#in that case ???? bug and robin i guess ????

[dizzybizz]

some star rail, some penacony story fuckers specifically... y'know how it is (it's bad the brainrot is so bad help me help)

[stevie-petey]

hey dear i hope all is well. inspired by val i kind of wanted to ask about what you have planned for s4, or i guess, how you are planning to tackle season 4 given that it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger since character arcs and plot points will ostensibly wrap up in season 5? i am also mildly hesistant to ask this because i don't want to make you spoil something you don't want to, but i was wondering if you were interested in ultimately giving stev and bug a happy ending, perhaps despite what the duffer bros might do, for eg, kill steve off? i know you've said you don't think they will, but i'm a little unsure about that since killing off a character per season has sort of become their signature, or at the very least, unsatisfying character writing for steve as can happen at times with this writing room. also, idk why, but i am quite sure that w*ll or el will die, idk why, it just doesn't make sense to me to have them survive

hi my dear <3

season 3 sets up my character plans for 4, and no worries about spoilers but yes ultimately im gonna try my damn hardest to have a steve and bug endhame. i am absolutely terrified for what the duffer bros have planned ,,,

if somehow it ends with stancy, i will evaluate where the story is at and see if maybe i can work a bug n jon ending ??? if i have to though. steve and bug are my endgame, its been the plan from the start !! if steve dies ,,,, jon it is i guess ?

[lovebugism]

Hiii!!!

So I have this idea, i hope you like it: Picnic day with steve and the kids, chaotic but full of fun and love ♡

hi angel! this was a super fun request! i hope you like it!! — the one where steve takes his babysitting gig up to weathertop and you bring peace to the ensuing chaos (fluff, established relationship, 1.9k)

bug's summer fic fest ♡

The hike to Weathertop is long and merciless. Even though Dustin warned you it would be, Steve complains the entire trek upwards.

“There’s no way we’re not there yet, dude,” the boy whines like a child, head thrown back and eyes squeezed shut. 

You’re practically dragging him up the relentless mountain now. With every labored stride, full of aching thighs and blades of grass cutting your ankles, you’re pulling a human with you. 

Steve’s hand hasn’t left yours since you pulled off at the side of the road at Kerley, nearly a half hour ago. His long fingers stay curled between yours — sweaty palms, incessant griping, and all.

“For the hundredth time, we’re close, alright?” Dustin gripes between heavy pants. The curly-haired boy leads the group with a duffle bag of supplies in tow. “You know, maybe if you stop complaining, we’d get there faster.”

“Alright. Watch the tone, you little shit,” Steve squints at the back of him.

You grin at the red-faced boy, equally as exerted as you tug on his hand. 

“C’mon. Stevie,” you lilt with your head to your shoulder, blinking at him with pretty eyes that sparkle beneath a yellow sun. “We’re almost there, okay? I can almost see the top of it now.”

You walk ahead of him with the intent to pull him forward. He plants his feet, dirty sneakers rooted in the billowing grass — immovable. You’re not nearly as athletic as he is. None of you are. But he’s eons more dramatic than the lot of you. Stubborn, too.

“I don’t know how you dragged me into this,” Steve deadpans. Though his structured features are fixed in a firm scowl, his chocolate eyes still melt for you.

This was the one day all week he had off from the hellscape that was Starcourt. He’d had it all planned out — breakfast in bed with his girl, a little hike after lunch with his friends, maybe a swim after, and then a movie and dinner (again, with his best girl).

But it’s well into the afternoon now, with no end of the journey in sight. All his plans are ruined and, like a boy, he pouts.

“‘Cause you love me?” you reply with a scrunched nose and an innocent shrug.

Steve only huffs in response. The big, dramatic exhale deflates his chest. He lets you pull him up the hill despite the glower on his face.

He grumbles like a raincloud, “Yeah… Guess so…”

Dustin tells you all about a girl named Suzie he met at summer camp. Something about Utah, Phoebe Cates, and ‘super religious white people.’ It’s hard to hear him over the blood rushing in your ears. 

“I’m not Mormon, so her parents would never approve. It’s all a bit… Shakespearean—”

“I don’t wanna alarm anyone, but I think I might have sunstroke,” Robin blurts with wide eyes.

You all still and turn to look at her. Steve scoffs. “Do you even know the signs of sunstroke?”

“Are you hot?” you ask the brunette girl who idles on the other side of Steve.

“Like an oven,” she affirms, freckled face glowing pink. “If you touch me right now, I might actually burn you.”

“Are you dizzy? Or Nauseous?”

“I’ve been debating using this picnic basket as a puke bucket for five whole minutes,” she confesses quickly.

Max leaves Lucas’ side and walks a few steps down the mountain to take the wicker basket from the girl’s grip. Just in case.

“Are you confused?”

“Always,” Robin and Steve answer at the same time.

“Well, shit, Buckley,” you quip with a huff. “You might have sunstroke.”

The boy squeezes your hand and he shoots you a look. “Don’t tell her that. You’ll just freak her out.”

“Too late,” Robin wavers, glassy-eyed gaze gaping and faraway.

“Look!” Dustin exclaims. He’s got a wide grin on his face as he points further up the mountain. “I can see Cerebro now! That means we’re close!”

“You’ve been saying that for ten minutes!” Steve shouts in response.

The curly-haired boy shifts awkwardly under the weight of his glare. “Yeah, but… Now, I mean it.”

And sure, the hike to Weathertop was long and merciless, but the view was worth it. 

It was the highest point in all of Hawkins, according to Dustin’s calculations. You could see the small town vaguely in the distance, though nature consumed you most of all. The tall grass and lush trees surrounding you were virtually untouched by man — well, aside from a couple of teenagers and their satellite, at least.

Steve squints up at the metal structure with his hands on his hips. He looks too much like a dad in his basketball shorts and form-fitting t-shirt.

“Damn,” he huffs. “You guys built all this?”

Dustin grins. “Yep. Impressed?”

“By how nerdy all of you are? Absolutely,” the boy mutters before walking over to you.

You stand at the edge of the hill, your gaze glued to the green spanning miles ahead of you. Everything is tinted a flaxen shade with the sun just starting to set. In the pink sky, everything glimmers golden.

“It’s so pretty up here,” you marvel as Steve’s arms curl around your waist.

He hugs you to him, neverminding the sweat dampening your sticky skin. His face leans against yours. You can feel the scruff dusting along his reddened cheek. 

“Isn’t this sunset, like, the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?”

“Hmm. I don’t know,” Steve hums with a teasing inflection. “Maybe the second most beautiful thing.”

He’s beaming when you spin in his arms. You meet his wide grin with a playful scowl. 

“You’re such an idiot,” you grouse, though you’re smiling by the time he leans down to kiss you. 

His lips are soft and pink like the sky above you. He tastes like peanuts and chocolate from the trail mix he had earlier. You melt into him effortlessly, too quickly forgetting where you are.

“Don’t be gross!” Robin whines from behind the two of you.

You part from Steve to look over at her. Her arms are crossed over her chest and her features are contorted in discontent.

“I don’t have an escape route up here for that, and I am not walking all the way back down there.”

“Sorry…” you wince as you step out of Steve’s arms.

“Yeah, sorry, Robin,” the boy concedes, just before pulling you back and smacking another kiss to your cheek.

—————

The day goes by in a blink. 

It hardly feels like hours have passed, but the sun has long set over Weathertop now. The sky turns into a deep blue velvet shade and sparkles with twinkling stars.

Dustin hasn’t yet parted from Cerebro. He’s still trying to contact Suzie, but she hasn’t answered him yet. He certainly isn’t disproving the fake girlfriend allegations, but the rest of them gave up teasing him about it long ago.

Instead, you idle in the dewy grass with your heads tilted to the sky. 

Max and Lucas share a blanket with Mike and Will. The latter two boys have long dozed off, full on candy and sandwiches. You and Steve lay across from them on your own quilt. He leans back, propped up on his toned arms as you lounge against his chest. 

Robin sits on the cooler next to Cerebro and tries not to go crazy when Dustin asks, “Suzie, do you copy?” for the millionth time.

“Look! There’s Orion!” you grin as you point to the sky.

Steve follows your finger and squints. “There’s no way you’re actually seeing this shit.”

“Just find Sirius and go a little to the left,” you explain, motioning to the constellation with your hand. “It looks like a person holding a bow and arrow. You literally can’t miss it.”

You tilt your head against the boy’s chest to see his face. His bushy brows pinch together in confusion. “What the hell is a Sirius?” 

“Suzie, do you copy—”

“Oh, my god,” Robin groans. “She’s obviously not there, Dustin.”

“She’s there! She’ll pick up!”

“Maybe Cerebro just doesn’t work,” Steve shrugs.

Lucas counters without missing a beat. “Or maybe Suzie just doesn’t exist.”

“She exists!” Dustin retorts, his voice a few octaves higher than normal.

“She’s a genius, and she’s hotter than Phoebe Cates?” the boy scoffs with a laugh. “No girl is that perfect.”

“Ooh,” you hear Steve wince from behind you when Max shoots up from her lazed position. You cover your mouth to hide your smile as Lucas sits up with her. He looks a little bit frightened beneath the redhead’s piercing glare.

“Is that so?” Max wonders with an arched brow. She tilts her head to her shoulder and turns to look at you. “Would Steve ever say something that to you?”

“Definitely not,” you answer with a shake of your head.

“Because he’s, like, definitely smarter than that, right?”

You nod. “Absolutely.”

“I mean… You’re perfect! Like, perfect in your own way!” Lucas stammers as he tries to defend himself. “In your own— In your own special way.”

You feel Steve’s laugh rumble in his chest. “He’s a little confused, but he’s got the spirit.”

The younger couple squints at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that it’s not about being hotter than Phoebe Cates,” the boy answers with a shrug. 

You lean back against him to watch his face as he explains. He props you and him up with one arm and gestures with the other. “Like, sure, she’s pretty and all, but she’s not real. When you love someone, you love them because they’re not perfect. Not in spite of it, you know?”

“Well, statistically speaking, no one’s perfect,” Dustin chimes in with the radio’s microphone in hand.

Steve scoffs. “That’s not true. Whatever happened to beauty is in the eye of the beholder, huh? Being perfect isn’t about not having flaws or whatever. That’s bullshit. It’s about loving someone and thinking they’re still perfect even if they are loud, and weird, and strange.”

Your chest swells with so much warmth that it starts to ache. Maybe it’s just the lingering sunburn or your adoration for the boy you lay upon. You can feel the burn of it either way. 

A grin tugs at the corners of your mouth as you squint up at him. You can only see the chiseled edges of his profile from this angle. “Not to be presumptuous or anything, but are you saying that I’m loud and weird and strange?” 

Steve tilts his chin to look down at you. His brown eyes sparkle, full of love and warmth, as he smiles softly down at you. “You are absolutely all of those things, yes.”

You beam up at him, bright like the moonlight bathing the two of you in neon blue. You’ve never felt so loved for all the things you hated about yourself. 

Steve’s got the same dazzling smile on his face as he leans down to kiss you. You quickly find that it’s impossible to lock your mouths together when you’re grinning so wide. It’s just smiles pressed against smiles and noses knocking together for all of half a second.

“Jesus Christ,” Robin grouses in a mumble as she tears the crust off her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She shoves it in her mouth a second later and mumbles through the mouthful. “I’d rather be having sunstroke.”

“Tell me about it,” Dustin scoffs, then turns back to the radio. “Suzie, do you copy?”

He flinches when a balled-up piece of bread comes flying his way.

[ghost-bxrd]

While we're on the topic of non human / supernatural AUs...

Any takes on demon Batfam?

I'm doing a series with everyone except Bruce being a demon of some sort...

Death herald Dick (in some lore the Robin birds are psychopomps...), incubus Jason, Exorcist Bruce etc.

Of course, morality wise I'm going off the Indian than western lore of demons - basically just another species, as likely to be good or bad as humans...

Not any particular thoughts other than the big brainstorming session a while ago about demons I had with @cyrwrites ✨

But in general I love depicting incubi/succubi as cuddle bugs who need a lot of physical affection and contact with their clan members to thrive.

And a death herald, in case they work a little like how a Banshee works… well, I guess Dick would know of Jason’s death shortly before it would occur. Wonder if he could manage to save him…

[phantom-dc]

Jason is 23 years old.

He is dreaming again, the same green place. Now he remembered the floating islands and the purple doors. He had no idea why he’d dream about those though, nor did he really care. There was something beyond those, a black and white blur that never came into focus. The most he ever remembered of that was a happy smile, but nothing more than that. As he tries to reach out to it, he hears a loud thud.

He wakes up, falling of his couch in the process. Groaning Jason gets up. Looking at the clock, he decides it’s time for lunch. Well, breakfast, but if you are a nighttime vigilante you get to wake up at 3 and call breakfast lunch. Grabbing some food, he notices Tim’s coffee. Jason never thought he and his family would get back to the point where they leave stuff at his house just in case. And with Alfred putting a ban on coffee more often than not, Tim had resorted to stashing his supply here, where no one would even think to look. Not long ago Jason would have shot him for even asking, and now he’d agreed to it.

THUD!

He heard it again! Surprised, Jason started scanning for the sound. Sure enough, after a while he heard another thud, and the came from next door. Which was strange, as the appartement next to his was supposed to be empty. Suspicious, he grabs one of his guns, before heading to the fire escape. He’d have a perfect view into the apartment from there. Sliding open his window and stepping through, he tried to look inside.

Suddenly the other window opened! Startled, Jason had almost shot the guy that came through. Lucky he didn’t, as he didn’t seem dangerous. The guy put up a flower pot on the railing before turning around to head back inside. He noticed Jason, and seemed surprised. He wasn’t told he’d have a neighbor! Jason looks inside the room, seeing bunch of boxes. He realizes that the guy was moving in. Jason says he wasn’t notified either. He nearly shot him, thinking he was an intruder. The guy asks, an intruder at 3 in the afternoon? Jason says in Gotham, you never know. That’s why they got the Signal nowadays. Putting the gun away, he asks if the guy is staying long or looking for something better. The guy laughs and says here is just fine. It’s close to his new job and the view is great. Jason curses inside. Now he needs to find a new safehouse to live in. Can’t have neighbors hearing his Red hood activities, and with a shared fire escape his nighttime front door is a bit too exposed.

The guy introduces himself as Danny. He offers Jason some baked sweets. Jason likes the guy, he seems nice. He hopes the people that’ll move into Jason’s apartment when he leaves won’t make trouble for him. He introduces himself as Jason. He asks if Danny’s been in Gotham for long, since he’s a bit too trusting for a Gothamite. Danny laughs, asking if he’s that obvious. No, he’s from Amity Park, and only visited a few times when he was younger. Road trip with the parents, school trip, that sort of stuff. Jason suddenly feels there is something familiar about this. Danny continues: I did get caught in a rogue attack once! Even got rescued by a Robin. I guess I can scratch that of the list. Anything else I need to do before I can be called a true Gotham citizen? Jason’s head starts to ache a bit as he tries to remember why this feels familiar, asking which Robin to look more interested. The tiny one or Red Robin? Danny shakes his head, this was years ago on a school trip. The observatory was attacked by that fire bug guy, and that Robin saved me! The second one, I think? Jason’s head starts to really hurt now. He knows this guy. He knows it! But not from his Red Hood days, no, before that. But not his Robin days, either. He rarely remembered all the people he saved. It was after that, but that’s…

Are you ok? You don’t look so good. Danny is worried, reaching out his hand. Jason tries to shrug it off, claiming he just needs an ibuprofen, but then Danny’s hand touches his shoulder.

Instantly Jason feels like an icy shock went through his soul. He knows this guy! He knows Danny, he remembers… green eyes meet:

Blue Jay?

First - Previous - AO3

END

[boyfridged]

It bugs me a lot as to why DC seems hesitant/uninterested to explore Dick and Jason's connection more. I saw one of your posts talking about the significance of Jason dying in Dick's robin costume and seeing as Dick is like the only other person aside from Bruce (and I guess Alfred) to really be affected by Jay's death to the point he has hallucinations about jaybin, I think their reunion after Jason's resurrection was lackluster at best. Idk if this is just me holding on to bias, but I find Dick and Jay's relationship a much more interesting dynamic to explore & develop than say Dick's relationship with *** or Damian. So I'm really curious, if it'd been up to you how would you go about their first reunion (specifically after Dick finds out Red Hood's true identity) and the development of their relationship (assuming Jason takes the route of reuniting and reconnecting with his family & preferably with BFTC not existing) moving forward.

i know this was not your main question, but as to why dc seems hesitant to explore dick and jason's connection more, i reckon it would be difficult for them due to retcons to both jay's and dick's personality, which subsequently completely changes their relationship (both in the past and present). but i have already said plenty about it! (in case anyone missed it, my tag for dick & jay is #thousand incarnations of closeness and distance.)

i think post-utrh (and post bludhaven blowing up... dick once again finding himself at a very low point in his life) dick absolutely would want to find jay. there's this paradoxical distance and close proximity all at once that makes the way dick sees jason unique at this point. 80s dick does not know jay as an "angry robin" and did not even know about his breakdown closely before aditf.

of course dick mythologized him some, sure, the way we all do with our dead. the uniform, the name; they make it feel personal. but he's also the one to think "he was your son. flesh and blood. he was real." so the image he has of jay (in the 80s & even some of 90s) is most probably so simple and real. it's just a kind eager boy wearing his family colours. there's no space for fatalizing that bruce, for instance, engages with. dick is the who never allows himself to think that jason's death was an unavoidable tragedy; the one who contempts the idea of the memorial case; the one who is shocked at the lack of pictures of jason in the manor.

and i would like this version of dick to react to jason's return, i think learning about jason as the red hood would perhaps be even more shocking than it was to bruce.

so, the setting: probably either just post-utrh (when dick is also at a low point since bludhaven is gone) or even post-countdown (but with no bftc nor previous meetings between occuring).

you might ask why i'm considering going all the way post-countdown. well. first of all, it's just that i'm so taken by the idea of jason fucking shit up without a mask and canon has deprived us of it. second of all, i think it would make sense for dick not to be able to reach out to him until then, because jason would most definitely avoid him.

to jason, bruce is not only the closest family member, but he's also a figure of authority, a figure that can be rebelled against. in many ways, kids are ready (or in jason's case, trying to brace himself for) their parents' disappointment. but what about your siblings? i genuinely can't think of a sadder occurrence than your siblings giving up on you. and jason has always looked up to dick; and dick has always been so gentle with him. i don't think jason would be aware of it, but i don't think at this point much could break his heart more than seeing dick reject him. in some ways, that would be a definitive end of jay's childhood, a complete severing of his ties with it, even if those are so fragile and distant. and as much as it would be for character in jason to try to cut this remaining link, i think "countdown" shows that he subconsciously still tries to hold onto them.

so dick is searching; jason is hiding. perhaps dick is following a trail of dead bodies, the plotline focusing on his own moral dilemma and on the horror of seeing what jason is capable of. there's definitely guilt moreso that disappointment, though.

but he finds jason on accident rather than during that chase, and there's a body, and before dick can comprehend what's going on, he acts; he helps jason hide it. it's a messy job and now there's blood not only on jason's hands but also on dick's.

it's not something he would do for anyone else. dick wants to say he won't do it again, or to ask jason to never make him do it again, but he doesn't say anything.

they still argue. they have takeout and eat it in the car, and jason notices dick still listens to the same playlist. then dick gives jason his number and tells him to "stop losing it" even though they both know this is not what happened.

[dissvicious]

Talking about the Buggy to Crocodile simp pipeline : Would Crocodile be Reds type? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he actually has any chances when Buggy is around or that Buggy need to worry about his wife being unfaithful, not even a little, more in a:

Getting silly after sex and shooting the shit with each other „Okay, Okay, „Fuck, marry,kill“ Sir Crocodile, Boa Hancock, Mihawk“ „Okay…. Marry Boa, obviously“ „Obviously.“ „…. Ooof… hard decision. There’s no way in hell I would come close to being able to kill either of them…. So I guess I’ll just go by who’d be the better lay…Kill Mihawk, fuck Crocodile I suppose.“ „…. Really? Huh.“ „Is that so surprising?“ „Nah, nah, he’s super hot, just didn’t think you’d go for him.“ „Listen. Mihawk is really handsome and all but Crocodile is just… god…“ „…“ „…. Aw. Too much? I’m sorry babe you’re still the hottest thing around. It’s just for the game. If we’d have played „Fuck marry cherish“ you’d be all options for me.“ „Haha, no it’s fine Bugs-„ Red smiles at her husband. „I’d totally fuck Crocodile too.“

Haaanw that's a cute prompt, thanks anon!

But to be honest I don't think Crocs would be Reddie's type. Neither Mihawk, tho. They are tooooo much serious! They take themselves too seriously! She really would find them annoying. I think she could have some "hate fuck pulsions" to them and could be somehow attracted by Mihawk sarcastic bitch jokes buuuut that would be all.

She fell for Buggy mostly because

She was bored as hell and he brought so many laughter into her life

He's an overcute pathetic whiny ass and she fell for this vulnerability.

sooo the big dark-sasuke-I'm-too-badass-to-show-feelings energy isn't really for her.

I thiiiink she would rather have a soft spot for men like Franky (would respect too much Frobin to ever admit that - just I can easily imagine Robin and Red spending time on the Sunny's desk and looking at Franky and Red saying "damn sis, you have good tastes in men") or even Bonclay.

... Which may or may not piss off Buggy who could feel kind off insulted to not find himself in the "super badass casually sexy men" case.

She would also have a thing for Ace I think. He's way too young for her but nothing real, just a "damn if I had met you in my 20's, I would have fell for you young wolf" feeling you know?

However when it comes to women she can go Sanji mode real quick.

(so in your scenario, she would have say Fuck Boa without hesitation) (it may or may be in a situation like this that Buggy realised his wife goes both ways, tho.)

[pure-garbage]

Impromptu Girls Night And The Short-Lived Siege Of The Sprout Monster!

"Ah. I see," Robin said contemplatively after hearing Lana's recounting of her disagreement with Zoro. Her hands were busy at work in Lana's hair, an impressive feat considering that Nami was also in the middle of painting her nails. The deft multi-tasking was made possible by the power of her devil fruit, her flowers handling the braiding while her actual hands relaxed on Nami's knees.

"Oh boy. You know you're gonna have to make him apologize, right?" Nami sighed. 'Zoro's so damn stubborn... that may never actually happen. I'm going to be bunkmates with Lana for the rest of my life.'

Nami was tempted to give her friend bad advice, to tell her to just suck it up and make nice with her swordsman, but Robin's presence made it impossible. Surely the older woman would correct her swiftly if she tried to lead their friend astray.

"Not necessarily," Lana grumbled. "He's not exactly wrong... it's not like he's trying to hurt me. He's just trying to make me stronger, same as always. And that's a good thing. That's kind of our thing, you know? It's just, for once, I'm not on board with his plan on how to get me there."

"If that's all, then the solution is rather simple, don't you think?" Robin told her. "Stand your ground. Work through your own plan. As long as your plan succeeds and you begin to surpass the current limitations of your strength, the swordsman should come around on his own. In time, that is."

Nami heaved the weariest sigh of her life. This was the worst of all the worst case scenarios she had considered.

"Wouldn't it be simpler just to badger him 'til he apologizes and gives it up?" she practically whined. 'I guess if all else fails I can just take Brook up on his offer... I'd like to be better than that, but I get unreasonable when I start losing my beauty sleep and I'll definitely lose sleep if Lana's rolling around in my bed sawing logs every night!'

"You're clearly never tried to wrestle an apology out of Zoro," Lana grumbled, crossing her arms hard over her chest.

"You're right, I usually just smack him and move on," Nami admitted. "Have you tried smacking him?"

"I'm not gonna smack him. That's the other thing that's kind of bugging me," Lana sighed heavily.

"What, that you want to smack him?" Nami asked, rising a puzzled eyebrow.

"No, he took a swing at me and we weren't training," Lana snarled, expression contorting with rage at the memory.

"He struck you in anger?" Robin asked dubiously.

"Not exactly."

"Don't make excuses for him," Robin told her firmly.

"No, I mean he didn't land the hit," Lana explained.

"But it bothered you that he tried," Robin pressed.

"Not at first. I'm sure it was just another training exercise, but still... the more I think about it, the more it bugs me," Lana admitted. "I don't know. We train together all the time, we've traded more blows than I can count... I can't figure out why this time it felt different."

"That... actually sounds kind of serious, Lana," Nami frowned.

"It's as serious as Lana feels it should be. Well, Lana?" Robin pointedly prompted the younger woman.

"I... I don't know," Lana said, tone almost mournful. She hated not knowing how she felt, hated not understanding the reasons behind the emotions she was dealing with. The confusion was almost worse than the feelings themselves. "I just don't know, okay?"

"We're not the ones you should be talking to in order to reach the heart of the matter," Robin sighed. "You're going to have to talk it over with Zoro, you do know that?"

"You think I have to?" Lana asked hesitantly. "He's... he's going to think it's really stupid."

"If that's the case..."

Robin manifested ten more hands for the express purpose of cracking five sets of knuckles in unison. The sound sent a shudder of unease down Nami's spine.

"... I may be inclined to intervene on your behalf," Robin said darkly. Her eyes glowed menacingly from behind shaded features.

"Don't be creepy on spa day!" Nami scolded her. "How are we supposed to relax if you're filling the room up with witchy vibes, huh?!"

Robin's exaggerated antics drew the ghost of a smile to Lana's face. The way Robin smiled back let Lana know that had been her main goal all along. Just to get her friend to smile, even just a little.

"You know, if I want him beat up, I could do that myself," she sighed, only half-joking.

"Sure, but there should be some comfort in knowing that you don't have to," Robin told her with a little wink.

Lana was indeed comforted.

_____________________________________

"Zoro! Zoro! Zoorooo!"

The swordsman had been holed up in the crows nest for hours, still trapped in the bubble of silence Lana had inflicted on him.

'What a pain!' he thought for what must have been the hundredth time. He dropped the weights he was using, taking a few steps back before they hit the floor so that the crash would be audible. He couldn't call out to let Usopp know where he was, but he had a fairly good grasp of how far the shroud of muteness extended out from his person.

The plan worked like a charm. The thunderous clang of weights hitting the floor echoed and shook the ship. After only a few seconds, Zoro made out the sounds of Usopp clambering up the ladder.

'Must be nice,' he thought wistfully. 'Never thought I would miss being able to make noise so much.'

"Zoro! I need help!" Usopp panted, doubling over with his hands on his knees after his mad dash throughout the ship in search of his friend.

"What with?" Zoro tried to ask. He growled when no sound followed his words and that sentiment was rendered ineffective as well. In front of him, Usopp kept panting, elaborating between gasping breaths.

"Evil plants! Running wild! Getting bigger! Come help... need swords. Slice slice, etcetera."

Usopp finally straightened, not seeming to realize Zoro couldn't speak. The swordsman raised one eyebrow high, but Usopp didn't have time to explain further. A creeping green tendril appeared behind him, stalking up the ladder and poising over the sniper's back. Usopp noticed, shrieked and dashed to put himself behind Zoro.

"I think it's got some kind of grudge against me for trying to cultivate it!" Usopp lamented. "Please, Zoro! Don't let it get me! I fought it valiantly for hours and hours..."

Usopp had fought the plant monster for three and a half minutes.

"... and none of my special attacks did anything! Please don't let it eat me!"

'It's a plant, you idiot, it can't eat you.'

Zoro knew better than to try to give voice to his thoughts. It was useless. Instead, he heaved a sigh, rolled his eyes and grabbed his swords from the bench. He drew one and faced down the tendril.

'Piece of cake. You won't even give me enough of a fight to get this anger out of my system,' he thought wickedly.

Despite the veil of silence still draped over him, Zoro knew the creature understood his intent. It recoiled sharply, which made him grin. Plant, animal, person, it was all the same to Zoro. He could smell it's fear and the scent made him shiver with delight.

______________________________________________

<== Previous Chapter

Next Chapter ==>

== First Chapter ==

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Two’s a whole lot lonelier than one

Timari January: Replacement (Yum) by @maribat-calendar-events

Summary: “You’re trying to annoy me into leaving, aren’t you?”

Back to Timari January 2023 Masterlist

Tim held out a hand for the woman on the ground. She had stumbled back in surprise when he had dropped into the alley to attack her attempted mugger and hadn’t bothered to get up since. She had been staring at him ever since. Not in shock, but shocked.

She blinked once and then looked down at his hand. Something like a grin tugged at her lips as she took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

He handed her back her purse and she absently rifled through it – he no longer took offense when Gothamites thought he had taken things from them, it was too commonplace for him to care at this point. She hummed a single happy note to herself, apparently pleased to find everything still in place, and then held up a hand in a vague wave as she set off.

He fell in step with her. “I’d like to walk you home.”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes and sighed. “I think I can get home on my own, Red.”

“Forgive me for doubting you when I just had to save you from a mugger.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You save, like, seven people a night. Do you think that every person in Gotham is incapable of walking home?”

“Kinda, yeah.”

“Then go help one of them.”

His eyes narrowed just slightly. She… really didn’t want him to walk home with her. Was she hiding something? Or did she just not trust him?

“Don’t you need to stay with the perp anyways?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “You know, in case they get out of their bonds or whatever before the police arrive?”

“Can’t be there when the police get there,” Tim shrugged. “Kinda bad to be spotted by them. Illegal vigilante and all.”

She hummed. “Ah. So that’s why you’re coming with me.”

“Is it really that hard to believe that I’m doing this out of genuine concern for your safety?”

She shrugged. “I mean, kinda. Honestly, it feels like you’re just suspicious of me.”

He was.

“I’m not. What, do you have a guilty conscience?”

“Gonna pull the usual ‘shouldn’t be scared if you’ve got nothing to hide’ routine?”

“I’m not a cop.”

“Yeah, you’re a cop that does illegal things to put people behind bars… oh, wait.”

He gritted his teeth. “You’re trying to annoy me into leaving, aren’t you?”

“I’m just naturally charming,” she said, batting her eyelashes.

“I don’t doubt that, but I still think you’re trying to get me to leave.”

She hummed lightly, turning to walk backwards in front of him. A dangerous thing to do in Gotham, considering all the stuff on the ground, but she seemed fine.

“Well, if you’ve figured out my master plan, then I guess I don’t need to hide it.” She gave him a crooked grin. “Reeeeeed Robin. Yum.”

“Original. I’ve never heard that one before.”

“Still bugs you, I can tell,” she said, her eyes crinkling at the corners in a smile. It was a nice smile. He wished he could see it in a context that wasn’t her purposefully trying to get on his nerves.

“You know, most people are grateful when I save them. Or indifferent. I can’t say it’s normal for someone to purposefully try and annoy me.”

She smirked. “Awwww, you think I’m special?”

He raised an unimpressed brow at her. She paid it no mind. Or maybe she did and it only egged her on:

“Did you know that no human has beaten a chess-playing AI in over 15 years? The robot revolution is coming.”

“Only if we allow them to come.”

“You know we will. Someone will decide that the money that could be made is worth more than whatever problems may rise from it. ‘Tis human nature.”

He shrugged. “I choose to have faith in humanity.”

“Lame. And wrong. It’s not about humanity, it’s about individual humans.”

“I think individual humans can be good.”

“And I know individual humans can be bad.”

“I’ll agree to disagree.”

“I won’t.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay. Well, I’m done having this conversation.”

“Coward. But if it really bothers you that much, you can always just leave.”

He rolled his eyes again.

“Hm. Looks like it’s time to pull out the big guns.” She took a deep breath. “This is the song that never ends –!”

She tripped.

He caught her arm with ease. He only barely stopped himself from dropping her just for the sake of it.

“This is karma, I hope you know.”

“... it will go on and on my friend!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually – finally – they reached her apartment. He glanced past her as she slipped inside. It looked pretty normal, if a little unused. Maybe she was new in town? Or maybe it was a safehouse? Or was she the world’s most neat minimalist?

… yeah, probably not that last one. She tossed her purse aside and didn’t even glance behind herself to see where it landed.

She leaned in the doorway, massaging her throat. As promised, she had sung The Song That Never Ends until they had reached her building and now her voice cracked every few seconds. He was just glad that they had made it to the apartment complex before he had gotten distracted and accidentally sang along.

He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a tiny canister of water. “Here.”

She blinked. “Thanks,” she said, looking down at it with wide eyes. And then she gingerly took it. After a moment where she looked at the water, blue eyes narrowed as if she was wondering whether he was trying to drug her, she took a couple hesitant sips.

“It’s no problem,” he said softly.

She nodded once, still looking down at the water, quietly thinking.

And then she leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms. “Nice of you to walk me home and give me water and all that, but I hope you know I’m not ‘inviting you inside’.”

He jerked back in surprise. “I – no – I wasn’t expecting –.”

She brought a hand up to her mouth to laugh, her eyes bright.

He relaxed a little. Despite himself, he found himself smiling a little. She was still insufferable, don’t get him wrong, but this kind of behavior was far more genuine, and far more fun for both people involved.

“It’s been… well, not nice, but meeting you has been an experience.” He held a hand out to shake. “Goodbye… oh, I don’t think I caught your name.”

“Because I never threw it.”

He raised an eyebrow at her behind his mask. “Still trying to get rid of me?”

“Still lingering outside my apartment like a creep?” She said, and then snickered at whatever expression had made its way across his face in response. “My name is Christine. It’s been ‘an experience’ meeting you, too, Red Robin.”

They shook hands.

And then she pulled away, giving a tiny wave just as she disappeared behind her doorframe.

He shoved his hands into two of the many pockets on his costume and walked away.

He glanced back just before he turned the corner.

Hm.

[weekend-conspiracy-theorist]

A needlessly self-indulgent Tim and Steph role swap AU. Sort of.

"There's definitely something hinky going on here," Barbara told Jason. She was down in the cave for the night rather than across town in her Clocktower; Alfred had requested her presence for dinner earlier that night. He'd requested Jason's, too, and having Barb around to sweeten the pot had almost tempted him. There had been genuine regret in his voice when he declined.

Her red hair wasn't bright under the lights near the Batcomputer, not exactly, but it was vibrant, and the screens flashed over her glasses in an intimidating show of blankness. What the rest of them needed kevlar and voice modulators to achieve, Oracle needed only sheer presence. Jason fucking loved her.

"Told you," he grunted. His helmet was tucked under his arm, domino already tossed aside for the night. He stepped up next to her, dropping a hand to squeeze her shoulder briefly, and he could feel the smug satisfaction rolling off of her as she deliberately didn't glance over towards Bruce, who was hunched over grappling gun repairs at the main table and trying very hard to pretend he wasn't jealous of their easy comaradarie.

Up on the screen in front of them were two pictures--the young, pale face of the private-investigator-in-training who'd been bugging the shit out of the Red Hood for the last few nights, hounding him about help on a case, and the neutrally attractive, mid-fifties PI who was supposedly responsible for the kid. Newspaper clippings, police files, birth certificates, and a copy of both the PI's investigator's license and the intern's training contract surrounded the pictures.

"The kid's barely old enough to be out of high school," Jason said, darkly. "I dunno what the fuck this guy is thinking letting him run around unsupervised."

Unsupervised, and with a fucking attitude. The kid clearly didn't have a very high opinion of the Red Hood, despite his uncompromising assertions that whatever he was working on was going to require his assistance, and still, somehow, he couldn't seem to catch the hint that Jason wasn't interested.

(Actually, that wasn't quite true. Jason knew the kid had caught the hint. He just didn't seem inclined to let the hint stop him, and he was both annoyingly sneaky and frighteningly good at guessing where Jason was going to pop up each night. It was fucking annoying.)

Barbara hummed neutrally, rather pointedly not saying anything about the number of teenagers they'd had running solo around the Gotham underworld over the years, and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "That's just the tip of the iceberg," she informed him, and she sounded much more interested now than she had when Jason had initially asked her to dig up information on the PI firm.

She flicked quickly through several police reports, her green eyes sharp as she studied them. "First of all, the kid seems to be pretty much the only one doing any real leg work for Red Bird Investigators. Draper's the one who handles digital communications with the police, and he's handled the press whenever their cases get enough attention to require it, but every time Red Bird shows up in an actual police report, it always seems to be Drake that they've run into."

Barbara paused rather than compete with the roar of a motorcycle as Batgirl came racing into the cave after her patrol, and she dropped a hand to the wheel of her chair so she could turn slightly, fixing a critical eye on her protegé.

Stephanie was rolling her eyes even as she pushed back the cowl. "Not a scratch on me," she yelled, hand cupped around her mouth, and flatly ignored the disapproving look that Bruce shot her. She'd been even more of an independent operator than either of the Robins that had proceeded her, and Jason knew it rankled for Bruce that she submitted so much more willingly to Barb's authority than his own.

"Just some nasty bruises then," Barbara said sardonically, voice pitched only a little louder than normal. The cave was quiet enough that that was all it took; Stephanie definitely heard her, but all she did was grin. It involved a lot of teeth.

Jason liked Stephanie, a lot. It was easier with her than it was with Dick or Bruce or even Barb, without any baggage between them from his previous life--despite the fact that there was plenty of baggage from this one. Luckily, Stephanie seemed to have decided against holding a grudge over his murder attempt at about the same moment as she'd fought through broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder to bash his face in with one of the steel chairs in the Titans' dining room.

They'd both laid there panting for a moment, Jason's vision swimming with the nastiest concussion he'd ever received, and called something of a truce. It was the last time he'd made the mistake of thinking Stephanie Brown was any less of a threat just because she'd lost a grip on her bo staff.

Jason shot her a lazy, two-fingered wave, and Stephanie fluttered her fingers back as she headed for the lockers. She was wasting no time, halfway to the door and already shedding her armor to reveal a sweat-soaked white tank top and a Green Arrow sports bra.

Bruce looked even more sour than he had a minute ago. Stephanie's reflection in the locker room door, just before she yanked it open, was bright with mischief.

Jason shook his head, trying not to look as amused as he felt, and turned back to the screen. "Okay, so Draper's... what? Riding his intern's coattails? Seems like a risky gamble to put a private investigation firm in the hands of a twelve year old."

"Drake's twenty," Barbara informed him.

"No fucking way," Jason said, flatly. Twelve was a joke, obviously, but--

"His identity, I can confirm," Barbara said, a delicate stress on the first word, and Jason's attention sharpened. So did Bruce's, over in Jason's periphery. Jason could tell by the sudden tension in his shoulders, even if his hands didn't falter as they fiddled with the retraction mechanism of the grappling gun.

"Mind your own business, old man," Jason shot over his shoulder, and Bruce just grunted.

Barbara turned fully back to the Batcomputer, and her long fingers flew across the keyboard as she pulled up a bunch of seemingly unimportant bits of paperwork. "Whoever put Draper's identity together did a good job. They covered their bases--school records, hospital records, employment records, even a social media presence, and all of it pretty convincingly done."

"Unless you're Oracle," Jason said.

Barb's lips twitched. "Unless you're me," she agreed. "Draper's identity would pass muster for most every legal entity that went poking around, but there's some small evidence of it all being faked."

"Is Red Bird some kind of front?" Jason asked, frowning. His eyes flicked over all of the records Barbara had pulled up, more for the sake of having something to do as his mind churned than out of the expectation of spotting something in just a few seconds that Barbara hadn't already seen. "Money laundering, maybe a blackmail operation?"

"I'm not sure yet," Barbara admitted. "Their hourly rates as a firm are shockingly low; it's pulling a lot of attention from your end of the city, attracting the kinds of clients who can't usually afford to hire a private investigator, and they seem to be doing good work. Tracking down missing kids, recovering stolen items, turning evidence over to the cops-- notably only to reputable ones-- when they turn up anything especially nasty or organized." She rolled her eyes. "Not to mention catching plenty of cheating husbands. But that can pretty much all be attributed to Drake; whatever else his boss may be caught up in, I'm confident he's not aware of it.

"I haven't done a deep dive yet. Right now," Barb said, as Batgirl reemerged from the locker room in a pair of sweats, chugging a bottle of water as she took the stairs two at a time up to the platform where Jason and Barbara were talking, "all I can tell you with certainty is that Alvin Draper isn't who he says he is."

Stephanie choked on her water, the bottle crashing to the floor as she spluttered and pounded on her own chest. "Did you just say Alvin Draper?" she managed to grind out, those dark blue eyes of hers wide with surprise, and Jason snapped around to look at her.

So did Barbara and Bruce.

"You know him?" Jason asked sharply.

Stephanie was staring up at the screen, her eyes darting over the information Barbara had pulled up, and then she made a strangled noise. For a second, Jason thought she was choking again--

Except then she was laughing so hard that she had to drop to a crouch, one hand on the railing to keep herself from tipping over completely when her foot slipped in the puddle of water still leaking from her bottle.

"Oh my god," she wheezed. "This is--Oh my god. I can't believe him--"

"Stephanie, if you wouldn't mind sharing the joke, please," Barbara said, a warning note in her voice, and Stephanie hiccuped, wiping tears off of her face.

"Yeah," she managed after a moment, pulling herself to her feet and breaking off in another choked off laugh. "Yeah, you could say I'm a little familiar with--yeah." She snickered, swiping at her cheeks again. "Uh, so, Tim Drake's the annoying creep who's been bothering you the last couple of nights, huh?" she asked Jason. Her voice sounded like Christmas, Hanukkah, and her birthday had all come at once.

"You know Drake, too?" Barbara asked. Her expression was flinty. "You never mentioned anything about working with any PIs."

Stephanie subsumed another giggling fit, talking more to herself than to them. "I should've fucking--oh my god, I should've known it was him as soon as Jason said he was a bit of a stalker." She took a deep breath, managing to get her voice more or less back to normal, and gestured dismissively at Babs. "I've mentioned him, just not by name. A lot falls under the category of 'trusted contacts.'" She wiped her eyes again, calming down even further. "Red Bird isn't some kind of criminal front," she promised. "And Alvin Draper is just-- well, okay, Tim is--"

She seemed suddenly cagey, her chin turning as if to glance over her shoulder at Bruce before she aborted the motion. "Okay," she said, and it was that casual, placating tone of voice that all of the Robins had perfected at one time or another. The "Really, Batsy, it's not that big of a deal" voice. Jason had never actually heard her use it before--by the time he'd reentered the scene, Stephanie wasn't the least bit shy about flaunting her disregard for Bruce's opinions.

"Okay, if I hadn't been caught so off guard I totally would not have handled this conversation this way," Stephanie told Barbara. "If I'm going to be honest, I did not intend to ever have this conversation. Tim would have given me away at my theoretical future wedding without a single one of you having any idea how we even knew each other. He'd probably have done it wearing a stupid wig and calling himself Maurice."

Barbara raised an eyebrow. Bruce was no longer pretending to be focused on anything else, a frown line etched firmly across his forehead.

Jason had no idea where this was going.

"Absolutely no chance you can just take my word for it and drop your suspicions about Red Bird?" Stephanie asked hopefully.

"Not in the fucking slightest," Jason told her.

Stephanie pressed her palms together and leaned her fingers against her lips for a moment, thinking, and then she dropped them, still far too casual to actually be casual. "I should set the stage for a second, because none of what I'm about to say is going to make sense if I just dive into it," she admitted, hands on her hips. "Jason, you know what what everyone-- what Bruce, specifically-- says about my reputation as Robin, right?"

"Ferocious," Jason said immediately. "Clever. Scrappy. Compassionate."

A smile twitched at the corners of Stephanie's eyes, but she told him, dryly, "Actually, the word I was thinking of was 'insubordinate.'"

Barbara rubbed at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, suddenly looking exhausted. Bruce, in the background, looked vaguely like he wanted to argue, but didn't actually have much of an argument to make.

"I mean, I've always been the master of back talk to the B-man," Stephanie said, and her expression-- her tone-- was somewhere between pride and guilt. "And I frequently ignored any and all instructions to keep my nose out of certain cases, unless I was given really, really thorough and convincing reasons why I should leave them alone. So yeah, my time as Robin was characterized by a lot of flaunting the rules."

She took a breath. "But the thing is that even with all of that," she said delicately, "Bruce does not actually know even a third of what I got up to as Robin."

Bruce finally spoke up. "I know more than you think I do," he said, with just a hint of amusement in his tone. "You found a lot of counsel in Barbara, thinking it was behind my back. She handled plenty of mishaps for you, but she certainly didn't keep as many of your secrets as you might have hoped. I didn't mind, since you were confiding in someone."

"Sorry, kid," Barb said.

"Yeah," Stephanie said impatiently, "I know Babs was ratting on me. I knew it then, too. Which is why I leaned on the fact that you all saw me as just a little bit silly when it came to boys, and I fed Oracle a number of thrillingly believable lies about sneaking around on patrol to make out with Boyfriend, without ever mentioning that Boyfriend was also a detective savant with a corkboard conspiracy map of the city and a freakazoid obsession with stalking mobsters and crime lords with his insanely expensive long distance night vision camera."

Jason blinked.

Bruce said, "What."

Stephanie shrugged. "I mean, we did also do a lot of making out, it was just usually on top of a rooftop across the street from some dudes whose noses I was about to break. Which, before you say anything about endangering civilians, I did all the muscle work; I never let Boyfriend anywhere near the fighting, even though he's been taking a bunch of martial arts lessons since middle school.

"And," she added sharply, cutting off Bruce's response, "before you say anything about endangering myself, I'd like you to remember that it's only been two weeks since the Ex-Robins Union collectively negotiated for amnesty regarding cases that occured during our days in the pixie boots, and if you break the terms of the contract in under a month then the Extreme Penalty Subclause is activated and Dick, Jay, and I get to decide on our response. Suggestions have included an official Titans Gotham team and the Outlaws getting open season on the Joker."

Stephanie and Jason high-fived as Bruce's mouth slowly shut.

"I told you that signing that contract without reading it was a bad idea," Barbara sighed. "Dick was being way too nonchalant about the whole thing."

Stephanie turned back to Jason and Barbara and waved a hand at the Batcomputer. "This is relevant because Tim Drake is Boyfriend, if this room full of detectives hadn't already made that leap," she told them. "Alvin Draper's one of his favorite aliases. He did not tell me about this because he knows how much fun I am going to make of him, but I know how that batshit little brain of his works, and that guy--" She jerked her chin at the alleged picture of Alvin Draper-- "is definitely an actor Boyfriend hired to pretend to be his boss. Hacking the New Jersey PI database and issuing himself a license is easy enough, but convincing anyone he's actually old enough to be in possession of it is literally impossible with that baby face of his." Stephanie mimed squinching his cheeks together.

"Which, for the record, fucking classic Boyfriend move, right here," she added, grinning. "He once hired a fake uncle to be his legal guardian when his parents died and he was too young for the judge to consider emancipating him."

Jason had no idea what was going on in Bruce or Barb's brains because they both appeared to be blue screening a bit, but all he could think was that it was official: Stephanie was hands down Jason's favorite Bat.

"You hid a whole ass vigilante from Batman for like six years," he said wonderingly.

Stephanie snorted. "Not a vigilante," she corrected dryly. "Boyfriend has no interest in dressing up in tights or kicking people's teeth in; he just likes detective work and hates cops. He mostly just does a lot of sitting on rooftops taking surveillance photos." She obviously couldn't resist adding, smugly, "But yeah, more or less. Cass couldn't even kiss Superboy without Bruce knowing about it, meanwhile I practically had Boyfriend hidden under my cape on every solo stakeout for a year straight, and no one ever noticed." She tapped a finger on the side of her nose, raising her eyebrows. "No small part of why I've refused to ever live in the Manor or the Clocktower."

"This is the first and only time I will ever acknowledge that the people who call you the greatest Robin have even a single leg to stand on," Jason told her.

She gave him a nod, lips twitching.

"That's probably why Boyfriend's being such a little bitch about working with you, by the way." Stephanie leaned back against the railing and crossed her arms over her chest. Her scars stood out, stark, over the bulge of her biceps. "You used to be his favorite Robin, but then you came back from the dead and tried to kill his ex. He took it pretty personal." She made scare quotes, rolling her eyes and pitching her voice up an octave mockingly. "'It's my responsibility to hold a grudge since you have no intentions of doing it yourself, Stephanie.'"

She shook her head, her tone suddenly serious as she added, "I couldn't begin to guess his motivations in trying to drag you of all people into one of his cases, but it's gotta be something important. I'd hear him out next time he approaches you."

"You trust him? Trust his judgement?" Jason knew she did, she'd pretty much just admitted that Drake was aware of her identity, but it still seemed prudent to ask.

"As implicitly as I trust Cass," Stephanie told him immediately.

High praise, Jason knew, but he could tell it wasn't all she had to say on the matter.

Stephanie was very still for a moment, her gaze flicking to meet Bruce's in the reflection of the metallic plating at the edge of the Batcomputer, and then she met Jason's once more. Her voice was quiet but steady as she told him, "You weren't here for it, but I know you know the gist of what happened during War Games, and that I've always been vague about how I got away from Black Mask. Nobody ever pushed because they thought it was just the trauma fogging my memory, and yeah, that's part of it, but keeping Boyfriend safe from the fallout was the other part. I didn't somehow manage to break myself out after Mask left me for dead; Tim tracked me down. He got me to Leslie."

Barbara sucked in a breath, sharp, through her nose. A muscle ticked in Stephanie's jaw. And Jason had never before seen that expression on Bruce's face when the subject of conversation had nothing to do with an explosion in Ethiopia.

Jason whistled, low and slow.

"So, yeah," Stephanie managed, a little stiff. "I trust him. He's an obsessive, scheming little weirdo as I'm sure you noticed, Jay, but it's all part of the charm. He's a brilliant detective, and he cares so much about everything. We've always make a good team; he's good at seeing the whole picture, I'm good at seeing the people in it." She grinned, wicked. "Plus, he taught me how to skateboard."

Barbara snorted at that, then immediately looked annoyed at herself, but Stephanie was already fist-pumping.

"I'm not gonna lie, despite my years long efforts to keep all of this a secret, I'm excited to finally talk about Boyfriend as something other than the abstract concept of my best friend who none of you except Cass were completely certain existed," she said cheerfully.

"Cassandra knew about this?" Bruce asked.

Jason was pretty certain that the threat of invoking the ERU contract was the only reason the Bat was managing to stay so calm. Collective bargaining worked, people.

"I have never successfully kept a secret from Cass in my life," Stephanie said, ruefully. "I'm fucked when she takes over Batman."

"And everyday of interacting with you pushes Bruce closer to that retirement," Barbara told her dryly. "I'm still processing this, Stephanie, so I'm not going to get on your case tonight, but you know that your union will not protect you from me. We will be having a conversation about what other secrets you've been keeping."

"Considering that your vigilante career began and ended entirely outside of--well, anyone's supervision, not sure you have a leg here, Barb," Jason pointed out.

"There's a reason I'm your protegé now," Stephanie said cheerfully, as her voice cracked on a yawn. "Anyway, I need to scoot. I can text you Tim's number if you want it, Jay."

"Yeah," Jason sighed. "Sure. I guess I'm probably never getting rid of him if even your annoying personality hasn't managed to drive him off sometime in the last six years."

Stephanie flipped him off, rolling her eyes, but she was laughing under breath as she leaned down to pick up her water bottle. "Oh," she said, far too casual once more, as she found some papertowels to use to dry up the puddle. "There is one more thing I should probably tell you guys about Tim."

"He's a vampire," Jason guessed, just as casual. He kept her in his periphery, sensing immediately that this was something that the Ex-Robins Union contract was not going to cover.

"Nope." She bundled up the dripping paper towels and walked over to toss them in the trash. The movement took her closer to the stairs up to the Manor.

Neither Bruce nor Babs had apparently gotten any better at recognizing the signs of a shifty Robin than they had been before the revelations of the last ten minutes, so it's up to Jason to abruptly dart between her and the stairs, cutting off her escape route.

"What do we need to know about Tim, Replacement?" he asked, pleasantly, as he loomed over her. Batgirl was a bad ass, undoubtedly, but Jason had three inches and at least fifty pounds of muscle on her. Plus, he was still in his body armor.

"Ah," Stephanie said, clapping her hands together, and Bruce finally seemed to clue in to the fact that he was really not going to like the next words that came out of her mouth.

"What did you do?" he asked flatly.

"I did not do anything," Stephanie fired back immediately. "It was Dick, actually, and the thing he did was a quadruple somersault that only three people in the world can do, or whatever. Notably," she said, thumb and forefinger pinched together as she took a step forward, away from Jason and away from the stairs, "Dick Grayson, of the Flying Graysons, can do that somersault. And, my, what did a nine-year-old Timothy Jackson Drake see on the news one morning, except Robin the Boy Wonder doing that exact same somersault."

"You're fucking kidding," Barbara said.

"Yeah," Steph said. "Tim knows the secret identities of literally every single vigilante in Gotham, even the ones not connected to us. It's a hobby of his."

And then she pivoted, the space she'd gained from that step forward giving her enough room to dive under Jason's arm and come up sprinting as she took the stairs three at a time.

now continued

[balconybirds]

Please enjoy these pictures I took while birding on Sunday

Some sleepy goslings:

And some of their protective parents (THEY HAVE 6 PARENTS.  It’s takes a village I guess):

This brown thrasher, who almost got an old man to call the cops on me because he saw a sus girl taking pictures of some birds in the rain (I don’t know if that was the case, but I did see an old guy giving me the stink eye when I was flipping through my field book trying to ID this bird):

A grackle trying to figure out What The Heck Is Going On Down There?

And his funny little walk:

Somewhat blurry photo of a barn swallow flying around:

A red-winged blackbird trying to look majestic in the rain:

An his hard working wife bringing dinner (actually breakfast) to the table:

American Robin:

More photos of swallows flying.  This time tree swallows and the pictures are slightly better:

A tufted titmouse grabbing a snack in the rain:

An American goldfinch who is a Very Handsome Boi:

A white-breasted nuthatch crawling all over a tree:

An eastern bluebird hanging out with their kids (some juvenile bluebirds with a parent):

Indigo Bunting, pondering the questions and answers to life while chilling on a branch in the rain:

A downy woodpecker, trying to remember if this is a poll they can get bugs from on not if they whack it:

A black-capped chickadee, sitting still long enough in their life for me to take a picture:

An indigo bunting posing for me.  Thanks bud:

His wifey, looking for some food:

Another downy woodpecker, gazing off into the distance.  Probably thinking about food:

A female northern cardinal, considering what seed to eat next:

And her husband, keeping lookout I guess:

That’s all the birds I was able to get decent pictures of.  Here are some pretty flowers for you to enjoy too (as you can tell, it was raining on Sunday too):

[4law]

ok!! i didn’t include everybody cuz this took longer than expected oopsie so lemme know if u wanna be added too! i’m not shipping u with ur selfship cuz that is no fun at all

@sauza : usopp (op), kuguri (hq)

every time you’re on my dash i’m laughing at the thoughts u share with us, and i think these characters can match ur energy so well. ur humor is unmatched i love u!!

@lawscorazon : law ENERU (op) & sakusa (hq)

ares radiates pretty energy and eneru radiates let me bother pretty people like ares until they fall for me energy.

@satotokii : bokuto (hq) & aran (hq!)

bokuto is self explanatory he is a ray of sunshine!! & aran i just feel like he gives good hugs and that’s what someone like u deserves— the best hugs :’)

@yourtamaki : killer (op) & shanks (op)

hear me out— killer will obviously treat you well, but why do i see shanks looking at you with heart eyes ??

@tofutobios : coby (op), zoro (op)

if u haven’t seen op then im referring to post time skip coby!! he has a heart of gold and u are so friendly so omg. and zoro needs your help with directions he needs u to hold his hand whenever he goes outside (NO I SHOUKD HAVE ADDED HIMEKAWA FROM HQ TOO) (omg and tanjiro from kny)

@strawhatsoraya : osamu (hq) & edgeshot (mha)

osamu cooks for you, and edgeshot i just feel like it fits. sora also radiates pretty person energy and edgeshot is so elegant!!

@killsaki : sabo (op) & hirugami (hq)

omg 🥹 i gasped when i thought of sabo that was the person i was looking for!! i was struggling hard fr kisaki & sanji fit so well

@euphofic2 : ace (op), matsukawa (hq)

i feel like after the smelly debate on your page, these two would add their own thoughts to it without hesitation. that’s why. LMFAOO IF UR SCARED OF BUGS, I CAN IMAGINE ONE OF THEM KILLING THEM AND THEN HE SETS THEM ON TOP OF THE TRASH SO U CAN STILL SEE THE CORPSE CLEARLY. laughs very loudly when u notice!!

@icy-spicy : kita (hq) & smoker (one piece)

kita picks flowers for you and smoker holds your shopping bags that’s all ima say!!

@eustassslut : bakugo (mha) & sanemi (kny)

i feel like these fit so well!! i wanted to ship u with kid so bad but here we are

@tenkomi : ace (op) & kenma (hq)

ok i haven’t talked to u all that much but i doooo feel like u and ace would have so much fun together that is what my mind thinks !! he would wake u up at 4 am to get pizza with him and then fall asleep on the way there

@ransluvrboy : oikawa with glasses (hq) & also law but since i ship everyone with law then also king (op! very pretty face reveal) AND OMG LOWKEY AIZAWA (MHA)

it fits the vibe i get from u! BUT ONLY WITH THE GLASSES. i associate u with that pretty green on ur blog and these men match that 🥹 hottest couple for real tell me ghost + king doesn’t sound cool as fuck

and robin

@creompie : shindo yo (mha) & kuroo (hq)

kuroo pats your head when he walks by or leans to rest on your head yeah! & then he does the jaw thing— where u quickly clench and unclench your jaw and u can feel it against your head 🙂

@ / kiiguru : luffy (op) & itadori (jjk)

in case dilly comes back!!

@vlyxen : kirishima (mha), & corazon (op)

no kirishima would love & adore u so good & corazon is so sweet please!! this would be so cute :’)

@rowan-rites : akaashi (hq) & megumi (jjk)

no cuz i just finished ur matchup & picked new ones but!! these characters here will go everywhere with you, and they’d let u fall asleep on their shoulder <33

@sanomnjiro : hawks (mha), tengen (kny)

from op i would put luffy bartolomeo! would be ur biggest fan pleaseee 😭 hawks covers ur eyes with a feather before asking “guess who,” then realizes the feather gives it away! u and tengen are hot that’s all

@dark-mnjiro : crocodile (op), & toji (jjk)

okay i’m getting this vibe … you know that night city / lux theme all over pinterest ?? no this is what u and these two remind me of !!!

@httphaitani : hina (op) & alisa (hq) or zoro (op)

omg and also iwaizumi if that’s okay!! alisa wants to bring you everywhere she goes & hina likes to hug your waist while laying on top of you to tell you about her day…

@sanjithesimp : penguin (op) & zoro (op)

okay penguin maybe not a super popular character but have u seen the fanart!!! ZORO MEANWHILE yes zoro fits so well

@ / benkeibear : twice (mha), (hq)

when i talked to u i literally felt like i was being hugged so yeah these characters would love you so dearly!!

@scabsaint : luffy (op) & sugawara (hq)

luffy would make it his mission to put a smile on your face every day! sugawara likes to see u melt into his hugs (: i already said ace for other people but i would add ace!!

@zorokinniemoment : eustass kid & law (op)

i chose characters that definitely know how to get under ur skin cuz i feel like that trope is so cute 😭 oh and tsukishima (hq!)

@momodwriter : shinso (mha) & akaza (kny)

i just see it. i can’t put my finger on it, but i see it. and yes i did want to put crocodile ):

[serenityiskey]

Stranger Things: Lee, Ler, or Switch. (Pt. 1 maybe)

Eddie Munson - definitely Switch

Where do I even start with this smol bean? He would definitely be the one to start most of the tickle fights but at the same time I feel like he would start them for three possible reasons

You were aggravating him (in a playful way)

You insulted one of his favorite bands

He’s just being Eddie and doing Eddie type things. If he doesn’t try to jest with you, then you and him aren’t that close yet. I feel like he wouldn’t just go up and do that to anyone.

WOULD DEFINITELY TRY TO AGGRAVATE STEVE OR ROBIN BECAUSE HE KNOWS THEY WILL TICKLE HIM FIRST. THE POOR BOY IS TOUCH STARVED.

I feel like he’s gotten tickled by uncle Wayne before if he was being aggravating first. We stan uncle Wayne in this household, he truly cares about Eddie.

Tickle spots from worst to least:

Hips

Ribs/feet

Stomach/neck

Sides /underarms

When he’s a ler, he would definitely be an evil ler. He would most likely tease his lee to the point where they are extremely flustered and try to hide their face. He would not stop until he found your weak spot so he could use it against you if you were being annoying or just in case he found an opportunity to do so. Don’t forget about how quick he can move his fingers! The boi has YEARS worth of experience in playing guitar so he could be a lee’s worst nightmare

When he is a lee, he would definitely try to deny the fact he is extremely ticklish and would threaten violence against you such as “if you try to even lay a finger on me, you will regret it.” He would majority of the time be bluffing unless something was seriously wrong which that goes for anybody. He would occasionally try to bug the lers of the group to try and wreck him because as I said before he’s touch starved. It wouldn’t take much for him to turn into a giggle puddle if you go for his ribs or stomach but would absolutely die and fall if you touched his hips.

Steve “The Hair” Harrington - Ler

You don’t want to get wrecked by this guy. He’s an expert when it comes to wrecking lees. I mean come on, he babysits six little nuggets that can be extremely annoying or hyper so he knows how exactly to tone them down a little. 

WILL TEASE THE LIFE OUT OF YOU. Don’t think it’s just going to be tickles and then nothing. Oh no, he would definitely say “tickle, tickle, tickle” or he would give mock sympathy if you laugh really hard “awwww is this too much? I guess you should have thought of that before aggravating me”. Don’t even get me started on the “what’s so funny? It’s not like I’m TICKLING you or anything”

Would definitely know how to trap a lee. I have a feeling he would be strong enough to pin their hands over their head with one hand or just pin them beneath his knees. Over all, just don’t mess with mama Steve.

Tickle spots from worst to least:

Underarms

Stomach/feet

Knees/thighs

Ribs/hips.

If you ever do get a few tickles on him, he wouldn’t go down easy and would do anything to fluster his rebellious lee.

Robin Buckley - Switch

When it comes to Robin, I feel like you would have a decent chance at getting revenge because I feel like she wouldn’t mind it as much if you two were close enough.

I get average but still very playful vibes from her if she was to tickle her lee. WOULD USE HER NAILS WITHOUT A DOUBT. if she knew your worst spot, it’s about to be ten times worse because she would use her nails in a lethal fashion.

If she was a lee, I feel like she would give you a chance to have your fun before gaining the upper hand back once more. Her giggles would be kind of quiet unless you hit her worst spot just right then she would he laughing so hard that she would be snorting.

Tickle spots from worst to least:

Feet

Sides/ hips

Thighs/ribs/ underarms

Neck/stomach

Nancy Wheeler - Lee

Oh come on, you can’t look at her and tell me she isn’t a lee. I know for a fact that when she and Steve were dating, Steve would be watching a movie with Nancy and would graze against a spot making her flinch. She would have bright, loud giggles and would fight back as hard as she could only to get wrecked by Steve again.

Don’t get me wrong, she could be ler material too. Especially since Mike could possibly get on her nerves and annoy her to the point where she would wreck him. She’s also very strong and could hold her own if you didn’t get her guard down in time. Depending on why she’s wrecking her lee, she could be anywhere from gentle to a very teasy ler. If you give her a reason to wreck you, don’t underestimate her because she could have you crying for mercy.

Tickle spots from worst to least.

Sides/ribs

Hips

Knees/feet

Stomach

[remakethestars]

Being Batman’s Daughter Would Include:

Headcanons.

❝Listen, Robin. At their core, people are cowardly and self-serving. Trust no one until you know them. And even then, never completely.❞

— Bruce Wayne, “The Lesson Plan”

TRIGGER WARNING: Plant murder. Mentions of drugs/tranqs (stopping dealers), violence/physical harm, broken bones (knee cap), limb dislocation (shoulder), (Jason’s) death, smoke, waterboarding/drowning?

Headcanon masterlist.

You know how every teenager has that paradigm shift because as much as they love the people around them, they’ll never know the inner workings of your psyche? And they realize they’ll never truly be known? And it makes them feel really lonely?

Yeah, you never come to feel like that because you know Bruce digs so far into everyone around him he probably knows you better than you do.

Honestly, he probably reads your diary. At least, he reads the fake one you hide under your mattress. And the second decoy in the A.C. vent above your dresser.

If you’re as paranoid as Bruce, you probably don’t have a diary, and the aforementioned “decoys” are just to mess with him.

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was practically your Bible growing up.

You’re torn between giving yourself the tactical advantage of being underestimated & being non-reactive, which — besides giving you the lioness role in the lion–gazelle dynamic — gives you the advantage of having time to think carefully on the repercussions before speaking.

Because, as Sun Tzu said in chapter seven, verse twenty-one, “Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.”

Seeing as Bruce and Damian both have eidetic memories, I’m guessing you do too. 

Which means you totally read the dictionary when you were young and whip our big words nobody’s heard of.

Bruce always assured you it’s okay to be scared. As a matter of fact, like he told Dick (seen in flashbacks in “The Lesson Plan”), he taught you to “Let terror embrace you. The better you know fear, the better you can use it against others.”

And we all know Bruce is the paragon of using fear against people.

Take that, Scarecrow!

(See, I chose that gif because earlier in that move, he displays a fear of bats, & in that scene, he summons them to use as a distraction and walks through them completely unperturbed. No? Okay, I’ll see myself out.)

You started into the vigilante business young, a little bulge under the back of Batman’s cape that made the rest of the Justice League in the meeting think Bruce was host to an alien parasite until your little mask-covered eyes poked up over his shoulder.

The League’s known you since you were young, so they kind of all see you as their niece. That just quadruples the amount of people who are overprotective of you.

Eventually, in your tweens, you think enough’s enough and start out on your own — being underestimated may be an advantage, but it’s getting ridiculous — and you tackle unsolved cases.

You set up various safe houses around the world for your own disposal (using the zeta tubes) and anyone who sees the inside of one in an emergency is always surprised. You don’t really understand why; what serious vigilante doesn’t have secure, state-of-the-art safe locations scattered across the planet?

Sometimes, it gets you into danger, but you always get yourself out of it. If there ever comes a time you can’t, well, you’ve got a direct link to Batman, and if communications fail, you can always yell for your Uncle Clark at the top of your lungs.

If the latter ever comes to fruition, you ask Bruce if he’s disappointed you had to call for back-up or that you called Superman instead of Batman, and he says, “It takes a strong person to admit when they’re weak, [Y/N]; if anything, I’m proud of you. Besides … you’re not the only one who yells for Uncle Clark when they get in over their head.”

Your training entailed hacking and mechanics, so you like to fix computers and sell them on the internet Hugh Jeffreys style. It started out with Macs from the dumpster behind Gotham Academy and turned into a surprising side hustle. Large portions of your profits go into either savings or funding your extracurricular activities. 

You’re using a MacBook that’s running Linux and an iPhone 4 that’s running your own program. 

At some point, your phone falls into the wrong hands, and someone asks why it has such high security. You deadpan and say, “I have three older brothers.” No further explanation required.

One such solo case led you to a ring of drug dealers working in a small town outside of Gotham. You made some tranquillizers and heavy-duty smoke bombs and busted out your shinobi-iri training.

After sliding on a mask covering the bottom half of your face that filtered out smoke, you set all of the bombs off at once in the ventilation system, filling the building and using the infrared in your domino mask to sedate everyone before the cops arrived so no one got hurt (because there would inevitably be a firefight if the cops got involved).

You never go into a situation expecting to go hand-to-hand with someone; you always have a plan to take our your targets quickly an efficiently.

One night, when you’re working on a cold case in Gotham, you stumble across some intel that Poison Ivy’s been stockpiling chemicals and is going to wipe out all human life on Earth.

Luckily for you, Bruce’s paranoia is hereditary; you just happen to carry some white kryptonite in your belt, so you won’t have to go all the way back to the cave to obtain some.

You type out a quick debrief on your wrist computer in case you end up needing to send out an S.O.S., pop on your bottom mask to filter out spores or pheromones she might send in your direction, and bust out your shinobi-iri training again.

Of course, you try the peaceful approach, explaining to Ivy that you agree with her on the tree-hugger front to build rapport (T.B.F., who doesn’t?), but it comes to physical confrontation. You kill every vine that comes your way with a quick punch from your kryptonite ring, toss an expanding polyurethane foam bomb (see Batgirl #38) at her feet, and manage to get an inhibitor collar on her.

Gordon takes her away, and by the next morning, it’s on the news.

“You took down Ivy by yourself?” Bruce asks when you come down for breakfast.

“… Yeah,” you say after a moment, expecting a tongue-lashing.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. She didn’t get a hit in. And before you ask, I had a contingency set up in case things went sideways.”

“… Good job.”

Your dad has the article framed in the batcave, which is the bat-equivalent of having your drawing on the fridge or getting a sticker back on a test.

You’re fighting a grin for the rest of the day.

It bugs you you can’t tell anyone why you’re so happy, so you visit Dick in Blüdhaven while he’s on patrol and give him a play-by-play. You even get a hair-ruffle!

Deathstroke targets you at some point. One of Batman and Nightwing’s worst villains, and he targets you because he knows they love you. You’re the smallest bat at the time, the weakest; he thinks you’ll be the easiest to take.

Boy, was he wrong.

He was trained by the League of Assassins, so you know dropping a smoke bomb’s not going to give you cover (and his mask probably has infrared). His brain processes faster than yours, so tricking him is improbable. He’s probably done enough research on you to know you favor foam bombs and has fast enough reflexes to dodge before they go off.

And he’s jammed your comms so you can’t call for backup. You’re worried he’s got kryptonite on him and will hurt Superman if you call for help.

It’s just you and him.

He has enhanced stamina, so he tries to wear you out. You maintain distance to avoid taking damage and wearing faster.

You always admired Tim for his ability to plan ahead (see, like, the entirety of the Red Robin comics). He doesn’t know how he does it; he just does. He can’t really teach you, so you just watch and learn.

You realize your fight with Slade is just a matter of managing the distance and immobilizing him, so you strike. You duck behind a pillar or grab onto a railing or something and shoot him through the thigh with your grappling gun, reeling him in. He, of course, draws his sword or a knife to cut the line, but you’re already throwing high-density expanding polyurethane bombs.

And, just like that, you’ve single-handedly taken Deathstroke.

It sends a clear message to the rest of the Gotham villains, Blüdhaven’s villains, the League of Assassins — don’t mess with the bat’s little girl. She can hold her own.

Now it’s time for you to come up with another plan to take him down; you doubt the same method will work twice, and you’ve just made a very powerful enemy.

As Wonder Woman’s said, “Do not mistake a desire to avoid violence for an inability to deal with it.” You might go into most situations with a plan to take down your opponent already in motion, but when it comes to an all-out brawl, you’re perfectly capable and don’t pull your punches.

You’re working on an unsolved case in Blüdhaven (Dick’s got enough on his plate) when you get an S.O.S. from the aforementioned along with the feed and recording from his mask. You listen to the mission briefing while you ride back to the cave and then the audio from the Young Justice mission. They got jumped by the League of Shadows in an abandoned factory, and Talia’s trying to coerce Damian into joining the League or whatever.

The usual dropping some smoke bombs and tranqing everyone isn’t going to work on thirty armed League assassins who were trained to fight blind, so you load up on polyurethane foam bombs and call Jason and Cassandra.

The three of you take out the guards outside before splitting up and taking either end of the building (Cass stays with you). You meet in the middle, in the room the team’s being held in.

You highjacked the speakers, so they’re blasting AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” upon Jason’s insistence. You wanted Zayde Wølf or Alice Cooper’s “Hey, Stoopid,” but big brothers will be big brothers.

Jason pops them with rubber bullets from above to slow them down for you while Cass demolishes them and you drop foam bombs, slinging your signature custom shuriken, bonk them over the head with Tim’s staff you picked up along the way, dislocate their arms, or shatter their kneecaps. 

You and Jason get a couple slices from swords that got a little too close, but it’s nothing compared to what you’ve had before. 

When the fighting’s done and the building’s quiet, the team’s, like, “Who the heck are you guys?” 

And Dick’s, like, 😏 “They’re our siblings.” 

Speaking of siblings, you’re older than Damian, and as such, you take upon yourself the honor of teaching him all things pop-culture.

“I have a lot of amazing older siblings. I want to be a good big sister.”

First things first, you give him one of your refurbished e-waste phones and take him to Target to pick out an OtterBox or a LifeProof case or something that’ll keep it safe in the pocket of a vigilante.

Vigilantes are always coming to you when their phone’s broken anyway; you’ve got a stack of spares you’ve repaired.

Then you help him set up a Spotify account (follow me at @remakethestars 😉) and try to help him find his rhythm.

Poor child’s never had Oreos before, so you drag a pack of Double Stuffs out of the cabinet and a glass of milk and show him the best milk-dunking method you know.

You think about handing him a cookie and telling him to waterboard it until the bubbles stop coming up, but cookie-dunking is something every kid does; it’s sacred, and you don’t want him to associate it with violence.

You show him how you and Alfred feed the bats in the batcave.

And you show him Vine compilations and your favorite shows and movies and as many classics as you can, and you put up with him pointing out the inaccuracies and calling them stupid.

Every time he doesn’t get a reference, you write it down so you know what to show him later.

If anything ever happens to you, Damian finds your list and makes it his personal mission to watch/read everything on it. It makes him feel close to you.

You build a relationship with him that’s similar to his and Dick’s, and he comes to you with things he might not be able to come to anyone else with.

Plus, since you live in the manor still and he doesn’t want Bruce to think less of him, it’s you he comes to after a nightmare.

If you know Alfred has pictures of him curled up in your side, you ask him to send them to you. Not for blackmail purposes; just to have.

You’d never use the need of comfort or the sharing of emotions against him because (A) it’s perpetuating toxic masculinity and (B) you don’t want him to think it’s wrong or confirm any of the stupid “strength” things the League of Shadows taught him.

You gave him a stuffed cat that looks like Alfred (the cat, not the butler) with some of your perfume spritzed on it. He verbalized his revulsion when you gave it to him, but on nights he has a bad dream and you’re not home, it brings him comfort.

Titus comes to get you when Damian’s upset. 

Even when he’s not with Damian, he seems to know. Pets are like that.

You’ve learned to trust Titus’s instincts. Damian thinks it’s suspicious when he’s feeling down and you just happen to call.

You never realized it until a long time later, but Ace was acting weird the day Jason came back from the dead.

And he was acting weird the day Jason came back to Gotham too. He ran to the door and began barking. Alfred swept security, but nothing seemed to be off. The whole family was on edge that day.

You were the reason Jason knew he wasn’t completely forgotten; he spotted you through a café window, and you were wearing his jacket.

Visit my headcanon masterlist.

[camaro-and-smokes]

To rent or not to rent? - The love of my life PT 3

Rating: Mature Characters: Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove, Robin Buckley, ofc Warnings: no warnings

Read on tumblr >>

Read on AO3 >>

Author's notes: This is my very own Harringrove fix-it. if you have nothing else to say than nasty comments, please, I have a solution for you: Don't read.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Billy parked in front of the video rental. He was soon in a hurry if he wanted to make it back home on time. But he kept his cool, took the tapes from the back seat, the ones he never had even taken out of the car, and stepped out.

When he closed the door and turned to walk to the rental, he let out a sigh. The girl, who always seemed to have her foot in her mouth, was behind the counter. He had hoped that Steve would’ve finally shown up at work after almost a month, but no. Just his luck. Again.

“Hi Billy,” a nasal female voice said behind him as he was opening the door.

“Hi Cindy,” he said with a disgust, recognizing the speaker without looking at her. Cindy hadn’t stopped bugging him ever since they had hooked up a few months back. Which now, in hindsight, had been a mistake. She just couldn’t take no for an answer. It wasn’t the first time he had run to her after the incident, gotten her to let go of it momentarily by promising to call her and never actually doing it. Because why would he? She had been just one more goal on his list of ‘Things To Do Before High School Was Over’, the one ‘to score the cheerleader captain’.

“What are you going to watch tonight? Can I join you?” she asked, following Billy to the rental.

“I’m just dropping these off,” he said to her dispassionately, left the tapes on the counter and turned back.

[continues under the cut]

Cindy was trying to coo her way in to get him to give her a ride home, when the girl behind the counter called him back.

“Erm, hey, you. You’ve, eh, you’ve had these for two days. We rent them just for a day. You have to pay for the extra day.”

Billy rolled his eyes. The films were the ones rentable for seven days and he knew that there was still one day left. He turned back, annoyed, and walked back to the counter.

“I rented them for a week. A week isn’t yet over. What’s the problem?”

The girl behind the counter peaked behind him on his left. He frowned and glanced over his shoulder. Cindy was a few shelf rows behind him, browsing as she waited.

“Erm, did you have plans for tonight?” the girl asked. “I mean, eh, these films? Something romantic maybe?”

Billy tilted his head in confusion. “They’re Halloween films. The original and parts two and three. Not exactly, err...” he glanced again over his shoulder at Cindy, who was seemingly deep in thought between the shelves, oblivious of what was going on by the counter.

“What are you trying to say, exactly...” Billy asked, trying to catch the name on the girl’s name tag. “Robin?”

Robin peeked again behind him, then she turned to look back at him. “Our mutual friend asked me to give this to you in case you came by,” she whispered, handing Billy a piece of paper and winked.

Billy’s mouth hung open in utter confusion.

“For God’s sake, take it,” Robin hissed and shoved the paper at him.

“Hey, we can rent anything you want and watch it later tonight. Right, Billy?” Cindy asked and walked towards the counter.

Billy snatched the paper from Robin and shoved it in his pocket.

“I’m sorry. I think I made a mistake. These are all good,” Robin said and took the tapes, turning away.

Billy was unsure what had just happened and looked at Robin’s back, raising his eyebrows. “Well, ok, great. Thanks. I guess,” he stuttered, before turning around, and almost walking over Cindy.

“So, what’s it going to be, big boy?” she cooed.

He finally lost it. He grabbed Cindy by her arm and pulled her outside with him.

“Ouch, Billy, that hurt!” she exclaimed when they got outside.

Billy let go of her. “Listen, Cindy. I’m going to say this just once.” He leaned down and looked at her with his most contemptuous gaze. “There’s no way I’m having anything else in the future with you except separate ways. You were never anything else to me than just another score. You hear me? Now, fuck off.”

Cindy stood frozen in front of him, lost for words with wide eyes.

He walked around her to the Camaro and got in. When he started the engine and glanced at Cindy, she was walking away, shaking.

[dhmis-askblog-au-thingy]

So how's life going for you all?

(Doi: Oh hello! I’m doing great! I am very happy cuz soon I’ll get to see my friend Sadie, auntie Sketch is gonna draw with me, and tomorrow I get to see my dad, Robin, since they are coming home from school!!

Red: Eh.. I’m alright I guess.. )

(Tony: my day is going PERFECTLY thanks for asking!

Sketch: traditional art is waaay better than digital art!! Digital art is just overrated since it’s “newer”

Colin: well it’s not my fault digital art is more preferred than your outdated form of art.

Sketch: you’re outdated!)

(Robin: Hello! I am doing well! Im just a little bit busy right now with a definitely not last minute assignment which is practice for the field I’m going to college for! Oh speaking of which I am going to be a humanities teacher which is a mix of literature arts and history which is definitely something I am excited for! I wanted to do this because I can ramble about my interests in certain aspects of history to my students which is exciting!! I cannot wait to start teaching! Anyways I am doing well and I hope you are doing well too!!)

(Steak: I’m doing alright, I’m just making a pie with my family at the moment so I am a little occupied heheh!

Spinach: Dad the recipe says to do THIS not THAT! We are baking a pie you have to follow the recipe because last time you were in charge of baking you made pudding instead of a cake ‘cause you said “it would be fine”!

Fridge: I’m doing well! My day has been slow but it’s been alright!)

Unfortunately I couldn’t find Bread Boy anywhere in the household but I’m pretty sure he is doing ok! Also Shrignold couldn’t answer because he was at work and I didn’t ask Lamp because he was asleep and he gets very mad when he is woken up from his naps, but my guess is that he is doing good!! Anyways thank you for the asks!!

(Mod: sorry this took so long to answer!! I got busy with other things and my motivation was very low, but thank you all for being patient and thank you for sending in asks!! I will try answering asks more frequently and also note: not all my art will look this way for asks so if it ever changes to a different style of drawing (like colored or no shading) please don’t be bugged! Also I added little word things saying what the people are saying in case it’s hard read! Also I promise when this blog goes quiet it is not dead! I’m just doing other things! But anyways thank you for sending in asks and being patient with me!!)