#who side are you in timbo?

[zerogravityinq]

Dick: look, Jay, I'm sorry.

Jason, sighing: of course you are, you absolute weapon.

Dick, mildly offended: you aren't Scottish.

Jason: I went to school in bleeding Scotland for 7 years how the fuck do you think I'm gonna sound?!

[strawbuddy-luv]

Trans Tim off handedly mentioning random things that just confuse people more and more because he never told them he was trans (only Bruce and Alfred know)

Tim: "For the mission I'm thinking I'll go undercover, but it'll take some work to hide the bruises I got earlier. They're everywhere"

Dick: "Oh I think Steph is free right now!"

Tim: "...Ok?"

Dick: "Don't worry I'm sure she'll help you out with this! "

Tim: "That's awesome but I don't think I'll need help. I know how to use makeup."

Dick: "Really-? Ohhh, yeah your public image is like, way more public than ours. That must be tiring, having to hide the bruises all the time."

Tim: "Well yeah but I knew how to use makeup before that. For like, galas as a kid and stuff"

Dick: "...yeah..."

-----

Steph: -Complaining about a man- "And then he said "Oh you should smile more" like "you look like you don't want to be here" like what- what the fuck-??? Maybe I fucking don't dude."

Tim: "Oh yeah I hate when they do that. Like you've spent the entire time bitching about the consistency of snails, I can close my mouth for a few seconds."

Steph: "..."

Tim: "...What-?"

Steph: "Well- I mean yeah but- you know I have to deal with it like...way more, and it's just a bit weird that like, you as a guy are, I dunno, trying to relate? I mean you don't have to deal with it litreally everyday"

Tim: "Well yeah not anymore, but, you know...I still did."

Steph: :...What-"

-----

Tim: -Resting against one of the rooftop ledges-

Jason: "Woah, I can't believe it, Red Robin, slacking. What would Bruce do if he saw this!"

Tim: "Fuck off, it's just period cramps." -Jumps off the edge of the building-

Jason: "Yeah whatever Timblina...

Your fucking what-"

-----

Bruce: "And for this mission, we'll be needing someone for the Caroline disguise, but we already know who that is so-"

Dick: "Wait does Steph actually know how to fight in heels-??"

Bruce: "...N-"

Steph: "Yeah Bruce, I mean, you could at least actually ask me before volunteering me to go fight crime in that dress."

Bruce: "You-"

Jason: "I mean no offense, but literally who else would do it? Cass isn't here right now and I don't think any of us are willing to get a boob job for the mission"

Bruce: "No one's getting a boob job-"

Steph: "Yeah! This is bat tech, Bruce probably has ultra realistic titties in everyone's color and size! Jason you wouldn't even need an attachment."

Jason: "I don't think Caroline Hills has fifty gun shot wounds and muscles the size of most those guys heads."

Steph: "Yeah bu-"

Bruce: "None of that will be necessary because none of you" -Pointing at the right side of the table- "Will be going. No one at this table will be needing any prosthetics...Or boob jobs."

Steph: "...Ok but who the fuck is going then-"

Bruce: "Tim."

The entire table: "..."

Steph: "Tim are you really willing to put on boobs for this-"

Dick: "I don't think that's the best idea-"

Jason: "You just said no prosthetics- Oh this'll be fucking rich"

Tim: "...

I...wouldn't need a boob job?? Or prosthetics?"

Jason: "Timbo, that dress is a pretty low cut, and, no offense, your training hasn't given you that many enhancements."

Tim: "...Thank you for the binding compliment?"

Dick: "The what-"

Tim: "Guys I- I already have boobs-"

The Table: "..."

Steph: "WHAT-"

Dick: "You do-?!"

Jason: "Bruce if you made Tim get boobs for some weird mission-"

Tim: "What- No! No one made me get boobs??? Besides, I don't know, biology I guess??? Genetics maybe???"

Dick: "...I'm extremely confused"

Steph: "WHO GAVE YOU BOOBS-???"

Tim: "I'm not really sure seeing as I was born with them"

Dick: "...

OHHHHHH-"

Steph: "What- is this like a birth defect or something???"

Dick: "Tim- Tim I think you're just gonna have to-"

Tim: "I'm trans."

Jason: "...That's-

Yeah

Ok yeah no that- that explains...a lot."

Steph: "..." -Head in hands- "I am such a fucking idiot"

[schrijverr]

You Don’t Know Me, But I Know You 3

Chapter 3 out of 6

5 times Tim showed he stalked Robin + 1 time Jason did

Inspired by this post of thecrazyleader.

On AO3.

Ships none

Warnings: none

~~~~

3. A Familiar Story

This time, they’re not out on patrol, but sitting around in the living room. It’s a rare moment that Jason is joining them, not for a case, but just to hang around.

They’re all in the library, draped over the comfortable chairs and couches there. Duke and Damian had been doing homework, while Tim worked on WE stuff and Jason read a book. However, they have all slowly abandoned what they were doing and are now sharing stories of their time as vigilantes (mostly trying to one up each other in front of Duke, the new guy, the fresh canvas).

Jason is talking now, just finishing his story smugly with: “And that’s how I knocked out Killer Croc with one punch. Guy never saw it coming.”

“Are you for real, man?” Duke asks, both awed and skeptical.

“Yeah, I had a mean right hook, even back on the street. He didn’t stand a chance,” Jason brags.

“I don’t know,” Duke says, a little apologetic. “You were our Crime Alley Robin, everyone heard you talk. We were extra proud of you back there. I kept up. But you were like a 100 pounds soaking wet back then. I’ve fought Killer Croc, there’s no way.”

“Tt, it does seem unrealistic, Todd. It’s unbecoming to aggrandize yourself and a tactical error,” Damian says.

“Oi, brat, I was your size back then, think you couldn’t KO Croc?” Jason shoots back, getting annoyed.

“Of course I could,” Damian sniffs. “But unlike you, I have years of training and am naturally more gifted when it comes to martial arts.”

“Who’s aggrandizing now, you little shit,” Jason snarls, gearing up to jump Damian, when they’re interrupted by Tim, who says: “Nah, Jason’s telling the truth.”

“What?” Duke chokes.

“Why are you taking my side all of a sudden?” Jason asks, suspicious (which is fair, since Tim usually doesn’t take his side, often leaving him on his own, even when Tim knows he’s right, just because he can).

“I took pictures of it,” Tim shrugs. “I can show them to you if you don’t believe it.”

“What the fuck,” Duke mutters softly, but he’s drowned out by Damian telling Tim to cease aiding and abetting Jason’s lies, while Jason demands Tim shows them the photos so he can get justice.

Soon they’re in Tim’s bedroom, where Tim is dragging a big box from one of his closets that is marked with the date of Jason’s second year as Robin. As he opens it up to reveal tons of photos, Jason comments: “Okay, if I wasn’t so hell bend on proving my badass-ness, I would comment on what a fucking creep you were, Timbo.”

“Everyone’s a critic,” Tim says resentfully. “It’s just a hobby.”

“Can anyone please tell me what the hell is going on? Where did he get all these?” Duke asks, sounding a little scared as he watches Tim go through the box to find the right one.

“B didn’t say that Tim only got my job because he used to stalk us?” Jason asks, though it’s more a comment.

“It’s so pathetic, it is obvious that only Drake would wiggle his way in like that,” Damian says, managing to judge both Tim for the photos, Bruce for adopting Tim and Duke for not knowing.

“No,” Duke replies, a little shrilly.

“It’s in the files, don’t any of you read those?” Tim complains, before making an aha sound as he pulls out a photo set that shows exactly what Jason described.

Jason holds them above his head as he crows: “Victory!” before he ruffles Tim’s head: “You’re still a fucking creeper though, Timbit.”

“You don’t get to complain when I’m backing you up,” Tim bitches back, snatching the photos back.

[bi-bats]

trick or treat!! 3-sentence fic or wip sneak peak? (up to u!)

HELLOOOOO MY BELOVED!! HAPPY HALLOWEEENNNNNNNN

For YOU I have a snippet of the one shot I'm working on that was like. supposed to be a drabble for the prompt you sent me and has gotten. long. lmao.

also it's going to be a fic with smut in it and I haven't even gotten to the smut yet and it's already 2.5k words lmao

so here my TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO WRITING JAYTIM

~ ✨ ~

“Do you… well… I mean… I could give you a massage?”

Jason blinks at him.

“Did… I’m sorry. Did you just say you could give me a massage?”  

Tim’s face burns furiously hot. What does he say, no? 

Well. He kind of wants to say no, actually. Maybe he can just gaslight his way out of this one—

No, no. Jason heard. 

Damn. 

He tries to say yes, but it tilts up into a question at the end. 

“Yes?” 

Jason blinks at him, and Tim’s skin feels too tight. The material of the couch is suddenly itchy on the back of his arms, but the heat on his face distracts him from it. Mostly.

“…Okay.” 

There’s a stutter in Tim’s breathing, the slightest hitch between in and out, right after Jason answers. It’s unnoticeable.

If you aren’t a bat.

Jason raises an eyebrow, because of course he fucking noticed.

Tim can’t just sit there while Jason looks at him like that, so he moves. 

He shifts forward on the couch, scooting an inch or two closer and waving his hands in what he hopes is a gesture indicating ‘turn around so I can rub your shoulders’ and not ‘I have no idea what to do with my hands right now this is so awkward why did I offer this oh my god’. 

He’s probably fine. The gesture for that would have had more flapping. 

Probably. 

It still takes Jason a second to get in gear. He shrugs, tilting his head to the side in a way that says something like ‘eh, why not’, which isn’t exactly what Tim had been hoping for when offering to touch a guy he’s had a crush on since he knew what crushes were, but he’s letting Tim do it, so it’s better than rejecting—

Jason slides his shirt off in a smooth motion, reaching over the back of his head to grab the neck of it and tug it off. 

It’s like one of those fucking thirst trap reels on Instagram.

Tim was just watching him move over on the couch while his thoughts went on a little spiral, and then Jason reached for the back of his shirt, and bam.

The lights drop, the music starts, the speed slows down, and Tim can see every ripple in the muscles of Jason’s forearm, every inch of skin revealing as he lifts the shirt, every angle of the dips in his spine, every scar, every scab, every damn freckle — for god’s sake, he can even see about a half an inch of elastic above the top of his pants. 

It’s red. 

Of course it’s red. 

Tim takes a deep breath, trying to disguise it by shifting closer to Jason, who’s sitting with his back to Tim, his arms threaded through the shirt in his lap. 

He can do this. He can do this. 

It’s just a massage. 

“Come on, Timbo. Let’s see what those scrawny fingers got.” 

Tim lets out an exasperated scoff, and Jason’s shoulders shake two or three times as he chuckles. 

He considers digging an elbow into Jason’s spine, just to be an asshole, but he has a better plan. 

He’s going to wow him. It’s going to be the best damn massage in his life. 

Scrawny fingers, Tim grumbles in his head as he places his hand down on Jason’s left shoulder. 

Immediately, Jason flinches and lets out a noise of surprise, and Tim flinches back because he’s surprised.

Great start.

“Jesus fuck, your fingers are like ice!” 

“Sorry, sorry,” Tim mutters, even though he isn’t, not really. Still, he rubs his hands together quickly, just a few times to get some of the cold out of them. 

He puts his hands back on Jason’s shoulders, and Jason stiffens, but he doesn’t flinch away this time. 

Okay. Good. 

Tim starts applying pressure, rubbing up and down the muscles, and after a few moments, it’s easier to shift into a more clinical headspace, even with the warmth of his skin seeping through Tim’s fingers. 

“Where is it bothering you?” he asks. 

“Oh, uh. By my spine. And…” Jason pauses for a moment while Tim’s palm digs into the meat of his shoulder, and when he resumes speaking, his voice is a little higher. “…my neck.” 

Tim nods, letting his palm dig in again. He wishes he had lotion or something. Jason’s skin drags against his every time he moves his hand, and it’s uncomfortable. Also, Jason’s skin is warm, flushing pink under the area he’s been rubbing, and… a little bit up his neck, too actually. The tips of his ears are pink, Tim realizes as he works his way up to the crook of Jason’s neck. 

He digs his thumb into the muscle right by the top of Jason’s shoulder, and he’s just starting to lose himself in it when he hears a breathy noise, almost like… 

No. No, Tim’s making shit up. Jason did not audibly moan. Tim is putting things where he wants them to be, because that’s what he wants.

On the next roll of his palm, Jason says, “Ngh, Christ, Tim.”

With Tim’s hand frozen on his shoulder, he can feel the way Jason tenses, has a front row seat to the burst of color across his neck.

Thank god they’re in Jason’s apartment. In Jason’s living room. With Jason’s cameras recording. He doesn’t have to memorize the way that sounded coming out of Jason’s mouth.

No, he can go hack into his files and save it as a clip and then back it up on three separate servers, and then also a hard drive, and maybe also on a USB in a lockbox buried in the woods somewhere, because he doesn’t think he can live another moment of his life without having access to the way his name sounded coming out of Jason’s mouth. 

“Sorry,” Jason mutters, and he sounds… meek? It’s weird, but Tim doesn’t think he’s ever heard Jason sound shy. 

“No worries,” Tim says, feeling like he’s regained some ground. 

“You can… make noise,” Tim adds. 

Immediately, he feels like he’s lost that ground. 

Jason clears his throat a little. “No, it’s — it’s fine, I’m good. You can, uh. Keep going.” 

A grin tugs across his mouth as he resumes his massage, listening to the way Jason’s breathing is getting heavier. 

“I thought my fingers were scrawny?”

[awhitehead17]

Hey Gorgeous

TimKon, Sports AU, Skater Boi Tim, Hockey Player Kon, Injuries, Humour.

Summary: When an accident lands Tim in the ER the last thing he expects to find is someone who completely captures his attention like nothing else. Despite forgetting their interaction due to his injury, weeks later Tim meets the same guy and has just as strong as reaction as he did the first time. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Enjoy! :D

He doesn’t know what feeling is currently worse, the agonising throbbing going on inside his skull or the churning nausea in his stomach. He tries to take a deep breath to diminish the thoughts of throwing up but it proves to be impossible to ignore. He tilts his head back, clenches his eyes shut to fight off the blinding lights and presses the ice pack to the side of his head even harder, the coolness doing very little to alleviate the throbbing going on.

“Shouldn’t be long now Timbo.”

Tim groans in response, not that there’s much else he can do. Talking hurts. Hell, even thinking hurts.

“How you doing?”

If Tim could he would glare at his brother for asking such a stupid question. How’s he doing? Like he can’t see Tim physically trying to keep himself from throwing up.

“Like I could run a fucking marathon,” he grouses, “how do you think I’m doing asshole.”

“Fuck you too Tim. I was just asking.”

Tim huffs but doesn’t respond. With his eyes still closed he can slowly start to feel the world slipping away, while his head still hurts at least the nausea somewhat has eased. If he could just go to sleep then he’d wake up better sometime later.

A rough nudge to his shoulder breaks him out of his reverie. Without meaning for it to a whine escapes his throat. He’s sore, and tired, why couldn’t Jason just let him sleep.

“You’re not allowed to go to sleep idiot.” Jason tells him factually. “The nurse will be with us soon and until you get properly checked out you can’t sleep. You know the rodeo kid, this isn’t your first time, don’t be baby about it.”

Tim sighs heavily and whines again. “I know! But give me a break, this sucks!”

There's a beat before Jason speaks up, this time he nudges his shoulder gently. “Do you think you can stay awake for a couple minutes while I go and find out how long the nurse will be?”

“No promises.”

“Tim.”

With his free hand Tim waves his brother away. “Yes, I’ll be fine. Now go. The quicker this is sorted the sooner we can go home.”

Jason mutters something underneath his breath and Tim feels as he get up from the chair next to him and disappears somewhere. Still not having opened his eyes, Tim slouches in his seat and focuses on his breathing and the coldness of the icepack pressed against his temple. As long as he doesn't move he should be fine.

It’s only moments later he starts to feel the world slip away again. His breathing evens out and despite the injury and uncomfortable chair he starts to feel himself relax, perhaps a couple minutes he could just…

A gentle shake of his knee startles him. Tim jumps and immediately regrets the move when his head pulses violently. Moving to sit upright he forces his eyes open and blinks several times to try and

adjust his blurry vision, after a minute or two his vision clears up enough that he can see a stranger crouched down next to his chair.

A very hot stranger at that.

Tim wonders if he’s hallucinating or if he did in fact fall asleep and is now dreaming.

The stranger laughs and his smile is suddenly all Tim could see. Straight white teeth, full lips that complement with his tanned skinned, clean shaven. He forces his eyes to move upwards and he tunnel visions onto the strangers eyes, bright blue eyes that seem to sparkle.

The stranger is talking but Tim is too caught up staring at the guy to take any note in what is being said. The man clearly recognises he's not going to get any coherent response from him and puts a hand on his knee and shakes him again, just lightly not enough to jostle him.

“Hey, you with me?” Somehow the guy looks concerned and amused at the same time.

“You’re absolutely gorgeous.”

Apparently a busted head means he’s got a busted filter too.

Laughing, the guy removes his hand off his knee. “Thank you. I appreciate that despite the obvious delirium you’re experiencing.”

Tim continues to stare at him, once more being memorized by this guy’s hotness. He has short black hair, amazing jaw line, gorgeous blue eyes and perfect mouth.

Gorgeous is talking and yet again Tim’s completely zoned out on him. It takes a moment to register what he’s saying and Tim blinks, trying and failing, to pay attention.

“I’m Conner. I heard your friend tell you not to fall asleep, and it looked like you were just about to do exactly that, so I hope you don’t mind me interrupting you. Concussions are tricky things to deal with.”

If Tim were in his right mind he would question what this gorgeous man means because it sounds like he’s speaking from experience, however he’s not and he continues to stare at him transfixed instead.

“I would ask what happened, but I have a strong feeling I’m not going to get a coherent answer out of you am I?”

Gorgeous sounds amused and looks at him fondly and Tim can’t cope. This guy is not real. He can’t be. Tim’s brain is busted more than expected and now he's hallucinating the most perfect guy on earth in the ER of the local hospital.

“You’re not real.”

“I assure you I very much am.” Gorgeous looks away momentarily before facing him again. “Your friend is coming back, hopefully with the news you can now go see a doctor.”

The guy stands up as Jason comes into the picture. His brother looks between him and Gorgeous, however before he could say anything Gorgeous is speaking up.

“Sorry, I saw him drifting off to sleep and wanted to keep him awake while you were gone.”

Jason blinks for a moment before nodding once in thanks. “Thanks man, I was gone longer than expected.” Jason turns his attention onto Tim who hasn’t moved his attention away from the other man. “C’mon, Timbo, the nurse is waiting for us.”

His brother bends down and carefully grabs Tim and hauls him up this feet. Tim groans and stumbles as his vision blurs and the world tilts but thanks to Jason’s strong hold on him he doesn’t fall down. Together he and Jason work their way across the waiting room in the ER and towards the corridor and as they go Tim couldn’t help but voice his experience while waiting for his brother.

“I just hallucinated the most gorgeous guy on the planet Jay.” Jason hums in acknowledgement but it isn’t enough of a response for Tim’s liking. He sloppily hits Jason’s arm where he’s holding onto him. “No. No! You don’t understand, this guy was ethereal… literal hotness and he was in there, in the ER!”

“Sure Timbo.”

Before Tim could gush anymore about Gorgeous, a nurse dressed in blue is meeting them and guiding them into a room. After that Tim loses track of time and anything that happens. No longer being fixated on Gorgeous, his focus returns back to the throbbing going on inside his skull and the return of the damn nausea. He groans and wishes it would end.

------

Focusing on his phone in his hands Tim wonders through the hallway heading towards his bedroom. Knowing the route he needs to take off by heart means he doesn’t need to look up however when he passes Dick’s room and hears his friends name being called Tim pauses and finally looks up from his device.

He observes as Dick and Wally settle onto the bed surrounded by snacks and drinks, they’re chatting eagerly to one another with the TV blearing in front of them. Stepping into the room, Dick had his door open so it was an open invitation really, he glances between the men and the TV.

“Was you talking about Bart?”

The men startle and turn towards him, they both blink before smiling.

“Timmy I didn’t hear you come in!”

Tim raises an eyebrow and motions towards the TV. “I’m not surprised considering you have that on. Why is it so loud?”

“For atmosphere!” Wally exclaims. “Sports need to be watched on a high volume.”

Pulling a face, Tim shakes his head disbelievingly. “No. It really doesn’t.”

“Yes it does,” the man argues back. Tim is about to retort when Dick speaks up, stopping the inevitable petty argument from happening.

“Wally was saying Bart’s at the game tonight. Apparently he’s skipped training to be at the match.”

Tim turns his attention to the TV to find a hockey match being aired. “Bart’s at this game?” He didn’t realise Bart had been going to the game, he didn’t mention it when they caught up just a couple days ago.

“Yeah, a mate of his is playing so he got tickets and went with Jamie.”

Tim hums. He wonders if this is Bart finally making a move on Jamie or not. Bart insists there’s nothing between them but Tim’s convinced they’ve at least slept together once already and are just too scared about making it official.

As he watches Tim briefly wonders if he’ll get to see his friend on the screen but after seeing how many people are in attendance at the game he knows it’s not likely, there are thousands of people there. Just as he’s about to turn away and wish the men a good night the camera on screen changes and suddenly there’s a hockey player on the ice having an interview during the warm ups. The sight of the player makes Tim freeze. There’s something familiar about him but Tim couldn’t place what it was. He’s not a fan of hockey so there’s no chance of recognition of any of the players.

This player on the ice is well built, he’s without a helmet so it’s easy to see his short black hair, high cheekbones and bright blue eyes (after the camera zooms in).

“Who’s that?” The question slips out before Tim could stop himself.

“Uh, Conner Kent…” Dick pauses and looks at him for a moment before a sly smile appears on his face. “See something you like Timmy?”

Tim scoffs. “No. Just curious.” He knows he answered too quickly and defensively for it to be a justifiable lie but he can’t shake off the feeling about the guy on the screen. The camera soon changes to the other players on the ice and Tim shakes his head clear his thoughts. Waving to Dick and Wally he promptly exits the room before Dick could start an interrogation.

On the way to his room Tim’s thoughts are consumed by the man on the screen. Aren’t hockey players supposed to be somewhat ugly and a little disfigured due to the obnoxious amount of injures they receive? This Conner Kent is gorgeous and Tim is instantly besotted with him.

Gorgeous.

Tim freezes as it clicks into place. The man on the screen is the same man he met when he was in the ER three weeks ago. The gorgeous man is called Conner Kent, who happens to be a hockey player who also happens to be a blurry mirage in Tim’s mind.

He doesn’t remember a lot about his time spent in the ER while he waited with Jason to be seen by a nurse after giving himself a concussion. It’s all a blur and a lot of blank spaces but in the midst of it all he does recall being transfixed by a stranger who he thought was stunning, Jason certainly made a point about telling him once he recovered a little about how obsessed Tim seemed to be with the man. It’s embarrassing but since Tim couldn’t really remember the moment he tried to not think about it too hard.

Now he remembers a lot more thanks to seeing his face on the TV screen. Once in his room and lying on his bed Tim does what any normal person would do and that’s stalk Conner Kent’s social media.

There's plenty of photos of him on his own accounts as well as other people’s. The most surprising however was how Bart is on the guy’s Instagram. Tim didn’t even know they knew each other. It would explain why Bart’s gone to the game tonight if he’s friend’s with him. As Tim thinks about it Bart often talks about a ‘Kon’ so really Tim can only blame himself for the obliviousness there.

As he stalks Kent’s account he’s debates on whether or not to message him. Would it be weird? A guy he met in the ER weeks ago sending him a message? Would Conner even remember him?

In the end Tim chickens out and doesn’t send a message. Even if he did there’s a chance Kent wouldn’t see it because of the sheer volume of messages he probably receives on a daily basis. Tim knows what it’s like to constantly get messages from people all around the world due to his popularity in the skating community, so he could take a guess to what Kon has to deal with on a bigger scale being a hockey player.

Realising he’s been on his phone and on Kent’s profiles for nearly an hour Tim tells himself to get a grip and turns off his phone. He forces himself to get off the bed and decides to be active by getting changed and heads for a late session in the gym. He has some new found energy to burn off.

-----

The thoughts of Conner Kent stays rent free inside his mind for weeks after he finally worked out who Gorgeous from the ER is.

It’s driving Tim insane. What doesn’t help matters is how Jason laughs any time he sees Tim, even if it’s in passing because one evening he and Tim were out for drinks and Tim let it slip he worked out who Gorgeous was and Jason found it hysterical. Jason isn’t letting him live it down. Dick sends him knowing looks anytime they see each other. Thankfully no one else in his family has picked up on his new infatuation because he doesn’t think he could handle anyone else knowing.

A few weeks after that night - and if Tim’s watched several hockey games since then for one particular reason no one needs to know – he gets invited by Bart to go and watch him race in a competition happening at his college.

Bart is a sprinter for his college athletics team and is even on the list of making it onto the national team. He’s got his final year at college to complete then he can go into the sport full time once he graduates if he wishes too.

Tim’s gone to Bart’s college with their mutual friend Cassie to watch him race. There are hundreds of other people around, all watching the different athletic sports going on. It’s a good atmosphere and Tim is looking forward to seeing Bart not only to race but to win. Tim has all the faith he’ll dominate the sprint.

As he and Cassie hover by the stands looking for a space to go and sit, a presence comes up behind Tim and invades his personal space. Preparing to tell this person to fuck off, the words die in his mouth once Tim turns around and sees who’s standing behind him. He stares bewildered and wonders if he’s hallucinating.

“You certainly look much better than the last time I saw you.”

Unable to form an answer Tim gapes as Conner Kent grins at him. The man looks good, he’s wearing a snapback backwards on his head, a flannel shirt on top of a plain black t-shirt and jeans and boots. He’s smiling and showing off his perfect white teeth as his blue eyes sparkle.

And damn, if Tim thought it had been bad before his infatuation increases tenfold with the man standing right in front of him.

“It’s Tim right?”

When Kent holds out his hand the movement finally spurs Tim into action. He smiles tightly, feeling embarrassed, and shakes his hand. “I’m Tim. I – I mean yes, yeah I’m – I’m Drake, Tim Drake.”

Tim wants to go die in a ditch. Cassie snorts loudly, barely covering up the sound with her hand and opposite him Conner looks amused. An awkward silence entails after Tim’s stuttered confirmation, he stands there staring at Conner who simply stares back just as intensely. His mind is blank and he struggles to come up with a conversation topic to break the silence between them.

In the end Cassie saves the day, she nudges Tim with her elbow and points off to somewhere in the crowded stands. “I see a space, I’ll grab us some seats.” She pauses and turns to Conner. “Are you joining us?”

Conners gaze flickers between Tim and Cassie as he answers, like he can’t make himself pull away from looking at Tim. Tim is both flustered and flattered by the idea.

“Sure if you don’t mind me joining you? I know one of the racers but I didn’t bring anyone with me to watch.”

Cassie nods eagerly and nudges Tim again with her elbow this time more pointedly and then leads the way to the free seats she’s seen. The three of them sit down with Cassie deliberately putting Tim in the middle. He shoots her a glare and she smiles back unapologetically.

He turns to Conner and ignores the butterflies going on inside his stomach as he speaks to the gorgeous man. “Who do you know that’s racing?”

Tim figures it would be Bart but as a hot shot hockey player Conner probably knows a lot of people and upcoming athletes.

“Well,” he starts sounding amused, he grins lightly at Tim, “he’s a mutual friend of ours believe it or not. Bart Allen? Short, wild hair, super-fast and never knows when to shut up, sound familiar?”

Tim laughs and nods his head. “Yes. He does sound familiar. That’s why Cassie and I are here too. Bart also invited us.” There’s suddenly a loud cheer from the crowd and as he looks forward Tim realises they’ve started up the competition finally. He looks and finds that Bart isn’t racing yet, he’s in the third or fourth heat.

A tap on his arm gets his attention and he turns back to Conner who is now looking at him almost critically. His eyes drift up to his temple before locking gazes with him again. “Hey so I was serious earlier, you look much better than last time. Has the injury all cleared up? Can I be nosey and ask what happened? Wait – do you even remember what happened, do you even remember me in the ER. Wait! If you don’t remember I haven’t even introduced myself!”

Tim feels his heart swelling up. Not only is the man gorgeous but he’s also adorable! He can’t cope. To stop Conner’s panicked rambling Tim places his hand on his forearm and squeezes lightly. “Hey, it’s fine! I do remember you, believe it or not. And yes, the concussion has long since healed.”

Conner breathes out and his shoulders relax and he chuckles. “Okay, okay. Good. So can I ask what happened? You were pretty out of it.”

Tim huffs and the desire to go die in a ditch returns. It’s embarrassing and he doesn't want to talk about it, however Conner’s curious gaze has him opening his mouth before he could protest.

“I was trying a new trick on my board, I misjudged the height and ended up face planting the floor. Thank god for my helmet, I was lucky to only be dealing with a concussion and a few bruised bones. My brother took me to the ER, I got briefly checked out before being admitted and forced to wait in the waiting room until they could properly see me.”

Tim pauses as the next heat of races start up. They look onwards silently before turning to one another again when they find Bart isn’t racing yet.

After a thought pops into his head Tim frowns and turns to Conner, and that’s when he realises he never let go of Conner’s arm and forces himself to do so. His hand suddenly feels so empty and cold as he no longer holds onto Conner.

“What were you doing in the ER?” He raises an eyebrow in mock accusation. “Also you never said about being a hockey player, you weren’t injured that night right?”

Conner lets out a nervous laugh, he takes his hat off and runs a hand through his hair before putting it back on again. “You didn’t really need to know that I guess? I mean you were really out of it, I’m pretty sure if I tried to give you any information you would have forgotten it.”

Tim huffs and refuses to comment. Yes he had been out of it and Conner is right on that front, but still.

“My brother was actually the one in the ER. My dad was him and I was waiting in the waiting room for them to be done. He fell over and broke his wrist.”

“Aw,” Tim coos, “that sucks for your brother. Is he alright?”

Conner waves it aside, “yeah he’s fine. He’s twelve, he’ll bounce back in no time at all. He’s excited to have a bright yellow cast on his arm.”

Tim snorts. “Kids have it so easy don’t they.”

“They sure do.”

A lull in the conversation soon develops but it was good timing as Bart was finally up to race. The three of them shout encouragements and cheer the loudest as Bart wins his race, beating his competition by storm as they knew he would. Since he won he’ll be through to the semi-finals which is happening after many more track events.

Cassie wonders off after the race, claiming she’s going to find some food and drink and grabs their own orders. After she’s disappeared Tim turns back to Conner to find him already looking at him.

Tim smiles feeling unsure with the attention. “What?”

Not saying anything Conner brings up his phone and brings up Tim’s Instagram profile and shows it to him. “I’m not the only one whose keeping secrets, I didn’t know you were an Olympic Skater.”

Tim rolls his eyes and looks away, feeling his face flush. “Yeah a skater who managed to give himself a concussion. We’ve made it clear I wasn't exactly with it when we were in the ER.”

Conner shrugs and Tim looks back in time to see Kon press follow on the screen, at the same time he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket, no doubt being that exact notification. A smile makes its way onto his face and soon enough he finds himself grinning goofily. This man, he has no idea what this guy is doing to him.

“How did you know I was a hockey player?” Kon questions after a few moments of silence. Cassie hasn’t returned yet and Tim’s pretty sure she’s delaying it on purpose. He shrugs in response to Conner’s question, trying to be nonchalant about his answer.

“I honestly don’t remember much from that night, but a few weeks afterwards I saw you on TV playing a game. It clicked in my mind then.”

“Huh. Fair enough.”

“I don’t really follow hockey, I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t see you on the screen.”

“It’s not for everyone admittedly, I love it though.”

“You love getting slammed into boards and getting into fist fights on sharp ass steel blades?” Tim couldn’t help but dig at the sport. Also it’s a call back to Kon’s recent game where he both got slammed and did the slamming into the boards, also where he threw his gloves off and got into a fight.

Conner stares at him, clearly making the connection between his dig and the game in mind. A beaming grin appears on his face. “You say you don’t like hockey and yet you watched my game?” His facial expression then changes as his mind catches up with Tim’s other comments, Conner rolls his eyes. “And there’s more to the sport than that, just fyi.”

“Sure.” Tim retorts.

“There is! I don’t have the time right now to tell you everything about how it’s much more than that, we’ll need an entire evening for me to achieve that. That’s not even getting started about your sport!”

“Oh, don’t you go there!” Tim warns him mockingly. “I could easily beat your arguments on hockey over skateboarding any day.”

“Oh yeah?” Kon says suggestively, he raises an eyebrow and sticks his chin out. “How about we arrange a time to do just that.”

At his words Tim’s heart skips a beat. This seriously couldn’t be happening.

“Argue about who’s sport is better? Sure. As long as there’s food I’m down.”

“Alright, give me your number and we’ll arrange a date.”

A date. A date. They’re going to organise a date to talk about their respective sports. It’s not the sort of date Tim had been imagining with Gorgeous but he’ll take it.

“Fine. Give me your phone.”

They exchange their numbers and save the new contacts. It goes silent between them for a beat before Conner leans in and speaks in a lower tone, gone the competitiveness and confidence, now there’s shyness and apprehension.

“In all seriousness, I genuinely would like to go on a date with you. Not to, y’know, talk about just sport…”

Tim’s lips quirk up, and he couldn’t help but feel relieved and yet excited. He also leans into Conner, letting their shoulders press together and says, “I would like that too. I’m free the weekend if you are?”

“I have a game Saturday but I’m free Sunday,” he pauses, clearly thinking about something before adding on, “I can get you a couple of tickets to the match if you want.”

Tim’s nodding without any hesitation. “I think that would be great, thanks.”

Conner grins at him and bumps their shoulders lightly. Tim returns the gesture and they settle down to watch the rest of the competition in companionable silence. When Cassie returns with their food she gives them knowing looks and nods at Tim approvingly. Tim rolls his eyes but is unable to tamper down the goofy grin on his face.

He may have to thank Bart after this is all over for inadvertently bringing he and Conner together because Tim sure as hell wouldn’t have approached Conner by his own doing.

[dc-sideblog]

WIP Weekends

because i work on wednesdays

Wildflower

They did warm-ups in the Cave before patrol. Cass and Steph were beating each other up on the mats.

“This is how you two spar?” Dick asked, horrified.

“How else would we spar?” Steph asked. She spit a lock of hair out of her mouth, tucking it back into her bun.

“Less violently,” Dick said.

Cass frowned. Wasn’t violence the point of sparring?

“You know you aren’t supposed to actually hurt each other, right?” he said.

“Um,” Steph said. “What?”

“Here, watch Jay and I spar. Jason!”

Jason jerked his head up from where he was going to town on one of the punching bags. He pulled his headphones off one ear. “What?”

“Get over here and spar with me. The girls are doing it wrong.”

Steph stuck her tongue out at him.

What followed was the most gentle fight Cass had ever seen.

“Sparring isn’t a real fight,” Dick explained. “It’s practicing forms, mostly, and learning to react in a live scenario. Not seeing how hard you can hit someone. That’s what the punching bag is for. Do you understand?”

Cass nodded excitedly. Steph looked wary.

Raised By Wolves

They almost ended up on the same flight as Jason. Tim prevented that disaster before it could happen. They arrived in Ethiopia three hours after he did.

Jason took a cab to a small town from the airport. He rented a car from there.

Tim and Cass did the same.

Now came the tricky part: tracking him now that he had a car and was away from major points of civilization. Tim wasn’t quite a skilled enough hacker to hack a GPS satellite, and with no tracker on the vehicle, that was their only real option.

“Excuse me,” Tim said, hoping against hope that this random stranger spoke English. Ethiopia had five official languages, eight total regional ones. English was not one of them. His only hope was that someone in this very small town had learned English as a second language in school.

The woman shook her head and moved on.

It took six more people before someone stopped.

“Our brother,” Tim said. “He came through here earlier. Did you see him? Where did he go?”

Exactly As Planned

The food goop dribbled down his chin, and Kara pushed it back into her cousin’s mouth.

“I found friends,” she said. “Good friends. They let me take the food. They helped me steal. And they’ve been giving me money. I’ll probably get more once they sell everything we stole tonight. Maybe then I can buy you special baby food. Super healthy baby food with tons of nutrients, how about that? You exited?”

Kal gummed at her fingers.

“Yeah, I figured you were,” she said. “Things are gonna be good, Kal. Everything’s about to get better for us.”

She kissed the downy hair on his little head. Kal smiled up at her, mouth full.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

It happened the next day.

They were heading back form grocery shopping when they saw a mom and two small children who were exact copies of each other. Cass hurriedly tapped on Jay’s arm, pointing at them.

He froze. Stopped walking. Fear-sadness-regret-wistfulness.

He said something. Repeated one of the words. Pointed at the two kids, then gestured between the two of them. He said another word.

Understanding clicked in her head.

A Mile in Your Shoes

“So who’re you?” the boy asked as they walked down the hall.

“I’m Tim!” he said brightly. “I’m one of Dick’s soulmates.”

“Really? Me too!” the boy said. He stuck out his hand. “I’m Jason.”

He shook hands with him. “Nice to meet you, Jason. Do you think we’re soulmates too?”

He shrugged. “Probably. Uh. What’s a good way to—”

“Did you have the baby vision too?”

“Oh! Yeah! But I didn’t know who Talia al Ghul was.” He scowled. “Wait. If the baby is Bruce’s kid, then that means they’re my little brother, right?”

“He. Yeah.”

��Huh,” Jason said. “That’s cool. I never thought I’d have little siblings.”

“I’m sure you’re gonna be an awesome big brother.”

“Thanks, Timbo. Hey, you wanna sneak into the Cave and listen to the wiretap while Bruce makes phone calls?”

“Yeah!”

[that1emowitch]

Villain - Chapter 4: What the Hell is Wrong With Bruce?

Summary:

Tim and Dick find out about Jason being in Arkham.

TW: Death, Violence, Flashbacks, Blood, and Swearing. lemme know if I missed anything!

Chapter links: Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch.3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5, Ch.6

POV of Tim Drake. Time: about 3 pm, after lunch.

Come on, pick up pick up pick UP!!!! My brain urges as I try to call Dick, careful to use a comm I’m definitey sure Bruce wouldn’t be able to listen in on.

He finally picks up after nearly 15 rings. Good. If I had to hear that ringtone once more I’d smash my phone against the wall.

“Hey, Timbo!” He greets me cheerfully. “What’s up?”

“Where are you right now?” I ask, wasting no time on formalities. 

“Um, Bludhaven, why—”

“Good, you’d get here in about two hours, then, if you maybe skip lunch you’d be here half an hour earlier. Good, do that. And—”

“Hey, hey!” Dick interrupts me worriedly. “Timmy, you okay? What happened? What— Did something go wrong? Did someone attack something important?”

I take a deep breath, unsure how to break this to him. “Dick,” I start, “It’s Jason.”

I swear, Dick’s voice goes up by three octaves. If this situation weren’t so dire, I’d have recorded it to use for blackmail. “Oh my god is he okay? Is he hurt? Is he—”

“He somehow got locked up in Arkham.” There. That wasn’t so hard to say.

The silence is deafening. Then Dick screams, “WHAT? HOW—”

“I don’t know, all I know is, he’s in the cell right in front of the Joker. I can see his tracker on the map in front of me right now, and he got checked in as ‘mentally unstable’ at about 2 AM today.”

“When you were with the Titans and I was in Central,” Dick muses.

 "And… there’s realistically only one person in Gotham who could capture Jason and take him to Arkham.”

Dick curses with the most colourful words I’ve ever heard. “Tim, just— just stay there, okay? And don’t talk to Bruce until we know what actually happened, we don’t want to wrongly accuse anyone of anything. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”

I lean back in my chair and take a long sip of coffee, letting the caffeine energise me. Why would Bruce do this? Jason was supposed to be on our side now… Unless something happened that I don’t know about…

I quickly swipe my fingers across the keyboard on my computer, accessing Cowl footage. I look through the folders, arranged by date, and click on the one from early morning today.

Access denied.  

I stare at the words on my screen, puzzled. Just to check, I try opening footage from a few other days. I can access that. It’s just this one footage that’s encrypted…

Why would he lock the footage from one specific night?  

Something’s up. I need to get my hands on that footage, somehow or the other. I’m about to start writing a code to hack it when suddenly, a whooshing sound behind me draws my attention. 

I turn around to see a redhead— Wally— run into my room with my brother in his arms. Wally gently places Dick on my bed, and Dick thanks him. Wally replies with an “Anytime, sweetheart!”, waves to me, and runs off again. I raise my eyebrows questioningly at Dick.

“What?” He shrugs. “He was in my room already, and offered to help.”

I narrow my eyes. “And what exactly was Wally West doing in your room?”

“I— Wh— It doesn’t matter, okay?” Dick turns away to hide his blush. “That’s not what I’m here for. What’s up with Jay being in Arkham? How the hell did that even happen?”

“I’m not sure,” I take another sip of coffee. “All I know is, something definitely happened between him and B. Something bad enough that he encrypted all the footage of it so we wouldn’t see it.”

Dick’s wearing a pained expression. “But why would he do that? Jay was finally starting to come back to us, and now— Bruce knows perfectly well what being locked up near the Joker will do to him! This— This is madness, Timmy! What the hell is wrong with Bruce?”

I stay silent. I don’t really have much to say about this, Dick’s already spoken my thoughts.

“We need to get him out of there, Tim.” He locks eyes with me.

“Whoa, I just need you to think rationally for a second, okay?” I start, “We don’t even know what happened, and Bruce wouldn’t just do something for no reason! He loves Jason, we need to find out why he did this, we need to—”

“To hell with Bruce!” Dick suddenly yells. “This is our brother we’re talking about, we shouldn’t care what happened, just that being in Arkham isn’t possibly good for him!”

He takes a deep breath before speaking again, now in a softer tone. “I’m sorry for shouting at you. It’s just, you don’t know Bruce as well as I do, you’ve only seen the good sides of him, and I know you want to believe he’ll never do anything wrong, but I’ve seen him be a cruel monster before. I— I want to believe he’s better now, but…”

I look away. Why did I say that? Learn some fucking emotional intelligence, Tim.

“Hey, look, what about this?” Dick lightly grabs my hand. “We do both. I’ll work with some friends to get him out of there, and you work with Babs to decrypt the files and find out what happened, okay?”

I smile. “Yeah, okay.”

I won’t let you down, Jason, I think as I start compiling a file of all the evidence we currently had to send to Oracle. I’ll find out what happened.

[batcrested]

@wingbcrn​ said:  ❛  light up, timbo. we're gonna be here for a while.  ❜

“Do we have to be here for that long?” The boy whispered back to his elder brother, gaze shifting between the various flashes of cameras to Dick who had his arm wrapped tight around his shoulders. For comfort or to keep him from slipping away, he decided to believe it was former. No, Tim doesn’t mind photos or the glare of the lenses but he much prefer to be on the other side of them. His suit is pressed and neat to a T, thank you Alfred, and he fought every instinct to yank the tie off and sprint for the back door. He can do charity events and business parties for Bruce every now and again but only in increments. This-- This was a little much.

He gave one final cheesy smile to the reporters before tugging on his brother’s arm to signal it was time to go. “If we’re going to be tortured then we might as well check out the food, right? And you so owe me an actual night out after this.”

meme // accepting!

[iwishiwasawhiteguyin1985]

I absolutely think this would be a thing.

And Dick would absolutely starting with Tim try and redirect Bruces moods towards himself bc hes the oldest hes gotta take care of kid siblings.

Bc Dick has always been Bruces emotional regulation.

And yes, it wouldnt really start until Tim bc Dick was so pissed with Bruce when jaybin was a thing he wouldnt have been around often unless Bruce was REALLY bad to the point even over in Blüd criminals were talking about how off the little bird had been and how batman didnt seem to care and was business as usual

But after Jays death??? He wouldn’t let another kid go through that. Like yeah he initially tells Tim to basically go knock himself out have fun being Robin but a few days later he wraps up whatever case he’d been working in and everything Tim had said to him hits him and hes like noPE WAIT GOTTA GO CHECK ON THE KIDDO

He already failed one kid he wasn’t gonna fail another.

And like its only been a fee days and Tim is already used to being ignored by adults bc FUCK the Drakes.

Dick checks on him and yells at bruce and then, the cycle well and truly begins. Bc you Jason would tell Dick if bruce had been really bad, but it took a lot for Jason to say an adult was angry enough it bothered him. He was from crime alley he grew up on the streets he knew what angry adults were like.

But Tim??? He was neglected but never had he been in the care of such an emotionally volatile person. It took much less for Tim to say ‘hey B seems really upset today is this normal????’ And like he just wanted to know how to fix it how to please him how to be Robin for him and dick is just like….. whelp ill be there on my day off Timbo don’t worry abt it leave him be.

And thats just…. How things roll. Then eventually Dick winds up back in Gotham bc Blüd is pretty much completely gone after that explosion and it isn’t safe for people to be there anymore so he’s back at the manor and and just slips back into his Robin days of being Bruces emotional support orphan and keeping B occupied and training Tim.

Then Jay back and Damian is brought to them and oh, Dick sees so much of himself in that angry hurt confused little boy.

Bruce and Jason constantly fight and Dick constantly shoves his way between them, forcing them apart and mediating. Eventually convinces Jay to please leave dealing with Bruce to him because ‘Little wing let me help you now in sorry i didn’t enough before’ and Jay genuinely doesn’t know what to do with a Dick Grayson who looks so broken and defeated. So Dick texts him when family dinner is gonna be on dinner days Bruce either isn’t there or is in a good mood. And things get a bit better on the Jayson side of things.

But Bruce ignores Damian. Barely ever acknowledges his existence. Dick watches as Damian struggles. Damian isn’t good at communicating his needs and rarely speaks at all but when he does it is stiff and so formal and that distinctly brit-ish english accent most english as a second language speakers from literally anywhere but Canada or the US speaks and its so formal and grammatically correct- as if out of a textbook.. Dick realizes all this one night as he hears Damian muttering to himself, crying in his room, Arabic and mandarin rolling off his tongue smoothly and- Dick only catches a few of the Arabic words here and there but by god.

The amount of *emotion* in that boys voice. Dick knows a little bit of Arabic. He picked it up when Talia and Bruce had dated all those years ago. He slowly approaches Damian and pulls him close, and just says *’I’ve got you, habibi, you are safe now. You are okay. I will protect you’* in stilted Arabic and its awkward on his lips after so many years of disuse and that basically sums up all of his skill with the language he has anymore but Damian *breaks*. And he realizes,

It’s not that Damian doesn’t have things he wants to say. He isn’t just being stubborn and giving the silent treatment. He just quite literally *does not know the words behind his feelings about everything happening right now in his life*.

And well, doesn’t that just strike Dick as so hauntingly familiar because his own english was similarly shaky and tenuous at best when taken in by bruce at a similar age because he grew up speaking a mix of Yiddish and Russian and Spanish and Romani and oh, his newest brothers anger is because he cant communicate. he is lashing out because he is frustrated and doesn’t know how to express what he really feels in a tangible way anyone at the manor really understands. Like a baby who cannot yet speak he is acting out and confused because he does not understand. All he gets is keywords and the cold callous emotions of Batman’s face, and disdain on Bruces. He starts learning more Arabic again both on his own and with Damians help and in return Dick helps Damian learn more english and helps him where Bruce leaves him to flounder. Bruce who is damn well nearly fluent in Arabic doesn’t think to maybe speak his son’s first language with him bc why would he? Damian spoke english to him when they first met so clearly he must speak it plenty fine.

Tims parents die and bruce gives him a pat on the shoulder and doesn’t say another word. Dick is there when Tim gets angry and screams and punches and yells. Bruce tries to start yelling at Tim when he walks in on him just punching nightwing and screaming at him one time, and Dick immediately whips around and yells at bruce that ‘my brother is angry and grieving isnt it better he feels safe letting it out with me instead of taking it to the streets like you did with me?!’ And bruce just grunts and walks away.

Even after watching his mother die Bruce still ignores Damian and Dick is there to hold him and comfort him because ‘oh, habibi it is okay i know how this feels it will get better i promise i love you you are safe.’ He knows how it feels to watch helplessly as his mother falls to her death after all.

He keeps Damian close and yells at Bruce a few weeks later when he gets angry at Damian because while on patrol he stumbled and missed nearly fell when dick had taken a second too long for Damian’s comfort to shoot off his grappling hook and ‘Robin you cant let yourself be emotional like that on patrol!’ And Dick just absolutely lays into bruce.

Dick keeps himself firmly lodged between Bruces moods and his boys. He calls them his brothers. But those are *his* boys. And then Bruce is gone in the time stream and everyone’s hurting from it and Tim hunts him down, when he finds evidence that hes alive, because being Batman is killing Dick.

Never mind that Dick had pushed him away he knew it wasn’t really personal and yeah it bothered him that Damian got to be Robin to Dicks batman but its *fine* he is used to going it alone thank-you. Even though it coming from Dick of all people really hurt. But after he calms from the anger he understands it, Damian is just a kid. And Tim spent most of his time with the Titans anyways. But he hates seeing Dick destroy himself this way so he gets Bruce back.

After all of that, and when the dust finally settles Bruce starts actually trying. And dick is bitter and jaded but takes it all with a smile as Bruce takes his boys. He doesn’t totally leave, he stays close enough. But it isn’t the same.

And oh, his boys were desperate for their father to love them so Dick allows it. Tentatively, and with a watchful eye, but he lets it happen.

Because thats what Bruce needs too and as long as the boys are no longer being hurt by him? Once it seems that Bruce is genuinely changing? Well. Dick will always sacrifice his emotional needs for the rest of them. Because he will always do whatever it takes to regulate Bruce, and protect his boys. Even if it breaks him.

you know that thing that’s like. your mom controls the mood in whole house, so like when she’s mad, it’s a bad day for everyone?

do you think the batkids have that with bruce?

i’m usually the biggest champion of “let bruce be a good and thereby emotionally heathy dad” but speaking semi-realistically:

do you think that bruce, out of the cowl, is so emotionally volatile that he creates the vibe for the whole house?

do you think tim would text jason and be like “not a good day don’t come by” just to spare himself and everyone else from bruce blowing up on someone

do you think damian breathes a sigh of relief whenever he wakes up and bruce is in a good mood because it means he can relax

and that bruce still doesn’t notice that on his worst days, everyone either avoids him or does whatever he asks, no questions, just because they don’t want to tempt his wrath

i just wonder if bruce sets the tone for the day, no matter what. and i wonder if, like me, they all grew up knowing that a bad day for bruce was a bad day for them too?

[tortoise-bearing-cups]

Cry of the Huntress

Excited to meet this character that I’ve already read fanfic about.

And we’ve also got a “mystery man named Black Mask” who is definitely another name I recognize. It’s another gang war plotline. (Edit: Black Mask wasn't in this???)

Tim doesn’t protest being benched for a few nights this time.

This is 1) a shitty outfit 2) another case of action figure-esque designing. Or maybe I should say Rob Liefeld-esque designs? Those pouches, those tiny feet …

Ives calls Tim “Timbo”. =D Also the way he asks him to come to his birthday party sounds so much like a date. This happens like every time Tim talks to a guy, Dixon just doesn’t know how to write friends interacting in a way that doesn’t sound gay. Good for us!

…do you hear little voices that aren’t real?

It’s Tim’s future girlfriend, Ariana! And apparently Tim knows some Russian. I wonder if Tim’s hesitance to jump in here is a side-effect of the shoot up? He did just nearly die and has been acting a bit more subdued.

LOL. BI icon right here. Such a shame he had to meet her with this hair.

It’s not as embarrassing as acting like a seal in public, he’s fine.

Tim’s place looks more like a manor than the Wayne place. (Though it’s not like that stuff is consistent.) This is such an absurd set-up. It must take so long to drain all that water, replace all that water … but it is cool. Tim’s outfits are very not cool.

Tim’s disobeying both dad figures at once. That’s how you know he’s a real Robin. =D Also his narration continues to be extremely fun.

Tim goes from subdued to "I'll just keep an eye on it" to "GIRL I LIKE NEEDS ME" very quickly. Doesn't feel out of character because Tim literally does this for anyone, see: Rawlins.

KGBeast is not a name I recognize, but he also looks like an action figure.

Both of those people would definitely be more concerned about you getting killed here. Also, I feel like Ariana’s father getting shot to protect you both should be more on your mind here than rulebreaking. *adds to Au side of AuDHD headcanon*

DON’T SAY THAT

Just a little too late on the genre savvy. Also, remember how Tim said he wasn’t going to be reckless like Jason? He’s throwing that out the window and the baby after it. Going out when a gang war is brewing! Stepping in! Refusing to back down! Refusing to back down AGAIN while telling himself he’s being stupid!

Authenticity: This is definitely how a 14 year old boy thinks.

This woman saved your life!! Also, you didn’t want to run away, resulting in you getting your ass kicked THEN running away. Not that I’m really complaining. I like that all that stuff about how Tim makes a good Robin is balanced with him making mistakes and getting his ass kicked a lot. He is a newbie.

Huntress is put off that Batman didn’t mention her and doesn’t like her, but she’s very cagey about why. Tim’s obviously suspicious but immediately shares intel anyway, and so does she. Huntress is happy to work with him--he does give good info, and he IS Robin, which is a good excuse for him getting some respect no matter how bad a first impression.

Honestly, it’s a nice setup. Robin has an excuse to work with her despite his suspicions (he’s still hiding this from Batman) but we’ve got the flag planted for when she turns out to be someone who kills later.

Unsurprisingly, coming to school beat up makes people think Tim’s getting beat up at home. You’d think there would be training on deflection in Robin school. Also I don’t know how Tim thinks he’s going to hide his giant face bruises from Bruce the whole time they heal. (adds to “people heal faster in the DC universe” headcanon)

I like that Tim specifically doesn’t talk to Alfred because he doesn’t want sensible advice. Which explains why he immediately goes over to Bruce’s against his dad’s orders, then shows up late to dinner with his giant face bruise. All bad decisions all the time.

Tim’s foot in mouth disease strikes again.

Huntress really is a bad influence--but Bruce was first. Punch your problems away~

Okay, this is the complete opposite of what I expected, you got me there. Huntress responsibly watches Tim’s back, pulls him off a guy, and tries to talk him down. Having a kid around really does make you feel responsible. Little brother acquired.

I’m gonna assume this equipment was Dick’s idea and that it’s called the Bat-hamster Wheel.

Also Alfred does give Tim sensible advice, and he does ignore it, lol.

Really like this bit. Tim being a teenager, Jack being a dad.

Love Tim doing his detective bit to discover her identity, especially since I hadn’t really noticed she was giving away that much. Could he really have tracked her down from that? Eh, it's comics, I keep having to delete comments about logistics details, this is just another one.

Did Huntress catch it from Tim or was her hair always that bad and I didn’t notice? (Edit: It was always bad, it's just more noticeable when she's standing still.)

Huntress is pretty fun, honestly.

At least he’s self aware. Tim then helps Huntress drop KGBeast out a hole in a wall. Tim is really solving all his problems with gravity now, huh.

Tim: I was really hoping to see his dead body lying in the street. :(

School Counselor: Expulsion-- Tim: Whatever. *leaves out the window* Jack: I’m sending you to Metropolis. Tim: *surprised pikachu face*

(this one)

Tim is judging Huntress now. You don’t have anything to judge her about yet! You were the one losing control and beating people! And the way Huntress is griping about going to the printers and Tim negotiates with her makes her sound like the kid. Feels like a weird switch between issues. Did they realize they only have two issues left and Tim has to be competent and wrap this up?

After all, we started Huntress’ introduction with her spying on the mob and doing “grunt work”, so why is she now complaining about tracking down the printers and acting like she has no brain?

I feel like there’s this weird thing where to make Tim the plan guy he’s surrounded by reckless non-planners? Which results in him knowing a lot of women who just dive into battle? If it were like … 20% less sexist, “Tim and a bunch of woman who will just punch you” would be my favorite thing.

…Tim immediately gets pissy at being left behind and doesn’t wait, so he hasn’t suddenly gotten mature, even if this is a silly excuse to split them up. … and to have Huntress get her ass kicked off screen. Blaaaah.

Ariana’s alive, and Tim is doing this pose again, the same one he did when he landed on the Joker.

Fun to see Tim fight blind.

Huntress’ comments on sexism are so weird and doing the opposite of deflecting from how this interesting dynamic she was building with Tim is now reduced to her being a damsel who needs saving.

Like, look at this shit. They’re all sexist, just in different ways, because the author is sexist. Trying to hang a hat on it doesn't work.

They save the prisoners, ruin the money, etc. But we never find out why Batman doesn’t trust Huntress--guess that gun’s staying on the wall for now.

Lies :'-)

[tracidant]

Writing prompt: The bats have an ugly sweater contest....AND GO!!!

(Minor warning for Jason's inappropriate sense of humor and the song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.")

"So are we doing the Ugly Sweater party this year, Father? Now that I understand the concept, I plan on winning."

Bruce sighed. He didn't mind the ugly Christmas sweaters, but a certain adult child of his had a tendency to find the most inappropriate sweaters possible. Last year's seem innocent enough, until the lights were turned off. Bruce couldn't even imagine where one would find a light-up sweater with Batman and Catwoman doing very NSFW things on it.

"Oh, no. I know that look. Just because Todd tries to offend everyone, it doesn't mean the rest of us should be punished!"

"You're right, Damian. We'll do the party. I'll have Alfred talk to Jason. He'll listen to him."

A week later, Bruce was standing in his living room, in a God-awful pink and green plaid monstrosity of a sweater with bells that jingled when he walked. Selina was in a beautiful black and gold sweater-dress.

"Sorry, Bruce. I don't do ugly."

Bruce kissed the side of her face. "Nothing you could wear would look ugly anyway."

Dick, Barbara, and Haley were already there in matching reindeer sweaters talking to Cassandra, who had found a glow-in-the-dark sweater with elves that danced when you turned the power on.

He heard Alfred greeting someone at the door and braced himself. Female voice. He relaxed. Stephanie came running into the room yelling a minute later.

"Happy Ugly Sweater day, Waynes & Wayne-adjacents!"

Stephanie hugged everyone and showed off her sweater. She made it herself, and the quality was quite good. It was purple, of course, with real, blinking Christmas lights in red, yellow, and green. It also had Santa dressed like a 80s metal band rockstar, and said, "Have a rockin' good Christmas!"

Tim and Bernard arrived next. Bernard's sweater was a Freddy Kreuger Christmas sweater, and Tim's was "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"-themed. (Complete with Grandma face down with reindeer tracks across her back.)

"Timbo, you're definitely in the lead for ugliest sweater, depending on what Damian, Duke, and Jason come up with."

Duke came in just then, as if on cue. His sweater was green, with gold tinsel and purple and blue ornaments hanging off of it. It had a hood too, shaped like the top of a tree, complete with a giant star on top. It was pretty horrible.

Damian and Titus came in next. Titus had on a beautiful argyle sweater, because apparently Damian's dog was too good for ugliness. Damian's sweater on the other hand, was truly ugly. It had mint green, fuchsia, teal, yellow, and black stripes, with a hideous Krampus on the front and back.

"Wow, Damian. That is absolutely the ugliest sweater I've ever seen."

The teen beamed. "Thanks, Grayson. I plan on winning this year."

"Well, you'll have to wait for Jason and see what nightmare-fuel of a sweater he found, but you have my vote."

"Pennyworth spoke to him about ugly vs. inappropriate, so we'll see. Todd isn't getting that prize this year."

Bruce heard the door again. He didn't hear Alfred chewing Jason out, so it must not be too bad. Then he heard...

"Sorry, Al. You told me if I wanted to wear an ugly sweater to wear one with a picture of me on it. I'm just following your rules."

Bruce heard Alfred sigh, and his pulse instantly started to increase. It must be bad. Maybe he could escape.

A moment later, Jason came in. "Here's your winner, bi-otches!"

Bruce looked at Jason's shirt, then closed his eyes. He was hoping he imagined it, but when he opened his eyes again, it was true. All the kids spoke at once.

"Seriously, Jay?"

"Oh. Em. Gee."

"Is that what I think it is?"

"No way, Todd! That has to be disqualified! This year is mine!"

"Not cool, brother. Not cool."

"Sorry, Bernard. I warned you my family's a bit crazy. Some more than others."

Finally Bruce found his voice. "Jason. Is that your autopsy photo on your sweater?"

[faintblueivy]

So Imagine...

A world where Bruce Wayne died as a child in that alley that day, Martha and Thomas Wayne grieve as normal parents. They DO NOT BECOME BATMAN AND JOKER. 

Nothing ever remains the same after losing their little boy. So, Thomas buries himself in his work and Martha drowns herself in depression and pain. They do therapy and it works a little and life becomes bearable but...not happy.

One day, Alfred badgers the couple to go out and relax a little and buys them tickets for a circus - Haly’s circus. Everything was going nice and dandy and Martha was in awe of this little acrobat as much as the rest of the crowd when suddenly the rope snaps and the boy’s parents fall to their deaths - right in front of him and the gathering. Thomas is quick to jump in to see if he could help them in any way but Martha can see it in his eyes that they are as dead as they can be. 

They return to home with heavy hearts and Martha can’t get the image of the little boy out of her head. His skin was a light shade of bronze but his dark hair and bright cerulean blue eyes reminded her so much of Bruce that her heart wouldn’t rest. So a few days later she uses her connections to know if the child is safe and well cared for, when to her immense horror, she is replied that he was shipped to Gotham Juvie due to the lack of foster homes. She is enraged.

She calls Thomas and Alfred and lets them know about the little acrobat’s situation and declares that she was going to adopt him. They hesitate a little but she is not to be deterred as she goes ahead and brings the little boy home. 

Richard John Grayson - Wayne. Or Dick, as he likes to call himself. 

He is adamant that he wants no parents and Martha is fine because not only that she is old enough to be not his mother but also because no child can ever be her Bruce.

“You can just call me Grandma then.” She tells him.

His eyes are wide but he nods and then smiles and Martha, in a long while, has never felt this happy. 

Her new Grandson, despite losing his parents, is a ray of sunshine with unlimited supply of energy and the cold and empty manor is warm and happy again. 

Dick is a little charmer and even after Thomas and Alfred’s initial reluctance, they immediately fall in love with the boy and one day, when Martha comes down to the morning breakfast, she hears a happy, deep rumble - one she has not heard in many years. Thomas is laughing. 

There on the dining table, seated beside Dick, was Thomas laughing. Her eyes water at the scene and Alfred, who is standing beside her offers her a handkerchief. None of them mention how his own eyes are wet too.

 ...

Dick is sixteen, a brilliant boy in academics as much as they disinterest him but an invincible athlete. Martha has been told time and time again that her grandson is undoubtedly a international level gymnast. But he is a teenager.

And teenagers steal their grandparent’s ‘coolest’ car and rush off into the night. But they don’t come back with a little battered and bruised, homeless kid tucked under their arm.

“He had jacked three tires off your car. When I confronted him, he tried to hit me with a tire iron.” He says, amused, as Thomas tries to convince the child to show him his injuries.

“I didn’t do nothin’! He’s a fuckin’ big boob liar!” They boy screams, his blue green eyes glaring daggers at Dick.

“Language.” Both her and Alfred warn simultaneously.

After hours of struggle, interrogation and fuck you’s, Martha learns that the child’s name is Jason. He is twelve. Mother died form drug overdosing and Dad is a petty henchman of some crime lord. He ran away from multiple foster homes because they are so abusive that the child feels safer on streets. 

Martha goes on a rampage over Gotham’s foster care after that. She did not donate millions of dollars annually for children to feel safer on streets. After of lot of talks and reassurances and promises, Martha acquires her second grandchild.

Jason Peter Todd - Wayne. 

Jason is tiny. Malnourished like Leslie said. But he is sharp, observant and hungry for knowledge. Martha and Alfred joke that Jason is Thomas' soul child. Where Dick had loved activity and movement, Jason liked quiet and stability - Martha thinks that running and fighting for survival on streets every single day does that you. So evenings often found her and Dick in the garden but Thomas and Jason in the library pouring over as many books as they can.

And to nobody's surprise, despite their rocky start, the boys become inseparable. They are outwardly different, with clashing interests and behaviors but Martha can see that they both carry the same cores of light.  

When the morning of Dick’s Parent’s death anniversary comes around, both her and Thomas find Jason on Dick’s bed, arms curled protectively around his big brother. For the first time in so many years, Dick wakes up to warmth surrounding him, not nightmares. 

...

Both her grandsons attend Gotham Academy so when she receives a phone call from the Principal, she is half surprised and half not. When she enters the Principal’s office, both her boys are standing on one side, Jason with his head hung in shame and Dick glaring daggers at the other side. The boy who seems to be injured is being coddled by his mother who is shooting nasty glares at her grandchildren periodically. 

Then she notices another small boy standing beside her boys, trying to melt into the wall.

Tim Drake. The only son of Jack and Janet Drake of Drake Industries.    

She arches a questioning eyebrow at Dick who shakes his head and then she turns to the Principal. 

“What happened here?”

“Glad to see you’re here Mrs. Wayne.” The Principal says, pushing his glasses up his nose, “I regret to inform you that your ward Jason Peter Todd attacked this young man here.” He gestures to the other boy. 

“Madam, Gotham Academy is a prestigious school and we do not encourage physical violence here. Yes, it might have been acceptable from where he came from but it won’t be, here. I hope you give us the right to punish Mr. Todd here appropriately.” 

Martha inwardly bristles at the jab at her grandson and says crisply, “Mr. Wayne.”

“What?”

“He’s not just Todd. He is a Wayne. Please remember that.”

“Principal Sir.” Dick cuts in and Martha is confused because as hyperactive as Dick is, he is a mannerly child and knows better than to cut in a conversation like this but what draws her attention is the chilling tone which Dick almost never uses. Dick continues, “Why don’t you tell our grandmother more of your regrets? Or the prestigious Gotham Academy believes that bullying is acceptable.” 

Martha has been told what she needs to know. 

“Jason?” she calls out to her youngest grandson softly, “What happened?”

Jason is quiet when suddenly Tim Drake moves forward. She can see he is scared the way his hands shake but determination shines in his blue eyes. She likes him.

“I want to say something.”

He narrates the tale of how he was being bullied and how the boy on the other side with his mother threw his science project model away and broke it and physically tried to attack him when Jason stepped in to save him. Martha felt nothing but pride at Jason’s righteous indignation. 

Tim also explained that Jason exercised immense control even after these bullies called him ‘street rat’, but the verbal spar intensified after Dick was insulted for his Romani heritage, but it came to fist fight after Thomas and Martha were insulted, and Bruce’s death was made fun of.

Her gaze snaps to the other three occupants of the room and they are all in various shades of pale. Apparently, the Principal had not done his homework.

“Principal” She says icily, “Yes, I give you the authority to punish Jason appropriately but only when this young man here”, she gestures to the boy who was now cowering behind his mother, “Is dealt with in the same way.”

After threatening the Principal in soft words but harsh tone about not tolerating to having her grandsons bullied the next time, she grabs Jason’s hand to drag him away from these people who don’t deserve his company, when her eyes fall on the little trembling Tim. 

She offers him her hand.

He stares at it, shocked but after an encouraging smile from Dick and a small shove from Jason, he takes it shyly.

And since that day, Tim becomes a member of Martha’s family. The boys stay together so much that even Thomas forgets that Tim is not theirs. 

Tim’s upbringing sends Martha’s grandmother instincts on a haywire and she resents the Drakes for their criminal neglect towards Tim. 

It is rewarding that Tim flourishes in their attention. 

She learns that his hobby is Photography and he is excellent at it. And he is a genius when it comes to science, computers and gadgets. He likes crime thrillers movies and books and often picks them apart with his scarily good knowledge about forensics that leave the rest of the family in awe and slightly disturbed. 

The dam breaks when one day Jason and Dick return back from school telling her that Tim was absent today and they are worried about him. When they later sneak into the Drake mansion in the evening, Thomas receives a frantic call from their oldest grandchild that Tim was burning with fever. Because Thomas is a doctor, they save Tim before anything serious happens.

This time, it is Thomas who sues the Drakes for Tim’s custody after him and Jason had, had enough of ‘Timbo’s shitty parents’.

“Timothy?” Martha brushes his sweat soaked forehead gently. “Would you like to be a member of our family legally?"

Tim is hesitant about this but he admits that he likes Wayne manor much better than he ever liked Drake mansion. He confesses that he loves Jason and Dick as brothers and sees Martha, Thomas and Alfred as his grandparents as well.

The long custody battle ends with both Jack and Janet Drake dying at the hands of two different tragedies, leaving Tim an orphan, but also with a loving family consisting of three grandparents and two brothers by his side. 

Timothy Jackson Drake - Wayne is adopted into the Wayne family as her and Thomas’ third grandson.

...

A year after they adopt Tim, Thomas comes home with a small girl on his side. She is clearly an east Asian in heritage with dark hair and dark eyes and is speech deprived. Thomas is clearly distressed after Cassandra - her name is Cassandra - is safely secured in warm bed in a nice room across Jason’s. He calls her, the three boys and Alfred to his study to explain about the small girl. 

He talks about how Gordon brought the girl to him and after hours of wordless, signed and clumsily sketched on paper conversations with the little girl they were able to determine that Cassandra was hiding from her father who was an assassin and wanted to drag the little girl down the same path before she ran away. The more he talks about the damage and abuse the girl had experienced at the hands on her own father, the more furious Martha becomes. When Thomas’ explanations ends, Jason slams a punch into the wall making a dent but no one has the heart to reprimand him for that. 

The following morning, Martha can see that her three boys have unanimously decided that they are adopting Cassandra as their sister. She is treated like a Princess, and given the nick name ‘Cass’. 

Slowly but surely, Cass learns what it means to love through Dick’s bright kindness, Jason’s quiet protection and Tim’s infinite patience. After her father is finally apprehended, the family celebrates.

Cassandra Wayne, soon after, becomes the beloved Wayne Princess of Gotham. 

Martha and Thomas often accompany their only granddaughter to her speech therapy lessons, so after six months of her adoption, at dinner, she places a kiss on everyone’s forehead - her three brothers and three grandparents, stands at the head of the table and croaks out, slowly, “Thank...thank you.” All of them stare at her flabbergasted, but it appears that she was planning to shock them even more.

“You...Love. Love you...”

The silence that follows her broken but sure words is deafening. Surprisingly it is Tim who breaks it as he scrambles out of his chair and launches himself at Cass, wrapping his arms around her and both Jason and Dick follow him, grabbing both their youngest siblings fiercely.

A quiet sob breaks her out of the trance and she smiles when she watches Thomas furiously wiping his tears from the sleeve of his shirt. The last time he     had cried was at Bruce’s funeral. And Martha is infinitely grateful that this time these are happy tears. 

...

Sometimes Martha wonders what would have happened if Bruce had lived. If these children are her grandchildren then does that mean they are Bruce’s kids? Had Bruce lived, would he have accepted these gaggle of kids that her and Thomas have collected over the years as his own? Would he have kids of his own? 

Her questions are answered when one day she hears a slight commotion in the entrance is surprised to see a young woman with a sword threatening Alfred.

“I want to meet the Master of this house. Let them know immediately.” She demands in an authoritative but silky voice, and Martha suddenly sees the Toddler clutched in her arm. 

“What is it?” Martha speaks as soon as she can when the woman notices her. She looks surprised for a second but immediately schools her features as the baby fusses.

“You’re alive.” She whispers and before any of them could make an indignant comment about her wordings, she says, “It appears that I might have traveled in to the wrong universe.”

Now that is interesting. Martha lives in a world where they are protected by aliens...so, it is certainly worth hearing for. 

Martha offers the young lady an invitation for tea which she accepts. She notices how the woman carries herself with lethal grace and dignity as if she was a Princess but much more. As they sit and Alfred leaves to bring the promised team Martha notices how the woman’s eyes sweep over the place. 

“How may I help you?”

Her voice attracts the attention of the toddler and this time, he is not clutched tightly enough to his mother’s chest to turn his small head and look at her. Martha gasps. Because the child looks too much like Toddler Bruce. But instead of the blue eyes like her son, this child has glowing green ones, like his mother. But still, the resemblance is uncanny. 

“Yes, he is your son’s.” The woman answers the unasked question.

She is explained the existence of Multiverse, and it’s workings and how Bruce survived instead of them in that world, met Talia (the woman’s name is Talia Al Ghul) and had a child but had to leave. Talia mentions the reason she came here was because her son’s life was in danger and Talia’s father wanted to raise her son as an assassin Prince and a tool for him to use. Talia’s solution to protect her son was for her to give her son to the Bruce of this world to raise, since the Bruce of that world had gone missing.   

“I can raise him.” Martha suddenly declares and the woman looks at him shocked. “I will not raise him into a life of violence but I can certainly protect him and give him a happy civilian life.”

Talia looks unsure, hesitant, but says, “I...have been a warrior since the day I can remember. Never once have I ever thought of my son not being a warrior. He was...born to be one.” 

Martha smiles. “He doesn’t have to be one. Yes, his life will be infinitely different than the one you imagined but...he will be well loved and protected. I can assure you of that.”

“Damian.” Talia whispers as he deposits the baby in her arms after a lot of consideration. “His name is Damian.”

She looks at her son tenderly one last time and places a kiss on his forehead and Martha’s heart breaks a little for the young mother. 

“Will you return back for him?” Martha asks as she follows the Talia to the door.

“No.” Talia whispers, her voice strained. “I will not. Any action taken by me is monitored by my father closely. If I return back, then he might know that I have left Damian here and I cannot let that happen. He is yours, forever.”

Martha gives her a sad smile. “You’re a brave and good mother Talia. Thank you for doing what is best for your son.”

She nods, not turning to look at Damian one last time as she leaves the manor grounds, never to return. 

Martha looks at the baby secure in her arms and her lips quirk up into a grin at the sight of two curious green eyes watching her with interest. 

“Welcome to the family, little Damian.”

When she introduces the new addition to the family, Thomas is dumbfounded. Dick is ecstatic at the prospect of having a new baby brother, Jason is secretly pleased, Cass is happiest and Tim looks unsure.

That’s how Damian Wayne - Al Ghul joins the family.

Damian fits in their home spectacularly. After few days of hesitation, like he had with Dick, Thomas takes to Damian quickly. He has an epic competition going on with their eldest grandson to become the baby’s favorite. Damian refuses to sleep without Thomas but his tantrums are only controlled and won over by Dick. Damian loves Jason manhandling him and giggles happily when the older boy throws him in the air or swings him around. Damian loves Cassandra because she knows what he wants before any of them do. And Cass loves to carry her little brother around to watch birds and animals in the manor grounds.

The only person Damian seems to not get along with is Tim and the older boy seems not be fond of him either. Because Damian wants everything Tim does and the older brother has to compromise for Damian every time. But Martha has to bite laughs a lot now a days because almost everytime Damian falls asleep, it is with Tim in vicinity. And she has caught the older boy tenderly covering Damian in his favorite blanket more often than not. Martha thinks that this is kind of cute but keeps her opinion to herself. 

Her little grandson is quite protective of his siblings though. Anytime someone upsets any of his siblings, they are threatened with scowls, growls and even bites and stabbings in extreme cases.

Like last time when Mrs. Park made fun of Cassandra’s  speech impairment, Damian almost bit her finger off. Damian hates one of Dick’s racist colleague (they all do) so much that anytime the man enters his field of vision, the first thing Damian gets his hand on is thrown at the guy’s head. With deadly precision. And last time when Mr. Link had called Jason ‘street rat’ for personally volunteering charity work for poor and homeless, Damian had smeared his juice and drool covered hands on the Man’s thousand dollars suit. And when one time, a reporter had infiltrated a Gala and chased Tim around to ask uncomfortable questions about his parent’s death and the Wayne’s involvement in it, Damian, noticing Tim’s distress had stabbed the reporter with a fork with no hesitation. 

Martha is still not sure if she should encourage or reprimand Damian for that.

...

As she sits on the head of the table with Thomas on her side and Alfred on the other end, she wonders how miraculous it is for her to have all these children in her life. 

Dick is engaged in an animated conversation with Stephanie who was introduced to the family as Tim’s girlfriend. Barbara, the daughter of James Gordon and Dick’s girlfirend/or not was helping Cass pile up food on her plate. Damian and Tim were bickering over something as usual but Jason trying to hide his snickers in guise of drinking water which made Martha sure that the something was Jason’s doing.

These people were her family. The ones she had gained after losing Bruce. She wonders, if there was a universe where Bruce got to meet her grandchildren. 

Would he accept them? As family? 

Would he love them? As family? 

She brightly smiles when the multiple sets of eyes turn to her waiting for her to blow the candle.

“Happy Birthday Martha.”

Thomas says warmly, his voice thick with emotion and she meets his gaze and sees the love, affection and thankfulness in his eyes for this family that they had created after their earth shattering loss. She knows what she wants as she blows the candle on the cake flickering in front of her.

I wish for us to be family in every universe.

[eyes-of-mischief]

weekly fic recs | 37

fandoms: dc, hp, jjk, naruto, sherlock

dc

Ain't No Compass, Ain't No Map by ebjameston

CPS Agent, pointing at Tim Drake: We need to take him with us Red Hood: He's fine where he is CPS: He's a minor Hood: Timbo, you a minor? Tim: Can't prove it CPS: I mean, I can. There are records – Tim, who has just finishing hacking CPS to remove his own file: Oh really, tell me more about these records

+++

A CPS agent gets sent to investigate a tip that Tim Drake has been abandoned by his parents and is living with the Red Hood. The CPS agent leaves with no Tim Drake, a date with Red Hood's lieutenant, and an intern who's promising to fix the IT systems at his office.

It's a weird day for Theo.

The Boys of Summer by TheResurrectionist

The bat bros are ride or die. And if that means searching for a very specific kind of pudding in the middle of the night so pregnant Babs doesn’t kill Dick, and fighting off the subsequent mafia hit job that follows, then they’re gonna fucking do that, you know?

it's all about light because all its been before is shadows by victoriousscarf

“Aren’t you supposed to be attacking me too?” the boy in front of him asked, even though there was already blood on his cheeks and he was favoring one side.

Talon tilted his head because he already knew the answer to that question was a yes. “You seem to be barely standing as it is.”

jjk

In the Silence, I Hear Your Voice by TheLamplightDetective

Toge felt Yuuta’s fingers drift against his, the barest moment of skin on skin, and his heart tugged harder, as if to pull his attention to this moment, declaring This. This is good. This is perfect. Hold onto it. How achingly unfair that it could all be destroyed in mere seconds.

It was easy, he had discovered, to thrive on dust and darkness, but only if you had forgotten the taste of the light.

After years being called a monster, Inumaki Toge has finally found a place to call home. But the past casts a long shadow, and the sight of a familiar face sends him spiralling back into his childhood, a place where he was a tool, a dog to be used, where his silence was the greatest gift he could give the world. This is the Inumaki curse, to be lost in the darkness - but his is not the only voice crying out to be heard. Inumaki backstory, with Toge/Yuuta romance.

jjk x dc

blaring trumpets (heralding thorns) by whatisthisnightmare 

Toge didn’t mean to get careless. But when all is said and done, he slipped up, and now he’s in a smelly alley watching a cosplayer shoot through the knee of a robber. Things could be worse.

Meanwhile, Red Hood would like the kid he saved to stop trolling him with Japanese food.

jjk x naruto

rain on my parade by unolvrs

(mature) (graphic depictions of violence, major character death)

The audacity of this world to give her Fushiguro’s eyes and Itadori’s hair—Nobara is left with nothing but memories of what-could-have-been, and she has never felt more alone.

(Or: Nobara dislikes the name ‘Sakura’.)

hp

Princeps by Lomonaaeren

Harry has worked for years as an Unspeakable to identify the best point where he might go back in time to change the impact of Voldemort’s war. Now he knows: he will have to return to his parents’ Hogwarts years and encourage the Slytherins to stand on their own instead of following a leader. He knows how to assume the post of Defense professor and how to reach the Slytherins. And from there, well, surely nothing can go too wrong.

Don't Fuck With Florists (They'll Fuck You Up) by MayMarlow

Unsatisfied with his post-war life, Harry decides to get to the root of all of his problems when that root was still working at Borgin and Burkes shop in the late 40s. He’s the Master of Death, damn it, he can do what he wants for once in his life.

Tom Riddle isn’t particularly happy about working at a small, dingy shop for magical artifacts, no matter how interesting those artifacts are. He’s even less happy when an insufferable stranger sets up the most obnoxious flower shop right across the street.

What follows would be a romantic comedy, if it weren’t for politics. sherlock x hp

Whispers in Corners by esama

Everything started with a stumble - his new life in a new world as well as his surprisingly successful career as a medium.

Symphony by esama

Despite all the magic in the world, Harry had never encountered magic like that of a genius mind. A whole family of them was bit overwhelming really.

[ladytauria]

have a deleted scene (+ some of the earlier scene for context) from a 5+1 fic i’m writing

When the wound is clean, Tim reaches for a local anesthetic. He glances at Jason. It’s always a toss-up, if he’ll be comfortable with it or not. Some nights they’ve made do with a few swigs of Jack and Jason biting into his belt. Those aren’t Tim’s favorite nights.

Tonight’s a good night, though, because Jason nods.

Once the area’s been numbed, he threads a needle. Jason focuses somewhere in the middle distance.

Tim’s no Steph (or Jason, for that matter), and he’s definitely no Alfred, but he’s had enough practice over the years that his stitches are neat and precise.

He’s also had enough practice that he doesn’t have to devote one hundred percent of his attention to them, which leaves him free to distract Jason.

“I didn’t think normal knives could pierce your armor,” he says.

“They can’t,” Jason says, voice no longer as tight with pain. “Whatever that asshole had, it wasn’t a ‘normal’ knife.”

Tim hums. “More evidence someone bigger is working with these guys. Any ideas who?”

“Mask,” Jason says. “Could be Penguin, but. My money’s on Mask.”

Tim agrees. “Well, you’ll have plenty of time to dig into them. If you pop these stitches before three days have passed, I’m siccing Alfred on you.”

“Cold, Timmy. Cold.”

“Yeah, well. Fair’s fair.” Tim glares up at him. The effect is ruined by the smile tugging at his mouth.

Jason grins back. “Concussions mean rest, Timbo. Not ‘print out casefiles to get around the no screens rule.’ You knew the rules before you broke ‘em.”

Tim ties off the stitches and snips the thread. He drops the needle in a biohazard bin and smacks Jason (lightly) in the shoulder. “You didn’t have to go running to Alfred, snitch.” He glances at Jason’s side and smirks. “See, that’s why you’re getting stitches now!”

Jason jabs Tim in the side, and Tim rolls with it, laughing. “You’re such an asshole.”

“You like it,” Tim says, cheekily, ignoring the way his heart beats rapidly in his chest.

Jason stands and goes for the spare clothes he keeps here. It’s one of Tim’s lesser used safe houses, so by all rights, Jason shouldn’t have stuff here. But he does. Tim... can’t quite remember when that happened. Not that he minds. In fact, judgy by the fuzzy, flipping feeling in his stomach, he’d say he doesn’t mind at all.

He watches Jason tug on a shirt, and as he goes for the button on his armored cargo pants, Tim can’t quite stop himself from saying—

“Seriously. Be more careful.” I don’t want to lose you.

Jason glances at him. Softens, just a little, and says, “Don’t worry ‘bout me, Timmy. It’ll take more than some asshole with a fancy knife to take me down.”

[the-alice-of-hearts]

20 jaytim

20. “You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.” Jason shook his shoulder and Tim turned over in bed.

"Ugh, what time is it?" Tim groaned.

"I know it's early, but you need to get up." Jason tried to pull the blanket off of him but Tim held strong to it.

"No." Tim pressed his face into the pillow, the smell of Jason on it dragging him back to sleep.

"Dick is coming over," Jason said.

That got Tim to sit up. "What? Why?"

"I think he knows about us," Jason answered and started grabbing clothes for Tim.

"Why would you say that?" Tim asked quickly getting dressed.

"Because he only gave me a five-minute warning. We should have enough time to get you out of here." Jason handed Tim his shoes and grabbed his backpack with his laptop in it. "Go, now."

"Too late." Tim spun around and looked at Dick who was leaning against the door to the bedroom. "Good try though." His scent was carefully controlled, but Tim could smell the undercurrent of anger in it.

"Dick?" Tim backed up towards the window, if he could get out he could at least make a run for it. "Why are you here?"

Dick took a step forward. "Well, I heard from a little bat that Jason had been spotted bothering you during patrol. I thought I would look into it and then noticed something. The banter between the two of you was far too, familiar."

"What do you mean?" Jason asked taking a step towards Tim.

"Well, you too looked really chummy, and then I got the last piece of evidence I needed. You see, Jay it's not often you take off your helmet, but I guess it's hard to kiss someone when you're wearing it."

"Oh shit," Tim whispered.

"So, you want to tell me when this all happened? Because courting is kinda something you're supposed to discuss with the pack Omega, and I don't remember anyone talking to me." Dick took a step towards Tim. "Wanna talk now? Or am I going to have to get Bruce?"

Tim gulped and then did a back roll out the window and started running.

He heard Dick say something to Jason but he was too busy scrambling up the side of the building. Dick may be an Omega, but he packed a punch and Tim did kinda defile his pup, even if Jason was on the outs with the pack Dick had always claimed the Omega as his.

Tim made it two rooftops over before he was tackled from behind. Stephanie was sitting on him. "Sorry Timbo, but Dickie is right."

"Steph please, please let me go." Tim looked up at her. He didn't want to hurt her, but he needed to get to the manor before Dick called Bruce himself. At least if he told the pack Alpha on his own he had a chance to not be bit into submission in front of his Omega.

"Tim, you know that Dick is gonna kill you, why not give up?" Steph said and then he was flipping her off of him.

He wasn't fast enough and Jason must have lost his fight with Dick because Tim was only up for a moment before Dick had a hold of him.

"Submit, Alpha," Dick growled out.

Tim snarled at him and then he heard the growl of the pack Alpha. Tim hung his head. "Fuck."

Bruce was in front of him then and Dick was pressing him down into a kneel. "Steph, get Jason."

Tim shook his head. "Please no, he doesn't need to-"

"Quiet," Bruce growled out. "You both brought this on yourselves."

Tim stared at the rooftop and then Jason was on the rooftop with Stephanie. "No!"

"Shut up, Jay," Dick snarled at him. "You both chose this, Tim can take it, and you will watch."

"Look at me," Bruce's voice was calm but filled with power. "Tim. Look. At. Me."

Tim looked up and saw the anger in Bruce's eyes. "You knew better."

Tim nodded. "Yes," he breathed out.

"You disregarded tradition," Bruce said and Tim nodded again.

"You defiled my pup," Dick said from behind him.

"I'm not your pup," Jason growled from where he was also behind Tim.

"Yes you are, Jay Bird," Tim whispered out.

"Don't speak to him." Dick dug his nails into Tim's shoulders.

Bruce struck quickly. He scruffed Tim, drawing him up, and then biting him harshly. The bond between them screamed and Tim felt his other pack bonds straining as Bruce renewed his claim on Tim as his.

Bruce let go and looked Tim in the eyes again. "Remember this."

"Yes, Sir." Tim closed his eyes and winced when Bruce squeezed his scruff harder. Bruce set him back down and Tim fell to his knees again.

"Now, I think you have a conversation to have with Dick." Bruce looked at the others. "Steph, you have homework to be doing. Jay Lad, you're coming with me."

"Yeah right old man. I'm staying with Tim."

"Go Jay, I need to talk to Dick." Tim smiled at him. "I'll be fine."

"Like hell!"

"Jay, don't make it harder. I'll come for you once we're done here." Tim saw the doubt in Jason's eyes. "I promise."

Bruce grabbed Jason's arm. "Let's go."

Dick grabbed Tim's shoulders again. "It's okay Little Wing. Timmy and I just need to have a conversation."

[team-red-on-red]

Jason saw that little wrinkle of Tim’s nose, finding it a bit cute the way it scrunched his face like a disgruntled kitten. “Edgy narrative is my middle name Timbo” he chuckled, eyes flickering down to the precise and clean stitches now on his side. They were a hell of a lot better than Jason could have done by himself and he was pretty sure even Alfred would approve of Tim’s work. He let out a low scoff at the mention of Dick, a person who kept desperately trying to be his ‘older brother’ again and always wanted to meet up everytime he was in town. God, he was sick of seeing that black and blue spandex dickhead jumping around.

“Relax, by the way don’t you have contingency plans on top of contingency plans? I’m willing to bet a few of those are for different scenarios of me getting injured or in the ditch.” He pulled his shirt back on and as he did, ignored the fleeting thought that wanted to ask Tim what the plan was if Jason was to have his ‘lazarus pit rage’ again. He didn’t update people but.. He felt like he was doing well. He could no longer feel that ugly green bubbling in the back of his mind, and he wouldn’t see tints of green if something ticked him off. Now it was red, but that was usually someone’s blood.

He could feel the new stitches since they were fresh, but it felt more stable. He would be able to shift comfortably and not worry about bleeding between the bandages. Now that that was taken care of, he was honestly feeling a little peckish, and he was determined to see the other vigilante demolish a burger. “Let’s go get a burger. ‘M starving from all the blood loss.” he exaggerated and pulled his leather jacket back on. He knew he should probably put a little more effort in changing his civilian fashion, but some days, it was just funnier and convenient to just grab his usual brown jacket. At least this one had no blood on it.

Birds of a Feather

(closed RP with @muuuumin)

Things were not going according to plan. 

Tim really didn’t like it when things didn’t go according to plan.

Sadly, that was the nature of Gotham City, which was exactly why Tim had backup plan after backup plan, accounting for every conceivable variable. He’d written an algorithm just for this case. There was a stack of paperwork heavier than Tim was. 

And yet, somehow, none of that accounted for faulty construction of the barrier along the route Tim expected to chase the criminal along, and just like that all 27 of Tim’s backup plans went out the window, and he and this thug were tearing through the streets of Gotham City. 

Fortunately, Tim had always been quick. Maybe not quite as strong as some of the other bats, but he was balanced in agility, which was useful when it came to jumping over the wooden palettes that had been knocked in his way. 

He’d been chasing this guy for months, the leader of a trafficking ring that made Tim’s stomach turn with each new detail he learned. Finally, Tim had him… nearly. Weeks of careful planning were reduced to instinct, fueled by the base knowledge that whatever happened, he had to catch this guy. Because of that, he wasn’t particularly paying attention to where the man was running, only that Tim needed to catch up to him.

Tim was getting close. His chest burned with it, but he was closing the distance. The leader was about three times Tim’s size, but that made him slow, which Tim used to his advantage. 

One last turn lead them down a long alley with far fewer obstacles to jump over, and Tim took that as his chance. Putting one last burst of energy into moving forward, he could reach out and touch the man before him. So, he did. He leapt forward and used all his momentum to send the both of them tumbling to the ground, pinning the man’s arms behind him. 

“Get off- you little shit,” the criminal squirmed violently, pinned face down as he was. Tim was fully sitting on his back, using his entire body weight to keep him down and frankly unconvinced that was enough. Tim was strong, but he couldn’t hold someone like this forever. “I ain’t getting taken down by some pipsqueak-ass kid. I’ll fucking kill you.”

Tim used his position to secure handcuffs around the man’s wrists, trying to catch his breath. He might’ve secured them a little tighter than necessary, but knowing what this man did Tim frankly didn’t feel bad about it. 

Things hadn’t gone exactly according to plan, but Tim had gotten the criminal in the end. This would just serve as… something to keep in mind for the next time he had to make a plan. Always double check the strength of the barricades along the predicted potential chase route.

Breathless and full of adrenaline, Tim forgot another much more important rule: Always pay attention to where your target is leading you.