#dukeconnor

[what-if-i-imagine]

“You’re my best friend” were Dick’s words. He could never decide if he took comfort in them or not, unsure of the context in which his soulmate would say them. As he got older, he learned to love them. The words stretched up his right leg, and his mom had told him it meant his soulmate was a runner. In his teenage years he found Wally west who said his exact words just minutes before Dick had said his own “I would do anything for you. Anything.” Which were written right over Wally’s heart.

“You are the coolest person I’ve ever met” were Cass’s words, written on her chest. She didn’t know what they meant for the majority of her life, only learning what they meant and what they were when she was deep in her teenage years. She carried the secret silent fear that her soulmate had already said her words, and she would never know. That was, until Stephanie said them one night in the Clocktower. She had said Steph’s words a month before without knowing it, and Steph was delighted to show her the words “my Batgril” written on the back of her hand.

“I hate you so much” were Jason’s words. He never understood them. If these were supposed to be the words his soulmate said when they fell in love with him, why did they express just the opposite? His father had used the words against him. Had told him even his soulmate would hate him. All the pain the words on his bicep had caused him, he was more than shocked when they were said by Roy on a night of hanging out as a joke, and even more shocked when Roy had shown him the words Jason had said to him two years before on his inner thigh reading “You’re Roy Fucking Harper, you are so much stronger than this. I know you can beat it.”

“You know you want me” were Tim’s words. They went along the under side of his jaw, into his hairline, and he hated them for so long. His soulmate was clearly arrogant and not worth his time if those were really the first words they would say to him after falling in love. Or that’s what he thought, until Kon said them, and Tim knew he was only saying them because he wanted a Tim to want him. Kon’s words delicately written spiraling down his arm, around his wrist, and to his hand was Tim’s immediate response of “you’d be an idiot if you thought I didn’t.”

“Gotham doesn’t deserve a light like you” were Duke’s words. Duke had ignored the words on his bicep for most of his life, knowing he had no interest in finding a romantic partner. Jason had once commented that his soulmate might be an archer like his, but he had begged thought about it farther than that. Then Connor had whispered his words while they were lying awake on the floor, their teammates snoring around them, and he wondered what he was supposed to do. A few years later, after Duke had found proper closure for his parents and fully settled into his new life, he finally said the words that stretched vertically down Connor’s back. “I’m ready now. I hope you still are too.”

“I believe in you, please just believe in me” were Damian’s words. He hadn’t known what to think of them for a very long time. They were not bad by any means, but knowing the line of work he would be in, they were not good either. In reverse to Tim’s, Damian’s words written on him chest were actually the response to the words he would say to Jon when he was fifteen, after Jon had finally gotten back to the right age and come back to him. “I can’t lose you again,” was written across Jon’s collarbones.

“If you think I’m ever letting you go you’re insane” were Barbara’s words. They were written so they circled her stomach, the end and beginning meeting at a point above her spine on her back. She had been devastated when woke up in the hospital, sure the bullet had ruined her words as well as her legs. The only relife in the hospital that day was when she realized her words had been perfectly spaced so the bullet didn’t touch them. Dinah said the words to her in response to Babs’s words that wrapped around her throat saying “please save yourself. I’ll be okay.”

“I love you and I hate it more than anything” were Bruce’s words. They started on his ring finger and made their way down to spiral around his wrist. The words had brought his family pain for a long time, but he had learned to become indifferent to them by the tenth anniversary of his parents’ deaths. When Jason trustee him enough to show his words, Bruce hand pulled off his glove and done the same him hopes to bring his new son comfort. He knew who his soulmate was, had for five years by that point. While he had been toweling off after a shower on Watchtower, he had seen Hal’s bare back and knew. The words “you’re Hal Jordan. If you can’t do this, then do no one can. I believe in you” were written in a way that almost formed wings on his back. Bruce remembered very clearly when he had said those words to him on the mission earlier that day. Hal didn’t say his words until a couple years into Tim being Robin.

[what-if-i-imagine]

I am officially torn between dukeconnor (is that their ship name???) and Duke as Flamebird with Chris as Nightwing. You can all blame @a-single-drop-of-ink for creating one of these and fueling the other, and for these ships now showing up in my writing all the time.