#dick and bruce are always going on little vacations and day trips together | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

loyalshipper · 4 years ago

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May I introduce the Tumblr DC community to one of my two favorite Batfam AUs I have created. Bruce Wayne owns a hotel/museum near an ocean cliff and still has a chronic adoption problem but doesn’t fight crime. (If anyone writes this you can make it to where heroes still exist, the Batfam are the inly no capes)

WE still exists but it isn’t run by Bruce it is run by Lucius because back in the 60s Thomas and Martha bought the hotel and wanted that to be their legacy. They still die the same way but Bruce puts all his efforts into running and blossoming the hotel which was his parent’s dream project.

I’ll get back into the hotel in a minute I’m taking about the kids now

Dick is gotten a similar way, he visits the Cape with Haly’s Circus, his parents die because of faulty wiring sold to the circus by Zucco and Dick becomes an orphan. Bruce just so happened to use his one night off in a while to go see the circus. He keeps thinking about Dick and ends up adopting him. He helps Dick and the Circus bring Zucco to justice and sues the hell out of him and shuts down his business. (Adopted at 8))

Jason was found living in one of the shut down rooms of the hotel. Because his dad left and was in prison and his mom od. So Bruce treats him like a wild animal and starts to leave food out on a regular schedule until Jason gets comfortable with him and he adopts Jason. (five years younger than Dick)

Tim was the son of two wealthy archaeologists who were gone 11 out of the 12 months. Bruce met Tim because he liked to come into the museum and take pictures of the museum exhibits and hotel architecture and shoreline which he would develop and give copies to Bruce. So he opens his house to this little boy with a penchant for photography. Until one day Tim’e parents call Tim telling him that they are staying in Egypt permanently because the archeological dig is producing wonderous results and they’ll be hiring him an around the clock sitter. Only for Tim to wait three weeks and no one shows up. They went so far as to fire Ms. Mac but never hired a sitter for their son. So he goes to Bruce in tears and explains everything, because this is it-his parents finally did abandon him, and Bruce sues them for custody of Tim. (Three years younger than Jason, adopted at 7)

Damian was the result of a relationship Bruce had in college while studying hotel management and hospitality. Talia is the daughter of a hotel conglomerate owner who is currently trying to buy Bruce’s hotel so it can be torn down and Ra’s can built a new hyper expensive hotel in its place. Damian was sent to live with Bruce to try and get Bruce to have Damian inherit the hotel so Ra’s can get it and destroy it, but that backfired because instead Damian falls in love with the hotel and his new family (reluctantly) and wants to see the hotel and museum flourish, not tear down this historical piece of architecture to replace it with a soulless hotel only available to the wealthy elite. But something available to everyone that families vacation to because there is so much history and beauty in a thing that has stood for centuries. So Damian turns against Ra’s. Due not that while Damian and Tim do have a sibling rivalry it is not as vicious and cutting as it is in canon. They love each other they just don’t mesh well while in the same room. And yes, Damian still has his variety of pets (7 years younger than Tim)

Cass came to the hotel with her “father,” David Cain, who went to the Cape for business, and just ended up leaving and forgetting Cass at the hotel. He was still abusive and Cass had trouble speaking but he wasn’t “turn Cass into the world’s greatest assassin” abusive. After Bruce finds Cass, he sues Cain for parental custody and then ruins his life unrepentantly. (Couple of months older than Jason)

After Martha and Thomas died, Alfred took over managing the hotel while Bruce was still growing up and while he was getting his degrees, now he is the grandfather to Bruce’s many kids and helps to keep them running and cared for while they run and care for the hotel. He’s also the one that helps the new kids transfer into the life of running a hotel.

Barbara is the daughter of the Police Comissioner still who became friends with Dick and works, first part time at the museum/hotel and then full time. Same with Steph and Tim (1 year older than Dick)

Cullen and Harper work at the museum, Helena works at the hotel. Carrie does both. Duke is the newest acquisition. Only, his parents disappeared and no one has been able to find them yet. So Bruce currently had temporary custody of Duke who lives at the hotel with everyone. (Harper is a year older than Tim, Cullen is a year younger than Tim, Carrie is the same age as Jason, Duke is a few months younger than Tim)

Each person has different jobs. (Dick is concierge/check-in, Jason does guided history tours of the hotel/museum/grounds, Tim works in financials because he deals with the least amount of people, Helena, Carrie and Steph are both maids, Carrie also does janitorial stuff with Cullen, Barbara works hotel check-in with Dick, Barbara and Harper work cashier at the gift shop, Duke doesn’t have a job yet because he is still dealing with the disappearance of his parents, Damian does every job to see where he fits in best.

JARRO IS THE FAMILY PET STARFISH THAT TIM ADOPTED WHEN HE FIRST JOINED THE FAMILY AND RESCUED FROM BEING EATEN OFF THE BEACH

The hotel is still fully staffed with not-batkids, like grounds keepers and other hotel cleaners and janitors.

Location time!

I’m turning Gotham nicer and changing the geography of the city.

The hotel Museum rests about 200 yds from a cliff that overlooks a beach. There is a well maintained stair case put into the cliff for people to walk down, as well as a longer gravel path that follows the cliff edge down to the shoreline. It is frequented by seals, sea lions, and in the distance, dolphins and whales. The hotel it’s self has about 100 or so acres of land and a long drive but it is technically within walking distance to the city. And it’s a normal coastal town with a port and touristic areas. Kinda eerie at night when the fog rolls in but that’s part of the charm of the NorthEast.

Selina is just Bruce’s friend in this. She is Helena’s mother and Bruce was a surrogate for her. She decided she wanted a baby and Bruce offered to be a donor. So Selina had Helena and Bruce is part of her life but not as her dad, which was the agreement. Selina takes care of the stray animals on the grounds and favors the cats.

Clark is a reporter that was tasked to right an article on the hotel and it’s history, became good friends with Bruce and brings his family (Lois, Jon, Bizarro, Kon, Kara, Lena, Chris, Ma, Pa, and Lex) on vacation to it every year. Lex and Clark are divorced husbands that left on good terms and are friendly enough to coparent their son, Connor, who was made the same way as canon but less hush hush and illegally, Kara is Clark’s cousin and Lena is her fiancée, Lois is his wife, Jon and Bizarro are their two biological sons (Bizarro has autism), Chris is their foster son. Bizarro latches onto Jason in a way that he hasn’t before and always loves coming to the hotel, Jon and Chris are best friends with Damian, Connor and Tim are long distance dating.

Collin, Maya, and Maps are Damian’s best friends from school (Damian has a crush on Collin) and he’s trying to convince them to join the hotel staff like his siblings’ friends but they are a) too young and b) not interested.

Roy has all of his problems as in canon and gets help for it, so as a way to try and bring the family closer, Oliver and Dinah arrange a vacation to the hotel for them Roy and Lian. As a stepping stone kind of thing. Get away from daily stress. Roy is resistant at first until he and Jason hit it off and start talking and Jason talks sense into him and they strike up a friendship turned romance.

The Flashfam visit the museum diring a countrywide roadtrip and mad the stop because Bart is a history buff and wouldn’t stop talking about it the entire trip. He becomes fast friends with Tim and is the only person to ever get a Tim Wayne history tour. No matter what Kon tells you he is super salty about it. Wally and Dick were internet friends and used the roadtrip as a way to be able to meet up.

Thad is the obligatory complainer who doesn’t want to stay in a musty old hotel.

Ivy is the main grounds keeper and is in charge of the native wildlife sanctuary most of the land is used for, as well as taking care of the native plantlife and lives in town with her girlfriend, Harley. Harley helps the kids prank Bruce.

Harley is a children’s psychiatrist hired by Bruce to help the kids deal with their various traumas. Her coming to the hotel for sessions is how she and Ivy met.

They started dating between Dick and Jason and Dick talks up each of them to the other, but each individual kid that comes in think they’d be cute together (since they are both professional while working there isn’t immediate proof that they are dating. But they will flirt with each other if they see each other) and it’s basically a right if passage to try and convince their siblings to help them get together and then try and set them up on their own and find out the hard way that they’re already together. They love seeing all the different way the kids try and set them up. They tend to go along with it until either the kids realise or they take pity on them.

Their favorite was Damian’s where he set up an entire romantic dinner at the hotel restaurant and Dick managed to slyly convince him to set it on a certain day that turned out to be Harley and Ivy’s anniversary.

Alfred is the head chef for the hotel, making room service meals and the breakfast buffet line up. Jason will help him out if he isn’t busy with other things.

Victor Fries and his wife hold an ice cream social ever summer at the hotel with all the ice cream flavors they came up with over the last year.

Edward Nygma, famous escape room designer, is hired to make an escape room themed on the hotel and museum that is built on the grounds near the main building.

Another ritual that starts, begins with Tim, where the older siblings convince the newest one that the hotel is haunted and Jason takes them on a “haunted ghost tour” of the abandoned part of the hotel (the part that is too dilapidated and run down to remodel safely) while the others are stationed at different parts of the hotel and grounds to run whatever scenario to scare the new kid. The only one that hasn’t been done to is Cass because even after several years she still jumps a little too hard at loud noises. But one time Jason accident closed a door a little too harshly while Cass and Tim were doing something and it caused her to jump so hard she knocked over Tim and started crying. They were contemplating whether she was strong enough to do it or not and that cemented that she wasn’t.

Tim and Cass are nearly inseparable and are commonly referred to as the Wayne Twins. For Halloween they decided to go as each other.

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jinxedpanda4life · 4 years ago

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Criminal Investigator AU HC

I would first like to start off by saying thank you to everyone.

I honestly did not expect the response I got to my Damirae Hospital AU HC list.

When I first woke up and checked tumblr ~13 hours after posting I had a holy shit moment.

I felt powerful, should I? Probably not.

But! Since I am noticing a lack of AUs in the fandom, whether on Tumblr, AO3 or FanFiction.net, whatever AU comes to my mind I shall jot down some hcs for!

Thank you all once again!

(Also trying format changes for easy reading)

(Also Also, I am thinking the story is less fluid but more episodic)

Let’s get started:

- So I’m thinking this is some FBI, SVU, and FBI BAU mixture or whatever. Basically all the great shows we know in love shoved together. From Bones to Criminal Minds and everything in between.

- Special Agent (Dr.) Raven Roth is a lead interrogator and is the resident psych consult.

She’s been educated in interrogation, behavioral science, psychology, forensic pathology, and criminology.

She has combat training (hand to hand), she carries (for her job) a gun and at all times has a knife/dagger on her person (people have stopped trying to figure out where she keeps them).

Her father was/is crime boss T. Trigon who is currently imprisoned.

Was born in the states but fled with her mother to Romania when she was a newborn.

When Trigon found them he killed Arella and took Raven, she was abut 9 - 10 years old.

She took her mother’s last name when she turned 18.

Knows two languages besides English; French, Romanian, Romani (various dialects but knows multiple), Greek and Latin

On more than one occasion some goon of her father’s tries to recruit her, every time she kicks their ass. (Damian was there for the most recent (he was still green though))

Lives by herself in a decent sized apartment, has a gun safe (gun safety is important!), a cat (Nevermore), and is a regular at a 24/7 bookstore &/ cafe

Can usually be found wearing some kind of jacket, sweater, cardigan

She once helped save some kids (Melvin, Tommy & Teether) and is now their surrogate aunt, she has photos of them at her desk @ work. (Damian assumes/ed that they were her kids)

She also, when she can, hangs out and babysits them on occasion.

Raven is part of a team consisting of Dick Grayson (unit leader), Kori Anders, Garfield Logan, Jaime Reyes, and very recently Damian Wayne

- Special Agent Damian Wayne is a lead investigator (he is still a bit fresh to the unit), translator, sniper and combat coordinator

He’s been educated in martial arts, explosives, hand to hand combat, close range combat, and combat (basically he knows how to kill you 9 ways to Sunday), also, behavioral science, computer science, criminology, linguistics and language.

He can easily translate (into English): Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, French, Polish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, he can also learn any language you put in front of him and know the basics within a day

(Having lived in many places around the world he needed to be able to speak and understand in order to survive) (wow dramatic much?)

His father is currently the director (or deputy director, whatever floats ya boat) of the FBI.

His mother was essentially a secret agent who worked for various agencies around the globe. (deceased)

His grandfather was the leader of a, um, well to be honest, terrorist agency. (deceased)

Was sent to live with his father when he was 15 (when his mother died) and has been in the states ever since

Lives alone, he has an upscale apartment that he truthfully spends little time in, has multiple locations in the home where various weapons are stored, his place has a very cold atmosphere

Is either in proper work attire or in work out clothing, there is no in between

Tries and fails not to take work home with him

He sees a therapist (who says he should probably try investing in relationships with the people at his job)

His only “friend” (he hates calling him that, more like close acquaintance) is Jonathan Kent who was in his class at the FBI Academy, Jon works in a white collar crime department in Metropolis

The only person he actually kind of sort of doesn’t dislike is in fact Raven Roth, she’s a no bull shit person, he likes that

He may know Grayson because of how he’s Bruce’s kind of son but it does not mean he likes him

He finds Logan annoying as all hell, even if he is somewhat useful

He picked a fight with Reyes first day and regretted it (he will never admit that), he respects him

Anders is overly friendly in his opinion, kind of acts like a secretary with all that positivity and grates his nerves, he tolerates her

(Unlike last time I am not going in detail about the rest of the team, this will be brief)

- Supervisory Special Agent Dick Grayson (Unit Chief) is basically Dick Grayson with a big fancy title but all the same skills

He is also obsessed with Slade Wilson and Red X (who is Jason in this)

- Supervisory Special Agent Kori Anders is a lead investigator and is also a go to for undercover work

- Special Agent Garfield Logan is a lead interrogator, is head of the unit’s K-9 unit and kind of has a thing for Roth (which she does not reciprocate)

- Special Agent Jaime Reyes is a tactical analyst, tech analyst and is head of the unit’s SWAT team, he does not do well with talking with people, or change

The Scarab is a computing program that Jaime created himself

STORY START:

- When Damian first joins the team there is another member, Special Agent Terra Markov, she is revealed as a sleeper agent but she aligns herself with the team and sadly is shot and killed in a fire fight

- A couple weeks after Agent Markov’s death everyone is talking about what they are doing for an upcoming holiday, Damian says probably nothing, Raven invites him to spend it with her and her “niece” and “nephews,” he declines

- About a day after the holiday Damian is home looking through case files when someone knocks on his door

-- It is Raven. He asks how she knew where he lived, she says she asked Dick, she also says that she knows how it feels to be alone and that he may be insufferable but it doesn’t mean he can’t have a friend

-- His response is saying he isn’t the kind to make friends with co workers

-- “I’m not asking to be your friend Damian, I am asking you to be his,” She reveals a small black great dane puppy “I know that other people aren’t really your thing, but having someone in your corner and waiting for you is always nice, even if it isn’t human.”

-- Damian invites her in, names the dog Titus and thanks her

-- “Just make sure no one tries to kidnap and kill you, we don’t need you to go full blown John Wick.” Damian has no idea who that is. Raven tells him it is an action movie series that he should watch. She leaves. He does watch them that night with Titus on his lap. (after having gone to the local pet supply store to get everything he needs) The action is inaccurate but he enjoyed the movies none the less, and decides that he probably would go into John Wick mode if someone hurt Titus.

- SA Roth and SA Wayne are sent to a high security federal prison to interrogate a prisoner, who refuses to speak

-- When they get into the interview room the prisoner does start to speak, but not in English and not in a language Damian is fluent in

-- Raven on the other hand immediately responds to the prisoner (shocking the prisoner and Damian) “He is speaking Romani though not the dialect of those overseas, he learned it here.”

-- Damian is fascinated by it and they are essentially switching roles the entire time

-- They leave having successfully interviewing the prisoner, and Raven leaves behind a written list of common words in Romani so that they can possibly communicate with the prisoner better

-- As soon as they are on the plane back Damian asks her a myriad of questions from “How many languages do you know?” to “When did you learn that?” and even “Are you a spy? Sleeper agent? Part of a terrorist cell?”

-- “Not as many as you, when I was a child, if I was part of any of that you wouldn’t be asking.” The rest of the trip is spent with her teaching him Romani and even some Romanian

- Dick & Kori eventually get together and after a while they break up. Kori takes some vacation time. At the same Dick has been temporarily reassigned to another unit.

-- Chaos ensues

-- Garfield thinks he should be the interim unit chief, Jaime thinks the same, as does, you guessed it, Damian (Raven doesn’t want to she is comfortable with her role on the team)

-- In the end they are assigned an interim unit chief, SSA Jason Todd, who usually works overseas on covert op missions (not gonna lie this could easily flow into a Jayrae thing)

-- Everyone kind of falls into line, except Damian, Damian doesn’t like him for two reasons

1) He doesn’t act serious about the job 24/7

2) He has been flirting and hitting on Raven the moment he stepped into their sector

-- Damian hates the names he gives her; “Little Bird,” “Sunshine,” “Princess,” “Rae,” (no one calls her Rae, not even Garfield, at least not after the incident) etc.

-- (Little does Damian know, Jason and Raven have worked together before and are actually friends)

-- This all comes to a head when Damian and Jason are the only ones still in the office after a tiring case.

“You shouldn’t do that you know.”

“Do what? All I am doing right now is contemplating where Grayson keeps the liquor.”

“Call Raven all those names, she doesn’t like it.”

“Really? Because if you haven’t noticed she hasn’t exactly asked me to stop.”

“She gets uncomfortable, maybe not to the extent of asking you to stop, but she tenses up and her body language becomes slightly more agitated.”

“You seem to pay a lot of attention in how she reacts to thinks baby brat. Seems to me that you like her.”

“Of course I like her, she is a good friend and reliable teammate.”

“No, you like like her.”

“That presumption is juvenile.”

“But you don’t deny it.”

“Tch.”

-- If anything after that conversation Jason seems to doubled his advances. Which confuses both Damian and Raven. Damian because it is inappropriate and HR will be hearing about this. Raven because she was under the assumption that she and Jason were just friends. (Jason actually does have genuine intentions but is like 60% just egging Damian on)

-- Eventually (far too long for Damian’s tastes), both Dick and Kori return. At first it is sooooooo awkward. Like mom and dad divorced have shared custody but don’t hate each other but also cannot look each other in the eye. ((Was that a mouthful? Good)) No one can really look at each other the same? Though they do have a meeting to sort it out, get everything out in the open.

- Raven’s annual kidnapping/attempt to convert her/torture comes almost exactly one year after Damian joined the team (this is his 2nd time dealing with this)

-- This time Damian is prepared. By prepared I mean Raven doesn’t even leave her apartment before she is taken to safety.

“Damian what is going on?”

“Christmas came early this year that’s what.”

“Christmas? What in gods name are you talking about.”

“God has no dealings in this matter.”

“You do realize you are sounding like a bad action movie? It is not even 6 am and I am in your car going somewhere, I have had little to no sleep and I am barely dressed. What is going on?” Damian hadn’t payed attention to what clothing Raven was wearing. His mind was on one goal. Find Raven, keep Raven safe. His eyes glanced off the road enough to realize she was indeed not properly dressed. Her body was merely adorned with an oversized tee-shirt, tiny barely there shorts and a pair of fluffy socks.

“I apologize, it appears in my haste I did not leave you time to properly clothe yourself. As to why you are here, it seems your father and his people have shortened their waiting time this year from one year to a little more than ten months.” Ravens hands fisted her shirt. “This time I was prepared,” last time he was still new to everything, last time he made mistakes, this time there will be no mistakes. “Since our last encounter with your demon, so to speak, I have been setting in place precautions and safety measures to ensure Nevermore and yours’ safety. I have also been tracking the movements of his big players. If any came close I would mark it down. Multiple are entering the city at this moment. Seeing as you we taken last time I have made plans to ensure that will not happen again.” The car made a snap turn down an unfamiliar street pulling Raven from her clouded gaze.

“So I am going to be okay this time?” Her voice was faint and restraining against hope.

“You’re going to be okay.” His hand lightly held hers. Only to stop the shaking, they told themselves, only to make everything better. “Nevermore is with Titus at my place being watched by a friend of mine. I have already walked Grayson through everything we will not be expected at work this week, but we can work remotely.”

“We?”

“I’m not going to leave you. Ever.”

-- ((Sorry for the blocks of text))

-- As Raven finds out they are at one of Damian’s safe houses. The one least likely to be tied to her. It is fully stocked with food, has security cameras and if needed weapons. The only problem is that the only clothes there are Damians.

“Thought of everything huh?”

“I was following their pattern, I expected to have more time to acquire clothing for you.” (he was looking away and blushing, you cannot tell me he wasn’t)

-- Raven just resigns herself to wearing Damian’s clothes, yes his brain does stop working for a hot second when he sees her in only his clothes.

-- All attempts to try and retrieve codename: Gem of Scath are foiled (like some good math)

-- So many bonding moments happen. Cuddling (pure accident *rolls eyes*), eating together, inside jokes, etc. At one point Damian answers her phone (he disabled and disconnected the tracer) to one of the mob guys after them.

“Hello?”

“You can hide the gem but we will find her.”

“I’m sorry, is there a jewel you are looking for? I don’t think I have and any jewels that I am coveting.”

“We know you are with her! It is but a matter of time until we collect her.”

“I hope you do eventually find whatever you are looking for sir, but I haven’t the slightest idea the gem you speak of. If you could give me a physical description? Is it a ruby, diamond, onyx? Is it round or more of a pear shape?”

“...”

“Well, I will look for it here, but I do not believe I possess what you speak of. Will you give me your number so I can call you back?” (The line cuts dead, and Raven can be seen laughing in the background, the phone was on speaker)

-- Once the team tracks down, arrests and interrogates all of the parties working for Trigon; Raven and Nevermore can go home. Though both are reluctant in their own way. Nevermore has grown attached to Titus, and Raven well Raven has feelings. Sadly, as Raven knows, feelings are dangerous to have in their line of work.

-- Look at Dick and Kori they were together and then they fell apart and the team almost imploded.

-- What about Trigon if he finds out about Damian and how she feels towards him? What kind of danger will he be in then?

-- Like all of her feelings Raven puts them in a box and locks the box away. Not just figuratively, in her safe there is a box with: post its, torn papers, journals, etc. That box has a lock on it. Whenever she has a new feeling that she cannot ignore, like her feelings towards Special Agent Wayne, she takes out the box and writes her feelings down. They can range from a single sentence to pages worth. (Her feelings towards Damian fill a small notebook she has on hand). Once she has written all of her feelings out she places them in the box, locks said box and then places the locked box in her safe, which she then locks.

-- Is this a healthy way to cope with her feelings? Maybe not. But, it is way better than how Damian deals with his. Violence. Also art but violence comes first.

- At this point both Damian and Raven have caught the feelings (highly contagious I hear), which makes this a little awkward and a little not awkward. For one everyone but Raven knows how Damian feels towards her. He does things for her and with her that no one else gets the privilege to.

-- To list a few:

--- He brings her tea whenever he gets himself coffee or tea

--- He talks to her about what he does outside of work, even about his kind of friend definitely not enemy, Jon.

--- They socialize outside of work. Watching bad movies (some of them are not that bad), going to the park with Titus (they once got Nevermore in a leash and walked her), meeting each other before and after work to get breakfast or dinner.

--- He doesn’t glare at her

--- He allows physical contact between the two

--- He worries about her (hello he created an entire plan so that she wouldn’t get kidnapped, with contingencies and everything, garfield would be lucky to get a plan)

--- His eyes light up when she talks, or enters a room, or you know exists in his vicinity

--- He actually smiles around her (Dick caught him smiling once at Raven and he though Damian was having a stroke)

-- Even though everyone knows Damian likes Raven, very few know that Raven likes Damian back. (this only includes; Kori, Dick, Jason, Titus, Nevermore, and Melvin) She does do certain things that give herself away just like Damian.

--The list:

--- When Damian gets frustrated or angry she puts a hand on his arm, or holds his hand

--- She laughs at things he does (light chuckles, or little giggles)

--- She will talk to him about his interests and actively tries to have conversations with him about things unrelated to work.

--- She blushes when he does something unexpected (like a compliment)((Mostly she tries to hide it until he isn’t looking at her))(((Kori has caught the blush before)))

-- Luckily for them it does not take some cliche ‘One suddenly becomes in danger and the other one saves them only to be close to death and then they admit their love for one another and promise to go on a date when the other is healed’ situation.

-- Damian actually asks Raven out after being tipped of by Jason and Dick that she may like him back. Damian finds out when they have days off at the same time and asks her while leaving work.

“Raven, you have this weekend off correct?”

“Yeah I do. I wasn’t planning on doing anything though. Did you have something in mind?”

“Um, yeah, heh, I was wondering if you would do me the pleasure of going to dinner with me tomorrow.” *Awkwardly rubs back of neck*

“Like a date or two friends going to dinner?” *Thinks she sounds harsh* “I am honestly fine with either since we are friends.” *nervous smile*

“Like a date if that is okay with you of course.”

“Yeah, yeah totally that is totally okay with me.” *Starts sounding like a teenage girl who only knows about 10 words, because she’s nervous*

“Good, I’ll be by your place around 1830, if that is okay?” *nerve central, the central nervous system could never*

“Yup that is totally fine with me.”

“Great.”

“Good.” The elevator opens in the knick of time.

“See you tomorrow evening Agent Roth. Have a good night.”

“You too, Agent Wayne, you too.”

-- When Damian does pick her up he feels like his brain is going to explode. She looks absolutely breathtaking. This is just like all the other times they’ve gone to dinner, except this restaurant is slightly fancier and they are on a date.

-- Raven feels as though all her emotions are leaking out at once, she has no idea what she is doing.

-- In the end they have a good time and decide to do it again. Damian does bring up that all of the breakfasts and dinners they regularly do could now be considered dates. Raven does not oppose that switch at all.

- Fast forward a handful of years (like 3?), Damian and Raven are moved in together (Nevermore and Titus are happy about this, they even allow the humans to adopt another pet, a cat named Alfred). Damian is now Supervisory Special Agent Wayne and is in charge of their unit. Raven has retired from field work and now works at the FBI academy and at Virginia State University. In about 6 months Damian is going to propose and Raven will say yes. Their wedding will be small but happy and full of life.

Once again I would like to thank everyone and all the support the previous post got.

Like last time if anything is disjointed, out of place or seems wrong, please go ahead and tell me. I have been working on this since the last one, but have finally had the time to finish it.

I hope the new year will bring us all some good. Possibly more head canons to come.

#damirae #Damian Wayne #raven #Rachel Roth #damian x raven #Teen Titans #Headcanon #How do tags work #dc #demonbirds

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edyacouky · 4 years ago

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Not My Pack

Can be read on AO3

Sumary : Reverse Robin / Omegaverse

Batman and Tim are gone to a mission in space.<br />

Alfred take his first vacation since forever.<br />

So Damian is let alone with the last pup, Jason Todd, that his father adopt a few month ago.<br />

Not a big deal, right?<br />

Well until the pup start his heat ...“Are you sure everything will be alright?”

Note :

Damian Wayne Al Ghul Alpha 20 years old

Tim Drake: Unpresented 14 years old

Jason Todd: Omega (presented in this fic) 12 years old

Cassandra Cain: 9 years old not in this fic

Dick Grayson: 6 years old not in this fic

***

Damian sights and rolls his eyes. His father can really be exasperating, especially since he decides to add some pups to their pack.

“Tt- It’s not the first time who leave Gotham to me for one of your Justice League mission.

-This time Alfred won’t be with you either.”

Bruce could only blame himself, he is the one that force his father figure to go on vacation somewhere without cellphone so he can really relax. But he didn’t have expected having a mission on space with the Justice League.

“Maybe I should cancel his trip. He will understand …

-Father, don’t you trust me?”

Now Damian start to be really upset. With the years, they had many problem of communication and trust. Now, they both know that they love each other deeply and would do anything for the other, but they still have difficulty to talk to each other.

“This isn’t the problem. Bruce says wanting to avoid a confrontation. I am not comfortable to let you without back up.

-I will have back up. Damian roll his eyes. Colin leaves in Gotham, in case you forget, and Jon will stay in Metropolis like Iris will be in Central City. And …”

Damian looks at where Jason watches Tim prepare his bag.

“Tt- with your obsession to add unnecessary pups to the pack, we will even have a Cambion each. Oh yeah that’s true my name isn’t good enough for Drake and he change it. By what already?

-By RedBird. And we already talk about that, no pup has to be necessary.”

Bruce sights. True is Bruce is the one who convince Tim to change the name.

He never liked that Damian chosen this name and now that he got by Batson, Bruce just want this name fallen in oblivion.

RedBird is the name Tim chose and Bruce is happy with that.

But Damian never accept that. And he is particularly spiteful with Tim, refusing to accept him as part of his pack.

“Is leaving you Jason going to be a problem for you?”

Jason arrived in the Manor only a few months ago and if the little pup doesn’t seem to have found his place yet in their pack, Damian doesn’t show him the same animosity that he shows to Tim.

“Tt- as long as he doesn’t stole the silverware, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

Bruce sights and want to add something but Superman call him to know when they will arrive. He calls Tim so they leave by the ZetaTub.

“I know the “Cambion remark” was to be mean, but just in case: Jason isn’t authorized to go on the field.

Tt- I know.

-Take care of yourself, sons. Tim and I should be back soon.

-See ya.” Jason says

***

True to be told, Damian as less aversion for Jason that he has for Tim.

Todd didn’t found his father’s secret identity, didn’t come to his house after Damian’s departure because Batman “need” a sidekick.

Todd was unlucky enough to be an orphan from the Narrow and bold enough to steal Batman’s tire the day of his parents death.

Damian can respect that.

Plus, Jason mostly like to be alone, or doesn’t mind spend hours in the same room of someone without talking. Damian appreciate this quality.

“You don’t need a babysitter, do you?

-I am twelve.

-Good. You just need my permission for leaving the Manor, otherwise do whatever a kid like to do.”

Jason raises an eyebrow watching Damian who goes to the Batcomputer.

“That’s it? Aren’t you afraid that I could steal the silverware?

-I already hide it.

-Seriously?”

Damian doesn’t answer, he simply start to caress Alfred the Cat who has taken place in his leg.

Jason doesn’t insist and decide to go to his room.

***

The following days were good. Damian was doing a good job at being Batman in Gotham, he didn’t even need back up. Jason was mostly in school or in his room. They spend time together only to eat.

At first, Damian join Jason because he was sure the pup was like his father and Drake, unable to cook and survive without Alfred.

But when he enters in the kitchen, Jason was already cooking something that smell marvelous.

“Not sure I am supposed let you behind the stove. Damian says

-Like you will cook?

-I am not incompetent like my Father. Mother teach me everything I need to survive, included cooking.

-Well, my mother wasn’t in good state to teach me anything but I am sure I am better than you.

-Tt – What about we check your little hypothesis?”

And just like that, they take the habit to cook together.

Unfortunately, it is not a family habit to have so many good days without any problem coming.

When Damian goes to the kitchen, he is surprised to not see Jason already there. He waits some minutes trying to decide if he should start without him, but it doesn’t seems right for him.

He suddenly realize that he doesn’t hear about Jason for hours now.

He is not worried about his father new pup, absolutely not. After all, he accepted coming in the Manor only to replace his father as Batman. Not to form a bond about this pup that won’t be part of his pack.

He is just curious that’s all.

And if it happen that today, Todd doesn’t want to cook with him, then it would be fine. There is no need to be disappointed about this prospect at all.

He doesn’t find the pup at the library so he goes to his room.

Weirdly, Todd isn’t in there either but Damian hears the shower running.

“Todd, will you eat tonight?” Damian asks knocking at the door

No answer.

Damian knock again calling after the pup, but just the sound of the water answer him.

“Todd, I’m coming in.”

As soon as Damian opens the door he has to pinch his nose.

“That’s stink!

-Fuck you. ‘m still smell better than you.”

Suddenly, Damian recognizes the smell. An omega in heat.

Except Colin’s, Damian never liked the strong smell of an omega in heat or an alpha in rut. Not even his own smell.

Jason is sitting on the shower, cold water that keep fall on him.

“How long are you in there? Damian asks stopping the water

-No! I am too hot! Jason moans

-Tt. How long are you in there?”

Damian take a towel and put it around Jason so he can make him leave the bathroom. Jason is right, he is really warm. Nothing unusual for an omega in heat, but always unpleasant sensation.

“I don’t know. It was still dark outside.

-Tt! It’s noon already! Why didn’t you come find me?”

Jason shrugs.

“Didn’t think you would have help.”

Damian frowns.

He knows that he isn’t a member of a pack of Jason, but he though that the pup knew that he could found him if he was in trouble.

“You’re a pup, of course I would have help you.”

Once Jason was dry, Damian put him so random PJ and put him in the bed.

“Stay in bed, you should be better here. I bring food and water. I don’t want to move, understand?”

Jason keep moaning and rolling in the bed, scratching his clothes. Damian rolls his eyes and leaves him.

***

Damn, this day gets wrong with every minutes.

When Jason hears Damian’s voice, he was relieved. He wants someone to help him, telling him that everything will be fine. But no one in his life was like that to him.

Even his mother … She tried but despite how much she loved Jason, she was part of the reason Jason needed help.

It’s been a few month since he was living in the Manor. The pack is really weird.

Damian, Tim, Alfred and himself are part of Bruce’s pack.

But Damian never try to bond with them, so he isn’t really part of Tim and Jason’s pack.

And Tim and Jason don’t see each other much. Tim come to the Manor only for patrol and Jason can’t participate for now. So they don’t consider each other as part of the same pack.

Alfred tries to change Tim and Jason relationship but there isn’t much that could be do with Damian.

“What a mess.” Jason thinks

Never less, Jason though that when he will finally have his heat, it would be safe and not so lonely.

Jason couldn’t help himself but cries.

He wants the pain to stop. He wishes his mother was alive and hugs him. He wishes Bruce was there, calling him champ. He wishes to have more comfortable PJ and more blanket.

He would have prefer not have an alpha that isn’t pack near him. Logically, Jason knows that Damian is an asshole but he can be nice like when they cook together. But he can’t help but fear of being abused.

Damn, would he feels this miserable every time he will have his heat? That sucks.

“Are you crying? He hears Damian but refuse to react. Tt- there is medicament with your food. Take it.”

Jason shake his head and cowers.

“Tt! Don’t act like a child.”

Damian forces him to sit down and give him some soup and medicament.

“Take it. It would be better after.”

Finally, Jason decide takes a sip, hoping that Damian will leave him after. But the demon forces him to drink all the soup.

“More. Your stomach is empty. You will feel better.”

Damian keeps telling him that but honestly, Jason is just feeling worse.

He can’t wait for his heat to pass.

***

Damian paces in the corridor.

The pup not only stink because of his heat but also because of distress.

Damian doesn’t understand what else he could do. The pup is safely in his den, with food and an alpha to protect him. What else could he want?

Of course he tries to contact Bruce or Alfred but neither answer. And Damian doesn’t consider the situation as an emergency.

True is he is too proud to admit he is overtake by the situation.

Seriously why did that happen now?

Did Jason too young for that? Damian doesn’t think that Drake as presented yet. Himself didn’t present until he was thirteen.

How could he fail? He helps Colin frequently, so he knows what an omega need.

Colin always seems happy in his bed after some food and medicament.

Another sobs is heard from Jason’s room.

Damian sighs.

He needs backup. Quickly.

***

“Hey Dami.

-Hey Beloved.

-Still no improvement? Colin asks him after they kiss

-It gets worse. Damian admits. I appreciate that you comes.

-That’s ok. But he may not want someone that is not part of his pack to come near him.

-Well one of us, will have to come in his room, no matter what.”

Colin shrug an eyebrown.

“Didn’t you guys get close this day?

-Still not pack.”

Colin didn’t try to debate with Damian. His lover could be as stubborn as possessive sometimes.

They were arrived to the corridor, when Colin had to take a break before he was going to throw up.

“You didn’t lie, it stinks. He must have been in distress for hours now.

-He says it was dark when he wake up.

-Damn Dami, you should have call me sooner.

-Tt …”

When they arrives in front of the door, Colin knocks and just stick his head in the room.

“Hey pup, can I come in?

-Who are you?

-I am Dami’s friend, he though I could help you.”

Jason took a moment to smell the air.

“Omega?

-Yes, I am.

-And a rapist?

-Of course he is not! Damian takes offense. Why should I bring some degenerate here?

-Why should I know that? You are not pack, right?” Jason yells

Damian looks really hurt and guilty by the accusation, Colin gently caress his cheeks.

He isn’t really good to show it to people but Damian really care, so much that he may hurts him sometimes.

“I am not here to have sex with you, neither is Damian.”

Jason simply looks at him, judges him.

“Can I come in?”

Finally Jason shrugs.

“Why not?” He whispers

Colin enters and carefully sit down next to Jason. Tenderly, he caress Jason’s hair. He moans so pitifully with just this little touch and love himself against Colin so quickly.

“What? Aren’t Dami’s hugs good enough?

-Damian doesn’t hug.” Jason scoff

Damian doesn’t hear clearly what the two omega say, but by the glare Colin sent him, he knows he is in trouble.

“Are you in pain?

-Not really, don’t feel the cramps since Damian gives me medicament.

-But you don’t feel good?

-Feel like shit.” Jason admit now putting his arm around Colin

Damn, Colin thinks this pup is so cute. He can understand why Bruce decide to adopt him.

After being sure that nothing was physically wrong with the pup. Colin look around the room and see many weird things.

“Don’t you have more blanket? Maybe some more soft.

-Probably. Bruce’s mother was an omega, they must have thousand blankets here.

-True. And are you the one who took away the curtain of your canopy bed?”

Jason shakes his head.

“There weren’t when I took this room.

-May be nice if I put some. Would you like it?”

Jason hums.

“Can I change PJ too?

-Of course sweetie, why couldn’t you?

-Don’t know. Jason shrugs. Damian gives it to me.

-I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you change.”

Jason nods, happy with this information.

“Ok, kiddo. I am going to bring all of that now.”

Colin tries to stand up but Jason yells and tightens his embraces.

“No, please no.

-Hey, everything will be alright. I have only for a minute or two. Just the time for you to change, ok?”

Jason starts crying again but let Colin go.

“I know that heat suck, but that would be ok now.”

Jason snorts. Damian keeps telling him that before and he was wrong.

He really hope that Colin is right because if his heat are all like that, without possibility of getting better, then he really want to found a permanent way to stop them.

Recalcitrant, Jason leaves the bed to change while Colin goes talk to Damian.

“So?

-So it was bad, Damian.”

Shit Damian and not Dami.

“You didn’t even hug the pup. Seriously, take a book or pick a movie and simply hug him.

-What? This is things I do only with you!

-There nothing sexual in that. And heat is not share only with mate, you know?

-I only do it with you.”

Colin frowns then realizes.

“Wait, you really never share a heat with anyone than me?

-Both of my parent are alpha, and it is not costume in the League. Damian blushes. Expect with the one.”

It’s Colin’s turn to blush.

“Is that for that you were so shy the first you share my heat? Even if it was platonic? Dami, you were only fourteen …

-And I already know then that you were my mate, Beloved.”

Colin could not help himself but to kiss him. His mate always find way to make in fall in love all over again, even if it wasn’t on purpose.

“Look, I understand now that it may be uncomfortable for you, but I truly think that you should give this pup some hugs …

-Beloved …

-You see how he reacts with me, and he doesn’t even know me. He is badly touch starved. And you get to know each other this last days, to appreciate each other, right?

-Tt …

-Look, if you really can’t I will, but for the long term, it would be better if it’s you.”

Damian looks at the pale figure of Jason, he stills seem miserable and shaking. Damian want to help him, he truly do.

“You will come back?

-Oh I just have to go buy some cigarette.

-You don’t smoke. Damian frowns

-No … I mean … That’s a joke.

-Are you sure? It’s not funny.

-Go help your pack’s pup, asshole.” Colin laugh pushing Damian in the room while he goes take what Jason need

Damian doesn’t have the time to tell “Not my pack” before Colin was gone.

Jason is back sulking in his bed and seems disappointed that Colin is not there anymore.

“Tt. Do you mind if I sit down with you?”

Jason shrugs.

“Tt.”

Damian sit down at the edge of the bed. The smell is still too strong and it still feel wrong to share the pup’s heat.

At least Jason stop crying and seems to find his discomfort funny and he is in the expecting of what Damian will do.

When his father will be back home, Damian will kill him for putting him in this position.

“There, there.” Damian says taping the pup’s head

And to his horror, Jason dare laugh at him.

“You’re really bad at that.

-Tt … Colin should be back soon.”

Jason see the alpha differently now. He truly though that he has abandon him, but he is here and with back up, for Jason.

Suddenly, this dark brooding distant alpha looks like a clumsy caring bear.

“Can I hug you?

-If it can truly help you.”

Damian sit a little closer to Jason and the pup throw himself into his arm, purring like a crazy once he was well installed.

Damn, Colin was right, the pup is touch starved. How could Damian miss that? He put one of his hands on the back of the pup and the other on his head playing with his hair. Damian wasn’t sure it was a good idea to repeat same gesture he do with Colin but Jason now is smiling.

The day may not be too bad finally.

***

When Colin return with blankets and curtains, he is relieved to see Jason and Damian much more relaxed.

He gives Jason the blankets and quickly he fix his nest so he can feel more comfortable in it while Damian and he put the curtains.

Once that Jason was sleeping between Colin and Damian, Damian could really consider that they success taking care of the pup.

And finally, sharing the heat of a member of “not his pack” that isn’t his lover is not so bad after all.

#DC comics #damicolin #Damian Wayne #colin wilkes #Jason Todd #omegaverse #omega!jason #alpha!damian #omega!colin

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boyy-wonder-grayson · 5 years ago

Text

Dust in the wind (part 1)

Summary: Dick and the reader are celebrating their wedding went something unexpected happens. This is basically the plot for infinity war but with Dick.

Requested: yes by @bub

Parings: Dick Grayson x Reader

Warnings: angst, character death, implied smut but nothing really

Notes: Sorry for any mistakes and thanks for the awesome prompt i’m happy enough with what i came with so hopefully you guys enjoy it too!

*gifs belings to @riseofnightwing

The dark blue curtains billowed as the gentle breeze of the morning summer came pushing through them. Dick had just woken up from a deep sleep that left him surprisingly well rested. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and grabbed his phone from underneath his pillow. 7.45 am it read, it was still early to start the day, so he stayed in bed for a little while. He soon fall asleep with the sound of the waves crashing down into the shore. He woke up, for the second time, around 10 am. He felt a hot body pressed to his side and when the sleep finally left his body, he realised that his girlfriend was clinging onto his side. One of her arms was draped across his chest while the other was underneath her head. She was snoring lightly -a fact she would deny till death- and her hair was sprawled on her face. Dick chuckled at the sight of the sleeping woman and pushed her hair out of her face trying hard not to wake her up, but failing. She stirred awake and looked at Dick with a sleepy grin on her face "morning you" she said moving closer to Dick despite the hot weather. He couldn't understand how she was not dying in this heat, it was 10am and he was already sweating. Dick didn't like hot weather. At all. But he was not going to complain when her best friends and teammates decided that he and Y/n needed a well deserved vacation from the craziness that San Francisco had to offer on a daily basis.

"Wanna go get breakfast?" He asked her kissing her forehead and untangling himself from her grasp to get a better look at her. Even with her hair sticking up in all directions and her eyes half closed, Dick thought that she was the prettiest girl in the world.

She grumbled in response and rolled over to get out of the bed

"I'm gonna take a shower" she said rummaging through her clothes looking for something clean enough to wear. They were on vacation there was no way they were doing laundry. "And you're joining me" she finished looking over her shoulder and throwing Dick a seductive wink. This made Dick sprint to the bathroom running after her. She squealed when Dick picked her up and threw her under the cold water.

He lived for moments like this; where the only thing that could happen to them was to run out of food. Dick promised himself, and her, that they would make the most out of this mini vacation, and he was going to fulfill that promise.

He got out of the shower first, leaving her alone to actually take a shower. With a towel around his waist he sat down in front of his bag and looked through it for the black velvet box. Inside of it was a beautiful ring. He put it on his jeans pocket and got dressed.

That day he was going to propose to Y/n. It's been long overdue and he was scared shitless, but excited at the same time.

After a big breakfast that included almost everything on the menu -because they were on vacation goddammit they were going to eat until they exploded - they decided to go to the beach to enjoy some summer sun and maybe swim a little bit. They picked a spot away from everyone and settled on the sand. Dick wasn't a fan of the beach to be honest, but when she gave him puppy eyes and pouted her lips there was no way in hell, he would say no.

It was night time when Dick's plan took action. They were going to eat at some not-so-fancy-restaurant and when the night would come to an end, he would propose.

Nearing the end of the evening, Dick and Y/n walked hand in hand on their way back to the hotel. Dick kissed her intertwined hands and stopped in front of a little plaza near the hotel. The place was beautiful, full of flowers and trees.

"Y/n I've have been meaning to ask you something and to be honest I don't know how to start" he laughed "we've been together for almost four years and they were the happiest four years of my life" he said looking at her straight in the eyes.

"Yeah they were okay" Y/n joked making Dick rolled his eyes

"I'm trying to be romantic here" he complained trying to suppress a smile.

"Like I've said, those four year have been the best of my life, and it all comes down to one essential factor in my happiness: you" he reached inside his pocket for the back box. He kneeled in front of her and Y/n was trying real hard not to cry, but failed miserably.

"So what do you say? Will you marry me?" He asked. Y/n was sobbing by now, trying to contain her happiness but it was just too much. She nodded furiously and let Dick put the beautiful ring on her finger. He got up and pressed a kiss on her mouth a wiping her tears away, trying not to cry himself.

"I love you so much Dick" she said kissing all over his face. "So, so much".

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

It's been three months since Dick proposed to her and the preparations for the wedding where making her insane. There were so many things she needed to take care of. The venue, the cake, flowers, everything, and the most important item: the dress. To be honest she wasn't really expecting to ever get married specially in her line of work. Heroes don't tend to live enough to get married and have a family, but for some divine reason she got lucky enough to meet Dick.

It was a good thing her father in law was a billionaire and offered to take care of all the expenses. Still, she didn't want a big wedding. Just the team, Bruce and of course Alfred. She didn't want to draw unwanted attention either. A superhero wedding? Yeah that kind of stuff draws the attention of the worst kind of people, so she opted for something simpler. Dawn and Donna and even Rachel helped her with most of the details,like which flowers did she want for her bouquet,or what kind of flavour the cake was going to be. Doing this kind of task gave her a sense of normality that she didn't have much of in her life. None of them had it, so everyone jumped to the opportunity to take their minds off of their hectic lives. Even the boys would help.

Y/n was getting already under the covers when Dick got out of the shower. She was too engrossed with whatever was on her phone that she didn't realized that Dick had been staring at her for the past minute. When she finally put her phone down she noticed the weird look in her boyfriend's eyes

"What's up?" What are you looking at me like that?" She asked confused

Dick chuckled and moved closer to her "nothing it's just,I still can't believe we're getting married" he said looking down.

"I mean that sort of thing doesn't happen to people like us you know?" He reflected looking at her with soft eyes "ever since I started doing this-this job I never thought that I'd ended up engaged with the most beautiful woman on earth"

Y/n rolled her eyes trying to hide the fact,that even after four years Dick still managed to make her blush "you're a sap" she giggled "but I understand what you mean,I think the same way. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met Dick" she laughed at the last part making Dick playfully pushed her, so her back was now flat against the mattress.

"Mm you really think I'm the most beautiful ?" He asked kissing her neck

"Of course babe, the prettiest" she laughed, but soon turned into a tiny moan when he bit down her neck

He kept on kissing down her neck all the way to the valley of her breasts. Y/n sighed in content. She couldn't get enough of him.

Eight months later

" Are you nervous son? Bruce asked fixing Dick's bowtie, just like he used to whenever little Dick attended a gala. He appreciated Bruce being here, truly.

"A little, but that's good right?" Dick asked looking at himself in the full length mirror.

Bruce laughed at his son and patted his shoulder "it's perfectly normal, it's not everyday someone like us gets married, so it's always a blessing" he said reassuring the brown eyed boy.

Dick nodded and gave Bruce a hug before he went to see her new daughter in law. Jason bursted into the room telling his brother that it was time. He was getting married today, and he couldn't be any happier.

Dick stood on the altar anxiously tugging at the sleeves of his black tuxedo. When the music started to play he looked up and he swore he had died and went to heaven. There she stood with Bruce on her side. She had asked her if he could walk her down the aisle and Bruce was touched by the proposal. When she reached Dick he couldn't help but shed a few tears. She looked beautiful in her white dress that she spent months looking with Dawn and Donna's help.

She gave her bouquet to Donna who was one of her bridesmaids along with Dawn. On Dick's side Hank and Jason stood behind with huge smiles. Everyone was happy for them,truly.

It was halfway through the vows that something went wrong. Really wrong.

Y/n was the first to notice, because she felt it deep inside. The panicked didn't seem to wait much longer to break.

"Dick what's going on!?" Y/n asked walking closer to his soon to be husband

"I don't know" he replied clinging onto her for dear life "we need to get out of here now!" He screamed the last part for everyone to hear.

They didn't make it too far from the altar before Y/n tripped making Dick panicked as he tried to pick her up, but she felt like dead weight.

"C'mon baby get up we need to leave" he said grabbing her by the waist,but Y/n shook her head.

Dick tried again, to lift her up but to no avail. She couldn't move

"Dick I'm scared" she cried as he desperately tried to wipe her tears away.

"It's fine,I promise it's okay" he shushed her. His watery eyes made it difficult for him to look at her. She took her last breath before she became nothing but dust. He didn't understand what just happened. He looked around and saw that it wasn't only her that had disappeared. Dawn, Rachel, Jason. They were all gone. Dust.

He grabbed a fistful of ashes that only moments ago were his girlfriend.

This wasn't supposed to happen, they were supposed to get married and have a long life together. Dick screamed and cursed at God, at the sky or whoever did this.

He felt a hand softly touching his shoulder and saw a concerned Bruce, who was just as confused and scared as Dick.

"I don't know what happened here son, but we need to leave. Now" he said making Dick stand up

"No!I can't leave what if she gets back?I need to be here, for when she gets back!" He cried yanking a fistful of his hair. Trying desperately to make sense of this situation. They've never faced something like this before.

"Son i understand but she's g-" Bruce was cut off by Dick's harsh response

"Don't you dare say it Bruce!" He cried "she's not gone, she can't be" he shook his hand as he finally broke down and fall into his father's arms.

He was getting married five minutes ago and now the love of this life was dead and he couldn't understand why.

#dick grayson x reader #dick grayson x y/n #dick grayson x you #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson #nightwing x reader #nightwing #netflixs titans #titans imagine #titans #dcu #dc #fanfic

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redrobinfection · 4 years ago

Text

Batgirls’ Favorite Mentor

Babs & Batfam || Babs & Cass || Babs & Steph || implied DickBabs || Implied JayTim || Read on Ao3 || Happy Birthday, Barbara Gordon! ❤

<< A sequel to last year’s “Dick’s Favorite Person”

~*~

After Barbara's birthday dinner, Tim, Cass and Steph dragged everyone down to the Wayne Manor home theater to watch movies-- 'everyone' including Bruce, Damian, and her father, all three of whom seemed uncomfortable at the prospect of spending the evening participating in normal family bonding activities rather than heading back out into the night to fight crime, even if they couldn't acknowledge that they all three shared that discomfort.

(She was pretty sure her father knew everything--that she had been Batgirl, that Bruce was Batman, and about all the Robins and succeeding Batgirls--or at least suspected most of it, and had for a long time now, but he would never admit as much in order to maintain his plausible deniability).

Barbara struggled to contain her amusement every time she glanced over at them sitting side-by-side, stiff and awkward, on the couch. Oh, the rich irony.

While Steph, Tim and Cass convinced her to pick out a few movies for the family to watch, Dick and Jason helped Alfred clean up from dinner and make some popcorn, and then they escorted the grandfatherly man down to join the little party as well. Barbara picked the Ghostbusters series--including the new reboot film--for their watch party, feeling a little pre-halloween excitement for the first time in a long time, thanks to her good mood.

Her father stayed through the first film--it was something special having her father on one side of her on the big sectional couch, Dick on her other side, and the rest of her chosen family around her, laughing and making witty remarks about the movie--and then he excused himself.

Bruce, Damian, and Alfred persevered through the second, after which Bruce excused himself to "check on an ongoing case"--Barbara knew there was no ongoing case, but she was sure Bruce would also mind his manners around the Birds of Prey, seeing as he had promised her he was fine with them taking over for the night, so she let it slide--and Damian followed, muttering excuses of helping his father.

Alfred sighed and apologized to her, saying he should probably go down and ensure they didn't get up to too much mischief. His tone and the way he phrased it made Barbara giggle and she kissed him on the cheek with a quiet thank you for the dinner and everything else before letting him leave.

That left Barbara, Steph, Cass, Tim, Jason and Dick to watch the reboot film together, and Barbara had to say she enjoyed the extra quality time with her Robins and Batgirls. After that Tim, Jason and Dick also took their leave.

From the sounds of it Jason planned to drag Tim back to their apartment where he had apparently made and hidden extra portions of the mocha frosting used on the cake he gave her earlier and had some creative ideas about where to apply it only to lick it off again--Jason kept his tone low, but Barbara, being Barbara, overheard anyway. She smirked, but also blushed, making a note to avoid watching the surveillance video records for their apartment during these next couple of hours unless it became absolutely necessary.

Dick, blissfully oblivious of Tim and Jason’s plans, wandered off after them, probably headed up to bed or down to the cave to train for a bit before turning in.

After the boys left, Steph and Cass got even more excited and energetic, pulling out nail polish, face masks, and makeup. Barbara chortled at the idea of them doing makeovers and manicures like teenaged girls at a sleepover, but she went along with it with grace. Despite being Batgirls, the three of them weren't overly feminine, but every now and then it was fun to do some normal girl stuff and laugh together at how silly some of it felt.

They put the ridiculous Halle Berry Catwoman movie on in the background--Selina hadn't been overly impressed with that cinematic take on her persona, but Steph vehemently claimed that Halle Berry, acting in that role, had been a crucial part of her gay awakening--and then they did facials and manicures while they talked about boys--not boys in general, and definitely not daydreaming over dating them, but specifically the batboys, commiserating long and loudly over how ridiculous they could be, particularly Bruce.

At a certain point, Steph began not so subtly steering the conversation toward something that was not yet apparent, but Barbara was the one who had taught Steph the finer points of redirection, so she would know, even if she hadn't spotted the end goal as of yet.

"Y'know," Stephanie said, "it's nice when the Birds of Prey come and help out around Gotham. They always do a good job and work well enough with the boys, too." She glanced over as Cass and gave her a pointed look. Cass grinned back at her and began nodding along to the words very deliberately.

"Yeah, that's true…" Barbara allowed cautiously, suppressing the urge to shake her head at their painfully-obvious non-verbal signaling. Their poor attempts to manipulate the conversation notwithstanding, she was curious to see where this was headed, at the very least.

"I mean you should totally ask them to come take over for a couple of days, sometime," Steph went on in a carefully casual tone as she finished the second coat of polish on the fingernails of Barbara's left hand. "Y'know? Maybe take a vacation? Get out of Gotham for a while?"

Barbara sighed and began waving the hand, encouraging the wet polish to dry. "I appreciate what you guys are trying to do," she replied, looking them each in the eye in turn, "but I just don't have the time, what with Halloween and then the holidays. This is such a busy time of year for the crazies--and even for the not-so-crazies--and Bruce will never-"

To her surprise, Cass crouched down right in front of her and cut her off, both with her patented Cassandra Cain stare and with the words, "Yes. But listen."

Barbara blinked, then nodded. Cass smiled slightly then looked up to Steph and nodded for her to continue.

Steph nodded back and dropped the faux-casual tone, saying, "It's already done, Babs. We asked every single Bird on the roster to come by during the second week of November, right after the Halloween crazy-fest and just before the holiday madness.

"Kara, Donna and Koriand'r agreed to rotate out to keep an eye on things from above, Cass convinced Bruce to let them all to bunk here at the manor-" Barbara's eyes boggled while Cass nodded smugly "-and all the boys are on board with the plan and ready to play nice. Cass and I will be here too, just to make sure everyone gets along." Cass cracked the knuckles of one hand and grinned, nodding ominously.

"So, you see, it's all settled," Stephanie finished, looking smug. "You just have to say yes."

Barbara blinked rapidly, struggling to process all the surprises that had just been dumped on her. "Wait… so…I get a choice? To say yes or not?"

Steph laughed. "Yes, Babs, of course; this our gift to you, not a mandated vacation! So what do you say?"

Barbara shook her head, not sure how to respond. "Look, even if I had the time, I haven't exactly saved up to, you know, do anything special or go anywhere...I wouldn't even know where to go..."

"Well, Dick said he would go with you, if you wanted some company," Stephanie said, "Or he would stay here to help hold down the fort if you prefer but, as for paying for the trip…"

Cass walked up to the double doors to the den, pushed them open a crack and stuck her head out into the hall. "Hey, Dick, get your dick in here."

Steph choked on air and then burst out laughing. Barbara couldn't help but grin, especially when Cass backed up far enough to allow an upset and confused Dick Grayson entry into their den of Batgirls.

"Cass, that uhhh…isn't how that saying goes…" he began slowly, looking at Steph and Barbara in alarm.

"She knows that," Steph replied with a smug smile. She shot Cass an appreciative look that Cass returned with a grin and a wink.

Dick simply shook his head and let it go. "So we're doing the gift now?" he asked, glancing at Barbara, but directing his words to Stephanie.

"Yes," Barbara replied, barely concealing her amusement at their 'sneaky' tactics--What had Dick done for an hour in the hall while waiting to be called back in again? Since when did Dick Grayson have the patience for subterfuge anyway?--"Steph and Cass just explained to me that I'm being sent on vacation-"

"If you want!" Steph blurted.

Barbara laughed out loud. "If I want, apparently, and that you've also volunteered to go with me." She raised an eyebrow and adopted a mischievous tone. "Is the part where you offer to be my personal cabana boy? Or to bring your police uniform and strip for me every night?"

Dick grinned. "No, but those aren't bad ideas." He sobered and went on, saying, "No, this is the part where I offer to fly you anywhere in the world--out of my own BPD savings--and give you the choice to go and explore on your own, or to take me along for the ride if you want someone to keep you company and have your back while you're on the road."

Barbara stared, feeling her eyes go misty. "Dick, I...wow. That's…Yeah, I'd really like that."

Dick's grin brightened into a genuine smile, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Stephanie fist pump and then fist bump Cassandra. Barbara thought about it for a few seconds and then said,

"The Italian Lakes."

Dick tilted his head questioningly. "In the Italian Alps?"

Barbara nodded decisively. "I know it will be chilly in November, but I want to go there. I've always wanted to see them and stay in one of the villas."

Dick laughed and nodded. "Like that one they used for the Naboo lake country in Star Wars Episode II?"

Barbara rolled her eyes but smiled. "Yes, you closeted-nerd, exactly like that."

"Consider it done," Dick replied without hesitation.

"Thank you," she replied sincerely, turning her gaze onto all three of them. "You all had to have talked about this extensively, probably weeks in advance, and done so much leg work to get everyone on the same page…" she narrowed her eyes, suddenly suspicious, "and you still managed to hide it from me of all people?!"

"Yes, from the all seeing Oracle," Steph laughed, grinning infuriatingly.

How even, Barbara mouthed, shaking her head incredulously.

"By only speaking in-person in electronics-free areas," Steph replied, smiling conspiratorially. "By passing each other coded notes and-"

"Smoke signals," Cass added, nodding sagely.

"And messenger pigeons, too, of course," Dick finished, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

Barbara shook her head at the three of them then shook a finger at one in particular. "Dick, you son of a bat, you lied to me," she accused, smiling broadly. "You totally had a gift all along and you led me on all evening!"

"Yeah," Dick admitted with a sigh, running a hand through his hair, "I didn't want to spoil the surprise, but it was sooooooo hard, I really wanted to give you something--anything--so much earlier..."

"I'm glad you didn't," Barbara cut in. "The surprises--both of them--were wonderful. Thank You." She looked Stephanie, then Cassandra in the eyes. "All of you. Really. This means a lot."

Steph swooped down to give her a hug. As soon as she straightened, Cass leaned down gracefully to give one of her own. Barbara squeezed each of them tightly in turn, trying desperately to relay the gratitude beyond words that she felt for their thoughtfulness as well as she could through the contact. The knowing smile Cass gave her as they separated told Barbara her unspoken message was received and understood.

"Only the best for the best mentor," Cass replied quietly.

Stephanie nodded. "We wouldn't be the Batgirls we were-" she glanced at Cass "-and are today if it weren't for you. You're the MVB forever."

Barbara frowned for a moment, then smiled. "Most Valuable Batgirl?"

Cass and Steph nodded and Dick nodded too, in the background.

"Forever," Cass repeated.

"Awwww, Batgirls…" Barbara cooed, feeling tears prick at the corners of her eyes. She motioned them back in and drew them into a tight group hug, all three of them slinging their arms around each other, laughing when their heads eventually clonked together. After a moment Barbara noticed Dick smiling fondly at the three of them from a discrete distance.

She raised her head and cleared her throat. "Okay, all non-Batgirls, please vacate the room. The official Batgirl spa night continues now."

Steph and Cass giggled but stepped away and busied themselves with rewinding the movie, giving Dick an opening to approach Babs before leaving once again. He stopped beside her chair, leaned down, and kissed her gently on the forehead, murmuring, "Happy Birthday, Babs."

She caught him by the chin and drew him down into a quick kiss, murmuring her thanks against his lips. He smiled, stood, then left quietly through the double doors.

To one side, Steph and Cass scrutinized bottles of nail polish with undeserved concentration, clearly trying to give Barbara and Dick some privacy. Barbara smiled.

"Okay, so, back to business. We’ve finished facials and fingernails, so...how about pedicures now?"

Steph and Cass blinked in surprise. "Are you sure?" Steph asked. She and Cass never made a big deal out of Barbara's paraplegia--often openly discussing it with Barbara as the situation required--but they'd also tried to avoid activities that would highlight her differences, such as pedicures.

"Yeah, I know, I wouldn't be able to feel it, but, you know, it's been such long time since my feet have had a chance to get fancy. It's my birthday, so…why not?" Barbara replied lightly, smiling slyly at them.

Slowly their faces brightened until Steph was beaming and Cass' eyes were reduced to delighted slivers.

"Absolutely!" "Of course!"

~*~

Alfred’s Favorite Barbara >>

#my writing #mine #christmasriverswrites #barbara gordon #happy birthday babs #babs and steph #babs and cass #babs and dick #dickbabs #implied jaytim #i'm not overly pleased with this installment--particularly the sloppy editing--but here it is #long text post

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ethelphantom · 5 years ago

Text

Heart Fragile

We’re back at angst with day 21, Broken. Oops? Some description of violence and stabbing but I don’t think it’s too graphic…? Also, no one dies so don’t worry about that. I’m not paralysing anyone either, not this time anyway. There’s also way too much italicised text used.

Dedicated to @eat0crow mostly bc she said, when I mentioned what I was writing, that the idea was painful, so yeah, here we are. Basically, Crow, this was written while I was very much planning on digging the heart out of your chest with a spoon, tearing it to pieces and burning the remains. You’re welcome. I hope you like it though lol.

The next one is all fluff and humour and happiness, I swear. Absolutely no angst in that one.

Ao3

This is Maribat – Don’t like; don’t read

______________________________

Even after all those years, she wasn’t able to stay on her feet too long, wasn’t able to use her lungs in their full capacity. The dagger that passed her chest and pierced even her lungs had made sure of it. Thankfully, the blade had missed her heart, even if only barely, because had that happened, she would have had much less chance of survival. Her chances would have gone from slim to none.

A complete collapsed lung, the stab wound itself, her barely missed heart and the every now and then reoccurring collapse of her left lung made sure she would never be able to fully recover to her original state from that day.

No one was sure how she survived either. By all likelihoods, she shouldn’t have, but she did. The help hadn’t arrived in time, her heart was only beating by some miracle when they got to her, and she’d lost too much blood, but somehow every single one of those things was still just early enough to make her survival a slim possibility.

There had not been a sight of the responsible one after that. Not a single one. No one else knew who it had been, no one but Marinette. She knew and knowing hurt because she had trusted that person with her life. Her protector had become her predator, nothing to explain why things had gone so left behind.

She still carried the bitter grudge from that day within her heart.

❋❋❋

A pained breath escaped Marinette’s lungs. “What… I— Jason? You— How could you?” Marinette gasped out, eyes wide as the one she loved pushed something sharp through her chest. It was slow, and the burning pain it caused was agonising. They were in the dark of the hallways of his father’s manor, but everyone else was gone for the night. They had made sure of it, together. No one would help her even if she screamed.

Was that why he’d wanted the manor empty…?

❋❋❋

It took her years to figure out how to go on. Tim and Dick were always there for her every step of the way, helping her adapt to life again. Tim especially, he was there as she had wanted to do something useful, and there wasn’t much she could after that injury and that day, so she was officially the main designer for a lot of things in the Wayne Enterprises. In reality, she helped the family her beloved had left behind, by looking at the cases they got and had, coming up with plans on how to solve them, helping them through the comms on the rare occasions they needed to go on site.

Tim and Bruce had taught her the art of detective work the most, and Dick had been there to teach her a little self-defence in case something happened. He had also been the one to teach her the most about police procedures.

What they didn’t know was that she used those skills they’d taught her to be able to find where Jason was, what had happened to him and what the hell he was doing now. The betrayal she now knew wasn’t for anything she would have approved of, nothing she could see as justification for his actions, and yet he’d done it anyway. The fire of her fury and bitterness and pain for what he had done to her burned brightly inside her, scorching everything in its way and burning it all to ashes, and Marinette knew she would need to find Jason and have him face the consequences before she could find peace again.

He needed to pay.

The family had their suspicions of what had happened as Jason and Marinette were supposed to be the only ones in the manor at the time, but as Marinette had not given them any confirmation, instead wanting to let them believe what they wanted, to let them hold onto the tiniest speck of hope it wasn’t what it looked like, they were not looking into it. At least, not as much as she did. They thought that maybe, just maybe there was still a reason as to why it had happened. Or maybe Jason hadn’t even done it in the first place.

Marinette would let them believe so until she had Jason to confess what he’d done to them and in front of the law.

❋❋❋

She would have collapsed on the ground right then and there, but there was a steady hand on the small of her back, supporting her as it lowered her on the ground gently, before the hand moved to press down on her upper chest and something hard was on her knees. The two weighs made sure she couldn’t get up or fight back. Instead, the whatever Jason had used stayed inside her, the sharp pain of it piercing all of her.

She could feel her warm blood start pooling around her, soaking her clothes and staining everything around her. The smell of blood was choking, the stench of iron invading all of the air.

❋❋❋

It took Marinette two years and eleven months after the incident before he found any trace of Jason. He was hiding rather well, going on around the world with two other people. Marinette told no one where she was going, just told Tim she needed a short vacation since the anniversary of the night she lost Jason and was stabbed.

Tim had, as one might have guessed, granted her her leave, and even helped her pack. He did question where she was going, but after Marinette just shrugged and said she didn’t know, that she needed to just be because of the day, he let it be.

They both knew it was a lousy explanation but it worked regardless.

Marinette had bid Tim goodbye, though without him knowing, it might’ve truly been goodbye forever as she didn’t know how the trip would go. She had no idea. Anything could happen. She couldn’t trust Jason not to try to kill her again. After all, he had done it when she had had nothing against her, back when they were engaged. Who could tell for sure what he would do now that she was chasing him and trying to bring him in front of sweet justice, trying to drag him into the courtroom to be judged for the sins he’d committed.

And so, she set out on a journey.

❋❋❋

A look down confirmed what she’d been scared of. Jason had pushed a knife into her, into her chest. Her breathing fastened slowly, and the way her heartbeats echoed in her ears louder than ever before, faster than ever before, told her that he had managed to puncture her lung, too. His hands were coated in her blood, and she couldn’t get the sight out of her mind even when what she could see started soon swimming in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, baby. I had no other choice,” he murmured into her ear, pressing a light, barely-there kiss on her jaw. “From the day we met, I knew I’d hurt you eventually.”

❋❋❋

She ended up, after a month of chasing Jason and his merry band of outlaws — and how fitting was it that the day was the anniversary of the stabbing? Wouldn’t it be ironic if she got stabbed again by her once-beloved one? —, in Ecuador, in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Montañita. It was a known town, on some level anyway, but it was small, and considering the reputation of “let’s party ‘til the morning” that the town had, a lot of people would not come there. Most people who still knew Marinette would most definitely not come there if they were trying to find her.

Jason, on the other hand.

Jason would come to a place like this, especially if he was taking a break of sorts.

It wasn’t like he could really come to Gotham anymore anyway.

Not after that.

She had managed to get a ride there from someone in the town after explaining how she needed to see her acquaintance but couldn’t stay up too long since she’d been fatally stabbed a few years back, and she was definitely grateful for that little bit as she now stood in front of a huge, kind of intimidating warehouse.

Marinette took cautious steps, hesitating every step of the way. Her footfall sounded harsh, sounded heavy, but she wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t. Not when she had finally gotten here, gotten this far.

The heavy doors of the warehouse stood sturdy before her, intimidating, but Marinette took a deep breath and pulled the doors open.

❋❋❋

Marinette bit her lip, to the point where her teeth drew blood. It’s not like it mattered when she was already lying in a pool of her own blood anyway. “None of what we had was ever real, now was it?” she asked, a crack breaking her words. Her voice was desperate. Maybe he’d been forced to do it, maybe this was because otherwise, someone would kill someone from his family. Then she could understand, then she could forgive him. Even if it had been the goal from the beginning, she would forgive Jason if it was to save another human being, any other human being.

Jason just shook his head, smiling at her, even if the lines around his eyes told her that this was a smile full of sorrow. “No. None of it was ever real, but I wish it was. I truly do,” he whispered, twisting the blade even deeper. It drew a sharp, shallow gasp from Marinette’s lips before she coughed, staining the hand she’d brought to her mouth with blood.

❋❋❋

The darkness in the warehouse was scary. Marinette knew how to blend in with the shadows, but it wasn’t comfortable, so she stayed out of them as much as possible.

The problem was, she knew Jason knew how to do it as well. He could very well be hiding in them at the very moment.

The even bigger problem was, she had no idea whether his companions did.

That question got answered as she stepped inside a space that looked like people had been there only lately. She had only had a second of warning before someone much bigger than her jumped on her, the impact knocking her down and pushing the air out of her lungs. She was able to turn before hitting the floor completely, so they rolled around a few times, but the size of the other person ensured that she, in the end, ended up being the one with her back against the floor.

She felt how a hand moved to press down on her upper chest and something hard was on her knees. Her best guess, the other person’s knee and the rest of their leg. The two weighs made sure she couldn’t get up or fight back. The setting felt familiar as she struggled under the hold that was turning borderline painful.

The only differences were, the hand and the knee were pressing much harder than last time, and there was no blade in her chest. Thankfully.

A woman walked in from a room to their left, her brilliant, bright red, long hair touching the floor as she moved towards them.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” came the stern question — or well, it was an order but if Marinette thought of it as a question it was disguised as, she could ignore it more easily — from the redhead holding her, and wow, were all the people here redheads?

She shrugged as well as she could and kept scanning the space. The light in the space — wherever they were — had been turned on, probably by the woman as she’d walked in. It made figuring out what there was and where much easier. That gained her a punch (she dared to say it was light — surely this person could hit harder if he wanted to) and the hand on her chest pressed down even harder, which, in turn, made breathing difficult and had her coughing.

“Start talking. Hood wouldn’t want me to hurt a teenager if it can be avoided, but I’m not against doing it anyway if the need be.”

Marinette turned her eyes to the man before her eyes. A smirk grew on her face as she locked eyes with the man. He was familiar, she’d seen his face before. Tilting her head the slightest bit, she spoke directly to him. “Ooohh, you’re that guy,” she said, snorting. “I actually remember your face, though I’m not sure if he ever told me your name… Rob… Roni… Roly… No. That’s not it. Royce… A-ha! Roy! That was it!”

The shock colouring his face confirmed it, even if it was gone within moments.

“How did you—”

“And if you’re Roy, thanks for confirming it, by the way, that means you must be Kori. Not too nice to meet you, especially not in these conditions.”

“How do you know our names, kid?”

It seemed being thought of as a kid for a while longer would be a good idea if she wanted to get face to face with Jason, even for a moment. She knew they were his friends, they’d been friends back then too, but she had simply never met them so they didn’t recognise her. Yet, anyway.

“Heard them from an acquaintance. So, who’s the Hood you mentioned? Where is he?”

Roy simply scowled, without saying anything, and instead produced a knife somewhere. Marinette swallowed, trying to hide it as much as she could, but then she saw Kori moving just a little too randomly in front of a specific door.

There he was.

The time she would receive a payback for what he’d done was getting closer.

❋❋❋

“Why?”

A single word, desperate, sorrowful. Wishing for something, anything, that would justify what he did. What he was doing.

She never got an answer to that question.

❋❋❋

The knife in Roy’s hand crept closer to her, towards her throat.

Marinette could do nothing but laugh, even if it was slightly hysterical.

It shocked the two people present and startled them.

Marinette turned her head towards the door Kori was standing in front of and called out, “Hi Jay, such a lovely reunion this is! How have you been for the past three years? They all missed you. Would you believe if I said they still want to believe you innocent? They still want to believe you weren’t the one to hurt me!”

She wriggled under the hold a little more, tried to push Roy off of her, though with little success. “You going to have me properly finished off this time, Jay?” she asked, tears burning in her eyes as she had to remember the day she’d lost most of what she loved.

(“What… I— Jason? You— How could you?”)

“How cowardly do you have to be to not even show your face to me before making another person kill your ex-fiancée?”

(“None of it was ever real, but I wish it was.”)

The sharp gasp of Kori echoed in the space.

“It’s her.”

“Think you can’t take the life of someone who can’t even ever make a full recovery because of how long it took to get help, even with all those skills I know you have, or is it just that you can’t stomach killing the same person twice?”

“Jason’s going to flip once he—”

“Well, Jason? I know you’re there.”

(“I’m sorry, baby. I had no other choice.”)

The door behind Kori opened and she stepped aside.

❋❋❋

“It was inevitable, but if it makes it any better, I regretted having to do it every step of the way. Always since I—”

“Since you what?”

Another shake of the head. “I’m mainly sorry that somewhere along the line, I started to care about you. At some point, I fell in love with you.”

❋❋❋

The surprise Roy and Kori must have felt was enough for Marinette to be able to throw Roy off her. She stood up staggering, knowing that she needed support or a seat from somewhere if she wanted to be able to stay up for much longer.

Once the door was fully open and someone stepped out, Marinette swallowed as she was finally looking at Jason in the eye again, after so many years. For the first time since she had had to see him kill her.

“‘Nettie, I—”

“Don’t you dare ‘Nettie’ me! You left. You left me, you left Dick, you left Tim, Bruce, Damian, everyone, and not only that, but you tried to kill me. You don’t have the right anymore!”

The ‘you betrayed me and left me for dead but didn’t properly finish me off’ went unsaid. They both knew it was there anyway.

“What on Earth is worth betraying someone who loves you? Who loves you so much they would have done anything for you if you’d only asked? What on Earth, Jason?”

But Jason said nothing. He just shook his head. Just like back then.

“I’m sorry.”

“So you say.”

Jason walked closer to her, Marinette taking steps back automatically. She didn’t want to be so close, not when her last encounter with Jason had ended with a knife buried deep in her chest. The knife that had had no fingerprints when it had been checked, only her blood.

…Now that she thought about it, why had he left the knife there? He, like the rest of the family, knew well that if he’d taken it away, her chances of survival would have decreased significantly.

Jason just nodded, understanding. “It’s okay you don’t believe me. Didn’t expect you to.”

“Good.”

He didn’t stop moving towards her, and before long, she was back against the wall, unable to move further away. She resigned to her fate and lifted her chin, staring at Jason in the eye as he cornered her.

To her surprise, Jason dropped on his knees in front of her, making sure she was the one looking down at him and not the other way around. It seemed it was a surprise to Roy and Kori as well, judging by their faces and the jerking movement of their hands. Roy’s eyes had widened and Kori’s mouth had dropped open.

“I missed you, Marinette.”

She ignored the sting of pain that sentence sent through her.

“I did not miss you.”

A lie, if she’d ever heard one.

Jason just smiled at her sadly. “That’s fine, I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want to forgive me either.”

“It’s not a question of ‘want’, Jay. Jason. It’s a question of ‘can’. I can’t forgive you for the pain you caused me,” she said, forlorn, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I can’t imagine what you were going to gain for doing that.”

Jason reached up to wipe the tear away but Marinette slapped his hand away. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” he asked, even as he made sure not to touch her anymore.

“Just don’t.”

Don’t touch me.

Don’t be so gentle.

Don’t look like you’re hurting.

Don’t seem so repentant.

Don’t make me regret this.

Don’t remind me of all the things that had me love you.

Don’t make me miss you.

Don’t say you missed me.

Don’t look like you want me to forgive you.

Don’t pretend you think it’s okay I won’t.

Don’t make me fall in love with you all over again.

There was a lot the simple ‘don’t’ could be and was.

Marinette would never say them out loud.

Suddenly, a sharp pain went through her knees and she had to take support from the wall. It wasn’t enough. Jason must have noticed, because as soon as she was falling, there was a hand on the small of her back and another in her hand, supporting her weight, just like he had so many times, just like… On that day.

And just like back then, Jason helped her down on the floor so she wouldn’t hurt herself, though this time she got to sit. The contact was so gentle, and Marinette almost wanted to cry, because this was something she couldn’t have anymore. Especially not if she succeeded in what she wanted to do because that would mean he would go to prison for over a decade.

“Are you okay?” Jason started, but Marinette interrupted him before he could get further.

“No! This is your fault. I told you, I can’t make a full recovery. This is only part of that,” she snapped at him, only realising she’d tried to stand up when she fell back down. Marinette cursed under her breath as her head hit the wall behind her and the hit had her wince. Sadness crossed Jason’s face as he saw her struggle.

“Do you think I liked hurting you? I did it because I had to, not because I ever wanted to, baby. I didn’t want to do it, and this?” Jason gestured at Marinette’s collapsed form. “I didn’t want this to happen either.”

“What did you expect to happen when you stabbed me? In the lungs? You only barely missed my heart, and I’m willing to bet it was on purpose. I know you have an aim better than that. At least I wouldn’t be alive anymore if you’d done that, if you only had pulled the knife out of my chest before you left, I wouldn’t need to suffer from all of this!” She released a breath she’d been holding and let out a broken sob. Her voice barely above a whisper, Marinette continued. “I would have done anything for you, but you… You ruined all that.”

“What do you want me to do, then?” The question was spoken more softly than Mari had remembered Jason was capable of, but she recognised it immediately nonetheless. The same fond, soft tone of voice he used when she was hurt or sad. The same tone that had always comforted her. The same tone he had used when he apologised as he twisted the blade in her chest.

It hurt to hear it again.

She loved it so much, and yet she hated it more than anything. Before anything else, she wanted to hear Jason use it while speaking to her again. Before anything else, she wanted to ensure she never had to hear it directed at her ever again.

“I want you to answer for what you’ve done. Confess what you did, in front of the family, in front of the law, confirm what I already know true to them as well,” she told him. It was the truth, even if it hurt. “I want to make sure I don’t get hurt again.”

“Then, let me do that.”

Marinette’s eyes snapped at Jason from the floor just as Kori and Roy shouted something, yelling at Jason, telling him to stop being stupid. Marinette could only stare at him in shock.

“What?”

“I said, let me do it. I’ll come with you. I’ll plead guilty in court if you want to take me there.”

Why, after imagining bringing Jason in front of the law for so long, did it feel so wrong and horrible now? Now that she was there? Now that Jason was offering to give himself up? Now that he was offering to turn himself in for her?

“You know just as well as I do that if that were to happen, you’d be imprisoned for at least a decade. How can you—”

“I know I don’t have much right to say it, but just like you don’t want to get hurt again, I don’t want you to hurt either,” Jason replied, standing up and looming over Marinette. On any other day, she would have flinched and been scared he would stab her again, but somehow all of this had her assured that he was not going to do anything she didn’t want, especially not to her. “I have hurt you enough as it is. I want you to believe I’m sorry. If that’s what it takes, then I will come with you.”

“I—”

“You don’t need to forgive me. All I want is for you to believe me when I say I regret what I did back then, I still do, and that I’m sorry.”

Roy and Kori tried to convince Jason that was a bad idea, what if they found out about everything else he’d done, what if they realised they could send him to the death row, but Jason just shushed them.

“It’s like you’ve already decided I’m going to die. Besides, this is ‘Nettie’s choice. No, sorry, Marinette’s. I hurt her. I meant to kill her. She’s the one that gets to choose. Bye you two, see you in like 15 years or so unless you wanna come to visit me.”

Then he offered a hand for her to grab on, which she, after hesitating for a second, took. Jason pulled her on her feet and let her use him as support if she needed it. “Do you need me to drive us to the airport?”

“I— you’d do that? Knowing where I want to take you? You’re not planning on stabbing me again, now are you?”

“No, I’m not, and yeah, yeah I would. Can you walk?”

Marinette huffed. “I’m not that helpless,” she spat, before adding, because she knew what Jason would ask next as he was already opening his mouth, “Yes, I can.”

As Jason was already walking to the doors, Marinette still stood there. “Are you not going to tell your friends proper goodbye?” she asked, frowning and tilting her head. “If this— if this goes like I’m planning for it to go, and if you’re not about to have them break you out, you won’t be seeing them for at least a decade, not much anyway. I don’t think it’s fair to leave them without as much as a bye, as you did with me, even if this goodbye involved much less blood and fewer near-death experiences.”

Jason turned around, surprised for a second, but then smiled at her. “Thank you,” he whispered as he went past her, so quiet even Marinette barely heard it. Marinette walked outside, waiting for Jason as she leant against the wall of the warehouse. The bright sunlight almost blinded her after the darkness that seemed to be the general setting of the warehouse.

Eventually, Jason emerged from inside, helped her to get on his motorbike, and then they were good to go. Considering the amount of money Marinette had, thanks to her job and relation to the Waynes, getting them plane tickets rather fast.

Somehow, Marinette ended up crying silent tears half the time Jason was asleep because she was no longer sure if she wanted this.

She would go through with it anyway.

She’d waited too long to stop now.

❋❋❋

Marinette could only stare into his eyes. She didn’t have the strength to do anything but that, and maybe close her eyes, but she needed to see Jason’s face, his eyes. She needed to.

“Did you truly? Then why? Or did you stop loving me? Was it all a lie when you told me you loved me only an hour ago?”

The tears that had threatened to spill from her eyes now flowed down her face. Jason wiped the tears from her eyes and pressed a kiss on her nose. “I— I did love you. I still do. Probably always will. I just… had no other choice. I’m sorry, baby. I hurt people, it’s all I’m good at.”

❋❋❋

The family was shocked, surprised, disappointed, sorrowful, when they heard what Jason had done, when they heard Jason himself confess what he’d done to Marinette, his then-fiancée. Or, well. It’s not like they ever actually broke off the engagement, not even between the two of them. Both still wore their engagement rings on the thin chains around their necks.

Bruce, Damian and Tim refused to shed tears at the trial and the hearing. Dick did not even hide it. Cass looked ready to cry but didn’t.

None of them tried to hide their sadness and disappointment about the events at the sentencing, but none of them would have ever tried to oppose or affect the punishment.

14 years in prison.

The entire sentencing, Marinette kept her chin up, ignored the burning tears in her eyes and the hollow emptiness in her chest as she watched Jason accept his sentence before glancing quickly at her and smiling.

Marinette sat as far from the rest of the family as she could the entirety of it, guilt eating at her.

She knew she shouldn’t. She was the one wronged, she was the one whose fiancé had betrayed her for god knows what and gotten nearly killed by the person she had trusted the most in the world.

Marinette stood up, and once everyone was silent, she spoke. “Excuse me, Your Honour, but may I talk with the defendant after this is over?”

Sighing, the judge looked at her like she’d gone crazy (Marinette wasn’t too convinced that wasn’t what had happened) before answering. “Alright, you may, you’re the plaintiff after all. There will be at least one officer watching over the exchange to ensure your safety, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Your Honour.”

❋❋❋

Marinette forced a sad smile on her face, even through her fury and the feelings of betrayal and sorrow, because she didn’t know how else she was supposed to react. “I guess—”, she coughed, more blood spilling from her mouth, “—this is a lesson in not trusting people, right?” she asked, smiling through her pain, crying, her sight blurring with tears and the blood loss. Her eyes closed, now unable to keep them open. She could feel Jason stroking her cheek a little, as though in a gesture of comfort before he stood up and just, walked away from her.

❋❋❋

“I’m sorry again, baby.”

“Please, don’t.”

“Alright. I love you. Go live your life. Never feel guilty for starting again, if you even do feel guilty in the first place. I hope you don’t. Find a new partner if that makes you happy, destroy all my stuff if you haven’t already, yes, even the bike,” he told her. “You don’t need to worry about the others, they would never harm you, especially since I told them you’re untouchable.”

Marinette let the tears roll down her cheeks as she pressed her head into his chest. “Why do you try to ensure my safety after what you did?” she asked through her tears and felt Jason’s chained hands wipe her tears away. “I can’t stop loving you, and I hate it. I wanted— I wanted to—”

“It’s okay, baby. I understand.”

“All I wished was to live with you until death do us part but then—”

“Yeah, I know. I fucked up. I love you. I don’t blame you for any of this, it was my fault in the first place.”

Once their time was up, the officers took Jason away. Or well. Were about to, anyway.

“If we had never met, it would have saved us both some grief,” Marinette whispered. She thought he hadn’t heard her, but then he smiled at her.

“I suppose, but I don’t regret meeting you, not aside from the fact it led me to nearly kill you. That’s all I regret. Smile with the sky. Let your smile bloom forth in a riot. For me, one last time. I don’t want to see you cry, not today. It’s supposed to be the day you’ll finally be in peace,” he told her. She forced a small smile on her face. “Here, at last, is her smile: burn it into your memory; you won’t see it often.”

She could recognise the words. Jason had read them to her once or twice before… everything. They were words he had told her when he proposed, and right now she wondered if he had already known he was going to soon do what he did already back then.

Perhaps.

That thought ate her alive, but so did Jason’s willingness to go through with this and the love she could still see in Jason’s eyes. She looked into Jason’s eyes and tried to keep the smile on her face even as she would have rather cried and collapsed on the spot, or maybe into Jason’s arms. And then again, she didn’t want to touch him ever again in her life.

As he walked past her, accompanied by the officers, he whispered one last thing to her.

“Thank you, for making sure I would pay for what I did to you, baby. Thank you for showing me you were still alive.”

It was only on that day that she was told Jason had called their family to save her. She finally understood why they so stubbornly had decided to believe Jason wasn’t to blame until now.

That night, Marinette cried herself to sleep.

❋❋❋

The burning, stinging pain in her chest faded and numbed as the surrounding world faded away as well. The only thing she could hear was the faraway voice of Jason, she heard it like she was underwater, but it was there.

“If you somehow by some miracle survive alive from this, make sure I will have to pay, have the law make me pay, ‘cause this happened for no reason you would ever consider noble. There’s nothing that could ever justify what I have done to you. I’m sorry.”

____________________________

@kris-pines04 @thethirdwheelfriend @maribat-is-lifeblood @abrx2002 @persephonebutkore @rebecarojas07 @corabeth11 @kadmeread @freshbark @maribat-march2020 @catsandfanfic @fertileleaf @cutechip

#Jasonette #jason x marinette #Maribat #maribatmarch2020 #ml x dc #dc #dc x mlb #jason todd #marinette dupain cheng #fanfic #fanfiction #ethel's writing

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thattimdrakeguy · 4 years ago

Note

wait crap now i'm doubting my own knowledge about tim's origin and you're incredible and know stuff can you recap the important parts + the parts ppl seem to get wrong please?

With Tim it’s just that there’s so much fanon and headcanons spread about him that people genuinely don’t seem to know the character anymore.

Some things that are actually very genuine about his character get called fanon and headcanons at this part.

But I’m not really sure how to recap it, but I’ll do my best. I haven’t made the full post yet, because I was having too much fun making Tim, Jason, and Conner in my WWE game.

Basically, Tim went to Haly’s Circus the night Dick’s parents died. Tim was a little toddler, his parents asked the Flying Grayson’s if Tim could take a picture with them because Tim was scared, and they wanted to show that they’re regular people despite the costume. Dick held Tim, Tim was immediately infatuated with him, because of the costume, and the fact he was a kid like him (even though there’s almost a decade of age difference), or at least something along those lines.

Dick’s parents obviously die. Tim witnesses it happen. Tim sees Batman. Tim gets PTSD for years about the event.

One night when Tim was watching the news playing with his toy train at age nine, Tim sees Batman and Robin on the news. Tim recognizes Robin (Dick) do the same flip that only four people in the world can do, and one of them being Dick. He puts together that they’re the same person, and then Bruce is Batman since he found out that Bruce took Dick in as his ward. Easily from there knew Jason was the next Robin by obvious connection.

After finding out Bruce and Dick’s identities, Tim followed them by the news, and stories. Drawing fan art of them. But he’s not actually shown going out of his way to photograph them, BESIDES the day he went to find Dick.

When he was thirteen years old Tim noticed Batman going more violent and mean spirited. So little Timmy, big heart, empty on brain besides detective skills, without a hint of knowledge about the world, went on his bike to get evidence to show to Dick, who he would later fine.

Tim at this part is always in fandom portrayed as being an obsessive weirdo (which to a degree he is, ngl), but in story he’s shown as being more of a socially oblivious, incredibly naïve, little boy, that has no idea he’s getting himself involved with stuff he shouldn’t be. He just cares so dang much about Batman and Robin he just went out and did what he did. He didn’t meticulously do anything. He’s just a really oblivious kid that’s way too good at detective work for his own good, and was just able to do it.

Anyways, because Batman was so violent without a Robin, Tim put together that Batman needs a Robin to be able to realize who he was before. Rather or not it was before Bruce’s parents death or Jason’s death, I cannot remember, I didn’t look at my panels before this, just off memory. So Tim was hoping he could convince Dick to be Robin again.

Dick viewed it to be in his past, and felt he couldn’t just make himself a kid again for it. So he more or less hinted Tim could do it (but there’s a moment in the story where there’s an inconsistency I think, but I’ll read over it before any big post).

Tim didn’t go out of his way to be Robin, he genuinely just saw that these people that he’s admired for years where in trouble, and in his little boy brain, thought that he could convince Dick to go be Robin again to fix it, but that didn’t end up the case. So Tim just ended up doing it instead, something he dreamed of doing, but not actually going out of his way to do.

In the end he was viewed as good enough to be Robin by Alfred and Dick, and Bruce allowed him to at least be trained to be Robin.

As far as the being home alone part. It wasn’t the case, at least directly.

Because Tim just says he lives in a boarding school. That’s where he’s lived at, that’s where he’s taken care of at and so forth. That’s where he lived. However, Tim at the time of the story was on a vacation week, and I tried looking it up, but I have no idea if that means he’s home or not, but regardless, given Tim had a nanny even when his dad just came back home and stayed home. I feel like it’s safe to say that he wasn’t actually home alone. He was watched by a caregiver.

And Tim later on in another story seemed genuinely oblivious it was weird that his parents were basically never home after they started doing the business trip thing. So I’m not sure if he was ever crying and in tears sad like some fics portray.

Another thing noted in interviews and little bits by the writers, and editors in comics. Also make a point that Tim originally came from a loving home, but then they’re shown as constantly being gone, and then when he was going to get his ongoing it was said that they wanted to tackle potential child abuse.

So that’s Tim’s deal with his parents.

So Tim didn’t stalk Batman and Robin all the time. He didn’t go out of his way just to be Robin, it just sort of happened. He wasn’t a scared little boy crying all the time at home alone (that we can directly prove to my awareness). As well as just having a generally different personality than what’s assumed or given to him.

Mostly due to headcanons taking over, misinformation due to misunderstanding, and some stuff people just made up because they don’t like Tim and they’re whiny like that.

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spunky-89 · 6 years ago

Text

Paradise Awaits

A/N: Hey guys, here is the next part of my “Dick’s Vet” Series. You can find all the works Here. Sorry it's been so long since the last update everyone. I lost my direction with this little story. But with some time for my brain to breath, I was able to become re-inspired. Hopefully, I will have more parts to this series soon, but no promises.

Word Count: 1655

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After a crazy month of long shifts, back to back missions, and high crime rates, you and Dick decided you needed to get away. You had hardly seen one another the entire month, mostly just passing by each other with a quick kiss and an ‘I love you’ before heading out the door. By the end of the month, Dick had had enough. He told the league and the batfam and everyone else that he was taking time off and the world had to be in immediate danger for them to call him in. He called your work and told them you were taking time off as well. Then he planned a small getaway to allow the two of you time to just exist outside the bustling lives you lead in Gotham. When he told you what he'd done you were a little reluctant to agree. You were both called in constantly and you would hate to be so far away if you were needed. Dick was quick to shut you down though, saying you both deserved a break. You couldn't argue with that. So you packed your bags and headed off on an adventure.

When your boyfriend told you he planned a nice beach vacation your first thought was Jersey Shore or something near there. Then when he said you were flying you thought Florida or maybe California. Never did you think that meant a trip to the Caribbean. Your eyes lit up as they took in the crystal clear oceans and white sandy beaches. “What the hell Dick?” You asked, a bright smile on your face. “What? I told you we were getting away, I meant it.” He smiled as he kissed the side of your head. The two of you loaded off the jet and into the airport. You were always a sleepy traveler, but you were wriggling with excitement as you traveled to wherever it was you were staying. When you noticed you had traveled well past the resort area and into a more lush and secluded part of the island you looked at Dick with a raised eyebrow. He just smiled and gave you a wink. Eventually, the driver pulled up to a large house on a beach, no other houses for miles. The house wasn’t as massive as some of the ones you passed, but you didn’t mind. You almost prefered it this way. “Are you just gonna sit there and stare from the window or do you wanna get out and go inside?” Dick teased. “Don’t be an ass.” You giggled as you bolted out of the car and up to the front door. “Hurry up.” You yelled to your boyfriend who was moving slower than you would have liked. “I’m coming, I’m coming. Hold your horses.”

After twenty minutes of running from room to room, around the outside of the house, then back around inside the house you finally felt like you explored enough to stand still. Dick had kept up with you and laughed as you explored the house. He picked it out with your taste and style in mind. Bruce had offered to rent a bigger house but Dick knew that wasn’t your style. And it was just the two of you so there was no need for some big 15 bedroom house. “Enjoying yourself sunshine?” He asked you. “Very much, this is ridiculous Dick. Like, I can’t- why?” You managed to ask. You knew he’d understand your question. “Because you deserve it. And I feel awful about the way this last month and a half has been. I hate that I’ve barely seen you, let alone had ten minutes to tell you how much I love and adore you. So I decided that you deserved to have a whole week on a tropical island with no cell service where I can tell you over and over how much I love you.” He finished with a cheeky grin. “No cell service?” You asked. “I wanted to be sure there were no unnecessary interruptions to our getaway. What better way to do that than to make it super difficult to reach us.” You smiled and put your arms around his shoulders (having to stand on your tippy toes slightly) and giving him a big thank you kiss. His hands went to your waist and effortlessly lifted you, your legs wrapped around his waist by habit. “So what was that about telling me you love me over and over again?” You breathed into his mouth. “How about I start by showing you?” He smirked as he ran to your bedroom.

Two days into your stay, you finally managed to leave the house. You and Dick were totally fine staying in the house and just chilling for the first two days. The two of you caught up on your lives and the important things that had happened. You'd seen his family more than you'd seen him lately. And he loved that. He loves that you and his family got on so well. However, he was almost jealous of how close you were becoming with his family. Which was one of the reasons why he was more than glad to have you all to himself for a full 48 hours. He would have loved to stay in your secluded paradise for the whole week, unfortunately, you were running low on food and you desperately wanted to explore. He caved when you pulled the puppy dog eyes on him. The two of you put on your bathing suits and some clothes to make you look a little more put together (a light dress for you and a t-shirt for Dick) and set out. Apparently, there was a motorcycle that Dick had rented and had delivered for you guys to use to get to the more populated areas. You eagerly got on behind Dick and smiled as the wind blew your hair back. Pulling into the resort area you took in all the colorful buildings, palm trees, and tourist like yourself. You cuddled yourself closer to Dick, the smile on your face unable to be wiped away. Dick eventually pulled the bike into a spot on the side of the road and you climbed off. As soon as he got off you launched yourself at him again. “Thank you, Dick,” You murmured when you pulled away from the sweet kiss you gave him. “Anything for you sweetheart.” He smiled. You beamed back up at him. The two of you wandered the streets for a little while, just taking in the sights, before heading off to find some form of a market. After stopping a couple of locals (thank god Dick spoke so many languages) you were able to find your way to one. “Did you know I find it really attractive when you speak other languages?” You offhandedly mentioned as you filled a bag with produce while Dick paid for what you picked up. He did a double take and stuttered for a moment. It was cute to see him flustered. It was hard to do, but it was possible. Especially when it came to you. “I uh, I did not know, uh know that. But uh, that’s...that’s good to know.” He stuttered out, staring at you, the look in his eyes a mix between awe, love, and lust. You giggled at how much you threw him off and continued your shopping happily, a different kind of pep in your step.

It took you less than an hour to finish your shopping and wandering. Dick was trying not to rush you home but you knew him well enough to know when he was impatient. You loaded your bags safely between the two of you and hopped back on the motorcycle and headed back towards your little slice of heaven. You both rushed to put away the groceries you bought and when you finished you dodged under Dick’s arms to dart out the back door. You threw off your sundress and flip-flops as you went. You peeked over your shoulder quickly to see him hot on your tail. You laughed and cannonballed into the beautiful pool you had yet to enter. When you came up you had just enough time to doge to the left before Dick came down on top of you. You laughed as he came up in front of you and grabbed you around the waist and spun you around. You felt so light and free. The warm sun shining on you, the cool water and shade from the tropical trees around the patio keeping you from melting in the sun, and the arms of the man you loved around you, his laugh filling you with an elated, bubbly, carefree kind of joy. He kissed your neck over and over as he held you tight in his arms, keeping you from squirming away. You laughed as he tickled your neck a bit with his nose between kisses. You eventually managed to squirm enough to swim away from him backward. He pursued you up to the edge of the infinity pool overlooking the ocean in the distance. When he got close enough you wrapped your arms around him and smiled up at him, eyes soft as you took in the peaceful expression on Dick’s face. “I love you so much.” You said softly as you looked up at him. “And I, you.” He said, pulling you close to kiss you softly. It felt cliche, cheesy even, to share such a love filled kiss with the man of your dreams on a romantic getaway as the sun set on the ocean. But you would have given anything to stay in that moment forever.

You and Dick returned to Gotham A week and a half later (almost a week after you were supposed to be home) tan and happier, calmer, and more on your game than you’d both been in ages.

#dick grayson x reader #dick grayson one shot #nightwing x reader #fluff

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autumnhobbit · 6 years ago

Text

It hadn’t even been a bad day. It had even been altogether good. Bruce had gone in to Wayne Enterprises, had a long conversation with Lucius and Tim and made a surprising amount of progress in the latest number crunching for a charity venture in only an hour or two. The three of them had gone to lunch together afterwards, and Bruce had been glad seeing Tim carrying himself confidently and yet still enjoying himself. He’d come home in the afternoon with Tim and hung around with Damian and Dick, who’d come home for the weekend. Dinner had been good, and it had been nice to have most of the kids at home. He’d had a nice, hot shower and gone to bed gratefully. He was taking a night off and looked forward to sleeping in. He didn’t even have trouble falling asleep.

But he dreamed about Jason. He dreamed about one of their vacations together where they went to a nice little bungalow Bruce had bought out in the country, close enough to the nearest town to drive to food, but far enough to be off the side of a road somewhere, on a nice piece of ground with woods and a creek. Jason had loved it. He’d practically spent the entire time outside, only calling it quits when Bruce gently nagged him in for bed well past 11:00. There was a rope swing hanging from a tree next to the creek, and Jason had jumped in at least a hundred times over the week they stayed. He always came back up almost instantly, coughing and gasping and laughing so hard he couldn’t catch his breath. He’d scramble to the shore in soaking wet jeans shorts and a faded tee, dripping hair almost completely covering his face. Bruce had to stifle a laugh, whether he was watching from the kitchen window, or from the shoreline.

In reality, of course, the trip had gone off with shockingly no serious hitches. Of course there had been the occasional small disagreement between him and Jason, but none of them resulted in anything more than a moment of sour expressions and angry pouting. Most of the time, they were getting along well. Very well. So well that Bruce could sometimes hardly believe it had ever happened. That he and Jason had ever been that close, that comfortable with each other.

In reality, Jason had always come up from the creek. In reality, Bruce had put him to bed every night in the little twin with the light blue sheets in the smaller room, with a kiss on the forehead, a pat on the shoulder, and a quiet, “Good night, Jay.” In reality, Jason had dutifully packed up his backpack and loaded it back in the truck and climbed shotgun to come home with Bruce, and had watched the little house grow smaller and smaller until it disappeared behind them.

In reality, he’d pulled back from the window and sat slouched back with his arms crossed over his chest as he stared out the windshield in silence for maybe fifteen miles, after which point he’d lowly admitted, voice gravelly with sincerity, “That was the best time I’ve ever had, B.”

In the dream, the little house was empty. Bruce had only turned his back for a second, but when he remembered, he ran through it, searching the whole place. But he was alone.

He tore out the back door and pelted down toward the creek. “Jason!” He roared.

The rope swing was still drifting slowly back and forth, like it had been used. But there was no Jason coming up out of the water laughing so hard he cried, no Jason on the shoreline shaking off like a wet dog. No movement on the surface of the water, either.

“Jason!” Bruce ran into the water, himself. It wasn’t that deep, only up to his waist, but he was still afraid, more afraid than he could ever remember being in his life, except maybe once. He sloshed through the water forcefully, searching the creekbed, but his son was nowhere to be found.

He woke with a soft gasp and a sharp jarring that made his whole body jerk where he was curled on his side, tangled in his comforter. The bright-red numbers on his alarm clock reading 2:07 greeted him.

Bruce just lay there for a moment, still trying to catch his breath. His heart was hammering against his ribs and he scrubbed at the itchy wet streaks that desperate, unconscious tears had left on his face.

Today wasn’t any special, significant date. He hadn’t done or seen anything to dredge the memory, or the nightmare, up from the recesses of his mind. He hadn’t been fear-gassed, he hadn’t been hurt or seen anyone else hurt. He’d just gone to sleep and had a nightmare, and now he didn’t want to close his eyes again. Damnit.

He rolled away from the damned alarm clock and sighed shakily, resettling. He wanted to go back to sleep, he really did...but he couldn’t shake the fear that if he did, he’d go back into the dream. If he did, the dream might start pulling from reality to torture him. Might show him a scorched body, a twisted neck, a limp hand with freckles hidden in thick soot. An empty face. A still body. The top of a matted black head, cradled against him.

Bruce gulped, and closed burning eyes against more hot tears, coming quicker and more insistently.

He wondered where Jason was right now, what he was doing. Probably sleeping, he hoped. Yes, that was it. Fast asleep in his apartment, probably wrapped up like a turtle in the covers. Drooling on his pillow. Blissfully dreaming of muscle cars and guns, or whatever it was teenagers dreamed of. Even though he was twenty now, and not a teenager anymore.

Another stab of pain, there. He glanced back at the clock. 2:10. He heaved an exhausted sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose.

He fumbled for his phone on the bedside table, but then hesitated. If Jason was sleeping, he didn’t want to call him, wake him up. That wouldn’t be fair. He dropped his hand listlessly onto the covers, halfway to his phone.

But. He really didn’t want to go back to sleep. And he knew that he wouldn’t stop worrying about Jason, and thinking about him, until he really knew that he was safe and healthy, in his apartment or wherever, like he should be. Like he would be if he’d never met Bruce.

So Bruce sat up, and he tossed off the covers and stood up. He stumbled over to his closet and switched the light on, blinking away stinging, blurred dark shapes as his vision re-adjusted. He clumsily pulled out a pair of jeans and a plain henley, and changed from his pajama pants into them. A leather jacket went on over the top, and he shoved on some sneakers before going to grab his wallet and phone. He switched off his alarm before he left the room.

It wouldn’t do any harm to go check on him. He’d just drive over across town real quick and peek in the window. Jason didn’t need to know he was there. Better to leave him alone unless he asked, anyway. Just to make sure he was alright, and then Bruce would come home and try to go back to bed.

He went quietly down the stairs and through the main hall. The house was as quiet as it got, with its creaky, antique heating system and all the noisy water pipes and all. It was shockingly empty at night, even though he knew the bedrooms were full, at the moment, of his sons and Alfred. Cassie was having a sleepover at Steph’s, tonight. She’d texted him about it and was very excited.

He grabbed the keys to one of his more normal cars and quietly went through the door to the garage, locking it behind him.

He climbed in the car, started it, adjusted the seats and mirrors. He pulled out of the garage and wound his way down the driveway and out the gates.

Gotham was surprisingly peaceful as he drove through the metro area. There were a few other cars on the road, with music blaring so loud he could hear it clearly. But aside from that, there were few people out on the streets, aside from the occasional small group of party-goers, who staggered out of one or another bar in a tangled mess of people, laughing the whole way. The intersections were empty, and Bruce found himself looking into lit-up windows of empty stores and restaurants, tracing the lines of neon lights spelling the name of a cafe or bar. He’d always liked getting to be in the city past dark. It meant getting to drive home through downtown, and he used to lean against the back window of whatever car he was riding in and watch the lights go by outside. Sometimes he would be alone in the back seat. Sometimes his mother would be in the back with him, her soft hand resting gently on his back or his shoulder or his head while he looked away from her. After she’d died, he wished he’d spent the time looking at her, instead.

He pulled up to Jason’s apartment building wearily, and parked across the street at one of the meters. He climbed out and locked the doors, sticking his hands into his jacket pockets. It was late enough that he’d have to go for the window. The lobby of Jason’s building had been closed for hours. He shook his head at himself, but crossed the street and looked for a good spot to start from. There was a decorative ledge around every level of the building. He had to step onto someone’s windowsill to get up to it. Thankfully, they had their curtains drawn.

From there, it wasn’t too much work to clamber his way up. He walked on the ledge, one hand against the side of the building. Jason’s apartment was on the corner not bordering another building, the corner that was parallel with the road. He crouched down beside Jason’s window and peered in. The lights were off inside. He was looking in on Jason’s living room. It was empty.

Jason was probably just asleep back in his room. Bruce cursed himself for the nervousness still twisting in his middle. He cursed himself further as he checked the window and found Jason’s security measures, and started disabling them. What the hell do you think you’re doing? He’s going to be pissed at you for breaking into his house. You won’t tell him why you’re really here, so he’ll come up with some motivation he thinks you have and get angry at you because he thinks you distrust him. You always do this, just because you’re too damned stubborn to leave him be. He does better without you. If you would just stay away from him…

“No,” Bruce mumbled out loud, fiercely despite the low volume. He pressed one of the connections on the wire and slid the window open.

He climbed in and dropped lightly onto his feet on Jason’s clean carpeted floor. The apartment was completely still and quiet, and Bruce was loath to disturb it even as he kept going. Step after step, his feet took him to the door to Jason’s bedroom. Hesitantly, he reached his hand out, and twisted the knob, leaning just enough that he could peer in.

Jason’s bed was empty.

And just like that, Bruce’s carefully-constructed and well-maintained facade of calm dissolved with all the force of a battering ram. He actually had to grasp the doorknob to keep himself upright. For a long moment—far too long—he just stood there, in the doorway of his son’s empty bedroom, his head spinning.

When clarity came back, it hit him hard. He let go of the doorknob as if burned. A list of actions formed in fiery certainty, and he yanked his phone out of his pocket. He’d check Jason’s location on the tracker app they all had—but what if it wasn’t an emergency? Jason was a grown man, after all. Maybe he’d just stayed out late of his own free will? Maybe he was visiting a friend? He hadn’t known Jason to be much of a partier when he was younger, but that could have changed. Hell, maybe he was out with a girl tonight. The thought, though obvious, made Bruce wince. It wasn’t that he was against Jason having a relationship—far from it. But the concept of his son out sleeping with some unknown party just reminded him of how distant he was now, how little he really knew of Jason’s day-to-day life.

Still. The thought was there now. So he fired off a text to Barbara first, knowing she’d still be up. She might not know what Jason was up to lately, though, at least on a personal front. Dick would be more likely to know that sort of thing, but Bruce didn’t want to wake him for nothing.

Barbara texted back quickly. Talked to him within the week. He’s in Gotham. Need me to pull up his tracker?

Bruce jotted back, Not yet. Thank you.

Next, he pulled up Dick’s number. Sorry, chum, he thought apologetically, and hit send.

He wasn’t sure if he was more grateful or saddened when Dick fired back instantly. Emergency?

Not sure yet, he replied.

He hasn’t said anything about any new friends or anything. Roy or Kory would’ve told me if he was with them. I can’t speak for Artemis or Bizzarro, but they usually don’t need any covert tracking.

A pause. You need me?

Bruce shook his head, but his pained smile was still a smile while he typed out a reply. I’ll try to handle it. I will call you if I need you. I know it’s an asshole move on my part...but try to go back to sleep.

A pause. The rolling ellipses in the text box. Then, Alright. Love you.

Bruce blinked hard, surprised. He stared at his screen for a second. Then he typed out, You too. Sorry I woke you.

Shut up, popped up in less than a second.

Bruce smiled, and switched apps. His expression dropped again as he hit the tracker app. Flashing lights came up—none of his children were out tonight, so there was a cluster of markers in the Manor. Cass and Steph were in Steph’s house on the north side of Gotham, in Stephanie’s mom’s house in a suburban neighborhood. Kate was out tonight—Bruce averted his eyes. He tried to give her her privacy as best he could.

Jason’s tracker was on the borders of the Bay, maybe a mile down from the downtown strip, where the relatively secure-feeling, metro waterfront turned quickly into shipping yards and parking garages and collapsing buildings and industrial parks. The city’s murder headquarters. Crime Alley was in the heart of it. But Jason’s tracker was in it, and it wasn’t moving.

Bruce gulped. He could just be doing a stakeout. He could be fine.

What if he wasn’t?

Bruce shoved his phone back into his pocket, and turned around quickly, heading out the narrow hallway toward the window he’d come through rapidly. If Jason was hurt, and his communications had somehow been disabled, or he’d been trapped, or kidnapped, Bruce wasn’t going to leave him a second longer than he had to. He didn’t have time to swing back to the Cave and change; he’d have to make do with his civilian car and whatever he could cobble together from the emergency kit. Maybe he could call Selina—her apartment wasn’t far from there; she’d know if anything was going on—

This all assumes he’s still alive, the sadistic voice in his mind which sounded shockingly like the Joker’s sneered at him, and not lying dead in a warehouse right now.

The thought had been dancing around the edges of Bruce’s mind all evening, the possibility always hanging over his shoulder, whispering in his ear, but he clenched his eyes shut instantly and felt very cold and sick. The nightmare came rushing back, right in front of him—with Jason still and cold in a pool of blood on a nondescript concrete floor, Jason riddled with bullets or tied in an abandoned office somewhere, Jason’s rope swing dancing back and forth limply, Jason’s empty twin bed in the little house, Jason’s empty bed back in the Manor—

And he froze halfway through Jason’s living room, because someone was climbing in the window, halfway through, one foot down on the floor, body mostly turned away. Until they turned their head and familiar, wide green eyes locked with his, startled.

All the breath left Bruce raggedly in more relief than he could remember feeling in a long while. Jason hovered there in the dark, staring at Bruce. Hardly any of his face was visible aside from those glowing eyes. Bruce stared back for a moment before dropping his gaze, ashamed of his panic and ashamed of having broken into Jason’s apartment at an ungodly hour of the morning over nothing but a silly, stupid nightmare.

Jason cleared his throat awkwardly. Bruce saw his booted foot on the floor hop around clumsily as he pulled his other foot down from the window. He fumbled with the lock. “Well,” he said, tone unreadable. “Imagine my surprise when I went to unlock my window to come in from patrol and found it was standing open.”

Bruce belatedly noticed the handgun Jason had in his left hand, and while the sight made something in his stomach twist sharply like it always did, he couldn’t say he was surprised. Hell, he couldn’t say he blamed Jason. Their life was dangerous, and anything out of place could be a warning sign. A failure to notice and react accordingly could result in death. Often did, where crime was concerned.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce said hoarsely.

At that, Jason’s head whipped to the side, eyes narrowed but shocked. “What the hell happened?” He asked, incredulous. He scanned Bruce up and down, taking in the outfit. “You doing some plainclothes op tonight? Something go wrong?” The skin around his eyes paled suddenly. “Anyone hurt?”

Bruce shook his head hard. “No,” he exhaled. “No...god, I. Jason, I—“

Jason yanked down the shades and the room grew even darker. Bruce couldn’t see him anymore, just a tall, slightly darker shape hovering in front of him. “You can keep stammering if you like,” Jason said dully, and Bruce could hear his soft but heavy footfalls in the carpet crossing the room. “But I’m gonna go clean up while you’re doing it.”

Bruce said nothing in reply. He couldn’t. He drifted in Jason’s wake, over toward the doorway to the kitchen. Just as he stopped in the doorway, the light over the sink flicked on, and Bruce’s eyes narrowed in pain at the sudden change in light. By the time he’d blinked them back open, Jason was running water in the sink and was ducking his face down to wash it in his hands, and the water running down between his fingers was tinged orange.

Bruce had crossed the room before he knew what had happened and was pulling Jason back from the sink while he sputtered and half-squeaked, “The fuck are you doing?” in genuine startlement.

Bruce ignored him to grasp his chin and yank it upright so he could see his face. Jason’s eyes were so wide his pupils had shrunk to dots, and there was blood still spilling down over them. Bruce shoved his hair aside to reveal a cut in his forehead, dripping down to cover his face. Bruce tried to trace the edge of the cut, and Jason hissed and his eyes clenched. He fumbled and tugged at Bruce’s hands, trying to get loose.

“Where was your helmet?” Bruce demanded, heart pounding.

“It—ah, fuck—it got broken so I ditched it!” Jason snapped, smacking Bruce’s hand away. “It’s not even that deep, damn!”

And now that Bruce looked at it, really looked at it, Jason was right. It really wasn’t. It was bleeding, sure, but it was a head wound. Those tended to bleed heavily. He’d just seen Jason’s face covered in blood and….overreacted. And he flushed upon realizing how easily he could have scared the hell out of Jason for no real reason other than his own pathetic fucking paranoia. “I’m.” He said lamely.

Jason wasn’t listening, anyway. He was feeling the cut, himself, with a hiss. He stuck his head under the faucet again and cringed while he rinsed the blood off, and then grabbed for the bottle of dish soap beside the sink. He squirted some into his hand and rubbed it into the cut quickly, hissing curses the entire time. He rinsed it off and yanked off a wad of paper towels, pressing it up against his forehead. “Fuckin’ typical, get back and gotta fuckin’ juggle this and you at the same damn time,” he muttered sourly. He stomped past Bruce and tugged an overstuffed kit from an overhead cabinet and yanked out a handful of gauze and tape and antibiotic ointment. With his load of supplies, he stalked back into the dark living room. Bruce hung his head and stayed in the living room. He was coming down from his adrenaline high, and he wished to hell he’d just stayed in bed when he’d woke up in a cold sweat. He’d done it plenty of damn times. That was harmless, at least. That never got anyone pissed with him.

Well. That part probably wasn’t true. He seemed to wind up pissing people off no matter what he did, sometimes.

His whole body ached, but not as much as his chest did. He wished he was back in bed, asleep, but he also had the feeling that even if he left right now and went home, he wouldn’t make it before he broke down in tears. And fucking hell, did he hate that. He shouldn’t be like this. Nothing had even fucking happened. And he’d driven across town at two in the morning, broken into Jason’s apartment, and panicked not once but twice, once in front of Jason, with all his usual grace. He never fucked up by halves. He gritted his teeth and cleared his throat, blinking hard. Damnit, no. Not here, not fucking now. Jason was in the living room, and Bruce knew he could hear it, because the rustling noise from him fumbling with the plastic wrapping around the gauze paused.

“Uh. You gonna stand in my kitchen all night, or you gonna come in here and tell me why the fresh hell you’re actually here?”

Bruce hunched over, hands in his pockets again, and dutifully stepped back into the dark living room. His shadow cut most of the light off. Jason was still visible, perched on the edge of the armchair sitting perpendicular to the couch. Angular shadows cut across his body. He was putting tape on the last side of the gauze patch, and then he clumsily brushed his stiff bangs down over it. As soon as that was done, he lounged back heavily in the chair and spread his hands expectantly. “Well?”

Bruce ducked his head down. “I. I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”

Jason blinked. He drew his chin back and blinked again. He glanced around, like the room held an answer to the problem of Bruce. “A mistake is putting too little sugar in your coffee or getting an Arby’s sandwich without asking for sauce. You driving across town—yes, I saw your car out there—hacking my security system and climbing in my window, doing who knows what standing around in my apartment for an indeterminate amount of time, and then flipping out over a tiny cut is anything but a mishap. Especially when it’s fucking you talking. You never do anything by accident. You’re Mister-Thorough-Batman himself. So what. The hell. Are you doing here?” Jason asked again, pointedly, staring up and waiting for Bruce’s answer.

He didn’t seem angry, Bruce realized suddenly. He wasn’t hissing, he wasn’t growling, his eyes weren’t narrowed, his jaw wasn’t set. He was open and confused. Maybe irritated, but not furious. Mostly exasperated, probably. And it made Bruce even more sorry and drained than he already was. He didn’t—he couldn’t come up with any reasoning to hide the truth. There was no explanation, nothing he could say that would disguise what he’d done and why, and Jason would see how fucked up he was and be glad that they never saw each other, anymore. But he couldn’t just not respond. “Nothing.” He said flatly.

Jason sank his head into his hand with a sigh married with a moan. “I just got finished saying—“

“No.” Bruce cut him off. “I mean it. Nothing. Nothing at all happened. I am here for no good reason at all.”

Jason stared despairingly at the far wall, mouth open, eyes stuck in a restrained roll upwards. “You came over and broke into my apartment, past midnight, for no reason,” he said plainly, to the wall.

“Nothing. Nothing happened at all,” Bruce said, and his chest twisted and his throat burned and words came and came and didn’t stop. “I was fine, everything’s fine, I was asleep and comfortable and everyone’s home and safe and it’s my night off and I was going to sleep in, and then I dreamed of that fucking house in the woods we went to when you were thirteen, that trip you loved so much that I never went back to the house after but never sold it because I’m a fucking moron and I couldn’t touch something you loved, and you weren’t there and I was looking for you and you weren’t in the creek either, and there was nothing wrong, nothing happened when we were there and there was no fucking body so there wasn’t even any reason to be so upset even in a fucking dream, but I woke up and I was so scared that I couldn’t think and I definitely couldn’t go back to sleep—“

Bruce buried his face in his hands, and he kept spilling out words like blood from an open wound. “And I thought about—I was going to call you but then I didn’t because I didn’t want to wake you and it was stupid anyway, but I didn’t want to go back to sleep and see you actually dead this time, and I thought, I thought maybe if I just came to check on you and make sure you were alright and secure in bed like the others, maybe then I could sleep, and I needed to—I should be checking on you anyway, you’re my son and a father ought to know where his son is and whether he’s alright or not but I didn’t—“

“Bruce,” Jason said tightly, his voice very small.

Bruce choked on more and forced himself to stop. But he didn’t look up at Jason. He couldn’t. He was crying. A complete wreck, and over nothing. He kept his face hidden in his hands, even though the tears were plainly visible, shameful.

“B, hey.” Jason said again, very soft. “Look. Look at me.”

Bruce didn’t want to. But he very slowly raised his head anyway.

Jason was watching him with a wary expression, tired but accepting and with understanding. “You fucking lugnut,” he sighed, shaking his head, but it sounded fond somehow. “You know you could have just called me? We work stupid hours, it’s not like I’m a normal person where it’s the end of the whole damn world if I get a text at two in the morning.”

Bruce shook his head. “I’m an idiot,” he muttered darkly. “An oversensitive idiot and I—“

“Shut up,” Jason said back, just as dark, and he was glaring. “Okay, you’re oversensitive about a lot of damn things, but being afraid of death is not one of them. You’re not even fucking irrationally afraid of it like normal people are. But you could have just checked my tracker from the start. Why didn’t you?”

Bruce shrugged listlessly. “Didn’t want to intrude on your privacy. Didn’t want to bother you.”

Jason sighed. “Well that’s out of the question at this point.” He rubbed at his eyes with a scraped-up hand, and waved his free hand at Bruce. “Will you just sit down before you fall over or something? You’re making me nervous.”

Obediently, Bruce wandered out of the doorway and dropped onto the couch, blinking hard and still breathing shakily. He sank his face into his hands again. He could feel the beginnings of a headache starting and he was just so exhausted. The weight of Jason’s life and death weighed heavily on him tonight, and he was sitting in Jason’s living room. What would it take to convince his brain to stand down if sitting across the room from a breathing, speaking, physically-whole and annoyed Jason didn’t?

He almost jumped when someone dropped onto the couch beside him. But he froze when Jason sighed quietly. “Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you,” he mumbled.

Bruce’s heart twinged painfully in his chest. He couldn’t come up with anything to say in his defense, anything to make him anything but a sniveling hypocrite.

Which was why he froze when Jason tilted his head against his shoulder with a sigh. “Don’t you ever wear yourself out, B?” Jason asked, settling down. He sounded sleepy. “Carrying around all that messy nonsense in your head all the time? S’no wonder we’re all such a mess.”

Bruce gulped. “I know. I’m sor—“

“For what?” Jason asked, his voice surprisingly hard for how quiet it was. “For getting me killed? You didn’t. For not avenging me? Sure, I’m still pissed, but you’re not mentally capable and I get that now. For taking me into your home and giving me a family and a name that meant the world to me? Yeah, you shouldn’t have replaced me with Tim, but with all the shit that little smart aleck knows, he’d have wound up busting criminals one way or another, eventually. You gave him a family, too. I had nothing before I had you, B. I would’ve had nothing the rest of my life. Am I furious and sick to my stomach that it ended out like it did? As much as you are,” and Bruce could hear it, and it brought tears right back to his eyes, when Jason’s low voice broke and he took a breath that rattled with wetness. “I loved the hell out of you, and sometimes it pisses me off that I still do.”

“You don’t have to,” Bruce gritted, a tear or two escaping as he sat there, eyes closed, cursing himself for relishing the weight of Jason’s head on his shoulder, the scratchiness of his hair against the side of Bruce’s neck. “I don’t deserve it.”

“Bullshit you don’t,” Jason said back, just as broken. “I hate you because I love you, and because you’re so good and I can never be as good as you are at heart. Not anymore.”

That made Bruce open his eyes, stare down at his son in horrified shock. Jason was there, cheek against Bruce’s shoulder, but his eyes were turned away, leaking steadily.

“That’s not true,” Bruce choked out. “You are good, Jason. So good it astonishes me sometimes. After everything you’ve been through, all that people wronged you who shouldn’t have, all that I wronged you, you’re still kind. And you always were. Kind and selfless. You’d give your life in an instant to protect an innocent, and while it scares the hell out of me, it amazes me, too. You do things, Jason, that I never could. You—your goodness isn’t hidden inside you, it’s—it’s all over you. No one could look at you without seeing it. Mine is all,” Bruce gulped, rubbing at his chest, “all in here, but it never comes out. What good is it, if I mean well but don’t do well? What does it matter if I’m barely protecting the city if it costs me,” he broke off, crying too hard to go on. “If it costs me everything I loved? Everything I never expected to have, and I wasn’t prepared for?”

Jason pulled away, and Bruce winced through his tears, but he was climbing onto his knees on the couch and he threw his arms around Bruce’s shoulders and held tight. “You’re such a jackass sometimes,” he choked, rocking back. Bruce couldn’t respond for a moment, just leaned his head against Jason’s shoulder this time, hiding his tears in his son’s faded black tee shirt.

“I get it now,” Jason went on, sniffling. “I get that you were always a mess, too. Dick knew it, but I didn’t get it. To me...to me you were just Dad. A-Always just Dad. It took dying to break that image, and that was what—what broke me. But I realized,” he amended quickly, scrubbing a hand over his eyes and gripping Bruce again just as hard as before, “I realized it wasn’t fair. To you or me. Neither of us are what you could call healthy, but—but that doesn’t mean we can’t. We can’t have each other.”

Bruce finally managed to hug Jason back, and he held on as tight as he could while sobbing harder than he had in months. God. He didn’t deserve this. He could never deserve this. He could never deserve a second chance, to hold his son tight, all six feet and two hundred pounds of him, and to have him living and breathing and hugging him back. The boy grown into a man who against all odds, still loved him. Even with everything he’d done wrong.

But here he was. And here Jason was. And life had already taken so much from both of them that Bruce would be damned if he let it take this again without a fight.

The two of them sat there together on Jason’s couch, calming and breaking down again at intervals. Sometimes only one of them hunched over in tears and the other sat patiently and scrubbed away the tears with a calloused or scarred hand. Sometimes both of them fell apart together at once. Sometimes one would start and the other would quickly follow. Bruce lost track of the early hours of the morning. His whole life had momentarily shrunk to Jason’s living room, and the beginnings of a five o’clock shadow on Jason’s cheeks that scratched against his hand when he rubbed the tears away with his thumb, and the hoarse sniffles that escaped Jason when he started to calm down again and curled up against Bruce, leaned into the arm wrapped protectively around his shoulders.

And when Bruce woke up, he was tipped over against the arm of Jason’s couch, and dull afternoon sunlight was drifting in the room through the curtains. And Jason was slumped against his side, breathing softly into his jacket.

Bruce cupped a hand around the back of Jason’s skull, bristly black hair tickling his hand. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Jason’s temple.

And then he leaned down and went back to sleep.

#my fic #bruce wayne #jason todd #batfam #batfamily #dc

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jewishbarbies · 6 years ago

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THE NEW YEAR - a BLOOD ON HER LIPS sneak peek

IT WAS NEW YEAR’S. Every holiday was spent at the cottage, and New Year’s was no exception. There was a strict family only policy when it came to these kinds of vacations. Only Daddy’s inner circle of business partners fit the criteria. Of course, he’d fit in whomever he pleased when it suited him.

Outside, the rain poured. I knew because I sat it in on my bedroom balcony’s concrete railing. The thick slab offered a perfect perch to enjoy the all-too-common storming of Gotham City. My home. It was the darkest city you could ever travel to—I was sure of that. But it was still home.

Droplets of water pelted the exposed skin of my arms, erupting them in sharp bumps with the chill of the evening. It was electrifying, the sensation of becoming soaked to the bone from an unexpected rain storm. There was so much energy. Yet it was the most peaceful experience.

I sat up on the railing with my eyes closed, head tilted back to feel the water pouring down on my skin. My clothes were completely soaked. Water dripped off my arms. It rolled down my legs and leapt from my toes.

“Savannah? What are you doing out there? The ball’s about to drop!”

The voice I’d heard calling to me from behind was unmistakable. I righted myself on the railing and twisted in my seat to see the balcony door. My fingers had to rake across my eyes to clear the water from them in order to open them.

Standing just inside my bedroom was Dick Grayson, wearing a dress shirt and slacks—formal attire to put on a show for Daddy’s company partners. He was only allowed to come on this trip thanks to Bruce Wayne, one of the most important partners of my father’s company

He stood under cover, squinting to see me through the sheet of rain and shouting to be heard. I couldn’t help but smile. “Come sit with me!” I shouted, motioning with my hand.

“No way, Anna!”

“What’s wrong, Dick? Afraid of getting a little wet?”

My teeth pinched my lower lip before tugging it into my mouth. The split second sight of the expression it brought to his face was enough to brighten my eyes as I turned away from him.

It wasn’t something special. I did it to every male. Why was beyond me. But I’d had a habit of making everything an opportunity to flirt. It hadn’t gone wrong for me just yet, so I hadn’t been able to give it up. I supposed it was just who I was.

That wildflower everyone secretly wanted to be but outwardly despised. With outstretched arms, I tipped my head back and exhaled a deep breath. “You’re crazy, Savannah Syren!”

I would take crazy if it meant feeling alive any day. The words brought a small giggle up my throat. I could just picture the look of indecisiveness on his face. I’d always teased him about being a no-fun fuddy duddy at the ripe age of sixteen.

To which I was always accused of being too much. But I didn’t mind. Getting a rise out of him was worth it. In a matter of heartbeats after he’d spoken, a pair of arms wrapped around my middle from behind and gave me a hard pulled.

I’d squealed from surprise, the squeak of a sound being followed by a string of laughs as Dick carried me toward the bedroom door. “Wait, wait!” I shouted a little to be heard over the thunderous rain. “Just one more minute!”

“You’ve been out here for an hour!”

Putting my feet down caused him to stop walking, allowing me to pull out of his hold and stand on my own. I turned to face him as I pushed my soaked hair out of my view. “You’ve got to start living a little, Grayson! Before you die an old man who never did anything interesting!” I told him.

It was hard to gauge his expression in the thick water running across his face, but it was easy to pick out the hint of playful annoyance. “This is the most interesting thing you can think of?” he questioned, rhetorically.

“No! This is just the most interesting thing at the moment!”

He shook his head slowly at me, “Your dad’s gonna kill you when he finds out you did this in your new dress!”

“Good!” I shouted, before leaning toward him with a barked laugh. I threw my arms out at my sides and spun on my bare feet. Flinging my head back to get the full effect of twirling in the rain.

The sound of his laugh echoed off the side of the cottage, warm enough in my ears to eradicate the notion of being too cold from my mind. It mixed with the distant voices of the television from the sitting room, blasting a broadcast of the ball drop in Times Square.

It was just like Gotham to rain on New Year’s eve. Sighing in contentment, I stopped my spinning to face Dick, a bright smile on both our faces. “You’re so beautiful,” he said, just loud enough for me to hear.

I didn’t know how to take that compliment. Usually they rolled right off my back, not unlike the rain that poured atop my head in that moment. But it was the way his eyes lit up when he looked at me. How his lips remained parted after he said the words.

It was a sight I’d wanted to take a picture of and keep safely tucked away forever in the back of my mind. Though, I did no such thing. I marched forward without warning and pushed myself up to the full height of my toes, grabbing his face as I pressed my lips against his.

The kiss was rain soaked and unplanned. But it was magic. I felt the walls of my chest cavity grow warm as he kissed me back. His arms encircled me, tucking me tightly against his chest. The taste of the rain mixed with the taste of his tongue.

I’d never been so assertive. Not in this context. I was eternally grateful for that little spark of courage, though. Because it was one of the best nights of my life. That is, until we got caught.

“What do you two think you’re doing out there?”

Our mouths had broken their connection but Dick’s arms refused to move as we’d both startled from the voice shouted at us. Turning my head a fraction of an inch, I could see the voice belonged to none other than Bruce Wayne.

I couldn’t help the heat in my cheeks, but I was quick to suppress it as I peeled myself away from Dick. The two of us shuffled quickly back inside the cottage, out of the rain, equally embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Bruce, she wouldn’t come inside,” Dick apologized, once we’d gotten inside

“I’m sorry you both missed the ball drop—but something tells me you improvised,” Bruce commented, the very ghost of a smile playing at the left corner of his mouth.

Dick and I shared a quick glance, and I fought a smile, folding my top lip over the bottom one in order to clamp it down. “Why don’t the two of you get dried off and then join us downstairs?” Bruce suggested. Then, specifically to Dick, he added, “There are more towels in the guest room.”

It was a subtle hint that we weren’t going to be getting dry alone in the same room together. I assumed it would’ve been obvious. But, from a parent’s perspective, it made sense to enforce it. Even though Bruce wasn’t truly Dick’s father, I admired him for those moments he truly acted like he was.

Dick nodded, getting the hint, and pattered out of the bedroom into the hallway. Bruce was soon to follow, departing to give me privacy to do whatever I needed in my attempt to get dried off.

#ocappreciation #allaboutocs #dailycomicbookocs #toalltheocsivelovedbefore #mine #my writing #Savannah Syren #Dick Grayson #Blood On Her Lips

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bluboothalassophile · 7 years ago

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Innocent Little Demon

Always a Father

Assembling a crib was far more challenging than Bruce expected as he sat with Jason trying to assemble it. Dick ran after Damian as the Titans vacated the Tower. All of them but Raven, but Bruce hadn’t seen much of his sons’ friend since she was still looking for a solution to their Damian problem.

“B, are you mad about Red Robin?” Jason asked suddenly which had Bruce looking over at his son.

“What?”

“I just… Do you not want me to be Robin anymore? I did fuck it up,” Jason muttered.

“Jase,” he ran his hand through his son’s unruly curls then. His boy was here, and alive, Bruce never thought he’d have this moment again with Jason. Never have a moment with Jason again period. “I could never be mad at you. I’m just concerned, but you’re making it work and listening to Dick, which is what I need. I want you safe, and I want you happy Jason.”

“Happy?”

“Yes, happy, I want you to get a girlfriend, grow up, go to school, be happy, have a family, to live Jason. I want you happy.”

“A girlfriend?” Jason pulled a face.

“You like Raven,” Bruce pointed out. He was pretty sure Jason and Raven were partners in crime, ever since they had dyed Damian and Garfield shortly after Jason had come back.

“She’s a friend B, my only friend,” Jason stated dramatically.

“Hmm,” he hummed. Jason handed him a part and Bruce just enjoyed having his son alive and breathing, and here.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Four days of baby Damian and Bruce felt pretty good about changing his son’s diaper, and all the normal stuff dads did with babies. In his defense, none of his sons had ever been babies. The youngest child he had ever had was Dick, and that was when Dick was nine. Gingerly Bruce bounced the fussy Damian on his shoulder whispering assurances to Damian in Talia’s native tongue.

“You know you’re pretty good at that,” Dick said which had Bruce looking over at his eldest.

“Hmm,” he hummed.

“Did… Did you ever want babies?” Dick asked walking in.

“Once,” Bruce admitted. There’d been a woman he had once wanted to mother his children. Selina would have been a wonderful mother, but she had been killed when they were too young. Talia had just taken his son, taken that part of him without ever asking for it.

“Why… why didn’t you?”

“She died,” Bruce answered.

“So, you were cool with adopting Jay and me?” Dick asked.

“You’re my sons,” Bruce answered simply. He didn’t think he could ever describe how fiercely he loved his sons, or how strongly he felt about them.

“I think I want kids with Kori,” Dick said.

“There’s always adoption,” Bruce said calmly.

“You’d be alright with Kori and me staying a thing?” Dick asked.

“No, but I will learn to accept it.” Bruce looked at his eldest who smiled. Dick would be a good father, Dick was a natural with children, he’d be a good dad. He’d succeed where Bruce had failed.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Bruce was sitting on the floor as Damian napped with his thumb in his mouth, gently sucking it, toy cars scattered around them, and the sun warming both of them when she walked in. The young girl paused, bit her lip nervously and seemed to hesitate. Raven looked like a doe caught in the headlights for a long moment.

“Yes Raven,” he said, the young woman blushed. He could see it, that delicate beauty she was awkwardly growing into. The teen was going to be a heart breaker, and more than likely break Damian's heart. But he wasn’t sure he could be angered at that as she had bonded so tightly and quickly with his second son.

“I… uh,” she started.

“Yes,” he said patiently.

“I never seen a dad,” she stated softly. “I just… um… I never had a dad, and I… empathy, I like being around happy and peace,” she said nervously.

“You’re welcome to join, Damian is very fond of you,” he said levelly. Jason was too, but Jason wasn’t here right now.

“I just… I thought you’d like to know that I can, I can reverse this,” she said and took a steadying breath. “I found the spell that can change him back. I just am going to need a week’s prep to get all the materials.”

“A week?”

“Actually a day, but I know, I can feel how happy you are with him so I just… I thought you’d like the extra time,” she said as she wrung her hands together.

“Thank you. and I would, very much like the extra time,” he admitted softly as he brushed his son’s hair off his brow.

“He’s kind of cute like this. Normally he’s all… grr, and I’ll stab you,” Raven said as she smiled nervously.

“You’ve been a good friend for him.”

“He’s not so bad once he stops trying to stab you and control you.” she shrugged.

“And you’re a good friend for Jason,” he said, and watched the young teen blush a bit.

“He’s cool, he likes books and food and doesn’t call me creepy. Also he went tea shopping with me, Damian wouldn’t even be caught dead in public with me so that was nice of Jason,” Raven said.

Bruce softened. “Thank you for the extra time Raven.”

“Yeah, no problem, I’m gonna go, I’ll get the prep work done, and test it before doing it to Damian.”

She walked out of the room and into one of her portals disappearing.

Bruce sighed as he looked down at his foolish son. Damian was going to need to learn some humility. There was no way the boy would survive if he continued to have his stifling pride, birth right or not. Luckily Jason and Dick were here to teach Damian this humility, and Raven might prove to be a large aid in this.

“You’re going to get your heartbroken, Dami, but it’ll heal,” he whispered as he picked his son up.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Bruce stood there a week later with his son in his arms and he looked over all of Raven’s prep work for the room as it was now covered in runes he didn’t know, and markings he didn’t recognize. But there were some marks he recognized from his time in Atlantis and around the Zatara family.

“Alright, Um, I’ll take him,” Raven walked forward and gingerly took Damian.

“LA! LA! LA!” Damian screamed.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! You’re going back to normal!” Raven countered as she struggled with the baby.

“What exactly are you going to do to him?” Dick asked nervously.

“Reverse his deaging spell. The spells hit him simultaneously and that’s what deaged him. My goal is to unwrap the magic currently keeping him in his current condition. It can be done, it’s just going to hurt.”

“Hurt a lot or not very much.”

“Depends on the target, but I think in this case, it’s going to really hurt as he has to go through all those growth spurts again.”

“Oh boy,” Jason sighed.

“Excuse me,” Raven said. “Now I need you to hold these and go where I put you and not move,” Raven instructed handing them odd objects. Before Bruce could protest Rave had them all where she wanted and she had Damian in the center of all this.

She held her hands out, palms up, and she spoke in a language Bruce had never heard.

But like with Constantine he felt the power from the girl swirl around them before it surged from her, her eyes glowing bright white as that power slammed into all them, almost knocking him over. Damian squealed, Bruce nearly leapt for his son.

There was a blinding light which knocked him back into the wall and then all the runes swirled to life before impacting where Damian was. There was a loud bang before smoke dissipated and Damian was sitting there looking stunned.

“DAMI!” Dick shouted running for Damian.

“Hey, now little bird,” Jason caught Raven as she swayed then she collapsed against Jason.

“How are you feeling son?” Bruce asked crouching down to his son’s level.

“Where are my clothes?” Damian shouted.

“Oh Azar!” Raven yelped slamming her hands over her eyes. Jason was snickering, and Dick just laughed. Bruce smiled as he ruffled Damian's hair and dropped a coat around his son’s shoulder.

“It’s been a long few weeks with evil baby Dami,” Dick said. “And I got photographic evidence.

You wouldn’t dare Grayson!” Damian shouted.

“Yes I would!” Dick bolted then and Damian was up on gangly legs, tripped and Bruce caught his youngest.

“I’m going to kill him!”

“Damian put some damn pants on!” Raven shouted loudly.

“Come on little bird,” Jason scooped her up and walked out of there then.

“It’s good to have you back Damian,” Bruce smiled as he scooped his wobbling son up.

“I can walk father!” Damian protested.

#bluboothalassophile #fanfic #multi chapter fic #innocent little demon #part 5 of 5 #part 5 #bruce wayne #jason todd #damian wayne #richard grayson #raven #batfamily #family bonding

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ellana-ravenwood · 8 years ago

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“Vacations are rare for the Waynes” - Batmom x Batfam

Here’s a little collection of short stories about the Batfamily going to the beach/being in vacation ! I kinda just had ideas for tiny little snippets rather than a story that was a long one and made sense...it’s bad. Hope you’ll like it :

You can find my masterlist here : @ella-ravenwood-archives

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How did the Wayne found time to go on vacation ?

God bless Batwoman, Batgirl, Jim Gordon...And everyone who joined in helping the Batfamily over the years, because thanks to them, you, your husband, kids and beloved butler were FINALLY able to take some times off.

A few years ago, leaving Gotham for vacations would have been a big no-no for Bruce, and you always understood, you really did. Hell, you had trouble leaving the Bat computer behind...But ever since he got new allies that weren’t direct family, things got easier.

They all were able, since a long time now, to take at least one night off during the week and such. But actually full on holidays ? Oh that didn’t happen in...in...in forever !

The only holiday you went on with Bruce was without the kids, and it was for your Honeymoon. Three days. Three days of pure bliss (and lots of sex).

And now, the opportunity to be all together for A FULL WEEK came up !

It all started because Tim got injured pretty bad, but still wanted to go on patrol...and you lost your shit. You were always supportive of their nightly activities (though worried sick as well), and you were monitoring the bat computer almost every night, when you didn’t have “date night” with Bruce or “mother/son bonding time” with one of your boys !

You were really understanding, and you too wanted Gotham to be a safe place, having had the same kind of background than Bruce...But hell if you were going to let one of your babies go out in the streets while he was badly injured !

With your famous “Batmom Glare” and a stern voice, you told Tim :

-You’re not going. You’re taking some vacation my boy, to relax and be fully charged again. In fact, we’re all taking a vacation !

...It kinda just happened. You were mad, they didn’t want to make you angry (you were scary when angry), and it was true that...All of them wanted well deserved time off.

And it was decided. A week far away from the murkiness, grittiness, darkness that was Gotham, in the sunny Bahamas. Perfect.

Of course, Bruce made sure that coming back to the city fast was possible, and also made sure to brief all of the Batpeople on anything that could happen but...He also really wanted to go. He wasn’t getting any younger and though he’d never admit it your little burst of anger was a blessing for him too.

You all needed time away. Oh yes. And though you also made sure Gotham would be in safe hands (anyway, villains got pretty calm lately), you left without hesitation ! TO THE BAHAMAS !!

The Airport :

You have no idea how you managed it.

Everything was ready. Packed. On the go. And everyone was operational on time and, somehow along the way, after verifying everyone had everything they needed, after breaking a fight between Jason and Damian and convincing Dick that he didn’t need three luggages. After making sure everything was swell in the Batcave, and convincing Alfred to stop packing food and such...You ended up very late at the airport.

You missed your plane. It wasn’t a big deal, in a few call Bruce got the Wayne Inc jet to come pick you guys up, but you were already a bit upset.

It was ridiculous, you knew it, but traveling in a normal plane (even if in first class) was guarantying your anonymity when you’d arrive in the Bahamas. Arriving with the Jet where “WAYNE INC” was written across it in huge black letter on the white plain...well, it wouldn’t be so discreet anymore.

You hoped it wouldn't ruin your vacation, that paparazzis wouldn’t harass you guys...But Bruce reassured you when he said he booked an entire beach resort just for you all. Of course he would.

Going through security was more difficult that it should have been...Because of course Damian had knives in the pocket of his shorts. And of course he would try to fight the TSA agents trying to take it away, AND OF COURSE JASON WOULD ALMOST KNOCK THE MAN DOWN BECAUSE HOW DARE HE TOUCH HIS LITTLE BROTHER !! You guys almost all ended up at the police station until...The TSA agent recognize you and Bruce, asked for a picture with you guys, and just fanboy over you two.

Needless to say, plenty of people took pictures of you guys walking through the airport to the VIP Lounge.

So much for a discreet vacation.

The fight to the death for the best room in the Villa :

A magnificent villa. It wasn’t as big as Wayne Manor (good), but it was massive. Of course, your boys had to find a reason to fight and...

They wanted to fight to the death for the best room. Well, maybe not to death but this good old : “Last one standing gets the best room !” thing.

They were bummed out that you wouldn’t let them. Of course you wouldn’t.

You and Bruce took the best room, and your argument about it being the furthest away from all the other rooms so that they wouldn’t hear you two “doing it” won them over. Yeah. Ok. Their parents could take the best room.

And to settle the rest, you made them play a mean game of...Rock paper scissor. When they all got their assigned room, you dared them to be grumpy about it...And of course, none of them uttered a word. And when Bruce took your hand, laying a loving kiss on it, saying something cheesy like : “You always got the best solutions my love” and started to slowly drag you behind him toward your bedroom to the two of you, peppering kisses down your neck and all...Oh they ran away to the beach. As fast as they could.

The Hammock :

On the wooden terrace outside, with a beautiful view of the ocean, there was a hammock, attached between two trees.

It was probably Bruce’s favorite place to fall asleep and relax.

Often, when you came back from the beach, having left without telling him because you didn’t want to wake him up (he had a lot of sleep to catch up), you would lay a small kiss on his nose or his forehead.

That morning, as you were getting ready to go to the beach with your sons, right after breakfast, you went once again to kiss him but...He wasn’t asleep this time. Oh no.

He grabbed you and dragged you down on top of him, kissing you passionately on the mouth, completely ignoring the gagging sounds coming from where his kids were and...Well.

A hammock isn’t exactly the most stable of things. And of course you fell on the floor. As usual, he managed to be the first one to hit the ground, and shielded you from the small little shock.

The laugh that took over your entire family was the freshest you all ever shared.

The boat :

It was a very nice boat. Very nice indeed.

And you should have never listened to Damian when he said : “Can I drive ? I know how”. Never. Because he crashed it on the beach.

But not just any beach, oh no. A beach where there was a restaurant.

The horrified look on yours and Bruce’s faces would have been hilarious in any other situation, but Dick, Jason and Tim couldn’t laugh, trying to calm their heart because THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO DIE !!

He crashed in a fucking restaurant. Salads and wine flew everywhere, covering you guys. And all he had to say was :

-I said I knew how to drive, not how to stop.

The sand :

It was notoriously known that you hated the sand. And it was notoriously known that neither your sons nor your husband could resist you much. Whenever you had to go to the beach, one of them would give you a piggy back ride to the water and back.

And the worst thing was ? They did it with great pleasure. Because they knew that you really REALLY hated sand. Besides, Bruce loved the way you kissed his neck and jaw when he was holding you, Dick loved how you ruffled his hair, Jason loved how you’d annoy his brothers about how much taller than them he was, and how high up you felt on his back, you forbid Tim to even try to carry you as he was still injured, and Damian spent the entire trip trying to convince you “he could do it”. When you let him, he made twelve steps before dropping you in the sand.

It was so cute, how he apologized, that you didn’t even get mad. Oh damn you loved those boys...

The diving board :

They broke it. Of course they broke it. You told them they would break it. But were they listening to you ? Nooooo.

When they were going one by one on it, it was all fine of course.

But as soon as they started to try to jump more than one from it, you knew they were going to break it. And the worst thing in all of that ? Bruce was encouraging them, hell, he even went to jump with them and, as they were all on the fucking board...

Crrrrraaaack.

You and Alfred face palmed so hard that you were pretty sure you both just settled a record.

You had absolutely no remorse pulling roughly that massive splinter Bruce got in his thigh when the board shattered...Though after his “Tjaaaaah that hurt !” that was very much unlike him (after all, you fixed injuries that were way worst than that on him), you gave him a look signifying that you would make it all feel better tonight, and he visibly gulped.

The next day, his sons and Alfred tried their hardest to ignore the love bites that littered his thighs.

When someone hit on Batmom :

It happened really fast.

You were waiting for Bruce and the boys to come back with ice creams when you got accosted by three men. Sure they were pretty good looking, but not as half handsome as they thought they were.

Ew. Exactly the kind of men you hated, who thought they were irresistible. They started to hit on you shamelessly, and you were about to humiliate them with your sarcasms and wits when something better arrived...

Your husband and sons.

Bruce was towering above them, being a gigantic man, and with a harsh voice just said :

-Is there a problem here ?

They slowly backed away, not even realizing they were doing it, and said that of course not, everything was good, they were just discussing with the lady.

-The lady is my wife.

Damn. Even the little kid looked at them as if he was about to kill them...those dudes were scary. And a pretty girl, even as pretty as you, was just not worth it ! They cowered away, not looking back even once.

Bruce gave you a look asking if you were ok, and you raised your eyebrows. As if annoying men never hit on you before. The reminiscence that some men thought you were highly attractive displeased your husband, and you knew that once you’d got in your shared bedroom, just the two of you, you’d be in for a treat. You winked at him and your sons rolled their eyes.

You were about to thank them when... :

-I was about to shove my ice cream up their...

-JASON !

-Oh hum, sorry mom.

“GO AWAY I WANT TO READ !” :

You were comfortably installed on a beach chair, reading an amazing book, when Bruce arrived.

He went to swim a bit on his own, to “clear his mind”, and good, because you wanted to read right now. You guys all got so busy so far that you didn’t had time to read at all, and that wasn’t going to work.

He was wet and was acting as if he was going to lay next to you...putting your feet on his abs, not looking up from your book, you pushed him away and said :

-Broosh, I’m reading right now.

He ignored you and grabbed your foot in one hand, grabbing the other one too as you were about to push him with this one and just landed on you, his head on your stomach, his body in between your legs.

You sighed, and tried to get away from his grasp, but he wouldn’t have it.

Usually, you didn’t mind when he was getting clingy, but hell, you were trying to read ! How dare he interrupt your reading ! Especially since his open mouthed kisses on your stomach were a bit...distracting. You suddenly understood why he privatized an entire resort...But no. Not now.

With a frown, you got hold of his chin and made him look up to you :

-I. Am. Reading.

Oh. You weren’t kidding. You were totally not in the mood. He groaned a bit, but didn’t insist much. He didn’t move though, laying his head back on your stomach, and when you didn’t protest, he just stayed there and fell asleep...

Your hands caressing his hair and back lovingly is what woke him up.

Your book was on a table on the side, and the look in your eyes...Well alright then. Reading time was over, and you were ready to take care of him. And him of you.

You giggled like a teenage girl when he got on his knees and dragged you with him to pick you up bridal style, and rushed back to your shared bedroom where he was sure no one would snap naked pictures of the both of you...It wouldn’t be of the best taste, to be in the people magazines, butt naked, when you two would come home.

The muscle flexing contest :

The villa you rented (and were more and more thinking to buy) wasn’t far from a small town where a lot of other vacationers where. One night, you all went there to see what was up and...Oh my god you almost died of embarrassment.

There was a “muscle flexing contest” that was suppose to be a joke...but your sons took it very seriously. They flexed all their muscles, and though it was a bit embarrassing how much into this they all were, you couldn’t help but smile at them. Especially at your two oldest sons that kept winking at girls and such.

Jason was about to win when his father stood on the stage, and of course, everyone voted for him.

You glared at more than one woman (and men) that were eating your Bruce with their eyes, and when he got down with a RIDICULOUS trophy in the form of a bodybuilder, the kiss you gave him made everyone envious. Of both him and you. Because maybe you were a bit jealous, but it’s only because you didn’t notice all those men (and women) staring at you because of the natural aura that surrounded you, that just made you so damn attractive.

You and Bruce, suddenly unaware of your surroundings, didn’t realize all the envious stare you both got, because it really seemed, even to people who didn't know you, that you were both so much in love.

You didn’t hear either, too focused on each others, the laughs of people around when your sons followed after you two making gagging sounds and other face as if they were about to vomit.

The cute teenage girls :

Oh more than one heart was broken that week.

Dick did it, but not on purpose. He was such a nice young man that he was treating every girl he met very nicely, and they all thought he meant more...but then, whenever he said he actually had a girlfriend back home. Oh broken hearts.

Jason found a girlfriend. She was from the Bahamas and it tore your heart apart a bit when they had to say goodbye. They exchanged their numbers, and you knew that if that was actually genuine true first love, then a long distance relationship would work. And oh damn Jason was just so cute being all awkward and nervous. He reminded you of Bruce when you first met him. It was funny really, because they were both quite intimidating and such and yet...Yet they had a heart of gold and were your personal little teddy bears.

Tim was a player. Oh my god hat boy surprised you ! He took advantage of his injuries to get to talk to girls and WOW. And everyone thought he was just a nerdy kid uh ? Clearly, they were wrong. You almost scolded him, because you didn’t not like womanizer but you quickly realized that he wasn’t actually doing any harm, and you knew he would go back to being your lovely geeky and awkward boy addicted to coffee when you’d all get home. Let him have his harmless fun, as long as it was just little kisses (and seeing how his face turned red every time he pecked a girl, it was clearly just little kisses...how cute).

Damian blushed like crazy when a cute girl his age talked to him, and he ran away. The girl got very confused, and Damian came to find shelter in your arm. Oh, he just wasn’t ready yet to talk to cute girls...The ordinary so sure Damian Wayne was scared of that. But hey, his mommy’s embrace was quite reassuring and he would kill anyone mocking him right now.

Dick :

Dick had the time of his life.

He surfed, he swam, he did parkour with some of the local kids, teaching them some moves, he ate amazing food, he spend time with his brothers, he drove you and Bruce crazy...He had the time of his life. It was the first time since he was nine and you took him to Disneyland that he got vacations.

it was so nice to let all his worries, all his fear for the future behind, even for just a little short week. The only thing that was missing for everything to be perfect, was if his girlfriend Lydia was here (wink wink you know who you are). But she was away at her dad’s and he understood she needed some time.

Tim :

Tim’s favorite thing about the trip was that he got to spend some quality times with his entire family.

Not just a movie night, and not just with one of his brothers, one of his parents or something...No. All together. At the same place at the same time.

The second thing was that for the first time in a very very long time...He got full night sleeps. He had a full 9 hours of sleep more than once. He didn’t drink one cup of coffee of the entire trip, and when you gave him a little pins telling him that it was to celebrate his first week off coffee (as alcoholic or drug addict would have little coins to prove they were sober for 1, 2 etc etc years), he burst out in laughter like he never did before.

And the way you were unable to not wrap your arms around him and squeeze him against your heart because of this filled him with happiness.

Damian :

Damian found that the proximity of the ocean, and the fact that his family was available whenever he wanted...turned him into the sweetest boy ever.

He wasn’t sure if it was a good or a bad thing, but when Dick stole his ice cream as a joke, he didn’t try to kill him so...That was something.

He found that this place, and the fact that he was with all of you, made him very emotional. He wanted to be with you all, and not alone as usual (just like you, he was quite introverted). And for the first time, he wasn’t ashamed to ask for cuddles, for kisses, and just genuinely voice his enjoyment of being there, with all of you. He missed his animals though, and you had to console him very late at night once, because he wanted his batcow...Your hugs and kisses made all the little blue feelings he felt go away.

Jason :

Jason hasn’t had such a great week since he came back to life.

To his taste, it wasn’t long enough. He wished he had more time, because those short seven little days, he got closer to his brothers and his father than ever before.

You ? Well you two always been close, even in his darkest moment. You’ve always been his beloved mother. But the relationship he had with his brothers and dad wasn’t always...ideal.

During those seven days though, it was perfect. Not one fight. He fished with Bruce, just the two of them, talking talking and talking. He taught Damian how to bodysurf. Tim and him made the best homemade fireworks ever. And with Dick, they just spend their time chilling at the beach, and talking about anything that came to their mind (including stupid things like : “What really are platypuses ?”).

Bruce :

Bruce felt everything his children felt and more.

He was happy to be far from his obligations, to be with his family, to enjoy their presence without any worries tainting everything.

For the first time since this fateful night when his parents got murdered...he was truly free of every negative feelings. You usually had his effect on him, but even you couldn’t erase everything, and though he loved you more than anything, so much it hurt and all of that, though he would die for your well being...sometimes, he couldn’t kick the sadness away, and even you couldn’t change that. He had learn to live with this dark spot on his heart at all time...and yet...here...here, it went away.

Of course, most of the time when he was with you, the dark spot on his heart was microscopic but it was still there, lingering , ready to come back as soon as you were gone.

But here, on this island, with all the people he loved...he was free.

Everything went away, and only happiness and love remained.

Alfred :

You didn’t find much of Alfred. Sure he was around for some family time. He was there when you guys watched movies before bed. He was there for lunches and dinners but...other than that, he was no where to be seen.

You understood, really. His vacations were to know you guys were all safe (as long as you decided not to do anything stupid...like letting Damian drive a boat ever again), and that he could let go.

And so he spend a week on his own, not worrying one bit for the first time in years.

The way home :

The way home was quiet and full of nostalgia already.

You were glad to come home but...The memories you made during this week were just so incredible.

Bruce made a mental note to try and find a way to get time off more often. And as he holds your sleeping form in his arms on the plane trip home, as you cuddle close to him and as he looks upon his comatose sons (very tired...jet lagged) and half-asleep butler, he cannot help but smile and be ridiculously happy.

Yes. He would make sure that you would all have time off from time to time. Next time, he’d take you guys to Europe or something...

___________________________

Hope you liked it. It was just a really silly idea I got all of a sudden, and I wrote it in 11 minutes (yes, I’m a looser, I counted...). Ahem. Anyway. Thanks for reading :-).

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thelittleredheadedmusician · 8 years ago

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Gossip Girl?

Batfam Week Day 6 is Paparazzi! And I’ve come to the realization that I like writing about pictures? It’s ok, please enjoy all the dirt Babs has on the Bats. Can also be found here on my ao3. Rating: PG Words: 1,558 Gen

The almighty, all-knowing Oracle knew that “information broker” and “well-informed gossip” were synonyms. Sure, information brokers had data on things like bank accounts and security blueprints but otherwise it was much the same. She knew all the dirt on any given League member or villain. You wanted to know where George Clooney was going on vacation this year? It was to Monaco with his wife, they were staying at a friend’s house there. The last time the Queen of England had eaten a burger? Two Thursdays ago for lunch, it was medium rare with ketchup, onions, and a pickle on the side.

As any good gossip did she kept tabs on her friends. Dinah often just gave Babs her stories freely, over coffee and cake, as the two friends had a long history of talking about their lives. Regardless, she had a file filled with reviews of the band Black Canary, tabloids about Dinah and Oliver’s relationship, and business articles about Sherwood Florist and the boxing gym she ran with Ted Grant.

Her files on her fellow bats? Now that’s were things got really interesting. Being Bruce’s unofficial PR department Babs was tasked with keeping the public from realizing that the Waynes and friends were secretly Gotham’s vigilantes. Not an easy job. Especially when they all kept on insisting on doing ridiculous stuff in front of cameras.

The file on Jason was smaller than the rest. Mainly consisting of articles about his adoption and paparazzi pictures from when he was younger. Though since his return and a slight mend in his relationship with the family he had been returned to the public eye under the rouse of being Cass’s personal bodyguard. Not that she needed one, just that they got along the best and Cass was more than happy to get Jason to help her make trouble with Steph, Harper, and sometimes Tim at events. It gave Babs a migraine just thinking about it.

The newer stuff on Jay mainly consisted of him flipping off the camera, a charming trait he’d passed along to Stephanie. There were quite a few from galas that showcased his left hook being used on a CEO who had tried to grab Cass. Those Babs smiled at whenever she came across them. A few were of him dancing with his sister or helping make mischief. Being caught spilling drinks or slipping food into pockets. A particularly amusing photo consisted of him and Steph sipping champagne and failing to look innocent. She sometime used this as one of her screens wallpaper because it always made her giggle.

The other smaller files all belonged to the bats who weren’t also Waynes. Steph, Luke, Harper, and Duke all broke just about even thanks to their own antics and known friendship with the Waynes. Much of Luke’s was on his company and family. A few were candid ones of him working out in the park or at a gym. Her personal favorite was when a paparazzi caught him at some gala eating a piece of cake and accidentally smearing icing on his nose.

Comparatively Duke and Harper’s consisted mainly of gala photos and other Wayne Foundation events. Duke also had articles on Bruce taking him in while Harper had conspiracies on “Which Wayne was she dating?” They also had a handful of pictures taken from when they were hanging out in Gotham with some of the other kids. Including one that was of them, Steph, Cass, Tim, and Jason all flipping off the photographer.

Stephanie’s file was certainly the most colorful thanks in part to her longer time as a vigilante. There were articles on her father and Spolier’s attempts to stop him. Many a tabloid on her relationship or lack there of with Tim. An amusing blog post speculating if she was actually Bruce’s illegitimate child since she always seemed to be with them. Steph herself was rather proud of that one. Babs’s headaches came from the plethora of pictures that accompanied all of them.

There were all the ones of her flipping the bird, a sweet smile on her face as her middle finger rested against the tip of her nose. Steph at the mall with Cass and Harper. Steph at an ice cream parlor with Tim and Cass. Steph with her arms linked between Jason and Dick, the older boys not trying to kill each other as she tugged them towards a movie theater, with the other kids in the background. Steph and Damian at the park, the animal shelter, the book store, the craft store, some coffee shop. Steph and Cass causing trouble in formal wear at a gala. Steph stealing drinks from an unsuspecting waiter at a gala. Steph with a shocked expression as she “accidentally” trips Brucie at a gala. The list was endless.

Babs swore that the youngest Batgirl sought the paparazzi out just for the sake of causing rumors. She was nearly as bad as Dick when it came to telling purposefully ridiculous stories about the family. His file was the second largest after Bruce’s, filled with roughly two decades worth of attention from the media. Everything from reviews of Haly’s Circus and talk of the Flying Graysons to his adoption by Bruce Wayne to his enrollment and eventual graduation from the Bludhaven Police Academy were contained within it.

A favorite stunt of his was to use parkour and his acrobatics to avoid the cameras, meaning that they just got shots of him doing ridiculous things in gravity defying places. Babs had given him way too many lectures for him to still be doing it and yet, the file was full of them. There was also the ones of him at the galas, some with a beautiful girl as his date and in many that was Babs herself. There were tons of him with Tim or Damian at the arcade or videogame store. Those always made her happy, Dick really was a good brother.

For being so young, Damian’s file was rather large. There was all the press that surrounded his appearance. Some genuine articles, including a few by Clark and Lois who had been asked to help, some just insane gossip and conspiracy. The pictures on the other hand were a mix bag of outings with his siblings and Alfred, walks with Titus, him and Bruce at galas, and the ones that made Barbara’s life difficult. The threatening glares at socialites, the pranks with Steph at events, a near fist fight with Jason. The one she had to delete any trace of was when he was waving a steak knife at Tim and Dick had to hold the two boys apart.

Tim’s file always made her sigh. Half the time he was trying to do his own image damage control and it just messed her up. There was all sorts of things on the Drake family and Tim and then Tim getting adopted and the mess that was him taking over WE and Tam being his “fiancée” or whatever. She still didn’t fully grasp how Tim managed that situation. His pictures were calmer but their locations not just Gotham. There were loads of him and Steph and him and Cass. Quite of few of him and Dick too. In all he looked exhausted but happy. There were literal tons of him going and coming at WE, always in a suit with coffee in hand. The more exotic ones were of his globetrotting for the company and cases. These held Tam, now known officially has his assistant, and Pru, her official position that of bodyguard. Sometimes they featured Cassie, Bart, and Kon who would visit him and the four would have mini vacations together. In all, pretty tame and Babs didn’t bother until Tim got himself in another mess regarding WE.

Cass’s file was probably the most entertaining. She was wrapped in mystery whenever the press talked about her, due to her not speaking for many years and her penchant to give reporters the slip. Whenever photographers did catch her she always saw them and would pose. There were hundreds of ridiculous Cass faces at all sorts of events. The one she and Babs both decided was the best was one of her dancing with Bruce at some gala, she had spotted the camera and given it a toothy grin and a little wave from behind Bruce’s back. Babs had sent this to Bruce and knew he had printed two copes and framed them. One sat in the study at the manor and the other on his desk at WE. Cass knew and loved that too.

Bruce’s file was the biggest one that Babs managed. If you could call it managing. At this point Bruce was so good at turning Brucie on and off all she had to do was put the latest photos in. Some though were just downright embarrassing. Him dropping ice cream on himself as the boys argued, an outfit that looked like it had been chosen in the dark, and about a thousand others. Some days she picked the best and sent it out in a mass text to everyone. Bruce didn’t like her on those days but the rest of the family certainly did.

It was nice being Oracle. She never lacked for good stories and she especially never lacked for good blackmail material.

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danschkade · 8 years ago

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ANALYSIS -- BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #17

On a recent trip to visit my folks, I went through some boxes and found, sans cover, this copy of 1999’s BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #17. Gotham Adventures was my full-stop favorite comic when it was coming out, a combination of me being smack dab in the middle of its target demographic and it being really, really well made. Tight story, dynamic artwork, clean, crisp colors and letters. As I transition from Vacation Dan back to The Schkade That Works, I thought it would be a useful exercise to go through this issue, page by page, to see how it ticks.

I’ll be focusing mainly on the pencils and colors by Tim Levins and Lee Loughridge, respectively, plus Scott Peterson’s script — Terry Beatty is one of my favorite inkers ever and letter Tim Harkins acquits himself expertly, so I won’t have much to say about them beyond “continues to be amazing, surprising no one.”

And please, feel free to check me on any mistakes I might have made, add your own commentary, or share similar examples of good comics done well.

Batman: Gotham Adventures and all characters contained therin are of course property of DC Comics, reproduced here solely for educational purposes.

PAGE ONE

We open strong with a full-page splash. Three distinct players whose suits, hats, and bad ties immediately code them in the Timm-verse aesthetic as ‘Hoodlums’ give us immediate sense of threat. Their momentum is heading left, into the fold, against the western flow of reading; this is because they’re bad guys — their actions go against the proper order of things, up to and including the reading flow. But also for another reason, which the right-most hood’s reaction sets us up for, compelling us to turn the page.

PAGE TWO-THREE

An even stronger followup with a double-page splash. Batman smashes in through the window in a powerful left to right movement, in direct opposition to the gangsters’ movement on the previous splash. The background establishes the family Batman is there to protect, as well as the shabbiness of their apartment and clothes. The fact that Batman’s cape can still be partially outside the window while he’s hitting the hoods who just came through the opposite doorway immediately sells how small the space is. What could these poor people possibly have that’s worth three armed gunmen kicking down their door?

PAGE FOUR

This page is all about one thing: establishing Batman as an overwhelming force. Strong left-to-right movement, always dominating the panel, no signs that this is especially difficult for him. His first line of dialogue: a piece of short, relaxed, confident detective talk.

PAGE FIVE

The first two panels do a lot. Batman converses openly with the Agronas family, who clearly trust him. He’s a terrifying physical presence, but a terrifying physical presence of the people. It also shows that Nicky Agronas is bright — wears glasses, reads the newspaper. As soon as they mention the husband, the husband appears, which is a nice clean introduction for that character. There’s no reason the husband could’t have been in the double splash that introduces his wife and son, but having him coming home in the middle of this scene is a great way to inject a little motion onto a page that would otherwise just have been four people talking in a room. Lastly, the sudden use of heavy black — enhanced by Loughridge’s shift to unnatural yellow lighting — makes Batman’s suspicion of the husband feel intimidating without having to change his physical demeanor, which would have both been over-the-top and undone the work the first couple panels do to make him a sympathetic protagonist.

Academic sidebar: Setting aside that this is an issue in a series featuring one of the most famous fictional detectives of all time, how do we know Batman the protagonist of this story? Because he’s the one doing things and asking questions, moving the plot forward.

PAGE SIX

Nice one-two beat with the first two panels on this page: Panel one, Mr. Agronas is calmly answering the question — he’s a good citizen with nothing to fear from Batman. Batman still dominates the frame, though. Panel two zooms in on Agronas, putting the question of his involvement to bed with a simple, honest mini-joke. Letting him have a panel all to himself to say this is a good way to humanize him. In panel three, Batman continues to tower, but there’s no threat of violence. Here, as on the high-angle shot in panel three of the previous page, we see some shattered glass to remind us of the damage to the window and door from earlier. The money Batman leaves them for said damage is totally understated, with only the bright green color drawing attention to it. Batman’s a stand-up guy, but drawing attention to it wouldn’t fit his image.

PAGE SEVEN

There’s nothing in this first panel that says “JAIL” or “POLICE” — it’s just a bluntly governmental-looking building (I believe it’s specifically the blocky grey columns that give it this feeling), but we can tell from the fact that there’s prison bars in the next panel that that’s what the building is. No need to add extraneous detail. I like the design Levins gave the head hood, first seen on page one — the unibrow is a great way to sell the change from frowning to fear. Note also how many memorable features the big prisoner has — bald, scar, blind eye, bad teeth. He’s easy to remember, which will become important shortly.

PAGE EIGHT

Loughridge’s sickly green colors of the previous page snap back to natural lighting on this page, immediately conveying the change in environment. And hey, how great is that Commissioner Gordon silhouette in panel one? That’s some smart use of character model. Regarding the design of the big prisoner from the previous page — we see here that he’s in fact Batman in disguise, which actually saves us a lot of space on this page; instead of showing him removing the disguise and then putting on the cowl, we only need to see him opening the shirt to reveal the bat emblem, and then in the next panel, bam, he’s Batman. We know Bruce Wayne doesn’t look like that. We know it’s a disguise. We get it. It does rely on the reader having a basic knowledge of these characters and this world, but all things considered, that’s a pretty safe bet. Couple other things: Levins keeps the energy up by skewing the axis of the four panel grid, which also gives this rooftop scene a nice sense of vertigo. I’m actually not a huge fan of the last panel — I find that the upside-down pose kind of undercuts the gravity of what he’s saying, I think the leftwards movement is weird, and the whole panel is just, like, tangent city. That said, still a strong page.

PAGE NINE

Again: Batman as an Overwhelming Force. I know I just bashed the previous page for its leftward movement, but on this page it works really well — the wreckage of Batman’s assault on the house leads leftward towards the front door, up the stairs, ultimately across Zarelli’s desk, towards the man himself. I think this counter reading flow movement really effectively sells Batman as an invading presence in this man’s home. This page also shows us the wealth and power of Enrico Zarelli, who we finally see in the last panel after being mentioned regularly for four pages; The huge house, the framed artwork, the dozen armed thugs. See also the confidence of his speech, and the fact that he’s shadowed just like Batman. There’s an implicit feeling that this is a meeting between equals.

PAGE TEN

Nice that our first full look at Zarelli has him in his own panel, with the cowled shadow on the wall behind him suggesting Batman’s off-panel movement towards him. Great acting here — I love how Zarelli no-sells Batman’s gimmick.

PAGE ELEVEN

Levins (with the round panels boarders) and Loughridge (with his deceptively-hard-to-pull-off-well use of grey and sepia tones) work together well here to make the scene a flashback without drawing attention to that effect. Note how we don’t need to see Zarelli’s whole body to know he can walk, we just need to see him moving at the same height as other, presumably ambulatory people. Cool dramatic composition in the last panel, placing us in the line of fire along with Zarelli and his men.

PAGE TWELVE

This use of shadow to cleanly yet powerfully suggest something gruesome off screen is something ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ did so well, and it’s likewise effective here. Seeing Zarelli’s clenching hand (the Z ring was established on the previous page) gives us just enough intimacy to feel his pain. The use of black as a costume design element in this scene makes Zarelli, his son, and Batman feel a little more important and real than the hoods on either side.

PAGE THIRTEEN

I like that there’s a batarang laying on the ground amongst the dead/unconscious gangsters. It’s not necessary, but we saw him throw it on the previous page, so it’s a nice little piece of continuity. The final two panels have added impact because they’re the last before the page turn, giving them a feeling of isolation and hopelessness (undercut slightly by the fact that the page turns to a very colorful double page DC Kids page encouraging young readers to enter a nabisco sweepstakes, recycle this comic, and, perhaps most puzzlingly, pick up the first issue of the ‘Day of Judgement’ crossover).

PAGE FOURTEEN

Good call having Batman’s cape closed over him on this page. It makes him less aggressive, almost judge-like, befitting the respect he’s giving this man who lost his son. The cool coloring in panel four adds impact to the dicey situation Batman now faces.

PAGE FIFTEEN

Appropriately, we go from talking about sons de facto and de jure to having Batman talk it over with Dick Grayson, his son by any other name. Here, the upside down thing actually serves to break up the mood after a heavy scene. The fact that they’re talking about serious business while casually practicing acrobatics makes the scene particular to these specific characters — even when there’s no one to punch and nothing to detect, there’s still always Batman stuff going on in this Batman comic.

PAGE SIXTEEN

This page rules. I love how much motion there is, even down to Dick’s change of arm position in the background from panels one to two. It makes the motion of Bruce pulling off the mask seem smaller and more intimate by comparison. And that last line is just all-american grade-A understanding of character. It’s informed by Bruce’s origins, but not directly referencing them. He can’t put his personal desire to see Zarelli’s empire destroyed before his human duty to give Nicky the chance to know his biological father. Panel two of this page also features our first and only bleed art (art which extends beyond the edge of the physical page, as opposed to art contained within the boarders of a panel), which further gives the Batcave a sense of hugeness, and nicely breaks up the layout of the page besides.

PAGE SEVENTEEN

Note that the only characters we can clearly see on this page are Nicky and Zarelli — the scene is about them, not Batman and the goons, who are all either far away or in shadow. Nice touch, the goons all being in casts and bandages. I can’t even put my finger on why that works so well; they’re not really there to guard anything, since Batman already went through them once without much trouble. I think their main purpose on this page is to make us feel how Nicky feels in this place; this big house full of men with guns, this intimidating world this man is asking him to be a part of.

PAGE EIGHTEEN

This page is lit warmly, with lots of sympathetic angles. It’s not until the last panel that Zarelli’s pitch is thrown into any kind of suspicious light. “Without family, you have nothing” — but family with Zarelli means gunmen, tainted opulence, and the looming, annihilating specter of Batman.

Now, I’ve eschewed ads in my scans until now, but I include this one as a particularly good example of how even the best writers have no control over what image might end up facing an important emotional moment.

PAGE NINETEEN

The first page dedicated entirely to Nicky and Zarelli. The very sympathetic first panel transitions into an intense close up in panel two that makes Zarelli’s offer feel almost like a threat, even though that’s clearly not how he intendeds it. Zarelli can’t help being the dangerous gangster he is. The first time Nicky speaks, it’s to ask about his parents, and I love Zarelli’s castoffish response, “The people who raised you?”

PAGE TWENTY

Another page solely of Nicky and Zarelli. If the last couple pages have been all about Zarelli’s pitch, this one is entirely about Nicky’s process. The Thinker’s a little on the nose, but I dunno, it works. And it goes towards our ongoing theme of Nicky Is Smart. He’s staged strongly throughout, reflecting the strong decision he makes. The choice to include the background in panel four helps reinforce Nicky and Zarelli’s spatial relationship, which heightens the act of walking away. That it’s this close to the end of the story and Peterson can still devote an entire page to this moment shows how well-paced the issue is.

PAGE TWENTY ONE

The goons become useful again in this final action beat. Batman Overwhelming Forces them into the doorjamb, a good use of the environment to make it clear he gets to them before they can get after Nicky, but his real rage is saved for when he turns around toward Zarelli. He’s huge in this panel, as aggressive and dangerous as we’ve seen him in this issue. Zarelli, by contrast, is made small by a high angle shot, his hands folded in his lap. The four panel grid is even skewed so as to squeeze him into the corner, in addition to making the action in the previous panels more dynamic.

PAGE TWENTY TWO

It’s Batman and Son again, with the green glow of the batcomputer establishing the change in location. The note to Lucius Fox in panel two is a nice large scale version of him leaving the money on the Agronas’ table on page six. And Nicky would be a good candidate, too — this is the (or at least a) payoff for Nicky Is Smart. Panel three is small and all utility, showing Batman’s change back to Bruce Wayne as we transition up from the cave to Wayne manner, a panel made necessary by the fact that we haven’t yet established that location in this issue. We’re left with a nice big final panel, rosy and nostalgic in direct contrast to the green of the batcave. Bruce looks from left to right at the portrait of his parents, mirroring the portrait in Zarelli’s study, cementing the emotional connection he feels to a man who is in all other regards his enemy. You could read the fact that Bruce’s sitting as an additional corollary to the wheelchair-bound Zarelli, but I think it’s just that a seated position works best for the horizontal composition of the panel. Strong ending for a very strong issue.

LETTERS PAGE

Nothing insightful to offer here, it’s just that I’ve always thought this next issue cover was rad. I probably have that one too, somewhere.

(The missing cover, by Bob Smith and Terry Beatty, is awesome.)

#Comics #Batman #Batman TAS #Scott Peterson #Tim Levins #Terry Beatty #Lee Loughridge #Tim Harkins #DC Comics #Educational Purposes

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