#bruce looks like he's trying to copy jason but failing

[wickedsmille]

broken and still breaking

uhhhh, this is a little fic technically titled Angsty McAngst Pants Angst in my notes because Jason goes to his Re-Welcoming/It's A(n Alive) Boy! gala then gets triggered into a PTSD episode of dying which Tim helps him through. It was SUPPOSED to be gen but then they started flirting and bantering so. Welp.

Buyer beware cause I haven't beta'ed this, aforementioned PTSD episode, mild depictions of blood and injuries and what nots.

Alright then *thigh slap*

If it weren’t for the overwhelming feeling of being settled in his own skin, Jason would’ve told Bruce to fuck a cactus for offering to make Jason Peter Todd a real boy again. On principle alone he nearly said no. Besides, creating aliases is fun. James Austen, John Red and, to be nothing if not a mature adult with refined tastes, Dick Dickins. So many others, too. He could get the utilities at a new safehouse hooked up under Stephen Wolfe’s name then turn right around and renew Emmerson Bronte’s license at the downtown DMV.  

See? Being legally dead has allowed him room to express himself creatively in a way that has nothing to do with experimental ammunitions and testing the limits of the human body. One might even say it’s a healthy passtime. Sort of. Relatively speaking, okay. He’s not a perfect person, wouldn’t even dream of entertaining the thought. Not when he’s had so much practice turning the inside of someone’s skull into a modern day Picasso. 

But he’s been trying. Is trying. 

So, rather than testing the integrity of Bruce’s dental implants, Jason bit his cheek so hard it bled, swallowed back every bitter, snide remark dancing along his tongue and nodded tightly. He can’t think about the way Bruce deflated after. How his eyes went soft and the weight of the cape and cowl fully slipped off to reveal an infinitely exhausted but relieved Bruce Wayne, Failed Father Extraordinaire. If Jason does, he might ask himself what it was all for anyway and if any of it really ever mattered. Those kinds of thoughts lead to nothing but self-imposed isolation and self-destruction. 

He’s definitely regretting his decision as his gaze scans over the crowded ballroom of the Grand Hotel in downtown Gotham. A sea of opulence swims below the upper landing he has stalled out on. Men and women stand around in circles, chatting one another with plastic smiles etched into their faces. The sound of faked laughter grates, making his jaw clench and his teeth grind together. Wouldn’t it be just his luck that the food tables are all the across the room.

“Ha, ha, ha. Oh my, this little thing?” a woman simpers loudly at the bottom of the stairs. “Why, it was my mother’s.” She fingers the delicate gold chain around her neck. On the end is a diamond large enough it could feed a family of four in the Alley for a couple years.

A man across from her, entrenched in his own conversation partners, tips his head back and holds his belly as he chortles. “Mr. Campbell, you’re in luck! I have a penthouse in uptown and a condo on the westside and they’re alright but, if you’re looking for a sound investment, I suggest getting a cabin or three in the Northwest. Best decision I ever made!” he says blithely like there aren’t families and children sleeping in their cars because every apartment building is leased up and the list for voucher programs are thousands long.

Jesus fuck, he did not miss this.

Being a Wayne again means he gets the horrific honor of taking a half-step into the limelight. At first, Bruce wanted to do a full spread. Interviews and press conferences, staged sightings by the paparazzi and several welcoming events. Jason promptly shut him down by threatening to find every copy of his adoption papers and burning them. He’d rather chew off his own arm and beat Bruce with the appendage than do any of that. The compromise? A single gala as a re-introduction then Jason could fade into the background once more. 

So long as you don’t cause a scene, Bruce had said sardonically, knowingly. Bastard.

With the implied threat to his privacy, Jason has smartly decided to be on his best behavior. Even though the simple, black suit he’s wearing feels too tight and too hot. Though his hair is stiff from all the product in it. Despite the shiny leather shoes pinching his toes. No matter the way he feels like everyone is staring at him even if they’re not. 

Sure, quite a few of the guests are surreptitiously staring, thinking they’re oh so clever with the way they side-eye him before quickly looking away. They’re subtle, or so they think. It’s not like everyone is facing him, gazes boring into him. He almost thinks that would be better. At least he’d have a good reason to sneer and dip out scot free. Would it really be a scene if he were to loudly trip coming down the stairs? He’ll feign embarrassment at drawing attention to himself if it means he can back out. 

An elbow bumps into his side, making him jolt. Jason’s head whips around, intending to give whoever has invaded his personal space a thorough tongue lashing until he sees Tim. Calm, cool, collected Tim holding two champagne flutes, one held towards Jason. He’s smiling softly with his head tipped to the side in an unspoken question. The gold and white of his corset vest contrast well with the black of the rest of his suit and make the blue-gray of his eyes pop without washing him out. Tim would look right at home if he were down on the floor swimming with the other sharks. Goddamn him for fitting in so well.

“I’ll back you if you want to leave,” Tim tells him. “Due to your violent bout of diarrhea and uncontrollable gas.”

Snatching the offered glass out of Tim’s hand, Jason drains the entire thing in one go. “I hate you,” he murmurs miserably, only partly meaning it. Then he snags Tim’s own glass and downs that as well. 

A thoughtful frown makes its way onto Tim’s face. “I’d be careful. Getting tipsy won’t actually make this any easier to navigate.”

“Stop talking like you know me.”

Tim shrugs amiably. “I might not know you as well as I’d like to but I know them.” 

He inclines his head towards the dodos guffawing over their latest insider trading power plays and gossiping on whose husband is sleeping with which of the help. Or lamenting on how finicky children can be, not realizing their kids aren’t really the problem because they’re capacity for introspection matches the frigidity of their hearts somewhere below absolute zero. Jason tries very hard to not bite and snarl at Tim since he’s one of the blue bloods. Born and bred for the hoity-toity bullshit with a silver spoon shoved so far down his throat he must’ve been gagging on it. 

Tim isn’t like that and never has been, he reminds himself. In fact, for all the ways Jason had to show Tim how to effectively coupon stack and explain why he microwaves his sponges, Tim is as far removed from the vultures and roaches and leeches they’re surrounded with as he could be given his upbringing. For one, Tim isn’t a total douchebag. Unthinking at times and eccentric, but not outright malicious. He can be surprisingly sweet like when he requests Alfred make one of Jason’s favorite foods when he knows Jason will be coming over for dinner or upgrading Jason’s helmet when his own tech know-how fails him without Jason ever needing to ask. 

The guy is a squishy ball of good intentions wrapped in a deceptively tiny package which has never, not once, held him back from putting dusty, crusty board members and hardened, violent crooks in their place. Once he’d had a chance to actually get to know Tim, Jason found himself feeling grateful. Bruce didn’t concede to just anyone stepping into Jason’s pixie boots. At least he went for the best. 

“If you knew me any better you’d have a key to my apartment and a drawer in my dresser,” Jason drawls, steering the conversation away from the swarm of jewels and silks he wants to pretend doesn’t exist.

“I already have a key to your apartment,” Tim points out. 

Rolling his eyes, Jason stuffs his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, but you come over so I can make you buy pizza and kick your ass in Mortal Kombat. Not fucking you into the mattress and making you breakfast in bed after.”

“You never asked, did you?” Tim asks him slyly.

Just about every coherent thought in Jason’s mind fucks off into some deep, dark hole. Leaving him a flustered mess with vague recollections of waking up sticky and wanting. So his witty, top of the line comeback is, “Nope.”

“Eloquent as always,” Tim laughs, patting Jason lightly on the shoulder like he didn’t just break Jason’s brain. “We should get down there before they start chattering about how egregiously anti-social we are.”

All the clamboring what if’s and could be’s get ruthlessly, shamelessly smothered and die a quick and violent end so he can get himself back on task. “I don’t want to,” Jason says petulantly to drive the conversation back to safer, calmer waters.

Now it’s Tim’s turn to roll his eyes. Huffing, he points at Damian to the far left where he’s leaned against a pillar with his arms crossed tightly. “Suck it up. If he can do it, so can you. Now come on.” 

Tim holds out his elbow which Jason bats away with a scowl. He can make his own way down the stairs, thanks. Telling Tim as much, Jason nearly trips over himself when Tim challenges him to put his money where his mouth is. There’s a reason Tim is his favorite because it’s just the thing he needs to unstick his feet and get him moving despite the way his skin prickles the closer they get to the main floor. Although Tim had been joking when he volunteered to escort Jason down, he finds himself wishing he’d taken Tim up on it if only for the grounding comfort of a familiar touch as the smooth soles of his shoes land on the polished floors. 

Graciously, Tim does see him through the crowd to the food tables Jason had been eyeing up. As a kid, they were an oasis. It’s hard for others to talk to you when you’re stuffing your face as fast as you can while chewing as slowly as possible to delay and discourage conversation. Plus, it’s good. A little bland because the chefs have to cater to the tastes of so many, watering down their usual Michelin star flair to a point that probably pains them. But still good in spite of it being pretentious.

Once satisfied Jason can be his own keeper no longer in need of a handler, Tim drifts off. He switches over from the insufferable geek Jason has come to like to the smoothed, glacial veneer of a corporate socialite. The totality of the shift leaves Jason reeling. One thing he’s never understood, no matter how much he puzzled through it and tried to emulate it, is how Bruce and Tim can switch between the two extremes so flawlessly. It’s like trading out coats for them. A flick and a swish then, poof, like magic they’re entirely new people. What that says about their psyches and the inherent fault in their neural wiring is something he shies away from.

Jason tucks in with gusto when an older woman in an inappropriately low cut halter dress and coiffed hair sets her sights on him and starts striding over. With nimble fingers, he loads up the plate his grabs and shoves whatever in his mouth, hoping the age-old trick still works despite being over a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier. 

Score because it totally does. She wrinkles her nose at his puffed out cheeks and actually sniffs haughtily when he chews purposefully with his mouth open. He even smiles, masticated mush on full display, and waves cheekily. The woman redirects her steps to take her closer to where Dick is holding court about twenty yards out. She joins the gaggle of women and men magnetically drawn in by Dick’s natural charm. He doesn't quite fit like Tim and Bruce do but he has his natural personality to make up the difference.

Unlike Jason. Which he has no problem with. He’ll take himself, authentically cynical and caustic and brutally honest, over being a fake fuck any day. 

The bacon wrapped, maple seared figs don’t settle well as more people attempt to approach him. Even for him, there’s only so much he can eat. Rapidly, he’s reaching his limit. The twisting viper pit turning his stomach inside out isn’t helping his appetite either. So far he’s been successful in warding people off but his stomach flips, signaling his need to find a new method to avoid unwanted advances and carelessly hurtful words. 

Setting his plate aside, Jason casts his gaze out across the crowd once more. Being tall does have its advantages. Like being able to pinpoint where exactly the rest of the family is and relatively what they’re up to. Dick is wholly unaccessible with the amount of attention he’s getting. He can keep the center stage, Jason is trying to move behind the curtains. Bruce is similarly front and center with his own gathered horde so that’s a no go even if he thought he could handle it without fisting Bruce’s collar and dunking him into the champagne fountain in the corner. 

Damian is somewhere. It’s a toss up whether Jason just can’t see the shrimp or he’s faded into the shadows to either eerily stare out at the crowd from a corner or making his way towards a Bat bothole to go on an ill-advised patrol. As helpful as it would be to have Cass, she’s no better handling these things than Jason so Stephanie has been guiding her. Her attempts at bumbling but Stephanie is nothing if not determined and relentless. It’s why Jason likes her even though he hates those qualities, a reflection of his own, weaponized against him. Duke, the lucky duck, got to skip.

Then, there’s Tim. He’s making amiable small talk with a couple to Jason’s left. They’re too far for Jason to make out the words but close enough Jason feels comfortable weaving between bodies to reach him. So what if it makes him needy or weak. Everyone has to take a knee from time to time and he doesn’t need anything more than a temporary crutch to get him through the next hour or two before he can leave without causing a fuss. Tim is crutch-shaped. It makes sense. 

Saddling up to Tim’s side, Jason inserts himself into the conversation. The man speaking stutters, words petering out as he looks up, up, up at Jason. Jason flashes what he hopes passes as a polite smile. He’s not sure it works when the guy recoils minutely. The woman, his wife Jason assumes if the three-figure rock on her finger is anything to go by, gives him a flat grimace he assumes is supposed to be a smile.

“Jason, it’s good to see you. Enjoying the party so far?” Tim asks him, voice level and almost serene.

“It’s a blast,” Jason deadpans, bumping his hip into Tim’s as he shifts his weight from foot to foot.

“It is a fabulous venue,” the woman says. “We were delighted to get the invitation and haven’t been disappointed yet.”

Yet. Goddamn. He forgot just how snippy these people could be. 

“I’ll be sure to pass your praise along to our event planner,” Tim replies so Jason doesn’t immediately make an ass of himself. “By the way, Jason, this is John Anders and Mary Ann Anders. They’re the founders and CEOs of Anders Packaging. Wayne Enterprises is lucky to call them partners.”

“Jason Wayne,” Jason introduces himself. He holds out his hand which John hesitates to take but social norms win out. Jason makes sure to squeeze on the side of too tight and doesn’t stop till John winces. He goes easier on Mary Ann though, maybe he shouldn’t have because she digs her nails into the skin of his hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

When Tim’s hip bumps into him, Jason reads it as the warning it is so he backs off. Tim takes back the reins of the conversation to steer them away from Jason himself. The transition back to dull, unassuming chatter is easy when Tim is the one leading. The tension from John drains away as he falls under Tim’s spell. Jason does feel some small amount of respect for Mary Ann as he notes she isn’t as enamored with Tim’s performance as her husband is. She gives Jason a shrewd look as if to say I see you both, I’m watching you and, yeah, he kind of likes her and hates that he does. But she probably hates him right back since she has to like him. Or pretend to.

Jason rises to Mary Ann’s challenge when she narrows her eyes at him. It becomes a game where they both adopt an air of cordial confidence whenever Tim and John are looking. Then they cast it aside for suspicion and mutual distaste when the other two aren’t. It’s kind of fun. If Mary Ann doesn’t think so, sucks to suck. Jason has had an entire lifetime of pissing people off by doing nothing but existing to hone his craft of being a nuisance without lifting a finger.

Tim looks at him askance, drawing Jason away from his silent feud with Mary Ann and back to the conversation. 

“I thought it would be fun,” John laments ruefully.

“You’re adventurous,” Mary Ann says as she pats his arm. 

“I suppose so,” John replies, giving her a small, genuine smile. “I certainly have a better appreciation for remodelers! Doing the kitchen in our summer house? Never again! I was trying to knock out the cabinets with a hammer for ages until Mary Ann grabbed me a crowbar.”

Jason’s blood runs cold. He abandons the game with Mary Ann in favor of racking his mind for a graceful, or graceless if necessary, way to leave. 

The mention of a crowbar sinks its hooks into his mind, making it run syrupy slow. Too slow to slink away before John keeps going. 

“Now that did the trick! It still took me an hour but, whoo, let me tell you. That is a workout,” John laughs. The arm he has around Mary Ann’s waist unwinds and he takes a step back to give himself some more room. Then he’s miming swinging his arm back and forth. High above his shoulder then down and across, grunting from the effort and smiling from the humor of it all. “You have to throw your shoulder into it. Really get into it. It was fun!”

John laughs again but it’s not John. Not to Jason. It’s too high, too loud. The sound echoes in his head and amplifies with every reverberation. He would cover his ears if he knew it would do any good but it’s all in his head. Now would be a good time to leave, decorum be damned. But his feet feel rooted to the spot and every muscle is coiled so tight he’s shaking with it and immobile. Jason's hands start trembling as John keeps going. On and on and on about his skill with a crowbar. Proud of himself for it. 

In horror, Jason watches as John’s smile keeps curving and twisting into a rictus grin so wide it should be splitting his face but it isn’t. The white straight line of his teeth shift and dull to a pale yellow while all the color of his skin drains away to an unnatural white. The charcoal gray of his suit bursts into color Purple and green and red. So much red. John’s hand isn’t empty anymore either. Now he’s swinging a real crowbar with the end of the metal dented from where he used it to shatter Jason’s femur and tailbone. 

Jason watches as John as the Joker pummels Jason as Robin right there on the ballroom floor. A deep dark red spreads out across the ground. Jason as Robin screams and pleads. Snot and blood and a broken jaw making it difficult to form words but he knows what he said. He was calling out for Bruce. But Bruce never came and the pool of blood has spread far enough he’s standing in it and Jason can’t do this anymore - 

He’s off like a shot. All the restless, animalistic panic inside him zips through his veins. His chest heaves with the effort to suck in as much air as possible but it’s never enough. There’s nothing but the jagged, wet sound of him breathing and the pounding beat of his pulse in his temples. Maybe someone is yelling his name, too, but it’s muffled like someone is holding his head underwater. The elite, esteemed guests gawk at him as he flies by and he doesn’t understand why they aren’t in a tizzy about the dirty warehouse they’re in. 

When he reaches the door, it isn’t locked with a winding length of chain. His hands scramble to clutch the knob of the door but it opens easily under his hands. Over the din of the crowd behind him, Jason can hear the tick, tick, ticking of the bomb. But the door leads to another warehouse so he sprints to the next door, hopping over the puddle of blood on the concrete. The next door opens without issue but it leads into a small, black hole. Yawning and bottomless and hungry.

“Get out!” someone commands from close behind him.

On instinct, he lashes out but whoever it is isn’t having it. Their arm smacks into his wrist, redirecting his punch. Then there’s hands on his chest, shoving him back and into the void. He expects to be falling endlessly but his ass crashes into the ground, arms buckling from the way he catches himself to keep from toppling over completely. He hasn’t even completely settled on the floor before the darkness is chased away by a bright cascade of light from above. Shadows lurk in the corners, wriggling and writhing like a mass of worms and maggots. 

“Jason, Jason,” someone says urgently. They try again gently, “Jay.”

“I need you to breathe with me,” they say, tone brooking no argument. It’s all a serious, low tone Jason can hear clearly over the he ha, ha, HA in his head. “You need to follow me. Fuck. Okay, okay. Can I touch you?”

He wants to understand who it is crouching next to him but the black spots dancing across his vision, the blurry edges of it, keep him from piecing it together. A hand encircles his wrist and he tries to twist away from it. They’re strong though. Stronger than he thought they’d be. His hand is planted firmly on a plane of smooth, warm fabric. The fingers around his wrist pop lose and disappear completely so he moves his head up until the pads of his fingers brush against skin. 

Then he latches on and squeezes with his teeth bared and all the higher thinking of a cornered wolf spurring him on. 

“J-Jay,” they choke out. “Alright then. Feel that?” 

They draw in a comically large breath around the pressure Jason is putting on their windpipe. The pulse beneath his fingers is thumping hard and quick but controlled. Up and down their throat presses against his hand. Unconsciously, he finds himself mimicking the movement. His focus narrows down to the rhythmic movement of their throat and the stuttering attempts his chest is making to imitate it. 

“Jay,” they say faintly. 

Jason becomes aware of two things immediately. He’s in a spacious store room. It smells like a hodgepodge of herbs and spices co-mingling into something overpoweringly herbaceous. The smell is enough to tickle his nose. Several overhead lights are shining down on the packed shelves of nonperishables and Jason and Tim. Because Tim is there with him, on his knees in front of Jason with his pants rucked up and jacket rumpled. With Jason’s hand around his throat and the pale skin of his face a worrying shade of red.

Like he’s been burned, Jason’s arm snaps back. The dimples from Jason’s fingers fade, leaving red indents sure to turn a nasty purple later. Tim gasps loudly and pitches forward onto his hands. He coughs and sputters, rubs at the tender skin of his throat. Checking for any cartilage damage, Jason realizes.

He did that.

The thought has Jason leaning to the side and emptying the contents of his stomach. It’s disgusting. Everything he ate earlier comes up for an encore but its decidedly less appetizing this time around. The bitter taste on his tongue makes him gag even after he’s done. All he can smell is bile as shame wells up, threatening to muscle everything else out because he was choking Tim. Fuck the food. They can get more food. If he seriously hurt Tim, they can’t get a new Tim. 

“Why didn’t you stop me,” Jason rasps, clearing his throat and spitting it out onto the rest of the mess. Not like it's salvageable anyway. “Why didn’t you stop me?”

Tim looks up at him sharply. He pushes himself back onto his haunches. Defiance draws his shoulders up and back. Out of them all, Tim has never let him get away with shit. The kid spat in his face even after Jason beat him to a pulp. Never once has Tim backed down from Jason’s misdirected anger or shown fear the times they’ve needed to play fight for the villains intent on pitting them against one another. Dick lets his guilt bleed through too much and lets him be lenient with Jason. In contrast, Bruce is as immovable as Tim but where Tim is kind and even sweet at times, Bruce is a complete and utter asshole.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Tim snarks. 

Jason really hates how little Tim values himself sometimes. Especially given Jason’s own high regard of Tim. 

“Never do that again,” Jason orders, whole body quaking with the aftershocks of his episode. PTSD, one doctor had told him. A normal side-effect of The Life, Jason had privately corrected him.  

“LIke to see you try and stop me,” Tim says, cheeky and sharp with a half cocked grin to match. 

This fucking guy.

“Can I hug you now?” Tim asks with a hint of hostility hiding in his tone. 

Jason can appreciate Tim’s innate ability to understand him and all the ways Jason would outright reject him if he were nicer about it. The contrast to Dick’s antsy need to use touch as a comfort is stark and wonderful. Grumbling, Jason nods his head at the nasty puddle of ick next to him. 

Tim rolls his eyes so hard Jason’s surprised they don’t pop right out of his skull. “Oh, yeah, like I don’t deal with worse on a nightly basis.”

“Touche,” Jason mutters. 

He scoots closer to Tim and away from the gross. His palms stay flat on the ground but Tim shuffles to fit himself against Jason, molding them together as he winds his arms around Jason’s neck. One hand buries itself in Jason’s hair. The nails scratching at his scalp break apart the gel in his hair. It kind of hurts but it keeps him present and helps chase away the jittery feeling in his limbs. The other hand splays across the broad expanse of his shoulders. This close, he has no choice but to follow the rise and fall of Tim’s chest so the quickened pace of his breathing slows to normal. 

Jason’s gut says to push Tim away and maybe even kick him in the jaw for daring to touch him. The impulse dies a quick death as warmth spreads out from his center. It’s soft and sweet and gentle. He presses his face hard into the curve of Tim’s neck and breaths in Tim’s overpriced cologne. Although he’s bigger than Tim, he feels protected like nothing can touch him in this bubble of fragility they’ve created. Finally, finally his mind goes blessedly silent and he settles back into his own skin, not the phantom corpse of a boy who lost more than he ever gained and was cut down before he ever really had a chance. 

Shifting, Jason moves so he can wrap his arms around Tim’s torso and cling tightly to the back of his suit jacket. The ribs of the corset vest flex under his hold. Aside from a quiet grunt, Tim doesn’t say anything. To be a shit, Jason makes them flex again. A warning rumble reverberates from Tim’s chest straight down into Jason’s bones, shaking out the cobwebs of memory and making him puff out a breath through his nose in a parody of a laugh. 

“How do you breathe in this thing?” Jason mumbles into the damp skin of Tim’s neck.

“Force of will and spite,” Tim tells him succinctly. 

“Anything for fashion.”

“More like anything to make Mr. Williams as horrendously uncomfortable as possible after he let slip a couple choice words to me at the last gala.”

“Your commitment to pettiness is unrivaled.”

“Have you met yourself?” Tim accuses him incredulously. 

“I don’t have a commitment to pettiness. I am pettiness.”

The sound of Tim’s easy laughter washes over Jason. He can’t help but to join in even if his own is weak and half hearted at best. Things feel less heavy than they did, less inevitable and better. So much better. Tim still hasn’t let him go and he has no intentions of releasing Tim either. 

With the silence comes the realization of what happened and how it must have looked to everyone else. Jason curls into himself, arms tightening around Tim. In an uncharacteristically small voice, he gives life to his uncertainty and shame. “Everyone saw, didn’t they?” he asks. 

Tim shrugs as much as he can in the vice of Jason’s arms. “You were more subtle than you think you were. Nothing a quick cover of explosive diarrhea won’t fix,” Tim tells him lightly. The callback and absurdity of the idea forces a bark of laughter from Jason. More subdued and serious, Tim adds, “Besides, it doesn’t matter. To hell with them. What matters is that you’re okay and everything else we can fix.”

“Trying to say I can’t be fixed?”

Making an irritated noise, Tim bops his head into Jason’s in chastisement. “I’m saying you don’t need to be fixed. You are who you are and we wouldn’t have it any other way. If it means you need more support, we’re happy to give it but you don’t need to be fixed, Jason.”

“Cool it on the soliloquy, Timberly,” Jason teases so he doesn’t start tearing up. “Ain’t nobody wants to hear your bleeding heart.”

“Charming as always,” Tim sighs, resigned, but he still hasn’t let Jason go.

So Jason smothers the poisonous voice in the back of his head whispering about Tim backing away to leave him cold and bereft, mocking him then relaxes entirely in the safe space Tim carved out for Jason between his arms.

[inkpotsprite]

This is so funny without context.

[stormyelliotwritez]

Hey could you write batfam x male reader who is Jason's secret brother? Like batfam as in Bruce, dick, Jason, Tim and Damian, and like after Jason's death and resurrection they finally figure out that Jason had an older brother? Jason hardly remebers him because 1. He died and his memories are a bit fuzzy and 2. He was very young when he last saw his brother. I feel like the male reader took care of Jason, but at some point to try and give Jason a better life he left for sile shady work that promised a good amount of money, that would help Jason stay afloat? And after the batfam find out they obviously try to find him, and Bruce obviously tries to adopt him (even if he's an adult) so he can be reunited with his brother

yes yes yesssss. I was just going to write headcanons but I ended up with too many ideas so have a mini fic! I don't have the best grasp on the whole resurrection part coz I haven't read under the red so that'll be a bit vague. I'm so sorry this took so long. I got crazy writers block but here it is. Tell me if you want more of them or like headcanons because I'm lowkey obsessed with Jason having an older brother.

—————————————————————————

"Hey Bruce, why isn't Jason the first Todd that comes up when you look up Todd death report?" Dick asked as he walked into the Batcave and sat down on the table behind Bruce.

Bruce turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. He had no idea what his son was talking about as he'd never looked up the reports. He knew his son had died and he hadn't wanted to know anything more. He'd failed his son, and he didn't want to be reminded of it.

"He's the only Todd I'm aware of," Bruce turned his chair around and looked at his eldest son, "Jason doesn't have any relatives."

Dick turned his laptop around and right at the top of the report, it said Y/N Todd. The cause of death just said explosion and body not found.

"Does that sound suspicious to you as well, Bruce?" Dick asked as he leaned forwards slightly.

"Go ask Tim to look more into it," Bruce turned his chair back around, "and don't tell Jason. We've only just got him to stay so there's no need to spook him."

Dick nodded and then walked out of the Batcave.

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~

A few days had passed, and Dick hadn’t brought it up to Bruce again. He had gone and asked Tim though and sworn him to secrecy. He didn’t talk to Jason much, so it wasn’t that hard anyways.

Jason was sitting in the library when Dick came in and seemed to be second guessing himself.

“You don’t read,” Jason said bluntly without looking up from his copy of Pride and Prejudice.

“I totally read,” Dick stumbled through the sentence as he walked over and sat down on an armchair opposite from Jason, “What are you reading anyways?”

Jason looked up at him, confused. What the fuck is Dick on, was all he was thinking. Dick was being nice, and he was normally nice, but this was awkward. This was like the same level of awkward he’d been for the first few days that Jason had been living at Wayne Manor. He had been so confident but also such a nervous wreck.

“Pride and Prejudice. Did you get sprayed with some drug on patrol?” Jason asked as he looked his older brother up and down.

“Nope nopity nope. I just wanted to hang out with you,” Dick said as though that explained why he was more skittish than a newborn kitten.

Jason nodded and then went back to reading. “I don’t remember him that much,” he said offhandedly as Dick went to stand up.

“How did you-” Dick said as he swung around and almost tripped over his feet.

“Tim talks a lot when he’s tired and you’re holding a coffee that he so desperately wants,” Jason replied with a shrug.

Dick’s jaw dropped. “You’re not mad that I’m snooping in your business? When you were little, I touched one of your first edition books and you cried for days.”

Jason’s head turned to look at Dick in two seconds flat. “I what?”

Dick’s eyebrow raised as he stared blankly at his little brother. “You don’t remember?”

The two of them stood silently as they processed what had been said. Jason hadn’t thought he’d lost that much. Dick hadn’t realized that either. He hadn’t realized Jason had lost anything. They didn’t talk much. Talking hurts and they’re both fragile which is seeming to be a trend in this family. (Bruce pay for therapy challenge???)

They stayed in silence for a few minutes before the door opened again and Damian walked in.

“Tim snitched. Your brother worked for some gang guy in Star City until he somehow quit. He’s back in Gotham for the next two weeks staying with,” Damian looked down at his phone and raised an eyebrow, “Selina?”

“How does Tim still keep his identity secret? Wait, so like dads on-off girlfriend, Selina?” Dick asked as he looked at their youngest brother with his eyebrows raised.

“Do we know any other Selinas, big bird?” Jason asked as his head swivelled to look in Dicks direction again.

Dick shrugged and seemed to be thinking. “So, we could just call Selina and ask about your mysterious brother?” He said observantly.

Damian sighed in frustration. “Yes, lets just call up Selina and ask her if she’s hosting Jason’s supposed to be dead brother!”

“It’s a good idea,” Dick tried to protest as he looked to Jason for backup. Jason raised his hands as if to say nope don’t involve me.

“No, it’s not. It’s really surprising that you’re not father’s actual son. You’re both stupid,” Damian replied as he scrolled on his phone until he found what he was looking for. His face lit up and he showed the screen. “There’s a gala on tomorrow. Selinas bound to go just to flirt with father, and she’ll probably take Y/N.”

“Ok, that is a better idea than mine,” Dick muttered as he crossed his arms and sulked.

“All of demon brats ideas are better than yours, Dickybird,” Jason said as he sat back down and reopened his book.

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

The night of the gala couldn’t come quick enough. Bruce was sitting at the kitchen table in his suit a good hour before they had to go and at that point, he wished he’d hadn’t broken his earbuds the day before. Jason and Tim were shouting at each other in the main first floor bathroom and Damian was about to tackle Dick for making him wear a blue tie. Cass and Steph were on a video chat with Barbs because she was currently at a tech conference so couldn’t make it.

Five minutes before they had to leave, Damian ran out of some room with Dick chasing him. Jason and Tim both tried to run out of the bathroom door at the same time, so Tim slammed into the wall. Steph and Cass walked calmy into the kitchen and laughed at the boys running rampant. Duke had offered to go on patrol solely because he didn’t want to go to the gala.

They all left the mansion and clambered into multiple cars.

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

The gala was bustling, and Bruce made his entrance followed by his entourage of children. The questions started up, but all Jason could think about was whether his older brother was there. Dick was standing close to him and swatting away any stuffy aristocrats who wanted to say how much he looked like the Wayne son who had died as a child.

Tim dragged his feet across the gala to where Dick and Jason were standing. He flopped onto the chair next to Jason and slammed his head down onto the table.

“No coffee?” Dick asked as he leaned against the wall and death stared another aristocrat who wanted their weekly Wayne drama fix.

“When have any of these events ever had coffee and I’m too young to drink and also Y/N is at the bar,” Tim rambled as he sat up straight and rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

“You’re like 18, I was drinking from like 15,” Jason started before his brain caught up with the whole sentence, “The bar?”

Tim nodded and fell forwards again. Dick put his hand out at a speed that could rival Wally and caught his younger brothers head. He nodded at Jason who jumped out of his chair and started briskly walking towards the bar.

At the bar, there sat a guy who looked to be in his 30s with bright red hair. A champagne glass was seated in front of him, and he was staring off into space.

Jason walked over and sat down next to him. He didn’t say anything but instead asked the bartender for a gin and tonic and glanced next to him. Y/N looked just like the fuzzy memories he had of him.

“You new around here?” Jason asked as he waited for the bartender to finish his drink.

The guy who was most likely his older brother didn’t say anything in response. He just sighed and sipped his champagne.

“Haven’t seen you at one of these before. You, uh, came with Ms Kyle?”

The guy gave him a nod in response as he rolled up his sleeves slightly. Jason looked down and saw the burn scar from when they’d been making pasta when he was little. His jaw dropped slightly before he recovered quickly. This was absolutely his older brother so what was he supposed to do now?

“I’m Jason Wayne,” he said so as to not spook Y/N.

“Y/N Todd,” Y/N glanced at Jason, “You look like someone I used to know. Have we met before?”

Jason laughed nervously. “If you’ve come to a gala before, probably.”

“Yeah, probably,” Y/N stood up from the chair, “Well I think Selina wanted an early night so I should go. Nice meeting you.”

Jason sighed as his older brother walked away. He downed his gin and tonic before standing up and walking over to where Dick was still sitting with Tim. He sat down on a free chair and leaned his head on the table.

“So?” Dick asked cautiously as he moved his hand out from under Tim’s forehead.

“He’s my brother,” Jason said tiredly.

Dick gasped and leaned in closer. “So, what you going to do about that, little bird?”

“No idea,” Jason said as he sighed.

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

A few days later, Jason was sitting in the library again when Tim ran inside. Jason looked up from his book and raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“He’s been spotted. Cass saw him. Dick’s waiting for you at Wayne Industries,” Tim said out of breath.

Jason placed his book down and ran out of the library. He sprinted down to the Batcave and got changed into his suit. He ran to his bike and pulled out of the cave. He drove down the highways and roads and felt the wind pushing against him. It felt just like how when he was younger, and it was just him and his older brother against the world. He flew down streets and side alleys. He pulled up in front of Wayne Industries and saw Dick sitting on a brick wall nearby. Their comms crackled to life.

“Cass has him and Selina on the roof of Wayne Industries, come on,” Dick said before he ran at the building and started scaling it.

Jason followed suite. The two of them made it to the top in record time and looked around. Cass waved from where she was standing and chatting to Selina. Jason’s older brother was leaning against the staircase door with a frown on his face as he glanced around.

Jason watched him for a moment. He had red hair just like how he did when he didn’t dye it. He was wearing a leather jacket like he did. He had a mask on which resembled the Robin one but not fully. It looked more like a masquerade mask. He was wearing boots, a pair that looked like ones Jason remembered sitting by their childhood apartments door. His older brother looked just like he remembered but also nothing like the teenager he’d idolized.

There was a scar above his eye. There was a necklace around his neck with a black rock. His hair was short and clipped, unlike when they were younger,

 and it sat above his shoulders. He looked so grumpy. Jason had never seen his older brother look that annoyed. He’d always been patient and kind.

“Selina, can we go? I didn’t come all this way just to stand around and chat with your boytoys kids,” Y/N said loudly, interrupting Jason’s thoughts.

Selina turned from Cass and scoffed. “Yeah, you came so far, all the way from Star City and your sad little retail job,” she said sarcastically before turning back to Cass.

Y/N rolled his eyes and finally noticed Jason and Dick. “He has more? How many of you vigilantes are there? Does he grow you in like a lab?”

“One of us was actually,” Dick said as he took a step forward, so he stood in front of Jason, once a protective big brother, always a protective big brother.

“Long story? Yeah, I’m getting used to that,” Y/N shook his head before he glanced at Jason, “What you staring at me like that for?”

Jason tilted his head slightly before taking off his helmet which caused Dick to groan.

“Secret identities, little bird,” Dick said annoyed as he slapped his forehead.

“Oh, shut up,” Jason stepped around Dick, “It’s me, Jason.”

Y/N took a step back and slammed against the wall. “You’re dead.”

Cass turned from where she was talking to Selina and rolled her eyes before resuming their conversation.

“Surprise?” Jason said with jazz hands. “I think we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Y/N nodded and took off his mask. “Yeah, I think we do.”

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

Two weeks later…

Y/N, Bruce and Jason were sitting around the manor’s dining table. Bruce was leaned forwards and staring Y/N down. Jason was leaned back and smiling. He hadn’t stopped since he got Y/N back. Y/N looked like he was about to run out of the room.

“Jason, tell your creepy dad he can’t adopt me. I’m a grown ass man who isn’t going anywhere anyways,” He said as he scooted his chair slightly further away from Bruce.

“Hey, he’s still trying to figure out if he can adopt me and I’m legally dead,” Jason said as he raised his hands in mock surrender.

“So am I!” His brother replied exasperatedly.

“I already adopted you, Jason,” Bruce leaned back in his chair, “Found a technicality.”

Jason turned quickly to face his dad. “Ok, you cannot just drop that in conversation, old man.”

Bruce stood up from his chair. “I’m not even 50 yet. You’ve gotta stop calling me that.”

Jason smiled and shook his head. “I’ll call you what I want, Bruce.”

Bruce smiled to himself and walked out of the room. The older Todd leaned closer to Jason and smiled.

“Your family is weird, Jase,” he said with a chuckle.

“Our family actually, big brother,” Jason said with a wide grin as he stood up from his chair. “Wanna go for a ride?”

His big brother jumped out of his chair and smiled. “I bet my bike goes faster than yours.”

The two of them ran towards the manors front door with the widest grins.

Up on the staircase, Bruce stood as he watched them with a smile. Alfred walked up behind him with a smile and tapped him on the shoulder.

“You must stop adopting all these children, Master Bruce,” he said quietly.

“He makes Jason happy, doesn’t he?” Bruce asked.

Alfred pondered for a moment before replying.

“Yes, he does, Master Bruce. That doesn’t mean Master Jason doesn’t still need his father though,” Alfred said, his voice full of care and love for the two of them.

Bruce nodded as he heard the motorbikes start outside. He then smiled and walked off to attend to his work.

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

[a-sin-to-be-rin]

Trying to Get Along

Dick wants to connect with his little brother, but no matter what he does, one major problem keeps them at odds.

---

“Ugh, you’re still here?”

Dick ignores the disdain. “Have you seen Bruce?”

“Not home,” the boy says, spinning in his chair. “League business.”

“Figures.” After he was fired - after Bruce replaced him - Dick all but cut Bruce out of his life. He left Gotham behind and let himself become swamped with his work with the Teen Titans. He didn’t go to the manor for anything. Not even to see Alfred. (He should have. He knows he should have. But he just… couldn’t.)

But after an unplanned team-up with the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder, Dick tried to reconnect. He made a concerted effort to visit. Tried to call when he could. And…

And he tried to get to know the new kid. After all, it wasn’t his fault that Bruce thought Dick was so easily replaceable.

But even now, Bruce is tough to pin down. More and more often, Dick visits the manor to find Alfred and the copycat. No Bruce. So Dick tries to capitalize on the time without Batman.

“Wanna do something?” Dick offers. “Gotham could use a couple crime fighters while Batman’s away.”

The boy, usually eager to do anything with Dick, be that a patrol or math homework, is hesitant. “I dunno.”

“C’mon, I haven’t broken a nose in almost a week. Just a couple hours.”

“You don’t have to do this anymore.” The little boy fixes Dick with a curious look.

Something cold and pointy sinks into Dick’s heart. “Don’t have to do what anymore?”

“Play big brother.” The boy blinks owlishly. “I’m not your brother anymore. I’m dead.”

“You’re not-” Dick takes a deep breath. It does nothing to calm the hummingbird wings in his chest. “Don’t say stuff like that.”

But a much more typical frown graces the boy’s lips. “You’re not helping anyone by doing this.” He approaches Dick carefully, arms folded and yellow cape swallowing his figure. “You’re just worrying Bruce.”

Dick copies the boy’s posture, sending a glare that would make even the toughest of street thugs sweat. “Bruce doesn’t care what I do.” He can barely hear himself over the pounding in his ears. “I’m just looking out for you.”

“It’s too late for that. I’m not alive anymore.” The boy’s voice is too chipper. Too reminiscent of-

Late nights against the Gotham skyline. An unexpected visitor at Titans Tower. A rare trip to the Batcave, a kid hot on his heels and talking like his life depends on it-

“Don’t say that!” he snaps, fingers itching and blood roaring. “Don’t say that! You are alive! Would you quit-?”

A small hand reaches up to pat him dismissively on the shoulder. “C’mon. You don’t really believe that. Not even Bruce believes that, and he’s crazy.”

“Bruce has nothing to do with this. Bruce…”

Bruce didn’t say a word. Not a word. You had to go digging. You had to call Barbara. He never would’ve told you.

“Dick,” the boy stresses. “I’m dead.”

“You shouldn’t be! If he’d just told me he needed help-”

“You would have failed too. There’s nothing you could’ve done.” It might be an attempt at reassurance. To Dick, it sounds like an excuse.

“I could’ve helped.” But something in his voice breaks. His heartbeat slows to a loud, painful thud. Thud. Thud.

The boy sighs. “No, you couldn’t have.”

There’s a heavy pause. And then the boy’s expression hardens into tense panic.

“You couldn’t save me, Dick. Dick. Dick, you there?”

Dick blinks.

“Dick, you’re scaring me.”

“Sorry. Sorry, Tim.” Dick runs a hand through his hair, grimacing against a new headache.

“You okay?” Tim fidgets with his cape, still watching Dick like he might disappear. “You zoned out or something.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” Dick doesn’t truly believe this and, going off of Tim’s expression, neither does Tim. But even so, it’s been over a year now. Dick should be over this. He shouldn’t still be seeing those leftover remnants of Jason. Dick has no right to be haunted when he didn’t even know Jason was gone.

“Mm-hm.” Tim rocks on his feet, letting his cape fall away and playing with his mask instead. “If you say so.”

Desperate to change the subject, Dick asks, “Are you headed out to patrol?” Because Tim is suited up.

Tim shrugs. “I wanted to, but then Bruce had that League thing, and I’m…” He shrugs again. “I’m not allowed to go out on my own.”

The unspoken is obvious: I would go out on my own if you weren’t here to tell me no.

“Right.” Dick pulls his mask from his belt and presses it to his face. “Well, we can watch Gotham together, then.”

“Really??”

“Gotta make sure you don’t do anything reckless, and I need to stretch my legs.”

“Cool!” Tim puts on his own mask, rushing to the garage. “Can we take the Batmobile?”

“Not unless you want to be grounded for the next thirty years. Let’s go by roof, huh?”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so, Jason.”

Dick doesn’t notice his mistake. Tim doesn’t point it out. They just patrol the skies, each brother looking out for the other.

[awhoreintheory]

Hiii, stumbling out of my mindscape with snippets of Spidey in Gotham embedded in my psyche like thorns on cheap flipflops after a walk on uncleared nature.

I'm just dying at the fact that according to canon jason and Dick look so alike they could have mistaken for one another in their teens, so people seeing Peter might think he's the child of either of the two. And I die againnn. Bc imagine him seeing Jason (Ben) and reacting bc of course he would, and everyone thinks he's the dad??? Screeching.

REAL istg Peter in Gotham is gonna be the reason I fail my bio course and end up in debt for no reason,,, worth it

But no seriously!! I've seen 1 (one!) Fic of Peter getting mistaken for Jason's mini me (welcome to the show by prodby_error) and it SLAPS

Listen. Right ok listen. Things go down, the usual happens, batfamily is stalking Peter, with the assumption this is either Jason's kid from the future or he's a lab baby, doesn't matter, they're stalking him THINKING they know who the daddy is. Dick, among everyone else, is lightly teasing Jason as they try to bring the sassy spider child into their folds. Only, wait, hold up, they just got a DNA sample and Jason,,, isn't the dad?

Dick's hear drops when he sees the test results. He's the father? But the kids a total copy of Jason!

And, sure, Dick and Jason look notably different NOW, what with Jason's height and scarred and lazarus makeover, but Bruce has distinct memories of mixing them up, of calling the wrong name at the wrong black-haired blue-eyed teen.

Jason feels,, kind of sad. He'd already mentally adopted the kid, who isn't even his apparently, but also he's now an uncle???

Not sure how Dick would respond. Disbelief? Anger? Confusion? Adoption mode? Hit or miss tbh

[simp-for-the-batfam]

It is a rare day when the Batfamily has a declared day and night off (usually instituted by Alfred when everyone is injured). They decided to spend the day watching a movie together. Only, Bruce is fed up with the Batkids spending too much time arguing over what movie they should watch and turns it to a random channel that happened to be playing Phineas and Ferb. He states that 'if you act like children, you watch childish things'. Little did Bruce know how much of a pain it would cause him.

First off, Damian has never seen the show, but now that he has, the OWCA agents, especially Agent P, are his favorites. He is already compiling a list of measurements as to give Alfred to make custom fedoras for Titus, Alfred the Cat, Batcow, and any other pet the Wayne's own. Alfred already has the sewing machine out. Damian even commissioned one for Hailey that Dick can't wait to put on her. And on a completely unrelated note, an animal smuggling ring that Damian busted last week happened to have an abused platypus that Damian has now decided would be better fit in the Wayne Manner than taken care of in some wildlife preserve.

Dick remembers trying to recreate do everything Phineas and Ferb's summer as a kid, and is now determined to do it again. While everyone is distracted by the show, he calling is order and favors, determined to make things and contacting anyone who could help. He already has the Teen Titans on his side. He even ordered roller coaster parts that should come tomorrow and who knows what else. While he might not be able to personally build everything, he knows people who could. But for some reason, the parts never arrive at the manor.

Jason is hardcore identifying with Candace. While he is not the oldest, he knows what it is like to have the perfect sibling that never gets caught for their wrongdoing (*cough*cough* Dick). He already had to go through Dick's crazy summer plans before when he was Robin, trying to stop Dick from getting himself killed, and he doesn't want to do it again. Throughout the show, he is trying to bust Dick whenever he leaves to make a suspicious phone call, but Dick always says he is ordering takeout. Jason is pulling his hair out wondering how come no one has questioned the amount of times Dick has left to order food and how none of it has arrived yet. When he gets a chance, he sings E.V.I.L. B.O.Y.Z. directed toward Dick, who sits up front looking completely innocent.

The minute Phineas and Ferb is mentioned, Stephanie quicky fled the room only to roll back in full Duckie Momo apparel. She has on a Duckie Momo onesie, Duckie Momo slippers, and Duckie Momo glasses. In fact, the whole floor has become a Duckie Momo nest, complet with blankets and pillows. She even had a matching onesie for Cass. She also came in knowing all of the songs word for word and had so much fun recreating the "Squirrels in my pants" dance.

When Cass isn't in the Duckie Momo nest with Steph, cuddling a Duckie Momo plushie, she is copying fight scenes from the show. It started off as Steph asking if she could do a move Agent P did, only for her to recreate the whole scene. Now everyone is wanting Cass to copy any of the animals fighting moves, but she declined until she also got a fedora. Damian quickly got her one and declared her an honorary OWCA Agent. Dick tried to join in, but failed. Jason about died laughing about how a platypus could beat Dick in a fight, only for Damian to yell, "Agent P is a worthy opponent, Todd!" with Cass nodding in agreement. Either way, Dick has mainly been pouting ever since.

Tim has been up for about a week before he got dragged into family time. Now, he is just staring numbly at the TV, saying 'mood' whenever Doofenshmirtz talks about his awful childhood backstories (like the one where his parents didn't show up for his birth), giving Bruce an aneurysm each time. Tim is already on the edge, and Bruce just hopes he doesn't gain any motivation to copy Doof's 'take over the Tri-state area' schemes. Bruce especially worries whenever Tim spots a machine and says 'I could build that'.

Unbeknownst to Bruce, Barbara already has the schematics for all of Doof's machines as well as Phineas and Ferb's. What started as a bored interest during summer as a child grew over time, especially with all resources she gained by being Batgirl and Oracle. The information on both are kept in separate secret heavily protected files to keep Tim away from Doof's and Dick away from Phineas and Ferb's. She even has a warning system in place if either of them get close to making one of the machines, either on accident or on purpose, and diverts them away from completing it. The system also includes orders to return any shipments made solely for the purpose of recreating a machine and deleting any records of the order in the first place (hence why Dick's shipment never came). But Babs is content with letting Bruce worry and continues to watch the show with a Duckie Momo blanket spread over her lap (courtesy of Steph).

Since Duke was still working day shift (he wasn't as injured as the others and wanted to flee before there was bloodshed over choosing the movie), he comes back home and happens to conveniently be listening to a playlist of Phineas and Ferb's greatest hits. Upon seeing everyone, Duke takes an earbud out and asks, "Whatcha doin'?" The only answer he got was Steph throwing another Duckie Momo onesie in his face.

An hour later, Jason and Steph are singing BUSTED on top of a table, Jason as a warning to Dick and Steph just for the heck of it. Meanwhile, Cass and Duke acts as Duckie Momo backup dancers with full choreography. Dick wanted to join in as well, but Jason forced him to sit down and watch, hoping the message will sink through, but Dick thinks it is because they don't like his dancing so now he is pouting again. Tim is waving his cellphone light as if this is the most meaningful part of the night, while Damian is about to wrestle the fedora onto Alfred the Cat, as the cat keeps batting it away. All the while, Babs is recording everything.

Bruce is reminded that this is why you should never watch daytime television and turns the channel, despite the cries of anguish. Only to be horrified when Alfred reminds him and the children that show is can be viewed on Disney + and can be streamed at anytime. He runs back to his room as the beginning notes to the intro fill the air and all his children sing along.

[ktkat99]

Reverse Robins prompt if you're looking

Batman swears he doesn't want a partner. Until he meets Damian. Talia drops him off to be raised by Bruce and, as Bruce has no other kids, the two are free to train as they pleased. Damian grows up and moves out, taking his own section of Gotham to protect under his new, adult identity.

Batman, struggling to get himself reaccustomed to working without a partner, meets Tim.

Tim knows who they are and has been following them, taking pics and copying their moves to teach himself martial arts for years.

He's seen Batman having trouble and insists that he needs a new Robin.

Him.

After protesting and trying to chase him away, Bruce finds out just how alone Tim is at home and decides to take him up on it.

Damian feels replaced and is immediately antagonistic to Tim.

He hates how happy the damn kid always is.

He hates how Bruce is spending more time training him.

He hates how Alfred has changed typical meals that Bruce liked to remove seafood, which Tim is allergic to.

When Tim asks to train with him, Damian goes far too hard on him.

When Tim sleeps over and eventually moves in, having officially been adopted, Damian wastes no opportunity to remind him who the Blood Son is, and tell Tim that he's just a stand-in. Basically cannon fodder. Bruce didn't *really* love him. He'd just needed a soldier.

Over the next few years, Tim gradually grows stronger, but also more withdrawn and depressed.

Bruce takes in Jason and Tim starts going solo on patrol, but he always makes time to train/hang out with/play with Jason, wanting to be the big brother Damian had never been to him.

And then one night Tim never returns to the cave.

There's no call.

No heads up.

No distress signal.

No one knows where he is.

No one can find him.

Damian insists Tim must have just left and openly mocks him for trying to get attention or having not had the spine to quit face to face.

Until Damian finds him three weeks later, having been captured, tortured, and turned into Joker Jr.

Damian is horrified and ends up killing the Joker to save Tim, but its too late.

Tim dies in his arms waiting for help to arrive.

They're all grieving and devastated, but no one besides Jason blames Damian for Tim's death to his face, making Damian feel even worse.

He blames himself for not helping search for Tim.

He blames himself for failing to save him.

He blames himself for being a bully, rather than a brother.

He finally has to take a break from being a vigilante and moves back to Nanda Parbat, throwing himself into his training and confessing what happened to his mother and grandfather.

When he's feeling able to resume his job again, Damian moves back to the manor and life goes on as much as it can.

They all still miss Tim.

But they're learning to live without him.

Talia and Ra's, seeing how rattled and off his game Damian was, decide to follow him back to Gotham, steal Tim's body, and see if they can revive him in a Lazarus Pit.

Tim comes back to life, but instead of returning home immediately, he watches them from a distance.

Damian has moved back home to the manor, despite having an apartment in the city.

Despite Bruce still having Jason.

Tim remembers how Damian used to treat him, all because he was adopted, and gets angry.

He becomes Red Hood, but while Jason!Red Hood's problem was that he wasn't avenged, Tim!Red Hood is more concerned with saving Jason from the abuse he had to endure from Damian.

He breaks into the manor one night as Red Hood, making sure to avoid every trap and alarm while still leaving obvious signs all over the cave and the manor, wanting to send the message 'I know you're Batman. I was in your house while you were asleep. I'm dangerous, and I know all your tricks.'

And then he goes upstairs to kidnap Jason.

Jason is overjoyed to find out Tim is alive, but right as Tim's about to take him and leave, another little kid is suddenly in the room.

Jason explains that Dick recently lost his family and Bruce took him in.

Tim knows he has to save both boys, but now is also even more caught off guard.

He'd spent so long trying to tell Damian that he was wrong, that Bruce really did love him like a son.

But the fact that he'd not only been replaced, but Bruce was still sending kids into battle, even after what happened to him was too much.

Tim tries to kidnap them both, but Dick, who's never met Tim before, gets scared and runs to Damians room for help.

Damian fights off the intruder, but then Tim's helmet falls off/Jason says his name/Damian recognizes the fighting style/he somehow finds out that he's fighting Tim and freezes, allowing him to escape.

Damian is shocked that Tim's alive and he and Bruce work to find him and bring him home.

Only, Tim doesn't want to come home.

Not when Damian is there.

Not with Bruce and Alfred, who never did enough to protect him.

But...

He finally accepts, solely to protect Jason and Dick.

So the family gets to work towards the second chance they never thought they'd get, Tim gets a family who loves him, and Jason and Dick get a very protective older brother.

[wolfjackle-creates]

Ghost!Robin Part 4

Here's your next part of the Ghost!Robin fic for WIP Wednesday. I'm gonna start putting fic designation in the title field rather than WIP Wednesday because I think it makes it easier to read.

Also, everyone came out in numbers for last week's segment! Damn! Thank you and I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this little fic of mine. We'll probably get one more week of this before I go back to Bring Me Home, but it'll depend what I feel like. I want to rework some of what I have written next.

First, Previous

1.1k words + a 464 word Omake (cut scene)

----------

Tim asked more details on the specs of the PDA which Danny happily answered. The things he built with Tucker were always his favorite inventions.

“So are you in school to become an engineer or something?” asked Dick who’d gotten Damian calmed down and sitting. The boy had gotten his knife back and was spinning it in his hands. Bruce seemed to be fondly exacerbated by the scene. Robin had pulled out a ghostly weapon and was trying to copy Damian’s movements, though he wasn’t quite as adept.

Danny shook his head to Dick’s question. “Nah. Hard to get into engineering school when you fail high school.” Danny narrowed his eyes as Damian’s mouth opened, but Dick whispered in his ear again and the boy didn’t say anything.

“I ended up dropping out of high school and getting a GED,” said Tim. “It can work just as well.”

Robin was nodding along and pointing at himself, too. Had he died before he could complete his schooling, too?

“I’m sure. It’s just not a priority for me right now. I don’t need one for my job and I can’t become an astronaut because of my accident when I was fourteen.”

Dick was nodding, but Tim looked confused and asked, “Fourteen? I thought you had your accident when you were older?”

“Why would you think that?” Had he or Jazz made any reference to when his accident was? “No, it happened when I was fourteen. A few weeks before I started my freshman year of high school.

Before Tim could ask anything else, Steph called out from the other side of the room. “Did you say you wanted to be an astronaut? Totally awesome. What made you pick that?”

“I honestly don’t know why everyone doesn’t want to be astronauts! Space is so cool. We can learn so much about the universe by studying it in closer detail. And with how many aliens are now living at least part time on Earth, it only makes sense to explore and see what else might be out there.”

Bruce nodded at him. “I am sorry you aren’t able to become one.”

Danny just waved a hand in the air. “I came to terms with it a long time ago. And my current job is fine. Might not be what I would’ve chosen, but I’ve made it work for me.” Deciding he should change the subject before someone had the brilliant idea to ask more about his accident or job, he asked, “So what is for dinner, anyway? You’ve all talked about how amazing the food is, but what are we having?”

Someone tried to speak up, but Jason held up a hand. “I’m the one who helped Alfie cook. Demon-brat is vegetarian so we have a vegetarian curry. If you like meat, there’s a prime rib roast. Then a half dozen different sides—vegetables, rice, potatoes. Huge salad with all the fixings and a dozen different dressings to choose from. And dessert after.”

“Damn, that sounds amazing. I haven’t had a good home cooked meal in ages, so I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“Has your Grandpa been keeping you that busy?” asked Jazz.

“That, but also getting things in order to take this evening off. There’s just been a lot. I’m spending the night at yours, by the way.”

“I’d be offended if you didn’t.”

Danny knew he could rely on Jazz.

“Ooh, do you have any good stories about Jazz as a kid?” asked Jason.

Laughing, Danny said, “So many! But I don’t think we’ll be able to get to those tonight. I’ve a feeling you’ll be interested in other things by that point.” At his words, Robin grinned and pointed at himself. Danny gave him a slight nod to confirm that yes, they’d be talking about him.

Before Jason could ask for clarification, Alfred came in to announce dinner was ready.

Robin cheered and flew over to sit on Alfred’s shoulders, hand extended, to lead the way to the dinning room. Danny couldn’t hold back the chuckle and Jazz shot him a look which he ignored.

“There better be a place setting for you, Alfie!” called Jason as they followed.

“You made your opinion quite clear, Master Jason. And as I wish to meet your young lady and her brother as well, I have set myself a plate at the main table.”

Tim leaned over to whisper to Danny. “Alfred considers his role as butler very important. He rarely eats with the rest of us unless we join him in the kitchen.”

Danny nodded to show he understood, but had no idea how to actually reply to that. It seemed needlessly complicated.

Once they made it to the dining room, Danny grinned as Robin did a flip off of Alfred’s shoulders and landed sitting down on one of the place settings facing the associated chair. He bit his cheek to keep from laughing as Jason sat down at that same place. Jazz took a seat next to him and Danny sat to her other side. Dick ended up sitting next to him.

The scents of all the food wafting off the table made his mouth water and he closed his eyes just to breathe it in. “This smells amazing. Thanks Alfred. And Jason.”

Even Robin had moved to look over every dish, reaching out a hand to try and take something and sighing when he just phased through it.

Even Jazz looked a bit overwhelmed at the quantity of food. “This is so much effort. You didn’t have to do all this just for Danny and me.”

Bruce smiled at her. “It is so rare for all of us to be together for dinner so we make a spectacle of it any time it happens. And this is the first time Jason has ever brought anyone with him which makes it an even bigger event.”

Danny nudged her. “So, Jazz, what’s it like living with someone who can cook?”

Jason laughed. “Jazz isn’t allowed in the kitchen. You know, I caught her grabbing my chef’s knife before going into the fridge the other day!”

Danny furrowed his brow. “Of course she did. It’s a fridge.”

“Wait, is that a family trait? Why do you grab a knife to open the fridge? There’s gotta be a good story behind that.”

Before Danny could make the obvious statement regarding attacking food, Jazz elbowed him. “We’ll tell you later. It has to do with our parents and that’s a large topic and not one we should get into now.”

Before Danny could ask any questions about what the big deal was, Dick nudged him. “Which do you want—curry or beef?”

---------

Omake

Ignoring all of it, Danny shook his head and answered Dick. “Nah. Hard to get into college when you fail high school and are legally dead.”

Multiple people, including Jason, exclaimed at that statement and he looked to Jazz.

“Did Jazz not tell you about that? Our parents swear they saw my ghost and had me declared legally dead. I was missing at the time so the coroner agreed. Sighting the ghost of a missing person is all you need to confirm death in Amity.”

Under her breath, Jazz added, “You were only missing because they had you.”

Danny elbowed her and quietly chirped a Safe now.

Bruce was no longer smiling and was looking at Danny with narrowed eyes. “Your parents had you declared dead.”

“Yeah. It’s fine, though. I’ve an amazing doctor if I get into trouble. My grandfather is watching out for me. I’m financially stable. My partners are able to rent an apartment large enough for all three of us. I have other places to stay when I’m traveling. Honestly, it doesn’t impact my life all that much. Just means I’m not gonna go to college. And only reason I wanted to go to college was to be an astronaut, but my health makes that impossible.”

“Hn…” Bruce hummed.

And Danny had no idea what that meant, but Robin was now laughing, and Dick was exchanging grins with Tim, and Steph and Cass were whispering together. Damian was glaring at him even harder, blade hilt gripped in his hand. These people were strange.

Danny looked over at Jazz who shrugged. Jason was glaring at Bruce and said, “Don’t you dare.”

“Look, it’s really not a big deal. I know it’s kinda a messed up situation, but ghosts are generally treated really well in Amity. As well as any living human, at least. So long as you avoid the Guys in White and my parents that is. So outside of interactions with them, nothing has changed.”

“If you are ever in need of a place to stay or a meal or anything, you’ll have a room here,” offered Bruce.

Robin landed on Danny’s shoulders and was sending out happy-celebrate feelings. Steph handed Cass a few bills. Tim and Dick mimed giving each other fist bumps. Jason put his head in his hands and groaned. Duke was grinning at them all.

Damian half stood and said, “Father—!”

But Dick was at his side and pulling him back down to the couch with an arm around his shoulders, hand over his mouth, and whispering into his ear before he could do more than say the one word.

“Seriously, it’s not a big deal.” Trying to think of anyway to change the subject, he asked, “So what’s for dinner, anyway?”

And for the Tag List! (Which absolutely exploded this week. Holy shit.)

----------

Next

@addie-lover-of-stories, @justwannabecat, @gin2212, @amercurio, @regonold, @overtherose, @readerzj, @sjrose1216, @echoednonny, @deeterzz, @blu-lilac, @number-one-jew, @rowanaway-fromthisbs, @vythika96, @tired-yet-awaken, @themirrorghost, @all-mights-asscheeks, @darkhinauniverse, @blep-23, @phandomhyperfixationblog, @larkcoe1, @thegatorsgoose, @job-ross-the-second, @britcision, @lenacraft, @bubblemixer, @androgynouslordofescapism, @purefrickingspite, @leftmiraclechaos, @lizisipancardo, @starlight-sparks, @miraculousandmore, @gildedphoenix, @sometimesthingsfallapart, @letmesayfuxk, @phoenixcatch7, @skulld3mort-1fan, @abaowo, @dhampir-princess, @idkmrpianoman, @sarina-elais, @ballzfrog-blog, @undead-essence, @spookytragedyshark, @emeraldcorpral

The celebration post for 100 followers will be going out in another day or two! I've just had a really busy few weeks and didn't do as much writing as I was hoping for. But I hope to finish writing today and then I'll just take a few hours to edit.

[havendance]

Finally returning to my version of the AU where Jason lives because Dick dies:

Let's get this out of the way: this is not an AU where Dick dies in Ethiopia instead of Jason. In fact, in this AU, no one makes it out to Ethiopia at all. 

I'm still doing my NTT reading, but we're going to mess with the timeline somewhat. Jason is benched because of the whole Garzonas incident, but before he can run off to Ethiopia and get himself killed, Dick Grayson dies. 

The Titans aren't in space because that complicates the timing and logistics and whatnot, so instead, let's say, hmmm, Brother Blood did it. 

Bruce takes the news extremely poorly of course. Jason is now benched indefinitely because Bruce expresses his emotions through being controlling. Bruce also proceeds to go and try to boss around the Titans and take down Brother Blood. The Titans, who are also mourning their friend and have little love for Batman, don't take kindly to this. The following clusterf*** of a situation leads to Brother Blood manipulating circumstances in his favor so that he gets away with killing Dick, somehow. 

Following that disaster, no longer having the outlet of action, Bruce begins to sink into despair. He fights crime by rote and the mix of rage and despair his grief takes means he doesn't particularly care about the condition that both he and the people he fights come out in. 

Meanwhile, Jason is also upset. He and Dick had their rocky moments, sure, but they still had something that was almost brotherhood. He's upset that Dick is dead and guilty because part of him thinks he should feel worse. He fights with Bruce in the aftermath (words only, not blows) over the way Bruce is handling it: the way that he benched Jason and is pushing him away. Bruce responds by doing this even moreso. Jason in turn responds by purposefully avoiding Bruce. It's quite some time before they're in the same room as each other again. 

Tim is in school when he hears about Nightwing's death. For maximum angst, lets say that he died on live television while Brother Blood arranged things to either look like he was only acting in self-defense after the misguided and out of control Titans attacked him, or that it was a tragic accident that he tried and failed to stop. Maybe he fell to his death.

Tim also takes this poorly. Nightwing was his hero. His nightmares come back, his grades start to drop. He sneaks away from boarding school to attend Dick Grayson's funeral (mostly a closed, private ceremony, but he hides in the back) and again to visit his grave after one too many sleepless nights, leaving a copy of the picture of them at the circus.

(I know A Death in the Family takes place in the spring, but we're putting Dick's death in the fall in this AU for school year timeline purposes.) 

The school calls Tim's parents about this and they're so worried about it that they decide to cut their business short and come home early. This would've been a good choice on their part if this weren't also a 'Tim joins the Batfam AU'. As it is though, I need to make Tim an orphan somehow and they both die in a tragic plane accident, or maybe in a car crash on the way to the airport. 

This devestates Tim even further and he becomes very depressed :( 

But back to Jason. Frustrated with Bruce and his own roiling emotions, Jason decides to cope with his grief in the traditional (very healthy) bat way by putting on a mask and fighting crime. Since Robin is still benched and Jason is still avoiding Bruce, he puts together a new costume. It's probably very emo and edgy with lots of reds and blacks; he calls himself, hmmm, let's say Corvus (Latin for crow) to stick with the bird theme. 

While sneaking out at night to dispense vigilante justice, he runs into none other than the Huntress! 

Helena can see some of herself in the kid, in the way he fights like there's  something trying to break free, the way they share similar ideas about what Justice sometimes entails. And besides, he's a kid, she doesn't want anything to happen to him. So she takes him under her wing. 

With her coming off of a two year hiatus, he's got nearly as much experience as she has. Helena can offer a certain maturity and more life experience. Jason, in turn, knows more about detective work. (He was trained by Batman; She's self-taught) 

Jason confides in her that he wants to kill the man who killed his brother. Helena's torn because, on the one hand, that was what she was after. That was what she did. But on the other, Jason's a boy. He's still young. She was an adult when she did it. She knew what she was getting into. She doesn't know if Jason does. 

(Also, I think I've heard that Jason having mommy-issues were a thing? Maybe play with those?) 

Tim, meanwhile, is in foster care probably, but has definitely been transferred to the public school system and has ended up in none other than Helena Bertinelli's English class. 

(He doesn’t know that she's a vigilante and is too depressed to find out.) 

In the habit of sneaking away to visit Dick's grave, he runs into Jason once. 

He met Dick once, he says when Jason asks him why he's there. It's kind of stupid, he admits, he didn't even know him, so why does his death hurt so much? 

I'm going to borrow an idea from scintilly's one dick & tim au now and say that there's that one corrupt Drake Industries executive who's embezzling money and framing a 13 year old orphan for it. Tim is too depressed to really clock when the police start asking pointed questions, but Helena is getting a bad feeling about how the cops keep pulling him out of class to question him. She begins to investigate and Jason joins her. 

Jason and Helena uncover what's going on and this somehow culminates in a cool action sequence where Huntress and Corvus have to save Tim from a hitman that the exec sent after him or something, idk 

The important part is that, when everything's done, Tim gets a good look at Huntress for the first time and has just enough adrenaline flowing through his brains to make an intuitive leap. 

"You're my English teacher," he says. 

When pressed why, he admits that he was her meeting with Jason once after school. (He doesn't name Jason, he gestures at Corvus.) When asked why he knew it was Corvus, he's like "Well, you used to be the new Robin." 

Jason takes offense at being called the new Robin (he's been doing this for two years!) and also wants to know how Tim recognized him out of costume. 

Tim clams up. When pressed, he starts crying and rambling about quadruple somersaults and how everyone who could do them are dead and Jason eventually pieces that together with what he remembers from that one time he met Tim at Dick's grave to figure out what's going on. 

And if he knows Dick's ID and he knows Jason's then... "Do you know who Batman is?" he asks. 

Tim, still crying, nods. 

Jason swears. Well, they can't just leave him alone after all of that can they? 

I can get a fostering license, Helena says. 

Jason shakes his head. I know a guy, he says. 

Is your guy Batman? she asks. 

Jason's like, you don't know that. 

(It is Batman) 

So they drop Tim off somewhere safe until things can be finalized. (Tim makes many promises about how he isn't going to tell anyone anything) and Jason goes off to talk to Bruce for the first time in forever. 

While all of this has been going on, Bruce has continued to self-destruct: he's constantly coming home beat to hell, the GCPD are whispering about maybe taking down the giant bat spotlight they unofficially have on the roof, etc etc. 

Jason hasn't been in the same room as Bruce in over two months because of grief and also the whole hiding the fact that he's been sneaking out as an unsanctioned vigilante thing. When he finally seeks out Bruce to talk to him about Tim, and sees how bad of a shape the man is in, he breaks down. 

Look, Jason's been going through a lot and that's his dad who looks half-dead. Jason doesn't want to lose a father as well as a brother. 

They finally get to have a heart to heart where Jason talks about his feelings and admits what he's been getting up to. Bruce listens and remembers that he has more than one son and promises to try and do better by Jason. They hug. It's all very sweet. 

Then, when that's done and Jason remembers why he went looking for Bruce in the first place, he's like, "So, uh, there's something else..." 

Congratulations, Bruce! It's a boy! 

So Tim becomes fostered by Bruce Wayne, Jason goes back to being Robin, and slowly things get better. 

Jason continues to go hang out with Helena, and Tim stays as a student in her class. They all hang out together sometimes and Helena shows Tim how to use a crossbow. 

Reusing one of my old ideas and going with Tim becomes Robin during No Man's Land when he and Jason run away into the restricted zone as Batman & Robin 2.0, only in this version they also team up with Helena during it. 

I also feel like Tim's Robin costume should integrate the color blue in it somehow to honor Dick. 

Ummm, skip forward some to get to the part of this AU I was originally thinking about (making fanon Jason & Tim about Dick & Tim) 

Dick Grayson is resurrected somehow by Brother Blood. Unfortunately, this means that he is brainwashed and evil. 

(Part of me wonders if this should be a mainly Teen Titans story since Dick died under the Titan's editorial) 

Anyway, Dick, probably called something edge like "Bloodwing" or something, is sent to kill Robin. While attacking Tim, he sees the picture of him and his parents with Tim at the circus and it causes the brainwashing to crack.  

Instead of killing Tim, he kidnaps him and brings him back to Brother Blood's cult. They proceed to have a very bad time together and probably develop a codependent relationship between brainwashing sessions and cult stuff and, idk, other whumpy stuff. 

The rest of the Teen Titans show up and save the day. Dick and Tim get deprogrammed. There are lots of tearful reunions between Dick and his friends/family. 

Happy endings (until the next major event that is) 

[andi-dromeda]

Long before he was Red Hood, a dead man walking or a Robin, Jason was Willis and Cathy's son. No matter how bleak things got, how many times he had to reevaluate who he was, he could always be sure of two things: the universe hated him but his parents loved him. Love isn't always perfect and pure. Love can't stave off the cold or put food on the table, but his parents' love was the one thing no one could ever take from him. Even after they died, he still knew his parents loved him.

They had a small apartment. Most of the furniture and cutlery were a patchwork of items collected in yard sales or discount bins which meant that there was a wide range of colours. Beggers can't be choosers and what not. But there was always slightly more red than any other colour. His favourite blanket was red, his dad's hoodie was red, the kettle was red and Cathy's hair was red. Red meant safety. Red meant warmth. Red meant home.

Then Jason woke up from a haze of darkness to searing gold. One moment he was in the lazarus pit and the next Talia was tossing him off a cliff. She picked him up after that and carefully tried to steer him away from vengeance. She distracted him with teachers and training but Jason's mind never left his end goal - confronting Bruce.

He came back to Gotham on a ferry. It cut through the polluted waters like a well made knife. And that's what this was wasn't it? Because even with all his planning, Bruce still slit his throat. Bruce still chose a madman over his the boy he failed. Bruce wanted a soldier not a son. Looking back he couldn't tell you when he realised Bruce wouldn't pick him. It was kind of like walking around in a horror game and realising it just saved. There was this slow, creeping sense of dread that he tried to ignore until he was clawing at his throat, trying to stop himself from bleeding out. It'd be foolish to keep living in optimistic ignorance. He wasnt Bruce. He could acknowledge reality.

His new undoubtable truths were:

• Cathy, Willis and Natalia loved him

• The universe hates him

• Bruce does too

So he adjusted to his new reality. He operated as Red Hood and had a strict no bats rule throughout all his territory. Red still meant home, just less like a cozy family and more like neighbours united by blood shed. Red became anger and danger too. Red was versatile, just like Jason. He'd been trained by the bat, the league of assasins and the All Caste - a special group of warriors who united to fight against magical evils.

This probably isn't shocking to anyone but Gotham's weird and messed up. Naturally, this means they have a lot of magical evils causing chaos and generally being a pain. Jason had been wielding the all blades and chasing some sort of rabbit, lion, duck hybrid through crime alley when a blast of fire hit it. It poofed and left only an odd amulet. A white haired woman picked it up and tensley glanced at him.

"I'm not a bat, I have nothing to do with drugs and I have no proper ties to any rogue. I'm not breaking any of your rules." She kept her eyes trained on his helmet and he noticed they were red. Danger? Home? Anger? Warmth? Versatile? Safety? There was too many possibilities to be in complete control of the situation and the last time Jason left something up to chance he'd gotten his throat slit. Replaying the events, it was obvious she had fire powers. Judging by her clothes, stature and build he could confidently guess she was University age. He knew the hybrid thing was magic so her powers were probably magical too. Regardless of if they were just meta abilities, she knew about about magic. Which meant she could be useful... or dangerous.

"I appreciate that." He nodded and shifted slightly to make himself look less hostile. The real reason no one ever figured out Clark Kent was Superman was the body language. Clark managed to look timid and small whilst being 6'3. Truly it was an art. Jason copied the technique and made the all blades vanish. "As I'm sure you know, I'm Red Hood. May I ask your name or would you prefer to give me an alias?"

"What's the point? You're a bat, you'll figure it out anyway and go reporting back to him." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Olive Silverlock."

"I'm not a bat."

"The red one on your chest could've fooled me"

"I'm reclaiming bats. I'm turning the symbol into what it should've been. Batman is a hypocrital control freak who cares more about his own ego than actually helping people. I don't work for him."

At that she seemed to relax which ironically wasn't necessarily a good sign. Clearly she'd had a run in with Bruce and hated bats. If the only thing making her tense around a well known crime lord was him possibly reporting back to the bat, that meant she could handle herself. So she was strong, had magical knowledge, a grudge against Bruce and the most captivating red eyes he'd ever seen.

She could be dangerous. Certainly a formidable foe. But that meant she could also be a powerful ally. There weren't many vigalante friendly magicians in Gotham after all.

"Is that amulet dangerous?" He asked less interested in the answer and far more focused on learning more about her.

"Not in this form and I can promise you it won't be switching forms again any time soon."

"So you've stopped a threat from running around my territory?"

"I guess."

"Guess I owe you one then." Jason approached her slowly and gently grabbed her hand. She stared at up at him and for a second he forgot what he was doing, just enjoying the moment. Just enjoying the warmth that seemed to radiate off of her. Then he snapped back to reality and closed her hand.

"If you ever need a favour, just close your hand and say 'All Son I summon thee'."

Her palm started to glow red and he pulled away. After feeling her warmth, the night air seemed bitingly cold but he lived in crime alley during winter. He could handle it.

"Thanks." Her widened eyes slowly closed again and she gave the Red Hood a soft smile. "Its nice to meet another magically inclined batman hater."

"Very nice." He nodded unsure of what to do with his hands now that he wasn't holding hers. Usually he'd start fiding with his guns but he figured that might give the wrong impression. "Are you going to be alright getting home?"

"I can handle myself." She smirked like she'd just said a joke he wasn't in on. "But I'm not heading home. I've actually got to return a book before midnight and this whole amulet situation means I've got like-" She checked the clock on her watch and froze. "Twenty minutes!?"

"I could drive you." He instantly offered and Olive frowned.

"But I wanted to use that favour to mess with Batman." She sighed dissapointedly.

"I'm offering for free. I don't want anything."

"Really?"

"Of course. Library fees are no joke."

"Thanks. Where's your car?"

"About that-"

Red Hood handed her a helmet and just like that, they were zooming through Gotham on his bike. It was kind of exhilarating. Everything around them seemed to blur into dark blobs with tiny dots of light.

They arrived at Gotham library with seven minutes to spare. They leaped off the bike, sprinted up the steps and quickly but quietly walked through the doors. There weren't many people, just a bored librarian and a few tired students who did a double take at the feared crime lord casually showing up at the library. Olive dug through her bag and pulled out a copy of Hamlet. She placed it in the returns box and they walked back to the bike.

"Thanks Hood."

"Don't mention it." An odd silence hung between them for a moment. "So Hamlet huh?"

"Yeah, I'm getting a degree in theatre and had to a write character analysis of lady macbeth. It was fun. It reminded me of the time I was lady macbeth in high school, then clayface ruined the play by trying to kill my theatre teacher."

They chuckled and Olive moved to take the helmet off.

"Wait, do you want a ride home?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Right but can I at least drop you off somewhere less public? I wouldn't want anyone recognising you and then trying to target you to get to me."

Olive considered it for a moment before nodding. They hopped back on the bike and Jason smiled at the chance to talk to her for longer. By the time he stopped in an alley near Gotham U, it had started to rain. Once her arms had left his waist, he felt cold again. He shrugged it off as the weather and watched Olive pull out an umbrella. The umbrella just so happened to be red. She looked back at him, smiled, waved and walked off into the night. He watched the dot of red disappear into the shadows of Gotham and rode off to his nearest safe house.

Danger? Home? Anger? Warmth? Versatile? Safety? Red. Whatever it meant, it was still his favourite color. Always had been. Just like Cathy, Willis and Natalia always loved him. Bruce hadn't always hated him but he did now. Olive hated Bruce which was... intriguing and kind of validating. But did the universe always hate him? Did the universe hate him at all? He wasn't so sure anymore.

He climbed up the side of his building and swung through the window. His helmet came off quickly, and the rest of his armour followed soon after. A cold breeze ran through his apartment so he decided to call it an early night. He dropped onto his bed and wrapped himself in a nostalgic, red blanket. He dozed off finally warm.

Olive quietly crept through her dorm and tried not to wake Pom. She put the amulet into a sealed jar on her nightstand, changed into her pajamas and collapsed on to her bed. The adrenaline had finally run out and she was exhausted. Unfortunately, her brain hated her and refused to let her sleep. Too tired to grab her phone, she decided to stare at her hand. It felt tingly but not in a pins and needles way. She started to wonder how she could use the favour to get back at Batman and drifted off dreaming of annoying Gotham's most annoying caped crusader. Red Hood seemed like a good ally to have. Even if he turned out to be terrible, at least he had good taste. Red was her favourite color after all.

[batfambitches]

Jason Todd; Robin Red Hood:

Age: 22 (generally, flexible)

Alias: Red Hood

Headcanons

Jason has ADHD

Jason Todd had a less than ideal childhood, a father locked in jail and a drug addict mother who seemed to love him back lacked the ability to care for either of them. He was just a child when he got caught up in the craziness that was Bruce's world, unknown to him? After her encounter with him Talia orchestrated it so that he would come across Bruce, what she didn't plan for was him stealing the tires off the batmobile. She was both pleasantly impressed and amused by the antics. He did manage to catch Bruce's attention and eventually he became the new Robin, which was what eventually lead to his death.

When he was resurrected about 6 months after his death it wasn't complete, his body was alive and his mind had the vague memories of his life but he was a remnant of his former self; his soul had failed to come back with him. Talia was the one who scooped him up from where he was and tossed his body into the pit in hopes of fixing him, and it worked. His soul was able to reunite with his body, though there was a latent rage that some got from use of The Pits and he had to work to overcome that.

Well with Talia working on his Pit Rage he met Damian a few times and Aidan once (@aidanwaynealghul), though most of his time with Talia is a hazy so he figured he was just remembering wrong with the vague memory of Damian being lighter with blue eyes. Then he met Danielle Master Phantom and things started to come to light, it wasn't until she mentioned Amity on accident that he finally started putting the pieces together. She had gone off to apparently go to some coronation before he "came to drag her back to Amity", and that was after she destroyed his TV on impulse when Vald Masters came on the screen. That was all he needed to ask Barbara to look into her for him.

What she found was a a lot of jumbled disconnected information, but when Jason saw the image of Aidan with what seemed to be a couple of friends his memories became just a bit clearer. He was labeled as "Daniel 'Danny' James Fenton", but he looked so much like Damian even Barb saw it when she was showing him what she found.

When Dani came back Barbara got to meet her, and they got out of her who exactly she was and why she looked like a copy of Aidan. He'd half died in an accident similar to one Vlad Masters had and it made him obsessed with making him his son, which led to a cloning attempt that ended with Dani as the only stable clone. He told her she had 3 months to talk to Danny before he went to Bruce and Damian.

Before that could come about though Danny ended up telling his parents about his condition and they reacted as well as most would expect them to. When they began 'trying to free their son of the ghost possessing him' Dani felt it, as the only family he actually knew or cared about that was dead or half dead? The realm considered her his heir, and when he was being hurt by The Fentons she could feel both that and The Infinite Realm trying to call her back.

Jason in his panic brought her to the cave, at the explanation given Damian was both angry and ready to run off to find Danny. It was only Bruce telling him they needed a plan or Aidan could be in even more danger that stopped him, Jason was more worried about making sure that Dani was alright and threatening the other's for the sly comments they made about him being like Bruce for taking her in. "Not my fault she pulled a Tim and refused to leave" being said more than once in the days following.

[yeetus-feetus]

Tim isn't like Bruce btw. Tim is like Lex Luthor. (Like when we think of supervillain Tim he's not depicted in the way, say, Owlman is, he's depicted as more of a mad scientist type.) Most of the times he's gone off the rails I see him as cunning and cold and a little desperate, but he knows what he wants and he is willing to do whatever it takes to get it- typically Luthor traits. (Also very popular fanfics lean heavily into the cloning aspect and Bruce would never do that lol.)

Cass is like Bruce. Damian is like Bruce too. (Their evil alternate selves would so give Owlman vibes honestly.) They walk they Bruce, they fight like Bruce, they're emotionally constipated like Bruce, they're blunt and to the point like Bruce. Also if Bruce went off the rails it'd be mostly thoughtless murder murder murder and these two would definitely fall into that too if they went off the rails.

I like to think Dick is like his mother. That's why he's so good and confident and loud despite... well, Bruce. He gets his stunning looks from his mother too. And his heart is inherited from her, for sure. And his athletic ability is her. The manipulation tactics were probably picked up from Bruce tho ngl. But Dick is his mother's son in my eyes.

And Jason is his own person. He's purposely that way. After trying so hard to be someone else, trying to be a perfect copy of Dick, he can only be himself. Sometimes he sees his mother in his eyes and his father in the curl of his lips and Bruce in the way he holds himself, and he thinks he's them and that he's failed to be different and it scares him, but he's undoubtedly himself. And he's definitely not Bruce.

[arobinwithoutbatman]

[let me remind you: you asked for this]

What am I gonna tell Jack…?

That had been the question he'd wrestled with most, once the shock had worn off. Well. It hadn't worn off at all, yet; he'd just forced his brain back into some semblance of functionality.

What am I gonna tell Jack…?

They have protocols in place, of course; contingency plans that Bruce had tortured himself come up with in order to make sure their identities remain secret. No one outside the family knows that Tim Drake was Robin, and it's going to stay that way. But that means finding a way to explain the loss of a sixteen year old boy who should be looking at early college enrollment instead of lying in a coffin. And that means having to lie to the boy's father about just how he died.

Dick already knows Jack doesn't like him. Doesn't approve of him. Knows it would just get worse if Jack had the first idea just what Tim actually got up to, the kind of life Bruce - and then Dick - had allowed his son to get into. It's terrible, because Tim is - was - is a hero, someone Jack should be proud of for all the good he's done, and Dick can't tell him any of it. Hell, he's not even sure Jack would believe him.

He's certainly not sure Tim would even want the man to know.

So he's kept his mouth shut, spun some believably tragic yet mundane story, and earned himself a sold punch to the jaw from an angry, grieving father who feels he's been proven right that flighty, airheaded Dickie Grayson had no business looking after his son. And hell, maybe he is right; if Dick had been better, had been faster, had paid more attention, then Tim would still be here. And he's not.

Jack's demanded all of Tim's things, too, and Dick has no room to refuse. No legal recourse. On paper, Jack is still the boy's father, while Dick is just a friend. The ward of the man who'd been Tim's de facto guardian, nothing more. Bad enough Dick has to box up his brother's possessions, but to give them to a man who's barely ever been there for Tim aches in the worst of ways.

At least Jack doesn't know about the photo albums. Or the secure laptop with its digital copies. And there's Robin's suit and weapons, but those...those hurt too much to look at. There are a few other bits and pieces, too, that Dick manages to keep back. Little things, keepsakes, for the family. For himself, for Alfred, for Jason and Babs...keeping a few things back won't hurt, right? After all, a part of him argues, how many of Tim's effects would Jack even recognize?

Is Jack even going to realize Dick's kept Tim's camera?

He's not even sure he's allowed at the funeral, but he goes anyway. Keeps to the back out of respect. Hates the fact that Tim's grave isn't up with Bruce's, where it belongs, but that hadn't been his call to make. Hates the fact that he now has to tell Bruce about it. About why Tim is gone. About how Dick failed both of them. Failed all of them. Tim and Bruce, Jack, the rest of the family…it's his job to keep them safe, keep them together, and he failed.

They'll have a memorial for him themselves, of course; Dick also has to tell Tim's teammates in San Francisco, and they'll want a chance to pay their respects too. And he still has to go out on patrol, keep working, keep trying, even as shattered as he is right now. It takes effort, far more effort than Dick wants to admit, just to put his mask on these days, but he does it. He has to. He can't just stop, no matter how much a part of him might want to; Tim would never forgive him if he does.

And Tim's left too many unfinished projects. Arkham's reformation, the new planned mental hospital, outreach and awareness programs for mental health and neurodivergence…who's going to make them happen now, if not Dick? He's failed his little brother once already, in the worst of ways; he can't fail him again.

((...I did what now? -Checks blog for what the queue spat out- OH... OH NO

Kei. My friend. Surrogate older brother. You are a menace, meet me on discord for an ass kicking, my heart hurts in the good way but I'm still gonna kick your ass!

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭))

[writerfromthestars]

Talia is holding Damian and she introduces him to Dick.

"That's your brother, Damian."

Damian does not really know what a brother is, but Dick does, and he's always wanted a little baby brother to dote on and hug and teach.

At first, Dick is a little apprehensive, because even though he's been introduced as Damian's brother, he feels like he might be replaced.

Then, one day, he's doing cartwheels across the huge lawn of Wayne Manor, and Damian comes outside. Dick doesn't notice him at first, but after he's done with a series of cartwheels and stands up, and he sees Damian, a tiny little four-year-old, trying to copy him and getting frustrated when he keeps failing and falling on his butt.

Dick helps him with the cartwheels and that is the day that he starts to really see Damian as his brother and that is the day that Dick becomes Damian's favorite person in the world.

Additionally, the Joker mysteriously dies two weeks after the Al Ghuls arrive in Gotham. Bruce looks over at Talia suspiciously over dinner that night, but he can't prove anything, so he goes back to his mashed potatoes without a word.

Tim and Damian hit it off at a gala and Talia notices the small signs of neglect that the kid is showing. She does a bit of digging and finds the horrible parent situation, remembering exactly what happened to Tim in her previous timeline.

Jason joins the family as usual, through the stealing of the Batmobile's tires, and Talia makes sure that he never ends up in the Lazarus Pits.

Bonus points if Selina, Talia, Harley, Babs, and Ivy meet up every few weeks to just chat about things.

Taila goes back in time 

She goes back in time to when Damian is about 4. He has just started lessons. Talia is back for about a week. She knows she should tell her father but something is holding her back. it's when she goes to see Damian and overhears him trying to muffle his cries in his bedroom that she thinks about doing something else. 

She remembers seeing her son thriving with his father. Comfortable seeking out comfort with his siblings and being a child. She thought of it as a weakness at that point but when she hears his cries she realizes that she does not want him to go back to the cold and angry child he was.

She's not being watched as there is nothing that could preemptive her to leave that her father knows of so she has an easy time being able to contact Bruce. She gets Damien ready and says it's very important training and not to tell anyone. She does not tell Bruce Why she contacted him, so he is expecting some sort of plot or her giving him information on one of her enemies, not a son. 

She shows up to the meeting rattled.  She tries to get a gauge of his feelings towards her at the moment and is very pleasantly surprised when he is defensive but not hostile. Bruce notices that she's rattled and gets very concerned. 

She then brings out Damien. He shocked and is expecting her to make an ultimatum when she blurts out she wants them to leave.  it catches him completely off guard because every time he mentioned her leaving she made it sound like it was a foolish idea.

He agrees to take her back with him and to protect her from her father. she does not tell him about the time travel but she does tell him about what made her want to leave. Using it to appeal to his empathetic side as to let her stay with him. She does not realize that he had no plans of separating her from her son.

Dick is about 14. He is very on edge and scared of his place at the Manor. his father figure just came back with a blood son and the mom. Dick is inspecting to be regaled to the background or kicked out. Talia is the one to reassure him accidentally when he comes to see Damien and she calls them siblings. She knew him as her son's favorite brother obviously she's going to refer to them as siblings.

[toosicktoocare]

Okay, I’m very much obsessed with the web comic “Batman: Wayne Family Adventures,” and I want to write little one-shots for it. 

If you’d like to see something written, drop a prompt in my inbox! 

Also found on AO3!

1: Better Than Dick Grayson

Jason’s beat by the time he guides his bike through an underground entrance to the Bat Cave. Patrol wasn’t hard – more annoying than anything else. There’s been an increase in copy-cat villains lurking the shadows of Crime Alley, all who can’t even follow through with a napkin-scribbled plan properly.

“Nice work tonight, Hood.”

Jason slips off his bike, boots heavy against the steel floor below him. He taps the comm nestled in his ear. “Thanks, O. Time to sign off? I’m sure you have an absolutely riveting day at the library tomorrow.” A cheeky smile plays at his lips as he slips his helmet off, huffing around a laugh at Barbara’s drawn-out sigh in his ear.

“I honestly don’t know why I help you every night.”

“Come on, O. You know you look forward to our quick-witted banter every day. That’s our thing – our trademark, if you will.” His smile widens when Barbara chuckles in his ear.

“You’re ridiculous, Hood.”

Jason slips into a changing room, grimacing as he cards his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair. “Please, O. You know you love me.” His suit is damp against him, an uncomfortable testament to just how much he’s done on patrol in the few hours he was out.

“Maybe a little.”  

Smirking, he shrugs his jacket off and reaches to the back of his neck, working his damp suit off until it’s hanging low at his waist. “You flirting with me, Babs? I’ll tattle to Dick.” He barks out a laugh at the low, impressive string of curse words that echo from his comm.

“I retract my previous statement. My tolerable feelings toward you stem from obligation alone.”

“Babs,” Jason whines, slamming a hand to his chest, “you wound me! Now I’m really going to tell Dick!”

“Well, you’re out of luck. He left for Bludhaven an hour ago.”

Jason pushes down on his suit until he’s stepping out of it, kicking it to the corner of the changing room with the notion that he’ll deal with it later. Tomorrow. He sighs – eventually.

“Detective Grayson summoned for an assignment?” He turns on his heel, snagging a towel that he drapes over his shoulders, using one corner to mop the sweat dripping from his hair.

“Something like that.”

Barbara’s voice goes soft on the other line, and Jason stops, frowning smally. “What’s up, Babs?”

“Damian and Bruce are still out, so I need to get back to them. Can you check in on Tim for me? Steph said he’s been quieter than usual all day.”

“Pump the kid up with coffee, then? I can do that.”

“Jason.”

Jason holds his hand’s up in mock defense out of habit, sighing between his teeth. “Fine, yes. I’ll follow in golden child Dick’s footsteps and take my role as the dutiful big brother.”

“Good. Also, I have that on recording now for the next time you try to sarcastically remove yourself from a family affair.”

“Barbara!”

“Later, Jason!”

There’s a crackle in Jason’s ear, and then the line goes dead. Rolling his eyes, he pulls the comm free, dropping it beside a large monitor in the cave before padding upstairs, eager to shower Crime Alley’s discount villains away.

He swings by Tim’s room first, finding him at his desk, eyes soft and cast toward the window. His expression is somber albeit a tad thoughtful, and Jason promptly pulls him out of whatever muted stupor he’s currently lost in.

“Well,” he starts, nudging the door open wider, eyes flicking to the textbook open at the desk. “You’re doing better than I did. Studying wasn’t really my forte.”

Tim twists around and cocks his head to the side. “You were a straight-A student.”

Scoffing, Jason drops against the doorframe, arms crossed. “Hey. I didn’t say I wasn’t smart.” He nods to the book. “And you’re essentially a boy genius, so do you really need to do that?”

“It’s a good distraction,” Tim sighs, turning back to the window and dropping his cheek against his fist.

“A distraction from what?” Jason’s eyes narrow into sharp slits, watching a small line of tension take to Tim’s shoulders.

“Dick left.”

Jason’s taken aback. Dick comes and goes all the time – they all do. He can’t imagine Tim will be here long, and he, himself, is only staying the night before he heads back to the safe house he’s been frequenting by himself in the morning. Now that he thinks of it, he’s sure he overheard Steph mentioning packing for a trip with Barbara in a few days.

“He’ll come back,” Jason responds, and Tim spins around in his desk chair with a sigh that’s far too long and heavy for a kid his age.

“I know that. It’s just,” Tim pauses, waving one hand around, “too quiet without him here.”

“That’s a bad thing?” Jason cocks a brow, and Tim huffs.

“You know what I mean – Dick’s all energy and smiles, and everything just feels better when he’s here. When we’re all here together.”

This, Jason thinks, is edging a delicate territory he’s not adept to handle. His vocabulary rivals Alfred’s, and yet, piecing together words into a sentence that’s both optimistic and comforting is not something he feels he’s capable of. Instead, he steps into the room, dropping his palm to Tim’s head, and the silence that follows is sharper than Bruce’s best batarang.

“Jason,” Tim finally mutters, voice flat.

“Is this comforting?”

“No, it’s weird.”

Jason rips his hand away, a sigh of relief slipping past his lips. “Well, that’s one thing we can agree on.” He turns toward the door, muscles faintly aching, his reminder that he really wants to shower and sleep. “Night, Timmy. Dick will come back soon.”

He opts not to look behind him lest he wants to feel a big-brother spark of guilt he’s just too exhausted to handle. Instead, he slips out of the room without so much of an over-the-shoulder glance.

---

Jason’s alarm starts softly from his phone, and he slams his hand against it with a low groan, trained to wake at the quietest of sounds. Outside, the sun’s not quite made it up and over the horizon, still casting the manor in a soft glow – a view that Dick swears by. Jason shuffles over to his window and takes in the view for roughly four seconds before he decides he’d rather see it through the visor of his bike’s helmet.

Still, before he can leave, he’s got one more thing he needs to do at the manor – a rather brilliant idea, if you ask him, he came up with in a sleep-ridden mind right before he conked out for the night.

He’s not Dick. He’s better than Dick.

He changes and perks an ear to the sounds down the hall, hearing the others waking. Once he hears Tim’s bedroom Keurig stop running, he acts, plastering a triple-watt smile to his face and storming out of his room.

“Ugh, Jason,” Cass mutters, rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing?”

Jason doesn’t respond, waiting, instead, for Tim to open his bedroom door, and the moment he does, Jason sucks in a long, swelling breath.

“Good morning!” He shouts, dragging out each word, making his voice as loud as possible, a bright bellow that sinks into every crevice of the manor.

Beside him, Cass cups both hands over her ears, and Damian merely turns back into his room, slamming the door behind him. Duke can’t get to his phone fast enough, and Tim promptly jumps out of his skin, his coffee splashing from his mug to burn against his hand and stain the floor. There are footsteps pounding up the stairs, and Jason smiles even wider, his cheeks stretched and tight, and he sucks in another large breath.

“Jason, what the hell—”

Jason cartwheels down the hall, narrowly avoiding a puddle of coffee to stop upright before Tim. He ruffles Tim’s hair, his forced smile fading to something softer, more genuine. “Morning, Timmers!”

“What in the world is going on?”

Bruce is breathless at the end of the hall, and Alfred’s trying, and horribly failing, to hide a laugh behind a cough.

“I’m telling my family good morning,” Jason shouts, arms outstretched. He offers Tim a wink and leans in close. “Grayson’s got nothing on me,” he whispers, tone devious, before he presses a kiss to Tim’s cheek and claps a hand to Tim’s shoulder.

When he pulls away, he slips past Bruce and Alfred, maneuvering around them with a practiced grace that could rival Dick Grayson. “Something smells incredible down here!” He adds from the stairs.

“Oh, Dick’s going to love this,” Duke mutters, ending the video recording on his phone.

“Should I call Leslie?” Bruce asks, worried, his attention torn between the startled and amused faces before him, and the echoing sound of Jason singing Broadway showtunes from the kitchen downstairs.

Tim looks down to his coffee mug, his hand faintly burning and sticky, and he smiles warmly. “Nah, Jason’s fine.”

[ambelle]

Alright I got some shit to say about Dick Grayson. This is probably full of typos but oh well.

I know it’s popular now to hate on Dick and I’ve even seen people say they hope he dies. For me I’m just sad. This isn’t the natural trajectory of his character. And it’s worse than Bruce because what drove Bruce to be such a bastard was how alone he was. Dick is not alone so the switch up doesn’t even make sense in that regard. When he was “being Batman” in season 2 he was doing so in the way he went about solving the case. Using Joey to find his father was cold but Dick himself didn’t become cold. He still cared about people around him and didn’t dismiss them.

And frankly it doesn’t help that the Bruce they’ve shown to us in s3 is a bad father but also seems more crazy than anything. He had an emotional breakdown and killed the Joker and then tried to kill himself. There’s nothing to suggest that Bruce didn’t stop being cold and awful after his BS pushed Dick away. He got Jason almost immediately after and when Dick told Bruce why he left Bruce decided maybe he shouldn’t be the one to help Jason. Maybe the Titans are better off at helping the kid out and when that failed he got him therapy, called him his son, urged him to quit being robin because evidently it hurts people. He did none of that for Dick- Bruce is not the same.

I don’t say any of this to let Bruce off the hook. I say all this to point out that Dick and Bruce resolved this last season. That Dick grew passed this and rebuilt himself so he’d never try and be someone else again. To point out Dick would copy Bruce’s methods but never the way he treated people. And most importantly that if they wanted us to believe Dick’s behavior is so terrible and so off putting, then having Babs fall for him doesn’t make sense. She’s against everything Bruce is allegedly and yet… The barely negative reaction from those surrounding him feels like enabling. And having Tim come in to force Dick to do what Bruce did- recruit some innocent to be Robin- doesn’t make sense.

Why would the show ever force him to do that? To literally become Batman and train a new Robin ( which any and all bad things that happen to Tim as Robin will be Dicks fault by the shows logic ). And you have the fans saying “OMG Dick don’t be a jerk let Tim help.” But???? Is the entire season not about how Bruce abused poor Jason and made him fight crime and it screwed him up so bad he became a drug addicted terrorist? Did Babs not lay into Bruce about Robin ruining Dick’s life while everyone clapped and said “OMG yasss Queen you sure girl bossed him!”

So I have to believe the writers simply hate Dick and Nightwing. Nothing else makes sense unless I look at this from the perspective of people who want to torture him and turn his fanbase against him. I’m mad at Dick but at the same time I feel like I’m not even looking at the same character. Maybe they wanted us to turn on him in s2 and it didn’t work so now they are trying harder. Maybe they really will kill him off the show at some point and have a Robin they like take over.

This soft reboot they did this season undid all of his progress, it undid everything we know about Dick’s core values, it introduced Babs as someone who talks shit about Batman but apparently wants to date him actually, and it made the Titans background noise. It’s the worse case scenario but I gotta say I never thought this show would make me not like Dick. Like I truly didn’t think they’d change who he is at his core and it’s not even to drive a plot because nothing is happening. Every single thing Babs said in that scene to Bruce all of it means shit if Tim becomes Robin. And if Dick is responsible for that I don’t know how his character is meant to bounce back from that.

RIP though king cause I do love you even if the writers don’t