing. Teen finally acted his age or like he was even younger, showing of his creation with shinning eyes. Naturally shining, none of the ghostly magic added.

However, as much as he would normally encourage any of his sibling’s interest that wasn’t associated with their nightlife (did it even count? Maybe not, but it was furthest he ever seen Danny go from it), boy was in too bad shape to be out of bed and he focused on that. He really tried to be gentle but firm, testing waters to see what’ll break this stubborn child.

Unfortunately it seemed that he pressed a wrong button and Danny got angry. Boy’s eyes glowed bright, scary green, his face twisted in pure rage and Dick needed all his willpower to not stumble back. It hit a little too close to home with its resemblance to Jason’s Pit Madness episodes.

And then Danny punched his dome and screamed.

It was loud, high-pitched scream that was painful to hear. Scream that, despite being unintelligible, described great torture better than whatever words someone could use. Dick almost felt electricity killing his nerves and something else making his cells explode.

Boy fell to the ground, trashing around and still yelling. Man quickly sat on a floor and caught Danny’s head to ensure he wouldn’t injure himself. He couldn’t do much more on his own and Alfred had left somewhen before things went south.

As if called by this thought, Jason, Bruce and Tim run inside a kitchen at neck breaking speed, realizing even quicker that there was no time for questions. Youngest of them was already halfway taking his phone out to call doctor Thompkins. Jason tried to restrain Danny but kid was too strong and slippery for someone in his state. At some point he kicked so hard that man fell on his butt, hand already checking if his nose was broken. Thankfully it wasn’t. Bruce looked a little lost.

Then suddenly scream was cut and Danny went deathly limp and they knew how deathly limp looked. They had seen it far too many times. B immediately crouched next to them and took boy’s wrist to check his pulse. He sighed with relief when he found it but kept his fingers where they were in case things changed.

“Danny, Baby Ghost, do you hear us?” Dick quietly tried to call but didn’t get any response.

“Danny?” Tim chimed a little louder.

“C’mon squirt, you’re scaring Dickhead out.”

“Danny, move any of your fingers if you can hear us.” Bruce sounded like he was calm and collected but every one of his sons could hear worry sipping into his voice.

“Danny?” Dick tried again with same result as everyone.

“He is unresponsive, call doctor Thompkins and take him to the cave.” B. commanded, while Jason yelled.

“THE FUCK YOU DID DICK?!”

It was cute that he was so protective over their little brother. A little less cute that because of it he probably barely restrained himself from choking his only older brother.

“On it B.”

“Nothing Jay, I promise I just tried to force him to go to sleep.” Dick pleaded, knowing his life was on the line.

Danny tried to seat with a groan but he held him in place. There was no way for him to let him get up so soon after attack. Especially with how his unfocused eyes swam around room, seemingly without recognizing anyone.

Everyone momentarily shut up.

“Lay down Baby Ghost. It’s okay, you’re okay.” Dick whispered in, what he hoped was, soothing tone. Danny had to feel awful. Dick needed to make sure boy felt as safe and calm as possible. He rubbed kid’s temples in gentle manner. All the comfort.

“I didn’t know I could do this.” Danny quipped after a moment, strain clear in his voice. “Sorry for spooking you guys.”

“Kid in the love of the fucking god, don’t you joke on us right know. You screamed like you were fucking dying.” Jason was back on his feet but he looked like he barely stopped himself from shaking some senses into Danny.

Boy looked thoughtful which was not a good sign.

“What was that Danny?” B. pried.

“Caused by electricity, PTSD related reactions” Tim recited with closed eyes and Dick didn’t like the thought of where he probably read it.

“Oh, you finally read it! Great! Is it enough in depth or should I add something?” Why was Danny trying to be so cheerful when he talked about it? Why did it sound more like genuine happiness than when he was spending time with them?

“You wrote it yourself, what do you mean you didn’t expect this?” Baby Bird was almost accusatory which was not good in their current situation so Dick send him warning look. It was not the time for this.

He noticed how Danny’s limbs trembled. Probably subconsciously boy clenched his fists on his pants to hide it.

“Yeah I knew something’ll happen, but all the times before, when I got zapped” he was electrocuted not just zapped “I, like, froze, had some minor panic attack or got really anxious or trembled for some time, not whatever the hell was that.” His tone was forcefully bright, even though they all knew it was hard to him to talk about. Nothing surprising. Dick was about to tell him that he didn’t need to talk now, when teen sat up and didn’t let himself be put back down. Dick kept his hands on boy’s arms “It’s probably because I mixed ectoplasm with electricity, it enhanced my reaction.” He said thoughtfully which, again, wasn’t a good sign “You know, shit suddenly hit a little too close to home. Even though I was the one hitting.” He quipped weakly. Grandfather clock in some other room played to announce 10 AM.

Danny broke away from his older brother’s embrace.

“Well, that’s my clue, I need to suit up before the patrol, again, sorry for scaring you all” He started to disappear through a floor, smiling at them when they tried to stop him.

“Right, Dick I forgot to tell you. On button is also an off button. You can safely shut it down now, since I can’t do a presentation anymore.”

Way to push him under the train, huh?

Though Dick didn’t really care about it. After all, he hadn’t missed how Danny was shaking and how his eyes shone with tears even when he was phasing with forced smile on his lips.

“We won’t catch him before he’s out, will we?” Jason asked with his eyes fixed at the point where his brother sat a moment before.

“Not a chance.” Tim answered without hope.

They sat in silence for a long moment.

“I believe there are some explanations to be made” Bruce announced with dangerously Batman undertone in his voice. They nodded with grimaces on their faces. They definitely should explain everything but it didn’t mean they wanted too. It was complicated. It wasn’t going to be nice conversation since B was, understandably, kind of mad.

“We should probably bring that talk downstairs” Dick proposed. Was he stalling? Yeah, he really didn’t want to explain it all. Instead he cautiously poked still active anti-ghost shield. Danny said it shouldn’t hurt humans but Dick was serious about not trusting anything made by sleep deprived teenagers. Nothing exploded and he hadn’t been shocked so he put his hand inside and turned this cursed thing off.

Bruce hummed and left room without any further acknowledgment.

Dick exchanged glances with his brothers.

“If you can’t explain it well, your fucked” Jason declared in surprisingly gentle and hurt tone.

“I’m sorry, Jaybird”

Tim just sighed. This had to end poorly.

“Let’s go”

They did, with heavy hearts and dark thoughts in their heads.

When they arrived, Bruce was already standing at the briefing table, visibly bracing himself from pacing. He looked at them and Dick recognized that look. ‘Talk’ he almost said. ’Explain’ he nudged.

‘Where do I even start?’ he wanted to ask, but he kept it to himself. After all, since he was Robin he was taught how to rely information in best compromise of short and usefully detailed.

All his years of training felt useless in face of everything he was supposed to share.

“Alright” Jason clapped, standing on the opposite side of the table, probably to stop himself from murdering someone “now that we’re here, Dick, care to share what the fuck just happened in the kitchen?”

With a sigh he placed a sci-fi looking box where everyone could see it.

“This is anti-ghost shield generator. Let me finish-” he held his hand when Tim tried to comment. Dick needed to let it all out as soon as he could or he wouldn’t be able to say it at all “Danny made this last night. He told he wanted to make it after you, B, mentioned security risk of Batcave being unprepared for ghost rogues. He recognized your ‘I have to talk with Constantine’ voice but also thought it was the same as your ‘I have to let next kid in the field’ voice. He thinks you’re mad at him. So he decided to make it to ghost proof whatever place we want. He explained how he made sure it’s better than ones he saw back in Amity. He had to hijack them to get home and he proudly announced and I fucking quote ‘I have no idea how to go inside this one other than brute force. But fear not, since I added things to make it electrocute every ghost that touches it, it would more likely break me before I break it.’ “ he tried to replicate how cheerful was Danny’s tone, which added to grim effect of his speech.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Jason muttered and Bruce looked like he would say something similar if he did speak his mind more often.

“I tried to get him to sleep and he got angry and went all scary ghost bullshit and punched it. You know what happened next.”

“And he just- punched that- just like that? After he told you that it could kill him?”

“We’re talking about Danny, are you seriously surprised by his self destructive behavior B?”

“So intense outside the field? Yes, I find it surprising. Why shouldn’t I?

Jason groaned.

“He haven’t seen Danny’s contingency files.” Tim stated with hollow voice with only slightest hints of disbelief and understanding. Dick’s eyes widened. He was right. Jason muttered curses under his breath.

“No, I haven’t had time for this, what’s in them?”

They exchanged glances again. ‘What isn’t there?’ they asked each other with that alone. And also, ‘how fucked are we?’

“Ok, so imagine you asked five year old to create the most Looney Tunes type of contingencies” Tim started, building dramatic effect with tone of his voice alone. Dick let him, after all, they all were just slightly different types of theater kids (even Damian despite how he refused to admit it) and Baby Bird was master of creating tension while briefing in Bat approved way. “These are Danny’s files for everyone, including some of the ghosts he fought back in Amity Park.”

Dramatic pause to let B comprehend this.

“Now think about Dick’s plans for Tony Zucco. You know, the ones from purple notebook. These are Danny’s plans for Vlad Masters and ghost called Plasimus.”

Well, it’s not like it wasn’t accurate but man, did he hate when Zucco was brought up. Also, how Tim even knew about purple notebook? Dick burned it before kid came to live in the Manor!

“I suspect they have similar situation as Danny and Phantom but it’s more of a hunch.”

“Now Timbers, that’s new. When do we go for this fucker?”

“Jason, you can’t just ask that!” Tim looked displeased, making subtle head movement towards Bruce. Yeah, better not discuss beating someone up in front of him. Even if Dick was nearly sure after some background info B would be down to it.

It was funny thought. Whole Batclan coming to some medium sized town in Illinois to beat down one specific guy.

Fuck you in particular Masters.

Danny nearly got panic attack when he saw that man at gala (they forced kid to attend, not as Bruce Wayne’s newest ward, but they sneaked him there anyway, they couldn’t suffer without him). Whatever that reclusive millionaire had done to their brother, he deserved severe beating from all of them. With assassin training some of them had and all other jazz.

“We can talk about that later” Bruce stated “I assume you haven’t finished Tim” he added, sounding annoyed at interruption.

“No. There was one more file, one that disturbed us the most when we found it.” Boy took a deep breath before he continued “Imagine you got all the craziest villains you ever heard about. Most torturous, brutal ones, all got merged into unholy abomination of hive mind and created plan to destroy someone.”

Bruce looked furious. Dick could understand, he had been in the same position just three days ago. He could almost hear thoughts running through his dad’s head.

‘Who deserved this? What did they do to my son? Where are they and how do I kill them?’

Maybe without killing part.

“This is what Danny wants us to use on him as soon as he shows any signs of turning evil.” Tim dropped and in any other situation he would be smiling. He was just dramatic like that and took satisfaction in effects his storytelling had on his listeners. Not then though.

Bruce paled. He stared into nothing in front of them with wide, horrified eyes. His mouth moved as if he tried to say something but couldn’t force his vocal chords to it.

“He ensured that this would not only hurt and kill him but also make him cease to exist in any form. He listed all his powers and weaknesses to encourage us to create our own plans because he realized that it doesn’t make sense if we use his. He hid weapons that could ‘rip a ghost apart molecule by molecule’ in various places around Manor and Gotham itself, with notes on what each one of us would probably prefer to use. This is fucked up and we’re still not sure how to handle this without causing him to run, so we were showering him in positive attention and refused to leave him alone for prolonged periods of time.” Tim finished, leaning back on his chair.

They gave Bruce time to comprehend all information he just learned. They also needed a moment to redigest it themselves.

Their newest brother was suicidal. Their newest brother was so full of self-hatered that he wanted to be gone. That he believed he should be destroyed the first moment he steps out of line.

It was so easy to forget sometimes.

“How long do you know about it?” Their dad finally spoke, words heavy with poorly hidden anger and concern.

“About three days.” Dick stated cautiously. He understood why Bruce was angry. It didn’t mean he wanted to face said anger.

“Why didn’t I learn about it before?”

Oh, he wasn’t angry. He was disappointed. That was probably even worse.

“You were kinda hard to catch and we focused more on Danny, sorry we didn’t tell you before.”

“Dickhead is being nice, we just forgot you weren’t in on it old man.”

“I mean literally everyone else was there and it wasn’t too hard to assume Damian will tell you…” Tim supported quietly.

Bruce just sighed.

“What preventive measures have you already taken?”

Tim was explaining when suddenly Damian walked up to them in full Robin gear.

“Todd I require your assistance.”

Well that was going to be interesting day at the very least.

*~*~*

Damian had enough honesty and self critique skills to admit to himself that he wasn’t efficient in contacts with people. He was raised to be the best at killing them not talking. He was raised to be obedient puppet, understanding what was expected from him, even better if he did it before anyone could voice it. This left him a little wrong footed when he came to live with his father, in environment where he wasn’t expected to be a weapon. In environment, where he was supposed to have things he enjoyed other than learning to wield blades even better, where there were people who wanted to help him with finding what he liked and where he could spend his time condoning such mundane activities. He was not sure how to proceed but he was slowly getting better at understanding societal rules. Jon was inestimable help in that.

However he was great realizing when he was subjected to the test. It was skill necessary while living in the League of Assassins, where everything, every time, was a way to check if he was worthy keeping alive.

Offering them tools specifically made to harm him was clearly Daniel’s way of testing if they were trustworthy. Obviously, Damian took it upon himself to prove to his father’s newest ward that no harm will fall upon him from Wayne family or anyone associated with them. In his mind best way to do it was to destroy aforementioned tools.

That was why despite sun still being high on the sky, he dressed in full Robin armor and got inside the Batcave. He got a little surprised to see anyone there, let alone his father, pale and with wide eyes, but he didn’t let it disturb his mission. Albeit he was pleased to see other person that could be valuable to his task.

“Todd I require your assistance.” He announced.

“Damian, what are you doing? Why are you all dressed up? It’s barely noon.”

“Good morning Father, I need to retrieve some weaponry before Daniel and Thomas return from their patrol. I thought that I shouldn’t be seen as civilian while doing it. I also do think Todd would be pleased to help me since hideout I found is in his territory and Signal keeps me updated on where he and Lar are, so we won’t be disturbed.”

“What weaponry Damian?” father looked distressed.

“Weaponry Daniel prepared and located around Gotham meant to cause him harm. We would like to retrieve it to the Batcave and destroy, preferably in front of him, to ensure he understands we won’t hurt him with this.”

Only answer he got was a nod. It was as good as he would get.

“Todd do you wish to come along or shall I take my leave?”

“You bet I’m coming, you can’t even drive, Demon BratW.”

“Great, I shall wait until you dress up.”

Todd almost tipped over a chair with how fast he got up and run to the lockers. Richard and Drake also used this as moment to leave. Or look like they were leaving, he didn’t miss how both of them just hid from eyes of father and stayed to observe. Whatever conversation they all just had clearly wasn’t pleasant to anyone involved.

“Damian, did you know about Danny’s contingency plans as long as they did?”

Right, if that was the topic, it obviously couldn’t be pleasant. He wondered if father was mad at them for lack of more direct measures. He hoped he didn’t, Damian wanted to do more but according to Richard, they couldn’t if they didn’t want Daniel to run away. He didn’t quite understand that, however in circumstances like this, he trusted his oldest brother’s judgment more than his own.

“Yes father. Drake found them first and then called all of us on emergency meeting to share his discovery with us.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He didn’t know?

“According to Gordon, these files were in Batcomputer’s database from the moment Daniel gained access to it. Even despite how he previously named his file somehow else I assumed you were aware. I do not go looking through others’ contents, as you are aware at times I have trouble using my own files, however I thought you are regularly checking information we put in there.”

Father clearly deflated at that.

“Thank you son”

“Let’s go Demon brat!” Todd yelled, finally dressed in his uniform.

“Call me that once more and I will not hesitate to stab you.” He said with a scowl but he made his way to where Red Hood left his motorcycle. He still wasn’t allowed to own one because of his age. He found it ridiculous, he was more than capable of using vehicle like that but he learned that there were times when fighting with his father was useless. It was one of them.

“Damian, you can’t stab people.”

“I apologize.”

Father sighed but didn’t stop them when Todd sped up out of the Batcave. Once they got on the roads man was riding so fast Damian was sure he broke at least three traffic laws. Not that he cared. They weren’t endangering anyone. Boy let Thomas know that he was with Red Hood on that mission. He thought daytime vigilante would appreciate information like that.

“So, where are we going?”

Damian gave him whole description of the place Daniel left in his file and Todd whistled.

“It’s literally the fucking worst place in whole neighborhood to leave anything.” He explained “It was some fuckers gang hideout up until two weeks ago when I busted it with my boys so now everyone is looking out for it to get it for themselves. After someone finally gets their dirty hands on it there is mandatory cleaning to make sure previous owners didn’t left any fucking surprises. Then all precious weapons Danny left start making rounds underground and soon he is fucked.”

“Let’s hope we’re first to find it then.”

They did in fact found it undisturbed which was relieving. What was less relieving was the amount of weaponry that Daniel had collected in just this one place. Like he tried to prepare them against whole army with another army on their own. Thankfully he prepared it in a way that was convenient to transport on motorcycle but the quantity made it dangerous to travel at high speed.

Before they could came to agreement whether Todd should make rounds leaving Damian to ensure rest doesn’t disappear or should they try to get everything at once and just pray for it to go well, their comms cackled to life.

“Red Hood, are you still where you were planning to be? There is some big fight east, up to three streets from your location. Lar and I are approaching as fast as we can but I thought it would be better if you handled it.”

Damian did not pout at being left out, don’t be ridiculous.

“He’ll know that something is up if you show up in my turf in the middle of the day Demon Brat.”

It was reasonable, he couldn’t argue with that but he still was not to keen on being left out.

“I’m on my way, tell Lar that I’m handling it and go on a snack break or something.”

“Or something, got it Hood.”

Todd returned half an hour later, when Damian finished setting up all boxes for transportation. They returned to the Batcave in the timely manner and started setting up everything on work table to destruction. Cain joined them soon after, explaining that Richard got sudden call and had to go back to Bludhaven which was a great loss, Brown had some school group project she had to take care for which was a medium loss and Drake got put down for a nap which wasn’t loss at all.

Damian was not sure where Cain found baseball bats but he figured she properly assumed they were perfect tools for wrecking havoc. He caught it like his katana, which earned him some snickers from Todd, but he soon proved that it was acceptable way to wield such tool while breaking down high tech weaponry.

It brought him surprising amount to satisfaction. Just mindlessly raising his hands and hitting. Raising and hitting. Raising and hitting. Each hit destroying another piece of equipment meant to harm Daniel. Meant to harm his brother because if anyone deserved such title it was boy who faced Mother without an ounce of fear and laughed her in the face to make sure that he, Damian, felt comfortable.

Person like this should not be harmed. Not on Damian’s watch as some of his siblings liked to put it.

Raise and hit. Raise and hit. Dodge flying metal piece. Raise and hit.

He almost missed two voices that announced return of two daytime vigilantes. He didn’t, he was raised better but in privacy of his thoughts he could admit he nearly did. He should up his situational awareness training again. He was getting sloppy while living with his father.

Sometimes he wondered if it was actually bad thing.

“You’re taking a nap first thing after your out of costume dude.”

“ ‘need tooo add smthing to m’ f’les on B’tco-” he was slurring.

“You can do it when you can actually see letters straight squirt.” Todd interrupted.

If Damian hadn’t seen Drake on his research sprees and didn’t knew it was typical symptom of sleep deprivation, he would assume Daniel was drunk or drugged. Especially when he came inside swaying. It was like his first time in the cave all over again but then he had been homeless and delirious from blood loss and/or drugs because he had kept showing up for rogue fights with torn jeans and dirty t-shirt as his only armor. Good thing that he had resumed to evacuation duty that was sometimes lacking in their confrontations with the villains. Despite that (or maybe because of) others had been concerned over his well-being until he stayed under their care after lucky bullet got him in the side.

It was good thing he didn’t seem to drive any vehicles in such state. Damian put his bat on a table and resumed to observe.

Daniel took a moment to peer his mask of his face before turning to face them.

“Oh, hey guys I didn’t know you were there” he said with sheepish smile, while rubbing back of his neck. He made a few steps to get closer before he tripped over one of stray pieces of metal they send flying in wake of their destruction. It should not be able to trip him, not unless he was already greatly out of balance. He barely caught himself from falling face first to the ground. Damian started to seriously consider what were the chances that his brother got drugged or concussed while on the patrol and Thomas just haven’t realized.

He had to admit, they were not too high, Daniel was most likely just absolutely exhausted.

“Your lack of awareness of your surroundings is worrying, go to repose Fenton.” Damian was not ashamed of calling Daniel his brother and admitting that he felt enough companionship with him to use his first name, however for some reason older boy was greatly opposed to his full name. For this reason he retracted to calling him by his surname since he would not lower himself to use childish nicknames.

“It’s Demon brat’s way of saying ‘you look and move like shit, go the fuck to sleep’ if your brain is to fried to understand that.”

“Stop it guys, it’s not that bad re-”

“We all. Worried. You. Sleeping and standing. Go rest.” Cain interrupted which seemed to finally made Daniel realize that they were serious and his state was bad, to say the least.

“Damian look out!” Signal yelled. There was nothing to look out for.

Then Todd hit some sort of gun, somehow making it shot in the process. Shot in Damian’s direction to be more specific. He dodged it out of reflex which turned out as not necessary when transparent green shield appeared in front of him. Daniel was by his side seconds later, much more awake, visibly checking him for any injuries blast could have caused. When he made sure he was well (as if Damian would let something like this hit him), older boy spun around with clearly uncontrolled swing to look at the table and finally assess the situation. Even while looking just at his back, Robin knew he didn’t like what he saw.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” He shrieked with disquieting undertone to his voice. He jumped to catch bat that Cain was swinging at yet another piece of equipment. That one looked like boomerang. Honestly, how much of it was there?

Too much, but that was clear from the start.

“Getting rid of this shit” Todd just shrugged, trying to hit but his bat too was stopped but this time by ectoplasmic arm and not real Daniel’s one. It was much weaker than the shield he made moments before, slightly blinking and dithering.

“Why?!” he whined loudly even though he not discreetly leaned over work table for support.

“You left it for us as a clear way of testing if you can trust us. We are destroying it to prove to you that we are in fact safe to be around and we will never use it against you.”

That visibly gave him a pause. Then his face turned from utter confusion into absolute horror as he took few staggered steps back.

“Oh, no, no, no, no…” he muttered, grabbing his hairs. “Oh, Ancients I messed up so badly.” was probably not meant for their ears. All other four vigilantes exchanged concerned glances. This was not reaction they expected in the slightest.

“Why do think that way?” Thomas asked quietly with hands raised like he was trying to mimic character from movie about dinosaurs they watched during last ‘Family Movie Night’.

“I didn’t gave it to you to test you or whatever!” He flailed his hands around, clearly on verge of some sort panic or anxiety attack. “I gave it to you because I know you’ll need it!”

“You said that all ghosts are locked in the Ghost Zone and you personally made sure of that before you left.” Damian stated with clear question under the surface.

“I did, unless Vlad gets sloppy there is no way ghost without portal powers gets to this side.”

It looked like the question was not clear enough for Daniel’s mush of sleep deprived brain.

“Then against who you think we will need it?”

“ME!” ghost cried without hesitation. Everyone tensed.

“Daniel, is it declaration of you going rogue?” Damian asked cautiously.

“Don’t call me Daniel.”

“Answer my question Fenton.”

“I’m not going rogue-”

“Then why the fu-” Todd interrupted but was ignored.

“- but I will. You need to be prepared for that.” He finished with dark expression but not the one Damian saw on Grandfather when he was plotting or frankly anyone actually planning to do something sinister. It was more like expression of general before hard battle, when he knows how bad it will be but can’t do anything to prevent it.

They stood in silence after that declaration until Cain of all people found her words again.

“You are not bad. What do you mean?” her voice was soft, body language as non threatening as she could manage.

Daniel blinked then shook his head few times as if he just realized that he let slip something he didn’t mean to tell.

“That’s it, I’m not lucid enough to have this conversation. We will talk after I rest.” He announced and stormed out of the Batcave, still in his Lar uniform, as dramatically as he could while he barely kept himself up right.

They waited for a moment.

“I’ll go insure he doesn’t pass out on his way to his room.” Damian said.

Daniel in fact made it to his room unharmed and actually gotten to sleep (allegedly, Damian was nearly sure older boy was crying before he was picked by Morpheus).

They did not talk about accident in the cave.

*****

Last part in next reblog because Tumblr is screaming at me for reaching limits

DC X DP Prompt #4

It turns out that one of the things Danny inherited from Bruce was his need to make contingency plans.

Or: Danny's family finds out that he has contingency plans for all of them, including if Danny turns evil and how to permanently stop him

Bruce feels a certain way when he finds out his son has a plan to basically commit suicide.

[ragingbookdragon]

I'm Only A Crack In This Castle Of Glass (Hardly Anything Else I Need To Be) PT. 5

Batfamily x Batsis Story!

Word Count: 2.5K Warnings: Explicit Language, ALL THE ANGST. AND MORE TO COME! Tags!: @itsnottilly @cloudyskylines @starflyer-104 @iwillstaywiththemforever @justine-en @weirdgirlfromtx @notsostraightweeb @candlestudy @edlothia-baby @soul-end @willieoo @willowoo @peterxwade24 @the-atlantic-french-fry @bad-bouquet-of-emotions @vvipgot7be @pure-princess-97 @atomicsoulhumanspy

Author's Note: I have nothing to say for any of the emotions y'all are about to get from this. Enjoy!-Thorne

She wasn’t sure what she expected when she sat down, but the stretching silence growing between her and her estranged family wasn’t it. She tried to look anywhere but them, not because she was ashamed—far from it. But it was more than awkward sitting across from three brothers and a father she’d not spoken to in three years, let alone tell them she was even alive.

Her eyes found Wally’s as he sat down beside her eldest brother and if looks could’ve killed, he’d been dead and buried.

“Glare at me all you want, but I’m not going to apologize,” he shrugged.

Scowling, she turned her attention to the skyline. “Fuck you,” she spat, crossing her arms.

“At least talk to them, (Y/N).”

“And why should I, Wally?” she questioned, glaring at him. “I don’t have anything to say. If I did, I wouldn’t be here in Central.”

“You’re not leaving until you talk to them,” he finalized with a firm look and she growled low in her throat and resigned herself to her fate.

Her eyes darted to her father’s and she couldn’t for the life of her decipher what was in them. “I’ll talk for an hour,” she told him. “I’m not talking about what I’ve been doing in Central City, so don’t ask. I’m not talking about the life I’ve been living, so don’t ask. You’re only allowed to ask me about my departure and that’s it. But after one hour is up, I’m leaving.”

“Who said you get to leave,” Wally questioned, and she shot him the darkest glower she could muster.

“So help me God, Wally West you’ll either take me home or you’ll fix that fucking elevator and I’ll walk myself home. Because if you don’t, I’ll tell the world who every vigilante is at this table.”

For once she managed to stump him because his eyes went wide—so did her family’s but she didn’t care—and he finally nodded.

“Alright. One hour.”

Seemingly satisfied with his answer, she turned back to her family, more specifically her father. “Why are you here? What do you want from me?”

“Maybe for you to come home, (Y/N),” Jason answered, and she glanced to him.

“Not a chance. Next?”

“(Y/N), you don’t have to be hostile. We’re not going to force you here,” Dick said, and she looked at him now, eyes narrowing.

“The manipulation tactic isn’t going to work on me, Dick. I’m not here for to be tricked into coming back. I’m never coming back.” She cocked her leg over the side of the table and reclined, biting out, “Give me your anger. I’d prefer that instead of whatever this pitiful bullshit you’ve got going on.”

In the eighteen years they’d known their sister they’d never heard her say such a callous thing, but her words had practically slapped Dick across the face because hurt etched onto his expression, then immediately turned into anger.

“You want my anger? Fine.” He stood and pointed at her. “What the hell is wrong with you! Why would just up and disappear like you did! Do you have any idea how scared we were for you! How distraught!”

(Y/N) blinked at him. “Knowing how you like to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders because you can’t help but be a hero? Probably a lot.” She made a dramatic show of looking at her watch. “You’ve got forty minutes. Keep it up.”

Her eyes shifted to Bruce’s. “Did you let them read the letter? Or did you just throw it away after you read it?”

Dick, Jason, and Tim all turned to Bruce at that.

“Letter?” Tim repeated. “What letter?”

(Y/N)’s mouth made an ‘o’ shape and then she smiled knowingly. “Oh, you never showed them the letter, did you?” She looked to her brothers. “I wrote dad a letter the night I left to explain why I was leaving. It’s sugarcoated bullshit but it is the truth.”

Dick’s face contorted in anger. “(Y/N) left a reason behind and you didn’t tell us about it? Three years and not a single word?”

Bruce merely stared at her as he pulled the letter out of his coat pocket. “I was going to burn it when I found her again. Talk to her before anyone else could.”

Jason snatched the letter from his hands. It had faded a bit, softened around the hard edges, like someone had opened it and read it every day for three years.

His eyes scanned the paper, and he met her gaze, voice chock-full of hurt and she had to fight tooth and nail to keep herself from externally reacting. “You left because you thought we didn’t care about you?”

Dick reached over and took the letter. With furrowed brows and a frown, he started to read aloud, and Bruce gazed at (Y/N) as the memory came back to him.

***

Mornings at the manor were unusually quiet in comparison with the evenings. Everyone was typically too tired to argue so it accounted for a peaceful breakfast of soft words and chewing. Everyone had an assigned seat and every child had learned early on not to take the seat that belonged to another brother or their sister because there would be a fight about it.

Dick and Jason sat next to each other and (Y/N) took the seat at the end of that side; Tim and Damian took the other side—oldest to youngest, just the neat and even way Bruce liked it.

It was rare for any of the boys to be awake before him or Alfred and (Y/N) was usually the first kid to the table, the boys wandering in just minutes after her. Oddly enough, that morning she hadn’t come down for breakfast—which she always came to.

Bruce looked at Alfred. “Is (Y/N) coming down?”

Alfred hummed and gently maneuvered Tim’s arm to the side to he could set down the plate. “When I went to her door, it was locked, and I received no conversation from inside.”

Jason snorted and sipped his coffee. “Probably had a long night with her friends and is still out. I know I would be.”

“How would you know?” Tim interrupted. “You died before you got to the eleventh grade.”

“You’re one to talk, dropout,” Dick countered, and Damian sighed.

“Richard, you dropped out of college. The only son of Batman who has actually completed an entire bout of schooling is me.”

The three boys turned on him with scowls and retorted, “No one asked you, pipsqueak.” Damian glared back at them.

Bruce rolled his eyes, using the side of his fork to cut into his omelet. “Let’s try not to start a free-for-all here in the breakfast room, please.” He glanced at Alfred. “She’s probably tired from all the ceremonies. Let her sleep.”

Alfred nodded. “Of course, Master Bruce. She should be well rested this evening.”

But when the evening came, Alfred still hadn’t been able to get (Y/N) to unlock her bedroom nor speak to him. He certainly wasn’t worried, but it was off for her to be so reclusive. When Bruce and the boys came back from patrol, he mentioned it to him.

“Miss (Y/N) hasn’t come out from her bedroom, Master Bruce. Nor has she said a single word all day.”

Bruce’s brows furrowed and he tugged the cowl off, rising from the seat at the Batcomputer. “I’ll go check on her,” he replied. “You deal with…” his steel eyes drifted to Dick who had Tim in a headlock and Jason who was giving Damian a noogie. “Them,” he finalized, leaving the poor butler behind.

He knocked on the door to her room and pressed his ear to it. “(Y/N)? You haven’t come out all day. Is everything alright?”

Nothing. Not even a breath.

“(Y/N), are you in there?” he asked again and when he didn’t receive a confirmation, he raised his arm, running his fingers along the doorframe until he touched a small metal piece. He pulled it down and stuck it in the door, wiggling the knob for a second before it clicked, and he opened the door.

“Sweetheart, we’ve been trying to—” Bruce went silent when he saw the kempt room. Bed neatly made, everything organized and put away. Even her clothes hamper was empty.

He blinked and walked into the room, quickly heading to the bathroom to check for her there. It was empty as well, and just as clean, leaving him stunned as he exited the bath.

Wandering over to her desk, he saw an elegant envelope sitting on top of her laptop, his name written in beautiful penmanship. He picked it up and unfolded it, pulling out the multi-page letter. He drew his eyes along the golden lines, reading her words.

Dad,

I don’t really know how to start this letter. Truth be told I’ve written at least six before this one, and even then, I’m not entirely happy with it. But if you’re reading this, I’m not here anymore. I haven’t hurt myself in anyway, you don’t need to worry about Vicki Vale or Jack Ryder reporting the discovery of my body. I mean it in a literal sense—I’m not in Gotham anymore. Neither am I ever coming back.

Don’t think this is your fault. You’re a good father, the best I could’ve been given, and my brothers are good siblings. But the truth is that I’m not fit for this family of heroes. And I never have been. My best when trying to be what all of you are, was never good enough and I’ve spent eighteen years staring at your backs, waiting for you all to realize that I’m still here, that I still matter even if I’m not like you. And I don’t want to feel like a stranger in my own home any longer.

I don’t want you to look for me. I know you will, but I wish you wouldn’t. This isn’t some spur of the moment thing I decided to do the night after graduation. If you look at my bank records, I’ve been withdrawing cash from my savings since freshman year—this is four years of planning, so please understand that I’m doing this because I don’t want to be found—ever.

I’ll leave the story for the media up for you, though I doubt that they’ll care long enough to make a deal of it. It’ll pass like winter does spring and they’ll move on to the next bigger story.

Thank you for everything dad, and good luck with Gotham—keep it safe like you always have. And I hope that one day when you think of me, you won’t feel disappointment. I’ve only ever tried to be something that when you looked down on me, you’d only be proud, and I hope one day I’ll achieve what I always dreamed about. Eighteen is young to be on your own and I’m scared. But I’ll be okay—I always have been.

So do me a favor and don’t spend too much time over this. There are plenty more younger kids that need a parent’s hand on their backs to steady them like you once did for me. Find one and fill my spot. Let them shine brighter than I ever could. Let them be the one worthy to be a Wayne—I know I never was.

-(Y/N)

Bruce barely had time to grasp the back of her chair to keep himself from falling to his knees in shock. The letter was clenched in his hand and his lungs wouldn’t take in air like he wanted them to, his heart aching with each palpitation. He looked around the room to her dresser drawers, willing the strength into his legs to moved over to it. He opened every drawer and to his astonishment, they were empty. Hurrying to the bathroom, he noticed the drawers in there were empty as well. She was really gone. And he had no idea what to do.

***

Tears were in Dick’s eyes when he finished the letter and he looked up at her. “How could you ever think we didn’t care about you, (Y/N)?”

She didn’t want to have this conversation. She didn’t want to sit there and explain every time she asked her brothers if they wanted to do something with her and they conveniently had something else to do. Didn’t want to explain every school and extracurricular performance that went unattended and left a little girl standing in front of a crowd barely managing to stave off the tears as she bowed and thanked them for coming. She didn’t want to remember all the memories that chipped away at her heart with every disappointment that occurred. All she wanted to do was leave.

(Y/N) had earlier returned to her original position, hands in her lap and she clenched her fists until her nails bit into the skin of her palms, eyes directed anywhere but Dick’s.

“I think it’s time we call this little reunion done,” she said, standing to her feet. “We’re not going to get anywhere.”

“Not if you run again,” Jason muttered, unconsciously wiping a tear from his eye.

She pointed at him, hissing, “I didn’t run the first time, Jason. I left. On my own accord.”

“You ran instead of coming to us, (Y/N),” Tim said, and she threw her hands above her head in disbelief.

“What the fuck did you want me to do! Wander down into the cave and beg at your feet for someone to pay attention to me! To at least pretend like I was a sister! I did! Every day!”

(Y/N) picked up her purse and yanked it up her arm. “Cassandra seems to be fitting in better than I did. So go and dote on her as the younger sibling. I’m not interested in the position anymore.”

“It’s not a competition,” Dick explained. “We love you just as much as we love Cass.”

She paused and gazed at him, voice laced with disappointment as she disagreed, “Then you should make sure she’s content in the manor, because if you love her with any semblance of how you loved me? It’s not at all.”

Her eyes shifted to Wally’s. “Fix the elevator. Now.”

He stayed seated for a moment, the two of them staring each other down, then he nodded wordlessly and moved to the elevator, starting it again. Her family stayed seated, and she gave them one final look before she followed Wally, silently waiting for the doors to open.

When they did, she stepped inside and turned around, hitting the button. Just before the doors closed, Wally stopped them and murmured, “You’re making a mistake.”

“My worst mistake was becoming friends with you.” (Y/N) blinked at him, then reached up and shoved his hand away from the door and as it closed, she remarked coldly, “And you can go to hell for all I care.”

[dccomicsimagines]

Study Help - Tim Drake x Reader - Part Two

Warning - Adult Content Ahead -NSFW

Part One

Requested by @sannevd5​ - Can there be a Study Help Tim Drake x Reader part 2 where they get revenge on Damian

***

You glanced over at Tim who was fast asleep in the passenger seat. Your hands gripped the steering wheel and you focused on the road. You widened your eyes to keep them open. Exhaustion weighed on you. Finally, the manor came into view. “We’re here,” you whispered, nudging Tim with your elbow.

Tim jerked awake. “What? Is it the baby?” He glanced around in a panic, wiping the drool off his chin. You snorted and peeked back at the sleeping baby in the backseat. 

“He’s fine, Timmy. Sleeping like his daddy.” You laughed. Baby Jack was fast asleep, probably tired from crying the night away last night.

“Are you okay?” Tim said, touching your arm. He had that protective look on his face again. 

“I’m fine.” You smiled at him and opened your window to type in the code once you pulled up to the gate. “You were the one who was up with Jack all night.”

Tim rubbed his eyes. “I was up anyway though, and you didn’t actually sleep, you were with me the whole time.” 

You shrugged, pulling up the driveway once the gate opened. “Still, I’m fine, Tim.” Tim squeezed your hand tightly. You wondered if he would ever stop being overprotective of you. Apparently, being kidnapped by Ra’s al Ghul for two months during your pregnancy was enough to keep Tim on edge permanently. You parked the car. 

Tim rushed out of the car and ran to your side to open the door. You smiled, rolling your eyes. “What? It’s the least I could do since you drove,” Tim said. You opened the back door to gather up Jack while Tim grabbed the bags. 

“Master Tim, Miss (Y/N), welcome.” Alfred opened the front door.

“Hello, Alfred.” You hurried up the stairs and hugged him with one arm. Jack was smashed between you, but he didn’t even stir. 

Alfred laughed, hugging you back before pulling away to get a good look at Jack. “Well, look at Master Jack. He’s grown so much.” 

“Well, it’s been one month,” you said, handing Jack over to Alfred. “He was up all night like he is every night, so he’s sleeping like a log.” 

Tim struggled with the bags. You turned to help him. “Oh, so it looks like Master Jack is a night owl like the rest of the family.” Alfred beamed, looking very much like a proud grandfather. 

“Unfortunately, he got that from Tim.” You and Tim headed inside. 

“Har, har.” Tim kissed your cheek. “I’ll run our bags to our room.” You and Tim were staying for the weekend at Bruce’s insistence. 

“Where’s everyone?” You closed the door once Alfred was in. He rocked Jack, who was kicking one foot in his sleep. 

Alfred hummed. “Master Bruce is downstairs.” You smiled, knowing Alfred meant he was in the Batcave. “Master Damian and his friend are in his room.”

You froze. “His friend?” You smirked. “Is this the one who we think they are dating, but Damian keeps denying it?” 

“Yes.” Alfred shook his head. He wrinkled his nose and shifted Jack in his arms. “It feels like Master Jack needs a changing.” 

“Oh, I’ll do it.” You took Jack back, realizing Tim took the diaper bag upstairs with him. “I’ll be back, Alfred.” You headed up the stairs. Outside of Damian’s door, you paused. You swore you heard the moans inside. Glee filled you. Was this the time? Would you finally get your revenge?

You hurried to the bedroom. Tim looked up as you entered, confused by the grin on your face. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing’s wrong.” You handed Jack to Tim. “Change him for me and meet me in Damian’s room.” 

“Why?” Tim frowned. “(Y/N), are you planning something?”

“Timmy, there comes a time where opportunity rings and we have to answer.” You kissed his lips passionately before pulling away. 

“(Y/N).” Tim gasped, glancing down at Jack who woke up fussing. 

You grinned at him. “Just meet me there in a few minutes.” You left the room and hurried back down to Damian’s room. The moans were still there, louder and more intense than before. You smirked, knocking on the door. “Damian, I just wanted to say hi.” 

You opened the door without warning. A laugh threatened to escape you, but you swallowed it to play this straight. Damian and his friend flipped around under the covers in a similar way Tim always did when Damian interrupted you. The shoe really was on the other foot.

“Oh, you must be Damian’s friend. I heard so much about you.” You came over to stand next to the bed. The friend’s face was flushed and they hid their face under the covers. “A little shy? That’s okay. I’m Damian’s sister-in-law.” You grinned at Damian who was death glaring at you. “(Y/N) (Y/L/N) Drake.” 

“We were busy.” Damian snarled. 

“Were you?” You blinked innocently, but you could see Damian’s eyes flash. He didn’t buy it and knew exactly what you were doing. 

Tim wandered inside, eyes widening when he took in Damian and his friend in the bed with you standing beside him. Jack gurgled in his arms.  “(Y/N), did you just...” 

“Hi baby.” You took Jack from Tim, ignoring Tim’s protest. Kissing the top of Jack’s head, you glanced between Damian and his friend. “You two should be careful, having fun has consequences.” A dangerous smirk came to your lips. “You might get kidnapped by Ra’s or...” You glanced down at Jack. 

Damian lunged for you, but Tim stepped in front of you and quickly ushered you out of the room. “Okay, enough now. It was nice meeting you,” Tim said, blushing redder than his Red Robin suit. He pulled you back to his old bedroom. “What the hell was that about, (Y/N)?”

You laughed, sitting down on the bed with Jack nuzzling against your chest. “Revenge is sweet, Timmy. So sweet.” 

“Revenge? What kind of revenge involves walking in on Damian while he and his friend...” Tim choked, traumatized. 

“Oh stop it. You didn’t see anything.” You closed your eyes and rested your head against the headboard. “He interrupted us so many times. Using Bruce, Dick, Steph, even Jason to ruin our moments. It was only fair I would do it to him.” 

Tim took a breath. You opened your eyes to see him struggling not to laugh. “Still, now he’s probably going to stab you.” 

You smiled. “He wouldn’t dare with you around.” Tim’s shoulders straightened as you stoked his ego. He came around the bed and crawled in next to you. You leaned into him, ignoring Jack’s drool soaking into your shirt. 

Your eyes grew heavy. “Take a nap. You need your rest,” Tim whispered in your ear. His arm cradled yours to support Jack as you fell fast asleep.

***

“Look how much he’s grown,” Bruce said. You handed Jack off to him before taking a seat at the dining room table.

“I know. Sometimes it’s like he grows an inch every day.” You smiled when Tim came over to pour your drink. Alfred came out of the kitchen with dinner.

Bruce rocked Jack. Jack gurgled at him, waving his arm around wildly. Damian stalked into the room. His glare darker than death. You just smiled sweetly at him. 

“Master Damian, where is your friend? Are they not joining us?” Alfred asked.

“No, they went home. They couldn’t face this monstrosity again.” He pointed at you. 

Tim tensed, setting down the pitcher and leaning in front of you. You wanted to laugh, but you held it in. It would just set Damian off and Tim would have to defend you. 

“Damian,” Bruce snapped sharply, narrowing his eyes at his son. “That is uncalled for.”

“Uncalled for?!” Damian threw his arms up in the air. “That harlot ruined...” He stopped, blushing slightly when he realized what he was about to admit. A snicker escaped you. Damian’s eyes flashed and he lunged for you. Tim blocked him, pushing him back.

“Knock it off, Damian. It’s not like you haven’t done it to us.” Tim’s shoulders straightened into a defensive pose. “And that’s my wife you’re talking about. Don’t ever call her that again.” 

You got to your feet to take Jack back from Bruce when he started to fuss at the raised voices. “I think someone’s hungry. I’ll go feed him. You can start dinner without me,” you said calmly and quickly leaving the room. Tim was right behind you.

Entering the kitchen, you fed Jack, sitting at one of the stools by the counter. Tim hovered in full overprotective mode. “I told you he would explode like that.” 

“Of course, he doesn’t like it when others get revenge on him,” you said, smiling down at Jack as he ate. “He’s always been entitled.” 

Tim hummed in agreement. He sat on the stool next to you. A soft chuckle escaped his lips. “Can you believe he almost admitted to having sex in front of Bruce and Alfred?” 

“I know.” You laughed. “I almost lost it there, but I knew he would just go off the deep end.” 

Alfred came into the kitchen with two full plates. “I figured you two should eat while it’s hot. Besides, I think some distance would be good.” He set them on the counter. 

“I’m sorry for causing trouble, Alfred.” You looked at him with genuine apology.

“It is alright, Miss (Y/N). After all, he did ask for it.” Alfred smiled somewhat mischievously before leaving.  

“I think you are Alfred’s favorite.” Tim took a bite of his food first. He moaned before feeding you a bite. 

The food melted in your mouth. “Maybe or he’s just happy we stopped Damian from having unprotected sex.” 

Tim almost spit out his food. “How did you know that?”

“Please. There’s a reason they went really red when I mentioned consequences.” You ate with your free hand since Tim was still in a state of shock. “It’s not like anyone gave him the sex talk. I mean you knew nothing.” 

Tim blushed. “True.” He cleared his throat. “But you knew.”

“Also true, but that doesn’t mean that Damian’s friend knows.” You put Jack to your shoulder to burp him. He spit up a little. You wrinkled your nose when you felt it slide down your back. “Tim, if you could grab a napkin please.”

Tim blinked. “Oh.” He grabbed a napkin and stood to clean up your back as Jack started to fuss. You bounced him, calming him down. Tim sat back down and went back to eating.

“You know, there is another way we could add to our revenge.” You smirked and kissed Jack’s head. “Can we call Dick after dinner?”

Tim’s jaw dropped. “Now that’s too mean.” Tim shook his head. “We couldn’t. Damian would really stab you after that.” 

You shrugged. “He can try.” You got to your feet to walk Jack around the kitchen so he would fall back to sleep. “Besides, this is a good thing. We don’t need Damian to get into the kind of trouble we got into.”

“The trouble you’re currently holding?” Tim took the last bite of his food. He got up and offered to take Jack from you. “Go back to eating, sweetheart.”

You smiled, kissing Tim’s cheek. “I love you.” Jack went over to his father calmly and you sat down to eat your cool food. You watched Tim walk around with his son. Your heart melted into a pile of goo and you couldn’t imagine loving them both more.

***

“What are you doing up?” Bruce asked, poking his head into the den. You flinched in surprise, causing Jack to start screaming again. 

“Oh, my son’s colic triggered again.” You got up to walk him around the room with your eyes closed. Bruce’s presence stayed by the door as you walked the path you memorized hours before. 

“Tim should be up in a few minutes.” Bruce’s warm, strong hand rested on your shoulder, stopping you. “Go to bed, I’ll take care of Jack.” 

Your eyes snapped open and you spun to look at Bruce in compete shock. “What? You’ll take care of Jack?”

Bruce chuckled. “I do know how to take care of a baby. Besides, at this point, I wouldn’t be able to sleep worrying about you walking around with your eyes closed.”

“I guess I am pretty tired.” You handed Jack over, but you couldn’t leave the room. “Am I a bad parent? I can’t leave him.”

“No, you’re not, but it’s okay to accept help once and a while. He’ll be safe with me and I promise if I need anything, I’ll get Alfred.” Bruce pushed you toward the door where Tim stood watching the exchange with the same surprise you had moments before. “Tim, take her to bed before she falls down.” 

You stared back at Jack as Tim wrapped an arm around your waist to pull you out of the room. “He’ll be fine. Come on,” Tim whispered in your ear. 

“Okay, okay.” Tears filled your eyes. “I’m a bad parent, aren’t I?”

“No, you’re not.” Tim squeezed your hip. “But you need a break. We both need a break.” Tim kissed your cheek. You stumbled on the stairs, but Tim caught you and scooped you up into his arms. “Woah, there.” Your head fell limply on Tim’s shoulder.

“Sorry.” You mumbled, opening your eyes to see Damian watching you and Tim from the bottom of the stairs. His expression bewildered and confused. “Hi, Damian. How was patrol?” 

Tim tensed, turning around to face Damian himself. You had to roll your head to keep him in your eyesight. “TT.” He frowned at you and Tim.

“Sorry about embarrassing your friend, Damian, but it was nice for the shoe to be on the other foot for once,” you mumbled.

“Hush.” Tim bounced you slightly in his arms. “Don’t piss him off now.” 

“He won’t get mad. I apologized.” You waved at Damian, focusing on Tim. “Can we go back to Jack now? I’m a bad parent for leaving him.” 

Tim sighed. “No, we’re going to bed, sweetheart. You’re not thinking straight.” Tim turned to head up the stairs with you. Damian watched the two of you go with a blank expression. 

You let your head rest on Tim’s shoulder as he bumped the bedroom door open with his hip. He laid you down on the bed. You melted into it. “Tim, why can’t we have fun anymore?” 

“We have fun.” Tim kissed your forehead. You sighed, hearing him pull away to move around the room. 

“No, we don’t. We just sleep all the time and take care of Jack.” You kept your eyes closed. Your body limp as Tim crawled into bed next to you and pulled you into his arms.

Tim kissed the corner of your mouth. “We will someday. This is just one of the hard parts, but that’s why we came to the manor, so we can get some help.”

You opened your eyes to look at him. “Wait, I thought Bruce invited us over?”

“He did after I asked for help.” Tim tightened his arms around you. “I’m worried about you. You’re a great mother and you give it your all, but you’re so tired.” He kissed your nose. “We need some rest.”

“You always need rest,” you said, closing your eyes and sighing in relief. Tim was right, you weren’t a failure as a parent. You just needed help and a break.

Tim chuckled. “True. Good night, sweetheart.” 

You hummed, feeling yourself slipping into the nothingness of sleep. “Love you.”

“I love you too.” You almost didn’t hear him as you let yourself relax for the first time in a long time.

***

Sun blinded you, pulling you from the deep, dreamless sleep. You opened your eyes to find yourself still in Tim’s old bedroom at the manor. Tim was spooned into your back. You smiled when you felt a certain part of him poking you from behind. 

“Tim.” You turned in his arms to face him. He opened his eyes, yawning.

“Morning, beautiful.” He kissed your lips. You slid your hand down his chest and under the waistband of his boxers. Tim jumped, blushing. “What?” 

“You really can’t tell. You were poking me.” A smirk pulled at your lips when Tim moaned at your touch.

“Well, I was having a good dream.” Tim closed his eyes, shivering. “You and I were at that hotel in Vegas, and you were in that outfit with the littlest...”

Cutting him off with a kiss, your thumb circled his tip and made him tremble. “Let me take care of you,” you whispered softly. 

“I should be taking care of you.” Tim cleared his throat. “We haven’t since Jack was born.” Tim’s hand slipped under your shirt, but you grabbed his wrist with your free hand.

“I’m not ready for that.” You looked him in the eye. “Not all the way.” 

Tim leaned forward to kiss your lips, rubbing his foot against yours. “How about we just touch? Like you’re doing to me now.” You traced a vein on his cock. Tim shivered. His hand flexed against your bare stomach. Your face burned, thinking of the baby weight you still carried. 

“Fine. Only touch.” You leaned over to bury your face into his neck. Your hand let go of Tim’s wrist to allowed his hand to find his way up your chest. His other hand played with the waistband of your pajamas, tugging them down. 

His long, strong fingers found your clit. You hissed and tightened your hand around Tim. Tim choked. “Careful, sweetheart.”

“It’s okay. I won’t break your T-Rex.” You giggled breathlessly. Tim’s fingers were rough with calluses, the friction making your body tense, skin tingle. You stroked his cock with just your fingertips. 

Tim panted. You gripped him and slid your hand up and down the length of him. Tim’s fingers stopped playing with you. “You’re distracting me.” 

“Right.” You kissed his jawline, working him harder than before. Tim tensed. “Are you close, sweetheart?” 

“I am.” Tim choked, looking you in the eye. 

“Then let go.” You smiled at him sweetly and sealed a kiss to his lips. Tim shivered and spilled into your hand. Most of the mess was caught inside his boxers. You pulled your hand out, wiping your hand on his boxers.

Tim closed his eyes, panting against your lips as you kissed the corner of his mouth. His fingers circled your clit again. You gasped. “Now I take care of you.” Tim whispered, one hand went under your shirt again and cupped your breast.

You relaxed. Your skin tingled again, feeling the flutter of your heart as Tim squeezed your breast gently. His lips tickled your skin, kissing down your neck. “It’s only fair that I leave you a mess too.” 

You wrinkled your nose, giggling as your body tensed. One of Tim’s thin fingers entered you. You jumped in surprise. “Oh.” Your hand rested on his wrist. “Careful.”

“I’m careful.” Tim hummed. “Tell me if you want me to stop.”

“It’s okay.” You closed your eyes, taking a slow breath. “I love you.” 

“I love you too. More than anything.” Tim’s head went under your shirt to kiss his way up your stomach. You rested your hands on his shoulders. 

You felt that familiar tension building up inside of you. Your nails dug into Tim’s shoulders. Tim groaned against your stomach. “Close, huh?”

“Yeah.” You lost your breath. Tim’s finger curled inside of you and you were suddenly among the stars. “Wow.” 

A knock suddenly came from the door. Tim jerked away from you, quickly pulling the blankets up and around the two of you. “Yes?” he asked. You giggled, panting as you came down from the high. You smirked when you felt Tim’s hand was still on your breast. 

Damian entered with Jack gurgling in his arms. He looked slightly disappointed. “Take care of your offspring.” He handed Jack to you. 

“Hi Jackie.” You showered his little face with kisses. He touched your cheek with his tiny, perfect hand, enjoying the attention.

“How did you get him?” Tim asked. Damian’s eyes went to your chest and Tim quickly pull his hand away. A blush dusted his cheeks. 

“Pennyworth asked me to watch him.” He crossed his arms. “You invited Grayson over?”

Tim looked at you. “Yes, I did.” You smiled at Damian sweetly. “And if we call a truce, I won’t tell him to give you the sex talk.” 

Damian’s eyes widened slightly. “TT.” He glared at you. “What kind of a truce?”

“Well, if you quit interrupting us, we won’t interrupt you.” You handed Jack to Tim, looking Damian the eye. 

Damian hummed. He rubbed his chin, biting his lip. “Fine, I agree.” He spun on his heel. “But if Grayson tries to talk to me, I will break this truce.” 

“Fair.” You smiled, relaxing against the pillows. Damian closed the door securely behind him. Tim stared at you with his jaw dropped. You took Jack back from him when he started to whine. “What?” You reached up to close his jaw.

“Did you just get Damian to promise not to bother us? He just came in here disappointed that he didn’t catch us in the act.” Tim pointed at the door, eyes wild. 

“Well, it’s only fair. Damian was always about revenge.” You smiled at Jack, cooing at him in a soft voice. “But now we’ll be good and maybe we can give Jack siblings.”

The blood drained out of Tim’s face. “More kids? When did you decide that?” 

You snorted, patting Tim’s cheek with your free hand. “Not now, Timmy. Later, when Jack’s like four or something.” 

Tim glanced at Jack. A dopey smile grew onto his lips. “I suppose that’s fine. I mean if we can handle Jack, we can handle another one.” 

You leaned over to kiss his cheek. “That’s what I was thinking.” Tim turned to catch your lips with his. Jack fell asleep in your arms and you couldn’t be happier.

[robinofgothamcity]

♡ prompt: “i thought you were dead? for years, i thought you were dead! and i hate that i still love you and never moved on!” 

♡ pairing: tim drake (red robin) x fem! reader

♡ lyric inspiration: “you’re riding high in April, shot down in May but I know I’m going to change that tune when I’m back on top in June. I said that’s life and as funny as that may seem, some people get their kicks stomping on a dream.”

♡ note: not checked for grammar or spelling mistakes / please check the pinned tweet please! since i’m very low on inspiration.

Tim Drake stared at you, mouth wide open, not knowing what to say or do. he felt like he saw a ghost. you were standing across the room, talking amongst others as they instantly crowded around you. everyone had thought the same thing Tim did and only a selective few knew about your whereabouts. 

you were giving Dick a hug, whispering in his ear about how much you missed him as Damian stood there dumbfounded. Jason was not in the room or else you knew that he would be giving you an earful about the entire situation. Jason always did think of you as a sister when you first started dating Tim. 

“what the fuck happened to you?” Damian screamed, finally coming into the realization of the situation, “you were dead! we saw you die! all of us did!” he continued. you bent down, giving him a hug as he didn’t bother to try and deny it. 

“it’s a long story. i was under secrecy for a long time and couldn’t tell or say anything without me getting caught,” you told him. you looked to Dick who still couldn’t believe what was going on, “it must’ve been a monumental mission if you were technically dead for three years and I couldn’t know about it,” he replied. 

you nodded, whispering to him that you’d tell them the details later, “is...he around?” you asked, referencing Tim. Dick moved a bit to the left, revealing the man you were still madly in love with. you felt yourself gulp, scared on his reaction, “oh god, I never realized how bad this is,” Dick whispered to himself, sensing the tension immediately. 

+

you swinging around the Batcave, Batman clearly annoyed with your antics as you finally plopped down next to him, “aww c’mon Bruce! live a little! this Batcave is so depressing and need I say, dark?” you said, hearing the door jingle open. 

“great, the boys are here,” he murmured, realizing that introductions had to happen between you and his sons. Bruce had taken you in a few months ago, under the guise that you needed a better mentor, “you haven’t met them, right?” he asked. 

you shook your head no, “course I haven’t! it’s my first week in Gotham!” you exclaimed happily. you did hero work out of the west coast and happened to finally land in Gotham for the first time ever, “although I did run into Damian earlier in the week so I think he’ll recognize me!” 

Tim and Dick were the ones who walked in, conversing about some Gotham football game. you smiled at the two boys as they stopped dead in their tracks, “uh....Bruce, who is this?” Dick asked, pointing at you. you stood up, shaking their hands, “I’m ( your name )! Bruce’s new apprentice!” you explained. 

the two sighed, Dick’s first thought being if Alfred knew about you. Tim on the other hand didn’t exactly respond as quick. you were oddly excitable, not exactly the personality that ran rampant across the ‘family’, “apprentice or daughter?” Dick asked, a bit playfully. 

“she’s an apprentice. no need to adopt someone who’s already an adult,” he replied as he stood up himself, “she came from the west coast so she doesn’t exactly know her way around here. it’d be helpful if one of you showed her around. I don’t trust Jason or Damian enough,” he said, walking to another one of the computers. 

“Stephanie isn’t around?” Damian asked, walking inside of the cave, “she’s already acquainted with her and she isn’t available to do it right now so it’s up to Dick or you Tim,” Bruce repeated. Dick looked to his brother with his eyebrow lifted up, “well?” he asked Tim. 

the two of them went to look at you who was already not paying attention to what was going on. you were nose deep into a computer with music blaring inside of your headphones, “I swear that girl has ADHD or something,” Damian murmured to his brothers, “but I think Drake should do it! you just love getting to know people, don’t you?” Damian pressured. 

Bruce nodded in agreement, “it’s settled, you’re showing her around!” Tim stared at Damian, ready to attack the gremlin with his bare hands, “appreciate it Tim!” you yelled from your seat, surprising the three who thought you couldn’t hear what they were saying. 

+

it was already a few months into your internship with the Batfamily. you had gotten closer with Jason, Stephanie, and because of your relationship with Dick, you befriended Starfire as well. even though your work was constantly surrounding you around Tim, you weren’t around him much unless it had to do with work. 

“where you heading off too?” Jason asked, seeing you all dressed up, “Star, Barbara, and Steph wanted to go out for the night since we aren’t on duty so we’re going to get drinks up the street,” you told him. he nodded, looking to Tim and seeing the way he was checking you out, “why do you go with them, Tim?” he asked. 

Tim looked at Jason with a bewildered expression, “why would I be the only guy in the group?” he asked sarcastically. you on the other hand jumped up in joy, “you should!” you exclaimed, “come on! it would be amazing! you know you want too!” you poked Tim’s side in anticipation. 

he sighed, slipping a bit on the couch, “fine,” he muttered, making you excited all over again. you gave him a few minutes to get himself together, “you know he likes you, right?” Jason told you. you laughed out of genuine shock, “who? Tim? yeah right!” you let out another laugh, not believing he was lying to your face, “fine, don’t believe me but it’s pretty obvious.” 

you couldn’t say much else as Tim walked out, hair restyled and threw on a different jacket, “ready?” he asked, hands deep in his pockets. you nodded, throwing Jason a scrap piece of paper before heading out the door as Dick walked inside, “meeting the girls?” he asked. 

“yeah and I’m taking your brother as a hostage,” Dick was surprised, “did you finally?” he started to ask before Tim screamed at him to shut up, “how about we leave,” Tim told you, discreetly hitting Dick on the back of his leg as retaliation. 

the two of you walked out as you told Tim that the place you usually went out with the girls was in walking distance, “I think they’re going to be surprised you even decided to leave your apartment,” you joked as he rolled his eyes playfully, “I don’t think they’ll mind. at least Stephanie can stop saying that I never go out,” he said. 

you laughed softly, “yeah you might be going out with a bunch of girls but it sure beats being stuck inside playing video games or doing work,” you replied, “yeah, guess your right,” you two walked inside of the restaurant, already seeing Steph, Starfire, and Barbara sitting at the usual table. 

the three girls had their mouth hanging as they saw you walking in with Tim, “he actually came out?” Barbara screamed, not believing Tim was actually out, “yeah, figured it was better than staying in for the night!” you said excitedly. 

“I couldn’t even get him to come out with me at times and I dated him,” Steph murmured under her breath to Star. she laughed as you pulled chairs for you and Tim, “I’m getting first round of shots!” you told the group excitedly. Star and Barbara had followed you to the bar, leaving Steph and Tim in a small awkward silence 

“you like her don’t you?” she asked. Tim nodded, figuring it was better to just tell the truth than to lie, “that’s cute! she’s a great girl. I’m happy you finally found someone else but I will say one thing, I think you better get a move on with your feels with her because I know a few others who have an interest in her and one might be on your team,” she said, not so subtly hinting at Connor. 

Tim was taken back by what Stephanie was telling her but remained silent, “and I think she’d say yes on Connor so you better be quick,” she laughed, seeing Tim’s slightly jealous eyes. you returned to the table, giving everyone their glass as you raised yours in the air, “to Tim! for actually leaving his house for once!” you screamed as they all raised their glass and took the shot down.

throughout the night, Tim saw the way you were singing and dancing with Steph and Star, your terrible drunk singing voice getting louder as they played ‘poker face’ by lady gaga towards the end of the night. 

+

you stared at Riddler, seeing that he was ready to attack Tim with full intentions to kill him. you debated for a moment, saving a few civilians from getting mildly hurt or seeing your boyfriend get killed? you chose the latter and ran to Tim who was not paying attention in the slightest at what Riddler was doing. 

“Red!” you screamed, your feet moving as fast as they could and pushing him out of the way. you felt the slice of the knife into your stomach as you had successfully pushed Tim to safety, “fuck,” you whispered, seeing the blood already pooling underneath you. 

although you getting hurt was already pre-planned, you had no intentions of getting hurt this badly, “fuck, fuck, fuck,” you continued, trying to grab your cape to stop the bleeding, Tim stared down at you, seeing the blood gushing at a rate too dangerous for his liking, “hold on, please hold on!” he screamed, moving you out of harms way. 

Bruce had saw you giving him the signal, weakly but you still gave it to him. it was your only chance for your pre-planned mission to actually succeed and the start of that plan was to make you die in front of everyone. Bruce had swung down from the stairs, seeing the way your eyes closed. 

“she needs to go to the hospital,” he told Tim, making him rush you to the hospital himself. he knew this was the only time he would be able to say his goodbyes to you and he need to make it count, “go now!” he yelled. 

Tim dragged your almost lifeless body to the nearest hospital, screaming at the staff that you needed help immediately. the nurses grabbed your body, hauling it to the OR as Tim sat there, blood all over his uniform as he watched you get wheeled into the hallway. 

it felt like hours by the time they gave an update to all of them. Bruce, Tim, Dick, Jason, Steph, Barbara, and Damian, were sitting in the waiting area, munching on food nervously as the nurse came out of the hallway, eyes bleary with tears. 

“she didn’t make it out of surgery. she passed.” 

all of them (for the exception of Bruce), immediately bursted into tears. Tim more than anyone had fell to the ground, having no control of his body as he screamed that it couldn’t be true and that you weren’t actually gone. a part of Bruce’s heart broke seeing his son having a mental breakdown but he knew for their safety and yours, he couldn’t say a word. 

the following days were left to plan your funeral as the nurses who relied your wishes stated that you wanted a closed casket for no one, not even Tim, to see your dead body. Tim hadn’t spoken a word to anyone as he only spoke up when it came for him to plan your arrangements. 

they buried your casket with your uniform laying on top of it as they all saw your casket get lower and lower to the ground. Tim was by this point sobbing as he couldn’t have cared who saw and who didn’t. 

+

Dick grabbed Damian, moving themselves to another part of the room as you walked slowly to Tim. he had yet to say anything but as soon as you locked eyes with him, you both let out sobs to each other. Tim grabbed you by the arms, bringing you into a hug as he sobbed into your shoulders. 

“what the fuck is going on?” he yelled, not knowing what to say, “I’m alive Timmy. I didn’t die that night,” you practically sobbed back to him. he released you, now anger and sadness crossing over him, “what the fuck do you mean you didn’t die?” he screamed, scaring Dick and Damian in the process. 

you sat on the ground, trying to compose yourself, “I went on an undercover mission for league. I had to die in order to protect not only myself but all of you and the entire league. which explains why I look different,” you murmured the last part. 

“I thought you were dead. for years, I thought you were dead! and I hate that I still love you and never moved on!” he exclaimed, seeing the way you stared at him heartbrokenly, “you think I wanted this to happen? it was for the betterment of the league if I took on this mission. I never wanted to leave you or Steph, hell I didn’t want to leave any of you but I had too! it broke my heart knowing what I had to do!” you yelled back. 

Tim bent down, taking you into his arms, “what the hell are we going to do?” he whispered in your ear, not knowing how to respond to any of this rationally. you shrugged as the two of you tried to calm yourselves down from the hysterics you both were throwing, “I just need you here with me,” you whispered back. 

Tim nodded, not releasing you from the hug you were giving him. “I won’t. I won’t let you go! not anymore!” he replied. you laughed through your tears as you heard someone else walk into the room. 

“what the fuck.....” you heard Steph and Jason’s voice scream through the Batcave, “what the FUCK is going on?” they screamed in panic. 

hehehe a cliffhanger 

[intercoursefluids]

Marry Me Part 2 (Final)

The morning after Damian proposed he went looking for his brother and stepmother. (She had a knack for finding beautiful jewels and Dick was a hopeless romantic and would kill him if he didn’t let him help.

“Grayson, Selina, I require your assistance with something and no it cannot wait.”

They both look up at him from the living room couch, watching the news.

“Where’s Marinette? You never come down without her.”

Selina looks behind him as if she was hiding behind his larger frame.

“She's still asleep and will remain that way until at least noon since she stayed up till an ungodly number calling her friends and family back in Paris, but that is not important now. (He says obviously irritated at her unhealthy sleeping schedule) Last night I may have made a spontaneous decision and need your help with the next step.”

Selina and Dick both look at him questiongly knowing damn well what he's talking about.

“Do you regret it?” (Dick)

“Did you get her pregnant?” (Selina)

Damian sputters for a moment his face turning red.

“The answer is no to both questions. Just get dressed and meet me outside.”

He walks away muttering about how Selina ‘has no sense of shame’ and how Dick ‘was an idiot to think he’d ever regret it’.

Dick and Selina both share a smile before getting ready and meeting an impatient Damian outside.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I proposed to Marinette last night and I want your help picking out her ring.”

Damian immediately exits the car and heads inside as his brother and stepmothers excited squeals fill the air.

Soon after he starts browsing they both join him looking for the perfect ring to give to her.

After an hour of searching Damian looks up, waving both of them over.

“What about this one?

Selina comes over first, immediately nodding her approval.

“Oh yeah, a little subtle for my taste but Marinette will love it.”

Dick immediately agrees, cooing over how cute this whole thing is and tearing up that his ‘baby brother is going to get married and he will have little nieces and nephews running around in a few years’.

Damian completely ignores him calling over a worker to get the ring in the correct size before buying it. Walking out with the simple diamond ring with pink accents on both sides of the diamond in its velvet black box.

“Okay, before we get back home where you have access to your katana I need to tell you something.”

Damian pauses at the car turning to face his brother.

“I messed up really bad this time and I’m very sorry. I was snooping around last night trying to get pictures of you and Mari being all sweet together like I usually do, but Jason, Selina, and Tim all saw me at different times and decided to watch and take pictures and videos too. I posted a bunch of the pictures to what I thought was my private Twitter like I do when you two do something especially sweet, but it wasn’t my private one and I couldn’t tell because I was crying too hard. I’m really sorry, Damian.”

Dick sucks in a deep breath after his ramble refusing to look up and meet his little brother's eyes until a loud groan followed by a thud makes him.

Damian smacks his head against the roof of the car several times more before letting out another groan and looking at his favorite least annoying brother.

“You’re lucky that I’m still in too much of a good mood to want to kill you right now. Get in the car, I want to get back before Marinette wakes up and it's already around 10.”

Happily counting his blessings even though he's low-key terrified Dick hops in the back seat and lets Selina take the front.

The drive rather quickly and Damian wastes not time in running to his room where he left his Angel.

He breathes a sigh of relief noticing she's still very much asleep. Running back downstairs he makes her a plate of breakfast and grabs a platter to fill with food for all of the kwamis.

Rushing back up to the room he sets the tray on the nightstand before going over to her side, brushing some hair out of her face, making her grumble and burrow deeper into the covers in an attempt to stay asleep.

He laughs softly sitting down beside her stroking her cheekbone.

“Angel, wake up. I brought you breakfast.”

She grumbles, reaching out from the covers to wrap his arms around her waist and snuggling into his side.

“At least let me put the ring on you. I need to talk with Grayson anyway.”

She thrusts out her left hand, still refusing to open her eyes.

He sighs, sliding the ring on her left finger and placing a kiss to her forehead before standing up to leave.

“I love you, Habibiti.”

The following noise that is probably an ‘I love you too’ but could also be a ‘shut the door’ is the only response he gets before he goes to find his brother(s).”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Grayson, Todd, Drake, you three are fixing this entire internet mess that you started and that is final.”

Sounds of protest erupt from the room as he takes his leave to feed the animals.

“Hold up! Dickie-bird is the one who fucked up, why do we have to fix it?!”

Jason pulls him back by his hoodie, thoroughly pissing him off, to face them again.

“Because, Grayson would be too emotional and sappy and just humiliate himself and make the situation worse, Drake knows how to navigate the internet better than the rest of us and, you are always happy to talk about Marinette and I need you to keep Drake awake long enough to fix this.”

Jason nods his head accepting the explanation when Tim interrupts.

“And why can’t you do it?”

A smile that puts all three brothers on edge takes over his face.

“I have a wedding to plan.”

Followed by him immediately shutting the door and going about his chores.

BONUS:

*Marinette wakes up, eats breakfast and changes before noticing the new rind on her left finger*

Marinette: HOLY SHIT I’M GETTING MARRIED!

Marinette:JASON! JAY! I’M GETTING MARRIED!

Jason from down the hall: I KNOW! I WAS THERE WHEN HE PROPOSED!

*Marinette immediately calls her friends and family and start crying while Chloe, Adrien, Kagami, Alix, Kim, and Max all immediately buy plane tickets*

*Jagged cries and also buys plane tickets for him and Penny*

*Luka goes with Jagged*

BONUS 2:

*Two weeks before proposal*

*Marinette running to Jason (her self-proclaimed older brother) and jumping as he catches her*

Marinette: JAY!

Jason: PIXIE-POP!

*Damian groans setting her bag on the floor*

Damian: Must you two be so dramatic? You saw each other last month.

Jason: Piss off Demon Spawn! She's MY baby sister

*Cue pissed off and tired (because he was so excited to see Mari that he couldn’t fall asleep last night) Damian *

Damian: Yeah? Well she's MY wife

*Cue immediate pause and lots of blushing from aforementioned couple*

Damian: I meant fiancé!

Damian: NO! GIRLFRIEND! I meant GIRLFRIEND!

*Marinette exe. has stopped working*

*Damian rushes over and throws her over his shoulder*

Damian: I meant GIRLFRIEND, and you wipe that smile off your face Grayson!

*Damian runs to his room with Mari and eventually they fall asleep together while the batfam collectively loses their shit down stairs*

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Familiarity

For Bio Dad Bruce Wayne Month Day 3: Identities

ao3

@maribat-bdbwm

part 1

Marinette couldn’t quite put a finger on it but there was something about the Waynes that felt familiar. Rose would say it’s because they’re family but Marinette knows it not that. In fact, they remind her of the Bats. The simultaneous inclusion and exclusion, the chaos, the feeling of knowing them, everything.

She isn’t quite sure yet if she likes the idea of her family being the Bats but she does know it would explain a lot of things that have happened in the two days since she arrived at the Manor for the first time.

.oOo.

Steph watches as Tim and Marinette plan out pranks, it’s creepy how well the two of them work together. It’s almost like they’ve worked together before. From the way Cass is analysing Marinette, Steph knows she’s picked up on the strangeness of it all too.

Duke had told her they’d asked Marinette to join so they could get to know her better and to spite B, who had told them not to drag her into their chaos. They hadn’t really expected her to be so good at planning pranks. From what she’s learnt she was brought up as an only child. Not that it really matters, they’re going against Babs, they’re going to need all the help possible.

Duke looks thoroughly lost, Steph doesn’t blame him, Tim’s thought process is hard to follow normally but Marinette and Tim, Steph’s just as lost. As the three of them stare at the two of them in the middle of their planning, Steph can’t help but feel they’ve been here before. Which makes absolutely no sense she’s never even met Marinette before today.

.oOo.

His sister’s time has been monopolised by Drake, Cassandra, Duke and now Stephanie. Planning, probably. A pointless endeavour, he's going to win in the end, just because his team has lesser people doesn’t mean they’re going to lose.

However, he has spoken to her. She’d approached him the first day and while their conversation had been awkward and stinted, it had been a conversation. Damian wasn’t planning on telling Grayson but speaking to him had helped.

But what’s been bothering Damian is that it feels like they’ve had that conversation before. Which they haven’t, Damian’s sure he’d remember if they’d somehow met. Jon says he should talk to her but Damian’s sure he can figure it out on his own.

.oOo.

Tim has a theory: Marinette is Ladybug. He doesn’t bring it up with the others, if she had wanted them to know her identity, she would have told them herself a long time ago. Besides, it’s just a theory and even if he is right, he remembers the feeling of betrayal when B had told Steph his identity, so he doesn’t pry.

.oOo.

Cass knows Marinette. She’s not able to place it and it makes absolutely no sense, but there’s something very familiar about her. For someone who walks into objects at least three times a day she carries herself with a grace that Cass hasn’t seen outside vigilantes or dancers and Marinette denies being able to dance. Even if her new sibling is one of the Parisian heroes, Cass doesn’t know the Parisian heroes very well, having met them only a few times. Their training had mostly been taken care by Dick, Tim and Damian, since the three of them spent the most time at the Tower. She leaves it alone, Tim mentioned that the miraculous holders' identities were protected by magic, it would be impossible for her to figure it out.

.oOo.

Dick had wanted to see if he had left his phone in the gymnasium, when he enters the room, Marinette’s there. He watches in shock as Marinette leaps and flips her way through the gymnasium. She’s a surprisingly good gymnast for a civilian. A lot of the moves she uses are familiar to him. Things that he had taught to some of the younger heroes as fighting sequences. He wonders what kind of teacher she must have had to be taught that.

When she finishes, he claps and she turns back in shock, her eyes widen in recognition and she becomes a vivid shade of red. He holds back the urge to laugh.

“That was amazing! Where did you learn all of that?”

“Oh, uh here and there, I went to classes for a while and I have a friend who’s really great at gymnastics.”

Dick frowns, she sounds unsure of her answer, but he lets it pass.

“I’d love to meet that friend of yours.”

She looks like a deer caught in headlights for a second before her expression smooths over and she grins at him and says, “I’ll be sure to ask him!” before skipping out of the room.

Dick is officially very curious.

.oOo.

Thursday morning, she’s informed by Duke that they usually have family dinners on Thursday and a few of Tim’s friends would be attending today too. Marinette’s excited, it’ll be fun to meet Tim’s friends.

Alfred’s banned all pranks for the day since they have guests visiting in the evening. There’s some complaining but in the end they all give in. Tim heads to his room saying he has something he wants to work on, Dick and Damian are going out for the day, she can’t find Duke, and Jason isn’t at the Manor. She’s currently searching for Cass. When Marinette finally gives up and returns to her room, she finds Cass waiting for her there.

“Want to join me and Steph? We’re going out.”

Marinette agrees and the two of them leave the manor to join Steph in the actual city. They spend the day roaming around, eat enough junk food to give Alfred a heart attack and just pass time. Steph returns with them to the Manor in the evening for dinner. They’re late but only by a bit, they’d hopefully only get a disappointed frown from Alfred.

Alfred lets them in with a sigh of disappointment. The three of them offer him sheepish grins before running off to the dining room. They can hear all of them laughing, Marinette doesn’t pause to analyse their voices.

She wishes she had.

It’s not surprising really, she’d already known how highly possible it was but nothing had prepared her to be staring at Kon, Cassie and Bart.

Jason notices her staring and asks, “why’re you looking at them like they’re aliens?”

She takes another second to finish processing, and then grins, “Well, Kon is half alien.”

Their reactions are priceless. Plagg would be proud of the chaos she’s unleashed.

Jason’s staring at her in shock. Tim’s yelling, “I KNEW IT!” Dick and Cass look like things make more sense now. B, Steph, Duke, Kon and Cassie. Damian’s jumped onto his seat and is pointing his katana at her. Bart had attacked her in a hug, yelling, “Bug!” which had thrown her to the floor.

Groaning she gets up, “not wearing a super suit right now, Bart.”

“IforgotI’msosorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh my, what is going on here?”

They all turn to look at Alfred who’s standing at the entrance.

There’s a lot of apologies as they sit in their seats and everyone settles down. She ends up sitting next to her father.

“So,” he starts, “you’re Ladybug.”

She smiles, “and you’re Batman.”

Before she can reply, she’s dragged into the others’ conversation. Her father offers her a smile and returns to his food. Marinette grins and joins the argument about the stupidest villains.

[breesays]

The trouble is, you think you have time

I don't usually blog about the mundane minutiae of my day to day life (unless you remember that Motherhood Minutes blog) but today was just... a lot. I think I need to unload it.

Last night the fireworks woke Desmond up (at 10pm) and he was basically unable to go back to sleep until 1am. Tim was angry about it. I was annoyed he was angry and also a little nauseous because when it was determined Des would "sleep" in our bed until the fireworks were done, I took an Advil PM.  It never took effect like it was supposed to, as I was alternating from big spoon on toddler bed to glider chair to kitchen for applesauce packets. When he wailed at 5AM I begged Tim to tap in. We all felt wrecked this morning. 

Our brand new downstairs neighbor knocked on our door at 8AM while Tim was taking Des to school. He asked if we could WALK SOFTER. In a very polite way, but they've only been there A NIGHT and it was 4th of July. I smiled and nodded and asked for specifics (he gave none) and then drafted an email to our landlords after he left because it's really concerning that they complained after ONE night. I've been a downstairs neighbor more than half my life, and I think we are very considerate. We never heard so much as a peep from the previous tenants. I understand where they're coming from because we lived below an AirBnB rental for 4 years but it also had me fuming because we're just living, man. We don't wear shoes in the house and I give Des as many balloons as his heart desires so that he doesn't bounce any balls indoors.

Tim was laid off from his FT job on Friday so my normally completely silent working morning was punctuated with business calls - cold calls - and I already hate phone calls in general but I was nervous for HIM. And him landing a good gig (yay) consequently meant that some of my plans for the rest of July were... now unstable. C'est la vie.

During dinner I got a call from my Stepmom. She never calls so I was  worried the instant her name popped up on my phone. Her sister died. Maru. Unexpectedly. Suddenly. I was so gutted. Maru was a part of our lives when we were little, she lived with my Dad and Lita when they first moved here from Mexico. She was so good with kids (us) that I remember insensitively asking my Dad once if he was sure he married the right sister. I remember leading "english class" for her and Lita and I think their brother Hector. All my memories of her are warm and comforting. Me watching her write letters to her friends and family in Mexico. She told us her American name was "Jenny" but she was definitely a Maru. Was. Fuck. It stabbed me right through the heart to hear my Stepmom cry. She said it was like a dream, not real. I wanted to run to OC and hug her. How completely tragic to learn your sister was taken away from you. It's not my tragedy but I still needed to know what happened. At least we know she didn't suffer. Rest in peace, Maru.

I'm reading a book called "How To Stop Time" by Matt Haig, and it's an interesting perspective for someone (me) who has been kind of distressing over how I'm going to read all the books I want to read write all the blogs I wanna write see all the things I wanna see hear all the music I wanna hear pet all the cats I wanna let watch Desmond grow and experience things and also write about THAT. I wanna travel I want to teach I want to nap on exotic beaches. We don't have enough time. 

I've been trying to appreciate situations for what they are and not what I want them to be. 

The other day after an activity-packed day, Desmond wanted to talk. It was past his bedtime. I asked, "What was your favorite thing about today?" He paused, then said, "This, mama."

Alive.

[organic-guacamole]

uh yeah so I wasn't planning on watching the episode until the weekend but my sister woke up super early and started like dancing or swinging from the ceiling fan or something and it woke me up so now I will bring back the guac episode text blocks :')

Hsmtmts: Season 3: Episode 1 Reaction

"And love is an open door. Did I just make that up? It's pretty good."

First new line of the show and I'm smiling like an idiot. So turns out I'm not actually over this show🥸

DAD JOKES ARE LIFE. I will be taking notes as EJ continues to speak.

big red's got work? all the time? why? can't he take two weeks off to enjoy the summer with friends? he's like 16? huh??

and Sebbie's gotta milk so this is how we explain their absence 🧍🏽‍♀️

oh so Ricky is with Lily after all? icky licky.

Carlos switching his glasses for sunglasses made me laugh a bit too much. maybe I should pull my sister down from the ceiling and go back to sleep...

wait wait wait

I'm not American and I haven't paid much attention to the details yet but like, Utah and California are close, but close enough that these kids' parents let them drive by themselves across states? ISNT CARLOS LIKE CANONICALLY 16? is this normal? I'm sorry

EJ being the son of Cash Caswell 4 and a half minutes into the season. why do rich people need more than 1 home? also yes Gina. she knew about the 2nd home so I'm assuming she's at least seen it (unless EJ just casually mentions his other houses but to me he seems like the kinda guy to forget he has more houses than the average person and just never talk about it) so yeah slay girlie pop marry rich! life is about the material things! go queen!

"you come to camp shallow lake and you leave and someone else" oh no. foreshadowing.

yeah I miss seb too.

the whole phone confiscation thing is awful to me. not because I'm addicted or anything, just that, that's my property and they're storing it in a bucket with other people's nasty phones in a dark room somewhere and idk what's happening to it? no thanks I'll leave it home.

oh I completely forgot the intro song thing *insert harsh whistle*

RICHIE EWE WEQEQ WS

this is funny though. don't mind my disgusted expression as I watch this scene, I'm rather enjoying seeing Ricky turn into a text to speech reader.

the more Lily talks the more I fear for Ricky's life.

Caribbean cruise? uhhh I live in the Caribbean 😥😥😥 imagine just chilling and you see miss Jenn running around buying souvenirs.

also. MR BOWEN? GIRL BENJAMIN MAZZARA IS RIGHT THERE. HE CONFESSED TO YOU AT THE END OF LAST SEASON. THIS WOMAN-

so it's confirmed that this is the same camp that Nini and EJ met at😃

I love Ashlyn. no context needed.

Why is she still with Howie again?

the non-wildcats in the corner. Are they credited as non-wildcats on IMDb?

as Ms Jenn is talking about sparks, remember when she and Mr Mazzara started a fire at the school and just...ran away? why don't we talk about this?

I wrote an alternate 2x12 fanfic where Ricky knows about the harness already so I genuinely thought they all knew already... anyways, yay Tim for bringing back this plotpoint!

Carlos being horrified by these random dudes throwing things is exactly what I expected from this season. that and Ricky coming to his senses but we can't always get what we want.

Jet is hot but we knew this already. anyways gimme the enemies to lovers with Ricky please, with a bunch of angst with happy ending, all that jazz. gimme the flavour🤌🏽🤌🏽

the way lily's body language is... reminds me of an episode of 911 where this girl murdered her boyfriend on valentine's day because he wanted to leave the date... she literally looked so much like how Lily looks rn... RUN RICHARD

isn't she like 14? like canon... I have a lot of questions for her parents mainly.

so he really just has big red's car this whole time? he's having his mv moment so I'll overlook it. we all need our main character moment at some point. but actually. it's a literal music video in the middle of the episode.

wait have we seen Kourtney and Carlos interactions yet? please someone tell me if we have or have not because this is my favourite. also let's discuss Kourtney's rainbow belt 😁

what kind of life changing 2 week camp is this? why are they all acting like all new people will be brainwashed and their lives will flip upside down by the time it's over

emo boy Jet meets emo boy Ricky they un-emotify together or something idk

"if you fall in no one will hear your screams" "don't go too far into the woods or you'll be gone for good" still not convinced this isn't a murder mystery season.

...

you telling me

Disney plus exists

in the universe of a show

on Disney plus

...

anyways so is this how EJ becomes director-

damn so he's really second choice for this too👩🏽‍🦯

RICKy? how does this even happen? don't they have to pay for this camp? how did he get so far in and portwell are the first people he sees? I'm so confused 😭

[hood-ex]

So Nightwing 83 is out;

Pros and Cons of it?

I experienced so many emotions while reading that. I need to take a fucking walk holy shit. I'm buzzin'. But, okay, pros and cons. Let's gooo.

I'm still not sure if I'm really all that stoked about Melinda actually being Dick's sister, but I like that Dick still doesn't trust her. I want him to look for more evidence behind what she's saying before he really decides to partner with her though.

Dick's exchange with Audre about him breaking in was kinda funny. "Oh, yeah. I suppose I did."

The helicopter scene was cool even though it looked stupid for him to launch himself right into the line of fire where he could've easily been riddled with bullets (and somehow wasn't).

I don't like that Babs is still wearing that shirt. I actually forgot she was wearing that, so seeing it so suddenly when she was rushing to help Dick was like, "Oh, yeah. There's that thing I hate."

I thought it was weird how Babs casually told Dick that he had been asleep for two days. Like, hellur. Dick got kicked in the head so hard that he blacked out, and he was also hit in the head again prior to that. You're telling me Babs wasn't at all concerned about the reasoning behind him sleeping for two days being brain trauma related? If I knew someone who had been hit in the head so hard that they went unconscious, and if they showed no signs of waking up after a normal amount of sleeping time had passed after said event occurred, I would be freaking the fuck out and calling an ambulance. Just saying.

"Tim's been patrolling for you." You been reading fanfics, Taylor? Ha, I'm kidding.

Dick wearing Converse made me 😂.

I do like that we got to see Dick consulting people in his social circle. I like that he went to his friends for their opinions because that's what we all do irl. We ask our friends for advice and ideas. It also continues to show us that Dick will use his personal connections to help him achieve something.

I gotta admit, the Dick and Clark scene really fucking got me. I'm a sucker for scenes between them. This interaction reaffirmed that Dick did indeed get the Nightwing name from Clark, and it also reaffirmed that Dick is an extremely respected person in the cape community.

"You're a lot like him, you know?" Okay, thanks, Clark. I didn't need my heart today.

Tbh, the thing that really got me was Clark asking Dick to look out for Jon, and Clark thinking of Dick as the ultimate role model. That... speaks so much about Dick's character. Like just think about it. Superman thinks that Dick is the best possible person that Jon could grow up to be like. And it's not just Clark who thinks this either. Oh, no. Slade fucking Wilson thinks so too (at least to some extent) which is exactly why he wanted Rose to adopt Dick's values (via Rebirth Deathstroke #19).

This issue just proved that DC editors sure ain't working hard enough because there was a damn typo during Dick's speech. It should've read, "Too many good people have fallen in Bludhaven," instead of, "To many good people have fallen in Bludhaven." Like come onnn. I betcha they're using the same editor who approved the "Romani smile" line. Yeesh.

The things Dick wanted to do with The Alfred Pennyworth Foundation made me laugh because when Dick was talking about his plans with Clark, Dick was like, "I'm worried it's too small," and Clark was like, "It's not small, it's focused." Focused? It sounds like Dick is trying to tackle a pretty hefty amount of social, economical, and environmental issues. I mean, okay, so he's focusing on Bludhaven mostly. I'll give him that.

Tim's text to Dick made me laugh because, well, yeah. Yeah. Jason texting Dick is... interesting. I have mixed feelings about Jason's current place in the family dynamic, so part of me is like, "Cool," and the other part of me is like hmm... that's a little fanon-y.

Either way, I just think it's funny to imagine all the bats stopping what they're doing to watch Dick talk on TV. You do have to kind of think of them as the Kardashians in a way when stuff like this comes up. Because, yeah, they've seen each other on TV before so it's not like they'd all be rushing to the nearest TV while yelling, "Hurry up! Dick's on TV!" but he is important to them, and they do want to support him still (even though I am questioning said support a bit because writers haven't built up Steph and Cass's relationship with Dick enough so this whole thing feels a little too "perfect family" for my tastes).

Also! Damian texting Dick! We have to assume that Damian is tracking his family (or, at least, tracking Dick specifically) on the web. How else would he have known to watch Dick's speech? Unless someone texted him about it. But uh... that kinda doesn't make sense with Damian running away from his fam and everything.

Heartless referring to Dick as "my first." Hm. Okay. I feel like I need him to be more intimidating or something. His whole aesthetic reminds me of that kabuki mask-wearing dude from Big Hero 6. Yokai/Robert dude. But less ominous.

All in all, I definitely appreciate some of the relationships that were shown in this issue. I still just find the massive support Dick is suddenly getting from all of his friends and family to be a little... off-putting. Specifically, because this arc takes place after the amnesia arc where we got nearly none of that same support. It feels like two large, opposing extremes. The amnesia arc wasn't enough, and in comparison, Taylor's arc almost feels like overkill because of it. As if he's trying to compensate for the lack of support by being like Look At All The Support Over Here! And If You Look To Your Right, Guess What You'll See? More Support!!

I guess it's weird to complain about Dick getting loved on but, narratively, the degree to which it's occurring compared to the last arc just doesn't feel right. There's a lack of build to a satisfying balance.

[hollyharper]

I think DC neds to do a five year time skip. Take their entire continuity and more it forward five years. Give us fans something new.

Maybe Bruce and Selina finally tied the knot, maybe they even have a little Helena Wayne. Their starting to train her to follow in their footsteps. Just have a bunch of sevens of the little three year old doing splits with her mom, learning how to analyze samples with her dad. Damien teaching her to fight. And of course, all the older siblings spoiling her rotten. Bruce is simply happy to spend time with his wife and kids. Selina still loves her cats. The house is over run with them, domestic and wild.

Dick and Babs should definitely be married. They have a two year old boy, James, after Barbara’s brother. Maybe even start with Barbara’s second pregnancy. This time a girl named Mary, after Dick’s mom. They have a large apartment in Blùdhavan. Dick is still Nightwing. Barbara struggles juggling her roles as his partner and wife, Batman, and The Bird’s Oracle, and being a mom. The Alfred Pennyworth foundation is thriving, and Babs resented reclaimed Gotham Clean Energy. Being the genius she is is Barbara refuses to send her kids to public school. Dick worries that adds to much extra stress to her life. She loves it. To thank her for all of her hard work, Dick brings home little gifts for her at least once a week. These presents range from chocolate bars to new computer equipment. As much as he loves when Babs cooks, Dick usually prepares their meals.

What would truly be a bomb, would be to put Jason in serious relationship. Personally, I would go with Helena Bertenilli. They started working together as partners. As they spent more time together, it became clear that they both were looking for a more intimate relationship. Their shared understanding of loss brought them closer together, until their relationship turned into lovers. Helen’s exceptional skill as a history teacher, earned her a place at Gotham High. Seeing Jason’s talent with kids, her confided him to get a teaching job as well. He mostly teaches P.E. at Gotham Academy, but also has a black smith class. He makes knives and sword son the weekend, and sells them to make money on the side. On the Battlefield, Huntress and Red Hood are inseparable, and on of the best teams Batman has. They both deeply love each other, but are afraid to talk about commitment.

Tim and Stephine are currently have issues. They’ve had an on and off relationship for the last year. Tim has entirely taken over running Wayne Enterprises. He works all day, and is out as Red Robin most of the night. His exhaustion puts a massive strain on their relationship. He feels bad about having so little time for Steph, and to show her how much he loves, her is planning to propose. Stephine feels neglected. As much as she loves Tim, his constant stress weighs on her. After talking with her mentors, she has decided that time apart would be good for both her and Tim, but she doesn’t know how to tell him. Steph has been job bouncing for awhile, another reason she’s cautious about leaving.

Cass is still Bruce’s angel child. She has little interest in dating. Her main focus is always the mission. Barbara believes she needs to get a job and stop relying on Bruce for funding. The only idea she even considered, was Helena’s suggestion to become a federal agent. Bruce strongly opposes the idea. After her father died, Cass has been trying to patch things up with her mom, who unsurprisingly wants Cass to join the League of Shadows.

At first, Damien was reluctant to accept Selina, though he would never admit, he was still hoping for his parents to work things out. When Bruce married Selina, it became clear Talia wasn’t coming back. Over time, she grew on him. Selina was the one to figure out that Damien missed his mother. After some negotiations, she convinced Bruce to invite Talia over for the holidays. It became an eagerly anticipated tradition for Damien. Talia as brings food and gifts for him. It’s the one time of year when Damian’s almost always smiles. Dami adores his little sister, and has even sworn to protect her at all costs. His relationship with Flatline died out very quickly after their meeting. Mostly, because of how immature they both were. Four years, and a sweet ex later, they meet once again on the field of battle. Again sparks flew, leading to a passionate reunion, and another hero and villain love story.

Jade and Lian were recently reunited. Their relationship is still on rocky ground, but Jade is determined to make up for the time she missed with her daughter. She makes every effort to connect with Lian, even while fighting shadows from her past. Every night, to two will sit on the roof outside of Lian’s window. Their shared interest in astronomy is a safe topic, one they touch on often. Lian wants a relationship with her mother, but is afraid Jade will leave again. Jade’s proud that her daughter took the name Cheshire Cat, and love watching her daughter in action, even though it’s usually from a distance.

Dinah and Oliver have been married for a few years. They found out pretty soon that they can’t have kids. After the news, Dinah went into depression. Their friends and family stepped up to help. Bruce tried to convince them to adopt. Neither want to, until they meet a feisty young girl named Kayleigh. Kayleigh is closed off, with deep wounds. She’s trying to become a vigilant in Star City. Her methods are overly violent. Oliver sees his younger self in her and brings her under his wing. Dinah takes a little to warm up to her. Kayleigh gives them both quite a bit of trouble, but their determined to read her. But Kayleigh’s secrets are something that could shatter their belief in her. She knows the day the find out, will be the last time she has anything close to a family.