#i think i need more fics exploring the Wayne side of their lives

[erinwantstowrite]

Dick and Tim would be REALLY good on reality tv,,, they're both charismatic (please do not forget that Tim makes friends/allies easily just like Dick can), handsome, CLEVER, and know how to play to a persona. i think they'd go on shows for fun and to de-stress. like one too many things piss them off in their daily lives and they could pretty much get a vacation from it just to go on these shows. no one in the family can talk to them and they get to annoy people, crack jokes, and get fun puzzles in the form of a literal puzzle or figuring out social dynamics of the other players.

sometimes they go on shows by themselves but mostly use it as a brotherly bonding activity. if it's a show where they can be a duo they're GOING to do it. and they're going in to play to a storyline, not to win. they don't need the money, they don't need the publicity, they just want to have fun. sometimes if they figure out that everyone on the show sucks and they get competitive, they'll win. but mostly their goal is "how can we make the funniest plot line look the most natural." or something like that. i know a producer LOVES to see them coming. i bet EVERYONE tunes in when they're on a show because they're fucking hilarious even if half of what they say are inside jokes. the rest of the family watches and they KNOW what those shits are pulling, they have betting pools where they guess what the two are gonna do next, they're the FIRST to make memes for both internet and for the family group chats.

one time they convinced Bruce to go (it's been many a years since he really had to play up the Brucie role, cause he's a dad now and the older he gets the more people expect him to mellow out, and even back when he was full Brucie, reality TV wasn't his thing). it was one of those survival based shows where you come is as a team and try to win together. Bruce got lost in the woods after going on a hike. The camera men literally lost him and Tim and Dick were playing it up for the camera. Dick cried and invited the other teams to a funeral. Tim had a speech that was basically "I think he's fine but this is my perfect opportunity to embarrass my dad with stories." The producers were like "we fucking killed Bruce Wayne oh my fucking god" and Bruce shows up at the funeral like "oh what a beautiful service my boys are so great." They won by pure luck and circumstances and they were actively TRYING to lose that game. They were gobsmacked at the end and everyone uses the moment they looked at each other in confusion and shock as reaction gifs

[burning-bubble-tea]

I actually ran into a fanfic that was friends of superheroes and it was good but also slightly frustratingly close to the vibe I’m thinking of.

The fic ended with the two civilian friends becoming “guys in the chair” and like well n fine n cool n all that it’s very much “wow my civilian friends conveniently have knowledge on a specific topic so they can be useful in these situations only!”

It’s giving “everyone can be heroes” which is very true and real, but also I dunno, I’m looking for more civilian friend overwhelmed with their superhero friend rather than, civilian friend learns how they can be heroes too or whatever.

Like in the story both civilians were in school and had knowledge that conveniently helped them solve a case. And like that’s one sorta result of having civilian friends be impactful to the plot, they kinda need to be knowledgeable about something that the heroes are not.

A random example I just thought of is like I have no idea what show this is from but I vaguely remember a superhero thing where like some sorta fictional thing came to reality and the superhero needs to ask the nerds what to do to defeat it or whatever.

Like “oh no this supervillain made pikachu real and pikachu is evil! But oh no I as a superhero don’t know anything about Pokémon!”

“Never fear, I random civilian in the crowd that’s probably like a kid or whatever will scream his weakness is the ground!” And then a bunch of civilians will agree in unison and with their help I save the day but yeah you kid who told me pikachu is weak to the ground is the true hero today.

I want an exploration of what it’s like to be friends with a superhero and not be completely wrapped up in the super world.

Also controversial yet brave, why are the superheroes going to post secondary education when they could be like part time students at the most, like I get you can skip classes in uni and still pass with flying colours but like gosh. “Hi I’m Damian Wayne and I have time to be a full time student and fight crime” is the second most unrealistic element of superheroes besides their powers and gadgets.

I think in invincible Mark gives up on going to uni once his superhero career takes off.

Like I mean I guess if you don’t plan on being a superhero forever definitely keep ur options open but like let’s say you’re Damian Wayne and you don’t wanna be a super hero anymore, and let’s even say you’re not the son of a billionaire. You’re still a highly skilled acrobat and swordsman. Go to the circus, do drag I dunno.

I’d write my own fic but I’m still unlearning cringe and it’ll definitely be a bit self insert-y which is FINNNE but hhhhhh. Also side note I like how my self insert-y things is often not actually inserting myself per se but creating a character and then imagining how that character would deal with the situations I have ended up in/how I think myself or others I know would react in x situations.

I just think there’s fun to be had in the humanizing that civilian friends would do to a superhero I like.

Also I think celebrating the civilian friends and showing how they’re just as important as the supers because all life is valuable. Like a lot of superhero shows have an all life is valuable spin and like the superheroes are sacrificing their time n lives but also there’s no need to place value on lives, inherent existence is enough. Like obviously multiple things can be true, one person saving other people is amazing and like if I had to like choose me be sacrificed over superhero who can save more people if they stay alive sure I’d be tempted to make the sacrifice despite my love of living hahahahahah

Like objectively firefighters are doing a lot more physical tangible effects on making the world a better place than someone who isn’t a firefighter. But like that doesn’t mean it’s a hierarchy. People make each other happy and that is so beautiful and important.

I want the vibe of a civilian making a superhero happy so they’re friends. They enjoy each others company.

Also I like the idea that their friends still have to be briefed on security procedures to maintain secret identities for their own safety hahahah

Honestly a big reason why this is on my mind is I read a fic where there was a one off joke about how none of the characters were dating civilians and it was because they said “civilians are boring”. And like haha funny, and kinda true, a civilian wouldn’t understand what fighting alien invasions would be like and wouldn’t be able to compare it to. And like yeah, you just fought a supervillain I don’t think my anecdote of me defeating Helen from HR with a sick rebuttal email will be as engaging. And maybe I’m just insecure and have a weird desire to be perceived as unique and special because I had so many of my traits assumed due to stereotypes that I crave individuality and uniqueness and also cause I’m an attention whore.

But like it’s also sorta weird, your job is to save civilians and then a superhero going “they’re boring” removes themself from the very world they’re protecting. It creates a hierarchy that looks down on civilians and it’s never nice to be looked down on.

Like I’m not going around claiming I’m an equal to a firefighter who has actually physically saved lives but that doesn’t mean it feels any better for a hero to call me boring or useless.

But also I did love the fic. I do love when people can find ways to help in situations where they feel out of depth so the fic still scratched that itch. But I think the weird ideas I’m thinking of are probably only gonna be realized if I write the damn thing myself.

[kitewithfish]

Reading Meme for Feb 1 2023

What I've Read Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Oh, man, the last third of this book is just payoff after payoff - stuff that I was certain was going to be left to be resolved in the next book was just laid out in front of your eyes and it worked so damned well. This was my second attempt to read this book - the first time, just after it came out, I made charts and tried to keep track of all the characters and figure out the mystery of the whole thing, well, I had some trouble. The second time around had a much better result when I just let the whole thing wash over me.  I really enjoyed this book and I'm starting on the next one immediately.   Penric's Fox - Lois McMaster Bujold - I am still really enjoying this series, which are short mysteries set in the Chalion universe with a metaphysical  'odd couple'- a young human man with no background in magic is host of a centuries-old demon who has the memories and personalities of nine previous women hosts as part of her constituent parts. They fight crime! It's also got touches of the kind of settled affection that I tend to associate with long-married couples who still adore each other. Penric gets roped into solving murders that are short and clear, with a cast of interesting recurring characters and a boss who is a badass woman in her 70s. The mysteries are a bit straightforward but explore some of the interesting edge cases of how magic in their world works. Fun palette cleansing reads. (I which Bujold had a little more eye for queer relationships in her books but what she does provide is emotionally solid, so, meh.) I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am - Mardiaz173 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33021898 - Clark Kent/ Bruce Wayne - DC comics universe - This was just a nice short little fic where Superman wants desperately to date Batman, but Bruce Wayne keeps showing Clark a side of himself that few people get to see. Which will our hero choose? (I read this on the recommendation of the podcast Clio/Mireille for their Sept 2022 episode on Superman/Batman Identity Porn fic.) It is a fun fic and a charming podcast. Living With a Tiger by x_los - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33488392 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - Original Lu�� Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán, post Post-Bingge vs. Bingmei Extra - I am delving at last into the fic for the Scum Villain fandom, and I love the set-up on this. X_los wrote an AU that really delves into a grey version of the characters from the canon, and I really enjoyed it. (If you don't care to read the canon, this is still mostly intelligible on its own.) The tags are accurate. What I'm Reading Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir has got her hooks in my soul. Like with Gideon the Ninth, I was spoiled by tumblr osmosis for some elements of this book, but I honestly don't think it matters! Starts basically directly after Gideon the Ninth and I am glad I followed my friend's recommendation to start this book immediately upon finishing Gideon, as my poor memory would not have helped with understanding this book. I find these books do very little explicit handholding of like, "Character realized that this new development related back to This Setup from Chapter 2" and yet Muir does indeed set up enough reminders to guide you back to the points you need to recall for the payoff to be satisfying. What I'll Read Next Phoenix Extravagant - Yun Ha Lee - Book Club The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - The library wants this back and I don't want to give it back! I might end up having to buy more of the Ihimaera books I want to read - local libraries are NOT great about having these around, and I am slow. The Good Lord Bird Library books Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys Unnamed Midwife (whole series)

Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, True Colors by Karen Traviss, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Aphorisms of Kerishdar

[bigskydreaming]

And another thing, he said as if its ever just ONE more thing, hahahaha look, fuck you numbers, I’m not about to be limited by the likes of YOU.

Anyway.

Anyone else think its kinda weird that in all the many years of “Dick not so secretly resented Jason because Bruce adopted him and made him Robin and that’s why they were never close” fics.......there seem to be a big whopping zero that take the fix-it approach: 

“What if Bruce had been aware of the tension between the two because he’s not actually a Dumb Dumb McStupidhead and thought to himself, gee, if only there was something I, the parent, had the power to do about this resentment from one brother based on something I, the parent, did for the other brother who never did anything because he is not the parent and also he did nothing wrong? What if given that I and my actions are the actual problem here, I, the parent, he who holdeth both the actual power in this family as the parent and the power as the problem-causer, to address the problem.....like what if I got off my ‘matches with Batman’ butt and.....did...something? About it?”

Like.....oh I don’t know, just spitballing here....maybe explaining to Jason just what it was Dick was resentful about when it came to Robin and that Jason wasn’t the one Dick was actually mad at, which more than likely would have prompted the extremely empathetic at this age Jason to take Dick’s side and be like wtf, you gotta fix this B. 

Or maybe like, going to Dick and expressing how sorry he is that he didn’t consider how Dick would feel about any of this and that he’s let it go unaddressed for so long since then, which more than likely would have NOT resulted in Dick continuing to hold a grudge against an innocent third party but rather be like thank you this is literally all I ever wanted, a fucking acknowledgment that you’d hurt me and that my being hurt mattered to you? 

Or if the problem is more Dick being resentful that Bruce adopted Jason and not him, maybe Bruce explaining this to Jason and that Jason wasn’t the one Dick was actually mad at, which again, more than likely would have prompted the extremely empathetic Jason to go umm, wtf are you talking to me about this for then, if you think he’s upset about that why the fuck aren’t you going to talk to him about it and tell him all this stuff about regretting not adopting him before now and sparing him this hurt instead? Like what are you waiting for old man, your fucking helicopter to come pick you up? NOW. Go NOW. You’re not getting any younger, geez Louise, why are old people so dumb.

Or maybe like.....Bruce going to Dick and expressing how sorry he is that he didn’t consider how Dick would feel about.....look, you see where I’m going with this, right? You get it? Its not actually all that tricky to grasp?

Or hell, maybe even just in a fic where Jason nurses his own resentment over the fact that he’s heard so much about Dick and looked forward to meeting him and yet months and months go by since Jason’s adoption and in all that time his alleged big brother apparently can’t even be bothered to come introduce himself, RIP Jason’s feelings, guess he can’t possibly matter all that much to the guy, way to welcome him to the family......

I mean, its not like THAT thought neeeeeeever comes up in fic, so its like, hmmm, counterpoint, but where are all the fics that take the angle of rather than let Jason think he doesn’t matter to his predecessor and let Dick take all the blame for this impression when there’s LITERALLY nothing Dick could do about it since he found out about Jason from the freaking newspaper months after the adoption and only after Jason debuted as Robin.....maybe Bruce, could again, just like....start a conversation. And be like Jason I seem to have inadvertently given you the wrong impression here, but trust me, Dick not coming to meet you before now had nothing whatsoever to do with you and was purely because I never actually told him about you.

Again, cut to Jason, the actual brains of the family at this point in time, staring at Bruce with his mouth hanging open:

“Wait, so you’re telling me that after the two of you had this big fight and you haven’t seen him in like eighteen months, AND after his eighteenth birthday came and went without you bothering to even call him and let him know you still wanted him in your life despite him no longer legally being your ward, AND after you went and took me in and adopted me......you never at any point picked up the phone and said hey kid that I raised and consider family and still want to be part of my family no matter how long its been since we talked......I just thought you should know, given that we’re still family and all, that our family is now bigger, because that’s information that is kinda key to give to people you consider family, as NOT keeping them in that loop could kinda sorta maaaaaaybe give them the impression that you DON’T think of them that way or else you would have thought this was relevant information for them to have?”

Bruce: I’m not sure I see where you’re going with this.

Jason: How are you this dumb. No but seriously. HOW. 

Anywho, cut to me, twiddling my thumbs here all super casual like.....

But HMMM, isn’t it WEIRD how fandom, which is totally better than canon, and definitely does not have patience for that unnecessary family angst porn DC is so obsessed with and just wants these goshdarn idiots to be a FAMILY, like......neeeeeeeeever utilizes the transformative power of fanfic and their much more reliable takes on Good Parent Bruce Wayne to like....have Bruce....do something about the problems between past Dick and Jason? In any of these fics? And instead has him just....let the opportunities to make things better for them, AND HIMSELF in the process, just like.....sail away into the rear view mirror, waving a hand at them as they pass, content to let things fester and worsen until cut to after Jason’s return, like.....oh gee, really wish something could have been done about the relationship between Dick and Jason way back when, maybe Jason could have benefited from another close relationship in his life then and maybe Dick might not be as bad off now if he wasn’t burdened with unnecessary guilt over having had human emotions when he was a teenager?

So so SO weird that this angle never comes up or gets tackled in ANY fics that emphasize Dick’s alleged history of being an asshole to Jason and the reason they were never close or barely knew each other. I mean, its such an EASY and OBVIOUS fix to all that, don’t you think?

Unless, of course.....in the fics that make an emphasis of this fandom created dynamic.....its not actually considered a problem to fix at all.

But rather, this manufactured dynamic IS the fix, to what they see as the ACTUAL problem......any kind of real or explored focus on what Bruce actually DID and didn’t do, that caused the resentment they’re all too happy to show Dick nursing, but seem keeeeeeeeenly deft in avoiding any exploration of him FEELING. Except of course when it comes to a reason for him to feel even guiltier BECAUSE of it.

Its almost like we would have had a ton more variety in how fics depict the early years between Dick and Jason, perks of this oh so easily arrived at fix-it angle.....unless those fics were always doing exactly what they intended by keeping every one in the comments sections so busy commenting on what a jerk Dick was in that chapter or in the older events that chapter mentioned, that they just so happen to never really spend much time considering Bruce’s inciting choices back then to be AS worthy of comment or criticism.

Idk you guys, I just happen to find it kinda hilar in that ‘what a weird coeenkeedink kinda way’ that so many of the things a lot of fandom are EXTREMELY loud about holding against Dick (whether Dick did or not actually do those things in the first place)....just so happen to be the very things that most of these same people REFUSE to ever hold Bruce accountable for, or admit that he actually did.

Y’know, like how Bruce never actually fired Dick as Robin, that was just a retcon (when there’s literally been more versions of events where Dick WAS fired than WASN’T at this point).....but meanwhile, Dick very much definitely did FIRE Tim, that was exactly how that went down.

Or how similarly, Bruce neeeeeever actually kicked Dick out, let alone made him give back his keys, but Dick DEFINITELY kicked Tim out of house and Gotham.....even though Dick literally did none of that and in fact was living at the penthouse the whole time he was Batman, meaning Wayne Manor was perfectly available to be Tim’s home base the whole time, if he’d wanted it. 

Or how Bruce has never lifted a finger at his eldest, or thrown any kind of a temper tantrum, because he is a good person who would obviously never ever do that, BUT if the son he spent the longest time raising just so HAPPENS to end up with a reputation of having a hair-trigger temper, going off at the drop of a hat, blowing things all out of proportion and lashing out physically whenever he’s overwhelmed emotionally.....well, that certainly has nothing to do with Bruce or anything he’s ever done, lol why would it, BUT its definitely something that needs to be commented on time and time again because it very much did happen all these times in canon, whereas all these times you’re talking about with Bruce are very clearly out of character writing because see, Bruce just isn’t like that, uh doy.

Or how Bruce definitely wasn’t being problematic as hell when it came to his non-interactions with Dick back when Jason was living with him, but Dick’s non-interactions with Jason are 10000x more worthy of comment and criticism. And Dick’s responsibilities towards the emotional wellbeing of the kid he didn’t pick to be his family and wasn’t even actually legally family with at the time, let alone actually obligated to, are definitely the same as Bruce’s responsibilities to the emotional wellbeing of both the kids he did actually pick to be his family and did actually make obligations to. Thus the one is definitely more deserving of a call-out post than the other....wait, what? Dammit, I was SURE my math checked out on that one this time. Well fuck a duck, now I am THOROUGHLY flummoxed by all this.

Yup.....

Just really funny in that lmao ‘actually not at all sorta’ way, how its the extremely PRECISE things that so many fans absolutely REFUSE to acknowledge Bruce ever doing, that they just can’t help but ‘expose’ as a mere retcon, bad writing, ooc behavior, writers just ‘not getting who Bruce Wayne is,’ etc, etc, whenever it does get brought up by other people....

It just so happens to be these very specific things that come up time and time again as the things people just WILL NOT LET GO when it comes to Dick doing them.....even when.....in most cases he didn’t even actually do them! Not because they were ‘mere retcons’ or just ‘bad writing’ or ‘ooc behavior’ or ‘writers just not getting who Dick Grayson is’....but because they literally. Did not. Happen. Until fandom for some reason - ‘despite’ HATING canon for having Bruce do THESE VERY SAME THINGS - put their own interpretative or transformative spin on things and MADE those things happen in such huge numbers that a lot of new fans coming into fandom by way of fics honestly believe that THESE are the canon moments and its the ones attributed to Bruce that are just fans of other characters having their sour grapes moments.

I mean....

You gotta laugh.

Anyway. So I mean, unless I’m just totally reading the room wrong, I’d have to hazard a guess that the only real reason we NEVER see fics addressing things the way I outlined in my earliest examples at the start of this post.....is that a whole lot of fandom just kinda decided over the years that it was just waaaaaay easier to just redirect peoples’ ire at other characters, away from Bruce, than it was to go to the trouble of like....actually ADDRESSING Bruce’s pesky little canon mistakes.

Cuz see....writing a happier, more united Batfam in the years before Jason’s death is only a fix-it fic if the problem you’re fixing is the family’s relationships.....and not ‘Bruce acknowledging - let alone taking ownership of - his mistakes.’ If the latter is the REAL problem, well a more ‘together’ family isn’t something you actually need at all....you just need someone else to pin its divisiness on.

But I digress.

Aaaaaanyway.....now standard stock disclaimer that as I’ve always always always said....I don’t actually hate Bruce nor do I have anything whatsoever against Good Dad Bruce.....my issues are always just with peoples’ approach to his canon mistakes or poor writing being to double down on the problem but just make it someone else’s. And that one little thing where the Smartest Man In The World can come up with a way to fight Doomsday with a paper clip and some chewing gum, but goshdarnnit if he’s not completely helpless and powerless when it comes to fixing his own mistakes or interceding in his childrens’ emotional problems. 

(As in by just y’know, parenting them. Sitting them down for a conversation. No, bugging their apartments and calling that his love language doesn’t count.)

Also, an Honorable Mention Pet Peeve goes out to all the fans who love to dismiss Dick Grayson stans raising this issue because ‘this sort of thing happens with all the characters’ when lololololol, no, it really actually does not. Given the weeeeeeeird similarities and parallels in the very specific things we tend to gripe about Bruce doing in canon and others tend to gripe about Dick doing in fanon, like, I’d actually think some of you would be a bit more empathetic about how much it sucks seeing your fave character condemned for stuff like this, given the lengths you go to when avoiding acknowledging Bruce doing it. But then again, that would defeat the point of attributing all that to a Bruce scapegoat instead of a Bruce in the first place, so I mean, I guess not actually.

But whatevs. I guess I’m just not able to grasp the nuances of how people criticizing or even fixating on some of Bruce’s worse actions in canon gains the ire of fans who are like, I am just here rolling my eyes at you guys for being so addicted to your shitty misery porn that you like, just loooooove going with the takes where Bruce is just the worst person ever and a totally shitty dad....

While meanwhile.....many of those exact same fans.....

Two seconds later: Now if you don’t mind, we have to get back to making up scenarios and bad faith interpretations that paint Dick as being just the worst person ever and a totally shitty brother or son. But in a not-that-we’re-addicted-to-shitty-misery-porn kinda way or whatever, because we’re obvs SO not, that’s YOU guys, this is totally different. We don’t LIKE doing this, we’re only doing it because we HAVE to. It has nothing to do with us not actually minding the writing or the content of what’s being written whatsoever, we just don’t like that it makes Bruce look bad, and as long as you keep fixating on how it makes Bruce look like, duh, what other choice do we have but to make someone else look worse instead? When you think about it, this is all your fault, really.

Anyway. You just gotta love the takeaway.

Us: Griping about something Bruce does in canon and how the writers portrayed it and any resulting followup.

Others in Fandom: manufactures a parallel scenario with Bad Brother/Son Dick Grayson out of a single out of context panel, tinfoil and some dental floss.

Fandom: These two situations are the same.

Us: Okay but see they’re really fucking not tho, is the thing....

[thewaynemanner]

Wholesome BatFamily Fic Rec’s

Hey All, so here is my BatFam Rec List you all have been asking for! Lol jk no one has asked for this, but I made it anyways! So here are my All-Time Favorite BatFamily Fic Recs, for the most part these Recs are all rated either “G” for General Audiences or “T” for Teen and Up Audiences. So basically, all these fics focus on family dynamics and relationships rather than slash or anything like that. These are all truly amazing fics so give your Kudos and love to the authors! And remember to always read the tags before you read the fic!

And So This is Christmas by DragOnstOrm

Summary: It's not that Alfred isn't happy with his job. It's just that sometimes he really wishes that he had known what he was getting into when he signed up for it.

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 1,901

My Comments: Folks, stories don’t get much more wholesome than this fic. After reading this fic I was left warm and happy. Also, it stars my boy, Alfie, which is usually extremely rare for fics. Loved that we got to see Alfred’s perspective in this! Great fic!

Bedside Manner by @fishfingersandjellybabies

Summary: Sometimes Bruce forgot just how great his kid was.

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 2,985

My Comments: Anything @fishfingersandjellybabies writes is truly fantastic, but I particularly loved this one since it delved into the sweeter side of Bruce and Damian’s relationship that we don’t get to see often (especially in cannon). I love me a good hurt/comfort fic 😉

 Bet on it by @lysical

Summary: Even Damian could admit that his older siblings occasionally had their uses.

"I need your assistance," Damian said, voice low and tense.

"No," Jason replied, and hung up.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 2,495

My Comments: Lysical writes some of the best BatBrother Fics out there, folks. So if you want some wholesome and hilarious Bat sibling bonding, then look no further! Bet on it, is one of my personal favorites of Lysical’s. Great writing and great characterization!

Blood in the Water by MishaBerry

Summary: We all do stupid things when we are lonely, and in faraway lands, we hardly expect the consequences to follow us. Bruce certainly never thought twice about an American woman in Jaipur after one night with her. He hardly expected to see her ever again.

The universe, on the other hand, had different ideas, and the tides of time and chance brought Tim Drake to Bruce's life over and over again.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 181,939

My Comments: FANTASTIC AU! One of my favorite Tim Drake centric fics, but still has plenty of the rest of the BatFamily. I also love that we get to see Tim as his sweet six-year self. This story has it all, great characterizations, good plot, angst, fluff, and BatFamily bonding 😊

Cracked Foundation by @cdelphiki

Summary: The last thing Damian expected to happen when he ran away from home was to spend a day crammed into a small space with Jason Todd. His father's second son was a black sheep. An outcast. An angry, insanity driven criminal who enjoyed screwing with the batfamily in every way he could. At least, that's what Damian thought. Maybe he was wrong about Todd.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 20,902

My Comments: This is a brilliant fic that examines the relationship between Damian and Jason. I absolutely loved this fic and never wanted it to end. I truly wish there were more Jason and Damian Fics out there, I think it’s a character duo that isn’t explored nearly enough. If you love Damian and Jason brother bonding fics, you’ll love this one and if you’ve never read a bonding fic between these two brothers, you may just find a new love!

Five Times Jason Todd Saved His Brothers, and One Time They Saved Him by laceymcbain, reena_jenkins

Summary: “Did you know I was in here, or did you just blow up the place for fun?”

Damian didn't need to see Todd's face to know he was grinning under the helmet.

“It's not really a rescue unless something blows up. But if Bats asks, it was completely necessary."

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 6,923

My Comments: This fic is BatFamily feels to the extreme. Jason Todd deserves love and this fic gives it to him. LOVED IT <3 <3 <3

Fly By Night by @lysical

Summary: Damian is thirteen. Sometimes he even acts like it.

"This is an injustice," were the last words Damian had spoken to his father all day.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 2,889

My Comments: Another great Fic by @Lysical! This is just a plain ol’ fun Fic, y’all. Great Bat Brother love in this one and it also features my sweet summer child- Jonathan Samuel Kent. Trust me you will love this Fic, it is hilarious and all around good stuff 😊

A Good Place by @lemonadegarden

Summary: Damian Wayne is kidnapped and sent back years through time. Together, he and Father – who's only been Batman for a mere six months –must figure out how to return him to his own time.

Over the course of the next week, Damian discovers that Mexican gangsters do not mess around, that social workers find Bruce annoying, that Bruce might be a little messed up, and that crystal chandeliers create the fondest memories.

Oh. And Alfred has hair.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 36,903

My Comments: LemonadeGarden is one of my All-Time favorite authors, so anything written by them is brilliant. But A Good Place will always be a favorite of  mine, it is by far my favorite Damian & Bruce centric Fic out there and is something I have read over and over again. I love getting to see a younger Bruce interact with Damian and in turn, Damian interact with him. It’s overall great and has a fantastic plot!

Let There Be a Bruise by @audreycritter

Summary: Damian is a child who should not have the scars he does; Bruce is a father who has plenty of his own scars, but still wishes he could take his son’s, too.

The silver lining is where they find each other— a broken son and a broken father, putting each other back together.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 3,656

My Comments: Audreycritter is the master of Damián & Bruce Hurt/Comfort fics. I honestly would recommend all of Audrey’s fics, so check them all out! But this one will always be a favorite 😊

 Life Happens by @cdelphiki

Summary: While walking home from an event at Wayne Enterprises, Tim and Damian are kidnapped and sent to an alternate dimension. In a world where superheroes are merely comic book characters and the idea of the multiverse is only a theory found within the pages of science fiction, how are Tim and Damian going to return home? How long will they be stranded on this strange Earth? And will the boys murder each other before they figure it out?

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 176,966

My Comments: Hoo-boy, folks. I don’t even know where to start with this Fic. I honestly get teary-eyed thinking about how beautiful it is and how much I loved this one. My favorite Tim Drake and Damian Wayne brotherly bonding Fic EVER. I would almost describe this Fic as a love letter to the characters Tim and Damian, in the sense that the author captures their characterizations beautifully and tells one of the best stories of growth and familial love I have ever read. It’s fluffy, angsty, humorous, and full of BatFamily feels. And don’t worry, there is plenty of Dick, Jason, and Bruce as well (If not a little later in the story). I would run to this Fic, if I were you.

 Life, if Well Lived by CaptainOzone

Summary: Jason wakes up from a time-travel mishap to find Thomas and Martha Wayne hovering over him.

Just another day in the life, right?

...Not quite.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 10,758

My Comments: A Fic that destroyed me in the BEST way possible. Tears, so many tears were shed during this fic. The best Hurt/Comfort fic I have ever read. Extremely unique in the sense that Martha and Thomas Wayne are two of the main characters and boy did I love it! I can not stress how AMAZING this Fic is. I never knew I needed this fic in my life until I read it. I wish I could re-read it for the first time all over again. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!

My Brother’s Keeper by Forever_A_Thief

Summary: The boy had two options, two roads stretching out before him: stay with Mother, and become the greatest assassin ever known to man, or go to Father, and become a masked vigilante fighting for justice in a city drenched in darkness. Damian looked at these two roads, these two lives he could lead, and decided on a third path for himself instead. He chose his own road.

Jason never let himself think about the kid he had left behind at the desert compound all those years ago. When Talia never got in touch with him after his return to Gotham, Jason had assumed he had just been forgotten like he had been in Gotham. But then that kid, his little brother, showed up one night and Jason couldn’t just continue to push him to the back of his mind. Not anymore.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 43,907

My Comments: Did I mention I love Jason & Damian fics? Well I do and this one is beyond FANTASTIC. Overall great Bat-Bros fic that I would recommend over and over again.  This fic is Damian and Jason centric but it does involve the rest of the Bat Family too. I love seeing all the brother’s bonding in this fic and the overall family feels 😊

 Of Owls and Assassins by Cirth

Summary: "Dick," Bruce says, not entirely sure how to react, "who is that?"

Dick blinks at him from his place on the workout mat. There's a broken plate with mac and cheese strewn all over next to him, as well as what seems to be Bruce's old G.I. Joe action figure from the attic. It looks like a child's imagining of a murder scene. "My owlet," Dick states.

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 853

My Comments: The adorableness of this Fic is off the charts. I love AU’s where Dick is a Talon, but this one will always hold a very special place in my heart since Dick is just so pure in it. Forever a favorite <3

Party Games by @lemonadegarden

Summary: I can't believe you got into a bar fight at two in the morning. And now you're all in prison. The night before your wedding. What the fuck kind of a family am I marrying into?” Selina said.

Bruce Wayne goes to a series of bachelor parties, each one worse than the last. Set in the same timeline as We, So Much Older, but can be read as a standalone fic as well.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 12,659

My Comments: Okay, so technically this is a Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne Fic and even though the plot premise revolves around their upcoming wedding, I wouldn’t really consider this a “slash” fic. There is definitely more BatFamily vibes with this fic. It’s hilarious, fun, and oh so wholesome! I love this fic beyond measure and even if you aren’t a fan of the BatCat ship, I highly suggest you give it a shot for the amazing BatFam moments.

Second Chance by @cdelphiki

Summary: When Talia al Ghul watched her toddling son start his training, his awful, grueling training, she had an epiphany:

The League of Assassins was no place for children.

(Or: Talia realizes training literal babies is abuse and gets him out of there.)

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 6,461

My Comments: This is the Talia al Ghul we deserve! This is the Talia al Ghul, Bruce Wayne deserves! THIS IS THE TALIA AL GHUL, DAMIAN WAYBE DESERVES! Loved this fic, great Talia al Ghul characterization. It’s the Talia that could have ben before DC slaughtered her character.

 Running Headlong into My Arms by gleesquid

Summary: Bruce doesn’t like to credit one thing for saving his life, but if he did, it would be Haly’s Circus that Friday night in September, just as summer was beginning to die.

(He'll always be a sucker for kids with sad eyes, no parents, and more fight than the world knows what to do with.)

Or: in a universe where superheroes don't exist, Bruce Wayne finds his family.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 54,231

My Comments: I feel like this fic is a right of passage into the BatFamily fandom, so if by some chance you haven’t already read it, I highly suggest you move this straight to the top of your reading list. It’s a classic and has everything you could ever want in a BatFam Fic.

 we are not alone in the dark by @audreycritter

Summary: Damian has a flashback on a family camping trip.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 2,218

My Comments: A BatFam camping trip, need I say more? One of my favorite hurt/comfort fics involving Damian. We get to see some super sweet moments between Bruce and Damian, and Damian and Jason. Loved it.

 Where You Go, I Follow by @fishfingersandjellybabies

Summary: In some world, Dick Grayson was never revived by Lex Luthor, and was probably better for it.

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 1,427

My Comments: BROKE MY HEART, but in the best possible way. I cried both sad tears and happy tears for this fic. LOVED IT! I have read it at least six times (I’m going read it again after I post this rec). A fantastic Dick & Damian story. I also love the title; it captures the mood perfectly. I’m always a sucker for fics that are inspired by songs, this one was inspired by ‘I Will Follow You’ by Toulouse!

Video message incoming by helenabertinellis

Summary: The League are just wrapping up their meeting when a call comes through the Watchtower servers.

It's for Batman.

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Word Count: 1,228

My Comments: I consider this a classic BatFam fic, so I will be shocked if you haven’t read it, but on the off chance that you have not read it, GO READ IT NOW. It’s humorous and all so wholesome 😊

Yesterday’s Voices by @lemonadegarden

Summary: While trying to take down a drug cartel that deals with memory altering drugs, things go awry, and Batman wakes up with no recollection of the last five years.

As a result, his family must now race against time to find the antidote, while also having to deal with a Bruce who still thinks Jason is Robin. A Bruce who doesn't recognise most of them. A Bruce far less jaded and cynical than the one they're used to. A Bruce who still cares.

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 49,000

My Comments: Surprise, surprise another amazing fic by LemonadeGarden. I will be shocked if you haven’t read this fic yet, but on the off chance that you haven’t, I am telling you now, to RUN to this fic. It will forever and always be my MOST FAVORITE BATFAMILY fic out there. I honestly wish this fic never had ended, it’s one that will always hold a special spot in my heart. THIS IS THE BRUCE WAYNE WE DESERVE.

For More Fic Recs Check-Out:

BatFamily Fic Recs part 2

BatFamily Fic Recs Part 3

BatFamily Fic Recs Part 4

BatFamily Fic Recs Part 5

[yellowocaballero]

hi i know it's been the hottest of seconds but director's cut for the prophetic spring if you're still doing these? 👀

Sure! I’ve spoken a lot about the prophetic spring, but I’m fairly certain I could give some meta information about my intense life-long obsession with Tim Drake. Dude has been showing up in my fics since I was 14.

But actually, the ficlet I wrote ages ago might be more interesting? So here it is. Exploring a dynamic that was WAY underserved for how important it is: the Steph, Cass, Tim dynamic!

No CW that haven’t appeared in the prophetic spring, but specific mention for drug addiction and drug depiction, as well as references to molestation, abortion, torture, and suicide. Story under the cut. 

Tim stared down into the toilet bowl. It was a little yellowed. He needed to clean it. 

He stared at the small baggie of pills in his hand. 

He visualized dropping it into the bowl, flushing it. Possibly mutating an alligator, or giving the race of mole people that lived in the Gotham sewers a nice surprise. 

Tim sighed, and pocketed the drugs. Maybe tomorrow. 

**

A month after the incident with a runaway foster kid and a, in retrospect, kind of embarrassing fake fight with his older brother, Tim got a text from an unknown number. To make matters worse, it was at an insane hour of the day - noon. 

Texts from strangers were hardly uncommon. Tim had an extensive contact network, growing larger by the day, but he had set up a Google Voice on his computer so they were all routed through a program there. Being bothered at all hours of the day on his phone was hardly his idea of a good time. The only people who really had his real number were his bullshit ‘friends’ and his asshole ‘family’. He hadn’t even given his number to his ‘friends’ - he had given it to Kon under strict confidentiality, and then Kon had given it to all of Young Justice. Asshole. 

405-555-1998: dropping by in three hours so make sure ur presentable :)

As Tim had just woken up, most of his brain was occupied by a single whuh? 

Just as his mind swirled in sleepy confusion, his phone buzzed again.

405-555-1998: B1706XQE45

The code checked out. It was an ally, not an unknown or an enemy. 

Tim groaned, covering his eyes with an elbow. He needed coffee.

****

The coffee was a new thing - rather, it was something he had drunk plenty of growing up, because there had been nobody around to inform him that coffee was bad for developing brains. Growing up completely unsupervised was probably why Tim was a drug addict now. He could totally blame this on his parents never loving him. 

Not a drug addict, Tim thought to himself anxiously as the coffee sputtered into the extra large gallon pot. Just someone who...uses drugs...in an unhealthy way. Substance abu - substance user, who just used it maybe as a bad coping mechanism. Not that Tim had good coping mechanisms, but it was better than sawing off heads or becoming a drug lord. When you thought about it, it was either being a serial killer or doing drugs, so logically it means that he should do more drugs to decrease the amount of fun little murders he does -

Tim made toast.

The coffee was a new thing, because he was trying to use it to replace the drugs. He had cut back. The stupid little sorority that called themselves the Birds of Prey had been talking to him about it. He had agreed to try. It was best to set expectations low, so he couldn’t disappoint. Actually, Tim loved disappointing, maybe he should set them higher. Maybe he could make inspirational speeches about how he was a good guy now? Ha ha. 

The three hours had been a deft move. The texter knew noon was his average wake-up time at best, and the three hours gave him enough time to sober up if he had been high or drunk at the time. Tim didn’t like to start popping the minute he woke up, but - well, sometimes he did. Or sometimes he was awake at noon because he had been on an all-nighter drug binge. They hadn’t given their name, either, which meant that it was somebody who he wouldn’t want to see. 

He could bounce, escape to some corner of Gotham until they gave up. Except he had the sense that whoever had gone through the effort to get his number wasn’t the type to give up. Almost nobody Tim knew was the type to give up. His ‘friends’ and his ‘family’ never gave up. On anybody but him. 

A voice in his head, not quite yet suffocated, sounding altogether too much like the Replacement, echoed in endless attempts to get him to come back. Oh, whatever. Kid was a try-hard. He needed better taste in made up families. 

Over the next three hours, he debated his tactics. If he wasn’t escaping and the texter was playing the buddy card, then the situation probably wasn’t dangerous. He strapped in his armor under the baggy pyjamas that he never took off anyway, and spitefully made no effort to control his hair. He did put on make-up, an old hand from keeping CPS off Bruce’s trail - man, he should have pretended Bruce was molesting him, that would have been funny as fuck - to hide the bags under his eyes. No use looking pathetic. 

He hid a few more weapons around his apartment. He anxiously checked his phone, staring not at the new texts but at Harley’s offer sent a week ago. He still hadn’t replied. He didn’t know what to do with it. 

As if he could ever feel safe sleeping under the same roof as her?

As if he ever felt safe anywhere?

Maybe he had nothing to lose. That was the greatest part about this, the most wonderful aspect of what he had done to everybody in his life. When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. That’s freedom, or so Janis had always told him. She knew what she was about. Overdosing on heroin at 27 - that was understanding what it meant, to have nothing. To be free.  He was almost jealous. 

At two on the dot, a polite knock echoed through the apartment. Tim looked up from where he was relaxing on the couch, with all of the possible entry points in his line of sight. That wasn’t a knock he had memorized, and he had memorized everyone’s knocks. 

Nothing for it. He’d have to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Maybe he can pull the insane sociopath schtick again; that had always been effective in ditching his parents. Tim sighed, walked over to the door, swiped his thumb against the keypad, undid the three deadbolts, and opened door only to see - 

Stephanie Brown, hands propped on her hips and smiling widely. Cassandra Wayne, standing right behind her, serene as ever. 

Tim closed the door - or he tried. Steph had expected the move, and the minute he had opened the door her foot had jutted out and blocked him from closing the door. Effortlessly, she wrenched it back open and stepped into his apartment, forcing him to press against the wall and scowl as insane women infiltrated his space. 

“Wow,” Steph said loudly, “this place looks like a wreck!”

Tim groaned. 

***

The thing with Steph and Cass was this:

How to describe it?

The sister he had never expected, the best friend he had never thought he would have. Cass was his twin, Robin’s shadow, the other side of his mountain. Bruce had adopted Cass barely five months after he became Robin, and Tim had unabashedly resented her for stealing Bruce’s attention so quickly. He had always liked her more, but Bruce had liked everyone more than Tim, so maybe it was no surprise. She was sweet, kind, gentle, and no trouble. Tim wasn’t any trouble either, but he couldn’t be the rest of it if it bit him in his ass. 

Robin was the brain. Cass was the muscle. They were a team so closely linked, conjoined at the hip, that Tim couldn’t remember a patrol ever done without her. Bruce had let them start patrolling alone at fourteen (“You didn’t let me work alone until I was fifteen, and I was an assassin,” Damian had spat), and they had been an unbeatable team. Robin’s hand-to-hand was weak, but nobody ever got through Batgirl. Batgirl struggled with technical knowledge, reading and writing and investigating and chasing down leads, the only area where Tim had ever excelled. Together, they had almost been as good as Batman. Sometimes, Tim had let himself think that they might be better.

They had been so similar. Everyone had always said so. They’re both so quiet, the Justice League had said. Emotionless little freaks, the Rogues had said. Neither of them blink, their schoolmates had said. But there had been nothing to say, not between them: they could have a conversation without words, without even Sign. Cass had known every twitch of Tim’s body, had understood him down to his core. Nobody else ever had. Everybody had always called Tim inscrutable and impossible to understand - but to Cass, Tim had been an open book. She knew every inch of him. And she had loved him anyway. 

And Steph! When Steph had found them when they were fourteen veering on fifteen, and from then on it was as if she had always been there. She was so big, so smiling, so much, and she had never apologized for any of it. Nothing scared her. To Tim, that was the perfect vigilante - somebody who was scared of nothing, who never hesitated, who was good. 

Not even Bruce could intimidate her. When Tim was fourteen, he had thought that was the most amazing thing in the world. Bruce intimidated everyone, but Steph had just stuck out her tongue and kept badly backflipping off roofs anyway. Through twin convincing, Tim and Cass had convinced Bruce to give her a chance, and Spoiler had slot into their dynamic perfectly. She was their best friend, always. 

She wasn’t good at hand-to-hand at first, but Tim had improved by then, and they could cover her. She improved faster than he had, and judging from the reconnaissance footage Tim had frantically consumed after he came back to life, she was amazing now. She was wickedly smart, practical and down to Earth. If Tim was better at hacking into a computer, Steph was the one who found the post-it note with the password stuck under the desk. 

But more than any of that, she had brought the social skills. She had brought the calming presence, the sweet hand to victims and civilians, and her good humor was infectious. Steph was good with people. She was a born leader. Resilient. Brave. Everybody liked her. Everybody loved her. Tim had. She had loved him too. She could have done so much better than Tim and Cass, weird little societal rejects, but she had chosen them as her family. 

It had been the three of them. For as long as Tim’s life had meaning, for as long as he had been loved, they had loved him. Tim had grown up alone, in a world of one, and they had infiltrated it. They had expanded it, and they dragged his life into more than just Tim. Into Tim-and-Cass-and-Steph. Into Robin-Batgirl-Spoiler. Into meaning, and love. 

Tim hated them. And he wanted them to suffer. 

“That’s the Stephanie Brown I remember,” Tim sneered, closing the door behind him. Steph had quickly thrown herself onto Tim’s couch, clearly somewhat surprised at how comfortable it was, and Cass had  perched daintily on the arm. Cass had always refused to sit like a normal person - she would rather sit on the backs of sofas, or on the arm, or perched on chairs like a bird - “If I had known you were coming I would have jumped cities.”

“We would have chased you down and you know that,” Steph said cheerfully, like she said fucking everything. “Besides, if you had known we were coming you would have gone into witness protection. You’ve been avoiding the fuck outta us.”

“Wonder why,” Tim said, injecting as much mean-spirited sarcasm into his voice as possible. “I need more coffee, don’t go through my shit.”

The apartment was small, and the kitchen had a cut-away wall where he could see through into the living room. Stephanie hated nothing more than being ignored or looked down upon, and if he dismissed her and didn’t react then she’d grow infuriated with him and leave. He couldn’t fight with her, because if it came down to a battle of rhetoric or emotions she’d win single-handedly. She was so good with words. Cass...had no weaknesses. 

Which was inconvenient, because it was Cass he absolutely had to get rid of as soon as possible. She was very emotional, and more than a little sensitive. Especially to rejection. If he was cruel enough to her, she’d start crying and leave. There was only one problem with that. 

As he jammed more grounds into the machine he watched the girls out of the corner of his eye. They weren’t talking or whispering to each other, both fully aware of how well Tim could read lips. They weren’t even having one of those body language conversations they could only have with each other, aware that Tim could crack that too. Instead Stephanie was casually sprawled on his couch, looking for all the world like a middle aged dad watching the football game, looking around the room. Cass, as usual, was zoning out. Or, of course, looked like she was zoning out - Tim could tell that she was waiting for something to happen, and was preparing herself for it. 

Shit. Tim fought the urge to gnaw on his fingernail. Cass was going to be a problem. 

He risked another glance backwards. She could see him, so she knew. Fuck. He had never been on the other side of her mind reading. It was fucking inconvenient. Psychics should be shot on sight. 

The coffee sloshed into the biggest cup he could find in his kitchen, and Tim began draining it immediately as he leaned over the cutaway. He kept the cup held up to his face, obscuring it. Face covered, everything under the elbows covered - best he could do without preparation. 

“This little field trip sanctified by Sgt. Brother?” Tim asked, sipping the scalding hot coffee. Not hot enough. He needed - he needed - they’d see -

“We’re nineteen, we don’t need his permission for everything we do,” Steph said, amused. So she was going to speak for Cass - hardly unusual, as whenever they were all together Steph tended to be the only one who spoke - but seeing as Tim was Tim then it was definitely a strategy. 

“He lets his precious baby sisters knock on the door of drug lords for fun?” Tim sneered. 

“If they’re incompetent and retired, sure!”

Tim gritted his teeth. Don’t rise to her bait. Don’t. She was the best person in the family at getting a rise out of their enemies. He didn’t stand a chance. 

“What do you want?”

“We thought we’d take you roller skating at the rink,” Steph chirped. 

Tim stared at her. 

“Or the pool,” Steph said, faux-thoughtfully. “Or just the mall?”

Fuck this. Tim headed for the door, ready to walk out of the building barefoot in his pyjamas. He tugged at the doorknob, only to find that it wouldn’t open. 

Tim breathed in through his nose, then out through his mouth. There were other exits. He was not trapped. Had his apartment always been so small? He could have sworn that it was bigger. 

He turned around slowly. Stephanie was grinning at him, twirling what looked like a small plastic cylinder. Tim recognized it instantly - fancy League tech. Overrides all electronic locks and controls them. They all used it to trap perps and heighten their fear tactics. Tim jammed his thumb on the keypad. Nothing happened. 

Cass glanced at Steph, and made a small motion. Tim couldn’t interpret it. Why couldn’t he interpret it? Did they have a new code? It was Cass. When nobody else had understood her, Tim always had. Now they had their own language, one that Tim couldn’t interpret anymore. Tim was lost in translation, always drifting. 

“We aren’t bringing you in,” Steph said, just as light as ever. No trace of pity or caution or gentleness in her voice: just relentless cheer. “Literally all we want to do is talk. Play a board game, maybe?”

 Tim’s eyes flickered to the hidden panel in the wall next to him where he had stashed a gun and a sword. 

“Bro,” Steph said, “you really don’t want to escalate this.”

“Do you think you can take me?” Tim asked curiously, letting his hand drift to his arm. He shook his long pyjama sleeve down to cover his wrist. “That’s pretty cute. Last time I checked, you’re the shittiest at hand-to-hand in your team.”

But Steph just rolled her eyes. Shit, wasn’t he supposed to be ignoring her? He couldn’t, not so long as she kept pushing and pushing. Not so long as she was in his house. “Leave off. Just because Jay and I are the last people in the fam who weren’t trained in Mystical Ninja Arts doesn’t mean I’m incompetent. Hands in the air, by the way.”

Stephanie was overly sentimental. New tactic. He raised his hands slightly in the air, caught reaching for the weapon hidden in his armor. “Incompetent enough to let me die.”

There. Finally. Thank god, Tim thought he was losing his touch. The muscles clenched in Stephanie’s jaw, and just a twitch of her eye - banishing a bad memory. “Everybody’s been saying you’ve turned rude. I guess you’ve just been avoiding us because you don’t want to hurt our feelings, right?”

“I didn’t remember a lot when I was first resurrected,” Tim said casually, despite the fact that he had never told anybody about the first awful six months. Something about Steph and Cass just pried it out of him, like invasive surgery. Or an autopsy. “I remember everything about those six months, though. Homeless. Practically retarded. Brain damage does that to you, you know. I lived on the streets, did you know that? It was a miracle I lived through it.” He gasped, as if he was remembering something. “I slept on 34th street! You lived near there, didn’t you? Maybe you even walked by me.”

Steph went white. Cass’ expression froze. He was pushing hard, but these two wouldn’t react to anything less. Steph could trade barbs better than he could, even now. 

“It’s a good thing Talia found me,” Tim continued. “She was the only one who cared.”

That did it. Steph tensed, leaning forward, and even Cass stiffened. “Is that what she told you? How can you believe her?”

Tim just shrugged, walking back to the kitchen and hiding his body language again. He took an extra loud slurp of the coffee, just to be annoying. “Talia never lied to me. She said that nobody cared enough to save me. And guess what!”

Steph’s jaw clenched again. She was a hot head. A fierce temper, an impulsive girl who jumped in feet first and sanity second. Woman, now. When had that happened? “Cut that shit out. We all know what you’re doing. You’ve been doing it to everyone. Did you think Connor didn’t warn us?”

Snitch. Tim slurped his coffee again. “Connor’s been telling everyone to give me space.”

“Yeah, everyone but us.” She stood up now, ignoring the flicker of a frown on Cass’ face, and folded her arms. A challenge against the world. Against Tim. It didn’t matter. “You don’t believe half the shit you’re spewing. You’ve never believed your own bullshit, Tim. You’re just saying it to drive everybody away. It’s not going to work on us.”

“Why?” Tim asked innocently. “You’re too thick?”

“Because we love you!” Steph cried. Tim rolled his eyes. As if he hadn’t heard that one before. “Saving Richie proved it, you aren’t as insane as you keep pretending you are. You know what you’re doing is wrong, you just don’t care.”

“Wow, you caught me.” Tim took another long swig of his coffee. It was making his hands jittery. Good. “Local genius aware of his actions. Call the press. Call Uncle Clark, he needs a scoop.” He arched an eyebrow at Steph. She hated that expression of his - she had always found it so aristocratic and pretentious. Joke’s on her, he was pretentious. “Do you mind if I go do a line? I’m not high enough for this conversation.”

If she had told him who she was, he would have done a line anyway just to spite her, and she knew it. “You don’t want to try,” Steph said stubbornly, “but you’re trying. You don’t want to care, but you care. You don’t want to feel it, but it hurts so much you can’t bear it. You can’t get anything past us, Tim. It’s always just been us. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

Doesn’t that mean -

“What that means,” Tim said, and he found the words scraping his throat. He found himself talking a little louder than he meant to. The coffee, you know. Made you jittery. “is that you should have saved me. If you loved me so fucking much, you would have been anything other than useless. You’ve always been the most useless girl in the world, Steph. You couldn’t save your crook of a dad or your junkie of a mom. You couldn’t save your baby and you couldn’t save me. You’re ghetto trash putting on airs, and everyone can smell it on you.”

As soon as he said it, he tensed. He shifted his stance, ready to throw the coffee and spill the scalding liquid on her. Obscure her vision. It would take a second for her to vault the cover, so he could duck down. From there he could get the gun, shoot the window, jump out the window. She couldn’t win. Tim had the most powerful weapon in the world in his disposal and that was his infinite, burning hate. His hate for Steph and Cass burned him to the ground, and his world with it, and he was going to burn them to cinders because he couldn’t do anything else. 

But Steph didn’t move. Cass got off the sofa. She walked up to Steph, and gently pressed a hand on her shoulder. She squeezed. Steph exhaled, long and shaking, and nodded at Cass. She walked into Tim’s bedroom - hey! - and shut the door. 

Then Cass stared at Tim, and there was no more need for words. Not between them. 

Tim vaulted the cut away wall, aiming for her feet first. Cass didn’t dodge - that would imply that she moved like an object moved. She moved like water moved - swift and supple, with such infinite grace and precision that it was like she wasn’t human at all. 

But he had gotten better. He didn’t spend two and half years trained by the League of Assassins in crochet. Tim lashed out with a foot, she dodged again. He threw a punch, she moved. He feinted, clearly leaving her an opening, and she didn’t take it. 

Bitch. 

Cass shoved away his coffee table, sending it skidding across the floor and opening the floor space. The rug became their arena, tight and intimate, no room for maneuverability. Tim acted and she reacted, Tim lashed out a sweep kick and she jumped over it, Tim tried to grapple and she broke his hold. She never threw him to the ground, never pinned him. She just moved. 

She was good, but not good enough to toy with him and win completely. The way to win against Cass was to leverage your height - Tim was taller than he once was, although that wasn’t saying much - weight, and strength against her. A couple good hits and she was down. 

The issue, of course, was hitting her. 

He got a hit in. It was much easier when she wasn’t even fighting back. She rolled with it effortlessly, taking the impact to gain a little space between them. She breathed deeply, sweat rolling down her neck. Tim used to take a cold compress and press it to that neck. She used to smile at him. Thank you. 

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Cass said. 

“Too bad,” Tim said. 

Fights weren’t like in television, long and choreographed extended scenes to entertain and thrill. When Ro - Tim was in a fight, a real fight, it was typically finished in less than a minute. The only way that a match can get long is if the other person was deliberately tiring you out - a risky strategy - or if you were of completely equal strengths with similar fighting styles. Or if it was a spar. 

As Tim tried to hit her again and again, he realized that it was a spar. 

No, not even that. It was a conversation. 

Tim grabbed her wrist, and said: I want you to hurt. Cass broke the hold, telling him that he can’t. Tim leveraged the motion and kneed her in the back, telling her that the only goal of this fight was pain. Cass let the impact take her down to the mat, an incredibly disadvantageous position, but rolled out of the way just as Tim tried to exploit the opportunity. I’m not scared of you. Tim hit again, and again, and again, failing every time. I want you gone, Tim said, and this is the only way I know how to do it. 

This is what Tim said: as much as I once loved you, I now hate you. The infinite depths of my love, my twin sister, how we moved in perfect sync. I hate it all. As much as I cared, I now hate. Feel this hate. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Cass said. 

They moved in perfect sync, even now. Cass couldn’t predict his movements before he made them, like she used to - his training was different now, developed and refined. But Cass knew the League of Assassins too, had been trained by them just as he had, and they were written into her bones when they were only carved into Tim’s. After his third patented Talia move, she adjusted to fit his style, and their fight metamorphosed into more of a dance. Like they used to. 

“Why not!” Tim screamed, the stupidest possible thing to do in a fight, but Cass didn’t take advantage of his exhale. He lashed out a fist to cover the opening, but it was lazy and over-extended, and she dodged easily. “I’m going to kill you!”

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

Tim desperately tried to call the green to his vision. It was so easy. All he had to do was tap into that rage. Talia had called it blood lust. Said it was normal, even good. But it wouldn’t come. Where was it? It was his only friend. 

Desperately, Tim went in for another punch to the face - Cass’ jaw was the weakest part of her body, an old injury - but he over-extended again, and this time Cass took the opportunity. She grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, dropping him to the mat. She didn’t try to twist him around, instead landing him on his back. Bad move for her. 

She kneed him in the chest, putting her full hundred and thirty pounds on him. She twisted his hands behind his back, pinning him, and Tim could do barely more than wheeze. 

He looked at her in the eyes for the first time. They were infuriatingly calm. Her hair was tangled and clumped with sweat, but she wasn’t breathing hard. Her expression was placid and serene, as if she was watching one of her stupid fucking nature documentaries instead of pinning her brother to a hard and scratchy rug in a shithole apartment, three years after he was tortured to insanity and shot himself in the head. 

So much time had passed. So much had happened, nasty and festering and putrid, and Tim had let it happen. He had made it happen. There was a rot in Tim, and it had eaten him up until there was nothing inside. If you cut him open, would it spill out? Would it infect her, infect Steph? Could he make them suffer?

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Cass repeated. “So don’t be scared.”

“Scared?! I’m not fucking -” Tim wheezed, cut off by the lack of air as Cass pressed down. 

“I’m sorry you’re scared. I didn’t mean to leave you alone. But I did. I’m sorry.”

“I’m going to kill -”

Cass pressed down on his chest again, cutting him off. She had finally done the one thing nobody in Tim’s life had ever figured out: how to make him shut up. “You can be as mean to me as you want. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll stay.”

Tim wheezed. In that, maybe, Cass heard something, because she continued as if he had spoken. Or maybe she just wanted the chance to talk. It had been stolen from her for thirteen years, and it was valuable to her. 

“You do not have to be kind. You do not have to hug me, even if I want you to. You do not have to be my brother. I know it hurts too much. But you are me. I am you. You do not even have to try for that. I do not have to give it to you. You have it.”

Tim couldn’t help it. He cried a little, and then he couldn’t stop. 

Cass got off him, but she kept her promise. She didn’t hug him. She just propped him up against the sofa, holding his hand, and didn’t speak. At some point the door creaked, and he felt Stephanie next to him. 

This is why, Tim thought hysterically, he had been avoiding them.

He knew this would happen. There was no hiding from Cass. There was no posturing, no pretending. She didn’t want anything from him. She never had. There was nothing he could say that would drive her away, because Cass did not listen to the words people spoke. She spoke only for clarity, when she could not afford for her words to be misconstrued, and for the comfort of others. 

Cass knew that he had been lying out of his ass. Cass knew that he wasn’t as insane as he pretended, as cruel as he wanted to be. 

He couldn’t make Cass hate him. Shit. 

None of them said anything. Nothing needed to be said, not between the three of them. Cass might be having a silent conversation in Sign with Steph, but he didn’t care enough to open his eyes and look. When they had first met, it used to make Steph so mad that Tim and Cass were having ‘secret conversations’. She had poured over her dictionaries, learning as quickly as physically possible so she could keep up. Everything Steph had, she had worked hard for. 

Steph was in college now. Premed. She wanted to be an ER doctor. Steph wasn’t a genius, she had to study hard. She wouldn’t be able to superhero in med school, so she was ready to hang up her cape for a few years until she achieved her dream. Steph said that she could do just as much good as a doctor as a superhero. She hadn’t always wanted it. When they were kids and Bruce used to ask her what she wanted to do when she grew up, in his awkward faux-dad way, she had always shrugged and said that she might be a nurse. 

“Why not med school?” Bruce had suggested, between sleepy spoonfuls of oatmeal. She used to spend more nights at their place than at her own. Her mom hadn’t noticed. 

Steph had just shrugged awkwardly, nibbling her whole-wheat organic toast that she would stare at suspiciously. Rich people, she would say, sighing. “I would never be able to afford it. And no way I’m smart enough.”

“You’re good enough,” Bruce said, which was the closest he ever came to praising somebody. “I’ll pay for it.”

Steph had gaped. Cass had eaten her Lucky Charms smugly. Tim had rolled his eyes. “An in-the-know doctor for the vigilante community would be invaluable,” he had informed her, pretentious and callous. “We could use you.”

“You deserve it,” Cass had signed. 

“You have a bright future, Stephanie,” Bruce said, buckling under the panic of being a responsible adult. “I would hate to see you waste it.”

He would hate to see any of them waste their future. He had hated to see what Tim had become. He knew that. The last time he had ever seen Bruce, it was just to disappoint him. Bruce was the only parent he had ever had, and his standards were so sky high it was impossible to do anything other than disappoint. 

The fact of the matter was this: he loved Cass and Steph more than he loved Bruce. He could hate Bruce. He could hate himself. But Cass and Steph…

Bruce had ear-marked a lot of money for Steph, both for whatever continuing education she chose and for her future. It had raised a lot of questions among the lawyer team, but ultimately she had been written off as another of his strays. Tim had left her a lot of money too. There probably wasn’t any point: when she married Cass she’d have equal access to the fortune. Rich people, Stephanie used to whisper in awe, looking at organic toast. 

Cass was majoring in dance. She wanted to be a ballerina. 

Tim’s future...Tim’s future…

“Or we can watch a nature documentary,” Steph said out loud. “If we all promise not to say a fucking word.”

Incredibly, unmistakably, irrevocably, Tim groaned. “Not the fucking bee one again.”

“I like the bees,” Cass said serenely. 

“If you aren’t going to get out of my house can I at least smoke up?” Tim asked miserably. 

“I brought gummy bears,” Steph said, chipper as ever, “which are way better.”

“I’m going to the fucking bathroom,” Tim grumbled, which everybody knew was as good as a yes. 

“If you take anything I’ll know,” Cass said serenely, and also threatened. 

“Fuck you, bitch.”

Steph and Cass high-fived, and Tim sulked angrily to the bathroom. He took a second to look at himself in the mirror - looking for Tim Drake, failing, as always - before opening it and grabbing his baggie of pills. 

He looked at it. He looked at the toilet. He looked at the baggie. 

He didn’t flush them. He put them back in the medicine cabinet. Tomorrow. He’ll do them tomorrow. Not today. He can hold out for 24 hours. It’ll be fine. 

For a wild, stupid, insane second, Tim wondered if he could say that tomorrow too. If tomorrow he would look at them and say: maybe tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that…

If there was a future, for a fuck-up like him. 

The faint strains of Cass’ stupid fucking bee documentary began playing through the thin walls of his shitty little apartment, and Tim turned out the lights of his bathroom and closed the door, locking it securely behind him. 

[mattzerella-sticks]

⭐2020 Fics in Review ⭐

Happy New Year’s Eve! 💫💫💫 2020 sure was a year... between everything that was happening on the macro (the pandemic, elections, etc.) and on the micro-level (shows delayed, some ending - disastrously, so much drama, etc.), the past 12 months felt like a blur. Especially since we’ve been inside and realized time is an illusion!

But, there were moments where I was able to ground myself in the present and not be swept away by the tide. Most of them were because of fanfiction. Whether writing or reading, fanworks became a soothing balm. And I’d be remiss (and breaking tradition) if I didn’t reflect on my past works of 2020! 

I’ve written 43 fics across a wide array of fandoms - the most being Supernatural, with 9-1-1, DC Comics, Marvel, Boku No Hero Academia, Stargirl, Star Wars, Hollywood, and RWBY sprinkled in. I really branched out this year, and am looking forward to what I will write in 2021. Maybe new fandoms? Maybe an original work? Who’s to say!

Thank you to all those who’ve read my works, and am grateful for both your support and continued engagement - can’t wait to see you in 2021 with me 😁

Here are my works!

9-1-1 (TV Show)

Caught (Evan ‘Buck’ Buckely/Eddie Diaz, side Athena Grant/Bobby Nash, side Maddie Buckley/Howie ‘Chimney’ Han)

Photobooths are prime for catching special moments and making them last forever, even if they are less both and more open spaces with a backdrop. When Athena, Bobby, and Michael stumble upon one such moment between Buck and Eddie, what will they do?

And how will it affect Maddie and Chimney?

Lumped Together (Evan ‘Buck’ Buckely/Eddie Diaz, side Henrietta ‘Hen’ Wilson/Karen Wilson, side Maddie Buckley/Howie ‘Chimney’ Han)

As an apology for keeping her thoughts about medical school secret from her wife and partner, Hen takes them (and Maddie) out for lunch. With the promise that it would only be them. And for the most part it was. Until Buck and Eddie strode in with every intention of eating Takoyaki.

Just not with them.

Armed with new information, what's a girl to do? Hen spends the next day fighting back the natural instinct to tease her friends about the wonderful step they've taken together in their relationship. Can she make it home without saying anything? Or will she give in?

DCU

Lonely Together (Barry Allen/Bruce Wayne, past Barry Allen/Iris West, past Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle)

Barry needs others, yet whether by his enemies or his own actions, he ends up alone. After Iris leaves him, Barry feels as if he drifts through life. Like lightning humming in the air without a rod to ground him.

Until he struck another lonely soul and entered a relationship he never thought possible. Now, months since he and Bruce began sleeping with each other, Barry feels settles. At peace in a way he hasn't felt in a long while. Since he and Iris started petering out.

But it's not love... is it?

Come Home (Jason Todd/Kyle Rayner)

Jason Todd gets a message from Bruce. He's surprised to see it. Then, he's surprised by the message itself. Hearing Bruce's final message stirs something inside of him, urging him towards a place he's avoided ever since his and Bruce's falling out. So he gathers his things, and then... waits.

He can't leave yet. Jason doesn't know why. Bruce gave him a mission, just like old times. Except it's not, because he... Jason can't move. Can't even stand.

That's how Kyle finds him.

Restless (Barry Allen/Bruce Wayne)

Returning home from a mission in outer space, the team picks up a distress signal off-course. They rush off to help, landing on a strange alient planet teeming with life. Especially within the plant kingdom.

While guarding the Javelin, Bruce and Barry encounter one such member while engaging in some familiar fight-flirting. Will its effects spell trouble for the League, or help these two relax their guards long enough to explore new possibilities?

(Hint: It's a little bit of both)

Marvel

Hot Seat (Peter Parker/Johnny Storm)

Spiderman likes Johnny. Like likes him. And he thought Johnny felt the same. He wasn't wrong, but Johnny like liked someone else, too. Someone he actually wanted to pursue, over Spiderman.

Unfortunately that someone is Peter Parker.

However, after a terrible misunderstanding, Johny isn't too keen on seeing either Peter or Spiderman; the longer this confusion left unresolved, the more Johnny's hurt would fester. Can Peter find a way to make Johnny listen?

Hollywood 

Merrily We Roll Along (Archie Coleman/Rock Hudson)

With their careers still on the rise and no peak in sight, sometimes Archie's and Roy's lives get a little too busy. Understandably so. Archie's in the midst of writing his next screenplay while the latest opens across America. Roy spend more time on set than at home working on his latest project. When their schedules allow it, all they want is to be together.

Can they enjoy a simple morning together, or will the clouds of Hollywood cast a heavy shadow over their sunny day?

RWBY

Lucky You, Huh? (Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi)

After all that happened, it's time for the dust to settle. Choices were made. Now, the consequences for certain actions need to be carried out.

Even though he fought alongside her to save Mantle, Robyn Hill couldn't help save Clover from the whims of the Council. Without a job or home, Clover needs to find a way to carry on.

If anyone understands what that feels like, it's Qrow. Never being one who can communicate his feelings well, would he be the best to comfort the other man. When he's the only one who can, what does that mean for Clover?

Star Wars

Fourth (Poe Dameron/Finn)

What's a man and his co-general to do when they're on a mission together on a planet known for frequent sandstorms?

Flirt? That is a possibility. And definitely the one they take.

Stargirl

I’m Here (Courtney Whitmore/Yolanda Montez, past Yolanda Montez/Henry King, Jr.)

Coda to 1x10 "Brainwave Jr."

Losing Henry was sad, but it's not the first person Courtney knew whose future was snatched by the Injustice Society of America. That doesn't make his death any less tragic. It does remind Courtney how screwed up and dangerous her life was. At least she was able to wake up the next day and keep moving. And so was Beth, and Rick. But Yolanda...

Where was Yolanda? Courtney needs to know.

Crusher (Lawrence Crock/Paula Crock, Pat Dugan/Barbara Whitmore, Lawrence Crock/Pat Dugan)

When Lawrence met Pat, he saw another body that could benefit from some exercise at his gym. The more they interacted, became friends, he saw that body doing other things in other places. And his wife is totally supportive of this. While in the midst of an afterhours training session, Lawrence drags his feet on telling his friend a few important things. Egged on by Paula, will he say what's on his mind? How will Pat react?

And does Pat have a secret or two of his own?

Boku No Hero Academia/My Hero Academia

Little Secrets Everywhere (Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijiro)

Mina thought letting Bakugo read whatever was in her folder wouldn't be too bad. Maybe he would snipe at her for her less than perfect English translation and sentence structure, slap her on the head with the balled up assignment. What she wasn't expecting was for him to charge with hellish fury towards her in the common room with all their friends to see.

One careless mistake leads to many things coming to light. Everyone walking away with something new to think about.

Boku No Fundanshi (Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijiro)

Bakugo Katsuki is a top student at the premier hero academy in the world. Bakugo Katsuki is a boy with the ability to use his sweat as a weapon, each droplet containing enough nitroglycerin to obliterate a phone book. Bakugo Katsuki enjoys reading manga where boys fall in love with one another. Two out of the three are commonly accepted facts. The final one is a heavily guarded secret that Bakugo protects with his life. At least until his vigilance lapses, and he loses a doujinshi.

Will he be able to recover what he lost before anyone realizes it's his? Or, by the end of this, will he have found something he didn't know he was missing?

Portmanteau (Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijiro)

Portmanteau (port·man·teau) n. a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of two others

Like Bakugo's chosen hero name. But was that his first choice? Kirishima doesn't think so, after finding a damning piece of evidence hidden within his notes. Except it's not what he thinks, at all...

Supernatural

 Real (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Coda to 15x09 "The Trap"

Morning after, and Sam spies a little something blossoming in the kitchen. Something that stokes the fires of his curiosity. When the scene ends, he walks in with an intent to investigate. Learn about the strange magic that happened before his eyes. How quickly Dean and Cas's relationship repaired. And what brilliant new shape it took on after Purgatory.

Will Sam be satisfied with the answer?

Half-Priced Chocolates (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

The day after Valentine's Day is great for many things. Basking in the glow of a night well spent, sharing the joy of love with your family, and eating chocolate priced considerably lower than it was the day before.

Except Sam can't enjoy any of that, because Dean won't let him. Because Dean woke up in a sour mood and has picked up the banners of war against romantic love.

Albeit, the three aforementioned things might make his conflict the shortest in history.

Spill (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Dean always thought it would take more to force him into retirement. Yet here he is, locked in the Bunker until the world figures out a cure for a deadly virus. It could be worse - at least they have a home. He cannot imagine how worse it would be if this happened years earlier, where he and Sam were trapped in a tiny motel room together. Here they have options, and miles of outdoor space they can stroll through if their options become stale.

And they were beginning to. Dean could only do so much indoors. Dean knew he needed to shake things up, but couldn't begin thinking how. Luckily Castiel has an idea, and gives him a new way of looking at their kitchen.

Supernatural Crack🩹tober

Following the Supernatural Cracktober prompt list, one day at a time.

Prompts will be listed in the notes and the chapter title.

Enjoy!

Bullets Over the Bayou (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Everyone wants Castiel Novak to quit the force, including Castiel. But he stays on despite the toxic work environment he’s surrounded by. Still believing he can do some good despite the many lines of red tape impeding him. Luckily, a pair of scissors by the name of Dean Winchester drops into his hands, and he finally feels like he can do some good.

Dean Winchester thought he would be in New Orleans for a day or two. Identify the body of his deadbeat father and then move on. No one knows he’s here. His mother and brother are blissfully unaware of the danger his father roped him into. With a parting gift of a journal, delivered to him the same day he received word about his father, Dean has become the target of a group of people who want him dead. The same people who killed his father.

Racing against the clock, can Dean and Castiel figure out what is so important about John Winchester’s journal that someone would kill for it?

Kick Ball Change (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Coda to 15x10 "The Heroes' Journey"

Dean has the Bunker to himself at a time after he and Sam regain their supernatural abilities. With nothing needing his attention, he decides taking time for himself wouldn't hurt. But the usual fare leaves him bored and tired.

So he tries something new. Something he wanted to try, but wasn't sure he would be good at. Dean starts off strong, but doing it on your own can only be so fun. Get you so far. Luckily a partner happens by and truly allows Dean to enjoy a part of himself he knew was there, but didn't want to share.

Tempered Desires (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Charlie Bradbury/OC, background Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore, background Sam Winchester/Ruby, background Sam Winchester/Mick Davies, past Dean Winchester/Arthur Ketch)

Dating, sex, and finding love were the farthest things on the minds of both Dean and Castiel. There were more important things to worry about - namely the pandemic that swept across the globe and changed everything. Navigating this new environment was hard enough without adding romance.

But fate never intervenes when you expect. From first meetings to first dates, we'll see how Dean and Castiel's relationship blossoms despite the circumstances.

Sunrise (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Dean and Sam were free. Finally, unequivocally, free.

But this wasn't the happy ending Dean had expected. Maybe in the past, having Sam in the passenger seat tearing across an open stretch of highway as the sunsets, it'd be what he wanted. But that was years ago. He's not that man anymore. Dean's tired of sunsets, of saying goodbye. He yearns for a different ending. One that's less of an ending, and more of a beginning. A sunrise instead of a sunset.

Sam has his. Dean lost his. Despite this setback, he won't stop. He'll live in memory of his sunrise.

Except, what can he do when he feels those rays on his face again?

Coda to 15x19

Fixing It (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Dean Winchester walked a long & difficult road. House burning down when he was 4, constantly being on the move until his father lost a fight with demons at the age of 25. Reunited with his mother only to lose her again. Have a son only to lose him, too. Of all the shadows that have crossed his path, he thought one of the main sources of light was his husband Castiel.

But he had to ruin that, too.

Can he ever have that shine again? Or are there things that are too good for him to hold? Will they mend what was broken?

Heart in My Hand (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

He was right there.

Cas was telling Dean everything he ever wanted to hear since meeting the angel of the Lord... only each and every word of his confession stabbed at Dean's heart. Because once he finished, there's no more time for them. For him. For any chance of happiness - all that taken away by the Empty. And now he has to carry on.

He tries. Stands, gets in his car and drives where Sam tells him. When he meets with the others, though...

Coda to 15x18 "Despair"

A Dumb Idea (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

They celebrated Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthdays, even the Fourth of July. What about the other holidays? What about Valentine's Day?

Mrs. Butters actually had a plan for that, but she left before it could come to fruition. Sam, however, stumbles on Dean and a leftover piece from said plan. Something Dean would rather Sam not see. When he does get a peek as to what it is, well... Dean and Sam have a lot to talk about.

Coda to 15x14 "The Last Holiday"

What the Water Gave Him (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

It was over. Chuck lost, Sam and Dean can live their lives how they want them. But their victory wasn't without losses. The biggest upset nearly taking Dean out of the game, happening so close to the final battle. Now he's on the other side, alive against all odds, but Sam knows he isn't happy. Not truly happy since the Empty stole his best friend.

But there's a chance they can save him. A slim chance. A risk that Dean's willing to take despite every logical nerve in Sam's body screaming at him to look for better options. That threading a needle this small is too dangerous. That they don't have to take on another big bad, not anymore. That they don't have to risk their lives anymore. Dean is far past the point of listening. Dead set on this mission, Sam can only watch.

And pray his brother proves him wrong.

(Now with art from gabester-sketch)

Acutely (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Jack said he's sorry, after getting his soul back.

Jack said he's sorry, and he's looking at Dean. They're all looking at Dean.

Jack said he's sorry, and Dean can't take it. It's too much. Like a frog thrown into a boiling pot he hops out, jumping out from the room towards safety. Doing his best not to succumb to the pain.

He can't hide forever, let the wounds fester. It's too much to deal with on his own, though. Can someone help him through it?

Leeches (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Sharing a Netflix makes sense, in hindsight. Dean gets it. But that doesn't mean he appreciates seeing a bunch of profiles after his that weren't there last he checked.

He's gonna get to the bottom of this - of when this happened, why, and how they were able to guess his password.

Revival (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

Sam and Dean stand there on the bridge, the camera panning out on them as they are finally reunited in Heaven.

But then Sam wakes up.

(Coda/Fix-It Fic to 15x20 "Carry On")

Memento (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Why did Castiel have a photo of himself in a cowboy hat? Where did he get it? Who took it, and more importantly who gave it to him?

Coda to 15x15 "Gimme Shelter"

The End (We Deserve) (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Dean Winchester dies in Sam's arms.

And then he doesn't.

(How that scene originally looked...)

Constants

Meeting with alternate versions of themselves makes Sam and Dean think about what the landscape of the former multiverse might have looked like - or, really, "If there can be multiple Deans and multiple Sams, can there be other versions of things they know. Like... Baby?"

Dean says no. There's only one Baby. She's got four wheels, black paint, and has been his from the beginning. Sam thinks otherwise.

Let's explore what the possibilities of Deans, Sams, and Babys in different universes might look like.

Enjoy the Present (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Sam had a birthday, Jack had a birthday...

It would only be fitting for Dean to have one, too. It's expected, really. Yet the one Sam and Jack throw him still catches him by surprise. Maybe because he actually agreed with Butters, about having outgrowned birthdays. Or because his thoughts were pulled elsewhere because of some disappointing news.

If it's the latter, than a birthday will definitely take his mind off of that. Especially when it comes time for his present.

Coda to 15x14 'The Last Holiday'

Swallow It Whole (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

"The older you get... the less lies make everything better"

But when you've told as many lies as Dean has, it's hard to tell what's true and what's not. How can he remove all the rotten parts of himself without bringing everything down? Which lies have ingrained themselves so firmly, that removing them would change everything about who he was?

And, scariest of them all, who would he be without those lies?

Coda to 15x16 "Drag Me (Away From You)"

Desperation, Baby! (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Death took her sweet time parsing through Chuck's book, meaning Lucifer spent longer than he'd like surrounded by his former vessel, his brother, his son, and a man whose obvious longing made him want to vomit. Instead of returning with his prize, Chuck welcoming him back, he must waste his valuable time playing 'nice; with those he can't stand.

Not that it matters. They don't trust him, each member of this ragtag group of survivors watching Lucifer in shifts. Never leaving him alone.

It's Dean's turn now, and he's driving Lucifer up a wall by doing nothing at all save for broadcasting a never-ending supply of feeling. Can he cut the signal without showing his hand, or put Dean's heart to good use?

Coda to 15x19 "Inherit the Earth"

A Healing Touch/New Experiences (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Adam/Serafina)

Maybe if Cas hadn't abandoned him, he wouldn't have agreed to Adam's offer. But with free will finally theirs, Cas made his choice, and Dean his. Now he has to live with the consequences - even if they are awkward. He won't die from it, certainly.

It's only a massage.

But what Dean doesn't know, is that it's more than a massage. It's healing.

It Feels Real Good (Claire Novak/Kaia Nieves, background Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Jody sent her to Yosemite, and she brings her back. For what reason, Claire doesn't know. But it had better be important, otherwise Claire gave the Dark Figure that stole her happiness another chance at escape. Will Jody's house hold a reason important enough for Claire to let go of the heavy burdens she's been carrying since hopping through a rift into another universe?

Coda to 15x12 "Galaxy Brain"

Through the Door (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Cas tells Sam that Chuck and Amara are here. But how does he know? Sure, he could've felt them land through his grace. But all that time Sam was gone? There was enough there that he could've investigated. They'd need to know where they were anyway, when the time came.

But Cas should've known better. Now wasn't the best moment for a little family reunion, especially when there's so much bad blood it can drown them all. Yet he came, and finally got the audience he always seeked with his father.

Coda to 15x17 "Unity"

Four of Swords (Dean Winchester/Castiel, background Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

The Four of Swords, in the present position, means you don't want to interact with the rest of the world. Because of stress, you need to spend some time with yourself - unhealthy always being 'on'. That the healthiest thing to do is to escape.

Dean might crave escape, but it's not something he thinks he can have. Something he deserves, even. After his and Sam's most recent hunt, this cancerous feeling has grown heavy and weighs him down. He cannot escape on his own, as best he tries.

Luckily a guardian 'former angel' angel swoops in at his lowest. Helps pick up the pieces as best he can and lovingly put them back together. But he can only do so much. The rest is up to Dean.

Can Dean take those final steps, say those final words, and finally free himself?

i’d like to teach the world to sing (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Castiel/Others, WIP, 10 out of 15 chapters posted so far)

Mar del Vista, California - 1972

The groovy counterculture that dominated conversation in the past few years still clings to the landscape, floating around like smoke off a burning joint. Changed by the fires of war, Manson, and life into something new. Less trusting, optimistic, and innocent.

Cas is just one of many disillusioned hippies, saddled with a general distrust even before the movement self-imploded. Wary of about everything. Perfect for his line of work, where what's on the surface might not match the truth underneath. It's not an easy life, but he's comfortable with how it goes. Coasting until he hears a case he has no business accepting. For one, it's about a missing teen. And another, it's personal.

Except Jack's disappearance, like every other case he's worked, isn't so cut and dry. Like a rock skipping across a then-placid lake, the ripples stretch far and wide. Those waves slamming at Cas; of cops, federal agents, hippie cultists, and a certain green-eyed detective who's a little too interested in Cas's investigation.

Will Cas find Jack? Or will he drown in the tides.

Checkmate (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Billie saves Jack from suffering a fatal end from her plan, and knowing Jack was safe gave Cas space to focus on his own troubles. Nearly losing his son again... revelations from Chuck... choices Dean made, were set on, until Sam broke through at the last minute - too close - they all were...

It was too much. Cas needed to digest these roiling experiences away from faces it hurt to look at. Except he stumbles exactly where Chuck wants him. After countless times praying for guidance, Chuck finally decides now is perfect for a long-awaited heart-to-heart.

Coda to 15x17 "Unity"

Slide (Dean Winchester/Castiel, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester)

This isn't his day. It's Sam's and Eileen's. But while out on the dance floor, Dean realizes something that forces him to act. Act boldly.

It's not his day, but he cannot push back what's been there all along, dam bursting with no hope or need of rebuilding itself. He has to say something to Cas.

Why? Because it's Electric... boogie woogie woogie

(Inspired by the Suptober Day 9 prompt - Electric)

Unwrap Me (Dean Winchester/Castiel)

Dean never thought he would make it this far. Nor would he have as many wonderful things that he has now. A home, friends, family, and most importantly love. With a former angel.

Given how normal his life is now, Dean decides he wants to go all out celebrating Christmas. Parties, feasts, and the perfect presents. He wants to get Cas something that will translate everything that resides in his heart. Dean believes he has the right gift, but decides against leading with it. Instead surprising Cas with it after showing him his Christmas best.

Although, during his entire time planning Cas's present, he never wondered what Cas got him...

Disappointment is temporary, but creativity is eternal 🥂 to more fanworks in 2021!!!

[nonamenotitles]

HELLO, IN THIS ESSAY I WILL TALK ABOUT RIDDLER AND DO A COMPARISION WITH A POP CULTURE BRAZILIAN CHARACTER AS WELL.

.

RIDDLER is a fascinating character. He can be portrayed as silly, or menancing. A gentleman with finesse and complex schemes or a completely mess who doesn’t really know what to do, but hey here’s 10 dolars for solving my riddle! Also Spandex! And Question Marks!

My Favorite Edward is the one from @askarkham. There’s  lot of thing I like about him, but the one that resonates with me the most is this:

Ronnie, how dare you give me feels!

Because I’ve been there, my anxiety sometimes fills my head with so many things it’s overwhelming.

I am a lot better know with therapy and stuff.

But before treatment I too, soo many times, cried the same phrase.

That really touched me

Sooo

That’s why I’d like to talk about my fave villain who is very similar of another beloved character here in Brazil, who shaped every childhood here. (And I do get a little pride at showing my people’s comics, they’re great!)

A lot of other characters reminds me of the riddler. Like Wheatley!

@canadian-riddler made an wonderful analysis of the two characters.

I’ll poorly describe them: Polite and condescending, friendly enough until he get’s high advanced technology. Then he wants to put you through puzzles and puzzles and if you keep getting it right he will try to murder you with one of them.

But the character that reminds me of Riddler the most is:

Jimmy Five (English) Cebolinha (little onion) Cebola (onion) from Monica’s Gang/ Turma da Mônica

His main traits is his ingenuity, his five pointed hair and his dysdalia (pronounces R as L)

@drdeath​ did na wonderful analysis of Riddler and he’s motivations, and both these characters personality and motives matches a lot.

Cebolinha is a kid who gets in lot of trouble. He’s a very smart and clever kid, always bragging about he’s superior intellect, and creating “infallible plans” (who always fail) to defeat Mônica and earn the title of “owner of the street”.

Cebolinha also messes with Mônica to get her attention and for fun, calling her names ( he has a little crush on her, and in Turma da Mônica Jovem they’re dating) and he has almost a compulsive desire to knot the ears of her rabbit plushie.

Mônica’s main way to deal with the boys name calling is hitting them with her blue rabbit plushie (though the also gives them advice and uses other ways) which hurts a lot because she has super strengh!

Even though he has been beated numeours times Ceblinha never gives up. Believing he deserves the title of Owner of the Street, yet a lot of he’s plans fail because he understimates Monica’s own cleverness.

Despite everything the two kid’s consider themselves friends, and don’t hesitate to protect each other. We have a movie about the group of kids helping cebolinha to find his dog, floquinho.

A lhasa apso that for some reason is GREEN.

Turma da Mônica Jovem.

These comics are about the characters as teenagers. Cebola grew to be na expert with comouters, games and technology, he went to a professional and now only speaks L intstead os R when his nervous.

Batman notices it (but it’s another comic for another time)

Now he wants to take over the world to make it a better place.

He’s cleverness and plans saves his friends through the many and dangerous adventures they get themselves in.

Yet he’s been called out on his manipulations.

One of the earlie sagas was about the ID Mosters, the physical manifestations of the group worst traits and impulses.

They manifested because it’s in the teenager years that kids start to get more emotional changes, and start to be aware of their impuses and control them better than when as kids by developing their emotional intelligence.

Cebola’s mosters is a Liar and master manipulator who uses his charms and skills to get whatever he wants. And the kid had to deal with his shame and realise he is and can be a better person than in he was in the past.

Maybe Arkham should try the “fight the physical manifestation of your Id” it seems to work.

Important scene in the Saga.

Here Red Monica is Monica’s ID monster disguised. Humilliating Cebola. Later the Real Monica confronts him, thinking he’s sending fake messages  to make her look bad. So he feels he’s being gaslighted.

THEN HE BEGS HER TO BEAT HIM.

C: Mônica...No... I will do anything...I

Cellphone*Sending to all contacts*

RM: Tomorrow you will make another  sign, and will do my homework too! Or else... I will send your other love notes so everyone will laugh at you.

C: I thought that we...

I thought that...

I thought that you liked me!

RM: And I Like! I like when you do what I SAY!

M: CEBOLA!

Speak now! What nonsense is this!

Why are you saying such things about me. Did you decide to go back to the old plans?

Why are you lying,Cebola?

C: BEAT ME UP!

Go on, Mônica! Beat me up already! It was better when you beat me up!

C: Because being beated up by you doesn’t hurt s much...

As what you’ve being doing...

NOW! Of course emotional manipulation hurts more than being punched.

And what was the blackmail: Humilliation

Tying it with the Riddler: Edward surely feels that being beaten up by Batman hurts much less than the humiliation of being defeated. That’s also why he goes on and on with puzzles and plans even though if he fails he will physically hurt.

Because he’s already hurt! He already feels humilliated! And that’s the worst pain he’s ever endured and is still going on.  

Back To the comics.

Later in the comics, He and Mônica confessed his feeling to each other, but Cebola explained he can only date her after defeating her.

He does get called out on it in later editions.

C: Mônica...I...

M: Why illusions of grandeur, Cebola? Why do you believe you need to be superior than me?

C: Superior? I don’t want to be above you, Mônica!

I want to be equal! Sice childhood you’ve been strong... confident...the leader...

While I always was the changing-letters kid who got beaten up at the end.

Okay, Edward Nigma wants to be above Batman. But most of the feelings is the same.

Eddy sees Batman as strong, and confident and a leader. While he’s the one who’s humiliated and beaten up.

C: You don’t realize it, right? You have no idea how hard it is to stand at your side...

Without feeling small.

I think I’m giving a little fuel to batriddle shippers... oh well.

As you can see, like Riddler, Cebola feels that he needs to prove himself, needs to prove he’s worth, to the point of delaying everything else in his life until heachieves it.

So my analysis is complete. BEHOLD!

HEADCANONS

I found a fic that I still wanna read called “Dinner at Wayne Mansion”, I get Riddler made the highest bidding in Bruce Wayne at the Bachelor Auction.

It reminded me of that comic where Eddie tried to trick Batman into dining with him.

I think this universe riddler would totally do the auction thing just to talk all night long with Bruce Wayne, and his projects and stuff. All happy and giddy. “Oh Bruce, how are the kids doing?”

Edward lowkeys wants Bruce Wayne to adopt him.

Come on DC! Give us na alternative universe where after his first crime and Batman finding out about he’s abusive household, Bruce decides “Okay I’m gonna raise this young man”.

Stephanie LOVES her Big Brother Eddie! He beat up her abusive dad (Cluemaster) and humilliated him with trivia knowledge and stuff.

I think one thing that should be explores is Riddler as na expert magician, he is a master escapist because he loves houdini, and magic employs cleverness and illusion.

He’s a geek for magic tricks.

He shows them to Harley and Jervis who look bright eyed and “Oooooooh”

Firefly asks if he knows fire tricks

He does and promplity shows off his skill.

Then John has to clean out the entire hideout because Edward fell for it and now Garfield knows there are flammable chemicals here.  

Final Thought.

Well, there’s ANOTHER brazilian character that he reminds me of.

Visconde de Sabugosa  (Viscount of Corncob) from  The Yellow Woodpecker Farm

Ginger like lots of adaptations

Soul patch

Green tux

He’s main trait is his intelligence

differences

HE IS A LIVING DOLL MADE OF CORNCOB!

@jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear​

@weyoun​

@askarkham

@drdeath​

@frommylack​

@praprikat

[mysterious-prophetess]

Some BnHA Thoughts I’ve had recently

Warning: this gets long and rambly and is a personal opinion.

I know I’m probably not the only person who’s thought this but the whole Hero System of BnHA/MHA is just kind of...weird. 

The origins are explained in the spin-off, I think. IDK I don’t read Illegals. 

Nothing against Illegals I just don’t want to read it. What I’ve seen is ok, but anyway, back to my point.

Heroes working legit and for money is just very.....weird for someone like me who has grown up with the older Western comic hero canon where superheroes were, and still are, vigilantes who don’t get paid and don’t get to really enjoy any sort of public accolades, unless you’re particular heroes in the DC or Marvel universes. 

Even then, someone like my favorite hero of all time—Superman—doesn’t get to really be Superman 24/7. He still has to be Clark Kent and live Clark Kent’s life. Honestly, it’s what makes an alien with OP godlike powers relatable. That is if writers actually take the time to write his relationships with his family/friends and not jettison off the other characters in stupid OOC ways that previous characterizations of Clark wouldn’t have tolerated.

Sure, Clark can do all that super-powered stuff but it doesn’t get his articles in on time or his bills paid. He has to still participate in society and keep his lives relatively separate. 

My second favorite hero of all time—and my love for Superman is pretty unshakable so this second place has a decent gap—is Spider-Man. Specifically Peter Parker the original. The others are ok too but Peter is the one I grew up with, so he’s the one to which I’m most attached.

Peter Parker’s life—in a proper adaptation—always is full of struggle between being Spider-Man and being Peter Parker. 

Even after he comes out as Spider-Man during the proper Civil War story arc (nope, still not over what the MCU did to it especially when they gave my favorite Cap quote to a glorified extra and made it so IRON-MAN WAS IN THE RIGHT, ARE YOU KIDDING ME) Peter’s life is still a struggle, it’s just now a public one like the Fantastic Four who, probably, are the only group close to a sort of BnHA/MHA style of heroics for their whole existence (even Tony had a secret identity for a while in early Iron-Man. Look it up). And their lives were a struggle. Plus, I’m also pretty sure they didn’t get paid for their heroics? I’d have to do research to verify that because I’m not actually a Fantastic Four fan.

My point is, I’m just much more used to heroes who have to do heroics as a side job(more like a calling) but still have a day job (unless you’re Bruce Wayne but he’s got other stuff to balance that out). 

The Illegals, though I don’t read their manga, are a bit more like traditional superheroes, but they also sort of don’t remind me of them because they live in a society where there are legit vs illegal heroes. Unlike all of the western canon superheroes who are, by legal definition, committing a crime by stopping crimes. It’s an aspect that Marvel for a long time had better than DC because the cops were treating some of the heroes like Spider-Man like the vigilantes they actually were. 

I think that Horikoshi will explore stuff about this system later but I can’t help but feel that the system he created within his universe is ripe for exploitation by the wrong sort of people.

Look at the reviled purple one. His superpower is actually excellent. His spheres can easily contain a criminal until they need to be processed and if he’s paired up with someone like Sero, their combo as a capture team is amplified. Stick some of the spheres onto a strip of Sero’s tape and it’s an instant sticky bola. 

If his life had progressed without being an ancillary background character who keeps being shoved into shit to keep him in the story artificially by authorial bias, Mineta would have graduated and become a hero and would have been doing it for all the wrong reasons and (if he kept his nose clean of scandals) been able to live a decent life while also using his position to be a total piece of garbage.

See Captain Celebrity from Illegals for the adult version of this motivation taken to its extreme.

People rag on Endeavor for being a hero for the wrong reasons, but actually, he still does do a lot of good even if he’s a flaming jerk and he’s still popular enough to be the eternal number 2 prior to All Might’s retirement. 

Then there’s Mount Lady who swooped in and sniped Kamui Woods’s villain for the attention. And snake lady, Uwabumi, who seems more into being an idol of sorts than being a hero. The point is, the heroes of the BnHA/MHA universe aren’t actually incentivized to be heroes for justice or the general good. I personally blame the popularity aspect for a lot of the exploitation I see potentially within this system.

With that popularity aspect, the hero system has become tainted by people who are just in it to be idols and make money off of side hustles/brand deals/commercials/toys. There are enough in the system like Izuku—who genuinely wants to save people— that keep it from being overrun by people who are just in it for themselves, but as it is, the BnHA/MHA system is just so weird and ripe for twisting (which I as a fic writer & reader appreciate for the fertile ground it provides).

We flip back to the Western Canon and we have maybe a handful of characters at best I can point to that fit this “hero for popularity reasons” mould, with DC character Booster Gold the time-traveling con-man being the only one I can name off the top of my head. 

This is because Western Canon heroes are, usually, in heroics/vigilantism for personal reasons that tend to be motivated by justice, vengeance, or some mix of the two. 

Or, as quoted to death in most every adaptation of Spider-Man, Uncle Ben’s immortal words,

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Plus, popularity and merchandizing is next-to-impossible for the Western canon hero because they actually have secret identities and don’t compete in highly publicized school festivals as minors that are said to be more popular than the Olympics where their real names are on display (sorry, the more you look at the UA Sports Festival, the less it makes any damn sense from a security standpoint). 

So, a character could go into heroics within the western canon wanting to be popular but unless they want to be a public hero (which is technically illegal) they can never profit from said-heroics directly. Again, we have Booster Gold who tried it and the other superheroes of the DC universe despised him.

He’s had a moment where he realized being in it for fame and glory is not a good thing and has turned over a new leaf, I think, so again heroes in it for themselves are generally not a major thing in the Western canon universes. 

Horikoshi has been using the system and its flaws for some great story moments and will likely continue to do so. 

It still doesn’t stop me from looking at it like the beautiful piece of weirdness that it is. I may never stop thinking it’s weird but that’s ok. 

Note 1: I know The Incredibles showed heroes being heroes without it being vigilantism but they were also employed/protected by the government and still had to maintain secret identities and when told to stop by the government, did. That, in and of itself, was explored by the movie to being a bit of an issue somewhat. 2 did an ok job of also exploring it but neither played the angle as well as they could have.

Note 2: Sky High’s heroes might have a hero school but they still have secret identities and day jobs.

[xaphrin]

Part One - Also, this got WILDLY out of control, and somehow became a real fic, and WHY DO YOU ALL DO THIS TO ME??? (I love you)

- - - 

“Miss Roth.” 

Raven picked up her head from the spreadsheet she was working on as the low, dangerous voice of the company CEO rumbled through her whole body. She swallowed hard, and she could practically feel the eyes of the other accountants poke their heads out of their offices to stare at their new coworker, and to gawk at the spectacle. Some of the younger woman whispered to each other behind their hands. Their CEO, after all, was usually the topic of gossip and conversation in the break room. I wouldn’t mind getting called into the office by him. I bet he comes down hard on you when you’ve been… bad. But looking at his ass is worth it. 

Not that Raven blamed them for talking. Damian was attractive, even if he was her best friend’s little brother. Her breath caught in her chest as he stepped into her small, windowless office, his face dark and unreadable. It felt like he took up the whole space, and he glanced around the room, eyes falling on the fake plant she kept in the corner. 

He frowned and met her stare again. “I need to see you in my office, Miss Roth.” 

She scrambled for a pen and paper. “Of course, sir. I’m finishing a few things right now, and I can be there in just a few-”

“Now, Miss Roth. Get your files together, I need to discuss a few things with you and it cannot wait.” His voice rumbled like a warning as he moved out of her office and made his way down the hallway. 

Hurrying, Raven gathered a file from a locked drawer in the bottom of her desk and followed him to the elevator, feeling even more eyes poke out of their offices at her. God, she must have looked like some freakshow for them - the new girl getting picked on by the CEO. She ducked her head and chased after him, two of her steps matched one of his own. This was embarrassing. She was going to have to have a candid conversation with him about the proper way to get her into his office. Or, at the very least, start meeting with him after hours. 

Raven waited until the doors had closed and Damian had entered in the code for the elevator to take them to his office before she spoke. “People are going to start gossiping if you keep doing that.” She sighed and lifted her eyes to his own, lips quirking to the side. “You could have just as easily sent me an email, you know.”

“And what was I supposed to say in the email, Raven?” He smirked at her, eyes still dark, but with a hint of playfulness coloring them. “I need you to come into my office right away? I’ve had an absolutely abhorrent day and the only thing that can make it better is eating you out on my desk like you’re lunch?”  

Oh. That’s what this was about. She swallowed again as heat curled up her neck, and her body tightened in a rush of excitement. Just the promise of his mouth between her thighs made her feel like she would drop her panties right here in the elevator. She certainly wasn’t above it. Just last week he’d locked them both in a supply closet and teased her with his fingers until she came - twice. He was insatiable. Not that she minded. 

Raven tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear and she met his stare, trying to keep her face blank. If Damian caught on that she was just as excited about this as he was, then he would never let her live it down. “Is that what this was about? I thought you wanted to discuss the special project you had me working on.”

“I do, actually.” He cocked his head to the side as he stared at her, the hint of a teasing smirk still playing at the edges of his lips. “But lunch first.” 

The doors opened to his floor - empty of anyone. He had yet to get a personal assistant, and scoffed at the idea of a secretary. So, his floor was always so quiet. He walked down the hall and led her into his office, closing and locking the door behind them. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she knew that Damian could probably see how flushed she was and how her hands were shaking. 

This… tryst between them had been going on for weeks now, since Damian had whisked her away from the party and fucked her senseless in his office. He had gone back to the party looking as pressed and polished as though nothing had happened while they were away for a suspicious length of time. Meanwhile, Raven looked practically haggard, her hair a mess and her clothes wrinkled, with a careless, wistful smile on her face. Just thinking about their first time left her breathless and desperate. She had gotten smarter about their rendezvous since then, but every now and again she still got a bit careless. 

Her eyes darted down to Damian’s tight, well-defined ass, and she wondered how beautiful it would look when he was pounding into her, her legs wrapped around his waist. Her face darkened and she swallowed another breath. She had a feeling she was going to be very careless today. 

Raven set the file on the edge of the table next to his desk and she looked over at him, lifting an eyebrow. “And what would you like from me?”

Damian sat down in his desk chair and stared at her. There was a long pause as he seemed to drink her in, trying to memorize every shape and curve of her body. Finally, he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, but with all the weight of an undefiable command. “Undress. Slowly.” 

Raven’s shaking hands moved to her prim button-down and unfastened the buttons, pausing between each one, and pulling out the tails of her shirt. Across the room, she saw Damian sitting behind his desk, leaning forward as he watched her with rapt attention. Other than the shadows in his eyes, he looked just as unreadable as always, but Raven knew better. He was holding himself back, trying to keep himself from throwing her on the desk and taking her with wild abandon. Which had happened last time they had one of their unscheduled… meetings. 

She pulled the shirt off of her before moving to the zipper on her pencil skirt, pulling it down slowly. Damian’s eyes swept down the length of her, lifting an eyebrow. “Are those new?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I needed new ones after you tore two pairs.” 

Damian looked unrepentant, and smirked. “They were in the way. So, if you want to save that pair, I would take them off now.” 

Raven unfastened her bra and set it with the rest of her clothes. “You could just be nicer to my things.”

“I could.” He shrugged. “Or you could start not wearing anything at all. It certainly would make things easier.”

“Absolutely not.” If she did that, she’d never leave his office, and neither of them would get any work done. As fun as all of this was, they still had a job to do. Her fingers hooked in her underwear and she slid them down her legs, leaving them with the rest of her clothes. She stood naked in front of him, a soft flush working down her entire body. He’d seen her fully unclothed several times before, but he still looked at her like it was the first time - that she was just as beautiful now as she had been then. 

“Come here.” 

Raven swallowed and approached the other side of his desk, standing next to him.

“Up.” 

She crawled up onto the desk, turning to face him, and Damian spread her legs so that they rested on either arm of his chair. She was spread wide for him and him alone, and it made her feel both powerful and vulnerable, like she could command him if she wanted, but was still beholden to his own demands. He circled her clit with his thumb and Raven twitched, a soft sound of excitement escaping. She knew that Damian would be careful, and he definitely wouldn’t let her walk away without making sure she was satisfied, but he was going to take all afternoon to get her there. 

He lifted his eyes to her own before kissing up the inside of her calf to her knee. “You look anxious.” He nipped at the inside of her knee and dragged his fingertips down the length of her legs. “Like your mind is somewhere else.”

“I have a report due to you by the end of the day.” She said, glancing down at him as he curled his tongue against a small scar on the inside of her thigh. “If I don’t finish it this afternoon, I’m going to have to stay late.”

“I’ll give you an extension.” He paused and spread her thighs wider, dragging her hips to the edge of his desk. “But, for posterity’s sake, why don’t you give me the overview now.” His mouth found a tender spot near the crease of her hip, and he sucked on the skin, likely leaving a mark. 

“L-like this?” Her voice shivered as his thumb circled her clit again. 

“I can multitask.” Damian met her eyes for just a moment before he dipped his mouth to her, flicking his tongue over her clit while his fingers explored her. He pulled back a scant few inches and smirked. “Can’t you?”

Not while he was giving her the best head of her life. No, not really. His tongue flicked over her clit again, and she sunk her teeth into her lower lip, trying to keep a scream from escaping. Her hips shifted and she buried a hand in his hair, uncertain what she should do. 

“After the industry strike was resolved in Germany, the production costs went up.” Her head fell back against her shoulders and she gasped as Damian wrapped his lips around her clit, sucking on it so hard that she was seeing stars. She was going to come in seconds if he felt his up. “Which was expected. However, since we were already paying well above the union wage, our public image actually improved.” 

He curled his fingers against her, rubbing against a spot that had her writhing against his mouth. Damian reached up her body to tease a nipple, rolling it between his fingers. Electricity snapped over her skin, and Raven could feel every muscle in her tighten, readying her for the kind of orgasm that would knock her senseless. How in the world was she supposed to go back to work after this?

“The consumer confidence in Wayne Industries has grown exponentially since then, not only with Germany, but with the rest of the EU.” 

He sucked harder on her clit and Raven fell back against his desk, her head tipping over the other side as she knocked his name plate and a stack of papers off his desk. Damian leaned forward and hooked her thighs over his shoulders, his mouth relentless and his fingers utterly ruthless as he continued to pleasure her. 

“With that uptick in consumer confidence and increase in profits, we should reinvest our funds and the Wayne brand into civic and philanthropic projects. Fuck.” Raven’s back arched as he spread her legs wider, his tongue dragging up the length of her. He spelled out his name against her clit in double time, before wrapping his lips around her again. She was so close. She was going to come hard, and he had to catch her or Raven felt like she would fall into oblivion and never find her way back. 

“Doing that would increase our name recognition as well as offer opportunities to build a larger base of consumers in the EU.” She gasped as her muscles started to tighten again. “Oh, God.” Her fingers tightened in his hair and she pushed her hips up into his mouth, feeling her orgasm start to build just below her navel before snapping to her clit. “Which could increase profits and revenue in the EU to roughly 169% of its current amount over the next five years, and oh my god can I please come?” 

His flick of his tongue pushed her over the edge and Raven nearly pulled his hair out as she practically rode his face through wave after wave of pleasure. Damian never let her leave unsatisfied, but today it felt like he was trying to utterly destroy her. It felt like her skin was on fire and she tumbled through different worlds and dimensions, colors exploding as he continued to lap up every bit of her. She sagged against the hard wood of his desk before lifting her eyes to find the soft afternoon light filtering in through the window. She sighed in contentment and let her hand fall to the side. 

“If we choose to wait to make these decisions, our brand exposure will fall.”

Damian kissed along the inside of her thigh, his eyes meeting her own. “What would be the projected growth over five years if we didn’t invest in the projects?”

“Only 45% over five years.” Raven pushed at her hair and closed her eyes, every muscle in her body melting into the woodgrain of the desk. “Which is better that we make decisions now. Even a small decision, like supporting a new wing of the library in Munich would net us 10% growth this quarter alone. Larger decisions change that exponentially.”

“Mm.” Damian stood up and leaned over her, smirking. He made a show of licking his lips, as though he had just devoured something delicious. “Lunch was very informative. And tasted amazing.” 

Raven lifted an eyelid before closing it, her head rolling to the side. “I can’t go back to work like this. I’m exhausted.” 

“If you want to lay naked on my desk all afternoon, I certainly wouldn’t complain.” His fingers were parting her again, tracing the length of her and circling her too-sensitive clit. He pulled his hand away and gave an almost-soft smile. “You can rest a few minutes on the sofa. If I keep you away for too long, your department is going to gossip like old church biddies.” 

“You know about that?” Raven flushed and sat up, looking at him. 

“Of course I do. I also know they talk about my ass all the time.” He snorted and leaned up to steal a kiss from her, and Raven could taste her flavor still clinging to his lips. She sighed and moved her fingers to his tie, loosening the knot. Damian smirked against her mouth and pulled away. “I have a conference call in a few minutes. I didn’t know you were going to take so long to come, otherwise I wouldn’t have scheduled it so close to… lunchtime.”

“I couldn’t focus when you were making me remember what my report said to you. Otherwise I probably would have come instantly.” She paused. “You’re too good at this.” 

“You’re very responsive. You make it easy to make you come.” He kissed down her neck, pausing to flick his tongue against her pulse. 

Raven slid off the desk, settling her hands on either arm of his chair, and leaned forward. “I could pay you back.”

His face turned blank, which she knew was an indication that he was seriously considering it. Excitement bubbled through her as she realized she was about to be so very careless, but the thought of him fighting back his low, wanton moans as she wrapped her mouth around his thick cock… she shivered. It was one thing to have him send her to the stars, but it was far more intoxicating to know she had that same power over him. His lips twitched as though he was thinking of a reason not to, but Raven made the decision for him anyway. 

She glanced at the clock behind him before she dropped to her knees in front of him, her hands resting against his belt buckle. God, he looked amazing like this. As weak and vulnerable as she had felt to him. His thick cock was pressing against the neatly-pressed wool of his trousers, and she unfastened the belt buckle before unzipping his fly and letting his cock spring free. 

“Your meeting starts soon, Mister Wayne.” Raven opened her mouth and swirled her tongue over the head of his cock, watching his head fall back against the soft leather of his chair. “I’d hate for you to miss it.”

“You’re a tease.”

“You’re the one with a crush on me.” She wrapped her hand around the length of him, pumping slowly, trying to draw the sensation out. 

Damian lifted an eyebrow. “And you don’t have a crush on me?”

“I never said that.” She flicked the slit on the head of his cock with her tongue and he moaned, his fingers digging into the arms of his chair so hard he left marks. He was almost gasping, each breath straining the buttons on his shirt. Heavens, that was a sight to behold. If he wasn’t such a massive beefcake, he wouldn’t constantly look like he was about to bust out of his clothing. Raven pumped his erection again, meeting his stare.

“So… you do have a crush on me?” His eyes narrowed. “You’ve never told me.”

“Since you kissed me like the world was ending.” She ran the tip of her tongue up the underside of his cock, fascinated with the sudden shadows in his eyes. “Since you pulled me into this exact office during a party and confessed your feelings to me. Since you made me feel like I was the only woman in the world. Yes… I have a crush on you.” Her hand tightened around the length of him. “I thought that was obvious. I wouldn’t be crawling under the desk of just any CEO to give him head.”

There was a long pause as Damian seemed to mull something over in his head, and Raven continued to explore him with the tip of her tongue. Finally, he curled his fingers under her chin and tilted her face towards him. “How about boyfriends? Do you have many boyfriends you crawl under desks and give head to?”

She blinked and pulled back, cheeks flushing. “I don’t have one of those.”

“Mm.” He paused. “You do now.”

Raven’s heart pounded in her ears, and it felt like the floor dissolved under her feet. Was he suggesting that they were… dating? “I… have a boyfriend?”

“If you want one.” Damian glanced away, and Raven could see the tips of his ears turn pink. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “If you’d prefer to keep our relationship more casual, I understand. I wouldn’t want you to feel like I talked you into anything you weren’t ready for.”

“I need time… to think about it, I mean.” Raven wasn’t sure why she was so nervous about it, but it felt different to be dating the CEO of the company she worked for. It didn’t matter that she had known him for years, and it didn’t matter that she had feelings for him, it was… complicated. 

Sex was easy, especially when he was so damn good at it, but relationships were complicated and messy. And what would happen if things didn’t end well? Or worse, what would happen if things went too well? What would happen if she fell in love with him? Damian was handsome and powerful and he could have anyone he wanted - models, actresses, other heiresses to corporations. Royalty, if he was bold enough. So, it went without saying that it would be inevitable that he was going to get bored of girl who liked things like high fantasy novels and consistent, logical numbers. And if Raven fell in love with him, she knew her heart would break irreparably. It was inevitable. 

Panic filled her chest and Raven stared down at his massive cock, suddenly uncertain of exactly what she was doing. 

Fucking was easy. 

This was not. 

“Get dressed.” Damian pulled away from her, obviously sensing the tension inside her. He tucked his cock back into his trousers and stood up, helping her to her feet. His thumb rubbed a circle over the back of her hand, and his eyes traced her face for a moment before he let go. “I’ve got my meeting in a few minutes and you should get back to your office before the rest of the accounting staff thinks you’ve been handed a pink slip. Thank you for the update on the markets in the EU. They were informative, but I look for your full report by Friday.”

“Of course.” Raven could sense the tenseness in him, but she didn’t want to address it. The awkwardness felt like a kind of punishment she needed to endure for being suddenly unsure of their relationship. She made her way to the pile of clothes on the floor and started re-dressing herself. “And in regards to the other project you have me on?”

“I’ll read through your file and return it to you tomorrow.” He picked up the things Raven had knocked off his desk, and sat back down in his chair, watching her from the corner of his eye. “Thank you.”

His words felt warm and yet distant at the same time, and it hurt Raven more than she expected. Like their interaction was transactional, and yet somehow still meant something to him. Confusion swirled in the back of her head, clouding her thoughts and making her feel like something inside her was broken. She quickly re-buttoned her shirt and looked in the mirror to fix her hair, waiting for him to say something - anything - else. But he stayed quiet, even as Raven snuck out the door and walked down the long, empty hallway.

She called the elevator and went back down to her floor, trying to forget this ever happened.   

[quillium]

1, 4, 7, 11, 14?? 💛

💛💛💛 I love you so much.

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Third-person, canon-divergent, self-contained gen fics with happy endings that don’t require set-up. I do really love writing second-person, and AUs are super fun, they just don’t happen to be my ‘default’. When I think of them, they tend to be experimental. Continuous fics–ones that run on a bit long–take a lil more energy although they can also be fun. If I write romance, it tends to be because it’s for a fandom week of sorts (ie Spideytorch week, Bluepulse week etc). Unhappy endings aren’t uncommon with me but they tend to be when I’m writing a bit more of an ‘experimental’ fic like “peace” and “how it ends”. As for set up–I’m just lazy. 

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Oh. So many. Um. I have a bit over 30 fandoms that I’d like to write for, and each fandom averages about ten ideas that I haven’t posted anything about–although most of them are ideas that I’m not ‘actively’ working on, they’re still there. “Care to share” always. Let me think of one that you’d like. Oh! My batfam soulmate au! So it’s a thing where Bruce–only Bruce–has this thing where at certain times in his life, a string appears that guides him to the person he needs most at the moment. The first was Alfred, which led him to be hired by the Waynes; the second is Gordon, right after his parents die; the third is Dick, etc–as soon as Bruce finds them, the strings vanish. I thought of it for two main reasons, the first was that I don’t like soulmate aus (I’ll talk more about this in the tags) but I wanted to write one, the second was that I just really wanted Bruce to be travelling the world and I wanted to explore the implications of how young Bruce was when he took the kids in (2-in-1 I guess). Honestly, if any of you guys want to hear my ideas for any fandom, just drop the fandom name in my asks and I’ll give you an idea or some thoughts about the fandom.

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

I warn you that this answer will be long:

“He stands at the doorway for a moment before entering, and the world feels sleek and slim and beautiful and Clint feels like dirt and grass, a freak and a carnie trying to squeeze where he’ll never belong.

“I know that you’re self-destructive,” Kate says, frustrated and exhausted and resigned, “But can you not drag me into that, too? You keep fucking yourself up, Clint, I don’t need your help in fucking me up, too.”

And he knows this, knows that she’s smart and amazing and all these things and he’s a spot on the cement, but he doesn’t know what to say.

“I know that you’re mad…” he starts.

“Then you know better than to talk to me,” Kate says, ice cold.“

This bit’s from How to Define Clint Barton. I think this passage shows a lot of what I love about this fic–Clint is so self-destructive and it hurts the people around him and he screws up all the time but he still tries. It doesn’t look like he’s trying his best but this is his best, and it sucks, but his best just isn’t–sometimes it looks like the bare minimum but that’s where he is, at this point. It’s not rock bottom, but it’s not great because he’s just always messing things up. And him, standing at the doorway, waiting for Kate, that’s him facing the music–that’s him saying yeah, I know I screwed up, and I know that I can’t make up for it, but I’ll apologize and give you the time and space you need to be mad at me because I messed up and Kate takes that. I love writing Kate a lot, I could go on about why, but I really love that here, she’s angry. She’s frustrated and she says things that are maybe a bit too harsh but she means them and she’s not going to take them back. She isn’t clear-headed or soft or gentle, she’s not a pushover, she’s telling Clint that she needs space and she’s kind of aggressive about it and it’s a very human scene because Kate has every right to be like this. She was wronged and she’s not going to be gracious about it. Neither of them are role models in any way, honestly–but that’s okay. They’re both people at very different places in their lives who still love and care for each other and even when they’re at odds, they’re still on each other’s teams and they both know and understand that. I really love this relationship–the stability and effort that both of them put into it–and the fact that it has the strength to withstand both sides messing up. The narration is very biased because Clint focuses a lot on his flaws, which is always fun to write. I have a lot I love about this passage, and I hope that my readers get something out of it. Thanks for asking this question, I really enjoyed answering it.

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

This is a really interesting question because it implies that passion can’t be tied to a fun hobby–I think there’s this idea that we have to chase our passions, somehow, that our lives are ‘less’ if our work isn’t something we love with all our souls–writing’s both. I’m incredibly passionate about writing, it’s something that defines me as much as anything can define a person, but it also is just a fun hobby for me. I don’t think I’d ever write for a career–maybe I’d like to publish a book or two or even work on script-writing, but ultimately I’d like writing to remain a hobby. I love it so much and I never want it to become a source of stress for me or something that I feel like I have to do. So I guess, it’s just a fun hobby because it’s my passion.

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Not exactly specific, but you know those writing lists that are like “said is dead” or “use this word instead of x”? It’s not great for many reasons but the main reason I dislike it is because of how badly it breaks flow–I end up seeing a lot of passages that look like this:

“What?” Tony exclaimed, “That’s insane!”

“That’s just how it is,” Pepper grimly murmured.

“How did this happen?” Tony mused.

“It must be Red Skull,” Pepper thought out loud.

and it’s just really awkward. Don’t get me wrong, I know that ‘said’ gets tiring to look at–but you aren’t going to die if you add the word ‘said’, and if the writer focuses on their word choice then that tends to detract from their focus on more important things, like plot points, characterization, etc. It’s not terrible advice–I’m sure it could be helpful, but I think people tend to get too caught up in that. Word choice will naturally improve with experience, there are other things to focus on.

[linaofthemyscira]

Puppies Are Forever

Pairing: Older!Damian Wayne x Platonic!Reader

Words: 1828

Prompt: Puppies Are Forever by Sia//Christmas

Warnings: Damian….plus puppers…the ultimate fluff

A/N aw FUCKLES I’m like cramming this in like 2 days before Xmas lmao. This is my FIRST Damian fic damn, and he’s like 16-ish. I hope you guys enjoy this!

Christmastime was such a big thing for Gotham. There was a ginormous tree-lighting ceremony in front of city hall and buildings always decorated with playful color lights or elegant white lights. Damian’s father, Bruce Wayne, had always gone with those classy white lights, because well, that’s just the way he was.

Since the family celebrated both Hanukkah and Christmas, the manor was always decorated more colorfully. Stephanie and Dick were on the house decorating committee, along with Alfred and Duke because they were the only two who “appreciated decorating the most out of the family”. Jason and (also) Alfred were on cooking duty, Cass and Babs made sure no one opened the presents early, and Damian…well he never really had a job. Or technically, never was assigned one. Tim was never assigned a job either, but that was only because he never stopped working. One year he wasn’t even seen throughout Hanukkah and Christmas because he was working a case.

Damian didn’t mind that he had no specific job, that meant he got to spend more time with you. He enjoyed spending time with you because you simply made his life more bright. You made him forget about the anger he would have certain days, you comforted him when he was down, and you appreciated that he had a deep appreciation for animals. You two were inseparable. Jason would always poke fun about when Damian would just ask you out already, but you always laughed and shrugged it off while he would start arguing with Jason.

In order to avoid that (awkward) conversation this year, Damian kept you as far from the manor as possible. Since you lived in the city, he would pick you up and take you to explore all the corners of Gotham (that were the safest). You still had no clue Damian was Robin, and he intended to keep it that way. He had observed his older brother’s relationships with commoners like you and all the stops they’d have to pull out in order to keep that person safe. He even observed his father. And by now, he was 16, he knew the rules. For him, it was common sense. So he kept you in the dark.

Which…was quite ironic because right at this very moment, you were walking through a tunnel of lights in the park. They were strung up on the trees, twinkling brightly like the stars.

“Wow, this is incredible,” you looked all around you in wonder.

“I always enjoy coming to the park during this time of year, especially because of this tunnel,” Damian commented.

“Really? Why is that?” You turned to him.

“It’s just very relaxing,” he shrugged.

“Ah that’s right, you have a crazy family,” You grinned.

“Crazy does not even begin to explain my family, Y/N. I am guessing that right now, Pennyworth and Todd are cooking something and Grayson is trying to eat some of it. Drake has most likely fallen asleep at his computer, and Stephanie is trying to prevent Alfred the cat and Titus from destroying the decorations she spent months creating,” Damian explained.

“Huh,” you nodded. “And your dad?”

Damian visibly scrunched his nose and reached up to scratch the back of his neck.

“I don’t know,” he stuck his hands in his pockets and frowned at the ground.

“Working maybe?” you asked.

“Perhaps,” Damian looked at you and shrugged, though he was thinking of Bruce’s other job. You linked your arm in Damian’s and laid your head on his shoulder. He was a little taken aback but went with it.

“Don’t worry, Dami, he’ll come home. I know he will,” you said softly. Damian smiled to himself at your comforting words.

Thank God he had you.

As the night was ending, Damian escorted you home. This time he took you down a different path, a shortcut he discovered while he was patrolling one night as Robin.

Damian knew you loved animals as well, but you didn’t have any pets because your family’s landlord didn’t allow pets into the building. So when you passed a pet store with puppies in the window and you stopped to look at them, he immediately figured out what to get you for Christmas.

“oH MY GOD! Damian look at these super cute puppies!” you squealed as your eyes lit up like the lights that decorated the Gotham Christmas tree.

“They are adorable,” he said with a small smile.

“Oh, I wonder how much…that one is.” you pointed to one of the puppies that was calmer than the other ones in the pen. The puppy looked up at you and immediately started wagging its tail in excitement. “He’s so cute, ugh. I need him.”

“That, I agree with. You are in dire need of a canine,” He spoke.

“A canine. Damian, you can chill out for one second and call it a dog.” you raised an eyebrow with a smile. He loved that expression because it always meant you were amused by his actions.

“Fine. You do need a dog,” he restated.

“I do. I hate our landlord for not letting us have one.” you agonized. Damian came up with a brilliant plan right on the spot and internally happy danced.

“Y/N, come on, let’s go,” Damian tore you away from the window.

“GOODBYE PUPPY! I LOVE YOU!” you shouted as Damian tugged you down the street.

After a few more minutes of walking, Damian finally got you home in one piece. After your mother opened the door to let you in, you turned to Damian to say goodbye for the evening, even though you knew you’d be texting him sometime within the hour.

“Thanks for taking me out again, Dami,” you beamed at him.

“It was nothing, Y/N. I always enjoy spending time with you.” He said but started blushing when he realized what he said.

“I enjoy spending time with you, Damian,” your smile became more gentle.

“Would you like to come over to the manor on Christmas?” Damian suddenly blurted out. You widened your eyes in response but ended up nodding.

“Of course,” you told him.

“Naturally, whenever you can come over. I know family is important–” Damian started to ramble.

“No, Damian, its okay, I can come over. Thank you,” you told him.

“Anytime, Y/N,” he offered a smile, yet toothy smile, which he rarely did.

“I guess I’ll see you on Christmas then.”

“Okay. Have a good night, Y/N.”

“You too, Damian.”

And with that, you closed the door.

Come Christmas Day, and after all of the presents were unwrapped, you had arrived at the manor door, bearing a gift for Damian and a courtesy one for Alfred for always being so nice to you.

“Please, Y/N, come in, it must be freezing outside,” Alfred ushered you inside.

“Hi, Alfred. I got this for you,” You handed Alfred a small-ish box, to which he was surprised.

“Why thank you, Y/N,” he nodded gracefully. “Master Damian is in the family room.”

“Thank you, Alfred, you’re the best,” you winked and headed off to the family room to join Damian.

He was manspreading in his usual chair, with his usual uninterested look on his face, but when you walked in, he sat up his expression morphed into a much happier one.

“Y/N!” he exclaimed. The only family members left in the room (Alfred, Bruce, Dick, Babs, and Duke) all turned to look at you.

“Hi everybody!” you greeted as you waved.

“Hello, Y/N,” Bruce gave you a tired smile.

“Mr. Wayne, its good to see you,” you walked past him and towards Damian.

“It’s good to see me too,” he yawned. He had a mission the night before as Batman and didn’t make it home until 3 am. On top of that, he hadn’t had his usual morning coffee.

“I’m glad you’re here, Y/N. Now I can give you your present,” Damian stood up when you approached him.

“Right back at ya,” you handed him his present.

“What?” he asked.

“Open it!” you thrust the bag into his hands. Damian sat back down and did as you said, taking out the contents of the gift bag. He lifted out a sketchbook and drawing tools in amazement.

“I know you filled up your old sketchbook so I got you a new one,” you told him.

“Thank you, Y/N this means so much,” he smiled at you. “Now I get to give you your gift.”

Damian set aside the sketchbook and art supplies, stood up, sat you in his seat and left to go get your present.

“He forgot to tell you to close your eyes,” Dick sighed. You laughed at Damian’s antics and then closed your eyes. Damian came back into the room minutes later, holding up a rather large box with holes on the sides and set it on your lap. You felt it was heavy and furrowed your eyebrows to think about what it could be.

“Damian, can I open my eyes now?” you asked.

“Take the top off first,” He smiled.

“What? Did you say for them to take their top off?” Dick asked.

“What? No! I said to take the top of the box off, Grayson!” Damian began to turn red, while you stifled a laugh.

“Sorry, couldn’t hear you,” Dick scratched his head. You had taken off the box top and were waiting to Damian to give you the okay to open your eyes.

“Okay, now you can,” he stood back. You slowly opened your eyes and were met with a fur ball sitting in the box. Your jaw dropped as you picked up the puppy and held it up like it was Simba.

“It’s the pupper from the store! OH it was so not a guy puppy,” you laughed.

“No, it indeed was a bitch,” Damian stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Master Damian!” Alfred scolded.

“YEAH HEY LANGUAGE!” Dick yelled. “YOU’RE LIKE 10!”

“I am 16, Grayson!” Damian snapped. “And I apologize, Pennyworth. I was just using the right terminology.”

Damian turned back to you as you began to cuddle the puppy excessively, sat on the armrest of the chair and smiled down at you.

“What will you name her?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t know,” you mumbled.

“I was thinking Holly, but–”

“HOLLY IS PERFECT!” you shouted happily. “Wait, but I can’t bring her home.”

“I can keep her here if you like. You can visit Holly whenever you want,” Damian offered.

“Damian, that’s amazing. Thank you so much,” you beamed.

“May I?” Damian asked to hold your puppy.

“Yeah, of course!” You handed over Holly, and as soon as Damian got both hands on her, she was all over him. She licked his face repeatedly, and Damian struggled to make her stop.

You and Damian spent the whole day together with the new puppy, enjoying each other’s company like always. It certainly was a merry Christmas.

TAGGING:

@ladyalexa @impulsivesuperrobin @batarangtotheheart @little-lesbean-queen @where-is-my-jason-todd @pinkwitch21 @pamelaivy @makeup-wonder-woman @jasontoddandhisguns @dick-graysns @solis200213 @books-netflix-and-pizza @dramatic-and-young @ioczurma @sarcasmismyfirstlove @tsctd @princessonly2 @the–iceberg–lounge @timsflannels @dc-hoe @draketimbers @imaginingadifferentlife @letmestargaze36

[titleknown]

Why A Friend Of Mine Likes Fallout Equestria:

Okay, first note, this isn’t technically my article, it’s by a friend, collected and edited from their chats with me. They just wanted me to post it, anonymously, for them because they’re afraid they’ll get shit for supporting Fallout Equestria (The original, not that New Pegas thing or w/e) on this site.

I post it because it’s got some really interesting insights on the nature of darkness, dark fic and optimism that I’d like to share with you, and I hope ya dig it:

Holy fuck I just realized EXACTLY why Fallout Equestria works as a darkening of a lighthearted show and other dark fics tend to not! (This actually applies to more than MLP). I’ve kind of already said it before but I need to say it again in case I failed to say it properly and also because I CAN PONTIFICATE IT NOW.

Fallout Equestria; the original; is a genuinely amazing fanfiction, not just because it introduced me to fallout; but because it also introduced me to the idea of interpreting fallout as something... good?

Not that the fallout was good, but that the general idea of Fallout is that you can DO GOOD. You can do BETTER. Also it did a lot of neat ideas about how Equestria could end up in a situation like Fallout and how magic would affect the war and... that new pegas guy is pissing me off because fuck that guy.

Firstly, I think I'm gonna introduce you to my favorite part of FOE lore: Fluttershy was the one who invented what would become their world's version of the nukes. AND IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE FOR HER CHARACTER...

Because she originally didn't invent it for the purposes of war... well, it was a wartime invention, but it was NEVER EVER meant to be an invention that COULD be used for war.

But that's the thing about inventing things; you don't always end up inventing something for good (see the inventor of the loudspeaker who lived down the street from me true story)

Basically, what she invented was a way for spells to be increased in power to extremes no one unicorn or zebra (the other side of the war) could ever acheive on their own; a Megaspell.

(Well, not directly, but with help; she was the one who implemented it, so...)

She created Megaspells so one could heal EVERYONE on a battlefield. Not long after, someone realized that one could replace the idea of healing with harm

And she, in an act of desparation, at the tail end of the war, gave both sides megaspells.

Assuming that no one would ever use them for harm, not because she was..naive?? but rather because she assumed that no one would EVER be suicidal enough to honestly use them for war.

...She was essentially the creator of their universe's version of Mutually Assured Destruction

I don't like stories where it's like 'lol what if something was super dark,' but I do like exploring how placing characters who are fundamentally good can end up doing things that ARE bad, and I do think FoE it shows the best way to have a character setting on like, how to make a good character/happy universe WORK in a darker context;

And on that note, can I engage you in a tangent about the optimism I see in the Fallout series? It’ll be important, I promise.

Ok, so, it's kinda weird cause like, you know, a lot of things in Fallout are intentionally extremely cynical (see Vault 11, Vault Tec, literally everything) but at the same time, it has this.. I guess... WORDS COME TO ME

Either way, even though I know that it's a major mechanic of games in general that one can change things, but what gets me is that Fallout is about... like, you can change things.

Like, that's what makes it so strangely optimistic, and yeah, hell, you CAN be a demonic force, whatever, that's always an option That's what makes the choice to be good worth it, but still.

The fact that in general, no matter what, your quest in Fallout is to make the world a better place than when you came

But like, it's kind of ridiculous for such a cynical on the surface setting to be so... goddamn NICE. Like, in Fallout 1, you go out to get water and end up SAVING THE WORLD FROM THE MASTER

You can do all sorts of amazing shit to improve people's lives in every single game, from the literal amazing savior shit to just giving some random kid who lost his family a home. And that is fucking great I'm sorry I don't care, that's just...

That every time, you make The Wasteland a better place

In Fallout 3, you straight up purify the water for future generations to enjoy and can help Harold realize that he can change the world by turning it into a lush forested area once more

You make the world better.

You fucking get out there, dig in your heels and say 'fuck this' and MAKE THINGS BETTER.

You climb up that tower in the boat city the guards will catch you for, JUST to tell that random guy of no consequence to the story that he shouldn't kill himself even though it doesn't benefit you at all.

You help those crazy ghouls in the REPCONN facility reach their goal of going into space because damnit, they're good people and they're gonna make it, fuck whatever people say, that's what I believe.

You help people because YOU CAN. And you make the world BETTER.

And that's... the most obnoxiously optimistic shit I've ever had the pleasure to play. BECAUSE THIS IS A WORLD YOU CAN MAKE BETTER.

And hell, even that 'War, War never changes' tagline doesn't mean what some people take it to mean. Yeah, war never changes, but you know what else? Human survival is a war, and we're never gonna stop surviving.

Because FUCK the idea that nothing can be changed; even if some concepts can't change, YOU can change what that concept means to you.

And, going back to the main topic, Fluttershy's transformation from a kind pony to being the reason the world ended happened without ever changing her fundamental character or compromising her morals; rather, it was that she never did that may have caused it.

Her unceasing faith that everyone would be willing to work together if the alternative was the end of the world failed her. First she made a healing spell that could be made into a horrible weapon And then, seeing the horrifying weapons possible with her creation... she gave them to both sides, in the hope that they would realize what the right choice was.

That they would be able to see that to continue would destroy them, that they COULD work together.

... They didn't.

She caused the end of the world by believing it could be made better. which is super ironic given my whole 'I love Fallout for letting me make the world a better place' but still.

Part of the reason it went wrong was that because Equestria is such a peaceful land where friendship is the solution to everything, that when faced with a situation where there was no easy answer, no way that the two sides could easily fix the problem, it spiraled.

Equestria never was in a war before then; in fact, in universe, at least for Fallout Equestria, Celestia and Luna were the only ones who knew that word, which had VANISHED from their vocabulary.

When you haven't ever experienced war, you don't know that winning isn't exactly an option.

But I think the basic thing is that instead of postulating a question like 'What if X character was secretly a serial killer lol', the question is 'What exactly would push X character to do something bad without breaking their character?'

And you can absolutely push any sufficiently already well written character to do things that seem to be the antithesis of what they are.

Batman Beyond had Bruce Wayne quit being Batman after he was forced to WAVE a gun at a thief attempting to kill the daughter of one of his friends because he a heart attack; this is a low key example, because he stopped, but that's the rub; finding something that would force a person to do something they didn't believe in.

But the thing? That's not the 'suddenly he pulled out a gun', but rather that it was the last straw. Because that wasn't the first time he compromised one of his morals; he tried to KILL the Joker before in that universe, not because he's a psychopath, but because of what the Joker had done to Robin.

He could rationalize it because he didn't kill the Joker, because it was to protect Robin; but he had weakened on one of his morals. And so the next time it happened, he broke the other moral. Because he'd already compromised it once, it was easier the second time.

And there you have it; Batman pulling a gun on a man and batman trying to kill someone. You've broken both of Batman's biggest codes of morality; and you've done it without making him a different character or truly changed him; just a snowball of effects that lead to breaking those rules.

With FOE, it asks 'how could ponies be forced into a world of war?' and the answer is SLOWLY. Slowly and using the small things. How to turn Fluttershy from the Element of Kindness to the pony who gave the enemy enough bombs to kill the whole planet?... you don't have to change much at all.. Just keep pushing them little by little father from a territory they know.

She never stopped being kind or trusting in others; she was just slowly pushed to realize the scope of their situation... and assumed the best when that wasn't the case.

Hopelessly naive, yes, but not 'lol, she wanted to kill everyone so she gave everyone bombs'

How to turn Pinkie Pie from the happy party pony to , the secret service of the world, a pony who surveils everyone with a big brother motto of 'Pinkie Pie is Always Watching You'? Simple; put her under pressure to do something to SAVE EVERYONE.

She already has uncanny abilities to know things; if she was pushed to protect EVERYPONY? Why wouldn't she do everything in her power to stop war?

She specifically has that Pinkie Sense, the ability to see little things in the future. With the help of their universe's version of Mentats, that power is honed; and of course she would use it to lock bad ponies up before they do something.

She also already in the show has an obsession with secrecy; breaking a promise or spilling a secret is considered taboo to her; it becomes a mater of her being put into those positions where people are counting on her.

IT'S SO INTERESTING especially to see a realistic ways very virtuous characters could end up doing bad things. And, the thing is, even in fallout equestria where naivete and blind trust in the best of others caused the end of the world, friendship and trust still is the solution; it's still the way out.

Which brings it full circle I FIGURED IT OUT AND MAYBE THEN PEOPLE CAN START MAKING GOOD DARK FICS OF ALL THE SHOWS. ANY SHOW ACTUALLY....

Maybe. Or, I could be 100% wrong lol

[spacenightwing]

Stonewalled

I’m looking at my profile today and I HAVE 56 FOLLOWERS?!?! ASDFGH when did that happen?? 

Decided to post this fic as a thank you to all my lovely followers ^-^

HUGE THANKS to @marvelgirl411 for beta hep. You are glorious marvelgirl <3 

Summary:

After Tula died, Batman tries to do something well-intentioned. Nightwing does not approve.

One Day ago

 It had been days, and Aqualad still hadn’t left Tula’s side. No one had the heart to force him away from the body. He would “rest” by taking cat naps while holding her hand when his body and mind had finally had enough. He didn’t eat, he didn’t move, didn’t even cry. He just sat with her in the cave’s reservoir, staring at her face, as if expecting her to open her eyes at any point, if only he held on a little bit longer, she’d finally wake up and his nightmare turn into a bad memory.

 Nightwing knew this could not go on. As much as he needed to mourn his friend, Kaldur needed a rock. As the Team’s leader, he was everyone’s rock, forcing him to put his own emotions to be stored in a volt in the back of his mine. As much as he hated some of the years of psychological training Batman forced into him, he was grateful to the grumpy bat, for this moment in time at least. The trick was finding a balance between being the hero others needed him to be and the human he wanted to be. He knew he still hadn’t found this balance, but for the time being, he could put the emotions on lockdown. For Kulder’s sake.

Slowly, Nightwing approached his former leader, his hands out in a show of peace. Kaldur had previously been violent when his Team members tried to get him to move. Nightwing had no intentions of triggering such reaction.

“Kaldur,” Nightwing whispered as he took a step into the shallow water. “It’s time. She has to go back to Atlantis. Her family deserves to be with her.” Of all the attempts to get the graving hero to move, mentioning Atlantis had had some effect without violence. Nightwing was hoping that enough time had passed that it’d work this time.

After a long moment, Nightwing moving closer ever so slowly, Kaldur finally responded when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. “I should have done more,” is all that he can get out.

“You did everything right. Tula made her choice. The only thing you can do to honor her is by letting her be with her family. Do not let her sacrifice be in vain-”

“I assure you, I have no intentions of doing so.” Kaldur voice was steel, his eyes, the first time in a while since he had taken his eyes off Tula, were ice.

“I know that,” Nightwing assured softly. Now was not the right time to evoke an argument, even accidently. “Her family, Kaldur. She need to go to Atlantis.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “I can go with you. We can make funeral plans. You do not have to do this alone, Kulder.”

The Atlantean was quiet for a moment, considering Nightwing’s words. Finally, his face softened and he nodded. “Your gesture is appreciated, my friend, but your presence is unnecessary. I will ensure she is taken home.”

A knot in Nightwing’s black released, a knot he had not realized he had been carrying. “Very well. I will prepare the Zada platform. I’ll send Robin for you when it is ready.”

***

Present Day, one hour ago

Dick thanked whatever god that might be out there that Kaldur had gone to Atlantis yesterday. If he had seen the stunt Bruce had pulled, Dick would have bet that Bruce would have ended up with a broken arm at best, 1000 volts of electricity in the back of the neck at worst.

In arranging underwater equipment for various Team members to attend an underwater funeral, Nightwing had made a visit to the Hall of Justice. Dick hadn’t intended on looking around the museum, but the advertisements for a new exhibit caught his attention. The exhibit in question? A memorial to fallen heroes.

The memorial is nice enough: a single corridor of blank marble walls lined on both sides with evenly spaced holographic images of the dead, about six feet between each. Under each image was a scrolling description of all the accomplishments and victories won was on prominent display, accompanied by a detailed description of each heroes died. No music played and the exhibit was far enough away from the main museum that the squeals of children admiring their role models and the narrations from tour guides were nonexistent. It was a quiet, simply place for visitors to reflect and pay respects.

While it had suffered its causalities, the Justice League of hadn’t lost enough members to dedicate an entire hall of this magnitude. In fact, while the large amount of space between each image presented the illusion that the exhibit was full, the extra space allowed for the adding of future causalities. The thought made Dick’s stomach turn.

But worse than that though was the fact that there was an image of a teenage Atlantean at the very front. The only member of his Team to have even fallen.

If the Batman thought such a display was necessary, why had this been constructed now and not immediately following the death of the League’s first death?

As Dick looks up at Tula, he categorized each detail, comparing them to his memory of the living woman. Everything was perfect: the intense eyes, pulled back shoulders and the look of immense pride. If it hadn’t been for the light blue tint and transparent illumination, Dick would have sworn that he was looking at his friend, alive and well.

The whole idea of a public shrine makes Dick’s skin crawl, especially considering there was only one person in the JLA that kept up the facade of the Hall of Justice.

***

Present Day, now

Robin knows to avoid Nightwing as he enters the cave based on his tightly set jaw and extreme tension in the rest of his body. At the risk of being chewed out, Robin takes a step towards him as soon as the computer finishes announcing Nightwing’s arrival. He knows it’s not a good idea to kick the beehive, but this is Nightwing. He has a way of putting his emotions on hold in favor of rational decisions. He’s watch a friend die and the rest grave for her, all without being allowed to display his own grief. He needs an outlet or he’ll explore on someone that doesn’t deserve it. Robin knows he doesn’t deserve, but unlike the Team, he can take it. And he’s willing to take one for the Team. “Hey ‘Wing. You look like you swallowed a lime.”

Nightwing ignores the comment and gets straight to the point. “Where’s Batman?” He didn’t even stop walking to acknowledge Robin properly.

Robin understands that Nightwing and Batman didn’t see eye to eye, he really does. He doesn’t know the full extent of their issues, but he at least thinks he deserves some acknowledgement. What had Robin done to make this guy hate him so much? “Why do you think I would know?”

Nightwing does acknowledge him now with an intense bat-glare. It freaks Robin out how much Nightwing is like the guy he claimed to hate. He really hopes he doesn’t turn out the same way. “Because” Nightwing says, “you’re one half of the dynamic duo.”

Nice, Todd, Robin thinks to himself. Stupid question like that does deserve the bat-glare.

“He might be in the Watchtower. I remember Agent A talking about a big meeting for all of the Leaguers coming up, but he didn’t give a day.”

“Let’s find out,” Nightwing says, mostly to himself. He pulls up the holographic computer monitor and begins hacking the Watchtower, something he’s only ever done in the most desperate of times.

Robin watches in awe as Nightwing hacks one of the most secure security systems known to humanity as it’s child’s play. With the combination Wayne Tech and Queen Industries, the system should be flawless. That is, unless, if you’ve been hacking the pentagon since you were ten, or so Robin had been told.

Finally, Nightwing finds what he is looking for. The hologram displays JLA members sitting at a boardroom style table, combating some hidden agenda. Body language of members whom have not learned to control automatic responses, such as Aquaman, Flash, Hal Jordan, and a few others show that the conversation is one that Robin wants no part of. A few more taps on the keyboard from Nightwing activates sound.

“-not change the past,” Wonder Woman states calmly. “What is to happen moving -?”

“Disband the Team immediately!” Aquaman shouts before Wonder Woman can even finish her question. “There is no debate here.”

That’s Nightwing’s call to action and he doesn’t miss a beat, nor does he kill the security feed. Robin might ask him what he’s planning on doing, but the Team leader is on the warpath. Getting in his way might be the equivalent of falling for a trap set by Penguin: not only fucking embarrassing, but surely deathly. Also, given that the feed is still up, Robin didn’t see and harm watching the debate unfold, especially concerning the fact that the meeting is about his Team.

Just as the computer finishes announcing Nightwing’s departure, (still fucking stupid!) the smell of burnt popcorn and cheeseburgers fills the musty cave. Only one person on earth could stomach such a combination. “Sup, Robin,” Wally says as he approaches, the bag of popcorn on one hand and the burger in the other, his girlfriend following closely behind, clearly annoyed that the speedster is giving more attention to his food then her.

Rather than answer, Robin practices his bat-glare and goes back to watching the feed. Wally and Artimus join him.

After 30 seconds of listening to the arguing, Artimus caught on to the topic at hand. “They can’t do that.” She says under her breath.

“Do what bae?” Wally asks.

“They- they want to break up the Team…”

“What?!” Wally yells. “How do you know? They can’t do that! They can’t do that!”

“Shut the fuck up Wally!” Robin barks back.

The arguing attracts the attention of Superboy, who could hear the conversation from the living room. He walks in with M'gann, hand in hand. “Who can’t do what?” the Martian interjects.

Wally, unable to keep his voice under control, shouts again. “The Leaguer’s trying to break us up!”

After insults from Robin and confusion, M'gann reaches out to each Team member telepathically, excluding Kaldur as he is in Atlantis and out of M’gann’s range. As Tula’s funeral is not set to happen for another week, the rest of the Team is still hanging out in the cave, and this is a conversation M'gann highly recommends everyone be informed about.

Soon after, Zatanna, Rocket, Batgirl and Bumblebee, are all crowded around the illegal footage, listening intently.

“Where’s Nightwing?” Batgirl asks, but she’s answered with a Shush! from Wally. Fucking hypercritic, Robin thinks to himself.

“Watchtower,” Robin supplies her quietly.

Tired of the bullshit, Aquaman interrupts whatever point Green Arrow had been making. “Do none of you understand that we’re talking about children? Children! Teenagers. How many must share the same fate as Tula, a highly trained Atlantean warrior, killed in her own element, before we realize this is not their war. No. One is enough.”

Superman picks up the right were Aquaman left off with a heavy sigh. “The King is right. This isn’t their fight. We can’t expect them to-”

“Did none of you think of that when you enlisted children to begin with?”

The conversation stopped dead in its tracks as Nightwing stepped out of the shadows. Clearly, he’d been doing the ninja thing for a while now. His demeanor is soft, but there’s not missing the hateful undertones.

“Nightwing.” Batman address, speaking for the first time since the meeting began. “How did you get in here?”

“Unimportant. What’s important is that I didn’t think there was anything that could piss me off more today. Evidently, I was wrong.” Robin can see though the security feed that Nightwing’s facade of masked emotions is gone. Even though the image isn’t quate quality, the balled fists are slightly shaking. The deep frown lines cut so deep that could scare. If Nightwing wasn’t wearing a mask, Robin would see eyes narrowed to slits. He doesn’t let anyone take the floor from him. No one has ever successfully snuck up on the entire JLA, and Nightwing is not about to give up his advantage. “Aquaman, I respect your concerns, I truly do. I have been leading this Team for years now, and those exact sentiments have been a burden on my mind since the beginning. Long before Tula.” When mentioning the fallen Atlantean, Nightwing looks the King directly in the eye, conveying both his deepest sympathy and personal grief in the single look. Just as soon as the look come, it’s gone, as Nightwing addressed the League in its entirety.

“However, this is not your team. The Justice League may have given the Team guidance, but it did not found the Team, nor does it have say in its downfall. We do good work. Work that the Justice League cannot do. It saved the entire League when it was under mind controlled. Yes, tragedy struck yesterday, but tragedy has struck the League in the past. No one questioned your autonomy move forward. You picked up the pieces, learned to adapt, and strengthened as a Team to minimize such tragedies. Why not do so for the Team?

“Some of you may have questioned enlisting children in your personal wars in the beginning. However, you cannot take a soldier out of war when he is already on the battlefield. You build your child soldiers. Now they’re fighting for what they believe. Take that away from them and the only thing you’re doing is pushing the wars away from you, away from the generals. They’ll work detached from the Justice League, and I won’t stop them. You asked for this when you trained children in the first place. This is the result. You have to deal with that.”

The room is quiet as everyone takes in Nightwing’s words, tention as strong as water pushing against the Hoover Dam filling both the Watchtower and the Cave. Everyone single person knows that the Team isn’t going to stop, regardless of what the JLA says. To an extent, this is the same argument Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin and Superboy had the night the three sidekicks freed Superboy from Cadmus: we are going to do this. Are you doing to make us do it on our own?

Batman, ever the voice of logic, breaks the dam. “The Team has always been an independent unit. It is free to do what it wishes.”

Aquaman interrupts saying “Not anymore! I will not stand for-”

“Aquaman, stand down.” Superman cuts in. “This is a democracy. We will vote on-”

“Bullshit.” Nightwing says flatly. All of the air in the Cave seems to be sucked out and leavt in a vacuum. No outsider swears at a Leaguer, let alone the every Leaguer.  “We just went over the Team’s autonomy. Need I say it again?” Superman is stunted. The Atlantian is clearly unhappy. Whatever moment of shared grief and respect the two heroes had shared a moment ago is gone. But his voice goes soft again as he pleads, “out of respect for Tula, a strong and valued Team member, King Arthur, please, do not taint her sacrifice with destroying something she loved.”

After a long moment, the King must realize this is a battle he’s not going to win. Ever so slowly, he retakes his seat but his glare never leaves Nightwing.

Robin releases a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Cheers and hugs are passed around the Cave. All is right with the world.

Nightwing allows himself the satisfaction of victory, but he’s not done yet. “Great. Now for the reason I’m here.”

The Cave falls silent again. Is stopping the potential disbanding of the Team not enough for a win for the night?

Nightwing’s voice goes from somber understanding to soiled steel. “What. The hell. Is In. The Hall of Justice?”

This catches everyone off guard, even Martian Manhunter, who can read minds.

Black Canary clears her throat. “Do you want to be more specific, Nightwing?”

Then it happens. Nightwing’s vision tunnels and the only thing he can see in Batman in a deep tint of red rage. “There’s a new exhibit B. The hell is it?”

Rocket turns to Robin, the only one who could potentially understand what Batman is up to. “New exhibit?”

Robin shrugs. “Not a clue.”

Wally doesn’t miss a beat. “Shush!”

“Oh you’re one to talk!” Robin accidently yells out loud. A few laughs are earned.

Wally turns to his girlfriend for support, but her response is nothing more than “He’s not wrong.”

Batman’s answer to Nightwing is strictly monitored before the words leave his mouth. “The League decided that it’s time the public knows the sacrifices both the Justice League and Team have made over the years. They deserve respect.”

Nightwing considers before responding, again in his deadly steel cold voice. “‘The Team is an independent unit. It is free to do what it wishes.’ Does that train of thought not extend to its own fallen?”

Batman’s scowl deepens. “what are you implying?”

“This is my Team, Batman. My Team. My Team and their families will choose how their members are honored, not your team. You have no right to put Tula on display. She hasn’t even had a funeral yet and you have her on display in the Hall as if she dies years ago.” his voice has been rising with every word spoken and each word seems to have hit every Leaguer in between the eyes like a bullet. Every member feels it, even the bulletproof ones.

Aquaman cannot keep his mouth shut, and Robin doesn’t blame him. “What’s this about, Batman?”

“The Hall opened a memorial for fallen heroes. Aquagirl’s sacrifice is worth sharing with the world.”

“Sharing her sacrifice and putting her on public display are two different thing Batman!” Nightwing’s been angry, but he’s finally reached his limit. He’s yelling across the room as if no one else is present in the Watchtower, yet, Robin is sure the present audience is the only thing keeping Nightwing from physically attacking the Dark Knight. “You did not happen to decide to make a memorial for the entire League a day after the Team suffers its first loss. That is not your choice to-”

“It is done, Nightwing.” Batman says. There’s a scooting noise as his chair is pushed back when he stands up.

Nightwing is walking towards his former mentor. “You want to put your Leaguers on display, that’s your business. My Team members are not collectables.”

Batman is walking towards his former protege. “If you think this has anything to do with you, you clearly have not learned nearly as much as you think you have.”

“If you think I think this is about me, you do not know me early as well as you think you do. You’ve overstepped on something you have no right to interfere with. I’m only going to tell you once-” The pair stop only when they are nose to nose, standing so close they can see the other eyes though the white lenses of each mask. “-step off.”

The pair face off for a long heartbeat, on one daring to step in, not even Superman. This goes deeper than politics of the JLA vs the Team. Deeper the Batman and Nightwing’s personal issues. Even deeper then Tula. No one is willing to get in the middle of the ideological battle playing out. If a mediator is heading for Earth, Superman isn’t sure he’d be willing to get up, for fear of getting in the middle of Batman and Nightwing (also a healthy dose a fear of the situation in general.)

Seconds drew into minutes. Batman and Nightwing could have been facing off for days and Robin wouldn’t have noticed. So, when the security speakers finally cracked to life, the sound is almost alien.

“Fine,” Batman releases and backs off the stalemate. “The memorial will be taken down within the hour. The League will find an adequate place for its members. I trust your Team will do the same.”

“Gladly.”

Nightwing turns and heads to the Zada platform without another word or glance back that the Justice League.

When he’s gone, Robin hears Green Arrow over the security system, “you raised one scary motherfucker Batman.”

Batman is not amused with Arrow’s comment. Robin is.

[camsthisky]

Can you rec any stories?

Oh boy. You better strap in, because I have read a lot of fics. Most of these will probably be Dick Grayson centric, though, so just a fair warning. I’ve seen a couple people format fic recs like this, and I really like it. I hope it’s organized enough!

Of course, you can always go through my fic recs tag, too!

The Bonds that Tie by DawnsEternalLight Words: 59,507 (between 2 fics)Summary: A series exploring the Batfamily growing closer together.My Comments: Absolutely amazing and heart wrenching. The first fic in thisseries is finished, which is a lot more about Dick and Damian’s relationship,but the second is still ongoing, which is more about Jason and Tim. It’s a wonderfulseries!

To Pass Through This Night by DawnsEternalLightWords: 4,147Summary: When Dick was captured by the Syndicate he died, for a short period of time, but he still died. It’s a fact he kept from his closest friends and family to protect them. When Damian and Tim find out he has to face not only them, but the emotions he’s buried from the event.My Comments: It’s a forever evil fic. Like, you don’t even know how much Ilove this, especially because it involves the whole family’s feelings, not justDick’s.

Even When You’re Down by DawnsEternalLightWords: 4,628Summary: Jason is expecting pizza at his door, not a very sick Dick Grayson. When he can’t figure out what’s wrong with his brother he turns to the only person he can, Bruce.My Comments: Ahhh I love sickfics so much, and this one did not disappoint!Jason and Bruce coming together to care for Dick was amazing to read! To be honest, @preciousthingsareprecious​‘s fics are all amazing, and I’ve read so many of Dawn’s works. These are just my absolute favorites!

Stubborn by audreycritter Words: 20,359 (4/4)Summary: Dick is usually the one taking care of everyone else and he’s bad at asking for help.So bad, in fact, that he never even actually asks– but Jason shows up anyway.And then Dick returns the favor. And then they both do for Tim. And it’s just going to keep going from there.It’s probably Alfred’s fault. When your butler mom calls and says, “Go check on your brother,” you don’t argue. You just do it.My Comments: The first chapter absolutely killed me. It’s a sickfic, witheach chapter focusing on a different batkid. It’s so well written, and it’s oneof my all time favorites!

The Mechanics of a Hug by incogneat-oh Words: 4,154Summary: “So,” Tim ventures. “It's… what, a cuddle pollen?” Bruce just shrugs. “Something like that.” My Comments: It’s funny, it’s angsty, the dialogue is absolutelyamazing, and I would recommend this author’s fics (all of them, really) a thousand times over. This one is just my absolute favorite that I’ve read a bajillion times.

World’s Apart by Fernandidilly_yo Words: 37,169 (3/?)Summary: Dick’s world is falling apart. With all the heroes and Batman gone, the teen thinks this is the end, that is until Dick miraculously end up in an Alternet Universe where the world is whole and there’s a family waiting for him.My Comments: This is an AU that absolutely BREAKS MY HEART. There’s so much description and it’s such an amazing story. It has a lot of potential, and besides the occasional typos/spelling errors, it’s probably one of the best I’ve ever read. I’m looking forward to more!

Locked Away by AutumnHobbit Words: 3,021Summary: anonymous asked: would you consider writing dick being asked to empty jasons locker at school after jason dies?

“Uh, Wayne residence,” he said, cringing after the fact at how hoarse his voice sounded. He scrubbed a hand over his eyes in frustration.“Um, hello. Is, um….” the female voice trailed off hesitantly. “Is Mr. Wayne available at the moment?”“I’m afraid not,” Dick said, trying harder to channel his inner Alfred. “Can I take a message?”“…Yes,” the woman said. “It’s….well, it pertains to his son, Jason.”My Comments: THIS IS SO SAD. I still love it, because it shows a side of Dick that we don’t see often. We see Dick happy around his family, angry, frantic, but never this grieving boy mourning the loss of a brother, and it’s heartbreaking. There are a lot more quality fics by this author, as well.

there is a design, an alignment by irnanWords: 584Summary: Dick’s just had brain surgery. No wonder it hurts.My Comments: This is so sweet. But, of course, Bruce can only seem to show affection to his kids when they’re hurt or unconscious.

exactly how this grace thing works by irnanWords: 22,710Summary: Dick gets de-aged. You’d think this would be a routine thing.My Comments: Honestly, this is the fic that convinced me to stay in the fandom. It’s the fic that I will always aspire to write, quality wise. It’s an amazing piece about a de-aged Dick learning to accept the family that’s suddenly thrust onto him, and his family, in turn, learn things about him that they didn’t know before. The whole fic is amazing.

Who We Were by ZiZzyWords: 105,025 (33/?)Summary: When the Graysons fell their son went to his great-uncle to be trained as a Talon. Four years later he is rescued and taken to live at Wayne Manor. But, he is not the talkative boy he once was, in fact talking at all is a bit of a problem… A series of connected oneshots about how the Batfamily is formed when the older brother is not quite who he was meant to be.The timeline of each chapter is in the A/Ns.My Comments: It’s a little hard to get used to this fic, since most of them are read like one-shots in the same AU, but this fic destroyed me. Dick is so adorable, and he’s going through so much, and Bruce is so understanding. The last couple of chapters had me in tears.

Half Lost, Half Found by takadainmateWords: 23,632 (4/5)Summary: Driven underground, Batman fights to keep Nightwing alive. There is a fight. There’s always a fight.My Comments: I always recommend this story, but it’s amazing. There’s a lot of tension between Dick and Bruce, but they have to work together in order to survive. Sadly, this fic hasn’t been updated since 2013, but it’s only the last chapter that’s missing. It’s still a great story, even without it.

Family is a Crisis by LysicalWords: 4,172Summary: In their family there’s always some sort of crisis going on.“Probably a fashion crisis,” Jason muttered. “He probably dragged us all here so he could show off some chartreuse and fuchsia monstrosity.” “You aren’t making a new costume again, are you?” Damian added, nose wrinkling. “I thought we all agreed you were staying away from colors.”My Comments: This fic is hilarious.Seriously, as much as I wish Tim was in it, too, it is the perfect sequel to the one scene at the burger joint in Batman #16.

Grade School by KagSesshloveWords: 100,098 (13 fics)Summary:Imagine that Damian goes to a regular school full time. And has to do things that normal grade-schoolers have to do. This is his life now: pretending to be a normal 10 year old at school all for the sake of the public. But, honestly, the public would rather he not.My Comments: When I first found this fic, I think I started screaming at @stepichu to read it, too, I was so excited. I think I actually read it twice in one week? Please read this entire series. It’s hilarious and serious and just plain amazing. Sometimes the characterizations are a little exaggerated, but I still love it. It totally adds to the story! And the best part is that it was just completed!

the man with guns for eyes by 8swordWords: 22,056Summary: “Don’t blame him, little D. He gave me a choice.” “He always makes it a choice,” Damian mutters. “If you’re the one who makes the decision, it’s your fault if it’s the wrong one.” (Dick comes back from the dead.)My Comments: Hm. Okay, on the one hand I really like reading this fic, because the boys are all forced to talk to each other and try to work things out. On the other hand, sometimes this fic leaves me reeling. There’s a lot to get through in one sitting, and sometimes I have to break it up.

With Friends Like These by ChimaeraKittenWords: 4141Summary: How Artemis got to know both Dick Grayson and Robin before finding out they were the same person. My Comments: This is a YJ fic, but it’s really good. Like, I didn’t know I needed Artemis getting to know Dick Grayson so badly until I read this. There are also some other really good fics by @chimaerakitten​, but this one is one that I fell in love with.

Crowded Enough by CaraLeeWords: 18,744 (15/?)Summary: An AU built off of the titular line from the pilot episodes of Young Justice. Dick Grayson comes home from the events at CADMUS to the enjoyment of his various siblings, friends, and sibling-like people. Now extended: One chapter per episode of the first season. Plus a few extras.My Comments: I love this so much. Each chapter is gold.

Save You by ArsenicInYourPuddingWords: 6538 (4/4)Summary: The three times Wally West made sure Dick Grayson lived to fight another day, and the one time he didn’t have to.My Comments: Warnings for suicidal thoughts/actions. The bromance between Dick and Wally in this is amazing, and this fic got me through some tough times. The whole thing always has my crying by the end, no matter how many times I read it.

That’s just on ao3, and it’s getting really late, so I needed to shorten this a bit. I will say that you’re welcome to look through my bookmarks on ao3 and my story favs on ff.net if you’re looking for more. There are a lot of amazing fics out there that I didn’t mention. I probably will come back to update this sooner or later.

edit because I don’t know how I forgot these:

Interval of Shadow by CaramelMacheteWords: 41,403 (15/?)Summary: Nightwing, Robin and Red Robin take on Clayface. Nightwing does not emerge unscathed.Is this the end of Nightwing’s career? How will the rest of family react? Will Dick recover, and what should he do if he can’t?My Comments: My goodness, this fic is honest to god amazing. It shows the struggle Dick goes through and how his family scrambles to be there for him. The interactions between everyone is so spot on, and if you haven’t read this, read it. And then come scream at me or @caramelmachete about it.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by anon_nom_nomWords: 3,614Summary: Prompt from yj_anon_meme:Okay, so I always thought that the reason DCAU Dick turned into such a bitter little thing was because he only ever had Batman, and sometimes Batgirl, but he never had his Titans or his Wally or anything.So I would like so see something where Robin is starting to show early warning signs of this, maybe just frustration after a really bad night on the job in Gotham with Batman, and him actually having his team there to help him deal with it.In which Robin has a bad night, discusses poetry, and gets a massage.My Comments: This is a YJ fic that shows the struggle that Dick goes through as a partner of Batman, and I find it super realistic. It’s really fluffy with a hint of light angst, and all of the characters are spot on.

Fear by tristen84Words: 18,622 (6/6)Summary: While on a stake-out together, Robin and Kid Flash have a frightening run-in with Scarecrow. Dick-Wally friendship.My Comments: Another YJ fic. If you want Wally and Dick bromance, like, this is the fic. It’s a really good story, too, and it shows just how much both Dick and Wally care for each other. It’s a good read.

I’m probably still forgetting some, but these are all amazing, too, and please check them out!

[winchester-with-wings]

Troublemakers, Part 2 / (Second Chances Series)

Bruce Wayne x daughter!reader fic!

AUTHOR: @faithtrustandpixiedust95

Summary: Dick Grayson is determined to avenge his parent’s deaths. You and Roy realize he’s in over his head and may need help.

Word Count: 3600

A/N: reader is about 12ish. My sister is writing her fics all in the same universe but each one has a different title and are broken into parts. DIVERGENT FROM CANON>>>Dick is 12, not 9 like he is in canon when going to live with Bruce.

*Disclaimer* I did not write this. My sister, Sam, did and I am posting this with her permission.

Sequel to

“Shattered Beginnings” 1 / 2

“Adjusting” 1 / 2

“Growing Pains” 1 / 2

“Troublemakers” 1

Sam’s Mobile Masterlist

The first address you and Roy went to was a dead end.

The two of you had broke into the dark apartment and looked around long enough to know that this wasn’t the place you were looking for. So you headed off to the next address, which wasn’t too far away.

You and Roy knew this city better than Dick did. He had only been here for a couple weeks after all; he didn’t grow up exploring the city like you and Roy had during countless nights of training.

You took a shortcut down some side alleys and a few rooftops and you were at the next address rather quickly.

“I hope we’re not far behind him. I don’t know when he left,” you were talking quietly to Roy when he punched your arm and pointed.

“Look. Is that him?” Roy was squinting in the dark, pointing at a person dressed in a black and red hoodie who had a similar build to Dick.

“Yeah, I think so,” you confirmed your friend’s guess, “C’mon. Let’s get down to him before he goes into the building and gets himself killed.”

Roy took the lead on climbing down the side of the building. You both were scurrying down the fire escape trying to get to Dick as quickly as you could, but he went into the building before you had a chance to catch him.

You weren’t able to call out to him to get his attention without blowing your cover to anyone who was around. It was imperative you and Roy used stealth cover in this part of town. Drawing attention to yourselves was not a good idea around here.

Roy dropped to the ground from the fire escape and ran to the entrance of the building. You used one of the acrobatic flips Dick had taught you earlier to get down from the last platform of the fire escape and then ran to be with Roy.

Roy had picked the lock to the door that normally needed to be buzzed open by a resident. You both slowly entered the building and followed the sound of Dick’s light footsteps up the stairs.

Batman had followed the one thug who got singled out to run the supply errand. He stopped at a corner store and bought a few items.

When he stepped out of the store with a brown paper bag of supplies, he started walking in the opposite direction he had came from.

Batman continued to follow the man from the rooftops, keeping a good distance so the man didn’t feel his presence.

He walked for a good twenty minutes when he came up on a dingy old looking apartment building that had a few lights still on for this late at night. He walked to the entrance of the building and buzzed the apartment he wanted access to, he entered the door once it had opened.

Batman dropped to the ground and moved to the building’s entrance. Using the same technique that Roy had used on it 20 minutes earlier, he opened the door and heard a loud noise resonate from an upstairs apartment. It sounded like someone was throwing things against the walls. He headed up the stairs to the apartment where the racket had been coming from.

Dick had gotten to the apartment before you and Roy were able to stop him.

You could hear him yelling at Zucco and then you heard something break with a shatter.

You and Roy busted the door to the apartment open and saw Dick and Zucco standing across from each other. Dick had been yelling at the man, throwing whatever was closest to him.

“What the hell is this?! Ametuer hour?” Zucco yelled out. “What are you kids doing here, how did you find me, what do you want?”

Zucco had a confused look on his face, but you could tell he wasn’t threatened by the three of you. Dick looked at you and Roy angrily. He was seething with rage and you could see it, plain as day, on his face.

“Hey,” you yelled to Dick, you knew not to say his name in order to protect your identities, “what are you doing? Think this through!”

“I already have!” Dick shouted back at you with intensity. “This prick killed them! I need to do this!” He was slightly shaking out of anger and that’s when you saw the kitchen knife in his hand that he had taken from the counter top.

Two thugs had entered the main room now, curious about all the yelling that was going on. There was now one thug per kid and this was going to be an interesting fight.

Dick made the first move, lunging at Zucco who then yelled at the other two men to go after you and Roy.

You put your focus on the man that was now running for you. You dove in between the man’s legs using your small stature to evade his grasp.

Roy on the other hand took a more offensive approach. He let the other guy come right to him and try to attack him and that’s when he started throwing punches and dodging the ones meant for him.

Dick was making advance after advance at Zucco with the knife, each time just barely missing the man’s flesh. He was fighting out of pure hatred and emotion. Zucco knew this and he was able to punch Dick a few times, each time making the boy more and more mad.

You were watching Dick attack Zucco and were going towards them when these big arms wrapped around you in a tight squeeze. Your thug had taken advantage of your distraction to get ahold of you. He threw you across the room and into the coffee table near the couches, shattering the glass table as you made contact with it.

You quickly got back up in order to serve a right hook to the approaching man’s face, breaking his nose upon contact. You stayed focused on your thug managing to evade and dodge most of his attacks. Your method was always to tire someone out before you started throwing blows.

Roy was fighting tooth and nail with his thug. The man was bigger than him by almost 200 lbs and Roy was doing his best against his opponent’s strength. The man had dropped his shoulder into Roy’s body and ran him into the wall behind him, all the while throwing punches into the boy’s abdomen. His lip was split open and he was wincing in pain at each punch.

That’s when he brought his elbow up and then forced it down right onto the neck of the man causing him to recoil in pain. Roy took the moment to send several punches to the man’s jaw and pushed him back far enough to where he could deliver a brutal head-kick to the man, knocking him unconscious.

You were struggling with your thug. You had delivered several nerve-strikes to the man’s body and he was losing feeling and slowing down a bit. But he somehow managed to keep picking you up and throwing you. He had picked you up and then threw you hard onto the floor where he jumped on top of you, throwing multiple strikes to your face. You were blocking them, trying to figure out how you could get out of this position, when you bucked your hips enough to throw the man off balance. You scooted out from underneath him and then jumped onto his back, putting your arms around his neck in a choke hold.

The man stood up flailing his arms to try and get you off his back. You had your hold in a tight grip that you knew the man wouldn’t be able to break. While you were being backed into a wall by the man trying to hit you against the wall hard enough to break the hold, you yelled to Roy who had just knocked out his gangster.

“Go help him!” you motioned your head towards Dick’s direction and Roy did as told.

Dick was doing his best to attack Zucco. He was throwing punches and kicks and trying to cut the man with the knife. He had only trained with you and Roy for the first time this afternoon and he was not in the same head space now that he was in then; he didn’t know what he was up against.

Zucco was taking advantage of the sloppy attacks to throw punches and jabs at Dick when he could. Dick had gotten the knife against Zucco’s skin just enough to slice him here and there. He decided to drop the knife and try brute force instead. He got close to the large man and threw a solid punch to the man’s jaw busting open his lip.

You could see Zucco get enraged and that’s when he went all-out for Dick. He charged the boy and threw him against a wall. He was throwing hit after hit, Dick was doing his best to block the punches still barely conscious, when Roy jumped on Zucco’s back. Dick slid down the wall to the floor out of pain as Roy did his best to take on the crime-boss.

You still had your choke hold on your thug while he was still thrashing you against the wall, each thrash losing force behind it. You could feel the man getting winded and losing his power as he lost consciousness.

He was just dropping to the ground when Batman burst into the apartment to see what was going on. The thug that had made the supply run was lying on the ground in the hallway with all the bagged items strewn about him.

Batman looked to the man on the floor that Roy had knocked out and then he looked at you with the man in your choke hold dropping to the floor unconscious. His eyes then met Zucco’s, whose eyes went wide with fear at the sight of the masked vigilante.

He threw Roy off his back and delivered a brutal hit to the boy’s stomach, causing him to crumble to the floor with the wind knocked out of him. Dick was still on the ground against the wall trying to catch his breath from his beating.

Zucco kept his eyes on the Batman as he crossed the room slowly.

“So you sent little maggots to find me? I’m insulted,” the man taunted.

“These kids acted on their own. I had nothing to do with it. You must not be very good at picking safe houses if kids can find where you’re hiding out, Zucco,” Batman responded in his distorted voice, stepping closer to the man.

You were catching your breath from being thrashed against the wall so many times, you were in a lot of pain and had just stood up when Zucco pulled you by your hair and picked up the knife Dick had dropped earlier.

He had the knife against your throat and Batman stood still.

“You don’t want to do that, Tony…” Batman slowly said, the calm anger in his voice.

“Yeah? Why’s that? This little brat isn’t gonna do shit to me,” he spat back.

That’s when you took a deep breath and put your hands on the man’s arm that was draped across you. The knife slowly poked into your skin, but it didn’t go very deep. You put your back into it and flipped the man over your shoulder, using his weight against him. Once he was on the floor, you sent the hardest punch you could, square to the middle of his face, knocking him out.

When you saw he was out, you sat down on your knees and took a deep breath, putting your hand to the small puncture wound on your neck, you looked over to the boys before looking at your dad.

He walked up to you and helped you stand up, he saw how stiff and sore you were.

“Y/N are you okay?” was all he said, yet you could still hear the disapproval in his voice.

“Yeah, I think so…” you struggled to meet his gaze.

“Roy, Dick, are you guys okay?” Batman walked over to the two young men who were sitting close by each other.

Roy nodded, he too was struggling to meet Batman’s gaze. Dick seemed confused that Batman knew all three of you by name.

Dick was quiet, he was looking around the room at the mess the fight had made. A lot of the furniture was strewn about the apartment and there were several depressions of broken plaster on the walls where some of the fighting had taken place. There was a lot of broken glass from the shattered coffee table as well.

“I’m sorry, you guys…” he said very softly in an ashamed tone to you and Roy. “I was just so mad…”

“Dick, why did you go after Zucco? You could’ve gotten yourself killed,” Batman walked over to the young man and helped him to stand. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t gotten here in time and Zucco had hurt all three of you.”

Dick looked up at Batman with confusion on his face at the last part of Batman’s statement, “What do you mean?”

Batman slipped his cowl off to reveal his face to Dick as he helped Roy stand up next. Roy was still doubling over in pain even with Bruce now helping him to stay on his feet.

Dick just looked at Bruce in disbelief. You could see it on his face, the boy didn’t know whether to be angry or relieved at the discovery that his current foster parent was a vigilante.

Bruce put the cowl back in place and picked up Roy in his arms, seeing that the boy was going to struggle to walk with the muscles in his stomach being cramped.

“We need to get out of here. The police will be here soon to take Zucco and his thugs into custody,” Bruce was walking towards the door as you and Dick followed behind, battered and bruised.

“So...you’re not mad?” you asked in a nervous tone to your dad.

He looked over his shoulder and said, “I’m furious, but we’ll talk about it once we get back to the cave. Now let’s go.”

You rolled your shoulders forward in submission, knowing you were in for a serious lecture and punishment when you got home. For now you put your arm around Dick and helped to steady each other’s wobbly walk.

Once back at the cave, Batman placed Roy on a medical bed to rest until his muscles seized their cramping. You walked in behind your dad slowly and Dick followed.

Alfred watched as you all entered and had on a surprised facial expression, “Expanding the team, are we sir?”

“No, Alfred. We just have a few troublemakers on our hands that need to learn their place,” Bruce said as he removed his cowl once more, this time taking it off completely and setting it on his desk.

You shrunk at your dad’s words and thought about what to say, but before you could say anything, Dick spoke up.

“Bruce, this is my fault. Don’t be mad at Y/N and Roy. They were just trying to stop me from getting myself killed,” he started, “I’d probably be dead if it weren’t for them. They saved me. Be mad at me, kick me out and put me in an orphanage, but don’t be mad at them. They did nothing wrong.”

You could see he was beating himself up on the inside. He was mad at himself for putting your lives in danger. He was mad at how stupid he had been.

“Dick…” Bruce’s voice was soft, but firm in the way that only Bruce’s voice could be, “I’m not kicking you out and you’re not going to an orphanage. You’re staying here with me and Y/N and Roy...permanently. It’s up to you, but you're welcome to stay here and be a part of our family if you want…”

That caught everyone, including Alfred, off guard. You all looked at Dick and then at Bruce.

Dick looked at you and then Roy and then back to Bruce, “I'd like that very much…but why now all of a sudden?”

“I was thinking about it earlier tonight while I was following the thug to Zucco’s safe house,” he started, “You fit in here...we--I, I like having you here and I think Y/N does too.” He looked over to you as you were nodding and smiled.

“But that doesn’t excuse what you did tonight. All three of you,” he looked sternly at all you kids refocusing on the issue at hand.

You were sitting on the end of the bed that Roy was resting on, he had propped himself up on his elbow so he could be part of the conversation, and Dick was standing close to the bed with his arms gently wrapped around himself.

“Despite it being Dick’s decision to go after Zucco, it was Y/N and Roy’s decision to not bring me into the picture to handle it instead of yourselves,” he explained to the three of you.

You went to explain your thought process behind that decision, “Yeah, but Dad you were going out on patrol. I thought that Roy and I could get to Dick before anything happened. I didn’t want you to ditch your patrol to go after something I thought we could’ve handled. And we did handle it for the most part too, I think we had it under control until the last part of the fight…”

You were shrinking smaller and smaller under your dad’s gaze when Roy spoke up, “Yeah, we had it covered. It had just evened out to three against one when you had walked through the door.”

“Roy Harper, don’t you think you can talk your way out of being in trouble,” Bruce had a serious dad-voice going on at the moment, “Regardless of if you had it ‘handled’ or not, you all got hurt. I mean look at yourselves!”

The three of you looked each other over. Roy had a busted lip and a black eye along with his bruised abdomen. Dick had a black eye too and a good scrape on his forehead near his hairline that had been bleeding pretty good. And you. You had a bloody nose and a busted lip too as well as the puncture wound on your neck from the knife. All three of you had bloody knuckles from punching the thugs you had been fighting. You had a good swollen bump on the back of your head that was bleeding a little from getting slammed against the wall so many times. Dick also had some bruising on his ribs from the jabs he had sustained from Zucco.

The three of you were a regular trio of scrappers.

Roy had a small smile spreading across his face, “Yeah, but you have to admit, we look pretty badass and we kicked the shit out of those guys!”

The three of you kids laughed and Bruce just looked on disapprovingly, “Roy, Oliver is going to hear about this in the morning,” he said sternly and then he pointed to you and Dick, “And as for you two, you’re both grounded for a month. No phones and no laptops.”

Dick’s mouth dropped open and you just laughed, knowing the punishment was going to be more difficult for him.

“You guys are restricted in what you get to do and where you go, nothing more than going to school, training, and being here at the house. No movies, no shopping at the mall, no dinners out.”

That’s when your mouth dropped open, “Dad! You can’t be serious!”

“You bet I am, young lady! You need to understand how serious of an issue this is. You’re lucky it’s not worse than that,” he said with a serious face.

Alfred had been in the cave watching the whole scene unfold and he had a small smile cross his face with a barely detectable laugh underlying it.

You saw Alfred’s shoulders move in a chuckle and whined, “Alfred! It’s not funny!”

“I’m sorry Miss Y/N, I couldn’t help myself,” he said with an apologetic smile.

“Now clean yourselves up and go on up to bed, the three of you. I’ll take you to school in the morning and if anyone asks, the black eyes are from your MMA training increasing in challenge,” Bruce explained.

The three of you looked at each other and giggled, immediately wincing in pain from your sore muscles, which only made you giggle more. You cleaned up your cuts and bruises and shuffled up to the house.

The three of you then proceeded to have a sleepover on the floor of your room for the rest of the night. You stayed up for another hour or so talking about everything that had just happened. Most of all, Dick getting adopted by Bruce.

You were excited to have a brother and Dick was excited to have a family again. He felt a release of tension that he’d been holding onto, not knowing what was going to happen to him after his time at the manor ended. That was now a thought of the past that he no longer needed to lose sleep over.

He was home and home to stay.

tagging: @disappointeddinosaur @readerlucy @alohalisha @fantastic-fantasy-fanfics @sleepingalong @ahsokaslament @annabananna394 @kiri-hakumei @chrisevansisdaddy04 @emily-83113 @heyitsilverwolf @evyiione @abbytheninja