#anyway I think it’s really forgiving of Jason not to blame Bruce or anyone else for the fact that they let the circumstances lead to that | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nightwingmyboi · 4 years ago

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Can I ask why you hate Batman and Robin Eternal? (it was my first DC comic ever, my dad bought it for me in one of his trips even though I didn’t know anything about the batfam or comics in general lmao). It’s been so long since the last time I read it I don’t even remember what it was about (I do remember enjoying it in that moment but it may have also been because it was a gift and the drawings were cool lol)

Aww, that’s very sweet. There are certainly bits of the comic that are enjoyable. I’m pretty sure that I’m actually in the minority when I say that I don’t care for it...but since you asked lol, there are several things about these comics that really rub me the wrong way. This is pretty negative (and way longer than I’d planned), so be warned.

For starters, Dick Grayson was just...not treated well by his family members in these comics. It felt particularly brutal here specifically...I think because Dick would say very harmless things, and his family’s responses in return were so abrupt and unreasonably harsh. Like, Dick says that he’s glad to see Batgirl, and wonders what some kids are doing dressed as Robin...

Batman and Robin Eternal #4

And Batgirl bites his head off. Or, there were times where Dick would just be hanging out in the general vicinity, and people would just take shots at him out of the blue for seemingly no reason.

Batman and Robin Eternal #3

It felt like he could barely breathe without someone criticizing him for it. At one point, Dick confesses that he’s feeling discouraged, and Damian’s response is to punch him in the face.

Batman and Robin Eternal #22

Which is a pretty good summary of the family’s treatment of him in these comics to be honest. Just literally, lashing out at him for zero reason while he just takes it.

One scene in particular that really frustrated me was this one:

Batman and Robin Eternal #5

You know, that other time in this comic series where one of Dick’s family members punches him in the face while he, once again, takes the hit and does nothing to retaliate. Good times.

For context...the big bad in these comics is a villain known as “Mother.” Her speciality is brainwashing. She placed several of her “children” in high-profile positions in order to enact her plans, even managing to infiltrate Spyral. In a message left for Dick, Batman specifically explains that “Anyone could be under her control, Dick. They could be people you know. People you love…they probably will be” (Batman and Robin Eternal #1).

Unlike in Pre-52, Tim’s background is largely a mystery. He’s acting suspiciously. So, Dick takes it upon himself to investigate and ensure that Tim’s not one of Mother’s plants.

On Tim’s side of things, he’s upset that Dick investigated behind his back and found out where he’d secretly had his parents living for their safety. Dick unintentionally brought danger to their doorstep (though, notably, no one was actually hurt). But Tim’s pissed, and punches Dick in the face.

Not gonna lie, this was hard to take. I mean, even if Tim was in the right in this argument (which he lowkey isn’t in my eyes), that still does not make it ok for him to just punch Dick out of the blue when Dick is, as pictured above, just talking to him.

And the hypocrisy that Tim is displaying here is stunning. How he had previously told Dick off for keeping secrets from the family by going undercover with Spyral, when he in fact had a whole secret family tucked away in a corner. How he tells Dick off now for invading people’s privacy, when just earlier in this very comic he had planted surveillance devices in Stephanie’s apartment without her consent.

Batman and Robin Eternal #2

How Tim storms off and goes on a solo mission with Jason because Dick’s supposedly too personally invested and thus compromised, when he just got so emotionally unhinged that he lost his shit at Dick and punched him. Once again, may I just say, simply stunning.

But does Tim ever face any consequences for this behavior? Oh, of course not! Instead, we get Jason joking about how great it is to punch Dick in the face when he is not even fighting back.

Batman and Robin Eternal #7

And everyone collectively piling on to Dick and blaming him, even though he had legitimate concerns. Awesome.

Batman and Robin Eternal #6

Batman and Robin Eternal #7

And Dick just continues to take it. Not once does he stand up for himself. It’s so hard to read him continually get shit on, I’m sorry. And it’s crazy how they treat him this way, and yet still ultimately look to him for encouragement and rely on him to save the day in the end? You hate to see it.

I also didn’t like what they did with Cass. I know, I’m just full of complaints. But they really watered her down. With Pre52 Cass, you could actually describe facets of her personality. She was compassionate, had a very refreshing, sassy sense of humor, etc. She wasn’t just...mysterious action girl who has a dark past and cries occasionally. I mean, there were moments where I could see glimpses of personality (the time she visited the ballet being the main one), but on the whole she punched people when needed, and otherwise just stood there as people talked about and around her. Essentially a prop for the story.

Batman and Robin Eternal #24

Another thing that makes me so uncomfortable (that I couldn’t pin down until I read this post here) is the fact that this comics version of events makes it so that Cass’ own backstory no longer has her as the focus; it’s not about her emotional struggles and journey. By having Cass kill Harper’s mother rather than a random man, it makes the story about Harper, and about Cass gaining Harper’s forgiveness. So...more using Cass as a prop...as an element of someone else’s story in what is supposed to be her origin!

Honestly, I have no idea why Cass would want to stay with the Bat-family in these comics anyway...her previous mentorship with Barbara Gordon is nonexistent. She’s no longer Batgirl. The two people who were once her closest friends treat her horribly.

Batman and Robin Eternal #3

Batman and Robin Eternal #4

As if she’s barely a person. Once again, sooooo hard to read this. Why.

Yeah, I could go on forever nitpicking here. You probably got a sense of it already, but I absolutely despise how Tim is characterized here. Most of the time, he’s an ass. Jason also had pretty inconsistent characterization. And I really don’t like how the whole comic treats Robin like something Batman owns and is meant to benefit from, rather than as something Dick created. I don’t like how Cain was “redeemed” in the end, and that Cass took on the name Orphan instead of Black Bat or Batgirl. Once again, how is she connected to the Bat-family exactly? And I don’t like how Dick’s time as Robin is portrayed.

The existence of this comic...drives me insane...

It’s also the worst time to be doing a “Does Batman treat his kids like child soldiers?” arc considering it is coming on the tail end of Spyral, aka that one thing that Dick did because Bruce beat the shit out of him and forced him to.

Nightwing #30

Looking through Batman’s speech to Dick there...some of the things he says to Dick are so uncomfortably close to what Cain says to Cass. Really horrible parallel there. Why DC.

I really don’t know why Dick was so certain that Bruce didn’t do something shady with Mother, as was implied throughout the comic, when Bruce had pulled the Spyral crap fairly recently. Idk why they didn’t play into that side of things. Like, the fact that this arc ends with Dick comforting Batman about them not being child soldiers:

Batman and Robin Eternal #26

Instead of Batman stepping up to reaffirm to Dick that he was a good partner and a trusted ally when he spent the whole comic being insulted by his family and being told this stuff by his enemies (and flashback!Batman):

Batman and Robin Eternal #8

Batman and Robin Eternal #12

Just sucks. I mean, Dick had just recently sacrificed everything (his family, his friends, his life, his identity, everything) to do as Batman wanted and go undercover, only to hear this over and over? To hear that none of it was enough? That he could never be enough? And Dick never gets reassurance that this isn’t true. This comic is just agonizing in so many ways.

Obviously, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I am not criticizing this to be a killjoy? Just venting. If you enjoy these comics, you are free to continue to do you. But I am never going to like them. And when I see people championing these books as the best the Bat-fam has to offer...oof is that hard to hear lmao! Surely we can do better than all this.

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bigskydreaming · 4 years ago

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I’m almost more bothered by fics that don’t take an actively antagonistic stance towards Dick’s character, because what’s so often viewed as a GOOD storyline for Dick in fanfics is just like.....100% connected to my issues with fanon.

What I mean is this:

So many Batfam fics, even when they think they’re being kind or generous to Dick’s character, treat any relationship Dick develops or demonstrates with Jason in-story as Dick’s redemption arc, for being a shitty brother/person before a certain point.

And then on top of that, a ton of fics that include all the way through Damian by their starting point, then proceed to use any relationship (or attempt at one) between Dick and Tim.....as Dick’s redemption arc, for being a shitty brother/person to Tim at the Robin-Red Robin transition.

And then on top of THAT, you have the Batfam fics that focus on post-Spyral interactions with his family as....Dick’s redemption arc for being a shitty brother/person there, and during the Ric Grayson era we had ‘fix-it fic’ after fic whose idea of fixing it was picking things up at some point after Dick got his memories back and then proceeding to write Dick’s redemption arc for Ric being a shitty brother/person there. And even going all the way back to Bruce and Dick’s era of estrangement before Tim came along, there’s still absurdly so many fics over the years dedicated to....Dick redeeming himself in other characters’ eyes for that chasm with absolutely no effort in the same fics shown towards having Bruce work towards any kind of remption for his own behavior.

Historically speaking, the vast majority of fics tagged as Dick Grayson, stretching back years and still very much present now as well, are almost predominantly ALL somehow some kind of redemption arc for Dick.....

Specifically in regards to events and dynamics which have absolutely no basis (or at most an extremely skewed and one-sided one) in the source material.

In fact, in the majority of most of the situations Dick’s being ‘redeemed’ for in fanfics, he either did the complete OPPOSITE of what he’s being punished/forced to make up for in fics, such as how his efforts in reaching out to Jason despite his own understandable bitterness stands in direct contradiction of the years of neglect and bitterness towards Jason that fics posit and theorize existed purely so that he has something TO redeem himself for in fics.....

Or then other times in the source material, he’s the literal actual victim of the things that he’s not only being held solely accountable and in need of redemption for in fics, like when he was beaten into going undercover for the sake of his family.....and then has to redeem himself for that in his family’s eyes......or when he was alienated, neglected and gaslit by his family while amnesiac.....and then has to redeem himself for that in his family’s eyes.....

And even in the cases where its SAID within a fic’s narrative (or more accurately, usually its said in the comments sections of fics as fic authors respond to people being disgusted with Dick by saying ‘no don’t be too hard on him’ and offering up justifications for Dick’s actual actions and understanding for his POV that for some reason never make it into the actual text of fics), like, even then, at most these fics TELL us that the flaws of Dick’s that they’re focusing on are understandable and its just human of him to be resentful of Jason as Robin, or overwhelmed and grief-stricken when he made Damian Robin at Tim’s expense, or traumatized and not thinking clearly when he ‘agreed’ to go undercover at Spyral.....

But meanwhile, what the fics actually SHOW us, beyond a few half-hearted defenses of Dick that usually are not at all substantiated by any other characters.....is Dick remorsefully doing the work of making up for the things he did so terribly, terribly wrong and that there’s actually no excuse for.

With this showing being a lot more evident and focused-upon than we ever see fics show Jason working towards earning Tim’s forgiveness and trust for almost killing him, or Damian doing the same, fics just skip past these things entirely to say ‘oh they’re better now’ but like....with Dick....its like the only storyline a ton of writers have any interest in writing for Dick....

Is a redemption arc.

Actively focusing on and SHOWING Dick putting in the work of being apologetic, remorseful, self-loathing, and absolutely committed to doing better by his siblings even if they never actually forgive him - with whether or not he can eventually ‘earn’ his way to a positive relationship with them far from a given - and any and all of his positive attributes or the positives of his actual relationships with various characters all but completely ignored or glossed over, to keep the focus entirely on Dick learning to do better.....

Than the crimes or slights against his siblings that authors first manufactured or exaggerated or took completely out of context, just to HAVE a reason for Dick to need to do better in the first place.

As I’ve said many times before, anyone is free to do whatever they want with fanfic, its an innately transformative medium, but its always going to be significant and worth attention in my mind, that so much of the transformation from the source material when it comes to Dick Grayson is entirely focused around and committed to transforming him from a hero that everyone loves and respects, a guy that always does his best to go above and beyond for family even when he has understandable reasons not to, and the literal inspiration for almost every second generation hero out there, including his own successors......

Into a guy that most people can’t stand, regard as irrelevant to their own careers let alone anyone worth looking up to, and constantly letting people down, especially his family.

All while there’s little to no attention paid to all the reasons in the source material that other characters most definitely have things they’ve said or done to Dick Grayson that need or deserve redeeming for.

Like the physical violence every single member of his family except Duke has inflicted on him at some point.

Or the victim blaming that’s so ingrained into his storylines and reader receptions of his storylines that even the fics that tackle redeeming Jason, Tim, etc for their behavior towards Dick post-Spyral limit this particular redemption to ‘we’re sorry we treated you badly when we didn’t know all the facts’ instead of ‘we’re sorry we treated you badly, full stop’ and ‘we’re sorry we passed judgment without even TRYING to know what all the facts were’ and ‘we’re sorry we display so little interest in your life or your traumas that even now when we’ve been informed you actually died and had to be forced into pretending to stay dead, we have zero interest in exploring if there’s anything else we might be missing if we could miss out on the whole ‘oh you really DID die’ part in the first place, and forget about us actually owning and apologizing for the specifics of how our behavior towards you was unacceptable even if we HAD been right in our interpretation of events.’

Or when mentions of the slutshaming and victim-blaming he endured during the Tarantula and Mirage storylines are limited to just that....mentions made of offscreen characters like Babs or the Titans.....with pretty much no stories I can think of, existing as ‘redemption arcs’ that tackle those characters actually working to redeem themselves for their behavior and trying to earn back Dick’s broken trust in them. Its usually just Jason and/or others finding out, telling Dick ‘hey your friends shouldn’t have done that either’ and then going off and murdering Mirage and Tarantula, the end, because....that fixes everything?

And forget about Bruce redeeming himself for his behavior - the way he works to put in the effort and fix things in so many ‘Jason returns to the family’ fics - but even when actual mention is made of the things Bruce HAS done wrong to Dick or needs redeeming for, its mostly just waved off as ancient history that he’s remorseful about but there’s no apparent need or effort to focus on Bruce putting that remorseful energy into action and actively on the page trying to bridge the gap he created in SO MANY storylines, again and again and again. ‘Bruce is just like that,’ a lot of stories shrug, about the time Bruce made Dick actually feel unwelcome in his own home and forced him to be the one to leave, unlike the way ‘its unacceptable for Dick to be like this’ energy is applied to stories about Dick forcing Tim to leave Wayne Manor....an action that has to be invented for a story’s purposes, of course, given that in the actual source story, Dick relocated himself and Damian to the penthouse anyway, and Wayne Manor was open and available to Tim and Dick never so much as implied otherwise.

Or look at how the adoption issue so often plays out....with it treated as though Bruce finally adopting Dick in adulthood just ‘fixes’ all the angst before that point, like it just overwrites everything he felt or experienced before and up until that.....with very little fandom energy paid to neither just castigating Bruce for not adopting Dick earlier or acting like adoption is a magic all-better now band-aid, but rather examining that both these things can coexist, and Dick can be happy and relieved and pleased to finally have the adoption he not-so-secretly wanted, even if only in adulthood, but that doesn’t mean the mental and emotional upset of his later teen years when he really, really, really could have used that declaration of being family rather than just a ward....like, there’s room for that to have still taken a toll and be worthy of awareness and regret on Bruce’s part, not for taking so long to adopt Dick, but for the damage Dick felt and suffered through BECAUSE of it.

Its not even about vilifying or punishing Bruce for this, because ironically, like....redemption arcs aren’t actually supposed to be just about punishment or whatever? Its about acknowledging where wrong was done and GETTING what that means for the person who was wronged.....even if it can’t be undone.

People can get this when its Dick being written as having the redemption arc.

So where the hell is this understanding of what actual redemption MEANS, when its Dick that other characters have things to make up for?

The funny, ironic, cognitive dissonant thing about Dick Grayson in fanfics, is the vast majority of his appearances and storylines all somehow come back towards being his redemption arc in some way or form.....

For the made-up or exaggerated fanon crimes applied to him in fic, but that HE’S usually the actual recipient of in canon.

See, its not an obsession with canon that’s the reason for the disconnect between Dick Grayson fans and the takes favored by fans of most other characters.

Its the fact that the transformative energy of fanfiction, in his case, so often is utilized to give HIM reason to tackle the redemption arcs that OTHER characters owe HIM, but that so many of these fans don’t WANT to write their own faves being subjected to.....because they’re fans of these characters as heroes. They have no interest in reading or writing their favorite characters redeeming themselves for actions or behavior they personally don’t view as in character for them.

.....with the cognitive dissonant part in particular, being the way so many of these exact same fans turn around and express shock and bewilderment that Dick’s fans are simlarly uninterested in wanting to read nothing but their favorite character redeeming himself for actions or behavior we personally don’t view as in character for him....because it usually isn’t, according to the original stories BEFORE fanfic transforms him from victim of other beloved characters into victimizer of them instead.

And lol, many of us don’t actually want to see him as victim of other beloved heroes either! We’re in agreement there! Its why we come to fanfic instead of canon in the first place....to find stories where he’s not casually and regularly mistreated by other characters we like. But instead we usually only find stories that take everything people don’t want to see other characters doing to him, and making him do it to others. That’s not an improvement for us, lol! That’s just taking one problem and exchanging it for another.

Flipping the script to make Dick the victimizer instead of other characters only fixes things if the only concern is making sure those characters aren’t seen as victimizers.

The really annoying part is how so many people can be so clear and cognizant of not wanting this for their own faves....yet are surprised, dismissive and disdainful of Dick’s fans....expressing the EXACT SAME FEELINGS.....about our own fave.

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thepurplebutterflythings · 5 years ago

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Kitty Cat and Tweety Bird (Part 2) - Jason Todd

Gif: Dxnninja on Tenor

Word Count: 3.5K

Paring: Jason Todd (Titans) x (f)Reader

Summary: Jason Todd likes both sides of Y/N Kyle, civilian and alter-ego. Bruce can’t help but think there is something familiar about his new intern.

Warnings: N/A

A/N: This is a little series I am doing about Jason Todd in Titans. I don’t know Comic!Jason very well so I’m taking all of this from the show, and at the moment he hasn’t been in very often, so please forgive any mischaracterizations.

Tagging: @bella-0104-123 @ninergirl1d @httpfandxms @rosybrock @attackonnat @reclusive-chicken-nugget @demoiselle-en-detresse00 @young-psychos @thesleepykaijuu @thescottpack @nightlygiggles @rougestorms @sinon36

Kitty Cat & Tweety Bird Part 1 | Masterlist | Kitty Cat & Tweety Bird Part 3

________________________________________________________________

Jason loved hanging out with Y/N, both versions of her – civilian self and alter-ego. Of course, he knew Y/N Kyle was Lynx, there was no way two people in Gotham were that incredible, and he would recognise those Y/E/C eyes everywhere. He loved that she was cheeky and playful and always grinning – like the cat that got the cream! If only he could tell her that she knew she was Lynx and that he was Robin, but when Jason first became Robin, Bruce warned him to never tell anyone who he was, never put anyone in danger, protect them, so that’s what Jason did – he kept the fact he was Robin to himself and didn’t even let himself hint to Y/N that he knew she was Lynx. In fact, Jason hadn’t even told Bruce he knew who was under the mask of Lynx. It was better to be safe than sorry, he decided, and anyway Jason could deal with keeping the secret, it meant he got to spend more time with Y/N, in a sense, like now, when he was on the phone with her as she was trying to find an outfit for her first day at her internship.

“Okay, how about a blouse?” Y/N asked through the phone, “its vertical black and white stripes.”

“Y/N, I honestly don’t think Bruce will care what you wear.”

“I know,” she whined. Jason could just imagine her huffing and throwing the blouse on her bed, then pushing her hair back. “This is just so important to me – I don’t want him or anyone else to think I’m a charity case.”

“No one will think that,” Jason assured her in a gentle voice, “and so fucking what if they do?”

“Cause my whole life as always been ‘oh, you’re the daughter of a single mother who was a street kid?’ and it’s exhausting to deal with,” Y/N explained. “They seem to think that because of Mum’s background that they know me, and my mother. Mum isn’t a street kid anymore, she’s worked hard to give me a good life. Just once I want to be able to go into something without someone judging me beforehand.”

“Bruce would never judge you,” Jason said firmly, “he might be a billionaire but that doesn’t mean he’s heartless – Alfred told me that there was a girl Bruce was like totally in love with growing up who was a street kid, he took in Dick Grayson, a circus kid, and me, who spent all his time jacking cars and grew up on a barstool, there is no way Bruce will think you aren’t worth his time, and there is certainly no way he will judge you before meeting you. Anyway, all I’ve told him about you is your first name and what you’re like and how you’d be perfect for this internship. It’ll be fine, trust me.”

“Okay…” Y/N sighed, seemingly calming down, but Jason knew her better than that, he knew that she was chewing on her thumbnail from nerves.

“How’d you mum react when you told her?” Jason asked her as he laid back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Took a bit of convincing to get her to agree, but she’s sort of onboard now, or at least has made her peace with the fact I want to do this.”

“Why was she against it?” Jason asked. Y/N’s end went silent for a minute.

“It’s Bruce Wayne,” Y/N said carelessly, “The Womanizer of Gotham.”

“Come on, I know Bruce’s type,” Jason laughed a little, “No offence Y/N/N, but ‘old enough to be her father’ isn’t really up Bruce’s alley.”

“None took – kinda flattered really,” Y/N teased, “but you can’t blame her for being a little concerned. How many women has he left heartbroken?”

“I’ve never met your mother,” Jason said, changing the subject, wanting to stop Y/N from worrying about the start of her internship, “what’s she like?”

“Protective,” Y/N said.

“That’s a given.”

“I don’t know, Jason,” Y/N said, “she’s my mum… she’s loving, and she’s someone I can rely on, and that I know I can talk to. Hard-worker. She’s so strong, the toughest person I’ve ever known. She wants to keep me safe.”

“Your mother sounds nice,” Jason said smiling at the description of Y/N’s mother. “What’s her name?”

“Selina.”

“Selina Kyle,” Jason repeated to himself, “cool name!”

What Jason didn’t say was that the name sounded familiar to him. Selina Kyle. Maybe he read it somewhere. Maybe Alfred said it once in passing. Maybe he met her once and had forgotten, but the name was familiar to him somehow.

________________________________________________________________

The first day of Y/N’s internship was one which filled her with nerves. In the end, her mother helped her find the perfect outfit – a black dress and a blazer with flat black shoes. Armed with a notepad and a pen, Y/N waited at Bruce Wayne’s office to greet the man. She tapped her pen against the pad as she waited. She occupied herself with looking up and down the corridor, trying to spot her new boss, then, there he was.

Bruce Wayne was exactly as she imagined him to be and wearing a crisp expensive Italian suit and shoes. Bruce was about the same age as her mother was, and now Y/N knew he was Batman she noticed smaller things that many people wouldn’t – there was a scar on his chin, small and almost invisible, and there were a few grazes on his knuckles. There were other things too. Yeah, now Y/N saw it, how Bruce Wayne was Batman. He walked down the hall, talking with an executive of the company as he did, clearly not paying attention for he did not see Y/N standing there waiting for him and glided right past her. Y/N started jogging to catch up with him.

“Mr Wayne! Mr Wayne!” Y/N called as she jogged.

“Not now,” Bruce said, barely glancing at her, “busy.”

“Yes, I do understand that, Mr Wayne,” Y/N said, “but I’m the new intern, technically your assistant.”

“That’s nice,” Bruce waved Y/N back.

“And I wanted to introduce myself,” Y/N continued, “I’m the girl Jason Todd recommended, Y/N, his lab partner.”

The mention of Jason Todd caused Bruce to stop walking; the executive walked forward two more steps before realizing Bruce wasn’t by his side. Bruce turned to Y/N and walked up to her, studying her closely. He took in her hair, her face, her clothing, the manicure her mother insisted on treating her to before her first day, and her shoes. He looked at the pad and pen in her hand. He leaned down a little to get a closer look of the young woman, frowning a little as he did, as though trying to place his finger on something but couldn’t. Bruce decided it was all in his head and stood up as he smiled a little at his new intern.

“You’re the lab partner?” He stated. His voice lifted a little as though there was a chuckle in his throat. Bruce looked at Y/N again, softer this time.

“He’s told you about me?” Y/N rose her eyebrows in shock.

“Yes,” Bruce chuckled a little, “all good - I can assure you, Y/N.” Bruce turned to the executive and waved him off. The executive nodded and walked off. “According to Jason, you are smart, independent, charming, strong-willed and stubborn, and also very pretty.”

“Oh…” Y/N blushed and coughed, shocked to hear Jason’s description of her, “didn’t think he was such a sap,” Y/N faked a laugh, trying to play off her reaction. Her cheeks were still a bright red and she was biting back a small smile. It felt nice to know that Jason looked at her in such a good light, that he held her in such high regard. Bruce just looked at her and smiled, laughing to himself.

“You’re an incredible young woman, Y/N,” Bruce nodded, “I’m not surprised in the slightest that Jason holds you to such high accord.” Bruce offered his hand out to Y/N to shake, which she took. “It will be an honour to work with you, Y/N.”

Y/N was taken back at the words said by Bruce. Bruce Wayne thought she was incredible, that it would be an honour to work with her.

“Thank you, Mr Wayne,” Y/N blurted out, “I cannot wait to work with you either.”

“Bruce, please, Mr Wayne was my father,” Bruce smiled.

“Yes, sorry, Bruce.” Y/N apologised.

“Nothing to apologise for, Y/N,” Bruce waved it off. “It’ll be nice to have you around. There is something about you that reminds me of someone I used to know – I just can’t place my finger on what it is or who it is though.”

“Well, things like that happen,” Y/N said, it being her turn to wave a topic off. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking about her mother, but then decided no, however, Selena did say that she knew Bruce was Batman – how could that be if they didn’t know each other? ‘Later’ Y/N thought ‘that’s a problem for later’. Right now, Y/N had to worry about her new internship, and not about her mother and Bruce’s past together, if there even was a past together.

“I have a feeling you will fit in at Wayne Enterprises very well,” Bruce assured her with a firm nod.

________________________________________________________________

“Surprise!” said a voice behind Y/N. She turned with a small jump to see Jason standing there with a large, stupidly happy grin on his face. Y/N laughed and hugged Jason, who engulfed her in his arms, swaying her back and forth before letting her go.

“What are you doing here?” Y/N asked him.

“Well,” Jason said, shoving his hands in his pockets, “I know it’s our lunch break so I wanted to come by and see if I could buy you something to eat, can you spare a minute?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Of course she can,” Y/N and Jason turned to see Bruce standing in the door of his office, looking at the pair with a faint smile on his lips. “Go and have lunch on me,” Bruce said as he pulled some money from his pockets, “I insist,” he said as he saw Jason and Y/N both start shaking their heads at the money. Bruce put the money into Jason’s hand and ushered the pair towards the lift, pressing the button and pushing the pair into the lift when the doors opened. When the doors closed on them, Jason pushed the button and they started laughing like crazy.

“Oh my god,” Y/N gasped for air, “what’s with him?”

“The subtly of a blow torch, right?” Jason laughed.

“Tell me about it.”

“So, what’s Bruce been like so far?” Jason asked as he leaned against the wall of the elevator, looking at Y/N.

“Nice,” Y/N nodded, “good.” She grinned a little, “so, I’m pretty, huh?”

“Oh god, he told you that!” Jason groaned, closing his eyes and leaning his head back, “I’m so embarrassed.”

“Don’t be,” Y/N chuckled as the doors opened on the ground floor. She walked out and called over her shoulder as she did, “you’re not too bad yourself, Jason Todd!”

Jason blinked and stared after her, rooted to the spot for a second before running after her.

“Really?”

________________________________________________________________

Jason and Y/N strolled through the park, stopping at a hot dog cart where Jason bought them lunch – a hot dog and a pretzel each. They ate as they walked, eventually stopping at a bench and sitting down.

“I like your dress,” Jason said gesturing to her outfit. “Good choice.”

“Thanks,” Y/N smiled, “my mum and I spent ages tearing through my wardrobe trying to find something – couldn’t find anything that went with this blazer or my shoes, so Mum found this old dress from her wardrobe.”

“It’s nice, fits you perfectly,” Jason nodded. “You look really nice… pretty…”

“That’s sweet of you, Jason.” Y/N said allowing her hair to hide her face, which was turning red. Never in her life was Y/N ever this shy around a boy, but Jason wasn’t like the other boys she knew. Jason was kind. Jason was honest. Jason knew what it was to be a vigilante, even if she couldn’t tell him. Jason listened to her, understood her. Jason was a rarity in this world.

“Look, about what Bruce told you,” Jason sighed, “I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable.”

“It didn’t,” Y/N assured him, “I like you too,” she confessed.

Jason smiled and slowly slid his hand into hers, rubbing his thumb over the back of Y/N’s hand. Y/N didn’t hide her face this time when she blushed, she met Jason’s gentle gaze and smiled back.

“So… now what?” Jason asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” she said in a small voice, feeling strangely vulnerable, “but I want to know.”

“Me too.”

________________________________________________________________

“Hey there, Kitty Cat,” Robin grinned as Y/N looked up to the ledge where he was perched, watching her. Y/N rolled her eyes as Robin back flipped and landed in front of her. He stepped forward looking at her from under his fringe.

“Why are you chirping, Tweety-Bird?” Y/N teased as she drifted by.

“No particular reason,” he shrugged, jogging to catch up with her. “Just happy to see you tonight.”

“It’s nice to see you too,” Y/N smiled as she looked at Robin. Her mind was screaming with joy, like a child who had just been given the present at Christmas they had been begging for all year – Jason Todd was such a genuinely good guy and all she wanted to do was take off her mask, grab him by the stupid cape and kiss him. She holds herself back though. “I like it when you drop by, Robin.”

“Oh my god,” Robin exaggerated a gasp, “Did the infamously cold Lync just say something nice?”

“Don’t make me regret it,” Y/N playfully groaned.

“No take-backs,” he said, tapping her nose with his gloved finger, “I like seeing you too,” he confessed when Y/N swatted him away. “You’re a cool chick.”

“You’re a sweet guy,” she admitted, “even if you are a bit of a pain.”

“Aw, shucks,” Robin teased, “you’re making me blush here, Kitty Cat.”

“I know, I know, I’m liquid sugar,” Y/N hit his shoulder, “so sweet I cause cavities, call the dentist.”

“Amazing how even when you’re being nice, you’re still insanely sarcastic,” Robin chuckled with a shake of his head.

“It’s who I am, Tweety Bird,” Y/N flashed a grin, “and you love me for it.”

“Yes I do,” Robin smiled. Y/N didn’t notice Robin watching her closely, smiling at every little thing she did, every time she brushed her hair back, every time she turned her head, everything she did made him smile. He was a sucker for her, no denying it.

________________________________________________________________

When Jason returned to Bruce’s side after leaving Lynx, Bruce didn’t have a chance to interrogate him over where he had been. Bruce had no clue his newest intern was a vignette, and Jason hoped to keep it that way, at least for a while.

“Quick,” Bruce said gesturing for Jason to climb into the Batmobile, “Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are at the Gotham City Vaults.”

“Robbing the place?” Jason asked as he buckled up and Bruce hit the gas to speed off.

“No, renting a vault,” Bruce snapped, “what’d you think, Jason?”

“Alright, alright,” Jason rolled his eyes as Bruce, as Batman sped through the streets of Gotham. “Any idea what they’re going after or just a general robbery.”

“Joker, reportedly, keeps a lot of his funds there,” Bruce explained, “and since Harley and he split and now we’ve got an alert his ex is robbing the place, I’m going to assume that those reports are right and Harley and her gal pals want a piece of his stuff.”

“Well,” Jason pondered, “why not let them? Joker’s an ass, at least those three have a bit more of a moral code than him, and well not like those two can go through divorce court to split custody of things.”

“It’s not about that, Jason,” Bruce sighed, “this could lead to two things, firstly, those girls aren’t causing problems on the street, second, this could bring us closer to taking down Joker once and for all.”

They pulled up to the vaults and jumped into action, running to find the three women, The Gotham City Sirens. The women in question were ransacking a large vault filled with jewels, gold, cash and more.

“Holy Crap,” Catwoman said as she filled her bag with emeralds and gold chains before grabbing a stack of cash and running her thumb over the edge of the money. “Why did we wait this long to rob your dumbass ex?”

“Gawd knows,” Harley called out as she pulled out a fur coat and draped it over her shoulders, turning to Ivy, her new beau, and grinning wildly, “how’d I look, hun?”

Ivy at first attempted to keep a cold appearance with a sigh and roll of the eye, but gave up quickly when seeing the grin on Harley’s face. Harley had struck a glamour pose and turned to Ivy with such a look of pride on her face for finding the coat that Ivy couldn’t resist but smile to her love.

“Just lovely, Harley,” Ivy nodded before going back to stuffing her bag, “now, quick, we don’t want to get caught.”

Harley huffed and pouted before grabbing other things to throw in her bag. Stupid police always ruin their fun, and if not the stupid police then stupid Batman with that stupid sidekick of his. Stupid people ruining their fun!

Catwoman, however, was nervous. Y/N would do anything to keep her mum and aunties safe, and Catwoman did not want her daughter to get wrapped up in her messes. Selina chose to be Catwoman, and she was prepared for the risks that came with that.

“Hurry,” Catwoman said, “they’re here.” She heard them running down the hall towards herself and her friends. The Sirens ran from the room and headed the other direction, with Batman and Robin hot on their tails. They managed to get outside of the building only to find themselves in a dead-end. “Shit!” Catwoman huffed as she looked around to try and find a way out of their trap. The three women turned around to see Batman and Robin approaching them. Selina sighed and thought of Y/N – she would be home by this time and wondering where her mother was.

“Don’t move,” Batman called. Selina met his eyes and thought of the boy she once knew, Bruce Wayne, and the promise he made upon returning to Gotham that he would never leave again – to her surprise, he kept that promise. Suddenly a smoke bomb dropped down from above and Batman and Robin couldn’t be seen.

“UP HERE!” Called a voice. Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn all peered up to see the face of Y/N in the disguise of Lynx, grinning proudly down at them, “you wanna hang around for the smoke to clear and get dragged to the police, or you wanna come?” Y/N said throwing her claw hook down for them to climb up. They all did, one by one, and by the time they had reached the top, the smoke had cleared. Batman and Robin stood and stared in shock as the Sirens dropped to the other side of the high wall and Lynx gave them both an awkward wave before disappearing herself.

“What the hell?” Said Robin, staring after Lynx and her uncharacteristic move to help criminals rather than stop them.

________________________________________________________________

“I thought Lynx was on our side,” Bruce said as he and Jason sat in the Batcave. Alfred had decided to join them and listened closely to all the conversation.

“She is,” Jason assured him, “I don’t know what possessed her tonight, really I don’t. I tried to find her afterwards to talk to her about it, but I couldn’t catch up with her – she and Catwoman disappeared together.”

“Catwoman?” Alfred frowned, “Strange pairing.”

“We’ve found Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn going on a date nights, the fact that two alter-egos who go by feline names ran in the same direction is nothing,” Jason said, although he was still confused as to why Y/N helped an infamous jewel thief escape capture when she had such a strong sense of justice.

________________________________________________________________

“I know I was supposed to be home,” Y/N said to her mother once they got home, “but I saw a message Jason got as Robin about helping Batman capture you and I knew I had to do something.”

“Baby,” Selina took off her mask and cupped her daughter’s face, “Kitten,” she sighed, “that was very reckless, so stupid if it went wrong,” Y/N looked down, ready to be scolded, “but I am so grateful that you were willing to rescue me and your aunties,” Selina said. Y/N looked up and met her mother’s gaze, “thank you Y/N that was very brave, but please don’t put yourself in danger unless absolutely needed.”

“I won’t, mum,” Y/N promised, “I promise.”

“Good,” Selina sighed with relief “Kitten, you mean the absolute world to me, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

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iatethepomegranate · 5 years ago

Text

Homecoming Chapter 22

@iontorch @dick-rarepairs

See notes for story masterpost and AO3 links.

Pairing: DickTiger

Rating: Teen (this chapter)

Length: 3k

Summary: Dick and Tiger settle back into Wayne Manor, but between Dick's new ailment and the secret they're keeping from Bruce, they're just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Notes: I LIVE. Okay, since I don’t trust Tumblr to let this post appear in the tags if I add links, I’m going to add masterpost and AO3 links in a reblog, so check the notes.

***

Chapter 22

As the days passed, Dick waited for another migraine to come along and ruin his life again. It felt like everyone was watching him with bated breath, expecting him to drop any second... Dick most of all. Tim, at least, tried to make himself useful by going over Dick's symptoms to help him figure out his warning signs for when the attack finally did come.

Tiger had clammed up since that last conversation about the shooting. That was never a good sign. The man was a classic bottler when it came to his emotions and wouldn't entertain further discussion. It would all come to a head eventually. Dick was not looking forward to it.

What made matters worse, possibly, was that Bruce was being oddly polite to Tiger. It was possible he genuinely felt bad for kicking Tiger out, but there was also a chance he was trying to lull Tiger into a false sense of security. It wasn't working. Tiger was more anxious than ever. Unless that was Bruce's plan. Dick hoped not. That was a douchey kind of plan.

Dick came to dinner one night in a not-so-great mood. Irritable for no reason. He'd already snapped at Tiger three times in the past hour, and he'd deserved exactly none of them. And his neck was kinda stiff, which made sitting in a dining chair a rather annoying experience.

Tim took one look at him, pausing in the motion of cutting his steak, and said, “You know irritability and neck stiffness are pre-migraine symptoms, right?”

“Who says I'm irritable?” Dick replied, irritably. Internally, though, his mind was a litany of shit shit shit.

“You’ll probably have, like, twelve hours from when the symptoms started,” Tim said, looking back down at his plate. “Maybe more. Hard to say. Try to get a good night's sleep if you can.”

Dick wasn't sure how he was supposed to sleep with his neck like this. Tiger was staring at him, trying to catch his eye, but Dick didn't feel like talking. Especially not after snapping at him so much.

Tiger made a show of shrugging and piling brown rice onto both their plates. Dick also received a generous load of vegetables and not as much meat as he probably would've liked. But he'd already been an asshole today, so he shut up and took it.

Dick excused himself as soon as he was finished, knowing that he was not good company tonight. Tiger, in a fit of masochism, followed him back to their room.

Then, in what could only be a lack of self-preservation, he took Dick's hands and led him to the bed. “Sit. Let me help.”

“Look, I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to be around me. I don't want to be around me.” The words came out way sharper than he'd intended. Naturally.

“Hush.” Tiger knelt on the bed behind him and dug his thumbs into the hardened muscles on the back of Dick's neck. “I forgive you.”

“Ugh.”

Tiger kissed the top of his head. “I am trying to spoil you.”

“I don't deserve it.”

“I do not care.”

Dick shut up and let him rub his neck. It helped a bit. A warm shower later, he felt almost like himself.

Sleep was elusive. Dick kept shifting position, unable to get comfortable. Tiger had ended up on the edge of the bed, well away from his fidgeting. Dick was kind of offended but couldn't really be mad because Tiger had done that in his sleep.

He was still kinda mad.

Dick fell into a fragile kind of sleep eventually, flitting in and out when Tiger got up to pray. He woke in the daylight, eyes grainy and brain fogged. Right. Fatigue. Another fun symptom. Apparently even sleeping made him tired now.

Tiger was eating a bowl of oatmeal on the bed, legs crossed with a huge photo album in front of him. “Good morning.”

“Mmph.” Dick rubbed his eyes, which helped a tiny bit. “Is it morning?”

“Barely.”

Dick used Tiger's arm to haul himself into a sitting position, slumping against his shoulder. “Whatcha looking at?”

“Jason stole a photo album Alfred kept of your first few years as Robin.”

Dick rubbed his eyes again, until he could see the photos. Oh. Oh God. The green underpants. It was actually a leotard at least fifty percent of the time, but no one believed him.

Look, it wasn't that Dick was ashamed of his childhood fashion choices. It was just... well... everyone was ashamed for him.

“Bastard,” he muttered. “I'm gonna show you his album.” He dug his chin into Tiger's shoulder. “Nice breakfast. Where's mine?”

Tiger leaned over and grabbed another bowl from the nightstand. “I was about to wake you. Here.”

There were spiced pears in the oatmeal, which lifted his mood a little bit. But he still felt kinda fuzzy and doubted that would improve.

There was one photo in the album that Tiger paused over. It was a selfie, in a way. Dick-as-Robin making a face in a funhouse mirror. Alfred had seen the mask camera footage and liked it.

“Where is the camera?” Tiger asked.

“In the mask. It was a prototype at the time. The lenses broke constantly so we had to carry spare masks and cowls in our belts.”

“Wait.” Tiger's eyes went wide and his face turned the most worrying shade of grey. “You have cameras in your masks? Does Jason have...”

“Jason has a few,” Dick said. “He only wears the cam-masks when he's working with us.”

“So there is a video of Alia...”

The shooting. Fuck.

“Jason would've thought of that,” Dick said, trying to sound sure, even if he was kinda panicking. “Right?”

Tiger sighed and shoved more oatmeal into his mouth. Good idea. Dick did the same. Soothing his panic with breakfast. They kept flipping through the album with a detachment born out of preoccupation.

As soon as Dick had scraped the last bite out of his bowl, Tiger snatched it off him. “I'll take these to the kitchen. And find Jason.”

“Yeah. Do that.” Dick wanted to trust Jason had remembered. If not... Bruce would have seen the footage by now.

God damn it.

Dick took a piss while he waited and then spent a few minutes flipping through the album, tracking Robin's fashion evolution over the years. And the Discowing outfit. He still thought the high collar was pretty cool, no matter what anyone else said. He just couldn't turn his head as much as he would've liked. Still, some of Bruce's old costumes had the same problem.

There was just something in him that made him desperate to defend even the most questionable of fashion decisions. It didn't matter if he had been questioning them himself. The instant someone else teased him, he had to take it all the way.

Voices erupted in the hallway.

“Maybe I just don't like the way you're trying to corner him.” Jason.

“That is not what I—”

“You're not fooling anyone, Bruce. You've had it out for him from the moment he entered the city.”

“This is not a productive conversation.” Tiger.

“Right?” Jason said. “You prepared to say whatever you wanted to say in front of Dick? You think he's gonna be happy?”

“You're being dramatic,” Bruce said.

“Am I, though? Am I?”

“But if you wish to be involved in this discussion, I have plenty of questions for you, too.”

“I've answered your questions already. Not my fault you didn't like the answers.”

“I am missing some context in this conversation,” Tiger said.

“So am I!” Dick yelled impulsively.

There were a few horrible seconds where no one breathed a word. Then Tiger, Jason and Bruce entered the room. Tiger and Jason at least had the grace to look sheepish.

“Is someone going to explain what the hell is going on?” Dick said. “Quickly, if you don't mind. Not sure how much time I have before my head explodes again.”

“Jason's mask camera footage is missing,” Bruce said. Well. That answered that question.

“I told you already,” Jason complained. “The equipment's been on the fritz for weeks.”

“You should've had it fixed.”

Jason shrugged. “You don't trust me with your stuff and Tim was mad at me again. What was I supposed to do? Steal your shit? I only do that when I'm really mad at you.”

Dick had a distinct feeling Jason was lying his ass off. He also had a feeling Bruce saw right through him.

Tiger leaned against the closet door, arms crossed, watching the exchange with a muscle twitching in his jaw. Dick would trust him on a battlefield, but he wasn't so sure how well he was gonna hold up in a war of words over something he already felt terrible about. Jason wasn't gonna budge. Dick certainly wouldn't. But Tiger...

“I find it convenient that your equipment failed on that night in particular,” Bruce was saying.

“Sorry. I forgot to pencil it in.”

“Do you let your grapnel gun wear down like that?”

“No, because I would die. Again.”

Bruce's face twitched; he hated it when Jason brought up the dying thing. “Jason. That's not—”

“Oh, am I playing dirty again? Sorry. Force of habit.” He was blatantly not sorry. “Sometimes you gotta prioritise the important stuff. You never look at my mask cam anyway.”

“Because I never know when you're wearing it.”

“Then why did you bother looking this time?” Jason was smiling now, but it wasn't a pleasant one. “Seems to me you were looking for something specific.”

“I deserve to know what happened when someone dies on my watch.”

“I told you what happened. Is my word not good enough?”

“No. It's not.”

“Bruce,” Dick said, before this could spiral further, “I was there, too, you know.”

“You didn't see what happened.”

It wasn't worth arguing. Bruce knew what he was talking about. Good old blood spatter analysis, ruining everything.

“I saw Jason holding Tiger's gun.” Dick wasn't about to let this go without a fight, though.

“That proves nothing. And evidence has conveniently disappeared. Where did Tiger's clothes end up?”

Tiger still looked kinda grey from earlier. It was probably best he wasn't talking much, because Dick honestly didn't know if he could keep the lie going.

Jason, bless him, kept fighting. “Well, fuck me for getting him out of that blood-soaked shit. Not like I was thinking about how you were gonna be a giant asshole over this. My bad.”

“You haven't told me where his clothes are.”

“Gone. They were wrecked. Maybe if you'd asked in a timely manner, you could've examined them.” Jason actually sounded convincing. Dick tried not to get his hopes up. Bruce wasn't called the World's Greatest Detective for nothing.

“This is all rather convenient,” Bruce said. “Your spare gun jammed, recording equipment failed and vital material evidence happened to disappear, all on the same night.”

Could they have done this better? Given the circumstances, could they have found a way to keep Tiger out of this without tripping Bruce's coincidence meter? Dick wasn't sure there was. If only Jason hadn't been wearing his mask cam that night.

Still, Bruce didn't have concrete evidence. He just had a pile of coincidences that could mean someone was hiding something. Certainly not enough for a legal conviction or possibly even a trial in the first place, but that was not what they had here.

Bruce didn't need incontrovertible proof to believe Tiger had helped kill Alia. All he needed was enough doubt in Jason's version of events.

“Enough,” Tiger said.

Bruce rounded on him, staring silently. He didn't need to speak. Dick and Jason shared a grimace behind Bruce's back.

“There were three shooters,” Tiger continued, crossing his arms tighter across his body. Dick could see the slightest hint of a tremor. “Jason, Helena... and me.”

Okay, so they were doing this now. Things were still salvageable. Maybe.

“He saved my life,” Dick added. “The three of them only had a split second to do something.”

“Murder is never the solution.”

“Then tell us, O Wise One,” Jason snapped, “what would you have done with fuck-all time to save your favourite son?”

“I'm not his favourite,” Dick muttered. They ignored him.

“I would not have resorted to murder.”

“That's not what I asked,” Jason growled. “Dick is on the floor, literally cornered, back against a wall. Daedalus's gun practically touching him. He won't miss. You have a second to do something and you don't have a good enough angle to hit his gun. If Daedalus takes over Dick's mind, he dies. If the gun goes off, he dies. If you spook the bastard, the gun will go off anyway and Dick dies. So tell me, with all your boundless wisdom, what could we have done in that second to save Dick's life without killing Daedalus? The woman he possessed isn't even a factor. She was a goner already.”

Tiger flinched. Dick wanted to go over and squeeze his hand, but that would just draw Bruce's attention while Jason tried to divert it.

“Remote-controlled batarang,” Bruce replied.

“Yeah, we didn't have one of those. Even if we did, setting it up would take time we didn't have and he probably would've heard it coming.”

“The fact remains,” Bruce said, turning back to Tiger. “You hid this from me.”

“He wasn't even there when I told you what happened,” Jason said. “You gonna get mad? Get mad at the right person.”

“People,” Dick corrected. “I helped Jason mess with the evidence.”

“You were a backseat driver, more like.”

“Stop it,” Tiger muttered.

Dick's fingers were tingling a little, which was not a good sign. He concentrated extra hard on speaking, because he was not about to let this fucking migraine muddle his words while he still had a choice.

“Tiger,” he said, “you didn't want us to lie for you.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “And yet he allowed it.”

Dick put his left hand on the bed, leaning into it to keep his balance. Even sitting was starting to get a little fraught. Fuck's sake.

“Bruce,” he said, “stop it. You've directed exactly none of this pissiness at me even though I was actively involved in the lie.” He had to take a second to get his mouth around his next sentence, holding up his right arm, which obeyed him enough, so they wouldn't talk over him. “That's why we lied. Jason and I knew you would be harder on him than anyone else.”

“Same shit, different day,” Jason said. “He was like this when he kicked Tiger out and he hasn't learned a damn thing.” Jason's voice was a touch louder than Dick's head liked right now.

“Bruce has a point,” Tiger said quietly.

“He's selectively applying that point,” Jason replied. “How about it, boss? If you're gonna be shitty to Tiger, then you should be just as shitty to me.”

“You are not dating my son,” Bruce said.

“I'm a grown-ass man, Bruce,” Dick said.

“And I happen to be your son,” Jason added. “Legally, anyway.”

“You're an adult in control of your own actions,” Bruce said. “You have made it clear that I cannot control you.”

“Uh, hello?” Dick waved his fingers, which didn't really want to cooperate. “I'm the eldest, and you're acting like I'm a teenager with a bad influence for a boyfriend.”

“Difference is,” Jason said, “he actually cares about you.”

Bruce looked like he'd been slapped. “That's not—”

Jason grinned, but it looked more like a grimace. “Am I wrong?”

Bruce was not often a man lost for words. He sometimes preferred to let his actions speak for him, but it was rare that he truly had no idea what to say or do. Witnessing it now was unsettling.

Any other time, Dick might've let Bruce work through it on his own. Things with Jason were complicated, and sometimes interfering made matters worse.

But he was really having trouble sitting up and there was a distinct numbness on the right side of his face, and down his arm. And there was a pounding building up in his head.

In the silence, Dick caught Tiger's eye. The man's features hardened, and he put himself between Bruce and Jason. Probably not the safest idea, but Dick couldn't think of another way. Damn brain fog.

“Enough,” he said. “This is not a productive conversation.”

“You do not get to tell me when I am finished,” Bruce replied.

Jason glanced in Dick's direction. “Yeah? Well, I'm done.” He made a good show of storming out in a fit of temper, rather than giving his brother some space to lie down and die for a while.

“Jason...” Then Bruce followed him.

Well, that was one way to clear a room.

Tiger fetched Dick a glass of water. Apparently a pack of straws lived in Dick's nightstand now. He wasn't sure when exactly they appeared, but they made drinking a little easier with only half a face.

“Anything else you need?” Tiger asked softly.

Dick got him to help him into the bathroom. He wasn't sure how much he'd be moving in a few minutes. He also may have thrown up in the sink a little bit while he was in there.

Then Tiger helped him lie down. “There is a pager here,” he said, lifting the little thing from the nightstand. “Do you want me with you? If not, the pager will put you in touch with Alfred if you need anything.”

Dick waved him away with his good hand. He didn't want to put Tiger through this if he didn't have to. Besides, when he was at his worst last time, he couldn't even stand the sound of Alfred breathing.

Tiger helped him put a sleeping mask on and placed a bucket on the floor. Then he kissed Dick's hand, leaving him to his misery.

#Dick Rare Pair Challenge #dicktiger #dick grayson #tiger king of kandahar #fanfiction #my fics #homecoming dicktiger fic

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satire-please · 6 years ago

Text

Take a Sad Song and Make it Better - Part 5

Day 5 - Nightmares = The hurt/comfort drive is real.

It’s a bad night for Jason, good thing he’s not alone

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

There’s dirt under his fingernails again.

His breathing shudders. A rattling thing too quick, his fingers shaking because it’s almost like he’s back there.

In his own grave.

With the pressed suit tailored too tight on him, strangling him. Where the wet, moldy smell of earth fills his nostrils and he screams.

And screams.

But no one comes.

Who’d come for a dead man anyway?

Jay kicks off his sheets and sweeps an arm over the nightstand, knocking every item to the floor. His water glass breaks and that’s good.

The destruction, the mess is better, better than–

Jay slaps the sides of his cheeks with his hands. Stay here you dumbfuck, you’re not there.

Yet his senses play tricks on him. The memories so heavy that phantom sensations wave in front of his eyes. He couldn’t move then, only squirm as he scratched the coffin cover. His hands bloody, half his nails gone because Bruce hadn’t scrimped. Had gotten the good stuff, the good mahogany. Jay reaches to squeeze his knees because they hurt, sting as like they did when finally, finally he found a weakness in that fucking box and rammed his legs through it. And that taste. That goddamn taste of decay and dirt every time he gasped and tore at the turf.

He doesn’t know how long it took to crawl to the surface.

But it took too long.

A choked laugh escapes him. If he looks in the mirror, will his eyes glow with Lazarus green? Jay sits up on the bed. Peers at the window, expecting to see his reflection with two pinpricks of eerie light, like a damn broken glowstick.

But it’s not the pit riding him tonight, his face in the glass remaining an obscure blur. For a half-second, he wishes it was. Madness doesn’t let fear bleed through. Just anger, and the victorious high of a smile when your gun finds the target.

When you find someone new to pay.

To blame.

Like Replace–Tim. His name is fucking Tim. It’s not his fault. Remember it’s not his fault.

And he can’t blame the pit, can’t blame Talia, can’t blame Ra’s that a creature walks among the Bats. He doesn’t know who his Frankenstein is, but when he finds them he’s got a bullet with their name all over it. ‘Cause dontcha know it’s better to let sleeping corpses lie?

Jay can’t stay here another heartbeat. Not in his old room a lifetime ago. He gets up and crosses the room to silently pull open the door. Fuck this. He ain’t sleeping no more, he’s getting a cig. So he goes to the only room he can. Fine, he could smoke anywhere but then Alfie narrows his eyes at him when he pulls a cig from his back pocket and he’s been too well trained for that, sue him.

In the hall, Jay doesn’t bother turning on the lights, what’s the point? He’s been there enough times, too many times on bad nights like this. Funny. Has that number has gotten lower? He pads through the dark, minding the floorboards that creak.

The smoke lounge is a piece of ostentatious bullshit. Reeks more of money than smoke and Jay has smeared his cigs out on the furniture, deliberately snubbing the artistic ashtray. Just ‘cause his heart pumps out more spite than blood. There’s leather armchairs in front of a cold fireplace, a pool table and three honest to god deer heads mounted on the wall. Damian ain’t allowed in this room. He’d tear it apart.

The thought makes his grimace relax a tad.

He sinks into a chair and swings his legs over one of its arms. It’s the only way to be comfortable in the damn thing. He fumbles for the lighter in a drawer next to it and the spark illuminates his face. It also illuminates that he’s not alone.

“Do ya always have to be the dramatic fuck?”

“You should be in bed.”

“So should you. Betcha won’t tattle my ass to Alfie though.”

Bruce just stares at his son. “Why are you up, Jason?”

Jay just hums. “Yer the detective, not me. Why’s anyone up before the crack of dawn?” The room has that blush of blue. It’s an hour, maybe a little more, before dawn. Outside, a nightbird chirps its last song.

“I think I can make a guess.” Bruce says carefully, his face blank, “Can I sit here with you?”

“It’s yer house, dumbass. Can’t tell ya off even if I wanted to, minster head of the house.” But he gestures graciously to the other armchair.

“Thanks, son.”

Jay bites through his lip. Warring emotions of raw rage, want and need flooding his body as Bruce takes his seat. It’s minutes of them in the bleak light, smoke rising in curls before Jay can’t take it anymore.

“I get it now, you know.” Bruce hums under his breath, it’s a welcome mat of a noise. So Jay with his stupid remaining brain cells opens his stupid mouth to continue. “Why ya replaced me.”

The man in the chair goes still.

A sharp inhale. Exhale.

“Tim’s a good kid. Smart kid. Smarter than I was for sure. He’s everything I’m not and then some. I can see why ya made him Robin, I mean I wanted to nab him for my Robin when we fought over your cowl like dogs on a bone.”

“Jason.” Bruce tries to cut in.

Jay won’t let him, “And he’s like you. Like a carbon copy mini-me. Thought ya ordered him from a Richie-rich catalog. Thinks like you, talks like you, obsesses over the mission like you–”

“Jason. I didn’t replace you.” Bruce pauses. “After you...died, I didn’t work with anyone. Couldn’t be around anyone. Your brother Dick stayed in Haven because he couldn’t stand me. Alfred almost...quit.”

Jay flicks the ash, wishes the shakes would quit it. Huh, that’s new for him. Alfie? The ever loyal, infallible, only stable fixture of the manor, Alfred Pennyworth calling it quits?

“You’re Jason Todd Wayne. No one could be you. The only reason Tim became Robin is because he, though I’m sure Alfred had some kind of hand in it, blackmailed me.”

“Wait what?”

“Tim legitimately knocked on my door one day to tell me I better take a Robin or else. Mind you, at the time he wasn’t referring to himself, but imagine the random neighborhood kid. Just stopping by to let you know he found out you dress like a bat at night, and lighten up mister. Get a partner before you kill someone.”

A snort escapes Jason before he can stop it. “Awkward.”

“And then he wouldn’t leave. Couldn’t stop poking his nose where it didn’t belong. I’d find bits and pieces of newspapers, of clues for my current case, tied on my doorstep with string. Then he showed up at the most rotten, most opportune time to save Dick and me from Two-Face.”

“Sounds like a little shit.”

Bruce’s lips crack a bit into a smirk. “I’m not going to repeat that. I hate to admit it, but at first, I wanted...to run him off. I wanted him to give up. I set ridiculous expectations, refused to let him take one step on a skyscraper until Alfred, until I, until Dick trained him.”

“That doesn’t sound like his M.O. He don’t give up easy.”

“No. Tim doesn’t.” They zone out for a bit, staring at Jay’s dying cig, the last coils of smoke fading into thin air. “He stuck it out. Stubbornly dug his heels until I stopped pushing. He wasn’t you though and...I wanted you back.”

Jay rubs his face, something’s wrong with his eyes.

“That’s not fair.” Bruce gives a rueful laugh. “I need to be better at that. You’re different people, important people, and I didn’t do right by either of you. I tried to clip your wings so you couldn’t fly away like Dick, and with Tim...I may have let him into the nest, but I didn’t let him stay in it until his father died.”

His eyes are really messing with him so Jay abandons them to start picking under his nails to get the dirt outta them. It’s just dirt. He’ll be okay, it’s just dirt.

“I’m sorry, Jason.” Bruce looks at him then, sincerely, and something catches in Jay’s throat and sticks.

Fuck.

He doesn’t say I forgive you. That it’s fine. That they’ll get better because he doesn’t know and he can’t.

But he can’t stop his lips from moving, “Old dogs can’t learn new tricks...but maybe a shitty bat can.”

It’ll have to be enough.

In the paling dawn, Jay watches Bruce out of the corner of his eye. The Bat’s expression mild in hope and promise.

It’ll be enough.

#my writing #batfamily #BatfamBigBang #Batfam Big Bang #day 5 nightmares #Jason todd #Bruce wayne #hurt/comfort #mild gore with hands?#Hand injury?

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hellsbellssinclub · 7 years ago

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Can You See Me Now? Chapter 1

This is my newest Batman fic.

Summary:

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

After some nudging from Spoiler and Batgirl, Tim seeks out the Red Hood to ask the older teen for permission into his territory to follow up a lead. It was a small, innocent action but it was the starting point for both Tim and Jason to get to know each other.

But things are never as they seem and things always get better before they get worst.

Read it here on AO3

(Sorry to mobile users, the read more I put on the post does not seem to be working on the app)

“Look, I’m just saying that there is probably more to everything than what Batman told you. Maybe the now not dead Robin isn’t as bad as you think.” The young woman in the eggplant purple suit said for the seventh time in the last fifteen minutes.

“And I am telling you he broke into Titan Tower and beat me with my own bow staff, Spoiler.” Tim sighed, looking over at his Ex, feeling the dull burn of his broken ribs as he breathed in deep. “I know that Batman isn’t telling me everything about what happened. Neither is Nightwing or Agent A. I am in the dark as much as you. But really, I think there might just be a chance that he holds a teeny tiny little grudge against me.”

Steph shook her head at him. “I know he beat you and I know something went down with the Joker but!” She held up her hand to stop him from saying anything over her. “I have looked into every kill and action he has made. From start to finish. While he has been incredibly violent, and well, bloody and stuff, he has not killed an innocent person. Everyone he killed were violent drug dealers and pimps who were hurting the working girls. Crime has gone down in his territory in the last month.”

Tim gave her a pained look. He knew that Jason Todd as the Red Hood was technically doing a lot of good for Crime Alley, a place that has not had a stable crime lord or hand controlling it since Bruce was still a kid. And with Bruce’s own personal dislike of the area because of what happened to his parents and the GCPD’s unwillingness to investigate anything that happens there, Crime Alley often went unchecked and unnoticed by everyone. The Red Hood had strict rules he was willing to enforce and from what Tim had managed to overhear so far, the people who lived in Crime Alley felt a lot safer with the Red Hood around.

But that still does not change the fact that Jason was completely unstable and willing to murder nearly everyone who got in his way. The former Robin was willing to take that extra step to make his point. There had already been at least fifteen cases of torture reported to the GCPD that they know about.

(Though most of those cases were of convicted paedophiles and child molesters and honestly, Tim could not really fault the former Robin for what he did there; he too occasionally got the urge to do horrible things to predators as well, though he himself never acted on it.)

Red Hood’s official death toll was almost at sixty with the possibility of the GCPD finding more bodies every day. Crime Alley might be safer for the people who live there, but that safety was brought with blood and death caused by Jason’s hands. It was not the kind of safety that would last long. Not in Gotham anyway.

At least Jason’s vendetta against the Bat’s had died down though after whatever happened with the Joker that night nearly a month and a half ago. Bruce was not willing to share what had happened and the older man deleted the Cowl Cam footage before anyone else had a chance to see it. The Joker still lived, which was unfortunate in his own personal opinion. Yes, Tim fully believed in Bruce’s ‘save everyone you can’ view of the world but if he was to be honest, Tim would not grieve if the Joker was to be violently murdered by someone. Because really, that cockroach needed to die and just be stopped permanently.

“While I do agree that the whole, you know, serial killer-antihero thing is working in Crime Alley, it still doesn’t change the fact that he beat me up and tried to kill B and N. I really don’t think he wants me to come into his territory and act like we are friends or something.” Tim kicked a stone off the ledge they were standing on. Yes, he was still holding a grudge. But who could blame him really? He got beaten up by his predecessor while said predecessor wore an absolutely horrid copy of the original, green panties, Robin suit.

“I’m not saying go out and act like his friend, Robin!” Steph waved her hands again. “I am saying maybe you could extend the olive branch to him? Because from what you have told me, the guy was murdered in a pretty traumatic way, woke up in his own grave, dug his way out and then was more or less prisoner of those crazy assassin dudes who are obsessed with immortality? Maybe if you and the other Bat’s give him a chance to talk and stuff without the Joker and explosives involved you could actually get through to him. Everything that he has done to you guys, have you considered perhaps it was a cry for help?”

Tim sighed. “When you put it like that you make us sound like a bunch of dicks you know.” He shook his head and slumped his shoulders. She was right. But only to a point. Jason’s actions at the Tower and his anger at the Bats could be seen as a cry for help, especially given what they did know about the trauma that Jason went through. “But it still doesn’t take away the point that he attacked me and the others and while he hasn’t made another attempt against me, he has fought B and Nightwing recently.”

“He probably fought them because they were the ones who entered his territory.” Steph pointed out. That was also true, if Jason had come into his territory he probably would have attacked the older teen without a second thought. He could see the former Robin doing the same if Bruce and Dick tried to enter Crime Alley. “I get it Tim, I really do. He hurt you and that sucks ass. I am not saying that you have to forgive him or anything. I am just saying maybe extend the olive branch to him. You were saying before that one the leads in one of your cases, the one with the underground alien tech, was in Crime Alley, right? Let him know that you are following up on a lead and that you will not cause any trouble for him.”

He gave a low hum of thought at that. Tim’s original plan for that case was to go out in the day, skipping his afternoon study hall at school and going to look for the tech without his gear. It would have been risky but there would have been a better chance that he would not run into the Red Hood. There also would have been a greater chance that he would have been mugged because he looks like a rich white boy with money (which you know, he is), but Tim was confident he could have taken on anyone who attacked him.

But going and asking for permission? Tim had not even considered that an option at all. And honestly, why would he? Jason Todd had made it clear that he hated his ‘Replacement’ and that he wanted nothing to do with the Bats and Birds of Gotham. How would the older teen react? He wondered. Would he attack Tim? Or would he let him pass?

“Hey, if you don’t feel that you can be near him with without him attacking you then you should just bring Batgirl with you.” Steph grinned at him behind her Spoiler mask. Smiling always looked so strange behind her mask but one can definitely see the outline of it. Tim could not help but roll his eyes at her words though.

“I am not bringing Batgirl with me like some kind of bodyguard. I am a grown ass vigilante, I don’t need a bodyguard.” He wasn’t pouting. He wasn’t. He was nearly fifteen, he could take care of himself without Batgirl babysitting him.

“Oh, come on! Batgirl wouldn’t mind! Would you, Batgirl?” Steph looked over his shoulder, causing him to spin around and glare at Cassandra, who was standing a few feet away. He had not noticed at all that she was there and there was a small shock of panic and fear that went through him at that thought. He hates it when people manage to get the drop on him. Cass was the second best in the Bat family at sneaking up on people, right after Bruce.

“We need to put a bell on you before you give me a heart attack.” Tim groaned out, covering his face for a moment. At least Cass never went out of her way to purposely scare him, unlike Nightwing had when Tim was first starting out as Robin. His situational awareness has improved since he was twelve, thank god, and Nightwing was now not able to jump out of the celling and scare him anymore.

Cass gave him a small snort. “Am not Catwoman. Don’t need a bell.” The smirk looked as strange behind Batgirl’s mask as it did Spoiler’s. “I would be happy to bodyguard for you.”

Tim rolled his eyes behind his domino mask. Steph and Cass becoming friends was a horrible idea. He never should have encouraged it. They were both terrible together. Steph always had something to say or do and Cass was always happy to follow her new friend around, enjoying being a teenager like she should. Steph encouraged Cass to step outside her comfort zone and explore being a teen and Cass was willing to do most of the things that Steph suggested.

They were good for each other. But not good for his sanity, seeing as they roped him into following whatever crazy stunt they had planned.

“I don’t need a bodyguard.” He whined at them both. He didn’t need Cass to hold his hand. He could talk to Jason. And if he gets his ass kicked then he could just blame Steph for the idea and spend a week with the Titans licking his wounds.

Not literally. That would be gross. Why is that phrase even a thing?

“Am bodyguard now. No take backs.” Cass nodded, sounding pleased with herself and he groaned in annoyance. He doesn’t need Cass babying him. He is Robin! Terror of the Night and Batman’s partner. He hated being babied by Cass and Dick. They always pulled the ‘I am the older sibling and you are the baby of the family’ card on him. He can’t wait until he could be the big brother. One day he will give the Robin suit up and then he can be the one babying someone else. “Why is a bodyguard needed?” Cass asked, moving to stand next to Steph.

Before Tim had a chance to say anything, his purple menace of an Ex-Girlfriend spoke. “Tim is going to go and ask the Red Hood if he could go into Crime Alley. We need you to bodyguard him because we don’t know if the Red Hood is going to beat Tim up again or not.”

Tim shook his head. “Names, Spoiler. No names on the field.” He reminded her, closing his eyes in annoyance. Steph was bad when it came to remembering the ‘no names on the field’ rule now that she knows his name. If he didn’t know better he would say that she is doing it out of spite because he didn’t tell her it himself.

And Cass was either going to be all for being Tim’s bodyguard or she is going to be against it and honestly, he wasn’t sure which one he preferred.

On one hand, there are a lot of advantages to having Cass actually guard him while he spoke to Jason. Mostly all of them were that she could kick Jason’s ass. It wouldn’t matter how skilled Jason now is, Cass would win.

On the other hand, if she is against it she could go and tell Bruce which would end up with him benched and on the receiving end of a cold shoulder and disappointed glare for the next month or so. And he would probably have several new trackers placed on his person without his consent. Because B can occasionally forget to use his words and just say ‘I am worried about you, please be safe’ out loud.

Mind you, Bruce is still a lot better at emotions than Jack Drake. Tim’s father only really did emotions in small, but over whelming bursts. Which means Tim usually gets a weekend or two of father-son like interactions and then it is several weeks of ‘we exist in the same house but are mostly strangers to each other’. Which is always fun.

Cass said nothing for a few moments, her head tilting to the side slightly as she no doubt read Tim’s body language and seeing his hesitance and his inner monologue. “What’s in Crime Alley?” She asked finally.

“A lead to one of my cases. The alien tech one that I have been working solo on.” Tim explained. Cass had not yet said yes or no and he was still very much undecided on which way he wanted her to choose.

“Come on! Big bad Batgirl can definitely take on the Red Hood if he tries to hurt our Baby Bird!” Steph wrapped an arm around Cass’s shoulders. “And you guys can extend an olive branch to the guy by being nice and you know, asking to be let into his territory.”

Cass hummed, which once again was not a yes or a no. She gently shook off Steph’s arm and looked at both Tim and Steph. “Why extend the olive branch?” She asked. “He is a murderer. He kills people and makes Batman sad, here.” She pointed to her chest, right above her heart.

Whelp, that’s an understatement. Anything to do with Jason Todd hurt Bruce. When Tim was first starting out as Robin he could barely mention Jason’s name without Bruce completely shutting down. It had gotten better over the years. Sometimes Bruce would mention Jason in passing or would say something about how the young boy used to be. But now that it was known that the Red Hood is Jason Todd, things have gone back to the way they were at the start and Tim did not know what to do other than avoid mentioning Jason or the Red Hood all together.

“Spoiler believes that there is more to the story than what B has said and that there we should hear Hood out and let him tell his side of the story.” Tim explained with another sigh. He wondered how many times he was going to end up sighing in this conversation and thought to himself that perhaps he should stop doing so already because ow, his ribs do not like it when he sighs at all. “She also believes there is a chance that his behaviour and actions could have been a cry for help and that we should perhaps try and talk to him instead of you know, fighting at any given chance.”

“Yep! That is some good summary skills there, Ex-Boyfriend of mine.” Steph nodded and looked at Cass expectedly. The mask made it impossible to tell what Cass was thinking. Not that it was easy for him to read Cassandra without the mask but it was slightly easier without the frankly unsettling mask staring at you in the eyes.

There is a good reason as to why he would never go for a full-face mask when he finally is ready to let go of being Robin. And that reason is that is that he is more than likely going to see his mask in the reflection of a window or something and then forget that it is his mask and then scream in fear. Which you know, would ruin the whole serious vigilante look he would be hoping for.

Thus, he will probably only stick to a domino. Or a cowl. But a cowl is slightly too Batman like and Tim did not want to be Batman. He would have to think on this more in-depth later.

“Cry for help?” Cass tilted her head again. “You believe that the killing is his way of crying for help?” If anyone else had said that, Tim would believe that they were being dismissive or sarcastic. But Cass just sounded curious.

“Well, yeah.” Steph waved her hands carelessly as she began to explain. “I met him a few times back when he was Robin. He was a great guy. He was kind. Sure, he was a little bit rougher than Nightwing was when dealing with scumbags and stuff but he always stuck around to make sure that the victims were okay. All of his interactions with you Bats so far look like lashing out and cries for help if you ask me. I mean, he dressed up in a frankly fucked up Robin costume and beat up Tim. He was apparently angry that there wasn’t a statue of him in the Tower like there was for all the other dead heroes and whatever the hell happened with the Joker and Batman was well…” She trailed off.

Tim shrugged. “No one knows what the hell happened with those three.” And it wasn’t from lack of trying to find out either. Bruce was tight lipped about the whole thing and the Joker apparently only laughed when he was asked what happened. Tim suspected that Alfred knew what went down because the older man had been very stiff and cold towards Bruce for several weeks and has only just started to warm back up to him again.

“You think that we should reach out to him?” Cass asked. “Show him we can offer help?”

Steph nodded enthusiastically at Cass’s attempt to clarify what they were telling her.

“I do think that! And I think that Wonder Boy here is the best person to do it.” She gently punched Tim’s shoulder as she said this, making him rock back a little close to the edge. Steph may not be a meta but her punches, gentle or not, were stronger than she realised.

“Why can’t you do it? He hates me.” Tim pointed out. He really did not understand why she wanted him to do this. Yes, getting permission from the Red Hood could open up a professional relationship between them where they could actively avoid each other unless they needed to do something in the other’s territory. And yes, he could definitely see Steph’s point about how Jason’s actions did seem like a huge cry for help.

But Tim has already been beaten once by Jason and he honestly did not want to have another round with the older teen. The fight between them showed Tim just how much he was lacking in his training and he could not help but feel a deep, festering bitterness that he would never be as good as Jason was. As good as Dick was. It was a bitterness he was trying to push away and forget about but it never seemed to go away.

Tim didn’t want to offer the older teen help and then accidentally drive him away because he could not get a hold of his own mental health issues. Issues that he needed to actually address sometime soon, least he turn into Bruce. Or a supervillain. Either one would be bad for his health in the long run.

Steph punched his shoulder again, this time harder; causing him to wince because ow, why, that hurts. “Because Boy Blunder, you don’t have any history at all with him. Except for, you know, him beating you. And you are more than likely a trigger for him because you are now Robin. But still, you at least don’t have a history like Batman and Nightwing do. And he knows nothing about you as a person! He probably only knows what he has read about you from the assassins he was with!”

“All the more reason why you should talk to him and not me! You are a stranger to him, not me! Spoiler is new and not actually connected to Batman and Robin. And if you haven’t noticed I am Robin and something tells me he does not like that I am Robin.” Tim waved his hands in what he could best describe as ‘I am emphasizing my point and you are not listening to me’. He learnt this gesture from Steph when they first became friends and has used it a lot over the years.

“Look Tim; think about it like this. You are brutally tortured and murdered. You wake up in your own grave, dig your way out and are taken in by evil assassins. You spend who knows how long with said assassins and find out you have been replaced by a younger, better model who comes from the complete opposite background as you do. Your attempt to kill your murderer doesn’t work and your father figure is a dick. How do you feel?” Steph put her head in her hands and sighed before continuing.

“You need to be the one who talks to him because you are a Bat and someone who probably makes him feel like he was replaced by a better, richer model and that you are everything that he isn’t. If you talk to him, show him you are an actual person and not some cardboard cut-out of someone who he wasn’t, then maybe you could actually get him to talk about what happened to him and help him! Yes, I am a stranger to him and while we could get along and stuff he is going to need someone who is a Bat to speak to him at some point and…” She groaned. “I messed up my point. Tim, you are someone who is actually a part of all of this mess. I am not. Just, go and ask him for permission to enter his territory. If he says no then he says no. I will go and follow up that lead for you if that is the case. But please, try at least.”

Tim groaned again and looked over at Cass to see what she had to say about all of this.

“You,” Cass pointed at Steph. “You want Robin to talk to Red Hood. Because Red Hood is hurting. And needs help. Robin means a lot to Red Hood. It was his name, who he was before the Joker killed him. If Robin shows that he is not…” She waved her hand in a very vague but Steph like manner. “If Robin shows that he is not who Red Hood thought he was then the Red Hood will feel less like he is replaced or… unworthy? Red Hood was a good Robin. Now he is not good as the Red Hood. Bad things happened to the Red Hood, made him hard and angry. Extending olive branch might help.”

“Yes! Thank you!” Steph let out a low breath. “Why are you guys so good at summarising everything?”

“Nightwing.” Both Tim and Cass said together. Dick had a habit of not only rambling but also talking fast and without breaks. A habit of both his ADHD and from being best friends with a Speedster. Anyone who works or is with Dick for long periods of time learns how to summarise what he says.

It is a handy trick for Tim to know, seeing as he is also best friends with a Speedster and Steph has a habit of rambling herself at times.

“So…?” Steph trailed off and Tim, though he said to himself that he wasn’t going to do it because ow, sighed and completely ignored the pain in his chest.

“If Batgirl is willing to bodyguard than I will go and ask Red Hood for permission into his territory.” Tim felt slightly defeated. He wanted to keep arguing that he really wasn’t sure that this was a good idea for either Jason or himself but at the same time he knows he would feel crap if he said no because Steph’s points were more than likely all true and-

And he did not want to be a person who ignores someone else who could be in need of help because he was selfish.

Tim has been lucky. Since becoming Robin he has had a wonderful support network that he has used a lot over the years and would never trade for anything in the world. Jason does not have that. Or at least Tim was pretty sure that Jason does not have that.

“I will bodyguard. Will only interfere if you are attacked. I will stay in the shadows and away from sight.” Cass said. “We do this tonight, on next patrol. It is late now. Time for bed soon.”

Cass was right, it was getting close to four am and Tim was due back into the Cave in less than half an hour. He was thankful that he did not have any classes until nine am because he wanted to have more than an hour sleep when he finally got back to his home.

“Oh wow. Today went quicker than expected.” Steph rocked back on her heels. “I am stuck in class tomorrow night but I expect to have at least three texts telling me how it all went from you both. Got it?”

Tim rolled his eyes but nodded. “Yes, yes. Three texts. If I get beat up you are so making me waffles.” He pulled her into a quick hug.

“Whatever, Ex-Boyfriend.” Steph pulled Cass into a hug of her own and then was grappling away with a careless wave.

“Do you think this is a good idea?” He asked Cassandra quietly now that they were alone on the ledge. Cass looked at him, the eyes on her mask stared directly into his own white out lenses.

“I think… that there is a possibility that the Red Hood is falling without a net. And that his lines may have been cut by accident. By Batman. By Robin.” She paused and looked up at the dark sky. “We can offer him a new line. And a net. Falling without a net or line… It is not good. That mindset. You feel like you are flying, until you hit the ground.”

Tim flinched at that imagery. Jason had been hurt by the Joker and whatever the hell happened with his resurrection and the League of Assassins. The trauma alone from that would be enough to make enough the sanest man go a little wonky. But whatever happened with B that night with the Joker…

Whatever happened might have taken away his line, like Cass said. But Tim was not overly convinced that this is a good idea. Cass must have read his hesitance because she spoke once more.

“He needs to see you as a person, like Spoiler said. Not just as a costume. He needs to see not Robin but you.” She gestured to his body. “When he attacked you, he was looking for reason as to why you were supposed to be better than him. He wanted to see, prove himself and you, that he was the better one. Because if he was not the better one, than him being replaced would have been a good thing.”

Tim frowned at that. He had not thought of it that way. While he could see the attack against him in the Tower as being a cry for help like Steph kept saying, he did not think to look as to the reasons why it was a cry for help. Steph and Cass both were good at getting him to take a step back and look at the full details of the bigger picture. He would certainly be lost (and probably more emotionally stunted) without them.

Tim knows that he should not use them as a crutch for explaining emotions and details that he may have missed about basic human reactions, but Tim was not ashamed to say that he did not connect with other people well and often missed simple emotional matters that should have been obvious to him. According to the internet, this was probably because he missed out on many key interactions with his parents due to them constantly traveling around the world and leaving him home with a nanny who discouraged most emotional reactions he had. Because his nanny believed that ‘boys don’t do emotions like girls and he should man up already’.

Tim really, really needed to get his mental health checked out sooner rather than later.

“Okay. Yeah, I see your point.” Tim conceded. “What about you? Are you going to try as well?”

Cass hummed and nodded after a moment. “Yes. Will try with Spoiler and Oracle. Give some space between us and you. Keep him from feeling trapped.”

He hummed in agreement and gestured to the edge that they were standing on. “I am heading back to the Cave. I take it you are going back to the Clock Tower?” He asked, feeling drained. This whole conversation and everything about it made him feel like he had fought off an energy sucking monster. He wanted to go back to the Cave, get into his own clothes and head back to his own home. Or maybe just crash at the Manor. He will see what kind of mood B was in when he got to the Cave.

“Back to Clock Tower.” Cass nodded again. “Will Comm you tonight. Find where you and Hood are. Go to bed.” She reached up and ruffled his hair fondly and then flung herself of the ledge with grace that only Nightwing could copy. He watched her grapple her way towards the Clock Tower until she was gone from his sights.

His bike was down in the alleyway below him and it would take him only a short time to get to the Cave from his location. Tomorrow, well tonight really, was going to be interesting to say the least. He would like to say that the growing pit inside his stomach was just anticipation and not the low level of fear at the thought of speaking to Jason face to face.

The Red Hood was volatile, dangerous and had a grudge against the Bats. Tim had no idea how this was going to go and it frightened him. Jason Todd could simply say yes or no. Or he could just shoot Tim in the head and Batgirl or no Batgirl there would be no stopping him if he does.

Normally, being in that kind of situation was sort of exciting. Like a free fall off the top of the Wayne Enterprises tower. It was a rush that left a bubbling feeling in his chest that just screamed ‘I am alive!’ but he did not feel that right now. He just felt a low level of fear bubbling away in his stomach, making him feel nauseous.

Jason made it clear that he did not like Tim. Did not want to be near him or see him. The beating he had taken was not the worst one he had suffered through. But it had hurt him. Hurt him badly because this was Jason Todd. Robin. The boy who Tim used to follow around with a camera around his neck hoping to see in action.

What do you say to a person that had once been one of your heroes after they beat the living shit out of you?

Tim did not want to think about it at all right now. He needed to get back to the Cave and back home before B and his dad start to worry. He would think about it before he goes onto patrol. Not now while his head was clouded. But later when he was rested and ready for the night.

#hellsbells wrote something!!!#Can You See Me Now?#batman fic #Batman #Tim Drake #Jason Todd #Stephanie Brown #cassandra cain

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batboys-batboys-whachu-gonna-do · 7 years ago

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"Let's finish this, brat! I want to go home," Jason yelled under his helmet while kicking one of the men that surrounded him.

"Todd, I'm not freaking magical so shut the hell up and do your damn job!" Damian yelled back from the other side of the room, where Jason couldn't directly see him. The only confirmation of Damian's work was his cursing and the bodies of the enemies hitting the floor loudly.

He chuckled under he's breath as he saw two of them trying to get up and then immediately sitting back down because of the current Robin's threats.

"Dare to come back here, and.." he said whilst flipping a man and making him hit the floor with a thud "...and you'll definitely NOT like it," he finished kicking another one's kneecap.

A strong punch in the stomach woke Red Hood from his trance, the poor guy wasn't even in a defensive stance so instead of using any weapon he just threw an uppercut knocking him out.

Jason had to admit that he tried to call the attention to him, but the kid was and easy target, or that's what the bad guys thought...and that affected greatly to the point where Damian had almost 15 more people around him than the legendary Red Hood.

Even if Jason knew that the brat could handle it, it was still unfair. For them, not for Damian, who seemed to enjoy it.

The Hood headed rapidly to the other room because of the sound of a threatening blade.

"What did I tell you about being too mean, Dames, huh?" He said, eyeing the many unconscious men in the room. Did he just talk like Dick? Dear god.

"T-T," Damian answered him using the handle of the sword to break some guy's nose.

Jason joined him amused by his little brother's way to obey his orders, they worked rarely in silence and more effectively than normal, just a few comments between them. Even if they weren't the best friends, there was always a promise of protection between them.

Almost half an hour later, they were done. Mostly because it was very easy: clear the place, no killing.

The master mind of the organization had already been taken out of the equation and the people in the building weren't even near the high ranks...they were just thieves and the trash that desperately craved something in the streets.

"Guys, we have a problem," Tim spoke in their ears as they waited in the rooftop of that place in the middle of nowhere and added, "you'll have to wait, we're having trouble in here."

Jason groaned,"How much, Timbers?"

"Five hours, more or less," Red Robin answered trying to sound at ease but failing epicly.

"Drake," Damian said softly but with a clear hint of anger, "What the hell happened?"

"Madness. No one is hurt, but this new whatever that is got us in a trap and with some kind of device blocked the Batwing and almost everything else. We're working on it," Tim explained quickly as if he was in a rush.

"I want a call at any change of situation, Drake." sighed Damian. Tim huffed at that, but answered affirmatively.

Jason started wandering around the rooftop, touching everything and looking more bored with each step. Damian analyzed the night, noticing in a weird gleam by the door, maybe the moonlight reflecting, but suddenly realized what it really was.

He moved faster than he thought he could and pushed Jason and himself off the roof.

"What the fuck, kid?" was the only thing that escaped Jason's mouth. He desperately tried to catch Damian in the air but something up there exploded, they felt the heat and the strength of the bomb making everything blow away,pushing them apart.

From that height, it was granted a certain death and in the commotion he couldn't even find Robin.

Out of nowhere a hand found its way to his and took a tight grasp. Damian had improvised, his eyes looked determined but he knew pain was going to come as soon as the rope tensed.

"Damian, I need you to push me up,"Jason shouted. They were in a horrible position, if they stayed like that both of Robin's arms would end up broken.

Damian tried his best, but there was no way he could just lift a man twice his size just using his body and there was no time. The rope tensed, and the sound of a loud crack and a feral whine flooded the air.

"Fuck, I'm so sorry, Dames," Jason said pulling himself up when they reached the wall. "Don't move, I'll take it from here," he added in a whisper watching the pain in Damian's eyes. The poor kid couldn't even talk.

Jason grabbed something out of Robin's utility belt and secured him to his chest.

The harsh surface of the building made climbing easier, he broke the nearest window and carefully entered the room trying to not cause Damian any more pain.

The kid soon started to drift into sleep, almost passing out.

"Damian, I'm gonna have to put them in place," warned Jason without hesitation, "or it'll be worse."

Robin just nodded and prepared himself by biting some cloth that Jason handed him. He closed his eyes and screamed as he felt the waves of pain hit him, big tears formed and disappeared into the cloth.

A soon as all Jason could do at the moment was done, Damian fell asleep.

"Timmy, we had a problem," Jason informed him, emotions mixed with his voice.

Tim made an annoyed sound and was interrupted by Jason,"Damian got both of his arms broken and I seriously don't want him to stay injured in a place like this. He's asleep because of the meds that I found in here, but I wouldn't trust them. Plus, we didn't kill anyone so they'll be probably waking up soon and if the police arrives..."

"Damn," his brother huffed on the other side of the line, preoccupation very present in his tone, "We'll get there as soon as we can or I'll send you someone"

"Okay," Jason simply responded, almost irritated, looking back at Damian, who was spreaded on the floor. He took his helmet off and putting the boy wonder in his arms he sat down, resting Damian's head in his shoulder and covering him with his cape.

An hour later Damian woke up with a grunt, "shit," he whispered waking Jason up too with the sound.

"Don't move too much," Jason warned him, so the little Wayne just rubbed his head on Jason's shoulder trying to find comfort.

"I'm sorry, I should have noticed before,"he said to the kid in his arms.

"Don't be," he answered and chuckled, "but it actually was your fault."

"I know," Jason stated bluntly, taking all the blame on himself. There was a change in Damian's eyes.

"Hey," he whispered, "don't worry about it. We're a team, like hell I was going to let something like that happen."

"And here I thought you hated me," he answered, surprised and filled with guilt.

"Tt, I'm just bugging you. If I truly hated you, I'd just ignore the hell out of you." Damian added, fully awake but still weak.

"Wait, but you do that with Tim all the time, does it mean...?" Jason stopped talking because of the bat-shut-up-now-stare the kid was giving him.

"Obviously not, if I really hated him I'd just start to question his job. You see, while you are in need of someone who acknowledges your presence, he is in need someone who trusts his decisions," Damian slowly explained with a stern look, like it was obvious

Jason was startled by how much the kid was talking in such pain, but let him continue, Damian never talked much to him anyway.

"The only moments I truly intervene physically is when he's stuck or about to do something stupid." The kid added thoughtfully.

"Dames, you two fight like every day"

"First of all, Drake is 24/7 in a state of sleep deprivation, and he needs to get out of the damn cave from time to time. Plus I get to bother him, it's a win-win situation," Damian told him glaring annoyedly to the ceiling and continued, "but I'm almost always aware of what he's investigating. Being in that state can compromise the missions."

"And what about me, pup? Do you have an eye on me too?" Jason laughed as he saw Damian nodding in an odd manner, with unfazed but surprisingly warm eyes.

"I know where all your safe houses are. Remember whe you got pizza delivered every time you were in one? Yeah...and no sleeping unless I know everyone is home. Pennyworth doesn't like it, but I use the time wisely." Damian was slipping many of his secrets in that conversation, maybe it was because of the situation or the medicine, Jason thought.

"What about the girls?" Jason asked.

"I respect them too much to do anything to them, and Cass will still eat my food even if I lick it so it's pointless. I've gotten to appreciate our current Fatgirl" Damian smiled at the thought, "..and everyone gets enough annoyed with my fights with Tim so there's no actual need. The only one that never seems to be bothered is Dick, I'd have to really kill someone to for him to be mad at me and I think he would still forgive me."

"He would, but you don't want to see him truly mad. He's worse than Bruce"

"Really? He never seemed to be like Father," Damian wondered and perked his eyebrows up, encouraging Jason to speak.

"He's different in many ways, but Bruce raised him up and some things always stay with us." Jason explained, hoping Damian would understand him.

"Father is.." Damian started but Jason asked right away, "why do you call him like that?"

"What else should I call him, idiot? He's my father," said Damian harshly, making his question sound way more stupid than it was.

"It's just that it doesn't sound affectionate, I don't know," Jay said.

"Maybe it's because of the way I learned English." The kid said as if it explained everything.

"Wait, English isn't your first language?

"Nope, it's Arabic" Damian responded. Suddenly his eyes lighted up remembering something.

"The first Christmas I spent here was very weird, mostly because reading about something is pretty different from experiencing it.

Anyways, for some Dick of a reason," the boy said gaining a a hard laugh from Jason, "Father didn't let me go on patrol because Dick said that I had to stay home and enjoy the real Christmas. How the heck would I enjoy being alone? on Christmas? But at the moment I really didn't get what it all was about so I followed what Pennyworth said. And I'm not gonna lie, I actually had fun, but it was just the two of us, and surely Pennyworth wanted to have everyone already home as much I wanted." He made a pause, making sure Jason was listening and kept going, " All of you arrived later than expected and I was so tired because of the patrols of the nights before that somehow I just switched languages. I called Father Baba , he almost choked." A grin spreader on Damian face, but the pain could still be clearly seen.

"What does it mean?" Jason inquired mostly because he wanted to hear Damian's voice, because in fact he knew what it meant.

"It's something like daddy, more or less" the kid confessed, and switched his position to face Jason. He didn't look bothered nor embarrassed, just tired.

"Maybe he wasn't ready to hear it," Jason suggested shrugging slowly to not hurt Damian, but he managed to hurt him with his words.

That's when it hits him, the hopeless look on Damian's eyes, the pout on his mouth and the way he tried to hold back his tears: Damian was just a kid. Jason would call him that to annoy him, not because he thought that the Robin was one. It didn't matter how hard his eyes looked in the field, he had seen worse stuff in his short life than Bruce in his own, and the boy was still a little kid.

He had been programmed since he was a baby to be perfect and he had betrayed his mother by joining Batman, a man he didn't know, and Jason bet it was way harder that it sounded.

Jason remembered his time with the League and wanted to shout, he wanted to kill Talia with his own hands. He wanted to slap Bruce in the face and tell him that Damian needed him, that he himself needed him. He wanted to erase the bad memories out of his brother's head, but the sad truth was that maybe he'd have to erase everything.

Instead of saying anything, he just pressed his foreheads together as he had seen many mothers do to their children . Jason didn't expect the sound he heard, it was a genuine giggle. Damian Wayne was giggling, that broken kid. A kid that got dragged into a cruel world, that had no chance,no choice, that didn't think he could choose.

Jason giggled too, the boy's laugh was contagious enough to make him feel something tingling in his chest. He really needed to stay away from Dick and his gross brotherly behavior.

"What is so funny?" He asked Damian while opening his eyes only to see a pair of green ones staring him back.

"I can't explain why, but it makes me feel better."

"Yeah?" Jason asked incredulous, still the smile in his face

"Affirmative," the boy answered resting his head against the Hood's shoulder.

"Hey, pup," Jason called after a while, "do you like being a Robin?"

"Honestly? I don't know, but I have to do it. Father needs a Robin," he answered simply.

"No, Bruce needs a son. Batman needs a Robin," the man closed his eyes, "you've been fighting for too long and you didn't even choose to do so. Is there something you wanna do, kiddo? I know you're super intelligent and probably in the League they already thought you all any school could teach you, but...?" He inquired, feeling Damian moving nervously in his lap.

"I enjoy painting," the kid said, kind of embarrassed and proud at the same time, "Pennyworth says I'm as skilled in that matter as I am in sword fighting," he added.

Jason let an approving sound escape his lips," and that's much to say since you'd kick all of our butts if we were challenged to a duel, including Bruce"

"Probably," he answered, but didn't sound proud or anything else. It was a plain voice, he probably had bad memories about it. Maybe even nightmares in which he had to fight his family.

"Let's do something," he told his younger brother, "while you recover I'll do all of your patrols and when you're back on the game I'll ask you again if you want to go on field. If you want, maybe you and I can put our patrols together and if you don't want to I'll talk to Dick and Bruce. Maybe I can make them understand, you know, that way you avoid getting in fights."

"If I decide to quit, I want to be with you when we tell them" Damian stated, still unsure but determined to stand for himself.

"Okay, buddy" Jason answered, caressing the boys hair.

Damian fell asleep again in that position, curled in Jason's legs. Jason talked to the device in his ear.

"Timmy, how are we doing?" He asked, but instead of hearing his brothers voice there was a deep rage filled voice: Bruce.

"What the hell happened there? It was a simple mission, almost impossible to get hurt and you still managed blow more things up." The man said in the other line, not that Jason wasn't used to it, but one thing was getting himself hurt and other thing was being the cause of someone getting hurt. So for once in his life, he didn't talk back, he just listened to Bruce ranting and telling him all the stupid things he had done that night, and in all his life. He could hear the preoccupation hid behind the rage, but it was unreachable for everyone.

"Father," they heard Damian in the communicator, his voice muffled and sleepy, "no blame must be held, the trap was placed to be undetectable."

Bruce released a grunt of disapproval, but he sounded also relieved.

"I want the details of what happened when you come back, and you two are grounded" Bruce stated firmly.

Jason just couldn't contain himself and said, "Bruce I don't even live with you and Damian has both of his arms broken" he could feel how Bruce was about to snap again, but Damian snorted just before Batman could even start. Bruce stopped himself immediately and asked with an alarmed voice, "what's wrong? Something happened?"

"What? No, Bruce, he's just laughing. Have you ever heard of that?" Jason answered, looking at Damian in his lap, who chuckled and said, "You're an idiot, Todd."

#jaydami #brothers #jason todd #damian wayne #the batman #my fic #my first real fanfic #tell me if you like it #i know its a bitbout of character and i hope to improve

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bigskydreaming · 6 years ago

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Ultimately I think the most defining characteristic of Dick Grayson - and the thing that makes him most distinct from Bruce, Jason and Tim (though possibly not Damian)....is that Bruce, Jason, Tim and most of the other Batclans’ morality is based on their worldviews, certain personal codes.

Dick’s sense of right and wrong is based entirely on people.

Don’t get me wrong, Bruce, Jason and Tim all care very deeply for the people they let into their hearts, but they all have certain lines they won’t cross. With Bruce and Tim, its because they’re afraid of what crossing those lines would turn them into, who they might become. With Jason its because he’s always had a personal code of honor, who deserves his righteous anger and who doesn’t....and there are absolutely certain things that a person can do that might result in moving from one side of that line in his head to the other. He partners with morally gray characters all the time, and is fine with them up until the moment he’s not; there are some things he can overlook and other betrayals he won’t tolerate. In ways that are more reminiscent of how strictly Bruce sticks to his personal standards than the way Dick will bend until he breaks in order to make allowances for those same things.

With Dick though...he doesn’t care about right or wrong so much as he cares about people. For the people he values most in his life, there is NO line he won’t cross. People focus on the fact that he freaked out after killing the Joker and that Bruce brought him back, but that doesn’t change the fact that he still killed the Joker. When he went undercover with Spyral while knowing how much it would hurt his loved ones to believe he was still dead, I’ll always emphasize the fact that he was in an extremely traumatized state of mind having literally just DIED and also Bruce was using every tool in his I Know Dick Grayson And How Much He Needs to Be Needed And Valued By Me toolbox to browbeat him into taking the mission, BUT I think in particular, its extremely key that Bruce was able to convince him that was necessary not because the mission required it, but because it was what was safest for his friends and family.

(And someday soon, I reeeeally need to make a post talking about how the thing on Dick’s mind the entire time he and Bruce fought in the cave in NW #30, and the death he was feeling guilty about...was Damian’s. Because Damian, not that long before, literally died TO SAVE Dick’s life, and there’s no way Dick doesn’t blame himself for THAT in particular. And add in Bruce’s tendency to tunnel vision in his grief, and despite how good he is at comforting his kids when grieving for others he doesn’t have a close personal relationship with, like helping Dick deal with his first parents’ deaths, when Bruce additionally is grieving, he absolutely loses his perspective and fails to EVER factor in the fact that people other than him are grieving too. See his reactions after Alfred’s death, Damian’s death, Jason’s death....at no point does he EVER check in with his kids and acknowledge that many of them have their own feelings about these losses and are grieving, that its not just HIM affected by these things. Taking Jason back to Magdala Valley after Damian’s death, kicking Dick out after Jason’s....Bruce has an unfortunate tendency to compound his childrens’ grief by virtue of the writers making any loss all about being HIS loss and never even considering that his kids are feeling things too. The second someone in Bruce’s family is hurt, the writers are like, well clearly Bruce is the only one who cared about them, and this trend fucking SUCKS, but I progenitor-fucking DIGRESS.

Anyway, my point being.....Dick absolutely blamed himself for Damian’s death, and fearing someone else getting hurt because of his actions or inactions was I think the pivotal point in getting him to take the Spyral mission, and it being Bruce who expressed that in particular.....matters. Because I also think Dick ADDITIONALLY felt that because of how Damian died, BRUCE blamed Dick for Damian’s death, and Bruce never offered anything to make Dick feel otherwise, or make Dick feel like Bruce in any way acknowledged that Damian’s loss weighed heavily on Dick too, as Dick had freaking RAISED the kid for over a year when Bruce was thought lost....AND I also think its important to acknowledge that the LAST time one of Bruce’s children, one of Dick’s siblings, died.....when Jason died in A Death In the Family....Bruce ALSO blamed Dick for that, verbally and with intent. And never ever walked it back, apologized or expressed otherwise.

And that’s a HUGE plot/character point that has never been adequately examined in my opinion...that Dick’s tendency to be self-sacrificing when it comes to his siblings’ safety is NOT because he doesn’t care about their own autonomy or wants to take away their choices or doesn’t trust in their own competency to protect themselves....its because history has shown that BRUCE tends to hold Dick accountable for what happens to his siblings, as Bruce desperately attempts to deflect from his own feelings of guilt, and Dick’s the closest/easiest target for deflection. Except given that Bruce sucks at apologies, Bruce also fails to ever point out AFTER the fact that no, Dick isn’t to blame for these tragedies, and without that crucial point....why WOULDN’T Dick believe that deep down, Bruce DOES blame him for these things, and thus Dick considers his own safety less paramount than that of his siblings?

Also keep in mind that when you factor in Bruce’s death-wish after Jason’s death and quest to bring Damian back to life, versus after Dick’s death sending him into kinda exile where he’d be literally out of sight/out of mind in a constant state of danger rather than where Bruce could reassure himself that Dick was safe and protected by him and the family....and ALSO factor in the period after Dick left home, when they went over a year without talking and which included myriad missions where Dick came very close to dying and there was no acknowledgment of any of this from Bruce or attempt to reconcile on his end or even make sure Dick was doing alright by checking in......and all Bruce really had to do to change this situation was like.....take the initiative to reach out to Dick.....basically I’m just saying, from Dick’s perspective, it looks like history proves that he’s the one kid of Bruce’s that Bruce is most capable of living without. And all that matters in the Spyral discussion. BUT I DIGRESS).

ANYWAY.

Back to Dick and his morality:

For the people he loves, there is absolutely no line he won’t cross, no crime he won’t commit, no betrayal he won’t enact. He might beat himself up for it until the day he dies, never forgive himself, decide he deserves to never be forgiven by anyone else....but he’ll still DO it, first.

After the Spyral mission and Dick being alive was revealed, Tim accused Dick of being just like Bruce, but I disagree. The lines Bruce crosses in others’ eyes, he crosses for the sake of his mission, for the good of people in the ABSTRACT, the overall populace. There’s never been any mission that makes Dick cross similar lines...unless that mission is saving or protecting or rescuing someone he loves INDIVIDUALLY, a specific person or persons. And at that point, he’ll go much further than even Bruce will, no matter what it costs him.

Because of that, this trait of Dick’s is a flaw as much as its a virtue. DC writes Dick as a multiversal constant, with him being incorruptible across all universes. I agree and don’t agree. I think this could certainly be true, but from a different angle than DC usually goes with. Its not that Dick will always stick to ‘the right side’ in every reality, based on what the majority of people would deem being the right side. Its that what Dick views as the right side is whatever’s on the side of those he loves. THAT’S the way in which he’s truly incorruptible...the one essential truth of what it means to be Dick Grayson that he’ll never betray.

So IMO its not really a given that Dick would always be a hero, no matter what....its more that those who have his loyalty most, earned that by being the people who showed him the most genuine affection when he needed it most. And in most realities, these people are heroes themselves, hence Dick is a hero like them. In a reality where say, Slade Wilson rescued him from juvie before Bruce found out he was in there, if Slade took him on as his apprentice and gave him at least as much praise and attention as Bruce did in other realities.....there’s every likelihood that Dick Grayson would have grown up adhering to Slade’s far more flexible sense of right and wrong.

Back to the various canons however, this is why Dick will never fully separate himself from Bruce, no matter how mad Bruce makes him, or how much he hurts him. It’s also why Dick’s always so prone to trying to play peacemaker in his family....while the times he fails at that are the times someone in his family NEEDED him to take their side, and he’s trying futilely to take ALL sides. He could forgive Jason for anything Jason does....but he can’t defend Jason trying to hurt Bruce or Tim or Damian, who have Dick’s loyalty just as fully. He can understand and sympathize with most anything Bruce does....except for when that leaves Jason out in the cold. He’ll give Robin to Damian because he truly believes Damian needs it more than Tim, but fail at explaining himself to Tim, defending himself, because he doesn’t actually believe he can defend himself, he knows he hurt Tim, he’ll beat himself up for it forever, but he also knows that it was what Damian needed, so he’s just sorta....stuck.

He’s always on every one of his family member’s side, but never as much as they WANT him to be, because they’re all usually so at odds that sometimes they basically demand that you’re either with them or against them, and Dick just fundamentally can not DO that, make that choice. He just tries to...and fails, because its literally the definition of impossible for him.

And it becomes even more of a problem in the instances where he gives his loyalty to someone who doesn’t deserve it or have his best interests in mind. Its why he gives more second chances than most anyone else, something that’s been to the benefit of many of his friends and family....but also why he gives more second chances than he should to Slade or others that he feels a sense of responsibility or obligation or even just kinship to.

Look at the fallout of Blockbuster’s death. As much as Dick blamed himself for not saving Blockbuster, that he decided that was his responsibility (based on his perception of the moral codes he lives by when a loved one’s life isn’t on the line, his ‘default’ morality, one shaped by the opinions and values of the PEOPLE Dick values most)....the other side of the Blockbuster fallout was that Dick felt that he’d failed TARANTULA. Blockbuster’s actual murderer and Dick’s actual rapist. This is actually completely in character if you consider the fact that Dick took responsibility for Tarantula long before this. He agreed to take her on as kind of an apprentice, try and steer her away from her tendency towards killing and teach her to be a vigilante in line with the Batfamily’s personal code, someone who could work with them and gain Bruce’s approval.

Problem is, after Tarantula made HER choice to turn her back on that and go in the opposite direction, it wasn’t that simple for Dick, not a matter of just snipping the thread that connected them in his mind. He still felt responsible for her, and thus responsible for her decisions. Her murder of Blockbuster was his failure because he’d failed to convince her to act differently. He held himself accountable in place of the accountability he knew she’d never accept...because in Dick’s mind, a mind where right and wrong are dependent on how much he cares about the person doing right or wrong, feels responsible for them....he’d already designated Tarantula as someone he’d go to most any length for, and thus he genuinely had trouble accepting her actions as wrong, and something he should turn his back on her for....and the only option that left him was accepting her actions as HIS fault, that HE’D been the one to do wrong, by not keeping things from ever getting to that point.

And the other area where this tends to be a flaw most, is the way this creates such a disconnect between him and people he cares about, who don’t get his reasoning, the fundamental logic at the heart of all his decisions. Because most of the people in his life DO base their sense of right and wrong on certain immutable standards, rather than their morality being inherently flexible, depending on who they focus it on at any given moment, like Dick does.

Again, look at what Tim said when they all found out Dick was still alive. Tim was disappointed, he said he’d thought Dick was different from Bruce, that this was something Bruce would do but he’d never have expected it from Dick.

Except its about context. Dick IS different from Bruce, just as much then as any time before. Bruce would always have done something like that for the sake of his mission, if he felt it demanded it. And Jason, Tim, the rest of the Batclan, they would always say that was wrong, because THEIR code of conduct, their sense of morality was set to different standards, ones that didn’t go as far towards the mission and away from its effect on people. They couldn’t sympathize with ever going to that length, doing that to people they loved, for the sake of the mission. And in that context, Dick would always be on the same side as them, here. Because he would agree, in his mind it would be equally indefensible to do that for the sake of an ABSTRACT, you don’t do that to the people you care about, for some goal or ideal or pursuit that you’ve placed above the actual people you care about.

But where I think Tim and Jason and Barbara don’t understand Dick is they read his siding with them on matters like that in the past as an indication his sense of right and wrong is right in the same general area as theirs.....instead of being the complete opposite end of the mission vs people spectrum. Bruce is unerringly on the side of the mission, the thing he values most because he bases his OWN worth to people on how well or not he commits to the standards he’s set for himself. The others are in the middle of mission vs people, sometimes choosing one over the other, sometimes the reverse, with it dependent on context - who are the people in question, what is the mission in question, what matters most in this particular instance, someone they know or something they know they’d agree with them is the right thing to do, etc. But though Dick is facing Bruce from the same general direction as the rest of them, resulting in him often taking their side of an argument more fully than he takes Bruce’s.....Dick’s in a whole separate sphere behind them, fully in the people above all zone.

So Dick never changed position, he never swapped his morality with Bruce’s, he never did anything differently from how he’s always acted...he’d just never before been in a position with his family, where they realized they weren’t as much on the same page with him as they’d thought. Dick understands what he did hurt them, he always knew it would, he accepted the guilt from that....but he never apologized, because he knows he’d make the same choice again. He didn’t do it because the mission demanded it, because Bruce said this was important enough to warrant lying to everyone - because he’d never agree with that. He did it because Bruce said this was the only way to keep his loved ones safe, and that he needed Dick to go on this undercover mission to end Spyral’s threat to the family and hero community at large....and ‘you need to do this for your family’s sake’ are the magic words for Dick. The ones that’ll make him agree to anything. (Such as agreeing to be the Court of Owls’ Talon - even with the intention of bringing them down from the inside, he’d still never agree to that, submit to that, unless someone he loved was on the line, like Damian had been). And that’s the part Tim, Jason and Barbara didn’t get...he acted like they expected Bruce to act, but for entirely different reasons.

Don’t get me wrong - I think Dick knows right from wrong no matter the context. Its not so much as his view of whether or not something is right shifts from one moment to the next. Its more just how much he allows whether something is right or wrong to influence his actions, based on the context around it...THAT’S what shifts. Because again.....his willingness to BE wrong is key. He engages in a lot of actions at times that on the surface might appear hypocritical given how much he talks about those very kinds of actions being wrong in other circumstances....but I’d argue that its not really hypocritical because at no point does he reverse course in what he actually states or believes is the right thing to do, just because he actually does something he’s previously stated is wrong. Its not hypocrisy when he does something he’s said is wrong, because he’s not fooling himself that its suddenly NOT wrong just because he’s the one doing it. Its just he believes its necessary to the point where he’s okay with the consequences or moral conundrums of doing it even WHILE accepting that its wrong.

He thinks killing is wrong. But if it came down to killing someone or letting someone he cared about die, with NO other way out....Bruce might find himself frozen, paralyzed by being faced with an impossible choice that he finally has NO alternative to without plot contrivance, which is realistically all that really keeps Bruce from never ending up in this situation. Thus keeping Bruce from acting, meaning his loved one dies....and then Bruce would torture himself forever with that failure, and with his choice or lack of action. In the exact same scenario though....Dick would have no illusions about what he was doing, he wouldn’t suddenly decide, oh, killing this person is fine....but he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them to save his loved one’s life....and then Dick would torture himself forever with THAT choice, that action, with his failure to find an alternative solution. Similar situations, similar outcomes, entirely opposite motivations and choices.

So yeah, Dick always knows right from wrong, no matter the situation - its just that he doesn’t always CARE. Not when someone he cares about is at stake. The moment that becomes true, the second he can’t find ANY viable alternative to whatever ‘wrong’ thing he’d have to do to save or protect or rescue them....he’ll do what he thinks he has to. He’s the walking epitome of ‘they can hate me as much as they want, as long as they’re alive to do it.’

And similarly....he might lecture or yell or judge or any and all of those things, but again I think that has less to do with hypocrisy and more to do with being caught between a rock and a hard place. I think he KNOWS his moral flexibility works way differently than most people understand. He doesn’t expect people to be like him, or even understand him, it just is what it is. So he doesn’t bother trying to explain it nearly as much as he should, I think....probably because it IS so opposite to Bruce’s motivations and personal code, that Dick decided early on there just wasn’t any point trying to convey how and why he makes certain decisions he makes.

So yeah, he might lecture Jason about killing, but he’ll never actually give up on Jason, no matter what he does. But at the same time, Dick can’t ever actually give up on Bruce, no matter how much Bruce pushes Jason away because of their opposing stances and how much that hurts Jason. And it all tends to snowball, because as much as Bruce and Jason are frustrated at each other for their opposing stances and are unwilling to concede, Dick’s eternally frustrated with BOTH of them, because the part he thinks is most significant is that they both still care about each other and he just bottom line doesn’t GET why that isn’t enough for them to find an understanding.

Back to Damian....I said at the start of this that Dick might not be so distinct from Damian here, and I think they actually have more in common than people realize. They DO have a closer relationship than any others in the family, and its not unreasonable that Tim and Jason have concluded that Damian is Dick’s favorite and vice versa...but I don’t think that’s quite true. It’s not that Dick loves Damian more than them or that Damian loves Dick more than their father. Its that they understand each other in a way that the others don’t. (I also think it has to do with the fact that as much as Dick eventually made his peace with Jason, Tim and even Steph being Robin and taking his family name, IMO its still a big deal, even if only subconsciously, that Damian was the first time HE got to give Robin to someone, to choose, to say here is my name, my family name, I’m inviting you into my family with this).

But yeah, as much as Damian’s learned to question the teachings he grew up with, I think ultimately that’s only been possible to the degree that its happened, because Damian is like Dick in that his morality revolves around people. Whether or not this is because Dick was the one to first break through the walls he put up, the first one to truly show Damian the affection he’d been starved for his whole life....who can say. He definitely played a formative role in who Damian’s become, but I think it comes down to the nature vs nurture argument, and where you stand on that. Is Damian like Dick because Dick’s the first one to really care about him and make him WANT to be different? Or is Dick the one who got Damian to care and want to be different because Dick was the one most like Damian in this particular way?

Regardless, yes, Damian knows right from wrong now, he understands his family’s stance on killing...but his abiding by those rules and overriding everything he’s been taught about killing, I think has less to do with him AGREEING with this new stance and everything to do with him wanting to be who they want him to be. Refraining from killing because he knows its what Bruce - and Dick - and the others he cares about want from him and for him. But no matter how far in the future, or how long he lives with Bruce and the family and goes without killing, if it came down to a choice between killing someone and letting someone he cares about die - Damian wouldn’t hesitate. And I think a lot of people both in universe and in fandom would point to that as him reverting to form, or character regression, or have them say he hasn’t changed as much as people thought after all....but I think that’d be just as much a mistake as the way Tim said Dick was just like Bruce now. Because if that happened, it would be because Damian NEVER changed....in the sense that he was always going to do what he thought was right based on what was at stake for the people he values. And he always has.

I think it fits perfectly that Damian was the only one who didn’t give Dick any shit about his death and Spyral when he returned - and not just because Damian had been dead when that happened and thus Dick hadn’t actually ever lied to him. It was because at the end of the day, Damian instinctively GOT IT in the way the others didn’t. He understood Dick’s reasoning because he knows Dick in ways the others don’t, because the things Dick taught him that resonated most with Damian, Damian in turn knew Dick only said because he understood they would resonate, and why. Damian didn’t judge Dick for it, because Damian would have done the same thing. And for the same reasons Dick did it, not because Damian’s any more like Bruce in that regard than Dick is.

So yeah, for all that the various members of the Batfamily have very different specifics to their personal moral codes, I think Jason and Bruce are actually the most alike in WHY they do what they do, and Damian and Dick are the most alike in the opposite regard. And Tim I think is in between them, not AS flexible in his morality as Dick and Damian, but not as rigid as Jason and Bruce are either. His flexibility has more to do with Tim NOT wanting to be anything like Ra’s and keeping a tighter leash on his own views and choices. Tim’s probably the most introspective of the Batfamily, and I think he’d likely be closer to Dick and Damian in this way if not for the fact that he’s also so analytical and constantly evaluating his own choices and reasoning in ways Dick and Damian - both more intuitive and emotional people than Tim - don’t necessarily bother with as much. Tim’s also come closer to making decisions he REALLY isn’t proud of or comfortable making than either Dick or Damian, and thus like Bruce, he’s more afraid of who he might become if he doesn’t keep such a tight reign on his actions.

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