#tim: *arms crossed* no jason is just tied up so that alfred can finish his birthday dinner

[geeky-nightphilosopher]

🦇Batfamiy (& Friends Sometimes)🦇

*Jason tied up in the Batcave for some reason, surrounded by his family*

Steph: *Walking in* Oh, is Jason having an intervention?

Jason: *borderline joker laugh* Ha! Hahaha ha! That's super funny that you think I can get help! It's too late for that!

[minimoxha]

Batfam Valentines Day Special

 The batfamily takes Valentine’s Day very...very seriously.

Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wyane, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wyane, Y/n L/n(Batmom), Alfred Pennyworty

Warning(s): None

1,579 Words

Not edited.

(A/N I know Valentine’s Day passed but I got this idea after it so...deal with it.)

All throughout Wayne manor, everyone was preparing for the day known as Valentine’s Day. They were moving so fast it made it seem like they were competing. Probably because...they were. Why? Because today was Valentine’s Day and they all wanted to give you the best day but every one of them wanted to do different things. So when Jason first joined the family, it became a competition to see which one could give you the best time with them.

You woke up to the sweet smell of French toast, a smile Turing on your face. You knew what day it was, possibly one of your favorite days other than Christmas or your birthday of course. Damian was the first to come in your room, Laing down and cuddling with you. No matter how people saw him on the outside, he was a soft and cuddly bear on the inside. “Good morning Mother. You’ll spend time with me first, right? I am your favorite so it’s only natural I go first.” Damien Gloated, making you emit a small giggle. “Dami, I told you that it was dickies turn this year.” You said making the young boy groan in response and get ready to lift up but relaxed his body again once you started to run your hands through his hair. “Who’s cooking for me Dami?” Damien answered your question by counting to five on his fingers. Once he got to five, Jason came through the door holding a tray of food, Bruce with a card and flowers, dick holding cups and apppe juice, (Apple juice is better than orange.), and Tim holding coffee cups.

All four of the men walked into the room, Joining you and Damian on the bed, not before saying good morning to you. “Flowers? For me?” You teased, smelling the roses. “They were from me” Bruce admitted, a smirk crossing his face making Jason roll his eyes. “So who gets you first, ma?”  Jason asked. “Hm...Dickie.” You smiled at your oldest, making him mirror his expression and everyone else groan. It was sweet really, instead of spending time with their friends or significant other they wanted to give the day to you. All of you had busy schedules so these were one of the days they could spend a lot of fun time with their mommy. After everyone finished eating, dick gave you an outfit and waited outside your door for you to change. “So you know that musical you wanted to see? Well I Got tickets, the best seats!” He cheered. You squeezed from inside the room, quickly opening your door. “My outfit looks great on you.” He smiled. You were wearing High waisted black pants and a gray hoodie with no hood that was a little too big for you. 

Dick was right, they were amazing seats. The both of you were in Love with the musical and tried to keep yourselves from singing but failed, earn dirty looks from the people around you. (I didn’t make more because idk but if you want short tories on how the details went during everyones time with Y/n tell me))After you left the theater, the both of you got slushies and cinnamon rolls (Even though it was 11Am, your dentist is pissed rn) and then he returned you home and went to his brothers ti gloat and tell him how the defenitly won and had the best time with you. Next was Jason, right when you walked in he got you and took you back out. “What do you have planned fir me today, JayJay?” You asked following him after he grabbed a bag onto his motorcycle . “You can choose between a Monster Truck Rally and Paint balling Ma.” He said. “Paint-balling” Nodding, he drove off to a paint ball arena with you holding onto his back. He arrived at the place and signed in. The both of you were taken into the back where you got a run down and gear. “Dickies going to be pissed that his outfit is covered in paint.” You giggled, putting on your gear along with Jason and listening to the rules. You didn’t follow them though. The both of you DEMOLISHED every kid, adult, and teen, only getting a few paintballs on yourself. Then it came down to you and Jason. He stalked around you, trying to be be intimidating but failing with a smile. “Theres only room for one paintballer in this town” He said, faking a country accent.  

“Well then, It’ll have to be me!” You yelled, shooting three at him then ducking under a rock. He successfully dodged your attacks making the game go on for what felt like forever for the bystanders but just a couple minutes for you. It seemed like it was going to go on forever until Jason tripped on a rock and fell, giving you the chance to shoot him right in his butt. “Suck it, Jay!” You yelled, doing your victory dance in front of him. Jason smiled, he loved seeing you in this mood. With work, and watching from the batcomptr, you were either on edge or stressed out of your mind, And once you got competitive, you stayed competitive until you won. Constantly, challenging your family to games. “Ill beat you next Time, Ma’” Jason laughed, fist bumping you and standing up to sling his arm around your shoulder and walk to the changing rooms with you. (Not the same one) “Guess what we got the Replacement and Demon Spawn to do for ya.” “Hm I Don't know Jay, What.” 

“I got them to share your time and have a picnic with you.” You sighed then answered, “Jay, I’ll be surprised if there still is a picnic by the time we get there.” Jason laughed at your Joke, getting the both of you on his bike and driving to a beautiful forest. The sun was cutting through the trees who's leaves were falling off. There was an opening, where Damian had lanterns all around while the picnic blanket was in the middle of a flower bed. You got off of Jasons bike and saw through the trees, Damian and Tim arguing, on the verge of turning it into a full blown fist fight. Before things escalated, you stepped in and let Jason leave the three of you alone. “Boys, please don't fight today” With one last glare, they settled down. Damian opened the light brown basket and took your favorite dishes out. “We helped Alfred make all of your favorites, Mother. I hope you enjoy them” Tim opened the Saran Wrap. “Yeah Mom, I hope you like it.” Damian put a couple heart-shaped sandwiches on your plate and poured the drinks while Tim showed you this cool coding project he had been walking on. “So mother, isn’t this the best out of both of the trips they took you on?” Damian asked, smiling slightly after biting into a cupcake and clearly enjoying it.  “I had an Amazing Day with all of you, I won't pick favorites.” You smiled and ruffled both of the boys’ hair. They were amazing children no matter they're faults. The rest of the picnic was amazing, the both of you eating until you couldn’t eat anymore and Joking around. For the first time in a while, you saw a Huge smile on both of the boys’ face. After, Tim called Alfred and he picked the both of you and took you to get your hair done, nails done and a nice dress that they (surprisingly) agreed on. They showed up at the manor and rushed Batmom to the backyard where bruce was standing in a candlelit circle. Inside it , was a couple speakers and Bruce right in the middle. His hair was slicked back and he was wearing a nice suit that matched your dress. He raised his hand out toward you and you excitedly took it.

“May I have this dance?” He smiled, pulling you into his chest. His cologne, being all that you could smell. “you may” The both of you danced like nobody was watching, because nobody was. It wasn’t like the dances you would have at formal events, where you had to dance like professionals. No, it was your own little dance party with only the two of you. You didn’t have to worry about people watching or taking pictures. After about 5 songs, the dancing stopped and Bruce slid a ring on your finger. It was a crown with the tips and middles having diamonds inside of them. “Bruce...this is beautiful” you smiled as you looked at it. Bruce snuck his hands around your waist and put his chin on top of your head. Him being the tall man that he was, he had no problems with hugging or cuddling with you while standing. “Let’s be honest My love, I gave you the best day , yes?” He smirked. Bruce was always very cocky but you found yourself more attracted to him after each word he uttered to you. “You’ll never know, Dear” You teased making him playfully sigh. “I’m the worlds greatest detective, I already know.”

“God, I love all of you so Much” Like every year, Each one of your boys always found a way to surprise you or just make your life better. They meant the world to you and if you could keep life like this you would. This was perfect. Absolute perfection

[heyitsani]

Loving You is a Losing Game Chapter 1

@jaydick-week Day 2 fic: Fairytale AU

Word Count: 3,543

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Monsters and Magic

Pairing: Jason Todd/Dick Grayson

Summary: When Batman goes missing, Nightwing is called in to try and track the man down. What he finds at the spot Batman was last seen is something he's not sure he's equipped to deal with. But that doesn't stop him from doing what he has to in order to get Batman out. Even if it means becoming the poisoner of a strange shadow man in a Gothic castle hidden behind a wall of magic on the edge of Gotham.

Notes: This is my Beauty and the Beast AU set in the comics (sort of...I’ve changed some details and you’ll understand once it’s all done).  I’m not sure how many chapters this one will have but here is the first.  I just wanted to be able to post at least part of the stories I prepared for the week since I wasn’t able to finish any of them.

You can also read it on AO3 here

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He felt the person before he heard them, and the presence alone was enough for Dick to tense up in ways he’d rather not admit happened.  This was not a confrontation he was in the mood for at the moment, but apparently he was going to have to have it none the less.

“Deathstroke,” he said flatly, turning to look at the other man standing a few feet away in his familiar orange and black gear.

The white-haired man gave a smirk that boiled Dick’s blood, but he refused to react.  “Nightwing, how lovely to see you tonight.”  Dick never understood why Slade kept up the pretense of these meetings being unplanned.  They weren’t.  He might be oblivious to many things, but when a predator is stalking him has never been one of them.  He was well aware of what Slade was doing when he appeared out of nowhere.

“Is there something I can do for you tonight?  Or are you just here to get in my way.”

“Just curious how my favorite Little Bird was doing,” the man said as he leaned against the brick wall that held the door to head down into the building he had made his perch for the night.  “I’ve heard some interesting rumors over the past couple of months and I wanted to see if they were true.”

This was a dangerous game, Dick knew that.  He should just ignore Slade and head to a different spot in hopes the man would leave him alone, but his curiosity was also burning.  What kind of rumor could Slade have possibly heard involving him.

Sighing, Dick turned to face the man.  “And what rumors are those?”  He took the bait.  He frowned when Slade’s smirk turned predatory and made Dick want to take a few steps back to get more space between them.  Despite there being about ten feet already.

“Nightwing hasn’t been seen in Gotham for almost half a year.  And the hero community is wondering why the Titans have lost their leader suddenly.”  Rolling his eyes behind his mask, Dick crossed his arms over his chest.  “Now…you fighting with Daddy Bats isn’t all that strange, but six months?  When there’s still the little Robin running around not fully trained?”

Dick didn’t point out that Damian was Batman’s own son and had been trained by the League of Assassins. He was more trained than any of them had ever been.  And he made sure to point it out frequently to Tim.

“And that you have left behind your precious Titans?  Now that’s surprising.”  But Dick knew he no one other than the team knew why he had separated himself from them and they all accepted it.  He hadn’t been ousted or banned.  He had left because he had needed to.  “Are you isolating yourself, Little Bird?”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Slade shrugged and pushed away from the wall, taking a few long strides to close some of the distance between them.  “Seems to me that you are pushing away everyone in your life, Kid.  Perhaps you’re ready for your true destiny?”  Dick frowned.  “Join me.  You know it’s inevitable.”

Dick laughed. Actually laughed at the words and shook his head.  

“Dream on, Slade.  I say it every time you bring it up,” Dick reminded him, uncrossing his arms.  “Until the world has burned, I will never join you.”

“Don’t tempt me, Kid.”

Instead of responding, Dick just rolled his eyes and took a step back off the edge of the roof, free falling for a moment before shooting off his grapple in the direction of where he had parked his motorcycle.

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

“Agent A,” Dick said into his comm when he heard Alfred’s voice bleeding through.  He was surprised to be hearing from the older man, but welcomed it none the less.  Even if it was coming in the middle of a fight.  

Landing a punch across the jaw of one of the goons and vaulting himself over the falling body to swiftly knock the other down with a firm kick to his chest, he breathed heavily. “Nightwing, I require your assistance in Gotham.”  Frowning, Dick knelt down and zip-tied the hands of the goons together before sending off the signal and coordinates to BPD.

“You require it?  Or Batman does?”  He questioned as he shot his grapple up to get off the street and out of the area before the cops arrived.  While the cops of BPD had gotten better over time, they still had an arrest order for all vigilantes.  So it was always best that he just left before they arrived. “What’s going on?”

“Batman has not been seen for about 48 hours now.  Robin and Red Robin are off world with the Titans at the moment and I know Batman would rather keep the search in the family before involving the League.” Which made sense in Bruce’s mind, but considering their hero friends had been vanishing left and right over the last two years, Dick thought it was somewhat foolish.  “Might you make your way to the Cave?”

Figuring out where he was in relation to his motorcycle, Dick took off in the direction of where he had stashed it.  “I’m on my way now.  Tell me what he was doing the night he went missing.”  He listened to Alfred relay the major points of the missing hero case that the entire community was working on while holding down their various cities. He listened as Alfred talked about Bruce starting the suspect something was happening in an abandon warehouse on the outskirts of town, not far from Crime Alley.  

Dick confirmed that Bruce had mentioned that to him about a year ago and Dick had told Bruce that there was no activity in the area after running the scans.  But apparently that didn’t mean Bruce had dropped it.  It just meant he didn’t immediately deal with whatever it was that was happening there.

“Master Bruce linked these three heroes and their disappearances with that warehouse,” Alfred said as he pulled open three filed.  Dick frowned when the faces of Roy Harper, Koriand’r, and Wally West appeared on the screen.  Three of his closest friends whose absences he had felt deeply.  If Donna’s face had come up alongside them then he would have left immediately.  “All three had come to town for various reasons and all vanished when leaving in that direction.”

“And Bruce thinks they vanished in the warehouse so he what?  He went there to try and figure out what was happening?”

Alfred nodded and pulled up a video, which Dick easily figured out was the cowl recording from the night he went missing.  Dick watched from Bruce’s eyes as the batmobile came to a stop on the outskirts of the three-building area.  His mentor took a moment to scan the area and look for any signs of life, but when the readings seemed to glitch he still decided to go in.  An action Dick had specifically been told not to do if he had experienced the same thing.

“Magic,” Bruce had said when Dick had reported his findings.  

But Bruce exited the car and headed toward the first of three buildings.  And just as Dick leaned forward, pressing his hands on the desk to watch closely, the screen glitched again and then static.  Scanning the screen for the readings of the video, he frowned.  “What the hell was that?”

“My thoughts?  It is the same magic you encountered when you had gone to scout the area at Master Bruce’s request.”

Dick straightened and frowned.  That was heavy magic if it was able to cut everything off from Bruce.  And it made Dick wonder if Bruce had somehow managed to get stuck behind the wall.  “Is Zatanna one of the missing?”  There had been so many that he couldn’t remember all of them.  Alfred’s nod filled him with dread.  “I have to go check it out.”

“Could I advise you to go to the Watchtower before you do?”

“There’s no time. He’s been missing for two days and some change.  I need to head in there.”  Dick frowned, grabbing his mask from where he had set it down when he had arrived. “But you should contact Clark immediately.  I’m not sure if they’ll be able to spare any of the other magic users, but let them know what Bruce had suspected.”  He turned to head back to his motorcycle but paused when Alfred’s hand landed on his upper arm.  “I have to go, Alf.  I can’t just leave him there.”

“I understand my boy, just be careful.  We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”  Dick gave a nod before continuing to his motorcycle.  “I will contact the League and try to get the Robins to return to Earth.”

“Thanks Alf.  I’ll keep you updated for as long as I can.”

He gave the older man one last smile before he gunned the engine and sped out of the Cave toward the warehouse where he would face too many unknown variables.

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

Pulling up to the same place where Bruce had parked the batmobile, Dick frowned when he noticed the car was no longer there.  They were far enough away from the majority of the city that thieves wouldn’t have gotten to it, but that didn’t account for whatever magic that had been used to protect this area.  So he carefully set his motorcycle into stealth mode and left it tucked between two smaller buildings in the area.  If he was lucky, it would be there to get him and Bruce back to the cave once he found the other man.

“I’m approaching now, Agent A,” he reported to Alfred through the comms, sticking to the shadows as he approached.  He kept one eye on the grounds and the other on any possible movement around him.  “I didn’t notice it last time, but you can actually see the current.”  He moved to stand about a foot away from the now just slightly visible wall of magic.  He looked up, trying to see how far it went, but after about ten feet, the angle didn’t provide a good look.  

It almost reminded him of heat waves that came off the pavement during the worst of Gotham’s summers.

Reaching out a hand, Dick carefully touched the wall and jerked a hand back when it felt like he had been zapped by one of his escrimas.  “It feels like electricity,” he said into the comm but the reply he got back was crackled and broken.  And that meant he was probably on his own.  “I’m not sure if you can hear me anymore, but I’m going in.  Call for the League and the Robins.  Find a magic user and get them here if you can.  I’ll bring him back, Alf.”  And with a deep breath, he stepped forward and into the wall of magic.

And when he came out on the other side, he bent forward with his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. “That is not a good time,” he groaned to himself as he tried to pull himself together.  With a few more deep breaths, Dick straightened and gasped in surprise at the sight of what was on the other side of the wall.

The image projected on the city side of the wall was what he remembered the area to look like.  Three large, abandoned warehouses and their various grounds surrounding them.  Gray and boring, weathered from the lack of upkeep and use.  But what was before him seemed almost gothic in comparison.  In fact, it looked like some of the older buildings of the city.  Gargoyles and all.  The plain concrete walls had been replaced with stone, vines that had not been there two years ago had begun to creep up them giving them an even more aged look.

The grounds themselves were green and reminded him far more of the Manor than what he would have expected a warehouse to look like.  They also looked immaculately kept.  It was almost as if whoever had done the spell had taken a gothic castle and placed it on the edge of Gotham while making every one in the city believe the warehouses remained.

It made Dick feel like he had a rock in his stomach.  This was a very powerful spell.

Scouting the area as best he could, Dick carefully made his way forward with his escrimas in hand and ready for a fight.  He didn’t know what he was bound to encounter, but he wasn’t going to chance not being prepared.  Not when it might be Bruce’s life on the line.  

When the grounds revealed little information, Dick snuck his way inside through one of the windows in the front and quietly made his way through the main foyer.  The more he saw of the building, the heavier the pit in his stomach got.  

The sound of fierce whispering hit his senses as he came to the base of a set of stairs.  

Nightwing, it is Nightwing.  

He frowned, looking around to try and find the source.  

Nightwing can do it.

He wanted to ask what exactly the whisperers thought he could do, but instead he remained silent and looked up the stairs.  There was a faint light further up and like a moth, Dick made his way toward it.  The whispers got quieter and quieter the further up he went.  Until they had vanished all together and he was standing at the top of the stairs, looking at something that he was struggling to understand.  It looked like cells but it wasn’t making sense in his head.

Of course, if this really was some sort of medieval structure, it would make sense for there to be a tower with cells for keeping prisoners.  But what that even what this was.

The sound of movement from one of the ones on the right caught his attention and with barely a thought, he rushed forward to peer inside.  “Batman!”  He cried, latching his escrimas on his back before gripping the bars of the cell door. “Are you okay?!”  He questioned as he looked the older man over.  

“Nightwing,” the name came out as a groan and Dick frowned.  Bruce looked roughed up, but he didn’t look like he was in that bad of condition. “You have to leave.  Get out of here now.  Before it takes you like it took them all.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going to just leave you here,” he shook his head before searching his utility belt for his lock pick so he could get the cell open and get Bruce out of there.  He had just about gotten the lock open when a loud crash sounded behind him and he was flying toward the cells on the other side of the small hallway.

“What are you doing here?!” The question was practically growled, and Dick tried to focus on the source but all he could see was a shadow and a pair of glowing green eyes.  “You don’t belong here.  Leave!”

Shaking his head, Dick looked over at Bruce before looking back to the shadow.  “I’m not leaving without Batman.”

“Yes, you are,” the shadow growled.  “He’s my prisoner.  He’s cursed to remain.”

Dick carefully stood to his feet and grabbed his escrimas, moving into a fighting stance.  “I’m not leaving without him.  So either you give him to me or I take him.”

“Nightwing, no!”  

But Dick ignored Bruce’s call and carefully moved so he was standing in front of his mentor’s cell. He didn’t know who or what it was he was facing, but he had fought enough in his years to be adaptable. “Dick, please just go.  Get out while you can.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“One of you is leaving before I really lose my temper.”

That gave Dick pause. “One of us?”  The shadow seemed to tilt it’s head and Dick considered the idea building in his mind.  He could get Bruce out of there.  He could get Bruce home to Alfred.  And Bruce would figure out a way to get him out of there.  He could do that.  Dick would never be able to figure out how to combat magic like this.  He wasn’t sure even their magic users in the League would be able to.  But Batman always found a way.  “Take me instead.”

“What?”

“No!”

“You heard me.  Take me instead.  Release Batman and I’ll take his place.”

“You…” the shadow paused, sounding almost awed.  “You would do that for him?”

“Yes.”

“Dick don’t do this, please.”

Turning his head just slightly to lock eyes with Bruce, Dick pursed his lips.  “I have to.  You’ll figure it out.  You’re already there.  I trust you.” The man frowned but understanding filled his eyes and he gave Dick a firm nod.  Turning back to the shadow, Dick latched his escrimas again and raised his chin.  “I’ll stay as long as I have to if you promise to let him go safely on the other side of the magical wall.”

There was silence before the shadow moved like liquid, shoving Dick out of the way and getting Bruce out of the cell.  In a blink of an eye, the pair were gone and Dick was left alone wondering what he was supposed to do now.  He just risked his life on Bruce being able to figure this out.  He had given up everything because he trusted the man enough to get to the bottom of whatever was happening here.  Dick trusted Bruce and Nightwing trusted Batman, but jumping in front of a bullet was different than trapping himself inside a magical dome with no connection to the outside world.

With a deep breath, Dick pulled the mask off his eyes and looked around the room he supposed he would be staying in.  The cells were stereotypical for a medieval castle and under any other circumstance, he would probably laugh at that.  But now this was his...home?

“Come,” a voice came out of nowhere, causing him to jump and quickly turn toward the staircase he had come up.

The shadow was back.

More magic, he mused to himself.  “What?” He questioned the command, wary of what the game might be here.

The shadow shifted and moved forward, stepping into the light to reveal a man.  Not a shadow at all.  Blonde hair, sharp cheekbones, and green eyes.  He was tall but not as tall as the shadow had made him appear to be. And not as bulky, but still solid in muscle mass and strength.  “Do you want to stay up here?”  The man growled, his green eyes taking on an almost glowing look to them.  It made Dick take a step back in self-preservation.

“No, but I thought…” This was where Bruce had been kept after all.  Why was he not to assume that it would be the same for him?

“You thought wrong.” The man turned and headed down the stairs and after a short hesitation, Dick hurried to follow.  He kept quiet as he followed the man down the stairs he had come up in the beginning and then down the halls toward a different wing of the castle.  “This is your home now.  You can go anywhere you like but the West Wing.”

Dick glanced behind him, remembering the staircase they had passed that would have been in the westward direction.  “What’s in the West Wing?”  He asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.  He blamed Bruce and his need to raise detectives.

“Nothing of your concern!” The man ground out, turning to glare at Dick with his glowing green eyes.  And though he wanted to take a step back, he resisted the urge.  He did, however, give a slight nod of understanding to pacify the man instead.  There was a moment of pause before he seemed pacified and they continued on the path. “You will stay here,” the man said when they reached an elaborately carved, pair of double doors.  Dick looked up at them before stepping forward and inside the room after he pushed the doors open.

The room itself looked as though it had come right out of a movie.  Four post bed, gleaming silvers and blues all over.  The bed looked plush and the furniture was likely hand carved.  Everything was polished and smooth, gleaming under the lighting.  It was ornate and fancy and Dick hated it.  But that might have had more to do with it being his prison than it being overly done.

He heard the man clear his throat and Dick turned to find he remained in the doorway of the room, looking hesitate to enter.  But that was something Dick had no desire to unpack that right then.  Not when he was still technically a prisoner.

“If you need anything, the others are always lingering.”  The man glanced around the room before straightening his spine.  “I expect you to join me for dinner.”  Dick frowned when the man turned away and slammed the door behind him.  Sighing, Dick turned in a small circle before dropping down onto the edge of the bed.

[sohotthateveryonedied]

Just the Same

Summary:

“You’re sick.”

“You’re ugly.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone you weren’t feeling well?”

“I’m fine.” Jason closes his eyes. “Just a little tired.”

“Uh-huh. And that’s why you have a fever?”

Read it here on AO3!

Bruce has a very simple plan for tonight, alright? He’s going to grab a quick post-patrol snack from the kitchen, then he’s going to take a shower, and then he will go promptly to bed. He’s tired. It’s been a long day. He just wants to sleep. (You absolute fool, the goblin in his brain screeches at him, because the goddamn Batman cannot get a goddamn break or else the world will literally split in two.) Fatefully, Bruce passes the den’s open doorway while half of his mind is preoccupied with sending Dick a goodnight text, and he happens to glance into the room. That’s when he stops in his tracks. Even more fatefully, Alfred is coming down the hall in Bruce’s direction, carrying a tray with a single cup of tea on it. “Alfred?” “Yes, Master Bruce?” “Were you aware that Jason was home?” Alfred looks over at where Jason is asleep on the den sofa, still in his leather jacket and boots. He doesn’t look remotely surprised by the sight. Then again, is Alfred ever surprised? “Master Jason got in while you were on patrol. I offered to make him dinner, but he said he wasn’t hungry.” Then there’s that classic Alfred Pennyworth eyebrow crease. “When he wakes up, do inform him that one does not forgo the need for nutrition when one has been dipped in a Lazarus Pit.” “I’ll be sure to do that.” “Now, if you will excuse me.” Alfred walks off with his perfectly level tray, on a perilous journey to Damian’s room. Bruce envies him. At least Alfred gets to go to sleep after Damian gets his nighttime tea. Bruce enters the den carefully, without a sound. God knows Jason hardly sleeps through the night without interruption as it is. Now, at least, he looks peaceful enough. So much time has passed since his last haircut that his hair curls against his temple, plastered with sweat. He must have come here straight from Red Hood business. At least he didn’t get blood on the couch this time. Quietly, Bruce pulls the knitted throw blanket from where it’s draped over the back of the sofa and lays it over Jason, tucking it in close when he catches a shiver rattling Jason’s teeth. Now that he’s paying attention, he can see that Jason’s cheeks are flushed as well. His mouth is locked in a grimace, even in sleep. Bruce presses the back of his hand against Jason’s forehead and clicks his tongue. Definitely a fever. Jason’s eyebrows wrinkle at the touch. His eyes crack open and take a moment to land on Bruce, sitting on the edge of the couch by Jason’s torso. It says a lot that he doesn’t go into battle mode as soon as he registers an unfamiliar presence in the room. “Mmph. Go away.” “You’re sick.” “You’re ugly.” “Why didn’t you tell anyone you weren’t feeling well?” “I’m fine.” Jason closes his eyes. “Just a little tired.” “Uh-huh. And that’s why you have a fever?” “Why don’t you mind your fucking—” Jason tumbles into a coughing fit, wet and hacking. “I’ll be right back,” Bruce tells him with a parting pat on the knee. His knees creak as he stands, heading for the bathroom down the hall. He digs through the medicine cabinet until he finds the thermometer, one of many that Alfred keeps in every bathroom in the house. He grabs a bottle of Tylenol as well. Bruce goes back to the couch and reclaims his spot next to Jason, who has stopped coughing by now, but his breathing is heavy. Bruce touches the thermometer to Jason’s temple, ignoring his weak swats. It reads out a hundred and one degrees. “When did you start feeling sick?” Jason grunts and rolls onto his side, curling in on himself. “Dunno. Yesterday, I guess.” Bruce frowns. Of course Jason would ignore any achy feelings for as long as possible. None of Bruce’s kids have a single self-preserving bone in their bodies. “Tell me your symptoms.” “Being a fucking snack.” “Jason.” Jason coughs. “Leave me alone, old man.” “Does your throat hurt?” “Yeah, so quit trying to make me talk.” “Any nausea?” Jason buries his face into a throw pillow. “You’re fuckin’ exhausting, you know that?” He sighs. “Not since last night. I’m freezing, lethargic, and my head is killing me. Happy?” Bruce hums. “It’s probably the flu.” “Yeah, no shit.” Jason closes his eyes. “Now will you leave me alone? You’re making my headache worse.” Bruce twists open the Tylenol cap and shakes out a couple of tablets into his palm. “Here.” He holds them out to Jason. Jason opens one eye, looks at the pills, and closes it again. “No.” “Jason—” “No. Don’t like pills.” Bruce can’t say he didn’t expect as much. Still, it does Jason no favors to continuously refuse any sort of medication, choosing to tough out the pain for as long as he can. It all ties back to his mother’s drug addiction, a disease which Jason watched slowly kill her over years and years. It makes sense that he’d grow up with an unwavering aversion to drugs. When Jason was a small tot, Bruce and Alfred spent what probably accumulated to hours of cajoling, trying to talk Jason into taking even the lightest painkillers. Lidocaine and numbing solutions were fine, but anything resembling a narcotic was out—and still is, apparently. It makes Bruce wonder how Jason reacted to the Lazarus Pit and its euphoria-inducing waters—part of the whole “magical healing” process. Maybe he was too out of his mind at the time to form a solid thought, much less remember his childhood trauma. This is one fight Bruce chooses not to get into, so he recaps the Tylenol and sets it aside. Miraculously, Jason is already asleep again. That’s fine with Bruce; it’s better his son sleeps this flu off than wastes his energy arguing. Trying not to jostle him too much, Bruce takes off Jason’s boots and leaves them on the carpet. He grabs the TV remote and settles in on the couch with Jason’s feet in his lap, pulling up a nature documentary on hyenas that he and Damian haven’t had the chance to finish yet. Looks like he’ll be catching up on his sleep tomorrow night. Right now, Jason needs him (despite how fervently he’ll protest as much). Honestly, this whole situation brings Bruce back to the old days. After moving into the manor, it took over six months for Jason to completely recover from the years of malnutrition he suffered on the streets. His weight was far too low for a boy his age, even more scrawny than Tim. Alfred provided Jason with plenty of vitamin supplements and extra servings at dinner to bulk him up, but his immune system was shoddy at best no matter how much weight he gained. During his Robin era it was illness after illness, from the common cold to a whammying case of pneumonia. This is the first time Jason has been sick in Bruce’s presence since his death, though. Bruce is learning about the eating habits of hyenas when Tim comes in from the kitchen with a cup of peppermint tea, despite having supposedly gone to bed three hours ago. He stands there in the doorway for a moment, looks owlishly at Jason, then at Bruce, then back to Jason. He grins. “No,” Bruce says. “You don’t even know what I was going to do!” “I know you, and the answer is no.” “Jeez, Bruce. I’m not gonna kill him.” Tim attempts to cross his arms, forgetting that he’s holding hot tea, and hisses when it scalds his arm. “The hand-in-warm-water trick’s never hurt anyone,” he mutters. “Go back upstairs. You’ll get sick.” Tim wrinkles his nose. “This is prejudice against people without spleens, you know. I could sue your ass.” “Sue me from upstairs where I can comfortably know that you won’t die from the flu.” Tim rolls his eyes, but he goes. Bruce hears him stomp up the stairs, getting quieter and quieter until the footsteps are gone entirely. Bruce shakes his head. How did he ever think that having four boys would be a good idea? He questions his younger self’s judgement every day. For the next three hours, Jason sleeps in fits and starts. He never stays awake longer than five minutes at a time, drinking water when Bruce prods him to and grudgingly letting Bruce check his temperature for any spikes. Bruce learns quite a bit about hyenas in the meantime, until the documentary ends and a new one about sea otters begins. In between the hazy bouts of wakefulness, Jason tosses restlessly in the throes of nightmare after nightmare. Beads of sweat roll down his forehead. In the back of his mind Bruce wonders, is this just the fever talking or are nightmares a nightly villain for Jason? The latter would come as no shock, but that doesn’t mean he likes the idea. Bruce runs his fingers through Jason’s sweaty curls, a reflection of years ago when he would do the same thing any time Jason had a nightmare during his youth. Jason has been cheated out of peaceful nights from the beginning. Of course, back then there wasn’t a white streak splitting the darkness of his onyx hair—a reminder of the pit water swimming in Jason’s blood. Bruce moves a lock of hair off Jason’s forehead, gentle as a moth. Jason’s eyes fly open and he jerks away from the touch, a gasp ripping up his throat. Bruce doesn’t move. He gives Jason a moment to regain his bearings, stilling the hand in Jason’s hair. Green irises lock on Bruce, frenzied. “Where?” he croaks. “The manor.” Jason takes a deep breath in, clenching his jaw. “Okay.” He lets it out. “Okay.” Bruce grabs the water bottle he’s kept on the coffee table. “Here,” he says, moving his hand down to Jason’s back and prodding a shoulder blade. “Sit up.” “Fuck you.” It comes out half groan, the illness-wrought exhaustion catching back up with Jason. “You need to hydrate.” “Double fuck you.” Bruce shrugs. “Drink half of this or I’ll call Alfred and have him convince you. Your choice.” Jason rolls his eyes and snatches the bottle. Bruce will take that as a victory. Jason sits up with enormous effort, groaning at the aches in his body until he’s upright next to Bruce. He drinks the water, wincing when it hits his sore throat. “What were you dreaming about?” Bruce ventures to ask. Jason lowers the bottle to narrow his eyes at Bruce like he’s the biggest idiot in this room. “Shut up.” The annoying part is that Bruce genuinely has no idea what Jason’s nightmare could have been about. His childhood? His death? His resurrection? Any of the traumatic things that could have happened afterward, ones that Bruce wasn’t there for? There is such a disconnect between the two of them now. He should count it a blessing that they have moments like this, though Bruce would greatly prefer spending time with Jason while he isn’t sick and miserable. But Bruce will take it, nonetheless. Jason drains a sufficient amount of water, only to lurch forward in another coughing fit as soon as he gets in a breath. “Christ,” he rasps, eyes watering. “Just fucking shoot me already, will ya?” Bruce rubs his back. “I could tranq you, if you really think it would help. But I can’t guarantee that one of your brothers won’t take advantage of that and draw mustaches on your face while I’m not looking.” “Har, har. You’re a fucking comedian now.” Jason’s voice is coarse as gravel, scraping up his vocal cords. “Want some tea? It’ll help soothe your throat.” “Later. Just wanna...sleep for now.” In spite of everything he stands for, Jason tips his head to rest it on Bruce’s shoulder. Whether it was intentional or he’s just so disoriented from the fever that he has no idea he’s even doing it, Bruce won’t take the gesture for granted. Jason is shivering, so Bruce pulls the blanket tighter around his shoulders where it slackened during his sleep. Then, in a riskier maneuver, he puts his arm around Jason and pulls him in close like he did so many times when Jason was a lot shorter and a lot less jagged around the edges. Bcuce still loves him just the same. Jason leans into Bruce’s warmth instinctively, but he warns, “Tell anyone about this and I’ll shatter your clavicle.” “Mm-hm.” “I mean it. You’ll need a goddamn orthopedic surgeon to fix you up if you breathe a word of this to anyone.” “I believe you.” It must be a good enough answer because Jason closes his eyes, relaxing in Bruce’s hold. “The only reason I’m gonna say this is ‘cause my brain is melting,” Jason says, “but...thanks. For being here.” He yawns. “Being sick alone fuckin’ sucks.” “I hear you.” “And keep Tim away from me, ‘kay? I don’t trust the little snot not to pull something.” Bruce snorts and unpauses the otter movie. “Go to sleep, Jay.”

[emilystoryspot]

Bruces Baby pt.2

Link to part 1 HERE

Link to the inspiration HERE

word count  5367

Months 2 and 3

I hate sleeping in with a burning passion but Bruce read to me that exhaustion was one of the symptoms of pregnancy along with a bunch of other stuff, so I slept in. Dick liked to enjoy watching movies with me, Tim and Damien on the weekends. Eventually I started to develop a baby bump one morning. I noticed it as I was buttoning up my blouse, “How long are we planning on hiding this from the tabloids?” I asked Bruce who was slipping on his shoes.

“They find out when they find out.” Bruce finished putting on his shoes and walked over to me and placed his hands on the small spot where my stomach began to stick out, “I'll send Alfred shopping for more clothes for you, to keep it hidden.” He kisses me on the cheek and buttons up my maroon blouse for me, “When you're ready, i'll have lunch with Lois and Clark, if any tabloid are gonna find out it's gonna be them, then I'll tell the justice league because Clark will already know.” 

“I think I'm gonna wait.” I looked at myself in the mirror just like that the bump was gone with a loose shirt and a skirt. “I think i'm gonna wait.” The bump tiny was still not noticeable with dresses, but i figured If I start wearing more blouses now they won't question it later. 

Everyday at work went smoothly and instead of going on steakouts or patrol Bruce and I would sit at the comms with Babs even though with Bruce there, he ran coms me and Barbra talked about the baby, who has since been dubbed, the baby bat.

Over the coms that's all everyone talked about, Dick hung up the Nightwing suit to don the Batman and other than that everything was the same. 

“How soon until you know the gender?” Stephanie said as she threw a knife at someone.

“That's if they want to know the gender,” Babs said into the comm. Her and I were answering these questions while Bruce stayed strictly to the mission comms.

I let out a laugh, “Beginning of the fourth month. so two months we should know.”

“You want to know?” Damian asked.

“I haven't really thought about it.” 

“Easy you want to know so you know to buy the dino toys or the other -” Jason gets cut off.

“Jason!” Bruce hollers into the comms, 

“I'm good, someone just tried to stab me so I stabbed them.”

“Okay then Cassie just said you're sexist.”

I let out a laugh as Steph and Jason had a fight through Cassie, “I might choose to not know and get a little bit of everything.”

The next morning I had morning sickness for the first time in awhile, Bruce woke up when I did, but the bathroom was already ready for me, even though it hasn't happened in a while he still prepped the bathroom, for this exact reason. He tied my hair up in a bun and held it as I heaved over the toilet. With one hand he had opened the water bottle and handed it to me, keeping his hand on my head he placed one on my back. I sat on my knees and took a sip of the water, i took a deep breath and let myself fall backwards into Bruce, he caught me. His legs were spread apart and I fit perfectly between them, i maneuvered my legs into a crisscross situation. One of Bruise's legs is stretched out and the other is up, I lean into the knee, pressing my forehead on it. “I hate this” I say shutting my eyes knowing that a second wave is coming.

“I hate this too.”  Bruce lets his hands slip from my hair and back and onto my shoulders. I take another sip of the water and twist the cap on setting it down. I then feel it coming and then I'm on my knees again and more puke comes out of my more, my lungs feel hoarse. I cough over the toilet before falling back on the floor. The drop from my knees caused my whole body to shift and before my head hit the floor, Bruce caught me, suddenly I was crying and I didn't know why. He wiped my face and held me. 

“I don't think…” I coughed into my arm, rolling the side of my onto Bruce's chest, “That I can get back into bed.” I felt his arms bear hug me as he stood up so that I rose with him. He didn't pick me up like he did before but instead we waddled with me secured to his chest, my arms were wrapped around his neck, both of Bruce's arms were attached to my back and it was less of a waddle more like he was carrying me without moving me too much. When I felt the bed on the back of my knees I gently let go of Bruce and sat on the edge of the bed, he bends down and picks up my legs. I lightly moan as I roll over. He gets back into bed with me and i feel him stroke my hair eventually I fall asleep and when I awake again he's gone most likely he went to work, I check my phone, I don't have to go today, I stay in bed

The next few weeks go smoothly and both me and Bruce have decided to wait until its born to know the baby's gender, that conversation caused Jason to yell and TIm broke a cup and  coffee is now everywhere, DIck just laughed and Cassie was the only one who agreed with us, there is now a list on the fridge of boy and girl names, dino nugget made the list in the subcategory of gender neutral. These lists are the highlight of my mornings, with my morning sickness having subsided me and Bruce now spend our mornings reading through the names crossing out the ones they don't like. They've caught Alfred a few times taking photos of them. My stomach is now bigger and I've switched to elastic waistbands. Tomorrow me and Bruce have a doctors appointment for my five month checkup and then we're having lunch with Lois and Clark. 

part 3??

[trashystar420]

Chapter 8 Maribat babysitter AU

“Hey did you boys enjoy the food?” The cook asked the Wayne brothers. They all responded with a yes or a nod.

“Alright, lets rest up a bit, Alfred will be here with the limo in a bit. How about we play a game in the meantime to pass the time?” She offered. Tim shrugs, but Jason looked excited. Even Dick looked ready.

“I’m gonna beat yo butt Pixie Bob! Just you wait!!!” It was a promise, and one Marinette was keen to break.

“Oh we will see Mon Cherrie. We will see.” And boops the young one’s noise in a playful manner. She dodged the slapping hand of Jason’s. Reflexes of a bug after all.

“So what’s the game Marinette?” Dick asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Charades .” Jason made a face.

“Meh, no offense pixie bob but that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun.” Dick didn’t want to be mean to Mari but he also agreed with the older brother. Marinette was close to giving up, but then an idea came in mind.

“How about I show you instead.” Dick, Jason, and now Tim all give their undivided attention to her.

She takes a deep breathe, and then covers her face. The boys wait with baited breathe, wondering what on earth she would possibly do.

And she gave a very mock/scary glare. Her nostrils flare up to exaggerate on the anger, but the boys all knew it was fake. And she coughs, before she could speak.

“Grayson! Todd when I get my hands on you two!!!” Tim was laughing, Jason in a wheezing fit, while Dick giggled, pointing at Marinette while she performs a crab walk with ‘Damien’s’ face.

“Drake you need to lay off the coffee!!!”

“Never!” Retorted Tim. More laughter ensued.

“I-I can’t breathe.” Jason tried and failed to make another sentence and just kept laughing. Tim wasn’t fairing any better. Dick managed to calm down, and raised his hand, wanting to go next. Marinette scoots over your Dicks spot while the boy stood, thinking up an act. An imaginary lightbulb ‘dings’ as he makes that eurika pose.

“Got it!” And turns around to prepare himself.

Dick has his hands crossed behind his back, his chest puffed out, and his eyes closed. He proceeds to move his right hand over to his ‘mustache’ and makes stroking motions with it.

In a dying old man’s voice, he says, “ma-ha-ster Bruce, would care for a cup of teaaa?” Marinette giggles, she couldn’t help herself. Him being funny was just too cute. Tim was still bawling, while Jason laughed, although not as much.

“I wanna go next!” Jason went to the picnic basket and picked up too apples.

“Yes” he mutters to himself, getting himself ready, Dick already in Mari’s lap. Tim wipes a tear from his eye.

“Is everyone ready?” Jason asked. Everyone answered yes.

He turns around. The apples he used, are under his shirt, resembling large breasts. Dick already started to giggle, knowing this was going to be good.

In as much ladylike in his voice, Jason starts with, “oh good dearie Alfred!!! Why Does BRUCIE DEAR NoT CaLL. Doesn’t he know I must show off all my JEwelry to him?!? Hmmm Alfred you don’t understand, he’s a literal brick wall!!! GoSH he’s lucky he’s good in bed otherwise I’d leave his sorry ass behind. OH ALfreD, you always did listen to what I had to say. Hey Dearie, why don’t you be my owN PErsonal ButLer?!?” Dick was dying, Marinette was bawling, and Tim wanted to get in on the action, so he did.

“Ahem, b-But Mistress Selina, I shall not forsaken the one I was meant to serve. ForGive me, ‘tis I was the one who raised him. It appears I have failed to teach Master Bruce the, propèr etquite in the dealings of a woman such as yourself.” Tim finished in the funniest old man voice you can imagine.

“Oh AlfRed lets elope, forget that old Bat, yOur the real gentlemen!” Jason shouted in his feminine voice, rushing to Tim, putting both his hands on his chest as thou he wanted to embrace him.

“B-B-but Mistress!” Tim acted scandalized in his fake old man impersonation.

“But nothing Alfred. I WANT YOU TO LOOK AT MY JEWELRY AND BOOBIES!” Jason and Tim couldn’t hold it in any longer, for they proceeded to burst into laughter. Marinette and Dick were wheezing and pathetically trying to reclaim the air they lost to the laughter.

It took a good five minutes for the four to calm down, but eventually did.

“*cough* *cough* alright, well I’ll be beat, Jason, Tim that was the best yet.”

“Ya I liked it to Jason!!! And Tim you have a better Alfred expression then me!!!l

“Dawww well, when you have Alfred persisting you on what you can and can’t drink you tend to learn a few things.” He shrugs it off. Eventually Alfred pulled in with the limo.

“Young masters, are you enjoying yourselves?” Jason had a growing smirk, while Dick covered his cute mouth to hide his giggles. Tim just laughed at the family butler.

“Y-you could say that Alfred.” Marinette implies. The butler raises a brow, but leaves the conversation at that. More uncontrolled chucking ensues.

“Alright boys-“ and then the babysitter giggled at the sight of a wheezing Jason. Dick and Tim managed to relax from the laughter.

“D-Did you see the way his eyebrow moved with his mustache?” Marinette gasped. Dick and Tim lost it.

“Oh Mistress!” Tim yelled in his fake Alfred impression.

“Oh Alfred Dear!” Jason responded, putting one hand over his heart, the other over his head. More giggling ensued.

Eventually, the gang arrived at their destination. It was still half past four. Around two hours they can have fun at the amusement park before Marinette has to get the boys home. Curfew curtsey of one Bruce Wayne after all.

“Be safe young masters, Marinette. And if you need anything else, I will be here.”

“Of course Alfred.” The gang say their goodbyes, but Alfred stops them from taking another step. With a smug smile, he states that he has a much better impression of himself then whatever nonsense Tim made up. The boys and Marinette blush, embarrassed to be caught, but Alfred was impressed nonetheless.

“How did he find out?” Jason asked.

“It’s Alfred, Jason. He always knows.” Tim answered, speaking the truth and nothing but the truth.

“Well at least he liked it.” Marinette said, hoping to damper it down. Dick smiled.

“I wanna go on that!!!” Dick yelled, pointing at a rollercoaster that looked too dangerous. Jason and Tim also grinned. Marinette looked ready to pass out. Granted she has/ been Ladybug, and KNOWS how it feels to have her body thrown around like a sad rag doll. But it was in an indestructible suit made of magic. And she had a magic yo-yo. The guardian in hiding is in civilian casual clothing not meant for danger. What if something bad happened? Or if they get stuck? Or

“Marinette?” Dick’s concerning voice interrupted Marinete’s mental breakdown. Shaking her head to snap out of whatever stupor she got herself into, did a 180 and gave a smile, although one laced with nervousness.

“Yes?”

“Your afraid aren’t you?” Jason answered knowingly.

“I what me- pft afraid! Of that... thing.... of death...” she visibly gulped. Tim snickered at Marinettes suffering. Dick, being the innocent bean that he his, takes both her hands in his, and calms her down.

“It’ll be fine Marinette. I’ll hold your hand the whole time.” Dick offered. Jason was snickering, and so was Tim.

“Dickie poo, she doesn’t want to go on that ride.” Tim reasoned. Dick faltered. Marinette took a calming breathe. ‘For my Mon Cherrie!’ She told herself.

“I’ll take you up on that offer Dick.” Marinette said, surprising Tim and Jason. Instead of her nervous face, was instead one that held resolve. Dick is ecstatic, holding her hand the whole way, almost dragging her. Tim and Jason were behind them.

Luckily, there wasn’t a long line, despite it being a holiday. Eventually, Dick and Marinette sat in the back of the ride, while Tim and Jason sat in front of them. The duo mainly wanted to see how Marinette would deal with the ride. Tim holding his phone out, to get a photo or video of Marinette’s reaction.

“Alrightie passengers, make sure to keep your hands and feet, WITHIN the cart. Please. We are NOT liable for any lost possessions in the ride ok, and please, don’t be idiots.” The female roller coaster worker said with a tired voice. She glared at Jason when she said that. Jason just gave her a middle finger and stuck out his tongue.

“JASON!” Marinette berates. The boy flinches, but crosses his arms and looks the other way, like the little brat he is.

“I’m so sorry about him!” Marinette started, but the worker just sighed and pulled the lever activating the ride. Cutting off Marinette from the conversation.

The ride made a jolt at being activated, startling the poor French-Asian woman. Dick just held her hand tighter to reassure her, and it worked. Tim filming everything from a secret camera placed on his back without the knowledge of anyone else.

“Hey Pixie Bob, make sure to raise your hands up when the ride goes down.” The troublesome boy instructs.

“Didn’t she just say NoT to leave arms and legs OUT of the ride?”

“Relax, it’s still within the boundary.”

“Jason Todd you better not otherwise I-“ Marinette failed to notice that the ride was already at the peak of the mountain before it would plummet ride down. She screamed, tears flying out of her eyes from the wind. Everyone was screaming. Jason and Tim both had their hands up. Dick gave a comforting squeeze in Marinette’s hands, which grounded her.

And she lets herself calm down. She doesn’t think of anything. And slowly a smile creeps on her face. Surprising Dick she raising her and his hand up, shouting ‘wooos’ and ‘yeaaaaaas’.

“I TOLD YOU IT BEE FUN!!!” Dick yelled from all the wind rushing into their ears. Marinette nodded, but the young boy didn’t see. Every twist and turn made the Bluenette giggles and laugh and shout and scream. And then came the loop.

“OH KWAMI!!!” Jason was laughing like a maniac, his hands out the whole time.

The ride finally ends. It may have been five minutes, but to Marinette, it felt so much slower.

“So how was it?” Dick asked. She ignored how messed up his hair turned, and combed it up with her dainty hands.

“That was incredible!!!” And she really meant it too.

“Ha, Tim did you get all that on film?” Jason asked. Tim gives him a withering glare.

“What does he mean Tim?” She asked eerily calm. Tim eventually shows her the film he took on his phone.

“Are you telling me, you had your phone on the WHOLE time?” Marinette asked, crossing her arms. Ah gave an unimpressed look to the teen before her. Tim shrunk in on himself.

“N-No I uh had this!” He showed her the small device, and he mentally wanted to slap himself. This is tech he’d use as Red Robin!!!!!! And he showed it to an innocent civilian, in his civilian self.

Dick and Jason waited with baited breathe. Their faces remained neutral, but on the inside were panicking as well.

It was at this moment The eldest Wayne entered.

“What did you do now Jason?”

AND SCENE!!! That was chapter... 8!!! Wow can’t believe I made it this far. I hope ya all have a happy holiday!!! Like comment reblog yada yada

[rhub4rb]

Home is Where the Heart is

AO3

[First chapter] [Previous chapter] [Next chapter]

Thank you to some lovely people on the discord for helping me edit this!

-_-_-_-

"Are you Alfred Pennyworth?" The girl's voice was soft, hesitant. "I'm here on behalf of Master Fu."

A sinking feeling rooted itself in Alfred's stomach at the severity of what this visit could mean. Stones dropping as he wondered why his friend wasn't there himself. Rather than voicing his concerns however, Alfred just opened the door wider and beckoned the girl inside.

He lead her through the halls of the manor, thinking up any possible explanations to give Bruce and the boys. He could gather from the expression of the girl, that this was important, and the lack of Fu's presence confirmed as much.

Miraculous matters would be discussed, he had no doubt about that, but he had no clue what it could be.

Was this tied in to that feeling he had gotten two weeks ago?

Looking back at the young girl behind him, he could only feel worry growing from within him. She was so young. Why was she here in Gotham on her own? Fu wouldn't leave her to find Alfred by herself, would he?

Finally, they reached the room and Alfred opened the door for her, leading her into the kitchen. Wordlessly, he pulled a chair out, asking her to sit, before excusing himself quickly.

As soon as he arrived in the living room again, he was bombarded with questions.

"Who was at the door?"

"Did they leave?"

"Do you know what they wanted?"

Alfred held up his hand to silence the Wayne brothers,  sans Tim, looking at them patiently.

"I am afraid that I cannot tell you," The sounds of their questions grew louder, and Alfred could feel his patience slip. Normally he would be more composed, but whatever the girl had come to talk to him about was important, and he didn't like leaving her alone in the kitchen for too long. "I will explain what I can when I'm done, but for now, please stay away from the kitchen."

With that, Alfred gave the family a final bow, walking back to the young miss in the kitchen. When he stepped inside, he saw her fiddling with something, but didn't get the chance to see what, as she snapped to attention by his entering. She sagged in relief and smiled at him tiredly.

"I'm sorry for the wait miss, I had to take care of some things for a moment." Alfred started preparing tea, glancing back at her before focusing on what he was doing.

"Of course, I understand. Thank you for talking with me," The girl said, bowing politely from her seat.

There was silence as Alfred finished making the tea, before he sat down in front of her, placing two warm cups of jasmine tea down for them.

"I'm Marinette, by the way," She said in haste, probably realizing she had yet to introduce herself.

"It's wonderful to meet you miss Marinette," Alfred said. "You said you were here on behalf of Wang Fu?"

The girl, Marinette, nodded, looking down with somber eyes.

"He passed away six days ago," She said quietly, Alfred looking down as he took in the information that he had feared. "I'm the new Guardian of the Miraculous."

Silence overtook the kitchen for a few moments as Alfred processed.

"I take it you are not here to simply discuss a fellow friend?" Alfred asked, Marinette shaking her head with a serious expression. "I thought as much," He said with a sigh.

She looked apologetic for a moment, biting her lip in hesitance. It seemed she was about to speak up, opening her mouth, but she closed it again and her eyes furrowed. Alfred was about to ask what was wrong as realization dawned in her eyes, and she held up a hand to stop him from talking.

She looked at him, her expression unreadable as she mouthed words at him.

'They're listening at the door.'

Alfred's eyes widened before he quickly rose, walked towards the kitchen door and opened it, blocking Marinette from the view of Jason, Dick, and Tim, who must have gotten up from the Batcave.

"H-hey Alfred! Didn't know you were here..." Tim tried futily, Alfred just raising an unimpressed brow.

"I do believe I instructed you to stay away from the kitchen," His expression hardened as Jason tried to look inside, and Alfred promptly stepped out, closing the door behind him. "Leave."

Tim and Dick were quick to listen, and forcefully pulled Jason away from the door before he got them into any more trouble.

Alfred let out a tired sigh, before opening the door and returning to Marinette.

She smiled at him sympathetically as he sat down in front of her, and Alfred could see that she had calmed down considerably compared to when she arrived.

"So," Alfred started. "Where were we?"

Marinette seemed to consider her words before she spoke, swirling the tea in her hands in thought, brows furrowed. Giving herself what seemed to be a determined nod, Marinette looked up at him again, set her tea aside and pulled something out from her pocket.

"Per request of Master Fu and as the new Guardian of the Miraculous, I ask you to be part of the new order," Marinette bowed deeply, raising up her hands with what seemed to be an amulet resting in her palms. "Help me rebuild the Order," She said, and her voice took on a pleading tone. "Please."

Alfred looked at the girl in sympathy. She was alone with one of the biggest responsibilities in the world, and she didn't even seem that old.

"Please rise, miss Marinette. It's usually me who bows around here," Marinette rose, but her eyes were furrowed. He hadn't taken the amulet. "Tell me, how old are you, miss Marinette?"

She seemed taken aback by the question, but she answered him nonetheless.

"I'm seventeen..."

 "For how many years have you been training to take over as guardian?"

Her brows furrowed.

"Around four years...?"

Alfred mulled over her answers. She was too young to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders alone.

"Then it would be me an honor to become part of the new order," Alfred said, and he saw how her eyes lit up with joy. "I would like you to meet my family as well," Alfred immediately noticed her hesitance.

"I don't know about that Alfred. I've done what I came here to do," Marinette said, confusion ringing clear in her voice.

"Miss Marinette, what do you plan on doing once you leave?"

Marinette shrunk in on herself, not looking Alfred in the eye.

"I don't know..." She whispered.

Alfred sighed.

"I will accept the amulet after you have met them," Alfred stated, cutting Marinette off before she even got the chance to open her mouth. "And after you have taken a shower. You don't exactly smell of roses, miss Marinette."

The young miss seemed to take offense to that.

"I haven't exactly been staying somewhere with running water, you know," She grumbled, crossing her arms. Alfred narrowed his eyes at her, worry forming in his chest.

"Where exactly have you been staying, miss Marinette?" Her eyes darted around, refusing to look him in the eye.

"You don't have to call me miss..." She said instead of answering him.

"Marinette," His tone was hard.

"An abandoned apartment, in Gotham Village," She shrunk in on herself again, shoulders rising. "I don't exactly have any legal documents."

Alfred was torn between prying more information out of her, and simply offering help.

He chose the latter.

"I will help with the documents and you will stay here until then. Understood?" Alfred could tell that she was about to protest, but when he raised an eyebrow at her, she simply sighed.

"Only until we have my documents figured out," She mumbled out, but Alfred took that as a victory nonetheless.

-

"Alfred's keeping secrets," Jason pouted, slumped in his seat with his arms crossed.

"Well, what did you expect?" Damian asked with a raised brow. "He told us to stay away from the kitchen."

The other boys didn't listen, focusing instead on sulking and wondering what was going on.

"Do you think he's quitting?" Jason wondered aloud.

"Alfred wouldn't quit," Dick said with a shake of his head, voice firm and resolute.

"Think it's a family member?" Tim asked.

"He would tell us if it was family matters, besides, does he even have any family outside of us?" Dick questioned.

The group fell silent again.

"This is very out of character for Alfred," Jason said, being the first to break the silence. "He's usually not this mysterious, is he?"

"He seemed distressed when he told us to stay away from the kitchen," Added Tim

"And angry when he caught us snooping. He normally doesn't get angry," Voiced in Dick.

The trio nodded to each other, Damian watching the conversation perplexed. It was like the group just shared one brain-cell at times.

Bruce walked into the room, and upon sight of his three eldest sons, immediately understood what was going on.

"They tried listening in on the kitchen, didn't they?" Bruce asked Damian as he sat down in his favorite chair with a book. Damian just nodded his head, and Bruce sighed tiredly. "Alfred already told us that he would explain as much as he could when he was done."

"Well yeah but-"

Bruce cut Jason off.

"No buts. We will respect Alfred and his privacy in what is clearly something important. He will tell us what he can. Understood?" Bruce's voice left no room for argument, and Tim, Dick, and Jason were quick to start sulking again.

The living room was left in silence after that, Bruce reading his book, Jason playing a game on his phone against Dick, Tim reading an article, and Damian studying. The quiet atmosphere was broken however, by the sound of approaching footsteps and the living room door opening.

"If I could kindly get your attention?" Alfred spoke, and immediately all eyes were on him, before traveling to the petite girl standing beside him. "I would like to introduce you to Marinette. She's the granddaughter of one of my dear friends, who passed away recently."

A pin could be heard drop as Dick stared at the girl wide-eyed, recognition burning within him.

"Master Bruce, if it is okay with you, I would like for Marinette to stay for a while. I do not feel it is very responsible of me to leave her alone in Gotham," Bruce tried to see if he could find answers in Alfred's eyes, but all he saw was a look that said Alfred would explain later.

Bruce smiled at the young girl, noting how she seemed to hold herself like he was about to throw her out.

"Of course," He simply said, nodding politely at the girl. "She can stay for as long as she needs."

It seemed as if the boys would protest, but the swift glare Bruce sent their way shut them up.

"I'll be showing her to a room then," Alfred said with a bow, before heading to the door, Marinette following him, looking a bit like a lost puppy.

-

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Marinette asked hesitantly.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the offer. In all honesty, the thought of not having to return to that awful apartment was a relief to Marinette. However, she didn't like this. It felt like she was intruding.

Then, of course, there was her certainty that the family was made up of the very same vigilantes she had run from. The reason she knew who they were wasn’t obvious. In truth, she would probably be the only person to pick up on it.

It was the corrupted magic in the boy with the white hairstreak that gave it away. It was the same magic she had felt in Red Hood the night before. She was unsure of what the magic actually was, but it felt familiar to her, like the Miraculous Cure, but perverted in some way. Asking Alfred about it seemed inappropriate though.

"I will not inform them of the Miraculous or the Order, I understand that it has to remain hidden. If anyone reveals anything about it, it will be you," Alfred stated, trying to reassure her. Marinette just sighed.

They continued their walk in silence, Alfred because he had nothing to add, and Marinette because of uncertainty.

"This will be where you are staying," Alfred said, opening one of many doors, leading her into a room that was larger than the one she had back home. "I will bring you some clothes that I think might fit you, the bathroom is to your left, just come back down to the living room once you are done."

With that, Alfred left, leaving Marinette alone in the rather extravagant room. The walls were a cream color, the doors made of dark wood in contrast. The bed was queen-sized and centered against the right wall, and tall windows took up the back wall, allowing the light of the setting sun to enter the room. Marinette put her backpack down on the bed, feeling the silk covers with her fingers, marveling at the fabric quality. A desk made of dark wood was placed at the left wall, along with a shelf filled with books, as well as a door that lead to what Marinette could only assume was a bathroom.

"Well, you heard what Alfred said Marinette, time for you to shower," Marinette jumped, startled by the sound of Tikki's voice behind her. She hadn't even noticed her kwami fly out of her jacket.

"Geez, don't scare me like that Tikki," Marinette sighed, taking her jacket off and folding it on the bed. "And don't think I've forgotten what you did when I ran into Jon again," She scolded, wagering her finger in her kwami's face. Tikki just rolled her eyes.

"Oh, don't act like you didn't enjoy your date," Tikki said fondly, causing Marinette to stutter a response that was interrupted by a knock at her door.

"Marinette? I believe I have clothes that will fit you," Came Alfred's muffled voice. Marinette opened the door, accepting the clothes from Alfred. "I will retrieve your own clothes to be washed once you're done," He simply stated, before giving her final nod of his head and leaving, Marinette looking at his retreating form.

With a sigh, she closed the door and locked it, before returning her attention to Tikki and giving her kwami a playful glare.

"We're not done with this argument."

"Whatever you say Marinette."

Marinette rolled her eyes and headed to the bathroom to shower for the first time since she arrived in Gotham.

-

It was quiet in the living room as the Waynes watched Alfred and Marinette leave. No one really knew what to say.

Dick was the one to break the silence.

"That's her," He said, voice small and confused. "That's the girl from yesterday."

Bruce furrowed his brows as he looked at his eldest son.

"Are you sure?" Bruce asked. "You said you didn't get a good look at her face."

"I'm sure," Dick nodded his head, eyes still fixated at the door. "The jacket's the same, though her hair is shorter than when I first saw her."

Bruce shook his head. These things seemed more circumstantial than anything.

"How can you be so sure then?" Damian questioned. He hadn't seen the girl himself in person, but Marinette was tiny, and from the brief exchange they just had with the girl, she seemed way too meek to be the one able to beat the vigilantes.

"It makes sense. Alfred says she's alone in Gotham, all of her clothes are exactly the same. Even her backpack's the same!" Dick exclaimed, Tim nodding along.

"I actually think Dick is right about this. I only got a glimpse of her eyes, but I was the one who actually fought her. That's the girl."

It seemed that Bruce was more willing to listen after Tim's input, and suddenly wondered if it had been a good idea to let the girl stay in his home. He sighed.

"Regardless of that, it seems Alfred knows her, or at least knows of her. He'll explain the situation once he gets her situated."

Damian's face scrunched up in disdain at the reminder that the girl would apparently be staying with them, almost like he had bitten a lemon.

"Why did you even agree to that?" Damian asked, looking at Bruce with furrowed eyes. "We don't even know her, and now you're letting her stay in our home? Isn't that kind of risky?"

Bruce shook his head.  Alfred seemed to trust her, and even if he decided that it was too dangerous to allow her to stay, he had already agreed.

"I trust Alfred's judgment. If he starts to believe the girl is a threat, we'll take things from there, but for now, she's a guest and I want you to treat her as such," The look Bruce sent his sons made them stop complaining.

When Alfred returned, so did chaos, as the room exploded with questions once more.

"Who is she?" Bruce asked, voice cutting through the rest, effectively shutting his sons up.

"Like I told you before, Marinette is the granddaughter of a dear friend of mine who has recently passed away," Bruce could tell there was more to it than that, but Alfred didn't say, sticking with the original story. "As far as I know, she's been looking for me for the last five days."

"What was she doing up on the roofs?" Jason asked, raising a brow. "Not exactly where I would look for a person."

"I don't know," Alfred admitted. "But she's not a threat. I still have some things to discuss with her, and I would like to keep her close until we are done."

Bruce didn't seem too happy about the lack of information, but if what Alfred said was true, then he would be fine having the girl stay at least a couple of days.

 -_-_-_-

@constancetruggle @mojos-biggest-fan @lysslovesanime @heredmaquam @luciferge @scribblinggraveyard @thatfandomsgirl @eliza-bich @ki77h3dr4g0n @crazylittlemunchkin @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @skyel0ve @serenacross200 @valeks-princess @thebananathatwrites @aurordraws @nothernbluetongue @bluerosette23 @xxmadamjinxx @graduatedmelon @tritaledkitsune @tinybrie @shamefullove @screechingflapbiscuitpeach @danielslilangel @vivilakitty 

[vln-vibes]

Performance

Day 2 of February Memory @maribat-2k20

The crowd roared; laughs, excited whispers and ecstatic shouts coming from all over as the lights began to dim.

Above them all stood a man with a mask on his face, baby blue eyes still visible with excitement and nostalgia in them.

“You nervous?” he turned to see a masked woman with bluebell eyes. Her midnight black hair was tied up in a ponytail, with her bangs styled to not block her view. They wore complimentary uniforms of black, red and yellow; she had a gradient on her leotard from red at the top to black on the bottom, yellow accents on her sides and at the waist, simple red slippers for her shoes and red wristbands, his was a black to red gradient looking almost seamless despite his being a two piece with yellow at his shoulders and twisting at his legs.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to do this again; not like the Daring Dangers but as𑁋” his voice filled with melancholy  before being interrupted with a kiss.

“Yeah, I understand” love clear in her voice, grasping at his hand, golden bands being caught by the light from above. “I hope I can live up to the expectations”

“You’ll be great” the man shook his head “We’ve been training for this practically since over a decade”

“That doesn’t mean I won’t get nervous”

“This is coming from the same woman who swings around the city with a yo-yo” he chuckled as she pushed him. “And besides we have our lucky charms”

Her gaze softened as he raised their arms, each dangling a homemade wooden charm bracelet, almost two decades old. She hadn’t meant for it to be so much when she had given it to him but he practically said they were magical, they very much may be now that she thought about it.

“Gross” the two turned to see the other occupants on the other side of the arena one waving and the other fake-barfing, talking into the communicators they had in their ears.

“Seriously Dami?” the man, Richard but most commonly known as Dick, sighed.

“I thought it was cute uncle Dames” the girl besides the older teenager teased, her baby blue eyes full of mirth.

“Speak for yourself Ems, you’re not here in front of them” the duo turned the younger boy, eight year old Jacob Louis, rolled his eyes though there was clear fondness in them.

“Too bad Tommy doesn’t think he’s ready yet” the fourteen year old girl, Emma Marie, sighed as she looked into the crowd.

It had taken some convincing and guilt tripping but he had managed to get his younger brother to agree and perform with them. Damian was a bit of a pushover when it came to his oldest brother and niece and nephews. He understood that this was important to them, he also felt more reassured knowing he was with them instead of watching through the crowd along with the rest of the family.

They began their stretches, having done the more strenuous ones before even coming up. Damian peeked at the audience as he adjusted his uniform; all black with red stripes on his left leg and yellow on the right. If he looked closely he could make them out in the “best seats of the house” as they called them.

Alfred Pennyworth and Gina Dupain sat down, speaking about the stories of when their grandchildren were younger and all the mischief they’d get into. Bruce Thomas Wayne sat next to his grandson, Thomas Hugo, as the boy watched in awe at the performances in front of him. Thomas and Sabine Dupain-Cheng on the boy’s other side. Next to Bruce was Claire Jane Drake-Kent, daughter of Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne and his husband Conner Kent, with a camera in her hands as she took photos of everything going on. 

Next to them was the not-dead Jason Peter Todd and his “boyfriend” Roy Harper along with his daughter Lian Harper. 

In the row behind was Barbara Gordon, whispering something into Jonathan Samuel Kent’s ear, the teenager concentrating on all the bolt and the structure of the trapeze before giving a sigh and nodding.

Duke Thomas and Stephanie Brown seemed excited at the prospect of the performance while Cassandra Cain-Wayne held her girlfriend’s hand and spoke softly with Kagami Tsurugi.

Luka Couffaine, Alix Kubdel and Max Kante listened as Nino Lahiffe, Kim Le Chien and Chloe Bourgeois explained what they should expect based on what they had watched when they were children.

Around the backstage entrance Harleen Quinzel, Pamela Isley, and Selina Kyle, otherwise known as the Gotham Sirens, were keeping watch of who was coming and going through.

“I swear just with friends and family we’ve already filled half the arena” Damian groaned, spotting others like members from the Teen Titans and Young Justice along with other Leaguers. Seriously they might as well have rented the arena out.

“We’re almost up” Jake said, finishing his stretches and adjusted his costume; black to red like his mom’s with two yellow strands criss crossing on his chest, similar to his uncle Tim’s old Red Robin costume.

“Well that only means we gotta give it our best” Dick cheered as the other looked at him, “We know what we’re doing and we’re good at it”

“Right. We’ve practiced so much we can practically do it with our eyes closed; that’s not permission to do so kids” Marinette chastised at Damian’s “Tt” that followed.

“We totally got this” Emma cheered, her red to black leotard filled his sparkles, like the rest, and a yellow skirt.

The lights began to dim, spotlights moving all over the place. The anticipation was practically palpable, like a balloon waiting for a needle to poke through it. The members of the audience shifted closer to the stage while the members of the troop gathered their wits and smiled.

“Showtime”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls of all ages! It is an honor for Haly’s Traveling Circus to welcome back an old member of the troop; Give your hands to the Flying Graysons!”

Ko-Fi

[daemoninwhiteround2]

Okay THAT PET NAME ANON GOT ME THINKING! Now, imagine a scenerio where the Batfam aren't imposters but they're cursed to forget the one they love dearly. And Jason has to suffer them looking at him and not knowing who he is, not waking in the morning to Dick's soft "sweetheart", or go to sleep hearing Tim heatedly calling him "Babe" or those peaceful moments where Damian will just call him "Beloved" whilst they read and sketch. Or the loving, tender moments with a open Bruce and his "Darling".

Ok, from now on, they're implementing some sort of Designated Survivor protocol. The entire family is never showing up to the same fight again--it means that when they all get their asses handed to them, there's no one to come rescue them.

At least this "supervillain" is wallowing in their capture like a pig rolling around in mud. Jason's never seen her before--Bruce had muttered over coms that she was one of Zatanna's occasional dance partner. Zee asked Babs to handle it, Babs already had the Birds deployed elsewhere, and so Babs had asked them to deal with it. Apparently whatever the chick writes down becomes reality--on paper (ha) she'd seemed really easy to take down. Just cause a little blackout, seperate pen from notebook and case closed, early night for all the bats and birds, right?

Turns out the bitch doesn't need to write things on anything. She scrawls across air, light following her finger, and Nightwing's tangled up in what appears to be multiple ribbons. Robin jumps her but she manages to spin out if the way, and the brat's hitting the ground next to 'Wing, gaged and bound at the wrist and ankles with similar looking ribbon.

Red Robin tosses a smoke grenade at her feet--the ribbons start to break apart and Jason grins, activates infrared vision and dives in but a massive blast of wind slams him onto his bavk and the ribbons solidify. Red brings his staff down of her wrist and she screams, but the bitch finishes her sentence with her other hand and Red joins the ribbon bondage pile.

Jason has got no idea where Bruce had got to. He grits his teeth and rolls into his feet, aims shots for her wrists and arms and darts around to some cover on to opposite side of the warehouse to where the others are. He's using rubber bullets but he should be able to do enough damage to make writing really fucking hurt--or hopefully the others will be able to free themselves from ribbon bondage hell.

Of course, she guestures and massive wings unfold from her back. A couple of flaps takes her high and back enough that she can look at him and the others, and the warehouse isn't big enough for him to break line of sight. He fires a couple of shots at the wings and she shrieks again, higher pitched, more like a bird, and pain screams through Jason's skull before everything goes black.

--

Everything hurts when Jason wakes up. He keeps his breathing as similar as possible, tenses different body parts in turn to see if anything is hurt enough to impact the inevitable fight--his shoulders ache, from the position of them and the feel of his arms, he's definitely restrained like the others. It's weird though, he knows he's tied up but he can't feel anything.

"And the last of you awake!" the bitch chirps.

Jason slowly opens his eyes. Yup, they're all tied up, even (aww fuck) Bruce. She's at least colour coordinated the ribbon with their costumes--Nightwing's also appears to be sparkly. Christ, if this bitch makes 'Wing dig out the Discowing costume, Jason's hunting her down to whatever hole they stuff her into and breaking something.

She's ranting on and on, how dare they get in her way, don't they know she's just trying to make things better, blah blah blah. Jason watches her posture more than anything, watches her work herself up into a frenzy, even as the pressure in his head starts to build again and the blinks get longer and longer.

Finally she stops. Honestly she looks pretty shitty, the worst Red hit is already sweeping up in a way that promises a fracture, at least, and reddened eyes and tangled her don't do her any favours.

"I'll show you," she hisses, lights starting to flicker at her fingertips. "I'll show you what it's like to lose-"

Black Bat crashes into her.

B, 'Wing, Red and Robin all flinch as her magic rolls over them.

Black spots creep over Jason's vision, but they hold off long enough for Jason see see Black Bat spray something in bitch's face that makes her away and crash to one knee.

Jason smirks and falls back unconscious.

--

He blinks. He knows this ceiling. He rolls to the side and vomits. Fuck his head hurts and that did not help.

Jason hates waking up in the med bay.

He hasn't got anything keeping him on the bed, no IVs or ECG sensors, so he slides off the bed, takes a second longer to get his legs underneath him than he should need, and stumbles off to where he can bear voices.

They're all here, gathered around the computer, and to Jason's swiftly buried relief, they all appear unharmed although they're all still in full consume.

Dick spots him first, and actually smiles at him. Huh. Either the bondage has put him in a good mood, or maybe he's happy that Jason didn't go for any really debilitating shots. "Hey! How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit in the head with a crowbar," Jason snarks back.

Dick's smile turns polite. "Ah, OK. Listen, I know Batman won't, but I wanted to thank you for helping out back there. You did a decent job distracting her."

Jason pulls away a little bit. Dick's talking to him like, like--

Tim comes over and holds out his hand. "Are you one of the Birds of Prey? Oracle didn't mention a male on her team?"

What the fuck.

The brat stalks over, his arms crossed. "An outsider does not deserve to wear our bat."

OK that's not totally out of character but--

None of them have taken any armour off, even though Jason knows Dick's electricity got reflected back on to him earlier and he should have removed the costume already so that Alfred can try and salvage what he can. No one has taken off a domino. They're all still using codenames, even though they're in the Cave.

They're all stiff, wary, hands are near their weapons, but not in the way they usually are. There's no ... tension, or rather, the tension that should be there isn't, it's like

It's like

It's like when Tim first bought Stephanie to the Cave. Like when Babs bought Cass.

What the fuck.

Bruce breaks away from where Cass was giving a report. He stalks over to Jason and stops just close enough that Jason has to crane his neck slightly, just close enough that he is backlit by one of the light and all expression vanishes from his face.

"Who are you," he grinds out.

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

Fates Be Damned - fic

Characters: Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Selina Kyle Summary: Batman Incorporated was waging war against Leviathan. But Dick would be damned if he let Damian become a casualty to this fight. A/N: A fix it for Batman Inc. 4 from like five years ago!!! Because I’m clearly up with the times. Bruce’s starting dialogue is from that issue. I don’t want to call this a hurt/comfort fic, because it’s not a happy ending for everyone, and I’d be interested in anyone thoughts on the ending I chose because it’s not a ‘everything tied up neatly’ kind of ending like I tend to do. Anyways, this all happens over a year as hinted at. Alfred was away in the last part, and he is still in constant contact with Dick and Damian. Dick and Damian keep up their training, though really do enjoy not being vigilantes. No, Damian does not take Dick’s last name. Batcow and Goliath, of course, come with them to live in the ‘burbs, and the family visits often. Bruce does too, eventually.

~~

It felt like someone shocked him. Or maybe slapped him, or just said the sky is falling.

Because this…this wasn’t happening, right?

He looked to his brothers, to Tim and Jason, and saw his own near-revulsion mirrored on their own faces.

So it wasn’t a dream. Or a miscommunication.

Here they were, in the middle of a goddamn war, all hands on deck. And Bruce just told one of their ranks, just told Damian – little, mostly innocent, eleven-year-old Damian – that he had to leave the life he chose, the life he loved, and go back to his mother, the one who hurt him more than anyone in the world.

And Damian’s face is wrecked. Dick had never seen this child cry, but here, there were tears in his eyes, and terror in his voice, as he tried to reason with Bruce, explain how much he gave up, how much he did. Just to belong, just to be loved by his old man.

How much he didn’t want to go.

But Bruce… Jesus Christ, Bruce just shook his head.

“If you don’t, Gotham, the world, will be plunged into chaos. And you, Damian…” Bruce sighed, like he was disappointed. “You’re going to be responsible…”

It was out of his mouth before he thought about it.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Dick snapped. Damian jumped in surprise, and Bruce turned so quick he may have given himself some sort of whiplash.

But any surprise Batman had immediately disappeared. “Excuse me?”

“He’s eleven, Bruce.” Dick hissed, balling his hands into fists. Damian had looked away now, stepped forward and grabbed Bruce’s cape to regain his attention, plead his case. “He’s eleven years old, your fucking son, and not only are you blaming him for this mess, you’re going to force him to go back to Talia?”

Bruce’s shoulders slumped. “Dick, you don’t understand…”

“The woman who put him through hell for most of his life?” Dick’s fury rose with every word, and he could feel his muscles start to shake with adrenaline. “The woman who put a fucking hit out on him, and you’re going to send him back to her?!”

“Dick…”

“No. No.” Dick started shaking his head. In his periphery he could see Tim and Jason glancing at each other, Damian still trying to take back Bruce’s attention. “You know what? No, I’m done. Because I let you take him back, I let you break up our partnership and regain guardianship even though I knew, deep down, it was a terrible idea, for both him and you. I let you uproot him and isolate him. I even let you abandon him for your rendezvous with Selina, or any time you felt the need to play Brucie Wayne halfway across the world.”

He stepped forward now, his breathing heavy as he got into Bruce’s face.

“But you must think I’m a goddamn idiot if you think I’m going to let you sacrifice him just because you and Talia can’t get along, and got the whole world involved in your stupid spat.” He poked Bruce in the chest now. Over and over, to emphasize his words. “Damian is innocent in this, and for you to have the audacity to blame him…” Dick bit his lip, and shook his head. “The needs of the many don’t outweigh the needs of the few. Not here. Not with your own fucking son, Bruce.”

“Dick, if there was another way you know I’d-”

“I’m done listening. I’m done being your soldier in this. I’m done letting you hurt him, for nothing.” Dick growled. Without waiting for a reply, he shoved past him to where Damian was standing, and scooped the boy up into his arms. “I’m taking him, and we’re going into hiding until this garbage is finished. I’ll help run computers with Oracle, and ping the communicators when I’m online.”

“Dick…!”

“I’m disappointed, Bruce.” Dick glanced back, just once, holding the back of Damian’s head. “You’ve made better plans in worse situations. And the one you settled on here, to save the day, was to sell your son back to the demon?” He narrowed his eyes. “Shame on you.”

Damian didn’t argue as Dick moved towards the door. Just wrapped his arms and legs as tightly around Dick as he dared. His breaths were shallow and hiccupped, and Dick could feel the tears splashing away from his cheeks.

“G-G-Grayson.” He murmured.

“I know.” He whispered, kissing Damian’s head. He couldn’t tell him it was okay. Because it was a lie, and Dick couldn’t do that to him. Not right now. “But I’ve got you.”

Damian dug his traumatized, trembling fingers into Dick’s neck.

“I’ve got you now, kiddo.”

~~

Dick had been right, in the end. Bruce did come up with a better solution.

The world was saved. Talia and her army were dealt with. Blah, blah, blah.

That’d been about a month and a half ago, and it was still Dick’s kitchen table in a tiny rented house away from any city that Damian sat at every morning to eat his breakfast.

Bruce had called a week after the battle ended. Told Dick about the final fight between him and his once-lover, the injuries sustained. How everyone, from family to communities, were coping with the aftermath.

Dick listened politely, waiting for the real reason for the call.

“So…yeah. Everything has been settled. Talia won’t be bothering us again for a long time.” Bruce huffed, trying to be nonchalant. “You can…bring Damian home whenever it’s convenient for you.”

Bruce couldn’t see it, but Dick smiled. A sneering, cold, angry smile. “Who said I was bringing him home at all?”

And then he hung up.

Damian had been in the room during the call, drawing in the corner and taking pictures on his phone of his dozing pets. He’d heard everything Bruce said, just as he heard everything Dick said.

So when Dick tossed his phone on the table and looked up, it was no surprise that Damian was staring at him.

“What?”

“You…” Damian tilted his head thoughtfully. “You’re not making me go back to Father?”

Dick blinked as he leaned back in his chair. “Do you want to?”

Damian’s eyes lowered, his lips twisted in thought.

“…No.” He decided, looking back to his art. “I…after what happened, I…don’t think I’m ready to see Father yet.”

“Okay.” Dick smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

Dick turned on the TV. Damian went back to drawing.

~~

It was no surprise when the Batman showed up at his door in the middle of the night.

“Took you long enough.” Dick muttered dryly when he answered the door with crossed arms. Stephanie, Batgirl, stood sheepishly behind him, clearly not wanting to be there as his partner.

“I need to see him.” Bruce growled.

“Well, he’s sleeping.” Dick smirked. “So how about you call again in the morning and make an appointment.”

“He’s my son, Dick.”

“Yeah, well.” Dick shrugged. “Maybe not anymore.”

And Dick knew Bruce well enough to see the hit that was coming, and block it.

“Oh, going to break into my house and beat me up?” Dick laughed, even as Stephanie tried to get between them. “Where was all this concern during you and Talia’s little tiff, hm?”

Before the fight could continue, there was a harsh whisper from further into the house. “Oh, will you two knock it off?”

Bruce hesitated, and glanced over Dick’s shoulder to find Tim standing at the mouth of another hallway. “If you two wake him up, I’m kicking you both out. He has a test in the morning and needs his rest.”

Bruce blinked, allowing Stephanie to push him away from Dick. “Test?” He looked at his eldest. “He’s in school?”

“Well he’s not getting private lessons from Alfred anymore, so I enrolled him here.” Dick pretended to dust dirt from his shoulders. “He’s still struggling with being a child genius and making friends, so Tim comes by and helps tutor him sometimes, since he knows what that’s like.”

“…This wasn’t a permanent move, Dick. For either of you.” Bruce scolded.

“Yeah, well. Maybe I decided it should be.” Dick spat. “He doesn’t need to be Robin, he doesn’t need to be out there on the streets like that anymore. And…maybe I don’t either. Haven’t thought about Nightwing once since we moved to the suburbs, if I’m honest.”

“Domesticated? You?” Steph snorted. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“It’s wild, Steph.” Tim called from behind him.

Dick shot her a warm grin, but Bruce cut their own small moment off. “I want to speak to my son.”

“Well, A, I’m also your son and you’re speaking to me, so. You already have.” Dick mocked. “And B, you’ll talk to him when I say you can. Which is not right now.”

Bruce tried one of his tactics, pushed into Dick’s space and glared down at him. “He’s not your son, Dick.”

Dick shrugged, keeping his sneer. “Maybe he actually is.”

Dick smoothly backed away. “You’re welcome to a drink, snack or nap while you’re here. And if you don’t want any of those, then you can just get the fuck out, I guess.”

“Dick…” Tim sighed as Dick stood next to him.

Dick smiled. “You play host, Timmy. I’m beat. Mind if I hit the hay?”

He didn’t wait for an answer, just disappeared down the hall behind Tim.

Later, after he’d entertained Bruce and Stephanie, and gave them a little more insight into Dick and Damian’s new life – Dick’s job at a youth center, teaching each other how to cook, Damian’s friends – Tim checked on Dick before heading to the guest bedroom himself.

Dick wasn’t in his own room, and that didn’t surprise Tim at all. He sighed, turned to Damian’s room, and found Dick in there, all but octopus-wrapped around Damian.

Tim frowned at the escrima stick his sleeping older brother still held at the ready, though.

~~

It was never stated out loud, or made official.

Damian lived with Dick now. Permanently.

It was one of those things that everyone knew, but no one talked about, at least, not in front of those involved.

Dick’s friends quietly texted each other about it. The Justice League murmured amongst themselves when Bruce wasn’t on the satellite. The rest of the Batfamily did what they could to just bridge the gap.

Bruce was more closed off than normal, and he talked about his eldest and youngest less and less. Even their codenames of Nightwing and Robin were like forbidden words.

There were cases with their uniforms in the cave now. And Batman’s other partners found him staring at them often.

Dick and Damian didn’t patrol anymore, and Robin and Nightwing hadn’t been seen since the War of Gotham, and the fight against Leviathan.

Most people thought they were dead. No one corrected them.

But Dick and Damian seemed to have traded their gauntlets for gardens. They walked the dog around the neighborhood every night. They meal-prepped, had movie nights, attended the local neighborhood block party.

To their neighbors, it was a single young father and his son. Just some normal folks with their not-quite-normal pets, trying to get away from the city life, and the darkness of Gotham. The father was charismatic and handsome. His son a bit aloof, but polite when approached.

They didn’t talk about their past. Didn’t talk about things like the boy’s mother, or any other family. They came from Gotham, that’s all anyone in town knew.

And they were happy, that’s all anyone in town knew, too.

~~

Jason watched him for a few moments, slowly taking a gulp of his beer. Then, he slowly lowered his bottle and smacked his lips thoughtfully.

“You’re too giddy about this.”

Dick looked up from Damian, who was sleeping against his side. The child had fallen asleep after the three had had dinner, and continued to curl into Dick’s side in his slumber as the sun lowered behind the horizon.

“Too giddy about what?”

Jason motioned to Damian. “Being his dad.”

Dick blinked, and then fell into a huffed laugh. “I’m not his dad.”

“I bet he’d beg to differ.” Jason murmured. Paused to look at Damian himself. His chubby cheeks and long lashes. How small he was. “…If you didn’t want to give him back to Bruce in the first place, why did you?”

“I thought it was best for him. He’d always wanted to be with Bruce. It wasn’t my place to keep him from that.” Dick hummed, glancing back down to Damian himself, brushing his hair away from his eyes.

“Could have just asked him.”

“I also didn’t think I was ready to be a dad. It was a lot, that time Bruce was gone. Being Batman, raising him…” Dick shrugged. “I wasn’t doing that great of a job, despite what you all apparently think. And he deserved better.”

“And now after everything that’s happened, do you regret what you did?” Jason asked. “If you could go back, would you have kept him with you instead?”

“…I don’t know.” Dick sighed. “Maybe. If I knew Bruce was going to be this much of a prick, then yes. I would have kept him as far away from Bruce as humanly possible.”

“Well, better late than never on that last bit, right?” Jason snorted. He let the laugh die off as he took another drink of his beer. “You ever going to speak to him again?”

“I speak to him now, Jay, you know that. Just not…you know, frequently.” Dick defended. “But I know you mean in regards to Damian, and…no. I want to talk to Damian about it first, but I don’t think he’s ready.”

“Dick, it’s been months.”

“Yeah, and Bruce was trying to give him away forever.” Dick nearly spat. A sore spot still, Jason assumed. Though he wondered if it was a worse sore spot for Dick or Damian. “It’s…a lot to deal with. You were there, you saw how Damian reacted.”

“Yeah, he cried. Never seen that before.” Jason admitted. “Has he talked about Bruce at all?”

“In passing, and…coldly. Very detached.” Dick’s brows furrowed. “Doesn’t call him Father anymore. Just Bruce. Sometimes even Mr. Wayne.”

“Harsh. Does Bruce know that?” Jason asked.

“Tim knows, and I’m betting he’s mentioned it to him.” Dick explained. “But, I digress. It’s not something I want to push him on. I just…want to be here for him instead. In the interim, whenever he’s ready. Stuff like that.”

“AKA…like a dad.” Jason smirked.

“Shut it.” Dick laughed. “…What’s your thoughts on all this?”

Jason took another drink from his bottle, picked up his phone and read a quick text message. “I think Bruce was a piece of shit, deciding that was the only option for ending that stupid battle.” He placed his phone back down. “And I think you did the right thing by getting Damian out and as far away as possible.”

“Think I should have kept him?”

Jason thought a moment more. “…Yes.” A quick sniff. “And I think you should have gotten him out of the life. You getting out too was just a bonus, I think.”

Dick smiled warmly. “Thanks, Jay.” He inhaled. “I thought I’d miss it more, being Nightwing and all that, but.” He looked down at Damian, ran his hand up and down Damian’s arm. Damian just burrowed deeper into his side. “I don’t.”

“They say having kids changes you.” Jason reminded. “And this time around, you aren’t trying to juggle seven hundred different things. And you’re not grieving.”

“True.” Dick mumbled, staring down at the boy in his arms. “…I hate Bruce for what he tried to do.”

“We all do, I think.” Jason offered. “Damian’s a shitball, but…he didn’t deserve that.”

“Do you think Bruce understands that yet?” Dick asked.

“…I don’t know.” Jason admitted. “It’s hard to tell with him.”

Dick nodded, then slowly leaned his head against Damian’s, looking at Jason with a soft smile.

“Thanks for stopping by, Jay.” Dick hummed. “I really love when you do.” Then a laugh. “And Damian will never admit it, but he does too.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s what’s family is for, and all that shit.”

Dick laughed and closed his eyes. Jason just took another drink.

~~

“…Do you blame me?” Bruce, not Batman, asked, though his cape waved softly behind him. Cassandra and Tim glanced at each other, then to Bruce’s back, as he did not face them. Selina tilted her head. “Do you hate me?”

“Hate, no.” Selina hummed. “But blame? Well, Bat. What you almost did was terrible. Would you blame us if we did?”

“It was…” Bruce looked down at the streets below them. “I didn’t think I had another choice.”

“But in the end, you did.” Selina reminded. She looked at the younger two heroes, gave them an encouraging smile. They didn’t return it. “You found another solution that didn’t threaten your child’s life.”

“It was…” Cassandra offered. “A…poor choice.”

“And the only reason we don’t hate you is because Dick stepped in and stopped it from happening.” Tim added. “He saved Damian…and if he hadn’t gotten in your way, this conversation would be going very differently.”

Bruce closed his eyes, swayed slightly in the wind. “Would it make a difference if I said I was sorry?”

“We’re not the ones you should be apologizing to.” Selina sighed. “You know that, Bat.”

Bruce didn’t open his eyes. “…Do you think he’s happy?”

“I know he is.” Tim almost hissed. It was harsh and angry, but controlled, contained. Businesslike, and so very Tim. “He’s probably happier than he’s ever been, which is funny to say since you broke his heart and he’s still trying to put those pieces back together.”

“And better,” Cassandra cut in. “He is…safe.”

“And alive.” Selina continued.

No one spoke after that, for just a moment. Let those words – happy, safe, alive – linger between them, and float through the air into the Gotham night.

“…I miss him. I miss him and Dick both.” Bruce whispered. “Am I allowed to?”

Selina walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re allowed to have emotions, Bruce.” A smirk, just for him. “In fact, we’re all pretty sure a lack of emotions is what got you here in the first place.”

Bruce tried to smile back to her. It didn’t feel right.

“…But to answer your question.” Tim exhaled, like he was exhausted. “No, we don’t hate you. We’re mad-”

“Pissed.” Cassandra interjected.

“-but would we be standing here if we hated you?”

~~

It’d been ten months.

Ten months of Damian living with him, away from Bruce – and they hadn’t talked about it. Not once. Not even a mention, or a second.

It made him anxious, worrying about what might be clouding Damian’s brain, but it also made him happy. Because Damian seemed freer here, outside of Gotham, away from the costumes.

Away from his father.

He smiled so much out now. Laughed out loud, let himself feel.

And as much as he knew they needed to talk about it, Dick just didn’t want to wreck that.

But still – the tension of the topic was palpable. And Dick didn’t want that to get worse.

So it wasn’t his plan to talk about it right now, as they lay in the backyard, resting against Batcow, gazing at the stars above them.

But as he watched Damian pointing constellations out to his dog between them, the words just slipped out.

“I’m sorry.”

Damian looked up at him, confused. “For?”

Dick just kept staring at his charge, his voice quiet. Mournful. “For what Bruce did to you.”

Damian’s creased brows smoothed. He glanced down, reaching out to pet Titus’ head, and shrugged.

“I wish it didn’t. I wish I could have stopped him before he ever said anything.” Dick whispered. “I wish I didn’t have to take you away.”

“But I’m glad you did.” Damian interjected immediately, eyes fierce when he met Dick’s eyes once more. “Who knows where I would be right now if you hadn’t.”

Dick tried to give a little smile at that.

“…How are you feeling, though? Are you doing okay?” Dick asked. “Are you…happy?”

Damian leaned back, stared thoughtfully up at the stars.

Then smiled.

“Happier than I’ve been in a long time.” Damian decided. “A very long time.”

Dick allowed himself his own grin then, then shifted to pull Damian into his side and kiss his head.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Dick murmured into his hair. Damian merely shrugged again. “…Well, if you ever do, I’m here, okay?”

Damian looked up at him. His face was open and his smile was bright.

“I know you are.”

~~

The manor was quiet, that was the first thing Damian noticed as he stepped in the front door.  Quiet and dusty.

He didn’t take off his shoes, didn’t plan to be here long, just looked around as he made his way towards his father’s study.

The house was so empty, he could hear the scratch of a pen from down the hall. When he reached the door, the noise was almost deafening.

He stood there, though, for just a moment. Collected himself, inhaled. Then pushed the door open.

Bruce was at his desk, proofreading some sort of document for Wayne Enterprises. There was the shadow of a beard around his face, and his hair was messy. He looked tired, but not Batman tired.

Old man tired.

He looked up at the movement of the door, and his eyes widened as he registered who it was. He learned back in his chair, braced the armrests like he was about to stand, but Damian held up his hand to wave him off.

“I’m not staying.” He said quickly. “Just…wanted to stop by.”

“…What are you doing here?” Bruce asked quietly. “In Gotham, I mean.”

“Grayson is having lunch with Gordon.” Damian hummed. “I asked to tag along, said I wanted to see a friend too.”

“…He doesn’t know you’re here.” Bruce concluded.

“No. But I will tell him later, when we’re finished.” Damian nodded. He hesitated for a moment, looked around the room, at the art and style. He didn’t feel any sense of nostalgia, though. Didn’t miss this place at all.

He sighed, and looked back at Bruce.

“…Father.” The word sounded strange, he hadn’t said it in so long. “I know we haven’t talked or seen each other since…since that day.” Damian started. He could see the pain in Bruce’s eyes immediately. The guilt. The regret. “Both through my own choices and Grayson’s interventions.”

Bruce waited, looked like he was holding his breath.

“But I just want you to know that I forgive you.” Damian said plainly. “I forgive you for what happened.”

Bruce watched for a moment, then slumped. “You don’t have to.” He whispered. “I know I don’t deserve it.”

“Debatable.” Damian shrugged. “But that doesn’t change anything, not from my perspective. I forgive you.”

Bruce looked down.

“So don’t…feel guilty. It’s okay.” Damian offered. “I...want you to be happy.”

“I’ll be happy when you come home.” Bruce admitted, not looking up. “…I miss you.”

Damian didn’t seem to expect that response. Blinked in surprise, then looked guilty himself.

“I feel that I am home.” Damian murmured. “With Grayson.”

Bruce closed his eyes.

“And I apologize for that, I know it’s not something you wanted to hear.” Damian sighed. “But…I’m happy to extend an invitation to you. To visit whenever you like.”

Bruce didn’t open his eyes. “Dick won’t like that.”

“I’ll get him to come around.” Damian paused then. “He won’t say it, but he forgives you too, or at least is in the process of it. He was only upset because your decision was not what he felt was best for me, and that’s all he wants.”

Bruce did look up at that.

“He just wants what’s best for me. And I’ve found that the life we’ve adopted since we left is that.”

“That’s…good.” Bruce forced himself to admit. “I’m glad. For you and Dick both.”

“Thank you.” Another hesitation. “And thank you for everything you’ve given me thus far. I appreciate it more than I can ever say, even with our last meeting what it was.”

Bruce flashed a grim smile. Thank you for introducing me to Dick, is what Damian wouldn’t say.

“…But I better get going. Like I said, I can’t stay. And I actually do have a friend I’d like to visit.” Damian ended. “…It’s good to see you…Father.”

“You as well, Damian.” Bruce stood. “Thank Dick for me. For protecting you when I should have.”

“I will.” Damian promised. Stopped again, like he didn’t know what to do next, then merely gave a quick wave. “Goodbye, Father.”

“Goodbye, Damian.”

Damian nodded, and disappeared back into the hall. Bruce didn’t follow.

Just sat back down, and hid his face in his hands as he heard the front door close.

[hero-imagines]

back to december | jason todd

summary: in which you reflect on all the highs and lows of your relationship with jason todd. 

genre: angst

word count: 4.06k 

a/n: i swear i’m still alive, i’ve just been drowning in school work and sat prep, sorry !! i poured my heart and soul into this so i hope you guys enjoy <3 oh ! this is based on the song back to december by taylor swift, if you didn’t already know. 

I’m so glad you made time to see me

How’s life, tell me how’s your family?

I haven’t seen them in a while.

For as long as anyone could remember, it has always been [Y/N] [L/N] and Jason Todd—soon enough Batgirl and Robin morphing into Red Hood and [S/N]. The two of you were practically joined at the hip, and it was only a matter of time before something inside the both of you snapped, the closeness and feelings that the two of shared soon overflowing into something more. There was no denying the bond that you both shared, it was something that could not be faked, something that only could have progressed over years of close friendship with each other. The two of you have been through everything together, the highs and lows of your relationship seemingly to only draw the two of you closer (if that was even humanly possible).

It was only a matter of time before you became a couple, for years the idea has been on both of your minds—lingering, awaiting the right moment in order to make its presence known. The love the two of you shared was sort of like a tug-of-war, both of you practically pulling each other in opposite directions, wanting to confess these overwhelming feelings, but too fearful to actual say those words aloud. And even with the amount of meddling from the Outlaws, especially Roy to attempting to bring the two of you together, the two of you remained clueless.

Yet, it seemed that fate was on your side.

You could remember vividly the day that happened, walking into your shared apartment with Jason after a long and difficult mission, the door harshly slamming shut behind you as he followed you into the living room. He was livid, to say the least, throwing his guns and other miscellaneous weapons down on your coffee table, some of the clattering onto the wooden floor below. This behavior of his was nothing new for him, every time a mission or even something didn’t go his way he became aggravated, consumed with blinding rage that it often clouds his better judgement and causing him to make decisions that he often regrets. Of course you knew why he was practically steaming, you could read Jason Todd as if he was an open book, but you chose to ignore this fact and instead focus on unpacking all of your equipment from the failed mission.

He wanted your attention and that was evident from the amount of banging and stomping that he was doing around the apartment, slamming closet doors, kitchen cabinets, and haphazardly tossing his guns into the back of his closet. You could only roll your eyes at his childish antics as another loud bang could be heard from inside his room, closing your eyes and pinching the bridge of your nose as you counted down.

Three, two, one—

“How the fuck could you be so reckless like that?”

Jason’s voice boomed, echoing through the relatively small room, as slammed his bedroom door open and he strided into your shared living room. You ignored him, You ignored him. Instead focusing on taking off your bloody clothes and hissing a bit as the fabric caught a bit between the grooves of the wounds. It was nothing really major or anything and you surely weren’t dying, yet Jason was a bit of a drama queen and was making a scene out of nothing. He was fine, you were fine, and in the end the two of you accomplished the mission without killing any civilians and gained the intel from the villains—in your opinion the mission was surely a success. But of course, he disagreed with you.

“You know you could have been killed? If I didn’t push you out of the way, you would be there on the warehouse floor bleeding out,” his voice was low and his mouth in a thin line.

He didn’t know how to let things go, and he was surely stubborn as you could feel his green eyes piercing into your back. With a soft sigh and throwing the last weapon onto the table, you turned around to face him, your eyes narrowed and lips in a frown.

“Look, I don’t know what you want me to say—”

“An apology would be nice for starters, and acknowledging that what you did was wrong.”

“—but, this is our job, we put our lives in danger so civilians don’t have to. I’m not going to apologize when I didn’t do anything wrong,” you finished, feeling the anger bubbled inside of you. And if it was even possible, it looked as if his discontent with you only seemed to deepen as soon as you said that. Jason walked forward till he was standing only a inches away from you, his gaze lingering on your bandaged left side, causing you to turn away slightly so that it was blocked from his view.

“Sure it’s our job, but that doesn’t mean you ignore me when I tell you that you should wait for me before running recklessly into a fight—” he began before you cut him off.

“You’re forgetting the point here, I’m literally fine, you’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

“—well, next time, you could be dead and then what? How am I supposed to explain to Roy, Kori and the others why you decided to be fucking stupid enough to—”

“There won’t be a next time, trust me, either that or you won’t know it. I’m fine and I’ll be fine, I really don’t know why you’re fretting over this, I’ve been in worse situations and come out fine so—” you huffed, crossing your arms over your chest as he cut you off mid-sentence.

“Maybe it’s because I’m in love with you!”

And just like that, the two of you crashed into each other, your body fitting perfectly in his arms. Everything moving forward from there was as if you were in some kind of high, every waking moment with Jason was pure bliss. Together the two of you were like in your own world, everything seemed to revolve around each other, but you should have realized that after high comes the a crash. And boy, did you both fall hard.

You've been good, busier than ever

We small talk, work and the weather

Your guard is up and I know why

Because the last time you saw me

Is still burned in the back of your mind

You gave me roses and I left them there to die.

Flowers were perhaps your favorite gift to receive from Jason. There was something whimsical about them, a quality that you struggled to formulate the words to describe. He knew how much you adored flowers and practically made it his mission to supply you with all of the flowers in the world, they soon became scattered across your apartment, turning it into some sort of garden.  

Yet, the beauty of flowers does not last forever, and in a matter of weeks decaying flowers littered your apartment. You knew that you should throw them away, the sight of rotting flowers quite depressing, yet you couldn’t bring yourself to move them. As irrational as it sounded, there were memories tied to every single stalk of every single flower in the room, small things that just reminded you of him—the time when he gave you those sunflowers “just because” or the those daisies because you were disappointed that after walking past the animal shelter for the fifth time that week, he still had to tell you that you both could not adopt a puppy.

Dozens of times he had joked with you to discard the flowers, and that he’ll buy you new ones to replace them, but you always refused. In more ways that one, those wilted flowers held a special place in your heart along with the memories associated with them. Eventually, they did end up in the trash can, and while the two of you joked about it for a while, you couldn’t shake the uneasiness watching Jason take the trash (and the flowers) out the next morning—almost as if the memories were leaving with him.

So this is me swallowing my pride

Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night

And I go back to December all the time

It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you

Wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine

I'd go back to December, turn around and make it all right

I go back to December all the time.

December used to be your favorite month for an abundance of reasons, the way snow blanketed the entire city, enjoying hot cocoa with little marshmellows floating inside your mug, or curling up by the fireplace with Jason snuggled in your lap; however, the main one was the fact that it was Christmas. Of course you enjoyed gifts as much as the next person, but it was the family time that you enjoyed the most. The Wayne Manor was always bustling with activity, especially around the holidays where things became extra hectic, but you always thought it felt like home. With Damian angrily chasing Dick around the halls, Tim and Steph shouting at the TV as they try to beat each other in Mario Kart, Cassie eagerly watching from behind them and calling to be in the next game, Alfred was busy inside the kitchen as Bruce simply watched from the bottom of the staircase while sipping his coffee. And Jason, he was too busy trying to persuade you to go under the mistletoe with him.

No matter how dysfunctional this family was, they always made you feel like home.

You could always remember how happy Jason always looked on Christmas, a while he was not the greatest at expressing his emotions or even letting himself be happy, that was perhaps the one time of the year that he let himself indulge. The joy that radiated off him was contagious, and you could always feel your heart swell with pride at the sight of him laughing and letting himself go for once, his smile making you feel all warm inside.

As the previous year ends and a new one begins you always make a silent vow to yourself every single year. You promised yourself that you would see more of this side of Jason, that you will protect him until the end of time so that he could stay this happy and blissful. And your thoughts always drifted to the future, promising yourself that you would both be a little less reckless this year, so that you would both get to bask in this moment again next year. And every year you made this silent prayer, before flashing him a smile and joining Jason and the rest of the family by the dining room table. 

These days I haven't been sleeping

Staying up playing back myself leaving

When your birthday passed and I didn't call

And I think about summer, all the beautiful times

I watched you laughing from the passenger side

And realized I'd loved you in the fall

And then the cold came, the dark days when fear crept into my mind

You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye.

You weren’t sure what triggered it, perhaps it was the fleeting summer air—the youthfulness and joy being swallowed up by the impending change of fall or the gloom of the upcoming winter. But, whatever it was, you knew that something had changed between the two of you. Somehow the nights became longer and you were left pondering—overthinking every interaction that happened between the two of you. There was no denying the fact that you loved him dearly and you knew from the bottom of your heart that he loved you too, but between the two of you something was definitely not the same.

There were times where you couldn’t take it anymore, but you were hopeless to stop its progression. As close as the two of you were, you both respected each other and even then, there were still things that you kept from each other. And this only further nourished the seeds of insecurity growing inside your head. How were you supposed to talk with him about this, when he practically left every morning before you woke up and went to bed long after you fell asleep. From the outside it looked like Jason Todd had practically everything that he could ever want, he was incredibly handsome, wealthy, and practically set for life—and he had practically everything going for him. And in those aspects, you couldn’t help but compare yourself to him—someone who came from a modest family and honestly just had the luck of being in the right place at the right time.

You liked to believe it was all luck that you happened to end up in those situations, that in this lifetime you happened to be extremely fortunate and everything just ended up working out for you in the end. There was no skill involved, instead there was something in your timing perhaps—nothing but pure luck driving your circumstances in life. But of course, luck could only get you so far.

He was practically a ghost, a shell of the man that you once knew, and you absolutely despised it. Every waking day and night you wanted to scream at him—beg him to let you in and let you work out these problems together. But he was Jason Todd, stubborn as a mule, no matter how much you could plead with him he would never waver.

And that’s what you both loved and despised about him, that every goddamn time he had to be the hero, no matter the cost.

So this is me swallowing my pride

Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night

And I go back to December all the time

It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you

Wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine

I'd go back to December turn around and change my own mind

I go back to December all the time.

“We need to talk about this,” you sighed, rubbing your temples as you closed the front door behind him. As usual, there was no response from him, instead he turned away from you and stormed into his room. You honestly did not have time to deal with his crap anymore, you were tired—tired of this tension and animosity between the two of you that you wanted it to all be over. For weeks you both had been dancing around the subject, ignoring rising tensions in favor that somehow things would return to normal.

But deep down, you knew that things would never be the same.

Standing up from the couch, you followed him into your shared bedroom, knocking slightly on the door when you noticed that it was closed. There was no answer, but as you turned the doorknob,  you realized that the door was unlocked, and you entered. You found him standing by the window which was slightly open, the chilly night draft flowing inside. In his hands he was fiddling with an almost empty cigarette packet and a lighter, as he looked out the window. Jason had quit his smoking habit years ago, he knew that you absolutely despised the smell and despised how terrible it was for his health. Yet, the packet brought him some kind of comfort as he fiddled it around his fingers, but he was playing with fire—dangerously close to burning himself and falling back into his old habits.

He already knew what you were going to say, that same look has been written across your face for weeks, and while he knew that this confrontation was inevitable, he couldn’t help but subconsciously avoid you and your pleading [E/C] eyes. Even though he knew that things were changing, deep down he knew that there was nothing that could ever change his feelings for you.

“Jason, please,” you sighed, sitting down on your bed with your shoulders slumped. You were defeated and he could see it. He knew how heavily this was weighing on you and just for a second he wanted to be selfish, he wanted you by his side no matter the consequences—for a second he wanted to imagine that the two of you weren’t broken.

“What if I don't want to talk about it,” he muttered, twirling the lighter between his fingers and refusing to look you in the eyes.

His confession caused your heart to melt, as you turned away feeling the tears pricking at your eyes. This was pure torture, and if you could keep living like this maybe you would do it for him—and you were always a sucker when it came to him. But this time it was different, this time he couldn't persuade you no matter how much he tried, your mind had already been made up.

“You know we can't keep on living like this—if you would even call this living. We're no longer the same people and that's natural, it's natural to have change.”

“It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself of that, more than me,” he chuckled dryly, finally looking up as his eyes met your own.

Isn't this what you would have expected, he's fighting—always fighting—never once allowing himself a break. He's too stubborn to let go and even though he's on a sinking ship, he's attempting to make sure that you stay afloat, even if that means he'll drown with it. Stupid! He was too stubborn for his own good, and for once you just wanted him to listen to you.

“Stop, just stop,” you turned around, running a hand through your hair. Looking at him would be the death of you, and your resolve would crumble in a matter of seconds. “Please don’t make this harder than it already is.”

Moving from his position by the window, Jason pocketed the loose cigarette and the lighter before making his way closer to you. You could feel his arms make their way around your waist, and for the last time you wanted to enjoy the feeling of him holding you as you felt safe and comforted. His chin rested on your shoulder, as he whispered hesitantly a single question.

“Did you ever love me?”

Just like that the dam broke, and tears streamed freely down your cheeks. Thank god he couldn’t see you because you absolutely hated when he saw you cry—you wanted to be strong especially for him, and at this time, tears were the last thing that you need. Taking a shaky breath, you composed yourself before answering him.

“Oh baby, I would have given you the whole universe if I could.”

I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile, so good to me, so right

And how you held me in your arms that September night

The first time you ever saw me cry

Maybe this is wishful thinking

Probably mindless dreaming

But if we loved again I swear I'd love you right

I'd go back in time and change it but I can't

So if the chain is on your door, I understand.

There was something about the way he was standing in your doorway, looking at you with piercing green eyes. The two of you have been separated for a couple of weeks now, and even then just looking at him made the pit of your stomach swell with butterflies. You did your best to get over him, but everything just reminded you of him. You were practically surrounded by him, the memories of the apartment that you once shared together drowning you with the idea of him. Being the gentleman he always was, he had offered to move out after the breakup, but that didn’t make the pain of it all any easier. Jason had done his best to get rid of most of his belongings from the apartment, but he was forgetful sometimes, and once in while you would find some of his belongings—a rush of emotions overcoming you as memories of him replayed in your head.

His presence at your door was like a breath of fresh air that flooded into your lungs as you looked at him. He hasn't changed much in the past few weeks, only slight details that you wouldn't have noticed if you were not standing so close to him. The bags under his eyes had gotten darker, his face a little more scruffier and his hair a little more disheveled than usual—but damn, he still looked as breathtaking as he did on the first day that you met him.

“What are you doing here?” your tone was soft, the question coming out quieter than you intended.

“I just wanted to see you,” his confession came out  like a hushed whisper, and any quieter you would have missed what he said. This caught you off guard, your cheeks immediately becoming flushed at his words. A part of you, however, grew defensive at his comment. The two of you were no longer lovers and no longer friends, he had no right to be saying things like that—playing with your heart like that when the two of you have long been broken up.

However, before you could protest, he closed the already short distance between the two of you, wrapping his arms securely around your waist and burrowing his face in the crook of your neck. The smell of him of him hit you suddenly like a freight train, everything in that moment felt right, this was home—he was your home.

“You're going away on a mission again, aren't you?” you asked, noticing the material underneath your fingertips and the multitude of guns that you felt pressing into your side. He didn't answer you, but the way he squeezed you just a little tighter gave you the conformation that you needed. “Promise me you'll be safe.”

Your demand was met with silence once again, but this time you needed an answer—you needed him to promise that he was going to return home safely. Even though it was hard, you teared yourself out of his grip and looked him straight in the eyes, attempting to convince him to tell you the truth.

Leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to your forehead, he uttered his answer to you.

“I promise you.”

But this is me swallowing my pride

Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night

And I go back to December

It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you

Wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine

I'd go back to December turn around and make it all right.

And you stood there, looking down at gravestone in front of you, his name printed in bold letters in front of you, did you know that he lied to you. Rain pelted down on you, soaking your clothes as you struggled to differentiate between rain droplets and tears running down your cheeks. You should be furious at him, breaking his promise and ending up even worse than what you could ever imagined—dead. Of course, you always knew that this could be a possibility, your line of work was dangerous and it wasn’t uncommon for things to go south pretty fast.

But the two of you have always beaten the odds, and you hoped that this time would be no different. Yet, it seemed that both of your luck has finally run out.

If you knew that he was doing this alone—god, if you knew that this would have happened to him you wouldn’t have let him go alone. Of course he wouldn’t tell you, that stubborn asshole, always having to play the hero and now look at him, he’s paying the ultimate price.

Kneeling down you gingerly touched the gravestone, tracing his name with your finger, sniffling a bit as you felt the cold stone underneath your fingertips. And taking a deep breath you closed your eyes and let the tears fall—and for the first time, he wasn’t there to comfort you.

I'd go back to December turn around and change my own mind

I go back to December all the time.

[violetsmoak]

Philtatos [5/?]

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20101543/chapters/47690671

Blanket Disclaimer

Summary: During a patrol where Red Hood and Red Robin cross paths, Jason is infected with the blood of the Eros, the ancient God of Love, who informs them that they must track down his missing bow and arrows, or Jason will go slowly mad with an obsessive desire–for Tim. Though overwhelmed by the sudden attention being paid to him, Tim sets to work trying to solve the case, before Jason succumbs to madness. In the meantime, Jason discovers that there’s more than godlike powers at work here, as well as a legacy that reaches back through the sands of time.

Rating: PG-13 (rating may change later)

Beta Reader: None at the moment.

JayTimBingo Prompts This Chapter: #secrets

First Chapter

Author’s Note: Someone mentioned in the comments about the characters ages. As I mentioned at the beginning of the fic, this story mostly follows the New Earth canon. I disregarded anything in the New 52 that directly contradicts that. So the ages of the characters are about as follows: Bruce: 44 Dick: 25 Cass: 20/21ish Jason: 20 Tim: 17 Damian: 13 Ages have been approximated based on clues from the comics. I may eventually tag this as Underage, but it depends on whether I decide to write a certain scene or not.

________________________________________________________________

Tim’s first instinct is to go after Jason, which is why his irritation is entirely justified when a caped shadow detaches from above and lands in front of him in a crouch, blocking his path.

“Father says to check to the condition of Hood’s victims, then wait for medical units,” Robin informs him.

Tim frowns. “Good for him. You don’t need two people to do that.”

He begins to head off again, only for Damian to bar his way again. “Obviously. But he was adamant about it.”

“And since when do you listen to everything he says?”

Damian’s mouth thins, nose wrinkling as it does when Tim does something irritating to him, like exist. It takes him a moment to catch up.

“Wait—he meant me?”

“He meant both of us, for whatever reason is beyond my comprehension.” His permanent scowl slides more to the side of a pout, suggesting he isn’t pleased with the directive. “He was determined to reach Todd on his own when he requested help.”

The kid sounds like he is confused and disapproving all at the same time, which Tim can kind of agree on.

Reaching out to Bruce for help is not something he saw coming. Though, maybe he should have, since Jason always did have a unique ability to act outside the parameters of his own established patterns. It’s why it was so hard to pin him down when he first returned to Gotham.

It’s practical, too, I guess.

Jason’s the sort of no-frill logic kind of guy. He knows out of everyone in the family, the person best suited to take him down if he needs taking down is Bruce—and much as he cares about him, Bruce will do it, too.

He really must be rattled to go with that option.

Tim’s heart thuds a little in sympathy at that, understanding exactly what Jason’s afraid of.

Before he died, he acted rash and could be violent, and was already justifying why certain kinds of people should be forfeit their lives. That conviction magnified when he came back to life. Killing another person, that might not have been something outside the realm of possibility—in a purely utilitarian way. But this—the idea that he might lose control of himself to an extent where he has anything in common with the creeps he’s killed?

Tim wants nothing more than to go after Jason himself, to assure him that he’s nothing like those criminals. But he also recognizes why it’s not a good idea right now.

Besides, B has him. Just have to hope their…usual issues don’t get in the way.

“I’m going to find the kid that was here,” Tim tells Damian. “Got to make sure he’s okay, maybe explain what happened.”

“Whatever,” Damian replies, toeing at the faintly stirring bodies.

Nice working with you, too…

Tim finds the teenager three blocks away, ducked into a corner to avoid the wind, sucking down a cigarette from shaking hands. When Tim rappels down in front of him, he gives a curse and jumps backward, nearly upsetting a trashcan.

“What the hell, man?” he demands.

“Sorry,” Tim replies. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t go anywhere.”

“Why, so you can have a go at me to?”

“I need to know what happened back there.”

“Twenty bucks.”

If this were a gangster or some rogue’s henchman, Tim would probably just beat the answers out of him. But he recognizes that this is a scared kid, who needs to feel safe right now, and who needs to feel like he’s in control. Given the background Tim suspects, it’s not something he gets very often, and will determine how helpful he could be in the future.

So, he counters, “Thirty, and you also give me your name.”

The kid snorts, but nods; as soon as he pockets the cash, he says, “Matt. Smith.”

“Nice to meet you, Doctor,” Tim deadpans, and the kid smirks, but he lets it go. It gives him something to call him, helps ground himself in the fact this case is now involving actual people.

“Okay, Matt. Tell me what went down.”

“Usual thing. Some guy wanted to, uh, show me somethin’ in the alley. Turned out he had a bunch of buddies waitin’. Pretty sure I’d’ve gotten worked over if it weren’t for the guy in the helmet showing up.” Matt hesitates here, his eyes flickering with vulnerability in a way that tells Tim he hasn’t been on the street very long. “After he wiped the floor with ‘em, he went weird. Got real quiet, and he started lookin’ at me like…” He shrugs. “Like, I couldn’t see his face, but it felt like the way some of the junkies look when they think you’re easy pickings. And…”

The kid actually shivers here.

“Man, I thought he was supposed to be cool?” he snaps. “That’s what the girls all say. But if he’s a creep too, why d’you Bats let him go around like he does?”

“He was exposed to a mind-altering substance some time ago, and it’s messing with him,” Tim replies. “He’s not entirely himself right now, but I’m sure he’ll be fine after a bit of detox.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Matt continues to look distrustful. “We done here?”

“Yeah, we’re done.” Tim digs into his belt and passes him a card for the Neon Knights foundation. “Take this, too. It’s not just for younger kids, you know. There’s a program set up for teens and young adults that have aged out of the system.”

“So?”

“I’m not saying you have to go there or even asking you to trust them. But for tonight, at least, a bed and a hot meal are probably a safer bet than working a corner.”

Matt’s shoulder slump a little in defeat, and he looks away. “Whatever.”

“Second person that’s said that to me tonight. I might develop a complex being brushed off so easy.”

The teen’s mouth twitches.

Good sign. If you can still smile so easily, it’s not to late for you.

There’s buzz in his ear and Tim’s comm crackles to life. “B is bringing Red Hood back to the Cave.”

“Without a fight?” Tim asks, pressing the speaker to his ear.

“Hood asked him to sedate him.”

Shit.

If that’s not an indicator of how dire he thinks the situation is! Something like this only happens in life or death situations involving the whole Family, or the Joker. Or both.

“I’m on my way.” He turns back to Matt. “You going to be alright?”

“I’m always alright.”

That startles a chuckle out of Tim; he makes a mental note to track the kid down at as soon as he’s got a better idea of what’s going on

Hurrying back to Damian, Tim finds him watching with folded arms as an ambulance loads the last of the injured and unconscious men through their doors.

“Father, the clean up is finished. I am returning.”

Batman’s voice echoes in both their comms. “No. Continue with your patrol. Red Robin, he’ll stay with you for now.”

“Excuse me?!”

“What?!”

“Rendezvous at the Nest afterward and stay there until you receive further instruction.”

He signs off.

Damian and Tim exchange looks that are easily interpreted even behind their dominos.

“He knows that’s not happening, right?” Tim says. “You’d probably set my place on fire.”

“And I’m sure it would be an improvement. But no, it’s not happening.”

“Good. Glad we established that. How are you getting back to the mano? B brought Hood back in the car, so…”

“Obviously, with your bike.”

“Oh, obviously.”

“You would take issue if I stole a car. And you intend to return to the Cave anyhow.” Tim glares but doesn’t correct him. “I’m driving.”

“Fine.”

“Tt, you people and your antiquated—wait.” Damian sounds like his brain has to reboot. “Really?”

“You have an obsession with sharp objects, you’ve tried to kill me more times than Hood has, and you hate me. You really think I’m letting you sit behind me?”

Damian snorts. “That’s the first intelligent thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“That is, of course, assuming you can reach the gears.”

He’s kind of surprised he doesn’t get punched for that one.

It’s an awkward right back, made even more so when Tim insists they duck into a treelined cove on the way to the manor and hide the bike to change into their civvies.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“B’s probably keeping Jason in a holding cell,” Tim explains, “which is on the same level as the garage. We’ll be seen.”

“So?”

“So, you want to get sent off to bed like a naughty kid before you even step foot in the door, or do you want to go down the stairs and find out what’s going on before B can stop you?”

Damian thinks it over, and nods. “This is tedious, but very well. We’ll do it your way.”

Tim exhales a bit at that. Though none of that was entirely a lie, he’s more concerned that if Jason’s woken up, he might see Tim coming in through the parking area and get upset.

“Look at us getting along,” he murmurs as he struggles out of his boots.

“This truce is temporary at best. If you continue to patronize me, I will have Titus defecate in your shoes.”

They arrive in the manor, slipping in through the family entrance, where they are greeted by Alfred.

How does he do that?

It’s a question Tim is pretty sure will never be properly answered.

“Master Timothy, Master Damian—what a novelty, you two entering the house together.”

“We didn’t enter together, Pennyworth, he followed in my wake. As usual.”

Alfred and Tim watch him head toward the main study.

“He’s in a good mood tonight,” Tim remarks.

“Indeed. He spent the afternoon following his studies playing Cheese Viking with Master Colin.”

“Oh, well, the world will be forever grateful.”

“I am considering a gift basket.”

“Can we get some coffee downstairs, Alfred? I have a feeling tonight’s going to be a long night.”

Actually, I have a feeling it’s going to be a long week…

“Of course, Master Timothy.”

“Thanks.”

When they get down to the Cave, it’s both a relief and not to see that Bruce isn’t waiting. Mostly because it’s Dick sitting in the big chair at the meeting table.

Crap. Crap crap crap, what is he doing here?

“Richard,” Damian says, a frown in his voice. “I was under the impression you were on your way back to New York.”

“O caught me on the way, said there was a Family emergency and I might need to hang around for a bit. Here I was hoping she meant something else by that, but…”

Tim’s brain stumbles to come up with a reason why Dick shouldn’t be here. Either this will become the stuff of teasing material for years to come, or Dick will be disgusted at the possibility of Jason entertaining any kind of feelings for Tim.

He has no idea which option is worse.

“B’s handling it,” Tim says. “Maybe you should do a quick patrol, though, since we’re all back here right now.”

“It’s covered. O said Batgirl and Signal are covering any gaps in our routes tonight.”

And Cass is in Hong Kong, which is at least a bit of good news.

He has a hard enough time hiding his feelings for Jason on a good day; if she were here while all of this is going on, there’s not a prayer he gets out of it without someone knowing.

“So, who’s going to fill me in on what’s actually going on?”

“I will.” By now they’re all conditioned to ignore Bruce’s sudden appearances. He’s still in the suit, but the cowl’s off, granting Tim a good view of the glare he’s levelling at his younger sons. “You two aren’t supposed to be here.”

“Sorry. I didn’t care,” Tim replies, his discomfort starting to crack his usual composed mask.

“And I am your partner,” Damian adds. “I will not be kept out of matters because of some misguided attempt to pander to my age. I had thought we came to an understanding on this, Father.”

“This isn’t about that.”

“Then what is it about?” Dick demands; he’s getting impatient.

“Jason’s been infected by a toxin that manifests itself by triggering obsessive behaviour.”

Dick processes that, then furrows his brow. “Are we talking Sheldon Cooper obsession or Alex Forrest obsession?”

“At this point it could be either,” Tim answers, and gives a quick rundown of everything Cassie told him.

“And who exactly is the poor fool Todd’s supposed to be fixated on?” Damian asks, looking repelled at the very thought.

Tim battles down his own embarrassment, reasoning that everyone needs to be on the same page if they’re going to help Jason, and gestures wearily at himself. “That would be me.”

Silence rings.

Damian tilts his head to one side. “Are we positive we shouldn’t just allow this to play itself out?”

“Damian!” Dick snaps, scandalized.

“Well, the outcome benefits everyone. Todd gets to drag the object of his interests somewhere that’s elsewhere, and we get rid of Drake.”

“It’s getting really old, Gremlin,” Tim sighs, rubbing his temples.

“No one’s getting rid of Tim! And Jason’s not…doing that!” Dick snaps. “We’re going to fix this. Don’t worry, Tim, he’s not going to get a chance to do anything to you this time.”

Tim shoots him a sharp look. “You know it’s not his fault, right? It’s like being dosed by Ivy, only stronger.”

“If what Wonder Girl told you is true, though, the infection may capitalize on feelings that are already there,” Bruce says. “And the fact is—”

“Jason’s tried to kill me before? Yeah. I was there. But it’s been years, and things have been getting better.” Everyone looks skeptical at that, and he scowls. “They were.”

“Be that as it may, you shouldn’t be here. Damian either.”

“Todd’s not obsessing over me, thank god for small miracles.”

Bruce ignores the byplay.

“Since you are here,” he says, turning to Tim. “I want Eros transported to the Cave. We can better interrogate him here and find out if he’s holding anything back. I don’t trust that he isn’t manipulating you both.”

“Oh, I know he’s manipulating us,” Tim replies. “I also know you won’t be able to interrogate him the way you want to, not with his powers slowly growing more out of control—and yes, they are doing that, don’t make me explain how I know that.”

“How do you—?”

“Nair, Dick. In your shampoo,” Tim snaps, jabbing a finger in his brother’s direction without looking away from Bruce. “Also, there’s no guarantee he won’t try to escape and give us the sleep because we underestimate him. And since I can’t be around Jason, I can at least keep working on that angle of the case back in the Nest.”

Because no way in hell are you benching me from this completely.

He can work from his place, and if there’s anything important, he can send it over. And he cam patch into the comms to follow along with the investigation from afar.

Whatever Bruce wants to say to that is interrupted by a tweeting noise from the computer. A beat later, a holographic projection of Wonder Woman appears in the front of them.

“You got my message.”

“Yes,” she replies. “And I can only corroborate what you already know. Nothing mortal can be done about the boy’s condition. Only an arrow from Eros’ bow will be able to temper the infection.”

Bruce’s expression doesn’t change, but Tim can sense his disappointment.

“I must also warn you that the further his condition progresses, the less conventional sedatives will work. I am surprised they even worked this time.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Modern pharmaceuticals might be able to render him unconscious, but it will not stop his brain function. The fixation will continue, thoughts unrestrained, and could overstimulate his brain to a fatal degree.”

They are all silent, digesting this.

“You said ‘nothing mortal’,” Bruce says after a moment. “There’s another option, isn’t there.”

Diana sighs. “Yes. I do have access to a method of pausing a gradual descent into madness, or rather I can locate it.”

“Great!” Dick says. “Let’s do that.”

“What’s the catch?” Tim wants to know.

“The only means I know of stopping the progression is Stygian Sleep.”

“No,” Bruce says immediately.

“What’s Stygian Sleep?” Dick asks.

“It’s in the myth,” Tim says, his research brain kicking in. “In the story of Cupid and Psyche—or, Eros and Psyche, I guess—Eros wife was put into a cursed sleep. But I thought that was just a poetic way of saying ‘really deep sleep’.”

“No. It’s a philtre created using the waters of the River Styx. Extremely powerful,” Diana explains.

“What happened to Psyche?” Dick asks.

“From what I read, she got woken up by her husband.”

“Well, that’s good, right?”

“In the story,” Diana agrees. “In actuality, he was unable to wake her. Her body wasted away and her soul was trapped in one of the darkest parts of Hades, bound to the Styx itself.”

And…that’s less good. Explains why Eros didn’t want to talk about it.

“None of this matters, because it isn’t an option,” Bruce declares.

“Don’t be closed-minded about this, Bruce, it isn’t a magic potion in the sense you think it is. The Sleep functions as a means of preserving his brain function without allowing the same deterioration that would be caused by mortal medicine. It will freeze him in the moment, keeping him safe and preserved while you seek out the means of his recovery. But if you don’t act quickly, his condition will worsen, and even if you employ the Sleep, it will be far from peaceful for him.”

“And if we don’t find that cure, he’ll be effectively braindead. No. We will find another way.”

Diana makes an impatient noise. “While I know you have every right to be confident in your abilities, you’re talking about a life. Your son’s life. Hubris is not a condition that was lost to the ancients.” The translucent body of her hologram turns as if to leave the room. “I will procure some of the philtre in case you change your minds,” Diana says, not sounding pleased. “I would hope you choose to think of the boy and not your own feelings on the matter.”

And she leaves them alone to stare at each other, the choice hanging over them more tangibly than the bats.

⁂

Next Chapter

[unboundpen]

Pandemonium [1/3?]

[Next]

Fandom: Batman

Characters: Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth

Pairing: JasonDamian

Rated: T

Warnings: Damian is aged up, should be in college.

Summary: 

After being away from Earth for a while, Jason notices that Damian is a lot more attention-grabbing than before. Eh, growing attractions are nothing....Right?

Read on AO3

A/N: So it’s been many years since I’ve truly sat down and finished writing a fic. Life has been hectic, I lost my mojo to continue writing, then went back to school and it pretty much consumed my life. Anyways, this was written based off of what @batboys-batboys-whachu-gonna-do had posted almost a year ago and I caught wind of it. It’ll be two or three chapters depending on if I’m up for writing smut with this fic. I said I was going to write something and then went MIA again. Anyways comment on ao3 or send me an ask or reblog with reactions if you guys enjoyed it. I’m very rusty, so go easy on me.

Jason isn’t even sure if he should be out patrolling Gotham tonight. He’s so dead tired that he feels himself get heavier on the cable he’s currently swinging on. Kori had landed the ship back on Earth the night before and if he were to be completely honest with himself, he should have just stayed in bed. The idea of sleeping for a few years before even thinking about getting back into normal everyday crime fighting was really starting to seem like the better option. And yet... here he was, swinging from building to building, looking out into the city he always called home.

Exhaustion crept heavily through his body. It made his vision blur and had been severe enough to make him go cross-eyed a few times. He scrubs at his face, trying to chase the fatigue away as he second-guesses his decision to patrol tonight -feeling the worn leather of his gloves rub against anywhere not covered by the domino mask. It had been a slow night anyway…but just as he reaches out to shoot another line to change his path back to the designated safe house for the night, he hears the very distinct but familiar sound of people getting beaten up in an alley.

Jason follows the sounds of muted groans and painful hits landing -and then sudden silence- until he drops down to the scene of unconscious baddies being zip-tied by another mask in the shadows. He surveys the destruction and lets out a low whistle while toeing one of them by the leg.

"Guess you didn't need any backup."

He hears a familiar snort, "I hardly ever do. It's only five men."

Jason looks over at the figure in the shadows and watches as they stand up and walk over to him. His eyes widen behind the mask.

There stood Robin in all his Robin-y glory. His eyes rake over Robin's form, noticing that the uniform had been adjusted to fit not just his height but also the lithe bulk he had also gained. It reminded him of a certain acrobat they both knew. It was close but not quite. He would have thought this was someone else who had taken on the mantle, but the same minute details were there: hooded cape encasing his head, sword, and sheath at his side, and the ever useful and painful clawed spikes that protruded from the kid's gloves. Not to mention the air of annoying haughtiness that only came from being the direct heir to Bruce Wayne.

"I gotta say, you certainly shot up from the last time I saw you." He feels his lips stretch into a grin.

"-Tt- It was inevitable."

"Nonetheless," Jason pauses to do another slow look, "you look good for someone who is supposed to be suffering through puberty."

"Considering my parentage, it has come as no surprise." Robin answers simply before reaching into his belt for a few more zip ties and holds them out to Jason, "Make yourself useful, Hood, and get those two."

Jason blinks, taking the offered items unconsciously. He half expected the kid to react a bit differently, maybe even get a little flustered. Jason certainly thought so.

Jason frowns in contemplation as he maneuvers one of the thugs in front of him onto their front, restraining the unconscious man with one of the ties before moving onto the next one. He hears the faint sound of bodies being dragged into a pile.

"So, what's a birdie like you doing in my neck of the woods anyway?"

"You were gone-"

“-Well, no shit," Jason interjects, shaking his head. Again reminded of how tired he really was. He looks over at the other mask currently frowning at Jason and arms crossed.

"You were gone," the other mask emphasizes loudly, as if admonishing Jason's interruption, "henceforth I took it upon myself to patrol your area until you got back."

"I guess no one told you I got back yesterday?”

“On the contrary, Father already has a written report of your return in the system."

Jason sighs, “Of course he has,” he opts to rub his eyes through the mask, "Guess I tripped the alert system he has over my known locations?”

“Actually,” Robin pauses, tilting his head to the side as the sound of sirens faintly begin to sound around them and then reaches up to shoot a line up one of the buildings.

Jason watches him glide up through the air, admiring the fluidity of the movement before he follows. Once he lands next to the bird, Robin continues, “Superman alerted father of your return.”

Jason grunts and crosses his arms thoughtfully. That wasn’t a surprising thing either. Clark had always been watchful of him even while he was still wearing the cape and green panties. Even the thought that the super could be listening in on their conversation caused a shiver to run all throughout Jason’s body. Before he could even say anything, Robin moves to the other side of the building without another look at Jason.

“I trust you have the rest handled from here, Red Hood,” Robin says flippantly over his shoulder. The older man watches silently as the Robin turns around, gives him a nod, then hauls himself over the raised concrete and over the other side of it.

And with that Robin is gone, leaving no trace of himself except in Jason’s mind.

xXx

It’s about four days later before Jason feels himself get comfortable with his place in Gotham again. He’s well rested now, but he realizes with the year or so he’s been away, his files aren’t up-to-date. It was one thing if a few robberies occurred here or there, but when he’s heard of several incidents involving a certain mob boss who had been steadily moving into his territory, he figures he needs to get on that asap. He doesn’t rely too much on the other members of the bat family, but he would have expected that the files would be constantly updated while he was away. It was most likely that Tim was more busy with the Titans and Babs was preoccupied with other things. Thus he finds himself parking his bike in the bat cave.

If there was one thing that Jason expects to not change significantly, it would be the cave. The same old giant penny and t-rex were in their respective spaces. The only things ever changing were all the tech that got recycled every now and then. He surveys the area, noting that he was the only one there in this moment. He makes it a point to himself to ignore the glass case holding a certain uniform.

Jason strolls over to the computer, booting it up and realizes that the program was updated when the screen prompts for a password. He decides not to risk it as the memory of the last time he tried to flashes up in his mind.

The ink had stained his skin for weeks….

He wonders who is in the manor for a moment before he feels a presence at his side. Jason is a bit too surprised to even move away as the figure types in the password, a nonsensical password that would have been impossible to guess. And before he could stop himself, his eyes roam.

“Someone needs to put a bell on you,” he states absentmindedly.

Damian…looked really good. A short-sleeved, white, button-up shirt snug around his shoulders and upper body as he was crouching over the control panel. His head was looking up at the screen, neck stretched invitingly while watching it. Jason’s eyes slide down until he reaches the jeans that fit very nicely on Damian’s legs, enveloping his thighs and….

“-Tt- I anticipated your visit.” Damian types on the keyboard for a third password and then turns his head to stare back at Jason, “I updated the system for better security as requested by father while you were away.”

Jason feels his eyes still linger on the brat’s ass before looking up to meet Damian’s eyes. Oh boy….

The older man clears his throat; it was just dry all of a sudden. Hopefully, the kid didn’t catch him staring too much. "Three passwords is a bit much, don't ya think?" He utters weakly.

Damian shrugs before straightening up, and Jason catches himself staring harder, to the point of his eyes crossing. He shuts his eyes for a moment and opts for making a show of rubbing his forehead as if he was exasperated by the nuisance.

“Alright, well, I should probably be put in the system again. Gotta catch up on what I missed and all that.” Jason waves his hand as he opens his eyes.

Damian hums thoughtfully. “That will not be difficult. However, I’m not sure if father has granted permission to give you access.”

The older man chokes out a laugh, “Oh Babybat, I get access one way or another. I only get locked out when shit like this happens. And last I remember you’re not one to ask for daddy’s permission on a lot of things.”

The younger man's eyes narrow while his lips morph into a frown.“I am not," he answers, "I-It’s a compromise for allowing me to patrol by myself. Besides, why should I believe that you’re allowed in the system?”

Jason grins. This wouldn't be the demon spawn if he didn't give any push back. “The replacement can vouch for that. And I got some downtime so if you really need to ask Bruce for the go ahead, I can stay here in the meantime and catch up with what I really need.”

“That will not be necessary, Father is predisposed at the moment. Getting any sort of response from him will not come till much later tonight, most likely a few minutes before he arrives back here,” Jason opens his mouth to say that wasn’t really a problem but Damian continues, “I have a meeting with a colleague in an hour. Thus leaving you here in the manor by yourself is not a wise choice. I can give you the files that you need -that is if you have a USB drive on you.”

Jason can’t help but feel a bit offended from that.

“Okay first,” Jason points a finger at the kid, “I can very much well click and drag files onto a thumb-drive just fine. Second, I’m pretty sure I can handle myself if I were alone. I’ve been managing that for the past few years now thank you very much. Third, wouldn’t Alfred be here anyway?”

Damian snorts and allows himself to lean on the control panel. And by God, if Jason doesn't feel his face heat up even more as he tries to maintain eye contact. “Getting the files is a bit more convoluted than that, Todd. Pennyworth has the day off. And I was very much alluding to this incident.” He reaches down to press a button -just one, Jason notices- without looking away before the screen flickers to the start of a video.

Jason looks up and realizes just what incident he was talking about once the sound echoes through the cave.

A much younger Jason balanced on the banister of the staircase, on the second floor, dressed in the Robin uniform, green panties, and pixie boots and all, while reading a few lines from Peter Pan out loud as he walks from one end to the other.

“I thought I deleted this.”

Damian tuts, “You know very well that my father had installed a program to reverse any erasures. He may be aware of this or he may not, but I am not the only one that knows of this video’s existence.”

Was he-? Holy fuck the kid was smirking. He definitely had this on retainer.

Jason glares at him.

Damian pauses the video and presses another button which causes a red circle to appear on the screen. “Cain mentioned that you start to get pretty confident with yourself here.” Damian presses play again and then pauses it at another point in the video. “She also said that this was where your balance starts to go off, and I’m inclined to agree."

“Who else-“

“-Brown commented that you get a little pitchy here.”

The video continues to play out and then Jason watches his younger self start to fall and struggle for the grappling hook on his belt and shoot it at the other end of the room.

“Drake stated that you should have been able to get to it quicker,” Jason continues watching, remembering the feeling of relief when he landed…until the chandelier fell with the loudest crash he’d ever heard in his life behind him, and now he is reliving that moment as the chandelier drops and breaks on the screen.

“And Alfred said that you had a difficult time cleaning up the thousands of pieces even when he got back home,” Damian pauses and then raises an eyebrow at him, "Really, Todd, a broom?"

“I couldn’t find the vacuum,” Jason growls out, feeling his face heat up even more now, but this time with begrudging embarrassment. He can’t even remember the last time he was this mortified and it was the kid -out of all people- that was teasing the hell out of him.

Damian seems to accept that answer for what it was and lets it go while still smirking that goddamn smirk.

And this is where Jason isn’t sure if he is angry, embarrassed or ...turned on? All three maybe? But he knows for sure that he was confused as hell at the turned on part no matter how small it may be. He’s gotta process this somewhat. And it’s a bit difficult to when the damned kid was standing right there.

Without another word, Jason turns and stalks towards his bike, resisting the urge to run to it.

“I didn’t take you for one to run away, Todd,” Damian calls out to him.

Jason shakes his head as he straddles his bike and flips the kid off before he starts it and heads back to his apartment.

xXx

It’s early in the morning and Jason finds himself laying on the rooftop of his apartment staring up at the starless sky, having smoked through one full pack of cigarettes and working his way through a second. He’s been done with patrol for over an hour now, so both the helmet and mask were off to the side...somewhere.

He closes his eyes as he takes an extra long drag of the lit cigarette held between his fingers. When he opens his eyes, there’s Robin standing over him with a frown.

“I find it hard to believe that you still smoke, Todd.”

Jason rolls his eyes hard as he takes another drag, “Oh look, Boy Wonder has come to save me from the perils of smoking."

Damian shakes his head before he holds out a fist over Jason and drops something onto the older man’s torso. Jason takes a hold of it in his other hand and brings it up to his field of vision.

A thumb-drive.

“The hell is this for?”

“You left before I could give you the files.”

“How do you know what files I needed?”

Damian sighs, “You are merely predictable when you need to be, Todd.”

“I’m hurt,” Jason mocks, throwing his hand over his chest and contorts his face into a pained expression. He half expects for Damian to just leave then and there, but is surprised when the kid opts to sit next to him. Jason turns his head to look at the kid and muses that he looks a lot smaller from this angle, almost like his eleven-year-old self with that scowl on his face.

"Father gave the go-ahead," the kid's scowl deepens when Jason blows another cloud of smoke up into the air, "for your access to the database."

The older man grins, “Told ya.”

There was a brief pause where Jason just continues to stare up at the sky peacefully. He can feel the kid’s eyes study him in a curious manner, no weight to it. He had to admit, it was nice. Typically when a bat clan member looked at him there was the usual range of emotions behind the gazes. With Dick, there was worry along with his need to use touch as comfort, often with a tentative hand that locked onto Jason’s shoulder. Most of the time it was heavy. Babs looked at him with a stoic expression but with the occasional fleeting recognition whenever he said something witty enough for her. To her, the rough around the edges but hopeful youth that he used to be was long gone, and in his place an almost stranger. Tim had just this hint of pity behind his mask of smiles. After forming a civil relationship that bloomed into this comfortable companionship, Jason had figured out that whatever Tim had researched on the older man would always be in the back of his mind.

And then there was Bruce. The head honcho. While Jason could say that their relationship was significantly better, he still couldn’t be around his old mentor for no more than an hour at most. There was only so much Jason could take from the disappointment behind that gaze. After those years when he was a teenager and the glinting amusement that Bruce looked at him with, he just could not stand the feeling of failure digging into and burrowing under his skin where it just spread throughout his body like an itching rash, getting worse with every minute till he felt like he could start to hyperventilate.

But then here was the son. At first, it was all just anger. Man, the kid was a tight ball of fury that tried to get at anyone that moved near him. Yeah sure it was annoying when it was aimlessly directed at anyone, but the intensity. He was actually impressed with how much the kid’s anger fueled him to do just about anything. And Jason had tested it with his goading, just to see how long Damian would last and just how far he was willing to go. Jason knew that feeling. He was familiar with it after he had crawled out of the grandfather’s pit. It was the only emotion he could latch onto that could keep him grounded. So he understood Damian’s confusion fueled rage. But now, even before Jason had left for a year, Damian’s looks had evolved into a feigned indifference, all just with the intent to study Jason more. If Jason were to pick anyone out of the bat clan, Damian was the least volatile on his psyche.

He feels Damian shift beside him for a moment before the kid sighed. “It would be a lot easier for me to give you access to the database if you let me into your apartment, Todd.”

“You could always just go in through the window.”

“That would be rude of me.”

And this is where Jason slowly turns his head so he can slow blink at the whites of Robin’s mask. They stay like that for a moment, neither of them moving. The older man waits, just wants to see if Damian knew how ridiculous that statement was coming from him of all people. But it never comes, just the blank look on his face. Jason feels like laughing in disbelief but opts for throwing his half cigarette to the side before reaching up to rub his face to keep his mouth from opening up to let out the bubbling of a laugh that was forming in the back of his throat.

Jason resists the urge to groan, the way that every aging adult does when they have to get up, as he shuffles slowly to his feet. He contemplates asking Roy for a long needed body cracking as he glances down at the kid, who was still sitting there.

"Come on then," Jason simply says and starts walking towards the fire escape.

He hears shuffling behind him. "What about your helmet?"

"Eh, I'll come back for it later," Jason responds as he starts to climb down the three floors before his apartment.

xXx

The cool breeze billows around Jason as he takes a single sip from the mug that had been set in front of him about 20 minutes ago. He scans the street lazily, knowing that the passing bell for the university would ring any minute now. He's not too sure why he's waiting for the kid, there was no emergency to the situation, he just felt drawn to approach him on his downtime.

The melodic sound of the bell rang throughout the air and almost immediately, students pour out of the entrances. Jason makes no rush to get up immediately. With the amount of kids coming out, it would be a lot more trouble to look for Damian now than it would after the crowd thins out in the next 10 minutes. And true to that prediction, the courtyard of the school is nearly empty as if there was some sort of repellent for college goers, said for a few stragglers. One of them being baby Wayne.

"What's this?" Jason whispers into the lip of his mug when he sees a redheaded woman jog her way to Damian's side. It doesn't take a lot for anyone to see the attraction to the kid. The lack of space between their arms, her big ass smile followed with one dimple in one cheek, and the admiring eyes had trained on him.

Jason couldn't help but think of Dick and Babs. But where Dick and Babs would be easy and open in public, Damian and this girl were...stunted... in a sense. The kid didn't have the puppy love-struck expression of a young adult, instead, he just looked charming. It was eerily similar to the charm Bruce used to work over the ladies at a charity event or something.

He gets up and crosses the street with his eyes still trained on the pair. He'll be honest with himself, it's something he can't really take his eyes off. Like he was watching a car crash. As he gets closer, he starts to hear a bit of their conversation.

"-this weekend?"

Damian pauses, looking thoughtful, then pulls out his phone, tapping the screen a few times. With his head lowered, the few strands of hair not held up by gel fall to his forehead, giving him a much more casual look. However, it's all disrupted when he runs a hand through his hair and looks back to her. Jason would have laughed at the audible hitch of breath from the girl if he wasn't distracted from the same action. "I have a few projects due next week, and then I have to help prepare for the hospital auction on Sunday."

She pouts, "Oh, that wouldn't happen to be the children's hospital, would it?"

"Yes," Damian ponders for a moment, "I believe your mother is on the guest list."

Jason catches her eyes and a bright tinge of pink stains her cheeks as she takes a small step away from Damian. The hellspawn doesn't even acknowledge Jason's presence and continues talking.

"If you attend, I could save you a dance." By god, he sounds sincerely earnest.

"I-I'll try to make it then...then," she blushes even harder, glancing back at Jason, "Bye, Damian." And then she hustles away.

It's almost scary when Damian's face drops into his natural faint scowl, directing it at Jason once she was out of sight

"You could have stayed away for a few minutes longer."

"Wanted to make out with your little girlfriend?" Jason teases, sidling over.

Damian scoffs, waving his hand flippantly, "Her mother is simple-minded. She donates more when she is in a good mood, and Leah attending is a major contributor. It's purely business."

Jason nods thoughtfully. That seems more on Damian's realm of doing things. There was always a motive. It was only natural that the kid would use the all good Wayne charm as another tool.

"So," Damian straightens, "what do you need, Todd?"

The older man mockingly places a hand over his heart, "Hurt, so very much hurt. Can't I just come see my younger bro without needing something?" He fakes wiping a tear from his cheek.

Damian rolls his eyes, "I'm hardly that,” then starts walking to exit the campus, but this time it's Jason that walks beside him.

"Okay let me correct you there. Your dad took me in so I grew up in that manor just the same as you, was fed by the same butler as you and if I had to draw a venn diagram of people we would consider family, " he gave a little air quote motion, "almost all of those people would be in the center."

"That is a very loose yet specific definition for brother."

Jason shrugs, "Yeah but that comes with the job. Anyways, yes you were right I do need something from you."

"What is it?"

"I need you to come work a case with me."

Damian raises an inquisitive brow at Jason, and that's not a good thing right now for the older man. "You could have sent a text or opt to shine an R up in the sky."

"True, but--Did you just make a joke?" And Jason is damned when the kid gave him a wry smirk that made him stumble in his boots. That was an interesting image in his head. Normally, Jason wouldn't think much of it if the kid were in the Robin gear, but out of the mask and with those bright baby blues and in civvies no less. The older man clears his throat and tries to alleviate some of the pressure in his pants inconspicuously as they stopped at the sidewalk. At this point, Jason has accepted that there is somewhat of an attraction to the kid. After that encounter in the Batcave, and furiously rubbing one out one, two, multiple times, it would be hard to deny it.

Jason coughs, reaching up to rub the back of his neck, "Anyways, yeah, it seems like you've taken up my section of the city while I was out, so it'd only make sense to ask you, ya know?"

The kid nods after a moment. "Tonight. I can meet you at one of your safe houses and you can debrief me on what you have in mind."

And just then a car rolls up and comes to a stop in front of them. Damian opens the door without missing a beat and slides into the passenger seat, revealing a familiar face in the driver's side.

Jason grins and gives a two finger salute, "Hey Alfred."

The old man gives Jason a fond smile, "Master Jason. I trust your trip went well?"

"Very."

"I will send you a message," Damian states, leaning over to grab onto the door handle and looking up at Jason through his thick lashes.

Jason's throat goes dry. He's almost sure that he's staring way too hard at the kid, whom to his credit doesn't flinch from it. So all Jason can manage is a quick nod. Then the door closes and watches the car drive and turn around a corner before he realizes that he wasn't breathing.

[sassycassie-s-series]

All My Fault 27

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Damian Wayne/Batman

Rating: PG/K+

Notes: (Masterlist) Wow college has been kicking my butt recently. I know this has been a while but here you go! I’m gonna try to put up more soon! This one’s got a lot going on so have fun!

Tag List (Open): @batboys-and-other-messes @haylo4ever @lostredrobin @na-n-na @probsjosh @spooder-moon @welovegroot

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26

^^^^^

“You remember my first boyfriend, right?” I asked Damian over comms while I was out on patrol and in the middle of taking down a group of drug-dealers. “He came to the house a couple times.”

Damian and I were on a private comms channel. We could hear everyone on the open channel all talking to each other in case they needed us, but they couldn’t hear us. Damian was still in bed, but allowed to talk to us on comms. Dick was just subbing as Batman for the night—and the nights that Damian had been out with the League.

“Tt. Yes,” he said. “He didn’t deserve you.”

“Play nice. We were sixteen,” I joked, kicking a dealer in the face and using the momentum to take another one down. “Do you wanna know what became of him?”

“He was arrested and incarcerated for domestic violence three years ago,” Damian said.

“That’s right. Wait. Did you keep tabs on my ex?” I demanded with a laugh.

“Not particularly. Grayson was the one who arrested him. We all realized who he was, and it was all Todd could do not to shoot him. Did he ever treat you that way?”

I scoffed. “Like he could,” I said. “The night we broke up, he tried to smack me when I said something he didn’t like. I caught his wrist and jabbed him in the solar plexus. I hadn’t even begun training with Batman yet—just the martial arts I’d done growing up.” I finished taking down the dealers, tied them up, and left them on the curb after signaling for the cops to come find them. I shot a grappling line up and zipped away.

“Good,” Damian muttered darkly. “If he ever laid a hand on you that you did not permit, I would break every one of his fingers while staring him in the face.”

“You’ve been quiet for a while, Cloudy,” Jason said. “You doing okay?”

I switched to the open channel. “Yeah Hood. Just talking with Batman.”

“Ooh. About what?”

“My first boyfriend.”

“Interesting choice of topic,” Tim remarked. “Is it at all relevant to patrol?”

“Not exactly. One of the drug-dealers I just took down looked a bit like him,” I said. “Made me think of him.”

“Huh,” Jason said. “Well, by all means, keep chatting. I won’t keep you. Holler if you need anything.”

“Will do,” I said before switching back to the private channel. “Still there, Batman?”

“Still here,” Damian said.

“You doing okay?”

“If by that you mean, ‘do I wish I was out there with you’ the answer is yes,” Damian said.

I sighed as I landed against the side of a building and looked out over Gotham. “Of course it is,” I said. “But you’ll be out with us tomorrow so be patient. We’ll be home soon.”

“What if…” Damian began hesitantly. “What if you came home early? That way I’d have some company that isn’t overbearing and loud for a while?” I chuckled as I shot another grappling line to another building and dropped off the side of the building I was on.

“You’d rather have me keep you company than Dick? I thought Dick was, like, your favorite person on the planet,” I teased.

Damian snorted. “Tt. Grayson is like a second father to me more than a brother. I’d rather have someone who’s not exactly like family.”

I scoffed. “Wow thanks,” I said sarcastically.

“I meant no offense,” Damian said.

“I know. I'm just messing around—whoa!” I released my grappling line as the GCPD helicopter banked around a building and nearly hit me. I dropped several hundred feet before catching myself on another line. I swung to the safety of a nearby rooftop and panicked.

“Are you alright?” Damian demanded.

“Yeah,” I said breathlessly. “Just about turned into a bug on the windshield of a helicopter but I'm just fine.”

“Team, Cloudburst just had a run-in with a helicopter. I'm ordering her back to base,” Damian said in the open channel. I switched over to the channel too.

“Whoa! You okay Cloudy?” Dick asked.

“Yeah. Little shaken but I'm good,” I said.

“Head home, Cloudburst. We got this,” Tim said. “Tonight’s not the slowest of nights but it ain’t the fastest either. I think we’ll be good.”

Panting, I slowly walked back to the edge of the roof. “Okay. I’ll see y’all back at base.”

“‘Night Cloudy,” Jason said.

“Night,” I replied. I jumped off the roof and went swinging towards Uptown Gotham, the Palisades, and Wayne Manor outside the city.

^^^^^

“Ho!” I sighed, flopping onto my bed, all showered and in my pajamas.

“Evening,” a voice said from my doorway. I jumped and whirled to see Damian leaned against the doorframe. In his pajamas. Which included an obvious lack of a shirt.

“Damian! You scared me. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Tt. I appreciate Pennyworth looking after my health but I don’t require thirty-six-hours of bedrest.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that or he’ll up your sentence to seventy-two hours out of sheer spite.”

“Fair point,” he said with a smile. He crossed my room and perched on the edge of my bed, regarding me calmly. “Perhaps I’ll just hide in here then.”

I snickered. “Trust me, if Alfred suspects you’re disobeying bedrest this is the first place he’d come looking,” I teased. Damian pondered for a moment. I got up and threw a blanket over him. “But now you can pretend you’re resting with me.” His grin grew wider when he freed his head from under the blanket.

“Clever solution,” he complimented.

I brought my laptop onto my bed and opened it up. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s see what gossip we can dig up from the last couple years that you can explain to me.” I logged into Facebook and started scrolling through the “Mutual Friends” list between me and Damian.

Upon scrolling and clicking, I found Barbara Gordon.

Knock-knock! Knuckles echoed off my door.

Damian was instantly on his feet and blending into the shadows of my closet. “Alfred?” I asked loudly.

“No, kid,” Bruce’s voice said. “It’s me.”

“C’mon in,” I said.

Bruce opened the door and stepped over the threshold. “How was patrol?” he asked.

“Fine. Got a little spooked when I almost went splat on the GCPD’s helicopter windshield so I turned in early,” I said.

“How are you adjusting to the future?”

“Better than I ever would have thought.”

“Remember what I said to you when you turned eighteen?” Bruce asked.

I licked my lip and bit it, nodding.

^^^^^

“Happy Birthday, Nora,” Bruce said quietly after the party was over and the rest of the family was getting ready for patrol—though I was taking the night off since it was my birthday.

“Thanks,” I said, feeling awkward.

“Something you wanna say, kid?”

“I'm eighteen. I'm an adult. So I'm no longer your responsibility.”

“You could put it that way,” Bruce deadpanned.

“So… are you going to kick me out? Let me find my own life?”

“No.”

His flat delivery rubbed me the wrong way. “Why?” I demanded, sharper than I intended. “Because I'm part of your Mission now?”

He scoffed. “No. Because you’re part of my family,” he retorted.

I took a step back in surprise.

“And you’re welcome to call Wayne Manor your home for as long as you like—and whenever you like.”

I threw my arms around him. He awkwardly stood there for a moment, like a tree, until I felt him give me a hug back.

“It’s alright, kid. It’s… it’s going to be fine.”

^^^^^

“Yeah I remember,” I said.

“When you first arrived here, you had to find your place in this family. And now, again. Your little time-travel adventure has put you in a different position in this family. But make no mistake, Nora, you are still part of this family. You’ve been here a month and I… I realize that I haven’t really even… been here for you.”

“Bruce, really, it’s okay. I mean, you’re still Bruce Wayne and you’ve got a lot on your shoulders even without being Batman. And I’ve had the boys to keep an eye on me and help me out. I get it,” I said. “Really. I’ve been adjusting better than I thought.”

Bruce looked thoughtful. “I… I'm glad,” he said. “One more question, though.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“Why is my son hiding in your closet?”

I couldn’t help but snicker. I could practically read Damian’s mind—he was probably swearing internally. “We thought you were Alfred. Damian came to check on me after I got spooked on patrol but Alfred doesn’t want him out of bed till tomorrow morning,” I explained.

Bruce smiled—actually smiled. “I won’t tell Alfred,” he said, sounding amused. “You can come out now, Damian!”

Damian poked his head out of my closet, my spare blanket still wrapped around his otherwise bare shoulders. “Good evening, Father.”

“Evening,” Bruce said. “You two have grown close since Nora’s arrival here.”

“Yes,” Damian agreed. “It has been easier to… connect given we are the same age now.”

“And since he’s loosened up a bit,” I added.

“Tt. I am not going soft, McCloud,” Damian grumbled.

“Did I say that?” I retorted playfully, grinning. “I didn’t say that.”

Bruce smirked. “I'm glad you two get along even better now,” he said. “I’ll leave you to what you were doing. Goodnight.”

“‘Night Bruce!” I called as he retreated.

“Goodnight, Father,” Damian said.

My bedroom door shut behind my godfather. I bit my lower lip, suddenly feeling slightly awkward at being in a closed room with Damian. I shook my head to clear it and smiled. “Anyway. What were we doing again?” I asked, looking down at my laptop to see Barbara’s Facebook page open.

“Tt. Scrolling through looking for old gossip for me to explain,” Damian said, sitting next to me on my bed.

“Oh right. Yeah. Let’s do that!” I said.

^^^^^

McCloud snoozed on Damian’s shoulder, eyes closed and laptop still open. Damian was awake, distractedly playing with the ends of her hair. She’d drifted off while he’d been explaining all the romantic relationship drama that she had missed between their friends. She’d fallen asleep with a peaceful smile on her face.

He looked down at the top of her head, her soft flyaway hairs tickling his face. He smiled and brushed some of her hair out of her face. He was so in love with her. He wished he could stay like this forever. With her by his side, her head on his shoulder and asleep.

His imagination brought up a fantasy of a day sometime in the future. A daydream of he and McCloud in an apartment of their own somewhere in Gotham—perhaps married, and happily together. They could be in exactly in this position, except his arm could be around her shoulders and holding her close to his side. A wistful grin played at the corners of his lips. Oh how he would like for that to happen.

But she likely didn’t feel the same way. Yes, she had been acting affectionate toward him as of late, but she acted affectionate to just about everyone. That was the way she was.

He sighed and shut her laptop, moving it out of the way so he could gently ease her into her bed and tuck her in. Carefully, he tucked her covers under her chin and folded up the blanket she’d put on his shoulders. He had half a mind to borrow it until morning—the scent of her shampoo and shower gel clung to it and it would give him an excuse if Pennyworth caught him in the corridors—but decided against it. He placed the blanket back in her closet and slipped out of her bedroom.

“Goodnight, my only,” he whispered, standing at her doorframe, casting a longing look over his shoulder at her. Before he could do anything else, he ducked out and stole back to his quarters.

Next

[anemoniii]

heads up. d.w.

I am back from the dead, my dudes! Hopefully for good this time. I’ll try my best to keep you guys up to date with stories and such, I hope you enjoy this one, lovelies; it’s my first time writing for Damion so. Requests are still open, by the way. I’m also going to start keeping these as non-binary as possible.

request: hi can u do a damian x vigilante reader and they all meet her for the first time and he kinda just falls for her and his fam just teasing him about his crush endlessly?? im glad u decided to come back btw : )

word count: around 2600

“Tt, you see, Batman, this is why Red Hood should never join us. He’s far too reckless,” Damian states trough his com.

Through a series of unfortunate events, Robin, Red Hood, and Nightwing had failed a mission. All they needed to do was get in, avoid too much violence, download a file filled with a minor drug dealers buyers onto a hard drive, and get out.

“First of all, don’t blame me for your problems. It’s not like I was the one to disobey Bats, that was all you, man. We had a clear goal, don’t cause chaos,” Jason’s voice echoed through the empty factory. Much like the rest, he was currently tied up and hung over a pool of hydrofluoric acid.

“Oh, so going into a building with AK-47’s blaring is the right way to go? My bad, I didn’t realize.”

I which was followed by a mutter however, due to the empty factory, came as a loud echo, “Imbecile.”

“Robin, control yourself,” Bruce stated through the com, “Tim and I will be there shortly.”

While Jason ignored Bruce, he attempted to swing over and bump into Damian. Unfortunately for him, Jason, not Damian; Damian was quite thankful, he was in no mood to be burned by acid, a loud explosion interrupted his actions.

“Well, I guess they’re finally gonna kill us,” Dick sighed, “It was nice being part of this family while it lasted.”

“I promise you will feel every last bit of the explosion, just a little heads up from one dead man to the next,” Jason added.

“Heads up, indeed.”

Over the heads of all 3 vigilantes, you glided past them, cladded in an outfit as if steampunk and a ninja collided together and became one, from pillar to pillar. (a/n: or you know, whatever you want. I’m low key digging the steampunk ninja vibe though, haha.)

When you found a pillar that was in a good enough distance to save the heroes in distress, you started jumping to each chain that held them above the acid and with perfect precision, you brought them to safety with a swift cut, catch, and release.

“Why are you all so bloody heavy?” You grunted out after you brought down Robin from the chains.

Breathlessly, you stood up from your crouching position with a smile. You clapped your hands together and rolled back onto your heels, “As much fun as this was, I truly must be going,” you turned to the man with a red helmet, “I presume you’re Red Hood, correct? I agree with this twat,” you made awkward hand gestures to Damian and continued, “Please, no more reckless behaviour; I don’t want to nearly break my back again.”

“Tt, I don't need your approval, nor should you ever call me a twat. Who are you even? Were you sent by my mother? Who do you work with? Why did you-.”

You cut him off, “Easy, tiger. No need for all these questions, all you need to know is that your in safe hands. Besides, I don’t even know who you are, but I’m definitely not against learning,” you ended your statement with a wink.

Damian’s face turned a deep crimson colour as his brothers laughed.

“Robin,” he responded.

“Excuse me?”

“I am Robin,” he clarified his response.

You laughed and gave him bow to mock him, “In that case, I’m Hawk. Pleased to you.”

“Tt, I am serious, you poor excuse of a hero.”

You put a hand to your chest and replied with, “Oh, goodness me. Why, I don’t recall ever saying I was a hero, my love. But in all seriousness, my name is Onmitsu (a/n: or whatever you want). I like to consider myself a… an antihero.”

Damian blushed, yet again. To save him from further embarrassment, Dick came forward, with arms crossed, “In order for this meeting to go on any longer, we will need a clarification of what your purpose is for being here.”

“Batman should be arriving with replacement soon,” Jason added.

“Tt, we are well past that.”

Ignoring the two who were arguing, you answered the other man, “As you know, my name’s Onmitsu and I consider myself an antihero-.”

“Why do you consider yourself that?” Dick added with squinted eyes.

Sighing, you continued, “If you would let me finish my sentence, you would have known by now. My name is Onmitsu, I see myself as an antihero because I prefer to be paid for my work, and the only reason I’m saving you idiots is because this happens to be my safe haven. There’s a nice view when there isn’t acid, chains, and random people. All you need to to is look up, the stars are quite beautiful from here, no?”

Damian looked up, “Tt, you make it seem like I would be looking at-.”

“Oh, how could I forget about you!”

Damian looked back down and to you, you were playing with the tiniest kitten he has ever seen, “It looks malnourished.”

You sighed and pat the cat behind its ear, “Her name is Manara. She is the light of my life. I found her a little over a month ago, she refuses to eat anything I give her. I don’t know what to do anymore. Do you like animals? I adore them. I prefer them over humans, humans are so unpredictable.”

Damian gave a faint smile, it wasn’t noticeable, but it didn’t slide past Jason and Dick. Or even Tim and Bruce who seemed to finally arrive.

“I couldn’t agree less, you seem to be tolerable. Perhaps you would like to meet my animals sometime. I have many, I simply adore them. I have a cat as well, his name is Alfred.”

Tim and Jason couldn’t help but snicker at Damian.

Batman clasped his hands together, “Well, we truly must be going. Onmitsu, it would be lovely to work with you in the near future,” he turned to the three who faced a near death experience, “You three were in good hands it seems. No scratches, cuts, bullet wounds. Anything?”

They all shook their heads.

“Very well. It was a pleasure meeting you, I’m quite excited for you and Robin to be dating, from the profile check I did on you, you seem quite suitable, y/n.”

“Why, thank you, Mr. Wayne. I can assure you, I mean no harm. Unless I’m provoked, that is,” you smiled.

With a sigh and a hand to his temple, “First Red Robin, now you?”

Your smile grew to a smirk, “I believe you mean, Tim Drake, sir?” You turned and nodded off the rest of the people, “Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and last but certainly not least, Damian Wayne. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

Dick looked at you with confusion, “I thought you said you didn’t know Damian?”

You fiddled with your katanas and put them back in their scabbards on your back before answering, “Come on, who in their right mind would have came in saying how you already know someone’s alter ego? You gotta build up to that, my friend. Wait for the right moment, ya know?”

Your smile grew at their looks of discontent, “Please don’t worry, I have nothing against you. There’s not a dime for any of you to be dead. Surprising, I know.”

Tim yawned and added, “How reassuring.”

“Tt, calm down, Drake. Anyway, since you have the approval of my father and a reliable research, I deem you worthy to be invited to Wayne Manor.”

Jason came behind Damian and but his hands on his shoulders, “What demon is trying to say is he wants to date you. Possibly marry you, I wouldn’t be surprised if I were you; he doesn’t usually smile at people. That alone makes me hear wedding bells,” he finished by moving his index finders side to side in the air to symbolize the chiming of bells.

“Jason!” Damian hissed.

No one backed Damian up, they knew it was all too true. Never once did he show the same interest in anyone like he showed you. Inviting you over? Deeming you worthy? You were beyond confused with this seemingly dysfunctional family, but they seemed nice enough. You did your research, there was nothing to be too frightened of. What could go wrong?

“Well, it would be my honour.”

And if Damion wasn’t blushing, he sure was now, “Very well, I am free tomorrow at noon. Where shall I pick you up?”

“What about at Gotham Park? I’m already going there tomorrow, I’m down for you to come. Is that okay?” You hit his shoulder with yours.

“Okay.”

“Great, demon spawn has a date, I believe we’re done here. I really don’t want to be standing near this acid anymore. But I’m a nice guy, I’ll try to get this all cleared up for you before we leave,” Jason interjected.

“It’s fine; I’m a responsible adult, I’m sure I’ll find a way to get bloody hydrofluoric acid out of here. How the hell did it even get here?”

“You know drug dealers,” Tim cut in.

“Damn, why must this dealer just have to ruin the purest thing, I love this place” you added. “Especially you, Manara. No drug lord will ever hurt you.”

As the heroes and anti heroes walked out of the factory, Manara closely following behind, all that could be heard was the words of departure and traffic. For once, there was no raindrops to fill the erie city that is Gotham.

[redrobinfection]

Timmy in the Well

AN: TW for traumatic injury; see below for further notes. Many thanks to @chibinightowl for beta reading this for me!

"R-Red? Red Robin? Is that really you down there?"

The Red Hood squints down at the dark blob at the bottom of the old well then pulls out a small flashlight to double check. He's dropped his cowl and looks white as a sheet but, yeah, that is the current Red Robin, Timothy Drake.

"Ti-timbo, watcha doin' down there, buddy?" Jason chokes out, trying his hardest not to laugh at the literally downed man.

Tim glares up at him, squinting at the harsh light. "I fell. Why else would I be sitting at the bottom of a dry well?"

Jason can’t stop himself anymore and bursts out laughing. He yanks off his hood so he can wipe tears of mirth away from the corners of his eyes. "H-H-holy shit, Timmy, you fell down the well." He clutches at his sides. "Help, help, little Timmy is in the well! Somebody call Lassie!" He teases in a squeaky falsetto.

"You better not call Dick or I will make your life a living hell as soon as I get out of here," Tim threatens with the ghost of a grin, setting him off laughing all over again.

"Oh-oh-oh man…" Jason breathes, leaning into the well once he's caught his breath again, "I needed that laugh. Dick as Lassie, huh? I can totally see that. Is that why you called me instead of him, so he wouldn't call in the big B and maybe even the fire brigade, all to get little Timmy out of the well?"

Tim scowls but otherwise doesn’t deign to respond.

Jason clears his throat and tries to adopt a more serious tone. "I guess the better question is why you're still at the bottom of that well? You lose 'grappler one', 'spare grappler one', 'grappler two', 'spare grappler two' and-"

"Fuck you! I only have two grapplers, thank you very much," Tim bites back heatedly. "I'm sorry I'm not a suicidal maniac like you, only carrying the one."

Jason chortles because it’s half true. "So, what, did you lose both of them or something? I would have expected you to have at least started trying to climb out by now."

The younger man glares and then moves for the first time Jason can recall since he had arrived, raising a shaky hand to flip him off. Tim coughs with a wince and Jason sobers up quickly as he studies his replacement a little more carefully.

"What's the story, Pretender?" Jason asks, sweeping the flashlight around to try to see more. Tim turns his head away as if he were now trying to ignore the older vigilante, so Jason waves the flashlight around until the cramped space started to resemble some sort of impromptu rave.

"Ugh, stop it! Fuck! Why would I call you out - call anyone out at all - if I could climb out of this by myself?" Tim asks in a quavering tone, retching at the end of the hypothetical question. Jason freezes the light on him, getting a sinking feeling as he watches what he is now sure are the unintended side effects of his homemade strobe light. The kid probably has a concussion, at the very least.

"Replacement? Speak up, I can't hear you. Why're you still down there?"

"Fuck. You," Tim gasps, coughing. "I fucking fell okay? And now… I think…" - he blanches and swallows - "I think I shattered my right leg. I tried to move after I fell, but I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew it was an hour later and I was still at the bottom of this damn hole." He coughs again and sways, sending Jason into high alert. He does a quick tally of Tim’s injuries: definite broken leg, a probable concussion, and maybe a few cracked ribs - cracked if he is lucky; fully-fractured and puncturing a lung if he isn’t. Multiple sites of internal bleeding if Tim is truly down on his luck. Considering the circumstances, he doesn’t trust Tim’s luck. He raises a hand to activate his hardly-used comm, then pauses when Tim continues.

"I called you because I don't think I can get out of this on my own, as much as it pains me to admit," Tim explains with a weak grin. Jason shakes his head in disapproval at the poorly timed joke.

"No shit, Babybird. But why did you call me?" It was a legitimate question, and one he knew he needed to phrase carefully if he wanted an honest answer. "If you have a shattered leg you're probably gonna need that fire brigade. Why didn't you call Batman or the other Batman or even Batgirl?"

"What, so they could bring Robin along to finish me off? Or so my ex could freak out and call them all in to make a big deal over it? Jason. Please. No. I called you because I don't want to make a big deal out of this. I'm not Batman - I have friends - but I'm still trying to work through a lot of stuff right now and I don't need B or Dick trying to tell me to 'come home' or 'take some time' or whatever else they wanna say to me right now."

Jason blinks at the flood of words then shakes his head, commiserating but uncertain. "Tim, man, I hate to break it to you but this is kind of a big deal - the whole 'shattering a limb' thing, ya know - and you will, probably, need to, uhh, 'take some time'." He sighs and runs a hand through his sweat-damp hair. "Man, I don't even think I can get you out of this hole on my own without causing you some serious pain and possibly inflicting further damage. And can you imagine what Alfie's gonna say when he finds out you needed help and didn't turn to the family? Didn't turn to him?"

Tim blinks up at him with a deeply weary expression - Jason knows that feeling, totally feels him on that - and shakes his head in return, refusing to accept to the realities of his situation. They’ve reached an impasse and neither man seems willing to give, but Jason has the high ground - in more ways than one - and knows it. He crosses his arms on the coping of the well and waits. They stare at each other for a long minute before Tim finally sighs and gives in.

"I know. It's just… I just…" His eyes bore into Jason and Jason knows what he is going to say before the words cross his lips. "I just can't."

Jason gets that - he really, really gets that. ‘Been there, done that’ and all that jazz. He scrubs a hand over his face, groaning internally at what he doesn’t want, but can’t help but say next.

"Fine. If that's how you want to do this, then, sure, Replacement, just this once, I will haul you out of that well and I won't say a fucking word to the Batclan about any of this. But you better be ready for the flight of your life if you plan on concealing your injury from them entirely, or for the fight of your life if you intend on fending off Alfred once he finds out."

Jason tries to ignore the badly concealed look of relief on his replacement's face and also tries to suppress the voices screaming 'bad idea' and 'really, really bad idea' in his head as he begins rappelling down to the downed bird. He only said he'd haul him out of the well, but Jason knows he won't stop at that - there is no way Tim is getting home on his own and how the hell did he plan to set his own bones, anyway?

Tim is probably going to need at least one surgery, if not more, to correct and stabilize the bones, if he was right about how shattered his leg was. There is no way this was going to be a swift, easy fix. Not to mention all the other injuries he’s probably racked up. There is definitely no way in hell he is going to be able to avoid the family on this one.

Jason knows all that and mulls over it as he suspends himself over Tim and prepares to move him, but Jason knows it doesn't matter that he knows. He knows it won't even matter that he plans to tell Tim all about what he knows, sure as sugar, once Tim wakes up again (because he also knows Tim isn't gonna stay conscious for the move, even if he manages to dodge the sedative Jason plans to hit him with).

The truth won't matter until Tim accepts it too, so, for the time being, Jason resigns himself to wait. Resigns himself to wait and watch over another broken Robin until this one decides it's time to come home too.

AN: This set vaguely after the events of the pre-new 52 Red Robin series (2009-2011), in a Gotham in which Tim is still connected to, but distant from the Batfamily and Batman Inc. Bruce and Tim… aren't necessarily seeing eye-to-eye right now. Dick is still Batman, Damian is his Robin, Stephanie is Batgirl, and Bruce is the other Batman who is more concerned with Batman Inc than Gotham for the moment. Jason is the Red Hood and he is "reconciled" with the batfam, but, word of warning, he and Tim are not friends in this setting. Jason is still working out his feelings toward the "family"  and his "replacement". This work wasn't directly inspired by this, but my favorite headcanon for how Jason would feel during this period and how he would eventually reconcile to the batfam is laid out beautifully in All Roofs of Uncertainty by Kieron_ODuibhir; I highly recommend the work.