#batman wants to be taken seriously but let’s be real his kids won’t let him lmfao

[ahfrickenfrick]

spoiler: google show me this guy’s balls

batman: keep this line secure

red robin: you heard the mod, chat. keep it stream related or get banned

red hood: none of those words are in the bible

robin: incorrect, obviously there are pronouns and conjunctions and such that are in all texts-

red hood: i know that! it’s a joke

robin: well then be funny

batman: please- i’m being serious

nightwing: it’s hard to take you seriously when we all saw you fall down those stairs earlier

[robinofgothamcity]

♡ prompt: your relationship with Damian isn’t what is seems like.

♡ pairing: damian wayne (robin), bart allen (impulse) x fem reader

♡ lyric inspiration: “it’s just a little too late, you say you dream about me but you don’t like me, you just like the chase so be real, it doesn’t matter anyway.”

♡ note: not checked for grammar or spelling mistakes 

you were blasting music into your headphones as you were trying to finish everything you needed to get done for the week. graduation was coming in just a few weeks and you had been neck deep in homework with essays and exams coming in from left and right. 

you had even been putting off even hanging out or going on dates with Damian because your lack of time. he kept telling you that it was okay but in the back of your head, you felt wrong for denying him every time he asked you out. 

Jon and Billy had been in the lair’s living room, lazying around until Nightwing or even Batman came in to give all of you times and coordinates for your patrolling tonight. you hadn’t even been hearing their conversation since your music was drowning out their conversations. 

when you realized that your coffee had ran out and everything that you needed in order to make a new cup was in the kitchen, you took off your headphones and grabbed your cup, walking slowly to living room. 

“where’s Damian?” Billy asked, kicking his shoes off, “oh, he’s training. ever since graduation for Gotham Academy came closer, ( your name ) has been putting him off to study so he’s been training to kill time.” 

your eyebrows fluttered in confusion, not knowing if what Jon was saying was rude or not. “I have to give Damian props though,” Jon continued, “he’s been with her for two months now! we even had a small bet going to see how long he would be able to date her and he’s clearly won since he’s been with her longer than the month we bet on. even a few of the titans had placed bets that it wouldn’t last as long as it did. Raven put in a measly two weeks,” Jon laughed. 

your eyes stared down at the ground, completely watery and stinging, “hey, that just shows Damian can commit to things that aren’t training although it’s like you said, it’s surprising they’re even together if she keeps putting him off,” Billy added on. 

not realizing that your cup had slipped your grasp, the metal collided with the ground, making Jon and Billy turn around. they could see the hurt in your eyes as you remained frozen in place. 

“hey ( your name ),” Jon murmured, “did you hear what we were talking about?” Billy asked, afraid at the answer. 

your eyes turned into rage as you picked up your cup off the floor, “tell Damian that since our month is over, we’re done,” Jon immediately sprang up, “hey! please, don’t say that! you’re completely not understanding what we’re saying!” Jon said frantically. 

Damian walked out of the solo training room, seeing Jon and Billy’s expressions as the tears ran down your face, “what’s going on?” Damian asked. you laughed, not wanting to even look at him, “great! you’re here! since our relationship was based on a bet that you had money on that would only last a month, you can count it as we’re over now!” you exclaimed.

you slammed your laptop and grabbed your backpack as Damian ran towards you. in a fit of complete rage, you turned around and punched him square in the stomach, making him fall onto Jon. 

“go fuck yourself! as a matter of fact, you can find another member for the Titans! I quit!” you screamed, slamming your mask down onto the table and leaving the lair, “wait! please, this isn’t how you think it went down, please!” Damian begged. 

you gave him the finger, “I hope you, right along with Jon and Billy, enjoy sitting on the shame that is playing with people’s emotions,” you said as Nightwing walked into the hallway, clearly lost on what was happening, “the next time you, Jon, Billy, hell! even the Titan’s decide to play with people’s emotion for the sake of getting money, make sure it’s someone who’s not on the same team as you,” you whispered. 

“don’t leave, please don’t leave. Nightwing, stop her!” Damian said in panic as you got onto your bike, “Nightwing, since the Titan’s are now down a member, you can tell whoever was fighting a place that my spot is now vacant,” you managed to say before revving your bike and riding onto the street. 

“what is going on?” Nightwing asked the three. he had never saw Damian so hurt, meanwhile Billy and Jon were left speechless, “my girlfriend just broke up with me!” Damian murmured, a feeling in his heart that he had never felt before, “she overheard a conversation Billy and I were having but I think she only heard a piece of it,” Jon tried to rationalize. 

Damian looked at the two, pure rage coming over his body, “it’s both your fault?” he screamed, charging them with his sword. Nightwing quickly grabbed his brother, taking the sword away from his grasp, “she only heard some of the conversation! we never meant for her to actually get upset.” 

Nightwing stood in between the three, “listen, whatever happened, all of you need to apologize. now, I can’t promise that she’ll rejoin the team,” he warned Damian, “if she decides to come back, that’ll be her decision....AND HER DECISION only,” Nightwing said, “but if she decides not too, I can’t force her to overturn her decision,” he added on, “no matter who you’re related too.”

Damian knew he was hinting at Bruce when he added in the last part. there was no way any of them could actually convince you to come back if you didn’t want too. they could try and persuade you but it was ultimately your decision if you wanted to rejoin the team. 

+

once you got back home, you felt as though your heart hadn’t completely accepted what happened. a part of you felt like it was some sort of sick joke and you needed to wake up from it. 

alas, it wasn’t and you knew that what Damian and you had was something that wasn’t going to happen again. it stung knowing that Jon, the one who seemed so innocent all the time, was actually in on the joke and was sitting there and laughing at you. 

you hadn’t known Billy for that long. the two of you became acquainted not long after you got with Damian and while you thought of him as a friend, it still hurt that he too was in on the joke. 

your mom was working late as she was helping Gotham Academy with situating for graduation planning. your mom didn’t know about you and Damian thankfully so even though you were completely heartbroken, it’s not like she knew about what you were going through. 

you flopped onto your bed, trying to control your breathing when the doorbell rang. tiptoeing to the front door, hoping it wasn’t any of the three idiots, you were stricken with relief when you saw that it was Bart of all people.

“hey Allen, what are you up too? wait a minute, what you doing here in Gotham?” you asked, welcoming him inside. Bart chuckled softly, “I’m here for some stuff on the behalf of my family. don’t worry about it,” he murmured, “I went to the lair looking for you and you were gone.” 

you hummed, not knowing if you were willing to tell him the actual story of why you weren’t there, “you okay? you look like you were crying!” he exclaimed, seeing the puffyness under your eye and the redness around it. you sighed shakily, “truthfully? I’m not but it’s nothing to worry about,” you tried to say calmly. 

Bart gave you a look, not fully convinced, “seriously? I can’t talk to you about the real reason on why I’m here if you’re upset. tell me!” he restated, looking at you dead in the eye. you dragged him inside, not wanting anyone to heart, especially if Damian was on his bullshit and spying on you.

you got Bart up to your room, locking the door and leaning up against the door. your back against it as you tried to contain your tears and running your hands through your hair, “I broke up with my boyfriend recently and I’ve been having a lot of issues with it since I found out,” you finally confessed. 

Bart’s eyes twitched in annoyance, “you were dating someone?” he asked, a bit hurt that the girl he had been crushing on not only had a boyfriend but you were now heartbroken over it. you nodded, “not that my identity was ever a secret but I was dating Robin,” your eye twitched this time, annoyed at mentioning Damian.

Bart stood in disbelief, not believing that Robin, the one everyone thought was perfect, had broken up with you. a part of him wanted to strangle the boy but he knew that Robin was a lot more stronger than he was.

“if you don’t mind me asking, can I ask what happened?” Bart played with his fingers nervously. you stared at the ground, scared if you looked at Bart, you would bawl your eyes out, “he started dating me as a joke. he had made a bet with a few other sidekicks about being able to date me for a month and the longer he dated me, the more money he made,” your tears fell almost immediately at the confession. 

Bart’s anger immediately rose as he tried to not say anything irrational, “are you kidding?” he asked. you shook your head no, not knowing what to say, “can I kick his ass?” he asked again, making you laugh for the first time in a while. 

“sorry Allen but you know I won’t let you...especially because you and I both know how that would end,” you giggled, making Bart agree. you sat down on the bed next to him, “now why are you here? although I think I might know why,” you murmured. 

The Flash family, especially Bart and Barry had taken an interest in you when you first joined the Titans. your powers had given you the ability to be as fast as the Flashes were. you weren’t exactly as speedy as Flash but your powers did let you have competition with Bart’s speed. 

“you know Central city has been calling your name,” Bart whispered, looking at you. “you know you’d have a position with us and you wouldn’t be around Robin if you weren’t comfortable being around him,” Bart added in the last part. 

you bit your lip, “come on, you know better than anyone that Gotham has nothing for you,” he tried to rationalize, “yeah, you have potential with the Bats but you know that joining us would make you an even bigger hero than you are here,” he said. 

“Bart, is this really the reason why you want me to join all of you?” you asked. Bart nodded, hoping that you were actually considering it, “of course! you can join us out for patrol tonight and if you like it, you can join us over in Central City when you graduate,” he exclaimed. 

“tonight? with who?” you asked. Bart pointed to himself with confidence, “with the one and only, Bart Allen!” he boasted. you laughed, “just tonight and if I don’t like it, I get to stay here!” you said, pointing your finger at his chest. 

“SERIOUSLY?” he asked surprised. you nodded as you saw the time, “sure but remember what I said!” you yelled as he ran around your room in excitement. 

the time you had ever went to Central City was when you went with Damian and Bruce on the behalf of Bat business so the feeling that you were now no longer going there with them felt a bit out of place. you looked at the time as Bart had told you that it wouldn’t take to long to get there with both your speeds. 

you grabbed you uniform out of your closet and looked at the time, sensing that both you and Bart should get to Central City before both of your patrol times started. you could see the excitement coming from Bart as he was basically talking your ear off the entire way back to Central City. 

-

through the following few days, you had actively ignored Jon, Damian, and Billy. it was harder for you to ignore Jon and Damian as they had known your home address but every time Raven had informed you on one of the boys coming and paying you a visit, Bart always seemed to come over and get you out of the house before they could. 

this time was no different but today, you couldn’t ignore Damian even if you wanted too. today was Gotham’s graduation and with both you and Damian graduating at the top of the class, you both had to sat on the stage, right next to each other. 

you had worn a plain neutral yellow dress with black shoes as you tried to follow Gotham’s school colors. the actual cap and gowns were not as cute as they had the tacky yellow cap and gown with black lining that made all of you look like bee’s. 

up until this moment, you still hadn’t decided on what your plans were for after graduation. you had a bunch of unanswered acceptance letters from different University’s around the U.S. and one of them was from Central City State University. 

they had personally reached out to you in order to attend their school. you had been thinking about actually accepting their letter for a while now and with Bart now offering to be your partner, you didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. you hadn’t told anyone besides your mother about the move to Central City and while she was upset to see you leave, she knew it was best to let you finally be on your own. 

you had gotten to Gotham Academy, a bit early and tired as you had stayed up late with being on Face Time with Bart. the two of you had gotten closer over the course of the last few weeks and while you were still extremely heartbroken over Damian’s actions, a part of your heart was starting to fix itself with Bart now mending that piece. 

you, on a very sporadic thought, had invited Bart and Barry to your graduation as you didn’t want to run into the chance of actually having to be alone with Damian. you wanted to make sure that you were either around your mom or Bart when everything was finished. 

the stage had been set by the time you got to the Auditorium as you had saw your mom along with Bart and Barry in the front. since you were moving to Central City, partially for college and partially to continue doing hero work there, your mom had to introduce and get familiar with the family that was soon taking you in. 

everyone knew that everyone who were connected to the Flash family had this flamboyant personality to them so when Barry and Bart introduced themselves to your mom, she was quite taken back. nevertheless, she did end up getting along well with them and felt safe with you moving there. 

Damian had saw you sitting in the chair, on your phone as everyone sat in their seats. what he hadn’t realized was that Bart and Barry were right next to your mom. he had heard about your endeavors with going over to Central City to ‘intern’ with the Flash family and while he didn’t want to believe it, a part of him felt as though that might’ve been actually true now. 

Damian looked at you with guilt crossing his face. you hadn’t been face to face with him since that fateful night and although it took every ounce of power to not scream at him, for the sake of his identity and the fact that all of you had to be professional, you gave him the side eye and turned to your headmaster who was approaching the stand. 

Gotham Academy’s graduation had felt like centuries before it finally came to your turn to speak on the behalf of your class. you smiled at the crowd, waving at your family and the Allen’s before looking down at your paper. you gulped in nervousness as you began your speech. 

“and although I have been keeping my college acceptance a secret, within the last few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of being scouted by a few schools and finally came down to the decision last week on which university I would attend. it is my honor and with grace to finally announce that I will be attending Central City State University in the fall! go Falcons!” you told the crowd as you opened up your gown to show off the school sweater. 

you saw Bart’s face light up with excitement as he realized that you had accepted the Flash’s invitation to work with them. Damian had also realized that the rumors surrounding you actually leaving the Titan’s to work with the Flash was actually true and he felt his heart break realizing that you were no longer a part of his life. 

you sat back down in your seat with a smirk playing on your face as you could basically feel Damian’s stare coming down on you. it wasn’t until after graduation when all of you got the chance to join your families again when you saw Bart and everyone else. 

“are you really joining us in Central City?” he asked excitedly. you nodded, giving Bart a hug. the hug didn’t feel friendly. not in the slightest. it felt almost romantic as the two of you remained in an embrace longer than you had realized, “than I’m so glad our plan actually worked out!” Barry said in relief. 

your eyebrows fluttered in confusion but he told you it was a surprise that you wouldn’t see until you got to Central City tonight. you nodded as all you had decided to take pictures before heading to eat. you had noticed Damian approaching you, a determined stare on his face but Bart quickly realized it and grabbed you by the wrist, making you join Barry and your mom again. 

the night finally entered as you had made your way to Central City in order to get settled into your new apartment by signing the final papers over to the apartment. Barry and Bart had offered to show you around your new home, as if you hadn’t already recognized Central City already but nevertheless, you complied and let them show you. 

you got into the core of the city, the lights twinkling and the noises of cars making you feel as though you were in a movie. Bart had covered your eyes with his hands as he told you your secret was coming up. a nervous feeling crept up to your stomach as you had no idea what was going on. 

finally, all of you stopped and that was when Bart took his hands off your eyes. you stared at the large billboard that was high up in the sky as you felt tears spring your eyes. 

“welcoming Central City’s newest superhero.” 

the billboard read as it had a picture of you right next to the lettering. you looked to Barry and Bart before engulfing them into a hug as you thanked them profusely. Barry shrugged you off, “we should be thanking you. you’re going to help us so much! it’s the least we could do,” he said as Bart agreed. 

Barry had mentioned that all of you were going to catch dinner at a restaurant and your reservation should be coming up soon. he had gotten the head start, whispering to Bart that he’d leave the two of you alone for a moment. 

“seriously, thank you so much Bart,” you whispered, giving him another hug. he chuckled nervously, trying to wave you off, “you have no idea how much this means to me,” you added on. 

you looked to Bart and got on your toes, hoping that your next action wasn’t a mistake. you gave him a quick peck on the cheek, making Bart go red in the face. it hadn’t fully set in that you kissed him until he realized that he hadn’t said anything back yet. 

Bart grabbed your hand, giving it a soft kiss before doing the same to your cheek. you smiled at him shyly, grabbing his hand before telling him that you were going to be late for the reservation with Barry. 

-

months had passed since you had started your new life in Central City. you hadn’t spared anyone in Gotham a second thought unless you were visiting your mom so you hadn’t contacted Damian or any of the Titan’s since then. 

however, you had to go with Bart to the Titan’s tower today. you had to meet up with Nightwing there to get information Barry needed for a case. you were hoping that you didn’t run into any of the idiots while you were there with Bart but luck was not on your side that day and upon reaching the Titan’s tower, you were met with not only Damian but with Jon and Billy. 

“where’s Nightwing?” you asked them. Jon gave you a sheepish smile, “he’ll be here soon,” he responded. you nodded, grabbing Bart’s hand and heading to the couch to say hello to Raven and Beast Boy. 

the four of you got into conversation until Damian walked in, basically dragging you into the kitchen as Bart immediately stood up, running to where you were. 

“what the fuck is your issue?” you yelled, snatching your hand back. Bart knew you could hold your own but he still wanted to make sure you were okay, “we need to talk,” he stated, looking to Bart. you laughed, “yeah, whatever you have to say you can say right now. I refuse to talk to you alone,” you said back. 

Damian growled as Jon and Billy stood up, “that night when everything went down, we want to say that it was all a mistake. you had only heard a portion of what we were saying. we never intentionally made a bet on the two of you. we had made a bet that was basically us telling Da-Robin that he couldn’t do anything besides train and fight. Robin had actual feelings for you and the bet was never intentionally set on you. we swear,” Jon explained. 

you looked to Damian and Billy as they both agreed. you rolled your eyes annoyed, “you think I’d actually believe that?” you looked to Bart and laughed before taking his hand, “the next time you actually want to make up lies, make sure they’re actually fucking believable!” you exclaimed laughing. 

Bart laughed along with you, “you think we’re lying?” Damian yelled, “yeah because why should I ever believe what any of you three have to say. all of you are a bunch of pricks that are so far up your own asses that no one with an actual working brain would believe that lie.” 

Bart’s mouth, along with everyone else, hung in disbelief and surprise. “seriously, the next time we see each other, make up a better lie and for the record, working with and in Central City has been actually been so refreshing! no offense,” you said looking over to the rest of the Titan’s, “especially since he’s been making it a lot easier,” you gave Bart a wink as he blushed slightly. 

“so unless we actually have to speak to each other on professional terms, don’t bank on me ever contacting any of you again.” 

you grabbed Bart’s hand as Nightwing had walked into the tower and the three of you walked into a solo conference room to actually do what Barry had sent you two for. 

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Chapter 6: Let’s Play a Game (Overprotection)

Prev

AO3

Marinette ended up not staying for dinner. She talked to Bruce for a little bit, but he had to leave for some WE emergency and Marinette wasn’t really up to bonding with the boys- her brothers- yet. But that was fine. It wasn’t like she was desperate to get to know the man and wouldn’t be able to after this trip because she had to stay in Paris because of Hawkmoth. No, she wasn’t upset. Not at all. It didn’t hurt her feelings. Nope.

---

Walking into Madame Soleil's Wax Museum with Adrien by her side, Marinette is hit with a major wave of deja vu. And not a good deja vu. No, the memories of the last time she was in a wax museum with Adrien were awful, humiliating and- feeling a hand wrap around hers pulls her from her spiraling thoughts. Glancing down, Marinette tries (and fails) to hide her grin. Adrien is holding her hand. Adrien is holding her hand!

“Hey Marinette!” A familiar voice calls, a hand squeezing her shoulder, making Marinette squeal and whirl around.

“Dick? What are you doing here?” She asks, frowning at the boy- her brother- as he stands there with a huge smile.

“Well I heard that a new wax figure is being revealed today, and I thought I might come and see it.” He says with a nonchalant shrug.

“Really? Who?” Adrien asks. Dick’s smile twitches slightly as he glances at Marinette, making her frown. Was he seriously about to play the overprotective big brother card? Really?

“Jagged Stone.” Dick finally says, glancing at their entwined hands. Marinette tries hard not to roll her eyes. Come on, her crush is finally holding her hand and her brother (who she’s known for a day!) is seriously trying to ruin that for her?

“Oh cool! Do you think he’ll come to Gotham to see it, Mari?” Adrien asks.

“I think he’s definitely scheduled to make an appearance in Gotham in the next couple days. He’s picking up his new suit in person.” She whispers, grinning at the idea of seeing her “Uncle” in person again. He’d been touring for several months and she hadn’t been able to see him for awhile, just the occasional video call.

“So! What figures did you guys want to check out first?” Dick asks, wedging himself between the two and forcing Adrien to drop her hand. Glaring at her brother, Marinette scoffs when Dick just smiles innocently.

“The hall of heroes and villains sounds cool.” Adrien suggests, looking around Dick to see Marinette.

“Hmm. Okay, but if the Nightwing figure is in his disco costume, I reserve the right to melt the statue.” She says, frowning at the choked noise Dick makes. “Are you okay?” She adds.

“Oh, uh, yeah, yeah I’m fine. What’s 1so bad about that costume?” He asks, a hurt expression on his face.

“Have you even seen it? The only worse costume is Riddler’s.” Marinette says, adding a shudder for dramatic effect. Walking past the local celebrities room and the pop stars room, Marinette’s eyes widen as their small group walks into the hall of heroes and villains. Walking away from Dick and Adrien, she’s almost instantly drawn to the Batman figure. She reads the little plaque about the artist and frowns, turning to Dick who had moved to stand next to her.

“I thought it’d be taller.” She says, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion when Dick starts choking on air, gasping for breath as broken chuckles flood out of him. “Ookay then.” She mutters, turning and walking back towards the villains. Nightwing was, luckily, depicted in his most recent costume. As was Robin. Which meant the only real fashion tragedy (besides the god awful helmet Red Hood wore) was the Riddler. Pulling her sketchbook out, Marinette circles the wax figure, occasionally making notes and sketching out slight adjustments to the man’s costume.

“His costume might be terrible, but it’s still better than half of the akumas.” Adrien whispers, leaning over her shoulder. Marinette looks up at him, eyes wide as her face heats up with a blush.

“I, uh, um, yes. Yeah.” She says, trying not to wince at her lack of speaking skills. “I mean, at least we can rule out any fashion designer in Paris as Hawkmoth. Because if Hawkmoth was a designer, that’d almost be a bigger crime.” She adds, smiling as Adrien laughs.

“Good to know you’re not moonlighting as Hawkmoth, m’lady.” He says with a mock bow. Marinette snorts, then covers her mouth, embarrassment rushing over her. Adrien just shakes his head, wrapping an arm over her shoulders.

“In case you forgot, we’ve definitely seen each other at our most embarrassing.” He says, making her groan.

“Oh god, no. I tied us up with my yoyo!” She moans, turning and burying her face into his chest so she doesn’t have to look at him anymore. Her face heats up more when she feels him chuckle and wrap his arms around her.

“I’ve always thought that was paw-sitively adorable.” He says, laughing when she groans again. She pulls away slightly, looking up at him with a timid smile. He smiles back, starts to lean forward and-

“Hey guys! I heard they’re about to unveil the Jagged Stone figure. Come on, let’s go! Don’t wanna miss it.” Dick says, grabbing each of their hands and pulling them towards the exist (and successfully separating them again). Marinette tries not to glare at Dick. She’s about to have one less brother.

---

Dick Grayson wasn’t used to having a little sister that he could protect. Sure, he had a little sister. Cas was awesome, but she could also kick his ass without breaking a sweat. No, he’d never had a little sister to protect. Someone he could watch out for and support. But now….now he has Marinette. And he’ll be damned if he lets some little punk take advantage of his little sister. Ignoring Marinette’s glare, he positions himself right between her and...the boy. He’d need to ask Timmy to do a background check on the kid later. Especially if he thought he was good enough for Marinette.

“So are you guys big Jagged fans?” He asks, trying to pull the two back into a conversation. He narrows his eyes at the smile the kid gives Marinette. It’s too...adoring. Too much. She’s only...what, fourteen? Much too young to date. Especially this kid.

“Mari’s a bit of a fan, I think. But, personally, I much prefer Jagged’s designer.” He says, and Dick turns to him, missing the way Marinette’s face turns bright red.

“Are you talking about MDC? I love them! Their work is amazing! And Jagged Stone says that he’ll never have another designer. I heard that there’s a possibility of them opening their commissions again. God, I hope they do. I’d do anything for something made by MDC.” Dick rambles with a wide smile, deciding to ignore the kid for a minute in order to ramble about his favorite designer. As the group walks into the pop star room, Dick steps back and glares at the kid. He’d stepped just behind Dick and was apparently trying to hold Marinette’s hand again. Not on his watch. No siree. No one’s gonna hurt his little sister.

---

Bruce sighs, running his hands through his hair. He’d been checking the street cameras in Paris, trying to figure out what time Ladybug and Chat Noir patrol so that he can set up a meeting. Try and offer help, or maybe even offer to take control of the situation. Anything to get rid of Hawkmoth. But instead, it was like the heroes didn’t exist. He’d read reports of the heroes patrolling before, so why were they so quiet this week? The only akuma from the past couple days wasn’t even taken care of by both of them. Ladybug did it alone, and seemed worse for the wear when she came out of the battle. Where was Chat Noir? And why did it seem as though they had gone into hiding?

---

Marinette was five seconds away from committing her first murder. Okay, probably her only murder, unless her other brothers decide to be as involved in her love life as Dick is. Because Dick won’t have the chance to be a problem for much longer. Because Marinette was honestly going to kill him. Right as she turned to finally yell at him, and tell him to knock it off, the lights flickered. She pauses her tirade, glancing to gauge Dick’s reaction to see if this is normal. And if his worried glances back at her are anything to go by, this is not normal.

“Let’s play a game! Solve my riddles and you all can leave freely, but make a mistake and someone will pay greatly! Take one out and scratch my head, I am now black but once was red. What am I?” A man’s voice asks, Marinette frowning as the Riddler walks in, a wide smile on his face. Ten goons walk in behind him, all of them carrying guns. She was used to the akuma attacks almost every day, but didn’t Gotham’s rogues have anything better to do than attack every place her class went? With guns? Come on. Riddler smirks and points at Adrien with his cane.

“A match.” She blurts out, ignoring Dick frantically shaking his head. If nothing else, she should be able to work with Adrien to get everyone out. But she knew his style. And riddles weren’t really his thing.

“Oh goody. We have a volunteer. Tell me, what has to be broken before you can use it?” Riddler asks, stalking towards her. Thinking for a second, Marinette tries to suppress a smile.

“An egg.” She says. Riddler narrows his eyes.

“I have 13 hearts, but no lungs or stomach. What am I?” He asks, Marinette frowns, running through possible answers in her head.

“A deck of cards.” She finally says.

“Buzzy, come over here and hold onto our friend.” Riddler says, gesturing to one of the goons. The man comes over and grabs Marinette’s arm roughly, she winces. That’ll definitely bruise.

“I answered your riddles.” Marinette says, deciding that now's as good a time as any to start distracting the man.

“And how did you answer them so quickly?” He asks, the frustration clear on his face.

“What do you mean? Were they supposed to be hard?” Marinette taunts, ignoring the choked sound Dick makes behind her. She knew what she was doing. She did. She had to.

“Why you-” Riddler starts, stepping forward and pulling his hand back as if to hit her. Squeezing her eyes shut, Marinette waits for the slap. The slap never comes. Opening her eyes, Marinette’s jaw drops when she sees the Riddler’s fist held tightly in Dick’s hand.

“Don’t. Touch. Her.” He says lowly, a dark look on his face. Well that was unexpected. Riddler opens his mouth, probably to start spouting more riddles or other nonsense, when the goons blocking the exits drop. Noticing Red Robin and Red Hood picking off the other goons, Marinette throws her elbow back into the gut of the goon holding her. Not waiting for him to recover, Marinette stomps his foot and twists out of his grip. Grabbing his arm, Marinette manages to yank the man off balance and toss him to the ground. A hand on her shoulder makes her jump back and prepare to hit the person.

“Whoa, whoa, it’s okay ma’am.” The voice attached to the hand says. Marinette whirls around, ready to tell off the person, but immediately stops when she sees Red Robin.

“Sorry!” She yelps, jumping away from him. And she was too. She was determined to hit the person who grabbed her shoulder, so locked into battle mode, but she had managed to stop herself. Glancing around the room, Marinette notices Dick talking to Red Hood, his usual smile back on his face. That’s good. That’s normal, that’s right. The sudden blaring of the akuma alarm makes Marinette want to scream in frustration. Really, right now? It’s definitely already dark in Paris which means- Chat Noir. Ignoring everyone else, Marinette runs over to Adrien and grabs his hand.

“Akuma?” He asks, his voice low. She nods and tugs him towards the bathrooms, unaware of the eyes following them out.

Next

Tag list: @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @jayjayspixiepop @jjmjjktth @mizzy-pop @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @waiting247 @laurcad123 @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @imarivers8 @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks

[mochegato]

Enemy Mine

(Part one of the Jasonette Mine series)

Red Hood heard the thud behind him midsentence, which was rude, really. They could have at least waited until he was finished with his instructions.  He hung his head and let out a long, deep sigh.  “Damn it.”  He would have pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration if he hadn’t been wearing his full helmet.  He motioned to the henchman next to him to wait a second.  He needed to gauge how bad things were before coming up with a plan. There was still a chance to save this operation, depending on who it was and whether he could distract them enough.

He turned slowly and let out a low growl.  That was not who he wanted to see.  Ladybug here was worse than Batman, it meant the rest were likely to come to back her up at the first indication of an issue.  The others he could appeal to their vanity and let them think they could handle it alone, maybe even distract them long enough to complete the mission, but she wasn’t nearly so arrogant.  Not to mention Bruce seemed to keep an extra close eye on Ladybug when she was dealing with him, like he was more worried about him than one of the other rogues.  

But ultimately, the real reason he didn’t want her here now was he didn’t want her to know what he was about to do.  He wasn’t afraid she would get hurt.  She could protect herself better than any of the rest of the bats and he would protect her if it came down to it.  What he couldn’t protect her from was seeing what he was about to do.  But it was too late to turn back now.  There was too much riding on it.  He turned back to his henchman.  “Continue on like we planned.  Get everything ready.”

“And her?” the henchman gritted out with a glare at her.

“I'll handle her,” Red Hood assured him and nodded toward the door.

As soon as the door was closed, Red Hood turned to her with a killer smile she couldn’t see under his helmet.  Time to distract.  And if that included charming the pants off of her, God he wished that could be literal, so be it.  “So you’re going to handle me, huh?  What exactly does that entail?” she asked with a teasing smile.

He let a breath out.  He wasn’t prepared for her to flirt back.  “Ladybug,” he answered as casually as he could and nodded to her.  “We've got to stop meeting like this.”

“Whenever you're ready to walk away from this life, I'll happily work with you instead of against you.”  She moved into the office and perched on the edge of his desk.  “Until then though, this is the only way we will.”

He tracked her movements and let his eyes linger on her as she leaned back on his desk.  He took another breath and let it out slowly.  He needed to focus.  Today was too important.  “That's something to consider, beautiful.”

She raised an eyebrow at him.  The seriousness of her expression was offset by the amused glint in her eyes.  “You trying to charm me out of fighting?”

He leaned closer to her.  “You saying I could?”

She cocked her head to the side as if in thought. “Hmmm.  Not today.  But by all means, continue trying.  It’s much more enjoyable than the tactics most rogues take.”

He chuckled and leaned away again.  “If I was trying to charm you, you'd be charmed, Princess.  I’m just stating facts.”

She looked down for a few seconds.  When she looked back up at him it was softer and shyer than he had seen her before.  “Does that mean I have a chance at talking you into leaving this life?”  She kept her eyes on him for a few more seconds as if trying to gauge his response, but he just sat there frozen.  Seemingly finding her answer, she moved over to the large window overlooking the warehouse floor.  “Because this is kind of a big operation to just walk away from.”

He moved next to her and crossed his arms.  “Hey, this operation keeps drugs off the streets and keeps the pedophiles away from the kids.”

Her eyes softened.  “I know,” she said gently.  Her eyes became harder.  “But that's not what this is about today. Is it? This is about solidifying your control.”

“Which I need to do in order to continue to help,” he pointed out sharply.

“This going to get people hurt.”

“We're trying to minimize that.  Try to limit it just to the people who deserve to be hurt.”

“And who’s that?  Who deserves to be hurt, to be killed?  Does just being around make a death sentence deserved?”

Red Hood scoffed.  “If one person dies it's too much, huh?  Sharing the Bat’s beliefs now?” he jeered at her.

Ladybug looked at him curiously. Not at all put off by the false persona he was putting on.   “I’m not a fan of death, I'll grant you. I never have been.  Creation, you know?” she motioned to herself with a small, wry smile.  “But I’m more concerned about who's going to die.”

“Nobody is going to get hurt but the people in that building, Pixie.”  He propped his arm on the wall next to her and leaned closer to her.  “I don’t suppose you’d trust me on that.”

She looked at him analytically for a few seconds.  “Do you know why I’m here?”

He rolled his eyes and leaned away from her.  “To ruin my fun?”

“Added bonus, definitely,” she smirked at him, “but not the original intent.” Her face suddenly took on a more serious expression.  “I’m here to warn you…”

“Oh?” he cut her off sharply.  His eyes shone dangerously as he moved closer to her until he towered over her, looking down at her with a malevolent smile.  “Warn me about what?”

Ladybug straightened up and met his eyes unintimidated.  Red Hood cursed his helmet for hiding his normal intimidation tactics.  “We know about the plan…” she continued.

“And the Bat is planning on interfering?” he cut her off again, moving even closer until their chests were almost touching, a hard edge in his voice.

Ladybug raised an eyebrow, but didn’t back away.  “And,” she started, letting her annoyance at him not getting her point and repeatedly cutting her off show in her tone, “Batman knows and intends to stop it before it happens,” she confirmed, “but how do you think we found out?  It wasn’t from one of your guys.  They know you’re coming.  They’re prepared.  This isn’t going to be as easy as you thought.”

His body went rigid.  He looked past her onto his warehouse floor watching his men as they finished the last of the preparations.

Ladybug watched him closely for a few seconds.  “Did I lose your attention so quickly?  My information not interesting enough to keep your attention? Or are you already planning something to hurt all of us?”

“Never to hurt you, Pixie.  And you’re more than enough to keep my attention,” he answered sincerely if a bit distractedly.  “But, that's not one of my guys.”

“What?”  She whipped around to look out over the warehouse too.

“I know everyone who works for me.”  His voice was forcefully calm as his eyes flicked from person to person. He pointed at someone loading a box.  “He doesn't.”  His eyes frantically searched.  If there was one, there was more.  “Neither is he.  Damn it.  This is an ambush.”

Red Hood rushed to the computer at his desk and started pressing keys to flip through security camera footage.  “Son of a…”

“What?”  Ladybug was next to him in an instant looking at the screens too.

“You were right.  They knew and they brought the fight to us,” he growled making a mental calculation of how many people were surrounding his warehouse and their weapons.

Ladybug sucked in a breath and reached up to tap the com in her ear. Red Hood grabbed her arm before she could notify the rest of the bats.  “We don’t need them here,” he growled.

Ladybug’s face scrunched up in annoyance.  “This is out of your control now.  There’s too many of them and they are too well armed.”

“My men and I can handle this,” he growled at her.

Ladybug let out a frustrated huff.  “You saw how many of them there are out there!  And some are already inside!”

“I don’t need his help.  We. Can. Handle. This,” he insisted, crossing his arms across his chest.  “We have a stockpile of armaments here.  We can defend ourselves without outside help.”

Ladybug let out a frustrated, muted scream as she pulled on her hair.  He moved closer and raised an arm intending to squeeze her shoulder comfortingly.  Instead, she turned to face him and shoved his shoulder hard enough for him to stumble back.  “You are just bound and determined to get yourself killed, aren’t you?” she hissed at him.  She stood up to her full height, her back ramrod straight, an angry frown on her lips. “And what good does that do anyone? How does that help… the street kids?”

Hood’s eyes softened, his shoulders dropped slightly.  “Just the street kids you’re worried about?” he teased lightly. “Better be careful, Pixie.  I might start to think you like me.”

She huffed and looked away.  After a second, she looked back at him with a determined set to her face.  “So what’s the plan?”

“You’re going to help?” he asked, too shocked by her willingness to help to keep it out of his voice.

“This is going to get bad, especially if they get to the stockpile. I want to contain the damage. But,” she turned to him with a warning in her voice, “I won’t just stop them.  I’ll stop everyone I come across.  I’m not going to kill or let you or your men kill and I need to be seen stopping both sides so rumors of favoritism don’t start spreading.  That wouldn’t be good for either one of us.”

Red Hood nodded in understanding and smiled at the thought of them working together, even if his hands were tied in the process.  He moved a step closer to her and leaned his head until he was just a few inches from her.  “But I am right?  Your favorite.”

Ladybug stared at him for a moment and opened her mouth to say something but quickly closed her mouth and looked back through the window.  “Let’s get moving.  We don’t have time to waste.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he nodded with a grin as he followed her through the door, guns drawn.  Ladybug eyed the guns and raised an eyebrow.  “Yeah, yeah, non-fatal shots, I know.”  Ladybug nodded and unhooked her yoyo, continuing down the steps.

<><><><><> 

“What’ll you do now?” Ladybug asked after all the Penguin’s men had been piled up in a few vans and taken back to be dropped off without their phones or wallets a long way from Gotham.

Red Hood shrugged considerably more casually than he felt.  He watched her from the corner of his eye, noting her hesitance and awkwardness. She was shuffling from foot to foot almost like she was hesitant to leave and he desperately wanted her to stay. He wanted to keep her next to him and make sure she was safe and protected, warm and smiling.  But he didn’t have time today.  Today, tonight, he had other priorities.  “Check on my guys.  Check on the families of the ones that fell.  Figure out the mole.  Move to a new base.”

Her face fell slightly, but she nodded.  “Ah.”

Red Hood took off his helmet as he moved closer to her. He cupped her face.  “You could help,” he suggested softly.

Ladybug leaned into his hand but gave him a bittersweet smile and shook her head.  “Not going to help a crime boss.”

Red Hood sighed and removed his hand.  He looked down and nodded.  “Yeah, I understand.  Thanks for not taking me in.  I guess that’s the best I can get today.”

Ladybug nodded and looked away sadly.  She gave him one last smile before she pulled out her yoyo.  “Yeah. Night, Jason.”  After a moment’s hesitation slung it out and swung into the night.

Red Hood nodded to her and watched as she swung away. His chest tightened as he watched her leave.  It was getting hard to take a full breath and getting harder the further away she got. His eyes followed her until he couldn’t make her out against the city nightscape.  “Night, Marinette,” he whispered to nobody.

Continued in Mine Protector

@jasonette-july-event @maribatserver

[heartslogos]

the executive assistant to the batman [62]

“Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me. Don’t even consider acting like I exist in the same room as you,” Tam says. “Of all the times for you to — seriously! Right before the big restructure of our west coast branch and redistribution of our logistics pipeline across the states?”

“Tam. I know you must be feeling very negatively right now. But it’s for the greater good. If I took real sick leave then the entire thing really will be fucked over. At least this way I have some sort of…sense of control about it. I’m not actually leaving. I’m still around. Sort of. But this way I won’t have to turn the front half of Wayne’s office into sick room. How unprofessional is that, Tam? I’ve worked too hard for this. Years of my life dedicated to turning my job into something people actually pay attention to.”

“Greater good my ass,” Tam glares at him. “Who gave you permission to get a collapsed lung? Work from home? You? Work from home? What about the rest of us who have to work here while you’re not physically present? You think we can stop the Waynes if they’re about to do something stupid? If you’re work from home they’ll act like normal. You should’ve just taken sick leave. If it’s sick leave then they’ll attempt to behave until you come back out of guilt or something.”

“Shouldn’t you be nicer to me?” Tim scowls. “I’m the one who has a collapsed lung and pneumonia.”

“Speaking of, how did you get both of those? Does the universe hate you that much? Who did you piss off? Aside from me and the rest of this company?”

“It’s not like I’m asking for it to happen! I’m not happy about this either. I’m the one who’s getting my home invaded by my job. At least you get to go home and put your phone on silent and pretend like you have a life outside of work. I’m being forced to bring my work home with me for a few weeks.” Tim directs his glare at the several boxes that some poor interns are currently packing up to be transported to his apartment.

Tim had to fight to be present for this. Thankfully someone had seen reason about the fact that Tim can’t work from home if he doesn’t have the proper materials.

It didn’t stop any of the extended Wayne family from fluttering in and out of the room like anxious bats and birds.

The only reason they’re not here right now is because Tim said he was hungry as loudly as possible, sending the assorted family members scattering to every region of Gotham to procure their own versions of what a sick and convalescing person should be eating.

Tim expects to be laden down too much take out for one person to reasonably consume in a week. He might even have a grocery delivery waiting for him at his apartment right now.

He shifts uncomfortably on the sofa, headache slowly creeping up at his temples and carving out a space for itself behind his eyes.

Tam’s expression softens, just a little. “You need to take better care of yourself before that family decides that they’ll do it for you. I don’t think you could survive the Wayne brand of tender loving care, Tim.”

“Let’s never find out,” Tim replies. “I am sorry, though. You know that, right? It shouldn’t roll down to you whenever I’m out but — well. You’re capable.”

Tam shakes her head, running a hand through her hair as she rolls her eyes towards the ceiling.

“The curses of being capable in Gotham. Suddenly everything’s your problem. How come these things never get down to Li?”

“Because Li would collapse the economy if anyone tried to make her take on more than she wants to.”

Tam rolls her eyes.

“Tam, I’m being serious.” Tim’s eyes flick towards the door. As though saying Li’s name could summon her from the austere and perfectly coordinated circus of a department she runs. Like the devil but also Clippy or an extremely judgmental Alexa.

“No, I know you are,” Tam says, “But it’s funny how you think she’d stop at collapsing the economy. Li could probably cripple governments through sheer force of disdain if she wanted to. Let’s never give her a reason or a chance to try. I don’t know where you find these people, Tim. I really don’t. Mandy’s shaping up to be a terror. I’m still trying to get her to consider applying for management positions.”

“Agreed. Mandy’s still in school though, isn’t she?”

“Didn’t stop you from shooting yourself to the top of the corporate ladder at the tender age of — what was it, sixteen?” Tam checks her phone. “Just got a text from MeiMei. She was on the second floor of the lobby and she saw one of your Wayne’s coming back with an entire armful of take out containers.”

“Was MeiMei kind enough to say which Wayne?”

“Nope. Says that their face was covered by the stack of take out and tall with black hair doesn’t rule anybody out. Especially after Damian’s growth spurt. Is that kid ever going to stop? You’ve had that kid re-fitted for suits five times this year.”

“Tell that to Damian.” Tim slowly pushes to his feet. “Alright. I think that’s everything I’ll need. Let’s get this loaded for transport. I do not want to be here with every single take out option in Gotham.”

Tim can picture it now. They’d probably try to make him pick one to eat then and there. God. And they’d probably consider it as some kind of strange contest to see which one of them he likes best. They’d hold it against him and sulk for weeks.

“I need to find a different job,” Tim groans as he and Tam quickly head towards the elevators, interns at their heels with dollies and carts loaded with banker’s boxes of documents and equipment. “Or I need to find some sucker to throw at them so they can get attached to and fight over them instead of me. Half the work of this job is appeasement.”

“The curse of being capable,” Tam repeats, “Should’ve played stupid like the rest of us. Too late now. You could fake having aphasia and they’d still go to you for everything.” Tam pauses. “Don’t try to fake an aphasia. They’d turn over the entire medical research department and create a whole new set of gone-bad doctors with with some sort of weird language theme. The Riddler might shit himself over the sudden brand incursion.”

“I don’t think the Riddler is that kind of doctor.”

“Oh, yeah, Tim? That’s the detail you want to nitpick? What kind of doctorate the Riddler may or may not have?”

[ellana-ravenwood]

An AU in which Bruce Wayne raises Damian since birth - Ficlets

I wrote a small post about this not long ago (click here to take a look at it), and it made me wanna write more about this alternate universe...So here we are. It’s not a very original AU, but eh, there’s a reason people wanna write about it because damn <3. This is more like, a collection of little scenes and moments than a real story, but ya know. I just wanted to expand. I hope you will like it : 

PART 2

My master list : @ella-ravenwood-archives​

_________________________________________________

                                                  ******

The Beginning.

Bruce was most certainly not ready to have a child. 

He wasn’t even sure he ever wanted one, given the path he decided to follow. 

But the decision was taken out of his hand the day Talia decided to do what she did. 

Bruce was most certainly not ready to have a child. 

But he would never leave a kid in the hands of the Al’Ghuls. The gods only knew what they would do to him. What they could turn him into !

What if the kid grew up, and came to Gotham to defy his father ? Would Bruce be ready to fight his own child ? 

If he had to, he told himself. 

And maybe that’s what would’ve happened if he never heard of it. If he never knew...

But he knew. He knew that what Talia mentioned to him once, she actually did. 

And there was no way he would ever let that boy be raised by the Al’Ghuls, now that he knew he existed. Wether he was ready to have a child or not. 

Never, never, armed with the knowledge she did go ahead and made that baby, would he not do anything. It wasn’t like him, to leave untied knots. Or to leave someone he knew was in need...

There was no way that boy would have a good childhood, with the Al Ghuls. Particularly with Ras’ around. Not that Bruce was sure the child could have a good life with him...But between the pest and cholera ? 

It if was only Talia. If it was just her love. If she hadn’t told him why she wanted a child with him...Maybe he would’ve left the boy behind. 

But his informant was adamant. The talks going on amongst the League were all the same. 

Ras Al’Ghul’s heir was brought to this world only for one purpose. 

And maybe what Talia felt for Bruce was genuine love. Maybe what he felt for her at the time was too. But she told him the real reason why she chose him, and why she wanted his child. 

“He’ll be a new Alexander.” 

She said...And although Bruce was most definitely not ready to have a kid, he would never let that happen. He would never let his own child grow up in such an environment. 

Maybe if he never knew...Maybe if he never knew things would’ve been completely different. Maybe it’d avoid him a lot of trouble, too. 

But he knew. And he wasn’t about to let that kid...His kid, suffer a childhood he knew was not going to be happy. After all, Talia told him what Ras used to force her to do when she was younger...

************

Sneaking into the Shadow League’s headquarter was ridiculously easy. Which made him suspicious. Maybe they were expecting him ? 

Oh but they couldn’t...They couldn’t know he knew. They couldn’t know he left behind a friend, the only one he made in the league of assassin. A fellow apprentice. A friend who spied on the Al Ghuls unbeknownst to them (or he would be dead since a long time). 

Bruce silently entered what he knew to be the baby’s room, and looked around. He was right, his informant was right. The crib was in the middle of the richly decorated room. Bruce, with light steps, walked towards it. 

And...

And...

It was like being faced with a portrait of himself at that age. Except the boy’s skin was darker, his eyes shaped more like almonds, and Bruce could guess that if he just opened said eyes...they would be olive green like his mother’s. 

And he was right. 

The soft rustling sound Bruce made as he bended over the crib to pick the  little one up woke him. And he opened his eyes wide immediately.  

He did not cry, instead, he looked up at this stranger that was picking him up with curiosity, and Bruce felt his heart...Do something. 

He couldn’t quite describe it, the feeling. His heart skipped multiple beats, while going faster at the same time. And he wanted to smile. 

It was an urge too hard to resist, something he couldn’t control while he learned to control his own emotions, and he smiled at the little one in his arms, taking a gloved fingers to his cheek to caress it lightly, as if it was natural. 

The baby...he...he...

He smiled in return. A cute, unsure and untrained smile, as if it was his-

“That is his first smile.” 

Talia. She was there, at the entrance of the room, casually walking in in as if nothing was happening. 

“Hello, detective.” 

She took Bruce by surprise, and he turned around quickly, taking a fighting stance while holding his son against his chest protectively. His hands naturally held him, one supporting his back, the other his head, even as his legs spread apart, ready to fight. 

Bruce had fought only with lower body before. He trained to be able to do so. He knew he could have a chance against Talia. That he had no chance of taking her down, but could at least escape her. Fight if need be. But he’d rather avoid it...Not in front of their child. 

Wasn’t Bruce here to take the boy away from violence and pain ? He couldn’t fight his own mother in front of him, even if of course, the baby would most likely not remember. 

Maybe he was an unwanted child on Bruce’s end, and one Talia created only for a specific purpose...but he was still a child.

His child. 

“I will not let you raise him, Talia. And if you want to stop me I will have to-”

“I don’t.” 

There was something odd, in Talia’s eyes, that Bruce had a hard time to discern in the dark room, only lit by the moon. 

Was it...Sadness ? Regrets, perhaps ?

“His name is Damian. From the Greek word Damianos, which means “to tame.” He is upposed to be the tamer of the World. At least, that’s what my father wants.”

“I won’t let you-”

“Redundant, detective. Even more so since I told you I will not stop you. I think the fact I let your little friend, the one who told you about Damian’s existence, live, should be proof enough. I let him go, if you’re wondering where he is. I told him to disappear, and if he’s smart enough, he will. I knew since the beginning, he was your friend. Even as he acted like he tried to kill you during your escape. I knew because I know you. I watched you close enough...” 

There was a small silence, during which neither of them moved. Damian, still in his father’s arms, cooed happily as he was trying to grab at the Batman’s armor. 

Finally, Bruce spoke : 

“...Why ?” 

Another silence. Talia did not look at Bruce, but at the tiny being slowly moving in his arms. After what seemed an eternity, punctuated by Damian’s little happy and unaware sounds, she said : 

“Because I do not wish for him to become me. Or my father.” 

“But, that is why you created him ?” 

“That is why I-...When it happened, I imagined you would be around, detective.” 

“You couldn’t seriously think I would stay after knowing what you and your father were up to ? You know me better than that, no ?” 

“I do. I guess it was all wishful thinking.”

Another silence. Heavy. 

“When you left I was angry. And lonely. So...I made him. Our plan was to raise him to become even better than us, and then send him to you. Because if he destroyed you, then he could destroy everything - bitter laugh - I say “our”, but I truly mean my father’s plan. Twisted and nonsensical, I see it now.” 

Bruce felt uneasy, and nostalgic. The boy was getting used to being held by this odd man, and now was sucking at his foot thoughtfully (as thoughtfully as a 3 months old baby can). 

“I did love you, Detective. And I would’ve gladly govern the world with you, and our son. But you leaving, you telling me all those things...It made me realize. I have never truly been loved before. This is why I was so angry when you left. No one, no one loved me before you. My father...I serve a purpose to him. When I was with you, I felt love, and loved. But before...Before I was just another instrument in my father’s grand schemes of things. Has he ever loved my mother ? He said he did. Maybe he did. But he did not keep her with him. And I became what I am today. Now, I am no fool, detective. I unfortunately know I cannot change. But Damian...Damian has a chance, with you.” 

Bruce didn’t know what to say. His heart and throat felt tight, and his hold on the boy became stronger and surer. 

“Please, let me say goodbye ?” 

Of course, Bruce agreed. 

He watched Talia slowly walking to him, and looking at the boy. 

Her boy. 

The boy she knew she had to let go, because she loved him enough to want him to not become her. Or his grandfather. 

Talia never loved anyone before. Except for her “detective”, and for her son...

“One day, my heart. One day, I hope we can meet again. Goodbye, Damian.” 

She told the little one, and the baby looked at her, smiling widely as he recognized the voice of his mother. She laid a kiss on his forehead, took a last glance at him, and left the room without turning back. 

Bruce left the headquarter with his crying son in his arm, sure now, that if it had been that easy to get into it...it was because Talia herself, lowered the security. 

************

Damian Wayne, son of Batman. Occupation : Baby. 

Bruce was right. He was NOT ready to be a father. He never even held a baby, in his short twenty three years of life ! Why would he anyway ?!

Thanks god for a certain man called Alfred Pennyworth. 

The butler, whom Bruce considered a second father know, slowly showed him the ropes and tricks to take care of a baby, trying to involve his young master in everything as much as he could because...What was the point in saving that little boy from a world of pain and violence, if it was to not take care of him ? 

And so there were times Alfred told him to take care of things on his own. Which Bruce wasn’t sure he liked, so far... 

But he was trying. He was really trying. 

The arrival of Damian in his life put so many plans he had in shamble, but Bruce learned how to adapt fast. 

Of course, the news of Bruce Wayne having a “secret son” spread like a wild fire all across Gotham. And he knew there was no hiding such a thing. What was the point of hiding the boy anyway, he couldn’t raise him and keep him shut in the Manor all his life !! 

The public was quick to believe the story he told. Of course, no one had trouble to picture playboy Bruce Wayne who was known to sleep around, having a “secret” son. In fact, many talked about bets going all around the city as to when a scandal of the sort would happen. 

Bruce had been back home for about a year, and in that short year, he made sure to assure his “Brucie Wayne” persona, that he knew would help him keep Batman a secret. 

He most definitely did not expect Damian, but was quick to find a plan. His explanation about him satisfied everyone. A story about how Damian’s mother could not take care of him, and he wanted to take his responsibilities...

Which technically wasn’t a lie. 

The story stayed at the front of every newspapers for a long time, and Bruce decided to play on it and, although he felt a little ashamed, use his son for a publicity stunt, and therefor have even more cover for his Batman activity. 

He was often shown in public, with a baby carrier, or exiting an important meeting early to go see his boy. Which he did. And he couldn’t help but have a feeling that this little boy, his little boy...sort of saved him. 

Bruce felt that without Damian, he would’ve jump heart and soul into this Batman thing. And he did, he promised his parents he would...So of course, he did. But there was always this little piece of reality holding him back. 

His little boy cooing at him, and smiling at him, and laughing and having this second chance at life. Which gave him, too, a second chance at life.

Of course, Bruce could not forget the years of pain he dragged behind, the trauma of losing his parents. But he felt that Damian, and his presence so early on in his life ? Most definitely changed him. 

For the better. 

************

The first dirty diaper. 

“Alfred ? ALFRED ? Alllllfreeeeeeeeeed ?!” 

Bruce screamed, while running around the manor, panicked, holding baby Damian against him. The boy was giggling happily, liking how his father’s running steps made him rock as he held him against his chest, a terrible smell following them around…

Bruce took a break from work today, giving his favorite excuse : “He had to take care of his son.”, but of course, babies being babies...Bruce really thought his boy was focusing on the pictures he was showing him, certain his son was a genius, up until the odor coming from the kid’s diaper informed him that no; Damian was not focusing on the pictures his father was showing him. 

When Bruce entered the kitchen, in which Alfred was preparing dinner, the foul smell told the butler instantly what the problem was. Turning around to face Bruce, he says, with his infamous English phlegm : 

“I think it’s time for you to learn how to change a diaper, Master Bruce. I have done it for the first few weeks, because you had very few sleep, but you cannot escape this anymore. Come on, master Bruce, I will show you.”

Bruce’s face fell, and Alfred gave him a rather sneaky smile. Well. It really was time his master learned how to change a diaper. After all, Bruce did say he would take care of this child so he could have a good life... 

************

The hair incident. 

The first time Bruce tried to put clothes on his son all alone, without the help of Alfred, it ended in a disaster. 

The fearless Batman was most definitely not prepared for how squirmy babies really are. He had been fighting for a good ten minutes with his son’s legs before he started to mutter : 

“I’d rather be fighting every single goons in Gotham right now, ah Damian please just -Damian kicked one of his leg up while the other one went down- no wait -The boy did the same thing, but changing leg this time- just stay still a second -this time, he put both his legs up, trying to grab one of his foot to put it in his mouth - oh my god..” 

As soon as he was able to slide one of the baby’s leg into his pants, and trying to put the other on...Damian would squirm his little legs around and undo everything. Cooing at his father continuously, as if talking to him. Taunting him that he was doing it wrong !

He decided to try another approach, and moved on the side of the kid, holding his legs down and bending above him to try to block the boy’s legs long enough, without hurting him, to...Oh, but he bended forward a little too much and...The kid got a hand on his hair. 

Unhappy of the sudden restraint, Damian let a loud “HA !” out, but before starting to cry got distracted by his father’s head being close and...Right there, in reach. What were those funny wiggly thing on his head ? 

“ALFREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 

The butler rushed in, afraid something bad happened to the baby...Only to find his young master Bruce, his body bend in an awkward position as he tried as gently as possible to untie his son’s hands from his hair...not succeeding very much. 

After this, Bruce started to wear his hair shorter, and neatly brushed back, and left behind any stylish haircut he thought would be good for his public persona.

************

Damian Wayne, Son of Batman AND little brother to Robin. Occupation : Baby AND little brother.

Damian was home with Alfred, when Bruce first met Dick. (IMPORTANT AUTHOR’S NOTE : I took an age “canon” diverging from my personal preference so it would fit the story. I usually like the pre-crisis version the best, where Dick is 8 years old when Bruce takes him as his ward, because it calls back to Bruce’s own age when he lost his parents...But for the sake of this story, and to fit closer the “actual” ages of the boys even if it won’t be perfect (then again AU), I’ll go with post-crisis “official” age which is around 12 years old. Not 15 though, like in the New 52, that’s too old...anyway it seems like Rebirth went back to around 9/10 when Bruce takes him in but yeah, ya know...12, so it fits better. But my personal preference is little baby 8 years old Dick coming in. Haha thought it was worthy of mentioning, and also anticipating any age question :), more explanation about ages in my AN at the end of this fic). 

It was about three months in since Bruce brought Damian back with him, it seemed like...A good idea ? To adopt a twelve years old child who just went through the same trauma he did, while being a 23 years old still struggling to know how to be a father. 

But a twelve years old would be easier to handle than a baby, right ? 

Wrong. 

Dick had some hard days, at the beginning, in Wayne Manor. The media had put in his head that he was a publicity stunt, that Bruce didn’t really care, and he would suddenly lash out at times, the pain too grand. 

Bruce understood more than anyone else. 

He too, lashed out at Alfred a lot when he was younger. It is normal, when you’re so young and already felt so much pain... 

Oddly enough, it’s Damian, that ended up calming Dick. 

The baby, now about six months old, was starting to crawl all around, and took a grand interest in that newcomer. 

Dick would try to isolate himself somewhere at times, playing his game boy in a corner of the main living room...Only for a little six months old to laboriously crawl to him and try to climb on him. 

Thanks to Damian’s presence, Dick opened up surprisingly fast. Bruce suspected the boy’s personality was already quite cheery, but he also clearly had a little dark side to him...However, only because the media were spreading lies about Bruce. And his reasons to take the boy in. 

As Dick saw how Bruce took care of his baby son, he slowly opened up and trusted that the man truly wanted to give him a home. 

Of course, Bruce would never replace his parents...But he still could be his new dad. The two weren’t inclusive. Dick would never forget his beloved parents, but was lucky to still have people who loved him around. 

And that baby ? He was clearly very much set on bonding with him anyway. Wherever Dick seemed to go, the little cooing noises Damian did and the sound of him crawling on the floor would follow. 

And it warmed Dick’s heart. He’d let the baby fall asleep in his arms, or come and sit next to him, watching what he was doing with great curiosity. 

Damian even took the bad habit of crying, just so that Dick would come and take care of him (he also did that to his father and Alfred, to be fair). And it worked every time. As soon as Damian would make a sound, Dick would be here. 

The rare times Bruce scolded Dick for something bad he did, Damian would become mad and scream at his father. In fact, his very first words, right after his first birthday, was “no dada”, as he scolded his father for telling Dick he needed to focus more in school. 

The little twelve months old would hug his older brother tight against his heart, and tell his father off. 

“No dada no !” 

Sometimes, it would make Bruce laugh. Sometimes, it would infuriate him...How dare, his authority, undermined by a one year old ! Then again, he never really minded. All he ever wanted, was for his sons to be happy. 

And to be fair, ever since Dick truly decided to settle for this new life, he rarely made mistakes worthy of scolding. Dick was a really sweet boy. And Bruce  didn’t believe in being angry at his children anyway, he understood very fast that this was doing the opposite of what he wished it’d do. 

It didn’t take long enough to Bruce to realize that giving love to his children meant receiving it back. Being angry with them without explaining anything meant frustration on all side. So of course, he wouldn’t let them do bad things. But Bruce found that they’d actually rarely act out, when he was trying to be understanding and make them see what they did wrong...

Bonding with Damian, and becoming real brothers. Becoming very close, is what gave Dick a new hope. Of course, Bruce’s unconditional love and care did too, but the first thing that made him open up, the first thing that made him want to have a new family...It was this little baby, who decided himself that he was his big brother now. 

************

The Solid Food incident. 

Damian was starting to eat solid food. 

Well. Solid food. More like mushed food, but still a step forward from the formula milk and baby bottle. 

But right now, Damian was having a fit. 

He absolutely refused to eat his mushed pees and chicken that Alfred made in the “baby cook”. And it was getting late. Bruce was about to leave for the Batcave, and it was getting close to Damian’s bed time. 

But the boy wasn’t having it. Any of the techniques Bruce used failed, including the infamous “the airplane is coming”. 

“I don’t think he likes it, B.” 

Dick said, smiling a little too widely as he looked at Bruce struggling with his boy. Which gave a sudden idea to the man. His last idea, really. 

What monkey sees, monkey does, right ? 

“Look Damian, look here. Daddy loooooves the food, see.” 

And he gulped down the spoon of mushed food. And oh god, it was probably the most disgusting thing Bruce ever ate in his life. What was this ? Why would anyone expect someone to eat this monstrosity ?! Was this really baby food ? 

The face Bruce made didn’t fool Dick, nor did it Damian. The little toddler gave a look to his father that clearly meant, “see ?!”, and Dick bursted out laughing and almost choked on his own dinner. 

That night, Bruce relented and just gave Damian his favorite food : apple sauce. As much as he wanted. Telling both his boys to “not tell Alfred about this”. 

************

The day Superman changed his opinion on Batman... But he didn’t know it was Batman. 

At the time, Clark still had a rather poor opinion of Bruce Wayne, whom he didn’t know yet was Batman. 

And it was totally not because he shortly dated Lois Lane ! Nope, not at all ! He just couldn’t stand Bruce’s guts and smug face.

But he had to admit his actions were praiseworthy. In fact, today, he came from Metropolis to this godforsaken city that Gotham was, for an interview about a recent charity Bruce started. A charity that did some good all across the USA, and was worthy of reporting in the Daily Planet. 

The journalist was ready to act fake and smile a lot, while really wanting to punch the billionaire in the face. He really didn't like how this Bruce Wayne acted always so sure of himself and...grr...If only he knew he was Superman ! He wouldn’t act the same, for sure. 

So it’s with a huge surprise, that he came into the man’s office, and surprised him as he was playing with his young son. 

Right there, on the floor, he saw THE Bruce Wayne, a grown ass man, acting absolutely silly to make his baby laugh. 

The little boy was giggling loudly as his father was making funny faces at him, and Bruce wasn’t noticing the newcomers at all, as he kept going, too enthralled in the moment, too focused on playing with his boy. After all, he had a rather busy week and barely any time to spend quality time with his children, lately, so this was the perfect occasion for him...

If only he didn’t forget about Clark Kent’s interview. 

“I’m so sorry Mr. Wayne, I thought you weren’t busy !”

Bruce jumps a little, out of surprise, and turns around, his face livid as he realizes what just happened. He stands up straight quickly, and turns toward Clark and his secretary. 

But the little boy on the floor whines a little and make grabby hands at him, giving him the most adorable puppy eyes Clark ever saw. The man relent, and picks his son up, turning to Clark and the secretary again. 

She is visibly very embarrassed, but “Mr. Wayne” just smiles charmingly at her (why was this guy so cool ?!) and says : 

“No worries Charlotte. Mistakes happen. You can go back to your office. And apologies, Mr. Kent, I did not know you were already here. Clearly.” 

In a few seconds, Bruce had turned around an embarrassing situation for him and was acting all smug and arrogant again. But this time, Clark felt that there were much more to Bruce Wayne that the public image he was showing. 

Flashforward to a few years later, Clark finally discovers Batman is Bruce Wayne, and he is utterly SHOOK. 

************

The Family Portrait debacle.

One day, about a year after bringing Damian back, Bruce decided to have a family portrait made. Of both his sons.

He bought very fancy and cute clothes for his boys, and tried as best as he could to make Dick and Damian presentable.

Dick’s hair were unruly and there was always a little cow lick that refused to go in rank with the other hair, but it was still fine.

Damian was really unhappy to have his first haircut ever, and it had been a nightmare to try and get him into his fancy clothes.

It wasn't helping, that Dick was clearly agreeing, and talking about how itchy the clothes were. But Bruce seemed excited about this, and so he did it.

But Damian ? Oh the little boy still didn’t understand this sort of things, and as everyone already could figure out, he seemed very independent and hated to do things he didn’t wanna do.

And so, even for the Batman himself, getting his one year old son to stay still for a family picture was no easy task. Dick almost dropped his little brother many times, and they decided to sit the boys on the floor instead of a high armchair like their original ideas.

Damian wouldn’t stop squirming, and the picture ended up being a rather hilarious image on which it was very obvious Dick was struggling to keep his brother in place, and Damian was half-crying half-mad.

Later in the day however, both in cute little pajamas, the two boys fell asleep together as Dick, as he took the habit of doing, read his little brother a bed time stories and fell asleep while doing so.

Those two pictures, the “ugly” yet very funny one, and the absolutely cutest one, have a prized place on the “Wayne family” picture wall.

************

The day Dick joined the Teen Titans. 

Bruce encouraged him to do so, if he truly wanted to. 

Dick was sixteen now, and Bruce could see he was looking for more meaning, for more than just being his shadow. 

Bruce could see the boy he came to see as his own son, as much as he saw Damian as his, needed to find more sense to it all. Needed to help more than just Gotham and its people, at least for now. 

Joining and creating his own team ? With friends that had similar backgrounds to him, that felt out of place too ? Figuring things out on his own for a while ? The Batman was convinced it could only do him good. 

Now many would’ve called him a bad father for letting his 16 years old son go off on his own...But many did not understand what Dick went through. Bruce did. And it would be highly hypocritical to not let Dick go for a while, when Bruce himself left Gotham around the age of 17 to go travel the world ? To train, and find meaning in it all ? 

Plus, who said he wouldn’t keep an eye on his boy ? As if he was gonna let his son completely on his own. Of course, Dick didn’t need to know Bruce was totally spying on him, but...Well, Bruce couldn’t completely let go. 

So yes. Bruce was behind Dick as his teen of a son had a harsh decision to make. Because it wasn't just about finding himself...There was also Damian. 

Could he leave his baby brother behind ? Would the little boy understand ? 

Would Dick be strong enough to go away from his family, even if he knew he needed it and it wasn’t permanent ? 

Bruce knew Dick needed to go. Needed time to find himself, understand who he truly was, and move on.  But Bruce also knew that he was held back by the love he had for his brother, adopted father, and adopted grandfather...

He also knew that it became vital for his boy, as he saw him more and more get lost in thoughts. Just like it was vital for him, as a seventeen years old boy, to leave Gotham to train. 

And so he sat with Dick, and talked about it, keeping Damian away for a little while so that cute little toddler wouldn’t change Dick’s decision. 

They wrote a pros and cons list, and the pros outweighs the cons by a little. Bruce tells his son that he has to take care of himself first, especially in regards of his mental health...

It was just for a little while anyway, and he could come back if he felt too homesick, right ? The Wayne fortune came in handy, for that. There was also the possibility of video conferences. 

And so Dick joined the Teen Titans, with a heavy heart, but knowing it was for the best at that time for him. 

Damian seemed quite sad at first, since he was so used to have his brother around at all time ! But as every kid, he adapted rather fast and although he asked often about “Dick”, a video conference with him was enough, as the little boy knew his brother would never abandon him and surely come back. 

(---> In many stories but not in all of them (canon man...What a mess), Dick and Bruce do not see eye to eye as to which methods they should use while out there in the street, Dick thinking Bruce is much too violent etc etc...It’s sort of unclear wether Dick left or Bruce “fired” him really, but they have a pretty bad fall out and Dick leaves, leaving a Bruce that finds himself in a very dark lonely place, up until Jason comes in his life...but in this version, raising a baby and finding the light earlier in his life, I think Bruce wouldn’t be as violent, and share Dick’s views as to how they should proceed as Batman and Robin. Of course, they still beat villains’ asses. That their schtick, HOWEVER, they don’t beat them near to death ? They incapacitate them in many ways. I think if Baby Damian had been in Bruce’s life since the beginning, his Batman would’ve been much different...I mean, it’s Dick’s departure that made him change his method slightly and be less violent ? That made him question himself and reconsider ? So if he already had a child in his life before that ? One that came from his union with a certain Talia Al’Ghul ? If the all point is to save him from violence and such ? Then I think Bruce’s Batman would be different...If any of this makes sense ? Just explaining this scene for those who know the comics and are like : “wtf Ella that’s not how it went ?!” haha, AU).

************

The boy who stole the Batmobile’s tyres. 

Jason was barely even twelve, when Bruce brought him back with him to the bat cave. He was a frail and wary little boy, and Bruce could only imagine what he went through...

No one just dares to steal from the Batman’s himself without a reason. And in Jason’s case, that reason was clearly survival.

He had a few scratches on his face, and bruises on his arms. Bruce didn’t want to re-open whatever trauma he went through, or ask too many questions that would make the boy uncomfortable...So he simply offered help. 

A warm meal, and a place to sleep for the night. Little did he know at the time, that the boy would stay much longer than the night...

And oddly enough, the boy instantly accepted. Because someone being nice to him while he caught him stealing from him must be nice right ? Also, he heard of the Batman. He knew the good he did. 

And so it all started. A simple night and a warm meal turned into official adoption papers, and the rest is history...

************

The more the merrier. 

Bruce wasn't sure how Damian would take the fact that Jason was staying for good. After all, he was so close from Dick...Was Jason going to be able to find his place in his new family ? 

When Bruce introduced Jason officially to Damian, the boy didn’t really react, just thinking he wouldn’t say. They played together, but Bruce wasn’t sure it stuck in his little four years old that Jason was here to stay. 

So he officially stated it. Jason was adopted now, for good and...his worst fear happened. Damian took a good look at Jay, up and down, then turned around and ran away. 

The poor little boy (Jason) looked absolutely crushed. He really was excited to finally have a home, his time at the Manor was the best he ever had ! And he really liked little Damian, but if he didn’t like him in return and didn’t want him in the family ? It was painful. 

But then a few minutes later Damian came back, holding his two favorite toys ever, and walked straight to Jason, in a determined way, gave him the toys and said : 

“Fo’ you. Zayson.” 

And Jason Todd, barely twelve years old, almost cried as this little boy who was facing him did that small act of kindness. Did something that no one ever really did for him before. 

Jason Todd had a new bother. And so did Damian. 

************

A new brother. 

Damian and Jason bonded even further once the official adoption papers went through. This made Bruce realize how strong his little boy was because... Damian clearly missed having an older brother.

He wasn’t quite acting with Jason how he acted with Dick, however. With Dick, Damian would shadow him all around, and just sit in his lap, looking at what he did. 

Sometimes Dick needed to be on his own, and Damian would just wait for him, not seeking him too much, understanding ? Dick and Damian had quite a lot of years of difference. 

When Dick was 12, Damian was a baby. 

Jason and Damian still had quite a bit of difference, but now, Damian was four. He could play, and talk, and invent new games. 

That boy was very imaginative. 

And Jason ? His dream had always been to have a little brother, so he played along with everything. Where Dick enjoyed being a mature older brother who would console Damian and be there when he needed...Jason was an active older brother, who loved to play and have fun. 

His childhood was clearly stunted by drama that happened in his early life, and with Damian, it was like he could live some of the years he lost again. 

Not that he was acting childish, oh no, on the contrary. But he would just play along, something that Dick rarely did. Dick had other game and interest, Jason was very happy to play pretend. 

Dick was the comforting, reassuring older brother. 

Jason was the fun one that you could always count on and that had the best game ideas. 

Maybe the fact Jason and Damian were a little closer in age played for a lot ? Probably. Or maybe Jason, who always dreamt of a brother, would just do anything to be liked by Damian. 

Not that he had to try hard. Damian adored both his older brothers equally. For different reasons. Yet the love was there all the same. 

More often than not, Damian would escape his bed and room, to go sneak into Jason’s bed at night, and wait for his brother to come home from patrol. 

Both Jason and Bruce let him, of course, it was very cute. And Jason felt oddly safe, there, with his little brother curled up beside him ? 

It was like little Damian, his precious little brother, meant home. 

Bruce did too, for sure. Jason never had a dad, and he was so happy to have one that was as cool as Bruce ! But his little brother represented something he never thought he could have. 

In which world would Jason Todd, little orphan living in the streets, ever have such a great little brother ? Or a chance to have a family ? 

************

The good years. 

Dick would often come by, while still being with the Titans. It was his eighteen birthday soon, and he wanted to show everyone his new costume...After all, he couldn’t be Robin anymore ! 

Jason got along really well with his older brother, and found a place in this world he never thought he would. 

Bruce...Well his children eased the pain in his heart. The pain his parents’ death left behind, and that he thought would never go away. Was it bad, that every year it hurt a little less ? But seeing his children grow...

Damian was almost six now, and growing into such an intelligent little boy. Bruce couldn’t even imagine, what he would’ve gone through, if he had stayed with the Al’Ghuls. 

What kind of little six years old he would be, if it happened that way...

************

Where did Jason go ?

Yes. Jason and Damian were very close. Jason instantly discovered his big brother instincts, and Damian just liked being around him. Because Jay ? He was so funny ! And always willing to play with him !! Even if know he was a big person, fifteen years old, an old man !! 

And so one morning, when Damian woke up and as usual, ran from his room to Jason’s to wake him up by jumping on him...The boy found an empty room, and a bed still made.

Did Jason not come home tonight ? Odd. The first thought that crossed Damian’s mind was to then go find his dad, who would surely know where Jason was ! 

“Daddy ! Daddy !!” 

Bruce wasn’t in bed either, which was odd but also reassuring ? It meant they probably were  both downstairs, having breakfast. 

But when Damian went downstairs, going down the stairs as fast as his little legs could without falling, he only found Alfred, sitting behind the kitchen counter, holding his head in his hands. 

“Fafred ?” 

Damian asked. He never could quite pronounce “Alfred” properly, and everyone just went along with “Fafred”, and it stuck...It was cute. 

The butler jumped up in surprise, and looked at the boy sadly. Why were his eyes wet ? 

“You’re hurt Fafred ?” 

Damian asked, clearly very concerned. Oh. Oh sweet little boy. Alfred wasn’t sure he could handle it. Not right now. He picked the little one up, and sat him in front of him, on the counter. 

Five years old little Damian, almost six ! ; Put his palm on Alfred’s forehead, and said : 

“You’re not hot Fafred, what is it ? Did you fall ? Where does it hurt ? Do you want a magic kiss ? Do you need the hospital ?”

It was adorable, how worried the little one was. It was also unbearable, in this instant. How was he supposed to...What was he supposed to...??

“No, Master Damian, I did not fell.” 

“You okay ? What happened ?” 

“Yes, I am okay.”

“You don’t look okay. What happened ?”

“Old people problems, you know.” 

Alfred couldn’t. He couldn’t say anything. 

Damian looked around, and realized the kitchen was empty. No cereal bowls out, nothing. Which was odd. If Bruce and Jason weren’t in their bed, then they should be down here having breakfast ! That’s how it always was !

“Fafred, where is daddy ?” 

Please Master Damian, please do not ask him this question, do not...

“Where is Zayson ?” 

************

WHERE DID JASON GO ??????

Damian didn’t understand where his big brother Jason went, and why his daddy was so sad all the time now. Of course, he was happy his big brother Dick came back and seem to want to stay for good, but him too, seemed sad whenever he looked at him. 

Why ? Why was Dick always on the verge of crying when his eyes fell on his little brother ? Was it...because he reminded him of Jason’s absence ? 

Damian didn’t understand why everyone was sad, but it was starting to make him very sad too. His little five years old self didn’t understand why was this happening ? 

He wanted Jason. 

Jason always knew for sure how to make him laugh. 

But nobody would tell him where Jason went, and Damian had no idea where to look first !! Maybe in the garden ? No, he went there already, and he didn’t find Jason in their tree house. Neither did he find him at their secret spot, or near the sandbox. Jason would never go near the pond, he knew it was dangerous because he always told Damian not to go. 

Maybe he was in school ? Very busy so he didn’t came back yet ? Oh that was an idea ! Damian suddenly felt excited. Yes. That’s it. Jason must be still at school ! And if Damian went to wait for him at the bus stop, then he would surely appear, right ?!

Enthusiastically, Damian ran at the front door. Everyone around was too out of it to even notice what he was doing. The boy put his shoes on (on the right feet this time), and went to take the chair in the corner of the corridor, dragging it as best he could to the front door so he could hop on it and turn the knob. 

He finally managed it, got down from the chair and opened the door to find...A boy about to ring the doorbell ? 

“Hi there ! I’m Tim ! Is your daddy around ?” 

To be continued...  ---> Part 2 :) clickclickclick

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Here we go. This is part 1/2, I hope you liked it and will want more...Next part will contain more about what changed in Bruce compared to the canon timeline(s) like in more details (sorry I’m writing this very tired and slightly drunk) and more baby Damian, and the arrival, of course, of Tim, Cass, Steph, Duke etc etc...Everyone who has not appeared yet, basically :). I really hope you liked this haha, I’m so nervous...I didn’t talk about the actual BATMAN things yet because this all comes from the view of a kid who is still just 5 so far so ya know :) As usual, feedbacks and reblogs are always much appreciated!

AGES IN THIS TIMELINE (in case you are wondering) : We all know that ages in comics are a mess, especially when it comes to the Batfam. Most canon aging actually make little sense when you try to make up an ACTUAL timeline. So I guess we all have our own preferences and headcanons, which is fine again, given the state of “canon” hints and downright claims (which often contradicts each others btw). I mentioned during the story that I used a post-crisis canon for Dick that puts him around the age of 12 when he’s taken in by Bruce (but again, personal preference = 8). Which means he’s about 12 years older than Damian. He leaves for the Titans age 15/16. So it would make the age difference between him and Jay about 4 years (which is almost canon by a year less), Jay and Damian would then be 8 years apart (same, pretty close but not quite, by two years really :/ then again it depends the canon), Jay and Tim about 3 years apart (pretty much canon), so Damian and Tim about 5 years (again a little less than canon...but then you see what I mean when I say it makes little sense at times ? Hehe). Cass and Damian would be 4 years apart, Duke and Damian 2 years apart (Duke = older), Steph and Damian about 4/3 years like between Tim and Cass I guess, and well Babs is supposedly a little older than Dick so let’s say 13/14 years. Here. Hope that cleared up their age in this ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. No need to tell me what the canon age are are, we actually aren’t really sure because it changes CONSTANTLY (Damian seems to be the only one that grow up haha and only so he could join the TEEN Titans...But then he’s somehow thrown back in his age so he becomes much younger than aged 17 years old Jon ?! Really, canon age makes no sense and in the end don’t really exist hahahahahahahaha), every head canon is open :). Especially in an AU. 

Also : Let’s give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s ! Thanks to @arianatheangelworld, for the many baby!Damian “imagine” asks you send that fueled my inspiration ! ^^. 

[jasmine-iroh]

i have so many ideas in my head for fics LMAO and as u know i am obsessed w ur writing hehehe umm lets think can you do a sokka imagine where reader is Piandao’s apprentice as well so she spars with Sokka in his training and always wins, until he beats her one day from like being flirty and distracting her or something?? idk u can ignore this and just do any imagines u like LOL

Ahhhhh I love this idea so much!! Idk why but I have a headcanon that Piandao is lowkey like Batman and just trains abandoned kids and now he has like a tiny army of little white lotus warriors he’s informally adopted over the years.

This kid is weird.

That was the immediate impression (Y/N) got of Sokka when Master Piandao had introduced him as a new apprentice.

What the hell kind of name is Sokka, anyways?

That was her second thought. It was the kind of name that rolled off her tongue nicely when she was snapping at him to focus during their drills. The shape of it in her mouth made it easy to add a snarl to the front and a growl at the end when he was screwing around in front of Piandao, making them both look bad.

By the end of his first day training with (Y/N) under Piandao’s reserved tutliage, Sokka had been introduced to several intermediate forms. His heavy wooden practice sword had turned his arms to jelly long ago and there were various bruises and scrapes from (Y/N) sneaking past his defenses, but Sokka didn’t mind the aches.

She’s amazing.

That was Sokka’s first impression of (Y/N) as he watched her demonstrate the basic forms he was supposed to learn. He wasn’t focusing on the forms, but rather the warrior waltzing her way through them.

(Y/N) seemed to merge with her abilities. She moved with the ease of someone who spent her time befriending her skills, pouring her soul into singing metal and brutal dance numbers. Her blade was her master as much as Piandao was. She wielded her sentences as tactfully as her steel, every word intentional and aimed to cut to the heart of a matter.

Sokka would wager his last copper piece that her and Suki would get along quite well if they ever met.

He’s good.

That was (Y/N)’s third thought as she watched Sokka breeze through his basic drills.

A tiny part of her sung with pride when Master informed her that she was excelling in her duty of shaping Sokka into a proper swordsman. Sokka was her first real trainee during her time with Piandao. She’d studied under him from the age of six, when she’d turned up on his doorstep after being left behind in the middle of the night by her nomadic family.

She’d seen many hopeful young men turn up on that same doorstep, opening her sanctuary to their arrogant swaggers and second rate weaponry. They had all given her the same look when she guided them through Piandao’s home; a look that held the intrigue of having a girl around to preen for, not knowing that she was the judge, jury, and executioner of their fate.

Piandao might’ve been the one to teach the boys to fight, but (Y/N) was the one to make them honor the battle. They all came boasting to the Master about their accomplishments in their backwater town, lauding their own praises and embellishing their military bloodlines. Most left cursing the girl with forged steel for a personality and the word no sharpened like a blade.

Not Sokka, though.

(Y/N) supposed that maybe that’s what first warmed her up to him, the fact that he’d seen the sword on her belt first and her gender second. His quick wit and ability to bounce back after a defeat didn’t hurt, either.

Sokka’s knuckles were still red and actively bruising from their previous match when Piandao informed the pair that the next would be their last for the day. The compound was bathed in the golden promise of a sunset to come and (Y/N) found herself getting distracted by the way the light pressed gentle kisses to Sokka’s cheeks. The breeze played with his unraveling topknot like a teasing lover, taunting (Y/N) with the idea of what he’d look like with his hair down.

Before her thoughts could settle on the fight in front of her and not the boy, Sokka was making the first move. He went for the obvious strike, even though he should’ve learned by that point that (Y/N) would parry the blow.

Swinging her sword up to block him with ease, (Y/N) found herself shocked by their close proximity, puzzled that Sokka had thrown his first move to get close to her. A coy smirk was crawling along Sokka’s face as he gifted the young warrior with a flirtatious wink, causing her to narrow her own eyes back at him. It seemed that Sokka had seen her distraction and chose to wield his looks as his weapon of choice for this round.

“You can’t fluster me into losing, Sokka,” (Y/N) huffed, a mild bout of surprise bubbling as she realized that she was actually having to try to keep Sokka from getting the upper hand in their fight.

“That doesn’t seem fair, you’ve been flustering me all day.” He replied with a disarming grin, putting her on the defense with a quick, if somewhat unpracticed, set of attacks.

“Cut it out.” She growled, hoping the dark flush on her cheeks could be written off as exertion and not a real blush. Those oceanic eyes stared a hole into (Y/N), the flickering of his pupils to the side being the only consistent indication of his next move.

He was still too close for (Y/N) to ready a true offense, so she blocked and parried his attacks, his ever increasing proximity forcing her a step back with each move. She was trying to distance herself for an attack when the stone wall of the practice arena hit her back, shocking the wind out of her and allowing Sokka to land what would have been a fatal strike in a real fight. Their eyes were still locked as their chests heaved from the effort of the fight, bewildered (Y/E/C) eyes meeting a cunning blue gaze.

“Resourceful use of terrain, Sokka. (Y/N), don’t allow yourself to be crowded by a larger opponent. Use your agility, not your size.” Piandao advised, snapping the pair out of their staring contest. Sokka was still looming over (Y/N), but she wasn’t looking at him, instead forcing herself away from the wall to disappear into the bamboo thicket. She was being melodramatic, she knew, but she was ashamed that she’d let a stupidly charming boy make her look like a fool in front of her Master. The blow to her pride was blistering, raising all of her long buried insecurities to the surface.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Sokka’s voice called from the bamboo to (Y/N)’s right. To hear that much concern in the voice of a boy who barely knew her showed his true character, but (Y/N) wished he would reveal an arrogant side. Something, anything, to throw her heart off the scent of a crush.

“Why would you do that?” She snarled, trying to cover the turmoil in her mind with misplaced anger.

“Do what?” His disembodied voice was confused, the rustling of bamboo revealing his position to (Y/N).

“Embarrass me like that in front of everyone! Do you know how hard it is to be taken seriously as a girl doing this?” (Y/N) ranted, her glare already fixed to the spot where Sokka popped out of the foliage into her line of view.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that, I just... I thought we had something going on there for a minute, y’know? You’re the best fighter I’ve ever met, being a girl doesn’t change that.” He told her honestly. He took a tentative step closer, approaching her like he would a scared cat.

“That trick won’t work a second time.” (Y/N) snapped, her eyes spitting fire at him. Once again, she found herself on the defensive with this boy, every careful step he took towards her sending her a step back until her back pressed against a clutter of bamboo.

“Trick? (Y/N), there is no trick. It’s called liking someone, and hoping they like you back.” Sokka exclaimed, frustration trickling into his tone. He wanted to be patient and give her room to puzzle out his intentions, but she was too busy protecting her emotions to see his truth.

A long pause, before, “he’ll replace me if he thinks I’m easily distracted.” It was said so quietly, in such a hopeless voice, that Sokka wouldn’t recognize it as (Y/N) speaking if he wasn’t watching her lips form the words.

“He’s a fool, then. He won’t find another (Y/N).” Sokka told her boldly, feeling wild and fierce in their bamboo haven with her baring her deepest emotions to him.

“Please stop saying nice things. It makes it really hard to be mad.” (Y/N) whispered in that same careful voice, her tone cooling as she folded in on herself. She couldn’t believe she’d shown her soul to a boy she’d known for two days.

“Then don’t be mad, be honest. Do you find me as distracting as I find you?” Sokka matched her tone, speaking quietly as he tried to coax her back out of her shell.

“No. Yes? I don’t know. I’ve never even liked any of the apprentices before you.” She huffed, tilting her head back to groan at the sky in confusion.

“Stop over thinking it. Do I distract you? Yes or no?” Sokka pressed, taking (Y/N)’s battle calloused hands in his own and tugging her attention back to those oceanic eyes.

“Yes.” Her tone was confident, her rough thumbs tracing delicate shapes over Sokka’s bruised knuckles as she accepted his rough palms in her own.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one, then, or this would’ve been awkward.” He admitted, a warm blush crawling up his neck.

“It already was,” (Y/N) giggled quietly, releasing the tension between them. They stood grinning at each other like fools, both trying to stretch this soft, peaceful moment into a lifetime. Sokka leaned down closer to (Y/N) slowly, his eyes flickering between her own and her lips as he gave her the chance to stop him.

Instead of bolting like he half expected her to, she leaned up and pressed a firm kiss to his lips, pulling him closer. The action threw him off balance and sent the pair tumbling through the bamboo, Sokka landing on top of (Y/N) with a squawk of indignation.

The serene atmosphere broken, they stared into each other’s eyes for a shocked moment before bursting into laughter and settling for holding each other close like a cherished possession.

[fearfulkittenwrites]

“You know what? Fuck you.” and “Fuck you batman”

Word count: 2070

Warnings: Physical Abuse, pretty much child abuse (but lightly, i promise), vomiting

Notes: Okay, so this work needs some rather long notes, I think. If you don't want to read this, you can totaly skip it though. This is... pretty much the only angst thing I ever wrote that turned out actually good. And if the ending seems kind of... unfinished, in a sense, it's because it kind of is. Most of it was written when I was really down, and I can't give it a good ending. If anyone has any clue on how to make it better than this, by all means, go ahead. I'd love for this to have a happy ending instead of this. Also, I wrote this as some sort of catharsis for me? Most of my writing has some very personal element, but this is one of those pieces that if I handed my therapist, she'd laught at how obviously I'm projecting, so if anyone seems a little bit poorly characterized, that's probably why. Aaaaand this was written waaaay before I recieved my bingo card. But one of the two slots was filled by it, and the other fit so very nicely, that it pushed me to post it. Lastly, thank you for clicking this! And final warning to my emetophobic friends to walk away from this one. Good reading, and stay safe out there, it's a crazy world.

It was a stupid argument. They were yelling their faces off in the batcave, angry, nearly foaming at the mouth, over some serial killer. (It might seem like that’s a big deal, but c’mon, this is Gotham we’re talking about) It’s not like it had never happened before; both men were strong-willed, stubborn and hot-headed, they were bound to argue all the time.

“I’ve had enough!” Batman shouted “You’re staying out of this!”

“Are you insane?!” Nightwing shot back “You’re so deep into your own empty hopes you’re gonna get everyone killed!”

“I know what I’m doing Nightwing! And you’re staying on the ground tonight!” He pointed at the other’s face.

“You seriously think that I’ll just stay put, like a good little dog?!” He seemed incredibly offended. The volume of the conversation kept getting louder.

“You are gonna do as I say.” Now the man’s voice was lower. Dangerously so.

“No! I don’t give a damn about your skewed view of this city, and if you want to walk straight into a compromising position because of it, fine, go ahead. But if I let you go out there with them, following this stupid mindset, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“You think they can’t protect themselves?” He said, before shouting “You think I haven’t taught them well enough?!”

“I think you can’t protect them from what you refuse to see!” Nightwing shouted back. And then it happened.

The arguments were regular, sure. But this? This was unexpected, to say the least.

Batman slapped Nightwing across the face.

Except... That isn’t what happened. Or at least, it wasn’t all that happened.

It’s not as simple as that.

No, those weren’t simply two masked heroes getting caught in an argument that had gone physical. It wasn’t just Batman hitting Nightwing.

That was Bruce hitting Dick.

The silence that fell over everyone’s ears was deafening. No one in that cave even dared to breath, everyone waiting for the other’s retaliation. A retaliation that never came. Dick stared at the floor in the direction his face had been forced towards, breathing heavily. No, not heavily. He let out shaky breaths, although Damian was certain he was the only one able to tell the difference.

Nightwing then shook his head slightly, still looking at the ground, smiled sadly and let out a little huff that resembled a laugh. He left, walking past all of the other masked heroes, his brothers, with his eyes fixated on the ground. Damian never though he’d see Dick Grayson, the personification of confidence, staring at the ground. Now Bruce had a room of vigilantes staring at him in a way none of them ever did before. Even Red Hood seemed horrified. Robin scowled at him, before leaving to chase his brother.

“You know what? Fuck you.” Red Hood let out, before leaving the cave too, headed for the city “Don’t...” He stopped, gun in hand, pointing it up at the sky as he spoke “Don’t contact me. Just... Fuck you, Batman. And fuck you, Bruce.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m with him.” Red Robin said “I’ll check on the Titans. Good luck with the case.” He jumped out into the night as well.

Bruce turned to Steph, slightly.

“No.” She said turning to Cass “Look, you wanna stay, that’s your decision, but I can’t.”

“I’m not staying.” Cass stated, pulling her own cowl on.

His comm was static. Oracle had left too.

Bruce breathed in. He pulled out the cowl. Alfred stared at him from the door for a minute, and left before being noticed, heading for the kitchen.

...

Jason was sitting on a rooftop, looking down, when Red Robin landed next to him.

“You should go check on him.”

“Don’t you think he’d rather be alone?” He asked, looking up “Also, Gotham needs our patrols.”

“To the second point, sure, but me, Spoiler and Batgirl can cover the city for tonight, and we don’t know for sure that Batman’s not coming. To the first, maybe.” He sighed “But Damian went after him. He’s probably talking to Dick as we speak, and that’s not exactly a bad thing, but Dick won’t be able to drive him away, and we both know that tonight it’s gonna get ugly. Real ugly.” Red Hood turned to look at him, wondering what was his point “Damian looks up to him. He’s a parental figure, whether they like it or not. He shouldn’t have to see Dick like that, he won’t have the proper tools to handle it. You on the other hand...” Jason sighed too.

“Yeah, I see what you mean.” He nodded “I can handle it.” The Red Hood slowly stood up “By the way, you see him tonight, put that bo staff to good use and shove it up his ass. Then tell him I send my regards.”

...

Dick stormed into his room, slamming his door shut and hurling his mask against the wall. He pulled off the top of his costume, but that was all he managed to do before he broke down sobbing, sitting on his bed, hugging himself. He had taken many hits in his life. He handled all of them. This one... He didn’t know how to handle it, didn’t know where to start. His cheek still burned. It was probably red, maybe there would be a perfect mark of his palm and fingers on it.

He screamed, rubbing his face harshly in a fit of rage. He woud have scratched the skin off his arms if he didn’t keep his nails so short, but he had to settle for rubbing instead, fingertips digging into the flesh without breaking it. It went on for a minute, before he managed to calm down.

“I know you’re there.” He said trying to keep some composure “Leave.”

“It’s not him.” Damian answered from behind the door.

“I know. Leave.” Dick heard a ‘-tt-.’, followed by the sound of his door opening. He had his back turned to it.

“No.” He answered, closing it behind him.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Dick turned to face the wall, keeping his back to Damian.

“Then don’t.” He replied, sitting on the floor, infront of him “I’m here to make sure you won’t do anything stupid.” Dick knew that was his way of saying ‘I care about you’. He did a piss poor job at showing affection, but no one could blame him.

Damian slowly lifted a hesitant hand, setting it on the other’s shin, stroking his leg. Dick offered a weak smile, looking down; once again, this was a code. It was Damian saying ‘I know I don’t like hugs, but if you need them right now, it’s okay’. The boy looked down at his boots and helped him out of them, watching as Dick instantly curled in on himself once he was barefoot, pulling his legs to his chest, hiding his face between his knees. Damian sat down next to him, placing a hand on his back as he cried once more.

“It’s just...” He tried “I never thought...”

“I know. None of us did.”

Dick felt sick. He wanted to thow up. Maybe he would throw up, if he kept sobbing like that. Damian rubbed circles on his bare skin, trying to calm him down, to no avail. There was a knock on the door.

“Hey, Bird Brain.” Jason’s voice came from it, soft and wary “Can you open the door for me?”

Damian looked at his brother, who nodded. The boy got up and slowly cracked open the door, already scowling at Jason, who raised an eyebrow but kept quiet.

“Hey,” He kneeled in front of Dick “Calm down okay? I’m sure Alfred is knocking some sense into him as we speak.” Dick nodded weakly, and Jason pushed some strands of hair away from his forehead.

There was another knock on the door. This time Bruce’s voice was heard.

“Dick, I...”

“Leave.” He replied, voice cracking.

“I’m sorry, I...”

“Leave!” He yelled. They heard footsteps, walking away from the room. He turned to Damian “Dames, you should go too.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He crossed his arms.

“Seriously, thank you. But... I just... Jason’s here and... I need to cry. Really cry and I don’t think I should put you through that.” Damian stared at him, unsure on what to do.

“It’s okay Damian. I got him.” Jason reassured. It wasn’t worth much for the kid, but he thought it best to give his brothers some space, so he walked out of the room.

Dick broke down again, and Jason held him through it. He held his brother for almost fifteen minutes. He knew there was nothing he could say that would make any of this better, so he kept his mouth shut, listening when he eventually gathered the strenght to speak.

“I can’t... Why did he do this? I’m- I was worried. I just wanted to protect you.” He cried against the other’s shoulder.

“I know Dickie.” Jason stroked his hair.

“He was just so – so blind. He’d walk you straight into the crossed fire, and-and... Oh God.” He pulled himself away from Jason and tried to run into the bathroom, covering his mouth, but there was no time. He threw up on the floor, and the only reason he didn’t fall face first into it was Jason’s fast thinking, wrapping his arms around the older man’s waist “Fuck.” He murmured, spitting on the ground “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay Dick. It happens. I’ll get Alfred.” He said, setting him on the bed.

“No, it’s fine, I can clean it...”

“Don’t be stupid Dickie,” He handed him some tissues “Look at your state. It’s okay, he can handle it just fine.” He shot out of the door, dashing through the stairs, finding the butler in the kitchen, making some kind of chicken soup “Dick puked.” He stated, going for a glass and filling it with water.

“Oh dear.” Alfred exclaimed, lowering the heat on the stove. He turned around throwing his apron on the marble balcony and grabbing cleaning supplies. Both of them ran to his room; and after all these years, Jason still wasn’t used to the idea that Alfred could run through the manor just as fast as him. He slowly opened the door “Master Dick?”

“I’m sorry Alfred.” He murmured from the bed.

“It’s quite alright, my boy.” He said, kneeling down to clean up “It’s not your fault.” Jason handed the man a water glass.

“Thanks.” Dick whispered “I feel awful for putting you two through this.”

“Nonsense, master Dick.” Alfred said from the floor “My job is taking care of this family.”

“Besides,” Jason sat down on the bed “You’d do the same. You have done the same.” He grabbed his bare foot, squeezing it before letting go. Alfred soon left, as quickly and discreetly as he came “C’mon,” Jason said, standing up “Let’s brush those teeth.”

“Yeah.” Dick let himself be led out of bed, going into his bathroom. His brother stood next to the sink, leaning against the wall.

Jason followed him back into the room, where he put on his pajamas but didn’t slip into bed.

“I don’t really want to sleep yet,” Dick said “Maybe I should go patrolling with you.”

“Dick, no offense, but you are the king of bad ideas.” Jason responded “And I’m not going on patrol, Replacement said they’d cover the city for tonight.”

“Okay then.”

“Are you hungry?” Jason asked “Alfred was cooking, maybe we can have some.”

“Yeah, let’s go pester him.” Dick answer, smile lacking the usual life.

The next morning, Dick didn’t go down for breakfast. Bruce tried finding him in the manor, but none of it’s inhabitants and usual visitors were anywhere to be seen. Even Duke, who wasn’t even in the cave when it happened, seemed to be avoiding him, not answering his calls. He decided to leave a letter for his son, but when he sat down in front of the paper, he didn’t know what to write. He was overwhelmed with guilt, and knew that he had crossed a line he couldn’t come back from, not entirely.

He had been so worried about deaths and killings as Batman, that he neglected the lines he shouldn’t cross as Bruce Wayne. And now that he crossed one of those, he had no clue on what to do about it.

[jinmukangwrites]

Nightwing BTHB: Surrender

Smiley/Done // Eyes/Next // Clock/Requested

Summary: (Prompt) Dick Grayson has only been Batman for a few weeks, and already he knows he would do anything for his Robin. Even if that’s giving himself up.

Warnings: Whump, description of injury, blood, canon typical violence

-o-o-o-o-

It's an ambush. Of course it's an ambush. It was too easy, so simple, Dick didn't even think the drug traffickers would purposely leave a trail for him to follow. He let his guard down, and now Robin and he are fighting alone against a small army of mercenaries with no backup or contingency plan.

Bruce would be disappointed. He'd tell Dick that he failed and he didn't prepare for the worst and look where it got them. 

And he would be right. It's Dick's fault.

Dick got to used to considering Blüdhaven the worst, got too used to going to Gotham and feeling like it's an almost vacation. He forgot that Gotham criminals are sometimes just as bad as Blüdhaven, sometimes just as corrupt and evil and smart. He forgot that they plan, that they don't ask themselves "what if Batman comes?". No, Batman coming is always apart of the plan. If you want to be successful in Gotham you have to be just as prepared for the worst as Batman himself is. 

Dick forgot all of that. He didn't expect the trap, he thought the drug dealers were just lazy and ill prepared and bad at covering their tracks. Dick followed those tracks. Lead him and his partner right into an ambush. 

Dammit. 

He thought he could handle being Batman, but every day he pulls on the cowl he is reminded of why he never wanted it. 

God. He never wanted it. 

And as he dodges to the side of a sword aiming right at his gut, he bitterly thinks about how much he hates this. He hates how heavy the costume is. He hates the weight the symbol holds. He hates how Gordon looks at him like he's pitying him, hates how bad guy's are starting to laugh and say Batman's lost his touch, hates hates hates that he's supposed to run the company and raise the son Bruce left behind. 

He never wanted this. He hates this. He's not ready to keep doing this but he doesn't have a fucking choice. 

Gotham… the world needs a Batman more than Blüdhaven needs Nightwing. And it's not like he can ask Jason or Tim to take over. Jason is too wild, only following the rules because Dick leaves him alone, and Dick can't ask Jason to become the thing he loathes most. Tim is too young. Plus, he's pretty pissed at Dick for ripping away the title of Robin and giving it to a child who thinks he's entitled to it, and for not believing Bruce is still alive somewhere. 

And Dick can't believe that. He doesn't have the strength to. If he does and it turns out Tim's hope is wrong… it will destroy Dick. 

And Damian doesn't need that. Damian doesn't need that disappointment. Damian needs someone to raise him and train him, someone permanent. He needs a father, and Dick has to be that now, he can't let Damian believe this is all temporary and that his real father will return from the grave, because it might just destroy him more than it will Dick. 

He swings a fist out, connecting hard into the jaw of one of his attackers. There's a snapping noise and Dick winces from the feeling of the breaking jaw against his knuckles, but he turns to face another attacker as they fall unconscious.

There's eight more. Ten in total, with the one Dick just knocked down and the one Damian’s taken out earlier.

The battle is slow going. The mercenaries are skilled with the weapons they use. It's not league training as the swords and bows would leave one to assume, they're too forceful and blunt compared to the gracefulness and sharpness of an assassin, but it's still skilled and dangerous to anyone on the wrong side of their sword. Which is currently Batman and Robin, but they totally have it handled…

Yup. 

He rushes forwards, fighting off the twitch in his hands to reach towards his back and maybe slightly wondering if it would confuse criminals too much if Batman were to suddenly be using escrima sticks, he engages the next closest merc. Robin is across the room, flipping across another enemy with a fluidity Dick never had and whacking a blunted version of his sword across the back of the enemies neck, making them stumble. Dick doesn't think about that if that weapon was sharp like Damian insists it should be, that man would be without a head. 

Dick focuses his fighting on the merc in front of him and throws a punch before they can loose an arrow. He knocks the bow out of their hands and lands a solid blow in their gut, making them grunt and expel all the air they had in their lungs. Before they could recover, Dick shoves a taser into their now bruised stomach and they fall to the ground twitching. 

Suddenly, Dick is tugged backwards by the neck and he only has enough time to think about how much he agrees with Edna Mode in the fact that he fucking hates capes before he's spinning around and delivering a vicious roundhouse kick and tugging the stupid cape out of his attackers hands. The next merc goes down. Time to move on towards-

"Batman!" 

His blood runs cold as Damian's voice reaches his ears. He spins around and his eyes land on a startling scene. 

Damian is being restrained by three separate holds on him. One on each arm and the other holding harshly onto his neck, a sword pressing dangerously onto the child's throat. There's a fourth merc standing a bit off to the side, leveling Dick with a mean glare and an even meaner nocked arrow. 

Damian looks frustrated beyond belief, his face red and cheeks slightly puffed out, as he struggles in the hold. Dick realizes that even though the battle lasted quickly, the man that grabbed his cape was just a distraction as the rest of the mercs teamed up on Damian. 

Which, is in complete honesty, an impressive thing to do. Dick himself hasn't lost a sparring match against the kid yet, but it's always a very difficult battle to finally pin the vicious brat down. His eyes land on the rumpled cape around Damian's shoulder and he fights off a sigh. They clearly got ahold of his cape too. Fighting with a cape has its pros and cons, and when you fight with it long enough, you learn how to avoid the cons. 

Damian has been fighting with a cape for just a few months. He doesn't quite know how to avoid having it be used against him. Letting him have a cape was definitely a bad idea, dammit. 

Seriously. Fuck capes.

"Stand down and we won't hurt the kid," the one holding the sword against Damian's neck growls. 

Damian snarls and Dick forces himself to not go narrow minded, not to focus on the grimace Damian makes when one of his arms is yanked back too roughly in response. Instead of listening to every fiber of his being telling him to run forward and risk everything to save his little brother, instead of putting his life above the mission, he does what Batman would do. 

What Bruce would do.

What Bruce did when it was Dick in the hands of the enemy throughout their career. 

He studies. Takes in as much information as he can in a half second glance. The bow man is leaning slightly on his left leg, his right one dripping with blood from what appears to be a stabbing would. Damian's sword is laying on the ground, covered with red and Dick wonders how much force Damian had to spend to impale a blunted weapon into flesh. If Dick were to rush him, he would definitely be able to avoid any arrows being shot his way, but if the man holding the sword against Damian's neck was willing to harm a child then Damian's neck would be slit before any rescue could be made.

The two mercs holding Damian's arms look well enough. If not a few bruises here and there. They would not be easy to take down, but if Dick were to run at them and get at least one to lessen their hold on Damian, then they both can continue the fight. Then again, the man making the threats will still have time to kill Damian. Before Dick could get halfway towards them. It also will leave both Dick and Damian open for a speeding arrow. 

All in all, there isn't much he can do without risking Damian's life. 

He forces his shoulders to relax. "Leave him alone," he grinds out. 

"I will if you lose the belt right now," the man replies.

Dick tries to not look too eager to give himself up but he can't stop how quickly his hands go to his belt when the man pressed the sword ever so slightly against Damian's neck. 

"Batman don't-" Damian growls, and Dick cuts off whatever he's going to say with a hardened glare. 

The utility belt drops to the ground and he lifts his hands. "Let him go. He's just a kid."

Damian scowls at that but doesn't say anything, thank Jesus. The man loses his hold ever so slightly and there's a small thin line of irritated, thankfully not cut, skin on Damian's neck. "I don't want to hurt any kid, Bats."

Suddenly, the world flashes and tilts and the back of his head explodes in agony. He didn't think that any of the men he had taken out would get up, but one definitely has and definitely just smashed the hit of their sword against his head. He stumbles and Damian's almost panicked voice calls out for him, but everything goes white and fuzzy when his head is hit again and he blinks and finds himself on the cemented floor of the loading docs they have been fighting in. 

He forces himself to focus for just a second more, just a second more to see Damian's arms forced behind him and a needle jammed into his neck. Something churns in his stomach, and the voice of Bruce tells him he's just made a huge mistake. His vision lasts just long enough to watch Damian go limp. 

And then the black welcomes him.

-o-o-o-o-

Dick feels like shit. Waking up after forcibly being put unconscious is always the absolute worst. Especially if the method to knock him out was a few good whacks to the back of his head. 

His thoughts are jumbled, but he thankfully can remember what happened, he just can't focus on the details, but the details aren't important. The bare bones are just enough for him to remember to take advantage of his seemingly sleeping status. 

First thing he notices? His head hurts. No surprise there. Don't need to think about that much, probably has a goose egg and maybe a good concussion that he'll have to worry about later, but he can move on from that. Next thing is that his shoulders hurt and his hands are numb, and the back of his neck is killing him. 

He's hanging by his hands, rough chains wrapped tightly around his wrists and connected to something above him. 

Besides his own breaths, he can both thankfully and not-so-thankfully hear another, smaller person a little while directly ahead of him. He supposes he was hoping that the mercenaries would let Robin go if he surrendered himself, but at least he knows that whatever they injected the kid with it didn't kill him. 

For now. 

The man holding the sword against Damian's neck didn't sound like he wanted to kill a kid, but Gotham villains, even hired ones, don't usually tell the truth. 

Besides the breathing, Dick can't hear anything else. His feet aren't touching the ground so he can't check for vibrations of any kind, so the only thing to do for now is to open his eyes and hope Batman's cowl (which is thankfully still on, thank you Bruce for thinking to electrify it) would cover his eye motions more than Nightwing's mask did. 

He slowly blinks his eyes open, still keeping his neck lowered, and luckily the lighting is dim so it doesn't hurt too much, just pounds against the back of his skull a bit. It takes him a few seconds to take in what's in front of him. First thing he sees is most important. Damian is strung up from his wrists much the same way Dick is. He appears to still be unconscious but relatively unharmed, if not a little green around the gills. Dick wonders what they gave him and what kind of side effects Damian will feel once he wakes up. If he's actually asleep or pretending to be like Dick is. 

They're both in a metal shipping crate. Gotham has no shortage of them and Dick's been inside plenty to recognize it. He can't look up but he's pretty sure that the dim lighting is coming from a single bulb placed in the center of the crate, between Dick and his partner, and that there are two separate hooks screwed into the ceiling to keep the two hostages hanging. 

After a tense minute of waiting with no other sights or sounds to reach him, he decides to risk it and lift his head. His neck smarts from it's previous and rather uncomfortable resting position but he pushes the aching to the side as he stretches his toes downwards. Thankfully the tips of his toes can reach the floor, so it takes off some of the weight from his shoulders. 

"Robin," he risks, his voice scratchy and dry. Man, what he would do for a glass of water right now. He doesn't want to think about how thirsty Dami will be from waking up after being drugged. "C'mon, Robin."

Damian doesn't move and a spike of worry rises at the forefront of his mind. What did they give him?!

"Little bird, can you wake up for me?" He asks, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible. 

The kid's eyebrows simply twitch a bit, but nothing else happens. 

Dick purses his lips and looks up at his chained hands. The gloves are off, and glancing at Damian he's very much the same, and the chains are wrapped so tightly around his wrists that his fingers are pale and the skin that's pinched between the chain links are an angry red. Already, dark bruises are starting to form under the harsh bits of metal. There's a padlock keeping it all together so it's hostage can hang from an eye hook—just as he suspected—that's been screwed into the ceiling. 

He thinks that maybe he can lift himself up and grab the lockpick his boot, it will definitely strain his shoulders that are already in a dangerous way, but he could do it. Risk snapping a wrist by putting all the strain on them, but he's been through worse. He's jumped over rooftops and fought people like the Joker with worse. 

He's just about to curl up into the most painful version of a lift when a harsh clang fills the metal container. Dick considers for a second to continue what he was doing, but he figured it would take him longer to even work his leg to his hands than it would be for the door to their prison to open. In fact, with a glance behind him, he saw it was already opening. 

He thinks that maybe he should pretend to be back asleep, but then his eyes catch on a camera wired into the corner of the container, just above the door now sliding open. He curses himself, Bruce wouldn't have missed that. 

Four bodies file into the room and Dick's eyes instantly narrow on the man who had just some time ago held a sword to a kid's neck. He doesn't exactly recognize who the other three are; just that they are three out of the other eight mercenaries they fought. The last six were nowhere to be seen. 

The door rolls shut behind the captors  and Dick tenses when he notices not only the swords against their backs, but the wooden baseball bat in the leader's hands. It is almost ironic that it's a bat, Dick was beat with one of those in his first year of Robin. He guesses it's only fitting he'll have to face one of those things within his first year of being Batman too.

Jason has his thing with crowbars. Dick has his with baseball bats. 

"Little bird, huh?" The leader asks, grinning. Dick feels his whole body go even more tense. They wouldn't.

"Leave Robin alone," he barks and God he almost sounds like Bruce. Roy and Wally have told him he has a glare that could rival Batman's, so he makes sure to throw that at them too. 

It works. One of them even flinch. 

The leader only frowns a bit. "We don't want to hurt the kid. We said we wouldn't if you gave yourself up."

"And Gotham's criminals have a streak for keeping to their word," Dick replies dryly. 

The leader sighs. "Look, we were hired to take you out and you alone. Rough you up, break some bones, and make sure you can't follow. Your little bird is only here to make sure you cooperate."

"Stop calling him that."

A flash of irritation streaks across the leader's face and another hired sword lifts a hand to her lips and hides a smirk. Good to see someone is enjoying this. 

And then, Dick is winded. 

Jason has an issue with crowbars. Dick knows this because he's seen criminals try to hit him with one and if they actually land a hit Jason goes a bit more ham than normal on them. He'll drop the guns and the rubber bullets, rip the crowbar from their hands, and beat them instead, deathly silent and he'll keep silent until the next week, lips turned down in a barely contained rage. 

Dick can't hope to compare his own issues with Jason's, but it's hard to not go back to that courthouse all those years ago as the wooden bat is whacked against his side, snapping a bone. It's hard to not see that half handsome, half ugly face of Two-Face, the purple and yellow suit, the gallows, Batman watching. When the bat hits against his jaw, it's even harder to keep himself in the present, even harder to not smell the rotten stench that follows Two-Face wherever he goes. 

He has to remind himself that he's Batman now. Two-Face is in Arkham. It's Damian that's Robin and he should be just behind him, unconscious, blissfully unaware of the sharp snapping that fills the air when the bat hits his left shin just right. Dick can barely contain a scream, grinding his teeth and choking the noise with his own tongue. He can't imagine where Jason goes when he's hit with a crowbar. He can't imagine. If Dick goes back to a courthouse, Jason must go back to hell.

The beating stops after a few more hits to his chest and abdomen, and Dick's thankfully able to hold back any screams that Nightwing would probably have let out. The cape hanging on his shoulders and the cowl pulled over his face is too heavy, too important for him to show these assholes any weakness besides a clenched jaw and a glare sharper than their swords. His leg is pulsing and he definitely has a couple broken ribs that are currently screaming out in pain. It could be worse. The Kevlar on the suit's remarkable, definitely better than what Dick wore when he was nine years old. It's really just the pressure of his entire body weight on his wrists and his struggles to make purchases on his toes that's inflaming the smarting of his newest injuries. 

The leader is breathing hard, his hair now out of place, but his face is calm, cool, and collected. Normally, a beating like that would involve some sort of grudge or angry yelling, but this guy is literally just doing his job. He could care less how injured Batman gets, as long as he gets paid. 

Dick spit at him, a glob of blood, phlegm, and a broken tooth hitting him in the face. One of the grunts smirked and another oohed. 

Not the smartest move. Definitely not the smartest move.  Batman would have remained silent, glaring, maybe demand answers, but Dick can feel his temper flaring up beneath his skin and he acted before he could think about it. All the frustration and anger that's been bubbling under the surface is almost impossible to control in situations like this. 

"I don't want to hurt you anymore than what I have to," the leader says in a deadly calm voice, wiping the thick blood off his face and brushing the tooth off from his shoulder. "But keep that up, it won't be only you getting the beating."

"If you touch Robin I'll tear you to shreds," Dick snarls back, jerking forward in his restraints, almost losing his balance and pulling at his wounds. "Robin has nothing to do with this. He's just following orders. Your issues are with me, jackass."

The leader sighs and hands the bat to the woman merc next to him. "Clearly, you still need to be broken."

She smiles wickedly and Dick tenses, preparing himself for another beating, and she lifts the bat above her head and is about to bring it down with brutal force upon his head, but suddenly, a flash of red, green, and yellow and the woman is calling out as a steel toed boot kicks in her face. 

The others hardly even have time to react before Robin continues his miraculous attack. Dick is left staring wide eyed at his partner and Robin kick the legs out from the leader and then punches another right in the sweet spot of their gut, knocking out all air. There's a viciousness to Robin's movements, something Dick has scolded him over and over about, but right now he can't find it in himself to care that Robin's doing a bit more damage than necessary. 

As Robin works on one of the grunts, he doesn't notice the leader angrily scrambling to his feet and pulling out a dagger. Batman grinds his jaw, ignoring how much this is gonna hurt, and kicks his legs up, wrapping his thighs around his neck and squeezing. 

The leader is shocked by the attack from behind but is aware enough to plunge his dagger into Dick's leg. Dick bites back a cry and tightens his hold, ignoring the warmth now dripping down his thigh. 

A couple seconds pass, and finally the leader slumps and Dick releases, returning to his feet and wincing at the blood trailing down his shredded wrists thanks to his entire body weight being hung on them. His chest is tight with pain and his broken leg is pulsing, his impaled thigh still housing the knife. 

"Batman-" Damian says, punching the lights out of the last merc and running over to Dick. Dick flashes a smile but Damian ignores it as he studies the chains locked around Dick's wrists. 

Damian is looking a little green around the gills, and that worries Dick a tiny bit.

"You alright?" Dick asks and Damian clicks his tongue irritably and walks over to the leader of the mercenaries. He digs his coat pocket and pulls out a key to the deadlock to the chains and then starts dragging the leaders unconscious body closer to Dick's feet. 

Damian steps on the leader like a step ladder and reaches up to the deadlock with his arms outstretched. Dick winces when he catches sight of Damian's hands. 

So that's how he got out.

"Can you land on your feet?" Damian asks before Dick can confront him. Dick swallows and chooses to not mention his two injured legs and simply nods. Damian clicks his tongue again, huffing in exasperation, before shoving the key into the lock. With a turn and a little bit of fiddling, the support of the chains are gone and Dick is suddenly falling down onto his ass rather harshly. Every single one of his wounds smart and he winces as a sharp bolt of pain travels up his spine, but he pushes that to the side as Damian bends down to help Dick to his feet. 

"No," Dick says, and he holds out his hands, wrists bloodied and torn but it's nothing compared to Damian's hands. 

Damian looks nervous for a second before he slowly gives Dick his own hands. Dick sighs as he gently turns Damian's bare hands over in his own. The thumbs are swollen and bent at the wrong angle. His skin is practically shredded around his wrists and up the back of his hands. Somehow, Damian has managed to break his thumbs and violently squeeze out the chains without anyone noticing. 

"Robin…" Dick says. 

"I'm fine."

Dick sighs because he's clearly not fine. His eyebrows are pulled together slightly in barely contained agony. The chains were too tight to simply dislocate the joints of the thumbs. Breaking thumbs is dangerous and could easily go very, very wrong. Damian has just fought with them, has just helped Dick escape with them. He needs them splinted and looked at by a professional quickly. 

If he had his damn belt, he would be able to slip on a couple splints onto Damian, but he has no clue where their belts went. 

"We need to get your hands looked at," he says and Damian huffs. 

"You're the one whose severely injured. I know how to break my thumbs safely. I'm not the one who we should be worrying about."

Dick sighs, gently letting go on Damian's hands and Damian instantly brings then both to his chest. He doesn't want to think about the kind of training Damian has gone through to know how to "safely" shatter his thumbs. 

"We need to get out of here," Dick says and Damian nods and scoots closer. He grabs Dick's arm (thankfully careful with his broken joints) and helps Dick stand up. His broken leg wants to give out and his stabbed one is shaking like a leaf, but with the help of Robin clinging to his waist they both manage to open the container and stumble out into the ocean and exhaust fume tinted air of Gotham's docks. 

The rest is an almost pain filled blur. There isn't anyone else at the docks, probably all left towards the real location of the deal, and Dick doesn't even let Damian suggest he goes to find them. Dick is perfectly content with chalking this up as a loss for the night and he'd rather wait a few days to get more information and to heal than try to take out the bad guy's that night and possibly just get captured again. They find there belts and gloves stuffed inside a Jeep parked a bit away from the container used to imprison them (which now is locked with the mercenaries all inside, waiting for the cops Dick's about to call) and Dick pings for the Batmobile to their location after they do some basic first aid on their wounds. 

By the time Dick and Damian return to the cave, Dick's falling asleep on his feet, and he vaguely recognizes the symptoms of a concussion and of shock, but he forces himself to stay awake and doesn't even let Leslie give him any pain meds until he sees Alfred slipping sturdy braces on Damian's hands with the worst of the cuts cleaned and stitched up. 

Only after his Robin is safe does Dick let himself fall asleep. 

-o-o-o-o-

Damian sits next to Dick quietly, spinning his spoon around in his partly melted bowl of ice cream. He's just been put in the clear after much therapy on his thumbs a few days prior and they both are celebrating finally taking out the drug bust the night before. Dick sets his empty bowl to the side and leans back further into the cushions of the couch, mentally patting himself on the back. 

But then Damian speaks. 

"Father wouldn't have let us get captured."

Dick stiffens. He almost forgot how insistent Damian is with comparing Dick's "inepitcy" to Bruce's perfection. 

"D…"

"He would have found a way to get the criminals," Damian continues and each word is like a blow, a blow ringing with truth, as he too puts his ice cream bowl aside. Bruce probably would have found a way out of that. He most likely wouldn't even had fallen for the tricks Dick did. "And we would have taken them all down, together. Returned home with minimal injury."

Silence. A beat. Dick's heart is in his throat with shame.

"That's… what I keep trying to tell myself," Damian says, his voice going soft and quiet, whispered so Dick can hardly even hear what was said. 

"What… do you mean, Dami?"

"… It's my fault. I got us captured."

Dick leans forward and turns down the TV, resting his elbows on his knees and bending sideways to get the best look he can at his Robin. "What are you talking about?"

"If I hadn't…" Damian stops and licks his lips, nervous energy making him clasp his hands in front of him. Dick feels a pang of worry, he's never seen Damian like this. "If I hadn't gotten grabbed, you would have been able to take them all out. I should have been your support, not your burden. Robin protects Batman. It's my fault."

"Oh… Dami..." 

He almost expects Damian to resist when he brings his arms forward to embrace him, and tears almost fill his eyes the second when notices that Damian is already leaning towards his touch. He pulls Damian to his chest and holds him close, one hand slipping into Damian's hair and cradling his head into the crook of Dick's neck. He feels a tiny fist grab onto his shirt and he forces the sadness and worry and anger aside just to hold Damian, a kid who's only known his father for a few weeks, as tight as he dares.

Which is very tight. 

"It's not your fault," Dick says, conviction in his voice. "It's not Robin's job to protect Batman, it's exactly the other way around."

Dick didn't realize that himself until he became Batman. He always agreed with Robin's current standpoint. Jason agreed. Tim agreed. Steph did too. The point of Robin was to make sure Batman didn't go insane.

But once he pulled on the cowl, he finally saw how small a ten year old really is. He can only imagine how small nine year old Dick looked to Batman all those years ago. He can only imagine the pain in Bruce's heart whenever Dick proudly said that it's his job to protect him. 

Well, nevermind, right now he doesn't really need to imagine the pain. He's feeling it now. It's agonizing.

Children shouldn't fight wars. 

Unfortunately, they live in a world where they must.

"It's my job to make sure you're safe, Damian,  and I'm so… so proud of how you handled that night, broken thumbs and all. I'm proud of you. Your father would be too, if he was here."

Damian doesn't cry. Doesn't hiccup a sob. But Dick can feel his fist clench just a bit tighter around his shirt. So Dick holds him a bit closer, and hopes Damian believes him.

Then… very softly that Dick isn't even sure he heard it. 

"Father would be proud of you too, Grayson."

[runnfromtheak]

fanfic author’s tagging game (yay!)

Thank ya darling for tagging me!!!! @boyblunder-thedarkheir!!!!!

AO3 Name(s): LostandLonelyBirds aka RUNNFROMTHEAK

Fandom(s): Primarily Batfamily (so, Dick Grayson) and Young Justice (along with DCU obviously, but I also dabble into Miralculous Ladybug, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, and MCU (none of which I will ever seriously write for? Idk man).

Number of fics: 22 I will admit to (how do you have so many, my dear @boyblunder-thedarkheir​? What is your secret?)

1. Fic you spent the most time on: Are we talking writing or thinking about writing, cause those are two very different answers. I spent the most time writing this bitch of a fic I’m working on right now, and the most time thinking about the two latest installments of my main series, Death is But An Illusion (aka How Could He and How Could It Be). I agonize over every goddamn detail with Dick’s anger, Jason’s Jason-ness, and every person’s every move and word. I am a mess, and I’m going to be murdered if I don’t update them soon. I am not sorry about that XD

2. Fic you spent the least time on:  You Came Behind Me Secretly and Shattered Every Piece of Me (There's Blood On My Hands) aka my pick-your-own-canon clusterfuck of Dark!Dick Grayson and Dick Grayson being traumatized and tortured with no comfort (Some of them are so fucked up I question my own mind). I take less than an hour to write 80% of them, cause they’re short, and they very rarely take any time to plan. Fun and easy!

3. Longest Fic: At present, he had a chest full of heart and a body full of scars (pain became the only way that he could ever learn)  is my longest, but the fic I’ve been hinting at on my other tumblr, @lostandlonelybirds​ is easily double the length (why do I do this to myself? Why am I like this?) the long boi (named one, not the one I won’t shut up about) is easily my best fic at the moment, and I’m so excited to write a sequel whenever I get the chance.

4. Shortest Fic: With Bated Breath and Pain You See (We're Nothing More Than Memories) technically, I have one shorter than that, but it’s a collab that wasn’t my original idea so I’m not counting it :)

5. Most Hits: You Came Behind Me Secretly and Shattered Every Piece of Me (There's Blood On My Hands) why do you people like this trash-fire so much? I don’t understand

6. Most Kudos:  How Could He which does not surprise me.

7. Most Comment Threads: Technically, How Could He followed by the trash-fire AU title thing I’m too lazy to type again, but I’m gonna love on this one: Just Close Your Eyes (No One Can Hurt You Now) because it’s my baby, and it deserves it okay?

8. Fave Fic You Wrote: Ooo we are doing a top five.

             5. How Could It Be (Jason is precious and sad and Dick is oblivious, and I love one-sided pining wayyyy too much)

             4.  How Could He (I put my life force into this stupid fic, so ofc it’s here)

             3. I'm Scared to Live But I'm Scared to Die (I'm Numb Inside) (the suicidal boy, major trigger warning)

             2. I See Things That Nobody Else Sees (And It's Slowly Killing Me)  (the only fic I’ve ever written from Cass’s perspective, and definitely one of the creepiest and most fucked up. Bruce does not look good here)

             1. he had a chest full of heart and a body full of scars (pain became the only way that he could ever learn) (so ummm Bruce doesn’t look good here either? RHATO #25 if DC wasn’t cowardly and let Dick react how he actually would, aka fuck Batman is the new motto)

9. Rewrites?: Fuck. All my older ones? Everything? Who knows.

10. Share a bit of your WIP or share a story idea that you’re planning:

Let’s do two. I’m nice.

First comes from How Could It Be:

“You loved him,” Donna says, ignoring his barb. “You loved him, and no one’s seen you or heard from you and I’m concerned, damnit.”

 She punches his shoulder roughly, and he’s reminded of her strength, no matter how small she seems in her dead best friend’s sweater.

 “I’m fine. Peachy-keen. Couldn’t be fuckin’ better. Honestly, you should be more concerned with Replacement, don’t think he’s slept in—”

 “Jason.” Her voice is firm, even as her eyes swim with tears and she holds her arms tight to herself, breathing in the well-loved item’s scent. Jason wonders when Dick wore it last, if Donna had taken it from his abandoned Gotham Penthouse or his Chicago Apartment. He wonders if he’d left it draped over the couch, like the natural disaster he was, or if it had been folded neatly in a drawer.

For someone who prides himself on not being sentimental, Jason suddenly wishes he had something of Dick’s too.

 “I’m here because I care, and because if Dick was here, he’d be doing the same thing I am.”

 “But he ain’t here,” Jason snaps, “Is he?”

 Donna’s head falls, and he feels like a giant jerk. He just… reacts poorly to that name, hasn’t heard it spoken since the transmission and subsequent funeral, since the guy he’d had the hots for since wearing the scaly panties had his mask ripped away and his life taken in front of Bruce’s eyes (who, to absolutely no one’s surprise, failed to save his son).

In the aftermath, no one said Dick Grayson’s name, always Nightwing, or some inane nickname the superhero community had for him. Last time he said it was to Damian, a failed attempt at comfort. But even Jason’s form of mutual grieving had been better than any of Bruce’s shit ideas. Bastard immortalized the ripped costume from his own son’s corpse (not that it had been the first time) and hadn’t even had the decency to give it a plaque (No ‘Good Soldier’ or ‘Good Son’, just a bare glass case with a bloody suit). Which… was weird. Jason was far from B’s best friend, but even he noticed something seemed strange, off, just not quite right. Like the funeral he didn’t speak at, like the breakdown none of them had witnessed beyond a one-off rage fit

“B, what the fuck happened down here?”

The Batcave was a disaster, dents glaringly obvious in several vehicles and a large spiderweb crack across the Batcomputer. Bruce closes the screen down, but Jason manages to catch a spiraling eye.

“Nothing, just…”

Bruce looks at the spare Nightwing costume none of them had taken down yet, still clean and ready for use (too bad its owner died and would never wear it again).

“Dick?” Jason questions, and the way Bruce’s eyes snap to his face is almost suspicious, almost enough to arouse concern.

“Yes. I—”

Jason sits next to Bruce on the desk, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I miss him too, Old Man. Don’t mean you need to be an ass about it.”

 A memorial next to Jason’s own, but Dickhead’s is empty and broken from Damian’s fists and grief, and Jason’s is just gone. No one told him why, it was just gone.

Kind of like Dick.

He wonders if Bruce would have told him if the video hadn’t been broadcast, if he would’ve told anyone. B did love his fuckin’ secrets.

 “No,” she whispers, and he can hear the tears in her voice, can feel her grief as keenly as his own. It’s palpable, tangible, “He’s dead, and I’m alive, and I don’t know how to handle it.”

 And then, to Jason’s mounting horror, she starts crying openly.

…..

Second comes from my one I’m working on rn with Stray!Dick called I See Sunset In Your Eyes (I Hate This Part Right Here)

“Come on,” Wally says with a pout, dragging an overly amused Jason and Dick with him through the karaoke bar doors. “Donna and Roy are waiting for us, and Dick had to take forever to primp.”

 Dick shrugs with a grin.

 “Beauty takes time, time I can tell you did not take.”

 Jason snorts, and Wally glares at him.

 “At least I don’t take five hours to finish getting ready.”

 “At least I can last longer than five minutes.”

 “Ouch!” Roy butts in, throwing an arm around Jason and Dick’s shoulders. “Claws are out tonight!”

 “Speaking from experience?” Jason asks, eyebrow raised.

 Dick smirks without comment, sauntering past the group towards the table Donna’s lounging at.

 “Hey gorgeous twin of mine,” He greets with a kiss to her eyes. She smirks, rolling her eyes at him.

 “You’re just stroking your own ego with the twin tacked on, Wonder Boy.”

 Dick bumps his shoulder against hers.

 “Can’t I stroke both our egos?”

 “You can stroke mine,” Wally mutters, turning red when Stray winks at his phrasing. Jason and Roy both facepalm, groaning. “Not what I meant guys!”

 “Why Kid Idiot,” Dick replies, hand on his heart, “I had no idea you could be so forward~!”

 Wally glares, waving over the waitress.

 “Round of shots, on this dick,” he jerks his thumb at Stray, offering up his fake ID. She doesn’t bother checking it, probably because this is Gotham, and they were all in uniform. “Whisky, please.”

 “Trying to get me drunk?” Jason jokes. It is, after all, his first big outing with the Titans for non-mission reasons. Stray had practically dragged him out of the Manor with a wink at Alfred and a middle finger for Bruce, saying that Jason needed to have fun outside of books.

Jason knows better than arguing with Dick Grayson-Kyle when he wants something, Stray trained him well.

 “Of course, Batboy,” Roy replies, “It’s not a Titans outing if Stray is fully dressed and everyone’s sober.”

 Dick shrugs.

 “You’ll have to get some real liquor in me if you want me to do anything like last time.”

 “Last time?” Jason asks, looking to Donna for an answer. Dick snorts. You get near naked one time…

 “Boy Blunder ended up in just his boxers in a dancing cage drunk of his ass. Everyone thought he was one of the strippers, and he made, what, three-hundred dollars in bills?”

 “Five-hundred,” Dick replies proudly, offering the waitress a twenty as she came back with their drinks. “Keep the change, darlin’!” He adds with a wink.

 She flushes, making Jason frown.

 Stray, of course, notices this and elbows Jason.

 “Don’t get jealous, Blue Jay, it’s not becoming.”

 Jason does not blush. He doesn’t, and that’s the hill he will die on.

 “I’m not. On an unrelated note, pass me a shot.”

Jason is the master of changing the subject, Stray thinks sarcastically, passing him a shot and downing one of his own.

 “Five bucks says alley cat blacks out,” Roy says smugly as Dick makes a face, the way he always did with heavier liquors. He glares at the redhead, who shrugs unapologetically.

 Donna eyes them both speculatively, taking a sip of her own drink.

 “Twenty says he gives a lap dance before he blacks out.”

 Roy snorts.

 “I’ll take it,” and to Dick, “Don’t do it, for me.”

 Dick bats his eyes innocently.

 “Lil’ old me? I would never do something so…” He trails a finger down Roy’s chest, making him swallow roughly. “Scandalous.”

 Donna grins victoriously as Roy groans, trying and failing to hide his excitement.

 “I hate you. I hate you both.”

 Tagging whoever sees this, I suppose? 

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Burnt Bacon pt 2

Shortly after Young Justice: Outsiders, The Light Finds Wally West first. 

“I need you to sit down.” 

Dick does so automatically. “Is it a surprise?” he asks his girlfriend playfully. “Is it cake?” 

Barbara looks at him sympathetically. “It’s not cake.” 

“Is it... Lucky Charms?” Dick asks. “Frosted Mini-Wheats?” 

“Dick,” Barbara says. “I need you to take this seriously.” 

He watches her carefully, and it quickly dawns on him that yes, there is something wrong.

Something very wrong. 

“On a scale of dis to aster...what are we talking about here?” he asks, reaching over and taking her hands. 

She squeezes his gently before shifting her chair back towards her computer screens and pulling up a grainy feed from…

“Whoa…” Dick marvels as he gets up to look over her shoulder. “Is that the League of Shadows?” 

“It is,” Barbara confirms, zooming the image closer on Ra’s and Talia. “They’re having a naming ceremony. Inducting a new high-ranking member. Someone they trust. Someone the Team and the League are probably going to face in the not-too-distance future.” 

“They get new members all the time,” Dick comments. “Who’s the new guy?” 

“They’re calling him the Majhul,” Barbara tells him. “Loosely translated from Arabic: The Nameless.” 

“Heh,” Dick chuckles. “Naming ceremony for the Nameless. Always knew Ra’s had a dad joke or two...in...his…” he stops talking, and reaches forward, zooming in on the Nameless, staring hard. 

Barbara takes a breath. “This is why I wanted you to sit down.” 

“It can’t be.” 

“Dick…” 

“That’s not possible,” Dick snaps. “That’s not...it can’t be him.” 

“I’ve run some facial recognition,” Barbara says. “It’s a match.” 

“Run it again.” 

“Dick-” 

“Run it again!” 

Barbara swallows and turns back to the computer, zooming in on the face of the man on her feed. 

Early twenties. Red hair. Green eyes. Strong jaw. 

When the program finishes running, it pops with the data. 

                                     MATCH: Wallace West.

“I’m sorry, Dick,” Barbara says gently. “But it could be anything. It could be a Cadmus clone or…” she turns, realizing that he’s gone. “Dick?” 

***** 

Bruce isn’t particularly surprised to see Dick.

But not much surprises him to begin with. 

“Tell me you didn’t know.” 

Bruce pulls back the cowl and steps past his oldest ward towards the bat computer. “You’ll have to be more specific.” 

“Tell me you didn’t know Wally West had been nabbed by the Shadows.” 

Dick sounds angry and desperate and wrecked. Like he’s gone through the stages of grieving all over again in the span of an hour. 

But Bruce can’t tell Dick he didn’t know. 

He knew. 

“You son of a bitch,” Dick snarls. “You knew.” 

“I knew that they had what appeared to be someone that looked like the original Kid Flash,” Bruce tells him. “What I wasn’t certain of was whether it was a trap or not. I was waiting. Waiting for them to send that operative out into the field, so we could be certain.” 

“You said nothing. You did nothing. God knows what they’ve done to him and-” 

“And I said nothing to keep you and the original team from getting yourselves killed,” Bruce says firmly. “You and Artemis would have gone in half-cocked, with Miss Martian and Superboy and Aqualad trying to keep you from dying, and your mission to save him would have failed. You are too close to this, Dick.” 

“Too-!” Dick swallows hard. 

“Dick,” Bruce says gently. “He was your best friend. Your childhood best friend. The first friend you made after the death of your parents. How could you not be too close to this?” 

“I have to save him,” Dick says brokenly. “Babs ran facial recognition, it’s him. I have to save him.” 

**** 

“Your first assignment,” Ra’s says, handing him a photo. “Is to kill this man. It should be quite simple. He has spent a long time out of his little tights, and his death will serve as suitable punishment for a former operative of ours who should know better.” 

The man in the photo is large, but kind-looking. Red hair. Beard. 

Ra’s rests a hand on his shoulder. “Bring me his head.” 

He nods. 

“Yes, Master.” 

***** 

 “This is insane.” 

“It’s him.” 

“Dick…” 

He rounds on Kaldur, eyes blazing. “It’s him! Look at it! The facial recognition-” 

“This is a trap,” Artemis snaps. She looks angry, ready to punch Dick, but he keeps pushing. 

“They would have made a play by now if it were!” Dick cries. “The Shadows have been quiet for months. Too quiet. Because they’ve been hiding him!” 

“It’s not him,” Kaldur says gently. “My friend, I know you want to believe...but...This is likely a trick. Of magic or machinery, I do not know, but-” 

“You won’t even entertain the possibility that it’s really him?” Dick asks, looking around at them, turning to Zatanna, M’gann and Conner. “What about you three?” 

M’gann frets, glancing at Conner, obviously having a telepathic conversation, before turning back to Dick. “It’s...unlikely that it’s really him. And even if it is...there’s no telling what shape he’s in. If he’s in this deep with the Shadows, the chances he even remembers who we are-” 

“It’s not him,” Artemis snaps, glowering at Dick. “And the fact that you, of all people, would be taken in by Ra’s Al Ghul’s obvious trap-” 

“Give me one good reason why it’s not him?” Dick asks.

“Because he’s dead!” Artemis blurts out. 

“And what if he’s not?!” 

“Believe me, he is,” Artemis tells him, looking him in the eyes.  

“Dick…” Zatanna says gently. “I know how much you want to believe…” 

“Fine,” Dick snaps. “Fine. Whether he’s a clone, or the real thing, he doesn’t deserve  whatever the Shadows have done to him. I’m going to get him. Are any of you coming with me?”

No one gets a chance to respond. Their communicators all go off: high priority. 

Dick picks his up, engaging the speaker option. “Nightwing to Watchtower-” 

“It’s NOT The Watchtower,” Will Harper’s voice wheezes. “I was just attacked in my own home. By a ghost. Get your asses over here now.” 

***** 

His first attempt...unsuccessful. 

He’s not certain why.

Looking into the man’s eyes...he just…

Didn’t want to kill him, suddenly. 

Hm. 

Regroup. 

Try again.

***** 

They help Will into a chair. He’s bleeding from his nose and mouth, and he’s got at least a couple of broken ribs and a sprained wrist. 

He coughs and sits back, looking up at the six of them. 

“Would one of you like to tell me why a dead man just tried to kill me?” 

They all look at each other. 

Dick is grinning. “It’s him.” 

“It is not. Him,” Artemis snaps. 

Kaldur sighs and looks to Will. “I am sorry. Dick received intel that the Shadows have trained a new operative. One that looks hauntingly like our deceased friend. 

“Because it’s him!” Dick repeats. 

“Wally is alive?” Will asks, looking emotional. “But-” 

“He isn’t,” Artemis snaps. “Wally is dead.” 

“We don’t actually know that,” Conner points out slowly. “There was no body, after all…” 

“No,” Artemis tells them. “Zatanna sent me to Limbo to see him. He’s...he’s gone.” 

M’gann cringes. “Actually…” 

Conner closes his eyes. “M’gann. Tell me you didn’t.” 

“It’s on me, Conner,” Zatanna says quickly. “M’gann went along with my plan.” 

“Plan?!” Artemis yells. “What plan!? What did you do?!” 

“Hello!” Dick cries. “Guys, we have a brainwashed killer speedster on the loose! We have to find him before he does any more damage!” 

***** 

Barry punches Bruce in the jaw, sending the Batman reeling back from the Flash’s force and speed. 

“You KNEW?!” 

“I was biding-” 

“You knew,” Barry points at him accusingly. “And you didn’t say a word!” 

“What matters now is that we find him,” Kaldur says firmly. “Nightwing and Miss Martian are tracking him down.” 

“What about Tigress?�� Green Arrow asks, looking concerned. 

“She’s...taken herself out of the equation,” Kaldur tells them, before turning to Zatanna. “What did you do?” 

“She was threatening to go to Mordu,” Zatanna explains. “Ask him to send her to the spirit world to see Wally one last time. But...but nobody can do that. Not even Fate can do that.” 

Doctor Fate nods. “It’s true. It is an impossible task. The most likely outcome is the spirit being pulled from the body for good. He would have killed her.” 

“So…” Zatanna goes on. “I...asked M’gann to set up an arena in Artemis’ mind. A space where she could really process her grief. Come to terms with that loss. Gain closure once and for all. She wasn’t mind controlled. Nothing was suggested to her subliminally. But we thought telling her would do more harm than good...letting her believe it was really him…” 

“Is a lie,” Conner snaps. “You lied to her. And about this? You’re supposed to be her friends.” 

“You know what, Conner?” Zatanna snaps, clearly over his attitude. “It was either try to do something to help her, or let her go to someone who would have gotten her killed. She left us very little choice.” 

Conner glowers at her. “At least the choice would have been hers.” 

***** 

“You should have tried harder to talk Artemis down,” Dick says over their psychic link. “Lying to her was wrong.” 

“She didn’t leave us much choice,” M’gann says sadly. “My worst fear was that she’d go to Mordu or Klarian, and they would...they would bring Wally back.” 

“Why would that have been a bad thing?” 

“Haven’t you ever paid attention to Zatanna when she talks about these things? He would have come back wrong,” M’gann explains. “Look at the mess we’re in now. Wherever he was, he clearly did come back wrong.” 

“We can get him back,” Dick tells her as they move quietly through Star City’s streets. 

“What if we can’t?” 

“We can-” 

“But what if we can’t?” M’gann asks. “What if...what if this is just who he is now? What if there’s nothing left of the Wally we knew and loved?” 

Dick stops running, turning to glower at her. “Listen to me. Wally is our friend. And he’s alive. We will get him back.” 

“Dick-” 

“I will get him back.” 

[pinkcurse]

270 Thoughts

Holy long post, Batman! Be prepared to stay awhile! 

The title for this months thoughts is pretty accurate… I have about 270 thoughts about this chapter. So, of course, it’s Kana. I said Kana was the obvious choice, but now I have some more insight on why, from a story perspective, Nakamura is doing this. The purpose is to draw a contrast between Kana’s “obvious” maturity and Kyoko’s “immaturity”. So, I think we are gearing up to see some changes in Kyoko. I use the quotes on obvious for Kana because...I’m pretty sure she set this up after Ren walks her to the car in chapter 259 we see the image below.

A fellow member of the Facebook group pointed this out. Which pretty much conclusively points to this being a setup. There are three pictures taken at a private club. So, it had to be someone on the inside that took them. So the question is, is she doing this to stay relevant or to try to trap Ren into a relationship by showing him: “Hey! You’re the number 1 man, I’m the number 1 woman, we should be together! All of Japan supports us so why shouldn’t we be together!”  Or most likely, it’s a little bit of both. Regardless, I suspect that Kana will be around a bit more often now since Ren isn’t dispelling the rumors and he will probably refuse to be anything but polite, I can see things getting more dramatic from here.

Soooo if Kana is sniffing around Ren she is bound to run into Kyoko. With her using this type of manipulation I get the impression that Kana won’t deal well with a rival for Ren’s affections. She seems like she will know right away that Kyoko is a real threat to her plans and she will try to take her out. This most likely would be pitting each other as rivals in the eyes of the people. For example, in the tabloids, she makes Kyoko out to be a homewrecker.  Just a young girl who is immature and doesn’t know what she’s doing. The fact that Kyoko has only played bully roles will probably factor into her manipulation of the public. Setting all of the above aside, I think the point of this whole thing will be to make Kyoko mature. To finally start seeing herself as a REAL rival for Ren. Lory might even play the “You’re letting him go without a fight?” card because we all know that that isn’t Kyoko...You know… I think it would be better if Maria was the one who said this to Kyoko… honestly can’t you all see it? Annny way… on to other things

So the Okami’s reactions, saying the things about older women and I think has two purposes. First, I think she is relieved that Ren has someone who is older...because to her that means Kyoko is safe. Toshio is the only one to suspect Ren’s duplicitous nature and I think he sees that Ren has feelings for Kyoko and he doesn’t like this. Also, her reaction serves the purpose of letting Kyoko know people, in general, approve of this match between Ren and Kana.

As far as Yashiro’s plans to ignore it and hope it goes away are pretty stupid. Then again, he doesn't have any experience (that we know of) dispelling these types of rumors. As I said before, I think this rumor mill is going to get worse before it gets better and I think a large part will be because Yashiro’s ignore it and hope it goes away strategy. Seriously, I am feeling like we will see Kana again before the year is out. Probably doing something that furthers the rumors. She gives me the impression that she is like an older version of Kimiko.  Does anyone else feel that way? Like Kimiko’s blog was “Ren took me on a date!....JUST KIDDING” Kana will just do something that makes Ren look like they are meeting for a romantic interlude and let the paparazzi do its thing. She’s a more subtle snake. To add a bit more validity to this thought Chapter 258 is both the chapter where Kana is first introduced, and she kisses him AND it is the chapter where Kimiko tries to throw Kyoko off the building. The name of the chapter is Hungry Ghost. Initially, I was thinking it referred to Kimiko, but now I think it was talking about both women.

Alright, the girl’s at Kyoko’s set. Their purpose is similar to the Okami’s, to let Kyoko know that people, in general, approve of the match. But they add another layer to it. One of them says if it’s someone their age or younger, they would be pissed off. Why? Because that could have been them. We know Kyoko is probably about their age or a bit younger so this is just another strike against Kyoko and she hasn’t even begun to battle for Ren’s heart. Also, the comment at the end of their conversation about Kana’s “skills” and the innuendo that implied, that will probably come up between the two again as well, especially after the whole hicky thing… and Kyoko having no experience with men. However, the one thing Kyoko and Ren have going for each other (not that Kyoko or those girls know it) is their shared past. Ren, if he is forced to out himself as Kuon can always sell the story of him and Kyoko being destined to be together type thing.

Now on to Lory. I am so happy to see him again but OF COURSE, HE CALLED REN AND LAUGHED! I wouldn’t expect any different reaction from him to be honest. I read some speculation on the Facebook group that Lory might have set this up, but I doubt it. I think that was all Kana. Remember Lory said he hates when love dramas unfold according to his script, they don’t do anything for him that way. No, he is gonna let these two idiots do their thing. Maybe he might nudge like he did with the photo of Kyoko and Sho but I don’t think he would be so blatant as this. It could just be to talk to her about everything that is going on with Ren but I think (hope?) the reason he and Swara are looking for Kyoko is for a Love Me job. We do see her in the side story (which I’ve said over and over that I think happens sometime AFTER this “day”) in her Love Me uniform. I also suspect (more like hope against all hope) that that Love Me job involves Kuu and Juli. I think if ANYONE can help Kyoko learn to love her self and give her the battle armor she needs to fight for Ren it would be Juli. Honestly, with the article coming out I can see Juli losing her will power and hoping the first flight she can to Japan. Especially if she thinks her boy is in love or in danger from someone else. I don’t think Kuu picked up on Ren’s feelings for Kyoko so I doubt he could have relayed them to Juli but she might have enough intuition to be suspicious of what Ren’s feelings for Kyoko might be. If Juli and Kuu come to Tokyo, THIS might be the unexpected result. Also if they come, and the press is digging into Ren’s life looking for more proof of the rumor, Ren might find his secret being outed before he tells Kyoko. Which… you know… DRAMA! We know Nakamura likes to torture us so….

Lastly, the GPS tracker on Kyoko’s phone. Remember Kyoko has a company phone, not a personal one so it does make some sense for the company to be able to track it. I don’t expect this is because Lory wants to mess with Ren and Kyoko but that it will be important later in the story. If Ren’s secret does come out through the press (and he doesn’t tell her first) maybe she runs off back to Kyoto and they use the GPS to track her down? Or maybe someone “kidnaps” her. Nakamura hasn’t used that trope yet and it’s pretty standard in Shojo manga, so it could be that as well.

Now that I have written almost two full pages of a Google doc about Skip Beat! instead of doing my homework for grad school I am gonna get out. Let me know what you think!

[sick-raven]

Ghosts of the Past - Chapter 6

Chapter 1 + warnings

AO3

Previous chapter

Chapter 6

Banshee had enough of everyone’s shit. It was a week since the wild night. She’s seen Jonathan two times since. They talked about what happened thoroughly. They were adults and as adults they faced the new relationship. First time they met in his office for an appointment. So, they talked hard on the table. The other day he visited her in the shop. So, they also talked through and through in the backroom.

Always so weird. He didn’t want her to touch him and he never took any piece of clothing off. He had issues.

And then there were these motherfuckers. It was clear the hunt wasn’t over, but now they came hard as if the bounty doubled. She fended of three just this week.

“Tell me who sent you,” she demanded dangling a man of the roof. She held him by his shirt over the edge. One wrong move and they will both fly down and pancake on the pavement.

He whimpered but didn’t say anything.

“Talk, or you are flying off here!”

“I don’t know! They never told us who they are!”

“Bye then.”

“No, please!!”

“Banshee, stop.”

And now this jerk tried to ruin her day too! Why did she ever thought she liked Gotham? This was a hellhole that painted a target on her back and sent the Bat to stop her from scratching it off.

“This is self-defence,” she said and looked at Batman. “You can’t blame me for that.”

“Let him go.”

“Not until I know who made bounty on me!”

“I don’t know, please, it’s online!” cried the man. His face was red and wet. Only thing missing was him calling for his mommy.

“Where?”

“The Gotham bounty.”

“Are you serious? You have a page for that?” Banshee turned to Batman.

“Not that I know of,” he said.

“Now you do,” she snapped. “One has to be a hacker in this fucking town.” She tucked the man in and let him go. He stumbled on his legs and ran as fast as he could. Two shadow figures let him pass through them and disappeared in puff of smoke.

Oh, yeah, the shadow figures were prominent now. She felt them breathing on her neck. That also pissed her off.

“Leave me alone. I didn’t kill anyone,” she hushed the Bat.

“I know. I wanted to talk to you about your contact with Jonathan Crane.”

“You are a voyeur now, great.”

“He’s a dangerous man, Miranda. You shouldn’t get close to him.”

“So am I. Next?”

“I’ve seen this before. I don’t want you to fall in the trap of wanting to change him.”

“Oh, for fucks sake!” she shouted throwing her arms in the air. Metropolis sounded great. Calm city, no targets, no Batshrinks to assume what she thinks or does. No crazy guys and no… who is she kidding, the shadows will follow. “I am not stupid, B. He is not fixable. Just like me. Or you. None of us gets better, that’s why we do what we do!”

He went silent and changed the subject. “About the ritual…”

“It went nowhere.”

“I think it cleared many things.”

“Magic doesn’t exist. I am just schizo or something.”

“Magic is real, Miranda. In this world it shouldn’t surprise you.”

“Are you finished? I have forums to find.”

“I’m trying to help.”

“Everyone tries to help, and nobody asks if I want it. I don’t. Get off my back.”

She stomped away like a small angry child. She wanted to blame her mood on a moon, or the period, or the fact she didn’t sleep two nights. She couldn’t. She was angry at her incompetence to find the fucker trying to kill her.

And maybe also Jonathan.

Fuck it all.

She just wanted to sleep.

***

That’s how Jonathan found her. Bend over her laptop, hell in her eyes, typing furiously a step away from punching the keyboard.

“Is this how you scare off customers?” he asked.

She nearly killed him with her stare. “Get out. Now.”

“That’s no way to greet guests.”

“I sweat to god, Jonathan, leave now. I have no control,” she snapped at him.

“Yes, I noticed. I will leave the talk for later.”

She turned her attention back to the laptop, hitting enter so hard it was a miracle it didn’t jump out.

“What are you searching?”

“Will you just shut up?”

Jonathan was not phased. He came here with semi-good intentions. Now she ruined it. She was confrontational before, but this was another level. He didn’t know what stressed her that much, but he hated this. Raw anger was disgusting and made his skin crawl. He despised the lack of self-control. Grandma used to be angry a lot, but never for the reason she claimed. And it was Jonathan who got hit by the fury.

That’s why he didn’t bother listening to Miranda. Her fury hurt, but not as deep as grandma’s.

He walked around the counter and looked over her shoulder. She stiffened. Jonathan would take a punch if necessary.

“What do you need bounty for?”

“None of your business.”

“This is not how you look for it,” he commented. “Let me.”

She watched his fingers run on the keyboard. He knew the site very well. He got paid many times through this and he also found many henchmen there. People in Gotham were willing to take money for anything.

“What are you looking for?”

She stared at him enraged.

“I am trying to help, Miranda.”

She scoffed and folded her arms on her chest.

“I wanna know who’s trying to kill me.”

So that’s what’s been eating her out. For a minute he thought he had something to do with this. Shame, he didn’t left much impact on her. “Let me see.”

He ran through the website. “You cannot find names here, just information. But I know a guy who knows a gal… you know how it is. Hm, the bounty on you is solid. I would be interested if I didn’t know better.”

“Do you ever get tired of listening to yourself?”

“Sometimes. I will get the name for you.”

“I can do it myself.”

“I don’t doubt that.” He closed the laptop and turned to her. “You need sleep.”

“I am…”

“Doctor’s order.”

“That bad, huh?”

Yeah, she really looked exhausted. Black circles under her eyes and tremble in one hand. She broke herself to avoid breaking herself. He wondered whether the bounty was only thing that bothered her, but he didn’t ask. She will spill the beans eventually, she had talent for going straight to the point.

“Yes,” he answered.

“I cannot sleep, they…”

“Nobody will hurt you, I’ll take care of it.”

“Unless you do it.”

He sighed. He was a fiend. Fucked up in the head. But he wasn’t this. Using visible weakness was tempting but breaking them strong had more appeal. He wanted to help. He liked her fighting spirit, not this.

“You don’t need to trust me. But you do need sleep.”

Miranda shook uncomfortably and surrendered. “Fine. I will go home and have a rest. Your out of character care convinced me.”

“Let me take you there.”

She looked at him resignation in her eyes. “You mean it?”

“Yes.”

That’s how he ended up sitting on her couch, reading her disturbing collection of slushy romance and watching her over as she collapsed on her bed with silent ding.

***

This was embarrassing. Miranda got up early in the morning feeling much better just to find Jonathan sleeping in her living room. Good way to get them both killed, but also very awkward because she didn’t really believe he will stay there.

He looked almost innocent.

Why is everything in her life an almost?

Silently she moved to the kitchen to prepare quick breakfast for both. She tried to be as silent as possible but when she entered living room Jonathan was already up. Miranda didn’t know what to say so she just put the plate down.

“Do you feel better?” he asked after a minute has passed without a word.

“Yes,” she warmed her hands on a cup of tea. “Thank you, Jonathan. I snapped.”

“Do you do that often?”

“Yeah, I do. Some small shit goes wrong, I get angry and I start to make mistakes. That’s why I move places so often.”

He nodded. “Have you taken the pills I gave you?”

“No.” He left that without comment, but Miranda felt need to defend her decision. Did it really matter what he thinks? “I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t trust you either,” he agreed, “and we shouldn’t.”

This mutual agreement calmed her a little. They understood each other. “I owe you one.”

“You shouldn’t say that, or I will take you seriously.”

“You are right. I will owe you one if you get me the name.”

Jonathan smiled amused. “Miss Bradbury, we just talked about trust.”

“Business works differently.”

“You do not have sex with your business partners.”

“Says who?” she laughed, and he raised his eyebrows. “I’m just kidding. Maybe.”

“Anyways,” he continued with coldness in his voice – just a bit, she would almost miss it. “I will see what I can do. You take care of yourself, Miranda. And take your meds.”

“Sure, doc.”

***

Terry Borrows entered their shitty apartment with even shittier mood. Another day, another failed job hunt.

“I’m sorry, your crime record speaks against you.”

“Here you write you can’t stand loud noises. This work position is not for you.”

“Sorry, mate, not enough experience.”

“Are you Mexican?”

“We don’t hire killers.”

Terry collapsed in the armchair and sighed in frustration. You witness one fucking murder and you are fucked! You have to lower yourself to work for crime lords. Terry didn’t want to. They wanted some normal work without heavy machinery.

But no, the police still suspected them, so now they were unemployed, in debt and with eviction note on the table.

“Fuck this,” Terry said to the room. “Fuck it all!”

“You won’t suffer for long,” said a voice.

Terry jumped on their feet and turned around. Nobody was there. What? They searched the room with their eyes. Empty.

“Who said that?!”

Feeling of being watched crawled on their back. The room was lit and nobody else was there. Terry shook scared. They had to be hearing things. Nothing happened. Everything is fine.

They finally calmed down a bit although the tight chest, bound by nervousness, stayed. They’ll make coffee, and all will be fine.

Ding.

Terry froze.

Knife appeared on their neck and Terry screamed. Hand held their mouth.

“You do not fuck with death ghost, haven’t you heard, Terry?” whispered Banshee behind them. Terry whimpered ready for a pain and the end. “When you hear her come, you die.”

Tears ran on their face.

“I am a curious ghost, you know? I will let you talk. But you scream once and you die, Terry, understand?”

They nodded carefully not to cut their neck. Tight grip disappeared and a shove sent them on the ground. Terry turned. Over them stood a woman with scarf. The same one they’ve seen weeks back.

“Please, I…”

“Terry Borrows,” she said their name as if she was tasting it. “Who are you? You are not the League, or you’d find me right away. I don’t know you. Why do you want me dead?”

Terry felt their body tremble to the bone, but they felt like they are not there. The body wasn’t theirs. They focused only on her. She found them. She will kill them. Like she did to that guy before. No mercy. Their damn shitty life will be over.

“Speak!” she commanded.

Terry yelped and then unsure of what to say, tears started to pour from their eyes. The woman stood there, waiting, her stare ready to give them heart attack. Terry opened mouth several times, but shock wouldn’t let them speak so they looked like a fish out of water gasping for air.

Banshee put the knife to other hand and took out a gun.

“Please!” Terry finally managed. “I… I…” They couldn’t say it. She will kill them. “You…”

“Yes?”

“You ruined my life. Everyone… Everyone think I killed that guy! I got fired! The bill are crazy!”

“So you have money to pay for bounty and not for life, hm?”

Terry fell silent. How could they explain they got drunk and in revenge fit put out the bounty? And when they sobered up, they decided to leave it there and decided to run away or die trying without paying it?

“Sob story,” commented Banshee. “Your life turned bad, so you want to blame someone. I don’t do those. You fucked with wrong person.”

Terry closed their eyes.

“Oh no, not so easy. You take down the bounty first.”

“I can’t…”

“Excuse me?”

“I can’t do it from here. I can’t…”

Banshee frowned. Then she hid her gun and knife.

“You might have bought a day. Pull down the bounty. Don’t try to run. I will find you. I will…” just for a second she turned her gaze to corner and shook her head. “I will hunt you down. You better do what I say, and I might feel generous.”

Terry nodded fast.

“I will find you later.”

Terry sobbed a bit and their vision blurred. When they cleared the tears from their eyes, Banshee was gone.

***

Visiting Jonathan now was a lottery. Before she didn’t know what to expect but the options were limited. Now they grew and Miranda never knew what to prepare for. But what he started today, she wouldn’t foretold at all.

“We need to talk.”

She nearly choked on her drink. Talk? Now? Really? She took him for the type that will do things and when they stop being to his liking, he will just stop. No need to talk there.

“About what?” she cleared her throat.

“There are more things. Let me start with the simplest one. Did you find them?”

“Terry? Yes,” she nodded. “I have yet to kill them, but the bounty is off. For now.”

“I took you for hit first, ask question later kind of woman.”

“It depends. I needed to cancel the bounty. Terry doesn’t really bother me. Plus, I am sucker for helping poor. Kill, earn money, donate to charity sort of thing. Terry is in bad place. I might reconsider. I will see.”

“Interesting.”

“You are starting to scare me now with these comments.”

“Nervous, are you?”

“I didn’t expect any serious talks. What’s next?”

Jonathan smiled a little. “What are we doing?”

“You tell me. I don’t mind continuing with this. But I feel there is more in the air. I just don’t know what.”

“Can you even feel attachment, Miranda? Affection?”

“I don’t know. Can you?”

“I try not to.”

The words were said. They left her a lot to think about. Could she like him? Could she replace the common feeling she lacked with something? Loyalty maybe? Damn him and his stupid mind games. She liked him more when he fucked her in the backroom. No questions, no talks.

“Let’s not push anything, Jonathan. It’s not worth it.”

“I agree.”

Relief. Yes, it’s better not to overthink. Just let it flow, it will sort itself out eventually.

“Last thing.” He didn’t even stop to think. “You should take the pills.”

Miranda never opened the bottle. Reason stopped her. Possible consequences too. Jonathan could have lied. He wouldn’t poison her, just mess her up. Miranda, you wanted that, remember? But right now, that was low on her list. Shadows occupied the first five positions and she worried drugs would only worsen them.

“I don’t know what they will do,” she avoided saying the truth.

“I told you. They can awake your emotions.” He poured another drink just to put his hands to work. “Don’t you want that?”

Again, that weird idea she had – he also avoided something. Didn’t they just agree to let it flow? Damn him. “Maybe. But are you telling the truth? Remember the trust?”

“I do. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have a suggestion.”

“Your suggestions always end up either in a fight or sex.”

“I would like to avoid both tonight.”

“Now I am curious,” she laughed.

“I’ll take it first.”

She fell silent. That was… unexpected. She never heard of psychiatrist just suggesting that. Then again, she never fucked her shrinks. This was also the first time she has became a pet project. Somehow she felt she needs to accept just to make him happy. And to bring herself to trust him. Enforce the bound.

She would rather go for that fuck now.

Aaaagh, think, Miranda! Is this a game again? What will be the consequences? Can you even afford consequences when the ghosts are following?

“Are you okay taking your own medicine?” she asked.

“I test it on myself sometimes when I am sure there are no side effects. If I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have suggested it. I want you to trust the meds. Not just my word.”

“Okay. I think I would like that.”

“I just have to warn you. I talk way too much when drugged,” he joked.

“All you say will be used against you hundred percent. Just so you know the risk.”

“It’s worth it.”

“Enough of this sentiment,” she grinned with arms folded. It made her think, she hated that. She felt she could get attached, if the ghosts just left her alone. “I still have them, if you want to do it now.”

“Are you just carrying them around?”

“Have you never heard of woman’s purse?”

“And its never-ending space?”

“Yes!”

Jonathan laughed a little. “Yes, I am willing.”

Miranda was still unsure, but she fetched the medication. Questions ran through her head. Manipulation was one of them. Be wary of the good doctor. The good doctor is a freak. Shadows hoovered at the back of the room and silently agreed.

She needs them gone!

Jonathan accepted the bottle and just took one pill. So simple. Hard evidence that he didn’t give her anything bad. He handed her the bottle back.

“Did you test this one before?” Miranda asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you keep composure?”

“Partially. It doesn’t change your thinking, it just mixes your emotions. Often positively but not always.”

“Okay.”

They didn’t talk for a while. Miranda was waiting for anything to happen. Jonathan just rested in his chair. At one point he frowned and clenched his fists, but that was it.

“You make it look easy,” said Miranda.

“It’s just uncomfortable since you are watching.”

“I noticed. You don’t like people, do you?”

“Are you using the talking against me, Miranda?”

“Yes,” she grinned. “Spill the beans, Jonathan.”

He scoffed. “No, I don’t like people. They always turn on you, always hate you. There is no good. All is just façade helping them to get something from you.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“I never met anyone who wouldn’t use me. Did you?”

“I am a tool.”

“See,” he said victoriously.

“Is that…” she waved her hand a bit. Jonathan gave her weird stare, but the ghost disappeared. “Why you don’t like being touched?”

Jonathan rested his head on his hand. “No, you misunderstood. I like getting touched just like any other man.”

“So, what’s the deal?”

He really tried to hold himself together but little tick here and there and foot tapping gave away his rising emotions. Annoyance? Excitement? She couldn’t tell.

“My grandma was a fanatic. Religious zealot. She…” he reached for a glass and drank away the sore throat. “When she didn’t like something, she decided to shun the devil away.”

Jonathan fell silent, nervous ticks more often. He avoided eye contact. That was a first. He always held it over her like a weapon and now he was looking anywhere but at her.

“She’d close me in the old church. And the crows there would attack me. She trained them like dogs. Pecked meat of the body.”

Now it was her who shivered.

“So,” she said, “lanky and scarred.”

He raised his eyes with spark of anger.

“That’s what you don’t like. Being seen,” she concluded. “I just thought you were kinky. You are not really into unconscious ladies.”

“No.”

“You could just turn off the light.”

“The feel is still there. You can recognize the scars by touching them.”

Miranda scratched her head awkwardly. “You go to great lengths just to hide that. Just… it’s all fucked up, sorry.”

He shrugged but looked out of windows. Miranda felt like shit. She opened the can of worms and now they were crawling everywhere, and she tried to pick them one by one. Say something, girl. Can’t you see this is your only chance to pry?

“Are you okay, Jonathan?”

“No,” he answered.

“I will leave you alone.”

She was ready to leave. “No, please, stay,” he stopped her and reached his hand to her. She hesitated for a second. They cannot be saved. They cannot be changed. Nothing in this world will fix whatever they became and why they became it didn’t matter.

She just sat next to him, held his hand and let him suffer in silence

Next chapter

[sassycassie-s-series]

All My Fault 32

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

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

Rating: PG-11/T- (for implied mature themes but nothing explicit)

Notes: (Masterlist) This story is so long. It really got away from me and got out of hand but... heck I still dig it! Also I’m aware this has taken forever to update, please don’t be mad at me.

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

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

^^^^^

I got swamped in a Superboy hug the second I entered the parlor. “Cloudy!” Jon exclaimed. “I can’t believe you’re alive! How come you still look the same as how I remember you? Shouldn’t you be older? How long have you been home without telling me? How come you never said anything? What’s really going on between you and Damian? What—”

“Kent!” Damian protested. “If you could shut your trap long enough for either of us to explain anything, that would be helpful.”

“Damian, play nice,” I said, giving Jon a hug back. “We’ll explain everything, Jon. Just settle down a little, okay?”

“Okay. Sorry,” Jon said.

The three of us sat down and Damian and I explained how I ended up in the future without aging after going missing for eight years. I laughed when he said that his parents hadn’t told him I was back even though his mom interviewed me—as Cloudburst—and his dad had Tweeted me when it was first discovered I was alive. “They probably thought you already knew,” I reasoned. “It’s not their fault you never check your social media.”

“Mm. Yeah probably,” Jon agreed sullenly.

Explaining that Damian and I had fallen in love with each other was a little more complicated, but after a lot of awkward silences and searching for words, we managed it. “But you can’t tell anyone,” I added at the end. “At least. Not yet. Just… don’t say anything about it. Please, Jon?”

“Can I talk to Richard about it?” Jon asked.

“No,” Damian and I said at the same time.

“Why not?”

“Because given half a chance he’d tell the entire Justice League about it. We don’t need anyone encouraging him,” Damian said.

“Why don’t you call him Dick?” I asked Jon, not meaning to change the subject exactly but genuinely curious.

Jon refused to meet my eyes. “Because it’s a bad word,” he mumbled.

I giggled. “Jonny, please never change,” I said.

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Kent, you’re eighteen,” he said.

Jon pointed at me. “She’s twenty-one and she doesn’t swear!”

“Fair point,” I said, giving Damian a look. “But Jon, you still can’t say anything until we… go public about it, okay?”

“Ooh! Like a secret romance!” Jon said quietly.

“Yeah!” I agreed with a smile.

“Something like that,” Damian said, still pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

^^^^^

“Dick!” Jason hissed, hurtling around the doorframe and into Dick’s room. “Dick guess what?”

“What?” Dick asked, looking up from his phone.

“Cloudy and Damian—”

“Got it on? Did the dirty? Had some hanky-panky? Whatever euphemism you’re gonna use, I already know,” Dick said with a smile.

“How did you find out?”

“I heard shouting from Damian’s room and went to make sure nothing bad was happening and apparently Jon had snuck in through Damian’s window to ask him about something and found them lying naked in bed together. Which they still were when I got in there,” Dick said. “How did you figure it out?”

“I found Cloudy sneaking back into her room wearing the same clothes as yesterday and her hair was messier than usual. She said she passed out in the game room but I went in there after patrol this morning and she wasn’t there.”

Dick laughed. “I can’t believe it worked. And Bruce and Alfred thought a sleepover in Metropolis for that shareholders meeting or whatever was a waste of time,” he said. “BUT the two of them have sworn me to silence.”

“Yeah Cloudy practically begged me not to tell anyone,” Jason agreed.

“So we’re telling Cass and Tim right? Because they’re in on our little plot?”

“Absolutely.”

“Alfred will probably figure it out in two seconds, but let’s pray Bruce never finds out,” Dick said. “Because if he finds out…”

“He’ll kill them both. Twice,” Jason said.

“I wouldn’t go that far, but he might undo all our fine work of getting them alone all the time.”

“What do you mean? You don’t think he’d kick Cloudy out of the house, do you?”

“No. No. He wouldn’t kick Cloudy out. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t forbid them from ever being alone together ever again while they both live in this house,” Dick said.

“And if they really love each other, one or both of them would move out immediately,” Jason mused.

“Yeah probably,” Dick agreed, chewing on his lower lip. “We gotta make sure B doesn’t find out for a while.”

“When’ll he be back from Metropolis?”

“Tomorrow, I think. It was a business trip. Something about boring board meetings at the Daily Planet.”

“So we have that long to make sure he doesn’t find out,” Jason said.

“Yup.”

“Then I guess we have some work to do.”

“Guess so,” Dick agreed.

^^^^^

“Maybe it’d be better if we just… never said anything,” I said to Damian and Jon, winding the end of my braid around my fingers.

Damian gave me an appalled look. “That was one of the best nights of my entire life and you wish to pretend it never happened?”

I sighed, refusing to meet his eyes and instead looking at my knees. “Just… just for a while. Just until we decide… what to do. Your father would kill me—and then you—and then me again if he knew what happened.”

“I assume he will walk into the house and immediately realize. He was called the greatest detective in the world for a reason,” Damian said.

I rubbed my temples. “I know. But… what else can we do?”

“Uh, guys? I feel like I shouldn’t be here for this talk,” Jon said, raising a hand like an awkward schoolboy trying to make a comment in class with a teacher he was scared of. “Really. I just came to get Damian’s help on something I’ve been following in Metropolis. You two should really talk about this in private when I'm not here.”

Damian sighed. “Fine. Come with me to the Batcave, Kent. We’ll discuss there. McCl—Nora, would you care to accompany us?”

“No, I uh, I’m going to go have a word with Dick. And maybe Jason. I’ll see you later. Good luck on your case, Jonny.”

“Thanks Cloudy,” Jon said, giving me a hug as we all stood up and left the parlor.

I climbed the stairs to Dick’s room and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?!” Dick called.

“Cloudy,” I replied.

“C’mon in!” Jason’s voice said.

I opened the door and shut it behind me. “Fantastic. Two birds with one stone. Almost literally,” I said quietly. Both of them glanced up at me. The streak of white in Jason’s hair was lit up a pale blue in the light of his laptop screen. Dick was on his bed and Jason at the desk. They both looked interested.

“I think I know what you’re going to say, Cloudy,” Dick said. I cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah?” I challenged.

“Yeah. You’re going to order us not to tell anyone,” Dick continued, unperturbed.

“And we won’t,” Jason added.

“Except Tim and Cass,” Dick amended.

“What?! No!” I shrieked. “Listen, if every child in this family knows, then it’s just a matter of time before Bruce finds out and kills me, and then Damian, and then me again and then—”

“Nora! Relax,” Jason protested. He used my real name so I knew he was serious. “Big bird and I are taking care of it as we speak.”

“Huh?” I asked eloquently.

“Girl. Seriously? We’ve been trying to get you and Damian together since you got here and he pulled off his body armor and you stared at him!” Dick exclaimed. “Tim and Cass are in on it too! Why do you think we all convinced Alfred to force Damian into monitor duty for the night when you were taking the night off? His knee injury wasn’t even a pulled muscle. Two ibuprofens and he would have been fine for the night. But no. We wanted you to be alone together. We didn’t need backup at all. And hey, it worked.”

My face went slack the longer Dick talked. “Yeah but what do you mean you’re taking care of it?”

“There’s hallway footage of you two, er, kissing rather passionately that I'm currently erasing and replacing with earlier instances of you two going to your own rooms and then you sneaking out of his room this morning is also being erased and replaced with a couple seconds of nothingness until you came out of your own room all showered and dressed,” Jason said.

“Why?”

“Because we don’t want B to find out yet either,” Dick said.

“Why?”

Jason shrugged. “We don’t want either of you to move out yet and we figured one of you would if Bruce found out. Probably you.”

That was a fair point. “So… you’re not going to tell anyone?”

“Except Tim and Cass,” Dick said distractedly.

“No!” I protested. “No one!”

“We’ll keep the details secret if it means that much to you,” Jason said. “We’ll just say that you two finally admitted your feelings for each other or something.”

I sighed and put my hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Thank you. Seriously. Thank you.”

He smiled at me. “You’re welcome, Cloudy,” he said, reaching up and patting my back. “Can’t guarantee Tim won’t figure it out but—”

“But at least you’d have done your part,” I finished.

“Something like that,” Jason agreed.

I nodded—and then bit my lip. “Jay, can I ask you a question and have you give me a square answer?”

Jason pursed his lips. “I'm really more of a triangle guy but sure,” he said. I smacked him lightly upside the head. Nothing too painful. “Ow, hey!”

I looked him dead in the face. “What should I do?”

“Kid, that’s not a question I can be objective about. You know that,” Jason said. “I love you, Cloudy. You’re exactly the sister I would have loved to have my entire life but I only got you for a couple years. I want to protect you as much as I can but at the same time I want you to be happy.”

“How come you’re not asking me?” Dick asked.

“Because I already know your answer, Richard,” I said seriously. “Something corny about following my heart or doing what makes me happy. Plus I know you saw Damian as more of a son than a brother when you were both younger and I know you want him to be happy.”

Dick grumbled under his breath—something about me making a good point. I turned my attention back to Jason, eyebrows raised expectantly.

He sighed. “Cloudy: do what you want. Are you, like, actually legitimately in love with Damian?”

I chewed my lower lip for a moment. “Yeah,” I said.

“Then, heck, Clouds, date him!” Jason said. “Do what you want and what makes you happy. We both know if he’s ever less than respectful of you that you could kick his butt.” He used heck the way I believed it was originally intended to be used—like he couldn’t decide which curse word to use and ended up combining them. “Look, if you wanna be with him, then just do it. It’ll be a lot easier on all of us if you did anyway.”

I cocked my eyebrow again. “How so?”

“I swear every longing look you two threw at each other across the cave when you thought the other wasn’t looking was going to take a year-and-a-half off my lifespan.”

“He’s not alone,” Dick added. “I noticed too.”

I grunted. “Mm. Thanks,” I muttered.

“No problem. Now rest assured that everything is fine here and we’re taking care of ensuring Bruce doesn’t find out and go be with Damian if you want,” Jason said, giving me a smile. He shook his head. “I can’t believe I'm condoning anyone I'm close to being in a relationship with the little gremlin but…” He shrugged.

I ruffled his hair. “Thanks, Jay.” I looked over at Dick. “And thanks Dick, too. Both of you. For… everything, I guess.”

Dick chuckled. “That’s what brothers are for, right?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said. “See you later.” I ducked out of Dick’s room.

“See ya!” Dick and Jason chorused as I shut the door.

---

Next

[dcarevu]

Batman TAS: Joker’s Favor

“She can't open the door and push it in all by herself! THINK!”

Batman the Animated Series. Teaching the dangers of road rage since 1992!

Episode: 22 Robin: No Writer: Paul Dini Director: Boyd Kirkland Animator: Dong Yang Airdate: September 11, 1992 Grade: B

Char’s main reaction to seeing this episode for the first time was, “My girl!!” She loves Harley (and Poison Ivy). For me too, it’s nice to finally introduce Harley Quinn to the DC Animated Universe. Of course, back when this episode initially aired, it was also her introduction to the world of comic books in general. Written to be a one-off henchwoman to the Joker, wow, who would have seen the massive Harley Quinn storm coming. I was working at Party City when Suicide Squad came out, and by far the most popular costume we sold to young girls and women alike was Harley Quinn. People who know nothing about Batman are at least a little familiar with her. Sometimes even more familiar with her than the Dark Knight himself. And good lord, have fun trying to buy a copy of Batman Adventures #12 for a decent price. Even reprints can cost you around 100 bucks. You know how annoying that is for someone who just wants to own a physical copy of the damn thing to read?

I can only assume that Suicide Squad was the major catapult for the hype surrounding the character. I don’t remember seeing her around nearly as much before. Although I’m sure the Arkham series helped a little bit too. And I won’t lie to you, I’m a little salty about it. Oh, believe me, it’s definitely petty “nerd rage”. Or maybe you could call it the “hipster effect”. What annoys us about liking something for so long, and then, much later, finding out that it suddenly blows up with admiration? It’s stupid, this should make us happy, right? But yes, to let the cat out of the bag, I really do love Harley Quinn’s character. At least, the DCAU version of her. I’ve never seen Suicide Squad, I’ve never read any of her comics outside of the DCAU tie-ins, and I’ve never seen any episodes of other Batman cartoons with her in it. Doesn’t particularly interest me (not that I’m directly opposed). But I know that in the DCAU she’s really interesting, she’s a lot of fun, and some of the best moments of the entire series involve her heavily. The Laughing Fish, from what I remember, is up there among my favorite episodes. And how about the flashback in ROTJ? That’s one of the best Batman stories ever told, period. She’s not my favorite villain by any means, but the show would definitely be missing something without her. Speaking of her roles in the DCAU, maybe that’s where that “hipster effect” comes from. Maybe we get salty when people are oblivious toward a character’s…or a band’s…or a show’s…or whatever’s…early days. Yeah, that’s gotta be it, right? When Pokémon Go was new, I saw people complaining because these kids hadn’t played the original Red and Blue versions. And no one would ever really get annoyed if an old album by Blink-182 suddenly spiked in sales. No, it’s only when someone discovers new stuff and isn’t familiar with anything before that. I’m not saying this behavior is rational, and I hate it whenever I feel this way (for the record, I defended those kids just getting into Pokémon through Pokémon Go who were being shit on by “gen-wunners”). But it’s a possible explanation. Maybe we feel that people are missing out or not putting in the effort to fully appreciate/respect a thing and why it is the way it is.

Even though Harley Quinn was an amazing addition to the series, she didn’t exactly start out that way. Ignoring her popularity, she doesn’t particularly stand out in this episode, at least, not to me. But she must have back then. Fans liked her so much, she started appearing in the Batman Adventures comics! But I won’t start complaining about Batman Adventures #12 again. At least, not yet… Of course, where this is the first Harley episode, it figures as such that Paul Dini is the writer. This episode shows us again that he knows how to write a great story to be taken seriously, but also knows how to inject a lot of fun into it. That seems to be what separates Dini from some of the other best writers. A lot of the most serious episodes are really damn serious, with virtually no fun to be had. But Dini throws in some cheeky bits. Harley, for example. Or Batman coming down with a cold in Heart of Ice. It’s certainly welcome, but honestly, I prefer episodes like Two-Face a little bit more. And that’s why I’ve settled on a B for this episode. Yeah, I know. Everyone raises this episode up on a pedestal and says how much of a classic it is. I won’t argue with y’all. It’s an important episode, and it is entertaining. But it’s not as entertaining as a lot of other episodes to me. I like it. I don’t love it. Sue me. Char actually felt the same way, so I’m not alone there. She loved the Joker, as usual, and loved seeing “her gurl” Harley, but as far as the actual episode goes, she only liked it. Strangely enough, I have virtually no complaints. For the most part it’s pretty flawless, unless I really want to nitpick at stupid shit (like when Joker points out Charlie’s hair-loss when he has the same amount of hair as earlier). Probably the only thing that actually made me scratch my head was during the scene where Charlie threatens Joker with one of his own bombs. Why did Charlie know it wouldn’t explode, but the Joker himself didn’t? The only thing I can really think of is that Batman was in on the joke, and rewired the thing. But that doesn’t sit too well with me either. Oh, and also the scenes involving the fight amongst the recreated temple was a little hokey, and didn’t match a lot of the flow. It was too random-seeming, plus the idea that all of these death traps would remain active is ludicrous. We do get the Joker at some of his best, though, and we even hear Batman laugh in-costume (a first for this series). If there’s one thing Batman shouldn’t do often, it’s use the bat-laugh. And the writers knew when to use it well. Just wait till Mad Love. As long as they don’t have Batman sing… I will now turn my head toward my Justice League Unlimited set and stare at it with a dead smile for a few seconds.

And what about the crime prince of clown himself? I think we get the most insight into his mind out of all the Joker episodes so far in this one. The first two Joker appearances were just sorta goofy romps that you would expect, and the next one (Be a Clown) was an episode of lesser entertainment value. Here, we take the best elements of the Be a Clown Joker and fuse it with the Joker we got more from the other episodes to create what I would consider to be the definitive DCAU Joker. Let’s go over it. Y’know those maniacs who chase you down the street just because you made the tiniest mistake while driving (sometimes it might even be more their fault than yours)? Well imagine if when they caught up to you, you saw that they were a psychotic, killing clown. That’s fun… After this happens to Charlie Collins, the Joker threatens to kill him, but ends up sparing him so that over the next two years, he can have a fun time of basically tracking, stalking, and keeping up with this man. I like this because, on one hand, it seems so silly that he’d want to do this simply because of a traffic incident. Like, doesn’t he have better things to do with this time? But also, the Joker knows that every day, Charlie lives in fear that the Joker will find and contact him. It’s the manipulative aspect that we saw in Be a Clown coming out. The Joker takes pleasure in ruining lives. We also have the whacky side of the Joker seen in The Last Laugh with how ridiculous the concept is. Going back to the hair-loss comment mention earlier in passing, I actually think it would have been really clever to start him out with a full head of hair, but then show him super bald later on, showing that the stress of it all had really taken a toll on him, despite his seemingly great life.

Well, then, the Joker has Charlie fly over to Gotham just to open a door for Harley. Yeah. Open a door. I friggin’ love this twist. He’s like an Alice In Wonderland character, having seemingly no rhyme or reason for anything, but you know it all somehow makes sense in his twisted head. We know this because of what he manages to pull off, and how dangerous he is. If he truly knew nothing, he wouldn’t escape Arkham time and time again or get away with nearly as much as he does. And then finally at the end, we have some moments of scary Joker-rage paired with the Joker actually yelling to Batman for help. It’s such a sudden mood change, and you have to question whether or not the Joker’s anger was real. If it is, that makes it scarier. He’s like a meth-addict. We also see the Joker shove Harley Quinn to the side so that he can get to the phone, a very early look at the abusive relationship that we don’t see in full until later down the line. Like I said earlier, Harley was supposed to be a one-off, so this likely wasn’t Dini’s intent to display, but in hindsight, it’s got a much different light casted on it. It shows how much care was put into these stories, making everything match up, even if it wasn’t the initial plan.

This opening shot looked pretty stilted, reminding us that it’s essentially a cell being moved to the right.

Our main character, Charlie Collins. I wanna know what kind of fashion statement that haircut is. The “vertical rat tail”?

That moment of realization. Great job of capturing that immediate regret. It’s like he was brought back to reality, but sent into the Twilight Zone all at the same time.

The Joker knows how scary he is.

This shot was kinda funky with how bright some of the Joker’s features were. 

The Joker appears rather large when in comparison to the character who is supposed to be in front of him. This happens at least one other time in the episode. It adds to his threatening aura here, though.

“Oh please, don’t insult me.” the Joke retorts when Charlie assumes that he’s being robbed of money. 

Been missing these guys! Haven’t seen enough of them!

Jim: “If anyone should be getting a testimonial it’s you!” Batman: “I’m just the nightshift. You deal with this mess 24 hours a day. That’s what those people want to honor.” The most endearing friendship on the show. He even then proceeds to ask Batman where he can rent a tux. 

The Joker playing darts backwards. Throwing them at the commissioner. 

Harley Quinn’s first appearance ever! Bruce Timm did an excellent job with her design. Also, another instance of Joker looking rather large. Apparently perspective isn’t Dong Yang’s strong suit.

And then the Joker proceeds to do a perfect backflip. Damn, he’s limber!

Me too, dude. Also the Joker was throwing darts right above this guy’s head.

Somehow a better license picture than any I’ve ever gotten. Also we have confirmation that, in the DCAU at least, Gotham City is in New York.

“Leave the sideburns.”

An unsettling shot as they circle around Don’s (Charlie’s) block, threatening his family.

“Any way I could sneak out with you?” Me too, dude. Lines like this add so much character that gimmicks or statements about them could never reach.

“Sir, I believe you may be needed inside.”

Bullock hitting on Harley. How does he look like even more of a sleaze when spiffed up for an event?

Montoya’s look of pleasure when Bullock gets whacked in the shin by Harley’s baton. Also, them cheekbones. 

“...okayyy, we’ll tough it out here.”

Joker’s sudden mood-swings combined with his delivery from Mark Hamill are obvious callbacks to the Blue Meanies in Yellow Submarine.

Charlie, about to shove a bomb up Joker’s ass. “Batman! Batmaaaaan!” Actually, y’know what this reminds me of?

This great moment.

Joker, relieved to see Batman. “<gasp> How long have you been there?” We also get, “You’re no fun anymore, Charlie.” If there’s one thing Joker can’t stand, it’s getting upstaged when it comes to the crazy.

A solid episode for sure, but for those of you who only know about Harley from her more recent shenanigans (and you don’t have a genuine interest in watching a Batman cartoon), check out The Laughing Fish instead. And for those of you following along with me for the long haul, join us next time! …Crikey!

Char’s grade: B

Next time: Vendetta Full episode list here!

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #369

Top Ten Favourite Things About Teen Titans Go!

One of the funny things about life is observing elements of circularity. For instance, nearly twenty years ago, my younger brother really got into the original Teen Titans cartoon, and I sort of got into it with him (having a brother ten years younger than yourself is very good for keeping your oar in with kids’ content when you’re supposed to be too old for that sort of thing; as a result, I got to thoroughly enjoy Justice League, Samurai Jack, Harry Potter and lots more stuff that may have otherwise passed me by). I knew who the Titans were but hadn’t read a lot of their comics; the cartoon was my introduction to most of those characters. It was really good, benefited from a tremendous theme tune, and – for its time – quietly revolutionary in how it incorporated anime aesthetics into a western cartoon. Plus it had a cracking voice cast, which – not that I knew it at the time – would become as synonymous with those characters as Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, and Kevin Conroy had done with cartoons I’d watched as a child.

(that’s Optimus, Megatron, and Batman, in case you’re wondering)

Anyway, here we are, eighteen-or-so years later, and Teen Titans is just a beloved long-gone cult classic but bizarre comedic spin-off Teen Titans Go! is a minor phenomenon. The same characters, the same actors, but wilder, weirder, funnier, crazier, way more violent, and – bizarrely – far more integrated into the wider DC Universe. And my kids – especially my eldest daughter – bloody love the show. It is huge in our house. We’ve seen the film, we listen to the songs, they draw their own comics, they roleplay the characters; we have a home-made Raven costume, for god’s sake. I have a six-year-old who knows who Tara Strong is. This is incredible.

As a result, I’ve seen an awful lot (not quite every episode) of Teen Titans Go!. It’s fortunate, then, that it’s fantastic, easily one of the best comic-book cartoon adaptations ever made. It’s not just how funny it is; it’s madcap and self-referential and full of many (many) MANY DC comics references. And great, great songs. And – like I said before – tremendous performances. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is a great, great movie with great, great songs and many great, great gags, and it’s a mixed blessing that it ended up being released in what may well be Annus Mirabilis for superhero movies: it’s great that it’s mixing it up with Infinity War, Black Panther, and Spider-Verse, but I feel it got overshadowed a bit. Say what you will for the slightly more “serious” original Teen Titans series, but it was the barmy chibi-inspired stepchild that got a movie.

So this week, I’m celebrating what has become my second-favourite superhero cartoon of all time (after Batman: The Animated Series, natch). My ten favourite things about Teen Titans Go!. Enjoy!

The Songs: I tried to pick a song, or some reference or line or scene, but really it’s impossible. The songs are sublime. So great, in fact, that I’ll probably do another Top Ten at some point listing my favourite TTG songs. Really catchy, great lyrics, supremely diverse, and full of references not just to DC but to, well, everything. There’s a song about America that includes the line “Samuel L. Jackson on the stamp”, which makes no sense as far as I can figure, but is just wonderful.

Deep, Deep (DEEP) Cut DC References: it started with the Darkseid doll. A little plush Darkseid doll that’s always leaning against the couch. How cute, how funny; Darkseid, the literal embodiment of evil, but as an adorable snuggly. And then it got deeper, and weirder, and more wild. B’wana Beast. Alternate universe Robins. “That movie where their moms are both called Martha”. The Haunted Tank. The Haunted Tank! What kind of kids’ show references The Haunted Tank?! And then there’s the fact that The Comedian’s blood-stained smiley face badge is on display in the Batcave. Let’s go back over that one: there are Watchmen references in this cartoon for six-year-olds.

Batman and Gordon: the original Teen Titans cartoon pretty much never mentioned any aspect of the universe outside of the five characters, barring one fleeting visual reference to the Batcave and the episode where you meet the Doom Patrol. TTG has no qualms about explaining that, yes, Robin is Batman’s sidekick. So we see the Batcave, and Wayne Manor, and Alfred. But it’s Batman’s relationship with Gordon that’s golden. Not just stoic men’s men who diligently work alongside one another, never questioning, never needing to; no, they’re best mates, giggling schoolkids who want to shirk off all work and just sit in their PJs watching crap on the telly. Like a superheroic version of Beavis and Butt-Head, they’re often there, in the background, goofing off, playing games, undercutting the narrative. It’s such a perfect inversion of Batman’s usual persona and a great way of referencing – in supremely silly terms – the deep bond of affection between the two men in most Batman fiction. I especially like when Superman gives Gordon to Batman as a birthday present.

The Night Begins to Shine: I know I said I wouldn’t single out one song, but we do need to talk about The Night Begins to Shine. More than just a cool song in one episode, it blossomed into a whole weird parallel universe filled with bizarre references to ‘80s heavy metal and, well, Heavy Metal. Almost coming off like a primary school version of Mandy, the multi-part epic about Cyborg fighting a giant dragon in the “Night” universe, complete with cameos from people like CeeLo Green and Fall Out Boy (as Transformers!), is just a thing of absolute beauty. Truly, the level of reference and artistry on display in terms of writing, composition, and animation won’t be understood by the kids watching now until they’re quite a bit older. They’ll come back to this in ten, fifteen, twenty years and think “wow, now I see what they were doing; that’s so, so weird”.

The Holiday Mascots: belligerent Santa is the king (“you garbage kids!”), a fat psychopath trying to take over every other holiday, but let’s spare a thought for the other representations of holidays, too. The creepy Tooth Fairy, who eats teeth. The turkey from Thanksgiving who is horribly mutilated. Uncle Sam. And the Easter Bunny. Oh my god, the Easter Bunny. Genuinely unsettling. Words can’t describe. Seriously, check it out, it’s some Babadook-level freaky shit.

Raven’s Legs: a little bit worrying when you’ve got two kids under seven watching it, but the fact that Raven is not just hiding very, very sexy legs underneath her cloak, but is also capable of becoming an entirely other superhero who uses her legs as weapons, is very, very funny. Watching Beast Boy go full Tex Avery when he sees Raven’s legs is one of those gags that, I guess, works on different levels if you’re a child or an adult. Regardless, turning snarky sourpuss Raven into golden-costumed Lady Legasus is a nice move.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: they only really do this explicitly once or twice, I think, but overall the show is incredibly self-referential. From Control Freak trying to get them rebooted or cancelled, to jokes about the animation or the writing, it’s beautifully self-deprecating. This reaches its apex in the 200th episode specials, when the Titans journey into “our” world. It’s hilarious to see them interact with their own voice actors, but for me it’s the note-perfect representation of directing voice actors that’s really funny, almost as good as Toast of London in its depiction. Plus the gag about everyone who works on the show being ultimately replaceable. A scathing indictment of the animation industry, wrapped up in an animation; like The Simpsons in its heyday.

Genuinely Quite Upsetting Violence: I don’t think I’d ever seen a cartoon for small children before that quite regularly featured its main characters having their bones visibly broken. And by “visibly” I mean “cutting to an X-ray of their limb to show the bone shearing in half or crumpling to dust”. It’s almost rare for an episode to go by without one or more of the Titans experiencing life-altering injuries. I’m honestly not sure how they get away with it. but it is funny. Apex moment? Oh, undoubtedly them beating the shit out of Shia LaBeouf in the movie.

Real-World References: clearly the people who make Teen Titans Go! are in their late thirties or early forties; people who grew up in the ‘80s and absorbed ‘80s culture. People who liked Transformers and Star Wars and Back to the Future, who listened to rock music, who liked toys and videogames. They probably grew into teenagers who were fans of obscure animations, cult movies, sci-fi, fantasy, horror. They are, basically, me. I think I would get on quite well with the creators of TTG, based on the things they reference. But beyond cultural appropriation, it’s the references to daylight saving’s time, “shareconomics”, American politics and history, “The Man”, and more, that is so wild and weird to see in a cartoon for young kids. They handle these topics beautifully (I’m honestly not sure if my kids think the things the Titans are talking about are real or not), but as a grown-up it’s really funny to see these gags in a kids’ cartoon. I mean, the Titans fight the Illuminati in one episode. They reference “lizard men in Congress”. It’s bonkers.

Nicolas Cage: in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Nicolas Cage plays Superman. That’s it. I mean, what more do you want? The guy whose whole career almost seems to have hinged on playing Superman finally gets to be Superman. The guy who was nearly – oh so nearly – Superman for Tim Burton is now, at last, Superman. The guy who named his kid Kal-El is now Superman. The guy who was namechecked in The Ultimates about eighteen years ago (“this guy wants to be a superhero almost as much as Nicolas Cage”) is now Superman. It’s such a meta-gag, such a high-level gag. Stunt casting taken to its nth degree. It’s even funnier than Billy Dee Williams playing Two-Face in LEGO Batman. And it got better – this part, I concede, beyond the purview of the TTG creators – because the same year he played Superman, Nicolas Cage also played (an alternate universe version of) Spider-Man in Into the Spider-Verse. And, as I alluded to above, starred in his own version of The Night Begins to Shine when he made Mandy. It all links!  

There we go. my favourite things. This was tough, I had to leave a lot out. I’m particularly saddened by not finding room for Cyborg’s tiny body made up of wires whenever he removes his head. And The Jeff; gutted I missed The Jeff. Or the episode that references all the movie incarnations of Batman, including a dumpster full of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin stuff (I’ll save my argument that TTG serves as an even better comic analysis and deconstruction of the meta-character of Batman, and of Robin, than the much-ballyhooed LEGO incarnations for another day). It’s really a great show. I love it to bits. Go watch it.