#sorry drake-wayne now

[theredcuyo]

I might be crazy with this one but hear me out

Batfamily PLATONIC soulmarks

Were it's a black blob that starts to take color that gives away it's form when you met said people, the more people you'll get, the bigger it is

At first, Bruce's parents were slightly worried upon seeing their son's mark, one that covered his whole torso, back and front, with only a little blank space in the place of his heart, where a tangle of lines seemed to met

Nor Thomas, with his years of medical experience, Martha with her wisdom or Alfred, who had seen far more than many, had ever look at something similar, although, they we're soon relieved, "Bruce will deeply love many people, and many people will return said love"

When the boy started to gain cognition, some color finally appeared in between all the black, a collar of pearls, like Martha's favorite, an scalpel, the one Thomas works with, and to Alfred's surprise, a cup of tea, mirroring the one he was drinking when they discocevered it, one that also connects all three to the tangle of lines around the heart

After that night, though, Bruce thinks it's impossible he'll ever get more, he doesn't want to get more, if it means he'll feel the same pain as now if he loses more of the people they represent

Then, many years later, after taking Dick in, a blue bird mid fly colors itself, a faint line joins the tangle.

He sighs whenever he sees it, after his son is not at home anymore, it doesn't faint, but will it really get better?

It happens again, when he finds a boy trying to steal his tires, it's another bird, a red one, it looks as if it were giving you his back, but it still connects to the hearth

It hurts to look at it, it's worse than before, he gets why it doesn't look at him now, he failed Jason-

Then, a few weeks into adjusting to Tim, he sees a new mark, and- it's a lighter tone of red

Another bird. This one is on a branch, it is making a nest

Then, when a girl comes in too, another bird, a purple one, sits on the branch with Tim's, this one also seems to be looking away

Just like Steph, he thinks

Along them, the shape of a smiling bat hangs upside down from the same branch, black but visible by golden edges that give away it's form, Cass

There are few more, here and there, hints of green when he met Barbara and Jim, Babs seem to fake the form of a hand next to Steph's and Cass's

Yellow, red and blue combine into two familiar symbols after he mets Clark and Diana, the only time he ever complains to his mark, why these people, why them, they're idiots

They're his best friends, but still idiots, he will never tell them, but they probably know anyway

Then, a new bird appears, and so does a color, a deep shade of green, this one looks like it's about to attack a prey

But, as Bruce gets time to know Damian, he realizes, it's not attacking, it's protecting the rest of the picture

A yellow figure of the sun gives it light, when he mets Duke

Maybe all the lines in the tangle have color then, maybe not

[ky-landfill]

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Jason keeps accidentally drawing parallels between his running away to Ethiopia and getting killed.

He leaves a note saying he‘ll be back soon? Three terrified bats AND a supe crashing through the roof of a 7/11.

Casually mentioning he‘ll be going overseas to check up on a lead? Surprise! Nightwing‘s going the same way! What a coincidence!

Jason pushes someone off the roof? “Don’t worry Jaylad, I know it was an accident!!!!”

The next gig takes place at an abandoned warehouse? “Explosives whomst?? No, Jason, of course I didn’t scout the area beforehand. Don’t be absurd. Your bombs?? Oh, those were yours?”

Look, it’s not that Jason doesn’t appreciate a demonstration of how much they care. But he’s getting seriously fed up with the level of overprotectiveness everyone’s displaying.

Although, in retrospect, he could have handled this whole thing better than having an open spat with Bruce and then disappearing on them for two months straight. Oops.

(In his defense, Kori got them cards for a once-in-life-time-space-opera.)

[acid-ixx]

(masterlist &. synopsis) gn! chronically ill reader with a platonic! yandere batfam who accepts their pampering

reblogs and interactions are encouraged and appreciated.

a/n: sorry for the on and off hiatus ^^ i am very much invested in dc and altho i have only read a few comics, i try to be very close to canon with this one. this was written with POTS in mind but the illness is vague for the purpose of inclusivity !! requests will be open soon enough once i fix my account up and add request rules. keep in mind, the reason why i would be posting separate headcanons is because i plan for each of them to be longer than usual.

just imagine life with platonic! yandere batfam after their initial kidnapping. they've abducted you after a few months of stalking, gathering every bit of information about you from either the long or short times you've talked to them, or from watching you from afar at your most vulnerable state inside your very much hidden-camera-free apartment (lies. they have cameras implanted in every crevice of your room and even tampered with security cameras in the entire building just to ensure ultimate surveillance for you!)— it may be illegal, sure, no kidding it is, but they promise it's for your safety (and well-being) and nothing else! (other than the fact that they needed to know everything about you to guarantee your permanent stay with them would be stress-free and enjoyable not only in their eyes but yours too, especially since you require more needs than the average person but, ah! you just perfectly captured the attention of the most capable people who would bend the rules of the universe just for you.

everything was very much an elaborate scheme to get you to easily submit to their whims without a single fibre of fight in your bones. they have your entire room set up; ones with the comfiest sheets, a room where fresh, unpolluted air is accessible through baby-proofed windows— and you can even keep your (hacked) phone to call them whenever you need something. really, you have everything you need! all you have to do is accept their proposal... though, they wouldn't mind being patient either way.

what they didn't know was that they didn't even need to go through so much effort to keep you from escaping. hell, it's like the moment your eyes blink the tiredness away, and your brain registers the entirely new (and bigger) space you were in, it's like you merely accepted your fate.

you're creepily greeted with almost the exact same copy of your room, except the blanket you know and love with the same color, same design, same smell doesn't feel, or much less have the same texture as your previous blanket. in fact the fabric is way more high quality, the texture doesn't overstimulate you as much as the sheets you were used to back at home. the lights aren't as bright, in fact it was a welcoming shade that blends in well with the natural light that floods through the windows— windows that welcome in the faintest scent of floral growth, fresh and unlike the polluted air of gotham that you were never accustomed to.

before you could even force your body to sit up, joints a tad bit heavier and your mind cloudier than before, a soft knock disrupts your train of thought. the door opens and you are greeted with a butler and... even stranger, bruce wayne with his other children in tow.

[catgrandpa]

I started this post with the intention of asking for fic recs where Bruce gets his kids early, but then I ended up just writing some ficlets

_(:3 」∠)_

I still really just want recs I swear but I wrote these anyway and am incapable of doing more with them so here

☆彡

Dick Grayson is 8 years old when he watches his parents die. Bruce is 24 years old when he sees a young boy’s life fall to pieces. He’s far too young to be a single father. But he sees too much of himself in the child, and he knows in his heart that he won’t be able to walk away from him.

He talks to Alfred about his fears of only furthering Dick’s trauma by failing him as a guardian. It takes some time, but Alfred is able to convince Bruce to find a therapist and take some discreet parenting classes. He’s still Batman, and I don’t think he’s capable of Gentle Parenting™ but he does do better. Plus, Dick is young enough to learn to read Bruce before the teenage hormones kick in so they manage to communicate much more effectively with each other.

☆彡

Bruce meets Catherine Todd by chance because there was a cool park Dick wanted to stop at. She’s trying to deal with her hungry and fussy 3 year old step son, but she’s young and stressed out and hungry herself and she just doesn’t know what to do. Bruce offers to take them out for lunch. He asks Dick to take Jason to the play area in the corner while they talk.

She breaks down and tells him of her struggles with addiction. She does her best to keep Jason fed, but it’s so hard. Feeding him means she goes hungry most of the time because she can’t quit using. Jason wouldn’t survive if she had to go through withdrawals with him.

He’s not even her kid! Not really. Her husband is just an abusive deadbeat so she doesn’t have a choice. She does love him, but she never wanted kids, and she can’t just let a child die when she can do something.

Bruce fills their fridge and cabinets to the brim (he offers to do much more for them but that’s all she will budge on. She has too much pride to accept outright charity, but she will do what she can to keep her kid safe) and he makes it clear to her that he is willing to take care of Jason for however long is necessary when she decides to take the first step to get clean.

Two months later, Willis gets arrested and Catherine shows up at Wayne Manor and tells Bruce she signed up for inpatient, but she thinks it would be best for Jason and for herself if Bruce would be willing to take permanent custody. She stays in Jason’s life, just not as a mother figure.

☆彡

A year or so later, Bruce gifts Alfred with a vacation as an early birthday present. Things have been hectic with the sudden acquisition of two sons, and Alfred has done so much, he deserves a break. Bruce promises he’ll be able to handle two kids on his own.

Turns out, he was mostly right, but only just barely. The kids are fine, the manor not so much. He ends up hiring a few services to help out with general housekeeping. A couple of those workers also happen to be regular hires for the Drakes.

Bruce overhears them talking about how sad it is that those awful people treat their toddler more like a doll than a child. He learns that not only do they leave for long periods at a time while not hiring a proper nanny to watch over their son, just expecting the help to take care of him, but they also lock him away on his own whenever it’s ’not fashionable’ to have a 2 year old around.

Alfred comes back to the manor on August 15th, just in time to celebrate his and Master Jason’s birthdays together. He opens the door and dodged around a very excited 4 year old jumping up and down in the entry hall.

“ALFIE! ALFIE! BOOSE GOT ME A BABY BWOTHER FOR MY BIRFDAY! LOOK! LOOK! HIMS NAME IS TIMMY AND HE’S THE BESTEST!”

Alfred leans over to peak behind the boy, and sees a very quiet, very small child standing behind him.

“Oh, dear.”

☆彡

The day Bruce got the call from Talia telling him she was pregnant with his child was one of the best days of Bruce’s life. The day she called to tell him she miscarried was one of the worst.

The only blessing was that he didn’t need to explain it to his kids. Talia was going to move in once she was in her second trimester, and they planned to reveal her pregnancy together.

He got the call two weeks before her flight out. He begged her to come anyway, he loved her, they could still be a family. She refused.

Six and a half months later, he walks into his bedroom to find Talia standing by the window with a squirming bundle in her arms. With equal measures steel and sorrow in her eyes she tells Bruce she is sorry for what she put him through, but it was the only way to keep their son safe. He gathers them both in his arms and holds them tight as she explains.

Her father had planned to raise an heir to be the Demon Head. He would be kept a secret from Batman until the very end. But when Talia gave the final push to birth their son, he came out quiet. She panicked for a moment until her midwife quietly leaned down to listen to the baby’s breathing and then looked up with a soft smile, she bundled up the small thing and handed Talia her baby. Big beautiful green eyes blinked up at her. The midwife leaned closer to Talia and whispered, “Sadly, your son was stillborn. I’m deeply sorry for your loss, but surely The Great Head of the Demon would be willing to allow you some time away from your duties while you recover.” Talia allowed the woman to cover her beautiful cooing baby gently with soft linen and silk and carry him from the room. Later that night she left her home with her son and boarded the first flight to Gotham.

Tears gather on Bruce’s lashes and he tells her everything will be alright because now they can finally be together as a family. Once more, she refuses. She tells him Damian and his boys are far too precious for her to bring the danger of the league of assassins to their door. Bruce closes his eyes in sorrow, but nods his acceptance. He asks her to at least stay the night together. They fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms with their baby boy safely bundled between them. Talia is gone when he wakes.

☆彡

It’s been one week since Talia left and, while still beyond upset, Bruce feels like he’s starting to have a decent handle on things. He is sitting with his boys at the breakfast table, Dick and Jason to his left, Tim to his right, Damian in his arms, and Alfred across from him. They’re finally able to have a relaxing breakfast. No babies crying, no food fights, no arguing, just the sounds of eating and gentle chatter.

He feels a small hand grab his right sleeve and give a gentle tug.

“Boo?” Tim asks, quietly. Bruce feels his heart warm at his son finally feeling like he can speak up without permission.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Why isn’t Big Sister sitting with us?”

Alfred is the only person in the room other than Tim to not startle at the sudden appearance of a 5 year old girl standing next to Bruce at the dining table. He simply sighs, stands up, and grabs another place setting for her at the table.

[frownyalfred]

Tim is the kind of person who would swallow one of his AirPods while getting mugged just to assert dominance and I stand by that

[introspectivememories]

timbern interconnected fates but not like by chance but like bernard wrestling with destiny to make sure he gets to have tim in his life

[fryingpan1234567]

the batkids (and superfam/ flash fam/ Titans etc, if they’re around) have a drinking game on Halloween where they have to take a shot every time they see someone dressed as them. Cass and Duke usually end up dry, Steph and Jason get a few, Dick is falling off roofs by the end of the night, and the Robins would be wiped if their siblings let them shoot anything but apple cider. once he’s the Flash, Wally also usually ends up pretty fucked. Jaime always gets at least a few. Conner gets a surprising amount, although he suspects it’s just because a Superman costume with a leather jacket over the top is warmer than a regular Superman costume. the next day, all the kids brag about how many they got and how hungover, arguing over who’s the fan favorite among the kids.

what they don’t know is that the tradition started with the JL when they were younger (they also don’t know it’s the real reason Bruce hates Clark so much— he always got more kids)

[cheriekos]

no context these songs remind me of these dc characters:

bruce:

kon (blue foster in general makes me think of kon)

core four:

TIMOTHY JACKSON DRAKE:

[dubacheryking]

timdami are so very "please don't go/i'll eat you whole/i love you so" as in they would actually kill and then consume each other<3

[takethelx3]

Scribbliest sketch I ever did speedrun while listening to Violet Crazy (DPR Ian) on repeat

Context: Tim invites Kon to a gala as his plus one and is trying to teach him some rich people etiquette, which leads to Kon asking about dancing and Tim saying the young people don't really dance so much and Kon getting passionate about bringing that energy back to the ballroom (did he watch a period drama and get emotional about how intimate the dancing is? Yes he did.) and so Tim decides to teach him the few things he does know, but Kon quickly realises actually they are very close and this is a bit embarrassing, no wonder young people don't do this anymore. (And Tim doesn't really know much about dancing at all tbh but he's giving it his best shot for bestie! Fake it till you make it!) (You most certainly do not interlock fingers 🙄)

Hi I love the trope: a is pining and knows it, b is pining and has no idea 👍

Also might come back tomorrow and clean the tags up but they're so goofy to me

[brucie-wayne-official]

does your boyfriend superman get along with all of your kids? how was his reaction to first meeting them?

He loves them all. Damian tends to question anyone and everyone in his life but he even likes Kal.

The first time he met them, he was an absolute angel. He met them alll at different times so it woulddn't be as intimidating. Dick loves him. Tim thinks hes interesting. Jason thinks it would be cooler for me to date Wonder Woman, I thnk. But hes only joking.

Maybe you can ask my kids, actually!!!! I can only speak from my own perspective and Im sure they sugarcoat it for me sometimes, so maybe you can find out what they think?

@ohgodtheresanotherone @cassmeifyoucan @caint-see-me @onetruewayne @thegreatflyinggrayson @totallytimtastic @future-mr-darcy what do you think of Superman and I dating?

Oh, and of course our friend @babs-hacks-stuff !!!!

[murdockbuckley]

thinking about the batfam going to a pantomime and all of the just loving it and going crazy in the audience. like i don't care how much they'd act like they don't want to be there you know they're going to enjoy it

[ghost-bxrd]

So I've seen you post a lot about Dick and Calvin recently, and I wanted to know how you thought Calvin would react, in this Calvin gets adopted by Bruce kind of au, to:

1). Jason's death, in the assumption Calvin can't prevent it (And subsequently what he would do to Joker for it.)

2) Damian's early childhood.

3) Tim's Tim-ness.

4) How Calvin would react to the Batman Robin situation, when he finally learns about it.

I haven't gotten the opportunity to learn much about Calvin, but you have me interested, I'm a sucker for overly traumatized characters, and I am looking for the comics with him!

We can never have enough Calvin Rose content, that boy is so underrated 🥺💚

1. Pfpfpfpf you know for ONCE I wanted to go with “Jason doesn’t die in this Au” but you asked and I shall deliver hehehe.

Look, Calvin adores children. And it’s no different with Jason, whom he basically helped Bruce raise from the moment he came to the manor. (Bruce is a good dad here but emotions are not his forte. Calvin picks up the slack.)

So we’ve got a former Talon basically raising Jason, sharing a lot of his interests, teaching him fun escape techniques and pranking the others…

Only for Jason to die in Ethiopia. Beaten within an inch of his life and then blown up.

Because his birth mother sold him to the Joker.

Look, there’s very few things that make Calvin snap. Canonically it only happens when his loved ones are in danger/threatened, or children are being hurt.

And this one ticks off both boxes.

Calvin doesn’t kill if he can help it. Hasn’t done so since that one time with the Court, and that instance still haunts him in his sleep. But this?

Yeah. He’s not losing any sleep over killing Joker. He’d hunt the clown and put him down like a rabid animal. Cold, clean, and efficient. No drawing it out.

2. As mentioned before, Calvin adores kids. I don’t think they’d meet before Damian comes to the manor though, so no early early childhood shenanigans. But when Damian arrives, all entitled and clearly having been conditioned from a very young age, he gives Bruce a very deadpan “You do know you don’t get a discount for the amount of traumatized kids you take in, right?”

Damian is a stabby little shit that tries to kill Calvin at every turn. Dick thinks it’s hilarious. Damian becomes progressively more angry because Calvin doesn’t break a sweat side stepping each and every attempt. (Talon training pays off)

Calvin just lets Damian “burn off his excess energy” (“You do know he’s a kid and not a puppy, right?”) and uses the time the boy isn’t actively trying to murder him to child proof the manor again. Just to piss Damian off.

Having the kid try to poison him at dinner that day is so worth it.

Damian reluctantly warms up to Calvin over the next few weeks when the former Talon proves annoyingly helpful at setting up his room and helping him with training. (Although Damian turns his nose up every time Calvin obviously handles him with kiddie gloves. But the man point blank refuses to do anything else.)

3. Calvin spends a week around Tim and all his alarm bells for “neglected child” are going off like autotune in his brain.

Considering it’s still very close to Jason’s death tho it would take him some time to truly warm up to Tim.

Tim wishes Calvin remained as distant as he was the first year or so (no he doesn’t) because now Calvin has strictly limited his daily caffeine intake, is forcing him to eat at least three healthy meals a day, and actually set a bed time for him.

Tim is outraged (flustered) about being treated like a kid (like the kid he is).

4. Depending on who’s Robin when he finds out the reactions would vary greatly, but he still wouldn’t be happy that Bruce is taking kids out onto the streets at night to fight criminals either way. It remind him too much of the Court for comfort, grooming children into the percent assassin.

After a while though he’d realize that Bruce would love nothing more than for his Robin(s) to hang up the mantle and just live their lives to the fullest, and that they’re simply too stubborn and determined to fight crime with Batman to stay at home. With our without permission.

It helps that Bruce is clearly distressed and close to benching Robin whenever Dick/Jason comes back from patrol with a bruise. Never mind an actual injury.

[browniesarethebest]

Ur reverse batfam is so just *chefs kiss*!! I’d love to read either Dick seeing Cass dance for the first time if it’s not too much trouble

Ah! Thank you! I am so sorry that this took forever! I promise I didn't forget about it! Thank you so much for your patience!

When Dick first moved into the manor, he was given a tour by Stephanie and Tim, which Dick was very grateful for. The place was huge and, even with the tour, Dick still managed to get lost once or twice in the beginning. At one point, they stopped to peek into a windowless room. One wall contained a giant mirror that stretched from corner to corner. The opposite wall held a wooden bar that was just as long. There were a few chairs stacked along another wall next to a closed door, and Dick could see sound system one could hook their phone up to. Dick shuffled his sock-covered feet across the polished wooden floor and almost missed Stephanie's explanation as he took in the whole room.

"This is the dance studio. Cass is pretty much the only one who uses it, but I'll join her sometimes if I'm in a dance-y mood."

Dick perked up. Cass danced? It wasn't quite the same as acrobatics, but that made Cass a performer, just like him.

Dick soon forgot about this as the tour continued and he was bombarded with the rest of the amazing rooms the Manor had to offer. He only remembered again a few weeks later when he went exploring to continue learning the layout of the Manor. He was walking down a hallway when he heard soft music coming from one of the doorways. Peeking his head in, his eyes lit up as they caught sight of Cass gliding around the mirror-filled room.

Dick stared in silent awe as Cass moved and swayed to the music. There were no words in the song, but Dick felt like he could see a story in her dance. He sighed wistfully.

She would have fit right in at the circus.

Cass seemed to have caught the sound—or maybe she caught sight of him in the Manor, Dick wasn't sure—and paused. Instead of stopping the music like Dick expected, she reached her hand out to him with a gentle smile.

Dick beamed and eagerly took her hand. She led their dance, but Dick easily stayed in rhythm with her. The performer in his heart soared as he watched the two of them in the mirrors. It wasn't his usual type of performance (not enough flair for him), but it was so nice to move with someone again...

They both slowed as the song came to an end, posing gracefully as the final note finished. They beamed at each other, and Dick felt his heart skip a beat as he felt kinship growing between them. It was strange to go from being an only child to having a gaggle of siblings, but Cass was quickly becoming one of his favorites. She understood him in a way the others couldn't, and Dick appreciated that.

"Do you ever perform for the others?" Dick asked as they sat on the floor. Cass passed him an apple from her bag, which he took eagerly.

She shrugged and made a so-so gesture. Dick frowned, so she elaborated further. "Mine. My...thing."

Dick took a moment to process that before he understood. "Oh! So you mean you like to keep it to yourself. Because it's for you."

Cass nodded, and they fell into silence. Dick picked at the stem of his apple.

"The trapeze is like that for me," he murmured. Cass tilted her head to show she was listening. "Do you think...Do you think I could have one? Like you have this?" Dick gestured around the room. He wasn't really asking if Mr. Wayne could make him one. There was no way the man would do anything like that for him—the man had done enough already taking him in. Dick just missed the circus, and he couldn't help but dream about flying on the trapeze again.

Cass huffed out a laugh and ruffled his hair. Dick batted her hand away, pouting.

"I wasn't being serious," he muttered. Cass just looked at him knowingly.

And that was how it went. Dick would find himself exploring the hallways, always ending up at Cass's dance room even if he didn't always intend it. He would watch Cass dance and wait for her to notice him. She would eventually reach a hand out to him, and he would join her. She never made him leave, even though dancing was "her thing." Maybe she knew just how much he needed it—Stephanie had said she was good at reading body language.

It was almost like a shared secret between them. Unknown to Dick, however, Cass had a secret of her own.

"What...?" Dick breathed as he was led into a room further down into the Manor by Bruce and his siblings. His jaw dropped as he stared up in awe at the trapeze set up in the middle of the room. He stopped moving, but Cass took his hand and pulled him further into the room.

They stood in front of the trapeze together, still holding hands, as Bruce came up behind him and set a hand on his shoulder.

"Cass was telling me how you miss the trapeze at the circus." His head snapped towards Bruce as the man spoke. Bruce smiled down at him reassuringly.

"This—This is too much! I—"

"Everyone here has something of their own. Cass has her dance studio, Tim has his gaming room, Damian has his art studio, Jason has the library, and Stephanie..." Bruce was pointing to each sibling but faltered when he got to Stephanie.

Said girl grinned proudly. "I call it my multipurpose room."

"...Sure." Bruce turned back to Dick. "So you see, everyone has a room that is just for them—"

"Pretty sure the library is technically for everyone."

"Yeah, but no one goes in there but you, Jason."

"Yeah, 'cause you're all uncultured."

"You all have a room just for you!" Bruce cut in, his smile becoming forced as he refused to look at the others. He heard a scoff and mentally noted to give Jason extra training tomorrow.

"Just for me..." Dick murmured as he stepped closer to the trapeze. He fought back tears as he stared up at the trapeze. For a moment, he could see his family flying across it, circus music playing softly in the background as his parents called out to him.

He blinked, and the vision was gone. The hand holding his own slipped out and slid around his shoulders, pulling him closer to his older sister. He looked up at her, lip trembling.

"Yours," Cass simply said.

Dick let out a shaky breath as he looked around the room. He took in the trapeze, but more importantly, he took in the faces of those surrounding him. Jason and Tim were subtly shoving each other while Stephanie giggled and egged them on. Damian was leaning against a wall, looking done with the whole thing. Only Cass and Bruce were still looking at him.

Dick smiled at them, warmth settling in his chest.

"Mine."

[avelnfear]

Chapter Nine

Masterlist

Danny had just finished getting things set up for dinner that night when there was a knock on the door. It was odd because Ellie had a key, and Jason would either call out while knocking or just break in through the window. Something in the air told them that they wouldn’t be back to enjoy dinner, so they sighed as they started putting everything away.

After that was done, they marched to their door and yanked it open. Standing in the doorway, looking slightly awkward about it, was one of his oldest friends. They hadn’t started as friends in their first lives, and they never even met in their second. This life, though, Clockwork had sent them to meet them with some time travel shenanigans. 

“Hey… Can I come in?” She had her hair brushed in front of her face, and she was wearing a simple pair of grey leggings with an oversized long sleeve shirt with a cartoon ghost on it. It was an outfit he’d bought and hidden for her when it became clear she didn’t have some of the common comforts normal people did.

“Hey yourself.” His smile was surely a mixture of sad and nostalgic, but they’d promised long ago not to lie to each other. Instead of saying more words, he stepped to the side and gestured into his apartment with a sweeping motion of his arm.

When they were both situated on the couch, Talia smiled at him with a sad smile of her own. “Thanks… How’ve you been?”

Danny narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re dilly dallying. You, almost as a rule, don’t do that. What aren’t you telling me? We’ve never lied to each other, don’t start now.”

Talia’s eyes narrowed in return. “You remember.” The smile grew into a smirk of sorts. “I’m here because Father did something stupid. Something I had no real way to entirely stop if I wanted to take over the League and stop him completely. Elle won’t be coming home, nor will any of the Bats aside from Alfred, Father took them to get to you. He thinks he can control you through them, but I know better. Before I left to come here, I activated a plan that cleared my people out of the base except for those who are protecting Damian in my quarters. I’m here to ask you to let me help you fight your way through the base and to ask you to let me be the one to kill Father, if only so that you can claim your retribution long afterwards.”

“You remember too.” Danny went silent, thinking things through. As he came to a conclusion, a horrible, terrifying smile that was a bit too wide for his face appeared. “That sounds like it will be purr-fect. After all,” His voice had dipped into a purr that screamed danger, “I don’t let anyone get away with messing with my people.”

The grin Talia gave him in response was downright deadly. Danny was sure the result of all of this was going to be an absolute bloodbath, but he couldn’t quite find it in himself to care. They had decided to mess with his family, so he was going to mess with what they cared about right back. Ra’s would rue the day that he’d decided to mess with Danny.

~`~`~

Tim came into consciousness slowly, with all the creeping slowness of waking from sedatives. As soon as his brain processed what he was seeing, he struggled to stand, not managing it due to the chains and magic that surrounded him in the room that housed the Lazarus Pit. His eyes darted around, noting the placement of his family, a girl that looked eerily like Danny, and, the one he’d been looking for all along, Ra’s al Ghul.

“It seems you are all awake now, good.” Ra’s was smiling in a way that meant he thought everything was going according to his plan, and it seemed like an even more disgusting plan than usual, Ra’s didn’t usually include civilians.

“What do you want?” Bruce’s voice was gruff and tense, and Tim could tell there was even more tension and anxiety in Bruce than was being shown in his voice or body language. “Where’s Damian?”

Tim’s eyes widened as Bruce’s words made him look over the room again, revealing that Damian really wasn’t with the group of hostages. Tim and his family exchanged glances with each other, expressing the horror and worry they all felt as they all ran through all the horrible reasons for Damian not being tied up with the rest of them.

“Do not worry about him, he’s with his mother. Worry for yourselves and your purpose here.” The smile on Ra’s face got even more disgusting, somehow. Tim found it a little insulting that Ra’s said that.

Tim was worried. He was worried about Gotham and the people they weren’t there to protect, Danny in particular. He was worried about Conner and the rest of the Supers when they heard that the Bats had all been kidnapped. He was worried about whatever plot was happening this time. He was worried about Damian, who had been separated from the group for whatever reason. He was worried about what Danny would think when they all simultaneously disappeared. He was worried about how disgusting and self-satisfied the smile on Ra’s face was.

“B already asked you what you want.” Dick’s voice was dark yet still cheerful, likely for the purpose of giving Ra’s a false reason to blab his plot. Ra’s knew that Dick was always cheerful unless all hope was lost, and he thought that all hope should be lost, thus he would explain more that they could then, hopefully, use to escape.

Ra’s laughed a dark laugh. “You won’t get out of those chains without my express permission, so there’s no harm in telling you. I want the connections that I can get once I get my hands on Daniel Fenton. Once I have those connections and weapons, I will be able to live forever with such power at my hands that the world will finally fall into my rightful, ruling hands.”

Tim’s expression hardened. “That won’t work out in your favor.” He didn’t fully understand what Ra’s said, but he knew that it wouldn’t work out, call it instinct.

“On the contrary, it will. See, he’s the least dangerous one.” Ra’s was about to continue when Jason snorted. With a glare at Jason for interrupting him, Ra’s continued on, “He’s the civilian friend to a family of Bats.” A chuckle burst from Jason’s lips, and everyone in the room looked confused at that reaction, even Jason. After a moment more of confused staring, Ra’s got back into his swing and went on, “By taking all of you first, we’ve left him without any support thus making it easy to deal with him.” Jason let out a short laugh this time, and Tim was getting concerned about how confused Jason seemed to be about his own behaviour. Was this another side effect of the Lazarus Pit? Was- Ra’s broke through Tim’s spiraling thoughts with a sharp, “What are you laughing about?”

Jason couldn’t seem to answer him, every time he opened his mouth more chuckles spilled out. The confusion and horror on his face as it seemed like he couldn’t even stop himself from laughing unnerved Tim more than just the plain laughter would have. It was almost like Jason was under the effects of Joker Venom. Tim exchanged glances with the rest of the hostages, except for the girl who looked like Danny, this wasn’t normal.

“What do you find so funny?” For all the confusion in the tone, Ra’s voice was still sharper than a League member’s katana. “You’ve just been informed that your closest civilian friend will be under our control through you and your little group being used as hostages. We even have preparations made to stop any of the super powered friends of your little group from rescuing you. What. Is. So. Funny?”

Abruptly, Jason’s laughter cut off, further unnerving everyone in the room. Jason had just barely subtly signed the word “instinct” to the rest of them before he was leaning forward in his chains with a cocky smile on his face, although Tim could see the confusion hidden deep within his eyes. “I don’t find it funny.” He paused likely for dramatic effect, because Jason was a dramatic little fuck like that. “I find it fucking hilarious.” The room sat in stunned silence as Jason leaned backwards, looking ridiculously at ease for being chained to the floor in the same room as a Lazarus Pit except for the fact that Tim could see conflicting emotions hidden deep within his eyes and posture.

“Wha-” Ra’s began only to be interrupted.

“You think he’s the civilian among us.” He chuckled a little. “You think that capturing us was anything but putting a fancy signature on your death certificate, and I mean your final death certificate. You think he’s the least dangerous one. You think your people can do a single fucking thing to him? You think he needs our help. You think you’ll be able to control him. You think you’re safe. You think you’ve won.” Jason’s tone was the same as the one a parent uses to explain to their child that the square peg won’t ever fit in the circular hole about five hours into that conversation.

“You-” Ra’s once again got interrupted.

Jason scoffed. “Me? Well I’m just waiting. Waiting for that gorgeous expression you’ll make when you realize how extremely,” Jason pronounced every syllable of that word with sharp carefulness, “wrong you are. Your wonderful fucking strategy is an absolute shitshow of misinformation. If I were you, I’d starting fucking praying. I’m talking hands and knees, tears running down your face, wailing at the sky, rocking on the ground, don’t give a shit except about being granted a positive answer praying. Because I really doubt that any god will answer you with anything but a negative, they wouldn’t want to anger the one you call a civilian.” The grin that took over Jason’s face was sharp and mildly unhinged, but the confusion still rested heavy in his eyes.

The girl look-a-like of Danny burst out laughing, drawing the confused attention of the rest of the room. “He’s so very right, ya know. I don’t think he knows how right he be, but sweet baby Ancients is he correct. You wanted to use Danny’s loved ones as a controlling mechanism? Translated that equals you wanting to learn why death is not a mercy, it’s a sentence. Pa is going to rip you limb. from. limb. at the very least, but don’t worry, you’ll feel it all. Every. Last. Bit. Of. It.” The girl’s voice was dark, sharp, and targeted towards the end, losing the mirth that had colored it when she first started speaking.

Ra’s walked over to the girl, stiff with anger and slapped her hard, right across the face. The girl’s only response was to start laughing once again. Ra’s growled in growing anger. “Little girl, you should stop laughing because you don’t know who you’re messing with.”

That got her to stop laughing, but the expression on her face sent chills down Tim’s spine. It wasn’t particularly terrifying for any reason he would usually give, but it was far too calm for someone who’d just gotten slapped hard enough to be rocked backwards. “I know exactly who you are, Ra’s al Ghul. I know all about your twisted rap sheet. To be frank, I expected you to hit harder. I mean, come on, I’ve been hit harder by literal toddlers. You should reevaluate your life if you think that you are dangerous to me.” 

Ra’s stiffened even further, and the girl, for some reason, found that so hilarious that she burst into laughter once again. This only served to piss Ra’s off even more. Tim, and his family which he saw whenever he managed to drag his eyes away from the horror show in front of him, could only watch as Ra’s proceeded to beat the girl up as she laughed the whole while.

Finally, when the girl had blood freely flowing from her broken nose on top of more invisible injuries, Tim couldn’t take it anymore. “Are you such a wimp that you have to beat up a girl to make yourself feel better?” Tim felt the words were a bad idea as they slipped out, but he was already doing it. Ra’s turned with a look so full of anger Tim questioned if he’d ever see another one like it. He had just managed to brace himself when the slap hit, shifting with it to lessen the blow even though that barely helped.

Over the ringing in his ears, he heard a massive boom coming from the direction of the big double doors. The boom repeated twice more, almost like a slow and steady knock. “What?!” Ra’s snapped out, although Tim didn’t think his voice was loud enough to be heard beyond the door. Three more of the slow booms resonated throughout the room from the doors. “What?!!” Ra’s shouted, this time actually being loud enough that Tim thought it could be heard through the door.

A final massive boom echoes as the doors are blown open, revealing a small pile of assassins that appear to have been beaten into unconsciousness denoted by the bruises spreading across a lot of the visible skin, some of the bruises were already turning purple. Tim might be having issues seeing because of the reflexive tears from the slap, but he swore he could see some bones poking out of skin. The area past the pile was darker than it should be, the only light seeming to be from the room itself. That wasn’t normal, the base was usually well lit, especially in frequently used areas. What was going on?

~`~`~

Jason was alternating between looking at the pile in shock and glaring at Ra’s for his actions. Nellie had done nothing to him other than pointing a couple of things out though Tim had, admittedly, antagonized Ra’s to get his slap. However, Jason’s blood was boiling as he watched a little bit of red leak out of Tim’s nose, the slight swelling already happening by his eye, and the blood starting to bead at the split in Tim’s lip. The odd orb in his chest that had prompted his strange speech was howling like a hurricane in his chest, roaring in a way that he almost understood.

“Who’s out there?” Ra’s yelled out, tone arrogant and demanding in a way Jason knew wasn’t going to end well, although he wouldn’t be able to give a concrete answer as to why he knew that with such surety.

The only answer from the darkness beyond the door was a long sigh followed by something being thrown into the room. It clearly wasn’t going to reach them, not with its size or trajectory, so no one did anything to try and get out of the way. Ra’s just watched the thing with dark eyes. The thing landed, revealing itself to be an assassin who was folded in on themselves, pinned in place by their own broken bones. Something darkly satisfied and knowing settled a large portion of the hurricane in the orb in his chest, calming it to merely a raging windstorm.

Danny walked in calmly, in the same style he did when entering the store on their grocery runs, like nothing was wrong. Despite the fact that there was no weapon anywhere to be seen on Danny, and none in the pile of assassins, there was blood splashed all over Danny’s face and clothes. His hands were clean, but there was no totally clean spot other than that.

“Hello Ra’s al Ghul, how are you today?” His voice was cheerful, but his eyes promised pain as they stared into Ra’s own.

“You-” Ra’s was once again interrupted, giving Jason an odd sense of pride-joy-funny that he couldn’t quite place.

“Da!!” Nellie’s voice was full of relief and joy along with a fair bit of pain. “It’s so good to see you!”

Jason watched as Danny looked over to them all and froze. His face closed off and became harder than steel as his eyes locked with the wounds on Nellie and Tim. There was no massive shift in the way Danny stood, but something about him now screamed dangerous in a way that Jason definitely found attractive.

“I was going to let you live for a while, seeing as I hadn’t heard from you. But, sugar, I think you need to learn your lesson. Those are my people, and they do not belong here. You are lucky that I was alerted of this now because my patience can only last for so long. You are a lucky son of a chocolate ice cream cone because if I kill you here and now then I won’t be able to do everything I want to. Thankfully, for me, not for you, I have an old friend of mine with a bone or twenty to pick with you, so she’ll be the one to kill you so that I can properly punish you after your death. You’ll have to deal with being beaten by a girl while you dance around acknowledging the fact that you done messed up. Don’t worry, you’ll never have the chance to do so again once it’s my turn.” Danny’s tone was even icier than it had been when Dick got chewed out for sparking the panic attack of Tim that one time, it was harder than it had been in the few times gangs had tried to rob them on their grocery trips, and it was so incredibly attractive to see how protective Danny was over the people that he cared about.

Danny walked forward to the point where no one could see his face other than Ra’s, and while he did that, Talia walked in behind him with an oddly proud look on her face. Jason didn’t have long to study her expression though because Ra’s suddenly let out a cry filled with fear. Looking back, Jason saw that Ra’s was kneeling before Danny, staring up at their face with a look so complicated that Jason couldn’t read it.

“Is it my turn to deal with the pathetic old man, my friend?” Talia purred out, everything about her radiated satisfaction and pride.

“Go ahead. Just remember what you need to do once he’s dead.” Danny’s voice was starting to warm up again, less like an ice age and more like a heavy blizzard.

Jason heard the sound of Talia fighting and taunting Ra’s, but he only had eyes for Danny as they checked over Nellie and Tim to make sure they were mostly okay, even giving Nellie a pill that seemed to fix most of the wounds she’d gained from the lunatic. Talia sounded like she was wrapping things up as Jason watched Danny study the magic and the chains as though looking for a way to free them all. They’d managed to get the chains to let them go when the magic disappeared. Finally looking away from Danny, Jason saw that Talia had killed Ra’s and was pointing a weird metal cylinder built like a thermos at his corpse. Jason tilted his head slightly in confusion as Talia just stood there, waiting and watchful like a big cat with eyes on its prey.

A green mist started forming above Ra’s corpse, the color only slightly different than the Lazarus Pit behind it. “May you never be reborn again, in this life or the next.” Talia said in a soft voice that was surprisingly open for the assassin she’d always appeared to be. As the last echo faded and the mist started to take form, she pushed a button on the odd thermos and a blue light shot out, wrapping around the shadowy green form that was taking the same shape as Ra’s. When the blue light retreated into the thermos, it took Ra’s soul with it, leaving only his corpse behind.

Jason, and the family he could see out of his peripheral vision, watched carefully as Talia sauntered over to Danny, clipping the thermos to his belt as she flung an arm around his shoulders and leaned into him in a way Jason was sure she’d never done with anyone before. There was a gasp from the doorway and suddenly Damian was throwing himself into Talia, who let go of Danny to wrap her son in a hug.

Danny retreated to where their group was sitting, stunned into being statues, with a fond look on his face. Turning to them, he spoke, “Ask your questions after we get everyone back home, I’m sure Alfred is worried about you all.” Danny’s voice brokered no arguments, as did his actions as he swept Tim up into his arms while Nellie attached herself to their back. “I’ve got the injured ones, let’s get going.”

The Bats could only trade glances as they unfroze to follow behind the assassin and the assistant head guard. The glances told Jason that none of them knew what was going on, but they were all determined to find out. Jason felt an intense need to know why Talia was acting so out of character and why he had a strange orb filled with foreign emotions and sensations. As he walked with the group, following a path out of the base that was littered with unconscious or dead assassins, he swore he could see flashes of another person where Danny should be. One with white hair, a cape, and a pair of heeled combat boots. It faded quickly, and as soon as they left the base, the flashes disappeared like they were never there. Jason put it out of his mind, he could worry about it after making sure his family was okay.

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