#(because apparently that’s my dc tag now)

[hayaku14]

gymnast kaito x sharpshooter shinichi meet-cute in the olympics au

[xxplastic-cubexx]

sorry if you've already mentioned but what (re?)ignited your love of comics/x-men/cherik? curious because there are so many different adaptations of them

i think im gonna speak for a few (or a lot of) people when i say that TL;DR the wolverine x deadpool movie that came out this summer is what pulled me back into comics and i COULD leave it there but i will go into excruciating and unnecessary detail instead because i love an origin story and i love oversharing.

under the cut tho because im nice sometimes (there's also wxdp doodles in here. if you want to see that)

ironically (and probably commonly), growing up i was more of an avengers kid. Kinda. Loosely <- binge watched the cartoons and movies and read copious amounts of comics and fics and i am hoarding fanart in my old dresser as we speak ok 'loosely' is a modest lie.

embarrassingly i remember getting into discus cause of captain america LMAO so yeah needless to say i was a Humble Fan- me joining my school's comic class/club didnt help either (shoutout to my teach from that she was the realest one out there for. A Multitude of reasons). she definitely is was inspires me to even draw still and make comics and i often think bout the tips i learned from her class tbh she was great

back to the movies t and comics tho, i got into em because my brother would offer to take me and that's how we'd hang out (i rarely saw movies in theaters and i even more rarely went anywhere as a teenager. still kinda like that today tbh ooops) and yk. it just snowballed after that.

my brother and i have always liked comics- he just more than me for a while (though he still very much loves comics and As We Know From My Posts we still talk about them whenever i see him To An Exhausting Degree)

durin then i was really into stony and i have a few surviving doodles i made but those are between me and god. and anyone who asks tbh LOL

'snap can you make this related to x-men again this is long' ok so fast forward to This Summer again I Still Don't Really See Movies but my brother offered to take me and this was the first time i'd actually seen an x-men movie in full

as a kid i only remember seeing the 'perfection' scene between erik and raven in first class while i was channel surfing. pretty sure i changed the channel after seeing mystique naked cause i was scared my parents would get mad at me if they caught me watching it LOL

BUT MOVING ON As A Kid i think it's also natural you'll sometimes watch 92 if it's on And I Did though evidently it didn't stick too hard (i do remember really liking beast and gambit though.... still do really): my knowledge of x-men was. INCREDIBLY sparse. like diabolically so so i didnt have too much expectations (aside from the fact i vaguely liked deadpool beforehand).

tbh i dont know why my bro never took me to see any of the x-men movies. it's not like he doesn't Also like x-men (90% sure nightcrawler's his favorite but my brother will be caught dead saying he has absolute favorites like that)- he owns a bitch load of deadpool comics/omnibus sets too (of which ive read over the years and reread this year) but Shrug moving on

Much Like Most Of The Internet i fell down the rabbit hole that way. i have some doodles i made a couple days after seeing WxDP that i now have an excuse to throw at all of you Look And Perceive

and so. As I Do. i got curious and told myself i'd binge watch all the x-men movies the week before i went back to school And Then I Did ft. My Brother Sometimes and then i said i'd binge watch all of '92 and And I Did That ft. My Brother Sometimes But Less So and now we're here. currently watching Evolution...

once i got to school i realized i lived near a comic shop and started getting into the comics that way (the first ones i got since going down this rabbit hole was Magneto Was Right!, The Resurrection of Magneto, and The Trial of Magneto. if you were curious !!!!! clearly i didnt care too much about context i just needed to see My Guy jelvejlkvj i have no regrets and Evidently ive read more since)

i'm pretty sure what dragged me into cherik specifically was the fact i saw a clip of The Famous ending to 92 where erik's aghast at the notion jean even has to question his love for charles. i think that was what officially had me refocus my lens on them: not a single poolverine thought after that LOL (all the cherik posting i saw on twitter definitely helped too but that was the nail in the coffin for any other interests i had: i was locked into cherik and x-men in general now)

that clip specifically, i was surprised at the fact they- frequently even- have the x-men franchise say erik loves charles and vice versa so bluntly. even if it's not meant to be romantic, i fear im just a fan of how casually the word's thrown around with them two and i got tender bout it all. Then Yk. i just live for the drama. the hilarity even. the sincerity .... they make me sick if i think of them too long so im gonna end it here

before i go tho ironically enough, the first x-men issue i owned was This one (story a this is that while stuck in some wacko dimension charles accidentally gets himself trapped in logan's mind while utilizing his astral projection. if you were curious). pretty sure i got it for free with another comic set i got years ago since our old comic shop loved to do that, but it's poetic aint it. maybe ill doodle something referencing it..

i should probably look into finishing this arc someday im Dummy curious to even know how it started and how it ends.....

[pocketramblr]

I always found it slightly awkward how media makes siblings or people who see each other as siblings call each other brother/sister all the time as in real life you almost never see people do that with their own siblings (maybe someone out there like that)

In the case of Arkham Shadows I see why they did though because Bruce quite literally tells Harvey he loves him and Harvey says it back. Can't have the audience think Batman is in love with the DA.

They had Bruce pay for his college, pay for his campaign, pay for his surgery, pay for his therapy and had Harvey have him as his best man at his wedding. Wow..... Sugar baby Harvey is real.....

The calling sibling title thing is less common in English than in some other languages for sure- me and a couple of my siblings do it on occasion, but it's for a bit then. More common is when I call one of my close family friends "my sister" or "my nephew" when talking about them to someone else because it's faster and easier to say that than to say "my friend who I've known since she was born and lived with for a few years and consider a little sister" or "child of a close family friend who considers me an aunt" to someone who doesn't know them. Which is a lot of words to say that if they wanted to fully sell me on the brothers thing they should have either had a different bit or should have referred to the other as "my brother" when talking to an unrelated character instead.

But "oh no we have to make Bruce not look gay" has been a problem DC has struggled with more than once for many decades and it basically never works so I guess at least they didn't try to solve it this time by having Bruce pick a lady love over Harvey or cutting the holding hands thing

Because I saw that scrapbook! I know Harvey has been Bruce's sugar baby since he was ten years old! But we can't have Bruce take Harvey's hand and call him the love of his life because ok technically that's Gotham but also because gay. And we can't have Bruce take Harvey's hand and call him his best friend because they're not ten anymore and somehow that seems gay also. So brothers it is, I guess. Even if I think my brothers would bite my finger if I ever tried to pay for everything for them on that scale, guess it's different at billionaire levels

[ravenlilyrose]

Several years later:

A few different generations of heroes are all hanging out for whatever reason. Somehow, someone finally realizes that YJ are younger than they should be.

Tim: *typing on his phone* Oh, yeah, we’re all immortal now.

JL, Titans, etc: *crickets*

Bart: Yep, we all started worshipping Cassie to see if it would make her a goddess! And it did!

Cassie: *smirks as everyone turns to look at her*

Diana looks at Cassie more carefully, before announcing that, yes, Cassie was, in fact, a goddess now. She sounds somewhat shaken.

Random older hero: Okay, so Cassie’s a goddess, but how does that make the rest of you immortal?

Kon: Because she made us her immortal companions.

All of YJ (including the retired ones): *staring, decidedly unimpressed* Duh!

-

And then everyone has a crisis while YJ go back to whatever they were doing.

Bart: I was bored and reading about deities of the world,

Tim: as you do

Bart: yeah, and you know how Cassie is part Greek God?

Cassie: do I want to know where this is going?

Bart: do you think if we started giving her offerings and worshipping her she'd turn into a full Goddess?

Kon: don't know till we try! OH GODDESS! Accept my offering *throws gummies at Cassie*

Cassie: *smiling with a pack of gummies* you joke but I'm keeping these.

Tim: *not looking up from his phone* oh Goddess Cassie, please let us have a peaceful day.

Cissie: *walking into the room* ?

Kon: we're worshiping Cassie to see if we can make her a Goddess.

Cissie: oh ok, merciful and beautiful Goddess-

Cassie: *laughing*

Cissie: -please grant me knowledge on my next exam because SOMEONE *glares at all of them* keeps pulling me into Young Justice mission's and I haven't studied *drops down in a chair and tosses her a bracelet* my offering.

Cassie: *still laughing* knowledge granted.

[savanir]

DP x DC prompt [11]

Vlad is planning something big, something powerful and he’s using his wealth and connections to make it happen. Danny realizes that his parents' tech and his friend's aid isn’t going to cut it, and brute forcing the matter as Phantom is just going to ruin his reputation permanently.

What he needs is another different fruitloop, and thankfully for him the world is pretty damn full of them.

but he needs a very specific fruitloop, the one with a big company, advanced high end tech, so much money they don’t really know what to do with it and preferably they gotta be an absent figure, because Danny is on a mission, he’s not looking to get a new parent (he has his own)

and after some searching he finds his guy

Oliver Queen

Now he just needs to get in on that, and he decides to do that by using what little he managed to remember from Vlad’s “you will be the heir of Dalv,co” rants and Sam’s ideas on environmentalism. cause Queen apparently cares a lot about giving back to the little guy.

Which is great! very important, even if his business kinda suffers from how he goes about it (but Danny can help with that! somehow! he’ll figure it out, can’t be that hard) 

We can’t all be Brucie Wayne, but we certainly can try.  

So anyway, shouldn’t be too hard, he’s got some history in the field of environment stuff what with the whole purple back gorilla thing.

and Ollie takes one good look at this smart enthusiastic black haired blue eyed teen and is like, “oh neat! my very own Tim Drake Wayne” and he just goes with it.

Danny’s hidden power of drawing in rich people is truly something to behold…

Oliver is more than happy to just let Danny do whatever he wants as long as it doesn’t break the law or look bad on him, and no drugs, he was very clear on that.

and Danny is like great, I can now work on undermining Vlad and ruin his plans!

but then… Dinah…

“Oliver Jonas Queen!”

oh shit, full named…

“You are not going to do a repeat of Roy!”

Dinah is very effective, and the whole thing starts small enough.

Oliver personally shows him around in the company, makes sure to introduce him to the important folks.

that evolves into occasionally checking up on him, making sure he takes the appropriate amount of breaks.

then he takes him to a baseball match, he had multiple tickets… would have been a waste to refuse.

Then Dinah insists he tags along for dinner in a restaurant (there were some others, it was actually not awkward at all somehow, quite nice really), this grows into dinner at the penthouse.

It's when Oliver expresses the desire to teach Danny archery, telling him there are a lot of things in the sport that are also applicable to business stuff that Danny comes to a sudden and violent realization.

He's being parented!

[sanguineterrain]

window pains | jason todd

Summary: He's got a habit of coming in through the window. You want him to start staying... and using the door. 

Pairing: Jason Todd x gn!reader 

Word count: 1.6k

Warnings/tags: injured Jason Todd (he's okay dw), angst, pining, mentions of Jason's death.

A/N: sooo.... i guess i'm a dc girlie now. just a reminder that every character i write will always be 18+!!! this is probably canon divergent but we make our own canon.

If you like this fic and want to see more, please let me know through reblogs ♡

the divider

"Can't you enter my apartment like a normal person?"

"You know who you're talking to, right?"

"You're getting blood on my carpet, Todd."

It doesn't really matter. He'll come back and scrub it out as soon as his ribs are whole. And fuck if he's not good at getting blood out of surfaces. Jason Todd ought to start a housekeeping column. 

You catch his limp as he climbs over the windowsill. It almost topples him, but he gets to the couch before it does. He doesn't make a sound. 

That had freaked you out the first few times he'd stumbled through your window. Once, he came with part of a windshield wiper impaled in his shoulder. He'd lain on your couch so still and so quiet, you'd thought Red Hood had croaked in your apartment. Which would not have been a good look for you. Or maybe it would. Depends on who you ask. 

Sometimes you want to tell him to make sounds. To hiss and grunt and complain. To grab your wrist so you'll slow down as you pull thread through flesh. 

But it's not your place to request such a thing. You don't know where you reside in Jason Todd's life, but it's not somewhere where you can request to hear him hurt. 

Outwardly, his injuries aren't bad-looking. He takes off his helmet and tosses it somewhere under the coffee table. You offer a hand to help him lie down on the couch—he doesn't take it. 

"Jesus Christ, Jay." You suck in a sharp breath and peel back his bloody suit. "What'd you do?"

"Took a midnight stroll in the Botanical Gardens. Why, what'd you do?"

You frown, eyebrows pinching in the center of your forehead. Jason's stomach is mottled with purple and red bruises. There's a sticky gash right above his hip. A knife. Or a sword, maybe. Apparently, swords are commonplace in Gotham. 

"How'd they get you?" you ask. 

It's a rule-break. Jason's number one policy: don't ask questions.

You always do. Even when it was new, this… thing between you two, you'd ask. Who were they? Why did they hurt you? Did you hurt them back?

The last one, you always know the answer to. 

"There were, like, ten of them," he says. "Cut me some slack, will ya?" 

He has a cut across his lips. A ringed finger that caught on his skin, you guess. You wonder if he'd wince if you kissed him. If he'd wince at the pain or the kiss itself. If you'd know the difference. 

Rage suddenly cuts through you. It makes your hands careless, cruel; you pull the bandage around his waist too tight. Jason coils up slightly. 

"Jesus—ever heard of bedside manner?" he asks, looking at you through his lashes. 

"Ever heard of not breaking into someone's apartment and making them patch you up?"

"I don't make you," Jason says easily. "You wouldn't do it if you didn't want to."

That only increases your rage. Because he's right. You wouldn't be here if you didn't want to be. You'd have kicked him out four first aid kits ago if you minded. 

You yank down his shirt and pack up the kit. Jason shifts on the couch. A sliver of skin above his waistband is still exposed. You have to turn your head to force your gaze away. 

"No bandaids?" he asks. "All my cuts'll be exposed to the elements."

"You can put them on yourself." 

His cheek could use one. And his eyebrow. You're not in the mood. 

Jason doesn't say anything in response to that. You get up to put the kit back under the sink. 

"Can I crash here?" 

"Do what you want," you say, suddenly exhausted. Like it's you who just went six rounds with Gotham's scumbags.

You peek over the kitchen counter when you hear rustling and the couch springs squeak. Jason leans heavily on the arm of the couch, reaching for the window. You walk over and stand in front of him. 

"What're you doing?" you ask. 

"You want me to go," he says flatly. "So I'm going."

"I didn't say that, I said—"

"I can read between the lines." 

"If you could read between the lines as well as you think you can, we wouldn't be in this situation," you say. 

"What situation?"

You turn your head. "Nothing."

Jason steps towards the window. You block him again. 

"What is the matter with you?" you ask. "You're injured. Lie down."

"I'm not your responsibility," he says, glaring. "I'm leaving."

"No, you're not. And since you're allergic to using the door, you don't have a choice."

Jason's eyebrow rises. "Are you saying you'd physically prevent me from leaving?"

You lift your chin. "If that's what it takes."

"Hm. Can't tell if your confidence is stupid or brave."

"Lie the fuck down, Todd."

His lip curls. "I don't stay where I'm not welcome."

Sometimes you forget how young he is. Not that you're not also young, but, well… you don't feel your youth as acutely as other people your age might. It's something you two have in common. 

Here, in the gritty glow of Gotham, you are reminded that Jason Todd died once. Before he finished school. Before he fell in love. 

Your stomach churns every time you see that Y-shaped scar on his torso, strapped over him like a chain. 

"I didn't say that you're not welcome," you say. 

"Yeah, well, you didn't have to."

He sags against the couch and it occurs to you that he's as exhausted as you feel. 

"Can you just—" You touch his bicep. He winces even though there's no injury there. "Can you just lie down?" 

You stare at each other for another minute. Slowly, Jason lays down. His eyes are alert instead of heavy with sleep. Instantly, you feel guilty for making him think he has to be cautious around you. His hand curls protectively over his stomach. 

"Do you want a blanket?" you ask. 

He squints. "It's August."

"I know, I… I thought maybe the blood loss made you cold." 

"'M fine. Perks of being risen from the dead." 

You watch him get settled for a minute. He shifts his weight to his uninjured side and meets your gaze. His eyes are gray in the weak light. 

"You're tired of me," he says. 

Your head snaps up. "No, I'm not."  

"You are."

"I'm not tired of you, Jay."

You see it. The fear. He thinks this is the last time you'll let him in. He doesn't know you can't lock him out. You won't. 

You get up and go to get the kit from the sink again. Jason follows your movement the whole time. His face scrunches in confusion when you sit in front of the couch and unzip the kit. 

You pull out the tiny red bandaids. You'd bought them as a joke, initially. It had made Jason laugh and that had been reason enough to keep buying them. And then he let you actually put them on.

You peel the adhesive off of one and gently stick it on his cheek. He blinks at you, thick, dark lashes kissing the corners of his eyes. 

"I'm not tired of you," you say softly. 

"I'd be tired of me." 

"You keep this city safe. How could I be tired of Gotham's defender?"

Jason scowls and turns his head into the cushion before you can put the second bandaid.  

"I'm not its defender. The others protect this city a hundred times better. Nightwing does it with a smile on his face."

"I like that you go out there even when it's hard, Jay," you say. 

He doesn't respond. You lean in, so close that you can count the freckles on his neck. 

"Can I finish putting the bandaids on?" you ask. 

"I don't need 'em."

"You do. You need another on your forehead."

"It'll heal fine without it."

Your shoulders bunch like a cat on defense. You grab his cheek (gently, always gently) and his head whips to yours in surprise. 

"Jason Todd, I am not tired of you. I'm tired of the fact that you only come by when you need fixing."

He scowls. "I never asked you to fix me. If you want me to leave, I'll leave."

"I don't want you to leave, I want you to stay!" you burst. 

Jason scoffs. "No, you don’t. I'll overstay my welcome real fast."

"Maybe I care about you on purpose!" you say, voice rising. "Maybe I didn't stumble through a window; maybe I walked through the door and bought the bandaids and learned how to stitch wounds because I wanted to."

He suddenly looks overcome by grief. The agony in his face startles you. 

"I don't know how to use the door anymore," he says quietly. "All I do is stumble through windows."

Your hand slips off of his cheek. Jason closes his eyes; they fly open when you stick the second bandaid above his eyebrow. 

"You can come in any way you want to," you say, face an inch away from his. "As long as you come back to me."

His gaze darts to your mouth. You don't kiss him hard. He breaks anyway.

You avoid the right side of his mouth entirely, not wanting to pull at his cut. Jason shudders into your mouth. You cup his pulse through his neck and it quickens.

His eyes are wet when you pull away. His chest heaves like he's been swinging through the city. 

"I wanna try to use the door," he says. 

You touch the bandaid on his cheek, humming. 

"Then I'll leave it unlocked." 

[asgardianhobbit98]

Four for Valentine: Week 3 "Eavesdropping"

Fandom: DC, Nightwing, Batfamily

Pairing: Nightwing / Female Reader

Important tags: Probably the most overdone trope in the world but hey, it’s Nightwing fluff, we deserve more Nightwing fluff; fluff; proposal; eavesdropping; established relationship; female reader.

Summary: You overhear Dick and Bruce talking on the phone and find out Dick is wanting to borrow money... This sets off some alarm bells in your mind as their relationship is so strained it must be something very important for Dick to ask for money. Turns out, though, that it's not all as bad as you thought it was...

Written for my "Four for Valentine" event 🩶🩷

Tag list: @fizzyxcustard @middleearthpixie @glassgulls @evenstaredits @knittastically @heilith @lathalea @way-too-addicted-to-fandoms @nowandthane

if you want to be removed or added to my tag list, please let me know 🩷

You had been done with work maybe two minutes earlier than usual. Yet, in those few moments before he noticed you, you managed to overhear enough to scramble your brain completely.

Dick was on the phone with someone you deduced to be Bruce – not because you were in any way a detective like Dick, but because you literally overheard an annoyed ‘Bruce’ come from Dick’s mouth.

Awkwardly standing behind him, you listened in on what was going to become a life changing moment of eavesdropping.

It wasn’t like Dick had any secrets from you to begin with, so eavesdropping wasn’t perhaps the reason behind why you suddenly felt so awkward. It was more the fact that, quite honestly, Dick’s relationship with Bruce was.. complicated. And on top of that Bruce was a very intimidating character all on his own. So you didn’t want to interrupt in the slightest in fear that he might get annoyed with you (not that Bruce ever could get annoyed with you). So you stayed right there on the side of the street, staring at Richard’s back as you overheard everything…

“It needs to be perfect. She’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on, I can’t just give – But it’s just a little… Yes, I know. I know. I know what I said. I just can’t afford this one right now. I’ll pay back… Really? No, I want to pay back. Thank you Bruce. I mean it. I owe you one. No, I do. Thanks. Bye.”

Once he hung up, he turned to find you awkwardly stood behind him. He nearly jumped out of his skin, which was unusual as Dick was really difficult to scare. The man had a sixth sense or something, probably from his time at the academy.

“Did you just overhear-“

“No! Not at all,” you were quick to say.

But inside, that lie didn’t quite cover the beating of your heart and the worry spreading through your chest. Dick would never borrow money from Bruce because of their complicated relationship. So what was so important…

Assuming it was you that he was speaking of was something you were comfortable with. After all, this man had devoted himself to you since that day, three months into your relationship, that you’d caught him mid mental breakdown in the shower… and you had jumped in, clothes on, to just hold him. He went through so much. So much pain. So much anguish. He saw such horrors as a detective in Bludhaven. You just wanted to be there for him. So of course you were. Without judgement. Without fail. And apparently he’d had little to no such support before. Because from that day on, Dick had been in love with you.

You’d fallen for him a bit earlier, but once his love was locked in, you only fell deeper in love with him. He was so gentle, so caring, and so extremely goofy… Just to make you laugh, smile…

Perfection. He was perfection to you. And so, you didn’t feel it was a presumption to think he had been speaking about you. The only thing your brain was trying to figure out was what he was borrowing money for.

…

He drove you home, as always.

You didn’t live together yet, but you practically did.

On the days that he could get away from work to pick you up from your job, drive you home safe and walk you up to your door, and subsequently enter after you invited him in for dinner or a movie marathon or to just talk, Dick didn’t go home. He had clothes in your closet, his own set of towels, his own bar of soap. And you had the same objects in his flat.

Why the two of you didn’t live together yet was mainly because Dick was a little reluctant. Not in a bad way. But he was worried for your safety. He never brought his work home unless it was too much on him and he needed to talk or cry to you, but he was terrified that “work” would follow him home some day and it would put you in danger.

You weren’t quite sure why, considering Dick always managed to put everyone in jail. And if he didn’t, then Bludhaven’s protector, Nightwing, sure did. Still… you let him fret about your safety and you didn’t push him on the subject.

You hadn’t mentioned living together for three years now. It had turned into a comfortable routine to simply pretend to have daily sleepovers.

But as Dick walked you up to your door that afternoon, using his own key to unlock it for you, you were quieter than usual and forgot to offer the usual invite in.

He tried to ask if something was the matter but you just kept up the ‘no no! I’m okay!’ façade as best as you could.

The routine continued as normal for a while after that; the gentle homely everyday life the two of you had created, where Dick would sit himself down at the kitchen counter with some reports he wanted to finish, or read through, whilst he watched you cook happened just as always.

He cooked sometimes too in the beginning of your relationship but that hadn’t lasted long as he was, quite honestly, useless in the kitchen. You blamed his childhood where he’d literally had a butler. He blamed the fact that he was just better at other things. Whatever it was he was better at, you used to joke, you hadn’t seen it yet.

He’d always chuckle and pretend to be hurt before pressing kisses to your temple, hugging you tightly.

This evening was a little different from others though. He finished some reports. You cooked. He would look up and stare at you… And that was where the difference came in. You wanted to turn around and catch his gaze as usual, send him a little loving smile… But you didn’t. You were too caught up in the conversation you’d overheard, not sure why. Your mind was trying its hardest to come up with something: a reason for why Dick would borrow money for you…

Of course Dick noticed that. He was a detective, and a damned good one when it came to you.

“What’s wrong?” he asked once more. There was a mixture between worry and haste in his words whilst he stood to move over to you.

You were absentmindedly stirring the boiling pasta which wasn’t needed as much as you were doing it, but it was something to avoid his loving gaze. He hugged you from behind, and you instantly leaned back into the hug, enjoying his little kisses and his little nibbles at your neck. “You’re quiet and you’re avoiding me. You never do that.”

True. Even if you were sad or upset about something, even him, then you’d never become distant.

Humming in delight at his show of affection, you let go of the wooden spoon and let your hands rest on his arms around you. “I’m sorry, Dick. I don’t mean to worry you.”

“So something is wrong?”

“No… I don’t know.”

He let go of you to gently turn you, catching your gaze with a tilt of his head. “What do you mean?”

You desperately reached out to hold his hands, just to touch something and to ground your thoughts a bit, because honestly you weren’t quite sure why you were so fixated on this but… you were.

“I guess I sorta overheard your phone call earlier…”

“Oh…” His eyes grew big, and he tensed.

Oh no.

“Love, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but why were you asking Bruce for money?”

Dick shook his head quickly, “Wait no, this isn’t…” Dick sighed. “Just. Stay there. Well, don’t let the food burn I guess but stay there.”

He suddenly rushed off, leaving you with more questions than anything else, really.

“Dick? Wait where are you going?”

He grabbed his jacket and just reassured you it was all okay and that you shouldn’t go anywhere… then he left.

Huh? You stood, dumbfounded, in the kitchen, pasta boiling, sauce bubbling…

And now you were less worried, and more confused. Dick hadn’t seemed weirded out or like he was off to never come back, he just seemed stressed about something not going his way and you really had no idea what was going on.

Fighting the urge to get a little upset about his lack of communication, you finished cooking and prepared two plates of food.

In the end, you ate yours all alone, and put his plate in the fridge for him.

You cleaned up the kitchen, you watched the sun go down over Bludhaven, you stared at the clock, you paced for a while, you tried to watch TV for a while…

Hours later, you gave up waiting and moved to the shower. You sent a couple of worried text messages with no response. You got ready for the night as best you could despite the growing pit in your stomach.

Did he run out for good after all?

Had something happened?

He had seemed stressed, maybe he didn’t drive safely?!

…

At some point during the night, you’d heard the key enter the slot and the front door open. It wasn’t like you could sleep, after all, so you’d propped yourself up on your elbows and waited. It was Dick’s footsteps that entered. He shifted around a bit by the door, then his steps disappeared into the flat.

Confused, and at this point a little hurt despite not knowing what to be hurt about, you just laid back down and turned onto your side.

What a strange day.

…

Not quite sure if you got a lot of sleep in or not, but at least aware that you had fallen asleep now that you knew Dick was safe, you were suddenly stirred awake by Dick crawling onto the bed.

He sat on his knees next to you, reaching for your shoulder to wake you, but paused when he noticed you move your head to look at him. It was dark as all hell in the room, so you only saw his shape for a while. Until he bent back to turn the lamp on behind him.

You squinted your eyes for a bit as they got used to the light, noticing him shift his hand to hold something out to you, but not seeing what until a bit later and…

Once you saw what it was, you just sort of stared.

There were even more questions in your mind now. He had run out for this!? Was this the thing he wanted to buy that he required Bruce’s help with!? If so, you understood why because… this ring looked expensive. Not only that, but you saw the little black box had an insignia from a rare jewellery store which one couldn’t find anywhere but in Gotham City.

Had Dick really gone all the way to Gotham just now to… “What’s this?” you asked, voice filled with sleep.

“A ring.”

You resisted the urge to roll your eyes at him. “I know but… Dick, I asked earlier-“

“It was this. I saw this a couple days ago when I visited Bruce.”

Huh? When had Dick been to Gotham? So many questions…

“I wanted to get it for you. It’s… It’s perfect.” He was still sat there on his knees, both his hands holding the little black box open for you to see.

You were still half asleep in bed, head lifted from the pillow, sheets wrapped around your body snug. “What… Dick I don’t get it.”

“Marry me.”

OH.

“I mean…” Dick laughed a bit awkwardly, “Do you want to marry me?”

Were there still questions that you had? Yes. Many. And a lot of them were going to be answered those days before the wedding when Dick decided to come clean about his secrets, but for now… For now, you were elated.

This silly man had driven to Gotham to get the ring once he understood that you were beginning to get onto what he was planning… For what? Just so he could still surprise you?

Probably. He liked surprising you.

So of course you laughed. A little bit at him rather than anything else. He looked a little miffed by this reaction, so you were quick to sit up in bed and reach your hands out to lovingly cup his hands holding that… insanely expensive looking ring. Which you loved, by the way. Even if you were scared of wearing it in fear of breaking it.

“This is what this was all about?” you asked.

He nodded his head, his blue eyes clearly not quite sure yet of whether you were okay with this or not.

So, you were quick to smile at him and nod your head to ease his mind: “Yes, silly. Of course I want to marry you. You didn’t have to ask. And you didn’t have to get such an expensive ring. All I ever need is just you.”

He smiled. Oh did he smile. It only made this moment even more precious to see him smiling this much.

After three years with him you didn’t think you could see any new sides of his, but that smile… that smile was different than anything you’d ever seen before. That smile was adoring and devoted and close to crying all at once… and you loved it. It was a special smile, you’d find out. One that only happened during a couple of special moments in his life. Like right now when he looked at you through a new lens of love.

“All I ever need is you too. But I wanted to get you the most perfect ring, to show you how much you mean to me.” He leaned over and pressed a long, deep kiss to your lips, before pressing his forehead against yours, noses touching as he slipped the expensive ring onto your finger…

[wanderingmind867]

When you get this, list 5 songs you like to listen to, publish them, and send this ask to the last 10 people in your notifs

I don't do anything to break my sedentary habits, so I feel indepted to reply (if only so i can tag people and force myself to engage in some forced socialization, the most i'll probably do for days. So, 5 songs...well, i'll them at random:

The Chain - Fleetwood Mac: I sort of have to put this one since i just spent practically an hour listening to it on loop. No, seriously. I was doing a stupid dc character sorter or something, and i couldn't leave the page. So my YouTube backup tab ended up playing the song on loop for an hour.

When the Night Feels My Song - Bedouin Soundclash: This is a song from my childhood. Apparently it was a song the CBC used for their children's programming when I was a young kid, and that's how I discovered it. It's still a great song now, though.

And When I Die - Blood, Sweat and Tears: Another song I inexplicably liked as a kid. I seriously don't know why a song about being unafraid to die appealed to me as a kid, but it did. Maybe I just like the uptempo melody, or maybe i've just always been a very neurotic person who was reassured by a song like this.

Forever and Ever, Amen - Randy Travis: My dad likes this song, and I don't mind it either. It's nice and calming. And you know, I do think that country music was once better than it is now. There were a lot of good singers in that genre, which i know partially because of my dad (who i think likes it because of his dad). But it doesn't seem like there's as much good in the genre now.

Hand Me Downs - Arkells: My mom really liked this band. I personally like them too. They're a good group, probably obscure outside of canada (although i could be wrong about that), and i think they deserve more attention. Some of the songs i think really hit home for my mom.

So there. 5 songs. It just took me nearly six hours to think of all of them. But I did it. Now, to tag some people (i'm not gonna necessarily go by my notifications, i might go more by people i see interacting with me often and/or people i'm mutuals with): @ihauntmyhouse @thewordsmith3 @ltwharfy @billybatsonmylove @c00c00pig @v4guelyv4mpiric @irishskeptic @munchkinmarauder @yourfriendlyneighbourhoodaries @kryptonbabe @marvel-and-moor @berf-a-smurf @0asta0

Oh, and the obligatory gesture i should probably do: thank you for sending me this, @riordanverseaddict.

[joyce-stick]

Good evening,

I am contacting the team in relation to the current policy of the tag wranglers on "All Media Types" tags. I have heard from various community members that the policy of the tag wranglers is, as of this moment, to remove these tags. I am writing primarily to express my opposition to this policy, as it is not clear what problem it is intended to solve, and broadly has the potential to cause more harm than good (if any good at all).

You have likely already heard about the impact this policy has on anime and manga fandoms, as many Japanese media franchises exist across mediums and installments that share a singular continuity, and many adaptations are 1 to 1 transpositions of the source material's narrative to the target medium with no meaningful narrative deviation. Bang Dream, the Monogatari series, and virtually every manga with an anime adaptation (such as Bloom Into You, Bocchi the Rock, and My Hero Academia) all fall into this. There are counter-examples, such as Fullmetal Alchemist's manga, and its 2003 anime adaptation which takes a drastically different narrative direction, but these exceptions are few and far between.

Anime and manga fanfic writers often tag both the anime and the manga of the series they are writing about, because the fandom for both is often one and the same. Removing the All Media Types tag makes the act of searching for fics in any anime/manga fandom more difficult, as well as making it harder to filter out crossovers, because the option to do so removes any writers who have tagged both the anime and the manga for the reasons of fandom continuity mentioned earlier.

This policy, if applied consistently, also has the potential to have an incredibly destructive impact on the searchability of any fic for a media franchise split across a large number of installments and continuities, which can potentially number in the dozens, and in some extreme cases, the hundreds. The Transformers franchise, in particular, has numerous spinoffs across many mediums and continuities, as do many other popular franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gundam, and a litany of others. There are also the obvious examples of franchises such as Star Wars, Marvel, and DC, many of whose installments also share continuities or other elements. Removing the All Media Types tag makes it difficult for people who wish to search for fics from any of these franchises generally with no interest in any particular spinoff, and solves no apparent problem.

The child tags already exist for readers who want to search for media based on any specific installment, as well as for writers writing a fic not based on any spinoff or continuity in particular. Someone writing a more general interpretation of a popular character may have to pick a single piece of that franchise to tag the story under, where they might otherwise simply use the general "All Media Types" tag. This is a serious oversight, as while the wranglers may claim that the removal of these tags is to make the search easier, it in fact makes it more difficult for writers to reach their audience, and audiences to find stories they might have otherwise discovered more easily.

I would strongly encourage the wranglers to observe the following posts, and the response to them, which should be ample evidence that many in the community are not in favor of this policy and that for many fandoms it does not have the intended impact of improving the website's ease of use;*

[1] [2]

If there are no plans to reverse course on the policy, I would strongly implore the staff to publicly announce this change and open a dialogue with the community on how to handle this. I personally am opposed to it, but I am obviously not the only one. Right now the general perception seems to be that this practice is of no convenience to anyone except the tag wranglers themselves, and that they are ignoring the voices of anyone contacting them to say that it is not appreciated. At an absolute minimum, I believe transparency from the team about why and how this policy is being implemented is required, because right now, there is no open communication on this that I have observed and the only way this became openly known was by people on social media passing around screenshots of individual email responses from the Archive's support team.

You can rest assured that I will be doing the same if the response to this inquiry proves unfavorable. Regards, Joyce Celeste Silvia Fisher

*I put a plain colon rather than a semicolon in the original message but tumblr didn't like that for some reason.

Proof:

[nyhti]

I associate you a lot with DC's Dr. Strange, hehe ^w^

So is it true that Dr. Hugo Strange is just as much of a weirdo as the other rogues? Because I thought he was originally this boring evil doctor guy, but it seems he has this weird thing for Batman????

What other weird quirks does this man have besides dressing up as Batman (and the weird Batman sex mannequin he has)?

Love your art, by the way!!!!!

Thank you for the ask!

Oh, he's definitely just as weird as the next rogue, even weirder than most in my opinion. I think the assumption that he's boring comes from the fact that most people don't bother to actually do any research into him. It seems most people get their idea of what this character is about from Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #11-15 ”Prey” and that is a tragedy, because, in my opinion, neither of these are good takes on Hugo. When you go to his tag on this site every take is either ”guy standing around in a lab coat” or ”HE FUCKED A MANNEQUIN??” Tragic. When you actually start reading his stories you find he is actually a surprisingly complex and interesting character.

I'm not quite sure what would qualify as a weird quirk, but I gathered some interesting and freaky little moment in Hugo lore from Pre-Crisis canon. Pre-Crisis, because I just don't really care about Post-Crisis.

My personal favorite little piece of weird Hugo lore is that he canonically took nudes of himself sometime during Gerry Conway's run. I talked about it in the tags of this post and then later made a comic about it here.

Second freaky moment is him drugging and undressing Bruce TWICE during Steve Englehart's run. I posted about it here.

Third place is going to the fact that in his first appearance (Detective Comics #36 (1940)) he apparently just had a designated room in his hideout where he could chain people up and whip them. Normal. I'm surprised I haven't posted about this before, but I guess I just consider it's common knowledge considering it's his first appearance.

And I feel like I need to give at least an honorable mention to him sticking his finger in Bruce's mouth mid battle in Batman #356 (1983). I posted about it here.

Second honorable mention goes to that scene in Detective Comics #471 (1977) where we see Hugo getting undressed and Magda with her shirt half open and then Batman crashes in and Hugo starts frantically getting dressed and Magda buttons her shirt. I can always tell when people haven't done their research into this character when they start having takes like he can't get laid. I'm looking at you Doug Moench.

Anyway, that's all I can think of right now.

[bromcommie]

case of attachment

seventy years of silence v1.2 alt

I would love to hear about BOTH of these, but if you'd rather pick one, go ahead!!! <3

Hiya, thanks for the ask! I'm nothing if not yappy, so you get both <3 1. case of attachment — this is one of the AO3 Tag Bingo ones I started a month ago but never ended up submitting, and now I'm kind of glad I didn't 'cause I want to work on it more. The prompt was Ghosts, which is nothing if not rife with potential considering who I'm writing about. Because I seem incapable of writing full-scale AUs, though, I didn't take it literally, but the fic's also not...completely devoid of supernatural elements, I guess? I'd call it bordering on magical realism, maybe. It follows a couple of episodes throughout Steve and Bucky's lives through the lens of spirits and the various mythologies surrounding them (as well as the individual and collective fears/hopes they're usually inspired by), because that's a 3 am rabbithole I tend to fall down frequently. There's also something fascinating to the idea that the fear of possession is a fear of loss of identity or personhood or control, but also that possession has historically been used as an explanation for aspects of an identity that are unacceptable being actualized or apparent (mental health issues, behavior not correlated to someone's place in society, sexual desire, etc.) I’m not summarizing this very well, but there’s a hell of a lot of fun to be had with the meaning of ghosts and spirits, is what I’m trying to say.

The name itself sort of comes from the word dybbuk, which from what I understand is just a noun derived from the Hebrew word for 'to cling', but was translated specifically as 'state of attachment' on Wikipedia, and I just found that to be a somewhat strange and clunky but really interesting phrase. Not to mention fitting. Every love story is a ghost story and all that, and every ghost story is about the inability to let go.

In any case I feel like I'm on a roll with this one, so I might even publish it soon!

2. seventy years of silence v1.2 alt — Okay, this is the first script the mockup posters series spawned, so pardon the incoming word vomit as it is my baby—and it kind of ties into the previous one in the sense that it's supposed to be not entirely linear nor lucid in segments (hm, it's almost like there is a pattern starting to emerge here...). Anyway: (more or less) solo Winter Soldier movie, here goes.

I just couldn't stop thinking about how there's a whole goddamned movie missing between Winter Soldier and Civil War in more ways than one, and also about just how great it would've been to see Bucky as the WS (but tbh also just as Bucky) explored more as both the vessel for American Cold War anxieties and the ghost—ha—of their horrific consequences, as well as a storytelling conduit for observing several periods of 20th century history, cosidering he's supposed to be a key player in much of it yet is essentially a complete outsider to the world as a whole and (superficially) to the human experience of it all. I just think it'd work well as a lead up to the politics-adjacent events of CW, too. So on a background level I guess that's what I'm trying to do here via flashbacks that piece together the long road so far, as well as what continuity there is to Bucky pre + post-fall.

On a primary level, it's more or less a classic post-CATWS fic in content, if not form: Bucky post-DC trying to stay out of shit but caught between unwillingly retracing his history when Plot Events keep happening, figuring out how to both get the government off his ass and make sure his captors don't get to him without it becoming an outright revenge spree, figuring out who this Steve character is and if he even wants him to find Bucky (although for the time being I'd say present day Steve features less heavily than usual and is not necessarily the explicit focus, which is not to say that he doesn't play a role and that it's still not gay as all hell), and just figuring out what the fuck is going on in general and how to survive. I also loosely borrow from a couple of the comics runs both with the Department X/Red Room stuff and in order to set up an intro to the Superhuman Registration Act/Sokovia Accords, because I fucking hate how CW handled all that. (Surprise, surprise.)

So basically there is...definitely too much going on there. I've put it on hold a little these days until I figure out what exactly I want to do with it and because it keeps breaking my brain, but I still work on it here and there, so there's still hope.

I've already written way too much, but here's a snippet for the hell of it since I was actually just editing this yesterday:

[yetanothergreyjedi]

Ghosts of Our Pasts: 9

DP x DC Crossover

Danny Fenton and Damian Wayne Siblings AU

Ao3

Masterpost Previous Next

Dani: Yo, what's with the massive group chat I just got dropped into?

Dani: I'm assuming you guys have to do with this

Tucker: ....did... did we forget to send you Danny’s new number? 

Dani: he has a NEW one? I just swapped his contact information like 2 weeks ago 

Tucker: it's actually the same number just backwards... present from the Backwards Day Ghost 

Dani: WOW

Tucker: it was miserable 

Dani: I'm sure

Dani: so about the group chat?

Tucker: Danny met his bio-sibling and he had a fraid too, so idk its like fraid inlaws or something? 

Dani: Bio-sibling? Danny's adopted? 

Tucker:Shouldn't you know this?

Dani: Why would I?

Tucker: You're his cousin....

Dani: Oh... I forgot I told you guys that...  

Tucker: ?

Dani: I'm his clone

Tucker: this is gonna be a wild story isn't it

* Dani started a call that lasted 31 minutes *

---

Jazz: Danny why did you just put me in a group chat with like 25 people in it?

Danny: Sibling groupchat 

Jazz: What? 

Jazz: Danny, I'm going to need a bit more explanation than that. 

Jazz: you didn't get cloned again?

Jazz: Did you???

Jazz: Danny?

* 1 missed call from Jazz *

* 2 missed calls from Jazz *

* 3 missed calls from Jazz *

---

Jazz: please tell me Danny lost his phone again and isn't in some kind of trouble. 

Tucker: Oh, it's in his bag... he's out rn...

Jazz: out where?

Jazz: I thought this was supposed to be a 'laying low' vacation? 

Sam: that was before he met his brother 

Jazz: his brother? 

Tucker: yeah! Apparently he's related to the Batman!

Jazz: you left him alone with his brother 

Sam: Yeah...?

Jazz: the brother that killed him?

* multiple people are typing *

---

So yeah, Danny was officially tasting emotions now. He realized as Damian looked him over. The flour-y taste of concern was replaced with a salty-savory pride as he confirmed that, no, Danny hadn't been shot. (Well, he would've been, if he hadn't decided to not be tangible.) Then Bio-dad dropped down, mugger dude gave off another milk-sour wave of fear. Then Bio-dad saw the gun and huh, he didn't think describe how disappointment tasted with human words. But maybe he should be focusing less on what flavors most accurately described his stupid new empath ability and focus more on the situation at hand.

Together Dami and Bio-dad explained the normal process of cuffing criminals in obvious places so the police can find them. It was simple, didn't really require Danny to do anything, so he disassembled the weapon while he listened. Which he probably shouldn't have done, because now he was being asked to hand it over as evidence...

"Uh..." Danny fished the larger pieces back out of his pocket, but their was a lot of little ones, because he might've phased the screws out to take apart the fun little inner bits and he ended up dropping tiny metal parts all over the sidewalk. 

There was a beat of silence, then Damian clicked his tongue with a little "Tt," and Danny flushed. 

"Sorry..." Danny started.

"It's fine," the Bat said. Amusement, it turned out, tasted like raspberries.

-

-

-

Notes

Danny, holding a deadly weapon: "is this a fidget toy?"

Somebody told me once that they didn't see any Canon evidence that Sam and Tucker knew Dani was a clone. And like, their lives are so crazy that peice of information falling into a crack, sure. Where did Danny's concerned about vlad cloning people came from. Like they didn't question it, vlad is weird. They could see him doing it... oh... he did do it? That makes more sense than a sudden semi rational fear.

Also Batman has absolutely noticed some weird things about Danny. But he also knows that Danny has "a weird conglomeration" of Lazarus put side effects, and that Danny said "mood" about being in other dimensions. It might be ooc for him to be patient with answers, but he's in my story so he's gotta play by my rules.

Tag list

@spectralstardustandphantomnights @avelnfear @idfk-man10 @blackroserelina @candeartist422 @mur-ururu @luer-mirin @insufferablecatenthusiast @skulld3mort-1fan @alonedustspeck @voidbornposts @meira-3919 @marshmello @aethernorwood @mimilikey @undead-essence @cloudminder @markus209 @everything163 @latheevening226 @roman4517 @moobloomrights @battybatbat @lumosfeather18581 @werv @ahyesanerd @pyramaniac @lexdamo @princessbelix @bun-fish @deeannthepan @edgyboi10000 @thatrandomsarahchick @busterkeel @aconitewolfsbane @spoopyspoony @bright-shade @spidey29phangirl @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @keimiwolf @u-a-wizard-jamie @gay-puff @bicerise @itshype @blackfoxsposts @icanneverdecide @lolottes @chubbypotato @jovialherringtacoghost @saltyladynightmare

[halfstayed]

helloooo here for your top 5 asks:

top 5 Noah Kahan songs!!! (I think I know a few of your favs but not the top few) 👀

top 5 comic pairings besides bucky x nat 😌

top 5 songs on loop lately!! 🎧

top 5 places to travel on your bucket list 🛫

top 5 gif edits?? (now I'm just being nosey boop)

top 5 Noah Kahan songs this fluctuates wildly depending on what mood I'm in when I listen to his songs (essentially in love with all of them) but right now I have to say:

Forever

Call Your Mom (with Lizzy McAlpine)

No Complaints

The View Between Villages - Extended

Everywhere, Everything (with Gracie Abrams)

top 5 comic pairings besides bucky x nat fine, fine, I don't talk about them much on here but...

dinah x babs

harley x ivy

dick x babs

steph x cass

dinah x ollie

(in which they all ended up being dc pairings)

top 5 songs on loop lately I had to ask spotify for this, but apparently these were my top songs for May: (do NOT ask me why the first four are all helendale songs)

Crazier Things (with Noah Kahan) by Chelsea Cutler

Please Don't Be by Hazlett (in which I had a 6 day streak listening to this)

Splintered by Aisha Badru (thanks @elialys for the rec <3)

State Lines by Novo Amor

Slow It Down by Benson Boone (we're too young to drown.......)

honourable mention to 余年 but you already know why this song is on loop currently 🫠🫠

top 5 places to travel on your bucket list surprisingly, I don’t have very strong opinions about this. I love travelling but it’s more about the process of taking in the place and being immersed in another culture than the particular destination, and I'm always up for exploring a place I'm not familiar with yet.

top 5 gif edits it's hard to give particular answers to this because there are soooo many amazing gif edits being made on here every single day, but if you're really feeling nosy then have fun in my #insp and #fav tags lol!

ask me my “top 5” anything!

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

I’ve observed that Harry Potter is probably pretty much the most universally crossed over fandom property. My Hero Academia is one I see a lot too in various fandoms I’m in, along with Naruto and the MCU. I find it interesting how different fandoms have different more common crossovers, and how those come about. The fandom I’ve done the most observation of this in is the DC Comics fandom. In my experience, I’ve seen it mostly crossed over with Miraculous Ladybug, Danny Phantom, and, of course, Harry Potter. I’m just gonna ramble here a bit, sorry! The way I understand it, the Miraculous Ladybug crossover phenom came about because apparently at some point in that show parts of the fandom decided the main character wasn’t being treated well, and started writing fics where they shipped her off to Gotham to get adopted by Batman or date a Robin or things like that. I took a look at some a while back, and every single one I saw was drastically out of character for the DC characters and read more like just space for people to project on them how they felt Ladybug should be treated and basically as like, spite towards the rest of the Ladybug cast or even the show itself. Not saying that’s the case for all of them, but the two properties are such different tones that I don’t think I’ll ever get it. There was also a period of time when the DC Comics tag on AO3 was flooded with White Collar crossovers, because people were fancasting the lead actor as Dick Grayson and apparently there was a discord server of some kind where people were just egging each other on or something writing a bunch, and I mean a BUNCH, of these crossover fics that were basically boiled down to “This White Collar character is secretly actually Nightwing in disguise!” And then sort of mutated into a bunch of fics that were riffs on that theme culminating in a ton of lookalike fics of “This White Collar character is secretly actually [Insert DC Character Of Your Choice Here] in disguise!” It got old really quick. Sorry for the rambling!

Now that I think about it, I can see why Harry Potter would have a lot of crossover fics. Especially with how common it was ~back in the day~ to assign Hogwarts houses to characters from other media.

Harry Potter apparently has 503377 works on Ao3, 48910 of which are crossovers. That's a solid 10%.

[late-to-the-party-81]

I've always wanted you [but not like this]

AN: Here’s a dark, angsty piece for you. Please read the CW - Steve is not nice in this.

Thanks to @buckyismyconstant for beta-ing. Moodboard by me and dividers by @firefly-graphics

This fic fills the following Bingo squares

@stuckybingo B5: Hate Sex

@steverogersbingo E3: Came Back Wrong

Master list | Stucky Bingo Master list | SRB Master list

Join my tag list here.

Summary: When Steve reappeared on the platform Bucky knew something was wrong, he just didn’t realise how wrong at first.

Relationship: Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes

Word Count: 2.1k

CW: Not Endgame Compliant, Dark Steve Rogers, Unrequited love, Angst, Hurt no Comfort, Dub Con bordering on Non Con, Precum as lube, Spit as lube, Anal sex, Degradation, Humiliation, Top Steve, Bottom Bucky, Low Self-esteem, No aftercare, gaslighting, Internalised homophobia.

Bucky knew something was wrong as soon as Steve walked off the platform, because Steve hadn’t been planning on coming back at all — he’d told Bucky as much before he’d suited up to return the stones. It had broken Bucky’s heart to hear that his best friend was leaving him behind to have a life with Peggy, but if it was what Steve wanted, then he’d do his best to support him. It wasn’t Steve’s fault that Bucky was madly in love with him and that Steve only saw him as a brother; it had been like that their whole lives. Why would it change now?

“Aren’t you glad to see me, Buck?” Steve said as he stepped down and clapped his friend on the shoulder. Bucky could only manage to gape like a fish, his mouth opening and closing silently twice as he tried to process everything. What had happened?

To everyone else, all seemed normal. Now that Thanos was defeated, the Snap reversed and the stones returned, it was time to properly move on, but Bucky just felt as though he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Pepper organised the rebuilding of the compound — Shield and the Avengers needed a base after all — and that’s where Bucky found himself living. He didn’t really have another choice. Sam stayed there when he wasn’t in DC and Bruce visited from time to time, so it was mainly just him in the personal quarters in the evening. Or rather, him and Steve. Apparently he had nowhere else to go either. With the original tenant of his apartment returning after the Blip, and Steve himself not planning on returning from the 1940s, he was left in the same situation as Bucky.

So it was just the two of them, like a strange reflection of the past. Similar, but different. Steve and Bucky. Bucky and Steve. Steve, who seemed to be invading Bucky’s personal space more than he used to. Steve, who now seemed to maintain eye contact just that little bit longer than was comfortable. 

Was Bucky imagining it? Or had something changed? That small, unextinguishable, hopeful part of him wanted that to be true. 

If Bucky’s tongue poked out of his mouth to moisten his lips, Steve was watching. If he was coming out of the shower in just his towel, Steve was watching. However, why did something that he’d wanted for so long feel so wrong? Why did every hand brushing over his hip and waist in a confined space send an unwelcomed kind of shiver down his spine? 

He’d tried to ask Steve about his change of plans on a couple of occasions, but his friend had just deflected, giving him a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You mean you’re not glad to have me here, Buck? And here I was thinking you couldn’t live without me.”

Eventually, Bucky gave up asking. Steve would tell him if he wanted to and in his own time. And Bucky had his own things going on. Therapy for one. Learning to live free in the world  with all the knowledge of what he’d done when he’d been under Hydra’s control was not easy.

A quiet night. Dark and relatively peaceful. 

Bucky padded into his room and pulled his t-shirt over his head, ready to start preparing for bed. However, no sooner had the soft cotton cleared his face, Bucky realised he wasn’t alone. He threw the clothing to the ground and prepared himself for an attack.

It never came.

But what did come was a voice.

“Why’d you stop, Buck?”

Bucky peered into the darkness, towards the sound. Steve must be sitting in the easy chair.

“Steve? What are you doing in here?”

The chair creaked and Bucky could hear Steve’s soft footsteps as he traversed the carpeted floor. Bucky watched as Steve appeared out of the darkness, the soft glow from the living room shining through the partially open bedroom door and illuminating the planes of his face. He looked dark and sinister yet still oh-so-beautiful.

“I didn’t tell you to stop, Bucky. Take it off. Take it all off. I wanna see. And I know you wanna show me.” Steve’s voice was low. Sultry. And despite the confusion swirling in Bucky’s mind, his dick was definitely interested in what was happening.

Their eyes locked, each searching the other’s expression until Steve’s nostrils flared and without warning he was pushing Bucky up against his bedroom wall with a hand around his throat.

The air was driven from Bucky’s lungs, but luckily the grip of his neck wasn’t so tight that he couldn’t draw another in. Steve’s free hand was suddenly pulling at Bucky’s sweats, tugging at them and yanking them off his hips.

“I said, take them off. I know you’re not stupid, Bucky.”

Thinking back on it all later, Bucky could easily have fought back — could easily have gotten away — but for some reason he didn’t. His hands trembled as he pushed his pants all the way down his thighs, kicking them off his ankles, stripping for the man he loved, even if the Steve in front of him bore little resemblance to the Steve of Bucky’s memories.

Steve leaned in close, turning Bucky’s head to the side, nosing at his throat and inhaling before he suddenly bit down on the juncture of Bucky’s neck and left shoulder over the scarring that marked his skin. 

Bucky screamed but his cock jumped in his shorts, and it was over as quickly as it had happened as Steve pulled back and turned Bucky’s head back to face him.

“I know you want me, Buck. You’ve always wanted me. I have eyes. But something… I don’t know… I never wanted you like this before, but now I do.”

Bucky looked at Steve with wide eyes, ice meeting ocean, and then his world was spinning as Steve quickly turned him, pressed him into the wall.

“What have you done to me, Buck? You’ve hypnotised me. I saw Peggy, almost walked up to her, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave you. And when I stepped back off that pad and saw you, it was like a slap to the face.” Steve pressed his body— still clothed— against Bucky’s naked back, and Bucky couldn’t hold back a whimper.

This was all wrong, but it was everything he’d ever wanted.

“Steve?” He didn’t even know what he was pleading for.

“Shh-shh. Don’t say anything. I need you to be quiet. Because I don’t want this, but at the same time I feel that if I don’t, I’ll never have a moment’s peace again. I need to own you. Mark you.”

There was venom in his voice, an undercurrent of loathing, and Bucky didn’t know if Steve was aiming it at him or himself.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want, Stevie.”

“Shut up!” Steve’s roar came with a spray of saliva. A roar of anguish. “You don’t get to say anything.” Steve kicked Bucky’s ankles apart. Bucky didn’t stop him. “I could have had a life. The life I wanted. A wife. Kids. The whole nine yards. But you…” His hand twisted in the fabric of Bucky’ shorts and ripped them from his body. “You couldn’t leave me alone. Wouldn’t get out of my head.”

Having thrown the now scrap of fabric to the floor, Steve’s hand came back around Bucky’s body, pushing between him and the wall, until Steve was able to cup Bucky’s cock in his hand. Bucky bit his lip, swallowing the moan that came unbidden and clenched his eyes shut. His cock was throbbing. Dripping. He felt so ashamed.

“I should have known it,” Steve drawled as his hand pumped Bucky’s cock. “It doesn’t even matter if I hate you. If I’m cruel to you. As long as I do something to you, you’ll nod, say thank you and ask for more. You’re pathetic, Buck. Just a cock hungry slut.”

When precome spurted from the tip into Steve’s hand, he just chuckled. “I wonder how cruel I can get away with being?” He let go of Bucky’s cock then, his hand moving back to land between Bucky’s ass cheeks, smearing the sticky pre-come over his hole. Then Steve pressed one of his fingers all the way inside him and Bucky bit back a yelp. There was nothing he could do about the few tears that ran down his cheeks. He hoped Steve couldn’t see them.

“You can take this, can’t you, pal? Survived a lot worse, I bet…”

“Don’t…” Bucky whispered. 

“Don’t,” Steve parrotted, his voice full of condescension. “This is a mess of your own making and now you just have to own it.” With a loud hocking noise, Steve spat out a gob of saliva. It landed right on Bucky’s crack and dribbled down to where he was skewered on Steve’s finger. “There we go. I don’t wanna hurt my fingers on your tight little hole there, do I?” 

When Steve added a second finger, Bucky couldn’t hold back the squeak he made. It burned. It hurt. But it didn’t hurt as much as the humiliation. As the shame that he was letting Steve do this. That he wanted Steve — loved Steve — so much, that he was willing to accept this poisoned crumb.

Another gob of spit and Steve forced in a third finger, sawing and scissoring them. Much to Bucky’s embarrassment his cock continued to dribble and his hips started to jerk. When Steve let go of the back of his neck to unfasten his fly, Bucky just waited, breath baited. When Steve took that last step forward, the rough denim of his jeans rubbing up against the back of Bucky’s bare legs, Bucky screwed his eyes even further shut. Steve unceremoniously pulled his fingers from the clutch of Bucky’s body, wiping his fingers down Bucky’s naked thigh, and then he was pushing his cock forwards, forcing it in. Carving a space.

The fingers of Bucky’s left hand whirred, digging into the plaster and concrete of the wall in front of him as he howled. Why couldn’t this be different? Why couldn’t it be happening with love and care? He’d thought the intrusion of Steve’s fingers had been painful, but this was on a whole other level. Steve’s hands curled cruelly into his hips, driving home and he growled as he bottomed out.

“This is what you wanted,” Steve taunted in Bucky’s ear. “What you’ve always wanted. Me taking you. Filling you. And despite everything, you like this, don’t you?”

Bucky bit his lip until he tasted copper and shook his head, but Steve wasn’t having it. Letting go of Bucky’s right hip, he wrapped his fingers in Bucky’s long hair and pulled, forcing Bucky’s head backwards. “Answer me, damn it.”

“Not like this. Never like this.” Bucky’s voice was full of pain and betrayal, but Steve just let go of his hair and pressed his face back into the wall.

“Shut up,” he growled and then he snapped his hips. Again and again. Over and over. Spearing Bucky and driving pathetic whimpers from between his lips.

And Bucky wanted to hate it. Wanted to shut down or fight back, or just something. But he was so broken, so bereft, that he just allowed it. Took it. Started to enjoy it. Steve holding him in an iron grip he could pretend was more loving than it was. Steve filling him so fully he thought he’d burst. The brush of Steve’s cock over his prostate, thrust after thrust after thrust. The way his own cock was wedged between his body and wall, being stimulated in a painful way.

The trickle of tears down Bucky’s cheeks became a flood and he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

“I love you, Stevie,” he cried, only for Steve to respond with “And I hate you.”

The pain in his chest was shattering, a hundred times worse than what he’d felt when he thought Steve was leaving him, but despite it all, there was no stopping the inevitable.

Bucky came with a wail, the wall crumbling beneath his fingers as he painted another part of it with his cum. Steve puffed and grunted heavily in his ear before tensing up and pouring himself into Bucky with a shout.

For a few seconds the only sound was the pair of them breathing heavily before Steve was suddenly and quickly moving away, pulling himself from Bucky’s body and letting him go. Bucky’s legs shook and he slid down the wall, smearing his body with concrete dust and his own cum.

He heard the shnick of Steve’s fly and the jingle of his belt. “Clean yourself up, Buck. You’re disgusting,” came Steve’s sneer and then he was stepping around the Bucky-shaped heap on the floor, closing the door heavily behind him.

Bucky lay in the dark. Cold. Broken. Wondering what’d he do when he saw Steve tomorrow.

He had a sinking feeling he’d let Steve do that all over again.

Tag list: @christywrites, @alexakeyloveloki, @doasyoudesireandlive, @galactusdevourerofworlds, @km-ffluv

[takaraphoenix]

Writing Year in Review

I got tagged by the wonderful @clareguilty to review my writing year! Thanks, dear! <3

I have been ridiculously productive this year. Truly, it is beyond my comprehension.

According to AO3, I've written a total of 1,037,807 words this year, in a total of 116 fics.

The brunt force of my writing was clearly Teen Wolf though, because I wrote 81 Teen Wolf fics this year and inexplicably catapulted it into my third most written fandom (third most, out of a total of 71 fandoms I wrote for on AO3, though admittedly there is a lotta overlap in the DC categories).

I feel like I am the proudest of three non-Teen Wolf story though.

Because I wrapped up The White Collar Phantom Thief and Light of their (After)Life this year (though I also started the latter this year. Baffled that I got the whole story one within one calendar year).

And, beyond that, I did wrap up [T]hree Souls Entangled, which I am notoriously bad at actually WRITING my original stories. They usually just live in my head rentfree without ever making it onto the page, so the fact that I not only wrote it but wrapped it does fill me with the most pride.

Still, the thing that dominated my writing this year was clearly Stiles Stilinski. And I delight in just how many new ships I discovered this year. I mean, before 2024, I had one and two half ships for Stiles and had only written for the one that was solid in my mind.

And now, over the course of this year, somehow my flagship in this fandom has shifted and I actually gained a fleet of Stiles ships. I'm really glad that I took the jump into the cold water of writing for a big established fandom that I was always more looking into from the fringed because it has been a fucking delight and I can't wait to see what 2025 brings for me.

Oh, also, on a fandom unrelated note, I fully yeeted out the last draft of my book and started a blank document to redo it because I have apparently lost my fucking mind. Somehow, it got gayer within the first chapter, so there's that.

Tagging @blairwaldcrf @justonemorechapternicercy @miazeklos @kimmycup @fallenqueen2 to talk about your guys' writing this year <3