#i have half the thought that conner did have some more romantic or romantic seeming feelings towards mgann

[wandixx]

Ok it closes out on me when I tried typing it the first time-

Anyway, I'm a sucker for shock value ones, just so funny to me, so how about M'gann being nervous about introducing bf danny and it happens at an inconvenient time! Could go ghost royalty, ancient of space or anything, hell ghost as dragons would be pretty funny, up to you though!

I'm not sure if I did a good job at this, but I didn't want you to wait too long and real life is keepimg me busier than expected, so for now, it's here. I may continue it one day (I also have different version of fill for this prompt, because neither idea felt right, so if you'd like to see I too, just let me know whatever way is most convenient to you)

This wasn't supposed to happen like that. M'gann didn't have a super detailed plan on how it was supposed to happen, but even her vague (thought and rethought every night) ideas were anything but this. It was supposed to be a calm, low-stakes situation. Maybe even make it look like an accidental meeting, Team in civies hanging out around Happy Harbour, bumping into Danny and then she'd just introduced him, perhaps adding ‘btw, he is my boyfriend’ almost like an afterthought. This seemed like the best possible scenario.

This was also, as expected with the way hero life is, the exact opposite of what actually happened.

Of course, it didn’t start with anything heralding the absolute disaster this day had to become. Kinda accidentally the Team stumbled upon something between a cave and a basement, and in it a group of people, who decided to perform a summoning of a genie so they could… wish for stuff. They didn’t even look like cultists or villains of any sort, just a group of random adults from seemingly very different backgrounds. M’gann had a really hard time understanding what actually brought them together other than their wishes.

Which was actually pretty useful when it came to fighting them, because nobody really cared about their fellow summoner, just trying to save their own butt. She kinda wished more of their opponents were so incompetent.

Though, she spoke too soon because in the excitement of the fight, somehow all of them didn’t realize that one or two of the summoners… actually managed to finish a summoning. It was honestly a little bit embarrassing.

But, it was too late to dwell on all that, as right above the summoning circle appeared a circle in a worryingly familiar shade of green.

Of course, this one time she didn’t have any equipment from Danny, had to be when the Team encountered a ghost.

Ghost in question was a beautiful woman, with long hair covering one of her eyes, in a blue outfit that was related to one of Earth cultures, but M’gann didn’t know which, and a bunch of bracelets on her wrists. Martian could make a hazard guess on who it was, based on the stories Danny told her.

“We don’t have time for explanations, I think I know who this is, if I’m right for the love of everything that’s dear to you, don’t say the word ‘wish’ out loud” she demanded over the Mindlink.

Before she finished, Artemis took silver tape from somewhere and slapped a piece of it over Wally’s mouth. M’gann understood the sentiment but still… it was a little bit too nuclear option.

Desiree (if it was her) didn’t attack anyone, looking a bit confused, giving Team a moment of reprieve to plan and for Kid Flash to make sure none of the summoners could make whatever wish they wanted either. Also with the use of silver tape. Djinn’s were always tricky.

M'gann used this moment of everyone getting their bearings to curse herself for not bringing any ghost weapons this time. Any other mission, Team or not, she had something on her but today? Today she had nothing.

Excluding the summoning engraved into clips holding her cape but it was kinda last resort. It wouldn't annihilate everything in one mile radius or something but she didn't want to drag Danny there if he was during a test, other ghost fight or something. She knew better than anyone that he didn’t need more distractions.

Conner crashed into a wall right next to her. Artemis seemed to lose her cool when none of her arrows seemed to reach the ghost while Robin was trying to make some counter plans with Kaldur. They couldn't do a thing to Desiree and it was a matter of seconds before she stopped entertaining them and went to the city. It… would end badly, most likely. Danny would prefer to get involved before it got that far. Yeah…

She really wished she didn’t have to call.

“I have an idea, cover for me for a minute or two”

“Bold of you to assume we can stop her from anything”

“I believe in you Wally. Just distract her”

“My water attacks seem to be effective weapon against her”

“That’s aster! What do you plan to do, M'gann?”

“Summon another ghost”

She expertly ignored yelling that followed, taking the golden clip off of her cape. She held fabric in place with absentminded use of telekinesis, while she focused on an engraved pattern. Danny's summoning circle wasn't actually too complicated or intricate but she needed to do it just right. And frankly, she just liked looking at it. Physical proof that her boyfriend would be there if she needed it. Drawn representation of who he is, the deepest and truest parts of his soul written in the language that only Universe itself could fully understand.

And it was beautiful. Absolutely incredible. Much better than Desiree's circle, thank you very much.

M’gann dropped to her knees and grabbed leftover chalk from previous summoning and crouched to quickly draw Danny's seal. She had a lot of practice from all the times she doodled it on a whim just to get something of him with her when she missed him the most. She rarely actually summoned him, again, it was difficult to align their schedules, but she was very familiar with the first step.

And it was really easy from there.

She placed the clip in the middle of the circle, shapeshifted one of her nails to get a bit of blood on the chalk and leaned back.

After a careful, deep breath, she started an incantation, putting as much power in her voice as she could.

“I call upon you guard of Amity Park, I call upon you dearest child of the Ice, I call upon you one favored by the Time, I call upon you vanquisher of the Fear, I call upon you subduer of the King, I call upon you defender and the guide, I call upon Phantom, both worlds beloved child”

Circle erupted in green light, putting a momentary pause to the fight. M’gann was still blinking spots away when a figure flung itself out of the summoning circle, right at the Desiree.

“What the fuck?!”

Only after the first punch was thrown did Danny turn back to her, with his usual, somehow both gallant and bashful smile, that without fault made her knees get a little weaker. She smiled back.

“Hello Starlight” he greeted, sounding almost casual.

“Starlight?”

“Hi Angel. Nice of you to drop by” she answered in the same manner. Wally tried to yell from behind the duck tape.

“Angel?! M'gann, who is he? Who is she?!”

“I will always come if you call” he said without any doubt, suddenly as serious as if he was sharing information that could break or make the world.

It certainly worked like that to her world. She actually melted a little on the inside.

“I know”

“Actually, that's kinda cute. I still have no idea who this is, but you go girl”

“I feel like it's not the right time Artemis”

“Not to interrupt… whatever this is, but the other ghost is escaping” Robin cut in “Also, if you want to make out afterwards, please find the room, Batman and Catwoman are traumatizing enough“

Few people snorted, while Danny blushed green. He darted back at Desiree, clearly to escape the embarrassment. M’gann stood up, totally at ease now, that he was there to take care of it.

“Will you need a hand? I don't have any tech but we have a trick or two up our sleeves!” she asked, projecting her voice so it carried through the cavernous basement without yelling.

“I'm good for now but thanks for asking!”

“M’gann, can you give us anything substantial? Who is this? How do you know him?”

“One question at the time and let's wait until he finishes, okay?“

She cut off Mindlink before anyone agreed or protested.

“Miss Martian!”

“Soup time!”

With a blast of light, Desiree got sucked in and Danny landed in front of them with a proud grin.

“My job here is done”

“It truly is. You're getting faster too”

“And thanks to who is that?”

“You”

Danny sent her both an incredulous and playful glare.

“Of course. I miraculously found a ways to not be a mess and don't crash through every wall on my way and–”

“Well, no but–”

“Let me remind you, you're not alone… also who are you dude? And where did the other lady go?” Wally asked, right after ripping the duct tape off his mouth.

“Oh, well, I'm Phantom, I usually work in Amity Park?” he said a bit unsure, as if calling him a protector was under any question. That just wouldn't do.

“He's a hero from Amity Park”

“Thanks love. It's nice to finally meet you all. M talked a lot about you!”

“Can't say same about you, sorry”

“That's fine. I know M was agonizing over how to introduce me in the best way possible. I'm really happy it's finally over,” he paused for a moment, with his brows furrowed “Did I do good? This first impression thing?”

“You're… far less imposing that I personally expected after hearing Miss Martian summoning you, but–”

“M’gann how could you hide this from us?” Conner blurted out quietly, and oh, he sounded so utterly crushed. Everyone fell silent, the playful atmosphere gone as if it had evaporated.

“I never intentionally hid it. It wasn't significant enough to mention at the start and when it became important I felt like I couldn't just drop it at you during lunch or something. I always planned to tell you, there was just never the right time nor right words. I never wanted to hide it.”

“Even just me?”

“Especially you”

“You still should've…”

“Yeah, I should. I'm sorry”

“How long ago have you met?”

“Half a year ago,” Danny said before she managed to answer “It's all kinda my fault actually. I was really set on not getting mixed up with more hero business than I had to back then. I didn't want you or Justice League finding out about me. And when I agreed, it was already really late. I'm sure she'd told you all from the get go if I let her, I'm sorry”

“Why wouldn't you want us to know about you?”

“It's… Probably not the conversation we should have right here, over gagged wannabe cultists.”

“Valid. Let's call the cops and get going. You two have much to explain”

“And you're sitting eight feet apart until you do!”

Danny leaned in to kiss her, quick and playful, before he jumped back at the demanded distance.

“Well, this still went better than at your side”

“Absolutely”

*******

Also, here is some lil arts for a longish wait, sorry again, I hope this story is yours to your expectations

[merp-blerp]

My updated opinions on Gaylor, from a lesbian Swiftie

Disclaimer: I will be linking to some Gaylor posts where I get my info; please do not attack anyone who made these post if you don’t agree with them. Just scroll away or click out of the post. And do the same with mine if you don’t agree with me. I don’t condone harassment of any kind to anyone who hasn’t done anything wrong.

So in this older reblog of mine, among others, I spoke out on my opinions on ���Gaylor”, a sub-fanbase in the swiftie fandom based on the belief that Taylor Swift is a part of the LGBTQ+ community secretly, or half-secretly. However, my thoughts have evolved and I want to make my personal opinions clear. My feelings are always evolving and that’s okay. They may continue to change. This has been stuck in my drafts for months. I’ve always wanted to make this post since I began posting about Taylor so often around the pandemic, but for a while the time never felt quite right and more importantly my thoughts weren’t clear. Several events had made me want to make this post and I think I’m ready to finish and post this.

I’ve been a Taylor Swift fan since 2010, but I only began to consider myself a swiftie around 2018 because that’s when I started really looking into Taylor as a person. To me a swiftie is someone who not only occasionally listens to Tay’s most popular songs, but someone who is actively in the fandom and possibly knows some basic information on Taylor. At the very least, a swiftie knows more than what’s on the radio (doesn’t mean that you’re not a “real fan” if you’re not a swiftie by my definition of one). When I started to enter the fandom, trying to learn info on Tay, the first pieces of it I saw were the Kaylors, because I’m gay and my internet algorithm knew that all too well. I actually thought it was true at the time, in the sense that I didn’t know it was a theory and thought that it was just some info I didn’t know. I remember being confused on why I had never heard about Taylor’s girlfriend Karlie Kloss before. Once I leaned it was just a theory I somewhat distanced myself from that side of the fandom because I didn’t want to get too wrapped up in a conspiracy theory. I was literally in a class that was all about not doing that at the time.

I continued my journey to do my research and felt confident enough to call myself a swiftie by 2020. I started seeing what I now know were just fragments of how some typical swifties view Gaylors. Some seemed distant and unassociating (not really homophonic, though), so I felt subconsciously reassured to continue my semi distant nature towards them. When Kit Conner’s unfortunate outing happened I felt even more validated. I didn’t want to think Gaylors were bad, but I didn’t know what to really think of them and continued to stay distant. I’ve always respected respectful Gaylors. Eventually Jaylor/Toe broke up. I made a post about how this breakup affected me at the time. I am admittedly a very hopeless romantic. The general narrative of Jaylor/Toe was something I really connected to when it came to my wants for my own love life. So it effected me pretty greatly. But it did help open me to looking more into Gaylors. Maybe I was trying to get my hopeless romantic fix somewhere. But really I think I just felt free to do so while Taylor was publicly single; like I wasn’t “disrespecting” any relationship by doing so. I had already thought about looking into the Gaylors before, to the point where my paranoid anxiety disorder very very briefly wondered if I jinked Jaylor, so my Gaylor research wasn’t necessarily connected to the breakup. It just kicked it into full gear.

So, the idea of Kaylor to me. Pretty cute! It’d be a great story. And I think some theories are cool. There are some that don’t make sense to me, but there are some that are super interesting. I saw one that theorized that Taylor burning down the lover house was representative of her burning down this albums 1-10 era we’re closing in on so that the next era can begin with her entering a new phase in her career. Presumably in this theory, a phase where she’s out and gets to write songs about the people she wants to. I’ve seen the coincidences/Koincidences. All that sounds possible. I also get that Jaylor/Toe had inconsistencies in it’s assumed narrative, likely ‘cause you never know the full story of anything when it comes to celebs. I’ve heard the audio of Jack seemingly slipping up during that one interview. Yes, “Wonderland” could totally be about Dianna Agron. Yes, I want to take my future girlfriend to Big Sur now—what’s it to ya—it looks so cozy and sweet. Karlie and Taylor’s pasts are arguably more “parallel lines” than Taylor and Joe’s. I see the queer-coding and get that speculating Tay’s sexuality is arguably not invasive because that’s how queer people find each other in real life. We look for codes in other people. Hints they might give that they are queer. That’s a historical thing we do. She might queer-code a lot. I also see the evidence that Karlie didn’t betray Taylor (had no clue all this time the main source of evidence was Perez Hilton—the fuck? That’s not a good source). I also know that a lot of Taylor’s friends have referenced Gaylor lore very loudly, insinuating that Taylor doesn’t mind the theories. I’ve seen a lot. There is so much, and honestly, it’s fun to imagine all of this being right. I think it’s a possibility.

After all this research and contemplating, the only things I don’t care for in the fandom is the seemingly making fun of Taylor’s ex’s or beards that didn't do anything wrong to her. I don’t get what’s gained by calling Joe Alwyn rude names or censoring his name like it’s a curse word. I get and agree that bearding still happens and it’s super wrong, and you can hate what Joe might’ve represented in Taylor’s life if she’s gay and being closeted by managers or something similar to that. But why hate him or tease him personally? Especially since I’ve also seen some, typically half-hearted theories that Joe is also queer. Wouldn’t it be hypocritical to adore a closeted artist you admire, but personally hate her also queer closeted beard because… he gets in the way of a ship or narrative? Or because, by no fault of his own, Hollywood has a broken system that forces fake dating? Hate the industry, not him. Yes, he’s pretty aloof, to the point where when you tease him it feels like teasing a blank slate, but he is a human being with feelings. Maybe it’s the sensitive bullied kid in me, but it doesn’t seem light-hearted or no big deal to me. I’m not mad yet, just confused. Am I missing something or is sarcasm going over my head? Genuinely asking. This is really just a swiftie problem I think, as it happens in the general fandom too for similar reasons. I know this isn’t everyone in the fandom though.

I also don’t agree with the more… intense theories, such as Karlie’s son Levi (and her currently upcoming baby) isn’t real or not actually her’s. Or that she isn’t really Jewish and it’s all just a part of the bearding. That feels odd. Just… I feel uncomfortable touching that. Gaylors who believe these things seem to be in the minority though. I don't think being queer has much to do with being Jewish. Maybe she just wanted to convert and Josh also happened to be Jewish as well. And maybe Taylor could be like Levi’s stepmom-type figure and Josh is more like a sperm donor or something—I dunno…

If Taylor outright said that she was straight personally I wouldn’t label her as a queer-baiter because it’s not baiting to exist as you are. I think straight and/or cis people should feel comfortable with expressing things like gender-nonconformity or doing things like enjoying rainbows, and the fact that most don’t is rooted in that homophobia thing we’ve been trying to fight against since the 60s. And in my opinion real people can’t queerbait. But I get that this topic is a very nuanced one that can touch a nerve and you’re allowed to disagree with me.

I should also mention that all these opinions are exclusive to Gaylor. I’m not deep enough in other fandoms like the One Direction/Larry Stylinson or Fifth Harmony/Camren fandoms to really say anything on them specifically.

So am I a Gaylor now? I don’t know. Legitimately, do I get to call myself that? I do love, and always have loved, queer interpretations of Taylor’s music and other forms of media. I’m also confident in saying that I’m open to both Gaylor narratives and general narratives about Taylor being true. I can’t take either side as fully the truth while the other’s a lie, not because I’m shunning one of them, but because that just not how I work as a person. Nothing ever feels definitive to me unless it’s a fact in my face. I’m very factual. Not shunning Gaylors, this is just how I work. Would that count as a Gaylor? I truly don’t know.

So, Gaylors, I hope I was respectful enough to your community. If I said anything off, or anything that misrepresented your community, please kindly let me know and educate me. I’m still learning. I’m very sorry some of the swifties in this fandom are homophonic trash. I had no clue it was that bad till I saw what some people left behind in your post. Uncalled for. Taylor, queer or not, would not approve. Shade never made anybody less gay. If you’re a bigot what are you even doing in this fandom? Gaylors, just know you guys are safe with me.

Except me to now have a mix of general swiftie post and Gaylor post reblogged here (if I didn’t do that already—I might’ve without fully realizing). Thanks for reading and being respectful and kind!

🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

[ships-bynoa]

The Titans are almost back, bitches. aka 3x06

Guys, literally every time the titans are together-or even paired up-the episode gets ten times better, but in 6 episodes there is simply not enough Kory and Gar. I can easily forget that when I’m basking in the episode they are in, especially when they’re giving us family dynamics.

Kory:

“You’re not mad that I left. You’re mad I came back.” Kory’s face tells us Blackfire is right on the money, and who would know her better than her sister?

So, Kory, oh boy. Our girl is on edge. She is slowly unraveling and is super vulnerable and raw with Kom around and little sister is going to exploit it and her guilt, which I think she’s carrying a lot of. So far their dynamic has been fascinating because there’s so much to read between them and so many accusations being flung back and forth, from both. From Kory; you sense guilt and even contempt and from Kom there’s envy and resentment, but also there’s a sense of idealization for her older sister, too, which of course, with younger siblings, there always is an element of that. And as an older sibling, there is always an unspoken and sometimes spoken responsibility placed on them for their younger siblings. Parents often don’t realize it, but they can create a lot of tension within siblingships by assigning roles.

They remember home and family very differently, which is often the case, too. Kom was often thrown in the pit and to that, Kory attributes her sister’s constant rebellion as the reason, and yet, Kory herself was a bit of a rule breaker, sleeping with her guard, Fiddei.

Kory was being suffocated by the laws and customs of her home planet; one could say she rebelled by going on a mission, to escape her duties. Home did neither of them any favors because while one rebelled because she did not fit in, the one who did fit in was dying inside, surrounded by little robots and becoming one herself. Being told what to eat, wear and who to love or be friends with is yikes.

I was thinking Kom began her game of manipulation in the bunker, but she really started before that when she sent Fiddei to bring Kory home when she probably intended to kill him all along. After all she would’ve castrated him if she’d had the chance to for sleeping with Kory in the first place. Shortly after Fiddei’s death, Kory flamed out. No powers. Emotionally wrung out from the news her family was dead and now the culprit is here. These two know each other very well and know exactly how to get underneath each other’s skin. Right now Kom is getting underneath Kory’s and our girl is losing patience fast. 

I’m wondering when exactly Dick will tune into Kory’s anxiety-ridden state and step in to support.

Ultimately, I just want to see what truly happened to the girls on their planet and how we have the versions we have now. Like, Kory said to Rachel, “No one is born good or bad, we are defined by our choices.” I get the feeling Kory has given Kom so many chances to make a different choice and has become disillusioned, meanwhile Kom believes nothing she does will give her the respect she feels she deserves anyway, so she may as well blow shit up, figuratively and literally. At least then she’ll have Kory’s attention.

Gar: 

Gar losing it on Dick was so cathartic and yet he could’ve gone much further, considering Dick abandoned him last season to go jail and hallucinate Bruce. It ultimately led to Gar (and Conner) being kidnapped and experimented on by Mercy. It’s actually all the adults fault this happened, but as the leader promoting his family everywhere he goes, he needs to keep his eye on the ball. He would know if he spent five minutes at home with them that Gar is struggling. Last season Gar was #OperationSaveTitans and this season he’s #ThisFamilyIsDying. He’s doing what the adults should be doing, or at least leading the charge on it. He’s the glue, but who will hold him together?

He’s carrying too much emotional responsibility and Dick’s dismissal, because he is fully locked into Gotham and being Batman, makes me mad. Get your head in the game, Grayson. Gotham is going to eat your family while you retread the nostalgic steps of your past.

We all know Dick’s not good at expressing himself emotionally, though he’s usually forced to express something when talking to or being confronted by Kory, so I was proud of him for giving Gar the floor to speak. I just wish Gar spoke about himself, but then again, he needs more time and consistent offers to be heard. I’m happy Dick followed up the conversation up with a bonding/training session. There was definitely pride in Dick’s face because Gar really has come a long way in this group, but he needs MORE SCREEN TIME. I’d like to see the two of them out in the field together the way we’ve seen Kory this season with Gar and Conner. 

I wonder if Gar losing control is the start of all his trauma bubbling up to the surface, will being in Gotham, hunting down a friend be too much?

As a side, has the CGI tiger face gotten worse?

Kom (and Conner):

First thing’s first, what music are we thinking Kom listens to? Probably the kind of music she can break your tailbone to, like, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Jay Z, or Prince, Jimmy Hendrix, Stevie Nicks and Led Zeppelin? Rihanna?

Kom is absolutely a villain this season and if she isn’t, what a waste that’ll be. A mastermind at mind games (see, her picking up the chess piece), who is going to drum up Kory’s paranoia and anxiety around her being there. Trying to kill her suspicion by guilt tripping her while simultaneously being a do good-er to the group, feigning interest in helping the Titans to earn her way in, a tip from our boy, Conner.

She says she wants acceptance and I believe that’s absolutely true, but she doesn’t know how to get that without using power, so she’ll continue to covet acceptance through and with power because according to Kory, she’s always been a climber. Add to that, being born the cursed child and the only royal member born without the gift of fire, something that differentiates them from the common folk, being too frail to participate in the same games as Kory, having a speech therapist be her only friend while being the object of ridicule and you have a villain origin story nicely set up.

I really enjoyed Conner and Kom’s exchange. The boy lit up when he spoke about seeing his family happy and it made me light up. He’s so genuine and has a big heart and Kom is going to take advantage of it, that’s not to say she won’t develop real feelings for him, but she can like him and still use him.

Conner’s “you have to earn your way into the family,” is perhaps an internal and personal struggle he has from sharing blood with Luthor. I think it may come from an insecure place because he was made a titan as soon as he woke up and no one questioned it, but as he’s only half of superman, he’s constantly trying to prove his usefulness for good, which losing Hank has rocked, leaving him vulnerable to Kom’s recognition for his otherness. Their otherness.

She gave us insight into her mind, but also she has likely seized an opportunity to use the vulnerability against Conner and to her favor by making him her kindred. Outcasts. Will she gain influence over him? He’s still young and learning, and trusting, too.

Her interest in him felt layered, ignoring the ugly customs of sex servants, she was also observing Kory’s relationships and ranking them in her sister’s life. Her being able to determine who may have Kory’s interest (which Kory gave away with her vulnerable display of worry over Dick’s welfare in front of Kom) will surely come into play at some point, right? After all, Kom did kill Kory’s last lover/royal guard. This may be me projecting. LOL.

Romantically, I’m waiting to see how they play it before I decide if I like it or not, but so far, they have a nice chemistry. Friendly.

Dick (and Barbara) :

What a lovable dumb ass. 

I was so happy Kory lost it on him and called him on his lone ranger shit, at least when it’s her, even when he’s being an idiot, he’s still listening. “Let’s go.” and I thought it was hilarious that he tried explaining himself, but when Gar called him out, he got all huffy with, “Excuse me, young man.”

Gar asking Kory not to have words with Barbara over Dick getting shot was so funny because Dick’s face seemed to ask the same when she asked how it happened. We love a protective Kory. I’ll be looking at him when it’s his turn to reciprocate.

I don’t like him dismissing their concerns about his personal safety and how it affects them, it’s like he’s learned nothing after running off alone to battle Trigon, or rather has unlearned his lessons of S2. I’d like to see some more permanent emotional growth from him by this season’s end. In his current state, he’s not an exuding leader. He can’t be when he’s still wrapped up in Bruce and all things Gotham. He’s not tuned into Kory’s anxiety, or Conner’s grief and insecurity, or Gar’s emotional burden. 

He’s started making it up to him, but he has much to do in taking Gar’s concerns and emotional needs seriously.

I’m not even going to try and work out the timeline between Barbara and Dick and Dick and old Titans in San Fran and S1. But it doesn’t bode well that Dick’s dream with Barbara ended in a nightmare. 

I wish they’d never did the whole Dick and Dawn relationship in S2 because they’re basically repeating some of the beats in showing us how they don’t work as a couple, only his relationship with Babs makes a lot more sense even though I don't care. Dick has unfinished business with that relationship, Bruce and Gotham and I can only hope he’s wrapped it up for good by this season’s end. I want to see relaxed, smiling and happy Dick in THE PRESENT. I still Babs will be the one to notice and point out Dick's feelings for Kory.

Barbara (outside of Dick) is being downplayed a little, no? Dismissing Dick’s suspicions about Jason when he arrived, showing no knowledge of Jason’s visits to Crane and then taking the bait and moving Crane after he got a light beat down. A commissioner who was also a very capable vigilante is tricked by a recording and goes to meet “Bruce” on her own. I really enjoyed that she could hold her own and the fight scene was really good, but it was a bit baffling that she fell for that ruse. So far, she’s not entirely good at her job.

Dick’s a distraction in his own right and her feelings clearly get in the way, which is why she keeps asking him to leave the precinct and Gotham; because she’s pining a fantasy and he’s ruining it. Lastly, I really like the way Savannah plays Barbara.

Why’d they do that to Tim?? :(

Overall, it was a better episode and I enjoyed it more than latter episodes, but they’re not quite there yet for me. I’m  still waiting for Team Titans.

[whereflowersbloom]

Little boost

It had been a hectic day, working on some detailed written reports Batman asked him to investigate and patrolling with Nightwing, Damian was exhausted, more than usual, he could use a strong drink. There were certain things he had to think about, things he had pushed To the back of his mind while working, but there was a constant mental reminder that they were still there, which is exactly why Damian found himself sitting next to a slightly squiffy Dick Grayson, at the rooftop, looking at the stars and passing back a small bottle full of liquid that burned in the right way from his hair to his toenails. The relief his body demanded after a long stressful day. He thought about the bothersome hangover and the way his head would throb the next day as he took his second sip but he shrugged it off. It was nothing he couldn’t handle. Brother bonding, they had been intensely busy to have a casual brother-to-brother chat, out of all his siblings he felt the most comfortable with Grayson. He was lost in deep thoughts when his brother caught him off guard with a question.

“Have you discussed your feelings and intentions with Raven?” There it was the question he was dreading to answer. He had asked himself when he would finally muster the courage to speak with her about these new emotions surging inside him.

Damian’s heart jumped just enough at the mention of her name, nonetheless his familiar unreadable expression didn’t change. After another sip of the drink he felt loose enough that he didn’t hold back the low heartfelt groan, even as his sensibilities reminded him that he didn’t have anything to groan about. He hadn’t made his intentions clear after all this time. A part of him wondered how Dick might know he had feelings for Rave at all, as if the amber and intoxicating liquor was some kind of truth serum that made everything plain as day. Perhaps he had underestimated Grayson’s observation skills, his father trained him after all. He wasn’t Batman’s first son and right hand for nothing.

“She’s an essential component of our team.” Damian muttered lowering his voice as if to make himself sound as sober as possible and convincing. “The Titans wouldn’t be the Titans without her.”

“That’s certainly true, but also...” the older man nodded in agreement and took a mouthful of the amber drink. “I have noticed you two complement each other well, both in battle and out…” Richard gave Damian a playful feline smirk. He didn’t want to pry, he was only concerned for his brother’s unresolved romantic involvement, he can practically feel Damian’s hostile glare on him, studying his intentions silently. Anyone would understand what he was referring to. So he noticed Damian concluded. Richard didn’t ask to gossip with his other siblings about his personal affairs, he knew it. Maybe it was time to trust Grayson. He certainly had earned it after all those years working side by side.

“It’s not what you think, rather complicated.” Damian said quietly into his drink, and though his eyes are elsewhere, he knew Dick was listening to him as a friend and brother. It was something he’d been trying to avoid thinking about, with no help from the dark-haired man sitting to his right. They had something, Dick was absolutely right. And even when Damian had tried to keep his distance at first, the pull to Raven magnetic and frustrating as hell. Unstoppable. He had no control over it. But what was holding him back? The uncertainty? “We’re simply friends, I think.” It wasn’t a lie. Friends who wanted to engaged in rather intimates activities and explore boundaries.

“Teammates.” Grayson whispered remarking the word. Knowing well Damian’s aversion towards it.

“Exactly. Not any different than how I stand with you or any of the other team members.” Damian said with a tint of bitterness gracing his voice. He didn’t have to explain himself to anyone. Not Grayson or his father. His relationship with other teammates could be described as civilized. He cared for them. They were his family too.

“And yet you are intimate with Raven in ways that you aren’t with your other teammates.” A teasing expression crosses his face. Now Grayson had the guts to mess with him. His eyebrows furrowed at the comment, naturally making thin lines appear on his forehead.

“It’s intellectual compatibility, Grayson. We are teammates who have similar interest in common.” Damian remarked with hot anger. He considered taking his frustrations out on his brother. He wanted to punch someone, maybe Dick or Jason. He visualized the face of Conner Kent though, who had touched Raven unnecessarily too many times today with his filthy hands. His green eyes narrowed.

“If you hold no claim over Raven, surely you are both able to enjoy the company of others. So to say if Conner wanted to spend some time with her, it wouldn’t bother you. Right?” Richard commented taking another sip of the raw drink. His humorous blue eyes watching Damian’s reaction attentively, the man next to him was his family, his brother, he only wanted the best for him. For fuck’s sake, it was pretty obvious they had a thing going on. Deliberately Provoking him would have the reaction he expected. He just had to mention Conner or Garfield and voila his stubborn little brother would get himself a girlfriend. His job as older brother was to meddle in his ‘personal affairs’. O,us, Damian could use a little push to take the next step.

He thought about it for a whole minute, considered the suggestion Richard made that Raven was available to have a romantic or physical relationship with anyone. Looking into Dick’s ocean eyes, he knew that Dick was so clearly baiting him. Because, of course, Richard was absolutely right. The idea of Raven with anyone else made his blood boil but if they were just friends who were close, friends who were evidently physically attracted to each other but didn’t speak about their attraction or romantic interest, he had no right to demand exclusivity. Deny her the possibility to see someone else. It irritated him. He was her ‘friend’ but who was to say that she couldn’t be close with anyone else, for instance Conner. Tsk. Over his dead body. Not Kent or anyone else. He was irrevocably doomed. What the hell was happening to him? He didn’t want to push Raven asking for more, fearing her answer would dig up the ghosts of his past pains that he’s worked so hard to bury. His mother’s betrayal and he was Ra’s Al Ghul grandson. Did he even have the right?

“Just friends.” Damian repeated with displeasure at the term that defined his relationship with the young woman he loved? Did he love Raven? What did he know about love? It wasn’t a exact science, he could read thousands of books and they wouldn’t give him the answer he was searching for. Just had to look at his own Father, involved with a criminal, on and off. Didn’t have to bring up his mother. The answer lies in your heart, it was as If the cold east wind whistled those words. He didn’t want to see Raven with anyone other man, it made his insides turn and his jaw clench involuntary. He wanted her for himself only. And waves of clarity seem to crash down on him, slowly dissipating the feelings of confusion and helplessness that he’s been plagued with ever since he discovered he had strong feelings for Raven. People used to say that love is like wildflowers, it grows everywhere even through the debris, truthfully he didn’t understand it at first, at the image of Raven’s face clear as a painting in his mind, as the countless hours he has spent drawing her alluring features, he finally understood what they meant by that. That smile, her smile. She had bewitched him.

“Does repeating it enough times make it so?” Dick asked arching a brow at him with a sly smile curving his lips.

“Fuck you, Grayson.” Damian uttered annoyed at his older brother, for being foolish and falling right in his trap. Probably it was the alcohol talking but Dick could take it, Dick’s response was a open throaty chuckle. He wouldn’t admit he was thankful out loud though. Damian smiled instinctively. “Thank you for the overly emotional conversation about my romantic affair.” He mentioned to his brother, looking at him straight in the eye. His eyes silently whispering a ‘thank you, brother.’ He had enough alcohol doe the night and with the first ray of sunlight he was waking up for training. He couldn’t help but imagine it, waking him next to her, soft sheets and even softer skin, inhaling that characteristic lavender smell first with the sunrise. And here he was wasting precious time, getting drunk with Grayson. He shook his head before getting up slowly and marching towards the door of the Titans building.

“Where are you going?” Dick asked curiously, suddenly intrigued what his little brother would do about this situation. At this point he knew how to handle Damian and make him see what he refused to acknowledge. Damian was incredibly smart for his age but at times too obstinate. This required of his assistance. He was growing up fast, too fast for his liking. The snarky, short-tempered kid Bruce brought years ago, was long gone. Richard Grayson thinks it is indeed a privilege to be Damian’s brother and mentor. He was tremendously proud of his younger brother. His job was done and he smiled broadly.

“Hopefully it’s not too late to discuss my emotions and intentions towards a certain lady.” Damian flashed him a confident smirk, only barely aware that he might have slurred the last words, effects of the alcohol no doubt. It wasn’t too late for him, walked a bit unsteadily towards the door, his destination the room of his soon to be girlfriend he hoped. He had to speak with her. This was his last chance. He waved goodnight to Dick before disappearing in the darkness of the night, leaving a pleased Richard drinking on the rooftop alone.

Undoubtedly they would have fun explaining to Batman how his biological son was romantically involved with a half-demon. Dick decided that conversation could wait a few weeks...perhaps months.

Have there a brother bonding moment 💜💜💜💜

@audieoddity @niahti @chromium7sky @deep-in-mind67

[blissfulalchemist]

From the Uncommon OC Questions: 2, 20, and 35 for Cat? And A and B for you (regarding Cat and/or the character you're thinking about most right now)

Ahh! Thank you so much for asking! I did answer the second question in Cat’s actual voice so I hope that she can make sense to you haha 

2. How easy is it for your character to laugh?

Cat can laugh pretty freely, most commonly she’ll go for quieter laughs, but is more prone to boisterous laughter when drunk or really happy. When she’s down, don’t expect much more than maybe a half smile from her, there’s no energy for laughter or smiling.

20. If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so?

“Okay so there are different theories as to the different love types, one of which is the love triangle where you have intimacy, passion, and commitment on each corner and you can combine them to get different types of love. Which works well for a lot of situations. For me though, and to try and make this as simple as possible for both you and me, I view it as so: 

Romantic love has a more physical aspect to intimacy along with emotional side of things. There’s a passion there too that relates to physical passion but honestly beyond sex you can have passion in the sense of how much you “hype up” your partner so to speak, like you declare your love for them in public. Romantic Love for me personally is something that develops the best, and ages like fine wine, the longer you are with someone and when reciprocated. Though yes there are exceptions but again there are many different types of love. 

Platonic love is something that I feel should be celebrated more and said more often. This kind of love is most associated with friends and friendship involves more emotional intimacy to create closeness. Some of the first people we are vulnerable with is our friends. And sometimes you end up finding that person that just matches you and it can feel so close to romantic love but its not. Very hard to describe but its much similar to the feeling of a romantic soulmate.

Familial love is one that seems more of a social construct and I think should be considered platonic. Just because you are related to someone doesn’t mean there is an innate love that’s there forever. Familial love is something that is powerful in the fact that it sets up how you view relationships and love in the future and what you can come to accept as love from other people outside of family. 

I hope that all makes sense.”

35. How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive?

Oh she’s is all about joining them in their excitement! She wants to be as supportive as possible! She will try and read a situation and gauge how to go about things if the thing her friend is excited about isn’t good for them. Part of being a supportive friend means that sometimes you have to play the bad guy and tell them when they need to take a step back. 

I will answer this for Cat and my Bloodlines ocs :)

A) Why are you excited about this character?

Cat: I am always excited for her because she was the start of a writing revival for me and her story has grown and changed since her first iterations that it shocks me so much at times. Cat’s story is also something that I love so much and I so wish that I had the energy and discipline to do a long fic like I had intended to do at the beginning, as I finally get to explore the idea of “All it takes is one bad day” that kind of always stuck with me since I read The Killing Joke for a school project years ago. Like I should write more Mary (Dark Cat) as it is the most interesting aspect of her story but it is also the hardest at times because of the change in her character and balancing the core essence of Cat.

Bloodlines: Alright these babies came about by way of needing comfort so I went back and re-read the series and was bombarded with all the ideas and theories that I have in relation to the books and universe. I always had an inclination to write ocs to explore the world more even if they were tangently involved with the main characters of the source material. 

Tia was the first of this bunch and there was a passing mention of a dhampir that lived among humans and nothing more, but it got me to thinking about what that looks like when you’re unaware of a whole world and heritage you’re apart of technically. Granted I don’t know much details on whether that person knew or not but that’s what my exploration is for until she says otherwise. 

Conner was originally a way for me to look into the Alchemists and nothing more, but then there’s the aspect of witches and well there’s no way that it can only women practicing magic so I added him along with working with one of the vampire mafias essentially. 

Stasia! Oh my girl Stasia was never meant to be more than a one dimensional villain that I needed as a big bad against Conner and paired well with Tia’s backstory also, however she demanded that I look at her more closely and her whole aspect of living as an immortal came out. So I played with the idea other ex-strigoi living in the world that, like a villain in the books, wanted to go back to being that way. The personality changes and looking at how can a person have survived for so long and just how do you adapt to being human again, just god there’s so much there and so I get excited about that, she is just also a challenge to write as she is an unapologetic person and unafraid to do what needs to be done, compared to my other ocs that are more the good guys.

B) What inspired you to create them?

Cat: She was a sleeper agent in the sense that I played the game when it first came out, had a few nightmares about being trapped in bunkers and Joseph’s voice whispering, and then never thought much of it again other than how much I identified with Faith and how she must have been feeling before joining Eden’s Gate. Fast forward to 2020 and there was a replay (I think it was Jordan that replayed it) and the dream came back and I just wanted to write it down. Since I worked 1:1 with a woman that went to bed at 6pm I had a few hours and needed to fill time, so I just wrote. I soon had ~160 pages of Salvation’s Two Paths and there she was! It made me happy and I was excited and wanted to share her with people and since then she has just grown and developed into such a character and created this whole little world that I just love to play with.

Bloodlines: I always had a love for the series and there were times I was tempted but thought my writing days were behind me. Admittedly there was a time that I thought I was ready to just kind of quit writing once again, but I had the creative bug still and I needed something new since I assumed (correctly) that I just burnt myself out with Far Cry. So out of comfort and mental sanity in a still very unstable time I made myself happy and created the oc that I had wanted since I was in high school/college which then lead to two more that I absolutely love and treasure so much.

[superboyz]

clone/human error (timkon)

in which Damian plays inadvertent match maker but only so Tim will stop being such an embarrassment.

--------------------

Damian’s mind had drifted off, brow furrowed and hunched in his patented thinking position. How long had he been staring at the same words? But he couldn’t stop puzzling over the odd behavior he had witnessed- a kind tone of voice shocked him out of it.

“What?”

Grayson leaned over the back of the chair and began reading the screen, “what’re you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” he responded, a gut reaction. But he soon thought better of it: Dick understood that some actions that might seem normal to other people were incomprehensible to a thirteen year old ex-assassin- no judgement if Damian asked. And he was sometimes the only one who could make sense of Tim’s actions like the time he had starting investigating the Illuminati and filled a board with red string and pictures of the Denver airport, Dick knew that it was time to feed him and put him to bed. 

He cleared his throat and waited until Dick’s eyes were fixed on him expectantly before asking, “Drake, and that kryptonian clone… I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, Timmy and Conner- understand what?”

“Well,” he had to remind himself that Dick wouldn’t reprimand him for asking questions- force of habit. “Are we not supposed to acknowledge- is father-“ it was odd for him to stumble over his words, even more odd that Grayson was looking at him with a very confused expression.

“I’m missing something Damian.”

“Well,” he started impatiently, “I asked Jon about them, and he claimed that he was unaware they were in a relationship together. And Brown laughed, although it’s all very obvious… was I not supposed to mention it?”

Dick’s initial response didn’t help- he blinked listlessly before covering his hand with a guffaw. Damian’s face hardened and he quickly turned somber, “I wasn’t laughing at you Dami. It’s- well, Jon was right, they aren’t dating. What would make you say that it’s obvious?”

Now it was Damian’s turn to laugh, maybe Grayson was that obtuse. “Physical affection, pet names, dates, gifts: these are all signs of romantic partnership. You should know this better than me, Richard,” he admonished with a smirk.

“They’re just friends Damian.”

“He brought the clone as a date to the Christmas party,” he deadpanned.

“Not as a date per-say.”

“You would never invite Wallace to the Christmas party!”

“Exactly! Because- ... well-,” Damian smiled to see Dick falter for a few seconds. “Hmm,” he said finally, cupping his chin thoughtfully. “Good question,” he said finally.

“Well?” Damian prompted, impatient again.

“Well what?”

“Was it wrong of me to mention it? I’m aware father doesn’t allow meta-humans in Gotham, and they’ve somehow convinced people-“

Dick shook his head, "they aren’t together Dami.”

He sighed heavily, "Grayson, I find it hard to believe you already forgot our conversation of a few seconds ago-“

“They’re not dating."

“Well why not,” Damian exploded. He was even more confused than he had been before Grayson arrived, it didn’t make sense. At this rate he would never understand his peers, their actions were so counter intuitive. And just when he thought he might understand more than Grayson.

Dick laughed softly, "calm down Damian. If you care so much, why don’t you ask Tim? He’s coming home to pick up some things tomorrow.”

“I don’t care, only that it’s stupid,” he scowled as Dick continued to smile his amused smile, “and I will ask.”

“Good initiative Robin, tell me what you find,” Dick encouraged. Damian smirked ‘I will’.

-----------------

“What are you starring at me for, demon spawn?” Damian’s gaze had been unsettling him all night, and did even more when he just smiled softly when Bruce yelled a half hearted ‘knock it off!’

Tim was confined to the table until he finished his food, a childish punishment that was sure to frustrate him in addition to Damian’s tactics to unnerve him, which seemed to be doing their job. The perfect conditions to launch his attack. Tim mocked Bruce under his breath but continued to sit petulantly, just pushing the spinach and bits of chicken across his plate with his fork. More confusing to Damian than his relationship-not-relationship was the fact that anyone would want to date Drake when he had such an affinity for acting like a petulant child.

“Don’t you have anyone else to torture,” Drake mocked with a mean smile. Damian responded tactfully with a kind one which made succeeded in making Tim even more frustrated and unnerved. “Fuck off.”

Bruce yelled something else unintelligible and Alfred peeked his head in to give Tim and his plate an unimpressed look before ducking his head out again.

“I’m hoping,” he started finally, “that you can answer a question for me.”

“Are you the worst Robin?: yes. Now leave.”

“You and your Superboy,” he continued.

“What do you want with Conner, demon spawn,” Tim snarled. ‘Protective’ Damian noted, as if ticking off a mental checklist.

“The nature of your relationship seems to be… close.”

“Yeah Damian, it’s called friendship- I’m sure its completely foreign to you,” Tim sneered. He punctuated this with a bite of chicken that he chewed noisily, and with his mouth open.

“Colin and Jon are my friends,” he pointed out good-naturedly. “But we’re not as close as to use pet names,” Tim cocked an annoyed eyebrow, suddenly clued into the line of questioning, “and I don’t take them as dates to social functions.”

Tim was silent, staring levelly at Damian and taking little bites every so often. After about a minute of the stand-off Damian finally continued as if Tim had replied, “those types of things could be mis-construed by some people, some very rational people, into thinking that the two of you might be in a romantic relationship.”

“Very rational is objective,” Tim said, suddenly calm and reasonable as if he was suddenly engaged in a debate in class, “for example I would say killing people isn’t very rational, but to a little psychopath like yourself, it could seem normal to a point of being instinctive.”

Damian felt a tt of annoyance if only because he found it irrelevant and unnecessary that Tim would dredge up the past, “killing is no longer something I can justify. I haven’t done that in a long time.”

“I’ve never killed anyone ever.”

“We’re not talking about me,” Damian said, trying not to let his frustration bleed through.

“Right,” Tim said, with his mouthful of a dainty bite of spinach. He punctuated his words with his fork, “we’re talking about how you’re obsessed with me and my relationship- I’m not entitled to answer any of your questions.”

“I only have one,” Damian tongued the inside of his cheek, “and I haven’t even asked it yet.”

“Fine, what is it?"

“What are you planning to do about your feelings for him?”

You could’ve heard a pin drop. Tim stared at him, eyes comically wide, before he suddenly started choking on an invisible bite of food. Damian smiled to himself, watching as Tim seemed to flounder. 

“What the hell are you talking about,” Tim eventually choked out.

“Surely you don’t think that people wouldn’t notice,” it was his turn to sneer. “Physical affection, pet names, extended amounts of time alone, together, gifts, all markers of a romantic relationship. And if that wasn’t enough you talk about him incessantly, call for him in times of emotional distress, prolonged stares, and a rational person might say that when someone dies, the obvious next step isn’t attempting to clone them.”

“You wouldn’t know how to interpret that behavior, let alone understand it,” Tim said, face livid at this read.

“Wouldn’t I? For example I can interpret Graysons caring actions towards me and understand it as brotherly love. Maybe you’re just saying that because your actions aren’t being interpreted or understood by the clone, and maybe you’re too afraid to voice them aloud. Or maybe you never realized it, which would be surprisingly idiotic even by your standards, or you have never let yourself acknowle-“

Damian was cut off by the loud sound of Tim’s chair scraping as he pushed it back. In a tense moment Tim considered his now empty dinner plate for a second before lobbing it at Damian’s head and storming off. It shattered behind Damian’s head and from upstairs Bruce swore loudly. He had gotten too off track with his line in questioning, Damian concluded, and then became annoyed with himself, he never got his question answered.

----------------------

“I just don’t understand why you’re pushing this unless, of course, you care about Timmy and want him to be happy because you’re his brother,” Grayson teased him. Damian didn’t feel the need to even justify that with a response.

“It’s just frustrating.”

“Frustrating why?”

“I find it insulting to Father that he would chose to entertain partnership with someone so stupid. And you too, Grayson.”

“Gee thanks,” Dick scoffed, “but I still don’t think that that’s the reason.”

“Think what you want," Damian said, combatively, “but I’m going to bed now.”

“Goodnight Dami.”

“Goodnight Richard." He ended the call and set his phone on his bedside table. He looked restlessly around the room. Of course Tim would choose to whine to Dick. The idiot had stormed off without even grabbing the files he came for in the first place and had to double back for them, more than that he broke a plate that had been in the Wayne family for generations- thoughtless. In hindsight Damian guessed he could’ve been less pointed, but he just wanted Timothy to realize how stupid he was being and hopefully push him in the right direction. It may even be a nice initiative, but as shown by tonight, Timothy was filled with so much spite he would sit in front of his dinner for an extra hour just because he didn’t like steamed spinach. It was embarrassing by proxy. 

And hey- maybe if Timothy started dating Superboy he would come home even less. And maybe if Todd started dating his useless partner Roy Harper, he wouldn’t come home either… 

Just as Damian was being lulled to sleep with the nice prospect, Titus, who was at the foot of Damian’s bed gave a start. He rushed to the open window, ears alert and eyes trained on something in the darkness.

“What is it Titus?” His ear twitched, but he wouldn’t move when Damian called for him again. Damian climbed out of bed and shuffled over to his pet, intent on making him settle on the bed so Damian could sleep without interruption but when he gazed into the night sky he could see two blurry shapes on the horizon. He shied away from the curtain on instinct but wasn’t very much afraid as Titus’ tail began to wag and he began to whine, the way he did when he saw someone he knew… Through the open window he could hear the latch to Tim’s balcony open and without any warning Krypto came sailing through the open window, immediately hyperactively jumping around the space between Damian and Titus. He tried to quiet the Superdog, giving him a hug to keep him still and shushing him, but it was no use- over the panting he couldn’t hear a thing. Krypto wriggled in his arms, trying to get to Titus or to Damian’s closet where he kept some dog treats but he kept a tight hold on the dog, straining his ears to catch the conversation next door, but it would be impossible to make out from in his room. And if he let Krypto go he would surely make enough noise to alert Bruce that Superboy was in the house and then it would all be over, whatever it was.

It was a dilemma, but ultimately Damian knew what he had to do, he had to keep the dog still. He spent a whole five minutes wrestling with the pup until he started whining and pulling Damian towards the open window. He tried to hold on but ultimately couldn’t as Krypto began to pull him off the ground. In a last ditch effort he grabbed the stupid cape the clone kept tied around his neck but it ripped with what seemed to be an earsplitting sound in contrast the the quiet night. Krypto went sailing out the window and crashed the glass balcony door, so eager to get to his owner. Damian face-palmed, there was nothing he could do now. 

He walked to Tim’s door and pushed it open without knocking, but the sight inside gave him pause. Superboy was straddling Tim on the floor, the two of their faces only a inch apart and they only looked away when Damian announced himself to the two of them. “I hope it was worth it to bring that stupid dog.”

“He was only protecting me from the glass,” Tim stuttered pathetically.

“Whatever you say Drake, but father will see through that straight away if your boyfriend doesn’t leave before he gets up here.” That sentence was punctuated by Bruce’s feet thundering up the steps. Within a second both boy and dog had cleared and Tim was left laying in the middle of the floor when Bruce came barreling in.

“What the hell happened?” He didn’t even bother to grapple with which one of them did it, immediately and harshly yanking Damian around to face him.

“I’m sorry father, it was childish of me. I just wanted to give him a fright.”

“I thought you knew better than that Damian. I’m very disappointed in you- no patrol for a week.”

“Fine,” he said. If he sounded oddly compliant, or didn’t notice the way Tim looked after Damian as he padded off to his room, Bruce didn’t seem to notice.

------------------

The window was fixed within a week but by the time Christmas came around Todd not only knew about the incident months later, but kept bringing it up. 

“-sent a drone to attack him in the middle of the night!” Dick didn’t even try to give the proper response to what Jason considered to be a very funny story, and just gave Damian a costly look. Grayson’s admonishments had hurt much more than Bruce’s and continued too. He almost wished had just told the Dick the truth in the moment, it would’ve even sounded more likely than the lie, but he didn’t for some reason. He just waited until Jason left to go get another glass of “adult eggnog” and avoided Tim’s eyes. 

He honestly couldn’t tell if Tim was still preoccupied like the incident like Todd or if he just missed his boyfriend, but it soon was clear that the latter was the truth because Conner showed up a couple seconds later wearing a hideous ugly sweater, Tim didn’t look at Damian for the rest of the night. Their PDA had become more tolerable with time but Jon, who had tagged along, stuck out his tongue and mock retched when the clone pulled Tim in for a kiss under the mistletoe.

So his plan to get Tim out of the house had backfired, and now he had roped his stupid boyfriend into coming by too. Even if Todd became as annoying as Drake with his partner, Damian decided that he wouldn’t intervene in anymore romantic relationships, ever. Drake still wanted to rub his victory in Damian’s face however. When he got to his room in the evening the idiot had scrawled him a little ‘thank you’ on a holiday card. Damian put it in a box under his bed for safekeeping, but only so he would never have to look at it again.

[a19yearoldtryinherbest]

Not Her. Pt 2 [Aaron Conners]

Masterlist

Part 1

Prompt: Aaron waits long enough.

Pairing: Aaron Conners x OFC

Warning: Nothing. Fluff.

A/N: Long time coming part two.

Word count: 1838

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

LeBron was a really good friend. However when it came to dating advice he wasn't that good, so when Aaron told him about his date with Isabella he said he should text her right away anyway. So Aaron did as he was told. It was only an invitation to watch a game, nothing too serious, but she replied "Not ready yet" and she was right but he was afraid. What if he would never be ready? What if he wasn't ready fast enough and he loosed her? So he texted "Would you wait?" To which she replied "Don't rush it" he wasn't sure if she meant don't rush our relationship or don't rush your healing but he didn't ask he just tried to figure out how to move on.

He wasn't sure how to care for himself in that way. He was a great guy, supportive, attentive and caring, but not with himself. He wasn't the best at handling his emotions, especially if they were bad ones, so he asked LeBron for help. He went to meditation, yoga, talked to his friend. Finally therapy did the trick, and he started to work out other thing besides his failed romance with Amy. Realizing she hadn't been the problem, and it wasn't her the solution. He felt good. He didn't felt like he needed someone for him to love, he wanted to be in an actual, adult relationship and not something as one-sided as his previous relationships had apparently been. He hoped it would be with Isabella but he was sure to make peace with it if it wasn't her.

He got home that day, right after a surgery, still feeling that calming thrill that was right then mixing with the calming thrill she gave him. He sat on his couch and looked at his cellphone, seeing the short conversation they had more than six months before. He read and re-read the last text "Don't rush it" — I'm not rushing it. — he assured himself before calling.

— Hi. — answered Isabella and Aaron felt his heart rush.

— Hi- hey. — he smiled — I-it's Aaron. LeBron's friend.

— Yeah, I got you on my phone. What's up?

— I was wondering if you would let me pay you back for that dinner?

She thought about it, it had been about two months were she didn't get a single text from him, she remembered the date how nice he was even if his heart wasn't in it, and now maybe it would be better, so she gave him a shot.

She was arriving a few minutes late at the restaurant. She knew it but she had always loved to make an entrance, and, in her head, it was a way to show she wasn't waiting around for him, even if she had for the past months. She saw him sitting at the table, it was a fancier please than the time before and he was wearing a baby blue, buttoned up shirt and some dress pants. His demeanor was a bit nervous until he saw her walking towards him. She saw him check her out quickly, swallowing dry as he looked back to her face. She was wearing a ruched emerald green dress with a lace falling from a soft knot on the right side, an adornment that detailed her figure and fitted her perfectly. He had forgotten how beautiful she was, he only remembered how nice and sweet she was, how understanding and funny. He had forgotten how smooth her brown skin was, how her enchanting smile made him blush the first time they met, how funny she was and how easy of a laugh she had.

And it felt great, talking to her, getting to know her. He learned she was really into sports, but not the teams, just the festivities it created, she read a lot but mostly romantic novels, throwing one or two classics ever so often, she knew quite enough Spanish to carry a conversation but was terrible at spelling, both in Spanish and English. He also picked upon the fact that she would bite her lower lip if he said something dumb that made her smile, or that she would throw her head back and hold her stomach if something made her laugh too hard. He had wondered how he hadn't notice any of that when they went on the first date, and then he scolded himself remembering it was because he was so hung up on Amy.

She was peaceful but not boring, intimate but not quiet, and, most of all, understanding and empathetic. She was perfect in every way, the way one is supposed to be. He wished to spend the rest of his life with her, so he set himself to not screw it up. He wasn't gonna rush it like he had done so many times, he wasn't gonna accidentally push his feelings completely aside just to please her, he wasn't gonna make the same mistake he had done so many times,if anything he was gonna make new mistakes and work through them.

They kept going on dates, hanging out, chatting and getting to know each-other for two months before officially starting dating. Aaron had always been a hopeless romantic and, even if she wasn't much of a romantic herself, it was nice to wake-up to breakfast and being surprised a work with some flowers. They had been dating for a bit over five months that they settled a double date with LeBron and his wife at Aaron's apartment.

That morning Isabella had woken up, changed for work, came back from work and changed for the dinner all at his apartment, just like the three days before, and like many other times in that month. She had a toothbrush, some creams, some make-up and a drawer full of clothes at his place, he felt fairly certain they were ready to move in together but he didn't want to say anything without really knowing what she thought of it. However that answer was delivered to him right after the dinner. As Isabella made coffee for them and their guest, Aaron washed the few plates they had used since the dishwasher was busted again.

— You should really get a new one. — said LeBron as he slowly dried the washed dishes — It's like the third time it's busted in two months, right?

— Yeah. I just haven't gotten around it. — he explained, as he closed the water tap and looked for something to dry his hands with — I don't know which one to get, though. — Isabella saw him trying not to get the floor wet and passed him a couple paper towels, he thanked him quietly and gave her a quick kiss without thinking it twice.

LeBron and his wife shared a approving look on their friend's behavior — You should get one like ours, bought it four years ago, not one problem, so far. — Savannah said as Isabella passed her and her husband their cups of coffee.

— Yeah, we should get one of those. — agreed Isabella. No one noted it but Aaron heart stopped for a second when he heard the "we" she said. We should get one. We. It was all he needed to ask her. And, after his friends left he asked her.

— Hey. — he said and she looked up from the glass she was washing. It was quite late, he had cleaned the table and swept the floor, and now he was going to ask her — Would you want to move in with me?

Isabella didn't answer, she didn't say anything, she just froze, completely still. Water from the tap still falling into and out of the glass, as she tried to gather her thoughts. Her first instinct was yes, her second instinct was I can't do that, and now she was trapped between the words what do I say?

On the other end of the conversation was Aaron, panicking a little, not visibly thought. He was afraid to be pushing her into commitment so he tried to fix it — Or not. It's okay if you don't want to.

— No, it's not that. — she mumbled, finally closing the tap and leaving the glass to dry.

— I just though that you are kind of living here any- Wait. — he stopped to a halt, his brain just now processing what she had said — What? — he asked but she paid no mind, caught thinking of what he had said.

She half smiled, taking a kitchen rag to dry her hands — I guess you're right, I have been sleeping here all week, haven't I? — she realized, Aaron nodded with a sweet smile, she smiled back quickly. She left the kitchen rag on the counter and crossed her arms and moved next to the counter so she could lean against it — I-. there's this thing you don't know. — she paused and exhaled to chase out her nerves — The last time I moved in with someone was about nine years ago. We had been dating for the better part of a year and it seemed right and we were young and in-love, and-. And about two years later we were engaged. And... He died six months before the wedding. — Aaron moved closer, trying to know whether to hug her or wait. He decided to wait just behind the corner of the island counter — It was unbearable, for a really long time, but now it doesn't hurt every single second, and I don't think about him as much, even if he is still on my mind. But the thing is; I never got this far with anyone after him. I couldn't. But now I can and it somehow makes me feel worse, like if, by moving in with you, I'm betraying him. — she looked at him. Her eyes weren't tearful but they were sad, and she asked him — Is that dumb?

— No. — he said as he came closer to her, putting his hand on the side of her upper back — It's completely understandable, love.

She let go of herself and wrapped her arms around his waist, almost hiding on his chest — You really think so? — he held her back without even thinking of it.

— Absolutely. — he assured, sincere, and left a sweet kiss on the top of her forehead that made her look up.

A smile lingered on her lips as she slightly snuggled against him — I would very much like to move in with you.

He looked down at her, a bit surprised by her words — Are you sure?

— Absolutely. — she said, before leaning upwards to kiss him softly.

He felt so profoundly happy by that one word. He was sure there wasn't another woman in the world for him. Not like her.

[thattimdrakeguy]

What do you think about Tim's romantic relationships? I think he is always carrying and loving and probably doesn't make the difference between platonic and romantic love. He probably feels obligated to date this girls or thinks he loves them back. His parents weren't the best example so that didn't help him either.

I’m so freaking sorry for taking so long. I got caught up in other things yesterday so I couldn’t respond immediately as I can (even it seems like I take a while that’s normally me figuring out what to say or I was just busy and only saw it later, and my power went out for over half a day. So I’m really sorry for that even if that last part was out of my control.

But! I think that’s a pretty valid take to have honestly, because it’s actually an interpretation you can naturally get just from reading Robin.

Tim never seemed particularly romantically or romantically interested in Steph. In-fact, he kind of disliked her, even though he cared about her safety given he knew her. The boy could even be straight up passive aggressive because she put him in a sour move.

Which is one of the reasons I don’t even like the ship to begin with. It’s super forced, and putting him with a girl that sexually harassed him and kissed him in a way that could potentially be counted as sexual assault given it’s clearly sexually motivated despite what she says, is incredibly wrong to me given if you switched the genders people would flip. Like I know Tim kissed her first, but that was as a thank you, not sexually motivated. Just a dumb dated cliche. So that wouldn't be classified as actual sexual assault (according to a judge it would have to be sexually motivated. Personally I don't agree with that unless it's a culture thing, and I think thank you kisses are gross unless they ask for permission and probably shouldn't be a cliche because of that. But I'm me, not the law.). it isn't even one time Steph gives Tim a kiss against his will for her own sexual attraction to him.

Although, that’s against the point, I’m just annoyed to see people give people that don’t like the ship be given crap, when to me, it’s like-- it’s kind-of obvious why people wouldn’t like it. Even more than simple ship tastes. However I’m digressing again.

When the issue came where he acted like he was into her romantically, he was confused about which way he liked her to begin with.

He didn’t feel particularly happy when Ari tried to get her and Tim to mutually break-up together, which would allow Tim to date Steph guilt-free, as well as the context that Tim was gonna break up with Ari anyway. Which implies he still loved her even when he thought he wanted Steph. though break ups are always hard in fairness. 

(I still find it pretty gross that Dixon actually rushed the Tim and Steph stuff so fast it’s half-way like he freaking forgot about Ariana and Tim were still dating. Like Tim would just leave her like that right after Ari’s parents thought Tim and Ari were doing dirty stuff and sent her away-- when Tim was avoiding that. So much contradicts Tim's character putting him and Steph together. It’s so badly written. Tim loves Ari, Tim's against cheating, Tim doesn’t like Steph and doesn’t like her flirting, yet-- suddenly Tim does and more or less cheats? Ech. He’s not supposed to look like scum for it going off the way it’s written. Feels like it’s not the intention because Tim wouldn’t do that, like they knew he wouldn’t and stuff, or Dixon was blind to what he was actually writing, but yet-- it happened.)

Plus, Tim actually naturally calls himself Steph’s friend rather than boyfriend. Like subconsciously that’s how he actually feels.

So it’s a very easy interpretation to make, and pretty on point. I imagine it wasn’t the intent from Dixon, but it’s so very easy. He doesn’t actually flirt much, if at all. Doesn’t seem romantically interested, like, sure they kissed, but if you’re convinced it's a romantic attraction, you probably will kiss. He thinks of himself as her friend first. Heck, he didn’t even like Steph that much since she wouldn’t stop being reckless and stop flirting with him even when she knew he had a girlfriend. Maybe he was lonely and just tried to convince himself he even liked being around her. Makes more sense then going from being anywhere from mildly to just plain passive aggressive to her cause he didn’t enjoy her presence, to wanting to date her.

Even with Ariana since he seems to at least slightly compare his feelings with Steph's towards his feelings with her is implying he could just subconsciously think of Ari just as a friend too, but that's only if you already have the interpretation that Tim deep down only thinks of Steph as a friend and is confused about his feelings. Which personally, feels more accurate to me (at least the Steph part) because of how it's written, but I'm not sure that's how Dixon feels, and I'm pretty sure not.

But once it's written, the interpretation is then up to the reader unless you’re just really forcing it or literally making it up, cause it isn't an interpretation then, just some active imagination. Which is good, but I think people confuse the two sometimes. Even this from my end might be that for all I know. I had four hours of sleep and many anxiety attacks today and last night. So this post is probably sloppy and I sincerely apologize for that. I try to always keep things to the same standards on this blog. It's just that the Tim and Steph relationship has really weird writing that contradicts previous character feelings, and has moments were you can easily read it as something else.

So it's up to your canon really in this case since it's so awkwardly written. Which I rarely say because I feel things are normally written more straight forward. But this actually has some evidence to it if you look to see it as it that way.

there's more stuff that can imply Tim might just look at Steph just as a friend, I just didn't have it screenshotted. I think a friend that's been reading through Robin might've taken it, but that's a lot to go through. It'll probably show up on a longer post about the Tim and Steph relationship's horrid writing and more.

Again, Dixon in an interview seemed to call it love, maybe true love, can't remember how specific it got. So it's likely not what he meant to write--

but it's really easy to interpret that, and it's how I naturally read it too. It makes more sense to me then Tim randomly going from not liking her given her behavior, to feeling like he wants to date her.

Personally I agree with you since it fits his character better and it‘s easier  to read em as an example of that rather then what was probably actually intended.

Heck again, this post hasn't even talked about Zoe (who's probably my fav of his love interests because they actually seemed like they'd be a good couple together. I don't ship em per-say, I don't really feel like I ship anything with Tim truly deep down. I've said I've shipped timkon, but it's not actually a major ship for me. Just a casual thing, because I didn't really ship em cause I thought of it naturally) who he only went on a date with because she kissed Tim after being so excited he was alive after she saw him be kidnapped. Or Cassie who he more or less dated because they both loved Conner (in the same way or different ways, up to you I suppose), and ended up realizing they were just friends really. I think similar themes apply to him and tam too, but I honestly can't remember them, because I hate FabNic when he writes Tim. He's never truly got him right, and caused that friggin' "he can take over the world in a night" thing, that some fans of Tim has. tim's no wet-flower, he's clever and an incredibly talented martial artist, but that's dumb. I don't even think FabNic directly did anything like that, but I can't think of no other run that'd give anyone that impression.

I’m rambling again, I’m really sorry. this was so much longer than needed. I hope it isn’t too much of a pain.

[sweetwriting]

TimKon Week 2020 Day 5: What would it feel like?

Category: Gen

Genre: Hurt/Comfort 

Fandoms: DC Comics, Teamverse

Continuity : Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint

Summary: Tim was the only one without a soulmate. Even if no one knew, it was lonely.

Word Count: 1 862

AN: Hola everyone. - Ok so while I enjoy reading Soulmates AU because of the variety of different kinds of soulmate AUs in fandoms, I have a hard time writing about predestination 'cause I don't believe in it. Especially not in any kind of romantic/Platonic format. As far as I believe soulmates are simply souls that have met several times and recognize each other (ofc that's only if you think reincarnation is possible).- I think Red String of Fate is more of an East Asia thing than an Asian thing in general but I couldn’t remember and don’t have the time to do research rn so that’s that and I’m going off the idea that by the time Tim’s grandpa died, it had spread around.Anyway, Enjoy

Prompt:  Soulmate AU - Hurt/Comfort

To read it on AO3

It was strange.

Tim could see marks on people. Sometimes it was timers, other times it was symbols, they could be static or moving, it could also be just matching lines separated in green, red and purple. Sometimes it was just writing or drawing that would disappear for some reason like erasable ink. More sadly, sometimes people share scars or pain. He only realized what he was seeing when he saw the picture of his grandparents whose pinkies were linked with a red string. His parents didn’t talk to him much about family traditions, he just knew that one of his great grandparents was Vietnamese and his mother had mentioned something called the red string of fate once. So he just did a quick internet search and tadaah. He knew what it was.

The question though was why he could see them when no one, not even metahumans could see them considering he was neither magic, a meta human nor an alien.

Or why he didn’t have one either.

Maybe it was simply a matter of not being able to see his own Soulmate. Or maybe it was in a place he could not see (which…he was torn between hoping for and not).

Or maybe he just didn’t have a soulmate.

But…aside from him everyone had a soulmate, their soulmarks might not always be visible but he could feel them, even if it was about sharing emotions. Was the fact that he could see the marks due to him not having one? Or did he not have one because he could see them?

It was rare for Tim to stop and think about that.

Despite his pretty great intelligence, if he dare think so himself, he was not the type to think too much about things that had no immediate effect on him (no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise). So thinking about soulmates was not very interesting. People were linked to each other; he wasn’t linked to anyone or he was and couldn’t see it. The only thing he learned from that was that your soulmate didn’t have to be a romantic partner. So he wouldn’t have to feel bad if one day he wanted romance…for some reason.

Either way Soulmates didn’t concern him. So he usually didn’t think about it. To him soulmarks were like eye or hair color. Just a thing that was there.

But once in a while, when he was alone on his own, he thought about it. It would be nice to have someone else. Someone with whom he could share a part of his soul and know it would be accepted.

It hadn’t happened since he had met Bruce though. Because he was almost never completely alone even though his father was still comatose. Or maybe because of it. He really didn’t want to think about that.

It was the first time in a bit more than a year since he thought about it actually. And he didn’t know why as there was nothing in his current life that warranted it. There was just this strange warmth. That made him wish.

- - - - - -

Then he met Ari and Steph and he knew he wasn’t their soulmates but he knew soulmates didn’t have to be romantic so he tried.

- - - - - - -

A year passed and he met Superboy for the first time. And he could feel it. Even The Kid had a Soulmate. Apparently his soulmark wasn’t a visible one, but it was there nonetheless. How unfair. Well not really. It was just further proof he was his own person as Superman’s soulmark was a pen on his left arm.

He had talked to Batman about his “ability” once when he talked about someone’s soul mark allowing him to recognize a perp. He could have lied and said it was a tatoo but since Batman couldn’t see it, it was useless. Granted that’s what he thought afterward, he hadn’t even thought of lying when it happened. The only reason he hadn’t told Bruce in the first place was because he hadn’t thought about it. According to Zatana it wasn’t due to magic nor was he tested as a metahuman and he was human. Apparently he was just more sensitive to this wavelength just like some people were weak against electronics and others to sounds.

- - - - - - -

He had met St

- - - - - - -

Months passed.

He and Superboy became friends. Good Friends. Or as good as they could be with Tim being unable to reveal his real identity.

Which is to mean that soon enough it also started going badly. Granted the first time was because of Match, it doesn’t change that Kon felt hurt and started becoming distrustful over Tim’s identity.

But if anything, Kon was perceptive even if he didn’t always know how to draw the right conclusion. He knew Tim had issues, and he had his own so he saw the dots….he just connected the wrong ones together.

Still. They bonded, even if a part of their relationship was deteriorating (and boy did it deteriorate once they were on Apokolips) there were slightly more normal parts that helped when they were just hanging out. Of course Tim’s ID was in the way but now he could show his face and joke and just…hang out. He always felt better after hanging out with Kon, except when he was being insufferable. It was a 50/50 on which one would happen but Tim was always ready to risk it.

Until the war. He understood where Kon was coming from but…He couldn’t deal with it so he left. It felt cold. Because Kon was literally the last person he wanted to talk to. As in if he had anyone he wanted to be the last person he thought of or talked to, he wanted it to be Kon. As if that wasn’t surprising enough.

- - - - - - - - -

Stephanie died. So did his dad. Being near Conner was comforting. His presence helped even if it didn’t solve anything. Just being near him helped him believe he could burry his pain. Granted the man himself refused to let him do so. Because he was his best friend.

How do you tell someone you know they have a soul because they have a soulmate? Well you just tell them. Everything. And it helped, for a bit. But then Luthor took over and no matter what Tim said, Conner’s guilt was in the way. It might have helped if his guilt hadn’t gotten in the way. Also their trip to the future felt like a proof Tim was mistaken. Because what if his “soulmark” was just a pale copy of Clark’s. Enough to exist but not enough to copy the mark. And Tim could understand this point but he just didn’t believe it. He didn’t believe it, not until Raven proved him he had a soul. Tim felt a bit miffed but he understood how Conner felt even if for different reasons.

- - - - - - - - -

Then Conner died. The warmth left. More importantly he left. He was taken away. And Tim was left again.

It’s the first time Tim thought that maybe he had a soulmate.

He never felt as heartbroken as he was now.

- - - - - - - -

More than a year and a half passed. Tim was still grieving. He didn’t know what to do. All his loved ones just kept dying and he just felt so cold. Stuff happened.

Conner came back. He wasn’t so cold anymore but he just…He had something to do. He had to find Bruce. Even for Conner he couldn’t stop.

He didn’t have to. Conner found him. He was really there. And he was the only one who believed him. And Tim knew it was really him because the warmth was back tenfold. He felt so much alive again.

If Conner believed him… It renewed his hope he could find Bruce.

- - - - - - - -

After a while the Status Quo came back and Tim came back to the Teen Titans. After Conner and Cassie broke up. It wasn’t easy. He felt like a buffer sometimes. But he didn’t care. Even if Conner and Cassie had issues, they usually were fairly mature about their break-up. Probably more for Tim and Bart’s sake than anything else but Tim wasn’t gonna complain.

- - - - - -

And then one day Tim got badly hurt on a Titans mission. It was rare for Tim to be really hurt when he was on a team mission and usually it wasn’t anything Conner couldn’t help with his TTK, but this time Tim was badly hurt to the point of fainting and Conner couldn’t not hold onto him. He needed the reassurance his best friend was gonna be okay.

Which is when he felt both pain and comfort. Tim opened his eyes for a second in what looked like surprise but fainted again. He looked like he didn’t feel as bad though. Maybe Conner had a new power? He didn’t know…or really care. At that point all he wanted was to get Tim back to the tower so he could get help and hope that he was relieving his pain if only a little bit.

- - - - - -

When Tim woke up, he felt like he was in a cocoon of warmth. He was so comfortable he almost went back to sleep. But that wasn’t normal. So he opened his eyes and felt Conner’s eyes on him. The boy immediately went for a hug but then seemed to remember Tim was still hurt….Even if he didn’t really feel hurt. Huh.

After a few second spent taking in the other’s state, Conner started:

“You’ve been asleep for the past two days and you’re supposed to stay in bed for the next three days after you wake up. Doctor’s order. Which I’ll make sure you follow so no funny business.”

Tim cracked a smile and nodded.

“So you’ll be my nurse?”

Conner nodded, seriously.

“Apparently I can reduce your physical pain when my skin touches yours. And it’s not a new power. I tested it on Rose. It’s only you.”

Tim froze. So it was true. He actually….

“We’re soulmates aren’t we? You told me some people had pain or emotion based soulmarks and that’s what we have right?”

He actually had a soulmate. It wasn’t just wishful thinking. It was Conner of course. Who else. There was almost no one he loved as much as Conner and definitely no one he loved more.

“Hey Tim….You’re crying. I mean I know I’m probably not the best person you could hope for but, I mean at least now you know you have a soulmate too…”

Tim jumped in Conner’s arms and hugged him as tight as he could without injuring himself further.

“Idiot. I’m so happy your my soulmate! You have no idea. I’m just overwhelmed”.

“Oh”.

- - - - - -

So…It turns out Tim had a soulmate. It turned out to be his best friend, the person he loved more than anything.

And while he could feel Bruce judging him all the way from Gotham when, after he told him, Conner could be heard from the other side of the door, He was probably the happiest he had been in years.

AN: Hope you enjoyed it ! As you can see it can be read as either friendship or romance. It their case it's intertwined and I don't have the time to try and push it further in the realm of romance right now.In this the warmth Tim feels is mostly due to being sensitive to soulmates bond. So when he feels his at his most powerful (since it's skin touchbased, the closer Kon is, the better) he feels all warm and Tingly 'cause his and Kon's soul just...keep trying to be in the other's close relationships circle. No matter the life.

[elyreywrites]

do you know who you are?

a fic written for Pride Month 2020!! (yes, i know pride month is over, but i posted this on AO3 on June 30th so.) this is a projection fic. it’s not an exact projection of my experience, nor is it meant to be a generalized representation. this isn’t everyone’s experience.

warnings: slight mention of Jack and Janet Drake potentially being homophobic, and discussion of compulsory heterosexuality

thank you to my betas in the Capes & Coffee Discord - Bumpkin, ZulieTheProgrammer, and Oceans!!

title is from Moana’s “I am Moana”!

please REBLOG - DO NOT REPOST

AO3 Link

Teen 1,678 words Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent slight one-sided Tim Drake/Jason Todd - as in, tiny-Tim has a crush on Robin-Jason

Summary:

He’s twelve and watching Robin fight. He’s seventeen and staring up at the ceiling. He’s nineteen and text-spamming his best friends.

Tim’s growing up and finding himself, and he would really appreciate if the Realizations didn’t happen when he’s trying to sleep. Kon and Bart would probably appreciate that as well.

- - - - -

It starts as he’s watching the second Robin knock out some muggers. It’s not the first time Tim has seen Jason’s Robin take down a group of criminals, but it’s the first time that he nearly gives himself away as he squeaks.

 Jason’s so strong, and cool, and pretty, and – oh. Ah. Okay.

He calls it a night at that, bright red from the questions that are swimming around in his head. He spends most of the trip home lost in thought. When he’s sitting on his bed, one of his best pictures of Jason’s Robin sitting in front of him, he gives them a voice. Talking usually helps him get his thoughts in order. “Okay,” he whispers, “do I like boys?” He doesn’t dislike them – not at all. But does he like them? Maybe, but… how is he supposed to know? “Is that too big of a topic?” he wonders aloud to the picture. “Let’s start with this: Do I like Robin? Jason-Robin.”

That doesn’t turn his brain into a jumbled mess like the previous question did. Of course he likes Jason-Robin. He’s absolutely amazing, protecting people and checking on the working girls and kicking criminal ass! He’s only a couple years older than Tim is, but he does so much more! And he’s real in a way Dick isn’t.

Jason’s just a kid like Tim, though they have such different backgrounds. Dick was a trained acrobat, with skills Tim never really believed he could learn. Jason seemed closer. He was still more amazing than Tim could ever hope to be, but it wasn’t an entirely impossible stretch like it was with Dick.

“And he’s so passionate, especially when it’s a kid that’s in danger. And every time he smiles, it just makes me so happy that I kind of want to giggle and—” Tim stops babbling. He doesn’t need to anymore, after basically answering his own question. Yes, he does like Jason Todd, the current Robin. As in, he has a crush on him. Tim falls back on his bed to stare up at the ceiling.

“Well,” he says, “that explains the weird, squirmy feeling I get in my stomach every time I imagine talking to him.” That feeling is always accompanied by a fierce blush and Tim hiding his face for a good two minutes. He thinks he probably should have caught on sooner. Deciding that was enough Realizing Things for the night, Tim quickly locks the picture of Robin up with the rest and collapses on his bed to sleep.

The next day – a Saturday, which is Mrs. Mac’s day off – Tim hops on the computer and starts researching. He has a crush on one boy, but Tim still thinks girls can be cool. Batgirl is pretty awesome, after all! After a few hours and a lot of new information, he settles back on his bed again. He’s bisexual, and sexuality can apparently be really fluid. In all honesty, it didn’t take him hours to find the term, he just fell into a rabbit hole of researching sexual orientation and gender identities. Tim’s fairly secure in his gender, but he’s glad to have learned. It’s something to keep in mind about other people – to not assume anything based on appearances.

He’s bisexual, with a crush on a boy, and his parents will still expect him to only date girls. At least the boy was Robin and completely unattainable.

- - -

Years later, Tim is laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling once again. It’s a different bed by now, in his own apartment at seventeen. The thing is, he’s pretty sure he has no interest in romance. And now his brain was mixing everything up in a tangle of thoughts and feelings again.

“Holding hands is nice,” he admits. “I like cuddling. That was fine.” He hasn’t gone further than making out with anyone, so that’s about the limit of his physical experience. It’s the implication of emotions that makes him want to skitter away. Specifically, emotions of the romantic variety. Now Tim’s reassessing every romantic relationship he’s had, though he’s only ever dated women.

At the time, he had thought he was happy while in each relationship, but… it’s becoming much more likely that it’s because he was previously starved for affection. He suddenly got that affection while dating someone. That thought makes him want to hide from everyone he’s ever dated. Stephanie is the only one he really still has to see, and that has him burrowing under his blankets.

It sounds awful, honestly. Like he was using the relationship to get the affection he so desperately wanted. Logically, he might be overthinking this. He just wishes his dumb brain would tell that to his anxiety and the ingrained societal expectations. “I didn’t mean to,” he mumbled into the blankets.

Romance, dating, being happy in a relationship? He has no other experiences to reference! He didn’t know that something wasn’t right.

Hell, he’s only having this Realization because a woman was flirting with him at a gala and asked if he would like to get dinner together sometime. A romantic dinner date with a woman he wasn’t close to. The entire scenario would be romance with no physical affection, and that didn’t sound pleasant in the slightest. It did, however, make him realize that he might need to think things through again.

So, here he is. Thinking things through. No romance – if he’s remembering his research correctly, the term is ‘aromantic’, similar to ‘asexual’. Asexuality was something he’d heard more about over the years, but he rarely heard of aromanticism. It had just stuck out because while the terms were similar, their meanings were pretty different.

Now he’s glad it stuck in his mind. It gives him less reason to panic about being confused. So, he was bisexual and aromantic. That’s fine! He’s a vigilante, romantic relationships would be difficult anyway.

- - -

A year and a half later, Tim’s fingers fly across the screen of his phone, sending text after text without waiting for a response. Either his friends would wake up or they wouldn’t. Hopefully they would.

Tim: Oh my god. Guys, wake up, I’m an idiot. Bart, Kon, please. I’m so dumb. How the hell am I this oblivious? I’m not bi-aro at all. I’m just fucking gay. It’s 5 am and I can’t sleep, and I just want a boyfriend. I want to do couple things, like cuddle up while watching movies.

Clone Trooper: dude, it’s the middle of the night. why do you do this to us?

Tim feels no sympathy for his friends – he’s been running on less than six hours of sleep for years. Sometimes less than four hours. High school and vigilantism don’t mix well. Anyway, they can deal with waking up to deal with his Realization.

Sonic: bro we cuddle up when we watch movies are we not good enough for you anymore

Tim: Yeah, but that’s platonic, Bart. And yes, I’m aware of the time. I’d like to be asleep too, but I’m lonely and sad and having Realizations! Suffer with me.

Clone Trooper: … suffer how? are you expecting us to have an existential crisis too, or is this just suffering by being awake?

Tim: Being awake. It’s not an existential crisis, it’s just a Realization.

Sonic: its the middle of the night i think it can be deemed an existential crisis

Tim: But seriously, someone please tell me how I jumped passed the logical conclusion I should have come to of “I’m just not attracted to women” and directly to “I have no interest in romance at all”? How did that make sense to me?

Sonic: society conditioned u to like women

Tim blinks at his screen. Bart isn’t wrong, but Tim has absolutely no idea where he’s going with that. He already had the Realization about societal conditioning, thanks.

Tim: Okay? I’m aware, but I’m not sure how that translates to how I didn’t think of the logical conclusion.

Sonic: dude. for years it was a fact – since you were a kid u were so conditioned that u should like women it was just a fact

Clone Trooper: think of it like this, tim: as far as you knew, you liked women. later, you figured out you like guys, but you still think you like women too.

Tim: We’ve established, yeah.

Clone Trooper: so, suddenly something is weird. the only really new thing is that there is romance involved. so that’s clearly gotta be the issue.

Oh. He stares so long the screen goes dark. He drops his phone on the bed and stares up at the ceiling, turning that over in his head. So. He jumped to not wanting romance because it was so deeply ingrained that he was supposed to like women? His exhausted brain seems to accept this explanation enough to calm the edge of self-recriminations.

Tim: That. Makes sense, I guess. But still, it really seems like I should’ve realized a while ago. Also, I’m kind of surprised that you aren’t teasing me for being oblivious.

Sonic: oh thats coming but teasing is saved for when u arent having a crisis

Clone Trooper: later, we’ll absolutely laugh about that jump in logic. but right now it’s too early and you’re already having A Time.

He’s not sure if he has wonderful friends or terrible friends. Tim suspects that he’s still going to hear about this in a few years. It’s the kind of thing they won’t let die for a while.

Tim: Fair enough.

Clone Trooper: great, glad we got that cleared up! now tim...

Tim: What?

Clone Trooper: please. GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP.

Snickering, Tim plugs his phone in and smothers his face in the pillow. He’s still lonely and he still wants to analyze every missed evidence over the years, but he’s also exhausted. The chat with his friends did get his brain to shut up enough that he might actually be able to sleep. He can rethink his entire life again after he wakes up.

[littlechinesedoll]

The Idea of You

by littlechinesedoll 

ao3

Category: F/M Fandom: Young Justice (Cartoon), Superboy (Comics), DCU (Comics) Relationship: Kon-El | Conner Kent/M'gann M'orzz, Kon-El | Conner Kent/Original Female Character(s) Character: Kon-El | Conner Kent, M'gann M'orzz, Original Female Character(s) Additional Tags: Breakups, Conner ending his and m'gann's engagement, i'm a salty ass bitch

---

notes: my opinion on Conner and M’gann’s relationship.

---

“What are you doing here?” Conner hisses, pulling M’gann by the arm away from the kitchen, and into the living area, so his guest won’t have to deal with an intruder. “The fuck you think you’re doing phasing into my house like this?”

“Look, I just want to talk,” M’gann tries to reason.

“Well, I don’t,” says Conner. “You can go the way you went in,”

“Conner, please,” she reaches out to touch his arm, but Conner pulls back. “What can I do to fix it?”

“Fix what!” Conner demands, voice low so only M’gann can hear it. “What the fuck about this can you fix, M’gann? Are you going to get in my head and erase my memories again?”

She’s never seen him so angry before and it terrifies her. “No, I just want to try again, do things right,”

“This is what, the third time? And you’re thinking of doing things right now?” Conner is resisting the urge to just shove her out the door. “What kind of stupid do you take me for?”

“I just, I don’t want all of our effort and engagement go to waste and—”

“Well, you should have thought of that at the start,” Conner notices she’s still wearing the engagement ring. “You can do whatever you want with everything—I don’t care,” he’s going to continue working his ass off for the credit card he used to get the wring, to get everything ready, just to spite her. To pay for the ring on the finger of the woman he isn’t going to marry, to pay for his own wedding that he won’t attend.

Everything had been prepared for. Conner doesn’t know if it’s a good thing that they hadn’t sent out invitations yet. They’ve been separated for about half a year now, and the wedding date would have been about another six months from now, but the venue and caterer had been booked, his tux needed just a few more alterations, and the groomsmen and bridesmaids had already been measured for their clothes. M’gann wanted a dress even though she didn’t need it, so Conner bought it. Now there’s no use for it. Though he might keep the tux, he’ll never know when he’s gonna be invited to a black-tie event.

They hear rustle in the kitchen, of plates and cutlery clinking together, and the fridge opening and closing, and it seems like lunch is ready.

M’gann feels like she wants to hurt him back. And she knows he’ll have a good answer, but she can’t keep her mouth shut and asks anyway. “What is it about her anyway?” she asks petulantly. “Is she a better fu—”

That makes something in Conner snap, because he’s just starting to get to know her. He looked out for her because he destroyed her apartment and she injured her hand because of him, but he didn’t expect to become good friends with her, to look forward to any time she offered to hang out with him or cook for him for all the times he ‘helped’ her with whatever it is that needed lifting while her hand healed. Sex will never be on the table unless they express romantic interest in each other and when they both consent to it.

“Don’t you dare bring sex into this!”

“So it’s better to date a civilian and keep secrets that can push them away too?”

“Conner, lunch is ready,” they hear her say. “Don’t let your food get cold,”

“I’ll be there in a sec,” Conner calls out, then turns back to M’gann. “I’d rather date a civilian and keep secrets or get dumped and get hurt like a normal human being than have my memories altered and my entire existence manipulated into some TV fantasy,” he says with such venom that it seems like he’s only saying it to crush M’gann further into pieces.

He’s not saying it just so he can hurt her, but because he wants her to face the truth of what she’d done to him. He wants her to see him as a whole, as a product of her obsession with the culture of Earth, of being in love with the idea of being in love. He wants her to see that she’s not in love with him as a and because he’s a person—she’s in love with the idea of the person she shaped Conner into. She was in love with Conner Manley, not Conner Kent.

“I like her because she’s not you. I like her because she doesn’t see me as some blank slate she can mold into her dream boy toy. Do you get me, M’gann?”

“Oh! You didn’t say you’re inviting more friends over,” She’s at the threshold, almost nervous, but smiling, like she can feel the tension between them. “I’m Anna. I’m Conner’s neighbor,”

M’gann takes a good look at her. Memorizing everything about the woman Conner replaced her with. She’s short. While M’gann is almost Conner’s height, this one is about a head and a half shorter. She’s…common. Messy, dark hair pulled up into a haphazard bun, brown eyes, wearing the apron she used to wear when she cooked for Conner, over a shirt a size too large, loose, cotton capris, and a pair of flipflops that have seen better days.

“Anna,” Conner breathes in as much patience as he can. “This is Megan. We work together,”

“It’s very nice to meet you,” she offers a handshake and M’gann accepts it with reluctance. “We were just about to have lunch. It’s not much but would you like to join us?”

“No, she was just leaving,” Conner gestures toward the door. “Weren’t you?” he presses and gives her an almost glare.

“No, it’s fine,” M’gann tells Anna. “Goodbye, Conner. It’s nice to meet you, Anna,” but she doesn’t mean it.

She doesn’t phase through the door this time and shuts it quietly.

“So, uh…” says Anna with some caution. “Do you still want lunch or…?”

“No, no,” Conner quickly says, “I mean, yes, we should eat. Let’s eat,”

Lunch is quiet, even though the food is great. M’gann gets Conner thinking. He does have secrets to keep, secrets that will hurt whomever he dates outside of the team. But it’s also difficult to date within the team. There isn’t any privacy, and nothing is left, and it’s too awkward when breakups happen.

But he wants to get to know her and if he can keep this up and find her someone worth marrying, he’ll have to keep secrets that can lead to something he wouldn’t dare think of. Or if he’s lucky, she’ll be understanding enough to let him bare to her secrets she’ll have to keep for the rest of her life.

------ 

more notes:

I was telling a friend how much I like the new actor for Superboy in Titans. He told me to write myself into meeting him. I didn't do it. So here's just a random girl with a totally common name, meeting Conner.

I dislike SuperMartian a whole freaking lot. I used to just let it be, until I found out through the episodes what M'gann is doing. So, here's me projecting my anger on her shit, through Conner. Don't get me wrong. I think she's an asset to The Team. I just hate what she did to Conner.

Also; please don't spoil YJS3 for me. I have not seen it yet; I only know that Conner is getting married to her. If not and I get it wrong, don't throw me flack. Just let me know.

This series will be rearranged in the future should I get more ideas for Anna and Conner.

For my friend, Lex, who puts up with all my shit. Thank you.

[novaviis]

// MissArt || Bonnie & Clyde AU \
I thought of this while listening to the soundtrack and I have not known peace since. First off, this is based on the Frank Wildhorn Broadway Musical, so obviously there are creative liberties taken over historical accuracy. 
ANYWAY, the Cast and their Counterparts
Bonnie Parker ⇛ Megan Morse
Clyde Barrow ⇛ Artemis Crock
Buck Barrow ⇛ Jade Nguyen 
Blanche Barrow ⇛ Will Harper
Ted Hinton ⇛ Conner Ken
Now listen, this is the fucking perfect cast for this, and to be honest it was born half out of my Disaster Lesbian Need to hear a woman sing “Raise A Little Hell”. Artemis and Jade fit as the Barrow Brothers perfectly, Megan is the poster child for “movie obsessed and also a little unhinged redhead”, and even Will and Conner fall into their roles. Race and Gender and Sexual Orientation add new levels to the story. 
Here’s the thing though - it’s not pretty! I’m not saying this is a story to be idolized. Bonnie and Clyde are horrible for each other, they get physical, fucking hell they encourage each other to shoot up banks and kill people. 
But it’s a Damn Good story, it’s fucking awful romantic, and I want to see Outlaw Lesbians in the 1930′s being bad together. 
So, now that I’ve got that off my chest. 
It’s the Great Depression in West Texas. Megan Morse is a restless young Waitress dreaming of making it big - as an Actress, a Singer, a Writer, she doesn’t care. She just needs to get out of Texas, to become famous, anything but staying a Waitress. She’s idealistic, and romantic, and ambitious to a fault. Conner Kent, a Police Officer and one of her childhood friends, has a thing for her, and he’s sweet and all, a real good guy, but… she’s just not interested. 
On her way home from her deadend job one day, her car breaks down on the side of the road. Just when she’s about ready to pull her hair out, someone calls to her from the bush. At first she thinks it’s a boy, a young guy in tattered slacks, a shirt, and suspenders, but as he gets closer she realizes it’s a woman about her age, long blonde hair practically spilling out of her flat-cap. 
Artemis Crock is a half-Vietnamese Outlaw from “The Devil’s Back Porch” in Dallas. She and her sister have been in and out of Jail since they were kids. Their father was an abusive drunk, they were poor, and racial tensions never did them any damn favours, so they made their way by robbing stores and stealing cars. In fact, she and her sister just broke out of prison. If this ain’t fate, nothing is. 
So, Artemis fixes Megan’s car. They hit it off instantly. Artemis is rough around the edges, but charming and chivalrous, all the things every “southern gentleman” Megan’s feigned interest in over the years should be. They’re playful, and they bicker, and off the bat neither seem to have any qualms about flirting. 
Artemis: Wow, you have got a beautiful smile… bet you hear that all the time. Megan: Why, yes I do. Artemis: Yeah, me too. 
Artemis tells Megan her dreams of becoming a First Class Criminal, up in the ranks of Al Capone. And Megan isn’t even slightly turned off by it. In fact, she’s completely turned on. They’re talking about getting ahead in this Dustbowl country, about freedom, and doing what they want on their terms. You can imagine what happens next. 
Jade, meanwhile, makes her way back to Will - who’s fucking furious that she broke out. Will’s always been a sticker for the law, but he fell in love with Jade because he adored the fire in her and the good heart that lies deep beneath her hard exterior…. very deep beneath. They have a daughter together, Lian, but because Jade’s been in and out of jail, Lian barely gets to see her. Unsurprisingly, Will and Artemis have never really clicked. In-laws. What can you do? Will eventually convinces Jade to go back to jail, to serve out her sentence so that she can get out on a shorter sentence and they can have their life together with Lian. 
Double meanwhile, Artemis and Megan fucked in an abandoned barn. 
Artemis and Jade reconvene at Will’s house, and when Jade tells Artemis that she’s going to back to jail, Artemis loses it. And - I mean, there’s no way around it. It’s ugly, and wrong, and it’s the reality. When Megan tries to convince Artemis to do the same, Artemis slaps her across the face 
Artemis: Don’t you ever talk that way to me, Sugar. 
And Megan slaps her right back. 
Megan: Don’t you ever raise a hand to me, Baby. 
They part ways. It’s only days later, after Jade’s turned herself in, that Artemis is arrested anyway. Megan visits her in jail, but to her luck, Conner’s there. Conner tries to look out of her, tells her to keep her distance, but Megan doesn’t listen. She’s in love. 
At their hearing, Jade is let out on good behaviour ( a miraculous feat in itself). Artemis, however, is sentenced to 16 years at Eastern State Penitentiary. 
It isn’t difficult to imagine what Prison is like for a woman like Artemis - in so, so many ways. She’s physically and sexually abused while the guards either stand back and watch or engage in it. Finally, she reaches a breaking point. She convinces Megan to smuggle her a gun, and after making a makeshift weapon, she kills for the first time. Artemis breaks out of Prison, changed and scarred. 
Artemis and Megan are officially Wanted. 
Obviously, a life of crime isn’t what Megan wants - or at least that’s what she tells herself. They start on a robbing spree, and it’s exhilarating, but in the end what she wants is to make enough money to get out. Things come to a head when, during a store hold-up, Artemis shoots and kills a deputy. She panics, and through a heated argument nearly leaves Artemis. She signed up for robbery, not murder. In the end, though, she can’t leave. She’s too far gone, both for the life and for Artemis. 
The shooting elevates them to Folkhero status around the country. Two young women, making no effort to conceal their illegal romance as they roam the country stealing whatever they want, one as glamorous as a movie star and the other pulling off suits and fedoras better than any man could hope, all on the backdrop of Depression and Prohibition? People eat it up. Police in every state are looking for them, but they just can’t catch them. It’s the romance of the century. 
The two grow bolder and bolder, making names for themselves, going from small town stores to big banks. It’s during one of these big Bank Robberies that Artemis is shot in the shoulder. They just barely escape. Word is sent down to Jade and Will for help. Jade leaves to help her sister. Will, though reluctant, leaves Lian in the care of family (Oliver and Dinah probably), and follows her. 
This isn’t quite plot relevant but please for the Love of God, imagine Artemis lounging in the bathtub, recovering from her wound. Megan is sitting on the side with her feet in the water, reading a newspaper article about them - it’s not the kind of fame she had in mind, but those articles are just so flattering (they called her a dazzling redhead!). Out of nowhere, just to make her smile, Artemis pulls out a ukelele from the side of the tub, and starts serenading her, just so damn in love she doesn’t know what to do with herself. 
Eventually, Jade and Will show up, and Jade is swept right back into the game. They’re unstoppable, or so it would seem. Will can’t help but question why Megan would ever chose this life, why she would chose Artemis. 
In the end, Megan would rather die with Artemis and live without her. 
Their luck runs out - and make no mistake about that, they both know that luck’s been keeping them alive this long. They have no disillusions about what their fate will be. After what Artemis and Jade thought was a successful heist, they realize that the authorities have followed them back to their hideout. A shootout ensues, and Jade is shot, dying in Will’s arms while Artemis and Megan make a narrow escape. 
They’re tired. In their most vulnerable days, they decide to try to go home and see their mothers one more time. But Conner’s been tracking them down since the beginning, and after being told by Megan’s mother that she’s expecting them to visit, he reluctantly tells the Sherriff. 
On a rural road, driving back toward home, Artemis and Megan are ambushed and killed. In the end, after the car stops, riddle with holes and full of stolen goods, the officers open the door. Inside, they find Megan, slumped over against Artemis’ shoulder. Artemis has her arm draped around Megan. 
Some day they’ll go down together they’ll bury them in a hillside haven. To few it’ll be grief, to the law a relief but it’s death for Artemis and Megan.

[fictionalfics]

Coffee pt. 3

(Fuck sake I couldn't find the right gif - Gifs not mine)

RK900 x reader

Warnings: Awfully cliched writing, fluff, swearing

Requested by: @dis-weird-girl-over-here

Additional tags: (I’m just tagging everyone from last time) @mikithekiki @invisiblemigraine @yallgotkik @liveloveandbekind @qtmeryr @angsty-otters-blog and my friend who recently joined tumblr, @fearfridaywriteswords

Guess who’s back from the dead! I have so much shit to write its not even funny, and exams are making my life hell, but enjoy this scrap anyways lmao.

Part One  Part Two Part Three

Let’s go!

System Start-up…

Please Wait...

Conner’s LED swirled to life at around half past five in the morning. the apartment was still dark in the early morning, but you’d soon be getting up to begin your daily ritual of getting ready for work. Conner swiftly stood and made his way into the kitchen, deciding to prepare yet another coffee for you to wake up to - it would give him something to do as he planned the romantic gesture to show his love later on.

Almost as if you’d smelled the bitter-sweet beverage, you padded into the kitchen, popping your joints and yawning. You looked so pretty after just waking, stray hairs poking up like small antennae, your baggy pyjamas hugging you like Conner desperately wanted to.

“Good morning, Y/N. You have exactly forty nine minutes until we need to leave - I made you a drink in order to save time.”

You smiled widely and stood on your tiptoes, pecking Conner on the cheek. “Thanks Con, that’s really helpful!” You flash a toothy grin, reserved for only him, and pour yourself some cereal.

Software Instability^^

Conner watches you in silence, not really knowing what to say. Instead, he examined your vitals - you finally had had a sufficient amount of sleep, and you were fully alert and awake.

Good.

You catch his eye as you spoon another portion into your mouth. You silently question his antics, a raised eyebrow displaying your question. You swore Conner’s cheeks turned a slight shade of blue.

“I’m observing your vitals - it seems you have finally had enough sleep, as you are more heedful this morning.”

You smile at this. “Its the best sleep I’ve had in a while - thanks to you, anyway.” You smile cheerfully. “I guess I better get ready. The Captain’s expecting the reports on his desk at eight o’clock sharp.”

“That would be a good idea Y/N.”

You turned on your heel and headed to your room to get dressed.

Conner loved seeing you cheerful.

Work was a drag. It seemed like it was going to be a busy few weeks, with deviant cases and whatnot. You clocked out about an hour after you were meant to, but you didn't care. You didn't feel the dark cloud of fatigue for once, and, in the cool winter air, decided to go for a walk to clear your head of work. Conner came with you, watching as your breath materialised in the late October cold, and then disappear like a spirit.

Through all of this, Conner was almost silent, only interjecting at the appropriate times as you ranted about anything and everything. He seemed interested when you began to speak about your favourite TV shows, which then veered onto the topic of your childhood pets, and ice skating. You just couldn't help yourself around him - he was easy to talk to.

Software Instability^^

He loved the way you gestured wildly with your hands when you were talking about something you were passionate about, and the way your face showed nearly every expression under the sun, as you described your favourite bits of that show you were in the middle of. 

Time to put his plan in action.

“May we take a detour through the park Y/N? There is something...pressing that I would like to speak about.”

At the concerned look that ghosted across your features, Conner attempted to comfort you.

“It’s not overly pressing, it is simply a problem I have, and I’d like you to help me work through it.

You gave a slow nod, still not convinced.

“Okay, I guess.” You weren’t fully convinced, but decided not to press the matter. “We can take the route by the lake if you like? I like to go that way when I need to clear my mind.”

Conner smiled. “Of course. That’s a wonderful suggestion Y/N”

You lean against the frosted railing, and stare out to the body of water before you. You loved the buzz of the city - that’s why you moved to Detroit - but you loved the occasional quiet of the park even more.

You look at the figure poised next to you - still, like a marble statue.

“What’s on your mind Conner?”

“Ah, yes. I’ve been experiencing, emotions, if you will. As you’re human, and deal with a wide variety of feelings on a daily basis, I could appreciate it if you could help.”

“Of course!” You were temporarily surprised that Conner was experiencing human emotions, but, since the revolution, the machines becoming more human-like than anyone could have ever anticipated wasn’t very looked down upon anymore. You had always treated androids as human anyway, so you very much welcomed this change in society. “What have you been feeling, if you can describe it?”

After his LED swirled yellow for a bit - researching, you assumed - he said, “I believe it’s called love.”

Wow. Conner was in love?

That was news to you.

“Wow Conner, that’s...that’s great!” You felt really happy for him, to the point where you wrapped your arms around him in elation. It didn’t occur to you that it was you he was in love with, but you were happy all the same.

Software Instability^^

“How do you suggest I go about telling the person in question?”

You thought for a bit, and settled on an answer. “Personally, I’d just tell them straight that you love them. Worst case scenario, they say they don’t feel the same way.”

Conner processed your words. “Thank you Y/N. Your advice is very helpful.”

You smiled in response, and sighed. There was an electric silence between the two of you, but you couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say.

You didn’t need to.

“Y/N?”

“Mmhmm?”

“I’m in love with you.”

Holy shit.

That is not what you were expecting.

You gripped onto the rail with your gloved hands, trying your best not to fall over at the announcement.

“O-okay, wow Conner” You laughed.

“Did I do something wrong? I apologise if I took you by surprise.”

“Oh, no of course not! I’ just surprised that it’s me, of all people!”

Conner smiled at you, and took your hand in his. “I wouldn't want it to be anyone else.”

And with that, he placed a tender kiss to your cold lips.

Software Instability^^

When you pulled away, your heart was hammering at your ribcage.

“Conner, I’m so glad you feel that way.”

“Me too, Y/N.”

You press your face to his chest, breathing him in as if the world was about to end.

“Let’s get home and warm up. we can watch the sequel to Avengers if you like?” You weren’t one for small talk, but didn't know what else to do.

“Of course, Y/N, that’s a great idea.”

You laced your fingers through his, him gazing at you as you lead the way home.

And with that, Ladies, Gentlemen and Everyone In Between, I conclude the final part of the Coffee series!

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Dating Drama - Part 4: The Aftermath and Conclusion

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam, SuperFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood, Conner Kent/Superboy

Rating: PG

Original Idea: Part 3 was too much of a cliffhanger so a Part 4 had to be written.

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) And thus concludes the Dating Drama Saga! And just like any good book saga, this one is literally twice as long as parts 1 and 2 and, like, one-and-a-half times as long as part 3. @welovegroot @batboys-and-other-messes, couldn’t have done this without you two! So thank you! This is a little late because I needed a little help going over it and making sure the pacing and content felt right.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

^^^^^

I drove all night—or maybe I didn’t. I don’t even know. I was subconsciously making my way toward Metropolis—following the familiar route I’d taken dozens of times. Gotham and Metropolis weren’t terribly far apart—maybe an hour or two?—but I was so distracted that I didn’t notice that time even existed or how long I’d been in my car.

I came to a stop in Metropolis outside a familiar building. One I’d seen and been in hundreds of times.

I got out of my car, grabbed my backpack, and locked it behind me.

“Hello young lady. Been a while since I’ve seen you here,” the doorman said.

I smiled politely. “Yeah. Nice to see you again, Mr. Kane,” I replied.

He seemed to notice the smile was a little forced and my eyes were probably still bloodshot. “You alright, miss?”

I shrugged. “You know, I don’t know. Is Conner Kent home? Do you know?”

“I… am unsure. I don’t believe so. Mr. Kent left earlier but I don’t recall if he’s returned yet.”

“Well, may I go check?”

“Of course.” Mr. Kane pulled the door open for me.

“Thank you,” I said, still grinning, as I ducked into the apartment building.

“Miss!” Mr. Kane called after me. I turned, eyebrows up. “He hasn’t been the same since the last time I saw you here, you know. He’s not as… bright. Less cheerful. Not like the days when you two would run in here large as life, hand-in-hand, and smiling like you were the only two people in the world.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Right,” I settled on, glancing down and walking backward toward the stairs.

“Whatever your purpose, young lady, I wish you the best of luck.”

“Thank you, Mr. Kane,” I said. I turned as he closed the door again and ran up the stairs.

Before I knew it, I was out of breath from the climb and standing in front of a door with a familiar number and chipped paint. I licked my lips—my whole mouth was dry. Closing my eyes with a sigh, I lifted my hand and knocked. “Hey Conner,” I said at a normal volume, knowing he could hear me if he was home.

There was a heartbeat of silence.

The door opened. “Hey Stars,” Conner greeted, looking somewhat surprised. There was a towel around his neck over his Superboy T-shirt and water glistening in his hair.

“Hi,” I replied. “Sorry to drop in like this. I… I didn’t know what else to do.”

He opened the door wider. “Come on in,” he said, a concerned expression on his face. I stepped over the threshold into an apartment where I spent dozens of nights over three-and-a-half years watching movies. “Have a seat,” Conner invited, gesturing to his sofa. He pulled his towel up over his head and shook it vigorously to dry off his hair before throwing it into the bathroom. His hair stuck out at odd angles, fluffy and significantly drier than it had been moments before. “Can I get you anything?” he called from where he was walking to his kitchen.

“Just water would be great. Thanks,” I replied.

He filled up a glass, brought it over to me, and passed it to me. I accepted it as he sat down on the other end of the sofa, perched on the edge as if ready to jump up at ay moment.

“What’s up?”

“Jason and I got in a fight earlier.”

He licked his lower lip and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I, uh, I know. I heard it.”

I snorted with bitter humor. “Why am I not surprised?”

“I heard him say my name in the back of my ears. I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to hurt you.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “So you heard what happened,” I stated.

“… Yeah.” Hesitantly, he patted my knee, almost as though he was wary to even touch me.

I nodded. “And what did you think?”

“Huh?”

“What did you think? Did we sound ridiculous and out-of-line?”

“Not really. You both made points and you both said things that seemed like you were trying to hurt the other. Even if you weren’t, that was how it sounded. Both of you crossed lines and neither of you were entirely fair. But emotions were running high and I know how anger feels more intimately than almost anyone and fairness isn’t always a player when emotions are high,” he said thoughtfully.

“Okay,” I said.

“How’s the infection?”

“Mostly gone. I feel healthy… physically. Alfred gave me some more antibiotics and I think I’ll be back at one-hundred-percent in a couple days. I’ve had a lot worse.”

“So how are you feeling?”

I shrugged. “Fine. A little achy and weak maybe, but that’ll go away soon.”

“Not exactly what I meant.”

“Oh. Then what did you mean?”

“Now that the fight’s over and you’ve had time to think about it. How are you feeling?”

I thought for a moment, trying to fathom my thoughts into words. “Lost. Confused. Still a little frustrated but the anger burned off a while ago. A little dumbfounded. Like, I didn’t think breaking up with your soulmate was even allowed.”

Conner snorted. “Well, Jason never was one for playing by the rules, was he?” he joked.

“Mmm. Fair point,” I said. I took a sip of water.

“Stars, listen, I know you still care for him. You don’t just leave your soulmate with… no emotional consequences. But part of me can’t help but hope you still care for me too. And even if that interest isn’t romantic, I want you to know I'm here for you, no matter what. Okay?”

I glanced up and met Conner’s eyes. They were a darker blue than Jason’s—more ocean-colored than Jason’s ice. I sighed. “I do still care for you, Kon. But I'm going to… I don’t know. Need time to… sort myself out, as Jason put it. And… I don’t know if I'm ready to just go running back to you. I mean, maybe I’ll just move to Bludhaven for a while and get away from everything. I don’t want to move back to Metropolis but I don’t really want to stay in Gotham either.”

“I understand. For now, can we still be friends?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean, can we still be friendly? No dancing around each other like we’re both bombs waiting to explode. You have a much more playful and cheery personality than anyone else I think I’ve ever met—except maybe Nightwing. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t be happy around me when something good is happening, like maybe we watch The Incredibles with Tim some night in the future, because you’re still conflicted about what happened with Jason.”

I took a deep breath, staring into the depths of my glass of water and thinking. “Yeah we can be friendly,” I decided.

“Thank you. Because I miss your smile.”

That made me smile. He was still kind.

He patted my knee. “There it is,” he said. “That smile could light up a city. It’s full of stars.”

I chuckled. “Thanks. I feel a little better now.”

Conner got to his feet. “You should get some rest. It’s too dark to drive anywhere and I think you could use some sleep.” He paused. “Feel free to take the bed. I’ll be out all night.”

“Where are you going?”

“I have a Metropolis to look after.”

Oh right. Duh. I rubbed at a scab on my knuckle that hadn’t healed from the last time I went out and fought bad guys. “Thank you, Kon. You’re being really nice to me.”

He shrugged. “Just doing what any… friend would do,” he said with a grin. He rested a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be back in the morning. Get some rest.”

“Thank you,” I said.

He grinned, went to the window, and flew out. I sighed and shut it behind him. I’d done that more than once—a time two years ago when I got sick and couldn’t go out and fight with him sprang to mind.

I went to one of his cupboards and pulled out a few blankets. I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d sleep, but at least I could close my eyes, still feeling a little burnt from the salt of my tears. I snuggled down on his sofa and heaved a huge cleansing breath. A wave of tired washed over me. I closed my eyes, already drifting in and out of consciousness.

^^^^^

Starbeam was curled up against Conner’s chest, his arm thrown over her shoulders. They’d been watching a movie but switched over to the news on a text from Tim.

“—other news the superhero duo commonly nicknamed SuperStar by internet bloggers comprising of Metropolis’ own Superboy and Starbeam of Gotham took out the Green Rink Gang last night. The pair have been in some form of a business partnership for the last three years and have helped the city’s crime rate drop fifteen percent in that time with some degree of permanency. They left the Green Rink Gang tied up at the crime scene…”

“We did good,” Conner said, stroking her hair. Starbeam grunted tiredly in agreement. “It’s funny that they haven’t figured out that we’re in more of a romantic partnership than a business one. I mean, we don’t do much to hide it.”

“That is funny. You know what else is funny? I thought you were going to say ‘domestic partnership’ for a second there and I was like, ‘Isn’t that like a legal term for marriage?’” Starbeam joked.

Conner shrugged. “Maybe one day our romantic partnership will be a domestic one.”

“Mm. I'm not ready for that,” Starbeam said.

Conner’s eyes flicked to the cupboard where he kept his movie collection. It was too high for Starbeam to reach without getting on a kitchen stool, so he’d hidden the black velvet box containing a ring there where she wouldn’t find it. He’d had it for nearly a year but never felt ready enough or brave enough to ask the question. It could wait a little longer.

He looked back at the TV. Starbeam hadn’t even noticed he’d looked away from it.

^^^^^

Conner shook his head to clear it, twisting his body to bank around a skyscraper. Last he checked, that ring was still there and she still wasn’t ready.

That’s okay, he thought. Give it time to see what develops. Maybe things will change. And if they don’t, respect her decisions.

^^^^^

I woke up to clanging noises nearby, on a surface that was soft but decidedly not my own bed. My vigilante instincts kicked into overdrive. I’d been kidnapped and they were breaking out the torture equipment! Escape!

I tried to leap up into a fighting stance, but got tangled up in two or three different blankets. “Whoa!” I shouted, tilting dangerously and falling to crash on a coffee table I caught sight of.

“Op! Look out!” a familiar voice exclaimed. There was a whoosh and familiar arms were steadying me. Conner’s eyes searched my face—for signs of what, I wasn’t sure. “You okay? You hurt anything?”

“No. I'm good. Thanks,” I replied. “Sorry. I just… it was unfamiliar surroundings to wake up to and my mind… overreacted.”

He shrugged. “You’re a Gotham vigilante. You reacted according to appropriate threat levels in your situation,” he commented casually, helping me untangle from the blankets. “I was going to move you to my bed when I got in and saw you on the couch since it’s more comfortable, but I didn’t want to wake you up. Sorry. You looked so peaceful and I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Right. So… Breakfast?”

“Love some. What can I help with?”

“Nothing. You can relax and let me finish making pancakes in peace,” Conner said, patting my shoulder before going back to the kitchen. “How’d you sleep?”

I pushed my messy hair out of my face. “Okay. How about you? How was Metropolis?”

“Eh. The usual. We’re not as bad as Gotham so I’ll never complain much,” he said, casting a playful grin over his shoulder.

His phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket. “Hey Tim, what’s going on?”

Tim was in enough of a panic to be yelling, because I could hear him. “Dude! Starbeam is missing! She and Jason got in a fight yesterday and she just drove off and none of us even saw her leave and her phone’s GPS has been deactivated—” Did I deactivate my GPS? I didn’t remember. “—and she’s not answering her phone and her suit is still here in the cave so her homing device isn’t with her and we have no idea where she is and—”

“Tim!” Conner exclaimed to get his best friend to pipe down. “Calm down. She’s right here with me.”

“Hi Tim!” I called, hoping he could hear me from across the apartment. Conner passed me his phone and went back to stirring the pancake batter. “Hi Tim,” I repeated quieter.

“Starbeam! What the &*$% you can’t just disappear like that!” Tim shouted. “Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”

“I'm surprised anyone’s noticed me enough to be worried about me in Gotham, to be honest,” I admitted. “Jason’s still mad at me, probably, and the rest of you tend to be too focused on your own cases and projects to really pay attention to my comings and goings.”

“Fair point but it’s not like the entire house just listened to you fight and then didn’t care to check up on you. Dick went to your room with some cookies and ice cream and you were just gone and your backpack and some clothes were missing and your car wasn’t on the drive. We searched the entirety of Gotham for you all night! Why didn’t you tell anyone where you were going?”

“I needed some time alone, Timmy. And I didn’t need an entourage of bats following me.”

Tim was quiet for a second. “Okay,” he said. “Are you okay, though, Starbeam?”

“Yeah I'm fine. Conner’s taking real good care of me. Promise. He’s making pancakes right now.” I didn’t ask the questions I wanted to—how was Jason? Did he look for me?—because it felt petty.

“Okay. I'm… glad,” Tim said.

“Tim,” I said. “I know this last little while has been hard on you. With… me and your brother and your best friend and stuff. And I am sorry. Really. Hopefully one day everything will get sorted out and you won’t have to be so caught up in the middle of the drama.”

“Thanks Starbeam. That… means a lot. I, uh, I'm gonna go tell Bruce that I found where you are.”

“Okay. See you later, Tim.”

“Bye Starbeam.”

I hung up the call and set Conner’s phone off to the side. He glanced over at me.

“So, good to see you seem to be feeling somewhat better,” he said.

I sighed quietly. “Yeah I guess,” I said. “I mean, I'm not gonna feel, like, really good till like next week but my brain and heart aren’t as much of a hurricane as they were last night.”

“That’s something, at least,” Conner commented, making a pancake in a frying pan.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Yeah it’s something.”

We had breakfast and then cleaned up, talking about superficial stuff like Metropolis’ weather compared to Gotham’s and whatever weird stuff we’d seen on the news lately. Once everything was put away, we stood in the kitchen. I felt better, but still not great. I perched on the arm of his sofa.

“Thank you, Kon. You’re being really kind to me,” I said. “This must not be easy on you either.”

He shrugged. “It’s not the easiest thing I’ve ever done—emotions aren’t my strong point—but I’m trying and I still care about you and your emotional well-being so I'm doing what I can,” he said. “I mean, am I dying a little inside knowing that someone I care about is hurting? Yeah. But sometimes we have to put aside our own feelings to be someone else’s anchor.”

I rocked back and forth on my heels. “Can I… can I hug you?” I asked tentatively. “If this was happening with my parents closer to me… I’d ask them for a hug.”

“Of course.”

It was a very awkward, distant hug—so unlike any I’d ever shared with him even when Jason and I were together the first time and Kon and I were just good friends. Despite what he said about us being friendly rather than dancing around each other like we were bombs, that was exactly what we were doing. Just dipping our toes into the water rather than diving into the deep end.

Despite the awkward distance though, I felt comforted. Safe. Being so small and wrapped in someone else’s arms always gave me a sense of security.

He patted the back of my head. “It’s going to be okay, Stars. I promise,” he vowed. “Everything will work out alright in the end.”

I nodded. “Thanks Conner. I hope so,” I agreed before pulling out of the hug.

His deep blue eyes searched my face. “It will. You’re strong and you’re smart.” He sighed. “Well. You’re welcome to stay here for a couple days till you figure out what you want, you know that right?”

“Thank you, Conner. But I… I can’t. Not yet. I just need to be by myself until I work out my heart.”

Conner looked hurt but tried not to. “Tha-That’s okay,” he said. “I’ll always be here for you.”

I stepped closer to him and set my hands on his elbows. “Thank you,” I said sincerely. “For everything.” I tilted up onto my tiptoes, hesitated, and placed a soft, halting kiss of gratitude on his cheek. Once I was back on solid ground, I turned on my heel, grabbed my backpack, and went to the door. I reached for the handle and turned around. “I’ll… I’ll let you know when I sort everything out.”

“Okay.” He quirked a small crooked smile.

“Goodbye, Conner.” I turned back to the door.

“Hang on!” he called before I could leave. I turned. There was a whoosh and he was in front of me. He gave me another hug. As he pulled away, he pressed his lips to the top of my head. “For luck,” he explained. “So you can figure everything out.”

I backed out the door. “Thank you, Conner. I’ll, uh, I’ll see you soon.” I shut it behind me.

^^^^^

One Month Later…

Knock-knock! “Hey Kon,” I said.

The door opened once again. “Hey there,” he replied with a little smile. “How’s Bludhaven been?”

“Oh. You know. It’s been Bludhaven. Doesn’t change.” I shrugged. “Dick comes over every couple nights to share stories and gossip about rogue’s love lives. Big brother Dick stuff.” Conner nodded understandingly. Everyone in our life who’d met Dick Grayson knew his caring, big brotherly nature.

“Seen Jason?”

“Nope. Last I heard, he and the Outlaws were somewhere in Colorado.”

“You okay with that?” Kon asked, opening the door wider to let me in. I stepped over the threshold and gave him a friendly side-arm hug.

“Yeah. He can do whatever he wants with his life. I figured out what I want with mine.”

“And what’s that?” Conner asked.

I hesitated, rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet. “If… if you’re willing, I’d like to try us again,” I admitted. “I still love you, Conner Kent. And I miss you.”

His face lit up. He pulled me into a delicate hug that grew stronger when he figured out how much strength wouldn’t crush me. “I would like that more than anything, Stars. I still love you too and I am completely willing to try.”

I grinned slightly. “May… may I?” I asked, eyes flicking down to Conner’s lips. He bit his lower one for a moment as a grin tilted up the corners.

“You may,” he replied, bending down.

It was soft and careful—nothing forceful. Neither of us grabbing onto the other and yanking for all we were worth. No. This was cautious. Hesitant. We were testing the waters and making sure this was what we both wanted.

Our last mission together—the one that caused my world to flip upside-down—shot through my head.

^^^^^

It was supposed to be a simple in-and-out mission. Run in, grab the package, and get out. Simple. No alarms triggered meant we could be in and out in ten minutes, tops. We’d spent the evening before casing the compound from the outside and slept not too far away from it, but far enough that their security wouldn’t find us.

But of course something had to go wrong and we breached an alarm when extracting the package from its containment. I wasn’t even sure what the package was. Batman just said it was a dangerous bioweapon and needed to be destroyed.

Conner grabbed my hand and started pulling me out of the facility. He was a lot faster than I was so I stumbled along behind, trying to secure the package in my utility belt with one hand.

I lost count of how many guards we knocked out after five and how many bullets we dodged after three. Conner nearly yanked my arm out of its socket at least twice pulling me out of the paths of stray bullets.

We cleared the compound and security guards opened fire even more than they had inside. Conner snatched me around the waist and took off into the sky. I shrieked in surprise as we shot out of range. Conner looked down at me, concern all over his face. “Package secure?” he asked. I put one hand over my belt. I could feel the vial that had the bioweapon in it.

“Yup!” I called over the wind.

We touched down several miles away from the compound where my ride—a miniature version of the Batwing—was waiting for me. My heart was still pounding from the fight and the moment I could have sworn I saw a bullet in slow-motion as it whizzed right past my eyes. Once my feet were back on solid ground, I sighed in relief that we were out of the situation, my lips quirking up into a small smile.

“Whoo! We made it!” I exclaimed. I whirled and grabbed Conner’s shoulders as though to give him a celebratory kiss—the way I would have done back when we were together.

I froze.

“Nope. Never mind,” I said, mortified. “Force of habit. Sorry. Forget it ever happened.”

“Forget what?” Kon asked, agreeing.

“Exactly.” I got in the Baby Batwing and jetted off before I could make a bigger idiot of myself.

^^^^^

No more of that. Kon was here, with me, now. And there wasn’t a Red-Hood-sized elephant in the room.

When we pulled away, Conner searched my face. “Okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Think we can do this again?”

“I think we can try.” I felt a grin pull on my face. There was a sense of rightness, wholeness, to the atmosphere of Conner’s living room, emotions thrumming between us. I had a feeling Conner and I would be just fine.

[bluboothalassophile]

Hey blu! I absolutely love your srories. Could you plz write about bruce wanting to see jason and raven together as a couple even though they still friends?

Hello,

I’m so glad to hear you love the stories! And I hope you continue to enjoy them! As to your request, it was difficult because I don’t see Bruce being much of a ‘shipper’ but I hope you enjoy it all the same! =)

Subtlety is Needed…

Bruce would be honest, he was not one to ‘ship’ his sons. Ordaughters. On second thought, he tried not to ‘ship’ his children in general.

There were significant others that he disapproved of: Kori, Conner,Stephanie, Claire, Rene, Shawn, Zatanna, etc.

But he was a father and disapproving of his children’sprospective others was a needed attribute to being a father. And though hewould never get in the way of his children’s own true happiness.

Take Dick for example. Bruce would have preferred his son tomarry Barbara, settle down, keep himself here in Gotham where Bruce could keepan eye on him. But, Dick had married Kori instead, and had given Bruce twoamazing grandchildren. He adored Jake and Mar'i, they were perfect, and nothingwould ever change Bruce’s mind about their perfection. Also, he had come to bequite fond of his daughter-in-law, though Kori had earned that on her own andnot through her children. She also (though Bruce would NEVER admit this aloud!)made him believe that there was such a thing for soul mates in this world, sheand Dick were simply made for each other, and that was plainly obvious.

And while Bruce was happy for his son’s happiness, he wasalso still wary about his other children’s significant others.

Tim was engaged to Conner Kent at the moment, Tim had comeout as asexual a few years back, and that had been a whirlwind of research andunderstanding for him and his other family members. But Bruce’s dislike ofConner was not that Conner was Conner, but rather that Conner was a halfKryptonian and could easily break his son.

Bruce’s problem with his children was not them getting theirhappiness, they deserved the happiness, but his problem was in them falling inlove with very dangerous, much stronger than them, aliens, magicians, metas anddemons alike.

Even now, his youngest was dating a meta, and that unsettledBruce greatly; though Irey was an alright kid and he found himself worriedthough for Damian and the possible dangers of a meta.

However, there was an exception to Bruce’s obsessiveworries; and really, this person should not be an exception because she was themost powerful demon in the universe. But as far as he knew there was nothingpast platonic friendship between his son and the demon. That didn’t seem tostop him and the rest of his children, from hoping that Jason and Raven wouldget together.

Jason had dated some terrible women, and yes, Bruce knew allabout his son’s dating life. Including Talia as she blurted that out once whenshe had been injected with truth serum. Jason had remained mum on the subjectthough. Bolting at the mention of it and didn’t talk about it to anyone; exceptpossibly Raven.

Jason had dated Rose Wilson, and while Rose was a nice girlshe was not right for HIS son.

Jason’s brief fling had probably been a ‘fuck you’ to Dick,and not one that the family acknowledged either.

Kori and Jason were still very good friends, and solidplatonically; Bruce kept a close eye on them just in case.

The same could probably be said about Jason’s romanticrelations with Barbara too; though she had happily married Luke Fox now, still,Jason’s tastes in women were thus far unimpressive.

Then there had been Kara, she was sweet, but she was a Superand she wasn’t right for Jason at all. Bruce had seen to a subtle sabotagethere with the help of Tim and Dick.

Jason had then proceeded to prove why he could not andshould not be trusted with his own love life: he dated Donna Troy. Donna whohappened to be hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Jason’s best friend, RoyHarper. Even Bruce could see the disaster in that. Even as he sadly watched hisson’s heart get crushed in a fiery wreck when it was announced that Donna hadbeen using Jason to make Roy jealous. The blow out from that was legendary,even noticed by the Justice League.

But when Jason had met Raven all those years ago, before hehad dated Kara or Rose, or Donna, they had simply clicked in a quiet way thatBruce hadn’t ever seen Jason click with another being.

And while Bruce was less than thrilled that it was the demonof all creatures that Jason had clicked with he would admit that he just wantedthem to happen. Just let it happen, let Jason be happy, and Raven clearly made Jasonhappy.

So he was subtly rooting for the demoness who was admittedlymaking this more challenging.

But there was hopes, as Raven had worse taste in selectingsignificant others as Jason did.

Which brought Bruce to where he was right now, he wassitting there sipping his morning coffee, looking over the Wayne Gala plans,and skimming over the stocks when Jason (a rare night that he had stayed)walked in grumbling about coffee.

“You are coming to the Wayne Gala,” Bruce said looking up.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, a mark will be there,” Jason shrugged.

“You should bring someone,” Bruce replied.

“It’s work, not a date,” Jason scowled. “Else I wouldn’t begoing to that shindig at all!”

“Why don’t you bring a friend, it is a Gala,” Brucepersisted.

“And who would I bring who’s not going to get in the way ofmy job?” Jason asked sipping his coffee now.

“There’s many options, your Amazon friend, Artemis, Raven, Stephanie,Roy, Mirimanyone you would like,” Bruce pointed out.

“You don’t like metas in Gotham, I don’t think you’d like ademon, Steph is going with Cass, and you banished Roy from the Manor last year,”Jason rattled off.

“Bring someone,” Bruce persisted.

“Why are you in a stint about this now? It’s not important,I won’t be there as Jason Todd, I’m there as Jason Peters, I don’t need a date!”Jason said.

“Bring someone Jason, it’d look better.”

“Fine, I’ll call Raven,” Jason groaned as he walked out and Brucesipped his coffee in a small victory.

[sleepyfan-blog]

Argument

Based on this picture from @drenched-in-sunlight

fandom: DC

warnings: Justice Lords au, family quarrel

characters: Jon Lane Kent, Chris Kent, Kon-El/Conner Kent, Jon Samuel Kent

word count: 2,098

Kon heard the two of them arguing as soon as he entered the compound. A frown appeared on his face and the half-Kryptonian rushed through the hallways at top speed – as one of the very few reasons why those particular pair of his brothers would be arguing was if one of them believed that the other was coveting all of their youngest brother’s attention – whether that was true or simply a jealous and inaccurate perception remained to be seen.

 Chris and Laney were glaring daggers at one another, and Jon was staring at the both of them, about two or three feet away, his eyes wide and dismayed as he was very quiet. Kon came up behind his youngest brother, lightly tapping the other on one shoulder, a gentle, understanding smile flashing across his face as Jon glanced up at him, worry and confusion visible on his face. "I don't know why they're fighting... Laney just came back from his mission, and Chris and I were on the couch playing a video game. Laney picked me up and Chris protested and they've been doing this for over an hour..."

 Kon sighed, shaking his head a little "They'll burn themselves out of this argument by the end of the day, or father will step in, as always. Come with me, Jonno. I've still got most of my weekly allowance left - want to go to the arcade and play games and eat the most awesomely greasy pizza in Metropolis?"

 Jon was about to respond, when Laney raised his voice, rage causing his voice to shake, as he stabbed his finger into one of Chris' chest - both of them, Kon noted, were still in full uniform. "You better be treating my younger bro right!"

 "I've been taking care of him longer than you. Sit down, you're being ridiculous, Laney." Chris growled, eyes flashing in irritation, trying to stare his younger sibling down.

 Laney's eyes flashed with irritation, and he crossed his arms over his chest, eyes turning the slightest bit purple in the center of his pupils. "I will not sit down, just because you want to assert dominance! And just because you've known him longer than I have, doesn't mean that you know how to care for him best!"

 Chris shifted, glaring down at the half Kryptonian, his eyes also flashing just a little bit red with Heat Vision. "Have you forgotten that Jon and I are soulmates, Laney? I have loved him in every form that he has been born in, since our souls were first created millenia ago on Krypton."

 Laney started to splutter, and Jon looked incredibly confused. He took a half-step towards the other two, but Kon scooped up his baby brother and moved very quickly out of the compound, calling quietly for Sphere to come - and she rolled up to him, beeping quietly before transforming into Super Cycle mode. He handed one helmet to Jon, before putting his own on. "Come on, let's head off to the arcade."

 "What... What does Chris mean when he said that we're soulmates? I thought... I mean, I've sort of heard of soulmates in English class, but I just thought that was a myth, or wishful fantasy?" Jon asked, tilting his head a little, a deeply confused expression appearing on his face as he tried to puzzle out just what Chris meant by that.

 A soft sigh left Kon's lips and he just barely resisted the temptation to rub his face - why did his younger brothers have to say such things in front of Jon? "I... Err... That's..." He glanced away from Jon, staring at the road - even though Sphere was the one who was driving them to the closest arcade that Jon really enjoyed playing at. The place was run by family of someone connected to the Justice Lords, and they were always given a small, private room to play the games that they wanted, without being pestered by curious or enterprising civilians... Or harassed by foolish protesters. "Uhm..."

 "I've heard them arguing and Chris bringing that point up before, but neither of them will explain it to me!" Jon pouted, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to scowl...

 In Kon's opinion, the pout on his baby brother's face was almost criminally adorable, but he knew that lightly teasing the other about being cute wasn't going to end well at this point - Kon could sense that the other was getting close to a fit of temper - which was never a good thing. "Well... You know that Chris, like Match, Father, and Aunt Kara, is full Kryptonian, right?"

 "Yeah... and wasn't he actually born on Krypton, like dad and auntie were? He was in some sort of weird dimension-thingy for a long while, but he left, right? To talk to dad or something?" Jon responded.

 Kon blinked a little in surprise - his youngest brother knew more about Chris' origins than he was expecting - but then again, neither Laney or Chris were great at keeping secrets when arguing with one another, unfortunately. "That's... Well... I'm not sure if Father or Chris want you to know yet - they'd probably say that a full explanation should wait until you're older..."

 Jon folded his arms over his chest, and a mulish expression appeared on his face, as he muttered irritably "I hate that answer... Can't you please explain Kon? Please? You're the bestest big brother, who explains things and is sooo much fun! I promise I won't tell Dad or the others that I know why, I just... I want to understand... Chris says that he's mine and that I'm his, but I think he means it different than that we're family..."

 Another sigh left Kon, and after a couple of moments of quiet contemplation - with Jon's puppy-eyed pleading pout at maximum intensity, he decided to cave in a little and explain - but not because the other had blatantly tried to manipulate him into answering his question. "Chris was born on Krypton, yes. But his parents decided to put him into the Phantom Zone - which is sort of like... Krypton's prison. He was put there as a little kid, because they thought that he would be able to get more powerful by staying there, and that they had heard that Krypton might be destroyed and thought that he would be safer there..." Kon paused, gathering his thoughts as he tried to figure out how the hell he was going to explain the rest of this.

 "Okay... I'm not sure how putting him into a prison would help him at all, but he did survive the destruction of Krypton... You still didn't explain the stuff about Chris and me being soulmates! It's awful that he grew up in a prison..." Jon responded, a worried and unhappy frown appearing on his face.

 "I was getting to that - I was just... Trying to figure out how. So... Chris is... Chris is kind of... Half-possessed by a Kryptonian spirit god... being. Or he's the reincarnation of one of the Kryptonian gods - the Nightwing entity - the same entity whose name he goes by as Lord Nightwing in the hero community." Conner responded, trying to find the right words to explain the stranger part of all of this. "When you were born, he sensed that his mortal soulmate had been reborn, and broke out of the Phantom Zone. He met Father, and pledged his loyalty to him, mostly so that he was able to stay by your side, Jon. So that he would be able to love, cherish and care for you."

 "Oh! So he's part of the family, then. And he's mine." Jon responded, a bright smile appearing on his face, leaning a little into his second oldest brother, a feeling of warmth and happiness filling him. His older brothers were always so busy... although Chris did seem to try to take as much time out of his day as his schedule allowed to spend time with him... Not that the others did the same... Except that Kon was being distracted by one of Lord Batman's sons (not that Jon was jealous. He wasn't... He just hated sharing his brothers' attention with anyone, and resented the fact that Tim was trying to claim part of Kon's heart and seemed to be succeeding) and was spending less of the little time that they usually had together with him, in favor of spending some of it with Tim.

 "Err... I think so? Aunt Kara and Chris both say that he swore an Oath of Fealty to Father when he came to earth - which is why he doesn't wear the symbol of El on his chest. He wears the symbol of Batman, as Lord Batman and Father are close allies. Chris would be able to wear the symbol of El if he married one of us... And given that you and he are soulmates, I suspect I know who he would have a preference with. But that's only if Father would allow him to marry one of us, in the first place. Chris is his Vassal, and though to a certain extent, he is to serve and protect all of us, his loyalty is first to father, and second to you... Or at least that's what I was able to understand from Aunt Kara's explanation. She explained it to me shortly after Chris showed up, and you were a baby then - of course, he was about six or seven then." Kon responded, trying to muddle through his memories. So much had happened since then, and the explanation hadn't made much sense then, and it made less sense now.

 "Oh... So what's a soulmate?" Jon responded after a couple of moments, frowning a little "I've heard it as someone you love quite a lot, and that they love you back just as much... And that it was a romantic thing? Or do you mean soulmate in a different sense than that?"

 Kon thought for several moments before responding quietly "The two of your souls are bound together in some way., I don't know anything more than that. Chris knows more, probably and so might father. If you have more questions, I would suggest asking one or both of them - though they might  not want to explain until you're a teenager."

 Another pout appeared on Jon's face, and the other crossed his arms over his chest, as the two of them (and Sphere) arrived at the arcade. "I'm almost eleven now! Why can't these things be explained to me now? It's not fair."

 The older brother shrugged his shoulders a little as he ruffled his younger brother's hair, answering quietly "I know that it's frustrating not being able to get all of the information that you want to know when you want to know it, but  I've explained to you everything I understand about it. I'm not sure if Soulmates is even the correct term, or just the closest equivalent to the Kryptonian term in English is. And don't ask me for what the Kryptonian word or phrase is, as I don't know it, unfortunately."

 "Oh... Alright. Thank you for explaining what you do know. You're the best, big brother Kon!" Jon responded, still a little sulky, but brightening up after a moment and hugging him tightly around the middle, cuddling into him for a couple of moments before letting go "Let's go to the arcade! I want to see if I can beat DAG's high score on Cheese Monsters. Every week I manage to beat it, but they somehow come in later and beat my high score! It's not fair." Jon was sulking a little again, lower lip sticking out a little in a ridiculously adorable little pout.

 "Maybe whoever DAG is, they're frustrated that VE or JSK keeps beating their score." Kon pointed out, smiling softly as the two of them walked into the arcade. Jon used the initials for both his human and his Kryptonian names when he logged his high scores – as occasionally he would top one of his high scores, and wanted to keep two different initials. Although Jon preferred his human name for the most part – occasionally he did go by Vera El, although that was usually when they were on a galactic stage – shadows of their father, Lord of House El, silent and close to him at all times, unless directed elsewhere, watching and listening just as closely as any of the rest of them.