#gotham belongs to his father aka him

[ghostbsuter]

The notification came not even a second ago, and it had him fly across the city just as fast.

Nightwing barely acknowledged the thrum of the Batmobil following closely behind, already on his way to west end of Gotham City.

"5 Assasins in view, more possibly hidden away. A child, around 11, leading them." Oracle's voice was clipped in the way Dick knew she didn't like this.

This screamed like a trap, why else would the League of Assassins be in Gotham of all places?

He lands on the roof, tense and gripping his escrima sticks tightly.

Batman is on his tail, taking over lead, and they are near the group of unwanted guests.

He sees Red Robin on the other roof, backup if needed.

The child clicks his tongue at the sight of them, shaking head with a grumble. "Danyal, Father has found us, we should get this over quickly."

The amount of shock and confusion he feels makes him wonder if it were a dream.

Another click of tongue but not from the child in front of them, no. It was another child re-appearing from the invisible spectrum.

His hand around the throat of a limp talon.

"I didn't think he would be so fast." The other child comments.

"As expected of father." The first child, green eyed and serious nods. Towards batman.

"Now, for the reason we are here."

He steps to the edge of the building, and Nightwing desperately wants to get him from it, clearing his throat.

"I, Damian al Ghul, heir to the demon's head, formally declare war on the Court of Owls." Damian's voice is loud, unforgiving and unrelenting. Eyes burning.

It almost made him miss the words he spoke.

"The League of Assassins has a claim to Gotham," the boy spits. "And i won't let some society take it from us."

The unnamed twin throws the limp talon from the edge with a grunt. "Take that as a warning!" He halfheartedly shouts after.

And so it began.

[nosyrobin]

THE WHITE BAT

prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Warning: blood , canon violence, ooc for Damian(?)

Summary: again the bat fights crime, the bird comes to help. Ending in a bird’s injury, and bat’s protectiveness. Making the relationship bloom even more between the two young heroes.

Gun shots rang out in the alleyway, a swish sound connecting as a criminal falls straight onto their ass.

The knight strides towards their foe, glowing pink eyes as their hand graze the brick walls. Sharp claws, scraping the damned bricks that dare to make any sound other than nails on a chalkboard. The criminal shake before getting up and running making the white bat smile.

“Oh I love it when they run…” they said before they disappeared within the shadows. Smiling their sharp fangs….

Meanwhile Robin, aka Damian was crouching on a roof. Patrol, well more like a sneaked out one as his father try to ban him from patrol until he can get his “act” right. Dick had called it a “rebellious teen phase” making Damian scoff at that. Damian was mostly out on patrol to catch a certain white knight that caught his heart and attention. He hated that he won’t admit that he had secured the white cloak he kept somewhere else.

Okay so maybe he sleep with it some nights (every night) when he wants to think of white knight. But that doesn’t mean he’s that attached to the bat. As he uses his binoculars to scan the area out, that’s when he sees a suspicious person running. But he’s eyes widen when he sees a flash of a white cloak that belonged to a certain knight. His knight. Damian immediately pulled out his grapple hook, ready to meet the person he was destined to meet again.

Back to the bat, they followed the damned criminal. Coming out of the shadows. The shadows belonged to a warehouse, an abandoned looking one as the bat narrowed their pink eyes. Scanning the area, a bright light shined on them. Making them tense as they pushed their cloak off their arms, ready to take on whoever was trying to jump them.

“Hah! The little bat fell for it!” The same criminal said as he smiled with a gold tooth. There were five more guys around, surrounding the young hero who definitely didn’t give a fuck how many there were. They were gonna kick their ass.

As one ran up on the bat, they swiftly dodged the rush and grabbed the crook’s arm. Twisting it before kicking the crook towards another one. As an another enemy was sneaking up behind the white knight, a bat-a-rang slashes their hand that dare tried to touch them.

“Not on my watch.” Robin said as he swooped down and drop kicked the criminal down. “Robin? What are you doing here” the bat says as Robin dusted himself off, immediately putting his back against their as a few more crooks showed up.

“I’m helping you. Isn’t that obvious?” He said with a bat smirk. The white bat laughed out loud, showing their pearly white fangs. “Ah I see…well. Welcome to the show birdy.” The bat says as Robin nodded. They both put their fists up and got to work.

Robin uppercut an enemy before slamming them to his knee, the bat swooped around. Back flipping onto an enemy’s neck and bringing them down to crack their neck on pavement. Smiling as they got up and go to work on the others.

Robin gave a nimble roundhouse kick before you appear above him and gave a nice axe kick. Completing the combo move as you landed gracefully by the bird. It seemed you beat the other up as Robin and you finished his last one. Your cloak covered your body as you looked at the boy wonder. “That was amazing….we should do this next time we meet up. The bat says as they look down at the bird. Robin didn’t say anything other than nodding. The bat nods and goes to walk off.

Meanwhile Robin sucked in his lower lip before grabbing their cloak, prompting the white knight to stop. “Wait….would like to patrol with me? Watch over Gotham, til it’s time for me to go?” He asked softly. The white knight smiled, their pink eyes glowing softly.

“Sure i would—”

Robin’s eyes widen as he immediately jumped in front of you, a shot rang from the air as the bat’s and bird’s ears rang. Robin falls to his knees, making the bat’s eyes widen with fear.

“ROBIN!” Immediately they turn to the person who shot the Batman’s sidekick. It was the criminal from the start of it all. The bat glared as they opened their mouth. A piercing scream came out like a wild tornado at the man. Throwing him across the stone wall of the warehouse.

The man tried to sit up only to get knocked down by a boot to his chest. Blazing pink eyes look at the man with rage as they open their mouth.

“You dare harm him…I shall not be the one to spare your life.” Wide bat wings sprouted from their back. The criminal whimpered as the bat attacked. Leaving screams and blood splattered, but after that was done. There were no traces.

Now it was only Damian moaning in pain and an angry bat’s protectiveness took place. The bat grabbed the boy and head off with a quick leap into the air and onto a roof..

“Fuck” the white knight says, dragging the word as they hopped roof to roof before jumping through an open window of their hide out. Holding the injured bird close to their body.

Lightly putting Damian down as he moans and groans. The bullet wasn’t made to just hurt you, it was made to kill you. And Damian could handle a bullet..or could he? Your thoughts was moving wild as Damian’s eyes were shut tight. Still making noise and gripping onto you as if you would disappear. You shush Damian, lifting his uniform shirt to get a look at the bullet wound.

It wasn’t too deep, but it was stuck. “Sorry Damian…this might hurt you.” You softly say as you used your sharp nails to dig it out. Damian yelled out loudly, making you cringe as you keep digging and digging. The squishy sounds of flesh and his agonizing screams made your heart sink a little. But it ended when you pulled it out perfectly in one piece and started to disinfect the wound.

Damian hissed with slight open eyes now, he felt embarrassed. He could take swords going through his arms by Slade , and practically anything he had to go through when being in league of assassins. But a bullet wound in his stomach that was meant for you.

And somehow he couldn’t handle the pain. That bullet was laced for something that was meant to kill you. But it couldn’t kill him, so he had to jump in front of you and take it. His eyes flutter looking at you, reaching a hand out and touching your cheek.

“You okay?” He asked as he tried to sit up, even if you had just bandaged him up and stitched the wound shut while he was stuck in his thoughts.

“You’re asking if I’m okay after literally taking a bullet for me.. color me stoke..you sure are something birdy..” you said in a low tone, your voice raspy from yelling his hero name as you got up from the bed side. Putting away the med kit. Damian slightly chuckled as he watched you carefully, “of course I have to ask for your wellbeing..we’re…partners..aren’t we?” He asked. He tried to make his tone not so obvious that he was nervous about the fact he said you two were technically friends.

You slowly turned your head around before turning it back at the door out of the room you both were in.

You smirked, “yeah.. I guess we are..”

White bat!reader tag: @minkyungseokie @amber-content @chibiduck

A/N: the more chapters go on, the more longer the story gets…awesome isn’t it?

[npcemi]

The long road of how starting a fight with superman over clone parenting eventually lead to Danny Phantom become God Chapter 8-10 Kidnapings and Plane rides

Link to master post

AO3

Dani, Sam, Tucker, Vlad, and Dani sat in the back section of one of Bruce's larger private jets. In his seat, the eldest halfa sat grumbling to himself, “What was that Vlad?” Danny asked...

“I said I could have at least flown in my own private jet!” Vlad nearly shouted.

“Do you have any idea how much fossil fuels that use, Do you have any Idea what that does to the earth, I can hear the green actively dying, I can hear the anguished cries from the spirits of dead flora, you’re lucky we’re using even one jet!” Sam said, signs of obsession starting to filter into her personality.

“Yes mom!” Vlad drawled being as sarcastic as possible. Dani went up to Tucker, “Father I’m tired can you make a bed.” Tucker used the scarab scepter to turn a group of seats into two California king mattresses pushed together.

“Okay, you all know the drill,” Tucker said.

“Yeah no for sure, one sec, Sam?”Danny said as Sam got up from her seat and grabbed some blankets from one of her carry-on suitcases.

“Danielle really,” Vlad asked only for Dani to look at him with supernaturally large puppy dog eyes.

“Fine.”

“Yay you’re the best.” She said as she dragged the last of her family to the bed when three flashes of light filled the room.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Babs, how many is it this time? Five, I don't think any of us.… Don’t get me wrong, I love Cass and Duke, but…” Jason turned to look Bruce directly in the eye, “I think there is a legal limit to how many kids you can adopt.”

“In my defense, I am not adopting any of them.” He replied,

“So they belong to the other billionaire we for some reason have to bring to Gotham.” Jason snarked, Jazz took the moment to mention that technically Vlad was Danny’s ‘son’. The crime lord looked like he was about to say something, stopped, tried to start again, and gave up. Barb began giggling that same harmonious laughter Jazz was beginning to enjoy greatly.

“Look, I gotta piss,” Jason said getting up to use the bathroom which was on the other end of the plane, just past the now-sleeping phantoms. He went to open the door and fell back screaming, “What in the HP Lovecraft is that?”

Jazz and Barb went over to help and saw what frightened the large man. There was a bed with several of the sleeping phantom family. The bed itself was guarded by what appeared to be green-glowing ghost jackals. The bed was lined with roses, and circling around the bed were two gyroscopic wheels covered in half-lidded eyes. In the bed were Sam, Tucker, Some kind of blue vampire, a small cat-like Lamia with white fur, and curling around all of the beings protectively was a lamia, a man thing with a giant flaming hole in its chest with massive wings that also had half-lidded eyes. If one listened closely they could hear three distinct pitches of cat-like purrs.

“Aww, they look so cute.” Jazz cooed softly before shutting

“Wha…what…cute…what... Just who are we flying into Gotham?” Jason stuttered, the eldest Fenton sister turned to look at Jason sympathetically, eyes soft.

“My brother, his partners, and children. Sorry, when they do Danielle asks for the cuddle pile they all like to be in their ghost forms, it’s a security thing.”

“You expect me to believe those are the same kids, the same Wayne adoption bait we picked up in Illinois?” He asked, still breathing heavily from the previous scare.

“Yes,” Barb and Bruce said.

“Yeah, The vampire-looking one is Plasmius or Vlad Masters as you know him aka Danny’s second child (he’s adopted), The big one is Danny, you know Sam and Tucker, and the little one doing her best to imitate her daddy is Danielle. The wheels are actually an extension of her core. She’s a spirit of safe travels and a patroness for the mirror born. Why do you think this flight has gone so smoothly?” Jazz said with a smile on her face which Barb found contagious and mirrored her smile.

“So we aren’t in a plane with biblically accurate angels?” Jason joked feeling a bit calmer now.

“Well that’s a little racist, Vlad is best described as an Upiór, and Danny and Danielle are now more classed as primordial spirits being more embodiments of a concept rather than something as mundane as those lesser spirits in a myth called angels, which are really no different than gods like Zeus. If you have to-- you can call them completely different species.” Jazz attempted to tease but she got caught up in an info dump. She went red at the embarrassment but Barb rubbed her hand reassuringly.

“I’m guessing I won’t be able to go to the bathroom then?” Jason said, peering through the doorway at the multitude of half-lidded eyes daring him to interrupt the family’s sleep.

“Probably not….”

“It’s fine, I can sneak a leak after we land, it's a bit of a drive from the airport to the mansion.”

It was in fact, not fine. As soon as they landed a bunch of goons dressed and were on the runway getting ready to board the plane. Danny, Dani, and Vlad were about to jump into action and phase through when Danny spotted a green stick note on the back of one of the goons that went unnoticed by the rest of the crew.

“Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me!” He said as Vlad, who was cracking his neck getting ready for the fight, asked him what the issue could be. Danny pointed out the plane window at the note.

“Butter biscuits, Clockwork better have a point to all of this…” Vlad muttered as the Phantoms detransformed. Danny had his sister and partners hide. The goons were rather efficient having somehow caught Jason mid bathroom break and locked him in there; barb wasn’t much of a threat at that moment. The goons, thinking Dani and Danny were Wayne children took them, Bruce, and got a bonus billionaire in Vlad as hostages. They had sacks thrown over their heads and drove off.

About fifteen minutes later they were all tied to chairs and the sacks on their heads ripped off to reveal the Riddler and Joker. Riddler with his cane and Joker with a crowbar. Danny was about to go after the clown, it was a clown and it was his right.

“Daniel!” Vlad reminded him of what Clockwork had said in his note. Danny relaxed against his ropes and muttered, "it wouldn’t be worth it anyway."

“What was that?” Joker asked irritated.

“He said that it wouldn't be worth it to beat your butt, I mean where did you two get your costumes spirit Halloween?” Dani laughed

“Dani question mark guy's outfit is clearly self-made, no self-respecting clothes designer would make an outfit covered in question marks. Everyone knows the rule about one tasteful symbol.” Vlad snorted.

“Well, Joker’s outfit is so clearly off the rack,” Danny said as the two supervillains were getting more irritated. Joker took the time to hit Danny with the crowbar causing Bruce to flinch.

“Clearly the only thing funny about you is your outfit.” Danny spat back.

“Maybe I can recommend you two a better tailor,” Vlad smirked.

“No helping supervillains remember you’re reformed.” Danny chided, Vlad rolled his eyes and replied, “They don’t even have powers, I’d hardly call them super anything.”

One of the goons having enough and trying to impress his bosses picked Dani up in an aggressive manner, “Yea well what if I harm the little princess over here!” He growled. He went to look at Dani, whom he was expecting to see a frightened little girl. He in fact was looking into pitch-black eyes and a literal shark tooth grin.

“Hi,” The Goon stumbled back dropping her chair, dropping back to the ground.

“Oof!”

“D…De…Dem...Demon!” He sputtered out crawling away. Dani tilted her head to the side, her eyes the normal blue for everyone to see.

“That’s a little racist.” She said in a sweet innocent voice.

“Yeah man, just because you see something spooky doesn’t mean it’s a demon,” Danny said,

“Yeah, it could be a ghost.” Dani snickered,

“Or a vampire!” Danny nudged Vlad who scowled,

“Bruce, help, we’re surrounded by juvenile morons,” Vlad complained only for Bruce to say he understood his pain. Joker scowled, “Where are the bats, they should be by now right?”

“I don’t know, do I look like the master of time?” Riddler snarked back,

“No,” Dani, Danny, and Vlad all said automatically.

“You know the master of time?” Bruce asked only for Danny to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Right.”

“He doesn’t even have the staff!” Dani said,

“Or the Scar.” Danny nodded,

“Or speak in inane cryptic riddles.” Vlad also nodded.

“Hey, I speak riddles!” The riddler interjected as Danny laughed,

“Your riddles come from the first five search results on Google!” Riddler stormed out of the room.

“Unless you all want to end up in a shallow grave.” Joker threatened, however, he did not get the response he expected.

“Really, I get a grave!?” Dani grinned, Danny raised his hand not realizing he just phased it out of the ropes, “While you’re handing out graves.”

“I, too, would not be opposed…” Vlad said surprisingly sheepishly. The Joker looked directly at Bruce giving him a ‘what the fuck’ look. This is not how this normally goes,

“Any clue on when the bats or birds will get here?” The clown said, still looking directly at Bruce.

“I’m not sure what’s holding them up,” Bruce said as Joker stormed out of the room.

“I guess that’s a no on the graves,” Vlad said trying not to sound disappointed.

“I don’t get a grave?” Danielle started tearing up, so Danny phased through the ropes and gave her a hug. Vlad also Phases out of his bindings and puts a reassuring hand on Danielle's back and gently rubs. Bruce silently was wondering what his life became.

____________________________________________________________________________________

“What do you mean all of the bat vehicles, planes, and boats are out of gas!?” Jason screamed.

“It's like I said, Todd!” The voice from off-screen on Jason’s phone replied.

“And the EVs?”

“No charge, We just got gas, we’re on our way with your gear,” Tim said,

“Just hurry up.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Danielle was still crying when Danny had an Idea.

“Hey Dani, since it looks like this is a self-rescue, how about you fight the bad guys.” Dani looked at her father skeptically.

“You and Vlad won't interfere?”

“You remember how to seal souls into the ghost ice right?” Dani nodded at his question.

“Then yep, this will be one hundred percent on your own, just remember to grab the clown’s soul.” He said forming a crystal of ghost ice.

“Yep, I remember what Papa wrote in the note, we need it as a gift for the revenant.” She nodded and transformed.

_______________________________________________________________________________

That same night on a rooftop in Metropolis Superman flew down to find a bunch of men in white suits by a big “S” signal light.

“A signal is more Batman’s thing.” He said,

“Well, this was the best way to get a hold of you.”

“What do you want?” The man of steel asked, The agents went on to say they knew about his fight against a phantom and were offering to help develop weapons so he could fight the ghost menace better. It would take some time but they could do it. That made sense so he agreed. Especially after they told him phantom attacked a random family in Illinois and rendered the parents believe they were three years old and kidnaped or killed their two kids and two of their son’s friends. Just as he was about to fly off, they mentioned one more thing,

“We were working with the Fentons at the time, and they managed to capture Phantom for a bit, however, according to them he is now taking the form of a small girl with white hair. “ They pulled out a tablet and showed a video of a small girl with white hair, green eyes, and the Phantom symbol on a black hazmat suit. Superman thanked them for the info and went patrol Metropolis.

Jason, Barb, Sam, Tucker, Tim, and Damian were all gearing up getting ready to look for where the rest of the Phantoms and Bruce were located. Barb was using a laptop to go over possible locations. However, Tim noticed Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were a little too calm.

“Danny get kidnaped often?” he asked.

“Why do you ask?’ Sam snapped.

“You all seem awfully calm…” Tim accused. Jason put a hand on his shoulder and told him to let it go, “No, Bruce said these kids and one of the scummiest billionaires alive were the highest priority and I don’t get why!?”

“Wow, and I thought Dash had anger issues.” They all turned to see fourteen-year-old Danny Fenton.

“Danny!” Jazz, Sam, and Tucker went and hugged him,

“Hey guys”’ He smiled as Tim and Jason stood in surprise and their jaws on the floor.

“Sooo, how’s the kidnapping going?” Jazz sing songed.

“Pretty good, got to make fun of this clown and some dude with a question mark kink. Not too happy about that last bit. Danielle is a little young to be exposed to some dude running around in a skintight leotard with a boner.” Danny frowned before smiling again, “But she did get to use scary eyes on some goon…” He was cut off by some shorter-than-danny spiky-haired kid dressed like a traffic light bursting through red robin and Red Hood.

“How are you here?” The kid demanded.

“I’m the ancient of space kid, anywhere there is the concept of space, or space itself I or a copy of myself can be.” The Kid scowled,

“So on top of teleportation, super strength, energy beams, sonic attacks, summoning stars, black holes, and some kind of eldritch form, are you basically omnipresent?”

“No, I won't be omnipresent until I die fully, something about the human body not being able to properly contain that much ectoplasm.” all three bats looked at him like he was insane, he was just glad they didn't need to go over all of his abilities because they didn't even really scuff the surface.

“Anyway I gotta get going, Vlad and I are letting Danielle beat these so-called supervillains to a pulp, oh, and Revenant we’ll have a present for you when you meet us at the warehouse,” Danny said as he faded out of existence. Barb started typing on her laptop knowing they were at a warehouse and there were only a few that matched the needs of the kidnapers and was listed as taking on some of the villain forums.

“So he let himself get kidnaped?” Tim asked.

“Yes….” Sam said unable to make eye contact.

“Why?”

“The ways of the ancients are all-knowing and mysterious,” Sam said,

“There’s no point in fighting it, just stand by, watch, and trust the process .” Tucker continued.

“And everything will be as it should.” Jazz finished.

“Soooo, you have no idea,” Jason said,

“Nope,” the three liminals of the phantom family replied.

____________________________________________________________________________________

The Joker and the Riddler were in another room wondering who the hell they just kidnapped. Bruce was one thing. His “secret” identity wasn’t much of a secret. No one cared, it was part of the game. Joker knew that better than anybody. Why ruin the fun, which is exactly what these three additional hostages were doing? They didn't behave right. If he was being honest it was kind of interesting.

“Having fun Jack?” The joker heard a soft gentle female voice call out to him. They didn’t hire any female goons. He turned to see a young, attractive, slim woman of average height in her early to mid-20s. She has very pale skin, dark eyes, long jet-black hair, and has an Eye of Horus painted under one of her eyes. She was dressed like an 80’s Goth Rocker and had a large ankh pendant.

“Who are you?”

“You know who I am, Jackson William Napier.” His eyes went wide at the name he hadn’t used in almost two decades.

“You okay?” Riddler asked Joker, clearly unable to see the woman.

“Yes,” Joker snapped, throwing a chair at the riddler.

“Relax, I am not here for you today.” The woman smiled.

“Then why are you here?” The clown prince of crime’s eyes narrowed.

“Why don't we go say hi to our friends in the other room.” She gestured toward the main section of the warehouse. He yelled for the Riddler to follow him. When they made it to the large warehouse space he noticed that the little girl was missing. He was about to demand where she was when a large voice boomed its way through the space, he nearly needed to cover his ears.

“Do not be afraid, for behold, I am a merciful spirit. Lay down your weapons and surrender and you will remain unharmed.” He turned his head upward to look in the direction of the voice and saw the unbelievable.

The girl they had kidnaped was floating mid-air surrounded by gyroscopic wheels covered in eyes. Her hair was now snow white. She wore pure white Grecian armor. She had two wings that looked like they were made of the night sky. A silver tiara that held a gem the color of Pluto floated above her head.

The look on her face seemed disappointed, “Dad my shadows aren’t eating anything yet!” She whined, surprisingly still childish.

“That will happen when you get older, honey you’re still under a millennium old..” The teenage boy said with a surprisingly proud grin.

He looked to see all the goons and Riddler bowing to whatever that thing was,

“Nygma what the hell.”

“I signed up to fight Batman and his Flock, not whatever the fuck that is!”

Joker scowled and saw the pale black-haired woman from earlier, walk over to one of the goons and help him up. She said something to him before the goon loudly complained, “I only did this because my wife just got fired and we need the extra income, what’s going to happen to them now?” The woman turned to look at the teenage boy they had kidnapped, “Your Highness?” The boy looked at her and the goon. “Everything will work out, you know that…” Was his reply to the woman who frowned slightly, “You are far too often in the presence of Time.”

“You should visit, he says he gets lonely, I can’t be the only one to keep him entertained.” The boy smiled.

“Perhaps I will consider the request. It has been a while since I have visited Time. Maybe I should visit him.” The woman said as she and the goon calmly walked out of the warehouse. Joker turned to look back at the goons who still bowed, except for one.

The Goon that had walked out with that woman, was still there in the room, dead on the floor.

“So are we going to stand around all day or are we going to fight?” The childish voice said in the Joker’s ear before he was launched across the warehouse with a swift kick to the gut.

Where did she come from was all he could think as he saw the white-haired girl calmly walking towards him. He didn't take this sitting down like some dog. He threw a joker grenade at the girl who blocked and redirected it back at him with one of her wings. He jumped out of the way, picking up the crowbar he dropped along the way.

“You aren’t the first kid I’ve killed in this warehouse and you won't be the last!” He growled, swinging his crowbar only for Dani to slip out of the way and push him into a wall, he used his acid flower. It was a direct hit, however, the now skeletal-faced girl was still coming after him. She brought her arm up and summoned an Xiphos that looked like it was going to crumble apart. It was black with red cracks that radiated heat. He barely dodged the slash and rolled out of the way only for the room to become momentarily filled with fire.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Now in Gotham Propper, the rescue crew was still having trouble locating everyone who was abducted. Barb, now in her Batgirl exoskeleton, was still on her tablet working overtime. However, their prayers were answered when a massive crescent of fire exploded out of the sides of one of the warehouses dissipating into the sky. Everyone had a flat expression.

“I’m guessing they’re at that building,” Robin said.

“Yep.” Everyone responded.

“Of course, it has to be that warehouse,” Redhood said as the remaining members of the Phantom family noticed the rise in his ectoplasm levels. They asked if he was okay.

“No, but I’ll live.”

“Is it the Pits?” Red Robin asked.

“Yeah…”

“Pits, you mean the rise in his ecto plasma levels?” Jazz asked.

“What?” Tim and Jason asked.

“You’re liminal, you have high levels of ectoplasm. I’d say you're death-leaning like us.” Sam said as Jason got in her face only to feel Jazz pull him away.

“Look, I get that for some reason that warehouse is triggering some kind of revenge obsession and your emotions are high, but if you’re going to be any help you need to regulate your emotions.” She said,

“RedHood control his emotions?” Batgirl snorted.

“What do you mean?” Tim cut in, Jazz sighed not wanting to have this conversation right now, however, it looked like things on her brother's end were going fine so she decided it was best to explain. She turned to Jason,

“You’re a death-leaning liminal. Like Sam, Tucker, and I. You have strong ghostly attributes that will leak into your physicality as well as your mentality. You have an obsession centered around revenge and justice. I know this because my own obsession with knowing, understanding, and helping people makes me a really strong empath.

For you, I'm assuming better stealth skills, enhanced durability, enhanced speed, strength, etc. However, this also means any emotion you experience is multiplied by a factor of a thousand or more. Meaning if you don’t work through any issues or don't regulate your emotions you may find them controlling you in a way. “

“Are you talking about the Pit madness?” Jason asked.

“Pit madness? What, no, there is no madness. You just fucking need therapy!” Jazz exasperated to a stunned group of bats and birds.

“Let's get going before Danielle burns down Gotham,” Sam said, ushering Tucker into the assault vehicle, he was followed by Red Robin, Robin, Jason who was basically pushed in by Sam, And finally Bat Girl who led Jazz into the vehicle hand in hand. Sam got in the driver's seat and sped off.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Joker barely dodged the slash and rolled out of the way only for the room to become momentarily filled with fire. When the fire dissipated there was a giant hole shaped like a half-moon in the warehouse that was glowing a molten orange. He started to run away only to run into Dani’s elbow. He fell to the ground covering his now bleeding nose. He noticed she no longer looked skeletal

He activated traps that would have attacked her from behind, but her existence blurred out of the way before reforming.

“What made you think all the eyes are just cosmetic?” She said pointing to the rotating wheels that never seemed to be in her way, but flowed effortlessly around her.

“You know, let's play another time, bye Brucie.” He said turning around and trying to run away only for Dani to run her hand right through his chest. She followed him to the ground and phased her arm out of him. He suddenly felt extremely cold.

Dani turned around to face her father, brother, and Bruce with a large grin declaring she was done. Danny untied Bruce and they all tied up the goons, riddler, and Joker. Who looks ready to kill Bruce,

“No metas in gotham?” The clown spat.

“They aren’t metas.” Bruce said.

“What the fuck are they?” Riddler demanded

Dani, Danny, and Vlad turned to face the Riddler and in sync said, “We’re ghosts.” And to the eyes of Edward Nygma, all three were for that moment in their true ghost forms. They all then walked over to the body of the goon who had died. Bruce mentioned something about a no-killing rule.

Danielle found a tarp and covered the body. She appeared to be looking at something and muttered something under her breath before looking at Bruce.

“It was his time, he would have had that heart attack whether we were here or not.” She said softly and continued,

“At least she was here to comfort and guide him, with the ectoplasm from all three of us, along with the abnormally high ambient levels he wouldn’t have moved on properly.”

“Who?” Joker asked, praying his suspicions were wrong.

“Death,” Danielle said, proving his suspicions depressingly correct.

“And how would you know he was meant to die, he was a good man!” One of the goons yelled.

“His name was in the ledger.” Dani covered her mouth as soon as she spoke. She knew only the ancients and the royal family knew about the ledger. For some reason unknown to her and her family she is also one of three spirits who can read the ledger. Something not even her father could do. When she asked Clockwork about it, until she was born only death and time could read it.

“Danielle!” Danny chided his daughter.

“You mortals will never speak another word of the ledger!” Danny’s voice echoed unnaturally loud through the warehouse and every mortal's soul. He looked at Bruce who looked like he had some questions,

“Let's just say for a reason only Ancients know why, she has some unique abilities when it comes to death.” Bruce nodded, understanding that was all he was going to get. All three stood around until Red Hood, Robin, Bat Girl, Red Robin, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz who was armed with a Fenton Anti-Creep Stick burst through the door. Only to be disappointed that the fight was over.

“How did she do?” Sam asked.

“Phantastic!” Danny grinned as Danielle leaped into Sam’s arms yelling “Mommy” as she nuzzled into the woman. The vigilantes called the GCPD for the pick up and they all got back into the assault vehicle. In the vehicle, Dani gave Redhood a purple green, and white crystal saying it was a gift from the royal family as thanks for letting them stay in the city.

“Thanks?” He said slowly.

“That’s one half of the Joker’s soul. Anything that Crystal experiences he will.” She smiled.

“So if I shoot it?”

“He will experience the pain of being shot.” Jason grinned at this, then frowned

“Does this mean as long as this crystal exists he will not be able to die?”

“No, while it may be impossible to destroy the crystal, it will crumble to dust when it is his time,” Dani reassured him.

“And when will that be?” Jason said, eyes glowing. Danielle looked to see her father glaring at her.

“I couldn’t tell you, just know basically that gives you the ability to torture him whenever you like. It’s like a supernatural stress ball.” She said as Bruce sighed in disappointment. Jason however grinned like a madman and began poking the crystal with one of his knives.

“I think I’m going to like this gift.”

[ms-musers]

The Birthday Comics (Tim’s Less Than Sweet 16th Birthday)

This is simply a (less in-depth) exploration into Robin (1993) Issues 116-120 for those curious. (I tried to be as direct as possible).

Issue 116 starts at the “conclusion” of another case that Tim had been working on. Due to his time spent on the case, he is less than aware of the timeline and namely that his 16th birthday is just around the corner (the coming Thursday (19th of July)).

Upon realizing that Tim is unaware that his 16th birthday is coming up, Dana (Tim’s father’s partner and icon of a woman), decides to have essentially a surprise party for Tim. 

During this party, as the gifts are being ripped into it is established that a gift of unknown origin (a box) was delivered to Tim’s place earlier that morning (it was addressed to Tim Drake).

Tim contacts Batman about the mystery gift as he is unsure what it is and suspects that it may be from an enemy who has put together that Tim Drake=Robin. Batman and Tim analyze the box and find finger prints belonging to a man named Draygo Balacki aka Yak Black. Yak Black is a henchman utilized by several other criminals within Gotham. He is strong; he is not smart.

To find information about Yak Black, Tim interrogates Harvey Dent while Batman interrogates the Penguin (both former employers of Yak Black). Batman contacts Tim during his interrogation with Dent and says Penguin has given him all the info they need and to meet at Yak’s place.

When running across Gotham rooftops to rendezvous with Batman, following their separate interrogations, the mystery box opens up and attaches wires to Tim’s face showing him a holographic Future Alfred.

Future Alfred talks in a creaky, tired, and desperate voice that is not as familiar as the normal Alfred tone that Tim is used to. Along with that, his right hand is no longer flesh.

Firstly, Future Alfred tells Tim that Yak Black was indeed the man who delivered the box, but that he would have slim to no recollection of doing so. Yak was acting on thought commands sent back in time from Future Alfred and Yak himself is not intelligent enough to have created the box. Secondly, Alfred tells Tim about the future of Gotham.

Essentially, someone, a friend of Tim’s, tried to rid Gotham of it’s corruption and in trying to do so became corrupt themselves (sacrificing too much for order). This friend was the catalyst to a war-ridden future Gotham wherein a group of heroes are at conflict with the government and state bodies over who “owns” Gotham/how to counteract crime.

Future Alfred says it is up to Tim to prevent this from happening--he must stop the catalyst before it is too late. However, before Alfred can name the person who started everything, he is struck down.

Of course, Tim does not believe all of this right away as there is too much going on at play. That being said, Tim does not tell Bruce (or anyone else for that matter) about Future Alfred--even when Batman implores into why Tim is starting to act strange and why he was late meeting up at Yak’s place (Batman takes Yak to the Batcave for questioning).

Tim flips between slight belief and complete disbelief eventually arriving to the conclusion that the holograph and the box were simply a trick--and he has suspicions as to who could be behind the trick. Tim suspects a man named Jaeger (an unethical monster hunter that Tim has fought with in the past) is extracting his revenge. However, this is quickly proven false after Tim’s investigation establishes that Jaeger is serving time in prison.

Following this, Batman contacts Tim with an update involving Yak. Batman interrogated Yak through various methods, one such method being “hypnotizing and regressing him [Yak] while hooked up to the Neuro-ontoscope”. The Neuro-ontoscope was a new device in the Bat cave that produced video and audio directly from a subject’s brain--their thoughts, memories, etc. Yak’s state of mind is nearly all blank, minus an audio that Tim recognizes as the voice of Future Alfred.

Tim is now starting to think that the Hologram was real and not a fake.

Tim heads to the Batcave only to find Yak running free within it. The two get into a fight and as a result the Neuro-ontoscope is crashed into and broken.

Tim now starts to critically look at everyone (hero-wise) he knows that could possibly be the catalyst for a war-ridden future Gotham... everyone--no exceptions. He starts to look at friends and family--desperately trying to piece together who could possibly be the one to “snap”.

Tim then comes up with a plan to talk to each person he thinks could turn (which was any of them). This plan involved showing each person the stepping stones that would led to the creation of a “better” Gotham-- a more controlled Gotham.

Essentially Tim was going to go up to them and say “hey, we should take over Gotham and be the only voice of justice seeing as the state and police can not handle it.” This plan was meant to work as a way of getting one of the individuals to show their true colors by not being so harsh in rejecting it or by agreeing with Tim to any extent.

However, on his way to implement the plan, another Holographic Future Alfred shows up, but wait--this one Tim can touch?? And unlike the first Future Alfred, this Alfred has lost the left arm--not his right arm.

There’s more off to this Alfred as well. It smells weird--of ozone fainter and... latex? Tim snaps and rips off the mask of the man pretending to be Future Alfred to reveal:

Alfred?

Following this, it is revealed that the whole thing was part of a training module made by Batman.

After hearing such, Tim snapped. He says he’s down and expresses that he was on the verge of a breakdown as he felt he could no longer trust anyone.

Towards the end of the 120, Steph paints the situation in a slightly different light. She points out the differences between the test Batman put her through and the test he put Tim through--mentioning that Batman believed Tim had the potential, and was ready to, become more.

This slightly frightened Tim.

But not enough to prevent him from picking back up the mantle.

[dairy-farmer]

That recent ask about the exaggerated vilification of Tim’s parents got me thinking about a fucked up scumbag Bruce who is an extremely unreliable narrator.

All these terrible things Tim’s parents are doing are believed by Bruce, and in his isolation, he constructs more and more awful things that they must be subjecting Timothy too. This is all to justify his fierce lust for the boy— after all, if he takes Tim and cares for him and makes him his own (aka read kidnaps and grooms Tim under latent threat of harm to Tim and others), it’s only him being right. Being a hero. Saving those in need.

He is completely and terrifyingly delusional. Everything he does is justified in his mind, because Jack and Janet Drake are the scourges of this world, the worst devils Gotham has to offer, a mark of immutable evil. And Tim, Tim is his precious angel, a martyr suffering at his hands.

And the worst part is, Tim probably could use an intervention of some sort! I mean, Jack and Janet aren’t the cartoonishly sadistic fantasy Bruce has created, but they are neglectful, and Tim is a deeply lonely, touch-starved, and isolated boy.

Which makes it all the easier for Bruce to track down the exact flight in which Jack and Janet are on— a small craft, carrying only them and the pilot, set for some remote Indonesian island where they hope to find new artifacts from the time of the Tonga empire.

It’s all too easy to make it go down.

From Tim’s view, everything happens too fast for even him to keep up. He hasn’t even processed the beginnings of grief before he’s being ushered into the home of his new foster father— Bruce Wayne.

He’s so generous, the reports fawn. A true father, always willing to help an orphaned child.

The hallway to Wayne manor is different from the Drakes. It’s vast, and ornately carved, and *old*,a far cry from the sleek, minimalist design of his parents home.

His *old* parents, Bruce, *Batman*, assured him with an odd amount of relish. He had a new father now, he tells Tim, wide hands firm on Tim’s slim shoulders.

He’s nearly shaking from excitement. Tim is finally *here*, where he belongs— he’s so soft, and warm, and—

Well, not *entirely* where he belongs. Bruce knows he’ll have to go gently, before Tim feels safe in his bed and arms. But he’ll get there.

After all, he’s Batman, and Bruce Wayne— a *hero*, with the whole world in his hands. A hero, who would never do anything wrong.

Tim won’t have anybody to tell. And he’ll have nowhere to run.

Not that he would ever need to, of course. Bruce has been planning for years. He knows he can make his beloved happy. He’s done all sorts of research. He’s spent months agonizing over the cameras and the rooms. And the little padded bunker attached to the cave, just in case Tim is a bit flighty or Bruce moves a tad too fast.

Soon after their deaths, reports will be leaked that show the absolute depravity of the Drakes, in both their business and personal lives. Fraud, trafficking, and child cruelty— some of the reports are real. Some are exaggerated.

Some are completely false. Not that anybody would know it. Bruce is very good at what he does.

It’s even better if Jason is alive and totally on board with the plan— a co-conspirator to Bruce’s madness. After all, he’s always wanted a little brother. And he loves to be a strong protector, a hero.

And he loves Tim drake. I think maybe he even jumpstarted Bruce’s expression, sighing lovingly at the dinner table as he discusses the shy underclassman he is absolutely *enamoured* with.

!!!!!!!!!!!!! bruce being just a little bit sicker in the mind, a bit more focused, and listening to jason babble about the sweet boy with big eyes and the skittishness of a bunny with a little bit more interest than usual.

bruce exaggerates everything he sees about the drakes, viewing them as despicable humans who have hurt and continue to hurt this child. who are corrupt in business, in morals, and just in general. him "seeing" that and using it to justify pushing them out of the picture, taking over as tim's parent. bruce covertly destroying the little trinkets tim's parents bought for him, getting rid of pictures and posessions, trying to get rid of everything about "that" time in tim's life.

bruce becoming the horrible monster and the thing of nightmares he was so convinced he was saving tim from. and jason is all too eager to help because bruce promised that they could share tim, be his protectors. his father and big brother- two people that will look out for and care for tim. it's been years since jason first came home gushing about tim drake and all the pieces are finally falling into place.

all that's left is getting tim to fall in line alongside their plans.

only he sobs and weeps for his parents when the grief kicks in, he's resistant to calling bruce 'daddy' and avoids jason because jason had always frightened him in school with how intense he was and how he stalked tim relentlessly, even following him into the bathroom once.

tim being frightened by this 'new family' and wishing his parents were still alive. then seeing all these news reports and people talking bad about his parents, talking about how they were monsters and how 'good riddance' they were dead. tim being the only one to know that it's not true! it's not true! his parents were good people they cared about tim, their employees, they gave back to the locals of the communities they'd go to for digs!

but bruce is just so determined to make this boy his son and has constructed all these things in his mind to justify his actions.

now tim is trapped and more of a prisoner than he's ever been with this man and boy who want him to say that they're the only family he's ever had and that he's happy his parents are did.

poor tim losing his parents and being psychologically tortured by his new "family".

[doomalade]

Two Face, aka Harvey Dent

Childhood was not easy for Harvey Dent, he grew up with a single father, who spent most of his time drinking and yelling at Harvey. This, however, only motivated Harvey to excel in life, managing to earn himself a full ride scholarship at Gotham University to study law. Before his graduation, his father passed away, leaving him only with his life savings and a double headed coin that belonged to his grandfather.

Harvey kept the coin as a reminder to keep pushing forward, and to use his education to help those in need. An idea that he shared with his best friend and college roommate, Bruce Wayne. While Bruce would go and travel the world after graduation, not returning to Gotham for years, Harvey managed to get elected as the defense attorney for Gotham. He won under his promise to fight against corruption, and his iconic slogan.

“I believe in Harvey Dent.”

However, Gotham was a rotten place, and Harvey’s steps to finally put the mafias and gangs of Gotham put him in constant danger. Luckily he had a silent guardian keeping him safe, and working with him and the new Commissioner Jim Gordon to fight back against crime. The Batman. At first wary and untrusting, Harvey grew respect for Batman as the crime families of Gotham slowly disintegrated. Best part of it all? He met the love of his life and they were going to get married and start a family in the reforming Gotham.

But then major members of crime families started to be killed, all with the same MO. First was on a Halloween night, where all was left by the body was a pumpkin and a Walter P8 with a filed off serial number, tape around the grip, and a bottle top as a make shift silencer.

Then came Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines, Saint Patrick’s, April Fools, Easter, for a whole year the murders continued. “The Long Halloween” as it was dubbed, with even Batman unable to detect the culprit until the final target was reached.

The Bat stopped the Holiday killer that night, a power hungry son of the mob wanting to rule Gotham for himself. Batman failed to stop the scuffle that left Harvey’s cheek shot off, but also the one last trick of Holiday. Half of Harvey was covered in gasoline as he chased Holiday, and with the flick of a match, Harvey was lit a blaze.

Batman managed to put the fire out, but Harvey was badly burnt on one side of his body. It took months of recovery time, in which his wife had the child and left Gotham without Harvey. The two sided coin was all that Harvey had left, but one side was left slightly charred from the incident.

Without Harvey in court, one by one each of the mobsters managed to get back out on the street and causing chaos along with the spike of costumed criminals that popped up following Batman’s introduction to Gotham.

It was too much for Harvey, and he snapped, forming an alternate personality to hold his rage and anger at the world.

Now he is Two Face, determined to win against the mob at their own game, and fix Gotham his way, with no laws to get in his way.

Harvey knows this isn’t justice.

But Two Face demands revenge.

[kudosmyhero]

Batman (vol. 1) #307: Dark Messenger of Mercy

Read Date: November 27, 2022 Cover Date: January 1979 ● Writer: Len Wein ● Penciler: John Calnan ● Inker: Dick Giordano ● Colorist: Glynis Oliver ● Letterer: Ben Oda ● Editor: Julius Schwartz ◦ E. Nelson Bridwell ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● pg 2 - did Batman pose for that near life-size poster? To avoid graininess in a picture that size, you'd want bright studio lights and low ISO film… which tells me Batman went to a studio and posed heroically. That's my head canon now. ● pg 3 - Lucius! <3 (apparently his first appearance, according to the podcast!) ● I love reading the app on panel-by-panel because things like that lovely sunset sneak up on me ● (I just wish the DC app had the option to view the full page in addition to panel-by-panel like the Marvel app has) ● (and fix that screen rotation, DC! Jesus.) ● pg 5 - I like this guy's cranberry-colored suit. It works somehow. ● pg 6 - sputters GORDON ACTUALLY SAW BATMAN LEAVE ● pg 8 - the woman in pink looks delightful ● pg 9 - I love them all ● pg 13 - spill it, Quentin! ● pg 14 - I bet I know who that gloved hand belongs to… ● pg 14 - I've never seen Batman go out with visible bandages before now. It seems like it's a vulnerability that he would normally try his best to hide ● pg 17 - how tf did I not see that coming?

👏👏👏

Synopsis: A bag lady in a subway is murdered by poisoned gold coins laid on her eyes by a mysterious "benefactor" who kills her to release her from her squalid existence. After finishing business matters concerning Wayne Enterprises with the second in command, Lucius Fox, Bruce Wayne retreats to his apartment at twilight and learns about the ghastly murder from Alfred. Changing to Batman, he goes to the GCPD Headquarters, where he learns from Quentin Conroy, who files a complaint with Commissioner Gordon that the coins have been stolen from his late father's priceless collection.

Batman prowls the Gotham streets to look for the killer and finds a band of homeless people, led by Shamrock, a friend of the murder victim. During the visit he saves one of their number from being slain by the coin-killer, whom they recognize as John Francis Conroy, aka "Limehouse Jack", but the killer escapes. The street people tell Batman that Conroy disappeared from their group fifteen years ago. Batman confronts Quentin Conroy and learns that Limehouse Jack was his father. The elder Conroy succumbed to job pressure, left his family, and took to the streets. Though Conroy claims his father is dead, Batman is not so sure.

Later, masquerading as a panhandler, Batman traps and battles Limehouse Jack with the help of the street dwellers. Limehouse Jack proves to be Quentin Conroy, whose motivation was to "give (the street dwellers) peace!" Later, after Conroy is taken in, Batman tells Gordon that Conroy's shoe soles gave him away. One heel was worn away more than the other, and, though Conroy did not limp, "Limehouse Jack" certainly did.

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batman_Vol_1_307)

Fan Art: batman by Morriperkele

Accompanying Podcast: ● The Overlooked Dark Knight - episode 07

[ryoalouette]

At some point Danny is going to learn about the LOA and the LOA is going to learn about Danny.

Is not going to be beautiful, is not going to be a thriller action packed story, is not even going to be a spy story with each side planning ten steps ahead the other while staring at a chess board with some deep dialogue in between about the choices we make and destiny

Is going to be a-freaking-genocide!

The minute Danny learns of some humans stealing ectoplasm, corrupting it and using it for their own greed is the minute Danny is going to loose it

They are race made for war, they love nothing more than war and Danny will sent each and one of his soldiers in a holy mission to destroy those who dare to believe to be above dead

Bc not even Danny, Lord of balance is above dead, nobody is above dead and his mission is to put them in their place.

Cue to Danny using his last forces to once again to teleport an entire city to a different location, the Himalayas.

Goodbye Nandya Parbat and any other base of operations they might use (including his real-estate and underground base in Gotham City)

Hello Devapura (divine fortress)

Once the demon head and anybody related to him are dealt with (aka nightmare dimension until their souls fade), Danny and his family go to take a tour over their new city

Only to discover a nursery room with a one year old and a baby in a crib. Two babies with black hair and green eyes. Danny feels awful thinking that he could had hurt two innocent souls and fell immediately in love with the chubby babies so Tucker, Sam and him decided to adopt them since there wasn't a single soul left in the city besides those two. Ofc the other kids and the city is thrilled with the additions and there is a huge celebration

Bc nobody loves more life than dead

The sovereignty over the mountain range that are the Himalayas is never disputed again since now all belongs to Danny ( I mean, I think is very fitting since the word Himalaya comes from Sanskrit himá 'snow, frost', and ā-laya 'dwelling, abode' and Danny and his family most have ice cores, sorry Tucker, I know cold is not good for electronic cores like yours :/ ) He signs non-aggressive accords with Nepal, China, Pakistan, Bhutan and India to make sure nobody bothers them.

And he also starts and uneasy truce with the JL to make sure the supers don't try anything dumb again (the poor YJL is going to spend the rest of their punishment cleaning snow from everywhere. Tucker will burn the corpses since they don't deserve a proper burial and Sam will use whatever is left to feed her plants. They will not tell the kids or let them see, they are kids! Practically babies, they could get traumatized)

Now they all have a place that they can truly call home and wizards from all over the world go there to learn (well, few wizards, the craziest ones like Constantine) even if it's supposed to be a place of healing and enlightenment their definition of enlightenment is almost as skew as their ghostly sense of humor. Also, Danny and his people protect the commercial routes now between the five countries (and get paid for it).

Everybody thrives in the new snow city with Midwestern chaotic easiness

Back to the babies

Since Danny is not one to read papers he has no idea who might be their parents and the babies are not helping (I mean, the poor things can't even talk yet). Black hair and green eyes with Egyptian ethnicity is too vague of a description and they could do some blood test but.... who has time for those? They all assume their parents were members of the LOA and they don't need any more motivation than that. Later Tucker reads the papers and confirms this (although he doesn't reveal that the birth father of one of the babies might be alive and burns everything along with any digital copy he can find. He also burns anything that has the name Wayne in it, including some hot emails between said Wayne and a member of the LOA. Tucker has no idea who is this Wayne but mad respect for falling for a woman that could crush you with her tights)

Since both babies have green eyes Danny names the elder girl Aurora and the young boy Jade (Orion, Selene, Sirius, Vega and Maia are not very happy with Jade's name they rather have another space sibling. Danielle, Raven and Edgar would rather not so they are ok with it but are not happy with Aurora). Unfortunately, since he is the king, once he names a baby the realms will not accept another name until said baby is old and strong enough to change it themselves)

Machi's #7 DP x DC Prompt

We all know that at some point Pariah Dark dumped Amity Park into the Ghost Zone. So, what if when Danny is king he tries to put the city back in its place only to pick the wrong dimension? Now all the DC heroes are freaking out bc of the fae city that has appeared out of nowhere.

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Biodad! Bruce Wayne

Realised I haven't posted anything Maribat related in a while. Also realised that it's Biodad! Bruce Wayne month.

I am currently on break from fic writing until October. This happened because the wifi was out for a while and I lacked motivation to study.

-----

Marinette is a Wayne and everyone knows except for the new kids aka Alya, Adrien and Lila.

Mari doesn't flaunt her wealth or tried to hide it but everyone just sort of forgets when she is as down to earth as the rest of them.

Except for the certain times she shows it and everyone is violently reminded that she is richer than Chloe Bourgeosis (who can't stand that fact.)

Picture this, Set season 3-ish, Spring Break is over and everyone is coming back from their vacation.

Chloe comes in a limo and bragging about her vacation in the Carribean or something.

Adrien looks around and is like, "Where's Marinette?"

Marinette hasn't been heard from all break and Alya is only aware that she is visiting family in the States.

Anyways, bell rings to signal classes and still no sign of Marinette.

Then, the chopping sounds of a helicopter is heard and everyone looks up to the sky and sees one.

Everyone moved out of the way as they realised that it was going to land in the courtyard (Or the sake of crack and the magic of imagination and fiction, let's pretend this is allowed and possible)

"I wonder if that is a new student." Adrien wondered.

"Ooh, I hope they aren't another Chloe. They seem rich if they are coming to school by helicopter." Alya said.

"That's Marinette." Nino explained.

"Where?" Adrien looked around for his very good friend.

"The helicopter. It's hers. Well, it belongs to her family. See?" Nino pointed out the Wayne logo to his friends.

"No freaking way." Alya exclaimed, "Marinette's not…" She stopped upon seeing a familiar girl exit the helicopter, arguing with a man in English.

"B, I am not going back out on this. I am staying in Paris and that is final." Marinette yelled.

"Sweetheart, but think of the akumas. They are dangerous." The man tried to appeal to her.

"It's fine and I am not dead yet. Plus I don't want you bubble wrapping me to 'protect' me if I stay in Gotham."

"I am not that bad."

"It's that Bruce Wayne? That's Bruce Wayne." Alya pointed and turned to Nino, "Why is Bruce Wayne here and why does Marinette know him?"

"You don't know?"

"Of course, I don't." Alya feels like there is a story here and Nino is not telling her what it is.

Adrien raised his hands, "Same here."

"How do you not know?" Nino waved towards the pair, "Mari's father is Bruce Wayne."

"What?" Alya and Adrien exclaimed. Brain.exe has stopped working.

"Everybody knew that."

"We didn't. What do you mean my girl's father is one of the richest man on the planet?" Alya demanded as she shook her boyfriend for more answers.

"I know it sounds hard to believe but yeah. Marinette is Bruce Wayne's daughter."

Alya walked away in disbelief and muttering on her phone, trying to see if it was true. She screamed, "Oh my God" when she found Marinette's Wikipedia page.

Adrien is just looking like a lost puppy.

"Dude, you okay?" Nino asked.

"Why didn't Marinette tell me? I thought we were friends."

"Adrien, I think she forgot that you didn't know since all of us already knew and plus I thought you would have known before this. Don't you rich kids hang out in the same circles or something?"

"If my father lets me go out and that is rarely. So no."

"Oh right, your old man. Look, Mme. Mendeleeve is coming. We better get to class. You can ask Marinette why she didn't tell you then."

In the Meantime, Marinette and Bruce had stopped yelling at each other and were angrily doing ASL to communicate hero business.

The helicopter had flew away after dropping off its passengers.

"Mme. Marinette and M. Wayne, it's time for Mademoiselle's class to start so I hope you can continue this fight after school." Mme. Mendeleeve interuppted them.

"Yes, Ma'am/miss"

"And Marinette," Bruce called, "We will negotiate this for a compromise over lunch."

"Fine." Marinette groaned and walked away with the teacher.

Bruce ignored Damocles, who had hurriedly changed out of his Owl Knight costume to greet the billionaire, as he made his way to the expensive-looking car parked in front of the school.

"Oh, wait. Principal Damocles." Bruce said as if he remembered something before opening the door, "Marinette had been complaining about another girl in her class who had been threatening her and apparently framing her for cheating on test and theft. I was also told that she was expelled because of it. Why was I not aware about this?"

Damocles paled and stuttered out a poor excuse.

"I also hear that the Bourgeosis girl is still having her way with everything and picking fights with my daughter."

"About that. Chloe insists on being in the same class as Marinette and the Mayor intervene everytime we try to do something about it."

"I see. I am already considering pulling her out since Hawkmoth is making a big mess of the city. At least back at home, there are protocols in school for attacks but I don't see any in your school policies for akuma attacks."

"Um. We- er are working on it. You see Hawkmoth is a recent thing and um-" Blah. blah. blah. Bruce just hears more excuses.

"Hn." and Bruce gets into his car and drove away.

Damocles made a note to tell Bustier to take Marinette's side for a while.

In the class, Lila was eagerly bristling with excitement. There was a new student in school who arrived by helicopter and it had the Wayne logo. One of the richest children in the world was attending the school. Forget Agreste, this was a bigger fish to fry. She was far away to see who the student was and Mme. Mendeleeve prevented her from getting a closer look but she could recognise them by the red clothes they wore to school. Hopefully, they were in the same class as hers. Lila prayed hard to see a new face as people trickled in. She even got Nathaniel to sit with Ivan so there is an empty seat next to her.

However, she had no luck when Marinette, usually the last one to class, arrived and there was still no new student.

That is until Adrien asked loud enough for everyone to hear, "Marinette, why didn't you tell me that your father is Bruce Wayne?"

Lila nearly crack her neck by turning her head so fast to stare at Marinette who answered, "I thought you already knew." in a confused tone.

Sure enough, Marinette was wearing the same clothes the supposed Wayne child had. Lila has a crisis since one of the best golden ticket to fame and fortune already knew she was a liar.

"Is he really your father?" Alya grabbed Marinette.

"Yes." Marinette looked between Adrien and Alya who both looked betrayed, "Why do you look so confused about it? Everybody knew."

"Everybody. Except us."

Lila picked that moment to chimed in, "Marinette, how could you not tell me that you are a Wayne? I thought that we were friends." Hoping she could salvage something.

Marinette made a face and it was gone as she replied, "It's not like I hid the fact that I am a Wayne. Maybe I wasn't as obvious about my wealth like Chloe and most people assumed that my last name is Dupain-Cheng because she called me that. I kinda forgot you didn't know because everyone already knew. So no hard feelings?"

Alya sighed, "I can't get mad when I know how scattered you get. I mean some things are now obvious now that I think about it and it explains some things."

The rest of the day, Lila tries to act all buddy-buddy with Marinette and Marinette ignores her.

[thanks-captain-obvious]

Anddddd now I'm back for another Daminette hc's. God, please someone stop me

Part 1

First of all, Chat Noir is a cute smol bean here. He is not a bad potato.

Second, he and LB had been fighting Hawkmoth for three years. The public and the Mayor's office had been pressuring them to put a stop to Hawkmoth's reign once and for all or else they will label the heroes as enemies.

They are sixteen fucking years old for God's sake.

Anyway, another lead has made Marinette suspect Gabriel once again. On the other side of Paris, Hawkmoth had suspected one Marinette Dupain-Cheng as the girl behind the Miraculous Ladybug of Paris at the same time.

Shit is getting real.

Marinette decided to make her own covert investigation, deciding to keep it a secret even to Chat Noir until she had more solid proof.

She tracked down the areas where the civilians gets akumatized, the time of day etc. She also asked Max to teach her some tech hacks.

Finally, she had gathered enough evidence and presented it to Chat Noir.

Her presentation had been met with cynicism at first. Eventually, Chat had to admit that she has a point.

Gabriel, on the other hand, during all this time, had hired some man to tail Marinette.

Needless to say, Marinette had discovered Hawkmoth's identity the same time Gabriel had known Ladybug's identity.

The two heroes attacked Gabriel in his mansion. The fight had been gruesome and brutal.

Gabriel, admitting defeat bitterly, decided to kill than to get caught by the police.

But not before laughing bitterly then maniacally.

Gabriel aka Hawkmoth, now irredeemably evil, revealed that earlier this day, sent hired arsonists to the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

Ladybug, abandoning the fight and leaving Chat to deal with the police, with her heart pounding rushed to her home.

Only to find out her home now gone. She frantically tried to look for her parents, hysterical.

The firefighters found the burned bodies of her parents. LB kneeled numbly on the ground. At first the people looked incertain why she is acting like that. Until they heard her continually chanting "Maman, Papa..."

It was on this that she accidentally outed her identity.

So a funeral is held, Marinette is numb to everything. Lila had somehow been apprehended and connected to Hawkmoth by the police.

Chat Noir disappeared without a trace but before leaving her a letter that he heard rumors about her identity. He revealed he is Adrien Agreste to make it fair. But for now, he decided to distanced himself from her because he don't think he can handle any more trauma now and identity reveal would be an added shock.

I mean, come on. He's only human. Let's not give him shit for this.

Marinette realized Chadrien is right. Maybe what they needed is distance away from all this to sort their thoughts out.

And so, donning the horse miraculous, she requested to Kaalki to bring her in a place that greatly opposes everything that the City of Love represents.

Welcome to Gotham!

She bought herself a tiny apartment and set up what little belongings she has with her person there.

Marinette tried to live simply and normal. Whenever there is a villain attack, she would watch from the sidelines and prepare to intervene if necessary.

She would also randomly leave cookies and milk on the rooftop of her apartment.

Anyway, somehow someway, Batman met Marinette.

After six months of knowing her, Batman asked her about family and Marinette mentioned as casual as possible that she is an orphan and they died in the fire.

The next day, Marinette received a letter in the mail about an exclusive invitation by Bruce Wayne.

And somehow, by the end of the dinner, Bruce had adopted her.

What?

The next day, Bruce introduced her to the family.

Alfred: I shall start preparing her chambers then.

Dick: *facepalms*

Jason: Are you fucking serious!? (ALFRED IN THE BACKGROUND: MASTER JASON!)

Tim: *blinks*

Damian: *scowls*

By the end of the day, everybody in the manor is putty in her hands. And Alfred may have or may have not a new favorite Wayne.

Everyone is delighted by the new Wayne except Damian.

This resulted on a big fight.

Damian tried to convince his father otherwise but Bruce is determined to adopt her. So for the course of one month, Damian picked fights with Marinette.

Marinette ignored him to the eternal frustration of the youngest Bat Brat.

Until one day, Marinette asked for Bruce permission's to sketch on the museum.

Later that day, Bruce received a report an attack is happening on the museum.

The Batfam, even Robin, is a little worried for the newest Wayne.

Their worry increased tenfold when they noticed that Scarecrow is holding Marinette hostage.

Nghtwing and Red Robin is holding back an angry Red Hood.

Only Robin noticed that Marinette is being eerily calmed about being held hostage.

The Batfam surrounded Scarecrow and in desperation, injected Marinette with the fear toxin.

They awaited in baited breath of what is sure to come a terrified scream from the tiny petite girl.

Except: It never came.

Her eyes only widened for a moment before it settled into its calmed blue sapphires.

What the fuck?

Anyway, after the attack and once Scarecrow is apprehended, Red Hood insisted they still use the antidote on Marinette.

That night, everyone on the manor had watched Marinette discreetly.

Bruce called for Marinette in his study and asked her about the attack.

She swear over and over again that she is okay and there is nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, Tim run reports about Marinette only for his search to turn out empty.

This raised suspicion about Marinette and her past.

They first asked Bruce since he is the one who met her first. He explained what he know which isn't much.

Marinette noticed their change in attitude but did not say anything. Only Damian remained consistent— still picking fights. Which isn't much since she usually ignore him.

Damian, on his way to the Batcave for their nightly patrols, passed Marinette room only to hear silent sobs.

Alarmed, he kicked the door open to find a sleeping Marinette crying in her sleep.

Marinette jolted and scowled when she noticed Damian. Before he could demand why she is crying, Marinette turned her back on him and covered herself in blanket.

Damian kept silent on what he found but the Batfam definitely noticed Robin's weird behavior during patrol.

Here • Part 2 • Part 3

[unmaskedagain]

Batfamily/Ducktales AU

Someone’s going to hate me for this!

I’ve been binging ducktales 2017 lately, like a lot, and also seeing all these batfam posts here on tumblr and I couldn’t help but think…

The mystery and story lines of Ducktales could really flow well Batfamily.

Just imagine; Recluse billionaire Bruce Wayne; cranky, acts older than he is, and would never EVER be seen without a custom design suit. Bruce long since retired from his days as a great adventurer (Secretly batman) after a terrible tragedy that no one ever speak off…

Mostly because it cost him everything; his money, his family and, some would even dare whisper, what was left of his heart.

Ten to thirteen years after the mysterious event occurred, Van Wayne (Bruce’s cousin) shows up in drive way with three kids of various ages sitting in the car making Awed eyes at Bruce. Kids he hadn’t seen in nearly a decade: Dick, Jason, and Tim. Bruce is both heartbroken and overjoyed to see them.

Overjoyed because…

These are Katie’s adopted kids. His cousin Kate Kane who he hadn’t thought of in… Had refused to think of for quite some time.

Heartbroken because…

These were Katie’s kids. Her little boys. When did they get so big? Had it really been that long? Heartbroken and angry because he can’t help but remember it was his fault. All his fault. His fault for why three little boys grew up without their mom.

It turns out Alfred agreed that Bruce would watch the kids while Van is gone.

The boys are overjoyed that their Uncle Van (really cousin) is leaving them with the infamous Bruce Wayne.

In this situation:

Tim would be Huey despite being the youngest in this AU.

Jason is of course Louie.

And Dick is Dewey.

Bruce has no idea what to do with these kids and decides to just ignore them and leave them to.

Alfred is of course the former super spy and ultra British Mrs Beakly who is just too badass for words. He is caring for his hyper scary goddaughter/granddaughter…

I want to say Barbara Gordon. Well trained, mini-spy, who is obsessed with the mysteries of the Wayne family.

Less than an hour at the Wayne Manor, the boys and Barbara nearly cause the apocalypse after discovering the dust covered batcave and reawakening some ancient demon.

Together, Bruce and the kids team up to stop the evil force. They do and it reawakened Bruce’s love for adventure, mysteries, and stopping crimes.

Near the end of the first adventure, Dick discovers a portrait of his mom. He barely remembered her and no one talked about her.

Somewhere along the line, he discovers an apology letter from Kate Kane, his mom, to Bruce:

Bruce,

I took the Spear of Selene.

I’m sorry,

Kate.

Dick vows to find out the truth of what happened to his mother. Through the amazing death defying adventure the family grows closer and finally feels like a really family, all while Dick with the help of Barbara is hunting for the truth; refusing to even tell his brothers until he knows what really happened.

All while these is happening Bruce’s greatest enemy is working behind the scenes to restore his/her power by using/forcing Cassandra to get close to Barbara and get back an artifact that will restore their powers. Ra’s Al ghul.

Lex Luther (The Au’s Glomgold) wants to be richest man on earth, unfortunately that title currently belongs to Bruce. Cue elaborate schemes to become the richest by eliminating Bruce that never EVER work.

Lucius Fox, nicknamed by other inventors as Gearloose, gets back into inventing which cause Bruce to remember why he promoted his dear friend; all of Lucius’ inventions go evil or are just “wildly misunderstood”.

Selena Kyle aka Catwoman is the master thief, and the only adventure to rival Bruce.

Then when the family is at his closest, when they all really feel like a family, when Bruce is more than just an estranged Uncle the kids never heard of before but feels almost father-like to these kids, the truth comes out.

The boys accuse Bruce of being the reason they don’t have a mom.

And once more, The tragedy of Spear of Selene shatters everything.

Bruce is, once again, left alone in his manor; his family gone, his desire for adventure and life gone, the pieces of his heart he didn’t even realized still worked anymore were gone again.

All that’s left is the bitter broken man he had been at the start of the tale.

Unfortunately, it’s at this time that Ra’s Al Ghul steals back the artifact and unleashes his shadows to destroy all of Gotham.

In order to save their beloved city, the family must put aside their differences and hurt and work together to save the day.

[sxveme-2]

strawberry pancakes // bucky barnes

MASTERLIST

SEQUEL TO BLUEBERRY PANCAKES

DESCRIPTION: Lily Osborne and Bucky Barnes were never blessed with an easy relationship. Whether it be emotional trauma, or Lily's parents trying to be evil scientists. But they somehow made it work, after coming together once again after the birth of Lily's nephew. They were smooth sailing for a while. He proposed, they got engaged, but have yet to marry. While also juggling raising a teenager together as Hunter reaches the age of 16 now. All the while struggling with adjusting to their new lives in Long Island, balancing careers. Meanwhile, Lily struggles with the new found fame of being the fiancé of The White Wolf; and handling the tabloids critiques on her life and gossip columns digging up any information they can on her. While trying to maintain a low profile; and handle her life as it is. And becoming parents. Lily for the second time, while Bucky, well, this is his first attempt at a biological child. All the while a new threat from their past rises up once again, blind siding the family. Bringing forward old hatchets that had been buried, and putting their relationship at risk once more.

DISCLAIMER:  I do not own any original Marvel characters! All canon plots and canon characters belong to Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios. This is an original work. You may not publish it anywhere else

STATUS: Unedited

NOTES: Takes place after endgame. I have elected to ignore Tony's death and Steve's leaving. Did not happen. Quick Reminder! My works are only published here, AO3 and on Wattpad, thank you.

Chapter Two: The One With The Dinner

Warnings: N/A

Word Count: 2241

    “Who does that woman think she is?” Lily exclaimed as she burst into the Barnes residence, “Telling me I need to calm down. She called my fiance a terrorist.” The blonde fumed, storming into the kitchen to start making dinner.

“Doll what’re you doing?” Bucky sighed as he set Stella down, following the woman into the kitchen, “We have the conference tonight. Remember?”

Lily dropped her hand from the cupboard, placing her face into her hands. She had forgotten that Bucky and she had an Avengers conference dinner that they had to attend. The dress she wore was sitting in their room, calling for her to go put it on. She could feel the pressure laying on her shoulders from the level above her. The blonde turned her head, meeting Bucky’s eyes. He looked sorrowful and sympathetic, knowing that Lily wanted to stay home more than ever.

“Is that tonight?” Hunter asked as he joined the others in the kitchen, “Did we agree that Stella and I were coming?”

“Yeah, why don’t you start getting ready,” Bucky began, “Take Stella with you to her room. I’m just gonna talk to mom quickly.”

Hunter nodded and took his little sister from Bucky’s arms, glancing back at his mother as he walked up the stairs to the second floor of the house. Lily leaned back against the counters of the kitchen, her face still resting carefully in her hands as she attempted to calm herself down. The entire day had been something out of a nightmare for Lily, especially when she learned about what happened at Hunter’s school. The anxiety in her skyrocketed, and she wondered what everyone around them thought of the two’s relationship. About Bucky raising two children. Marrying an “all-American girl”, or so the tabloids had been saying over the last few years when the public got a hold of their relationship and Lily’s story.

“I know you hate these, baby,” Bucky whispered, walking towards the blonde and placing his hands on her shoulders, “I know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s been a very, very long day,” Lily whispered, removing her hands from her face and staring up at the man, “Don’t apologize. Let’s just...let’s just go get ready.”

“Wait wait,” Bucky sighed, taking Lily’s hands and pulling her closer to his chest, hand moving to the side of her face.

“What’re you doing?” She sighed, tilting her head into his hand.

“Jus’ lookin’ at ya,” he purred, Brooklyn accent pushing through, “My beautiful, beautiful, fiance.” The brunette cooed, bending down and pressing a gentle and barely-there kiss to Lily’s lips.

Laughing softly at his words, Lily squirmed from Bucky’s grip, “Sam’s right. You have a staring problem.” She teased, poking her fingers into the brunette’s stomach before turning towards the stairs.

-----

Lily sighed as she readjusted her black peacoat. Her hands dusted off the satin material of her dark green dress that had a black lace pattern along the entirety of it. After readjusting herself, Lily bent down to Stella’s height, smiling softly at her beaming daughter. The four-year-old wore a white dress with a baby blue floral pattern along the entirety of it, white tights on her legs, with bright white ballet flats as well. Her dark brown locks pulled into a bun, a baby blue flower pinned onto it.

“You do love dressing up, don’t you?” Lily cooed, pressing a kiss to her daughter’s cheek before standing up, running her hand through her curled blonde hair, “Shall we?”

“That makes one of us,” Hunter muttered as he readjusted the white dress shirt he wore, glaring over at the crowd gathered in front of the building, “I feel like a clown right now.”

Lily chuckled softly at her son and ruffled his tousled blonde hair, before picking up the four-year-old girl. The dinner was being held in Gotham Hall, a beautiful place where the Avengers were gathering to recognize a few that were retiring, and welcoming more who were joining in on the initiative. It was a televised event, and each Avenger was individually introduced to the hall, including the families. Meaning Lily, Hunter, and Stella were being introduced alongside the White Wolf, aka Bucky Barnes.

“Did we remember to tell Tony to have the chef make Stella chicken fingers? She won’t eat what’s on the menu.” Lily sighed, following Bucky as they walked towards the entrance, smiling at a few of the paparazzi and fans.

“I told him, as did Steve. Mostly because we had to ensure that Leo also got chicken fingers.” Bucky chuckled, hand resting on the small of Lily’s back, other arm slung around Hunter’s shoulder.

The family waved and smiled as they walked down the sidewalk, shielding Stella’s eyes from the bright lights. Friday night in New York was already an insane time, and with an Avengers event, it only grew more hectic. Which is not always the best for a four-year-old who was not the biggest fan of large crowds. Hence why she thrived in the countryside in Long Island, enjoying her time alone or with a few of her close friends. It sometimes freaked Lily out just how much the girl was like her father. But warmed her heart at the same time.

“Let’s go find our seats,” Bucky whispered in the blonde’s ear as the four walked into the hall, making their way through the halls towards the dining area, finding their seats with Sam and Steve.

“Well look who decided to show up,” Sam chuckled as he embraced Bucky, kissing Lily on the cheek, “You lot clean up well, hm?”

“Your girlfriend cleans up better than you,” Bucky teased as he embraced Rose, kissing his fiances sister on the cheek as well before taking a seat next to Lily, “Even Leo looks better than you.” He teased, winking at the five-year-old boy across the table.

“He was being nice Buck, c’mon,” Steve chuckled, clapping the man on the shoulder before smiling as Natasha joined the table, “Now the whole families together again.”

“Oh don’t go pestering cyborg, I looked at the playlist Tony made,” Sam chuckled, sitting at his seat, “He’s got Marvin Gaye on there. Might be the thing that sends robocop over the edge.”

Lily chuckled and shook her head, pouring a glass of water for Stella and placing a straw that was on the table in it. She loved hearing the banter between the three and laughing at Rose and Nat’s interjections. Lily herself was not the best at bantering back and forth with them all, but apparently, a few of her quips were some of the funniest things said. Hunter as well. Neither of them were big talkers, which is why the two never really enjoyed the events that they had to attend.

“When are they doing introductions? Just to prepare Stella for the camera that comes zooming around,” Lily hummed, catching Bucky’s attention, “You know she freezes when they come by.”

“We’re up first,” Steve commented, sipping his whiskey, “So it’ll be done and over with quickly.” The blonde chuckled, pinching his goddaughter’s cheeks gently, “But they may be doing interviews. Tony sent an email.”

Lily glanced to her side, watching Bucky turn his head away from her gaze and focus on the whiskey he himself had. The blonde shook her head, focusing her mind on the water in her own glass. Hunter seemed to go a bit pale as well, most likely worrying he’d have to speak. Lily nudged Bucky’s arm, nodding towards Hunter. The brunette nodded, turning to the boy and whispering to him. Lily sighed softly, watching Hunter relax at his words.

Time went on and Lily felt herself relax a bit. But when the camera crew entered, her anxiety skyrocketed once again. Bucky’s hand rested on her thigh, the coolness of the metal seeping through her satin dress, causing goosebumps to pop up along her skin. Stella was busy on Lily’s phone, too distracted to really see the cameras entering and everyone setting themselves up. Lily pursed her lips and turned to Bucky, looking up at him through her lashes. The older man bent down and pressed a kiss to the woman’s forehead, soothing her nerves. Or at least trying to, as the cameras made their way over.

“Welcome everyone to the annual Avengers Dinner!” The announcer chuckled, her voice radiating through the speakers around the room, “Let’s start this legendary night with the star of the show, Captain America!” She grinned, “Or, should I say. Captain Americas.”

Lily sighed softly as she watched Stella lift her head, dropping Lily’s phone into her lap. The blonde rested her hand on her daughter’s shoulder, squeezing gently as the cameras made their way towards the table. The announcer plastered on an obviously fake smile that made Lily want to leave the room, but she stayed silent as she came closer.

“Look at this lovely group,” she chuckled, “Steve Rogers, always an honour to see you here. Alongside the ever ravishing Black Widow, aka, Natasha Romanoff. And who do we have here? Sam Wilson, aka Captain America, and fashion designer Rose Osborne! With her little one.” The redhead grinned, gesturing to the group before turning her attention to the family of four, “And last, but not least, the Barnes. James Barnes, the now-retired White Wolf, with his stunning fiance, Lily Barnes. Have you two tied the knot officially yet?” She asked, lowering the mic to Lily.

The blonde flushed a deep red, chuckling softly, if not awkwardly, “Not yet.” She stated simply, readjusting in her seat.

“What’s the holdup? We’re all dying to know!”

“Just been busy.” Lily hummed, glancing over at Stella, who was staring down at her lap.

“How could I forget! You two have your own kid,” she hummed, glancing over at Hunter, “Kids, sorry. Stella and Hunter correct? How do you two feel about the announcement tonight?”

Bucky jumped in, taking over as he saw Lily’s confused face, “Walker has had a past. But I’m sure he’ll do great. Especially with some reinforced supervision.”

-----

“Walker!?” Lily whisper yelled, pushing open the front door, “What the hell is Tony thinking?” She muttered, dropping her purse as she cradled Stella’s head on her shoulder.

“We tried to talk him out of it.” Bucky sighed, nodding up the stairs for Hunter to head up to bed.

“It’s ridiculous,” Lily sighed, following her son up the stairs, Bucky following close behind, “Was what happened nothing to him? He decapitated a man in a town square.” The blonde continued, walking into Stella’s room, slowly stirring her, “Darling wake up, gotta get you into PJ’s.”

“He redeemed himself near the end of it all,” Bucky sighed, pulling pyjamas out of his daughter’s dresser, “Maybe that counts for something in Tony’s books.”

Lily had her own personal reasons to resent the man. Whenever there was a function where he attended, he was always a bit friendly with the blonde. Bucky mostly stepped in before it got too far, but still, it made Lily uncomfortable regardless. But above all of that, the events that happened with the Flagsmashers was something that Lily couldn’t get past. Bucky had gone to help with the entirety of the ordeal but ensured to keep in constant contact with Lily, who was sitting at home, pregnant as can be.

She remembered the day he came home like it was yesterday.

-----

Lily watched the TV with relief in her eyes. She watched Sam’s speech with pride, her heart swelling at his words. She had always admired Sam, and watching him officially take up the mantle was something Lily would remember for decades to come. Her hands rested on her swollen stomach, counting down the minutes before she could see her boyfriend walk through the door of the Manhattan home they still lived in.

Lily made her way to bed, laying uncomfortably in it. She didn’t remember how she was able to sleep when pregnant with Hunter, but the baby currently growing inside of her was making her want to turn back the time and keep Bucky at bay that night she was positive was the day the fetus was conceived. Though she knew deep down, she would want to relive that night time and time, and time again. As she tossed and turned, the blonde wondered if Bucky was still directly in the middle of the city.

When the door opened, she felt herself almost float up from the bed. Turning her head, the blonde jumped from the bed and walked towards the man, not hesitating to kiss him deeply as his hands found her cheeks. When they broke apart, he dropped to his knees and pressed his lips to Lily’s seven-month pregnant belly.

“Please tell me the arrested walker,” she whispered, running her hands through Bucky’s brown hair, “Please.”

“They didn’t...I’m sorry my love.” He whispered, standing to his feet, “We don’t know what’s going to happen with him.”

-----

Three years later, they figured out just what would happen to Walker. He’d be given the same privileges as people who had saved the world countless times, including that of Lily’s fiance. It sat heavily on Lily’s shoulders as she undid Stella’s hair, placing the elastic to the side and running her nimble fingers through the dark tresses as Bucky helped the young girl get changed into her pyjamas.

After the two tucked their daughter into bed and undressed into pyjamas themselves, and climbed into bed, Lily let out a heavy sigh. Not only was the Walker situation heavy on Lily’s mind, but the announcer’s comments on the state of their engagement did also as well. She never really thought about it. The two had been busy, there was no time for them to really sit down and properly plan a wedding. But then again...Steve and Nat had been able to. Their own rehearsal dinner was in a week. They had gotten engaged about six months ago. Lily and Bucky...they had been engaged for two years.

Yet legally, they weren’t married. And it worried her.

“Why haven’t we gotten married yet?”

[callmesteve]

dami-centric fic recs

coming back to that anon ask i had yesterday, it’s now sunday, and i Swear that i tried to write a new post with a handful of fic recs, but tumblr deleted it so now i’m going to scream. so. read these:

(see them under the cut!)

We want what little love we hold by AutumnHobbit

audreycritter: somewhere in the Wayne Manor there is a wall of pictures, each with Bruce in a suit and one of the kids in a suit or a dress, standing in a courtroom at the end of an adoption hearing.

___________

So I started thinking, 'how would Damian feel, to come to the Manor with all of his issues, and see a hallway full of photos of his father with his adopted children?'

a little bit of dami & tim bonding, but mostly just dami-centric! very good read!!

Assassins and Animal Crossing by minkspit

In which Damian Wayne doesn't know how to play video games, or be a child, but tries at both. Oneshot.

dami plays some animal crossing and bonds a tiny bit with tim! very cute!!

Just to See You by DawnsEternalLight

Damian is struck blind temporarily and while he is recovering Grayson makes it very hard for Damian to keep his promise to himself not to be a burden and rely on his brother.

literally everything by this author is amazing and id honestly be surprised if you told me you havent checked them out yet?? 

Take Your Child to Work Day by FidotheFinch

The Wayne family must make an appearance at Wayne Enterprise's "Take your Child to Work" Day, but it doesn't mean they have to sit in Bruce's office the entire time. The kids hang out in the daycare center, and Damian meets a child who doesn't belong. His plans to reunite her with her father are thwarted when there's an intruder.

i absolutely love this author’s writing, by the by, and this is a very nice fic!! 

Even Ashes Burn in Wildfires by solar_celeste

Damian Wayne is familiar with being the target of one's apathy, he is friends with despondency and longing. He is aware that people move through life by prioritizing what is most important to them, directing their time and energy into what is most beloved, after all, he often does the same. But Damian also knows he needs to accept that he will never be anyone's priority. A task he is quickly finding is easier said than done, because it is love and acceptance that is the most foreign to him.

~

“Damian was rather well aware that he was hard to love. He wasn’t made to be loved, he had been created with the intent to be used. He had been constructed piece by piece, designed to fulfill missions, to serve a purpose. If he was seen ill-fit, then there was no justification for his existence.”

this is part of a bigger series, and im totally excited to see where they take it!! it’s about depressed damian, but it’s still a very good dami-centric read!

The Nature of Things by FidotheFinch

“Nobody got hurt.”

For a moment it looked like Tim wanted to say something to the contrary, but then he settled on, “Not tonight, no thanks to you. But it has happened, and it will happen again.

“You destroy everything, Damian. It’s in your nature.”

bruce brings home a dog (that they’re not supposed to be keeping) and dami takes care of her for a little bit! it’s a bit of a whole moral-thing with dami, too, but fido’s a really good writer, which is why there’s a second fic here by them!

Bleeding Needs of Acceptance by MashpotatoeQueen5

Damian shows up in the dead of night at Gotham City with swords on his back and a chip in his shoulder, ten years old with blood on his hands and a scowl so fierce that grown men have been known to turn away from it.

He’s on the run, but at the same time not, and he’s not sure what he’s doing but he knows what he’s expecting, because he’s there to see his Father and his Father was surely just like the stories his Mother used to tell; tall and strong and brave, a shadow in the night, the call of vengeance in the streets, a detective in his mind and a warrior in his soul, an experienced and incredible fighter who was and is everything that Damian should ever try to be.

Batman is all these things. Father is all these things. And yet, somehow, he still doesn’t quite match Damian’s expectations.

Nobody does.

(AKA That one fic with the focus on the fact that Damian was trained to be a killer ninja in probably not so good conditions, and that a sudden transition to the crazy Batfam and- more importantly- Dick Grayson, probably wasn't the easiest to deal with.)

ill have to be honest with you, i haven’t read this fic in a while! but! the author writes amazing things and their characterization is always on point in their other fics! plus, i’m pretty sure that this was the first fic i ever read involving dami, and it really drew me into the fandom!

Lost on Aisle 4 by DawnsEternalLight

Damian did not think this would happen to him, ever. He did not think he could possibly lose Grayson like this. Thankfully, his brother can always find him. Even in the maze that is Costco.

dami gets lost and it’s really adorable!

[imaginedcreaderinsert]

The one — Jason Todd + Reader (x Nightwing?)

ANGST PROMPT: " Forever and ever. That's how long I said I loved you. But you never said it back." 

Summary: And with alcohol, memories inevitably come. There’s silence, there’s stares that promise much more than what’s actually shown; but nothing can be said when everything else is said and done. It’s been three years after all, and everyone is pretty much over that old story, right? // AKA Reader confessed to J. Todd three years ago. Things didn’t turn out okay.

WORD COUNT: 5584. IT’S A LONG READ, GUYS. And the summary part actually comes towards the ending, but I felt like the slow start and context was needed to understand the characters a bit better.

AO3 LINK: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22422967/chapters/53574076

TW: implied depression, self-harming and Jason’s canon death. I don’t actually follow the comics so I’ve tried as best as I could. I hope it makes sense.

Bruce Wayne couldn’t trust anyone, but the (L/N)’s were pretty damn okay; or so Jason thought when he was a kid. They were one of those old money families, but they were never rude nor disrespectful. Some of their views were pretty conservative, but Dick said once that they could have turn out for the worse had it not been for the adoption of the jewel of the family, (Y/N). No one never really questioned the biological apparent differences, as evident as they were; but neither Dick nor Jason ever really commented on it. “Blood is thicker than water” they used to say, but just as it didn’t seem to matter much to (Y/N), it never really made any sense to the Robins. She was two years older than him when they met, and as expected of any girl of her age, her eyes always searched for Dick’s, who kindly and just for the amusement usually looked back.

Jason never really quite understood the purpose of galas until he saw her giving her first actual speech, a few months after her first debutante ball. It had been a pretty big deal around Gotham, seeing as she was very soon interested in politics and in social reforms in Gotham, specially on educational and “bad” districts, those of dubious reputation. Her eyes were transfixed in something much more far away the public, and her hands had been shaking uncontrollably before getting up the stage. She had been looking over her small flashcards, and even if it had been “old big brother” Dick the one massaging her shoulders, in an attempt to calm her down, her last shy smile had been directed at him, not Grayson. That had made him feel special, and well, it’s not like you two didn’t get on well; the relationship carried on was merely filial, annoying each other. Dick had been too old to keep up with those antics, and he didn’t have really the time except for a few flirty and innocent exchanges. It had been left then for both of them to keep up like that, and it had been amusing, funny: she was witty, quick, sharp… It was entertaining to say the least, but the first time he saw her terrified like that, just seconds before getting up that big stage all by herself, something in his heart ached. But their relationship had never been like that, and he was a bit awkward like that by that age.

Once she had been done and she had been so well-received, she had taken enough photos, praised, acclaimed, her legs almost gave out once in the shadows. He had been the one to catch her, and she had shyly smiled, stumbling on her words and excited, happy, euphoric. Many emotions, some of which he never had the opportunity to experience as a Robin and Jason Todd, which he unconsciously treasured. He laughed at her while she got embarrassed and tried to lightly smack him. Maybe it had been nothing more than a mutual crush, or maybe they had in origin been truly destined to end up together: they way they bickered, could keep up with each other antics could have been considered an early sign. But those things don’t really matter anymore, do they? Not once he’s dead and done for.

 * * *

They were hard years. The Wayne family had been close to yours and losing your father in a shooting months after Jason’s death had been too much for your young and fragile heart. Father was never really expressive; instead he compensated it with expensive jewelry, dresses and gifts that could make any girl cry. You tried to understand him, you really did: but you never fully got closure. And Jason devasted you: your childhood friend, the first actual person whom you shared some of your first memories, experiences like a sleepover, a pillow fight, alcohol tasting and a shy and awkward drunken kiss... He had been your first crush and maybe – maybe eventually it could have been much more, but now it doesn’t matter. That’s what you tell your therapist sometimes, with tears in your eyes, even when both of you are fully aware that you will never get over it, any of them. You don’t acknowledge the trauma, and for some time, half a year, you don’t really know how to continue: but you slowly get up. It takes some tries, some stupid mistakes (a razor, blood, crying) but someone hears you. It’s not someone you would expect to, but he with his own shine extends his hand and you slowly, with some relapses, eventually take it. And it slowly gets better, the pain subdues.

It never really dies, but there are no nightmares, and when it does get bad, he comes or invites you in. Bruce is not the same, and Alfred understands. There’s nothing wrong in entering his sheets and sleeping in his bed – and sometimes, when you think he doesn’t notice, you even escape to His room, the one that belongs to that presence that always looms over you like a protector and a constant reminder, and search for something of his to take with you, anything.

Anything to not forget him.

***

It’s difficult to explain. You don’t really understand it the first time they tell you, and you can’t believe it until you see it with your own eyes, but things do change around you, and you have no alternative but to accept it, even when you don’t see him the first time with your own eyes. Dick is affected, and Bruce is in shock, but Jason Todd is back alive and with a new identity: they open up their secret to you, being as close as you are to the family already, and-well. It’s a shock at first, but nothing you have to digest over for hours, since your mind seems to only concentrated on that figure which has hunt you for years in dreams, in impossible scenarios you’ve sometimes created where you grew old – and suddenly he’s in the same room as you are and you start to cry, to sob. You can’t stop, but he doesn’t try to: actually he doesn’t do anything but look at you, almost indifferently, and it hurts, but it’s a comfort to finally have him home.

Like you’ve always been waiting for him and suddenly you have him wrapped tight around comfortable sheets to never let him go. Finally, you can sleep.

 * * *

—So did he-?

—No, he didn’t until at least five. Bruce didn’t wait for him this time, but he was worried. We all are, actually.

Your phone uncomfortably rests between your shoulder and your ear, and you know it’s dangerous, but you had to ask for him. Yes, you could have asked for Drumble to give you a ride to classes, as it is expected of you, but you don’t really want to conform yet. It gives you some independence and sense of empowerment – and no, you are not saying your mum isn’t, but she’s never really been the same since your father passed away.

—Again? But what does he do?—There’s hurt in your voice, a sigh of exasperation. You can’t really fall asleep until Dick, Nightwing, tells you that he’s arrived safely into the manor. He’s still getting used to it, specially his old room which has never been touched – save from cleaning and dusting—. Just-just tell him to give me a call whenever he can. We were supposed to meet tonight, but I don’t know if we are still on for it. I’ve been trying to call him and-

—His phone might be dead. Don’t worry about it, I’ll ask him about it. Have you yet-?

—No, it’s too early—. You quickly answer. Life is great, you love your life at this moment and time: but you are too conscious of death, of sudden changes and it scares you to death what it might mean if you do that. Things haven’t been the same, and well, he’s now nineteen, you are barely twenty-one and Dick is twenty-six.

—It’s been more than half a year, and you two have been hanging out at his safe house -wherever the hell it might be in Gotham, not that I care- for the last four months. Do you truly think-?

—Dick, I have to go, but yes, I just-don’t see him looking at me like that. Like when we were kids.

—Precisely, (Y/N), you were kids! You can’t expect-

You hang up the call, and sigh. You already know that, but you too know, you at least think, that he doesn’t look at you the way he’s supposed to. And you understand, you know-you know how hard he has it. You wouldn’t expect him to be any other way and you are not going to demand it. And well, it isn’t like he’s dating other girls or taking them home, in that sense you think. His late run-ins are just his ways of coping with his actual situation, and he’s just managing as well as he can.

Your knuckles are white while you drive, and you don’t notice until you release the steering wheel that you know, are aware of, the excuses you are giving him. But no, that’s not it: you are not really hoping for anything. You just want him to be happy.

But wouldn’t it be great to be happy together?

 * * *

You have blurted it out and-shit, he’s not saying anything. You didn’t expect him to anyways but-but you kind of did. And it hurts how he stops with the pizza midway to his mouth, his perfect and gorgeous mouth, slightly bruised from some nights before – it’s like he can’t eat anymore, he has lost his appetite.

In your head it was romantic, it was much better: the lights were dim and there was probably and orangey undertone making it more intimate, cozy; he was probably cuddling you and both of your eyes met. The moment demanded it, and you would slowly said it out, with hopes that he would too: you would know it as soon as his cold eyes would soften, just as they use to every time he comes in from the window, covered in sweat and-

—What do you mean “you love me”?—. You hate his cold tone, the way he says it like it’s foreign to him, he is detached from it. He is not confused; but he doesn’t understand it. Like it’s not something possible—. Wh-how? Since when?

His questioning gives out two things: one, he truly doesn’t expect it. You haven’t made it obvious so that he wouldn’t feel pressured, but this is the worst. And well, two, he doesn’t love you. You know it the moment his blue eyes crush yours, and it’s nothing like when you were twelve and he caught you in his arms. He was a bit breathless, a bit timid; and even when he wasn’t particularly talkative, you always knew he had your back, he was looking out for you. Now he’s only looking for himself – and so much, he didn’t even notice you looking out for him.

—I don’t know. Probably since forever, but I didn’t-I couldn’t know. I didn’t have the time to properly tell you, acknowledge it when I was a kid until you-

—But you wanted Dick. You’ve always wanted Dick.

TV is in the back, but it’s more of a white noise now that he’s said that. Has he always thought that, has he come back with that idea in mind? Were you so blind that you have let him think that, confirmed it unknowingly seemingly as you ran to him every time you had a problem? It wasn’t done on purpose, but these years-no. It can’t have been.

—I found him interesting when were kids, but he’s-God. He’s twenty-six, Jay. And-

—Well, it doesn’t-I mean. Ugh—. He rubs his neck before slumping into the sofa. The one where you’ve been until very late these last months watching stupid shows and movies, black and white movies that he missed and loves. You have shared a blanket, he has fallen asleep in your shoulder plenty of times, and he has always made sure you slept through all the night whenever you slept. Suddenly it’s uncomfortable, new to both of you: neither knows how to behave, move, or sit—. I mean, I just don’t see you that way. I may have at some point but not-not now.

He’s troubled. He feels very small in the sofa, you can tell; he’s looking for the corner to retract himself into and unconsciously hide. You stand up and make an attempt to search for your things and go, because you have fucked things up but-but you lost him almost four years ago. You can’t lose him again. Won’t without a fight at least.

—Look, Jay-Jason—. You correct yourself when you see the coldness in his eyes, how he doesn’t seem to really see you. It hurts. He doesn’t want you there. But you won’t give up. You sigh, coming up to him, until you are down on your knees on the carpet, your hand on the sofa and the space where his body is not. It takes you a bit to start talking, but he waits—. I love you. Not for what you were, or any idealization I have of you in my mind. I truly do feel that way about you, and genuinely care… Okay? Please, Jay, look at me.

He’s… Scared. And uncomfortable. Of course he is. Some feelings are still too overwhelming and being alive again – three years erased from his own mind, having passed him over like it’s nothing, a mere blink of the eye – it’s still something he cannot get used to. His own body is sometimes unknown to him, and he feels a strange dissociation of the self from time to time. It’s hard. It’s not him that’s in control, but a complete stranger that he vaguely knows, that sometimes moves like him, acts like him and speaks like him... But it’s not him. Or at least that’s how he has described it, when he’s tired enough and he needs to talk to someone, you being of course always close and available one call away. But now it’s like all of that is over.

—I love you. And that is going to be-it’s going to go on forever. I adore you, every part of your soul: and no, before you even dare, it’s not damaged—. He barely smiles, but it gives you strength to continue—. You are not damaged. Bad things have happened to you, that’s all, and that’s not your fault. You can take as much time as you need, I’m never going to pressure you. I just want to take care of you and make sure you are okay.

Pizza night is still on and thus you eat it all away, everything sealed with a peck on his cheek which he has conceded. And you like that. You smile and sit close to him, but he never attempts to touch you or move. It’s like he’s paralyzed by fear.

 * * *

Life moves on, but he doesn’t come any closer. It hurts you, because he actually starts to avoid you at times. It’s a severe accusation, but you catch him red-handed when one night he excuses himself away with the pretext of a stakeout which will probably take him a week, disappearing for a few days… And when Tim invites you over, he’s there, going down the stairs like it’s nothing, like he doesn’t even try to hide it. You cry in the bathroom for fifteen minutes before excusing yourself for the night – and things don’t get better after that.

You feel like you’ve lost him for a second time, and everything this time is your fault.

 * * *

He comes to your birthday and you assume that’s a good thing. After two months out of your life, two months where you cry and isolate yourself totally from the rest, he seems to finally come around, apologizing. He doesn’t give you any answer, and as you’ve promised, you don’t pressure him into that. He is relieved, and you are so scared of losing him one more time that you try to be good and stay a good friend. Your heart aches, most often than not now that you start going out into bars: yes, you have a really good time when you play darts or some pool, but whenever a girl tries to enter into the conversation, flirt, you feel like vomiting. It’s not jealousy since this would meant you had a chance from the start at it, but it really is the way his eyes move around their bodies, interested: he’s never looked at you that way. You are just the friend, and he will probably never move past that; but still you try, truly, to be a good friend.

Dick pities you, comforts you often; Jason doesn’t know, but you think he wouldn’t care anyways.  Nightwing is settled down anyways; he has been for some time, and you give him advice, but it’s mostly him that tries to make you laugh, feel better about the situation. Trying to love him hurts you, but you love him too much to give up. Still, you don’t want him to be that troubled again, and worse than that, be the source of all his problems. So instead you make him laugh, you go to the movies from time to time, and play some arcade, eat some pizza; and everything is still the same.

 * * *

—It’s a stupid gala anyways. Who the hell in Gotham cares that it’s Tim’s nineteenth birthday?

—Dumbass, he’s your-oh, forget it, you are too drunk. You wouldn’t understand.

—You wouldn’t understand!

You both laugh, but don’t really know why or what about. It’s been two years and you are close, terribly so; Jason is at a better place and that makes you incredibly happy. He doesn’t wake up in cold sweat anymore and he can sleep five hours straight. Sometimes he even stays in until late in bed on Sundays: you two talk all morning and can hear his bed creaking, for your stupid reassurance. Those are the best days.

—Why is the world so unstable? Everything is jumbling and-

—Don’t shout! They are going to catch us!—. You shout, unknowingly, catching his arm while you stumble forward with the carpet of the hall. It’s quite empty, but still you shouldn’t be sneaking. It’s a family event.

—You know what I got for my birthday? A fuckin’ family dinner, (Y/N)! Just like it sounds, no alcohol or cussing allowed. And definitively no heavy tipping like tonight!

—What!? No, no way!—. Your voice is loud again. And you were present in that family dinner, you sang him a happy birthday with the others and the ridicule hats that Dick made everyone wear—. Oh, wait, you did have a terrible birthday!

—I know!

You’ve both have raided Bruce’s private alcohol collection when no one was looking. You started at the bar, as usual, heavily drinking: and when Dick didn’t let you, you both moved outside, with the pretext of getting some air before going to the Bat’s own bar. And now the ground, the world moves and you don’t really know how to stand up straight.

Both of you grasping onto the other somehow make it to one of the multiple rooms, a private living room apparently; it’s smaller, and the fire is crackling. The place is spacious, and there’s some sofas that look terribly comfortable. You help yourself until there and just slump like you are dead, slightly jumping when he imitates you on the other side of the furniture.

—Oh my God, come closer, that was just one time!

—What are you talking about?—. He genuinely asks, like he doesn’t remember. Of course he doesn’t! You roll your eyes back, exasperated.

—The one time I tried to kiss you. Don’t worry, message received; I won’t try!

Just mentioning it makes you want to cry a bit. It had hurt like hell, specially when you had spent such a special holiday away from Gotham, near France. After a particularly fun night of partying and drinking, you had tried to kiss him at dawn. First he moved his face, rejected you, but later he conceded; and only when things were getting heated, he had stop you: once you had started to remove you dress, more ready than ever. For that night only you hadn’t exactly demanded his heart and were happy enough with his body and whatever lust he stored and wanted to liberate on your body. But that hadn’t happened. You had humiliated yourself in front of him, and in your black bra you had slowly started to dress yourself up, him trying to look at some other place like he had never seen a naked woman before. Worse than that, like if you were his sister, something that he could not dare to look at.

—It’s not that, (Y/N), I hadn’t even-

—Oh, absinthe!—. You purposefully exclaim, getting up to get it, not very far from the center of the room where they lay. You use your mouth to open it, and it does get open: you both celebrate, drunk as you are, cheering fully for it.

Talking get easier, specially the more you move towards the fire, until you are both laying in the carpet almost practically in front of it. He looks at you under a different light, and he seems to actually take the time into observing your curves and soft features, like he has never observed you before. This is a first, and thus you do not comment on it. In fact, you try to avoid it.

—You have a very pretty beauty mark here.

—Where?

—Here.

He signals it with his index near one of the sides of your chin. His finger almost obliges you into levelling up your head, showing it to him: your neck is exposed and vulnerable to him, and he looks at it briefly before letting your head down. His touch had been soft, delicate; not like other times where it had been casual whenever he took an eyelash off your face or some dust from your shoulders. This time he had been tracing a trail, a way from your neck to the mark and after, his contact had lingered.

—What?—. You ask, confused; he seems silent and slightly pensive. Is it something about your makeup? The mark itself? For the very time you are slightly nervous to be alone with him. You had been in the past, but after so many months of obviously not getting anywhere, everything had toned down and it had become casual. There were never special hidden intentions behind.

—Nothing, I just remembered something. It was a couple of years ago, when you told me how you felt about me—. It’s something casual, like it doesn’t bother him. And well, you suppose it didn’t matter to him. He never tried to bring up that night back and you didn’t want to humiliate yourself again like that, not receiving any answer back. It had really hurt back then. The worst thing is that you can still feel the pain like a thorn that never really left your heart—. You said you would love me forever. Is that still true?

It might be alcohol. It must be the alcohol; you rationalize when he brings up that horrible topic you’ve been running from for at least a year. You get rid off your high heels, dumping them near the fire like you want them burnt. He shrugs, really, like he wants to make it clear that you are not forced to answer but you kind of are. You sigh.

—Yes. Forever and ever. That’s how long I said I loved you. But you never said it back.

You are drunk, or you at least protect yourself with that lie in between. You have been too good with him anyways; Dick always so at least, and he’s usually right. You did forgive him that night he stood you up to take a girl home (Did they fuck? Did he kiss her? Would they go out? That night your mind was restless when he had left you at a bar alone, waiting for him for three hours. “It’s nothing”, you had said that night holding back your tears in the back of his bike, clutching onto his leather jacket, trying to make him a bit yours); you stayed when he shouted terrible things at you in an attempt to push out everyone in his life, when he truly feels like he’s going to get stabbed in the back by everyone – physically and emotionally – but you didn’t care (“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… You know you are not-?”, he had asked, voice trembling, small like a child against the corner of his living room. You were stroking his hair, hugging him. “I know”, you had mumbled against his head, tears threatening to dirty him); and even that time he had shouted at you in the middle of a family dinner you had said nothing, you forgave him first hour in the morning (“You are just always after my fucking ass, (Y/N)! Don’t you have a life or something?!” he had abruptly stood up, scaring you and making everyone else open their eyes in surprise. Jason had always had a soft spot for you; he had never made anything violent like that, and Tim had positioned himself in front of you as if fearing he would jump out on you. It had hurt him, but you had been borderline crying when you threw your napkin at him. You had quickly moved for your coat and had left home. He called you all night.  You didn’t pick it up until morning came and had softly accepted his apology. Your eyes hurt from crying). This is probably why you feel entitled to say something so cruel, just like a dagger to his hurt.

—Well, you kind of said you wouldn’t pressure me so… —. And you are sure you will regret this the morning after, but it just rubs you the wrong way how he smiles. Like he doesn’t take it seriously, it’s another of your jokes.

—Are you stupid? What is your fucking problem?—. Your voice is truly hurt. You don’t cry; maybe there are no tears left and Jason has desensitized you these years. His rejections, harsh actions and words have strengthened your heart—. I was serious, Jason. I know you never-you don’t see me that way, but I wanted to try and love you. I really did and-fuck, I can’t really believe you—. Oh, there are the tears; you quickly cover your face, and he moves, sits on the carpet. He makes an attempt to touch you, but you move—. Stop that. I’m okay. It’s just that-well, I always kind of knew you would never be interested in me that way, but I still tried. For three years straight. And maybe I thought at some point that you would consider it seriously at some point, would see that I have always been and will always be at your side. I just didn’t fully know you saw me as a joke.

You want to cry, but not in front of him. Your eyes are fixated on the flames, the way they move and can’t seem to be trapped in any type of pattern; you try to find it, since it generally calms yourself down. It’s a coping mechanism, and you realize that Jason is a bit like that too: someone that can’t be resolved or trapped into a simple formula. But you innocently thought you might be the one after all these years; you had stayed by his side, had comforted him, had loved him all those nights where he woke up in crying and in absolute terror… You had hugged him until he fell profoundly asleep, murmuring into his hair sweet nothings, comforting words, soft praises (“No, it’s okay, you are not underground. You are in your safe house, in Gotham. I’m (Y/N) and I love you. Everything is okay, you can go back to sleep, you are good. I love you, your family loves you. Just sleep, Jaybird. The sun will be up soon. Just rest.”); and hoped that it might have been as easy as him waking up and realizing he loves you. It had been a bit like that to you, and it had only grown stronger. But you are now sure that not once he has considered you like that.

—Hey. Hey, shit, I didn’t-no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to come off that way, I really did give it some thought and-no, don’t cry. Please, (Y/N), look at me. Don’t cry, hm? Please?

Tears make him uncomfortable, but you can’t stop. You won’t stop. You are tired of accommodating yourself to him. And now he’s happy and in a good place, so you did what you promised, what you wanted to help with.

—Hey, look at me. Come on, please.

He grabs you by your chin, softly, like you are porcelain for the very first time in your life. It shocks you so much you stop crying; he sorts of smiles, but you can’t say. Your vision is blurred out by tears but the soft brush in your lips is unmistakable. You try to make your body react, give it back, but something feels terribly long even when he’s so careful and asks for permission into your mouth. You frown but concede slowly: enough so that his tongue can enter your mouth, can find your tongue to play with. It’s a slow dance, not a battle like you had once seen in the bar, when he thought you were gone and had brought that girl to the bathroom. It had shattered your heart, but you had convinced yourself he was merely letting it out of his system. His grip had meant to bruise her hips, and the need in his kiss like that of one that tries to put off a fire, you had told yourself on your way back, silent and feeling like shit. It didn’t mean nothing.

Did this then mean anything? You push him as you realize that it won’t, that it will only get more and more uncomfortable. And besides, thing have changed.

—Jay, stop—. You murmur, and for a moment think he might have not hear you: but when you are opening your mouth again and pushing him aside, it stops—. What are you doing? A stupid mistake that you will regret tomorrow and that will make me cry for another two months? Please, Jason, I thought we were over this. I thought you were over this.

“Over me clinging onto you desperately, lovingly”. His eyes try to search for yours, but you don’t concede, won’t reward him with the secret desire you had had for over three years. Maybe it will never stop, you will always love him like that.

—I just thought that I-

—Well you thought wrong. Stop playing with me. As unconceivable as it might sound, I have someone else.

You didn’t plan on telling him like that. Probably not ever, if you could avoid it. It wouldn’t probably last anyways; but you wanted it to work. You really did. He made you feel loved and secure; he made you feel like you were worthy, true and caring. Not overbearingly anxious, fake and never enough, which is what Jason made you feel most of the time. You hug your knees, tightly, and open your mouth; but Jason comes first.

—Is it-?

—Jason? (Y/N)? Are you there?

The door opens, and in comes Dick. Your eyes soften as you look at him, and quickly grab your heels. You don’t look at him in your way out, but he understands. Jason doesn’t move from his place in the fire, maybe too drunk or too overwhelmed – maybe it really is his mind playing tricks as he catches his brother’s eyes following the feminine figure that exits the room. But it might just be too that Dick cares way more for you than he does, even when you two are closer.

—Jason, just-—. He doesn’t know how to start, and he understands. It’s what Tim has been trying to say too—. Just don’ t mess with her. The last five years have been rough on everyone, especially you, I’m sure, but she has other problems in her life too. She hasn’t had it easy, and you just-you have been just taking advantage. And don’t you dare say you aren’t because I have been looking at the way she looks at you. And you are very aware of that too. So, don’t do it again, because I would hate to make the family choose between you and her. You already know who would win and you need us as much as we need you. Point is, stop.

The door closes as he leaves him alone, and Jason truly thoughts he has lost something precious that he didn’t know it was his in the first place. He really did take you for granted, and maybe it’s time to stop. Maybe you really are no good for each other.

[thefightingbull]

Puppy Love Pt. 2

@elloryia (homework assignment number two!) 

“JASON PETER WILSON!”

He cringed at the sound of his full name. Even though he was an adult and lived on his own, there was nothing more terrifying than a parent shouting out one’s entire name. He looked down at the puppy snoozing in his lap and sighed. He didn’t know why, but he was sure the little shit was the reason he was in for it with Dad.

The door to the room he’d claimed for himself swung open as Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, aka, Dad stood holding up a gun holster. Jason flinched at the sight and set his book down beside him on the floor to give Dad and the object his full attention. The leather had definitely been chewed up by tiny, sharp puppy teeth that undoubtedly belonged to Lucky.

“Since when do you own a dog?” Dad snarled; his pale blue eye focused intently on Lucky.

“C-couple weeks ago,” Jason answered. “Just after I took care of the judge. I didn’t mean to adopt it, I just sort of …did.”

“Adopt it?” Dad’s left brow raised. “It’s a dog, Jason. Not a child.”

Jason shrugged, not sure how this argument was going to land. If he fought with Dad, Jason would lose if only because his father was by far the more stubborn of the two. If Jason didn’t fight about it, Dad would think he didn’t really care about keeping Lucky. Jason was going to have to tread carefully, especially since the next few missions he had were with the ornery old man.

“He was drowning,” Jason started. “I thought he would die so I took him to a vet hospital. They managed to keep the pup alive and they kind of assumed it was mine and I paid for the medical bills and now he’s mine.”

His father stared skeptically. “You’re hiding something,”

“What?”

“You heard me,” Dad said. “What are you keeping out of the story?”

“Oh uh,” Jason blushed and knew he’d given himself away with his heated cheeks and stuttering.

“If this is about some piece of ass, Jace, I swear,” Dad warned with a growl.

“It’s not like that!” he insisted.

“Oh please,” his father rolled his eye. “It’s never like that with you, until it is. I thought Joey was going to be the slut.”

“Hey!” Jason laughed, scratching at Lucky’s ear. “Don’t slut shame me.”

“You’re either ashamed or you aren’t, you’re the one that chooses to sleep around like one,” Dad shrugged, but there was a glimmer of humor in his eye that told Jason he wasn’t as angry as first thought. “Let’s see him.”

Jason got off the floor where he’d been cuddling with Lucky and reading a book. He walked over and passed the puppy to his dad.

Dad looked the dog over carefully, checking Lucky’s teeth, paws, docked tail, and looking under his floppy ears. Lucky attempted to lick at Dad’s hands a few times or nip at passing fingers, but Dad had plenty of experience with animals. Grant was still a dog lover, while Joey preferred cats. Rose had a fucking bird of all things.

“You dock its tail?”

“No, Sir,” Jason shook his head. “Dick said it was done by whoever owned it prior. Likely the whole litter and this one either didn’t get itself adopted or was abandoned by whoever bought it.”

Dad nodded and then handed the animal back. “It’s probably for the best. They get to whipping those tails about and then they break and get infected.”

“Dick said so, too.”

“I take it that’s the piece of ass?”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but he’s a good guy. He’s intelligent and sweet.”

“And when we head out of Gotham and on to Paris? You gonna take the pet doctor with? You gonna bring Lucky along?”

“Lucky yes,” Jason nodded.

“Not Dick?”

“No, Sir. Dr. Richard Grayson is the adopted son of one Bruce Wayne,” Jason sighed. “Which means…”

Dad’s eye narrowed but not angrily. There was excitement in the old man’s eye and that was as worrisome as if he’d been pissed off by the news. Jason really should have known better. Dad been trying to figure out how to get one over on the Bat since their last feud.

“Batman isn’t on our list and we wouldn’t take a job on him even if one was put out,” Jason reminded. “He’s good for this shithole.”

“Fuck Batman,” Dad sneered.

“You’re just pissed off because he got in your face about having a teenage ‘sidekick’.” Jason laughed.

He would know. He was the side-kick. Jason had been training with his dad from the moment he’d been taken into the Wilson family. There weren’t a lot of vigilantes that allowed young teens or even friends to run around with them. Jason was sure Green Arrow and Black Canary had, but Batman, Superman, and Flash had never allowed such a thing and it was pretty well known that they disapproved greatly of anyone that did.

Cape or Villain.

“Think your boyfriend knows what Bruce is?” Dad asked.

Jason frowned. He didn’t want to use Dick for that. Had he realized that Dr. Grayson was that Grayson, he probably never would have returned for his jacket. Or Lucky. Batman and Deathstroke weren’t what you’d call enemies, but Dad delighted in irritating the Bat any chance he could. Especially since getting lectured by Batman about “foolishly endangering the life of a child”. Batman refusing to fight didn’t help, either. Dad saw it as unfinished business.

“I don’t and I won’t find out either. It’s not really any of my business.” Jason sighed.

“It is when Batman tries to stop us from doing what we’re being paid to do.” Dad argued. “When are you seeing him again?”

Jason blushed again, unable to help it.

“You have a date tonight, don’t you?”

He nodded, knowing it wouldn’t do him any good. “Yes, I’m meeting his family.”

“At Wayne Manor?” Dad said with a grin.

Jason closed his eyes but nodded none the less. He really, really should have run screaming from Gotham the moment he found out who Dick Grayson’s father was.

He was so boned.

[flightfoot]

We’re The Same ch. 2

AO3/FFN

Oh yeah, a little background on Maya; her father's an assassin, and also an abusive asshole. He went after Damian, torturing him and taunting him into killing him (apparently. I haven't gotten my hands on that comic unfortunately). So Maya went after Damian for "revenge" supposedly, saying that she'd kill him after he'd finished his redemption quest, but that she'd help him in the meantime because he CLEARLY needed help.

...yeah, she's never killed anyone before, and it was really blatantly obvious that she wasn't going to go through with it even then. She was just paying lip service to what she thought she was "supposed" to do. Later once they've pretty much finished the quest, she ended up being the one to comfort Damian when he believed himself to be irrevocably stained with blood, forgave him, declared herself his sister, and gave him a hug.

I wish I had more material to draw from for Maya, I like what little I've seen of her.

Disclaimer: This is a Lovesquare fic, with Identity Reveal, Hawkmoth Reveal, and Hawkmoth Defeat. It is NOT a salt fic.

Thanks to @mini-minou for betaing!

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Damian peered up at the manor in front of him. Huge, imposing –

“How quaint.”

– if you didn’t happen to grow up as the prince of a society of assassins and the son of a billionaire, that is.

He took stock of his surroundings. There were cameras at the gate, but ONLY at the gate it seemed.

“Tt. What brain-dead simpleton designed this security system? Does the owner REALLY think this will be sufficient to catch any criminal infiltrating the place? Idiot.”

He launched himself onto a rooftop, getting a better angle to see the whole manor.

Two things stood out from the new vantage point; an open window that seemed to lead to a boy’s bedroom, and a weird patch of wall that wasn’t quite flat. To the casual observer it might appear to just be some strange design on the wall, perhaps an artistic choice.

Damian was NOT a casual observer.

He narrowed his eyes. “Things just got a little more interesting.”

He swung over to the patch of wall, running his fingers over it. Grooves spiraled across it, fitting together in just such a way that…

“I see. So this patch of wall is some sort of covering that can expand and contract. Now why would a perfectly ordinary, everyday citizen – well, aside from being rich – have one of these?”

There was nothing more he could do with that patch of wall. Time to investigate the window.

Swinging back around the manor, he took a better look at the room… and its occupants.

He narrowed his eyes. Seems I wasn’t far off about the spirit of the cat.

Inside a boy typed away at his computer, looking up news reports about Robin. Not a huge surprise, seeing as how the boy was almost certainly Chat Noir.

Slightly MORE surprising was the tiny black cat-like creature stuffing his face with cheese.

Seriously, how was he even eating that much, that cheese was bigger than his entire body?!

Oh wait, magic. Stupid question.

So he’d almost certainly found Chat Noir. Not exactly why the tracker had disappeared, but he had a start.

Time to do a little digging.

He brought out his phone and got to work.

Hm. Seemed like this mansion belonged to Gabriel Agreste, a world-famous fashion designer. He’d been reclusive ever since the disappearance of his wife nearly a year ago, only making a handful of public appearances. Judging from what little he could dig up, he seemed like a rather cold man who didn’t put up with anything he considered nonsensical or silly, such as when he was called into a game show without apparently having agreed to it. Damian actually agreed with his displeasure at being tricked into participating, but his tone and body language… it was a little too familiar for his liking.

There wasn’t much info on the wife, Emilie. Apparently her maiden name was Graham De Vanily. Her family owned a studio called Graham films. From her few public appearances, it appeared that she’d gradually been getting sicker and weaker over the months before her disappearance, though there was no news of her being diagnosed with any illness.

And then there was the final member of the family, Adrien Agreste, AKA Chat Noir. A fourteen year old model, he had plenty of professional photos and lots of celebrity appearances.

Damian’s eyes narrowed. 

Plenty of celebrity appearances… but little outside of that. Not until a few months ago, when he started going to public school. Then he started being tagged in other people’s photos, being talked about as a friend. Before that the only person his age who seemed to know him on a personal level was Chloe Bourgeois, and it took only about a minute of research to figure out that she was a stuck-up rich brat. It was always possible that his personal life was just kept private before this, but… well, Damian’s instincts were telling him that something was very, very wrong here.

Time to get a little more hands-on. Luckily the security of the mansion was ABYSMAL. Seriously, if Gabriel had lived in Gotham, both he and Adrien would have been kidnapped dozens of times in the last few years.

He didn’t need to make much of an effort. A few minutes after he’d put down the phone and started surveilling the mansion, a woman – judging by her appearance, most likely Nathalie, Gabriel Agreste’s assistant, opened the door. The little cat creature disappeared into Adrien’s shirt, likely to conceal himself from her, and Adrien left the room. Luckily for Damian, he left the window open.

He quietly alighted in the room. It was huge and had a lot of stuff in it, but nothing of interest, except-

He followed his nose. And wished he hadn’t.

“YUCK!”

So that cat creature had an entire hoard of the stinkiest cheeses that Damian had ever smelled in his life. And judging by how huge the stash was, he ate a LOT.

He swiftly closed the cabinet door. If anything else was in there, it wasn’t worth sacrificing his nose to find it.

His next discovery was a little less nauseating to his senses.

Damian pulled out a photo from the trophy where Adrien had hidden it and several other similar photos.

So the flirtations weren’t just banter then. Great, he’s lovesick.

Damian rolled his eyes and put the photo back. It was always a pain to deal with couples on a team, they were always making googly eyes at each other and being gross and NOT concentrating on the mission.

There wasn’t time to investigate much else – not without risking discovery. He planted a few bugs and cameras and moved on, entering the air duct.

He pulled up the floor plans of the building to use as a map… and soon frowned. The floorplan differed slightly from what he’d seen from the outside, especially with that strange covering. Not TOO big a surprise – that covering was obviously meant to conceal SOMETHING – but the size of the difference was pretty staggering. It seemed like at least a 500 square foot room had been secretly added to the mansion and NO ONE had noticed.

But even that didn’t explain what he saw in front of him.

He frowned. Now where was THIS little fork in the road supposed to go?

The duct split, one piece of it following the regular floor plan, as shown in public records, and the other decidedly NOT following that, instead curving steeply downwards.

A secret place that – judging by how long and how steep the ductwork was – lay underneath a mansion? If it was some sort of cave he should get Bruce to sue for copyright infringement.

It was not a cave.

A huge chamber stretched before him. It looked almost like a mausoleum, with its high ceiling, ornate windows, and general over-the-top atmosphere.

A cult, perhaps? They were fairly common – WAY too common – in Gotham, but he’d been hoping to maybe not run into them as often elsewhere.

He should have known better. Sheep existed everywhere in the world.

Still, if it was a cult, it must be a small one. The walkway wouldn’t be able to fit more than one or MAYBE two people, and the “island” at the end of it wasn’t exactly huge. Speaking of which…

He walked to the end, peering at the closed pod. A human-sized pod that was obviously supposed to be the focal point of the room underneath the manor of a millionaire who he strongly suspected wasn’t Father of the Year, when his wife had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Yeah this boded well and wasn’t suspicious in the slightest.

He prepared to hack the pod to open it up, or at least to get information on what was inside, but discovered there was no need. There was no security on it, it only required a button press to open.

Seems like Gabriel Agreste hadn’t thought to include any contingency measures for someone breaking into his lair.

The pod doors opened, revealing pretty much what Damian had expected.

Because of COURSE Gabriel was keeping his “missing” wife in a pod underneath the manor. Naturally. Why wouldn’t he? That’s a perfectly normal thing for a perfectly normal man to do.

Question was, was she alive and in some sort of coma or suspended animation, or dead and being kept preserved?

He examined her closely, checking her for signs of degradation and any sign of life. If she was breathing it was so low as to be undetectable, and her heart rate also appeared nonexistent. However, while her vital signs were missing, she appeared to be in good health otherwise, with no sign of rot or decay at all.

Suspended animation it was then.

After taking a picture, he closed the pod. If she was in suspended animation it may still be possible to revive her. He didn’t want to be responsible for more death.

A small insect flew by – a white butterfly.

What was a butterfly doing here? Then again, what was ANY of this doing here, especially the foliage.

Wait… a white butterfly – like the one that had been released when the akuma was purified.

A butterfly emerged from a cocoon on a nearby branch. Dozens of similar cocoons hung nearby.

A reclusive millionaire who was hardly seen out of his house, two massive rooms that didn’t appear on the floor plan, one of which housed his supposedly missing wife, and dozens of the same type of butterfly that Hawkmoth used to create his akumas?

It was possible that Gabriel Agreste wasn’t Hawkmoth. It was also possible that Damian would spontaneously grow wings and decide to become an opera star. Both possibilities seemed equally likely.

Might as well set up some cameras and bugs and then get out of here. If Gabriel descended the elevator, he’d have trouble leaving without being spotted. Wouldn’t be a problem if Gabriel was only down here for a short period of time, but if he wasn’t…

Swiftly he returned to the duct, heading back to the surface.

As he crawled around the vents, he left numerous bugs everywhere he could without leaving the vent, along with tiny cameras at each vent opening. When preparing to break into the lair of a supervillain, it paid to be prepared.

He shot off a quick text to Ducard, telling her to meet up with him at a certain rooftop he’d spotted that had some good cover. They needed to exchange notes.

It was time to take down a supervillain.