#kinda had the idea to do something with the baby steph gave up

[oifaaa]

With baby bat Jason au

Cass/Steph?

Of course they're the only two with a happy marriage life they do have other issues tho that are making their lives hell they get 1 nice thing and that's it

[catxsnow]

BRUISES D.W.

Request: Hey honeypot! how are you darling? are you comfortable with writing older damian kinda smut? because i just had this idea where he has this super sweet girlfriend and one day batfam sees her with bruises on her neck and they think mayb damian hits her or something? and Tim mentions that he has seen bruises on her hips as well and they confront him and her and they tell the fam that's from sexy times and they are like "two days ago you were a baby. how are you an adult now?"

Warning: mentions of sex, bruising from s e x, Older!Damian

A/N: since someone wanted a requested post, here ya go :)

Word Count: 2.1k

Damian's brothers always saw him as the child of the family, even when he had grown up to be a fully functioning twenty-two year old. He was still treated like a kid when he saw his family and it drove him crazy. His whole life he had been just as old as them mentally and now that he was, they still treated him like a twelve year old.

When you came into his life, it was refreshing to have someone treat him as the adult he was. You respected him and he always showed the same to you. Your friendship was grand and always full of surprises. The biggest was the night that you no longer realized you wanted to be just friends, you wanted to be lovers.

Damian met you at the library on a cold night in Gotham. You were studying for an exam and he was looking for literature that his father didn't already own. He bumped into your table by pure accident and was thankful for his single moment of being a klutz.

You were a kind, quiet girl. Most people over looked you while those who got to know you knew that you were nothing like your facade. Damian of all people learned that the most. The more he got to know you, the more he saw that you were hiding a whole other side of you. You could be wild but only around those you trusted.

When you began dating, he saw yet another side of you. Damian thought you were wild when he got a few drinks in you - but in bed? He was amazed.

When you learned about Damian's secret life as a vigilante, he made sure to start training you. There was no way that he was going to leave you defenseless in case he wasn't there to protect you. So, at least once a week he would bringing you back to his father's home and teach you everything that he knew.

Most times the two of you worked in the background while Bruce did his own thing on the computers. Sometimes his brothers and sisters would show up and tease him. You never understood the nick names - demon spawn, baby bird, even little D. They must have been from when he was younger.

His family liked you. Dick was always excited to see you and had some sort of conversation to spark. He came to visit you and Damian quite often. Jason found you to be kind, reserved - not the kind of person he expected Damian to be with. Tim, Duke, Cass, and Steph thought you to be the sweetest person they had known.

You held a shy smile around them, hesitance in yours eyes. They were all so tough, it was hard not to be intimidated by them. Even Damian at first was difficult to look past his height and muscles. They never saw the other side of you that Damian got to see all the time. He always teased you for it.

For the first time in a long time, both Dick and Tim were at the Manor. They were supposed to be helping Damian and Bruce with a case but kept reaching dead ends. To pass the time, Damian got you back on the sparring mat to continue your skills. You came a long way since you first started, but no where near ready to take any of them down.

This was the third day in a row that you were down there, sweating your ass off and learning what it meant to truly have sore muscles. Damian had been staying at the manor all week and by the second night there he asked you to join him. He missed you in his bed. Of course, you couldn't deny his request.

You had already shed your shirt, the material was drowned with sweat. Damian was much the same with only his shorts and his ankle being tightly wrapped in a tension bandage. He always feared bruising you when you dueled like this, but with the litter of blue and purple already on your skin he couldn't do much about it.

Damian had suddenly kicked your ankle out from under you and you landed against the mat with a thud. He stuck his hand out to help you up, but you only tugged him down. Damian acted fast and instead of letting you get the upper hand, trapped you below him. A smirk was on your face.

Damian gazed down from your sweat beaded face, to the small bruises he had given you the night before. Five faint little circles were on your neck, all lining up perfectly with the pads of his fingers. He matched your smirk, thinking about your incredibly hot sex from last night. He was sure that there were still residual scratch marks down his back.

"Another round?" You toyed, knowing exactly what was running through his mind. He knew that you meant another spar, but his mind was stuck on the idea of dragging you up to his room and giving you more marks for him to admire. "Or did I tire you out this time?"

"Try to keep up, beloved," Damian narrowed his eyes. Teasing him like that wasn't fair - especially when his brothers were right across the room. He peeled himself off of you and bounced back up for another fight. You followed his lead, arms up and light on your feet.

Dick and Tim were watching from afar. The computer was running in the background and there wasn't anything that they could do until them. Bruce was at work and Alfred was somewhere in the Manor doing things. Titus napped by the mat where you and Damian were, his snores could be heard from where the two men stood.

Tim narrowed his eyes at the couple. You had been around for years, keeping to yourself and never really speaking up until necessary. It made him wonder about you; not in the fact of your loyalty, but if you were maybe too loyal. Every time you were over, some sort of bruise was visible on your skin.

At first, he chalked it up to you bruising easily - or that you were just a klutz. Then, they got more common. They were darker, bigger, often times in the same places that should have been hidden by your clothes. You never talked about them, and if someone brought it up, you changed the subject.

Tim was worried about you. Damian had always been a violent person, he was raised that way since birth. Sure, Bruce had changed him, Dick too, but old habits ran strong. It made Tim wonder if it was Damian purposefully leaving the bruises on you. Was he taking all of his hate and anger out on you?

"If you squint any harder you might get stuck like that," Dick joked. Tim turned away from you and Damian and up towards his older brother. "Damian's a good teacher, maybe she'll be as good as us one day."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Tim confessed. Dick raised his eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. "You ever notice how (Y/N) is always covered in bruises? Her legs, her wrists - she has bruises nearly every time we see her. I just... I wonder what Damian does behind closed doors. I'm not saying Damian would do anything terrible, but he was raised by Talia. Restraint hasn't been his strong suit."

"You think he hits her?" Dick suddenly became worried. Tim hesitatingly nodded. It wasn't something that he ever wanted to accuse Damian of, but the thought had crossed his mind more than once. "Damian would never do that... would he?"

"I would rather be safe than sorry," Tim decided. Their attention went back to the two of you. You had Damian's wrists pinned and the both of you were laughing so hard about something that tears streamed down your face. Looking at them, it never seemed like Damian would do such a thing. Tim also knew that you were too quiet to ever speak out about it if he did.

Damian pecked your lips and the two of you called it enough for the time being. You wiped a towel down your face before slinging it over your shoulders. Hand in hand, you walked over to Dick and Tim who were looking nervously between each other. There was no good time to ask such an intrusive question.

You wished to jump straight into the shower, but Damian insisted to check in to see if there was any process. "Is the computer done downloading th-"

"Are you hitting (Y/N)?" Tim blurted out. Your eyes widened at his sudden question and you felt Damian tense beside you. How dare he accuse him of ever laying a hand on you? Even when sparring he made sure never to hurt you. There were accidents, sure, but never intentional. To have Tim assume something like that? It was unfathomable.

To try and explain himself, Tim pointed towards the bruises on your neck that he had just noticed upon your approach, as well as the ones visible right above your shorts. Damian grunted beside you, understanding why Tim thought the way he did. You on the other hand, felt your face flare up with embarrassment.

Dick and Tim looked between themselves at your unexpected reaction. Damian gave them a look, hoping that they would understand without having to say it out loud. Unfortunately, they didn't pick up on it. Damian wiped a hand down his face, not believing that he actually had to explain this to his older brothers.

"I got them during sex," you muttered out. Their eyes widened at your answer and a flush filled their cheeks. However, Tim still wasn't satisfied with the answer of the bruises on your neck. There was no way that they were hickies - they weren't the right color or shape. Damian sighed, cringing as he perfectly placed his fingers were the bruises were.

"Oh I think I'm gonna throw up," Tim made a disgusted face. Damian had a smug look on his own. Not only did he prove him wrong, but he also made him extremely uncomfortable. Two birds, one stone.

"You're like twelve," Dick exasperated. Damian was still the same little boy in his mind. In no way should he be old enough to be having sex, especially by the looks of it, frequent sex. Seeing the two of you dating, it always seemed like a cute middle school couple - in no way did he think about you as adults.

"I'm twenty-two, Richard. You're a decade off."

"Decade or not, I still know too much now," Tim shuddered. You were thankful that Damian tugged you away from his brothers. You were still flaming with embarrassment from the encounter. Now, every time you would see them that would be all they could see: the bruises that Damian left around your neck.

Even if you were adults, like Damian said, you still didn't like the idea of his brother's knowing what happened between the two of you behind locked doors. Damian didn't seem to mind. Maybe because it showed how old he really was or that he got to prove that he was getting laid consistently.

All you knew, was that you were grateful that they didn't bring Bruce into this little theory and him finding out what you did to his son - or what his son did to you. Though, as the world's greatest detective, you feared he already knew the truth.

"Join me in the shower?"

"You're seriously thinking about sex right now? After that?" You raised your eyebrows. Damian's sex drive was impeccable - sometimes a little too impeccable. Dragging you from Gala's, pit stop on patrol, he even caught you between classes one time. Now, after his brother's teased him, he was still ready to go.

Damian shrugged. "You're saying you aren't? After all that teasing while we trained? I felt your heart rate when I showed them what the bruises were for, beloved. You got excited." You glared at him, knowing damn well that it was true. He squeezed just enough to get you thinking about your previous night.

"You're game better be good if you want to distract me from that shit show that just happened."

"When is my game ever not?"

[redjaybathood]

“So,” Jason said, scratching his cheek. “You are here to be Robin?”

He’s got to stop doing that. The scab won’t ever heal otherwise, and he would have to change the cowl for a helmet.

Nice idea, actually, but doesn’t fit the aesthetics. He would have to re-design the whole suit. And maybe, he is not the best person to do that. His fashion choices are… Kinda hit and miss.

“I am here to take my inheritance,” the boy growled. “I am here to be Batman.”

Jason blinked. Looked over his shoulder at Steph. She was looking at the boy with amusement mixed with horror. Like: is he for real? Oh no, how did he grow up in Nanda Parbat if that was him, for real?

Jason’s thoughts exactly.

He turned back to the kid quickly, before he decided to show them what else he has learned at Ra’s’ knee.

“I mean, sure? Be my guest?”

The boy scowled even harder.

“I knew you were too weak to wear my father’s mantle, but you are also a coward. I thought I would have to fight you, seems like I overestimated you.”

“O-kay,” Jason drawled. “But why? It’s not like I won’t get to still be Batman.”

“What.”

“What.”

“Of course you won’t get to be Batman! I will be taking Batman from you!”

“No? I am sharing it with you? In fact, if you want to go out where and get killed, just because some idiot would mistake you for me, then be my guest. Take the heat off me. You don’t need my permission even. You know, about five months after your father’s back was broken, and I was deemed too young for the cowl, there were like three different Batmans on the street per night. It was maybe one and a half who lived till dawn, on a good day. But you, you are trained by the League. You can handle yourself and them for me. You will probably kill even, that has to up my street cred.”

The boy, the baby, honestly, he was barely even sixteen; the boy squeezed the spoon in his hand. It bent, an impressive fit if only it wasn’t a dessert spoon, and he wasn’t eating sorbet Jason made.

“There can never be two Batmen,” the boy said with conviction.

Steph turned to Jason and mock-whispered. “I think he is even younger than he looks. Probably a clone or accelerated growth in a lab.”

“You! Harlot, I heard about you, Batgirl, was it? You seduced my father, and failing to keep both his interest and the child, set your eyes upon another, lesser version of Batman.”

Jason rubbed his cheek. If there was a time when he understood his father slapping him around… No. That’s a joke in poor taste, you’re better than that.

“Five bucks on accelerated growth. He is not Bruce’s carbon copy, here, the nose, the eyes, though ears are similar. He really needs the cowl too.”

But not that much better than make fun of how the kid looks, jeez. Great job, Todd, now he is scowling even more.

“Because,” Jason continued over his panicking voice. Shit. He wasn’t ready for a kid, he will fuck him up. “Because, it’s obvious that he never read real intel. He knows about a Batgirl, and a pregnancy, everything else is mixed up.”

“Twenty bucks he isn’t even supposed to be here,” Stephanie said immediately. “I bet they grew him in a lab for something awful, like Ra’s possessing his body or something, but he overheard some stuff, made a half-brained escape plan, and got to his father’s place, thinking he needs to bully his way into the family like he had seen his dad do.”

The boy became suspiciously silent and refused to meet their eyes.

Jason elbowed Steph. She swatted at him and gave him a look: fuck off, I know already.

“For the record,” she said decisively. “You don’t need to bully, or fight anyone. We’re adopting you, effective immediately.”

“Effective yesterday,” Jason agreed. “I will be your mom and Steph here will be your dad. And you will have a dozen of aunts and uncles, three of which are other Batgirls, two - had been a Batman, at some point, but didn’t really want to be stuck with it because it does no wonders for mental health. And one was Robin, at some point, so if you want to reconsider the whole hero identity thing, you can come to him and talk about it. Because legacy mantels should be passed from the hands of people who actually used them last, I think.”

“Take a hero identity. Now, or even later. It’s okay if you just want to go to school, or learn to skateboard, or hip-hop dance, or become a TikTok influencer. Though adoption is still mandatory.”

“But!” Steph was the one who elbowed him this time, and ouch. The boy got him unaware yesterday, and landed a hit in the kidney, and nicked his left side of the face both. One of these injuries almost hurt more than his pride. “You don’t actually have to.”

“Become a vigilante, we mean. Right now, or ever. It doesn’t matter if you want to go to school, or learn to skateboard, or become a TikTok influencer.”

“Tt, as if I will make it easier for Grandfather to track me down.”

“Good,” Jason exhaled. “Though adoption is still mandatory.”

[ur-favorite-queer-queen]

School Dance

For Maribat March day 25 theme school dance

Master List

“Now remember class,” Mrs. Davis spoke, “The Father Daughter dance is tomorrow afternoon at 5 till 7, make sure you get your tickets at the booth near the cafeteria.” 

“Yes Mrs. Davis.��� All the students answered in unison. 

Little Charlotte Martha Brown-Wayne walked out of her 4th grade class with her best friend, Faith Couffaine, in tow. 

“So Char, are you going to be going to the dance?” Faith asked, her blue eyes locked onto Charlotte.

“I don’t think so Fae.” Charlotte turned so that her brown eyes faced the ground.

“Why not? Me and my dad are going to be there!” Faith exclaimed, fixing her headband that somehow got tangled in her thick black hair.

“Yeah because you have a dad, I don’t think moms are allowed.” Charlotte replied, tucking some stray pieces of her dark brown hair behind her ears.

“Oh please, just bring one of your moms, it’ll be fine!”

“But Fae-” She turned her head to face her best friend.

“No don’t Fae me. I already got my ticket and I know your parents are just waiting for you to ‘remember’,” She used air quotes, “to get yours. You’ll be fine Char, plus isn’t your mom really looking forward to this?” She didn’t wait for her to answer, “Exactly, so I expect to see you there.”

“Fae-” 

“Bye Charlotte, you better not leave me hanging!” Was the last thing said before she raced to hug her mom and leave in her limo. 

“Ugh, really Faith.” Charlotte then walked to the place where Alfred was always parked in order to pick her up. 

“Hello Miss Charlotte, did you have a good day at school?” Alfred questioned as he got out of the car to open the door for her. 

“It was fine.” 

“Now you’re not forgetting anything are you?” Charlotte froze like a deer in headlights, acting was not her strong suit. 

“No?” Neither was lying, just like her maman. 

Alfred opened the door for her and she quickly ducked inside, Alfred returned to his seat but didn’t move. He also didn’t lock the doors. 

“Miss Charlotte, why do you not want to go to the dance?” A simple question with a complicated answer, at least in her mind. 

“Everyone is gonna be there with their dad. I won’t because I don’t have a dad. I would be there with mom, I’d be the outcast.” 

“I don’t believe the gender of the parent you bring should matter as long as you have fun.” 

“It's called the Father Daughter dance for a reason Alfred.” 

“A simple label that should not matter Miss Charlotte.” He thought for a minute, “Tell me Miss Charlotte, will any of your friends care that you bring your mom?” 

She thought back to what Faith had been saying the entire week. “No.” 

“Will your classmates?” 

She thought again, she didn’t interact with her classmates a ton, but none of them seemed to mind the fact that she had 2 moms. “Probably not.” 

“Then what is the problem?” 

“It's just-I’ll look weird because I’m the only one with my mom. Everyone else will be there with their fathers and I’ll be there with my mother.”

“Like I stated before Miss Charlotte, it matters not the gender of the parent as long as you have fun with them. I have no doubt that some of your classmates will be their fathers but will be miserable.” 

Charlotte snapped her head up to look at him, like the mere thought of one of her classmates being miserable with their father at the Father Daughter dance was impossible. But it seemed reasonable, she knew quite a few of her classmates who talked fondly about their mothers but not their fathers. And when the subject of the Father Daughter dance came up, they never participated in the conversations unless asked, and their answers were never enthusiastic. Plus Alfred was always right, that’s what her mom, maman, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandfather taught her.

She nodded her head in determination, opening the car door and saying over her shoulder, “Be right back Alfred!” 

She pulled a 5 dollar bill out of her backpack pocket, one that had been haunting her for the past week. She made her way to the cafeteria then to the booth right next to it. 

“Hello Charlotte. Here to buy a ticket?” The lady, she’s pretty sure is a fifth grade teacher, asked.

“Yes ma’am.” She handed her the 5 dollar bill and received a small slip of paper in return.

“Remember to show that to the lady who will be at the entrance tomorrow. That’s the only way she’ll let you in. Promise not to lose it?” 

“I promise.” She smiled at the woman before racing back to where Alfred was waiting. 

-

“Mom! Maman!” Charlotte called as she entered the manor. Not hearing their voices she assumed they were in the kitchen so she went to her room to drop her backpack off and change into some more comfy clothes. 

After changing out of her uniform and into some leggings and a t-shirt she made her way to the kitchen where she found her moms. 

Her maman was baking something, probably cookies, while her mom watched her, occasionally handing her ingredients. It wasn’t an uncommon sight for Charlotte, in fact they had family baking days every Sunday. The only hard part was getting their attention, since whenever they baked they were always in their own little world together. 

Her eyes caught the frosting that she was guessing her maman had just finished making. Perfect. 

She made her way over to the bowl, grabbed the spoon, and took a big bite of the sweet treat. And as predicted,

“Charlotte!”

She turned and there her maman stood staring at her, hands on her hips as she tried to fight the smile off her face. Her mom was trying to hold back her giggling in the background. 

“Hi maman. Hi mom.” 

“Why are you eating frosting? When you know you’re not allowed.” Her maman gave her a pointed look. 

“It was the only way to get your attention.” 

“She’s not wrong Nette.” Steph interjected, coming up to stand next to Charlotte. She crouched down so she was at Charlotte’s level, “Did you get the ticket.”

“Yes, it's in my backpack.” 

“Ok make sure you don’t lose it. We all know you have your maman’s memory.” 

“Hey! My memory is not that bad!” Marinette protested. 

“Anymore. We all know what your memory was like when you were younger.” Steph reminded. 

“...Fine. I’ll give you that.” 

“Can I help frost the cookies?” Charlotte asked.

“Of course my little ladybug. Pinkie promise not to eat any frosting?” Steph held out her pinkie to Charlotte. 

“Yes mom!” Charlotte held out her pinkie, returning the promise. 

-

“Charlotte! Are you almost ready!” Steph shouted from outside her room. 

“Almost ready mom!” Charlotte replied as she adjusted the golden colored clip in her hair. 

“Charlotte you look great.” Marinette came to stand next to her in the mirror. 

Charlotte ran her hands down her black and gold dress for the umpteeth time. Whatever she did, something just didn’t look right. But she didn’t know what.

“Something doesn’t look right.” 

“I think I have an idea of what might help,” Marinette took a gold necklace off her neck, “Here you go.” 

“Wait Maman, isn’t this your favorite necklace.” 

“It is, but I think for tonight it’ll look best with you.” Marinette put the necklace around Charlotte’s neck and clipped it in the back. “There, what do you think?” 

“I love it,” She turned around and hugged Marinette, “Thank you Maman!” 

“Of course my beautiful baby bat. Now don’t keep your mom waiting.” 

Charlotte opened the door and met her mom’s face on the other side. 

“Well look at you little ladybug, ready to go?” Steph held her arm out to Charlotte. 

“Yes mom.” Charlotte took her arm as they headed outside where Alfred was waiting. 

They seated themselves in the back of the car when Steph noticed the necklace. 

"Charlotte, where did you get that necklace?" 

"Maman gave it to me. Do you like it?" 

"Yes, very much. It even goes with your dress." 

"It kinda goes with your dress too."

"I see, did Maman ever tell you how she got that necklace?"

"No, why?"

"We have arrived Miss Stephanie and Miss Charlotte." Alfred spoke.

"I'll tell you later." Steph promised. 

“You better.” Charlotte grumbled as they got out of the car, unsure if her mom actually heard her. 

-

“They’re pretty cute huh?” A man asked Stephanie. Both parents were watching their respective daughters dance together, the two girls forgetting about their parents that sat only a few feet away. 

“Adorable. I’m Stephanie, by the way, Charlotte’s mom.” She held her hand out to the man. 

“Ethan, Jasmine’s dad.” He returned the handshake. 

“I don’t suppose we could arrange some playdates in the future?”

“Of course we can. If I don’t tell Jazzy that she can see her friend again then she’ll have a riot.”

“Well would you look at that! Both of our children have at least one thing in common!” 

“Here you can put my number in here.” He slid her his phone. 

“And you can put yours in mine.” She handed her phone over.

After putting their information in the other’s phone, they both took their respective phones back and glanced at the names.

“Well Mrs. Brown-Wayne, it seems we will be seeing each other quite a lot in the future.” 

“It seems we will Mr. Cook.”

-

Marinette got a video sent to her later that night. From her lovely wife. She opened up the video to see her daughter dancing with another girl. It seemed she had inherited another one of her traits, the inability to hide her blush. 

Marinette giggled to herself as she watched her daughter continue to dance with the unknown girl. It seemed like the other girl was having fun too, if the smile she was wearing and the glow in her eyes told her anything. 

The video was followed by a text, ‘I think there will be many more playdates in the future.’ 

Marinette smiled to herself as she tucked her phone away. Fully planning on getting answers the next day on this mysterious girl who had captured her daughter’s heart. Young love was always so cute to watch.

-

“Maman?” Charlotte asked as she was being tucked into bed, the night’s events had taken a toll on her. In the comfort of her bed she was struggling to keep her eyes open. 

“Yes my baby bat?” Marinette asked as she sat on her bed. 

“Mom never told me how you got that necklace,” She lazily pointed to the necklace that had returned to its original place on Marinette’s neck, “Can you?”

“That’s quite the story, maybe when you're older.”

“Aw, but mom said she would.”

“Did she say she’d tell you later?” 

“Uh...yes.” 

“When mom says later, she really means not for a long time.”

“Oh…”

“How about about this, in around five years-” 

“Five years!” 

“Yes, when you're 15, the age I met your mom, I’ll tell you the story.”

“You promise?” 

“I promise.” 

“Pinky promise?” Charlotte held her pinkie out.

“Pinky promise.” Marinette linked her pinky with her daughter’s. 

“Okay goodnight Mom.” Charlotte snuggled into the blankets and closed her eyes. 

“Goodnight sweetie.” Marinette gave her a light kiss on the forehead. 

She made her way out of the room, silently closing the door, before making her way to her and her wife’s bedroom. She entered and heard her wife getting ready in the bathroom so she sat down on the bed and waited. 

She didn’t have to wait long as only a few minutes later her wife came out of the bathroom and sat down with her on the bed. 

“Hey what’s on your mind?” Steph asked as Marinette laid her head on her shoulder. Her hand subconsciously fiddling with the gold necklace that sat on her neck. 

“Did you tell Charlotte that you would tell her the story of how you got me the necklace?” Marinette got straight to the point, she had learned that sometimes it was much better than beating around the bush. 

“Maybe.” 

“Stephanie.” 

“What! She asked and-” 

“You should know better! The necklace has to do with how we met!” 

“Yeah but-” 

“No buts! You know we didn’t meet the most child friendly way!”

“I know, I just thought that she would forget about it after the dance.”

“I told her I would tell her when she turns 15, now she’s going to be counting down the days till then.” 

“I’m sorry Nette.”

“It’s okay Steph, I just wish we had a little time before she knew.” 

“She was going to find out eventually, at least now we have a date to prepare ourselves.” 

Marinette’s mind went back to a time where her only worries were what to wear for her next date with Stephanie. Where she didn’t have to worry about her best friend dying, or the grief that followed. 

“Come on let’s not worry about it tonight.” Steph brought her out of her stupor. 

“Yeah, goodnight Steph.”

“Goodnight Nette.”

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

You have literally no idea how long this took me to write. There will be part 2, I kinda left you guys hanging, but that won’t be for a long time. Anyways I do hope that you enjoyed, like I said in day 24 of Maribat March, Story, I will be posting 2 of these each time I come back from the dead. Now I am going to go finish school work so I don’t fail! Who knows when you’ll see me next?

@maribatmarch-2k21 

[ectonurites]

for the character headcanons ask, tim or steph

i ended up doing both LMAO

so for Tim:


A (realistic headcanon): i will stand by this being realistic but TIM CONTINUING TO SKATEBOARD! like okay yes in canon he only used redboard like twice, and once he had his car back he didn’t really rely on it, but he put the time into learning how to and really enjoyed it! i think it would be fun to see him do it more and like i think steph could also skate with him (altho honestly she has more roller skate energy to me but they could still hang out at a skatepark together) i also have this idea for a fic im at some point going to write of Damian finding redboard and Tim being like ‘oh i can show u how to use that-‘ and him being like ‘NO i will do it on my own’ but eventually it becomes a whole bonding thing for them

B (hilarious): other people joke about this a lot but Tim skateboarding around Wayne Enterprises will NEVER cease to amuse me. just the general chaos of a seventeen year old in a power position like that. I think like Lucius and Tam would keep record of stupid shit he does (skateboarding in the office, Interesting fashion choices, the mountain of mugs and takeout containers that build on his desk, his use of glitter gel pens on official documents, threats to pull a seto kaiba and make WE’s primary goals be trading card related, etc) and make a lil scrapbook to give him on his 21st birthday or something when he’s like Slightly More of an adult

C (heart-crushing): Young Justice being Tim’s first friends he can feel real around that he doesn’t think are going to just be temporary. like... i’ve done a lot of rambling about Tim and again we know he’s a kid who grew up going from boarding school to boarding school, he could make friends easily enough but they were very... fleeting. they weren’t meant to last and he went into it knowing that. even though at the start of the group he couldn’t tell them everything, I feel like Young Justice were just the people he eventually was able to be himself the most around, since he didn’t need to hide being Robin. (again him needing to hide being Tim for a while definitely created some distance, but it was very different than hiding the whole hero life from people he knew at home and at school) and then ya know the core four group moving onto the titans together further solidifying this sense of ‘we are a group who can get through stuff together’... until it all falls the fuck apart after Kon dies. and Tim & Cassie have their weird bad coping things. and Bart dies. i think for Tim it would just be so crushing to have the first group he was able to consider being more permanent fall apart like that (not to mention his dad and steph dying around the same time on top of it- being two of the other types of relationships [familial and a romantic partner] that had more permanence to him) and even when people come back and bonds heal, that sense of stability would just forever be shattered, he lost them once and knows that it could happen again and that fear would always be there in the back of his mind

D (canon is a coward and won’t): that he is bisexual LMAO

aaand now Steph

A (realistic headcanon): alright this is kinda canon related but okay. we have seen MULTIPLE alternate versions of Steph with really short hair (future state, that time she imagined herself as nightwing, earth-3) so i really feel like by current-ish canon she’s already thinking about chopping her hair off, like it’s one of those ideas that just every now and then she’ll see someone with super short hair and be like oh... i want that... but never really go through with it (like she’s had some kinda short looks preboot but i think the shortest was like a bob. im talking pixie cut here) and like im imagining maybe after some mission her hair gets caught on something or even burned or idk and she just says fuck it and her, Cass and Tim get back to one of their apartments/a safehouse after patrol and cut her hair in the bathroom at like 4am (yes im aware i place many situations in the middle of the night in the bathroom with friends... [like that timkon fic i wrote a bit ago] its just such a special setting okay) like Cass with the scissors Tim’s holding up a reference pic Steph found on pinterest. it looks great once it’s done

B (hilarious): the eggplant vs purple thing. i think that now in this post death metal world of dc, where everyone’s remembering things from before the reboot, steph should have a small mental breakdown about how she betrayed her old self by rallying behind the color purple (‘enemy of crime and people who hate purple!’) vs how she used to be so insistent her color scheme was eggplant (‘its eggplant. purple would look stupid’). everyone else is having their brains break because of like conflicting memories of their traumas (and she’s got that goin on too, dont get me wrong, she’ll get to freaking out about that later) but steph is just sitting there staring at a color wheel trying not to cry

C (heart-crushing): i’ve seen some fics explore this a little but i think she’d end up doing a lot of thinking about her baby that she gave up for adoption. like that was something she experienced so young and i feel that would just always be a lurking thought in her mind, where is the baby? is she happy? gotham’s a dangerous city, there’s a lot to be afraid about there. Not that she wouldn’t already because she is just a caring big sister type of person, but I think Steph looking out for all the kids in Gotham (especially once she’s batgirl) in some small part could tie back to wanting to make sure her kid is safe out there wherever she ended up. (additionally since she had a rough upbringing with her whole dad situation she just especially is protective over kids anyways. Sometimes I think she might get kinda insecure about it… maybe even question herself about why she’s saving people, is it because she genuinely cares or is it something more selfish? it’s definitely a self doubt i could see manifesting)

D (canon is a coward and won’t) not to be repetitive but also that she is bi i will stand by this

[spine-buster]

The President Wears Prada (William Nylander) | Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks for all the love.  Black Lives Matter.  I stand with those who are actively dismantling racist attitudes, behaviours, and systems, and want to remind you that you are always welcome on my blog.

October 31st, 2019

Aberdeen Bloom was dressing up.

Her hair, long and wavy and a bit frizzy on its own (thanks dad) was now teased, crimped, and made purposely frizzy.  She outfitted herself in a blazer embroidered with poppies, leaves, and other floral insignia, a pair of 1970s style black pants, and a ridiculously ruffled shirt.  She looked over at Kasha, whose own hair was curled and crimped then teased, a pair of skin tight light wash jeans, a plain tank top, and a Japanese cherry blossom-printed kimono-style cardigan left loose but tied around her waist.

They were Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin.  And they were going to the Leafs’ Halloween party willingly dressed like this.

The purchase of the exact replica blazer embroidered with the poppies was probably one of the most ludicrous purchases Aberdeen had made in her life, but she now had a Halloween costume for life.  It wasn’t exactly her parents’ proudest moment, but they made explicitly clear growing up that any money she made was her money and she was free to do with it whatever she wanted.  Did that mean buy an exact replica Jimmy Page blazer?  Probably not.  But Aberdeen didn’t hear it that way.  All she had to do for the rest of her life was find a friend or partner (or three friends or partners) to be the rest of the band.  That proved harder than she thought.  

“I can’t believe you’re bringing me to a party with the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Kasha said as she layered some mascara onto her lashes in front of the full-length mirror in her room.  

“I can’t believe you agreed,” Aberdeen said, applying her own mascara as she sat on the floor in front of the same mirror.  

“Hey, I only agreed for an hour,” Kasha reminded her.  “Then Evan’s picking me up and we’re going to his friend’s house party.”

Aberdeen didn’t want to think about the fact that Kasha would have to leave her alone with the Leafs after only an hour.  She should be thankful that Kasha was coming in the first place.  “What does Evan think of your costume?”

Kasha chuckled slightly.  “He dressed up as John Bonham.  Fake moustache and everything.”

Aberdeen swooned.  “That boy is in love with you,” she said.  Kasha stayed silent.  “But why doesn’t anybody ever want to be John Paul Jones?”

“Oh, one of his friends is being John Paul Jones.”

Aberdeen almost poked her eye out with her mascara wand.  “Okay, can I come to your party instead?  You guys obviously need a guitarist.”

“Um, no.  It’s not every day that someone gets invited to a Leafs party,” Kasha said, a devilish look on her face.  “Besides, I bet Will is looking forward to seeing you.”

Now Aberdeen rolled her eyes.  “Stop.”

“No way.  Do you know what he’s dressing up as?”

“No idea.”

“Maybe he’ll dress up as John Paul Jones.  He’s definitely got the hair for it.”

Aberdeen laughed.  “I don’t think he even knows who Led Zeppelin is.”

“I barely know who Led Zeppelin is,” Kasha quipped, making Aberdeen laugh.  “The only reason I know is because of you and your dad.”

“And thank God for that.”

***

“Aberdeen!  You made it!” Travis Dermott greeted her at the door dressed up in a unicorn onesie.  He didn’t move to hug her but he gave her a very obvious up-down to take in her costume.  “Are you supposed to be the seventies?” he asked.

“Jimmy Page,” she pointed at herself, then moved to point to Kasha, “and Robert Plant.  From Led Zeppelin.”

“Well, rock on baby,” he smiled.  “And this is…?”

“This is Kasha, my roommate.  Kasha, this is Travis Dermott.”

He led them further inside the venue, The Burroughes, before introducing them to his girlfriend, Kat, dressed in a matching unicorn onesie.  Zach Hyman came up to them as well, introducing his wife Alannah.  They were dressed up as characters from Stranger Things, which Kasha got a kick out of.  Morgan and Bee came to say hi too – Bee was dressed up like Bruce Springsteen, and Morgan as Courtney Cox from the ‘Dancing in the Dark’ music video.  Aberdeen got a kick out of that.  

“Where’s Jason?” she asked Morgan as he led them to the bar, looking around for him.  He was the one who invited her to be here, after all.  She thought he’d be running up to her to say hello.

“Jason’s trick-or-treating with his kids.  Where else would he be?”

Her face dropped.  That little bastard.  He invited her to the Halloween party and then didn’t even bother to show up.  She thought for sure he’d take delight in watching her squirm the whole night and interact awkwardly with the team.  “Oh, that’s nice.  He was the one who invited me.”

Morgan smiled.  “He was the messenger,” he said, almost underneath his breath.  She saw Bee try to discreetly elbow him.

“What does that mean?”

“What are you ladies having to drink?” Bee asked, changing the subject completely.  “Everything’s on the house.”

Aberdeen ordered a gin and tonic while Kasha ordered a Tom Collins.  A few more of the guys and their girlfriends came up to say hi, confused by their costumes until she explained them.  Their costumes were much cuter, much more couple-y, like Alex Kerfoot and his girlfriend, who dressed up as Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat, or Mitch Marner and his girlfriend Steph, who dressed up as Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo.  Even Nic Petan and Frederick Gauthier dressed up as Holmes and Watson.  Bee soon started chatting up with Kasha, which left Aberdeen sipping on her drink and vulnerable to Auston Matthews seeing her approaching her.

“I must say, I think you’re the only person in the world who would get invited to the Leafs’ Halloween party and not dress up in something provocative,” Auston said, a drink already in his hand.

She knew Auston was Auston, but she still rolled her eyes.  “I work with you people.  We have to see each other tomorrow.”

“And you’re not trying to impress anybody?”

“No!”  It was the most ridiculous notion in the world.  Most of them were married or in long-term relationships.  Plus, she was an employee.  Did he not read the MLSE Employee Handbook?  “In case you forgot I work for Brendan Shanahan.  You know, the president?”

“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes playfully at her.  “What are you supposed to be, anyway?”

“I’m Jimmy Page,” she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  It should have been, since he was dressed up as Freddie Mercury.  She assumed he would know his rock stars if he dressed up like Freddie Mercury.  

“Who’s that?”

“Led Zep—you know what, never mind,” she shook her head, trying not to laugh.  “Maybe I should have dressed up like Justin Bieber.  Then you’d know.”

“Is there something going on between you and Willy?” he asked suddenly.  

Aberdeen practically spit out her drink.  Was he already drunk?  “No,” she said firmly.  “Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know,” Auston shrugged his shoulders.  “He’s always just kinda looking at you.  And when Kappy hit you in the face with the soccer ball…he was so red afterwards from being so angry I thought he was gonna murder Kappy.”

Aberdeen got defensive.  She couldn’t help it.  “Well, there’s nothing going on.  I don’t know why you would even think that.”

“I think he’s got the hots for you,” he tried to provoke her.  

“Oh, shut it, Auston,” she said.  “You’re just trying to get a rise out of me.  I’m just trying to do my job here.  What Willy does or does not feel is none of my business.”

As if on cue, William appeared behind Auston, dressed as Batman.  So stereotypical.  She wondered who was his Robin.  For a brief second, she wondered if he brought a girl.  “What’s none of your business?” he asked, throwing an arm around Auston but looking directly at her.

“What Kyle Dubas’s coffee order is,” Aberdeen thought on her feet, answering quickly.  “He’s got Peter for that.  Although I think he’s partial to a latte.”

She could see William giving her an up-down and briefly got self-conscious.  “Are you a rock star or something?”

“Jimmy Page.”

“Who’s that?”

Aberdeen rolled her eyes as Auston laughed out loud, turning to walk away to find someone better to talk to.  She felt a rush of blood flood her cheeks as William continued to look at her.  Kasha was still talking with Bee, and she wished to God either one of them would pull her into their conversation.  But they didn’t.  So she was stuck with William.  “Who’s your Robin?”

��Would have liked it to be you, but it’s Rasmus,” he said.  It made her head spin.  “Who’s your…I don’t know, partner?”

“Kasha, my roommate,” she pointed quickly to her.  “She’s Robert Plant.  The lead singer.”

“You got my texts that day, right?” he asked, changing the subject quickly like Auston had.

She gulped.  “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you text me back?”

“Did I have to?” she asked.

William shrugged his shoulders.  “Would have been nice.”

“How’d you even get my number?” she asked.

He smiled.  “Don’t worry about it.”  He looked down at her drink.  “Cucumber mule?”

“Gin and tonic.”

“Ah, that’s right,” he smiled.  “You’re more of a gin girl, right minskatt?”

Her heart fluttered in her chest at those words.  My treasure.  My treasure.  She’d told Kasha about it and Kasha almost teared up.  “Don’t call me that.”

“Don’t call you that?”

“At least not here.  Not in front of everybody.”

“So I can call you that when we’re alone?” he countered.

He was really dead set on making her heart fluttered out of her chest.  “When are we ever alone?” she asked, looking around the room at the team that surrounded them.

“We can find time,” he said.  “At least I will.”

“Aberdeeeeeeeeen!” she finally heard Kasha’s voice call out her name, tugging on the elbow of her blazer.  “Aberdeen, you have to see how cute Bee’s cat Bruce is!  Oh my God, he and Minerva can be best friends!”  When Kasha noticed Aberdeen wasn’t moving, too busy staring at William still, she looked at him.  He looked just as she remembered him from that night in June.  Blonde hair, blue eyes.  A total dreamboat.  A total hottie.  What she should have done is pat Aberdeen on the back for landing him.  “Hi, I’m Kasha,” she extended her hand to shake his.  “I’m Aberdeen’s roommate and best friend.”

“Nice to meet you Kasha,” he shook her hand, taking his eyes off Aberdeen momentarily.  “So, roommates, huh?”

“Mhm,” Kasha looked at him knowingly.  

“Here’s Bruce!” Bee intervened, bringing her phone up to Aberdeen’s face.  “Kasha tells me you have a grey ragdoll?  That is adorable.”

***

Kasha was too good a girl to break her promise to Evan, so over an hour into the party, she told Aberdeen he was here and she had to leave.  They had spent the first half of their time talking to William, who wouldn’t leave Aberdeen’s side, and the second half talking to Bee, Aryne, and Alannah.  But even when it was just the girls laughing and giggling, ordering drink after drink, whenever Aberdeen’s eyes left any of the women’s, she found William somewhere in the room staring at her.  

As Kasha hugged Aberdeen goodbye, Kasha held her in place to whisper in her ear.  “Okay, but listen.  He’s so sweet.  And he said he wants you, Aberdeen.”  When she pulled away, her eyes flashed and she nodded slightly, signalling that William was probably coming back.

“Kasha, don’t leave.”

“Evan’s waiting.”

“Kasha, if he’s coming, please don’t leave.”

“Leaving so soon?” Aberdeen heard William’s voice asked as he saw the two girls hugging.  

“My boyfriend is here to pick me up.  I’m going to another party,” she informed him.

“Boyfriend?  Auston’s gonna be heartbroken,” he smiled as he hugged her goodbye.

“Tell Auston there’s no way he’s getting near her,” Aberdeen said immediately, skeeving at the thought of Auston hooking up with Kasha.  Kasha would never, but still.  There was only one fuck up that was going to hook up with a Maple Leaf, and that was Aberdeen.

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you sometime soon,” William said to Kasha as they let go of their hug.  Kasha raised her eyebrows at Aberdeen when she heard William’s words before turning on her heels and walking through the door.  

When Aberdeen turned around, she saw Kasperi and his girlfriend Saylor, dressed as what looked like the twins from The Shining, approaching her and William.  For a guy who apparently wanted alone time with her, tonight or otherwise, it looked like William wasn’t going to get it.  “You must be Aberdeen,” Saylor said, smiling at her.  “I’m Saylor.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Aberdeen shook her hand politely, but smiled awkwardly.  

Saylor grabbed her hand, leading her towards the bar.  “We have so much to talk about.”

“We do?”

“Did you know my boyfriend and Will used to be roommates?  Oh my God, it was a disaster.”

Saylor liked to talk.  Aberdeen didn’t know whether to chalk it up to the fact that she was a bit drunk or that she just had a lot of information and gossip to tell, but she did about 95% of the talking throughout their “conversation”.  Aberdeen would nod her head and laugh along at the stories Saylor would tell, but at the end of the day, they were just stories Kasperi told her of when he and Will lived together when they were like, nineteen.  She wasn’t around then, and so these were just second-hand accounts.  

It was 12:30 in the morning before Saylor stopped talking, and Aberdeen was finally able to realize she was tired and wanted to go home.   Everybody was quick to take the group picture, and when they finished, she began saying goodbye to everybody.  John and Aryne first, then Morgan and Bee, and then she saw that William was watching her give goodbye hugs and waves.  

He made a beeline towards her, like if he didn’t get to her quick enough, she would disappear into thin air.  “Are you leaving?” he asked.

“Yeah.  I’m exhausted.  Listening to Saylor took a lot out of me.”

“Can I walk you home?” William asked, his tone hinting on the side of desperate.

“Unnecessary.”

“Why not?”

“It’s only a twenty minute walk away,” Aberdeen explained.

“Are you joking?  All the more reason,” he defied her.

“Will.”

“It’s late at night, it’s dark, and there are drunk people everywhere from Halloween parties—”

“—William—”

“—Who knows if one of them will scare you or throw up on you or God knows what on the way home…I wouldn’t feel right knowing you’re out there walking alone and—”

“If I say yes will you shut up?”

William smiled.  Aberdeen rolled her eyes.  “Let’s go.”

They left the The Burroughes rather inconspicuously, beginning their walk along Queen Street.  If it was any other night, of course, they would have looked ridiculous – Robert Plant and Batman walking along the street together – but tonight nobody even gave them a second look.  William kept looking over at her, though.  The only pair of eyes on her.  

“So, you and Kasperi used to live together?” she asked, trying not to feel awkward with his eyes on her as they walked down the street.  

“Yeah,” William nodded his head.  “He’s actually one of my best friends because of it.”

“Does he know?”

“No,” he answered automatically, shaking his head.  “The only person that knows is my brother.  I told you I wouldn’t tell anybody on the team.  I don’t break my promises.”  He was so soft spoken that Aberdeen felt bad for insinuating she wanted him to shut up not even five minutes ago.  “Do any of your friends know?”

“Well, Kasha knows.  She is my roommate,” she said, suddenly nervous.  “And I told my sister Siena.”

“Are you guys close?” he asked.

Aberdeen nodded.  “Kasha’s one of my best friends but Siena is my sister and my best friend.  She’s the person I’m closest with in the whole world,” Aberdeen explained.  “I know I can tell her anything.  And I mean anything.”

“Sounds like me and my brother,” William smiled slightly.  “He’s the person I trust most in the world.”

“Yeah.  That’s Siena for me too.”

There was a moment of silence between them before William spoke up again.  “I mean what I say, you know.  I’m not going to tell a soul.”

“I believe you, Will,” she said, well, because she did.  When she really thought about it, he gave her no reason to think otherwise.  If he wanted to be vindictive, he would have told the entire team already, maybe even spoke to Brendan about it.  But he didn’t.  

“Why do you call me Will?” he asked.

“That’s how you introduced yourself to me,” she said.

“But you hear everyone else calls me Willy.”

“So?  You introduced yourself to me as Will.”

He smiled at her again.  “I like it.  I like it a lot.”

She blushed again.  She wished they had taken the streetcar because she didn’t want keep blushing in front of him because of his cute, stupid, adorable, dumb one-liners that made her swoon and his cute, stupid, adorable, dumb smile that made her swoon even harder.  “So your brother.  What does he do?” she asked.

“He plays hockey too.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” he giggled.  He thought she would have googled him by now.  “He plays for Chicago.”

“That’s pretty cool.  And then?  I remember Kasperi mentioning in Newfoundland there’s three others or something?”

“There’s three girls after us,” he explained, loving that she remembered that from all the way back in September.  “And my older half-sister before me.  So it’s Michelle, me, Alex, Jacqueline, Stephanie, and Daniella.”

“Oh my God, there’s six of you?” she asked.  William nodded.  “God bless your parents,” she said, causing him to giggle again.  

There was another moment of silence.  Aberdeen didn’t know if it was her or William that had slowed down the walking pace, but she noticed.  She wasn’t going as fast as she usually did.  God, it was probably him.  He clearly wanted to spend time with her.  He left his entire team to walk her home (in a Batman costume) and now he wanted to elongate the experience as much as possible, regardless of how ridiculous they looked.  He wanted to spend time with her.  He found time and got her alone, like he said he would.

“Has Ethan done anything else I should yell at him for?” William suddenly asked, taking Aberdeen away from her thoughts.    

“No no, don’t worry about it,” she said, shaking her head.  He’d made some comments here and there, but again, she wasn’t going to let William know about it.  The most annoying was that he kept referring to her as Girl Friday instead of her name.

“I told Mike about it, thinking that he’d say something to Brendan,” he explained.  “He decided not to.  But I can go to him if you want.”

“It’s fine Will, don’t worry,” she continued to shake her head.  The absolute last thing she wanted to do was cause a ruckus with an established member of staff.  “I know I’m like, the rookie around the office, and he’s just trying to test me.  I get it.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” Will said strongly.  “He still shouldn’t be doing that.  Rookie or not.”

Aberdeen bit her lip.  Clearly Will had a protective side that she hadn’t seen yet, and was only getting a small glimpse of now.  “Did you get hazed when you joined the team?” she asked.  

“If you count paying for an entire team’s meals and bar tab, then yeah.  But that’s the extent of it nowadays.  Harmless stuff,” he said.  “Anything worse is just bullshit.  Plus the media would pick up on it and it would become a shitshow.”

“Brendan tells me the media in Toronto is ridiculous,” she said.  

“They are.”

He didn’t say anything else.  Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about it.  Maybe something had happened to him in the past and that’s why he didn’t like them.  She didn’t really read about what they said about the team – she left that to Brendan.  When she got home from work, she didn’t really want to think about work.  She never googled articles about the team or anything like that.  She wanted to keep that portion of her life separate from the one she lived outside of work.  

She changed the subject, bringing it back to hockey and playing with Alex as they continued their walk home.  He was much more upbeat talking about his close relationships with his siblings, particularly Alex.  The endearing smile on his face couldn’t be missed – he clearly loved his family.  When she spoke about Siena and Camden, there was a similar endearing smile on her face, too – one that William wished would never fade.  He heard about the shenanigans she and Siena would get into as young kids, and she even recounted the day she went to the hospital to see Camden for the first time.  She and Siena had to end up sharing a room so the baby could get his own.  

Sometimes, their hands would brush against each other’s, and William would feel a jolt of electricity surging through his body.  

They stopped outside her condo building.  His smile was still on his face, as was hers.  Their walk was nice.  Their talk was really nice.  Aberdeen held her breath.  She didn’t expect to enjoy it so much.  She looked him in the eye, and suddenly, her word vomit got the best of her.  “You don’t regret that night, do you?” she asked before she even thought about what she was saying, or its implications.

“God no,” William said in less than a millisecond.  The notion was absurd to him.  “No.  Never.  Why would you even ask that, minskatt?”

She couldn’t think for a moment because he said that name.  Again.  “I don’t know…I just…”

He purposely reached forward slightly to brush his fingers against hers, like he was going to hold her hand.  He could hear the breath hitch in her throat.  “Don’t ever think that again,” he told her.  

Aberdeen didn’t say anything.  She couldn’t say anything.  All she could do was look into his eyes.  She was doing that a lot lately, apparently.

Then he moved closer.

And closer.

And looked down at her lips.

And licked his.

And then he leaned forward.  

“Will…” she whispered, moving back slightly.  He looked her in the eye.  “We can’t, Will.”

He bit his lip, sighing.  “I’m sorry.  I know.  Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

“You just…I can’t help myself sometimes when I’m around you,” he confessed. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what you think it means,” he said, cocking his head to the side.

Aberdeen could only handle so much of William making her heart flutter in one night.  She felt like she was going to develop heart palpitations if she stayed any longer.  “I’m gonna go upstairs.”

“Aberdeen…” he said longingly.  

“Goodnight,” she said, turning away from him.

“Aberdeeeeeeen…”

“Goodnight Willy,” she said as she looked at him over her shoulder, walking into her condo building.  

William stood outside, watching until she disappeared down the hallway towards the elevators.  He brought his fingers up to his lips, rubbing them gently as he chuckled to himself, turning on his heels as he walked down the street.  

[choco-glow]

Fall Like Rain On Sunday, Pt. 9

“Asshole cop.” Jason grumbled as they walked back towards the truck, and Steph giggled wildly, her lipstick only just cleaned up from the wipes she kept in her bag, eyes dancing as they made their way through the crowded Saturday night boardwalk, said asshole cop glaring behind them. Sure, they maybe got a little too into making out on the bench, but Jason had been so thrilled by her reference, and Steph was just…absolutely in love with Jason. So. Y’know. One thing led to another and Jason’s hand had crept up her skirt while she’d straddled his lap…

And then Officer O’Grady had blown his whistle. Right in their ears.

“I agree…sorry he got your bad side…” Jason shot her a grateful smile, and she kissed his cheek softly, all sympathy. The explosion when he was fifteen had ruptured his eardrum, and high-pitched sounds bothered the hell out of him on his left side still, which was why his helmet had specialized protective ear guards, and he wore sound-reducing plugs with his domino. It…was perhaps one of the few things that Bruce and Jason had bonded over; Bruce used similar ones for his own cowl, and had adapted Jason’s with regard to the minor hearing loss.

“Eh…At least it didn’t make my tinnitus start up. All he had to do was cough or somethin’…” Steph agreed, and rubbed his back soothingly, smiling as Jason squeezed her shoulder and kissed her temple. As much as she’d liked the idea of the Ferris Wheel…O’Grady was following, she could sense his eyes on her ass, and evidently, so could Jason; he raised his free arm to flip the cop off and hugged her a little closer, arm sliding down to wrap around her waist. Not to grope her, not that Steph would have minded…but she smiled, snuggling in close anyway. It was possessive without making her the possession.

Makes Dean look like the pervert he was. Creep. And Jason and I are what…three years apart? She made a few mental calculations and nodded to herself, satisfied; they were right at three years and two months apart, and while she and Tim were the same age…she had more in common with Jay. More shared life experience, too…

“Babe? You okay there? You look like you’re a million miles away…” Jason murmured, pausing at the entrance to the carpark, and Steph shook herself, smiling up at him.

“Yeah…sorry, was just…thinking about things.”

“…Good things? Bad things?”

“A little bad, then a little good. I promise, I’m okay…just…maybe more tired than I realized.” She winced at that, but Jason just chuckled, warm and sweet.

“I don’t doubt it, we were both up early. As fun as the bench was…how about we head back and get some rest, hmm?”

“Yes please…Um…do…you mind if I ask you to take me home?” His eyes softened at that, dark green with the night, and he kissed her softly, guiding her back over the gravel with care.

“Not at all, sweetheart; besides, I don’t put out on the first date.” Steph burst into giggles at that, and Jason snickered, helping her back up into the truck. He hopped over the hood, every inch the reckless Bat-boy, which made Steph break into more giggles. Joining her in the cab, he swooped in for a kiss that Steph gladly gave, and carefully got them out of the parking space, bitching a little about idiot tourists and shitty drivers as he made his way to the road again. “Goddamn fuckin’ cop could be over here clearing this mess out…”

“At least Penguin’s men have it well-lit again; the city didn’t do shit about that.” Steph growled out, suddenly feeling far more charitable to Cobblepot and his crew. Whatever else Oswald might have once been, fatherhood seemed to have mellowed him immensely, and his mostly-legit wealth was going into things like lighting the Mile, same with Bruce; hell, Bruce had even sent baby gifts, both has Wayne and Batman, since Cobblepot had largely dropped out of the Rogues’ with the birth of his daughter.

“Yeah, I think B thanked him for it the other day, Barb was shocked on the comms because they actually had a polite conversation; he asked about Robin, B asked about Tracey and little Eugenie.”

“Awwwww…I’ll get a purple penguin for her when I go out on patrol tomorrow.” Jason chuckled at that, and Steph relaxed into his shoulder, fine with taking the back roads home to her apartment. Here too, the little improvements had made things better for everyone, not just the wealthy Gothamites; lights brightened the once gloomy alleys, and people, feeling safer, had begun cleaning them up. Dumpsters had been moved to the backs of the buildings, and play areas built, full of beat up toys. Old sawhorses and a few semi-straight boards sporting carefully repaired flowerpots full of cheap herbs and little flowers leaned against the brownstones, painted bright with cheap acrylic and leftover housepaint.

Graffiti artists, once the bane of the neighborhoods, had been given purpose and permission to express themselves via the Wayne Urban Art grants, and now murals of every color covered the once ugly cement walls. Meanwhile the old abandoned lots, once ignored by the city, had been bought up by Wayne Industries and given to the neighborhoods as small leisure areas, with young saplings and soft grass and little free gardens, tended carefully by gardeners hired by Bruce himself.

Crime still ran rampant, of course; hell, that’s why they still had patrols.

But more and more, that crime was white-collar or supervillain; the average Joe was happy to have a good job again, and a place to call home that wasn’t covered in trash and grime. Petty criminals with a family to feed or a dangerous addiction had more avenues for help now, with flyers on every corner, and kind counselors available night and day. And the only requirement was only “if you know someone else who needs us, please bring them here.” Steph approved of that, as did Jason, and Bruce had only smiled and said “I thought of you two when we set that up.” Highest compliment he’s ever given us, I think…it…it really has made a difference. Just in my life alone…

Crystal Brown had been among the first he’d welcomed to the program, and Steph had broken down crying on Bruce’s shoulder the day her mom had come home clean. Really clean now; whatever else might have happened between them, Steph was just glad to have her mom back…and Jason had had much the same reaction, so Alfred had told her, when Roy’d gone through it too. Roy was Jay’s best friend in the whole world…she smiled a little. I’d almost be jealous, but…Cass is my best friend. And if Cass swung that way, I’d have dated her in a heartbeat, I think…I’m not mad that he and Roy were a pair. I’m just glad they’re still friends.

“Gotta say, B’s really made home feel a lot less gentrified, and more…”

“Alive.” She murmured, and Jason nodded, his voice a little tight as he pulled into her apartment’s lot.

“…I was worried, when he started this, that it’d be the Bowery all over again.” He murmured, and she squeezed his arm, taking a deep breath.

“Me too, if we’re being honest here. But…it’s not. It’s not. It’s…what we would have wanted. Hell, he even retrofitted the Starlight with green tech so that the Narrows’ best babysitter didn’t have to close down.” He laughed, soft and sweet, and kissed her forehead.

“Tell me about it, I begged him to bankroll it when I was a kid because…well, it’s the last original roller rink on the East Coast. I couldn’t bear to see it torn down. I think he started doing it after I died…kinda sweet, to be honest.”

“That’s what I would have done…Ooh. We should go skating next time.” Steph mused, and Jason’s answer was in a hot, sweet kiss, his eyes dancing in the streetlights.

“It’s a date. C’mon, I’ll walk you to your door?” He suggested, offering his hand, and Steph let him pull her out, heart as light as a feather. He was easy to lean into, not handsy in the slightest, big hands rubbing up and down her back, and already, Steph was boneless against his chest, drowsing as they rode the elevator back up. Their hands clasped, Steph swung them a little as they pulled apart, yawning widely as the elevator stopped and she could lead him back down to her apartment door, pulling out her key.

“Mmn…thank you. I love you…and I hope this is still okay?” She murmured, hopeful and more than a little nervous. Jason kissed her again, then once more, and bussed her nose with his own, the smile on his lips as clear a confirmation as the words…but she liked hearing him anyway.

“I love you too, babe, and this is so okay. Get some rest, alrighty? Tim took our patrol tonight, B sent me an apology text earlier, so we’re good till tomorrow.”

“Good. Bastard should know better than to get between me and waffles.” The roguish grin on Jason’s face made her grin back, and he stroked her hair back over her ear again, something she never let Dean or Tim do, because it felt…weird with them. It felt right with Jay.

“Goddamn right, Blondie. Sleep tight, babe, can I bring you waffles in the morning, or are you waffled out?”

“Jay, if you bring me waffles in the morning, I’ll put out, alright? Waffles are life.” She retorted, and he fell back with a snicker, shaking his head as he kissed her.

“Well hell, if it’s really that easy, babe…” She swatted his arm, still grinning, and he kissed her once more, leaning into her doorway in a gesture that should have felt intimidating…but like before, well…it was Jay. It felt right. Steph kissed him back, sighing softly, and he pulled back to kiss her in the center of her forehead. “Head to bed, babe, I’m not far off. If you need anything, call me, okay?”

“Mmn, sounds good…are you really gonna bring me waffles?” She replied, hopeful, and he grinned again, his smile as addictive as his kisses.

“Goddamn right I will, babe. What time works?”

“Probably eight, at least? I need to get up early, do housework, do homework…” She made a face, and he made a face with her.

“Ugh. Well, I can help with the former, and as for the latter, I can be a quiet boyfriend and clean my guns?”

“Deal…See you then?” Steph wanted to crash, she really did, she was yawning so much now…but she didn’t want him to go…

“See you then. Goodnight, Stephie.” He murmured, kissing her once more, then closed the door for her. She leaned against it, listening to him slip down the stairs, and smiled, stepping out of her sandals with a groan of relief (they were cute, but she was tired enough for them to start hurting finally), and made quick work of taking off the rest of her make up, hanging up her dress, changing into comfy undies and a huge tee shirt. Taking down her hair, she glanced over at her phone…and grinned to see his number light up on the screen. She swiped to answer, and leaned back against the pillows.

“Miss me already, handsome?” He chuckled, warm and low, and it didn’t matter that she’d been hearing it all night; she could hear it a million times, and never get tired of it.

“You know it, baby. Figured you’d probably have trouble getting to sleep, as tired as you were, so…I thought maybe I could read to you?” He sounded so hopeful over the line, and Steph’s breath hitched in her chest. Oh…

“…I’d really, really like that. What did you have in mind?” She could see his grin as she closed her eyes, and heard the soft sound of pages turning, the faintest creak of an old book opening.

“Well, I always loved Pride and Prejudice…”

[withthekeyisking-writer]

What’s a Batman story you wish someone else would write for you instead of writing yourself??

Gotta tell you, I got super excited when I got this ask, because there are so many things!! That I would love to see happen!! That I’ll never get around to writing!! So uh, strap in because this is gonna be a big ol’ list :) I’m gonna organize these so that it starts with gen ideas and then switches to darker ones (otherwise, really in no particular order). Also, because it’s me, many of these are Dick-centric.

1. First up is a Batfam Hogwarts AU, but with the specifications that Dick is a Slytherin, Jason is a Ravenclaw, Tim is a Slytherin, and Damian is a Hufflepuff. Skalidra actually made an amazing post about this that I agree with so fucking much, and I want a fic that does this justice.

2. Batbros are actually blood bros. I know there are a couple of these already out there, but not the way I picture it in my head, so here you go: Bruce knows about Dick while the kid is growing up, visits the circus any time it’s in town, takes Dick out for ice cream & shit like that, but Dick thinks this is just some family friend his parents like him hanging out with. It’s not until Mary and John fall that Dick learns the truth about his parents. For Tim – Janet never really wanted a kid, so when she and Bruce sleep together (up to you to figure out why) and got pregnant, she was like “okay brucie as soon as this pops out you can keep it” which, once Tim was born, Bruce did. Jason can go so many ways, so up to you!

3. Transgender Dick!! Yes, these are already out there. Yes, I want so many more! Give me the struggle of coming to the realization while amongst Gotham’s high society. Give me extra supportive Bruce or a Bruce that just can’t wrap his head around the concept and absolutely fails to be in any way a good parent of a trans kid. Or take the extra step and give me a non-binary Dick!!! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of those, and as an enby individual, I really would love to.

4. Jason as a teacher. Do whatever the fuck you want with that, but I want to see Jason teaching literature. Still in the superhero world, no alternate world where Batman isn’t a thing. I want a Jason who’s been Robin and died and come back and been Red Hood and is a teacher.

5. I had a dream about Dick being a clone, and then an idea popped up behind it: In the Young Justice cartoon world, the Light makes another clone of Superman. But this time, the human DNA they used to stabilize the Kryptonian part isn’t Lex Luthor’s DNA, but Batman’s! That Superman-Batman clone is Dick. While Conner gets rescued by the YJ team, Dick (or whatever title CADMUS gave him, like how Conner was just called “The Superboy”) isn’t found, and is trained to fight against the team of young heroes as the Light’s weapon. Dick gets captured eventually and Bruce&Clark find out about their clone baby. Throw in some Superbat if you feel like it, or just Two Bros And A Baby. Either way, I would kill for this.

6. Ok you know how at one point or another Damian, Jason, and Cass were all members of the League of Assassins? Well, what if there was overlap? I want the three of them working for the League and knowing each other. I don’t know if this even works out at all but I just think this would be kinda cool, especially if it includes Bruce finding out about Damian or about Jason being alive and gaining a daughter along the way.

7. While we’re on the subject of League of Assassins, all four of the boys work for the League!! Do with this what you will, I merely present the concept to you.

8. Secret Agents. Just…just give me them as spies. Pls.

9. Dead Robins Club that ACTUALLY INCLUDES DICK BECAUSE Y’KNOW HE DIED. It’s a pet peeve of mine, when people write these kind of fics and include Tim and Steph (neither of which actually died) but not Dick, even though he did die for at least a couple minutes. Please stop ignoring Dick’s trauma guys, I beg of you. There’s one amazing fic between Jason, Damian, and Dick, and I want so many more of stuff like that.

10. Greeks/Roman Gods AU where Dick is the God of Death and king of the Underworld instead of the springtime god. There’s a really great jaydick fic out there that has this, but it’s abandoned, and I rally really want more of a Dick like this.

11. AU in which Bruce is the youngest member of the Justice League, and is still the badass leader he is in canon. No one in the League knows the truth, but it’s not like Bruce ever said I’m in my 20s or older, he just. Never mentioned he just graduated high school and is working on his accelerated bachelor’s degree.

12. A fic that addresses the fact that Dick has, in canon, been buried alive. I might one day write this, but I have a lot of projects that I do know I’m going to write, so this is wayyyyyyyyyyyy down the line, long enough that I’d be very happy to see someone write it instead. Bonus points if it’s a fic about Dick and Jason, and the fact that Dick killed Joker also comes up.

13. Tamaranean!Dick. And I actually have a whole word/plot for something like this that I’m never gonna write so if you wanna do this hmu I have THOUGHTS

Ok boys and girls and enbys we’re about to hit the dark shit so turn back if you don’t want to have to read it. You’ve been warned.

14. Ancient Rome AU in which Bruce is a senator and owns his robins as slaves (gladiator-wise and otherwise) who try to earn their freedom but Bruce likes using them too much (both for himself and in gaining control over others, like sending one of them to seduce somebody to gain leverage or steal something or what have you) and so he keeps changing what will gain them their freedom.

15. Auction fic where Dick is drugged and kidnapped and auctioned off to a bunch of villains. Yes, fics like this exist. Yes, I would like Many More.

16. Brusladick where Bruce has some Bad Thoughts about Dick but can’t bring himself to act on them, but he wouldn’t mind letting someone else do it, and who better than Slade Wilson, who absolutely wants to fuck Dick. So Bruce sets up a camera in the room and gets off to all the hard shit being done to Dick, but Slade breaks their agreement a little and tells Dick that Bruce is watching.

17. In an ABO universe, Dick is an omega. The world is pretty modern overall, of course there will always be some level of sexism but it’s not a large issue. But there’s this far-right terroristic-type group that thinks omegas are just good for ding as they’re told and being bred and have made it their mission to “fix” omegas who think they deserve equal rights, and they get ahold of Dick, sending a video to Bruce saying they’re return Dick when he’s better. For some reason Bruce and Co can’t find Dick for a long time, and by the time they do Dick’s severely traumatized and been conditioned into obedience and submission towards alphas.

18. In the Young Justice cartoon world, while Kaldur is undercover in season 2, an interaction with Deathstroke reveals something horrible about Nightwing’s past, and Kaldur has to act like hearing these graphic, awful things about his friend. After it’s all over, he goes to Dick and mentions Deathstroke saying something and Dick kind of shuts down and says like “How many people heard what he said?” There is a twitter thread between me and a friend on this very subject if you need inspiration ;)

19. Something based on this amazing art

20. Bruce is hella abusive. Dick lets himself be Bruce’s outlet so he won’t hurt the others. This, of course, comes to light. Yes, shit like this exists. But I pose you a question – is there ever too many? And has it been done by you yet?

21. Brainwashing. Just, give me brainwashing. Turned against your family, used and mocked by your enemy, kneeling “willingly” at your enemy’s feet. Bonus points for all kinds of abuse.

Well, that’s my list!! Go off and do great things for me! Thanks for the ask!!

[dibs4ever]

Mixed Feelings

A multi TimSteph fanfic by request from @dc-comics-gal

Stephanie stared at the test in front of her. This is what they wanted right? She felt tears welling in her eyes she quickly whipped them. They weren’t tears of joy, they weren’t tears of disappointment either. Honestly, she didn’t know what they were. Then she got a flashback to when she was a teenager

15-year-old Stephanie Brown sat on the toilet staring at the test. Two pink lines. This couldn’t be happening, she was in high school, her dad was in jail, her mom worked constantly, she had just broken up with her jerk older boyfriend who moved to another town. Worst of all she was just starting to gain Batman’s trust. Now what? Sure she had many options but which one was right for her. She jumped when her phone made a loud noise as it vibrated on the marble countertop, she picked it up looking at the text

Tim: Hey where are you? I’ve been waiting on this rooftop for 15 minutes.

She smiled to herself. Tim- He was so sweet and caring and cute. Not to mention he was smart. He was the complete opposite of any guy she had ever dated. Which is why she was surprised when she realized she had a crush on him. But who wouldn’t with that rocking body. Sometimes she felt like he might like her too, but he was dating Cassie so that kinda put a stop to any romancing, which she respected. Besides Tim wouldn’t want her now anyways. She texted him back

I’m not feeling great, think I’ll skip patrol tonight.

A second later her phone vibrated again

Tim: Okay, feel better. Maybe if I get a chance I’ll stop by and check in

Fast forward 13 years and here she was again with a pregnancy test in hand. Except this one was different. This time it was Tim’s, this time they were married and had been for a year. This time the baby was planned.

Looking at the time she realized Tim would be home from his day job at Wayne Enterprise in 15 minutes. How would she tell him? Should she just come out and say it, or think of a cute Pinterest way?”

Stephanie shook her head “If I did the Pinterest way he’d try to break everything down to a science, I’ll just tell him” she said to herself before standing.

Tim arrived home not much later “Hey Steph I’m home.” He shrugged off his winter coat hanging it in the coat closet.

She stayed in the kitchen where she continued to prepare dinner. If she rushed to the door he’d know something was up

“Hey, it smells great in here.” Tim smiles stepping into the kitchen he wrapped his arms around her waist “What’s cooking good looking?” He kissed her cheek

“Chicken noodle soup” she turned giving him a hot spoonful

“Mmmm Alfred’s recipe” he grinned

Stephanie nodded “Is there any other way?”

Tim chuckled “If there is it's wrong”

Stephanie nodded in agreement “How was your day?” She asked moving the soup off the stove then turning to look at him again

Tim shrugged “It was work, doing accounting work for Wayne enterprises is a lot more fun with you there as my secretary” he pointed

Stephanie nodded “I was bored today”

He smiled “Well you were throwing up quite a bit this morning, I think staying home was a good call.”

Stephanie tapped her nails against the countertop “Yeah about that. I ummm I took a test today.” She said slowly

Tim rose an eyebrow “A test? What kinda test? Like Batwork test. Did you hack a database without me”

Stephanie laughed “Of course not, I took a pregnancy test,” she said softly

Tim’s eyes widened “And?”

Stephanie pulled the test out of her back pocket handing it to him

She watched as he examined it, his eyebrows furrowed

“This is positive” he pointed

Stephenie nodded

“You’re our having a baby? We’re having a baby the smile on his face grew “I’m going to be a dad. This is-“

He stopped when he noticed Stephanie’s emotionless expression “Are you okay- with this? I mean this what you want right? If you don’t I mean you can do what you have to do, I just figured since we’ve been trying the last 3 months and all that-“

Stephanie pressed a finger to his lips “Of course I want this Stud” she grinned

Tim smiled “Good cause I do too.”

They gave each other a quick kiss on the lips “Next thing is telling our family.”

Stephanie nodded “I say we see Lee or Dinah first then from there we will make plans.”

Tim nodded “Well thanksgiving just passed. What if we tell them on Christmas. When we are all together “

A small smile formed on her face “I like that idea”

——————————————————-

A week later Dinah informed her that she was approximately 5 weeks along. She recommended that she stop patrolling at the 8-week mark which was almost perfect timing for telling the family. She said that so far everything looked great. Tim was so happy, she had never seen him so happy. She was happy too, it’s just there was—-something bothering her.

Before they knew it Christmas was only one day away. She and Tim say in the living room as the finished wrapping presents.

“You think Nathan is going to like his new bo staff?” Tim asked as he wrapped the gift

Stephanie smiled “He’s Dick’s son and Robin. I’m sure he’ll love it”

Tim nodded “Yeah well he’s also going to be 13 soon. He’s getting to an age where he’s going to start wanting to be his own person”

Stephanie nodded “Not going to argue with you there. Then again Leah is 9 and we’ve never known what to get her”

Tim smiled “I can’t believe our family is going to know tomorrow “

Stephanie smiled “There hasn’t been a new kid in your family for 9 years.”

Tim nodded “I think everyone will be happy. At least I hope so”

——————————————————-

On Christmas, everyone sat around the 10-foot tree the last present seemingly had been unwrapped

“Well if everyone is finished I shall go grab the extra large trash bags and we can begin clearing the way,” Alfred said pushing himself up. Until Stephanie cut him off

“Actually Alfred Tim and I have a present we forgot to give you.”

Alfred smiled sitting back in his seat “Oh really? But you already gave me the new oven mitt set, which I live by the way”

Tim smiled “I think you’ll love this one even more” he handed the elderly man an envelope

The rest of the family looked on confused. Everyone was there, Cass, Jason, Damian, Bruce, Dick and Barbara along with their kids 12-year-old Nathan and 9-year-old Leah. Word was Selina would probably be by later as well. Alfred opened the card, you could tell he was slightly nervous since all eyes were on him

“Congrats you’re going to be a babysitter.” Alfred red the front of the card confused

Cass’ jaw dropped being the first to figure it out

Alfred smiled knowing what it meant as well but opened the card to read the rest “I mean a Great Grandpa -AGAIN!” Baby Drake due in July!”

“You guys are having a baby!” Barbara smiled reaching up from her chair and embracing Stephanie in a tight hug “Finally someone who will understand what it’s like to raise offspring of the Batboys” she joked

Stephanie laughed “Yeah I think I’m going to need all the advice I can get”

“Timmy! You’re going to be a dad.” Dick hugged his brother “You are going to love it, being a dad is a best especially when they are little and think you are the coolest person on earth” he nudged him

“I’m finally going to have cousins,” Nathan said happily

Leah smiled “You mean WE? I can’t wait”

Nathan looked at Stephanie “Even if this kid is a boy I’ll still be your favorite, right Aunt Steph?”

Stephanie smiled placing a hand on the boy's cheek “Of course, you’ll always be my precious angel” she laughed lightly

Then it was Jason who smacked Tim on the shoulder “Well Timbers I didn't know you had it in ya”

Tim smiled then looked at Bruce who had been observing everyone’s excitement “Well Bruce, what do you think?”

Bruce nodded “This is good news, I look forward to your child’s arrival. Congratulations Tim” he clasped Tim’s shoulder

Damian observed Stephanie

“What is it Dami?” She asked releasing

Leah from a hug

The 21-year-old tilted his head “How far along are you precisely”

Stephanie smiled “I’ll be 9 weeks in 2 days” she ran her hand along her still flat belly

Damian nodded “When will you begin to show?”

Stephanie shrugged “I’m still pretty early so this is relatively normal, considering how physically active I used to be. But everyone is different so who knows”

Damian nodded “But weren’t you pregnant before as a teen”

The room became quiet

“Damian, “ Dick said narrowly

Damian rolled his eyes “I am not a child anymore Grayson, I’m just asking a simple question “

Tim stepped forward putting an arm around Stephanie “Yeah but kinda a subject we’ve been trying to ignore”

Stephanie shook her head “Guys it’s fine he’s right” he was right but it wasn’t fine. Truthfully the whole pregnancy so far was bringing up flashbacks from things that she had hurried long ago. Perhaps that’s what had been wrong with her these past couple weeks. She wanted to be mad at Damian for saying what he said but she couldn’t. She really was excited for this baby, and he didn’t necessarily ask anything wrong. She thought she was over her first child’s adoption, why was she suddenly not?

[freshlyjuicedbeetles]

Drakgo Fic - Gap

Drakken feels weird about how much older he is than Shego when meeting her friends.

Drew Theodore P. Lipsky AKA the infamous Dr. Drakken had overcome many obstacles in his life.  He fought Kim Possible more times than he could count (and he could count pretty high). He managed to evade punishment for his many dastardly deeds in the past. Even when he was captured, prison wasn’t that bad; a Hannibal Lecter-esque high tech cell that sounded alarms every time his back popped is quite cozy once you get used to the electronic hum. Although, meeting his wife’s best friends was one obstacle he wasn’t sure he could conquer successfully.

Drakken had already met Shego’s immediate family with mixed results within the first few months of them dating. Not that Shego cared if he met her family but she couldn’t deny how awkward it would be if the first time they met her husband was at the wedding (even if they did elope). Her brother Heath turned up the machismo and pulled the ‘if you hurt my baby sister blah blah blah…” Michael seemed annoyed that he was dragged into this and had better things to do. The twins Wesley and William didn’t care, just a quick hi and they ran off to play. Her mother, Kate, thankfully, seemed to be the only one with a good head on her shoulders and only a little intimidating. Her father, well, Shego hasn’t spoken to him in a long time. He was invalid in her mind. Drakken meeting her friends was an actual priority for Shego. It took some orchestrating since they went to different colleges and lived in different states but finally made it work for a long weekend together.

They were throwing a small housewarming party. For many years, home was a lab that happened to have living quarters for Drakken and Shego and barracks for the henchman. Now, the lab was across town. Global Justice didn’t like them on too long of a leash. They managed to get out many of their personal belongings from all the past lairs (after GJ checked them of course) before destroying the lairs. That didn’t stop Drakken from starting a new lab down in the basement…

He didn’t know what to expect at first. The Mothman? A Chupacabra? A pack of wild wolves? Drakken couldn’t imagine Shego having normal friends, especially when her life changed drastically at such a young age. So, he did some sleuthing. Okay, okay, he searched Shego’s friend's list on Facebook. If he had an actual lab at home, he could unleash his real computer skillz.

Savannah Coffman, 27, BFA in visual arts, working towards her Masters, both from CalArts; unemployed.

Jill Nesbitt, 26, BBA, owns her own business in New Orleans. One citation for yelling ‘come at me, bro!’ at a living statue street performer.

Okay, nothing too alarming.

As their arrival time drew near, Commodore Puddles was put outside in the fenced backyard with water and plenty of toys to keep him busy. He really did not like company. When the doorbell rang, he started barking furiously and running back and forth to each side gate and back to the backdoor. How dare those filthy humans not let him have his prey!

“Don’t be weird,” Shego whispered harshly, before opening the door.

“Stephanie!” Jill and Savannah screeched, excitedly.

They enveloped Shego in a tight hug. Drakken was surprised that Shego didn’t seem to mind, even reciprocated. She didn’t let just anybody touch her. There were times when she wasn’t crazy that he was hugging her.

Drakken stood there in awkwardly as they greeted each other, complimenting each other’s looks and remarking on how long it had been since they last seen each other.

“Guys,” Shego said, nodding her head towards Drakken.

“Wow, you aren’t what I was expecting,” Jill said.

“Thanks?” Drakken replied, not sure how to take it.

Savannah studied him, “Yeah, I guess I expected the tall and dark type.”

“Yeah,” Jill added, “You guys were evil and whatnot at one point. You kinda look like my dad, but on a bad day.”

“I mean, he has a scar…”

“He got it from shaving,” Shego said, barely holding back laughter.

Jill got very close to Drakken’s face, who tried to lean away “What’s with the blue veins?” She asked Shego.

“Okay!” Shego interrupted, “This is Drew.” She said as she pulled Jill away from him.

They exchanged awkward hellos. Drakken already wanted to find a cave and hide.

Shego quickly ushered them into the living room while handing Drakken the bottle of wine Jill had brought that was forgotten in the welcoming frenzy. He had always wanted to see New Orleans, he thought as he set out to make the drinks. Shego was more of a Jack and Diet Coke kinda gal.

“Shit Steph, you have an actual place. I practically live in a closet above my shop.” Jill said.

“Same.  Student Housing.” Savannah added.

“Don’t follow my example,” Shego warned, throwing herself on the couch with her legs across it.

As Drakken prepared their drinks, the women talked hurriedly and loudly in excitement and howled with laughter. It sounded like a coven of crazed witches planning their next ritual. He was just really glad that Shego was having fun.

He brought in the drinks and sat down next to Shego, moving her legs. She scowled at him as he did so but ignored her.

“Steph, look what I found,” Jill said, pulling out a worn, furry blue photo album.

Shego’s nickname hit his ears. She was very selective with who she let address her by her real name or any part of it.

She gasped in recognition as Jill and Savannah crowded around them.

Drakken peered over Shego’s shoulder. There were pictures of the young girls at sleepovers with butterfly clips in their hair, first days of school on sunny mornings, them pulling faces in a school hallway in front of lockers (Shego had braces?!), a group picture of them at prom and at graduation. A picture taken of the girls at a dance in line for the Cha-Cha Slide with Shego dressed tight jeans, focusing on her footwork. Shego was blonde at one point!? Shego with a purple streak in her thick, raven hair, Shego and her friends scowling at the camera with thick black eyeliner circling their eyes. Shego with alternative, teased hair, sticking her tongue out.

“No!” Shego howled, covering her face in embarrassment, “Burn that thing! It’s too cringey!”

Damn. Even some of his teenage photos were in black and white. Was their age gap that severe? Some of the slang Shego used sounded like a foreign language to him.    What if they had kids? Drakken didn’t want to senile before his child’s graduation.

Their age difference of ten or so years never truly crossed his mind until then. As much as they were opposites in personality, they agreed on many things. Just different enough to keep things interesting, similar enough to keep a relative peace. In fact, the only time age was an issue was with the radio setting, when Drakken wanted to listen to the 70’s or 80’s station and Shego would roll her eyes and call the music corny. That, or have no idea who was playing.

Drakken had long ago accepted the fact that Shego was way out of his league, that he was the picture of a flattered fool. Even though he was a scientist, and scientists are taught to question everything, he chose not to. He knew Shego loved him and that she was trustworthy. Still, things got to him.

“Hey, Doc, has Steph told you about the time she tripped during eight grade graduation and knocked down our entire line?”

“No, no, no,” Jill said waving her hand excitedly and putting her glass down on the coffee table. “Remember the time she projectile vomited all over Amberlynn in tenth grade and everyone called her puky-lynn until we graduated?”

“Well, she was being a bitch and I had the stomach flu. It was just good timing,” Shego replied casually, playing with her hair.

“You should have seen it! She looked like the kid from the Exorcist!”

“And she looked so proud of herself afterward!”

“I was proud of myself afterward!

They lost themselves in stories of teachers; the good, the bad and the ugly, field trips and other school memories. Feeling self-conscious, Drakken excused himself with little notice from the women.

Shego, however, noticed and could tell something was wrong. She gave him some time before slipping away while Jill and Savannah argued about who really stole Savannah’s rainbow gel pen in fourth grade. Spoiler alert, it was Shego.

She found her husband in the bedroom, “What? Do we have cooties or something?” She teased as she sat down next to him.

Drakken was lost in thought, not looking at his wife. “Am I really that old?” He finally asked, not exclusively to Shego.

Shego scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Are we really doing this?”

“Yes! I feel like I’m robbing the cradle!”

“You need to chill. Don’t put much stock into what Jill says. I’m not entirely sure she’s human.”

That got a chuckle from the scientist.

“Has anyone who we actually like cared about our age gap?” Shego urged.

“Well, Mother was concerned- “

Shego cut him of dismissively, “She doesn’t count. Look, we’ve been through a lot of stuff together. How many times have we been separated because one of us was in jail and yet we got right back to where we were like it never happened? Drew. I hate to admit these kinda things, but you are more mature and wiser than me. How often do I rush into something stupid and you pull me back, telling me to think?”

The time she wanted to spend a good chunk of her bank account on a new purse when what she really needed was a new pair of boots for her suit came to mind.

And the time she really wanted to go BASE jumping while she was recovering from a concussion brought on by Ron Stoppable.

And anytime she speeds or runs a red light.

Despite all the stress he felt worrying for her general safety, she did keep things interesting.

“Not just that, remember the time we decided we wanted to go see the Northern Lights on the spur of the moment and we just kept traveling for nearly a month? Or that mosh pit at the Ghost concert last Halloween? Naked Twister?  What about Rex the crocodile? She wouldn’t have survived if we didn’t take care of her for that month after she was injured in that hurricane. Tell me, would some broad your age go for all those things? I’m even including the crazy and exciting things we did and still get to do as part of our jobs!” She said.

Shego sat down on Drakken’s lap, wrapped her arms around him and looked into his eyes, “You aren’t the type of guy I’d date, let alone marry, but those guys were actual idiots. I don’t know how they’re still alive, whether from forgetting to breathe or staring at the sun for too long. I found out that I want substance in a guy and to have an actual conversation with my significant other. I found out that that’s what I want.”

Drakken smiled contently, “Thank you, Stephanie. I love you.”

“I love you, Drew.”

They sealed their proclamations with a kiss.

“You’re still a doofus though,” Shego said once they pulled away.

Drakken groaned. She could only be so nice.

“Are we good?” She asked.

Drakken nodded.

“Great, because Amberlynn lives around here and we’re gonna go egg her house,” Shego said, grinning deviously.

“I’ll drive and get my bat to knock over her mailbox!” Drakken replied giddily.

“See? We’re still a perfect team!”

[lunalopierce]

LA LA BABY| Chaotic Four

WHO:Iris, @oliver-puckerman, @gioharper, @stephaniepills WHAT: The four friends find themselves finally in California where some... things, happen on the first day Feelings emerge, lollipops are taken away, and someone makes another damn sex joke

STEPHANIE:

The plane ride went smoothly, none of any of the four teens luggage had gotten misplaced, and they didn't need to wait too long for the Ubber to head to her apartment. It wasn't anything super fancy but it was the teens home away from home, and it helped that after that one ubber trip they'd be able to use the car her mom left there for her. 

As they pulled up to the building, and got all their stuff out, she pushed through her bag to find her house keys. "You guys all know once we drop this stuff off, we need to go food shopping, cause I don't think i have any food here." She said truthfully, pushing her hair behind her ear looking between the group. "And with it being the four of us, it's probably better for a cosco run and not a target run"

OLIVER:

If there was one thing Oliver hated more than anything, it was being on a plane for long periods of time. He had always had a fear that the one time he actually flew anywhere would be the time the plane would malfunction and go down. He knew it was a fear that was likely never to happen, but he couldn't control how far his imagination would take him. Happy when the aircraft finally touched down in LA, Oliver could finally relax a bit more and really let his vacation start. Going down to pick up his bags, the young man laughed with his friends as they made their way through the airport.

Before he knew it the four of them had finally reached Steph's apartment. It had felt like a lifetime has gone by since the last time any of them had come to visit her, but it still gave the feeling of a long lost home. "Yeah, I really wouldn't trust any food that may have been left here before you moved back home.  Though are you sure? Since I'm sure majority of the time we might be eating out. What with sightseeing and Disney. Are we even going to be here often enough to cook ourselves dinner?"

GIO

The trip to LA was uneventful - he'd flown to and fro New York a couple of times when he went to Columbia, but he wasn't able to get any sleep the night before their flight.  Though he won't be admitting it out loud any time soon, he was excited. So, he spent  the four-hour flight time dozing off. A groggy Gio wasn't really pleasant company, but by the time they'd arrived at Stephanie's  LA home, he was up and fully awake.

"Costco's much better," Gio agreed as he plopped his bags on the carpet - he never  frequented LA, he never really found amusement parks fun and entertaining, but he'd take every opportunity to go out with his friends before they inevitably part ways. "We should do a bit grocery shopping, y'know - for domesticity, or when Oliver's stomach starts grumbling in the middle of the night," he grinned. Despite his suggestion, however, he sat down on the couch, slumping lazily against the seat.

IRIS

This was the first time she was going on a trip without her family. Sure had gone to summer camps since she was in elementary school and some of those included sleepaway camps; but those were only a few towns over and not a few states. And surely not more than a few days. This trip meant everything to her. Being the youngest in the group she was scared that when everyone went off to college they’d all lose time for her-- so this was the best way to gather whatever time they had left before that happened. A trip away from drama and a trip away from their parents so they could just be kids and have fun and not worry about anything or anyone. 

Once in Steph’s apartment she dropped her bags along with everyone else's before dropping herself to the floor. Instantly she made herself comfortable, swinging around to lay on the floor, throwing her legs up to rest on the other side of the couch. “Costco is best, we definitely need at least munching food when we’re not eating out or when we want to grab something on the way out. Also drinks.” She nodded, looking up at everyone. “Oh, also, Costco has those taste testing sample people out.”

STEPHANIE

Stephanie rolled her eyes instantly at Oliver, but laughed "I am not door dashing every night when we're here Oli. And Iris is right free samples for days at Cosco." She put her bag ontop of her suitcase before walking into the kitchen, trying to see what she had left in the cabinets before heading home after her show was unfortunately canceled.  Pulling her phone out of her back pocket she started making a list. "Does anyone have any special request that are must for the next week and a half or are we just gonna be four seventeen and eighteen year olds braving cosco without a list? "

OLIVER:

Rolling his eyes at how his friends picked on him, Oliver followed Stephanie into the kitchen, pulling open cabinets as he went. "I think we should plan a few nights out. I have an idea of what I'm going to make you for our date, but I don't have to write that down. Maybe a few pizzas we can bake, stuff Gio and I can barbecue, chips and soda. Other than that im not sure what all we'll want." Finally leaning against the counter, Oliver slung an arm around her shoulders as he watched her write down the things he mentioned.

GIO:

If Gio had bothered looking back, he would've noticed the dynamic between Stephanie and Oliver changing slightly. "We need to make a grocery list, I think," Gio shrugged, playfully resting his feet across Iris' legs. "It'll be a damn disaster, otherwise. Unless you want to spend half of the day at Costco." Frankly, he wouldn't mind. Costco was magical.

IRIS:

“We’d up buying crap we aren’t going to eat if you don’t make a list.” Iris threw in, knowing the four of them would run around grabbing whatever they wanted and end up spending hundreds of dollars. She sent a glare towards Gio, kicking her legs to annoy him but ultimately didn’t care. She was too comfortable to move. “Oh oh oh! Add candy to that. Specifically lollipops.” She said, reaching into her shorts pocket and yes, pulling out a lollipop, unwrapping it and popping it in her mouth.

STEPHANIE:

As everyone talked, Stephanie was quickly typing the list into her phone, leaning back on the counter, a small smile crossing her lips when Oliver draped his arm over her. "You're saying as if being at costco all day wouldn't be a good time Gio" She said with an eye roll, and typed in Lolipops to the list.

OLIVER:

"Iris..I think it might be time we had an intervention about your addiction to lollopops. It's not healthy for someone of your size to consume that much sugar in a day." As he smirked in Iris' general direction, he couldn't help but give Steph a knowing smile as he nodded towards the pair. He couldn't take how adorable they seemed as they flirted with each other. "Do you guys want me to make us french toast before we leave tomorrow?"

GIO:

"I'll help you," Gio offered, his head lolling back to the edge of the couch to grin at Oliver, "And the Iris and Steph can cook dinner!" It seemed like a fair idea. "I'm kinda craving mac and cheese for dinner tonight. And, hm, a bunch of drinks," he added. "And no lollipops for Iris, nobody wants you to start jumping all over the place 'cause of all the sugar you're consuming."

IRIS:

Iris pulled the lollipop out with a pop, a pout adorning her face. “That’s rude. I have the perfect amount of sugar intake. Just because I’m tinier than all of you and it effects me more, doesn’t mean I have a problem. I can stop whenever I want to.” She shrugged, turning to Gio and pointing the lollipop at him. “You touch this, and you die.” She muttered towards him, a grin still adorning her face. Before calling out to the other two. “Yeah, we can make chicken or something in return.” She shrugged, popping the lollipop back in her mouth.

STEPHANIE:

Stephanie put an x2 next to the lolipops, knowing that just the fact it would piss off the both the boys. "Leave hear alone, we're all gonna end up on a sugar high either now or at disney so y'all need to calm yourself." She pushed up off the counter and walked out to the living room, and looking between the two on the couch. "Do you two wanna stay here and just send myself and oliver to get the stuff?"

OLIVER:

Watching as Stephanie wrote down two bags of suckers for his smaller blonde friend, Oliver made a mental note to be sure to take them out of the cart while she wasn't looking. He knew she meant well, but it really wasn't healthy for Iris to have a sucker in her mouth 24/7. "I'll leave her alone the day the two of them finally get together. Then Gio can take over for the both of us, and control his girlfriend. Maybe he can give her something else to suck on." He mentioned as he wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

GIO:

Gio let out an undignified squawk at Oliver's sexual innuendo, "Jesus Christ," he choked out, not really knowing whether to laugh or cry. If it had been somebody else, he would've went with it, no doubt, but it was Iris. Iris was different. Gio could feel the heat in his cheeks rising, and he attempted to will it away by sitting up and reaching down to pry the lollipop from Iris' mouth, "Get that shit off,  or else Oliver will start spewing weirder shit!"

IRIS:

She was ready to die. Right then and there, bury her under the sofa, say nice things about her, she wanted to die. Sure, everyone was used to Oliver’s weird perversion to make sexual jokes but this one just felt different. Any moment now her life could fall apart with a few simple words and she wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. She sat up, legs falling to the floor as she peered over at Oliver. “You’re a jackass.” She said, gasping in protest as she felt the candy leave her mouth. “Hey! Give that back! I don’t care what he says, he can go suck a dick for all I care.” She protested, climbing onto the couch and reaching over him to grab at her lollipop.

STEPHANIE:

Stephanie's eyes just widened at Oliver's comment. Yeah she had heard them before but it was never that extreme or about the elephant in the room. She pushed her hair behind her ear just watching everything. "Kay I'll let you two fight over the lolipop and.." she grabbed her bag as she spoke "you two can deal with what just happened with Oliver not having a filter some times." She debated on grabbing Oliver's hand but didn't and just hoped he was gonna follow her.

OLIVER:

You would think his friends didn't know he had no filter when it came to this subject. One thing that had yet to change in his growing up was the fact that he used his inexperience in sex as a way to make light of a situation. Truth be told, and he would rather die than let Iris and Gio know, but their threesome had actually been his first time. Maybe it was his defense mechanism, but he did feel bad about what he said when he saw the look on Iris face. "I'm sorry ris. That was uncalled for." Watching as Stephanie left out the front door, Oliver silently followed as he pulled the door closed behind him.

GIO:

Gio grunted in annoyance, stretching his arm upwards, far away from Iris' reach. "What the hell, get off me," he complained, trying to ignore the way his heart was beating wildly against his chest - Stephanie and Oliver were off somewhere doing god knows what, and they were alone. The asshole part of him thought how hilarious popping the lollipop into his mouth would be (and see the look of infuriation and shock on Iris' face), so he did, a shit-eating grin on his face. "'S mine now."

IRIS:

Iris just glared back at Oliver before putting her focus back on the task at hand. If there was one thing she took seriously, it was her lollipops; she didn’t eat many different kinds of candy, and lollipops were always her go to whenever she wanted something sweet. She shook her head, still trying to reach the lollipop, not hearing the door close behind them. “Dude what the fuck.” She exclaimed, reaching forward and grabbing hold of the stick, mimicking his movements moments prior. “You do know that has my salvia all over it?” Iris questioned, giving it tug , not caring she was all but hovering over him.

STEPHANIE:

Stephanie looked behind her when the door closed seeing Oliver, a small smile crossed her face. "So how long do you think it's gonna  both of them to realize that we're going to the store without them?" She asked grabbing her keys out of the zippered part of bag, and started to walk down the stairs to wear the car was parked.

OLIVER:

Patting his pockets to make sure he didn't forget his phone in the kitchen, Oliver glanced over at the redhead. "I doubt they will even notice. I mean did you see them? How can they not see that they are 100% in love with each other." Making his way over to her car, Oliver waited until he heard the beep of her car unlocking before he ran ahead so he was able to open the car door for her. "How long are we going to leave them here? Like are we just going to Costco? Or are we going other places as well"

GIO:

"Don't care," Gio managed to hiss out, the lollipop still wrenched between his teeth - he wasn't going to lose, it was childish, even for him, but the prideful part of him remained stubborn. "We've done worse," he grinned up at her, eyebrows raising up challengingly. Where did the audacity come from?  He didn't know. Probably their compromising position - which, he didn't mind at all.

IRIS:

Iris rolled her eyes, still determined to get the lollipop; even though it was more so to mess with him and win over him than the lollipop itself. Even out of school, she was still competitive as ever against Gio. No matter how embarrassed she might be at the fact that she was all but straddling him at this point. “Yes, yes. I know. I even know that that was a one time thing and as much fun as it was, not looking to do that again with Oli.” She shrugged, leaving his name out of it. She might try to put on a front with him, but she couldn’t lie to herself.

STEPHANIE:

Stephanie let out a soft laugh. "They are blind if they can see it." She murmured watching him walk in front of her biting the side of her lip. "You know i can get my own door." She teased going over and leaned on the car  looking at him. "I feel like we should just stick with Costco, but we can probably stretch it until they call us and ask where the hell we went"  she shrug a little bit.

OLIVER:

Oliver agreed wholeheartedly. He wasn't sure as to why they hadn't just gotten it over with, but if there was anywhere in the world that could spark up a romance, it was Disneyland. "trust me, I know you don't need me to take care of you, but just let me be a gentleman." Oliver complained as  he placed a hand on her waist before closing the space between the two. "Do you have a problem with that?" He asked with a slight smirk gracing his face. "Well I do have our date planned out, but if we did that today, we wouldn't be back until late tonight."

GIO:

Unfortunately, Gio caught the hint. With Oli?" He asked, pulling the lollipop out and waving it in front of Iris with a teasing smile on his face. Now that the both of them had considerably calmed down, Gio was all-too aware of Iris on his lap, but he made no move to push her away. "Here's your damn lollipop," he passed the candy back to her, "Happy?"

IRIS:

Iris had two choices, to try and correct herself, or just go with it. And considering the compromising position they were in, the fact that she really didn’t care all that much about the candy, and the statement their blonde friend had made earlier, she had a feeling playing it off wouldn’t get past him. “Yes, with Oli.” She grinned, taking the lollipop back from him and popping it in her mouth, halting her fight against him. “Considerably so, yes I am.” She said, pulling the lollipop out. “Though, it’s seemed to have lost it’s flavor.”

STEPHANIE:

Stephanie could feel her cheeks growing redder as Oliver's hands rested on her waist. Why was the smallest thing making her feel like they where kinda perfect in a way. "Fine, i can't say no to that." the redhead whispered rolling her lips between her teeth seeing the smirk play on his face. "No, but we should save that date for a full day in LA."

OLIVER:

Watching as she softly chewed on her lip, Oliver felt a sense of pride that he had this sort of reaction on her. "We should really get going, Steph. It's already going to take us a while before we actually make it back here." Nodding in agreement, Oliver waited for her to get in the car before closing it behind her.

GIO:

Iris' smile was infectious, and Gio found himself returning it with the same calibre. "Just with Oli?" He asked, with a joking lilt to his voice, although there was a little hesitance (hopefulness?) behind his question.  The mere fact that Iris still hasn't made any move to get off his lap was saying a lot. Maybe. "How unfortunate." He licked his lips, "Can't relate, though, my mouth still tastes like strawberry."

IRIS:

“I said what I said.” She shrugged again, twirling the stick between her fingers. She had one every single day, she knew the workings of candy; Iris knew the lollipop didn’t actually lose flavor, she wasn’t stupid, she just wanted to see what his reaction was. A simple test to gauge what her next choice would be. If she was being honest with herself, she was getting tired of the back and forth between them and needed to know if the feelings truly were one sided. She bit her lip, eyes flickering towards his. “Is that so.” She muttered, before mustering up all the Lopez-Pierce courage she could, surging forward and planting her lips on his.

STEPHANIE:

"Fine fine fine." Stephanie muttered getting into the car. She watched him walk around the car to get in himself. She opened google maps and typed into it Costco and set her phone down in the cup holder smiling when he got into the car. "Ready?"

OLIVER:

Pulling the seatbelt across him, Oliver only nodded as a signal that he was ready. "So can I ask you something?" Oliver paused as he tried to think of the best way possible to ask this without him seeming like he wasn't happy. "What made you say yes to a date? I thought.." trailing off as he gathered his thoughts, it took him a moment before he actually finished his sentence. "I thought you didn't have feelings for me like that."

GIO:

Gio freezes - the gears in his brain had stopped for a nanosecond. He certainly hadn't seen this coming; yes, sure, he'd dropped a lot of not-so-subtle hints and openly flirtatious to Iris, but he didn't expect her to... Return it. The moment their lips had touched, and the moment Gio gathered his shit together and kissed her back, the heavy tension in the air had snapped like a rubber band. Gio cupped her cheeks as he deepened the kiss, pulling her flush against him. Oliver and Steph had fucked off somewhere, but were they to suddenly walk in and catch them making out, they would have a lot of explaining to do.

IRIS:

Part of Iris was afraid she just made a huge mistake. Her whole family may be full of confidence but when it came to iris half the time it was pure ‘fuck it all’ mindframe. She knew there was something between the two of them, but she wasn’t sure if the extent of it was just something she made up in her mind. All this was flying through her mind in the seconds before he kissed back, and in that moment a rush of butterflies went right to Iris’ head without mercy. The lollipop fell from her hands, instinctively letting go to bury her fingers in his hair, really not wanting this moment to end.

STEPHANIE:

Once he was buckled, Stephanie started the car backing out of the spot, and started to drive out of the parking lot and getting on the road. She was about to turn up the radio but stopped as he asked that question. “A date. not datING” She said peering over at him hoping that didn’t come off as she wasn’t excited and ready for it,  but talking about the date made her heart race. “I’m an actress, i am good  at showing emotion when I wanna”  she whispered, looking back at the road as she started to change lanes, letting out a small breath. “Like if it wasn’t for the stupid gossip blog, i probably would have just kept pushing my feelings i’ve had aside cause I didn’t want to get between you and your music, or if we /had/ dated before, and i was out here and you saw pictures of me with other guys i wouldn’t want you to think that i was cheating on you. Cause honestly last thing i would do is that to someone I really care about.” The redhead took a few turns as she was talking, and soon they where at Costco. “So, don’t hate me for not telling you.”

OLIVER:

Rolling his eyes slightly, Oliver corrected himself "Yes, date but you know what I mean. I know this is us testing out the waters together, but I still wanted to know." If trying to break out in the music industry had taught him anything, it was the fact that tabloids would do anything to get a story--even if they have to make it up in order to do so. "I would still trust you if you told me nothing was going on. You've given me no reason not to trust you. It would be the same thing with me out on the road all of the time. Once we have this album finished, the band and I are planning on going on a small tour. Nothing major..just a few small venues, but you would have to deal with the idea of girls potentially being all over me. I just just hope that if we do end up giving this a real shot, that you would trust me." As the pair pulled into the local Costco, Oliver helped in the task of finding a spot. "I don't hate you. I mean its not like I ever made my feelings known." Looking down one of the lanes, Oliver finally pointed" I see a spot down there."

GIO:

Gio eventually had to (reluctantly) break the kiss for air. He wrapped his arms around Iris' waist, grinning up at her. "Well," he sucked in a breath, hoping to the gods that he didn't look as nervous as he felt. "That was nice," he said lamely. Way better than their little fling with Oliver. "We should, like, totally do it again."

IRIS:

It was only when he pulled away did Iris realize how on fire her lungs were, that there was this thing called air they needed. “Yeah, really nice.” She responded, not helping the laugh that escaped her, leaning forward once more, pressing a firm kiss to his lips before pulling back again. Her hands fell away from his neck to only let her head fall into them, another laugh escaping from her as everything that just happened in the last few minutes flew through her mind. “I can’t believe I just did that.” She muttered, thanking every god imaginable that not only did he obviously felt the same, but that their friends weren’t around for it.

STEPHANIE:

Stephanie shrugged a little bit. "Well.. you know now." She said softly as she hit the blinker on her car, pulling into the spot. "I'd trust you too, Oli." She turned off her car grabbing her bag and looked over at him. "And you're acting as if I wouldn't end up being a groupie following you guys around" she teased, tossing her keys into her bag getting out of the car, waiting for him. "Look, whatever happens between us, our friendship always comes first, deal?"

OLIVER:

The fact that she had always been supportive of his dream really meant the world to him. He wouldn't know what to do if his friends didn't support him, and the fact that the girl he wanted to try and make something with, seemed to always be his biggest fan. "You should know that no matter what, I'll always have VIP passes sitting at the box office for you." Nodding his head as he got out of the car, Oliver could only smile as he made his way over to her side. Wrapping an arm around her as they walked into the store. "Nothing is going to come between us and our friendship, Sunshine. I won't let anything happen."

GIO:

Gio lets out a soft snort, one hand flying up to stroke Iris' hair; as  amazing as kissing Iris felt, there was an unanswered question hovering in the air, and Gio certainly wasn't going to waste the rest of his summer away being a complete coward. No, he was moving to New York for fuck's sake. "I can't believe you just did that," Gio teased, leaning against her. "So," he started, licking his lips. "Did - uh, did that kiss mean anything, or...?"l

IRIS:

Iris lifted her head solely for the purpose of slapping Gio across the chest. “Don’t forget Gio, you’re the one who reciprocated.” She laughed, shrugging her shoulders. “No, it meant absolutely nothing. I just made up an excuse to kiss you for the hell of it.” She joked, sticking her tongue out at him, a sign she was messing with him. But as quick as she joked, she quickly got serious. “It did. It really did. And yeah you’re going to college in a few months, but doesn’t mean we can’t try, right? I mean, if you’re up for it. Because I am. I mean who knows, if you can deal with dating someone still in high school, we could totally make long distance work.” She said, quickly realizing she was rambling.

[jmkitsune]

all odd :)

1: Name

JM

3: Fears

Abandonment, sensory deprivation, failure

5: 4 turns on

based on previous girlfriends

1- curves (tits, ass, hips, thighs, stomach)

2- longer hair

3- eyes

4- sarcastic and clever sense of humor

7: My best friend

can’t pick one but Britt, Adrienne, and Moosey

9: My best first date

never had “first dates” I was usually in relationships already when the dating stuff happened

11: What do I miss

too many things honestly

13: Favourite color

purple and crimson

15: Favourite quote

“When someone says impossible- they usually mean improbable.”

17: Favourite food

honestly probably 

19: What am I listening to right now

watching Godzilla soo listening to Godzilla wreck monsters

21: Shoe size

9 and a half

23: Hair color

red/auburn

25: Ever done a prank call?

nope

27: Favourite movie

I have too many to list, movies are kinda a huge thing for me, but lets say star wars cause its always a consistent

29: Favourite band

linkin park probably

31: Someone I love

my friends

33: My relationship with my parents

mom- could be better

dad- non existent

35: Tattoos and piercing I have

I have six tattoos

37: The reason I joined Tumblr

boredom back in 2009/2010 or so

39: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts?

not anymore

41: When did I last hold hands?

2 months ago

43: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days?

no

45: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me?

I don’t drink/get drunk sooo

47: Do I live with my Mom and Dad?

live with my mother yeah

49: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to?

Britt, Adrienne, Moosey, pretty much 95% my friend group

51: When was the last time I hugged someone?

2 months ago

53: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?

yes

55: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

no idea honestly, like no one is jumping out at the moment

57: What’s my strangest talent?

I don’t think many of my talents are that strange to be honest

59: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

behind, but don’t mind in front on certain circumstances

61: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

of the two? online- hands free

63: Do I believe in magic?

I believe people are capable of making magic if they believe in it themselves

65: What’s the weather like right now?

muggy

67: Do I like the smell of gasoline?

used to, now its just a smell I notice

69: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had?

broken heart

71: Can I touch my nose with a tounge?

no but my siblings can and its iritating

73: Favourite animal?

fox

75: What do I think is Satan’s last name is?

Morningstar 

77: How can you win my heart?

be a specific person

79: What is my favorite word?

probably wicked

81: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say?

let me go back to the start

83: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power?

shadow jumping- being able to walk into a shadow and reappear someone else out of another shadow

85: What is my current desktop picture?

I hadn’t actually changed it yet

87: Bought condoms?

uhhh I didn’t buy them technically, but I remember the last time was like mid june, steph came home saying “I have acquired the anti baby ritual materials!”

89: Failed a class?

junior year- failed chemistry

91: Kissed a girl?

yes

93: Had job?

I’ve had quite a few jobs

95: Bullied someone on the internet?

I have not

97: Played on a sports team?

I was on my high school soccer team my freshmen year, but didn’t stay the whole season

99: Did drugs?

nope

101: Drank alcohol?

Used to, a LOT, stopped for a while, but then stopped fully back in 2015 or so

103: Been overweight?

no

105: Been to a wedding?

yes

107: Watched TV for 5 hours straight?

yup

109: Gotten my heart broken?

A FEW TIMES, kinda a skill I’m getting exceedingly good at

111: Broken a bone?

not yet

113: Been to prom?

two proms actually

115: Fly by helicopter?

nope

117: Had a crush on someone of the same sex?

nope

119: Wore make up?

yes, used to wear eye liner and nail polish in high school

121: Had oral sex?

*nods*

123: Voted in a presidential election?

yup, every election since 2008

125: Had a surgery?

nope

127: Stalked someone on a social network?

*sighs* honestly as much as I sometimes want to because of heartbreak- no I haven’t I know the second I go looking I’m just going to find pain

129: Been fishing?

yes, used to go when I was a kid, wasn’t my thing

131: Been rejected by a crush?

hahahahahaha I’ve been rejected by one crush a few times

133: What do I want for birthday?

second chance

135: Was I named after anyone?

sadly too many people in the family

137: What was my favourite toy as a child?

thomas the tank engine train toys and legos

139: Where do I want to live when older?

with the love of my life

141: One of my scars, how did I get it?

I have three tiny scars on my left wrist- I got them when my friend at the time Eden gripped my arm cause I took her wallet jokingly and until I gave it back she gripped tighter, she never broke skin but she did leave three nail marks in my wrist

143: Am I afraid of the dark?

no, I’m afraid of what might be in it

145: Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad?

once, was worth it, went and got slushies

147: What I’m really bad at

keeping that which I want most without driving it away

also really bad at not trying to take on everything by myself when there are those who could have and would have helped me when I needed it in the past

149: The meanest thing somebody has ever said to me

That I scared them because of what I did out of love 

151: What do I like about myself

I’m passionate, loyal, ambitious, creative, romantic, fiercely devoted and an idealist dreamer

153: Something I fantasize about

a reunion and forgiveness

[batboys-and-other-messes]

Popsicle (Tim Drake X Fem!Reader)

Requested: No A/N: What should I say? This idea popped up in my head one day and now I’ve finally finished it so yeah, ENJOY! Word count: 1408 Warning(s): NSFW Tagged: @icequeen206 @sassyshoulderangel319 @crescent-bluemoon @nanna-the-batmum @xoleaox @sleep-depiravation @jaybirdxarsenal @youthbitch @free-pool-trash @spiderling-tom

[You wanna be tagged in my next piece? Just shoot me a message or ask!]

Tim looked at you.

You had noticed his eyes on you when his movement stopped for a second.

The sound of the keyboard halted and the absence of it, even if just a heartbeat long, was enough to catch your attention. It was like a familiar melody that got interrupted.

You turned your head to look back at him.

The frozen Popsicle in your hand was a good contrast to the humid and stifling air in the room. It cooled you down and helped you wait for the AC to get fixed.

Tim looked away immediately, starring at his screen as if his life suddenly depended on it. His posture stiff and his eyes unblinking.

Not that uncommon for him but you could tell that there was something off.

You opened your mouth to speak but decided against it.

You licked the cold fruity ice in your hand again, deliciously slow, while thinking.

Did he want one too? You had asked him before you got yours, but he had said no. And yet there he was, avoiding to even breathe in your direction.

The air was thick with humidity. Your hair was messily put into a bun because of the heat and you noticed the cushion on Tim’s lap. Wasn’t it too hot for this?

Your brows creased slightly as all the possible reasons for this kind of behavior ran through your head. Was he uncomfortable? Was the laptop burning his thighs? What was going on?

The thoughts would’ve continued to run in circles until you saw it.

His eyes.

They flickered to your mouth, following your tongue for a second before looking away, like a criminal that had been caught red-handed. As red as the deep blush that spread across his cheeks.

A sly smile took over you and you could barely contain it.

The pillow, the glassy eyes, and the behavior. It all made sense now.

This turned him on.

Who were you to deny him a show, now?

Slowly, way more than necessary, you licked the melting drops of coldness off the Popsicle. Your eyes trained on him while you knew he could see you from his peripheral vision. He tensed, his neck stiff from avoiding looking at you but his hands barely moved on the keyboard. His laptop became a mere prop in this moment between you two.

He was trying to ignore these kinds of thoughts like he always did, but you knew you could break through. You did it countless times before.

You smiled.

Your tongue moved over every little crack of the long red frozen dessert in your hand, taking in the cold and enjoying the pure sweetness. You made a little sound and it was enough to pull his eyes towards you. His lips slightly parted and his eyes desperately locking with yours for a single moment before dropping down to the main attraction.

He was frozen in place, his every breath hitching and synching with the movement of your tongue as you lead the performance, taking the popsicle fully into your mouth only to slowly pull it out with a juicy ‘POP’, watching his jaw go slack.

You imagined the salty taste of skin as you softly sucked on the tip, your eyes never leaving his.

His hands were trembling, hovering over the keyboard where he had last lost control of them and his breaths were deep and slow as if you’ve sucked the breath out of him, with your lusciously pink lips.

You licked said lips and it felt like the temperature in the room had doubled in the past seconds.

“I’m going to pretend that I didn’t see that.” Dick’s voice ripped you both out of your little world as your heads whipped to where he was sitting on the couch.

“And I’m going to shove a rusty fork into my eyes now,” Jason replied from the other side and you remembered where you were again.

Wayne Manor.

The Livingroom.

You were all watching a movie.

Your face fell in utter horror as your heart dropped a few inches.

They had seen everything.

“I dunno, it was kinda funny how into it they were.” Steph piped in.

“What are you all talking about?” Damian turned around, looking away from Titus to see what the conversation was about. “What happened?”

“Wait, did anyone here even watch the damn movie?” Jason ignored the youngest one and a few people gave a few mumbled responses.

Cass raised her hand.

“That’s why you’re my favorite sibling.”

“I told you, we should’ve watched the other one.” Dick immediately chimed in.

“We’ve watched Legally Blonde like a million times already!” Jason threw his hands in the air in frustration, only wearing boxer shorts in the heat.

“Yeah, but nobody gets aroused during Legally Blonde because it’s actually entertaining and a timeless masterpiece!”

“That was way more than just ‘being aroused’... Like that was almost full out fucking… And also, have you seen Reese Witherspoon?”

“That’s NOT- Wait. You have a point there … Tim, we seriously need to talk about your self-control.”

“It was so intense I almost got pregnant. Again.”

“Can one of your imbeciles finally tell me what I’ve missed?!”

“Maybe once your baby teeth are out we will”

“Are we really going to let them off the hook without kink shaming them at least a little bit? Really? I feel like I need to go to church now after this.”

“Jason, you have literally murdered people.”

“Yeah, but at least I’ve never defiled food! I have standards, you know.”

“Standards? You can’t possibly say that while wearing nothing but red hood themed boxer shorts…”  

“True.”

“Listen up here, you dipshits, these boxer shorts are awesome and it's hot so go fuck yourselves.”

“I’m going to get legally blonde.”

“NOBODY WANTS TO SEE THAT!”

The bickering continued while you felt the ice slowly melt onto your hands. You dropped it. The mixture of shock and shame keeping you from forming a coherent thought as you watched a table getting flipped. Someone jumped on someone else and yelling ensued but all you were able to do was just sit there and die in disgrace.

“This escalated quicker than I thought.” Tim finally said, pulling your attention back to him. His face was almost as bright red as yours, but he was taking this way better than you and you refused to imagine why.

Maybe it was because he was not the one seen blowing a popsicle.

His eyes were on his fighting brothers and you saw Steph take bets from the corner of your eye before Tim looked back at you with an almost apologetic smile on his lips.

“I think I just want to die right now.” You admitted, your cheeks still flaming in embarrassment as you leaned your forehead against his shoulder in an attempt to hide.

“Hey now, it’s not that bad.” He tried to cheer you up but the look you shot him, immediately shut him up.

“Okay, it was. But If it helps … I… Uhm- I liked it?” He offered awkwardly, and you let out a small humorless laugh.

“Wow, that changes everything.” You said sarcastically

“Look, they have the attention span of a goldfish, so- uhm- I won’t be surprised if they have already forgotten that it happened.” Tim lied, and even though you both knew they wouldn’t let you live this one down for ages, looking at them argue about something so stupid and mundane right now made you partially believe him.

Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

You glanced down at the pillow still in his lap.

“How about we leave and finish what we’ve started?” you asked slowly, feigning innocence as his eyes widened in surprise.

“W-what? I-I- uhm... Oh, w-wait- do- Uhm, do you mean-…” he trailed off, not sure how to express his thought in his current state as he kept stumbling over his own words. He hadn’t expected you to be up for it after this.

“Is that a yes?” You asked, kind of enjoying his embarrassment a little bit too much.

“Yes.” He said, almost too eager and you smiled. You took his laptop and closed it, walking out of the living room and he followed you immediately.

“Wait, where- Are they seriously going to fuck now?” Jason’s voice sounded from the living room in disbelieve before Steph’s voice followed.

“Guys, don’t stop fighting now! I’m still recording!”

[ectonurites]

for the character headcannons ask game, jason and cass?

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT im putting this one under a cut because it got SUPER long bc i cant shut up ever

lets start w jason

A (realistic headcanon): 

ok using the ‘realistic’ category here loosely but GOD i love the idea of Damian & Jason having interacted while Jason was staying with the League before getting dunked in the Lazarus Pit. like. this obviously would need to be set more in preboot and following the Lost Days & Batman Annual 25 version of Jason’s resurrection, but god the idea of it just makes me scream in a good way. Like... these are things Jason likely doesn’t remember very clearly once he’s brought back to life more fully by the pit because he was uh pretty catatonic, but Damian being a little kid and knowing about the boy that his mother keeps around the base, that she’s trying to help bring back to health. Damian not even knowing that’s his big brother, just that he’s a presence that shares his mother’s attention. Jason again being unresponsive but like, ok god you know that part of lost days where Talia shows the others observing him that he only fights back at those he perceives as genuine threats trying to hurt him, 

Because Jason can perceive that she’s safe, she’s not actually trying to hurt him, he trusts her because she saved him? thinking about lil child Damian who is ya know already being trained in fighting stuff and like the idea of him trying to provoke Jason just to see what happens but Jason not fighting back because on some level be it his connection to Talia or even little baby Damian visually reminding him of Bruce, he knows that Damian is safe too 🥺 

and then when Jason and Damian meet again in Gotham as Red Hood & Robin respectively, Jason not really remembering because there was so much going on back then for him, but Damian realizing that oh... that was Him

B (hilarious): 

alright so if we are looking at comics currently, in modern stuff jason is what, like 22? hes old enough to drink in the US but still definitely early 20s so around my around my age, thats what im using as a basis here. if we adjust timeline and still consider his death having happened when he was 15, that puts it around 2013. and then coming back to like interacting with people about three years later if we still kinda base things off of the preboot timeframe (since we never got a super solid retelling of the timeline of death -> resurrection -> training -> tries to get revenge aside from knowing he went to the all-caste instead of the lost days version of the story) making him reenter the regular world and stuff around age 18 in 2016. meaning a solid three years of pop culture that he was entirely missing, and like im sorry but he really doesn’t strike me as the type to bother looking into what he missed, he’s kinda busy focusing on other stuff. lets take a quick look at some major things from those years. 2013 gave us ‘what does the fox say’ and ‘the harlem shake’ . 2014 had that time U2 just put a fuckin album on everyone’s phones, The Fault In Our Stars movie came out. 2015 introduced the phrase ‘Netflix and Chill’ and the whole blue & black vs gold & white dress debate happened. imagine any of the other batkids (or even arguably roy during rhato stuff) bringing these things up and jason’s ensuing confusion. thank you for your time

C (heart-crushing): 

so. there are two specific instances from rebirth era Jason i want to bring up here and much like a lot of these it’s less a headcanon and more of an inference based on observations, but i wanna take a sec to discuss Jason’s relationship with other people’s death. early in rebirth, Tim ‘dies’ from that whole thing in detective comics. he didn’t actually die, we as readers know, but in-universe they all very much so thought he was dead. frustratingly a lot of the batfam wasn’t really shown mourning him aside from in the Detective Comics Rebirth title itself (which just. when a major character dies even if its temporary- that should have a ripple effect) BUT an exception to that is in RHATO 2016, where we get this offhanded comment in Jason’s internal monologuing

similarly later when Roy, who like, had an incredibly close relationship w Jason that had just gotten mended before Heroes in Crisis, gets fuckin murdered in that whole thing... Jason doesn’t go to his funeral either. He leaves a dramatic voice mail and then visits the grave on his own later, choosing to instead keep working on the mission they’d started rather than going and taking the time to mourn properly.

Jason’s relationship with death is incredibly complicated, obviously. He has died, he has come back, and he now is willing to cross the line most other bats won’t and will kill people when he deems it necessary. I think thats something important though- he doesn’t just like... go around killing for fun (usually, some writers preboot made him a little murder happy but even then usually this still was vaguely followed) he kills people he thinks deserved it. Like, even looking back at the mess of Morrison’s Jason during Batman & Robin 2009, Jason was still trying to bring a sense of justice with who he was killing (”punishment that fits the crime”), it wasn’t killing for the sake of killing. He sees things in this kind of almost black and white ‘people who deserve it’ and ‘people who don’t’ way, and he has no problem dealing with death when it’s with the people he thinks deserve it. 

but when someone who doesn’t in his mind ‘deserve it’ gets killed? i think he just goes into total avoidance mode. throws himself into other things he’s doing, tries not to dwell on it too much no matter how much he still thinks about it (this is especially evident in him consistently telling people “i’m fine!” after what happened to Roy, despite bringing Roy up literally like every few issues for a WHILE after he died and very clearly still struggling with it, Artemis is the only one who gets through to him on it a little bit) 

but yeah, I just think that from Jason’s relatively unique situation of having been murdered, he knows what it’s like and he is perfectly fine wishing that on people he thinks are bad and deserve it, but it crushes him to imagine the people he loves and cares about having to experience something as painful as what he went through. not to mention the whole “I came back, why do I get a second chance at all this when they, who are a much better person than I am, probably won’t” mindset we get some implications of him having 

D (canon is a coward and won’t) 

hello DC i am once again insisting a batfam member is bisexual

CASS TIME

A (realistic headcanon): 

ok so we know cass likes ballet. thats canon. however i think we also should in general explore cass experiencing other types of dance/performance as well, be it herself as a performer or even just watching. like... god imagine her & like my brain just automatically for group activities puts her with tim steph and duke but also for this in particular I feel would be a Jason embraced activity, but like them going to see a broadway show or some other professional theatre or something, and her just being enthralled by the reading of body language of the performers! like again by any point in current stuff cass does have like, the ability to speak fine (reading still hard tho) but even so I think like. okay im a theatre kid if that’s not obvious from the Everything About Me but one thing I always do after seeing a show is ya know spend dinner afterwards discussing it with whoever i saw it with.

I just think that like, bringing those people i just mentioned to the table to discuss seeing a show after would be so FASCINATING because cass would bring this whole perspective of critiquing their acting on a whole different level- not based on how well they delivered lines out loud, but by what their body language was saying as they moved on stage. like im very amused by the idea of cass getting a totally different picture in her mind about what a character’s motivations were because she was paying way more attention to what their physicality was saying vs the words that were written and how they were delivered. i think the debates her and the others would have would be EPIC there. jason defending the text as it was written adamantly and cass being like ‘ok yeah sure but thats not what they did’

B (hilarious): 

cass having no concept of money because why would she bother? is SO funny to me. like it’s not that she couldn’t be reasonable if she wanted to, but like, she knows that the Waynes are well off so it’s not something she actually needs to be concerned about, so she just goes hog wild. takes steph out to fancy dinners and makes steph order for them since cass ya know doesn’t really read the menus, and steph’s like ‘jesus christ this costs-” “don’t worry about it” “but cass-” and she just holds up one of bruce’s credit cards and steph’s still like “but you don’t even know the range-” “it is fine”

bruce does not have the heart to tell her to stop

C (heart-crushing): 

i mean this is pretty much canon but especially now after death metal where she’s remembering, not just being told by a guy using weird alternate timeline technology, that she used to be an adopted member of the Wayne family... like that hurts so bad. To look at these people who have ya know been kind to her, Bruce has still been a father-like figure to her (i mean literally from the moment they met in New 52 canon during the flashback in Batman & Robin Eternal, where he’s telling her that she’s not a monster just because of what people forced her to do.... that she’s a hero... that hug.... dad behavior), and they do to some extent treat her as family... But to then really know, to feel and remember that she was actually adopted! She was a part of their family. To look at how she’s been calling herself Orphan while working with them this whole time... that’s so heartbreaking! I have cried about this idea so much! I want so badly a conversation between her and Bruce now where he offers to officially adopt her again, I need it so bad and if it doesn’t happen at some point in the next year or two I will be so distraught.

D (canon is a coward and won’t) 

i want an in-depth exploration of cass’ relationship to her own gender. being raised without language and you know with so much of her life being independent (remember: CASS RAN AWAY AROUND THE WORLD WITHOUT REALLY KNOWING ANY SPOKEN LANGUAGE) and outside of an organized society impressing too much of gender expectations on her, i feel like the way she experiences it would be very unique! like sure she’s so far been fine with being assigned ‘girl’ (ya know that comes with batgirl, and how people just automatically treated her based on how she looks) but in terms of gender expression and like her actual relationship with ‘traditional femininity’ etc like... because of how she was raised I just think she’d have a really different perspective on it that could be cool to explore, and I think she’d fall outside of the binary after she really thinks about how she identifies.

tldr on that: she/they nb cass is what i’m getting at here

[shaudswrites]

Rain

Everyone knew Jason has some connection to Talia, and Steph thinks she might have finally figured it out.

Stands fine on its own, but part of a much longer fic that can be read right here:

Say what you want about Gotham’s service delivery, and, well everything else too, but she had herself some pretty big mail boxes.

Huge metal things on most corners of the older parts of the city, they were holdovers from the days when people had still sent mail and the thriving metropolis had needed that much space for all of it.

That wasn’t an important fact, not something life changing or even minorly interesting, but it was a part of where it started.

If you were being technical, it really started when Cass and Steph had come upon a shipment at the docks on their obligatory girls night patrol. It had nothing at all to do with the bigger case all of them were caught up in.

Not drugs or kidnappings, just a certain type of alcohol that had some very… interesting effects on some people and was therefore banned in their good city. As with most illegal but not immediately damaging consumables, that only made it more popular and every bar from sleazy to the highest of high ends liked having some of it in stock.

Cass didn’t think much of it, and neither did Steph until she turned up at The Dive the next day to find Jason standing morosely outside of the door, staring at an ‘out of business’ sign crafted out of an old beer crate and fixed to the door with masking tape.

“You’ve killed me.” He said simply, leaning forward to rest his head against the door with a dull thunk that kind of sounded like it hurt, but Jason gave no indication either way.

Before she could ask him exactly what had happened, he was talking again, tilting his head so she could see just one of his teal eyes peeping out from the damp curls that had flopped across his forehead.

“Bats arrested the owner last night, fucker’s too paranoid to give anyone else the key.”

“Oooooh.” Steph clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. “So no more chili-fries, then? Yikes.”

“ H’s got connections. ’ll be out in like two months.” Jason mumbled into the sign.

“Then why’re you being all grouchy?” Steph took a step forward, wincing as her foot came down in a puddle and the filthy water sunk into her sneakers.

Jason turned around to rest his back against the door and raked a hand through his wet hair as he tilted his head back to look at the clouds that were still dropping rain on everything.

With not a trace of a smile and with his face as serious and blank as she’d ever seen it. “I’ll starve to death before that.” His voice rose a little at the end and a chuckle escaped Steph’s lips before she could smother it behind her hands.

“You think it’s funny?” He asked, mouth agape like she’d done the most offensive thing imaginable. “Do you know how much fuel it takes to maintain all of this?"He waved his hand in a gesture indicating his whole body before slumping against the door and hanging his head, bringing a hand to fist the fabric at his chest. "I’ll waste away without this place, or have to live off…” He flopped a hand in circles near his head as he looked for the words, “cans of spam. Might as well crawl back into my grave now. ”

“Are you done yet?” Steph asked in her Barbara voice, folding he arms across her chest and giving him the most unimpressed look she could muster.

Jason gasped and peered at her through his hair again, and if she was going to focus on anything he was saying, he was going to have to stop ’ doing’ that. “I can’t believe this.” He shook his head, something close to a pout on his lips. “This is all Bruce’s fault.”

“You can’t blame Bruce for me and Cass…”

“I’m blaming him.” Jason cut in.

“Come on Jay, I know this great waffle house.” She wrapped one of her arms around his and tried to tug him out of the alley, but he didn’t even budge.

“Won’t make it to the waffle house, so weak.” He whispered piteously.

“Poor baby.” Steph patted his head, resisting her sudden urge to run her hand though the rain slicked curls, even more so when he leaned into her touch, determined to keep up his act. “I still have Talia’s number; do you want me to call her to bring you a snack?” Steph paused, a thought striking her and drew her hand back. “Wait.”

“So she can shut the place down for good and make me cook for myself?” Jason scoffed. “I really would rather die.”

“That’s why you like her so much.” Steph brought her thumbnail between her teeth and she stared at him, trying to find the words she needed to string together to make sense of it.

“What?” Jason’s face twisted into the look he got whenever she was getting close to something she could tease him about and they both knew it.

“She moms you.” Steph said, a huge grin splitting across her face.

“No.” Jason straightened, up and jabbed a finger sharply in her direction.

“She’s like, totally your mom!”

“Come on; let’s just hit the damned waffled house.” He said, gently pulling her to the end of the alley.

Because Talia practically stalked Jason, and fed him, and brought him birthday gifts that he obviously loved, and scolded him for eating junk food and, 'disproved of his life choices’. Everyone back at the cave was wracking their brains trying to figure out Jason’s connection to Talia. Why she was going through so much trouble for him, what she’d do if she got a hold of him, when really it was just her weird, scary assassiny way of smothering him.

“And you’re her precious little baby.”

Before Steph knew it, she was laughing. Not so much because it was funny, but because she was more relieved than she would have thought she’d be when she figured it out. She still hated Talia, boy did she hate that woman, but it wasn’t something she had to worry about getting Jason hurt anymore, and that lifted a layer of stress from her chest she hadn’t even known she was carrying before.

“Are you done yet?” Jason didn’t share the same sentiments at her revelation, and stood stiffly, frowning at her with his arms crossed.

“No.” She laughed some more. This time because his reaction really ’ was’ funny, and also somewhat adorable.

“You got no clue how messed up that that idea is.” Jason growled out at shifted his eyes somewhere past her.

“Bet she’s where you learned to be all scary.” Steph brought her hands up to make claws in front of her face and deepened her voice. Jason turned something that was maybe a version of the batglare on her until her laughter died down and she managed to straighten up, her hands clasped behind her back as she leaned towards him. “So which part of me are you gonna threaten to send to my mother in a box for this?”

“All of you.” He lunged at her and before she could get out of the way, he’d lifted her off her feet. Cradling her tightly in his arms he carried her to the nearest of the big mailboxes that weren’t even used anymore.

The people that hadn’t – or couldn’t, considering the part of town they were in – taken shelter in the pouring rain paid them no mind beyond a few weird looks, and Stephanie was laughing too hard to put up much of a struggle.

Nothing would have come of it otherwise, but it seemed it just wasn’t their day when a police cruiser approached and it was –surprise of surprises – a cop that actually took his job seriously.

The cruiser slowed down just as she was doing a very good impression of a cat, and Jason the kid trying to push it into a bathtub. Her feet were propped on the edges of the box and he held her with both arms around her midsection, twisting her from side to side trying to get one of those legs inside.

“Keep moving.” Jason said as the cop came to a halt besides him before the cop a chance to do more than open his mouth. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Jason pulled her back and finally managed to get one of her legs into the mailbox when the incredulous expression on the cop’s face almost got another bout of laughter out of her.

“You can’t say that to a real cop.” Steph whispered harshly and more than loud enough for the cop to hear as she kicked her leg, trying to dislodge it from the metal box

“But it doesn’t.” Jason’s voice was so earnest, his eyes so wide with innocence she might have even believed it at one point, if she didn’t know him and he hadn’t twisted her right them to get her other leg into the mailbox.

“My friend’s just being an asshole officer.” Steph tried to give the officer an apologetic look, because it was obvious she was going to have to be the serious one in that situation. She yelped when her shirt rode up just an inch and the cold metal of the box brushed against the small of her back.

“Now when you get in there, check if there’s an old ass letter with a stamp and…”

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to step away from the young lady.” The cop was stepping out of the car now, gun drawn.

The blank stare Jason gave him was supremely unimpressed and his arms wrapped minutely tighter around Steph’s midsection. He was warm, Steph realized, even soaking wet while she shivered in the rain.

“Yeah, put me down Jay.” Steph said, even as she leaned into his warmth and kinda wished he’d keep him hands where they were.

She knew immediately she’s made a mistake when he grinned, the rain bringing out the color in his eyes and making a mess of his hair made his grin more impish that it would have been otherwise.

“Okay.” He pulled her out of the mailbox and dropped her.

She let out a high-pitched squeaking sound at the cold shock of the puddle she splashed into. Jason smiled at the cop – who looked at both Steph and Jay like he thought they were either drunk or high – and clasped his hands behind his back in mimicry of Steph’s earlier pose.

“She wouldn’t visit her poor old mother.” He said. “I was trying to help.”

The cop rolled his eyes and finally put away his gun. “You kids… just get where you’re going and don’t cause any trouble.”

“Too bad you can’t arrest people for being assholes.” Steph grumbled, and curled up a little at the derisive look the cop sent her.

After a moment of deliberation, Jason bent a little to help her up. She accepted his hand, but tugged harshly just as he was about to pull her up.

His landing besides her in the gutter splashed her with more water as well, but the shock in his face made it worth it.

She chuckled into her fist and he buried his laughter into his hands.

The staff wouldn’t let them into the waffle house, soaked through with both rain and gutter water as they were, and they were forced to find another source of lunch.

Jason did, in fact, survive the journey to the food truck near Gotham U and they ended up in a sheltered awning on her college campus with polystyrene containers of popcorn chicken. She got s few nods from people who knew her, but no one bothered them.

He did jump about three feet into the air when she sneezed though.

“I really hope we don’t get sick.” She sniffled.

Jason scoffed and took a bite of his food. “I don’t 'get’ sick.”

[thatblondeperson]

I'm a little opposite with this sort of thing. (But of course all headcanon and self-ingulgence)

Like Tim was definitely chill with Steph's first pregnancy because for starters, that baby was not his, and in addition he was 14 with a whole host of other responsibilities and this pregnancy happened after his and Steph's first date.

His baby? Different story imo.

I think Tim does panic a bit like Bruce, and his tendency to overplan might be his Achilles heel in this situation. Stephanie kinda gets the gist of what to expect when expecting, Tim gets it to an extent but I can see him just reading copious amounts of literature on it all. Steph is knitting little booties and Tim is next to her on the couch going like "did you know that you can be in labor for over 18 hours?" with Steph kindly asking him to shut up.

There's something to be said for Tim's self centered nature and not having the finest example as a child, but there's also something to be said about his care for his loved ones. Tim DOES care, and I think he would try to do everything right. Tim doesn't like to make mistakes, and one of those could present itself in the form of not being there enough for Steph when she needs him.

On a separate but extremely relevant note imo and catering to my desire to let vulnerability and a deep loving support drive these two, Stephanie would need a lot of care during her next pregnancy. She was a child when she first hot pregnant, it paused her whole teenage existence, and she did feel sad at not being the right person at the right time to care for her child. Giving up a child, no matter the circumstances, is not an easy thing to go through. Getting to go through the pregnancy on her terms with someone she loves I think is obviously going to be a cathartic experience for Steph, but it would not come without potentially painful memories of what she went through the first time around.

So give me Tim being very sweet and excited. Helping Steph make baby name lists, doing all the baby proofing, helping to paint the nursery (which of course turns to a lot of paint on themselves as well), yes to rubbing ankles and feet of course, but also to dip into lack of awareness territory, Tim trying to keep spirits up because he's excited and this should be fun! All while Steph is sweating bullets and dealing with headaches and bloating. No Tim, no it is not fun. 🤣

I also love a panicky Tim who has hospital run planned to the second so he WON'T panic when it occurs, but of course the actual labor happens and Tim is a tornado, completley lost even if he rehearsed everything dozens of times. They get there of course. Steph threatens to drive herself if he doesn't calm down and that snaps Tim out of it.

I want a Tim who's present where his parents may not gave been, since he's been given so many good examples in his life since Steph's first pregnancy. I want him to be a bit of a nervous wreck, but it's because of his own weird fears and insecurities. He doesn't want anything to go wrong, he wants Steph comfortable and happy, he wants to be a good dad, he wants Steph and their baby safe.

I've had an item on my to-do list for a pregnancy related fic for about 3 years that I just haven't had a full thought out idea for, but maybe someday...

Tim and Stephanie are married and having their first child together. How would Tim be like during the entire pregnancy?

Probably exceedingly normal to be honest. The pair did it once when they were a decade younger, only a week into the relationship, when Steph was substantially more financially insecure and had a much smaller circle of support (literally just her mum) and whilst Tim was a little panicky I put it down more to the fact that he was fourteen.

Doing it at a time when they're in a stable relationship, financially secure and with the might of the batfam and Titans behind them would make the second time round seem a breeze. Plus Steph is healthy all the way through, they pay too much for her doctors to be otherwise.

I think Tim's panicky-ness would come out less about Steph's physical and mental wellbeing - though he will be good and rub her ankles when she asks - and also less about the health of the baby, but more around himself. Because Tim can be a bit self absorbed. It would be in that 'I didn't exactly have outstanding parental figures' kind of discussion when loving your child is not the same as being a good parent and what if Tim is no different and just can't connect with the child?

Steph thinks he's overthinking it. Which he is.

He'd also be that dad at three in the morning scrolling through Silver Cross's website like Hmm. $1500 for a stroller. Seems reasonable.

Steph does the absolutely normal and expected thing of getting it secondhand from Facebook marketplace.

Bruce on the other hand... Well there's your overly panicky expectant (grand) father trope right there.