#wally does actually like tim a lot but i feel he’d see a lot of himself in steph

[mysterycitrus]

jason-tinted glasses blinding people to the truth: all the teen titans have non-dick favorites of the batfam and NONE of those are jason todd. i think roy would actually probs like steph or damian best if were being SO fr

i think we as a society should have to reconcile with the fact that the majority of the titans favourite non-dick bat is tim drake

[robbed-ghost]

DC thoughts cause I have them

- Bruce canonically cannot cook to save his life, but he’d likely adapt and learn to make snacks for dummies (honey on crackers, apple slices, cereal, etc) and those become a lot of the batboys’ comfort foods

- Billy Batson always has his powers but when he’s in his real form/child body it’s proportionate to his size. So he has incredible endurance, strength, speed, and wisdom (and kind of always smells like rain/ozone) but only in relation to a 5th grader.

- Wisdom of Solomon does NOT mean common sense or intelligence. It means Shazam is perceptive and has good judgement based on knowledge he already has. Whether or not that wisdom is based on how wise king Solomon of antiquity was is unknown.

- Jason actually stole the wheels off the batmobile because he made a bet with Catwoman while he was homeless for $50, who 100% thought he was bluffing. She still has three of the wheels under her bed

- Poison Ivy has acne during spring—it’s her version of seasonal allergies

- When Damian was a kid he demanded servants to eat his food with him. His mother and grandfather took this as him being a natural born monarch being perceptive enough to know about poisons, but really he just didn’t want the servants to feel left out and didn’t want to eat alone.

- At least one member of the justice league is colorblind; that many aliens doesn’t make for a consistent amount of cones (the color perception in the eye, humans have 3) and the watchtower ALWAYS has to accommodate for this in some way. Like hell they’d ever leave someone without their proper accommodations for what could be considered a disability.

- Hawkgirl is incredibly farsighted and her mask/helmet doubles as reading glasses

- When Diana went to a salon for the first time. Oh boy. She didn’t leave that massage table for 3 days.

- Everyone can always tell when Clark just got off a call or back from a visit with his parents because his accent comes back. He can never hear it himself and its driven him crazy trying to get rid of it.

- After an incident involving time travel and meeting another version of Bruce—a very old version—learning the fact that Bruce has a risk of heart problems makes his kids ease up on the pranks and death defying feats. At least while in front of him. He doesn’t though.

- Dick and Wally have a secret code that they made based on Rock Paper Scissors. It looks exactly like Rock Paper Scissors except they move a finger or change angles to indicate what they’re talking about and it took Wally 6 months to get correct

- Every year for the Flash Day in Central City the Rogues decorate things with antlers and red noses without fail. Every year on Flash Day Wallace Rudolph West considers the ramifications of changing his middle name.

- Black Canary always has access to tea somewhere in the room. Any room. One time she pulled tea bags out of one of Batman’s pockets and he was stoically bewildered as she calmly made earl grey during an interrogation

- The amount of times Constantine has had to be escorted from the premises of a case is absurd

- Tim’s footsteps constantly fluctuate between being super loud and extremely quiet. Since he was at home alone so much he was used to being able to be loud, but quickly learned to be quiet after he realized he could be heard while following Batman and Robin, and got even better at it when he became a superhero. Whenever he gets loud, he knows it’s time to take a nap.

- Steph is terrible at chess but the best scrabble player you’ve ever seen. Cass is always in awe, because she’s the exact opposite.

- Barbara can still do a backflip paralyzed from the waist down. Her arms are enormous and she always finds a way.

- Duke HATES the Night Shift, his powers are annoying and near inert when literally everything is bathed in darkness. (He also sleeps with the hallway lights turned on so he can see footsteps under the door before they’re there. All the bats do.)

- Since he was born in the phantom zone, Chris Kent has a lot of problems that taught Clark about being a good father. He and Bruce don’t have many serious disagreements after Chris. He understands now.

- Every single lantern goes absolutely apeshit over Lego bricks, they can’t get enough of it. One time the league went on a mission that involved the lantern corps and there was a giant battle of Lego builds in willpower green that they had to break up.

- Lois Lane is face blind. She does not let this stop her. Clark took an entire class on body language just to try and keep his privacy under wraps because she can read people like a book. Why else do you think she’s such an amazing investigative reporter and can’t spot Superman’s big lovable face a cubicle away?

- (More)

[nightwingmyboi]

Pt 1) I'm ngl, if this Ric Grayson arc ends with Dick finally going off on the rest of the batfam for only showing him affection when they need something, it will almost be worth it. You mentioned in the meta about his relationship with the batfam that to recover from the gunshot he cut every one off (ngl, I stopped reading as soon as his memories were wiped), and I think that means now is the perfect time (or when his memories finally return fully next issue) for him to blow up

Pt 2) I want him to go off on Bruce for never seeming satisfied with what he does. I want him to go off on Tim for running away when everything was going to shit while Bruce was stuck in time (there's evidence that he remembers pre reboot stuff with that one panel that has torque and tarantula and him proposing to Babs so I'm going to say that's all still canon). I want him to lose his shit with Babs for constantly being mad at him when he's trying so hard (I love Babs, but this is annoying)

Pt 3) when he gets his memories back I want him to finally blow up. Like??? His life has been in a constant state of falling apart since he became Nightwing (hell, even before that), but he still always put others first. And now Roy is dead, Donna is evil, Wally is who knows where after killing Roy, Jason and Bruce are back on the outs, etc, etc and people were saying they need him back to fix things when he's recovering from being shot in the head. If they let him point this out, the Ric arc

Pt 4) will have been validated in my eyes. Still fucking terrible writing wise, execution (I was excited for Talon! Dick but christ what I read of it was bad), one of the worst decisions they've made recently, and they've made a bunch of bad ones, but it will be validated in its existence to me.

Yeah, Dick takes a lot of crap from the members of his family; a lot of the things you listed are things that I am very much not a fan of, lmao. And I’d even add that, with the Ric stuff you mention, it wasn’t even that Dick “cut everyone off” so that he could recover; I should have made this clearer--Bruce and the rest of the family should take a lot of the blame for pushing Dick away. See, initially, Dick was open to the idea of getting to know his family. He visited the manor and then Bruce, impatient with the lack of progress Dick was making on regaining his memories, decided to take Dick down to the Batcave, show him the Nightwing suit (that still had the freaking blood from the gunshot wound on it Jesus Christ), and traumatize Dick with the video of him getting shot in the head in order to stir up some memories. Alfred and Damian help Bruce do this:

Nightwing: Rebirth Annual #2

And Dick is obviously horrified. After this, why in the world would Dick want to be Nightwing? Why would he want to associate with his “family”? Staying away from the manor wasn’t Dick cutting out people in his life who cared for him and were trying to help him; it was about, in Dick’s mind, staying away from people who were willing to hurt him, people who cared more about his utility and how they needed him to be Nightwing then they cared about his safety and wellbeing. It was a desperate move to protect himself from people he could no longer trust. It is clear that implanted false memories and other brainwashing was done from the very beginning (by the doctor Bruce specifically hired no less) in order to ensure that “Ric” would not be comfortable with Bruce and would be inclined to leave, but it was Bruce’s actions that had Dick running literally right into his brainwasher’s arms: 

It’s also not even like afterwards Dick hid himself in some unknown location, completely out of contact. Barbara easily tracked Dick down to talk. And yet, when Barbara talks to him, she doesn’t ask Dick if he’s alright. She just tells him that they want him to regain his memories (umm...yeah you’ve made that clear), comments that he’s not acting like himself, and tells him to come back to the manor. So...it’s all about what the family wants. Dick says no, and there are zero attempts at a compromise. Maybe the family could have used the millions of dollars at its disposal to set Dick up elsewhere outside the manor so he doesn’t have to, uh, live in a cab? Maybe they could agree to occasional check-ins instead of the overbearing babysitting they were suggesting, that Dick is uncomfortable with? Maybe they could ask Dick what he wants? But, no. As soon as Dick doesn’t do exactly what they want him to, he’s on his own. People talk about how this arc is making Dick look bad, but beyond that, really it's making all of the family look like uncaring, selfish assholes. 

That aside, about how I want this arc to conclude...it would be nice, as readers, to see Dick finally put his foot down and stand up for himself a little. But honestly? Him going off on everyone like you describe? I feel like that would be out of character. I could maybe see Dick telling off Batman, but I can’t even imagine Dick truly blowing up at Damian or Tim, or really even Barbara. People really over exaggerate Dick’s temper a lot; in reality, it usually takes very extreme circumstances, and often an insane amount of stress and/or brainwashing to make Dick lash out. Bruce is one of the few people that can make Dick lose his temper, so maybe. But I also think that when Dick is truly upset and emotionally compromised, his first move is to go somewhere to be alone. He doesn’t tend to lash out; he tends to retreat and isolate himself if he’s able. You’ll often see him hole himself in his apartment when everything becomes too much. Two good examples of this are in Joker’s Last Laugh and in the Outsiders. After Dick kills the Joker, he immediately retreats to his apartment to be alone, and likewise after Donna dies, he spends months isolated from his friends in Bludhaven: 

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files

And not only all that, but I really don’t think Dick yelling at everyone would be cathartic for him. If he did something like that, he’d feel terrible and guilty about it. He’d apologize. And I really don’t want him to have to apologize for anything in the aftermath of all this horrible stuff he’s been through. I don’t want any of the responsibility for making things right to be put on his shoulders. Though he’ll probably feel the need to try to fix things anyway, I’d actually prefer him to just...stay away from the family. Not avoid them, but let them be the ones to reach out to him for a change. Especially recently, Dick has had to do all the emotional work in his relationships; it would be so gratifying to have his friends and family put the work in on their own and be the ones to initiate so Dick doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting. 

And hey, I’d love even more for one of the numerous friends he used to have to step in and stand up for him instead, so he doesn’t have to. If the rest of the Titans were not currently being put through depressing arcs themselves (or being dead, RIP Roy), I think they definitely would’ve knocked some heads together. I think the only possible solution...is Uncle Clark coming to the rescue! Surely if Superman knew what was going on, he’d come down to the cave and give a good old fashioned tongue lashing to Batman for his pseudo-nephew’s sake! I’m not caught up with the Superman comics so idk what he’s up to rn, but please tell me this can happen and if not let me dream.

Thanks for the ask! I feel your pain, was pretty disappointed with Talon Dick. I really want to just reach into the comics and wrap Dick up in a blanket or something, give him rest!

[eyrieofsynapses]

YJ REALITY CHECK: S1 Team Ages vs S3 Team Ages

SO I was going through the birthdates of the Team for... reasons (timeline planning is fun :| ) and honestly, I’ve never been able to get a really clear idea on just how old the new Team (which I’m including the Outsiders and Red Robin’s mini-team in, because a lot of them are former S2 Team and they’re major focus characters in the third season) is in comparison to the original Team. So I wrote it out, and I’ve gotta be honest, it felt a bit like a slap in the face a few times. 

I’m estimating season three ages from the wiki-listed birth year to the year 2018, which is when the majority of the third season takes place. Season one ages are estimated from birth year to 2010. The wiki notes that birth years are estimates based on current knowledge and therefore subject to about year’s worth of leniency either way, so you can take this with a grain of salt. There are no ages listed for Orphan or Forager, so I’ve left them out. 

13-14:  S1: Dick Grayson and Zatanna Zatara S3: N/A

Yup, that’s right. It seems like the third season doesn’t have any major young heroes under the age of fifteen. Speaking of...

15: S1: Artemis Crock, Wally West (pre-Coldhearted), Raquel Ervin S3: Bart Allen (estimated), Stephanie Brown, Tara Markov

I have to admit, I thought Tara was younger. (Though that does give some extra depth to Artemis’s relationship with her.) We’re also seeing an interesting decrease in younger heroes in the third season, which may be a reflection of how the show is maturing and how our original heroes are getting older. I had to estimate Bart’s age based on wiki details because, well, when you come from the future, your birth year’s kind of insignificant regarding your age.

16: S1: Kaldur’ahm, M’gann M’orzz (human equivalent), Conner Kent (biological equivalent), Wally West (post-Coldhearted) S2: Garfield Logan, Violet Harper

Once again with our trend of a decrease in younger heroes. Kaldur actually surprised me- I thought he’d be seventeen, but according to the wiki he’s only about as old as Conner, M’gann, and (...post-Coldhearted, anyway) Wally. 

17: S1: Roy/Will Harper S3: Tim Drake, Cassandra Sandsmark, Cissie King-Jones, Eduardo Dorado Jr., Brion Markov, Roy Harper (Arsenal) (biological equivalent)

And here we see where all of our Teammembers and Outsiders went! Apparently, the majority of the current crew is around seventeen, which is a bit shocking when you think back to Red Arrow and how different he was in comparison to the younger original Team. (It also lends an interesting light to how Arsenal behaves in comparison, though he has a relatively small amount of screen time.)

18: S1: (outside of the Team) Jade Nguyen S3: Virgil Hawkins, Victor Stone, Queen Perdita, Billy Batson

That’s right, the itty-bitty Billy we knew so well in the first season is now officially old enough to vote! (...whoah.) Which puts them at the rough equivalent to... zero team members. The closest is Jade, so I threw her on to give y’all an idea.  

19: S1: N/A S3: Jaime Reyes

Jaime’s officially older than any of the Team from the first season! Which is one of the facts that feels a bit like a slap to the face, tbh. He’s only three years younger than Dick. By the way, Jaime and Jason Todd share the same birth year, so we’ll probably be looking at a 20 to 21-year-old Red Hood if he shows up in the fourth season. (Though that’s assuming that he hasn’t lost any time in between, which is a distinct possibility given his comic version.)

Overall Averages:  S1 (not including Jade Nguyen, counting Dick Grayson at age 13, Wally West age 15): 15.23 S3 (not including Queen Perdita, Roy Harper, or Billy Batson, as they aren’t official Team/Outsiders/Batman Inc. members): 16.7

Intriguingly, the average age of YJ’s teen heroes has gone up by over a year. (I am keeping Dick and Wally at their younger ages, but this is because those are their respective ages for the majority of the season.) But the show has gained a more mature tone and the original Team is considerably older, so it makes sense that their heroes would age with it. 

[jasonrae117]

Bad Idea, Good Intentions

Hello, Thank you everyone for reading! I'm currently working from my phone and can't put the whole story under a cut, but I'm working on it! I'll definitely get one there before the next part because it may or may not (definitely will) contain potential nsfw shenanigans. Enjoy!

Part 3

"Nice to meet you Rachel Roth. Tell me something interesting about yourself." Tim leanes in just a bit closer.

"I work with music for a living." She smirked at him, moving so her knee brushed against his.

Tim looked into her eyes, there was something familiar there. This whole time he felt like he knew her or recognized her from somewhere but he couldn't place it. He graduated with a degree in criminal law and took classes in profiling and here he was not making any connection as to why he would know her. He blamed the alcohol and he was frustrated with himself. Career in music, was that a hint? She obviously knew what she was doing this whole time, playing with him. It was sexy as fuck but still messed with the brainiac. 

He took his time in analyzing her features, making it obvious what he was doing. She just tilted her head in response. Large indigo eyes.. he'd never seen ones like them before today. Dark wavy hair that looked like silk flowing down, he never paid so much attention to a woman's hair before unless they were a criminal. Her outfit was all black and nothing jumped out in familiarity...but her shoes, or rather boots. He looked back up, her pale and smooth looking skin, her alluring curves. He hadn't recognized those eyes before today because he saw them for the first time less than an hour ago, except at a distance from her place onstage. He didn't know the color, only that she had winked at him and they stood out against her pale face. 

"Holy shit! You're Raven!" His eyes widened and his eyebrow shot up. How could he not see it before? Fuck he sounded like an idiot. 

She smiled and she looked so gorgeous in that moment. Her laugh fluttered around the bar as her hand fell to his knee. "Wow, Tim. I'm surprised it took you so long. I certainly gave you lots of attention during the show." 

"Hey, in my defense you were at least fifty feet from me, wearing...uh more revealing clothes, and your hair was completely different. Besides I've had a few drinks since and my brain's not working as efficiently." He reached down and laid his hand on top of hers, leaning into her space. Rachel didn't react or move away as if comfortable with his closeness. 

"Excuses excuses." She waved her hand in a dismissively playful manner. "Would you like to leave Tim?" Her voice now was sultry and almost a whisper of seduction. 

Tim froze, he'd never been in a situation like this. These were the kinds of things that happened in movies, not to him. She was asking him to go home with her...unless he misread the whole situation and she was asking him to leave! Oh God, did he make her uncomfortable? No, she came to him, flirted with him! He was overthinking, overanalyzing. Great, now he was taking too long to answer, shit, he had to say something!

"You want to leave with me?" His face was red in embarrassment. Head tilted and eyebrows set as high as they could go, he had lost all steampower of his attempt to be smooth and now he was just an idiot like every other guy, like his dumbass friends. "I'm sorry. Of course you want to leave with me….….fuck me!" He slapped his forehead and then his eyes widened as he then realized how awful the timing of his curse was. "Wait! No I didn't mean that either. You don't want to fuck me. I mean...not that I don't want you to, because I do….uh... this isn't coming out right." His hands were held out and he was starting to sweat. 

Rachel just looked amused at his stupidity and casually waited for him to take his foot out of his mouth.

"What I mean to say is, I'm not trying to be cocky or have any expectations. I was trying to sound less stupid and well I pretty much failed at my recovery. I told you I talk too much when I drink." He rubbed the back of his neck. Good thing none of the guys were near, the bartender gave him some weird looks, but at least Tim didn't have to worry about the guy teasing him about it relentlessly for the rest of time. 

Rachel smirked and stood up, brushing her skirt down and tossing her hair over her shoulder. She took a few steps away and turned halfway giving Tim an expectant look. "I take that your answer was a yes. Or was all that rambling a way to tell me to look elsewhere for company?" 

"Yes. Definitely yes!" He stood up immediately and tossed some bills to pay the rest of the tab and followed after her. His eyes dropped to her swaying hips and he'd never felt luckier. They made it out of a back door and they silently walked by each other taking in the cool night air. 

"So, Rachel." He looked down beside him. Though she had on heeled boots, she was still half a foot shorter than him. He could add cute to the many attributes she held. "Would you like me to drive?"

"Ideally. I don't have a car and it wouldn't be smart to leave yours here overnight. I'll give you directions to my place." She glanced up and smiled softly at him. 

"Great!" He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her to his car. He was glad he drove his own car, it gave him a chance to show it off. He didn't think Rachel would be easily impressed by a nice car, but his wasn't just any run of the mill nice car. Tim proudly drove an all black 1967 Ford Mustang. Tim's biological family was well off, but when Bruce Wayne took him in, he had more opportunities including working for Wayne Enterprises and getting paid very handsomely. 

Rachel stopped a few feet short and let out a low whistle. "Ok, Mr. Drake. I have to be honest, I wasn't expecting this beauty to be yours."

"What were you expecting? A Prius?" He laughed and opened the passenger door for her. 

"What do you do for a living? This car is immaculate." She adjusted her skirt and ran her hand along the dashboard. Tim just chuckled and closed the door, jogging to his side.

"I work as a financial analyst at Wayne Enterprises. But I want to work in law enforcement soon. That's what my new degree is in."

"Wow, handsome and intelligent. How new?"

"Actually just a few days ago." He smiled and the engine roared to life. 

"Congratulations, Tim." She smiled genuinely back at him and his stomach flipped. She made him feel some type of way. She pulled her phone out and handed it to him, directions already plugged in. He pulled out of the parking lot and followed the instructions given by the device. 

Her place wasn't too far from the club, quiet music played in the background, but he wanted to use this time to get to know her more before…. before they stopped talking. 

"How long have you been in the band?"

"About three years, including the awkward stage of figuring out if we were good enough to be a band and what our names would be."

"How'd you come up with the names?"

"I've always known my stage name would be Raven. It was my mother's nickname for me. That's also why we ultimately chose Nevermore as the band name too. Jenni felt like she was a curse or bad luck charm for those around her, except us, so Jinx came easy. Toni went with Argent as a kind of fuck you to the bullies that made fun of her super pale skin color. And Wally took inspiration from Kid Rock and combined it with the fact that he's 'the fastest drummer alive'. Thus became Nevermore." 

"Very cool. Does your family come to your shows? You're really good, I'm sure they're proud." He glanced at her and noticed that her shoulders were hunched and she idly played with the rings on her fingers. "I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that if it's personal."

"No..no, it's fine. I..uh.. don't have any family left. My mother passed away when I was eight. She was the only person I had. My father was never a part of my life and never will be."

"I'm very sorry for your loss. It must have been difficult for you being so young." He reached out and reassuringly held her hand.

"It was, but I had a small community of people that took care of me. And before you get the wrong idea, it wasn't a cult. I grew up in Norway."

"Norway? Wow, what part? If it's not too much to ask, how did you end up here?"

"Full of questions aren't we?" He shrugged in answer and squeezed her hand gently. "It was a small village called Azarath and they had such a unique culture. The oldest woman, Azar, was the first baby born in the village a hundred years ago. They named it after her and she became such an important figure. It was most important to her to continue the traditions of her people. They were all pacifists and meditated every day, everyone was so happy and peaceful and thus there was no crime in Azarath, just community. My mother fled from the U.S., away from my abusive father. She took me with her and picked the flight that would get her the farthest away. She had nothing with her except me and an empty bottle. We were starving and nobody helped us. Then one of the Azarathians saw us and gave us a home, gave us hope. They helped my mother raise me. When I was old enough I wanted to learn everything about their culture and every culture. They called me Raven from the Norse mythology of Odin's ravens, symbolizing wisdom and thought. I sometimes think of it as the death omen rightfully earned when my father sent some bad people to locate me to take me away. Azar gave me her journal and my mother gave me all the money from the village. They had all saved me and I didn't understand what was happening, but I ran to the city and got on a plane back to the United states. I found a shelter and lived there until I was eighteen. I found out that those men killed everyone in Azarath. It was all my fault, because I wasn't there. They would have stopped if they got what they wanted. I fled and they killed an entire culture." Tears now flowed down her face. He had put the car in park when they reached her apartment complex. He didn't move to get out and instead slid over to her and wrapped his arms around her. 

Tim gently stroked her hair and let her cry. "Shh, it wasn't your fault. They saved you from a bad man, a bad life. Their culture lives within you and Azar's journal. We don't know what those men would have done, perhaps the outcome would have been the same because they are terrible people. But they knew that you could have a safe future and carry on their memory. Raven has a new meaning now, beyond wisdom and thought. To me it means brave, strong, graceful."

Rachel's sobs were now soft sniffles and she looked up at him. "I'm sorry. You probably were hoping to get laid and now you're comforting a crazy girl."

 

"Hey, I'm not complaining. You're not crazy. And I told you I had no expectations. Come on, let's get you inside, I'm sure it's more comfortable than my car." He felt her nod and he got out to open her door.

"Thank you Tim. I…" She took a breath and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "You're very kind. There's not many, if any, like you."

"I appreciate that, I can confidently say there is no one like you Rachel." He smiled at her and she grabbed his arm guiding him to her apartment door. 

[dottie-wan-kenobi]

A @batfam-christmas-stocking fic written for @renecdote!! happy holidays <3

----

Alternate universes suck so much. Tim has always known that, but he’s never really grasped it, not until he and Dick were forcibly thrown into one a week ago.

Gotham feels different, even though it doesn’t appear that way on the surface. The violence is more personal, less showy, and as far as they’ve seen, there are almost no super villains. Somehow, though, there’s more crime on the whole, every corner of every street host to pimps and drug dealers and traffickers.

Tim tries to fight it, tries to intervene, but Dick pulls him back. “We can’t risk it, you know that.”

He does. But that doesn’t make it easier. “They need our help,” Tim fires back, everything he’s ever been taught about bettering the world, the pressure of saving people, battering around in his mind.

“It’s not our world or our place,” Dick explains, and for all that he sounds apologetic, his eyes don’t stray away from the shadowy parts of the street where they can hear people being hurt.

Dick is a good actor, but Tim can read him like a book. He’s following the protocols put in place for dimensional travel, playing the I’m The Big Brother And I’m In Charge card, but he doesn’t like it anymore than Tim does.

The rules are what they are for a reason, and Tim knows that. Grudgingly, he lets Dick pull him away, go back to their own little shadowy corners. They sleep on cardboard they find in dumpsters, huddling up for warmth. In the mornings, they go to the local library, hoping to fill out some of their knowledge on this world, since no rescue or way out otherwise is forthcoming.

There, sitting at the outdated computers, they find out that Martha and Thomas Wayne are still dead. Bruce wasn’t 8 when it happened, though—he was 16. He got shot too, making it painful and difficult to walk or move in general. According to one interview from a few years before, he’s kept on bedrest a lot, and has been in and out of physical therapy ever since it happened, now fifteen years prior. When he’s not doing that, he’s campaigning for control of Wayne Enterprises and tweeting about coffee.

There’s no Batman. Not like how they know him, at least.

One day, Dick flirts with a cop and Tim pickpockets the man’s scanner, and they learn that whole case files, suspects and evidence all neatly put together, have been sent to the GCPD over the past six years. They never see anyone fly overhead, though. At first, they think it might be Babs, but when they try to look her up, Tim finds that she’s been locked up in Arkham for at least the last four years.

Neither one of them want to know why, so they just don’t look into it any further. “This isn’t our Babs,” Dick reminds himself, and Tim, too. But mostly himself. “She’s not .”

They share a look, and don’t have to say anything to know it’s time to compartmentalize. This Babs isn’t their Babs. This Bruce isn’t their Bruce. This world doesn’t have the Joker or Poison Ivy or any of them except Two Face and the Penguin. This isn’t their world .

“Come on,” Dick murmurs, sticking close to his side as they leave the library. As they head to their latest alley, they pass all kinds of drug deals and gang members beating the shit out of people. By the time they actually get to where they’ve been staying, they’re both so tense, one smartass comment from Tim is all it takes to snap them into an argument.

”I’m sorry,” Tim says after they’ve gone back and forth a few times, sounding hostile even to himself. “I’m so sorry I can’t see things the same way you do. I’m sorry I’m not perfect Dick Grayson , who always knows what to do without even having to think about it, who always does the right thing, who is totally fine letting all these people suffer, because it’s in the protocol!”

He doesn’t even believe his own words. Tim’s just upset, unable to handle living on the streets for a week in a universe where everything is unfamiliar and grim, lashing out against one of the only things he can control. Dick is all he has here—and spending that much time with someone, let alone one of his brothers, would be hard even in the best of circumstances.

Dick flinches, and Tim only has a second to feel bad before the flash of a reflection from a gun in the window above them catches his attention. He moves on instinct, stepping forward and trying to pull Dick down even as Dick tries to move towards the mouth of the alley, protective to a fault. The bullet hits Dick’s left shoulder with a sickening and familiar crack-thwack .

For a moment, everything is silent, slow motion. Dick sucks in a pained breath, stumbling back a few steps, and Tim hopes and prays the bullet hasn’t hit an artery.

And then Tim twists to face the mouth of the alley and books it towards him, jumping on the bastard and bringing him to the ground. He rips the gun away and lets all of his pent-up anger and stress out, punching and punching. It’s only Dick, gritting his teeth and clutching his shoulder, calling out his name that saves the guy’s teeth from actually being knocked out.

Panting and shaking with fury and adrenaline, Tim stands. “Are you okay?” He demands.

“Fine,” Dick replies. “We—we should go.”

“Yeah, okay.” But he bends down instead, patting the guy’s pockets until he finds what he’s looking for: a wallet. As he rifles through, searching for a driver’s license or state ID, he explains. “We need to know who he is. If he’s working for Harvey….”

They both shudder at the thought, but the truth is worse. The name is Italian, familiar to Tim from a bust a few years before. He’s one of Maroni’s men.

Another thing they learned during their hours of research at the library: seven years ago, Haly’s Circus came through town. Bruce Wayne didn’t attend, or more likely, couldn’t. Mary and John Grayson fell to their deaths, and once it became clear that little Dick Grayson, only eight years old, knew something about the murderers, he ran. He’s been missing ever since, and if he’s still alive, then the Maronis are probably still on the lookout for him. Tony Zucco, apparently, is still alive. Still working Gotham’s underbelly, terrorizing and murdering. The Dick Grayson native to this universe is a threat to them.

They probably heard me say Dick’s name , Tim realizes, tucking the wallet away in the man’s pockets. Which means he was shot because of me. Fuck.

----

Big brothers, Tim finds, are fucking heavy. Especially when they’ve been shot and are steadily losing blood. When they’re dead weight, fading in and out of consciousness. When they’re relying totally on Tim to drag the both of them to uncertain refuge in an unfamiliar city.

And Tim…he wants to be someone Dick can rely on. (Obviously, he already is, but his anxiety says maybe this is just who Dick is. Tim could be anyone and the situation would be the same. Still, it would be better for Dick if Tim was Damian, instead. Or Bruce. Or Donna. Or anyone but himself, really.) But more than anything, he wants someone who can help Dick, who can keep him alive. Living on the streets the way they are just doesn’t lend much in the way of medical supplies.

Tim drags Dick all the way to the clinic, based on a vague awareness that it exists here, too. When they get there, though, the building is obviously abandoned, Leslie nowhere to be found. Wherever she is, he doesn’t know, but he hopes she’s okay. He can’t think of a situation that would keep her from helping the people of Gotham. Still, he sets Dick up against the wall and breaks in, hoping for something useful, and finding nothing inside but rubble and evidence of homeless people using the space for shelter.

He goes back to Dick, feeling like the world is ending. They don’t have any first aid supplies, and even if they did, even if a first aid kit fell out of the sky right now and Tim could patch Dick up, it wouldn’t mean anything. This only happened because Tim wasn’t paying attention, wasn’t thinking to be careful. It could happen again. What does he do then?

What would Bruce do? Roy? Wally? Diana or Clark? Hell, Kon ? Any of them could help Dick so much more right now. More than Tim can or will ever be able to. And really, what good is Tim if he can’t even keep his brother alive?

Aware the thoughts aren’t helpful right now, he shelves them for later and looks back at Dick, cataloguing everything he sees like Bruce taught them to do. Dick’s still steadily bleeding out, and though that’s most concerning of all, Tim finds the only thing he can think about is how they don’t have clean clothes so Dick can walk around in something not soaked in blood.

With a strangled shout, Tim kicks the wall. It doesn’t affect him, much—thank god he’d been wearing steel-toed shoes when they were transported here—but the brief release feels good. Sort of. It’d be a lot better if he were still laying into the Maroni guy, if he’s honest.

“Tim,” Dick says, both reproachful and concerned.

“Shut up,” Tim replies, dragging his fingers through his hair. His mind is racing. He wants to go home so badly his chest aches with it.

Dick knows him well enough that he can sense what Tim is thinking. Slowly, he shakes his head. “No, Tim. No . We can’t.”

“Where else are we supposed to go?” Tim cries out. It’s a stupid idea, it’s against the protocol, and they’ve already talked about it anyway. They’d agreed it’s stupid and they can’t do it and moved on. But he can’t help feeling the impulse, especially now.

“Stephanie’s,” Dick shoots back immediately. But they both know it’s not possible—here, Steph is another face on the dozens of missing persons posters that litter the city. He realizes it a second too late, and stumbles over his next words. “Just, anywhere but there.”

Jason is dead, has been for years now. Damian doesn’t exist. Cass is in Star City with Dinah Lance. Luke and the other members of the Fox family have never lived in this Gotham. Duke’s parents are still alive—they recently moved to Blüdhaven, and took their young son with them. Harper and Cullen are nowhere to be found, but Tim tells himself that’s a good thing—it means they aren’t in the obituaries. Kate is overseas on a honeymoon with her wife. Half of the Titans and Justice League don’t seem to exist, and the ones that do wouldn’t step foot in this cesspit of crime and drugs.

‘Anywhere but there’ means nothing. Nowhere. There’s no place for them to go, no one who can or even would help.

The words, or maybe the thoughts that come with them, wear Dick out. He starts to fade again, eyes slipping closed, and that means Tim’s in charge.

And Tim? Tim wants to go home .

He grabs Dick, keeping him from sliding down the wall, throws his brother’s arm over his shoulder, and starts off towards the Manor with every ounce of determination he can muster.

----

Several hours later, when it’s dark and Dick is pale and mostly silent, barely keeping up, they make it home. Everything feels different: the security that allows them to get all the way up the drive (after only a little effort on Tim’s part), the trees oddly placed and the doors and shutters all painted a light blue instead of the rusty red he’s used to. It’s disorienting and upsetting. Home is supposed to be familiar and it’s not and he hates it.

Tim knocks on a side door that only family knows about, hoping against hope it won’t be Bruce that answers. He doubts it, but he’s positive he won’t be able to keep his composure in front of his dad. It’ll be a little easier with Alfred. Probably. In any case, Alfred is the better option of the two.

While they wait, Dick mumbles, “This is stupid.”

Tim presses his hand against the wound, trying not to be impatient. Trying not to feel sick with nerves. He doesn’t reply, knowing Dick isn’t really paying attention right now.

When the door finally opens, Tim could collapse with relief. Alfred stands there, one hand hiding his rifle out of their sight in an all-too-familiar pose, while the other holds onto the doorjamb. His hair is darker than Tim is used to, his face less wrinkled. He’s staring at them like they’re weird, strange boys, standing at what’s supposed to be a virtually unknown entrance to a private, secure home in the late hours of the night.

Blood covers Dick’s upper body and Tim’s hands, and they both look and smell rough. They don’t make a pretty picture, and Tim knows that, but there’s nothing he can do except get Alfred to let them in somehow. He’s been thinking about what he wants to say, what’ll appeal to Alfred’s compassion or curiosity or both. Please, help my brother before he loses too much blood. Please, don’t tell Bruce about this. Please, I’m so exhausted and I need a cup of your chamomile and a cookie and also maybe a hug or I’m going to explode.

What he says instead is, “ Alfred .” It’s a relieved sob, leaving him without permission, and Alfred’s shocked and confused reaction is much more noticeable than it should be. “I—we didn’t know where else to go. He’s hurt.”

There are more words on his tongue, an avalanche of them wanting to come out, but Alfred stops him there with a raised hand. He doesn’t put the rifle down, but he says, “Come in, then,” and opens the door wide enough for them.

Dick groans when Tim drags him up the steps. Blinking sluggishly at Alfred, he says, “Alf…?”

“Yeah, it’s Alfred. Come on, help out here a little bit. We’re just gonna sit down and hopefully get you patched up, alright, Dickie?”

“Hrn.”

Tim bites his lip at the Bruce noise, stupid tears stinging in his eyes.

He’s home. It’s unfamiliar. Dick is hurt. He’s in charge.

Now is so not the time to cry.

Alfred leads them to a nearby couch in a sitting room they’ve never used in all the years Tim’s known Bruce. Rifle still in hand, he seems much more unsure than their Alfred, who would’ve already had the situation on lock by now.

“We need a first aid kit, please,” Tim says. He glances at the weapon, and adds, “We won’t cause any trouble, I promise. I—I know this is probably super weird, but….”

But what? Tim can’t think of a way to end the sentence so he just doesn’t. Instead, he turns to Dick and starts pulling his brother’s shirt off, something they really should’ve done hours ago. While he uses the fabric to put pressure on the wound again, he hears Alfred moving around behind him.

If this Bruce is anything like theirs, a first aid kit shouldn’t be too far away. There’s one in every bathroom back home.

It’s not long before Alfred is back, shooing Tim away and setting a large first aid kit on the couch. His rifle is gone, but Tim knows it can’t be far. There’s no way this Alfred trusts them enough to not have it close at hand. “Do I dare ask what happened?”

God, it’s good to hear his voice. “My brother got shot,” Tim says, reverting to his natural instinct to reveal as little as possible. Normally Alfred is someone he can give a full mission report to, but Tim is just Tim right now, not Red Robin, and this is not his Alfred, so he’s going to keep his mouth shut up tight.

“Well, my word. You wouldn’t know it from looking at him.” And there’s that Alfred sass. It doesn’t make him laugh like it usually does—no, it just reminds him again that he isn’t actually home. “Care to explain more? Should I be concerned you were followed?”

Tim thinks on it for a minute, but really, there’s no way Maroni’s guy got up in time to tail them. The rest of the mob family have probably heard about them by now, but Tim isn’t too worried about it. He can’t find it within himself to be. All he can really think about is Dick, Alfred, Bruce. If coming here was a mistake after all. If they’ll ever make it home to see their Bruce and Alfred. Eventually, he says, “No. We weren’t followed.”

Dick groans as Alfred starts to prep the gunshot wound to get the bullet out. He sways a little, dizzy, and mumbles an apology when Alfred has to readjust him.

Alfred says, “Just hold as still as you can, and you’ll be alright.”

Hearing the tenderness in Alfred’s voice does something to Tim. This is Alfred , he thinks. He can help us with more than just this.  

He blurts out, “It was one of Maroni’s men.”

“Sal Maroni?” Alfred sounds suspiciously uninterested, not even bothering to look away from his work. “The mob boss?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm. Alright, young man, I’m going to get this bullet out now.”

“Tim,” Dick grits out, reaching out his hand. Tim takes it, sitting down on the other side of his brother. He forces himself to watch as Alfred goes through the familiar motions. Dick doesn’t actually squeeze his hand that much, too used to this kind of pain, but Tim thinks maybe they both feel better having the lifeline.

He stays there until Dick is stitched up and accepts a dose of Tylenol—no matter how much Alfred gives them concerned looks and insists on something stronger, a Bat doesn’t take hard drugs.

Not quite huffing in exasperation, Alfred acquiesces and leaves Dick alone, sitting back against the cushions. Then he turns to Tim. With his hands on his hips and his sleeves rolled up, he’s honestly kind of intimidating. “Now you, young man,” he says.

“Um. What? I’m fine. I didn’t get shot, I don’t need anything.”

Alfred raises an eyebrow. Tim can out-stubborn almost anybody, even his other family members, but Alfred Pennyworth is not one of them. Everyone bows down to him.

Tim sighs and scoots a few inches away from Dick, and when Alfred shoos him all the way into the other corner, he goes. Surprisingly, the older man sits next to Tim, between him and Dick, and instead of reaching for the kit, he just. Puts a hand on Tim’s shoulder. Which Tim finds extremely weird, considering how British and physically distant Alfred is. Oh sure, he hugs them all. He catches them when they fall, he reassures them with arm pats and shoulder squeezes. But it’s unlike him to just... sit here and rest his hand on Tim’s shoulder, looking him in the face with an expression Tim finds he can’t read.

Not being able to read people, especially someone he knows so well, freaks him out.

Tense, Tim says, “What?”

Alfred is quiet for a moment, then asks, “Where have you boys been staying?”

Oh. Yeah, okay. He’s suspicious of them. Tim can understand why. “We have a place.” It’s a disgusting alley behind a pizzeria they can’t afford to eat at, scraping by with the last of the money they had on them when they were sent here, but it’s not a lie.

Alfred backs off, picking his battles and probably recognizing this one for what it is: unwinnable. He’s more than perceptive enough to read between the lines anyway, add up all the clues—their clothes are dirty, their hair greasy, and Tim knows he’s looking pretty gaunt. And considering how jumpy Tim is acting, it’s likely Alfred thinks they’re homeless. Which they are.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

Tim holds out his hand, his knuckles split and raw from earlier, and ignores how badly he’s shaking. Alfred takes his hand, and grabs alcohol wipes from the kit. He dabs at the wounds, glancing at Tim’s face like he’s expecting a reaction. And yeah, it stings a little, but he’s had much worse. This is nothing.

“Hmm.” Alfred moves Tim’s hand around, looking for other wounds, finding a few little cuts. “So your brother’s name is Dickie?”

“Dick,” Tim corrects. Bruce and Jason are the only ones who call Dick that usually, and Jason almost always does it because it’s his ‘little brother duty’ or something. The only reason he said it earlier is because he hoped it would be comforting. “Short for—”

“Richard, I assume.”

“Yeah.” Tim falls silent, trying to keep his hand still. When a few moments of silence go by, he looks up at Alfred, finding him making an expectant face. “Oh! Yeah, sorry. I’m Tim.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Tim. You seem to already know my name.”

Yeah. Shit. Unable to think of a lie beyond ‘you look like my grandpa’, Tim laughs nervously. “Lucky guess?”

Dick snorts. “You jus’ look like our gran’pa, that’s all. His name’s Alfred. Yours too, huh?”

Alfred doesn’t look convinced, but he goes along with it anyway. “Yes, mine too.” What an odd coincidence , he doesn’t say, but Tim hears it anyway.

It doesn’t take long after that for Alfred to finish up Tim’s knuckles. He offers to put some band-aids on, but Tim shakes his head. “No, no, I’m fine. Thank you.”

Dick gives him a look, and despite the fact that he’s still acting loopy, there’s a strength to it. Tim can tell what he’s thinking—that if the cuts weren’t on the knuckles, a very awkward place to put bandages, Dick would be insisting on it. Well, whatever , he thinks, resisting the urge to stick out his tongue. You’re not in charge right now anyway.

Alfred stands and looks them over for a brief moment, hesitation obvious in the way he pauses, inhaling deeply. Then, with determination, he says, “I will prepare you something to eat. Do either of you have any allergies I should be aware of?”

“Sulfites,” Tim says at the same time Dick says, “Shellfish. And pet dander.”

“Dick, man, I’m pretty sure they don’t have pets. And even if they did, pets aren’t allowed in the kitchen under any circumstances.”

“Oh yeah,” Dick says with a faint chuckle. “Forgot.”

“Mister Tim,” Alfred cuts in before Tim can reply. It’s unspeakably weird to be called Mister Tim instead of Master Tim, even though Alfred called him that for years. “Will sandwiches suffice?”

The thought of eating Alfred’s food—and even more than that, something they haven’t fished out of a dumpster—is drool-worthy. Quickly, he agrees, “Yes, that’s perfect. Thank you.”

Alfred nods and leaves, probably thankful to get the heck away from them for a few minutes. Once he’s gone, the brothers fall quiet, both a blessing and a curse. Not having Alfred asking questions that Tim has to evade is great, but it does give him the opportunity to keep freaking out.

What do they do next? Alfred might not let them leave while Dick is healing, and that means the chances of running into Bruce raise astronomically. Tim knows that he won’t be able to handle that. Not at all.

“Stop it,” Dick whispers, loud in the overwhelming quiet. “I can see your forehead vein from here.”

“Shut up. I’m trying to think.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

Tim sighs, letting the banter drop for a moment. “Look, I’m sorry you got shot. I know it’s not my fault,” he says, speaking over Dick’s immediate protest. “I know that. But I’m still sorry.”

“…Thanks. I’m accepting your apology but not your responsibility.”

“Duh.” Tim fiddles with his hands, satisfied but also knowing, in his heart of hearts, that it is in fact his fault and Dick is totally wrong. “I’m not sorry I brought us here, though.”

“Duh,” Dick repeats, sounding more than a little peeved. Not that Tim can blame him, really. If Tim and Damian had agreed to something, and then Damian went back on it… that’d be really annoying.

Still, that little brother duty Jason talks about means he has to defend himself. “Dick, we were gonna end up coming here anyway, don’t you see that?” He shoots to his feet and drags his hands through his hair, pacing in front of the couch. Despite his earlier flip-flopping, he’s sure now. This was the right decision even if it does suck a lot. “Where else could we possibly go? We don’t belong here. The only way we can get home is by ask—”

Tim cuts off immediately when footsteps echo down the hall. They sound different from Alfred’s, a third tap that sounds a lot like a cane.

This Alfred doesn’t use a cane. The only person who could is—

Both Dick and Tim tense as the doorway is filled up by Bruce freaking Wayne.

“Um,” Tim says.

Bruce looks different. Not just in the sense that he is, in fact, using a cane, but just. Everything. He looks younger, a neat beard covering much of his face. There’s barely any salt in it at all. The scars that litter the skin of his face and arms, mostly bare considering he’s wearing only a t-shirt and pajama pants, aren’t there. Worst of all, there’s no recognition in his eyes.

His sons have become strangers. But no, this man is not their father. Tim has to shout it at himself. He’s not! Bruce Wayne would never look at them like this. Especially not Dick.

Dick makes a noise, a small and sad little whimper, and Tim thinks, shit. Shit shit shit. Unable to do anything to help, Tim shuffles closer to him, hoping it’s enough to comfort.

“Who are you?” Bruce asks, moving further into the room. He says it casually, like this is a totally normal situation, but there’s steel there, too. Of course there is. This is Bruce Wayne. He doesn’t mess around, especially when it comes to strangers invading his home. And as much as that feels like a knife to the chest, that’s what they are. Strangers . The word lingers in his mind, leaving a bad aftertaste.

Tim gets the distinct feeling that the cane, for all that it serves to help Bruce walk, is a weapon. One this Bruce will have no issue using against them. “Um. We—we’re homeless,” he blurts out, trying to push the thought away. “And my brother got shot, so we came here looking for help. We’ll be gone soon, I promise. Don’t worry about us, this is just a one time thing, and we won’t tell anyone else. I know this is a house and not a triage center.”

Bruce is already looking at him like he’s an intruder, but at that, the man’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. Oh, right. That’s something the other—the right —Bruce would say. Has said many times. Because it’s something their Alfred has always said, and apparently this Alfred too.

Scrambling, Tim keeps going, pasting a fake smile on his face. “Alfred knows we’re here. He’ll be right back. It’s okay, we’ll just wait right here and not steal anything, so you can go back to bed. Goodnight.”

“Tim,” Dick bites out, obviously trying to communicate that he thinks Tim is being a weirdo, and that he’s doing nothing but tipping Bruce off to the fact that something is wrong.

“I’m freaking out, okay?” Tim exclaims back, curling and relaxing his fingers in an effort to control himself. It’s impossible, though—this is their dad , for crying out loud. Their dad, who they haven’t seen in a long time, not since before they were attacked as civilians and flung through the wormhole that deposited them here. Their dad, who Tim really, seriously needs a hug from right now.

Bruce comes closer, leaning against one of the two unused chairs. Where Tim tenses further, unsure of what he’s about to do or say, Dick relaxes. He’s really out of it now, the blood loss and medicine finally catching up with him.  He’s blinking heavily and listing to the side. “Hand me that, will you?” He asks Bruce, gesturing to a throw blanket resting on the top of the chair.

Suddenly feeling very protective of Dick, Tim says, “I can—”

“No,” Bruce interrupts, the corner of his mouth curling up like he thinks this is funny. “I’ve got it.”

He grabs the blanket and walks over to the couch. Tim stumbles back a few steps to give him room. For a second, it seems like none of them breathe—but then Bruce leans on his cane like a crutch, bends down, and lays the blanket over Dick.

Tim has seen Bruce tuck people in before, usually Damian. All those times, he either didn’t care much, or a swirl of jealousy had tightened in his stomach. He can remember wondering why Bruce didn’t tuck him in. Why his parents never did it, why Mrs. Mac and all the nannies hadn’t either.

This time, his eyes sting with tears.  He forces them back, biting the inside of his cheek.

Dick snuggles into the cushions behind his back, pulling the blanket tighter around himself. “Thanks, dad,” he mumbles, slipping off into a nap.

Bruce and Tim both freeze.

“Um,” Tim says, because something has to be said, this needs to be nipped in the bud and stopped right now before Bruce can ask anything. But really, the chances of Bruce Wayne not asking questions? Less than zero. And Tim’s brain is screaming, because what the hell could he possibly say to explain that ?

Alfred enters the room again before anything can happen, carrying a tray holding a few sandwiches. He sets it down on a side table before looking up.

“Oh,” he stops short when he sees Bruce, hands hovering above the food. “Master Bruce, I thought you were downstairs.”

“I was just doing some reading,” he waves off, but he can’t quite manage to sound casual. “Now… did he just call me dad ?”

Oh fuck , Tim thinks. Awkwardly, he laughs, “No! What? No, that’s ridiculous.” Seeing that this tactic isn’t working—Bruce and Alfred both have legendary ‘bitch please’ looks that go beyond the confines of time and space, apparently—he shifts gears. “I mean, okay, yes he did. But—but it’s just because you look like our dad! A lot like him, actually. Haha.”

Bruce and Alfred stare at him, concern building as he keeps laughing, spurred on by a week of non-stop stress and the pressure of being in charge— maybe , he thinks, this was a bad idea all along and we shouldn’t have come here and Dick was totally right. It’s only when his laughter turns to hiccuping sobs that either of them move, Bruce managing to grab his bicep in time before Tim can sink to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Alfred hurries to his other side, fretting, “Come on, young sir, just sit down now.”

They lead him to one of the chairs, where he collapses, his head in his hands. Dick is better at this—at leading, at interacting, at not breaking apart. It should all be the opposite: Tim sleeping off a GSW while Dick lies through his teeth as he explains what’s going on. Not that Dick would’ve gotten them into this situation, anyway.

“I’m sorry,” he sniffles, refusing to look up. They’re both staring at him again, clearly unsure what to do with a strange, crying teenager.

After a moment, Alfred says, “You boys say I look like your grandfather, and now Master Bruce looks like your father. By chance, what is his name?”

“Bruce Wayne,” Tim replies to the floor. “But… not him. A different one.”

“A different Bruce Wayne?” The confusion and curiosity is clear as day in Bruce’s voice, and Tim can’t help but snort a little.

“Yeah. Um, this is going to sound really crazy, but my brother and I are from a different universe.” He peeks at their faces, not surprised at all by the blatant disbelief he sees. “I can prove it.”

Alfred and Bruce share a wide-eyed look.“How?”

“I know you’re the one who’s been sending the GCPD all those case files. And before you say you’re not, you just said you were doing some reading. Downstairs. In the cave below this property, right? Back home, it’s called the Batcave and you’re Batman.”

“Go on, Mister Tim,” Alfred says after a moment. “We believe you.”

Relief crashes down on him and more tears slip out against his will. “I need your help. We need your help. We’ve been here for a week, and—and—and we have no idea how to get home. None. There’s no one else we can turn to, ‘cause the people who would usually help us either can’t or wouldn’t, since they don’t know us here. And god, this world is nothing at all like ours…. I just want to go home. I don’t know what to do. Please,” he begs, desperate. “I need advice.”

Bruce hesitantly sets a hand on Tim’s back, rubbing up and down in a motion that is, wow, extremely soothing. “We’ll figure this out, Tim. I promise you, Alfred and I will help you boys any way we can.”

Before Tim can ask if it’s just because they’re his sons in some other universe, Alfred clears his throat. “It may take some time, mind you. But you and your brother will need to stay here anyway, seeing as that wound needs time to heal. I can’t, in good conscience, let that happen out on the streets.”

Tim wants to refuse. Wants to say thanks but no thanks, you can put us up in a motel or something until everything is worked out. Wants to cry and cry and wake up from this nightmare. Instead, mentally and physically exhausted, he just says, “Okay.”

Both men are concerned by the response, he can tell. Though he isn’t looking, he can practically hear the silent conversation they’re having over his head. Then Alfred stands. “I will make up two of the guest rooms, then, sirs. Mister Tim, could you help bring Mister Dick upstairs?”

“Just set up one, we can share,” Tim replies. It’s late and he doesn’t want Alfred to have to do anything more than he’s already done. Than he’s already doing.

“If you’re certain….”

“I am. Thank you.”

He’s not gone for long, and thank god, because Tim can hardly stand to be alone with Bruce without spilling even more. He’s already said so much tonight, he feels empty and hollowed out, kind of like a balloon that’s been blown up only for all the air to wheeze out of it, leaving it sad and stretched. Holy shit, that metaphor. He needs to go to bed, and he needs a mattress instead of another cardboard box laid over hard cobblestone and concrete.

Shaking his head to stop his thoughts, he moves over to Dick and wakes him, a hand on his uninjured shoulder. “Dick, wake up,” he says a few times until his brother is blinking heavily at him.

“Wha’?”

“We’re gonna go upstairs and sleep. Come on, I’ll help you.”

“Hrn,” he says again, and this time, Bruce hears it. Tim glances at him, almost surprised to see the emotions on Bruce’s face. Apparently that’s a Bruce noise in this universe too, and it only helps to cement Tim’s story.

Tim helps Dick stand up, swinging Dick’s good arm over his shoulders. Together, they slowly ascend the stairs, something Tim is more than familiar with considering how many times something like this has happened at home. At the top, they meet up with Alfred, who takes them to a guest room that is thankfully unused in their version of the Manor.

Alfred helps Dick get settled into the mattress, his shoes and belt shed. “I could get you both some pajamas,” Alfred says when he sees the way Tim flops down, both of them still in battered, dirty, expensive chinos.

“We’re okay,” Tim says, aware that the only pajamas in the house must belong to Bruce and Alfred, and that neither size would fit them. He’s not sure he could handle it right now even if they did. “Thank you though. For…for all of this. It means a lot.”

Alfred graces him with a gentle smile. “Of course, young sir. I would like to think that your Bruce will appreciate this.”

He leaves, and then it’s just Tim and Dick. They’ve shared a bed plenty of times before, on nights when there was no one else around and they didn’t want to be alone. Dick was the one who taught Tim one of the best parts about having siblings: cuddles. Dick is a cuddle monster, but maybe tonight Tim won’t wake up being held protectively to his brother’s chest.

Under the covers, Tim stares at the ceiling. His mind refuses to shut off even though they’re finally somewhere safe. Somewhere he can sleep and not worry about what might happen when he’s not paying attention.

He feels a little better, now that there are actual adults in charge, who are going to help. Who can keep Dick from getting hurt again, especially from Tim’s carelessness. But it makes him miss home, just reminds him how far away he and Dick are from their real family. He’s curious, on some level, about this Bruce Wayne. He trusts him to take care of them long enough for them to return home. How long that’s going to take is a question, though, one that he thinks can probably be answered by: a long time.

It’ll be good for Dick, at least. Give him time to heal.

God, Dick shouldn’t have been hurt in the first place. But of course he did, and of course it was because of some dumb argument, because of Tim—

“’M not perfect,” Dick whispers, making Tim, who was certain he was asleep, jump. When he turns to look, he finds Dick’s eyes are closed. Squeezed shut. “’M not . I don’t know what I’m doing, Tim. I didn’t wanna come here ‘cause of the rules, and ‘cause it’s hard… hard to see them. ‘M lucky I getta sleep through it, I guess.”

“Dick—”

“I woulda done the same thing, okay?” And now he opens his eyes, meeting Tim’s head on. “This was the right choice. Coming here. Alfred gives the best advice.”

“Yeah.” Tim’s throat feels thick, the word hard to get out.

Dick reaches out his good hand and rests it on Tim’s cheek. “Thank you for bringing me here. You saved me. Now go to sleep,” he says, and then teasingly smacks him. “I can hear you thinking all the way from here.”

“You’re like two feet away,” Tim points out, but he tries to listen anyway. He closes his eyes, thinking maybe he will be able to rest. Dick is the best at comforting people.

“Shhhh,” Dick says, grinning. “Doesn’t matter. Sleep.”

“Yes, mom.”

“ Shhh !”

Tim laughs, and for the first time in a while, it’s real. He feels safe and warm and not alone, and while he can’t exactly say he’s happy right now, he’s a lot closer than he was just a few hours before.

Tomorrow , he decides, settling down, I’m going to take a shower and eat a real meal. And then, then I can finally start figuring out how to get us home.

[cryptocism]

ive been scrolling through ur blog for a while (cuz ur dc opinions are Top Fucking Notch) and i saw what you said abt bart in tt 03 and f:fma and while i totally agree (it killed tt 03 for me lol) im super curious abt how youd do his development if given the opportunity?

I’ve been thinking about this one like A Lot so buckle up this is long: 

it would kind of depend? On whether or not he’d be in an ensemble team like Teen Titans or with his own solo series. 

I understand metatextually why he became Kid Flash in TT, since they needed him to be more mature and a more recognizable character and having him upgrade costumes/codenames is a good shortcut for both. But I’ve already talked about why it didn’t sit right with me. 

So, lets flip the script a little bit - the start of TT would be largely the same. Our boy Bart is on the new Titans team, and things are kind of awkward after YJ disbanded, also Max is gone and Bart’s relationship with Wally is still not doing great. Things are rough, Bart has newfound doubts to deal with, especially now that the world seems to have gotten harsher and everyone seems to have a lot less patience to deal with him. The pressure to be more mature and a recognizable character is coming from other characters now rather than an authorial need: he’s reminded to take things seriously, or that he should know better by now, that he needs to slow down and think more. So Bart decides a change is necessary, and we get the library scene. He reads all the books, he reappears as Kid Flash, saves Tim via bullet catch, disassembles a gun, takes down Slade, etc. etc. Here’s my departure from canon though: it doesn’t work. 

Kid Flash is not a solution, or a magical cure for immaturity. Reading a whole library so he’s miraculously smarter and more mature and capable is, at its core, a pretty naive conclusion. And it makes sense he would think that. But it doesn’t work. He’s still impulsive, distractible, hasty. He can’t put a lid on his own sense of humor. People still think he’s annoying or lazy or careless. And he keeps trying - he knows all this stuff now, he read a whole library! - but he’s still apparently too much the same person as he's always been. And even though he’s trying very hard to live up to the Kid Flash name, it still doesn’t feel like him. Wally doesn’t like it, since Bart is literally just imitating him now, which makes things between the two even worse. And Bart keeps worrying about what’s supposed to come afterwards, since “Kid Flash” is inherently temporary, and while Impulse was only peripherally related to the flash legacy, Kid Flash comes with expectations. 

Bart is trying very very hard to be ‘grown up’ and ‘mature’, but he hasn’t actually learned anything other than a bunch of facts (which are still useful, but) he’s just trying to be who everyone expects him to be. 

And this is what i mean about the ensemble thing, because this arc would be in conversation with the rest of the core four, who are also trying very hard to be people they’re not, but all in different ways. Bart obviously with the codename change, but Cassie, Tim, and Kon all have similar issues, they’re all trying to imitate people. 

Tim is doing his Batman jr. routine, reverting back to the persona he had at the start of YJ. He’s cagey and mysterious and does questionable things without telling anybody, because he’s de-facto leader of the team again, and he has to be better than he is. No more kid stuff, the Titans are serious, he has to treat it like a job, not like a sleepover. And this whole act is putting distance between him and his friends. 

Cassie is trying her hardest to put herself in a support role. Donna’s gone and she has some big shoes to fill (she and Tim could probably bond about that if he weren’t stubbornly trying to brood at all hours of the day) and she’s doing her best to just Be Donna. Cassie and Tim would work better with their team roles swapped, and they both sort of know this - Cassie is naturally charismatic, thinks on her feet, can maintain good PR, and when she’s confident in herself is great at leading. Tim is partial to planning ahead, secrets, and keeping in the shadows, and is better at being a confidant and emotional problem solver among the team (when he allows himself to be open among friends, that is). 

But they’re both trying to fit themselves into what they see as pre-ordained roles: Robin is leader, Wondergirl is a supportive mediator. But Cassie’s got a temper and little patience for people being idiots, and Tim’s not predisposed to spotlights. 

Kon on the other hand has a story that’s less about who he should be and more who he shouldn’t be. The Lex Luthor dad storyline is here (minus the mind control shit, although the threat of it is still brought up) and Kon is doing his level best to do nothing that could be interpreted as something Lex might do. While everyone is doing their best to Not be their own person, Kon has no idea if he ever was his own person. He’s questioning everything he does, wondering if it’s some kind of evil gene showing through when he’s angry or petty or selfish. He’s going through lots of clone angst. 

So they’re all dealing with expectations and who they are or aren’t supposed to be, trying to fit themselves into boxes that don’t suit them and then convincing themselves that this is how it ought to be. Kon ought to avoid feeling or acting in any negative light because any sign of Luthor is a sign of evil, Cassie ought to tone herself down and act like Donna, Tim ought to step up and lead the team and act like Dick, and Bart ought to listen better and be smarter and slow down and grow up and do his level best to just Be Wally. 

Throughout the issues they’d all get a spotlight on their various crises, taking them through complimenting character arcs. Kon would realize through a couple close encounters and chats with ma and pa and talks with his friends and citizens of metropolis that nobody is all good or all bad. Clark can be a real asshole sometimes and Luthor’s actually done a fair bit of good (usually in his own interests, but still we’re gunning for nuance). Turns out he doesn’t have a dark side to be tempted by, he was made from 50% complex person and 50% complex person, just like everyone else. Which means he isn’t destined to be the next Superman, or Superman’s next supervillain. He’s just like, a person. With his own thoughts and feelings that have nothing to do with genetics. 

Tim would wear himself out and hide it from everybody until he killed himself, but it’s only when he sees Cassie also wearing herself out too that his ‘somebody needs somebody’ instincts kick in and they’re actually able to talk about how miserable they both are. Through some trial and error they’re able to figure out a good co-leader system for leading the team, having each other’s backs along the way, which allows for them both being able to help out the other members of their team with their own shit i.e. Kon and Bart’s identity issues. 

Bart is, like Cassie and Tim, wearing himself out trying to be this perfect version of Wally that never actually existed. He actually hates the recognition the new name gives him, because people have expectations for him now, ones he can never seem to live up to. He’s bad at following orders still, which makes him a pretty shit sidekick for Wally, in fact he’s just pretty shit at being a sidekick in general. But, he reasons, he’s supposed to be grown up and responsible now, and responsibility is all about doing shit you hate until you die, so he’s probably on the right track. 

It’s only later, once he gets some support from his friends, who help him deal with things like Max and YJ disbanding and stuff that he’s able to actually sit down and have a heart-to-heart with Wally. Wally confesses that he understands the pressure to live up to a legacy, and how he did his best to just Be Barry when he became the flash. In fact while Bart was trying to live up to Wally and be a good sidekick, Wally was trying to live up to Barry and be a good mentor. Wally’s the one to tell him that Bart’s always done his own thing, and is at his best when he does. They both agree they suck as partners, but maybe they should’ve tried to be family first. And there’s probably a racing metaphor in there somewhere because speedsters love their racing metaphors. 

ANyway Bart returns to Impulse, forging a new path, getting along better with Wally now and hanging out with him just as civilians with no pretense. He learns some valuable lessons about how maturity can’t be learned in a book, and that he’ll get it himself the more he lives and learns from experience. The Titans all get along better now that they’re all sure of their places in the group, and they can all go on just being themselves without worrying about expectations or roles to fill or whatever. 

...If Bart still had his solo series instead though, id actually want it to go in a sort of different direction? The thing about living up to predecessors and trying to be some ideal version of another person works well for the Titans because they can all deal with a similar issue in different ways, but I think it would also be interesting to do the complete opposite. 

Lots of shitty things happened in very quick succession in Bart’s life that he had no control over: Max’s disappearance, having to move in with Jay and Joan (who are nice, but whom he barely knows,) leaving his friends in Alabama, Young Justice breaking up… Basically, things kind of suck for Bart, and all he wants is for them to go back to the way they were. Instead of trying to be grown up or mature or whatever, Bart is resisting every single encroaching thing about coming adulthood. Because all growing up ever seems to mean is that everything changes and either you have to leave the people you love or they have to leave you. 

So this series would focus mostly on that, both in his civilian life; going into high school, not knowing anybody, the few friends he does make are less interested in ‘kid stuff’ and more focused on dating and interpersonal drama, high school itself seems to be geared entirely toward the “what are you going to do with your life” question, when he visits his old friends back in manchester, they’ve all kind of grown up without him. And in hero life; everyone from Young Justice is trying to move on and not talking to each other, his father figure and mentor is gone and he's not really jiving well with the rest of the flash family, and people just seem to have less patience for Impulse now that he’s older. 

Growing up is hard. It’s hard and no one understands. Especially not when you’re also a superhero and have dealt with some quality trauma like losing loved ones and feeling yourself die. So it makes sense that Bart would resist that in every way possible, do his best to pretend like everything is still how it used to be, for once in his life just trying to make everything stay put. He refuses to get rid of his old stuff, he doesn’t want to treat any villainous threats seriously, people in school keep talking about college and jobs and tuition fees and Bart wants none of that, he acts out, refuses responsibility, gets reckless under the pretense that he never used to have to be cautious. 

And this is the part where I’d bring in Inertia, cause Thad was robbed and I want him to have an actual arc that doesn’t end with infant-splosion. Also he can have a good ol companion arc to Bart. Welcome to foils everybody, where two identical boys with opposing life experiences get to thematically compare and contrast with each other as they deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up. 

So, I’m ignoring every appearance Thad ever made after Impulse 1995, picking up instead where his story left off where he swore vengeance on his creators and disappeared into the speed force. And he’s off to do exactly what he said; Thad Thawne II is going to kill his namesake/grandfather/creator - the president of Earthgov. 

But, turns out assassinating the president of a whole fucking planet is a lot harder than he thought - Thad has planned extensively for every moment of his life, so once he starts going off script things predictably go a little off the fuckin rails. Thad fails, obviously. For one because despite how much President Thawne might deserve to die, Thad at this point hasn’t done anything worse than attempted murder, and making him a killer would put a wrench in any kind of redemption arc he could have. Also he’s acting on rage, in a highly emotional state, basically going up against the entire government. Of course he’s going to get caught by the science police and brought into custody. 

Bart, meanwhile is jumping with both feet into any kind of escapism he can find, which involves various time travel shenanigans and lands him in the 30th century. He gets to reunite however briefly with his mom, but the mission he had gets derailed by the appearance of Inertia. 

Every time Bart and President Thawne interact, the president always seems to make a bid to sway Bart to the Thawne side. This never works, which is part of the reason Inertia exists in the first place; a version of Bart that the president could control. When Inertia landed in the 30th century, hell bent on assassinating his creator, the President subdued him and eventually coerced him back over to the Thawne side of the family feud. No longer a rogue agent, Inertia is back to his old self, all about destroying Bart and the rest of the Allens. 

They have a battle, taking place all over the 30th century city, and Bart does his best but Inertia has the entire Earthgov police force on his side, and Bart eventually gets captured. He gets taken to some kind of holding facility, meets with the President who monologues as him while Inertia stands beside him like a good lackey. Then suddenly the speed-inhibiting cuffs or whatever Inertia had put on Bart to stop his speed malfunctions, and Inertia drops the act, now Impulse and Inertia working together to take down the Earthgov people holding them there. 

Turns out as soon as Inertia knew he couldn’t take out the president, what with all the military force President Thawne had on his side, he bided his time until he could. He uses Bart’s help to finally get President Thawne cornered, and the assassination plan is back on track. Except now Bart is the thing stopping him. He makes the argument about how murder bad. Heroes don’t kill, etc. Inertia insists he isn’t a hero. But Bart reminds him that that’s not how Max saw him. 

Inertia hesitates just enough that President Thawne is able to get away, and now the two of them have to make an escape attempt back to the past. Bart insists on trying to take Meloni with them, and they try but ultimately fail somehow (maybe someone has to stay behind to make sure they can make the trip safely, idk. At first Thad is willing to stay behind, since there’s nothing really for him in the past. But Meloni knows that President Thawne would destroy him if he did, and she can’t let harm come to either of her sons - and she does consider Thad her son, just like Bart. She’s had far too little time with either of them, but she loves them all the same. She tells them to take care of each other, and is the first to encourage them to be like, actual brothers.) 

After yet another tearful goodbye, Bart swearing he’ll find a way for them to all be together again, Bart and Thad go back. And they do end up having to lean on each other, because shit’s tough for the both of them. Thad initially wants to apologize and possibly reunite with Max and Helen, and then finds out Max is gone. And Bart has someone who understands exactly what he’s going through. 

Things get a little more lighthearted from here. Bart and Thad don’t get along well at first, since they’re both going through rough times and lots of changes and their first instincts are to lash out at each other. But eventually they form a sort of camaraderie through shared grief, then shared fish-out-of-water experiences. Which evolves into shared inside jokes and video games and comic books and they become slow but steady friends. 

They upgrade into brothers when Bart defends Thad against the repeated (and not entirely undeserved) suspicion he receives from the rest of the Flash family. Jay and Joan take him in, but it’s clear they don’t trust him, and neither does Wally. Bart stands up for Thad, arguing that he’s as much of a Thawne as Thad is, and treating Thad like he’s the next Cobalt Blue is just going to ensure that history never changes and stupid family feuds are forever. After this, Thad starts trusting Bart a little more, and kind of solves Bart’s problems regarding encroaching adulthood with his friendship. Neither of them really had a childhood, and Thad hasn’t experienced 21st century life at all, much less the societal expectations to grow up. So Bart gets to have fun again, and Thad won't judge any of his games or his books or his attitude or interests for being childish or lame because he’s fascinated by the experience of anything regardless of the target audience. 

And from there it's a series about these two becoming brothers and growing up and the different lessons they learn and wacky characters they meet along the way. Thad ironically also puts Bart in a position where he has to take on more responsibility, since even though Thad can imitate heroic actions and is actually pretty good at it, he doesn’t understand what makes them heroic. Bart has to draw on a lot of the things Max taught him and now has to teach them to Thad. 

There’s crossover comics with Superboy, where Bart laments about having to deal with grown up stuff, and Kon gives him a new perspective on the whole “being young forever” thing, since that was a reality Kon actually had to deal with and it sucked. 

Through various misadventures they meet new and familiar characters to give them different perspectives on the whole passage of time thing. Villains who despise children or childish things, villains who embrace it but probably too much. People who talk about growing up as the worst time of their lives, others talking about it like it was the best. Kids and adults alike trying to force Bart and Thad to act a certain way while treating them another. 

The two of them come to opposing conclusions about this; Thad wants to embrace change completely, partly because he wants to experience firsthand all that life has to offer, but also his worldview depends on believing that anyone can change, and anyone can be better, because he has to believe he can be redeemed for all the shitty stuff he did. Bart, on the other hand, knows his life isn’t perfect but thinks, based on recent events, that it’s all just going to get worse from here, and so resists change as much as possible. 

Thad, in his haste to experience everything, sometimes ends up going too far, either burning both of them out, or pushing them into situations that they’re not ready for or are ill-equipped to handle. Bart, on the other hand is so resistant to change or responsibility that he stops them from doing actual necessary things like planning their futures or doing chores or making new friends. This acts as the crux for their main conflict that slowly builds throughout the series, and then in a finale to the arc, they both figure out a way to get Meloni back to the past, and to raise some stakes they have a falling out in the middle of the mission about it. 

Bart accuses Thad of trying to leave him behind, or trying to be the better version of him again, and that old insecurity about Thad replacing him crops up. Thad thinks Bart just can’t handle anything outside his personal bubble and wants to force him to live in the real world. Plus he also feels kind of abandoned by Bart, who often would leave Thad to do the scary adult things on his own. 

Tensions still high, there's suddenly an external threat to deal with - probably president thawne and the science police - and they attempt to continue arguing even while fighting the president. I’m making this up as I go so lets say yada yada big climactic moment it's looking like the two might fail to get Meloni back and they’re both still angry with each other and Bart just… can’t take it anymore. 

He keeps losing people, and the ones he keeps he always seems to screw up with. And at the end of the day he’s just a kid who wants his mom. Is that really so much to ask? So there’s a reversal, a parallel, if you will, of the assassination attempt from the beginning of the series, this time with Bart. Or, because I don’t think many people would buy that Bart would actually ever for real kill someone, maybe he’s finally about to get his mom back, but she doesn’t want to go (since she made that deal with the president that he wouldn’t harm anyone of the Allen family so long as she stayed with him) so he’s trying to force her, risking the lives/well-being of the entire Allen bloodline across all of time. 

This time it’s Thad who has to talk him down, who has to remind him about being a hero, who has to remind him that trying to go back to some magical time in the past where things were better is just going to stop him from learning and growing as a person, and that doing anything and everything possible to get there is just going to lead to Bart doing something he Actually Can’t walk back from. 

Alright but here’s the thing because having Bart be forced to leave his mom again for like the billionth time is tired and overdone, and personally the whole message about heroics involving extreme and damaging amounts of sacrifice can only go so far. So here; Thad and Bart are both right. 

Like on the one hand, yeah, it’s childish and selfish for Bart to want to be with his mom at the expense of literally everyone else in his family. On the other hand, the fact that they can’t be together because some asshole is upholding a stupid grudge is bad and unfair and wrong. The issue needing to be fixed is not the kid who wants his mom, it’s the jackass keeping them apart (and who also wants to kill/imprison people). So Bart convinces Thad that they have to save Meloni, and Thad convinces Bart that there has to be another way - one where they get their mom back and the Allens don’t have to be hunted. 

The whole story would be leading up to the two of them coming to this conclusion; the healthy middle between the two extremes. Where they have the maturity to plan ahead and sort through their differences and figure out the best course of action with the least amount of collateral, but they don’t let go of that adolescent need for justice and fairness - that thing that makes you dig in your heels and say “no. That’s not fair, that’s not right.” 

SO here’s where I’d put the title card: “Bartholomew and Thaddeus Take Down The Government”. How do they do it? No idea! I’m flyin by the seat of my pants here! Do they run for office? Do they publicize the president’s crimes in such a way he gotta go to jail? Do they somehow turn public opinion against him enough to get him out of office? idk!!! And I don’t remember enough about Earthgov’s political situation to put an accurate read on what exactly they might do to disrupt it. 

Either way they don’t kill him, manage to free their mom, and they all go back to the past together. And a new arc would involve the three of them getting settled in the past; Meloni would be a main character now, and hers is a two-pronged fish out of water story where she’s trying to figure out how shit works in the past, with overtones of the struggles of being a single parent. 

And... I’m not going to say any more about that because this is long enough already oof. 

TL;DR I think a coming of age story would be cool for Bart, and having to deal with growing up when he never really had a childhood. Also the comic itself would be aimed at younger audiences, who can probably relate to having a Bad Time in the Teens and wacky hijinks with friends and siblings.

[elareine]

You still look like a movie (DickWally, side JayTim)

When Gotham Academy offered him a position, Wally jumped at the chance. He’d trained as a teacher here, after all, and he thought the city could use all the help it could get.

The memories of grad school were a mixed bag, as these things tended to be. Living prices in Gotham had been low, still were, which had been what allowed Wally to truly break away from his father for the first time. He’d made his first best friend here and had his heart broken.

That had been ten years ago, though. When he arrived at school the week before the term started, Wally was determined to make new memories.

His hiring had been kinda last-minute, so he didn’t expect any arrangements to have been made for his first day. Apparently, the old teacher had been kidnapped by a clown-penguin or something? Gotham was so weird.

But there was a figure waiting for him at the gates. And he looked familiar.

Wally blinked. “Jason?”

Jason Todd grinned and ground out his cigarette. “Hi, Wally. I’m your welcome committee.”

So Dick’s delinquent little brother had grown up to become a teacher, too, huh? Who’d have thought? The students they met on the corridors clearly liked him, though, judging by the enthusiastic greetings they got. Jason was kinda doing a half-assed job of showing him around, though, soon abandoning it entirely to drag Wally into one of the classrooms.

A pale, dark-haired young man gave Jason a wave, then smiled politely at Wally. “Hi, I don’t think we’ve met.”

Wally was about to introduce himself, but Jason intervened. “Wally, this is Tim Drake. He teaches CS and, occasionally, Math. Tim, this Wally, our new Chemistry teacher.”

“West?” Tim asked, peering at Wally’s face. “Wait, are you that Wally?”

“Uhm.” Wally didn’t know how to answer that question.

Luckily, Jason seemed to know exactly what Tim was talking about. “Yes. Yes, he is.”

Wally watched in confusion as Tim’s smile suddenly turned a lot more genuine. “Welcome to Gotham Academy, then, Wally. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Wally was just going to ignore that. “Thanks. Good to be here. You another brother?” Wally had always bet Dick that Bruce Wayne’s adoptions wouldn’t stop at two. That man screamed ‘father energy’ as loudly as ‘will not be in a stable long-term relationship.’ Of course, he’d adopt.

“Sort of.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Definitely. You know that if we’d divorce, Bruce would sign the papers in a heartbeat.”

“I’m a grown man.”

“You think that’ll stop him?”

Oh. Okay, then.

One of the reasons Wally had been so eager to leave his old school had been the constantly-reinforced need to stay in the closet. And here he was and the first two dudes he met were married to each other.

“Anyway,” Tim pointedly turned back to Wally, “Dick will be so happy to see you.”

Would he, though? And more importantly - “Does he teach here?”

“Does he ever.”

“Jason’s just here on loan,” Tim explained. “He usually teaches at the other end of town. Dick’s the one that roped him into this.”

“That’s cool. That you’re doing that, I mean; in my old school people always refused to help out even when we didn’t have an English teacher for six months—”

“Right,” Jason said. “Let’s get going.”

This was good, Wally thought as he followed Jason through even more corridors. He’d get to see Dick again, but he’d have time to prepare for it. Once he sorted through the mix of dread and joy rushing through him at the prospect, he’d be fine. Great, even. Totally cool.

They turned a corner, and Jason called out: “Yo, Dick, check out who just joined our school!”

Dick Grayson turned around to where he’d been talking to one of the administrators, and. Uh.

Wow.

Dick, as a teenager, had been short and wiry. As a young man, he’d been the epitome of an athlete, lean and with a flexibility that had caused Wally some sleepless nights.

As a man in his thirties, he was a total fucking knockout, Jesus. Where had that jawline come from?? Wally hadn’t acquired anything like that. It was unfair!

“Wall-Man!”

“Robin!” Wally called back, unable to resist that smile or the hug Dick immediately drew him into.

“I haven’t seen you in ages!” Dick grinned. “Awesome to have you here, Walls.”

See, that was the thing about Dick. He might be one of the weirdest people Wally knew, thanks to his family, but also the nicest. He’d even pretend it hadn’t been Wally’s massive, creepy crush on him that had caused him to flee to the other side of the planet.

“Yeah, well, last thing I heard, you were in China. What in God’s name possessed you to come back here?”

Dick shrugged, running a hand through his hair. “I dunno, man, it always comes back to this, doesn’t it?”

Considering the situation, he and Dick in a hallway in Gotham, Wally had to agree. “I guess.”

When the silence stretched on a bit too long, Dick finally looked away from Wally. “Hey, Jason, if you want, I can take over the tour—”

Jason had already left.

It was incredible how easy it was to fall back into old patterns with Dick. Two months in and Wally was as regularly a guest in Dick’s office as Dick was at Wally’s apartment after work, which is to say, almost every day, including today.

“Do you need anything else?” he heard Dick say. The group of students shook their heads, so Wally had no qualms about walking in.

“Walls, hey,” Dick smiled when he saw him. “Lemme just finish that form, and I’m all yours.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Wally was dying to tell Dick about the shit John from 4a had tried to pull away, but it would need to wait until the group of students that was still lingering outside had moved out of earshot.

“See, I told you he’d be taken,” he heard one of them say. “Guys like that don’t reach their thirties single. He’s certainly not interested in you.”

“Oh, shut up!”

“Don’t be sad,” a third voice interjected helpfully. “Mr Grayson is like the hottest teacher around. No shame in losing out.”

Wally would very much like to tell them how much he resented the implication he would go for a teenage girl if Dick were slightly less hot.

Wait, what was he thinking?

Wally glanced at Dick. He was still focused on his paperwork and hadn’t heard anything.

Good. Last thing Wally needed was for his stupid crush to fuck things up between them again.

“So that’s happening again, huh?”

“...why are you crowding me into a wall?” Wally asked curiously. It was quite impressive, really, the way Jason towered over him despite not being that much taller. If Wally weren’t so sure he could outrun Jason, he would even feel slightly intimidated.

Jason backed off a bit, still glowering. “Just be glad it’s me and not the munchkin parade. Damian was all for locking you two into an attic at swordpoint.” He pointed his thumb vaguely into the direction of Dick’s office. “I’ve heard the students discuss running interference, Wally. This has to stop.”

Wally sighed. Trust the Waynes to have figured him out. “Am I that obvious?”

“Not obvious enough, apparently.” Jason snorted. “Do us all a favor and actually kiss him this time. He’s a dumbass who thinks this has always been one-sided.”

“Well, yeah.” Wally’s brain decided to skip right over ‘kiss him,’ because what. “It has, I’m just being stupid; I know Dick isn’t interested in me that way, but it’s so nice to have him back, he’s my best friend and I missed him so much, that’s more important than being in love with him.”

“I think that you need to kiss him,” Jason said again, more loudly, and why was he speaking so loudly, almost as if he wanted someone else than Wally to hear it—

Wally turned.

Dick was gaping at him. There wasn’t a better word for it. Even he couldn’t make that level of ‘wtf’ look attractive.

Of course, he’d heard all of that. Wally wanted to sink into the ground. “You, uh. Maybe wanna talk about that?”

“Yeah,” Dick nodded. “Yeah, I think we should.” He made toward his office but abruptly turned back before he’d finished the movement. “No, actually, we should follow Jason’s advice.”

Wally heard grumbling behind him. “I’ve been saying.” He’d tear Jason a new one for this, he swore, right after he found out what Dick meant by that.

And then he did find out and forgot all about Jason Todd, because Dick was—rather predictably, but still incomprehensibly to Wally—kissing him, and that was more important than anything else.

The first few years after Dick had left, Wally had idly fantasized about this. In his mind, there had been elaborate love confessions that displayed a degree of coherency neither of them ever possessed in real life; kisses in the rain, maybe, or at an airport; Dick somehow swooping in and rescuing Wally from what his life had become.

Later, when he’d started getting his shit together, the phantasies turned more mundane. What it would be like to have Dick with him again. How Dick would laugh at Wally’s impression of his annoying boss; whether he’d get along with Wally’s new friends; what Dick’s opinion on fidget toys might be.

And yes, how it would feel to be kissing him the corridor for the entire world to see. That, too.

The answer?

Even better than Wally could’ve ever imagined.

[bigskydreaming]

Like the thing is, Dick’s actual canon adoption, in Gotham Knights #17?

I don’t like it. At all. I actually hate it. Like a lot. LOL.

It SHOULD be heart-warming. It SHOULD be the peak of Bruce and Dick’s relationship, the culmination of all the good between them that very much does exist, despite how much I rant about Bruce’s parenting flaws and writing.

But it wasn’t. Because it was just the two of them in the Batcave, and maybe some people might say that’s how it should be because it was just about them, it was intimate, needed nobody else....but it wasn’t just about them.

Because they’re hugely high profile, both in their civilian and superhero personas. EVERYONE is involved in their fights, even if just as spectators, because there’s no way to not be aware. Their years of distance were very public matters, gossipped about in both civilian and superhero circles.

And ignoring that ignores the effects that all of this had on literal years of Dick’s characterization.

In GK #17, Bruce says this is long overdue....but he also goes on to say its just a confirmation of what was already known and felt between them for years, that it was a mere formality as much as anything.

But??? No???

That’s not REMOTELY accurate to Dick’s characterization during any of their periods of estrangement. It completely disregards dozens of issues that built upon or even revolved around Dick’s insecurities about his place in Bruce’s family and in his eyes. These were things that had huge effects on Dick’s other relationships, and the dynamics he built with almost all his friends and family. Its a direct source of how almost desperately Dick puts himself out there at times, emotionally, in order to leave no doubt whatsoever as to how he feels....because unintentionally or not, he’s understandably been conditioned to view it as HIS fault, a lack on HIS part, when people don’t give him the emotional responses he’s looking for and hoping for, like, he’s come to believe its because he’s just not being clear enough about what he wants and needs from other people.

All of this directly stems from Dick’s abandonment issues and fears of rejection, extremely critical parts of his core characterization....and there’s no way to divorce those things from the fact that he has literally at times been kicked out of the Manor, been coldly dismissed, willfully ignored, etc. It doesn’t matter if you regard most of those things as bad writing or not the parts of Bruce’s characterization you’re looking for.....because like it or not, the end results are extremely apparent and relevant parts of Dick’s characterization, that like...there IS no other source for, because like....his relationship with Bruce is the ultimate foundation of who he is as an adult, its his most important relationship, bar none, and like....of course his relationship with the person who raised him is going to have the most powerful impact on who he is as an adult, be the most significant influence on his strengths AND his weaknesses.

Ignoring how Bruce’s bad writing shaped Dick in turn, ignores huge parts of how Dick has been shaped and who he’s been shaped into.

And nothing to me embodies that, and writers and fans’ willful choice not to engage with huge parts of Dick’s canon characterization because of how it reflects on Bruce....than in the adoption scene in GK #17.

Its treated as an afterthought, like a formality, like its just a token of something that’s long been accepted as fact when....it just wasn’t. Not by Dick. He didn’t have anywhere close to a rock solid certainty that this was the spot he occupied in Bruce’s eyes, because no matter how many times Bruce may have SAID he viewed Dick as a son....actions speak louder than words, and Bruce is VERY much a man of action, more so than words. 

So there’s simply no rational way Dick can be expected to look at Bruce’s actions in having adopted Jason and established a precedent for being willing to do that, as well as Dick’s own actions in asking flat out, why he couldn’t have been adopted too, clearly expressing a desire for this.....like, there’s just no way you can have Dick look at those factual observations, and compare them to Bruce merely having said on occasion that he viewed Dick as a son or couldn’t love him more if he were legally his son....and NOT come away with at least some kind of nagging uncertainty or doubt like....if that’s actually true, where has that offer of actual adoption been before now?

So...it wasn’t a formality for Dick. It was him FINALLY getting this thing he very clearly had been wanting and wishing for in canon for years and years....

And just seeing it TREATED like an afterthought.

He was expected to put on a tux and ‘perform’ for crowds of rich Gotham snobs who sneered down their noses at Bruce’s charity case, while growing up....but the one time Bruce actually steps forward to claim Dick as his son, in no deniable terms....Bruce does it in the shadows, in the Batcave, with just the two of them, like they were all that mattered.

But they weren’t. Because as I said before....their fights, their estrangement, the times Bruce PUSHED Dick away and KEPT him at arms length...those were ALL a matter of public record, within the hero communities if not the actual Gotham public.

And I maintain that for Dick’s sake, the inverse of that, Bruce’s stepping up and trying to FIX all of that, trying to establish no matter what else has come between them, this is who they are, father and son....

It should have been just as public. It should have been Bruce staring down all the people who’d sneeringly dismissed his son as a charity case and not worth their time, with a press conference or party, and him saying in no uncertain terms, in words nobody could get wrong, no, fuck you, this is my son, every bit as much as any of you have children. This is my heir, and I’m proud of him and I WANT him.

At the very least, where was the rest of their family? Where were Dick’s friends? Where was his Uncle Clark and Aunt Diana, the Titans, where were Tim and Barbara and Alfred?

What, like, its not weird that the next time Dick saw all of those people and they asked hey, what’s up, anything interesting happen last week, he had to have been well Bruce adopted me, so there’s that...like....does that not strike people as fucking WEIRD to have to like, here from this grown man himself, like its just this incidental thing that happened over the weekend instead of a BIG FREAKING DEAL...especially given that anyone who knew and loved Dick KNEW how much he had to have been wanting this? Where were the celebrations with his friends or family, where was Donna hugging him and Roy and Wally clapping him on the back and saying congrats man, we know how much this has to mean to you? Where were Clark and Diana staring at Bruce with carefully impassive faces with just a hint of judgment but also upturned lips as they’re like....well its about damn time, you dumbass?

Nah. Instead, we got Bruce and Dick, alone in the Batcave, with Bruce awkwardly saying well I meant to say this all along, but here’s me saying it in writing for this first time, with just you around to witness it...and Dick saying, aww, its no big deal, in fact I didn’t even really need this, I know how you feel Bruce and I always have.

Like??? FUCKING NO HE HASN’T LOL DICK NOT KNOWING FOR SURE WAS LITERALLY THE DRIVING FORCE BETWEEN A DECADE LONG CONFLICT BETWEEN THEM, LMFAO.

And you’ll never convince me that on some level, Dick didn’t take that adoption and secretly in his heart of hearts still nervously wonder if it was real, if Bruce meant it...or if he’d just done it out of obligation, because if he really meant it, why do it so quietly, when Bruce’s primary characteristic is he doesn’t know HOW to do subtle, lol, the only real way he ever knows how to express himself sincerely in just about any other instance is with GIANT GRAND GESTURES because he KNOWS he’s emotionally repressed and anything less than that is almost inevitably doomed to be misunderstood. When Bruce REALLY wants something expressed, he goes big or goes home.

But an adoption of his adult son, years after that son has made it abundantly clear that he wanted this, an adoption that he himself calls a mere formality and tries to undersell as no big deal, not even what REALLY matters....

That’s not going big or going home, its just....sad.

I mean, that’s how it came across to me.

I WANTED it to be heart-warming. I WANTED it to be everything that Dick had ever wanted from their relationship.

I just....don’t think it was anywhere close to that.

[gooddadstan]

The first story in my Batman Bingo 2020 writing! For the card above, Red is completed, and blue is requested. Another huge thanks to @batmanbingo2020 for making it! Feel free to ask for a prompt!

 1.Sleep Deprivation 

Arkham breakouts were bad. Rogue level breakouts were really bad. Gotham knew it, the bats knew it, even the Justice League knew it, if just from the strict instructions to not call on any bat within three days of returning all escapees to their cells. With a necessary exception of world ending circumstances, no matter how much everyone hated it. 

Unfortunately, these were world ending circumstances. 

According to the clock on the Batcomputer, it hadn’t even been an hour since they started the Do Not Call countdown in the Watchtower’s systems. Far too early for the emergency transmission to send alarms blaring through every bat-associated device the house.

Clicking the button for the video call to patch through, they’re met with a disheveled looking Flash with a grim expression on his face, no other leaguers in sight. 

“What.” The growl had been forming during the small loading period, but the Flash didn’t waver in his stance. 

When he speaks just a second later, it’s sped up as much as he trusts the bats to understand. “Batman, the League needs your help. Send all available backup, you’ll meet Justice League Dark at the site..” He rattles off a set of coordinates and is gone again, the trail of his image heading off in the direction of the Zetas. 

Batman scans over his children, the wounds both new and days old being nursed in the medbay and the bodies flopped onto any surface they deemed comfortable enough to sleep on. More than half of them were just lying down on the floor, which, okay, but they’re children of a billionaire, they’re supposed to have standards. Apparently these standards don’t involve not sleeping on the floor in full vigilante gear. 

Tim, looking up from his designated spot on the next chair over, makes very pointed eye contact with Bruce. A simple nod is all that meets him. Already mourning the loss of a relaxing afternoon filled with cartoons, sleep, and lots of food, he pulls up the League’s initial reports on the issue. The burning behind his eyes was a later Tim problem. There’s not much there, but he sets to work as Bruce rises to call the others to action. 

~^~^~

Maybe Dick going on this world-saving escapade was a bad idea. Yeah, he kicked some ass, and yeah, he was the one to actually get his hands on the device that let the world-enders of the week wreak their havoc, but he kinda feels like his legs are going to drop out from under him and it may or may not have been four days since he last slept. Sue him, it was a rogue-level Arkham breakout. Measures had to be taken. Caffeine pill measures. 

And if those measures ended up with him more spaced out than present during the after-victory conversation with the Titans, well, it’s not like he hasn’t done worse to himself in the past. 

And no, bad Dick, that’s neither a healthy nor productive way of thinking. He forces himself to focus back in on what Wally was saying, only to see that the entire circle he was in was looking at him with various concerned expressions. Wally had placed a hand on his shoulder. Huh. Dick didn’t remember that happening. 

“Dude, are you okay? We’ve been calling your name for at least a minute and a half.” He doesn’t even bother hiding the concern in his voice, which, fine, it is Wally, but Dick’s torn between wanting to yell at him for putting himself in unnecessary danger during the fight, and just wanting to go eat enough carbs to kill an elephant. “How long have you even been awake?” Oh, he must have given up on reality for another second there, because Wally decided it was time to talk again. This time, Dick was pretty sure he was collected within himself enough to answer. Maybe. 

Pulling one hand up to rub at his face and almost, almost hitting his own nose in the process, Dick finally opens his mouth. “Since the breakout started. So… a hundred n’ twenty-six hours? Somethin’ like that.” 

Wally closes his eyes extremely pointedly, and opens them to make direct eye contact with both hands on Dick’s shoulders. “Dick. You are going to go home, and you are going to sleep. Do you need someone to be there for you?” The caring is familiar, but it still sends warmth through his chest after all these years.  

“Yeah. To the manor?” 

“To the manor.” In less than a second, Wally’s arms are around him in a familiar hold, and he’s being hoisted up into the air. By the time Wally sets him down on his bed in the manor, he’s asleep. 

~^~^~

“Tim.” Kon takes one look at Tim after they finish the battle, and immediately goes from grinning manically as he punches villains into the ground to hovering in front of Tim and calling Cassie and Bart. 

“Yes, Kon?” He ignores the fact that he can feel the concern and disappointment in Kon’s gaze, and focuses on the wrist computer projection of the rapidly lowering energy readings in the area. 

“Tim.” And oh, this was going to be an Actual Conversation now. Tim looks up from his projection, unsurprised that Cassie and Bart are both already there. When Kon’s satisfied by the level of eye contact, he speaks again. “Tim, did you sleep at all during that breakout?” 

Tim spends less than a second debating with himself before shrugging. “I got knocked out at one point. Killer Croc doesn’t exactly pull his punches.” Watching the looks going his way grow slightly darker wasn’t foreign, at this point, but the curl of uncomfortability in his gut could probably be blamed on exhaustion at this point. 

“Tim. Buddy. That started four days ago. Were you checked for a concussion?” It’s Bart that speaks this time, having appeared behind Tim’s back to place one hand down and try to guide him towards some rubble that looks vaguely chair-height. Tim doesn’t move. 

A small sigh escaping his lips, Tim shakes his head and stands his ground. “Yes, it did start four days ago, and no, I’m not concussed. World ending circumstances override our protocol. I’m fine.” 

Tim’s pretty sure if any of Young Justice had a say in it, he’d be at home asleep already, because even he could admit (to himself) that maybe he’s not entirely fine. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for Tim, he thinks, Tim is technically their leader so they can’t kick him out. Probably. He notes to check if they can kick him out for lack of self care and moves on. 

The next thing he knows, he’s yelping and scrambling for handholds as the ground disappears beneath him. “What the shit, Kon?” From his awkward half-dangling place, he can see Cassie fly up to meet them, Bart in her arms. 

He’s shifted to a slightly more secure hold, but it’s painfully clear that if he makes a move to leave Kon’s arms or if Kon drops him, he would be in for a decidedly Not Fun Time. So they’re trying to coerce him. Threaten him? Maybe both. 

“Dude, you’re even glitching. Take a nap or something.” Bart shouts at him from maybe five feet away, which is unnecessary, but Tim appreciates the effort to account for possible wind. If only there was any more than none. 

“Seriously, you’re spacey and clearly exhausted. You didn’t note anything from those readings until the third rotation, you’re not exactly keeping up with the field work. I could even take you over to the farm or your apartment or something if you don’t want to go back to the cave. But find somewhere to go pass out.” And okay, fine, Kon might be right about the readings. But he can’t just leave- 

“Nobody’ll fault you for leaving dude.” Tim immediately curses Bart and his uncanny ability to understand Tim’s anxieties. 

“And if anyone does, then we’ll make sure to have a little chat.” He can almost hear the sound of Cassie’s fist hitting her palm, and as much as he wants to accept… 

“Thanks guys, really, but I need to keep up on my own responsibilities.” His tone his regretful, and he really can’t leave the rest of his family without warning. 

“Tim, you’re our responsibility, so go home and take a nap.” And Kon is not allowed to make sense when Tim’s this tired anymore. But, ever the adamant one, Tim opens his mouth to speak again. “I-“ 

“Tim, go home.” It’s simultaneous, and manages to effectively shut Tim up.

Heaving one last exasperated sigh, Tim accepts. “Fine, just drop me off at the nearest Zeta.” 

Kon gets that manic grin on his face again, and Tim’s internal monologue consists entirely of ‘oh no’. “I can do you one better.” Tim is going to get murdered. “Gotham, here we come!” 

~^~^~

Bruce was still fighting as his GPS reported family leaving the area. He felt like his limbs were moving like slugs, his eyes were burning with every blink, and every little noise sent waves of rage through his very soul, but he was still fighting. The last of today’s havoc wreakers were still raring to go, and where evil stands, the Justice League rises to meet them. 

As one final punch sends his last opponent to the containment area, Bruce lets his shoulders slump. The past few days have been unbearably long, and he just wants to sleep for a week wherever he can find a horizontal surface. His kids might have the right idea about the floor, at this point. His wounds are throbbing, he can feel his mind succumbing to exhaustion, and he just wants to rest. For once. He should extend the protocol before the next breakout. 

Clark touches down next to him, and he immediately braces for a complaint about something, even though this is Clark, and he’s pretty sure Clark hasn’t complained about a thing in his life. Or maybe he just really needs to sleep. Despite all his training, it’s hard to tell. 

“Batman. I think it’s time you took a rest. You’ve had some long days.” There’s a kind pressing in his voice. 

Bruce suppresses a growl, though he’s sure Clark can hear what escapes from his throat. “I can continue.” 

“But you don’t need to. Batman, the kids you brought are already gone, you’re the only one here. Hood and Robin are home with broken bones, you’re needed there more than here.” He smiles, and lowers his voice. “Go home, Bruce, rest up. We’ll see you for the meeting next week.” He takes off, nothing but a gust of wind that aggravates the burning sensation in his eyes. 

An hour later, Bruce is pulling himself out of the Batmobile and shedding his suit. As he turns the corner to the main area of the cave, he’s met with his children, huddled together asleep and surrounded by blankets and pillows. A small smile creeps onto his face, the warmth of seeing each of his children here, safe, and soon to be better rested. He moves to go past them, move up to the master bedroom and get some rest himself. 

A hand catches at his wrist, pulling down. He glances to the source, and can’t help but worry when he’s met with Jason, eyes still closed and broken leg elevated on a stack of floor pillows. “Br’ce.” 

“Yeah, Jaylad?” The nickname wouldn’t fly most times, but his own exhaustion made it slip by. 

“Stay, w’ll you?” He tugs again, harder this time, and Bruce lets himself be pulled down to sit on his heels. Dick almost immediately shimmies over to throw himself over Bruce’s legs, and he supposes that’s that. He lightly lifts Dick to lay his legs down flat. Cass’ arm to pull his shoulders down onto the blanket nest isn’t unexpected, and it’s not a surprise when the rest of his children stir enough to drape themselves over one body part of his or another. 

As Alfred stands on the foot of the stairs, a dish towel drying his hands, he can’t help but smile. Maybe this way his wards would actually rest for once.

[fishfingersandjellybabies]

When You’re The One Who’s Loved - fic

For @northoftheroad! Thank you a million times over for donating. <3 Their reward request was anything with Dick and Damian.

Characters: Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Tim Drake Summary: Damian doesn’t understand why Dick is so upset. Tim does, though. A/N: If it’s not obvious, Tim and Damian are on pretty good terms here. The box got there so quickly because Dick called Wally, and yeah it probably came from Selina on loan (because Bruce won’t allow it to be permanent of cOURSE probably). When Damian falls asleep, Dick asks Tim wtf Damian was talking about and Tim just said “we talked shit about you while you were gone.” Damian, of course, recovers eventually.

~~

There was a sharp inhale in the doorway, cutting of his and Tim’s conversation as they both looked over.

“…Oh, great.” Damian droned at the sight of his eldest brother. Dick didn’t react, face already solemn and gray.

And it was probably rude – he of course was thrilled to see Dick. They hadn’t seen each other in months, and contact had been minimal in the in-between.

But he didn’t want Dick to see him like this. Confined to a bed due to injury from a recent case. Covered in bandages that kept obnoxiously bleeding through.

Weak and a failure.

Father had promised to keep it a secret. Drake only knew because he was present, was basically the one who saved him. Got him out of the situation and was Alfred’s assistant during the subsequent surgery. Was only here now doing the surgery follow-up, and it just so happened to turn into a personal visit.

Tim stood from his chair. “When’d you get in?”

“Few minutes ago.” Dick murmured, refusing to take his eyes off Damian.

Damian crossed his arms, and couldn’t find it in him to hold the stare. “Who told you?”

“Cass.” Dick returned, just as monotonously, just as blankly. Like he was on complete autopilot. “Said Bruce has emotionally shut down about it, and has buried himself in his work. Said Alfred was worried the operation wouldn’t fix it, and an infection would take hold. Wanted me to come, in case…”

Tim and Damian waited. Tim’s shoulders slumped as Damian demanded, “In case what?”

Dick opened his mouth, but whatever the word was, he seemed almost unable to say it, and just began shaking his head instead as he walked forward.

Damian wanted to be annoyed. Wanted to pout and turn his brother away. But…he missed him. Missed his affection. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it – he hurt. His body hurt, and even a quick embrace from his former partner felt like it would just fix everything.

Tim stepped out of his way, watching silently as Dick sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped an arm around Damian’s shoulder, basically dragging him protectively into his side.

“How you feeling, kiddo?” Dick whispered into Damian’s hair.

Damian just shrugged, because it all hurt worse than the thing before, and he couldn’t think quick enough to give a lie.

“…So far so good, Dick.” Tim promised. “I know we were…we are all worried, but Damian’s a fighter, and all the things Alfie and I were worried about from the surgery haven’t manifested. Grant it, he’s still under observation for another forty-eight hours, but…I’m feeling good about it.”

Dick nodded silently, just gently rubbing his fingers up and down Damian’s arm. Damian just stared softly up at him.

“Really.” Dick whispered with a careful smile. “How are you feeling, Damian?”

Damian shrugged again. “I hurt. But I guess that happens when they puncture your lung a few times and slash through your aorta.”

Dick’s fingers twitched against his arm almost violently.

“…Anything I can do to help?” Dick hummed as he swallowed the lump in his throat. “Make you feel better?”

“Bring me a basket of kittens.” Damian drawled. He laughed at his own joke, but immediately flinched and clutched his chest.

“Who’d have thought I’d have to tell sour puss Damian Wayne to stop laughing.” Tim snorted himself. “But relax, you’ll tear the stitches.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Damian waved off, trying to look tough. Difficult, when Dick shifted to stand back up, and his face betrayed him by morphing into one of disappointment against his will. “Grayson?”

“I’ll be right back.” Dick sounded distracted as he stepped away. But then he paused, glanced back, gave a tight smile and grabbed Damian’s hand for a moment. “I will be right back.”

Damian and Tim watched as Dick all but ran from the room, pulling a phone from his pocket. Tim sighed and shook his head as he sat back in his chair.

“…What’s his problem?” Damian scoffed nonchalantly, trying to break the mood Dick had left in his wake.

But then Tim looked up at him with curiousness that made him uncomfortable. Nervous.

But then Tim smiled, and leaned back in his chair. “You’re cute.”

Damian scowled. “Excuse me?”

“You’re young and I keep forgetting that, and it’s just so cute how…naïve you are.” Tim laughed. But when the laugh died down, his older brother looked sad. “…Dick loves you.”

“I’m…aware.” Damian hummed. “But that’s got nothing to do with what I asked.”

“It has everything to do with what you asked, actually.” Tim sighed. Crossed his arms. “Dick loves you…more than a lot of things. And seeing you in any way less than okay…messes with him.”

Damian tilted his head.

“And that even counts emotionally, but we’re just as screwed up as you in that department so I guess that’s easier for him to bear.” Tim rambled. “But physically…with these injuries and stuff…well.”

He paused. Damian waited.

“It used to be bad enough because you were a child, and his partner and his responsibility and yada yada.” Tim explained. “But…then you died.”

Another stop, to let that sink in, for the both of them.

“And you didn’t even die like…a simple way. You died in the most painful, heartbreaking way imaginable, so that made it even worse.” Tim winced, remembering the day himself. Remembering the bottom line, that Damian died protecting Dick, and how well Dick knew that, and hated himself for it. “So…he worries. Every cut, every bruise. He worries about people hurting you, because he loves you. But now on top of that, he worries about losing you all over again. And that’s honestly something I don’t think he could handle. He’d…collapse.”

“…He loves and worries for all of us the same.” Damian offered, embarrassed by Tim’s truths. “I’m not special.”

“No, not special. Just different.” Tim agreed. “I’m his brother. Jason’s his brother. You…are different. You are his brother…but you’re also so much more than that, to him.” Tim shifted in his chair. “Because I mean, he didn’t raise me. He was never my guardian, legal or otherwise. He’s always been just my brother. But you…blurred a few lines.”

Damian didn’t admit that Dick blurred a few lines for him too, but he had a feeling he didn’t need to.

“And then I think it was just one of those ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone’ thing.” Tim sniffed. “And with how much death we’ve all dealt with, you think we’d learn by now but…we don’t. Because we’re all dumb. And so I don’t think he realized or knew just how much he loved you, how special you are to him, until after you were murdered and supposedly gone forever.”

Damian lowered his eyes as Tim spoke, glanced out the window.

“So, to answer your question.” Tim inhaled. “Dick’s problem is that he loves you, and he’s petrified of losing you again. His problem is that, right now, he just got a call from his sister saying you’ve been attacked and left for dead, and might be so before the week is out. He’s crumbling under the idea of that.”

“He shouldn’t.” Damian argued. “I am not worth…destroying himself over.”

“He’d disagree.” Then Tim smiled. “And honestly? I think I would too.”

Damian watched him, then after a moment, huffed, crossing his arms. “Thanks for saving me. I guess.”

Tim snorted back, reaching up to ruffle Damian’s hair. “I’ll say you’re welcome when we know you’re in the clear.”

Damian smiled, leaned back in his pillows, watched as Tim picked up his chart again, probably about to do a follow-up to his follow-up, because that was so him.

“Please.” He hummed. “It’ll take a lot more than a slashed aorta to keep me do-”

Without warning, there was a sound in the hall. High-pitched and loud. Then repeated. Then again and again, and then suddenly – multiples of the sound, each one going at its own rhythm, overlapping.

Meows.

And not just any meows. This wasn’t the meow of Alfred, deep and sophisticated and lazy. No, these were…

Dick was suddenly in the doorframe again, looking no less ragged than when he’d left ten minutes ago. There was a large cardboard box in his hands, and Damian realized that the sounds he and Tim heard were coming from that box.

Meows.

…Kitten meows.

Dick came across the room silently and without preamble, carefully tipped the box over the bed, dumping the contents onto Damian’s knees.

Five fat little kittens came rolling out, yelling for all the world to hear. Orange, black, tuxedo, tortie and gray, tumbling around in surprise at their new location.

Damian immediately smiled, reaching out to pet the closest babies. They all immediately spotted him and wanted his attention, climbing up his body on tiny, underused legs, wobbling this way and that.

“One basketful of kittens.” Dick murmured breathlessly. “Just as ordered.”

Damian chuckled lightly as the kittens swarmed him. He kept his smile, even as Dick sat next to him, and threw his arm around his shoulders once more. “…Grayson, I was kidding.”

“…Feel better?” Dick whispered against his temple anyway as he curled his legs up into the bed, tucking Damian back against his side like it was Damian’s home. But then his already quiet voice trembled, and Damian glanced up at Tim as he spoke. “…Please just tell me you to feel better, kiddo.”

Tim just gave Damian a sad smile that said, See?

Damian glanced down at the kittens, their weights not enough to put any pressure on his chest. But he kept his smile as he pet them, as he leaned his head against Dick’s neck and reached up to hold the hand on his shoulder.

“Much better, now that you’ve returned.” Damian promised. A kitten popped up in front of face, and bounced their noses together. Damian laughed, glancing up at Dick. His eyes were tired, with dark circles, and desperate. But he smiled back at Damian in reflex. “And the kittens don’t hurt either.”

Dick laughed and held him a little tighter, kissing a kitten when it reached a paw up to touch his chin.

Damian didn’t mention the shaking of Dick’s fingers. Just as Tim didn’t mention the tear tracks on Dick’s face.

But Damian did glance up at Dick, and watched him for a moment. He squeezed Dick’s hand, while gently petting the smallest feline on his chest. “I’m not going anywhere, Grayson.”

Dick’s eyes darted down to him. “Hm?”

“I won’t leave you.” Damian reiterated. “I promise.”

Dick blinked in surprised, and looked over to Tim for explanation. Tim feigned innocence, shrugging.

“So don’t worry about me.” Damian demanded. “Don’t destroy yourself over me either.”

Dick looked back down with a confused smile. But Damian didn’t elaborate, just clung to Dick’s hand, while petting the cats with the other, and using Dick as his own personal pillow.

After a moment, he shook his head and laughed, pecking Damian’s temple and lingering there for just a bit longer than usual.

He was silent, watching Damian play with their guests, smiling and laughing and even downright cooing.  Tim eventually joined them on the bed to see the kittens, and Dick purposefully tickled at his stomach with his toes.

But it was when Damian was slowing down, when the kittens were starting to doze off all along his lap, that Dick kissed Damian’s head again, rubbed at his arm, and whispered a quiet, watery and grateful:

“Thank you.”

[awhitehead17]

Sunshine Activities

Batbros, Brotherly Love, Bonding, Fluff, Humour, Vacation, Sequel

Summary: While on vacation Dick spends quality time with each brother doing their selected activities.

A/N: This is a sequel to my Vacation fic I did for Batfamweek2018 earlier this year. You can read that one here if you missed it. 

Enjoy! :D

It was unrealistically perfect. The weather was at a perfect temperature, not to hot and certainly not to cold. The hotel’s amazing, each room is incredibly large and each comes with a luxury bed, an on suite, personal kitchen set and to top it off they all have amazing views from the balconies which either over look the ocean or the forest. The swimming pool was deep and massive, it also had a diving board set that allowed them to try all kind of jumps.

It’s easy to say that Dick was loving it. It made a nice change to be away from the smog and crime-ridden cities and out into a sunny coast line hotel with mind blowing views. While he does miss the cities, he’s happy to have a very much needed break away from them.

It’s been three days since they all got to the hotel and Dick’s pretty sure that everyone was enjoying themselves. Thankfully the hotel wasn’t busy and that allowed everyone to somewhat relax a little easier (not fully able to relax because you know, they’re vigilantes, they can never relax enough to fully let their guard down) because at least they weren’t being bombarded with questions by the press or see flashes going off everywhere or even being pestered for an autograph. It was quiet and it was peaceful. 

It was on the forth day of being at the hotel where Dick started to fulfil his promises to his brothers. His sister already had her promise fulfilled from the start as an excited Steph followed them onto the private jet. The two girls seemed to be contented enough to laze around the pool and try a variety of cocktails.

The first promise he had to complete was Jason’s. As far as he knows, Jason’s been practically avoiding everyone since arriving, the only times Dick’s actually seen Jason is either when there’s food out or the occasional time he’s been chilling in the sun by the pool with a book. However on the forth day he goes seeking Jason out, he finds his brother in his hotel room and gives him all the details he needs for that day as the shooting competition is during that afternoon. Jason takes the papers with a narrow gaze and then studies what Dick’s given him. After a moment he hums and says thanks before walking out of his room and down the corridor. Dick quietly follows behind him. it wasn’t until they were leaving the hotel that Jason turns to him.

“What you doing?” He demands seeming frustrated.

Dick gives him an innocent look, “Well I’m coming with you.”

Jason blinks at him for a moment before he’s narrowing his eyes in a glare, “Why? That wasn’t in the deal.”

“Nothing was ever said about me joining you or not.” Dick shrugs.

Jason goes to protest but pauses, as if he’s reviewing that conversation they had on the roof top that night. Jason frowns at him, “That’s not fair. And no. You’re not coming. I’m going on my own.”

His brother turns around and carries on walking down the path away from the hotel. The competition was being held in a shooting gallery just outside of the main town on the island, it was about a 30-minute walk from the hotel they were staying at.

Dick easily follows behind him, not caring about Jason’s harsh attitude towards him. “Come on Jaybird… I won’t embarrass you. I just want to watch you wipe everyone else out of the competition.”

“Fuck off Dick.” Jason growls out.

Dick doesn’t respond to that. He simply follows behind Jason enjoying the sun shine and taking in the environment surrounding them. The walk over was quiet as Jason had given up on trying to get rid of Dick and has just resulted to ignoring him.

Half an hour later they arrive at the place of the competition, they find that it’s busy but not overly busy. There’s a lot of native’s there but just as many tourists involved in the competition. As they wait in line to sign up Dick nudges Jason’s shoulder, “Nervous?” He teases lightly.

“No.” Jason snaps at him. “There’s nothing to be nervous about.”

Dick rolls his eyes, “There’s nothing wrong with feeling a little nervous Jay.”

Jason doesn’t answer him, instead he’s choosing to study everyone around them. Dick does the same as they both fall silent. Eventually they get to the front of the line and Jason puts his name down, he gets put to one side and Dick gets put to the opposite side.

Another half hour goes by before the actual competition starts. Dick’s stood with a large group of people behind a large glass window that looks into the shooting area where they can see all the competitors standing and waiting for their go. At one point he makes eye contact with Jason and jokingly waves to him, Jason rolls his eyes and flips him the bird. Dick couldn’t help but laugh at that, good old brotherly love right there.

The competition was fun to watch. There was a wide of abilities mixed in the group, some that were very precise and had incredibly good aim then there were others who couldn’t even hit the target. Each competitor had three shots and at the end of their go their points get added up, the top five will have another shoot off to declare a winner.

By the end Jason was in the top five. Dick has to keep himself from laughing out loud because these people seriously have no idea who they’re up against. To make himself look less suspicious Jason occasionally strays away from the centre of the target and hits the edge or even misses the target completely. When he does his bullseye he just laughs it off as a fluke.

Just as Dick thought, Jason gets declared the winner of the competition and even gets handed a medal and a certificate as a reward. As it’s all over everyone begins to leave and Dick meets up with Jason outside. His brother comes out wearing a grin with the medal over his neck, certificate in one hand and another piece of paper in the other hand.

Dick gestures to it, “What you got there?”

Jason holds it up for him, “A cheque for a hundred American dollars.”

Dick raises an eyebrow in surprise, “I didn’t realise there was money as a reward.”

Jason shrugs, “Neither did I, but hey, I’m not complaining.”

Dick decided to keep the comment about them not really needing extra cash because they have Bruce to himself. Jason appeared happy and proud, he doesn’t want to dampen his mood. Dick grins instead, “I knew you could do it.”

Jason rolls his eyes and starts to walk away, Dick quickly follows, “It was easy Dickhead, the real hard part was actually missing the target.”

Unlike their walk on the way, their walk back was full of chatter about the competition and what they each thought of the different competitors. When they finally reach the hotel Jason stops short of entering and turns to him, “Thanks Dick, for uh, coming today.”

Dick smiles knowingly, feeling warm inside at the rare gratitude Jason was showing him. He shrugs and tries not to make a big deal out of it like he really wants to, “No problem, Jay. It was fun.”

“Yeah… well catch you later Dickhead.”

Jason waves him off and enters the hotel and Dick watches him go, feeling happy about how the day went.

The fifth day away, Dick spends it with Tim. He hasn’t had much contact with his second youngest brother since arriving on the island, he occasionally sees Tim walking around with his camera in hand taking photos of whatever or he’s up in his room doing who knows what. One time, he thinks it must have been on the second day, Dick had caught Tim on his laptop that he had somehow snuck onto the trip. Dick immediately took the gadget away from his brother and hid it where Tim won’t find it (he hid it in Damian’s room).  Tim had been sulking around for the next few days but Dick didn’t mind, he was away from work and that’s all that mattered.

He goes and finds Tim up in his room and together the two of them start making their way out of the hotel. Dick’s promise to Tim was to go with his brother to the new museum that had opened on the island to visit the technology exhibition they have going on. That day Tim seemed more cheerful to him than the last few and Dick will take that as a win.  

The museum was in the main bit of town again so it takes them around half an hour to walk it. The walk wasn’t boring as it was full of chatter and banter between them.

When they get there they line up with everyone else and then slowly proceed to the front where they eventually get their tickets scanned and are allowed into the museum. They take their time walking around it, looking at all the exhibitions the museum has to offer. They read about the things that interest them, share opinions with each other and laugh at the more ridiculous items on show.

After having enough of the main museum they head for the technology exhibition. It was busier than Dick originally thought it would be, apparently a lot of people wanted to see technology through the ages, so he and Tim spend a fair amount of time weaving in and out of the crowd to get a good look at the items on show.

Most of it didn’t really interest Dick, yeah he liked his technology, especially in the field, but as a general interest it didn’t bother him too much. No, he was particularly interested in watching Tim. His brother has suddenly become a large ball of energy since entering this section. His eyes were wide in wonder and he had a giant smile on his face at what he was seeing. He would excitedly slap Dick to get his attention before rushing over to a display case, before he excitedly talks about what was inside it at a speed that even Wally and Bart would be proud of.

Dick didn’t understand at least half of what Tim was saying but the look of happiness and excitement on his brother made the bafflement worth it. It wasn’t often he’d see Tim so generally enthusiastic about things that didn’t involve capes or WE business that it made a nice change.

After about an hour and a half later he drags Tim to the museum’s canteen to grab a late lunch. At the rate they were going Tim won’t stop to eat because of how excited he’s being. Once they were done eating Tim drags him back to the technology section and they finish off looking at everything. He does have to admit though, it is interesting in seeing how everything has evolved into what it today, it’s interesting to see how it all started and what developments have been made to make it better, what changes happen and why.

They eventually leave the museum about half hour before closing time. On the way back to the hotel Dick slings an arm around his brother, “Did you have fun today kid?”

Tim grins up at him and leans into his side, “Yeah, actually, I really did. God it was so cool in seeing how it’s all evolved through the years, like you wouldn’t believe what it was really like back into the 40’s compared to what we have today! Just look at the computer!”

Dick smiles as Tim goes into a detailed analysis of the first computer back in the 1940’s and how that has lead to what they have today, he presses a kiss to the top of Tim’s head and lets him finish speaking. Tim is such a nerd that it’s adorable.

After a while Tim trails off, “Sorry for rambling Dick. I know that you aren’t that interested in it.”

Dick shakes his head at the apology and gives him a squeeze, “No, no, no. Don’t be sorry Timmy. I’m happy to hear you ramble on about this sort of thing, it makes you happy. It’s nice to see you smiling and being excitable for a change. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Tim smiles sheepishly and looks away, “Uh, thanks for coming with me Dick. It means a lot.”

“No problem Baby Bird. Hey, maybe when we get back home we should take a day trip to visit the Smithsonian if you’re interested.”

Dick certainly doesn’t miss the way Tim’s eyes light up at that. His brother grins up at him, “I’d love to.”

His promise to Damian was fulfilled on the sixth day away. Out of his brothers, Damian is the one he’s seen the most of before their day together. His youngest brother would often have lunch with him during the day and then occasionally spend time with him around the pool.

Unlike with his other brothers, it’s actually Damian who approaches him instead of Dick going to him. They were sat having lunch together when the youngest brings it up. He places a bit of paper in front of Dick and waits for him to read it. Dick raises an eyebrow at his brother before looking at the piece of paper, lifting it up with one hand he finds that it’s a leaflet to do with guided tours around the forest that surrounds the hotel.

He looks at Damian and the child speaks, “There’s a guided tour I wish to go on in 45 minutes Grayson, I wish for you to accompany me.”

Dick raises both eyebrows in surprise, “I’m surprised you want to go on one of these little D, wouldn’t you prefer to just go around on your own at your own pace?”

“I would, but there are questions that I want answered, according to that pamphlet the Guides are knowledgeable of animals within this area and they’ll be able to answer any question I have.”

Dick looks at the leaflet again before looking back at Damian, “And you want me to come along with you?” Dick’s trying to fight the smile that’s threatening to appear on his face.

Damian nods his head once, “Yes. Father wishes to stay around the pool area, Cain is with Brown having ‘girl time’ as they called it and as if I would ask either Drake or Todd to come along. You are my only other choice Grayson.”

The smile finally breaks out onto his face and he grins at Damian, it’s cute how he doesn’t just say he wants to spend time with him. “Sure Damian, I’ll come along with you.”

An hour later Dick finds himself following a tour guide as they walk through the local forest. Damian was right up in front next to the one of two Guides taking them through the forest. The group wasn’t big, there was only eight of them in total so at least it wasn’t too crowded.

Up ahead hears Damian asking a variety of questions to the Guide, thankfully the Guide takes it in stride and easily answers all the questions the kid seems to have, he even offers Damian extra information about the environment surrounding them.

Dick observes his brother as Damian was completely in his element. There was a rare look on his face that showed how much he was in awe with it all. It wasn’t very often that Dick sees Damian act his age at all, the kid always tries to come across older than he is and he is more mature than what he’s supposed to be. It makes him smile to see Damian acting close to his actual age for once, to be a kid where he hasn’t been one before.

About half way through the tour they all stop and have a break. The guides hand out little fruit packs to everyone as snacks and even give out bottled water to each of them. As they eat and drink the guides tell them the history of the forest they’re in and what their plans for the future are. Normally Dick wouldn’t find this sort of thing interesting but it was all worth it to see that look of awe on Damian’s face beside him.

Towards the end of the tour the group of them are joined by some of the forest inhabitants. Little brown monkeys make their way towards them and climb the trees surrounding them. Some even get confident enough to come right up next to them.

One in particular started to climb over Damian. Dick couldn’t help but laugh at his brother (and take pictures of course), he would be concerned but the smile on Damian’s face said it all, he was over the moon to be having a monkey climbing all over him. One of the Guides holds out a banana to Damian, without taking his eyes of the creature Damian grabs the yellow fruit and holds it up to the monkey. A bright grin appears on his face as the monkey snatches it away from him and starts to peel and eat it while perched on his shoulder.

Eventually the monkeys get bored and leave. Damian’s face drops a bit but there was still a hint of a smile crossing over his face. They all get back to the hotel and part ways. Dick smiles down at his brother.

“Enjoy it, little D?”

“It was incredible Grayson! Did you see how the monkey was perched on my shoulder and the way he peeled that banana?” Damian pauses in his excitement and seems to get a hold of himself. “I mean it was satisfactory Grayson. The Guides were knowledgeable and were able to answer all my questions, I found it very educational.”

Dick couldn’t help but laugh at his brother again for that change in personality, “Sure Dames, whatever you say.”

“Well I am off to find father, your company was appreciated today Grayson, thank you.”

Dick watches as Damian wonders off through the hotel in his search for Bruce. That kid was really something else. Overall Dick’s just glad that he had a good time (even though he may try to cover it up).

Looking back over the last three says, Dick’s just glad that all his brothers seem to be having a good time away, that was the aim overall anyway so at least Dick knows that he’s achieved his goal during this vacation.

[camsthisky]

i want to wake up (i hate this dream)

ao3 | ff.net

Warnings: Heavy references to depression. Hurt no comfort. Heavy angst.

Sometimes, Dick feels like a zombie. Like he’s the walking dead. Like nothing will ever be good again. Sometimes, he takes too much weight onto his shoulders, and he never puts it down. There’s a point where he crumbles to dust underneath all that weight, and there’s nothing for him to do but ride the breakdown and wait until he can bear the weight and start the whole process over again.

Most of the times, when he’s all but dust, he ends up at the manor. The living room couch, watching old black and white films with Bruce’s arm curled around him. The Cave, discussing a case with Bruce like Dick’s Robin again. Bruce’s bedroom, curled up underneath the covers with Bruce—and sometimes Tim or Cass—where the nightmares can never seem to touch him anymore.

In the end, though, it doesn’t really have to be the manor. As long as he’s with Bruce as he picks himself up and puts himself back together. As long as he can sit with Bruce (dadbrotherfriendfamily) and not have to do anything but be for a couple of hours.

Because Bruce will never ask. Dick knows that Bruce sees right through him, but Bruce will never find the words to ask about what happened. And maybe that’s because Bruce doesn’t really know how, but Dick doesn’t mind. Because all Dick needs is Bruce to be there.

That’s all Dick needs. Just Bruce by his side. After all, they’re Batman and Robin, and Batman and Robin never die, right?

Wrong. Wrong.

It figures that when Dick’s standing on the edge of a metaphorical cliff, Bruce up and dies on him.

“Are you quite alright, Master Dick?”

Dick blinks up at Alfred from the case file he’s looking over. Alfred’s frowning at him from across the room, and Damian’s absolutely nowhere to be seen. There’s two full plates of food on the table. Neither of them have been touched.

“Fine,” Dick says as he finally grabs his fork and eats, feeling as far from fine as can be. But Alfred has a lot on his shoulders, too. Maybe more than Dick does, and Dick doesn’t want to upset anything right now. He hasn’t quite crumbled yet, even though he’s just on the brink, so he’ll wait it up. Maybe he’ll call Clark or Wally. Maybe if he calls Tim again, Tim will finally pick up. Or maybe he’ll just ignore it until it goes away.

Never worked before—for him or Bruce, but it’s worth another shot, right?

The food is like cement in his mouth, but there’s nothing to be done about it. He eats mechanically. Scoop into mouth, chew, swallow, and start all over again. He gets about halfway through his meal before he can’t eat anymore, but that’s more than he thought he’d manage.

It’s more than Damian ate. He’ll have to address that soon, too. Another thing on his growing how in the hell did Bruce handle this list.

“Thanks for the food, Alfie,” Dick makes sure to say as he excuses himself for the table and heads for the Cave, where Damian is sure to be tinkering with something.

It’s time for patrol, and he hopes that this time won’t be a complete disaster.

He’s wrong, of course. Because Dick is always wrong nowadays. There’s nothing he gets right when it comes to filling Bruce’s footsteps, and training a new Robin seems to be failure number one. Right on top of his list.

At least he managed to get a protein bar in Damian before they left. That’s something, right?

Still, with Damian still refusing to listen to a word Dick says, Dick’s having a hard time not crying out of sheer frustration right now, so all he says when they get out of the batmobile is, “Go to your room, please. We’re done for tonight.”

Damian sneers—the little brat, but he’s growing on Dick, and Dick can’t help but feel something. It’s only been a few weeks but already Dick’s famous tempering is being tamped down by this ridiculous fondness that just makes him fond and terrified and sad all at the same time, and he’s not sure he even understands how he’s feeling.

That topped with all the other crap he’s got to deal with, it’s honestly surprisingly that Dick hasn’t already broken down into tears.

(At night, alone in his bed, doesn’t count. Not really.)

But Damian goes without a word to him or Alfred, and Dick doesn’t know how to handle anything right now, so he does what he does best: work.

Slumping into the chair in front of the computer, Dick pulls up some files for the most recent case and starts going over them. The case needs solving, and quick. Before there’s another murder on Dick’s hands that he can’t handle. And because he doesn’t have time in the day, it has to be looked over now.

“It’s almost three in the morning, Master Dick,” comes Alfred’s voice from behind him. There’s an uncharacteristic sadness to it that has Dick turning towards the butler to shoot him a small, sad smile. Alfred looks troubled, though, when he continues, “Bed may be the best option now. You have that meeting in only a few hours.”

“I’ll go to bed soon,” Dick promises, facing the computer soon. “Just give me an hour or so. I need to make sure that I have all the details memorized.”

Alfred sighs, but he doesn’t protest anymore, and for that Dick’s grateful. And as promised, Dick goes to bed at the time he said he would, except—

Dick wakes up shaking. He doesn’t scream or yell, but his heart is about to beat straight out of his chest, and he’s soaked in sweat. His hands won’t stop trembling, and he doesn’t dare get to his feet, for fear that he’ll only collapse to the floor and be unable to move.

In order to distract himself, Dick fumbles for his phone and starts scrolling through the case information he’d sent to himself. He scrolls and scrolls and scrolls, until it hits seven am, and he’s running on two hours of sleep. But he’s worked on less before, and he can do it again.

Eventually, he knows he’s going to crash. He’s dangerously close. But there’s nowhere to turn. No way to relieve this building pressure. The weights getting to be too much, but there’s no one to help him share it.

He feels like he’s on his own. Without Bruce here, though, it might even be true. He might actually be alone.

Two hours of sleep doesn’t take him very far, and before Dick knows it, it’s six in the evening, he’s been awake for over twelve hours, and he’s pretty sure he’s downed more coffee in a day than Tim has in his entire life. There’s a buzzing under his skin, and a thumping in his brain, and Dick can’t focus on the words in front of him anymore. He needs to get back home, but he doesn’t think he could possibly drive.

He does anyways, skilled and careful enough that nothing happens, but he probably shouldn’t do it again.

By the time he gets home—home. It’s not really home anymore, is it? Home has always been defined as family, ever since he was a little boy traveling from place to place. There’s never been a house he’s called home before the manor, just the people around him. His family. And now his family is gone. Bruce and Tim and Jason aren’t here. It’s only him and Alfred and Damian, and Dick’s never around the two of them enough to say that he’s home.

But when he gets home, he’s exhausted. His thoughts are all over the place, and there’s this distinct feeling that if one more thing happens that he can’t deal with right away, he’s going to burst into tears.

Alfred takes one look at Dick and his face falls.

“I’m not going out tonight,” Dick whispers as he slumps into the couch of the living room, curling in on himself and burying his head in his knees. He feels Alfred’s hand on his shoulder. “I’m exhausted, Alf. I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”

Alfred doesn’t respond to that. Just holds onto Dick a little tighter. Dick appreciates it, because he’s not sure that anything can be said that won’t sound superficial. Because there’s really no other option other than doing it. And they both know it.

“Dinner will be served in an hour,” Alfred tells him. “Rest until then.”

Dick shakes his head and looks up. “Where’s Damian?”

“The Cave. Training, the boy said.”

“Okay,” Dick says, and even though he doesn’t want to do anything but collapse on the couch for the rest of the night, he stands up and heads downstairs to find Damian. Alfred lets him go, and Dick pretends like he can’t feel the sad gaze burning into his shoulders.

“Impressive,” is the first thing out of Dick’s mouth when he looks in on Damian’s training.

Damian scoffs, but his sword strokes don’t falter in the least. “Of course it is.”

“You gonna stop for dinner?” Dick asks, leaning against the nearest wall as he continues watching the boy. “Alfred says it’ll be about an hour or so. And his cooking is super good. Best food I’ve ever had. I’ve been all around the world, and I can definitely say that Alfred’s cooking is ranked number one, even over—”

“I won’t be joining you,” Damian interrupts.

Dick blinks. And then he frowns, because, “You didn’t eat last night.”

“I did eat. Just not with you.”

Dick ignores the heaviness in his chest at that comment. “Okay. Well, I guess it’s good that you’re eating, at least. What about tonight? Is there something wrong with Alfred’s cooking?”

“No,” is all Damian offers, and he continues training.

Dick feels like he’s banging his head against a wall made of diamonds with how tough this kid is to get close to, but there’s something in the back of his mind that won’t let him give up. Where usually he might get mad if Bruce had done something like this, Dick just smiles wanly and says, “Okay. Well, if you change your mind, we’ll be right upstairs.”

Damian says nothing else, so Dick leaves it, glad that the kid isn’t starving. One problem down, another to deal with.

Except Damian’s less of a problem, and more of a puzzle that Dick is determined to figure out. And maybe it’d be easier if he could spend more time with the kid. But between Bruce’s work schedule and sleeping, the only time Dick ever really sees Damian is during training and patrol.

And speaking of patrol—

“Damian?” Dick calls, and he waits for Damian to make a noise of acknowledgement before continuing. “We’re going to stay in. Just for tonight. Okay?”

Damian turns towards him quickly, and if Dick hadn’t been expecting it, he probably would have jumped. He looks infuriated.

“Why?” Damian demands. “Is this punishment for listening last night?”

“No, Damian—”

“Then why wouldn’t we patrol? Is that not what Batman and Robin are for?”

“We’re not machines—”

“But we are supposed to be protecting the city, yes?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t have to be every night,” Dick tells him, trying to push down his irritation.

Damian clicks his tongue at Dick and swings back around to continue his training, saying, “I bet my father would have gone out as many nights as it took to protect Gotham as the Batman.”

Something inside Dick snaps, and for the longest time, he can’t find it in him to say anything. The Cave descends into pure silence, and the buzzing under Dick’s skin intensifies. His temper is completely gone, and in its place is this sort of blankness. Numbness, maybe.

“Okay,” Dick says. Just to say something. He says again, “Okay.”

And then he turns on his heel and drags himself back upstairs.

At some point, he finds himself in Bruce’s old room, curled up under the covers, room only lit by a single dim lamp. He doesn’t move. Doesn’t sleep. Just stares blankly at the wall and wonders why he thought he could do any of this. Why he thought he was good enough to be Batman when he can barely be Dick Grayson.

Everything’s a mess. He’s making a mess of Bruce’s life. He’s the worst son, and he’s sure that if Bruce were alive, he’d find a way to love him anyways.

That thought makes him feel worse.

Alfred comes in a while later, knocking politely while he pretends that standing so near Bruce’s bedroom doesn’t hurt him to the very core. After all, Dick lost a father, but Alfred lost a son. They’re both hurting. And Dick’s just going and making it worse.

“Dinner is ready.”

“Okay,” Dick says.

He gets up from the bed. He eats dinner (without Damian, unsurprisingly), and he’s almost halfway through when Alfred announces, “The batsignal is lit, Master Dick.”

Dick puts down his fork, hides his face in his hands for three, four, five, and then he’s standing up and heading down to the Cave, grabbing a protein bar to throw at Damian as he calls, “Suit up.” And then he meets Gordon at the GCPD with Damian as his Robin, and they pretend they can work together seamlessly for the Commissioner’s sake.

And everything is absolutely exhausting.

By the time they get home that night, it’s four in the morning and Dick has to be up in another two.

Instead of sleeping, Dick finally cries. He curls up underneath Bruce’s covers again and stares at the wall as the clock counts down to his next work day, silent tears spilling onto the pillow beneath his head. He cries. He doesn’t sleep.

And the day begins again.

And because he’s Dick Grayson—because he’s Batman—because he’s Bruce Wayne’s son, Dick tries again. He keeps moving. Even though he feels like he’s falling in slow motion, he picks himself and tries to fly again and again and again.

[bluboothalassophile]

Hello Blu!!! Blu, I'd like to ask you, what if exist a flashpoint like in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (in your mind/your point of view), for ex: What if Jason had been saved by Bruce, what would have change in this flashpoint paradox? What other things/people would have changed? What do you think of this? Sorry just a random question that came to me ^^ and i'd like to know your opinion! ^^

Hello,

In a flashpoint where Jason lives instead of dying… Alright, well, I’ve thought a lot about this. I even have a story on the parameters of if Jason had lived rather than dying, but that’s a bit closer to the Arkham Knight AU for what happened to Jay.

Anyways, B would save Jason, he wasn’t late, but Jason’s still in critical. I HC that B managed to save Jason but couldn’t save Shelia so that bitch dies in the very explosion she was meant to die in (a moment of silence as we mourn the bitch… okay back to business).

Jason is rushed into a hospital, coma, rehab, years of work to come back; because he’s not magic. Dick is now growing the fuck up and pulling his head out of his ass and trying to be a big brother to Jason as Jason struggles through PT. Alfred forces the family to see a shrink (JL or other), traumas are addressed rather than manifesting unhealthily. Alfred finally just had enough of this shit and said they would see a shrink; all because Jason’s brush with death scared decades off him, and B, and they both see the value now in maybe growing up and addressing the traumas. Also, B doesn’t blame Jay, especially not after he finds out about Sheila. 

They address Jason’s trust issues, inferiority feelings, how he felt when they isolated him and were going to take Robin away from him. Dick gets to talk about his needs to grow up, spread his wings, be himself, and address his anger issues and maybe they’ll also talk about his relationship with and his feelings about Jason and how Jason IS NOT his replacement. B never develops his god complex, because God Knows That Man Is Merely A Man! It’s fucking annoying too, B feels that.

I think that Dick and Jay work on becoming brothers through Jay’s PT, movie nights, Titans actually properly meet Jay, books, books, more books, and Jay might even get to go to that school dance he wanted to go to. Even if he’s pushed into the dance in a wheelchair. Dick’s Titans, Garth, Roy, Donna, Lilith, and Wally completely support Jason’s role as Robin now. Yes, Jason still is crushing on Donna, but she’s out of his league and she finds it sweet.

In that time, I think Tim finds the Waynes, and I think Tim and Jay bond; tight and fast, Dick’s actually stepping up to be a big brother. Tim becomes Robin, Jason focuses on PT; resentments about that situation are addressed and Jason doesn’t have that festering wound of being replaced. 

Tim is now the baby brother, and Dick and Jay adore him. They like teasing Tim, and drawing Tim out of his shell, maybe even doing normal brother shit, like beating up Tim’s bullies, rough housing with him, and even possibly formally telling Jack Drake to fuck off, Tim’s their baby brother. I think with that in mind, B legally goes about adopting Tim, and Tim is shocked at this news. They have a huge family dinner to make the announcement, and Tim cries like a baby in joy (No one will ever say anything about that, because Tim’s family).

Stephanie comes barrelling into the family (Jay’s starting to go back into the field; possibly under a different name, Red Bird, or Bluejay or something). Dick and Jason torture Tim about his crush on Stephanie, and they adore Stephanie. B tolerates her still, and maybe tries hard. Stephanie never becomes Robin, staying Spoiler, and she practically lives at the mansion. She trains with the boys, plays with them, and is never adopted because of Tim’s feelings for her, also B might like her but she’s so not his kid. Babs takes a real liking to Stephanie, and takes Steph under her wing, even presenting Batgirl to Stephanie when she’s older.

Yes, we still find Cass, or better Cass finds them, and she’s adopted by them. Babs is still Oracle. The Batfamily; whilst dysfunctional in different ways, is functioning, and they are recovering. B adores her; obviously and she’s his favorite child; the boys all know this and they adore her. The boys are also painfully aware that Cass can do no wrong in B’s eyes, and could probably get away with murder, they can never get away with anything.

Jason never clashes with Joker; and Joker is a quadriplegic, blind and mute after B is done with him. [I Know There are ways to incapacitate Joker without killing the fucker, so B can stay on his ‘No Kill’ rule and Joker is fucking gone from the depths of nightmares and on a painful trip to Hell]. Joker dwindles into nothing more than a nightmarish memory on Gotham’s psyche. 

Jay and Roy become BFFs during his PT and Roy’s recovery, and get into a shit ton of antics still. Jason never makes that first kill, but is still reckless, he even acquires the All-Blades; though no one knows how he accomplished that. Alfred is the one who teaches Jay to shoot, it’s a coping mechanism to make Jay feel some form of control and safety. No, he does not use guns on his patrols, opting to stick to B’s methods and the swords.

Jason becomes a Titan, on a team with Raven, Eddie Bloomberg, Conner Hawk, Kyle Rayner and Koriand’r on his team. Jason torments Dick about this when Kori crashes here and Dick’s tripping over his tongue and feet around her. Tim just finds it hilarious too.

Dick and Babs never work out, but they stay friends, and Dick eventually marries Kori. Babs and Kori are great friends, and have a girls weekend once a month (Babs is Mar’i and Jake’s aunt, Raven’s still their godmother and Wally their godfather).

B and Talia never get back together, instead their fall out is of epic proportions when B finds out about Damian. The Bats take Dami in without questions.

Damian still clashes violently with Tim, Jason beats Damian up though and Dick comforts Damian. Damian still bonds closest to Dick, while Tim and Jay both leave the demon spawn to Dick. Tim will never admit this but he totally slept in Jason’s room for the first year after Damian moved in; after that first night and he was violently woken up by Damian’s attempt to murder him. Jason is Tim’s favorite brother at that point.

They adopt Duke a year after Damian, Dick and Jason actually insist on this; with Cass’ help, and Duke is dragged into the lunacy of the Bats.

Cass and Stephanie are BFFs, and they work closely with Oracle, they are Orphan and Batgirl, and together all of Gotham’s criminals fear purple glitter bombs, and ass-kickings. The girls are the ones who stumble over Harper Row and her brother, Cullen, and they quickly accumulate Harper and Cullen into their little group. B has no idea what to think about this, but everyone knows he’ll never say no to Cass.

Tim becomes a Titan, on a team with Kon, Bart, Cassandra Sandsmark, Zachary Zatara, Tanya Spears.

Kate joins their ranks, but is not permitted her firearms, in fact, she is the biggest clashing force in the Bats with B. But B, and the family are firm on their No Killing policy and their No Fire Arms. In fact, this is almost a fall out for Kate and B until the Bats have to save Kate, and they kind of make it clear that if she’s in she’s all in exactly how they want. If not, she’s no Bat.

Luke joins into the Bats too, though that’s completely accidental as he’s only interested in saving his father at the time. But he kind of falls hard for Babs, and sticks around. He’s also the buffer for Tim when it comes to keeping his secret as Red Robin from Tammy, though Luke vastly disapproves of tihs. But neither of them want Tammy in the Batfamily world; it’s dangerous. Luke and Tim also save Tammy from Bane’s venom, with the aid of Stephanie when that rolls around.

B marries Cat. No heartache or heart break there, they are married, almost a year after what happened to Jason because they realize: Life Is Too Fucking Short.

Jason gets into Princeton, he’s always at the top of his class and involved with athletics and vigilant life. He’s not a lady’s man like Dick was before Kori, but he’s good with the ladies, and has a lot of girls who are his friends. He’s not Mr. Popular but the world has finally stopped comparing him to Dick. Jason’s time in Princeton is huge! The family is extremely proud of Jay and they are vocal in their pride, even being the dorky family cheering at his graduation. Jason did punch Dick for that, and caught Tim in a headlock as Stephanie glitter bombed them both for having a banner there. Cass has the photographic evidence of this. Damian just clicked his tongue in disapproval before Dick glitter  bombed him too. Duke was Cass’s perch for the glitter bombing so, he was safe from all glitter bombs. Over all though, it’s good times.

Jason later goes to Harvard to study medicine, which he’s really excelling at. He wants to be an ER doc, to help people shortly after their trauma, knowing the importance of quick actions after extensive damage.

Tim and Tammy get engaged. Tammy is furious when she finds out she engaged a Bat, but she’s mostly upset he didn’t trust her enough to say something.

Cass does become a ballerina, and still takes acting classes from Clayface.

Babs and Luke eloped; a weekend in Atlantic City neither of them really remember.

Tim and Tammy break up though when Tim moves to San Francisco to be with the Titans more.

Duke goes to Princeton after Jay, and meets Claire, they start dating.

Damian becomes a Titan, he’s on a team with Kaldur’ahm, Garfield, Wallace West, Jon Kent (for whom he is falling for almost painfully), Djinn and Emiko Queen.

Helena was born at some point, she’s adored and the center of the family’s eyes, even Damian fell for her. He’s also a sucker for Mar’i and Jake (though he’d soon eat glass than say that). 

Jason finds Terry and Matt, by accident after they lost their parents in a wreck and were at the hospital Jay. The DNA testing showed Terry and Matt were B’s kids, so he kind of brings them home. B goes off on Waller for this violation, and the using of his DNA to create the boys. 

Babs and Luke adopt Carrie Kelley and Nell Little, bringing them into the Bats when they can’t keep Carrie out of it.

Life continues on though, and they keep going. They are a family. They aren’t perfect, the Bats are far from perfect, they still have epic blow outs, and fights, also huge feuds but they are a family. They banned together after Jay’s near brush with death and didn’t travel down that morbid rabbit hole of self destruction and god complexes of inadequacy.

[crazyfreckledginger]

Q&A

Thank you to those who have asked questions, y’all are awesome!! It also means the world to me that we got this far! 80k you guys oh my god! You guys brighten my day I love and appreciate every single one of you!

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Everywhere! I want to visit every 

Which Robin is your personal favorite?

Oh no you didn’t! 😂 I can’t really choose, but I know my least favourite is Tim! (Sorry timmy!) But Dick, Jay and Dami are my boys!

Do you like to read? And if so, do you have a favorite book or series? / favorite book?

I like to read fanfiction, does that count? 😂 But as books, I love ‘Finding Audrey’ by Sophie Kinsella and ‘Everything, Everything’ by Nicola Yoon

What got you into the batboys?/  How did you develop interest in the batfamily?

I have absolutely no idea! Oh, no, actually, I think I saw an imagine on Tumblr a year ago and just started reading fanfiction about it!

Outside the Batfamily, who is your favorite superhero (or superheroes)?

Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, Peter Parker Laura Kinney and Logan Howlett! 

do you considere the robin's similar to peter Parker??

Yes, especially Tim!

How to you get inspiration for your one-shots?/  What inspired you to start writing? / What made you want to start writing? What do you do to get inspiration in writing?/ What is your motivation or drive? 

Before I started requests, I just had an accumulation of random stories in my head and had to write them out, now, most things. Sometimes it’s because of dreams, movie I watch with interesting scenes or plot twists, books or general ideas that just pop into my head, sometimes it’s also ‘what if’ type questions, if that makes sense.   

If your favorite batboy died,  how would you feel?

TeRiRbIE, probably mourning for the rest of my life lol.

Young justice season 3?

HELL YEAH DICK IS HAWT AF OMG

What's your favourite food?/ Favorite Food, 

Indian and Mexican food for life!

What do you like the most about your fave batboy?

EVERYTHING, MY BOYS ARE PRECIOUS

Do you think the rumor about Damian being Jason's son is true?

I didn’t hear about this before but nope, I mean how even?? 😂 Like, in most universes, the age gap between the two is between 10 to 14 years, how- I don’t- no, and besides, they come from a completely different background and I don’t know where this is from but it’s always going to be a no in my heart! 

Can you relate to any of the batboys?

All of them! I’ll generalise a lot because this might turn into an essay otherwise lmao.

Damian for his love of animals and hating people in general. Tim for the lack of sleep.  Jason is me tbh. Dick loves puns and jokes as much as I do.

Are Bruce and your father alike?

Kind of?

What's your favourite T.V show?

Sons Of Anarchy, Friends, The Vampire Diaries and Good Girls

Are you looking forward to Titans on October 18th?

I have mixed feelings about it, I’m happy they are making a live action Dick and Jason but it looks really bad, I’m still going to keep an open mind though!

Jason and Artemis or Kori and Dick?

Kori and Dick, I don’t seen Jason and Artemis’ relationship as more than friends, I don’t know what happened in RHATO, which is funny how I keep talking about the comics since I magically have never read any of them??? 

Thoughts on Redhood's transformation In Redhood the Outlaw?

I want my Jaybird hair back. I’m oKaY with the new design but I adore the old design!

Cookies: Alfred or M'gann?

Alfred’s (that was a tough one though!)

Is Brenton Thwaites good enough to be Robin in the upcoming series?

I don’t know! I’ve never really had a good face claim for Dick so I’m going to keep an open mind about it. He’d better had a nice bubble butt though!

Jason's gun or Dick's eskrimas?

Ughh this is haaard! Maybe Dick’s eskrima sticks.

Talia or Selena?

Selena

Poison ivy or Harley Quinn?

Harley Quinn

If you were in DC universe and you will be able to make a crossover it will be with?: Marvel, Transformers, Supernatural

Marvel or Transformers!!

Do you like birdflash?

I only see them as bros but I respect people’s choice of shipping them together!

Besides Batman what other fandoms are you into ?

Marvel, Sons Of Anarchy, Transformers, Stranger Things, Good Girls, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Vampire Diaries and loads more!

What’s your most liked story on wattpad

This one lmao (batboys x reader)

Do you like voltron  if so who’s your favorite paladin

I don’t watch Voltron, sorry, the fandom is insane and scary on Tumblr (without wanting to generalise) . I’ve tried watching an episode but I just can’t seem to get into it!

Will  you take request in the future Not that I’m asking for one I’m just curious I love your writing style

Aw thanks! 🙈 That’s so sweet of you. And yes of course!! I just closed them because I didn’t know when I would be able to have a reliable amount of time to write, I’m opening them soon hopefully! :)

Favorite movie of all time/  What's your favorite movie and why?

Logan, the FeElS, plus my girl Laura plus my man Donald Pierce is in it.

The Dark Knight (the one with Bane and The Joker) both villains are extremely intimidating and Nolan was able to portray them in an extremely terrifying way whilst keeping us on edge for the whole movies! True masterpieces.

Also Tomb Raider because kick some ass queen omg.

favorite character characters

DONALD PIERCE, Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, Natasha Romanoff, Laura Kinney, Dick Grayson, Wally West, Roy Harper, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne among so so many others.

favorite (video) game, 

Outlast and Until Dawn! 

Do you have/wish to have any pets? 

Yes I have had a bunch! Three rabbits, a sheep and a goat! I wish I’d have a cat though!

How would you describe your clothing style? 

Comfortable and tries to be at least a little stylish lol

Any artists/celebs You look up to? 

Not really no, I’ve never really looked up to anyone.

What kind of music do you like? 

Pop, Classical not the Mozart type of classical.

Do You have any "rituals" regarding your writing process? 

Yes! If it’s a series, I write the whole plot down on a book with details and elements that I want included. I keep it besie me to be sure I follow the plot whislt writing it.

Since I write in the evening, if there’s a one shot request that I lack inspiration about, I write something else and think of a plot when I’m in bed before i go to sleep. It really helps be get the requests written and in the queue. 

I normally sit in front of my TV, catching up on my series or something and just write. I don’t really have a ritual other than this!

Favourite cartoon?

Young Justice ayyye!

If you were to choose your own name, what would it be? 

I’ve never really thought about it, I don’t know, I like my name! 

But I really like Kia or *gasp* Sam. Not Samantha but just Sam.

Favourite mythical creature? 

Griffin, phenix and dragons!

What language do you wish to speak? 

Italian and Spanish!

Any lucky items/superstisions?

A tiger’s eye necklace my cousin gave me three years ago, I wear it everyday! If you could be any animal, real or mythical, what would you be? 

A tiger, an eagle or a griffin. I can’t choose lol!

Do you think you'd survive in a post apocalyptic world? 

Maybe? I mean I feel like I would be smart enough but I saw World War Z and dying is better than surviving with traumatic experiences running through your head 24/7!

Where would you go for a dream vacation? 

Everywhere! I want to visit the world!

If a genie granted you 3 wishes, what would you wish for? (No wishing for more wishes lol) 

DANG IT! 

1. That everyone should have a different perspective so that they can realise how bad the world is becoming and to change that.

2. Appreciation of every single being on the planet that sexual orientation does not matter in a relationship and that, no matter what you consider yourself, that society accepts you no matter what.

3. That everyone becomes the best person they can possibly be. We could conquer the world!

Do you prefer rain or sun? 

RAIN!

Do you like thunderstorms? 

Hell yeah!

Are you good at puzzles? 

Depends which ones, generally yes. Depending on my mood, I can be very stubborn and finish it and sometimes I’m going to be screw it I give up lol!

What do you enjoy most about life? 

My mutuals, happiness, fraternity, you guys and a few other things I’m sure (can’t remember)

What's your favorite fictional world? (DC, Marvel, Shadowhunters, etc) 

DC, Marvel, Transformers and the 10 year old in me says Narnia as well!

What do you think happens after we die? 

I feel like you’d come back as a different person. I’ve always wanted to believe that you’d become an animal but I have no idea!

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Indian food!!

Do you like to dance? 

Yes but alone! I’m horrible at dancing!

Where do you feel most comfortable/safe? 

With my best friend! Or at home!

What's something that always makes you smile? 

My mutuals, your comments they seriously make my day a little brighter.

Are you good at gardening? 

Nope I don’t like it either!

What's your preferred footwear? 

Sneakers if that’s what it’s called!

Favorite flower?

Roses!

What fills up your heart to bursting level? 

Kitties and puppies! 😍 Also anything including helping people or animals together and/or animals with their owners.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? 

Opening up to someone, showing my feelings and emotions and getting out there to make friends. I haven’t had the best childhood.

What’s your favorite poem or saying? 

“Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst”

And most importantly: do you think we'll ever see good writing again in DC for our favorite characters?

I really hope so, the writers are becoming more and more despised. Only DC fans hate DC on a completely different level of hatred lmao.

What'd you think of Heath Ledger's Joker?

Terrifying. heath Ledge did a fine good job at portraying someome that puts that unsettling feeling in your gut. Every one of his scenes are iconic. The best Joker so far in my opinion. 

whO rAnKs NumBer TwO iN "Batboys with a fresh booty" since we all know dick ranks number one

Hmmmm, 

Conclusion...

That’s a very cute tushy if you ask me!

[not my pics]

what do you think about Erik Lehnsherr and Stephen Strange?

I’m not particularly attacted to Erik but I know he’s misunderstood and I understand why he’s so loveable by many people in the X-Men fandom. But he’s just not my type of guy.

Stephen Strange is badass and a sass master and no one can convince me otherwise. He’s an awesome character.

what would your perfect date with Donnie (Donald Pierce) be like?

Ohhh, going to the movies and then just hanging out somewhere nice, talking and laughing and then ordering takeaway and cuddling up on the couch whilst watching Netflix ahhh! 🙈

[ellana-ravenwood]

The New Trinity - Damian Wayne x Reader (xplatonic!Jon Kent)

Well, here it is. Damian is a bit older than he is currently in the comics (seventeen instead of fourteen) by the way. Hope you’ll like it :-) : 

You can find my masterlist here : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

The New Trinity.

That’s how everyone started to call you guys.

“You guys”. Damian, Jon and you. The Bat’s son, The Superman’s son and...You, the mighty Wonder Woman’s daughter. 

The New Trinity. 

It made sense really, because of who your parents were. The actual Trinity. Three of the mightiest hero in the World, forming the perfect team. And you were their children. Three. 

The New Trinity. 

That’s how everyone started to call you guys, as your friendship grew.

And it royally pissed you off.

Ever since you were born, everyone (and by everyone you meant your mom’s friends of course, the others...the others couldn’t know) always constantly compared you to your mother. All. The freaking. TIME !

And sure, you loved her to death, and she was the coolest and most badass woman you ever met...but you were you.

Your own being.

You weren’t all like her. Sure, you had her eyes, and sometimes, her mannerisms. And her powers. But your personality wasn’t the same (except for the part of you that was stubborn and that had to help those in need).

Besides, it annoyed you that everyone always compared you to the great “Wonder Woman” and never to your father, who was a goddamn war hero !

Of course...you never met him.

None of them ever met him.

Steve Trevor was dead long ago.

************

Before he died, almost a hundred years ago now, your mother and your father had plenty of times to get to know each other, to become best friends, to learn about each other’s culture...To fall helplessly in love.

One night of passion. Of pure bliss and love.

It’s all it took for you to exist. One night of passion, finally, after a long time playing a game of cat and mouth together...And it had to be the day before your father’s death.

Before he sacrificed himself to save many. Before your mother lost him forever...

And here you were.

But your mom’s pain wasn’t ending there.

You were born with a heart defect, and the technology of the time in the Human World couldn’t save you. The amazons couldn’t do much either...

You were dying, and that would have been the end but...Your grandmother couldn’t bear to see her precious daughter in such pain, and as Diana, panicked, arrived with you back to her homeland desperate for help...Your grandma did something she wasn’t suppose to do.

She used ancient Greek powers that the gods left behind after they disappeared, allowing her to freeze you in time, to stop you from growing a second older, hoping that one day, someone could fix your disease...Hoping that someday, she could unfreeze you and someone would be able to save you. 

How ironic, really, that you were born with this particular part of your body being deficient. Right after your father’s death...almost as if to symbolize your mom’s pain ! A literal broken heart...

It took long agonizing years for the technology in the Men’s World to finally be able to save you. And so your mother brought you with her, a little baby, a little bundle that knew already too much what pain was...Bruce Wayne is the one that paid for the very expensive surgery, and you were safe. 

You were finally able to live your life. Your mother decided that it would be more fit for you to grow up in your father’s world, and though it was totally different from when he was still alive...Diana could finally see an exit to all her pain. 

Especially since she had just made new friends. Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. And they were building a team together, to protect the World...Diana Prince was done hiding. Diana Prince was done trying to forget. 

It was over. Just like you, she wasn’t frozen in time anymore, she needed to move on. And so a new life began for her, and your life finally started, years after your actual birth. 

************

Your mom told you all about your father, and though you never met him and never would, you greatly admired him. For so many reasons...and it actually really bothered you that no one ever compared you to him. 

You were brave, you were courageous...And sure your mom was too, but your dad was even more ! He sacrificed himself !! An he...

-What are you brooding about (Y/N) ? 

You were in the Justice League Watchtower, sitting on a couch in one of the common room, thinking about how it was unfair that everyone always forgot about your dad, when Jon sat in front of you and Damian next to you and took your mind off of it all. 

You smile at Jon (not noticing how Damian’s eyebrows furrow). That boy’s always been great to take your mind off of things, with his good nature and jokes. And Damian...Well, Damian...He was Damian. Jon was two years younger than you (technically, you were almost 90 years older than him but, since you only grew old afterward...you were his age). Damian was your age (a few months older...well, if we ignored the actual year you were born in). 

-I was just thinking about what Flash said earlier. 

You answer. Damian sightly smirks but says nothing, as Jon smiles at you some more and, putting his hand under his chin, takes a thoughtful expression and says : 

-Which things ? Because like, Flash talks a lot. Both Flashes talks a lot. Was it Uncle Barry or Cousin Wally ? 

You smile slightly at the “uncle” and “cousin” thing, realizing that...yes, all those people are your family. Truly. 

-Uncle Barry. And about how we are the...new “Trinity”. 

Jon’s smile widens even more, and you instantly knows he doesn’t feel like you on that matter. You turn your gaze a bit away from him (and he doesn’t even realize it), and your eyes cross Damian’s. Oh. Him. Him he understands. He always does and...Jon’s voice, once more, takes you away from your daydreaming : 

-I know right ? It’s great ! We’ve entered the great hero pantheon ! 

You can’t help but chuckle at your best friend’s words, and how cute it is that he’s trying to put some greek words in there (you taught him what “pantheon” was a few weeks ago). 

Not wanting to ruin his good mood, you decide to not talk about how annoyed you are at this name. The New Trinity. You wanted to be the new...your own thing. Damian, Jon and (Y/N). Your own selves ! But something was telling you that Jon wouldn’t understand. 

Sure, he was your best friend, but he couldn’t...He was so proud to be like his father. Maybe because everyone was telling him that he was very much like his mother mentally ? Like he took more after her than him ? So he was happy to feel connected to him in that way ? 

Yes. That’s something you could understand. And so, instead of saying what you really think, and though you hate to lie to him, you say : 

-Yeah, it’s pretty cool right ? 

Jon nods and his attention is suddenly caught by a sound neither you nor Damian can hear. He stands up and after a “be right back”, leaves the two of you for some unknown location. 

Damian grumbles something and shakes his head, which makes you smile. 

-I knew I wasn’t the only broody one. 

You say, a mischievous look on your face. You know it’s going to annoy him. A bit like you, he dislikes being constantly compared to his father (even more to his mother, for obvious reasons), and just the word “broody” is sensitive with him, as it’s the word everyone uses to qualify his dad’s daily mood. 

But your smile...The way your eyes squeezes because of it, and your nose wrinkles...He can’t help but smile back at you. 

You’ve always had that effect on him. 

You guys met years ago, before you even met Jon. 

Ever since you were a child, you spend a lot of time at the Wayne household as it seems like your mother and Damian’s father just really got along, and needed each others often for emotional support. There wasn’t any ambiguity between them, they really were just friends, very closed ones. 

You spend a lot of time there, bonding with Dick, Jason and Tim...The day Damian arrived, you remembered as if it was yesterday, even though it was over seven years ago. 

You could have hated him, because he really was a disrespectful brat at the time...And yet, yet you never did. 

He was awful to you at first, but unlike everyone around him, instead of getting mad and such...you talked back, you stood your ground, or sometimes, downright ignored him. 

You never hated him though, no matter how harsh he was with you. And just like that...You were the first one that ever broke his shell. The first one to ever see the true Damian, the insecure and full of self-doubts little boy who just really wanted his father’s approval. 

This is probably what attracted him to you irrevocably. What made him want to be with you all the time. Of course, at the time, you two were merely children, and there were no romance there, only a very strong friendship. But as the years passed...his feelings changed. He’d never admit it though, as he was pretty sure you had a crush on Jon, not him. And oh, how wrong he was. 

But that wasn’t the story right now. Nop’. Right now wasn’t about how he felt about you, or rather, wether he liked you that way or not..But about what bothered you in that instant. 

He could see you weren’t happy. He hated to see you like that...And so, casually, as if he was just starting yet another conversation, he smiles slightly at your remark on him being broody (knowing perfectly that you were trying to annoy him so you guys wouldn’t talk about yourself) and say :

-I know what you’re doing. 

You give him a half-smile and plunge your (E/C) eyes into his green ones. 

His heart skips a beat..

-Oh yeah ? And what am I doing then, Robin ? 

He’s overly aware of how close you are from him right now, as you leaned towards him, your lips so. Damn. Close. His heart skips another beat, and to his own amazement, when he speaks again, his voice doesn’t even falters or shakes : 

-You’re trying to make fun of me, to annoy me, so that we don’t talk about why you’re bothered that everyone calls us the “new Trinity”. You know, I’m not ten anymore, those old tricks don’t work. 

Your smile disappear and he feels his heart tightens this time. He hates thinking it’d be his fault if you...But your smile is back in an instant, as you regain countenance over yourself. You look at him intently and say, suddenly looking away : 

-You know why it bothers me. 

For a second, you’re afraid he’ll make you say it out loud. 

He’ve already done it before, forcing you to open up to him, knowing it’ll make you feel better. But this time...This time you really don’t wanna talk about it. Because it’ll make you talk about your father and you can never talk about him without wanting to cry... 

Damian tries to decipher the expression of your face, and...He thinks he understands. And he truly does. 

-Yes. I do know why it bothers you. 

You’re wrong, to worry about him forcing you to talk today. He understands that it’s not the time. And so, instead, with gentle movements, he takes your hand in his and squeezes it slightly. 

You’re startled by his sudden touch, but don’t pull away. You smile weakly at him and...yes. Yes he understands why you’re bothered about being called “the New Trinity”. 

He lets you put your head on his shoulder, and you stay like that for a moment. It’s comfortable. It’s nice. It’s what friendship looks like, two people always being there for each others. But it’s also...Something more ? 

From the corner of the room, Jon, who came back after checking something out, looks at you, an enigmatic smile on his face. 

He knew it. He knew that that damn stubborn Damian felt something for you too ! Or he would have never let him touch you like that. It was common knowledge he wasn’t such a fan of public display of affection like that, and yet, in front of all the heroes present in the common room...He let you put your head on his shoulder. 

************

It was oh so frustrating, to know that your best friends were in love with each others, but that they were both too proud and stubborn to ever say it out loud.

It was oh so frustrating, to see your best friends get jealous whenever the other one would talk to a girl/boy, or even go on dates, and yet doing nothing. 

It was oh so frustrating, and heart breaking, to see your best friends sad and getting sick over the other one dating someone else, but still not admitting their feelings...

Jon have had enough. 

Enough of seeing you and Damian turning around each other without ever doing anything. Enough of seeing your almost kisses and soft touches in the midst of battles. Enough of seeing you hurt to see the other ones with others. Enough of seeing you two fight for no reasons, trying to avoid talking about your feelings for each others ! 

Jon had to do something. But what ? 

************

Making them go on a date without their knowledge worked brilliantly. 

It also was an easy plan to make really. He just had to tell you guys to meet him at Gotham county Fair and not show up. At the last minute, he said he couldn’t come, and you and Damian spend the day together at the fair. 

Jon, a bit creepily, stalked you guys. 

He almost screamed out in frustration when, in the haunted mansion, a monster startled you and you jumped in Damian’s arms, your face so close to his, your lips getting closer and...the monster coming back to scare you ruining the moment. 

When he passed after you and Damian (as he followed you guys discreetly), he tripped over the actor in the monster suit. He felt a bit bad about it, but damn, almost kiss again ! 

You two were so made for each other, he knew it. After all, he was your best friend ! He could see all the looks you gave each others, all the laughs and smiles you shared. 

Only you could make him laugh so hard. 

Only him could make you smile so sweetly.  

And looking at you, going around the fun fair like that, he was just more and more sure that you were made for each other. 

You took silly pictures in the Photo Booth, you went on the ferris wheel, making the wagon you were in rock dangerously, laughing your ass off (you got banned from the ferris wheel after that..), you went to the haunted mansion and went out fingers tangled...only to realize you were holding each others hands and awkwardly apologizing and letting go (grrrroooooaaaaah !!! Jon screamed in his head). He won a teddy bear at darts for you, you won a stuffed animal (a dog of course) for him. You joked around. You talked, about anything and everything, about nothing too. 

It almost seemed like you were both just regular teenagers dating. Even though you were far from normal teenagers...That’s why Jon knew you guys were made for each other. 

You made the other one feel normal. Feel like the World wasn’t too fucked up...

************

Jon jinxed himself. He knew it. By thinking that making you guys go on an unknown-date things were going to move forward, he was oh so wrong. 

Things didn’t move at all. Not one bit. 

You guys acted like the great day you had spend together was just another friendship thing. Like you didn’t almost kiss a few times. Like, when the man to whom Damian bought a candy apple for you said : “Oh gentleman, buying things for his girlfriend ! Youngsters this days don’t do that anymore...” neither you nor Damian corrected him and said that you weren’t his girlfriend...never happened. 

It has been like that for YEARS !! Bot h of you acting as if you were “just very good friends”. 

No. 

You were more than that. 

You were good friends with Jon. You’d hug Jon, but never put your head on his shoulder. Damian would always have a good time with Jon, but he’d never laugh so full heartedly with him than he did with you. You’d smile at Jon, but you’d never give him that sweet little tender smile. Jon would tease you sometimes, but instead of blushing like you did with Damian, you’d laugh and talk back. And whenever you’d do that, Damian would literally smell like “jealousy”...

You were friends with Jon. Best friends. You’d die for him, and he would for the both of you. A strong bond linked you all, the fact that people called you the “new Trinity” wasn’t just because you were similar to your parents and such. It was also because of how strong your friendship was, how you always were there for each other etc etc...But the link that was between you and Damian was different. 

Jon noticed it from day one. The first time he met you two, you were twelve and him ten. His father had kept him away from any superhero stuffs for a while but, after realizing that his son was also a super, he just brought him in too...and that’s when he met you two. 

Already there, Jon noticed how different Damian would be around you. How softer his voice would be when talking to you. How guilty he felt whenever he was acting like a douche towards you. And you...You would be less sassy with him than with other people. 

Already there, Jon noticed that there was something special between the two of you. And he just knew he was right !! 

But his little trick, making you guys going on a “date”, made him realize something...you two were two damn stubborn to ever admit your true feelings to each other ! He had to take another offensive.

************

It was a disaster. 

For the past three months, Jon very obviously stated multiple times that you liked each other, and instead of denying it, both of you would just plainly ignore him ! Treat him like a child ! He hated that ! 

He went to sleep over at Wayne Manor once, to see how Gotham’s street were...He downright told Damian that you liked him, and Damian just turned towards him, stunned, said :

-Don’t be silly Jon, she can’t like me. 

And continued his damn patrol !! Hell even Damian’s father was surprised when only Jon was there, and not you ! So used to always see you guys together more than with anyone else ! 

When Jon told the Batman that he was sure that you and Damian liked each other, Bruce slightly smiled and said : 

-Of course they do. Don’t fret Jon, they’ll realize it one day...

Jon stopped himself from saying something about how it took years to Bruce to “realize” that he was really in love with Selina Kyle and wanted to marry her...Wasted years ! 

He couldn’t let his friends waste that much time when it was obvious you were so into each others...

When he told you Damian liked you, you had the same reaction than him, that’s how much alike you were ! How PERFECT you’d be together !! 

And when he asked both of you why you thought the other one couldn’t like you, you said the same thing again : 

-Because you idiot, he/she’s too good for me ! 

...Jon didn’t understand. He just couldn’t. 

************

You always thought that Damian was the smartest and bravest man you’ve ever met. 

He always thought you were the smartest and bravest woman he ever met. 

It was always like that, and it drove Jon crazy. You both loved (he was now sure it was not just a teenage infatuation) each other for the same reason, and yet were blind to see that the other one did too ! It baffled him, how smart and yet so daft you both could be. 

Jon tried everything he could. He tried to set you up on other “dates”, it ended up every time the same way. Just...”we’re friends”. 

He tried to tell you outright, you wouldn’t believe him. He tried to confront you with it with both of you in the same room, but you’d just turn everything into ridicule and mock him. Act as if he was going crazy. Jon knew this was some sort of...self-defence mechanism you both had...And yet. 

Jon tried everything. And he was tired. He decided to give up...at least for now. 

************

-I understand my little one. 

You sigh in relief, as your mother ruffle your hair lovingly, as she used to do when you were a child. 

You had just told her everything, about how bothered you were by this “new Trinity” thing, and about how you wished people would recognize your father more. You were afraid to hurt her feelings...Bringing your father up was never really a good idea. And telling your mother that you were tired to be compared to her ? Maybe it wasn’t the most delicate thing to do but you couldn’t lie anymore...

You smile weakly at her, and she shakes her head. She grabs your face between her hands and say : 

-(Y/N), my dearest one, please, don’t ever feel like you can’t tell me something alright ? I couldn’t always talk to my mother when I was young and...I just want you to know that I’ll always be there for you, not matter how...delicate a topic is. Ok ? 

You nod shyly, which was stupid, because this was your mom ! Why were you shy with her ? A soothing kiss from her on your forehead makes you forget all your worry and, just like when you were a child, you close your eyes and dive into her arms as she opens them for you. 

Her hugs were always the best. She holds you tight against her heart, and starts to sing one of those Greek lullaby you like so much...and oh you decide it’s magic, because just like that, she makes you blurt out : 

-I really like Damian and I have no idea how to deal with those feelings !

You can’t see her face, but you know your mom is smiling slightly above you. 

************

-You don’t know what to do with those feelings uh ? Have you ever told her ? 

-God no ! What if she doesn’t like me back ? 

-What if she does ?

It’s very rare, that Damian would speak so openly with his father. He wanted to talk to Dick, but his brother wasn’t around that day and...The way his dad asked him what was the matter just made him want to talk to him. 

And for one of those rare time, he did. He told his dad everything about how he felt and such. He told him his doubts, how his heart beat so much around you etc etc. 

-I don’t know father, I don’t know. 

Bruce can’t help but smile sweetly at his son. It makes his heart swell, to talk about such trivial matters with him. As if they were a normal father and son, and not just...Them. 

-Damian, my boy...What’s the worst that could happen ? 

He could loose you. That’s what the worst that could happen. He could loose you and your friendship forever. By not telling he loved you, he ensured the fact that you’d always be friend, that him telling you how he felt and you not reciprocating wouldn’t make things awkward ! By acting as if you were just friends, he would make sure you’d always be around...And even if one day, you fall in love with someone else, at least he’ll still have your friendship ! 

-Damian, you guys have been friends since forever. Let’s imagine she doesn’t feel the same way for you...It will indeed be weird for a while, but in time, things will get back to normal. It won’t...It won’t change your friendship. 

Something in his dad’s voice makes Damian flinch : 

-Are you...are you talking by experience? 

Bruce nods. 

-Way before your birth. I thought I loved Diana. Hell, I probably really did love her, though now the feelings I have for Selina makes me realize that maybe it wasn’t love with a big “L”. What I mean by that is...I told her. And you know what ? She didn’t feel the same. Her heart was still not over Steve Trevor. And she rejected me...Are we not friends anymore ? 

-...No. 

-So, Damian, my boy, tell me, knowing that this won’t destroy your friendship...If you tell her how you really feel, what’s the worst that could happen ? 

************

Loosing you. 

That’s the worst that could happen. 

Loosing you for good. 

“The New Trinity” was called for what was suppose to be an easy mission...that quickly turned into a disaster. 

Jon, you and Damian were fighting for your lives, waiting for the cavalry to arrive...

A trap. It was a trap. 

Apokolips’ troops were waiting for you. A large amount of them. Too many to be able to fight them all, even if you were “the new Trinity”. 

You were back to back, making sure you’d all protect each others’ blind side. 

Back to back. 

Protecting each others, being there for each others, as you always were. 

But that day, Bruce’s words were floating around in Damian’s head, and the advise your mom gave you were also in yours. And you weren’t focused enough for that, you weren’t ready enough ! 

This was just suppose to be a reckon mission ! 

Jon sees it. But he can’t do anything about it. 

He also sees the spear lunging towards Damian...but even though he’s fast and strong, he’s busy with his own ennemies and know he won’t be there in time to save his friend ! 

But you’re there...In the way...The spear hits you right in the heart. 

At the same time, your parents arrive, as well as the rest of the League. 

It takes a few minutes for them to annihilate Apokolips’ troop. Your mother doesn’t see you, in Damian’s arms, a spear in your heart...

Damian feels himself crying. His vision is blurry with tears, and as he looks up to Jon, he says : 

-She’ll pull through right ? Right Jon ? Tell me she’ll pull through ! 

But Jon can’t say it. He can’t say anything. A lump is stuck in this throat. He falls down on his knees, and takes his head in his hands, not able to stop himself from sobbing...He just witnessed his best friend dying, and he wasn’t able to do anything about it ! Jon took your hand and...did you just squeeze it back ? 

Damian could feel his heart slowly tearing apart, as he held your lifeless body in his arms...And all of the sudden, the words blurt out : 

-No. No. No come back please, come back (Y/N). I can’t live without you. You’re my best friend. You’re my...You’re my everything. Please come back...Come back. I’ve got so much to tell you...Please...Come back. Come back. I love you (Y/N), I love you so much...I lied, I dont’ think you’re just my friend, you’re more than that to me...You’re...you’re my everything...please...

The raging battle around you all comes to an end. 

Damian, face riddled with tears, looks up and is faced with your mother...

How could he ? How could he tell her that you died, sacrificing yourself to save him ? How could he ? 

But your mom...She...smiles ? 

-Well, if people don’t start comparing you with your father now, I don’t know when they will. 

You groan. Wait...You groan ? And you move in Damian’s arms. Laboriously. It’s difficult. You cough a bit, but not blood. 

Wait. Come to think of it, there’s no blood anywhere. What ? 

You open one eye, then the other. Your mom smiles down at you, as well as the rest of the League. They saw how you jumped in front of your friend to save him. You can see how Bruce thanks you in silence. 

And you can see Damian’s face. Tears. His confused expression, him not registering you’re not dead. A shit-eating grin spread on your face as you say : 

-I’m your everything uh ? You love me uh ? 

Your mom shakes her head, and say : 

-Oh that’s also definitely your father. Damn that man and his sometimes a bit cruel teasing, his stupid sense of humor. 

Jon looks at you and, suddenly understanding what’s going on says : 

-Oh no you didn’t just do that ! I can’t believe it ! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT (Y/N) !! 

You smile at him and winks, which makes you wince a bit...Sure, you were wearing your impossible to pierce armor that your grandmother gave you (a bit like Mithril in the Lord of the Rings you told her...she didn’t understand), and so the spear didn’t do any permanent damage but...man it was going to bruise ! 

That spear was launched with force ! 

Jon is on his feet already, and, throwing his arms in the air, he gives you his best : “WHAT THE FUCK ?!” facial expression. Your mother can’t help but laugh, and pat him on the back, an understanding look on her face. 

Damian is still stunned. What was going on ? 

And suddenly. It hits him too. Yes. The armor that can’t be pierced. It’s as if someone shot you and you were wearing a bulletproof vest. Bruised but not dead. 

He ignores your teasing, the way you said : “so you love me uh ?” and takes you in his arms, holding you tight in his arms. 

-Don’t ever do that to me again you idiot, don’t you dare do that again...

He says. You smile and hug him back, saying : 

-Becauuuuuse...You love me ? 

He doesn’t even care you’re not saying it back, as he says again : 

-Yes. I love you. 

You smile and answer : 

-Good. Cause I love you too. 

The kiss you share is a bit clumsy and shy, but it’s a good one. And when he lifts you up in his arms and helps you up on the league’s ship, you feel happier than ever. 

Jon too, is happy. And oh so finally relief. It took him months for that to finally happen ! If only he knew that the only thing that would make you guys admit to each other that you were in love was a life endangering situation, he would have found a way BEFORE that...

Your mom and Damian’s father smile at each other. They couldn’t dream of a better person for their children that those two eh ? 

In the ship, bundled against Damian, you realize that...Yeah, it wasn’t actually that difficult to say it. Because you love him. For real. You just love him. 

As simple as that. 

And he loves you and...The worst didn’t happen. He hoped the worst would never happen...He would make sure it would never happen. 

Another clumsy kiss, and...yes. As simple as that. 

___________________

This is the fucking worst. I wrote this annoyed at something and couldn’t focus totally on it. Besides, there were a lot of people talking around me and such and...yeah I really couldn’t focus. I’m still posting it though, because I know myself, I won’t ever re-write it and it’ll be lost in my drafts forever, like other finished stories are (finished stories I really hate)...So I figured, since I promised a Damian story, I’ll just post it and so be it. Anyway. The End. 

PS : Let’s be honest for a second, this might be erased because I feel really self-conscious about how bad it is. Like way more than usual. UH.