#when Tim almost fell off the stage

[havithreatendub4]

#Dark Shadows #premiere #Tokyo Japan #May 13, 2012 #Tim Burton #falling #Jerry Judge

[callsigns-haze]

Unexpected twist

Pairing: Tim Bradford x Reader

Chapter Summary: Tim and Y/N's first date at a fancy restaurant is interrupted by a robbery, turning a romantic evening into a spontaneous takedown and leaving their relationship exposed to their curious colleagues.

Chapter Warning: This chapter contains a sudden shift from a romantic date to an intense, potentially dangerous situation involving a robbery, with moments of suspense, gun use, and police intervention.

A/N: My first fic about the rookie eeeeeeeeek

The evening was perfect—the kind of night that begged for romance. The sun had just set, leaving behind a soft twilight that bathed Los Angeles in shades of purple and gold. The upscale restaurant Tim Bradford had chosen was nestled in a quiet corner of the city, known for its elegance and discretion. It was the kind of place where celebrities could dine without being disturbed, and tonight, it was the stage for a first date that had been a long time coming.

Tim arrived first, feeling a strange mix of anticipation and nerves. His usually steady hands betrayed a slight tremor as he adjusted the cuffs of his navy-blue suit. The suit was perfectly tailored, accentuating his broad shoulders and athletic build, the sharp lines giving him an air of authority even out of uniform. The crisp white shirt he wore beneath it was open at the collar, revealing a hint of tanned skin, and his dark leather shoes were polished to a mirror shine. His hair was neatly styled, though a few rebellious strands fell across his forehead, softening the hard lines of his face. He glanced at his reflection in the window, making a mental note to ease up on the cologne—he wanted to make an impression, not overwhelm her.

Just as Tim settled into his seat, Y/N Y/L/N entered the restaurant, and for a moment, he forgot how to breathe. She was a vision in an emerald-green dress that hugged her curves in all the right places, the rich color bringing out the warmth of her skin. The neckline was a perfect balance—elegant yet suggestive, hinting at the strength beneath the softness. Her hair was styled in loose waves that cascaded over her shoulders, and her makeup was subtle but impeccable, with a soft shimmer on her eyelids that caught the light just so. A delicate gold necklace adorned her neck, matching the small, sparkling earrings that completed her look. She moved with a grace that was both natural and practiced, each step exuding confidence.

Tim stood as she approached, his heart beating a little faster than usual. "Wow," he said, his voice dropping an octave, full of genuine admiration. "You look... stunning."

Y/N smiled, a hint of a blush rising to her cheeks. "Thank you. You clean up pretty well yourself, Bradford. I almost didn't recognize you without the uniform and scowl."

He chuckled, the tension easing slightly. "I save the scowl for the rookies. And for bad guys. I promise you won't see it tonight."

She raised an eyebrow playfully as she took her seat. "We'll see about that. I’m sure I could get it out of you if I tried."

Tim’s eyes sparkled with amusement. "Careful, Detective. You don’t want to see me at my worst tonight."

"Oh, I’m not afraid of you," Y/N teased, her voice dropping to a flirtatious whisper. "In fact, I’m looking forward to it."

Tim leaned in slightly, his gaze locking with hers. "You know, I wasn't sure you'd actually say yes to this. We've worked together for a while, and I didn’t know if you’d be interested in mixing business with… pleasure."

Y/N's lips curled into a slow, seductive smile. "Who says I’m interested in pleasure, Bradford? Maybe I just wanted to see if you’re as tough off-duty as you are on."

His grin widened, clearly enjoying the banter. "Oh, I’m just as tough, but I can be pretty charming when I want to be."

"Charming, huh?" Y/N’s tone was light, teasing. "I’ll believe it when I see it."

They continued to flirt as the evening progressed, their conversations flowing easily from work to personal interests, each revelation bringing them closer. The chemistry between them crackled like electricity, unspoken but undeniable. Every now and then, they would exchange a glance, both of them half-expecting a familiar face from the station to walk through the door.

"You know," Y/N said, breaking the momentary silence, "I keep thinking someone from work is going to walk in and ruin this."

Tim nodded, his expression softening. "Same here. It’s like we can’t escape the job, even on a night like this."

"Well, if they do show up, we’ll just tell them we’re working undercover," she suggested with a mischievous grin.

Tim smirked. "Yeah? And what exactly are we investigating?"

"Restaurant quality," she replied with a wink, making Tim chuckle.

Just as they were starting to relax, the door to the restaurant was thrown open with a loud crash, and the once tranquil atmosphere shattered like glass. A man in a black ski mask stormed in, waving a gun wildly in the air. The room fell into a stunned silence, every patron freezing in fear.

"Everyone stay where you are!" the man shouted, his voice edged with desperation. "Empty your wallets, your purses—now!"

Tim’s eyes sharpened, his instincts kicking in immediately. He looked at Y/N, who had already reached under the table, her hand on her off-duty weapon. Her expression had gone from flirty to deadly serious in an instant. She gave Tim a quick nod, and they both moved with a speed and precision that spoke to years of training and experience.

"Hey!" Tim barked, standing up suddenly. His voice was authoritative, commanding the room. "LAPD! Drop the weapon and get on the ground, now!"

The robber spun around, momentarily thrown off by the unexpected confrontation. His gun wavered, but his desperation outweighed his common sense.

"Don’t move!" he yelled, his voice cracking. But it was too late—Y/N was already moving, her gun drawn and trained on him with deadly accuracy.

"Put the gun down!" Y/N ordered, her voice steady, every bit the seasoned detective. "This doesn’t have to end badly for you."

The man hesitated, his eyes darting between the two officers and the terrified patrons around him. The tension in the room was palpable, everyone holding their breath, waiting for the situation to explode.

Tim slowly approached, his gun also drawn. "You’re outnumbered, and we’re not going to ask again," he warned, his voice low and threatening. "Drop it."

The robber’s resolve broke. His hand shook violently as he looked from Tim to Y/N, realizing he had no way out. With a defeated sigh, he let the gun slip from his fingers and clatter to the floor. Y/N was on him in an instant, kicking the weapon away and securing his wrists with a pair of handcuffs.

Tim kept his gun trained on the man until he was sure the situation was under control. As the adrenaline began to fade, he glanced around the restaurant, noticing the wide-eyed stares of the other patrons. Applause broke out, tentative at first, then growing louder as relief washed over the room.

Y/N looked up at Tim, a grin spreading across her face. "So much for a quiet evening, huh?"

Tim couldn’t help but smile back. "Yeah, I guess we have a talent for finding trouble."

Y/N stood, pulling the cuffed robber to his feet. "Or maybe trouble just finds us."

Before they could share another quip, the sound of police sirens filled the air outside, and moments later, a familiar group of officers burst into the restaurant, weapons drawn, ready to respond.

Nolan was the first through the door, followed by Harper, Aaron, and Lucy. Their faces were a mix of surprise and confusion as they took in the scene—Y/N and Tim standing over a cuffed suspect, both looking more like they were on a night out than responding to a robbery.

"What the hell is going on here?" Harper demanded, her sharp eyes narrowing as she holstered her weapon.

Tim and Y/N exchanged a quick look, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. Y/N opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Lucy chimed in, her eyes wide with curiosity.

"Were you guys on a date?" Lucy blurted out, the question hanging in the air like a bomb waiting to explode.

Tim felt his face flush, the color rising from his neck to his ears. Y/N seemed equally flustered, though she quickly tried to recover.

"Uh, we were just… grabbing a bite to eat," Y/N said, her voice a little too casual.

"Yeah, just happened to be in the right place at the right time," Tim added, though his tone didn’t quite carry the confidence he hoped for.

Nolan raised an eyebrow, a slow grin spreading across his face. "A bite to eat? In suits and fancy dresses?"

Harper crossed her arms, clearly amused. "Right place, right time, huh? Sounds more like a date to me."

Y/N sighed, knowing they were caught. "Fine, it was a date. But in our defence, we didn’t expect to be playing hero tonight."

"Well, you certainly picked a memorable first date," Aaron remarked with a smirk, looking at the subdued robber. "Though, maybe next time choose a place that’s less likely to get held up."

Lucy’s eyes sparkled with excitement. "I knew it! I knew there was something going on between you two!"

Tim shot her a look, though there was no real heat behind it. "Can we maybe focus on the fact that we just stopped a robbery?"

Harper chuckled, clearly enjoying the situation. "Sure, Bradford. But you know this is going to be all over the station by morning."

Y/N groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Great. Just what I wanted."

Nolan grinned, clapping Tim on the shoulder. "Hey, at least you didn’t have to pay for dinner."

Tim couldn’t help but laugh, shaking his head. "Yeah, I guess there’s that, still get to keep the two hundred in the budget."

As their colleagues began to process the scene and take the suspect away, Y/N leaned in close to Tim, her voice low and playful. "So, how about round two? Somewhere a little less public?"

Tim’s eyes lit up with a mix of humour and affection. "Sounds perfect. And maybe this time we can actually finish a meal."

As Tim and Y/N walk out of the restaurant, still riding the adrenaline from the robbery, Tim glances at her with a playful grin. “So, any ideas for our second date? Preferably somewhere without armed robbers?”

Y/N laughs, shaking her head. “Yeah, I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night. How about something a little more low-key? Maybe a quiet dinner at my place? I make a mean lasagna.”

Tim’s eyes light up at the suggestion, and he nods. “That sounds perfect. But just so you know, I’m bringing dessert.”

“Deal,” Y/N replies, smiling warmly. “And this time, let’s keep our badges out of sight.”

They exchange a look filled with anticipation, both eager for a date that will hopefully be free of interruptions—and a chance to really get to know each other.

Taglist:

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@kmc1989

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@rosiahills22

[the-wyld-october]

Batkids wondering why bruce has so many painting and photos of dick throughout the wayne mannor and confronting bruce about it 😭

There was a new painting framed above the sixth step of the main stairwell in Wayne Manor. Tim Drake stood staring at it, mug of coffee in one hand and the other on his hip. He squinted and tilted his head, as if that was going to magically change the subject of the painting. 

When it didn’t, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed someone who’d been dealing with this even longer than he had. 

“Jay,” he offered as a weary greeting.

“Sup, baby bird?”

“I think it’s time for us to stage an intervention.”

“What?” Jason managed to sound both concerned and gleeful at the same time, which was par for the course when it came to family matters. “For who? Is the demon brat collecting every mistreated hamster in Gotham again?”

“No, it’s B. It’s- You remember that charity auction last month? The one where the whole thing was themed around heroes?”

“If you mean the one without a single Red Hood work, yes I recall.”

“You remember the guy who did the painting of Nightwing where he put, like, a lot of attention into his shoulders and waist?”

“Hard to forget how many people have a boner for Big Wing, yeah.”

“Yeah, well, B bought it.”

Silence.

“It’s in the front stairway. The one you’ve gotta take to get to the second floor if you don’t wanna go the long way around.”

“No.”

“Yeah.”

“Fucking christ on a cracker,” Jason swore. “Okay. Okay, gather the troops, enough’s enough.”

--- x ---

In retrospect, Dick should have realized something was up when almost every member of the family showed up to Sunday dinner. Not that Sunday dinner itself was unusual, it happened to be a standard part of the week going back as far as his own Robin days. It just wasn’t very often that everyone managed to be there at the same time.

Dick was one of the first to arrive, hoping for a few minutes alone with Bruce before the rest of the brood descended on them. Cassandra and Duke appeared not long after him, having been upstairs. Then, one by one, the assorted Wayne’s and Wayne-adjacents walked through the manor doors.

Bruce put up a good front, but Dick could see how each new person brought a new glimmer of joy to his eye. For all he preached independence, a more selfish man would’ve forced all of them to stay close for his own happiness and peace of mind. It was one of the things he loved about him.

Dinner itself was a raucous affair. They fell into their usual seats, filling out the massive dining table until they were practically crammed elbow to elbow, with Bruce at one end and Alfred at the other. Conversation flowed easily, voices overlapping, dishes and cutlery clinking, until every plate was clean.

Dick used the uncommonly full table as an excuse to press their knees together beneath the table and lean into Bruce’s space when they talked. There was a time he felt guilty for stealing touches from his former mentor like this. When he was younger, it felt wrong to linger over a few moments of physicality to feed a growing affection that would never be recognized.

These days, Dick was mature enough to know that his stolen touches were harmless, even if his feelings weren’t. He’d become very good at burying them deep, hiding behind the city of Bludhaven to keep a good amount of distance for his own sanity. 

Generally, Dick was the one to help between courses, but he thought nothing of it when Kate waved him off as he went to stand. She and Damian helped Alfred clear the table, a lull falling over the dining room in their absence. 

Now, Dick Grayson was many things and an idiot wasn’t one of them. He’d noticed how people kept exchanging glances and now, as conversation petered out, there was tension building in the air. A quick look at Bruce proved he’d noticed too, brows furrowed in concerned suspicion. 

Alfred returned from the kitchen with Kate and Damian in tow, no dessert platters in sight. Alarm bells were going off in Dick’s head.

Jason cleared his throat.

“Alright. So. Bruce,” he fixed their patriarch with a stern look. “This is an intervention.”

Dick’s head snapped around so fast he felt it in his neck. It was a small comfort that Bruce looked thrown by the announcement. He’d never been good at taking care of himself, not even when someone was around looking out for him. And let’s face it, Dick hadn’t been around to watch his back for too long. 

“An intervention?” Bruce echoed. “For what, exactly?”

“For all the fucking–”

“We’ve noticed,” Barbara interjected, silencing Jason with a look. “A startling amount of the art decorating the manor is related to… Dick.”

“Huh?” wasn’t the most intelligent thing Dick had ever said, but it felt appropriate. 

“Uh, plus all the Nightwing stuff down in the Cave,” Duke added, clearing up approximately nothing. 

“The new painting was the final straw, B,” Tim sighed, rubbing his forehead like the memory hurt him. “It’s kind of a lot.”

“It was for charity,” Bruce defended. 

“Okay, sure,” Stephanie shrugged. “But what about the ones in the library?”

“Or the Flying Graysons poster on the third floor.”

“That’s been there for over a decade.”

“Okay, but there’s kind of a shrine of newspaper clippings around it,” Duke winced. “The ones all about the stuff Dick’s done for Bludhaven?”

“And the photos,” Tim added. “The ones I took as a kid are one thing, but the one in the second floor hallway is nearly the size of a window.”

“Jesus, and the portrait with the flowers in the conservatory,” Jason groaned.

“Hang on!” Dick blurted, jerking forward in his seat to look wildly around the table.

Heat was beginning to crawl up his cheeks. It felt a little bit like someone grabbed reality by the neck and shook it, leaving him disoriented and dizzy. 

“Hang on,” he repeated, when it became evident no one was going to interrupt him. “Bruce has gotten portraits done of all of us! There’s stuff all over the place about everyone here!”

The family exchanged looks. 

“You are the only one with a marble bust,” Damian finally said, which was fairly damning on its own. 

“And the only one with a dedicated room in the Cave,” Kate added.

“Also,” Cassandra said. “The amount.”

“Can’t go anywhere in this place without seein’ your face, Dickiebird,” Jason grimaced.

Dick thumped back against his seat, feeling shaken. 

The thing about being the oldest was that he was simultaneously the most familiar with Wayne Manor, and the least. He’d moved out years ago, which meant his visits were short and usually involved specific rooms. His own, primarily. 

If he thought about it, Dick couldn’t remember the last time he’d wandered the manor in its entirety. To him, the scattered family photos all seemed fairly proportionate, but there was no way that was true with how everyone was talking. 

He could think of a few of them off the top of his head. A photo from his police academy graduation in Bruce’s office, the aforementioned portrait in the conservatory from a brief stint as a life drawing model in college. The marble bust was something he’d commissioned as a joke a few years back, he didn’t know Bruce kept it.

And they were right. There was a room dedicated to memorabilia from his exploits as Nightwing in the Cave. He’d never thought of it as strange before now. He’d been active as his own hero longer than anyone else, so it just kind of made sense. 

The same could be said about the portraiture. Bruce first had him sit for a painter over a decade ago, back before words like “son” began to chafe. He’d been around the longest, so obviously he’d be the most omni-present. There was nothing strange about that.

Except.

Except that if there wasn’t, Bruce should be saying so. Should have said anything, at this point. 

Dick turned to Bruce, who was staring blank faced at the table top. His jaw was tense, hands flat against the woodgrain. To an outside observer, he must have looked calm. To Dick, he was the picture of discomfort. Not afraid or in pain, just exposed, like a child with their hand in the cookie jar.  

Almost a decade of rationalization suddenly looked a lot like willful obliviousness. 

Every time Bruce’s hands lingered on him, Dick convinced himself it was a show of trust and nothing more. Whenever his eyes swept the length of his body, that was just him cataloguing any changes, potential injuries, maybe looking for areas he could improve. And his words? Bruce never meant the way his voice sometimes went low and husky, or the things he said which could be taken as double entendres. 

Dick Grayson was not a creature of moderation, nor self-denial. If he’d let himself hope, ever even considered that maybe his feelings were returned– 

“You know,” Alfred said, speaking for the first time since the intervention started. “Your father used to collect every photograph of your mother he came across.”

“Holy shit.”

Dick regretted it the moment the words tripped off his tongue. Whether it was his voice or the mention of his parents, Bruce decided he was done with the intervention. He shoved back from the table, making to stand.

“No!” Damian barked sharply, stilling his father where he stood. “You are not doing this, father. You are not going to walk away before we are through.”

“You’ve made your point.”

“Oh that was part one,” Barbara pushed her glasses up her nose. “You’re part two.”

“Me?” Dick pointed at himself. “What did I do?! I don’t have a gallery of–”

He clamped his mouth shut abruptly, primarily because Tim produced a tablet from god knew where and held it up menacingly. The threat was very much implied. 

Jason snorted.

“No one needs to see your spank bank, Dickwing, you’re not that subtle.”

Offended, Dick tried to splutter out a defense. Cassandra gave him a smile from across the table.

“You really aren’t.”

“We aren’t shaming you two,” Alfred said, his tone gentle. “This comes from a place of concern.”

“For our sanity,” Stephanie added helpfully.

Duke elbowed her. “And yours.”

“We wish for your happiness, father. Richard.”

“And for someone to cut the sexual tension with a knife,” Kate agreed. 

With that, the gathered family all seemed to conclude that their work here was done. They rose, almost in unison, chairs scraping across the carpet and clothes rustling as they dusted themselves off. Jason, Stephanie and Damian beelined for the door, Kate sauntering after them, while Cassandra linked her arm with Alfred’s.

“We’re going to give you guys some space,” she told them. “Talk.”

Barbara wheeled herself out with Tim on her heels, leaving Duke to shut the door after the last of them. Then it was just Bruce and Dick, alone in the massive dining room.

Dick didn’t realize he was still staring at the door until Bruce audibly dropped himself back into his chair with a sigh. He blinked and met the man’s gaze properly for the first time since dinner ended.

Bruce smiled wanly. 

“World’s greatest detective,” he said dryly. 

Dick barked out a short laugh, all tension draining from his body.

“Wow,” he chuckled. “We’ve been kinda stupid, huh?”

“I want to say I didn’t realize what I was doing, but that would be a lie.”

“Would it make you feel better if I admitted I’ve got some old issues of People Magazine you did spreads in?”

“Which ones?”

“I’m not admitting that until I see the painting that set this whole thing off.”

To his surprise and pleasure, Bruce’s cheekbones grew pink at the mention of the offending piece. 

“I really did buy it to contribute to the charity.”

“Uh-huh. I remember you were talking to the artist for a while.”

“We may have a similar appreciation for your… form.”

Something warm burst behind Dick’s breastbone. The raw affection bled through him until he was sure it was visible on his face, a painfully besotted smile stretching his lips. Bruce’s mouth twitched in answer, his own smile small, but no less adoring. 

“You should show me.”

“I think I should.”

[theyellowhedgehog]

Tim and Bruce Part 2

Bruce went on a business Trip to Montana. Meeting Tim was a coincident. Bruce was in the back of the car reviewing the material when they stopped in a traffic. He signed and looked out the window to find Tim sitting at the bus stop scrolling on his phone.

It has been a year since Tim left Gotham.He looked different, but it was better than when he was at Gotham. Tim shaved off his head and Bruce can see his eyebrows just barely grew back. His face was pale with black eyes bags. Tim overly looked tired but it was better than then. Bruce's eyes settled on the scar on the boy's face Tim inflicted on himself. The scar was wrapped meticulously, in its healing stage.

Tim has changed, Bruce thought. Bruce almost flinched when he saw Tim raised his phone directly at him. Then Bruce realised Tim was taking a picture of his car. Bruce gave a hopeless smile, But he is still the same Tim.

Bruce bit the bullet and rolled down his tinted window. He saw Tim quickly put away his phone like he's not taking the picture.

"Tim!" Bruce called out. Tim flinched when he heard the car owner calling at him that he actually dropped his phone. Tim cussed and rubbed the screen to sigh in relief to see no scratch. Then he immediately look up when his brain registered who called him.

"Bruce?"

HONK!!! The car from behind honked at them to move when the light turned green.

HONK! HOOOONNNNKKKK!!

"Are you free? Let's get ice-cream!" Bruce yelled from across and opened his door.

HONK!

And Tim, despise his brain telling him no, his legs went up to the car and got in.

Now Tim is at a famous ice-cream place ordering ice-cream with Bruce Wayne. Tim chose classic vanilla and Bruce decided to be adventurous and chose durian flavor.

They couldn't find a seat so they sat and ate it at the viewpoint overlooking the lake.

"How's school?" Bruce asked as he bit into his spoonful of durian and gag. Tim was surprised by the gagging-patting Bruce's back to prevent him from choking.

"Are you okay? Do you want water?"

"N -choke- no! I'm fine." Bruce shook his head. And looked at his ice-cream offended. "the taste is fine, the smell is horrible!"

Tim choke back his laugh. Bruce noticed Tim's eyes were watering when he realised Tim was choking back a joker laugh. Bruce instantly turned concerned, "Do you have your meds?"

Tim nodded and fumbled into his bag and opened a pill bottle, and quickly drown the pill with water. Finally after a few moment he sighed.

"Are the pills not affective anymore?" Bruce asked. Tim shook his head. "I'm trying to go off med. I want to control it without med. 8 out of 10 times doesn't work tho." Tim give an exhausted sigh.

"What are you doing here in Montana, Bruce?"

"On a business trip." Bruce answered.

"The one about the prison renovation?"

"Yeah. And also to find a theripist for Mary."

"Oh, " Tim looked more refreshed after the pill, "the Mary Dahl arrest last week?"

Bruce nodded. They fell into a salient. Tim was avoiding Bruce's glances and look over the calming water.

"Please tell Damian, I'm sorry ." Tim began.

Bruce hummed, "I think Damian would appreciate it more if you told him yourself, Tim." Tim filled his mouth with a spoonful of vanilla and nodded not daring to face Bruce.

Bruce pat Tim's back in comfort, "Whenever you are ready, we will always welcome you with open arms, Tim."

Tim bit back a sniffle. "Okay."

Part 1, Part 2

[strangeshoepatrolbandit]

Sunshine follows with Sunfall Pt. 7

Warnings: None really.

This is mostly just a filler chapter(just like the last one)

Honestly, I'm so sorry that I keep disappearing and returning with chapters that have no action. It's Judith + Jason content, though.

Series Masterlist

~☆~

"What time is Judith's award ceremony?"

1:06 AM

"8:30."

1:08 AM

"I'll be there."

1:08 AM

×××

That morning had been normal. You woke up Judith for school and fed her breakfast before she went to go brush her teeth. You then helped her put on her clothes, brush her hair, and put on her shoes.

She arrived at school normally, sitting in the cafeteria before going off to her class so that she could do her morning work before the entire first grade sat in the cafeteria together and had their awards ceremony.

You showed up at the school thirty minutes early, sitting yourself down in one of the chairs set up in the back for the parents. You gazed at the stage, smiling softly to yourself as you think about how far your girl has come.

Once a small girl who couldn't even hold her head up, now an elementary student who's going to smile brightly on the stage as she holds up her awards paper-

"Hey." A slightly hoarse voice spoke from beside you as someone sat down.

You looked next to you and noticed Jason. "Hello." You sat up slightly straighter.

Jason tugged on the front of his jacket as he adjusted it. "Hope you don't mind me sitting here. Is this seat taken?"

Another slight smile tugs on the corner of your lips. "Bruce and Tim are at work, Dick is in Blüdhaven, and Damian is at his own school. It's not taken."

"I would've thought B and Butt brains would take time out of work for this." Jason tilts his head slightly.

"They're at a meeting." You inform him.

"Ahhh...."

An awkward pause fell over the two of you.

"You look nice today...."

Your eyes go over to Jason again, your gaze soft. You catch yourself and clear your throat, looking at the stage again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He nods to himself. "Well, not that you don't look nice everyday..."

You take in a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Thank you, Jason." You say again.

"You're welcome." He smiles slightly. "So, who's class is she in?"

"Mrs. Thompson's."

"Is she a good teacher?" Jason asks you.

"Judith likes her." You nod. "I'd say she's good."

Jason was going to say something else, but the cafeteria doors opened and students started walking in. The two of you watched as the first graders all filled the seats, sitting in rows assigned to their teachers.

"There's Jude!" You grin and point at one of the classes walking. Sure enough, your daughter was walking in the middle of the line.

Judith didn't notice Jason or you as she walked by, too focused on going to her seat. She sat down and a boy sat down next to her. The two of them started talking, smiling to each other as Judith waved her hands around.

"Who's that?" Jason asks you, speaking again.

"Her friend Alex." You glance at him as you tell him that. "Relax, she's literally six."

"I know, I know." He sighs. "Almost seven though."

"Oh!" You actually look at him now, instead of just glancing. "Will you be seeing her on her birthday?"

Jason smiles. "You think I wouldn't?"

A chuckle escapes your lips. "We have a tight schedule that day. We'll be at the Manor so that she can have a small little party, but we'll be back home that night."

Jason nods. "I'll be there. Text me when you get home."

"I will." You lean back in your seat and smile down at your lap.

The awards ceremony started just seconds later. Teachers took their turn going up to the stage and calling up members of their classes to hold up the awards they've earned.

Mrs. Thomson soon got on the stage and introduced herself, smiling as she called her class up by their names, starting with the Accelerated Reader award.

She went down the list of names and eventually called, "Judith Todd."

Judith excitedly got up from her seat and went up to the stage, taking her paper award. Judith went to go stand in the line of her classmates.

"Just like her father." You smile as you lean over and whisper to Jason. "You were such a nerd back in school."

Jason glances at you and tries to hide his own smile. You were right. He was a 'nerd' back in school.

Judith grinned as her name was called for a few more awards.

At the end of the ceremony, all students were allowed to stand and go visit their parents.

Jason and you stood and smiled as Judith came running up to the two of you. "Mommy! Daddy!"

Her arms reached up for the two of you and Jason lifted her up into his arms. "Hey, Sunshine."

"Hi, Daddy." She rests her head on his shoulder, handing you the three awards she got.

"Good job, Judy!" You match her enthusiasm, causing her to giggle.

"Thank you, mommy." She replies.

"Of course, baby." You smooth down her hair and lean closer to her and Jason.

Jason looks down at the paper awards Judith handed you. "AR. Good job." He smiles at her.

"Daddy's coming over for your birthday!" You tell the young girl.

"Really?!" She squeals.

"Of course!" Jason returns her enthusiasm.

Judith holds her father tightly as she kicks her feet, her smile widening as she wriggles around happily.

The teachers started rounding up their students again, making Jason have to let Judith go. "Love ya, Sunshine."

"I love you too, Mommy and Daddy!" Judith hugged your hips then ran off, leaving Jason and you alone again.

"Text me when you get home that day."

~☆~

Taglist: @keira324 @dakotali @22nranjan @skepvids @harpy-space @godknows-shetried @mirrorball-6 @macncheese69420666 @parkjammys @yyxy27 @burningkidanchor @elleclairez @amecchii @chickennugghon @marvelworldlover @oakexists @p0tterhead934 @makhaia @cassini-among-the-stars @tsukishimarawr @flowestallen @attackonnat @90s-belladonna @sucker4seresin @riahpickle-blog

[annespooky]

7th November 2023

No travel today as I'm already in Newcastle, yeah!

Woke up to find a paper had been slipped under my door, just to let me know there'll be no hot water for 2 hours later on today, okay...

The fire alarm rang while I was putting my nail varnish but it was probably just a test as the cleaning people proceeded with their activities.

Arrived too early at the venue as I thought doors were at 7 so got a drink in the meantime. Too bad I wasn't hungry as the food looked great!

Had a slight moment of panic at doors when my Dice ticket didn't scan, the lady had no list and I couldn't find my confirmation email... Luckily, the man behind me had a spare so I could enter.

The venue itself was ill-shaped but a correct size. Once again I was quite on my own for the Ciel set but I met a photographer who was also in Leeds so we talked a bit and I took his Instagram so to check his photos later.

PBE were great as always but I was off as I was thinking about my brother's funeral which took place the day after so I struggled to sing and dance freely...

Had another little chat with Michele before my friend Grahame gave me a lift back to my hotel, sparing me 30 minutes climbing back the slopes!

8th November 2023

Another day off today, off to Edinburgh! Well, if I can... All trains as delayed due to a landslip on the route down in Yorkshire but they accept any ticket on the next train approaching so I hop in! Great idea as in the end, my original ticket arrived almost an hour late!

My legendary sense of orientation brought me to my hotel with some diversion and found out that I got half of my ticket fare refunded by LNER, yeah!

Got some food and miserably fell asleep in front of the telly...

9th November 2023

Went to the National Museum of Scotland in the morning after breakfast in a virtually empty room. Wow, really like it! There's a part on the story of the Scots people with Mary, Queen of Scots, which really interested me. Checked the Egypt part as well and other parts (discovered the fashion wing on my way out and wow!)

Went back to the hotel for another hotel room picnic and getting prepared for the gig. Found the venue without too much hassle contrary to last time PBE played Edinburgh. My friend Gillian arrived just after me and we queued on our own in the stairs.

Got in and oh, there's a barrier, boo! And what the hell, it's miles away from the stage! We were on our own again until Ciel came on stage. As always for gigs in Scotland, the vibes are great, although the man to my right to literally stuck to my arm (get the hell off me!). Some man got Michelle's setlist and asked me if I wanted it, given it was handwritten I took it! Aubs gave me Matt's and his to Gillian.

Got a lovely chat with Michelle and Tim and got them sign the setlist. Jorge had to rush to Glasgow so he wasn't there. Gillian got her setlist and CD signed and was quite happy. Went back to the hotel quite quickly, although I almost slipped on my way!

10th November 2023

Off to Glasgow today, less than an hour by train and managed to check in at the Ibis by the venue on the spot so I could rest a bit.

Went to the venue too early so came back to the hotel. When I went back later and had a long chat with a guy in a wheelchair who wouldn't let me alone...

We were let in while Ciel were still soundchecking so waited for them to finish to get to my usual spot. The venue is as crap as last time but the audience was as excellent (although my friend from the day before followed me and stuck to me again...). A lady recognised me from February too! Got another Ciel setlist because it was lying there and no-one seemed bothered to take it... Was pissed off as some lady loudly talked during Chelsea...

11th November 2023

Long journey today, 8 hours and 40 minutes by coach to Nottingham! Luckily no one sat next to me and I mostly slept or listened to music the whole lot. It felt like doing the tour backwards as we stopped at cities previously visited with a long stop at Leeds.

Got a free cookie in my room and watched a bit of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which eating and getting prepared.

They opened the backdoor from inside before the outside door so almost didn't get my spot, but my friend Nigel knew the people who were already there, including an Informer who wanted a picture with me (WTF?).

I busted both my knees against the stage during Dr Pong but otherwise this was yet another fab gig! Talked about PSB with Tim, who told me that they were his fave band so gave him an account of all my adventures with them!

12th November 2023

Off to Sheffield today, Lucy's home town and where she and Matt have moved earlier this year so this is a kinda home town gig. Got a train ticket valid the whole day so not in a hurry and I reach Sheffield station a few minutes past 1pm. It's pissing down and I'm struggling to find my Premier Inn but made it! (Well, I slightly damaged the handle of my suitcase when it fell while I was crossing a road by it's still okay). Got a room immediately without having to pay extra, yeah!

Given my hotel is by a roundabout, it takes me about 10 minutes (still under the rain), to find the right way to the venue (last time I was there was 8 years ago for PSB and I was staying at the Ibis), so that's 25 minutes later that I reach the venue and oh, it's closed because it's Sunday after 6pm! After waiting under the rain for about half an hour, someone puts me out of my misery so I'm queuing inside.

This is actually not the same venue I've seen PSB, I didn't know there were actually two rooms here! There is a barrier by its middle is replaced by a huge box where I lay my stuff.

There is a second support band tonight, called City Parking, from Sheffield too. They were a bit different in the way that the singer delivers more spoken words than singing, but they were very enjoyable.

Ciel have slightly changed their set tonight, switching Somebody with Far Away, which was great to hear. Jorge has a stroll on the box in front of me during their set.

PBE did another great and powerful set. After the gig, I thanked Michelle for playing Far Away, she replied that they wanted to change their set a bit so that I don't have to listen to the same set every night. Had another surrealist and weird chat with Aubs and when I was feeling the security was kicking us out, I was on my way. While saying bye to Matt, I reminded him that tomorrow is my 50th PBE gig, then Lucy introduced me to her sister Jessica and asked how many times I've seen them so she got a reminder too!

While putting my coat back in the lobby, her mother introduced herself to me, fully knowing who I am (hmm, feels like déjà vu with the PSB parents lol) and managed to get back to the hotel in 15 minutes (there is a tunnel underneath the bloody roundabout!).

13th November 2023

Taking two coaches today and the first one is slightly delayed... But got the second one without any problem, changing at Birmingham, where I'll be back the next day.

I have to walk half an hour to reach the venue, where I ask at the bar where the exact entrance is, it is actually outside so I go there and of course it's starting to rain! The band goes out for dinner and Matt doesn't like me queueing in the rain so checks with the security, who tell me to queue where it's covered, and they know I'm the first one anyway. Obviously, the rain stops and I'm back in the queue.

I leave my stuff with Doug at the merch as there's a barrier and I don't want to step on it while I'm dancing and jumping.

Ciel keep Far Away in their set tonight :) and Matt looks at me while singing More then at the end of the song proceeds with telling everyone that this is my 50th PBE gig and they have a gift for me! What?! Aubs hands me a bottle of prosecco and I didn't get that I had to wear the tinsel (sorry Lucy!), oh and there's a card too! I have absolutely no reminiscence of Heating's On afterwards as I was so stunned! (I'm used to PSB's discretion where they give me stuff after gigs). Matt hands me his setlist after the gig :D and I walk back to the hotel with the bottle, which I will chug for the rest of the tour back home!

14th November 2023

Day off today. Just a coach to go to Birmingham, where the gig is tomorrow. Managed to check-in earlier so got plenty of time to do some more laundry before meeting my friend Sarah for drinks and dinner.

15th November 2023

The gig is in a pub in the suburbs of Birmingham, which I reach after about 20 minutes by bus. Bumped into Doug inside the pub so had a drink with him until I joined (I mean, started) the queue outside (there are three venues in this pub, PBE are playing Venue 1).

Got to my spot and bumped into so many friends there! They include two ladies I met at a wedding earlier this year, who came just because I was coming, luckily they loved both bands! Came back to Birmingham with my friend Paula, who I met 5 years ago in Margate for PSB!

16th November 2023

Biggest headline gig for PBE to date! At Village Underground in London. Got another coach and checked in at the local Hub by Premier Inn early afternoon. It's pissing down (again!).

Arrived far too early to queue but you never know with London. At the end, I knew most of the people in the queue, who ended up front row inside.

Ciel are once again very well welcomed. They went back to their original setlist since the day before.

Matt is clearly very happy (well, even happier than usual) and states that there are so many people from so many periods of their lives in the room. Aubs gives me Matt's setlist and afterwards, when Matt comes back on stage and see the setlist has gone, he looks at me and I show him I got him, he looks relieved, bless him!

At the end, I manage to grab one of Rough Trade bonus CD (which prevents me from buying a sixth copy of the album to get it), which includes a new song called Green Eyes and the Radio X session they did earlier this year.

I then bump into J. Willgoose, Esq. from PSB and we talked a bit. When I mention that I have no idea what to do if PSB and PBE are clashing next week for gigs/tours, he replies to follow my heart, which doesn't really help because my heart wants to see them both! Remembering what Tim told me in Nottingham, I ask J if he met him, he didn't. I therefore called him from the merch and introduce him to J. Sadly J missed Ciel and apologises for this. J goes backstage, I'm chucked outside by the security...

17th November 2023

Back to Victoria Coach Station to get the coach to Bristol, which is slightly delayed but the Premier Inn is just by the station so this is fine.

After checking-in, I go to Rough Trade to collect my order for the Smoke Fairies album, which is out today and stop by Tesco for another hotel room picnic.

Once again I'm first in the queue and I actually arrive while PBE are soundchecking! Bonus! Then Ciel proceed with another lengthy soundcheck. We enter and find out that two steps are placed in front of the stage, okay, I'll try not to fall! I meet more people seen at other PBE gigs and they joke that I'm becoming more famous than the band! (Mind you, I've been mentioned in two live reviews so far!).

Matt screws up the lyrics of Simmering and I shake my head, which makes him laugh, oops sorry! It really feels likea home town gig for them as this is the closest to Devon we will get on this tour. the "Pear Lady" gives Matt butter biscuits, which another lady opens at the beginning of Dr Pong (what the hell is going on lol). The singing on More was exceptional too!

I meet the Spanish couple who were by my side during the gig afterwards and they wonder how many setlist I have lol. I thought they were friends of Jorge from Ciel, but no they just came because their original planned gig has been cancelled and they managed to find tickets from the waiting list. I get my bonus CD signed and Lucy says that she's glad I got one. Then I talk with Tim, who thanks me for introducing him to J :)

On my way to the hotel, I bump into the Spaniards again! They ask me how come I speak English so well, as this is kind a private joke that French and Spanish people are bad at languages, so I give them my best French accent impression. "Oh you can fake it, clever!". Fun fact, they were staying in the room next to mine at the Premier Inn!

18th November 2023

Almost the end of the tour, boo!

Off to Manchester today so two coaches to take, changing in Birmingham (again!). It's pissing down (again!) when I reach the hotel. Just realised I didn't buy any thank you card for the band and as tomorrow is Sunday, I'd better buy it today, find one with balloons in Tesco, perfect!

I reach the venue and there are people queueing... Wait there are two gigs today, Callum Bowie downstairs and PBE upstairs, and even a private birthday party in the basement! We organise ourselves into two queues, which the security was impressed with!

Having already been here two years before to see Haiku Salut, I was glad to see this beautiful venue again. The gig was awesome and there is an actual video of the whole lot on You Tube!

I buy all the Ciel merch, that is the brand new double EP, the former EP on CD and a lovely tote bag. Aubs tells us of all the stuff they've forgotten in venues (including the bloody mixing desk, for Christ's sake) and we leave.

19th November 2023

Last date of the tour... First an early coach back to London where I take the train to Brighton before checking-in at the Premier Inn.

I write the card then cry the whole afternoon... Well, maybe this way I won't be crying during the gig this way?

No surprise, first in the queue again, under the rain again...

There's a barrier, an ugly one as Michelle and Tim told me the day before, but we're still pretty close to the stage! Well, I was almost in Michelle's face during the Ciel set!

Matt thanks Doug for manning the merch, and I thought he wouldn't talk about me because he did in Oxford, but no, he chose the moment I was crying my head off after Chelsea to thank me again for coming to all the shows, bless him (again!).

After the gig, I meet Tim's girlfriend, who thinks this was so sweet what I did for him, because apparently, he talked about it for hours afterwards, well I like to be kind with people and I guess would our positions be switched, I would also have appreciated it :)

Well, that's another wrap on another great PBE tour! Who knows where and when I'll be seeing them again! At least I'm seeing Ciel in February!

[tomorrowusa]

I always thought it would be fun to reprogram the music selections at a Trump rally and insert tunes like "I'm a Loser" into the playlist. But what happened in Iowa was almost as good.

Donald Trump took the stage at the Iowa Republican Dinner to a song that started out with the lyrics, “One could end up going to prison, one just might be president”. The ironic moment came as the former president’s legal woes are mounting. Mr Trump has already been indicted twice. By the end of the summer, he may be the subject of as many as four criminal cases. [ ... ] Natalie Allison of Politico tweeted a video of the moment on Friday night. “As Trump took the stage in Iowa, this ironic line played: ‘One could end up going to prison, one just might be president.’ He had to walk out to Brooks & Dunn (like all candidates tonight) instead of his usual Lee Greenwood,” [ ... ] MSNBC host Katie Phang simply wrote that it was “poetic”. “Omg. That line hits right when he gets on stage,” State Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg wrote. GOP strategist Mike Murphy wrote: “Ha! Trump is finally understanding [that Iowa Governor Kim] Reynolds didn’t get her job because she just fell off a turnip truck…. #SharpOperator BTW, earlier she was at a big Tim Scott event. And treated with due respect.”

Here's a vid with Trump's entrance and the song lyrics displayed.

The Iowa event itself was an orgy of extremism. With the possible exception of Will Hurd, all the GOP candidates speaking there were flirting with fascism to varying degrees.

We can't take 2024 for granted the way some people took 2016. It's not too early for civic mobilization for next year's election.

I Will Vote

[batfsm]

@lunette3002

Thank you! I'll look them up then.

I read/in the mist of reading as they update these fanfics that deal with the trope and made me love it even more:

'The Birds' Series by Oceanera12

Batfamily AU

Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Timothy Drake, and Damian met one another before Bruce Wayne ever entered the picture. Foster care in Gotham isn't exactly safe, but the four of them know what they need to do to survive. First, don't draw attention to yourself. Two, don't bother foster parent because he doesn't care about you. And finally, the four of them are family, which means they stick together. These rules served them well for about four years and they expected nothing to change.

And then they ran into Batman.

Notes:

Dick Grayson's parents still fell off the trapeze and died when he was eight. Bruce Wayne was not in the audience due to an emergency at work. Dick was taken in as the third and oldest foster child of Mr. James, where he met Jason Todd and Damian.

Willis went to prison when Jason was six. Cathrine OD'd when he was eight. Found himself under the care of Roman James a few weeks later, along with some four-year-old kid named Damian. He was a little surprised to find that while Roman is definitely negligent, he never tried to sell the two kids under him and pretty much ignores them.

Timothy Drake lost his mother when he was three. Janet was diagnosed with stage four cancer and passed away six months later. Jack Drake took the loss hard but determined that with the loss of his wife he was going to be the best father he could be to Tim. The Drakes are members of the lower elite of Gotham. Jack Drake was a prosecution lawyer but always had time for his son. When Timothy was eight he came home from a friend's house to find his father had been killed in a burglary gone wrong. He became the fourth foster child of Mr. James and came three years after Jason and Dick joined the group.

Damian has no last name that he knows of. He was abandoned on the steps of a church in Star City when he was around two. He has no memory of his life before and became very used to being ignored by most people. Two years later, Roman moved to Gotham City, taking Damian with him. A short time later, Damian met Jason followed a few months later by Dick.

Ages at start of this AU are as follows: Dick is 12, Jason is 11 (a few months away from being 12), Tim is 9 (almost 10), and Damian is somewhere between 8 and 9. Bruce is in his mid-twenties and Alfred is immortal.

'A Nest We Can All Call Home' by Ao3time (below is the summary of the first fic/prequel because the series doesn't have one)

From 'In Gotham, Even The Birds Are Street Rats': This is where Dick and Jason’s partnership had become Tim, Dick, and Jason’s family.

___

One-Shot Prequel to 'In Gotham, Even The Birds Are Street Rats'

Series

'a statistically significant number of robins ' by AstraEllis (not really the trope but it's Talon! Dick finding and staying with Tim who isn't Robin here. So kind of the trope? Maybe?)

In one universe, Bruce Wayne was at the circus when a young Dick Grayson lost his parents. Soon enough, Batman had a Robin.

In another, Bruce Wayne never became Batman, and Dick Grayson slipped through the cracks when the Court of Owls came for him in the night.

The Court of Owls opens a doorway in between the two worlds, and things get more complicated.

Notes:

-the once and future robin is about Talon!Dick arriving in the main universe and what happens when something distracts him from the mission the Court sent him with.

-deep roots are not reached by the frost//from the ashes a fire shall be woken is Nightwing!Dick's perspective on some of the events from the once and future robin

-at some point, there will be a sequel fic and it will have a title, and it covers what happens after the end of the once and future robin

'Changing Seasons'by jayburb (toothpasty)

Bruce Wayne is a monster hunter who lives atop a mountain overlooking Gotham.

Four orphan boys run into the Dark Hunter during his visits to town.

Batfamily shenanigans ensue.

***

Notes:

If this feels OOC, too bad! It’s a fantasy AU and I can do what I want >:)

Canon can go die in a hole somewhere, I’ll take what I want and forget about the rest.

Can be read in the order as posted or in chronological order :)

Chronological order: The Birdhouse, Ode to Autumn, Encounters, Winter Song, Glowing Season, Old Wounds, Symphony of Spring, Simulacrum, A Silent Summer, Plethora

There are probably more I have to read/have followed but that's what I can remember right now.

A favorite trope of mine?

When Dick meets and keeps Tim or Jason first before Bruce. (Not counting the circus meeting for Tim and Dick.) Or when Jason meets Tim and becomes his brother/parent before meeting the others. Or Damian meets his older brothers differently.

Basically I adore when the boys/siblings,I haven't forgotten about Cass or Duke, just not alot with them before they meet Bruce, end up as family WITHOUT Bruce being the constant factor. They then go to Bruce and Alfred. All of them.

You can write stories about the kids without bringing Bruce and Alfred in until the end and I will love them.

By the way... anyone got any good fanfics that have Duke and Cass joining the other four before Bruce takes them in?

Please and thank you.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. So many different ways for them to meet and become a family.

[ephemerensis]

Oatmeal Raisin // Jason Todd x GN! Reader

lil fluff piece. platonic! but any kind of relationship can be implied. jason has a lil craving for cookies that you help him out with. tim is allergic to peanuts which idk if that’s canon or not but…

—

As far as you were concerned Jason didn’t like you, not really. He got along with you civilly, certainly. But in all your years of friendship with one Timothy Jackson Drake, you hardly spoke. So you never really got to know Jason the way you got to know the others. At least not at first.

It was difficult to get to know any of them actually. Especially before you were let in on the whole Batman thing, and even after. It was hard for them to open up. And that was fine, because you understood that. And they were trying and you could appreciate that.

Naturally, Dick was the easiest to like and it got even easier when you found out that he was your beloved Nightwing. You were in love with Nightwing; owned all the memorabilia, had postcards of him plastered on your wall, knew his patrol routes as well as a civilian could so that you might just catch a glimpse of your favorite masked crusader. When you learned that you knew him? Dick became the sole recipient of your constant doting and gushing about how cool he looked on TV and what the latest magazine had to say on his relationships, his impacts on Bludhaven and so forth. You both shared a sense of humor, corny dad jokes and all.

Damian was trickier. You weren’t exactly good with children, which was bad enough, but he acted so maturely for his age it was hard for you to not feel intimidated. But as you fell for Titus, he yielded himself slightly. And when you learned that he could be swayed by the promise of a bedtime story (Jane Austen of course), so long as it was offered without condescension, it’d sealed the deal.

You bonded with Stephanie and Cass over disorganizing Tim’s meticulously arranged utility belt and hiding away all his suit capes around the manor. You argued with Babs over which stage of the hero’s journey Bruce was at in his developmental arc. You didn’t galavant the streets with them in search for crime, nor did you share tragic secrets in hushed solemn tones. Being a friend was enough.

Until eventually, you clicked with everyone over time. Everyone but Jason.

That’s not to say you didn’t like him. You admired him in your own way. He was pretty cool. He never missed a shot in training and if you were lucky enough to catch him in a talkative mood he’d teach you about the vital points to aim for or how to break off the safety switch on a gun so it wouldn’t interfere with your performance and throw you off (not a true story, just a hypothetical.) “Essential street smarts.” That was the extent of your interaction.

Until one night, you found him knocking on your window.

How he got your address was another story, probably the same way Tim knew your credit card number or how Cass found your Netflix password, but regardless he was at your window tapping away. You opened it, letting him in.

“Hey… If you’re looking Tim or something, he’s not here.

Jason clambered through the window, taking his hood off and setting it on your kitchen countertop on the way.

“Timberly? No no, I’m not here for that loser. He keeps talking about how much you like baking though, is it true?”

His back was to you as he tugged the gloves off his hands to run his hands under the water from your faucet. He sure knew how to make himself feel at home.

“Yes. Yeah. I do. Why?” Your brows knit in visible confusion as he turned off the water, wiping his hands on the towel you hung off the oven handle.

“You know how to make oatmeal raisin cookies?”

“I’m sorry? Oatmeal raisin?”

“Yeah. You know how to make them or not?” Turning around, the muscular man crossed his arms, looking down at you from across the room almost condescendingly, like it was a challenge.

“...you know what? I do know how to make oatmeal raisin cookies. Go run and buy raisins, I’ll start on the batter.”

Sure enough, within ten minutes Jason came swinging back through your window with a jumbo bag of raisins. After nagging him for walking through your living room with his boots on and making a quip about how he’d never finish that many raisins, you invited him to the kitchen.

He was a terrible cook. You didn’t know how he succeeded in mistaking flour for sugar, but he managed. After scrapping the first batter he added four extra eggs to and halfway through the second, you kicked him out and took over completely.

“No, I insist. Let me do it, it’s okay. Just sit over there and read a book or twiddle your thumbs or something, please.”

A half hour later, your kitchen was soiled but they were baking. Closing the oven with a satisfied huff, you looked over to Jason as you straightened yourself up.

Jason was watching you. But not in the critical way he fixed his gaze on passerby’s on the street or the hard gaze he’d set on his targets; just watching you. Calloused hands tossed a bullet cartridge between them as his feet swung to and fro from your barstool chair. He looked so boyish, it was almost cute.

“They’ll be done in twelve. Why oatmeal raisin? I’m not judging or anything but I make a mean chocolate chip that blows raisins out of the water.”

A tap sounded as he placed the cartridge down on the marble counter with a shrug.

“S’what my mom used to make.”

Slinking over to the adjacent chair, you took off the oven mitts to rest your face in your palms, looking at him expectantly to continue.

“What? We’re telling stories now?”

“I mean, you almost never talk to me and then you swing in asking for the least popular cookie type to date— I think a story time might be in order.”

“You’re keeping your mouth shut short stack, no one hears any of this.”

Huffing a giggle, you motioned zipping your mouth and flicking away the invisible key as he rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t exactly grow up rich. We’d have oatmeal every other day, mostly because that’s what she could scrape together. Fucking twat I was, couldn’t stand it. Threw a tantrum couple times ‘bout how tired I was of it. So she made oatmeal raisin cookies.”

His gaze was on his hands as he spoke but his eyes seemed to see anything but.

“I don’t want to get into all the details but, no matter how she treated me or raised me, she was still my mother. Afforded me this much kindness. Sometimes I almost miss her. So. Oatmeal raisin cookies.”

Wide eyes watched him, at a loss for words as your mind ran to process a response.

Breaking free from the recesses of his mind, he turned to look at you as he continued.

“Alfred usually makes them, but he’s out of town on business so… just thought I’d swing by I guess.”

The beep of the oven took you out of the trance.

Blinking, you stood. Clapping your hands together and reaching for the oven mitts.

“Well! I don’t know how good hers were, but mine are pretty hard to beat.”

Pulling the tray out of the oven, you let them cool a moment as you sought out a plate. Transferring them over, you slid it in his direction with a smug smile.

“Yeah, nothing beats Alfred’s, bud.”

He brought one to his nose, taking an obnoxiously loud whiff, cocking an eyebrow almost animatedly.

“6/10, more cinnamon could’ve been in order.”

“It’s not my fault you dropped like half my jar in the first batch!”

“Don’t yell at your food critic. Three point deduction.”

You scoffed, crossing your arms, “my apologies, my liege.”

Without missing a beat, he’d managed to shove the entire cookie in his mouth in one bite with the same cocky arrogance he’d held before. Mid chew, he stopped, looking at you in bewilderment before reaching for another one.

“What the fuck did you put in this?”

You burst out grinning, “Love, rainbows, and cyanide, it’s a secret recipe.”

If he heard you, he didn’t acknowledge it; scarfing down another with hesitation. Not that you minded. His usually stoic, suave, aura paled in the way his face lit up.

Between the two of you (mostly him), three tray fulls evaporated in the span of half an hour.

Packing up the last few batches you’d prepped and insisting he take the raisins home, you handed him a bag to see him off with.

“These got any nuts by any chance?”

“I used peanut butter, yes.”

“Thank you for your service, I will be passing on some to Tim.”

You snorted, “You’re not killing my best friend.”

With his hood back on, bag in hand, he clambered halfway out your window before turning his head back towards you.

“...can I come back for these? When Alfred’s busy that is.”

It caught you off guard.

“Yeah. No yeah, absolutely! Whenever you want. I’ll keep my window unlocked.”

“Not in this city you’re not.”

—

if you guys read the Last Cup of Coffee fic sgdjdd this was a deleted segment because i wanted to focus more on Tim 😭😭 recycling content at its finest tbh

[havithreatendub4]

#fan art #Jerry Judge #saves #Tim Burton from #falling off #stage in #Tokyo Japan #Dark Shadows #Press #Johnny was surprised #2012

[mochegato]

Even the Losers

Chapter 5

Chapter 1     Chapter 4

“Not quite the child you expected to be on the front page today, was it?” Lucius commented, falling into step with Bruce as soon as he exited the elevator on their offices’ floor.

Bruce shot him a slight glare.  He heavily suspected the receptionist at the front of letting Lucius know he was on his way up so he could stage this ambush.  “No, no it was not,” he gritted out.  He loved Lucius.  He did.  But he was not looking forward to discussing this with anyone right now.  He needed to talk to Sabine and figure out his next steps.  He didn’t have time for teasing or hurt feelings, unless they were Marinette’s or his other children’s.

“Don’t think she expected it either.  She was quite distraught when the reporters found her this morning,” Lucius noted calmly.

Bruce stopped and glared full force at him. “Why were you with her this morning?”

Lucius raised an unamused eyebrow at him. “Early morning meeting with her and her friend, Max Kante, the one who actually invented the fabric Ms. Cole tried to take credit for.”  He continued walking toward Bruce’s office, not caring whether he caught up or not. If he wanted to be an overbearing ass, they could have a meeting with that tone and Bruce definitely wouldn’t be the one to win.

“Sorry,” Bruce grumbled, catching up to him.

Lucius nodded to let him know he accepted the apology. “She takes after you, you know.  I could see how upset she was with the reporters’ questions but she masked it expertly.  Seemed to completely shut down those emotions.  If I didn’t know you, I might not have known it was all an act.  Shut the reporter down without admitting anything too, or lying.  Quite smart, that daughter of yours.”  Lucius turned toward Bruce as they passed through Bruce’s office doors.  “Must get that from her mother,” he teased.

Bruce let out a long breath.  “Without a doubt.  How was she at the meeting?”

Lucius raised both eyebrows at that question, otherwise not reacting at all.  “You haven’t spoken with her yet?”

Bruce focused on his desk as he sat behind it. “I haven’t had the opportunity yet,” he hedged.

Lucius narrowed his eyes slightly but answered the question.  “She was brilliant.  She is brilliant.  She was calm and collected.  Engaging and polite.  Very insightful.  You would never know she had been accosted and almost assaulted a few moments before. Completely professional.”

“What do you mean ‘almost assaulted’?” Bruce growled.

“Particularly aggressive reporter.  I gave PR and security his name and picture.  We’ll have a restraining order put out and he won’t be allowed at any Wayne events,” he answered calmly.

Bruce squeezed the arm rest on his chair until it fell off in his hand.  He let out an annoyed growl and threw it in the garbage.  He pushed the intercom on his desk phone, more aggressively than necessary.  “I’m going to need a new chair, David.”  

He slammed the button again before he had the chance to respond and let out a long deep breath to calm himself.  “It’s already started.  It hasn’t even been a day.”  He shook his head and looked up at Lucius.  “Can you see about getting a restraining order for her personally as well, please?  And how was the meeting?” Bruce asked.

“It was successful.  Mr. Kante seems extremely excited about our contract.  He’s looking over it today, but I expect he’ll begin working for us as of next week.  I’m still working on your daughter though,” he mused.

Bruce choked and looked back at him.  “Excuse me!”

“To work for us,” Lucius tried to disguise the amused glint in his eyes, but not too hard.  It was interesting seeing Bruce acting so disconcerted, and not pretending for an audience, actually feeling it.  “She helped Mr. Kante develop the fabric and understands how best to show it off.  She would be invaluable to have on the project.  Hell, she’d be invaluable to have in the company.”

Bruce furrowed his brow in confusion.  “I thought Mr. Kante developed the fabric.”

“He did.  He definitely figured out how to make it work, but she was a significant help.  Her insights and advice were key.  She tried to deny it but he kept insisting.  Without both of them, there wouldn’t be any fabric. Not to mention she’s the one that discovered Rabler and Cole were stealing ideas.  She created the trap and presented the evidence.”  Lucius couldn’t keep the proud tone out of his voice.  

Bruce’s lips turned up in a wide, proud smile.  “Yeah?”  Lucius nodded with a proud smile of his own, albeit smaller than Bruce’s.  Bruce just stopped himself from saying ‘that’s my girl’ because he wasn’t sure he got to make a statement like that.  Not when he hadn’t been involved in bringing her up in any way.  But it didn’t stop his chest from puffing up with pride at the knowledge.  

She was smart.  She was caring.  She was creative.  She was insightful and brilliant.  She was healthy and unscarred.  She was everything he hoped she would get to be growing up away from him.  He must have done something right.  But the idea of having her work next to him like Tim did, getting to see her every day… He smiled at the thought.  “How successful do you think you were getting her to agree?”

Lucius hesitated.  “Not very,” he admitted slowly.  “I don't know the nature of your relationship…” He watched Bruce carefully as he spoke.  “… but she seemed to respond positively when I stressed that I wanted her because of her skill, not because of any association with you.”

Bruce looked down and nodded.  “There is no relationship. She didn't know.”

“So her being your daughter isn't the reason if you manipulated Candice into looking into her and offer her to the rest of us as a possible designer for the product like it was her own idea?” Lucius raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

“I knew.  She didn't,” Bruce admitted.

Lucius nodded in understanding.  “Until when?”

“This morning, I imagine,” Bruce sighed.

Lucius raised an eyebrow at him, vividly recalling her behavior at the gala.  The way she’d balked at meeting him in his office at WE.  The way she’d frozen immediately upon seeing Bruce, all her fire and confidence falling instantaneously.  The way she’d been almost begging for a way out from having to spend time with Bruce.  “You think she didn’t know before the gala?”

Bruce scrunched his face in indignation. “No.  Sabine would have told me if she’d told her.”

Lucius shook his head incredulously. “Alright.”  If Bruce wanted to believe that, he wasn’t going to correct him. “So you were going to stay out of it and manipulate everything from behind the scenes?  Only exposing your relationship when you felt comfortable with it?”  Bruce looked down and nodded.

Lucius narrowed his eyes at him, his gaze suddenly sharp.  He tossed the file in his hand onto Bruce’s desk.  “I didn’t take you for a coward, Mr. Wayne.”

Bruce sighed as he watched him walk out of the room. His gaze fell on the file Lucius had left behind on his desk, the file on DCD with Marinette’s picture on the front. He pulled the picture off of the file to look closer.  He smiled as his mind flashed back to innocent baby eyes blinking back at him. Her eyes hadn’t changed in twenty years. Still the same bright, brilliant, hopeful eyes.  His mother’s eyes.  He could see it almost as soon as she was born.  He could never allow those eyes to be hurt, could never bear to see them in pain, which is all his life seemed to be.

“Then you don’t really know me,” he mumbled as he put the picture back and turned away, his eyes landing on the phone.  He took a deep breath and got ready for the conversation he had to have next.  He picked up the phone and dialed the number he knew by heart.  He squeezed his eyes shut in frustration realizing he had memorized it not because he’d actually dialed it enough to have the muscle memory, but because he’d intentionally committed it to memory.

“That took longer than expected,” Sabine answered on the second ring, annoyance clear in her voice.

Bruce let out a deep sigh.  He wasn’t expecting this call to go well, but he needed her help. “I was handling the rest of my family. They didn’t take to the news that they had a sister I never told them about too well.”

“Shocking,” Sabine deadpanned.  “And how did Marinette take it?”

Bruce hesitated unsure of how to answer that. “You haven’t spoken with her yet.” The disappointment in her voice was almost palpable.  Bruce could almost feel it slapping him across the face and pulling him down to her level.

“I don’t want to mess this up,” he admitted more honestly than he had intended.  “More than I have already.  I don’t want to drive her away by saying the wrong thing,” he chuckled mirthlessly at himself again, “and we both know that’s absolutely something I would do.  I need to know the best way to approach her.  What do I need to do?”

Sabine sighed and Bruce could hear her shuffling around until letting out a lighter sigh like she was sitting down.  “Well, everything’s going to be pretty raw for her. That’s the first thing.  She hasn’t had time to process this.  She needs to process in order to know how she wants to respond.  If you approach her before she’d had time to process, she’s going to freak out on you or just shut down completely, cold, detached.  Did I mention she sometimes takes after you, especially since Hawkmoth?

“But, she tends towards anxiety and overreaction spirals that she has to be brought out of.  Her friends are there, so see if she wants them with her whenever you meet. They’ll know how to bring her out of it and calm her down.  She might need a few more days before she can meet in person, but don’t wait until then to contact her.”

Bruce nodded, fighting the urge to take notes. That would be inappropriate right? To write down psychological insights into his own daughter?  “Yeah, a few hours isn’t all that much time to process,” he agreed absentmindedly, still trying to figure out how many notes would be acceptable.  He almost jumped in his seat when Sabine started cackling.  He did accidentally ram his arm hard enough to bruise on the point sticking up from the remnants of the broken armrest.

He sputtered until she took pity on him. “You think she’s only known for an hour?”

Bruce paused and stared at the phone, trying to process her words.  “You told her?” he was too shocked to be upset yet.

“No,” she answered quickly.  “I don’t know how she found out but she knew before today.”

“You think she knew when she planned to come here,” he said incredulously.

“No, definitely not when she first planned it,” she corrected him.

“How can you be so certain?”

Sabine chuckled ruefully.  “She's not like us Bruce.  She can't lie to save her life.  She's terrible at it.  She wears her heart on her sleeve.  If she knew she was going to see her biological father for the first time, without him expecting it, she would’ve been anxious, fidgety when she told me the plan to go to Gotham.  She wasn't.  This was all about Max.  

“I have no idea what point between last Monday and today she figured it out.  But, I can say that she's not answering my calls now.  I expected her to call and laugh about it or get anxiety about it because she felt bad for causing you trouble.  She didn’t.  She asked Adrien to let us know she needs space.  So she knew.”

Bruce let out a frustrated groan.  “She's upset.”

Sabine took a beat before responding.  “I'm not sure since I haven’t gotten to speak to her about it.  But, knowing her I’d bet on confused rather than upset.  Hurt.  Betrayed. Can you blame her?”  There was an extended pause while they both tried to process what they knew and how to respond.

After a minute of silence, Sabine spoke up a wry tone to her voice.  “You know, she’s always been an extremely cheery child.   Wouldn't know she was related to you at all when she was younger,” she laughed lightly, “well, people who bought into your socialite persona might, but nobody that knows you, really knows you and your brooding nature.  She always tries to see the best in everyone and bring it out.  

“She used to come into the bakery when we had customers and no matter what mood they were in, they would leave smiling.  Even the ones in the worst mood would be laughing by the time they left.  She just had that effect on people.

“But the one thing she could never stand, that drove her crazy, was a liar.  She can’t stand lying and liars.”  Her voice suddenly turned sharp and serious.  “And she just found out, and not from us,” she emphasized, “that we lied to her about this her whole life and that you never wanted her around but did want other kids around.”

“That is absolutely not the case and you know it,” Bruce roared instantly.

Sabine made a few placating noises.  “You know that.  And I know that… on some level.  But she doesn't.”  She stressed.  “I have no idea how you’re going to prove it to her now.  Because all she sees is that you walked away when she was one and never turned back.  Not until the media got involved and forced you to.  And she doesn’t even know that much actually.  Really all she knows is you walked away.  That's what you're going to be up against; her thinking that she is a burden, a prop for you, that all your interest is feigned.”

“Inadequacy issues,” Bruce nodded.  Memories of Damian’s first years in the manor flashed through his mind.  He shuddered at the memory of Damian trying to kill Dick his first night and trying to kill Tim the first time he saw him, believing he was interfering with his birthright.  “But not violent, right?” he asked cautiously.  Because if she was anything like Damian, they were going to have to take some precautions, not that Sabine had given him any reason to suspect that. But then again, it would mean she wanted to be part of their family, so that was at least a starting point.

Sabine laughed.  “Marinette violent?  She’ll rip you to shreds if you touch one of her friends, but verbally.  She couldn’t fight her way out of a paper bag.”

Her reassurance made Bruce frown more.  That was good… kind of.  He didn’t have to worry about her attacking the other kids, not that he was worried about that, really.  Nothing he had ever heard about her or seen so far would indicate that was something he needed to be concerned about.  But that also mean she had no way of protecting herself if she ever got kidnapped or caught in a rogue attack.  

Maybe that was something Damian could help her with. He was an excellent fighter and it was something he greatly enjoyed.  He felt at ease when he was practicing or sparring.  Maybe that was a way they could bond, Damian sharing something important to him.  Bruce immediately grimaced at the idea.  There was no way Damian teaching someone with no fighting experience how to fight ended well for either of them.  It was more likely to result in a frustrated Damian and a bloodied, bruised, and scared Marinette.

Dick!  Dick could teach her, or Tim.  Both also excellent fighters and both much more likely to go slowly, easing her into something her body had never been used to.  Bruce nodded to himself.  Dick would jump at the chance to work with her.  And Tim, although less enthusiastic, would be more than willing to help make sure she could protect herself.

Bruce took a breath and focused back on the conversation at hand.  “So… go slowly.  Ask if she would be okay with meeting first.  Give her time to adjust before the meeting.  Try to figure out how to reassure her my interest in a relationship with her has nothing to do with the media.”  He nodded with a grimace.  “That shouldn’t be too hard.”

He could hear Sabine’s reassuring smile through the phone.  “As long as she’s had time to process, it should be okay.  She’s helped friends go through the same thing.  It shouldn’t be too hard once you get past the initial part.”

“Right.  I can do this.” Bruce said, more to himself than Sabine.

“And Bruce?”  Bruce was immediately tense from the edge in her seemingly sweet voice. “Protect our girl.  This is a lot for her all at once.”

Bruce breathed out a relieved sigh.  “I will.”

“Because if you don’t, not even Batman will be able to protect you.”

Bruce blinked a few times and opened his mouth only to snap it shut quickly, unsure if he even wanted to figure out if that was a veiled reference or not.  After a few seconds he nodded resolutely, deciding it didn’t matter.  “I understand.”

“Good day, Bruce,” Sabine said sweetly.

“Good night, Sabine,” Bruce answered with a smile, wondering just how much of her mother Marinette had replicated.

Chapter 6

Tags:

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[cjsmalley]

A Royal Birthday:

Damian’s first birthday knowing his biological father was an extravagant affair; the Waynes were invited as Royal Guests and were given a front row seat to what a royal birthday was like.

There was live music, snacks, including a multi-tier cake decorated with various paintings, a ghostly circus (that promptly welcomed Dick in), a ghostly petting zoo, and many other attractions.

The entire Phantom family, including those adopted because their family member was sold, was in attendance. It was a daunting number of people.

The Waynes were quickly absorbed into the massive family; Tim and Barbara talked tech and inventions with Tucker and the elder Fenton couple, Jason hit it off with the so-called Marauders, Dick also fell in with the Marauders but also chatted with Buffy Summers and her group, Cass found a kindred spirit with Buffy as well, Stephanie hung with Adrien and his girlfriend, and Duke found allies in sanity in Jazz Fenton, Lily Potter, and Alice Longbottom.

Alfred was speaking quietly with Clockwork.

Bruce waded his way through the organized chaos, grinning at his children, to Danny and Sam, who were taking a quiet moment with their youngest, still just a baby, Anakin.

“Enjoying the party, Bruce?” Sam asked with a grin.

“Quite a bash,” he agreed, taking a seat on a bench.

“We tend to go all out with birthdays and gotcha days,” Danny admitted, cuddling Anakin, “especially for those who were actually Sold to us.”

“I see. And the family?”

“All are always invited,” Sam assured, “we have a loose definition of family. Like you. Because you’re related to Damian and good for him, you’re family too. You, your kids, anyone you consider family.”

“Huh.”

“Oh, look, Ember’s taking the stage,” Danny pointed out mildly.

Ember was a ghostly young woman with fire for hair.

“She wanted to be a singer in life,” Sam explained, “but died in a housefire as a teen.”

Ember began singing, her sound almost rock but mostly a punky-pop.

“She used to hypnotize teens with her music,” Danny added, “caused an incident in Amity back when I was just starting out as Phantom. Now I let her be my bard if she promises not to try that again.”

“Her Obsession is music?” Bruce asked, mind working.

“With recognition for her musical talents,” Danny corrected, “or just recognition in general. Naming her the Royal Bard helps with her Obsession. Damian loves her. All the kids do. When we first got Damian, she made a CD of lullabies for us to use. Which was lucky because we ran out of the lullabies we knew so fast.”

“Do you hire all your former enemies?” Bruce questioned.

“Um,” Sam thought, “well, Skulker’s our bounty hunter now, him and Wulf. Ember’s our bard. Technus works cybersecurity with Tucker. Desiree we keep on a short leash, she’s the genie ghost, but she’s allowed reasonable wishes as long as she doesn’t twist them too badly. Everyone else’s either behaving or in Walker’s prison for crimes against humans or the Crown.”

Damian joined them, smiling wide.

In his arms, a ghost puppy was snuggled.

“And Cujo’s the family dog,” Danny finished, “Dami, enjoying the day?”

“Of course, Father,” the boy assured and Bruce noted an electric pink lion painted on his left cheek.

It was smiling too.

Then it winked at Bruce.

Bruce let it go. He knew damn well the Phantoms would never intentionally endanger a kid, let alone one of theirs. So it was likely just some safe little charm or enchantment.

“Who did the lion, Dami,” Sam asked, “I might get one too.”

“Uncle Sirius and Uncle James have started face-painting,” Damian replied, “they are quite good at it.”

“Huh,” she passed the diaper bag off to Danny, “let’s go see what they can do.”

Damian and Cujo led her away into the crowd.

“Little spells like that really don’t work on me,” Danny explained.

“Ah.”

Wished Away 4

Do The Research (or, How to Sell Your Sister's Soul):

The Ghost King paused, blinking, “You’re not actually trying to sell her soul?”

“No!” Buffy shouted, “I want to sell my soul for her!”

The King blinked some more, “But the ritual sells Dawn’s soul, not yours.”

He stopped floating and poked at the ritual circle, pointing out, “You used the right runes to sell her soul, not yours.”

“I wanna sell my soul,” Buffy assured, almost desperately.

“Okay, time out,” the King made the motions needed, “why are you trying to sell me souls? What for?”

And so Buffy explained and the King listened attentively, asking questions as needed and obviously already planning an offense.

The King, Danny, clapped his hands, “Okay, so here’s how we’ll play this. I’ll accept Dawn Summers’ soul—ah, ah, ah, hear me out, Buffy—like I said, I’ll take Dawn back with me to my dimension while we all work together on this Glory situation. After the dust settles, I’ll send her back. I don’t actually want her soul. So I’ll technically own her soul but we’ll do…shared custody? If that’s okay with you?”

He thought some more, “I’ll also pay her bills; like child support.”

The Scoobies boggled.

“That’s it?” Xander finally asked, “you wanna…adopt Dawnie?”

“Yes? That’s how we treat any kids I get sold. Adopted. Ours. Dawn would be my fourth child, second daughter…although I would probably just act as her uncle in this case. Her care and keeping would still fall to me.”

“Buffy,” Anya spoke up, “take the deal. I don’t think he’s lying.”

“But—”

“Slayer,” murmured Spike, “he isn’t lying. Bloke’s bein’ honest. Take the deal, protect the Nibblet.”

“What do we tell everyone while I’m gone?” Dawn asked.

“That you went to yer wanker of a da,” Spike answered quickly, “he took ya away from Sunnyhell, finally answered his phone after yer Mum died.”

“We’ll pack some things, make it look good,” Willow added, “we’ll pack a lot of your things, like you really are moving out.”

“Everyone will be upset you’re gone,” Tara agreed softly, “so it’ll be an easy charade.”

“I do want copies of her medical records,” Danny spoke up mildly, before asking, “So, Buffy Summers, do we have a Deal?”

“Dawn?”

“If he can help with Glory—”

“If I can’t, I can find someone who can.”

“Then I’ll go with him.”

Buffy nodded, squared her shoulders and said, “Then we have a Deal.”

Danny nodded, “Well, then Dawn Summers, welcome to the family.”

Within the day things were packed and the needed files were gathered.

The Scoobies met Dawn’s new family, or, well, part of it.

Who quickly absorbed the entirety of the Scoobies into the family, very few questions asked and most of them about allergies and favorites.

Even Spike was accepted, though the King’s parents had questions for him about his biology.

Eventually, though, it was time to say goodbye and Dawn was taken through a portal.

Danny and his eldest son—who refused to give any other name than ‘Chat Noir’, or, in English, the Black Cat—stayed behind as the atmosphere shifted into something decidedly more…tactical.

[anothertimdrakestan]

My Masterlist

Hi loves! After some reqs for it... here’s my masterlist!!!

Here’s the link to my headcanons masterlist!

Here's the link to my shitposts masterlist!

Here’s the link to my incorrect quotes masterlist!

Damian Wayne

Just One Night - Fake dating + Gala but one took it too far...

Super (terrible) Seduction - Dami x Jon where Jon tries taking the lead for once

Notes And Poems From Damian PT1 PT2 PT3 - Being separated during lockdown Damian can’t see you for fear of infecting you so he writes you adorable notes and poems. This is my favorite thing on my acc if I do say so myself hahaha. 

Familiar Green - a soulmate AU where you feel sparks when you touch your soulmate.

Robin vs Vodka - dealing with an over affectionate shitfaced boyfriend

Shakespeare And Dog Slobber - bumping into Dami and bonding over mutual embarrassment and tragedy appreciation 

A Lovely Intervention - Dami x Jon - their brothers worry the boys don’t know what their feelings mean, and that they’re too busy trying to copy their brother’s love than finding their own

Lovebirds - you (a member of the star sapphire corps) get a chance to fall for a snarky hero of earth

Sweater Weather - song fic surrounding admitting ones feelings at like 3am

Mommy Issues - finding your soulmate and almost getting murdered by his mother the same day is pretty damn exciting

Damijon Christmas - part of the Damijon Christmas gift exchange!

Tim Drake

Body - Challenging Tim’s detective skills ends in high, sweaty, tension

Inches Apart - Jason’s horrific, sexual attempt at getting you and Tim together 

Forever And Always - Short fic full of memories with you and Tim, from meeting to a first kiss all the way until the “I Do”

Totally F*ckable (SFW) - A two in one fic full of public embarrassment

Stages Of A Drunk GF - fluffy & funny loving Timbers

Stay With Me PT1 PT2 PT3 WIP- A vigilante (and slightly evil) reader finds her baby brother and love of her life but she can’t stay for long... 

Quarantine x Tim Drake (and the batboys ofc)  - fluffy headcanon about shenanigans living with the batfam!

Pick Me, Choose Me, Love Me -  You give Tim one last chance to make you his

Less Cases More Kisses - On a day off you convince Tim to stay in bed

Just Hold Me Tonight - Tim being a dork and helping the reader through a panic attack, gives a highlight on what my own struggle with mental health has been

Burn - my attempt at angst after tim cheats on the reader (songfic)

Hot Stuff - tim had to keep you safe but you end up saving him :)

Set In Stone - Choose your own adventure love triangle

Tongue Tied - Discovering your best friend and crush is Red Robin

Cup Of Café - hispanic reader shows Tim a whole new world of coffee

Life Changing Cuddles - after a long day you needed a nap (on top of Tim)

Heat Waves - steamy Timkon Fic

Jason Todd

Hips - Jason pretends to be your bf to get a creep of you, then doesn’t let go.

Keep Trying Lover Boy - Jason’s non stop flirting with Tim’s best friend

My Future - Jason being an overprotective boyfriend because he has a bad feeling about a bad guy.

Light Of My Life - PT1 PT2  - Jason falls head over heels for a new superhero in town but his brothers are in for a shock when they find out who she is...

Jealous Jaybird - Roy and J at a party where Jason thinks too many people are oogling his mans

Let Me Take The Lead - Giving J a reason to spend mornings with you (NSFW)

Total Flirt - J flirts his way into the readers heart

Stop Talking And Kiss Me - Passing notes like fifth graders really does the trick

Don’t Stop - A NSFW fic where the reader meets and falls for J

How Dare You Go And Die On Me! - Fluffy soulmate AU where Jason finds his future on live TV

And After All This Time - reader recounts how they fell in love with Jason and helps Tim along the way

You Didn't Save Me - jay watching the reader befall the same fate he did after being exposed to fear toxin

Hey Gorgeous - a fic dedicated to the way a nickname develops and grows with a relationship

2 Times Jason Todd Took Your Breath Away - two jason todd x super!reader short stories

Dick Grayson

Midnight Kisses - Comforting a slightly drunk Dick after a hard day

My Everything - Dialogue fic where Dick explains to Damian how in love he is

Batsis x Batfam

The Birds, The Bees, and The Bats - Dick tries to give the reader and Tim the sex talk

Jon Kent

Super (terrible) Seduction - Dami x Jon where Jon tries taking the lead for once

A Lovely Intervention - Dami x Jon - their brothers worry the boys don’t know what their feelings mean, and that they’re too busy trying to copy their brother’s love than finding their own

Why Me? Jon x Reader - Jon feeling a little insecure is answered with your affection <3

Damijon Christmas - part of the Damijon Christmas gift exchange!

Conner Kent

Dating Conner Kent Headcanon! (it's x reader so i think it should go here idk)

Heat Waves - steamy Timkon Fic

Roy Harper

Jealous Jaybird - Roy and J at a party where Jason thinks too many people are oogling his mans

Bart Allen

Set In Stone - Choose your own love story (my favorite post to date!)

Wally West

Absolute Cheeseball - After a steamy moment you realize Wally’s been after you the whole time

Gar Logan

Sharing Is Caring - Same soulmate AU from Familiar Green where the reader joins the Teen Titans and finds a shocking new (green) discovery

I just wanted to thank you guys again for the amazing requests pleaseee keep them coming they are my favorite things ever and nothing makes my heart happier than seeing my inbox full 🥺🥺🥺  

[dumdumsun]

Forever and Never

A/N: Thank you so much for taking the time to read this series ❤️ I’ve had so much fun writing this and am very proud of and excited for it, I can’t wait to see how people react to this. Um I know there are plenty of warnings for a first chapter, but I promise it’s not as depressing as it sounds. It’s just that this story can deal with heavy stuff sometimes, so I just wanna let you know that. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

Warnings: mentions of marijuana, death, sexual assault and mental illness

Word Count: 3194

—————————————

One: Hi, My Name Is

“So, what was your time in Pennsylvania like?”

“Uh… I’d have to say it was the best… and worst time of my life.”

“Best and worst, huh? Would you like to elaborate?”

“Well, I, uh… I mean, I don’t really know how to, like… explain it. It’s a lot. I don’t even know where to begin… Or how I would even word it or anything.”

“Well, you told me you like television and movies, right? You know those shows and movies where the main character tells the plot as, like, their life story? Maybe you could try that.”

“You aren’t… You aren’t serious, are you?”

“You’ll know when I’m joking, trust me.”

“Oh… Okay, then. Well, um…”

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Hi? My name is… (Y/N)? This is my life story, I guess.

So, if we’re going to talk about my life in Pennsylvania, we’re going to have to start with my life in Kansas, first. I had two loving parents that soon turned into one at the too-young age of nine years, when my mom died. I remember her as one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known. She had this way about her that was so carefree, yet she gave a shit about everything. You could never pin a thought to her because she never let you in on what was bouncing around in her head. She was stubborn and patient and lively. I miss her so much. I don’t usually think about her unless it’s a particularly hectic day, which I then resort to talking to the ring I wear on my left pinky finger at all times. Wasn’t anything special, just some cheap ring with a little emerald inside she found at a thrift store. It used to be hers and she’d wear it on the exact same finger. My dad said she’d want me to have it.

My dad is my favorite person. He isn’t the most… present, though. His mind is never set in one place, always racing with hundreds of unrelated thoughts. It’s why when you finally drag him back into reality, he can’t repeat a single sentence spoken to him. Regardless, he’s all I had for a long time. I never really learned what he does for a living, but I just know that it forces him to leave town sometimes. Well, more like all the time. Before my mom died, it was easy for him to leave for weeks on end, but when he became my only guardian, he didn’t really know what to do with me. It was like he completely forgot how to take care of a child, his child. When I turned twelve, that was when he started travelling again. I would then be home by myself for a month to eight weeks. In these times, I had no choice but to learn to cook for myself, go grocery shopping and housekeep. I became pretty independent at a young age. It wasn’t like Dad left me totally alone, though. He would call every two or three days and he sent me two hundred dollars every two weeks. Like I said, I don’t know what my dad did, but he was definitely getting paid. At the end of eighth grade, Dad had a particularly long trip to go on, so he sent me to Pennsylvania, where his sister lived.

Pennsylvania was partially the best part of my life because of my family. My Aunt Pam was like a second mother to me. She was never able to have another child after my cousin Jacob and she’s always wanted a daughter of her own, so that’s what I was to her. The daughter she could never have. I’d often find her staring at me with a bittersweet smile on her face, watching my every move with a sense of pride, but when I’d ask her what was wrong she’d only brush it off as her admiring me. My Uncle David didn’t necessarily view me as a daughter, but he certainly treated me like one. When he wanted to spend time with Jacob, he included me as well. We’d usually go on drives around the town, but I always fell asleep to the soft and serene music that filled the car from the radio. On the weekends, we would head down by the lake and spend hours learning to fish.

I hated it, but I couldn’t complain. It gave me a sense of certainty to live with a father figure who didn’t leave me alone every two or three months.

Jacob was like a brother to me. He’s a year older than me, which, to him, meant that he had to protect me at all costs. I always assumed it was because he always wanted a younger sibling, and I was the closest he was ever going to get to that. I always felt as though I’d never be able to equal Jacob on an intellectual level because he practically had the IQ of Albert Einstein himself. I felt inferior to him until I found out how much of a joy he really was. On the weekends, he would beg me to accompany him in a movie marathon. I learned that Jacob was a huge fan of Tim Burton (his favorite was Beetlejuice). He’s the only cousin I’ve ever known. Mom and Dad didn’t like each other’s families, so I never met anyone besides this little family. Moving in with them meant that they’d have this huge burden on them.

Yes, I almost forgot to mention that I struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD. It just means that my mind is flooded with these crazy and unnecessary thoughts and so my behavior is affected by them. For example, if I were to blink and felt I put more pressure on my left eye than my right, I would have to repeatedly wink with my right eye until they felt balanced. Sometimes I can’t enter a room until I have inhaled eight times. If I scratch an itch on my left knee, I have to scratch the right one in the exact same place. At the sink, even if I don’t use both knobs, I have to hold both in my hands. And when I turn them off, I often have to check about four times before I am certain they’re turned off all the way. I know, it sounds tiring. Just imagine being on my end, having it be a part of who you are. I can’t do anything to stop it, I wish I could. I was always afraid to make friends because of this. If I couldn’t be balanced, I’d freeze, and I mean actually stop whatever I’m doing and stand still, until my body felt as if I were balanced once again. Who wouldn’t make fun of me for this?

Apparently, no one gave a shit about it. After moving to Pennsylvania, I made quite a name for myself at school. Literally. My name was Zip. I have no fucking clue how that ridiculous name came to be, but that’s what I went by day after day. One could say I was considered popular, but it wasn’t like I actually spoke to anyone. When it came to extracurriculars, I only participated in theatre. I never was part of the cast, just the stage manager. Secretly, I wanted so badly to audition and be a part of the magic they created on that stage. Not to boast or anything, but I had the talent and potential to be a starring role. But I could never bring myself to break out of my shell. Nonetheless, being stage manager still got me quite the attention. Everyone was always so nice to me, so I felt a little bad for not considering any of them as friends. That was until I met Dina.

Dina was new to our school sophomore year. She had this sort of light to her that attracted the pesky moths that were our dull and boring school body. We had the same social status in school. People liked our personalities, so we were well-liked and accepted without doing much to prove ourselves worthy. She was sweet and compassionate and so fun. I didn’t mean to become her friend, but she was so welcoming, despite being the newcomer. We became close friends, but not best friends. We already had people filling those roles.

Dina’s best friend was Sydney Novak. Sydney moved to Brownsville around the same time as Dina, so the two became best friends quickly, but Sydney wasn’t very popular at all. She was shy and introverted, but I thought she was nice enough. I liked her and thought she was a pretty cool person. We weren’t necessarily friends, we were just well acquainted simply because we were both close with Dina. The transitive property, if you would. I just wish we could’ve talked more, our relationship was pretty much nonexistent.

Speaking of nonexistent relationships, let’s talk about Richard Berry. I honestly don’t want to even think about him, but he played a role in my life that was too vital to just offhandedly mention. For some odd reason, Ricky Berry was absolutely in love with me. It was so obvious to everyone except for me. Sophomore year, he expressed his love through the most arrogant and cheesiest of pick-up lines and compliments. I wasn’t so easily won over, if you could guess. I tried being good friends with him, but he’d always fuck it up when he tried to initiate intimacy. I didn’t want to hold hands with him in the halls or receive “friendly” cheek kisses. I’m not what you would call affectionate, especially towards people I’m not close to. It’s just never been comfortable for me. Junior year, everyone around me was buzzing with excitement when they heard Ricky was going to ask me to be his girlfriend. The cheerleaders, who got to know him through his high school football career, constantly pestered me with reasons as to why I would be so lucky to date The Richard Berry. Granted, he became less of a dick junior year, so I thought, Why not?, and accepted. Being in a relationship with Ricky was the most one-sided… anything I had ever been a part of. He was undeniably enamored with me, but I couldn’t find it in myself to reciprocate those feelings. He would show me off to his family and friends like a trophy, but if someone asked me if I had a boyfriend I’d go, “I mean, yeah. I guess”, so not a very healthy relationship. It also didn’t help that Ricky knew nothing about boundaries.

One night, we were in his bedroom, studying for a science test. Ricky wasn’t focused at all and kept trying to kiss and cuddle with me. I let him for awhile, but then he took my book from me and set it on the ground beside his bed. He suggested we have sex right then and there. Now, I was never a prude and definitely didn’t wait to have sex for the first time, but I never wanted Ricky to be my first. He hadn’t earned enough of my trust to even touch me suggestively. So, of course I refused. Ricky only took that as me teasing him, so he advanced, nearly forcing himself on me. Using all my might, I shoved him off of the bed. He stood to his feet, utterly confused, but I only gathered my things and left his house. He tried following after me, but I ignored him until he turned and went back into his home. The next day at school, he was holding me and kissing me and showing me off to everyone like he always did. As if nothing happened between us the night before. It was difficult to do, since he was so inconsiderate, but I managed to break up with him. He tried to deny that we were Splitsville for about a week, but everyone caught wind of our break-up. Once everyone knew about it, it became true for him. I never really felt comfortable with being intimate or open with guys after that.

Besides with Stanley Barber, of course. Stan was my best friend in the entire world. I told only my deepest, darkest secrets to him. And he told me his. The only things we really had in common were our lack of mothers and our hideous bacne. Stan lived a few houses down and was eager to get to know me a week after I moved in. I’d never met anyone in my life like Stan. He was so awkward, but loveable. I don’t know, I guess he reminded me of my mom. The way he didn’t care, but he so clearly did. Whenever I wanted to talk about something that was difficult to voice, we’d smoke to ease the tension. Of course, this wasn’t how we always communicated. Despite his nervous stuttering, he was easy to open up to. Stan provided a sort of security in my life. He was never going to leave me and that put me at ease when hanging out with him, which we did regularly. I don’t know when exactly I developed a crush on him, but I never wanted it to surface in our bond. He was to never know. It was just a stupid crush, right? He was a guy who wasn’t family and was so unbelievably caring towards me. It was bound to happen, but that didn’t mean he had to be aware of it. Though, it was a little hard to keep such a secret when we’d both made out twice already. The first time was while I was dating Ricky, the kiss was very awkward and ended after about a minute and a half. The second kiss was just half a week after my breakup. That time, we’d both known what we were doing. And I may be a little biased, but you couldn’t have even thought to fake the passion in that makeout session. We never talked about either of those kisses and remained friends both times. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me that we didn’t become anything more afterwards. It was for the best, though, because two weeks before spring break, my dad returned from his job in Georgia and moved me to Kansas again. The move was so abrupt that I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to anyone besides my family.

My life in Kansas for the second time was something I’d never want to experience ever again. Since it was a little late in the year, I finished junior year online. For some unexplained reason, my dad had us get new phones and new numbers, so I lost all contact with my friends. I had no one to talk to and it wasn’t like my dad paid much attention to me. I remember spending every waking moment with him when I was younger, talking or playing games or watching television. It used to be so fun being his daughter, but when we moved back to Kansas, I just felt like this huge burden in his life. Our relationship was strained and he clearly had other priorities in his life. Like whatever he left back in Georgia. I’d see his phone ring and the same number from that state would pop up before he’d leave the room and privately talk with whoever. It wasn’t the secrecy that was off-putting to me, it was the fact that it was so much more important to him. Once again, I was ignored by the one person in my life I wanted to spend the most time with. So, you can imagine the joy I felt when Dad had to go back to Georgia for work. I had been attending public school for my senior year and left not even a full month in. It didn’t bother me, I had no friends and nothing to leave behind. Mid-September was when I moved back to Brownsville with Aunt Pam. Everyone accepted me right back in. Especially my classmates. As I walked the halls I heard whispers like,

“Oh, my god, is that Zip?”

“Zip’s back! Where’d she even go?”

“I thought she died.”

The only person I really wanted to notice me was Stan. I missed him so much, I even got into his favorite band to have something to remember him by. I remember the day I got back to my aunt’s house. Jacob had picked me up from the airport and was driving me to the house. He was attending community college, but was still living with his parents. As we drove, he tapped his index fingers rhythmically to the shitty pop music that played on the radio. “So, what are you excited about for senior year?”

“Not much, I just missed Dina and Stan. Theatre, too. I wonder how they’ve been doing without me.” I chuckled. Jacob huffed in amusement.

“But you didn’t miss Ricky?”

“Fuck, Jake, you know I didn’t miss him for a second.” I frowned, waving my hand in dismissal. My cousin tauntingly laughed at me. Had he actually known about what happened between Ricky and I, he wouldn’t have teased me. In fact, Ricky wouldn’t even be alive that day if Jacob found out. No one knew about the incident, not even Stan.

Pulling up in front of the house, we got out of the car and headed to the trunk to pull out my bags. I tried carrying them in, but Jacob insisted that he do all the heavy lifting and simply asked me to carry my backpack and close the trunk. I did what little I was asked of and headed to the front door to greet my aunt and uncle inside, but stopped. In the corner of my eye, I saw movement from the Barber residence. Turning, my eyes locked on Stanley, who was frozen beside his car. He was wearing his work uniform and staring at me with the most bewildered expression on his face. It was like he thought himself to be hallucinating my existence. Smiling, I simply waved at him before walking back inside. When he got home from work that night, he headed over to my house and knocked on the door. I answered with a grin on my face. “Stan!”

“If it isn’t the famous Zip, showing back up in my life.”

“Ugh, do not call me that.” I rolled my eyes playfully before bringing him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin at the top of my head. I would’ve stayed there all night if I could’ve. When Stanley pulled away, my heart hollowed and a pit formed within my stomach. I felt unfinished, unbalanced. And I hate imbalance. He asked if I wanted to hang out and I accepted his offer. All we did was lay on his floor, listen to music and get high, but in that moment, that’s all I needed.

Bloodwitch, a joint, and Stan laying by my side.

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Taglist: @melinda-hargreeves @sapphicsyn @stqnley @lonely-kermit

[buckleyydiaz]

torn at the edges

pairing: tony dinozzo/timothy mcgee

length: 1.4k

description: fuck rule 6, tony decided, and fuck rule 12. they weren't worth it if they were hurting mcgee like that.

---

Tony fiddled with the corners of the envelope that sat, sealed on his desk. Despite his urge to read what was enclosed within the crisp white paper, the nagging dread held his fingers back from ripping it open, instead just leaving the very edges of the seal bent and nearly torn.

There was no questioning who it was from, or what it was regarding - Tony knew from the moment he first saw it atop a pile of unfinished paperwork, set aside the previous night in favour of prospective alternatives, which had, at the time, seemed far more joyous than slaving away at his desk till some god-only-knows hour of the morning. As such, the butterflies within his stomach - not butterflies though, of course, something much more manly, and strong, and more Anthony DiNozzo like - were not a result of some memory he tried to bury deep in the back of his brain being unearthed, instead it was simply what it seemed; Tony was just stuck with an asphyxiating fear of what the words within, surely having been typed on that goddamned typewriter, and what they had to say.

His usually decisive mind fretted about what he was to do, as the timer ticked down before Gibbs made his mind up for him, sick of Tony’s messy thoughts flowing through the whole office, creating a generally unpleasant and on-edge atmosphere. Taking one last look at the empty desk to the side of his own, he tore the seal of the envelope open, without any care or finesse, pulling the letter out as quickly as he could, his mind now past the question of whether or not to open it, only now curious about what was contained within.

Skimming his eyes over the words on the page, Tony found that as he had predicted, written - or rather typed - in the signature style of the man who should have been sitting to his right as of well over an hour ago, but instead had been overcome with what had been skeptically announced by the boss as the flu, with a very pointed look delivered straight to DiNozzo, a clue containing Gibbs’s usual lacking level of subtlety, telling him that even if the note did contain the plague as one of a similar staging had years ago, that was the least of his worries, in the case that he failed to fix his fuck up.

Shuddering at the reminder of that certain set of consequences, Tony simultaneously felt vicious waves of regret pulling him under as he read what was written. Honest words from a heartbroken man, he quickly identified, all too used to hearing words that shared a remarkable similarity, but not from his best friend -- just from women who had read into something never meant to mean anything.

What only worsened the remorse was the knowledge that it was his fault - Tony wasn’t any stranger to self-flagellation, but in this case, it was more deserved than the majority. Instead of pausing, taking a breath, even just spending one fucking moment thinking about what he should say, he had just let his mouth speak without a second thought, bullshit pouring out as easily as it ever had, words that meant nothing, despite the perfect opportunity to say everything that actually meant something.

Reading what Tim had to say only set his regrettable words on repeat, a bad movie that he couldn’t turn off, no matter how hard he tried to do that very thing. Fuck Rule 6, he declared to himself, and fuck Rule 12. They had failed him this time.

“I think that the Probie could do with some soup, since he’s so sick.” Tony announced, pulling his jacket off the back of his chair, looking to Gibbs, who nodded, a wordless response that he took as approval to up and leave, to do far more important things than complete the ever-piling paperwork.

---

The drive to McGee’s apartment happened almost without Tony’s awareness, his focus solely on his destination, and what - or rather who - he would find, rendering him oblivious to the brief journey. His fingers tapped a rhythm on the steering wheel of his car, a symptom of his restless mind that simply would not settle until things were, for lack of a better word, settled, with McGee.

Once he parked, Tony couldn’t quite pull himself to get out of the car and speak to Tim. It was strange - he had always been a man of action, and previously, his conviction to fix what he had broken between them had seemed unbreakable - but in this case, it seemed daunting to do what was necessary. After a moment of letting his own nerves overwhelm him, Tony decided that the fact it was so intimidating was reason enough to do it. There was no way he was going to let a mere conversation get the better of him.

Setting aside his apprehension, Tony knocked on the door twice, waiting for a response from the man inside.

“I’m fine Abs, you don’t need to be here.”

Tony couldn’t help but laugh, despite the situation that lay beyond the door that he was more than dreading. Although tempted to mock Tim’s mistake in identifying who he was, he figured that in this case, it probably was better not to, to choose not to be an asshole. The last thing he needed was another thing to apologise for.

“I think you’ll find that I’m not Abby, McGeek.”

Okay, so not entirely un-teasing, but better than he could have been. There was a moment of silence, which Tony assumed was Tim deciding whether he wanted to take a trip down the fire escape stairs to get away from the looming conversation, before heavy footsteps came towards the door, followed towards the clicking of the lock.

The door opened in front of him to his friend looking… worse for wear, certainly. While never as preoccupied as Tony with how he appeared, he was generally not a slob when dressing, going to some effort to look semi-presentable when he expected visitors, but that wasn’t remotely visible in his current outfit.

That wasn’t at all to say that Tony didn’t think Tim looked absolutely adorable in his worn old hoodie and sweatpants, with an expression that looked equal parts sad and pissed off, but entirely pathetic.

Yeah, Tony wasn’t remotely sure how he had almost let McGee slip through his fingers - actually, he knew exactly how, and it had everything to do with years of intimacy issues that probably stemmed from a neglectful childhood or something or other, but it was hardly the time and place to unpack all that - so he returned to his plan to remedy that.

“I got your letter, McWriter, and I-”

“Stop it, Tony,” He was cut off, McGee clearly not wanting to hear what he had to say (not that Tony blamed him at all for that). “I don’t need you to make fun of me any more. It was bad enough for me to tell you… that in the first place, and then the letter. Can we just leave it in the past and move on?”

Tony almost felt bad for shaking his head at Tim’s plea, clearly oblivious to what Tony had in fact come to say. He let the silence sit stagnant for a second, before attempting to make a casual confession.

“Y’know, Tim, I’ve had a thing for you from when you were so green that just looking at a dead body made you green in the face.”

It was as though the words took a few moments to enter McGee’s head, and then another couple to process, the whirring of a computer working overtime could just about be heard through the pin-drop silence. Even when the words did seem to make their way through McGee’s brain, he only tilted his head, as though puzzled by what Tony was sure were perfectly clear words.

He scrunched his face up, deep in thought, before Tony decided enough was enough, and it was time to put him out of his misery.

“I’m into you, Tim. I’m sorry for not saying this before, but given how little your brain seems to be processing right now, I’m sure you understand how I felt. How about we break rule 12 together.”

Tony watched, heavily amused, as McGee’s jaw fell slack and his eyes opened wide, before he began spluttering for words to say.

“You...what? Y- uh-”

After a moment, Tony figured it was only fair to put the poor guy out of his misery and took a step towards him, leaning in until their faces were only centimetres apart.

“Is this okay?” he asked a still speechless McGee, who only nodded, before Tony pulled him even closer.

[volucerrubidus]

cont. II @dementedspeedster

Breathless kisses, laughter that created bellyaches, fingers intertwining together. “I do,” a scrawled signature, a billion and one selfies. A warmth beside him when he fell into bed, the world being tinged with rose and gold, the sparkle of glitter in his hair.

It had started with Tim whispering to Thad all of the tricks that the on-stage magician was using to wow the crowd, his lips mere centimeters from the speedster’s ear. Then it had become giggles that grew so loud, that they were both kicked out of the show. Then it was a casino, which Tim was nearly banned from, for obviously counting cards—which, of course, he’d denied. Thank god they’d been given the option to simply leave, though, since not many people were willing to arrest Tim Wayne.

It had been another casino, and another after that. And then, after gambling away too much money without even blinking, it was a bar, and—that was when the night started getting fuzzy. He remembered trying to come up with a system—for every one shot or drink that Tim had, Thad had to have… two… three… five… he couldn’t remember now. He was sure they’d abandoned the system at some point.

How he had managed to keep the unholy combination of sugar and alcohol in his stomach, Tim honestly couldn’t even say, especially since his system was wholly unused to this much unhealthy input. Frankly, he was surprised the greasy fast food they’d gotten hadn’t caused his body any issues that night, either.

When he was forcefully shoved off of the bed, though—that was when it all hit him.

He didn’t have anything in his system to throw up (thank god), and he didn’t heave. But his stomach was killing him—

Almost as bad as his head was.

…Almost.

“Fuck…” Was the first word out of his mouth. He didn’t even bother moving from his position on the floor, as he accepted his fate with his cheek pressed against the hotel carpet, squeezing his eyes shut to try and keep out the light in the room. “Fuck, shit, hell…” He groaned.

“Go’way.” Tim grumbled at Thad, at first trying to shut out his noise, too.

But then the other mentioned over-doing it, and that had some frightening implications, so, reluctantly, he peeled open his eyes—

And then shot up to his knees, putting his hands on the bed to steady himself, as his eyes bore into Thad. “What?!”

That was a ring. A wedding ring. His attention immediately flashed to his own left hand, where— “What?!” he yelped, before sharply wincing at his own volume—there was a ring on his hand, too.

“Shit. Where’s my—” he glanced to the nightstand, yanking his phone from the charger—at least he’d remembered that—

And then he turned deathly pale. His phone’s inbox had a little red notification dot next to it, with a grand total of forty-three missed calls, from a variety of friends and family.

“Oh god.” He felt sick. “How did they know…” He whispered, dread flooding his stomach, making it flip even worse.

His Instagram was displaying a red notification dot as well, and—he really didn’t want to look. The app had stopped counting after he’d reached 99+ notifications, and that was horrifying.

“Thad…?” He swallowed, glancing up at him. “I’m gonna, uh. I’m gonna need you to open my Instagram app, because I am way too scared to, and I’m pretty sure that if I do, I’m gonna actually lose my insides.”