#so when he saw the pictures of him and tim he was deeply confused and panicked and guilty

[fellpyrean]

Claps hands alright we’re doing this! So I started listening to magnus archives a few months ago and it really did things to my writing ideas, so now I’m gonna round some up and post ‘em. 

I forget where/when I first saw a moth!jon but u know. He’s cute. So here is some moth!jon AU! Corruption Jon :Dc and archivist Sasha! ~1800 words. 

Since he is a corruption avatar in this, there is (as expected) some possibly gross bug imagery, but not a lot of holes. And no worms! :D

______________

The flat is quiet. 

Quieter than Sasha expected, and much neater too than she expected when they connected this one to "Filth." The lights are off and there's a faint dusty, sweet scent in the air as she cracks open the door, torch slicing through the dark. 

It catches on motes of dust. She thinks she hears movement, a susurrus of rustling like fabric faint in the depths of the place but little else. She pushes the door further, feels it catch on the ragged old rug on the floor and watches moths flutter up, batter against her torch in little puffs of dust before they flutter away. 

Part of her worries as she steps inside, as she closes the door behind herself - leaving just a crack in case she needs to get out fast. 

This is too quiet for something of the powers. The flat should be more of a wreck, more… more miserably bloodstained, more disgusting and unnerving, but it looks, honestly, just a bit messy, a bit moth-eaten. The couch sags a bit wrong, but hell, she can't pretend she's never had one like it. There are shelves of books, their edges chewed and pages no doubt holey, there's even a mug left forgotten on the kitchen counter. It's all dim; lit only by what spills around heavy curtain edges and her own torch as she steps further in and - and hears that rustling again from the end of the hallway and heads straight for it. 

More moths flutter up at her steps, and she is wary, she is. But the things just… flutter uselessly at her hands, their wings shedding dust and their fat abdomens plump and full, but hardly a threat before they fly - further inside. 

Towards that faint rustling noise, towards the door at the end of the dim-lit hall that is just open enough to allow the frantic moths to flit inside. Writhing and wriggling at the crack between door and jamb just a moment before they vanish inside, but the movement… it makes Sasha swallow. 

Something about the way the bulbous little things squirm before they pop through sets her stomach on edge. Too many of them; more than she thought, all struggling to squeeze into that door. 

The crack writhes by the time she reaches it. 

She can swear she hears them whine and click and screech in tiny voices above the din of their frantically fluttering wings.

She uses her torch to push the door open. Fast, loosing a cloud of moths from the stuffed crack that fall and flutter and scatter into the dim room before her. 

The rustling has not gone quiet. Neither has the soft, whining song of flapping wings and voices she cannot place as she raises her torch high, fumbling for her pepper spray in her other hand. More of a comfort to herself than any real belief it would accomplish anything against something abnormal, but the room doesn’t… change. Nothing leaps out of the dim shadows, nothing comes ravening towards her with a horrid, dripping maw. 

It’s a bedroom. The bed is really as far as the light peeking around the curtains lights, in thin, dusty stripes across worn rugs and a small pile of abandoned clothes. 

“A-Ah.” 

Sasha whips her torch towards the voice, and stills. 

There is… there is something like a man there. Tucked in the corner, with all the moths frantically fluttering, scuttling towards it. She watches, stomach queasy, as the moths drill between the heavy folds of the blanket? The wrap? It has folded around itself. It reaches a hand out to a particularly fat straggler and cradles it in its palms like a treasure, bringing it up slowly, carefully, and opens thin, paled lips and lets the thing crawl straight into its mouth as Sasha gags. 

It is almost worse then when it looks up. 

Long, straggling hair that was probably rather nice once. Now it is loose and lank, black shot with grey and dust that hangs over… over his shoulders, over the thing he has cocooned himself within. His eyes are dark. Too dark. 

There are no whites, she realizes, and cannot help but feel her fingers twinge around the pepper spray. 

But he isn’t attacking. He is just looking at her, head cocked like a curious animal as the moths burrow back into the shelter he offers. 

She can work with this. She sucks in a breath, wills her stomach to settle as she tells it it could really be so, so much worse, and points the torch further towards the floor. Good manners. Going out on a limb that he’s probably not too fond of bright light. 

“Hello,” she says. The strange man stares at her. Hard enough she swears she can feel the tracks his eyes leave on her skin, but she only makes herself stand taller. He seems to like that. He laughs. Not maliciously. 

It’s soft. Like cotton, like it’s been a long while since he’s used his voice, and the rasp sticks to it as he speaks and Sasha tries not to linger on where exactly that moth went. 

“Hello, Archivist. Doing house calls?” 

He’s smiling. And that’s what gets her. 

His voice is soft and smooth like old silk and his smile stiff like he’s unused to using it, but something about him feels familiar. It’s there, just at the corner of her mind, and she knows she’s frowning deeply as she casts a line and tries to hook just why she feels like she knows this strange man, but then he laughs again and stands. 

He rustles as he does. That… that thing wrapped around him doesn’t move the way it should, not like cloth, but she can’t immediately place that, either. Not until he walks a little closer and her torch light catches on it and it… shimmers. 

Like moth wings. And Sasha sucks in a breath. 

She can see it now. The patterns in the dusty brown, the oranges that circle white to make massive, partly hidden eyespots. The thick, dark veins supporting the overall structure, and she can’t help herself from blurting out, “Can you fly with those?” 

The man shudders, that smile hung unmoving on his face as he brings a hand to his mouth and coughs against the static. 

“Not well,” he answers into his hand, his too-dark eyes sparkling. He lets his hand drop back into the too-layered folds of his wings and shuffles a little closer; his wingtips drag across the floor, like a blanket wrapped around a child too small for it, and she can see now where his long, untied hair turns into something shorter. A ruff of fur at the back of his neck, across the back of his shoulders.

(Can see the moths wriggling down into the fur, settling there, an army of tiny, coal-black eyes staring out at her, glinting green when her torch light catches them.) 

And then he stands still, that faint smile on his face, his dark eyes half-lidded in an expression she cannot place, and waits as that soft, soft distant song hums in the room. 

Sasha exhales. This is more than she dared hope for. He’s talking. He’s non-aggressive.

“I,” she begins, wetting her tongue before plunging back into her words. “I was wondering if I could ask you some questions. About the ‘Filth.’ About you.”

He watches, and she feels emboldened. 

(Her phone begins to ring as she steps closer to him, and she ignores it. It’s Elias. She knows.)

“We don’t have answers. And if you could tell me, tell us what you know? About… about what’s happening.” 

Her phone stops ringing. It starts again. The man smiles wider and reaches out. Sasha can see that his hands are… strange. Plated like chitin, and the desire to grab his hand and investigate each delicately plated joint wars deeply with the uneasy reminder that there are probably moths crawling beneath, of statements that were far, far more explicit about what ‘Filth’ did to a person than this man showed. 

His hand waves in front of her face for a moment and she starts, coming back to herself, as her phone angrily rings again. 

“Your phone?” the man asks, and Sasha doesn’t hesitate for a moment to shut the thing off. 

(Elias. All three calls. If he doesn’t want her here, then she’s not leaving.) 

“Well Archivist,” and she knows she is not missing the strange bitterness that clings to that word this time, knows there is something she is missing about him, “If you have that many questions, we should probably get a little more comfortable. I have a feeling that once I let you start, you’ll keep me well after dusk.” 

And isn’t it bizarre? As he brushes past Sasha - both carefully and clearly telegraphing his movements so she only feels the barest touch of his wings as he heads back out into the hallway - she realizes she doesn’t feel afraid of this one. A little disgusted if she thinks about him too hard, yes, but there’s been no threat. No… no menace, no winding, evasive non-answers, just. Incredibly human remarks. It almost circles right back around from comforting to even worse than something as alien as the thing with the door. Michael. 

But as the rustling moves away from her down the hallway, she can’t help but flash her torch around the bedroom. One last bit of nosiness. 

An old, worn bed, rather like the couch. Shelves with books so moth-eaten they’ve gone to pieces. An open closet, filled with over-large sweaters and… She blinks. And oddly proper button ups, slacks. 

And then… and then she turns her torch in one last semi-circle and catches upon a strange shine beneath the lumpy pillows. 

Like polaroids. 

The itch that there’s something she should know only grows when she spots them; growing from a thing at the edge of her thoughts to an all consuming need that drives her in fast steps across the dusty rug before she even catches herself. She fishes the pictures out with deft fingers and - and she thinks her heart stops in her chest. 

She knows the people in the picture. 

That long, dark hair shot with grey is distinctive - even set on a much more vibrant, lively face, and above a painfully crisp button up. He’s wearing glasses in the picture, and. A name tag. 

She can’t read the name, but she’d recognize that emblem anywhere. Not that she needs to. 

Because beside the stuffy librarian like man, his eyes green instead of black, stands… Tim. Tim, his shirt as loud as ever, his smile boisterous, and an arm slung affectionately around the man who couldn’t possibly be any more his opposite. And the same horrible name tag pinned to a pineapple-strewn lapel. 

The man worked at the Magnus Institute.��

He worked with Tim. 

She knows his name now. 

Jonathan Sims. 

[prismuffin]

Omg! Okay so I just thought of the cuties thing in opinion! And wanted to do an ask of it!!

So, Male Reader is a shape-shifting alien kinda like Marsion's (Ex:Mee-gan ), but they can only be in a form that is not their true form for a limited time. Like 16hrs or something, after that, they shift back to their real form, unless they are in like fight or flight mode. After the time is up their behavior is that of an autistic that is burnout or overstimulated.

The MaleReader's true form basically looks very similar to an Earth's panther (i.e big cat) expect it has 4 sets of eyes and has a pure white coat with red patterns.

So! How would Dick, Jason, Tim, Wally and Conner (sperately) react to Alien MaleReader doing the cat behavior of 'if I fits, I sits' after seeking them out to take a nap and recharge?

Ex: Jason wanting some peace reading while laying on the couch, and reader just climbs his way up the back of the couch, to carefully place himself in between Jason's side and the couch cushions.

I'm working on some full fics but as to not let my blog seem dead I'll get this ask out the way! Anyways I think that-

Dick was in the kitchen making himself some lunch. For once, he decided to sit down at the table to eat instead of going to his room. He was sort of surprised to see you in your true form creeping your way over to him. He, at first, thought you wanted some of his food which he was not gonna give to you but instead you simply shrunk down underneath his chair. Squeezing yourself through the legs of the seat and resting your head on his foot. He was confused but just let it happen, sighing as he realized he was stuck with the cat curse and now he cant move because you're laying on him.

Jason would be sitting on the couch, finally glad to find a rare moment of quiet. He was simply relaxing until you came in, you were in your true form so he didn't think you'd be too much of a distraction. But he was wrong when you walked up to him and practically draped yourself across his lap, resting your head on a nearby pillow. You exhaled deeply and just closed your eyes, joining him in his relaxation session. He looked around at the rest of empty spaces on the couch before looking back at you, shaking his head with a slight smirk he just let you lay on him since you were warm.

Tim would probably be working, mumbling to himself about god knows what when you'd walked into his lab. He turned when he'd heard his door open and greeted you as he saw you enter, asking if you needed anything. You didn't answer and simply walked up to him, rubbing yourself against his legs with your tail held high before diving between his legs. Because of your size he had to steady himself as to not fall over. He let out a surprised gasp before trying to push you out but you wouldn't budge. When he did successfully get you out from underneath him you just followed him and did it again and again. If this was your way of getting him to stop overworking himself so much it is kind of working.

Wally had recently gotten a new package and boy was he happy, besides the fact that he had to assemble it himself. So he sat on the floor of his room trying to put together a gaming chair, screwing together two parts that look like they definitely shouldn't fit that way but that's besides the point. You'd entered his room and he'd given you a quick greeting before going back to building his chair. He'd heard some shuffling from where you were and turned to ask what you were doing only to see you fitting yourself within the large box that his chair had come in. You'd successfully smushed yourself down enough to fit perfectly in the box and he couldn't help but laugh at the sight. He took a picture, ignoring the soft glare you were giving him.

Conner would be resting and taking some time for himself not really doing much sadly. It was a rather boring day so he just sat himself on the couch, submitting to the mindless entertainment that the tv offers. Sooner or later you walked into the common room, spotting the kryptonian you moved over to him before shoving yourself under his legs. He was confused at first and asked what you were doing but didn't get much of a response besides a semi-sassy look as you just laid down and closed your eyes. He didn't move as your presence simply added to the comforting feeling of the couch especially since you were practically a warm footrest for him.

———

Directory

[mochegato]

Jasonette Protection Program

Chapter 1

Jason smirked as the lock disengaged for him. Tim may be ‘the smart one’ but thank God he was predictable.  It made things like breaking into his townhouse so much easier.  Now he just had to convince him to let him hide at his place for a few days.  It shouldn’t be too hard once he knew it would piss off Damian, because again, Tim was predictable, and one thing he reveled in more than tormenting Jason was tormenting the gremlin.  And not being able to find Jason would absolutely kill Damian, meaning he couldn’t kill Jason.  And none of them would think to look for Jason at Tim’s place of all places.

“Hey, Preten… er… Tim.  You here?” Jason called out as he relocked the door behind him.  “Come on, Tim.  I know you’re here.  You said you were going to hang out with friends tonight, which we both know means you’re going to be home alone all night.”

Jason moved through the townhouse looking for Tim, getting increasingly paranoid as he moved.  He’d told Alfred he’d be around if he needed anything, and he would never lie to Alfred.  So where was he, Jason wondered to himself as he walked past Tim’s bedroom, noting the untouched bed and wandered into the spare bedroom.  And who was the woman in the bed?  The suspiciously, absolutely gorgeous woman, sleeping peacefully in the bed he was going to use.  When Tim was conspicuously missing?  Well that was unpredictable.  

What the fuck was going on?  Tim was paranoid as fuck.  And to just leave someone in his townhouse unsupervised?  Someone who was pretending like she could sleep through Jason screaming at the top of his lungs?  Something was off.  “Hey! Person who doesn’t live here!” Jason yelled.  “Who the fuck are you and why are you in my brother’s bed?”

The woman’s eyes popped open.  Her face scrunched in confusion after a beat, but she slowly closed her eyes again.  “Hey, no!” Jason kicked the bed hard enough to jostle the entire bed.  “Who the fuck are you?”  

This time the woman, who he now realized was probably Tim’s girlfriend that he hadn’t told any of them existed, which he couldn’t blame Tim for, he wouldn’t want to introduce anyone to this family unless he had to either, bolted up to sitting and gasped in a breath.  Her head whipped around clumsily to find the source of the disruption.  She blinked groggily as she looked around, almost like she wasn’t registering what she was seeing, not really.  Jason almost felt bad for waking her up because damn, she must have been really deeply asleep.  It was taking her a while to settle back into reality.

Jason’s theory about her not really taking in what she saw was confirmed when her gaze swept past him with no reaction at all.  The room was dim, but wasn’t dark.  He wasn’t hidden.  There was no way she could have missed him.  After a few seconds she stopped her scan of the room and blinked blankly, swaying slightly in place, and brought her gaze back to him.  She blinked more heavily a few more times as she stared at him as if trying to figure out if he was really there.

Her eyes met his, but didn’t seem to see him. They looked glazed over.  He would normally be a bit more sympathetic to the sleep induced daze, but he was already in a bad mood and she was fucking ignoring him and where was Tim?  “Yes, I’m real,” he gruffly answered her unasked question.  “Now, for the third time, what the fuck are you doing in my brother’s bed?”

She looked down at herself and the bed she was in.  Her head lolled unsteadily as she looked around until she fell back onto the bed with a grunt.  “I see why your brother is the detective, not you.”  

“Excuse me!” he growled at her.  Instead of flinching back like a normal person would have, a smile teased on her lips and she turned over on her side, curling happily into her pillow.  Jason almost thought she’d fallen asleep and was about to strip the comforter off of her until she slurred out a sleepy question.  “So, which brother are you?”

He stared at her, unsure how to react to her. She knew Tim was a detective.  How did she know that?  ‘Detective’ isn’t a term you could just throw in there like ‘he’s the smart one’ would be, which, he was used to hearing.  But ‘detective’ was extremely specific and directly related to their nightly activities.  Unless he told her he was a private detective for some reason?  Or an inside joke?  And she was acting so casual about it, like it was an understood thing.  “Jason,” he finally answered.  Regardless of whether she knew or not, giving that much wouldn’t hurt.

“Ooohhh,” she smiled against the pillow, not even bothering to open her eyes.  “I was supposed to never meet you.  You should definitely stay close by.  Take a picture of Tim’s face when he sees you with me.  It’s going to be brilliant.  I would pay to see it.”

He smiled in spite of himself, but quickly schooled his expression.  She wasn’t answering his questions.  She was deftly avoiding giving him any information.  It was so natural, he could almost believe it really was, but nobody in their lives was that innocent.  But then again, her body was completely relaxed.  He was accustomed to deceptive relaxation, body positioning that appeared outwardly to be relaxed, but the muscles were prone and ready to jump into action in an instant if a threat presented itself.  She didn’t show those signs.  She was either amazingly good, which would explain how she knew who Tim was, or she really was that relaxed and innocent.  

Either way, he still didn’t have a name.  “And who are you exactly?  For the fourth time,” he asked again.

“Tomorrow,” she murmured as she groped for the covers to pull them back up over her chest.  “So tired. Just sleep.  Tim will be back soon, maybe.  Ask h…” she trailed off.

“You don't care if I share the bed?” he asked suspiciously.  This seemed more and more like a trap, but what the hell the trap could be, he couldn’t figure out.  He wasn’t married or seeing anyone so it wasn’t like she could blackmail him with pictures. And she couldn’t exhort him by forcing him into a situation where he defends himself against her husband or boyfriend who just ‘happens’ to walk in on them in bed, that was actually a popular one in Gotham for some reason, because they were in Tim’s townhouse and she knew they were brothers so… what the hell could her game be?

“And there was one bed,” she mumbled amused, giggling softly to herself.

“What?”

She waved him off sloppily.  “Not worried. You lay one finger on me and Tim will kill you.” She clumsily patted the space in the bed next to her.  “Sleep.”

“I’m sleeping on the couch,” he insisted surlily. He waited to see how she would react, but her only response was a soft snore.  He snorted.  He studied the woman, trying to figure out who exactly this woman was and how close to Tim she was, because not many girlfriends would suggest pranking their boyfriends with cheating… with the boyfriend’s brother, especially when she apparently knew there was animosity between them.  

Some of that could be because she was currently quite obviously not quite aware of reality.  He was now convinced it was a bit more than just being tired.  She had clearly enjoyed her night a bit too much, which he could completely understand. If he had to spend an entire night laughing with Tim, he’d need to be drunk too.

His head snapped in the direction of the front door when he heard the sounds of a lock disengaging and the door opening.  He glanced back at the woman in the bed, whose name he still didn’t know, and made a split second decision to trust her despite that fact.  The likelihood that she was conning him was far outweighed by the opportunity to prank Tim, and with his friend’s? girlfriend’s? whichever’s help!  This was unheard of.  Dick’s friends were more than willing to help with a prank, knowingly or unknowingly, but Tim’s friends?  Never. At least not with Jason.

He ripped off his jacket and shirt, throwing them toward the corner of the room and hopped toward the bed as he pulled off his boots.  He jumped under the covers behind the woman and let the covers pool around his hips, just above his pants waistband.  He pulled the covers up to the woman’s shoulders to hide the fact that she was still wearing her shirt.  She barely moved at all in response to his actions.  He wasn’t even sure if she knew he was there.  He really hoped when she woke up that she remembered the prank.

He could hear Tim’s footsteps as he got closer to the door.  Just before he reached the door, Jason threw his arm over the woman’s waist and moved closer to her.  He just barely cracked his eye open, enough to see Tim, but still look closed if the other person wasn’t watching closely enough.

Tim peeked quietly into the room.  He did a double take when he saw the bed.  “What the…” Tim started.  Jason couldn’t stop the small grin that spread on his face, that is until Tim reacted.  

He suddenly threw the door open and rushed the bed. He hauled Jason out of the bed with more strength than Jason remembered him having.  Tim threw him against the wall hard enough to knock a few pictures off the wall.  His face was contorted in the angriest scowl Jason had ever seen on him.  He shoved his forearm into Jason’s throat, pushing hard enough that Jason had to gasp to get air.

Tim moved closer, his eyes sparking with so much anger that for the first time Jason was a bit intimidated.  Maybe this hadn’t been such a brilliant idea after all.  But, this reaction from the normally composed Tim was definitely unpredictable.  The woman wasn’t kidding when she said Tim would kill him for touching her.  Tim paused and glanced down toward Jason’s cargo pants, still tightly belted and zipped.  When he looked back up, his eyes had somehow narrowed even more.  “That better have been just a terrible fucking joke.”

Jason rolled his eyes and tried to push Tim’s arm away from his throat, but Tim wouldn’t yield.  “Calm down, Timbers.  I didn’t sleep with your girlfriend,” Jason jeered.

“She isn’t my girlfriend, asshole,” Tim sneered back pushing his forearm harder into Jason’s throat.  “She’s a good friend who got drugged by someone tonight, intending to do God knows what.  So you can imagine how utterly not funny I find you joking about sleeping with her right now.”

Jason’s eyes widened in realization.  That… that would explain a lot.  “Oh Shit.  I’m really sorry, Tim.  I swear I didn’t do anything to her.”  Tim nodded slightly and lowered his arm, but his expression didn’t soften much.  He continued to glare at Jason.

His stare down was interrupted by a soft, tired, slightly slurred voice.  “What happened?  Tim?”  The woman smiled slightly.  “You’re home.”  Her eyes flicked over to Jason and she stopped to contemplate him.  “Hey, you’re real.  Did you take a picture?”

Tim whipped his head over to Jason, his heated glare back in place. “A picture of what, exactly?” he demanded.

Jason held up his hands in an effort to placate him.  She was really, really not helping them right now. “Of your face when you saw us together,” he explained slowly.  Tim drew in a deep breath and his jaw got even tighter.  “In my defense, it was her idea,” Jason said quickly, pointing to the woman, “and I didn’t know she was drugged.”

Tim looked away and huffed out an angry breath. He rubbed his forehead.  “Of course it was her idea.”  He turned to the woman with an exasperated sigh.  “You’re not funny, Marinette.”

The woman, Marinette, pouted at him and nestled deeper into the covers.  “I’m fucking hilarious,” she mumbled out from under the covers.  Her face emerged from the covers as she took them both in.  She looked down at Jason’s chest for a second and threw off the comforter to look down at her chest.  She pulled gently at the front of her shirt.  “Should have taken my shirt off too.  Would have been funnier,” she chastised lightly before collapsing back onto the bed and closing her eyes again.

“No,” Tim yelled out holding out his hands in a halting motion.

Marinette opened one eye to glare at him before turning over and snuggling into the covers on the other side.  “Fuck you.  I have great breasts.”

Tim groaned and looked down mortified.  “Oh God, that’s not something I wanted to ever hear coming out of your mouth.”

“And you’re in trouble anyway,” she continued, ignoring Tim’s comment, her words slurring slightly more as fatigue claimed more of her attention.  “Why didn’t you tell me your brother was sexy?”

Tim groaned and ran his hand down his face.  “And there’s another.”  He looked back at her with a serious expression.  “Not sexy, annoying asshole.”

“No, she clearly said sexy,” Jason corrected him with a cocky grin.

“Touch her and die,” Tim hissed.

“Protective much,” Jason taunted.

“That’s exactly what I am, protective of my drugged friend,” Tim growled back, reminding Jason of the situation and why Marinette was there in the first place.  He turned back to Marinette with a softer expression.  “You can do far better than him.”  He didn’t even flinch when Jason punched him hard in the shoulder. Jason discretely looked up to see how Marinette reacted to Tim’s words, but she was already sleeping again.

He only looked away from her when Tim punched his shoulder and shoved him toward the door.  “Don’t even fucking think about it,” he snapped.

“Yeah, yeah.  Okay.  Whatever, keep your friend,” Jason waved him off, but his eyes found their way back to her as they left the room.  “Tell me what happened while I raid your fridge.”

Chapter 2

@jasonette-july-event

[aster-aspera]

One place to fall

@badthingshappenbingo

Prompt: Can’t go home

Relationship: Jon/Martin/Tim/Sasha

Warnings: food, Jon just generally being a bit sad? Idk, if there’s something you want tagged, feel free to tell me

Masterlist

If you liked it, please reblog

Jon woke up that morning with a strangled gasp, the afterimage of his dreams still burned into the back of his eyelids, keeping him from falling back to sleep. He rolled over, expecting to find the comforting warmth of one of his partners to keep him company in the lonely hours of an early day. Instead, what greeted him was the cold grey wall of Georgie’s guest room. It didn’t take long after that for the memories to flow back.

Three days. He really should stop expecting them to be here at this point.

They’re not here, they can’t be here, and he can’t go home, not for a long while, not till the police stop suspecting him for a murder he didn’t commit.

He sighed, rolling over onto his back when aches started running up his side. He stared up at the off-white popcorn ceiling, trying not to think of how Tim was probably sprawled out over Martin and Sasha, stealing most of the blankets and driving his sharp elbows into their sides. He tried not to miss Sasha’s warmth against his side and the sound of Martin’s soft snores. He always used to complain about their sleeping arrangements, but now he would do anything to be back in that bed.

He groaned and rolled over a few more times, trying in vain to find a position that was comfortable enough to attempt sleep again, not that that would go very well, with the nightmares plaguing him as soon as he closed his eyes.

Eventually, he conceded and got out of bed, grabbing his cane from the wall and taking a moment to work the stiffness out of his limbs. He limped into the kitchen and smiled at the Admiral when he raised his head sleepily. He wondered if he could convince the others to get a cat when he got home. If he ever got home.

The smile slipped off his face and he turned to open the curtains, letting in the greyish light of an early dawn. The Admiral mewled plaintively at his feet, pushing against him. He bent down carefully to run his fingers along the cat’s back, closing his eyes for a moment and just letting the feeling ground him.

He straightened and made his way over to the cramped kitchen, intent on making himself a small breakfast to keep him company whilst he waited for the world to wake up. He reached towards the cabinet over the sink, and for a moment expected their mismatched collection of mugs with ridiculous quotes and terrible puns. He shouldn’t have felt the disappointment he did when instead it was just a shelf of plain white cups.

He shut the cabinet door a little more forcefully than strictly necessary, breathing deeply against the sudden swell of emotion in his throat.

In the scope of all that had happened to him, this should have been minor, this should have been fine. It was just Georgie, the person he had used to love, the person he still cared for. And his partners were really just a phone call away.

So why then, did it feel like he was breaking? Why did every little reminder this wasn’t his home tear something apart deep in his gut?

Home had always been his safety net, and now, he had nowhere to fall.

And now he just had to sit here, stare at the blank walls and hope the police would finally realise he hadn’t been the one to kill jurgen Leitner. Every day that hope felt a bit further away.

He opened the group chat he shared with the others. There were no new messages, of course not, none of them were awake yet. Six am was a bit early even for Tim. He scrolled back to their conversation from last night.

A picture of Tim grinning into the camera while a pot bubbles over behind him.

Sasha: Tim’s cooking tonight, send help

Martin: If the house burns down or he poisons us, I want you to know I love you

Jon: I’m sure it won’t come to that.

He scrolls back down to the bottom of the chat, a small smile on his face at the easy conversation of last night. It wasn’t the same as being there with them, but it was a small comfort.

The three dots that signalled someone was typing popped up on his screen and he noted with surprise Sasha was already online.

Sasha: Youre up early

Jon: I could say the same for you.

Sasha: Needed to pee

Jon: Yes, I suppose that makes sense.

Sasha: So what’s your excuse

Jon: My back hurts again.

Sasha: :(

Sasha: And is that the only reason?

Jon: No

Jon: I miss you.

Sasha: Darling

Jon: I’m alright, I just wish I could see you

Jon: In person that is.

Sasha: We could come over?

Jon: I don’t think that’s wise.

Sasha: Yeah, i guess

Sasha: We miss you too

A swarm of emotions bubbled up in Jon’s throat at the words, threatening to spill over in a mess of heartache and sorrow and fear. They press against the bounds of his throat, choking him, filling him with so many feelings he could not even begin to parse them out. He just wanted to go home.

He swallows it down, tucks the whole mess into a corner of his mind and puts down his phone. He doesn’t want to bother Sasha, or any of the others. He’s already put so much on them, dragged them into the fear and confusion that was the archives, he had no right to bother them with more.

And he knew he was just being dramatic, he was a grown man, he should be able to handle being away from home for a while. He just needed to get himself together, focus on the next step.

He picked up a stack of statements from the coffee table, slipping on his glasses and burying himself in the comforting rhythm of paper and pen. At least this was something he still controlled, still knew how to do.

Georgie appeared at some point, giving him a disapproving glance to find him working so early and coraling him into eating breakfast with her. She can’t stay long after that, and both Jon and the Admiral watch her leave with the same forlorn air.

Jon looked up from his work as a heavy knock resounded from the front door. His first thought was that it was Georgie, back from her errands early. But she would just have let herself in, and Jon knew for certain she had her key with her when she left.

And who did that leave? The police? Some avatar coming to settle a score? Gertrude's killer finally come to finish the job?

Every option was bad, and every option would not let a flimsy door stop them. He stood up, walked into the kitchen as calmly as he could with dread and paranoia hanging over him like a dark cloud and grabbed the largest knife he could find. The knock came again, and he could hear indistinct whispering from behind the door.

Multiple people then. That wasn’t good for his chances. He gripped the knife just a little bit tighter.

“Hey boss, open up,” came a familiar voice, one he used to hear rough and sleepy in the mornings and soft and loving in the evenings. His heart brightened in a momentary thrill at the thought of his partners, or at least, one of them, being on the other side of that door, so close to him again after all those days without them. And all he had to do was open up that door and pull them into his arms once more.

That thrill was almost immediately dampened again as he realized they should not be here. It was why he had left in the first place. They were too connected to him, too wrapped up in his messy web of conspiracy and paranoia. If the police saw them here, if Elias saw them here, they would be leading all of it right to Georgie’s doorstep.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” He told the door and tried not to think of the warm hands behind it.

“We’re not supposed to do a lot of things,” Came Sasha’s amused voice.

“Like date each other,” Tim filled in, “But here we are, so you going to let us in now?”

“No, the police could find out, and you might get Georgie in trouble and there’s just so many reasons this is a bad idea.”

“Jon please, we’re worried about you, Georgie said you weren’t doing well,” Martin said softly

Jon sat down on the couch heavily, knees protesting from standing up too long. He stared at the door.

“And standing out here is probably a lot more risky than being in the apartment, so best let us in.”

He sighed. You never could argue with Sasha’s logic. The others looked up victoriously when he finally unlocked the door.

“There he is!” Tim crowed, as Sasha and Martin offered him a warm smile while bustling into the apartment, both laden with grocery bags. Sasha pressed a light kiss to his forehead as she passed and he tried not to start crying at the feeling.

“You have to leave,” He said as he shut the door, “You’re not supposed to be here.”

Martin and Sasha didn’t look up from where they were unloading piles of vegetables and snacks from their bags.

“What? No, hey guys, I missed you, happy to see you all?” Tim complained as he draped himself over Jon’s back. Jon scowled at him.

“Jon, stop being stubborn, we’ve all been through hell the past few weeks, and right now we just want to be here to keep you company,” Martin said in that firm yet gentle voice of his.

“You really shouldn’t be alone after all that,” Sasha said as she dumped out a tupperware container into a pot.

“I’m not alone,” Jon said grumpily, “I have the Admiral.” Though he had apparently decided to make himself scarce for the time being. Jon cursed him for the betrayal.

“Are you saying you prefer the company of a cat to ours?” Tim asked, pulling them both back onto the couch and settling a blanket over them.

“Maybe,” Jon pouted, burrowing into Tim’s chest despite the fact that he was still upset with them, “He doesn’t uselessly endanger everyone to come give me cuddles.”

“Well we’re here now, and we’re not leaving till you feel better.”

“And admit it, you’re happy we’re here,” Martin said, apparently finishing up with his preparations in the kitchen and curling up next to Jon on the couch.

Jon did not want to admit it, but something warm and content curled up in his stomach, the warm feeling of home returning to his bones. A warm and savoury smell drifted through the room, clearly coming from whatever Sasha was warming up on the stove.

This apartement did not look like home in the slightest, the walls and ceiling all wrong, the furniture hard and uncomfortable and unfamiliar. But with all of them here, and that familiar smell of soup and Tim’s conditioner surrounding him, it wasn’t all that bad.

Sasha sat down on his other side, handing everyone a bowl of soup and giving Jon a gentle kiss on his knuckles. Martin pressed one to his temple and Tim just ruffled his hair fondly.

A few words were exchanged between them, but Jon didn’t bother paying too much attention. He knew he should still be angry, or at least have a firm conversation with them on what they had agreed on. But not now, not when they were here and he was home and for a moment he could forget all about Leitner and the institute and just be safe.

[domesticblisss]

4 in the Morning | Don’t Speak PT.03

Timothy Thatcher x Female Reader (Mentioned Female Reader x Cash Wheeler) Rating: NC-17 Word Count: 778 Warnings: Tiny tiny bit of angst, fluff, mentions of smut. Inspired by Gwen Stefani’s “4 in the morning” Pt.01 | Pt.02

Toss and turn. It is 4 a.m and her night got summed up in a game of toss and turn. The events of past 24 hours kept replaying on her mind and how she should be getting up in a couple of hours to go and get ready for her wedding day. She gives up and picks up her phone, opening WhatsApp and scrolling back to their conversation. 

Toss and turn. It is 4 a.m and his night got summed up in a game of toss and turn. Oney had showed him the beautiful kraft paper card, the cream pearly wax seal holding a single Baby’s Breath branch on the envelope’s opening. Her wedding is about to happen in a few hours and there’s nothing else he could do anymore except wish her happiness. 

Reviving his old, lost instagram account, he looks for her profile, scrolling endlessly and marvels at her beauty, thinking about what a stunning bride she would be and how he envies Cash for being the one to do it. He notices how far back he went and sees that she hadn’t deleted the pictures of them together. His phone buzzes as a WhatsApp notification appears with her name on it. All he can think about is did he accidentally like one of her pictures. He doesn’t waste any more time and finally opens it, a thirty second audio staring back at him. 

“Hi, Tim. You are probably asleep by now... I– I don’t even know why I’m sending this, but I just... fuck I miss you. I really liked seeing you that day at Oney’s. I don’t know where I’m going with this... I should probably delete it. I’m sorry. I hope you’re happy. Bye.”

He replays it a couple times, the tone of her voice worrying him. He looks up to her contact name and sees that she is online and on impulse, he calls her. 

It rings twice before she picks up. 

“Hey dove, what’s up? Is everything ok?”

“Hi, Tim. Everything is fine.” her voice is small, hoarse, like she had been crying. 

He sighs. “I know you, I know that voice. Did anything happen with the wedding?”

“The wedding...” she laughs. 

“Dove, c’mon, talk to me. What happened?”

“I called it off, Tim. I called it off yesterday. Cancelled the whole thing.”

“Did Cash do anything?”

“No. Cash is the nicest person ever, he was actually pretty understanding.”

“So what was i–“

“He’s not you, Tim!” she interrupted. “I can’t see myself doing this with anyone but you. I thought I could go through with it but then I saw you that day at Oney’s and I just... Fuck I miss you so much, I need you, I–“

“Where are you?”

“My old place, why?”

“I’ll be there in 20.”

The longest 20 minutes of their lives. She kept pacing around, almost carving a hole on the path between her living and her door. All traffic lights between his and hers apartments were red, making him stop more than necessary.

She sprinted as she heard his characteristic knock on the door, opening it as fast as she could and being met with the sweetest, most beautiful pair of brown eyes. 

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

The two-letter word was the only one exchanged between them, silently agreeing on not wasting anymore time, both simultaneously going in for the kiss. Tim gently lifted her up, her legs attaching themselves on his waist and her hands going straight to his hair, pulling him even closer. 

The kiss tasted bittersweet, washing away the longing that grew intensely each day they spent away from the other. 

He sat down on the couch with her on his lap, his hands roaming freely around her body as he broke the kiss. 

Foreheads touching, giggles coming from both parts, two soulmates finding each other once again. 

“I’m sorry I was such a prick to you, dove.” Tim spoke first, gently caressing the head she laid on his shoulder. 

“It’s fine, love. I’ve forgiven you ages ago.”

“No, c’mon, look at me.” he waited for her to get up and look at him. “I was a complete asshole for how I acted, and I am deeply sorry for it. I could go on saying how it was new to me and that I was scared, which is the truth, but it still isn’t an excuse. I regret all the pain I caused you, and I love you more than anything.”

“I love you too, more than anything.”

They stayed on each other’s arms for hours, feeling the other’s presences, catching up, kissing, making love. 

It is dawn, Tim is lying face down on her fluffy carpet while she peppers kisses down his naked back, when a thought ran through his head. 

“Did you cancel everything?”

“What do you mean?” she asks confused. 

“Did you cancel everything from the wedding? Catering, venue, whatever you guys had going on.”

She sat up, staring at him unsure of what he had in mind. “Well, everything is cancelled except the catering and some of the decoration. Why?”

He was the one to sit up this time, and asked her “Do you wanna get married?”

“What? Tim, are you serious?”

“Of course! We set up everything on the backyard, call up our five friends and our parents. Drew can officiate it, Oney can pretend he knows how to sing. What do you say?”

“Yes!”

→

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

Whumptober 2020 Day 7 - Support/Carrying

Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake Summary: Jason knew a thing or two about in securities.  A/N: Tim gets hopped up on pain killers later and thanks Damian for not laughing at him and Damian’s never been more confused in his life. Jason just pats his head and tells him to smile and nod.

Ao3

~~

Jason couldn’t help but chuckle throughout the whole ordeal.

“In you go, little baby.” He teased, lowering Tim as gently as he could.

Tim groaned dramatically. “Just leave me here to die, man.”

“No can do.” Jason sighed wistfully. “Cassie likes you too much. She’d kill me if I left you here.” He sniffed, waited until Tim situated himself to a little more comfortable a position. “Besides, embarrassment is a shitty thing to die of.”

“That’s why you’d leave me here. I’d rather die of the elements, than embarrassment.” Tim snapped. He slumped back. “I mean, picture yourself in my position. You really want to be wheeled back into the bunker with a broken leg…in a freaking kids’ wagon?”

They’d found it next to the dumpster of the apartment building they’d just left. And if Jason hadn’t also been hurt in the fight – a dislocated left shoulder and sprained ankle at least – then they wouldn’t have even looked at it twice. He’d have carried Tim on his own.

But considering they’d been captured and driven to said apartment building, and that they were closer to the Bat-Bunker downtown than where their bikes might be, it was really their only option if they wanted to get anywhere before bleeding out or exhausting themselves to the point of collapse.

Jason snorted again in amusement. “I don’t know, man. I might feel like I was in a parade or something.”

“Yeah, the world’s saddest parade. Whoopie.” Tim scoffed, crossing his arms. He tensed his muscles, took a deep inhale.

“Leg hurt?” Tim pursed his lips, reluctantly nodded. “Then this is what we’ve gotta do, kid. Sorry we don’t all have fancy cars like B-man has.”

“At least he’s out of town.” Tim mumbled as Jason picked up the wagon’s handle. “I might just kill myself if he was there when we got in.”

“Right, he’d be the worst.” Jason drawled as he rolled his eyes. “So it’s great that it’ll just be Damian there instead, huh?”

Tim froze as Jason stepped out onto the street. “…He’s out of town.”

Jason clicked his tongue, waving as a drunk couple walked by them, staring. “Got back last night. He and ‘Wing are staying at the Tower for some dumb sentimental reason. I don’t know, kid didn’t say why.”

“Oh no.” Tim slouched in the wagon, let the back ledge dig into his neck. “Oh…no.”

“What, thought you were just going to run into our sister? A certain blonde?” Jason laughed. “And Duke is with B.”

Tim hid his face in his hands, curled in on himself. “Jay, please, for the love of god. Seriously. Just kill me.”

Jason stopped at a crosswalk, watching the blinking orange hand. He glanced back at Tim, but frowned. At first he thought Tim was just being purposefully dramatic, but as he watched Tim run his fingers through his hair, sigh deeply every few seconds, keep his eyes closed in focus, he frowned.

“…The kid isn’t going to make fun of you. You know that right?” Jason mumbled. “He’s grown past that shit. He…kinda likes you now, I’m pretty sure.”

“Yeah, okay.” Tim scoffed. “If you say so.”

“I’m serious.” Jason pushed. “And, really, so what if Bruce saw you? I mean, he’s going to know you broke your leg eventually. Probably by tomorrow, from Alfred.”

Tim remained curled around himself, sheepishly shrugged his shoulders.

“…You never got over that, did you?”

“…Got over what.”

“Thinking you’re not good enough.” Jason accused as the light turned and he stepped off the curb. “That one wrong move and you’re getting kicked out of the family, or the costume, or whatever.”

“Are you saying you did?” Tim snapped in defense. Jason didn’t take it personally.

“I never had to get over a fear of being kicked out. I left of my own free will.” Jason hummed.

“Oh yeah. You left so hard you come back every Sunday for brunch still.” Tim pouted. “And keep a room at the manor, and use the library and the kitchen and-”

“Alright so maybe left was the wrong word.” Jason drawled. “But…you know…” He sighed. “See, that’s the difference between me, Dick, Cass, Steph, and the rest of you. You all still care too much about impressing each other and being good enough and shit. Legacies.”

“That is literally the opposite of what is true for you and the girls. Your legacy is just from an evil madman.” Tim hummed. “Dick is the only one who creates his own legacies, not follows one. And even him you can’t count completely. He was Batman for god’s-”

“Will you let me just compliment you, Red?” Jason cut off. “Fuck almighty!”

Tim sucked his lips through his teeth.

“…I’m not going to stand here and tell you that you shouldn’t feel not good enough. Every one of us do, and me telling you that you are good enough and always have been might not get through that wall in your brain, especially now that you got knocked on your ass. I get that. Totally.” Jason explained. “But what I am going to remind you of is the fact that the family loves you. A lot.”

“Yeah, I kno-”

“No, you don’t.” Jason hummed simply. “Because if you did, you wouldn’t be more focused on being embarrassed than the fact that you’re hurt.”

Tim blinked, and glanced at his leg.

“And…yeah, okay. If there’s one thing I learned about our ragtag crew of psychopaths, it’s that they’re…eternally unconditional.” Jason lifted his hand to flip off a car that catcalled them as it sped by. “That means forever, no matter what. I learned that in recent years. Damian luckily learned it faster than the rest of us, thanks to Dickie. The girls are better at emoting than the rest of us so they got it on like, day one. So. Now it’s your turn.”

Tim silently reached out to test the pressure points on his legs, feel where it’s more painful.

“Christ, kid and I have killed people. You’re really going to let your brain make you think they’re going to suddenly hate you or think less of you because you broke your leg?”

“I mean…” Tim tried to smile. “I didn’t say that…”

“You didn’t have to.” Jason smirked. “Like you just said yourself in a roundabout way, I’ve already been there.”

Tim leaned forward, doubling over his leg, stretching his back a little, focusing on that pain, not the one in his leg.

“Now their worry over your leg, and yes I include Robin in that, that’ll probably be a little annoying and smothering.” Jason rambled. “But they’re not smothering because they hate you, that’s for sure. So. You know. Try to remind yourself of that when your brain starts to get a little wild.”

Tim glanced up as they rounded the corner. “…You including yourself in this little emotional intervention?”

“I’m pulling you in a fucking wagon in downtown Gotham City.” Jason snapped. “What the hell do you think?”

Tim smiled. Laughed lightly, but grabbed his chest when it rattled his nerves and flared through his leg.

“…Thanks, Jay.”

“Don’t mention it.” Jason sighed, looking up at Wayne Tower as it appeared in the distance. “Seriously, don’t. Dick and Duke will never let me live it down.”

[navalcriminalimagines]

Gibbs x reader married and telling gibbs reader doesn’t want children

The ride home from Tim and Delilah’s place, where you and your husband Gibbs had dinner, was silent. Not that Gibbs mind, he is a pretty silent person himself but it’s not your thing. He takes a few glances at you, you were looking through the window, you seem thoughtful, maybe a little sad?

It confuses Jethro. You all had a great time at Tim’s, you talked about multiple stuff, you laughed. He remembers looking at you while you were helping Delilah in the kitchen and thinking how lucky he is to have you as his wife. Actually, he never thought he would get married again to someone he is deeply in love with. Since Shannon and before you, he liked his ex wives and pushed away the ones he had feelings for. But you are different and something is off with you right now.

“Are you okay, honey?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure,” you briefly smiled at him.

You’ve known Jethro’s past before being romantically involved with him. In fact, you never thought the two of you would get married someday. When he proposed, it was surreal, you thought you could die from happiness. But there is one thing you and Jethro never talked about: kids.

Although he never talks about it, you know deep inside how much he loves his daughter Kelly. You saw pictures, and that smile he had on those, you never saw it on again since you met. Well, you saw something that looked like that smile tonight...when he was playing with Morgane, Tim and Delilah’s three years old daughter. And it bothers you. You don’t want kids, you never did. But what if having a child would make him completely happy again?

Once you got home, you went straight to the shower, without even offering Jethro to join you. He had one last drink downstairs and waited for you in bed. “Y/N, have I done something wrong?” he asked.

“W-what? no! Why do you think that?”

“I don’t know. Since we left dinner, you look sad. Are you?”

Your husband seems genuinely worried and that’s somehow you can’t stand. You sat next to him on the bed and passed your hand through his hair. He leans into your touch, “talk to me,” he whispered.

“Do—do you want kids, J?”

Everything went fast in his head. He assumed you want to have kids but you’re afraid he doesn’t because of his past. Which is actually not entirely wrong.

“Honestly, I’ve not give it much thought. But I guess if you—“ he didn’t have time to finish his sentence. You put your forefinger on your lips to make him stop talking.

“I don’t want kids. I love them but I don’t want any of my own. But I see you with the twins or Victoria and you are so great with them. And you look...happy,” you paused, “happier,”

Jethro closes the gap between you and holds your head with his hands, to make you look into his eyes. “I’m happy. I don’t need a kid, or anyone else. I actually never thought I could be happy again. Until we met. And i’m sorry I don’t show it better, or don’t say it but that’s the truth,”

“I believe you. I love you, Jethro”

“I love you too,” you kissed him immediately, he almost didn’t have time to finish his sentence.

“However, what do you think about puppies?” you asked between kisses and Jethro laughed.

The week after that, you are welcome home by your loving husband and a wonderful australian shepherd baby, with the same blue eyes as Jethro’s.

[kore-arts]

Moth Jon shenanigans Pt 1

“Look, Tim, this is all very sudden and I think we should be trying to fix things before we just sit around and record-”

“Martin. As much as I hate to say it, the documentation might help us if we.. I don’t know! Just do it, please. As a favor or something.”

“Fine.” 

Statement of Martin Blackwood, Archival Assistant at the Magnus Institute, concerning the newfound state of Jonathan Sims. Statement recorded direct from subject, October 10th, 2016. 

Statement begins.

So, I suppose I should start at the very moment I left the Archive Friday night. We were- Tim, Sasha, and I were going to clock out a bit early, at Jon’s insistence. Honestly I should have seen the signs then, should have looked at his skin and the way his teeth were stretching his jaw in a way that if I had only looked closer…maybe I could’ve-

“Martin, focus.”

Sorry, anyways, we all left and Sasha went wherever she goes nowadays, Tim went to get on the tube as usual, and I started my usual walk back to the flat. This is another thing that evaded me: the moths. They were everywhere that day, clinging onto the streetlamps and tangling themselves in my jacket’s hood every time I got my phone out to check the time or to quickly answer a text, their dusty velvet wings brushing lightly on my skin. Another thing I just let go of, because really, It was just moths. I should have been paying more attention, seeing the patterns they had. I remember now, in my peripheral vision, the fractal patterns in their wings. 

So I got to my flat and did the usual ritual: dinner, shower, bed. The weekend passed easily enough; what really got this whole thing going was Monday. It’s almost comical, really: the stereotype that Mondays are the worst finally coming to fruition. 

Sound transcript: A tight small laugh comes from the speaker.

So we all clocked in. Sasha was there first, of course, like she always is, and Tim followed soon after I got there. We all got our beverages: Tea for Tim and I, and coffee for Sasha. I made sure to make some for Jon, ensuring it was how he liked it. So here we have this picture: myself, tea in hand, Tim, likewise, and Sasha all walking down to the archive. I remember vividly reaching for the archive door and hearing the strangest sound I’ve ever heard in my life. It was like sheets rustling, the crunch of plastic as if fed through a shredder, and a strange, well, chirp, reverberating through the empty archive. 

As soon as I put my foot down to step into the archive, I heard a similar sickening crunch. I looked down, Tim trying desperately to look over my shoulder, and saw- 

“Those scales, right?” 

Yes, Tim, the damn scales. They littered the ground, a strangely beautiful dusty amber color, and they seemed to stick to everything. My clothes, my skin, the bookshelves, the tapes, everything. We all barged in, and I set to finding the source of all the damn sound as quickly as possible. 

Sound transcript: Speaker gulps, hiccups once, and then regains control of himself. 

We- we didn’t have to look for long, since I checked the offices first. The chirping grew louder as I ventured into Jon’s office, as well as the other accompanying sounds, but as soon as my foot fell upon the ground of the office the crunching and the chirping stopped short, although the rustling remained. But, I thought to myself, where’s Jon? Shouldn’t he be here at this ungodly hour, droning on? His coat was there, and his chair hadn’t been pushed in as though he had never left- and he hadn’t. I looked around the entire office, casting my eyes over every surface from my vantage point in front of his desk. Then, of course, since I’m a person who finishes what he starts, I made sure to check under the desk, and suddenly I saw two large, black staring eyes like static-filled TV screens filled with an ever shifting rainbow blinking up at me. I-

Sound transcript: Speaker stutters as he breathes deeply 

I saw Jon. Well, what he had become. Slowly eating a long strip of record tape. He had blinked up at me as what felt like an hour, but it was probably just a minute. After he squeaked in this… this most terrified and tiny voice. He was...so small. Maybe only a meter tall? A clear change from Friday, when we had left. 

“Martin?” As he suddenly dropped the tape, I heard Tim coming up from behind me. Jon’s eyes, somehow still perfectly fitted to his now miniature glasses, widened and he barrelled into me, sent me rolling, and opened up a brand new pair of velvety, eye-dappled wings to fly up and above me, careening into the shelves outside of his office. 

I couldn’t believe my eyes, really. Tim was gawping, his jaw nearly on the ground, Sasha was nowhere to be seen, and Jon was attempting to pull himself together and get on top of the shelves. 

“Jon?” I said, clear confusion in my voice. He balked, a new pair of arms fidgeting with his old ones. I had never seen him that scared in my life. He seemed so unsure of what to do, like a teenager who’s just woken up from a growth spurt, or a de-growth spurt I guess? A shrinkage?

“Martin, help- I don’t know what to do!” This was a change, for sure. Jon always, always knew what to do before this. It was the thing that scared me first, honestly. Slightly- adorable -height changes, elegant dusty wings, et cetera were nothing to me at this point, but seeing him so unsure was the first thing that really struck a chord in the symphony of my confusion-addled brain. 

Sound transcript: A muffled chirp from outside the door right as the speaker’s companion snickers. 

Quiet. I managed to coax him down, promising we wouldn’t hurt him. Tim was of course no help, seeing how he and Jon had been getting into rows the last couple of days before Friday. And that’s how we got...here. Everything is relatively stable, but I don’t know what will happen if anyone else sees him, or what happened to him. He still won’t tell. His behavior has changed, as well. He’s more- well, I hate to describe it as affectionate, but that’s what it is. Like a cat. Even his chirps. He’s still “old Jon”, but with...differences. Besides the physical ones. 

Er, statement ends. 

Sound transcript: Door creaks open, tape clicks

Credit to me, @choyaheart and @onelonelyghost

Taglist @quillmas-blog

[shewhobefuddles]

Jordelia Playlist

Okay, here's the playlist of Jordelia songs (and their explanations) I've compiled over quarantine through sheer boredom, and starvation of more TSC content. Feel free to skip the explanations, I just have too much time on my hands and wanted to get my thoughts out. I put a shortlist below to skip the writing. 

Add songs in the comments!!!

Shortlist

Heather- Conan Gray

All I Ask- Adele

Wildest Dreams- Taylor Swift

Stone Cold- Demi Lovato

Like We Never Loved At All- Faith Hill, Tim McGraw

Make You Feel My Love- Adele

Apologize- One Republic

The Last Time- Taylor Swift

Moral of the Story (slowed) - Ashe

Burning- Sam Smith

Without a Word- Birdy

Kiss Me- Ed Sheeran

Salvation- Gabrielle Aplin

Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude- Bach

Heather- Conan Gray

We all saw this one coming, but it really is a good song that I think goes well with Cordelia’s situation. “But I watch your eyes as she walks by; what a sight for sore eyes.” The song quite beautifully describes a classic case of unrequited love, and how it feels to watch the person you care about be obsessed with someone else. Cordelia spends the book watching James follow Grace around, and pushing aside her romantic feelings for him, as she believes that he does not return them. Even after they’re engaged, she accepts that he will never love her, and his feelings for Grace will remain. Of course, we all know there are magical, manipulative forces at play here, but James and Cordelia don’t yet.

All I Ask- Adele

“So don’t get me wrong I know, there is no tomorrow, all I ask is if this is my last night with you, hold me like I’m more than just a friend.”  This song is absolutely beautiful, and if you listen to nothing else on this playlist, listen to this. An underrated Adele masterpiece. Anyways, it again relates to unreciprocated love, and the desire to have one last good memory with the person you love before you have to leave. This makes me think of the desperation of time running out in James and Cordelia’s fake engagement, and Cordelia trying to savor each moment, even though she thinks James isn’t doing the same. It makes me picture her trying to memorize how it feels to be held in his arms as his fiancee/wife, with their inevitable divorce looming over her. I don’t know if they will actually divorce, or even end up getting married. Who knows how their fake engagement will play out. But still, she’d be anticipating divorce, and feeling these things all the same. 

Wildest Dreams- Taylor Swift (listen to the slowed version for even more feels; idk why but slowed versions always have more tension)

“Say you’ll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe. Red lips and rosy cheeks; say you’ll see me again even if it’s just in your wildest dreams.”  To me, these are the silent pleas of Cordelia as she prepares to leave James, hoping that he’ll still think of her, remember her fondly, even if it’s just in his wildest dreams. It’s also James. James will eventually wake up from his enchantment, and when he does I’m sure he’ll be filled with regret over what he could’ve had with Cordelia, remembering only once the enchantment is off how beautiful she was, how much of a wonderful person she was that he connected with so strongly. This song adds a layer of wistfulness and time gone by between the couple’s memories, and where the couple is now, recollecting them, which hopefully won’t happen in the books. I hope that years don’t go by between Cordelia and James seeing each other, after everything with their engagement. But it’s an interesting thought.

Stone Cold- Demi Lovato (her live/acoustic versions are also worth a listen!)

“I’m happy for you, know that I am, even if I can’t understand. I’ll take the pain, give me the truth. Me and my heart, we’ll make it through. If happy is her, I’m happy for you.” Tears. Tears. Cordelia is so kind, mature, and understanding, and she has never once blamed James for his feelings for Grace, or wished Grace any ill will. She just wants to see James happy, even if it’s not with her. She will continue to love him, and bravely, quietly endure the pain of watching him with someone else, because she cares for him so deeply that just having him close to her, in her life is enough (for now). I sense trouble and discontent, and think that the pain will eat away at her over time, but she really does want the best for James, and wishes him and Grace well.

Like We Never Loved At All- Faith Hill, Tim McGraw (yes it’s country, but hear me out it’s a good song, and I don’t even usually like country music!)

“How can you just walk on by, without one tear in your eye? Don’t you have the slightest feelings left for me?” This one reminds me of how James and Cordelia had about a week or so where he wasn’t under an enchantment; they had a passionate moment in the Whispering Room, James was all enamored and calling her Daisy, and they talked about reading together. And then, the return of the bracelet, and James’ feelings for Cordelia seemingly disappeared. I understand that Cordelia had already had reason to believe James liked Grace, as she’d seen them together before the enchantment was off, and she was probably never that secure in James’ feelings for her, as he only partially professed them very briefly before going back to being in love with Grace, but I have to believe there was a moment where she was very confused. Like, “James and I passionately made out in the Whispering Room, and then he told me he’d never wanted anything more than to kiss me, and now he’s back with Grace? Huh?” So, this song reflects that: having something with someone, only for them to act as if it never happened at all, leaving you with the memories and pain.

Make You Feel My Love- Adele

“Nothing that I wouldn’t do; go to the ends of the earth for you. To make you feel my love.”  A song of deep love and devotion. I imagine Cordelia’s selfless love for James, that burns brightly despite his lack of returned affection, or James’ eventual realization of his love for Cordelia. Him being devastated that he has hurt her, that she doesn’t believe he loves her, that he was never able to recognize his feelings before. I see it as James professing how he feels to Cordelia, baring his soul to her and showing her his devotion, trying to erase her pain and earn her trust.

Apologize- OneRepublic (again, I kinda like the slowed version; you can so clear hear the violin, piano, and tension)

“You tell me that you need me then you go and cut me down, but wait. You tell me that you’re sorry, didn’t think I’d turn around. And say, that it’s too late to apologize.” How I picture some Chain of Iron angst, as a result of the confusion and miscommunication that will be going on with James and Cordelia, due to the enchantment. James will give her mixed signals as his true feelings battle with the feelings brought on by the enchantment, and there will be chaos and pain. James will have a lot to explain to Cordelia at some point, and we’ll see how receptive she is to what he has to say. Cordelia is forgiving and understanding, but she will not tolerate being toyed with, disrespected, or neglected by anyone, not even James, and the bracelet may make it seem like James is mistreating her. No matter which way the story goes, drama will ensue, feelings will be hurt, and amends will have to be made.

The Last Time- Taylor Swift, Gary Lightbody

“This is the last time I’m asking you this, to put my name at the top of your list. This is the last time I’m asking you why. You broke my heart in the blink of an eye.” This song is similar to All I Ask in that it describes the last, bittersweet moment of a relationship, and the desire to preserve that moment to keep with you after the end, and give you a reprieve from the pain. Again, it makes me think of Cordelia trying to savor the moments she gets with James before they have to split.

Moral of the Story- Ashe (SLOWED!!)

I don’t know if it’s just me but I can’t stand the normal version of the song, it sounds a little too poppy. Go listen to the slowed and reverb one on YouTube, it’s so much prettier and more haunting. Anyways, some little quotes that remind me of James’s situation are: “So I never really knew you. God, I really tried to. Blindsided, addicted.” and “You can think that you’re in love, when you’re really just in pain.” To me, in the context of TLH, this song is about James’s deep regret at being caught up in delusions about Grace for years, and ruining things with Cordelia, the love of his life. Also, reflecting on how he’s been held back from truly being himself and experiencing emotions for much of his life, which is devastating. The piano alone at the beginning sounds like melancholy and regret, James pondering the things that have happened to him and the decisions he’s made, and the pain that all of this has caused him, as well as everyone else (I’m guessing Grace will use him to do some scary, dangerous sh*t).

Burning- Sam Smith

“I’ve been burning, yes I’ve been burning. Such a burden, this flame on my chest.” This song instantly reminded me of them, because of the chapter Burn in ChOG, where Cordelia says something like, “For a year I will be close to him, and know what it means to burn.” The actual verses and lyrics of this song don’t apply perfectly to James and Cordelia, but it’s a song about the pain love can bring, how it can burn, so I thought the essence of it fit them.

Without a Word- Birdy

“Stand there and look into my eyes, and tell me that all we had were lies. Show me that you don’t care. And I’ll stay here, if you prefer. Yes, I’ll leave you. Without a word.” Again, I feel this relates to the concept of “Am I imagining everything that happened between us?” that was present with Cordelia after the bracelet was put back on James, only, Cordelia never confronted James. She just assumed she had been reading things wrong, making things up in her mind, and so she accepted it when James went back to Grace. But this song explores the confrontation of two people whose relationship/romance has ended, in which one person is demanding that the other be honest about what happened with them, what their true feelings are. While Cordelia accepted James’ return to Grace fairly easily, this song makes me imagine James confronting Cordelia, once the enchantment has been broken. I can imagine that Cordelia might not be forthright about her feelings for him, after everything she’s been through, but James will only just be realizing his deep love and affection for her, and will likely be wanting to know if she felt what he felt during their moments together that he’d forgotten, like the Whispering Room, or when she read to him. James will want to know how Cordelia feels, and this song is how I picture him wondering about it, and possibly approaching her.

Kiss Me- Ed Sheeran

“So kiss me like you want to be loved.” This one is just a soft, romantic love song. I’m all for the angst and drama, but I do hope that James and Cordelia eventually get time where their feelings have been requited, they are secure in their love, and they can just enjoy being together. This song makes me imagine them slow dancing in a dimly lit room by a dying fire. Sigh.

Salvation- Gabrielle Aplin

“Just a trick of light, to bring me back around again. Those wild eyes, a psychedelic silhouette.” I like all the different metaphors and details this song uses to describe the way that someone you love lives in your head. It reminds me of all the times Cordelia is distracted by James, or is thinking about little details of his, like his eyes or dimples. Her love for him has refused to go away, even through the difficult situations they’ve been put in, and thoughts of him are always floating around somewhere in her mind. James will likely be the same, once the enchantment is broken.

Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude- Bach

This is a piece of classical music with no lyrics or tangible relation to James and Cordelia, but it gives me moody, dramatic ballroom vibes, and I imagine it playing in the background of a scene in TLH.

[thattimdrakeguy]

I find it odd that people are just willing to attack people over a preference of character. Like, Tim fans that say anything about Damian, positive or otherwise, get rants about how they don’t understand his character, and how Tim is the worst, etc etc etc. People who literally just transcribe what he did in the comics are not immune either. How can any fan be so deluded to callously attack people for not loving a character unconditionally?

I got this ask like, yesterday and completely forgot to answer it cause when I saw it I went to go watch Jurassic Park and just absolutely forgot to respond when I came back. But I’m really sorry about that. I don’t know if that’s a rude thing to do, but I feel rude for it. I feel bad.

But like, when it comes to stuff like this, I’ve had absolutely awful experiences. But I got rambly, because I am so tired right now. So I put it below that thingie, cause it went on a while.

Trigger warnings for like, talks of pedophiles and such. Which makes my stomach curl having to type that, but here we are.

I’ve noted stuff Damian did in series they like, because they always act like they’re some gold standards when Damian’s still doing horrible stuff in them, and they’ll act like I’m hating on Damian. When acknowledging that he did stuff that makes the whole anti-hero thing make more sense, is not hating on him. I just accept him for who he is, without having to freaking woobify or change him so I don’t have a bad conscious about enjoying him.

I literally just look at it like that with the viewpoint of “In context, and looking at what he still does, this is not out of character. They just aren’t ignoring it, or not treating it like how they probably shouldn’t”. That is it.

And yet for that, I got called jaded, racist, a child-hater. Literally had someone give a verbal request for people to to “repress me” which is essentially asking for me to be group bullied. An account was made just to harass me (maybe two actually). And for a part of the post where I acknowledged that looking at a panel where Damian was naked made me viscerally uncomfortable. I got called at first, childish, and then someone made a joke about me being a pedophile.

When the reason why I was uncomfortable, was because I have fucking PTSD over a pedophile attempting to groom me, and they had naked pictures of Damian. Like fucking excuse me for having trauma and a bad life experience.

Like they went to that level, just because I acknowledged more about their favorite than they would. They are that deeply ashamed of him.

But all it proves to me, is that chunks of his fandom encourage being an absolute terrible person. They defended each other. They seeked and got reassurance from each other. A dude named DamiFucker jumped in, and I didn’t see them shut down the actual fucking pedophile. They didn’t give a shit. Because it isn’t about reality. It was just about trying to make me look bad.

Which by the way. Having every bad thing said about me, be not true, is oddly kind of a confidence maker, because they couldn’t find a valid thing to complain about me for. They had to exaggerate or just lie about it like they do everything because they can’t just calm down.

All for acknowledging something Damian legitimately did, in a recent comic, that they act like he’s just some innocent kid in.

Someone told one of them to kill themselves, and they acted like I DID IT. They done fucking thought they were getting close to revealing personal information about me, by revealing I’m some Scottish high school teenage girl or some shit. And I am genuinely sorry that it ever happened to them, but I am not at the control of other people, and had already told people not to do that before a lot of them even brought it to my attention.

When also, about the Scottish thing, I don’t even use the proper spelling of someone from the U.K. They just wanted to get me that deeply so bad they didn’t realize.

Of course after that they blamed it for me anyway, even though I am not responsible for other people’s actions. I didn’t even tell anyone to do it.

Instead of taking responsibility for their own heinous actions, they instead try to just make me seem as bad as possible. Like I am not a fictional character which makes it ridiculous, because I can defend myself, and I have far more legitimate respect from others as well for being a genuinely good human, and intelligent at that.

And this isn’t even the first time I’ve gotten shit for stuff like this.

There was a person who harassed me for months till I finally blocked him, just because, I said that Damian was actually really tall originally, and they just changed it just to do some cheap jokes. And I thought that was ridiculous just to make a character out of character just for something like that.

Some of them take little things like that so seriously, because they have this specific view of him, that if disrupted. They can lose it.

I’ve gotten told to kill myself many many times over shit like this.

I literally say what happened in a comic, or my basic opinion. My most negative stuff is about how terribly his stories are written a lot of the time. Something I do with my own favorite.

And they give it attempts to run my fucking life, for real, over it.

Like the Tim fandom are not saints. No fandom is, but they are not freaking worse than any other fandom. The idea that the Tim fandom is the worse is ridiculous and is just said because they’re so far up their own ass in ignorance that they won’t acknowledge their own actions.

They have to make stuff up in attempts to make them look bad. If you have to make stuff up, or exaggerate stuff, or highlight stuff that the other fandoms literally do all the time. You should just fucking acknowledge that it is not the worse.

Even just for Tim himself they always have to make stuff up, or exaggerate stuff to make him look worse than what he is.

If you have to do that for anything, a real person or not, you don’t truly hate it nearly as much as you think. You’re just a bitter angry person, looking for something to hate.

This stuff was months ago for me. It is not something I’ve thought about every day since like, the few weeks after it happened.

But I’m just acknowledging this because they can be so utterly reprehensible and yet they still have the victim complex. And this ask reminded me of it.

Obviously, it isn’t like the whole fandom. Like do I think literally everyone who likes Damian is a shithead? Obviously not, ya know. It’s just that unfortunately that fandom has some real toxic attitudes. There are good people there, that are probably just as confused by it themselves. They can excuse actual pedophilia as long as they’re attacking the same actual living human, but they draw the line at openly acknowledging something their favorite character actually did in a comic that they themselves like.

They even admitted they didn’t read the fucking thing.

Basically, just get out of town acting like the Tim Drake fandom is the worst fandom. I’m in the tag everyday, and the worst I see is some people being too obsessive, and JayTim. And I think JayTim is like, disgusting, but if someone’s here reading it like “Oh, but I ship it”. I’ll also say that I don’t care if you ship it, because fandoms are freaking weird and I accept that. As long as you’re not a gross person in real life, I ultimately don’t care anymore. I don’t get it, but what ever. As long as it’s not pedophilia, in which case, I’m genuinely going to judge you. But even then JayTim is more of a Jason fan thing as far as who their main fav is.

Basically, if transcribing character actions gets a downright horrid response that involves attacks and worse, then the people attacking should probably get a new favorite character, because they obviously can’t freaking stand them.

I didn’t even say it in a negative context either. Just: “This new story makes more sense than you think, because if you look here, and--”.

I got really ranty. I just woke up and this ask gave me weird memories from a while back that I needed to ramble about cause it’s still hard to process.

[youngdreamer3214]

Parting Words

Disclaimer- I don't own the Teen titans or anything related.

Jason Todd is Red X.

The titans are in their mid- twenties. Raven and Jason are living together in Gotham after the titans were taken over by younger heroes; but they still go on missions assigned to them by the league.

Strong winds blew as dark clouds adorned the sky. Thunder raked through the skies and the clouds were desperate to shed the water they had been holding. A storm was brewing.

But it was nothing compared the storm of emotions which trapped Raven and Jason which was ready to swallow them whole.

"How can you not tell me Jason?" Raven said in anger, a few objects rattled in dark magic. Jason sighed in frustration "It wasn't important."

Raven sharply turned to face her boyfriend and hissed "How can you think it wasn't important? You took three bullets Jason near your heart...three bullets! You almost died."

"I'm not dead, so how is it any important now?" he said, anger and frustration creeping in his voice.

"You are my boyfriend Jason, it is important to me." She yelled, a few more objects rattling now. They had been fighting for about an hour now and they both were incredibly thin on their patience.

"I am fine now, so why are you making it a bigger deal than it is." He yelled back.

She took a step towards him and exclaimed "It is a big deal because you are important to me. Don't you get that?"

He also took a step towards her and yelled "No, what I don't understand why are you so mad?"

"I am mad at you because I love you." She spat turning away from him in frustration.

Raven and Jason had been dating for two years now and were living together. Jason had just returned from a long mission and Raven got to know that he didn't tell her that he nearly died had Batman not intervened. Which was also why Jason didn't want to talk about it, he was pissed off because Batman saved him; needless to say he still had some issues with his adoptive father.

After Batman found out that he was the anti- hero, Red-X; he tried to get Jason to join the family again, Jason was a little reluctant about that but he became a hero again.

Jason growled and grabbed her arm to make her look at him, his eyes were pulsing green from the pit as he snapped "Maybe that's the problem" Raven gasped and looked at him with shock and hurt.

"...I can take care of myself, I don't need anyone and even if I did I am sure as hell that I don't need a pathetic demon like you." He added after a couple of moments of shocked silence, his eyes still pulsing green.

They were silent for a couple of moments as his words hung between them like poisonous daggers. Raven looked at him with tears welling up in her eyes, his eyes lost the green tint as the realization of his words dawned upon him. He took a step towards his girlfriend who was on the verge of crying and reached out to touch her and protect her against his harsh words but she stepped back and chanted her mantra to teleport away from him.

He was reaching forward to grab her before she teleported away but he was too late, he looked at the spot which was previously occupied by his beloved girlfriend and he sunk his face in his hands and pulled his hair a little roughly.

This wasn't how today was supposed to go; he wanted to spend time with his beloved girlfriend after being away for so long. He had missed her so much.

He honestly wasn't thinking when he spoke, he just saw red at that moment and he didn't mean anything he said. He loved her, more than anything in his life and her love was one thing he treasured more than anything and that would never ever be a problem; and he couldn't live without her.

He knew that his words hurt her, despite her emotionless appearance Raven felt everything very deeply and she had told him that she never felt like anyone needed her or wanted her and hearing those words from him would have really broken her heart.

He grabbed his phone and his gear and rushed out of their apartment to find his girlfriend while he dialled her number and tried to track her phone.

Meanwhile Raven teleported herself away from their apartment, she wiped her tears but they continued to fall, she slowly walked to the nearest bar and sat ordering a drink for herself. His words had cut deep and had hurt her a lot more than she could fathom and the only thing she wanted to do now was drink.

Yeah, many of her boyfriend's habits had rubbed onto her.

She sighed and placed her head in her hands, silently crying while his words repeated themselves in her mind. She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard her phone ring.

She pulled it out of her pocket and saw the picture of her boyfriend and his name flash on the screen. She cut the call and switched off her phone so that he couldn't track her and shoved it back in her pocket.

As she drank she thought about her options, she could go to her big brother but he was off on some mission with Kori. So the alien was also out, maybe she could speak to Richard, no she stopped that train of thought.

After her last encounter with Damian and now with Jason, she couldn't speak to him. She couldn't deal with bats anymore. 'Maybe what they said was true, why will they need me?' she thought sadly and ordered another drink.

Damian Wayne, the blood son of Bruce Wayne was her close friend but even he tended to say things without thinking. And what he said last time to her had felt like he had stabbed her.

Yeah, she wasn't having good days.

After a few hours, she sat in the bar almost drunk when she felt a familiar presence approach her but she didn't bother to look. Nope, she didn't care who it was or what they wanted, they could all go to hell.

"Finally Raven, Jason is going crazy looking for you." Came the familiar voice of her good friend, Richard as he sat beside her on a bar stool.

Richard was actually worried because if Jason had called him for help finding Raven then they must have had a bad fight. Jason usually stayed distant and didn't call for help unless he was really desperate. And now his worries increased as he saw Raven drinking, many glasses surrounded her and she was holding one also. Raven was usually level headed and logical; and if she was drinking heavily then she must be really upset.

"Don't care...leave me alone." She slurred and continued drinking from the glass in her hand. He sighed and turned to look at her, her shoulders were slumped in defeat and she was holding onto the glass as if her life was depending on it. He couldn't see her face as it was shadowed by her now long wavy hair.

He was about to say something when he saw a few tears drop on the bar as she finished her drink. She placed her glass on the table and extended her card towards the bartender to pay for her drinks. "What happened Rae? Tell me" he said calmly but also firmly as he placed his hand on her shoulder in a friendly way.

"Nothing...just leave me be." Came her low reply. Raven internally snarled at her demon anatomy, she couldn't even get drunk fully; she was just tipsy right now. She got up, shaking off his hand and turned to leave the bar when he grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving. She just jerked her hand back.

"You are one of my best friends, please tell me." He pleaded again. She wrapped her hands around herself and mumbled "Damian and Jason are right."

And she walked out of the bar leaving a confused Richard behind, what were his brothers right about. He ran to catch up with Raven who was walking slowly; he jogged beside her and asked "Where are you going?"

The streets seemed a little empty for it deep in the night and a storm had just passed, leaving puddles of water in its wake.

She didn't have a destination in mind, she was just walking. "Jason doesn't need me." She mumbled again, her eyes droopy and her legs shaky. Richard turned towards her as he walked, not seeing where they walked.

Richard had directed all his attention towards the young woman in front of him who was a very strong demon, who was the queen of hell and could destroy the world on a whim but right now she was vulnerable and sad. He was trying to understand and maybe then solve what was troubling her but he couldn't understand anything from her cryptic answers.

Before he could say anything, a light flashed behind him, Raven turned and pushed him away. He was caught off guard by this and he fell and as he fell he heard a crashing sound and a sound of a vehicle stopping forcefully. His heart skipped a beat as he realized what happened.

He got up quickly and ran towards the truck; he hadn't realized that they were walking on the road. When he reached he saw the bleeding body of Raven near an electric pole with sparks falling from the pole because of the collision and a few wires laying near her, and a man panicking as he dialled a number. Richard ran towards his friend and saw her clothes seeping blood, she was bloodied and bruised with a deep gash on her forehead.

He drew her to his lap and said frantically "Raven...look at me." Her eyes were half hooded, there were silence as he quickly scooped her up and made his way over to the cave as that was the place nearest to them and one of the very few places equipped to help her. His heart was jumping loudly, his friend saved him but maybe at her cost. "Jason." She mumbled and passed out; her body limp in his arms as he rushed.

'Oh God, Jason! How would he handle this?' Richard knew that he had to call Jason but right now his priority was making sure that his friend would survive.

He jumped quickly but carefully and ran as to not hurt the empath, he didn't care if his clothes were bloodied, and he just had to make sure she was all right.

Richard didn't want to think about the worst, he pinged the emergency button which he always had on his belt to alert the cave. He was panting for air by the time he reached but he quickly entered the pass code and saw his mentor, his father standing there with his younger brother, Tim.

"What happened Richard?" Batman asked as he took the young woman from Richard's arms and rushed her to the medical wing. "Accident...she saved me." He said in between long intakes of air.

Batman carefully but swiftly took the young woman to the medical wing, blood was seeping from her wounds and her bruises were turning blue-black for some reason.

Batman was quite fond of the young empath, at the beginning he did not approve his second son dating an inter- dimensional demon's daughter but she had slowly won him over. He saw that she made Jason happy and made him feel loved and honestly he didn't want anything more than that. After everything Jason had been through he deserved happiness.

With extreme caution he did a scan of her and started her treatment.

Richard sighed and saw his hands and clothes which were covered in the dark beauty's blood. He sat with Tim; they didn't say anything for they were sad and worried for their friend. Richard rubbed his eyes and took out his phone and dialled his younger brothers' phone.

After a couple of rings Jason picked up his phone.

"Did you find her?" Came his desperate question. "Jason...something has happened."

Jason reached the cave and yelled "Where the hell is she?!" his heart was thumping so fast and loudly that he could hear it over the lightning raking the city outside the shelter of the cave as he approached Richard and Tim.

When he saw his older brother, time stopped for him and his heart started beating faster if possible, adrenaline pumped through his veins. Richard's clothes were stained in dark blood along with his hands; Jason tried to steady himself when he saw that Richard didn't look at him.

He growled and asked again in a dangerously low voice "Where is my girlfriend?" Richard looked at him with concern and guilt lacing his expression and sighed sadly "In the medical wing..." Jason pulled Richard's collar so that they were eye to eye as he roared "What the damn hell happened?"

Richard freed himself from his brother's grasp with a deep breath and told him everything. Him finding her in a bar, she almost drunk and unwilling to speak to him, and her saving him from being hit by a truck but getting hurt instead.

Richard turned and saw fury and concern on his younger brother's face, before Jason could say anything Batman walked towards them. Jason ran towards their mentor and asked frantically "How is she? Is she okay?"

Batman sighed and looked at his son who was fidgeting in his worry and was two seconds away from running towards his girlfriend. "Jason, she hasn't woken up yet and is very weak. We won't know fully about her condition until she has woken up."

"What happened to her?" He demanded. Batman sighed and said reluctantly "She has lost a lot of blood and has four broken bones and one fractured rib."

"But she can heal herself." Jason stated in anger. Batman took off his cowl and said "Her powers are exhausted after protecting her heart from the current."

Wordlessly Jason ran towards the medical wing and towards his weak girlfriend. He opened the glass door with a shaky breath and saw his strong and beautiful girlfriend now looking pale and fragile. Her head was bandaged as were some parts of her hands and she was hooked onto several machines, he slowly walked towards her and saw her midriff also bandaged.

He carefully held her hand, cautious enough to not cause her more pain than she already is in. He kneeled beside her on the floor and kissed her hand "Wake up, love...if only to be angry at me; but please wake up...I need you." His heart beat was mirroring the thunder that was echoing in the city.

He said the last part shakily and rested his head beside her, trying to blink away the tears forming in his eyes.

Bruce, Richard and Tim saw the scene before them and were astonished seeing Jason like this, so broken over someone. They all hoped that Raven would wake up soon, for she was the only one who could heal Jason also.

Jason woke up to a hand on his shoulder, shaking him slightly. He lifted his head hoping it was all a bad dream but when he met with the bandaged body of his girlfriend his face fell. He looked over his shoulder and saw his father standing with a concerned expression.

"She'll be okay Jason; she loves you too much to leave you." Bruce comforted his son. Jason sighed sadly and rubbed his eyes saying "I screwed up Bruce...I said some things I didn't mean, I hurt her...I am the reason she is like this. If I hadn't said all that then she wouldn't have left...and then she wouldn't have been in this condition."

"Thinking like this won't do you any good Jason, all you can do right now is learn from your mistakes. And I am sure that she will be okay, she's very strong." Bruce said wisely.

"You haven't slept in two nights, go on. I'll sit with her." Bruce added. "I can't leave her." Jason said stubbornly.

Bruce sighed and said "At least go shower and eat something...until then I'll sit here."

Jason thought over his mentor's words and then reluctantly nodded and kissed his girlfriend's hand which he had been holding and got up "I'll be back soon, love."

Bruce watched his son walk out and then turned his attention towards the young empath in front of him and said softly to her "Jason needs you, he's happy with you and I haven't seen him this happy since a long time."

After a couple of minutes the dark knight saw a twitch of black magic on the empath's fingertips; he sighed a bit in relief knowing that she was in there somewhere.

After an hour, the glass doors swished open and Bruce met with the face of his eldest son, "Where's Jason?" the older hero asked.

"He passed out on his bed." Richard said with a slight chuckle and the dark knight just smiled a little and then turned his attention back to the dark beauty.

0O0

"Where's Raven?" Jason roared as he saw the empty bed in the bat cave, his fury was surfacing as Tim approached him and said softly "Bruce and Dick shifted her to the Manor while you were sleeping...they are with her at the moment."

"Thanks replacement." He nodded at his younger brother and approached his old home through one of the many secret entrances to his old home. He approached the medical room, situated in the depths of the manor and saw Raven still unconscious and Richard sitting on a chair beside her and reading some novel to her sleeping form.

Jason walked inside and grabbed a chair, and pulled it so that he could sit with by his girlfriend. Richard paused from his reading and said with a tiny smile "Bruce said that her wounds are healing rather quickly."

"Then why isn't she waking up?" Jason said with desperation and worry lacing his voice. Richard placed a hand on his brother's shoulder "She'll wake up, Jaybird...she is too stubborn. It will just take some time."

Jason didn't reply instead he just looked at his girlfriend.

After a couple of long, slow moments "I'm sorry...if only I had paid more attention to where I was walking then she wouldn't have to save me."

Jason turned and looked at the guilty expression of his elder brother, he couldn't pretend that he wasn't angry at him for not protecting Raven but then he remembered that his girlfriend was Raven, and if the choice came to save herself or others then she would chose others in a heartbeat.

Her selflessness was something he both admired and hated at the same time.

"Don't apologize Dick, I asked you to help me find her...in a way it's my fault." Jason muttered. Richard placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and picked up the book again and began reading from where he had left off.

Jason didn't say anything instead he lightly kissed her hand before holding it tightly between his. He also noticed the light flame of magic on her fingertips and smiled in relief internally, knowing that her magic was slowly coming back, which would help her heal.

A week went by; Raven was still unconscious; she had begun to show signs of rapid healing when one day her heart beats started to slow down. The whole bat family started panicking but Bruce had restarted her heart via electric shocks. Jason was two seconds away from losing control but when he heard the rhythmic beating of her heart, he calmed down.

And since that day he refused to leave her side but after his brothers, Alfred's and Bruce's constant coaxing he was made to eat, shower and sleep. And he was not to be given entry unless he did all that, Jason grumbled as he left his girlfriend's side after kissing her jewel lightly and muttering an 'I'll be back.'

Today Damian was watching Raven; he hadn't come to see her ever since he found out that she was in the medical wing. He couldn't face her as he remembered his last words to her. His heart was filled with guilt when he remembered how hurt she looked.

"I didn't mean anything I said." Damian muttered softly.

"What did you say exactly?" Richard asked from the door. Damian whipped his head towards the source of the voice and sighed knowing that he cannot lie to his elder brother.

"I said something I didn't mean...I said that she was a mistake and when Todd realizes that fact he will also leave her."

There was a moment's silence, Damian looked at the carpet in shame; unable to meet his brother's disapproving stare.

"You said WHAT to my girlfriend." Jason yelled from the entrance of the room, which had Richard and Damian's gaze snapping over to him. And he looked furious with his eyes pulsing green. Jason stalked towards the ex- assassin but before he could say anything Richard came in between them and placed a hand on Jason's chest, holding him back so that he wouldn't bruise the youngest Wayne.

"He didn't think before he spoke, Jaybird and he regrets it." Richard said.

"And that makes it forgivable!" yelled Jason. "No, it doesn't. Let me speak to him while you sit with Raven." Richard said calmly.

Jason glared and growled as he sat on the chair near his girlfriend as Richard pulled Damian out of the room.

They stood outside in silence; Richard's glare was piercing into Damian. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize to me...you need to apologize to Raven when she wakes up...and next time think before you speak, your words did hurt her a lot and made her think that what you said was right." Richard said and walked off.

Damian walked in the room when Jason had left for a minute or so; he walked over to the unconscious form of his best friend and said "I apologize for my cruel words Raven, I didn't mean any part of it...we are lucky to have you in our lives and I hope that you wake up soon." He saw her fingers twitch and her magic seep through her fingers.

That evening, Bruce was watching Raven and Jason, as he had slept with his resting beside her on the bed and his hands holding hers in a gentle but firm grasp. Bruce silently did a scan of her and saw that all her wounds were healing quickly.

Suddenly the young girl gasped lightly and blearily opened her eyes, she felt a heavy weight on her hand and when she turned she saw her boyfriend sleeping with his head near her and her hand in between his. He stirred a bit but didn't wake up.

"Finally you're awake." Bruce said with a soft smile towards the girl he was coming to think of as a daughter. "H-how?"

"Dick brought you here." He replied softly. When he saw that Raven was about to say something he added "Sleep, we can talk after you have fully rested."

Raven wanted to protest but her eyes were droopy from the medication, she slowly gave in and slept. The dark knight looked at the now sleeping young woman and smiled in relief, she was awake and all right. He then turned to his son and lightly shook him awake to give him the news.

Raven slowly opened her eyes and was met with the beautiful aquamarine eyes of her boyfriend and his smiling face. "There she is, sunshine." He said softly.

"You gave us quite a scare Rae." Richard said; Raven turned towards the source of the voice and saw the Tim, Richard, Damian standing near the opposite wall with Bruce standing on her right side with relief shining in his eyes and Alfred standing at the entrance with a small smile. Jason helped Raven sit up as he placed pillows behind her to support her.

Bruce saw the confusion on her face and said "Let's give them some privacy; we can speak to Raven later." They all nodded and shuffled out of the room, as the door closed behind them, Raven found herself crushed to Jason's chest.

"I'm sorry Rae...I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean any of it." He said frantically. Raven could feel his tremble as he pulled her tighter against him and kissed her hairline.

She slowly pulled away and saw the worry written on his face "Don't let me go again." She placed her hand on the right side of his face and he leaned into it "Never little bird, never again." He kissed the inside of her palm and pulled her closer so that he rested his forehead against hers. "I was so scared little bird...so scared."

She looked up at him with the dark, enchanting eyes of hers and said softly with a smile "I know...I could hear everything." He then leaned forward and kissed her passionately, pouring all his love and worry in that kiss. She responded with equal passion and wrapped her arms around his neck.

They parted and Jason kissed her nose saying "I love you...I love you so much." Then he saw the smile that made his heart beat a little faster and she replied kissing him lightly "I love you too."

Jason smiled at her words and then saw the tiredness in her eyes, he grinned and said "Come on, rest for a bit...your body hasn't fully healed." She smiled and laid back on the pillows, Jason was about to get up when she caught his hand and muttered "Stay..."

Jason kissed her hand and saw her making space for him on the bed; he smiled and got on beside her. He curled around her and placed his hand around her waist, carefully enough to not hurt her injuries. She placed her head on shoulder and her hands on his.

He kissed her temple and pulled her tighter against him and muttered "You're my little bird and I am never letting go ever again." And he could feel her smile against his skin before she slept and after a few moments of watching her sleep he also gave in.

And that's how the bat family found them later, Jason curled around Raven with her head on his shoulder; both having happy and peaceful expressions. They didn't have the heart to wake the couple up so they left silently, letting the couple find comfort and love in each other.

[catlynhoss05]

My Blonde Beauty

Ch. 1: Like A Rodeo

(Link is to a picture of what the reader's eye's look like)

Pairing: Jethro Gibbs x fem!reader & fem!reader x mother!Reba

*not my gif*

Set in season 8 (yes I know, Emily Fornell doesn't show up until probably season 11, but I really don't care)

Summary: Gibbs is in for a big surprise when he meets a beautiful famous singer and falls in love with her.

   Jethro was weaving through the crowd with his hand on Emily's head. He didn't want to risk losing her in the mess of people. He had decided to take Emily to a rodeo that was in town. Because he knew that one of her favorite singers was singing the National Anthem and was going to ride a bull and a few other events. Also, Jethro had figured that she would love to meet her.

   He quickly finds them a seat in the front row to escape the crowd. Jethro had chosen the seats that they got because he wanted Emily to have a perfect view of the rodeo and of the singer, of course. Once the rodeo announcer's voice came over the speakers, everyone had taken their seats and quieted down. "Ladies and gentlemen, please rise and remove your hats for the National Anthem." The crowd stood for the National Anthem. A young woman in a red plaid shirt, light blue boot cut jeans, brown pointed toe cowboy boots and red chaps had stepped out into the arena and started to sing. Jethro felt his chest tighten, but not how it normally did when he heard the song. Wow, she's amazing. Jethro had thought to himself.

   After the song was over, the young woman had made her way out of the arena to go and get her horse ready for the barrel racing and the roping events. When it was her turn for both events, she had gotten perfect scores for both. Jethro and Emily were both in complete shock after watching both of the events. When it came to the bull riding event, Jethro was left taken aback from this gorgeous woman's bravery. "Isn't she amazing, Uncle Gibbs?" Emily asked with a wide smile as they made their way over to where the young woman was doing autographs and taking pictures with some fans at an entrance into the arena.

   "Yeah, she is. She's very talented and very brave." Jethro smiled down at Emily as they waited in line. As they were the next ones in line for a meet and greet, Emily was getting even more excited with each passing second. Emily's finally going to meet one of her absolute favorite singers, (y/F/n) McEntire. When it was their turn to meet her, Emily was ecstatic to finally meet her. "Hi." Emily couldn't get anything else out but a greeting.

   "Hi. How are y'all doin'?" (Y/N) asked with a bright smile as she signed a picture for the girl. "We're doing great. You're amazing and very brave to get on that bull." Emily said. "Well, thank you. You're too sweet. I had actually grown up around all this stuff and on a farm in Oklahoma. Ya know, you have beautiful red hair like my mama." (Y/N) smiled as she handed the girl the signed picture. She looked over at Gibbs and winked at him, making his cheeks go pink. "Who's your mom?" Emily wondered. "Reba McEntire. She had adopted me when I was 2 years old after my parents had passed away." (Y/N) said as she made full eye contact with Jethro for the first time. Jethro could get completely lost in (Y/N)'s gorgeous deep blue eyes for forever if he could.

   "Hi. You must be in charge of this beautiful young lady." (Y/N) smiled brightly at Jethro. He's completely lost in her eyes before he finally realized that she had said something to him. "I'm so sorry. Yes, I am. I've been close friends with her parents. I guess I'm like an uncle to her. Jethro Gibbs." He said, extending his hand out to her that she gladly accepts. Emily elbows him lightly to try and get him to ask (Y/N) out on a date. Emily rolls her eyes at him when he gives her a confused look.

   "My uncle here would like to ask you if you would like to go on a date with him." Emily said, causing Jethro to blush deeply. "That's probably the nicest way I've ever been asked out." (Y/N) laughed a bit, taking a pen and writing her number on the back of Jethro's hand. "Is that really the nicest way someone has asked you out?" Jethro asked as he watched her write her number on his hand. He couldn't help but enjoy the way (Y/N)'s hands felt on his. "Yes, really. There you go. It was nice to meet you both, but I gotta get goin'. Call me sometime." (Y/N) kissed Jethro's cheek and winked at Emily before running off.

   When Friday morning had come around for Jethro and his team, there were no new cases for them to solve. The whole day consisted of paperwork for the whole team. All morning, Jethro couldn't help but think of the beautiful woman that he had the pleasure of meeting the previous night. The way her long blonde hair fell perfectly around her face that was up in a gorgeous French braid just moments before. The way her stunning blue eyes sparkled in the overhead lights and the way she smiled at him. Around noon, Jethro had decided to go call (Y/N) and to her out on that date.

   "Hello?" (Y/N) answered her phone on the second ring. "(Y/N)? It's Jethro Gibbs." He said with a smile on his face. "Hey, Jethro. What's up?" She asked sweetly. "I was calling to see if you would like to go on that date with me. There's this nice little diner near here that has really good food." Jethro said as he looked around to make sure that none of his agents were around. Especially Tony DiNozzo. Jethro likes to keep his personal life, well, personal and away from the office. "I would absolutely love to, Jethro. How about tonight at 7 o'clock?" (Y/N) asked. "Yeah, that sounds great. Where are you staying at so I can pick you up?" Jethro wondered. "I'm staying at the Adam's House Hotel." She replied. "Alright, sounds great. I'll see you tonight at 7 o'clock." Jethro smiled into the phone. "Alright, I'll see you tonight. Bye, Jethro." (Y/N) said and hung up. Jethro smiled, pocketed his phone and went back to work.

   When Jethro walked back into the bullpen and back to his desk, the other three agents noticed the smile on his face that he was trying to hide. "What was that about, boss? Do we have a case?" Tony asked. "No case and it's none of your business, DiNozzo. Get back to work." Jethro orders. For the rest of the day, Jethro had a smile plastered on his face and was in a relatively good mood. Ziva knew exactly why Jethro was in such a good mood and why he was smiling when he returned back into the bullpen.

   Tony and McGee kept looking up at their boss every few seconds to make sure that he was alright. When 5 o'clock came around, Jethro didn't hesitate to leave work on time to get ready for his date. "Have a nice weekend. See you guys on Monday." Jethro said as he made his way to the elevator. Tony and McGee looked at each other confused. "Ziva. Do you know what that was all about?" Tony asked as they all packed up their stuff.

   "Yes, but I'm not telling either of you." Ziva glares at the 2 men. Tony frowns at the response. He turns to his partner in mischief; McGee. "Well, McGee. Looks like it's time for a steak out." McGee looks incredulous. "Tony, he'll kill us both if he finds us following him." McGee tries to reason with Tony. "Let's just go ask Abby to see if she knows anything." Tim suggests. "Ask if she knows about what?" Abby said as she walked into the bullpen.

   "Do you know what's going on with Gibbs? He's been smiling since he made a phone call at lunch, been in a very good mood and just left on time for once." Tony explained with a questionable look on his face. "Woah, that is weird. But, all I know is that Gibbs had taken Emily to the rodeo that was in town last night. And, if he has met someone, he will tell us when he's ready. So, c'mon boys and Ziva. Let's go home." Abby said as they all walked to the elevator to go home.

   On his way home, Jethro stops by the store to pick up a bouquet of beautiful red roses. Jethro got back to his house. 'It's been a while since I've been on a date with a woman. I don't even wear cologne.' He thought to himself. He quickly gets cleaned up and changes into nice, clean clothes and tries to fix his hair a little bit. He grabs the bouquet of roses, leaves his house and makes his way to the Adam's House Hotel. As Jethro arrives at the hotel, he parks his truck, grabs the flowers and makes his way into the hotel.

   As Jethro made his way into the hotel lobby, he saw the beautiful woman that he met the night before, sitting comfortably on the couch. She was wearing a nice black plaid shirt, blue bootcut jeans and her black pointed toe cowboy boots. 'Man, she's absolutely gorgeous.' Jethro thought to himself. (Y/n) looked up from where she was sitting on the couch, making eye contact with the handsome man she had met at the rodeo. She stood up and made her way to him as he was making his way to her as well. Jethro couldn't help the smile that crept onto his face as he approached (y/n).

   "Hey, (y/n). You look absolutely…… amazing." Jethro said as he hugged her close. "Well thank you, Jethro. You look absolutely ravishing." (Y/n) smiled one of those million dollar smiles. "These are for you." Jethro said nervously, handing her the bouquet of roses. "Aw, thank you. That's so sweet of you and how'd you know that roses are my favorite?" She asked, a light blush creeping onto her cheeks. "Just a lucky guess, I suppose. Are you ready to go on our date?" Jethro asked, offering her his arm. "Yes, I am. Such a gentleman." She smiled. "I try. Especially for someone as gorgeous as yourself." Jethro smooth talked as he opened the passenger side door of his truck for her.

   As Jethro pulled out of the hotel's parking lot, he glanced over at (y/n), who was looking out the window and checking out D.C.. As she turned back around to face forward, she smiled as she felt him glance at her a couple times. "So, what do you do for a living?" (Y/n) asked. "I'm a Federal Agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS for short. We investigate crimes against the Navy and Marine Corps and their families." Jethro explains. "That's amazing. You're a Marine, correct? Well, veteran." She asked. "Yes ma'am. Once a Marine-" "Always a Marine." She finished. Jethro's amazed by her. After talking for a bit, Jethro turns on the radio and the first song that's being played is her song called 'Vandalized'.

   "Hey. It's one of my songs. 'If I was a wall, you'd take a can, And spray paint, paint all over this man.' (Y/n) started to sing and Jethro was in complete 'awe' of her. She looked over at him as he pulled into the parking lot of the diner. "What?" She asked with a sly smirk as Jethro parked the truck. "What?" He asked, confused. "You just looked like you were about to say something. That's all." She takes her seatbelt off and he does the same. "I was just amazed to hear you sing. You have a beautiful voice and you're amazing. And, not just at singing." He winked at her as they got out of the truck and headed into the diner.

   As Jethro and (y/n) enter the diner, (y/n)'s a bit surprised that she's not getting bombarded by fans. Jethro had made a call to the diner saying how he wanted to make this date as 'normal' for (y/n) as he could. Jethro wanted to give (y/n) the experience of a life outside of fame. Even if it was only for an evening. He escorted her to an empty booth by the windows. "This diner is nice, Jethro. I love the feeling it gives." (Y/n) said, smiling shyly. "I'm glad you like it here." Jethro chuckled. The nice waitress behind the counter came over to their table.

   "Hi. How are you two doing tonight? May I start you two off with some drinks?" The waitress asked nicely "I'll take a coffee." Jethro smiled. "I'll take a coke and a small packet of peanuts if you have any." (Y/n) said nervously. "Yes, ma'am. I'll be back with your drinks." The waitress smiled kindly, making her way back to the counter. "What!? You'd be surprised with the things that I grew up with. Especially some of the foods." (Y/n) giggled. "Really? What kind of foods did you grow up with?" Jethro asked with a smirk. "Have ya ever heard of mountain oysters?" (Y/n) asked as the waitress, Elaine, came back with their drinks.

   "Here's your coffee and here's your coke and peanuts. Have you two decided on what you want yet?" Elaine asked with a bright smile. "I'll take the usual, please." Jethro smiles. "And for you, miss?" Elaine asked kindly. "I'll just take a cheeseburger and some home fries, please." (Y/n) said politely, with a gentle smile. "Alright. I'll put these orders in for you two and I'll be back." "Thank you, Elaine." Jethro smiled. He turned his attention back to (y/n) and gave her a content smile. "A cheeseburger on the first date. That's something a bit different than I normally see women order."

   (Y/n) took a drink of her coke and peanuts before responding. "Lemme guess. They'd normally order a salad on the first date." (Y/n) chuckled. "Usually, but not always." "Well, I usually don't go on many dates. But when I do, I normally order a salad when I know that I won't be seeing that person again." (Y/n) chuckled nervously. Jethro leaned forward, resting his elbows onto the table and taking one of (y/n)'s hands in his. "Do you really want to see me again after tonight?" Jethro asked cautiously. (Y/n) gave him a promising smile and a slight nod. "Yes, of course. Only if you're wanting to see me after tonight as well. And, if you would be willing to experience a busy schedule like mine." (Y/n) bit her lip and had the look of hope in her eyes.

   "I'm glad you said that because I'd like to see you more after tonight as well." Jethro smiled. After Elaine brings their food out, Jethro and (y/n) get lost in conversation while enjoying their food. Jethro asked (y/n) about her childhood and what it was like to grow up in Oklahoma. (Y/n) asked him about his life before joining the Marines and about Stillwater, Virginia. When they finished their food, Jethro was about to grab the check when (y/n) snatched it out of his hand. "Jethro, you drove. Please, lemme get this. It's the least I could do." (Y/n) said with a smile. "Alright. But, only if you'll tell me what mountain oysters are." Jethro chuckled. (Y/n) leaned forward so that no one else could hear her besides Jethro. "Mountain Oysters are actually made from bull testicles." (Y/n) whispered, then standing up and making her way over to the register to pay.

   After paying the check, (y/n) came back over to where Jethro was sitting, staring wide-eyed at the table in front of him. "Jethro, are you okay? Sweetheart, please blink." (Y/n) sat down next to him and rubbed his shoulder. "Huh. Oh, yeah I'm good. Are you ready to go?" He asked. "Yes, I am." (Y/n) stood back up and offered her hand to Jethro, who gladly accepted her hand. As they make their way back to Jethro's truck hand in hand, (y/n) noticed a camera flash from the bushes. "Jethro, run. Run to the truck. There's paparazzi." (Y/n) ordered, not wanting to have Jethro experience what paparazzi is like. They both sprint to his truck, he has her get into the truck through his side and he jumps into the truck after her. He then quickly, but carefully drives off.

   "I am so, so sorry Jethro. I was really hoping there wouldn't be any paparazzi around. I don't even know how they knew where I was." (Y/n) said embarrassed, as she sat in the passenger seat. "Hey, it's alright. It's all part of the job, right?" Jethro soothed, giving her a small smile. "I just didn't want to make you uneasy with all of the cameras and flashing lights. I would understand if you changed your mind about wanting to see me again after what just happened." (Y/n) said, looking down at her hands. Jethro reached over and took her hand in his. She looked over at him a bit confused. "(Y/n), I don't care about the paparazzi, or the cameras and flashing lights. Or, about the busy schedules. I still want to see you after tonight and take you on more dates. I want to meet your friends and family. (Y/n), I want you. I want to be with you." Jethro reassured her. (Y/n) smiled at Jethro. She let go of his hand, unbuckled herself and slid over into the middle seat. She took Jethro's right arm, put it around her shoulders and leaned a bit into his side as they made their way back to the hotel.

@garcia-reid-lovechild

[mochegato]

Jasonette Protection Program

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Marinette pulled her coat closer around her as she made her way from the bus stop to her apartment.  She had made the brilliant decision when she moved here not to get a car because… Gotham.  The likelihood that it would get damaged or destroyed in some kind of attack was ridiculously high.  The likelihood the bus would get blown up or taken over, while definitely still present, was significantly lower.

But today she was regretting that decision.  It meant she couldn’t isolate herself like she wanted to.  It meant she was exposed to anybody and everybody at the bus stop and on the bus and on the sidewalk and any one of them could have been the one to drug her.  She eyed the people around her as she walked.  Okay, maybe not the woman who looked like she was in her 90’s and could barely walk… and dropped her knitting out of her bag.

Marinette rushed over to her and paused right before reaching her. She twirled around and scanned the faces around her.  She could feel somebody watching her.  She could feel their eyes scrutinizing her every move.  She studied the shadows and the windows, but couldn’t find anyone watching her.  She frowned slightly and shook her head.  She was getting paranoid.  She was seeing and feeling things that weren’t there.  

She sighed and turned back to the woman, crouching down to help her put her knitting back in her bag.  The woman smiled in appreciation, which Marinette returned with a shaky one of her own.  She walked the remaining few feet to her apartment building and took a cautious look up and down the dark street before turning into it.  She made sure she heard the click of the door latching before continuing up the stairs, not that it would do anything.  Logically she knew that, but her anxiety still demanded it.

She kept her eyes on the stairwell as she made her way up to her apartment on the top floor, eyes hyper vigilant for any movement, her ears hyper sensitive to any sounds from the stairs.  She got to her floor and paused for a few moments waiting to see if any sounds or movement indicated someone behind her.  She let out a relieved sigh when there was no noise and turned to her apartment before letting out a muffled screech.

Jason jumped, dropping his phone he had been scrolling on, in his rush to hold up his hands in a placating motion.  “Just me.  It’s okay. It’s just me.”  He watched her for a few seconds.  She was starting to breathe hard, her eyes were boring into him. “Although I just realized you may not remember me.  So this was actually an incredibly stupid plan.”  He took a few steps away from her door, his hands still held up to let her know he wasn’t a threat.

Marinette continued to stare at him for a few more seconds, forcing her breathing to slow.  “You… you’re Tim’s brother, right?  You… you were…” she squinted at him, “you were in my bedroom?”

Jason grimaced and looked down to the floor as he rubbed the back of his neck.  “Yeah… that doesn’t make me sound too good, does it?”

She eyed him suspiciously.  “What are you doing here?”  

He perked up slightly and gave her a small, reassuring smile. “I wanted to check on you and see how you’re doing today.  It can hit a day or a few days later sometimes.  And I’m a security expert.  I consult on it for people and companies.  I wanted to offer to check your security for you so you’d feel safe, at least when you’re at home.”  He turned to her door and knocked on the doorframe.  “I can already tell that you need better locks.  I could have broken in easily, but I didn’t think you would appreciate finding me in your apartment.”

She raised an eyebrow at him but let out a quiet chuckle and looked away after a few seconds.  “You would be right.”  She looked back up at him and tentatively walked over closer to her door.  “But, I don’t think I can afford to hire you.”

Jason waved off her concern.  “I wouldn’t let you.  I’d charge Tim for it.  He can afford it and he’s worried enough that I’m actually kind of surprised he hasn’t contacted me already, but I suppose that has something to do with him not wanting you to meet me in the first place.”

Marinette quirked her lips to the side and studied him.  The longer she watched and talked to him the more memories came back and the clearer they became.  She was slowly starting to get bits and pieces of the night before, not enough to create a coherent picture, just incredibly short scenes, a word here, a smile there.  Regardless of what she could remember though, this was Tim’s brother and although Tim didn’t want them to meet, he trusted him, not that she would ever be allowed to say that out loud to either of them.  

She finally nodded and pulled out her keys.  “Well, I can at least offer you dinner while you’re here. If you’d like.”  She gave him a small smile as she passed him into the apartment taking off her coat and dropping her bag on the small dining room table.

Jason raised his eyebrows in surprise.  After the way she had reacted when she saw him, he honestly didn’t think she would talk to him let alone let him into her apartment.  He was starting to understand how she could have gotten drugged so easily if she was that trusting.  But then again, Tim had said they all were being careful. Her even more so than the others. So why was she so trusting now?  “I would never turn down free food,” he said slowly.

He closed the door behind him with a quick glance at the inside part of the lock, confirming his original suspicions.  Standard issue, not particularly secure.  He could have picked it in all of three minutes when he was only eight.  He didn’t have to lean down to study the doorknob to know it was in worse condition. One good kick and the door would be wide open.  He sighed. If anyone wanted to get into her apartment, it wouldn’t take them very much effort.

He turned back to the apartment, letting his frown morph into a smile.  Her apartment was cozy and lived in and very much her.  There were touches of her everywhere along with some touches that he wouldn’t have expected.  He shook his head at the condition of the apartment.  It wasn’t terribly messy but it also wouldn’t count as anything close to clean.  He could see why she and Tim got along so well.  Neither could clean up after themselves to save their lives.  

There were bits of fabric and half completed sewing projects scattered around along with random pages of scientific reports.  He raised an eyebrow at that.  Odd combination.  His eyes caught on men’s shoes by the door.  He scrunched his forehead in confusion.  If she lived with someone, where were they?  Where were they last night?  Why hadn’t Tim mentioned him?  “You live with someone?  A boyfriend?”

Marinette looked up from the refrigerator.  “No.  Well, yes, but no.  I live with my best friend,” she explained quickly, “but he’s visiting friends this week.”

Jason nodded.  That was good at least.  She wasn’t living alone.  There was someone else with her usually.  That makes it less likely someone could just break in and attack her.  He moved over to the window and sighed again, more deeply this time.  It was worse than the door.  “No curtains. You should probably get some, preferably lined ones.  This lock is ancient too.  It wouldn’t take much to jimmy it.  We’ll get you new locks for your windows and your door.”

Marinette looked at him wide eyed as she set a bunch of grapes and a jug of filtered water from the refrigerator on the counter.  She hadn’t been expecting the locks to be that bad.  She knew it wasn’t amazing, but then again, she hadn’t really been too concerned about being specifically targeted here.  Nobody really knew who she was, or rather used to be.  She was just an average citizen here.  

She stared at the window for a few seconds, her head cocking to the side and her eyes unfocusing as her mind wandered through the possibilities of what could have happened and what still could.  She was no longer safe, not even in her own home.  But then again, she never really had been had she?  She had just thought she was.  She thought she was safer after they’d defeated Hawkmoth, but she’d just traded one danger for another.

Jason watched as her face morphed from one expression to another, her eyes distant.  Her face clearly displaying each and every emotion she was going through, no matter how flitting.  Jason could guess where her head went.  When her eyes started shimmering, he opened his mouth to bring her out of it when her phone rang.  She jerked back violently, knocking over the jug of water.  

She cursed as she tried to stop the jug’s descent only to knock it further away, further spreading the water.  She gave a defeated groan and grabbed a towel from a nearby drawer to start sopping up the water.  Jason jumped to grab a few more towels to help.  It took a few minutes, but they were finally able to clean up the water with a minimum of damage to papers left on the counter.  Luckily, none of Marinette’s sketches were on the island anymore but Adrien was definitely going to have to reprint some of his papers for research.

Marinette gave Jason an appreciative smile and threw the papers in recycling and the towels in the sink.  She let out a deep frustrated sigh as she leaned against the counter.  After a few seconds, she ran her hands through her hair and laughed.  Jason frowned at the sound.  It was short and mirthless and sounded utterly wrong coming from her.  He could see her starting to spin but didn’t know her well enough to know how to help.  God, he really hadn’t thought this through.

Jason very slowly started reaching for her so she could see his hands coming.  Shen she didn’t shy away, he set a hand on her arm to ground her.  She looked up into his eyes, panicked eyes meeting concerned eyes. They both jumped when her phone started ringing again.  They both chuckled quietly at their reactions.  

“Sorry…” she started but was cut off by another ring.  She shook her head at herself.  She hadn’t even noticed the original call had dropped.  She checked the caller id and smiled at the phone. “Hey Tim.”  She paused to listen to him.  “No, I’m fine.  I just… I knocked something over and was cleaning it.  Sorry for scaring you.”

She gave Jason an apologetic smile as she listened to Tim.  “I’m doing okay, I guess.  I think I’m just jumpy… and getting paranoid.  I could have sworn someone was watching me walk home, but when I looked nobody was around or rather nobody was paying attention to me.” She missed the slight grimace Jason shot toward the floor.  “No, thank you though.  Actually, your brother is here already.”  She smiled at Jason again and put Tim on speaker.  

“…that so.  That’s very thoughtful of him,” Tim quipped in a clipped tone.

“Yeah, he’s checking my locks,” Marinette continued, seemingly oblivious to the tension in his voice, or attributing it to his concern.  “Apparently my door and window locks are pretty bad,” Marinette frowned at the thought.

“Uh huh.  Well it’s just so great that he came over then,” Tim gritted out.

Marinette did a double take when Jason’s phone dinged repeatedly with an extended series of text notifications.  She blinked at it a few times before looking questioningly at Jason. He rolled his eyes and turned his phone off.  He met her eyes with a shrug and a wink as he sat at her island.

“Tell him I say hi and remind him he has plans with Bruce soon,” Tim continued tightly.

Jason huffed.  “Tell him to tell B, I'm not going on patrol until Demon Spawn calms down.  And tell him I’m sending him the bill for this.”  He motioned vaguely around them.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Tim conceded easily before his voice turned harsh again, “And tell him…”

“You two do realize you can hear each other and you two both know you can hear each other and I know you can hear each other and I’m not an owl!” Marinette admonished them sharply.

The room was silent for a few seconds before Tim started chuckling.  “Sorry, Hermione.”

“Thank you, Harry.”  She nodded at the phone even though he couldn’t see her.

“Hey!  That makes me Ron?  What the fuck?” Jason objected raising up from his seat in offense.

“Oh come on, you’d look good with red hair,” Marinette teased him lightly.

“You better fucking not be Ron,” Tim growled.   “You’re more like Draco anyway,” he continued flippantly.

“Fuck you, Pretender,” Jason growled.

“Yeah, this is making me feel better,” Marinette sighed, leaning against the counter.

There was a guilty pause as the men took in her words.  “Sorry,” Jason finally spoke up after a while.

“What?”  Marinette gave him a curious look until realization set in.  “Oh!  No, I was serious.  You two remind me of my friends.  It feels comforting, normal.”

Tim waited a second before speaking up cautiously. “So… you’re okay for tonight?  You feel safe?”

Marinette smiled at the phone again.  “Yeah, Tim.  I’m okay.  Thanks for checking on me.”

“Of course.  Let me know if that changes.  I’ll be over in three minutes flat,” he promised.

Marinette grinned mischievously.  “Do I get a free pizza if you take longer?”

Tim huffed out a laugh.  “Absolutely.”

“Sweet.  I might test it just for that,” she teased him.  “Night, Tim.”

“Night.  And tell Jason to turn his phone back on before I do it for him.”

Marinette rolled her eyes.  “Still not an owl,” she singsonged before she hung up.  She looked over to Jason with a concerned smile. “Do you have to go?  It sounded like you already had plans?”

Jason waved her off and took the battery out of his phone before leaning against the counter near her.  “I have plenty of time.  Like I said, if I show up now De… Damian is going to attack me.” Marinette’s eyes widened in concern but Jason waved her off again.  “It’s fine. He isn’t as tough as he thinks he is. He wouldn’t be able to hurt me, but Bruce would yell at me for it and Dick would give me his disappointed in you lecture.  It’s better for everyone if I stay away for a few days.”  

He grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Tim just doesn’t want me stealing his friend away with my superior looks and charm.”

Marinette scowled lightly at him.  “Tim is very handsome and charming,” she insisted defensively.

Jason shot her a devilish smile.  “But not as much as me, right?”

Marinette scoffed at him and rolled her eyes.  “You certainly seem to think so.”  She rinsed some grapes and set them in a bowl between the two of them. “But he’s the only reason you’re here right now.  If you weren’t Tim’s brother and we hadn’t met last night when you were fairly respectful of me in my… state…”

“Fairly!?” Jason squawked.

“I’d have called, well, not the cops, but Tim, to take care of you,” she continued over him.  She grabbed a grape and chewed on it while she watched him appraisingly as she leaned back against the counter opposite him.  “Do you make a habit of stealing his friends?”

Jason shrugged and grabbed a few grapes.  “No, we generally move in different…” he searched for a nice way to phrase it, “circles.”

She hummed in response.  “And yet here you are, willingly entering in a circle with one of his friends.” She eyed him pointedly.  She quickly broke their eye contact to look down and cross her arms over her chest protectively.  “Thank you for breaking into this particular circle to help me out. Last night spooked me more than I want to admit.”

“Did you want to talk about it?  Or pretend like it never happened.  I can help with either,” Jason offered.

Marinette stared at the grapes for a while without talking. Jason was certain she was about to start spiraling again when she spoke up quietly.  “I was keeping an eye on my drinks.  I only took my eyes off of them when I was around people I trusted and we weren’t exactly close to other people for someone to just slip something in.”  She frowned and looked at nothing in particular. She poured herself a glass of water and held the rim of the glass against her lips without drinking it as she remembered the night before.  “I don’t know which scares me more, that someone was that good to get it in with all of us there or…”

“That one of the people you trust might be responsible,” Jason finished for her after a few seconds of silence.  When she looked up to meet her eyes, she looked so shaken and uncertain, he wanted to pull her into a tight, reassuring hug, but after the night before, he wasn’t sure a virtual stranger’s embrace would be the most reassuring.  He settled for moving to lean against the counter next to her so their arms were almost touching, but she still had her personal space.

“Yeah,” she said wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing her arms.  

“You think you were the intended victim?” he asked curiously.  He and Tim had already discussed the night and decided that she had to be, but he was curious what her thoughts were.  “You don’t think it was just opportunistic.  You think whoever was with targeting you.”

She shook her head and looked down, frowning at the floor.  She gripped her arms tighter.  “I don’t know.  I was never alone and I only drank with my friends at our own table away from other people.  I mean someone at the bar could have drugged it before it was brought over when the waitress brought drinks but…”

“How would they know who it would go to,” Jason finished again.  “Seems unlikely they’d risk the drug like that if they didn’t know who it would go to. If they didn’t have a plan to get the person out.”

Marinette looked up at him anxiously and nodded.  She studied him for a few more seconds before she shook herself out of her daze.  She looked up at him with a fake smile.  “So what are you feeling for dinner?  I can make some pasta.  I can do stir fry.  I can whip up a casserole.  What do you want?”

“I’ll be happy with whatever you feel like having tonight,” he assured her with a smile.

“I don’t… really… feel like eating,” she mumbled, looking away again. “This is more something for me to focus on instead of last night.”

Jason gave her a gentle smile and lowered himself to her level, trying to gain her attention.  “Look, I know you don’t know me but why don’t we order take out and we can watch a movie, or if you want to be alone, I can leave.”

“I don’t want to be alone,” she answered quickly, instantly looking over to him with a desperate look in her eyes.

Jason nodded slowly and gave her a gentle smile.  He rested his hands lightly on her arms to reassure her he was there and not going anywhere unless she wanted him to.  “That’s understandable.  I wouldn’t want to be either.  Do you want me to call Tim over?  I know you probably feel safer with him and when he can’t be here in three minutes, you get a pizza.”

She gave him a wan smile.  “No, I trust you.  And I’m not really feeling pizza right now.”

Jason smiled back.  “I want to joke and say that’s a terrible decision, but now doesn’t seem like the best time.” She gave him a deadpan look that made his grin widen.  “I’ll save that for later,” he finished with a wink. His expression quickly turned serious as he watched her.  “You should eat though.  What kind of food do you want to try?  There’s a good Indian restaurant around the corner.”

She looked away.  “I don’t want to order out.  I don’t want food that I…”

Jason nodded and moved closer again.  “Yeah, that’s reasonable.  Let’s make something together, yeah?  I saw some eggs and milk in your refrigerator and there’s bread on the counter.  How do you feel about breakfast for dinner?  French toast sound good?  I think you call it Lost Bread?  And how do you feel about Clueless?”

“The movie?” she asked confused.

“Yeah, adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma.”

“Fan of Alicia Silverstone or Jane Austen?” she teased weakly.

“Both,” Jason answered with a wink.

Marinette snickered and nodded.  “That all sounds amazing.”  She moved away to start getting the pan and bowls out, watching him while he got the ingredients prepared.  “Thank you, Jason.  You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“No problem.  We’ll get things figured out so you can feel safe, or at least as safe as you can feel in Gotham,” he assured her, and himself.  They were going to find who drugged her and make her feel safe again.  Whoever it was messed with one of Tim’s friends, one of the few he really trusted, that means whoever it was messed with his family and nobody messed with their family.

Tags:

@jasonette-july-event @maribatserver @aespades @demonicbusiness @read-fantasy-to-escape-reality @jayjayspixiepop

[certifiedskywalker]

Jealous Much? (Part Three) - Roger Taylor

Last time...

Arms crossed over your chest, your thoughts were clouded by Roger; his eyes, his words, and his lack of remorse. Why did you always fall for people like him?

Your breath caught the moment the questioning critique crossed your mind. You had fallen for Roger Taylor somehow, despite him being an absolute wanker. Swallowing thickly, you tried to act natural as Brian clambered into the driver seat. Once he was settled, he turned to you with a strained look on his face.

“So what happened now?”

“Just learned that I hate your friend,” you lied, burying your face in your hands again. Brian nodded, but remained silent for the ride back to your shared flat. Left alone with your thoughts, you wallowed in your feelings wondering how on Earth you found yourself infatuated with Roger.

-

Just when you thought you were doomed in your affections for Roger, one night turns everything you believed you knew right on it’s head.

Mindlessly, you picked at your nails in a poor attempt to distract yourself from the flurry of girls that had stormed in from the parking lot out front to ogle at Roger. You had been helping the boys prepare for their next gig by unloading the van with Brian when three girls recognized the blond. Immediately, the drummer halted all aid in unpacking and flirted with them. It was hard to ignore their annoyingly fake laughter as you were leaned against the side of the van.

“I hear that drummers have to be quite strong,” one of them cooed coyly, tracing her fingertips along Roger’s bicep. “To lift the drums, you know,” she added, still moving against his skin. Roger let out a huff, puffing his chest slightly. Brian, who was watching the scene with a scientific curiosity, scoffed.

“Can you believe this?” Your friend asked in quiet disbelief, eyes full of light humor that you wished you felt too.

“Yes,” you muttered bitterly, “I can.” Brian cocked his head to the side to look into your eyes with confusion. You met his gaze briefly before staring down at your shoes.

“What’s wrong, love?” The worry in his question nearly brought a tear to your eye. You had been so busy isolating yourself and your thoughts of Roger that Brian would have to pull you from your room to get you to even chat with him about school. It felt like you were lying to him and you hated it.

“Me, I think,” you said, lifting your eyes, but not to look at Brian. Your eyes landed on Roger, trying to figure out why him, of all people, had to affect you so deeply. You hardly knew him and yet you felt yourself longing to despite everything.

“You could say that,” Roger replied to the girl, glancing over his shoulder at you with a pleased grin as he flex his arm. Trying to brush off the embarrassment of being caught staring, you started towards the bar entrance. Brian began to protest but you kept moving. Your feet stomped against the loose gravel behind the building as you made your way inside, hoping a drink or two would numb your sore feelings.

Brian hadn’t pushed you to talk about Roger since Wednesday night. It was a good thing he didn’t because you felt like you were ready to burst. His teasing and flirtatious words ricocheted in your head every night, stealing you away from precious sleep. You couldn’t pinpoint when your jealousy had morphed into a twisted form of affection, but all you knew was that you hated how much you wanted him.

“Someone doesn’t look happy.” Tim’s voice and whose words were usually a comfort to you had you spinning on your heels. You shot a glare in his direction before heading towards the bar countertop. Pushing your way through the crowd, you plopped yourself down and ordered a drink. As you waited, the stool beside you creaked as Tim’s weight rested on it. You couldn’t bring yourself to speak to him, even look at him; you felt that your eyes would give you away in a second.

“Hey, Y/N,” you felt his hand on your shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze, “what’s been bothering you? Brian keeps telling me you won’t talk to him about anything.” Begrudgingly, you turned to face him and Tim offered you a supportive smile. “You can tell me.”

“Thanks, Tim, but it’s a bit more complicated than you may think. It might take a few days to totally unpack.” You let out a shaky sigh, realizing that you needed to reign in your emotions. If not for your own sake, for the sake of your friends. They didn’t need to worry like this.

“Then how about we start unpacking it tomorrow around noon at the Rose Diner? Just you, me, and a basket of the best chips you’ve ever tried.” Your ear perked up at Tim’s suggestion and your mouth fell open slightly.

“Tim, I-I...like a date?” Like a school boy talking to his crush, Tim’s cheeks reddened. He flashed his long lashes and nodded.

“Like a date. I really want to get to know you better, Y/N.” The bartender, oblivious to anything that was said, placed the drink in front of you. It took all you had not to slam it like a shot in the hopes that it would quell the storm brewing in your stomach.

“That is very nice of you to offer, Tim, really, I just...I can’t.”

“Then how about Sunday? We could do dinner?”

“No,” you shifted in your seat anxiously, “I can’t, Tim. I’m sorry.” Tim let out a little laugh of sudden shyness and nodded.

“It’s okay, Y/N. May I ask why?” You swallowed hard at his question and you’re about to come up with some excuse when a door slams. Brian and Roger, who had been pulled away from his doding fans, clambered up on stage. Your eyes locked on Roger, whose blues instantly took note of the fact you were sitting with Tim. A scowl made its way to his lips and you tried your best to hide your disappointment. “Oh, I see.”

“What?” You ask, turning back to Tim, “sorry, I just-”

“It’s not so much of a ‘why’ as it is a ‘who’.” Tim gives you a knowing smile, sparing a glance at Roger who was now bickering with Brian. “It’s alright. My lips are sealed.” As if to further prove his point, Tim makes the zipping action against his lips and tosses away an imaginary key. You give him a sorry smile and shake your head.

“You’re a catch, Tim,” you said, “but I already casted my line.” He nodded and patted your shoulder before joining his bandmates on stage. Once more left to your own feelings, you nursed your newly-arrived drink until the show began. You stayed at your spot near the bar as Smile’s new music filled the air. Couples bopped to the differing beats and you couldn’t help but wonder if Roger fancied himself a dancer. With him on your mind, your gaze traveled to his spot on stage.

His blond hair was whipping around wildly with his movements. The smile on his face was one you only saw whenever he was performing. With his brows knitted in concentration, he grinned as people twisted and turned to the music he helped make. As if it were contagious, you felt your own lips begin to turn upwards into a smile. Pushing aside the guilt you felt, you allowed yourself to get lost in the beat.

From his spot on the stage, Roger could easily make out your now swaying form. You didn’t stop when you noticed his blue eyes glued on you. It seemed like your continued actions spurred something on in him as he carried out the rest of the set list with fiery intensity. You only wished he would channel those emotions when he was around you, if not to validate your own feelings but to at least be civil.

The tension that had grown between you would suffocate you if you didn’t do something about it soon. With Brian and Tim picking up on it, it was only a matter of time. Yet stewing in your feelings felt right. Roger obviously only flirted with you as he did with other girls to get a rise out of you; so your feelings would be falling on an empty canvas.

Those thoughts lingered in your mind as the band finished up their show. Hoots and hollers from the crowd sent Brian into one last guitar solo before Tim closed out the night.

“Thanks for coming, you’ve been great and we’ve been Smile.”

-

“You guys did great, as always,” you said as you waltzed over to where Brian was packing up the equipment. Roger was already tearing down his drum set, too busy to look at you.

“Thanks,” Tim cheered, giving you a smile. You nodded and began to help them pick up. Just as you were about to carrying a few cases to the van, Tim stopped you. “You basically set up for us, Y/N. Go relax. Maybe mingle.”  He sent you a wink as he said the last part louder. His voice seemed to grab Roger’s attention, as his blue eyes darted over to the two of you for a brief moment before standing and wandering off. You held back the urge to watch him go and turned back to Tim.

“You sure? I can-”

“I’m sure. We’ll come get you when we’re done here.” You shrugged and made your way over to the stool you had sat in earlier. The bartender was occupied further down, you busied yourself with the pictures on the wall. Yellowed and worn pictures of families, most wearing smiles along with their old-fahsioned clothes. Just as you began to question just how old the place was, the bartender set a full glass before you.

“Oh, I didn’t order anything.”

“I know,” the man grumbled, “but he did.” He tipped his head to his right and you shifted your gaze towards the end of the bar. There, leaning his weight against the countertop, was Roger. Once your eyes found his, the drummer made his way over to you. Sensing the tension, the bartender left the pair of you in a hurry. You swallowed thickly as Roger sat himself in the stool beside you.

“A peace offering,” he explained, gesturing towards the drink. You glance at the drink and then back at Roger, whose blue eyes are still on you. A cigarette dangles from his fingertips as he studies your face.

“Thanks,” you say lowly, taking a sip of the concoction. It burns going down, but it fills you with a sense of warmth that spreads to your toes. A heavy silence falls over the two of you. Your eyes are trained on the glass in your hands, trying to quiet the words that threatened to spill out of your mouth.

“I’m sorry ‘bout Wednesday.” You turn your head at Roger, searching his face to see if he was serious. “I believe we got off on the wrong foot.”

You stifle a half-hearted chuckle. “So the gross flirting is just your stage persona?” Then it was Roger’s turn to chuckle as he shook his head.

“Yes and no,” he sighed. “I have a habit of taking it too far sometimes.”

“Yeah, yeah, you do.” Roger chuckled again at your honesty, his blue eyes scanning over your features. A softer silence now flows between you as you stare into each other’s eyes. Every thought seems louder in the quiet and part of you wonders if he can hear what you’re thinking.

“I don’t mean it, half the time,” he admitted to fill the air. He took a drag and tapped the smoke against the nearest ashtray before adding, “it just happens.”

“Really?” You raise your eyebrows at him incredulously and he smiles at your expression.

“Yeah. I mean, I meant it the first time.”

“First time?” You asked and you noticed how Roger stiffened on the stool.

“When we met,” he clarified, “I said you were pretty. I meant that.” Heat rushed to your cheeks and it took all you had not to hide your face from him. In an attempt to remain calm, you took another sip of your beverage. Sensing your nerves, Roger spoke up again, “Tim’s lucky.”

“What?” You nearly spit out your drink when he finishes.

“When Brian went to find you at practice Tim was telling me how he was going to ask you out. Figured he did before the show.” You licked your lips and nodded before looking back at Roger. As he took in your face, there was a frown plastered across his face.

“Y-Yeah, he did,” you confirmed, “but, uh, I’m not going out with him.” Roger’s eyes held your gaze in the same way he did when he caught you staring at him on stage. His mouth was parted slightly you saw hints of a smile on his lips.

“Oh,” he said, turning to his own drink, “that’s a, a shame.” You stayed quiet, hiding your expression behind your own glass. You snuck a side glance at him and the smile you saw was tucked behind his curled lips. He must have sensed your eyes because Roger lifted his face to look at you again. “Why not?”

“I-I uh, have studying to do those days,” you lied, but Roger seemed to buy it.

“For what class?” It wasn’t that you didn’t like the fact Roger was finally, truly speaking to you, it was just that you had to lie to him now that he was.

“Biology,” you answered curtly. It wasn’t a total lie, at least. You had an assignment yet to do in that class.

“With Mr. Wallace? I have that one too,” Roger groaned, “he’s a mean old twat.” You laughed and nodded in agreement. “You know, maybe I could come over and study with you? I missed lecture the other day so I don’t have some of the notes.” You smiled at him, oddly glad to hear Roger talking about something so common place. It made him seem in reach.

“Yeah, okay,” you said, “you can stop by whenever on Saturday. You know where Brian’s flat is?” The drummer nodded, taking another inhale of his cigarette.

“Sounds like a date,” he purred. His tone sent a spot of heat straight to your stomach and you didn’t have to check to see if you were blushing. Roger smirked before rubbing his cigarette out in the ashtray. Without another word, he strode back over to the stage to finish packing up his drum set.

-

“Alright, I think that’s everything,” Brian sighed as he shoved the last of the equipment into the back of the van. He wiped his brow with the back of his hand before sitting in the back of the opened van. Roger joined him, brandishing his carton of smokes. He held the box out to Brian and you but you both declined. With a shrug, Roger lit his own cigarette.

You couldn’t help but watch how the smoke billowed from his pink lips in the most enticing manner. It took all you had to tear your eyes away and glance around in search for a place to sit. Seeming to see your hopeless investigation, Roger scooted to the side and patted the spot now between him and Brian.

“Here, darling,” he said, his voice faltering on the nickname. Brian picked up on it too, staring at the drummer with slightly wide eyes. The affection behind Roger’s words and actions surprised him. What shocked Brian more was the fact you sat between them now, your thigh brushing against Roger’s.

“Thanks,” you said softly, trying to mask your blush from your childhood best friend. Awkwardly, you all waited for Tim to return so you could leave. You felt Brian shift beside you and, when you looked up, you saw that he was staring at you. “What?”

“Nothing,” Brian said, his eyes widening when Roger turned to look at him too, “just thinking.”

“That’s dangerous,” Roger joked as he took a drag. You let out a huff in agreement and Brian just shook his head at you.

“Sorry mates,” Tim’s voice broke through the tension, “figured we deserved a treat for a night well done.” He gave each of you bottles of beer, smiling as he passed them out. “Cheers!”

Everyone leaned their bottles together and clinked the necks. You smiled when Roger’s knuckles brushed over yours as he went in for the toast. Pulling away quickly, you took a swig and let the alcohol warm your cold body. The boys followed suit and before the night was done you all had a slight buzz going except for Brian, always the responsible one.

Tim was chatting with Brian about how the moon landing was faked, something that clearly made your friend angry, while you sat with Roger. His eyes were glued on his bandmates as they argued about shadows and lighting, shaking his head as they droned on. Every now and then you giggled at a claim Tim had and the look on Brian’s face when he furiously refuted it.

“Bloody hell, they’re nerds,” Roger muttered and you laughed a bit louder.

“You should’ve heard Brian in primary school. He was just as bad as he is now.” Roger smiled at the thought, or maybe he was smiling at you. You were a bit too tipsy to tell.

“That’s hard to believe,” Roger teased, the smiling still hanging on his lips. You shook your head and nudged his shoulder with your own.

“Well believe it! I’ll show you pictures when you come over tomorrow.” Roger hummed and you felt a jolt of excitement rush through you at the idea of sharing parts of your life with him.

“You’re stopping by tomorrow?” Brian chimed in, overhearing your conversation with Roger. “Why exactly?”

“Y/N is studying for Biology and I have the same class,” Roger explained.

“So we’re going to exchange notes and the like,” you added. Brian raised his eyebrows, almost like he didn’t quite believe you. You bit your lip to stop the smile that threatened to spread when you saw Tim shoot you a knowing wink. Never would you be able to grasp how he could be refined and understanding.

“You’re in Biology, Roger?” Brian’s question earned a glare from the drummer.

“Yes,” Roger replied through slightly gritted teeth. He stood up, tossed his beer bottle in the nearest waste bin and stretched. Tim let out a sigh and threw his empty drink away as well.

“It’s best we get goin’,” he said, “I have to feed my cat yet.” Tim made his way to the passenger side door and heaved himself inside. As you moved to stand, the toe of your shoe got buried in the loose gravel and caused you to lurch forwards. If it hadn’t been for the arm that wrapped around your waist, you would have, quite literally, eaten dirt. Turning to thank your savior, you came face to face with Roger. Your noses were a mere centimeters apart and you could feel his breath against your skin.

“You alright, darling?” His voice was barely above a whisper or you were so lost in how close his eyes were that he sounded far away. “Y/N?”

“Y-Yeah,” you said, shaking your head slightly as you found your balance again. His arm was still tucked around your waist as you steadied your feet. “Thanks, Rog.”

Despite thanking him his arm lingers a moment longer before Brian clears his throat. You try your hardest to ignore the burning of your cheeks as you pull away from Roger. Clambering in the back row of seat, you press your cheek against the cool surface of the window. Brian hops in the front and Roger in the back with you.

The hand you had rested against the seat is suddenly warm. As you look over you notice how close Roger’s hand is to it. His pinkie is nearly on top of yours, a little movement to the left and you would be touching. Biting the inside of your cheek to keep from moving, you stared out the window as Brian drove to Tim’s place. Dull sounds from the radio began to lull you to sleep.

-

You woke with a slight bit of jostling and a cramp in your neck. Rubbing at the back of your neck, you peeled open your eyes. Brian wasn’t outside of your apartment complex but rather what looked like large university housing. It was then you lifted your head and realized you had fallen asleep on Roger’s shoulder. Quickly you pulled away, not seeing the sly grin on his face.

“Sorry,” you said sleepily, still rubbing at your eyes.

“‘S alright,” Roger said, carefully reaching out to fix a stray strand of hair. “You were quite comfy.” Your cheek flushed a deep crimson and you were grateful for the darkness of night that shrouded the blush from his view. Just as you were about to speak up, Brian parked the van outside a house.

“Here we are mate,” Brian said, turning to face the back seat. “Oh, Sleeping Beauty is awake. Good evening, princess.” You groaned at Brian’s teasing and Roger smiled.

“I’ll see you both tomorrow,” he said proudly. You barely registered how his hand gave yours a light squeeze until he had stepped out of the car. “Goodnight.”

With the final farewell, Roger closed the van door and disappeared into the house. Brian waited until he was inside before turning to face you again, eyes wider than ever before. You blinked at him in groggy confusion and he rolled his eyes at you.

“What was that all about?!”

“I was tired,” you retorted, “is there a problem with that?”

“No,” Brian said with a smile as he turned back to pull the car out of the driveway. “No problem at all. Jus’ happy to see you and Rog getting along.” You were too, you thought to yourself as you watched Roger’s dorm disappear into the night. The skin of your cheek that had rested on his shoulder and the soft flesh of your hand tingled with the memory of his touch as Brian drove you home.

Tagged:

@itsametaphorbriansblog @casafrass @stardvstial @sheridans-dynamos @apseventy @incorrcctqueen @haywood-ya-not @deacontaylormaymercury @crazysaladchopshop @orchideax @shutup-sorry  @ixchel-9275 @whothefuckstolemykeds @katiekitty261

[loverholland]

a cry at the finale breath II

summary: after finding tom, you go back to the safe space. how will sam react? words: 1.7k warning: indication of suicide, but it doesn’t actually happen. a/n: hailey was kind enough to double check my writing. im very appreciative for this! part 1 | masterlist | upcoming | hailey’s blog

The walk back to Charlotte was one of the worst you have ever experienced. It was quiet and lonely as you walked back, your heart grieving. You held a gun in one hand, the letter from Tom in the other. Your vision was blurry from tears, and you snapped small twigs with your foot. You could hear your soft grunts echo in the wooded arena, and the sound of your heart and head pounding in your ears. It hurt. Everything hurt.

The walk to Charlotte felt like forever. You were alone with your thoughts and the heartbreak you had experienced, it was lonely and you hated it. You walked towards the gate of Charlotte, looking up to see if someone was around to let you in, but you couldn’t see anyone. This made it impossible for someone to see you were there and grant you access. Maybe this was a good thing? Maybe one of the walkers would get you and you could go and be with Tom. But if someone finds you outside, you’ll be able to let people rest easy about you and Tom. Let people grieve like you need to.

“Y/N?” Someone shouted from behind you. 

You held your breath and closed your eyes before turning around, the gun hitting your leg a few times as you looked at where the voice. Pieces of your hair ran in front of your face as the wind blew, and you squinted towards the figure. 

“Y/N! What are you doing outside?” They asked, and your lips opened to answer, but they closed as your eyebrows fell in confusion.

“I-” you stuttered. You looked left and right before your gaze finally settled on them. You were confused and felt your heart beating rapidly as you looked for an answer. How could you reply without saying “I had to kill the love of my life.”

You took a deep breath and lifted your eyebrows as your lips moved a bit before words came out. “I didn’t- Tom asked me to come out.” You admitted with a simple breath and watched as the figure walked closer to you. “He put a letter in my bag and asked me to go to a special place that we share.”

The figure was breathing deeply, in and out in quick breaths as they got closer. You could see them clearly now. It was one of the men who went on runs or missions. He was tall with blue/green eyes and red curly hair. He was pale, but with him being in the sun so often, he had gained some sort of tan. They called him “Tim,” but you heard his wife call him Timothy, which is how you got to know his name. He was a sweet man, caring and everything that Tom was.

“Tom’s been missing for well over a week, kid,” Timothy said with narrowed eyebrows. “No one’s heard from him since he left.” He explained and you shook your head, dropping the gun onto the ground, the clattering making you catch your breath. You removed one of the straps from your shoulder, bringing the bag to your front so you could rummage for the first letter. You stuffed the recent letter, his death letter, into the backpack and took out his letter asking you to come out.

“N-No, see,” you said, showing him the paper. “H-He asked me to come out to this little cabin thing that he found when he first got here and he put his date,” you took a deep breath, “it was dated a week ago. He wanted me to come out and so I did and…” you trailed off, your eyes glancing downward as you looked at your feet, swallowing thickly.

“Yeah?” He asked and you shook your head.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” You murmured quickly and then looked back up to him, tears still in your eyes. Timothy nodded and took a deep breath, walking closer to you before bending down and picking up the gun, handing it back over to you. You looked at the gun and then at him, taking the gun into your hand again.

Timothy sighed and looked up at the gate and then back to you. “Why don’t we go back inside, yeah?” You sniffled and shrugged. It wasn’t going to be your first choice when you could just be killed. You shoved the note in your backpack again, pulling it back over your shoulder. 

Timothy walked past you and towards the gate before shouting “Hey, Jim! I’m back!” Suddenly, a head popped up. The man, Jim, smiled and waved before yelling down at the people on the ground to open the door. And they did. The giant door opened slowly, showing you the inside of the gated community. Houses and trees surrounded the place.

The doors opened slowly but gave you enough room to walk inside. You walked into the community and looked around. Everyone looked so happy. There were women gardening at the community garden, a few men building some things. Kid’s played in the streets and giggled as they ran around the neighborhood Charlotte took over.

You sighed and put your head down, going to the first house right, which you shared with yourself. You walked up the steps and opened the door, ignoring the envelopes on your footsteps. You quickly walked up the stairs and into the hall, going into your bedroom. A deep breath left your lungs and you sat the gun on the dresser before throwing your bag off and onto the bed. You took a moment to allow a sob to leave your lips, curses, and prayers coming out along with them. You begged for an answer from whatever God was there. You begged for Him to take you.

You calmed yourself down after a few moments, tears still streaming down your cheeks and sobs still rattled your ribs. You sniffled, running your hand under your nose as you turned your head to the backpack on your bed. You took a few strides to the bed, unzipping the backpack and pulling out the letters. You looked over them, tears falling onto the paper as you heaved a breath. You lifted your head and began to walk towards your bedroom door, grabbing the gun from the dresser before going into the hall and down the stairs to leave your home. You walked outside, closing the door with a single finger before going down the steps and to the street.

You headed towards the Holland residence, breaths gnawing at your lungs. They weren’t too far from you. They were two hours down and on the left, so that’s where you headed. No one seemed to notice you, they just ran behind and in front of you, laughing and speaking. You walked up the steps of the home Tom once resided in, taking a deep breath as you stared at the door. You weren’t sure if telling Sam was a good idea.

But you wanted him to know.

You swallowed thickly and rapped your knuckles against the door. You stood out there for a moment before Sam opened the door. He had a wide smile on his face when he saw you, but it fell when he noticed the materials in both hands and the dried blood on your clothes and hands.

“Wha-” he tried to say as he shook his head, eyebrows downward. He looked back to your face, noticing your sad, knitted eyebrows and hurt, teary eyes. He could see the tear streaks on your cheeks as you stood there in silence. “What is this?” He asked.

You pursed your lips and took a step forward. “Is Paddy here?” You questioned in a whisper.

Sam turned his head back, mouth gaping open as he shook his head, looking back to you. “No, no he’s not.” He answered and took a deep breath. “What’s wrong?” He asked and stepped aside to allow you in. You walked into the home, eyes tracing along the décor that resided in the home. Family pictures and drawings. Polaroids and letters.

“You’re going to hate me,” You suddenly said, not looking back at him. “This is all my fault and you’re going to hate me for it.” You quickly got out and closed your eyes when your legs came to a stop, the gun hitting your leg again. Sam pressed his hand to his shoulder, pulling your eyes opened at the touch.

“Why would I want to do that?” He asked and you turned your head to look at him, head tilting to the side as new hot and salty tears slid down your cheeks. You sniffled and gave a weak smile before shaking your head with a scoff.

“You’ll hate me.” You whispered, turning your head back forward but Sam shook his head. 

He slowly turned you around, moving his hand down your shoulder and towards the gun in your hand. He whispered a soft no, I won't before he took it by the barrel and into his palm before pulling it out of your hand. You watched his face as he did so. He gave you a soft smile before looking down at the gun in his hand, breathing out a soft sigh of relief when he realized the safety was on.

Sam glanced at you and then back to the gun before putting it in the waistband of his jeans. He nodded softly and took your free hand into his own. You were looking into his eyes as tears left your own, the breaths from your lungs became labored as you looked at him.

Sam smiled and wrapped his arm around your shoulder, bringing you into a side hug before taking you to the living room. He sat you down on the messy couch, taking a deep breath and unwrapping his arm from your shoulder. He removed the gun from his waistband and put it on the coffee table, sitting down next to you and resting his elbows on his knees.

“Y/N,” he said after a small moment of silence. “What happened?” he asked, and you turned your head to look at him, crumpling the letters a bit. His eyebrows furrowed, and your head fell as tears began to leave your eyes. You didn’t even look at him as you handed over the letters.

Sam took them and glanced at you before looking down at the letters. You didn’t want to reread them or even see them. You kept your face in your hands as soft sobs left your lips and tears escaped your eyes. You could hear Sam’s soft sobs as he read over the letter, then he flipped to the next page, that’s when a louder cry left his lips.

“I’m sorry,” you whimper quietly, and Sam shook his head as he wrapped his arms around you in a hug.

“It’s okay,” he cried. “It’s not your fault.” He whispered as you cried into his chest.

[schrijverr]

Weird Wayne Parties

Christmas coutdown day 3

It’s time for the Christmas party that the Wayne family give each year where they are supposed to be acting normal and totally not being weird superheroes, key word supposed. 

Ships: none

Warnings: none

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

Bruce was looking around to check if everything was good to go for the annual Wayne Christmas party. There were tables with food, music set up, room to dance, decorations and the kids, his gaze shifted over to them and his shoulders sagged, well, at least they were dressed properly. He observed his kids for a while as he wondered what this night would bring.

Dick was doing acrobatics in time with a carol that was playing, Jason was rolling his eyes as he sat on the bottom of the stairs cleaning his guns and Damian was sitting next to him sharpening a few of his knifes, Cassandra had never looked so uncomfortable in a dress and heels and she looked ready to murder someone as she glared at the speaker, Tim was in the corner and he was, sadly, one of the more normal ones in this situation, his eyes were bloodshot and tired as he was tapping away on his phone, to a bystander it might have seemed that he was playing a phone game, but Bruce knew better and if he strained his eyes he thought he could see the logo of the Gotham Police department.

He sighed deeply again and cleared his throat, which had no effect at all, so he cleared his throat again. This time they looked his way. He made a gesture to gather around which they did. “The party starts in 45 minutes,” he began, “we need to fit in and strengthen our position as a clueless party family, a normal clueless family.” He looked them all in the eye.

Jason groaned and said: “Why can’t I just go on patrol with Duke and Stephanie?”

Bruce raised an eyebrow at him and said: “You know why. As the recently revived Wayne son, who was assumed dead, people expect you to make an appearance, so you will.”

Jason groaned again, but dropped it. He didn’t want to ruin the Christmas party by arguing. Bruce turned to the other and asked: “Any more questions?”

Cassandras hand shot up and she said: “Can I leave?”

Bruce smile sympathetically at her and said: “I’m sorry, but no. Barbara will be here any minute, I hope that helps.” she nodded, but her shoulders sagged. “Yeah, Dick, what do you want to know?”

“Who is your favourite?” the oldest boy smiled.

Bruce felt himself age ten years as 5 pair of curious eyes blinked questioningly. As he facepalmed he sighed: “Dick, how many times do I have to tell you to stop asking that? I don’t have a favourite.”

Dick pouted, but was distracted by Barbara who decided to save Bruce by showing up.

~

The party was in full swing and Bruce had slapped on his party persona. He had danced with a few beautiful ladies, whom he had forgotten the name of already, he had thanked Commissioner Gorden for his services and charmed a few investors. He was smiling at people when he decided that it was probably a good time to check on the haggle of children who were supposed to behave, sort of.

The first ones were easy to spot, he heard some screaming and followed it. He rounded the corner and spotted Damian hanging upside-down on the stairs railing while holding Tims phone, Tim was on the ground beneath him screaming at him to give his phone back. Bruce could see he was frustrated that he couldn’t just grab it back, because he was supposed to be the non-athletic one.

Bruce got closer to help Tim out as he got closer he heard what Tim was yelling. “I swear to God, demon child give me back my phone or I will personally murder you! And it will be slow and painful! I’m going to pull all your nails out one by one and shove them down your throat and watch as you choke on them!”

Damian just laughed as the people surrounding Tim looked disturbed and moved as far away from him as possible. Tim didn’t notice as he continued to yell threats at his younger brother that got more violent as time passed. When Bruce finally arrived he yelled at Damian: “Damian! Give Tim his phone back and come from that railing, you know you’re not allowed to be up there, it’s dangerous.”

He could feel Damians eyeroll, but he listened nonetheless. As he was walking down he turned to Tim and chided: “Turn the violence down a notch will you?”

Tim blushed and looked kind of sheepishly, but that melted away when his phone was pushed back into his hands and he became absorbed into their most recent case again. Bruce smiled softly at the boy as he quickly grabbed Damians scruff.

Damian frowned and pouted as he ignored his fathers glare. Bruce told the side of his face: “I told you to try to behave like other kids, other kids don’t swing from the stair case as they laugh at violent threats.”

Damian huffed: “Like you know what kids do.”

Bruce felt for the kid and he got on one knee beside him and said: “You’re right, I don’t know what normal kid behavior is, but can you not do things that give people a heart attack today?”

It was quiet for a second then he said: “Sure, but you should tell Dick and Jason that too.”

They heard a loud crash and Bruces head shot in the direction. He started cursing and let Damian go, who was smiling evilly as he stalked away to find some new entertainment.

Bruce was wading through the crowd as he tried to get to his oldest sons before they accidentally killed themselves. He finally made it through the cheering crowd. When he got to the front his heart nearly stopped, there in the middle of the room was an intoxicated Dick doing a handstand on a pile of furniture that was being built higher and higher by a cackling Jason. His eyes searched for Barbara, who normally stopped this before it got so bad, but found her at the side cheering along.

He made his way to her and asked: “What they hell, Barbara! Why are you cheering we have to stop them.”

She looked at the confused her eyes unfocused, also drunk, Bruce concluded. She asked: “Why? They’ve done more dangerous shit.”

Exasperated Bruce said: “I know that, but this is a party. People, Barbara, people.”

Something clicked, but she couldn't really place it. Bruce gave her a bitchface as he threw a glass of water in her face. She sobered up a bit and when she was blinking like a confused owl he pointed at her brothers and said: “Help fix this.”

She saw what they were doing and immediately sprung into action. She ran to Jason to stop him in his quest to higher the pile for Dick to climb on his hands. While she handled Jason Bruce was on his way to stop Dick. He easily climbed the, already ten ft, pile. He came face to face with Dick who waved at him while balancing on one hand on a chair top. Bruce took a deep breath as he ignored his hair that he could feel graying more and more every second this dragged on. Dick slurred: “Heya B. Hows it going.”

Bruce just grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder and carefully climbed back of the pile. The crowd was booing, but Bruce ignored him. He met up with Barbara who had freed a coffee table from Jasons grasp. They looked at each other and nodded, then they both dropped their drunk vigilanty in the snow and watched them freeze. The crowd cheered for that.

As both boys sobered up Bruce asked Barbara: “Where is Cassandra?”

Barbaras eyes went wide as she checked all around her. Cassandra wasn’t in sight. Bruce rubbed his temples and said: “Babysit those for a sec will you. I’ll go see if I can find her.”

Barbara nodded as she turned back to the boys in the snow, hand on her hip eyes angry.

Bruce looked and looked but he couldn’t find Cassandra. He dropped down on a couch while groaning and promptly found Cassandra. She was chilling on a support beam with some snacks, watching the spectacle from above. He smiled and send her a text.

- You good up there?

He saw her nod and then type

~ I hate people, can I stay here?

- Sure

- but leave if you are spotted

She send him a thumbs up and put a snack in her mouth as she went back to watching. Bruce texted Barbara where Cassandra was, he got a picture of the boys back. They both had hot coco in their hands and were warming up by the fire, their noses were still red from the cold and she had edited antlers on their heads. Bruce smiled, but rolled his eyes at the satisfied smiles they both wore.

~

The next day Bruce was regretting his life choices as he was skimming the newspaper headlines. One read: Does money make people crazy? Look at the Wayne and that is proven!

The article was a report from the night before, with pictures. There was one of Damian on the stairs with an angry Tim, one of Dick and Jason with their pile and one of them in the snow, and one of him carrying Dick down the pile, there was also one of him throwing a drink in Barbaras face, and one of Barbara with both Jason and Dick under her arms while she carried them to the kitchen.

Bruce wondered if they would ever learn how to act, but he doubted that. He looked over his hall where Tim had crashed a while back next to the passed out Jason and Dick, who were snuggling, and a sleeping Barbara on the couch. Damian and Cassandra were eating breakfast on the ground next to them a beat and tired Duke and Stephanie, and the Christmas tree was in the background. Bruce didn’t notice Alfred snapping a picture of him smiling softly with everyone in the background. Their little imperfect perfect family.