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noybusiness · 11 months ago

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This is a great analysis, thank you for posting!

Some Gotham Knights-related thoughts I've had since the end of the series:

I do wonder if Turner might have changed his name to Turner Wayne eventually, since he now knows his biological parents were bad guys (whom he described as "monsters") and reaffirmed his commitment to Bruce's legacy in the finale, and with all those fake IDs, Hayes may not have been their real name, anyway.

Also, as they were prolific international assassins, I would expect that they had a bit more money than they seemed to, stashed away in a nest egg somewhere.

Being thought dead while being trained by the League of Assassins increases his parallels with Jason Todd, at least in the later adaptations where Jason was resurrected by the Lazarus Pits while Bruce thought he was dead. And of course, Damian Wayne was raised by the League. Doubtless a dramatic reveal/unmasking would have been coming in the future when the other Knights finally both saw him again and learned the person before them was Turner.

I actually would have liked to see him embrace the bad boy thing Duela pointed out he was flirting with in the episode "Daddy Issues" and run away with her in that episode (with or without Jane Doe) instead of how things turned out. Also, have you noticed that Oscar/Turner has blue-brown heterochromatic eyes? It's striking, but I rarely see people comment on it.

Rebecca March said that she started over with "a new name and a new family" several times, so Brody may not be the only child she's had over the past century+. He could learned about or even met them. And what would the long-term effects of the Electrum in his system have been? Would it have run out after he took enough injuries?

It wasn't totally clear to me if Cullen's confession to Turner about how much he matters to him was platonic/fraternal or not.

The show made sly references to Stephanie and Harper's comic book codenames Spoiler and Bluebird a couple of times, so I wonder if they would ever have actually used them, as Carrie goes by Robin already. Of course, Cullen doesn't have a codename in the comics :( :( :( , Duela's is primarily "the Joker's Daughter", which she now knows she's not, and Turner and Brody are original characters. I suppose Turner *could* resurface as Red Hood. At more of a stretch, Turner and Brody could be Batman and Owlman, but I have a harder time seeing that; slightly easier if it's years in the future when they're older. Carrie could also become Batwoman when she's older.

I hope we would have seen more of Carrie's mother Doctor Lisa Kelley, since she's the only living parent the Gotham Knights have access to who doesn't suck (something the others can all be envious of), apart from arguably Harvey/Two-Face (and what kind of frenemy/evil mentor/anti-mentor dynamic might he have developed with the kids? We were robbed!). Would Brody have wanted to work at the hospital more, and would he and Carrie have gotten closer? They seemed to have chemistry.

For that matter, I assume he and Stephanie have had all the necessary conversations offscreen before the last scene of the finale about her not really being into him and dating Harper now and that he's more-or-less cool with it, though I suppose there could have been a bit of awkwardness for an episode or two at least, I don't know.

CW’s Gotham Knights sorting

Attention: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Turner Hayes

The first thing that hit me about Turner before he was framed for Bruce’s murder is that he was genuinely happy with his life. I expected a lot of Main Character AngstTM from him, the way most protagonists are written especially on the CW, but there was none (or very little) of it. And it’s not like Turner doesn’t have sources of angst: his parents are dead and he went overnight from the son of cleaners to the adopted son of a billionaire -and all that implies- without any explanation. You can see it clearly in Gotham Academy (and in the city at large) that he isn’t very liked. Actually it looks like most people resent him for ‘getting uppity’ and rising above his station. Just look at how Brody treats him in the beginning or how the people of Gotham are ready to believe the worst of him overnight. But Turner doesn’t care. He has his best friend, Stephanie, he has Cressida and he has Bruce. He loves them and they love him; more than enough for a Snake primary. Sure, Bruce may be a bit too busy and it’s annoying, but Turner can always distract himself with a party. Classic hedonistic young Snake.

Turner’s arc is all about betrayal and how one deals with it. Turner is slowly, over the course of the series, betrayed by almost his entire inner circle: Bruce, Cressida and even his dead parents. Interestingly enough he is the person who doesn’t betray anyone even when they turned their back to him. At the end of episode two, Turner is the one who went to save Duela from the Talon despite the fact that she abandoned him to certain death. I don’t think Duela was entirely in his inner circle at this point (although I think she, Cullen and Harper were slowly getting there from the very first pilot when they handed him the lockpicking tool for his handcuffs, thus including him in their escape), but I think it was important to Turner that he will not be the kind of person to leave behind someone who might rely on his loyalty. Another moment that comes to mind is finding out that everyone at the Gotham Gala is gonna be gassed to death. His first reaction? “Stephanie is there!“

Like all healthy Snakes, Turner adopts Bruce’s morality as his own. And he’s so successful that I almost wondered if he was an Idealist for a while. But what sold him as a Snake for me was him saving Cressida versus not saving Joe Chill. Cressida had helped the Court to kill his father and frame Turner for the murder but Turner saves her because ‘this is what my dad would do’. So he blows up his cover to save the woman who helped raise him and betrayed him in the worst way possible, despite the odds being overwhelmingly against them. But when he finds out Joe Chill had been framed by Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murders and will face the death penalty….he does nothing. Despite the fact that Joe was arguably more of an innocent than Cressida, Turner doesn’t even have a throwaway line later on about wishing he could have helped him. (This plus the way he has zero remorse over killing the Talon also made me rule out Badger as a primary.) That’s because Turner is Bruce’s son in all the ways that matter, but he is not his heir in this show. He’s too much of a Snake to ever be.

His secondary is somehow even more obvious than his primary: this is the guy who had argued that they need to stick together from day one, who said that what makes them different from Joe Chill is the fact that they have each other, who was literally introduced to us extending a hand towards Brody when the latter lost the sword fight. He is such a Courtier Badger that for the first half of the show it almost overshadowed his primary. Not to mention, he is an amazing manipulator. Look at the beginning of episode two; after failing to convince Duela to trust Stephanie by vouching for her, he pivots: “[Put the knife down] or you might kill the one person who could prove we were set up.” He realizes Duela needs a self-serving reason to stop threatening Stephanie and he gives it to her. The same hyper awareness of emotional situations shows up again in episode thirteen when he wants to convince the group to have faith in Duela. The rest of the Knights are somewhat derisive that someone with Duela’s past and parentage could ever become a self-sacrificing hero…at which point Turner reveals his own parents’ secret: they were assassins sent to kill the Batman, and if they don’t trust Duela because of who raised her, they shouldn’t trust him either. And it works like a charm as the group gives into Turner’s wishes.

Duela Doe Dent

Duela is such a complex character, I wasn’t sure of her sorting till the very last minute. I think what’s important to look at in order to figure her out is her mom. Duela idolizes Jane Doe and wants nothing more than to be like her. And Jane is the ultimate hedonistic Double Snake. So of course Duela has a Snake secondary that is always ready for a con. But at the end of the day this is just the model she wears because of her mother. One of the themes of the show is trying to live up to your parents’ expectations and what that does to you. And modeling Jane’s Snake sec I think made Duela to feel a bit invisible. In episode eight when she talks about how her mom had so many identities even she herself forgot who she really was, it’s the first time when she doesn’t talk about her with admiration, but with fear. Duela is similarly terrified of losing herself while trying to live up to the legacy of being the Joker’s daughter. Deep down under that playful Snake, there is a Lion Secondary that is as blunt as they come. Her plan B when rescuing Turner in episode nine? A bomber vest to kill everyone if needed. Her reaction to evil!Harvey? To taunt him by throwing the truth in his face. Turner is dying from radiation? Duela tells him as soon as she finds out, against everyone else’s wishes. As Turner says she ‘has no grasp on social clues’, ‘she always tells the hard truths’ and ‘she’s always…Duela’. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence it’s this last line that makes her kiss him. This is the Lion secondary being overjoyed at someone liking Duela for who she is, not who she tries to be. Her fighting style (punches and knives to throats), her way of gathering information being kidnapping and torture and her tendency of giving Turner a reality check whenever he needs it are also evidence that support a Lion secondary. Her idea of a distraction is also hilariously straight-forward: she escapes from the police by pointing out how she’s trying to pick her handcuffs. (Sidenote: Turner and Duela’s ‘not offended’ game, aside from giving us THE most romantic line in the show, it’s also very Lion-coded IMO. There is very little you can say to a Lion secondary that will offend them as long as you are honest and it’s clear your intentions aren’t malicious.)

When trying to figure out Duela’s secondary I realized that she is incredibly healthy for a girl raised in Arkham by a conwoman. Sure, she’s extremely self-serving and would climb over anyone to get what she wants, but she has no regrets about it. It’s a tough world and everyone is in it for themselves. Except Duela is in it for her and her mom. (And she thinks the same must be true for her mom.) She’s a Snake primary who can’t be with Her Person. So she’s a little burnt. She doesn’t let herself get too close to anyone because what’s the point? Everyone leaves you eventually. Jane is the only person that had been there for Duela so she is the only one allowed to be in her inner circle. But than episode two happens and Duela abandons Harper, Cullen, Carrie and Turner to save her own skin. So when the invincible assassin comes after her, Duela is all alone. Except no, because suddenly the others are there and they are saving her life. She tries to clumsily thank Cullen for it, but he points out that if it wasn’t for Turner, they would have left her for dead. This is the switch that puts him on her map and slowly but surely, her Snake latches onto him. “I don’t care about Gotham, I care about Turner.” Duela and Turner’s first conflict in episode 11 is a deeply Loyalist one: she wants him to run away with her and her mom because she only cares about these two people, but Turner’s inner circle has expanded to include the others, so he can’t just leave. And the girl who’s already kinda burnt takes it as a betrayal and leaves without him. But she does come back when she realizes her mom is safe, but Turner is in mortal peril; or tries to. I find it interesting that her reaction to seeing the others imprisoned is to say ‘Even little bird’. And that’s because Carrie is the other person she bonded with.

Duela heals completely in the last episode when two things happen: Harvey promises to be her dad and commits a great sacrifice for her…and Turner comes to save her despite still being under the impression that she was never gonna come back. Her delighted expression when seeing him says it all. I always thought the Twelfth Doctor’s speech ‘Do You Think I Care for You So Little that Betraying Me Would Make a Difference?’ is every Snake’s dream, especially a burnt Snake’s, and Turner gave her this exact speech with his actions. Duela’s last scene mirrors Turner’s attitude during the whole show.

Harper: Duela, do you even care about the people?

Duela: No. But Turner did. And I cared about him.

She has adopted her loved ones’ morality and is willing to act on it. She’s a healthy Snake now despite all the tragedies that have happened to her.

(I am unsure about this, but I do wonder if Duela might have had a Bird primary model filled with nihilistic beliefs that she gets rid off by the end of the series. It would explain some of her more Idealist-like scenes, like when she is upset Joe Chill -the patron saint of small thieves- was actually set up. Or when she has to be comforted by Turner after saving the lives of kidnapping victims: “Just because you did a good thing doesn’t make you a good person.” The fact that this phrase makes her smile happily was hilarious.)

Harper Row

Harper is another Lion secondary that can’t be anything else but what she is. She’s blunt and forceful and makes her opinion known. She may be a genius but she is no Bird as she has none of the Bird sec traits. Sure she does research when needed, but she doesn’t show any particular inclination towards it outside life and death situations. As proven in the last episode, when she’s in a fight she goes for the biggest weapon. The way she stands up to Stephanie’s mom by throwing the truth in her face is also a very Lion move.

Harper is another Loyalist and for a while I believed she was a Snake with only Cullen as her person. After all, everything she does was and is for him. But she’s actually pretty miserable. Which is why I think she’s actually a Burnt Badger. @wisteria-lodge has this to say about Burnt Badgers: “[the Burnt Badger ]has decided that communities are unsafe, unpractical, and the only way to be safe is to be alone - or to try and be content with a much smaller community than the one they want. For this reason, Burnt badgers tend to look like miserable Snakes.” We sadly don’t get a lot of interiority for Harper (another reason to hate the cancellation), but I think her behavior towards Stephanie and especially Stephanie-Turner when contrasted to Duela’s is telling. Harper and Duela both have a crush on a person that has a very deep relationship with someone else, to the point that one can mistake the relationship as romantic. Which Harper does and starts resenting Stephanie and pushing her away in order to protect herself. She’s too scared to let herself get attached, typical Burnt Badger behavior. Meanwhile Snake Duela is just happy there is someone else prioritizing Turner like she does.

After their names are cleared, Harper says she might enroll in Gotham Academy with Stephanie, which to me shows that she’s looking to build a community.

Cullen Row

Cullen is the only one, alongside Stephanie, that is willing to deviate from their quest of proving their innocence in order to catch an art thief. While Harper refuses to risk her life in order to ‘recover trinkets for the rich’ and Turner says it’s not a priority, Lion primary Cullen has embraced his role as a hero of the city and thinks it would be unethical to not try and catch the thief and recover the stolen art. He’s also the one that wants to clear his name in the pilot because ‘I am the one who chose the damned thing’. If Turner wants to prove his innocence because he doesn’t want to be remembered as his own father’s killer and Duela and Harper don’t want to risk their lives in order to clear their names, Idealist Cullen is the only one who wants to do it because it’s the Right Thing to do.

I oscillated between Snake and Bird for his secondary, but I went with the former because deception is his go-to method. Need to trade the electrum for Turner but don’t want to give it to the Court? Just create a fake one. (And that scene is such a contrast with Lion sec Duela whose solution is to try and cut the powerful space rock with a run-of-the-mill knife LOL) Need evidence from the police station? Pretend to be a cop. In the pilot, when they knock out the cops chasing them, Cullen is the one that uses their station to keep the other cops from finding them.

Stephanie Brown

Stephanie is a Lion primary who is pretty much being gaslighted by her parents. She knows your mom being so drunk and drugged she can’t even stand at your school function is wrong, just as wrong as your dad using his money and status to supply her addiction just to keep up the picture of the perfect family. Stephanie does everything her parents tell her to, including ‘dating a guy with the right last name’. Except that’s not entirely true. Stephanie rebels in her own quiet way from the pilot when she helps Turner and keeps helping him and his friends after they become fugitives. You can see her Lion primary both loves the rebellion and the fact that she gets to be a hero, to truly do something good. As I pointed out before, aside from Cullen, Stephanie is the only one who believes it’s their duty as heroes to recover stolen art.

When she lets her father go to prison instead of giving Lincoln her friends’ location, Arthur Brown frames it as a Loyalist conflict: me versus them. But Idealist Stephanie doesn’t see it that way. What she sees is that her father is going to pay for his crimes, while her friends are innocent.

Her secondary was a bit harder, because I think it had been a bit burned by playing the perfect daughter, but I settled on Lion secondary. She and Harper communicate with each other in an easy and blunt way, like Lions do. She also has the Lion tendency of picking a strategy and just sticking with it, no matter how ill advised it might be. In her case it is using her hacker skills despite almost being arrested in the second episode. She’s also incredibly honest (when Brody asks about what she thinks about his dad, Stephanie just repeats that she thinks his mom is nice), uncomfortable with deception and goes after what she wants once her Lion primary has picked a path (see how she kissed Harper both in episode 11 and 13).

Carrie Kelly

Carrie is Bruce Wayne’s student when it comes to vigilantism and his true heir in the show. She is another Lion primary, and a Paragon one at that, just like her mom and her mentor. Like Turner’s and Duela’s, her story is about rising to your parents’ expectations, but in Carrie’s case, she surpasses them! Dr. Kelly is Gotham’s best surgeon who has double shifts at the hospital because this is the right thing to do and her drive has rubbed onto her daughter. So of course Carrie picks up on her mom’s, and later, Bruce’s, desire to save people and protect the city. As such when the opportunity arises she becomes Robin, Batman’s partner. Dr. Kelly is shocked her daughter would become a vigilante, but as Carrie points out she had been raised to do the right thing. This is also why she saves Turner and co in the pilot: she knows they are innocent and as such needs to rescue them. She’s still a young Lion who has quite the idealistic view and we see in the episode ‘More money, more problem’ -where she manages to put a mob boss behind bars only for him to be released by corrupt officials- that Gotham’s harsh reality could easily burn her. Thankfully I think the creation of the Gotham Knights would help prevent this.

As for her secondary, first things first: this girl is not a Lion. She steals the journal pages in episode two and keeps the secret about Batman killing Turner’s parents for the next eight episodes without much effort. She doesn’t have any Bird or Snake traits, which leaves Badger secondary, something that fits her quite well. I would say she is a Bookkeeper Badger, the other side of the coin to Turner’s Courtier Badger. Wisteria says about them: “A Bookkeeper Badger shows up and does the work. They are dependable, they are thorough, they don’t like cutting corners (Badgers consider cutting corners on something that they actually care about immoral.)” This perfectly describes Carrie.

Brody March

Brody doesn’t get that much interiority, so it’s hard to settle on a primary to him. I am oscillating between a heroic Badger or Lion as he turns on his parents when he realizes they are doing terrible things. I am gonna go with Badger primary, mostly for how much it seems like a community is important to him. When he joins the Knights in episode 12 he immediately considers himself one of them: “We would be fine.” There is also the way he seems to have quite the social life at Gotham Academy. This is mostly implied, but from the very first episode, while Turner is positioned as the outsider who will never get over the stigma of being ‘from the slums of Gotham’ and as such never truly belong in the upper class, Brody is the ‘guy with the perfect family name’ as Stephanie puts it. Everything he does is to live up to this family name, but unlike Stephanie, he genuinely wants to do so, it isn’t just pressure from his parents. You can see the first peak of the more heroic Badger when he does volunteer work at the hospital with Carrie and is bothered by the people left to suffer and wants to help them.

Brody and Turner’s pre-show relationship is fascinating and I’m sad it never gets fully explored. It’s clear they were somewhat close to each other, probably mostly because of Stephanie, but they are also clearly rivals in a lot of aspects: when it comes to swordfighting, to Stephanie’s affection and just to social status in general. Being the Bruce Wayne’s son, Turner is somewhat socially above Brody and pretty much all of the other students and you can see it irks them as they certainly feel he doesn’t deserve it. Brody believes Turner is capable of murdering his own father for money for…nine episodes, I think! And unlike most of Gotham, Brody clearly had enough of a rapport with him to have some doubts, but he doesn’t. I think these are the dark tendencies of a Badger to give into prejudice.

As Turner’s foil, Brody is another Badger secondary, but like Carrie -with whom he forms an organic friendship- I think he’s more of a Bookkeeper. While Turner may have been introduced to us in the pilot offering his hand to Brody, Brody is introduced when he accepts said hand, showing his fair play. His reaction when he is in uncomfortable situations (the gala, when he discovers the hidden camera with the recorded evidence) is to ask a friend (aka Stephanie) for help.

TL;DR

Turner Hayes - Snake who picked up Bruce’s morality/Courtier Badger

Duela Doe Dent - somewhat burnt Snake (with maybe a nihilistic Bird model)/Lion with a healthy Snake model

Harper Row - burned Badger/Lion

Cullen - Lion/Snake

Stephanie Brown - Lion/burned Lion

Carrie Kelly - Paragon Lion/Bookkeeper Badger

Brody March - Badger/Bookkeeper Badger

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moonlit-imagines · 4 years ago

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Misbehavior (Part 1)

Jason Todd x batkid!reader

warnings:

a/n: tysm anon!!

prompt: anonymous: “Hello Lacey! Hope your doing great! Could I please request a bat family x batsis!reader where the reader is Kind of the middle child (I was thinking older than Damian but younger than Tim) and she’s always forgotten and in the back. Maybe some scenarios can be that no one listens when she talks or they forget to invite her to do stuff. So then one day she acts up in school like maybe punching someone for no good reason because she’s craving attention but instead of Bruce showing up to get her Jason shows up and he sees that she’s actually really sad and starts to question her until she tells him everything and maybe spills some tears and it ends with just Jason comforting her and cheering her up. Just some soft Jason for my soul! Also have a great day and I hope that you feel better and more motivated now after your break! 😘”

part 2

No matter what you did, none of your deeds went unnoticed. Good or bad.

You always heard how Dick was so independent, the one everyone should use as an example.

You always heard how Barbara could do it all, she never failed to impress.

You always heard how Jason was reckless, someone who needed to get his act together.

You always heard how Tim was such a prodigy, he was one of a kind.

You always heard how Steph was so determined, she had such amazing goals.

You always heard that Cass was perfect, they’d never change a thing about her.

You always heard that Duke was so strong, he’d never give up no matter what stood in his way.

You always heard that Damian was dangerous, a kid that needed to be guided.

But what about you? What did they hear about you? Nothing. No one ever spoke of you, they didn’t have the time. It seemed as if you were just unimpressive, there wasn’t one thing that needed to be mentioned. Stuck in the middle of a bunch of bats and birds, no way to stand out in the crowd.

Maybe not in a mask or a cowl, a dress or a suit, behind a computer or among the darkness, but there was one place you couldn’t be ignored...

You sat at your desk, picking at old tape with the tip of your fingernail. The teacher had nothing interesting to say, so what was the point of being here? What made Gotham Academy so special that you just had to attend this place?

The uniform was overkill, the classes went nowhere, the students were too preppy, and you didn’t have a single thing in common with anyone here.

Anger was starting to bubble inside you as you continued your internal self-loathing. Your mind was only focused on the negative, but it was shifting from school back to home.

No one was ever there for you, not even on patrol. You’d called for backup several times on missions and nearly lost it all when you had to go in alone. If it were anyone else, a teammate would have met them in a heartbeat.

Your plans were always overshadowed whenever you tried to set up a mission or even just a day off. You wanted cookies? Too bad, Tim wants brownies. You wanted to watch a movie? Too bad, everyone chose a TV show. It was the little things that irked you the most. Half the time, you never even got the memo.

And what about when you all come back from patrol with all sorts of injuries and Alfred comes to patch you up? Well, not you. He’ll run to check on cuts and scrapes. Meanwhile, you had a broken wrist and a black eye.

You’d finally run out of things to pick at around your desk which resorted in you tapping instead. There was a brief bit of zoning out as you remembered the time that Damian’s plan for evading Killer Croc’s attack was to push you in the way. Or the time that Jason hid his guns in your bed for reasons he didn’t care to explain. Or when Dick drank the last of the milk and didn’t tell you until after you poured your cereal. Or when Tim told you that you weren’t fit for the mission he had been planning. Or when Bruce blatantly ignored the story you told out of pure excitement, giving you nothing but a “sounds like you had fun.”

While you were in a horrible daze, you felt a hand on your shoulder that snapped you out of it faster than the Barry Allen. Without even evaluating the situation, your reflexes caused you to turn and twist your classmates arm backwards as he screamed.

“Hey! Stop, ow, that hurts! Stop! Stop it!” You processed his words too late and knew exactly what was coming next.

“Y/N L/N!” You teacher shouted as you drew your hand back. “Dean’s office. Right now.” Her sharp voice sent a chill down your spine, not even the Joker could do that. You’d be able to explain the situation pretty easily, you just didn’t want to make it worse. But there was one ankle that sent you off the edge. Another student tripped you on your way through the aisles, and that student caught a fist to the face. The audience gasped and shouting from your teacher ensued, but you didn’t listen, you’d take the punishment at this point. So you walked right out and headed for the dean’s office without so much as a hall pass.

“Mx. l/n? What’s this about?” Dean Williams was surprised to say the least, you’d never been sent in for discipline before. Was there a certain way to do this?

“Well, I zoned out and some kid behind me grabbed my shoulder, I accidentally twisted his arm.” You retold your story, the abridged version. “But on my way out I punched a kid in the face because he tripped me. That one’s on me.”

“...Well,” the dean frowned at his obligations, but had to go through with some kind of punishment, “I’m going to have to suspend you for physical contact with a student. I’ll call your father to come pick you up.” You shrugged and slouched back in your chair, giving up on any hope of talking your way out of this. It might as well just happen. You listened to the clicking of the buttons on the dean’s phone as he typed in the Wayne Manor phone number, obviously reaching Alfred almost immediately.

“Wayne Manor.” You eard his faint voice through the speaker.

“Hello, this is Dean Williams from Gotham Academy, may I speak to Mr. Wayne? I have his child in my office.” Your dean explained over the phone, peeking back at your for a split second. You were completely unbothered, it was baffling.

“Is it Damian?” You heard him ask, causing an involuntary eye roll.

“Y/N, actually.” There was a long pause before someone else picked up the phone. “Mr. Wayne, this is Dean Williams at Gotham Academy. I have y/n sitting across from me right now, they seemed to have gotten themself into a physical altercation with two separate students, I have no choice but to suspend them.” You heard a deep sigh over the phone, then the handheld piece was handed to you.

“Bruce?” You asked.

“Really? Fighting at school?” He sounded unimpressed. Nothing new, even when you do something new.

“Something like that. Whoops.” He hung up on you right after that, so you handed the phone back and told your dean, “Guess they’ll get me soon.”

“You call your father by his first name?” Dean Williams had nosily questioned.

“I’m adopted.” He obviously didn’t know you as well as your more troublesome sibling, it was time he just minded his business.

After a good thirty minutes of silent waiting while listening to keyboard clacking and papers flipping by the front desk, the office door opened, and to your surprise, it was one of your brothers.

“I’m here for y/n.” He mumbled, signing the piece of paper and showing his ID.

“Alright, Mr. Harper, I just have to check some paperwork really quick...” The receptionist went into your file and checked for your emergency contacts. “You’re all set. Now, y/n has been suspended for two weeks. I suggest you get to the bottom of their little ‘outburst’ before they’re able to come back to school.” It actually pissed Jason off to hear her say that.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” His sarcasm wasn’t subtle. “Come on, kid.” Your brother gripped your arm and led you out of the office, noticing your bitter expression that he couldn’t even rationalize. Was that normal? “So what happened. Bruce just told me to come get you.”

“Of course he did.” You rolled your eyes on the brink of tears, he didn’t even come to get you himself. Jason opened the car door for you and nudged you inside, slamming it once you were clear.

“You better have a good reason,” he warned as he started the engine, “I was in the middle of a poker game.”

“Oh, yeah, ‘cause I’m such an inconvenience.” You were starting to remind him of himself. That was never a good thing.

“Okay, my bad. I didn’t mean it like that.” Jason began speeding down the block, you’d never once seen him obey a speed limit. You’d think someone with a fake ID and a death certificate would want to avoid any run-ins with the cops, but Gotham was just one of those cities.

“Yeah, right.” You reached for the radio knobs and felt Jason’s hand wrap around your wrist.

“No music until you explain yourself.” You fell back into your seat to pout, muttering some curses under your breath. “I won’t tell Bruce or anyone. I swear.”

“I just zoned out. Reflexes.” You bluntly replied.

“What?” He still didn’t have any context to go off of.

“I twisted someone’s arm backwards. Honest mistake.” Jason knew there was more to this story. “But on my way out of the classroom, I punched this kid who tried to trip me. That was on him.”

“As much as I condone payback, you can’t do that at school.” He sighed. “You’ve never been sent home before. That I know of. So why now?”

“Yeah, you know, maybe that’s the issue? You couldn’t tell me if I’ve ever gotten in trouble before. None of you could. You couldn’t tell me a definitive thing about me. When’s my birthday, Jason?” He was at a loss for words. “That’s what I thought.”

“So this was all for attention?” Jason asked. “There’s a hell of a lot of better ways to go about that.”

“Tried them all, this one barely even worked.” You replied with a crack in your voice. “How come none of you care about me? Why am I always looked over? I’m just like the rest of you. I put on that stupid suit every night and kick ass, I get my job done, I get good grades, I’m resourceful, I’m special—” You’d let that last one slip in your rant to your older brother, it shocked him so bad he stopped the car.

“I know what you mean.” Jason stared straight ahead at the empty road. “I felt the same way when I came back. After everyone was used to me being back, it was like nothing ever happened. Bruce just went back to calling me careless, irresponsible.”

“At least you get noticed, Jason. Your identifiable.” You turned to him with a pained look and he risked his confidence to look you in the eye. Once he did, he couldn’t look away. It hurt him to see someone so familiar to himself have tears running down their face because they felt forgotten. No kid should ever have to feel like that. That was why Bruce took him in. That was how Jason became Robin.

“Fuck this.” Jason hit the gas and turned the car around. “We’re getting ice cream. Do you like ice cream? That’s a serious question.”

“I...I guess.” You were somewhat confused by his sudden literal change in direction.

“Good. You’re my kid for today, all my attention goes to you. I’m sure Bruce won’t notice if you’re gone for a few hours.” Jason’s jaw dropped at his last comment. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“No, you’re right and you should say it.”

taglist: @thatwaspossession // @ravenmoore14 // @thisetaernallove // @kinoko-kai //

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ectonurites · 4 years ago

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I know Jason "came back to life" in the eyes of the public etc but like legit interested in your opinion on this because I'm just confused and interested in how he went about that, y'know? Like wouldn't it take him years? And who does he get to confirm its him and not some rando? IIRC Bruce didn't know he did that until the iceberg lounge thing which is weird if his son came back to life you would think he would testify or something sooner? I just don't know how it would work lol 😳🤔

SO you sent me down a reading rabbit hole.

The thing about Jason’s situation compared to most situations irl is the fact that since he genuinely did die, there was a body and everything. That definitely makes it tricky. However, even though in our minds he was dead a super long time since he was killed in the 80s, he was only really gone for what’s probably 5 or so years by the time in RHATO he’s trying to ‘come back’. It being not even a decade is in his favor (I haven’t found a ruling for New Jersey specifically yet but in Ohio for instance a death ruling can’t be overturned if it’s been more than 3 years, so less time dead is better. But Ohio’s the only state i’ve seen the 3 year thing for so working with 5 should be okay here)

Most cases about people needing to re-declare themselves alive that have happened irl I’ve found are either missing persons who were presumed dead after many years being away (the base line is 7, some states have it as less though), OR the more common situation of literally just clerical error on this thing called the ‘Death Master File’ (apparently like, nearly 40 people get declared dead by accident every day in the US! which is WHACK!)

The grounds Jason would likely try to use is that it was a mistaken body (so somebody else) and he had actually just been missing all this time, which would kinda be a mix between a ‘fraudulent death’ claim and then the missing person type thing. Fraudulent death seems to be one of the harder ones to prove (because most of the time this category is more for people who purposely faked their deaths). In general, the fact that this happened with him as a child rather than as an adult, means there’s less cases I’ve been able to find that are even remotely similar but it also might help him out since there’s less precedent and also it’s more clear it probably wasn’t a like ‘get insurance money/run away from money owed’ scam.

However, identity theft with dead people is like, a pretty common thing, so yeah proving oneself alive is not the easiest process in the world.

But most of the like, ‘things that make being declared legally dead even if you aren’t a really really bad and a lengthy process to fix’ are like, money related (social security, life insurance, bank accounts, property stuff, etc) and for someone like Jason who was 15 at time of death (so not married or owning property) and money apparently does not seem to be a problem for due to his various criminal activities, these wouldn’t be anywhere near as big of a deal. Like, sure a little inconvenient perhaps but definitely not entirely devastating like it can be for the real normal people that this kind of thing happens to. Also, when he bought the Iceberg Lounge, he bought it out from under the fuckin’ Penguin, so like, there’s already some shady shit going on there, so even if he was still in the process of ‘coming back to life’ he’d probably have been able to get that all started.

Also the ‘confirming it’s him’ thing as far as I’ve gathered from what I’ve read doesn’t... anywhere say it actually requires he bring someone from his life (Bruce) to verify it’s him? It’s way more about the combination of your presence & the documentation. So as long as he has photo ID and like as many of his official documents as possible (which. sneaking into the manor to steal his real passport from childhood and other documents like that i think is absolutely something he could/would do especially since like, earlier in RHATO 2016 it’s shown Bizarro’s door thing can literally get into the Batcave. I think it’s not unlikely to assume at some point he thought it could all come in handy and swiped ‘em) he could get the process going. This might differ since he was a minor at time of death but again every real case I’ve found so far was dealing with adults so I’m not sure.

Getting the US government to declare you alive though, like, from what I read can honestly be done as quickly as within a few weeks OR it can take years (but usually the ‘years’ there is more figuring out all that money and insurance related stuff, which again, not as big a deal for Jason specifically)

Another consideration I’d like to bring up is the fact that being presumed/found dead and later turning back up definitely happens a lot more in the DC universe than real life. Like, there’s supervillain attacks and world disasters and shit all the time. I think that realistically in the DCU there is probably a better system set up than IRL for handling cases like this, which would work in his favor.

I also think that due to the fact he was a relatively known person in Gotham, and we know Gotham’s systems are NOT the most uhhhh ‘by the books’ especially if theres public pressure and money being thrown at them, I pretty firmly believe he could have gotten it settled relatively quickly.

In real life it would be a lot harder due to the factor of the body, since he’d have to try to prove that wasn’t him even though it literally was, but liiiike unless Bruce had cashed in big on life insurance and didn’t have the means to pay it back (which this happened years before he lost the fortune LMAO) he should probably be fine, this is a comics world where most problems can be solved if you throw money at them (real life’s kinda like that too of course but comics take it to an EXTREME).

I do agree that Bruce would probably need to have been at least a little aware this was all happening, but for dramatic effect since this is in fact a comic book I understand why they had it be a surprise to him. A panel of Bruce getting a phone call from his lawyer wouldn’t have been nearly as effective as Jason just suddenly being on TV. Also like, I don’t think it’s impossible to rule out Bruce could have known he was in the process of legally coming back to life but not have known he was doing so in Gotham, because Jason being back in in the city was Bruce’s actual problem there.

Also funnily enough one of the cases of a person I found who was declared dead but is still alive was someone with the last name ‘Todd’, weird coincidence world.

Some further reading about real cases of people coming back / things I might have referenced but wasn’t sure exactly where to link along the way: (one) (two) (three) (four)

#Anonymous

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mischiefandspirits · 4 years ago

Text

Last Laugh (2 of 3)

“Oh, I noticed,” Red X said lowly, tossing the staff aside. “What that idiot was thinking letting Flamebird send you all the way across the country right after Batkid got blown up, I’ll never know.”

Robin flinched back at the accusation before his fists clenched at his sides. “Then you’ll be happy to know no one sent me here. It’s just where I ended up when Batman decided he didn’t want to work with me anymore and tossed me out.”

The story of how Dick ended up with the Titans in Batkid and Robin.

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

Jason once told Dick that he spent months after he’d come to the manor worrying he’d be dumped back onto the streets at any minute. As a result, he’d kept go-bags hidden around, ready to go at a moment’s notice in hopes that he’d have time to grab one before he was sent away. They each had water bottles and food stolen from the kitchen, bandages from the infirmary, a backup set of clothes, a good blanket, a knife, and some cash he’d save whenever Bruce would give him any.

The others had known about them, of course, but hadn’t said anything. Jason had only known because Bruce would sneak some extra cash into them and Selina would slip in things that could be useful on the streets that he hadn’t considered while Alfred had checked them every so often to refresh the food and make sure he wasn’t filling them with junk food.

Once he’d gotten more comfortable, he’d started giving them up. By the time Bruce had disappeared, all the bags Jason had hidden had been unpacked. He never let go of his need to be prepared, though. So in place of the bags, he had four briefcases. Bulletproof, fireproof, blast-proof, and with encrypted locks, they were filled with paperwork for Jason to use in case he ever needed to go on the run. Each had everything necessary for a fake identity, including corresponding bank account information. All were created outside the family’s influence just in case the reason he needed to lie low was mind control.

Dick had never seen what was inside the first two, didn’t even know where Jason had stashed them, but he knew the third had a file for Casey Jacob Dickinson. Only because the fourth held the file for Casey’s half-brother Ryan Emil Dickinson.

The latter is the one Dick took when he snuck into Jason’s room and pried up the loose floorboard hidden under the dresser in the closet. It was their special secret, something only they shared. Something Jason had trusted Dick and only Dick with.

“Thanks, Jay,” he said, replacing the floorboard. He pushed the dresser back into place then moved to leave, but paused when he spotted the brown jacket hanging by the door.

Dick had gotten it for Jason to match his own red Batkid hoodie. He’d accidentally gotten it in a larger size than Jason usually liked to wear, but that hadn’t stopped his brother from wearing it every time the two of them hung out with just each other.

Running his thumb over the red robin patch on the shoulder, Dick stared at the jacket for a moment before pulling it off the hanger.

They wouldn’t miss it. No one had been in the room in over a month.

Case in hand and jacket slung over his shoulder, he snuck back to his room. He opened the case and pulled out the file. He slipped the ID and debit card into his wallet before putting the file into the lockbox. He carefully folded the jacket and set it into the case along with the small photo album Selina had helped him put together. It held pictures of everyone in the family, including the photo Tim had given him of himself, his parents, Damian, Jon, Duke, Tim, Steph, Jason, Babs, and Cass from that night.

It was the only picture he had of his parents, thanks to the people who ran Gotham Juvenile Detention losing almost everything he’d taken with him from the circus. He had another copy on his nightstand back at the house he, Damian, and Jon shared -- had shared -- in Somerset. The family he’d lost side by side with the family he’d gained. It made him sad every time he saw it, but it was still his favorite.

Except now they were both families he’d lost.

At least if Bruce gets his way.

Dick slammed the case closed and stuck it into the duffle bag next to the lockbox. He locked the box then piled in the clothes he’d already gathered. He tossed his wallet into the bag then zipped it up and shoved it back under the bed.

One last thing to do.

He was halfway to the closest cave entrance when he bumped into Bruce and Selina.

“Hey there, songbird,” Selina greeted.

“Hey.”

“Dinner’s almost ready,” Bruce said and reached out to ruffle his hair.

Dick stepped away before he could, then walked past them. “Not hungry.”

“He heard the news, then?”

“Hm.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“I will. I’m the one he’s mad at.”

Dick stomped into the library, ignoring his tail.

“Dick, let’s talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I know you’re upset, but -”

“Then leave me alone.”

“Please just let m-”

“I get it,” Dick snapped, spinning to face the man. “You got what you wanted. You didn’t want Damian to -” To foster him, to bring him into Bruce’s home, to try and make a place for him in the family. He’d heard enough snippets of the arguments Damian and Bruce had had when Bruce came back. He’d always thought Bruce thought Damian was the problem, that he didn’t trust Damian with Dick and planned to take Dick in himself. He’d also thought Bruce had finally accepted that Damian was keeping Dick. Had he been wrong on both counts?

Or had Dick’s actions ruined everything?

“Why couldn’t you just leave us alone?”

“Dick,” Bruce sighed. He knelt in front of Dick and set his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I just want what’s best for you.”

“Anything to get what you want,” Dick snorted and pushed the hand off so he could turn away before Bruce could see his tears.

“Dick, wait.”

A hand caught his wrist and Dick…

He was losing his family again. Jason was dead. Bruce had taken Robin. Damian was sending him back. His only hope was that the others would fight for him, but would they?

If they didn’t, he’d be alone.

Again.

And it would be his fault this time.

But it would also be because…

Dick spun around and hit Bruce right in the jaw.

Then he ran.

Tim and Jason had both long outgrown the small vent hidden above a tall bookshelf in the far corner of the library and Dick had never needed to use it, but it still swung easily on the hinges the second Batkid had installed after discovering the hidden nook.

He climbed through and let the vent swing silently shut behind him. He crawled down the shaft until he reached a similar vent. He dropped down into a thin, dusty hallway. Down the hall, around a corner, then down another hall was a small door halfway up the wall. A makeshift ladder led up to it and a hidden lever opened it, revealing Bruce’s study.

Dick dropped out of the hidden passage, letting the door swing shut behind him to meld unnoticeably with the rest of the wall. He twisted the hands of the grandfather clock on the opposite wall and disappeared down into the cave, heading for the vehicle bay.

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

Dick left while the others were all patrolling and Alfred was taking a break. He used a bike that he’d removed the tracker from and kept all his devices off. He went to a hotel in the Bowery that he knew was shady enough to look the other way when a fourteen-year-old rented a room on his own, but not shady enough to take advantage of it.

He gave it a week, then two, before sneaking onto a roof in Coventry on a night he knew Oracle wouldn’t be working. He turned on the comm he’d brought and listened in. For the most part, everything was just the usual reporting in. However, things changed just before one.

“I’m moving in. Going dark,” Batman said.

“Got it, B-man,” Batgirl chirped. After a moment, in a more somber voice, she said, “So…”

Black Bat groaned and Orphan said, “No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask!”

“We haven’t heard anything, and we’re not getting involved,” Black Bat said shortly.

“Not our place,” Orphan agreed.

“I know that! I was just wondering if Flamebird’s changed his mind,” Batgirl huffed.

“It’s for the best,” Orphan said after a moment.

“I get that,” Batgirl sighed. “I’m just going to miss the kid. I already miss him, and I know Oracle and Pup do too.”

“We all feel that way, but… I feel bad that he’s losing Robin, but he needs to get away from all this. After everything that’s happened… Flamebird’s right,” Black Bat said softly.

“Robin will be better off there, no matter how much we miss him,” Orphan insisted.

“Yeah, yeah. Have you guys gotten any leads on where he could -”

Dick didn’t hear the rest of Batgirl’s question as he yanked out the comm and smashed it on the ground.

He’d thought… He’d hoped…

But they agreed with Bruce. They agreed with sending him away. They weren’t going to talk Damian around.

Dick pressed his face into his knees and screamed.

He couldn’t stay in Gotham. The Bats would eventually find him, and now he knew that’d be a one-way ticket back to juvie.

He left the hotel in the morning.

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

Robin had been hesitant to stay with the others. There was no way the Bats hadn’t noticed his involvement in the invasion that had brought their team together. It was better for him to move on as soon as possible

He really hadn't wanted to, though.

They had been an amazing team and had quickly become friends. He also knew they would understand his past if he told them since Wonder Girl was an outcast among most Amazons as a result of her Brazilian heritage, Impulse was dealing with the fact her father was currently lost in the Speed Force, Virus was still trying to reconnect with his people now that he’s free from the Mawlix, and Nightstar had run away from home to get away from her absentee mother’s shadow.

That was the only reason he stayed as long as he had while they began to put together their base using the remains of Virus’s ship.

He was working up to telling the team he had to leave when he stumbled upon Impulse and Wonder Girl talking in the common area.

“It’s a shame, really,” Impulse sighed, clutching a magazine.

“Boohoo,” Wonder Girl snorted, not looking up from her book.

“I’m serious.”

“He’s one boy, and not even a worthwhile one from what I’ve seen.”

“Speedy said White Arrow and Silver Canary have met him, though, and he’s super sweet.” The speedster shoved the magazine towards her face. “Plus, just look at him!”

Wonder Girl shoved it away, rolling her eyes.

“What’s going on?” Robin asked hesitantly.

“Impulse is crying because some famous pretty boy is going away to boarding school.”

The speedster shot her a look then turned sad eyes on Robin. “It’s Richard Grayson!”

Ice shot down Robin’s spine. “What?”

“Yeah, the Waynes are shipping him off to some school overseas,” she said, waving the magazine towards him and he took it. “The family wouldn’t say where since they wanted…”

Robin fell back on his training to keep his face blank and his hands steady as he scanned through the article.

They knew where he was, and they were covering it up. They had come up with a grand lie about him going to school in England to explain his absence.

They weren’t coming for him.

“Poor guy,” he said, closing the magazine and handing it back.

“See, Robin gets it!” he heard Impulse say as he turned and left.

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

Small Easter Eggs: The briefcase from Teen Titans episode "Revved Up" and Dick punching Bruce from The New Batman Adventures episode "Old Wounds".

#batfam #reverse robins #dick grayson #bruce wayne #damian wayne #batkid and robin

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consumeconstantly · 4 years ago

Text

SBGS ch 6

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ao3

2:00AM | CoffeeVamp: marinette dupain cheng could step on me and i would thank her

CoffeeVamp: did you all see how bad ass that girl was

CoffeeVamp: she was just like demon spawn is robin? Well fuck you for being in paris

CoffeeVamp: and her file oml this girl does so much for paris and he classmates treat her like CRAP

Daddy: How do you know her Damian? Clearly you guys have met before. Can you really trust her with your identity?

Jesus: this girl has been keeping her own secret identitieS under wraps for years I doubt she’ll rat

CoffeeVamp: DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MDC

CoffeeVamp: all i ever wanted was for MDC to design smth for me but u ruined ALL my chances demon spawn !!!!

2:15 AM | TheOG: I think we can trust her

TheOG: Don’t think she trusts us tho

CoffeeVamp: yea what was with the zip ties

CoffeeVamp: do you have smth to tell us ;)))

CoffeeVamp: have u been getting spicy in paris ;)))

CoffeeVamp: remember to use protection we don’t need any mini yous around

LadyLady: she’s good. I can see why Ladybug trusts her

DemonSpawn: She’s a friend I met in Paris. She can keep a secret.

2:20 AM | DemonSpawn: I regret not trusting her.

CoffeeVamp: i cant believe that u thought someone who was nice enough to spend time wu willingly could be a supervillain

Jesus: that’s pretty fucked up man

Jesus: Surprised she didn’t rail on you more for that. I would’ve given you a beat down

LadyLady: u need a game plan to get her on your side. She doesn’t have a good reason to trust u anymore and id like it if we were on good terms with the one person that can contact lb

The OG: ^^ babs is always right

TheOG: you only have two weeks

DemonSpawn: How do I get on her good side?

Jesus: you better hope and pray because girls like that do not forgive easy

TheOG: try being her friend again

Jesus: like she wants to be his friend anymore

LadyLady: Apologize to her.

Jason is right.

It’s clear that Marinette does not want to be involved with him any longer. Marinette comes in right as the bell rings, then faces firmly ahead and doesn’t spare him a single glance. Notes that he slips to her are ignored. She doesn’t check her phone for his texts except for once, when she texts him: anything related to last night will be discussed out of school.

Instead of going home for lunch, she willingly sits with Lila, just so she can avoid him cornering her in the bakery. Damian watches them from a distance, but he’s close enough to hear most of the conversations. Most of their other classmates are taken in by some video on Alya’s. There’s a quick exclamation from the Ladyblogger, saying something about being able to meet some American celebrity, and she and the rest of the class run off to somewhere else, though not before inviting Lila and Adrien. They’re turned down, and Marinette continues to sit with the two of them.

“We’ve got a photo shoot together later today.” Adrien sounds tired. Like he’s giving up, almost.

“Would you like to come, Marinette?”

Damian can’t make out Marinette’s reply, but she must say yes, because Lila’s calculated facade slips away to reveal shock and interest. Lila entwines her fingers with Adrien’s, an act Adrien clearly isn’t expecting, as he flinches.

Marinette levels a glance at Lila, who looks surprised at Adrien’s reaction, not that Damian can blame her; she practically hangs off Adrien every day, playing up their couple relationship for the media, and Adrien never reacts like this. He inches closer. Lila reaches out to touch Adrien on the shoulder, in a gesture of soothing, but Adrien flinches again, this time gaining a distant look in his eyes and starting to breath hard. Lila goes to kneel--it’s clear that Adrien is on the verge of a full blown panic attack-- but Marinette holds Lila by her arm and shakes her head, gesturing for her to wait off to the side.

Adrien’s reactions are trademarks of an abuse victim. His reactions are rather dramatic in comparison to the clenched jaw and distant eyes that he normally sees in kids in Gotham, which leads Damian to the conclusion that this is either a more recent thing, or when he is abused, he emphasizes his weakness in attempt to get the attacker to stop. The question of who seems rather redundant; everyone knows that Adrien Agreste is the sheltered, sunshine boy who never stepped a foot out of his mansion before turning twelve. Though he models, his actions are still highly restricted. There’s not really much of a chance for Adrien’s abuser to be anyone other than the people within his immediate vicinity, so the suspects were his father, the personal assistant, his drive, or someone he works with.

He’ll have to keep this information in mind moving forward. Though Damian ordered extensive background checks on each and every student at Francois Dupont, he only read the profiles of the people in his class, and only keeps tabs on the people that are of interest.nIn Mlle. Bustier’s class, the only people who Damian is interested in are Marinette, for obvious reasons, Lila Rossi, for the sheer number of times she was akumatized during year two of Hawkmoth’s presence, Chloe Bourgeois, who may not be Francois Dupont student, let alone in France at the moment, but has a parent who currently sits at the top of his family’s Hawkmoth suspect list and has gotten countless people akumatized, and Adrien Agreste, the only person other than Marinette who hasn’t been akumatized in the akuma class. If Adrien really is being abused-- and he doesn’t really see any reason for Adrien to fake the symptoms, given that there’s really nothing for him to gain out of this situation-- that knocks him up a space on the list of Hawkmoth suspects. Victims of abuse, especially in a high profile situation, are often likely to either lash out or coop themselves up. Since he isn’t purposely excluding himself from activities, given that he converses with Marinette, Lila, and two other classmates named Nino and Alya, it’s possible that he has adopted Hawkmoth as an alter ego to pursue revenge.

All this, of course, is mere speculation. Before making any abrupt jumps in his logic, like he did with Marinette-- though he defends himself with the fact that his thoughts on her being Hawkmoth were mere speculation, and that it was merely coincidence or a case of extremely bad luck that Marinette… what, thought he was Hawkmoth as well and then passed the information onto Ladybug? Now that he thinks about it, the whole situation seems ridiculous, and he finds that Ladybug’s lack of tact when coming face to face with her supposed arch-nemesis doesn’t befit a hero of her caliber. She seemed oddly emotional about the whole thing, like his existence as Hawkmoth was a personal betrayal. But Ladybug and Damian never met before that. Why did Ladybug take Marinette’s personal vendetta upon herself? His head hurts.

Damian finds himself walking over to their table, where Marinette is speaking in soothing tones, careful not to touch Adrien at all. He calms down enough to start breathing regularly. Even though his eyes are still watery, he looks up at Marinette with a tentative smile. Marinette looks back at him with such pure, unadulterated love, that Damian blinks slowly to make sure he’s not seeing things. There aren’t many people who show emotions that don’t have some hidden barb underneath, or an undercurrent of a different emotion alongside it.

Then, Marinette sends a calculating look at Damian, and a briefer one at Lila and Adrien.

“Lila, can I talk to you in private for a moment?” Although Marinette’s tone keeps to a pleasant range, Damian finds it rather familiar. Like when Alfred pulls him or one of his brothers to the side to politely tell them what they’re doing wrong and how to remedy it. But there’s a bit of genuine ferocity in Marinette’s tone, and the Italian girl steps back.

“Adrien, I’m going to leave you here with Damian just for a second, okay? I’ll be right back, and if you need me for anything, just call.” She gives Damian a look that says if you hurt this boy, I will end you and heads off with Lila.

“Damian,” Adrien says. He’s trying to come off as calm and cheery. He misses the mark terribly. Somehow, Damian gets the feeling that the boy isn’t very good at bottling up his emotions, odd, considering that he’s grown up partially in the limelight. “I see you’re well acquainted with our everyday Ladybug. She really is amazing.”

There’s a touch of awe, and it makes Damian uncomfortable for no good reason.

He’s not sure how to deal with people who look like they’re about to cry. Damian doesn’t have to deal with that. Dick’s in charge of any emotional clean up that’s necessary in the public; Alfred helps his family manage their emotions in the manor. He decides that going with the flow is the best option in this situation. An everyday Ladybug. What an interesting piece of terminology.

“She is.” Damian admits, “We’re not currently on the best of terms.”

Damian will be surprised if Marinette even manages to civilly work with him for the rest of the week. He wasn’t expecting their subsequent interactions after last night to be the same as they were prior to her finding out that he was Robin and thinking that she was Hawkmoth, but he thought she would just interact coolly with him. Not this silent treatment. She refuses to talk to him and only looks at him with some combination of disdain and ill intent.

He can’t manage to give her the same treatment, both because he is on a mission and because he can’t fault her for thinking that he was Hawkmoth. The situation is really, rather comical, but he spent enough time ruminating on his actions the previous night to pick up on all of the red flags that made her come to that conclusion, and even is she was a hero for a short period of time, he can’t expect someone who is, by and large, a civilian to have the same investigative capabilities his family does. If anything, he is ashamed of himself for jumping to the conclusion that she was Hawkmoth, when instead, it turned out she is working for Ladybug.

However, the Marinette he’s seen so far doesn’t seem the type to hold grudges, especially not when it comes to any pressing issue, and he finds that all of the decisions she makes are heavily logic-based and influenced by Sabine’s values, who is definitely an upright woman if he’s ever seen one. Marinette has too strong of a work ethic to actually ignore Damian when it comes down to it, but he has to wonder why she acted so blatantly hostile to him. Her character combined with her actions just don’t match up, which means there's another reason why she’s acting this way.

While Damian excels at extracting raw data and testimonies from people due to brute force, and is decent enough at getting people to do what he desires, determining the source of a person’s frustration, what drives a person-- he needs more work with that. He’s much better at getting people mad. And Damian doesn’t think he’s seen Marinette mad at anyone except for Celia DeVries. She has nerves made of steel and patience carved from diamond.

“I hope you figure it out.” Adrien says with such sincerity that it’s frightening. He’s surprisingly pure-hearted for a model entrenched in a mega corporation like Gabriel. The entertainment industry, particularly the fashion side of business, is a very cut throat world. Adrien doesn’t seem like a person who’s been in the public eyes for years. “Please be a better friend to her than I am. I really wanted to do more for her, but my hands are... tied.”

Lila is subdued when she and Marinette return. Her eyes dart to Adrien, and she frowns and bites her bottom lip. Then she looks away and crosses her arms.

“Let’s get back to class. I’m excited to go to the photoshoot after school! I haven’t spent any time with you in so long, Adrien.” Marinette doesn’t sound like she’s faking it. She sounds so genuinely happy, and Damian wonders if he can make her sound like that again. If he ever made her sound like that.

Adrien looks at Marinette, then asks Damian, “Would you like to come too?”

The look that Adrien gives him tells him to say yes, even though he can feel the cold that radiates off Marinette. Damian agrees; it’s time to try Barbara’s suggestion and apologize, and since he doubts that he’ll get a word in edgewise when they’re working together at night, he has to try apologizing sooner.

The rest of the school day slips by in a blur.

Then, the four of them are out on the streets, and Damian finds their combination unnerving, to say the least. He’s still on bad terms with Marinette, and Marinette has never been on the best terms with Lila. She’s going to this shoot solely for the opportunity to be with Adrien, and something about that unsettles Damian. Still, regardless of how Damian feels, the photographer on the set of Adrien and Lila’s shoot loves all four of them.

“Fantastico! Adrien’s friends are rare finds. It’s true about what they say; beautiful people, they associate with beautiful people.” The photographer flits around Damian and Marinette, getting uncomfortably close. Damian shoots him a glare, but the photographer simply takes it in stride.

“Yes, yes, the most beautiful eyes, so passionate. The perfect measurements, too! Lara,” he calls to one of his assistants, “Get them all to makeup. These four are who I’ve been waiting for to fulfil my vision of envy. Gabriel will have to wait on his magazine spread. I’ve been inspired!” The photographer circles the four of them, like a hunter and his prey.

Out of nowhere, the photographer grasps Marinette’s chin, and despite the initial flinch she gives-- he’s not sure whether she was going to kick or punch him, but the sudden spitfire in her eyes said she was going to do something-- she settles into a locked jaw and curled fingers. Damian sees a slight jump from Adrien as well, which seems unusual; on the way over, he talked about how he worked with this photographer before and was very comfortable with him. He regaled them with funny stories of how he tended to reference spaghetti in shoots that were less pleasant to make the models laugh.

“Ah, Adrien, you have truly delivered the favor of Fortuna upon me. I cannot believe I never saw this earlier. You have brought this girl to shoots before, have you not? I never forget a beautiful face, even when I am focused on other things.”

Marinette calmly displaces Vincent’s hand from her face. “Thank you for the kind words, Monsieur, but I think it best that we just watch the originally planned shoot. I am no model and have no interest in being one.”

Vincent gives Marinette a once over, like he’s not used to people disagreeing with whatever vision he has for the day. “From one artist to the next-- this project is important to me. I’ve had the idea for years, but have yet to come across the perfect models to portray it. What will it take to convince you? ”

At this, nearly all the tension that Marinette has coiled up in her shoulders dissipates. Vincent has said the right thing. “I see. Really, Vincent, I think it’s best that you continue with the Gabriel shoot. M. Agreste wouldn’t be happy if he found out that his spread was delayed.”

“But the Muse, Mademoiselle! She runs away so quickly. And the four of you are perfect.” Vincent turns to the other three.

“Surely, you understand. Mlle. Rossi, M. Agreste, you must have felt an urge to do something so strongly that it pulls you in. And you,” he looks more closely at Damian. “You are an artist as well, aren’t you Monsieur? I can tell. It’s in the hands and eyes. Art, she comes, but she is fickle. If I don’t do this now, it will be gone forever. And the pursuit of true art means more than any Gabriel spread.”

Surprisingly, it is Adrien who responds first. “I might not understand art, Vincent, but I know what you’re talking about. The feeling of wanting to do something badly, to set yourself free…”

He twists his ring. Marinette looks at him sadly again, hands twitching like she wants to hold him to provide comfort.

“Besides, I don’t really want to do a Gabriel spread today. I haven’t spent time with friends in a long time, and I don’t think anything could make me happier than doing a photoshoot with you three right now.”

This makes Lila look at Adrien in a curious sort of way. Not the sad look that Marinette is giving him, but one of a slowly dawning realization. When Adrien references her as a friend, she looks happy. Proud, almost. Then, she looks like she’s connecting dots in her head, and she doesn’t look happy with the conclusion that she’s drawn. As soon as the frown touches her lips, Lila shifts back to an impeccably crafted mask.

Damian doesn’t agree with the sentiment that they are friends. He has barely had a full conversation with the blond, though he will admit that Adrien does have more of a brain than the rest of his classmates. He looks at the ill-concealed shadows beneath Adrien’s eyes and sees Tim.

Lila agrees almost immediately after Adrien finishes speaking. “Inspiration is fleeting. Art waits for no one.”

Marinette purses her lips. She asks Vincent, “You won’t get in any trouble for this?”

“I can handle any backlash Gabriel throws at me. Heaven knows that man has pissed off one too many photographers before.”

“You can, but what about everybody else involved?” She looks at Adrien, specifically. He fidgets with his ring again, and sends Marinette a look so pleading that she sighs. “Fine. I don’t mind doing the shoot.”

“Fantastico!” He turns his gaze to Damian.

“I’ll do it.” He’s never been particularly fond of photographers, given that the invasiveness of the media has led his family to various unpleasant situations, but Cass went through a photography phase, and out of all of his ‘sibling’ relationships, he is the most willing to indulge her.

“Will you tell us what the subject of the shoot is?” Marinette has inched closer to Adrien. Adrien pauses, stops fidgeting with his ring, and looks at Marinette. A world weary smile creeps onto his face, and his hand reaches out for Marinette’s like he wasn’t expecting himself to do that. He looks surprised when he finds his hand in hers, tenses for a moment. But Marinette doesn’t say anything, and rubs soothing circles on the back of his hand with her thumb. This seems to relax him more than fidgeting with his ring. He sags, and Damian can’t bring himself to feel anything but pity for Adrien. Lila looks curious, but not jealous.

Vincent surveys the four of them again, a growing smile on his face. “No, I think the four of you are already perfetto. A little direction here and there, but yes, yes, this is very good.”

“Lara, bring them to makeup. You know what to do. I must set up! Don’t call Gabriel; we will most likely be taking this to a second location at sunset.” Then, Vincent is off, muttering something in Italian under his breath.

“Thank you so much for agreeing to do this shoot,” Adrien rambles as soon as they get into makeup. “Vincent is such a great photographer and he’s taken really good care of me over the years. He’ll take good care of all of you as well.”

He continues, a little softer. “I really wanted to spend time with the three of you, together. I--I think it would be really nice if we could all be friends.”

Damian has his eyes closed because eyeshadow is being applied, but he can practically feel the surprise rolling off Marinette.

“Adrien, we are friends already.”

“We are, but we’re not really close. The only person I talked to often was Nino, and recently, father has-- ” he breaks off, looking exceedingly uncomfortable, before speaking quickly in an attempt to speak up before losing his nerve. “But I don’t just mean friends with me, I mean the four of us. I want the four of us to be friends.”

The makeup artist who is working on Adrien shushes him, but Damian gets to open his eyes. Adrien is clearly nervous. He’s not shaking-- he is bred far too well for that-- but he has reverted back to fidgeting with his ring. He tries to bite his lip, but the makeup artist shakes her head and tuts.

The girls are both silent, and Adrien looks so nervous that he has to do something. He doesn’t think he’s interacted like this with anyone as nervous as Adrien before; his brothers were all big personalities, as were the Teen Titans. He may have come across nervous or anxious civilians as Robin, but those situations were more straight and cut, involving little to no talking. Damian decides to that a cross between how he interacts with Dick and how he interacts with the people he saves is the best bet for this situation, though his tone comes out more condescending than he planned.

“Why the four of us?” Damian can’t really see why Adrien has singled out the four of them. As far as he can tell, there’s no good blood between them. Adrien, Marinette, and Damian all harbor varying levels of dislike or discomfort towards Lila; Adrien, Lila, and Damian have all fucked over Marinette in various ways (or so he Damian assumes on Adrien’s part-- he is sure they would have been closer, otherwise); Lila, Marinette and Damian haven't talked to Adrien in any capacity that implies that they're more than mere acquaintances; Damian has done nothing that would put himself in the favor of the three.

Adrien fidgets even more, and the makeup artist smacks him and says that she doesn’t want to have to redo his eyeliner. “I think we all have a lot in common. And, I might not be good at showing it, but I like the three of you.”

Marinette makes some noise in disbelief and Lila narrows her eyes.

“Hear me out on this, guys. All of us try to help people when we can,”

“That’s basic human decency, Adrien,” Marinette says.

“Me, helping people?” Lila scoffs.

“We help people out more than most people do-- and Lila, you really do help people. Sure, you might not have been telling the truth about all of the celebrities or all of the charities you worked with, but you’ve helped a lot of charities throughout the years.”

Damian quirks an eyebrow. “And me?”

“I’ve heard about Silverstein and Company.” Adrien says, then continues on with his list of Reasons Why They Should Be Friends.

“None of us like telling people about our problems.”

This is met with no resistance.

“And we’re also all lonely.”

Silence.

Marinette’s makeup artist breaks up the oppressive silence, “And all good looking to boot!”

“It’s true what they say about the most beautiful,” Lila’s makeup artist says, “They’re always so troubled.”

Marinette laughs, but it’s strained. “Don’t worry Mademoiselle. We’re just being teens.”

“Loneliness isn’t a good reason to form relationships.” Lila says. Her voice is quiet. She looks off to some fixed point in the distance.

“It’s not the worst reason there ever was,” Adrien shrugs, satisfied now that he’s said his piece. His shoulders are back a little more now. Whatever happens next is up to them, not him. “And I like all of you. I think we all have very unique personalities that could work well together.”

Marinette shrugs her shoulders. “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about relationships, it’s that initial compatibility means very little in the grand scheme of things. Relationships can work as long as you work for them. They might not be the fairy tale storyline that people chase after, but relationships that are worked on last longer. Adrien could be right. We might be able to all be good friends.”

Lila fixes Marinette with a stare. “You’re willing to be my friend? After what I did to you?”

Marinette shouldn’t be willing to be friends with Lila after what she did. In fact, after reading multiple books on healthy relationships when trying to cope with Chloe way back when, she shouldn’t be willing to be friends with any of them. It feels fucked up, but Marinette realizes that Damian, who believed she was a super villain, has the least strikes against a healthy relationship currently.

Even though Marinette knows that circumstance doesn’t excuse any of them-- Marinette doesn’t excuse her stalkerish tendencies back when she first met Adrien, either-- she knows that the three of them are just teens who have too many responsibilities and problems on their shoulders. They’re capable of change, and as both Ladybug and Marinette, she wants to believe that someone’s past actions doesn’t mean they can’t move forward. Perhaps their current actions should be taken with a healthy dose of cynicism, and perhaps their past colors how much Marinette will be able to trust them in certain areas, but throughout her years of existence she’s seen that there is no person who has only done good in their life.

“You’ve been better lately. I respect someone who changes themselves for the better.” What Marinette doesn’t say; she’s mostly willing to try this tentative friendship out for Adrien’s sake, because Lila seems to be the only one who can get Gabriel Agreste on her side and Marinette needs her help if she and Adrien’s trust if she can ever dream of emancipating Adrien.

Marinette is also confident that Lila is currently coming into her own, and knows that Lila didn’t have any good example to model herself after during her formative years. The fact that she’s changing now? It’s honestly pretty impressive, and even more so considering the people that are in Mme. Bustier’s class aren’t exactly cut from the most inspirational cloth. Why Lila is trying to change is something Marinette is curious about, but they’re definitely not close enough for Marinette to ask Lila that. There is also the very important fact that Lila has not been akumatized this entire year, nor has she gone out of her way to encourage someone else’s akumatization.

A small smile settles on Lila’s face. “Thank you. For what it’s worth, I am … sorry for what I did to you back then.”

Marinette hums with her eyes closed as a light layer of shadows placed on her crease. “I accept your apology. While we’re on this topic, I’d like to apologize to Adrien. I’m sorry that I haven’t been a very good friend to you. You’re an amazing person, and I want you to know that. Your self-worth should never be degraded by other people, and I really hope that you can come to rely on me.”

A watery, affectionate smile from Adrien. “Marinette, you’ve always been one of my best friends.”

“I regret what I said to you yesterday,” Damian cannot muster an apology-- he does not apologize, certainly not for doing his job, but Marinette is… useful. He needs her to accomplish her mission, and she’s kind.

There is no verbal response from Marinette, but she’s looking at him, at least. She hasn’t looked at him all day besides the one glare she gave him that told him to take care of Adrien.

Lila looks between the two of them. “What are you sorry for? I was under the impression that the two of you were great friends.”

He is sorry, if only slightly, but it takes a lot for him to get an apology. If anything, Marinette should be apologizing to him, for mistaking him as Hawkmoth, right? “Last night was--”

Marinette cuts him off with a sharp laugh. “Damian here thought I was Hawkmoth.”

Adrien bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, you thought Marinette was Hawkmoth? Out of all the Parisians you could choose! You know she goes around the city saving random people, right? She’s our everyday Ladybug. Doesn’t sound very supervillainy to me.”

Lila laughs too, and the tension in the preparation room finally breaks. “Please, if Marinette were Hawkmoth, she would have gotten Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous already. Have you seen what a planner she is?”

This gets Adrien to fake shudder. “It’s true. If Marinette really were Hawkmoth, she’d be so powerful. She knows everybody’s deepest fears, can kick ass and take names, and can come up with the weirdest plans that solve everybody’s problems in an instant. Imagine if she went to the dark side.”

“She would make an awful akuma.” Lila agrees. “How powerful you are as an akuma is linked to how strong you are mentally and how strong your emotions are when the butterfly lands on you. Whatever makes Marinette upset enough to have an akuma after her would probably be the result of some very strong emotions.”

“She’d be strong enough to level the entire city.”

Marinette is bright red, and if it were not for the fact that mascara is being applied to her lashes, she’d probably have her face buried in her hands. “Okay, okay, I would be an awful akuma. But I won’t ever be akumatized, so it’s fine.”

Adrien thinks of Marinette being an akuma more, and his face goes pale. “She really would be able to steal Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses successfully.”

“No, she’s too morally righteous to do that. She’d probably go after Hawkmoth and win while she was akumatized.” Lila looks pensive. “All akumas retain most of their original personality traits, just exaggerated. Some even have some semblance of control over their actions.”

“If that wouldn’t be one of Anime’s top 10 betrayals, I don’t know what is. Hawkmoth akumatizes Marinette and then she rightfully kicks his ass.”

“Guys,” Marinette hisses. “I won’t ever become an akuma. Never.”

“You say that like you can refuse Hawkmoth,” Lila laughs. “You can certainly go after akumas, but refuse them? No way.”

Adrien zeroes in on Marinette’s hesitance. “Have you?”

Marinette shifts in her seat, her mouth set into a grim line.

“You have,” Adrien says with a touch of awe. Damian is impressed too; no reports of people being able to refuse an akuma have passed through the many hours of research he’s spent scouring the internet. He understands why Ladybug put so much trust in Marinette. “When?”

This sets Marinette on edge. Her back straightens into a board.

Lila picks at her fingernails in shame. “Did I?”

Marinette doesn’t respond, but the tremble of her mouth and her silence answers the question well enough.

Damian doubts he’ll ever get the full story of what happened that first year when Lila arrived. Marinette isn’t one to snitch, and Lila is both unwilling and tentatively ashamed of the past. Adrien won’t answer out of courtesy. Damian will never go to any of the other classmates to hear a bastardized version of what went down. He supposes he’ll never find out the whole truth.

Marinette’s stylist claps her hand. “Okay, enough teenage angst for today. All of your makeup is done, so it’s time to get into your outfits. Let’s go, kids.”

They’re silent as they dress.

The shoot is a flurry of excitement. There are many whispered conversations, but Marinette can’t keep track of half of them. Whenever she isn’t in a shot-- which is fairly rare as she seems to be the main subject of whatever Vincent is shooting for-- Marinette focuses on what needs to happen next. Though she’s still not currently the biggest fan of Damian or the Justice League, she will give them a fair chance, because as much as she hates to admit it, she needs the help. Batman is right. Even though she wasn’t actively working on the case for the first year, she still had plenty of time to gather evidence to back up her main suspects. Her lack of expertise in technology hinders progress greatly.

Not to mention that because Marinette was so wary about hurting Adrien and so swamped trying to keep a balanced schedule, she wasn’t able to find enough evidence to feel safe in her convictions. Master Fu warned her of incorrectly accusing Gabriel in the eye of the public, and he hasn’t come out to fight since the Scarlet Moth incident. She’s tried to investigate Gabriel in his own house, but any evidence slips through her fingers. He’s a very careful man.

Now that the promise of college is coming up, Marinette needs to take Hawkmoth down. Marinette doesn’t want to continue her schooling in France. Not anymore. She wants to go to a foreign college, where dreams of akumas won’t plague her at every step. Half the reason she finds herself on the streets as a civilian constantly is to erase the gory imagery of death and blood that linger in her mind eye from akuma battles. Seeing happy and alive citizens in all of the areas where Hawkmoth attacked make her feel better, but aren’t enough to chase away her nightmares entirely.

Marinette moves through the rest of the photoshoot in a haze. When she is in shot, she focuses on whoever she’s shooting with. Lila, with sharp green eyes, barely begins to lower her guard when Marinette directs the conversation towards past modelling shoots she’s been involved with. They interact unnaturally at first, but after starting to talk about Dior’s Spring/Summer ready to wear line, they find that they have similar tastes in silhouettes, though not in color.

She forces herself to ignore the fiasco that was last night, and talks to Damian about small nothings that don’t touch on anything important. When she runs out of topics, she begins to talk about Renee, and his gaze shifts to something resembling regret and some other emotion she can’t read. Dealing with whatever issues Damian has is not ideal. He’ll have to sort out his feelings on his own.

Adrien’s expressions are the easiest to read. Whenever he’s in a shot with Marinette, he is happy, plain and simple. There is less weight on his shoulders, and as Marinette attempts to cheer him up with poorly thought out puns, he looks like a kid again. He even starts punning back, and Marinette can’t believe how much she missed that. Chat Noir stopped punning a while ago, and it hurt in unexpected ways.

Really, Marinette just wants Adrien to be happy. Adrien is Chat Noir. Her best friend. Her partner. Marinette thinks Adrien deserves the world. She wants to pave a path for him so that his entrance into the adult world is easier, because the facade Gabriel has built of a picture perfect family attempting to cope with the loss of a mother and wife isn’t what Adrien needs.

Maybe Marinette wants him to have the childhood he wasn’t afforded. Marinette clings to warm memories of her own childhood, where Maman trained her in self defense and Papa taught her how to bake when things get particularly hard nowadays. Her heart warms when she sees Adrien give shy smiles to Damian and Lila. She’s proud when he strikes up conversations with them.

In all honesty, the only part of the shoot Marinette remembers is the last section of group photos they take when they move to a second location. It’s a cold day in Spring, which means Parisian tourists are more likely to be found inside an art museum, rather than on the beach. Adrien convinces them all that they should run around the beach, and somehow, they end up playing some extremely difficult version of capture the flag, but without the flags.

Somehow, Marinette ends up on a team of her own, for the sole reason that she’s the only one wearing white, and the person who holds the opposing team’s flag is Damian. She tackles him onto the sand, but not before both Lila and Adrien are hot on her tail. They end up in a pile, and Adrien’s laughter rings so sweet and true, that Marinette’s heart fills with love. She shifts, so her body is facing skywards instead of into Damian’s arm, and she reaches one arm across Damian’s body to grab Lila’s hand, who flinches at first touch, but relaxes. Marinette’s other hand finds itself tangled in Adrien’s hair, and despite the cold weather, Marinette is content.

She looks towards the horizon, where the sun is setting in a million different colors, and finds herself longing for a time where every day can be just like this moment.Where there is nothing filling her head except thoughts of the people who make her happy. Her eyes shift straight up.

Where morning fades into night, the sky is so very, very, blue.

Marinette’s room turns into an organized warzone at night.

The area of her room that was previously used to hold up various sketches and mood boards for designs in progress turns out not to be an upholstered wall, but a curtain that hides two whiteboards and a small library of books on the psychology of emotional manipulation, manuals of martial arts, and various books on strategy. The shelf above her desk space holds a projector that Marinette uses to project images from her computer onto the left white board.

“I’ll catch you up on my previous attempts and what you have to know in order for this partnership to work.” She takes her tablet out, flips through several screens, then uses her fingerprint to unlock a folder of notes. “This is a chronological list of things that Ladybug and I have attempted in order to find Hawkmoth’s location. There is a separate folder with suspects for identity that’s alphabetized. If you’re interested in more in depth analyses of past akumas, I can send that to you and your team’s emails now, as most of the information is readily available online. I’m assuming that you have a team, correct?”

“Yes, I can send their email addresses to your number.”

“No, for any information regarding Hawkmoth or superheroes in Paris, you can contact me through this number and email address. Ladybug and I both check it regularly; it’s a safer, more encrypted way of communication.” Marinettte taps her Miraculous communicator and connects it to her computer, so she can work on a bigger screen. “Which person is your main point of contact?”

“Oracle.”

Marinette contacts Oracle through video call. She doesn’t want to have to explain everything twice even if their partnership turns out to be nonviable. It takes a few moments to get through, but a woman’s face pops up on the screen. She’s a redhead and doesn’t wear a mask. Her coloring is obviously different from the rest of Batman’s affiliates, and despite her initial grievances with the white films over the vigilante’s eyes, she understand why it’s necessary; their suits aren’t magic, and there’s nothing stopping people from running facial recognition software and matching them up to people who reside in Gotham.

“How did you get this number?” Oracle asks warily.

Marinette moves her chair slightly so that Oracle can see Damian, who's currently looking at her tablet on her chaise. “I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, your point of contact in Paris and the one who will be working with you for the next week. As you can see, Damian’s already viewing some information that Ladybug and I have compiled over the years. Please get the rest of your team on this call. I’d like to get all of the basic information out of the way now.”

“Damian?” The girl on her screen is a dead ringer for the girl they compiled multiple files on yesterday, but she can’t get a trace on where they’re calling from, which makes her suspicious.

Damian shoots her a text, confirming that it is actually him in the room, then goes back to scrolling through the tablet.

Nightwing, Red Robin, Red Hood, and Batman all appear on the screen shortly.

“Great, the gang's all here,” Marinette says unenthusiastically. “I’ll say it one more time. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I will be your primary point of contact during your two weeks trial period here in Paris. I’m assuming that your team has been brought up on the events that occurred last night. In order for this attempted partnership to go more smoothly, I will provide you lists of suspects, past attempts at revealing Hawkmoth’s location, and more detailed information about all of the past akumas that have appeared. These files will only be available to you for the week unless the collaboration goes successfully. Damian has already given me your contact information.”

As an afterthought, Marinette adds, “Don’t bother trying to copy any of the files. You won’t be able to. You also won’t be able to pick up on my location through this video call; I’m using a Miraculous Communicator. The magic makes it so that any technology other than another Miraculous will be unable to find any identifying location.”

Marinette knows about this thanks to Max’s brief stint as Pegasus. Though Marinette had not yet learned spells that would allow her to materialize her communicator outside of the time that she was suited up, she had Max try to find Ladybug’s location after sending him a text. He and Markov were both unable to.

“Since the Justice League insists on sticking their nose where it does not belong,” Marinette can’t help but be bitter about this whole situation, despite the fact that her frustration with Damian has decreased. “Ladybug and I have created a plan to make full use of your resources while you’re still butting in. I’ve sent a list of which organizations need monetary support. Most are affiliated with mental health.”

“Let’s move onto how you guys as a team can help us. As far as I understand, Batman’s team is proficient in technology and investigation. For the past two years that we’ve actively been on the case, nobody has had those skill sets and been in the long term possession of a Miraculous. The police attempted investigation for the first year, but their evidence and information was largely unhelpful. I will give Damian the Miraculous Communicator that I am in possession of to use his skills with so long as he tells me what he’s doing with it and he uses it while I’m in his immediate vicinity. He can try to find out Hawkmoth’s location on it, perhaps with a greater degree of success that we have been able to.”

She goes through the checklist she made one more time, just to make sure that she didn’t miss anything. She doesn’t really expect anything much to come out of this collaboration, except for the reassurance that the Justice League won’t interfere at the end of the week. Speaking of: “One more thing. I want a notarized agreement that the Justice League will not interfere in Paris, nor will any of their agents of affiliates be sent here if this collaboration doesn’t yield information that is already known.”

“Got a lotta spark in you, don’t you, little mouse?” The vigilante called Red Hood-- the one with a helmet instead of a stupid domino mask-- laughs.

Marinette scowls. So far, the Justice League-- particularly the vigilantes of Gotham-- have not left her with a stunning first impression. Maybe she’s a little biased, but they certainly don’t seem to have any respect for her. Still, she only has to work with them for two weeks. “My name is Marinette, but clearly your helmet hasn’t shielded you from the memory loss that frequent concussions have clearly given you.”

“She got you there, dumb ass,” says Red Robin, a grin a mile wide on his face.

“Hood,” sighs Oracle, sounding highly stressed. Marinette decides that she is the most likeable. “Like I said earlier, we want to be on good terms with Marinette.”

“I’ll get you the documents and funds by tomorrow.” Batman’s voice is just as gravelly as the first time she contacted him. She finds that the more she hears him speak, the more pleasant she finds his voice. An acquired taste. “Even if this week is unsuccessful, the Justice League will be more than happy to continue to fund these organizations. Is there anything that Ladybug, Chat Noir, or you need personally?”

“None of us are going to use the Justice League’s funds for personal gain, Batman.” The accusations grates on her.

“Batman means,” Nightwing shoots a look to the side of his screen. Interesting, Marinette thinks. All of Gotham’s vigilantes are in one location, judging by their backgrounds and the location tags that her communicator provides her. Perhaps they have a headquarters of some sort. Back when there were extra heroes on the Miraculous team, Marinette sometimes wished that they had a location that they could all reliably gather at without revealing someone’s identity. It certainly would have made strategy easier. “That being a hero without any support is difficult. It must have taken a toll on your personal lives. If we can aid in any way, we will. We can excuse absences or hire tutors as necessary.”

“I’m no hero.” But Nightwing’s proposal may actually be helpful. Even though Marinette is making the grades necessary to go to the colleges that she wants, her continual absence and tardies aren’t very flattering.

Then her mind flashes to Adrien. Can she use this offer to get him out from underneath Gabriel’s thumb? Marinette doesn’t know if she can do that. He’s already in a delicate position-- and already at risk, thanks to the photoshoot earlier today-- and she’s not sure that Gabriel won’t move towards drastic measures if anything changes on Adrien’s end. If she wants to get him away from Gabriel, she may have to reveal his secret identity.

“Ladybug will make the decision for herself; she has access to everything that is said during our meetings. Chat Noir isn’t in the loop about our communications or any of the investigations that Ladybug and I have done. Ladybug says that he’s stressed in his civilian life, which is why his appearances have been decreasing,” Marinette admits. “I’ll leave it up to Ladybug to give your offer to Chat Noir. If I can get a reliable excuse to get out of class or get to class late, that would be greatly appreciated.”

“Chat Noir doesn’t know?” Red Robin sounds horrified.

“He’s currently a high risk for being akumatized. Ladybug didn’t want to risk it.”

Red Hood crosses his arms. “So you have more of a job than Chat Noir does in all of these Paris heroics, huh?”

Even if Chat Noir did know, Marinette would have her hand in the pie at least twice as much as him.

“I wouldn’t say that. I’m just more available than he is.”

“And more trusted than he is,” Red Hood insists.

It’s not that Ladybug trusts Marinette more than she trusts Chat Noir, it’s that Ladybug is Marinette. But she’s not going to admit that. Not to them, and certainly not until Hawkmoth is taken down. Maybe not even then. She can only imagine the looks of devastation that she’ll get if she does admit that she’s been Ladybug all these years. Her parents will freak out, Adrien will probably feel heart broken and betrayed, and Alya and the rest of her classmates will inevitably rail on either her or Lila or both of them. It just doesn’t sound appealing to her anymore, though she can certainly remember a time not so long ago where she so desperately wanted to expose her identity.

“You’d have to ask Ladybug that,” Marinette settles on. She copies and pastes one of the many messages that she has pre drafted and schedules it to send a few minutes later, so Batman’s team receives a communication from Ladybug while Marinette is at the white board. She spent all of last night preparing for this meeting, imagining so many scenarios that she barely slept. The email she’s sending will suggest what Damian should attempt to do with the Miraculous communicator that Marinette has. She adds in an extra comment that she trusts Chat Noir with her life, and that she’ll talk to him about offering him help in his civilian life, but won’t mention anything about the Justice League.

“Why doesn’t Ladybug just use her own communicator to join in on these calls?” Red Robin asks after receiving her email.

Marinette turns from the white board, where she is listing the past three akuma attacks and where her top three suspects were at each of the times. “There may be magic surrounding her identity, but that doesn’t mean Ladybug wants more time for all of you to try to figure out her identity.”

“Sounds irresponsible of her,” says Red Hood. “Leaving a civilian to do all of the dirty work. Who are those people you have listed on the board?”

Marinette decides to let the comment about Ladybug slide. Red Hood is currently her least favorite out of all of Gotham’s vigilantes, but she has to remind herself that respect is mutual, and Ladybug hasn’t really given them much to go on.

“The top three suspects for Hawkmoth. Gabriel Agreste, the CEO and head designer of Gabriel. Nathalie Sancouer, Gabriel Agreste’s personal assistant of over twenty years. Mikael Bordeaux, CFO of Silverstein and Company's French holdings.”

Oracle takes off her glasses and wipes them. “Sounds like your top candidates are all people in pretty high positions.”

“Agreste,” repeats Nightwing. “Agreste, as in Adrien Agreste? The boy that’s in Damian’s class?”

“The same,” Marinette says, not sure she likes where he’s taking this conversation.

“Hold up,” Red Robin says after a few moments. “Why is it that Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancouer are on your list? Both Gabriel and Nathalie have been akumatized before. That should automatically take them out of the running.”

Marinette shakes her head. “That’s what I thought in the beginning, while the police were still in charge of the case. But based on my understanding of akumas, it’s very possible that Hawkmoth can transform, send out an akuma, then detransform and let themself be akumatized.”

The whole Collector incident was a deliberate ploy to throw her off. She spent at least half a year convinced that Gabriel and Hawkmoth couldn’t possibly be one in the same, despite the fact that he had the Miraculous Tome.

“What about Adrien, then? He’s the only one in your class that hasn’t been akumatized, sans yourselves, he hangs out with the people most likely to cause and become akumas, and has caused a fair number of akumas himself. Besides, he must know it if his dad’s Hawkmoth, which means he could be Mayura or even Hawkmoth himself.” Even if Red Robin presented her this theory before Marinette knew Adrien was Chat Noir, she wouldn’t have believed it.

“Adrien is not Hawkmoth.” Marinette isn’t sure how to explain how she knows without revealing his alter ego. She can’t tell them that he wielded the snake Miraculous either, because that contradicts her earlier statement that she didn’t know any of the other holders.

“Demon Spawn,” Red Hood says. “What do you think about Adrien? You’ve been in a class with him for the past month.”

Damian finally looks up from Marinette’s tablet, blinking to bring himself back into the situation at hand. “What?”

Marinette scoffs, remembering that he thought that she was Hawkmoth. She’s not upset about it, but she doesn’t trust his ability to discern alter egos-- at least not magical alter egos. “I wouldn’t trust Damian’s ability to read people as reliable evidence to tell whether someone is Hawkmoth or not.

This causes a myriad of reactions from Batman’s team and most of them are surprisingly loud. Red Hood whoops, “Roasted,” while Red Robin laughs and pounds the desk in front of them. Oracle smiles wide, her eyes crinkling. Even Batman manages to draw a smile to his face.

This makes Damian put down her tablet on the chaise and flush slightly. “I said I was sorry for that.”

Marinette thinks about brushing him off in annoyance but decides against it. Just based on the evidence that he gathered, it wasn't an awful assumption, and the Miraculous magic probably prevented him from even thinking about the possibility that she could be Ladybug, leading him to the next most possible conclusion. “It’s fine.”

In fact, even if Marinette can’t trust Batman and his affiliates with Chat Noir’s civilian identity, she should still try to maneuver Adrien away from his current situation. She can call it in as a personal favor to Marinette, and as long as they have human decency, they should agree to her request. She’s been gathering receipts that detail Gabriel’s systemic abuse of Adrien for years. This is a good opportunity to begin Adrien’s emancipation process. She’s currently on her way to a better friendship with Adrien, and since Batman insists the Justice League has all the resources that she wants, there’s no reason not to take advantage of them. She turns back to the camera.

“Adrien is not Hawkmoth and wouldn’t know whether his father or personal assistant are. In fact, it would be preferable to remove Adrien from Gabriel’s care; Adrien is in danger of being akumatized because of how awfully Gabriel treats him, and I have the evidence necessary to take him to court. I just need a legal team that’s good enough to go against a billion dollar company.” And time to convince Adrien that he needs to leave. That may be a more difficult task, considering the unending love and forgiveness he’s displayed for matters concerning his father so far. Honestly, sometimes Marinette thinks that he never learned how to hold a grudge.

“Noted. Let’s come back to that later, though. I want to talk about some other suspects you have on this list you gave us.” Oracle readjusts her headpiece and shoots a glare over her shoulder, presumably to tell the rest of her team to quiet down and get back on task. They certainly have an interesting team dynamic. They’re much warmer to each other than Marinette first expected them to be. They’re certainly closer than she and the Miraculous Team had been, when there still was a team, at least.

Oracle shares her screen. On it is a picture of Andre Bourgeois. “If Hawkmoth is able to be akumatized, then Mayor Bourgeois is one of our top suspects. The Justice League has compiled multiple lists of suspects before we sent Damian to Paris. He stopped a lot of international press for akuma attacks and has caused multiple akumas.”

Marinette frowns. Mayor Bourgeois being Hawkmoth crossed her mind a few times, but she always decided that he was largely incapable and had little motivation. “What are your criteria for deciding who might be Hawkmoth? I highly doubt Mayor Bourgeois is Hawkmoth, despite him stopping the press.”

“We determine how many akumas a person has caused, how much damage the akuma caused to the person’s primary residence and workplace, and how well they’re connected to the people being akumatized. Andre Bourgeois has been involved in the akumatization of slightly more than half of all the akumas that have occurred, so long as we include his relation to his daughter and wife and there has been extraordinary little damage done to the arrondissements that he frequents.”

“Interesting. Share the list with the contact information I sent you earlier. You share some of the same criteria as we have come up with, but you’re drawing the wrong information from what you have. Akumas caused is also one of our criteria, as well as the damage that has been done to the person’s residence. I don’t think that a person’s personal relations play much into who ends up being akumatized, however, there’s good reason to believe that Hawkmoth is in a position of power, or at least well connected. They seem to know what’s happening in the city before it ever hits the news.” Marinette opens a program on her computer, then turns on the projector to display a map with pins.

“We’ve been interested in the location of primary suspects at the time of akumatization; Ladybug believes that Hawkmoth’s Miraculous power is restricted to Paris. Which means that Hawkmoth needs to be in or close to Paris at the times of all akumas, which crossed Mayor Bourgeois of my list a while ago. He’s been absent for multiple akumas when he needed to go to conferences outside of Paris. The purple dots are Gabriel, the red ones are Nathalie, and the blue ones are Michael. You can see that they’ve all been in Paris every time an akuma occurred and within a ten mile radius of where the akuma was first spotted. That’s quite unusual, considering they’re all in high positions of companies that should typically have them travelling.”

There is also the little detail that Marinette found the Miraculous Tome in the hands of Gabriel Agreste, but Marinette doesn’t feel safe indulging them with that information yet. If she tells them, they will want to see pictures of the book.

“How haven’t you cracked this case wide open yet?” Red Robin looks at the screen appreciatively. It’s clear that Marinette spent a lot of time on this.

Marinette bristles. She may have a good amount of information, but her proficiency with technology leaves much to be desired. It took her an unnecessarily long time in order to get the map up and running. “Well, Red Robin, that might have something to do with the fact that neither Ladybug nor I knew anything about how to use technology in the way that was necessary to track him once the police handed over the case in the second year. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that falsely accusing someone as Hawkmoth could ruin their entire life.”

Master Fu warned her against direct actions against anyone on her suspect list. In fact, he outright forbade her from doing anything, and although she no longer takes his words at face value after the many bumps in their relationship, she’s not going to try to ruin any of these people without evidence. Especially not Gabriel, not when he’s Adrien’s father.

Red Robin frowns.

Marinette takes a deep breath. She’s too tense. She’s been taking every word that these vigilantes say as something they don’t actually mean. Marinette needs to relax. Jumping to conclusions helps no one.

Damian’s eyes are on her, and she’s sure he’s passing judgment. She needs to get out of this situation, get out of this headspace. It’s not productive or healthy.

“I think we should end this meeting now,” Damian says, and Marinette begrudgingly agrees with him. She knows this is his olive branch.

“You were the one who was upset at the lack of time,” Oracle points out. “We don’t have much time. We need every minute we can get.”

“Marinette has given us plenty of information to digest for one night. We’ll regroup tomorrow and start on coding the programs to determine Hawkmoth’s location.” Damian reaches over Marinette to end the call.

Obstinately, Marinette refuses to look him in the eyes. She’s been flip-flopping this entire day, and it’s not doing any great wonders for her mental health. Everything’s been coming to a head in these past few days, and it isn’t a good feeling. She can feel the pressure on her shoulders, the expectant gazes of all of Paris to do her duty and expose Hawkmoth, but she feels the weight of the inevitable backlash Adrien will face if her theories are true.

The past few days feel like three years compressed. People she’s never interacted with have inserted themselves into the fray, and the big leagues have pulled out all the stops. She just talked to Batman and his team. He’s been in the hero game for decades, and she’s in the room with his son, Robin.

Everything is just too much.

Marinette feels like she’s been a bad Ladybug. Like she hasn’t done enough to find concrete evidence of her primary suspects because she is afraid of what will happen after. She’s half surprised she hasn’t gone into hysterics yet, but then again, she’s gotten very good at holding herself together when everything around her falls apart. The added touch of an outsider makes the fragile balance she’s achieved teeter.

Damian takes her distressed appearance personally and heaves a sigh. “Look, I --I didn’t think that you were Hawkmoth all along, only for a day before everything went down. I don’t know what I wanted out of you, but your friendship was nice. I did genuinely want to be friends with you, and I still do.”

This makes Marinette feel even worse. She’s trying so hard to find fault with Damian-- which is surprisingly easy-- in order to distance herself. She can’t afford to get attached to someone who can hurt her and is likely to hurt her, because an akumatized Ladybug is the last thing Paris needs. But hearing him apologize so genuinely means that Marinette can’t summon up a negative response. She may not be able to say that she truly knows Damian, but she knows that he is a very prideful person. It can’t have been easy for him to apologize to her so openly. An acidic response rests on her tongue for a moment before she pushes it back.

“You were just trying to follow up on a lead. I shouldn't blame you.”

“But you do.”

He hit the nail on the head. Marinette grimaces, letting her eyes flick over Damian’s hunched shoulders and set jaw. She doesn’t blame him for thinking that she’s Hawkmoth, but she does blame him for getting the Justice League more involved, which makes exactly zero sense if she evaluates the situation logically. Her heart feels like Damian is the element of change; if he never arrived in Paris, Marinette would still have everything under a better semblance of control. It doesn’t matter that Batman said the JLA had been looking into Paris for half a year, and that even if Damian weren’t sent, there would have been someone else.

It’s fitting that in order to move forward, they must break down whatever security that Marinette has built into her life, because life is just cruel enough to mess her up like that. Right now, she’s a wreck mentally, emotionally, and even physically. Marinette can feel her throat closing up.

“It’s not your fault,” she offers. “And maybe if we get out of our current situation, we can try being friends again. But right now? I-- there’s just too much stress on me, right now.”

Damian understands this, but as he descends the steps of her ladder, Damian can’t help but wish that she felt otherwise.

Omake

“How is it that Mayor Bourgeois is not in your top three suspects for Hawkmoth? He’s stopped a lot of international press about the akuma for the first year!”

Marintte deadpans. “Honestly? The man is way too stupid to ever be Hawkmoth.”

“Haven’t we come to the conclusion that Hawkmoth is stupid though? He couldn’t steal jewelry from two untrained teenagers for years!”

Marinette decides not to take offense at that, and concedes. “Fine, maybe he should be on the list. I’d certainly akumatize Chloe and Audrey Bourgeois if I had to interact with them on a daily basis.”

_______________________________________________________

will these be regularly scheduled? absolutely not, even though i have the whole thing finished because i get the feeling that i am going to Change Things sooner or later (somebody please smack some sense into me everything in this story goes awfully very soon and the plot goes wonky and AHHHH)

#maribat #sbgs #miraculous ladybug #dc #daminette #original content #adrien agreste #lila rossi #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne

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reinathane · 4 years ago

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SELF PARA / BEGINNING TO END LOCATION: Rhea’s home in Olympus / Reina’s home in Las Vegas TRIGGERS: Domestic violence mention, it’s also so long and for what i’m so sorry

SEPTEMBER 1997, THE BEGINNING.

“Reina, you’ve got about five fucking seconds to get your shit and get down here or I’m leaving without you.”

Fucking Christ.

Reina knows this is insane. No one has to tell her she’s making a rash decision, or that she might be in over her head with this. It’s when she gets yelled at from the bottom of the stairs by her soon-to-be fiance that things are put well into perspective for her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the question continues to nag at her. Why would you leave the only place you know as home with someone you’ve only known for a few weeks?

She’s almost eighteen years old with nowhere else to go, that’s why.

She very much wouldn’t be welcome back at the foster home she’d snuck out of a few months prior, pulling cash from the wallet of her last foster mother, slipping quietly out the front door while the man of the house slept loudly on the beat up recliner in a whiskey induced coma. They owed it to her anyway, it’s not like they spent any of their government funding on the kids they took in — it all went to booze and cigarettes, which Reina obviously ended up repeatedly stealing as well. Besides, she hasn’t been a ward of the state since she turned seventeen, and it had always been the plan to hightail it out of there the second she graduated high school.

It was lucky she met Jason when she did, considering she was running out of friends that’d let her stay with them until their parents started asking questions. It’s easier in the summer when there’s no school nights or homework holding them back, but as her friends got ready to head off to college and start a new chapter of their lives that Reina couldn’t even dream of experiencing, she realized she’d need to adapt and figure something else out. All it took was one night out at a bar with her friends and their fake IDs

Reina didn’t know the man but she knew of him, Hell everyone in town had to know of the Thane family. She babysat for some kids whose dad was in the MC so she’d picked up on some things here and she knew he had money, status, and everything she’s always wanted. It made the man an easy target and by the end of the night Reina somehow managed to get Jason Thane eating out of the palm of her hand.

From then on it’d been a whirlwind of going out to dinner, taking rides on his motorcycle, fucking in his childhood bedroom at his parent’s house — a bedroom she’d decided she was moving into just a week after they met considering she’d been practically homeless. Jason’s an asshole but they’ve been inseparable ever since that night at the bar, and when he started talking about how he’s running part of the club going in Vegas and he’d be going back up there in a few weeks to really get it all started, it’s been a no brainer — Reina had every intention of going to Vegas with him.

But now she wonders if this might all be a mistake.

It’d be so easy to get out of there and run, to sneak over to his brother’s room and climb down the trellis on the side of the house. To catch a bus to New Orleans and figure her shit out from there. All she has to her name is a bag with barely anything in it and the clothes on her back, though, and the thought of going to New Orleans without a plan is much more terrifying than going to Las Vegas with one.

“I swear to fucking God, Reina—”

Her boyfriend’s booming voice is enough to get her moving, down the stairs and out the front door with a smile on her face like she hadn’t just been contemplating skipping out the window and running the opposite direction. In her almost eighteen years of life this is the most terrifying choice Reina’s ever had to make, but it’s one she can’t really imagine an alternative to, so she just hopes it’s the right one as she hops on Jason’s bike and they start the journey up North.

—

MARCH 2020, THE ENDING.

There’s been more fighting than usual. Doors slamming, plates shattering, bodies slamming into the wall. He doesn’t want to leave, Jason keeps saying. Why would we leave a place that we’ve got completely under our thumb?

Because your mother is sick, she always answers. The first few times it’d been relatively calm, but they’ve long since given up the pretense of being able to have a civil conversation. It’s sick, too, because there’s a part of Reina that understands why he’d never want to go. They practically control Las Vegas, the MC is both feared and loved and with Jason at the forefront of it, the two of them are as well. It’s a kingdom and who in God’s name would ever abandon such absolute power?

Reina never thought she would. She thrives in this environment, in chaos created for the sole purpose of keeping them rolling in piles of money. The way people look at the two of them around here makes her feel like a fucking God, and the complex it’s given her reflects that completely. Who would leave this? The question nags at her every time she argues for it, sometimes it’s Jason’s voice and sometimes it’s the devil on her shoulder but the sentiment is always in the back of her mind.

Then her conscience shows up, that pesky little thing that rarely ever comes out to play in Reina’s case. To be completely honest, she was never entirely sure she had one until a few months ago when they’d first gotten the call. The guilt of not being around for Rhea as she’s slowly deteriorating is greater than anything Reina’s ever felt before. Maybe she does have a moral compass, and it’s pointing directly towards heading back to Louisiana to be with the rest of their family while this bullshit happens to them. If there’s one woman in the world that can break down all of Reina’s walls and have her completely at her mercy, it’s Rhea Thane.

But Reina’s almost done trying. She’s tired of the back and forth, and quite frankly she doesn’t know if what she’s fighting for is even worth it. Does she really care that much about leaving her house and her lifestyle — about leaving Caine, her only solace in this Hell she’s somehow made a home — enough to get bruises for it? Olympus is a shithole, a tiny little town filled with nothing of interest to her anyway aside from her family, and it’s far from the first place she’d ever choose to live. At this point, Reina might just be ready to throw in the towel and let her guilt consume her instead.

But somehow it’s like Jason knows she’s about to give in. After a long stretch of blissful silence that evening, he finally comes upstairs to bed from a phone call Reina had assumed was just about club business he may or may not fill her in on afterwards. But as soon as she sees his face, she knows that isn’t what this is about.

“I talked to Ma.”

He looks exhausted. Reina has no sympathy.

“She was fine and then she just switched up and thought I was Dad. I don’t even sound like him.” His father, who’s been dead for six years — with a gravelly smoker’s voice and violence just in his tone. Reina can see the resemblance. Slowly, Jason drags a hand over his face, as if he’s contemplating his next words but Reina already knows what he’s going to say — she could tell from the moment he entered the room. “We gotta go down there.” And just like that, it’s settled. After weeks of trying on Reina’s part, he finally makes one fucking phone call to his mother and suddenly Jason is the patron saint of the Thane family, at her beck and call as soon as he needs her. Maybe they have more in common than she thinks after all.

There’s no use in an I told you so, though. No amount of gloating on Reina’s part will ever make him think he’s been wrong this whole time, so she just lets out a sigh. “Good.” That’s all that’s said before they settle in for bed, the next few days after being dedicated to what Reina’s been pushing for all this time — they’re going home.

#i finally fuckin finished this so here #enjoy ig #lomk:task1

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itzagothamcitysiren · 4 years ago

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There’s Only Us Left Now

So 2020 can go away now please. The last couple of days have been extremely rough mentally and I just didn’t have the energy to write or do much of anything. I’m still feeling a bit meh but I don’t want to leave you guys hanging so I wanted to update this before work today. Thank you to everyone whose been reading this!

I Had a Dream I Was a Vigilante’s Side Kick pt. 3

Wayne Enterprises had always been a place Halley was unfamiliar with. She’d only gone into the building a mere handful of times since being a Wayne but regardless she knew exactly where she was going. She still had her id badge Bruce had given her, hoping it still was active. She flashed it to the security at the door, gripping onto the new folder filled all the information she needed for this visit.

She felt as if she permanently burnt a bridge with him after that night long ago when she broke out the Joker with the intent to kill him. She wasn’t mad that Bruce stopped her. She had grown to be thankful for it. The normalcy Halley had come to embraced until quite recently wouldn’t be possible if Bruce hadn’t been there to stop her. But there was still that voice in her head that told her that he hadn’t forgiven her.

Dick and Alfred would tell her others and she had hoped them to be right. Bruce did start sending her invites to Gala’s and the likes about a year ago. He also made unannounced bank transfers into her account that Dick had set up for her when she started college. Bruce had done so quietly, not even telling Dick and had never tried to reach out to her for explanation.

When she questioned Alfred about it on one of their Sunday lunch dates, the butler just said, “Master Wayne still cares. He wants you to be taken care of.”

Halley bit the inside of her cheek at the memory and the feeling of still being unable to reach out. Even with forgiving Bruce, there was still a part of her that was bitter for stopping her. Jason’s words about how sending criminals to Arkham was the same as sending them through a revolving door were proven right by his death. And she also couldn’t stop herself from thinking that Bruce was only doing what he was doing for appearances. People started talking, wondering why his daughter was no longer appearing at events or spotted with the family.

Halley pushed herself back into focus, smiling at the guard as he granted her access into the building. She was relieved that it was only Batman Inc. that he revoked her access too after all. Taking a deep breathe she walked through the large lobby of the building, hearing the heels of her boots clicking against the tile floors.

Her visit was unannounced but she felt confidence raging through her in determination to make her case heard and understood. She had thought of just sending her file of research straight to Alfred but she wanted to make sure that Bruce knew she meant her piece. She didn’t want him to just look over it with a shrug or scoff or whatever way he might. She wanted him to know that this Tim Drake meant trouble and wasn’t just another lost boy for him to take in and use.

The elevator ride was long having to constantly stop on multiple floors of one of the tallest buildings in Gotham City but eventually she heard the ding for her floor. She exited and began to walk down the long hallway passing the large board room and other conference rooms until she reached the desk and secretary sat outside of Bruce’s office.

“Excuse me,” Halley cleared her throat to gain the woman’s attention. “I’d like to talk to Bruce,”

The woman looked up with her confused, unfamiliar of Halley’s face since she’d been out of the public eye for such a long time. The woman cocked her eyebrow up unsure who the girl thought she was to just walk in here and expect to see the big boss. Halley found herself chaneling her younger self, her own persona she had made to wear during Bruce’s charity Gala’s and such when the woman clearly wasn’t budging an inch.

“I’m his daughter, Halley Wayne,” she gave a fake smile. “It’s a family emergency and I really need to speak to my father.” She hated the sound of her own voice but she pushed past it and hid the sneer she wanted to give at statement. She flashed her teeth at the woman again, raising the badge up to confirm she was who she was claiming.

“Oh! Miss Wayne!” The woman’s attitude changed, rushing to stand and move to Bruce’s door. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. Let me just let him know you’re here, he’s in a call.”

Halley watched as the woman disappeared behind the large oak doors. Halley bit her lip, looking around the room, trying to hide her impatience. She saw the large portrait hug on the opposing wall of the door of Bruce’s parents and smiled softly at it. As she gazed at the portrait she also noted the one Alfred had forced them to do hung right next to it. It was one of Bruce, herself and Dick and Jason. She frowned at that painting.

“Halley?” Bruce’s concerned voice tore her out of her loathing. He stood by the open doors, his secretary making her way back to her desk. “Is everything okay?”

“Hey Bruce,” Halley nodded to him, turning around to face the man.

She looked him over seeing just how worn down he looked even though to the average person he’d look fine. She could tell from his eyes. He looked at her with mixed emotions. He was shocked to see her and she felt somewhat prideful. She had managed to pull one over the big bats. She shook the thought away knowing that she was here for a reason.

“Can we talk?” She asked, gripping the folder tighter.

“Of course come right in.” He said moving out of the way and motioning for her to enter his office first.

She made her way in and waited for him to close the door before turning to face him. She knew he had his office under tight security and knew she could speak freely. She didn’t wait a second longer and held up the manila folder she had held securely the entire walk and train ride to the building. Bruce took note of the folder and looked at her silently asking for an explanation. She handed it off to him. He opened it and quietly browsed through the pages she had placed inside.

“His name’s Timothy Jackson Drake.” She spoke at he looked at the first couple of pages. “He’s fifteen years old; lives in the East End. He has an IQ of 142 and actually got the Wayne Scholarship for a full ride through Gotham Academy.” She started, as Bruce stopped reading and looked up at her.

He didn’t yet question the significance or relevance of the information, knowing it must be important if it brought Halley to him after all this time. He wore a serious look as she didn’t falter and continued on,

“His parents are Jack and Janet Drake. Jack’s a business man. Not to your caliber but good enough. He’s attended some of your Gala’s and charity events. His mother’s a stay at home mom, only works a couple of shifts at a local flower shop.” She spoke, finding herself moving to look around the office, as if it would help her get through this faster. She paused as she stood in front of the large windows overlooking the heart of Gotham.

“I did some more digging though because it seemed too clean and there were a couple of transactions in Jack’s accounts that just didn’t add up to me.” She explained. “Jack’s found himself tangled up with Oswald Cobblepot after taking out a couple a loans from him to help pay the rent” She frowned as Bruce meet her stare. “Like I said he’s a business man but not like you. He was down on his luck and I guess making a deal with the Penguin seemed logical.” Halley huffed rolling her eyes at the man’s stupidity.

“What does this have to do with the boy?” Bruce asked looking back into the file; most of the information wasn’t on Jack but instead his son.

“Well, his son knows about us to start.” Halley said bluntly causing Bruce too look at her with firm eyes. “He figured it out. He recognized Dick after seeing him in action a few months back on TV with the Titans; he had seen the Flying Grayson’s as a kid and he quickly put two and two together. He came to me and told me he knew who we were. He asked me if he could be Robin.”

Halley paused, hesitating on telling him about that but she knew she had too. As much as this was killing her she had to be fully transparent about this. She felt like the kid’s life could be at stake if she wasn’t honest to Bruce. She stored back any pettiness she had left and continued,

“I think he knows about his father and Cobblepot.” She said looking down and shaking her head. “I think he wants to become Robin to try and help his father or something; I don’t really know that part but Bruce, he can’t. He-,”

“He’s just a kid.” Bruce finished, lowering his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair before walking over to his desk and placing the folder onto it. “Who else knows about this? Have you spoken to Dick?”

Halley shook her head no. Dick had sent her a text asking if everything was alright after getting the notification of her being in his safe house. She had lied and said she needed a quiet place to work on her paper. She didn’t want him to worry, so she decided to keep in him in the dark for now at least.

Bruce nodded at his former ward, placing his hands in his pants pocket. He walked out from behind the desk and made his way back over to her near the window. “Thank you for coming to me with this. I’ll look into it; make sure he doesn’t do anything foolish.” Bruce paused.

Halley bite her lip and nodded to him hesitantly. It was as if she was beyond uncomfortable in his presence. He frowned at this and opened his mouth to speak again, “Thank you for feeling like you could come to me with this. I know it’s been a while since we’ve last spoken and I am truly sorry for how things left off. I was just doing what I thought was right.”

“I’m not here to talk about that Bruce,” she snapped, glaring down at her feet. She felt the sharp pang of awkwardness take over after she lashed out and cursed to herself. She had gotten better with that and here she was again. “I’m sorry, I just-“She sighed, looking up at him for real this time. Bruce didn’t apologize and if he did it was very rare. “I forgive you, Bruce. I forgave you a long time, I just wasn’t sure if you had forgiven me.” She admitted. “You had done the right thing and I should be thanking you.” She smiled just a crack, finding her voice again. “Just make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid okay?”

She started to head towards the door knowing that she had nothing left to say but was stopped when Bruce spoke up again, “You could help me with this, you know. I think you’ve proven to yourself and me that-,”

“No; thank you but no,” Halley cut him off, shaking her head at the thought. “I’m not a hero and the days of me pretending to be one are long over.”

Halley left without another word feeling her mood shift once again as she closed the door behind her. She gave the secretary a fake smile again before heading back down the hall to the hallway towards the elevator. She tapped her foot against the floor anxiously waiting and hoping and praying that Bruce wouldn’t come after her. And for once luck was on her side as the door opened before any such thing could happen. She entered and pressed the button for the ground floor immediately suddenly wanting to get as much distance from herself and this place as soon as possible.

She felt multiple ranges of emotions. Satisfaction, reluctance, confidence and temptation. She had finally talked to Bruce; she had finally gotten the justification of knowing that he didn’t think so lowly of her. Maybe all of his quiet attempts to reach out weren’t just some show? But she still was hesitant to believe it. Actions spoke louder and he had never personally and verbally tried reaching out. He had only ever done so in hiding. And then she had also stood her ground. She went in and said her piece without once wavering. But then he had to go and ruin it. He just had to go and tempt her by offering her a place back in the life that had almost ruined her.

She tried to shake the thoughts out of her head pushing herself to walk as quickly but unsuspiciously out of Wayne Enterprises. She had done her part. She had made sure the information had gotten shared and she could get back to her life and put any invitation of her old life back where it belonged. She had more important things to worry about, like school papers and homework and other more tasking things.

What a joke, she chuckled to herself. There was a time when the things she had just listed off didn’t even come close to importance and now here she was putting them higher up on her list. The thought made her spiral back into the thoughts of her old life and how it really had going on close to three years this April since Jason’s death and her giving up her mantle. It had been even longer since she first met him and became Nightshade; longer since she was face to face with her father.

“Stop,” she whispered to herself before she walked to the sidewalk to hail a taxi.

It wasn’t long before she was able to get ones attention and quickly told the driver to bring her to Gotham University. She had more important things to concern herself with than Batman and Tim Drake; she had a paper she still needed to finish writing.

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scottishhellhound · 5 years ago

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Okay so this was brought on by a conversation I had with @hyperactive-lectiophile about what might happen if Wally, being the genius chemist he is, the guy that recreated the exact conditions that gave Barry his abilities, decided to one day try and create something that would allow him to get drunk.

I'm not sure if this is what either of us originally had in mind, but this is how it went, Haha.

Pairing: Birdflash

Characters: Dick Grayson, Wally West, Roy Harper.

Wordcount: 3100+ ( I really hope the read more tag works! I'm sorry if it doesn't 😭)

Green eyes danced with excitement as Wally nodded to himself, looking over his notes for the formula one more time. Making sure all his ingredients were there and the measurements were correct. He didn't want to risk messing this up. One, the result of slowing down his metabolism enough for his experiment to work could be....well bad would be putting it mildly. And two, he really didn't want to have to try and explain to his friends and family his reasoning for wanting to try this. He was in college, it was just part of the experience, so why not?

Formula and ingredients confirmed, he set his list aside and reaching up with the other hand lowered his goggles over his eyes, an excited grin rapidly spreading across his face.

"This is going to be awesome!"

Several hours later

Dick chuckled, from his position upside down on the sofa, as Roy 'boo'd' at the screen, throwing a handful of popcorn alongside Garfield and Victor. They'd made it a challenge to throw popcorn at the screen everytime the villain was referred to as a monster, once it was said more than 6 times in the first 10 minutes. They were on their third bowl of popcorn already, and they were only halfway through.

He started when he felt his phone buzzing in his pocket, and reached for it. "Hey guys, pause this for a sec, will ya. Incoming phone call."

He waited a moment while Gar scrambled for the remote, quietly laughing when he answered, "Hello?"

"Hi, I'm sorry to be calling so late, but, is this Dick Grayson?"

Dick's eyes narrowed in suspicion, and he used his free hand to balance his weight as he kicked his legs and up into a one handed stand, before dropping his legs back to the floor and standing. "Not a problem man, and yup, that's me. Can I ask how you got this number though? It's not exactly advertised."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Victor already running a trace on the call.

"I have a rather drunk young man who dialed it for me, before he vanished back onto the dance floor."

Dick frowned. That didn't help.

"Drunk young man? Did they give you a name? What's he look like?"

If it wasn't for the fact that he was currently 4 months sober and sitting on the couch five feet from him, Dick would have immediately guessed Roy. But seeing his second best friend looking at him curiously from his cushion, that was ruled out.

His second thought was Jay. He knew his younger brother had a fake ID, a rebellious streak, and looked older than his 15 years. And thanks to a steady influx of good nutrition for 3 years, growth spurts and puberty had finally hit Jason. A fact that the second Robin was immensely pleased about.

Luckily Roy was on his same thought train and had his phone out, texting quickly, deft fingers flying over the screen.

"Not Jaybird. He's currently in Gotham chasing Penguin with DaddyBats."

Dick gave a silent thumbs up, mouthing back, 'Never call him that again,' and turned his attention back to the phone as the man on the other end started to speak. "No name, but he's tall, red hair, green eyes, and has more freckles than skin."

"That's Wal... wait, Wally's drunk!" Disbelief and fear sunk into the pit of everyone's stomachs at that exclamation.

"As a skunk." The bartender sighed over the line, frustration and empathy clear in his next words. "Look I don't care if you think I'm wrong, or pranking, or whatever, but you need to come collect your friend before I call the cops."

"Don't." Was Dick's panicked reply. He was already leaping over the back of the couch, Roy right behind him, as Garfield and Victor headed for the monitor room, to try and see if they could retrace their friends steps. See who had gotten to him. "I'm on my way. Where's your bar located?"

[[MORE]]

Dick and Roy pull up outside a small bar in New Yorks west end about 30 minutes later. Both jumped out of the car hurrying towards the entrance, hoping their friend was still contained within. They did not want to figure out the logistics behind how they were going to catch and then contain a drunk speedster if he'd managed to escape.

A bouncer met them at the door, holding a hand up to halt the line that was waiting, and waved the pair through.

"They gots him holed up in one of the back rooms. I'll show ya where."

"Thank you!" Dick didn't bother to hide how relieved he was over that, as he and Roy ducked under the burly man's arm and into the bar.

"He hasn't caused any trouble has he?" Roy asked, raising his voice to be heard over the heavy bass and loud chatter that always seemed to fill up places like this. He kept his hands stuffed into the pockets of his leather jacket, left hand spinning and twirling the sobriety chip he kept there.

"Nah, a little handsy, but more...friendly than trying for somethin' if you get my meanin'."

Dick nodded, a fond smile wiping away his worry for a moment. "Yeah, Walls always been a bit clingy."

As they followed the doorman through the bar, Dick nudged Roy's shoulder, raising a dark brow in a silent question.

Roy grinned back, giving a thumbs up, and pulling his chip out of his pocket briefly before replacing it.

Dick smiled back and threw an arm around his friends shoulder, giving him a quick, but heartfelt hug, before dropping his arm back to his side.

He appreciated Roy coming with him, knowing how hard this had to be for him. Especially after everything he'd been through to get to where he was now.

Roy nodded before tapping the shoulder of the bouncer gaining his attention. "So did anyone see anybody slip him something? Was he talkin' to anyone? Get in any fights?"

The man shook his head as he led then through a side door, opening into a well lit, empty hallway. "Not that anyone seen or mentioned. Boss asked around, just in case, ya know? Guy just came in, alone, sat his skinny ass at the bar, and started drinkin'." He let the door fall shut behind them, and the cacophony from the bar floor was cut in half, allowing them to speak without yelling. "Checked his tab, guys had 4 beer and about 5 shots of whiskey. I'm surprised he ain't passed out yet."

"Wally's always been a bit of a heavyweight when it comes to drinking." Dick lied easily as his mind tried to make sense of everything.

Wally's metabolism didn't allow for him to get drunk.

They tried one night after a bad mission.

Dick had had the worst hangover in his life to that point, Roy hadn't woken up until the following evening, and Wally acted as if he hadn't polished off a bottle of vodka on his own.

He ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the strands in frustration. He'd just have to ask Wally what'd happened. Once they got him somewhere safe to sober up.

"I'll say. Haven't seen anyone put the drink away like that in a long time. Anyway second door on the left." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, indicating which door to go through. "We left one of our girls in there with him, make sure he stayed put. Send her back out will you"

"Will do."

"Good. You can take him out the back door there. The boss said you squared up with him already."

"Yeah, sent him cash on the drive over. Thanks again for not calling the cops."

"Guy was harmless enough. If alla our drunks were like him, they wouldn't need us, so we don't mind bein' nice nows and again. "

He waved as he walked back out into the bar, the sound echoing down the empty hall before cutting off again once the door closed.

Roy clapped him on the shoulder once before making his way towards the aforementioned door. "Well let's go get your speedster and get the hell outta here."

"Right."

The sight that greeted Dick and Roy had the red head chuckling, hiding a laugh behind his hand. The poor waitress looked bored out of her mind, as Wally waxed poetic about something, hand motions and open expressions being thrown everywhere.

The waitress looked up as they entered, eyes zeroing in on Dick as he stepped in behind Roy.

"Well hey there, sugar," she turned back to Wally tapping his knee and pointing over his shoulder. "Here's your big chance. Nothing like some liquid courage to help love along right?"

Both men gave her a confused look, but didn't get a chance to question her, because at that exact moment, Wally looked over his shoulder and spotted them.

"Roy! Dickie!"

"Hey there Wall-oof!" Dick grunted as he suddenly had an armful of a very happily drunk redhead, face buried into his neck, giggles being muffled into his shoulder. He looked over at Roy, only to scowl when he found the other man with his phone out, recording everything.

"Thanks Harper, super helpful." He pat's Wally's head, sighing as the man continues to giggle into his neck.

"Anytime Dickie, happy to help."

The scraping of chair legs across cement brings their attention back to the waitress as she stands, smoothing her skirt down her legs. "Well you boys seem to have him well in hand." She walked over to where the three stood in the door way, hips swaying gently as she approached the door. She twisted between them and as she passed gave Dick a small smile and a giggled, "Good luck," before slipping out the door.

"What was that about?"

Roy shrugged, turning his phone back to Dick, grinning as the younger man scowled at him. "Who knows. Come on wonder-boy, let's get him outta here."

"Fine." Dick sighed before he poked Wally's forehead, trying to get the taller man to raise his head. "Hey Walls, come on man. Let's get you home okay. "

He felt Wally nod agaisnt his shoulder before he stiffened and stood straight, looking down at Dick like he just remembered he was there.

"Dick?"

"Yeah...Wally you okay, man?"

The taller man nodded, head bobbing wildly, like a bobble head in the middle of a high speed chase.

"Uh-huh, but...Dick, Dickie, I gotta tell you something real quick!"

"Okay, but can it wait until we get you outside? You're drunk and that shouldn't be possible."

He ignored Roy's snickering next to him as Wally seemed to become even more nervous and agitated. "Nope, it's important!"

"Okay, okay Wally. What is it?"

Wally took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, as if waiting for a punch to the face. "I...I have a really big crush on you!"

Roy slapped a hand over his mouth, shoulders twitching and the hand holding his phone shaking, as he tried to contain his laughter.

Dick could feel his own lips start to twitch as he stared at Wally. He gripped the red heads shoulder, shaking him lightly. He waited until Wally cracked one eye open to look at him before saying, "Walls, we're dating."

"We are!!?!"

"Yes, we have been for the last two years."

"Oh... that's good then."

Wally seemed a little lost after that, unsure of what to do or say, now that his proclamation wasn't as climactic as he'd apparently been hoping for.

Dick reached up and ran a hand through Wally's hair, getting his attention. "Wally. Do you remember how you got here?"

Wally tilted his head, partially because he seemed confused, but he was also chasing the feeling of Dick's fingers in his hair. "Mmm, walked."

Dick smiled at the slightly dopey look on his face. "That's good, do you remember if anyone gave you anything on the way here, or before?"

"No one gave m'anythin'. Oh well the guy at the bar gave me my drinks...is that what you meant?"

"No, baby, you're drunk." Dick smiled a bit through his worry at the way Wally's face was crinkled up in thought. Trying to put his usually sharp mind into some kind of order. "You can't get drunk, remember, so we're trying to see if someone-"

"I can get drunk! Or I can now."

"What?" His question was echoed by Roy, who was for some reason still recording this who debacle.

And Wally grinned, clearly proud of himself. " I made a form...formu... I made something to help me get drunk!"

Roy was back to laughing and Dick could feel a tightness forming between his eyes.

"That's, that's great, Wally. Why don't you tell us all about it in the car on the way home, okay?"

"Okay!"

Roy held the door open as Dick, with a hand at the small of Wally's back guided him through it, keeping a hand raised ready to catch him if he tripped.

Which he did.

Several times as the alcohol was finally making itself fully known, affecting the speedsters ability to walk upright.

Dick sighed as he caught Wally's arm, keeping him from tripping into the alley wall as the exited outv the back of the bar.

He tossed an annoyed look at Roy, as he pulled Wally's arm over his shoulder, sinking a bit as Wally rested most of his weight on him. "You gonna help, Harper? Or just play Scorsese for the rest of the night?"

Roy just grinned as he zoomed in on the cross look on his friend's face, ignoring the excellent impression of bat glare he was recieving. It's affect lessened by the fact that Wally was now poking at Dick's cheek, giggling softly to himself.

"You seem to have everything under control. Besides," he turned his phone to focus on Wally now, taking in the flush on his cheeks and the haze in normally bright green eyes. "You know he'd be upset if this wasn't recorded so he could study it later."

Dick was silent as he finally got both of Wally's feet moving in the same direction, and led him towards the car. He groaned and let his head drop. "Dammit, you're right."

"I'm always right, Grayson. When are you just gonna give in and accept it?"

"When pigs fly...or if Raven ever says yes to go on a date with Garfield."

"Ouch. Words hurt, ya know." But Roy's smiling when he finally turns off the phone and steps up to Wally's free side taking his other arm.

Dick laughs and tugs Wally's arm further over his shoulder, sighing a bit as Roy takes some of his taller boyfriends weight. "Zip it and help me get him in the car."

Roy laughed at the scene playing out in the back seat, from his position behind the wheel. His phone propped up on the dash, recording once again. It was partially because he knew Wally would want the data, but also in part because he knew they'd never get to see Wally like this again, and it was adorable. He wished he'd been recording when they'd reached the car. It had taken Dick crawling in first and dragging the drunk redhead in after him, but they had finally gotten him into the vehicle

Once in the car, face tucked back into Dick's shoulder, Wally had seemed to slip into a semi-conscious state and alternated between nodding off and talking their ears off about formulas, melted beakers, and burnt tables.

"Although, that was technically because of a leaking hose, and not because I'd miscalculated."

"That's good, sweetheart." Dick just nodded along as Wally muttered into his shirt, fingers still carding through red hair as he listened.

Wally had just taken a breath to start in on something else when he went absolutely still.

"Wally what's wrong?"

"Oh God..."

"Wal? You gonna be sick?"

"We're dating?"

Roy watched the look of confused hurt flash across Dick's face in the rearview mirror, and started reaching for the phone.

"Yes? Wally, what-"

"I'm dating Batman's kid!" Wally's voice went up several octaves. "Batman is gonna kill me!"

Roy had to pull over he was laughing so hard, and he could hear Dick groaning a laugh as Wally continued to panic.

"Wally, babe, B isn't going to kill you."

"You don't know that!" He was sitting up, straddling Dick's waist, staring down at him in horror.

"Two years, Wally." Dick sat up and cradled Wally's face in his hands, kissing his forehead. "Don't you think, if he was going to kill you, he'd of done it by now?"

"That's just what he wants you to think! He's...he's a master of disintegration!"

Dick blinked up at him in confusion for a moment, "You mean deception?"

Wally nodded, "Yes, that! He's lulling me into a false sense of security!"

Roy managed to get his laughter under control enough to gasp out. "Bats don't kill."

Instead of easing Wally's fears that seemed to make it worse.

"You're right... he'll do something worse!"

Roy couldn't breathe he was laughing so hard, and he could hear Dick echoing him in the back seat, their combined laughter not quite drowning out Wally's ramblings as he came up with wilder and wilder things that Batman was going to do to him for dating his son.

Dick's laughter slowly faded as he saw how worked up and upset Wally was becoming. So he sat up fully and grabbed the back of his panicking boyfriend's neck, and pulled him into a brief kiss.

It worked and Wally's ramblings faded off.

"Dick?" Wally rested his forehead against Dick's when they finally pulled apart.

"Wally West, I love you with every fiber of my soul and I can promise you two things. "

Wally stared at him in awe, nodding his head.

"One, Bruce is not going to kill you, break your legs, sell you to Luthor for experimentation, or anything else. And two," he paused here for a moment, shifting his hand from his neck, to the side of his face, making sure Wally was looking right at him. "You are never, ever, ever drinking again. Got it?"

Wally nodded enthusiastically, head bobbing. "Got it!"

#birdflash #dick grayson #wally west #dick/wally #roy harper #batman #batman fanfic #nightwing #flash2 #red arrow #arsenal #drunk wally #he's so confused #but he's a cute drunk #roy is the best friend ever #he's gonna show this video at the wedding

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dandelier · 6 years ago

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Be More Chill preview 1

Okay I just went to see BMC last night and I have a bunch of notes in my head so I just wrote them down: -“My mother’s would be thrilled” is always a great line

-Rich freaking out getting squip messages like he just threw himself on that floor and gave it his all (and Jeremy too)

-Karl and Gerard’s mall character flirting with each other

-squip intro song. I don’t remember it because there was just so much going on I couldn’t even. but like after squip enters there was an extra part and I liked it

-squip on top of clothing racks. he just jumped up there and it was fun to watch

-Jason’s expressions for all the scenes. Ex: Jeremy screwing things up, not understanding christine, watching Jeremy talk to Chloe at Halloween. Best. Expressions. Ever. He was always rolling his eyes at Jeremy and shaking his head while surveying the scene when not taking active part and it was awesome

-squip playing with tassels. just playing with tassels. I find it interesting cause it’s kind of a nervous tic, playing with clothes, but he did it.

-evaluating all the characters song. again I don’t remember it that much but the squip basically summed up each of their hidden personalities and how they cover their insecurities.

-Squip throwing confetti of the stage during Guy That Id Kinda Be Into. I almost caught one but sadly it landed one row in front of me. But wow he’s so extra I love it

-Brooke-Jeremy and Christine-Jake loves song before upgrade. They sung how they were perfect for each other and I found it hilarious.

-Brooke saying he made her happy by noticing her first at the mall as opposed to chloe. A sad contrast to later, when she asks if he was just using her to get to the more popular girl

-squip dancing during halloween. His coat thingy swooshed around and it looked SO COOL

-extra Halloween part. At the end of halloween they sang something extra, I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but rich screamed “gasoline” and wow foreshadowing

-Michael’s solo cup costume. Instead of hiding as whatever he did before I can’t remember, he blended in as a solo cup and cmon that’s awesome.

-also rich’s squip didn’t talk to him before he burned the house down

-TIFFANY’S VOCALS

-epic banana throw. do I need to clarify? she just yeeted it to the other side of the stage and wow it was great.

-Gerard in unicorn thingy. It was his pajamas and honestly he looked 10/10, would love o see more

-jason williams and george flying down during smartphone hr. They just came down from the sky and I loved it

-Brooke saying she’s not a puppy you can kick around, and then Chloe calling her over like one

-Christine’s song that inspired the squip, like how she said that people are broken and hurting and she doesn’t know how to fix it, so she’ll just do theater. BUT IN SONG

-SQUIP’S BLACK COSTUME AND MASK LOOKING HAIR PIECE. It was so amazing and wow I really like how they put in a final villain costume that’s so much in contrast with his white ones. Really shows just how dark he’s gotten

-talking abt how he learned he only way to help Jeremy, was to squip everyone. And how the only way he came to the conclusion was because of Jeremy. As if shifting the blame.

-deepening of Jeremy’s voice when squip controlled him. You could like hear a difference, but not like a robotic one, but his voice just dropped.

-Will said the “I’ll fight back!” Line too early and it was just funny to watch

-MICHAEL MAKES AN ENTRANCE HE JUST DID A KOOL AID MAN SMASH THROUGH THE WALL

-Jeremy’s glitching during fight with Michael. When he was talking about how Michael doesn’t care about being cool and is fine the way he is. He was glitching out and it looked so amazing.

-squip dying and breaking the fourth wall by going into the orchestra pit. -also his Japanese chants while dying

-on that note, his Japanese before passing out during do you wanna hang

-all the props were taken off like automatically, sliding offstage. But there was one tree after the hospital scene that was taken off manually and for some reason it killed me

-Michael faking Squip hand motions during voices in my head and freaking out Jeremy, only to show that he was joking it was great

-jeremy asking Christine to do performance art with him in the bowling alley (which she spoke abt earlier) instead of just asking her on a date was ICONIC

#be more chill #bmc #be more chill musical #Jeremy Heere #Michael mell #Rich goranski #squip #Brooke Lohst #Chloe valentine #Jake Dillinger #Jenna rolan #will roland #george Salazar #Gerard canonico #Jason Tam #lauren Marcus #katlyn Carlson #tiffany mann #Britton smith

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surveys-at-your-service · 5 years ago

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Survey #242

“i don’t miss you, i miss the misery.”

How many pairs of converse shoes do you own? Hm... three or four? Any other names your parents planned to give you? The only one I *think* I remember is Katelyn. Thank fuck I dodged that bullet. Which is the most beautiful place you know? The mountains between NC and TN, if I remember correctly. I was very young. What do you work with? I don't work period & I hate it. Have you ever hit an animal with your car? Thank Christ no. Favorite ride at the amusement park? I guess ferris wheels. Favorite beauty essential in your bathroom cabinet? I don't have a "favorite" considering I don't use any regularly. Do you have many followers on your Tumblr? Nah. Do you tan easily? I burn like toast, man. Are you expecting something in the mail? No. Do you inspire others? Idk. What do you collect? Meerkat stuff and Silent Hill merch. Do you like cats? Hell yes!!! Are you healthy? If you excuse my weight and muscle atrophy, I'm actually pretty healthy, according to a billion tests I've gotten done when trying to discover *why* I had such awful pain in my legs. Have you ever been out of state? Yeah. Can you always blame your acts on that you were just too drunk? Fuck no. Three things you try to avoid as much as possible: Well dying lmao, getting hurt, public speaking. How many times have you been overseas? Zero. Do you use to have someone in mind when shopping for underwear? Wait what the fuck- What accent do you have? I don't really have one, although I do have a southern tone with some words sometimes I suppose. I also do say things like "y'all" or "fixing to (do something)," so I use some Southern terminology. Where would you like to live? The mountains of western NC. Sigh. Do you follow fashion? No. Do you have a big butt? Ever heard of Hank Hill Ass Syndrome? I have Hank Hill Ass Syndrome. Your worst job nightmare is: Customer service EVER again. Who’s the coolest rapper in the world? Idk and idc. Do you count how long you and your gf/bf have been together? I mean yeah, I think anniversaries are worth celebration. Healthy relationships aren't always easy to maintain; to remain in love takes forgiveness, loyalty, dedication... all that. It shouldn't be hard, but it takes effort. Have you graduated? High school, anyway. Rihanna or Lady Gaga? Lady Gaga, definitely. Do you use fake eyelashes? No. What’s your worst interior design nightmare: I dunno. Probably just being very crammed? What makeup brands do you use? I don't have any particular ones; I don't wear makeup enough. What’s the worst kind of rejection you could give someone? I genuinely feel it to be how Jason did so with me. Three and a half years in a very serious relationship, and he out of the blue breaks up with me over Facebook because my depression became "too much." Like by NOW I understand I can't shame him for wanting to be happy, but the way he did it was fucking cruel and tore me apart. Like especially when this person was your refuge from daily pain and pretty much your god and future (never make someone that, holy holy HOLY shit don't), that individual just suddenly having enough and breaking contact off like that was emotional murder. Do you have a crush on someone right now? Well yeah, but it's like... a "tamed" one? Is that an accurate word? Like I understand it just can't work right now, but it doesn't stop me from liking her. Is there anyone that many people think is hot, but you don’t? I'm sure there's someone. Do you sort and organize your clothes in some kind of way? Sorta. When somebody intimidates you, how do you usually act around them? Nervous, skittish, more awkward than usual. Is your favorite singer in a band or does he or she ride solo? Brendon Urie is in P!atD and Patrick Stump is in Fall Out Boy. Freddie Mercury was the vocalist of Queen. Did your parents ever hang your old artwork up on the walls? Yeah, Mom still has some up lmao. How often do you wear chapstick? Only when my lips are actually chapped. Do you walk around your house with your shoes on or do you take them off? Definitely off. What is the weirdest obsession you’ve ever had? Collecting stickers, maybe? How many of the seven deadly sins have you fulfilled today? Sloth is on the daily lmao, gluttony, and lust. Should guys always kiss the girl on a first date? Not always, of course not. It depends on the comfort level, and I would ALWAYS ask first. Which band has the corniest music videos? Corniest lyrics? I don't really watch music videos, and idk about lyrics. What subject is/was hardest for you in school? Math. Have any songs ever inspired you to play an instrument? No. Do you ever use Pandora? No. Are you better with creative writing or writing essays? I think I'm good at both, but I probably excel in creative writing. When was the last time you were rick rolled? No clue. What is the weirdest animal you’ve ever seen as a pet? Seen, I guess a chinchilla, though that's not really "weird." If you had to change one, would you rather change your hair or your eyes? Eyes. When was the last time you had a ‘she-mergency’? I had to look this up to be certain what that even was lmao. Probably some time I started my period at school and had to use folded toilet paper or something for a while. Which sounds creepier: sleeping in the attic or the basement? I'd say it depends on the make-up of each and its cleanliness. What was your favorite computer game as a kid? I think it was called The Amazon Trail 3? It was a damaged disc however, so it froze a lot. I think I only finished it once or twice; even knowing it would likely crash, I just liked playing it as far as I could. Have you ever tried on your mom’s wedding ring? No. Any shows on TV that you flat out refuse to start watching? 13 Reasons Why, to name perhaps the #1. What is your opinion on fruitcake? NO. Here’s a tough one. Would you rather marry your cousin or a dog? Oh fuck off, neither. Who did you last dream about? I can't remember what it was about, but I know Mark was in it lmao. Do you have trouble remembering important things? Sometimes. My memory is atrocious. Which animal can you imitate the best? Audibly? Probably a cat. Which is harder - walking in the snow or sand? Sand. I FUCKING hate walking through sand. It's one reason I don't like the beach. Do you like sour candy? oml YES. If anyone, who did you sit with at lunch today? N/A Have you gotten any injuries lately? If so, what and how? Not anything I can remember. Are you a clumsy person? You have no idea. How about disorganized? I'm oddly split down the middle. Last male you talked to in person? My dad. Have you ever had a sunburn? Oh boy, I've gotten past that. Try sun poisoning. Are you thinking about asking anyone out? No. Pink lemonade or regular lemonade? PINK! Chocolate or strawberry milk? Oh boy, chocolate. I tried strawberry as a child and absolutely loathed it beyond words known to man, and I will not be giving it a second chance. I remember it pristinely. Disgusting. What volume is the ringer on your phone? It's on vibrate. Have you ever won a contest on the radio? No. Do you often write on yourself? I never do, 'less we're talking about tattoos lol. Is there writing on the shirt you are currently wearing? No. Frosted flakes or frosted mini wheats? I hate the latter, so I guess frosted flakes, though I don't really remember how they taste. Do mushrooms really add flavor to food? I hate them, so they obviously have enough flavor for me to notice them... What about onions? Yes. Are you a fan of Thai food? I've actually never had Thai food. How about Indian food? Same as above. Have you ever tried sushi? No. In your opinion, who would be the best president? I don't know. What was the last thing you spent more than $20 on? I have no ide- oh wait I paid for Teddy's surgery with... money I don't know from whence it came? Was it financial aid money? Idr. Do you wear actual designated ‘pajamas’ to bed? Pj pants and a tank top. When was the last time you were tempted to do something you’d later regret? Probably take a nap late in the day, ending in me being unable to sleep well at night. Thankfully, I decided against it. Have you ever had feelings for your best friend’s significant other? Yes. Well, not current best friend, but a former one. How many times did you ride in a car today? Zero. Are you comfortable in your own skin? Fuck no. What's absolutely splendid is even when/if I lose the weight I aim to, I'm going to have loose skin that literally might make me hate my body more until I without argument muster up the money to get it surgically removed. Are you in a good mood right now? I'm alright. When was the last time you had an ice cream cone? Been quite a while. Did you eat breakfast this morning? Yeah, had some cereal. Have you ever been in a cemetery at midnight? No. Do you live on your own? No. I don't even think I could tolerate living alone because of my depression and how loneliness can severely trigger it. I'm realistically probably not moving out until it'll be with an s/o. If not, who do you live with? I live with my mom, my sister's dog, and my cat and snake. How old are your siblings, if you have any? I have a lot, and I don't know the ages of all of them, only my two immediate sisters: 26 and 21. Have you ever had a crush on a sibling’s friend? No. Have you donated blood in the last 2 years? No. What was the last free t-shirt you received from? School. Is there anything you are looking forward to at the moment? February 4th, baby. Tattoo gets fixed up by an artist I like far more. Him not having an open booking until then should say enough. Are you an atheist? No. Are you Asian? No. Are you fluent in another language? No. Are you in the military? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Are you an artist? Not professional, but I enjoy making art. Are you a musician? No. Are you an athlete? Oh, hunny- Do you have a favorite flower? I really like orchids. Where was the last place you went that was more than an hour away? Great question... The trip to my therapist is about an hour, but not over. Why were you going there? For therapy. Who was the last person to tell you you looked nice? Probably Mom, idk. Have you ever been to a nude beach? Hell no, I wouldn't even if I was in great shape. How many websites do you have an account for? WHEW I have no idea, A LOT over all the years. Have you ever paid for any kind of online membership? Well, WoW is an online game, so a subscription, though because I obviously don't have my own money, I'm sadly rich enough in the game to use monthly tokens. Do you try clothes on before you buy them? Not always. I try to avoid it because I just hate doing it. What would you do if you knew a robber was in your house? Well I obviously don't know how I'd react on impulse, but I'd imagine myself locking my door and then climbing out the window. Then run like a motherfucker up the road some to a neighbor's, or hide in the nearby woods and call Mom. What’s your favorite type of pizza? Meat lovers sobs in wannabe-vegetarian. Have you ever been afraid of falling in love? Yes, very. Who’d you last see in a tux? I don't know. Do you record any TV shows and watch them later? No. Do you have difficulty pronouncing any words? Yeah, particularly "breakfast." I tend to put a "t" after the "k." Do you have your own computer? Yeah. Out of everyone you know, who was the most heart? My mom. Who’s the bravest person you know? Oh man, that's hard. I know a lot of brave people. Who would you want to have your back if things got tough? More than anyone in the world, Mom. Have your friends ever given you answers to homework, last minute? Yeah. Have you ever dated someone who was real sportsy? No. Have you ever done something terrible, but took forever to feel bad? By this point in time, I consider how I spoke to Jason before going to the ER multiple times absolutely terrible, and yes, it did take a very long time for me to realize just how cruel it was. Now it's fucking HARD to accept I ever said what I did. Have you ever read Shakespeare? Yes. Can anyone really change anyone that doesn’t wanna change? Nope. Do you think that anyone currently has a crush on you? I would assume Sara still does, but again, we know a relationship between us just isn't wise right now. What profession do you admire the most? The most? Man, that's hard to decide. Probably those that risk their lives for others, like firefighters, cops (yes, I am aware some abuse their power, but good cops deserve all the respect in the world), etc. Have you ever made a fake profile, for any reason? I don't believe so, no. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve ever had to learn? Bad things happen to good people and no, the universe does not care. Have you ever questioned your sexuality? Well obviously.

#survey #questions #quiz #random #bored

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bluboothalassophile · 7 years ago

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Undercover

RobRae week should be relabeled DickRae week, the tag is too generic. There are so many Robins! Anyways, it’s not DickRae shipworthy, but it does have DickRae in it, so I hope you enjoy it.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Stephanie was a wild card, and Raven frown as she was pulled along to a club with the fourth Robin.

The sapphire blue dress barely covered Raven’s ass, the kneehigh boots were uncomfortable, and the black leather jacket she had gotten from her boyfriend was too hot for the Raven’s long hair was drawn up, and she felt exposed.

“Come Rae!” Stephanie giggled.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she said to the current Batgirl.

“This is fine, it’s not like we’re doing anything bad!” Stephanie grinned at her.

“You know Jason gets the exact same smile before we’re usually neck deep into trouble,” Raven observed.

“No he doesn’t, now come on, we’re undercover!” Stephanie pulled her along as the bouncer checked their fake IDs but waved them in when his eyes leered over them, she could still feel them on her ass as she walked after Stephanie.

Tonight was simple, she and Stephanie had been roped into going undercover in a club to lure a local mobster dirt bag out who had a thing for threesomes with girls WAY too young for him. Cass would have come in her stead but the Bats had a legitimate worry of Cass reading the situation, being uncomfortable and starting a brawl. Raven had been volunteered in Cass’s place by Stephanie, who had said that she was good under pressure.

Raven had been so stunned when the suggestion had left Stephanie’s mouth that she hadn’t had a chance to say anything different before she found herself being dressed up and painted up for the opp. She had gotten the crash course; despite Bruce’s obvious dislike of this situation, from Bruce himself as to what the objective was. And Barbara had reluctantly loaded her into the Bat’s system.

This was because of Jason, Raven knew that as her boyfriend was probably to blame somehow. It was his family that had crashed into their lives, and now Raven was getting dragged along by Bats. No, technically she was being dragged around by Robins. There was a difference she supposed.

If Bruce, Barbara and Kate had it there way then Raven would have been sealed in Hell long ago.

But Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, Damian, and even Duke (shockingly) had rallied to her defense and said she wasn’t a monster. Now she was here, to be a monster.

Her eyes flicked over the crowd as she felt the club pulsing with the lust, intoxication, and energy, which had her head pounding. However she pushed that to the side as her eyes narrowed on the target.

‘BG, this is not a party, we are here for work!’ Barbara’s voice sliced through the comms.

“Got it killjoy, now chill, we’re on the case,” Stephanie responded and smiled as she took her hand.

Raven held onto Stephanie’s hand as she hurried with the blonde through the crowd.

“So we’ll get him to come with us, then knock him out and…!” Stephanie said.

“I got an easier way,” Raven said then, and Stephanie stopped, blinking her blue eyes rapidly.

“What?”

“Watch and learn, little Robin!” Raven smiled as she walked through the crowd and her eyes narrowed on the pig. The man was disgusting, easily three hundred pound tub of lard, he was disgusting with his greasy hair slicked back, and his beady eyes gleaming as his mouth curved as she sauntered over.

Raven was repulsed by the lust she felt from him, and she slowly filtered that away as she walked by, the man caught her wrist as she was about to pass and slowly she curved around him.

“What’s a pretty lady like you doing here unattended?” the Russian asked.

“Girls night out,” she answered as she leaned over him. She could almost see his lust as she felt it, and slowly she let the demon’s nature slip from her fingers as she toyed with the emotions slowly.

“Is that so?” he mused.

“Uh-huh, me and my best friend,” she giggled as she let Happy out to play the front today. Stephanie bounced over to her, and Raven felt Stephanie’s disgust then.

“HeyyaRae-Rae! Whatcha doin’!?” Stephanie asked with her bubbly persona in place.

“Just chattin’ with this gentleman!” Raven giggled as she stood.

“Another pretty girl!” the Russian observed. Raven felt it then as she sealed his emotions as her puppet and she had him. Hook, line, sinker.

“Wanna join our party then big fella!?” Stephanie asked, leaning down so the man could oogle her breasts.

“Yes,” he licked his lips.

“Come with us then,” Raven purred in his ear before she was up, and the man trailed after them as a harmless puppy.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Raven shoved the man back in the wall, which had him grunting as her red eyes pulsed and the shadows quivered for her. Stephanie had her mask on.

“We know you’re smuggling girls in from Russia, how!?” Stephanie demanded as she slammed her knee into the man’s gut. “Talk!”

“There’s an easier way to do this,” Raven sighed.

“What?”

“Rae, don’t do it!” a voice warned which had her tilting her head up to see Dick above her as he fell down the buildings into the alley.

“It’d be so easy though,” she sighed to Nightwing who landed in the alley.

“Don’t,” he warned her.

“Fine,” she threw her hands up.

“What was she going to do?” Stephanie asked.

“Empath, I could break him and make him talk,” Raven explained.

“Oh? Oh! Is that… huh? Can you teach me that!?” Stephanie giggled as she dropped the man.

“No, it’s not really a learn thing.”

“Raven!” Dick snapped.

“He’s breathing and all yours Nightwing,” she sighed as she waved off Dick and walked with Stephanie.

“You’re good at this,” Stephanie said.

“Empath, difficult not to be.”

“So, I’m just curious, before you and Jay were a thing, did you have a thing for Nightwing?” Stephanie asked.

“He does have that terrific ass,” Raven said sweetly.

“I knew it!” Stephanie gasped. Raven smiled as she walked with Stephanie. “Raven, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship! And you’re totally in love with my brother so I mush be your friend!”

“Birds of a feather, must stick together,” Raven decided.

“It’s a Robin and Raven thing,” Stephanie decided.

“Probably. And next time, we should get Nightwing to go undercover at a strip club!” Raven suggested.

“You have been hanging around Red Hood WAY too long.”

“Have Not!”

“You’re practically married to him.”

“Am Not!” Stephanie roared with laughter at that.

#bluboothalassophile #one shot #fanfic #calm in the storm #raven #stephanie brown #richard grayson #robrae week 2018 #jayrae #redrae #raex #friendship

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xoheatherkw · 7 years ago

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What The Future Holds

My @riverdalesecretsanta gift for Christina, @makeitreignonem

Or where Archie basically handed me the prompt of the core four living in NYC after graduation (from 2x07)

Read on AO3

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Betty pulled her scarf a little tighter as a gust of wind sent a shiver down her spine. They had unseasonably warm weather through Thanksgiving, and in the span of a few days the weather had caught up to the season as the temperatures dropped.

Just a week ago she was wearing shorts and t-shirts. Veronica insisted they needed to get some fresh air in Central Park to enjoy the small amount of free time they had between when classes ended for Thanksgiving break and before they headed back to Riverdale. Their professors had the decency to have homework due prior to Thanksgiving instead of immediately after the break, so they were all able to take a much needed breather and relax for a few precious days.

By the time they all returned to New York City, Betty needed to layer with scarves and sweaters underneath her winter coat.

Not that she minded.

The fall was her favorite time of year. She loved watching the leaves change to shades of orange and red, the crisp scent in the air, and awaiting the first snow fall of the year.

The time of year also meant that Christmas was right around the corner, and it was her favorite holiday. There was something so peaceful about decorating the tree and the baking. Everything from pecan pie to sugar cookies and jelly thumbprints.

Betty even enjoyed the holiday with her family now, ever since Alice has toned down her disapproval to her daughters. That could be because Polly and Alice had gotten in a yelling match over Polly’s parenting. Ever since Polly threatened to never let Alice see her grandchildren again, Alice had really turned over a new leaf. She was actually pleasant. At least most of the time.

Now Betty was embarking on a new tradition. She was about to see the tree lighting at the Rockefeller Center for the first time. Well, the first time she’s seen it that wasn’t televised.

If nothing else, Betty Cooper was prepared. She arrived immediately after her last class of the day and was saving a spot for her and Jughead.

Betty was in the middle of mentally cataloguing her next assignments that were due. Homework for Western Civilization and Intro to Sociology were done. She just needed to work on her final papers for Intro to Journalism and Creative Writing next. At least when those papers were done, those classes would be done for the semester. Then she just had to worry about finals.

“Hey there Juliet.”

Betty smiled at his voice and turned to embrace him in a hug. Some of the tension left her shoulders, not even registering that thinking about finals would have that effect. Just the sound of his voice could do wonders for her anxiety over classes.

"Hey there Romeo," she spoke into his exposed neck. He had his plaid scarf draped on either side of his neck, not even bothering to properly wrap it around his neck. "How are you not cold, Jug?"

He laughed as he tightened his grip around her waist. "What can I say, my metabolism is what keeps me warm."

Betty pulled back, still keeping her arms behind his neck. "How was work?"

"You know, the same. Jaded masters students drowning their sorrows, and freshmen with fake ID's. Just a typical Wednesday night. How was class?" He adjusted the scarf around Betty's neck, trying to cover more of her skin.

"Not too bad. I just wrapped up my final assignment for Intro to Journalism, and then I just have to edit my Creative Writing assignment. And then I just have to worry about finals." It was exhausting just even getting that all out, let alone actually dealing with her classes and the massive amount of information she had to memorize for the aforementioned finals.

He brought his arms back around her waist and pulled her tight. He leaned down so their foreheads rested gently against the other's.

"I'm sure you'll kick some serious ass, Cooper."

"Thanks, Jones... You know, I'm looking forward to Christmas break. Which is a little disheartening considering we just got back from Thanksgiving." She began playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. "Hey, were you able to request off for some of Christmas?"

Jughead let out a sigh. Unfortunately bartending near a college campus in a busy city did not guarantee time off like it would in college towns, ones that pretty much shut down during Christmas breaks because ninety-five percent of their customers were college students. "About that, I spoke to the manager and the only days we're guaranteed off are Christmas Eve and Christmas. New Year’s Eve is their busiest night, so Archie and I both have to work."

The smile immediately fell from her face. She knew it was a long shot, but it was worth him asking. "It's alright, at least we have those two days. You'll come back to Riverdale, right?"

"Of course. I didn't even get to the best part. Even though I have to work New Year’s Eve, Archie and I were able to get a few extra days off. I have off the 26th and 27th, and Archie got the day before Christmas Eve off. So yeah, I'll be in Riverdale for Christmas."

She tilted her head up and pressed her lips against his briefly. "That's the best Christmas present a girl could ask for," she whispered against his lips.

Their breaths intermingled, and the added warmth caused a shiver to go down her spine.

He pulled back and ran his hands up and down her arms, eventually taking her hands in his own. "Hey, I have news," he said softly.

She beamed at him. "Oh yeah? What kind of news?" she said hopefully.

"You remember the meeting I had with the publisher about two weeks back?"

She nodded in understanding.

He had finished his first book last year on Jason Blossom's murder and its effect on their small town. He had been reaching out to publishers ever since graduation, hoping to get signed to a book deal. He thought it was a no brainer for a publishing company, considering he was nearly done with his second book on the serial killer that ravaged their hometown in their sophomore year of high school, and he had an outline for a third book- his first fiction novel rather than the retelling of the atrocities of their town with pep.

"Well I heard back from them today," he said solemnly. "Apparently they don't feel that a nineteen-year-old kid with no life experience was a worthwhile investment. They thought I was too risky." He rolled his eyes at that. It wasn’t the first time he's heard that exact feedback, even though multiple publishers said his book had 'potential.'

She squeezed his hands. "I'm so sorry Jug. It'll all work out one day."

He inched forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "Thank you, Betts." She felt as well as heard the words against her lips. "But I do have good news, kind of related to the publisher turning me down," he continued.

She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to proceed.

"Well I've been thinking that while I don't agree with their presumption of be being inexperienced with writing, I figured maybe I could take some classes and get my degree while I work, both at the bar and on my writing... I actually already applied and got accepted into the local community college for next semester. I can take a few classes during the day and work in the evenings."

He had already worked out that he could afford about two to three classes per semester on their payment plan. And if everything went well, he could look at transferring to NYU in a few years.

Her face lit up in excitement. "Jug, that's fantastic! Why didn't you tell me sooner? Did you send in your acceptance yet?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't want to jinx it. I just got the acceptance today actually. I need to send in my acceptance by December 15th along with a deposit for my tuition."

"I'm so proud of you, with or without the college degree."

He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. "I know," he whispered affectionately.

"Oh look," she pointed off to their side. "I think they're about to start."

Jughead shifted so he could pull Betty next to him.

It didn't take long for the announcer to kick off the tree lighting ceremony. Betty's attention was fully focused straight ahead, but Jughead couldn't help but glance over at her every few minutes.

When it was finally time to light the tree, Betty let out a smile gasp and her smile reached her eyes. "It's beautiful," she said quietly.

"Yeah it is," Jughead agreed. Although he was watching the expression on her face light up brighter than any tree lighting ceremony could hold a candle to. He pulled her closer and just enjoyed the moment.

After a few minutes, Betty turned to him. "I don't suppose you'd want to accompany me back home?"

"You know you don't need to ask. I have to make sure you get home safe." He interlaced his hand with her gloved one and they started off for the subway.

"And I keep wondering who will keep you safe on your way home?"

He threw a pointed look her way. "I'd like to see the day that someone jumps a former gang member. Don't forget, there's muscles hiding under all this flannel," he remarked.

A light blush appeared on her cheeks. "Oh, I didn't forget."

"And I was actually hoping that you'd stay over tonight,” she continued. “Ronnie is staying with Archie at your place... And I was wondering if you'd help me decorate the tree?" She flashed her pouty face at him, hoping that he wouldn't say no. "I'll even make cookies," she elaborated.

"Why didn't you lead with that? What kind of cookies are we talking?"

"Chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles."

"I get two types of cookies! You got yourself a deal."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The chocolate chip cookies had just come out of the large double oven and were cooling on the counter. She then put all four dozen snickerdoodles in.

She set the timer for twelve minutes and turned just in time to see Jughead juggling a very hot cookie as he took a bite. "You literally saw me take those out like thirty seconds ago," she commented while shaking her head.

While Jughead attempted to finish the one cookie, rather carefully, Betty started cleaning up the counter and started on washing the dishes. They had accumulated quite the pile of dishes, and the dishwasher was already full and running. By the time the first mixing bowl was clean, Jughead took over drying the dishes while Betty washed.

It wasn't long before the dishes were cleaned, that the timer went off and all the cookies were cooling on the counter.

"What do you say, time to decorate the tree?" She asked hopefully. She grabbed Jughead by the wrist and led him to the living room, but not before he could grab two chocolate chip cookies on his way out of the kitchen.

He quickly scarfed down the cookies before observing his surroundings. "A growing boy has got to eat, Betts. Especially if I'm expected to do physical labor," he said playfully.

He looked up at the probably ten-foot tall tree that now took up residence in the corner of Betty and Veronica's living room, near the windows that overlooked Central Park. It seemed proportional to their very large (and rent free) penthouse apartment in Veronica's father's building. Anything smaller would likely look like a miniature tree in this setting.

"No assembly required, Jug. It's really just decorating."

"Did Veronica hire someone to cut a tree for you both, and then bring it up here?" He reached out to touch a branch, noticing a slight plastic texture that he didn't expect.

"Oh, Veronica wouldn't let me get a real tree. Something about not bringing a spider infested tree into our lovely apartment with expensive furniture. But it looks real, doesn't it? It was the best she could buy on Glamazon," she said.

"Then why does it look like, and smell, like a real pine tree?"

"She got the scent infused tree," she said casually with a shrug of her shoulders.

Jughead busted out laughing, clutching his side. "Scent... Infused... Tree," he got out between laughs.

Betty giggled along with him, not realizing the absurdity of such an item until now.

After the laughter died down a bit Betty said, "Well you know Veronica. If she can imagine it, she can probably pay someone to make it." Betty skirted around Jughead to one of the living room closets and pulled out a box of decorations. "Will you grab the other boxes?"

He eyed up the rather large box that Betty leveraged her weight to push it across the hardwood floors. "You mean there's more?"

"Yeah, two more," she responded and pointed towards the same closet. "Once I told Veronica I wanted to put up a tree, she went a little overboard on ornaments. And lights. And tinsel. You know Veronica, she goes all in for everything."

Jughead brought out both boxes, and they got started on decorating.

Within an hour, the tree was decorated with silver and gold tinsel, candy canes, and more ornaments that they could count. Betty put the final touches on the tree with two hand decorated ornaments that she and Veronica made one night as a destressing activity on campus. They each tried to paint a poinsettia, but Betty's ended up looking more like a Gerber Daisy. It didn't matter, because she cherished it anyway. They even wrote "B & V, BFF's forever <3" underneath their respective painted plants, Betty chose silver and Ronnie wrote hers in gold. Two very different yet complementary colors, just like B and V themselves.

She stepped back to admire their work. "What do you think?"

"I think that I've worked up an appetite."

She laughed. "Jug, when don't you work up an appetite?"

"What can I say, I'm a bottomless pit when it comes to food."

"Well I've known that since we were three and you ate the entire plate of cookies I brought over. They were supposed to be for Archie and Fred too. Do you remember? My mom was so embarrassed that she ran back over to the house to bring over another dozen cookies."

“I couldn’t help it Betts! Those were some delicious cookies.”

The doorbell rang, effectively interrupting their reminiscing of their childhood. Or in Jughead’s case, reminiscing about mouthwatering chocolate chip cookies.

“Who could that be?” Betty asked. Veronica wasn’t planning on coming back that night, and she certainly wouldn’t ring the doorbell.

“About that. I ordered us pizza,” Jughead replied. He rushed off to open the door, quickly signing for the order and accepting the three boxes in exchange for the signed receipt. He kicked the door shut with his foot and flipped the deadbolt.

“Don’t worry Betts, I got your favorite.”

She glared at him briefly. “Extra cheese? With pepperoni?”

“You know it. Besides, I worked up quite the appetite from all this decorating. It was quite the strenuous activity.” He walked into the kitchen and got out plates.

She smirked at him. “I guess I could eat dinner,” she admitted.

“See, I was thinking ahead. Why don’t you pull up Netflix and I’ll bring out the food in a second?”

“You got it.” She placed a swift kiss on his cheek before practically skipping off to the living room.

Jughead put all the garlic knots and marinara sauce on one plate for them to share, put two slices on another plate for Betty, and managed to stack four slices on his own plate. He closed the boxes and put all three in the fridge. He also ordered two slices of their famous cheesecake. He knew that Betty would be willing to share one piece of cheesecake, but he could probably eat two just by himself. So, he thought one each would be a good compromise.

He picked up the plates, very carefully, and joined Betty in the living room.

They ate in comfortable silence, as Betty put on one of the many rom-com Christmas movies she recently added to her wishlist. After they finished eating, Betty snuggled into Jughead’s side and he put his arm around her.

She was content to watch the movie, and didn’t speak until the credits were rolling. The movie was predictable, but just put her in the Christmas spirit even more.

“Hey Juggie?” She turned to him and tilted her head upwards to look at him.

“Yeah, babe.”

"I was wondering if we could make tonight our little Christmas tradition? The Rockefeller center, then a cozy night in decorating and baking. If you had a good time tonight, I mean." She nervously bit her lip and waited for his response.

He smiled at her. She always had this little crinkle between her eyebrows when she was nervous, and he thought it was absolutely adorable. "Of course, this can be our tradition Betts. And for the record, I had a great time tonight. As long as we're together, that's all I really need."

"Thanks, Juggie. It really means a lot to me." She paused to look him in the eyes before continuing. "It's just that my mom had this tradition with Polly and I, at least until we were teenagers and shopping with mom wasn't as exciting as hanging out with our friends. We went Christmas shopping in the city every year, but we went in the beginning of November before all the holiday crowds. We always begged her to take us to see the tree lighting ceremony, or even go sometime after it was lit. But she never wanted to deal with the crowds, and not to mention that the tree lighting ceremony is on a weekday... I just- I really appreciate you coming with me tonight."

"I'm just glad I have you to make new Christmas memories with... It probably won't come as a surprise to you, but the Jones family didn't really have any Christmas traditions. I have vague recollections of a few Christmases where we put up this small tree. But ever since my mom left, my dad ignored the holidays for the most part. In fact, the only reason we celebrated at all was because Fred invited us over for the major holidays."

"I'm sorry, Jug." She leaned in and placed a light kiss on his lips. He quickly deepened what was meant to be a peck, pulling her into his lap and playing with the edge of her shirt. Her hands instinctively went to the sides of his face, gently grazing his cheeks. He pulled her flush against him and tightened his grip. She sighed happily into the kiss, her fingers playing with his hair at the edge of his beanie.

He pulled back slightly, breathless and drunk off their kiss. She tried to chase after his lips, letting out a slight groan from the lack of contact. He just smiled and brushed the few stray hairs out of her face. "You could probably ask me to dress up like an elf for a Christmas party and I'd say yes," he confessed. He ran his fingers up the side of her neck and framed her face. He kissed her briefly, before noticing the clever gleam in her eyes. "I wasn't actually serious about that Betts."

She laughed kissed him on the cheek. "I figured you were joking, but the mental image that popped into my head was too funny. You would look really cute with one of those red and green elf hats with the jingling ball on the end," she said gesturing with her hand.

"You're just lucky you're so irresistible."

"I know it," she confirmed. She stood up and pulled him by the hand. "Let's go to bed."

"Wait, I got dessert," he protested but continued to follow her towards her bedroom.

"That can be breakfast."

He chuckled and said, "I won't say no to cheesecake for breakfast."

~ ~ A few weeks later ~ ~

Veronica was curled up to Archie on her couch, running her fingers through his hair. They were waiting for Betty and Jughead to come home from his shift at work, so they could exchange presents before going back home to Riverdale for Christmas.

"Hey Ronnie, I have something to tell you," Archie started.

"What is it, Archiekins?"

"Well you remember me auditioning for that little bar on the edge of campus?" He paused, and she nodded in confirmation. "I got it, Ronnie. I'm on the schedule every Friday, and if the crowd likes me they said I might be able to get a slot on Saturday too." He beamed at her, thankful that something had finally come through after months and months of rejections or hearing that he wasn't the right 'fit' for them.

She threw her arms around his neck in congratulations. "Archie, that's fantastic news! I knew you could do it. When's your first show?" She pulled back, beaming at him.

"It's actually this Friday, right after Christmas. We'll be back here anyway, so it's perfect timing."

"You'll do great."

She leaned back and brought her hands up to the sides of his neck. "So, I know we were going to wait for Betty and Jughead. But... What do you think about us exchanging gifts now?"

Archie grinned wide when he answered, "Sounds like a great idea." He practically jumped up and retrieved his present from underneath the tree. He did a quick scan of the presents and found a silver gift bag with green and red tissue paper, with her handwriting with 'to: Archie <3.' He joined Veronica on the couch, and handed her his present wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper.

"You first," he said, placing the present in her hands.

"Well if you insist." She carefully unwrapped it, noting the (rather large) silver frame first. When she inspected it closer, she saw the lyrics to the song he had written for her, and it was handwritten in Archie's neatest writing. She brought her hand over her heart. "Archie it's perfect, thank you."

She set down the frame on the coffee table. She was already making a mental note to put the frame in her bedroom above the fireplace. "Okay, you're next," she said.

Archie nodded and shifted the tissue paper until he found a simple frame with a flyer in it. He read over it, realizing it was the flyer for his first show. In tiny scrawl on the bottom, it read 'Archie's big break, xo Veronica.'

"How did you get this? The manager said he wouldn't have it for a few days," he asked.

“I may have persuaded the manager to request a rush order on the flyers, if I paid for it... And I gave him a tip, so he wouldn't tell you they were ready.”

Archie hadn't wanted any of the Lodge influence for his music career. But that didn't mean Veronica couldn't use her influence (or money) to get the scoop on his career after the manager already decided to add Archie to their Friday timeslot.

“Oh, and I have a small stack of flyers to bring home for your family,” she added.

“It's great Ronnie, thank you so much.” He set it down next to her gift and embraced her in a tight hug.

She leaned in and kissed him. He pulled her flush against him and deepened the kiss with a swipe of his tongue across her lips. She swung her leg over his hips to straddle him while his hands ran up her back in an attempt to unhook her bra. She smiled into the kiss and loosened his shirt from his jeans. She had it nearly halfway up his torso, when they heard someone clear their throat.

“Are we interrupting?” Jughead asked.

They broke apart quickly, both their cheeks flushed and breathing heavy.

Archie said, “No, of course not.”

Veronica cleared her throat. “Not like that's the first time you two have interrupted,” she said under her breath.

“What was that?” Jughead asked.

“Nothing.” She stood up and pulled the hem of her plum dress down a bit. “Well, we ordered in pizza and it should be here relatively soon. I'll get us some sparkling cider to celebrate our little Christmas get together.” She ran off to the kitchen.

While the majority of them were unopposed to underage drinking (even Betty on rare occasions), and Veronica had the means to acquire such alcoholic beverages, she knew that Jughead never wanted to go down his father's path. And the best way he knew how was to never start drinking in the first place. So as to not cause issues, she decided on sparkling cider.

Jughead and Betty took off their coats and got settled in for the evening.

Veronica's voice carried from the kitchen. “Hey Arch, can you come help me carry the glasses?”

He nodded at the pair on the couch and said, “Be right back.”

They were back in the living room within a minute and Veronica took one long look over Betty. “You're a total smoke show tonight, B!” She was wearing a red dress with a deep v neck. They bought it when they went shopping a few weeks back, for their newly minted shopping tradition for Christmas. But Veronica hadn't had the full experience of the dress combined with Betty's hair down in waves and some light makeup.

Her cheeks flushed, and she accepted the glass Veronica held out to her. “Thanks, V.”

Jughead wrapped his arm around her, and accepted the remaining glass with his free hand. “Yeah, she caused quite the scene at the bar,” he exclaimed.

“Do tell,” Veronica inquired.

Archie popped the cork on the bottle and very carefully poured into their glasses.

“It was nothing, really,” Betty insisted.

“I wouldn't consider the bouncer having to throw out one of our regulars, nothing,” Jughead continued.

“Wait, which regular?” Archie asked. Being close to campus, they had quite a number of regulars from students to professors on occasion.

“Johnathan, he's in one of the master's programs at NYU. He was very drunk and couldn't understand why I couldn't serve Betty, even though he was paying for her drink. He ended up shoving me a little and the bouncer had to throw him out and call him a cab.”

“Well, why don't we lighten the mood and exchange presents?” Betty asked.

“Now that is an idea I can get behind,” Veronica exclaimed. “Actually, I have a little something extra that I wanted to give the three of you first.” Veronica stood and grabbed her purse from its hook in the entryway, before returning to her seat next to Archie on the loveseat. She pulled out four envelopes, with her delicate scrawl on three of them, leaving the unmarked one for herself.

“Veronica, you know we agreed on a $20 limit,” Betty protested.

“I know, I know. So, let's just call this an early birthday present for everyone. Or my personal favorite reason of just because,” she smirked. She passed out the envelopes to each of her friends and gave them a minute to read the contents.

They each pulled out a plane ticket and a brochure for an all-inclusive resort in St. Bart's in the Caribbean. She strategically chose the pamphlet that didn't list prices, although she knew that she couldn't prevent her friends from googling. Sure, it was pricier than your typical spring break vacation, but Veronica was not your typical student seeking a bargain vacation. Her friends would be a little harder to sway.

She watched as they processed the information she had given them, ranging from elated (Archie) to hesitant but cautiously excited (Betty) to downright miserable (Jughead).

They all spoke at nearly the same time.

“This is great Ronnie, thanks!” Archie exclaimed. He placed a swift kiss on her cheek.

“V are you sure?” Betty asked, a smile spreading across her face.

“I cannot accept this Veronica, it's too much,” Jughead argued.

“I knew you'd say that, and I came prepared,” Veronica began. She focused her attention on Jughead before continuing. “First of all, when you are friends with Veronica Lodge, you have to accept that sometimes you'll get extravagant gifts. Secondly, it will be a well-deserved vacation by that time in our semester. Thirdly, I don't know about all of you, but I'll want a break from the snowfall.”

“But what about work? I can't just request off when they're already short staffed during breaks,” Jughead protested.

She lifted a finger to tell him she wasn't quite done. “If you would let me finish, I already arranged for both of your shifts to be covered. Luckily for us, it's a first come, first serve on vacation requests. And with Christmas right around the corner, no one else has thought ahead to request off for spring break.”

Veronica didn't mention the fact that she bribed the assistant manager to cover Jughead's shifts, as only Archie's was approved due to the number of people required during a normal day. “And lastly,” she continued, “-the tickets are non-refundable. So, there's no point in arguing.” She sent a satisfying smirk his way.

Betty nudged Jughead's knee with her own. “You do know there's no point in arguing, Juggie. You eventually agreed to her post-graduation trip to Ocean City. And I'm sure Veronica will treat you to all the food you can eat.”

Jughead's stomach grumbled at the memory of the few buffets they went to, the pizza, the Mexican food, and oh the mouthwatering and fresh made donuts from the Fractured Prune. “Fine,” he acquiesced.

If Veronica had it her way, they would have gone to Miami. But Betty insisted that she wanted to be close to family, since Polly’s twins had come down with a bad case of the flu. She wanted to be close by in case Polly needed help. So, Veronica had compromised on a short trip down to the shore, and assured Betty that her father’s jet would be available if absolutely necessary (it wasn’t, but Betty appreciated the thought).

“I, for one, am looking forward to this vacation. Thank you, Ronnie,” Archie exclaimed.

“You're welcome Archiekins. Oh! I almost forgot. We're going Saturday until Friday, and we'll be back in plenty of time for your show,” Veronica said.

“Wait, what's this about a show?” Betty asked.

“Oh! I got booked for a weekly Friday timeslot at one of the bars by work. My first show is this upcoming Friday. You guys will be there to support me, right?” Archie inquired.

“Of course!” Betty agreed.

“Sure thing, man,” Jughead added.

“Thanks guys. It really means a lot,” Archie said.

“He'll do great,” Veronica commented. “Archie Andrews will be the next big star from New York, just you wait.”

Jughead shifted in his seat and pulled Betty closer. “Well if we're sharing good news, I have some of my own.” She leaned into his shoulder, having already heard the news a bit earlier that night.

“What is it? Don't keep us in suspense for too long,” Veronica insisted.

“I just got a publishing offer for my first book. And if it does well, they'll extend the offer to include a second book deal.” A smile spread across his face and Betty patted his knee with her hand, letting it rest there.

“Congrats Jug!” Archie said, lightly slapping him on the back.

“Congratulations Jug,” Veronica added. "Look at us B. We're dating the next up and coming stars in the music and writing industry."

“I think this calls for more cider,” Archie insisted. He topped off everyone's drinks just in time for pizza to arrive. Veronica answered the door, signing for the delivery, and brought the boxes and plates to the coffee table.

In the middle of their meal Veronica asked, “Did you two exchange gifts already?” She motioned at Betty and Jughead.

"Yeah, we did," Betty offered with a blush.

~ ~ Earlier that evening ~ ~

Betty was perched on one of the bar stools, waiting for Jughead to gather his things so they could meet up with Veronica and Archie for their gift exchange before going back to Riverdale tomorrow.

She didn't have to wait long before Jughead placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and asked, “You ready to get out of here?”

She chuckled and nodded, accepting his outstretched hand. They exited the bar and turned towards the subway station.

“Hey,” Jughead started. “Do you maybe want to swing by my place first?” He preferred to give her his gift in private, not wanting to share his news with the other half of their core friends just yet.

“Sure,” she replied simply.

They spent the rest of the walk in companionable silence, just enjoying each other's presence.

They arrived at his place within a few minutes, the small apartment he shared with Archie in the East Village.

Jughead unlocked his door and ushered her inside.

“Listen, I know we're doing our gift exchange at your place, but I wanted to give you yours first.” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, before taking off his coat and placing it on its hook.

She copied his actions, setting her coat on the next hook.

She noted his nervous tick. “You alright Juggie?” She brought her hands up and placed them on the sides of his face, her thumbs gently caressing his cheeks.

“Yeah, I'm more than alright actually.” He brought his hands up to cover hers and leaned into her touch. “I got a book deal, Betts!”

“What?! That's fantastic news Jug. I knew it would all work out one day.” She smiled at him, excited that it was finally coming together.

“Yeah they wanted to give me the good news ahead of Christmas. I have a meeting to go over the details after we get back to the city.” He leaned in and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips. “I don't think I could have done this without you, Betts.”

She pulled back and sent him that sly little smirk when she loves to prove him wrong. “You would have survived just fine without me. I just offered a little encouragement is all.”

He ran his hands down her sides and resting on her lower back. “Agree to disagree, Betts. Because if it weren't for you believing in me, I'd probably still be in the Serpents with no exit strategy in sight. And I'm so thankful that you didn't give up on me, on us, even when I did. I love you, Betty Cooper.”

“Jughead Jones, I love you. And I'm just glad we both saw reason.” She shifted her hands behind his neck, tugging on the hair that escaped his beanie. “So, what's this I hear about exchanging gifts?” She raised a brow at him and swiftly kissed him on the cheek.

He chuckled and extracted himself from their embrace. Having already planned on exchanging all their gifts at the Lodge-Cooper residence, he had them all in his messenger bag. He picked up the rather hefty box, wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper (he and Archie didn't get gifts for that many people, so they split the cost of one roll of wrapping paper).

“Here,” he said, handing her the gift.

She accepted it and dug around in her own oversized purse that she switched to for this very occasion. “Why don't we exchange at the same time?” She pulled out a carefully wrapped package, with snowmen and penguins interspersed on a green background, and handed it off to him.

“If you insist.”

They each unwrapped their presents. Jughead was a little quicker, revealing a leather-bound journal with the initials J.J. in the bottom right hand corner. “Betty, I love it.” He had mentioned on a few occasions that he wanted to carry around a journal, particularly for late night shifts at work or if he traveled through the slightly shadier parts of town. He hadn't wanted his laptop to make him more of a target, but still wanted to be able to write down ideas. He could handle himself, he just didn't want a damaged laptop as a result of the smug criminal that would try his luck with a former gang member.

Her gasp broke him out of his thoughts. “Jug, is this what I think it is?” She ran her fingers across the title and by-line. Currently called 'Untitled' by Jughead Jones. He always had the hardest time coming up with titles, and was hoping he could get some feedback from Betty over the break and that they could come up with a title together.

She turned to the first page, reading his dedication. 'To my partner in crime-solving, without whom this case would likely be unsolved.' She started to tear up and blinked a few times to prevent them from falling. “Jug, I-”

“I finished it a few days ago. I was hoping you could look over it during the break. You are my favorite editor.”

“I'm you're only editor,” she argued.

“Exactly, and therefore my favorite. You're the only one I trust with this, Betts.”

She hugged the manuscript to her chest. “This is perfect, Juggie. I get to read your soon to be, second bestselling novel, and I get to edit it. What more could an aspiring journalist and girlfriend want?”

“You're not just an aspiring journalist, you are a journalist. Your work at The Blue and Gold got you a full ride. I think the admissions office would agree with me on that,” he reminded her.

She lightly shoved his shoulder. “Who am I to argue with your wise words?” She beamed at him, and was looking forward to the break more than ever.

“Hey, what do you say we get back to Park Avenue?”

She nodded. “I guess we should.”

She carefully placed the manuscript in her bag, underneath the other wrapped presents.

They left hand in hand, holding onto each other just a little tighter than they had earlier in the evening.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They spent the evening laughing and catching up, eating an enormous amount of pizza (mainly Jughead), and exchanged the remaining gifts.

The respective couples were cuddled up on the couch and loveseat, enjoying each other's company and the last bit of peace and quiet before going to see their families the next day.

“Oh!” Betty exclaimed. “I do have a little extra gift for the couples here. It may not be a trip to an all-inclusive resort, but- well let me just get them.” She jumped up and retrieved the last two gifts from her bag.

“B, you know the cost doesn’t matter to us. I just like our vacations so we can all spend some time together. And if happens to be in a fabulous resort, then that’s just an added bonus,” Veronica insisted.

Betty didn’t have time to wrap the presents as they just arrived that day, so she just handed them each to Jughead, and Veronica and Archie.

They took in their gifts, ornaments she made on ShutterBug. They were just a simple picture of each couple on a metal frame with scalloped edges, and the year underneath in delicate text.

“B, this is the sweetest,” Veronica gushed.

“This is great, Betty,” Archie added.

“Thanks babe,” Jughead said sweetly.

Betty shrugged her shoulders, repeating something Kevin had mentioned to her on a phone call just the other day. “As Kevin would say, it’s not a Christmas tree without the classic bughead and varchie ornaments,” she said with a giggle.

“Oh, speaking of Kevin, will he be home for Christmas too?” Veronica asked.

“Yes, we’re actually meeting up with him tomorrow at Pop’s,” Betty replied. “Allow me?” She motioned for the ornaments back, and went to place them on the tree. She nestled them on branches near their B and V ornaments, closer to the top of the tree. She returned to her seat next to Jughead, snuggling back into his embrace.

“Hey guys,” Archie started. “Did you ever really think we'd end up here? In New York, you girls going to school, Jug about to become the next best-selling author, and me playing my music.” He smiled and pulled Veronica a bit tighter.

“I always knew I'd make it back here one day, Archiekins. I just never imagined I'd have the greatest friends with me when I did,” Veronica admitted. She leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

Betty squeezed Jughead's hand a little tighter and placed a featherlight kiss on his cheek. “I knew it would all work out,” she said.

Jughead thought back on their sophomore year, which was undoubtedly his worst. From living in the drive in, to his dad's trial for covering up Jason's murder, and the Black Hood torturing Betty as well as the town. But then he remembered how hard Betty fought for him and how she wouldn't give up on him, even when he gave up on them. Betty was the light in his world of darkness, and she was the one who convinced him to get out of the Serpents. She saw their future together, and how it was slipping out of their grasp day by day, as long as he remained in that gang. With her help, he finally got out of that toxic (and occasionally illegal) life, as well as helping take down Penny, so his father could escape that life too. She was the sole reason he was able to focus on his book instead of running drugs, and she may have inspired his father to stay on the straight and narrow. Now, his father was working with Fred Andrews again, and going back to school.

He knew that Betty would disagree, but he didn't deserve her. Although she constantly reminded him that his past didn't define him, but rather the actions that he took to deal with his past.

He turned to meet her bright green eyes that shined so bright, especially in the soft glow of the Christmas decorations. He pulled her closer and pressed his lips firmly against hers. “Yeah, I did.”

#riverdale secret santa #bughead fanfiction #varchie fanfiction #bughead #varchie #the core four go to nyc #bughead fic #varchie fic #betty x jughead #veronica x archie #riverdale fanfiction #riverdale #xoheatherkwfics

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riverdalesecretsanta · 7 years ago

Text

What The Future Holds

For Christina, @makeitreignonem I really loved writing this bughead and varchie in NYC for Christmas, so I hope you enjoy it!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By the time they all returned to New York City, Betty needed to layer with scarves and sweaters underneath her winter coat.

Not that she minded.

The fall was her favorite time of year. She loved watching the leaves change to shades of orange and red, the crisp scent in the air, and awaiting the first snow fall of the year.

Now Betty was embarking on a new tradition. She was about to see the tree lighting at the Rockefeller Center for the first time. Well, the first time she’s seen it that wasn’t televised.

If nothing else, Betty Cooper was prepared. She arrived immediately after her last class of the day and was saving a spot for her and Jughead.

“Hey there Juliet.”

“Hey there Romeo,” she spoke into his exposed neck. He had his plaid scarf draped on either side of his neck, not even bothering to properly wrap it around his neck. “How are you not cold, Jug?“

He laughed as he tightened his grip around her waist. "What can I say, my metabolism is what keeps me warm.”

Betty pulled back, still keeping her arms behind his neck. “How was work?”

“You know, the same. Jaded masters students drowning their sorrows, and freshmen with fake ID’s. Just a typical Wednesday night. How was class?” He adjusted the scarf around Betty’s neck, trying to cover more of her skin.

“Not too bad. I just wrapped up my final assignment for Intro to Journalism, and then I just have to edit my Creative Writing assignment. And then I just have to worry about finals.” It was exhausting just even getting that all out, let alone actually dealing with her classes and the massive amount of information she had to memorize for the aforementioned finals.

He brought his arms back around her waist and pulled her tight. He leaned down so their foreheads rested gently against the other’s.

“I’m sure you’ll kick some serious ass, Cooper.”

“Thanks, Jones… You know, I’m looking forward to Christmas break. Which is a little disheartening considering we just got back from Thanksgiving.” She began playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. “Hey, were you able to request off for some of Christmas?”

Jughead let out a sigh. Unfortunately bartending near a college campus in a busy city did not guarantee time off like it would in college towns, ones that pretty much shut down during Christmas breaks because ninety-five percent of their customers were college students. “About that, I spoke to the manager and the only days we’re guaranteed off are Christmas Eve and Christmas. New Year’s Eve is their busiest night, so Archie and I both have to work.”

The smile immediately fell from her face. She knew it was a long shot, but it was worth him asking. “It’s alright, at least we have those two days. You’ll come back to Riverdale, right?”

“Of course. I didn’t even get to the best part. Even though I have to work New Year’s Eve, Archie and I were able to get a few extra days off. I have off the 26th and 27th, and Archie got the day before Christmas Eve off. So yeah, I’ll be in Riverdale for Christmas.”

She tilted her head up and pressed her lips against his briefly. “That’s the best Christmas present a girl could ask for,” she whispered against his lips.

Their breaths intermingled, and the added warmth caused a shiver to go down her spine.

He pulled back and ran his hands up and down her arms, eventually taking her hands in his own. “Hey, I have news,” he said softly.

She beamed at him. “Oh yeah? What kind of news?” she said hopefully.

“You remember the meeting I had with the publisher about two weeks back?”

She nodded in understanding.

He had finished his first book last year on Jason Blossom’s murder and its effect on their small town. He had been reaching out to publishers ever since graduation, hoping to get signed to a book deal. He thought it was a no brainer for a publishing company, considering he was nearly done with his second book on the serial killer that ravaged their hometown in their sophomore year of high school, and he had an outline for a third book- his first fiction novel rather than the retelling of the atrocities of their town with pep.

“Well I heard back from them today,” he said solemnly. “Apparently they don’t feel that a nineteen-year-old kid with no life experience was a worthwhile investment. They thought I was too risky.” He rolled his eyes at that. It wasn’t the first time he’s heard that exact feedback, even though multiple publishers said his book had ‘potential.’

She squeezed his hands. “I’m so sorry Jug. It’ll all work out one day.”

He inched forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “Thank you, Betts.” She felt as well as heard the words against her lips. “But I do have good news, kind of related to the publisher turning me down,” he continued.

She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to proceed.

“Well I’ve been thinking that while I don’t agree with their presumption of be being inexperienced with writing, I figured maybe I could take some classes and get my degree while I work, both at the bar and on my writing… I actually already applied and got accepted into the local community college for next semester. I can take a few classes during the day and work in the evenings.”

He had already worked out that he could afford about two to three classes per semester on their payment plan. And if everything went well, he could look at transferring to NYU in a few years.

Her face lit up in excitement. “Jug, that’s fantastic! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Did you send in your acceptance yet?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I didn’t want to jinx it. I just got the acceptance today actually. I need to send in my acceptance by December 15th along with a deposit for my tuition.”

“I’m so proud of you, with or without the college degree.”

He pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. “I know,” he whispered affectionately.

“Oh look,” she pointed off to their side. “I think they’re about to start.”

Jughead shifted so he could pull Betty next to him.

It didn’t take long for the announcer to kick off the tree lighting ceremony. Betty’s attention was fully focused straight ahead, but Jughead couldn’t help but glance over at her every few minutes.

When it was finally time to light the tree, Betty let out a smile gasp and her smile reached her eyes. “It’s beautiful,” she said quietly.

“Yeah it is,” Jughead agreed. Although he was watching the expression on her face light up brighter than any tree lighting ceremony could hold a candle to. He pulled her closer and just enjoyed the moment.

After a few minutes, Betty turned to him. “I don’t suppose you’d want to accompany me back home?”

“You know you don’t need to ask. I have to make sure you get home safe.” He interlaced his hand with her gloved one and they started off for the subway.

“And I keep wondering who will keep you safe on your way home?”

He threw a pointed look her way. “I’d like to see the day that someone jumps a former gang member. Don’t forget, there’s muscles hiding under all this flannel,” he remarked.

A light blush appeared on her cheeks. "Oh, I didn’t forget.“

"And I was actually hoping that you’d stay over tonight,” she continued. “Ronnie is staying with Archie at your place… And I was wondering if you’d help me decorate the tree?” She flashed her pouty face at him, hoping that he wouldn’t say no. “I’ll even make cookies,” she elaborated.

“Why didn’t you lead with that? What kind of cookies are we talking?”

“Chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles.”

“I get two types of cookies! You got yourself a deal.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The chocolate chip cookies had just come out of the large double oven and were cooling on the counter. She then put all four dozen snickerdoodles in.

She set the timer for twelve minutes and turned just in time to see Jughead juggling a very hot cookie as he took a bite. “You literally saw me take those out like thirty seconds ago,” she commented while shaking her head.

It wasn’t long before the dishes were cleaned, that the timer went off and all the cookies were cooling on the counter.

“What do you say, time to decorate the tree?” She asked hopefully. She grabbed Jughead by the wrist and led him to the living room, but not before he could grab two chocolate chip cookies on his way out of the kitchen.

He quickly scarfed down the cookies before observing his surroundings. “A growing boy has got to eat, Betts. Especially if I’m expected to do physical labor,” he said playfully.

He looked up at the probably ten-foot tall tree that now took up residence in the corner of Betty and Veronica’s living room, near the windows that overlooked Central Park. It seemed proportional to their very large (and rent free) penthouse apartment in Veronica’s father’s building. Anything smaller would likely look like a miniature tree in this setting.

“No assembly required, Jug. It’s really just decorating.”

“Did Veronica hire someone to cut a tree for you both, and then bring it up here?” He reached out to touch a branch, noticing a slight plastic texture that he didn’t expect.

“Oh, Veronica wouldn’t let me get a real tree. Something about not bringing a spider infested tree into our lovely apartment with expensive furniture. But it looks real, doesn’t it? It was the best she could buy on Glamazon,” she said.

“Then why does it look like, and smell, like a real pine tree?”

“She got the scent infused tree,” she said casually with a shrug of her shoulders.

Jughead busted out laughing, clutching his side. “Scent… Infused… Tree,” he got out between laughs.

Betty giggled along with him, not realizing the absurdity of such an item until now.

After the laughter died down a bit Betty said, “Well you know Veronica. If she can imagine it, she can probably pay someone to make it.” Betty skirted around Jughead to one of the living room closets and pulled out a box of decorations. “Will you grab the other boxes?”

He eyed up the rather large box that Betty leveraged her weight to push it across the hardwood floors. “You mean there’s more?”

“Yeah, two more,” she responded and pointed towards the same closet. “Once I told Veronica I wanted to put up a tree, she went a little overboard on ornaments. And lights. And tinsel. You know Veronica, she goes all in for everything.”

Jughead brought out both boxes, and they got started on decorating.

Within an hour, the tree was decorated with silver and gold tinsel, candy canes, and more ornaments that they could count. Betty put the final touches on the tree with two hand decorated ornaments that she and Veronica made one night as a destressing activity on campus. They each tried to paint a poinsettia, but Betty’s ended up looking more like a Gerber Daisy. It didn’t matter, because she cherished it anyway. They even wrote “B & V, BFF’s forever <3” underneath their respective painted plants, Betty chose silver and Ronnie wrote hers in gold. Two very different yet complementary colors, just like B and V themselves.

She stepped back to admire their work. “What do you think?”

“I think that I’ve worked up an appetite.”

She laughed. “Jug, when don’t you work up an appetite?”

“What can I say, I’m a bottomless pit when it comes to food.”

“Well I’ve known that since we were three and you ate the entire plate of cookies I brought over. They were supposed to be for Archie and Fred too. Do you remember? My mom was so embarrassed that she ran back over to the house to bring over another dozen cookies.”

“I couldn’t help it Betts! Those were some delicious cookies.”

The doorbell rang, effectively interrupting their reminiscing of their childhood. Or in Jughead’s case, reminiscing about mouthwatering chocolate chip cookies.

“Who could that be?” Betty asked. Veronica wasn’t planning on coming back that night, and she certainly wouldn’t ring the doorbell.

“Don’t worry Betts, I got your favorite.”

She glared at him briefly. “Extra cheese? With pepperoni?”

“You know it. Besides, I worked up quite the appetite from all this decorating. It was quite the strenuous activity.” He walked into the kitchen and got out plates.

She smirked at him. “I guess I could eat dinner,” she admitted.

“See, I was thinking ahead. Why don’t you pull up Netflix and I’ll bring out the food in a second?”

“You got it.” She placed a swift kiss on his cheek before practically skipping off to the living room.

He picked up the plates, very carefully, and joined Betty in the living room.

She was content to watch the movie, and didn’t speak until the credits were rolling. The movie was predictable, but just put her in the Christmas spirit even more.

“Hey Juggie?” She turned to him and tilted her head upwards to look at him.

“Yeah, babe.”

“I was wondering if we could make tonight our little Christmas tradition? The Rockefeller center, then a cozy night in decorating and baking. If you had a good time tonight, I mean.” She nervously bit her lip and waited for his response.

He smiled at her. She always had this little crinkle between her eyebrows when she was nervous, and he thought it was absolutely adorable. “Of course, this can be our tradition Betts. And for the record, I had a great time tonight. As long as we’re together, that’s all I really need.”

“Thanks, Juggie. It really means a lot to me.” She paused to look him in the eyes before continuing. “It’s just that my mom had this tradition with Polly and I, at least until we were teenagers and shopping with mom wasn’t as exciting as hanging out with our friends. We went Christmas shopping in the city every year, but we went in the beginning of November before all the holiday crowds. We always begged her to take us to see the tree lighting ceremony, or even go sometime after it was lit. But she never wanted to deal with the crowds, and not to mention that the tree lighting ceremony is on a weekday… I just- I really appreciate you coming with me tonight.”

“I’m just glad I have you to make new Christmas memories with… It probably won’t come as a surprise to you, but the Jones family didn’t really have any Christmas traditions. I have vague recollections of a few Christmases where we put up this small tree. But ever since my mom left, my dad ignored the holidays for the most part. In fact, the only reason we celebrated at all was because Fred invited us over for the major holidays.”

“I’m sorry, Jug.” She leaned in and placed a light kiss on his lips. He quickly deepened what was meant to be a peck, pulling her into his lap and playing with the edge of her shirt. Her hands instinctively went to the sides of his face, gently grazing his cheeks. He pulled her flush against him and tightened his grip. She sighed happily into the kiss, her fingers playing with his hair at the edge of his beanie.

He pulled back slightly, breathless and drunk off their kiss. She tried to chase after his lips, letting out a slight groan from the lack of contact. He just smiled and brushed the few stray hairs out of her face. “You could probably ask me to dress up like an elf for a Christmas party and I’d say yes,” he confessed. He ran his fingers up the side of her neck and framed her face. He kissed her briefly, before noticing the clever gleam in her eyes. “I wasn’t actually serious about that Betts.”

She laughed kissed him on the cheek. “I figured you were joking, but the mental image that popped into my head was too funny. You would look really cute with one of those red and green elf hats with the jingling ball on the end,” she said gesturing with her hand.

“You’re just lucky you’re so irresistible.”

“I know it,” she confirmed. She stood up and pulled him by the hand. “Let’s go to bed.”

“Wait, I got dessert,” he protested but continued to follow her towards her bedroom.

“That can be breakfast.”

He chuckled and said, “I won’t say no to cheesecake for breakfast.”

~ ~ A few weeks later ~ ~

“Hey Ronnie, I have something to tell you,” Archie started.

“What is it, Archiekins?”

“Well you remember me auditioning for that little bar on the edge of campus?” He paused, and she nodded in confirmation. “I got it, Ronnie. I’m on the schedule every Friday, and if the crowd likes me they said I might be able to get a slot on Saturday too.” He beamed at her, thankful that something had finally come through after months and months of rejections or hearing that he wasn’t the right ‘fit’ for them.

She threw her arms around his neck in congratulations. “Archie, that’s fantastic news! I knew you could do it. When’s your first show?” She pulled back, beaming at him.

“It’s actually this Friday, right after Christmas. We’ll be back here anyway, so it’s perfect timing.”

“You’ll do great.”

She leaned back and brought her hands up to the sides of his neck. “So, I know we were going to wait for Betty and Jughead. But… What do you think about us exchanging gifts now?”

Archie grinned wide when he answered, “Sounds like a great idea.” He practically jumped up and retrieved his present from underneath the tree. He did a quick scan of the presents and found a silver gift bag with green and red tissue paper, with her handwriting with 'to: Archie <3.’ He joined Veronica on the couch, and handed her his present wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper.

“You first,” he said, placing the present in her hands.

“Well if you insist.” She carefully unwrapped it, noting the (rather large) silver frame first. When she inspected it closer, she saw the lyrics to the song he had written for her, and it was handwritten in Archie’s neatest writing. She brought her hand over her heart. “Archie it’s perfect, thank you.”

She set down the frame on the coffee table. She was already making a mental note to put the frame in her bedroom above the fireplace. “Okay, you’re next,” she said.

“How did you get this? The manager said he wouldn’t have it for a few days,” he asked.

“I may have persuaded the manager to request a rush order on the flyers, if I paid for it… And I gave him a tip, so he wouldn’t tell you they were ready.”

Archie hadn’t wanted any of the Lodge influence for his music career. But that didn’t mean Veronica couldn’t use her influence (or money) to get the scoop on his career after the manager already decided to add Archie to their Friday timeslot.

“Oh, and I have a small stack of flyers to bring home for your family,” she added.

“It’s great Ronnie, thank you so much.” He set it down next to her gift and embraced her in a tight hug.

“Are we interrupting?” Jughead asked.

They broke apart quickly, both their cheeks flushed and breathing heavy.

Archie said, “No, of course not.”

Veronica cleared her throat. “Not like that’s the first time you two have interrupted,” she said under her breath.

“What was that?” Jughead asked.

“Nothing.” She stood up and pulled the hem of her plum dress down a bit. “Well, we ordered in pizza and it should be here relatively soon. I’ll get us some sparkling cider to celebrate our little Christmas get together.” She ran off to the kitchen.

While the majority of them were unopposed to underage drinking (even Betty on rare occasions), and Veronica had the means to acquire such alcoholic beverages, she knew that Jughead never wanted to go down his father’s path. And the best way he knew how was to never start drinking in the first place. So as to not cause issues, she decided on sparkling cider.

Jughead and Betty took off their coats and got settled in for the evening.

Veronica’s voice carried from the kitchen. “Hey Arch, can you come help me carry the glasses?”

He nodded at the pair on the couch and said, “Be right back.”

They were back in the living room within a minute and Veronica took one long look over Betty. “You’re a total smoke show tonight, B!” She was wearing a red dress with a deep v neck. They bought it when they went shopping a few weeks back, for their newly minted shopping tradition for Christmas. But Veronica hadn’t had the full experience of the dress combined with Betty’s hair down in waves and some light makeup.

Her cheeks flushed, and she accepted the glass Veronica held out to her. “Thanks, V.”

Jughead wrapped his arm around her, and accepted the remaining glass with his free hand. “Yeah, she caused quite the scene at the bar,” he exclaimed.

“Do tell,” Veronica inquired.

Archie popped the cork on the bottle and very carefully poured into their glasses.

“It was nothing, really,” Betty insisted.

“I wouldn’t consider the bouncer having to throw out one of our regulars, nothing,” Jughead continued.

“Wait, which regular?” Archie asked. Being close to campus, they had quite a number of regulars from students to professors on occasion.

“Johnathan, he’s in one of the master’s programs at NYU. He was very drunk and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t serve Betty, even though he was paying for her drink. He ended up shoving me a little and the bouncer had to throw him out and call him a cab.”

“Well, why don’t we lighten the mood and exchange presents?” Betty asked.

“Veronica, you know we agreed on a $20 limit,” Betty protested.

“I know, I know. So, let’s just call this an early birthday present for everyone. Or my personal favorite reason of just because,” she smirked. She passed out the envelopes to each of her friends and gave them a minute to read the contents.

They each pulled out a plane ticket and a brochure for an all-inclusive resort in St. Bart’s in the Caribbean. She strategically chose the pamphlet that didn’t list prices, although she knew that she couldn’t prevent her friends from googling. Sure, it was pricier than your typical spring break vacation, but Veronica was not your typical student seeking a bargain vacation. Her friends would be a little harder to sway.

She watched as they processed the information she had given them, ranging from elated (Archie) to hesitant but cautiously excited (Betty) to downright miserable (Jughead).

They all spoke at nearly the same time.

“This is great Ronnie, thanks!” Archie exclaimed. He placed a swift kiss on her cheek.

“V are you sure?” Betty asked, a smile spreading across her face.

“I cannot accept this Veronica, it’s too much,” Jughead argued.

“I knew you’d say that, and I came prepared,” Veronica began. She focused her attention on Jughead before continuing. “First of all, when you are friends with Veronica Lodge, you have to accept that sometimes you’ll get extravagant gifts. Secondly, it will be a well-deserved vacation by that time in our semester. Thirdly, I don’t know about all of you, but I’ll want a break from the snowfall.”

“But what about work? I can’t just request off when they’re already short staffed during breaks,” Jughead protested.

She lifted a finger to tell him she wasn’t quite done. “If you would let me finish, I already arranged for both of your shifts to be covered. Luckily for us, it’s a first come, first serve on vacation requests. And with Christmas right around the corner, no one else has thought ahead to request off for spring break.”

Veronica didn’t mention the fact that she bribed the assistant manager to cover Jughead’s shifts, as only Archie’s was approved due to the number of people required during a normal day. “And lastly,” she continued, “-the tickets are non-refundable. So, there’s no point in arguing.” She sent a satisfying smirk his way.

Betty nudged Jughead’s knee with her own. “You do know there’s no point in arguing, Juggie. You eventually agreed to her post-graduation trip to Ocean City. And I’m sure Veronica will treat you to all the food you can eat.”

Jughead’s stomach grumbled at the memory of the few buffets they went to, the pizza, the Mexican food, and oh the mouthwatering and fresh made donuts from the Fractured Prune. “Fine,” he acquiesced.

“I, for one, am looking forward to this vacation. Thank you, Ronnie,” Archie exclaimed.

“You’re welcome Archiekins. Oh! I almost forgot. We’re going Saturday until Friday, and we’ll be back in plenty of time for your show,” Veronica said.

“Wait, what’s this about a show?” Betty asked.

“Oh! I got booked for a weekly Friday timeslot at one of the bars by work. My first show is this upcoming Friday. You guys will be there to support me, right?” Archie inquired.

“Of course!” Betty agreed.

“Sure thing, man,” Jughead added.

“Thanks guys. It really means a lot,” Archie said.

“He’ll do great,” Veronica commented. “Archie Andrews will be the next big star from New York, just you wait.”

Jughead shifted in his seat and pulled Betty closer. “Well if we’re sharing good news, I have some of my own.” She leaned into his shoulder, having already heard the news a bit earlier that night.

“What is it? Don’t keep us in suspense for too long,” Veronica insisted.

“I just got a publishing offer for my first book. And if it does well, they’ll extend the offer to include a second book deal.” A smile spread across his face and Betty patted his knee with her hand, letting it rest there.

“Congrats Jug!” Archie said, lightly slapping him on the back.

“Congratulations Jug,” Veronica added. “Look at us B. We’re dating the next up and coming stars in the music and writing industry.”

“I think this calls for more cider,” Archie insisted. He topped off everyone’s drinks just in time for pizza to arrive. Veronica answered the door, signing for the delivery, and brought the boxes and plates to the coffee table.

In the middle of their meal Veronica asked, “Did you two exchange gifts already?” She motioned at Betty and Jughead.

“Yeah, we did,” Betty offered with a blush.

~ ~ Earlier that evening ~ ~

Betty was perched on one of the bar stools, waiting for Jughead to gather his things so they could meet up with Veronica and Archie for their gift exchange before going back to Riverdale tomorrow.

She didn’t have to wait long before Jughead placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and asked, “You ready to get out of here?”

She chuckled and nodded, accepting his outstretched hand. They exited the bar and turned towards the subway station.

“Sure,” she replied simply.

They spent the rest of the walk in companionable silence, just enjoying each other’s presence.

They arrived at his place within a few minutes, the small apartment he shared with Archie in the East Village.

Jughead unlocked his door and ushered her inside.

“Listen, I know we’re doing our gift exchange at your place, but I wanted to give you yours first.” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, before taking off his coat and placing it on its hook.

She copied his actions, setting her coat on the next hook.

She noted his nervous tick. “You alright Juggie?” She brought her hands up and placed them on the sides of his face, her thumbs gently caressing his cheeks.

“Yeah, I’m more than alright actually.” He brought his hands up to cover hers and leaned into her touch. “I got a book deal, Betts!”

“What?! That’s fantastic news Jug. I knew it would all work out one day.” She smiled at him, excited that it was finally coming together.

“Yeah they wanted to give me the good news ahead of Christmas. I have a meeting to go over the details after we get back to the city.” He leaned in and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips. “I don’t think I could have done this without you, Betts.”

She pulled back and sent him that sly little smirk when she loves to prove him wrong. “You would have survived just fine without me. I just offered a little encouragement is all.”

He ran his hands down her sides and resting on her lower back. “Agree to disagree, Betts. Because if it weren’t for you believing in me, I’d probably still be in the Serpents with no exit strategy in sight. And I’m so thankful that you didn’t give up on me, on us, even when I did. I love you, Betty Cooper.”

“Jughead Jones, I love you. And I’m just glad we both saw reason.” She shifted her hands behind his neck, tugging on the hair that escaped his beanie. “So, what’s this I hear about exchanging gifts?” She raised a brow at him and swiftly kissed him on the cheek.

He chuckled and extracted himself from their embrace. Having already planned on exchanging all their gifts at the Lodge-Cooper residence, he had them all in his messenger bag. He picked up the rather hefty box, wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper (he and Archie didn’t get gifts for that many people, so they split the cost of one roll of wrapping paper).

“Here,” he said, handing her the gift.

She accepted it and dug around in her own oversized purse that she switched to for this very occasion. “Why don’t we exchange at the same time?” She pulled out a carefully wrapped package, with snowmen and penguins interspersed on a green background, and handed it off to him.

“If you insist.”

They each unwrapped their presents. Jughead was a little quicker, revealing a leather-bound journal with the initials J.J. in the bottom right hand corner. “Betty, I love it.” He had mentioned on a few occasions that he wanted to carry around a journal, particularly for late night shifts at work or if he traveled through the slightly shadier parts of town. He hadn’t wanted his laptop to make him more of a target, but still wanted to be able to write down ideas. He could handle himself, he just didn’t want a damaged laptop as a result of the smug criminal that would try his luck with a former gang member.

Her gasp broke him out of his thoughts. “Jug, is this what I think it is?” She ran her fingers across the title and by-line. Currently called 'Untitled’ by Jughead Jones. He always had the hardest time coming up with titles, and was hoping he could get some feedback from Betty over the break and that they could come up with a title together.

She turned to the first page, reading his dedication. 'To my partner in crime-solving, without whom this case would likely be unsolved.’ She started to tear up and blinked a few times to prevent them from falling. “Jug, I-”

“I finished it a few days ago. I was hoping you could look over it during the break. You are my favorite editor.”

“I’m you’re only editor,” she argued.

“Exactly, and therefore my favorite. You’re the only one I trust with this, Betts.”

“You’re not just an aspiring journalist, you are a journalist. Your work at The Blue and Gold got you a full ride. I think the admissions office would agree with me on that,” he reminded her.

She lightly shoved his shoulder. “Who am I to argue with your wise words?” She beamed at him, and was looking forward to the break more than ever.

“Hey, what do you say we get back to Park Avenue?”

She nodded. “I guess we should.”

She carefully placed the manuscript in her bag, underneath the other wrapped presents.

They left hand in hand, holding onto each other just a little tighter than they had earlier in the evening.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They spent the evening laughing and catching up, eating an enormous amount of pizza (mainly Jughead), and exchanged the remaining gifts.

The respective couples were cuddled up on the couch and loveseat, enjoying each other’s company and the last bit of peace and quiet before going to see their families the next day.

Betty didn’t have time to wrap the presents as they just arrived that day, so she just handed them each to Jughead, and Veronica and Archie.

They took in their gifts, ornaments she made on ShutterBug. They were just a simple picture of each couple on a metal frame with scalloped edges, and the year underneath in delicate text.

“B, this is the sweetest,” Veronica gushed.

“This is great, Betty,” Archie added.

“Thanks babe,” Jughead said sweetly.

“Oh, speaking of Kevin, will he be home for Christmas too?” Veronica asked.

“Hey guys,” Archie started. “Did you ever really think we’d end up here? In New York, you girls going to school, Jug about to become the next best-selling author, and me playing my music.” He smiled and pulled Veronica a bit tighter.

“I always knew I’d make it back here one day, Archiekins. I just never imagined I’d have the greatest friends with me when I did,” Veronica admitted. She leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

Betty squeezed Jughead’s hand a little tighter and placed a featherlight kiss on his cheek. “I knew it would all work out,” she said.

Jughead thought back on their sophomore year, which was undoubtedly his worst. From living in the drive in, to his dad’s trial for covering up Jason’s murder, and the Black Hood torturing Betty as well as the town. But then he remembered how hard Betty fought for him and how she wouldn’t give up on him, even when he gave up on them. Betty was the light in his world of darkness, and she was the one who convinced him to get out of the Serpents. She saw their future together, and how it was slipping out of their grasp day by day, as long as he remained in that gang. With her help, he finally got out of that toxic (and occasionally illegal) life, as well as helping take down Penny, so his father could escape that life too. She was the sole reason he was able to focus on his book instead of running drugs, and she may have inspired his father to stay on the straight and narrow. Now, his father was working with Fred Andrews again, and going back to school.

He knew that Betty would disagree, but he didn’t deserve her. Although she constantly reminded him that his past didn’t define him, but rather the actions that he took to deal with his past.

#riverdale secret santa #riverdalesecretsanta #riverdale #bughead #varchie

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fortheloveofpearlet · 7 years ago

Text

Straightjacket Feeling - Pearlet [Chapter 3]

This is something I wrote AGES and AGES ago. First few chapters set in college but its NOT a college AU I swear! Kinda based on ‘Do I Wanna Know’ by the Artic Monkeys, lyrics throughout fic.

TW - alcohol, drugs, some sexual references.

Chapter 3

One Year Later

'Spring Break bitches!' Jake hollered as he pulled up into the campus parking lot in his dad's eight seater SUV he'd leant him for the occasion. Jason swallowed hard looking at his bag in front of him. How had he gotten roped into this? He was so not a Spring Break kind of guy. Since the night at Jason's dorm he and Matt had become practically inseparable. As Matt had asked, Jason never mentioned the kiss again, for a while every time they hung out he hoped it might happen again but it never did and eventually Jason just put it to the back of his mind. Despite the fact they were like best friends now, Jason didn't know how he'd let Matt talk him into driving down to Florida with them for Spring Break. Matt had guilt tripped him into it, he'd used the fact that he was graduating in a few months to his advantage. He'd told Jason, but this is the last time we'll get to spend any proper time together and Jason had sighed and agreed. Jake's girl of the week Roxy was coming too as well as Jason's friend Kurtis and the two Brian's who after months of fucking when they were drunk were finally a fully-fledged couple. Matt grabbed Jason's suitcase with a smile and hauled it into the back of the car.

'I'm so glad you decided to come, this week is going to be amazing.' He beamed in that way that made Jason's whole body turn to jelly.

They finished packing up the car, Roxy called shot gun so she could ride up front with Jake and no one argued with her. None of them really liked Roxy very much but knowing Jake she wouldn't be around long anyway. The two Brian's sat in the back row of seats and would spend the majority of the journey messily making out. That left Jason in the middle with Kurtis on one side and Matt on the other. Jake sped off out of the parking lot as Matt was divvying out the beers, everyone took one except Jason. When Jake went to reach out for one Matt slapped his hand.

'No way man!' Matt scoffed. 'You decided to drive, there's no way you're drinking.'

'Oh come on Matt, I've driven drunk plenty of times. I actually drive best when I'm drunk.' He reached again but Matt slapped him again.

'No fucking way. You can drink when we stop over tonight.' Matt scalded him. It was a long drive to Florida but they couldn't afford plane tickets so they were leaving today, stopping somewhere on their way and continuing tomorrow. 'You sure you don't want one Jay?'

Jason shook his head.

'It's like 10am.'

'It's Spring Break!' Matt said like that made it better.

'And it's 10am.' Jason repeated and nudged Matt in the arm playfully.

'Spoil sport.' Matt teased, poking his tongue out at Jason before swigging his beer. Jason bit his lip and returned his gaze out the front window. Being Matt's friend was wonderful, the last year had been one of the happiest of Jason's life. He still didn't drink much and he very rarely went to parties with him but they had their Drag Race evenings, usually over at Matt's apartment off campus that he shared with Jake and Brian. They went to the movies, they got coffee, and Matt being an art major had even taken Jason to some galleries. It was the best friendship that Jason had ever had but he wanted more. He'd never gotten over his attraction towards Matt, he still got breathless every single time Matt smiled at him. He was pretty sure he was in love with the older boy, but of course, Matt was straight. Matt had had several flings with beautiful women over the last year, but like Jake they never lasted long. Each time Matt introduced Jason to his new bimbo Jason's heart broke a little more. He remembered them all, probably far better than Matt did. It was hard being in love with your best friend but Jason would rather have Matt's friendship than nothing he supposed.

—————————————–

They drove for hours, stopping a few times to get gas and snacks. When Jake finally pulled up at a motel it was nearly 9pm. They all piled out of the car and grabbed their bags before heading into the small reception. They seemed to startle the guy awake.

'Hey, can we get, what? Three rooms?' Matt asked the guy, turning to the others for clarification.

'Three?' Jason frowned.

'Yeah, Roxy and Jake, the Brian's and you, me and Kurtis can share right?'

'S'ok by me.' Kurtis shrugged. Jason wanted to protest that sharing a room with Matt wasn't a good idea but he couldn't without arousing suspicion.

'Where the fuck even are we?' Jake asked as the man behind the desk went about sorting their rooms.

'Wilmington, North Carolina.' He coughed as he spoke, a heavy smokers cough.

'Oh fuck we still have hours to go!' Jake groaned. The man behind the desk didn't say anything to that, he just tapped a few buttons on a thousand year old computer before handing over three keys.

'Rooms 102, 103 and 104.' He coughed again. They all handed over some cash to cover their rooms and then left the reception. Their rooms were all next to each other on the ground floor facing the parking lot.

'I saw a bar up the road, ten minutes to freshen up then we'll meet back here.' Jake told them before grabbing Roxy's waist and kissing her neck making he squeal.

'Make it half an hour.' She giggled as Jake pushed them both inside their room and closed the door. The two Brian's exchanged a look that the others all knew meant they were feeling frisky too.

'Yeah half hour works for us too.' Bri grinned, slapping the older Brian's ass and then they disappeared into their room too. Jason rolled his eyes.

'Oh god is that what this whole weeks going to be like?' He groaned as Matt put the key in their door.

'They’re like this every day of the year, did you really think Spring Break would be any different?' Matt chuckled getting the door open and letting them in. There was one double bed and one single bed. Matt immediately threw himself down on the double.

'Jay you'll share with me right? Kurtis you don't mind the single do you?'

'Not at all.' Kurtis shrugged. Jason shot his friend a look but he just shrugged. Kurtis was the only person that knew about Jason's feelings for Matt. He knew about their kiss too, that kiss that felt like a million years ago and just yesterday at the same time. Jason sighed.

'Sure I'll share with you.' He tried to hide the annoyance from his voice at Kurtis' betrayal.

'How are me and Jason going to get into a bar? Maybe we should have thought this through before we agreed to come on Spring Break with twenty-one year olds.' Kurtis frowned, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

'I've got that covered.' Matt grinned and started fishing around in his duffle bag before pulling something out. He tossed one of the items across the room to Kurtis and handed the other to Jason who rolled his eyes.

'A fake ID?' Jason sighed. 'Do these things actually work?'

'How do you think I was able to buy booze last year?' Matt chuckled and his eyes twinkled.

'Where the hell did you get this picture of me?' Kurtis grumbled.

'None of your business.' Matt winked at him.

'What if we get caught?' Jason pulled a face, he wasn't the kind to walk on the wild side.

'It'll be fine Jay I promise. I got one for Bri too, hopefully Brian will remember to give it to him if he gets his dick out his ass long enough.' Matt chuckled again. Stupidly Jason felt his groin shudder, not at the thought of the two Brian's screwing, but at the thought of screwing Matt.

'Right who wants to shower first?' Matt looked between them and Jason found himself raising his hand instantly. He had an ever growing problem, quite literally, in his pants that he needed to take care of.

'Me, please.' Jason bit his lip. He would fight someone for that bathroom. Matt sensed the urgency and pulled a face.

'Alright.' He rolled his eyes. 'Anyone would think you'd never showered.' He chuckled but Jason ignored him. He grabbed a towel and a change of clothes from his case and locked himself in the bathroom. He ran the hot water and stripped off his clothes before letting his hair down hand standing under the pathetic flow of water. He was hard within seconds, Matt had that effect on him. He'd lost count of how many times he'd pleasured himself to sordid thoughts of his best friend; it made him feel dirty but it also felt amazing. He wrapped his hand around his shaft as the water dribbled around him. He closed his eyes and imagined that kiss. It had been so brief and so soft, just a light peck really but if that was all Jason was ever going to have it would have to be enough. He imagined the kiss deepening and Matt laying him down gently on the bed and straddling him. He imagined Matt's dick inside him, pounding into him. He imagined Matt looking deep into his eyes and telling him he loved him as he came. He had no idea how long his climax took but he bit his lip to stifle his moan and came over the ceramic shower basin. He got rid of the evidence and quickly washed his body before drying and dressing. He towel dried his mane of hair and tied it back in a bun before exiting the bathroom. Matt and Kurtis stared at him as he entered the room and Jason's heart skipped a beat. Fuck, did they know what he'd been up to?

'Jesus Christ Jay, you've been in there ages!' Matt grumbled. 'Now we don't have time to shower.'

Jason blushed, he could feel his cheeks going red and he had to turn away from his friends and start rummaging in his case so they wouldn't see.

'Sorry.' He mumbled.

'I'm going to get changed quickly then we need to meet the others.' Matt sighed and grabbed some clothes before heading to the bathroom.

'No prizes for guessing what you were doing in there.' Kurtis said once Matt had closed the door. Jason's cheeks burnt so he kept pretending to look for something in his case.

'Don't know what you're talking about.'

'Liar.' Kurtis laughed.

'Just fuck off ok?' Jason turned back to Kurtis, his face was bright red still. 'I do not need you mocking me all week because of this fucking crush ok? Do you not think it’s bad enough?'

'Ooh, who have you got a crush on Jay?' Matt beamed as he came back out the bathroom. Jason froze. He looked from Matt to Kurtis and back again. How the fuck could he answer that? Fuck Jason was terrible at thinking on his feet.

'Just some guy in one of his classes.' Kurtis answered for him and Jason could have kissed him.

'Oh come on, spill the tea!' Matt grinned. Jason smiled to himself at Matt's choice of words, he'd picked that up from their Drag Race marathons.

'It's nothing, it's just a dumb crush.' Jason insisted.

'Oh come on Jay! I thought I was your best friend?' Matt pouted a little, Jason hated it when he did that because it made Jason want to give him anything he wanted. He had a suspicion that's why Matt did it.

'Really it's nothing I just-'

There was a knock at the door and Jason breathed a sigh of relief.

'Come on assholes!' Jake pounded on the door. 'If we can have sex in that time you three should have been able to get changed!'

Matt strolled to the door and opened it.

'Hey, it's not our problem that you're quick on the draw.' He slapped Jake's back.

'Asshole.' Jake grumbled. 'Come on guys, you've been drinking all day and that's not fair. Let me get drunk now, please god!'

'Alright let's go.' Matt turned back into the room and motioned Jason and Kurtis to follow them. They headed back down the street and fell into the bar they passed. There was a handful of people already in there and they all turned to look at the gang, narrowing their eyes on them. It made them all feel uncomfortable.

'Guess this is one of those locals only type of places.' Matt whispered to Jason as they headed to the bar, trying to ignore all the eyes on them.

'I feel like we're going to die here.' Jason whispered back and Matt tried to suppress his laugh.

'You ain't from around here are ya?' The bar tender narrowed his eyes on them as they approached. They all simultaneously swallowed, trying to mentally decide who was going to talk. Matt drew the short straw as he was probably the best with words.

'Uh no, we're just on our way to Daytona Beach and we stopped off at the motel down the road for the night. Any chance of some drinks?' Matt's voice was a little croaky, none of them had seen him this nervous before. The bar tender cast his eyes over each of them, pausing on all of their faces.

'If ya'll got ID's.' He finally shrugged. Jason's heart started beating even faster than it was before. The older members of their group, the ones that actually were twenty-one and had real driver’s licences handed theirs over first, Matt, Jake, Roxy and then Brian. Then Bri handed his over, no problem. Then it was Kurtis' turn and again no problem. Then it was Jason. He bit his lip and hoped to god the guy couldn't see his hand shaking as he handed him the fake ID. The bar tender looked from the ID that said he too was twenty-one and back to Jason. He spent a really long time scrutinising Jason's face, or at least it felt like a life time to Jason. His stomach was churning, his heart was racing and his palms were sweating. How much trouble would he be in if the guy knew it was a fake?

'What'll you have?' He addressed the group suddenly handing Jason back the ID. He breathed a sigh of relief as Matt gave him a side long glance and mouthed, I told you it would be ok. They ordered their drinks and paid and opted to sit on the bench outside so they could smoke and so they weren't being watched. They all crammed on to the rickety bench that felt as though it could give way at any moment. Jake had brought them a round of shots, he held his in the air as soon as they were seated.

'To mother fucking Spring Break assholes!'

The others all put their drinks in and clinked glasses.

'To mother fucking Spring Break!' They all chorused and downed their shots. Jason pulled a face as he felt the liquid burn his throat. Jake pulled a pre-rolled blunt from his pocket and lit it.

'I can't wait to get to Daytona and party tomorrow. This place sucks balls.' Jake groaned.

'It's better than nothing.' Matt shrugged.

'We should play a drinking game!' Roxy clapped her hands together looking around the table. It wasn't met with quite the excitement she'd clearly been expecting.

'Uhm sure?' Matt shrugged again.

'I suppose we could.' Older Brian agreed. She looked a little annoyed at their lack of enthusiasm but she tried to ignore it.

'How about I have never!'

'Hmm sure.' Jake dragged on the blunt once more before handing it across the table to Matt.

'How does that go again?' Kurtis asked which made Roxy sighed.

'Someone says I have never blah blah, and if you've done it, you drink.' She explained to Kurtis, talking to him like he was five. 'Right I'll start then.' Roxy rolled her eyes. 'I have never kissed a guy.' She started tame. Jason rolled his eyes as he, Kurtis, Roxy and the two Brian's drank. He gave Matt, who was sitting next to him a side long glance. He didn't drink. Fucking liar. Jason thought about saying something or at least nudging Matt subtly so Matt knew he was annoyed but as if he felt him looking at him, suddenly Matt gave Jason's thigh a pinch under the table.

'Right my turn.' Jake eyed them all up, unaware of what was going on with Matt and Jason across from him.

'I have never had sex in Matt's mom’s bed.' Jake grinned and Matt rolled his eyes and picked up his glass and took a sip.

'This is not going to turn into a game of let's get Matt drunk.' Matt laughed.

'Oh it won't be, because you ain't the only one sunshine.' Jake was still grinning as he picked up his glass and sipped.

'You asshole! When?' Matt hit him on the arm.

'Last Christmas when you let me tag along.' Jake smirked and Matt hit him again. 'What it's ok for you to do it and not me?'

'It's my mom!'

Jake just shrugged. Matt took a long pull on the blunt before handing it to Bri.

'Right I'll go next.' Matt pondered for a moment looking around the table to see who he could fuck up. 'I have never...had an inappropriate sexual dream about a friend.' He took a side long glance at Jason now and Jason wanted to hit him. Did he know? How could he? Jason thought about not drinking because Matt hadn't when Roxy asked her question. But to Jason's surprise Matt took a sip and Jason wondered for a second if maybe, there was any chance that dream was about him? Jason sipped his drink, thinking fuck it and Jake and Bri did too.

'Go on Jason, you go.' Matt nudged him in the arm.

'Oh I don't know, I'm no good at this sort of thing.' Jason bit his lip.

'Oh come on Jay.' Matt nudged him again. A part of Jason wanted to say something like, I have never wanted to fuck my best friend so hard it hurts, or I have never been in love with my best friend, but he held back. He sighed and said the first reasonably appropriate thing that came to his head.

'I have never had anal sex.' Jason, Kurtis and the two Brian's drank. And much to everyone's surprise so did Matt.

'Matt?' Jake gasped. 'Is there something you're not telling us?'

'It was with a girl you dick.' Matt scoffed.

'Really? You sure about that Matty?' Jake teased him. 'It's just all the other people that drank are gay so...'

'Fuck all the way off.' Matt rolled his eyes.

'I'll go.' Brian spoke before Matt and Jake could start arguing. 'I have never-'

'Urgh this is boring, I just want to drink.' Jake cut him off snatching the blunt from Bri. 'Someone get some shots in, purlease.'

'I'll go.' Jason got up from the table, happy for the distraction.

'I'll come with.' Matt got up too and Jason groaned internally. Of course he loved spending time with Matt but sometimes it was hard to be around him. Especially when they were going to be around each other for the next week solid and sharing a fucking bed tonight. They walked back into the bar and ordered a round of shots.

'God I can't wait to hit the beach, I've almost forgotten what hot weathers like living in New York.' Matt beamed helping Jason carry the glasses.

'Where in Florida are you from again? Is it far from Daytona?' Jason nudged the door back open with his hip as Matt followed.

'A few hours, I didn't dare tell my mom I was coming down or she would have insisted I took a detour though.' He laughed. They put the shots on the table and everyone grabbed one.

'Spring Break bitches!' Jake cheered.

'We can't keep toasting Spring Break every time we have a shot.' Brian chuckled.

'Fuck yes we can! It's Spring fucking Break.' Jake downed his shots as did the others. A lot of alcohol flowed that night, for the most part anyway. Jason tried to pace himself like he always did around Matt. He always worried if he drank too much around him he would end up confessing things he shouldn't.

—————————————–

That night when they retired to their rooms, some drunker than others, Jason tried to distance himself in the bed from Matt, but Matt had other ideas. He pulled Jason into a tight embrace so Jason's head was resting on Matt's strong chest and he kissed the top of Jason's head. Matt had definitely had a lot to drink.

'You know I love you right Jason? You're my best friend.' He slurred a little sleepily. Jason smiled to himself. He knew Matt hadn't meant he loved him in the way he wanted him to mean it, but for a moment he was going to pretend otherwise. Just for a few blissful seconds, he was going to pretend that Matt loved him the way he loved Matt. There was no harm in pretending some times.

—————————————–

The following morning they were all waiting with their bags by the SUV in the motels parking lot when Jake finally stumbled from his room, holding his head.

'Can't drive. Absolutely no fucking way I can drive.' He dangled his keys in the general direction of his friends. There was an audible sigh from the group.

'I did tell you to take it easy.' Brian chuckled.

'Who asked you?' Jake grumbled. 'Please? If you want us to get to Daytona in one piece someone else is gonna have to drive.'

'Fine, give me those.' Matt snatched the keys from his hand. 'But Jason is riding shot gun.'

Jake grumbled something inaudible. They got back in the car and assumed their positions, the Brian's taking up the back seat with Matt and Jason now in the front and Jake and Roxy with Kurtis.

'Next stop Daytona Beach!' Matt told them and reversed out of the parking lot, much more sensibly than Jake in Jason's opinion.

#pearlet #violet chachki #pearl liaison #jason dardo #matthew lent #brian mccook #brian firkus #kurtis dam-mikkelsen

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