#did someone fuck up or was it intentional to drive folks off desktop?

[magic-multicolored-miracle]

So a list of tumblr formatting that is apparently screwed up at the moment (on desktop):

1) photos appearing in a long line instead of a grid layout

2) asks not displaying the sender or any clear delineation of where the question stops and the answer starts

3) read mores are a waste of time because they’re not there.

It looks like it’s not happening on Mobile, where everything still looks normal, or with reblogs, where, again, everything looks normal.

[black-streak]

Saturday night's alright for fighting (but Sundays are meant for rest) - Settled

Part 14.

This is the last official chapter for this. Anything else will be random snippets I come with (also willing to take requests) but this is technically the end of the plotline, folks. It's been wild. Thanks for the support!

Tags: @emjrabbitwolf @mystery-5-5 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @fandomkitty8 @dast218 @silvergold-swirl @shizukiryuu . @my-name-is-michell @kurogaya913 @elspethshadow @thecatnipmademedoit @shamefullove @ladylucina28 @crazylittlemunchkin @rayray384 @cassiejaydee @yuulxd @ladysblackcat @naclychilli @caffeinetheory @persephonebutkore @fertileleaf @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @weird-pale-blonde-person @st0rmy-w1th1n @littleblue5mcdork @dudet @naoryllis @disneyfoxuniverse @lordsmeldingtonthethird @taoiichii @resignedcatservant @iloontjeboontje @a-fan-fighting-for-equality

~---~

Today had been normal. Completely, bafflingly normal. Tim had pulled himself away from his computer to drive to work in the morning, dealt with the mundane process of working a board meeting into his favor, left for the manor, transferred a compiled section of files over to the mainframe down in the batcave for review, had dinner with the family and went separate ways before patrol that night.

Imagine his surprise to walk down to the cave only to find everyone already present and accounted for and more ominously, staring him down. Surely they hadn't planned another sleep intervention? Sure he skipped the last two nights, but he had made great strides of improvements in the last three-ish months! They could not expect a lifelong habit to change in such a short period of time. Dammit, he needed coffee if this conversation was to happen.

Turning on his heel, he started back up the stairs only to feel a hand grab his shoulder and pull him back towards the family. He saw faces come into his view one at a time as he was dragged past and promptly dumped into the chair at the Batcomputer. The hand belonged to Jason, who glared down at him and kept the same hand against the chair by his head.

"You want to explain yourself?"

No nicknames or playful digs. Something was very wrong indeed. Tim blinked up at him until he saw Dick in the background, face dark and twisted in a mix of confusion and anger, pointedly staring at the computer past his shoulder. Following his gaze, he saw one of his laptop files opened up on the desktop; specifically the file dedicated to Marinette, pictures of her splayed out for all to see, little comments and captions taking up the spaces between. And okay, that was mildly embarrassing, but not too far off from what one would normally expect from him concerning his girlfriend, right? So what seemed to be the problem? Well, besides that it obviously didn't belong on this screen. Turning back to the others, he blinked up at Jason who hadn't moved. Actually, he seemed to only grow more irritated.

"Ah, sorry, hadn't realized this file ended up in the compiled folder I sent over. I'll take care of it."

The fist by his head clenched harder.

"You'll take care of it? That's all you got to say for yourself?"

"Yes..?"

"Nothing about the fact that you're obviously stalking, Marinette? Nothing to explain the horrific amount of her privacy you obviously violated? How fucking creepy this all is?"

"Wait, wha-"

"Tim, you have to realize how bad this looks. Just explain to us why you have a file on her," Dick spoke in a faux soothing voice, taking a step closer only to be stopped by Bruce, who remained silent through the encounter, though obviously waiting for an explanation as well.

"Of course I have information about her on my laptop? Why wouldn't I? You know I have files on all of you, right? It's kind of what I do."

"We've seen the files on us. They're nowhere near as detailed or extensive. You're hyper fixating on Marinette," Bruce spoke slowly, as though trying to get Tim to put it together himself.

"So?"

That, apparently, was the wrong thing to say.

"The point is that it's creepy, Tim!" That was Dick.

"You fuckin pervert, you don't see anything wrong with taking pictures of her while she's sleeping?!" Jason.

"I thought perhaps you two had just found a common point of comfort in the naps, but perhaps I should have separated the two of you. You've obviously become attached to the point of obsession." Bruce.

"She's Damian's girlfriend, Tim, how could you?" And Steph- wait, what? Stephanie?

That's when it clicked. That's when he noticed Damian standing off from the rest, expression closed off, but humor hiding in the glint of his eyes. Stephanie stood a little off to his left, voice hard and accusing, but face barely holding back a gleeful, biting expression. 

Oh god, the bet.

Wide-eyed, he turned back to Damian, "They don't know?"

He shook his head.

"But after Stephanie found out?"

He shook his head again.

"Found out what?" The hard voice of Dick brought him back to his current predicament.

"I could have sworn I already told you," he muttered to himself, "you know that Damian-"

"Tim." Damian's sharp voice cut him off, reminding him of the parameters of the bet. Which left the question of what was worse, pissing off Mari and Damian simultaneously or dealing with his clueless older brothers and father figure right now. Yeah, he'd take his chance with the latter. Wait, was Cass behind him? 'I'll still take that risk.' He couldn't help but think.

Turning back to the steadily growing impatience before him, he sighed, "I thought you already knew."

"So what, you've been trying to steal her from your little brother? And thought our silence on the matter was approval? Of course we didn't know you were taking creep shots of her!" Jason shouted.

"They're not creep shots if she doesn't care."

That only threw them for a loop for a half second.

"She couldn't have realized the intention was this, Tim! And it doesn't make it right! She's with Damian!" Dick growled out.

"Says who?"

"What?"

"Damian has never said as much. Who's to say they are?" Tim worded carefully, never outright stating who was or wasn't dating, only asking who confirmed the information.

"You know they are, stop deflecting," came from Bruce.

"Did you ask them? Because I did. You should too."

That seemed to throw most of them off and he saw Damian seething in the corner of his eye. The two months of Marinette's wager ended tonight. As of midnight, she'd officially lose even if Damian didn't win outright. Bruce turned to his youngest then, a touch of concern entering his facial expression.

"You're dating Marinette, correct?"

Damian masked his annoyance and turned to face the others.

"No."

"What do you mean, babybat? You two are practically joined at the hip. We all have to steal her away to get you two separate." 

"She is my best friend. A literal angel on earth. Beautiful and sweet and dangerous. But absolutely not my girlfriend."

"Why not? You obviously love her."

"Platonically. We would kill each other in a relationship. I do not mean that figuratively either."

"Huh…"

"I think you two are missing the point," Jason ground out, cutting off the conversation between Damian and Dick, "those two may not be together, but that still doesn't explain you having a massive ass file on her. She's half naked in some of these, Tim! In her own apartment!"

"I'm aware of the photos there. I'm more annoyed you saw those, actually. How long were you looking through my files, Jason? Should I be worried about You creeping on Ma lutine?" And apparently he had no sense of self preservation left.

"The fuck did you just say? Your pixie? Oh fuck no, you do not get to make claims on her!" 

And that's when chaos broke loose.

Jason had backed off a bit before, but now he was advancing on him, murderous intent in his eyes, Bruce and Dick closing in on them; whether for him or to stop Jason, he did not know. Cass moved closer from behind and for a second he swore he saw Steph and Damian share a concerned look. For a fraction of a second, he resigned himself to his fate. As Jason lifted his gun, luckily only loaded with rubber bullets, but still potentially deadly at this range, he suddenly felt it. A prickling at the back of his neck. Everything happened too quickly.

Something unseen dropped down, the gun went off in response. It blocked the bullet with a hand shrouded in black, the force knocking it back into Tim's lap where he grasped it's hips to steady them on instinct, the body covering his in a protective manner as a growl ripped out of their throat. Everyone froze.

The shadow was here.

In the batcave.

Guarding Tim bodily, silver-blue eyes glinted dangerously at Jason like a cornered predator, ready to attack at any given moment. And Jason could only stare, because he knew who this was. Tim and Damian knew who this was. No one else knew and she had just put herself at the mercy of Batman, Nightwing, Orphan, Spoiler, and likely Oracle. All to protect Tim from Jason. Who had just shot her. The gun dropped. Jason dropped to his knees as the others converged on her. 

"Not. A step. Closer." She growled out, black energy flaring from her hands up her arms. 

"I'm so sorry. Vix, you have to know that I'd never try to shoot you. I didn't know, I'm sorry," Jason rambled, panick flaring up.

"It's okay, Jason. You know now. And you'll never aim at him again, will you? He's mine." She said this to the man in front of her, but her eyes stared down Bruce and Dick as they tried to gain ground. Cass stayed back, Damian and Steph having grabbed her shoulders. 

Damian wanted nothing more than to go up there and protect his best friend, but he knew she wouldn't allow it. This was her battle now. She had laid claim on Tim and someone was threatening her mate. He would never quite understand how the fox instincts inside of a human worked, but knew that she would treat this as she saw fit. Violently if necessary.

"Are you okay," a slightly rattled voice whispered from behind her, arms wrapping around her waist.

Watching the men in front of her, she dissipated the energy, pulling the hood down from her head and lowering the face mask slowly, allowing the entirety of her features to show and dropping the filters wrapping around her voice, letting Marinette shine through for all to see.

As dawning realization struck on the faces around her, she slowly turned in Tim's arms, hand coming up to his cheek, looking for any sign of pain in his eyes, keeping the others in her peripheral.

"I'll be fine. Are you hurt?"

"Me? You took a bullet, Mari!"

"Rubber."

"I don't care if it was made of gelatin, you were still shot!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry I scared you, but I couldn't just watch you get hurt over nothing," she soothed, pressing her forehead to his in a sweet gesture.

The moment was ruined by Batman, of course.

"Miss Marinette? You're Tim's shadow? The shadow of Gotham?"

She raised an eyebrow at the older man, "Duh."

"You've been stalking him this entire time. And I told him to figure out your identity and watch you. His entire file on you is my fault," at this, his gaze shifted to Tim, " and I accused you of being a pervert for it. I'm so sorry."

"Oh my God, is he always this dense? Is this why Ra's called you the detective?"

"Holy shit, you two are dating," Jason seemed to have come out of his panic on the floor, looking at the two in a new light, "how did I not see this before?"

"What?!" And Dick finally came unfrozen, "You're Teumessian? And you knew, didn't you?" He directed at Jason.

"Well yeah, she told me weeks ago. Or rather, showed me, I guess."

"And you never told us?"

"Not my secret identity to share."

"How many of you knew her identity?" Bruce barked out, only to see Damian, Stephanie, Jason, and Tim raise their hands. He could only heft a sigh. Why was he only good at mysteries that didn't involve his family? With that, he trudged off to brood on his own, still catching snippets of the conversation behind him. He was getting too old for this.

"Uh, not to interrupt the identity crisis, but could we get back to the fact that they're obviously together?" Jason cut in.

"They were quite obvious about it," Cass cut in quietly, seeming to have put the pieces together and found piece with them.

"Oh god, they cuddled in front of us. Blatantly. Numerous times. I feel like an idiot," Dick admitted.

"You feel stupid, I knew she was his shadow. I watched how responsive she was to him. She bent to his wishes and practically climbed him in front of me. In fact, she did! She literally climbed on his back and made him carry her!" 

"Yeah, you're all pretty stupid for being detectives," Tim glared over Vixen's shoulder, her now nuzzling his neck for comfort from the stress of this encounter.

"I'm so sorry, Tim, we should've known better than to doubt you," Dick said, puppy dog eyes on full display.

"Yeah, you should've. Ow!" Vixen nipped at his shoulder with a sharp canine.

"Be nice, they didn't know," she pointed out.

"And who's fault is that?"

"Damian's. Obviously. It was his idea to take bets on when the others would put it together."

With that, the others all turned to where Damian was only to find the spot empty. 

"And Steph, actually. She knew we were together too and still let them go after you for it."

Stephanie gave a nervous chuckle and then took off, the others giving chase after her and to find Damian. Screams echoed down the hall and suddenly Tim and her were alone. 

She dropped the transformation and slumped against him. Tim picked up her hand that had dissolved the bullet and cupped it close.

"Does it hurt?"

"It'll bruise, but I'll be okay. It'll look ugly for a little bit."

He pressed a kiss into her palm in response, whisper soft and reverent, "please don't scare me like that again."

"Then you don't needlessly endanger yourself like that again. I don't care what bet I had going, you should have just told them the second they cornered you like that. You could've told Damian that their demands for explanation was technically asking in a way you had to answer. You're too smart to not be using loopholes like that."

"I'm sorry for worrying you, love."

"You better be," she kissed his neck and curled closer, settling in his lap.

"We should relocate."

"No. If they're going to make stupid accusations, they should have to stare at the stupidity of their actions."

"You're cute when you're vindictive, but could we please move to the couch? It'll be comfier," he tempted. Blushing, she peaked up at him.

"That does sound nice… but only if you carry me," she smiled, giving a little excited wiggle.

"Think I can arrange that," he softened under her gaze, picking her up as he stood and made his way up towards the living room couch, patrol forgotten for the night, "hey, who technically won, anyways?"

"Who even cares?... Though I think I did."