#travel bug Steph

[wosoamazing]

The Transfer

Summary: You move to Barca.

Warnings: None I don't think

A/N: Google translated Spanish so I apologies if it is incorrect, hope you like it. Also as usual feel free to send requests, whether it is for this Series or for kid!readers, or something else. Hope you like it.

You run to Leah when you see her, and give her a massive hug, you missed her, camp was hard, especially the second last day. There was a conversation you needed to have with her, you didn’t want to risk her finding out from someone else, so you decided to just start it right there and then in the airport.

“We need to talk about something, Le.”

“Go to Barca.”

“What?” you exclaim looking up at her, surely you heard her wrong.

“Go to Barca, you deserve it Bug, you’re amazing, go to Barca, you can always come back, Arsenal will take you back in a heartbeat, any club would take you back in a heartbeat, but you’re not going to want to come back, and I’ll visit I promise, and we can put daily facetime calls in our calendar for the first few weeks. Call me whenever you need, I’ll pick up the phone. But the girls are lovely there, and you will have Lucy and Kiera.”

“Wait, so you’re saying go? How did you find out?”

“Of course I’m saying go, it’s Barca, and the finding out part, well Alexia messaged asking if I knew anything I said no, asked Lucy and Kiera and they were like ‘yeah she spoke to us about what the people were like, and the environment etc we thought you knew’ Millie then walked in and was like ‘Guy’s shit just went down at the Matildas camp, might want to check your sister is okay though Leah’, Millie than told us what Sam told her and yeah”

“So, you’re not mad I didn’t ask you first?”

“No, I’m proud, you asked the right people the right questions, you stood up for yourself, you manage to do some pretty hard ball negotiations, and you didn’t let anyone make the decision for you, you stayed true to yourself, and I’m proud.”

_____

“Ready to go?” Lucy asks as your suitcases are loaded into the back of the car, you nod you had just played friendlies against the Lionesses in England, so at least the travel there was short, however the travel back to your club was going to be a bit longer, as you weren’t returning to Arsenal but to Barca.

“I feel sick,” Kiera moaned as she came out to join you and Lucy.

“Yeah, I told you to stop drinking, why do you think we didn’t drink.”

“Ah because she is still a week and one year underage, and you I don’t know, because you don’t know how to let loose and have fun,” Kiera replies. Last night some of your national and club teammates as well as some Leah’s national teammates had a party in your honour, to celebrate you going to Barca and to celebrate your Birthday, which was in a week.

_____

It was your first night staying at Lucy and Kiera’s and somehow it was conveniently team bonding night at their place. It didn’t seem like a coincidence at all. You were really nervous to meet the team, they all knew each other already, this was the first time you were joining a team that you were completely new in, when you joined Arsenal you already knew the girls really well because of Leah, and then when you joined the Matildas you had Steph, Kyra and Caitlin, but this was different.

You had stayed quiet for most of the night, watching the game, trying not to draw attention to yourself, however that was all unravelled when Mapi sighed “Estúpido Àrbitro. Eso fue claramente una falta.” (Stupid Referee, that was clearly a foul)

“Casi fue tarjeta amarilla.” (almost was a yellow card)

Everyone heads turned to you, and their jaws dropped. “You know Spanish?”

“Ah, well a bit, mainly to do with the game, one of my Friend’s Dad’s is Spanish and they talk Spanish at home, especially when he is watching the game.”

“Leah never told me that,” Lucy remarked, “Leah doesn’t necessarily know” “oh, so is this a friend or a friend.”

“Lucy leave the poor kid alone,” Kiera told her off.

“So it is a special friend,” “Is she, or he, cute?” “Do you have a photo?” the girls all asked at once.

“Girls, as Kiera said, leave the poor kid alone, she just got here” Alexia told them, they all shut up immediately.

_____

“Oh, Bebita, what’s wrong?” Alexia asks you as she walks into the locker room, you were slumped back in your locker, leaning against the wall, “come here”, she says as she drags you up and brings you in for a hug, in which you broke, tears start to stream down your face as you try to get out of Alexia’s grip, it was only your third day at Barcelona and yet here you were crying in front of your new captain. Alexia only tightened her grip at your actions cooing “It’s okay, I’m here,” rubbing your back slightly. “How about we sit down,” she sat down and pulled you into her lap, you rested your head on her shoulder, giving into her.

“I-I miss Le,” You sobbed into her shoulder.

“I know, its okay Bebita, we’re here,” Alexia could never understand completely how you felt but she could imagine, she could see how close you and Leah were which wasn’t surprising considering you had been living with her for the past six years but leaving her and only seeing her through the phone was something you were struggling with, and the team had started to notice it, you were always slightly sadder when you re-joined the team after being on the phone with Leah.

_____

You woke up and looked at the clock, it was 9:00am, ‘shit’ you mumble to yourself, you sprung out of your bed before flopping back into it, after having the realisation that you didn’t have training today, you had a game last night, which you played in, it was much tougher than the games at Arsenal, so you were exhausted.

It was only then that you took in your surrounds, there were balloons scattered around your room, and on the floor, there were little present signs with arrows. You quickly got yourself semi presentable before following the presents, they lead you into the living room, all your new teammates were there. “Surprise!” they all yelled whilst someone exploded one of those confetti guns, you were in fact surprised, you had been at Barca a week, you were expecting something low key with Lucy and Kiera not a whole team affair, “Come sit,” Lucy said tapping the empty section of couch between her and Alexia, as you walked over you couldn’t help but notice the pile of presents on the coffee table, you had already received gifts from your family and arsenal teammates, so these had to be from your Barca teammates but you couldn’t really believe it.

“You got these all for me?” you questioned in disbelief.

“Yes, they are all for you,” Alexia tells you before handing you a gift, “here open.”

You eventually finished making your way through the present pile and thanked everyone profusely.

However, while you thanked everyone Alexia walked in with three more presents, these ones were quite heavy. “Don’t open them yet, I just need to call someone,” whoever she was calling answered, and then she handed the phone to you, it was Leah and Lia, “Happy Birthday Bug! We may have some surprises for you, open the skinny rectangular one first. It’s from Katie, she wanted you to have it on your actual Birthday, make it more special” you opened it up and grinned it was a whoop, “tell her I like it please, and that I said thank you.”

“Will do bug, now the smaller of the two remaining was Lia’s idea, but both presents are from us” you opened the two gifts and at the sight of them tears left your eyes, “T-thank you,” your sister and Lia had just gifted you a new Mac Book Pro and a new iPhone. Ingrid moved closer to you and hugged you, knowing it was what you needed. After getting ready the rest of your morning was filled with fun festivities as the girls made sure to spoil you, however it was time to start getting ready to go out for dinner, so everyone returned to their own homes in agreeance they would all meet there, waiting for everyone to be there before they went in.

As you walked into the restaurant with the team Lucy whispered to you, “there may be one more surprise,” she gestured her head over to the massive table in the restaurant, where two familiar figures sat, you couldn’t control yourself and run over to them. “Hi Bug, glad you’re happy to see us,” Leah said hugging you “we missed you” Lia said now hugging you.

“I missed you too” you said before you sat down between them, you were grinning from ear to ear. “How are you here?” “Oh, this was all Alexia’s doing, she planned it all.” You looked over to you captain who winked at you, maybe Barca wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

[woso-dreamzzz]

Platonic Masterlist

+ - Child!Reader

*- Teen!Reader

Alexia Putellas x Reader

The Little Bambi Ballerina Masterlist +

Holiday Spirit II* -> You go to Alexia's for Christmas

Pequeñita's Chinchilla Masterlist +

Leaving * -> You're leaving

Leaving II * -> Your Career Grand Slam

Leaving III * -> You've made a mistake

Leaving IV * -> Alexia takes you on holiday

Leaving V * -> You hate clay courts

Leaving VI * -> Your schedules don't match

Leaving VII * -> Olympic chaos with your sister

Leaving VIII * -> coming soon

Perfect + -> You're just perfect

Jenni Hermoso x Reader

Foxes + -> You like foxes

Foxes II + -> You draw Jenni

Foxes III + -> coming soon

Alexia Putellas + Jenni Hermoso x Reader

Ruin -> Your guardians fight for custody

Marta Torrejón x Caroline Graham Hansen x Reader

Conejita's Flowers Masterlist +

Irene Paredes x Reader

Sisters * -> You and your sister's wife

Aitana Bonmatí x Reader

Estrella's Stars Masterlist +

Fridolina Rolfö x Reader

Wiped Out * -> The match between Australia and Sweden

Wiped Out II* -> You look like your cousin

Älskling's Crime Scene Masterlist +

Mapi Leon x Ingrid Engen x Reader

Bebita's Bike Masterlist +

Protective * -> You get injured

Teeny's Hedgehog Masterlist +

Heart + -> They meet you in the hospital

Heart II + -> You try to recover

Heart III + -> You get adopted

Heart IV + -> A soft day off

Heart V + -> You're sick

Cub's Pride Masterlist +

Teenage Dirtbag * -> Ingrid just doesn't understand you

Teenage Dirtbag II * -> It goes well until it doesn't

Skatt's Bugs Masterlist +

Icy * -> Ingrid gets angry

Icy II * -> You think about your life

Icy III * -> coming soon

Katrina Gorry x Reader

Sleep * -> You fall asleep

Sleep II * -> You forget your medication

Bubs' Grumpiness Masterlist +

Steph Catley x Reader

Angel's Hearing Masterlist +

Sam Kerr x Kristie Mewis x Reader

Chook's Dinosaurs Masterlist +

Ellie Carpenter x Daniëlle van de Donk x Reader

Pipsqueak's Teasing Masterlist +

Alessia Russo x Reader

Tesoro's Mirror Masterlist +

Mary Earps x Reader

Rugrat's Library Masterlist +

Carnival + -> Mary takes you to the carnival

Leah Williamson x Jordan Nobbs x Reader

Bug's Hugs Masterlist +

Lucy Bronze x Keira Walsh x Reader

Peanut's Travels Masterlist +

Dogs + -> You meet a different Nala

Bear's Shyness Masterlist +

Lucy Bronze x Ona Batlle x Reader

New Girlfriend * -> You adjust to your Mum's new girlfriend

New Girlfriend II* -> Ona's tipsy

New Girlfriend III* -> coming soon

Dogs II + -> You don't like Ona

Keira Walsh x Laura Feiersinger x Reader

Dogs III + -> You meet Laura

Katie McCabe x Caitlin Foord x Reader

Gremlin's Yellow Cards Masterlist +

Jessie Fleming x Reader

Duckie's Ducks Masterlist +

Lia Wälti x Reader

Helper + -> You're the best helper

Helper II + -> You're sick

Helper III + -> You help your Mummy's girlfriend

Helper IV + -> coming soon

Frida Maanum x Emma Lennartsson x Reader

Squish's Foraging Masterlist +

Katie McCabe x Reader

End of the World + -> You world ends

End of the World II + -> The World Cup tension

End of the World III + -> It's different at Mammy's house

End of the World IV + -> Christmas in Australia

End of the World V + -> The last day in Australia

End of the World VI + -> coming soon

End of the World VII + -> coming soon

Beth Mead x Vivianne Miedema x Reader

Liefje's Aquarium Masterlist +

Munchkin's First Aid Kit Masterlist +

Foster * -> You're taken to a new home

Foster II * -> Your first visitation

Pernille Harder x Magdalena Eriksson x Reader

Hide * -> You can't hide anything from your mothers

Proud * -> Your mothers come to your Arsenal debut

Proud II * -> The London Derby against Chelsea

Proud III * -> The aftermath of the derby

Proud IV * -> The night after the derby

Proud V* -> Your first match for Sweden

Proud VI * -> You join Bayern Munich

Proud VII * -> Your biological parents want a meeting

Proud VIII * -> A friendly against Barcelona

Bully * -> Violence isn't always the answer

Help * -> You're struggling a bit

Olympique Lyonnais x Reader

Prodigy * -> A slow morning at baggage claim

England Lionesses x Reader

Rugrat's Library Masterlist +

Blood Sugar * -> You have a hypo during a match

Blood Sugar II * -> You go on Bake Off

Arsenal Women x Reader

Arsenal Women Masterlist

Barcelona Femení x Reader

Barcelona Femení Masterlist

Baby Crossovers

Peanut and Liefje

Peanut and Liefje

-> Liefje's your best friend

Cub and Älskling 

Cub and Älskling

-> You meet Frido's Älskling 

Teen Crossovers

Mignon and Pollito -> You and your partner in crime

The Special AU

Melting Pot

-> A melting pot of universes

Melting Pot II

-> A day in the life of the Engen-Leóns

Melting Pot III

-> coming soon

[starofthesea37]

Marauders x Batfamily Crossover

So I really want to write a marauders x bats crossover, but I am uncharacteristically lost on the mechanics of it. You see, I love coming up with random au’s for my fandoms, and I have SO MANY IDEAS about interactions between marauders era characters and the bats (specifically around sibling dynamics), and many many ideas for random plot points and scenes, but what I can’t figure out is why they end up in this situation in the first place.

The general idea is that the bats go undercover at Hogwarts during the marauders era to gather information and help with the war against Voldemort. I’m not sure WHICH of the bats it would be, and what their roles in this endeavour would be (is it Tim, Steph & Damian who go, as they’re the only ones in the age range? Or is there some sort of age reversal spell involved that allows them all to attend? Or maybe the older bats are involved, but from the outside, as members of the Order of the Phoenix or Deatheaters or Ministry workers etc., or is it Young Justice who go?), but that is something I can figure out later depending on the mechanics of how it comes about.

What I need to know first is why it’s happening. Whereas in Golden Trio era crossovers the timeline can easily be adjusted to match up, for this crossover it’s very important that the Marauders era is in the 70s, and the bats would have to be from the 2010s+ in order to realistically have the technology they do. Therefore there has to be some sort of time or dimension travel involved. Meaning that this mission has to be entirely purposeful and planned. They have to have a reason to go back in time or travel to another dimension to help with the wizard of war (which also happens to be in England, very far from Gotham and the bats territory).

I have plans for how they get magic, how they get into the school etc., but this part is what’s really bugging me. I need my AU’s to make logical sense, otherwise I drop them.

I’d also like to mention that there are literally no fics with this crossover on ao3, and therefore I, as someone who has been deeply immersed in both these fandoms for a while, feel a moral obligation to fill this tragic gap. There’s just far too much potential for character interactions and awesome plot points to pass up the opportunity.

Also I’d like to put what ships/headcanons I may be including/referencing in this, just as a disclaimer in case anyone feels strongly against them. Just because they’re on this list doesn't necessarily mean they will definitely be included, but this is just what I fuck with and will include if it works for the plot.

•Romantic Ships (Marauders): Jegulus, Wolfstar, Pandalily, Dorlene, Rosekiller.

•Romantic Ships (Bats): TimKon (possibly Timberkon), Birdflash.

•I can maybe be convinced to include others so long as they’re not incest, age gap or anything else horrifying and illegal.

•Platonic Ships/Dynamics (Marauders): Marauders (James, Peter, Sirius, Remus)(obviously), Valkyries (Lily, Mary, Marlene), Skittles (Regulus, Barty, Evan, Dorcas, Pandora), Black Brothers (Regulus & Sirius), Prongsfoot (James & Sirius), Moonwater (Regulus & Remus), Moonflower (Remus & Lily), Marlene, James & Peter as childhood besties.

•Platonic Ships/Dynamics (Bats): all the bats to varying degrees obviously, but specifically, Jason & Tim, Tim & Steph, Tim & Damian, Dick & Damian, Damian & Jason.

I’ve almost definitely forgotten some but you get the general picture. Hopefully.

I have an entire google doc dedicated to what houses I think each of the bats would be in, but my opinion on that changes literally daily. They’re confusing your honour. But mainly I think it would just be hilarious to put Jason Todd in a dorm with the marauders and watch them flounder. Oh and stick Tim in Regulus’ dorm. He’d be such a menace. And Steph in the Valkyries dorm. Someone stop me before I cause too much chaos 😭

Anyway! This crossover has been living rent free in my mind for so long and I would appreciate any and all feedback/thoughts/opinions/ideas!!!!

I’ll probably add more onto this at some point, but this is the general gist. Pleaseeeeee gimme ideas!!!

Oh also fuck jkr :)

[redrapscalian]

The Robins’ Animal Crossing New Horizons Islands:

Dick: Sunk all of his time and effort into finding his dream villagers and nothing else. His gameplay is 100% doing missions for Nookmiles and blowing them all on mystery island tickets. He likes the jock villagers and all the ones that look dorky (he has a lot of mice). His island is completely unfinished because he’s spent no time on it, there’s piles of materials everywhere and all of the houses are in random locations, but he has his Boys(tm) and that’s enough. Has guest rooms in his house for when his siblings come to visit his island.

Jason: Put a lot of time into terraforming the perfect island. It has a very natural theme and every home has a little nook it fits in like a cottage in the woods. Very calm little island. Has a mix of jock, normal, and peppy villagers because he built a house plot and let the game choose random villagers for him. The ones he wants to get rid of refuse to leave and he spends a lot of time building pitfalls around their property and hitting them with nets so they fuck off. Does not visit Dick’s island, and when he does, it’s to trample his flowers and leave.

Tim: The “Collector” player. Set up his island from the very beginning for max efficiency and speed. His pet peeve of the game is the absurd amount of useless menus. Never talks to the nooklings and only uses the drop off box, and doesn’t use the Nookstop terminal for anything but money deposits. All of the shops/the museum are in one line right beside his house and he’s constantly time travelling to get all of the seasonal bugs and fish. His island is a mess of workbenches and loose materials everywhere. He has a small handful of villagers he cares very much for, they’re all just random and he got attached. Visits Dick’s island regularly.

Steph: Cute, soft island theme. Put a lot of time into finding and growing all the flower types and is an expert at flower breeding, has a wealth of fruit trees and crops in neat little orchards and makes bank off the Nooklings. Sought out all of the cute villagers (and Cranston) from the mystery islands and made them a neighbourhood, and is absolutely ruthless to the villagers that move it uninvited. No one else knows how she gets them off her island so fast, and she will not give up her secret. Has caught every insect, does not care much for fish. Visits Dick’s island every now and then, takes things left on the ground.

Damien: His island is one massive Work in Progress because he’s trying to make one of those complex city designs and getting all of the items takes forever. Has collected every fossil because they kept popping up and getting in his way, and only catches the fish and bugs so he can listen to Blathers’ fun facts. Likes the smug and big sister type villagers the most, and puts any he doesn’t want on his island in “jail” (read: a complex maze of pitfalls and scary decorations). Spends a lot of time resource-grinding and has hundreds of everything. Visits Dick’s island so he can critique his design choices (and steal the tree furniture).

[damianbugs]

oh also i desperately need ur stephanie related fic recs please hand them over i trust ur judgement

this sudden stephanie appreciation makes me so happy. she is indeed the guy of all time, the best and the greatest forever. no one does it like her ever. i am also so flattered you trust me with this, and so i hope these do not disappoint u anon!

STEPHANIE BROWN CENTRIC FIC RECS ON AO3

Oops by Tiptapricot

Steph wakes up in a dingy Gotham alley, her ears ringing and head pounding like a drum. When she opens her eyes to see a kid in scaly green shorts and a cape, she realizes her mistake on tonight's mission was much bigger than she realized.

MY NOTES: starting off strong with time travel!!! a wonderful fic that focuses on stephs role as a hero and the dynamic between her a dick was so sweet to read. truly a love letter to what spoiler is.

Let Your Clarity Define You by Hinn_River

Five times Stephanie Brown met someone for the first time, and one reunion.

MY NOTES: my life motto is shoot every character you love with the transgender beam. this work is so special to me, especially the entire idea of what being a hero, in any capacity, can mean to someone, and was just a lovely and heartwarming read. (also!!! trans duke!!!!)

What's So Amazing That Keeps Us Stargazing by Cerusee

Jason, the plaque read. Just that. Just…. Jason. There were other cases in the Cave, other costumes on display, but somehow, this one felt different. Stephanie wasn’t stupid; she knew Robin’s colors well as any Gotham kid did. It was Dick’s old costume. (Stephanie knew she wasn’t even supposed to know that name; Batman had had a concussion when he’d called Nightwing by it, and they’d both been cagey with her for months afterwards.) It was the costume he’d worn before he’d grown up and become Nightwing. So why this case, with this costume, but a different name?

MY NOTES: oh this fic!!! the fic of all time!! the conversations had in this fic really dig right into your heart and hit where it hurts, but i just loved every bit of it. stephanie is the balance to a lot of the grief that clouds around bruce, dick and babs and it was just handled marvelously in this. must read!

always for the greener side by chiriklo

Stephanie jumps to action. She hits the ground running, pounding a beat in spry, renewed vigor. There’s nothing holding her back. She’s chasing a string from her heart, burning with desire to make the world a better place. She will climb every wall, jump every fence, leap every hurdle it takes, because nothing can stop Stephanie Brown from fighting for a brighter future. Robin or not, she’ll leave her mark. — Stephanie Brown in first-time meetings, finding purpose, and hard-earned evolution.

MY NOTES: there is just something so special about fics where we follow stephanie throughout her life and watch her grow into the hero she has always been. again, with the loveliest dynamic with dick. a must read!

I'm Your Clone, Your Strange Creation by Sohotthateveryonedied

Fuckin’ crazy, her mother often said. About everything and anyone. The oil prices? Fuckin’ crazy. The corner store employee who refused to let Stephanie purchase a pack of cigarettes for her mother? Fuckin’ crazy. Your father? Fuckin’ crazy. “Why do you do it?” Steph asked him once. Arthur was sat at the coffee table, writing and rewriting a first draft of the note he planned to leave behind after tomorrow’s robbery. “You’re gonna get caught again.” For once, Arthur didn’t tell her off for bugging him. He flipped his pencil around to erase a word, his eraser squeaking on the paper. “Keeps me sane.” Steph considered that, frowning. “Can’t you be sane and not get caught?” “Not how it works, babygirl. Not for people like me.” He rubbed her head. “Go get me another beer, will ya?”

MY NOTES: i think everyone should read this introspection fic simply because the final line is 'Fathers. They never stop cutting.' and it fits just so perfectly into the premise of this work.

to avoid repeating fic recs too many times, you can find more stephanie focused fics here !

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hey Steph! Do you or your followers have any fics in which sherlock is really good in chemistry (as he should), like you get that he knows a lot about it? but like in a way that it's included in the fic in some way or the other? does not have to be a fic centered around that topic in a major way or anything

Hey Nonny!

AHHHHH bugging me because I know I have some SPECIFICALLY focussed on Chemistry... but here's everything tagged / referencing chemistry that I can recall! Feel free to add more, friends!

SHERLOCK AND CHEMISTRY

A Symphony of Chemical Reactions by what_alchemy (T, 2,351 w., 1 Ch. || Experiments, Est. Rel., Fluff) – Cooking’s just chemistry and time management. (Sherlock loves John so much it’s gross)

John's Missing Wednesday by PipMer (K+, 2,999 w., 1 Ch. || Pre-Slash, Pre-TSo3, Non-Con Drugged John, Friendship, Experiment) –  "Now John I'd poison. ... Sloppy eater – dead easy. I've given him chemicals and compounds that way, he's never even noticed. He missed a whole Wednesday once, didn't have a clue." – The Sign of Three. This is the story of that missing Wednesday.

Equilibrium by augustbird (M, 12,351 w., 1 Ch. || Flowers for Algernon Fusion || Jealous then Worried Sherlock, Sick John) – At Baskerville, John is infected by a virus that turns him into a genius. But when the infection progresses into neurodegeneration, it's a race against time to save himself.

Traitor's Gate by roane (E, 17,714 w., 6 Ch. || Post-TRF, Case Fic, Mystery, Bets and Wagers, Undercover for a Case, BAMF John, Scientist Sherlock, Teasing, Established Relationship, Military Base, Sexting/Texting, Military/Uniform Kink, Frottage, Dirty Sex, Anal, Bottomlock) – John and Sherlock go undercover at a top secret government lab to find out who is selling research. John is back in uniform and Sherlock is back in a laboratory, but they have to pose as strangers. Sherlock thinks he'll have an easy time of it, but John has his doubts. It's up to them to find out who is responsible for putting a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, and try to keep their hands off each other at the same time.

Love or What You Will by miss_frankenstein (T, 31,987 w., 11 Ch. || College/Uni AU || Professor John, Ph.D Student Sherlock, Pining John, Poetry, Falling in Love / Slow Burn, Light Angst, Happy Ending) – John is an English professor who specializes in War and Post-War Literature and Sherlock is the brilliant yet impossible Ph.D. student assigned to be his TA because no one in the Chemistry Department is willing to put up with him. And - somewhere between Waugh and Plath, e-mails and takeaway, novels and villanelles - they fall in love.

The Real Great Perfumers by shelleysprometheus (E, 45,355 w., 68 Ch. || Case Fic, Alternating POV, Gay Sherlock / Bi John, Canon Compliant with Divergence at TRF, Friends to Lovers, Oral / Anal, Pining, First Kiss / Time, Dev. Rel., Drugging, Body Worship, Bathing, Love Confessions, Travelling, Bottomlock, Cranky Sherlock, BJ’s, Alternating POV, Jealous John) – The case, this case. This extraordinary, fascinating, scintillating case. A house. Designed entirely by its eccentric owner, built by no less than five hundred expert tradesmen in the heart of Marrakesh. A house that had, seemingly not only driven its owner out, but also to his quite unpleasant death. And a perfumer, a chemist no less, the very thought of the secrets that house could reveal, would reveal was irresistible. Sherlock had to have this case ... and it seems, he also had to have John! Part 1 of the Forethought and Fire series

A Hundred Crimson Sols by elldotsee (E, 55,536 w., 16 Ch. || Astronauts AU || Mars Exploration / Space Travel, Slow Burn, Shy Sherlock, Scientist Sherlock / Biomed Engineer John, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, UST, Angst with Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Injuries, Suicidal Ideation, Zero-G Sex) – Will Holmes is a chemical researcher recognized widely for his contributions to the new Mars exploration program. Thanks to his ground-breaking developments, the IMMC (International Mars Mission Corporation) is one step closer to Martian colonization. Will and his team of scientists are headed out on the first of three manned missions before the first group of settlers arrive. Three days before launch, one of the crew has to be replaced. Will panics because...new people. The replacement is of course one John Watson, biomedical engineer and space hottie who was pretty sure he had retired from actual space exploration and was now content to work in the nice, quiet research lab. Can the crew survive this TOTALLY ROUTINE trip? Will they be able to endure each other for the looooooong trip in close quarters? Gonna be a wild ride... prepare for blast off. Part 1 of SpaceBois go to Space 

Sketchy by serpentynka (E, 184,053 w., 83 Ch. || Post-TRF, Post-Mary, John Whump, Slow Burn Love Story, Case Fic, Art, Porn With Feelings, Switchlock, Travelling, Career Change, Family Secrets, Illness / Health) – What (and who) will be left when nobody cares about your Work? A slow-burn fic with cases, places, mistaken identities, unfair choices, essential changes, violent feels, blatant lies, fearless portraiture, family secrets, high-risk bespoke gifts, durable friendships, bedtime stories, foreign travel and tongues, sickness (and health), and the significance of things which are slow to unfurl -- but cannot be ignored. Oh, and...porn. Part 1: Sherlock takes on an obvious case (barely a 4) and meets someone who will force him to re-examine what it means to see. Part 1 of Sketchy

[fuddieduddies-art]

🐷 💘 💛 🖤 🍝 🧐😞 🤔🍛 🎶 🩹 FOR TONY AND HILDEGARD

omg hiiii bestie. once more let's get some read more action cause this is a lot lol.

🐷 PIG FACE — what is your oc's favorite animal?

hildegard. again, certified bug liker. probably weird stuff specifically like spiders, centipedes, anything with like weird long ass legs and million eyes and pincers. tony will see a falcon and be like wooahh sick The Maltese Falcon (1941) reference.

💘 HEART WITH ARROW — what and/or who do(es) your oc consider the most important to them?

hildegard. the fact i do not have a immediate answer makes me so sad. probably some people at the circus who they still write to on their travels. it will become tristen god willing. tony. steph one million heart emojis and zivah :) and also dire, yes, but he would never say that to his face lol.

💛 YELLOW HEART — how many languages does your oc speak? what language(s) are they learning, if any?

hildegard. they speak common and elvish :] tony. english, some italian. fluent in talking shit.

🖤 BLACK HEART — has your oc killed or seriously wounded anyone before? have they broken someone's heart and/or broken someone's trust?

hildegard. somehow she hasn't lmao. definitely has caused a few accidents with their powers that have gotten people hurt, but nothing that serious. they don't strike me as a heartbreaker tho tony. iman you know this. yeah like a handful. whoops lmao. broke steph's heart with The Incident.

🍝 SPAGHETTI — what is/are your oc's favorite food(s)?

hildegard. stews and soup and meat pies and whatnot. tony. i bet his mom makes really banging risotto and It's That.

🧐 FACE WITH MONOCLE — is your oc more logical or emotional?

hildegard. more logical in a way people find maybe a little cold or uncomfortably clinical. tony. ohhh he is so emotional honestly he needs to chillax.

😞 DISAPPOINTED FACE — does your oc attract others, or do they tend to be left alone?

hildegard. tragically their weird and off-putting swag is too much for most, and they tend to be left alone. creatures don't mind, though. monsters don't mind. tony. everyone either wants to climb him like a tree or is immediately intimidated by him. so like jury's out. until the time of the campaign he's been very reluctant to make any sort of deeper connections with people. because of the curse.

🍛 CURRY AND RICE — what does your oc's typical dinner look like? do they usually eat dinner

hildegard. since he travels around a lot, he tends to eat stuff that can last longer and that's easy to have on the road. bread, cheeses, dried meats and fruits. tony. well. he has a notable and unfortunate dietary requirement, so generally speaking he just kind of does a Snake Meal of human flesh and whatever he has on hand, either leftovers or takeout or something he makes himself, and that keeps him going for about a week. girl dinner.

🎶 MUSICAL NOTES — what type of music does your oc like? do they listen to music very often?

hildegard. god what music do they have in dnd. spooky music from the sims 4. i think they'd like stuff that's pretty upbeat and intense, and songs that have a story. tony. dad rock and jazz. perhaps he peeps some more musical theatre bc of zivah. he likes to have something on in the background pretty often.

🩹 ADHESIVE BANDAGE — does your oc have any physical and/or mental disabilities?

all of my characters are autistic even if they're neurotypical because they are made and played by me. hope this helps.

[jupiter-reimagined]

starduster masterlist [discontinued oc world]

INTROS

- melz, he/him. the father. god of space

- stephanie (steph) she/her. the mother. goddess of time

- void, they/it. youngest (adopted) child. demigod, the ability to control space was given to it by the cosmos itself, can dimension travel. important note! they dont have a neck***

- vast, he/it. older brother to void. a robot made to look out for void. was given the ability to time travel back in time to prevent accidents.

- elly, it/its. adoptive child of void. it’s a computer bug which came to life, used to live in a different dimension before getting brought to a different one.

*** it happened due to supernatural entity hunters shooting them straight in the throat and dying, while they were out with vast. he rewinds time just a bit, but because time travel is SO messy, void still ends up injured and now neck-less, but alive.

WRITING LIST

born from the void - void & melz

backroom escapades - void & elly & misc man

finding a name - vast & void

DESIGNS

as of ~2024, featuring the family tree

[wolfcrisp-69]

Previous post | Next post

After Clay's cousin Tara speaks about her intention to travel half of Portsim for a date, Clay decides to take her there.

Clay: "Who's the lucky girl huh?"

Tara: "Her name is Steph, we both were scouts as kids"

Clay: "No way, you were a scout? I used to be an eagle scout with Hank back home in Millervile"

Tara: "She is still with the local group, she loves bugs, and clouds and flowers and, she is perfect" she spoke with a smile on her.

Clay: "I need you to promise to not escape like that no more, ok? if you need me to drive you somewhere so be it, but I don't want you walking this town so late, whether you are alone or with someone else, after hearing about the women disappearing in this town, I don't want to risk that, hearing about that Whitney Byrd case..."

Tara: "Okay mom" she said mockingly but then her tone became more sincere "I will, I promise"

Clay continued driving with an awkward silence, no music, only the motor of the old truck.

Tara: "I actually knew Whitney, she was in my high school, but she was a little older than I, I didn't know her well, but I had been to her house, you know?"

Clay: "I wouldn't want anything like that to happen to someone I know, back in my town there was a similar case"

Tara: "Steph has a podcast, she talks about unsolved cases and crime, she tried to get into the case but the police told her to stay out..."

Clay: "Stay out, don't need whoever did it with their eyes on Steph and you."

Tara: "It's the park over there in the corner, that's where I am meeting her"

Clay: "I will stay nearby okay? I will drive you home and your girlfriend if she needs it"

Tara: "it's cold outside anyway..."

Clay: "Before you go, what's the deal with Maggie and you, and your girlfriend?"

Tara: "Steph just chooses to be herself, but Maggie doesn't like that, she almost threatened to remove my nose ring herself when I got it, she has an outdated mindset"

Clay: "Is she..."

Tara: "homophobic? yes, she doesn't like Steph much because she thinks she's a lesbian, and also that she is corrupting me"

Clay let out a dissapointed sigh: "I'm sorry"

Tara: "I can't wait to go to college and leave, you know?"

Clay: "If she doesn't accept you, Hank and I are your family too, keep that in mind"

[chesters-ocs]

starduster masterlist [discontinued]

INTROS

- melz, he/him. the father. god of space

- stephanie (steph) she/her. the mother. goddess of time

- void, they/it. youngest (adopted) child. demigod, the ability to control space was given to it by the cosmos itself, can dimension travel. important note! they dont have a neck***

- vast, he/it. older brother to void. a robot made to look out for void. was given the ability to time travel back in time to prevent accidents.

- elly, it/its. adoptive child of void. it’s a computer bug which came to life, used to live in a different dimension before getting brought to a different one.

*** it happened due to supernatural entity hunters shooting them straight in the throat and dying, while they were out with vast. he rewinds time just a bit, but because time travel is SO messy, void still ends up injured and now neck-less, but alive.

WRITING LIST

born from the void - void & melz

backroom escapades - void & elly & misc man

finding a name - vast & void

DESIGNS + FAMILY TREE

[magicsuga]

I just saw this batfam Imagine that was like “the batkids being spoiled brats” and like it was them all saying stuff about money and expensive things and I could go one by one and debunk each thing. But I guess the bases of which it bugs me is that like?? It’s really ooc for each of all of them?

Here’s things that i can just think of off the top of my head that disproves that post

Dick grew up in the circus, doesn’t matter if you rich or poor you still are traveling and can’t really own a lot of things purely because the amount the space you have, Dick literally got kicked out of the house and had to live on his own, He survived no mans land, etc

Jason grew up in extreme poverty and was homeless for awhile. Like are you going to tell me this same man would not understand how much privilege it is to have that much money?

Like honestly same goes for Duke and Steph and even Babs like they weren’t necessarily all in the same economic class but your telling me that these people who live in gotham with working class parents, and at least one of their parents is a civil Servant meaning they see how gruesome that city is and how and it can distroy you

Tim did come from a rich family but he also suffered from neglect, saw his family go bankrupt, survived no mans land and also was/is (?) the Ceo of WE

And while I could see Damian being slightly more unaware of money and the price of things based on his age and how he was brought up, he also went to extreme trials and test and periods of time where he definitely did not live a life of luxury.

And Cass was literally raised to be a child assasssin

[thatblondeperson]

Is it wrong if there is something that is bugging me? When Tim had two interracial relationships, they didn't get 1/10th of the attention/praise as his current queer yet white relationship. Interracial relationships are themselves pretty unrepresented in comics especially with black women so the lack of attention given to his relationships with Tam and Zoanne bothers me. DC even seems to pretend his relationship with Tam didn't happen.

It's not wrong at all, anon! Your frustration is valid!

Now I wanna preface that I am not an authority on this topic. I am a white woman, and there are many other voices online that are better suited to speak in depth about the lack of characters of color in comics, and how when they appear they are easily pushed aside or discarded altogether.

I'll do my best to speak briefly about this, because even an outside eye should see the issues that are present here.

Idk who really got it worse here.

Zo was BARELY with Tim. They have their first kiss in Robin #156, their first date in Robin #159, and she breaks up with him by Robin #161

Now, she's in more issues than that but she's such a fleeting character that she hardly gets established. She's just sort of there. She's a love interest, and then she's basically gone. At least it does seem that Tim genuinely likes her, but he wasn't able to give her the decency of his time, and she knows this. She also knows he's in a rough space mentally.

Tam gets it bad in a different way.

She's featured in a lot of the Red Robin run, but genuinely is just about as fleeting as Zo. I mean what do we really know about Tam?? And her relationship with Tim is vaguely one-sided. She's in love with Red Robin, Tim is a part of that package deal, Tim likes her, but he's not in the headspace to be in a relationship. Tam is along for the ride, and she turns into a responsibility for Tim. That's not me trying to push her down. In Red Robin #19 when they head into the Unternet, he literally pictures her as a toddler...

Nice, Tim...

He also calls her his "friend". A girl he's seemingly been on dates with, has kissed, has travelled with. Just...oh boy Tim...

And then of course after Tam finds out Tim has been lying to her about her father being dead, she slaps him and breaks up with him in Red Robin #25.

Tim doesn't give these women focus, and neither does DC. They're here to push a point. That Tim is going through some shit that he needs to sort out, and then they're gone. They don't get to stick around and try to help him through it like Ari or Steph was allowed to, or even now, Bernard. They don't get to peel back more than one layer of the mask, IF that.

I will give it to DC for allowing these women to have the agency to break up with Tim, but it falls flat when their only agency was to make him feel worse about himself in the first place.

I was not into comics around the time that these were being published, so I cannot say much for the media's response to it, though I'm sure that it was not nearly as talked about as his current queer relationship.

That being said, it's still VERY important that his current relationship is well circulated and given a spotlight for what it is, but it's a shame that Zo or Tam were not given an equal spotlight, or even one at all really. They got a partially burnt bulb, dusty, forgotten lamp that someone fished out of a box at a free box on the sidewalk.

And the sad thing about all of this is, what more do we know about Bernard other than that he's Tim's boyfriend? What's his story, his agency, his purpose? I feel like I have LESS info on Bernard than I did Tam or Zo, so why is he more important???

Idk anon, this is a conversation for someone other than myself to lead, but I am with you.

[amarits]

Tim tiptoed down the hallway. The light filtered out the further from the windows he traveled, coloring the hallway a gradient of light blue to black. He flipped the night vision in his mask on and the outlines of four doors materialized in a sickly green.

Only one of the doors was open. He glanced in. Tiled floor, porcelain sink, tub. Bathroom. Decent quality for an apartment in this area. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to see what happened in the bathroom, even if it did involve cutting up bodies in the bathtub, so he didn’t leave a bug.

That left three closed doors. One was clearly the exit. He carefully leaned against another, putting his ear to it and listening closely. One minute, two. Nothing. He very slowly turned the doorknob, keeping his ear close as he inched it gingerly open.

“What are we looking at?” a voice asked from the opposite direction of what he’d been expecting. He jumped a foot in the air and turned, raising his hands in one of the defensive positions Batman had taught him.

A girl, barely taller than him, stood there in a sweater dress that hung to her mid-thighs, a belt, leggings, a leather jacket that had seen some wear and tear, and what looked like a Zorro mask, or at least like a scarf with some holes cut in it. The giant poof of hair sticking out of a large headband was a familiar blond.

“Steph?” he hissed.

“It’s Robin,” she corrected.

“Wha..? I… You’re not Robin!” Was this a dream? Was this some really weird Canadian bacon, onion, and artichoke pizza dream caused by the guilt of too many nights wearing someone else’s costume? The green glow cast over everything certainly added to the dream-like feel. He turned off his night vision and flicked on a flashlight instead. The leggings and jacket stayed green, but the sweater dress changed to red and the belt was yellow. It was a painfully familiar color scheme.

“I think I would know better than you whether or not I’m Robin,” the fever dream standing in front of him said.

His mouth flopped open and closed like a dead fish. What was she..? How was she..? Why?

A grin broke out across her face, serious façade dropping. “Oh my god, you look so stupid right now. Close your mouth before you swallow a bug.”

“I… I don’t understand…” He realized a minute too late that he was supposed to be Robin right now, and that Robin definitely should not know who Stephanie Brown was.

Well, he did, but Steph wasn’t supposed to know that.

He lowered his voice the same way Jason had when they’d seen him on the museum roof. “I’m sorry, citizen, but you shouldn’t be here right now. This is a potential crime scene.”

He could very clearly see her rolling her blue eyes through her mask holes. That was not a disguise. It was the opposite of a disguise. It was a hey-let-me-show-off-my-features-so-you-can-recognize-me-more-easily-later outfit. “I know it’s you, Tim.”

“It’s Robin,” he said weakly.

“That’s the spirit!” She peeked in the open door behind him. “So what are we looking for? ‘Cause this looks like a closet.”

He followed her gaze. It was, indeed, a closet, but instead of coats, there were large tanks, like what you’d use to fill helium balloons. It stank of a scheme in progress. Scarecrow maybe? If so, they definitely shouldn’t stick around long. Each of the tanks had a label, but instead of words they were stamped with card suits: a heart, a diamond, a club, and a spade.

“I’m not sure,” he said slowly. “I’m just leaving cameras to watch later. Something’s been happening, but I’m not—what are you doing here?” he cut himself off. She might have briefly distracted him, but that was still the most pertinent question.

“I saw you sneaking around by yourself and thought you could use some help.”

“I’m not by myself,” he said immediately. It’s what he’d planned to tell any bad guys that caught him, but blurted out like that, he had to admit it didn’t sound particularly believable.

She pointedly turned her head to look up and down the hallway.

“Okay, fine,” he said, frustrated, “but that doesn’t mean you should be here. It’s dangerous.”

“Exactly,” she said. “It’s dangerous, and I know Batman’s distracted right now, so someone needs to keep you from doing something stupid.”

“I’m not…” He stopped, replaying her words. “You know Batman’s distracted right now?” he asked slowly.

She hesitated, tugging on the sleeves of her jacket. It looked a little too small for her, probably why he’d never seen her wearing it. “I heavily suspect Batman’s distracted right now,” she said. Something about the way her eyes were peering at him through the mask felt surgical, like she was waiting for the answer to a question that hadn’t been asked.

He looked away, at the still closed door. It would be easy to agree that Batman was distracted, to confirm without confirming, but he couldn’t. “Sometimes he’s busy,” he said instead. “He has a lot of cases.”

She turned her face, and he couldn’t seen her expression in the shadows. He remembered the angry hurt splashed across her face when he pushed her away after Jason’s attack. He didn’t want that, but he couldn’t just give away all of the Bats’ secrets because he didn’t want to hurt his friend’s feelings.

“So that’s why you need me!” she said, turning back to him with an enthusiastic smile, like the emotions she’d felt in the shadows had never existed.

“Look, Steph.” He rubbed at his mask, grinding the lenses painfully against his face. “You know I like you—”

“You do? Wow!”

“—but this isn’t up to me.” He flicked his hand in the air like he was throwing something away. “Like, at all. I have no power here.”

“You’re literally wearing the Robin costume right now,” she said, deadpan.

“I know, but it’s all pretend. I’m not Robin any more than you are.”

“Then I have very good news for you,” she said, leaning forward and putting her hands on his shoulders, “because I am totally Robin.”

[bigskydreaming]

Making this its own post because replying to the ask got so weirdly formatted I can’t even. Oh tumblr. You work so well.

@themessofthecentury  asked:

jsksjf my tumblr notifs are bugging and i didnt see your post but!!! The patron Saint of Robins?? I am much intrigue!!

(This is from this ask game, just....gotten to late, lololol. And I still have more I’m getting to, no worries. Just had a rough couple days is all, laid me up a bit.)

Okay, so The Patron Saint of Robins is kinda like the situation at the end of Grayson, except also not at all. And actually this is one of my older WIPs, and according to Scrivener I started it in 2015 afhislfhalhfalf, so it really has nothing to do with that. Also, its Young Justice-verse, but for two specific reasons:

1) YJ-verse is my go-to for Good Dad Bruce Wayne, when I don’t want to actually tackle the issues I have with his and his kids’ dynamic in comic book canon. I don’t carry over things like the adoption issue or the Robin succession into YJ fics, as I don’t think there’s anything that suggests they’re ever a specific issue in YJ and I don’t feel a need to make them one. So pretty much anything and everything I write in YJ goes with the backstory that Dick’s already adopted by Season One, and he’s the one to grant each later Robin permission to use the mantle, with no conflict over that, and more of a pre-Crisis transition to Nightwing than the post-Crisis firing from Robin. And this fic inherently needs Good Dad Bruce Wayne to work, lol.

2) I needed Klarion the Witch-Boy. Who of course exists in comic book canon, but is muuuuuch different there, and I just needed him to be a little demonic evil shithead, who sets everything in motion to get payback on the heroes for thwarting the Light in Season One, and he targets Robin due to being the oft-cited ‘first of the baby brat heroes’ and the ‘heart of the cape community.’

You don’t really need to be familiar with YJ canon at all for this one, as it goes sharply AU from after Season One, and only faintly and vaguely references specific events from that season. And I use my own YJ-ized version of the Titans as much as the actual YJ Team.

So basically, the plot of this one is to take revenge on the heroes for spoiling his game in Season One, Klarion plays a new game, by putting a chaos curse on Robin. It essentially erases him from peoples’ memories, though he’s perfectly able to make new ones. If he re-introduces himself to someone ask Dick Grayson, for instance, they don’t suddenly remember who Dick Grayson is or was, but they don’t forget about him again from that point onward, its like they meet him for the first time as a stranger.

But the curse part of things is only Batman can break it and restore everyone’s memories of Dick and his actual history, and only by identifying him for who he really is. And Dick can’t be part of breaking his own curse or else it seals it and makes it permanent and unbreakable forever.

Which of course leaves Dick completely miserable at first, understandably, and Bruce (and everyone else Dick knows, to varying different degrees) feeling some kind of loss but with no idea what it is they think or feel that they’re missing. Dick makes some half-hearted attempts at starting a new life for himself in Gotham, and in the process befriends a street kid named Jason Todd, though Dick introduces himself to Jason with just the name Robin.

The way the curse operates is it restitches together peoples’ memories to cover up the gaps where memories of him would go. So for instance, even though Jason never knew Dick before the curse, he was familiar with Batman and Robin just as much as any Gothammite was.....but due to the curse, the name Robin, upon meeting Dick, had no special meaning to him or anyone else. As far as he knew, Batman had always operated on his own in Gotham, the first teen superhero was that Speedy kid in Star City, etc. So when Jason first meets Dick, he just thinks he’s some dude whose name happens to be Robin.

Eventually, because Dick’s been kinda torturing himself by spying on Bruce just to ‘keep an eye on him’ and still watch his back, and he’s recognized by now that Bruce is mourning his loss without even knowing that he’s missing something....so Dick, who has also kinda come to see Jason as a little brother figure due to watching out for him as well....decides to kill two birds with one stone, unfortunate pun not intended. (Jason doesn’t die in this one, lol). Basically, Dick puts in motion the chain of events that lead Jason to stealing Batman’s tires, because he doesn’t know EXACTLY what Bruce will do but he knows it’ll get his attention in a big way and Bruce will take it from there.

One thing leads to another, Jason ends up living with Bruce and when eventually he wants to be trained by Bruce so he can do what he does and protect kids like he used to be.....when asked to pick a name....Jason names himself after the guy who always looked out for him, and who led to him being found by Bruce in the first place. He doesn’t know that his friend ‘Robin’ steered him towards those tires deliberately, just to bring him and Bruce into contact, but he does credit him with making the suggestion that ‘inadvertently’ (as far as he knows) enabled his and Bruce’s introduction, and so he names himself in honor of the boy who helped him and who he tried to track down again to similarly help, after Bruce adopted him, but was never able to find again.

Over the years, Dick also ends up steering Tim, Cass, Duke and Damian to Bruce in different ways than comic book canon (Steph and Babs’ debuts remain their own, as family adjacent but not family specifically) and thus is integral to the forming of the Batfam and has a connection with them even before the curse ultimately ends up broken and he’s able to reclaim his full identity. And each of them end up Robin at least briefly, like Steph is never Robin in this AU, and sticks with Spoiler, whereas Cass IS briefly Robin before becoming Batgirl after Babs. I did this for a few different reasons...

One, I really like that Cass is never Robin in main continuity as it creates a different dynamic between her and Dick than most of their siblings have, BUT I’ve always been curious to play around what Cass-as-Robin might even be like, just for an AU. Two, part of the Black Bat and Batgirl but never Robin sequence of mantles for Cass in the comic book continuity is like.....although it doesn’t get explored nearly enough, Babs was as much a kind of mother figure for Cass as Bruce was a father figure, despite Babs’ young age. So it makes more sense for Cass to stick more to just Bat-mantles than to ever be a Robin in the comic books. But in YJ, Babs is even younger, and just way too young to have the specific kind of dynamic that leads to that in the comic books, so its not as unreasonable IMO for her to have a different dynamic in her early days in the family here, before becoming closer with Babs and taking up the Batgirl mantle after she moves on to become Oracle.

And then also, and this is also the primary reason for making Duke a Robin briefly, before Damian is old enough....I got hung up on the title and it just didn’t work as well if it was Robins + Cass and Duke, lololol. See, in addition to helping steer the family into the points of introduction that make them a family, over the years he also acts as like, a guardian angel figure to the various family members, looking out for them and interceding in times of extreme danger, like when Jason is almost killed by the Joker. He’s always in disguise, but the kids eventually compare notes and realize there’s a singular figure behind each of their introductions to Bruce and the guy swooping out of nowhere to save their behinds whenever they’re most in danger, and Jason eventually connects this back to the guy who apparently NOT so coincidentally suggested he go after the Batmobile’s tires that fateful night, and the kids end up jokingly/not-so-jokingly referring to this figure as the Patron Saint of Robins. (Shout-out to the occasional mentions/allusions of Jason’s Catholicism).

They never tell Bruce about this figure (at least before Bruce starts to put together clues on his own), because they all figured out that for whatever reason, this person despite wanting them all to meet Bruce seems to want to avoid Bruce himself, and they kinda want to respect that as a kind of payback for his help, and also like....Bruce, even a kinder, gentler Bruce, is still Bruce. And when Bruce is gonna Bruce, that means Batparanoia. And all of them for various reasons DO trust that this guy has nothing but good intentions towards them, and so they don’t want to like....ruin or tarnish the positivity they associate with his intercession in their lives with paranoia or treating him like a bad guy. Which ultimately is really just smoke and mirrors for saying that he’s kinda a ‘just for them’ secret. Its a Robin thing.

(Until its not).

Because meanwhile, Dick, in between meeting the various Batfam members and pulling strings and looking out for them from the shadows, at first travels the world looking for ways to break his curse. But when ultimately its clear that the only way to break it is the loophole built into it already, Bruce identifying him for who he really is, but without Dick doing anything to steer him towards the answer, Dick settles into a new hero identity as Nightwing, and forms the Teen Titans, a public group of young superheroes (minus Roy and Wally, unfortunately, but still with Donna, Garth, Raven, Kory, ignoring season 3 Vic and also Terra because AU redemption arc what what, etc). And the Teen Titans avoid both the Young Justice Team and the Justlce League with EXTREME measures, much to the other heroes’ confusion and aggravation, because in the early days of the Titans, in a moment of what he’d term weakness, on one of his ‘bad days,’ Dick tells them enough of his story that they’re able to put together a good sense of what happened and who he really is by reading between the lines and what he leaves unsaid....

BUT as a result, all end up extremely committed to not mixing and mingling casually with the rest of the cape community because they don’t want to risk dropping any hints about the guy under Nightwing’s mask, in case that might count as steering Batman towards clues and seal the curse for good. So I have a lot of fun with having the Titans just nope out of the scene the second the bad guys are defeated even when they have to team up with other heroes, leaving the other heroes confused as hell and trying not to be all ‘WHY DON’T YOU LIKE US??”

Anyway, so yeah, that’s the gist of this one, lol. With it of course following the eventual plot that like...the Batfam starts to Detect and put things together.

ANYWHO!

Snippet

Damian versus Klarion: Round One

“Aww, its adorable that you think you’re in my league,” the Witch-Boy cooed in an absolute mockery of sympathy. Damian bristled, but before he could do anything more than that, he was faced with a much more pressing matter as reality completely lost its mind.

The walls of the cavern fell away in an instant, only to be replaced with a whirling dervish of winds all around them, as if they now stood in the center of a cyclone that bled red and silver and black. It shrieked and wailed in a chorus of voices just on the other side of being comprehensible, a symphony of the damned that set every nerve in Damian’s body aflame with a primal instinct to get out, to find silence, to be anywhere but here.

He’d barely staggered a step backwards when the ground erupted beneath him, splitting apart into jagged obsidian shards that bobbed precariously in the sea of magma barely glimpsed through cracks now spiderwebbing their way across the floor. Spears of lightning burst upwards through them, stabbing impossibly at the heavens rather than raining down from them. They hissed and crackled as they flickered like forked serpent tongues of electric violet and black. The forks becoming branches, the pillars of sky-shattering light transforming into the trunks of great trees that grew upwards and outward, weaving a canopy overhead. One that wept violently red leaves that fell gently to the ground, only to hiss and bubble like acid once they did.

“See, normally this is when I’d hit someone with a little razzle-dazzle like this,” Klarion called out over the song of madness he’d created, as it crooned and careened wildly all around them. He snapped his fingers, and in the span of a second it all ceased. Reality reaffirmed itself, and all was right with the world once more…except now the two of them stood at the end of a hallway in Wayne Manor.

Damian stumbled, the sudden reappearance of firm ground paradoxically being the thing to challenge his balance. The demon boy standing beside him crooked his thumb and forefinger in the semblance of a gun, the smile pasted across his face one of wickedly gleeful malice.

“But you, kiddo, you’re special. Cuz there’s nothing I could do to you now that could top what I’ve already done, so why try when I can just savor the moment instead?”

“What are you babbling about?” Damian demanded roughly. In the wake of what the Witch-Boy had just conjured up with nothing more than a gesture, he was keenly aware of how flimsy a shield his bravado made. He just had absolutely no idea what else to fall back on.

Klarion only threw back his head and laughed though, skipping merrily down the hall as he did.

“I know something you don’t know,” he sing-songed and Damian lost what little grasp of his patience he’d managed to hang onto.

“You overestimate my need for an answer. Attempt to intimidate me all you wish, but I have no desire to indulge your little game any further.”

Klarion jerked to a stop and spun around, his face screwed into a childish pout. He stomped his foot, petulance personified. “I’m not intimidating you anymore, I’m gloating! Ugh, you’re so stupid! They’re completely different, how can you not tell?”

Every light in the hallway flickered and fizzed abruptly. The walls wavered, bubbled, momentarily molten as if made of wax.

Again Damian was reminded just how mercurial this being he was faced with was, and how dangerous. Perhaps, as Father would say, this was not the time to indulge his own instinctive inclinations. Or as Todd would put it, just because you’re already fucked, that’s no reason to fuck yourself over more than you have to.

Crude as his older brother was, there was occasional merit to his…pithiness. Not that he would be admitting that any time soon, of course.

“Fine. What is it you wish to gloat about then?” Damian grated out. The appeasement, such as it was, tried its best to stick in his throat before finally clawing its way free. But at least it proved worth the effort when the godling’s mood reverted back to impishness as readily as with the flip of a switch.

“Well. Its like this, you see.” Klarion said. He dragged it out as he folded both legs underneath him to sit cross-legged in the air, plopping his head into his hands. “I did a baaaaaaaaaaaaad, bad thing to your family, a loooooong time ago. And none of you have done anything about it, because you don’t even know! Isn’t that funny? Doesn’t matter how big a hero Daddy Bats is if he doesn’t even know what needs saving huh? Little Catch-22 there, you might say.”

“Yes. Quite hysterical,” Damian said dryly. “So what is it you claim to have done then?”

The Witch-Boy just sat there, regarding him with amusement, and the seconds marched on into minutes. Damian’s skin crawled. Prickling with impatience and possibly something…more. He wasn’t quite ready to name it anxiety or something as melodramatic as all that yet. In fact, he’d rather not put a name to it at all, but today did not appear to be a day for configuring things to his liking.  

Klarion’s wicked grin grew as if sensing his thoughts, though to the best of his knowledge (and Damian did quickly ransack the library of his memory just to be sure) there was no indication telepathy was included among the Chaos Lord’s many, many powers. And still that detestable smile stretched slowly wider all the same, in perfect synchronization with the rising tide of Damian’s unease. Perhaps the Witch-Boy’s file was in need of annotation.

“How many doors would you say are in this hallway?”

“What? Seven.” Damian snapped out his answer, annoyed by the non sequitur. Not to mention baffled. Was it too much to expect even a semblance of linear thought from the Chaos brat?

“Are you suuuuuuure?” The Witch-Boy stretched his query out obnoxiously. “Maybe you should count again. Just for kicks and giggles.”

Damian throttled back each and every retort attempting to spring to his lips, stuffing them back down and cramming a lid on everything he most dearly wished to say to this most vexing of…shitheads. Once again, it appeared as though nothing less than Todd’s preferred form of nomenclature would suffice. Wonderful. On top of everything else Damian had to deal with today, he seemed to be finding common ground with the man all over the place. Was there no end to the indignities he must suffer?

But marshaling his own formidable willpower, Damian took a deep breath and indulged the Chaos Lord, glancing his eyes down the length of the hallway and counting out each doorway one by one. There was his own room of course, with Cassandra’s to the right of his, and the room Brown used when staying over to the right of hers. That was three. Then there was Thomas directly across from his own room, with Drake to his right and Todd just beyond that, with Father’s room at the very end of the hall, his master suite staggered and with no direct opposite like the others. Seven.

Except all of a sudden there was a door directly opposite his father’s. For a total of eight.

Damian’s brow furrowed in consternation. The faint whispers of uncertainty already seeded throughout him bore fruit, ripening into poisonous stabbings of doubt.

“That’s not real,” he stated with as much conviction as he could muster.

The Witch-Boy’s smile only grew wider still. “Isn’t it, though?”

“There’s never been a door there before,” Damian persisted, striding confidently down the hall towards it. The Chaos Lord flitted ahead of him, inverting til he was upside down and skipping merrily once more, though this time from the ceiling.

“Or has it been there all along?” He sing-songed some more.

“I would think we might have noticed if it had been,” Damian growled.

“Yes, you’d think, wouldn’t you? You are all supposed to be a family of detectives, I thought. Makes you wonder…if you could miss this, what else might you have failed to notice?”

Damian snarled to himself and did his best to shut out the demon boy’s prattling. He quickened his strides, eating up the length of the hallway in his haste to reach its end. He wasn’t sure what opening the door would prove, let alone what bewilderment the godling had conjured on its other side, but it appeared the only end to this game of his was through it, so let there be an end to it already.

And yet, for all his certainty - or best facsimile of it - he couldn’t help but pause once he reached the door in question. His hand hovered within reach of its brass knob, but some instinct, some…caution, held him at bay. As much as he wanted to dismiss all this as just one more of the Chaos Lord’s inane charades, there was a tension in the air that felt too weighty to be the product of just magical conjuring. Something more was in play here. Real forces were at work. His father might disdain magic, but Damian had been around enough of it himself to know when true power had been raised. And the span of empty space between his hand and this hither-to-unseen doorknob held more of it than Damian had felt throughout all the mad warpings Klarion had made of reality thus far.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Klarion asked from somewhere overhead. His voice, usually pitched to carry, was so soft for a moment Damian mistook it for his own inner doubts. “Some doors are easier to open than to close again, you know.”

Even knowing the goading for what it was couldn’t stop Damian then, and with a simple breath to fortify himself, he reached for the knob, spun it once, and shoved the door open all in a single sharp movement.

The Witch-Boy giggled up above.

The door swung wide, a forceful arc that should have revealed anything and everything within it all at once; the better to react quickly to whatever that might be. Fine in principle, perfect in execution, but thwarted by one small detail:

There was nothing on the other side.

And not in the sense of it being just an empty room, but true nothingness. A pitch-black abyss darker than the deepest night, yawning forth from the doorway in a vast, impenetrable shroud. Nor was anything hidden in the darkness, Damian knew, even if just intuitively. He could feel it, that he stood on the edge of an impossible cliff, that there was nothing beyond this threshold but an aching chasm of emptiness and loss. The surety of it hung in the air, thick and heavy, a miasma that seeped through to his side of the doorway and clung to him like the moisture of a fog beads upon the skin.

Klarion’s head suddenly popped up alongside him, hovering just over his shoulder.

Albeit still upside down.

“Well that doesn’t seem right,” he mused, tapping at his lips with a forefinger. “What do you suppose is meant to be in there?”

The last of Damian’s brittle patience shattered.

“Enough! What is the meaning of all this, demon? Speak plainly, for once in your miserable existence!”

His self-preservation instincts and the reminder of just who it was he was shouting at kicked in too little too late, but he wouldn’t take his exasperated fury back even if he could. He was who he was after all. But fortunately, that described the Witch-Boy just as accurately, and rather take offense or perceive any actual threat from Damian’s rage, the Chaos Lord just shrieked with laughter and sprung backwards. He flipped right side up, still hovering in mid-air, and clapped his hands with glee.

“Oh, I should have done this ages ago,” Klarion sang out. “Why, you’re almost as fun as he used to be. Back before he got all droll and serious, that is. He’s no fun at all anymore, nothing like this. Never wants to play, always just running back to his tower with that little bitch of a demoness.”

His face soured like he’d just sucked on a lemon. But rather than stop there, his countenance kept morphing into an increasingly savage scowl, the longer he ranted. The hallway was suddenly sweltering, baking with unseen heat that twisted the air into shimmering ribbons. The small horns sprouting from his forehead burst into scimitars of flame that cut through those ribbons and set them similarly ablaze.

“Always putting on airs like she’s some kind of royalty, just because her Daddy Dearest put the fear into a few peasants back in the day,” the Witch-Boy snarled viciously. “As if that’s enough to put her on par with the likes of me. No one is the likes of me. NO ONE!”

Reality itself quaked with the force of his shout. White-blue flames spat forth and crescendoed down the length of the corridor, splashing against its walls and searing them to a crisp. Damian braced himself for all the good it would do, keenly aware of the void still gaping hungrily behind his back, but before the fire could become an actual danger to him as well, all was quiet once more.

Silence hung in the air much like the demon boy, poised yet motionless. Suspended. Waiting.

And then Klarion simply inhaled and brushed his hands down the front of his garments, smoothing out the wrinkles as he reclaimed his calm. The corridor restored itself to its former self, curtains of vintage reality unrolling from the ceiling to the floor as though papering over the damage. Damian felt rather than saw when the portal behind him swung shut and was replaced with the expanse of ivory paint and ornate sconces he was used to seeing in its place.

“I am one of a kind, after all,” Klarion finally remarked. It was a casual drawl offered forth almost off-handedly, as if more a reminder to himself than uttered for anyone else’s sake. He used one hand to spell out letters in the air. They appeared and vanished again in bursts of fireworks and fluorescent flame. “U-N-I-Q-U-E.”

“As I, apparently, am not,” Damian said, seizing upon the Chaos Lord’s restored calm and good cheer. “Who is this ‘he’ you mentioned? If I’m to be pitted against him as entertainment in your eyes, might I at least know his name?”

“Nuh-uh-uh,” the Witch-Boy scolded. He wagged his finger at Damian. “No spoilers. That’s not how the game is played.”

Keenly aware of the boy’s power once more, Damian gritted his teeth and pressed on. “Well, if there are to be rules, shouldn’t I at least know what those are?”

Klarion sucked in a deep breath, drawing himself up along with his inhalation as though preparing for some great speech…and instead just toppling backward, flopping onto an extravagant fainting couch that suddenly appeared beneath him, though similarly floating in the air.

“I can’t recall at the moment.” His now-faint voice drifted up from where he lay buried amid a mountain of pillows. “I’ve had a terribly exhausting day. But you’re supposed to be a detective, remember? Go…I don’t know. Detect things.”

He flapped an arm at Damian dismissively, and then crooked a finger into a twirling motion that set his divan to spinning in lazy circles.

“Isn’t life grand?” Klarion sighed fondly. “With all its twists and turns, its eddies and swirls. I mean, take the two of us. Scant hours ago, we were mortal enemies, and just look at us now.”

The Witch-Boy lazily rolled his head to the side as the couch drifted to bring him face-to-face with Damian. His lips spread wide in that malevolent, wicked grin of his once again, but somehow it managed to be even wider than any he’d shown off before. His eyes blazed with a hellish inner light, and his voice, when next he spoke, dropped deep into a demonic register. A bass that boomed forth and set Damian’s very bones to rattling.

“Ain’t we got fun?”

[woah-were-halfway-there]

Can you write a little fluffy piece of you and Auston in present time with being separated because of covid and all

Here you are my dear! It turned out longer than anticipated but oh welllll

Word count: 1.7k

Quarantine sucks, to put it simply. Places are closed, events have been cancelled, everyone is expected to stay home unless it’s essential to leave, and to make it all worse, you and Auston are spending it in different countries.

A week after the NHL announced the suspension of the remainder of the season, Auston flew back to Scottsdale. Seeing as this was before things got too intense, you still had to work and insisted that he go without you. Your office had plans to shut down by the end of that week as a precaution for the pandemic. After that, you knew you would be off for at least two weeks, so the plan was for you to fly to Scottsdale to be with your boyfriend then; but that never happened.

The severity of the situation got real bad real fast, and you were no longer able to travel. Therefore, you ended up having to stay in Toronto alone.

Auston remembers getting the text saying you had cancelled your flight as if it just happened yesterday. He had just woken up, that three-hour time difference between the two cities not helping the situation at all, and was quick in calling you to ask why.

“Aus, you should see the news,” you explained to him. “It’s a whole mess out there, and it only seems to be getting worse. Places are closing down, people are buying ridiculous amounts of toilet paper, and the government is advising that people don’t travel. Trudeau is closing the border, babe. I want to be there with you; I really do. I miss you so much already, but I don’t think I should leave Toronto just yet. Surely, this won’t take too long to blow over, and I’ll be there sooner than we both know it.”

Clearly, that was a bold assumption for you to make because over two weeks have gone by, and the two of you are still separated.

Auston still cannot get over the fact that you got stuck, and alone of all things. He hasn’t stopped beating himself up over it either. In Toronto, you don’t have a roommate to hang out with, seeing as it’s just you and Auston that live in your unit, and that alone only has made him feel so much worse about everything.

With social distancing, you can’t just go over to Mitch and Steph’s like you usually would either. Although it’s gotten to the point where the two have invited you to just stay with them until this all blows over, you keep saying no out of fear that you may have come in contact with the virus and could pass it on to them. That just wouldn’t be fair.

So, all that you really can do now is suck it up and try to make the most out of your isolation, even though it’s really hard sometimes. And god, do you miss your people. Without there being much to do other than the odd thing for work; all you’ve done is clean the condo, get groceries when you need them, watch a lot of Netflix, talk with Steph all while trolling Mitch in the comments on his Twitch streams, and of course, FaceTime you boyfriend as much as possible.

Regardless of how hard you’ve tried, you just haven’t been able to develop a routine you feel motivated enough to stick to. It’s a depressing time. So, the fact that you’re flopped on your bed, staring at the ceiling, with a half-empty bottle of wine resting next to you on the bedside table, and Champagne Supernova blaring from your Bluetooth speaker late on a Friday night; really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. You’re in quarantine; you’re allowed to mope.

Completely and utterly bored with your current situation, you roll over onto your side to grab your phone and wine from the table. Ignoring the empty wine glass that was there too, you settle on taking a swig right from the bottle and smiling sadly at the adorable picture of you and Auston that’s set as your lock screen. The image was from last summer when the two of you were on vacation with his family and just makes you feel so warm and fuzzy on the inside, even though it makes you long for how easy times were before all of this.

Great, another wave of depression.

Shaking your head clear of the intruding thoughts that decided to creep into your mind, you unlock your phone and start scrolling through social media… again. After opening Twitter and quickly getting bored with the content on there, you move to Instagram to see what the people and celebrities you follow are up too on there, only to be met by a picture posted by your boyfriend as soon as the app loads.

“No, why!?” You groan and flop onto your back again dramatically. You’re lucky the bottle of wine you’re holding is almost gone, or else it probably would have spilt everywhere with your dramatics, which you’re aware of, but really couldn’t care less about. After a moment of just laying there in silence, you eventually sit back up to take another sip of wine before setting it on the table and unlocking your phone, so you can really take in this new picture.

Everything about the picture feels like a direct attack. Not only is the scenery stunning with the beautiful Arizona sunset in the background, the image also consists of Auston looking fine as hell, shirtless, wearing one of the many snapbacks he owns to keep his hair out of his face, all while supposedly ‘discovering portrait mode.’ Honestly, how dare he?

You just can’t seem to look away. It’s such a good picture and man does it make you miss him even more. Without giving it a second thought, you close out of the app and open FaceTime, suddenly overcome by an intense feeling of neediness.  

Luckily for you, it doesn’t take long for him to answer the call.

“Hey, babe,” he greets before taking a sip of water and plopping down onto his couch. He’s still shirtless, wearing the same snapback, and the sun is still clearly setting out the large windows behind him, which makes it clear that this is a very new picture you just experienced, and you’re unsure if that makes you feel better or worse. “What’s up?”

“I miss you,” you pout and let out a sigh. “So much. And then you had to go and post that on Instagram, which was just rude on your part in complete honesty.”

“Sorry,” he chuckles and shakes his head while you roll your eyes at him. “I miss you too. How was your day?”

“Kind of not great,” you tell him honestly. “I’ve been feeling pretty down.”

“Ah, so that’s why I can hear Oasis playing.”

“They’re on my sad girl hours playlist, alright? What do you want from me?”

“I know they are,” he laughs again, but it isn’t long until his expression grows serious. “And nothing, other than for you to talk to me about what’s bugging you. What’s going on?”

Damn, he knows you well and is so good at easing into these types of conversations.

“It’s just,” you start and take a deep breath in hopes the tears you already feel pricking your eyes don’t decide to overflow. “I miss you, and our friends, and how life was before all of this. I know it’s only been two weeks, but Aus, I feel so alone. And don’t you dare try to blame yourself for that, ok? You’ve done so much for me already even though you’re so far away and honestly, just talking with you helps a lot. It reminds me that I’m not alone. That there’s a lot of people out there who love and care about me, it just sucks so bad being stuck here and it’s messing with my mental health quite a bit.”

“I know, babe, I know,” he soothes and lets out a sigh. “I want nothing more than to be with you right now. Whether that be here or there, I wouldn’t care. I just miss you so much, and I’m so sorry you’re feeling the way that you do. I know that me telling you all of this may not mean much seeing as I’m in a different freaking country, but I mean it. I love you and am always here to talk if you want to.”

Now you’re crying.

“I love you a whole lot.”

“Oh, no, please don’t cry, I-,” he apologizes, but you just shake your head.

“No, it’s ok,” you tell him and use the sleeve of his Maple Leafs sweater you’re wearing to wipe away the tears that broke free. “It feels good to let it all out, you know? Thank you for making me feel comfortable enough to do that.”

“Of course, anytime,” he assures you softly. “I’m always here. And I hope you know that as soon as we’re out of this, you’re not leaving my side. If you thought you could get sick of me before, just wait until we’re back in the same place together.”

“I could never get sick of you, Aus,” you chuckle and shake your head at how dramatic he’s being.

“If quarantine has made me realize anything, it’s never to take the time I get with you for granted ever again,” he explains, making your heart swell with affection. “I mean it.”

“I know,” you reply and smile at him. “The feeling’s mutual. I can’t wait to see you in person again.”

“Me neither. Going to hold on to you a little tighter, that’s for sure.”

He goes on to ask about the positives of your day, and you spend the next little bit telling him all you’ve accomplished in your free time and asking him about his day. After a while of chatting with your boyfriend, you eventually crawl into bed while remaining on the call, and attempt to watch an episode of Ozark together.

You end up falling asleep while on FaceTime, and Auston can’t help but smile at the peaceful image of you sleeping on his phone screen. Knowing he should probably start getting ready for bed soon too, Auston quietly reminds you that he loves you and hangs up before sending you a sweet text to wake up to and forcing himself to think about how all of this will be over soon and he’ll be back with you in no time.

[sbh-md]

It's been awhile, I've missed that smile on your face.

who: stephanie byrne-hill & @wyatt-hill​ where: humboldt hills - the hill residence when: monday afternoon notes: hello darkness my old friend ! 

When a marriage fell apart out of the public eye, no one questioned if someone cheated, if there were financial issues, if someone was kinkier than the other. In private, paperwork was handled and settled away from prying eyes. How lucky that must be. Exactly one month ago Stephanie Byrne-Hill found out that her husband had fathered a child. While she was nowhere to be found in Eureka, news traveled quickly to the remote village where Stephanie was practicing medicine. “Hey doc, you’ve got a letter,” were the words she heard from her contact in the organization before her whole world turned upside down. To be fair, the last time she had been in Eureka was in March, but quickly doing some mental math, Stephanie figured that Wyatt wasted little time mourning her departure. There was no blame associated with the emotions coursing through her veins. Steph had left, Steph had refused contact, Steph hadn’t been there to comfort the one person she adored with every fault. 

It wasn’t anger that festered in her heart as she made travel plans back to Eureka, it was the utter disappointment. How many times had she told Wyatt to let her nip the travel bug in the butt before they had kids, let her go to remote places and help people before she let her body go to waste in motherhood. All of those times were clearly thrown out the window as he hopped on the nearest train to fatherhood. Previously, Steph could lie to herself and say that someday they would have children, while in reality, she knew that that wasn’t the life she imagined for herself. The life that she wanted was travelling the world with her best friend and husband, trying new things, living a million lives in one. Of all the times she dreamed of holding his hand while walking up mountaintops, she never imagined he’d be carrying someone else’s child. 

Stephanie knew she couldn’t ask Wyatt to wait like that, but a part of her wished he would have. 

Having been home for a few days, Stephanie was running out of laundry. The deepest parts of her knew that Wyatt would be home, in their home. There was no excitement in her as she drove her Volkswagon the familiar route from her family’s home in Old Town, the muscle memory screaming at the chance to recreate other motions that she dared not think about at that point. What in the hell did you say to someone you loved, but hadn’t seen in nearly a year? To someone you made vows to, but found them too hard to follow? As she pulled into the driveway and put her car into park, her breaths were as unsteady as the crashing ocean ways in a storm. It took nearly everything in her to get out of the car and walk to the front door. Did she knock? Did she use her key? Did she even deserve to have a key anymore?

Stephanie knew that the moment she stepped out of her car, the neighbors would be sending texts and pictures to other neighbors. “The absent wife returns!!!” Her nose curled at the thought of being mocked for living her life, for doing what she thought she needed in order to stay sane. Raising her knuckles to the door, a deep inhale steadied her hands. The sound was foreign to her, almost like she had really been gone all this time. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Steph could feel her heart banging against her ribcage. As the door opened, she thought for a moment she was going to vomit. Looking up at the man she so deeply adored through all of the pain and stupidity, Stephanie felt like she was an inch tall. 

“Hey Wy. Can I come in?”