#anyway how do we feel about teacher!tim/student!jason?

[ladytauria]

.

[pawsitivelymiraculous]

Meeting for the first time. (Day one)

A/N: Okay so I'm going to try to do this. I am going to make a tag list so if you want to be tagged please let me know. Btw most of them are going to be one shots but I may continue some of them like this one. Also, I'm sorry for the rushed ending and the formatting, my computer decided to hate me today so I'm doing this from my phone I'll fix it tomorrow.

@biodad-bruce-month

Masterlist

Meeting Part one

"Marinette, sweetheart, you are adopted."

Adopted

When her parents told her they had something important to talk to her she figured it was about school or worst-case scenario, they found out about her extracurricular activities as a super heroine.

No, instead they told Marinette that her whole life had been a lie. 

They sat her down and explained that she had been adopted when she was nine months old. They tripped over themselves trying to reassure her that they loved her as their own and tried to defend the reason why they never told her.

Marinette didn't know what to think. Things like this were only supposed to happen in movies. Not become her reality. 

Marinette felt so confused as she tried to process it all. None of it made sense. Tom and Sabine were her biological parents. They… they had to be.

But, the truth was slowly sinking in. 

Marinette had never truly understood the expression "ignorance is bliss" until that moment. Somehow not knowing the truth felt like a better option than the alternative.

"But, why now?" Marinette asked hesitantly. "If you weren't planning to ever tell me, then why do it now?" 

She really hoped she was wrong, but in movies that was when they tell her that one of her bio parents died. Usually, said parent was royalty meaning that she would be next in line for the throne. Oh gosh, would she have to move to a strange country and rule it? 

Oh wait, she was apparently born in America. And as far as Marinette knew, America didn't have a monarch.

She snapped out of her thoughts in time to see Tom and Sabine share a look. Finally, Sabine spoke up "Do you remember the scholarship honey?"

She did. 

Marinette had been given a one in a lifetime opportunity to study in a prestigious art school in the outskirts of Paris and was offered a scholarship that covered half of the tuition.

Unfortunately, the Dupain-cheng's didn't have enough money to cover the other half. While the bakery was fairly popular, all of their savings had dried up the month prior when the delivery truck broke down, and they were forced to buy a new one.

Because of this, Marinette had to turn down the scholarship. 

Marinette's stomach dropped as she realized that her parents... or well Tom and Sabine had been struggling financially, even without the scholarship, because of her, with the knowledge of being adopted she couldn't help but feel like an unnecessary burden to them.

Seeing her daughter's crestfallen expression, Sabine rushed to Marinette's side giving her a small hug before saying. "Sweetie, we love you okay? And it broke our hearts when you had to turn down that amazing opportunity, so we tried to contact your biological father hoping he would be able to help us." She explained. 

"We never heard back from him." Tom chimed in "but we thought it would be better to let you know in case we do later on." 

Marinette nodded. That… made sense, and it was far better than what Marinette had immediately assumed.

Still, all the information was too overwhelming. Marinette needed to talk to the kwamis, they would help her understand the situation better. 

"I- I need to go." Marinette stood up and sprinted up the stairs, towards her room. Ignoring her parents who called after her.

She ran up to her bed and landed face first in it. All the kwamis flew out from their hiding spots and gathered around her.

Tikki nuzzled her cheek. "Oh Marinette, I'm so sorry."

Marinette let out a small humorless chuckle. "So, you heard huh?"

"Sure did, bug." Plagg said, floating close to her face. "Personally, I think we should find that father of yours and… you know… bless him with a not so great day."

This time Marinette actually laughed. "I think you meant curse and no, we are not going to do that." Plagg rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, Marinette felt tired. She could continue talking with the kwamis later. She needed to sleep, yeah"I think I'm going to sleep for a bit," she informed them

Tikki nodded. "Sweet dreams Marinette." The rest of the kwamis echoed this as Marinette drifted off to sleep.

~♡~♡~♡~

Plagg grinned as he turned on the computer. 

Tikki flew up to him. "What are you doing?" She asked, scandalized.

"We are going to google Pigtails' biological father," he explained. 

Tikki groaned, "you don't even know how to use a computer! And there's no 'we' if you want to do something that's your problem!"

Plagg smirked devilishly "Sugar Cube, we are literal gods. We can do this! Don't you want to know who he is."

Tikki begrudgingly agreed, she even helped him open the browser. "Okay so type in 'Bruce Wayne'"she instructed. "And then press that weird looking key that says enter alright?"

Plagg complied. The two kwamis turned to look at the results. 

Both kwamis gaped at the screen. Plagg whispered."Well, if this is the same guy but if so-"

"Then Marinette is the daughter of a billionaire." Tikki cut in, examining the picture. "Plagg, I think this is him."

"It's the eyes isn't it?" Tikki nodded.  "Yeah, well that would mean that a freaking billionaire ignored the pleas of the adoptive parents of his biological daughter!" Plagg exclaimed, growing angry.

"Well maybe he didn't believe them?" Tikki tried to reason.

Plagg suddenly growled at the screen."Look! He has like as many kids as he has money!" 

Tikki frowned, "Then why would he abandon his daughter?"

"Because he's a jerk! And I thought my kid's dad was bad!" Plagg glared at the picture causing Tikki to giggle. "What?"

"I don't think I've ever seen you so worked up over something that isn't cheese." She teased.

Plagg huffed, "well, your Bug gives me cheese, but if she's sad then she forgets. So it's really in my best interest to make sure Pigtails isn't upset."

Tikki laughed. "Yeah, yeah I totally believe you." She said sarcastically. "Anyways, do you think Marinette realizes her father is famous? "

Plagg snorted. "Are you kidding? If she knew she would still be freaking out." Tikki hummed in agreement. "Well, I think that now that we know who he is it's time to do what Pigtails would not let me do." Plagg concluded.

"Wait, what? No!" Tikki exclaimed.

"Ooo can I help with that?" A new voice asked. The kwamis turned to see Kaalki looking at them with a mischievous grin.

"Sure thing!" Plagg said just as Tikki was saying "No!"

The two ignored the spotted kwamii and began plotting how they were going to make sure Bruce Wayne would have the most unfortunate luck for at least a couple of days.

~♡~♡~♡~

It had not been a very good day for Bruce.

The DNA test had finally arrived, and he found out that he did, in fact, have another biological child. Unfortunately, Tim found the test and his efforts of trying to keep it a secret had been in vain because then most of his children interrogated him about their newfound sibling. Even Jason was there which was surprising.

Thankfully, they were wise enough not to tell Damian, because otherwise Marinette Dupain-cheng would have been in grave danger.

Dick, along with the rest, insisted that they needed to meet Marinette. So with the help of Tim, they arranged a trip to Paris for the next day. Meaning that Bruce had less than 12 hours to find Marinette and talk to her before that happened.

So as soon as all of his kids left, he asked Alfred to arrange an early flight. 

Which is how he found himself in front of Collège Françoise Dupont, the high school his daughter attended. 

In the rush, he had forgotten to call beforehand, so he called Alfred and asked him to inform Marinette's parents of his arrival. 

Bruce still wanted to talk to Marinette before Dick or someone else inevitably found out that he had left. So he got out of the car and walked inside, only to be greeted by a very flustered looking principal.

It wasn't until she called him "Mister Wayne" that Marinette realized who he was. 

"Mister Wayne! It's uh, an honor to meet you!" The man exclaimed nervously while shakily  extending his hand. "I received your call and I informed Marinette's homeroom teacher of your arrival. They- they should be in my office right now."

Bruce thanked him. On the way to the office Mr. Damocles told him "What an excellent student" Marinette was. He insisted that Marinette was one of the best students in his school. It made Bruce suspicious of the way that principal treated the rest of his students.

Finally, they arrived at the office. Marinette sat in a chair looking rather confused as her teacher stood next to her wearing a tight smile.

Mrs. Bustier introduced herself in a similar manner as Mr. Damocles. 

It wasn't until she called him "Mister Wayne" that Marinette realized who he was. 

Her face paled as she let out a small gasp. "You- you are my father."

In retrospect, he probably should have introduced himself to her first.

[sohotthateveryonedied]

You Gotta Fend for Yourself

Read here on AO3!

Summary:

Bruce is Tim's emergency contact. He gets a call to meet Tim at the ER.

“I’m looking for a patient.” The woman behind the ER desk looks bored as she eyes Bruce, takes in the pressed suit and diamond cufflinks. The way he fidgets, drumming his fingers on the desk and trying very hard not to look as anxious as he feels. It’s easier to reign in his worry when he’s wearing the cowl. “Name?” “Tim Drake.” “Give me a minute.” She types his name into the computer, and Bruce can’t help but wonder how she manages to type with such long fingernails. “Your son is in bed eight. It’s over there, against the far wall.” She points him in the general direction. Bruce considers correcting her on the fact that Tim is certainly not his son, but he doesn’t need to tell this complete stranger that. Let her think what she wants. He thanks her and goes where directed. His chest loosens when he finds Tim sitting on a medical cot, neither bleeding out from a gaping wound nor missing any limbs. Instead he’s playing some sort of racing game on his phone, indifferent to the bustling emergency room around him. An oxygen mask sits beside him, forgotten. He and Bruce should really have a conversation about the importance of listening to medical professionals. “Hey, kiddo.”

Tim looks up and his eyes go wide. “Bruce. You...actually came?” His voice is hoarse, like he’s been gargling sand. “Of course I did. I am your emergency contact, after all.” Tim blushes. “I told them not to call you. You really don’t need to be here if you’re busy, I can get a cab home. And I’m sure I can talk the doctors into letting me check myself out without an adult, so—” “It’s okay, Tim. Really. You actually saved me from a board meeting.” Tim doesn’t look at all reassured. Bruce sits on the side of the cot beside Tim, who moves over a few inches. “Your teacher told me you went into anaphylactic shock in the middle of geometry.” Tim rolls his eyes. “I got a candy bar from the vending machine and the wrapper forgot to mention there were walnuts in it. It’s not that big a deal.” “Oh, sure, not that big a deal. You just stopped breathing for two minutes. Totally normal.” “I’m breathing now, aren’t I?” Tim takes an exaggerated breath. “See? I’m fine. And, for the record, it was the teacher’s fault. I had my hand raised for a whole minute trying to tell her that I couldn’t breathe, and she didn’t even look at me. Eventually I just passed out.” Bruce blinks. “You raised your hand? While your life was in danger?” “I didn’t want to be rude.” Lord, beer me patience. “I’ll get you an EpiPen to carry with you from now on.” “I usually have one, but I used it up a couple months ago and kept forgetting to ask my dad for another one.” A shrug. “Don’t you keep one in your utility belt?” “That’s for civilians.” Bruce’s eyebrows crease. “It’s for keeping people safe, not just civilians. You’re a person, so I want you to use whatever you need to keep yourself from dying in the middle of class. Got it?” Tim nods, a little sheepishly. “Yes, sir.” “Good. Now, how are you feeling?” Tim flicks the IV tube. “Cortisone and a shot of epinephrine earlier. I’ll be fine.” Even so, Bruce can’t stop himself from checking Tim over anyway, just to be sure. He needs to see that Tim is okay with his own eyes. He feels Tim’s throat for any residual swelling, checks his pulse. “Can you breathe okay?” “Yep.” “What about your mouth, does it feel numb or tingly? Any swelling?” “No and no.” “Are you dizzy at all, nauseous?” “You do realize we’re in a hospital, right? Surrounded by actual doctors?” “Yes, and I don’t trust a single one of them unless their name is Leslie Thompkins, Alfred Pennyworth, or Bruce Wayne.” “You’re insane.” “Good. Maybe then you’ll stay alive long enough to see the new year.” Bruce takes out his cell phone and drafts the beginning of an email in his notes app. “I should call the school and give them hell for not looking after you. Or at least for not being more aware of their vending machine snacks.” He knew Tim never should have been allowed in a public school. That’s like locking the most perfect, innocent kitten in the world in a cage with rabid coyotes. Completely irresponsible. “You’re overreacting, B.” “You could have died.” Tim scoffs. “Stop being so dramatic. This isn’t even the worst allergic reaction I’ve had. My parents were terrible at remembering to tell the nannies about my walnut energy, so there were a lot of close calls.” Bruce should be more surprised at that information. After he sues the school for the wrongful almost-death of a student, he should sue Drake Industries just for the hell of it. “Where are your parents? Are they on their way?” Jack Drake is as disagreeable a man as disagreeable men get, but he’s always revving for conflict. Bruce will definitely be able to sway him to his side of this matter. They can bring it up to the board of education, draw up new regulations for the school’s allergy protocols. Tim scratches absently at the rash on his neck. Bruce swats his hand away. “Dad brought Dana on a business trip to Philadelphia. It was only supposed to last the weekend, but they decided to stay a few extra days.” “A few?” “Eleven, to be exact.” Yikes. Big yikes. “You at least called them, right? They’ll want to know you’re safe.” “I called Dad when I first got here, but he didn’t pick up so I left him a message. I’m pretty sure he got it, because Dana keeps texting me to make sure I’m okay and asking if they should come home early. Dad still hasn’t said anything, but I’m sure he’s worried too.” Even as Tim says the words, it’s clear he doesn’t believe them. Never mind, fuck Jack Drake. Bruce can find another parent to start an alliance with—one who actually cares about their kid. Maybe Crystal Brown is free tonight… Bruce flags down a passing nurse. “Can I get some discharge papers for my son, here?” Might as well throw that in, give himself some extra authority. Whatever gets them out of here quicker. “Thank god,” Tim says. He plucks out the IV and swings his legs off the bed. “I’m sick of this place. You can just drop me off at home and I’ll be all set?” “Drop you off? You’re coming home with me, Tim.” Was that part not clear? “It’s cool, really. I’ll be fine after some rest. You don’t have to look after me.” “I know I don’t have to. I want to.” Bruce thanks the nurse who brings over the discharge papers in record time. People really don’t appreciate nurses enough; he should donate a few million to boost their salaries. He pushes the clipboard into Tim’s hands. “Here, fill these out and we can get going. I’ll call ahead and have Alfred make supper.” “And then I can go home?” Bruce shrugs, eyes fixed on his phone screen as his thumbs fly. “You already have a room made up at the manor, so I don’t see why you can’t stay over tonight. Besides, I’d like to keep an eye on you, just in case.” Anaphylaxis can be a tricky thing. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a mother hen?” “Once or twice.” “Well, they’re right.” Bruce snorts. He works more on his email draft to the school, making a mental note to censor out the swear words during revision. He’s getting flashbacks to years ago when Jason had a close call with some shrimp at a party for a museum opening. Bruce nearly decimated the catering company for not putting out warnings for potential allergens. “Tim?” “Hm?” “How come I’m your emergency contact?” Tim freezes. He doesn’t look at Bruce and twiddles the pen, quiet for a moment. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t know who else to put? I figured it would never actually be needed, so it wasn’t like you’d ever find out about it anyway. But don’t worry, I’ll change it tomorrow so you don’t need to do this again.” “No,” Bruce says, a little too quickly. “Keep it. It’s...more logical for it to be me. And I really don’t mind.” “You sure? You don’t have to.” “I want to. Partners look out for each other, right?” Tim’s cheeks are flushed under the allergy-induced redness, but he nods. “Right.”

[malfoys-demigod]

How Did I Fail to Notice You - Tim Drake x Reader

Summary: Tim fails to notice his classmate, Y/N until he meets her in one of Bruce’s galas, discovering that her family are rich socialites who are good friends and associates of Bruce at WE. He develops feelings on her after seeing her there and realizes he’s in love when he invites her over to work on their pair work. 

A/N: I got some HCs from somebody’s work. I just forgot who but I’d like to thank them for it.  Found it. Thank you @/77uchiha77 for your idea. It’s based on their work “Crushes - BatBoys Headcanons”. Go check it out, it’s great. :)

Tim came home from another boring day in Gotham Academy and was greeted by his brother Dick. 

“Long day, Timbo?” 

“Mhm.”

“Well the day’s gonna get longer. Bruce has a gala tonight so it’s either you take a nap right now or finish as much schoolwork you can do before the event.”

Tim groaned as he didn’t want to attend the gala. He had so much to do since he failed to complete last night’s assignments since it was his night to patrol around the city. 

Tim decided to finish yesterday’s and today’s work as he was eager to have a good night’s sleep after the gala. After finishing his work, he dressed up, and went downstairs to meet his brothers. 

“Someone managed to finish his monsterous load of assignments and still look dapper in his black silk suit.” Dick teased. 

“Maybe he’s hoping to meet a hot chick wearing a silk like him.” Jason said. 

“Tt. Drake’s too drained to speak to a girl.” Damian scoffed. 

Tim didn’t listen to his brothers, maybe only Dick. He was surprsied to have finished his work and appear dappper but he doubted he’d find anyone amusing in the gala. Most of the girls are either airheads, gold diggers, or anyone who’d want to date one of Bruce’s sons for the fame and attention. 

--

It had been only an hour and already, the boys were bored out of their minds. It was not until Tim spotted a family who arrived late to the gala. He saw a familar face in their family. A girl around his age, who wore a black silk maxi dress, hair down, and light make up. You were beautiful. He saw you going to the bar so he stood up and followed.

As you sat down at the bar, you heard a familar voice behind you. 

“May I buy you a drink?” Tim smiled

“I’d love that but I just came to sit here. I don’t really go for alcoholic drinks, but thanks for the offer, Tim.” 

The way you said his name confused him. It sounded like she knew me, based on the way she said my name. He thought

“I don’t want to sound rude, but it seems like you know me. Like, in a way where I’m supposed to know you as well.” He said, hoping that he was right. 

All you did was chuckle, obviously knowing that Tim wouldn’t have recognized you. He barely had friends in GA because all he could focus on was academics and nothing/nobody else. 

“I’m glad you actually thought I looked familiar. I always thought that you were so focused in school that you didn’t bother to remember anyone’s name or face.”

“I’m Y/N Y/L/N.” you offered your hand as he shook it. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I-I’m sorry I never noticed you. I just-” 

“Love being the star student and aspiring valedictorian of our class?” you interrupted. 

“Exactly.” Tim laughed. 

The night was going great as Tim made a friend, someone he started falling for. He regrets not formally introducing himself in school because he discovered how much the both of you had in common. He was actually feeling happy which has been rare of him to feel these days with school and being Robin became harder to juggle and manage. He also found out that you were the “number two” rival he was competing against in every test. Sometimes you’d have the higher test score than him and he wouldn’t even bother catching your name, all he’d do was catching a glimpse of your test score outside the classroom when posted and rush back home to study for the next upcoming one, hoping he’d take your number one rank again. 

As the gala ended, you said goodbye to her, hoping he’d see you around school this time. 

Your absense in the “Wayne Table” which consisted of the bored brothers was obviously noticed. When you left, the batboys walked up to Tim. 

“Knew he’d find a chick with a silk dress tonight.” Jason chuckled. 

“Care to tell who that gorgeous girl was?” Dick smirked. 

“Apparently she’s my classmate whom I failed to notice.” 

“Her name is Y/N Y/L/N. Her family are socialites and associates of mine at work. She’s a smart girl.” Bruce said. 

--

Now that he remembers what you look like, he started noticing you more in school. How you recite all the time in class, how you laugh, who your friends are, the way they make you laugh, and everything else. This made Tim fall for you. Every time you got the chance to talk to him, he’d get clammy hands, he’d get nervous around you, he’d laugh more than he needed to when you make a joke, he’d want to cry in the corner afterwards when he gets all awkward, he’d cruse when he sees you (mutters “fuck, fuck, fuck”), and researches and takes quizzes on how to know if your crush likes you back. 

--

What made him fall in love with you was when you were paired to do a pairwork. 

As the last class of the day was about to end, your teacher made an announcement. 

“So class, you’ve been waiting for the big project haven’t you? Well, I wanted to make things easier and fun for everyone and decided to group you into twos.”

Tim wasn’t paying attention to any bit of the announcement as he was staring at you the entire time. He was constantly daydreaming about you with big heat eyes. 

“Mr. Drake?” the teacher kept calling. 

Tim didn’t hear a single thing but did see you turn around with a concerning look which made you snap back to reality. 

“Yes, sir?” 

“If you didn’t process it, I was saying that you’ll be paired with Ms. Y/L/N for the project. Got that?” 

“Yes, sir.”

When class ended, Tim got the courage to go up to you. He took a deep breath and poked your back. You turned around with a big smile which made him blush. 

“Were you okay back there? It seemed like you weren’t paying attention and normally you’d do so what happened?” you said. 

“Oh, uhm, I’m alright. I was just sleepy. Anyways, I was hoping we’d start working on this as soon as today. If you’re free, I’d like to bring you to my house and we can start working on thing already.” 

“I’d love to, Tim!” 

--

You were greeted by Tim’s brothers and Bruce as you entered the Manor. You didn’t see but as you walked up to Tim’s room, the batboys were silently teasing Tim in the back whispering, ‘Tim’s got a girl!’ 

The both of you worked so hard that night that Tim kept asking Alfred for glasses of coffee every hour till you fell asleep on the desk. Tim closed the door with mugs of coffee in his hand. He was about to ask if you needed more till he saw you sleeping soundly. He couldn’t help but stare at how you were perfect. He was so happy to have you in his life. 

A/N: I’m sorry if this was a bit crappy. My fingers are tired and it’s getting late. I hope you kinda enjoyed it. Comments would be appreciated!

[elareine]

You still look like a movie (DickWally, side JayTim)

When Gotham Academy offered him a position, Wally jumped at the chance. He’d trained as a teacher here, after all, and he thought the city could use all the help it could get.

The memories of grad school were a mixed bag, as these things tended to be. Living prices in Gotham had been low, still were, which had been what allowed Wally to truly break away from his father for the first time. He’d made his first best friend here and had his heart broken.

That had been ten years ago, though. When he arrived at school the week before the term started, Wally was determined to make new memories.

His hiring had been kinda last-minute, so he didn’t expect any arrangements to have been made for his first day. Apparently, the old teacher had been kidnapped by a clown-penguin or something? Gotham was so weird.

But there was a figure waiting for him at the gates. And he looked familiar.

Wally blinked. “Jason?”

Jason Todd grinned and ground out his cigarette. “Hi, Wally. I’m your welcome committee.”

So Dick’s delinquent little brother had grown up to become a teacher, too, huh? Who’d have thought? The students they met on the corridors clearly liked him, though, judging by the enthusiastic greetings they got. Jason was kinda doing a half-assed job of showing him around, though, soon abandoning it entirely to drag Wally into one of the classrooms.

A pale, dark-haired young man gave Jason a wave, then smiled politely at Wally. “Hi, I don’t think we’ve met.”

Wally was about to introduce himself, but Jason intervened. “Wally, this is Tim Drake. He teaches CS and, occasionally, Math. Tim, this Wally, our new Chemistry teacher.”

“West?” Tim asked, peering at Wally’s face. “Wait, are you that Wally?”

“Uhm.” Wally didn’t know how to answer that question.

Luckily, Jason seemed to know exactly what Tim was talking about. “Yes. Yes, he is.”

Wally watched in confusion as Tim’s smile suddenly turned a lot more genuine. “Welcome to Gotham Academy, then, Wally. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Wally was just going to ignore that. “Thanks. Good to be here. You another brother?” Wally had always bet Dick that Bruce Wayne’s adoptions wouldn’t stop at two. That man screamed ‘father energy’ as loudly as ‘will not be in a stable long-term relationship.’ Of course, he’d adopt.

“Sort of.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Definitely. You know that if we’d divorce, Bruce would sign the papers in a heartbeat.”

“I’m a grown man.”

“You think that’ll stop him?”

Oh. Okay, then.

One of the reasons Wally had been so eager to leave his old school had been the constantly-reinforced need to stay in the closet. And here he was and the first two dudes he met were married to each other.

“Anyway,” Tim pointedly turned back to Wally, “Dick will be so happy to see you.”

Would he, though? And more importantly - “Does he teach here?”

“Does he ever.”

“Jason’s just here on loan,” Tim explained. “He usually teaches at the other end of town. Dick’s the one that roped him into this.”

“That’s cool. That you’re doing that, I mean; in my old school people always refused to help out even when we didn’t have an English teacher for six months—”

“Right,” Jason said. “Let’s get going.”

This was good, Wally thought as he followed Jason through even more corridors. He’d get to see Dick again, but he’d have time to prepare for it. Once he sorted through the mix of dread and joy rushing through him at the prospect, he’d be fine. Great, even. Totally cool.

They turned a corner, and Jason called out: “Yo, Dick, check out who just joined our school!”

Dick Grayson turned around to where he’d been talking to one of the administrators, and. Uh.

Wow.

Dick, as a teenager, had been short and wiry. As a young man, he’d been the epitome of an athlete, lean and with a flexibility that had caused Wally some sleepless nights.

As a man in his thirties, he was a total fucking knockout, Jesus. Where had that jawline come from?? Wally hadn’t acquired anything like that. It was unfair!

“Wall-Man!”

“Robin!” Wally called back, unable to resist that smile or the hug Dick immediately drew him into.

“I haven’t seen you in ages!” Dick grinned. “Awesome to have you here, Walls.”

See, that was the thing about Dick. He might be one of the weirdest people Wally knew, thanks to his family, but also the nicest. He’d even pretend it hadn’t been Wally’s massive, creepy crush on him that had caused him to flee to the other side of the planet.

“Yeah, well, last thing I heard, you were in China. What in God’s name possessed you to come back here?”

Dick shrugged, running a hand through his hair. “I dunno, man, it always comes back to this, doesn’t it?”

Considering the situation, he and Dick in a hallway in Gotham, Wally had to agree. “I guess.”

When the silence stretched on a bit too long, Dick finally looked away from Wally. “Hey, Jason, if you want, I can take over the tour—”

Jason had already left.

It was incredible how easy it was to fall back into old patterns with Dick. Two months in and Wally was as regularly a guest in Dick’s office as Dick was at Wally’s apartment after work, which is to say, almost every day, including today.

“Do you need anything else?” he heard Dick say. The group of students shook their heads, so Wally had no qualms about walking in.

“Walls, hey,” Dick smiled when he saw him. “Lemme just finish that form, and I’m all yours.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Wally was dying to tell Dick about the shit John from 4a had tried to pull away, but it would need to wait until the group of students that was still lingering outside had moved out of earshot.

“See, I told you he’d be taken,” he heard one of them say. “Guys like that don’t reach their thirties single. He’s certainly not interested in you.”

“Oh, shut up!”

“Don’t be sad,” a third voice interjected helpfully. “Mr Grayson is like the hottest teacher around. No shame in losing out.”

Wally would very much like to tell them how much he resented the implication he would go for a teenage girl if Dick were slightly less hot.

Wait, what was he thinking?

Wally glanced at Dick. He was still focused on his paperwork and hadn’t heard anything.

Good. Last thing Wally needed was for his stupid crush to fuck things up between them again.

“So that’s happening again, huh?”

“...why are you crowding me into a wall?” Wally asked curiously. It was quite impressive, really, the way Jason towered over him despite not being that much taller. If Wally weren’t so sure he could outrun Jason, he would even feel slightly intimidated.

Jason backed off a bit, still glowering. “Just be glad it’s me and not the munchkin parade. Damian was all for locking you two into an attic at swordpoint.” He pointed his thumb vaguely into the direction of Dick’s office. “I’ve heard the students discuss running interference, Wally. This has to stop.”

Wally sighed. Trust the Waynes to have figured him out. “Am I that obvious?”

“Not obvious enough, apparently.” Jason snorted. “Do us all a favor and actually kiss him this time. He’s a dumbass who thinks this has always been one-sided.”

“Well, yeah.” Wally’s brain decided to skip right over ‘kiss him,’ because what. “It has, I’m just being stupid; I know Dick isn’t interested in me that way, but it’s so nice to have him back, he’s my best friend and I missed him so much, that’s more important than being in love with him.”

“I think that you need to kiss him,” Jason said again, more loudly, and why was he speaking so loudly, almost as if he wanted someone else than Wally to hear it—

Wally turned.

Dick was gaping at him. There wasn’t a better word for it. Even he couldn’t make that level of ‘wtf’ look attractive.

Of course, he’d heard all of that. Wally wanted to sink into the ground. “You, uh. Maybe wanna talk about that?”

“Yeah,” Dick nodded. “Yeah, I think we should.” He made toward his office but abruptly turned back before he’d finished the movement. “No, actually, we should follow Jason’s advice.”

Wally heard grumbling behind him. “I’ve been saying.” He’d tear Jason a new one for this, he swore, right after he found out what Dick meant by that.

And then he did find out and forgot all about Jason Todd, because Dick was—rather predictably, but still incomprehensibly to Wally—kissing him, and that was more important than anything else.

The first few years after Dick had left, Wally had idly fantasized about this. In his mind, there had been elaborate love confessions that displayed a degree of coherency neither of them ever possessed in real life; kisses in the rain, maybe, or at an airport; Dick somehow swooping in and rescuing Wally from what his life had become.

Later, when he’d started getting his shit together, the phantasies turned more mundane. What it would be like to have Dick with him again. How Dick would laugh at Wally’s impression of his annoying boss; whether he’d get along with Wally’s new friends; what Dick’s opinion on fidget toys might be.

And yes, how it would feel to be kissing him the corridor for the entire world to see. That, too.

The answer?

Even better than Wally could’ve ever imagined.

[awhitehead17]

Special Students

TimKon, Undercover, High School, Angst, Humour, Arguments, Fluff, Tension, Awkwardness. 

Summary: Tim ends up dragging Conner into an undercover mission where they go to high school so they can try and deal with a growing drug problem. The mission seemed simple enough but Kon had no idea on how much it would affect his friendship with Tim.

A/N: There are references to teenagers drinking and using drugs, if that makes you feel uncomfortable please do not read.

Enjoy! :D

You want us to do what?”

“We need to go undercover in a school in Bludhaven.”

“I got that part, but why?”

“Dick and I have reasons to believe that the drug cartel we’ve been following over in Blud is making use of kids from the school. We believe that they’re selling to the kids and then the kids are using it as well as spreading it around to everyone else. We want to try and infiltrate from within, get our information from the kids, work out where the drugs are being kept and produced and then shut it down.”

Kon blinks at Tim as he explains his mission plan. He can’t get over what Tim is asking him right now. Granted it’s not the weirdest thing that Tim’s asked him to do but it is certainly is up near the top of that list.

He rubs a hand over his face trying to digest it all.

“So…” he’s now going to try and attempt to summarise it all once again. “You want us - that being me and you - to go back to high school just so we can try and find out who’s dealing the drugs, where they’re getting the drugs, then trace that information back to whatever kind of creepy address that it leads too, then that’s when we can take down the drug cartel that you and your brother have been following.”

Tim, the little handsome bastard, beams at him, “Yup! That about sums it up.”

This time Kon pinches his nose and takes a deep breath before letting it out. He glances at Tim’s smug looking face and Kon just knows he’s screwed. “But why me, can’t you take the demon spawn with you? I don’t want to go back to school! I hated the place, I don’t want to go back.”

Tim raises an eyebrow, “You think I want to go back? I’d really rather not, there’s a reason why I dropped out in the first place you know. And no I can’t take Damian, Bruce wouldn’t allow it plus there’s no way I’d be able to put up with him for the duration that it’ll take to complete this mission. Bart is too impulsive, Cassie wouldn’t have the patience, Dick is too old, Jason is an absolute no, Steph and Cass are currently in Hong Kong, Duke currently has a lot on his plate so I don’t want to bother him with this. Either way you were my first choice and believe it or not the best option.”

Kon thinks that through and he figures that Tim has a point. He looks at his best friend to find him looking at Kon with wide questioning eyes. It’s almost as if Tim’s giving him a puppy dog look in his own way and Kon knows he’s screwed. How can he say no to that beautiful face?

With his mind made up, he cocks an eye at Tim, “You’re not going to take no for an answer are you?”

“Of course not.” Tim grins.

Kon shakes his head, letting out a huffed laugh as he does so. “Typical. Anyway, what’s the time duration you’re looking at.”

“We’re looking at a good two months or so. We need time to build up friendships with the students and then to gain their trust. After that we need to get offered the drug, be able to work out where they got it and so on.”

Kon groans. What had he signed himself up for?

Tim leans towards him, a knowing smile taking over his face as if he knows that he’s won Kon over without him actually saying it. “So…” He drags out. Kon has a sudden urge to hit him then. He doesn’t because you know, he’s polite, but the temptation was there.

“Fuck you dude. I bet you’ve got all the paperwork with my name on it already filled out and everything.”

Tim lets out a laugh and stands up, he spins around and starts to head out of the kitchen. “Of course I’ve got it all done already!” He shouts over his shoulder. “I knew you’d agree that’s why!”

Kon’s unable to stop the grin taking over his face. The whole situation is ridiculous. “I don’t know why I put up with your crap!” He calls back.

When Tim next speaks, his voice comes somewhere further in the apartment. “It’s because you love me!”

“Yeah I do…” His admission is soft and quiet so Tim wouldn’t hear it.

It’s not as bad as he thought it was going to be. Well. Certain parts of it weren’t, other areas however were just as bad as he expected it to be.

School’s school. So there was homework, shitty assignments, crappy teachers, early mornings and petty students.

The only thing that really made it bearable was that he was with Tim. They weren’t in the same classes or anything but being able to see him throughout the day so during breaks and lunch, then after school made it possible for Kon to cope.

It’s been about 6 weeks since they started the mission now. They have both more or less settled into the school, of course they had gotten some funny looks but no one really thought anything of it. It’s not like they’re actually that much older than the kids in the school, it’s only like a year or two in it. Tim had made sure to cover all of their details within his paperwork when he enrolled them into the school at the start.

He had moved to Bludhaven within that time, so he’s currently sharing Dick’s apartment with Tim and Dick whenever he was in the city. It’s not Metropolis or Smallville by any means so Kon’s just glad he’s got the ability to fly so he could get away from the city at the weekends, it gave him a break at least.

He had made a few ‘friends’ within school. He happened to get onto the school football team and has made a few acquaintances from the guys on the team. Tim on the other hand has gone to the nerdy side of things and has been able to make a few friends himself. When Kon had pointed out the differences, Tim had laughed and told him that it was a good thing because it meant that they could cover more ground and find out how far the drugs are being passed around the school.

Funnily enough Kon didn’t catch wind of the drugs until the weekend of the 6th week. It was Friday after school and he was in the locker room getting changed out of his football kit and into normal clothes, debating whether he could convince Tim to put Wendy on that night, when a voice speaks out near him.

“Hey Match!”

Kon had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the nickname he happened to adopt while being at school. Of course going undercover meant having a different name, and boy didn’t he punch Tim hard when he found out what his undercover was. Carl Matches. He was not amused. As well as being insulting, it sounded so fake, it was probably worse than Tim’s Alvin Draper nonsense (a name which he thankfully wasn’t using for this mission.)

Much to his dismay, he ended up adopting the nickname Match when he first joined the football team in the second week of the mission. It’s stuck since.

“What’s up Brad?” He turns to his so called teammate and eyes him up. Brad was captain of the team, the lady lover of the grade and very hot headed. It’s only his self-restraint that’s stopped him from ripping Brad’s head off.

“You free tomorrow night?”

Kon thinks about it for a moment. He and Tim had no plans other than going out on patrol as it was a Saturday, but it’s not like he could tell him that. Instead he shakes his head, “Not at the moment. What’s going on?”

“Still being new and all I wasn’t sure if you heard, but the biggest party of the year is happening over at OB’s house. Interested?”

“I hadn’t heard about that no, but sure…” No. He was not interested, like at all. Maybe when he was a bit younger he would have loved to gone to an all classic high school party but now not so much. But for the sake of the mission and to avoid Tim’s grumpy face he puts on a smile and forces the words out. “What time?”

“Whenever man. People start turning up at like three in the afternoon, it’ll go on right through the night. See you there then!”

He claps Kon on the shoulder and walks away. Kon stares after him for a moment, baffled at what just happened before finishing in getting changed and making his way back to Dick’s apartment.

“You hear about the party tomorrow night?” Kon asks Tim as they were sat having their dinner. They were chilling on the sofa, sat next to each other and eating take out.

Tim nods and swallows a mouth full before speaking, “Yeah I got invited by Sarah today actually. I assume you got invited too then?”

Kon hums, placing a bit of chicken into his mouth and chews.

“Okay that’s good, at least we’ll both be there. It’s the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. The biggest party of the year, lots of drunk teenagers, an uncontrollable environment with no adults around. It’s perfect.”

Kon nods, “Exactly. We find who’s doing the drugs, try and find out their buyer, trace it back to them then bam, mission complete.”

Tim laughs at that, “Something like that. There’s a lot of details missing there Kon, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Kon glances over at him and grins, at least they’re getting somewhere with this mission now. Tim smiles back and they stare at one another for a while. Kon takes in Tim’s frame, watches the way the light from the TV in front of them illuminates his features making them seem more sharp than before. He glances at Tim’s casual outfit, a large loose t-shirt and some old grey sweatpants and fluffy batman socks. He looks perfect. He seems so relaxed that it draws Kon into him.

He so busy looking at his best friend that he failed to even realise that Tim was looking at him back. Before he knows it, Kon’s starting to lean in close to Tim, just as Tim appears to leaning towards him as well.

“Hey guys what’s up!”

They spring apart like they had been electrocuted and sit stiffy on opposite ends of the couch as Dick walks into the front room. He’s grinning away dressed up in his cop uniform. When he sees them he freezes on the spot and eyes them up, clearly recognising their sudden odd behaviour. Thankfully he doesn’t question it and carries on through the room towards the kitchen.

“I hope you guys have leftovers for me. It smells amazing!”

Kon and Tim don’t look at each other for the rest of the night.

The next day was awkward. As normal, they went about the next day doing things as they normally would, so doing some training, completing some homework and playing a few video games until it was time to get ready for the party, but even doing all of that it didn’t make the tension go away.

It suddenly seemed like they couldn’t be together without there being some form of tension between them. It was so thick it wasn’t like they could ignore even though they certainly tried too.

Kon replays the previous night over and over again in his mind. Tim had definitely leaned in to kiss him as well, that was clear, so they both play a part in this awkwardness that’s come between them. But maybe that’s why it’s so heavy? Because they both went to kiss each other before Dick came in? Because there’s definitely some sort of mutual attraction between them that neither one of them is willing to acknowledge.

When the evening finally came Kon tried to not think about it as he got ready for the party. Between them they decided to go when it was reaching the evening, believing that’s the best time as they think the drugs will appear once everyone seems to be too wasted to care.

Kon dresses up in some jeans, a plain t-shirt and puts a shirt over the top of it. Basically dressed in his usual attire. Tim on the other hand was dressed up in some tight black jeans and a smart button up red shirt. It makes Kon do a double take because Tim looks good, he somehow doesn’t look over dressed but manages to pull off the confidence that he know he looks good at the same time.

Tim catches Kon looking and Kon quickly looks away, feeling his cheeks go hot at being caught. There’s a pause between them, once that fills the air with more of that thick tension. Kon scowls as he stares at the floor, hating the moment, because when did they become so awkward around one another? They’re supposed to be best friends, not some awkward teenagers like they once were.

Tim breaks the silence by clearing his throat. “So we ready?” He shuffles on the spot, fidgeting with the cuffs of his shirt.

Kon glances up at him before turning away again. “Uh yeah.”

Tim drives them to the party and being in that car for no more than 10 minutes was worse than being with Tim the entire day. It must be because they’re confined in a small space but thankfully the radio was on and filled the silence with old 90’s music.

They get to the party and walk in and freeze in the doorway. It was chaos. Music was being blasted from high tech speakers, drunk teenagers were everywhere, hundreds of red cups could be seen around. They glance at each and Kon sees Tim pull a face, he snickers at that. Parties have never really Tim’s thing, at least not these kind of parties. Kon wasn’t a fan himself, the music was already making his head hurt but they’re there on a mission, the sooner they get that done and get it out of the way the sooner they can go home.

They go separate ways and Kon’s kinda glad about that because at least it gives him some space away from Tim and it gives him an opportunity to stop thinking about the weird tension between them.

He goes about looking for signs of the football team. Trying to find any of them in the mass crowd of teenagers was a nightmare. It takes him a good twenty minutes until he finds most of them all stood outside in the back garden huddled in a group.

One of them notices him coming and they beam, “Match! There you are buddy!” It was Brad and Kon could tell that he was tipsy. He was gesturing widely for Kon to go over and when he does Brad throws an arm over his shoulders. “We were wondering when you were gonna show up.”

Kon forces a smile, “Sorry, I just lost track of time.” Brad lets out a laugh as if he just told a really funny joke. At that point Kon notices that most of the teens in the group were smoking. He glances at Brad, “What are you guys doing out here?”

Brad’s laughter dies down as he asks the question and the teenager sends him a suspicious look before glancing around at everyone else with a questioning look. He turns back to Kon and pokes his chest with a finger. “Hey Match, can you keep a secret?”

Kon studies him for a moment, his voice had dropped down to a serious quiet, whisper and his eyes had narrowed almost threateningly. Kon raises an eyebrow and nods. “Of course.” Only if they really knew.

It seems to be a satisfactory response for the captain because he’s then grinning widely and gesturing to one of the others. Within seconds Brad is grabbing his hand and shoving several small blue and pink pills into his hand. Kon stares at them wide-eyed and shoots Brad a look.

Brad carries on grinning. “Take them.” He says simply.

“What are they?” Kon asks cautiously. He can easily guess of course but he’s got to play the part.

“We don’t actually know. All we know is that it’s called Frenzy and man is it some good shit. Once it hits ya, that’s it you’re gone. All of your stresses, thoughts, worries, everything just disappears and leaves you pretty chilled and contented.”

Bingo. That’s the drug they were after.

“Where did you get it from?” He tries to make the question as causal as possible, just so he doesn’t seem suspicious. He’s not sure how well he does but none of the teenagers seem to notice his behaviour, most of them to drunk or high to really care by the looks of it.

Very much to his surprise Brad tells him the name who had sold it too him and even the address to where they apparently make it. Kon makes a mental note of the names and address for later. Now that he’s got the information he’s gotta find Tim so they can go and shut it down.

“So come on man! What are you waiting for?” Brad loudly says in his face. He grabs Kon’s hand still holding the pills and moves to his mouth so he’s forced to take the pills into his mouth. Of course Kon could have stopped him but he’s got a role to play if he doesn’t want to act suspicious.

He won’t swallow them, he’s not stupid. There’s a trick that he does where he hides the pills around his mouth and under his tongue just so he doesn’t have to swallow them, Tim had originally taught him the trick.

Once it seemed like he had taken the pills he smiles at Brad who grins back. The teen smacks him twice on the chest before letting him go, “Atta boy! Just give it ten minutes or so and experience the magical wonder of Frenzy. In the meantime go get yourself a drink.”

Kon nods and uses that as his escape. He heads back into the house, finds a bathroom and empties his mouth into the sink. he takes a deep breath, washes his mouth out with water before popping the pills into his pocket. It’s gross but that’s a matter for the future. What he needs to do now is find Tim.

It doesn’t take very long to find Tim. Kon ends up finding him inside the house in a very crowded room. Kon stops short at the doorway when he sees Tim dancing in the centre of the room with a girl. They were pressed together, her back to his chest, their arms were outstretched and their fingers were laced together, their bodies were grinding together in time with the music being blasted out.

Kon watches with wide eyes as their hips roll together, hers were rolling back against Tim’s while his were grinding forward. Kon wouldn’t call that dancing, that basically seemed like they were having sex in the middle of the room.

All of the sudden he felt pissed. He was angry at Tim for being doing that. They were here on a mission to bust up a drug cartel, not on a mission to get laid. (Don’t get him wrong any other time he would be very impressed with his best friend but now wasn’t the time for that.)

Deciding that he’s seen enough he makes his way over to him and slaps him on the arm to get his attention. Tim immediately turns and faces him, his eyebrows raised in question.

Kon leans in close, speaking into his ear. “I’ve got we need, we can go.”

Tim pulls away and makes a face. “That’s good but we can’t go yet.”

Kon scowls as Tim turns back to the girl grinding up against him. Was he being serious! Kon slaps him again, “We. Can. Go.”

Tim narrows his eyes at him, “Not yet Kon.”

He has to grit his teeth to stop himself from lashing out at his best friend. He waits a couple of seconds to see if Tim will change his mind but when it’s clear that he won’t be changing his mind Kon grabs his arm and forcefully drags Tim away from the girl. He doesn’t let go of him until they were outside away from everyone else.

Tim is immediately on him once they’ve stopped moving. “What the fuck Kon?”

“Are you being serious Tim? What the hell do you think! We’ve come here on a mission to gather information to do with the drugs. I happen to get the information and then I find that you’re dancing, or more accurately grinding, with a girl while I do the work!”

He didn’t realise he was yelling until he finished speaking. He quickly glances around and thankfully finds no one paying attention to them.

Tim gapes at him for a moment and Kon could feel himself seething in anger at his best mate. However that anger quickly turns into shock when Tim snaps at him. “You have got to be joking! I was working Kon. The girl I was with happened to be deep in that circle, her brother is one of the producers! I made a deal that if I danced with her she’d give me more details about the whole cartel. I’ve got names and I’ve got the main address.”

Kon recoils as Tim finishes speaking. It’s like he’s just been slapped in the face. He stands there not knowing what to say to that and is feeling like a complete twat. He had wrongly assumed that Tim was slacking off when in fact he wasn’t. Kon realises now that he really should have thought before he spoke, he should have known that there was a plan behind Tim’s actions (this was Tim after all.)

There’s a tense silence as they look at one another. Tim was glaring at him and Kon had a guilt written all over his face. Tim’s the first one to make a move, he takes a deep breath in and lets it out, letting his body posture relax from when he had tensed up. “Right, well we both have the information we need so lets compare and get started. The sooner we end this the better.”

That night they tracked down all of the dealers of the drugs. The names they had had been the same and from there it was finding that guy who gave them all of the names of all the other dealers. The next night, with help from Nightwing, they took down the producers of the drug and shut down the entire cartel.

After clearing everything up and making sure that it was all over, Kon moved back to Kanas. He wasn’t sad to leave Blud because he had missed the farm and all of it’s fresh air, the only thing he was disappointed with was leaving Tim. Despite the last couple of days working together when everything suddenly turned tense and awkward, they had a great several of weeks together. At least Kon had enjoyed it.

It’s been a week since Kon had moved back to the farm and not once had he spoken to Tim since Sunday night when they had closed the drug cartel. He had no idea on what he would say to his best friend. Were they still best friends after all that? The argument Saturday night had left them not talking on that Sunday, they only spoke to each other regarding the mission and nothing else. It had been quiet and awkward in a way it never has been before and it left Kon feeling terrible.

He missed him.

He missed when they could just easily joke about, have a laugh, touch without it being weird. But since they almost kissed, everything had changed. It had changed for the worst.

It was on Sunday night, an exact week since they completed the mission that he next sees Tim again. He was in the kitchen at the counter making some dough for that evening’s dessert when the front door knocks. Before he could move Ma was there answering it.

“Oh Tim dear, it’s nice to see you! Please come in.”

Kon freezes on the spot. He’s slightly annoyed at Ma because why did she let him in, she knows what had happened between them yet she’s letting him in. On the other hand he was confused to why Tim was there in the first place. Why come to Kanas?

“Thanks Mrs. Kent. Is Conner around?”

“Yes dear, he’s just in the kitchen. Could let him know that I’ll be in the front room if he needs me please.”

“Will do, thank you.”

Kon stays standing at the counter as he listens to Tim walk towards the kitchen. He doesn’t turn around as Tim stands in the doorway behind him because he wasn’t ready to face his best friend yet.

“Your Ma’s in the front room if you need her.” He tells him.

Kon nods and swallows thickly. “I know, I heard. Thanks.”

There’s a moment of silence between them and it reminds Kon just of what happened a week ago.

“So how are you? What are you making there?”

Kon frowns at Tim’s attempts of small talk. It’s typical of him to dance around the real reason of him being there. Deciding to get it over and done with Kon turns and faces him. With narrowed eyes he stares at his best friend, “Why are you here Tim? Why come to Kanas?”

Tim nods to himself like he had been expecting that reaction before answering him. He walks into the kitchen and takes a seat at the table. “Because I wanted to talk.”

“You could have phoned.” Kon says bluntly.

“Would you have answered?” Tim shoots back.

Kon had nothing to say to that.

“That’s what I thought.” Tim responds to his silence. “I came out here in person because we need to talk.”

“What is there to talk about Tim?” Kon questions walking towards the table to stand opposite him. “The fact that we haven’t spoken in a week? The fact that there is something between us but neither of us is willing to acknowledge it? The fact that we had an argument? What is there to talk about?”

“All of it!” Tim snaps at him. he stands up and glares at him. “All of it Kon. There is something between us, what it is exactly I don’t know, but I hate the way it’s making us be like this.”

“That night Tim… that night we almost… you know.” Kon looks away from him unable to finish off the sentence.

“That night when we almost kissed?” He turns to Tim at the words to find his best friend looking at him with wide eyes and a look of understanding. His voice has gone soft now, losing any of the hard bite it had to it just a moment ago.

Kon swallows and nods. He looks away yet again as Tim walks around the table towards him. He fights the urge to back away when Tim stops directly in front of him. He feels Tim’s hand cup the side of his face and as he pulls his face around so they were looking at each other once again.

“Kon, I know that things have been tense between us since that night. I don’t know why it suddenly became like that but it did and… and I want to make it right.”

Kon places his hand over Tim and holds it. Looking into his eyes he asks, “Do you feel the same way I do?” He didn’t mean for it too, but the question came out as a whisper. He carries on staring at Tim, trying to find the truth in his eyes.

Tim lets out a chuckle, “Kon you have no idea on how much I feel for you. I can’t live without you in my life. You’re my clone boy.”

Kon didn’t even think about his actions then, he leaned down and captured Tim’s lips in a kiss. Tim’s response was instant because his lips were moving along with Kon’s as they press together for the first time. Kon pours everything he was feeling into that kiss, letting Tim know through the action how much he meant to him.

They kiss for who knows how long but when they part Kon feels lighter. Like everything that had been weighing down on him was suddenly lifted. The space between them was now clear and it made Kon happy, they were going to be okay.

He presses his forehead against Tim’s smiling widely. “And you’ll always be my Robin.”

[my-one-love-is-music]

Summary: Jason and Tim hated each other. Their friends new this. But when they end up in the same history class, their differences have to be put aside when they're assigned seats next to each other and their teacher has strict requirements for partner discussion and a group project. But there's something else that worries Tim about being partnered with Jason. Their history teacher is notorious for pairing up people she thinks will end up getting married one day. But surely, she can't know that...right?

A/N: I am so happy to finally get to share this fic! This was part of my 2018 Nanowrimo project and the second of three fics I wrote. I loved the concept and I'm starting to wonder if I've run out of useful high school aus because they all seem to be enemies to friends to lovers nowadays and I'm sure y'all are getting bored with that....But I was also so happy to do a collab for this project and one of my good friends drew the cover art for this. Sadly, he no longer has a tumblr I can direct you to to give him the love and support he deserves but I will definitely pass on all the praise that he deserves because the cover art is amazing and I am in love with it. 

Also on AO3!

Tim sneered as he turned the corner and spotted Jason leaning against the locker next to Kori, his arm pressed against the metal row of lockers and giving everyone a look at his lean torso encased in a tight tee.

“Don’t look like you’re going to die just from being in the same space as him,” Steph muttered, catching the look he was giving him.

“He’s annoying. And full of himself. He doesn’t even care about school, so I don’t know why he’s here. He skips class all the time,” Tim muttered.

Steph raised an eyebrow. “And you’re one to talk? Tim you’ve skipped class to sleep in the back of the library before. You have no idea where he goes.”

“I’ve caught him behind the school during fifth period. I bet he smokes.”

“Have you ever smelled cigarette smoke on him? Or better yet, seen him with a lit cigarette in his hand?” Steph huffed.

“Well, no, but-“

“But nothing. Don’t make people into villains when you have no idea what they’re doing. He could have a study hall fifth period. You’re the one who was cutting class when you saw him back there.”

“Since when are you on his side?” Tim scoffed as they turned the corner and Jason was finally out of sight again.

“I’m just saying that you’ve judged him a while and maybe you should try and get to know him before you hold a grudge for life against him.”

Tim rolled his eyes as he pushed into his afternoon class. “It’s not like I’m going to see him after high school anyway so what difference does it make?”

“You never know,” Steph grumbled, making a beeline for the space next to the teacher’s desk that had a small chair tucked away. The one positive of them being in the same class Steph was TA-ing in was that they got to see each other. The drawback was that Tim would have to do actual work while she got to fuck around.

“Not so fast,” Ms. Edwards said as Tim approached the last aisle. “What’s your name?”

Tim checked a groan. This was going to be one of those teachers. “Tim Drake,” he muttered.

She nodded and checked something off on the paper in front of her. “You’re going to be in that row. Fourth seat back.”

Tim changed course and made for his seat. He was in the third row and even though he didn’t get the back corner like he wanted, he was relieved he wasn’t in the front. He just hoped this teacher wouldn’t keep assigned seats for the rest of the year.

He made a face at Steph who just smirked back and crossed her arms. He heard the door open but didn’t bother looking up to see who it was.

“Name?” Ms. Edwards asked.

“Jason Todd.”

Tim’s head whipped around so fast it made a horrible cracking noise. He winced and rubbed the side of his neck. He stared at Jason where he was waiting for his seat assignment.

“You’ll be in the fourth row, fourth seat back,” she said, pointing at the seat next to Tim.

Tim’s stomach dropped to his toes. He swallowed, thinking he might be sick. Because Jason was going to be sitting in the seat next to him and he just realized which teacher he had. Ms. Edwards was notorious for sitting students next to each other who she thought would get married one day.

He could only hope that she didn’t do that until later in the class and her first seating arrangements had no bearing on her romantic ideas.

Jason turned to find his seat and froze when he saw Tim. His lips turned down in a scowl and he grumbled something under his breath as he tightened his grip on his backpack strap and made his way down the aisle.

Tim crossed his arms and looked away. He was going to ignore Jason for the entire class. He’d ignore him for the entire year if he had to. He caught sight of Steph who was grinning at him like an idiot, glee filling her gaze.

Tim glared daggers back. He knew it was impossible, but this was exactly the kind of meddling she would take part in. Especially since she was saying all that weird stuff about him and Jason earlier.

Several more students filtered in before the bell rang and Ms. Edwards directed them all to their new seats.

“Good afternoon everyone,” Ms. Edwards started, stepping into the center of the room. “I’m your history teacher for the year. I’ll pass out the syllabus to all of you shortly and something I want to make all of you aware of before we get started is that there’s going to be a lot of discussion this year. Every day I’ll have a question or two on the board for you to complete with the person sitting next to you. This person will also be your partner for the project you’ll complete this semester and the paper you’ll write together next semester. If you fail to hold proper discussion during class time, it will negatively affect your grade.”

Tim paled as Ms. Edwards looked around the room. She picked up a stack of papers and handed them to the first person in each row. He took his packet numbly and passed the last two behind him. He didn’t even see what was in front of him. He was going to be stuck sitting next to Jason for the whole year and he’d be expected to talk to him every day and complete a project.

This was going to be the worst.

Tim tangled a hand in his hair and willed the minutes to tick by faster so he could run out of the room and never look back. If he was lucky, he could get switched to another class. If he wasn’t lucky, maybe he could skip every class and hide in the library, doing all his homework and the project alone to make up for it.

He risked a glance at Jason and found he didn’t look much happier about the arrangement, his lips pulled into a thin line as he frowned down at the paper in front of him, hands curled into fists on the top of his desk.

Tim chucked his textbook into his bag after they were passed out, and barely listened to whatever else Ms. Edwards had to say.

Once the bell rang, he bolted from the classroom utterly relieved and not caring that Steph had to sprint to catch up with him when he turned the corner for his next class.

~~

“This is so unfair,” Tim swore as he shoved a handful of fries into his mouth.

“Maybe this is fate telling you to give Jason a chance. Maybe you could actually be friends instead of hating each other’s guts all the time,” Steph said, waving her hand around innocently enough.

Tim narrowed his eyes. “That’s bullshit. What did you do? Did you somehow tell our teacher to sit us next to each other?”

“I did nothing,” she sniffed. “I’m insulted you would think otherwise. And when would I have gotten the chance to tell her? Today was our first class.”

“I know your meddling when I see it, Steph. Don’t try and tell me this wasn’t your plan. If you had nothing to do with it why were you telling me to stop judging Jason?”

Steph shrugged and stole one of his fries, dipping it into her chocolate shake. “I just thought it was time you moved on. My tolerance of your complaining about him has reached a new low and I’m tired of it. There are thousands of better ways you could spend your time than by ridiculing someone who really hasn’t done anything to you other than indulge your petty arguments.”

Tim growled and stared at his fries, willing them to burst into flames for no other reason than the satisfaction that came with destroying something.

“Look,” she sighed. “Just give him a chance. If you don’t talk to him, you’re going to fail the class and we both know Jason probably isn’t going to let you negatively affect his grade.”

“What are you talking about? He doesn’t even care about school!” Tim asked, nearly catching the edge of his basket of fries while waving his hands around wildly. He needed to make Steph understand how crazy everything she was saying sounded.

None of it was making any sense and he was ready to bury himself under the covers and pray it just went away.

Steph huffed and shook her head. She didn’t say anything else but did steal two more of his fries even as he glared at her. He nearly shoved the rest of the basket in her direction, but instead took one of his fries and swiped it through her shake as she squawked and tried to bat his hand away.

He shoved the offending fry into his mouth and grinned as he chewed, feeling a little better about the whole Jason situation.

~~

Tim sneered at Jason when he sat down next to him and Jason gave him the same look. Tim crossed his arms and sank down in his desk chair, staring at the head of the person in front of him. He was going to ignore everything. He was going to ignore Jason. And he was going to ignore this class.

The bell rang over their heads and Ms. Edwards took her spot behind the podium.

“Your prompts for today are on the board. Discuss those and the short reading from last night while I take attendance. Once you’re all finished, we’ll begin our class by opening the floor up to any interesting insights you may have discussed.”

Tim saw Jason shift out of the corner of his eye, but he defiantly kept his gaze away from him. Jason huffed but didn’t say anything.

Someone cleared their throat in front of them and Tim looked up, his heart stuttering when he saw Ms. Edwards standing in front of them with her arms crossed.

“Is there a reason why the two of you haven’t begun to discuss last night’s reading?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Everyone else has already started and yet you two continue to sit here in silence. I believe I made myself clear yesterday that there were no exceptions to partner discussion.”

Tim let out a breath and leaned forward. “I can’t work with him,” he said, jabbing a finger in Jason’s direction.

Jason huffed. “Yeah because you make working with you so easy in the first place.”

Ms. Edwards held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care if the two of you don’t get along or tear each other’s throats out in the hallway our outside of school. When you’re in my class, you’re going to do the assignment I’ve left for you. If you refuse, I’ll have you both booted from class before you can even blink.”

“But I need this class to graduate!” Jason cried, leaning forward in his seat.

“Then I suggest the two of you get past whatever issue you have with each other and get to work. I won’t give you another warning. This is your last chance.” She turned on her heel and walked back to her desk.

Tim caught sight of Steph who was hiding her laugh behind her math homework. He glared at her but she ignored him, trying not to disturb the rest of the class even as Ms. Edwards shot her amused looks.

Jason sighed next to him and Tim braced himself for what was coming. He turned in his seat and faced him.

“Look,” he started, voice tight with dread. “I know we basically hate each other but I can’t not be in this class and get the credits I need to graduate. So, can we just…I don’t know, do the minimum amount of discussion to get Ms. Edwards off our backs?”

Tim dragged his gaze away from where he was glaring at Steph and met Jason’s eyes. His shoulders were tense, and he looked ready to bolt and Tim couldn’t blame him when he felt the same way.

“Aren’t you forgetting about the semester project that will require us to work together outside of class?” he quipped, raising an eyebrow.

“We can meet once in the library and divide up the work. The rest we can handle over email and don’t even have to be with each other while we work. Sound doable?” Jason asked.

Tim scrutinized him for a moment. The whole situation wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t impossible to deal with. Tim just hoped the rest of the year went by quickly so he could get as far away from Jason as possible and go off to college where he’d be able to live his own life.

“Fine. Works for me,” Tim agreed.

Jason let out a breath and relaxed back in his seat. He turned to the whiteboard and scanned the questions Ms. Edwards left for them. He made a face and Tim snickered.

“Are the questions not to your liking?”

Jason made a pained noise in the back of his throat but didn’t look away from the board. “They’re just so simple. The textbook was pretty clear about the first kinds of recorded history and how that’s changed over the years as language evolved. I don’t know why we need to outline that.”

Tim shrugged. “Maybe to make things easy since it’s the beginning of the year?” he asked.

Jason scoffed. “Life doesn’t just take breaks and history is important. We should be diving in and trying to understand as much as possible, not easing ourselves into things for the sake of avoiding difficulty and conflict. Human history is full of that.”

“Do you just, read history books for fun every night before bed? Are you one of those History Channel documentary guys?”

Jason shrugged. “Not really. I look up what I can but I’m more of an English guy than a history one.”

“Then why do you care so much about this class?”

Jason raised an eyebrow and leveled him with an unimpressed look. “Are you serious right now?”

Tim shrugged and nodded, glancing at the other people around him who were still deep in conversation. Ms. Edwards’ gaze roved over the room, not settling on any one pair too long as she smiled gently.

“We all need a history class to graduate and this was one of the most advanced our school offers. If I want to possibly get some scholarships for college, I need to ace this class. If I get kicked out of this class or fail it’ll show up on my transcript,” he huffed.

Tim swallowed, feeling nausea curl in his stomach. “Oh,” he mumbled.

Jason sneered. “I know rich kids like you don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to paying for college or any other expenses in life, but some of us actually have to work for it.”

Tim shifted in his seat, his discomfort growing. “Look,” he sighed. “I’m sorry okay. I didn’t mean it like that. I just didn’t realize.”

“Of course you didn’t. People like you never do,” Jason growled.

“Alright everyone, bring your attention back to the front,” Ms. Edwards said, straightening behind the podium and oblivious to what had just transpired between Jason and Tim.

Tim pressed his lips together and turned in his seat, facing forward once again. He didn’t know what he would’ve said if given the chance, but he felt like he needed to say something to Jason. Or maybe prove that not all rich people were like that. But he didn’t have much of an argument when he really had things so easy and spent his time judging Jason when he didn’t know the first thing about him or what he was going through.

He pulled out his notebook and slapped it onto his desk. He flipped it open to a clean page and marked it with the date. Every reason he had for hating Jason’s guts or avoiding working with him faded away in the face of Jason’s reality. He had no choice but to make sure they both aced this class for the year and he was damn well determined to make it happen no matter what it took or how much time he’d have to spend with Jason.

~~

Tim turned the corner and froze when he saw Jason and Roy walking towards him. Jason glanced at him but didn’t make any other move to address his presence, continuing on past him.

Tim tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack and ducked his head. He didn’t know what he was expecting but maybe having a common goal in history class was enough to diffuse any other interaction between them.

Although now that he was thinking about it, he was almost certain every interaction they’d had in the past was started on his part. He couldn’t deny that he was the most hostile of the two and he wondered if they would’ve fought so much if he let Jason go on his way and kept to himself.

He still felt guilty over the day before and thought he needed to make it up to Jason somehow but any form of apology he could think of felt empty or meaningless when it came to Jason.

Tim sighed and hurried through the hall to his next class. He’d have to keep thinking, but he was sure the only thing he could do at this point was put all of his efforts into history even if it was at the expense of his other classes.

~~

Tim nodded at Jason when he sat down next to him in history class. Jason nodded back and they didn’t say anything as they waited for the bell to ring. The other people around them chatted with their partners, ignoring the prompts on the board for the moment, but enjoying the bonds they were already starting to form.

Tim doubted he and Jason would ever reach that kind of familiarity with each other before the end of the year. He frowned when he realized there was a slight ache in his chest at the thought of missing out on that kind of understanding.

He sucked in a quiet breath when the bell rang and straightened, readying himself like he was going to war. He turned to face Jason who was already watching him.

“You want to start or me?” Tim asked, gesturing at the board.

Jason cocked his head to the side and sneered at the board. “These questions are still more annoying than anything else. It’s like reading quiz level of difficulty.”

Tim couldn’t help himself when he chuckled. “Then what do you want to talk about?” Tim asked, propping his fist against his cheek.

Jason blinked at him, seemingly surprised for a moment. He shrugged and Tim watched a light blush flood his cheeks.

He huffed. “I guess my main problem with the civilizations of the past is not caring about their records. Like, they could’ve made so much amazing art or music or writing. Hell, even public records would’ve been great to have centuries later so we could have a better understanding of what people did, but they just didn’t care and either let it get destroyed or didn’t bother to store it.”

“Can you really tell me that you save your daily schedule in the hopes that it’ll one day be an important historical document?” Tim asked.

Jason scoffed. “Please, like anyone would find anything important in my daily schedule.”

Tim smirked. “And you just answered your own question. Those people back then probably didn’t think anyone would see the worth in the records they were keeping. Or they didn’t have the capacity to even imagine anyone living a hundred years in the future, let alone a year, when they didn’t have much of a concept of time. They probably didn’t think anything would still exist after their lives ended.”

Jason grumbled something under his breath. “Okay, fine I guess you’re right. I still don’t like it though.”

Tim chuckled. “You’re not meant to like it. A lot of historians don’t like it because we have no idea what life was like back then but that’s just the state of things. At least now we have the internet that can keep a digital record of human life.”

“As long as an apocalypse doesn’t happen that totally wipes out the internet and all digital records,” Jason shot back.

“If an apocalypse is happening, libraries and museums won’t last much longer than the technology blackout. They’ll get burned or destroyed, by humans or natural disasters. Whichever category the apocalypse ends up falling into anyway,” Tim said.

Jason narrowed his eyes. “You seem to have a put a lot of thought into this.”

Tim wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “Not really. It’s just kind of common sense when you think about.”

Jason narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. “How so?”

Tim matched his posture and grinned, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Okay, so…when you’re considering the future of the human race, as far as an apocalypse goes, you have two options. It’s going to be caused by humans or it’s going to be a natural disaster.”

“What about aliens?” Jason interrupted.

Tim waved his hands. “We’ll only take that into account once we find proof of alien life.”

“But there’s plenty of potential on moons and planets which already exist in the universe. Scientists have found conditions similar to Earth’s where life could’ve developed.”

“That’s true, but we don’t know if there’s life there or not. Now stop interrupting so I can explain this to you,” Tim huffed. “The human causes are most likely going to be nuclear, unless society just somehow regresses and we basically abandon organized civilization, which I don’t exactly see happening, but who knows, we could end up driving ourselves into extinction since we can be so stupid sometimes.”

Jason breathed a laugh and Tim swallowed, having to take a moment because he never would’ve imagined Jason laughing when they were together, let alone being the reason Jason laughed.

“Okay,” Tim continued, voice a little unsteady. “The other option is natural disaster which takes out all forms of electricity and destroys major cities, killing large population centers and crippling government and organization.”

Jason nodded. “Okay I’m with you so far, go on…”

Tim grinned. “If the nuclear option happens, that’ll short-circuit all technology so the world will go dark. Some systems might still stay online but if you don’t have the workers to keep things going, those won’t last long, and last time I checked, every person in the world didn’t have the skills to maintain advanced technology systems or power plants. If the natural disaster occurs, again, you won’t have the workers to keep those systems online and all digital footprints will probably get wiped if there’s no one to get them back online and if none of those files are backed up, they’re going to be lost. Not to mention that buildings and businesses in the major natural disaster centers are most likely the most advanced so the hardest hit to cultural records is going to come from big cities located near the coast.”

Tim grinned as he sat back. He could see Jason turning over all the information in his head. He crossed his arms and nodded.

“Okay,” he conceded. “But that doesn’t mean there won’t be enough for future historians to piece together the past and understand what life was like before all that happened.”

Tim shrugged. “That’s assuming this whole cycle hasn’t been repeating itself and past civilizations did have those records, but the destruction was too great that practically nothing survived.”

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Has anyone ever told you that your brain is a terrifying place?” he asked.

Tim chuckled. “More than you know.”

“Okay, everyone let’s come back together,” Ms. Edwards said, catching their attention.

Tim’s smile slipped from his face. He swallowed and turned to face the front of the room, belatedly realizing that he’d actually enjoyed his conversation with Jason. As off-topic as it was.

~~

Tim glanced at Jason as they passed in the hallway after lunch.

“Well that’s interesting,” Steph said beside him, voice taking on a conspiratorial edge.

“What is?” he asked, barely paying her any mind, his thoughts already on his history class that afternoon.

“You walked within two feet of Jason and didn’t tear each other’s throats out.”

Tim rolled his eyes but kept his gaze on the hall ahead of them. “Don’t act so surprised. We have to get along for class. It’s not worth it to fight in the hall.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have history for another period and there’s no teacher around to make sure you act civil around each other right now. And last time I checked, you didn’t give much of a shit about getting to class when you were around Jason.”

“Just shut up,” Tim grumbled, stuffing his hands in his jeans’ pockets.

Steph snickered next to him. “You want to know what I think?”

“No, not really.”

“Okay rude,” she huffed. “And I’m going to tell you anyway since you’re not being nice to me. I think that you actually like talking to Jason and you’ve realized that he’s really not a bad guy.

“And you know what I think?” Tim shot back. “I think you’re crazy for thinking that. We might be getting along now, but I can guarantee that once we get the grade for this class and pass with flying colors, we’re going to go back to hating each other’s guts. It’s not going to change anything, as much as you’re going to insist otherwise.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Steph said, finally catching his attention. He glanced at her and found her smirking at him. “You seemed pretty happy to talk to him about your theories on parallel universes the other day. I think you even smiled. And he seemed more than invested in what you were saying for someone who’s just acting as your project partner.”

“Don’t get so excited, it doesn’t mean anything,” Tim grumbled, ignoring the little stab in his chest at the thought. He wasn’t going to spend time thinking about what that meant. He couldn’t be getting attached. Not to someone who hated his guts and didn’t give a shit about him if it didn’t benefit him in some way.

~~

Tim glanced up at Ms. Edwards when he snatched the folded sheet of paper back from Jason’s fingers. They’d gotten into a heated discussion at the beginning of class and neither of them had been able to leave the topic alone, so they resorted to passing notes in class while their teacher lectured with the most elaborate Powerpoint Tim had ever seen.

He unfolded the paper, jotting down a couple notes in his notebook before he scanned Jason’s words.

You can’t seriously think that people in the past didn’t find remnants from other civilizations. Or even dinosaur bones. I’m sure more than enough fossils have been lost because of poor care or ignorance.

Tim huffed and grabbed his pen, hunching over his chair to scribble out his response.

Maybe so but if that was always the case then what made people curious enough to keep the first fossils we still have? Maybe they were seen as a kind of trophy or sign of status. Maybe dinosaur bones caused wars or feuds to break out because people were desperate to claim them.

He folded up the paper and slid it off the desk, passing it back to Jason.

“Boys?” Ms. Edwards asked, clearing her throat.

They both jumped and looked up, finding Ms. Edwards standing at the entrance to the aisle between their rows, her eyes on the square of paper held between their hands.

“I’m sure whatever conversation you’re having is incredibly interesting, but I am trying to teach a history lesson. So please put that away. You can continue your conversation after class and if I see it again, I will confiscate it.”

Tim let go of the edge of the paper like he’d been burned and slid down in his chair. “Sorry,” he mumbled, picking up his pen to focus his attention on his scrawled notes.

Jason shoved the note into his backpack and sat forward, tangling his fingers in his hair as he picked up his pen to take more notes.

Ms. Edwards nodded and returned to her podium, to the muffled snickers of the rest of the students. She cleared her throat, silencing the class and moving to the next slide in her lecture.

Tim diligently took down the notes and main points she’d prepared for them and hoped his blush went away a lot faster than the lingering heat in his face suggested it did.

~~

Jason unfolded the sheet of paper as soon as he was in the hallway and free of Ms. Edwards scrutiny. He was embarrassed over being caught passing notes in class, but he couldn’t help it if his conversations with Tim were interesting and kept him as occupied as their class lecture did.

He could handle both of those things and knew it wouldn’t cause him to fall behind even if it didn’t look good to the teacher. As long as she didn’t kick him out of class that’s all that mattered.

He scanned Tim’s response and rolled his eyes. As much as Tim was interested in sci-fi and had opinions about alien life and surviving any form of the apocalypse, he still had an astounding lack of creativity or understanding of human curiosity.

“Why do you have such a specific expression of exasperated amusement on your face?”

Jason glanced up and found Roy standing in front of him, eyeing the paper in his hands. He folded it up and shoved it into his pocket.

“Nothing,” he answered, pushing past him to walk down the hall to his last class of the day.

Roy grinned and hurried to keep up with him. “This doesn’t have anything to do with your lovely little partner in history class does it?”

Jason flushed but tried to glare at Roy to keep him from touching that topic.

“Oh it does!” he said, sounding more delighted than Jason thought he had any right to. “I’ve gotta say, I wasn’t expecting this kind of drama to happen during our senior year, but I am so excited that it did. You’re like a real-life soap opera. I need to start carrying popcorn with me.”

“Just shut up,” Jason grumbled. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“Whatever you say,” Roy teased.

Jason rolled his eyes and tried to hurry to his last class in an effort to ignore whatever scrutiny Roy would give him over what was going on between him and Tim, not that it was any of his business. But Roy had a habit of sticking his nose into things where it didn’t belong.

~~

“Okay, now that you’ve had time to get to know each other and jump into the early dredges of history we’ve covered since the beginning of the year, it’s time to start picking out your topics for you history project,” Ms. Edwards said as Tim turned to pick up his conversation with Jason where they’d left off the day before.

Tim sagged back in his chair, wishing their teacher couldn’t have waited until after they got their usual conversation time to introduce their project.

“As I’m sure will disappoint many of you, you’re not going to have complete freedom over what you research, but I do have a list of time periods and topics you’re all going to choose from. I’ll go around and each pair will draw a number from a hat. We’ll go in order of the numbers to choose which topic you’d like.”

Ms. Edwards crossed the room, handing a stack of papers to the first person in each row.

“These papers have a list of the requirements for the project and the list of topics is on the back. I’ll give you about five or ten minutes to go over all of this and discuss things with your partner before we draw numbers. If you find you really don’t like anything on this list, I am willing to assess any proposals you might have, and we can work something out so everyone’s happy. Okay? Okay.”

Tim scanned the page in front of him, reading through the requirements for source material and what would be needed for their presentation. They’d have to put together enough information for a six-minute presentation with a Powerpoint but he was happy they could use a video aid as long as it wasn’t longer than a minute.

Tim flipped over his page and looked down the list of topics. He glanced up at Jason who was staring at the list too.

“Thoughts?” Tim asked with a sigh.

Jason glanced up at him and shrugged. “There’s some interesting topics. Nothing I’m overly excited about but we could do something about the Romans or the Vikings.”

Tim nodded. “The Vikings might be pretty interesting actually. And since we can use videos in our presentation, we can use that to give some background information before diving into something specific about them.”

Jason smiled. “Yeah that would be great actually. We could probably find something in a History Channel documentary. Or even a short Youtube video.”

Tim snickered. “Of course you would go for the History Channel. I knew I was right in tagging you as a documentary guy.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “So, we’re agreed on Vikings for our first choice.”

Tim nodded.

“We should probably have one or two more back-up topics.”

Tim sighed. “Romans could be one. I don’t know, what else would you be interested in?”

“Ancient China?” Jason suggested. “Maybe the silk road.”

Tim nodded. “Yeah okay. There’s probably a lot of information about that too and at least we can use a mixture of documentaries and books.”

Jason smiled and blinked when a basket appeared between them. He glanced up at Ms. Edwards who had an eyebrow raised at him.

“Oh, right,” he mumbled and reached into the hat. He snatched a small piece of folded paper and pulled it out, letting Ms. Edwards step past them to the next pair.

“Well?” Tim asked. “What’s the damage?”

“The moment of truth I guess,” Jason mumbled. He opened the slip of paper and winced.

“Tell me we’re not last?” Tim begged.

“We’re not last,” Jason admitted. “Our number is thirteen.”

“So third to last,” he grumbled.

Jason nodded.

Tim bit his lip and slumped against the back of his chair. He wasn’t going to expect anything. He knew they probably wouldn’t get their first choice of topics and maybe not even their second choice. He just hoped they got something they wanted.

“Okay everyone,” Ms. Edwards said, stepping behind her podium again. “Are we all ready to start picking topics?”

Tim glanced around the room and saw groups giving each other death glares as they began the fight and hopefully won the favor of the draw to get their desired topics.

Tim bit his lip and crossed his arms when the first number was called. The group took one of the most popular topics and he heard several groups groan and start frantically whispering about their other choices. What was picked first wasn’t one they were looking for, offering a little bit of a relief their choice hadn’t been taken yet. But as was always the case when it came to picking topics in class, there were still a lot of groups to go.

The whole process was agonizing, and it felt like ages between one group and the next as they picked what they wanted. Their second choice was snatched up after the first six groups had gotten their assignments and Tim was amazed that their third choice was taken before their first pick.

Tim glanced at Jason who looked just as shocked as him.

“Okay,” Ms. Edwards said. “Number thirteen. Who has number thirteen?”

“We do,” Jason said, raising the piece of paper in his hand.

Ms. Edwards smiled and raised an eyebrow, waiting for them to voice their topic.

“We’re going with the Vikings.”

She nodded and marked something down on her sheet before turning to the next group. Tim let out a breath and sagged in his chair. He scrubbed a hand over his face and shared a look with Jason.

“I can’t believe we managed to get our first choice.”

Jason nodded. “I don’t think that ever happens for people so far down the list like us,” he agreed. “We should get to work on this as soon as possible. The sooner we get it done, the sooner we don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Jason nodded. “Do you want to meet in the library after school and we can divide the work up?”

Tim nodded. “Yeah. We can find some sources and outline what we want to cover.”

“Quiet down,” Ms. Edwards said, bringing their conversations to a close. “I know you’re all excited to get working on your projects, but I still have today’s lesson to get through. Later next week we’re going to be picking presentation days. You’ll find the range on your assignment sheets so start thinking about what dates would work best for you. And if you really are that excited to get started on your project, you’re more than welcome to get started in the library after school.”

~~

Tim buried his face in his arms after he dropped into a chair at the table Jason had already snagged in the library.

“You okay?” Jason asked.

Tim huffed and nodded. “Just exhausted. You know, the usual I guess.”

Jason chuckled. “Well it’s almost the weekend. Only a few more days to get through.”

“Yeah but now we have this project to work on.”

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t sleep in,” Jason argued.

“Fair enough,” Tim grumbled and finally sat up in his chair, rubbing his fists against his eyes. “Any idea of where we can start with this?”

“Well it’s a history project,” Jason drawled. “So, we can start by outlining which parts of the history of the Vikings we want to cover. Their origins would be a good place to start and their general practices.”

Tim nodded. “I can find a documentary to reference over the weekend. And I’ll look for some reference books, too.”

“Do you want to focus on their everyday lives?” Jason asked, pulling out his notebook.

Tim nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. Aren’t they famous for their raids?”

Jason paused. “I think so? I’ll make a note of it and we can figure it out later. We should probably meet a couple times to put everything together.”

“Does this weekend work for you? I know I was just complaining about sleeping but at least we can order pizza and chill while doing work.”

“Yeah sure,” Jason said, eyebrows raising in obvious surprise. “Does Saturday work?”

“Yeah. Here,” he said, pulling out one of his sticky notes. “Let me give you my phone number and we can text each other a good time.” He shoved the piece of paper with his scrawled number across the table.

Jason took it and pulled out his phone, putting in the digits before he shot a message back to Tim. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and watched as Jason pocketed his phone.

“I feel like we should be doing more work than that,” Tim admitted. “But I also know some of this will have to be done on our own.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah…I kind of feel the same way. But we’re also going to have time over the weekend to do this and I don’t really see the point in spending hours in the library right now.”

“You mind if I just hang out and do some of my homework for tonight?”

He shook his head and pulled out his math textbook. “I was thinking of doing the same thing. Might as well use the time we’ve got here.”

Tim smiled and pulled out his chemistry textbook and the worksheet they’d been assigned. The silence between them was easy as they got to work, pencils scratching against different sheets of paper.

~~

Tim grinned and held up the two pizza boxes in his hands when Jason pulled the door open.

“You brought pizza?” he asked.

Tim rolled his eyes and pushed past him, taking in the small apartment. “Of course I did,” he scoffed. “I couldn’t not bring brain food and you’re letting us work here when you didn’t have to.”

Jason shrugged, shoulders stiff with the movement.

“So…are we going to work in the living room or at the kitchen table or would you prefer your room?” Tim prompted when Jason didn’t make a move to direct him anywhere.

“Right, yeah,” he said, snapping out of whatever daze he’d been in. “We can go to my room. I’ve already got all my stuff spread out over the floor.”

Tim nodded and followed Jason to his bedroom. The floor was covered in books and papers, but Tim didn’t have an issue finding a spot for himself. Jason helped him move his homework out of the way to set the pizza down.

He flipped open the top of the first box and grabbed a slice before stretching his legs out in front of him and pulling his laptop from his bag. Jason was a little more hesitant to take a slice of pizza and he didn’t relax right away when he settled back down among his piles of papers and ideas.

Tim hummed under his breath and opened his programs.

“So,” he started, taking another bite of pizza. “I was thinking we could use this video in our presentation. I know we can’t take up more than a minute, but it gives a pretty good explanation as to the practices of the Vikings.”

Jason nodded. “Lay it on me.”

Tim turned his computer and let the clip play, the sound filtering through his speakers clearly.

“Looks good to me,” he agreed. “I think that would be good to put between the history of the Vikings that I’m covering and the start of your section.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too. Have you put any slides together?”

“No. I didn’t really feel like I was ready to do that, and I think it would be better to do that together anyway.”

Tim nodded and opened his web browser. “We can use the free software through Google so we can both access it.”

He quickly set up a presentation and sent the link to Jason’s email.

Jason grabbed another slice of pizza and pushed himself to his feet, sitting down in his desk chair to bring his desktop to life. He tapped away at the clunky keyboard and Tim smiled when his name appeared in the corner of his screen.

Tim added a few slides and stuck the video in the middle of them, knowing they’d both add more slides as they needed and compiled their work together.

Silence fell between them, but Tim didn’t find it uncomfortable in the slightest. Jason prompted him to pass him the pizza every now and then and they ate most of it as they worked on their project in companionable silence. Tim had never expected to be in the same room as Jason for so long without fighting. He never expected to be in Jason’s home in the first place.

Tim startled when he heard the front door slam, his fingers jerking against the keys and making his sentence deteriorate into a bunch of jibberish.

“Jason?” a woman called.

“Shit, sorry,” Jason mumbled to Tim, pushing himself from his chair. He hurried from the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

Tim strained to hear what was being said but couldn’t make out much more than the soft murmurs of their voices. He sighed and went back to his work, wiping his fingers on a crumpled napkin to keep the grease off his keys.

Jason returned a few minutes later. “Sorry about that,” he apologized. “I guess we lost track of time. I thought you were going to be gone by the time my mom got back from work.”

Tim shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, really. If you want me to, I can go…”

“No really, it’s okay,” Jason said in a rush, holding up his hands. “My mom’s fine with it, too.”  

“Although,” Tim continued, smirk pulling at his lips. “I don’t know if we really need to do that much more work or we’re going to have this finished today.”

Jason sat down in his chair and grinned. “That might not be such a bad thing.”

“Maybe not but we’re still a month out from when presentations even start.”

“Well,” Jason said, “if we’re not going to work on this anymore, you feel like watching a movie? Or do you need to get home? I guess I shouldn’t assume-”

“A movie would be great. We still have some pizza left anyway that I’m dying to eat. What do you have?”

Jason grinned and pushed himself out of his chair. He pulled a large bin out from under his bed and shoved it in Tim’s direction. Tim started sorting through the cases as Jason picked up his schoolwork, putting it in a small pile on his desk.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to watch all of the ones I want in one sitting,” Tim warned as he made a small pile next to his hip, flipping through the next few cases.

“We can always continue this next weekend,” Jason said with a shrug.

Tim swallowed and ducked his head, hoping to hide the grin that pulled at his lips. “Sure. If you don’t mind having me around.”

“Not at all,” Jason said, voice light. “We have to finish our project anyway.”

“Let’s start with this one then,” Tim said, passing him one of the cases he’d picked out.

Jason looked over the title and nodded. “This is a good one. Just let me get this set up.” He turned back to his computer and inserted the disk into his tower. He clicked several things and enlarged the screen so it took up his whole monitor.

He glanced over his shoulder and paused. “It might be easier if we both sat on the bed,” he said, flush rushing to his cheeks as he pulled the curtains over the window behind his desk.

“Yeah, no problem,” Tim said, pushing himself up from the floor. “It makes sense since we only have a computer monitor to work with.”

Jason heard the bed shift behind him and fought not to look until he hit play and stood up from his chair. He spared a quick glance in Tim’s direction before he crawled onto his bed and leaned back against the wall next to Tim.

Their shoulders brushed as they settled into place and even though there was some space between them, Jason could still feel the warmth wafting off Tim.

He swallowed and fought to focus on the movie, ignoring why he was so distracted by their proximity in the first place. There were project partners and really nothing more even if it felt like they were edging into that kind of territory.

Jason didn’t want to get his hopes up. And he questioned why he’d even have to worry about that in the first place.

~~

“Oh come on,” Tim protested, eyes focused on Jason’s computer screen.

He angrily shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth and Jason hid his smile behind his sip of soda.

They’d worked on their project for about an hour before they both got distracted and bored and decided to put it to the side in favor of continuing their movie marathon. They were ahead of where they needed to be anyway, and Jason knew that taking some time to enjoy themselves on a Saturday wouldn’t put them that far behind.

He glanced to the side, taking in Tim’s profile. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but he thought they were sitting closer than they had the week before. Every time Tim reached to grab a handful of popcorn, their biceps brushed together, sending a jolt of warmth against his skin.

Tim’s eyelashes almost seemed to brush his skin when he blinked, and Jason wondered if they were as soft as they looked. His eyebrows were turned down because he was annoyed with whatever choice the protagonist was making and Jason couldn’t blame him when he had the same thoughts.

Every time Tim offered some insight or commentary into the plot of the movie, Jason was drawn in by his thoughts. When he laughed, his nose would crinkle up in an adorable way as his eyes nearly squeezed shut and he leaned back against the wall to keep himself upright.  

Jason froze and pulled his gaze away from watching how Tim’s blue eyes were focused on the screen, soaking up every detail of the film they were watching and no doubt catching things Jason would never understand. He swallowed and fought down the rising panic in his chest that wanted to drown him under his new revelation.

He wasn’t supposed to be interested in Tim. They were supposed to hate each other’s guts. They had hated each other’s guts until they were paired together for their history class. And it didn’t help anything that their teacher had paired them because she thought they would work out romantically.

Jason grabbed a fistful of popcorn and shoved it into his mouth. Tim moved next to him and Jason almost thought he’d been found out but he did nothing more than hold the bowl towards him so he could have more of the snack.

He ducked his head in a half-nod and grabbed another handful of popcorn to keep his mouth busy. He was afraid that his realization would burst out of him and incriminate him. He couldn’t find Tim attractive. He couldn’t think he was cute. Not when Tim probably only tolerated him at best.

Tim would hate him if he knew about his growing feelings. They’d never be able to get along again, and it would put them right back where they’d been at the beginning of the year. And Jason was just starting to realize that he never wanted to go back to that place. He realized how much he hated it and had hated it when he was still there.

He’d just have to suffer through their work sessions on their project and the time they had to spend together in class. Beyond that, he’d need to keep his distance. He’d need to get some of the distance that used to be between them back.

He couldn’t push Tim away fully. He was too selfish for that and he didn’t think Tim would let him if he tried. Not when he was content to spend a couple hours together without an issue.

Jason swallowed. He’d make it through the year. He’d spend as much time with Tim as he could, but he wouldn’t become weak to what he wanted. They’d get through their project and that would be it. The only time they’d spend with each other after this would be in class.

He could deal with it. It would be enough. Even if it wasn’t what he wanted.

~~

Tim shoved the door to his bedroom open and let it slam shut behind him. He dropped his backpack on the floor and tried to keep himself from hyperventilating as his chest tightened and his breaths came faster.

He swallowed and fought to push the memories of sitting next to Jason on his bed for a handful of hours from his memory. They weren’t friends. They could barely be classified as friends. They were just bored and needed to get their project done for class. It meant nothing more than a grade and he was trying to convince himself of that.

Jason didn’t like him. He tolerated him and he knew he just put up with his presence in his home, but he didn’t like him. And even if Tim was drowning under the beauty of Jason’s intelligence and every comment he made that got Tim to laugh, he couldn’t do anything about it.

Tim squeezed his eyes shut when his brain wanted to fixate on the size of his biceps and how great he looked in whatever he decided to throw on for the day. And then there was his secret nerdy side…

He shook his head, fighting to push his thoughts to the back of his mind. The longer he lingered on them, the closer to the forefront of his brain they would be and if that happened, they would not doubt get him into trouble. And if he didn’t get himself into trouble with Jason, then he would definitely out himself to Steph and he couldn’t allow that to happen.

Tim would fight to get through the end of their project and then he’d bury anything he felt for Jason under the rest of his classes and his homework. He knew there wasn’t going to be anything for them once this project was done.

They’d be back to where they were before it happened and would have no more interaction than their conversations in class.

There wouldn’t be any more movie nights. There would be fewer witty conversations. And Tim would struggle with the loss of a great relationship he could’ve had for years but would no doubt be out of his reach because of the choices he made in the past.

Tim sighed and threw himself onto his bed. He buried his face in his pillows and was determined to block out the rest of the world for a few hours at least. He didn’t want to think about anything.

And if he did think about something, he wanted to be able to bury it in his dreams so that his suspicions of soft-looking lips and tight hugs would never see the light of day and he’d never risk embarrassment over his attraction to the one person he was supposed to hate for the rest of his life.

~~

Tim kept his head down as they neared their project deadline. They finished ahead of schedule and used the extra time they had to prepare to practice their presentation once a day in the library after school.

Now that they didn’t have to prepare anything and had their portions of the presentation practically memorized, there was no longer an excuse for longer conversations or their movie marathons.

Something ached deep in Tim’s chest when he couldn’t go over to Jason’s house and lock himself away in his room while they watched a movie. He’d never get to sit close to him on the bed or share snacks or talk about the most ridiculous thing from whatever movie they put on.

He tried to ignore the pain that seemed to hurt him deep inside whenever the light caught Jason’s eyes just right, or he caught him laughing at something Roy had said to him in the hallway. He missed pulling those deep belly laughs out of Jason.

Steph had noticed where his gaze lingered and asked him about it, but he wasn’t ready to admit his feelings, let alone talk about missing the time he’d gotten to spend with Jason over the course of the semester.

When the moment of truth finally came, he got through their actual presentation in a daze but knew he hadn’t messed up a single line from how many times they’d practiced.

Jason grinned at him when they finished, and their class offered polite applause. Tim returned Jason’s enthusiasm easily even if something inside his core shattered that Jason didn’t like him for anything more than the grade they were working to get together in the class.

And now it was all over.

The days following their presentation were painful. They barely talked before class started and Tim constantly glanced in his direction but didn’t get any sign that Jason might be missing their usual camaraderie like he was. He wasn’t able to focus on any of the other presentations that were given, thoughts swirling in a toxic circle that always came back to the same thing.

Tim’s sleep got worse. He stayed up late staring at the ceiling, worried that he’d done something to piss Jason off as the distance between them continued to grow. He didn’t know how to fix anything between them and thought they were back to the point of no return. He was sure if they didn’t change things before their semester ended, they’d never get back to the point where they had been.

~~

Jason forced his eyes closed but knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep any better than he had been the past few weeks. The sounds of the city outside his apartment were too loud. They accused him of all the mistakes he’d made in his life, the most horrible of them the distance growing between him and Tim again.

Things had been going well between them. Every second they spent together outside of school was like a small victory for him and what he wanted in life. They hadn’t even gotten through every movie Tim had wanted to watch before it was time to give their presentation and their time working on their project had ended.

They still saw each other in school and had class together and Jason was ecstatic they got the best grade in the class on their project, but things were awkward between him and Tim like they never had been before.

Sure, things hadn’t been easy when they were forced together at the beginning of the year but that was more because of the lingering animosity between them. They’d never been awkward.

And now he was sure he’d been reading the signs wrong between them. Even if he had to suffer through his growing attraction for Tim, he was happy to have him as a friend. But now that even seemed out of reach. He didn’t know how to fix it either.

If he asked Tim what happened he’d probably scoff and say that they were only spending time together because of their class and that would make things even more awkward because Tim would know he’s interested.

He’d become the school joke because there was no way Tim would keep that quiet if they were still the furthest thing from friends they could be.

Jason huffed and rolled onto his side, burying his face in his pillow. He could only hope that they could fix things or at least get back to where they had been before their presentation.

He wouldn’t survive if he had to stew with this uncertainty for the two weeks of winter break.

~~

Tim glanced at Jason when he sat down in his seat next to him in class. They’d passed each other in the hall earlier but neither of them had made eye contact or any other sign of recognition.

He wanted to say something, but he seemed to be at a spectacular loss of words as of late. Even their conversations in class which used to delve into the most random topics never strayed from the questions Ms. Edwards wrote out on the board for them.

The bell rang over their heads and as the other groups around them started their discussion, Tim sluggishly turned in his chair.

“Hey,” he said.

Jason glanced at him and turned in his chair, leaning heavily against the back of his seat.

“So, what did you think of last night’s reading?” he continued, nearly wincing at how stilted and formal the question sounded like they hadn’t already spent a whole semester talking and working on a project.

Jason shrugged. “It was interesting. I want to know more about the ritual practices that were touched on in the middle of the chapter. It didn’t go into much detail.”

“Was that really the most important section to focus on though?” Tim asked.

“Does it matter if it was or not?” Jason scoffed. “I found it interesting and would’ve liked to know more. Obviously, they can’t go in depth on every topic or the textbook would weigh a thousand pounds.”

“Right,” Tim huffed and rolled his eyes. “I guess you can just watch a documentary and get the answers you want.”

Tim swallowed the bitter taste that filled the back of his throat. This wasn’t how he wanted their conversation to go. It felt wrong and tainted. They couldn’t go back to how they’d been. He didn’t want them to.

They stared at each for a moment and Tim sighed.

“Okay everyone,” Ms. Edwards said, cutting off what he was about to say. “Let’s get things started, shall we? Who wants to go first?”

Tim turned to face the front of the room and pulled out his notebook. He sagged down in his chair and tried to push any thoughts of his crumbling relationship with Jason to the back of his mind. He’d fix it later.

~~

Tim felt more irritable the closer to winter break they got. If the stress from studying for finals wasn’t bad enough, he always seemed to be plagued with thoughts of what was going on between him and Jason.

His sleep schedule was beyond fucked up and it had nothing to do with trying to cram as much studying in as possible. His brain never shut up and Steph was avoiding him after he snapped at her because he couldn’t handle his own shit.

“Okay I’m going to take pity on you and forgive you for snapping at me yesterday,” Steph huffed, sitting across from him at lunch.

Tim glanced up from his tray of sad looking food. “I’m sorry about that,” he mumbled.

“I know you are, but you can’t take out your teenage angst on everyone else. Especially your best friend,” she said, giving him a onceover. “Normally I would hold out until you came crawling back to apologize, but you look so sad I decided to take pity on you.”

“Thanks.”

Steph stared at him for a minute and Tim tried not to shift under her scrutiny. “You really need to fix whatever’s going on with you.”

“I don’t know how.”

“Here’s a thought: talk to him.”

“It doesn’t matter. It won’t do any good,” he said, throwing his plastic fork onto his tray.

“God, you’re so hopeless sometimes. Okay, fine,” she huffed. “If you’re not going to try to fix this and just let whatever happens, happen, then you can’t be sad and moan and groan and get mad at me. So, get your shit together and talk to him, or shut up and get through the next week before break.”

Tim slouched further in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. He nodded and shoved a cold fry into his mouth, chewing bitterly.

~~

Tim threw himself onto his bed when he got home from his last day of school. He’d struggled to get through his history final without being distracted by Jason next to him. Even when he finished his test and turned it in, he still couldn’t do anything because they weren’t allowed to talk and Jason took more time than he did.

He didn’t want to risk trying to pass a note and getting caught by Ms. Edwards either. She could’ve thought they were cheating and as desperate as he was to repair what was between them, he wasn’t going to risk Jason’s grade even if he didn’t care that much about his own.

Tim was ready to bury himself in bed and ignore the rest of the world for two weeks. He didn’t want to go to his parents’ Christmas party, and he didn’t even care about what happened on Christmas and the pile of consolation prizes his parents bought for him.

The only thing he wanted was for things to be fixed and if it meant willing away the time off they had, then he would give it all away and jump right into second semester.

His heart ached and he almost wished he could show up at Jason’s front door and settle in for a movie night with pizza and ice cream.

Tim sighed and yanked his blanket over him, forcing his eyes shut in the hopes that he might finally be able to get some sleep.

~~

Jason stared out his bedroom window. Snow was falling gently between Gotham’s buildings and the road was already covered with a light dusting of snow. It would turn to slush soon even with the reduced traffic on the streets because of Christmas.

His mom was still asleep after getting in late from work the night before and he hadn’t managed to pull himself into the kitchen to start making breakfast. He’d pulled out the small plastic Christmas tree they kept in their place when he got home after his last day of school before break and managed to put it up, the mindless task letting him empty his head for a few minutes.

There were two boxes under the bent and crooked branches. Their gifts always bordered on practical. They didn’t have the money for anything extravagant and they learned early on they only really wanted things they had a use for rather than the meaningless trinkets that filled store windows during the shopping season.

Jason sighed and pushed himself away from the wall. He grabbed his hoodie from the back of his chair and slipped it over his head. He carefully moved into the kitchen, keeping an eye on his mom’s room to make sure he wasn’t waking her.

He pulled the milk from the fridge and filled a small saucepan. He left it to heat up as he put the jug away and grabbed the cocoa powder and the sugar from the cabinet.

Jason pulled the whisk from the jar on the counter and measured out the cocoa and sugar, slowly mixing it in the heating pot.

He heard a noise come from his mom’s room and sighed, hoping she would’ve had a bit longer to sleep in before she was roused and brought back to the land of the living.

Her door opened and she wasn’t quiet or subtle as she approached.

“Hot chocolate?” she asked, voice still rough from sleep.

“Yeah,” he murmured, watching the cocoa dissolve into the milk.

“Have you eaten breakfast yet?” she asked.

He shook his head. She moved around him and grabbed a pan to set on the stove next to him. She pulled two mugs from the cabinet and left them next to Jason for when their drinks were ready. She grabbed the carton of eggs and a bowl and began to crack eggs into it in preparation for scrambling.

She paused after closing the egg carton and reached across the counter for the small radio plugged into the wall. She turned it on and quickly changed channels before settling on a station playing Christmas music.

Jason smiled as she began to hum along and prepare their breakfast. He turned off the stove eye he was using and poured the hot chocolate into the two mugs.

Something still ached in the back of his chest and he tried not to dwell on any thoughts of Tim, but he was going to let himself have one day where he didn’t beat up on himself for thinking about him. He could worry about Tim and their crumbling relationship later. They might have the chance to fix things once their spring semester started, but right now he had some time with his mom on Christmas and he knew he wasn’t going to see her much for the rest of his break, so it wouldn’t do to be in a sour mood.

Jason hummed along to the radio under his breath and pulled a loaf of break from the cabinet, popping two slices into the toaster before he clinked his mug to his mom’s and they both took a sip.

~~

Tim paused in front of the double doors to his school and took a deep breath. It was cold and snow was drifting down over his head, but he needed a moment before he faced the day ahead of him.

He was going to fix things with Jason. He didn’t care what Jason’s reaction was and if it turned out he still hated him, then knowing that was better than drifting in an abyss of uncertainty.

He hurried up the steps and pushed through the doors with the people around him. He shivered at the warmth that enveloped him, glad the school wasn’t being stingy with the heat considering the freezing temperatures outside. He studied the crowds around him, searching for Jason’s familiar profile.

Steph waved at him, trying to catch his attention. He waved her off and mouthed ‘later’ in her direction. She frowned, eyebrows drawing down in her confusion but nodded and let him move away.

Tim kept an eye on the hall as he stopped at his locker. He pulled it open and grabbed his books for his morning classes and shoving his winter coat inside before slamming it shut. He pushed up onto his toes to look over the heads of the crowds around him. He huffed when he didn’t catch sight of Jason and continued down the hall.

He didn’t know where Jason’s first class was, but he knew if he wandered around long enough he’d find him somewhere. Unless he was hiding out under some stairwell.

Tim shoved his way through a line of people and turned the next corner, eyes sweeping up and down the hall. He caught sight of a head of red hair and blinked, hurrying forward, thinking it might be Roy and where Roy was Jason was a step ahead.

He slowed when the student turned, and it was definitely not who he was looking for. Tim huffed and continued, turning down the next hallway where another row of lockers and classrooms were.

“Looking for someone?”

Tim jumped and whirled around, finding Jason had snuck up on him. He narrowed his eyes and looked him up and down.

“Where did you come from?” he accused.

Jason hiked his thumb over his shoulder at the door to the bathroom a few feet behind them.

“Oh,” Tim sighed and relaxed.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Jason said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Were you looking for someone?”

Tim cleared his throat and shifted on his feet. “Yeah actually. I was looking for you.”

“Me?” Jason asked, brow furrowing. “Why?”

Tim sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I don’t know if you feel the same way or what, but I really missed how well we got along when we were doing our history project. I liked being able to hang out with you and watch movies and I want to do that again. If you do, anyway…”

Jason stared at him for a minute, turning the words over in his head. He nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I’d…I’d really like that actually. I missed getting to spend time with you, too, and we still have a stack of movies to get through.”

Tim chuckled and felt his face flush with their proximity. “Movie day this Saturday?” he asked, biting his lip.

“And every Saturday after until we get through them?” Jason offered, voice small.

Tim nodded eagerly. “Yes. Yeah. That sounds good.”

Jason nodded. “Cool.”

They stared at each for a moment.

The bell rang over their heads and pulled them out of their daze.

“I uh, have to get to class,” Tim said, stepping around Jason to head back the way he’d come.

“Yeah,” Jason agreed, turning to face him. “Me too. I’ll see you in class, I guess?” he asked.

Tim nodded. He paused for a second longer, letting himself soak up Jason’s appearance before he turned and disappeared into the throng of students hurrying to their first class, the anxiety and unhappiness finally uncurling in his chest and letting him breathe a little easier.

~~

Tim grinned as he rounded the corner to his history classroom. He stopped short when he saw Jason coming from the other direction. He was walking with Roy who had an arm around his shoulders.

Tim frowned, anger curling in his gut at the easy contact the two of them were able to share. He finally had their friendship back, but he was starting to realize that wasn’t enough. He wanted to be able to have such casual personal interactions with Jason like Roy did.  

Actually, what he wanted was to be able to curl into Jason’s side and lean his head against his shoulder as they curled up in his bed and watched a movie. He wanted to play with Jason’s fingers and hold his hand. He wanted to see if Jason’s lips were as soft as they looked and wanted to run his fingers through Jason’s hair.

Tim ran a hand through his hair and shook his head, pushing the thoughts from his mind. He couldn’t think like that. Things were finally back to normal. He was going to be friends with Jason and the rest of the year was going to be great. He didn’t need anything else from him. He wouldn’t let himself linger and fixate on those kinds of things.

Not when it could easily destroy everything they’d just repaired.

Tim ducked his head and pushed through the door to Ms. Edwards’ classroom. He hurried over to his desk and slid into his seat, dropping his backpack on the floor. The board was empty of the usual questions they had at the beginning of class and Ms. Edwards was already standing behind her podium and smiling at the students in their seats.

Tim didn’t look up as the door opened but he saw a figure slide into the chair next to him out of his periphery.

“Hey,” Jason greeted, voice light and happy.

Tim glanced up, unable to stop the smile that pulled at his lips at seeing Jason next to him. “Hey,” he greeted, turning in his chair. “What’s up?”

Jason shrugged. “Not much. I’m ready to go home but I wish I wasn’t back to having homework to do.”

Tim chuckled, thinking about all the books he’d have to take home. “I know. I’m ready to ignore all of it instead and hope it just magically works out.”

“I don’t think that’s the best idea. But as long as you do the work for this class, I don’t really care,” Jason shot back with a grin.

Tim nodded slowly. “Of course.”

~~

Jason sighed as he walked out of History. He couldn’t stop the happy smile that graced his lips. He was happy. He felt lighter than he had for weeks and winter wasn’t looking quite so gray as it had over break.

He had Tim back and he was going to get to hang out with him more often than he thought. He could even survive without the movie days they were already planning, satisfied with the light conversation they would share in class.

“What’s that look for?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“That smile,” Roy said, poking him in the cheek. “You look kind of dopey. What fairy godmother came and granted your wish?”

“No one, duh,” he shot back.

“Well I know it’s not school that has you looking like that so what happened. Spill all of your dirty secrets for me, Todd.”

Jason batted his hand away from his face. “It’s nothing.”

“Uh-huh,” he grumbled, not sounding like he believed him in the slightest. “I don’t believe you. This doesn’t have anything to do with why you were such a grouch over break, does it?”

Jason swallowed and looked away, eyes unconsciously searching the crowd of students in the hall.

“Okay, so it does. Now…who was the person that got your pants in a twist before break…” he said, sounding contemplative.

Jason’s eyes landed on Tim in the hall. He was standing next to Steph while she dug through her locker. Jason was on the verge of smiling at just seeing Tim, but when Steph placed a hand on his shoulder and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek his stomach dropped.

Jason’s jaw clenched, his teeth clacking together. Anger curled in his gut at the sight. Tim looked exasperated and swiped at his cheek to wipe away the lip gloss. It eased Jason’s anger slightly, but he still didn’t like that someone else could touch Tim the way he wanted to.

“I thought you hated Drake,” Roy said, grabbing his arm.

Jason froze and glared at him. “What?” he asked.

He waved at Tim. “Drake. I thought you hated him. I mean I know you had that whole project with him and everything, and you had to do some work together so he went over to your place, but…” Roy trailed off as his eyes widened.

Jason sighed, eyes sliding shut as Roy put all the pieces together.

“Dude, what the hell?” he asked. “When did that happen?”

“When did what happen?” Jason asked, bracing himself for the biggest shitstorm of all shitstorms.

“When did you start dating him?”

“What?” he asked, eyebrows furrowing.

“You and Drake. When did that happen?”

Jason opened his eyes. “Roy, we’re not dating.”

Roy frowned and glanced back at Tim. “Then why did you…” He paused and his eyes somehow got even larger. “Holy shit,” he breathed. “You’re not dating, but you want to be.” He made a face. “Great, now I have to deal with your lovesick, angsty ass over this whole thing. Please don’t do the whole emo teenager in love thing. I can’t handle any more of that with you.”

Jason rolled his eyes and tried to step around Roy, intent on getting to his last class without catching Tim’s attention while he was having this conversation.

“I’m not gonna do the whole emo teenager in love thing. And nothing’s going to happen between us. Tim doesn’t like me like that, and I think that’s something we can all agree on.”

“I dunno man. I think if you got over your hatred for him then he could, too. You already spend a ton of time outside of school with each other. And willingly I might add. None of us ever expected that to happen so I think anything’s possible at this point now.”

Jason sighed. He wished that was true, but he didn’t think it was possible. There was no way things could work out that well in his life. He didn’t get the happy fairy tale ending. Guys like him never did.

~~

“Can you believe people are already planning things for prom?” Tim scoffed when he pushed through the door to Jason’s apartment for their weekly Saturday movie day. “Like, I don’t get what the big deal is. Prom isn’t that impressive and yet people are getting all worked up over getting tickets and finding dates when it’s still forever away.”

Jason snickered and shut the door behind them. “It’s not that far away. Just a couple of months. And I guess if you have to make limo reservations or whatever, you’re going to want to get that done as soon as possible.”

Tim huffed and threw himself onto Jason’s bed, staring at where their next movie was already set up. “I guess. I still don’t get why it’s so important. I mean yeah, I did go last year but it wasn’t that great so what’s so great about this year? It’s not going to be that different just because I’m a senior.”

Jason grinned and hit play on his computer before crawling onto the bed next to him. “Maybe other people are just more romantic than you and think that even if something was bad before that doesn’t mean it can’t get better with time.”

“I guess, but I still don’t really want to go.”

Jason shrugged and pulled his knees up to his chest, eyes focused on the screen. “Then don’t go. There’s no one saying you have to. I’m not going.”

“But I can’t not go,” he cried, running his hands through his hair.

“Okay, you’ve officially lost me,” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “You don’t want to go but you have to go. How is that even possible?”

“Because Steph wants to go, and she’ll stop at nothing to get me into a tux and a limo.”

“Ah so she’s the one who’s forcing you,” Jason muttered, trying to ignore the familiar souring in his gut whenever he saw Tim and Steph together.

“Yeah,” Tim huffed. “I don’t see why it matters that I’m coming along. She put together a huge group and will have plenty of other people to talk to. But, of course she won’t let me sit at home and eat oreos on the couch when an overpriced night that I’ll forget about ten years from now is the highlight of spring semester.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it,” Jason huffed, slouching back against the wall. “Pick out the restaurant or stick yourself next to the refreshment table. Are you even paying for your tux or the limo rental?”

Tim was silent before he bit out a soft, “No.”

Jason shrugged. “Then it doesn’t really matter that much. Enjoy it while you can, and you can duck out early if it really gets to you that much and you’re not having fun.”

Tim fiddled with the comforter spread over the bed under him. “Thanks, I guess. What about you? Are you going to be there? Wait…you answered that already. Sorry, stuck too far in my own head, I guess.”

Jason tightened his hold on his knees. “No, you’re right I won’t be there. I’ll probably just be hanging out here all night.”

“Why aren’t you going?” Tim asked, looking up at him.

Jason kept his gaze on the computer, not wanting to see Tim’s reaction to what he was going to say. “No one to go with is the biggest thing, I guess. And I can’t really afford to rent a tux. It’s kind of a frivolous expense and since money’s already pretty tight, I don’t want to ask for something like that.”

“I wish I could stay in and hang out with you,” Tim grumbled.

“If you ever work up the courage to say no to Steph, you can,” Jason said with a shrug, forcing his hopes to stay considerably low.

Tim grumbled in the back of his throat and curled onto his side, content to sag into the warmth of Jason’s blanket and let the hours slide away in the face of their movie marathon.

~~

Tim tugged at the bowtie around his neck. It felt like just yesterday he was complaining to Jason about going to prom and now he was stuck in the constricting suit. Steph would undoubtedly criticize a handful of things about his appearance and the lack of effort he put into it.

His interest in prom had only seemed to wane as the semester continued and he dreaded the day as it slowly approached. He still wished that he could stay at home and curl up in bed or go over to Jason’s and watch movies with him.

He sighed and let go of his bowtie. He smoothed down his suit jacket and ran a hand over his hair to make sure none of the strands were out of place. The one thing he could be happy about was that instead of going to a fancy hotel like the year before, prom was being hosted at their school so he could make an escape at any time and he wouldn’t be too far from home.

The doorbell echoed down the hall and Tim sighed, shoulders slumping under the weight of what he was about to do. He trudged out of the bathroom and headed for the stairs.

“Tim!” Steph sang from where the butler had already let her in.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he huffed.

He swung around the corner to the foyer and found Steph in all her purple glory. Her hair was curled and clipped at the side of her head and she wore large silver earrings and a resplendent necklace around her throat.

“Could you look any less happy?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“I told you I didn’t want to go,” he grumbled, following her through the door and down the steps to where the limo was waiting in the drive.

“And I told you we had to go because it’s tradition and we can’t miss out on our last prom ever.”

“We went last year and, no offense, but this is more your thing than it is mine,” he said, sliding into the backseat. He nodded tightly at the other people who’d already been picked up, not as close with any of them as he was with his best friend.

“And what would you be doing if you weren’t going to prom?” Steph asked, voice high and sweet as she levelled him with a knowing look.

Tim flushed and shifted in his seat, not wanting to start their usual argument over Jason they’d been having as of late. It was bad enough Steph was accusing him of having feelings for Jason and he had to deny it at every turn, but it was almost worse that Tim was actively battling his crush and had been since January.

He wasn’t sure if he was happy or heartbroken that he wouldn’t have to be faced with Jason again once May rolled around and they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. He didn’t want to part with him. As much as he’d hated him before, he couldn’t imagine not having him in his life now that they’d gotten the chance to bond over movies and homework and Jason had become someone he considered a friend.

Tim stared out the window as the limo wove through the streets in his neighborhood and turned towards the streets of Gotham. The others around him started talking and Tim tuned it out once their initial attempts at trying to draw him into their conversation failed.

He wondered what Jason was doing. He wondered if he’d made popcorn and which movie he was watching, if he was watching one at all. He might not have been in the mood to watch a movie and was reading a book instead. He hadn’t made much progress through the pile on his bedside table lately, more concerned with getting his assignments for his AP classes done and studying for the tests that would be coming the next week.

“Tim. Tim!”

He jolted and looked up, finding Steph standing with a hand on her hip in the limo door. Everyone else had already crawled out and were waiting for him. He flushed and hurried to step out of the limo.

Steph shut the door behind him and reminded the driver what time he’d need to be back to pick them up.

Tim trailed behind the group as they headed for the open gym doors. Balloons swayed in the nighttime air and music filtered out from the darkened interior.

They stepped inside, a few white strobe lights flashing over the dance floor. Softer, electric lamps lit up the refreshments table in the corner and the tables around the perimeter of the room.

Tim’s smile was tight as he took his picture and hurried inside, not caring if he left Steph and the others behind.

“Tim, what’s wrong with you?” Steph asked, catching his elbow.

He heaved a sigh, looking around the room. “Nothing, I just, wanted to get a drink is all.”

She stared at him, eyebrows furrowing but let his arm go as the rest of their group came up behind them. “Okay, if you’re sure. I think we’re going to head on out to the dance floor.”

Tim smiled and slipped away as she turned to talk to everyone else. He walked around the back of the table and filled a paper cup with punch. He tossed it back and swallowed, the sweet taste bursting to life over his tongue.

He sighed and crushed the cup in his hand, tossing it into the waiting garbage can. He spotted Steph moving through the crowd as she dipped her head to the beat of the music. Tim knew he’d be expected to dance to at least one song during the night but the thought of getting into the midst of the thrashing bodies was horrific and one he didn’t want to participate in.

Tim shuffled over to the corner, hoping the shadows would keep him concealed from Steph’s prying eyes. He tilted his head back, letting it hit the painted brick behind him. His heart was several streets away at Jason’s apartment. That’s where he wanted to be. That’s where he knew he could be happy.

He straightened spine snapping into place and he glanced at the dance floor again. Steph was completely consumed with the people around her and he knew he wouldn’t be missed as long as she was surrounded with people who cared as much about prom as she did.

Tim glanced at the gym doors and started for them, intent on leaving prom and all of this behind. He darted around people crossing the floor for drinks or the dance floor and fought his way through the wave of people that pushed through the double doors after getting their pictures taken.

“If you leave, there’s no reentry!” one of the volunteers called after him.

Tim waved his hand over his head and took off, sprinting across the parking lot for the sidewalk. The toes of his dress shoes nipped at his toes, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care, not when he finally had the chance to close the gaping distance that had been pulling at him for most of the night.

His suit jacket flapped against him as he ran and turned the corner. He barely noticed his labored breaths as he crossed the next street, barely making it across before the light changed and cars whizzed through the spot where he’d just been.

He charged down the sidewalk, darting around people who stared at him, no doubt worried that he’d lost his mind and would last out at the next person in his path. He practically sighed when he caught sight of Jason’s apartment building and jumped off the edge of the sidewalk, high-tailing it across the two lanes of traffic that ran in front of the building without a care in the world.

He shoved the broken gate open and took the stairs two at a time before he made it to the floor of Jason’s apartment. He swallowed and fought to catch his breath as he walked the last few feet to stand in front of his door.

Tim raised his hand, hesitating for only a moment before he knocked several times. He pressed his lips together to try and calm his breathing and waited, hoping he hadn’t misjudged everything between him and Jason. He heard the muffled sounds of someone moving around inside and Jason’s grumbling reached his ears as he approached the door.

It stopped when he no doubt glanced through the peephole and saw him standing there.

The lock clicked and the door was yanked open a second later, Jason staring at him with wide eyes as he braced a hand on the doorjamb.

“Tim?” he asked. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at prom. Hell, you’re wearing a tux!” he cried, looking him up and down.

Tim smiled, trying to put Jason at ease even though he was still a little breathless. “I left.”

“You left?” Jason asked. He ran a hand through his hair, obviously trying to make sense of everything going on around him. “Jesus just…get in here,” he said, pulling Tim inside.

Tim stumbled slightly but righted himself quickly when Jason shut the door and locked it before turning to face him.

“Okay, explain,” he said. “Why did you leave prom?”

Tim shrugged, losing some of his earlier confidence but he knew he couldn’t beat around the bush. They’d been doing it for long enough and the end of the year was crawling closer with every day that passed. Tim was going to run out of time if he didn’t make a move soon and at least try to go after what he really wanted. And if he ruined it, then he wouldn’t have to see Jason ever again after graduation.

“I realized prom wasn’t where I wanted to be.”

“I know that,” Jason huffed. “You spent months complaining about having to go. But why are you here?”

Tim took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, trying to meet Jason’s eyes even in the face of possible rejection.

“This is where I wanted to be.”

“In my apartment?” Jason asked, making a face.

Tim huffed and rolled his eyes. “You know, for someone as smart as you, you can be really fucking stupid sometimes.”

“Just tell me what you mean!” Jason cried, running his hands through his hair.

“I wanted to be here with you,” Tim shot back.

Jason froze and stared at him, eyes wide.

Tim sighed, shoulders sagging. “I didn’t want to be at prom. I wanted to be spending time with you. Here or anywhere. I don’t really care as long as you’re there.”

“Tim, I-” Jason started and stopped before staring at him.

“I…like you,” Tim said, voice careful and steady. “I have for a while and I realized the only way I actually wanted to be at prom was if you were there with me. But if I’m being completely honest…if I had to choose between being with you at prom and being with you here so we could chill and watch movies, I’d definitely choose being here.”

Jason gaped, mouth moving as he tried to find something to say. “Okay,” he finally said, voice higher than normal. “Okay, so that’s a thing.”

Tim chuckled, his chest warming at seeing Jason flustered in front of him as he tried to process everything Tim just admitted. He shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heals.

“So…” Tim said, glancing around. “Not that I’m not happy to have finally told you that, but I wouldn’t mind you telling me if you feel the same? Because if not-”

“I do!” Jason said, waving his hands in front of him like he was afraid Tim was going to walk away. “God yes, I feel the same way. It was driving me insane because I thought you didn’t want to be anything more than friends and then when things were weird between us after our history project I thought-”

“I know,” Tim agreed, wincing at the memory. “That wasn’t a happy time. And winter break was awful because I didn’t get to see you and I didn’t get to talk to you. Everything sucked and I couldn’t wait to start school again if it meant getting to see you in class.”

“Me too. And I like you, too,” Jason said, cheeks turning pink. “I guess I should actually say that and not let us keep going around in circles but…yeah I like you, too.”

Tim grinned, feeling happier than he had in a long time. “I know this is kind of sudden but I already ran out of prom to come here do you think we could-”

“Movie marathon?” Jason asked hopefully.

Tim nodded.

“I’ve already made popcorn,” Jason said, stepping past him.

“Wait,” Tim said, catching his elbow.

Jason frowned and looked down at the hand on his arm before giving Tim a questioning look. “What is it?”

“Do you mind if I…” Tim trailed off and sucked in a breath before he rocked up onto his toes and pressed his lips to Jason’s cheek in a quick kiss. He wanted to go for the lips, but he wasn’t sure where Jason’s boundaries were since things were all kind of new between them.

Jason pressed his lips together, trying to hide the pleased smile that pulled at his lips.

“Come on,” he muttered, tugging Tim down the hall to his room.

Jason started the movie that was paused on his computer and made himself comfortable on the bed, moving the bowl of popcorn around to keep it from spilling.

Tim bent over and unlaced his dress shoes before pushing them off. He slid his jacket from his shoulders and draped it over the back of Jason’s desk chair. He yanked off is bowtie and breathed a sigh, happy to be free of the constricting material.

He crawled onto the bed next to Jason and pressed their shoulders together. Jason glanced at him and met his gaze, smile small and personal and sweet. He shifted towards Tim and reached for him before hesitating.

“Can I…” Jason asked.

Tim nodded and waited a beat as Jason’s hand came to rest on his cheek. They gazed into each other’s eyes, the movie playing in the background as they gave it none of their attention.

Jason ducked his head and pressed their lips together. Tim sighed and wrapped his arm around Jason’s shoulders, sliding closer. Jason tilted his head forward, searching for more contact.

Warmth spread in Tim’s chest and he was happy to spend the rest of the night, and even wishing he could have spent the next day, curled up with Jason and getting to know him in all the ways he hadn’t gotten to yet.

~~

“You look amazing,” Jason whispered, staring into Tim’s shining blue eyes.

“So do you,” Tim agreed, grin crooked as they slowly turned in the middle of the dance floor.

Moonlight cascaded through the skylight over their head now that the lights had been dimmed and candles flickered on the tables surrounding the dance floor.

“Can you believe we’re finally here?” Jason asked, glancing around at the tables around them.

“I know,” Tim sighed. He pressed their foreheads together and closed his eyes, trusting Jason to guide him around the floor. He wouldn’t let him fall. He’d never let him fall. Or he’d catch him if he went. “We’ve been planning this for so long and now it’s finally here.”

Tim tightened his hand on Jason’s shoulder, the cooler temperature of the band around his finger pressing into his skin. Jason pulled him closer, flattening his palm on Tim’s lower back.

“And to think so many things could’ve gone differently, and we might not have made it here at all,” Jason whispered.

Tim chuckled and pulled back, grin nearly hurting his cheeks. He glanced around and saw other couples had begun to join them as they danced.

“Ms. Edwards?” Tim asked.

Jason bit his lip, trying to fight down his own grin. “Exactly what I was thinking,” he agreed with a low laugh that made warmth curl in Tim’s stomach whenever he made Jason laugh.

“It’s been eight years since we’ve had her, but none of this would’ve happened without her.”

Jason’s brow furrowed. “It’s kind of scary that she was able to see so much potential between us. Especially when we hated each other’s guts.”

Tim shrugged. “Yeah but someone had to kick some sense into us. And finding even ground was easier through schoolwork than if we’d been forced together for something else. We wouldn’t have stayed in the same room long enough to talk if it wasn’t a requirement.”

“And now I can’t imagine anything better than being stuck with you.”

Tim pulled his hand free from Jason’s and wrapped his arms around Jason’s shoulders. He pulled him down for a kiss, one of the first they’d gotten to share as they started the rest of their shared lives together.

 If you enjoy my work, please reblog or consider buying me a ko-fi!

[lfthinkerwrites]

High School Teacher AU: Fraternization Policy

Superintendent al Ghul does not care for Ellen’s comic and Edward and Penelope finally get on the same page.

It had taken the better part of four hours holding Jonathan under a shower in the boy's locker room for the man to, somewhat, sober up. Edward and Jervis had deposited him in the nurse's office and went their separate ways when the lunch bell rang, Jervis off to the teacher's lounge, Edward to the guidance counselor's offices. Or rather, to one guidance counselor's office in particular. He passed Harley on her way out and she gave him a wink and a thumbs up. This made him even more nervous. Yes, nervous. Anyone might have thought he'd consider a private meeting with Penelope Young his due, but the truth was, Ellen's existence notwithstanding, he'd never really had an easy time talking with women. So for a long moment, he stood outside of Penelope's door and hesitated. What could she have to say to him? She'd been cold to him since they'd met at best, outright antagonistic to him at worst. It had only been in the past week that she'd shown any sign that she liked him. He took a deep breath, then knocked three times on her door.

"Yes?"

Edward steeled himself. Here went nothing. “It’s me,” he said.

There was a brief pause before Penelope responded. “Come in, Edward.”

Edward reached down to straighten his tie before he entered the office. Penelope sat behind her desk, pen in hand. Edward could see a notebook in front of her, which she closed as he approached. "You said you wanted to talk," Edward said. "Well, here I am. What did you want to talk about?"

He watched as Penelope brushed her fingers through her bangs. A nervous habit, he'd noticed. One of the many things he'd noticed about her. "Harley and Pamela told me something at the poker game last night," she said at last. She looked up at him then and Edward noticed that she looked almost...hopeful? Must be a trick of the light. "They told me that you're in love with me."

Edward's world stopped turning at that precise moment and a chill went down his spine. "T-they-did they now?" Goddamn them both. This wasn't how he wanted her to find out.

Penelope cocked her head slightly, her expression as blank as usual. "Are you?"

Edward could deny it, but he'd never been a good liar. "Yes."

Penelope looked almost taken aback. "You-you are?" Then the professional mask slipped back into place. "How long?"

Edward began to pick at the sleeve of his dress shirt. "Since I met you."

Penelope looked less than convinced by that. "Seriously?"

"Alright," Edward admitted. "I've been attracted to you since I met you. I knew I was in love with you the moment I saw you take Valentin down with your taser."

Penelope's mask fell again and she gaped at him for a long moment. "You-I-" then her face flushed and she looked almost angry at him. "Why didn't you ever say anything!?"

"What, was I supposed to come marching up to you and start slobbering over you like that cretin Bolton?" Edward said defensively. "I was slowly wooing you using my intellectual charms-"

"You were playing games because you were afraid of being rejected," Penelope finished, getting up from behind her desk. "I can't believe you! All this time, I thought you tolerated me at best, when we could have been-" she cut off, covering her mouth.

"'Could have been' what exactly?" Edward asked. Wait. Wait a minute. "You mean to tell me that you-how long have you-"

"I didn't fall for you at first sight or anything like that," she said quickly. "But...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't...attracted to you too, when you're not being an ass at least."

Edward felt his own jaw drop. She was attracted to him? That explained why she seemed to have his schedule memorized, how even though she was frequently irritated by him, she didn't shy away from being in his company. Then his own elation turned to irritation. "Why didn't you ever say anything!?"

"Becuase until a week ago, I didn't know if you even liked me!" Penelope shouted, walking up to him. "You seemed to delight in finding new ways to be obnoxious-"

"I'm like that with everyone!" he shouted back. "That's just who I am! Believe me, if I didn't like you, you'd know it!"

"That still didn't mean you couldn't have been honest with me!"

"Likewise!"

Penelope was about an inch away from him, fuming. "You are," she said in a low tone. "The most impossible person I've ever met, Edward Nashton." She grabbed a hold of his tie and yanked him down. "And I need you to kiss me."

Edward blinked once. He had heard that, hadn't he? "What?"

Penelope made an exasperated noise. "I don't want to waste any more time. We might not get another chance. Please."

Edward had both of his arms around her in a moment. "Alright." Then he leaned in.

"Well, I have to say, this morning could have gone worse," Gordon said with a confidence he didn't feel.

"Well, it certainly could have gone better," al Ghul said. "I thought you said that Dent had completed anger management!"

"He did," Bruce defended.

"Then why did he call that boy in his class a son of a bitch, a pipsqueak and a mad dog!?"

Gordon bit his lip. "In his defense, Machin has been a disciplinary problem since he was a freshman-"

"That doesn't excuse Dent using that language," al Ghul said with a finality that no one dared to speak against.

"Anyway," Vreeland said, clapping her hands together. "It's lunchtime. Let's go out in the quad."

The group moved through the still vacant cafeteria and into the outdoor quad, where most of the students chose to eat, given that the food trucks were still there. One crowded table caught their attention. As they moved closer, Bruce recognized Dick, Tim, Cas, and Barbara. "Hey kids," he said in greeting.

The group looked up as one and Bruce noticed that Harvey's daughter Duela and Nashton's daughter were at the center of the table. Nashton's daughter was scribbling away at something. "Hi, Bruce!" Tim waved. The other children gave polite greetings.

al Ghul nodded slightly at Nashton's daughter. "You're Edward Nashton's daughter, aren't you? The resemblance is striking."

The girl nodded. "Yeah. My name's Ellen."

"What are you drawing, Ellen?" Gordon asked.

"Nothing," she said a bit too quickly.

al Ghul frowned a bit. "It's not obscene, is it?"

"No!" Ellen shouted before remembering exactly who she was talking to. "It's for a comic Duela and I are making."

"The girls are very creative," Gordon explained. "Why don't you go ahead and show us?" Ellen and Duela exchanged a long look with each other before Duela shrugged. Ellen slid the paper over to Gordon. He took one look and his eyes nearly bugged out. "Oh my."

Bruce looked over his shoulder at the drawing and read the captions out loud. "Beautiful Captain Zodiac Sparkles and the Perils of the Perverted, Perfidious Professor Pyg?" The drawing was of a girl in fishnet stockings, steel-toed boots and a tight-fighting top doing battle with a grotesque figure holding a meat cleaver and wearing a pig mask. "This is based on Valentin, I take it?"

"Dad said we couldn't use Coach Bolton as the villain anymore," Duela explained. "So we had to make a new villain."

"And just why do you think it's appropriate to draw comics casting members of the faculty as villains?" al Ghul asked.

"Because one of them chased me with a meat cleaver, that's why!" Ellen argued. The other kids at the table said nothing, but Bruce caught Tim nodding in agreement.

al Ghul glared at Strange. "Is that true?"

"The situation has already been handled," Strange said. "I don't think this comic is appropriate, girls."

Duela rolled her eyes. "First we couldn't use Toxic Masculinity, now we can't use Professor Pyg? Lonnie was right, you guys are all a bunch of fascists!"

"'Toxic Masculinity'?" al Ghul repeated. "You drew Coach Bolton in your comic and named him 'Toxic Masculinity?"

"It's what he is," Ellen said. "Ms. Isley said so."

al Ghul took the comic from Bruce. "And your fathers know that you've been creating this?"

"Yeah," Ellen said. "My Dad says as long as he doesn't get sued for libel, he doesn't care."

"He would say that," al Ghul muttered. "Well, we'll just see what your guidance counselor has to say about this, young lady!" al Ghul turned on his heel and stormed back towards the school's interior, the principals and the school board scurrying behind him. It wasn't until the group had entered the cafeteria that it occurred to Bruce that Jason was absent from the table.

"Dr. Young's office is just down here," Gordon said, taking the lead as they walked down the hall that led to the guidance counselor's offices.

"What kind of counselor is she?" al Ghul asked.

"Oh, she's terrific. Very professional. Never had a complaint about her," Gordon said.

"So in other words, she's the opposite of Dr. Quinzel. Good," al Ghul said. The group had just arrived outside of her door when they heard a thump come from inside.

"What was that?" Falcone asked. A muffled groan came from inside the office and Gordon felt sick. He opened the door wide anyway. "Oh, good Lord!"

As soon as the door opened, they were greeted by the sight of Dr. Young perched in the lap of a shirtless Edward Nashton who was sitting on top of her desk. Both looked flushed and their hair was loose. Vreeland made a scandalized noise and left the room, along with Falcone. Strange and al Ghul looked like they were about to have an aneurysm. Nashton, for his part, kept his arms tight around Dr. Young's waist and gave the group a look of bored irritation. "Do you mind? We're on our lunch break."

This quip seemed to bring al Ghul to life. "What is the explanation for this!?"

Nashton shrugged. "Does paradise need an explanation, Superintendent?"

al Ghul's face turned dark red from anger, but Strange saw an opportunity. Nashton had given him the perfect excuse to send the irritant packing. "You do realize," he said in a slow tone, "That this is in violation of our fraternization policy? Faculty and staff are forbidden from having relations with each other."

Dr. Young looked like she was about to say something when Nashton interrupted once again. "We're well aware." He then turned his gaze to Bruce and let out a smirk. "Fraternization between members of the faculty and the school board is forbidden too, right Bruce?"

Bruce felt his face burn. That son of a bitch. al Ghul turned and gave Bruce a sharp look. "You and that gym teacher! I knew it! You whoremonger!" Then he did something unexpected. He backhanded Bruce.

"Superintendent!" Gordon cried out. Bruce took a deep breath to keep himself from retaliating. All the while, Nashton looked on smug, while Dr. Young looked somewhat scandalized. al Ghul stormed out of the office, Elliott, Fox, and Queen following. Bruce then glared at Nashton. If nothing else, at least one of the teachers would finally be removed-

"Edward! It's been forever! Nice to see you're doing well!"

Cobblepot stepped forward and Nashton let out a grin. "Ozzie!"

'Ozzie?' Bruce and Gordon exchanged a long-suffering look when they realized what this meant. Cobblepot and Nashton were friends. Nashton, and by extension, Young, Crane, and Tetch, probably, were untouchable.

"Well, let's not take up too much more of your time," Oswald chuckled. "Do feel free to bring your lady to the Iceberg Lounge. Drinks are on me!" Oswald let out another laugh. "You incorrigible young rascal!"

"See you soon, you old crook," Edward laughed. Oswald walked out, leaving the principals and Wayne no choice but to follow him. Wayne shot him one final glare before he slammed the office door shut behind him. Edward shook his head. "Well, that was amusing."

"If you say so," Penelope sighed. "You never told me you knew Oswald Cobblepot."

"Oh, Ozzie and I go way back. He got me my first programming job. And in my defense darling, you never asked."

Penelope raised an eyebrow. "Darling?"

Edward felt a bit flustered. "Well, I'm assuming that you want more than just a single furtive groping session in your office. Right?"

In response, Penelope got off of his lap and walked towards her office door. Edward's heart sank. Then he watched her lock it. She turned back towards him with a heated look in her eyes. "We still have fifteen minutes left for lunch break, you don't have computer lab until 1:30 and I cleared my calendar for the rest of the afternoon." She then slowly began to unbutton her blouse and Edward's brain shut down. "I'd say we're going to go a bit past a single session, Eddie."

Where had she been all his life?

[soriseerakyra]

Be Kind To Your Daughters

AN: A request from an Anon who wanted a Bruce xDaughter!Reader who was estranged from the batman side of his life. Hope you enjoy!

You hated the dining room. In your opinion, it was one of the worst features of Wayne Manor. It served no purpose. No one ever sat and ate here, except you and Alfred. To you it would have been better if the two of you could eat in the living room in front of the T.V., at least that way you wouldn’t have to scream across the table at him whenever you wanted to have a conversation.

“Hurry now, Mistress Wayne, I know you enjoy your waffles, but there is traffic today and it will be horrible getting to school,” Alfred says he walks into the dining room and clearly away the dishes that you’d already finished with.

What was worse about the dining room was when Alfred was too busy to eat with you. You hated being alone in this house. Despite the years, you’d been with your father you’d never gotten over the coziness of the small two-bedroom apartment that you and your mother shared. Though, you may have started to feel more comfortable if you thought of your father as a parent rather than a sperm donor, and even sometimes that description didn’t fit.

“What about Damian?” you question, “Isn’t he coming with us?”

“I’m afraid not miss, your father had to pull him out of school today.”

“I see,” you say pushing away from the table. “I’ll wait by the door.”

“Of course, just give me a moment.”

Walking through the halls was something else you hated about the manor. Instead of having pictures and paintings of animals or flowers the way normal people had, most of the artwork that decorated the halls of Wayne Manor was of members of the Wayne family. Every time you walk past them, you’re constantly reminded that you look nothing like the man called your father. Not your hair color, eye color, or facial structure. You were, in essence, a carbon copy of your mother. In fact, if it had not been for the DNA test, you probably wouldn’t have been dropped off to live here with him.

Alfred finds you leaning against the couch in the entrance hall waiting for him with your school bag in hand.  “Ready for the first day of your last year, Mistress Wayne?”

“As I’ll ever be,” you say with boredom filling your tone and walking toward the door. Before the turn the knob you through a quickly glance over your shoulder. You wouldn’t admit it if anyone asked what you were looking for, but you had hoped that he would at least come down to send you on your way off for the first day.  You were disappointed but not surprised when you didn’t see him, it’s not like you were important to him.

*** “Fifty Million Dollars?” Damian questions watching the screen.

“Syphoned out of the bank using a virus. It’s untraceable and the perfect crime,” Dick adds.

Bruce doesn’t respond, but they know he feels frustrated. This was the second time the Bank of Gotham had been hit in two months, and it was for the same amount of cash as well. He hadn’t been able to solve the case then, and he didn’t know if he would be able to do it now.

“Master Bruce, I’ve just finished dropping of the young miss at school,” Alfred’s voice sounds over the intercom.

“Thank you, Alfred.”

“She was looking for you, sir.”

Bruce pauses, “Did she need something?”

“I think she was hoping her father would see her off on her first day back to school, sir.”

“I don’t have time, I’ll make it up to her, Alfred.”

“Very well, sir.”

Its silent in the room, save for the slight tapping of Dick’s shoe.

“You have something to say?” Bruce asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Just that, you could have eaten breakfast with her, or something,” Dick says with a shrug.

“If she’s so immature that she’s upset that she had to eat alone, who would want to deal with her?” Damian says with a shrug.

“Don’t be a jerk,” Dick says with a sigh. “What I mean is, she doesn’t know about any of this stuff. When it was me and I had to be alone at least I knew why. If I was her I’d think my father hated me.”

Bruce felt the guilt pool in his belly, had he given you than impression? Maybe he should have interacted more. In all honesty, he wasn’t sure how to talk to you. You were like the others, all hurt in some way, but something about you had been different. Nothing that he did when you first came to stay with him after your mother died had been able to console you, and as a result he winded up letting you work out your issues yourself. Perhaps that was the wrong tactic, especially considering in the five years you’ve been with him, he can’t remember a time when you the both of you had willingly spent more than ten minutes in the room together.

“Alfred,” he calls as he presses a button on the intercom. “I’ll pick her up from school.”

*** “Will Damian be in school tomorrow?” The older woman asks.

“I believe he will, he just had a fever this morning,” you say with a pleasant smile. You hoped she couldn’t tell how much your cheeks were twitching in pain from the small smile. It was a foreign expression. One that you reserved for strangers and your father’s acquaintances you were introduced to at his benefits. At those parties, it was easier to keep one on because no one noticed the small amount of alcohol you would put in your sodas.

You took Damian’s Syllabi from the teacher and stuffed them into your schoolbag and began to make your way to the gate of the school.

Surprisingly, the black town car that Alfred usually picked you up was not there. Instead there waited your father, leaning against one of his many sports cars, waiting for you.

You pause, taking in the sight. Why is he here? Did something happen?

Your thoughts are redirected when you see him toss a hand up calling attention to himself as if you couldn’t see him. As if there weren’t parents and students oohing and awing at his presence already.

“Father?” You question, eyes narrowing in confusion as you walk up to him.

“I thought it would be nice to drive you home on your first day as a senior,” he says with a smile awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

“I see,” you say stepping in to the car as he opens the door for you.

As you wait for him to enter the vehicle on his side, you notice some of the parents excitedly snapping pictures. Was he so important to them?

The car smoothly peels away from the curb, engine quiet as the both of you begin the drive home.

“How was the first day back?” He questions.

“Uneventful.”

“Make any new friends?”

“No.”

“Did you try?”

“Does it matter?” You question cutting your eyes at him. “In a year I’ll be gone, there’s no point in making hollow friendships. I’d rather not over exert myself.”

“You’re planning on leaving?” He asks slightly surprised.

“I was planning on going to college and there aren’t many quality higher education opportunities in Gotham. Or are the boys the only ones allowed to leave home?”

He doesn’t know what the right thing to say is, especially because he is thrown off by your hostile tone. “Where ever you want to go, I’ll support you.”

“I’m sure you will.”

A stiff silence falls over the car, and it’s one the two of you are both grateful for. You both know nothing about the other, and it seemed a little bit late to get to know one another, at least from your perspective. He hadn’t tried in the last five years why should he start now, in nine months you wouldn’t have anything to do with him anyways.

You closed your eyes as the buildings of the city passed. Both in attempt to make sure that he didn’t start another conversation and to get in at least a couple minutes of sleep. You had a late night last night, the second of many that were sure to come.

*** It’s October, and the second full month of school is almost over. Halloween, luckily landed on a weekend and it was more than excuse enough to get out of the house. Yet somehow you find yourself locked in your room, a chair pressed under your doorknob so that you wouldn’t be able to wiggle the door knob off.

“Let me out, Dick!” You scream as you pound on the door. If he could see into your bedroom, he’d see how serious you were. The anger you felt was causing the furniture to levitate. Something that happened often when you were unable to control your emotions, but something that you also hid from your family.

“I can’t it’s not safe to leave. You know this is one of the most dangerous nights in Gotham,” He reasons, almost pleading for you to drop it and find a way to entertain yourself.

“Why is it okay for Damian to sneak out at night, but not me?” You question arms crossed in anger.

“What?” He asks in surprise.

“Oh, don’t play dumb, Dick.  All of you do it. You, Jason, Tim. You think just because I’m locked away at night that I never noticed that most nights I’m here by myself? Or the vehicles speeding away from the house in the middle of the night.”

“You don’t understand, we had part-time jobs.” He tries pathetically.

“What can a ten-year-old do at one in the morning?”

“Please just drop it, sis.”

It’s the endearment that gets you. A warmth that spreads over your body and flush that bites at your cheeks. It wasn’t often that it was acknowledge that, blood or not, you were their sibling. Dick tried his best, but he was older when you arrived, and he wasn’t there to treat you the way that a big brother would a little sister.

It’s also the endearment that causes the furniture to drop gently back to the ground and your fists to unclench.

“All right, Dick.”

“Tomorrow why don’t we got to the fair or something maybe we could hang out?”

There is a warmth in his tone that you aren’t used to and it makes you feel slightly guilty as your reach for your cell phone and scroll through the list of names.

“I’d like that.”

“Cool. I’ll come check on you later.”

Just as his footsteps are gone from your hall you press talk on your phone.

“Jason, do you think you can do me a favor?”

*** You liked Jason. You got Jason, and for the most part he understood you. You didn’t know why he resented Bruce as much as he did, but you were happy that you had at least one person you could talk to that wouldn’t report everything you said to Bruce the way that Alfred did.

“Is here fine, kid?” He asks as he stops his motorcycle.

You look up at the large city library in front of you and nodded your head as you slipped your leg over the side of his bike.

“Thank you, Jason,” you say with a pleasant smile as you pass him the extra helmet that he’d given you.

“I’ve never seen someone want to sneak out of the house just to go to the library. You know there is one in the manor?”

“I just wanted to get out of the house for a while. I’m never quite comfortable there, it’s almost like I’m not supposed to be there. Like everyone is in on some big secret and they are all avoiding talking about it when I’m there. It feels that way with you sometimes too.”

Jason looks at you solemnly, letting your words wash over him. He swallows thickly when he meets your eyes that are pleading with him, longing for him to tell you the truth.

“We all feel a little out of place sometimes, kid,” he says smoothing some of your hair down that had been trapped in the helmet. The warm gesture caused a smile to run over your face. “But we all find a place where we belong.”

You nod, “Thanks, Jason.”

“What time, do you want me to pick you up?”

“The library closes at, one I think.”

“Geez, people are actually here that late?” He questions turning his engine on.

“It’s a community college library, students have to study.”

“I guess. Catch ya’ later, kid.”

You watch with a smile as he speeds off. When his form disappears, your eyes find their way to your watch.

‘Five hours’ you think to yourself. ‘Five hours to hit five banks, shouldn’t be too hard, especially since my power is growing.’

*** “It’s Sixteen Banks in November alone, and there seems to be nothing we can do,” Dick says as he leans against the desk. “Do you know how rich whoever this person is now?”

“You almost sound as if you admire them, Grayson.” Damian adds.

“You have to give credit where credit is due,” Dick says with a shrug.

“I’m not going to give credit to someone robbing the people of the world,” Bruce rumbles, causing his eldest son to roll his eyes.

“At least we know they’re here in Gotham. And besides, its better than all the other assholes who go and hold the banks hostage.” Jason says pouring himself a cup of coffee. They’d all been analyzing the data for hours, with no luck, and he was beginning to get tired.

“Just because no one’s getting hurt doesn’t mean that its okay to commit the crime,” Tim says with narrowed eyes.

“Never said it was, loser. I’m just saying that it’s not a 911.”

Tim glared at his older brother but didn’t say anything else.

“Sir, I have something to show you.”

Alfred’s interruption snaps not only Bruce but the rest of the boy’s attention.

Tim notices the sad look on Alfred’s face first, “What’s wrong, Alfred.”

“I’m afraid that young Mistress Wayne has been keeping a secret from all of us.”

Alfred walks forward toward the group pulling a stack of documents from his breast pocket and hands them to Bruce.

Bruce feels his throat tighten in guilt as he looks through them, “These are acceptance letters.”

“Yes, to various Ivy League Institutes, sir.”

“She didn’t even tell me she applied,” Bruce mumbles to himself. “Why would she throw these away?”

Jason pulls the limp letters from his father’s hand, “Harvard, huh, I guess those late-night trips to the library paid off.”

Dick’s eyebrows furrowed, “You’re the one who’s been sneaking her out at night?”

“Yeah, so? It’s not like she has anything to do here. Do any of you actually talk to her? And I mean make more than small talk.”

He doesn’t get a response.

“From what I hear, she wakes up alone, eats alone, goes to school alone, comes home alone, eats alone again and then when she’s out like a light there is no one here with her. I mean I don’t live here so that’s my excuse, but what is yours?” He spits accusingly.

Dick folds his arms across his chest but he diverts his gaze knowing he can’t say anything. As much time that he spends at the manor, its usually to babysit Damian and make sure that he doesn’t mess up then it is to spend time with his sister.

Tim doesn’t say anything either, he recognized that due to her intelligence the two of them would probably get along well. However, he’d never seen the need to interact with her. She wasn’t one of them, and since she was in school most of the day he barely saw her anyway.

Damian didn’t know how he felt. He knew that when he first came to live with his father he was slightly disappointed to find out that he was not the only biological heir that Bruce had. Yet his training and experience had pulled himself and Bruce close together very quickly, a bond that he noticed very early on that his sister did not have. Anytime he interacted with her, he realized that he lorded the relationship with his father over her, but he couldn’t help himself. A part of him felt satisfied when he tormented her. However, he also realized that he didn’t know much about his sister other than her first name.  If she hadn’t told him, would he have ever made the effort to actually find out?

Bruce regarded Jason with guilt in his eyes and he almost instantly understood why Jason was so close to her. He had felt abandoned the same way she had.

“It’s not something that happened on purpose, Jason,” Bruce starts. “I’m not ignoring her because I don’t care about her. She knows that she could have told me about this.”

“But she’s just a kid living in a house full of strangers that is supposed to be her family. If I was her I wouldn’t say shit about me getting accepted into these fancy schools either. Why would I think that any of you cared?”

*** December came and it was the time you were happiest. The snow in Gotham made the city nearly bearable and the end of the semester brought you an almost unbridled joy. For one thing, the holidays were your mothers favorite time of year and you were quite looking forward to the winter ball at your school. You weren’t particularly interested in the outdated courtship ritual, but there was a grand prize for whoever became snow queen. Your competitive nature made you want to win. Of course, you hacked the system to tally the votes in your favor, so the only thing left to do was to show up and claim your prize.

“You look beautiful, Miss.”

You whipped around and saw the faithful butler standing there waiting for you.  You find yourself blushing slightly at the compliment, swaying back and forth causing the large white ballroom skirt to sway with you.

“You don’t think it’s too much, do you Alfred?�� You question fingering the diamond necklace nestled in the dip of the sweetheart neckline.

“It is very extravagant, miss, but imagine it is in the Wayne DNA not to do anything particularly subtly.”

You fight the smile that it brings your lips and move to grab the shawl that’s lying on your bed.

“Shall we be on our way, Alfred. I’d like to be home before it’s too late.”

*** Bruce is stunned when he sees is daughter come down the stairs to the foyer. Having just walked into the manor himself, he’s surprised to find her leaving.

“What’s the occasion?” He asks and the words feel strange coming out his mouth. Shouldn’t a father know where his daughter is going? Especially when she’s dressed like this.

“I have a trophy to pick up,” she says with a smirk on her lips, but it’s not meant for him. In fact, her gaze is looking past him, as if she’s thinking about something that brings her great satisfaction. “Damian didn’t tell you what tonight was?”

“No,” he says solemnly.

“I’m surprised,” she says with a raised eyebrow. “I thought the two of you were close. But I suppose Winter Ball isn’t something that would appeal to someone that young, it’s not like he could attend anyway.”

She walks past him, Alfred following closely behind her. He notes how ornate her gown is. A white princess type dress, with a pale gold trim. He’d even caught a glimpse of large diamond that was gleaming on her chest.

‘Where did she get that from?’

*** Perhaps winter break wasn’t as relaxing as you thought it would be. Given the fact that your brother is currently pointing a pistol at your head, you’re inclined to believe that things were going to get bad real fast. You aren’t sure how it turned out this way, one minute you’re alone in your bunker and the next he’s crashing through the door, waving his guns at you. It most likely that he followed you into the library this time, instead of driving away.

“What have you done, kid?” His voice is slight distorted through the red mask that sits on his face, but you know its Jason.

“Don’t sound so disappointed,” you say with a smirk as you cross your legs. Your hands grip on the edge of the desk that your sitting on in slight agitation at his presence. “It’s not like I kill people, I’m not you.”

It seems to irk the older man as he lets out a bit of a growl.

“How are you doing all of this?” He questions, using his other hand to motion to the facility around him. The sound of typing computers had been ringing in his ears since he found your workshop, underneath the library. The rows and rows of computers that line the rather large room seem to be generating the buzz. Half, simultaneously hacking in to banks across the world, the others masking your location as you complete the necessary transfers. However, you both are the only ones in the room, making him think that you are the one controlling the computers, the one that they have all been searching for months. However, since he’s been observing you, you haven’t physically touched any of the machines once.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” you say with a cock of your head.

Suddenly, Jason’s arm feels weak, like it’s fallen asleep after having been immobile for too long of a time. He watches as his hands drop his guns and his gaze catches yours as a smile crosses your face.

“You know, you’re the first person that I’ve actually tried this on,” you remark casually. “Usually it’s inanimate objects, big or small, it doesn’t matter, but I never thought I’d be able to control a person.”

Quickly, before you take total control of his body, Jason presses a button the side of his helmet that sends his visual recordings to the bat cave. The moment his fingers leave the button, his wrist snaps backward as you begin to break it with your mind.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Jason,” you say with a frown. “I’ll have to hurt them all now, you know that, right?”

There is a sigh of disinterest that leaves your chest as he feels a pressure on his neck begin to tighten and his vision begins to fade.

“Just be glad you are my favorite,” he hears your voice murmur as he falls to the ground passing out. “I’m not going to hurt you too badly.”

*** To say Bruce was stunned was a bit of an understatement. The feed from Jason’s camera hadn’t cut out and instead focused on the ceiling.  Bruce can hear his daughter’s small footsteps as she walks over to Jason’s unconscious body.

Her face comes into the screen and she still has the small smile on her face as she removes the helmet and lifts it to her face.

“I know you’re watching this, Father or will be watching this, whenever you figure out that Jason and I aren’t home. Don’t worry he’s not dead, just sleeping. You might want to come get him soon though, I’ve already rigged this place to blow three hours after I leave. So hopefully you see this in time.”

She begins to walk around the room and one by one the computers around her begin to explode. “I told you I’d be leaving soon, didn’t I? To be honest, this is a little ahead of schedule, but it doesn’t matter I already have everything I need.”

The camera pans to show her placing a small laptop in a briefcase and what looks to be a horde of fake passports and I.D.’s

“Don’t look for me, father, you won’t find me,” she croons through the speaker. “Jason only found me because he followed me. Know that I won’t let that happen again.”

The case closes and her footsteps begin again and as she walks out, the lights behind her begin to turn off.

“You should know I don’t hate you father, I don’t know you well enough to hate you. However, you shouldn’t be happy about that, because I’m rather indifferent toward you. Know that if any of you live or die it doesn’t matter to me. So, if you do choose to come after me, I won’t hesitate to end you, to end all of you.”

She drops the helmet, and all he can see is an image of her walking away, down a corridor.

“Goodbye, Father.” She calls over her shoulder and the screen goes black.

“You’ve watched that tape many times now, Master Bruce, have you found anything useful?” Alfred question as he prepares to serve the man some tea.

“No,” the older man says solemnly. It’d been almost a month since she disappeared and while there was indeed no trace of her, the robberies hadn’t stopped even though she had amassed a fortune that rivaled his own. “Only a glimpse of a few aliases, however none of them have been used. I think she showed me them on purpose.”

“Master Jason stopped by to search through her room again, he found nothing.”

“How did he look?”

“Like he has not slept since that day, sir. I know this must be hard for him, to lose her like this.”

“He blames himself, even though this is my fault. She’s doing this to spite me, I know it.”

“Oh?”

“I never paid attention to her, so I never noticed what she was doing. Never noticed that the enemy that I’d been giving all of my attention to was the one person I didn’t have time for. Now, wherever she is I won’t be able to reach her, no matter how much I try.”

“She was always fond of poetry, sir.”

Bruce pauses, “I didn’t know that either.”

Taglist (this is a thing now let me know if you want to be on it for everything or a specific story) @captain-amelia-bradley

[barbarasminerva-remade]

dc heroes highschool au

so i was thinking about this and its my new baby but its really long so im putting part of it under a read more

the school is called justice academy and the school colors are blue, white and gold

theres a martial arts class at their school that bruce teaches bc he’s lonely and we all know he doesn’t have a real job

clark is the lunch lady who reminds kids to eat their vegetables

everything made in the caf is grown in the school garden that he has and he shames kids into not picking the unhealthy foods

bruce is smashing the lunch lady aka clark n he thinks no one knows but really the whole school gossips about how rich dude/part time gym teacher bruce wayne is banging sweet lunch lady clark

also clark and lois have an open marriage so they don’t have to hide their relationship but bruce is like........yeah but i don’t want ppl to know i’m dating someone who says y'all'd've'st

Kon HATES it bc he and tim are also dating

diana is the wrestling coach and everyone marvels at how good she is except donna and cassie (bc thats donnas mom and cassie’s aunt and she  loves to embarrass them) n she’s known for having a rivalry with her the arkham academy coach, barbara minerva, aka her ex girlfriend

also diana is an ancient/world history teacher teaching history as it happened

Diana during the first day of class: The common theme in world history is that White Men Ruin Everything 

donna is captain of the wrestling team

she’s really good and everyone on the wrestling team aspires to be her and everyone on the rival school’s (arkham academy) team wants to beat her

kory was an exchange student during her freshman year and eventually decides to stay. she’s cheer captain but also known for arguing for equality and stages like school walkouts and things and no one ever challenges her bc she’s tall and buff and her gf is the captain of the wrestling team

wally runs track and field

wally is iris's nephew and barry and iris met at a track meet when iris came to pick him up and he was like hey wally what's ur aunt's number? and wally was like ‘sorry coach barry my aunt isn’t looking rn’ bc he thought it’d be weird if his coach dated his aunt but barry shoots his shot anyways and now barry and iris are engaged

also wally is a senior n bart is a freshman so when barry makes bart co-captain wally is like what the fuck is the point of you being engaged to my aunt if i dont get nepotism?????? n barry's like wally he's ur cousin and wally's like not if he steals my scholarships and they fight a lot but they l*ve each other 

roy is president of the archery club with his sorta sister artemis crock and jason is a lit nerd who roy flirts with but jason just thinks he wants homework so he ignores him

roy struggles with being a good dad while also fighting his addiction and work part time to try and save up for college after ollie kicked him out all on top of being a senior in high school

artemis is good friends w mia and conner bc first they were in the archery club together and then she joins the family after jade has lian and she’s like i’m sorry jade is vicious and tries to help out with lian as much as possible and mia and conner respect that

artemis is a really good aunt, she loves lian so much and spends all of her pocket money on taking her niece places. she ditches school to get slurpees w her girlfriends zatanna and m’gann. m’gann helps her study for her classes and with her homework. both make sure she stays in school cause artemis almost flunks out at one point bc of family stuff. also artemis is in lit club bc Z is in it and she supports her

jason lives in an apartment and he makes bruce pay for it as reparations for being a bad dad. but he also works bc he’ll be damned if he has to live off of bruce’s money permanently and eventually starts paying for his own bills and stuff

dick is captain of the gymnastics team and he’s really good. he’s the best in the region and has only ever lost a meet once (which was nationals, he came 2nd place)

tiger, dick, and helena went to summer camp together. tiger doesn’t go to their school, he goes to a gotham boarding school and dick sneaks into his room at night to hang out/make out and tiger comes to dick’s meets and helena tags along

also wally has a big crush on dick and he has since they were kids and dick liked him too. but wally thought dick wasn’t interested so he never went for it and then dick being dick just moved on and now wally just pines after him and it’s sad :/

damian is a snot nose 9 year old kid who hangs around the gymnastic team’s practices to hang out with his big bro and he sneers at the team and says he could do it better (which he can)

the summer before jason’s sophomore year he disappears after an incident and no one knows what happened to him but afterwards bruce sends him to boarding school to correct his behavior (which is where he meets amazon artemis and bizarro) until jason says fuck this and comes back junior year and everyone spread rumors that he like died while he was gone bc no one ever saw him so when he returned everyone was like :O and dick is really excited he’s back but jason is pissed at him bc he didn’t like support jason in fighting w bruce to let him stay

jason has bruce’s number blocked for the drama of it and bruce refuses to think his son blocked him so he's like "oh his phone must be off he's so busy love that guy (:" and no one has the heart to tell him. the rare times he does answer the phone when bruce calls, he recites a monologue and hangs up. he’s also president of drama club and also of literature club

jason recites historic and iconic monologues and soliloquies (bc he has them memorized for certain situations) except he just sprinkles curse words in

jason’s english teacher is about to fucking quit their job bc jason always tries to teach the class

cass is the best student in bruce’s class and also his daughter and she’s fairly quiet and hangs out mostly with her brothers. people like don’t really know who she is other than like hey that’s the kick ass dancer on helena’s dance team or oh! that’s the girl who kicked my ass sparring in Mr. Wayne’s class. she meets steph in one of bruce’s classes and she’s like wild and outgoing and funny and cass has a really big crush on her but she doesn’t think steph feels the same way (she does though) also steph can drive and she’s always taking cass on these really fun adventures but bruce doesn’t approve of steph so cass like sneaks out to go hang out with steph but bruce never knows bc he thinks she’s the perfect daughter and like steph brings cass out of her shell. she’s also on the gymnastics team with dick and is the second highest placing athlete on the team.

my boy duke thomas and his parents were good friends of bruce right so when during the summer before his freshman year his parents die in a freak car accident bruce takes him in. he’s a sophomore now and he’s still adjusting to life with bruce and he thinks his new siblings are kinda weird but cool. he’s also really focused on making sure his grades are immaculate so that he can get into his dream school and make his parents proud. he is in the school band and he’s really great and tim is also in band bc bruce made him but he’s not as good as duke 

jason met duke at a family dinner he was forced to go to and thinks he’s cool unlike his other loser brother and makes him join literature club 

tim drake is a freshmen and gets shoved into lockers. his only friends are kon, bart, and cassie. he joined the coding club bc he thinks babs is extra cool and wants to be like her

jason is the one shoving him in the locker and tim’s like what the fuck you’re the nerd here and jason’s like funny isn’t it and then closes the locker

bart hangs out with tim and kon and cassie. except cassie is cool from being on the wrestling team and being donna’s cousin so she’s always really busy but she tries to make time for them. wally shoves him into lockers sometimes and kon has to get them both out.

kon is in his rebellious teen phase where he's like fuck u dad i don’t wanna be a farmer but its justified bc kon is techinically an illegitimate child from a previous relationship and clark is kind of a dick to him bc he treats Jon better than Kon

helena and dinah make out under the school bleachers before helena has dance practice and when helena has to go dinah smacks her ass and says knock em dead babe

helena originally took mr. wayne's martial arts class because she needed PE credit but now she kinda likes it. the whole time she’s there she objects to bruce's passive approach to fighting 

bruce: fight to disarm or incapacitate ur partner helena: thats dumb, fight to kill ur partner 

bruce wayne voice: helena this is a PE class please stop trying to murder your partners

kate kane subs for bruce sometimes but she supports helena's kill ur partner attitude so they don’t hire her very often

helena is captain of the dance team and they perform at all school rallies and football games and shes really hard on her team mates but only bc she wants them to be their best and babs & dinah make her music mixes for performances bc they love her

babs is president of the coding club and even though she’s a nerd everyone respects her. her and dick went on a date once and then when he kissed her good night she realized she was a lesbian. they’re still buddies though. she dated dinah for awhile but they decided they were better as friends. helena and babs became friends in the martial arts class and babs introduced helena and dinah and the three have been bffs ever since.

[nightwingswing]

“Stalker” (Jonathan Crane x reader x Jason Todd) Jonathan Crane’s ending

Hello my little wings!

There it is! the last ending of the “Stalker” series!

Once again, thank you to everyone who liked, comented, reblogged! You gave me the support i needed to continuate this!

I enjoyed writting for a villain for a change! i am also working in a Riddler story! so if you got any prompts for heroes or villains message me any time!

An anon sugested if there could be smut in this fic so I’LL DO 2 CHAPTERS MORE (one for each ending) WITH SMUT. They’ll be posted the next weekend.

Tags. @hamsterforlive @plethora-of-things @princessquinn33

If you wish to be tagged in any of my imagines message me any time!!

Part1 Part2   Jay’s ending  Jon’s ending (here)  [Sequel!]

“Well birdie…looks like you are about to lose hahahahaha!!! This gives me so many memories! Ahh! To bad the big bad bat won’t come! ☹ But anyway…im sure you came for your little princess??? Ohhh you did hahahahaha!! The little robin is alone again!! Poor youuu! Too bad she doesn’t love you anyway!! Hahahahahaha” The joker laughed, over the blodies body of Red hood.

“ Fuck …you” Jason said.

“Good night!” The joker prepared for the last strike.

“BAM!”

Jason fired his gun, hitting the joker in the middle of his forehead.

The joker let escape a mad laugh before falling on the ground. A sick smile in his cold face as a little trail of blood escaped from the hole.

Jason kicked his body away and broke the door, seeing your sleeping face. He immediately calmed down, but his anger incremented as he saw The scarecrow sitting next to you.

“You fucker…” Jason seethed as Crane waked up.

“You…we thought I killed you….To bad, you’ll die soon.” Crane grabbed a knife and attacked Jason. Jason shoot him once. Crane attacked him, injuring his good arm making the gun fall on the ground. Todd kicked him on his knees making him fall, he kicked the knife away and hit cranes face repeatedly making him bleed trough his nose.

“that’s for (y/N)! that’s for all the civilians you killed! , This is for the children you experimented on, this is for my family and THIS IS FOR (y/n) AGAIN!!!!” After a extra strong punch Crane’s head hit the ground violently.     Jason spited blood on the ground before running to you and disconnecting the blood transfuses and the machines.

“Who? Who are you?!” Your struggled against him as if he was hurting you. “JON! JON HELP ME! PLEASE!” Jason pulled away from you, looking angrily at the Scarecrow, who wiped blood from his smirking lips.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO THEM!?” Jason hit Jonathan over and over again, much to your horror”

“cough, (y/n) is no longer yours…. she’s mine, like it was supposed to…cough” Crane spited blood and smirked at Todd, the blood on his teeth making him look crazy. Jason snarled and as he was ready to pull the last blow-

A chair hit his head knocking him out. Jon smiled as he saw the body of the vigilante hit the ground.

You had choose him..

In the end, you choose HIM!

THEM!

Jon ran to your weak form and hug you, smiling openly and twirling you around. You hugged back and finally, finally said the words...

“I love you, Jon” You smiled and he kissed you hard.

“We love you too, (y/n)” He kissed you sweetly and you hugged his neck

In the middle of your reunion he heard the alien and the archer approaching.

“My love, we shall take our leave…they’ll separate us if we’re caught!” He carried you in his arms out of the facility, dressing you two as civilians. You mingled in the crowd and successfully make it to Bludhaven. Where you and Him changed clothes and got new identities to successfully get out of the country.

You brushed the hair out of your face as Jon sat next to you on the plane, he held your hand and kissed it sweetly.

“Ready my love?” He smiled.

“Ready” You kissed him as the plane’s engines roared.

As the plane started moving you looked out of the windows, the feeling of forgetting something important deep in your heart. You shake it of at the feeling of Jon’s hand holding yours.

You smiled at him as the captain welcomed you abroad and said the name of your destination.

Stockholm

///*\\\

It’s been a 5 years since you two moved to Sweden, he worked in the University of Stockholm as the major teacher in psychiatry and you were one of the most influential psychologist of Europe.

You smiled as the little one holding your hand demanded attention.

“mommy mommy! Let’s go see daddy!!!” The young boy smiled as he dragged you to the College. “Pweeeaseee!”

“Fiine, jay but stop pushing me, ok?” You said as you adjusted his scarf, it was a cold morning in Stockholm as you carried your son Jason back to his father’s work. Jon didn’t agree at first with the name but you liked it a lot, somehow…

Somehow that name make you feel at home.

“DADDY!!!!!” Jay screamed when he saw his dad in the entrance waiting for them. Jon smiled at him and opened his arms so the little 5 year old could hug him.

“Hey, little crow! How is my big boy doing?” Jon smiled at him.

“GREAT!!” Jay smiled toothily as you kissed Jon.

“I told you to not call him that, darling” You smiled at Jon as he and your son looked at you puppy eyed. “ C’mon Jay, we must let daddy to his work.”

“But moooom……” “But (y/n)……..)” They used the puppyes on you, knowing you couldn’t resist.

“Fiiine, but just for lunch!” You rolled your eyes as they went on, his dad explaining how interesting fear was while your young child drank all the information. Jon looked at you and smiled as he held your hand between his bigger one, you smiled back and he looked at your son again.

You looked outside to see a student wearing a red hood and somehow that bought you a nostalgic feeling and also a feeling of missing something. Hot tears fell from your eyes and you didn’t know why. Jon looked at you, worried and hugged you.

“What’s wrong, (y/n)?” He made you look at him as Jay wiped your tears, kissing your cheek with a loud “MUACK!”

“Don’t cry, mommy! Daddy is here!!!” Jay smiled toothily at you and you smiled at you, the white treack in his (h/c) hair reminded you of someone, but you couldn’t remember. Jon kissed you forehead as his hand played with the golden ring in your hand.

“Shall we go home, Mrs. Crane?”

“Yes, Mr. Crane” You smiled as all three of you made your way home, playing with jay on your way out.

“Higher mommy higher!!!” Jay loved the greater heights, a memory of a great height in a secret roof with someone invaded you. But his blurry face was replaced with Jon’s and you smiled at you husband.

The missing piece could wait.

The end.

Bonus!

“Jason, its been 5 years! Face it (y/n) is dead! “ Tim shouted at his brother, whose hair was messy, the white treack messier than usual, his face covered in a 2 weeks bear.

“I WON’T! I KNOW SHE’S ALIVE SOMEWHERE!!! I’LL NEVER GIVE UP!” Jay screamed as he finished his beer.

“Jay be reasonable! You won’t find her! Why this much insistence in finding her?!”

“I will, timbo! SHES THE ONLY ONE I REALLY LOVED! I NEED HER! I NEED THEM! I NEED HER AND MY CHILD!”

Jason Todd Ending     (here)

Jonathan Crane Ending.   (here you are)

[thepeacetea]

Broken Angels Ch.3

Hi guys! Wow, i cant believe I’m on chapter 3 already! Thank you all for soooo much for all your likes, comments, and reblogs. Your support has been phenomenal! I really couldn’t have done it without you guys.  I am really happy you all like the story! I just want to do a quick shout out to @particularlygeeky for encouraging me to post this. Anyway i tried to tag everyone who asked and if I missed you I am really sorry. Just send me a message and l’ll get you the next chapter. Again, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, let me know. Anyway, hope ya’ll enjoy! Peace!

“What’s got you into such a bad mood?”

The Wayne family were, for once, all home relaxing in one of the sitting rooms. Bruce, Dick, and Tim were discussing some aspect of Wayne Enterprises, Jason was channel surfing, while Damian had sunk into the couch with an irritated frown etched on his face. They had all noticed the change in the youngest but had refrained from asking earlier, but everyone was curious as to what had happened. No one was surprised when Jason had asked the question. Turning his glare at Jason did nothing to the older boy, all it did was make him raise a brow, waiting for an answer.

“Today was an annoyance.”

“Ha, when isn’t a day an annoyance to you? Naw, something else happened that ticked you off more normal.” Jason stated, popping a handful of candy into his mouth.

Damian would never understand how someone who acted so tough and violent could eat anything that colourful and full of sugar. Jason had been like that for as long as he had known him, and according to Dick, even longer.

“So, what happened?” Jason prodded again, grabbing another handful of candy.

Growling , Damian’s mind returned to early that day.

He was running late. He was never late. But there had to be an accident at the main intersection that backed up traffic, causing him to have to take a rather lengthy detour. Racing through the halls, he made it through the door just as the bell rang. The teacher, Mr. Spinale wasn’t there yet, which Damian thanked whatever god was out there. But that didn’t mean the rest of the class didn’t notice.

“I never thought I would live to see the day that the Damian Wayne would be late!” Claude shouted, shooting up from his seat.

Claude was . . . interesting. He was a loud mouth boy, who, no matter how blatantly Damian had ignored or told him off, kept coming back to tease him. By all fronts, Claude was a very likable person and had multiple friends. But he seemed to enjoy courting danger if his hobby of riling up the Ice Prince was any indication.

“And here I thought you were incapable of arriving before the bell rings.” Damian shot back, taking his seat. A series of ‘ooohhhs’ followed as Claude just laughed it off.

Before the anyone could say anything else, Mr. Spinale came in followed by fifteen other people, fourteen of them students. They were all chatting in French, but they all seemed to be enraptured by a story one of the girls was telling. Subconsciously, Damian’s mind assessed them and labeled them all as non-threats.

“Class, as you all should know, our school is hosting an exchange program with multiple international schools. Each school sent a class to represent them for three month.” Mr. Spinale stated. Damian could vaguely remember it being announced. It had been a contest or something with the best schools of other countries or something like that. Damian had never payed attention to it. “These students represent Collège Françoise Dupont of Paris, France. I expect you All to make them feel welcome” He instructed the class, casting Damian a meaningful look before turning to the exchange class. For a second, Damian saw confusion flash through Mr. Spinale’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Ms. Bustier. I was informed there was fifteen students. There’s only fourteen here.”

It was slight, but Damian caught the shift in the new class. They all looked as if they had tasted something bitter. The rest of his classmates didn’t seem to notice it, not that they noticed anything, but their reaction to the mention of said missing classmate intrigued him. Usually, a class would be worried if one of their own were missing. Or at least that��s what he had been told.

“We do, but the last one, Marinette, was sick today, so we left her at the hotel. But she should be here tomorrow or the day after.” The red headed teacher, Bustier, said. She had on a cheerful smile that didn’t sit right with Damian. As if she hiding something, or at the very lest wasn’t telling the whole truth.

Apparently Mr. Spinale felt the same way if the near unnoticeable narrowing of his eyes were any indication, but he just nodded once before directing the new students to sit down. It was no surprise to Damian when they grouped together, nor when a small argument broke out over who would sit with story girl.

As classes wore on, Damian watch in mild amusement as the two classes tried to interact. Key word was tried. Majority of the new class knew only basic English, while his classmates were mediocre in French. He ignored all attempts of conversation from the exchange class, sending them away with a bored glare or by immersing himself in a book. But while he didn’t talk with them, he did take the time to study them. Most of them were nothing special, nothing he would concern himself with, with the exception of one student. The one who had been the center of attention when they came in. The one who appeared to be everyone’s favorite. He quickly learned she was Italian, and a compulsive liar, if you could call her stories such. He listened as she fed her classmates story after story with so many names being dropped that he was honestly shocked that they believed them. No one, and he means no one who was anyone, would ever drop as many names as this girl was. In all honesty, he was disgusted at the sight.

Another thing he noticed was that the girl, was that she seemed hellbent on cozying up and charming anyone she deemed important or could possibly be influential in the class. So when she set her sights on him, Damian knew what he could expect. With what she thought to be an attractive sway on her hips, she sauntered up to him. Latching onto his arm, she introduced herself as Lila and began to spew a horrible lie of knowing the Wayne family, his family, and had the audacity to say that she was an honorary member of the family, practically being adopted by the boys themselves. So Damian did what he did best.

“I don’t care who you are, or who you think you know. But if you don’t remove yourself from my arm and my vicinity, then you’ll have a lot more to worry about then what rip-off brand you’ll be wearing tomorrow. Besides,” Damian said, barely casting a glance in her direction. “I don’t affiliated myself with someone as . . . tacky as yourself.” A slight sneer made its way to his face as he forcefully removed his arm from her grasp.

He had spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. Majority of the students who knew him simple shrugged before returning to their previous occupations. Some gave the girl pitying looks, but it wasn’t a new occurrence. They had lost count of how many girls had tried to cozy up with the Ice Prince only to end up burnt.

 For five, long seconds, Lila did nothing. It was as his words had frozen her. In that time, Damian watched as a flurry of emotions flash though her olive green eyes, eyes that reminded him of a snake. Shock, embarrassment, anger, confusion, where a few he could decipher before they settled on anger.

Almost instantly, her whole face changed as tears sprang to life, hurrying down her face before she let out one of the fakest sobs Damian had ever heard. This seemed to spur her class out of their stupor and rushing to her side as the snake started spouting out more lies in French.

“Hey! Why did you say that? She was . . . trying to be nice!” A dark, bi-spectacle redhead demanded, her thick French accent made her broken English harder to understand.

“Then she should learn about personal space.” With that final piece of advice, Damian grabbed his bag and strode out of the room, an aggravated scowl etching its way on his face for the rest of the day.

The rest of the day proceeded in the same fashion. The next three months were going to be very, very long.

“She actually said that!”

Damian shot Jason a glare that promised painful retaliation as said brother laughed. His other brothers where no help as they tried, miserably, to hid their amusement. Bruce was just shaking his head at the boys antics. Alfred had the smallest smile playing on his face, one that if you looked to long made you question if it was there at all.

“I hate you all.” Damian muttered, glaring at the lot of them

“I’m sorry, it’s just. Wow. I almost wish I could see that for myself, and I am all out of candy. I’ll be right back.” Jason said, jumping off the couch and disappearing around the corner.

“How does he eat so much of that stuff?”

“We have no idea. Oh, turn on the news. They’re suppose to cover that crash at the intersection.” Tim said.

“ . . .  As many of you know, the intersection on Main and Boulevard was closed this morning due to what could have been, a fatal collision. At 8:15 this morning, a young girl was near struck by a speeding Toyota Tundra. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of Police Commissioner James Gordon, it would have been a fatal collision. We have had dozens of videos submitted showing before, during, and after the near incident.”

The image was then cut to a shaky video taken from a phone, show Commissioner Gordon bolting for a very tiny girl who was frozen in the path of the oncoming truck. The video showed Gordon tackling the girl. The view fell to the ground as the cameraman ran out into the street, catching Gordon yelling at the crowd while barking orders into his comm. It showed the girl had launched herself at Gordon with a heart wrenching cry. Gordon’s shocked face as he held the breaking girl, stroking her hair in a effort to calm her.

“As you can see, the civilian wasn’t injured in the crash, but some other footage showed something interesting.”

Another video appeared. This time, the sound was muffled but the footage was clear. It showed Gordon still holding the girl as someone was talking to her. As she turned her head, the camera caught a full view of her face. The frame froze, giving viewer a clear picture of her wide eyes dilated with panic, the swollen right side of her face, with a hand print displayed for all to see.

The sound of glass shattering snapped the entire family’s attention away from the news as the anchorman continued to talk. Their eyes landed on Jason, who stood frozen in the doorway, shattered glass mixed with candy lay scattered around him. Damian was about to snap at him when he saw the look on his brother’s face. Complete, utter shock and fear was etched on Jason’s face.

“Nettie?”

  @mystery-5-5 @captainmac6 @you-will-never-know-how-I-think @mochineko @sonif50 @zalladane @thebananathatwrites @schrodingers25 @kuroko26 @miraculousbelladonna @souleaterlicestein @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @ijustwannabecanadian @ellerahs @ranger-paladinikoe @xxmadamjinxx @derpingrainbow @sassy-spocko@vixen-uchiha @mjisntme @iggy-of-fans @violentbisexualprophecywriter @valeks-princess @crazylittlemunchkin @redscarlet95  @alexzandria-747 @ayuchan07  @whomthefyck @rhub4rb @constancetruggle @rikku052 @kurogaya913 @shizukiryuu @spicybelladonna @zazzlejazzle @luciferge @mewwitch @emotionalsupportginger @grunklestantheman @my-name-is-michell @northernbluetongue 

[elareine]

Adamare (6/7) 

Read here on ao3.

Year Six

Sixth year, so far, was turning out to be a disaster. 

They had a new headmaster, an older guy with a creepy laugh, an even worse sense of style than the last one, and an uncomfortable affinity for certain groups with certain opinions about blood status.

Jason missed Roy. He would’ve gotten such a kick out of terrorizing the new guy. 

On second thoughts, it was probably a good thing Roy had managed to graduate last year. He’d have been expulsed within a month, and Jason with him. The thought didn’t hold the terror it would once have—Jason had seen Bruce’s face when confronted with Headmaster Al Ghul on parent-teacher-day. If the prank that got Jason thrown out were spectacular enough, Bruce would probably take him out to lunch in celebration. The only thing that held Jason back now was that Tim would follow him, probably with something way more spectacular, and Tim couldn’t afford that kind of mark on his record if he wanted to be an Auror.

So they thought of other ways to resist. DADA had become increasingly useless with an insistence on ‘respecting all sides’ when it came to wizards while advocating for kill curses when faced with creatures. (Jason privately thought it should be the other way around.) In response, the students organized their own groups, practicing how to ward off Unforgivables and how to recognize and counter the Death Eaters’ preferred tactics. Dick stopped by occasionally (how he even got into the castle, Jason didn’t want to know) and offered up tips and exercises from his Auror training. 

One day, Tim called Jason over from where he’d been practicing cloaking spells and said: “I think you should teach us how to throw a punch.” 

The third-year Tim had been talking to looked confused. Jason didn’t blame him. Among them, Tim had quickly emerged as the best duelist. Jason was no slouch himself, but Tim? Tim was quick, precise, and vicious. The first time he’d shown them how to do an Unforgivable, the discomfort on most students’ faces had been plain. Jason didn’t care. They needed to know these spells to defend against them, and he trusted Tim to never turn them on someone who didn’t deserve it. 

So yeah. The idea that Tim wanted to add another element to their duels was pretty out there. 

Jason still shrugged. “I guess I could?” 

“Think about it,” Tim ordered, probably not even noticing how bossy he sounded. Jason grinned, anyway.  

It was good, seeing Tim slowly reintegrating with the rest of the school. With their new headmaster, the dividing line had been drawn in bright red, and everyone on this side of it slowly realized that they couldn’t afford to battle among themselves. Officially, Cassie was the leader of this little group, but everyone would need to be blind to overlook that Tim was her second. 

“May I get back to my spells now?” Jason asked, overly demure. 

Tim shook him a dark look but nodded. 

Later, when they were sitting by the lake after dinner, trying to finish up the rest of their homework by candlelight, Jason brought up their earlier discussion again. “I’m not actually qualified to teach physical self-defense, you know.” 

Tim shrugged. “I know. But I know you box, and it’ll be better than nothing. Remember the look on Sebastian’s face after you landed that hit on him?”

“You remember that?” 

“Are you fucking kidding me? It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.” Tim grinned at Jason. 

“You, too. That was the first time I wasn’t alone in a fight.” Jason considered. “Unless you consider Roy and me dropping glitter bombs a fight.” 

“Nah, you were running away too quickly for that.” 

“Damn right we were.” 

They looked out at the lake in companionable silence. 

Tim asked quietly: “Do you ever regret it?” 

“Regret what?” What was Tim on about now? 

“Sitting next to me that day.” 

Jason turned his head very slowly to stare at him. “Are you seriously asking me whether I regret being your friend?” 

After a second, Tim had to laugh at himself. “I guess? Just. It would’ve been easier for you.” 

“No, it wouldn’t have.” 

“Uh, yes? You were one of the cool kids back then. Obviously I figured out that you’re a dork, but everyone else in our year thought you were this cool rebel.” 

Jason thought back. First year seemed far away now. “Are you saying you dragged down my coolness rating?” 

“The non-bigots would probably have gotten over themselves if you weren’t always hanging out with someone they think is tainted.” 

“Yeah, but who cares?” 

Tim shrugged. The gesture didn’t fool Jason, though, who knew well enough how to tell when the other was bothered by something. He gentled his voice as he added: “Tim, it wouldn’t have been easier for me, because then I would’ve had to do everything without you.” 

Tim looked at him. Jason squirmed under that scrutiny, sure that his feelings for Tim were written all across his face. Any second now, Tim would call him out on it and get angry. Or maybe he wouldn’t, and they’d just go on ignoring this for another decade or so. 

Jason would prefer the second option, to be honest. He meant it when he said that this friendship was more important. 

When Tim spoke next, however, it seemed to be entirely unrelated. “Hey, uh, wanna eat breakfast together?” 

“Yes?” Jason agreed slowly. “Like we do every morning?” 

“No, I meant—how about we spend the next Gotham trip together? We could get some ice cream.” 

“We do that every time. Are you okay?” 

“I’m trying to ask you on a date!” Tim snapped at him. “Stop trying to act dumb!”

For a second, Jason was righteously speechless. “Well, excuse me, Mr. Let’s-go-to-the-ball-as-friends!” 

Now it was Tim’s turn to gape. “You casually asked me during lunch!” 

“After you said people should just ask the person they want to go with! And how is that worse than ‘wanna eat breakfast together’?” 

“Okay, fine, next time I ask you for a date I’ll make it extra obvious!” 

“Fine!” 

“Fine!” 

They stared at each other. 

Jason held up a hand. “Wait. Did you just—”

Tim was way ahead of him, as usual. “So… that’s a yes, then?” 

“Yes!” Jason caught himself. “If you want it to be.” 

Tim nodded enthusiastically, and they shared a quiet laugh. Their eyes locked. Jason couldn’t help thinking that Tim had chosen the more romantic setting between the two of them (moon- and candlelight by the water and all that,) when Tim leaned in. 

For a brief moment, their lips pressed together. Jason wouldn’t be able to describe it later—the dryness of Tim’s lips, the softness of his hands in his, the sheer electricity of their tongues touching; all of that would come to mind, but be superimposed from the countless kisses to follow. This first one was fleeting and perfect, like two pieces finally clicking into place, and that was all there was to it. 

“Finally.” Tim sounded so exasperated, Jason couldn’t help but chuckle. 

He was already thinking about transfiguring Tim a rose to present at breakfast. It was a date, after all. 

[lfthinkerwrites]

High School AU: Meet the Students

Yeah, I’m still doing this. I needed a bit of a pick me up.

"This is Vice Principal Hugo Strange. Once again, I would like to apologize for the last minute cancellation of Ten Cent Hot Dog Day. However, this nonsense on social media must cease. The next person who turns our illustrious academy into a 'dank meme' will face severe consequences. That is all."

"Fucking bullshit," Jason grumbled. "How much do you want to bet that Kerr stole the hot dogs?"

Tim looked up from his book at his foster brother. "Why would he?"

"Because he's a sick fuck, that's why." Jason shook his head. "I can't believe he's still employed."

"I can't believe any of the teachers are still employed," Duke said. "This morning in English, Mr. Tetch broke down crying while we were reading out passages from Titus Andronicus and had us switch over to Through the Looking Glass.

Jason shrugged. "Eh, that's a shitty play anyway." He poked at his meatloaf with his plastic fork. "Speaking of Titus, who's the cook today? This meatloaf feels rubbery."

"Chef Valentino," Tim answered, not looking up from his book.

Jason pushed the plate away from him in disgust. "Jesus! I'm not touching this! There's probably a horse in it!"

"Jason, don't be disgusting!" Tim shouted. Duke grimaced a bit and thanked his lucky stars he'd brought lunch from home today.

At that point in time, the three were joined by Dick Grayson, age 18 and Barbara Gordon. The pair took their seats between Jason and Tim. "Afternoon, gents!" Dick greeted. He looked at Jason poking the meatloaf and laughed. "What are you doing, Jay?"

"I'm trying to see if there's anything in the meatloaf," he grumbled.

"He's being gross," Tim complained.

Dick took a quick look around the table. "Where's Roy?"

"Lunch detention," Jason answered. "I'm serving mine after school. For some reason, Gordon doesn't want us to serve detention together."

Beside Dick, Barbara scoffed. "Yeah, because the last time you had detention together, you rigged Coach Bolton's desk to explode."

"Good times," Jason said. "Good times. What's going on with your old man anyway, Barb? He seems a little more amped up than usual."

Barbara shrugged. "I'm not sure. His secretary said he got a call from someone earlier this morning and it put him on edge. I'll ask him after school. In the meantime, could you please go a little easier on him?"

"Sure. As long as you still agree to join my Ginger Army."

"What are you even going to do with a Ginger Army Jason?" Tim asked.

"Get a big rig and drive across the wastelands of course."

Tim groaned. "I don't know why I even ask."

"Hey, guys!"

Tim looked up and blushed a bit when Cassandra appeared at their table, accompanied by one Stephanie Brown, the girl he had a slight and very obvious crush on. He scooted over to make room for them, which made Jason laugh. He shot a glare at his brother before giving Stephanie a slight wave. "Hey, Steph."

"Just the two of you today?" Barbara asked. "Where are Ellen and Duela?"

"Their Dads came by and pulled them aside to talk to them," Stephanie answered.

"They found out about Beautiful Captain Zodiac Sparkles," Cassandra furthered explained. "Mr. Dent was mad."

"Damn it," Jason cursed. "I wanted to see how she defeated Toxic Masculinity!"

"Sheesh," Duke winced. "How'd they find out about it?"

"Harvey probably searched Duela's locker," Dick said. "He's a bit over-protective."

"Over-protective?" Jason repeated. "He's a fascist."

"He let Duela get her hair dyed two different colors, how much of a fascist could he be?" Stephanie pointed out.

"No, Mrs. Dent let Duela get her hair dyed. Mr. Dent punched a locker the first day she came to school with that hairdo," Tim explained. "At least Mr. Nashton doesn't micromanage Ellen like that."

"Nah, he's too busy chasing after that guidance counselor to search Ellen's locker," Jason laughed. "Poor bastard."

"You think he's got a chance?" Dick asked. "I've got a bet with Kory about it."

Jason opened his mouth then held up one of his hands. "Hold it. Everybody freeze."

"What's wrong?" Cassandra asked.

"The meatloaf just moved."