#OR they give them characters that have more ties to the other batboys and have them be friends which is ok I guess but come on

[lookstairs]

Alright I know this might be an unpopular opinion but I don’t think Jason and Damian should have love interest.

I don’t know I just prefer seeing them have nice healthy friendships over romance.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NO HATE TO ANY SHIPS THAT INCLUDE ONE OF THEM

[punkeropercyjackson]

Imma try to chill so that instead of raging,i can just explain this politely:If you're in the Batfam fandom or are interested in joining,please be respectful of the Batkids' canon characterization and stories with exception of the offensive bits because that way,you will be able to fully appreciate and enjoy them as characters and get along with long time fans too as they'll appreciate you for it since Batfanon is so overwhelmingly popular and you'll be helping combat it

You want a ray of sunshine optimist who's actually realistic instead of a cornball and has depth and layers and is beloved by everyone in the DC world?Read for Dick but avoid Tom Taylor and Devin Grayson as their writing of him is extremely ableist,misogynistic(see Babs' character regression for his sake and the 'disposable black love interest' trope times 10x towards Kory)and anti-romani with Taylor being a whole ass zionist and Devin only made Dick romani to fetishize him and wrote canon Batcest and even other pedo ships.She has since apologized for the latter so Batcels can't use her as validation

You want a goth boyloser who's a lone wolf and has an awful relathionship with Bruce where both feelings are completely justified but he himself is morally gray and treated as such rather than coddled?Read for Jason but avoid og Rhato because it's a shitfest that screws over everybody involved including Jason himself and nobody who likes it cares about him at all since it's the worst thing to ever happen to him,INCLUDING The Joker.He was also textually miserable the whole time and is way happier with his new cast on top of being better written

You want a relatable teenage boy who's a positive role model for irl ones and is canonically into dudes and can be the token normie that reacts to the weirdness of his family for jokes?Read for Tim and please don't believe anyone who tries to tell you he's a bad person or a raging misogynist because they're the same niggas who stan Jason the ex-serial killer and Slade the pedophile who's child abuse even of the non-sexual kind is his defining character trait as stated by Marv Wolfman,who MADE him.He's literally just a 17 year old boy who's not perfect and people are just ageist and generally hateful.Everybody should care about Tim Drake /ref

You want a strong female character who's genuinely super weird and real and does justice for the girls that don't fit in and are abused by men but is also really funny and feminine?Read for Stephanie and don't buy into the bullshit propaganda DC keeps trying to keep selling since her debut that she's 'just a girl' or somehow less hardcore than the Batboys or ESPECIALLY the fandom's emphasization of her blondeness when she got it from her abusive dad and has never shown pride in it and was never an 'It Girl',she was the school outcast at ALL her schools,including college.Just because Stephanie Brown is a white girl that dosen't mean she's a white feminist or a prop or basic-She's literally a pastel punk who has a Metalica poster in her room ffs

You want a wasian with gender fuckery who was raised to be a weapon and had no parents until Bruce adopted her and became super human through crazy ass means and is a mega cool edgecase?Read for Cass and keep in mind she was created with the intention of defying easian woman stereotypes,including existing for white men and nothing else and that includes not forcing her to like Jason or steal her Shiva origin to give it to him and as an afro-dominicana,Jason feels more afro-dominican than he does anything else and we HAVE an asian Jason Variant but he was south asian,specifically indian and not easian/chinese so it's even more orientalist than before with Sanjay Tawde's canonicity in mind(He is from The Doom That Came To Gotham for anyone interested)

You want a brown boy raised by a bad organization he has complex ties to because his connection comes from his family who is very much a little shit and anger filled but also a sweetheart who's truly trying his best?Read for Damian but keep in mind he's a victim of anti-arab writers,he's not a demon or a villain or an animal-He's just a hurt little boy who's almost never known anything but pain and being seen as a monster compared to white boys and that's why so many Damian stans are so grateful for Flatline/Nika because she loves him as much as we do and gives him the TLC we wish we could(platonically in our case but still)

You want a troubled but good kid who has god-like superpowers and loves to run his mouth,gives Bruce's headaches with his shenanigans and is not only an unconventional Robin but Jason's Robin and vice versa?Read for Duke and don't even look in the general direction of runs that leave him out-Which do the other Batboys dirty too every time anyway!!Duke has refered to Bruce as his dad and Bruce has refered to Duke as his son and ALL the Batkids see him as their brother and the poor guy feels left out of them because DC are a bunch of antiblack pieces of shit who baited us with the first ever black Robin just to exclude him for his blackness and act like they were being 'careful'.Nah,FUCK that-If Cass can be respectfully written as Bruce's kid,so can Duke!He don't got parents either,the ogs got Jokerized and Gnomom is emotionally abusive and he's literally a minor!

And they're just the core Batkids!!!If you're looking for another type of character,then they definitely exist and i'd be happy to tell you who fits it so i can tell you what to read/watch/play for them!Trying to switch the Batkids CAN be good depending on how you do it but 99% of the time it's just bigotry!REAL bigotry minorities can't stop dealing with just by logging off and fandom is supposed to be a safe space for weirdos-Not 'nerds',WEIRDOS.Black people and woc and mentally ill people and autistics and abusive survivors and EVERYONE,not just stupid ass kinksters that think kink is inherently anti-establishment and white people who had 'hateful ideology phases' and think it's universal and play victim when told otherwise

'All Batboys are trans and autistic!'but then they leave out the most autistic-coded and tboy swag filled Batboy just because he's black and use the 'mains' excuse when they've never read enough comics to know that became a thing,that it wasn't always a thing and that it dosen't make SENSE for it to be a thing.'All Batkids are/do [x]' but they leave out the girls even though 'Batkids' is the gender neutral term as it's meant to refer to the whole gang.Do not fall for it.They're about as gooth faith as 'Allmighty God Superman who fucks all the women' dudebros.Please be kind and be a real superhero fan by reading the comics so you can join us in dunking on them.Please,you'll be doing the comics fandom a lot of good and you might even help influence the comics industry itself because it responds to mass fan appeal way far back and that's how we got a fair amount of runs and adaptions we do today and yesterday and tommorow.I promise it'll be infinitely more fun than fanon too

[lonniemachin]

can we stop pushing for batboys and batboy affiliates to be “the next [x]” when the women that have those identities aren’t allowed to truly embody them anymore. one more “tim as oracle would be so good” and im going to go from rattling the bars of my cage to snapping them open. oracle was an identity born as a response to the misogyny babs faced as a victim in the killing joke and a way for the character to reclaim her agency, it is intrinsically tied to her identity as a *disabled woman* and a survivor after her attempted fridging and moving beyond that into a major player for the entire hero community in the dcu, alongside giving disabled people (particularly women) representation in these stories. oracle builds on babs’ unique skills. she has her own teams and friendships as oracle. babs now is barely allowed to have her pre-flashpoint history as oracle recognized and suffers as a disabled character under ableist writers and editors consistently.

ive said this before but i think it bears repeating. giving tim drake, an able-bodied man, this identity means nothing for him and nothing for babs, and other disabled hacker characters like wendy harris/proxy (who trained under babs!) already exist/existed as potential successors that fit the identity much better and in a more fitting sense.

and i really don’t mean to sound “no fun allowed”, i have nothing against headcanons and hypotheticals, but it just feels odd when the title has specific important narrative and thematic meaning to an underrepresented and mistreated group of people.

[magnetoeisenhardt]

It’s actually interesting because Cass and Dick can only recently be argued to have a sibling relationship. I think Cass not having a sibling relationship with Dick (or any other Batfam character) is tied to the consistent mistreatment of Cass. DC has no interest in promoting her, so she doesn’t appear in other bat books as anything other than a cameo. Cass’ father daughter-relationship with Bruce was kept separate from her interactions with his other kids.

Pre New-52, Cass’ interactions with Dick were pretty solidly characterized through her mother-daughter relationship with Babs, with Dick being “Mom’s boyfriend”. When Cass infamously kicks Dick through a window, it’s because he “hurt” her mom. While she appears in crossover events, like Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive (the best batfam event since No Man’s Land), she doesn’t have many one on one interactions with Dick. Even in her (very few) appearances in Nightwing, they don’t really do any emotional bonding. She shows up, she kicks the crap out of Deathstroke, she leaves.

During this era, both Cass and Dick have very close relationships with Tim. I bring this up to contextualize Cass’ role in the batfam at the time. Dick is definitely Tim’s older brother, despite Tim, like Cass, then not being adopted by Bruce. Tim admires Dick in the same way someone might admire a mostly absent older brother. Tim wasn’t around to witness the fall out between Dick and Bruce, and maintains a really high opinion of both of them. His optimism actually helps Bruce and Dick to reconcile, even as Tim grows more jaded with Bruce himself. On the lighter side, Tim and Dick tease each other and play pranks, culminating in the infamous glue trap panel, where Dick is so tired of Time making fun of him for how easy it is to break into Dick’s apartment, that Dick installs a giant glue trap Tim gets caught in.

While Cass and Tim grow very close after they’re both banished to Bludhaven after War Games (one of the worst Batfam events of all time), there are moments that render a sibling reading nonsensical. Cass has a nightmare hallucination where Tim calls her sexy. Characters joke about how the two of them are dating. During the worst Cass arc of all time, a mind controlled Cass sexually assaults him. Cass being Tim’s love interest is deliberately left on the table, and giving her a clearly sibling role with him would remove that.

I think a lot of this was because, as Batgirl, she was supposed to echo Babs, a character who tends to get written off as “Robin’s girlfriend”. Babs has been romantically involved with Bruce (Bruce Timm’s “The Killing Joke” movie), Dick, Jason (the “Three Jokers” comic), Tim (The “Arkham” video games), and Luke Fox (the New 52 Batgirl and DC Bombshells comics). Robin/Batgirl are an iconic couple (despite Babs and Dick not getting together until after he was Robin), and DC didn’t want to take that off the table with Cass. For example, in a move that somehow manages to be worse than Babs/Tim, the Harley Quinn show has Cass as the love interest for Damian (despite this show coming out post 2008, with Cass and Damian actually being siblings).

In the post Rebirth era (since Cass didn’t exist during the New 52) Cass is still kept separate from the larger Batfam. Her introduction back into comics features Dick, Jason, and Tim, but she is written with so much ableism she isn’t a character and they don’t have relationships. Later, in Tynion’s Detective Comics run, she gets to interact with Tim, Jean-Paul, Luke, Clayface, and Kate. In the horrible Batgirls run, Cass gets to have a queerbaited romantic relationship with Steph, and a sibling relationship with Barbara. Wayne Family Adventures gives Cass a sibling relationship with every batboy, and restores her mother-daughter relationship with Barbara, but WFA has very little relationship to actual canon.

All this to say, I would love for Cass and Dick to have a sibling rivalry, but the fact that such a thing would be totally out of place in comics right now highlights just how terribly Cass has been treated as a character. She doesn’t get to have the complex relationships the batboys get to have with each other, because DC doesn’t care about her and has no interest in developing her relationships. It’s probably for the best that Spirit World is giving her an identity and relationships outside the batfam.

Cass and Dick deserve a sibling rivalry AT LEAST as petty as Tim and Damian but none of you are ready for that conversation.

[bitimdrake]

Okay purely for the sake of curiosity I want to count out Dick vs Tim romantic relationships here. (This is an impartial study. We are not using this data to make stupid points about my batboy good your batboy evil.)

Dick has:

(Probably someone from the gold/silver age, but I don’t know the eras well and they clearly weren’t important enough to last, so let’s call that a zero)

Predatory older “girlfriend” Liu (which I hate to list seeing as she was an adult woman manipulating him for a con, but it was 100% a relationship in Dick’s mind at the time.)

Pre-Crisis college girlfriend Lori Elton

Kory

Not-quite-girlfriend Bridget Clancy, since they never progressed quite to that stage despite the build up

(One night stand with Helena)

Babs

(Was-this-even-a-relationship with Cheyenne Freemont)

Brief girlfriend in NYC Deborah Poulos, whose name I had to look up

Making 4 definite girlfriends, and 3 questionable relationships.

Tim has:

First girlfriend Ariana Dzerchenk

Steph

Barely-girlfriend Cassie

Girlfriend from school Zoanne Wilkins 

Not-quite-girlfriend Tam Fox, since they never progressed quite to that stage despite the build up

(Absolutely not a relationship weird sexy makeouts with Lynx II)

Making also 4 definite girlfriends, and 2 questionable relationships.

Comparison:

imo the level of “relationshipness” is about the same between Dick/Clancy and Tim/Tam (ie not quite girlfriend/boyfriend), and about the same between Dick/Helena and Tim/Lynx II (not at all a relationship, just mutual attraction). So the ultimate relationship counts are either tied or Dick has sliiightly more, depending on if you count Cheyenne. I lean towards counting Clancy and Tam--though acknowledging they were never official--but not counting Helena and Lynx.

In-universe, that gives Dick 5-7 relationships over a bit under 10 years, and Tim 5 relationships over about 4 years--though some of these relationships were much shorter than others. And, for comparison, the end of Dick’s relationship with Kory through the rest of his list (i.e. most of his relationships) were in those same 4 years.

However, we very much should note that we are on comic book time where a lot happens before an in-universe year manages to pass. Tim’s in-universe 4 years as a character Post-Crisis were over 20 years in real life. And pre-crisis, Dick spent an entire irl decade in a single semester of college! The rules just aren’t the same and we can’t really think of it as we would with real people.

tl;dr Dick is pretty chaste for a major comics characters, neither of them have a crazy amount of relationships considering the format, and I like counting things.

[idontgiveaflyinggrayson69]

Hi... I think I've been following you for most of my time here on this hellsite. You have successfully made me Very Curious about the BatFamily with your posts and was wondering what comics you would suggest I read for BatFamily content? I haven't read anything in DC.

Okay I reblogged a few rec-list that I found that gave more comprehensive lists (here, here, here, and here), but I’ll also give you some of my recs!

What you really have to keep in mind when reading DC and Batman/BatFam especially is that the writing/characterization is SHIT. It’s the love we have for the characters that keep us going. I often joke the first rule of being a DC fan is hating the content. Take the comics with a grain of salt because the characters, once you get to know them, are so incredibly dimensional and their dynamics with each other is the heart and soul of enjoying the BatFam. Like my favourite BatFam content is headcanons and stuff like that! Now onto the comics... (I’m a huge Dick and Dami fan and I think it’ll show in my rec)

Recommended Reading:

Basically all of Batman & Robin (2009) (Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin), especially if Grant Morrison is listed as a writer because he is the best Batman writer imo

Batman: Black Mirror (Detective Comics #871-881). Dick still as Batman. I’m a huge Dick Grayson fan and it’s stories like this that really do it

Batman: Gates of Gotham. Dick is still Batman but he interacts with his siblings as the Caped Crusader 

Battle For the Cowl is filled with interactions both good and bad of the BatFam. Dick is forced to become what he hates most

A Death in the Family (prepare for tears)

Nightwing Year One

Grayson. Can be iffy at times but the cross comic implications and the weight on the BatFam outside of Dick Grayson is the real take away. AND WHEN DICK COMES BACK… It’s some of the best BatFam interactions

Robin War crosses so many different comics and includes so many different characters and in doing so, “Robin” takes on a life beyond the mask

Robin: Son of Batman. Damian can be a hard character for people to love but give this story a chance. He’s easily one of my favourites to ever dawn the mantle of Robin

Tim Drake’s solo run as Robin as well as his Red Robin series are both 👌 His inner monologue in Red Robin will give you life. In Robin, he becomes tied to Stephanie Brown, a new member of the BatFam

Batman: Preludes to the Wedding is a short series in which each Batboy gets their own story and you see how much of a family they are as they work to getting Batman ready for his wedding to Catwoman

Red Hood and the Outlaws is *chefs kiss* but it’s about Jason Todd/Red Hood and characters not from the BatFam. But if you’re looking for Jason Todd content and story lines, it’s this one. Particularly the New 52 run or DC Rebirth

I know I missed some, but these are the ones that came to me (and based off what was on my shelf since most of my comics are packed up in my closet). If anyone else has any suggestions, 

[m00nslippers]

Jason is a clever bitch and I love him, in RHATO Issue #32

Okay now we’re finally moving Jason closer to the Winick version that I think is most people’s favorite Red hood--it’s not there yet, but we’re seeing the hints. The cleverness, the charm, the unrepentant sass. Oh yes, we are going places, I like what I see.

Let’s dive in here.

Whoever made that post about Jason not even needing a cover story about being dead to revive his identity was kind of prophetic because here his cover is basically, “So I wasn’t actually dead. no more details, that’s it.” Which is pretty dang close.

And I’m not sure how he managed any of this without Bruce or Alfred finding out but that is damn impressive. We know they didn’t know because we see Alfred’s reaction shot to seeing him on TV. If we don’t see him interact with a few of the other Gotham vigilantes, (or at least see a reaction shot of them all like, “What!? Jason?! The guy we had to physically blackmail to attend galas is running a casino with parties every night? That Jason?!) at some point I’m going to be pretty disappointed, to be honest.

Also, as we already knew from the solicitations and previews, Jason is taking over the Iceburg lounge and looking fancy while he does it. I love it. Jason can put on an act with the best of the batboys. Look at this well dressed man! And his hair! He has hair again, praise the Lord, hallelujah!

Completely unrelated note, that reporter has some really fancy cuff earrings or something and I’m jealous.

I’m validated for noticing Suzie Su was behind Jason in the previews. She and her sisters are part of his crew basically. It’s actually nice to see villains/characters return, too often they are just one-shot or one-note baddies but Suzie has been there since New 52 RHATO and she got a bit of humanization in the Annual when we meet her sisters. She’s not just some creepy fat lady that creeps on Jason, she’s a big sister who is trying to do her best for her family and I like that Jason acknowledges that and brings her and her family in on his scheme and even gets them out of the crime business sort-of by giving them mostly legit employment.

The way he has a bunch of ladies following him around kind of reminds me of Dick with the girls from St. Hadrian's a little bit. But they were all super into Dick and these girls don’t seem interested in Jason at all except as like a boss, which I like.

Jason, this is the kind of thing you should ask about! Ugggghh ~

Wingman looked older in the last page of the previous issue for some reason, maybe he’s died his hair or something. So we still don’t know what’s going on with him. I was hoping we’d get something, a hint but we’ve literally got nothing to go on here. I honestly think he has some kind of direct relation to Jason. Either he’s his dad’s mind in a different inmates body, or maybe a lost cousin or brother or something, or has something to do with the future like he came from there. It’s got to be one of those things, nothing else makes sense that I can think of.

LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL BOY! JUST LOOK AT HIM. LOOK AT THOSE EYELASHES AND BLUE EYES AND THAT SMILE.

Anyone would be charmed. I think Jason is too much of an introvert to like this kind of public job exactly, but I also think he’d be good at it. Dick might be better, because he’s just a natural extrovert, but Jason is still up there. He’s a good actor, and he really cares about people so he’d take care of those he’s in charge of. Jason would be a good boss.

“Started from the bottom now we’re here,” that’s a Drake lyric.

Could these guys be bigger dorks?

Notice that Jason didn’t kill the guys that were causing trouble, he had Miggs (his nickname for Miguel) roll them off to the docks in a ball made with his powers and those dorks were totally right, the room he made was pretty gucci. You got taste, Miguel.These weren’t necessarily real bad guys, they were just punks, and Jason might be killing again but he doesn’t just kill any idiot that gets in his way or causes trouble.

Also, technically they might have been right about Night cheating, we don’t actually know how ‘legit’ the Su sisters are playing things.

I’m sort of torn on the way the colorist is depicting Miguel’s powers, like I miss the glowiness a little bit from New 52 Teen Titans. These look a little too much like normal bricks? But technically that might be better for Miguel, they can pass as normal bricks instead of a power when they have to. They looked clear or white before when the guys walked in there so maybe he can control their color/transparency and glowiness? I still would like to see them look glowy though.

A few things about Miguel: I think these panels illustrated pretty well what their dynamic is supposed to be. I know Jason called Bizarro his ‘friend’ but let’s be honest here, Bizarro isn’t Jason’s friend--he’s his little brother.

Jason compares Miguel to Bizarro and I think that’s key, he sees Miguel as like a little brother that he wants to help. He’s got powers that he doesn’t understand and people keep coming after him for them. I think with Miguel and Tim it was closer to a friendship of equals at least as far as Miguel saw. He admired and respected Tim as a leader and how he always seemed to know what to do, but in the end Miguel was older than Tim, he didn’t feel like he could completely lean on him. It looks like Miguel may have latched on to Jason in that way, since he has the bat-authority too and actually is older than him and a genuinely caring guy. And look at my boy Jason! He comforts and accepts him immediately, it’s so sweat.

Goddamn it, Jason is a good older brother! He’s the best freaking older brother, damn Bruce and the whole family’s bat-morals, man! You’re all missing this! He could have this with Tim and Damian and Duke and even Steph and Cass! He would love that! He would be so good at that! It’s a goddamn tragedy, is what it is.

Also it’s interesting how Miguel acknowledges the reboots, so are his powers related to reality-warping or something so he can sense it? Or it could just be more of this suggestion that a lot of people in the DC universe right now have memories from the previous continuity, so like it all kind of happened even if it technically didn’t type of thing. I kind of thought Miguel’s powers were energy projections made with his mind, like psionically, but maybe they are literally creating matter or something? I don’t know. I really need to read more New 52 Teen Titans to understand him and his powers.

And that line, “A loaded weapon in the hands of a confused teenager. What could go wrong?”

Wow, Jason, you really went there. Referenced you’re own crazy head-state when you went after Bruce in Under the Hood.

Jason is so self-deprecating, you guys.

“When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer. “ This is apparently a quote from Die Hard, because of course it is. Jason is literally Jake Peralta from Brooklyn 99 confirmed.

Ugh, Lobdell’s version of Bruce is just such an asshole!

First of all, Jason hasn’t ‘betrayed him’ not even once, he was emotionally compromised and broke their agreement because he was acting on those feelings. He made a mistake. And Bruce cared more about his rules than Jason’s intentions or feelings or any of the good will they’d fostered in the last year or two. He acts like Jason sold him out or lied to him, when he never did any of those things.

Also, I don’t think saying, “stay out of Gotham and never come back or I’ll throw down and toss you in Arkham” is another chance, okay? It’s not like Jason got anything out of that deal, it was just Bruce not wanting to go through the trouble of hunting him down outside of Gotham because he straight-up knew that he wouldn’t be able to!

That Pretty Woman reference...

The funny thing is, Jason is more like the character who says that line than Bruce is. Bruce, kicking Jason out of the bat-family, is the one who is making the mistake. He could have had an ally, had say in what Jason did, had some limited control over him if he’d just forgiven him or talked to him at all, but because of his pride now he has none of that.

Now this, this is my shit right here. JASON HAS BRUCE BY THE BALLS. By going public with his identity he’s effectively made himself untouchable by Bruce. He’s got the identity of every Gotham vigilante in his hands, and honestly I really doubt Jason would ever give them up, even out of spite or hatred, he never did before when he could have, (he didn’t tell Hush Bruce’s identity, he just didn’t deny it when Hush figured it out, and we’re not sure if that’s even canon anymore anyway.) but it’s partly Bruce’s own doubt in Jason that is keeping his hands tied! That and the fact that if even one of his kids is outted as a vigilante it really puts the suspicion on him.

But seriously guys. Smart Jason is what Iive for.

God, Jason calling him dad, but only because he’s ‘playing up the act’ of civilian Jason Todd, has got to hurt Bruce. Assuming Lobdell’s version of Bruce has any actual feelings of affection for Jason, otherwise it probably just grates.

Lol, okay, so the situation seems to be that Jason dropped in to the Iceburg lounge to pay Penguin a visit. Cobblepot went, “Oh no! That damned Red Hood is here, hide me!” Ran into his panic room and locked it and Jason was just like, “Well, isn’t this convenient,” and made it so he couldn’t get back out.

And then presumably gangster-rules applied and Jason just got all his businesses because he said they were his and no one wanted to argue? I guess? Lobdell doesn’t give satisfying explanations, you guys. This is a testament to that.

I’m not going to lie though, this is pretty satisfying.

Alright, so I’m really excited for more you guys. This is not a perfect issue, a lot of things are hand waved, Bruce is acting even more out of character than usual, and we still have no dang clue what’s going on with Wingman, but there are definitely things here I like, and i’m looking forward to more.

[sassycassie-s-series]

All My Fault 33

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Damian Wayne/Batman

Rating: PG-11/T- (for violence)

Notes: (Masterlist) This one jumps around a bit. Hopefully it’s not too difficult to follow.

Tag List (Open): @batboys-and-other-messes @welovegroot @probsjosh  @spooder-moon @lostredrobin @haylo4ever @na-n-na @rachelmorganroth  @reclusive-chicken-nugget​ 

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32

^^^^^

“So, what do we do, Damian?” I asked quietly as Damian and I sat in my room on the floor across from each other. Jon had left to go home to Metropolis so we were alone to have our private discussion.

Damian reached across the distance between us and took one of my hands in both of his. “I want to be with you more than I’ve ever wanted to be with anyone else. However I don’t believe we should go public with any sort of romantic relationship immediately. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, you’ve been back nearly two weeks less than you have actually been in this future, which would make it seem as though you haven’t been back long enough to be in a romantic relationship—perhaps.”

“What about Bruce?”

Damian’s eyes dropped to our hands. “He returns from Metropolis tomorrow,” Damian said. “As I said earlier, he could look between the two of us and make an accurate estimate of what we’ve done while he was gone if he believed we had something to hide. I can tell him that we’ve fallen in love and intend to pursue a relationship—”

“No,” I interrupted. “Let… let me tell him.”

“Nora?” Damian asked, using my name instead of why?

I sighed. “If I tell him he might… freak out less. You know what I mean? Like, if I say I don’t want to go back to the past and explain why… I doubt he’d drop his coffee.”

I set my other hand on top of Damian’s hand holding my other one. I looked up and met his eyes.

“I love you, Damian Wayne. Strange as our situation is, it’s true.”

He gave me the widest and most genuine smile I’d ever seen from him—or either blood Wayne for that matter. “I love you as well, Nora McCloud.” He leaned forward. I closed the distance and pressed our lips together.

It was a far less heated kiss than the night before. Instead it was simple and tender, full of softer emotions than passion.

Damian pulled away first. “I believe you’re correct. You informing Father would be far safer.” He squeezed my hand. “And in a few weeks—perhaps even a month—we will announce that Nora McCloud and Damian Wayne are officially together.”

I snorted. “Press can finally have their field day about us,” I said.

Damian bounced an eyebrow. “S’pose so,” he agreed.

I smirked. “Let them,” I said.

Damian tutted. “Tt. Alright then.”

“But in private, are we officially together now?”

“Only if you agree to be.”

“I do. Heartily.”

We both snickered.

^^^^^

WHAM! My foot connected to the mugger’s chest—and I was fairly certain I heard a rib separate from his sternum. Yowch.

“Batman’s smitten,” Jason said in the open channel. Tonight it was all of us out on patrol except Tim, who volunteered to be on monitor duty. Dick and Jason had told Cass and Tim that Damian and I were in love and semi-officially a couple while we were in private.

I glanced around to see Damian standing on top of a building that made up one of the walls of the alley I was in, looking down at me. Even from my distance below I could see him grinning. I smiled back at him, whacked the mugger again and effectively knocked him out, and nodded to the man he’d been trying to steal from. “Are you alright, sir?” I asked.

He nodded.

“GCPD is on its way,” Damian supplied to me.

“The cops will be here soon,” I said to the man. “They’ll take your statement.” As I spoke I tied up the mugger. “He’ll be out for at least an hour.”

“Are you leaving?” the man asked me, looking a bit spooked by the mugger.

I gave him a smile. “Not if you don’t want me to,” I said, rocking back and forth on my heels. I realized how that could sound if taken the wrong way and quickly amended, “Not if you feel unsafe alone here with this man.” I didn’t need this guy hitting on me or trying any funny business when Damian was literally only a few stories above me. That being said, most of the creeps and misogynists in this city knew that trying anything rude with a girl in a mask and body armor—Batgirl, the Spoiler, Orphan, Batwoman, Cloudburst, and any visiting female heroes—was a recipe for getting several bones broken and sometimes a verbal smack-down.

Didn’t always discourage them from trying, but I’d dislocated eight shoulders and paralyzed three sets vocal chords in the first two years of being Cloudburst and had since lost track of injuries I’d dealt to creeps who grabbed my backside or hands or other places or made disgusting comments.

As it was, this guy didn’t say anything rude or try to touch me.

I touched my comm-link. “By the way, Hood?” I said.

“Yes Cloudy?” Jason asked.

“Shut up,” I said.

I heard lots of snickering from the rest of the Bat-family.

After a few minutes of waiting, the cops came. Once they turned up, the mugging victim thanked me. I nodded and shot a grappling hook to the roof, whizzing out of sight. Once I swung onto the same rooftop as Damian, I felt his arm ensnare my waist and pull me closer to him. He tapped his comms to mute his microphone and smirked at me. “That was attractive,” he whispered.

I snickered and muted my mic too.

He leaned closer.

I put my hand between our lips before he could kiss me. “Batman and Cloudburst can’t be together, Damian,” I said quietly.

He closed his eyes and sighed with complaint. “Why not?”

“Because as far as civilians are concerned, Cloudburst is still between five and ten years older than Batman. That would be weird. And the coincidence of Nora McCloud returning only a week-and-a-half after Cloudburst can be ignored and forgotten. But Cloudburst and Batman getting caught kissing on a rooftop a month before Damian Wayne and Nora McCloud announce that they’re together is downright suspicious,” I said. “Especially coupled with Cloudburst and Nora’s reappearances.”

Damian pursed his lips and stared at me, his green eyes glinting through the eye holes of his cowl. “Alright,” he relented. “Batman and Cloudburst have a professional relationship.”

“You can kiss me in uniform when we get back to the Batcave,” I said quietly.

^^^^^

“Their mics are muted,” Jason remarked to Dick, Tim, and Cass on a private channel. “I can see them talking through my scope but I can’t hear them.”

“What do you mean, ‘scope’?” Dick asked. “Hood, you don’t have a sniper rifle, do you?”

Jason hesitated. “… No?”

“Hood!” Dick protested.

“Hey, wingding! Now is not the time! They’re being lovey-dovey and you’re complaining about me?!” Jason snapped.

“Okay. So their mics are muted so we can’t hear them. What do you mean, lovey-dovey?” Tim asked, interrupting the argument.

“Well Damian’s got his arm around her waist and she just stopped him from kissing her. She’s got this goofy type of lovestruck grin on her face and Damian is grinning. Grinning,” Jason told the others.

Tim and Dick both “Wow”ed Jason’s description.

“Who wants to bet twenty bucks on how long they date before Damian proposes?” Jason asked.

“Me!” Dick and Tim said at the same time.

“I will too,” Cass added.

“I bet six months and under,” Dick said.

“Whoa. Cutting that one fine, eh?” Tim wondered.

“Well it’s not entirely unheard of—especially if both parties know each other well before becoming a couple,” Dick said, a shrug in his voice.

“Which they don’t,” Jason deadpanned.

“Shut up,” Dick retorted. “Sure they do. Cloudy probably knows Damian better than anyone except B, Alfred, and maybe me. Heaven knows she put forth the effort to do so.”

“Mm,” Jason grunted, unconvinced.

“I will bet six months to a year,” Cass said.

“Hmm. A year to two years,” Tim put in.

“Then I guess I bet two years or any amount longer,” Jason said.

Dick scoffed. “Oh please. I know them. Marriage is an important concept to Cloudy and Damian was raised with the League of Assassins where I'm relatively positive arranged marriages for political reasons aren’t uncommon. I doubt they’ll date that long before getting married.”

“Well twenty bucks says we’ll see, then, hmm?” Jason challenged.

“Guess so,” Dick agreed.

“Yup,” Tim said.

“Yes,” Cass added.

^^^^^

“By the way, we should probably sleep in separate rooms when we get back tonight,” I said. “Because Bruce will be back in the morning and I don’t want to have to edit more security camera footage.” I’d already told Damian that Jason and Dick had taken care of the night before’s recordings. “Plus I don’t know when he’ll be back and I don’t want him to come check on you and find us, y’know, in bed together.”

Damian thought for a moment, still holding me close. “You are… correct. We should probably stay in our own rooms anyway, for as much as we can help it. As though we’re a couple who does not live together yet,” he said.

I nodded. “I agree,” I said.

Damian let me go with a little smirk and jerked his head toward the highest buildings in Gotham. “Let’s go finish this patrol,” he said.

I smiled. “Sounds good,” I agreed. He squeezed my hand before letting go. We took off running over the rooftop and leapt off the side at the same time, unmuting our comms as we went. My hair streamed behind me in the wind as we swung off toward the deeper parts of Gotham. I whooped. I’d never get tired of this.

^^^^^

Damian and I climbed out the Batmobile, beating everyone else back to the Batcave. Except Tim. Who was no longer sitting at the bat-computer and probably up in the shower. Damian and I met at the front hood of the car. Damian rested his hands on my waist, tugging me gently closer. My hands found his shoulders. “May I give you a kiss goodnight, my darling?” Damian asked.

I smiled. “You absolutely may,” I replied.

Damian bent down and pressed his lips to mine. I felt a small grin in his lips. “Everything will be alright,” he breathed when our lips parted but our foreheads rested together. “No matter how Father reacts. Everything will be alright.”

“I know,” I said. “I trust this. I trust you.” My hands slid up from his shoulders and around the back of his neck, my fingers sliding over the short hair on the back of his head.

“I would wait forever to be with you.”

“I would too. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen.” I tilted my head forward and kissed his cheek.

—

Next

[unboundpen]

Pandemonium [1/3?]

[Next]

Fandom: Batman

Characters: Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth

Pairing: JasonDamian

Rated: T

Warnings: Damian is aged up, should be in college.

Summary: 

After being away from Earth for a while, Jason notices that Damian is a lot more attention-grabbing than before. Eh, growing attractions are nothing....Right?

Read on AO3

A/N: So it’s been many years since I’ve truly sat down and finished writing a fic. Life has been hectic, I lost my mojo to continue writing, then went back to school and it pretty much consumed my life. Anyways, this was written based off of what @batboys-batboys-whachu-gonna-do had posted almost a year ago and I caught wind of it. It’ll be two or three chapters depending on if I’m up for writing smut with this fic. I said I was going to write something and then went MIA again. Anyways comment on ao3 or send me an ask or reblog with reactions if you guys enjoyed it. I’m very rusty, so go easy on me.

Jason isn’t even sure if he should be out patrolling Gotham tonight. He’s so dead tired that he feels himself get heavier on the cable he’s currently swinging on. Kori had landed the ship back on Earth the night before and if he were to be completely honest with himself, he should have just stayed in bed. The idea of sleeping for a few years before even thinking about getting back into normal everyday crime fighting was really starting to seem like the better option. And yet... here he was, swinging from building to building, looking out into the city he always called home.

Exhaustion crept heavily through his body. It made his vision blur and had been severe enough to make him go cross-eyed a few times. He scrubs at his face, trying to chase the fatigue away as he second-guesses his decision to patrol tonight -feeling the worn leather of his gloves rub against anywhere not covered by the domino mask. It had been a slow night anyway…but just as he reaches out to shoot another line to change his path back to the designated safe house for the night, he hears the very distinct but familiar sound of people getting beaten up in an alley.

Jason follows the sounds of muted groans and painful hits landing -and then sudden silence- until he drops down to the scene of unconscious baddies being zip-tied by another mask in the shadows. He surveys the destruction and lets out a low whistle while toeing one of them by the leg.

"Guess you didn't need any backup."

He hears a familiar snort, "I hardly ever do. It's only five men."

Jason looks over at the figure in the shadows and watches as they stand up and walk over to him. His eyes widen behind the mask.

There stood Robin in all his Robin-y glory. His eyes rake over Robin's form, noticing that the uniform had been adjusted to fit not just his height but also the lithe bulk he had also gained. It reminded him of a certain acrobat they both knew. It was close but not quite. He would have thought this was someone else who had taken on the mantle, but the same minute details were there: hooded cape encasing his head, sword, and sheath at his side, and the ever useful and painful clawed spikes that protruded from the kid's gloves. Not to mention the air of annoying haughtiness that only came from being the direct heir to Bruce Wayne.

"I gotta say, you certainly shot up from the last time I saw you." He feels his lips stretch into a grin.

"-Tt- It was inevitable."

"Nonetheless," Jason pauses to do another slow look, "you look good for someone who is supposed to be suffering through puberty."

"Considering my parentage, it has come as no surprise." Robin answers simply before reaching into his belt for a few more zip ties and holds them out to Jason, "Make yourself useful, Hood, and get those two."

Jason blinks, taking the offered items unconsciously. He half expected the kid to react a bit differently, maybe even get a little flustered. Jason certainly thought so.

Jason frowns in contemplation as he maneuvers one of the thugs in front of him onto their front, restraining the unconscious man with one of the ties before moving onto the next one. He hears the faint sound of bodies being dragged into a pile.

"So, what's a birdie like you doing in my neck of the woods anyway?"

"You were gone-"

“-Well, no shit," Jason interjects, shaking his head. Again reminded of how tired he really was. He looks over at the other mask currently frowning at Jason and arms crossed.

"You were gone," the other mask emphasizes loudly, as if admonishing Jason's interruption, "henceforth I took it upon myself to patrol your area until you got back."

"I guess no one told you I got back yesterday?”

“On the contrary, Father already has a written report of your return in the system."

Jason sighs, “Of course he has,” he opts to rub his eyes through the mask, "Guess I tripped the alert system he has over my known locations?”

“Actually,” Robin pauses, tilting his head to the side as the sound of sirens faintly begin to sound around them and then reaches up to shoot a line up one of the buildings.

Jason watches him glide up through the air, admiring the fluidity of the movement before he follows. Once he lands next to the bird, Robin continues, “Superman alerted father of your return.”

Jason grunts and crosses his arms thoughtfully. That wasn’t a surprising thing either. Clark had always been watchful of him even while he was still wearing the cape and green panties. Even the thought that the super could be listening in on their conversation caused a shiver to run all throughout Jason’s body. Before he could even say anything, Robin moves to the other side of the building without another look at Jason.

“I trust you have the rest handled from here, Red Hood,” Robin says flippantly over his shoulder. The older man watches silently as the Robin turns around, gives him a nod, then hauls himself over the raised concrete and over the other side of it.

And with that Robin is gone, leaving no trace of himself except in Jason’s mind.

xXx

It’s about four days later before Jason feels himself get comfortable with his place in Gotham again. He’s well rested now, but he realizes with the year or so he’s been away, his files aren’t up-to-date. It was one thing if a few robberies occurred here or there, but when he’s heard of several incidents involving a certain mob boss who had been steadily moving into his territory, he figures he needs to get on that asap. He doesn’t rely too much on the other members of the bat family, but he would have expected that the files would be constantly updated while he was away. It was most likely that Tim was more busy with the Titans and Babs was preoccupied with other things. Thus he finds himself parking his bike in the bat cave.

If there was one thing that Jason expects to not change significantly, it would be the cave. The same old giant penny and t-rex were in their respective spaces. The only things ever changing were all the tech that got recycled every now and then. He surveys the area, noting that he was the only one there in this moment. He makes it a point to himself to ignore the glass case holding a certain uniform.

Jason strolls over to the computer, booting it up and realizes that the program was updated when the screen prompts for a password. He decides not to risk it as the memory of the last time he tried to flashes up in his mind.

The ink had stained his skin for weeks….

He wonders who is in the manor for a moment before he feels a presence at his side. Jason is a bit too surprised to even move away as the figure types in the password, a nonsensical password that would have been impossible to guess. And before he could stop himself, his eyes roam.

“Someone needs to put a bell on you,” he states absentmindedly.

Damian…looked really good. A short-sleeved, white, button-up shirt snug around his shoulders and upper body as he was crouching over the control panel. His head was looking up at the screen, neck stretched invitingly while watching it. Jason’s eyes slide down until he reaches the jeans that fit very nicely on Damian’s legs, enveloping his thighs and….

“-Tt- I anticipated your visit.” Damian types on the keyboard for a third password and then turns his head to stare back at Jason, “I updated the system for better security as requested by father while you were away.”

Jason feels his eyes still linger on the brat’s ass before looking up to meet Damian’s eyes. Oh boy….

The older man clears his throat; it was just dry all of a sudden. Hopefully, the kid didn’t catch him staring too much. "Three passwords is a bit much, don't ya think?" He utters weakly.

Damian shrugs before straightening up, and Jason catches himself staring harder, to the point of his eyes crossing. He shuts his eyes for a moment and opts for making a show of rubbing his forehead as if he was exasperated by the nuisance.

“Alright, well, I should probably be put in the system again. Gotta catch up on what I missed and all that.” Jason waves his hand as he opens his eyes.

Damian hums thoughtfully. “That will not be difficult. However, I’m not sure if father has granted permission to give you access.”

The older man chokes out a laugh, “Oh Babybat, I get access one way or another. I only get locked out when shit like this happens. And last I remember you’re not one to ask for daddy’s permission on a lot of things.”

The younger man's eyes narrow while his lips morph into a frown.“I am not," he answers, "I-It’s a compromise for allowing me to patrol by myself. Besides, why should I believe that you’re allowed in the system?”

Jason grins. This wouldn't be the demon spawn if he didn't give any push back. “The replacement can vouch for that. And I got some downtime so if you really need to ask Bruce for the go ahead, I can stay here in the meantime and catch up with what I really need.”

“That will not be necessary, Father is predisposed at the moment. Getting any sort of response from him will not come till much later tonight, most likely a few minutes before he arrives back here,” Jason opens his mouth to say that wasn’t really a problem but Damian continues, “I have a meeting with a colleague in an hour. Thus leaving you here in the manor by yourself is not a wise choice. I can give you the files that you need -that is if you have a USB drive on you.”

Jason can’t help but feel a bit offended from that.

“Okay first,” Jason points a finger at the kid, “I can very much well click and drag files onto a thumb-drive just fine. Second, I’m pretty sure I can handle myself if I were alone. I’ve been managing that for the past few years now thank you very much. Third, wouldn’t Alfred be here anyway?”

Damian snorts and allows himself to lean on the control panel. And by God, if Jason doesn't feel his face heat up even more as he tries to maintain eye contact. “Getting the files is a bit more convoluted than that, Todd. Pennyworth has the day off. And I was very much alluding to this incident.” He reaches down to press a button -just one, Jason notices- without looking away before the screen flickers to the start of a video.

Jason looks up and realizes just what incident he was talking about once the sound echoes through the cave.

A much younger Jason balanced on the banister of the staircase, on the second floor, dressed in the Robin uniform, green panties, and pixie boots and all, while reading a few lines from Peter Pan out loud as he walks from one end to the other.

“I thought I deleted this.”

Damian tuts, “You know very well that my father had installed a program to reverse any erasures. He may be aware of this or he may not, but I am not the only one that knows of this video’s existence.”

Was he-? Holy fuck the kid was smirking. He definitely had this on retainer.

Jason glares at him.

Damian pauses the video and presses another button which causes a red circle to appear on the screen. “Cain mentioned that you start to get pretty confident with yourself here.” Damian presses play again and then pauses it at another point in the video. “She also said that this was where your balance starts to go off, and I’m inclined to agree."

“Who else-“

“-Brown commented that you get a little pitchy here.”

The video continues to play out and then Jason watches his younger self start to fall and struggle for the grappling hook on his belt and shoot it at the other end of the room.

“Drake stated that you should have been able to get to it quicker,” Jason continues watching, remembering the feeling of relief when he landed…until the chandelier fell with the loudest crash he’d ever heard in his life behind him, and now he is reliving that moment as the chandelier drops and breaks on the screen.

“And Alfred said that you had a difficult time cleaning up the thousands of pieces even when he got back home,” Damian pauses and then raises an eyebrow at him, "Really, Todd, a broom?"

“I couldn’t find the vacuum,” Jason growls out, feeling his face heat up even more now, but this time with begrudging embarrassment. He can’t even remember the last time he was this mortified and it was the kid -out of all people- that was teasing the hell out of him.

Damian seems to accept that answer for what it was and lets it go while still smirking that goddamn smirk.

And this is where Jason isn’t sure if he is angry, embarrassed or ...turned on? All three maybe? But he knows for sure that he was confused as hell at the turned on part no matter how small it may be. He’s gotta process this somewhat. And it’s a bit difficult to when the damned kid was standing right there.

Without another word, Jason turns and stalks towards his bike, resisting the urge to run to it.

“I didn’t take you for one to run away, Todd,” Damian calls out to him.

Jason shakes his head as he straddles his bike and flips the kid off before he starts it and heads back to his apartment.

xXx

It’s early in the morning and Jason finds himself laying on the rooftop of his apartment staring up at the starless sky, having smoked through one full pack of cigarettes and working his way through a second. He’s been done with patrol for over an hour now, so both the helmet and mask were off to the side...somewhere.

He closes his eyes as he takes an extra long drag of the lit cigarette held between his fingers. When he opens his eyes, there’s Robin standing over him with a frown.

“I find it hard to believe that you still smoke, Todd.”

Jason rolls his eyes hard as he takes another drag, “Oh look, Boy Wonder has come to save me from the perils of smoking."

Damian shakes his head before he holds out a fist over Jason and drops something onto the older man’s torso. Jason takes a hold of it in his other hand and brings it up to his field of vision.

A thumb-drive.

“The hell is this for?”

“You left before I could give you the files.”

“How do you know what files I needed?”

Damian sighs, “You are merely predictable when you need to be, Todd.”

“I’m hurt,” Jason mocks, throwing his hand over his chest and contorts his face into a pained expression. He half expects for Damian to just leave then and there, but is surprised when the kid opts to sit next to him. Jason turns his head to look at the kid and muses that he looks a lot smaller from this angle, almost like his eleven-year-old self with that scowl on his face.

"Father gave the go-ahead," the kid's scowl deepens when Jason blows another cloud of smoke up into the air, "for your access to the database."

The older man grins, “Told ya.”

There was a brief pause where Jason just continues to stare up at the sky peacefully. He can feel the kid’s eyes study him in a curious manner, no weight to it. He had to admit, it was nice. Typically when a bat clan member looked at him there was the usual range of emotions behind the gazes. With Dick, there was worry along with his need to use touch as comfort, often with a tentative hand that locked onto Jason’s shoulder. Most of the time it was heavy. Babs looked at him with a stoic expression but with the occasional fleeting recognition whenever he said something witty enough for her. To her, the rough around the edges but hopeful youth that he used to be was long gone, and in his place an almost stranger. Tim had just this hint of pity behind his mask of smiles. After forming a civil relationship that bloomed into this comfortable companionship, Jason had figured out that whatever Tim had researched on the older man would always be in the back of his mind.

And then there was Bruce. The head honcho. While Jason could say that their relationship was significantly better, he still couldn’t be around his old mentor for no more than an hour at most. There was only so much Jason could take from the disappointment behind that gaze. After those years when he was a teenager and the glinting amusement that Bruce looked at him with, he just could not stand the feeling of failure digging into and burrowing under his skin where it just spread throughout his body like an itching rash, getting worse with every minute till he felt like he could start to hyperventilate.

But then here was the son. At first, it was all just anger. Man, the kid was a tight ball of fury that tried to get at anyone that moved near him. Yeah sure it was annoying when it was aimlessly directed at anyone, but the intensity. He was actually impressed with how much the kid’s anger fueled him to do just about anything. And Jason had tested it with his goading, just to see how long Damian would last and just how far he was willing to go. Jason knew that feeling. He was familiar with it after he had crawled out of the grandfather’s pit. It was the only emotion he could latch onto that could keep him grounded. So he understood Damian’s confusion fueled rage. But now, even before Jason had left for a year, Damian’s looks had evolved into a feigned indifference, all just with the intent to study Jason more. If Jason were to pick anyone out of the bat clan, Damian was the least volatile on his psyche.

He feels Damian shift beside him for a moment before the kid sighed. “It would be a lot easier for me to give you access to the database if you let me into your apartment, Todd.”

“You could always just go in through the window.”

“That would be rude of me.”

And this is where Jason slowly turns his head so he can slow blink at the whites of Robin’s mask. They stay like that for a moment, neither of them moving. The older man waits, just wants to see if Damian knew how ridiculous that statement was coming from him of all people. But it never comes, just the blank look on his face. Jason feels like laughing in disbelief but opts for throwing his half cigarette to the side before reaching up to rub his face to keep his mouth from opening up to let out the bubbling of a laugh that was forming in the back of his throat.

Jason resists the urge to groan, the way that every aging adult does when they have to get up, as he shuffles slowly to his feet. He contemplates asking Roy for a long needed body cracking as he glances down at the kid, who was still sitting there.

"Come on then," Jason simply says and starts walking towards the fire escape.

He hears shuffling behind him. "What about your helmet?"

"Eh, I'll come back for it later," Jason responds as he starts to climb down the three floors before his apartment.

xXx

The cool breeze billows around Jason as he takes a single sip from the mug that had been set in front of him about 20 minutes ago. He scans the street lazily, knowing that the passing bell for the university would ring any minute now. He's not too sure why he's waiting for the kid, there was no emergency to the situation, he just felt drawn to approach him on his downtime.

The melodic sound of the bell rang throughout the air and almost immediately, students pour out of the entrances. Jason makes no rush to get up immediately. With the amount of kids coming out, it would be a lot more trouble to look for Damian now than it would after the crowd thins out in the next 10 minutes. And true to that prediction, the courtyard of the school is nearly empty as if there was some sort of repellent for college goers, said for a few stragglers. One of them being baby Wayne.

"What's this?" Jason whispers into the lip of his mug when he sees a redheaded woman jog her way to Damian's side. It doesn't take a lot for anyone to see the attraction to the kid. The lack of space between their arms, her big ass smile followed with one dimple in one cheek, and the admiring eyes had trained on him.

Jason couldn't help but think of Dick and Babs. But where Dick and Babs would be easy and open in public, Damian and this girl were...stunted... in a sense. The kid didn't have the puppy love-struck expression of a young adult, instead, he just looked charming. It was eerily similar to the charm Bruce used to work over the ladies at a charity event or something.

He gets up and crosses the street with his eyes still trained on the pair. He'll be honest with himself, it's something he can't really take his eyes off. Like he was watching a car crash. As he gets closer, he starts to hear a bit of their conversation.

"-this weekend?"

Damian pauses, looking thoughtful, then pulls out his phone, tapping the screen a few times. With his head lowered, the few strands of hair not held up by gel fall to his forehead, giving him a much more casual look. However, it's all disrupted when he runs a hand through his hair and looks back to her. Jason would have laughed at the audible hitch of breath from the girl if he wasn't distracted from the same action. "I have a few projects due next week, and then I have to help prepare for the hospital auction on Sunday."

She pouts, "Oh, that wouldn't happen to be the children's hospital, would it?"

"Yes," Damian ponders for a moment, "I believe your mother is on the guest list."

Jason catches her eyes and a bright tinge of pink stains her cheeks as she takes a small step away from Damian. The hellspawn doesn't even acknowledge Jason's presence and continues talking.

"If you attend, I could save you a dance." By god, he sounds sincerely earnest.

"I-I'll try to make it then...then," she blushes even harder, glancing back at Jason, "Bye, Damian." And then she hustles away.

It's almost scary when Damian's face drops into his natural faint scowl, directing it at Jason once she was out of sight

"You could have stayed away for a few minutes longer."

"Wanted to make out with your little girlfriend?" Jason teases, sidling over.

Damian scoffs, waving his hand flippantly, "Her mother is simple-minded. She donates more when she is in a good mood, and Leah attending is a major contributor. It's purely business."

Jason nods thoughtfully. That seems more on Damian's realm of doing things. There was always a motive. It was only natural that the kid would use the all good Wayne charm as another tool.

"So," Damian straightens, "what do you need, Todd?"

The older man mockingly places a hand over his heart, "Hurt, so very much hurt. Can't I just come see my younger bro without needing something?" He fakes wiping a tear from his cheek.

Damian rolls his eyes, "I'm hardly that,” then starts walking to exit the campus, but this time it's Jason that walks beside him.

"Okay let me correct you there. Your dad took me in so I grew up in that manor just the same as you, was fed by the same butler as you and if I had to draw a venn diagram of people we would consider family, " he gave a little air quote motion, "almost all of those people would be in the center."

"That is a very loose yet specific definition for brother."

Jason shrugs, "Yeah but that comes with the job. Anyways, yes you were right I do need something from you."

"What is it?"

"I need you to come work a case with me."

Damian raises an inquisitive brow at Jason, and that's not a good thing right now for the older man. "You could have sent a text or opt to shine an R up in the sky."

"True, but--Did you just make a joke?" And Jason is damned when the kid gave him a wry smirk that made him stumble in his boots. That was an interesting image in his head. Normally, Jason wouldn't think much of it if the kid were in the Robin gear, but out of the mask and with those bright baby blues and in civvies no less. The older man clears his throat and tries to alleviate some of the pressure in his pants inconspicuously as they stopped at the sidewalk. At this point, Jason has accepted that there is somewhat of an attraction to the kid. After that encounter in the Batcave, and furiously rubbing one out one, two, multiple times, it would be hard to deny it.

Jason coughs, reaching up to rub the back of his neck, "Anyways, yeah, it seems like you've taken up my section of the city while I was out, so it'd only make sense to ask you, ya know?"

The kid nods after a moment. "Tonight. I can meet you at one of your safe houses and you can debrief me on what you have in mind."

And just then a car rolls up and comes to a stop in front of them. Damian opens the door without missing a beat and slides into the passenger seat, revealing a familiar face in the driver's side.

Jason grins and gives a two finger salute, "Hey Alfred."

The old man gives Jason a fond smile, "Master Jason. I trust your trip went well?"

"Very."

"I will send you a message," Damian states, leaning over to grab onto the door handle and looking up at Jason through his thick lashes.

Jason's throat goes dry. He's almost sure that he's staring way too hard at the kid, whom to his credit doesn't flinch from it. So all Jason can manage is a quick nod. Then the door closes and watches the car drive and turn around a corner before he realizes that he wasn't breathing.

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Team Up

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG-11/T- (for some intense sequences)

Original Idea: That one “Bland DC Headcanon” about Jason respecting/listening to women more than men and so on. I saw it on Pinterest. If someone finds it send me the link and I’ll add it (I’ll also add it if I can find it).

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) This is actually an early one of mine that got lost and never posted. Whoops. @batboys-and-other-messes @welovegroot

^^^^^

I picked up my superhero phone. “This is Starbeam.”

“Starbeam. Can I ask a favor of you?” a familiar voice asked.

“Batman! What a privilege to have you call,” I said. “What’s up? It really depends on the favor. Like, if I am incapable or unqualified—”

“You know my son, Red Hood, right?” Batman interrupted.

I pursed my lips for a moment. “We’ve met.”

“Don’t like him?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t interact long enough for me to make a sound judgment. Didn’t get the best first impression, though. What about him?”

“He’s heading out of Gotham on a mission I’ve asked him to go on. And, the thing is, he works better with female team members. He respects and listens to women far more than men, without fail. So if I ever have to send him out for a specific reason, I try to get a woman to go with him. It generally ends in a lower body count.”

“Are you asking me to go with him?”

“Are you available and willing?”

“Heck yeah, B-man! Out of all your sons I always thought he was the hottest.”

“I didn’t need to know that. Ever. Will you please accompany him?”

“Yup. I’ll pack now. Where are we headed?”

“Coast City.”

“Ooooh. Better take my bikini then.”

“You don’t own a bikini.”

“I’m not even going to question how you know that,” I decided. I really didn’t own a bikini. I hated them. They showed off my scars and I didn’t like people staring.

“You told me. At the last meetup, remember?”

“Oh yeah. Right. Okay. Am I meeting him there or is he going to come pick me up?”

“He’ll pick you up. Good luck.”

“Thanks man. See ya later.”

“Bye.” He hung up.

“Every single one of your children is more personable than you are—including that sword-happy Robin,” I muttered under my breath as I threw my phone down on the couch and went to my bedroom to throw some clothes into a small suitcase. And cram my suit into my backpack.

^^^^^

“Starbeam,” Red Hood greeted when I opened my safehouse door.

“Hood,” I replied, hauling my duffel bag strap onto my shoulder, my backpack already hanging off the other one. “Heard we’re going to Coast City. What’s goin’ on over there?”

“Apparently we’ll be told when we arrive. Green Arrow is waiting for us.”

“What’s he doin’ outta Star City?”

“I don’t know, lady. Batman tells me he needs me to go do something, I go do it.”

“You never struck me as the obedient type,” I remarked, locking the door to the safehouse behind me.

“I'm not. But if he needs me, that means no one else is willing or capable of doing the job.”

“What do you mean?”

“The rest of my family aren’t killers.”

“Not even the sword-happy Robin?”

Hood smirked and led me downstairs to a truck. “Not anymore. He keeps his body count to an absolute minimum these days to honor Batman’s desires.”

“And you decided ‘screw it’?” I joked.

“Something like that,” he replied as he started the truck and started the drive to Coast City. “But I’ve grown beyond Batman. I can compromise my image in a way Batman could never afford. I’ve killed before so I can kill again. People already see my helmet and know blood is going to be spilt, and it’ll probably be lethal.”

Red Hood paused. I opened my mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and shut my trap.

“Although, if he’s sending you with me, he wants to keep the body count down.” He glanced over at me. “Think you got what it takes to keep me in line, doll-face?”

“Yup,” I answered honestly.

He snickered. “I suppose we’ll see.”

“Suppose we will.”

^^^^^

I grabbed Red Hood’s gun and forced it down. “Hood! Stop it,” I snapped, before dropping my voice. “We need him alive. He’ll talk.”

“I’m done with talking, princess,” he snarled. “This guy is an idiot.”

“An idiot with valuable information!” I retorted.

“Don’t test me Starbeam, unless you want to eat a bullet too.” He tried to shove past me.

“Red Hood!” I grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked him backward. “We need him to talk. Give me five minutes.”

Hood glared down at me. I could almost see his eyes through the white mesh that hid them in his helmet. “Fine. Five minutes. But then he bites.”

“This is why you have no friends, Hood,” I remarked.

“I have friends!” he protested. I ignored him.

I turned to the guy and started to gently try and prod information out of him.

But when he didn’t appear to want to give me anything, I got violent too, planting my boot on his bullet wound. “TELL ME!” I snarled. I heard Hood grunt behind me—it sounded like he was impressed with me, but I didn’t take the time to ask.

Finally, the guy spilled. He ended up talking for fifteen minutes while I recorded everything.

I tied him up and knocked him out. I called the cops to come get the criminals and Red Hood and I bugged out.

Coast City’s warm, humid west coast air blew through my messy hair as we sat on a rooftop where no one would see us, taking a break. The job was over. We found out everything we needed to know.

“Thank you, Starbeam,” Red Hood said quietly.

“For what?” I asked, looking around. Did I bring food and forgot? No…

“For stopping me from killing that guy,” he answered. “If you hadn’t, the mission would have failed. I just…” He trailed off, not knowing what to say to me.

“Saw red?” I suggested.

“Yeah. Yeah I guess I just saw red and lost control again,” he said. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and popped it off to reveal the red domino mask underneath.

“Maybe we should spray paint your helmet blue,” I said. “Blue is said to have calming effects on the human mind, whereas red promotes aggression.”

He nudged me with his shoulder, grinning. “Shut up,” he ordered playfully.

I turned and looked at him. “Make me,” I retorted.

Red Hood tilted his head suggestively. “I will,” he said.

I cocked an eyebrow.

My phone started ringing.

“Hey Batman. What’s up?” I asked, answering it with a dramatic sigh. Why did he have to ruin the moment? Just got kiss-blocked by Red Hood’s dad. Yikes.

“How’d the mission go?” Batman said.

“Went fine. I uploaded the audio file to you. Did you get it?”

“Yes I did. How’s Red Hood?”

I glanced over at the man in question, deciding how to word my answer. “In good health. The body count on this one was relatively minimal. I think the only guy who died was the one that got pushed off the stairs on the seventh floor.”

“So he listened to you?”

“Relatively speaking yeah. There was some pushing involved.”

“Thank you Starbeam. I appreciate your willingness to… keep him in line.”

“Oh, it’s my pleasure. After driving across the country with him I’ve gotten over the relatively negative first impression,” I said. Red Hood shot me a look full of amusement and playfulness. And maybe even something flirtatious.

“I’ll call you two later to make sure everything is secure, alright?”

“Absolutely,” I said distractedly. Batman grunted and hung up. I shoved my phone in a pouch on my belt. “Now, Hood… where were we?”

Hood smiled. “Not sure. How about you tell me?”

“You were going to make me shut up,” I said.

“Mm,” he agreed. “Right. Well then, maybe we should both make each other shut up.” He leaned forward and sealed his lips against mine. My hands found his hair.

The sunset bathed us in warm orange light. I leaned into the kiss and tightened my grip on his hair.

“Hey guys! How’d it go?” Green Arrow asked, popping up out of nowhere. “Ohhh… I’ll come back later!”

[whirlybirbs]

​❝ what i saw, you’ll never believe me. ❞ & one of the batboys????

Gotham City is a melting pot of terror. 

The crime rate, really, is deplorable -- but, when half the GCPD is paid off by the likes of Penguin and cops are out spending their paychecks at the Iceberg Lounge, you can’t really expect much.

Past the political mess of mobs and among the street gangs, though, the people of Gotham are a resilient kind. They’re tough, thick-skinned. Your mother was no exception, and you now running her age-old diner, are the same way. 

Pauli’s is a pink-neon beacon in the middle of downtown; it’s got retrograded charm and greasy comfort food and a fading jukebox that blares out the likes of Sinatra late into the evenings. People flock to it.

You’ve served Falcone’s men and Maroni’s men and Riddler’s, too. You’re not new to the world of tip-toeing and ease-dropping. GCPD is the worst of them, all, though -- they chatter on and on and you swear you could have solved half the murder cases on Gotham with the evidence they name-drop. There’s two in the corner, Owens and McBride. They’re regulars. Nice guys.

“What I saw, man, you’ll never believe me.”

“There’s another one?”

You’re wiping the counter clean with a rag, bussing the bar to make room for a chattering group of teenagers looking for milkshakes. You listen, though, interested in Owens’s clear shock.

“No,” he waves his coffee, “Not a Bat -- this guy... Nightwing.”

“Nice name.”

“Yeah, well,” a laugh, “I watched the kid take out six of Freeze’s guys in Port Park.”

“Bullshit.”

You try to seem busy, but in the midst of ringing in an order, but you can’t help yourself.

“I’ve heard about him.”

Owens and McBride blink at you, cocking their heads and laughing slightly. “Oh?”

“Yeah,” you chirp, “He’s the old Robin, all grown up. At least that’s what people think -- y’know, conspiracy theory stuff.”

And that’s when Officer Richard Grayson’s interest is piqued. 

He’s in the corner, sipping cold coffee and trying to wake up because he’s running on (maybe) three hours of sleep, and even though that’s better than other nights, it’s still pretty shitty. His notepad has been abandoned for his twitter feed, and Dick has been spinning in circles over this case. He chews his pen cap. He ignores a text from Tim.

Typically, Gotham was out of his jurisdiction -- his uniform, emblazoned with the Blüdhaven PD insignia, is rare sight in these parts. Unless, that is, you’re investigating a triple homicide with ties to Falcone’s men. Dick really didn’t get it; three dock workers were murdered in broad daylight for seemingly no reason at all. 

He came here to brainstorm, looking to see if he could catch onto some chatter by Falcone’s boys, but now? Now he’s thoroughly amused at the banter happening at the bar over his alter ego.

“Nightwing sounds like a stupid name.”

“God, Dan, you’re so hung up on the name.”

“I think it’s a cool name,” you say, refilling their coffees, “Very... mysterious.”

That rises a laugh out of Owens and McBride, and you smirk in this knowing type of way that’s reserved for old souls.

And it makes Dick smirk in his own boyish type of way. As you pass back to the register to ring up the gaggle of teens downing their milkshakes, he catches your eye. Sinatra drones on, and you try not to get caught up in the look the young officer serves your from his corner booth. You’ve seen the pretty ones come and go -- they never last long. 

And yet, despite your clear occupation with the register, he saunters right over to the counter. There’s no other word for it. He drops his elbows to the counter and tosses his cap beside himself. 

He has an empty coffee cup dangling between his fingers. 

You eye the Blüdhaven badge.

“Aren’t you out of your jurisdiction, officer?” you ask, blinking up momentarily from the bill in your hands.

Dick absolutely beams, that charming grin Bruce told him was going to get him in trouble one day, before shrugging and glancing towards the two cops at the bar. “Depends who you ask, but I think a triple homicide counts as a good reason to stretch my legs.”

You hum. “Careful you don’t step on any toes.”

“Me?” a calloused hand pressed into his jacket and his badge glints in the lights of the diner, “Never.”

"Can’t ask that Chickenwing character for help, Grayson?” Owens chirps, “I’m sure he’d love to.”

Grayson. You eye his badge again, and then clear shadow of five o’clock shadow along his jaw. You fill his coffee cup without a word, and he gives you a soft look of appreciation. 

“That’s a great idea, Owens,” Dick fires back as he sips his cup, “Too bad Blüdhaven doesn’t rely on maniacs in spandex to do my job.”

“Hey,” McBride points a finger his way, “Watch it, kid.”

“Sorry, right, sore subject... That bat-signal still broken on top of GCPD?”

With that, he tosses his coffee back in one gulp, fitting his cap on over dark tufts of hair. He’s handsome, no doubt, and you watch as he bounces off the bar-stool and collects his things. He drops a $20 on the counter, serves you a wink and starts for the door.

“Bye, ladies,” he chirps to Owens and McBride before pointing to the mug you’ve gathered from his spot in your hands, “That coffee? Great stuff.”

“Glad you liked it.”

“Might have to come back from more.”

And that’s the first time you ever met Dick Grayson.

[33whynot77]

~() The Sound of Emotions()~ Jason Todd

A/N This is another one shot/imagine thing based off of the previous headcannons I did involving music and the batboys. This one is for Jason Todd. Once again, Please keep in mind that these are my own opinions based on the limited knowledge I have of each of these characters. All criticism should be constructive please. I’m still just trying this out and getting used to these characters and such. Also it’s just kind of cruel to get to mad at an author for not getting certain things right when they’re just trying their best. Without further ado here’s one of said one shots.

Description: Based off of the batboys headcannons just like Heartbeat (the Dick Grayson one) except you know with Jason Todd aka the Red Hood. The headcannons are here and here. Takes place both before and after his death.

Genre: 

Warnings:

Word count:

Not my artwork btw, but I can’t remember who did it, so credit goes to the original artist. I just think it’s super cute and couldn’t help but put it here. So, yeah, credit to the artist I just love it a lot.

You’d learned a long time ago that you couldn’t just go through life screaming whenever you felt like you needed to. You also figured out pretty soon after that there was a solution for times like those. For you it was music. Whenever you felt the urge to just scream out loud and let it all go you plugged in your earphones turned the music up loud and let it scream for you. Music for you became your own kind of language, one you thought was unique to you. However, one day you came to realize that there was one other who spoke this language.

His name was Jason Todd and if anyone asked you how long you’d known him for you always answered centuries. Of course there was no way you’d both been alive for centuries but it certainly felt like you two had known each other as long as the world had revolved around the sun, especially once you both realized just how much you were alike, just how much you spoke the same language. You and him were tied by fate and strings tied too tight to ever break and it seemed like the whole world knew it, everyone saw it. Looking back you realized it was probably what made you two the “it” couple back in high school when you’d started dating.

Neither of you had been particularly popular, besides maybe Jason who had a god like status thanks to his adoption by Bruce Wayne and his general bad boy persona. You, however, you lived in the shadows of the school you both attended. You were invisible to just about everyone except for him, your best friend and you were the two most cliche people to ever exist. You had both gone from rags to riches, living on the streets together to both being adopted by super rich families of Gotham, you were childhood best friends who became high school sweethearts, the bad boy falls for the good girl, good girl isn’t the total angel he thought she was and bad boy isn’t the total devil everyone thought he was. The thing is that there was one more tragic cliche that the two of you fell into. You just hadn’t known it when you’d fallen desperately in love with each other. You just knew you felt loved and you felt that someone finally understood each other and that you had someone in a way that was simply your own. Only you and him understood it when the other put down their phone playing a song and then walked away. 

You were eternally thankful for this language when the tragic cliche was over, the tragic cliche of the death of one of you. In this case, him. You had of course known about his nightly activities and so it wasn’t entirely a surprise when Batman and Nightwing showed up on the balcony outside your room. What was a shock was the news that Jason had been taken. Even more of a shock was the news that he had died. At the time you had been convinced that you and him would live forever with each other and life would never really truly end, but right then and there you found yourself just as dead as he was. You could still remember the exact moment when it all became dreadfully real. 

It hadn’t been real when Batman and Nightwing, Bruce and Dick, were there in front of you their heads hung saying sadly that they were sorry and he was gone. You hadn’t even truly believed when you climbed into the batmobile and was whisked away to the batcave. It wasn’t until you got there and saw his dead body laying there that it became real. You remember the tears suddenly springing from your eyes and pouring down your cheeks. You remember the feeling of all air and oxygen and life leaving your body, your hand flying to your mouth. You remember everything suddenly become so unclear and unreasonable. You remember moving forward without any thought, just surging towards him completely and utterly sobbing because there he was laying unmoving never to get up again. How could you ever forget this moment and in the end you never truly did. You never forgot the day when his heart stopped beating and yours went on. The love of your life, your soulmate, your heart and soul, your everything was never going to sit up again. He would never smile and caress your cheek. You’d never have his protective, warm, and caring arms around you ever again. You had lost everything and so you surged forward with such pain and agony that a river of tears came with and flowed behind you.

You found yourself diving onto his cold body and cradling him sobbing and wishing for him to come back because how could you lose him. How could you deal with this? You cradled him in your arms and whispered through the tears and sobs all the things you’d always wanted to say to him, your future plans, all the love you held for him, and you pleaded, beg, and then cried out for him to come back to you even though you knew and remember knowing that he never could. Dick and Bruce and Alfred had to pull you kicking, screaming, and sobbing from him because you weren’t ready to let go and you knew you probably never would be. Your heart had died that day. Every night after that for quite some time you laid awake while the world remained in peaceful slumber. You would get up and walk about your apartment or wherever you were staying that night or sometimes you’d even just lay there in your bed but either way the memories tormented you just as they did every waking hour and every hour at sleep. Remembering him was incredibly easy, but the pain and the heartache that came with it, missing him that was what destroyed you. You found that losing someone, losing him, it didn’t just happen that night. It happened every night since and every morning and every day. It happened when you were stressed and remembered how his hugs made everything seem to disappear. It happened when you picked up or looked at anything that was important to him. His favorite mug, his favorite jacket, his favorite shirt, your reflection in the mirror. It happened all the time and it killed you. You very often found yourself listening to Still Here by Digital Daggers as your attempt of calling out to Jason now that he was gone.

The most surprising of all however, was when he came back. When he arose from the dead to appear in your apartment. You remember being angry with him at first, that he’d come back to life and not come straight to you and not immediately remember the girl who’s heart had been shattered that night when he died. It hadn’t taken too long though for you to forgive him because you needed him and loved him far too much to let something petty and small like that get in the way and so from there you moved in together. You spent day and night together and suddenly everything was better for you just because he was there, but he found himself struggling.

He was struggling so much, he had so many things to say to you and not enough words or ability or anything to say them to you and he’s floundering for words because he needs you to know just how much you mean to him. He needs you to understand so that you don’t give up on him when he’s difficult. So he did the one thing he could think of. He made a playlist and for a while it was just there on his phone reminding him of what he needed to say and then he remembered that you two spoke the same language and so he recreated the playlist on your phone and gave it your nickname and when you saw it you knew so you spent the next few days listening to every song and falling so much more in love with him as sappy romantic and meaningful songs filled your ears every moment your earphones were in. Shortly after that playlists became your major way of communicating with one another, especially since the both of you had taken up the nightly routine and went on patrol and had different day jobs and didn’t always see each other until very late at night or not long enough to say everything that needed to be said and so you communicated it through song. 

People got so confused and were always asking about the state of your relationship because you hadn’t said I love you the whole night or in the entire three weeks they’ve been around you but that didn’t matter because you understood each other and what was happening. Jason ran into trouble with this concept twice around the time of when he proposed to you. The first time was much smaller. You and Jason had gotten into a fight a few days before and Tim, Jason, Dick, and Roy were all gathered together to try and figure out how to fix this between you and him.

“So what exactly happened?” Dick questioned looking intently at Jason. Everyone in the group had become fiercely protective of you and all cared deeply for you so the idea that Jason had pushed you away or done something to hurt you in any way was not a welcome one to any of them. 

“Well, Y/N thinks I’m cheating.” Jason answered and quickly added “But I promise you I’m not. I would never, Y/N means the world to me.” He was not keen on all present teaming up on him.

“Oh, so this is the proposals fault then.” Tim replied and when he was met by blank stares continued. “Well, obviously Y/N realized that Jason was keeping a secret/hiding something so when they confronted him and he didn’t give up what was happening, Y/N assumed cheating when really its that Jason is or at least was going to propose.” They’d gone on and on talking about that until everyone but Jason and Dick had left. 

“I just, I don’t know what to do...” Jason said trailing off before suddenly starting to play a song from his phone (Btw the song he plays is Evermore by Dan Stevens from the new Beauty and the Beast) Dick got really confused and Jason had realized that not everyone understood. 

“Sorry, I forget that Y/N is the only one who really understands that...” Jason had said trailing off and then he’d quickly explained that the song basically described how he felt in the moment about possibly loosing you. 

Shortly thereafter the two of you had figured it out and the second time occurred this one far larger. This one occurred during the actual proposal. Jason knew there was no way he’d get a full speech out without stumbling or loosing to his emotions and nerves and instead played a quick like three song playlist all of which at least mentioned the question or phrase marry me. You and Jason had been the only ones who’d realized what was even happening until you started squealing out yeses. 

Now as you stood here in the doorway watching your children argue by playing certain angry sounding songs and the occasional yelling voice and as you scrolled through the music library and added a song to the shared playlist you and Jason now had you were eternally grateful that the two of you and your children could communicate this way.

A/N Sorry if this is terrible and I’m sorry this took so long. Believe it or not I have a very busy life.

[sassycassie-s-series]

All My Fault 27

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Damian Wayne/Batman

Rating: PG/K+

Notes: (Masterlist) Wow college has been kicking my butt recently. I know this has been a while but here you go! I’m gonna try to put up more soon! This one’s got a lot going on so have fun!

Tag List (Open): @batboys-and-other-messes @haylo4ever @lostredrobin @na-n-na @probsjosh @spooder-moon @welovegroot

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26

^^^^^

“You remember my first boyfriend, right?” I asked Damian over comms while I was out on patrol and in the middle of taking down a group of drug-dealers. “He came to the house a couple times.”

Damian and I were on a private comms channel. We could hear everyone on the open channel all talking to each other in case they needed us, but they couldn’t hear us. Damian was still in bed, but allowed to talk to us on comms. Dick was just subbing as Batman for the night—and the nights that Damian had been out with the League.

“Tt. Yes,” he said. “He didn’t deserve you.”

“Play nice. We were sixteen,” I joked, kicking a dealer in the face and using the momentum to take another one down. “Do you wanna know what became of him?”

“He was arrested and incarcerated for domestic violence three years ago,” Damian said.

“That’s right. Wait. Did you keep tabs on my ex?” I demanded with a laugh.

“Not particularly. Grayson was the one who arrested him. We all realized who he was, and it was all Todd could do not to shoot him. Did he ever treat you that way?”

I scoffed. “Like he could,” I said. “The night we broke up, he tried to smack me when I said something he didn’t like. I caught his wrist and jabbed him in the solar plexus. I hadn’t even begun training with Batman yet—just the martial arts I’d done growing up.” I finished taking down the dealers, tied them up, and left them on the curb after signaling for the cops to come find them. I shot a grappling line up and zipped away.

“Good,” Damian muttered darkly. “If he ever laid a hand on you that you did not permit, I would break every one of his fingers while staring him in the face.”

“You’ve been quiet for a while, Cloudy,” Jason said. “You doing okay?”

I switched to the open channel. “Yeah Hood. Just talking with Batman.”

“Ooh. About what?”

“My first boyfriend.”

“Interesting choice of topic,” Tim remarked. “Is it at all relevant to patrol?”

“Not exactly. One of the drug-dealers I just took down looked a bit like him,” I said. “Made me think of him.”

“Huh,” Jason said. “Well, by all means, keep chatting. I won’t keep you. Holler if you need anything.”

“Will do,” I said before switching back to the private channel. “Still there, Batman?”

“Still here,” Damian said.

“You doing okay?”

“If by that you mean, ‘do I wish I was out there with you’ the answer is yes,” Damian said.

I sighed as I landed against the side of a building and looked out over Gotham. “Of course it is,” I said. “But you’ll be out with us tomorrow so be patient. We’ll be home soon.”

“What if…” Damian began hesitantly. “What if you came home early? That way I’d have some company that isn’t overbearing and loud for a while?” I chuckled as I shot another grappling line to another building and dropped off the side of the building I was on.

“You’d rather have me keep you company than Dick? I thought Dick was, like, your favorite person on the planet,” I teased.

Damian snorted. “Tt. Grayson is like a second father to me more than a brother. I’d rather have someone who’s not exactly like family.”

I scoffed. “Wow thanks,” I said sarcastically.

“I meant no offense,” Damian said.

“I know. I'm just messing around—whoa!” I released my grappling line as the GCPD helicopter banked around a building and nearly hit me. I dropped several hundred feet before catching myself on another line. I swung to the safety of a nearby rooftop and panicked.

“Are you alright?” Damian demanded.

“Yeah,��� I said breathlessly. “Just about turned into a bug on the windshield of a helicopter but I'm just fine.”

“Team, Cloudburst just had a run-in with a helicopter. I'm ordering her back to base,” Damian said in the open channel. I switched over to the channel too.

“Whoa! You okay Cloudy?” Dick asked.

“Yeah. Little shaken but I'm good,” I said.

“Head home, Cloudburst. We got this,” Tim said. “Tonight’s not the slowest of nights but it ain’t the fastest either. I think we’ll be good.”

Panting, I slowly walked back to the edge of the roof. “Okay. I’ll see y’all back at base.”

“‘Night Cloudy,” Jason said.

“Night,” I replied. I jumped off the roof and went swinging towards Uptown Gotham, the Palisades, and Wayne Manor outside the city.

^^^^^

“Ho!” I sighed, flopping onto my bed, all showered and in my pajamas.

“Evening,” a voice said from my doorway. I jumped and whirled to see Damian leaned against the doorframe. In his pajamas. Which included an obvious lack of a shirt.

“Damian! You scared me. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Tt. I appreciate Pennyworth looking after my health but I don’t require thirty-six-hours of bedrest.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that or he’ll up your sentence to seventy-two hours out of sheer spite.”

“Fair point,” he said with a smile. He crossed my room and perched on the edge of my bed, regarding me calmly. “Perhaps I’ll just hide in here then.”

I snickered. “Trust me, if Alfred suspects you’re disobeying bedrest this is the first place he’d come looking,” I teased. Damian pondered for a moment. I got up and threw a blanket over him. “But now you can pretend you’re resting with me.” His grin grew wider when he freed his head from under the blanket.

“Clever solution,” he complimented.

I brought my laptop onto my bed and opened it up. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s see what gossip we can dig up from the last couple years that you can explain to me.” I logged into Facebook and started scrolling through the “Mutual Friends” list between me and Damian.

Upon scrolling and clicking, I found Barbara Gordon.

Knock-knock! Knuckles echoed off my door.

Damian was instantly on his feet and blending into the shadows of my closet. “Alfred?” I asked loudly.

“No, kid,” Bruce’s voice said. “It’s me.”

“C’mon in,” I said.

Bruce opened the door and stepped over the threshold. “How was patrol?” he asked.

“Fine. Got a little spooked when I almost went splat on the GCPD’s helicopter windshield so I turned in early,” I said.

“How are you adjusting to the future?”

“Better than I ever would have thought.”

“Remember what I said to you when you turned eighteen?” Bruce asked.

I licked my lip and bit it, nodding.

^^^^^

“Happy Birthday, Nora,” Bruce said quietly after the party was over and the rest of the family was getting ready for patrol—though I was taking the night off since it was my birthday.

“Thanks,” I said, feeling awkward.

“Something you wanna say, kid?”

“I'm eighteen. I'm an adult. So I'm no longer your responsibility.”

“You could put it that way,” Bruce deadpanned.

“So… are you going to kick me out? Let me find my own life?”

“No.”

His flat delivery rubbed me the wrong way. “Why?” I demanded, sharper than I intended. “Because I'm part of your Mission now?”

He scoffed. “No. Because you’re part of my family,” he retorted.

I took a step back in surprise.

“And you’re welcome to call Wayne Manor your home for as long as you like—and whenever you like.”

I threw my arms around him. He awkwardly stood there for a moment, like a tree, until I felt him give me a hug back.

“It’s alright, kid. It’s… it’s going to be fine.”

^^^^^

“Yeah I remember,” I said.

“When you first arrived here, you had to find your place in this family. And now, again. Your little time-travel adventure has put you in a different position in this family. But make no mistake, Nora, you are still part of this family. You’ve been here a month and I… I realize that I haven’t really even… been here for you.”

“Bruce, really, it’s okay. I mean, you’re still Bruce Wayne and you’ve got a lot on your shoulders even without being Batman. And I’ve had the boys to keep an eye on me and help me out. I get it,” I said. “Really. I’ve been adjusting better than I thought.”

Bruce looked thoughtful. “I… I'm glad,” he said. “One more question, though.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“Why is my son hiding in your closet?”

I couldn’t help but snicker. I could practically read Damian’s mind—he was probably swearing internally. “We thought you were Alfred. Damian came to check on me after I got spooked on patrol but Alfred doesn’t want him out of bed till tomorrow morning,” I explained.

Bruce smiled—actually smiled. “I won’t tell Alfred,” he said, sounding amused. “You can come out now, Damian!”

Damian poked his head out of my closet, my spare blanket still wrapped around his otherwise bare shoulders. “Good evening, Father.”

“Evening,” Bruce said. “You two have grown close since Nora’s arrival here.”

“Yes,” Damian agreed. “It has been easier to… connect given we are the same age now.”

“And since he’s loosened up a bit,” I added.

“Tt. I am not going soft, McCloud,” Damian grumbled.

“Did I say that?” I retorted playfully, grinning. “I didn’t say that.”

Bruce smirked. “I'm glad you two get along even better now,” he said. “I’ll leave you to what you were doing. Goodnight.”

“‘Night Bruce!” I called as he retreated.

“Goodnight, Father,” Damian said.

My bedroom door shut behind my godfather. I bit my lower lip, suddenly feeling slightly awkward at being in a closed room with Damian. I shook my head to clear it and smiled. “Anyway. What were we doing again?” I asked, looking down at my laptop to see Barbara’s Facebook page open.

“Tt. Scrolling through looking for old gossip for me to explain,” Damian said, sitting next to me on my bed.

“Oh right. Yeah. Let’s do that!” I said.

^^^^^

McCloud snoozed on Damian’s shoulder, eyes closed and laptop still open. Damian was awake, distractedly playing with the ends of her hair. She’d drifted off while he’d been explaining all the romantic relationship drama that she had missed between their friends. She’d fallen asleep with a peaceful smile on her face.

He looked down at the top of her head, her soft flyaway hairs tickling his face. He smiled and brushed some of her hair out of her face. He was so in love with her. He wished he could stay like this forever. With her by his side, her head on his shoulder and asleep.

His imagination brought up a fantasy of a day sometime in the future. A daydream of he and McCloud in an apartment of their own somewhere in Gotham—perhaps married, and happily together. They could be in exactly in this position, except his arm could be around her shoulders and holding her close to his side. A wistful grin played at the corners of his lips. Oh how he would like for that to happen.

But she likely didn’t feel the same way. Yes, she had been acting affectionate toward him as of late, but she acted affectionate to just about everyone. That was the way she was.

He sighed and shut her laptop, moving it out of the way so he could gently ease her into her bed and tuck her in. Carefully, he tucked her covers under her chin and folded up the blanket she’d put on his shoulders. He had half a mind to borrow it until morning—the scent of her shampoo and shower gel clung to it and it would give him an excuse if Pennyworth caught him in the corridors—but decided against it. He placed the blanket back in her closet and slipped out of her bedroom.

“Goodnight, my only,” he whispered, standing at her doorframe, casting a longing look over his shoulder at her. Before he could do anything else, he ducked out and stole back to his quarters.

Next

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Trouble in Gotham

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam, The Flash - Jason Todd/Red Hood, feat. Barry Allen/Flash, & BatFam

Rating: PG

Original Idea: This is what happens when you’re still over-obsessed with the BatFam but try to catch up on the Flash TV show at the same time... (Season 3... I’m way behind.)

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) This is what is referred to in the Sanders Sides fandom as a Mud Fic---or a muddled fic---because I didn’t want to write any context.  Also this one is LONG! @welovegroot @batboys-and-other-messes

^^^^^

I slid to a stop next to the Batmobile in the Batcave. "Whoo! That was fun!" I said brightly.

"Welcome back, Volt. Decent patrol, I assume?" Batman asked from the computer.

"What do you mean? I was out for two days. You didn't seriously assume I was patrolling the whole time, did you?" I asked.

"You okay, Volt? Did you hit your head?" Tim asked. "You were only gone for like two hours."

"Sorry. I guess it felt like two days. That happens when your mind can run as fast as your legs," I said. "So where's Jason? I thought he'd wanna give me a welcome-back kiss."

"Who?" Damian asked, not looking up from where he was sharpening his sword.

"Jason. Jason Todd? Brash, impulsive, flirty in the right mood, complete literature nerd who could probably quote the entirety of The Complete Works of Jane Austen? Red Hood? Ringing a bell?"

"Volt, I think Alfred needs to check you for a concussion. There's no Jason Todd here. The last member of the Red Hood Gang fell into a vat of chemicals and then reemerged as the Joker, like, decades ago," Tim said.

Dick pointedly ignored me.

"I know that. And then Jason took up the name when he came back from the dead. He replaced Dick as Robin and then the Joker killed him," I said.

Bruce, Tim, and Damian all glanced at each other. Dick continued to ignore everything---which seemed really unlike him. The three of them looked back at me. "Volt… Tim replaced Rich as Robin ages after Rich took up the name Nightwing," Bruce said. I blinked in confusion, looking between the three of them.

"Rich? Since when has Dick gone by Rich?" I looked over at Dick for an explanation, but he continued to act as though I wasn't even there, turning in his chair so he back was to me. I scrunched my eyebrows.

"Since he was twelve," Bruce replied. "Kids at school made fun of him so he changed what he went by."

"What about the kid that tried to hit you with the tire iron after you caught him stealing tires off the Batmobile?" I pressed, zipping over to the computer.

"That kid didn't try to hit me with a tire iron. He'd been on the streets for a while and it traumatized him. He was scared and alone. I took him to the orphanage three blocks away from Wayne Tower."

"No, you took him in and trained him to be Robin so he wouldn't turn to a life of crime, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Volt. Go get some rest. You're obviously confused. You might have depleted your blood sugar so much that you're hallucinating."

"Guys, seriously. I haven't run back in time recently and screwed with the timeline or anything. Stop messing with me. Where's Jason?"

"You know just as well as the rest of us that we and Father do not 'mess with' each other," Damian said, attention still on his sword.

I scrunched my nose. "Uh… right. Be right back," I said.

I bolted out of the Batcave at top speed.

The wind whistled through my hair. I tapped my comm link. "Hey Bruce, can we talk for a sec on a private line?" I asked.

There was a click. "Private line established. What's on your mind?"

"Why is Dick ignoring me? I mean, usually he's, uh, all over the place."

"The two of you broke up three weeks ago. Give him time," Bruce said.

"Broke up? I never dated Dick!"

"Volt, you and Rich were in a relationship for two years."

"No, I dated Jason for this past year," I muttered. "I never dated Dick."

"Young lady, I want you to return to the cave right now, take off your suit, eat a decent meal, and go to bed. You're talking nonsense. There is no Jason Todd in this family, and there never has been."

My heart cramped, so I slid to a stop. Panting, I leaned against a building for support. "I'll be back in a few minutes," I said, killing the comm link connection with a whack at my ear, ignoring Bruce protesting.

I looked at the building across the street.

The orphanage three blocks away from Wayne Tower.

It took me all of five minutes to find Jason's records from the orphanage, trace them through the foster system, and find where he ended up. I felt like I was going crazy. At least Jason Todd existed. I ran all over the city trying to follow his life, and finally skidded on the pavement in front of one of his current places of employment---according to bank records, he had two jobs.

Buuuuut it was one in the morning so, obviously, the place was closed.

I sighed, shook my head, and sped back to Wayne Manor---where I got told off by Bruce for five minutes (that felt like five years) about keeping my blood sugar up and staying well-rested before being sent off to eat and go to bed.

Alfred tried to say something to me, but obviously wasn't sure of what to say so he just told me he hoped I'd enjoy my meal and left the kitchen.

I ate at a normal human pace---because if I didn't I'd get a stomachache---and went to bed.

^^^^^

I slid to a stop around the corner from where Jason worked at ten the next morning and fixed my hair so it wouldn't look like I'd just run five miles at nine-hundred-miles-per-hour. Painting a neutral expression on my face, I strolled around the corner and looked at the sign.

Harper & Todd Garage---Car and Motorcycle Repair

There was Jason, looking the exact same minus the white streak in his hair, sitting on a low stool and using a wrench to twist a bolt on a huge Harley Davidson bike. He didn't have headphones in nor was there music playing from speakers. He didn't even see me approach because he was so focused on his work.

"'Scuse me?" I asked, tilting up onto my tiptoes and back down again.

He glanced over at me shyly and went back to looking at the motorcycle he was working on. "May I help you, miss?" he asked.

"You're Jason Todd, right?" I asked.

"Yes," he said quietly, not looking at me.

"I don't mean to be rude, but do you know who I am?" I took a few steps closer and crouched down so we were closer to the same eye level.

He snuck a quick peek at me---but not one fast enough for a speedster to miss. "Should I know who you are?" He spoke as though he didn't want me to hear, and shied away from me, trying desperately to shrink into himself to avoid this interaction.

It was weird, seeing a six-foot brick house of a man try to occupy as little space as possible. It was nearly impossible. He was just built to be huge.

"Well yeah. I mean, we've been dating for a year," I said.

For the first time, Jason looked at me for longer than a split second, though he still preferred to look at my forehead than my eyes. His eyes swept me up and down and he went back to looking at his motorcycle.

"Miss, I think I'd remember dating a girl like you," he mumbled timidly. "But I've never even had a girlfriend. I think you have me confused with someone else."

"I guess I must. My apologies, Mr. Todd." It broke my heart to call him something besides Jay or Jason. "Excuse me for a moment." I pushed myself back to a standing position and jogged over to the end of the parking lot so I was out of earshot of the man who I'd shared countless moments with who now no longer even remembered my name.

I pulled my phone out and searched my contacts for a familiar name. Selecting it, I held the phone up to my ear.

"Hey what's up?" a familiar voice asked when the call connected.

"Heeeeey Barry… so… did you run back in time recently?" I asked, striving for casual. "Like, say, maybe fifteen years back or so?"

"Uh, yeah, actually. I did. But it was an accident. Why what's up? How did you know?"

"I'm, uh… I'm having a little trouble in Gotham. Because my boyfriend is no longer my boyfriend. He doesn't remember who I am, he was never adopted by Bruce and never trained to be Robin or Red Hood, and he has the exact opposite personality to the one he's supposed to have. He's supposed to be brash and loud and impulsive and flirtatious when he's in the right mood and now he's scared of me---me, a five-one pipsqueak who looks like a middle-schooler---and acting shy. Jason is not supposed to be shy. Jason is the bravest and one of the most gregarious men I've ever met. Oh, also, supposedly I just broke up with his older brother---who I never dated and is now not his older brother---three weeks ago," I ranted.

"Wait. So, if the timeline shifted and changed, how come you can remember it? Usually I'm the only one," Barry said.

"I don't know, and I don't care. I want my life back. I want Jason back. Am I particularly angry at the fact that he's no longer a somewhat-reformed killer? No. But I want my Jason back."

"Volt, you know I can't go back and try to fix it. You know that awful things happen when we meddle with time too much. If I go back and try to fix what I did yesterday, I might just make things worse."

"What if you just go back to yesterday then and stop yourself from jumping back in time farther?" I suggested.

"I, uh, I don't think that will work either."

"Fight me, Allen. I'll do it," I snapped.

"No. No, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. You're just going to mess up the timeline even more."

"I doubt that. I'm doing us both a favor." I hung up my phone, shoved it in my pocket, tied my hair back in a ponytail---that I tucked down the neckline of my shirt---and glanced over my shoulder. Jason was still working on the motorcycle, covered in grease, and paying me no attention.

I bent my knees, shook my head, and bolted forward.

I ran to Central City first, skidded to a stop in front of Barry, slapped him for being an idiot, and then sped off again before he could catch up to run through time. Just to yesterday to stop Barry from running back even farther.

Which I did. I tackled him into the pavement, both of us going sprawling. "What is your problem, Volt?" yesterday-Barry demanded, staggering to his feet. "What are you even doing in Central City? I thought you lived in Gotham."

"Listen Flash, you were just about to run back in time way too far. Tomorrow-you told me it was an accident. I'm choosing to believe him. But by running back by accident, even if you didn't change anything, changed my entire life. So don't. You. Dare," I snapped. "You made my boyfriend lose all knowledge of my existence---and become the exact opposite of who he's supposed to be. Whilst also changing it so instead I was dating his older brother and just broke up with him. A relationship I don't even remember! So don't even think about breaking the space-time continuum today."

"Okay. I'll slow down," Barry said. "I really wasn't intending to travel through time today."

"Good. Keep it that way. Because if you do run back in time, you'll ruin my life."

"I won't. Sorry, Volt."

"I'll accept your apology tomorrow when my life is back to normal," I said before taking off again.

I ran back to tomorrow, the right day, and left Central City, heading for Gotham.

I slid to a stop in the Batcave. It was empty of people, but the equipment was still present. "Bruce? Dick? Jason? Tim? Damian? Cassie? Alfred? Steph? Babs? Anyone here?" I shouted.

No response.

I ran through the city to the place where I'd last seen Jason---the garage.

It was boarded up and rundown with Gio's Garage painted over the door.

I bolted back to the Batcave, up the stairs, and through the manor, looking for my family.

"Miss Watts, what has Master Bruce told you about running in the house?" Alfred asked as I slid on my socks all the way across the ballroom with my momentum. I stumbled and fell over before scrambling back to my feet.

"Sorry Alfred. Where is everyone?"

"You've all been out for two days on a mission. The rest of the family went out shortly after you did with no way of telling you they were also leaving. You're the first to arrive back. I suggest you eat something and get some rest. I shall alert you when the others return."

"Thanks Alfred."

I did as he suggested. Ate a lot of food and then went to take a nap---but I did it down in the Batcave on a gurney so that I'd know when the others came back.

^^^^^

The roaring of Jason's motorcycle engine woke me up---I'm not sure how long after I went to sleep.

The Batmobile followed right behind it into the cave.

I leapt off the gurney as Jason slung his leg off his bike.

At a normal human speed, I ran at him. "Jason!" I exclaimed.

He threw off his Red Hood helmet and held his arms out.

I jumped on him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, peppering his face with kisses before drawing him in for one long, relieved kiss. His hand found the back of my head and he kissed me back enthusiastically.

"Ugh. Get a room you two," Tim complained.

"For once, I agree with Drake. Todd, Watts, you are revolting," Damian said.

"What was that for?" Jason breathed against my lips, ignoring his brothers.

"Two days apart is twenty-one-hours too long," I whispered. Jason held me close.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "You're not usually like this. Even after missions longer than two days."

"I'll tell you later," I promised. "For now, just hold me. Please." I let my legs down, so I was no longer climbing on him like a jungle gym, but I didn't let him go. He wrapped his arms around me.

"Okay lovebirds," Dick teased. "You're not the only two people in the world you know!"

"Shut up, Dick!" Jason snapped, a smile in his voice.

Everything was okay. For the moment, everything was perfect.