#dc shoes socks

[trixiebeeds]

[surrender-souls]

these batman villains are always using these various chemicals, toxins, drugs, what have you. but what are their lab safety procedures while making these concoctions? do they have goggles, no loose flammable strands? do they have fume hoods? id think they’d need fume hoods there’s fumes!

[sock-and-roll]

Time to take the DCs off

[gaycrittercentral]

Welp it’s not Halloween anymore (and actually these pictures are from last year hkkhljhl) but who give a shit y'all wanna see my goofy lil Sam costume :D if you were here for my Halloween stream then you already saw this but if not then LOOKIT MY SUIT BOY

Fun fact, I made all this last year and meant to post it then but I was just too lazy whoops. So I'm tryin to do better this time around, lmaoooo. Anyway yeah! Samb costume!! If you wanna hear how I made some of the elements for this and gathered up the rest, feel free to check out my ramblings under the cut :Dc

This was such a fun project. A lot of elements were of course just staples of businesswear, like I found the suit jacket at H&M and the pants at Target (and hemmed them because I love men's pants but they don't love my short-ass legs), but some parts were a bit more complicated. The hat, for example, I also found at Target, but it had the wrong kind of band, so I just took that off and hand sewed on a length of wide black ribbon in its place. I ain't no milliner or haberdasher or what have you but I feel like it came out pretty ok! And the ears were an element that I figured would be a fun addition lol, they are made of fleece I believe? I forget. I gave them a bit of soft stuffing so they're basically two soft pillows, and then safety-pinned them into the inner brim of the hat--that way I can look like a normal person if I ever decide to wear the hat in public lmao.

The tie was an absolute delight to work on. And also torture. Y'know, kind of a 'why not both' moment. I ended up reverse engineering a tie I already had and cannibalizing its inner fabric to make the new one, since I knew I wasn't going to wear the original. The new tie is made with a silky blue fabric that isn't silk that I don't remember what it is because I have a sponge for a brain. Sorry ^^; But basically I replaced the original outer part of the tie with my new fabric and sewed her up by hand (it's not really a machine job as far as I can tell), then painted on the stripes with watered down black fabric paint. I had hoped that watering it down would prevent it from making the fabric stiff, but that didn't end up working because it required so many layers to be opaque, oof. There's probably better ways to go about it, so if you're making your own Sam tie it's worth it to do some more research! Plus, they do sell regular blue ties out there that you could paint. I'm just insane. And tbh I wish I had just bought one but at least I can say I've made a tie now lmaoooo

And I suppose the last element of this is the paper bag Max puppet! I love him so dearly, he was a delight to make ^^ I'd tell you how to make him but why do that when obviously I learned from the original? Make sure to put one in your car ok it's really important

God I love this comic. And I also dearly dearly love how faithfully they adapted it in the cartoon <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Anyway that's it that's all I got!! Also because I've never worn this thing out of the house it doesn't have shoes to go with, I just got some brown socks. I figure it fits with Sam as a shoe-hating person lmaooo. ok that's all bye thanks for looking hope y'all had a happy Halloween!!!!

[plainclothesdisaster]

Red Knight Chapter 5 - Curses & Couches

DP x DC | Dead on Main

Jason Todd encounters one Danny Fenton in the streets of Gotham and suddenly he's thrown into a world of ghosts and monsters. Will he embrace this life? Or will it just end up with him dead again?

Read on AO3 | Beginning | < Prev | Next >

——

The night after the brawl in Danny’s apartment Jason was out as Red Hood scouting a possible arms deal when he spotted it— a Curse Ghost, vaguely beastly and oozing black goo, just as ugly and unsettling as the one from Danny’s place. Jason texted him.

Found one.

So you didnʼt lose my number after all. Iʼll be right there.

Jason sent him the location- a rusted sewer grate at the edge of crime alley that he’d seen a curse ghost vanish into. Danny arrived minutes later in jeans and a jacket, same as always. Not like Jason had been expecting any different, but he had gotten used to working with the Bat. Capes and masks came standard. Danny was anything but standard.

“You bring the gear?” Danny asked as he stepped up toward the sewer gate Jason stood beside.

Jason opened his jacket to reveal he had strapped all kinds of whips and tasers and lasers and launchers to his holsters. He even wore the invisibility cuffs. And the sword.

Danny grinned. “I also brought something extra I think youʼll like.” He reached into his own jacket and pulled out, with great panache, a pair of plain white gym socks.

Jason scowled. “A selection from your laundry pile?” Still, he took them as Danny handed them over.

“If by laundry pile you mean my pile of genius inventions, then yes.”

“Iʼll pass.”

“Suit yourself.” Danny shrugged. “If getting sewer water in your shoes is your thing I won’t stop you.”

Jason frowned.

And then he found himself wearing Dannyʼs socks (back in his boots, mind you), hunting the curse down the drain tunnel, hovering inches above the water instead of sludging through it.

“Real flight just wasnʼt doable with the tech, but these still have their uses.” Danny commented from ahead, his voice echoing down the tunnel completely careless of stealth. He also hovered, simple as if gravity had just turned off for him, none of the wobbles or wavers in balance that Jason was currently trying to hide. Forty feet into the darkness of the sewer and Jason was relying on the night vision in his helmet. Meanwhile Danny seemed just fine.

As they approached a junction in the pipe, Danny slowed. “Its here,” he whispered. Jason sensed it too, somehow. The air was colder and more alive somehow, the colors more warped and saturated.

They peeked silently around the corner and there it was, lounging half submerged like an overstuffed crocodile. Black ooze seeped into the water all around it, making it hard to tell where the beast itself began.

Danny threw him a look, anticipation dancing in his Lazarus green eyes. And then without further warning he pounced.

Hopes of keeping their socks dry vanished. Danny was quickly sopping, no thanks to his outfit choice. Still he fought like a terror, ducking out of the way of massive dripping jaws that threatened to halve him as he returned blows and blasts in kind. Jason watched with trained curiosity. Heʼd been so preoccupied with not dying last time he hadnʼt learned much. This time he bit down his fear enough to make sense of how the curse ghost moved- like water and like a rockslide- and how Danny countered- like mist and lightning.

The curse ghost turned toward Jason and like a firecracker hid anger ignited and lost any inclination he had to stay on the sidelines. He instinctively reached for his guns but then thought better of it in close quarters. Instead he pulled the sword off his back. He swung with stiff determination, slicing through black crocodile hide. He felt a grim thrill as the beast roared.

Jason fought with less caution this time. More rhythm. In the end they overpowered it, beating it down deeper into the sludge until Danny sucked it up with the thermos, neat and tidy.

Danny smiled at him. “Nice work.”

Jason kneeled where it had fallen. Traces of black goo remained on the walls. He ran his fingers through it and it stuck to his gloves like slimy tar. “What the hell are these guys made of?”

Danny kneeled next to him, also inspecting the sludge remains. He pursed his lips. “It’s corrupted ectoplasm.”

Like Jason’s, Danny didn’t say. Didn’t need to.

“These guys are more solid than regular ghosts. It didn’t just phase out of here. It splashed in the water.” Danny rubbed the goo between his fingers before shaking it off.

“You said they’re Gotham’s curse, right? Makes sense that they’d be solid here, more than the regular ghosts.”

Danny looked at him, studying his face as if his mask wasn’t there. “Yeah. I think you’re right.”

Why did he feel such a surge of glowing pride at Danny’s acknowledgement? Like passing another test. Earning his way into this world.

He caught himself. What the hell did he need to prove? He knew he was a great detective- and he could do it all without all the fancy tools and access that Bruce and his flock had.

But solving the curse ghosts was one thing. Solving Danny was what he really cared about. And to do that he needed Danny to trust him.

//

During the days that followed he tried to tend to his other cases, and he thought about Danny.

Mid stakeout of an upstart drug trafficker his mind wandered. Danny, going to class like some normal college kid. Eating lunch. Making friends. Did he have friends? Jason considered tailing him again to find out, but he thought better of it. If Danny caught him snooping now it wouldn’t be easy to explain it away, and he’d lose the burgeoning trust between them. Or burgeoning friendship. Were they friends?

Jason had made allies for less before, but with Danny he couldn’t let his guard down, not completely. Jason remembered how he took down four thugs like it was nothing. He remembered how Danny looked at him with icy eyes right before he’d dropped him off a building. Every instinct reminded him Danny was dangerous.

The back alley door he’d been watching opened and it took him two seconds longer than it should have for him to react. The men nearly saw him as he ducked his head behind the corner and out of sight.

He eavesdropped on the drug deal, mentally filing away details on where the money was going. He watched as the men got in a black car, noted the license plate. It all felt a bit pedestrian compared to the Lovecraftian beasts he now knew to be lurking in the shadows.

He’d dealt with his fate share of meta weirdness and science experiments gone wrong in Gotham. But he wondered if this was how Bruce felt after coming back from dealing with Justice Leage level business. How was he supposed to focus on small time drug trade when a supernatural threat loomed large over his city?

Amity Park continued to yield no answers, even when he deepened his search. Going out of his way to delve into Gotham library archives wielded no new leads. Newspapers, business reports, even government documents- all missing or, more worrisome, heavily redacted.

When he looked again for the scientific paper by the Drs. Fenton, it had also disappeared from the net. Good thing he’d made a backup when he first discovered it, but it meant someone wasn’t taking too kindly to him poking around.

None of what he found explained what Danny was. Or, maybe more importantly, what kind of person he was.

He remembered something Alfred had once told Bruce after long nights of fruitless research. Some things you can’t solve while holed up in your cave. Some you have to do personally.

He didnʼt remember agreeing to it but he found himself meeting up with Danny nearly every night. Even if he tried to work on his other cases, inevitably a curse ghost would show up and derail his evening plans.

Danny speculated that they sought out Jason more now because he’d proved himself a threat, the same way they came after Danny. “Now that they know your ecto signature-“ whatever the hell that was- they’ll come looking. Territorial bastards.”

“Easier than hunting them down I guess.”

“I like the positive attitude.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

They established a meeting place on the roof old hotel that sat in the heart of crime alley. There had been texts exchanged at first but as the weeks went on they became unnecessary. Jason knew that when he swung up on to the roof each night that Danny would be there waiting for him.

That particular night he landed on the roof with barely a sound. Dannyʼs eyes still flicked over immediately. He sat where he typically did on the roofs edge, and his lips turned up in a half smile as soon as he saw Jason. Excitement buzzed in Jasonʼs skin like neon. Adrenaline. Just the anticipation for the upcoming hunt, he told himself. Certainly nothing else.

They weren’t waiting long before sirens and burglar alarms rang like beacons a few streets over.

“Shall we?” Jason cracked his knuckles.

“After you.”

Jason tipped himself forward off the building, diving in a short free fall. As he neared the street he didn’t reach for his grapple gun, instead he pulled on that energy under his heart, focused on his socks and hovered the last few feet to the ground. Danny followed behind in lazy twists and curls like a leaf in the wind.

They caught up with the curse ghost on the next block over. It ran through the street, a mangy goopy dog, as tall as a truck with too-sharp teeth. As it passed lights in doorways flickered and went dark, cars honked in the streets as drivers cut each other off, the cops on the corner stopped a group of teens with hands itching at their hips.

Jason felt it too, the way that whisky burns down your throat, riling you at your core.

“Ooh it’s a real nasty one,” Danny quipped. Was it Jason’s imagination or were his teeth even sharper than usual?

So far Jason had only encountered the beasts in places already filled with death and fear and aggression. It made his skin crawl to see the effect work the other way. The beast crashed through the street like an invisible wave, spreading misfortune, inciting aggression. He tasted acid at the back of his throat.

Danny had told him the curse caused suffering and then fed on it, a cycle that perpetuated ending with it getting stronger and stronger. All at the expense of Gotham. It struck Jason as blunt as a crowbar to the side. No matter what he did as Red Hood, no matter what any of the bats did— peace in Gotham had less than a snowball’s chance in hell. Not with these beasts running wild.

He ran after it wordlessly, Danny by his side. They followed the trail of misfortune through the streets of crime alley and then into downtown proper. Jason had half a though about truces and territories made with Batman in where he could and could not operate, but any qualms blew past him as his vision tunneled on the beast.

Heat churned under his skin and he felt a swell of rage despite the fact that Danny still kept pace beside him. This rage wasn’t sharp and bright like the rage he intimately knew, instead it burned oily and black.

They rounded a corner and real heat smacked him in the face. Ahead of them a building burned vigorously, flames eating their way out windows on every floor. He watched as the curse ghost dove through the open front door into the inferno.

“Shit,” Danny hissed beside him. “I’m going in.”

Without further warning Danny disappeared, presumably diving in after the beast.

The rage still burning in his gut egged Jason on to follow. Then, a cry from above. In the window, two kids framed by an orange inferno. Below on the street other people covered in soot pointed up, desperation in their voices.

Sense snapped back to him like an ice bath, priorities set. He strode toward the building and launched a grapple line, zipping up to the window.

“Grab on tight.” He hoisted two little girls off the windowsill and they followed his instruction, clinging to his midsection. He lowered them all down just as a loud crack came from the building above as the beams began to burst.

As he set the girls on the ground the older one spoke up, her voice barely a squeak. “Our brother-“

Fuck. Jason looked back up. The window frame was nearly devoured in flame. Fuck.

The wail of sirens echoed steadily closer, but not fast enough. He couldn’t just rush in unscathed like Danny had, he wasn’t wearing the jacket that made him intangible (supposedly, he hadn’t yet made it work all the way). But he still had to do something. He gripped his grapple gun and steeled himself.

And then Danny shot out of the second story window like a comet, landing haphazardly beside Jason. Around his neck, wrapped safely within his arms, was a little boy.

The sisters cried out with joy and Danny passed the boy to them, dazed and soot covered but still breathing. Danny smiled up at Jason, ashes tangled in the mess of his black hair.

“Red Hood?”

Shit. He would recognize that voice even if he were still dead.

“Batman.” Jason turned and saw his former mentor illuminated in firelight.

Fire trucks and EMTs arrived moments later, tending to the civilians and doing what they could against the blaze. Out of the corner of his eye Jason saw a flash of the iconic red and yellow on the roof. Robin was deploying some kind of fire extinguishing smoke bombs from above.

“What happened here?” Batman was never one to mince words. Still, Jason didn’t appreciate the accusatory undertone.

“Isn’t a guy allowed to save a few kids from a burning building once in a while?” He retorted.

“You’re outside of Crime Alley. Any particular reason?”

“W—“ he glanced over his shoulder. Danny was nowhere to be seen. Good. “I was just passing through. Helped how I could. But now it seems like you and Gotham’s finest have got it handled so I’ll be on my way.”

“Wait—“

Jason in fact did not wait. He shouldered his way past running firemen and slipped deeper into the shadows behind the crowd. He remembered the invisibility cuffs and with a bit of focus he made extra certain Batman couldn’t follow.

He waited till he was safely back inside the streets of crime alley (he chuckled to himself that anyone could think of these streets as safe) before he dropped the invisibility.

He found Danny waiting for him on top of their hotel.

“You okay?” Danny asked as Jason sat next to him on the edge of the roof.

“Fine.”

“Sorry I bailed so quickly, I-“

“Batman can not find out about you,” Jason interrupted. Meta or not, Batman wouldn’t be pleased if anyone as powerful as Danny was roaming around Gotham unchecked. If Bruce saw him, if he got any sense of his capabilities, he’d certainly confront him, or worse.

“Yeah, exactly, way ahead of you,” Danny breathed. “The Dark Knight is not on the list of heroes I’d like to meet.”

Jason hummed in the affirmative, satisfied.

“You get the curse ghost?”

“What? Oh, no. Forgot about him as soon as I saw there were still people. in the building. I think I got them all out before the B man showed up.”

“You’re a hero then. Or vigilante.”

“Was. I’m retired.”

“You don’t seem retired to me.”

“It’s complicated.”

In truth Jason had been relieved when Danny flew out of the building with that kid. Relieved for the kid of course, but equally relieved that Danny had chosen the civilians over the curse ghost. It meant that maybe he was just as altruistic as he claimed to be.

“So are these ghosts better or worse than the ones in Amity Park?” Jason ventured, pushing what trust he’d built.

Danny stiffened at the mention of Amity Park.

“I never mentioned Amity.” A hint of dangerous green glinted behind his eyes. Jason swallowed.

“I know. I was curious.” He replied, as breezy as possible. Like he hadn’t spent hours scouring through old records and obscure blogs to even get this scrap of information.

Danny pressed his lips together. “I haven’t been back in a long time.”

“Not even to see your parents?” Jason was getting reckless now.

“No.” Hard and cold as stone. “They’re not there anymore.”

Noted. Fenton parents were a subject to avoid with Danny. And a subject he would need to redouble his research on.

“And yeah. All ghosts are similar everywhere. Aside from the Curse Ghosts.” Danny offered, the chill fading from the air.

Getting info off of him was easy if Jason asked the right questions. Figuring out the questions was the hard part.

“How did they even get here then? The Curse Ghosts.” Jason asked. “Is there a portal close by?” Portal like the one the Fentons may or may not have created, like the one that supposedly killed Danny.

“No, they’re special. They form here in Gotham, no portal necessary,” came Danny’s unguarded reply. His gaze was far off, down into the streets like he could see them there.

“Actually,” Danny got that conspiratorial look as he turned to Jason, “Come with me.”

//

“Iʼve been trying to find a pattern for where the curse ghosts show up.” Danny sat at the messy desk in his apartment. Jason leaned over his shoulder as he pointed to a map on an outdated monitor.

It was Gotham, with red points dotting various locations. Jason recognized a few as locations theyʼd fought Curse Ghosts together but there were dozens more spots that Jason hadnʼt been at.

“Crime Alley is one obvious hot spot. Plenty of misery here to feed off of. But also— here by the docks, in the business district, by city hall, at Arkham.”

“So, anywhere.” Jason deadpanned.

Danny shot him a look. He clicked a key and another layer of dots showed up on the map.

“News stories of note- strange deaths, corruption, theft. Thereʼs always a surge after a beast shows up.”

“Seems obvious. And unhelpful.”

Danny huffed. “Yeah, well, usually one of your seventeen resident vigilantes shows up and restores order before things get too bad. Starves ‘em out a bit, unlike the big fish we were after tonight. But this is still helpful to get a bead on those to avoid real disasters.”

Jason studied the map layered with articles. “There has to be a way to predict where they’ll form.”

Danny hit a few keys and tossed him a thumb drive. “Knock yourself out.”

Danny leaned back in his chair. He looked tired.

Jason changed the subject. “So what do you study?”

“Huh?”

He gestured to the GU hoodie and various homework-esque bits around the room.

“Oh. Mechanical Engineering,” Danny replied with limited enthusiasm. “What about you? You go to school?”

“Not since I died.” Jason replied. Danny winced. “But itʼs okay. Not really my scene.”

“Oh cmon. There must be something youʼd want to study.”

“Maybe- no. Itʼs stupid.” Jason sat down on the arm of the sofa- the one that was still mostly intact.

“They have all sorts of weird degrees you can do now. You could do Crimonogy. Physicology. Extreme weightlifting with a minor in anthropology.”

“Or Literature.”

“What?” The corners of Danny’s mouth quirked up as he turned toward Jason.

“You know- the classics. Novels. The poets. That kind of stuff.”

Dannyʼs face curled into a smile. “Didnʼt peg you for the type.”

“You donʼt know me.” Jason was thankful the helmet hid the heat rising to his face.

“Touché.”

“Why mechanical engineering?” Jason countered.

“My grades were so shit in high school it was kind of a fall back.” Jason raised a doubting eyebrow.

“No really,” Danny continued, “I grew up around my parents tinkering. I couldnʼt help but pick it up. Much easier than studying Literature.”

“But do you actually like it?”

He shrugged. “Iʼm good at it. Isn’t that basically the same thing?”

Jason snorted. “Not at all. You still get to choose.”

Danny turned away, hiding his face. The silence stretched on for a long moment. Then, “So why are you a crime lord instead of a literature professor?”

Jason considered the question. Truthfully it hadn’t considered doing anything but what he did. This life he lived felt a bit inevitable. On his worst days maybe he’d considered giving up, but then his anger would always come snarling back. Anger at Bruce, anger at the Joker, anger at Gotham itself. Fighting was his only reprieve.

Or so he thought, before he met Danny. Before the irrationality of his rage had been doused completely for the first time since his death. For the first time it felt like he had room to consider. Room to choose.

“Gotham needs someone like me. As soon as it doesn’t you can catch me in the lecture hall teaching Jane Eyre.”

Danny considered him with a hint of a smile. “I’ll be sure to register for that credit when you do.”

//

“Gargoyles,” Danny proclaimed one night after theyʼd successfully captured a curse ghost.

Jason replied with an eloquent, “Huh?”

“Thatʼs what they kinda remind me of,” Danny spun the thermos in his hands. “The curse ghosts. They're like really messed up gargoyles.”

Jason thought about it and he was right. The curse ghosts were like if the gargoyles on Gothamʼs buildings had 20% more limbs and teeth and were made of goo instead of stone. Fitting really, for the embodiment of a curse on Gotham.

They perched on the roof of a building not far from an old tire shop where the curse ghost had reared its ugly head. A few gargoyles perched with them, thankfully all stone and completely motionless and definitely not cursed. Shadows crawled across them as occasional car headlights passed in the street below.

“The real question is if they're less nasty or more nasty than other curses you've fought?” Jason didnʼt know if Danny even had fought curse ghosts specifically before, but it seemed likely all things considered.

Danny paused, contemplating. “Every city has ghosts that haunt it. But none as bad as this, at least that I’ve seen. None that have such a distinct form. And none that have had such a strong effect on the living.”

“Arenʼt we special,” Jason grumbled.

Danny chuckled. “Very.”

“Good thing you came here to stop them.”

Danny frowned. “Well. Not exactly. If Stanford had accepted me Iʼd be bumping heads with the ghoulies under Alcatraz, but GU was my next choice.”

Jason’s train of thought came to a skittering halt. Danny wasn’t here to fight these ghosts specifically? He made it seem like taming the curse was the only way to keep Gotham from eating itself inside out. And it was clear that he was the only one actually trying to do something about it. Maybe the only one that could.

“Wait. Fixing the worst curse ever is just what you do in your free time between lectures?” Jason folded his arms.

Danny sighed. “Iʼm not a hero, remember? And I’m trying not to do ghost stuff full time. To do that I need to do human things. Like get a degree.”

“Who says you need a degree?” Jason’s voice pitched up, betraying his incredulity.

“NASA, definitely.” Danny wasn’t looking at him anymore. Instead he tilted his head up to the sky, toward the few stars that dared to poke through the fog.

Jason bit back a laugh. He couldn’t be serious. Crime fighting- ghost hunting- whatever, it wasn’t something that you just did on the side. If there’s one thing Bruce taught him it was that civilian life was an afterthought, a persona that they had to play. Their real life, the life that mattered, was what happened once they donned their masks. And after Jason died he’d been freed from the responsibility of being a civilian at all.

Yet looking at the melancholy on Danny’s face he knew he was being sincere. It struck Jason that Danny had dreams, like real dreams, ones that didn’t involve stopping crime and saving cities and meting out justice.

It twisted something in his stomach. Dreams were a luxury Jason hadnʼt ever been able to afford. Not when he was young and fighting and stealing his way through the streets of Crime Alley. Not when he was fighting beside Bruce, desperately eager to fill the mantle of Robin. Not now, especially not now, when there was only the work of purging the rot from this city. The work that sent him back to the gutters and the alleys night after night, always looking down.

And there Danny was beside him, just as capable of fixing Gotham (or even more capable, he did begrudgingly admit), and it hadnʼt completely consumed him. He was still selfish enough to dream.

He was still looking up at the sky.

A pang of something like hatred smacked at the back of Jason’s teeth, ugly and hot. He couldn’t believe Danny’s selfishness. His naivety. Both incredibly stupid things to have in this line of work. And still Jason felt something else– a rumbling and an ache from the place under his heart. A pulling that tried to stretch across the space between them. He bit his tongue and shoved that feeling down.

//

Later that night when Jason couldn’t sleep he scoured the net for any more hits on Danny. He knew it would be easier if he just asked Tim for help. He bet that little creep could have the full dossier delivered within an hour, everything he wanted to know about Danny Fenton, but that would open Jason up to way more questions than he wanted to deal with. He still needed to keep this as far away from Bruce as possible for as long as possible.

His less than ideal search methods still yielded him a yearbook photo he hadn’t seen yet. The sister Danny mentioned– Jasmine Fenton. Turns out she was attending Stanford, psychology major. Stanford, where Danny could have been instead of Gotham. Fighting some other city’s ghosts. And Jason would have continued to be unaware of and unable to do anything about Gotham’s curse. Or his own.

He turned his attention to digging up anything he could on the Fenton parents. No real estate records, no taxes, not even driver’s licenses. But no death certificates either. Jason didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. What he did know is that they were equally as erased as their son.

He found himself drifting away from Fenton research and on to the question that nagged at him in a different way– how to predict where the curse ghosts would show up. The data from Danny’s thumb drive was already on his computer and he dutifully logged the coordinates and relevant details from that night’s encounter, another dot among hundreds on the map of Gotham.

Jason had already whittled through all the possible easy connections. Haunted places, typical goon hide outs, historic sites, even fucking ley lines– none of them had enough correlation to be a valuable predictor. Or even a decent lead.

As much as he had practiced taming his frustration, another fruitless night with no answers had him sulking. He felt certain that figuring out the curse ghosts would also help him figure out Danny. And figure out himself. He couldn’t deny that he hadn’t felt even a hint of the Pit’s clawing rage since his nightly escapades with Danny became more frequent. He considered Danny’s offer– to make the fix permanent. And Jason believed him now, that he actually did want to help.

But he couldn’t accept that offer. He wouldn’t. Not until he was sure what it really meant. Maybe if and when they solved the curse problem for good, maybe then he would accept Danny’s help.

But not yet.

//

“Try something for me.”

Danny stopped mid patrol loop of known curse hotspots. Jason followed his gaze and saw a curse ghost rummaging through a demolition site where a condemned apartment once stood.

“Blast it-” Jason pulled a gun, finger ready at the trigger- “Wait!” Danny held up his hands to stop him. “First, see if you can hold the energy back before you release it.”

Danny held his palms out over one another and a ball of familiar green energy formed between them in demonstration. “Let it build up and grow.”

He focused for a moment and the ball grew larger, spun faster. He widened his palms as the ball grew, crackling with potential energy. He let it linger just a moment before— a twist of his wrist and it dissipated.

“I don’t think it works like that for me.”

“Just try it,” Danny cajoled. “I’d be a bad ghost mentor if I didn’t try to teach you how these powers work.”

Jason rolled his eyes. This felt like some kind of test, and the way Danny looked at him with rapt attention all but confirmed that. Did he truly want to help? Or Did he want to gauge how much Jason could push the limits of this power? Still, Jason’s own curiosity won out in the end.

He began by focusing on the feeling he got when he shot his usual energy bullets, allowing it to prickle through his chest and underneath his skin. Rather than let it out immediately, as he’d always done, he did as Danny instructed and held it back. He focused on his pistol. As he did, a small green sphere formed at the end of the gun.

Slowly he fed more energy to it. It grew, just as Danny’s had, spinning faster. His heart accelerated at the same pace, straining against the pull of the power. He gritted his teeth. His head felt hot, like it did when he let his rage get the better of him. Danny’s eyes glinted, reflecting the green glow with impish delight.

The sphere grew to baseball size, then basketball. Then it grew larger than that, so large he couldn’t even see the beast he was aiming at anymore. Danny said simply, “Now.”

Jason pulled the trigger. A massive green fireball exploded out of the end of his pistol, burning across the pile of wreckage. The ghost finally looked up just in time to take the blast directly to its side. It wailed in terrible unearthly tones as the green fire swallowed it.

Danny whooped in triumph. Meanwhile, Jason’s knees wobbled and he fell to all fours in the dirt. He felt suddenly cold, in that terrible clammy way right after a fever breaks.

Danny looked over as if to share the celebration but his face fell as he saw Jason.

“Shit,” he said, kneeling next to him. “You okay?”

“Yeah I— yeah.” Jason panted, swallowing a few dry breaths.

Every time he’d used this power before, he’d let it out instantly, through his guns or his gadgets. He’d never actually let it sit or take the time to feel it properly. Now he wished he hadn’t.

Using that power felt like his worst memories of the Pit, unnatural and cloying like he could still feel the waters dripping off of him. It tasted like grave dirt in his mouth.

But as he raised his head he saw the damage he’d done. There was a fucking crater the size of his living room blasted through the remains of a concrete foundation. No sign of the curse ghost. He did that.

He laughed, all shaky breath. Maybe he could get used to it. He’d have to. He didn’t have a choice but to use it against the curse ghosts. He’d be useless in fights against them otherwise.

“Let’s head back,” Danny offered.

“Yeah.” Jason ignored the small tremor in his hand as he holstered his pistol and started to get his feet back underneath himself.

Jason was halfway to standing when out of nowhere he took a hit. A force crashed into his gut from behind like a cannonball and he barely registered a curse ghost underneath him- it looked like a rhino with way way too many horns- before it flung him ten feet across the demo site and sent him careening into the rubble. He tumbled over broken concrete and snarled rebar, hard-trained muscle memory kicking in to relax his muscles enough to not take the worst of it anywhere he didn’t want to.

He blinked the dizziness from his eyes as he settled. Fuck that hurt. He felt a trickle of blood running down his face. The helmet was padded just enough to protect him from concussions. Didn’t help much with the biological nightmare that was the human nose though. He took the helmet off to keep the blood from pooling in his mouth, leaving him in just his domino mask.

“Jason?” He heard Danny shout.

“Mmfine,” was what he managed to reply as he pushed himself up. It took him a few tries to find his legs. They were still wobbly from the expenditure of power before.

Across the demo field Danny fought the new curse ghost with his usual evasive style. His mouth a hard set line as he ducked beneath swipes from many-angled horns and he responded with blasts of his own, cornering the ghost handily.

Then his gaze landed on Jason and he paused, eyes wide.

His stance went rigid. He snapped around unnaturally fast to face the curse ghost, a total shift from his flighty movements from a moment before. His gaze was sharp, cast in stark shadows from the streetlights, and impossibly, dangerously green. He raised a palm toward the ghost, slowly. And then a nuclear blast went off.

Or at least thatʼs what it felt like. Jason lifted an elbow to shield his eyes from the blinding green light. Surprisingly it wasn’t hot. Instead it felt like the air pressure had been turned up, as if the whole atmosphere was somehow heavier around them, pressing in from all sides, making it harder to breathe.

It lasted only a moment. When Jason lowered his shielding arm there was no sign of the curse ghost. No other damage from the blast either. Just scraps of shadow floating on the wind, dissipating as they rose up.

Danny lowered his hand. A bit of a glow still lingered around him like a halo, a silver outline that shimmered on top of his skin. Jason’s heart raced drunkenly as he stayed rooted to his spot. He wasn’t sure he trusted his legs to move. Danny still looked at the empty space where the ghost had been, his gaze still burning with an overwhelming power. One that Jason was very thankful to not have directed at him. Still, something stirred in his chest like a tug on a wire. The sweet sharp tang of adrenaline saturated his fear. He wasn’t sure if he could stomach that oppressive attention, but a reckless part of him craved it.

Then Danny shifted his stance again. He seemed to shrink back into himself, the glow dimming to a level that passed as human. He turned to Jason with something like guilt on his face, no hint of the commanding presence he held a moment earlier.

“Are you okay?” Danny spoke gently, but his fists were still clenched.

“Yeah. Yeah Iʼm fine,” Jason replied before he even really took stock of his injuries, but as he did he saw he hadn’t lied. The bleeding from his nose had mostly stopped. It hadnʼt been that bad in the first place.

“I think thatʼs enough for tonight.” Danny breathed, finally, releasing the last of his tension. He wouldnʼt meet Jasonʼs eyes.

It had been a while since anyone had saved him. He didn’t have anyone who watched his back, hadn’t for a long time. Strictly speaking, tonight he would have been fine even without the save. Probably.

While he was thankful that Danny covered his ass, it also annoyed him that he thought he had to.

“Thanks,” he grumbled, and then finally Danny looked at him with soft attention.

“You’re sure you’re okay? If it’s a concussion-“

“I’m fine,” Jason said, using his thumb to brush away the drying blood under his nose.

Danny just looked at him with naked concern, his fingers twitching like he didn’t know what to do with them, mouth pressed in a firm line. He took a breath as if to voice another worry but Jason cut him off with a resigned sigh.

“Look, if you're so worried why donʼt you come back to mine.” If it got Danny to stop nagging he didn’t mind burning a safehouse.

Danny nodded, mutely accepting the invite.

Jason led him back to his latest safehouse, a corner loft of an abandoned building, only accessible by rooftop. The walk there had proved that Jason wasn’t hurt bad, though Danny’s eyes kept going back to the blood on his face.

Once inside, Danny sat down on the couch. It was the only real piece of furniture in the house besides his half-broken bed. Jason felt less like a shitty host because truly it was equally as dingy as the one in Danny’s own apartment.

“Want a beer?” Jason asked from the kitchen, as he finished up rummaging his way through some makeshift first aid. The slapdash brace on his nose wasn’t his finest work, but eh. It would heal fine. It always did.

“You drink?” Danny seemed suspiciously surprised. “For me the accelerated healing makes any normal alcohol consumption pretty pointless.”

Jason froze with his hand on the fridge. “Oh. Huh.” That would explain why he had to down a whole handle and a half to feel anything. “No shit.”

Zombie-like he pulled a six pack out of the fridge. He set it down on the coffee table in front of Danny as he fell onto the couch next to him.

A part of him had still not fully believed the whole half ghost thing. Fighting ghosts was one thing. Being one was another. The tech helped maintain the illusion quite well- he had ghost power cuffs that made him invisible and ghost power socks that let him float. That explanation was easy to swallow.

But no gadget could explain why wounds that should take weeks to recover from only took him days. Couldn’t explain why he didn’t get drunk.

But there was a good explanation. A simple one too.

He wasnʼt fully human.

Shit.

Jason grabbed a beer from the coffee table, popped it with his thumb, and downed it in one long pull.

“Batman doesnʼt like metas in Gotham.” He didn’t look at Danny. He wasn’t really even talking to him. He tossed the beer bottle to the floor.

“Weʼre not metas,” Danny said, a gentle echo of what he’d said the first night they met.

“It doesn’t matter. Meta, supernatural, itʼs all the same. All are a dangerous liability in this city. You- we- count.” Jason opened another beer. Downed it. Waited to feel any hint of the alcohol hitting him. Nothing.

He could, however, feel Danny looking at him. “Iʼm not afraid of Batman.”

Jason didnʼt look back. He fiddled with the empty beer bottle, tossed it on the floor with the other one. Of course Danny wasnʼt afraid of Batman. Jason had no doubts which way that fight would go if it ever came to it.

That was an awful image to consider– Batman getting his ass handed to him by some nobody punk in jeans– and all the more reason that Bruce should never know about any of this. The curse ghosts, Danny, Jason’s own burgeoning ghost powers- more secrets he had to keep. More reasons to keep all the Bats at arm's length.

And if they ever did find out? No way their shaky truce could weather that. It’d be another war.

“Heʼs- well, they all are I guess- kind of my family. All Iʼve got left of one, anyway.” The words spilled out. He didn’t want a war with them. He never had.

Danny let out a long breath. “Oh. Family.” He laughed a sad laugh. “My parents tried to kill me. Multiple times actually. I donʼt blame them– theyʼre ghost hunters and well, they looked at me and saw a ghost.”

Danny reached for a beer. He pulled out two and handed one to Jason. He took it. “So at least it canʼt be as bad as that with yours?”

Jason grumbled. “Judging by how it went the first time I came back from the dead? It will be an absolute shitshow.”

Danny clinked his beer against Jasonʼs and took a long swig. “I dunno. I think Bruce might come around if you give him a chance.”

Jason straightened his spine, suddenly alert, alarm bells ringing in his head. “Bruce?”

Danny deflated, suddenly sheepish. “Ah. Whoops.”

That all but confirmed it. Jason groaned. Just when he thought it couldn’t get worse, Danny somehow knew one of Gotham’s most dangerous secrets. “How did you find out?”

“You can probably guess.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “It wasnʼt hard with a little ghostly snooping. It was one of the first things I did when I got to Gotham. I wanted to know just to double avoid him, honest.”

It wasnʼt hard to imagine any number of ways Danny could have uncovered Batman’s identity. Heʼd recognized Jason with and without his mask, but he figured that was because Danny had a sense for ghosts and, well, whatever he was. He hadnʼt considered how easy unmasking the Batman would be for him even without that trick.

“If he finds out you know, you’re dead.”

“I already am. Besides, I thought Batman had a strict no-kill policy?”

Ultimately this changed very little. Just another nail in the coffin of the strict Batman avoidance protocol. Still, he wished Danny would be a little less blase about the whole thing.

Fuck it. In for a penny, he couldn’t un-learn all the ghost shit that had turned his life upside down. He downed the beer. Danny was right the first time. It didnʼt matter what Bruce thought. He couldnʼt stop them from fighting curse ghosts. And it was truly none of his business. Danny sipped his beer with a grimace. Jasonʼs heart twisted.

“How do you stand the taste of this stuff?” Danny asked, a hint of a smile.

“It’s not about the taste. It's about the feeling.” Or lack of one. Jason thought maybe he felt the slightest tingle of tipsiness, but it could just be placebo.

Danny looked at him with that same casual intensity. He could tell his eyes lingered on his half-broken nose. Still worrying over him. Why? Why did he care if Jason got hurt? Jason stared back, trying to get a read on any of the real thoughts behind Danny’s eyes.

The silence stretched out, wide open.

Danny broke it first. “Sorry, uh. I guess I should get going.”

Jason took a beat and remembered how to breathe. “You good? Donʼt drink and fly.”

“I donʼt feel a thing,” Danny smirked. “Still, Iʼll walk.”

“You sure? You could always just crash here tonight.” The words spilled out of him before he could think better of it. He and Danny both froze, like the air has been sucked from the room. He stared at the empty six pack on the coffee table, swatting away any thoughts that dared surface, fighting the rising heat in his cheeks and desperately trying to keep his face blank.

“Itʼs okay,” Danny said finally, quietly releasing Jason from his turmoil. “Iʼll see you tomorrow?” Jason dared a look at Danny then. Warmth in his half smile like a sweater, a glint in his eye that made him feel lightheaded.

Danny stood and left, closing the door gently behind himself. Jason breathed out into the empty apartment. It felt suddenly cavernous and dead without Danny in it.

It shouldn’t mean anything but it did. Friends crashed on each other’s couches regularly, didn’t they? Jason didn’t have much experience with friends, if that’s what he and Danny were. This invitation certainly crossed that threshold. But he’d been careless. All the unknowns were still dangerous. He couldn’t let this be more than a working relationship. A partnership of convenience.

He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. Pain, tender and sharp, sprung up beneath them. He sighed at the comforting familiarity of it. Then he flopped face first onto his bed, alone.

Next >

[skatergayerfurt93]

Sunday: Chilling with my DC shoes Skate outfit at home.

Sagging shoe and sockplay

DC Pure High Top WC eu 42,5 with smelly black DC socks

[sequinsmile-x]

Amore

It's Valentine's Day and Emily just wants to spend it with her boyfriend, but she's got two problems:

No one knows she and Aaron are together,

Penelope is insistent on setting her up on a date.

-x-

Hi friends,

Everyone loved the idea of this when I suggested it the other day, so I hope you like how this turned out!

Please let me know what you think <3

Happy Valentine's Day!

-x- Words: 3k

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol consumption

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

Emily smiles as Aaron opens the door to his hotel room and stands back just enough to let her in, his eyes sweeping the hallway to make sure none of the team is nearby. 

“Hi sweetheart,” he says as she walks into the room and he closes the door behind her. She immediately wraps her arms around him and kisses him, her hand on his cheek to keep him in place. He smiles into it and presses his forehead against her as they pull away from each other, “If we hadn’t spent all day together I’d ask if you missed me.” 

She kisses him again before she walks over to the bed, slipping her shoes off before she climbs in, “I did miss you,” she says, yawning as he climbs into bed with her, “I had to spend all day pretending I’m not madly in love with you in front of our friends.” 

He laughs and kisses her forehead, “I missed you too,” he wraps his arm around her shoulders to pull her close, “Today was a long day.” 

She hums in agreement and rests her head against him, her forehead against his neck, “Such a long day,” she grumbles, kissing his throat, “But hopefully we’ll get it all wrapped up tomorrow and make it back in time for Valentine’s Day.” 

It was their first Valentine’s Day together. She’d never been one to buy into the holiday, but she was looking forward to it this year. She’d bought him a new watch and spent longer than she’d care to admit picking out a card, walking the aisles in the store until she found one that came close to explaining how she felt about him. She knew he’d bought her something too, he wasn’t good at hiding presents, something she’d discovered when she spent Christmas with him and Jack, so she’d spotted the blue Tiffany bag in his sock drawer just before they left DC for the case they were on. 

She wanted to spend the day celebrating their love for each other, she wanted to bask in the fact she was finally in a relationship that made her want to take part in things she would have once scoffed at. She often joked Aaron had ruined her, that he’d turned her into a sappy, love-sick, thing, but she actually thinks their relationship had been the making of her. It had helped her find herself again when she got home from Paris, had helped her build up the new version of herself from the rubble of what she’d left behind. 

Aaron loved her no matter what, and she loved him the same way. 

“We’ll celebrate whether we get home on time or not,” he promises her, kissing her forehead and she nods. Her phone chimes and she pulls it out of the pocket of her sweatpants and reads the text she’s received. Emily rolls her eyes as she tilts the phone so he can read it too. It was from a number she didn’t have saved, and as he reads it he feels jealousy thrum in his veins. 

Hi, this is Mark - Penelope gave me your number. She said you’d be up for getting together for a drink sometime. Call me!

“She’s giving your number out to people now?” 

She hums as she locks her phone and places it down on the bed, “Well, I never went on any of the blind dates she tried to set me up on so I guess this is the next step,” she scrunches her nose up as she looks up at him, “I didn’t know she had this many single friends though so I’m worried she’s moved on to random guys she meets in bars.” 

For months Penelope had been trying to set her up, taking neither Emily’s hints nor her insistence that she didn’t need any help very seriously. She kept saying she just wanted to see Emily happy, something she didn’t know she already was, and she was determined to make it happen. Her efforts had increased since January had ticked over into February, the long drawn-out weeks of the first month of the year giving way to the month of love, seemingly convincing Penelope that Emily needed a partner more than ever. 

If only she knew Emily already had one. 

Emily and Aaron had both decided to keep their relationship secret. At first, it had just been practical. They wanted to navigate the shift from friends to more without the pressure of outside opinion, without feeling like their every move was being watched. Like it was being carefully observed. They’d both been through so much that wanted to protect themselves, protect this, something precious that they both deserved. It’s how they’d made it 6 months down the line without no one else other than Jack and Jessica knowing about them. 

“Not sure how I feel about random guys texting my girlfriend,” he grumbles and she chuckles, biting her lower lip as she shifts on the bed. She turns towards him and hooks one of her legs over his lap, smiling as she settles onto him, both of his hands automatically seeking out her hips. 

“Oh honey,” she says, shifting closer on his lap, hooking her arms around his neck, her fingers trailing the short hair on the back of his head, “Are you jealous?” 

“Yes,” he answers honestly, tightening his grip on her, raising his eyebrow when her smile only widens, “But before you make too much fun of me, I think we both know you wouldn’t be any better if this was the other way around.” 

She stamps a kiss against his lips, “True,” she says, kissing him again, “But I promise you have nothing to worry about,” she rubs her nose against his, “I’m all yours,” she kisses up his jaw, “No matter what.” 

He feels pride flare in his chest, warming him from the inside out as he moves his hands from her hips to her lower back, pushing her closer to him so their chests press together, “All mine.” 

She hums and kisses him, “We’ll figure out how to tell them all once we’re home and Valentine’s Day is out of the way, okay?” She says, her and on his jaw as they pull back, “I just want to enjoy it without everyone…sticking their nose in. Or without Pen asking intrusive questions about our sex life.” 

He pulls back, his eyes wide in alarm, “She’ll do that?” 

She chuckles and presses his forehead against hers, “If you think her trying to get involved in my love life stops the moment she finds out we’re together you’re kidding yourself, baby.” 

His response is cut off as she leans in and kisses him again and rolls her hips against his, any thought other than her wiped from his brain as he gets lost in her. 

___

Penelope, somehow, convinces them all to go out for a drink after they get home. 

Emily was hesitant to, her eyes fixed on her watch as the time clicked closer to midnight and therefore Valentine’s Day. The rest of the team had immediately agreed, meaning that her and Aaron’s protests would only stand out and seem suspicious. 

She sighs as she takes a sip of her beer and looks over at Aaron, who was standing with Dave and Derek, and she smiles softly when their eyes briefly meet and he winks at her, his own smile hidden by his drink. She sees the promise in it, the love that they were yet to share with anyone else. She was excited to move forward, to let their friends in, but she would miss the secrecy. Not just for the privacy it gave them, but because she loved sneaking around with him, the edge it gave when she snuck to his room when they were on a case. 

Right now she struggled to see the merit in it. She wanted to kiss him, to taste the beer from his lips instead of from the bottle she was holding. 

“You okay, Em?” JJ asks, dragging her attention back to her, “You seem distracted.” 

“I’m okay,” she replies, smiling at her friend, “It was a long case, that’s all,” she looks towards the bar and her smile slips from her face when she sees Penelope talking with a man at the bar, her smile wide as she pointed towards the group, smiling and waving when she catches Emily’s eye, “Oh god she’s doing it again isn’t she?”

JJ smiles at her, a flash of something Emily can’t quite place in her eyes before she answers, “You could just tell her no.” 

Emily raises an eyebrow at JJ, “You seriously think I haven’t tried that?” She asks incredulously, “You have met Pen right?”

JJ nods, “That’s true, she doesn’t really take no for an answer.” 

Emily chuckles and shakes her head, “No she does not,” she groans as Penelope walks towards them, the man from the bar just a few paces behind, “Here we go.” 

“Emily,” Penelope says enthusiastically as she walks over, “This is Richard, we just got talking at the bar,” she says, pulling Richard closer, making sure he was standing closer to Emily, “Richard, this is my friend Emily who I was telling you about.” 

“Nice to meet you,” he says, offering out his hand to her which she shakes, her smile tight as he squeezes her hand and lingers a little too long. 

She can feel Aaorn’s gaze burning into the side of her face and she looks over at him briefly. She can see the tension in his jaw from where she’s standing, the way he’s gripping his beer bottle a little tighter than he was before. She feels her cheeks get warm as she looks back at Richard, Aaron’s obvious jealousy making her stomach flip for a moment. Usually, she thinks she’d purposely try and make him a little more jealous than he already was, let this guy in front of her flirt with her for a few minutes until she turned him down, but she didn’t want to add any fuel to the fire with Penelope. 

It’s not like she needed any more encouragement. 

“We’ll leave you two to get to know each other,” Penelope says, linking her arm through JJ’s and leading her away, purposely ignoring Emily’s glare. 

Emily shakes her head as she’s left alone with Richard and she smiles politely at him, blowing out a slow breath, “Look, I don’t know what Pen told you but-”

“You’re with the suit,” he says, cutting her off with a smile. Her eyes widen quickly and she double-checks to make sure no one from the team heard him. She chuckles dryly and turns back to look at him. 

“You…how did you guess that?” 

Richard shrugs, “If looks could kill, I’d have been dead the moment I walked over.” 

She nods and presses her lips together, “Yeah, he…has that effect on people,” she says affectionately, Aaron’s supposed grumpiness one of her favourite things about him. It was a mask, something he used to protect himself, and it made the soft side that he reserved for her and Jack all the more precious, “I am sorry though.”

“Don’t be,” Richard says genuinely, reaching out and squeezing her arm for a second before he stops and steps away, “It was nice to meet you.” 

“Nice to meet you too,” she says, watching him go. She’s only alone for a second before Penelope walks back over, outrage painted all over her face. 

“You turned him down that fast,” she says, scoffing at her, “I keep finding all these lovely guys for you and you keep turning them down, or not responding to their messages.” 

She raises her eyebrow at her friend, “Yeah, we’ve got to talk about you handing out my number to random people.” 

Penelope’s eyes go slightly wide, “Matt is not a random person-”

“His name was Mark,” Emily corrects, her eyebrow still raised and Penelope clears her throat, nodding as she avoids eye contact.

“Okay, yeah that was my bad,” Penelope says, huffing out a breath, “I just want you to be happy, Em.” 

“I am happy,” she exclaims, catching the attention of the others, all of them tuning into the conversation. 

“I mean happy with someone.” 

Later, Emily wouldn’t be able to figure out what made her do it. Whether it was the two beers she’d had and the slight buzz they’d given her, or Aaron’s gaze burning into her side. Mostly, she thinks it’s irritation aimed towards her friend, the well meaning meddling finally pushing her over the edge. 

“I am happy with someone,” she says, placing her beer down on the high table near them and closing the gap between her and Aaron, crossing the distance in just a few paces, before she kisses him, her lips firm against his. She doesn’t think about it for a moment, doesn’t consider her audience, too caught up in the feeling of Aaron pressed against her, in the way he grips her hip. 

Then her brain catches up with the rest of her. 

She pulls back and looks at him, her eyes almost as wide as his as they meet, and she curses under her breath when she realises what she’s done. He squeezes her hip again, reassurance she needs in the touch as he lets her know he isn’t mad at her, and that, as he always was, he was there for her. She turns at looks at their friends, ready to have a conversation she’d been putting off for months, but instead of shock written across their faces, they all look smug. 

Especially Penelope. 

“I told you I’d get her to admit it.” Penelope exclaims, hitting Derek in the shoulder as she looks at her watch, “And it is 11.50 pm so it is still technically before Valentine’s Day which was my deadline. So pay up.” 

“Damn it,” Dave says, rooting through his pockets for his wallet. 

Emily chokes on a laugh and looks back and forth between Aaron and the team, finally finding her voice as they all grumble and start pulling money out of their wallets to pass to their exuberant friend.

“Okay, what the hell is going on?” She asks, frowning as the rest of them chuckle. 

“We all knew you guys were together,” JJ says, handing her money to Penelope, “We got bored of waiting for you to tell us so Pen said she’d get it out of you.” 

Aaron tightens his hold on Emily, his arm around her as he pulls her towards him, her back against his chest, “How long have you known?” 

Derek turns to Spencer, who had so far been standing quietly in the corner, “Reid, when did you see them making out?” 

“Oh god.” 

“Jesus Christ.” 

Emily and Aaron speak in unison, both of them looking down at the floor in embarrassment, and Spencer stutters for a moment, choking on his words. 

“I never said made out,” he says, speaking quickly before he sighs. Emily and Aaron both look up at him, and they take some comfort in the fact he looked just as uncomfortable as they felt, “I saw you guys kissing in one of the hotels we stayed in 5 months, 3 weeks and 2 days ago.” 

Emily groans and turns her head to look at her boyfriend, “We didn’t make it a week without them finding out.” 

He smiles sympathetically at her and kisses her temple, “It’s okay, sweetheart.” 

“Sweetheart,” Penelope exclaims, pulling everyone's attention back towards her, “You guys are even cuter than I imagined.

Emily sighs and feels Aaron’s grip on her tighten, his discomfort clear, “Are we done here?” Aaron asks, doing his best to intimidate them. 

“Oh not by a longshot,” Dave says, a smirk spreading across his face that makes Emily roll her eyes as he passes them fresh drinks.

“Shut the fuck up, Dave.” 

___

He smiles as she sits down on the couch next to him, groaning as she rests her head on his shoulder. He kisses her forehead as he wraps an arm around her, always desperate to have her as close to him as possible. 

“You okay, sweetheart?”

She nods and tilts her head up to look at him. She pushes her fingers through his hair, smiling softly as it flops back onto his forehead, “I’m okay. A little embarrassed they apparently knew all along, but I’m okay.” 

“I think it’s nice they were giving us a chance to tell them ourselves,” Aaron says, smiling at her, “Although I do wish Garcia’s technique to get us to admit it didn’t include trying to set you up with people.” 

She chuckles and rests her forehead against his, “Like I said, honey, you’re the only one for me.” 

He stamps his lips against hers, “You’re the only one for me too,” he kisses her again before he pulls back, his eye briefly lingering on the clock on his living room wall, and his smile gets wider when he sees it’s close to 2 am, “I forgot to say because of all of the intense questioning, but Happy Valentine’s Day.” 

She cups his cheek and pulls him in, tasting the scotch Dave had bought him on his tongue before she pulls back just enough to speak, “Happy Valentine’s Day.” 

His response is to kiss her, to take his time to get lost in it, in her. When he eventually pulls away she’s breathless, her eyes slightly bleary and he strokes his thumb back and forth over her cheek, “We should go to bed.” 

She hums and nods, “We should,” she says, biting her lip as she looks at him, “But not to sleep, right?” 

He laughs, the sound making her fall impossibly more in love with him, the joy so loud she thinks it might wake his neighbours. He stands up quickly, tugging her with him, his grip on her so tight when he pulls her into his embrace that her feet leave the floor, her toes scraping the carpet where his life had once almost ended, and where it now felt like it was only just beginning. 

“No sweetheart,” he says, his voice gruff, thick with emotion and want, “Definitely not to sleep.” 

-x-

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[kel-lance]

Yandere! Gojo x Reader part 3

——MDNI—- warnings: dc/nc, manipulation, coercion, physical abuse, emotional abuse, etc.——-

“Sa-san…”

“I said strip.” He lays back into the couch not ever taking his eyes off you and his fingers again bruise . “You don’t want me to it for you, I won’t be able to control myself after that.”

You gulped and heeded his warning, taking off your shirt with full eye contact. Watching his every move with scorn in your eyes, you wondered how many other women he’s abused with his looks. 

“You look jealous, not hateful. Would you believe out of all the women in the world I’ve been with, I actually want you?” 

The heat rose to your throat but you ignored him to not egg him on further. Taking off your pants, shoes and socks, you stand there in your underwear. Satoru stays sitting on the couch, his hands pinching and tracing every new part of your body he hasn’t seen before.

“So nice.” He brings you closer to him, placing his head in your chest. His breathing was becoming erratic, his actions getting more violent. He pulls down your panties and tosses you onto the couch before fully pulling them off. You’re on your back, your bottom part exposed and his eyes glowing now, he couldn’t take them away from this sight he’s prayed for before. 

Before you could even think of asking what was he thinking, he climbs on top of you. “You keep proving me right.” He leans into you and kisses you passionately, pushing you back into the couch. Straddling you, keeping your smaller body between his knees, his towering mass cages around you, his face smashing into yours and his hands once again hungrily taking in as much of your body as he could, then over again, and again, until his hand started to trace around your chest, down to tickle your belly, until its hovering right above your hot lower mouth. 

His middle finger traces your inner thigh, making you cringe, slightly raising your leg as a reaction but Satoru holds the leg down with the palm of the same hand.  His grip demanding, threatening to rip off your skin, you know he’s still holding himself back. At this point would you rag doll it? Would he get angrier if you didn’t play back? Before you had time to decide he makes his move.

He tugged at the tuft of your bush before repeatedly striking his fingertips onto your clit. A jolt moves your body and your toes curl to the assault. What the fuck, it felt so fucking good, you’ve never been able to feel this before. 

It was insane, each strike made your whole body move from the sensations Gojo sent through you, through your clit. Your hands automatically found and gripped to the ends of a throw pillow, twisting your body to almost get away but Gojo held you down, placing a hand on your back as you turned yourself around.

He gave you a second to catch your breath, helping to edge you from this, before he makes you too sensitive or even cum once, he wanted to stuff you and fuck you with his cum. He grabs you hair and lifts your entire body up to level his mouth to your ear. “Just perfect.” 

As you shake and hold yourself up by your forearms, Satoru decides to insert his two large fingers into you, catching you by surprise. Your body freezes as you try to get used to the new sensation, it was hard with him still wiggling himself around. Your breathing started to get heavier as the feeling starts to form a cloud in your stomach, branching off heat to your face as your body is still understanding the situation.

His two fingers plunged and dragged themselves out of you, you can tell gojo was so impatient by the way he stuffed another finger in you and kept all three fingers to stretch out your hole just bit more for him, before he decides to go in. “You look like the type to not have had it in a while, so I was right about you being this tight, but I never thought you’d be this wet for me.”

He gets on top of you, his thighs draped over your and his hard member poking you through his pants. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted this, how long I’ve needed you.” He leans down to kiss you greedily, taking your tongue in his mouth and playing, poking, sucking on it, he wasn’t holding back anymore. As he had you distracted, his other hand has unsheathed his length from his pants, now you can feel his hot and angry head realigning itself up to your hole.

“Wait- wait!” You didn’t think you’d have to tell him, you knew he was going this far but it’s the way he’s doing it. “Wait!” 

“I like to see you struggling princess but it’s too late.” His large hands pinned your hips down. He sighs out out through a dark smile and his glowing eyes light up as he slowly enters you. You whimper, or was that a cry?  You don’t know what to think, this isn’t real. No, it was, but how was this happening? You never did anything to catch anyone’s eye, you just happen to be lucky as a special grade and changed personalities after your cockiness costed you your team. 

You just went to school, exorcized special grade spirits, you tried to help people yet every time you did, things would end up worse than before. Relationships of any kind were out of the question, you were fine on your own. The rare times people did flirt with you, they asked if they could help you with your obvious frustration. Most of the time it was Gojo. It was always Gojo. 

In the little time that you knew him, he made you remember him every time you ran into each other. He made sure to get closer every time so you weren’t surprised he was laying hands on you the second time.

Now, he was finally filling you, making you shove your face into the pillow, biting it as much as you can to bare through his forced entry. He gasps out. “God you feel so fucking amazing.” HIs girth was hard to adjust to, not to mention his length just didn’t seem to end, you felt him going deeper and deeper. You felt him bully through your cervix, “He’s gonna poke through my stomach from the wrong side.” you thought. 

“Relax.” He says, finally fitting his entire self in. You forgot to breathe, slowly letting the air you trapped in your lungs to escape. The release of your muscles and the airflow back to your brain, your body relaxed around him like he told you. He kisses the back of your head. “Such a good girl.” He kisses you more before he pulls himself back, grabbing your hair again and you adjusted to see which personality he switched over to now. 

“Who else got to feel this before me? I’m so jealous right now I could kill them.” He drags his dick out of you slowly, making a sweet feeling that engulfs your left side. It was something you couldn’t describe even before he plunges it back in. Knocking on your cervix like he was the police, your stalker repeated this in-between his questions. “Who else?!” He stays deep inside you, uncomfortably, even more forcefully in. You felt sick. “Y/n… you can’t keep anything from me. I can tell you’ve got something to say.” 

He yanks your head up by your hair, digging with his hips, deepening himself into you in this position. You’re sobbing and squeal with each internal nudge. “Hh-h-hnnh.” You choke out. 

“You’re only making this last longer.” He grinds his head painfully into your bruised walls. “If I go limp in you, we’ll just try again later, and again and again and again if you want.” Who’d want that? How could he blame you or try to give you control over a situation you have no way of controlling. You swear he was just joking with you.

“So we’ll try one more time, if you give me an answer or not, I’m starting to not care. Maybe it’s better I don’t know for now.” 

“You.” You whisper. 

“Hmmm?” Wiggling his hips, and himself teasingly inside you while feeling you clamp around him with each of your sobs. 

“It’s only been you.” You finally admit. You finally give in, letting yourself cry freely now as he’s what you expect to be stunned. He stopped himself deep in you, and you could feel it, he was more than happy, almost like he was grateful to someone like you. “No way.” 

You weren’t going to answer, but you felt something new. Like Your stomach was burning, or rather there was a warmth, and what you could probably tell was his heartbeat going crazy to this new information. He was twitching inside you like crazy, like it was pulsating against your walls. His legs started to shake and Gojo pressed his chest back onto your back again, almost in a comforting hug. “You’re a virgin?” He managed in a shake breath.

“That’s why I wanted you to wait.” You cried. This was a different defeat compared to losing your friends. This was losing your dignity, being forced to be humiliated by some stranger, having no control over your body as someone else is pleasuring themselves with you, like a living object. You kept to yourself, you were always trying to protect others, that you never thought they’d intentionally want to harm you back. Much less everyone’s favorite, no one would believe you and he knew that. 

“You fucking ruined everything.” Another mood change, you ready yourself-

He grabs your head, not your hair this time, grabs your head and throws it back into the couch and thrusts into you again. He repeats lifting your head and throwing it back into the couch trying to shut you up. He was actually so much nicer a few moments ago, right now he means it, he’s not messing around anymore. 

His right thumb was digging into your scalp, you were frozen, worse off than helpless. You could feel the blood trickle down your head, your heartbeat aching from every hole he’s assaulted and created were screaming at you to leave, before he makes and more or the existing ones worse. 

“Why the FUCK WOULD YOU TELL ME THAT AFTER?!” He screams in your face.

His voice rose louder than anything you’ve ever heard before. It was a bellow, something from his stomach brought out to choke you. He could get loud and yell, but he never was emotional about it. you’ve never seen anything ever get to him, he has the luxury of never taking anything personal. 

He takes his hands off to move them to push your torso further while below he takes himself out of you. He sighs, disappointed. His hands to his face his distraught bleeding all over the room.

You held your head, it pounded so hard you couldn’t get up. All you could do was lay there, and watched as he paced and talked himself down.

He comes to the conclusion that you were saving it for him. He’s calm, he tells himself, he’s happy again. He grabs your hair and asks if you’re hiding anything else. You swear and cry out that he’s doing too much.

“Too much? I’m not doing enough.” He pulls your hips back toward his. Resting himself on top of you, admiring the difference, seeing how far it was going to reach. He bottomed out and plunged straight in, his cum making things a million times easier.

Whatever noises you could make now were choked back as he stuffed his fingers in your mouth. “Suck me too.” He hissed out.

Doing as you’re told, your tongue collected your own fluids and spread them back out down your chin and his arm, making an absolute mess. He’s in ecstasy, and you couldn’t lie, he knew exactly how to turn you on. All this confusion and hostility, just how many rounds could you survive?

—————————————————————

(Like a day later)

“Hey, y/n, marry me.”

He caresses your hair and presses you onto him, practically having you lay on top of him in his bed.

He doesn’t let you think. “I’m strong,” moving you closer into his chest. “…stronger than anyone. No one can mess with you, you will go on your missions with extra security, you’ll be happy,” His python like hold, his encasing of you said it all. “Just be mine.”

“I would wish I was dead, if I said no.” He wouldn’t let you go so easily, and you didn’t have it in you to fight for your freedom for the rest of your life. You just wanted to help others. If anyone else had to be in this spot you wouldn’t be satisfied with your consciousness.

“That’s right. I like you too much to leave you alone, but no one else can bother you, Id make sure of that.” He pet your head and hummed happily. “And if you ever change your mind, later on, you better hope I’ve changed mine first.”

You don’t respond for a minute. Your body is still trying to understand what happened moments ago. What was with these mind games, why were you toying with him? This this something new, you could feel something that interesting happening in the end.

By now you’d ask yourself if were you done playing this game? You won. You’ve won. Do you want to come clean now or do you want to see how much sweeter the betrayal will be on this losers face that you planned it all along. All this abuse? Everything that made him feel powerful, you read him like a book and decided to profit. You hide your laugh as a sob.

“You’re asking me for partnership?” You asked. Saying it in what he’d considered to be a dorky tone, he’ll have so much fun teasing you for supposing to be smart and yet, “is the dumbest bitch he knows.”” He has to fuck you smart, bc you couldn’t possibly get stupider.

“Are you taking responsibility for what you’ve done?” You almost stop yourself from nuzzling into his chest. /hes/ been wanting this?? He could never think you’d sacrifice your team to gain a curse, one that can help you erase lapses in time.

You’ve actually done this before, you wanted to see how many ways this could go. Dare you say you might stay in this story line longer than restarting. You just love to hear him come after you in every “timeline”.

“I’ve told you how I’ve felt about you during this whole interaction. Ive been nothing but honest, so what are you trying to get at?” He pouts.

You had to admit this was more fun than you would’ve originally thought. Your missions become lighter bc satoru would request it, but losing him every time had you go insane. This little loop you keep replaying, everytime it reached its artificial peak, it would dissolve like sand. Turns out it’s not the timeline but your memories you could relive, but you didn’t know that. Yo I didn’t replay anything other than these past years, playing your cards and seeing every side of him. The man that calls himself yours.

You thought of your options as this was a chance to change things. This was always in the versions you replayed, but the dissipation would come before you got to answer. There was something new this time.

Satoru doesn’t like how long it’s taking for you to answer so he takes up your hands, catching your attention. “You’re the one thing I never had.”

“Sa-san, you’re teasing me again.”

“Oh please, you call all of this teasing?” He squeezes your body closer to his, his needy and rough touch, he was basically putting his prints anywhere he could. “I planned everything out, ever since the second time we met I knew you were the one for me.”

“What a charmer.” You sign out loud, but laugh to yourself. “I’ll believe your words one day, Sa-san. What color is the ring gonna be.”

He laughs, “We can go look today!”

___________________________________

AN: I’m so mad part one is like 5 paragraphs 🫠

But this is the last part of this idea. 3/3. Unless u have some situations u wanna send my way 🤩.

[lisacameron99]

Run - B.B. — part one

Warnings: end of the world talk, on the run, nomad life, little girl, angst, talks of shield taking over, slow burn (will eventually get together but not in this chapter)

“We need to go.” Those four words stopped you cold.

It wasn’t often that Bucky demanded you to do something, or Steve or Sam for that matter. So when the boys told you we need to go, you didn’t think twice.

You had a go bag, two sets of clothes. Consisted of underwear, a long sleeve shirt, a T-shirt, jeans, and socks. A pair of tennis shoes. A pack of unworn underwear. A pack of warm socks. A cargo jacket. A few sports bras. $200 in cash. A few blankets and pillows that could pack down. A knife. And a pocket knife. You’d need both.

You made sure you had toiletries - 5 toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner mix, pads and tampons, a brush and ponytails. A pair of scissors.

Sam did the food. He had prepackaged and canned stuff in a bag. He had very few momentos, but he had pictures of his family. He also had his weapon of choice. Steve had more cash, you weren’t sure how much or where he got it from, but you didn’t question it. Plus some practical gear and weapons. For everybody.

Then - there was Bucky. Bucky had the most random shit. Basically the same as Steve with gear and weapons, just more intense than you would’ve thought. And his cat, Alpine, with all her stuff. Bowl, food, blanket, leash, and her favorite stuffy. Bucky loved that cat more than anybody and anything else.

“Okay, you got everything?” Bucky said coming into the small bedroom as you shouldered your back pack and small bag.

“Yes, but I just realized we don’t have any fire starters. There’s some by the fire place. Grab however many I have. I have a lighter in the bathroom and I think Sam said he has matches.”

“Okay, good call. We’re going to hit a gas station once we’re out.” Bucky told you.

“Okay,” you glanced around the small room. You grabbed your own favorite stuffy, and hugged it tightly before shoving it into your bag. Steve and Bucky had given it to you for your third birthday. You’d had it ever since. You weren’t about to go without now. “Alright, let’s go.”

About halfway out of New York, you realized you were being followed. You told Bucky, who was driving.

“Which vehicle?” Bucky said, eyeing the review mirror.

“The black SVU. Looks like it’s probably a cop - ” the sirens turned on and everybody cursed.

“I’m going to try to lose them.” Bucky sped up the car and you gripped Alpine and he zipped through traffic. But - given that 90 percent of the world didn’t know that there was a corrupt set of people trying to take over, they all pulled over for the cop. You all god down when you heard the first shots. Bucky managed to avoid the car getting hit and took the exit onto I-76 and floored it. Steve opened the back window and shot at the car, hitting one of the tires, Thank God for traffic and people being asshole drivers, Bucky managed to lose them on the way to Pittsburg after hitting the tire.

“We need to split up.” Bucky said, “Two and two.”

“I’m not going anywhere with out you.” You told Bucky definitely. He sighed. He knew you were going to do this, but he also knew he had the biggest target on his back.

“Doll…” he trailed off. But he knew it was no use.

“Bucky, I’m not going anywhere without you. So if we’re splitting up, you’re taking me with you.” He pulled into a deserted gas station and parked the car.

“Okay, let’s think this through.” Steve piped up. “If we split up, we might be safer. But we all know we’re stronger together, so for now, let’s keep going until we can hit Montana.”

“Montana?” You asked, confused.

“Montana has a lot of remote areas. We can lay low for a while.” Bucky responded.

Sam took his turn to explain when you still looked confused. “They’re expecting us to go to DC or even further south, we need to hit Montana and regroup. We can’t do that if we head south.”

“And we need to regroup with Nat, Tony, Wanda, Rhodey, and Vision. And hopefully everybody else. I sent word to Scott, and Tony sent word to the Galaxy. Mid point for everybody is Montana.”

“We need gas.” Bucky turned the vehicle off. “I feel like we should take that truck from over there.”

“The truck has better mileage and it probably more durable.” Steve agreed.

“Okay, so I have to pee.” You said, getting out. “Sam, cover me and then we’ll hit the store. Let’s not dig into our food unless we have to.” The gas station was abandoned, thank God. You did your business and Sam did his before you both walked into the station.

“I’m checking out the beverages. Maybe we can snag some water.” You told Sam, quickly going back by the coolers.

“I’ll hit up dry goods.”

You heard a noise and quickly put your hand on your knife as you whirled around. But instead of finding somebody from Hydra like you expected, you found a little girl. She couldn’t have been more than three years old. She was in tattered clothes and her hair was a mess.

“Oh my God. Sam!” You yelled to him. The little girl whimpered. “Oh sweetheart, I didn’t mean to scare you.” You knelt in front of her. “My name is Y/N. What’s yours?”

“What? What’s wrong? Oh.” Sam spotted the little girl and also knelt down, right next to you.

“Hi, sweet girl, I’m Sam.”

“Bella.” She croaked out. She hugged her stuffed animal closer to her, as well as a small blanket and cried.

“Her parents must’ve…” you couldn’t get yourself to say the words. Thankfully, Sam knew what you were thinking, as he was thinking the same.

“We can’t just leave her here.”

“Bella, do you want to come with us? We’re going to go on a long drive.” You asked the little girl, reaching a hand out to her. She looked you, eyes wide. Yes, this would work.

“I come?” She asked, tears still rolling down her face.

“Yes, you’ll come with us.”

“I come.” Instead of a question, it was a statement.

“Okay, we have some stuff to take out.” Sam told her, picking up the bags and water you guys had found.

“Up.” She looked expectantly at you.

You reached down and put her on your hip. “There we go.” You glanced around one last time before heading outside, back to Steve and Bucky.

Oh would your boys be in for a treat, you thought to yourself.

“I’m not leaving her.” You argued with Bucky, looking back at the truck and seeing Bella, resting against the make shift car seat Sam had made her.

“We can’t take her with!” Bucky scolded.

“Like Tony and Pepper aren’t bringing Morgan.” You countered, eyes blazing with anger.

“That’s different!”

“It is not! She’s just a little girl Buck. She can’t be more than three. Either she comes with, our I stay back with her. Your choice.” You didn’t leave Bucky any room to debate. You knew he wouldn’t leave you behind. He never could before, he wasn’t about to start now.

“Kitty!” She squealed when she saw Alpine for the first time. You knew that in that moment, Bucky was sold.

“Her name is Alpline.” You told her, sliding into the back seat with her, Bucky on her other side.

“Alpie.” She giggled and you couldn’t help but smile when you saw the two fall in love. About ten minutes into the drive, Alpine and Bella were fast asleep.

“Bucky,” you whispered.

“What?” He had his metal arm against the door, face clenched.

“We couldn’t leave her there.” You looked down at the little girl who was sleeping against Bucky’s flesh arm.

“I know that, but it’s one more thing for all of us to worry about.”

“Well, if it means she’ll be safe; I’m okay with all of us worrying about her.”

Bucky nodded, but didn’t say anything further. You drifted off next to Bella, head on the window and you holding her hand tightly. It would be okay.

End.

[trixiebeeds]

[im-n-your-walls]

Omfg anything fluffy with Semi Eita pls pls pls-

.♫｡♫⋆♪₊˚♬ﾟ.singin’ in the rain♫⋆｡♪₊˚♬ﾟ.♫⋆

a/n this is incredibly short cause idk a lot about him. I still hope you enjoy! list of links 🔗 credits for the divider: @/strangegraphics-archive

you were board. You were in your dorm laying on your bed staring at the ceiling. Hearing the patter of rain and leaves brushing on your window against the dark sky, you got an idea. Your rush to your dear boyfriend’s dorm room not even bothering to change out of your pajamas. Your turn around the corner almost falling. Busting open semi’s door, interrupting his guitar tuning, “youwannagodanceintheraine?!” panting you blurt out excitedly. Semi blinks for a bit.

“Can you please say that again? Maybe slow down?” He’s says as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “I was wondering if you the love of my life, Semi Eita, would like to accompany me in the rain and possibly dance with me?” You say hesitant. Knowing your boyfriend he’d probably say no. Thoughts started running around in your head of possible excuses he’d use and ones he’s already said. Fiddling with your hands, In a small voice you start “it’s ok if you-”

“sure” semi sets down his guitar on its respective stand and reaches for his rain jacket.

“Pardon?” You look at him dumbfounded.

“What? You think I’d miss on a musical moment like this?” He plants a kiss on your forehead and heads to the doorway and looking back he says teasingly. “If you wanna you can barrow my clothes. Maybe keep em’ too.” He pauses “except for my AC/DC shirt”

you chuckle. “Ok Mr boss man” you start walking to him and grasp his hand and the setter locks the door. “Onward ho!” You and semi run down the hall hand in hand almost falling. Reaching out side you open your mouth catching as many rain drops as you could.

after around half an hour playing in puddles, soaking your shoes and socks, and running into tendou and ushijima who had the same idea. You started to shiver. Maybe only wearing your pjs wasn’t the best of ideas. “Oh dear” semi says his mouth dripping with empty. “Let’s go” “but why?” You wine like a four year old not getting what they want. “Baby you’re practically an iceberg” semi says draping his thick coat over your shoulders.

“Let’s go”

——————————————————————————————————

@staygoldsquatchling02 @decadencyonline @bluebeanbee @starssfall @tinyrainbowshark @gigiiiiislife @kawaiiisis @martyrisland

[sock-and-roll]

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Eyes and Ears

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam

Summary: An AU where Barbara finds Jason instead of Bruce.

Chapters: 21/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Sheila Haywood, Original Character(s)

Relationship(s): Jason Todd/Original Character(s), Past Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson

Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Older SIbling Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd-centric, Barbara Gordon is Oracle, Jason Todd is NOT Robin, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Has a Crush, Adopted Siblings

Chapter Twenty-One: Number Four

Jason couldn't sleep that night, but Jim stayed up with him. Barbara didn't return to the hospital until early that morning. She told Jim that she'd stay with Jason. Once Jim was gone, Barbara pinched Jason's cheek. "I'm sorry, Barb," Jason mumbled as he teared up.

"Hey, shhh... I'm not mad at you," Barbara whispered as she hugged him, "You should get some sleep."

Jason nodded as he held onto her. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Barbara sat by his side for most of the day while Jason slept. He woke up late in the afternoon, and Barbara smiled at him. "Feeling better?" she asked. Jason nodded. "How was your dance, other than the fear toxin tear gas situation?"

Jason looked at her, "I danced with someone, and it was my first ever slow dance. I could definitely say that it was a night to remember."

"Your first masquerade ball, your first school dance, your first slow dance, and it all ends with a trip to the emergency room," Barbara messed up his hair, "Oh, I brought you a change of clothes. I figured you would want to look—."

"Where'd you go?" Jason asked.

"To Bruce's. We had to figure out what was wrong... I think we sort of did. It is a lot like a fear toxin," Barbara whispered.

"Then why am I going home today? Also, does it always feel like that when you get gassed?" Jason asked. Barbara shook her head.

"Jason, you really can't remember anything?" Barbara asked. Jason took a deep breath and pushed his palms to his forehead as if he were trying to knead out a memory.

"I can't, Barbara... I'm sorry, but I'm trying," Jason whispered apologetically.

"It's okay. You're okay. That's all that matters. I remember when the paramedics brought you in. You were shut down completely. The doctors couldn't figure out how to lower your heart rate," Barbara whispered, "It took almost an hour to get you to speak. When you did, you said that you wanted out of the toybox."

Jason's heart rate went back up, and he closed his eyes to try and stave off the panic. "Jason?" Barbara asked, and he shook his head.

"No, it's just something from when I was little... And before you ask, no, I don't want to talk about that right now," Jason replied. Barbara nodded, and the sympathetic look in her eye agitated him. "Stop it. Stop feeling bad for me. I'm fine."

"Jason, this isn't pity. I'm concerned for you," she confessed, "Fear has a way of making you feel isolated and powerless. Fear gives you the illusion that you can't do anything... And that's just not the case, Jason. You can do anything... I'll let you get dressed." She kissed the top of his head and left him alone with his thoughts.

Jason got dressed and put on his socks and shoes before stepping forward. Everything went dark temporarily, and he grabbed onto the nearest thing he could until his vision came back. When he stepped out, Jim was there at the desk checking him out of the hospital. Barbara was waiting for him. "Jason—."

"I'm claustrophobic," Jason explained to her shortly, "I'll explain later. I promise."

Barbara messed up his hair, and he met eyes with A.J. and Reese. "Wanna go talk to your friends?" Barbara asked. Jason didn't break eye contact with the two brothers.

"Barb, I've got so much to tell you about," Jason whispered. A.J. greeted him while Reese spoke to someone on the phone. "Hi, A.J. You guys okay?" Jason laughed nervously.

"Yeah, we're more bummed about school getting canceled," A.J. rasped. Reese followed A.J. and said hi.

"Number Four is in the car," Reese whispered, "And she is not happy."

"Number Four is what we call our stepmom," A.J. clarified, "All you need to know is that she'll last all of two years and that she's probably younger than your sister." A.J.'s shoulders dropped as he and Reese said their goodbyes and left.

Jason relaxed his shoulders, and Barbara came back over. "Come on, I'll let you ride on my back to the car," Barbara whispered. Jason smiled and accepted her invitation.

"Be careful. We just checked Jason out of the hospital. I don't want to have to check him back in," Jim warned. Once they got to the car, Jason got in the back seat, and Jim offered to take them out to eat. They all went out for tacos, and after they ate, Jim dropped Jason and Barbara off and went home.

It wasn't until after Jim left that Jason felt another wave of anxiety wash over him. "Jason, can we—?"

"I feel like I—. I—. God, I wish I would have kissed Reese when I wasn't myself," Jason blurted out. Barbara's jaw dropped. She swallowed his words and pushed a hand through her hair.

"I'm sorry, can you clarify the part about you not being yourself?" she asked.

"It was a masquerade ball, so I thought I'd pretend to be someone else, and I knew it was Reese when we were dancing-. I don't really care if anyone knows I like boys. I don't care who knows, and I wish I could've said something... But I was so shocked that it was him, and I honestly have no idea how to kiss anyone... I've never done it before," Jason explained, "And before you ask, I have no idea. I didn't know I had a crush on him until last night."

A smile spread across Barbara's face. "Jason, text him what you just said to me because that was very sweet... Now, if you don't think you can talk about the other stuff with me tonight, that's fine—."

"My birth father used to put me in a toybox when I was little. Well, not really a toybox. It was a storage bin, and it felt a lot like a coffin would feel. If I panicked, he would just make me stay in there longer... I learned to just shut down... So, yeah," Jason took a deep breath, "I'm claustrophobic. It's not as bad as it was when I was a kid, but I can imagine being trapped in a room while being gassed is not going to make that any better." Jason pushed a hand through his hair.

Barbara chewed her nails as she tried to find something comforting to say to him. "Kids are braver than adults," Barbara whispered. Jason plopped down on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. "Jason—."

"I was doing great, Barbara. You saw it, right? You saw how good I was doing," Jason looked over at her before looking back up at the ceiling.

"You're still doing great. Jason, it's not like you're—."

"I was busy when I was in school, now the school's shut down until further notice... All I've got right now are my thoughts, and all my thoughts suck right now," Jason complained as he tried to take a deep breath. Barbara moved the coffee table and crouched down in front of him.

"Hey, Jason... You're going to be okay. It is not gonna fall apart because you have a week to relax—."

"It could fall apart," Jason interrupted her. She took his hand and squeezed it.

"I won't let it. I won't let anything fall apart for you. I promise," she reassured him, "Now what's gonna happen is you're gonna relax your shoulders and you're gonna give me a hug." He obeyed.

[hannahssimblr]

After a freezing, wet trek along the Clontarf seafront I turn into Michelle’s estate. All the houses have warm, yellow light spilling out the windows onto the grey, rain beaten pavement, inviting, yet it only reminds me of how grim this damn country is in the winter. It's been eight years since we moved here now and yet I still don't understand how people are supposed to cope with the winter. I suppose they don’t. I suppose we just accept that we will be a little bit sad for a while. 

They always leave the door off the latch for me on Tuesdays, they know I’m coming, and I let myself into the warmth of their home. It always smells good here, tonight like seafood and lemongrass, and whatever is cooking sizzles enticingly on the pan. I won’t ask for food, I never dare to, but if they offer I have yet to refuse them.

Rahim Tengu peers into the hallway as I shut the door. He is cooking in a suit. He’s always wearing one, even when doing things like mowing the lawn in the heat of summer. 

“Jude,” he says, “Wet outside, eh?”

“Yeah,” I take my shoes off and leave them by the door, “Whatever you’re making smells good, like always.”

“Nasi Lemak,” He says, “I’ll leave a plate for you when you're finished”

“Oh, thank you.”

He hesitates, “So how are your studies?”

“Yeah, good. Trying to get back into the swing of it since the new year. Fifth year is tough, you know?”

“Yes,” Another pause. Rahim is the most awkward of all the dads, he never knows what to say to me, but I let him think on it for another moment, brows knitted, spoon halfway to the pan, before I decide to put him out of his misery. 

“Jen upstairs?”

“Yes, yes, in her room.”

“Cool, see you in a while then.”

She’s sprawled out of the duvet with her earphones in, laying still like a corpse with her hands clasped on her stomach and white socks stacked on the pillows.

“Oh, you’re here,” she drawls. She doesn't even have to open her eyes to know it.

“You sound thrilled.”

“Ugh,” She flips to her stomach, pulls at her iPod cable and tosses the whole thing towards the head of the bed, “Come on, then, make me feel like a dumb bitch.”

“I bet you say that to all the boys,” I dig my maths notes out of my school bag and join her on the bed, “You been practising your trig?”

“That the one with the protractors?” 

“I’ll take that as a no.”

She lays still for a long moment, just staring into the middle distance before gathering the energy to learn. She falls onto her back and pulls the book I have opened toward her. “‘In the diagram, [AB] and [DC] are two parallel roads, where [AB] = 800m and [DC] = 500m. By measurement, it is determined that [&lt;ABC] = 75° and that [BC] = 600m. Find [AC] to the nearest metre,’” She looks at me, eyes filled with hopeless despair, “How am I meant to know?”

“Well, do you remember what we went over before Christmas? The cosine rule?”

“Before Christmas? You might as well be talking a decade ago. I don’t remember anything that happened before last week. My brain is mush.”

I pull out my ruler, “Well, look, let’s start by drawing it out so we can visualise it, like this, then, we know that A² = B² + C² - 2BCcosA…”

“Do we know that? Are we sure?” 

“Jenny, yes. C’mon, we’ve done this.”

“I don’t think you understand how much I hate maths.”

“It’s not that bad, look, based on the cosine rule and the information we know already, we can write out the formula, right? x=(600)² + (800)² - 2(600)(800)cos 75°, so all you have to do is work that out.”

“Oh, is that all.”

“Yeah, so c’mere, hand me your calculator, it’s-” A shriek from the next room almost rattles my skeleton free from my flesh. 

“Why are you always like this?” It's Michelle. “I’m old enough! Just let me go!”

I glance awkwardly at Jen who is ignoring it, diligently punching the formula into her calculator and kicking her feet in the air. 

“When you demonstrate responsibility,” her mother screams back, “I will give you freedom, but until then…”

“Don’t look so shocked,” Jen says when she catches sight of my stricken expression, “You and Colette are like this.” 

“Not really. We don’t scream at each other.”

“This is just the volume they speak at here. It’s not as dramatic as it sounds. They're kind of just... having a conversation.” 

“Okay but you’re being such a bitch about it.” Michelle bites out, and I wince. 

“I don’t talk to my mom like that.”

Jen shrugs, “It’s not that serious, really, they don’t mean it. They'll be all lovey-dovey-happy-families again tomorrow. You get used to it.” she scribbles something onto her copy book and pushes it toward me “X equals 751533?”

I frown, “I don’t know, let me check.”

“Well you’re a nightmare of a daughter sometimes, do you hear me? I don’t want to be like this, I don’t want to be up here shouting at you, but you drive me to distraction with all of this carry on!”

“Um,” my fingers hesitate on the buttons of the calculator, “So… it was… (600)² which is…”

Something clatters to the floor and they start shouting even louder. The corners of Jen’s mouth curl up, “Let’s take a break, yeah? We can drown it out with some music.”

“Good idea.”

She scrambles to fetch her iPod again and hands me one earbud. We lie back on the pillows while she puts on some whiny emo track about a guy who is either dying or wishing he was dead. 

“Are you traumatised by Michelle and her mam because it reminds you of your parents?” She leans over me and sweeps my hair from my forehead. I laugh, “You trying to therapize me?” 

“You said they fought when you were small.”

“Yeah but I only heard it a handful of times, I wouldn’t say I am traumatised.” 

“Still, I think there’s something lodged in your psyche about it, it’s why you hate conflict.”

“Nobody likes conflict.”

“Yeah but most people don’t avoid it like you,” She pokes my arm because I've looked away, “Hey, would you say that you’d rather run away from your problems than face them?”

“Did you steal that question from your counsellor?”

She pretends to be shocked, “Um, no! Excuse me.”

“You’re excused. Hey, would you like it if my voice sounded like this guy’s?” I tilt the iPod screen to her and point to the album cover guy who has blood pouring down his face. 

“First of all, that’s not the guy singing, that’s a cartoon. Secondly, I don’t know what you even mean.”

I lean into her ear and put on the whiniest voice I can in imitation of him “Hhhhwhat’s the worst that I can say… hhhthings are better if I stay…”

She snorts and shoves me off her, “Go away, you freak.”

“hhhAND IF WE CARRY ON THIS HHHWWWHAYAH…”

Jen’s bedroom door opens and I jump. Michelle stands there frowning. I hadn’t even realised in the midst of my caterwauling and our hysterical giggles that the shouting had stopped.

Beginning // Prev // Next

[hanahaki-disease]

Till I Let You Fall

Hell or High Water - Percy Jackson/DC Crossover

Summary:

“Jason Todd. The second Robin, Tim and Percy’s Robin. Percy’s big brother was alive and had beat the shit out of him the night before in Titans tower.”

❤️✨HE HAS RISEN BABY GIRL‼️✨❤️🤪🦀

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

“Summer’s next week, huh?” Tim said from the door way. Sleep still had its grip on him, it tugged his eyelids down and made his movements a bit more lethargic than usual. But last nights’ patrol had been rough and Percy thinks Tim deserves to be a bit lazy on a Wednesday morning.

Croc had decided to start the night with a bang, crawling out of his lair that was the sewers to terrorize and obtain whatever it was he wanted in the docks. They had yet to figure out what it was, but Percy knows that Tim or Bruce will have that info by the time he gets back from the orientation. Tim also had the misfortune of running into Polka Dot Man right before his patrol ended. The corrosive circles made his cape look like Swiss cheese and he had lost a shoe some how in that battle.

Percy fought really hard to contain his laughter when he came back to the cave like that. Hair sticking up and disheveled, one sock wet from the constant puddles of rain water and cave moisture, his belt in one hand and his other hand holding up his pants. Tim was a mess and Percy had the right as his brother and best friend to laugh at him.

“Actually, summer started on Monday,” Percy reread the itinerary for the orientation before shoving it into his backpack. “But yes, I go back to camp next week.”

Tim nodded his head, scratching at his belly as he did so. “What kinda shenanigans do you think you’ll get up to this time?”

“With my track history in mind,” he said. “Probably another cross country adventure. Higher chances of death this time, I know that for sure.”

“Why’s that?” Percy watched as Tim laid across his bed, across his clothes that Alfred had just finished pressing. “Did you have another prophetic dream or something?”

The younger of the two rolled the other off his clothes before grabbing his pillow and hit Tim with it. Percy chuckled at Tim’s groan when he threw it at his face. “Or something.” Tim did not look amused. “It’s…a vibe that I have, not so much as a dream. I just have this feeling that something is gonna happen this summer, not just camp, but here as well.”

“Like an invasion or takeover?” Percy shook his head. “Oh, one of us gets like, uber sick and we’re out for like a month? No, Bruce gets food poisoning when he goes on that date with Selina on Friday?”

“No, but that would be funny,” Percy leaned against his desk. “It’s more like, something happens to you specifically. Something happens and you get really hurt.”

“That’s not ominous at all,” Tim says.

“I know, which is why I’m leaving you these.” Percy pulls out a small drawstring bag from the desk drawer and tossed to him. It wasn’t any bigger than the palm of his hand and jingled when it landed. Inside was a good little pile of gold coins, roughly the size of a dollar coin and embossed on both sides.

One side had the empire state building on it, beams of light reaching out to the border making the picture seem holier than it was in real life. Circling the Empire state building on both side were Greek characters, probably a phrase of some kind. He could recognize a few letters, one was the popular ‘omega’ and another was ‘delta.’ There was also ‘psi’ but he couldn’t be quiet sure since it was a little different than the current version in the modern Greek alphabet, so Tim deduced that this was written in some kind of older version of the language.

On the other side of the coin was a small Pegasus encircled by a laurel wreath and the same Greek phrase on the edge of the coin. There was maybe, twenty of these coins in the bag. Each one having as different symbol in the laurel and the Empire State building on the other side. “What are these?”

“Gold drachmas,” Percy answered. “Currency of the gods, you can use them to call me when I’m gone.”

“You have a phone, though, can’t I just use that?”

He shook his head. “Have you ever seen me use my phone? If I try to use it, it’s basically a beacon to any and all monsters in Gotham, they’ll know I’m here and come after me. And I kinda don’t want to fight any more than I have to.”

“That’s fair. How does it work?” Tim sat up.

Percy moved to the window. The morning sunlight was bright and warm and so very different than how it usually is, but Tim didn’t mind it when he was inside. Like a cat, he could lay on the ground with a pillow and a blanket and take a nap in it’s warmth. He wouldn’t dare do it outside, though. Summer in Gotham was a humid hell and he didn’t want to be basting in his seat while he got roasted by the sun. At least inside he had the luxury of air conditioning.

Tim watched Percy’s gaze focused on the bottle of water on his nightstand. He watched as it’s contents began to spin in it’s plastic confines, swirling around in a vortex, making the bottle move as it did so. With an outstretched hand, Percy commanded it to burst from the bottle, pieces of plastic launched across the room—and in his hair—as the water floated it’s way to him.

Logically, Tim knows Percy can do this, he’s seen it before when Percy saved a baby bat that fell into the cave lake below. But he’s awestruck each time. Like his brain forgets that Percy has water powers and then remembers it all at once when he does it again. It was quite annoying.

He saw him make the water encircle his arm like a bracelet, a constant stream that so many fashion designers and celebrities alike would have killed to have. Carefully he made bits of the water stream off the main one, turning it into a fine mist that shakily made a rainbow in the sunlight. “Bring one of the drachmas and watch this.”

Sliding off the bed, Tim stood beside Percy as he took the drachma from him. “If, for whatever reason, you need to get a hold of me, this is how you do it. You make a rainbow, grab one of these, and say: O Iris, accept my offering!” He tossed the coin into the rainbow and Tim half expected to hear it clatter against the ground on the other side. But it didn’t. It wasn’t on the floor. It had simply vanished. “Then you ask her to show you who you need to talk to, for example: Show me, Grover Underwood, Camp Half-blood!”

A fuzzy image came into view and Tim audibly gasped at the sight. Grover looked exactly as he remembered him from sixth grade, from the curly hair, wispy beard on his chin and the slightly goat-like eyes. But while it was nice to see him again, Tim couldn’t help but take in the sights of the background.

Looming over the other buildings in the area, was a Colosseum. Old stone, withered by age but still kept up and cared for, it was the largest building Tim could see, with an amphitheater not too far from it either. A semi-circle of stone seats faced an unlit bonfire pit and a wooden stage. Pillars of white marble and lit braziers stood further behind the amphitheater, that was probably the pavilion Percy talked about. Where they eat their meals or have cabin meetings since there’s enough for all of them.

It wasn’t hard to spot the other campers Percy talks about, they all wore the same bright orange shirts he had and some were decked out in armor. Chest plates and shin straps, cauldrons and helmets, leather and shiny bronze that glinted in the sunlight. Each of them had a weapon on them. A sword on their hips, an ax in their hand or a spear. Though he knew they were kids like him, no older than eighteen, they held themselves like soldiers. Trained and dangerous kids who could hold their own for a good while in combat against the Amazonians. They fought like the Amazonians, Tim thought as he watched a group spar on the right side. Sand and dirt got kicked up as they moved, the plumes of their helmets shaved as they ducked, and the clash of blades and shields a constant background noise in Percy and Grover’s conversation.

“Alright, see ya G-man,” Percy swiped his hand though the image, ruining the rainbow and ending the magic video call. “You understand how it works now?”

Tim nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good,” Percy said sending the last bit of water on him towards the sink in his restroom, fist bumping the air when it landed in the porcelain bowl. “If anything happens, anything at all, let me know. I’ll drop everything and come home.”

“Yeah, no, I wont do that,” Tim said and collect the bag of coins. “You’re going to be fifteen at the end of the summer Percy, and you said it yourself that you’re basically a general in this war of yours. I won’t rip you away from that for something you don’t need to worry about. We can handle it here, you just make sure you don’t die when you’re in camp and that you come home for your birthday.”

“No promises,” Percy says and grabbed his stuff, knowing Alfred was going to call for him soon to head to orientation for his new high school. Tim followed him out to the hall, waiting beside Cassandra who paused to waive goodbye to her new little brother, “Oh! And don’t even think about looking for your birthday present in my room. I already gave it to Alfred to keep your grubby hands away from it.”

“Shucks,” Tim placed his hand on his hips and waived Percy goodbye as he left with Alfred.

Tim knows that Percy has magic dreams, he’s been told all about them after his initial introduction into Percy’s second life. Knows that they sometimes leave him shaking with a sheen of sweat, other times he looks haunted. As if the ghost of someone he once knew visited him, leaving him sullen during breakfast the next morning. Sometimes his dreams are pretty useful, a few times he’s woken up with a premonition, a fuzzy kind of gut feeling about a building or a profile on a certain case. Other times, he warns Tim not to go with Bruce on a case, to go another way on patrol, to stop or distract Stephanie from something. It isn’t clear why sometimes, since nothing happens after that, but Tim can just assume that whatever it was he saw didn’t happen.

But this time, Percy didn’t have any concrete feelings or visions. He didn’t have an inkling of where or when, of who was there and who wasn’t. Just a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that kept Tim wary of whats to come later on.

—

Well shit.

So that’s what Percy meant when he said that Tim was going to be getting hurt.

Tim hissed in pain as he tried to reach for the handle of the drawer in the stand besides him. His right leg was in a cast, his shin was fractured and his knee was broken, as was his left wrist. The bruised ribs hurt to breath, move—exist in general, and the many cuts and bruises he got did not make anything any better.

He didn’t know what to expect in the days following Percy’s departure and the feeling of a serious injury towards him. Every day and every patrol he had spent on edge waiting for it to happen. Jumping at every person or movement in the shadow. (he felt bad every time it happened with Cass.) It got to the point that Bruce suggested that Tim takes some time away from Gotham and to head to Jump City to hang with the Titans for a bit.

Bruce.

Bruce Wayne, paranoia extraordinaire. The man who has plans for every little thing that could go wrong, told Tim that he needed some time away from Gotham. Because of Tim’s paranoia.

If Tim could laugh, he would, but his aching ribs prevented him from doing so. It also didn’t help that he was making it worse by trying to get the bag of drachmas he kept in the drawer. Normally he had them on top the stand, ready to grab in an emergency if he needed to reach out to Percy. But for some reason, he decided to tuck them into the drawer yesterday morning.

Why? He doesn’t know, he just did it, and here he was. Biting his lip in pain as he strained his good arm trying to even reach the handle. Either way, Tim has to get to those drachmas. He has to find a way to conjure a rainbow and call Percy from whatever quest he was on. This wasn’t something to put off any longer than it has been already—Jason was alive.

Jason Todd. The second Robin, Tim and Percy’s Robin. Percy’s big brother was alive and had beat the shit out of him the night before in Titans tower.

How did he come back? How long has be been alive and where has he been? So many questions had run through his head after Jason left him with an inch of his life last night. All of them needed answers, ones he doesn’t have and has no way of finding out because he was on bed rest. Which was stupid, he doesn’t need it. He’s fine.

Tim also needed to figure out where Jason was going next. He had gone on about how Batman had let another kid put on his suit, how Tim was just playing pretend in a dead kids uniform. And wow, Tim had déjà vu between the attacks from those insults since Percy had yelled them at him almost three years ago. So it was plausible for Tim to assume that Jason was heading to Gotham. He was probably going to confront Bruce or something.

And while Tim should warn Bruce of whats to come, let him know that his dead son has risen from the dead and is on a war path his way with a bullet that has his name on it. But Tim has found that he could care a little less than he should about Bruce right now. His main priority was to call his best friend to let him know that his brother was alive. After that, then maybe he’ll call Bruce.

His middle finger had just barely hooked onto the handle when the air in front of him shimmered into existence. The edges were colorful, a rainbow made of water vapor and magic, and in the middle there was a girl about his age. She had a healthy tan, much like Percy’s, and the tops of her cheeks were a bit more sun burnt than then rest of her face. Gold curls were pulled back into a ponytail letting Tim see the full intensity of her eyes.

He doesn’t think he’s ever seen some one with gray eyes like hers, storm cloud gray and a piercing stare despite the red in her sclera. Tim knows that his eyes are pretty pale compared to the darker and brighter blues and green of his family, and he has been told that his own owlish, lead-paint stare was unnerving from time to time. But Tim found himself shrinking back into his pillow under hers.

“Who are you?” He said finally before mentally cursing himself that he didn’t have a domino on.

“Are you Tim Drake?” She answered.

“Answer my question first,” Tim hardened his glare, noticing how she didn’t seem fazed at it.

“My name’s Annabeth, I’m a…” Her next words caught in her throat a little. Her gaze fluttering to her surroundings as she collected her thoughts. “I was a friend of Percy.”

Percy was never one to share personal facts about himself to those he doesn’t know or doesn’t trust. He’s seen multiple times the way Percy shuts himself off to the other kids in school, the paparazzi, or anyone he deems unsafe. When they were kids, there was no hesitation for Percy to spill his life’s story to Tim. Somehow knowing that Tim was going to be his best friend at the age of eight on that rooftop years ago. He can imagine he was the same way over there at camp.

So whoever this Annabeth was, how ever she was connected to Percy, Tim could trust her too.

“Is he okay?” Tim tried to sit up.

She gave out a shaky breath and her gray eyes welt up with tears again, he tried to not let the dread in his stomach grow. “Have you, um, have you seen the news recently?” He shook his head. “Mount St Helens erupted a week ago, we were there when it did.” The dread was growing.

“I had left to deal with another monster, and Percy stayed there as a distraction.”

No. No…This can’t—

“Percy…” She wiped a tear away. “Percy blew up the mountain. We can’t find him. We think—we believe he died, no one could survive that. There’s gonna be…” she paused for a moment. “There’s gonna be a shroud burning next Friday, I can let you into the camp if you want to come.”

Tim’s throat was dry when he tried to respond. “I thought I couldn’t go since I’m mortal?”

“A demigod can let a mortal enter with explicit permission,” she nodded her head. “If you decide to come, I can meet you at the farmers road and lead you up. You were the only one who knew about this part of Percy’s life, I think he’d want you to be here to help light the pyre.”

With that, she swiped through the rainbow screen and the magic that held the water up fell into droplets on his bed. All at once, they left a wet mark on his sheets. So then why was he still hearing water hitting the bed? It was quiet, and faint, but there nonetheless. With a hand, Tim lifted it to his cheeks and discovered they were wet.

He was crying. When did he start crying? When had Percy left on a quest, why did he go? Tim wasn’t too far away, he could’ve flown a jet or have Superboy fly him there. Tim could have helped Percy, even if he could’ve seen anything. Tim could have had Kon fly in the rumble and the surrounding area, searching though the rocks with his X-ray vision looking for him and all the other people who had been hurt by the explosion. Tim couldn’t have done anything to stop him.

This—This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Tim was supposed to have called Percy. Wheezing from extortion, grimacing at his aching limbs and strained muscles with a smile on his face as he told Percy the news. He would seen his eyes widen, mouth drop, and maybe shed a few tears at the news. Percy would have said that he was on his way home, that he was going to pack his bag and head straight back to Gotham, but now…now…

Oh my god. Tim covered his mouth, he was going to have to tell the others.

He was going to have to be the one to tell Bruce that he lost another son to an explosion. He was going to have to tell Dick that all the bonding and reconciliation they’ve done these past two years were all for naught.

Tim was going to have to figure out a way to tell the recently revived Jason Todd that his little brother had died before he had come back to their world.

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

Jason back in Gotham now >:) things are-a changing Percy’s reaction is gonna be in the next update, so stick around for that. And the dynamic between Percy and the rest of the batfam is gonna shift, quite a bit in the next arc—brace for that.

Also, this update marks the end of the second arc, I hoped you all liked it ❤️

All titles from this arc came from the song “Descending” by Sleep Token, go check them out, they’re an awesome band. Absolutely love them.

Thank you so much for reading‼️❤️

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[skatergayerfurt93]

Little shoe and sockplay with my new used DC shoes Pure and white smelly DC Socks