#and jason got. completely fucked over. he’s never allowed to heal

[apollos-boyfriend]

I don’t know what did they do

they fucked up my boy 😭

[scaryscarecrows]

Ownership

Arkham City is the latest bad idea in a long, long line of bad ideas. Jason’s really not sure why, exactly, this was allowed to happen (well, money, but still), but it was and it’s making keeping tabs on the Batman a lot harder.

But Jason’s not here for the Bat tonight. He’s here because of the very persistent rumors that something’s wrong with Joker. Morbidly, he’d like to know. Practically, he needs to know; Joker, out of all the freaks in here, is likely to intervene in any of Jason’s plans. His obsession with Batman makes him a dark horse, and while Jason is inclined to kill him, that operation must be handled delicately. Joker’s the sick sort of bastard to booby-trap himself and if Jason never gets another faceful of laughing gas, it will be too soon.

Joker’s hideout is not hard to find. Even a complete fucking moron with no eyes and no ears would find it. It’s quiet tonight, only a few guards and–thank God–no sign of Harley. The guards go down easy, no bullets required, and soon enough he’s slipping into Sionis’ old mill.

…

Huh.

Penguin’s got a big sonofabitch on his payroll now, with one arm. One half of a pair of conjoined twins, apparently. He hadn’t realized the twin had come here. Somehow, the sigh of a ginormous clown is…a lot scarier than it should be. He’s just gonna leave that guy alone. He’s not here for him anyway, he’s just here for a little investigation. He’s even in civvies, to blend in a little better.

Creak.

He hears it too late; before he can turn, there’s a wire wrapping around his throat and pulling, bringing him to the ground and digging into his skin and he can’t breathe–

“Baby boy!”

Nononononononononononono–

Joker leans over him. Flesh is peeling off his skull and there’s pustules and he stinks like somethin’ Croc threw up. But dark spots are dancing in Jason’s vision now and all he can think is, I don’t wanna die here, please–

All at once, the wire loosens and Joker’s straddling him, those purple leather-gloved fingers stroking the brand lovingly.

“I’ve missed you!” He cackles, and it quickly turns into a nasty cough. Jason’s just frozen, gasping for breath and caught in a loop of don’t make him mad don’t make him mad. “Naughty, naughty, running away like that! But now you’re heeeere again, with meeeee.”

NO!

Jason elbows him the face, bursting a pustule and peeling a chunk of skin off. He intends to follow it by clawing the rest of the bastard’s face off, but Joker’s stronger than he looks, even now, and he lunges forward with one arm pressed against Jason’s throat. The other hand opens a switchblade and traces it under his eye first, then down towards his lips, and then back up again–

–and cuts the brand back open.

It’s not fully healed. Jason’s not sure it would matter. He can’t tell if the pain is physical, psychological, or both. It doesn’t matter, anyway: Joker draws the bloody knife back with a wide, wide smile, wipes the blade across Jason’s lips, and tucks it away.

“You’re mine,” he rasps. “Don’t ever forget that, Todders.”

Jason swallows. Old conditioning is pushing him to submit, to nod his head and whisper yes sir, m’sorry, sir, please don’t do it again.

The Arkham Knight, however, isn’t having being a goddamn chew toy. And that’s the side that wins out.

Mostly.

He brings his knee up to the bastard’s crotch and takes advantage of the immediate recoil to shove him to the side, scramble to his feet, and run.

He’ll tell himself, later, that he let the bastard live so he could die slowly and painfully. He might even believe it, after a while. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that he’s not going back, he’s not doing that again.

He can’t live through that again.

THE END

[heyitsani]

WIP Wednesday

Today's piece is from the Mail-Order-Bride AU I'm doing as my submission for the historical au for JayDick Week.  This story has been meticulously researched and the world has been built from historical accuracies but twisted to fit my own needs.  So keep that in mind.  As always, completely unedited but will mostly remain the same since this is the first meeting of Jason and Dick after having exchanged letters.  And Jason picked up a surprise addition along the way without telling Dick (and him finding Tim is the actual opening scene of the story, but I don’t have it to the point where I’m good sharing it yet).

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason stepped off the train and looked behind him to make sure Tim was right behind him before he started searching for the man Roy had described as unnaturally beautiful. There were a handful of older couples and even some kids running around on the platform, he didn’t see anyone who really fit the description he had been given.  At least not until a lean man with raven locks and startling blue eyes came running up the steps, breathing heavily as if he had run a few miles to get here.

“Come on, kid,” Jason said quietly, holding out his hand for Tim to take before leading him over to the man he assumed was Dick Grayson.  And the closer he got to him, the more Jason knew this had to be him. And fuck if Roy wasn’t spot on with the description of unnaturally beautiful.  He had never seen anyone as gorgeous as this man was.  No man or lady.  And though Jason was certainly larger than he was, the three piece suit he wore did nothing to hide the strong lines of his body.  He was the picture of youth and beauty, physically a catch for anyone who was given the chance to stake claim on him.  

And Jason allowed a moment of uncertainty to creep in.  Would this man renege on their contract when he saw Jason wasn’t nearly as beautiful as he was?  And with a face like that, how had he not already found himself a wife or husband? “Dick Grayson?”  Jason pushed the thoughts away and tried to steel himself. He could feel Tim shifting next to him, half his body hidden by Jason’s own form.

At the sound of his name, Jason watched Dick look over at him and freeze.  And as the man’s jaw literally dropped, Jason nudged Tim when the kid snickered at the reaction.  “Jason Todd?”  The breathless sound of Dick’s voice questioned, the man almost visibly shaking himself out of a stupor.  

Nodding, Jason held out his hand and waited for Dick to shake it.  He was pleasantly surprised by the warm, firm grip Dick had.  Another thing Roy had commented on.  Dick Grayson looked delicate and soft, but he was stronger than most and would easily knock down someone twice his size.

“Who is this?”  Dick questioned, trying to look around Jason to see Tim.  But the kid just moved further behind Jason and the older man sighed.

“This is Tim,” Jason offered, tugging the kid out from behind him to stand in front of him with both of Jason’s hands on his shoulder.  “We’re a package deal now.”  Dick’s eyebrows rose as he listened to the tone of authority Jason gave before he looked down and took in Tim’s appearance.  The new clothes Jason had bought for him actually fit, but it wasn’t hard to see the still healing bruising on his eye and neck.  And he was obviously undernourished.  But Jason didn’t know what Dick would make of all of that.

There was another beat of silence before Dick smiled.  “Well, welcome to California Tim.  And you too, Jason.  Of course.” And Jason felt himself relax just a bit at the words because he really didn’t know what he would have done if Dick had said no.  He didn’t exactly have a backup plan for his own living situation if the thing with Dick fell through.  But now he didn’t need to worry.

“Thank you, sir,” Tim said quietly, and Jason felt himself tense again in fear of what Dick would say in response.

But the man just laughed and reached forward to ruffle the kid’s hair.  “None of that sir stuff here,” he said, gesturing for Jason to give him the two bags he had.  “I walked here from the office, so I hope you two don’t mind?  We need to go sign a few papers before I take you both home,” he told Jason as he shouldered both bags on one side and headed down the platform.

“Seeing the town and stretching our legs would be nice, right Timmy?”  Tim rolled his eyes and moved to walk next to Dick, looking up at him curiously.  It hurt Jason’s heart a little to see how quickly the kid latched onto some positive attention.  It was different watching it from the outside in as opposed to experiencing it like he had when he had found the kid cowering in a dark alley.

Dick glanced at him over his shoulder, giving Jason a small smile, before he pointed out a building to Tim and explained how it was the local schoolhouse.  “We’ll get you fully settled before you need to worry about school, though,” Dick told him and though Jason couldn’t see his face, he could tell Tim’s shoulders relaxed a little at the thought of not being dropped right into the thick of it before he was ready.  It had only been a few days since his entire world had changed, Jason didn’t want him to have to navigate yet another change.  “How old are you, Timmy?”

“Thirteen,” the boy offered, and Jason cleared his throat, drawing both of their gazes.  But he kept his eyes on Tim and raised a brow.  “Eleven,” he muttered, and Dick chuckled easily. Like it didn’t matter that the kid had tried to lie about his age to him.  A kid he hadn’t even been expecting and yet seemed to be taking in stride.

Jason didn’t know what to make of that.

[dcnatural]

The Dominoed Daredoll

Word Count: 3656 

Pairing: Arkham Knight!Jason x Reader

Rating: Explicit

Synopsis:  You, the hero Flamebird, thought you would never find love again after your first love, Jason Todd died. In a attempt to rescue Oracle, you run into the mysterious Arkham Knight.

I should’ve waited for Bruce. That was the last coherent thought that crossed your mind before everything went black.

You woke up what could have been minutes or hours later, hands cuffed together behind your back and your ankles tied up preventing you from running. Your head still pounded where you had been hit and you could feel the dried blood that clung to your scalp. 

It all had happened so fast: in one moment you were jumping from building to building following the trail that the Arkham Knight had left behind and in the next he had been upon you. You could only hope that, since you were still alive, maybe there was a chance Barbara also was. She had been your mentor from the moment you entered the world of crime fighting and you couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. You still hadn’t healed from the death of your best friend years ago, you couldn’t lose her too.

And so, you had sprung into action the moment you heard Oracle had been kidnapped, ignoring Bruce’s orders to stay away from the militia. You wouldn’t let anyone take anything from you again; as long as you were breathing, you would protect the ones you loved. But it seemed you wouldn’t be breathing for much longer, unless you could find a way to escape.

The room you were in was completely dark and you couldn’t see anything. The floor and wall behind you were made of cold metal and you assumed they had taken you to an abandoned warehouse. The only sound was that of your own erratic breathing; they had left you alone.

Except you weren’t. You heard the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking and felt the muzzle pressing up to your forehead. Whoever it was, had approached you in complete silence. Not only that, but they had been able to see you, even without any lights. It must be the Knight himself, you guessed.

“Look who finally woke up,” his modulated voice announced, sending chills down your spine. He loomed over you and even though you couldn’t see him, there was something familiar about his presence. Like the two of you had met before. 

“I swear I’ll beat the fuck out of you when I get out,” you hissed in return. Even being at an extreme disadvantage wouldn’t stop you from getting mouthy.

He laughed dryly. “You surely talk a big game for someone who can’t even defend herself.” And as to prove his point, he slammed the sole of his boot against your ribs, causing you to growl in pain. He kicked you again, stronger this time and you felt the air leaving your lungs. You bit your tongue to avoid screaming, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. 

“Fuck you,” you managed to curse as you coughed, blood spurting out of your mouth. “You’ll see. I’ll get Oracle and we’ll defeat you.”

“Keep dreaming, daredoll.”

You flinched, the nickname hitting you harder than any punch could ever have. A wave of nostalgia rolled in as the memories flashed in your mind. 

You and Robin, fighting side by side against Two-Face and his thugs. You and Jason, getting ice cream downtown. You and your best friend, taking out drug dealers. You and your first love, swaying in the gym during a school dance. You alone at his funeral, watching as the empty coffin was lowered into the earth. And echoing through the memories, his voice calling you his daredoll. 

“My dominoed daredoll. The Batgirl for my Robin,” you remember him saying on the first night you donned your cowl, draping his arm around your shoulders and tugging you closer to him as you both watched Dick and Barbara, now in their new mantles of Nightwing and Oracle, kissing in the Batcave. You had blushed, wishing he would kiss you like that.

“Don’t call me that,” you said through gritted teeth. You focused on your breathing, refusing to let yourself cry in front of him.

He snickered. “I think it suits you, don’t you agree?”

You ignored him and tussled against the restraints, desperate to escape. If you could only free your hands, you knew you could disarm him.

“I asked you a question, daredoll .”

You felt a silent tear running down your cheek. There was something about the intonation he said that stupid nickname that was so like Jason. Annoyed by your lack of response, he pressed his feet to your injured ribs, threatening another blow. Finally, you gave in and slowly you shook your head, the gun's barrel sliding down your cheek until the muzzle was caressing your mouth.

“I hate it. It reminds me of someone I once knew.” Another tear fell down your face and your captor crouched in front of you, using his free hand to wipe them away. His touch was cold and harsh, a mockery of what should have been an endearing gesture. This close to him, you could hear his heartbeat and the faint buzzing of the circuits of his suit.

“Why so sad? I thought bats didn’t cry,” he taunted.  

You shook your head again, feeling the cold metal sliding across your lips. “You know nothing about us. About what we have lost.”

He chuckled, amused by your answer. “I know more than you would think.” There was an edge of sadness in his tone, the first emotion he had shown since you woke up. Or perhaps you had only imagined it.

Either way, he couldn’t possibly know what it had felt like after losing Jason. You couldn’t even look at your Batgirl outfit without feeling guilty. Guilty that you were alive and he wasn’t. After Tim came along, it became too much. You didn’t blame him for taking Jason’s mantle, you saw it as a way to honour him, but you simply couldn’t be another Robin’s Batgirl, and so, you abandoned the purple and black suit to adopt a new one. Following the step of your older brother, you moved to Bludhaven and began to call yourself Flamebird. Not only the kryptonian bird was a perfect match for Dick’s Nightwing, but it also symbolized rebirth. Just like a phoenix, you had been reborn. It did nothing to quell the ache in your heart, but at least it was easier than to be constantly reminded of your deceased love.

A new idea seemed to cross his mind and, grabbing you by your chin, he pressed the pistol past your lips. Before you could react, it was already half buried in your throat and you choked on it, struggling to breathe around the large intrusion. 

“Suck it,” he ordered and, not seeing another alternative, you did as you were told. His finger was on the trigger the whole time while you shoved your tongue inside the barrel, the taste of gunpowder and metal coating your tongue.

There was a fire building inside you, not of anger, but of excitement. It was dangerous and thrilling and you wondered how it would feel if, instead of his gun, he had placed his cock in your mouth. You quickly dismissed the thought, he was a criminal, for God’s sake.  When he pulled it out, you couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed.

“Damn,” he exclaimed as he looked at you, drool dripping down your chin and cheeks flushed red. “I wonder if you’ll be as good when sucking my dick.”

His words affected your body in ways you refused to acknowledge, the mere threat of what he would do to you making you squirm. You knew your arousal was building up and really hoped he didn’t notice.

Even in the dark, you felt when he got up and walked away, causing your heartbeat to quicken. You feared what he was going to do, thinking that perhaps he would try to assault Barbara too. Please don’t harm her, you begged mentally. You would take whatever he threw at you, as long as it meant your friend was safe. She needed to survive, she had Dick waiting for her, she had someone to return to. You had no one. Perhaps if he kills me, I’ll see Jason again, death will reunite us for all of eternity, you thought hopefully, recalling the words engraved in his tombstone, a line from one of his favorite poems: “No more let life divide what death can join together.”

You were blinded by brightness when all of the lights lit up simultaneously, your eyes, already accustomed to the darkness, struggling to adjust to the change. The Knight came back and now you could see him properly. He wore an armor with the symbol of Arkham Asylum on the chest and his physique was in top shape, not even the metal protection being able to hide his muscles. On the holster, his pistol still glimmered with the wetness of your mouth. As you analized him, your eyes stopped a second too long on his thighs, your brain already starting to think about how it would feel to straddle one of them.   

The light also allowed you to inspect your surroundings. Like predicted, it was indeed an old warehouse, a rectangular space empty except for the wooden boxes piled up under the mezzanine. You caught sight of your utility belt tossed on top of the boxes. If you could escape the binding on your feet, you could reach it and use one of the many tools it stored to open the cuffs and escape. The only problem would be doing all of that before you got shot. 

“Much better this way,” he said, looking around at the lit up room. “You look much better without the night vision lens.”

He sat on your legs, pinning you down even harder. From a pocket, he pulled a sharp knife, which he ran across the skin of your neck, erupting goosebumps and leaving a faint red line across your skin, blood barely prickling through the cut.

“It would be so easy to kill you right now. No one would miss you. Hell, they likely haven’t even noticed you're gone.” 

You knew he was just trying to get under your skin, but there was some truth to his words: with everything going on, your absence would take a while to be noticed. Especially since you had been doing exactly what Bruce had ordered you not to do. He probably thinks I’m patrolling Bludhaven like he asked.  

The Knight then pressed the blade to your shirt, cutting past the yellow and red kevlar from your suit and exposing your breast to him. He tossed the pieces of fabric aside and cupped your boobs with his gloved hands. You ignored the sensation running through your body as he pinched and twisted your nipples, focusing solely on reaching one of the shredded bits. You took advantage of his assault to wiggle a little, making it seem you were only reacting to his ministrations. When you finally felt the cut material under your fingertips, you began to peel away the many protective layers in search of the metal wires, knowing that you could use those to unlock the handcuffs.

Unfortunately, he soon got bored of your chest and your red skirt became the next victim of his knife, followed closely by your leggings and panties. Your heartbeat quickened at the realization of what he was going to do and you began to work faster on freeing yourself. You closed your eyes in a pathetic hope that, if you couldn’t see it, then it couldn’t be really happening. However, you sprung them open again when you felt a cold object being pressed to your pussy lips. His gun. 

“Please, don’t,” you croaked, eyes tearing up again. “I’ve... I’ve never…”

“Oh, don’t tell me you are a virgin. With such a pretty face, it’s hard to believe that.”

“It’s true. I'm in love with a dead guy,” you said in almost a whisper. After Jason died, you promised yourself to never be with anyone, and so, despite the many admirers who were constantly asking you out, you always declined, knowing they were nothing compared to your deceased beloved.

He seemed surprised at your confession, and he hesitated for a moment. But just as you took a breath of relief, his demeanour went back to what it was before. “Liar. Everybody knows you are a slut for your stupid boyfriend.”

You frowned. “I swear it’s the truth. I don’t even have a boyfriend.”

“Do you think I’m stupid, daredool?” You muttered a ‘no ’. “I’ve seen you and him together. Nightwing and Flamebird. Crime-fighters and lovers.”

You shook your head vehemently. “No, you got it all wrong. He’s my brother, I’m telling you. The boy I loved died years ago. So, please, I beg you, let me have this last symbol of loyalty to him. Don’t touch me where he never had the chance to.”

You wished he wasn’t wearing a helmet so you could have seen his expression as he pulled away the gun. You didn’t understand why he cared about this detail, but mentioning Jason seemed to have affected the Arkham Knight in one way or another. Perhaps this could buy you enough time to escape.

“Tell me more about this boy,” he demanded.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

You had to suppress a cheer as you finally pulled free a wire from the discarded armor. “Okay. His name was Jason. We were the same age,” you began, thinking carefully of what you could say without giving away your secret identity. “We were adopted by Batman at the same time. He trained to become Robin and I, Batgirl. Jason was smart, handsome, strong and passionate. I was in love with him for the whole time, but he only saw me as a friend. And then he died.”

“How did he die?”

By that point, you were crying freely. “The Joker… the Joker killed him.”

“If you loved him so much, why didn’t you avenge him?”

You didn’t know what to reply. The truth was that you had wanted to do just that, a life for a life. But Bruce always stopped you, saying you wouldn’t have been able to live with the guilt. “I couldn’t. Batman didn’t let me. But I should’ve. At least the Joker is dead now.”

You had opened up thinking that he would change his mind, but that hope was crushed as he spread your lips open and pressed the muzzle to your entrance. “If your Jason hadn’t died, would you have allowed him to do this to you?” he asked, a hint of playfulness in his voice, as if it was a private joke only he understood.

“Yes,” you told him, not missing a beat. “If he was alive, I’d let him do anything.”

“And if I offered you a deal... You cum for me once and I’ll return him to life. Would you take it?”

“Yes. But you can’t bring him back. He exploded, not even Ra’s Al Ghul with his Lazarus pit could bring Jason back.”

“Just remember that you consented to it,” he gave as a last warning before shoving the gun into you. It slid in easily, the path well lubricated by your arousal. Still, it hurt. The barrel was wide and it felt like it was splitting you apart. The metal was cold and it was a sharp contrast to your own warmth. You wanted to shout to the Knight that you hadn’t consented to anything but you couldn't find your voice.

And then he began to move in and out of you. The pain melted into pleasure and your hips rocked automatically to meet his rhythm. His thumb circled your clit in ways that made your whole body shake with passion. Moans left your throat against your will and you knew he was smiling behind his mask. His pace quickened and you felt your orgasm building up.

You climaxed with an explosive scream, its sound covering the noise of the metal handcuffs hitting the ground. You were unable to move, your limbs were heavy and your vision blurred. Besides, in that very moment, you had no wish to leave.

The Knight holstered his gun and brought his hands to his helmet, slowly removing it. At first, you thought you were imagining things. But there was no denying it was him. You would recognize those blue eyes anywhere.

“Jay,” you yelled in joy, jolting up to throw your arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug, the context of your reencounter completely erased by the sight of him. Your hands roamed his face, assuring you he was real.

“That’s me, daredoll.” Without the modulator, his voice was exactly the same as it had been when you had last seen him and you were flooded by a mixture of emotions. 

New tears began to fall from your eyes, this time out of happiness. They were mirrored by his own as he reassured you time and time again that it was really him. He placed soft kisses all over your face and whispered secrets only he could possibly know. When your mouths finally met, it was everything you had ever dreamed of and more. You were lost in pure bliss. When you finally broke away you had a giant smile plastered onto your face. It was like all your dreams had come true.

He looked older, of course, but other than that, it was the same face from before: from the disheveled dark hair to the crooked smile. Then your gaze fell to his left cheek, where a “J” shaped scar marked his otherwise perfect skin. Your eyes widened in shock, and his smile faltered, a dark shadow crossing his face.

Your hand raised upwards to touch the scar and he turned away. “What happened to you?”, you asked quietly. The euphoria of finding him alive had run out and the situation once more hung heavy above you. And by hugging him, you had thrown away the chance of catching him by surprise, as he now knew you had freed your hands. Stop, you told yourself, he’s not the enemy anymore. There must be an explanation to it all. He would never intentionally hurt any of us. We are family. 

“The Joker happened,” he stated simply. “He didn’t kill me, no. He kept me prisoner at Arkham this whole time. And none of you came looking for me.” There was anger in his voice, but also disappointment.

“That’s not true. Bruce tried to-”

“I DON’T CARE!” he shouted and stood up, his helmet tucked under his arm. “He tortured me, daredoll. The Joker did things so awful I can’t even put it into words. And no one stopped him. No one. Not you, not Bruce. Bruce. Bruce fucking Wayne. You know this is all his fault right? If he had gone to a fucking terapist instead of dressing up like a bat our lives wouldn’t be this messed up. I’m just trying to fix what he ruined.”

He began to walk away, his heavy steps echoing in the metal walls. He did have a point. If it wasn’t for Batman, there would be no Joker. Besides, who in their right mind would train children to fight? You had once thought that being chosen to be Batgirl was the highest honour possible, but right now, you felt like you had been manipulated to take on a duty that wasn’t yours.

You untied your legs and followed after him, grabbing his arm just before he could open the door. “Where are you going?”

“Away. I need some air,” he ran his finger through his hair, “I need to think. I-”

You shut him up with a tender kiss. “Don’t leave me. Not again,” you pleaded.

“You were the one who left me.”

His words shattered your heart. It hurt that he thought of it in that away. He’s not wrong, though. I should’ve done something. I shouldn’t have sat back and listened to Bruce.

“So tell me how to make it right. Please, Jay. I just want you. I don’t care if you are trying to kill Batman or to destroy the city, I wanna be with you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Let me show you.” Your voice broke as you spoke, words being cut in half by your sobbing. You didn’t know when you had started crying again, but now you couldn’t stop. “Whatever you are doing, you can count on me.”

You could see the doubt in his eyes. “You would turn your back to the only family you ever had?”

“ You are my family. Besides, I told you. For you, I’d do anything.”

He pulled you into his arms, hugging you tightly, and placed a kiss on your forehead, like he used to do when you were kids. “I love you, daredoll.”

“I love you too, Jaybird.”

And with that, he escorted your out of the warehouse, careful to cover your exposed body with his on the way to the car. An hour later you stood in his headquarters dressed in an outfit matching his. He didn't admit to it, but the fact that he had an armor waiting for you proved that he had never given up hope that you still loved him. 

Outside, a mass of soldiers waited in a semicircle, a fire lit in the middle of it. Your former uniform burned to ashes and fed the flames, which went high into the night sky.

“I introduce to you my partner, and your new captain,” Jason announced as you walked to his side. “Lady Arkham.”

Holding his hand, you raised your first to the sky. You glanced at him out of the corners of your eyes, still kind of wonderstruck on how it had all worked out. “Let’s make this city pay for tearing us apart.”

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

For the Flame Always So Loved the Stars - fic

Characters: Damian Wayne, Jon Kent, Tim Drake, Conner Kent, Kara Kent, Clark Kent, Lois Lane Pairing: jondami Summary: Nothing stays the same forever. But fairytales always end the same way. A/N: This is just a whole fucking lot of self-indulgent garbage. Takes place over 5 years, Damian is 18-23, and Jon is 15-20. The last section is just their superhero way of saying ‘I love you and always will.’ but like. Subtly. I wrote this for myself, but I’m pleased with how it came out, so I hope you like it too. Sorry not sorry for literally the first line of this fic haha. The legend was googled so I took the most similar parts in all the wikis I read. I ignored the part where they all said ‘their story always ends in tragedy and betrayal’ but I’m going for happy endings dammit.

~~

Dick Grayson died when Damian was eighteen.

He wasn’t there. No one from the family was. It was a simple carjacking gone wrong. A single bullet, straight to the chest, from a scared kid who thought completing the initiation to the local gang was his only option to survive in this life.

It was almost funny. A single bullet. No poison, no torture. No evil mastermind, or world-ending apocalypse. No battles against armies, or lives and loves at stake. Not anything they dealt with daily.

Just an old car with a purse left on the passenger seat that someone saw. Just a weak spot in aged armour that was going to be replaced in the next year or so.

Just a single bullet.

Damian doesn’t remember much from after he was told, after he came home from class and found his siblings and Stephanie waiting for him in the parlor. He remembered knowing it must have been bad; Tim’s face was blotchy, his eyes red-rimmed and he wasn’t even trying to hide it.

Stephanie was the one who told him. Cassandra held his hand. But that was about it. That was all his mind supplied.

That, and the fact that his first thought after being told was: ‘But that’s not fair.’

Not fair because Dick was the best of them, in every way. Because he was funny, smart, kind, and every single thing a hero should be. A good person.

Not fair because Damian only got eight years with him, his closest confidante, one of his only friends. Because Damian decided at age ten that a world without Dick Grayson was not one he wanted to live in, and yet here he was, in the worst reality he could think of.

He doesn’t remember much from after he was told. He remembers Stephanie saying: “Dick died, Damian.” He remembers thinking: ‘But that’s not fair.’

Then...he remembers a pain in his knees. Remembers blinking and finding himself staring at the floor, which was much closer than it should have been. He remembers his sister kneeling in front of him, allowing him to press his  forehead into her shoulder. Remembers Jason next to him, rubbing his back, asking if they should get him water, or take him upstairs.

He remembers hearing Tim sob, and that might be the most memorable thing of the moment, because his body registered that that’s what he wanted to do too, he wanted to cry.

But he couldn’t, because you don’t cry over things that weren’t real. And that’s obviously why he collapsed, why he couldn’t form words to come out of his mouth, why his mind was refusing to remember this moment.

Because it wasn’t real.

It couldn’t be.

~~

Jon was antsy. Nervous.

Alfred had called days ago to inform him and his parents what had happened. And Jon had already been halfway out the door when the butler interjected to request that none of them visit, not right now. The Waynes and their closest companions were grieving, and needed to be alone.

And he hated that – he hated being away from Damian on a good day, but now, when Damian was going to need him? It was pure agony.

So two weeks later, when Clark gave him the okay, he took off to Gotham faster than he ever had before, and bypassed every bit of security measures that Bruce asked him to complete upon arriving.

He found Damian in the cemetery, and he had a feeling it was a place Damian didn’t often leave anymore.

Jon said nothing as he approached. Just plopped next to Damian and silently wrapped his arms around the other’s neck. Damian didn’t say anything either, but he leaned gratefully into the embrace, reaching up to cling to Jon’s forearm.

“I’m so sorry.” Jon whispered, leaning back. He didn’t leave Damian’s personal space, though. Kept their shoulders touching, knees keeping each other warm. “I…I don’t know what else to say. To think.”

“Me neither.” Damian murmured. His voice sounded dry, and Jon wondered when he last drank anything, or ate. “But…I’m glad you’re here.”

Jon let himself smile a little bit, and reached out to hold Damian’s hand. Damian didn’t refute the gesture, and even squeezed Jon’s fingers between his. “I wish I’d had been allowed to come sooner.”

Damian shrugged. “It was better you didn’t see any of us as we…were.”

“Were, huh?” Jon asked dubiously. He glanced forward towards Dick’s grave. Flowers and statues covered it as a makeshift memorial, and the flowers were starting to wilt. “…How are you doing with all this?”

Damian absently shook his head. “I don’t…I don’t know.”

Jon waited, sensing there was more. Had a feeling that in their grief-induced isolation, not many feelings were shared amongst the Wayne family. That they probably all suffered in silence, despite being together.

“I…I didn’t get enough time with him.” Damian continued, just like Jon knew he would. Because Damian didn’t trust easily, but when he did, he trusted you with everything. And Jon knew he was one of the few Damian trusted. Maybe the only one, now. “Eight years. That’s it.”

He squeezed Jon’s hand again.

“If I’d had known that’s all we would have gotten, I…I wouldn’t have wasted it. There was so much I wanted to do with him. Learn from him.” Damian sniffed, and Jon looked up at his eyes. But he didn’t see a hint of tears. In fact, he saw nothing. Damian’s eyes were empty. “But now I’ll never get the chance. I’ll never get to ask how he escaped Father and Gotham. How he survived on his own, and found himself, or how can I do that too. How I can leave Robin, and start over somewhere else like he did. How he rebuilt his life, how he became and remained kind. Did he think it was possible I can remain kind too? Did he…did he believe in me? Or what about how…”

Damian trailed off, and Jon was almost glad he did. Because in his ramblings, Jon heard something, and he wasn’t so sure Damian meant to let it slip.

“You want to leave Robin?” Jon asked softly. Damian’s mouth clamped shut. “Since when?”

Damian stared at the stone in front of him for a moment, before sighing and looking at the ground.

“A few months.” Damian admitted. “I…just don’t fit in it anymore, I don’t think. Or it doesn’t fit me. And I can’t stay in Batman’s shadow forever, no matter who is wearing the mantle. Besides, Grayson left it when he was around my age. As did Drake, even if it wasn’t by his choice. I might as well follow the tradition as well.”

“…Does your dad know?”

“…No. No one does.” Damian frowned. “I was going to speak with Grayson about it next time I saw him, but now…now you’re the only one who knows by default, I suppose.”

“Well, thanks for telling me.” Jon smiled. He waited a moment, then looked up at the sky. “So…what do you want to do after you leave Robin? Find a new name? Quit and go on the straight and narrow?”

“I don’t know. That’s…what I was going to speak to Grayson about.” Damian admitted softly. “I want to still help, of course. But…is behind a mask the best way? Is Gotham where I’m best utilized?” He sighed, and curled his knees to his chest. Though he never let go of Jon’s hand. “But now…now I am even more confused.”

“Why?”

“Because Batman needs a Robin, and I can’t leave my father now, Jon.” Damian almost snapped, like it was obvious. “He’s grieving, and he’s lost. He shouldn’t be alone. He shouldn’t be left alone.”

“Absolutely not. I agree.” Jon nodded. “But…it can’t all fall on you, D. Just like it can’t fall on Alfred or Tim. He has his family, no matter where in the world they – you – are, and he has his friends. He has my dad, and Diana.”

“This is different. This is the loss of Richard. And not even Superman can heal that wound.” Damian shook his head. “Not to mention…if I left now, would my father see it as a betrayal? Abandonment? Would the family?”

“They wouldn’t. They couldn’t.” Jon argued. “You’re growing up, and they all know how it is. You can’t be stuck as the Boy Wonder forever, that’s not fair to you. Does the timing kind of suck? Maybe. But also…maybe this is the best time.” He hesitated, but squeezed Damian’s hand and said his thoughts anyway. “Maybe this is exactly what Dick would want you to do. Spread your wings and fly, so to speak.”

Damian stared at the ground. “…I don’t know what I’m going to do without him, Jon. I truly don’t. What if, without his guidance, I’m tempted by my mother again, and actually consider any offer she makes? What if I stray, and Batman cuts me loose, like I was burden in the first place? What if-”

“Hey, hey – stop. Don’t talk like that.” Jon shook their clasped hands. “None of that is going to happen, okay? Despite the fact that it won’t ever happen at all in the first place, I won’t let it. I promise. Alright?”

Damian didn’t look at him. But after a moment, he let himself tilt to the side, and lean his head on Jon’s shoulder.

“…Thanks for being here, Kent.” Damian whispered. “It means a lot.”

Jon let go of Damian’s hand, only to wrap his arm around his shoulders instead. He looked at the tombstone at their feet, sent a silent prayer up to Dick himself. “Don’t even mention it, D.”

~~

A few months later, Robin had all but disappeared off the streets. It prompted news articles and primetime specials. Conspiracy theory websites and Twitter hashtags.

Jon liked to print them out and bring them to Damian every time he visited.

He was still in Gotham, and even still going out on patrol with Batman and the rest. But now his uniform was all black, and he stayed in the background as much as he could. This new shadow of Batman’s was never mentioned in the papers, never caught in a photo. A ghost, almost.

That wasn’t Damian’s new moniker, though. He still hadn’t chosen one.

“Not even a general idea?” Jon asked one day, as he and Conner visited. Tim had taken the newly printed article and was reading it over with an amused smirk, Conner cackling behind him. “Or like, a motif?”

“Not a priority.” Damian had shrugged. “Maybe I’ll never pick one.”

“Now you’re just being stubborn.” Jon pouted. “…How’s Bruce doing?”

Damian shrugged again. “Same as always. Attempts to lock himself in the cave, or in his office with work from Wayne Enterprises. I drag him out of the house at least every other day.”

Jon pursed his lips.

“But he’s been smiling lately. Like real smiles. So, it’s a start.” Damian promised. He knew Jon didn’t like this, Damian caring for Bruce. Because he knew that same care was not being reciprocated in the way it should.

“How long are you going to stay?” Jon asked, as he did every visit. “In Gotham, I mean.”

“I don’t know. Also not a priority.” Damian sighed. “I’m needed here, both in uniform and at home. When I feel I’m not necessarily needed, then I’ll start considering my options elsewhere.”

~~

Something felt different when Jon was nineteen.

Clark and Conner found him sitting in the kitchen, staring fiercely into a soda can when they arrived home one afternoon.

“Hey, champ.” Clark hummed, leaning down to kiss Jon’s temple.

“Hey, Dad. Hey Kon” Jon sighed. “How was Gotham?”

“Gloomy, like always.” Conner chuckled, plopping down across from him. “Damian said hello, by the way.”

Jon felt himself blush a little bit. And he shouldn’t have, he’s known Damian forever. But lately, it felt like the two of them were growing closer, in a way he never expected when they were just teenagers trying to live up to their fathers’ legacies.

In a way that included flirting, holding hands in a park, in front of paparazzi. A way that included what may have been a date, since it ended in a quick, barely there kiss.

“He said he was going to give an answer to a question he knows you’d ask.” Clark continued, drawing Jon out of his reverie. “No, he has not decided on a new codename yet.”

Jon groaned, throwing his head back dramatically. “He knows this isn’t like a blood contract or something, right? It doesn’t have to be permanent! It’s not that big of a choice!”

Clark held his hands up. “Don’t shoot the messenger, son.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Jon sighed. He sat back up and watched his father grab a glass and start to fill it in the sink. “Speaking of codenames and all that…”

Clark tilted his head as Conner sat up.

“I don’t…when do you think…” Jon huffed. “Conner, when did you realize you didn’t want to…be called Superboy anymore?”

Conner pursed his lips, looked at the ceiling. “I don’t know. Guess I never really thought about it. Just…stopped using it. And eventually everyone else did too.”

“I don’t think I knew that.” Clark mumbled sheepishly. “What do you go by now, may I ask?”

“Nothing, really. And not like Damian where I’m still deciding something. But just…Kon, usually. Different enough from Conner, honestly.” Conner grinned. “A lot of people also seem to think it’s Con – as in Pros and Cons? Works real well for the taunting wordplay and all that too.”

Clark snorted. “I’m sure your friends love the puns.”

“Bart does. Cassie, depends on the day. Tim is like a disappointed dad all the time anyway, so he doesn’t count.” Conner waved off. He returned his attention to Jon, whose attention seemed to be drifting off again. “Why do you ask, squirt?”

Jon frowned at the name, and that was new. Normally he didn’t mind the random nicknames his older brother gave him. “Because…I don’t…I don’t know. I don’t think…I want to be called Superboy anymore.”

Clark joined them at the table, sitting down carefully. “Why not?”

“Because, I’m not a boy anymore. I’m a teenager. I mean, I’m…I’m practically an adult!” Jon sounded exasperated already, like he’d had this conversation a million times. “It’s…it’s demeaning, and childish, and…and…”

He trailed off into a huff, slumping in his chair.

“I don’t even know if I want to keep the Super part, honestly.” Jon glanced at Clark. “Sorry, Dad.”

Clark shook his head, raising his hand. “None taken, Jonno.”

“Especially since I don’t feel all that super most of the time anyway.” He sighed.

“…If you want out of the life, Jon, I wouldn’t blame you.” Clark offered. “I’d love it, honestly. It’d just mean you’d be safer.”

“No, no. I want to be a hero. I want to help. I just.” Jon leaned back forward, hiding his face in his hands. “This is stupid. I feel stupid.”

Conner smiled and leaned forward, slapping his hand on Jon’s shoulder. “Not stupid. Pretty sure every hero has gone through it at least once in their tenure. Even Batman.”

“And he settled on Bat. Man.” Clark winked. “So obviously not all names are winners.”

Jon looked over to Clark. “…You’re not disappointed?”

“That you want a new codename? Not at all.” Clark grinned. “My only request is…don’t take over four years to decide something like Damian is.”

Jon smiled. “I’ll try.”

~~

“Maybe I’ll just go by Krypto.” Jon lamented from the bed. “He’s a dog, so I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“If you started going by Krypto.” Damian countered from the bathroom doorway. “I’m disowning you as my friend.”

Jon rolled to his side, deeper into the blankets. “What about as your potential bedmate?”

Damian’s face twisted, even as he came forward. “Christ, Jon. We haven’t even done anything, how do you still make that sound so dirty?”

“Because I know what annoys you. And if you’d just let me say boyfriend-”

“Which we are not officially.” Damian countered. “…Yet.”

“-Then I wouldn’t have to say things like bedmate, or friend with benefits.”

“We haven’t done anything, there is no benefit for either of us at this point.” Damian reiterated, even as Jon tugged at his arm when he got close enough. Damian sat on the edge of the bed, and almost smiled when Jon shimmied over to place his head in his lap. “Though I am finding your company less beneficial by the minute…”

Jon cackled, even as he felt Damian’s fingers twist into his hair. “Hey, if nothing else, I’m a good cuddle buddy, right?”

“My cat is better.” Damian shrugged. “Probably.”

“I’ll take the probably as a win.” Jon grinned. “…But hey, think about it this way.”

“Hm?”

“Even if I went by something dumb like Krypto, at least I picked a new codename.”

Damian frowned, and pulled his hand back. “For as charming as your parents are, neither of them taught you how to flirt properly, did they?”

Jon immediately pulled his arms out of the blanket, latching on to Damian’s waist. “You hate when I sidetrack a conversation. I was getting back on point.”

“…Fair.” Damian sighed. “I’ll allow it.”

“…Are you any closer to picking anything?” Jon asked. “According to Barry, you’re throwing off everyone’s betting pools.”

“I...have an idea.” Damian murmured, keeping his gaze away from Jon’s. “But I still need to think of a backup.”

“What? Why?” Jon asked.

“…Personal reasons.” Damian murmured. “And I don’t wish to get my hopes up.”

Jon watched him silently.

“But we aren’t talking about me.” Damian countered. “Have you thought of any other suggestions for yourself?”

“I don’t know. Something related to my dad, like Krypton? Or even like your dad – he named himself after what he was scared of, right? Or weakness. So, Kryptonite.” Jon listed. “Or maybe I should just be lazy and follow everyone else’s lead. Starman, or Sunguy or something stupid like that.”

“Hm. Well. Those are certainly…options.” Damian tilted his head apologetically. “I’d offer assistance, but…well…”

Jon laughed.

“Be my distraction instead, how about that?” Jon suggested instead. Without warning, he used his momentum to throw Damian back onto the bed, cocoon him in the blankets as he loomed overhead. “Because there’s totally a lot of other things I’d like to be doing than thinking of new codenames.”

Damian smiled as Jon leaned in for a kiss.

~~

He didn’t know how Damian had lasted four years without a name. It’d only been a few months for himself, a few months of not using any name, and he felt like he was going crazy.

He also felt like he was a total letdown.

He was a Kent, for crying out loud. Son of Superman and one of the world’s greatest journalists. And here, he couldn’t choose a name, couldn’t pick a damn word.

Not to mention, it was detrimental in the field. When he didn’t notice an enemy coming behind him, or someone needed his help – he had no name to be called. And they couldn’t just shout Jon.

How did Damian make it look so easy? Because Damian and his family were freaks. They all moved too in-sync, too well trained. They were like animals themselves – they didn’t need to speak, movement was like instinct. Communication could be silent, because all of them were always three steps ahead of each other.

He let out a guttural groan as he entered the apartment, slammed the door behind him a little too hard. Heard the squeak of the chair in his mother’s office as she stood to greet him.

“Hi honey.” She called, walking into the room. She took in the annoyance on his face and gave him a sympathetic, knowing grin. “It’s not the end of the world, Jon. Names aren’t that big of a deal. So long as you’re helping, who cares what your name is?”

“I know, I know.” Jon mumbled, kicking off his shoes. “I’m just frustrated. It shouldn’t be this hard! Why doesn’t anything feel right?”

“Because it’s not.” Lois shrugged simply, leading the way into the kitchen. She motioned for Jon to sit, and got out a mug for him. “I know it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s the truth. It might take a while, but – when you know, you know.”

Jon groaned again. “Mom, I love you – but that was literally no help whatsoever.”

“Sometimes, the truth isn’t helpful.” She laughed, pouring him a glass of ice tea. She set it in front of him, and kissed his head. “But if you’re really struggling with this…talk to your father. He’s helped a young hero or two discover a new path before. You’re no different just because you’re his son.” She paused. “In fact, I’m a little surprised Damian hadn’t told you.”

“Told me what?” Jon stomach nearly dropped. “Dad finally helped him decide on a name too?!”

“Of course not. Damian is as stubborn and tight-lipped as his own idiot of a father.” Lois rolled her eyes, but it was fond. “No, his brother – Dick.”

Jon blinked.

“Nightwing was a Kryptonian name. From the Kryptonian legend of Nightwing and Flamebird.” She hummed thoughtfully. “Even if you don’t want you father’s help on a name, ask him about the story. It’s very good.”

~~

Tim found Damian in the cave alone, and his gut immediately told him that something was off. Not wrong, but…not necessarily good.

“Hey.” He offered. “What’s up?”

Damian didn’t move from the computer chair. He looked too much like Bruce in that moment – slouched, hands steepled in front of his face, looking too thoughtful for someone so young.

“I’d like to talk to you.” Damian returned, just as vaguely.

“I’m all ears.”

Damian hesitated a moment. Dragged it to two. Tim was about to speak, to push the conversation along, when Damian sighed. “I…we didn’t do it right last time. And I don’t want to make the same mistake twice. Not here. Not with you.”

“…Damian?” Tim asked, moving towards him. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“No, no. I just.” He sighed. “I wanted to ask your…opinion.”

“On?”

“I think I’ve chosen a new moniker to go by.” Damian murmured. “But I want to make sure I had permission first.”

“Permission?” Tim repeated, bewildered. “I mean…as long it’s not like Red Robin or Red Hood or something, I think you can go by whatever you wa-”

“Nightwing.”

Damian’s voice was so quiet when he said it, Tim almost thought he’d misheard, or that maybe Damian didn’t actually speak at all. That it was maybe a breeze, or a ghost.

But when Damian said nothing else, eyes still not on him, Tim realized he said exactly as he’d heard. “…Really?”

Damian nodded, but seemed to swallow a lump in his throat.

“I mean, those are quite some shoes to fill, especially after all these years, but…” Then Tim paused, replayed what Damian already said. “…Wait, why would you need my permission to use Dick’s old name?”

Damian still didn’t look at him. “Because last time I changed names, I took yours.” He frowned. “I stole yours.”

Tim shrugged. “It was over a decade ago. I know you and I have held a lot of grudges in our lives, but trust me. I’m over that one.”

“And I know Todd would never want Nightwing.” Damian continued as if Tim never spoke. “But…you were next in line. You loved Grayson like I did.” Finally, he looked up, eyes boring into Tim’s. “And you’d deserve it.”

Tim stepped back like someone had punched him in the chest. “Damian…”

“You do, and you know it.” Damian continued. “You’ve fought tooth and nail for respect in this family, for every title you’ve ever carried. You fought for your independence, and have thrived as Red Robin. In a way, you are everything Nightwing embodies, and you deserve the title most.” Damian’s gaze dropped once more. “And I don’t want to take that opportunity from you. Not like I’ve taken everything else from you too.”

Tim just stared.

“He would have chosen you himself. I know it. If he were…” Damian trailed off. Seemed to have to take a moment to compose himself. “…If he were still here.”

Tim lowered his own eyes at the thought. It’d been five years since their beloved older brother died. Despite what the world tried to say, time didn’t heal all wounds, and the loss of Dick Grayson was a wound that seemed almost infected now, especially for Damian.

The world was less without him. Less bright, less kind, less happy – less everything.

Just…less.

After a moment Tim smiled. Picked his head up and moved forward so he could crouch next to the chair, leaning his arms on it. Despite being twenty-three years old, Damian turned his head away so he didn’t have to look at Tim, just like a child.

“I don’t want Nightwing.” Tim said honestly. “I’m happy with where I am and what I’m doing. But I appreciate you asking. I’m…honored, in fact.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome. I guess.” Damian mumbled.

“But I have to say I disagree with you.” Tim leaned his chin on his arms. “Dick wouldn’t have picked me to succeed him. He wouldn’t have picked anyone. But he would have been so proud to see you take it on after him.”

Damian closed his eyes, sucked his lips between his teeth.

“Because, for once, I’ll toot my own horn a little bit. I won’t disagree with you on this one. Maybe I do deserve the Nightwing name.” Tim admitted. “But I’m not the only one.”

Damian didn’t answer, but shook his head.

“You do too, Damian.” Tim reached out and took his hand, squeezing it. “You’ve overcome so much. You’ve done so much. And Dick was proud of you for it until the day he died. I know he was.”

Damian opened his eyes and looked at Tim. The tears immediately fell down his cheeks.

“And he’d be honored, knowing you wanted to follow in his footsteps, and carry on his legacy, for a second time.” Tim chuckled. “Especially after your first words to us when you were a kid was how badly you wanted to be Batman.”

“One day I still will be.” Damian blubbered with a laugh. Tim laughed too.

“I know.” He hummed warmly. “But that was all a long, surprisingly emotionally-charged way to say: while it’s not mine to give, yes you have my permission to become Nightwing.”

Even as his tears continued to fall, Damian stared at Tim for a few more seconds, before leaning forward and, once again to Tim’s surprise, enveloped his older brother in a hug.

“Thank you, Drake.” He whispered. Tim just let his smile widen as he held Damian just as tightly back. “Thank you so much.”

~~

“Tim told me Damian finally picked a new name.” Conner said one morning, as the two of them sat on a rooftop overlooking Metropolis. “…He also mentioned you two might be dating?”

Jon’s eyes widened slightly as he tried to keep his heart rate in check. Damian had told Tim?

“He hasn’t told me about choosing a name.” Jon said instead. “When did this supposedly happen?”

“The other day. Maybe he hasn’t made it official yet.” Conner shrugged. Then he grinned. “Though you’d think he’d tell his boyfriend about it anyway.”

Jon frowned. “We’re not dating.” A hesitation. “Officially.”

“Ooooh.” Conner mocked, scooting closer. “Tell me everything.”

Jon rolled his eyes, but laughed as he pushed Conner’s shoulder. “First off, not your business. And second, there’s nothing to tell? We hang out. We hold hands. We…do things.”

Conner wiggled his eyebrows.

“Stop.” Jon chuckled. “I just…like being with him. Being close to him makes me feel happy. Safe. All that cliché stuff.”

“Has he reciprocated?” Jon nodded. “Then why not official?”

“His choice. I think he feels like he’d be judged for having actual emotions or something.” Jon shrugged. “I also think he feels like he’s…not good enough? Or a bad person, or something, and is hoping I might find someone else before we’re legit.”

“Ouch.”

“It sucks, but…I get it.” Jon sighed. “And he just…has stuff going on. Mentally, I think.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning we started flirting a little bit right before Dick died. So our whole relationship so far, romantically, he’s trying to deal with the loss, with the vacuum that loss created in his family, and growing in his role as a hero.” Jon listed. “He’s stuck in his own head so much that honestly I’m just happy when I can get him to smile some days.”

“That’s sweet.” Conner grinned. “And proof you’re head over heels.”

“I mean…did I ever deny that?” Jon grinned back, but it was sad. Conner’s own smile fell slightly.

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

Jon exhaled a bitter laugh. “That obvious?”

“Does he know?”

“I think so?” Jon thought out loud. “And I think that’s why he thinks himself such a terrible person.”

“Because he doesn’t love you back?”

“No, no. I think he absolutely does.” Jon said confidently. “It’s just like I said – he thinks himself as a bad person, and that I deserve better.”

“That’s…” Conner pursed his lips. “…quite the conundrum.”

“Yeah.” Jon smiled wistfully. “But anyway, the name. Did Tim say what name he chose?”

“Nope.” Conner kicked his feet against the building. “Tim said it was incredibly personal, and he wasn’t the one to share it.”

“Interesting.” Jon muttered. “Wonder what it could be?”

~~

He was twenty, very much an adult, but oh boy, did he feel like a rebellious teenager right now.

After all, how else were you supposed to feel when you and your not-quite-boyfriend were lying almost naked, cuddled up in your parents’ bed?

Somewhere in his mind he was panicking. If – when – they found out, he was doomed. He’d never live it down.

(But at the same time, it was also totally not his fault. Their apartment was closer to downtown than his was, and the room he still had here only had a single bed. There was no way they’d fit. And since his father was in space and his mother in the Philippines, the bed would have just gone to waste being empty, so…)

Though, simultaneously, any fear of repercussions was drowned out by the utter bliss he felt at being cocooned in Damian’s arms, and using his collarbone as a pillow while they watched the nightly news.

Under his ear, he felt Damian’s heartbeat slowing, a clear sign he was falling asleep. So it was the perfect time to ask:

“I hear you picked a new codename.”

Damian stirred a little and hummed, “Yeah.”

“What name did you pick, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Damian hesitated a moment, then whispered, “Promise you won’t laugh.”

“Never.”

“…Nightwing.” Damian answered sheepishly. Quietly, like he wasn’t allowed to say it. “I…decided to carry on Grayson’s legacy.”

Jon turned and looked up at him. Without thinking he cupped Damian’s cheek in his hand. “Oh, Damian, that’s wonderful.” Damian kept his gaze over Jon’s shoulder, face heating up in an embarrassed flush. “He’d love it, he’d be so happy.” He stroked his thumb across Damian’s skin. “I’m so proud of you.”

Damian snorted. “Nothing to be proud of. It took me five years to pick a name someone had already used.”

“For good reason.” Jon countered. “And an homage to a great man.”

Damian allowed himself to look at Jon now. He stared at him for a moment, taking in his face, then carefully took hold of Jon’s wrist, and leaned in for a kiss, which Jon ate up greedily.

After a moment, they separated, and Jon twisted back to stare at the TV, Damian’s arms still tight around him.

“…What about you?” Damian asked softly. “Any ideas?”

“I don’t know. Superdude is sounding better and better every day.” Jon said dryly. “But I guess I haven’t really been thinking about it either. Been focused on some other more important things lately.”

“Oh? Like what? School?”

Jon grinned, kept his eyes on the weather report now lighting up the room.

“You.”

Damian didn’t answer, but Jon felt him gently kiss his temple, and lean their heads together.

~~

“Mom said I should ask my dad.” Jon hummed as he paid for their coffee. “But we haven’t seen each other in a while, and you know more about Krypton and all that stuff than he does, you know?”

“Sure.” Kara smiled, taking her cup from his hand. “But that still doesn’t explain why you’re so interested in some old Kryptonian legend?”

“Just curiosity, mostly.” Jon shrugged. “Dad helped Dick Grayson become Nightwing back in the day, and now that Damian is taking the title on, I figured I should learn a little bit about it myself.”

“To support your future husband?” Kara smirked.

“Stop.” Jon groaned. “I should have never told Conner the truth.”

“I’m just glad to know you’re happy.” Kara squeezed his hand as they walked outside. “And also that I now have a viable reason to beat Damian up.”

“And that reason would be?”

“For the honor of my littlest cousin.” She winked. Jon found himself laughing. “Thanks for walking me back to the office, by the way. I’m sorry we couldn’t have lunch today.”

“I totally understand. I have to get back to campus for class soon anyway.” Jon waved off. “Rain check for a movie night, though?”

“Absolutely. Go buy a lot of tissues, wine and chocolate, because I am in the mood for some tearjerkers.” Kara demanded. “And…Damian is more than welcome to join us, if he’d like.”

“He’d never.” Jon promised as they jogged across a crosswalk. “But he’ll appreciate the invite.”

“Are you just saying that, or would he really?”

“Honestly, he really would.” Jon swore. “He’s trying not to take little things like that for granted anymore. Not since…well. You know.”

Kara frowned. “…I miss him too.”

“Everyone does.” Jon murmured as they stopped outside a building. Some people waved to Kara as they exited and jumped into a taxi nearby. “He was the best of all of us.”

“Give Damian my regards, and a hug for me. Tell him I’m sorry about Dick, if you think it’s appropriate.” Kara murmured as she turned to her purse, and began digging in it. After a moment, she held out a book. It looked old, and pages were misshaped, almost like they’d been gnawed on, or burned. “First, last and only edition.”

Jon took the tome, marveling at the etched green cover, and symbols seemingly floating around the image. But then he frowned. “Kara.” He sighed. “You know my Kryptonian isn’t that good.”

“Well then this will be a great tool to learn.” She smiled, squeezing his bicep. Someone suddenly called Kara from the door. She smiled and waved back before glancing to Jon. “Gotta go, kiddo. It was great seeing you! Tell your pops hi for me!”

She turned, and began to jog away, when Jon called after her. “Kara, wait!”

She did, glancing over her shoulder.

“Give me a quick summary?” He tried with a lopsided grin. “You know, to keep me interested?”

Kara twisted her lips in thought, then smiled. “Nightwing and Flamebird always find each other in the end.”

She took a sip of her coffee and disappeared into her office.

~~

By two o’clock in the morning that very night, Jon sat at the desk in his apartment, tears pouring down his face.

The legend was magical, breathtaking, awe-inspiring…but heartbreaking. The most heartbreaking thing he’d ever read.

But it also made him realize exactly what he needed to do. Exactly what his future was.

Exactly who his future was.

Without thinking, he wiped the tears from his eyes, and laughed as he stood, turning towards his window.

It would be a quick flight to Gotham, and surely Alfred was still awake at this hour.

~~

Damian stood on the top of Wayne Tower, staring at the city below him. The city he’d come to think of as home. The city that was…his.

He felt weird without the cape, without the hood. Was still getting used to the tight, plain bodysuit. The lighter armour. The dip of red across his chest.

He could take Grayson’s name, but he could never take his colors. That blue was too pure. Damian refused to taint it.

He inhaled and held his breath, then exhaled slowly. It was his first night in his new gear – would the villains know who he was? Would they mock him? Could he live up to his brother’s standards? Would he honor his memory?

“Damn.” He heard off to his side. “You look good.”

Damian glanced over, and found himself at a loss for words. The other man was in a similarly simple bodysuit, though instead of black, it was a deep blue. Opposite of the downward red arrow on Damian’s chest, the bright, near-blinding golden arrow on the other pointed upwards, almost looking like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Damian stared for a moment, taking it in, before meeting Jon’s eyes. “This is new.”

“You like?” Jon asked, practically shy. “Alfred helped me make it.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm.” Jon stepped forwards. His boots, which matched the shimmering yellow on his chest, seemed to flicker as he walked, like fire. “I mean, he helped make yours, and it’s only natural our designs match a little bit.”

“Why would they need to match?” Damian asked. Then he squinted. “Jonathan Kent, have you chosen a new moniker?”

“I did indeed.” Jon grinned. “Surely Dick told you how he got his name.”

“He did.”

“Did he tell you the story behind it?”

“He did not. But I’ve heard of it.” Damian found his voice going quieter, his throat drying up. “Your father told me, I believe.”

“Mhm.” Jon reached out, gently taking Damian’s hand in his, raising it between them. “And do you remember how it goes?”

Damian blinked, then smiled. “Refresh my memory.”

“Nightwing can’t exist without Flamebird.” Jon smirked. He pressed his lips to Damian’s knuckles. “And no matter the universe, no matter the situation, they always find each other in the end.”

“…Well, Flamebird.” Damian whispered softly. “I’m glad you found me.”

“I’m glad you found me too.” Jon stood back up. “Ready for our first official patrol in the new digs? Say goodbye to Robin and Superboy forever?”

“Do you want to call it our first official patrol?” Damian let his grin widen. “Or perhaps our first official date?”

Jon gaped at him, eyes wide and hopeful. “For real?”

“For real.” Damian promised. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting-”

The words were barely out of his mouth before Jon surged forward, wrapping him in his arms and lifting him off the tower’s ledge as he smashed their mouths together. Damian let his surprise linger for only a second, before grabbing both sides of Jon’s head and returning the gesture.

The moment felt like it lasted both an eternity and no longer than a blink. When they parted, they were both out of breath, and trembling from the emotional adrenaline.

“Flamebird.” Damian breathed as Jon lowered him, his hands still on Jon’s face. “I think I like it.”

“Good. Because I didn’t have any backups.” Jon chuckled.

“It suits you, I think.” Damian smiled.

“Nightwing suits you just as well.” Jon countered. “…Dick would be so proud.”

Damian just lowered his gaze, but allowed himself to keep smiling.

“…Well.” Damian exhaled, looking out into the city. “Shall we?”

Jon bowed, holding his arm out. “After you, ‘Wing.”

Damian laughed and turned, stepping off the building and allowing himself to freefall. “Follow me, ‘Bird.”

Jon smiled, and jumped right after him.

[astrologista]

jason stop dying

ooooook i just watched ditf. it was PRETTY GOOD.... i only wish there was MOOORE! watching this REALLY brought me back to 2011 times to see it and i think they did a good job with most of the character design and animations insofar as matching it to the original. (maybe i’m totally wrong but i thought it looked good for the most part... also i just really love these character designs in particular). obviously the budget is not what it would be on a feature, so there are a LOT of places where animation gets recycled and many still frames. some parts are basically a slideshow lol. but i only sort of came to that realization awhile after watching, so i think they did a fairly good job of masking this... ymmv

so let’s get into it!!! 

SPOILERS a-head! do not read until you’ve watched it because i’ll spoil everything

now obviously the thing to be aware of if you are not is the fact that this adaptation is not a panel-by-panel adaptation of the original death in the family comic. all references to jason’s mother (save one mention of her dying of illness) are completely removed, they go to bosnia instead of africa, and the circumstances around jason leaving are also heavily altered to fit the new narrative. this adaptation does slot perfectly into the universe established by the under the red hood animated movie from 2011 though, without which one would be pretty confused when watching this. it’s kind of a mystery as to why they didn’t just package this with utrh and release the entire thing as a collectors edition. instead they package it with like 4 or 5 unrelated dc showcase shorts which makes absolutely 0 sense but go off i guess. anyway

i liked that they took the time to adapt the scene from the original ditf where bruce is talking to alfred about jason! (i do not like that alfred didn’t get any lines. bad choice). tbh i can’t understand why they bothered showing us alfred, barbara and dick if they weren’t gonna give them any lines..... like come on........??

HOW INTENSE BRUCE LOOKS WHEN HE FINDS JASON IN SARAJEVO and just. grabs him lol. hes smad :)

ok so one two skip a few and we get to the first branch. instead of calling 1-900 we now get to choose whether jason lives or dies. there are 7 possible endings i think i got em all so let’s see what we got here.

“Hush” Route - Robin cheats death

hgrgdggr. i definitely think this is one of the more interesting endings, if not the most interesting one. this is also the only ending in which both bruce and jason survive the bombing. bruce is still too late, but this time jason barely clings to life and survives. as a hurt/comfort fan i was 100% on this shit from the word go but then jason? runs away from home lmao lmao i thought that was SO funny because 1) hes super messed up, how is he able to just literally run out the house that is SO funny to me and 2) implying that bruce would ever not be keeping an eye on him after that is just, lmao. it’s so zany. i call this the “hush” route because of the bandages but there are no other references to hush so ok. that’s fair. so anyway jason is now angsty for loosely explained reasons but the most fun part is yet to come.

when talia showed up, i really thought / was terrified for a second that they were gonna bring up certain “events” regarding damian’s parentage / who damian’s father is but then she mentioned bruce and i was like OH THANK GOD WE CAN STILL GO TO HEAVEN. i am so so grateful to the writers for NOT going there. cuz it was damn close ok. im not sure what the implication of this route is in terms of talia, jason and damian being a family unit but i want to believe talia sees jason as a son and damian’s brother (which is how she refers to him, damian’s brother) and not... yknow. i mean. jason raising a baby is kind of like a baby raising a baby...

no actually the reality of this scene is really dfuckin interesting like. they actually go with the “birth of the demon” (forget if it was birth of the demon or bride of the demon. one of those.) explanation for damian and that is something i’ve NEVER seen adapted so whoever wrote this can have a cookie and i kNOW this is something a certain someone will appreciate :)

not only that but the implications? are interesting? so talia’s claim is she miscarried so bruce won’t have to “choose” between damian and jason and idk if she’s supposed to be all on the-up-and-up in this universe but. i’m sitting here like GIRL YOU DON’T GOTTA DO THIS HE HAS A PRIVATE JET HAVEN’T YOU HEARD OF SHARED CUSTODY and BETTER YET HE HAS A MANSION JUST GO ON MAURY AND GET THIS SORTED OUT RIGHT NOWwwww

i’m also LAUGHING at the implications of jason thinking theres anywhere on earth that he’s going to go and hide damian’s existence from bruce. because you already know he’s just going to be tearing the planet apart looking for jason so this is actually hilarious. imagine he finds jason in one piece and also a baby. his baby. he’d be like (@ talia) “OMG WHY WOULD YOU THINK I WOULDN’T WANT THEM BOTH u are tearing me apart talia......” BUT THEN HE WOULD BE SO FREAKING HAPPY BECAUSE HE HAS TWO ALIVE SONS AND HE THOUGHT THEY WERE BOTH DEAD / (lost to crime)!!!

please lord imagine all of jason’s angst probably just originating from the fact that he has a brain injury that hasn’t fully healed and the trauma of going through all those surgeries probably gave him a lot of fear / paranoia about bruce and associating him with the joker because his neural pathways are all messed up but after he leaves he starts slowly healing back and regaining some of his lost sanity and thats when he realizes he misses bruce so much... but hes also raising his child... and every day it gets more difficult for him not to just take damian and bring him home and i ;v;

anyway i thought this route, while it had a few inconsistencies in it, was really freaking interesting and it gave me feels and plot bunnies and is probably the one i want to write about the MOST despite the fact that baby damian looks like a character from one of those web flash games in this lol

“True” End - Jason Dies

now if you select that jason dies the route basically defaults to the canon of under the red hood and the fact that utrh does not come packaged with this movie is a rather mystifying choice to me as i don’t think this adaptation would stand on its own very well. like you need quite a bit of background to really get anything out of watching this on its own, which is probably why it’s classified as a “short” and not as its own movie.

instead of showing all of utrh, it seems they took the opportunity to give a ~30 minute recap of utrh with basically entirely reused animation but they allow bruce to sort of. give his dvd commentary over it.

the biggest feeling i have on this is that it’s sad that they had to waste 30 minutes like this that could’ve been used to do something new and much more interesting, but honestly i’m not mad. it seems kind of obvious that this choice was probably made for budget and/or runtime reasons because a short does not get the same budget set aside as a full length feature film does. so they basically took the option of recycling 30 minutes of animation from the movie and dubbing new audio over it.

in evangelion they ran out of budget and that’s why the last two episodes consist of nothing more than still pencil drawings and frames while the characters engage in philosophical debates concerning the nature of reality and human connection. and i really enjoyed that. and for the same reasons, i also really enjoyed this.

i enjoyed seeing the clark kent of this universe. i enjoyed that he was basically out on a date with bruce. i enjoyed that bruce was willing to open up for once and tell clark all of what happened with jason. but what really makes this segment shine bright are bruce greenwood’s line reads. there are SO MANY good line reads in here. and i LOVED how many times he said the word “son”. very wholesome. the way he describes how he felt during the final fight with jason? probs my favorite FUCKING part.

and then him and clark joking together about contingency plans and then they’re going to work together to find jason and i ;_; this is probably the closest thing to a “good” ending but as a continuation of utrh i thought it worked really well. i really want to believe that bruce and clark did find jason in this route and that there was some closure in the end even though we didn’t get to see it.

including clark in this was DEFINITELY the right move as well, considering that he played a rather large role in the original ditf so it’s a welcome nod.

The rest of the branches exist under a separate option where Bruce makes it in time to save Jason from the warehouse... but Bruce dies......... :O

let me tell you bout it... bruce’s fucking DEATH SCENE i don’t know WHAT my man bruce greenwood is on, but the freaking LINE READS in this dialogue had me making INHUMAN NOISES. LIKE NOT ONLY WAS THE DIALOGUE GOOD, NOT ONLY DID HE SAY “I LOVE YOU, SON”, but this man is just an amazing actor. not just voice actor, but actor. he really really really really gave it the most i don’t know how else to say it....... it was very very well done and punched me sideways in the heart and i haven’t recovered and i’m not going to recover. and

ok so once we get past that.... scene.... u have to choose whether you’re going to catch the joker or kill the joker. bruce asks jason to promise not to kill the joker but technically jason doesn’t promise so........

Let’s start by choosing to kill the Joker. Jason attends Bruce’s funeral and various members of the Justice League show up to talk with him and just generally hang out. He has Alfred, Dick and Barbara as his support system, but Jason has some other plans.

This leads to a scene in a cafe where Jason meets with a man who... something something Killing Joke, flashlight, more Barbara being used as a plot device when she deserves better, Jason kills the Joker with a butter knife.

Once you do this you can choose to surrender to the police, or retaliate and escape.

Jailbird Ending

basically if you surrender to the police jason ends up in prison where he can actually attack even more criminals so.... ya

If you retaliate and escape instead you go to the Red Robin route where Jason becomes a vigilante who kills people much like the Red Hood and you get a further choice in a fight with Two Face where you can control how Harvey’s coin lands. 

Tim Ending!

If you choose the coin to land clean face up, the thing rewards you by having Tim show up and I forgot what happened (wasn’t really paying attention lol) because i was so focused on TIM!

Prolly they felt sorry for him what with Jason stealing what is essentially his outfit (ok I know it was Jason’s first, but Tim made it cool) so they let a little baby tim have an appearance :) he’s very smol

I guess in this ending Jason gets reintegrated with the family somehow and Tim becomes “Bat-kid” which is hilarious to me but you know what it’s cute. CUTE.

The one ending where the coin lands scarred side up

i honestly forget what happens if you choose to have the coin land scarred side up but let me just say this is a FUCKED route to take, not only have you had jason survive and bruce die, you’ve now chosen to kill the joker against bruce’s dying wish, you’ve chosen to attack the police, and at the end of that you really are gonna choose harvey’s coin to be scarred face up???? choosing this made me feel like a DICK because here i am supporting jason’s whole fall to madness and villainy thing the way it wants me to and now he’s gonna die HERE? i hate it here.

interestingly enough he doesn’t actually die in this route. he ends up at home with barbara and dick while dealing with the fact that he killed the joker but the route ends with jason saying “i promise” so i guess this is supposed to be kinda sad. im so confused lol ok

So that is all the options if you choose to kill the joker, I believe. You can also make the choice to just catch him instead of killing him but amazingly enough, those routes are even more FUCKED up. 

If you do this option Jason goes home, mourns Bruce with Dick, Barbara and Alfred, and becomes Red Hood BUT with a twist, he’s entirely on a bloodless operation in line with Bruce’s wishes. OR.... IS HE?

Things then follow the events of UTRH until the scene on the bridge with the van and the guys. Jason finally confronts Joker, who reveals the truth. 

Apparently in this route Jason has actually been killing and decapitating his victims just like in the original movie, but he’s repressed it so as to not even realize to himself that he’s doing it.

that is FUCKED. also. i wanna cry because jason doing all of that stuff but not even realizing it ;------; jason blocking it out, because he wanted to honor bruce’s wishes for him not to kill anyone ;______; but he’s doing it anyway ;_____; he’s actually hearing voices telling him to kill ;____; like it’s a very cheap twist in a sense and also really quite cruel but.... damn, son.

There is a branch here where you can choose to spare or kill the Joker at this point (UNDERTALE???) but from what I can tell it seems to be totally meaningless what choice you pick because you end up at the exact same point either way, I think there’s a small variation in what happens after you make the choice but after that they just coalesce back together into the following two endings. Which seems incredibly cheap to me, I mean making a choice like that should alter Jason’s path completely but, it doesn’t! So... ooook....

Either way Jason ends up on the Wayne building and Talia shows up with a re-animated Bruce from the pit. Here’s another fun blast from the 2011 past with more gratuitous Grant Morrison dreck, remember that shit? Well, they’re gonna jam it down your throat here, too.

The reanimated Bruce is the Zur En Arrh Bruce and he’s already dead so this is all meaningless but basically Jason fights him and you get to choose whether everybody lives or dies.

Zur En Arrh - Everyone Lives!

if you pick this, jason actually gets the re-animated bruce back to the batcave and they lock him up down there because he’s still pit-mad and the prognosis is not great. but i’m not sure what they expected, he is the zur-en-arrh guy so I don’t think he’s getting better. 

Zur En Arrh - Everyone Dies!

pretty much there’s an explosion and all three of them die and that’s it

I think that should be all the possible endings there are.

By the way the different ways in which black mask dies in this was actually a fairly clever running gag lollll. let that mf burn we don’t need no water.

overall there are a couple of things i would have done to SIGNIFICANTLY improve this adaptation beyond some of the obvious ones.

- the fact that all of the branching options are branched exclusively under the “jason lives and bruce dies” branch is a huge wasted opportunity. imo this is the most egregious problem with this, i was really looking for a more balanced tree / explanation of different things. i am probably super biased though being a fic writer and used to fic, we’re the ones making huge ass trees every day lol.

- the fact that there is no “good” ending here is something i kind of expected but given the context of this is lackluster. i sort of get it though because granted, the original ditf ends in an unresolved manner but it’s distinctly unsatisfying here. i secretly wanted an ending where bruce, like, figures out about the different endings and hacks reality to try to find a good ending where jason lives and everything is fine lmao. like a bat mite ending.

- i was disappointed in a sense that the narrative given in here is so basically simplistic? maybe i’ve been spoiled by games like 999 and undertale where shit gets messy and that’s not what this is supposed to be but when i play something with multiple endings in this day and age, at least play with the concept a little bit and connect some of the branches together narratively. use different devices. i was also hoping some of the choices would be a little bit meatier like you could choose to “forgive bruce” or something cool like that lol. but it looks like the majority of choices have to do with who lives or dies. and i felt like they couldve been a bit more creative with that ya know? being able to control harvey’s coin was a GREAT example of having some more fun with this.

- it is a huge missed opportunity not to have a “secret ending” on something like this. like where. the fuck. is my secret ending for completing everything. come on. and in a similar vein there should’ve been at least something in terms of bruce and jason interacting in a “true ending”. even if very brief. the closest thing to an ending this has is the “jason died” route and then the ending where he’s talking to clark which i feel like was a REALLY nice good optimistic ending as far as this goes, but it comes off as kind of disappointing i guess

there were SO many interesting nuggets locked into this thing though. i can’t deny it bugs me how many wasted opportunities there were with how they chose to structure things but i guess it’s the best you can do with limited runtime. i thought it was really well done though, makes an interesting companion piece to the original utrh, and is definitely something that i will be re-watching again soon!! overall i give it a 7/10 and some parts an 8/10+!

[kneesheee]

love and life

Day Two: WhiteLantern!Kyle | Young Justice Verse

Since becoming a White Lantern, Kyle had been blessed with all kind of powers. Unlike most lanterns, he didn’t learn how to use their ring powers from their respective corps. He was surrounded by the personification of the emotions themselves.

He was more than the White Lantern.

He was the son of Love.

[And man, it had been a trip to tell the Star Sapphires that they were using their rings wrong. Of course, some of the more traditional users had been offended that a man was telling them what to do.]

But there was one thing that he never expected being both.

With the ring amplify the powers he was born with [and made him question continuously why he wasn’t given a sapphire ring to begin with], he could feel all the love in the air on Olympus. He nearly drove him crazy. He didn’t understand how his mother and brother and every other entity of love could put up with it.

Just being around the High-King and Queen was enough to drive him insane.

And that didn’t mention all the love the parents had for their children or the children had for their siblings.

When that happened, he usually tended to hide away in his Uncle’s temple. But Apollon had his days where his grief and love for his son seemed to overpower everything else. The sun seemed to shine brighter and dimmed lighter in response.

Kyle made it his business to keep away during those times. He either shot off back into space or he went somewhere were the sun did not shine.

Like right now, he was flying over Gotham at night.

Which was wonderful because he could still feel the aftershocks of Apollo’s grief.

His ring pinged, “Lifeform detected.”

Yeah, no shit. He was in a city filled with people.

“Lifeform detected. Begin resurrection in 5.”

What.

A small beacon of light escape from his ring that Kyle followed desperately. It led him to Gotham’s cemetery. Looking around, Kyle didn’t see what was so special at first until he caught sight of the two men standing near a set of graves.

Just from the feeling of them, he knew that they were deities.

What stood out the most was that the two of them were standing near the grave that his ring’s light was siphoning into. He really hoped he wasn’t bringing about the zombie apocalypse. He’s pretty sure that King Hades and Lord Thanatos would kill him.

Squaring his shoulders, Kyle made his way over to the two deities.

They turned once he got close enough and Kyle blanched when he realized the two were the aforementioned gods. He quickly moved to drop into a bow before a hand stops him.

“Good. You’re here,” Uncle Hades stated. He turned his head back to the grave. “We’ve been trying to figure out a decent way to revive this soul. His fate has taken a turn. He was never meant to die.”

Kyle’s smart response: “Uhhh.”

Thanatos nods his head a little irritated. He wasn’t in the business of granting life back to the dead, but he was making an exception. “We leave him in your care.”

“Resurrection: 75% complete.”

Kyle jumped before gazing back down at the grave.

Here lies

Jason Todd

Two gods grappling in the air flashes of black and gold. A steak of silver and green wrapping around the golden god pulling him an away.

August 16th XXXX- April 27th XXXX

“Tell me, Kyle. What is your opinion of death?”

A loving son and a loving brother.

Cries of grief and rage. The harsh bearing of the sun. Asclepius had to be kept under watch. Apollo wouldn’t leave his temple. It was turning out to be close to Demeter & Persephone.

There was a small scripture in Greek that lined the tombstone.

May the gods be with you.

Olympus had always been beautiful. Even in its grief, there was beauty. Kyle felt stronger and weaker just being around it.

“Resurrection: 100% complete.”

Kyle realized three things.

One) He was alone in the graveyard.

Two) It had begun pouring down raining.

Three) The ground in front of him was collapsing inwards.

He stepped back letting the power of his ring surround him before a body appeared from the ground. Kyle squeaked.

[Absently, Kyle noticed how attractive the boy was. The reddish brown curls that reminded him of Olympian sunsets. The freckles on his cheeks that reminded him of the stars. The tanned skin that so beautifully bronzed.]

“Dad? Bruce? Apol—”

Oh, now that just broke Kyle’s heart. He was calling for his fathers. Kyle reached out to grab the boy when suddenly he was pulled down to the ground. He got a face filled with mud before the body was flipping over him.

What. The. Fuck?

When he wiped the mud from his face and turned around, the zombie was stumbling away.

“Ring, give me a vital scan.”

Bright white light engulfed the boy as it took in his vitals.

“Scan completed. Brain damaged. Four broken ribs. Twisted ankle. Nerve damage to fingernails. Oxygen is slowly going to the brain. Healing factor is suspended.”

Fuck.

Kyle flew towards the undead boy before having to dodge a fist and a kick. The two danced around each other as the boy dodged the blasts of white that were trying to get him to stay still so he could heal.

“Jason! Stop! Please!”

But it didn’t seem like the boy could hear him anymore before he jumped directly at Kyle. The White Lantern jerked back.

For a dead guy, he sure knew how to throw a punch.

The boy disappeared into the night while Kyle took the skies to search for him. Metas were technically not allowed in Gotham. But Kyle was here on godly business and therefore not a meta. And besides, he would be doing Bruce a favor if he could find his adopted son. But still, he didn’t have time to argue the technicalities with the man and he definitely wasn’t in the mood for his family to kill the human. He bended the light around him until he was invisible.

“Ring, start tracking.”

Bright white footsteps caught his attention. When he flew down to look, he noticed the muddy prints across the ground. They led him throw alleyway and holes in the walls. Past prostitute which given his mother was the patron of prostitutes… he waved his power over them giving them just a little bit more warmth and protection from the cold. There was also a blessing that whatever they made that night would be double the amount than usual.

Kyle stood in disbelief as he watched zombie boy fighting off a group of attackers before he seemed to sense him. The other demigod stood stock-still before seemingly look directly at Kyle with his blank gaze and taking off again.

It was going to be a long night.

[southernxwolf]

A Beast Within | Part Two

Who: Qhuinn, Jason, Ciaran, Ava, and Quinten

What: After attacking Jason, Qhuinn runs off, prompting Ciaran to call for Quinten. The angel arrives and they take Jason back to his home, after which Ciaran leaves for help, finding Ava. Qhuinn joins them on the way back to Quinten’s, where they all keep a vigil as Ava bites Jason, saving his life.

When: Roughly two weeks ago, give or take lol.

Where: Qhuinn’s territory, the woods, and Quinten’s home.

TW: Violence, blood, death mentions.

@professor-shaw @professorxwolf  @ava-montgomery @quinten-sawyer

Ava: Ava was feeling more restless then usual. With Delseneca’s lessons on getting in touch with her dark side, there was a part of the she-wolf that found it hard to keep to herself this time of night. The moon was out, and she was in full fledged wolf mode. She heard Ciaran’s call, and the largest part of her couldn’t ignore it. So, she began to look for him, returning the call. ‘I’m on my way...I can help.’ When she reached him, she paused, before slowly making her way up to him. ‘What’s going on?’ She asked him, sitting in front of him.

Ciaran and Qhuinn: ‘Thank fuck’ Ciaran breathed out, when his call was answered. He stayed put, as hard as it was, so that the other wolf could easily find him. Restless, dancing from one paw to another as his mind also listened for any signs from Quinten trying to contact him. When the she-wolf finally made her way to him, midnight eyes regarded her as he tried to place the voice and scent. Ava, if he wasn’t mistaken. A friend of Qhuinn’s, owner of the pet shop that he frequented quite often. Someone they knew..even better. It was as if Quinten was still working his magic and answering their prayers. He gave the woman a swift nod in greeting then got right down to business. There wasn’t time for pleasantries, but he did want Ava to know exactly what she was getting into.

‘Jason’s hurt. He was attacked..by Qhuinn. And he’s dyin’ Ava.’ Goddamn it.. He didn’t know which it hurt more to say.. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he continued. Not mincing words. ‘She bit him. And Quinten’s tryin’ but his grace ain’t enough. It’s keepin’ him alive, but we don’t know for how much longer. We..both know what needs to be done. If ya do this, and if it works..you’ll be a maker. If that’s somethin’ you’re willin’ to do, then follow me. We ain’t got much time. If ya can’t do this I won’t judge ya, but for the love of fuck at least tell me of someone else who can. Aye?’ And with that he was off, racing towards Quinten’s. He would know if she followed. And if she didn’t? Well, she knew how to communicate with him. Ava was a good egg though, and he expected she would be right on his feels. What he hadn’t expected though was the white blur that intercepted them. Though really, he supposed she would have. ‘Qhuinn.. Where the fuck have ya been? Never mind, c’mon. I found Ava’

Qhuinn hadn’t gone far. At least not at first. She had tried, but before long she found herself back at Quinten’s house. Unsure of her welcome, she hadn’t gone inside, instead laying outside of the window of his office. Head in her paws as she listened to Jason’s labored breathing, Quinten’s gentle words of assurance. They all knew the truth though: he was dying, and it was all her fault. She had allowed herself to get to this point, and now..she had killed one of the people that she loved the most in the world. Where there had once been anger there was now fear, and a grief as deep as anything she had been feeling over the last few months. If he died..how could she go on? How could live with herself? And without him? Head resting to her paws, tears flowing like rain, Qhuinn simply laid in the dirt, sending up a prayer to whoever happened to be listening. Take her instead. She was a killer..she deserved it.

A noise shook Qhuinn from her thoughts and she looked up, seeing Ciaran streak past into the woods. Had he found someone? Leaping to her feet, she started to follow him, then stopped. It was as if she physically couldn’t be far from Jason. At least she didn’t have long to wait, as not long after Ciaran raced towards her with Ava in tow. ‘Is she..are you going to..’ She started, then shook her head. There was no time to explain; they all knew what was going to happen. Giving Ava a look of gratitude, she shook out her snowing fur and lead the pair into her boyfriend’s home. ‘Quint! He found Ava!’

Quinten: Quinten had never imagined that this day would come...at least this soon and this way. It wasn't beyond him that he would outlive...everyone he knew right now. Even his darling Qhuinn. However, seeing Jace laying there, writhing in pain and already convinced he was going to die was worse than he could even imagine. He was grateful that Ciaran had gone out to find someone that could help. He could keep him alive for a decent amount of time but if he couldn't get rid of the poison than it would only prolong the inevitable. Could he let him die and then revive him? Would the poison remain coursing through his veins if he did? He had never had to revive someone who had been poisoned- let alone by anything like what was coursing through is best friend's name. He sat by Jason's side, trying to keep him alive, pouring his everything out into Jace. He knew he had vials of grace set aside for emergencies and he knew that he could probably give the other man his blood, but in the end he needed more. The reality was healing wasn't enough. He could keep healing but there was a change that was needed. Maybe he could try dialysis? He considered biting his lip, he was just beginning to bow his head to pray to his brothers and sisters, thinking perhaps they would heed his call, when three wolves burst into his house. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen- especially when he noted that one of the wolves was Qhuinn. "Oh thank Father." He murmured when he heard that Ciaran had found Ava. He knew she was a wolf- they had a solution...he just hoped that Jace could live with it. "I'll bring him up to the guest room. There's more room in there for everyone." He said, knowing that his home medical office was not built for three full grown wolves and two grown men. "Just...let me know what else I can do." He said, concentrating on the room, trying his best to make it a soft landing and listening as the wolves scampered up the stairs.

Jason: After countless hours of endless agony and having everyone else he cared about fight for him, it would seem by the way his breath hitched, that Jason was finally coming back to...just not with a start this time…and not completely. His limbs were too weak, his heartbeat far too faint...and, in many ways, he may have even been persuaded to think he was dreaming...but still, his eyes fluttered again, fingers gripping around the sheets in a frenzy as he felt his stomach begin to twist and warp along with the room, rushing around him in a synonymous blur as he cast a look upward. Fuck, he was going to be sick again, wasn’t he? It all felt too surreal: the sounds, the blinding brightness invading the otherwise dim room through those goddamn curtains…he almost wished he could stop it altogether...but the two hands aiding him into a sitting up position quickly gave him something else to do with himself…

The first thing Shaw ever saw was Quinten’s worried and almost defeated look, willing him to stay with them, and then, just over his shoulder…wolves. A dark furred one and… it was practically a gut reaction, but the second his eyes landed on the white fur, Jace was at once invaded by a surge of memories all rushing back to him, going so far as to even draw back at the sight, turning to try and grasp at the angel’s lab coat instead in a panic that was very much unlike him. “No..no…get them..get them away from me..” he began stuttering, “What is goin’ on..? What…where am I?”

Ava: Ava had never considered becoming a maker before. She was a born wolf, and she had learned early on, how to control her urges and her inner self, but she was by no means perfect. And, as of late, that was often easier said than done. Could she handle the responsibility? At the end of the day, that didn’t matter. This was Jace, and she knew there was no way she could let him die. She cared about him, and Qhuinn was her best friend. There really wasn’t an option, here. She knew what needed to be done. “I’ll do it,” she replied, nodding and taking off after him. As they ran, and Qhuinn appeared, she gave her a knowing nod. There was no judgment. Her friend was clearly in need of help, and what mattered now, was making sure none of them loses Jace in the process. They could talk about everything else later. As they made their way up the stairs, her heart was racing. She didn’t want to screw this up. She’s never done this before, and her ears flipped back a little, when she saw her friend. He looked terrible, and she knew she was doing the right thing. She just hoped he could forgive her when it was all over. “Jason…” she pushed her way to the front, but didn’t approach him too quickly just yet. “It’s going to be okay. It’s me. It’s Ava.” She looked over at the other wolves for reassurance, stepping closer to him. “I just have to…” she looked over at him, then back at them. “If any of you need to look away or leave, I understand. I’ll do it.”

Ciaran: Ciaran knew without looking back that Ava would do it. He may not have known much about the woman, but enough to feel the strong moral character that she possessed. Like himself, and Qhuinn, Quinten, and Jason, she would never turn her back on a friend in need. ‘Aye..ya a good girl Ava. I may not know shit about bein’ a maker myself, but I ain’t just gonna leave ya alone in this. None of us will. We’re all in the together now’ He assured the woman as they raced to Quinten’s. Once inside, the three of them crowded into the angel’s cozy home, with him trying as hard as he could to not get his far larger frame in the way. There was no fucking way he was going to be put outside like a dog; lingering in the doorway was the best he could offer. ‘I’m stayin’ right here. It’s gonna be good Jason, I promise. Ya gotta trust us. Ya know that we would never do wrong by ya’ Ciaran assured his friend, navy eyes sure and steady on Shaw’s, as he curved his body protectively around Qhuinn’s when the white wolf came to stand at his side.

Qhuinn: Never one to be very graceful, even in her wolf form, Qhuinn tripped and stumbled her way upstairs. Unable to get to Jason fast enough. It was going to be okay, they could do this. Ava could do this. She and Ciaran were literal living proof that one could survive the bite of a wolf, and god knew that Jason was just as strong. It would take time but he would survive this. Even if it was without her. The small wolf skidded to a stop outside of the bedroom door, tears welling in her icy eyes once again at her best friend’s demands. Of course he was terrified of her, she had expected nothing less. But it still cut deep into her heart to hear those words. She would keep her distance though, for as long as he needed. Those eyes turned pleading as she turned to Quinten and Ava in turn, silently begging for them to save their Jason. She then turned and joined Ciaran in the doorway, leaning against the large strong wolf. ‘I’m here too. I’m sorry Jason..I’m so sorry.. Please save him…’

Jason: Jason heard their voices in the back of his mind, soft and each more concerned than the last, but nothing squashed the terror in his heart..or in his eyes, which didn't dare to look away. All he saw were the looming figures of the thing that attacked him..a monster now in his eyes as he made less and less sense of things.. It might have been the extreme agony or the nightmares he had been having in and out of consciousness all night, but this..wasn't Shaw anymore. Not even close. Scooting further back, he tried pulling the tubes off his hand and huffed, blinking it all away.. "Do what..? Quinten!?What's...what is she goin' to do.." he shook his head yet again amidst ragged breaths, "..I can't do this...n-n-ot again..please...please..." They would have to hold him down if they ever wanted to get through with this..perhaps even rob him of his consciousness again, but this Jason was having none of this..

Quinten: Quinten was relieved when he managed to get Jace in the bed without jarring him because really that was like the last thing that he wanted. He could hear the wolves making their way up the stairs and he was more than relieved he had found a way to have Dhani be out of the house. What he wasn't expecting was the sheer panic that overcame Jace when the wolves appeared in the doorway- especially Qhuinn. That was going to hurt her and there was no way to get around that but he had to triage things and right now Jason's life was the most important. "Jace, it's okay. You're safe here with me." He answered, trying to do his best to reassure him. He was the only other non-wolf there- and the person who would never let anyone get hurt. He felt like he could breathe slightly when he heard that Ava was going to do it. He was incredibly appreciative that she was stepping up to do it. He knew that it was not a light decision to make to be someone's maker. Ava came forward, giving everyone the chance to leave. They all agreed to stay- though there was some fear on his part since he had no idea what this process was going to look like. His heart twisted when Jace back away, scared and pleading. "Jason. Listen to me. I can keep you stable but we need to save your life. This means that Ava will have to change you. I know that it's a lot. I know it's scary. I know that this isn't something you wanted...but your life depends on this. Everyone in this room cares about you and will make sure that you'll get through this. I'll sedate you if you want but...this has to happen."

Ava: Ava was actually pleased that she wasn’t left on her own to do this. It made her that much more sure that she was doing the right thing. She moved closer to Jace, nuzzling his hand gently with her muzzle, in some sort of reassurance. “I’m so sorry,” she told him. ”I hope you understand after this is done, that I did it to save you. It’s because I care about you.” She looked over her shoulder at the other wolves and Quinten one more time. She knew there was no time to waste, so she turned back to Jace, her golden eyes meeting his, before she did what she had to do. She placed a paw gently beside him, and for the first time ever, she bit a human. It was a strange feeling, letting that side of her go. She had done things she wasn’t proud of before, but this was different. She was saving a life. She was saving the life of a dear friend. This was one side of herself she was always worried about controlling, but her head was clear as she did it. She knew how to not go too far. How to do what she needed without letting in any sort of bloodlust. When she was done, she let go of him, but not budging from his side. She didn’t want to leave him. She didn’t want to ditch him. She felt a sense of responsibility coming over her. She needed to see this through. She needed to make sure he knew she was there for every part of this, now.

Jason: Jason tried to really listen to what Quinten said but ultimately, it all came down to the two hands pushing and holding him to the mattress, his eyes widening in utter shock when the she-wolf neared herself to him. He knew that it was going to happen..that it /had/ to happen, but his body betrayed him yet again..getting painfully tense as his forearm was exposed. His breathing hitched but when their eyes met, he nodded in spite of it and readied himself..for the bite, which had him screaming again, eyes tearing up in agony until..until he sunk back into that bed..feeling the new flow of energy curse up his arm. In a moment's breath, Shaw looked at Ava and closed his eyes..

Ciaran: Ciaran stood still and stoic and Qhuinn's side, the rock that he knew everyone expected him to be on the outside. Meanwhile, his insides were another story. Jason had to be okay, this had to work. There was just really no other option in his mind. Jason was a part of them all, and a huge part of the family that he had made for himself in the past two years. He couldn't imagine a life without him. Ava gave the bite, and he couldn't help but flinch, as memories of his own turning and the nightmare that it had been flashed through his mind. Holding his breath, he exchange hopeful looks with Qhuinn and Quinten, then focused on Shaw again. "Jason? Mate..can ya hear us?" He projected. Had the male closed his eyes in pain, or relief? Or was he....?

Qhuinn: If it hadn't been for the wolf bond and her empath powers flowing between them, Qhuinn would have though Ciaran was an impenetrable force. She felt that quiver though, and leaned into him more, giving and taking comfort and support. As two pairs of very scared and hopeful lupine eyes watched the pair on the bed. Qhuinn knew exactly what Ciaran had to be imagining when Ava's teeth sunk into Jason't flesh, because the same things flashed through her own mind. And as much as she tried to be as brave as the black wolf, a low whimper left her. She felt too much: Jason's pain and fear, the fear of everyone in the room, all of their hopes and prayers. Pinned on a single person in a single moment, but Ava took it all like the warrior that she was. And it was in that moment that Qhuinn knew things were going to be fine. 'It's okay..he's going to be okay' She whispered to Ciaran. Maybe it was blind hope, or just the refusal to go through a life without her best friend. But she hung on to that hope like a lifeline. 'Jason..we're all here honey. Just rest..you're going to be fine. We're not leaving you..ever' Her gaze went to all of them as well, her family, before resting on Quinten's with love and adoration. 'He is okay..right?'

Quinten: Quinten had absolutely no idea what this was going to be and what it was going to look like. He wasn't even entirely sure why Qhuinn's bite was poison but Ava's wasn't. He knew that after this he was going to have to do a ton more research- both for his and Jace's sake. His heart broke a little at the fear and hesitation that came from his best friend...but it was become a wolf or die and he knew none of them wanted to lose him. So, none of them moved and he held onto Jace's hand, sending more grace to try and soothe him as well as ease and pain that would come from the second bite.

He didn't seem to be able to help much, Jason still crying out from the bite. It hurt to see him in that pain but soon after the bite, the man let out a long slow breath and then shut his eyes and went slack. Quinten panicked for a moment, but he could feel that the other man was still together. "He's okay. He'll be out for awhile, I can feel his body changing and its taking all of his energy. I don't know how long he'll be out cause I don't know how long the change will take. I'm going to grab some supplies for him- IV fluids, water to sip, some bedding for you guys if you want. A vial of grace for myself to help things along as I can."

Qhuinn: Qhuinn nodded at Quinten's words, sagging lightly against Ciaran. She may not have remembered much from those first few moments and even hours after her bite, but the sheer bone exhaustion that she felt upon waking the next morning stuck in her mind. Jason needed that healing sleep..but she still couldn't leave his side. 'Okay, thank you baby. I'm staying here though' Working her way out from under Ciaran's protective grip, she nuzzled him lovingly then padded across the room. Ava was her first stop, a whispered 'thank you' projected to the other she-wolf as she nuzzled her as well. Then finally Qhuinn made her way to Quinten's side. She leaned against her beloved boyfriend for a long moment, soaking up his scent and his closeness. 'And thank you too. You both saved his life. Which is so much more than what I did..' Guilt swelling and overwhelming her, Qhuinn squeezed her eyes shut and stored up her strength. If Jason did see her when he woke, he didn't need to see her like this. 'Get some rest. I'll watch over him.' And with that, she dropped to the floor next to the bed, muzzle resting against her best friend's hand as she watched his chest rise and fall.

[hellimagines]

Sunbird (Part Two) -- Jason Todd

*My masterlist link can be found in my blog description*

Summary: Y/N wakes up after the bomb, and after Jason’s return she has to deal with the retaliation.

Warnings: Emo Bruce Wayne, angst

Pairing: Jason Todd x fem!reader

Word Count: 2,500+

Part One

A/N: Me? Disappearing for three weeks after impulsively creating another series? Wild. The beginning is a little rocky, but still, let me know what you think!

~Two weeks following the bomb~

Her whole body felt like it was on fire, flames licking the inside of her veins with each breath she took. However, as Y/N pried her sleep-crusted eyes open, she realized that she wasn’t in pain because of it. It simply just didn’t feel right. She was laid flat on one of the nursing beds in the BatCave, with IV’s in both arms, a tube down her throat, and other medical equipment enclosing her. Unable to lift her arms to properly find the source of the fire or to yell out for anyone, Y/N groaned in pain in hopes of someone hearing her.

Someone did hear her, but it wasn’t someone she was expecting. “Fuck, she’s awake,” Dick cursed, startling out of his chair to press a button on the wall beside her bed. “Hey, don’t move, Alfie’ll be here in a sec’, okay?” Y/N weakly nodded, wincing at the pain that jostled in her throat. Dick hushed her, petting a hand down her face to move away some sweat-slicked strands of hair. She hadn’t seen Dick in nearly a year, which wasn’t uncommon for the detective of Bludhaven, but it felt weird to have him as the first person she saw.

A few moments passed with Dick simply murmuring soft words and trying to keep Y/N from shifting too much as the pain increased. But, soon enough, Alfred and Bruce were both rushing toward them, the former snapping latex gloves onto his hands. “Please keep her steady, Master Dick. This will hurt more if she jerks too much,” Alfred instructed, gently placing the palm of his hand against Y/N’s throat. 

Dick did as he was told, holding onto the younger girl’s shoulders to keep her down, while Bruce stood to the side with furrowed brows. “You’re gonna be just fine, Miss Y/N, this’ll be over in a moment,” Alfred hummed, before he was pulling the tube out without warning. Instinctively, Y/N jerked, wanting to fight against the pain in her throat as she yelled out, but Dick kept her from moving. And, as Alfred had said, the tube was gone in only a few seconds, leaving her able to gasp for air while choking and coughing on her own spit. Dick helped her into a sitting position as Alfred fluffed the pillows up, checking her vitals as her hacking calmed down.

Dick’s eyes caught Bruce’s across the bed, silently motioning him to come over, which Bruce began to do. But, he stopped short at the girl’s next words; “Where’s Jason?” she croaked while massaging her throat, before looking up at the older men. “Is he okay?”

Alfred turned his back, busying himself with putting away unneeded medical supplies with shaking hands. Dick looked up at Bruce, pleading for guidance before the older took a step back, shaking his head. “Bruce-” Dick tried, reaching out a hand for the other. Instead, Bruce shook his head and turned, walking away from the others.

“Dick, what happened?” Y/N whispered, dread filling her gut as she felt the tension cover the room like a cloud of smoke. “Please, where’s Jason?”

Dick took a deep breath, “Do you remember what happened?”

“Yeah,” she nodded with heavy breaths, “Joker used me to lure Robin and Batman, but Jason ran in without thinking, got trapped. Then we were tortured, well… Jason got the brunt of it, before… before the bomb went off.” 

“Do you know how you survived?” Y/N shook her head. “When you were a baby, Joker wanted to make you like him, as much as possible at least. But Harley drew the line at the chemical vats, electrocution, and all the other stuff they did to themselves. So, when there was that giant Arkham break ten years ago, Joker had grabbed a whole bunch of random shit from the experiment and confiscation rooms,” Dick explained, taking a seat beside her bed. 

“How do you know all of this?” Y/N questioned.

“Miss Quinzel stopped by when she heard what had happened. She’s still in hiding, but she thought you had died. I must admit, I feared for Master Bruce’s safety for a moment,” Alfred chuckled, despite the sorrowful look on his face. “She told us everything and explained why you hadn’t.”

“Jason’s dead. Isn’t he? You’re only talking about how or why I survived, not him.”

“Always did rival my detective skills,” Dick huffed, unable to look Y/N in the eyes anymore. “When Bruce got there, Jason… Jason was already dead. You were unconscious on top of him, with your fingers against his neck, checking for a pulse I think.” Memories began to filter into her head, ones her mind had blocked immediately after the bomb. Freeing herself from the charred zip ties, crawling over burning metal and wood, collapsing beside Jason, his lips trying to form her nickname one last time, before feeling his heart stop and his eyes go blank. Y/N’s heart ached at the memory, and she choked on a sob that she refused to let escape.

“And on fire,” Alfred added, grabbing ahold of Y/N’s hand as he watched the despair fall over her face. “Harley didn’t know what exactly Joker did to you when you were younger, he never told her the full extent. But whatever he did, insured your immunity against most things. You still bruise, bleed, and break, but those things are harder to kill you than most people. However, I don’t suppose he expected a bomb to fit into that category. So, while you were still burned and in a coma, you survived and healed within days.”

Y/N looked down at her arm, trying to block out the memories again, and noticed the subtle, red glow beneath her skin. The only scars on her arms were of old cuts, bullets, and other injuries. But not a single burn scar laced her skin. “Why didn’t it leave a scar?”

Dick chuckled at the question, having expected her to ask more about Jason, and closed his eyes briefly. “Fire seems to be your best friend. We had to keep a fire extinguisher and buckets of cold water on standby for the first week because whenever you got hot, your skin would spark and catch fire. That,” he pointed a finger to an abandoned charred bed near the corner of the room, “was your first bed.”

Y/N gave the bed a brief glance, before staring back down at her arm. The feeling in her stomach had yet to go away, now filled with grief she didn’t know how to handle. “Are you… are you sure he’s gone? I could’ve been wrong, maybe his heart only stopped for a second, maybe he’s still alive, I’m sure he’s fine-”

“Y/N,” Alfred whispered, the absence of the ‘Miss’ causing her to stop. “Jason’s dead. We haven’t had his funeral, wanting to wait for you to wake up, but he’s gone,” he said softly, rubbing a calloused thumb over the back of her hand.

“I’m so sorry, kid,” Dick choked, letting his forehead fall against her arm as he squeezed his eyes shut. “He didn’t deserve this.” 

She looked between the both of them, tears falling over despite her reluctance. “I-” she began, before pausing and shaking her head. “What if Joker comes looking for me again? What if he comes after all of you next? I can’t lose anyone else, I have to leave.”

Dick shook his head, “It’s already been taken care of. The world thinks Y/N Napier is dead, and that Robin survived. We won’t go public with Jason’s death for a few months to keep shit from hitting the fan. That’s why Harley was here, she thought you had died. Joker even… he even sent Batman a ‘Sorry for your loss’ card.” His voice was dejected, feeling sympathetic for the younger girl on the bed.

“The second I left, he stopped caring about me. I’m not surprised,” she grumbled, wiping her eyes roughly. “Now what? I was only the girl Robin protected, nothing else. With me supposedly dead, and Robin, what do I do?”

“Don’t worry about Robin, we’ll take care of it. But you’re more than just Robin’s ward. You’re smart and strong, there’s plenty for you to do. Whether it’s taking up a mantle, helping out around here, or making a new name for yourself, you’ll find something. We’re not throwing you away, Y/N. You’re family.” 

Y/N listened quietly as Dick talked, absentmindedly running her fingers over her arm as he did. Everything Dick and Alfred were telling her was soaking into her like a sponge; the information was there, but she wasn’t able to process much of it. She knew how cruel the world could be, she was the Joker’s daughter after all, but it still wasn’t fair that Jason was taken from her. That she had to live without him, knowing that it was her fault he was dead. Alfred continued checking her wounds and body temperature as Dick filled her in a few more things (such as Bruce’s refusal to take a break and Batman’s wavering moral code), but Y/N could only listen numbly. She had to figure out her next step, and for the first time in a while, she had to figure it out without Jason by her side.

-- 

It took nearly a year for Y/N to completely recover and get ahold of her powers. She no longer had to carry around a fire extinguisher, and spare ones no longer crowded random rooms in the mansion. The only time her powers would act out was when the temperature around her crept above 80°; needless to say, hot weather and heaters were her kryptonite (but she wasn’t allowed to say that around Clark). She also discovered a new power alongside her… combustion skills- she had the ability to make people feel as though they were burning inside. There were no physical effects, and it couldn’t kill anyone, but the pain was definitely there. Also during that year, a small funeral was held for Jason at Gotham Cemetery, consisting of Y/N, Dick, Alfred, and Bruce. Bruce hadn’t stayed for long, with Alfred following shortly after to keep an eye on him. Y/N and Dick remained until the sun began to set, sitting in comfortable silence and staring at the headstone.

It only took two more years after that for Y/N to grace the streets of Gotham as Nightwing’s sidekick, Sunbird. It was the nickname Jason had given her after she had admitted that being with him was the freest she ever felt while they were sitting on top of Wayne Enterprise, watching the sunset. At the time, Jason didn’t know that there was an actual bird called sunbird, he just liked the way the words went together when he thought of her. And now, with Jason gone and her newfound abilities, the alias stuck. She would have been Batman’s sidekick, but there was a new, scrawny genius taking over Robin and Bruce still couldn’t look her in the eye without seeing Jason’s body. So, Dick had taken on the job of training her while Alfred created her battle-ready, fireproof suit, with built in cooling technology to keep her from overheating. It was a grey bodysuit with red down the back of her arms and over her upper chest, creating an abstract wing design, paired with a red domino-mask. Being Sunbird and racing across rooftops with Nightwing or Robin, and the occasional Titan or other vigilante, gave Y/N the freedom she had been chasing her whole life. 

Now, six years after Jason’s death, that freedom was about to be torn away.

“You can’t keep me locked up, Bruce!” Y/N’s screech filled the Cave, causing Tim to wince from his spot on the nursing bed. They were all still in their suits, reeling and arguing with the fact that Jason was alive and what to do next. 

“You’re the reason he’s back, if you go out there who knows what he’ll do,” Bruce argued, his voice steady yet tinted with anger. “He could’ve let slip that you’re alive to anyone. It’s not safe.”

Y/N let out a yell of frustration, slapping the bag of ice she had been holding into Tim’s stomach as she stalked forward. “This is Jason we’re talking about, he won’t hurt me,” she snapped, pointing a finger at Bruce. “He knows what Joker did to me, he was there half the time, saving me. He’s not going to go blabbing off to everyone and their fucking mom, knowing that it could result in me actually dying. Just because he has a different alias and kills the occasional drug lord, doesn’t mean he isn’t one of us anymore.” 

“That’s exactly what it means-”

“Master Wayne, I suggest you take a break.” Alfred’s voice, the calmest in the room, caused the two bickering vigilantes to immediately silence. Bruce was still breathing heavily, looking down at the younger girl with conflicting emotions, while Y/N stared up at him with narrowed eyes, ready to keep fighting. “You’re both upset, as I assume we all are, but arguing over Master Jason’s role in our family will do us no good in figuring out our next step.”

“Alfie’s right,” Dick sighed, wedging himself between Y/N and Bruce. “B, let’s go let Gordon know about the takedown tonight.” Putting his hands on Bruce’s shoulders he turned the older man around, giving Y/N one last look before guiding Bruce out of the Cave. 

Once the door was shut Y/N collapsed onto the edge of Tim’s medical bed, holding her head in her hands. “Jason’s more part of this family than I am, Bruce can’t just say stuff like that.”

“You are a part of this family,” Tim said, allowing Alfred to poke at his ribs to find the broken ones, “he’s just upset, you know how he gets.”

She murmured, “that doesn’t make it okay,” before lifting her head. She looked over at Tim, watching how Alfred wrapped bandages around his torso and applied more ice to his side. 

It was quiet for a few moments, before Alfred spoke, “if you plan on going solo, at least make sure one of us knows what you’re doing.” Y/N chuckled, flashing him a cheeky smile. “Better yet, take Master Tim or Dick with you.”

At that, both birds scoffed out a laugh. “Yeah right, he’d kill me on sight, same with Dick. No offense, Y/N, but you’re own on your own,” Tim huffed, earning a slap on the shoulder from Alfred.

Y/N laughed loudly and shook her head. “You’re right, no offense taken, baby bird. I have to do this on my own, there’s something off about him right now. Throwing the original and the new Robin at him won’t end well. I can handle myself, he won’t hurt me; no matter what Bruce says, Jason Todd is still under that helmet.”

--

All Writing Taglist (OPEN): @teageowen​  @alex--awesome--22​ @hxdesworld​ @frozenhuntress67​ @samanthasmileys​ @simonsaysyasss​ @marvelismylifffe​ @bademliimagnum​ @wherewecangazeintothestars​ @loxbbg​

[itzagothamcitysiren]

Welcome to the Family

So I’ve been slacking hardcore. I’ve just been so busy with life and tired all the time. I kinda low key went into a funk for about two weeks and I’m trying to break out of it. I think I’m going to post two parts today just to make up for it. I also just want to get this one out there because I have so much planned for the next few stories and I reaaaaalllly just want to start working on those. 

Love Is a Burning Thing and It Makes a Fiery Ring pt.2

ONE WEEK EARLIER            

           Jason crept into the hallway as quietly as possible. It was still dark out but he knew he was surrounded by light sleepers and didn’t want to chance being caught up so early. The floor’s creaked, causing him to wince and look at the closed door of the master bedroom in the hotel suite that they were currently staying at. When he was sure his cover wasn’t blown he pressed forward, reaching his target.

           The door remained unlocked, making it even easier for him to complete his mission. Making sure to open the door slowly and gently, he entered, shutting the door again behind him. Nearly tiptoeing, he made his way to the bed that sat in the middle of the room, almost tripping on the suitcase that had been haphazardly place in the center of the room. He cursed, pausing to see if the figure laying in the bed had stirred or if there was any movement in the hallway.

           Once again getting the okay to proceed, he marched forward, towering over the bed where his girlfriend slept peacefully. He smirked down at her, raising his hand up from his side. He slipped the hand over her mouth, knowing her eyes had instantly shot open as he did. Placing a hand on his lips as she jerked to her side to stare up at the intruder, he signaled her to stay quiet.

           “What are you doing?’ she hissed when he removed his hand from her face.

           “Put some clothes on, I wanna show you something.” He said hotly, raising a teasing eyebrow at her.

           She mimicked him before rolling back over and pulling the covers back up over her shoulders. He huffed, ripping the blankets off of her and poking a finger in her side.  She glared up at him before looking to the alarm clock.

           6:34am

           “Jason, it’s so early. We need to sleep, we have a big day today!” she whispered at him, trying to keep her voice down but still firm. “I’m still tired from the flight and yesterday.”

           “Yeah, yeah, big bust on the Joker today, I know but I really want to show you something.” He said pulling at her arm in order to get her out of bed.

           “Ugh, I hate you.” She rolled her eyes, reluctantly letting her feet touch the floor and get out of bed. She moved towards her suitcase, looking for some socks and a sweater to throw on, seeing Jason wearing shoes and a hoodie.

           “No you don’t. You love me.” Jason rolled his eyes right back before throwing her slip on vans at her after she was taking too long to find a pair of socks. “Come on, before we miss it.”

           She let out a sigh, slipping the shoes on before allowing Jason to whisk her away and out of the hotel room. He led her down the long narrow hallways, towards the elevator. The hotel Bruce had booked them was nice, probably one of the nicest Halley had ever been too and due to Bruce’s status they had entered Bosnia under the guise of being on a luxurious skiing trip. This meant that they actually had to ski before getting to the real reason why they were here. Halley had never skied before and she was pretty sure she sprained something yesterday after falling so many times. If she had it was healed by now but she was still exhausted. The dinner Bruce treated them too last night was nice though, she thought.

           She entered the elevator after Jason, allowing him to continue to lead her to wherever he was taking her. She felt herself yawn, leaning against the back wall and letting her fall on Jason’s shoulder. Her eyes closed as she felt the elevator go up and didn’t open them until the door let out a ring, signaling that they arrived.

           She looked at him confused as they were now in what looked like to be service quarters. She shot him a look, asking him where he was taking her but got no answer besides being pulled down the hall. He opened a door at the end of the hall, showing a stairwell.

           “Okay seriously Jay, where are we going? I want to go back to bed.” She pouted as she now was forced to climb the stairs up.

           “I’m trying to be romantic and you’re ruining it, you know?” He looked down at her before pressing back up.

           “Okay, okay,” she said laughing and shaking her head.

           Eventually he stopped in front of a door, opening it and revealing that he had led her to the roof. He pushed the door open fully outstretching his arm for her to go first. She stepped out, seeing the sun barely starting to rise. Looking around she found herself stopping to stare at a blanket set up towards the edge, hot plates and two glasses placed on top of it.

           “I figured we’d sneak up here and have breakfast alone.” He shrugged, letting the door close behind him. He walked up behind her, wrapping her up in his arms. “I snuck down to the kitchen and got some of the food they use for the breakfast buffet. We got like another hour or so before Bruce notices we’re gone and about two before he actually finds us.”

           “You best hope he doesn’t find us.” Halley laughed, pulling away from him and grabbing his hand. She led him to the blanket, a wide smile placed on her face.

           Jason sat down next to her, opening the hot plates and showing off the selection of eggs, pancakes and bacon he got. He was about to dig in but stopped when he felt Halley’s eyes staring at him. He’d already shoveled a mouthful of eggs and smiled sheepishly at her, muttering with a mouth full of food, “What?”

           “I just love you.” She shrugged before grabbing her own plate to do the same.

           He smirked like a lovesick sap at her as he went back to stuffing his face. They watched the sun rise as they ate, talking here and there about everything and nothing at the same time. Halley mentioned how graduation was coming up. They only had two more months until they’d be walking across the stage.

           Jason was nervous, though he wouldn’t say it out loud, even to her. He’d barely gotten into Gotham University whereas he was still not over Halley’s decision to go as well. She had turned down Met U because she didn’t want to leave him. As much as he appreciated it, he couldn’t help but feel guilty.        He knew she had been really excited to go to school for journalism and communications even if she down played it. Whereas he really could care less about college. He was just going because Bruce expected it of him and Halley was going as well.  If he could have the choice he would just find some sort of job and be Robin full time, but Bruce would never allow it.

           When their plates were clean he found himself leaning back on the palms of his hands watching as the sun was now high in the sky. They’d been up there for about forty minutes already and he knew they’d start having to head down soon before Bruce realized they weren’t in their rooms. He didn’t want to leave though, enjoying the moment of peace with Halley, wanting the minutes to drag out longer than they were.

           He appeared to not be the only one with the same idea as he felt his skin tingle as lips found their way to his neck. He let his head fall back, feeling Halley crawl closer to him and trail her lips up and down his neck, leaving soft kisses as she went. He let out a groan as he let his eyes close. He grunted when he felt her weight being placed on top of him and her hips grinding against him. Opening his eyes, Jason stared up at the girl straddling him smugly.

           “What’cha doing?” He muttered, mischievously.

           “I don’t know,” she said softly, a blush creeping onto her cheeks and she ground down a little harder, smiling as she earned another groan from him.

           “I think you do.” He retorted, letting one hand move up to grasp her hip, pushing her down harder against him. “I think you’re up to something.”

           “What would give you that idea?” She said placing a finger on her lip before dropping her head down to capture his lips with hers.

           She used her force to push him back until he was laying on his back and she could rest her body against him. She hummed when she felt his hands slowly trail down to grasp her behind, moaning into his mouth as he squeezed and rubbed circles. She let her mouth open as she moaned, giving Jason the opportunity to bit her lip.

           “If you moan like that again, I will have sex with you on this roof.” Jason warned, letting go of her lip before attacking her neck.

           “Okay,” she said moaning again, daring him to actually follow through.

           “Fuck, I love you.” He hissed, grabbing her face with one hand and moving the other to reach for the waist band of her pants. “We really better hope Bruce doesn’t find us now,”

[alonely-dreamer]

The Valuable Sun | Chapter 16

Summary: Bill and Sookie’s relationship is broken beyond repair while Eric and Sookie’s only gets stronger.

Pairing: Eric x OC

Warnings: 18+

A/N: Please, note that I am French so there might be some mistakes here and there.

Words: 1780

Masterlist

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15

“What the hell were you thinking?” Pam yelled at Eric as she helped Brooke lay him on one of the tables of the club.

The Viking couldn’t answer. He was in terrible shape, his face burnt all over, smoke coming out of his injuries.

“He needs blood,” Pam said.

“I know.”

“He’s too weak to drop fang.”

Brooklynne didn’t even think as she lifted her wrists to Pam’s face and the vampire bit her almost as quickly. As the human-fairy hybrid started to feed the Viking her blood, Pam started to look for the key of the cuff that was still around Eric’s wrist.

“Thank God, the key,” she said as she took it out of the inner pocket jacket.

She went around the bar to get some gloves that will allow her to touch silver and hurriedly removed the cuffs from her maker.

Brooklynne watched as Eric’s injuries slowly healed and disappeared. He seemed to regain consciousness as well and she jumped slightly when he put his hand on her wrist and started to drink faster.

“You’re gonna be okay,” she whispered to him, though more for herself than for him.

His eyes opened wide and she gave him a small smile as he looked up at her.

“You’re gonna be okay,” she repeated as she started stroking his hair.

His face wasn’t completely healed when he pushed her wrist away, making both her and Pam frown.

“Where’s Russell?” were his first words.

“Outside,” Brooke answered with confusion, “why?”

“We need to bring him in.”

Pam and Brooke arched their eyebrows as they looked at each other in surprise, then back at him.

“Are you insane? Why?” Pam asked.

“Godric appeared to me and asked me to spare Russell.”

Pam raised an eyebrow and gave an angry look to her maker.

“You are insane.”

“Brooke?” he asked, as he knew he wouldn’t get what he needed from his progeny.

“You want me to go get the guy who wants to kill us all and bring him inside? Really?”

She couldn’t believe nor did she want it. After all the trouble they’ve been through to get Russell right where he was right now, she couldn’t understand why Eric wanted to change the plan.

“Eric,” Pam said, “do the world a favor and let that little fuck fry.”

Eric rolled his eyes as he sighed before he stood up.

“I’ll go out there myself.”

“What?” Brooke breathed out. “No way, you’re not going back out there!”

“I’m not letting him die.”

“He would let us die,” Pam reminded him, “and laugh watching.”

“Godric told me only peace came after death. I’m not letting Russell Edgington find peace.”

“You were hallucinating!” Pam shouted. “It wasn’t real!”

Eric growled at her as he showed her his fangs in warning, startling her.

“Oh for the love of God,” Brooke said as she took the silver chains from the counter near her and exited the club under the eyes of both vampires.

Did she want to save Russell? Hell no, she would sleep better at night knowing he wasn’t walking this earth anymore, but she knew Eric wasn’t about to feed him all his bottles of Tru Blood to put him back in shape and let him go freely. No, Eric had a plan and she trusted him enough to know that even if he didn’t kill Russell, the three-thousand-year old psychopath wouldn’t walk this earth again any time soon.

“You’ve come back for me,” Russell managed to painfully say. “Thank you, sweet fairy.”

“Oh, shut up,” she replied as she wrapped the chains around his neck, causing him as much if not more pain than the sun.

She dragged him back inside, ignoring his screams of pain. Eric helped her chain him to a pole under Pam’s disapproving eyes.

“Explain to me, please, why we’re not killing him?” Pam asked with her eternal annoyed tone.

“Killing him won’t solve anything.”

“No,” Brooke nodded, “but it would keep him from killing us,” she said as a way to ask him his plan.

Eric looked up at her as he added another silver chain around Russell’s neck.

“Oh, he won’t be doing anymore killing,” he told her.

“Eric, who the fuck are you right now? He killed your family, rip off his fucking head!” Pam insisted.

“Do not listen to them,” Russell said. “I shall reward you handsomely.”

Eric punched him in the kidney, causing Russell to lose a fang.

“Well, that’s humiliating,” he smirked. “I’ll take that.”

“So what now?” Brooke asked.

“We should go to ground. You stay here and watch him.”

“You want me to babysit him?!”

“He can’t glamour you. Ginger’s coming in later, he would glamour her in a heartbeat,” he explained as he removed the blue gloves from his hands and threw them next to the remaining silver chains behind Russell.

“Eric,” Brooke said quietly as she took a step towards him. “What are you doing? What about the Authority?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be rid of him in less than twenty-four hours.”

“Tell me your plan,” she asked. Though she trusted him, she’d feel better once she knew exactly what he had in mind.

“I’m calling Bill and Alcide. They’ll help me bury him somewhere tonight,” he explained as he trapped her chin between his fingers. “I’ll make sure he’s wrapped in a thousand silver chains. He will never get out,” he said, as a way to reassure her.

She looked down, then shook her head as she closed her eyes. A million thoughts crossed her mind. She knew Russell would be back one day, she knew it was a bad idea, but she also knew Eric was Eric, and there was no changing his mind.

“Make that a billion silver chains,” she said as she looked back up at him.

He chuckled. “As you wish,” he nodded before he kissed her forehead. “Call your sister, she must be worried.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” he asked with a confused frown as he tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear.

“Because next time I see her, she’ll know about Bill. And I don’t want to break her heart.”

“Sookie’s strong. She’ll get over it.”

“I don’t know. She loves him. She wants to marry him.”

“And you’d rather she marry him than tell her the truth?”

“I’d rather she be happy….”

“She’ll know, one day,” he said. “Tell her now, before it’s too late.”

Brooklynne nodded sadly.

“It’s already too late.”

 ***

 Talking to Sookie had seemed like the hardest thing to do and it certainly was hard but not as hard as walking through the cemetery in complete darkness with Eric and Bill to look for her sister.

“Sookie!” Brooke called in the cold night for what seemed like the hundredth time.

“I can’t feel her,” Bill said with desperation.

Brooklynne was only tolerating him because he could actually be useful in finding Sookie, but so far, he had only been a whiny useless heart broken little boy.

“How’s that possible?” Eric asked with a little anger in his voice. “She’s no doubt very upset right now, you should be able to feel her.”

“Well, I don’t!” he growled. “I felt her, I felt her anger and sadness and then nothing.”

“Is she dead?” Brooke asked in a whisper as if she didn’t want to even think about the possibility.

“I didn’t feel her die… she’s just… she’s just gone.”

“Maybe she’s with Jason,” Brooke said, completely ignoring the vampire. She didn’t want to hear it anyway.

“Well, Bill,” Eric sighed, “maybe she just doesn’t want you to find her.”

“Oh, shut up, Eric,” Bill snarled. “This is your fault!”

“How is it my fault?”

“You told her about Sophie-Anne!”

“I told her the truth. It’s not my fault you’re untrustworthy.”

“Jason hasn’t seen her,” Brooke said as she put her phone back in her pocket. “What are we gonna do?”

“Don’t worry,” Eric said as he put his hand on her shoulder. “She’ll come back. I’m sure she’ll be home tomorrow.”

 ***

 One year later

 “Damn, I’m glad to be home,” Brooke sighed as she let herself fall on the beige couch of the living room.

She looked up to the clock on the wall and sighed again as she saw it was almost dawn.

“It was Bill,” Eric said as he came in the living room, putting his phone back in the inside pocket of his black leather jacket. “He thanks you for your ‘assistance’ and the money will be here tomorrow, in cash.”

“Great,” she muttered as if she didn’t care. “You hungry?”

“I had enough of you on the plane,” he grinned as he leaned over to kiss her.

She smiled back as he put his lips on hers and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“The sunrise’s in less than five minutes,” she reminded him between two kisses.

“I’m not tired. Are you tired?” he asked playfully.

“Not anymore,” she replied before biting her lower lip.

He scooped her up in his arms and made his way to the fake wardrobe behind the couch that was installed eight months earlier when they renovated the house. He opened it as quickly as he got down in the room they built for him so he could spend the day in the house safe from the sun.

She giggled as he reached the ground and laughed again when he threw her on the bed. The room was like a bedroom from another time, with an old dark red wallpaper with bronze and golden flowers scattered on it, and wooden furniture everywhere.

She removed her shirt as she sat up while he joined her on the bed, placing a knee on the mattress. She grabbed his shirt and tore it open, causing the buttons to fly away and fall on the bed and on the ground. Eric threw his shirt away before he captured her lips once again, pushing her down on the mattress. Her hands traveled down his chest to find the button of his jeans. She undid it quickly before she slid her hand in his underwear.

“Mmh, someone’s in a hurry,” he smirked.

She wrapped her fingers around his length and started to make sure he’d soon be in a hurry too. She was extremely impatient, and he was a monstrous tease. He growled before he removed the rest of his clothes and she watched him do it with a wicked grin as she removed the rest of hers.

“I’m gonna fuck you till you pass out.”

She bit her lower lip again, the way she knew he liked it.

“Yes please.”

**********

Tags: @thepoet1975 @nerdysandwichqueen @catchmeupimgettingoutofhere @raegan-hale @colie87 @heavenly1927​ @abbey7103 

[wordsfromthesol]

Out of Place (5/6)

Author: @wordsfromthesol Pairing: Dick Grayson x Reader Summary: Meeting Dick, and the rest of the batboys.  You’re confused, since you are nowhere near Bludhaven or Gotham. Some tragedies, some battles, etc. Happy ending because I’m a sap. Warnings: Language, blood, rape Word Count: 2.0k A/N: I’m almost finished with the story and hope to post the rest soon.

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 6

You opened your eyes, and everything was black. You screamed for Dick, but no sound came. Frantic, you looked around until you saw light. Rushing towards it, you see yourself. Well a much younger you, standing next to your dad. It was Christmas, and the day he gave you the necklace. You were only five at the time, but he began explaining what it was.

Y/N. You are the light of my life, my sunshine. This will protect you throughout your journey of life. It will also, be a source of great harm. People will try to take it, but you must never give it up. You would not be alive, and neither would this earth, if you ever take the necklace off. I can’t tell you exactly what it is but know that Dr. Fate entrusted me with it. Now, I am entrusting you. Too many people are after me, my time may be up soon.

You awoke in another unfamiliar place. Though, this time, you were not afraid. It was dark, except the small glass room you were in. You were attached to more machines than you cared to count, and finally dressed in proper clothes…not the swim suit you had donned during your capture. You grasped at your neck, the necklace still there. Your head began to clear, and you noticed the pressure against your hand; leaning up as much as you dare, there he was. Richard Grayson, asleep against the bed. You gave his hand a light squeeze and laid back. He immediately shot up.

“Y/N?”

Eyes still closed, “I’m here Dickiebird.”

They had you in a medically induced coma for two weeks, in order to allow your body to heal. While you were stuck in your own head, you figured something out. The necklace, your dad gave you the necklace. You always wore it. That had to mean something. To Dick’s surprise, you asked for Tim next.

“Tim, right. That’s the other one?”

“Uhm, yeah…he was there. Why?”

“Get him for me sweetheart?”

Dick rose slowly and soon came back with Tim and Jason in tow.

“Wow, asking for my replacement, and not me? That hurts.”

“Jaybird” you smiled softly. Turning towards Tim, you usher him closer. The boys both exchange confused glances. You reach up and take off the necklace and place it in Tim’s hand. “Find out for me.” And again, you were out.

“Well, what was it? Why did she want you?” Jason questioned his younger brother, slightly hurt that his best friend asked for his brother instead of him.

“I…I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.” Tim held up the necklace to both of the boys. “Any thoughts?” They were just as confused as he was.

Tim scoured the internet and every database he could think of. Finally, information on a similar piece surfaced. “Magic…” He immediately rang Zatanna. There within minutes, she glanced at the piece and immediate shock hit her.

“Where did you get that?! Who did you take it off of?! I need answers now Drake!”

“Damn, what the hell is it?”

“Now.”

Tim points to the med bay. “I didn’t take it, she gave it to me.”

“No no no no no…” Zatanna snatches the piece and raced over to Y/N, securing it back around your neck. “Why, why would she take it off? Doesn’t she know?” Zatanna held her face in her hands. “Read me in. Now.”

Tim called the boys to the cave and they explained everything.

“It is an amulet of Eshu. The proclaimed wearer is offered safety from death, but if they take it off…well they could be lost on one of the 256 paths to the underworld. And even if they find their way there, they must then challenge Eshu. If they lose, they set the god of death and chaos free. My hope is, since she gifted it…and it only briefly disconnected from her, she has not been set on her path. I need M’gann.”

The Martian soon entered the cave, as Bruce and Damian walked downstairs.

“When did we send out invitations to the cave?” Damian scoffed as he stalked to the corner.

“What’s the news?” Bruce knew this escalated quickly, for so many parties to be involved. The situation was explained, and a plan formed. The combined powers of M’gann and Zatanna should allow them into Y/N’s mind and make sure she has not begun her path to the underworld. Dick was insistent that his consciousness be brought along.

Zatanna and M’gann worked together and suddenly…darkness. It enveloped the trio as their bodies fell to the floor.

“Where are we? Why can’t we see anything?” Dick questioned the girls, wondering if this spell even worked.

“I’m guessing this is what her mind looks like. It’s being lost on the pathways to Eshu.” Zatanna’s fears had been confirmed. “We have to find her, quickly”

“Look! A light!” Dick began to rush to it, before even waiting on his ride back to his own body.

“M’gann, do you see a light? Can you sense where Dick went?”

“Nothing. I see nothing. I hear nothing. We can only wait and hope that Dick is enough to pull her out. Her mind, someone has tampered with it. Only Dick was permitted in.”

Dick looked back, and the girls were gone. Guess he was on his own. He couldn’t lose her, he just got her back. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Dick followed the light, and it was revealed to be a memory. The same memory Y/N recalled, that fateful Christmas Day when she received the necklace.  He followed the young Y/N, and another memory surfaced.

Y/N was sitting on her bed, crying. She was a bit older now, Dick guessed about 8.

Why, why do we have to move dad! I don’t want to! Alaska is cold, and all my friends are here. I DON’T WANT TO GO!

Y/N, it is important we leave this place. It is no longer safe for you. For…anyone.

He glanced down at the necklace and quickly walked out.

Dick noticed tears forming in her dad’s eyes. Almost like he never wanted to give her the necklace in the first place. There was definitely more to the story, more than her dad was letting on. Again, the young Y/N took him through to another memory. Y/N was about 14 in this one.

Let go of me!

Dick cringed, he hated that he could do nothing. He just had to sit back and watch the events unfold.

I said let go! I don’t have anything to give you! Money? Is that what you want? Newsflash, I’m a child! I don’t HAVE any.

Money is that all you think has value, girl? Pathetic. The man grabbed her by the hair and threw Y/N on the ground. I want that. He pointed at the necklace.

Yeah, well you can’t have it. Y/N spit at his shoes.

Dick had to chuckle at that, guess she was always stubborn and snarky.

And just like that, the sound of a gunshot reverberates through the memory and everything goes black. A few seconds passed and the light returns. Y/N is still in the same alley, intact, with blood soaking her shirt. She didn’t know what to do except run. Y/N ran home, but afraid to go in looking like this, she climbed through her bedroom window and took off the shirt. There was so much blood everywhere, and a bullet wound still dripping blood from her abdomen. Panicked, she searched everywhere for a needle…and some fishing line.

Dick stood staring at the memory in shock. She should’ve been dead. She said she didn’t even know that fishing line would work.

A knock on her bedroom door interrupted his thoughts.

Y/N! You’ve been missing for days! Her mother ran in and embraced her child. Her father and sister quickly followed. Where have you been? Your father wouldn’t even let us call the police!

Y/M/N, there is a reason for that. One which I now must discuss with our daughter, in private. Y/N’s mother and sister quickly left the bedroom. Tell me.

Well…I…I don’t know. Someone was trying to rob me. When I had nothing to give them, well they wanted my necklace. Then all I know is there was darkness and then I woke up, covered in blood.

So, you don’t remember anything? Your time on the pathways to Eshu.

I don’t even know what that is dad.

You’re not ready. I knew you weren’t ready. I’m so sorry my sunshine. He calls out for Dr. Fate. Appearing almost instantly, he murmurs an enchantment and is gone as quickly as he came. Her father looked back at her. You got off on the wrong bus stop, Y/N. You were lost, but finally found your way home three days later. He turned and walked through the door. Y/N’s mother and sister came bounding in.

Y/N! What happened! How could you leave me here alone with mom and dad!

I got off on the wrong bus stop. I was lost, but I finally found my way home three days later. Y/N shook her head back and forth and crawled into bed.

Dick found the young Y/N tugging at his sleeve for the next trip down memory lane. But his mind, it was still in shock. How could her father do such a thing? Had Y/N relived these memories as he was doing?

Last stop. The young Y/N said just before she disappeared.

College, this was where Y/N went to college. Dick remembered the diplomas hanging on your wall. He was always so proud.

Michelle, I don’t want to be here anymore. This party is so not fun. Can’t we just go get wine drunk and watch a romcom?

Y/N this is a once in a lifetime party! We can’t leave now…that’d be like…a crime or something.

Fine. I’m going to find a drink that’s not disgusting. Y/N wandered through the party and finally found a passable drink. Or so she thought. Soon she was completely out of her mind, loosing clothes left and right. A sock there…her top on the counter. Dick didn’t know if he could bear to watch what was going to happen, but soon a sign of relief came as the drunken girl he loved so dearly wandered up the stairs and found herself a bed. She even locked the door, he was so proud. Until he noticed the memory wasn’t ending. Soon two guys knocked down the door.

Fuck man why did someone lock my damn door. He glanced at the helpless girl on the bed. Dude, she’s out.

Imagine what we could do. I’ve always wanted to try the handcuff thing.

You go for it. I’m going to find an open bed. As the man walked out, he screamed back to his friend, handcuffs are in the bottom right drawer!

Dick didn’t want to watch, but it seemed like every time he closed his eyes the memory stopped. Just to restart once they were open again.

The man fastened her wrists to the bedposts, just as she was starting to stir.

Fuck. Dick thought, he didn’t want her to wake up. He didn’t want her to have to remember any of this. He cringed through the rest of the horrid memory, his fists balling up…urging to punch something, or someone. Yet, all he could do it watch the love of his life struggle and cry against the assailant. The man finally passed out and you watched Y/N dislocate her thumb against the bedpost and pull her wrist through. She did the same with the other wrist. Finally, the memory faded to black. Dick saw Y/N, his Y/N sitting on the floor.

“Y/N! It’s me! Sweetheart, I’m here. I’m never leaving you, I’m here!” Dick raced towards her. He found her bloodied and battered, just as he had so many weeks ago in Ra’s al Ghul’s personal torture chamber. He bent down and held her close. “I’m never leaving you. We are in all of this together.”

“Good. I don’t want to remember this. Any of it, I only want you.” You sobbed into his chest.

“And you have me.”

[heyitsani]

I’m Hopeless Now

Keep on Truckin’ AU Part 3

Word Count: 4491

Rating: Mature-ish

Warnings: Robincest (obviously, even if they’re not siblings in this au), mentions of terrible parenting, parental death, death by overdose, drug use, foster care

Pairing: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd

Summary: Jason takes Dick out on their first date and gives the other man a glimpse into a part of his life few know about.

Notes: There is just so much fluff in here. But the next installment has some angst, not like HEAVY angst but it's there.  Next up is Duke’s introduction to the ‘verse!

Also, I'm not a Spanish speaker but there are a few Spanish phrases in this story. If there are mistakes, let me know and I'll make the edits. Google and a Cuban friend were my sources. Grammatically, I went off what I know from my Italian knowledge. But I apologize if I got anything wrong.

Translations: mi amigo: my friend Ay amigo encontraste uno bueno: Oh friend, you found a good one tu cita: your date

You can also read this on AO3 here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dull thud of his head hitting the wall of his closet was the only sound outside of Jason’s muttering under his breath that could be heard in his place currently.  He liked silence, it was steadfast, and it allowed him to think clearly.  Though in the time he had spent over at Dick’s the past week, he had come to find having soft music or the tv on low volume constantly in the background was nice as well.

It had all been overpowered by Dick’s constant need to talk, but Jason hadn’t minded that either. 

Jason knew that because he had been an only child to a pair of parents that absolutely should not have been parents, he never got accustomed to constantly having people coming and going.  But the time at Dick’s had showed him he could actually enjoy it.  Only a small portion of the time had been just the two of them.  If it wasn’t one of his brothers, then Dick’s friends (yes, he had managed to meet a couple more of the infamous harem) had an on-going rotation.  Kory and Roy had proven to be Jason’s favorites so far.  But from what Dick had said about Donna and Barbara, he was sure they would make that short list as well.

But while he had enjoyed the constant noise of Dick’s, right then he needed the silence he was used to because he was having a crisis:  He had absolutely nothing to wear to the date he was taking Dick on in just a few hours. 

He had done his research and asked the few friends he had been able to get away from Dick to see what the other man liked, and it had all been a resounding and firm fun.  It didn’t matter where or what, just make sure it was fun and lively because the man enjoyed life.  He liked to smile, laugh, and soak in the presence of people who were enjoying themselves.  Jason’s past dates had all wanted expensive and to be spoiled.  Dick was the son of a billionaire and that meant he already knew expensive.  And while he wasn’t spoiled, he probably knew that already as well.

With the help of Roy, he had decided on a Cuban restaurant that was one of Jason’s favorites because the music was live and the food was amazing.  The staff knew him well and he loved submerging himself in the culture.  It was lively and fun and there was no way someone like Dick wouldn’t love it.  He was just slightly bummed that he wouldn’t be able to test out Dick’s dancing skills since he was technically still healing from being shot.

And while Jason had clothes he had worn there in the past, this was different.  He was taking a date there and not just any date.  Dick fucking Grayson.  The first guy he had been head over heels for in a long time.  The last time he had felt this strongly about someone, she had broken his heart and Jason had sworn off serious relationships.  Rose had done her damage.  Dick had started to heal it.  Without even meaning to, he had started to mend the broken part of his heart that Jason had tried to protect and build walls around.  The man was something else.

Glancing over his limited “date worthy” options, Jason gave up and grabbed a deep red sweater that had always been a crowd pleaser in the past and a pair of black slacks.  Casual but polished.  It would have to do. 

He grabbed the pair of shoes he usually wore with the pants he had picked out before leaving his closet and dropping the items on his bed.  He had just over two hours to shower, shave, and primp before he was due at Dick’s.  He could do this.

He couldn’t do this.

He wasn’t sure what he had been thinking, but standing in front of Dick’s door he was starting to second guess why a man like Dick would ever want to go on a date with a man like Jason.  What could he possibly have to offer the older man?  And Jason knew that this was stupid, that Dick was a smart man and wouldn’t agree to a date or even openly say he wanted to date Jason if there wasn’t something he liked about the younger man.  But the panic was still there.

“There’s a security panel in his living room,” a laughing voice came from behind Jason, causing him to turn quickly to see Dick’s brother, Tim, standing there.  “You know he probably knows you’ve been standing here for like five minutes freaking out, right?”

“What?  I’m not…”  Tim raised an eyebrow and Jason let his shoulders slump.  “I’m totally freaking out and I have no idea why.  What are you doing here?”

Tim held up a bag that looked like it had containers of food in it.  “Alf can’t make it the normal day this week so he made the meals at the manor and asked me to drop them off.  I thought you two would already be gone.”

“I’m still early.”

“I don’t care.  All I want to know is if you want to come in with me now or wait to actually knock and have him open the door?”

Jason considered his options and shrugged.  “Now, I guess.”  Tim nodded and slipped his key into the lock, pushing the door open and heading inside.  “Not like he doesn’t already know, right?”  Tim laughed and headed further into the penthouse.

“Dick?!  I found a dude dressed for a good time in front of your door and let him in!”  Jason felt his cheeks warm at that comment but just took a deep breath and followed the path Tim took.

“What?”  Dick’s muffled voice came from the direction of his bedroom before Jason watched him come out wearing a pair of dangerously low slung dark gray pants and his dark blue button up unbuttoned, exposing a tempting amount of skin.  Well tempting if it hadn’t been partially marred by an angry looking healing patch of skin from his injury.  “Jay!  I’ll be ready in like two minutes!”  Jason shrugged as he watched Dick rush over to give Tim a hug before pressing a kiss to Jason’s cheek with a whispered you look amazing and rushing back into his bedroom.

“Maybe he hadn’t noticed,” Tim commented as he opened the freezer and started moving things around to fit the containers of food he had brought.  “By the way, Damian ran a background check on you and is impressed at your culinary school accomplishments.”  Jason sputtered at that and looked at Tim with wide eyes, but the college student wasn’t paying him any attention.

“How..?  Is this a weird Wayne thing that Roy warned me about?”

“Yup.” 

“What did Roy warn you about?”  Jason turned his head to look at Dick who was now completely done up and moving to the couch to pull on his socks and shoes.

“Weird Wayne things,” Tim called out, head buried in the freezer still.

“Oh yeah.  Did Dames do something?  Or was it Bruce this time?”

“Demon brat.”

“Don’t call him that.  What did Dami do and do I need to talk to him about it?”  When Tim didn’t answer, Dick glanced over at Jason to see if he knew.

“Background check.  Apparently, my culinary school accomplishments are reason to be proud.”  Dick looked like he was considering the actions before shrugging and going back to his shoes.  “Have you done a background check on me?”

“Nah,” Dick said, standing and smoothing down his pants before moving over to where Jason was still standing and smiled up at him.  “Bruce did it long before I even considered it.  All I had to do was mention you one time at Family Dinner and he knew.”  Knew?  Dick must have seen the question in his eyes because he laughed and pressed a hand over Jason’s heart.  The motion did not send a wave of warmth through his chest.  Nope.  “He knew I wanted to know more about you.  That I would want you to know more about me.”

“That predictable?”  Jason teased, raising his hand to cover Dick’s.

“Maybe.  Or maybe he could tell it was different this time.”

“Jeeze, now I get what Damian was complaining about.  You’re disgusting.”  Jason looked over to see Tim giving them a look that spoke of bad smells or unpleasant flavors.  “Aren’t you guys going on a date?”  Dick huffed out a laugh and Jason dropped his hand from Dick’s so the other man could move away and gather whatever else he needed.  Which was a wallet from the kitchen island and a cell from the docking station near the couch. 

“All right, I’m good to go.”  Dick told Jason as he double checked everything.  “You’ll lock up and set alarms before you leave, Timmy?”

“I might hang out for a bit, if that’s cool?  B has Selina over today and Damian is on high alert.”

“You got it.  Guest room is yours if you want it.”

“But…”

Even Jason knew what that but was about and he couldn’t help but shake his head at the implication.

“What kind of harlot do you take me for, Tim?  Not on the first date!”  He was joking, though.  With Dick?  He totally would fall into his bed on the first date.  If he hadn’t been shot a few weeks ago.

“Uh huh,” came the unimpressed reply.  “Have fun you two.  Bring back ice cream if you can.”

Dick called out his goodbye and grabbed Jason’s hand, tugging him toward the door before Jason could say much more than a goodbye as well.

“Who is Selina?”  Jason asked curiously as they headed for the elevator. 

“Bruce’s on-again/off-again girlfriend.  They’re obviously on at the moment.”  That was all Dick offered as they stepped onto the elevator and he hit the bottom for the lobby.  “So, where are we going?  Roy hinted that he knew but you have been so hush hush on it.”

“That’s only because it took me a while to figure out where to take someone who has probably experienced every date worthy spot in this city.” 

Dick pressed a hand to his own chest and tried to look offended.  “Are you calling me a serial dater?”

“Nah, but Wally did suggest that you had made the rounds in your circle of friends…”  Jason teased, smirking.

“Hogwash,” Dick waved his hand.  “I’ve never dated Kal or Donna.”

“Only those two?”

“Eh, it’s hard to keep track of who I actually dated and who I’ve just ‘had fun’ with.”  Jason knew Dick was joking, thanks to Wally actually clearing up the fact that Dick had really only dated and/or slept with a small portion of their friend group and he had been joking.  But the idea of Dick being so flippant about something Jason had been so serious about in his own life was a change.

“Your dating history aside, I actually just meant that I know Bruce Wayne likes to spend his money on Gothamite businesses.  So, I assumed that included restaurants.”

“That’s absolutely true.  But there are plenty of places I have never been.”

“And I found one, according to Roy.  One that I frequent actually.”  Dick raised a brow in question, the ding of the elevator reaching the lobby filling the small space.  Gesturing for Dick to go first, Jason followed him toward the front door where the valet had allowed him to park his motorcycle earlier.

“I assume it’ll be good food then.  A man with your talent wouldn’t accept anything less.”  Jason simply nodded and thanked the man holding his keys out for him.  “Are you going to tell me?”  Jason just shook his head and smiled, handing Dick a helmet he had brought along before grabbing his own.  Dick simply rolled his eyes and tugged the helmet on.

The ride to the restaurant was short, no more than ten minutes, but Jason was man enough to admit that he wished it were longer just for the fact that Dick would keep his arms wrapped around his waist.  But since he couldn’t actually just drive randomly around the city, he settled for grabbing Dick’s hand to hold while they walked up to Havana, the music already easily heard from outside the building.

“Here?”  Dick question, flicking the thumb of his free hand toward the double doors of the restaurant Jason had chosen.  Jason nodded and watched Dick turn back to take in the choice.  The smile that spread across his face was enough for Jason to know he had made the right choice.  “I have heard about it but you’re right, I’ve never been.”

“Well, allow me to introduce you to one of the best restaurants in Gotham,” Jason told him as he tugged open one of the doors and let Dick walk in before him.  The warmth of the room hit them immediately and Jason took a deep breath, letting the spices fill his senses before he smiled at Sofia, the owners daughter who happened to be the hostess for the night.  “Sofia,” he greeted, smiling softly at the teenager.

“Jason, hi!”  The girl smiled brightly before looking at Dick and Jason could tell the moment she recognized exactly who he was.  “Oh wow.”  Jason couldn’t help but chuckle, but Dick had his attention turned elsewhere so he nudged his date.

“Oh, sorry.  This place is amazing,” Dick commented, looking toward Jason before turning to look at the girl who was so obviously fangirling.

“This is Sofia, she’s the owner’s daughter,” Jason supplied, and Dick turn his charming smile onto the girl.  “We’ll take a table for two, Sof.”  The girl nodded, but her eyes remained wide and on Dick.  Not that Jason could blame her.  Richard Grayson was a beloved celebrity of Gotham.  Bruce had his own following, but Dick was considered the sweetheart of the city.  He charmed everyone who came into contact with him.

“This way,” the girl said, trying to maintain some sort of professional appeal as she led them to Jason’s favorite spot and set their menus down before they took their seats.  “Jorge will be over in a minute.  Do you want the usual drink?”  Being a regular meant the staff knew Jason’s favorites but they didn’t know Dick’s.

“I’ll wait for Jorge,” he told her, and she nodded with a smile, glancing one last time to Dick who flashed her another bright smile, before she rushed off.  “You have a fan.”

Dick snorted and picked up the menu.  “I tend to have them everywhere.  She was sweet though.”  And Jason just couldn’t get over that.  How could someone be so used to that sort of attention?  “So tell me, Mr. Todd, what is your usual?”

“They make a fantastic daiquiri,” Jason shrugged, unapologetic from the seemingly “feminine” cocktail.

“That we do!”  Jason looked over to find the familiar waiter standing by their table, smiling at the two of them.  Though, Jason could see the question in his eye when his gaze landed on Dick and moved back to Jason.  “Shall I have two whipped up?  It’s mango season and we just had a fresh batch delivered.”

“Oh yes, that sound like heaven.”  Dick’s reply surprised him, but it probably shouldn’t have.  So, he simply nodded his agreement.

“And the usual chips and dip, mi amigo?”  Jason nodded and Jorge headed off to the bar to take care of the starters.

“You know, I should be upset you brought me to a place made for dancing when I’m under strict orders to avoid it,” Dick drew his attention.  Jason leaned his elbows on the table and smiled at Dick, shrugging a shoulder.

“When you’re given the all clear, I’m more than happy to bring you back just to get you on that dance floor.”

“I’ll be holding you to that,” Dick smiled, leaning onto the table as well.  And there was no doubt in Jason’s mind that he would do just that.  “So you come here enough that you have regular orders and the waiter calls you his friend.”

Jason shrugged a shoulder.  “Jorge calls everyone friend.”  Dick raised an eyebrow and Jason couldn’t help but chuckle.  “Okay fine, yes.  I come here at least once a week.  Most of the time I carry out, but a couple times a month I eat in.  A lot of them also order from my truck.”

And Jason had really liked that they respected him as a customer enough to try and support him as well.  It was a true brotherhood of sorts.  And a lot of Gotham had that same vibe.  You look after me, so I look after you.

Jason kept his eyes on Dick and observed him taking in everything around them.  It was so strange to see someone who wanted to take it all in.  In the past, his dates had always been more focused on the moment between them.  But this sort of air between them spoke of comfort and not feeling like they had to impress each other.  They had already done that.  Jason was already gone and he could tell in the small touches and the smiles that Dick was right there with him. 

So instead of focusing on Jason, Dick’s eyes scanned the room.  Jason watched his head bob to the upbeat music coming from the stage.  He saw the longing as sapphire eyes drifted over the couples dancing, pausing at a mother/son pair that caused what looked like pain to spill into his eyes.  But it was gone as quickly as Dick moved his eyes over to the bar area where there were rowdy customers enjoying a sporting event while drinking.

“This place is magical,” Dick said, finally turning his eyes back to Jason.  The smile on his face was comfortable and relaxed.  He looked no different than when they were on the couch eating a meal Jason had prepared.  And Jason couldn’t help but feel the same. 

The moment was broken by the return of Jorge with their drinks and the chips.  He gave a warning to Dick about the spice levels of the salsas he had put down but Dick simply waved a hand at that and went right for the hottest.  And since Jason had already made his spicy chili for the man and had watched him not bat an eyelash, he just watched Jorge’s eyes widen as Dick showed no signs of trauma as he went in for another.

“Ay amigo encontraste uno bueno,” Jorge clapped Jason on the shoulder with a bright laugh and Dick smirked.  Jorge probably had no idea Dick could understand.  “Do you know what you’d like?”

Jason looked over at Dick and raised an eyebrow to see if he knew what he would like.  Dick held up a finger and opened the menu quickly to scan it as he chewed before swallowing.  “Oh, you do have it!  Rabo encendido, por favor,” Dick said, accent perfectly on point and Jason tried not to take too much pleasure out of Jorge’s surprise.

“Si, best there is amigo.”  Jorge looked over at Jason who simply nodded as he grabbed Dick’s menu and handed both his and Dick’s over to Jorge.  “Alejandra is in the back, I’ll let her know you’re here.  She’ll want to meet tu cita.”  Dick’s laughter as Jorge walked away was worth the flush he could feel on his face at the teasing.

“Hey,” Dick pulled his attention away from him watching Jorge head to the kitchen.  He found Dick with his drink raised for a cheers and a cheeky smile on his face.  “To us?  It only took us forever to get to this point, but I’m glad we’re here.”

Jason grabbed his glass and clinked it with Dick’s, his smile going soft and that warm feeling in his chest returning.  “Yeah, to you not dying and me not thinking you just ditched me.”  Dick snorted into his cup and Jason wanted to pinch himself because how could that action be just as endearing as the moment they had earlier with Dick’s hand pressed over his heart and his own hand covering Dick’s?  He was a goner.  There was no hope for him in that moment.  None at all.

The ease the date started with continued on through the meals and Jason found himself enjoying a more lively side of Dick as he fed off the environment of the room.  The cheerful banter he exchanged with the owner of the restaurant and Jorge left Jason even more glad he had decided on a place that meant something to him personally.  Yes, there were other restaurants in the city that he was considered a regular at, but not like this.  Not since Alejandra had known the woman who had raised him.  How he had stayed at the Rivera house after she had died.  But Dick didn’t know any of that.  He didn’t know how much this place meant to him and the impact it had on his career choice because Jason had never told him.  Instead he watched Dick form his own opinion on the people he cared about and let him charm them without any influence.

“You know,” Dick’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts, drawing ocean blue eyes to sapphire.  “You haven’t told me how you came to be a regular here.”  His eyes were bright, cheeks splashed with red from the alcohol consumption, and his smile loose.  A smile always so freely given.

“I’ve known Alejandra since I was young.  She helped me when I had no one else.”  He watched Dick tilt his head to the side, prompting him to continue.  Taking a deep breath, Jason let it out slowly and steeled himself for sharing this.  “She was my mother’s friend, the only one that I know of outside of her drug addicted friends.”  Swirling the melted frozen drink in his glass, he let his eyes slip just past Dick’s shoulder.  “When my dad just stopped coming home, I spent a lot of time with Alejandra because my mother wasn’t exactly a good parent.  And when Catherine died of an OD, Alejandra took me in.”

The hand that appeared over the one still swirling his drink around caught Jason off guard and he looked back to Dick.  “You don’t have to do this here.  I didn’t know, I’m sorry.”  And it struck him again, with those words, that he really had no idea how he had managed to score a guy like Dick.  His date who just wanted to know more about the past that Jason kept under lock and key. 

“I want to tell you.”  Which was absolutely the truth.  Jason wanted to let Dick into every corner of his life, let him fill in the empty spaces of his heart.  “But maybe not here.”  He watched Dick nod in understanding and Jason felt his shoulders relax a little.  He hadn’t even noticed that he had tensed up, but obviously Dick had.

“Let’s square up here and then head back toward my place.  There’s a gelato place a block away that Timmy likes the best, we can take a walk.  Looks like a nice night.”

Jason sighed and smiled.  “Yeah, that sounds perfect.”  With a glance over his shoulder, Jason coughed Jorge’s attention and the man gave a nod before getting to work on closing their tab.  Jason pushed to his feet and looked at Dick who’s brow had furrowed in an adorably confused expression.  “They have my card on file.  And Jorge knows to add 25% each time.”

“I was thinking we could split the bill, though…”  Jason laughed at that idea.  The glare Dick sent him was just as cute as the confusion and Jason just held out his hand to help Dick out of his own chair.  “Fine, but I get to pay for the gelato.”

“Sure thing, Handsome.  Sure thing.” 

Dick gracefully got to his feet and brushed off phantom crumbs while keeping hold of Jason’s hand.  Jason watched him in amusement before letting the older man lead him toward the exit.

“Bye Jay!  Bye Dick,” Sofia called out from her post near the door.  Jason paused to kiss the girl’s cheek and Dick gave her his blinding smile and a wave before the pair slipped back out into the cooling Gotham night air.

The pair were silent as they made their way back to Jason’s motorcycle and then back to Dick’s apartment building.  It wasn’t until they were close to the gelato shop that Dick paused and turned to face Jason.

“Before we’re back in a crowd of people or with Timmy, I just wanted to say thank you.  Not just for the amazing night, but for letting me into that piece of your life.  I don’t ask about your past because I can tell it’s private.  And if you want to tell me one day, then I’ll be happy to listen,” he spoke softly and Jason just remained silent, letting him say his piece.  “But don’t think you ever have to tell me anything you don’t want to talk about.  There are things that will take me a while to talk about and I know you’ll respect that.  I just want to make sure you know that I’ll do the same.”

Waiting a moment to be sure that Dick was done, Jason took a step closer and placed the hand not still being held by Dick’s onto the older man’s cheek.  “I don’t know what I did to deserve someone like you, but I’m really fucking glad I did it.”  He cut Dick’s responding laugh off with his mouth, pressing their lips together in a way not too dissimilar to the kiss they had shared in the hospital not too long ago.

The feeling of Dick’s hand slipping around his hip to clench at his sweater on back told him that he had made the right move.  The press of their bodies together coupled with the hum of approval from Dick was all the encouragement Jason needed to slip his hand from Dick’s cheek to his hair to angle the other man’s head just so.

When Jason finally pulled back, he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Dick chasing his lips.  “Let’s get that ice cream and head back to give your brother some.”

“If you’re interested, we can put in a movie?”  It was the first time Dick had sounded a bit hesitant with him since they had decided to give a relationship a try and it made Jason’s heart clench a little.

“That sounds perfect.”  Dick’s responding smile had Jason leaning forward for one more kiss before they walked the rest of the way to the gelato shop.

[nicostolemybones]

Kiss, camp necklace, armour

Kiss

New Year's eve was finally upon them. The mistletoe was still decorating the dining pavilion, the stolls and the hecate cabin were working hard to make the most awkward kisses possible happen. Nico hoped he didn't get caught under it. They'd probably make him kiss a guy, and knowing Nico's bad luck, it would be Jason or Percy, or worse, his crush, Will. 

He was so focused on his resentment that he didn't notice the mistletoe above Will's head when he approached him. He didn't notice Will getting redder and redder and flushed. He didn't notice the crowd. Until he did. And he looked at Will. And he looked up. He was terrified. He was gay, about to kiss his straight crush, who would hate him, then camp would hate him. He'd been meaning to come out, but not like this. Then again, he wouldn't have to explain that he was gay. But he was also a very shy gay who was convinced that he would die of embarrassment and rejection if he kissed his crush. 

He cast his head down. He wanted to kiss Will, of course he did, he'd thought about it. But he didn't want to kiss Will because Will wouldn't consent to a kiss with Nico. Nico felt humiliated. He was sure that he was being too suspicious-

Will's hand was tilting Nico's chin up and Nico was on fire. He probably looked like he was waiting to be stabbed. To make matters worse, the countdown to new years had begun. Will was leaning closer. Why was he leaning closer? He was straight. He'd dated a girl. Why would he be leaning close to a boy? "Can I- uh- can I kiss you?"

"Um."

"I uh- I'd like to kiss you. If- if you'd like? If you swing that way? I mean uh- it's cool if you don't, but uh- would you- would you like a kiss?"

NO! Nico's logic and anxiety yelled.

YES! Yelled his heart. 

Will was cupping his cheek, and his palm was so so warm and Nico's knees so weak. Nico gave the smallest of nods, tilting his head slightly, and Will brushed their lips together. Fuck, it was electric, and Nico twitched and whimpered. His eyes closed, eyebrows knitting together. Fuck. Nico was in Elysium. It ended too soon, and Nico chased his lips, whimpering softly. He dared to open his eyes, terrified that Will would realise that Nico was into kissing dudes, that he was gay, that the kiss did things for him. 

Will met his gaze and leaned in again. Surely not? Surely he wasn't-

Warm lips were on Nico's, a hand nervously resting on his waist, and Will was- was he into this too? Nico indulged and kissed back, waiting for Will to say it was gross, that he was dared to, but Will matched Nico's pace and fuck, Nico was dying like this. Nico couldn't believe his luck. He nervously placed a hand on Will's waist, bringing the other up to tangle in his hair. Gods, his curls were so soft, and Nico was doing it, he was kissing and boy. He was making out with a boy at a party in front of everybody and it felt pretty fucking great. What a start to the new year, snogging the face off a man, a man that he fancied. 

Camp necklace 

Nico was blushing hard as Will clasped the necklace closed at the back of Nico's neck. Will's hands tickled a little, and then he felt a soft kiss on the back of his neck. He shivered and sighed, toes curling at the rush of adrenaline until Will's lips pulled away, and Nico let his hair fall back down. "Nico, have I just found a sensitive spot?"

"What? No." Another kiss to the back of his neck, and gods, Nico was melting and gasping. "Solace-" Nico bit his lip, cutting himself off. It felt like Will was trying to leave a hickey, mouthing at his sensitive spot.

"Does that feel good?" Will asked.

No, Nico meant to say. "Mhmmmm," Nico said instead, and Will continued his assault on Nico's neck. Gods, Nico was jelly. 

"You like that?"

"Will…" Will playfully licked the spot, so Nico pulled away. "Too far," Nico said awkwardly, suddenly very interested in the floor.

"Oh… sorry… didn't you like it?"

"I- uh-" There was no non-awkward answer to this. He couldn't lie and say that he didn't like it, because he definitely did. He just felt as though the intense feelings it gave him could lead to feelings he wasn't ready to explore yet, especially not being so young, too young. He felt like this was the right place to set a boundary. "Too much too soon."

"O- oh. Right. I uh… anyway! How'd you like your camp necklace!"

"It's perfect, Will," Nico replied. "I uh- thanks, Solace."

Armour 

(Trans Will headcanon)

Will refused to put a shirt on. Ever. Now his top surgery scars had healed, there was no getting a shirt on him at all. Nico was convinced that he'd freeze his nipples off. Nico hoped he'd wear his gift. Will had always volunteered to be medic for capture the flag, because actually participating would mean he'd have to take his binder on, and his armour would have to accommodate for his chest. The time Chiron had made Will participate, it had ended in tears. It wasn't because Will didn't want to participate, because he really did. He hated always being on the sidelines. Nico hoped his gift would allow Will to finally feel comfortable participating. The new breastplate was nice and flat and crafted from imperial gold. 

Will was sitting in the infirmary when Nico found him, topless of course. "Will, you got a minute? Or a shirt maybe?"

"I'm never wearing a shirt again."

"Will. Will it's winter and I'm pretty sure it's unhygienic to be getting your armpit sweat all over hospital equipment."

"But Nico. Nico you don't understand. I have spent years of summers swearing in layers whilst all the guys around me could just whip off their shirts and not get arrested for it. The nipples are free now, and the chest is flat, so the nipples are never going back in!"

"Okay, okay, point taken," Nico conceded. Will ran his hand over his chest, smiling and the glowing. "But I think you might reconsider when you see what I made you."

"Okay…?" Nico reached into the shadows, pulling out the armour. Will glowed brightly, grinning from ear to ear. 

"Wanna come and play capture the flag?"

"I'm gonna kick your scrawny little ass, di Angelo."

"Bet," Nico grinned, disappearing into the shadows. 

@solangeloweek bonus 3 fics for the advent calendar challenge to see in the new year with 100 completed fics for me!!!

[durrzerker]

Taskmaster: The Line. Chapter 5: Secrets

The old Masters of Evil headquarters was still intact. It had not burned down, been bombed, or been swarmed by supervillains. There weren't even rats in the walls.

That was the totality of the good news.

Everything else, in summary, had completely gone to shit.

It was a ragged party that crossed the threshold of Baron Zemo's former home. Laura and Black Ant were leading the pack by now, as they were the only ones who weren't limping or nearly collapsing with exhaustion. Black Ant had caught up with the group shortly after shrinking down to escape the chaos that he had spawned during the Bagalia Freedom Festival, and it was a good thing, too; Akeja had silently collapsed a quarter mile from the gargantuan mansion, and the other children weren't faring much better. Carrying Akeja and Mara across his shoulders like a pair of sandbags, Eric had been uncharacteristically silent as they stopped in the dank foyer of the abandoned building. "Amazing no one's taken this place over yet," he finally said.

"They've been trying." Taskmaster was favoring his wounded rib a bit more now; without time to rest and with the increasingly desperate pace that they had set to finish out their journey, he was in a good deal of pain himself. "I hadn't decided what to do with the place, so I've been letting ol' Tessie clear them out to keep her weapons in good shape. An idling warbot is..." He trailed off; he couldn't even finish the joke. The spot where Laura had stabbed him was throbbing in the way only an adamantium blade could, the same way it had when she'd gored his hand a year back. It was like every nerve had been cut in half with molecular precision. Pulling off his dirty cloak and setting it into a pile against the wall, he collapsed against it. "Role call..."

Laura, whose healing factor at least allowed her to remain in peak shape, set Malakai down on a huge old Corinthian leather couch. "Everyone's here. I've been keeping track. You don't look so good, Taskmaster."

"No shit? Maybe it's because you fucking stabbed me." He wasn't mad about it. Really.

"I'm not going to feel guilty about that," Laura replied, her ears visibly burning. "You had done nothing to warrant the benefit of the doubt, and you left Black Ant behind to ambush me."

"I left him behind to ambush the person -stalking- us," Tony countered. "How was I supposed to know it was you? How long had you even been following us, anyways? Didn't you see us -helping- the fucking kids?" Tony closed his eyes behind his mask, even as he argued. To Laura, it still looked like the ghoulish visage was staring her down.

"...Truth be told, yes. But from where I was, it just looked like you were fighting over them -- and you did crash their vehicle."

Tony could tell that she didn't like when she had to try and get a bead on how he was feeling. The man's airtight costume blocked his scent from her, and he could alter his body language whenever he liked; it was one of his most useful skills, the kind that wasn't as obvious to people as other applications of his photographic reflexes.

"Well, whatever," Tony replied with a grunt. "The Hub's agent ain't here and I need to sleep, alright? Wake me up when they arrive -- I think we could all use a little rest."

"I don't think we should..." Laura pursed her lips and stopped when she heard the crinkling of a wrapper behind her. Eric had finally found use for his remaining honey buns he'd swiped earlier. He was passing them out to the assorted Scions, who had piled together on the couch in the living room. While Akeja had gone right to sleep, the others' hunger had won out - they voraciously assaulted the treats with the kind of shamelessness only starvation could inspire. "...Yeah, alright. Only for awhile though, Masters." She turned around and headed towards the kitchen with that, likely to look for more food for the children.

Tony watched her go, but before she'd even made it out of the living room, the mercenary had passed out. He dreamed of the Scion children.

--

He was in the middle of some kind of nightmare in which all six of the children were surrounding him, throwing accusations that he couldn't understand in their unique language. He wasn't quite sure exactly when he woke up, because when he did, the children were arguing loudly in that same tongue.

"Hey, hey!" Eric called out. "Come on, people are trying to sleep here -- namely my very ill-tempered partner."

"Fuck you, Man of Ants!" Shouted the sixth child that Tony had never heard speak yet, and now it was evident why; a girl with red hair and a deeply thick brogue, she was barely understandable even when trying her best. "Y'think ginna scrap o'fud makeus even?! Not a'er what you did, nay, him neither!"

What him and Eric did...? Taskmaster didn't move from where he was, kept his breathing slow. His perfect control of his body's actions came in handy here -- especially when Laura joined the conversation, returning to the living room to figure out what the big screaming match was about. "What's going on? What -did- you two do, O'Grady...?"

"It's none of your business, Wolverine." Eric's voice was surprisingly serious, more harsh than almost any time that Tony had heard it before. "If these brats really want to tell you, I can't stop them; but I'm not turning on him like that."

There was a pause. Tony opened his eyes, opting to keep his mask's optics dimmed in the process; all part of how he could easily pretend that he wasn't paying attention, even to Wolverine's highly enhanced senses. Laura was pacing, glancing to the gathered children and then stopping before Eric. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this one way or the other, but I'm curious; why -do- you do this, O'Grady?"

"What do you mean?" He snapped back defensively.

"Why do you follow Taskmaster? I've seen your relationship. You call yourself his partner, but he treats you more like a sidekick. You were an Avenger once; you were a hero, even if you had your problems. Why follow a jerk like Masters?"

Clearly trying to deflect, Black Ant turned away from her. "Keep your voice down, huh? You're gonna wake him up."

"He's completely passed out. I'd be able to hear it if he was up."

Realizing he wasn't going to get out of this, Black Ant hesitated, then explained, "Look...you don't know him like I do. I -don't- follow Taskmaster."

"But--"

"--Stop. You want to know? Then let me talk." Eric stepped forward, accusingly prodding her in the chest. "I don't follow Taskmaster, I follow -Tony-. Even when he trained me back with the Initiative, I could tell something was different about him compared to other supervillains. He -got- what it was like, you know? To want to do one thing, but to feel drawn to another. Then, when I was with the Secret Avengers, I found out about everything...his memory problems. His -wife-."

"He's got a WIFE?" Laura nearly shouted, then covered her mouth. Taskmaster's breath nearly hitched, giving him away. It took all of his self-control to maintain the illusion that he was asleep, doubly so when Eric turned to look his way.

"Yeah, he does; and he doesn't even know it. It's The Hub. You know, the lady who's supposed to be sending our fucking -help-? The way his powers work, every time he copies someone new, like he did to get your stupid foot claws, he loses everything else. As far as most people are concerned, Taskmaster's all that's left; the mercenary, the guy who will kidnap anyone or fight anyone for hire; but when you work with him like I do, you -see- him every day...it becomes obvious that ain't the case."

"Bullshit," Maya snapped, sounding wounded.

"...It's true," Eric insisted. "Look, don't get me wrong! Tony -- not Taskmaster -- isn't a saint. I'm not saying he's some kind of heroic good guy underneath it all. But you don't realize how -easy- he goes on you fucking people," the mercenary accused, glaring at Laura as he started to anxiously pace in a circle. "Did you know that? He'd rather let himself get stabbed through the hand than actually risk really hurting you, because even though -he- doesn't understand it...this is self-flagellation. He's punishing himself every time he takes a job, and his fucking wife LETS him! He doesn't know any better! He's in...factory settings, as he calls it!"

Falling silent for a moment, Laura pressed her hand to her mouth in thought. When she finally responded, her tone was somber and disbelieving in equal measure. She wasn't buying this at all. "So, what. You're saying he wasn't -trying- when he attacked my sisters and I? He shot them in the head!"

"No, I'm saying that he was trying -- to commit suicide by superhero. Look...I've seen him when pressed, okay? He does -not- go down easy, and there's a reason that he's actually feared so much in Bagalia. He doesn't half-ass it here; you piss him off, you're dead. You do something he finds distasteful, you're dead. If you were watching us, you saw how we shut down that Jason Waterfalls jerkoff. He'd never fight like that against you, against Spider-Man, against any of you 'hero' types." Slumping down onto the couch, planting his palms against either side of his helmet, Eric took it off. A mess of unruly red hair, a to-the-atom perfect replica of the appearance of his original body. Tony knew that he'd often questioned if he was the 'real' Eric, or some kind of facsimile created in his image. Tony had always argued the former, maybe against his better senses. He just wasn't sure that he himself liked the alternative. Was that selfish? He considered it before focusing his attention on his partner's continued speaking.

"I've seen him pin his boot to Captain America's face. He had him dead to rights. But when the time came, he didn't finish the job, even though he could have. And if you corner him about it, he'll claim it's because he doesn't want the 'heat', or he'll make excuses, but when it really comes down to it..." Eric looked up at Laura; Taskmaster was too far away to see his expression, but his tone gave away everything that he needed to know. "...That's Tony in there, under The Taskmaster. People don't see Tony, he hides it so well. They see that stupid fucking costume, that ridiculous cape...and a grim echo of the guy I know who taught me; who's ignored every rule he sets for himself for my sake."

"Why, though?" Laura asked, sounding skeptical. "It's easy for you to make these claims, but have you ever considered that he's lying to you? That he's just pathetic and lonely, and keeps you around so he has control over someone?"

"Shut the hell up," Eric snapped back at her, nearly rising. "I'm not the only one who knows this. He'll pretend he's forgotten, but Cap does, too; can you believe Taskmaster still admires him? Hell, have you ever even SEEN him copy a supervillain's moves? I've seen him throw like Bullseye, like...once. But day in, day out? It's Rogers. Daredevil. Black Knight. Hawkeye. -You-. And you wanna tell me he's faking it, when he tries to be like you on a level even he doesn't realize?"

Laura looked ready to bite back, to respond to Eric's accusatory tone, but after a moment she simply stopped walking around and regarded the children. While they still looked annoyed, still seemed ready to argue with Eric, they'd all shifted to listening intently. For some reason that Tony couldn't fathom, they were invested in this. What did Black Ant know? What wasn't he telling him?

"He wants to be the best, and I don't just mean at fighting. Every time, before he forgets, he becomes a little more like you, a little less like Taskmaster," Eric murmured, barely loud enough for Taskmaster to hear. "And then he goes back to it, gets his next job; but I'm not stupid. I've been watching people who were better than me my whole life. When he -really- has a reason to fight, you can almost see Tony in there, like a reflection in a lake. And then he has to copy someone new, or gets pushed further than his mind can take, and --" He mimicked a popping sound with his finger in his mouth. "...The next pebble drops, and it's gone."

The room fell silent for a little while, interrupted only by the sounds of the Scions grabbing the food that Laura had brought them on a tray and starting to dig into it. Looking conflicted, Wolverine finally threw her hands up. "So, what? You're saying that I should trust him? That he's 'not so bad'?"

"No," Eric replied coolly, putting his helmet back on. "I'm saying that I'm keeping my cards to my chest for a reason, and that I'm not telling you about what happened with these kids for the same reason I'm not telling -him-. Like I said, if they want to share? I can't stop them; but you won't understand why things went down like they did. What I will tell you is this: You need Taskmaster to save these children. Even they know it; it's the only reason they haven't ratted us out already. And if he finds out what he did...he's gonna run. He'll snap, he'll disappear, and then we're all fucked."

"He can barely move. He's hardly going to carry this team." Laura's tone wasn't proud, just factual.

"I'm not talking about fighting," Eric replied vaguely. "Just...don't trust me, okay? I don't give a shit. I don't even like you, Logan had better hair. Talk to the kids if you want, but I'm done explaining myself." He started past her, only for the smaller woman to plant a palm on his chest.

"This isn't finished, O'Grady," Laura warned. "Not by a long shot."

"I know," he responded, "...And I'm sorry, I spoke out of turn. Your hair is -amazing-." Taskmaster couldn't see them anymore, but he heard the distinct sound of Eric attempting to lean in and smell her -- and Laura punching him in the stomach.

After that, the group scattered. The Hub's agent -- the agent of his wife, Tony forced himself to try and internalize without much success -- was still not here, and everyone was occupying the time they were forced to wait differently. Eric was playing on his phone, Laura checked on the Scions and then went to explore the enormous mansion, and the Scions huddled together, finally well-fed and trying to catch up on their immense lack of sleep.

For his part, Taskmaster had a lot to think about now. Waiting another half hour or so before 'waking up', he finally rose and staggered out of the living room, heading for the armory. When he'd been working as Zemo's prison warden, he had stashed some equipment here, including of the medical variety. He could patch himself up a little better, get fighting fit again.

He'd barely opened the door of the safehouse and stepped inside when he heard footsteps approaching; small and quick. Grabbing a kit full of strange syringes, his personal supply of advanced first aid from his on-staff scientist Albino, Taskmaster turned in time to see one of the Scions approaching. It was the last he didn't recognize, all fire-colored hair and intense features that he quickly recognized as a strange mixture of Chinese and Scottish.

Tears in her eyes, she stepped forward, fearlessly grabbing for the first weapon she could find - a Desert Eagle, already loaded for haste's sake in case of emergency, barrel pointing straight at Taskmaster's forehead. When she finally spoke, it was through tears. "D'ye really not remember what ya did to us?" She asked him accusingly.

He didn't know how to answer.

[humanitys-shortest]

Jack Napier’s Return 💚

After Harley had given Jack a makeover… After they had been settled down in their new, little hideout for quite some time… It was the longest time ever that Jack had had control over his own body ever since the acid-vat incident. 

He was finally Jack Napier again.

Broken, but? He was getting there.

And, to help Jack take slow and steady steps forward of small progress - Harley took Jack out for their first coffee outing; together.

He didn’t want his tattoos showing, or his scars - so Harley helped with covering up his new tattoos with heavy concealer, but still making it look as natural as possible… Like Jack had been before all of this. That’s how Jack wanted to look and feel right now; normal again. Even if that wasn’t one hundred percent possible… He was trying. He was going to try from now on. His little brother would have wanted that, and he wanted that for himself, too.

Jack kept the soft makeup that Harley had a knack for doing on him recently - wanting to be light with it, due to his skin sensitivity and not wanting to look too much like The Joker; he was notorious for heavy makeup and prominent, eye-catching colours... Always wanting all of the attention on him. Jack didn’t want that right now.

But the concealer couldn’t fully cover up his new, fresh scars that had barely just healed - as badly as they had healed, at least they were closed up now - so he had to wear a big, fluffy scarf; to bury into whenever he felt like someone was staring... Also not wanting to risk someone seeing them and making the connection.

Harley even gave Jack her dark red beanie, and Jack absolutely loved it. Beause all of this really did just... Help Jack feel a little more normal again. A little more himself. Soft clothes, white hair and his bestfriend/sister by his side... He finally managed to leave their hideout/home and do something he use to always love doing with his brother.

His brother would of loved Harley.

Harley kept him together all through-out their little adventure out together. She reminded Jack how well he was doing, how proud she was of him...

“Jay… Ya have no idea how proud I am of ya… Now c’mon… Come walk with me, you cutiepie.” 

And when things got too tough for Jack, and Harley noticed the signs of her brother getting overwhelmed-- for any reason, such as the amount of people, or something that reminded him of his trauma, or somethng completely different...

“It’s okay… It’s s’okay, Jack… Yer’ allowed to feel a lil’ bit uncomfortable. Don’ worry… I’ve got you… Slow progress is still progress…”

She’d whisper these words to him, right next to his ear, as she held Jack in her arms and gently swayed them; even if they were in the middle of the damn street. Jack came first, and calming him down was her absolute priority until she could get him somewhere quiet and safe. 

And, even years down the line, Jack is still recovering from everything. It’s a pain he’ll never forget, that he’ll never completely get over... But, he finds more supportive people in those years who stick by him.

After he and Batman finally get over their greatest enemies ordeal, once they finally, finally talk to one another and fall in love like the idiots they are? Bruce is there for Jack, too. Not just Batman... 

Bruce helps Jack to make progress, to fall in love with himself again...  Bruce makes Jack so fucking happy that Jack can’t even put into words how much the bat means to him. 

Why had they wasted so much time? Why had they danced around eachother for so long? Sure, there was The Joker in the middle of all of this, who just had it out for causing Batman trouble and making the vigilantes life utter hell... The Jason situation didn’t exactly help things... How could Bruce even acknowledge the monster that had killed one of his sons? 

But that’s one of the most important things between him and Bruce... Bruce knows the difference between Jack and The Joker, just like Harley did at the very beginning. It took him awhile to figure that out but, God, is Bruce so glad that he did... Because he couldn’t imagine his life without Jack anymore.

Jack doesn’t have to worry about a single thing when he’s with Bruce. He knows he’s safe with the man, he knows that he’s loved and looked after... He’s eveything Jack has ever wanted; even way back when it was just him and his brother...

And with all of this... With years of working on himself...?

Jack really does feel a more himself again.

Just as Harley had told him at the very beginning: small progress is still progress.

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