#would i read fics of Jason committing to the bit? yes

[serxeri]

Hatsune Hoodku

Anyways....

OG post

[ultimate-marysue]

Based on this idea I think it would be hilarious for a younger Tim to have a crush on Roy (he's a really hot dilf and you can't tell me Tim didn't read self insert Justice League FICS on AO3).

So he notices that Roy first dated Dick, then Jason and he can see a pattern ("two instances aren't a pattern Tim" "shut up Steph"). It's that classic "little brother has a crush on the older sibling's cool friend" but we're talking Tim Drake, so he's gonna be extra silly.

He tries casually to break Jason and Roy up multiple times or finds an excuse to hang out with them. At first, Jason is ready to push him off a window and Roy thinks it's adorable if a bit misguided (that's a whole ass child), but soon enough it escalates to Roy hiding from Tim any time he's in the vicinity.

It's nothing particularly bad, but it's really ackward and Oh, God please just let the crush pass already. Tim is nothing if not persistent. He's also an easily distracted kid, but anytime his current crush stops giving him serotonin he remembers Roy and it's ackward all over again.

Dick and Jason find Roy's suffering hilarious (Dick considers it karma for dating his little brother). Their amusement differs though, Dick thinks Tim is adorable and Jason thinks he's extremely annoying but entertaining. Yes, sneaking around your very determined stalker isn't worth it but at least he can see Roy squirming (he's not truly uncomfortable, he just doesn't know how to let him down gently anymore and th kid has such a sad face already).

It eventually fades out (read: Tim gets into a committed relationship and his partner is his new forever hiperfixation), and Roy is finally free. Looking back, it was hilarious, but he's not willing to go through that again thank you very much.

So, when Damian challenges him to an archery contest, Roy doesn't even answer he just books it so fast Wally would be jealous. Damian is very confused (he actually just really likes archery and doesn't have a proper rival in the family since Huntress is out with the Birds right now). Dick and Jason are just laughing their asses off on the floor.

[cabinofimagines]

First Christmas

Yes, this fic is part of Danny and mine ongoing Christmas Universe! Just a little heads up :) It won't matter much, and you can def read it as a standalone one-shot but there are some references! Pairing: Jason & Thalia Grace x gn!reader (Platonic!) Request: Hi, can you do a request where reader and Jason Grace are together in the holidays, like doing stuff, adorning the tree, drinking hot chocolate, etc. I’m sorry English is not my first language Word Count: 1.8k Warnings: None! A curse word, possibly.   -Asnyox

It was early December, and you figured you should try to figure out what your friends wanted for Christmas again this year. You could probably have gotten a good indicator from Klaus, but this time you truly wanted to find things yourself. Thus, you had slowly been planning some Iris Messages with people, and ‘secretly’ asked them what they wanted (and whether they knew things other people wanted). 

However, what you didn’t expect was Jason’s answer. 

“You don’t really have to get me anything,” he looked apologetic, “Since, you know, I didn’t grow up in a very ��family oriented’ place I never really celebrated Christmas?” 

“But you did! For the past few years with us!” You exclaimed and Jason shook his head. 

“I know, and as much as I enjoy spending time with everyone, I just never feel comfortable accepting the gifts.” 

“Do you, now?” You squinted at the IM, “I simply think you don’t understand that we want to give you gifts-” 

“Okay, maybe it feels weird,” Jason admitted, “because I only used to get gifts for my accomplishments! But, that does not mean you have to get me anything!” 

“Jason, I love you so I want to give you something in the spirit of the holidays.”

“Then give me the spirit of the holidays!” He exclaimed. 

“I don’t want to kidnap Klaus for you, nor do I want to commit necromancy for an actual ghost,” you stated and Jason sighed. 

“No, I mean-” He looked away, “I’ve never put up a tree, the only Christmas things I’ve done were with you guys! Maybe you can, I don’t know, let me get the traditional experience?”

“You had your own room when you were a preator, and you never put up a tree?” You asked. 

“For a bit, but that was before Christmas, I got kidnapped by Juno before that”

“And your cohort never had one?”

“Nope, the 5th never won Christmas tree rights.” he shrugged, “Honestly, we barely won any Christmas activities. Camp Jupiter wasn’t big on letting their cohorts celebrate during the season.” 

“And not even when you were an infant? I mean you showed up at Camp Jupiter when you were what, 5?” 

“I mean, I certainly didn’t celebrate Christmas with Lupa, so I didn’t know it was a thing until someone told me.” Jason sighed, “And for what it’s worth, the people of my cabin did actually give me a stocking with candy each year, I think they felt guilty.” 

“Oh, the child soldiers felt guilty about the child soldier.” 

“I am not going to unpack that with you right now,” Jason glared, but there was no real heat behind his eyes. He knew that his ‘growing up’ situation was less than perfect, however in the spirit of the holidays he decided not to consider his possible trauma’s. Given the previous statement, you figured you would need to at least have some celebrations this year. 

“Well, you have your own dormitory, right?” you asked and Jason, hesitantly, nodded. “We could do some things together there, if you want.” you smiled, “Maybe Thalia can come too?”

“I’m not sure, you know demigods attract monsters and I’m not allowed to have guests over-”

“Ah, we’ll just mist the mortals astray.” you waved the thought off, “And any monsters won’t stand a chance against the great son of Jupiter, right?” Jason squinted his eyes at your words, but agreed nonetheless. 

───────────

A few days later you had figured out a small plan. The most important parts of Christmas would be simply family and vibes. Thus, with the power of travel you made your way to Jason’s dormitory. Luckily, Thalia was also available, and even better she brought out a mini pine tree. 

“We get to decorate it, but we’ll have to replant it afterwards, without decorations.” Thalia smiled, “Grover made me promise that, and ensure that the soil it’s in now will have the tree easily survive the day.”

Thalia hugged Jason, and as she broke the hug she took a step back.

“You’ve grown so tall, little brother,” she patted his arm. “I don’t think I’ve grown since the last time you saw me, Thalia,” Jason smiled and Thalia shook her head. 

“Time’s different being a Hunter,” She looked serious, “and so is height of siblings-” 

Jason hit her arm as he laughed, “Well you seem to get smaller each day,” 

“Hey!” Thalia hit Jason and he let out an ‘oof’ as he stepped away. They both turned to you. 

“So, you’re the gift giver here,” Thalia eyed you up and down, “How’s our first family Christmas going to go, (Y/n)?”

And that is how you guys got to decorating. As the tree was rather small, and you would need to remove the decorations afterwards, you mostly put lights around Jason’s dorm instead, giving it a more homey vibe. Continuing on, the best thing you could think of to put Christmas ornaments around was to hang up garlands and hook the ornaments on those. It was a good thing that Jason could fly, because you currently did not have access to any stairs. 

After the very taxing decorating, you announced it was time for hot chocolate. However, that did not stop you from making it an activity. 

“Alright, so I know some people who have their own chocolate recipes,” You smiled, “Like Percy and his blue hot chocolate, and therefore it is time to come up with the Grace family hot chocolate!” Thalia and Jason spoke up at the same time; 

“How does Percy make his hot chocolate blue?” Jason asked,

“Grace family hot chocolate?” Thalia questioned. 

“One question at the time please,” you looked at Jason, “You haven’t heard it from me, but it’s white chocolate milk base with blue food dye, and yes Thalia, your own recipe!” You grabbed your bag and removed a second, smaller bag from it. It was filled with different types of chocolate and additives and spices, plus, of course, marshmallows and whipped cream. 

“So it’s a competition.” Thalia stated and you shook your head. 

“It doesn’t have to be, we can always just work together-?”

“No, Thalia is right. We should each make a drink and see who is the best.” Jason agreed with his sister, “I mean, we need to add the “spirit” to holiday spirit, right?”

“It’s not competitive spirit, Jason.” you objected. 

“How would you know, (Y/n),” Thalia grinned, “I’m the oldest here, so I am the wisest and I know it is.” 

“You’re certainly the best liar among us,” you sighed, “Sure, we’ll do a competition,” 

Thus, everyone started scrambling to get the best ingredients for their chocolate drink. Thalia seemed to have a game plan, perhaps a Hunter recipe, that she was making. You had some gist of what you wanted to achieve, but Jason. Oh no, you were not sure what he was doing but you truly hoped he would not accidentally poison someone with his drink. 

Well, actually, he just seemed to add some of every ingredient available in his dorm, which included instant noodle seasoning. At that point you decided not to look at your competition anymore, as it was weirding you out. 

A little while later, everyone had a cup of hot chocolate prepared. 

“So, we’ll pass them around…?” you carefully suggested, and the siblings agreed. Sadly, this meant you got Jason’s cup first. 

You didn’t know what you were expecting, but somehow the saltiness of the noodle seasoning and the sweetness of the chocolate wasn’t horrid. You were afraid to admit that you might have actually enjoyed the taste of the drink somewhat. Keeping your expression schooled, as to not give your judgment away to Thalia and Jason, you passed on the drink and got Thalia’s drink instead. 

The Hunters sure do know what a good hot chocolate is made out of. As soon as you sipped it you felt a warmth spread from your chest all over your body, making you shiver. There were hints of spices in the after taste, and it simply tasted like home, which made you a little suspicious. Especially as you got a little more energized after only one sip. 

“Thalia,” you looked at the girl, “did you add nectar to the drink?” 

Thalia hummed in response, as she gave Jason back his mug. 

“I think that’s cheating.” you stated, “Given that nectar will make anything taste delicious.” 

“That’s cheating?” Thalia sounded indignant, “What about Jason’s noodle spices!” 

“To be honest, I didn’t think that it would add anything-” the boy tried to defend himself. 

“Well it certainly wasn’t bad, Jason, just an,” you hesitated, “interesting choice. But that’s besides the point, I think the competition is undecided.” 

“What do we do then?” Jason looked at his cup, “Do we just make another round? Set up rules? Have an unbiased judge? A democratic vote?” 

“Get out of your Roman ass, Jason,” Thalia huffed, “Clearly we just do another competition next year! Everyone will have fair chances to come up with something phenomenal in their own time then.” 

Jason, unbothered by Thalia’s comment, agreed. 

“Seems our ‘Grace Family Hot Chocolate’ will simply have to be determined later.” he said.

───────────

As it was getting late, you went outside together, spending some last moments before Thalia and you had to leave. You had just finished planting the tree you used earlier as Thalia sighed, turning to Jason. 

“It was good to have a Christmas together,” her smile had a touch of sadness, “We haven’t really gotten the chance to do so before.” 

“We should do so again next year,” Jason agreed, “of course, (Y/n) is invited too.” 

You hummed in agreement, as silence overtook the conversation again. After a moment, Thalia straightened up.

“One last sibling hug?” She offered, and Jason gladly took it. Unbeknownst to you, she whispered “I’ll miss you, little brother,” in his ear, before breaking the hug. Jason looked at her for a moment. 

“You’re the greatest sister I could’ve had, you know that right?” he ruffled her hair, getting a glare in return, although Thalia did have joy in her eyes. She stepped away and looked at the horizon. 

“Well, I gotta go! I’ll visit soon, Jason. And (Y/n), the Hunters might come to camp in the near future, so keep your eyes out.” As she started running away you saluted her, before turning around. “I’ll see you later?” You asked Jason, and he nodded. “See you, and (Y/n), thank you for giving me the holiday spirit.” Jason smiled, “I suppose I understand why people enjoy it.”

[batarangsoundsdumb]

hae interrogationes multae respondeant quia demens .

if you read this entire ask post you deserve a gold star and financial recompensation

Um, Obviously because when you’re adopted by a white guy you automatically become white duhhh

this is about this post lmao and yeah youre absolutely right, you have to hand your poc card in when you get adopted by a white guy.

Do you think Cass would listen to Yanni, the YouTube channel epic symphonic rock, or some other stuff? There's some cool mashups but idk if that's up your alley, I kinda feel like I'm pushing it with my weird taste of music by recommending an orchestra cover of metal, but i just love that sort of thing and mashups :P @harvestyourcherries 

i haven’t heard of that? but in my personal (correct) opinion steph listens to classical music, and then both modern and older, and then also stuff like black sabbath, iron maiden, but also hardrock and hardcore. i like the idea of cass just liking the most extreme screaming songs full of noise and then also listen to pachelbel’s 370th sonata yanno? THANK YOU for the rec tho

speaking of ur cass playlist hc...reminds of the time (yesterday) i found 2 playlists randomly on spotify from the same user. one was abt 3 hours of instrumental/classical "dark" & "nostalgic" music. the other almost 11 hours of nothing but hardcore bass/synth/electronic music. just an incredible tightrope act to put on in public. the synth one was also called like "psalms for synth sluts" which is Also incredible

tbh i LOVE synth SO MUCH like for no reason at all but then also cannot handle a poppy electronic beat lmao. but this seems like the kinda thing i’d do but just in one (1) playlist bc i just sort songs by vibe instead of genre? that’s how i end up with britney spears and billy ray cyrus in the same playlist. 

Oh, I want Kate Kane playlist next! It would be amazing if you could do one when you have time and will 🙏

how rude would it be of me to just say no? like sorry kate but idk you and also you seem way too keen on the us military for an institution that homophobically targeted you? (and also commits war crimes) but let’s unpack the fact that the institution that caused the death of your mom and sister and also got you blacklisted for being gay is still one you align with???

'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' 'yes i am' 'no you're not' --- when i tell you i fucking screamed LOL!!!!!!! i can imagine the cameraman not knowing if he should cut to commercial or keep it on these two weirdos fighting on stage (bruce definitely ruffled dick's hair/noogied him right?? 

about this post but yeah lmao. this cameraman just turns to like the audience to get a reaction and it’s just multiple moments of CLEAR shock.

you are the only funny person on this hellsite

how egotistical is it for me to say that i get this ask multiple times a month? bc it literally happens so often it’s hilarious to me.

Wish there was more john/Bruce content 😔😔😔 was so hungry I actually looked at canon media 😔😔😔 (Justice League Dark babeeeyyyyyy)

check out batman: damned for some mediocre content but at least it’s john/bruce (also very interesting story and stuff, just got very >:( over this weird part where harley quinn tried to r*pe bruce or something? it’s not for everyone)

dick grayson but he's nicki minaj

his anaconda don’t want none,,, unless...... 

Dick Grayson was never a cop, he played Marshall on Paw Patrol

you are SO right. also paw patrol is a fucking good show idc. that shit could’ve been the new steven universe on this hellsite.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CS1lI0bLI7-/?utm_medium=copy_link

...

why do people keep reposting my CONTENT. if you are not funny yourself don’t just grab shit off of tumblr and post it on insta,,, get a life. sidenote: should i start an insta and get all these ppl to take my content down that would be funny as hell.

Might I suggest for a Gotham City Meme: something about the true crime fandom thirsting for the rogues gallery

ok can i just say something slightly controversial?? no? i don’t find true crime ppl who are into criminals funny, that shits disturbing irl im not gonna bring that into my very chill universe.

i may have never seen a 'jason cleaning guns in sink' fic but i do know he WOULD

THANK YOU

bestie im sorry to say this to you but while you can, and people do wash their guns in the sink, that is a lot of lead in a very vital part of the kitchen.

people tend to do it in the bathtub.

WHY???? like damn why do you even have guns

i dont think i read many gun sink fics exactly but i have read lots of fics where jason cleanes his guns in the living room. usualy dissembles them and cleans them with a rag i think

lmao fair enough, like i think that’s a large part of what i remember as well.

if you say you've seen/read gun sink fics I believe you. I think those of us who didn't see them are lucky or maybe didn't search for fics by tags or something idk

i mean ive never sought them out but i HAVE seen them,, like definitely i know almost for certain.

saw your tags and I'm interested in Steph/Kara now. They would be the most chaotic couple <3

literally thoooo, i have a wip where they get together in a zombie apocalypse and like UGGGHhhh i am so in love with them.

I am the Breece anon. Thanks for the recommendation; am reading now. I’ve always been a hardcore Superman fan because I love my pure himbo farm boy. My logic is, if one Bruce is a Broose, then multiple Broose are a herd of Breece. And this is a hill upon which I will perish.

fair enough,,,, like moose, meese, goose, geese, bruce, breece. i get your logic and i stand by it as well. (glad you enjoyed the comic recs!!!!)

It's a beautiful day in Gotham, and you are a group of horrible Breece

OH my god dude lmao

there only being 42 fics on ao3 for tim and bernard is honestly so sad i need more

it’s like twice that now!!! we did it lads. (tho very sad that my fic isnt number one but like number 4 :((((  )

i'm too late you already did the poll lol but may i suggest bethy (bernard + timothy)

shit dude that wouldve been so fucking funnyyyyy. think ppl have just stuck to timber tho, tim/bernard kinda died down recently and i think it’s too bad, they’re a great couple and i love them.

Wait, hear me out

Bernothy @redlightofdawn

great recommendation (lmao this ask is from like a month ago) but very sorry to announce that NARDTH is the superior shipname

Wait, we know that bernard likes milfs (Tim's step-mom) but what about dilfs? gilfs?

Wait no, I regret sending that ask

these were two seperate asks and they’re HILARIOUS. in my personal opinion tho,,, milfs, gilfs, dilfs are just about vibes and bernard is just attracted to sexy ppl who may sometimes be milfs, dilfs, or EVEN gilfs.

crime in bludhaven would drop to half if nightwing had a boob window. in this essay i will-

WHERE’S THE ESSAY ANON, WHERE’S THE FUCKING ESSAY

Wait if Barbra and Tim r at opposite ends at all times what happened to Barbra once everyone’s Tim’s ever love before started dying lol

she won a lottery ticket and spent 2 weeks on a resort in the bahamas before returning home and finding out that the joker was arrested for tax evasion and then spent a month staying at her big tiddie goth girlfriend’s house before conner came back to life and she broke her pinkie playing table hockey.

Why is the opposite end thing so funny and compelling to me. Tim comes back from his depression quest for Bruce and Babs is now a literal god

lmao when tim loses his spleen barbara reaches nirvana.

Are you still taking music recs because I have three songs that remind me of Jason that I think you'd like

send to me or lose a toe

🌸 ⭐ put this star into the inbox of your favorite blogs. it’s time to spread positivity! ⭐🌸😋

thanks, i wont tho on account of i wont.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMduBy3Sr/

⬆️

This is the whole of Blüdhaven and everyone anywhere.

Nightwings ass alone saves more people in a calendar year and does more for so society than most heroes do their whole career.Also u are one of the funniest tumblr pages out there. The vibes are unmatched and the memes and tags ✨send me✨.Thank u and goodnight @julia-flow 

fanksss also lmao.

That's going to be a little bit difficult to explain, but

There's some music that you listen to and you think, "oh my gosh, I can perfectly imagine Dick Grayson singing this song, with the same voice as the singer because that voice matches with Dick Grayson"?

oh yeah totally lmao. i have a lot of songs that i think are just entirely dick grayson yanno? kind of all of my playlists have that vibe, but i really find bleachers to fit with dick? idk.

"Lois lane/Superman" fics this, "Lois lane/Clark Kent" fics that, (/lh) let's get into the real good stuff. Some people ship Lois, Clark, and Superman as a throuple. Most popular fic tag for sure

yes totally, i think they’d be absolutely killer on ao3 and clark gets so fucking embarassed about it.

I miss your post, hope you’re doing okay!!

haha this was like 2 months ago, but i was doing fine then too! just didn’t have a lot of inspiration in terms of content.

Doot doot!

noot noot

I’m confused. What did DC do now? Like with nightwing? And another sibling? Please spoil everything for me

lmao they gave him a secret sister plotline where they had his dad cheat on his mom with tony zucco’s wife, bc dick’s life wasn’t traumatic enough yet.

sorry but it's so funny that batman is called "the dark knight" when the gotham city baseball team is called the gotham knights. it'd be like if a vigilante was running around new york called like "the scary yankee"

lmaooo no. but like yankee comes from dutch names or something so wouldnt it be HILARIOUS if gotham knights came from like german names and bruce would be running around called the dark KLAUS UND NIEK @graysonnightwing 

(not a batcest shipper) it’s so funny to me that the responses are “i’m a batcest shipper because i can differentiate fiction from reality and and it doesn’t bother me personally, but i understand why you oils think it’s weird” to “i wish all batcest shippers a very fucking die”

yeah lmaoo. i personally basically flipped my entire stance around to ‘i dont care please leave me and everybody else alone’ bc i think there’s really no point in starting a moral dillema over some fucking fandom bullshit. Please just,,, go home,,, log off, find a nice forest to have a little walk in and remember that somewhere in history, somebody probably died in the place you’re standing. and you will also die someday, and somebody will have to look at your internet usage and see you fighting multiple people anonymously while being named ‘nightwingsbuttchin200186′ like... calm down, we’re all gonna die this is not the thing to worry about.

so since like "wards" don't really exist in modern society almost all the batkids are foster kids, right? i used to work in the system and imagine: monthly visits from social workers and guardian ad litems, bruce having to get permission to take the boys anywhere out of state, calling their social worker at like 8 a.m. like "yeah dick broke his arm again... a gymnastics accident this time...." their poor social worker. bruce send her a huge bouquet and box of chocolates every month to stay on her good side

i imagine the social worker just getting into the case like ‘yeah let’s get this kid a good guardian’ and then ending up having to work with 22 y/o bruce wayne and his 50 y/o dad. and so this social worker is like ‘okay we can work with this, this is the best home i can find’ and then like it ends up landing on its feet and then the kid gets adopted and then they get a call a year later like ‘uhm so hi, this kid tried to steal my tyres can i adopt him?’ and like 3 years later. ‘okay so basically, my neighbours’ kid imprinted on me and now they’re dead, can i keep him?’ two years later it’s like ‘okay so this assassin child-’

ever since I saw that one post of yours, the meme that's something like "I know that abba's backup dancer got me" with a picture of discowing, I've been haunted. Every once in a while I'll be minding my own business then the image of abba's backup dancer dick grayson aka nightwing aka discowing will flash in my mind and I'll be frozen in place. Today at work I was in the middle of folding clothes and suddenly once again discowing entered my mind and I suddenly lost the ability to see anything except He. Thank you.

wow. the IMPACT.

Braver than any US marine man props to you🤝

this shit is about the time i wrote an article on batcest, like man,,, the fact that i didn’t get cancelled is MIRACULOUS. also like,,, uh if anybody on here did gossip on me,, send screenshots i’d love to see it.

Hello, just wanted to say your article was great. Thank you for taking the time to provide an unbaised answer. It should provide people with nuances they couldn't possibly conjure on their own.

May I ask where your username originates from?

yes you may (also thanks!!!) i thought it up when i was trying to find an original username bc i didnt want to be called like ‘timdrakes something something’ or ‘jason todd something smoething’ or ‘dick grayson something something’ yanno? so i thought batarangs, they sound so dumb and that’s my username story... now it’s my whole entire brand lmao.

yno that bit in kick ass where red mist asks kick ass if he wants a hit of his blunt, was that the inspo for stoner tim

no? it’s bc i think stoners are hilarious and drugs are great. (dont do drugs tho) 

How would u feel if someone actually wore one of those bruce or ollie pride shirts u edited

fenomenal next question.

Dick as lil huddy and Jason as James gave me radiation poisoning and now I’m screaming crying throwing up so thx for that

(Rico suave as Tim is perfect tho literally no changes needed)

i was so funny for that shit wasn’t i??? lmao i loved those weird ass fancasts

You're doing the Lord's work by providing us with all these Gotham/Metropolis citizens memes, thank you for being so relentlessly funny @nellethiel-aranel

you’re welcome!! i really enjoy making memes, but getting validation for my content and my memes is REALLY nice.

Bruce is such a slut in your memes and honestly i love that for him @rhodey-rhudert-rhodes-main 

he’s that much of a slut irl too dw.

Bruce and Alfred have an emergency pride flag for the batkids. Oliver Queen printed an emergency "I love my gay son" t-shirt and as soon as Roy told him he was dating Jason, Oliver started wearing that shirt everyday and Roy always cringes when he sees it. Oliver also has an emergency "I love my lesbian daughter" shirt just in case for Cissie.

lmao YES i had a post like this bc like all of their kids/family members are so gayy

stop bringing back batfam fancasts it is not real it is not real it is not- 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

oh yes it is my darling.

did discowing burn down the notredam because he hates the bees? @allulily

no he did it bc fuck the french.

im gonna beg for 1 thing and 1 thing only. please please please put physical by olivia newton john on dick's playlist

okay then beg. bc i wont. physical reminds me too much of glee and that hurts me mentally.

your playlist is sorely missing some Madonna. Specifically Into the Groove, Like a Prayer, and Vogue

i’m scared of madonna that’s why she’s not on there. she haunts me in my dreams.

suggestion: son of batman by aaron dews for dick’s playlist🤩

sorry, i listened to it and the vibe didn’t agree with me.

Hear me out, metropolis citizens sending rare pair fics of Clark Kent x Superman fics to Lois to edit

yes, absolutely hilarious. even more funny if they send like physical copies, no address attached and lois sends it back marked with red ink, SOMEHOW

Imagine all the smut Clark must of read editing the fics

clark reads smut confirmeeed

NOT LOIS READING SUPERBAT PORN AND EDITING IT A 2AM 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

hc that alfred is a meta that boosts healing factor of the people around him. if the bats are injured as much as they seem to be they would be doing bat stuff MAYBE half the year. no one including alfred knows about this. whenever the kids move out they inexplicably dont recover from injuries as fast and feel better whenever they visit the manor they just chalk it up to homesickness. bruce just thinks he heals really fast. alfred thinks everyone doesnt take care of themselves properly @finchcollector

that’s actually such a great idea, but i think that alfred would find out and learn how to concentrate it better so he can help more people, bc he’s great and i love him.

One of your dickfast posts reminded me of that tweet that goes: 'so you've had sex how many times? Yeah technically that's not a bromance' lol that's dickwally or dickroy

literally tho. like that’s all of dick’s friendships. once it gets past a certain time dick is like ‘wow i wonder what it would be like to make out with wally, wally come make out with me’ and wally’s like ‘we’ve done this like 40 times, dick, you know what it’s like’ and dick is like ‘sorry are you complaining?’ and they just make out.

superfam and batfam associations??

-batman and superman

-dick/barabara and supergirl?

-conner and tim

-jon and damian

pls enlighten me I am confused

nope,,, uhm batman and superman, but dick and superman as well, and then conner and tim, jon and damian and steph + babs with supergirl

I came across a fic in which Wonder Woman calls Batman "Stella" (like Stellaluna, the children's book) and I can imagine the batkids hop on the trend and maybe copies of the book appear at random places (aka, everywhere Bruce frequents)

sorry can’t reciprocate that was the name of my high school chemistry teacher and it gives me nightmares to think about.

good human what are your pronouns?

wouldn’t you like to know?

I need me some gothamites preferring harley over joker memes

everyone prefers harley over joker youre just very fucked up if you dont

don't understand why people try to add like veteran policy to the batfamily

dick pulling out his veteran batfam member card so he can eat first: step aside, peasants

Do you know the song Simmer by Haley Williams? It (the first verse anyways) reminds me of Jason? It's about rage.

damn yeah i LOVE HAYLEY!!!! youre right thoo

Okay so I like listen to your stoner Tim Drake playlist 24/7 but would he listen to skegss? Also I keep adding songs mentally it’s killing me 😩✋🏼 Anyways,, I literally love and worship your playlist 😃🤞🏼 And uh yeah have a good day ✨

stoner tim drake playlist is lyfeeee. also dont know who skeggs is? i’m stupid? have a good day!!

All the Robins (and Batgirl) decide to trade costumes for one night just to fuck with Batman and all the villains in Gotham. @subspacecadet 

batman knows it’s them youknow but like,,, what does he call them? he’s like ‘red hood?’ and 3 people answer and he’s not about to compromise some identities so he’s just Pissed.

I aspire to treat cops the way my dad treats them. This man is a 45 year old Asian immigrant to the US and the treats them like his pets. He talks about them like unruly children. Sometimes he pays off local cops to shut up and stop acting racist. And usually it works. I don’t know why but I can see Oliver Queen doing this

vibes... and also yes? oliver queen handing a local cop a donut to shut the fuck up lmao. but yanno i commit enough crimes to not really want to ever see a cop ever, so they kinda scare the everloving fuck out of me.

seeing as tim hasn't aged in years, that means he was 17 at peak emo tumblr era. im back on my emo tim bullshit and im not letting it go

emo tim had a wattpad account send tweet

People seem to think that batman is so dark and serious when the rainbow batsuit is right there. He wore it with no shame.

dude the 60s were a DIFFERENT TIME

dick grew up in a circus, jason grew up on the streets, and tim was probably raised by the internet

all of them cuss every other word and you cannot tell me otherwise

bitch i KNOW but dc has to change to an 18+ rating if they want to sell comix with swear words in them so we gotta deal with imagining the swear words in ourselves

thoughts on teen titans and young justice

haven’t seen teen titans on account of havent seen it and young justice was LITERALLY my favourite thing ever, tho i do gotta admit it’s not at all similar to the young justice comics unfortunately. i really wouldve liked to see timmy bart kon cassie and cissie animated on tv!!

ew ew ew how to delete batcest shippers I genuinely digust them

log off tumblr?

Okay as poc who was called racist for calling an Italian pastabrain: in the batfam are Italians bit Damian just yells various insults about the others being Italian. Just him yelling “What are you doing you moronic spaghettihead!” At steph etc

huh? i meant real italians. homeboy is telling steph he hopes she chokes on her fucking garlic.

I think it's dumb as hell to pull the batman is the best fighter in the batfam argument because like it's just irresponsible of Bruce to let his kids fight when they couldn't possibly be on his league or something

fair enough, but also like who cares they could all kill you just sit down and take a beating.

lady shiva, thalia al ghul and Selina Kyle are all milfs @notanothertimburtonenthusiastugh 

unfortunately, i have to admit,,, you’re right

why tf didn't someone give joker a death sentence already? like he's a mass murderer...give him the electric chair treatment wtf

idk i think plenty of people would have tried to murder him already (boring answer is: he is a popular character so they can’t kill him off bc he brings in lots of money)

There’s no such thing as “ copaganda”.

all american media is propaganda. happy to clear this up for you

is it bad that I find lady shiva owa owa

no. find her as owa owa as you want.

aight I'm guessing the order of your favs in batfam:

1. tim

2. Steph

3. dick

4. Duke

5. the rest

you’re wrong but it’s cute that you tried, i generally don’t have favourites, but i have a special place in my heart for steph, tim, dick and cass. bc they were like my introduction to batfam. but damian, jason, duke, bruce, babs and alfred are NOT FORGOTTEN OR UNLOVED

oh my god i was literally just readily willing to believe that italians werent white ty for clarifying it was a joke im so dumb sdkvjskdfs

i mean some italians aren’t white? italian is a nationality as well as an ethnicity, so like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

since I saw so many people doing headcanons about the nationalities of batboys, I see Dick as an Italian.

dont know if youre serious or not, but sure.

super random but

jason 🤝 damian

old english

lmao fair enough.

tim absolutely has 1 gay uncle and his parents shit talk said uncle all the time so after bruce adopts him he specifically reaches out to this uncle to be like "heyyyy just so you know you majorly influenced my life yes i know i havent seen you since i was 5 and at the family reunion yes i know you dont remember my name idc thank you im gay too" and then they never talk again.

yuppp lmao that’s definitely something that could happen. i can also consider tim having no family members, like none. until he does like a dna test and he realises he has like an aunt living barely 2 miles away from him who’s like some illegitimate child of his grandpa.

I dare you one of them sends clark superman/clark fic and clark corrects the shit out of it and then goes like ps his dick is not that big, just telling as someone who has seen it. internet either explodes or goes who tf did he not fuck at this point.

i think everybody would call clark a buzzkill and try to cancel him over that.

so you're telling me Tim Drake wouldn't buy Starbucks?

no. dunkin donuts all the way

One of my favorite things is imagining people finding out jason came back from the dead and being like "oh no does he have magic powers now?!?!?" and he just pulls out a gun and tries to shoot joker

now he doesn’t even have the gun :) lmao

my favorite batfamily fanfictions are the ones where they use their shitty codenames, unironically, in any context

bruce gets codename ‘ugh’ everytime. he hates it.

crazy that tim being a 17 y/o ceo and a stoner who does brand deals are all actual canon things written in detective comics comics and not made up for shits and giggles by you, tumblr user batarangsoundsdumb @rowdeyclown

SO CRAZY HUH?

batman au where everything is the same but his utility belt is bright pink

absolutely, but i raise you, his boots light up like sketchers when he kicks people.

unbeknownst to the superhero fandom writers in the dcuniverse, clark and BRUCE are one of the most prolific fanfic writers in the superhero rpf tag on ao3. clark writes the best lois x superman angst, full of unhappy endings and scenes that are a so detailed you'd think you were in the middle of a superhero beatdown. bruce made an ao3 account to fuel "the do the butts match" thing, and makes batman/bruce fics from time to time. he wrote a superbat fic as a joke but ended up making it REAL porny. @concrastinator

dude they’re WAY too busy for that. Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan on the other hand are the most prolific fanfic writers in the superhero rpf tag writing what is Mostly porn.

When the dining table topic gets to politics, Steph says "eat the rich" as the solution

bruce just silently takes away her fork and knife while she’s talking.

[red-winters]

*Batfam fic-recs

*Some are Tim Drake Centric

**Some links are not working in mobile (and ONLY mobile) for some reason? And some titles that were bolded in the original post are ALSO not displaying on mobile correctly. Idk what to do about that, but you can still look up the fic, I guess.

The Bat’s Crest - livierambles

Note: I will always keep recommending this fic. It’s epic, thrilling, and hilarious and sometimes angsty. Also, everyone is confused, including the ones doing the confusing. Maybe especially the ones doing the confusing. Also, some Tim and Damian bonding, which is always nice.

Summary: Tragedy strikes the hero community when Bruce Wayne commits a crime so heinous even the best start asking for blood. However, as the heroes try to recover from the hit and carry out justice for their friends, a random assortment of people start acting oddly, including the current Speedy Tim Drake, a child hostage in Gotham, and a young man from an unremarkable circus amongst others. All of them seem intent on saving Bruce Wayne from the grasp of the Justice League for no apparent reason, going as far as betraying their previous allegiances.

Unknown to the Justice League, these people are equally confused. Clearly they're stuck in another dimension, but how do they get back? How did they even get here? Who else is stuck in this world? And how long will Tim's patience last? Back home, the Bat was a planetary symbol that struck fear in the hearts of criminals. In this new world, it has no meaning, save for the handful of stranded souls.

In the Shadows - Kieron_ODuibhir

(shortened) Summary:

“I’m not like you.”

The cowl still looked like something he was wearing, but Clark knew it was not. It flexed like skin when Batman narrowed his blank white eyes and said, “I can see you know that.” 

Chirp - AmariT

Summary: Every piece of the signal Tim unlocked revealed more locks, and by the time he broke through the last one, he was already mentally rehearsing his many upcoming talk show appearances. 'Yes,' he told the interviewer, 'it was difficult for me, a ten-year-old genius, to break open the worldwide alien conspiracy. That's why it took a whole hour.'

When the crackling audio started, he expected some weird alien language. Maybe squawks and high-pitched squeals mixed with musical woofs. Maybe they wouldn't talk at all, and images would beam directly into his mind. Maybe they'd talk in practiced English with a Midwestern drawl like their other resident alien.

Instead he heard a low, guttural voice growling out of his computer speakers. "Robin," it said. "Are you in position?"

A Better Cage - Mangaluva

Note: I was absolutely DELIGHTED to see a Young Justice Crossover with the Justice Lords (Earth-50) from the animated Justice League series, which is near and dear to my heart. I admit I haven’t really had much time to hunker down and read this, but even skimming, it’s an intriguing piece of work. Also, Justice Lords.

Summary: Wally's grateful to have woken up at all, really. He just doesn't know what to make of the world he's woken up in. At least they want to find a way to his world as much as he does, if not exactly for the same reasons...

Common People - AmariT

Note: The Bat boys are all Bruce’s blood sons, but it still feels very much like a found family. I haven’t really read everything in this series, but I feel the author has an amazing grip on all the characters. Lovely and heartwarming.

Summary: His whole life, Jason’s mom had told him his dad was Bruce Wayne, but he’d never been dumb enough to actually believe it. They lived in a rundown, one-room apartment in the worst part of town, and in every single picture he’d ever seen of that rich bastard he was wearing a suit or sipping champagne worth more than everything they’d ever owned.

But if he wasn’t Bruce Wayne’s kid, then what the hell was he doing sitting outside the man’s office in Wayne Towers?

Red Robin and the Hood - momoejaku

Note: Haven’t read this in a while, but it made an impression. Though it’s a fic set during the Red Robin arc, it very much is about both Tim and Jason. Plus, it fleshes out the Pru and Z a bit more, too.

Summary: Bruce Wayne is dead. Superman brought back his body, and the family mourned him, holding a quiet funeral in secret so that the legacy of Batman could live on. But not everyone has been able to put him to rest.

Reeling from the loss of Bruce, his identity as Robin and his trust in his family, Tim Drake sets out on a personal quest that will take him across the world to prove what he knows in his heart: that Bruce Wayne is alive.

Though intending to make his way alone, Tim reluctantly accepts help from his predecessor, Jason Todd, who knows from personal experience that death is not always as final as it seems.

Together, they are Red Robin and the Hood.

Liminal Spaces - Calamityjim

Note: Skimmed this only since I’ve been busy, BUT it does look well-written, and I’m always a sucker for alternate dimension/dimension travel intervention-type of fix-its. It’s a very specific trope.

Summary:

Bruce's habit of collecting strays is not limited by dimension.

Or

When Young Justice Batman comes across an angsty, seemingly abandoned by his Batman Tim Drake, he decides to step up to the plate and parent the crap out of him.

Little Bird’s Vengeance - KatHarkness-Katara

Note: Crossover with Avengers. Awesome fic with Tim and Jason and some Outsider POV (via the Avengers) of these dimensional stragglers. I think Tim’s team shows up in the later chapters, too. If you’re reading on mobile, it’s still very much worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version.

Summary: Why is life never simple? Red Robin's ended up worlds away from home once again, and now what's he to do? What do the Avengers want from him; do SHIELD have another agenda; and is there any way back? Pre-New 52. No slash. Rated for inevitable language/violent themes.

A Displaced Red Robin - dragonprincess1988

Note: Worth reading despite FF.net’s horrible format and abundance of advertisements in the mobile version. Well-written fic! EMOTIONS! I love them. Younger Dick Grayson is adorable, Tim is a competent fixer-upper for other people but not so much himself. He’s kind of angsty and making YJ Dick want to keep him (and YJ Bruce, too, if you read between the lines). On the plus side, seems like he’s making good friends with Young Justice Roy. This fic was written before certain episodes of YJ came out, though, and the fic reflects/will continue to reflect that. Still, I give it five stars.

Author’s Summary: Tim gets transported to the cartoon Young Justice world, and he's not sure he knows how to deal with it. Attention: If you want to know about Artemis or people from Tim's world the final note on my profile is for you. Also, a special thank you to angel-gidget over at Tumblr, who made the wonderful cover art for this story.

The Till-then From the Ever Since - Keiron O_Duibhir

Note: Fandom classic. Definitely a must-read for Batfam fans, in my humble opinion.

Summary: It began, or seemed to begin, with Jason.

Usually that would have meant something in the order of fire and explosion and probably at least one gunshot wound, but for once (as Tim said, sourly), it wasn't actually Jason's fault.

The Wayne Family Ghost - pupeez4eva

Note: Please read this. Especially if you’re sad or anxious or just have time. I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s my go-to cheer-up fic. Absolutely hysterical.

Summary: In which Bruce realizes that having a legally dead son, who regularly hangs around the family, might be slightly problematic. 

Bloodline - chibi_nightowl

Note: Complicated family dynamics, this time centering around Tim, Selina, Bruce and, surprisingly, Damian. Jason and Dick make an appearance as supportive big bros, too. It works. Take a read, it isn’t that long.

Summary:

“Mr. Drake, I can’t think of a better way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt. This file is for your first adoption. By the Drakes.”

Tim blinked. “My what?”

“You were adopted as a newborn by Jack and Janet Drake.”

“Excuse me, but what the fuck are you talking about?”

Talon!Tim AU Series by keeptogethernow

Note: Found family, from a different angle. Cool fic and well-written.

Summary of Tso’ape Mumbichi, first in the series: Ten years ago, two people made a deal with the devil--unlimited funds in exchange for their child. And now it's time to pay up. But there's no way to ensure that the child will cooperate.

Shutterbug Series by goldkirk

Note: Exactly what it says on the tin! Found family.

Summary:

Tim Drake is thirteen, runs the famous BatWatch blog that has spiraled hilariously out of control, has absentee parents that suit his purposes just fine, is training himself to run the streets at night, and is doing absolutely peachy, thank you.

Alfred and Jason disagree, and get Dick and Bruce involved in figuring out their weird next door neighbor kid’s life. Everything goes uphill from there.

Thursday’s Child - anthalogia

Note: Well-written and has found family and Tiny!Tim? Automatic win.

Summary:

He’s not the first child with nowhere else to go that Bruce Wayne has taken in. Dick Grayson was the first and the most high-profile – because no one would have thought Bruce Wayne was interested in ever raising a child, let alone the orphaned son of circus performers – but Jason was maybe just as much of a shock to society for being a street kid who came out of seemingly nowhere. Tim Drake is ordinary by comparison – his parents died in a plane accident. He can’t think of anything very special about him except that he met Bruce a few times when his parents hosted parties to keep in touch with Gotham society.

Or, tiny Tim Drake is adopted by the Waynes a little earlier than scheduled.

We’re Not Driving (How did we get here?) - TimTheToaster

Note: Short and sweet, a little angsty, and then very sweet.

Summary:

Tim stared at his phone, as if that would change what was on the screen.

Dick Grayson @FlyingDGrayson

It took some doing, and in some cases a little blackmail, but we've finally got the whole family together for a movie night! #WayneManor #movienight #familytime #schedulingisanightmare

15 minutes ago

Take It Back Now Y’all - TimTheToaster

Note: And Tiny!Jason has made his appearance. Also, Tim, I am begging you to please take care of yourself—ah, Bruce has made his appearance. Interesting. Also, I gotta say this author is good.

Summary:

There was absolutely no way this sunshine was from Gotham in April.

Not possible.

Which meant, Tim was no longer in Gotham, in April.

(In which Tim finds himself in the past, and tries to do the right thing. It's more complicated than he'd like.)

Takes a Little Time, Takes a Lotta Twine (To Get Us Back Together) - TimTheToaster

Note: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, beginning of reconciliation, and brotherhood. A satisfying, cathartic moment during the Red Robin arc to soothe your heart.

Summary:

Tim was in Gotham.

Tim had pretty specifically been avoiding thinking about Dick as much as possible for the last few weeks.

For the last year, really. No need to open that can of carnivorous worms.

Dick had other plans.

Everybody’s Heard (Bird is the Word) - TimTheToaster

Red Robin Era ANGST, but like, deliciously well-written. Also, protective Dad Bruce is always epic. Light bashing of Green Arrow and BC, though. But considering the situation (in this fic), kind of warranted.

Summary:

5 times Batman heard other heroes talking about his wayward brother,

And 1 time they were talking about his son.

A Choice to Make - scorbusfics

Note: fresh and interesting premise! Cool world building, too.

Summary: They have to choose. Dick and Bruce have to choose one person each to save, and one to disappear through the door.

“Send one of us,” Dick says fiercely, not for the first time. His face is dark and angry and desperate, eyes flicking from brother to brother. “Send one of us instead. I won’t choose.”

“Neither will I,” Bruce says.

But Tim knows.

Secret Places - RenaRoo

It’s ANGST, but the author knows how to use it well. Also, Jason’s line at the end killed me. Damn.

Summary: Tim Drake goes missing. The search to find him begins.

[m00nslippers]

Congrats on 300 followers 💜 for a fic request, could you write some jaydick in the young justice universe? Pre-jason’s death, maybe dick teaching him some moves?

THIS TOOK ME FOREVER BUT I DIDN’T FORGET!!

Alright so Jason in particular is quite a bit younger than Dick at the time of this, Jason 13, Dick 17, so this is more like pre-slash than outright JayDick. So sorry if that isn’t what you wanted but I think it makes more sense that way. I hope you enjoy it!

JayDick, Young Justice fic

- - -

It had been almost a year since Dickcame home from a month-long mission with his Young Justice team onesummer to the surprise and insult of a new kid in the batcave,training in something that resembled Dick’sold uniform.

Yes, Dick had been operating asNightwing for over six months and working nearly exclusively out ofHappy Harbor. Yes, Barbara was spending more time with Young Justiceas well, leaving Bruce as Gotham’s sole vigilante more often thannot. Dick acknowledged that, even agreed that the idea of bringing insomeone new was a good one. Bruce acted as if he were implacablestone more often than not, but the man wasn’t infallible orinvulnerable and Dick would honestly feel more comfortable knowingsomeone was watching Batman’s back in the field when he wasn’t there.

But the fact that it was a new boybrought in right under his nose,living in Dick’s house, wearing his uniform, using hisname, smiling at hisfamily…well, he’d been pissed. He and Bruce had foughtbefore, but not like this. Dick hadn’t even known he had it in him tohate Bruce like that, even if just for a few days.

So yeah, Dick didn’t take it well. Hesaid and assumed some things about Jason and Bruce that were way outof line, and he and Jason were off to a rocky start as the kidreacted to Dick’s initial hostility with mutual enmity. Therelationship never really recovered, even once Dick cooled off.

And he’d thought that was fine. Dickhad plenty of friends, it was alright if he didn’t get along withthis one person. As likeable as he was, and as much as he tended tolike people back, it was just inevitable that Dick would eventuallycome across someone he couldn’t stand. It was nobody’s fault,except for maybe Bruce’s.

Dick had been content to let his andJason’s relationship remain a distant one.

Then one afternoon Dick was laughing onthe beach at the Young Justice compound, the sun shining hot and thewater glittering and cool. M'gann and Conner were splashing eachother in the water as Zatanna, Barbara and Artemis heckled them fromnearby. Wally kept trying to disrupt it all with the wave from hiscannonballs and Kalder surveyed it all with a quiet smile, swimmingeasy laps nearby.

After a while, Wally managed to annoythe three girls enough to have them bodily shoving him onto shore ashe grinned and said something to his girlfriend that had Artemiskicking sand in his face with a shout. Then Dick’s best friend wasstumbling up to the beach umbrella and sitting down next to him inthe shade, dusting sand from his hair with a snicker.

Wally met his raised eyebrow with a wrysmile and said, “Damn, guess I’m banished up here to Gotham.”

Dick laughed. “It’s just as well,Wall’. Your shoulders are already as red as your hair. Put some moresunscreen on.”

Wally laid back on the towel under theumbrella with a smirk. “Naw, no sun in Gotham. I’m safe up here.”

Dick rolled his eyes, finding hisfriends’ continued misconceptions about Gotham amusing, but he couldadmit that the whole afternoon had been light and friendship andcamaraderie and fun—everything Gotham wasn’t.

Everything Gotham wasn’t.

And for somereason, even though Dick had hardly thought of the boy who’d takenhis place in months, his mind flashed to the darkness of Bruce’sstudy, the perpetual marine-layer dulling the sky to gray, and theeery, lonely creaking of the stair steps of the manor. And heremembered there was a kid back there, living in the city his friendsjokingly called ‘the underworld’, living with the man most of themwere still scared of, and fighting a losing battle against crimewithout any of the things that Dick had in front of him.

And suddenly hefelt guilty and selfish.

Wally frowned atthe visible drop in his friend’s mood. “Hey, you okay bro?”

Dick said, “Yeah,sure,” with a tight smile. Then he stood up and walked toward thebase with Wally asking him where he was going as he answered,“Nowhere, I’ve just got to make a call real quick.”

Dick pulled out hisphone, dialed a number, and on the pick-up he said, “Hello, Alfred?It’s me, Dick. I think I’m going to come home for a few days.”

- - -

Dick made his opening move on thechessboard. Across from him, Jason examined the board a moment beforemaking his own. They were in the library of Wayne Manor, which waspretty much the only place Dick ever saw Jason outside of training orgrappling over Gotham rooftops, where he was nearly always wearing amask. It was strange to realize it, but Dick had never really takenthe time to look at the kid, take in his face, his mannerisms, reallycommit the essence of what made him Jason toheart. Dick was starting to realize he’d never committed to anythingabout Jason until now.And it was beginning to occur to Dick how unacceptable that was.

The kid was a middle schooler to Dick’ssenior in high school. Jason’s hair was perpetually messy. He wasskinny but his shoulders were already broad enough, his legs longenough, that he’d probably be huge when fully grown. Jason chewed onthe inside of his mouth when he was thinking and he had a way ofstaring intensely with sea-glass colored eyes at things when he wasconsidering them, and Jason was alwaysthinking, alwaysconsidering. He didn’t seem to trust much of anyone or anythingoutside of Bruce and Alfred. Around Dick, the boy’s muscleswent stiff with nervous energy, but his cheeks blushed endearinglypink when Dick had smiled at him, maybe for the first time.

This was all information that Dickshould have known. It was all things he’d learned since coming backto Gotham.

Dick made his next move in silence andexamined his opponent as Jason did the same. This was his third nightin the Manor and their fifth game in that time, and Dick wasbeginning to see Jason’s style. He was slow at the start, feeling outhis opponent, but brutal in the attack and willing to makesacrifices, making excellent use of traps. He was good. Reallygood for someone who’d just started. Dickwas still better, but that was beside the point.

“So, what were you thinking of doingduring summer break? That’s coming up, isn’t it?” Dick asked aftermaking his move. He scored one of Jason’s pawns, but the kid didn’treact to the steal. All within his calculations for acceptablelosses, apparently.

Jason narrowed his eyes at Dick withsuspicion, mid-reach for his piece. He truly had an intense starethat nearly gave Dick a shiver when it was aimed at him. Jasoncautiously made his move without taking his eyes off Dick andanswered, “Patrols. Maybe go to the library. Catch up on schoolwork. Help Alfred around the house.”

Dick raised a brow. That all soundedso…lonely. As he expected, everything Jason did was either alone orwith one of his guardians, neither of which were especiallydemonstrative or openly affectionate people. God, the situation mightactually be worse than Dick had thought.

He lined up his knight to steal Jason’sbishop. “That’s it?” Dick asked. “That’s all you plan to do?”

Now Jason was outright glaring, hisvoice hard and clipped. “Yeah, it is. What’s wrong with it?”

Dick raised his brows at the hostility.He supposed he should expect it, given their relationship but theglares and sharp words felt like knives stabbing in to him.

“Nothing, just thought you might wantto get out of Gotham. Get out from under Bruce’s thumb, you know?”Dick shrugged. “You’re a kid, you should have some fun. Go to thebeach, make some friends, that kind of thing.”

Jason released an annoyed sigh,lowering his eyelids to a harsh stare. “I don’t want in yourJustice Club, Dick.”

Dick hadn’t thought he was being soobvious in leading up to an invitation to the Young Justice base inHappy Harbor, but he was starting to recognize Jason had an extremeability to read people, which made subtlety kind of pointless. Hecaught on to people’s motivations and actions too quickly for it towork very well, and because of his background, he interpretedanything but extreme bluntness as manipulation. It really just wentto show that Jason and Dick weren’t having enough interaction if hewas walking himself into traps like this after knowing the boy nearlya year.

Deciding that any denial on his partwould just result in further suspicion, Dick decided to put all hiscards on the table. “Oh come on, you’d love it! People your own agewith the same experiences you have, people you can trust with yoursecrets. I know everything Young Justice had to offer did me a lot ofgood back in the day—is still doing me a lot of good.”

“Not interested,” Jason fired back,taking his bishop out of harms way and threatening Dick’s knight withhis rook. The expression on his face had somehow gotten more intenseas if he wanted it to be known that he planned to block outeverything Dick had to say by focusing on their game.

Dick chewed his lip, trying to figureout why the boy could be saying ‘no’. When he was Jason’s age he’dleapt at the chance to work with other teen heroes. He’d known Jasonwas a different person from himself, but Dick had thought that desirewould be a universal one. “Any particular reason?” he asked,trying to feel out the issue. “Maybe I can do something about it.If it’s the distance from home, or maybe you’re shy, or—”

Jason’s brows snapped together andscowled, tone becoming hostile as he growled, “Look, I’m not a kid,okay? And I’m not fucking shy. I don’t need you looking out for me.”

If Dick still qualified as a kid—whichhe was pretty certain he did to most people—then certainly Jasonwho was five years his junior did too. But he didn’t think thatopinion would go down very well and he was already on shaky groundwith the kid, so instead he said, “Everyone needs someone lookingout for them.”

This was apparently the worst possiblething to say, because Jason stood up abruptly from his chair,knocking it over onto the patterned parquet floor with a racket thatmade Dick flinch. Jason did an amazing job at looming over theirchessboard with a baleful glare, looking bizarrely intimidating for athirteen year old.

“I have people looking out forme,” Jason snarled as Dick blinked at him. “I’ve got Bruce andI’ve got Alfred, people you don’t seem to give a damn about anymore.At least they want me, want anything to do with me, unlike youhave for the past year. You think you can just waltz back in hereafter all this time and I’ll fall at the legendary Dick Grayson’sfeat and accept the crumbs from your hand?”

Jasonpushed away from the table, sounding disgusted as he looked down hisnose at Dick. “I’m not anidiot, okay? People who suddenly start acting nice after beingcomplete assholes from the moment you meetthem don’t mean anything good. I don’t need youor your approval, or whatever this…thingis you’re trying to do all of a sudden.So just fuck off back to wherever and leave me alone.”

Andwith that the boy whirled onhis feet and walked out of the room, leaving Dick alone with anunfinished chess match and an upended chair on the ground.

“Fuck,” hecursed to himself.

- - -

Dicktook a few hours to analyze where he went wrong before confrontingJason again. When Bruce invited him to patrol with him and Jason, hedeclined, causing Bruce to raise a surprised eyebrow. Raiding thekitchen for snacks and munching alone in the breakfast nook as hewaited for Jason to get back, he turned the conversation over in hishead and eventually realized where he’d made his mistake.

So when he heardthe sound of the passage moving behind the clock in the study acrossthe house, and then the steps of someone lighter than Bruce going upthe stairs towards the bedrooms, Dick thought he was as ready as he’dever be. He made his way to Jason’s room, found the door closed withlight peeking from the seams and quietly rapped his knuckles againstthe old wood and asked to come in.

No response.

Dick frowned andopened the door only to find Jason’s room empty of any occupants, buthis nightstand light was on and the window was open with the curtainsfluttering lightly.

Alarmflooded through Dick’ssystem with the possibility of Jason having been taken or run away.Hiseyes quickly darted around the room, noting that all of Jason’sthings seemed to still be there,including a guitar, a large collection of books, a red hoodiehanging from his desk chair and his backpack with his homework. Asound came from outside the window and Dick ran over to lean out andsighed in relief as he saw Jason layingdown on the roof of the room below, looking up at the star-filledsky.

Dick considered amoment before climbing out after Jason, laying down next to him onthe slanted roof with the boy glaring silently all the while, clad ina loose shirt and pajamas and no socks similar to Dick’s own shirtand boxers.

“Hey,” Dicksaid, feeling oddly nervous. “How was patrol with B?”

“Fine,” was thesingular, unfriendly response as the boy looked away from him tostare towards the treeline obscuring the city lights of the islands.

“Niceout here, huh? I used to walk around on the roof a lot, too. Alfredhates it, though. He says it’s dangerous, as if grappling across thecity isn’t way more dangerous, you know?” Dick chuckle fell flat asJason stayed silent.

“What do youwant?” Jason finally asked after a few moments of awkward tension.

Dicksighed. “Look, I…I can see why your angry with me, whymy actions seem suspicious. Whenwe first met, I didn’t leave a good impression. I was pissed withBruce for giving away something that was important to me withoutasking. He shouldn’t have done that, but that wasn’t your fault, andI took it out on you. It made me too blind to see that even thoughthe way Bruce went about it was wrong, that he’d made a gooddecision. You’re a good Robin, Jason. AndI’m glad you’re here to watch Bruce’s back forme and carry on the name.I’m sorry I didn’t give you a chance, and I’m sorry that it took methis long to apologize. Thatwas something that I needed to say and that you needed to hear beforeI tried to act friendly. It was selfish of me to think I could justskip that step because it seemed easier than saying I was wrong.”

Jason stared atDick, chewing on his lower lip for a while as his eyes got red andglassy and he blinked is gaze away from Dick’s face to stare hard atthe trees before pretending to wipe something from his eyes. Withonly a bit of a sniffle, he finally croaked a quiet, “Okay.”

“Okay?”Dick repeated. “So…we’reokay? You’ll rethink my invitation to Young Justice?”

Jasonsighed. “You don’t need tosuck up to me by letting me tag along withthe ‘big kids’. I said we’recool now.”

Dick couldn’t helphis expression from contorting into something like disappointment.“Sucking up has nothing to do with it. You’re my legacy, right?Don’t you think we should get to know each other? And the rest of theteam has to meet the new Robin too. What if something happens to meand they need your back-up? Robin always has a place in YoungJustice, he’s a founding member.”

Jason’smouth tightened, eyesshifting to Dick and then away again guardedly.“You don’t think…I’dbe in the way?”

Dick smiled,finally feeling like he was on solid ground. “Jay, you are alreadygood enough to run with Batman, you won’t be in the way, you couldn’tbe,” he said with complete sincerity. Bruce knew what he was doingwhen it came to training. Jason already knew more skills than most ofthe powered members on the team, and the war-zone of criminality thatwas Gotham city gave its vigilantes more experience than almost anyother city on Earth.

Dick scooted closerto Jason until their elbows were knocking and nudged the boy until helooked up at him. “This is just between you and me,” Dickconfided, “but a few people are thinking about leaving orgraduating to the Justice League. We have a few names of kidsshortlisted for the team, but no one who can lead. We’re going to beshort-handed really soon. You’d be doing me a favor, to be honest.”

That wasn’t hisinitial reason for inviting Jason, but now that it had occurred tohim, the team really could use him. Artemis and Wally were bothquitting to go to college and he’d been talking with Aqualad about along term undercover project. Everything would fall on Dick prettysoon. He’d talked with Barbara about making the YJ full-time for herbut she wasn’t sure how she would hide that from her dad so it mightnot work out. Having another bat to rely on would be a godsend. Andthen he’d really get to see what Jason could do.

Dick repressed awry smile at the thought. Bruce would be so annoyed that Dick wastrying to steal his new kid for the team.

Jason snorted. “Youhardly even know me. Why do you think I’d be good at leading?”

Dick shrugged.“Partly because I trust Bruce to only work with the best people.That includes you, Jay. And the rest…call it a hunch.”

Theboy raised a dubious brow. “A'hunch’? Batman let’s you get away with 'hunches’ does he? He’salways riding my ass about having 'evidence’ for my conclusions.”Dick could see that. Jasonseemed like the kind of person that intuited things without beingaware of all the steps his mind was taking, but Bruce liked facts.

Dick smirked.“That’s the awesome thing about Young Justice—no Batmanglooming-up the place.” Not all the time, anyway. He was stilltheir League contact but mostly only the leaders had to deal withhim.

Jason hummedacknowledgment at the validity of his point. “You make anattractive argument.”

“Well I’m an'attractive’ guy,” Dick replied, bobbing his eyebrows suggestively.

Jason made a faceand a smile started tugging at his lips as he tried to suppress itand a pink blush colored his cheeks. “Don’t do that,” he said,clearly having trouble not laughing.

“What,this?” Dick gave his most over-the-top flirty look and bobbed hiseyebrows again and Jason couldn’t hold it in anymore and let out asnicker and then a laugh, andnow Dick was grinning too. Thoughit was the dead of night, it felt like the sun had come out.

Hecould have had this months ago, Dick realized. He’d been an idiot tolet this drag out so long, thiswas worth so much more than his anger with Bruce. This was somethinghe’d been missing but hadn’t even known he’d wanted.

“When do you getout of school?” Dick asked, suddenly feeling as if the day couldn’tcome fast enough.

“Endof the month. But I was thinking of doing tutoring over the summer. Iwant to get ahead in class,” Jason confessed, looking embarrassedand Dick realized this might be connected to the story Bruce toldhim, about how Jason had been out of school while on thestreets and he’d had to playcatch up on top of his Robin training before Bruce would let him goin the field.

Dickshrugged. There was nothing wrong with getting ahead but he figuredany fears Jason had about falling behind again were baseless. Brucehad spoken about Jason’s good grades and how well he was doing,which at the time had seemed like bragging and pissed Dick off but inretrospect might have been Bruce trying to get him to pay attentionto Jason.

“I’mnot sure you really need tutoring,”Dick said, “I knowyou’re smart and pickthings up quickly. But if you want to study, I could help you. OrArtemis or Wally could, I doubt they’d mind. Wally seems like a dork,but he’s actually a big science geek.”

Jasonconsidered this, biting his lip before saying, “Okay.I mean, I guess I could. If your sure.”

Dick grinned.“Awesome. The day your school lets out, its a date.”

“A date. Right,”Jason repeated shyly, freckles standing out in the distant light fromhis window.

Dick caught himselfstaring before he shook his head clear and stood up, balancing easilyon the steep slope of the roof as he stretched. “Alright, it mightbe summer but it’s getting pretty cold out here, I’m going to headin. You coming?”

Jason shook hishead and looked back toward the dark treeline. “I will in aminute.”

“Then I guessthis is goodnight, Jay. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

“Okay.Goodnight…Dick.”

- - -

Hope you liked it!

[ilovemygaydad]

Friends in Dark Places [remastered; ch 13]

pairing: moxiety, eventual logince, background eventual remile, background eventual remy/emile/deceit

WARNINGS: kissing, mentions of panic attacks, crying, anxiety, worry, self hate, journaling, swearing, depression, flashback to the first chapter (same warnings apply to the first one), possibly something else?

tag list: @hufflepuffgirl01 @cocobearthe4th @cas-is-a-hunter @band-be-boss-blog @theunoriginaldaisy

a/n: jsyk, it’s totally okay to ask for a modified chapter if you need it or if i need to add tags! i get it, and it’s no problem for me to quick edit a chapter or whatever :) also, feel free to send requests or questions that you have!

a/n 2: :)

chapter 1 - chapter 2 - chapter 3 - chapter 4 - chapter 5 - chapter 6 -chapter 7 - chapter 8 - chapter 9 - chapter 10 - chapter 11 - chapter 12

companion fics: exes and ‘oh’s

consider buying me a coffee

-

Virgil’s lips were so soft. That was the only thought that ran through Patton’s mind. Heat rose to his cheeks as he gently pulled away, raising his fingertips to cover his mouth.

Oh my god. That just happened.

Someone had kissed him. And it wasn’t for their own benefit!

Virgil seemed to have calmed down for the most part, having leaned back on the glass door in awe. He had just done that. He had done that!

Patton called his mom, asking her to come pick them up. He wouldn’t tell Virgil, but their little, uh, incident made him worried that there would be more anxiety to follow if they stayed. He then shot a few texts to Logan so that he’d know what happened.

Patton

Read 9:47

Hey, kiddo! Virgil and I are going to head home. He had a bit of a panic attack, so I called my mom to pick us up

Logan

Delivered 9:47

I could have driven you two home. Roman ditched me to, presumably, make out with someone.

Patton

Read 9:49

Sounds about right :P

Patton

Read 10:05

Logan

Logan

Delivered 10:06

Yes, Patton?

Patton

Read 10:08

Uh

Funny story

So, uh…

Virgil

Kissed me?

And now we’re holding hands

What do I do?

Logan

Delivered 10:08

You what now?

Patton are you serious?

Patton?

Patton

Read 10:11

Sorry I may have kissed him again

And by may have I mean that I definitely did

Wow he’s a really great kisser

Logan

Delivered 10:11

You sound like Roman.

Patton

Read 10:11

That’s fair 

It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that Patton liked Virgil. He easily and quickly grew attached to people, which made it simple for him to get along with others. He was liked by most, and he fell in love with ease. That wasn’t any different with Virgil; he’d just been hesitant to show it.

He saw the flash of headlights pulling up and stood, slipping his hand from Virgil’s. “Are you okay to walk, or do you want me to carry you?” Patton’s mind drifted back to the night that they had first met.

---

He had been trudging home when he saw the figure on the bridge.

It had been a pretty shit night, if he was going to be honest. Patton had been on his way to his boyfriend’s house, hoping to watch a movie or something, and decided to stop by the park to take a more scenic walk. He walked around the beautiful foliage until he saw them. Luke was sitting on a park bench with his hands needily clawing at another guy as they aggressively made out. It was unbelievable, yet the scene made complete sense. Patton spun on his heel and wandered around town for hours, losing track of time before he finally realized that he needed to head home. On his way, he saw the kid. He ran to the railing, hoping to catch them before they ended their life.

“Um,” Patton squeaked; his voice sounded weak to his own ears. “Hello? Please don’t jump.”

The person spun around so fast—far too fast to be safe while standing on the edge of an impending drop. Their scrutinizing eyes scanned Patton for just a second. “What are you doing here?!”

He hadn’t really thought that far. Patton didn’t want them to jump, that much was obvious, but he wasn’t too keen to retell the events of the night. “Um, I, uh, was just walking by and happened to see you here. I don’t want you to jump.”

The stranger stared at him for one. Two. Three beats.

“Look. You have no idea who I am, and I have no idea who you are. You don’t know my intentions, so just go away and leave me here alone.” The harsh tone in the stranger’s voice unsettled something deep in Patton’s stomach. Tears began to drip from his eyes, growing faster and faster until he was flat-out bawling on the sidewalk.

“What are you doing?” The stranger spat.  “You’re being fucking loud! People are going to start trying to find out what’s happening can you—Fucking hell.” Patton heard the sound of feet on the pavement and immediately tried to wipe up his tears.

The teen spoke again. “Look. I’m off the ledge. Just stop fucking crying.” That prompted Pat to look up. He saw the hurt in the kid’s eyes and couldn’t bear to take any chances.

“Promise that you won’t jump off the bridge.”

“Yeah, whatever. I won’t jump off,” the kid scoffed, throwing in a complementary eye roll.

“I said to promise me!” The intensity in Patton’s voice shocked even him.

"I—What? Listen—“ “Promise me!” Patton yelled. “Promise me that you won’t kill yourself tonight! I don’t care what your reasoning is for doing this, but it’s not good enough! Promise me or I’m going to call the cops and tell them you’re trying to commit suicide, and I know that you don’t want the authorities involved.” It was a low blow, threatening to call the police, but he was pretty desperate at this point. Anything that’d work. He dug his phone out and wiggled it slightly, adding depth to his promise.

“I–okay, look–I promise I won’t kill myself tonight just please put the phone down. Please, don’t call the police. I promise; I won’t do anything.” The kid’s voice was rushed and breathy. They were struggling to breathe. 

Panic attack, his mind supplied. Oh no.

Patton dialed his mom’s number in a heartbeat. He quickly asked her to pick him up at the bridge. There was a flash of movement before a body came slumping into his arms. Pat gently scooped the stranger up.

And from that moment, Patton had become invested.

---

“I can walk.” Virgil wobbled a bit as he stood up, but he did seem to have the strength and energy. As soon as they were in the car, however, Virgil slumped into Patton and curled up, reveling in the warmth and comfort of his… friend?

Pat nearly let out a quiet “awwww” at how cute Virge was.

The whole ride home was silent. No music, no conversation, no nothing. Patton expected that he and his mother would be having a long conversation tomorrow about what had transpired, but that was a thought for another time.

Pat picked up the sleepy Virgil once they’d arrived and carried him slowly up the steps to Virgil’s bedroom. He was once again brought back to their first meeting. He’d gently taken set the stranger on his bed and made sure they were absolutely okay before leaving. Tonight, however, he had a feeling he’d be staying in the room.

He quietly went to his own room for a few minutes so both he and Virgil could change into pajamas. It was almost surprising that Virge was sat up, expectantly—and sleepily—awaiting Patton’s return.

“Do you want me to stay in here tonight?” It was barely a question. Virgil nodded and flopped back, pulling the covers up over his head and curling up. Unlike the first time they’d shared the bed, Patton immediately slipped under the blankets.

The buried Virgil grabbed Patton’s hand and pulled it close as if it were some sort of comfort object. Silently, Patton mused that he’d only be able to retrieve full control of his body by prying himself from Virgil’s cold, dead hands. Soon enough, though, they both fell asleep, blissfully sleeping away any stress.

---

Patton woke up in the middle of the night. His body tended to do that--just randomly waking from slumber for no reason in particular. It was irritating, to say the very least.

Pat opened his eyes and saw Virgil’s delicate features just inches away. He was such a good kid. He was such a good friend.

The negative thoughts in his mind overwhelmed him in an instant. Oh, god. Oh no. No! No, no, no! I can’t do this. That would be unfair. I’m just going to hurt him. I’m going to hurt him. I can’t do that. I can’t!

He scrambled back, falling backwards off the bed. Patton stifled a scream with his hand, not wanting to wake Virgil. Of course the intrusive thoughts would come back just when he had something good in his life. Patton wasn’t meant to be happy.

You’re not good enough! You’re a terrible person—just like Jason used to tell you! You only hurt; you can’t fix anything. You break everything you touch!

Tears streamed down his face as he silently ran to his room. He had made a mistake--one that he didn’t know how to fix or even if he could fix it. He texted the only people he knew could help.

pattonly-loveable [1:35, read]

Guys I really messed up

loganch [1:35]

Patton, what are you doing up?

And what did you do?

Are you okay?

Do we need to hide a body?

princeofthegays [1:35]

Are you good????

pattonly-loveable [1:35, read]

So you know how virgil and I kissed??

Sorry if you didn’t know, ro

Anyway

That’s how I messed up

princeofthegays [1:36]

First of all, I’m proud of you

Second, how is that a bad thing? I’m not sure that I understand how love can be bad…

pattonly-amazing [1:36, read]

I’m going to end up hurting Virgil and it’s gonna kill me to see that happen

loganch [1:37]

Patton, that is literally absurd.

You obviously care for Virgil very much. Even I can see that. You have done nothing but have his best interest at heart since you met him. If you truly believe that you would hurt him, you are as stupid as a rock.

princeofthegays [1:37]

I’ve gotta agree with the brainiac for once

That didn’t help Patton in the slightest. He still felt off about the whole thing. He didn’t deserve the love that any of them gave him. He was terrible and just not a good person.

He wasn’t worth it.

---

Dear diary,

It’s been a long time since I’ve written in here—too long, maybe. I think it’s a good time to do so, though.

Let’s get things straight. Or rather, not straight. Pretty damn not straight to be honest. 

Virgil kissed me tonight. It was really great. But there’s just something that doesn’t settle right in me.

I can’t be with him. I ruin everything I touch. I can’t provide the love and care that he needs--I’m useless to him. Not to mention how he’s just going to hate me once he realizes how absolutely pathetic I am.

Virgil should’ve picked Roman. Ro is smart, charismatic, creative, romantic, and so many other things that I’m just not! He knows how to be a good partner. He can plan dates like the best of them, and he’s never once had a partner cheat on him because he’s just that damn irresistible. Roman is perfect; whereas, I’m the exact opposite. I’m ridiculously stupid (just ask Logan; he had to help me with countless assignments over the years), I’m too shy for my own good, and I take exactly zero risks (see: I’ve wanted to kiss Virgil for so long)!

Logan would also be better suited! He’s the smartest of anybody I know, and he’s considerate, thoughtful, and, even though he tries to hide it, loving. Logan has done research on every mental illness that he could possibly think of; he’d know exactly what to do in every circumstance Virgil found himself in.

And me? I just hurt people. I do stupid things without thinking and end up hurting my friends in the process. Nothing I’ve ever done or will ever do will account to anything! I’m worthless! Virgil deserves so much better than what I can give. He’s been hurt too many times before. I can’t. I just can’t.

- Patton

chapter 14

[doctorsorders-deathboy]

Of All the Nights

lmfao i guess i’m back from the dead bitches. (this wip has existed for so long. i could not tell you why i decided to finally finish it tonight but AAA im so excited to be posting a fic again omg) amusingly, my last fic also involved late night baking. i hope you enjoy!!

Word Count: 1941

Read on ao3

It was 3:07am on the third of January and Nico di Angelo was dressed in nothing but a too-small fuchsia bathrobe, soaking wet, and about ready to commit bloody murder.

It was very possible, he thought, that the bathrobe contributed to his fury.

This was the kind of disaster that he’d recount to Jason later, with countless creative swears thrown in, though as he stood shivering and fuming outside a stranger’s apartment, it occurred to him that this might be one of those stories that would get more laughs from Jason than shared anger. Asshole.

Speaking of assholes, the door finally opened, revealing a very flustered looking blond man around Nico’s age. For a moment, Nico almost backed off on his prepared rant upon seeing how miserable the blond looked, but when another draft of winter air hit Nico’s still dripping legs, his scowl only deepened.

“What the hell were you doing baking at fucking three in the morning?”

The blond blinked once, twice, three times. He opened his mouth, closed it, and Nico was about ready to break his damn nose when he finally said, “Sorry… Do I know you?”

Nico had never had height to his advantage but hell if he didn’t know how to make himself intimidating. The blond shrunk back as Nico reared himself up to hiss, “Luckily, I was able to make it through 21 years of my life without meeting you before you had to go and nearly set the damn building on fire because of your insomniac cooking. Do you have any idea what kind of night you’ve caused for me? Did it ever occur to you that maybe you should save your incompetence for the waking hours when most people will be out at work anyways? Honestly, what kind of bullshit did you pull to make the fucking fire alarms go off? Did you pull this shit on purpose? Is this some kind of a joke to you?”

The man took much too long to answer again and Nico was collecting every bit of self control he had to keep himself from wringing this jackass’s neck when the response finally came. “Why are you wet?”

Nico must have reared up spectacularly that time because the man quickly amended, “I mean―! I’m sorry, that’s not the point here, um…” He peeked out of his apartment and looked around the deserted hallway. “If you want to yell at me, can you do it in here? I don’t want to wake anyone else up.”

“Like hell, you care,” Nico grumbled but willingly stepped into the man’s apartment. In hindsight, this really wasn’t Nico’s wisest move considering this guy was a stranger and Nico was nearly naked, but the blond seemed about as threatening as a frightened mouse. A tall, blue-eyed, frightened mouse who somehow had a tan in the dead of winter.

“Sorry, who are you again?” the blond asked, closing the door behind a fuming Nico.

“Your pissed off neighbor from two floors up,” Nico snapped. Unfortunately, the blond visibly cringed, looking like a kicked puppy, so Nico muttered, “Nico. Di Angelo,” as a reconcilement.

“Will Solace,” the blond introduced himself in return. He held his hand out to shake but quickly drew it back when it was clear that Nico’s arms were not moving from where they were crossed against his chest.

They stood in uncomfortable silence until Nico repeated, “How the hell did you set off the fucking alarm?” in as dangerous a voice as he could manage.

“I, well…”

Nico shot another fierce glare and Will didn’t waste anymore time in getting to the point.

“I was making pizzelles for my sister’s birthday and the iron must’ve broken because it was making a lot of smoke. It set off the fire alarm which went off throughout the whole building and… yeah. It was a mess. I’m really sorry. I feel awful.”

Nico didn’t doubt Will’s sincerity. The poor man was hunched in on himself with bags under his hands and his hands firmly stuck in his pockets. That didn’t make his story any less ridiculous, though.

“I’m sorry,” Nico said without a hint of remorse, “I think I missed something. Why the hell were you baking at three in the fucking morning?”

Will frowned at him. “You curse a lot,” he muttered.

“Why the fuck were you―”

“I was working until 1am!” Will exclaimed, which was the first indignant comment he’d made. “And I have classes at ten in the morning, but I promised to meet my friend for coffee at eight so I figured I’d just power through and bake when I got home but―” His voice broke off.

Nico’s cheeks tinted with embarrassment upon seeing Will’s face crumple a bit. God, please don’t cry. Nico hadn’t ever been very good at comforting crying people.

“Sorry,” Will said, his voice hoarse. “I should probably… I’m just going to clean up and go to bed. No more smoke. I promise.” He attempted a laugh to lighten the mood but it came out strangled and pitiful.

Nico was about ready to leave Will to mope when he spotted a picture hanging on the wall across the room. Will stood in the center, looking much happier than he did standing in front of Nico. The Will in the picture had a smile that made you want to smile back and had each arm thrown around a friend, pulling them close. He looked jubilant; the kind of person who you felt certain you could approach without fear. It was a painful contrast to the melancholy man Nico had met.

It felt very wrong to Nico that someone so happy could look so broken.

“What about your sister’s pizzelles?” Nico asked quietly.

Will shrugged. “I’ll have to buy her something on my way over tomorrow. Hopefully she won’t mind. I just feel bad, I promised I’d bake for her. Those pizzelles are her favorite.”

Nico considered this for a moment before internally rolling his eyes at himself. “Then we’d better make some pizzelles, shouldn’t we?”

~*~

“You still never explained to me why you showed up at my apartment soaked and nearly naked,” Will said conversationally, as he stood washing the dishes while Nico carefully arranged pizzelles in a tin.

Nico cleared his throat. “That’s a conversation starter I haven’t heard before.”

“Seriously,” Will said, grinning. “Were you swimming?”

“Why would I be swimming in the dead of night?”

Will shrugged. “I dunno, that’s why I was asking.”

“I wasn’t swimming.” Nico put the lid on the tin and turned around, pulling his fuchsia bathrobe tighter around himself.

Will turned towards him, too, eyebrows still raised.

Nico exhaled very slowly before admitting, “I was taking a shower.”

Will blinked. “At… three in the morning?” When Nico’s expression darkened, he added quickly, “Not that I’m judging! Obviously. I’ve taken many middle-of-the-night showers. I just… So, are you a med student, too, or what?”

Nico scuffed his shoe across the floor and grumbled, “No.”

“Okay.”

Silence.

“So…”

“I had a dream,” Nico blurted, probably due to a combination of his lack of sleep and the way Will’s eyes had this kind, dreamy quality to them that made you feel like you could tell him anything.

Will’s eyebrows furrowed. “You showered because you had a dream?” His eyebrows shot upward. “Oh.”

“Not like that!” Nico said quickly, heat rushing to his face. “No, oh my god, no, that’s not…” And then he was laughing harder than he had in a long time and Will was laughing with him and he hardly felt embarrassed anymore. “No, it was a nightmare, not…” Nico tried to catch his breath. “Not that.”

Will tsked. “That’s a shame.”

“Yes, very disappointing.”

“So the shower was, what, to calm you down?”

Nico shifted, his mind flashing back to the dark, blurred images of a few hours ago. Bianca’s smile melting off her face, his mother screaming for him, a packed, dark room where people were crying and disappearing one by one, and he was next, he was next―

“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat. “Basically.”

When he’d woken up, he’d had to spend what felt like eternity reminding himself how to breathe again. He’d been having more nightmares recently, ones so bad that he almost considered Jason’s advice to start seeing a therapist. I mean, shit, he knew college wasn’t doing much for him in the mental health department but things hadn’t been this bad since he was thirteen.

He tried different things each night to get himself back to sleep―whatever it took. One night he didn’t manage to properly get back to sleep afterwards; he just lay in his bed with the lights on and music playing, counting the beats of his heart as he dozed on and off. That night, after waking up, he couldn’t stand his own skin, couldn’t stand being trapped in his body any longer, couldn’t stand the way he could still feel cold, dead hands from the dream clutching him―

So he’d gotten in the fucking shower and made the water as hot as he could stand and then the goddamn fire alarm went off. Jesus Christ, of all the fucking nights.

“Must have been a pretty bad dream,” Will murmured.

Nico shrugged. “Yeah, I mean… Yeah. I was… Sorry for being so harsh on you earlier. I was still kind of shaken up, I guess. I probably wouldn’t have marched to your apartment for a stupid mistake on a normal night.”

Will grinned. “Probably?”

“Maybe.”

Will laughed. “Oh, here!” He handed a small tin to Nico. “You helped make em, you should get some for yourself.”

Nico opened it to see that it was crammed full of pizzelles. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, of course. I love the bathrobe, by the way―I never said.”

“Oh god.” Nico groaned. “It’s not mine.”

“Your girlfriend’s?”

And then Nico was laughing again. Christ, that was twice in one night. Something must be wrong with him. “Yeah, no. It’s my sister’s.”

“Ah. Well, for the record, my next guess was that it was your boyfriend’s. I don’t mean to assume anything.”

Nico sucked his teeth. “I don’t have one of those, I’m afraid.”

“That’s a shame.”

“Yes, very disappointing.”

Will smiled softly to himself and Nico noticed that he had a dimple on one side of his face. God. Nico really wished he smiled more.

“Well, thanks so much for the baking help. You really didn’t have to,” Will said as they walked towards the door.

Nico waved him off. “I’m the one who came to your apartment in an angry rage. I needed to make it up to you somehow.”

“Do you frequently get in angry rages?”

“Yes, but mostly just for the aesthetic. Usually I’m too tired to be properly angry.”

Will laughed.

“I’ll return the tin to you, by the way,” Nico added.

“Will you be showing up at my apartment nearly naked again?”

Nico flushed and laughed nervously. “No, I promise I will be fully clothed.”

Will hummed disappointedly. “Well, I suppose I can’t have everything,” he murmured. He smiled then, full and warm, and his eyes crinkled at the corners, and yes, Nico definitely wanted to see that smile more. “Goodnight, Nico,” he said cheerfully.

The door shut before Nico could figure out a way to respond. He stood there staring at it for a solid thirty seconds before turning and heading back to his apartment. When he got back, he decided, he’d put the pizzelles in a different container. He wanted to return the tin to Will Solace as soon as he could get away with.

[sue0227]

@ceeridwen99

Hello there～Well here I am! Just finished reading this absolutely brilliant fic The Creator in 3 maybe 4 days and they were days that filled with a mix of emotions and a lot of tears. And yes I've got like a truck load of things I wanna write down about this fic. Buckle up and here they come. :p

* I'll start with our lovely couples in this fic. >v<

For Markus and Simon, I must say these two are just so cute and sweet despite all those angst scenes of them. Their relationship reminds me of the relationship between soulmates and they indeed have that love and trust toward each other. It's so natural to regard them both as one like if Markus is mentioned then Simon has got to be there by his side. Even though Simon didn't really stand by Markus's side when it came to the climax of this story, he still could be found in Markus's mind, which, I think, had already stressed their deep and close affinity. Their interaction is something really sweet and soft to read. Like the one that Simon brought suits to Markus and the latter basically teased Simon while the former, despite trying to act like a professional assistant / secretary, was blushed because of Markus. I find these kinds of details highly adorable! I also love (though maybe a little bit hurt to read) that they always worry about each other instead of worrying themselves and this emotion in some way supports them going through all those hard times. Markus would think of Simon and tried to be brave and strong for him when he was at the edge of breakdown, while Simon had already had a great amount of courage to be just even exist considering that he had always carried that terrible virus inside him and the dread that he may be taken away from people he loved and cared, not to mention that he had always been Markus' side and comforted him when things went badly. Compared to kamcon, the relationship between Simon and Markus is rather open and easy to read. Although Simon didn't tell his past to Markus at the beginning, he still was a very devoted lover who was always willing to support Markus and fight to the very end while Markus always loved and cared about him even willing to give his own life for Simon. They're just perfect for each other!

For Elijah and Connor, their relationship is truly touching and powerful! It was really a slow-built relationship in which Connor was uncertain and even terrified by his feelings toward the creator while Elijah was so ambiguous and hard to guess. I was really trilled and happy to read that Connor decided to express what he had been thinking and all his love to Elijah yet Elijah seemed not that excited to accept his love. I thought he was just a reserved person who won't show his emotional fluctuation. It was hurtful to read that he and Connor once had already been together and it didn't end well( maybe tragic is a more accurate word). It really brought me into tears while reading the part that Elijah told what happened between him and Connor in the past in front of all those people. And I've found a strong emotional resonance in a song called Feel Something by Adam Lambert, which I think can't be more suitable for this relationship between Elijah and Connor. One had been waiting lonely for years and the other just sought and self-struggled so many times. It was beyond happy for me to read that they finally found each other and stood side by side after all those suffering. The fact that Connor couldn't forget Elijah even after being reset was a true testimony of their unbreakable love and this love shocked me to my very core while reading it.

And I think simarkus and kamcon in this fic have something in common, which is their way of acting when dangers come. They always put their partners' safety first and would self-sacrifice for their lovers. It can be hurtful yet still really touching to read. While their interactions are different, certain similarities can be found in their deep and strong love toward each other.

* About characters

Markus: He's still this leader figure who are strong, firm and determined. He would get lost sometimes and grow self-doubt kind of emotion about himself, but he always chooses to confront them instead of escaping from them. Markus always puts the well-being of Simon and his people as priority. It's good to learn that Markus wants to win the revolution and Androids' rights not only because he wants to fight for his people but also mostly because he wants to guarantee Simon's wishes of living peacefully, which makes him very human and real.

Simon: awww he's such a cinnamon roll! Simon is such a strong and caring soul, and he always gives me the impression of peace and hidden passion. He's shy but he won't hide his feelings and love toward Markus. He's emotional but he has the hidden firmness that is strong enough to overcome any obstacles. And the part where Simon got angry and snapped in front of everyone really startled me a little bit during my reading. The rage of a kind man can be really frightening. :p

Connor: He's a cutie pie who always has something bothering him and very easy to take all the blame on himself even though it's really not his fault. He's loyal, devoted and brave even maybe a little bit reckless (especially when it comes to something involving Elijah). He's always seeking his true self and his feelings and emotions toward Elijah and other people. And he can be the life saver just on the right time like he showed up in the Stratford Tower just in time to save Markus(this also reminds me of how he showed up and saved both Simon and Markus at the end of your another fic wait for it >v<).

Elijah: Elijah in this fic is almost like what I've imagined he should be. He's brilliantly smart and clever, and he's really quick on thinking like when they went to Stratford tower and Markus couldn't decide how to deal with those two RK-900, Elijah gave his quick and logical thought. And he can be a helpless romantic even a little bit of a dork when it comes to love and relationship. Elijah loves his creation and has a strong sense of responsibility for them, which I think is admirable. Plus he would blush when talking about Connor and their relationship, that makes him a cutie too.>v<

Chloe: OMG just the mention of her name makes me wanna cry! There's actually not too many words about her in the fic except her action of shooting Elijah and her suicide(I tend to use this word because I really regard her as a conscious human being) yet she leaves this strong and clear impression of her deep and unconditional love for Elijah. I haven't really had any strong feelings toward her in the game, but I really REALLY grow to love her after reading this fic. That's something new and great (though heartbroken) for me to discover by reading your fic. Even though her death is so devastating for me to read, I'm still grateful for you to depict this character in such an amazing way. TvT

Jason: oh dear here come my tears. At first I've thought he maybe the mastermind behind all those evil plots and just pretended to be awkward and timid like Moriaty in BBC Sherlock. I hadn't fully trusted him until he died in Elijah's arms and that made me so so so sad (and his final kiss with Elijah ahhhh T_T)! At that point I felt so guilty and shameful for not trusting him and judging him based on some unreasonable bias. And the revealing of his deep and unchangeable love for Elijah made me cry like hell. T_T And thanks to him for creating Fortune who basically saved our main characters family and the world, he's really a nice and warm guy. Even though I ship kamcon, I still have this little hope that Elijah could have this tiny place in his heart to remember Jason and all the sacrifice he has done for Elijah. It isn't necessarily in any romantic way but in a way of remembering a dearest friend.

Fortune: I've thought he's like that evil AI the Samaritan in Person of Interest at first but he turns out to be another cutie pie.>v< It's really a lovely part to read that the fragment Fortune has already been disturbed by all those emotions and feelings that he cannot really understand. It's really something new and fascinating to think about as could AI go deviant like Androids? Also he has helped the main characters family a lot and his sacrifice at the end is truly a powerful and touching part to read. It's indeed a relief and joy to read that Elijah has prepared him a backup code and then has created him a new and suitable hosting body.

Philip Seymore: aha this villain! He’s a sad and pathetic man who are destroyed by hatred and his traumatic past. I hate him because he’s responsible for Jason’s death and all those horrible things he’s done to main characters and other innocent Androids and human. While I still pity him. Judging by his military experience, I think he once was a man who had faith and purposes that was worth him fighting for(mainly for his wife and daughter I think). He actually had already gone mad when his family was killed. The rage of losing someone whom he held dearest had blinded him from seeing things clearly. It might be reasonable to purge all the evil in the world yet there are two points in this issue that he failed to understand. One is that all the evil and bad things in this world, in some way, cannot be completely eliminated. It, along with righteousness, has to reach some kind of delicate balance. Another point is that it has already become a crime when purging evil at all costs without even caring how many lives have suffered and been wasted. I’m quite satisfied with his end tbh. Despite that he’s committed those unforgivable crimes and I really want to see him rotten in jail, this end in fic is actually well written. He had lost all his sanity and faith before he died. Everything crumbled in front of him and his heart was indeed dead. It seems that he’s got off easily yet I think he had been suffering all those years and died in vain. He really deserves such an end.

North: uhhhhh North... I really don’t care about this character tbh (sorry North) yet I don’t hate her. The kiss she shared with Markus at the end of peace line in the game is kind of cliche. And I totally agree with your opinions about North that this character is wasted. I actually want to see an independent and strong female figure who can reinvent herself in Jericho after escaping from her horrible past. I kind of don’t like her being so attached to Markus and even insulting Simon because she thought Simon “stole away” Markus. I was quite relieved when I read that she kind of decided to move on from Markus and embrace her new life though she was still so angry. I have to admit that I’m kind of numb about her death. I want to see her to find her true self and stop being that angry and maybe find her own happiness and peace. I think you’ve already granted her many of it except a happy ending. As a shipper of Simarkus, that’s all I want to talk about this character.

As for other characters:

Hank: Hank our dear Hank! He’s such a grumpy and cute old man. He can be harsh on words but soft in heart. I always regard him as a father figure and a good friend to Connor. And his interaction with Elijah always cracks me up. Yeah he’s adorable~~

Gavin and Allen: Correct me if I’m wrong but I kind of feel some gay vibe between these two in the fic. →v→ Gavin is still an asshole but really a good police officer. And Captain Allen also is a devoted SWAT police. What they’ve said before leaving Cyberlife facility for their duty (they would fight till the last for they’re police and it’s their job to protect people) is truly touching. And the way Allen interacts with Ethan really warms my heart.

Ethan: He’s an angel sent by God to Simon and Markus right? I really really want to see some kid fic / family fluff about this lovely family!! It truly warms my heart. >v<

*List some of my favourite parts of this fic (or some awesome and making-me-wanna-scream parts). It’s actually more than what I’ve listed but these parts are the most impressive ones.

· Connor saved Elijah from Chloe’ s shooting. This is basically the very first tense part of this fic. I’ve already knew something would happen to Elijah because of the summary but I’ve never expected it to be so intense and amazing! When I read that “Elijah’s heart stopped.” I was like “omg now I’m feeling my heart is stopped!” It’s intense and brilliant and I love it! So I will catalog this one to the most intense part of this fic.

· Chloe’ s suicide. It hurts. It’s intense but also very sad. I was like “oh no no no no no somebody do something stop her omg Elijah just fix her”when I read the part she decided to die in order to protect Elijah. I really couldn’t accept that Chloe is dead along with the other two. It’s the most painful part to read in this fic. T_T

· The Cyberlife Gala. I didn’t really sense anything wrong when I read that they decided to attend this Gala. So it came as a shock when I read that someone shot Connor, Jason and even Simon!(omg you don’t know how astounded I was I was so afraid that Simon would die). The part where Jason died in Elijah’s arms after a final kiss is indeed a strong emotional impact. Besides the shooting, I find the part where Elijah danced with Connor is also a nice one to read. I felt so much when I read this part so I think this is a part that holds the most mix feelings of mine.

· Connor and Elijah sneaked into that secret Cyberlife facility looking for Fortune’s code. I had a very bad feeling when I read that Connor and Elijah lied to each other in their promises. My mind was full of “oh no this is not a good sign something would definitely go wrong and these two what are they doing lying to each other it’s too intense I can’t take it!” This part can be intense even stressful to read. I felt so relieved when they all got out despite a few injuries. Nothing really bad happened and I just thought too much before. So this part clearly becomes the most stressful part in this fic.

· Simon was forced to leave Markus in the forest on their way to Washington. I cried so hard in reading this part. It was intense when they escaped from their crashed car(the moment reminded me of Simon’ s last car accident uhhhh) and then it was so heartbreaking that Markus had to decide to make Simon and Ethan run away without him. I actually couldn’t remember how I really feel about this part because I just cried so hard. :p This part stole so much of my tears but I still love it. TvT

· The part from Markus’ s capture to the death of Seymore. Those chapters are the climax of this fic and they’re really thrilling, intense, brilliant and amazing to read! Markus broke the code that controlled him and Connor got away from Cyberlife’ s manipulation. Their fight in Stratford Tower with Seymore and RK-900 (nice exploration of a deviant RK-900!). I almost got this feeling of watching an action movie during my reading. They’re really great! So I think this can be the most splendid part of this fic.

· Simon and Markus’ s wedding. OMG OMG OMG the wedding!! THEIR WEDDING!!! I actually got quite confused when I started reading this chapter and I almost screamed and jumped when I read that Simon was in an all-white suit and something about an aisle!! My eyes had already filled with tears when I read that they were exchanging vows and rings. Too many tears that I couldn’t read properly (Call me a cry baby but I just couldn’t control it). The wedding is SO sweet, lovely and warm to read. I think I must be overjoyed about this part. I think this wedding part is the most beautiful part of this fic and I love it so much!!!

*About the sequel

Please please please do a sequel! I’ve read your A/N and I’m wholeheartedly looking forward this sequel. I just really want to read something about the sweet and warm family life of Simon, Markus and Ethan also the love stories and maybe the wedding of Connor and Elijah!! But I’ll be more than happy to read whatever you decide to write in the sequel. >v<

*OK this is fangirl time >v<

Here is a special part that I want to express my love to you and your works. Thank you for creating so many brilliant works! I really love the way you write your fics. You depict the most touching and wonderful stories with brilliantly arranged plots and simple yet powerful words.

I also want to say something about shipping kamcon. I didn’t really ship this when I first discovered your fic Wait For It on AO3 after a random Simarkus’ tag search. It stirred my curiosity though. I was attracted to this couple after I read your fic A Mutually Beneficial Agreement, which, by the way, is also an amazing fic. And now I’m a complete shipper of Kamcon thanks to your wonderful fics! I feel so lucky that I didn’t miss this wonderful pairs. Thanks for showing me how great and sweet they are! >v<

So that’s almost everything that I feel and think about your story The Creator after reading it. Sorry it gets so long and maybe full of grammar errors. :p Thanks for your reading and also thanks for your replies to my AO3 comments and my Twitter. <3333333333

[millennial-medusa]

Help Me Piece It All Together, Darling

This was just supposed to be a little Jasiper drabble for my Baseball AU, but I love these two so much and it got away from me and, well...here’s 11k words of them being idiots and honestly barely any baseball. It is absolutely as cheesy as it sounds.

This is set their sophomore year, so earlier than the other fics I’ve written for this au.

Jason x Piper, rated T, read on ao3

Jason Grace might just be the death of her.

She’d thought he was attractive as soon as she’d started going to baseball games last year and spotted him from the stands. She’d thought he was gorgeous when she’d approached him at that bar a few months ago, the couple drinks in her system giving her the courage to toss her hair and tease him a little, the resulting blush across his cheeks and the electric blue of his eyes weakening her knees.

But now, sitting in the library watching him help Leo through a research paper with all the patience and kindness and—yes, she’d admit it, grace, no pun intended—of a seasoned kindergarten teacher, she was positive he was the most beautiful person she’d ever met.

And this was a problem.

It was a problem because Piper, despite being a decent flirt when she wanted to be, had absolutely zero skills in terms of getting a guy to date her. She’d had her fair share of one night stands and casual hookups, but those were easy; the kind of guys that were willing to do one night stands were willing to do them with anyone decently attractive and emotionally detached. Piper checked those boxes pretty well, minimal work required.

But Jason wasn’t one of those guys. The more time she spent with him, the more obvious it was that he was the kind of guy to hold open doors and only kiss on the third date and ask for a lady’s favor before going to fight a dragon for her hand because he was literally a knight in shining armor, and it sucked because Piper was pretty sure she was the scullery maid in that scenario. Or the evil step-sister. Or the dragon.

(Okay, she reasoned, she wasn’t that bad. She wasn’t evil. Just hopeless and delusional. One of the nameless court ladies who swooned at a glance from the knight, but was overlooked in favor of the lovely and virtuous princess he would live happily ever after with.)

So a crush on Jason was a terrible, awful, absolutely horrendous idea, but for some reason her heart didn’t get the message her brain was so desperately signaling to it with red flags and emergency flares, because it kept picking up speed with every blindingly white smile he sent her from across the table.

(What had she just been saying about swooning?)

“But I say right there what it’s about,” Leo was complaining, gesturing to his laptop screen.

“No, that’s your topic sentence for that paragraph,” Jason explained. He ran a hand through his already mussed hair.

Piper wanted to run her own hands through it, tugging on the blonde locks while her tongue explored his mouth.

“Isn’t that what a topic sentence is supposed to do?”

“Yes, but you don’t have a thesis. Or an introduction.”

“Why would I need one of those when you made me write that abstract thing that explained the whole paper anyway? I still maintain that invalidates even needing to write a paper, by the way.”

“Leo, have you ever written an essay in your life?”

Leo’s eyes darted to Piper’s, and twin smiles stretched slowly across their faces.

“Oh yeah,” Leo answered, turning back to Jason. “I’ve written tons, and they were fantastic. Totally winners.”

Piper bit back a laugh. “Honestly, Leo’s written some of the finest essays of our generation. I’m incredibly proud of my—ah, of his work,” she added.

Jason’s brow furrowed—in a non-totally adorable and distracting way, of course—as he glanced back and forth between the two of them.

“Leo,” he repeated slowly, fixing him with a stern gaze, “have you ever written an essay in your life?”

“Define ‘written.’”

“Are you serious?” Jason’s eyebrows hit his hairline, and Piper didn’t bother to hold back her laughter. “How did you get through high school? How did you get through all of last year?”

Leo grinned over at him. “Wilderness school didn’t assign too many essays, and when they did, they didn’t read them closely enough to realize the similarities in Piper’s and my writing styles.”

Jason’s eyes widened before landing on Piper. “You—you wrote his essays for him? For all of high school?”

Piper shrugged. “Like he said, there weren’t that many to write. Besides, I can knock out a three page paper in less than an hour, and Leo did lots of my math assignments to pay me back.”

“Yes, she drove a hard bargain, but every equation was worth it to not have to analyze Jane Eyre," Leo sighed.

“What can I say? The rates are high, but I provide excellent customer service.”

“Absolutely. I’d give you four stars on yelp.”

“Only four? That rhetorical analysis of Mark Antony’s speech got you a 98!”

“Sure, the quality is great, but your options are limited. You’re not writing this essay, for example.”

“You’re right, the uses of obscure elements is a little out of my scope of provided services. That’s what you get for taking chemistry.”

“What good are you comm majors if you can’t even write my essays for me?”

“You committed plagiarism for four years and got away with it?” Jason interrupted with a harsh whisper.

“Relax, Sparky, the teachers didn’t care what we did as long as we sat quietly,” Piper laughed.

“Which, naturally, we always did,” Leo added. “We’re both known for our ability to sit in silence and behave just like we should.”

Jason shook his head. “I have no idea how I ended up with the two of you for friends.”

“Aww c’mon, you know you love us,” Leo crooned.

Jason chuckled and adjusted his glasses. “You’re lucky I do. I would not risk having ‘aiding and abetting criminals’ on my record for anybody else.”

With that, the air shifted. Piper felt her stomach drop, and her eyes met Leo’s again, but this time the knowledge that passed between them was not of an inside joke. The laughter had disappeared from their expressions, and Jason noticed.

“Guys?” he asked tentatively, glancing between the two of them nervously before landing on Piper. “Is everything okay? Did I say someth—”

“So I don’t have a thesis,” Leo interrupted, “what is that, exactly?”

Jason was still studying Piper, who was avoiding his gaze. She could feel his eyes, all too perceptive, roaming over her drawn face and tensed shoulders, but she focused resolutely on the textbook in front of her.

“Your thesis statement sums up your argument and the key points you’re using to prove it,” she spoke up, her gaze trained on Leo now. “It’s like, a shortened version of the back of a book. Or a highlights reel. Or a movie trailer.”

Leo looked back at her blankly. “So…another thing that sums up the whole paper. Why do I have to write the whole paper if I can prove it in one sentence?”

Piper rolled her eyes, but, to his credit, Jason managed a small smile. “It doesn’t prove your claim, it just gives a little preview of how you’re going to prove it. It gives the reader an idea of what to expect,” he explained, far more patiently than Piper ever could have. She was good with words, but even Leo exceeded her patience at times like these.

Jason was just so good. Piper couldn’t think of anybody deserving of him, especially not herself.

Her heart ached.

Over the past three months, Jason had fit seamlessly into Leo and Piper’s lives, clicking instantly. She and Jason were easy friends in their own right, getting pizza together or hanging out in the apartment when Leo was out. Of course, she’d befriended Percy, Annabeth, and many of the other team members and their assorted friends in the same amount of time, but her connection to Jason was just…different, somehow. And not just because she was perilously close to falling in love with him already.

Leo would always be Piper’s best friend—they’d been through so much together that losing him wasn’t even a possibility to Piper, they were stuck with each other for life—but Jason, even after only three months, was already a close second. After their initial meeting of tipsy flirting, they’d bonded quickly over their shared love of baseball and Disney movies.

So now Piper knew just how kind and genuine of a person he really was. She also knew how much of a disaster she was, and how much he didn’t deserve to have to put up with that.

So she suffered in silence, hoping her little crush would go away painlessly and soon. The way her stomach flipped when Jason glanced over at her again, his eyes still slightly apprehensive, seemed to insist she would not be getting an easy out.

When she tuned back into the boys’ conversation, Jason was asking Leo when the paper was due.

“Tomorrow?” he yelped at Leo’s answer. “And you waited until now to ask for my help? Leo, you have six more pages to write, we’re gonna be here all night!”

“Nice rhyme, Dr. Seuss,” Leo teased, but at the look Jason gave him, he ducked his head guiltily. “I know, honestly I didn’t think writing a dumb essay would take that long,” he mumbled. “You guys can go home if you want, it’s pretty late and finals are in a few days and I’m sure I can figure this out—”

Piper just snorted. “Not going anywhere, Valdez. We’re a team.”

“She’s right,” Jason chimed in, patting Leo lightly on the shoulder. “I meant it when I said I’d help. If we have to stay until the paper is due, then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Leo smiled at both of them, and they went back to work.

—

Three hours later, Piper felt her eyelids drooping. It was only 10 PM, but she'd had gotten up early and worked all day, so she could already tell staying up with Leo was gonna be rough. The boys, she noted, were looking a little frazzled too, so she stood and told them she was going on a coffee run.

Jason frowned. “It’s late, Pipes, are you sure you should be walking across campus alone?”

Warmth spread through her at his concern, but she shrugged it off and her jacket on. “I’m a tough girl, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Jason opened his mouth to protest, but Leo cut him off. “Just go with her, Jason, I need some time alone anyway.”

Piper nodded at Jason’s questioning glance, but she glared daggers at Leo when Jason turned to grab his coat. Leo just gave her a shit eating grin; he’d picked up on Piper’s crush early on and frequently found excuses to leave them alone together.

A few moments later, Piper and Jason were walking out into a wall of freezing December air that had Piper tugging her coat around her and wishing she could cuddle up to Jason. Strictly to conserve heat, naturally.

They chatted easily as they walked to a small coffee shop about five minutes away, the only one on campus open 24 hours.

“Are your finals bad?” Jason asked, his words a puff of steam in the frigid air.

Piper shook her head and buried her hands deeper in her pockets. “Nah. My media law final is the only one I’m really worried about, but I think I’ll do okay. What about yours? Is that political theory stuff still giving you trouble?”

“I’ve been studying for it, so I think I’ll be okay,” he shrugged.

“I wish I had the self discipline to already be studying for finals,” Piper grumbled. “I can’t get myself to study before the last minute.”

Jason laughed at her sullen expression. “You just need the right motivation, like a reward or a study buddy.”

“You offering?” She caught his eye and smirked; Jason blushed a pretty shade of pink that spread down his neck and disappeared beneath the collar of his peacoat. Piper found herself wishing she could see just how far down that blush travelled.

“Yeah—I mean, if you wanted,” Jason stammered, looking hurriedly away from her.

Piper cringed inwardly; she hadn’t meant to embarrass or pressure him. But she had to admit, having someone to make her study would be helpful—Leo was no help at all and Annabeth had her hands full with Percy—and she couldn’t bring herself to say no to spending time with Jason, even if she should for her own sake.

“I’d like that,” she found herself saying, and his resulting smile was so bright she forgot all about the awkwardness of the previous moment. His teeth were so perfect and straight, he could’ve done toothpaste commercials, she noted. And his lips—well, Piper had spent plenty of time thinking about them already; they were a little thin and a little chapped, but they were so frequently pulled into a smile and looked so inviting she knew she wouldn’t mind the roughness if they were working with her own. She wanted to bite the scar on his upper lip—where had it come from? She’d have to ask him sometime.

Her eyes traveled upward then, following the gentle slope of his nose to his bright blue eyes. Piper usually preferred brown, like her own, but Jason’s were so genuinely captivating, fringed with long, blonde lashes, that she longed to drown herself in them.

That thought snapped her out of her haze: she wasn’t this much of a fucking sap, and she couldn’t afford to be thinking things that sounded like they were written by a lovesick thirteen year old. She couldn’t take her eyes off his, though, and she noted the way they dropped to her mouth as her tongue darted out to wet her lips.

He was looking at her mouth. And his eyes were different somehow—darker? Or maybe that was just the shadowy lighting, but either way he was definitely staring at her mouth and either he was going to stop and kiss her or she had something stuck in her teeth. She really hoped it was the former, because they’d gotten so close their arms were touching as they walked and his eyes were flitting up to her own and back down again, and Piper prayed, oh she prayed that she was right because she was leaning forward now so there was no going back and—

Unfortunately, staring prolongedly at a boy who probably wasn’t even into her meant that Piper didn’t notice the patch of ice she was walking towards.

She shrieked as her feet slid out from under her, the dark pavement suddenly racing towards her. She braced for impact, but instead of freezing concrete to the nose, she felt a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist and hauling her back to her feet.

Before she could fully process what was happening she found herself pressed entirely up against Jason’s front, his arms securely around her waist and his wide eyes blinking down at her from behind his glasses. Her hands settled on his chest as they stared at each other, and then slid down to grip his forearms. Neither his hands nor his gaze shifted.

Piper swallowed hard before noting just how nice his arms felt, even through his coat. All those workouts and baseball practices had really paid off.

Jason’s cheeks were stained crimson again—he blushed a lot, and Piper adored it—but he started laughing.

“Yeah, uh, I guess they have,” he said. Suddenly his eyes went wide. “Not—not that you’re heavy, or anything. Because you aren’t. I mean, you’re like, average weight I assume? For a girl your height? I don’t really know, I haven’t caught very many people—”

Piper was mortified her comment had been spoken aloud, but thankfully Jason’s own stammering had shifted the focus off of her.

“What?” she asked, cutting him off with a raised eyebrow. “You mean to tell me you don’t regularly swoop in and catch people? And here I thought you were some kind of blonde Superman. It’s kind of a let down that you don’t save the day all the time.”

Jason grinned, a little sheepishly, but without most of the previous nervousness. “Haven’t noticed too many people falling.”

Piper’s heart hammered in her chest, and surely he could feel it with the way they were still pressed together. Then you must be blind, she wanted to say.

Instead, she stepped back, letting his arms fall away from her. She instantly felt the chill seep into her as though she weren’t even wearing a coat.

“Guess it’s just me, then,” she quipped, tossing him a smile as they headed toward the coffee shop again. They were nearly there. “Figures, I’m pretty clumsy.”

A small smile appeared on Jason’s face at that. Piper saw him attempt to subtlety lengthen his strides—attempt being the key word, because it wasn’t subtle at all—and reached the door first, just in time to open it for her, ever the perfect gentleman. “Hey, every princess needs a little saving now and then,” he said.

This time, Piper was the one blushing.

—

Piper McLean was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.

Jason had never been great with girls. He knew there had been girls who’d liked him in the past, definitely more than a few who’d flirted with him, but he never had much interest. The only relationship he’d ever had was with Reyna in high school, and that had been short lived; Jason cared about her deeply but not romantically, and Reyna…well. Reyna had ended up dating his older sister.

Where was he going with that? Oh, he was bad with girls. Right.

So when he’d seen Piper across that bar in September, he’d nearly panicked. She was gorgeous, looking him up and down with eyes that were shifting color, and she seemed to approve of what she saw, but Jason couldn’t flirt to save his life when he was sober, let alone several drinks in. Luckily she’d been about as drunk as he had, so she hadn’t minded his inability to keep up with her.

Since that night, Jason couldn’t get her out of his head. She was beautiful and brilliant and funny, and they just matched. The more time he spent with her, the harder he fell, and he knew it would end badly because she was clearly out of his league—but that didn’t stop him.

Being around her and knowing she would never be interested in him was torture, but if it meant he could make her laugh and watch her re-braid her hair and listen to the little songs she made up under her breath when she thought he couldn’t hear, then he’d gladly suffer every day of his life.

They’d gotten the coffee and headed back to the library after the rather embarrassing incident outside the shop (he wanted to die a little remembering how he’d basically called her heavy, and that he’d stood there and not let her go like some kind of clingy creeper. It was worth it to get to hold her like that—it just felt right—but still. And had he really called her a princess in need of saving? As if Piper needed him to save her. Piper was more like a badass queen who slew her own dragons, so Jason really had no idea what had possessed him to make that comment).

In any case, they’d made it through the rest of the night without any more awkward moments, and now, at nearly 4 AM, Leo was finishing up his paper. Jason’s eyelids had been drooping for the past hour even with the enormous amount of coffee he drank, and Piper had slumped forward and fell asleep on her arms some time ago. Leo, however, somehow managed to maintain his ridiculously high energy levels, which struck Jason as a little concerning. Did he ever sleep?

“Okay,” he was saying now, his fingers flitting frantically over the keyboard, “what if I shifted this quote down here, and I could add something up here about the chemical bonding process?”

Jason shook his head to wake himself up. It didn’t work. “Uh, yeah, if you’ve got more to say about…about uh, chemical bonding, I say go for it, man.”

He looked over at Piper. One of her arms was extended across the table in front of her, and the other was bent next to it. Her head rested on them at an angle that didn’t look comfortable to Jason, but either didn’t bother Piper or the discomfort was outweighed by her exhaustion. Her hair was a mess, thrown across her shoulders and sticking to her face. Jason’s fingers twitched on the table, wanting to brush it back.

Even when she was messy and undone and practically drooling onto her oversized flannel, Piper still made Jason’s heart skip a beat. It wasn’t that she was traditionally beautiful at all times (because that was just unrealistic), but she was her own kind of beautiful, and it was the most breathtaking kind Jason had ever seen.

He must have been staring, because Leo nudged his shoulder and shot him a knowing grin that heated Jason’s cheeks. “I’ve got this covered here, if you wanna take Piper to bed.”

Jason’s face went full red at that. “What? I-I wouldn’t—she’s, I mean that’s not really—”

And then Leo was laughing, laughing way too loudly for four in the morning. “Relax, Grace, I just meant take her back to our place. This is basically all written, but I’ll probably stay a couple more hours to finish editing and then print it and turn it in while I’m up, so I’m not gonna be able to take her back. And I don’t…I don’t like her walking alone at night, even if she says she can,” he added quietly, suddenly more serious. Jason nodded in agreement. The idea of Piper going out alone at night on a college campus made his stomach turn. He knew how a lot of guys their age could be and wouldn’t put it past them to try something, as horrible as that was.

And the thought of one of them trying something with Piper made him want to punch someone’s teeth out.

“You sure you’re okay here?” he asked. “I can stay if you need more help.”

Leo shook his head. “I’m good now. But listen…thanks. I know this isn’t your ideal Saturday night, so, um, thank you.” He kept his gaze down, fiddling with his fingers like he always did, but this time it seemed more…agitated?

Nervous, Jason realized.

He gripped Leo’s shoulder tightly until the other boy met his gaze. “Remember what Piper said about us being a team? That includes me now, and I’ve always got your back, Leo.”

A grin lit up Leo’s face, and he shoved the hand off his shoulder playfully. “Welcome to Team Valdez and the Crew, then!”

“That name needs a little work.”

“What are you talking about? It’s perfect!”

“I somehow doubt Piper signed off on it, and I may be late to the game but I know I hold some kind of veto power.”

“Fine, we can workshop it. Later. Right now you need to get the beauty queen home, because if she stays like that any longer I’m pretty sure her arm is gonna lose blood flow.”

Jason chuckled and moved to Piper, trying to gently wake her. It took a few tries—wow, she was a deep sleeper—but eventually she stirred.

“Hmm? Jason?” Her eyes blinked in the fluorescent lights of the library, and closed again.

“Yeah, Pipes, it’s me,” he reassured quietly. “Come on, let’s get your coat on.”

“Coat?”

“Yep, I’m gonna get you home.”

“Oh. ‘S cold outside.” Jason had to keep himself from laughing at her slurred words. Half awake was as good as he was going to get, he supposed, but damn, it was too adorable for him to mind.

“Yep, that’s what the coat’s for.”

“Where’s—” she yawned dramatically— “where’s m’purse?”

“On your shoulder.”

“…oh. Hmm.”

Piper’s eyes were barely open, and he honestly didn’t trust her to not walk into a wall or something, so Jason hesitantly wrapped his arm behind her waist, gripping her hip to keep her pressed to his side. She immediately nuzzled into the crook of his shoulder and sighed, and Jason’s brain sort of broke for a moment. He stared down at the top of her head, his heart pounding.

That doesn’t mean anything, he told himself. Pull it together, man. She’s basically asleep. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.

So he shook his head in an attempt to clear it and started to steer her to the exit.

“Grace!”

Jason turned back a little to half face Leo. “Yeah?”

“Be careful with her. She’s more fragile than she looks.” The normal teasing lilt to his voice was there, but his eyes were serious, piercing into his own with purpose.

Jason nodded solemnly. He knew Leo meant more than just to be careful tonight, though he wasn’t sure exactly what he intended beyond that. What Jason did know is that he would never hurt Piper.

Besides, his own heart seemed much more at risk than hers.

—

Jason was living in a dorm this year and didn’t have a car, but luckily Piper and Leo’s apartment was only a short walk from campus. Plus, the longer they walked, the longer Piper was wrapped up in his arm, pressed against his side and nuzzling into him like a kitten.

By the time they reached her apartment building, the chill and the walk had woken Piper up some, and she was a bit more conscious of what was going on, but Jason noted giddily that she made no attempt to move away from him. In fact, she may have even pushed closer, but that could have been his imagination. Besides, it was probably just because it was below freezing and she wasn’t completely awake.

(He really didn’t mind.)

Finally he had to release her so she could kick off her shoes and shrug her coat off and fall into bed. He felt colder without her, and almost…hollow, like something was missing where she had been? But that was just silly. They were just friends, and he was fine with that. He had to be.

“Okay, well if you’re good I’m gonna—” he gestured towards her door, starting to leave, but her soft voice calling his name stopped him in his tracks.

“Just crash here,” she said sleepily, her eyes barely open. “It’s late.”

“Only if you don’t mind,” he said, but he was praying she would insist because it was freezing, and his dorm was on the other side of campus, and he was almost as exhausted as she was.

“‘Course not.” She yawned again, and her eyes drifted shut. “C’mere.”

Jason blinked, confused. “Um, I’ll just sleep on the couch, Pipes,” he tried to explain, but even in her mostly-asleep state she was pushy.

“Couch is lumpy and I want you to stay here,” she insisted, though her slurred words made her a little less intimidating than usual.

Still, Jason hesitated. She was so tired she was practically drunk, she could not be thinking straight. She’d probably wake up tomorrow and wonder what was wrong with him that he didn’t ignore her.

“C’mon, Sparky, I’m cold,” she pleaded, and when he glanced back at her, her eyes were open and clear. “Please?”

As Jason toed off his sneakers, draped his coat over her desk chair, set his glasses carefully aside, and crawled into bed beside her, he was cursing himself for being so weak for this woman. He knew he’d regret it tomorrow, but, well…he just couldn’t say no to her.

—

Piper woke suddenly. She sat up and glanced around blearily, trying to find what had woken her up. Her eyes landed on her clock. It was 7:28 on a Sunday morning, why the hell—

A noise came from beside her, a kind of strangled yelp, and she jumped. Jason was lying in her bed—Jason was lying in her bed, oh, God—Jason was lying in her bed—and he was shaking, a thin sheen of sweat glistening on his frowning forehead. His chest was heaving, and Piper realized with a clench of her heart that he was having a nightmare.

She placed a hand on his chest, feeling his erratic heartbeat beneath her fingers. Then she shook him gently, trying to wake him up.

“Jason,” she whispered, repeating it louder when he didn’t stir.

Suddenly he jolted awake, gasping, his eyes glancing about the room frantically before landing on her face and softening.

“Piper?” he croaked.

“Yeah, Jason, it’s me,” she answered softly, unthinkingly combing his hair back from his forehead. He leaned into her touch and her heart nearly stopped. What was she doing? It had been stupid of her to ask him to stay; he would’ve been fine on the couch.

He seemed to notice something was off, and he coughed awkwardly as he sat up. “I should go,” he muttered, not meeting her eyes. “I-I shouldn’t have stayed, I’m sorry, you were basically asleep, you—”

“I asked you to stay, and I meant it,” she insisted. It was the truth, even if she was kicking herself now for practically forcing herself on him. He paused and wiped the sweat from his brow. Together, they waited in silence for something Piper couldn’t name.

“What was it about?” she asked hesitantly. Her voice was small and cautious. “The dream.”

Jason’s head lifted and their eyes met, sparks lighting up Piper’s spine. Her nickname for him was more accurate than he realized.

But he hesitated, and Piper rushed to add, “If you don’t wanna talk about it that’s fine, I shouldn’t have pried, I just thought maybe��”

“My mom,” he answered quietly. “My real mom. She—well, she was an alcoholic, so Thalia and I got taken away from her when I was really little. I barely remember her, just bits of memories here and there. I was only two, so...I found out later my dad is some politician, barely even knew we existed, and his wife hated us so she made sure they didn’t have to take us. We were put into foster care, different families. Took us years to find each other again.”

His gaze hadn’t wavered from hers, and Piper could see the pain in his eyes. She hadn’t meant to make him relive something that hurt so much, she hadn’t realized.

“Jason,” she breathed, her hand finding his. He gripped it hard.

“She died,” he said, his eyes finally dropping from hers to settle on their hands. “Went sort of crazy and drank herself to death a couple years after we were taken away. I only found out years later, when Thalia told me. I never…I didn’t get to see her again.”

His hand was shaking in hers, so Piper squeezed harder. Minutes ticked by in silence, and she wasn’t sure how else to comfort him. There was nothing she could think to say to make him feel better, and it didn’t feel right to try to brush past what he’d just admitted to her. He’d opened up a huge part of himself to her.

Maybe that called for her to do the same.

“I never knew my mom,” she said finally. Jason glanced up at her earnestly, questioningly. She took a shaky breath and continued, “My dad’s a movie star and all so I guess it could be pretty much anyone, but he never talks about her and shuts down when I ask, so I gave up on trying a long time ago. He was never really around either though, with his film schedule and press stuff. He tried, for a while anyway, when I was little. He used to come home more often and take me to the beach, but I was always a difficult kid and pretty soon it was visits for a day every couple weeks when he could make the time to fly out and see me. Pretty sure he didn’t even want a kid, but he was stuck with me.”

Jason was watching her, studying her face openly, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead she focused on their entwined hands, as he had done. Her fingers played with his as she talked, and she took comfort in the fact that he let her.

“Anyway, Leo and I met in middle school and he got me through it. His mom was really sweet to me, way nicer than the nanny my dad hired to watch me most of the time. That’s around the time I…I started acting out? You know, doing stupid stuff to get my dad to pay attention to me, even if it was just to scold me or whatever. Leo was happy to help, and after his mom died and he got stuck with his awful relatives it just got worse, and we probably spent most of our time in detention. It wasn’t enough for me, though, and it kept escalating, and I—I was in a really bad place, but my sophomore year I got caught shoplifting some clothes.”

She paused to look up at him, expecting to see judgement written across his face, but she found only the same earnest expression as before.

“It was dumb, and my dad’s lawyers got me off without anything on my record somehow, but I finally got my dad’s full attention. He flew all the way home just to chew me out.” She laughed a little at the absurdity. “It was really bad, and the next week I was at wilderness school, which was like this boarding school for troubled kids out in the middle of some bumblefuck Nevada desert.”

“Shit, Piper,” Jason said, “I’m sorry.”

Piper waved him off. “Please, even the racial slurs those kids threw at me is nothing compared to what you just told me, and Leo acted up enough to end up out there with me, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I just thought I should be honest.”

Jason frowned. “You don’t owe me anything. I told you that stuff because I wanted to, Pipes. I trust you.”

“I know. I trust you too,” she answered, squeezing his hand. “So now that we’ve agreed that parents are shitty, wanna go back to sleep for a few hours?” She forced a smile and hoped he would miss the tension behind it.

He studied her a moment longer, but finally relented with a nod. Together they lay back down in Piper’s bed and drifted back into sleep.

Piper smiled to herself at the realization that they were still holding hands.

—

The second time Jason woke that morning was not to Piper’s voice calling him out of a nightmare, but to her hair in his mouth and Leo’s loud laughter, which was somewhat less pleasant.

Apparently they had shifted over the last few hours so they were no longer holding hands; rather, Piper was stretched out face down on top of him, one leg slung over his hips and her head nestled on his chest, hence the aforementioned hair in his mouth. Jason had instinctually wrapped his arms around her, and he thanked every deity he could think of that there was no morning…issue to deal with. The situation was embarrassing enough without it.

He stared down at her as she came to, blinking confusedly in the morning light before meeting his eyes. She seemed to realize where she was then and shot up, Jason’s arms jerking back immediately.

Leo laughed again from the doorway, wiping tears from his eyes. “Jason, man, I told you I didn’t mean it literally when I said take her to bed!” he was giggling, and Jason felt his face flush brightly.

He was gonna kill him.

“Leo, get out of my room before I murder you,” Piper snapped from behind her hands covering her face.

Never mind, Piper had it handled.

Leo did as she asked, but not before blowing them each a kiss and winking at Jason.

The pause that followed was tense, unsurprisingly.

“Piper,” he started, but she interrupted him.

“I’m sorry, I was asleep so obviously I didn’t really know what I was doing,” she rushed, sliding out of bed and hurrying around her room, searching the clutter until she found a hair tie to braid her hair back with as she talked. “I wouldn’t have—I mean, I shouldn’t have made you stay. Sorry.”

Jason grit his teeth. There was the rejection he’d been anticipating since last night. It hurt more than he'd expected, but it was his own fault. He'd known the risks. He should’ve just slept on the couch. He should’ve kept quiet about his mom. He should’ve stopped her, told her he wasn’t trying to pressure her into talking, into anything.

He should’ve known better.

“No, I’m sorry,” he muttered, trying to mask the hurt on his face and bending to put his shoes on. “I appreciate you letting me stay. I’m gonna head out.”

She may have nodded, or maybe she didn’t answer, or maybe she watched him go. He wasn’t sure, he walked out and didn’t look back.

—

Piper didn’t hear from him for the next several days, and kicked herself every time she checked her phone hoping to see a message from him. Of course he isn’t gonna text you, she chided, you basically told him you regretted letting him stay over right after he poured his heart out to you, and you were cuddling with him when he woke up. You’ll be lucky if he talks to you again.

So Piper went to Annabeth, the only person she’d actually told about her feelings for Jason, unsure of what exactly she was hoping for.

What she got was a frown over the carton of ice cream they were sharing.

“You’re taking all the cookie dough chunks,” Annabeth complained.

“No I’m not. Focus on the real issue here!”

“The issue of you not telling Jason how you feel? Because that’s the real issue.”

Piper rolled her eyes; they’d had this exact conversation about a million times already. “There’s no reason to ruin the friendship we’ve got because my stupid feelings got in the way.”

“You seem to think you’ve already ruined it,” Annabeth pointed out, nudging Piper’s spoon away from another chunk of cookie dough.

“It’s been three days, what am I supposed to think?”

“Maybe he got busy?” Annabeth suggested. “Maybe his phone got broken or lost, maybe he thought you didn’t want to hear from him. Have you tried texting him?”

Piper bit her lip and focused very hard on getting a decent spoonful of ice cream.

“You haven’t even tried texting him. Of course not. Piper, I thought you were good with guys!”

“I am!” she insisted. “Guys that I wanna sleep with and then never see again, or that I want to flirt with and not have to worry about their feelings. But Jason is all perfect and handsome and sweet and suddenly my brain feels like it’s been zapped by lightning.”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “Well he probably thinks you don’t want to hear from him and is agonizing over why you haven’t texted him.”

Piper perked up a little at that. “You think so?”

“I don’t know, Percy said he was really off Monday but seems mostly fine now, just distracted. Sounds like it could have something to do with why he hasn’t said anything.”

Piper chewed on her lower lip, mulling the possibilities over. Either he was distracted by what had happened Sunday—though she hoped that wasn’t the case—or something else had happened and that was keeping him preoccupied. She just had to figure out what was bothering him, and then maybe things could go back to normal.

“So you think I should text him?”

Annabeth sighed. “Honestly? I think you should both wake up and realize you’re obviously head over heels for each other. But since neither of you is going to admit it apparently, yes, I think you should text him before it gets weird.”

Piper grinned and snagged a hunk of dough before pulling out her phone.

hey, she typed. Very eloquent. Definitely summed up the “please talk to me I’m really sorry and I miss you also I might be falling in love with you” sentiment she was going for.

But, having nothing else she could think to say, Piper pressed send and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long. Less than a minute later, her phone buzzed with an answering, Hey!! from him. Piper grinned, just as another message followed: What’s up?

“He answer?” Annabeth asked around the spoon in her mouth.

Piper nodded as her fingers flew across the keyboard. just haven’t heard from you in a few days, everything ok?

Yeah everything is fine, I’ve just been busy. he answered. Piper smiled at his perfect grammar. She’d tried to explain to him once that he didn’t need to worry about that with her, but he’d furrowed his brow and asked why she wouldn’t want the same consideration he gave to everyone else. She’d laughed at his seriousness and let the issue drop. She glanced down when her phone buzzed again. Are you still in need of a study buddy?

Only if it’s you, she shot back. It was a little risky, but she figured it was just a casual friendly remark. No hidden truths to be found anywhere.

Her anxiety mounted a little when the three dots showed up at the bottom of the screen and then disappeared. Was that the wrong thing to say? Had that sent her crashing through the thin ice she’d been standing on with him and right into hot water?

But no, his answer was simply, Tomorrow, 7 PM at the library? and she breathed a sigh of relief.

make it the coffee shop and you’ve got a deal

Sounds good. See you then.

Piper grinned giddily down at the screen. Everything was okay, and their friendship was intact.

She looked up to see Annabeth smirking at her from the other side of the couch.

“Shut up,” Piper muttered. Annabeth only shrugged and returned to the ice cream.

—

The “study date”, as Percy and Leo insisted on calling it, went smoothly, much to Jason’s relief. He’d panicked after not hearing from Piper for so long, thinking that either his storming out or the waking up cuddling incident had upset her, so getting a text from her was a huge weight off his shoulders. He focused on everything, including baseball, a little better when he was on good terms with her. It was dangerous, he knew; he couldn’t afford to let every disagreement with a girl he’d only known a few months throw him off his game, but he couldn’t exactly help it. He’d just have to settle for keeping her happy. (Luckily for him, keeping Piper happy was becoming a top priority at an alarming rate. Or…perhaps that was unluckily.)

Things had just about returned to normal between the two of them, and they hung like nothing had changed. Which, Jason reminded himself, was true. Nothing had changed. He just knew for certain that she wasn’t interested in him the way he wanted her to be. But he’d known that before. So.

Jason was just reflecting on this when Leo caught up to him, leaving the locker room after the last practice of the semester.

“You missed an easy shot at the end there, you sure you don’t need a little more practice?”

Jason raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s your average again?”

“Point taken. When are you headed home?”

“I’ve got one more final tomorrow and then I’m out. What about you?”

Leo looked down, his fingers tapping out an agitated rhythm on the shoulder strap of his bag. “I’m staying here, actually. Lotta money to fly to Houston, and I’ve got lots of stuff to work on here, so.” He shrugged.

“You’re from Houston?” Jason frowned. “I thought you and Piper went to school together.”

“We did. Piper lived at her dad’s little ranch house thing even while he was filming, supposedly so she didn’t ‘get sucked into the Hollywood stuff.’ Really it was because he didn’t want to deal with her.” Suddenly Leo glanced at him, eyes wide. “Shit, don’t tell her I said anything, yeah? I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”

Jason waved him off. “I won’t, but it’s fine, she already told me about her dad.”

This seemed to interest Leo. “She did?” A small smile appeared on his face at Jason’s nod, which seemed…odd, for such a serious subject. “Anyway yeah, we knew each other in Texas before we both got banished to the desert.”

“So she’s going home to Texas?”

“Nah, her dad sold the property as soon as she went to college. He didn’t use it, so no point in keeping it if you don’t need somewhere to stash a kid, I guess.” Leo’s tone was bitter, and Jason got the impression Leo felt about the same way toward Tristan McLean as his daughter did. “Besides, Piper’s only going to L.A. for Christmas because she has to, and then she’ll be back. We spend every New Year’s together. It’s tradition.”

“You’re lucky,” Jason commented drily, “my foster mom is great and all, but she’s a little…I don’t know, militant? Makes holidays kind of stressful.”

Leo grabbed his shoulders and pulled him so they were facing each other in the middle of the sidewalk. “Come back for New Year’s.”

“What?”

“I’m serious, you can stay in the apartment until the spring semester starts. You’ll still have Christmas with your mom, but you can have a little fun with us for the new year!”

Jason frowned, thinking it over. “I don’t know, Leo…”

“Piper will be there, too.” Leo wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Jason blushed.

“Are you sure she wouldn’t mind me staying for a couple weeks?”

Leo snorted and released his shoulders so they could walk again. “Please, Piper would love having you there.”

Jason started to ask what that meant, but before he could, Leo slapped him on the back.

“Great! Glad that’s settled. You’re gonna see Piper before you leave, right?”

“Um, I was planning on it, but Leo—”

“Smart man. Have a good break! See you at the end of the month!”

And then Leo was gone, leaving Jason with plans for the holidays and several questions.

—

“He what?”

Jason winced. He knew he shouldn’t have agreed without asking Piper first, but then again, Leo hadn’t left much room for debate.

“Yeah,” he answered once he’d swallowed the bite of pizza he’d been working on. “He kind of insisted, so now I guess I’m spending New Year's and the following couple weeks with you guys? I mean, if that’s okay with you. I can always tell him no,” he added, watching her chew her lip and resisting the urge to reach over and soothe it with his thumb.

“No!” she yelped, and immediately blushed. Probably remembering what had happened the last time he’d stayed with her, he figured. This plan was seeming worse with every passing minute. “It’s fine,” she amended more quietly, “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“I’ll be sleeping on the couch, obviously,” he said with a dry smile. He’d hoped to reassure her, but her face seemed to fall, almost like…disappointment? But that didn’t seem right, unless she really didn’t want him there.

Her expression shifted almost immediately to one of excitement, though, and he didn’t have time to overthink anymore. “Right. It’ll be fun!” she was saying. “You can join in all our New Year’s Eve traditions, like drinking.”

Jason waited a moment for her to continue. She didn’t. “Oh, I thought you were listing things.”

Piper nodded, taking a sip of her soda. “I was.”

“So…?”

“That was the whole list.”

Jason laughed. “Of course. Well, it’s more traditions than I’ve got, so I’d be happy to join in.”

Piper’s answering smile lit up her whole face, and Jason had to swallow hard to keep his heart from jumping into his mouth. She was so beautiful it was just unfair.

—

As soon as Piper walked into their apartment on December 29th, she felt at ease again. Her Christmas had been stressful—which is completely unfair, by the way, it’s Christmas—because yeah, he was her dad, and he was trying and she got that, really she did, but she always felt a little on edge around him because, frankly, they didn’t know each other very well. It was easy for constant filming to get in the way of visiting your kid when you didn’t really want it in the first place.

So coming back to Leo, who always wanted her around and never made her feel awkward in the slightest, was an enormous relief.

“Hey, Beauty Queen, how’s it hanging?” he called from the kitchen.

“I’m sorry,” she laughed, “but I don’t think anyone has used the phrase ‘how’s it hanging’ since, like, the seventies.”

Leo only shrugged, abandoning his bowl of cereal to grab her suitcase and carry it to her room. “I’m bringing it back. The seventies had some great trends.”

“Such as?”

“Well, for starters, I could rock a pair of bell bottomed pants and one of those shiny disco shirts.”

Piper laughed and wrapped him in a tight hug, which he returned enthusiastically. “I missed you, Valdez.”

“Don’t be such a sap. You were gone for like a week and a half.”

“I know, don’t remind me.”

“That bad, huh?” He pulled back to examine her face. “You guys fight?”

Piper shook her head and started unpacking. “I’m just always on edge when I’m there. I hate L.A.”

Leo nodded in solidarity. “Wanna order pizza?”

“Obviously.”

Leo grinned and pulled out his phone.

—

As soon as Jason walked through the door on December 31st, he was treated to the sight of Piper wearing a blue bra, a beanie, jeans, and a single sock. It was in interesting look, but Leo was enough to distract him in socks, boxer shorts, a glove, and a top hat.

Jason was more than a little confused, but had the presence of mind to be grateful that Leo’s outfit was weird enough to take his attention from Piper in just a bra. That thought had the unfortunate effect, however, of directing his attention right back to her though, because Piper was in just a bra and Jason’s brain was sort of short circuiting because holy shit Piper was in just a bra.

(And the pants or whatever, but who could be bothered to look that low when Piper. Was. In. Just. A. Bra.)

Focus on something else, he told himself. Don’t be a creep. That’s super weird and predator-y and you’re not even dating. Yes, Leo’s top hat. Stare at that. Just focus on the top hat. He mentally patted himself on the back for pulling that off.

“Hey,” Leo and Piper called in unison, not even glancing up from the cards in their hands.

“Um, hey,” he answered, pausing to allow one of them to jump in and explain just what exactly was happening. Neither did. “What’s, uh…what’s going on?”

“Strip or sip poker,” Leo answered, laying a card down with incredible focus.

“Sorry?”

“It’s like strip poker, but you have the option of taking a drink instead of losing an article of clothing,” Piper explained, finally looking up at him. “It’s, um…”

Jason could swear her cheeks got redder when their eyes met; he knew his certainly did. Her loss of words made him feel a little better about his own at her state of undress as well.

“It’s our New Year’s Eve tradition,” she finished finally, looking back down at her cards. “Shit, Leo!”

Leo laughed triumphantly at whatever had just happened in the game.

“I thought your tradition was just drinking,” Jason commented, removing his coat and wheeling his suitcase farther into the living room.

“Didn’t you hear the drinking part of the rules?” Leo asked, grinning up at him from his seat on the floor. “Come on, I’ll deal you in as soon as this round’s over, which should be soon with the way Piper’s playing.”

Piper flashed her middle finger at him.

“You guys don’t think it’s weird that you play strip poker together every year?” Jason asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Why would it be weird?” Leo asked.

“You’re playing a game favored by couples and horny groups of teenagers because the purpose is to get naked.’’

“The purpose is to have fun and get drunk,” Piper countered. “Besides, we only strip until we reach our underwear. Then you have to forfeit or chug your drink.”

“I don’t know if I can keep up with these rules,” Jason laughed.

“Well you’re gonna have to learn quick,” she said, smirking. “Hurry up, Grace, it’s only two hours ’til midnight and I’m not even tipsy!"

“Alright, alright, but someone’s gonna have to explain how poker works because I haven’t played it in years.”

Leo and Piper groaned in unison, and Jason grinned as he took a seat where they’d left room for him beside the table. It was good to be back, even if he knew he was about to end up either drunk or naked very quickly.

—

As it turned out, it was a combination of the two.

By the time 11:59 rolled around, Piper had lost her beanie and her other sock, Leo was down to his boxers and top hat, and Jason was left with just his underwear (purple briefs, one of his nicer pairs which he was now thanking himself from this morning for picking out) because, as he’d expected, he lost horribly. He wasn’t nearly as drunk as the other two, however, as he’d had more items of clothing to lose and had to drink less to keep up.

He was exceedingly thankful for that as well, because he had no idea what drunk Jason would say to a half naked Piper and he certainly didn’t want to find out.

There were 60 seconds until midnight, and Leo was trying to get the other two to come out on the fire escape with him, insisting it was the best spot to watch the fireworks. Piper was laughing, definitely drunk but lucid enough to know it was way too cold for that. Jason was insisting Leo get back inside, that it was below freezing and Leo was going to catch a cold out there in just his underwear.

(Leo countered this by explaining he was also wearing a hat.)

There were 45 seconds until midnight, and Leo was attempting to translate Auld Lang Syne into Spanish. Piper was singing the English lyrics, since she didn’t know much Spanish to begin with and translating that was just too difficult. Jason was listening to Piper sing, because she had the most beautiful voice he’d ever heard, which was unfair because everything else about her was beautiful too, and it was keeping him rooted in place, just staring at her.

(Piper caught his eye more than once and her skin took on a pretty deep pink tinge, but Jason figured it was probably just the alcohol.)

There were 15 seconds until midnight, and Leo was beginning to count down, watching his phone to keep track of the seconds as they disappeared into the ether. Piper was warning him to be careful, that he was too drunk to be waving his phone around out there, that he was going to drop it. Jason was watching her inch closer to him, each second vanishing along with an inch of space between them until she was pressed fully to his side and his heart rate was skyrocketing.

(Jason was pressing closer to her too, he realized.)

Three, Leo was shouting over the railing.

Two, Piper was looking up at him expectantly through her eyelashes.

One, Jason panicked.

“Happy New Year!” the three of them yelled together, and Jason bent down, and Piper’s eyes fluttered shut, and he pressed his lips to her cheek, softly, so softly.

He pulled back to see Piper frown, looking almost disappointed. Maybe he wasn’t misreading signals then, maybe Piper really did want him to kiss her, and he’d majorly screwed up. But he wouldn’t let their first (and maybe last, if he really was just tipsy and she wasn’t into him at all) kiss be a drunken fumbling one for the sake of the holiday with Leo jumping around in his underwear. His brain was cloudy and he wanted so badly to press Piper up against a wall and hear her sigh his name, but he knew that she deserved better than anything that would happen tonight.

So together, shivering, they pulled Leo back inside and, after a bit of celebrating and watching whatever fireworks they could see, pushed him in the direction of his room. They all needed to get some sleep.

Jason found himself standing with Piper outside her bedroom door, which was across from Leo’s. She was studying his face, and had the same look in her eyes she’d had at midnight. It had Jason’s breath quickening, and his hands ached to brush her hair behind her ear or find her waist and pull her against him.

“What’s your resolution?” Piper asked, catching him off guard. Her words were only the slightest bit slurred, and her eyes were bright, the color seeming to change in the dim light.

“Haven’t really thought about it,” he answered truthfully.

Piper nodded solemnly, eyes still locked on his. Her voice was gentle, and soothed him even as the heat passing between them riled him up. “Wanna know mine?”

Jason nodded.

“It’s to go after the things I want,” she said, just a whisper, nearly drowned out by the sounds of partying and fireworks from outside.

“I like it,” Jason said. “Does it apply to anything in particular?”

Piper smiled coyly, and Jason couldn’t quite catch his breath. “Mm hm. But I think what I want can wait for another night, when I’m a little more sober.”

Unable to formulate a response to that, Jason nodded mutely again.

She turned and opened her bedroom door. “Goodnight, Sparky.”

“Happy New Year, Pipes.”

Her eyes sparkled at him, and then the door shut and he was left alone in the hallway.

—

Piper spent the first half of the next day hungover and hoping she wasn’t as obvious last night as she thought she’d been, and the second half regretting ever having made that ridiculous resolution because Jason fit so well with her and Leo and she really wasn’t looking forward to the awkwardness that would surely follow his rejection of her, but there was always a chance the heat in his eyes and the tenderness of his kiss last night hadn’t been a drunken hallucination, and besides, Piper had committed to going after what she wanted. What she wanted was him, and every time she thought about backing out she reminded herself that mama didn’t raise no bitch.

(You know, metaphorically, because she had no idea who her mother was and her father certainly didn’t raise her and the nanny didn’t put in much effort, so really it was more like…Piper didn’t raise herself to be no bitch. But that was too complicated, so she stuck with the original phrase.)

Actually telling Jason how she felt was a little more challenging with Leo hanging about—yeah, he lived there, but that was hardly an excuse—so before she knew it they were going to bed and she was lying awake, and then sneaking past a sleeping Jason to sit out on the fire escape, bundled in a hoodie and a blanket.

It was freezing, but the cold air helped her think, so she didn’t mind it too much. It was still pretty early for her, only a quarter past midnight, but the stars blinking down at her made it feel later than it was. A car honked in the distance. Someone in another building was blasting music.

“Jeez, Pipes, it’s freezing out here.”

And then Jason was sitting next to her, and it didn’t feel quite as cold as it had before.

She unwrapped one side of the blanket and held it open for him, letting him scoot closer and wrap the blanket around himself.

“It’s a good system,” she said, looking back up at the stars. “We can share a blanket and body heat.”

She hoped he couldn’t feel her heart pounding.

They sat in silence for what felt like hours, just drinking in each other’s presence and watching their breath turn to steam in the air, curling and entwining before vanishing into the night. Finally, it was Jason who broke the spell.

“Piper?”

Just her name, but it was enough to knock the wind out of her. “Yeah?”

“How drunk were you last night?”

She kept her eyes on the sky above them. “Not drunk enough to say anything I didn’t mean.”

He was silent then, but she could feel his eyes on the side of her face, watching her. She wondered what he saw.

“Piper?” he asked again.

“Yeah?”

“I came up with a resolution.”

She turned to look at him, and suddenly his lips were pressed to hers and the blanket was sliding down because his hands were on her waist, hot even through her hoodie, pulling her closer and closer and closer and somehow it still wasn’t enough, so Piper pressed back, one hand bunched in his shirt and the other finding his cheek. She needed air so desperately but she couldn’t pull back, not when his tongue was sliding against hers and she finally felt like she could breathe, and her hand slid up to wrap his hair around her fingers like she’d always wanted to.

She was practically in his lap now, nipping at the little scar on his lip, and she still didn’t know where he’d gotten it but she didn’t really care at the moment. His hands slid up, one around her back to hold her against his front and the other to her hair where it tugged on her braid, making her moan into his mouth. He must’ve liked that because he kissed her harder and his tongue dipped deeper and Piper had just about lost all presence of mind when she suddenly put her hands on his chest and shoved herself back.

She stared at him, panting, and he stared at her right back with his cheeks flushed gorgeously and his eyes wide. He opened his mouth and she knew he was about to apologize, he was going to think she stopped him because she didn’t want him to kiss her, and of course that couldn’t be farther from the truth, so—

“Jason Grace, how dare you have the audacity to kiss me,” she took a brief pause to catch her breath, not long enough for him to start to apologize but enough to scare him a little (she couldn’t resist messing with him just a tiny bit when he looked so adorably shocked), “when you knew it was my resolution to go after what I want, which is obviously you!”

Jason’s mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out. He blinked and frowned, and, “Um…what?”

“I was going to make the first move,” she sniffed. “I’d made a resolution and worked up the balls and even had a speech prepared. And backup speeches for different scenarios! I can’t believe you just ruined all those plans.”

Jason blinked several times, but a shadow of a smile had appeared on his face. “I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

“I basically told you last night.”

“I didn’t realize you were preparing speeches, though. I figured I’d save you the trouble with a resolution of my own.”

“You stole my resolution, too. Who’s committing plagiarism now?”

“Not true. Your resolution was to go after what you want. Mine was much simpler.”

“Oh yeah?” she challenged, picking up the fallen blanket to ward off the chill seeping back through her clothes. “What was it?”

“‘Kiss Piper.’”

She brushed back a piece of hair that had come loose from her braid—probably when Jason’s hand had tangled in it and pulled, she realized, the memory causing heat to pool low in her belly—to cover her smile. “Well that’s just…boring. Where’s the pizzazz?”

When she turned to look at him again, his face was much closer than it had been, his warm breath ghosting over her lips in a way that made them tingle deliciously. “I thought there was plenty of pizzazz. You need a refresher?” he teased.

Piper sucked in a breath. She had been far less prepared for confident, sexy, teasing, ready-to-kiss-her-stupid Jason than she’d thought, and it might just kill her. Trying to regain some control of the situation, she raised an eyebrow and said, “It still doesn’t make up for all the work I put in. Now I’ll never get to fulfill my New Year’s Resolution. I’m a failure.”

“Would it make you feel better to give me one of the speeches you prepared?”

“No, I don’t have one for this scenario.”

“You prepared for multiple scenarios but none of them included me kissing you?”

“I thought it would be at least another month before you made a move on me, Sparky, so no.”

“That stings.”

Piper laughed and nuzzled her nose against his, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “Can you blame me?”

“No,” he sighed, “I’m still pretty amazed I got it together long enough to kiss you. I’m sorry you didn’t get to give your speeches, though. You sure you can’t tell me one anyway?”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible, you’ll never know what I was going to say.”

Jason laughed. “You are a cruel woman, Piper McLean.”

She just shrugged, a smirk spreading across her face. “That’s what you get for stealing my moment.”

“How about I make it up to you?” His eyes were dark now, his nose brushing along hers and his voice deep. Piper shivered, and it wasn’t from the January air.

“I think we can work something out,” she whispered, and their mouths met in the middle as they reached for each other.

—

The first game of the season, Jason was third up to bat, and he was nervous as hell.

It was normal, especially for him. His nerves would decrease as the game went on, but that didn’t stop the shaking of his hands as he stepped up to the plate and took a couple warm up swings.

The first pitch veered to the left, just out of the strike zone.

The second was a fastball, and he was half a second too late.

He adjusted the straps on his gloves and tried to steady his breathing. This is normal, he told himself. You just need to pull it together and get your head in the game.

Great. Now I’m quoting High School Musical.

This, naturally, got I Don’t Dance stuck in his head, which wouldn’t even be an issue if Piper hadn’t made him watch the movies last week and sung that song at him constantly. (Not that he really minded; Piper’s singing voice was one of his favorite things in the world to listen to, even when accompanied by cheesy choreography.)

He glanced at the stands to his left, where he knew she was sitting with Annabeth, Grover, Hazel, and Percy’s family. He found her quickly, and she waved. His heart rate slowed, and the haze in his brain seemed to clear as he stepped back to the plate.

It probably wasn’t great to rely on her to keep him relaxed at bat. If they broke up, or fought, or even if she just missed seeing him play, he couldn’t afford to be off his game. He’d never had an issue working through his nerves before; he was sure he could do it without her, but it was so much easier to take one look at her and feel himself relax.

When he hit the ball way out to left field and made it to first with plenty of time to spare, he figured he didn’t mind relying on Piper so much. Watching her jump up and down, cheering in the stands, he got the feeling she wasn’t going anywhere.

[deplcythebattery]

What I should be doing is writing CeCe’s and Jordyn’s present fics and the new prompt I got, but I just thought about this and need to write it.

AU where What Would I Do? is Marvin’s eulogy at Whizzer’s funeral.

Each breath trembling more than the last, Marvin slowly walked down towards the microphone. The crumbled up piece of paper in his hand was stained with sweat, neat writing now smudged to a point where it was almost impossible to read. It wasn’t like Marvin needed it anyway, he’d memorized his speech a long time ago. It was something he had been working on during those late nights when Whizzer wheezed in his sleep and Marvin couldn’t fall asleep, his heart breaking more and more as he had to watch and listen to his Whizzer barely being able to breathe.

Trina had made sure Marvin’s suit was clean and ironed. Marvin couldn’t even remember the last time he’d worn actually clean clothes. When Whizzer got too weak to tease him about his style, Marvin lost all interest in such things. It was far too painful, when it brought back the memories of Whizzer telling everyone that Marvin didn’t share his devotion to style. Marvin’s devotion was Whizzer and anything that reminded him of the lost lover made living almost unbearable.

When he reached the stool that he was supposed to stand behind and give his speech from, Marvin had to place his hands on the smooth wood to keep himself up straight. He could feel the eyes of everyone attending the funeral burn holes on his skin. It wasn’t just the tight knit family; Whizzer’s friends were there too. Some where ex-boyfriends, other just queerplatonic support from different times of Whizzer’s life. Most of them sat in total silence, some of the softer people crying quietly. They all stared at Marvin, though, knowing that if someone knew Whizzer, it was him.

And they waited with the tight knit family for Marvin to start speaking.

Marvin could feel his chest tightening, sorrow and pain overwhelming him again. He squeezed his hands into fists, the piece of paper completely forgotten in his fingers. When he finally straightened his back and held his head high, his cheeks were wet and pale, speaking of something far beyond ordinary heartbreak.

“What would I do if I had not met him?” Marvin started, his voice cracking at the first mention of his lover, “who would I blame my life on?” The corner of Marvin’s mouth curled up a little as he realized how true the statement was. Trina breathed out a quiet chuckle, but it was soon interrupted by a sob she stifled. Who indeed could Marvin blame now? Of all the mistakes, of everything that had happened, of finally getting to see what real love looked like? Who would he blame for his life first crumbling into pieces only to be pieced back together by the very same someone? Someone who was gone.

The smile was gone from Marvin’s lips as he continued to speak. “Once I was told that all men get what they deserve. Who the hell then threw this curve?” Whizzer was one of the best men Marvin had ever met. One of the most deserving, most compassionate, most vibrant. What he deserved was to grow old, by Marvin’s side. To see the world, to be treated like a king, to be loved. He for sure did NOT deserve to fade away into a shadow of the man he used to be, to die in pain, trying to make sure Marvin would keep going without him. Sure, Whizzer was naive when they first met, but the man he’d grown into? That man deserved the whole world. And to Marvin, that man WAS the whole world. But he’d been stolen away. “There are no answers, but what would I do, I he had not been my friend?”

By now, the room was filled with quiet sniffling and stifled cries. A few of the queer men at the back comforted one another and it only reminded Marvin about how Whizzer tried so hard to take the pain away from those around him as he himself was in too much pain to move. Whizzer was so kind and so smart and so caring and it hurt so bad to see that same care in those mourning him. Marvin couldn’t watch the people he spoke to, instead just stared into the ground by the feet of the first row of people.

“Whizzer is... He was the only one, one out of a thousand others, only one my child would allow.” Marvin glanced at Jason who was curled up against Trina, tried to give him a smile, but Jason’s nodding and wet eyes almost threw him off. Jason had loved Whizzer like a father and... Loosing him hurt Jason, too, just as much as it did everyone else. It wasn’t fair that Jason had to go through his family breaking apart all over again, just when it had become stable and loving and soft. And yet, they had to be there, had to say farewell to the one that had made the room light up by just walking in.

“When I’m having fun, he’s the one I want to talk to,” Marvin continued, tears streaming down his face and blurting his vision, “where have you been, Whizzer? Where are you now?” Taking in a sharp breath, Marvin forced himself to keep it together, almost laughing at how much it hurt. “Who would I be, if I had not loved him?” Words shaking and voice cracking, Marvin’s whole body trembled with how hard he was fighting his own mind, the need to just break down. “How would I know what love is?”

Whizzer had shown Marvin what it meant to be loved. When they got back together after spending some time apart, Marvin’s life seemed perfect. Him and Whizzer were so good together they radiated positive energy. They still fought every now and then, but it wasn’t like it used to be. It wasn’t ugly or hurtful on purpose. It was what every couple had, flawed everyday life, but it was good. It was loving. And before that, Marvin truly did not know that that kind of unconditional love existed. Whizzer showed him what it meant to love someone with one’s whole heart.

With his next words, Marvin breathed out a quiet laugh, his lips curling up again for just a moment. “God only knows, too soon I’ll remember your faults,” he said quietly, almost like he was just speaking to himself. Whizzer’s flaws... The hairline, the slow mornings, the habit where he left cups of tea everywhere and never remembered to drink them. They weren’t flaws at all and soon Marvin’s eyes darkened again. “Meanwhile thought it’s tears and schmaltz.”

It was tears. It was tears and snot and sobbing into the early morning. It was nightmares and screaming into the pillow and clutching at sides just to keep the pain from ripping everything into pieces. It was never remembering to eat, the house feeling too empty, forgetting that Whizzer wasn’t there in bed.

“All my life I wanted men and when I got it up to have them... Who knew it could end my life?” Marvin continued and glanced at Trina who met his eyes with a soft smile. She knew exactly what Marvin meant and her eyes told him that it was okay. “I left my kid, I left my wife, to be with him - to be insulted by such handsome men.” It was just one man. It was just one man and one man only. And now that one man was gone.

“Do I regret?” Marvin asked, shaking his head a bit. “I’d do it again. I’d like to believe I’d do it again and again.” This time he raised his head and faced the crowd with serious eyes, his commitment evident on his face. Marvin would do it again. He’d do it a hundred times again if it was Whizzer he’d abandon everything for.

“What more can I say?” Marvin’s voice cracked again, his words quieting down after the powerful words. “How am I to face tomorrow, after being screwed out of today?” Again it sounded almost like he forgot anyone else was there, running a hand over his wet face, clearing his eye a bit. “Tell me what’s in store. Yes, I’d beg or steal or borrow,” Marvin wasn’t one I admit he’d ever beg for anyone, “if I could hold him for one hour more.” Tears filled his eyes again, a sob shaking his upper body. “For one hour more.”

Marvin stood at the front, trying not to remember the lazy sundays in bed, Whizzer playing with his camera or reading. He tried not to remember the late nights on the couch, Whizzer falling asleep with his head in Marvin’s shoulder or lap. He tried not to remember the slow, silly dancing as the night turned into morning, in just their boxers and Whizzer in his binder as they laughed so hard their tomachs hurt, staying close at all times. “What would I do if I had not seen him?” Marvin didn’t look at the crowd any longer, just spoke quietly, defeated. “Who would I feast my eyes on?”

“Once I was told that good men get better with age. We’re just gonna skip that stage,” the last few words almost inaudible, Marvin had to stifle yet another sob. A few people in the audience, Cordelia in Charlotte’s arms and Trina included, had gone from quiet tears to full on weeping. Charlotte’s face was stone as she watched Marvin, knowing just how much weight that phrase truly held. Trina also picked up on it, making sure she’d ask Marvin what he meant by saying ‘we’.

“There are no answers, but what would I do, if he hadn’t been my friend? No simple answers...” Marvin’s words trailed off and he slowly turned away from the mike. Trina immediately rushed to help him, because he couldn’t see where he put his feet thanks to his tears, barely able to stand on his own. His knees were weak and it was just too much to handle. A few more people said a few more words, but Marvin wasn’t listening. He was tired and wanted to get back to bed, to forget anything ever happened.

But he couldn’t. He still had to eat food with everyone and talk to the guests. So they moved into another room, Trina and Mendel walking side by side with Marvin, guiding him towards the tables. “I’ll bring you something,” Trina mumbled and kissed Marvin’s hair as she hurried away to bring his ex husband a plate of something to eat. Marvin’s head buzzed with white noise, the only thought in there the emptiness that could only be filled by Whizzer’s presence. At least he wouldn’t have to wait long to follow his Unlikely lover.

When Trina came back, Marvin was staring out of the window. The rest of the tight knit family had sat by him, Cordelia and Charlotte across and Jason and Mendel to his left. Trina sat on his right. A few of Whizzer’s old friends had stopped by to thank Marvin for giving such a beautiful piece, others had given their condolences. None of it mattered to Marvin. Nothing mattered anymore. So he decided to be honest; he didn’t have energy to hide anything any longer.

“I’m sick too.” Trina froze where she was, Charlotte’s brows furrowed. Anyone else didn’t seem to catch Marvin’s words, so he repeated them. “I’m sick like Whizzer is. Was. It’s gotten so bad I’ve asked Charlotte if she could help me with the pain,” he explained and Charlotte nodded, confirming his words. Trina gasped and slammed a hand over her mouth, stifling the scream that tried to escape. There was a lot of stifling that afternoon. Marvin couldn’t face any of them as he hear Cordelia’s fork hit her plate. Mendel didn’t say anything as neither did Jason, who just stared straight ahead. In all honesty, he’d figured out his dads were both sick. If it was gay men dying, it included Marvin too. And Jason had been thinking about that a lot. But still, hearing it said out loud wasn’t at all easier.

“I’m sorry,” Marvin said quietly as Trina wrapped her arms around him. This was what Marvin had meant when he said ‘were just onna skip that stage’. Trina had hoped it was just an unconscious habit, but her worst fears became reality instead. Mendel placed a hand on Marvin’s shoulder and Jason moved from his seat to sit on his father’s lap for the first time in years. Jason was getting too old to do that and physical affection wasn’t really a thing between him and his dad, but he just had to be close to Marvin in that moment. “We love you, Marv,” Charlotte whispered and held her Cordelia close, whose face was streaked with tears again. Marvin closed his eyes, too exhausted to even cry any longer, repeating his words. “I’m so sorry.” And he was. He was sorry for all the pain he’d caused his tight knit family.

[yaz-the-spaz]

The Super Ridiculous Twelve Playlist

so...wound up making a playlist after all because i’m ridiculous lol…the ones without explanations are ones that i felt like didn’t really need much of an explanation but they’ve all been ordered chronologically to align with the story and the progression of the plot how i see them

(fic this is in reference to can be found here and the summary post here)

[note to future readers - to be listened to ONLY after you’ve finished the whole first fic; DO NOT CLICK that read more button if you haven’t finished because spoilers lie ahead]

like toy soldiers by eminem - twelve; mostly for the chorus and also a few other lyrics (especially in the very beginning)

in case by demi lovato - liam; waiting for zayn to come back/come home (throughout the earlier chapters but also as a kid)

nightingale by demi lovato - twelve; shortly after starting to remember liam/himself/his family when he’s still feeling so fragmented and half out of it with the flashbacks and emotions and different pieces of himself

dark times by the weeknd & ed sheeran - twelve/zayn* (and also kind of danny); for all the times twelve (and later zayn) has doubted himself both in general and when it comes to Liam’s feelings for him (mostly only relevant for the first fic but can be loosely applied to parts in the sequel too), tbh this one’s mainly here just for the chorus and dark themes more so than most of the other lyrics, but just pretend when they say “back to these streets” it’s actually “back to [memories of] the bunker” lol and also that it’s “this ain’t the right time for you me to fall in love with me you”

two pieces by demi lovato - liam and twelve

hate that i love you by rihanna & ne-yo - liam and twelve

[i won’t mind by zayn - twelve and liam; needed to be included in this list for reasons but obvi not on spotify so won’t be listed in the actual playlist :(]

whatcha say by jason derulo - liam (lol)…this is literally only for the chorus, for when liam’s waiting on a response to The Note

love is on its way by the jonas brothers (aka the original jb lol) - this one’s for y’all for being so patient waiting for the ziam for 890859284235789784579345 years, a little happy interlude if you will

perfect by ed sheeran - zayn and liam

into you by ariana grande - liam and twelve; right after they first get together (“been waiting and waiting for you to make a move before i make a move” amiright lol)

bad (remix) by wale feat. rihanna - twelve; especially during their first time (“i never made love, i never did, but i sure know how to fuck”) and the times shortly after when he keeps goading liam into it lol (“i’ll be your bad girl, i’ll prove it to you”), ignore the commitment issues part though, although the issues part in general still applies obvi

hands to myself by selena gomez - twelve (mostly), could also loosely be applied to liam if you squint

everyday by ariana grande - twelve mostly, but kind of liam too

halo by beyoncé - twelve mostly, but also liam

ave maria by beyoncé - twelve and liam

i was here by beyoncé - twelve; especially around the scar exposé scene towards the end

survivors by selena gomez - twelve and a little bit liam, also danny

warrior by demi lovato - twelve; also can be seen as the main theme song of this whole fic/verse tbh

praying by kesha - twelve

1+1 by beyoncé - mostly twelve but also liam [but lollll as if twelve really doesn’t know much about guns or fighting]

be alright by ariana grande - liam and zayn, but mostly liam

fire starter by demi lovato - zayn

[bonus - me, myself, and I by beyoncé - twelve; this one’s more of a joke cause of the whole “three of me” thing lol ignore me (it’s really just here for the title/chorus)]

[double bonus - how will i know by whitney houston - twelve; a cute little 80’s bop dedication to twelve’s mini-struggle trying to figure out out if he really loved liam (we been knew the answer was yes since day one lol but he had to figure it out for himself); also my fave song by her besides i will always love you]

[triple bonus - I’m like a lawyer… by fall out boy - twelve; this one’s more because of what it’s about (child soldiers in case anyone’s not aware) than the specific lyrics but some of the lyrics i feel like are still relevant and also the video for sure]

[quadruple bonus - dangerously in love by beyoncé - liam and zayn; just because i love that song and it still applies]

[quintuple bonus - skyscraper by demi lovato - twelve; for obvious reasons]

(can y’all tell i like demi lovato, ariana grande, and beyonce lolll? but frfr though those songs and the lyrics [most of the lyrics anyway] are especially perfect for this fic, feel free to send me suggestions though if you think of any others that you think would be good/fit well too)

play them all on your own or if you want or you can listen to it ready-made here and the bonus songs here (they both should be public but lemme know if either of the links doesn’t work for whatever reason or if any of you have any problems accessing or playing either)…will probably be adding more to the bonus playlist too as i think of them or as you all suggest them

*just wanna make it clear that that wasn’t a mix up and that i’m making a distinction between what applies to twelve and what applies to zayn, especially depending on what part of the story the song aligns with

[coolgirl]

Fic recs masterpost

ok so i used to have a lot of fics masterposts on my old blog and people keep asking for recs + i wont be able to upddate them or anything anymore so i decided to just move them all to this blog

under the cut: AUS / arkham knight / jaykyle / jayroy / robin!jason / gen / angst fics 

*: last added (april 4) //   for some reason the links arent working so go to jasontodd.tumblr.com/ficrecs for the links, sorry!

AUS

The Virtue of Revenge | young justice au with jason as red x making his own team with roy, starfire, raven, and others. i love it, even if it has shaky moments and stuff pls give it a chance.

crystal silence creeping down | young justice/lost days au

Flicker from View | another young justice au

Live to Rise | yes. you guessed it. young justice au.

Collide &  Convergence | au where post crisis jason goes to the young justice universe

The Changeling Sequence | series where jason meets damian before he went to gotham. The last part is a wip that i doubt will ever get updated again, so uh be careful. read only the first or second part and forget about the third.

The Drag of Fate | au where jason is lady shiva’s son as well. Part of a series, which i also highly recommend but idk if they would be au as well

heavy on the heart | another jason and cass are bio siblings. A+.

Didymous | cass and jason are twins.

repairing the world | i dont know how to explain this series.. its an au and really really good. Jason doesn’t appear in all the pieces.

just go  | jayroy, wings au

In the Shadows (of Who We Used to Be) | jayroy, black widow & hawkeye au

The Family (or how Jason Todd was adopted by the Avengers) | marvel crossover

bad boys bad boys (whatcha gonna dooo) ♫ | jason is damian’s batman. iconic fic imo.

Rise (And Try Not to Fall) | star wars au

A Bird in Morning | bruce finds jason when he’s at the hospital after crawling out of his grave

Moment Between | ghost jason & ghost martha and thomas wayne

We’re not in Crime Alley Anymore | au where jason was younger when bruce took him (and he didnt become robin)

Perhaps The World Ends Here | marvel crossover, future jaykyle

Batten Down the Hatches | a few different aus here. young justice + helena wayne

My Brother's Keeper | jason & damian knew each other from before + damian arrives to gotham just for jason

When the Moon Found the Sun | main story is clark/bruce but it’s preetty cute. soulmates au.

Between the Light and the Dark* | damian & jason uuhm i cant remember what this one was about per se bc im reading like 5487 similar fics but yeah

Two Dead Birds  | time travel stuff

Red Blood, Blue Blood | jason (and the rest of the batkids) are bruce’s biological kids, yeah i wasnt a big fan of the premise at first either but its gud

Rebirth | talia & jason, mind the warnings

you belong among the wildflowers | kate n renee adopt jason instead of bruce

We're the warriors of tomorrow |  Cass, Jason and Damian meet while with the League of Shadows

Can You Hear Me?  | ghost jason

to death's other kingdom I will not go  | bruce makes it on time au

The Ties That Bind  |  The pit restores Jason's body but not his mind, Ra's makes him one of his assassins and Talia adopts him as her own.

death’s outlet song of life* | the gordons find jason before the events of lost days

reflections on shattered mirrors.* | talia & jason stuff

Come Alive* | young justice s3 based

A Path Upon The Ground* | au from lost days, eddie and jason meet again

ARKHAM VERSE

If He Had Come & the sequel  Desiderium | au where bruce rescued jason before he could become the arkham knight.

the roads we know

this gun needs no bullets

JASON & BRUCE CENTRIC (not romantic)

Quack | this one is so crackish but so so cute i love it, robin jason

If He Had Come & sequel Desiderium  | arkham knight verse and its so good and has a lot of bruce & jason feels

Neverland /  Keep Lying To Me | deaged/ little jason from another universe.. sad and cute

Icarus and Bubble Gum | fluff, robin jason

Knock On Death’s Door | bit of both but not so so so angst, red hood jason

dead and dying things | au

In Memoriam | angst, trying to fix their relationship, red hood jason

If the Fates Allow | angst, red hood jason

The D-Word | fluff kind of.. red hood jason

This Place We Built With Grace and Guilt | angst angst angst, red hood jason

I Love You | robin jason, fluff

Wayward Birds | fluff and angst, robin jason

yesterday’s gone, yeah it went away (i’ve been lost but i’m here today) | another trying to fix their relationship fic, its cute and sad

We’re not in Crime Alley Anymore | au where jason was younger when bruce took him (and he didnt become robin)

Little Absences | sad, robin & red hood

Schrödinger's Honest Man | sad, drugs tw, absolute fave

White Christmas | bruce & robin!jason

Frozen History | de-age

Stargazer | jason n bruce patching their relationship.. its iconic

Unconventional Family Reunions | bvs setting

Prompt: Trapped | mind the warnings

Safe In My Arms 

The Failures of Reverse Engineering  | ghhm not really bruce & jason maybe?

to death's other kingdom I will not go | bruce saves jason au

points of impact  | glass case get fucked

is it my fault? (we've been missing each other)*

waiting for you. *

The Little Things*

World's Finest* | my uwus my uwus have fallen everywhere

JAYKYLE (all iconic)

In Which Kyle Confesses The Same Thing Six Times

milk and honey

Batman vs Space Bureaucracy

deadlock

attention to detail

tempest in a teapot

violet tendencies

no love, no glory (no hero in his skies)

keep the door open for me

waffles and war 

The Art of Subtlety (jason lives au)

Perhaps The World Ends Here | marvel crossover, future jaykyle

Riding in Batcars with Boys

boy, you fill my lungs with sweetness

no chance, no way, i won't say it (no, no)  

a change in the atmosphere

invitation to commitment

Overexposed 

i deserve that, don't i, some sort of blazing love that i can live with 

i won't say 

The water is always warmest at dawn

JAYROY (all iconic too)

sleepless 

Countdown

just go (wings au)

Unspoken

(for thy love is) better than wine (E)

Rooftops

Dick Wolf is a Really Funny Name

A headache isn’t always a bad thing

sad eyes, bad guys, mouth full of white lies [high school au]

kairosclerosis 

The Night They Met 

march down an empty street (like a ship into the storm) *

Archange de la mort (rallume ton flambeau) * | hic warning lol

this time, the loser wins | steph & jason centric though

So Baby Come Light Me Up *

Little Talks *

All the light is never ending, much like you and I; *

Don't let me go, for I feel I may fall * | soulmates au

Something Reckless * 

OTHERS

how to make a home. * | some eddie/jason if you squint, rose/eddie/jason team up

This Car Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us* | could be read as jayconnor :3

Robin/young!Jason

The Art of Subtlety | jason lives au, jaykyle

Little Absences | sad, robin & red hood

I Love You | robin jason, fluff

Wayward Birds | fluff and angst, robin jason

Icarus and Bubble Gum | fluff, robin jason

Quack | this one is so crackish but so so cute i love it, robin jason

we were not tragedies | jason & babs, read warnings

Heavy Home | gen, alfred & jason

Good News (No One Mourns the Wicked) | Jason & steph & damian. harold they’re dead (kinda robin!jason??)

Love Yourself (So No One Has To) | good amazing au with some selina & jason (not really.. robin but it starts as robin!jason i guess?)

Moment Between | ghost jason & ghost martha and thomas wayne

We’re not in Crime Alley Anymore | au where jason was younger when bruce took him (and he didnt become robin)

Tired &  Laundry | kinda au, read tw!

Smoke | jason & jim gordon

White Christmas | bruce & robin!jason

is it my fault? (we've been missing each other)* | mix of present and past jason

Sidekick* 

waiting for you.* | technically baby jason

The Little Things*

World's Finest* | oh this one.. my uwus

GEN

hold on to what  we are, hold on to your heart | gen, Barbara & Jason friendship. Some dinahbabs & jayroy

gotta give the boy points | gen, absolute fave

Strangers in Nothing but Name | marvel crossover, side steve/bucky

If He Had Come |  Desiderium | Arkham Verse, gen

I can’t  think up a good  name for this | young justice verse, gen apart from canon relationships

A Better Thesis | gen, p short but i loved it

The  F-Word | gen, batboys being batboys

until i’m in my grave | gen, wip 

Robins United | gen, batkids bonding, except for cass, thats my only complaint

Free of Dogma | gen, canon divergence, marvel crossover w Jason & Bucky

bad boys bad boys (whatcha gonna dooo) ♫ | au where damian is jasons robin and not dick’s, obviously damian & jason brotp. 

Heavy Home | gen, alfred & jason

In the  Shadow of Two Gunmen | gen, Marvel crossover

Flicker from View | side Barbara/Dick, young justice verse

I Love You | gen, Bruce & Jason

how to  hide a stray resurrected superhero from your parents/parental figure | au, jason & tim friendship kinda

One For The Road | Jason/Roy/Koriand’r but its SO cute

Baby,  It’s Cold Outside | gen, Dick & Jason

The  (Family) Doctor’s  Appointment | gen, batboys bonding

The Family (or how Jason Todd was adopted by the Avengers) | marvel crossover, gen

Reason | wip, gen, canon divergence

Soliloquy | gen, tim & Jason brotp,  and really cute batfam moments

Red As The Shadow Of Death | gen, young justice/under the red hood verse

Give Yourself a Chance | gen, duke & Jason & leslie brotpish

homecoming | outlaws brotp fic, could be considered shippy if you want to

And I Said What About Breakfast at Tiffany’s | jason & steph

Of Bats and the Forsaken | jason & all the batkids, side steph/cass and jay/roy if you squint

this is a long drive (for three robins who don’t agree on much) | no capes au, steph & jason & damian, background tim/tam

The Dying of the Light | marvel crossover, bucky & jason, canon divergence

Cat | selina &  jason, catlad au

Killing for Love | cass & jason, au  where jason was lady shivas son  

Keep Lying To Me | de-aged au, just heartbreaking imo, cursed fic

The Social Habits of Robin | gen, batboys. Where_is_cass.jpg tho

Steph and Jay’s Excellent Adventures | series, Steph & Jason

Neverland | jason & batkids, young!jay travels to the future. sad asad sad

on a thin chain of moments and something like faith | gen, jason & cass & steph mostly. really good

Good News (No One Mourns the Wicked) | Jason & steph & damian. harold they’re dead

In a Parallel Life | batboys focused, it has amazing dialogue, dynamics, and characterization. It’s only missing Cass and the rest of the girls.

repairing the world | series, not everything is about the batfam.

Born to Run (Born to Rise) | Jason & Talia having a mother/son relationship reblog if you agree

Live to Rise | it updated again p recently so yay! young justice verse

To Save a Dying City  | jason + other people

Let’s Have Some Fun This Beat Is Sick | mostly damian centric

Movie Night: The Mummy  | read trigger warnings, batboys

The Trading Chain  | not jason centric, but it has cass being older than jason and calling him “little brother” so noice

we sure know how to run free  | jason & cass

Yesterday’s Voices | bruce loses his memory au

Nests and Cages series | read trigger warnings

Roots | barbara centric, really good plot and characterization

Love Yourself (So No One Has To) | good amazing au with selina & jason

Retrograde Motion | de aged jason au

Provenance | mostly roy centric, bruce fucks oliver’s life for what he did to roy. iconic

Schrödinger's Honest Man | sad, drugs tw, absolute fave 

Batten Down the Hatches | a few different aus here. young justice + helena wayne

My Brother's Keeper | jason & damian knew each other from before + damian arrives to gotham just for jason

White Christmas | bruce & robin!jason

until i'm in my grave v2 | this one is already mentioned in this post BUUUT the writer started rewriting it so!

Frozen History | de-age

Stargazer | jason n bruce patching their relationship.. its iconic

show me yesterday, for i can’t find today | time travel au

Warm Enough | alfred & jay fluff

Parallels | mia & jason team up

Legacy | reverse robins, not jason centric but hes there alright.. i think.. i cant remember :D

What are the words I'm forbidden to say?* | damian & jay fluff

Cracked Foundation| jason n damian

Cat's Cradle  | more jason n damian

spaces in between  | damian & jason again

When the lights go out  | damian & jason, theres a pattern here

in my head, i do everything right | some jason & steph

is it my fault? (we've been missing each other)* | past & future jason

life, if well lived* | jason travels back in time and meets martha & thomas wayne

In Charge * | babie jason

Pyrrhic victory* | jason & damian stuff

Twists and Turns* | more jason & damian bonding

Of Brothers and Batcows* | guess what.. yes! more jason & damian

This Car Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us* | jason & connor.. say no more!

First Gear* | back to jason & damian please read this.. damian tries to teach jason to drive

changing, falling, fading (please watch over me)* | jason bonds with damian & steph

ANGST

Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death [read the trigger warnings!!]

in the repairing the world series there are a lot of fics dealing with jason, tho Warm Enough ugh not all are centered around him. I would say read  Escalation | Coup de Grâce |  Interlude for the rh!jason arc, and  Tired &  Laundry for robin!jason. [also read trigger warnings]

Countdown | jason/roy]

those six days [trigger warnings again!!!]

Call | angst

the tune without the words  | kind of character study from jim gordon’s pov

Unspoken | jason/roy, really angsty if you remember how red hood arsenal ended

If He Had Come & Desiderium | arkham knight verse, read trigger warnings!

Reason | on hiatus :/

hold on to what we are, hold on to your heart   | this is my favorite ever.. read trigger warnings

Heavy Home | alfred & jason

until i’m in my grave [trigger warnings!]

Keeping Broken Pieces Together

Monsters | marvel crossover

gotta give the boy points | this one please!!!! another fav. read trigger warnings

The weight of it [trigger warnings!]

Live to Rise | young justice verse

Neverland | THIS ONE IS PURE ANGST!!! please its so sad..

Keep Lying To Me | this one has some angsty scenes too im sad emoji

hangman is coming down from the gallows  | some angst

Movie Night: The Mummy  | read trigger warnings, batboys

Love Yourself (So No One Has To)

All in the Blood [read trigger warnings]

Little Absences

Stargazer | jason n bruce patching their relationship.. its iconic

Rebirth * | mind the warnings and its really. sad.

The Failures of Reverse Engineering *

Eternal Soliloquy * | sad sad

throw me a lifeline (I might even catch it) *

changing, falling, fading (please watch over me) * | jason & steph & dami angst

[xoheatherkw]

Finding Home - A Bughead Fic

My first attempt at writing Bughead, so I hope I did them justice. 

I’d also like to give a huge thank you to @your-girl-thursday for being my beta & cheerleader and encouraging me… especially when I send her late night messages that writing fics is hard! 

Summary: One-shot, set after 1x12. Bughead. // He never mentioned Toledo since the Homecoming dance, and she was determined to get an answer tonight. Even if it meant he was leaving to stay with his mom and sister. 

Read here on FF or AO3

The last two weeks had been a whirlwind. Clifford Blossom had committed suicide, and the police were investigating the drug smuggling scandal discovered in the maple syrup barrels.

Mrs. Andrews postponed her return to Chicago and had officially taken on FP’s case. She was trying to get a reduced sentence with the main argument that FP was under duress for the safety of Jughead. And with a powerful family behind those threats, FP did the only thing he thought he could under the circumstances.

Which was confess.

Jughead had also been on edge the last two weeks, as Sheriff Keller wasn’t allowing any visitors during the investigation, with the exception of his lawyer. The small town had highly publicized the investigation and he was trying to minimize the damage.

But like everything else in this town, secrets didn’t stay secret for long. Rumor had it that Clifford Blossom was actually the mastermind behind the Southside Serpents, pulling all the strings behind the scenes and using the maple syrup barrels to smuggle them across state lines.

They had seen each other plenty since Jughead’s father had been arrested, but the majority of the time the Scooby gang was trying to figure out the last bits of information regarding the case- like if Hiram was involved in Jason’s murder or not. The Sheriff’s office had their hands full, and couldn’t find any definitive evidence that Hiram had any dealings in the murder of Jason. But Veronica needed to know the truth, so they continued to overturn any and every rock until they proved his innocence (or guilt).  

The trail ran cold today, and Veronica couldn’t find any concrete proof that her father had ties to the murder of Jason Blossom.

Safe to say that there was a lot going on but Betty couldn’t keep it to herself anymore. She felt the tension building up, just below the surface, ever since Homecoming. Besides if she waited until there was no drama in Riverdale, then she might as well be waiting forever. She was pacing her room, waiting for Jughead to come over.

She was equally nervous and excited at the same time, when she heard the telltale taps at her window. She unclenched her fists, that she didn’t even realize she was doing, and went to go open the window. She took a quick glance at her palms while Jughead climbed through. Her nails hadn’t broken the skin, at least not this time.

“You know, I told you to ring the doorbell. My mom is finishing up some editing at the Blue and Gold.” Not to mention after Betty told Polly of her plan, she decided to make herself scarce.

“But that wouldn’t be very Shakespearean of me, would it Juliet?” At that point Jughead noticed her biting her lip and looking down. Something was clearly bothering her. “Hey, is everything alright? You sounded upset on the phone.” Jughead gave her a warm smile.

“I was just hoping we could talk.” She looked up to meet his eyes. “You know, clear the air.”

“Yeah, of course. I actually have some good news to share about my dad’s case.” He was practically beaming.

“Yeah?,” she inquired. Anything to put off the shaky ground they were on. He never mentioned Toledo since the Homecoming dance, and she was determined to get an answer tonight. Even if it meant he was leaving to stay with his mom and sister.

“I just came from a meeting with him and Mr. and Mrs. Andrews. She thinks he has a really good chance of getting the charges dropped, or at least a minimal sentence. Maybe just probation and community service, if he’s lucky. The argument of duress, along with cooperating with the police to gather additional evidence of Clifford Blossom’s investigation. She’s really hopeful.”

“That’s great. Really great Juggie.” She let out a shaky breath. Sheriff Keller had practically dismissed Jughead’s accusations of his father being bullied into the confession by the Blossoms, and while accurate, they had to prove it.

“And now that the investigation against my father is coming to a close, we all talked about my current living situation.” He ran his hands up and down her arms a few times.

Betty’s heart sank even further at his words. He sounded so excited. “That was actually one of the things I wanted to ask you about. So you’re moving to Toledo then?” Her hands unconsciously clenched, and she had to will herself to keep it at bay. She willed her fingers out of her palms, one by one.

“What? No. I’m staying in Riverdale.” His hands ran down her arms and took her hands in his and gave them a gentle squeeze. “For you, for us.”

Her eyes snapped up at that. “I know we haven’t really had much time to talk. I just figured after the Homecoming dance…” she trailed off.

“I know what I said at the Homecoming dance, and I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that. I now know you were just trying to protect me. Betts, you’ve been there for me throughout all of this. I couldn’t imagine leaving Riverdale, leaving you.” He took a step closer, so they were barely inches apart. He gently removed his hands, lightly placing hers on his hips. He brought his hands up to her face, cupping her flushed cheeks.

She gripped his hips a little tighter and met his eyes. Of all the scenarios she imagined, this was not on her list. Perhaps because she spent so much time and energy focusing on how this could end, that she barely thought about what if things went well. “But what about your mom and sister? I thought you were set on moving to Toledo?”

He caressed her cheeks, and she leaned into his touch. “Betts, you’re the closest thing I have to family right now. I really- I really care about you.” He let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding. He closed the gap between them, kissing her briefly. “We even have it all worked out. I’ll be staying with Archie. If and when my dad gets out, he’ll go back to working for Archie’s dad and I’ll stay with him after he gets settled. Things are too strained between him and my mother, so they’re content to spend some time apart for now.”

Her vision blurring from the tears that threatened to spill over.

“Hey, what’s wrong?,” he asked. “I thought you’d be happy.” He pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her.

Her hands instinctively went to his neck. She inhaled the scent of soap that was uniquely Jughead and buried her fingers in his dark locks. It calmed her nerves, if only just a little. “I am happy for you Jug,” she whispered against his neck. She pulled back, just enough to meet his gaze. “I guess I was preparing for the worst. I wasn’t really sure where we stood.”

He kept his hands on her waist, drawing tiny little circles into her skin where her shirt had lifted. “Is that what you were worried about? That I was going to skip town?” Understandably so, but she kept that to herself. Her gaze dropped. “Let me ease your concern, I’m not going anywhere… As long as you’ll still have me? I mean I was kind of a jerk with the whole birthday party and Homecoming dance.”

She squinted her eyes in a playful glare. “All things considered, I’d say you handled it better than I would have. Than most of us would have.”

“I still shouldn’t have taken it out on you Betty.” He continued to draw patterns into her skin, knowing that they calmed her.

“So we’re good?” She wanted to be absolutely certain.

“Yes Betty, we’re great.” He pulled her in a little tighter so he could whisper, inches from her lips. “I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. Being here with you… Here feels like home.”

The admission made her heart flutter. “Good, because I…” She bit her lip to stall. “I…” Her fingers danced nervously across the back of his neck.

“What?,” he asked. He was met with silence. “What?,” he asked again.

She peered up at him. “I love you Juggie,” she admitted. She instantly felt so much lighter in the span of a split second.

He gripped her waist even tighter and pulled her in for a searing kiss. She returned it with just as much passion. He deepened the kiss and pulled her closer so there was no space between them. She could feel his heartbeat thudding under her fingers as she framed his face. He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.

“I love you Betts.” She was the one and only for him, of that he was certain. He gave her one of those rare genuine smiles, that she had only seen a handful of times in the decade they had been friends. She reflected a similar expression, so utterly content with the events and confessions of the night. He pulled her in tighter. Now that he had her, he didn’t intend on ever letting her go.

[teaenthusiast65]

What I’m Working On

Hello my lovelies!

Times have been crazy and I know I’ve neglected you guys a little bit.

For that I am truly sorry. But I hope to be more committed to Tumblr from now on, so as a little reward, I thought I would let you know what I am working on.

I know it is ENTIRELY unprecedented for me to let you guys know what I am working on. But I feel like things have hit a dull spot and I wanted to excite you guys by telling you what I am working on.

So, first off is Yellow Shoes.

I am working on, three count them, three sequels!

The first one will involve Theo James and a friend of Ophelia’s.

The second will involve Evie, whom you may remember was Ophelia’s stylist and, wait for it, Jai Courtney.

And the third will involve Joel Kinnaman, because hot damn that man is gorgeous!

Then we have Love Is Blind. I in no way conceived about how popular that story would be. So I went a little nuts with the sequels for it… sorry. #notsorry

First with have Gerty’s fellow Australian Model, Astrid, who will be working on a movie with… Jason Momoa. And things will get, complicated.

Then we have another Jai Courtney Fic. Gerty has to pay the guy back for helping her get over Kit (which didn’t really work, but whatever). She will be setting him up with one of her model friends.

And then we have a Richard Madden Fic! Because, well, I love him and things didn’t really work out with him an Astrid, so I felt he needed some loving.

Last but certainly not least, we have a sequel to both Grenade and Begin Again starring, wait for it, Jason Momoa.

I’m sorry I just love that guy so much! And you all love Grenade/Begin Again so much I felt like you deserved a little something more in regards to them. But, and this is where the sadness comes in, this one is pretty low down on my working schedule. So be aware that it is there, but I have no idea when you will see it.

There you have it! Sequels galore!

But wait, there’s more.

Stories that are currently in the planning stages are:

A new Oscar Isaac story involving a very cynical character who hates humans, but loves dogs.

A new Kit Harington story involving him and a professional stunt women, who is far more than she appears.

And, randomly, I’ve been planning out a fanfic involving Owen and Deckard Shaw from the Fast and Furious franchise. Jason Statham and Luke Evans are hot! Sue me.

There is also a Prince Harry story in the works. Blame Nat for that one.

As well as a Jon and Sansa tennis AU. I know not everyone is a Jonsa shipper like me. But I can’t help it. My feels! Ok?!

On to some other things.

I was truly blown away by how much love everyone had for not only Yellow Shoes, but for Grenade, Begin Again and Love is Blind. So I have been fiddling around with some AU’s and would love to know if you guys would be interested in them.

First off we have the Yellow Shoes AU. This story will be set in the eighties and will involve teacher Oscar and student Ophelia. Don’t worry! They are both still famous and essentially the same characters, just with a different setting. Interested?

The second one for the Grenade AU. This one will also be set in the eighties, but it will be a little like Dirty Dancing with Beezus showing Kit, a famous actor, how to dance. Thoughts?

The third AU is for Begin Again. I’m not sure what time period this one will be set in but I’m thinking pretty close to the present day with Melanie having just lost her son in a accident. Her parents insist that she talk to the local priest, Father Richard Madden to come to terms with her sons death. But what starts out as a friendship turns into something more that makes Richard question everything. Sound both heart breaking and brilliant?

And the last one is an AU for Love Is Blind. Set in the fifties, Kit Harington is a ruthless gangster that everyone knows and mostly everyone fears. But when he accidentally runs into the blind Gertrude Trinket, she has no idea who he is or of his ruthless reputation and he uses that to his advantage. I do like this idea if I do say so myself.

Oh and I should probably mention, depending which story you guys like best, that I will probably do a Jason Momoa OR Jai Courtney Biker AU. Or both! You never know.

Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘Gee Tea, how are you going to work on all these stories? You must be insane’. Yes, I am insane, you are quite right there.

But the reason I am telling you about all these stories is so you can tell me which ones you would be interested in reading so I can prioritize them and maybe scrap ones that no one is interested in all together! Not so insane now am I? 

As always, show me love by liking this post.

And by all means, message or IM me to let me know your thoughts, feelings, ideas. Anything really.

Until next time my beautiful lovelies,

--Tea Enthusiast

[bluboothalassophile]

Hi!!!! I love your RaeX works, they also character, but I love how you add your own style to them! Please keep writing more fics and as a request, can I get a teacher au for RaeX, where all the students ship them.

I’m glad you enjoy the stories, and I hope this is alright! =)

Shipping Wars!

Jason hated Dick, he truly hated Dick for putting him in this hell!

Undercover as a teacher, and not just any teacher, literature. At least the demon spawn, Rose, Donna, and Raven were all in the same brand of hell he was as he looked at the swarming high school kids.

Jason truly hated this. He’d only been drafted into this because of his stupid, genuine, love of literature and Dick pointed out he was the only one able to pull it off. Which was true, but never again was Jason going to do a favor for his brother which required him to go to high school, undercover, or teaching! Teenagers had no appreciation for fine literature, or the beauty of Shakespeare’s genius!

“Now, if you open the books I put on your desks, we will start Act 2: Scene 1, and…” there was a knock.

“Yo?” he called out looking from the board.

“Hello, I was wondering if you had an extra box of dry erase markers, mine are missing for some reason,” Raven said monotonously.

“Coming up, sunshine,” Jason said as he walked to his desk and frowned. “Miss Roth, it appears I have your markers.”

“That’s odd,” she tilted her head as she walked in and he pulled out the box as he walked over and handed them to her, there were giggles, and sighs from the kids which had Jason lifting a brow as he tilted his head to Raven.

She shrugged, and he collected her slipped note as she walked out with the box and he tucked whatever information she had collected on the drug ring into his pocket as he continued with the lesson.

It was at lunch when Damian walked into his room with Tim and Dick a step behind him. it was known in school that Jason, Dick, and Tim were brothers, and they were the ‘sexy three’ which Jason felt was oddly disturbing. Damian was Dick’s ‘son’ and always had lunch detention. Truthfully this was all just a ruse.

“What have you found out and please tell me we can get out of this godforsaken hell!” Jason pleaded as he sat up at his desk. He’d liked school the first time around because of the learning, he had not cared for or about his peers, and he didn’t care about the drama.

“I have discovered a sinister gambling ring amongst the students,” Damian stated in a huff. “I believe they’re betting who will kill you.”

“What?” Jason blinked as he sat up and looked at the ledger Damian had shoved at him.

Reading over the ledger Jason snorted.

“They ain’t aiming to kill me,” Jason snorted as he was trying not to laugh hysterically at the ledger. Tim picked it up and burst into laughter then as Dick snatched it away and looked.

“Then why would they be betting which person would kill you? Raven’s taken the lead by the way, I would be careful around her,” Damian stated seriously.

“Whoa, slow down shorty, it’s not that kind of betting,” Jason chuckled.

“Then what is it?” Damian asked seriously as he looked at it.

“They’re betting who Jason will hook up with,” Dick said. Damian just blinked.

“Raven’s in the lead,” Damian stated, Jason’s head fell back then as he let out a laugh. Him and Raven were never happening, NEVER! They were friends at most, acquaintances at best.

“Sure, makes sense,” Tim chuckled. “But, personally, I’m putting my money on Rose.”

“I think Donna’s got a better shot, she’s more Jay’s type,” Dick snickered.

“I hate you all,” Jason laughed. Oh boy, standing up he pulled out the information Raven had slipped him. “Now seriously, tell me we can blow this popsicle stand.”

“Yeah, yeah we’ll move tonight,” Tim snickered.

“Don’t be snickering at me, at least I got the girls, I heard the girls betting you’d hook up with Conner, and what would Stephanie say to that,” Jason said. Tim scowled.

“Why! Why is it everyone thinks Conner and I have a thing! I am very happy with Stephanie, and he and M’gann are good!” Tim protested.

“Doth protest too much,” Dick laughed as he left. Jason just shook his head as he left Tim to sit charge over Damian for lunch detention. The walked across the hall to Raven’s room and walked in with ease as he saw her sitting there reading.

“Yes?” she looked up from her book with big dark eyes, he supposed she was kind of cute, in a dark, mysterious way.

“I think you’ll get a kick out of this,” he mused as he sat across from her and put the leger down. Raven picked it up and read it over, she stared at him with wide eyes then.

“What?”

“My thoughts!” he chuckled.

“I hate high school!” Raven sighed.

“Welcome to the club, we have free drinks on Friday between five a.m. and midnight,” he mused as she read it over.

“We should make you kiss every girl they have pitted you with,” Raven muttered.

“There’s a thought,” he agreed. He didn’t mind having a bit of fun, but he was not committing to anyone or anything. That shit was for the living, and legally speaking; he wasn’t.

“It’ll have them all losing,” Raven mused as her lips turned slightly.

“I like the way you think, little bird,” he accepted. “Time to screw these little punks over.”

“Well, they all lose and we win,” she shrugged.

“Oh yes, I’ll save you for last,” he decided. “Bring it up with Rose and Donna too.”

“Alright,” she waved off and he left as he walked for Rose’s room. He had to admit this could be fun messing with the kids heads. He wasn’t really one to get involved with this stuff, but this  could be fun. Besides, Rose and Donna both liked him so he was going to be fine and they wouldn’t gut him. Raven was up for it too which was a bit of a shock, but to hell with it, he was stuck in hell already so what was the harm in kissing a demon.