#The library is actually helping Jason with the pits | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jasntodds · 1 month

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Petrichor [18]

Pairing: Jason Todd x Fem!Powered!Reader (little bit of fwb)

Words: 9,775

Chapter Warnings: Swearing, angst, canon character death, blood, canon violence, mention of previous abuse, mention of drug use, mention of drug addiction, mention of canon gore, kind of a mention of alcoholism

Summary: ❝Pylades: I’ll take care of you. Orestes: It’s rotten work. Pylades: Not to me. Not if it’s you.❞

Gotham is home, not just for Jason but for you, too. And now that you’re both finally back home, together, you’re ready to see where this next chapter brings the two of you. He’s your best friend and you’re his. And you both might want a little something more with being back home, the place you both feel most comfortable. Surely, nothing could possibly go wrong now.

A/N: I can't believe I've had to type out canon character death 4 times for this series lol You can add yourself to the tag list below, ask me to be tagged, or you can follow my library blog @jasntoddslibrary and turn on notifications if you prefer that!! I love feedback, I swear it keeps me posting on a weekly basis 😭

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You and Gar are seated on the floor facing each other while Rachel went out to get you some supplies. You're trying to wrap your head around how you're supposed to function around the city and take down Crane when the entire city wants your heads on spikes. The GCPD has always been weird about Batman but now they actually want all of the Titans taken down and with Crane behind it, that can't mean just throwing you all in cells and tossing away the key. You can't just go out and fight every civilian that hates you now. They're brainwashed because that's what Crane does and fighting people who have no clue what they're doing isn't going to help your situation. It feels more like you're all sitting ducks at this point.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Gar asks, breaking the silence between you, earning an eyebrow raise from you. "How Jason came back."

Your eyes narrow slightly, unsure how or why it would bother you. Him being alive is a good thing. "Why would it bother me?"

"I mean the Lazarus Pit." Gar states as he leans forward. "Like, he came back and that's just it? Some water somewhere is magic and can bring people back from the dead. That doesn't make sense."

You nod your head slowly, this is the same thing he told you at the manor when he showed you some of the books Bruce had on it. "Yeah, we went over that. It's because of Ra's which I think makes a lot of sense, honestly. It's still bothering you that much?"

"Yeah, like why doesn't anyone know where it is? Or what if they do but it's a secret. Bruce knew, right? Why didn't Bruce close it off like the others? Why did he keep the one in Gotham open?" Gar rambles off his questions.

Of all topics that's going to pick at Gar, this is it? The Lazarus Pit? You're bothered by it, too but not enough to be sitting here thinking about it when you're worried the Titans are going to be hunted for sport now. You've been separated and you're going to need each other but Gar doesn't seem bothered by it at all. Just the Lazarus Pit.

You blink at him a few times. "I've been trying to rationalize the decisions Bruce makes but I think that's more of a dead end than anything else. If anyone is going to have that answer outside of Bruce, it'd probably be Jason or Dick. But, they don't really get him either. I don't know." You shrug your shoulders. "Bruce is paranoid, maybe that's all there is to it. Couldn't explain why no one else knows..."

"Yeah, he's paranoid!" Gar groans. "So why leave it open?"

"No, I mean that's probably why. Or research." You let out a breath. "Maybe he's worried something will happen if he closes all of them off. Or he needs it to do more research. I don't know." You scoff. "I don't know how he feels about resurrection so maybe he wants to use it to help people or something I have no fucking idea, Gar. I think you'll drive yourself insane if you try to rationalize Bruce Wayne." You lean back on your hands, stretching out your legs.

"Maybe more people know about it." Gar says quietly. "If Crane knew..." Gar trails off as his eyes grow worried.

Without him finishing, you know exactly what he's thinking.

"Yeah, thought of that." You nod your head, your heart skipping a beat.

If Crane knew and his guy knew, more people know. They have to. Gotham is a big city so anyone can stumble upon it. People talk, it's what they do. It can't be that big of a secret. The question is who knows about it. If Crane knows, more Arkham inmates might know. More people who are crooked might know. There have been some really bad people who've been killed. If Jason can come back, so can they.

"We have to find it." Gar states.

"Why?" You ask flatly, tired of the circles you've been running.

"So we can do something about it." Gar says sternly.

"Like what?" Your voice raises.

Considering Crane is literally taking over the city, poisoning the water, and still might be wanting to distribute his drug, you think your hands a little bit full at the moment. Why go messing with something like a Lazarus Pit? That just sounds like a bad idea. Doing research into it is fine but the way you see it, it's probably best to leave well enough alone. Maybe you all should tackle one problem at a time and the Lazarus Pit doesn't seem to be a problem right now.

"I don't know! But maybe we can understand more about it and...use it for good. Or close it off so people like..." Gar's voice trails off as his eyes dodge yours. "The Joker don't get brought back."

"We should leave it alone." You urge, not missing a beat. "That's...that's Bruce and Ra's' business and Jason filled me in on the whole League Of Assassins and the Al Ghuls and I don't want to fuck with them."

"Since when are you on Bruce's side?" Gar scoffs in disbelief. The you he knows would love to do anything to get one over on Bruce, to show him up, prove he's wrong. Or just spite him in general. "He left. He left Dick to clean up his mess."

"I'm not on Buce's side." You grit your teeth. "I don't know why I have to be on anyone's side besides my own, by the way. Look, he's been doing the Batman shit a long fucking time and his methods don't always work but there has to be a reason the pit was left open." You pause for a few seconds before you shake your head. "It brought Jason back. It's not up to us to close it or do something with it."

The room falls silent with your final words. A lot of really bad people can be brought back and that is obviously a big concern. And you disagree with Bruce like you get paid for it but you know if that, of all things, was left open there is a reason for it. It brought Jason back. The way you see it, it can't be up to you and Gar to do anything about it. The Lazarus Pit isn't a battle and it's not up for Gar and you to make it into one. That's Bruce, Ra's' and Jason's business now.

"I got everything." Rachel states as she walks into the room, gaining Gar's and yours attention. The two of you get to your feet as Gar takes the bag from Rachel. "So, this happened last night? With the GCPD?" Rachel asks as Gar looks through the bag and pulls out a box of Cheeze Its.

"Yeah." You nod. "We, uh, we were set up. Dick and Babs had a plan to get the public off our backs but uh, Crane has basically the rest of the department on his payroll now so, uh, yeah." You nod your head as you look to the ground. Gar nudges you softly, offering you the bag. You look inside, seeing clothes. "Thank you." Your eyes widen at Rachel as you nod your head but before you can go to change, all of your phones start blaring an alarm.

The three of you pull out your phones, hoping this means cell towers are back up and running but you can never get so lucky. Instead, Jason wearing the Red Hood suit appears on your screens. Sam's heart falls to her feet. This is never good.

"Hello Gotham!" Jason cheers. "It's Red Hood coming to you live from the most exclusive spot in town: The Batcave. For too long, this city has been at the mercy of criminals and I'm not just talking about the Penguin and the Riddler and The Joker. I'm talking about the ones who pretend to help but only make things worse. First Batman and now the Titans. Hypocrites who feed off of your terror and pursuit of glory and they turn Gotham into a city of carnage. But it all comes to an end today. There's a new savior in town. First thing I'm going to do is burn the trash. You hear me, Nightwing? You're public enemy numero uno. But not for long, meet me at midnight. You know the place. It's time for us to finish this." Jason finishes before the screens go black.

You can feel the headache coming back. What the fuck?

"Okay, what the hell was that about?" Gar asks, looking to you.

Just last night Jason got you both to safety, took out the snipers. Gar might have been a bit out of it but he remembers that pretty vividly. Now, Jason is back with Crane?

"I literally have no fucking idea." You let out a groan, stuffing your phone back into the pocket of your suit.

"I thought he was on our side?" Rachel asks.

"Yeah." Gar raises his brows. "Isn't he supposed to be?"

"He is!" You immediately defend, desperately grabbing for an ounce of faith and reason Jason might have. "I don't know what he's doing. Maybe..." You pull in a breath, trying to figure out why he'd be acting like he's trying to target the Titans. If it were you, it'd be an act, a ploy to play both sides. "Maybe it's to meet up with Dick? I don't know. I mean, he has to make the public think he's with them and not us. He has to play along with Crane or he's dead again. And Crane clearly has access to the towers so it's not like Jason can just...call Dick. Crane might know." You nod your head, mostly just blurting out whatever bullshit you could come with on the spot.

"That's not reassuring." Gar remarks. "How do we know he's not working with Crane again?" Gar asks and he wants to hold onto hope that's not the case but after everything, even he's starting to be chiseled down into a calloused version of himself.

"We don't." You state, holding your head steady, careful not to waver. "We don't know. I don't think he would but it's always possible Crane drugged him again, I guess." You roll your eyes before you roll your shoulders. "Okay, I'm gonna go find Dick."

"No!" Gar protests. "They're going to try to kill you if you go out there. We need to stay hidden until we think of a plan."

"Yeah, I'm with Gar on this one." Rachel states, glancing between the two of you.

"I know this city like the back of my hand. I can find him and be fine." You argue back casually.

At this point, you aren't too afraid of what's out there. It can't possibly be any worse than anything you've experienced lately. You can change, go out as a civilian until you find them. It shouldn't take too long and if it does, you know where they'll be at midnight and you can go there. Someone has to find Dick before any of this gets any worse. And someone needs to find Jason to make sure he's not actually going to try and kill Dick again. You're volunteering, again.

"How are we supposed to find you again then?" Gar asks.

"I don't know." You shrug. "Rache's ESP or whatever?" Rachel offers a slight glare to you as you shrug and give her a grin. "That's kind of what it is." You mutter under your breath. "Whatever Rachel just used, use that. I'm gonna find Dick and if I can't, I know where they're gonna meet."

"Why do you know that?" Rachel asks.

"Because I know Jason and so does Dick. So I'm gonna go there if I have to." The casualness of your voice is not reassuring to Gar or Rachel.

"We're gonna try to find the Lazarus Pit then." Gar states, holding his head high as he crosses his arms.

"You're not gonna stop about that are you?" You ask slowly, giving Gar a slight glare.

"Nope." Gar offers you a smile right back which gets your rather cold exterior to crack just a little.

"Fine but can you promise not to mess with it...like don't take any water...liquid? From it, okay? Or have Rachel try to destroy it." You raise your brows at Rachel and then at Gar who starts to beam.

"Of course not." Gar nods his head once. "I just want to find it, learn more."

"Alright." You let out a sigh. "I'll change and head out. If we don't meet up and you don't hear from me before somehow, we'll meet back here at noon tomorrow, okay?"

"Sounds good." Rachel offers a soft smile. "Don't do anything stupid."

You let out a soft laugh. "Yeah, too late." You look back to Gar. "You guys don't do anything stupid." You smile cheekily at Gar before you turn on your heels. "Be careful!" You wave a hand as you leave the room.

You start your search near the tunnel system, hoping Jason will be there at least but he's not. The reality is that if Jason doesn't want to be found, he won't be. That little bit of information about him has you starting to really worry. It's probably nothing. Jason is probably just with Crane, getting information and saving his own ass. But, there's this small part of you that does wonder if he's preparing to go after Dick again. As much as you don't want it to be true, a part of your trust in him is gone. It's been ripped and torn to unrecognizable shreds. It's as if he took that trust and ripped it apart, baring his teeth with anger like a rabid bear and it can't be mended from that. It's not how it works. There is no fixing it. Just gaining something new and you are not there yet. That leaves you questioning his motives even if the beating between your ribs is telling you his intentions are only pure.

Finding Dick is of no use either. You don't even know where he would go. At least with Jason, you know he likes the school around the block from the library but he doesn't care for that library. He prefers the one near the shelter that houses mostly kids. He has his favorite gargoyle. Finding Jason, when he wants to be found, is easy but Dick? You have no clue where he would even go. He probably has places to go but you aren't sure of any of them which leaves you mostly wandering around until it gets closer to midnight.

By then, it's time to change and meet them at the spot. If nothing else, Dick will be there and you'll be able to tell him where Gar and Rachel are.

This is not how Jason wanted this to go. He wanted to meet up with Dick but with Crane having control of the entire city, he couldn't risk it. Too bad for Jason because Dick does not trust him. Dick has offered him no benefit of the doubt of this not turning into a fight and no part of Jason actually blames him even if he's mad. Of course, Dick doesn't trust him. Why would he? But Jason doesn't stop fighting him to try to explain anything and neither does Dick. Instead, the two of them fight, throwing punches and kicks. Dick uses the enigma sticks and Jason shoots at Dick a few times. It's turned into chaos.

Somehow the roles have flipped. Jason doesn't want to kill Dick but by the way Dick is fighting, Jason is scared Dick will fight him till the death and Jason doesn't want to die again...not yet. It leaves him with no choice. Fight harder, faster, better. Be better.

But Jason and Dick's attention is pulled away from each other.

"What the fuck are you idiots doing?!" You yell, fully suited up again and just walking up to see the chaos they're creating.

This does not look good. They shouldn't be fighting. If all Jason wanted to do was meet up with Dick, they shouldn't be fighting. Something went wrong and at this point, you aren't even sure who caused it this time. But by the way Dick snaps his attention back to Jason and smacks him with the stick, you almost wonder if it were Dick that started this.

Jason doesn't take it lightly, immediately stepping back into combat mode and firing a shot at him. You roll your eyes, pulling out your grappling hook and a knife. You aim the hook at Jason's feet and the knife at Dick before you fire and throw. The hook smacks Jason's feet, throwing his aim off while the knife's end hits Dick's arm with enough force to get him to drop his stick.

"Hello? What the fuck are you two morons doing?" You snap again.

"He started it!" Jason yells as he points at Dick like a child.

Dick snaps his attention back to Jason. "Me?!"

"You threatened to kill him again, Jason!" You yell at him. "Seriously, what the fuck is going on?!"

Jason spins to look over at you. You cannot believe he wanted to fight Dick again. Of all people, you have to know this is not what he came here to do tonight.

"I just wanted to fucking talk and he attacked me!" Jason points at Dick again.

"Gee, I wonder why Dick would attack someone who just threatened to kill him. It's a real brain teaser, Jay." You quip back but you roll your eyes and look over to Dick. "So...you gonna kill him now?"

"I saw him!" Dick defends as he points the stick at Jason once he picks it up. Are they both five? "At the PD." Dick clarifies. "He was on the roof when we came out. He was in on it!" Dick closes the distance between them and smacks him with the stick again.

Jason doesn't miss a beat in fighting back, not even bothering to explain that he was at GCPD to help. Of course, Jason isn't going to try to explain that now. You're just exhausted with these two. At some point, they need to learn how to communicate with words and you figure, maybe they can just fight it out for once. Maybe they need to just fight until they get tired. So, you cross your arms and decide you'll watch and try to intervene if it looks like they might actually kill each other.

Dick ends up disarming Jason entirely, sending him to the ground just as a crowd of civilians gather around to watch the show and that's when your stomach starts to sink. Jason will be fine but these people hate Dick. The fight turns into a violent hand-to-hand fight, the two of them throwing punches and kicks as hard as they can and going for the neck. Jason grabs Dick's neck, pushing him back but Dick grabs Jasn, throwing him over Dick's head and slamming him on his back onto the hard pavement. You wince at the sight and sound. Dick walks over and picks up one of Jason's guns before he goes back to Jason and stands right over him. Dick points the gun at Jason's head.

You're quick to run and stand over Jason. You look up at Dick. "Dude, put the gun down." You put your hands out in surrender, the gun aimed at your stomach. "You're not gonna kill him." Your voice doesn't waver even if you're not entirely sure if that's true anymore.

Would Dick kill him?

Jason doens't want to die. It feels wrong to be back. It feels wrong. Like he's stretching the universe too far and it's all going to snap back, straighten itself out and toss him back into the grave where he belongs. But today, at the hands of Dick Grayson? No. He is not dying tonight so he decides to taunt Dick. Even if Dick wants to kill him, he'll never do it. He'd never give Jason the satisfaction even if Dick were able to toss his morals to the side.

"I did this to you." Jason mutters.

"Shut the fuck up, so fucking help me." You look to the sky in annoyance.

"You did this to yourself." Dick points the gun past you, aiming at Jason again. You move to stand in front of the gun again.

You were just shot two days ago. As badly as it hurt and as bad as it still sucks now, you'll take the bullet if you need to. No one is dying tonight. You've all lost too many people already and this is over a miscommunication.

"Come on. Give me the fucking gun." You mutter. "You're not like us." You plead, locking eyes with Dick.

There's something about the way you say it that gains even Jason's attention. It's not pained or sympathetic, it's just honest. It's not remorseful even, just honest and candid. But it's sad with the smallest touch of desperation. It says everything Dick and Jason need to know about how you really feel about people killing other people.

Dick looks at the gun and back to you. He hands you the gun and you take it, removing the bullets immediately and tossing them before you bend down beside Jason to make sure he's okay. For a second, you really thought Dick just might pull the trigger.

"You okay?" You ask softly as Jason leans up on his forearms, his head and back throbbing from the impact.

Jason looks back at you, brows pinched tightly together but then he sees movement from the corner of his eye, grabbing his attention behind Dick. "Nightwing." Jason's voice is rough but stern, harsh. A warning. Jason's eyes widen with the slight nod of his head.

You follow his stare, seeing an innocent civilian aiming a gun at Dick. Dick's brows pull together but before he can turn around, the kid starts shooting. Lucky for Dick, the suit is bulletproof. The bullets bounce right off as Dick turns around. The gunfire comes to a stop as you and Jason watch from your spot behind him. The both of you start to worry, just a little because the suit might be bulletproof but the kid just needs one lucky shot for this to be catastrophic.

"Woah, easy. I'm not here to hurt you." Dick says, putting his hand out as he walks towards the kid.

You get to your feet first, offering Jason a hand up. Jason takes it but the two of you keep your eyes on the kid. Scared kid, a gun, a guy painted to be the enemy fighting the guy painted to be the hero. The air fills with dread, suffocating Jason with its bare hands tattooed with guilt and regret. It's his fault Dick is here. It's his fault he didn't just say what happened and what he wanted. None of these people should even be here. What is he supposed to do?

"Careful, put the gun down." Dick states.

Jason pulls out another gun, switching to new bullets. He's definitely not going to shoot a scared kid who thinks he's doing the right thing. But, he can shoot in that general direction, he can just use it as a threat if he needs to. He doesn't want to threaten the kid but if he has to he will. He did not come here to kill Dick, get Dick killed, or watch him die. Not tonight.

"What the hell are you doing?" You whisper to him.

"Being prepared." Jason mutters back.

Dick hears Jason and turns around to face him before he starts walking back toward you and Jason. Dick is on guard, feeling as if he can't trust Jason. The second his back is turned, Jason is reloading a gun. From Dick's perspective, Jason isn't done fighting and Jason poses more of a threat than the kid. So, he pulls out the enigma stick again.

Before Dick can reach you and Jason, the kid starts shooting again. Dick is blocking them but Jason pulls you behind him, blocking you from the few shots not even putting any thought into it. But, by the time the third shot rings across the stale air, it finally makes proper contact with Dick. The kid got lucky. The kid got lucky, sending the bullet into Dick's neck right above where his armor stops.

It's as if the entire scene falls into slow motion as you and Jason watch in horror as the blood spurt from Dick's neck. Jason's heart stops beating entirely as Dick's hand goes to his neck, trying to put pressure on the wound. Jason eyes the kid who doesn't even look surprised or sorry or fucking scared. He doesn't look scared. He should look scared.

Jason didn't feel scared killing all those people but if he weren't high, he would have at least felt something. There would have been some part of him that would have felt some sort of fear or remorse or pity or he would have had a thought questioning if it were the right thing to do. Is this really the last resort? He would have felt fucking something other than pride for a job well done. This kid does not look like any of those things. He looks like he just did something on a random Tuesday night. No remorse, no consequences. Just a thing he did.

What is the city turning into?

What has Jason turned this city into?

"I did it for you." The kid's wavered voice breaks the silence, shattering the slowed illusion.

Jason glances to Dick as he falls to the ground and then he looks back to the kid. This is not what he wanted. Crane, Jason, they convinced the public of this. That this was the right way. Jason may not have had a part in that video but it never would have been made if it weren't for him. The public is gonna get blood on their hands. This will clear up, somehow, someway, it will and now this innocent kid, has to deal with the death of someone on his own hands for someone who was masquerading around like a hero, like a savior.

"Red Hood." The kid states, this time the unsteadiness of his voice is gone. And then he starts chanting Jason's vigilante name, over and over and over again as the rest of the civilians join in.

You look at him with heartbreak before you run over to Dick, pushing him onto his back where you put your hand over the neck wound. How could this happen? Another person? Another fucking person? Dick was always right about Gotham. Maybe Bruce was right about Gotham.

Jason went into more detail about what Bruce said to him the day he took Robin away. Bruce had said something about how people lose themselves to the city. Maybe he was right. Maybe they go mad, maybe they turn into murderers, and maybe they die. But eventually, maybe everyone gets lost in the city of damaged hopes. And maybe Dick was right, too. This city takes and it changes people. It's as if this city needs the chaos of destruction in order to stay afloat and it waits in the shadows, just waiting for the perfect victim at the right time before it sinks its teeth into them. It bleeds them of all their good parts until there's nothing left. A perfect sacrifice for the city.

Maybe that's all Gotham is because Dick is bleeding out because some kid got fucking lucky with a gun.

Jason watches in horror and having everyone chant his name does not sound as good as he once thought it would. At one point, he thought having everyone cheer for him would feel good. He would be important but he just got his brother shot. Someone who has almost always just tried to help him. Jason has been out here trying to kill him and thanks to you, Dick was willing to trust Jason and give him a second chance but now he's just been shot and it's his fault. And he's going to die because of him.

Jason knows what it's like to die and it's fucking terrifying and painful. Tears brim his eyes and the crowd is still chanting and he sees your cheeks glistening in the low streetlights around you. He wanted to talk but when Dick attacked first, rightfully so, he just couldn't help it. He thought that it was over for him and maybe it didn't have to be. How the fuck did he get here again? He should have just surrendered. That's all he had to do but his ego and pride get in the fucking way. All he ever does is get in the way. Dick's gonna die and it's all his fault.

He wants to run, get out of here because it's all too much. Too loud, too heavy. Too much pressure. Everyone is cheering as if Jason pulled the trigger and killed the worst of the worst. They're brainwashed and Jason knows that better than anyone. Someone has to snap them out of it. It's too much but running and pushing has never done him much good.

"Get out here!" Jason yells over the crowd as the chanting slows down. Your attention, like the rest of the crowd, lands on him. "Go! Before I start fucking shooting." Jason aims the gun into the air, his arm steady and his eyes threatening.

"We're on your side!" One of the citizens announces.

"So do what I fucking say." Jason snips back. "Didn't ask for you fucking help here. Get out of here." Jason takes steps toward the crowd as they start to back away.

They grumble and mutter amongst themselves before they eventually disburse. Jason takes that as his cue to run up beside you, leaning over Dick. There's blood pooling out of his mouth as he gasps for air.

"I can't stop the bleeding." You state. "Think he hit the fucking artery."

"I got it." Jason mutters, slightly nudging you out of the way where he can replace your hands with his. You have had enough blood on your hands lately, this is on Jason.

Neither of you have ever seen Dick look scared or panicked. Surely, he feels it. He is human and normal, mostly. But, he's really good at hiding it. With Deathstroke, you didn't see the look of pure terror on his face when you were standing outside the window. You didn't see the look of horror and agony on his face as Jason was falling to his death. You didn't see it because Dick has always been good at making sure no one sees those emotions from him. He has to be strong, sturdy, and a little calloused in order for everyone else not to panic. If the leader looks panicked and scared, so will everyone else. If everyone is scared and panicked, mistakes are made and more people die. So, he hides it. Until now.

Dick can feel the blood loss taking over, making him light-headed. The blood loss and bullet wounds alone are making it harder to breathe. He knows how long he has, maybe minutes but nothing more. Not unless you or Jason can get some sort of help in the next few seconds. He's going to die and it is fucking terrifying. He isn't ready. He has too much left. Who is going to look after the Titans if he dies? Who's going to stop Crane? He has too much life to live, outside of the Titans to die tonight but he is helpless. There is no help and there is no hope. It's just him bleeding out in the middle of downtown Gotham.

"Get." Dick tries to pull in a breath. "Help."

You look around and you don't see a single person around. Your heart starts to break as the lump comes back to your throat. It destroyed you when Jason died and it destroyed you when your mom died. You're actually pretending like Tim survived just in case he didn't. You can't deal with it if he died, too. But, you look back at Dick and you're really scared he'll die.

You might fight with him all the time and disagree with him usually, but you have a lot of respect for him. He saved your life more than once. You might not like his morals but you think he is a good person and he tries a lot harder than anyone else ever would. To help innocent people. To help you, no obligation, no transaction, no contingencies. He helps you because he just does. Just like with Rachel and Gar, and despite what Jason thinks, you think that's why he tried to help Jason, too. Just because. It shouldn't be Dick to die. The Titans need him. He's a really good leader, usually. It's almost shocking but he is. And everyone trusts him. The Titans will fall apart if he dies. They practically fell apart when Donna died but Dick would kill them. The Titans need him. You need him.

Jason glances over to you, knowing this is going to be bad. He's not going to make it and by the look of devastation in your eyes, he knows you feel it, too. And then the throbbing under Jason's hands comes to a slow halt.

"Dick?" Jason questions, looking back at him. "Hey, man, stay awake." Jason holds his voice steady, careful not to let it slip how much this is ripping him to shreds. "I can't feel his pulse." Jason says quietly, glancing back to you before he pulls his hand away, trying a different spot but he still feels nothing.

"Keep your hands on the wound." You mutter, moving to the opposite side before you place your hands on his chest and start chest compressions.

Jason watches you, trying to keep his hands steady on the wound but with every ump, Jason can feel blood coming from the wound, warming his hands. The tip of Jason's nose starts to feel like it's on fire while his eyes feel like someone's just thrown sand into them. This cannot be happening. Dick is otherwise dead and he's got you doing CPR, just as you did the night Jason died. And Jason can't peel his eyes away from you as some sort of self-torture because he thinks this is probably similar to how you looked that night.

The hood of your suit falling off of your head, resting lazily on your shoulders and moving with every compression. The way your hair is a complete mess. Tear-stained cheeks shining against any light that they catch. And blood soaking your skin. Jason wonders if this is the exact sight Babs walked in on. You must have felt so alone.

"Dick!" You and Jason hear Gar's voice from across the pavement, wet footsteps picking up their pace. "What happened?" Gar yells as him and Rachel get closer to the two of you.

"He was shot." Jason states as you don't miss a single beat.

"He's not breathing." You rush with heaving breath.

"Are you sure?" Gar asks with glossy eyes.

You stop, feeling for a pulse and there's still nothing. "Positive." You continue chest compressions, looking to Rachel who falls to her knees beside you.

"Is there anything you can do?" Gar asks, looking at Rachel.

You stop, sitting back on your toes, to see if Rachel can use her powers somehow to save him. It might not have worked on Donna but maybe it could work on Dick. He hasn't been dead long. Maybe that matters and Jason and Gar seem to have the same hope. Jason pulls away while Gar keeps his stance steady, almost holding his breath as Rachel tries her powers, a purple glow coming from her hands over Dick's neck. But nothing comes from it. Instead, the purple fades as Rachel lets out a cry.

"It's too late." Rachel sniffles, looking to Gar.

Gar lets out a scream as tears start to fall from your eyes. Jason's eyes stay trained on Dick, almost distant as he thinks the pain of it all has just chewed him to pieces. What are you gonna do?

You look to Rachel who looks like she might break into a million pieces right in front of you. Gar yells again as bats crowd the space above all of you. The four of you look up, watching the bats circle around all of you. Gar starts to have problems with his eyes as he rubs them only for his face to start turning green and then his hands start to change until his body follows. Suddenly, Gar is a bat, flying with the others above you.

"Gar?" Rachel asks.

You, Jason, and Rachel get to your feet as the bats circle closer and closer to Dick, Gar right in the mix of them. You all back away as the bats fly down to Dick and start to pick him up, all of them working together. They fly Dick high into the air before they start moving.

"What...the....fuck?" You look to Rachel as she'll have some sort of answer.

"That's new, right?" Jason looks to you who just nods.

"Come on." Rachel says, without missing a beat, grabbing some of Gar's clothes before she starts following the bats and Gar.

You and Jason exchanged a confused look before deciding to follow. You both have absolutely nothing left to lose at this point.

"I thought he couldn't turn into anything else?" You ask as the three of you run to keep up with the bats.

"He turned ito a snake once." Jason answers, not even thinking.

He was possessed at the time and the reason Gar turned into a snake in the first place but Gar talked about it a lot at first. Jason tried to help him transform again, several times with different methods. Getting him mad, scaring him, sparring harder with him, they tried everything but nothing ever worked. And then Gar stopped talking about it.

"Yeah, once but now he's a bat?" You question. "What the fuck?"

"Is that really what you're concerned about right now?" Rachel asks, her voice torn between amusement and worry.

"I mean..." You suck in a breath. "It's better than the alternative. I would prefer to focus on the weird shit than the sad shit."

Rachel gives you a subtle glare as you keep up your fast walk. It's not a long walk before you all reach the entrance of a building and Rachel is the only one who understands what's happening.

"They're taking him to the Lazarus Pit." Rachel says as Gar and the bats take Dick into the building.

"What?" Jason almost demands as his steps come to a hard stop. "You found it?"

"Yeah." Rachel mutters softly, turning around to see Jason not walking and you standing a few feet in front of him.

He can't go in there. It feels wrong. How do you know Dick would want that? Would he want it? If someone were to have asked Dick before he died if this is what he wanted, would he say yes? Would he agree to it without knowing the consequences of being brought back? Would he be okay with the constant feeling of being pulled back to the dark where the Grim Reaper waits with a smile?

But Jason looks at you and Rachel, the two who Dick has saved. It's not his place to argue it. Dick hasn't been dead long. Maybe he won't feel the way Jason does. Jason was dead a few days. Maybe it's different. Maybe the Pit has different effects the longer someone is dead so it's not his place. Jason hasn't been on good terms with Dick in a few weeks, he doesn't get a say. But, he can't go in. The pull is too strong and his bones feel like they might vibrate and shatter right through his skin. He can't do it.

"You coming, Jay?" You ask softly as you close the distance between you. You thought maybe he'd want to see the thing that brought him back. It is fascinating. And maybe he could be there if it works for Dick. Maybe help.

"No." Jason shakes his head. "I'm going to Crane." Jason spits it out without thinking as he watches the shock consume your face.

"Do you think that's really a good idea?" Rachel asks as a wince almost consumes her entire expression.

Jason takes a step towards you and nods his head at Rachel before looking back at you. "I gotta try to fucking help. Maybe I can get Crane to spill with Dick dead. He won't know about the Pit."

He has to do this. Maybe he can convince Crane to give up some form of information. If the Pit can bring Jason back, it can bring Dick back. He's going to wake up in a few hours and now it's Jason's job to get him some answers so they finally put this whole thing out of its misery. He owes Dick that much.

"Are you sure?" You ask, eyes scanning his face as if fully convinced this is just him avoiding something.

Jason nods softly. "Yeah, go with them. We'll meet later." Jason offers something that's not quite a smile.

You don't like the idea but...maybe Crane will think Nightwing's death is on Jason's hands. Maybe that'll be enough for Crane to actually trust Jason just enough to offer some sort of information to him. It's the right thing to do.

"Okay." You nod reluctantly. "Be careful, yeah?"

"Always." Jason gives you the subtle smirk he always does before he nods and runs off in the opposite direction.

The two of you go into the building, following the way Gar and the other bats took as you run to catch up. You get to an open room where a glowing pool of blue liquid sits right in the middle of the room. Gar and the other bats hover above it, holding Dick's lifeless body.

"Gar, now!" Rachel yells as the bats start to lower Dick into the water.

Once Dick is lowered, the bats fly around until Dick is completely submerged and then they disburse. Besides Gar. You and Rachel sit at the edge of Lazarus Pit, just watching as it starts to bubble. This whole thing is weird but you can't help but feel just a little bit of hope. If it worked for Jason, it should work for Dick.

"You're not allowed to leave anymore." You mutter, keeping your eyes on the Pit.

"What?" Rachel shakes her head in confusion.

"You're not allowed to leave. Everything went to shit and you show up, find me and Gar and then the damn pit. You can't leave, Titans need you." You nod your head quickly as Rachel smiles softly, looking back to the pit.

Gar transforms back to himself and starts getting dressed. Once he has his pants on, he walks to the edge of the pit, standing opposite you and Rachel. He's blinking dramatically, having a subtle sway to stance as he tries to get his equilibrium back to normal.

"He's gonna make it, right?" Gar asks, looking at you.

Gar isn't sure how you would know but you're the one who's had more conversations with Jason than anyone. Jason might not know a lot but something about asking you gives Gar hope. Maybe you do know the Pit works every single time. Gar hopes it works like that.

"I don't know." You shrug. "Uh...J-Jason just said, uh, that someone put him in it and then he was alive. So..." You nod your head. "I-I guess if that's all there is...yeah. Jason was dead for a few days so..." You pull in a shaky breath.

"I can't believe he actually died." Rachel states, her eyes on the pit. She says it mostly out of hope that whatever happened with Jason to bring him back, will bring Dick back.

You glance to her before you pull your knees to your chest. You know it's because Rachel is finding all of this out for the first time while everyone else has had a few weeks to digest the news and fumble their way through the aftermath. But, no one can believe Jason not only died but then came back. It's the way it's talked about, how it's said in passing and so casually that you almost wonder if they're all just...fine with it. At the end of the day, Jason died. He died. That was something that happened and he remembers it. As someone who was nearly beaten to death, you know that was haunting. Is haunting. You can't imagine what dying is actually like. And how terrified he probably still feels. But, everyone else is...it's as if that aspect of it, doesn't matter. To some extent, you get it. You understand because he became Red Hood and decided to kill Dick. You understand because they didn't see it. But, it irks you anyway.

"Sorry." Rachel says quietly. "I didn't mean anything by it. I just meant that it's kind of crazy. Jason was reckless but I didn't think he'd actually get killed." Rachel explains calmly.

"No, it's okay." You shake your head. "You're just getting the news of everything and then Dick is killed. I get it, don't worry about it."

"Are you okay?" Gar asks, his brows knitted together in their usual state of worry.

"I'm fine." You look up to him with one stern nod. "Been here a few times, right?" You quip bitterly.

"That's why I asked." Gar nods his head.

"Yeah, I'm good." You sniffle. "Are you guys okay? I mean...it's Dick." You look between Rachel and Gar as if feeling you have no right to grieve him as much as them.

You've been at odds with Dick most of the time over the last few weeks. It doesn't seem fair for you to absorb any space for grief. It should be given to Rachel and Gar.

"No." Gar answers. "What're we supposed to do without him?" Gar's voice nearly shatters.

"We don't have to think about that because if it worked for Jason, it'll work for Dick." Rachel states with ease and you're not sure who she's trying to convince.

"Yeah." Gar says shortly.

"I think we need to force the batboys into therapy after this. Group and individual until they learn how to have a conversation." You groan, trying not to focus on Dick actually dying and not coming back from this.

"We all need therapy." Gar mutters as he comes to sit on the other side of you.

The three of you fall silent, just watching the pit with no idea how long this is supposed to take or if you'll even know if it works or not. This is definitely the pit but none of you know the logistics of it. For all you know, this isn't going to work or it could take hours or days. So, you just fall into silence, mostly thinking of everything that's happened.

It's haunting and sets reality into stone of the work you all do. Of couse, it was real the day Donna died. Wonder Girl was killed. It was real then, too. But, it was an accident. And then it was real when Jason died. But, it was Jason who was killed by The Joker. That was different. This is Dick though. He's the leader and even when he's wrong, he still knows what to do. He was Robin. He's Nightwing. He's not supposed to die and he did anyway. And it was by some kid with a gun. It wasn't The Joker or Two Face or Deathstroke. It was just some kid. A kid Dick would have protected but everyone turned their backs on the Titans over Crane. And Dick was killed for it.

What are you all supposed to do if this doesn't work? Just go back to San Francisco like nothing happened? That doesn't seem possible. It'll just feel cold and lonely.

Between the three of you sitting here, he's saved your lives more times than you can count. He is the older and annoying brother none of you really asked for. It's losing another family member. But...it hits a little different this time. So, the air around you feels like it's carrying bricks and the guilt of the entire world.

Jason, he's also still processing everything that's just happened. When he left to meet Dick, he knew he'd have to start talking immediately, given his own broadcast and conversation with Dick. But, then the flashbang went off and it's like it...triggered something in him where he just had to fight. He just had to. Something deep inside of him told him Dick would never let him explain why he did what he did. It's the immediate defensive mechanism and he knows it. But, he's on the way back to the manor and he's thinking that was just dumb. It was not giving Dick any bit of credit which Jason doesn't like to do on most days but he deserved this time. And now he's dead. He's dead and that's Jason's fault because that kid was defending him. Everything is his fault even when he is desperately clawing his way away from all of this. It follows him.

He told you that, months ago, it follows him like a curse and he has never been so sure of that. First it was his mom. He is not mad at her and he holds no resentment towards her but he wasn't enough for her. She chose those drugs every single day over him and he knows part of that was so she could function. That's how it started. It started so she could take care of him. If it weren't for him in the first place, his mom wouldn't have gotten addicted and then she'd still be here.

His dad was angry and desperate because he was just trying to provide for them. He was down and out and he was an ass and abusive but there was a point, before the alcohol, where he was trying. He was trying and if it weren't for Jason being an extra mouth to feed who needed other things, maybe his dad wouldn't have been so angry and desperate.

Had he never gone after Deathstroke, you wouldn't have been there. Had he never gone after Deathstroke, the Titans wouldn't have left and the tower wouldn't have been attacked or the Titans would have fought together. Gar wouldn't have been kidnapped and turned into a killer. Donna wouldn't have died.

You wouldn't been traumatized had he never went after the Joker. You wouldn't have been shot. Dick wouldn't have been shot and killed. Hank wouldn't have been killed. Everything that's happened has been following right on his heels like a rabid dog chasing him down a dead end alley. There is no escape. He is just stuck in this constant spiral of agony and causing everyone else around him the worst pain they will ever experience.

This is all his fault and there's nothing he can do anymore.

Even if the Pit works, will Dick remain the same? Or will he be as terrified and traumatized and stuck as Jason? Whatever side effects Dick gets from the Pit, that has to fall on Jason, too.

Jason reaches the Batcave, the cuts from Dick's punches still bleeding over his face. Crane is dragging his scythe on the floor, his face covered in fresh cuts. He's got this evil and eerie smile while there's a body on a table, cut open with his organs sticking out. This is the first time he's ever felt terrified of Crane. At the hospital, it wasn't Crane Jason was worried about it. It was who would call in. But this? This is Crane losing his damn mind on some, likely, innocent person and Jason thinks his days are definitely numbered with him. Everyone's days are numbered with him.

"Nightwing's dead." Jason states, his words flat and pained.

"Batman saved my toy." Crane says but it's only slightly enthusiastic, almost childlike as he holds up the scythe by the chain. Crane lets out a light chuckle as Jason just watches him closely, ready to move if Crane tries to pull anything. "A trinket of our courtship together. Who would have thought he was so...sentimental."

Jason's eyes narrow as he watches Crane. All of this...over his scythe? Jason knew he was insane but he's really pushing the envelope tonight.

"Did you hear me?" Jason questions but with no venom or snark. His chest is in so much agony, he doesn't think he can muster it at this second. "I said Nightwing is dead!" Jason gets himself to yell, growing frustrated.

"So?" Crane states. "Wasn't my monster." Crane states plainly but not in the way where his words feel light. This time there's something heavy and dark in his tone, running a chill up Jason's spine. The scythe drops to the floor, Crane still holding it by the chain. "He's your monster. What do you want? A cookie?" Crane offers a half-assed chuckle, mostly to himself.

A fire starts erupting through Jason's blood like an overdue volcano. He can't be serious. Getting clean, Jason realizes that so much of the shit Crane was spilling was just him manipulating him, making sure Jason had no one to run to besides Crane. But, there's some part of him that is still hurt and disgusted by the reaction. It was Crane's idea.

"You said that's what you wanted." Jason argues softly, taking just a few steps toward Crane. "When it was done, we would save Gotham my way." Jason's voice is small as the sense of betrayal kicks in.

He is only here to find out what Crane has planned and then he's gone. But, he can't help how badly it hurts. It would hurt anyway because he was manipulated into it. Turned against someone who has been looking out for him. But, Jason, as far as he knows, felt like Crane figured they were still on the same side. This doesn't feel that way. That's when Jason is realizing that's the point. Jason does the dirty work so Crane can be up at the top, hands clean and filled with the power Jason served him on a silver platter.

He knew that's all it was but maybe a part of him still believed otherwise and for the life of him, he has no idea why.

"Gotham will be saved." Crane starts his walk towards Jason, holding his scythe so it doesn't drag on the floor. "But first, it must be destroyed. As clever hopes expire, waves of fear and anger circulate over the bright and darken the lands of the earth." Crane explains as he uses the chain to sway the scythe back and forth while he paces in front of Jason.

"What the fuck kind of gibberish is that?" Jason quips back not even entirely sure if Crane is actually coherent.

"No," Crane says quickly, turning to face Jason. "No, not gibberish. No, it's the past come to life in the present." Crane pauses and Jason realizes how completely fucked he is. "An ode to the bat and his wee bird. When they stopped me, but they can't stop me now. No." Crane is looking away from Jason and Jason is starting to wonder if Crane is talking to him or just talking to himself or some third person Jason isn't aware of. "They can't stop me now...because." Crane shakes his head. "Because we will walk among them. The dead." Crane looks back at Jason and Jason hangs his head, something about him basically being the dead. "And the fallen city will be like...it'll be like a beacon. Very soon, very soon, Jason, very very soon they will die. Yes, they will die."

What the hell is this maniac even talking about?

"Who will die?" Jason asks cautiously.

"All of them!" Crane faces Jaosn as he screams, his entire face turning red. "All of them! Everybody." Crane looks to the floor and this is not how Jason wanted to fix Gotham. The answer isn't gutting the fucking the city. "You still stink of fear. After all that I've given you."

Jason's growing tired of Crane's babbling. It's not making any sense and he wants to get the fuck away from him before Crane tries to slice him in two like the other guy.

"You said I was gonna be a savior." Jason nods his head at him, a hint of disgust in his voice. "Is that your whole plan? Destroy the fucking city?"

"Is that not what it's been about?" Crane states almost whimsically.

"And how the fuck do you plan to do that?" Jason lets out a scoff but Crane just offers him a harsh glare as Jason sees his grip tighten on the chain.

Crane isn't going to tell him anything and even if he does, it'll likely be an incoherent mess like it has been the last few minutes. It was a waste of time, mostly. What Jason does know now is that he wants to destroy the entire city. There are a lot of ways to do that though and that's where he finds himself stuck. But, he can't stick around here. Not when there's no chance of getting a good answer.

"I won't help you destroy the city." Jason holds his stance, firm but calm.

"Well," Crane says with disappointment. "Perhaps you won't." Crane says before there's a pause and then he turns around quickly, throwing a scythe at Jason, still holding onto it by the chain.

Jason dodges just in time, moving quickly away from Crane. Crane follows right after him, swinging his scythe at him and just missing by a few inches. Jason keeps moving away and running, avoiding the blows each time. He does not want his head taken off tonight. That is not the plan. So, he dodges and once he sees the opportunity, he runs out of the Batcave as quickly as he can.

Crane has officially lost it which was only a matter of time before that happened. Jason was hoping they had a little bit more time but, if Crane is losing it, that means he'll be easier to take down. Once Crane starts losing his mind, he gets distracted, starts losing some of the quick thinking he's so proud of. But, Crane has something in place. It's the way he talked about it that tells Jason Crane won't need to do anything else. It's already in motion. So, now he needs to find at least you, Rachel, and Gar and maybe the four of you can figure it out. Maybe you've had some luck with the Lazarus Pit.

Jason hopes you've had luck with the Lazarus Pit.

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#jason todd x reader #jason todd x you #red hood x reader #red hood x you #jason todd fanfic #jason todd fanfiction #titans fanfic #titans fanfiction #dc fanfic #dc fanfiction #petrichor

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kilasmess · 1 year

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Ok continuing from this post; (I had to reread what I had previously because I had already forgotten lol, moving on)

Continuing, clockwork decides to fuck around, gets Danny a pass into Gotham, and somehow convinced Danny that it's for the best; maybe he says there's some issues Danny has to solve as ghost king(maybe the pits) or maybe he argued that he needs a place to nourish his human side, and hey, there's Gotham, it's a good place, no hunters, plenty of ambient ectoplasm, and he can even go to school, try for living a normal human life, either as cover or to regain balance between both forms. Point is, he explains himself (maybe kinda, dudes usually pretty cryptic), opens a portal and throws Danny through. Maybe he had a place ready for when Danny gets there, it'd have to be in crime alley, our Lady wants her baby to get along with the new king after all.... But it takes a while for the two to actually meet.

Depending on why Danny ends up in Gotham, maybe he's too busy trying to figure out what the hell is up with the pits, and between that and keeping up with school (and really clockwork?? Like he didn't struggle enough the first time, managing school and heroing) and maybe a job for appearances sake, he's yet to actually meet the cute ghost adjecent (is that a word?) That maybe(?) lives on the same building; they keep different schedules after all, and whatever Danny's doing to figure out the pits hasn't registered on the bats radar, maybe he's getting help from technus, idk. Alternatively, he's sent there to nurture his human half and is not coping well, poor dude is depressed as all hell now that he doesn't have as much to distract himself with, after all, college and a part-time jobs have nothing on being kind of the infinite realms, so he goes to class, maybe takes a job at the University library, where is quiet so he had an excuse to not talk with anyone, and overall isolates himself as much as possible.

Either way, it takes a while for him to meet Gotham's very own zombie boy, and when he finally does, whether this happens during a rogue attack, a meet cute at his workplace or when he's spending time on top of high buildings in the middle of the night and worries Jason (who's thinking this dude's about to jump), Danny wants nothing to do with z-boy. Listen, Casper over here lost his whole family plus friends before, he's not eager to make more connections only to lose them as well. Except, once Jason's sure Danny-boys safe (I guess I'm leaning more towards a rooftop meeting), and maybe after Danno ran the fuck or of dodge, he realizes this dude calmed the pits??? And now he really had to figure out who the hell he is and can he please hang out for forever please? He hasn't had a chance to think clearly like this since he clawed his way out of his own grave.

I did say I wanted angst though, I just haven't decided if there's external circumstances or if it's more towards healing from grief and overcoming the suicidal ideation at least Danny must be dealing with. Of course the story develops as they begin to heal and grow past the things that hurt them, with the added that they slowly fall for each other (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤

So far that's all I have, but I guess I'll add as more ideas come to me n.n

#dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom #jason todd #dead on main #clockwork #technus #dannys family dies #ghost king danny #also let me know if i libked the last post correctly??#ive never done that before :/#mine #lol i guess

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audhd-nightwing · 9 months

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batboys au

i don’t have an official title for this au yet so for now i’m calling it “tim and his immortal zombie brothers”

backstory

dick is taken by the court of owls after his parents die. he helps batman when bruce destroys the court, and afterwards he disappears. bruce looks but can’t find him.

dick sets base in an abandoned building and basically decides to watch over crime alley like batman does with the rest of gotham. he hunts for food (mostly bugs, rodents and birds) cuz he can’t get sick, but needs to eat a lot.

he spends most days in the library reading and learning stuff (new languages, science, history, etc). he meets jason while investigating Ma Gunn’s and they work together to take her down. jason decides to stay with dick instead of go with bruce but forces dick to get an actual apartment (he does).

jason convinces dick to train him, though he already has some experience and his own skills. dick adopts the name Robin and jason goes by Shrike. they become legit vigilantes of crime alley.

jason finds out dick is a talon a bit after he starts out as Shrike. they are in the middle of a fight and dick is fatally shot- jason loses it and almost beats the shooter to death (it’s just one guy left at this point). dick gets up and pulls jason off, hugs him, and promises to explain when they get home. afterwards, jason punches dick for not telling him until he literally had no other choice.

jason’s death

the joker escapes arkham and kidnaps jason (14) while he’s on solo patrol (they split the area to cover more ground). joker beats jason with a crowbar when dick (16) realizes he’s missing and races to find him. he arrives just in time to see the warehouse explode. dick brings jason’s body back to their apartment and then goes out and kills the joker (bruce is on a JL mission when all this happens, so he isn’t there to stop him).

jason comes back to life (superboy prime alternate dimension stuff idk), but is not fully healed and goes temporarily comatose.

dick knows about the LoA from the court and info he’s gathered over the years, and is able to contact talia. she agrees to let jason use the lazarus pit in exchange for a favor from dick, and they go meet her in nanda parbat. dick stays there with him during his recovery, so there are no drastic changes in his personality (aside from the trauma of fucking dying). they train together there for about 6 months before returning to gotham.

(his favor to talia is, later on, taking damian from her father and bringing him to bruce)

introducing tim

once they return to gotham, they appear to gain a stalker. they decide to leave the kid alone at first, but eventually get concerned because a kid really should not be out at night alone in crime alley.

dick (17) and jason (15) finally confront their stalker when they save him from getting mugged. the kid introduces himself as tim (12) and explains that he was curious about the young vigilantes in crime alley and decided to follow and photograph them. also he figured out Robin’s real name- dick grayson (who tim had theorized wasn’t dead despite the boy having been missing for years).

the boys are actually really impressed, but they try to dissuade tim from following them (which obviously fails). they then decide to teach him basic self defense and make sure he’s always within shouting distance/view of one of them while out at night.

tim, being the genius he is, figures out they aren’t fully human anymore. he doesn’t judge them for it, but he brings it up to them because he’s curious, so they explain talons and the lazarus pit.

once tim gets older they start to actually train him, and he becomes another vigilante (Magpie). also, because his parents leave him home alone for months at a time, he pretty much lives with dick and jason (but sometimes, when it’s really cold/hot or heavily raining/snowing, they all stay at drake manor instead of the apartment).

damian

a bit after dick turns 18, talia contacts him and tells him it’s time to uphold his part of their deal. leaving jason in charge of the Alley, he goes to nanda parbat, steals baby damian (he’s four), gets him to gotham and brings him to bruce.

basically, instead of adopting dick & jason, bruce just gets damian way earlier.

(p.s. dick knows bruce wayne is batman because of the Court, but jason and tim don’t know. when he explains the situation jason is like ‘how tf did bruce wayne meet talia and have a kid with her’ and dick is like ‘oh yeah, he’s batman’ and jason & tim explode)

bruce’s kids

bruce is about 30 when damian (quite literally) drops into his life. a year or two later, he finds cassandra and subsequently adopts her.

steph (spoiler, 15) has been working alongside him for about a year or so already, and babs (batgirl, 20) has been working with him for four-ish years. both forced him to let them work alongside him and he gave up trying to stop them

i have a lot more stuff but this is the basic storyline

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codyton · 3 months

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Rewriting the Batfamily

Batman

Bruce Wayne when he was eight when he watched his parents die to the criminal known as Joe Chill. Bruce was raised by his butler Alfred Pennyworth until he was 21. Bruce when he turned 21 decided to travel around the world to learn and master every martial art. When Bruce returned to Gotham, he went to Gotham University and got multiple degrees: engineering, philosophy, criminology, and law. Bruce used his immense wealth and engineering degree to create the batsuit and batcave (note: he did hire help e. g. Alfred’s old military pals). When Bruce finally finished his stuff, Alfred pointed out that it kind of looked like a bat, hence he was called Batman. Three months after he became Batman a gang showed up called the Red Hood Gang led by a man named Jack Napier aka the Red Hood. After weeks of fighting the Red Hood Gang he was led to a warehouse with four tubs of toxins. While fighting the Red Hood he accidentally pushed him into a tub of toxin seemingly killing him. A few years later a villain called the Joker started going around.

Dick Grayson

When Dick Grayson was nine he was an acrobat in Haly’s Circus with his parents. When he and his parents were doing a show, the shot of vodka his parents took for good luck was poisoned with Snake Venom. Bruce Wayne was watching this and saw himself in the young boy so he adopted the young Dick Grayson and sent the people who killed Dick’s parents to Blackgate Prison. Dick Grayson saw both Bruce and Alfred go into a cave behind the grandfather clock in the library in Wayne Manor. Dick went into the Batcave and saw the batsuits so Dick Grayson thought that Batman needed a partner so Dick Grayson used his Flying Grayson uniform to become the first Robin. Bruce saw this young kid want to fight crime with him and took him in as his sidekick. Dick eventually left Batman when he was fifteen and joined a group called the Teen Titans which were a group of superhero sidekicks who fought crime to get out of the shadows of superheroes. Dick eventually moved on from being a Robin and became Nightwing, and Dick got his own apartment.

Jason Todd

Jason Todd was raised by his foster parents Willis James and Catherine James who were less than great parents, both were addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. Jason when he was thirteen found the batmobile in the alleyway he slept in after his foster father died and Catherine left him, Jason having the bright idea to steal the tires off of the batmobile. Batman seeing this young boy stealing for money, he took him in and filled out adoption papers as Bruce Wayne. Jason liked to read so Alfred suggested to Bruce to build a gigantic library and give it to Jason. While everything seemed perfect, Jason had a temper problem that he most commonly took out on a punching bag. Bruce seeing this decided to make Jason a Robin for Jason to take out some of his anger while helping people. While Jason and Bruce were on a mission in the Middle East, Jason was at a laundromat he saw a woman who looked a lot like Catherine James, so he approached her, and they made conversation and she revealed that she is his actual mother. Jason, while hanging with his mother is led to a warehouse where Batman’s worst villain, The Joker, was waiting because Catherine James was working for him. Joker then beat the young Robin to death, leading to Batman wanting to kill the Joker. Jason Todd’s grave was found by Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul who submerged him in the Lazarus Pit bringing him back to life. Jason after being trained in how to mask his voice was given a helmet and returned to Gotham as Red Hood, and took over every crime family in the city, eventually after his final encounter with Batman, he left for a while, returned to the family. (Note: Jason is colored)

#batfam #batman #red hood #nightwing #joker

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haleelah · 8 months

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What if Dick was never adopted by Bruce, and he grew up under the Court's care then eventually grew out of it and into an independent presence in Gotham.

He knew Jason since he used to frequent a library that Dick somehow owned.

And then Jason disappeared with Bruce and then vanished completely from this life, leaving a devastated Dick in his wake, who then proceeded to avenge him but Bruce ended up reviving the Joker, but even then he was not really completely back as an able individual.

So after years Jason comes back and he's angry that someone outside the family took care of the Joker and deprived him of his own revenge.

So Jason decided to strike a relationship with the beautiful librarian of his youth, to get close to him and his alter ego as a get back at him. Except that Jason find he is actually quite in love with this person. He is utterly sweet with him and gives Jason such a soft kind of love that Jason had always needed but never really got in his life...

So Jason Todd and Dick Grayson build a happy and wholesome relationship between the two of them.

That, as long as the sun shines high in Gotham's skies.

At its nights though..

Red Hood can't really hold the darkness that crawled back up with him, from his grave and the pit. And Talon can't help the immense guilt of failing Jason over and over again. So they enter an un-negotiated bdsm/ D/S relationship.

As long as they are wearing their masks Red Hood is allowed to use Talon however he wants. And Talon accepts the abuse, relishes even. It's his penance.

They live this double kind of life, and they don't talk about it at all in any way.

Until Jason eventually almost crosses a borderline that might have cost Dick his life or mobility. A thing that finally sparked real fear in Dick's heart of what Jason is capable of and how broken he is. A thing that grows a distance not only between Talon and Red Hood, but between Dick and Jason too.

So, how do you think they are going to face this from now on?

#jaydick #inspired by tove lo's borderline #i have written quite alot for this in separate drafts but alas i'm not really a writer or at least a good one #so everything came out lacking #anyway was thinking of vanilla sexy bespectacled jaydick and this started it lol than tove lo started the other version of them lmao #and by thinking i mean i have been thinking and writing stuff since march #god helps me #excuse any typos i'm tired of everything lool

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theunavenged · 1 year

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Random baby/kid AKJ headcanons I was thinking about instead of debugging an issue at work:

Cathy was a really bad mom at first (as depicted in AK:G) because she was a young, scared, impoverished addict in an abusive relationship. Over time, however, she grows to be at least a caring mother.

One night when baby Jason, like every other baby in the world, is crying non-stop, Willis tells Cath if she doesn't shut that baby up then he will. So she crawls out of bed, grumbling to herself about her hangover, and makes her way to his crib. All they need right now is a child endangerment charge. She lights up a cigarette and leans over his crib, and he immediately stops crying. He smiles at her, and reaches for her, and from that moment on, she does her best as a mom, and Jason still loves her for it.

Notes:

I'm a Cathy Todd stan and can do what I want.

Willis is abusive in my Arkhamverse but not in his regular 'verse. See? He was an asshole but not an abusive asshole.

I actually like Willis being canonically abusive in AK:G because I like to think AK!Jason has a unholy trinity of terrible father figures: Willis, Bruce, and Joker.

For a time, Slade is... I guess maybe you could call it fatherly? He mostly just reminds Jason that he saved his ass from that pit and Jay owes him. But he also kind of watches out for him when Jay first arrives in Venezuela. I have lots of Slade & Jay headcanons for another day 🙃

More below the cut!

Kid Jason hates going home after school because Willis always finds a reason to be angry at him. So, of course, one place he visits is the public library until closing time. But he also meets his elderly neighbor one day in the lobby of their apartment building. He sees her struggling carrying her groceries inside so he offers to help her. From then on, he helps her out here and there whenever she needs it. Sometimes she even gives him a $5 bill, which he hides under his mattress with the rest of the money he's earned from helping her. He doesn't do it for the money but he certainly isn't going to turn it down when she offers.

Sadly, he starts going straight home again after school when he realizes that Willis just takes his anger out on his mom instead of him, and he'd rather suffer than see his mom cry 😭

Notes:

Jay canonically watched out for his neighborhood in AK:G so I'm sure this included helping out elderly ladies.

* * *

One night Willis is in a meth-induced rage and he kicks (literally) little Jay out of their apartment building onto the sidewalk in the middle of a Gotham winter without a coat. Jay makes his way toward his school, or maybe the church they went to once or twice when Cath was trying to detox, or the public library... but all those places are quite a hike away in heavy snow. He's so cold that he finds a spot in the back of a closed corner deli. The back door to the place is propped open and there's heat coming from the kitchen. He curls up between the door and the dumpster, trying to get warm enough to make it... somewhere. When one of the cooks finds him out there he tries to run but the cook, who looks like he could play in the NFL, catches him and brings him inside. The old Italian man who owns the place is delighted to have him there. He gives Jay plenty of hot chocolate and complains about the weather and how the neighborhood is going to shit and other old man stuff.

Jay goes back there after school ever so often, and eventually he starts working there (breaking child labor laws of course). This deli turns out to be a mob hangout, and that's how he meets some of the guys in Maroni's crew, and eventually the boss himself.

Notes:

When Cathy comes home and finds Jay missing and his coat on the floor she freaks. After screaming at Willis she goes searching for her baby boy. She eventually finds him, and he gets lots of hugs and kisses.

I don't know if this one actually works since there are probably lots of places nearby that are open 24 hours that he could go to, but I don't care 😉

* * *

When 10-year-old Jay finds Cathy dead from an overdose he calls 911 like a good boy. Willis freaks out when he finds out (the apartment is full of drugs and drug paraphernalia, and he cares more about his drugs than his family) He's in the hallway outside of their apartment bellowing at poor little Jay, who's already traumatized and in tears from losing his best friend/mom when the elderly neighbor hears the commotion. She comes out and yells, "Willis Todd you leave that baby alone!" (she yells this a lot), then she holds & comforts Jay until the police/paramedics get there 🥲

#woohoo!#my posts are back in the tags!#arkham knight #arkham knight: genesis #jason todd #catherine todd #willis todd #baby jay #kid jason #arkhamverse #headcanon #relationships #my arkhamverse #bubs talks to herself about jpt #mine

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visionofhope04 · 3 years

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Neglected - Part 1

Batfam x Neglected!Batsis!Reader

Part 1 (Current) Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Inspired by a book called Face The Music by Batfam-Imagines on Wattpad.

Ages: Alfred (Immortal), Bruce (48-ish), Dick (26-27), Jason (24-25), Tim (17-18), Damian (13-14), Y/N (13-14)

Prompt: You are Damian’s twin sister and have been living with them for 3 years. (CONTAINS CHILD NEGLECT AS SUGGESTED BY THE TITLE AS WELL AS SELF HATE ALSO ED)

—-

You had been living with your father and adoptive brothers for three years with Damian. At first, it was okay and you quite enjoyed their company, especially Alfred’s. However, after a while, they completely forgot about you. You’d barely be acknowledged in your own home. Damian was always the center of attention. You were overshadowed by him. They didn’t ignore him, they treated him as their own. So what made you so different?

You could fight as well as him, yet they didn’t let you in on the family business even though you already knew about it. You were smarter than him as you were more grounded and thought things out more. You would be a useful asset to their team. You didn’t know why you were forgotten. You thought it could’ve been because you were too fat or too ugly.

You thought you had done something wrong, even though you couldn’t possibly think of what that may have been. You started to hate yourself. You blamed yourself for them ignoring you. You had convinced yourself they didn’t want or care about you and that you were a pathetic useless little girl that no one loves. Every time you wanted to talk to someone about it, they’d be busy and you didn’t want to be more of a burden to them.

You were surprisingly the closest to Jason. Sure, he was just as busy as the rest but actually tried to get to know you. Like him, you had also been revived by the Lazarus Pit. When you both couldn’t sleep, you’d go to the library together and read. It helped you both forget about the nightmares that plagued your sleep and allowed you to enter a different reality.

You were aware Jason never intentionally ignored you, he was busy and you understood that. You had wished your other family members had at least tried as Jason had, but you knew that they favored Damian. It was the simple things that led you to this conclusion, really. How they’d ask him about his day or if the material he studied was difficult which he would always reply with something along the lines of “Tt, it was easy.”.

At dinner, everyone seemed to forget you existed. They never asked you about your day or school. They didn’t seem to really care. It was as if you were invisible so it wouldn’t matter what you did. They never noticed how you starved yourself or how little you ate. They never noticed how you tried not to slouch or place your elbows on the table. They never noticed your subtle glances at each of them, making sure they weren’t judging you.

You’d always slip out of dinner quietly and it went unnoticed by the others. It became a routine where you’d eat a little bit, escape the room, and then go back to finding things to occupy yourself with. You never expressed how much it hurt you to be ignored and never planned to. You wanted them to apologize to you themselves even though you knew the probability of that. If you went to them first, you were afraid that they would hate you even more.

Over time, your self hate started to heighten and became worse. You were constantly reminded that you were a fat, ugly, useless nobody, freak that didn’t deserve to live. Your paranoia grew and you became a perfectionist. You were terribly suffering. You had become dangerously underweight and always looked tired. No one noticed though, too caught up in their own problems to spare you a glance.

About a year later, you are now 14 years old. Your grades have dropped and you are critically underweight. You don’t even digest the food anymore. You simply “eat” a bit and then take water with you as you throw it all up in the toilet. You fill yourself up with water from now on since in your mind you are still fat. You tell yourself “It’s fine, you’ll be fine.” but you can’t fool your body, you can only fool your mind.

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oh-mother-of-darkness · 3 years

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“Are you here all night?” Jason asked, “or are you planning to, you know, be a human? I think those go home sometimes.”

High above Jason’s head, a swarm of bats entered the cave, winding among the stalactites and screeching a kind of garbled response.

Dick, however, said nothing. He remained bent over one of the long tables on the cavern floor, examining a map Jason could barely see from his own seat a short distance behind, ignoring Jason and his sarcasm both.

Jason didn’t enjoy being ignored.

Fine.

“I have some tasks you could take over,” he suggested, in his least helpful voice, “if you’re in the market for an excuse to keep working. I know you make those sometimes.”

Nothing.

“I have some weapons to clean, if you want to do that. You could type out all my old cases, if that works, because I only have the originals and those are hard to work with.”

Still nothing.

“Take out the trash?” Jason tried. “Wash the dishes? I put a load of laundry in a couple of hours ago, but there’s a wool jacket in the mix, so be careful what you put in the dryer.”

Dick didn’t move. Jason was enjoying himself now.

“Write a sonnet? Map the White House?” Jason held up a finger Dick couldn’t see, like he had just remembered something interesting. “I think there’s a library on 8th that exploded a few days back, so if you could just grab the rubble from the street and rebuild it by hand, that would be great.”

No reaction.

“Whatever,” said Jason, “I’m out of here. Get some sleep maybe? I know the whole work-to-outrun-despair routine is your ‘thing,’ or whatever, but it never looks good on you. Have you considered—”

Jason cut himself off as Dick finally turned away from the table. Looking him in the eye, Jason felt suddenly and inexplicably afraid.

“Go on,” said Dick, quietly.

“I’m just… saying that it might make things worse, to shut off and—” Jason pointed at the mound of paper on the table, “obsess over this stuff instead.”

“You think?” Dick asked. “No shit.”

Jason blinked. “Wait, are you—”

“Did you think it never occurred to me,” said Dick, “that I might be spinning out?”

“I didn’t say you were spinning out.”

“Were you thinking that maybe,” Dick leaned back against the table edge and crossed his arms, carefully casual in a way Jason didn’t like, “hey maybe I, Dick Grayson, haven’t noticed how it feels to be forty-nine hours into a case and puking in the bathroom sink?”

“I didn’t—”

“Maybe I just haven’t realized why my vision blurs out and I can’t think straight, and it’s weird how this happens—” Dick held up a hand, and Jason could see his fingers shaking, “—if I keep going for too long.”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Wow, yeah, now that you mention it, this might be,” Dick said, flatly, “bad.”

Jason glanced down at his boots to break the eye contact. “I’ll back off,” he said. “I’ll go.”

“It might be bad that I can’t sleep until I’m falling-over exhausted. Maybe I shouldn’t be taking all these cases—”

“I said I’ll back off.”

“Or writing all these notes or spending weeks on research, more than that on training—”

“Listen—”

“I probably shouldn’t be leading all these teams, huh?” Dick smiled in a way that reminded Jason of what he should have remembered before he opened his own mouth: that Dick could be very, very dangerous. “Can I get your opinion on that?”

“I’ll—”

“I KNOW!”

Jason stumbled back a step in shock.

“I KNOW that I’m working too hard!” Dick yelled, “And I KNOW why I do it!”

“Okay!” Jason backed away again. “Okay, I get it!”

“I work so I don’t have to think! I’d rather drop dead doing this shit than stop for the millisecond it would take to feel again! Are you happy now?”

“Calm down, okay? I didn’t—”

“I don’t want to feel,” said Dick, gesturing around him, “so I’m going to stand right here over and over again.”

“Fine!”

“And I’m going to keep shutting down because it goddamn WORKS!”

Dick turned away again, bending over the table like he hadn’t said anything at all. Jason stood frozen for a moment, staring.

“Does it?” he asked into the silence.

“No.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“Do you have something better?”

Jason looked down at his own hands and saw that they were shaking too.

“No,” he said.

“Then fuck off.”

Jason turned to leave, but Dick, it appeared, wasn’t ready to let it go.

“I’m alive,” he said. “I’m standing and walking and doing all the things that matter.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve had enough of— enough of asking for help and getting—” Dick jerked an arm above his head, still turned away. “I don’t want to hear that the way I live is self-destructive. I already know. That’s why I’m here, that’s what I’m saying, that’s why I’m trying.”

“Yeah.”

“Just… show me something better, or let me self-destruct.”

Jason fumbled awkwardly for something to say. “I’m sure— I don’t know who you’ve been talking to, but whoever that is— I’m sure they’re… trying to help.”

“You weren’t,” said Dick.

“No, I wasn’t.”

“You were trying to land a cheap shot,” said Dick, “and feel like you’re better than me.”

Yes, that was true. Jason wasn’t sorry, exactly, but he regretted it, and those were different things.

“I guess that makes me an asshole.”

“And a hypocrite.” Dick turned around again and leaned back in the same way, quiet, in control. “You never stop either… not since the pit anyway.”

“Don’t.”

“I mean it’s different, obviously, because I don’t think you’re trying to hide it. Me, I don’t want cracks to show. I don’t want all this grief and anger and— you said despair, right?”

“Stop.”

“I don’t want the despair to show because I want to look whole, but you—”

“You’ve made your point.”

“You want to look like a week-old corpse rotting on the concrete, and may I say?” Dick smiled. “Excellent performance. You look exactly like that.”

Jason didn’t say anything.

“It’s a world of difference,” Dick continued, “because I— I’m pushing through pain… and you’re pushing to feel it.”

For a moment, they stared at each other, and Jason found that it was difficult to breathe.

“I could yell back for that,” he said. It came out softly, more soft than he meant, as Jason shoved away something very close to shame.

“Do it.”

“No. I think it’s funny when people call me the angry one.” Jason looked down at his shaking hands again.

“I am angry,” he conceded, “but you’re just as bad as I am.”

“Thematic,” Dick snapped. “Get out.”

“No. You opened this book, so we’re going to read it. You’re right.”

“Leave.”

“You’re right, I do exactly what you just said I do. Sometimes I don’t sleep for days, and it’s not because I can’t.”

Well, that might not be fully true, so Jason stopped to backtrack.

“I mean,” he corrected, “I don’t know if I could sleep, if I really tried, but that’s the point I’m making. I don’t try. I don’t want to sleep.”

“I said leave.”

“It’ll be four in the morning and I’m slumped sideways on my couch watching surveillance footage I don’t need to watch, because I know when I finally drag myself to the bathroom mirror, I’ll look like hell—”

“Get out!”

“—and I want to! I feel like hell, I feel like goddamn Brutus in the Devil’s jaws, and I want to look like it. If I look like death, that means my pain is real.”

“Get out or regret it.”

“Oh, I know it’s self-destructive,” said Jason, smiling his best unnerving smile. “How could I miss it when I’m blacking out in stairwells and picking fights on purpose, just to get kicked around?”

That particular sentence, it appeared, caught Dick’s attention, because he stayed quiet this time, glaring from across the room.

Well then, Jason decided, it was time to push further.

“Let’s get personal, shall we? Why do I live in this fucking city to see you or him or whoever else is living in the capes this week? I’m not shooting for reconciliation!”

“Well?”

“I’m going to stay here and cause problems until every single one of you hates me enough to shove me away. How’s my performance, by the way? Is it working? I’d love to get your opinion.”

Dick made a face that Jason couldn’t interpret, so Jason chose to press on.

“It’ll hurt when I pull that off because I do actually care about you, but you know what? I’ll like that. Maybe someday all of this will kill me, and I’ll kind of like that too.”

Jason paused a beat to let Dick interject, but Dick didn’t.

“Your turn,” said Jason pleasantly. “Thoughts?”

Nothing.

“I like the aesthetic of self-destruction,” said Jason. “I’m going to look in the mirror tomorrow and see dark circles and scars, and it’s going to feel like being myself in a way that nothing else does.”

In that moment, watching Dick glare, Jason felt very tired— not in a way that sleep could solve, and not in a way that anyone could fix. No matter what Jason did, no matter what he tried, he could always feel himself sinking. He was empty and heavy at the same time, somehow trapped in place, unable to do anything except lie in his own blood.

A rotting corpse indeed.

“I’m not judging you,” said Jason. “I don’t have the space for that. I won’t tell you to just… change. I’m sick of hearing that too, hearing that I don’t have to do this to myself, that I am doing this to myself.”

Dick nodded. Jason wasn’t sure at what, but it felt like permission to keep going, so he did.

“I know I’m holding on to something I shouldn’t,” Jason admitted, even though it hurt to say out loud. “I know, but I can’t let go when there’s nothing else to take. I don’t have anything profound to say. I don’t… know what else there is.”

That was it. That was all Jason had, so he shrugged and stared down at the floor, waiting.

“I think if I stop working I’ll fall apart,” said Dick, finally, “and this time I won’t be able to scrape myself together.”

“Yeah.”

“I think fine, so I don’t have to keep going. I don’t have to shove away the dark and force myself through, but what would happen if I didn’t?”

“I don’t know.”

“I would be a shivering, hollow shape on my floor, maybe forever. I don’t know what I want to be, but I can’t be… I can’t be only that.”

Jason understood.

“It’s hard,” said Dick. “I always hear— and say, I say this to other people— that things can be okay. I guess it’s true, but does it matter?”

“What do you mean?”

“Unless I leave the cave right now and never come back, this is my life. I have an apartment and a fucked-up family—”

“Thanks.”

“—and I spend every night jumping through smog and the ghosts of everything I’ve ever done.”

“Saving people,” Jason noted.

“Win some,” said Dick, “lose some. How many times have you watched a person die?”

“A few.”

“A few.” Dick shook his head. “I know too much, but I have too much to leave behind.”

“I have a guy who makes passports on demand, if you change your mind,” said Jason. “He’s amazing.”

“Thanks.”

“Prints while you wait.”

Dick shot Jason a flat kind of look.

“What?” Jason asked. “It would simplify my plans.”

Dick half-smiled at that, and Jason got the sense that they were done yelling, maybe, for awhile.

“I feel trapped, and I don’t know how to fix myself,” said Dick, “while I’m still… here.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m just trying to stay alive.”

“I know. Me too.”

“It isn’t getting any easier.”

Jason thought about that for awhile. It would be nice to have an answer— something simple to say, some match to light in their common ground— but Jason couldn’t find one, so he shrugged again and hoped that understanding would be enough.

It had to be something, didn’t it?

It was the best he could do. There were times, Jason figured, to talk about breathing exercises and the mess of self-help books piled on his dresser, but he knew this wasn’t one of them. They could call it catharsis, he decided, and leave it at that.

“We could say it’s Bruce’s fault?” Jason suggested, since he was out of other ideas. “I like blaming Bruce for the shit I do.”

“You do?”

“Fuck off.”

Dick smiled fully at that one. “I’m not above it either.”

“Great,” said Jason. “Can I leave a note saying we blame him? No context at all, maybe on a single post-it? I think it would be really funny.”

“Sure.”

“I’ll bounce after that, for real this time.” Jason spun a finger in a circle a few times, pointing around the cave. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Yeah.” Dick tapped a finger against the table a few times, like he was thinking. After a moment, he pulled a bag from the edge and started packing up his things.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, me too.”

Fin.

---

art by @doc-squash

#happy new year my loves let's all make it out together #dick grayson #jason todd #batfamily #fanfiction #doc's #mine #self harm #self-destruction #suicidal ideation #if I'm missing something let me know #dc (doc collab)

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bluegarners · 3 years

Note

Hi!! I was wondering if you had any Talon!Dick headcannons :)) By the way, I LOVE your writing!!!

Ahhhhh thank you sooo much, darling anon!! That means so much to me 🥺💙

Now, I’m unsure if I’ll be doing this correctly, but I do believe I have a few head-cannons! Here goes~

As Talon, Dick is often mistaken for being a meta-human with flight like abilities. He still subconsciously uses his acrobatic abilities in fighting, the famous quadruple flip giving him away, and his “Flying Grayson” origin and knack for flinging himself off tall buildings gives the illusion that he can fly. If he hurts himself after landing from leaping from tall buildings, it doesn’t show because of his tolerance for pain and his healing abilities, adding to the illusion of flight where no such thing exists

Dick is highly competitive to the point of bordering obsessional. Perfection was everything to the Court, and if one did not succeed flawlessly, than it was considered a failure, no matter the outcome. When he is rescued from the Court and introduced into more familial settings, Dick subconsciously competes with everyone to be the best at everything, including, but not limited to: fighting (there is no such thing as sparring, if he is swept off his feet, then he is a failure opponent; arguing also falls into that category, but he always ends up feeling worse when he feels like he’s won), target practice (darts are the Batfams least favorite boredom game because of Dick’s uncanny and unnatural ability to be so precise [he once pinned a mosquito to the board standing twelve feet away]) , memorization (no one likes to play card games with him either because he knows exactly which cards have been played and also likely knows the cards everyone else is holding), baking (he once tried to out-do Alfred and it was then that Dick experienced his first failure when it came to baking a scone; his always came out too hard), and pranking (he studies everyone very closely, looks for the very thing that ticks someone off, and when challenged, he is merciless in pursing the perfect trick to annoy them for days but leave no lasting harm)

Dick was trained to understand people and how they work, think, and plan. He understands human flaws and weaknesses probably more than anyone else, purely because he himself is so deeply flawed and recognizes this. However, he was never taught how to interact or understand animals. The first time Titus licked his hand, he spent hours researching what it meant (he was too confused and embarrassed to ask anyone because he knows that isn’t normal) and was left stunned for days when he came to the conclusion that it meant affection. When Alfred the cat leaps into his lap and purrs, and he again looks up what this means, Dick is overwhelmed at the undeserved friendliness he is receiving. As a Talon, Dick had had to earn everything in his life, including trust. He had never been given that without having to do something for it. Now, Dick takes every opportunity he can to keep that trust the animals have placed unto him (see: buying and feeding them treats, brushing their fur, giving them gentle affection)

Dick has great interest in things like skin-care appliances. The Court had only ever allowed him a bar of soap to wash the blood away, and he had never truly needed anything else, but when Steph gives him a bottle of lotion because “his skin looks ashy enough to make snow”, he finds he can’t stop lathering himself in it. His skin has always felt rough to the touch; callouses formed over the years of labor and hilts of sharp blades in his grasp. After a week of usage, Dick marvels at the fact that his hands feel soft. It is the first time he has ever thought of himself as being anything but hardened and ruined, and bath & body works quickly becomes an online shopping favorite

Sometimes, Dick forgets where he is. He’s still adjusting to “normal life”, outside and away from the Court. The Court was easy in the way that he never had to truly expect anything new. He walked the same hallways, the same rooms, the same sewer paths all his life; walls bare, plain, and white with only his reflection and the screeching cries of the Courts victims to decorate it. So, when he moves into the Manor, visits the Cave, and sees each wall covered in mirrors, pictures, clocks, trinkets, and little ornaments, he memorizes each placement and finds his way from there. But on cleaning days, when Alfred reorganizes, or when something gets broken and removed, Dick gets lost within his own head and searches in vain for land-markers and tells he was sure was once there. He knows that Bruce’s bedroom is down the hallway with the double mirror and portrait of a woman wearing deep blue, but how can he be sure when the portrait disappears one day and is replaced by a stool and some flowers? Surely he must be confusing things because Tim’s study is right across from the library door, which is always open and has a brass doorknob, but is that really true when the door with the brass handle is actually closed? There are two sets of stairs, one that leads into the kitchen and one that leads out to the back of the Manor, but Dick can’t tell the two sets apart anymore because the banisters got polished and he could only tell which was which because the one to the kitchen had a scuff mark on it from when Damian slid down its railing once. On those days, where everything and nothing is the same, Dick sits down in the middle of the floor and waits for someone to find him. Whoever finds him, and they always do, always look sad. He can’t quite understand why, but he’s just happy he’s not lost anymore

Every time Dick dreams, he feels the strong need to tell someone about them and keeps a journal to help him remember them. Because of the electrum serum administered to him since he was young, the element largely took care of every human weakness Dick ever had, including the physical need to sleep. The Court only ever took him out of cryo when he was needed to assassinate, and even then, every waking moment was spent training, learning, and traveling from place to place to do the Parliament’s bidding. When he is rescued, and for the first time ever given the choice to just sleep and do nothing, Dick dreams for the first time. It startles him because the dream felt very real, almost like a memory, but it’s horribly difficult to recall and he panics because memory-relapse and loss is scary when he knows he’s supposed to recall things perfectly. Jason ends up suggesting that Dick to keep a dream journal, as he too has trouble remembering what is a dream and what is a memory; the Lazerous Pit and being dead certainly did things to the brain surrounding remembrance. It helps to ease his anxiety, even if writing down “nightmares” (as everyone calls them) leaves him feeling worse than before

#anon #ask #Dick Grayson #Talon!Dick #headcannons #Talon #Dick Grayson is Talon #sorry if these were long winded!! i had a lot of fun thinking about these though!

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themaribatpit · 3 years

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Jasonette July Day 12: Dare

Written by: The Maribat Pit @jasonette-july-event Prompt: Dare Rated: T (Drink responsibly my friends) A/N: Maribat fangirl went to Uni in the UK. Most people thought they could outdrink the Americans, and that American beer tasted horrible. DC fanboy isn’t much of a drinker. Also we planned this earlier, but I saw this blog post from @ritacrow-blogrequesting something similar a few days ago, so here you go. I don’t know if you’re a fan of the in vino veritas/drunken confession trope, so feel free to skip it if you aren’t.

“So, why are we doing this again?” Tim asked hesitantly, as they gathered in the Wayne Manor lounge. “Because Pixie Pop here issued a challenge, and I don’t plan on letting her win”, Jason explained with a smirk. “All she said was ‘American drinking laws are bullshit’, and it’s not like you don’t know the name of every single bar in Gotham that doesn’t card.” Tim retorted. “She also said American beer tastes gross, so I don’t know why you brought Budweiser of all things”.

“She dared us to try and drink her under the table, and I’m sure as hell not backing down.” Jason hissed, and Tim decided that it was pointless trying to argue. The whole reason Tim and Steph were even involved was because they had just turned 18, which meant they were allowed to take part in this little drinking competition. Alfred was in the corner of the room keeping score, someone had to, considering the night they were about to have.

After they all gathered in the lounge, it was time for the challenge to begin. Barbara quietly sipped her glass of wine, curling into Dick’s side as she watched the movie playing on the TV. Jason and Dick had downed a bottle of beer each, waiting for Marinette to finish her first glass of wine. Marinette rested her back against Jason’s arm as she watched the movie play out, the night had just begun and she wasn’t about to let them win. She wouldn’t be able to look any non-American person in the eye if they knew she got out drunk by them. Marinette took in the soft glow of the lounge, alternating between leaning on the sofa or Jason’s leather-clad shoulder. It almost reminded her of her home city at night. She looked around at the people she had come to know, fairly certain she had the dopiest smile on her face at that moment.

She had arrived in Gotham City not long ago, and she was surprised to find that some of them welcomed her with open arms. Not all of them, obviously, some were a bit more welcoming than others. Bruce didn’t really trust her as a magic user, and Damian usually kept to himself. Preferring to be alone with his pets, Titus and Alfred (the cat). The others assured her not to take it too personally, that they are like that with everyone. With Jason, it was hard to tell what he thought about her. Dick was like an older brother to everyone, and in some ways reminded Marinette of Chat Noir, alot. While Barbara, Steph and Cass were like the sisters Marinette didn’t have. Tim was at least somewhat curious about her powers and how they worked, hard as he tried to fight it in the beginning.

With Jason, it was much harder to tell at times. He wasn’t quite as closed off as Damian, though sometimes she found him in the Wayne Manor library reading by the window. They had each other’s backs in a fight, and the fact that she was much smaller compared to him earned her the nickname “Pixie Pop”. They worked well together on missions, and there was plenty of friendly banter between them. There was almost a veneer of sarcasm and bravado.

The only time it showed any sign of falling was when his pit madness took over. Even then she was more focused on asking Plagg and Tikki for help, seeing as it was their magic causing this. There was no fixing it, but they had managed to help get it under control. Marinette was almost frustrated when he woke up to find her waiting at his bedside, after working around the clock to keep the madness at bay. The sounds of him screaming and thrashing around were still ringing in her ear, and the most that he could muster was “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you there, Pixie.” he drawled.

“Pixie, you there?” Jason gently poked her on the shoulder and she realised that she had been staring into her wine glass for a moment. She took a large gulp before setting the glass down on the table, the night had just begun.

As the night went on, Tim was not impressed with how beer tasted. “People actually drink this stuff for fun?” he muttered. He was starting to think Marinette might have a point about how American beer tasted. Sadly the old adage of “liquor before beer, you’re in the clear” meant that it was too late to try Steph’s approach. Steph was nursing a Jack Daniels and coke as she watched the film, letting that light of the TV screen dance in front of them.

Later into the night, Tim was getting tipsy at that point. Considering this was his first time drinking, Marinette gave him a smile that said “you get points for trying”. If Steph wasn’t drunk now, she was going to be feeling the effects very soon. She mostly drank spirits chased down with soda and juice. Barbara had already left after a couple of glasses of wine, deciding to leave the rest of them to this game. Jason and Dick had beer bottles lined up in front of them, almost as if they were competing with each other first. Marinette continued to leisurely sipped her wine, knowing that she was their final boss at that moment.

In the end, only Marinette and Jason were left in the lounge. Steph left had already left, and Tim followed not long after, Alfred helped get Dick into bed after he nearly passed out on the coffee table. “It’s you and me, Poxie Pip” Jason slurred, Alfred occasionally came in to check on them.

Marinette, who at this point was slightly tipsy, leaned in close and whispered in his ear “What’s the matter? Afraid you’ll lose?”

“There’s worse ways to go, Pixie, trust me.” he laughed, Marinette gave him a very sad smile. He finished the last of his beer bottle before laying down on the sofa, resting his head on Marinette’s lap. Marinette was certain she could feel her face heating up, she could hear her heart pounding in her chest as she looked down at him.

“Are you sure my teeny tiny legs can support your big head?” she joked. Great, now she was doing it too. she looked away in hopes that he couldn’t see the blush on her face. She didn’t get Asian glow, but now she was really hoping she had that as an excuse.

“I’ve seen you lift goons twice your size and throw them across rooms,” he laughed “besides, this feels kinda nice.” he mumbled.

“Yeah but that was me as Ladybug, it’s also what keeps me from tripping over air and landing on my face.” she explained. She didn’t think her heart would be able to handle looking down to see one of the few times she saw him completely at peace. She was used to people who preferred her as her alter ego anyhow.

“I guess you win this round,” he slurred, Marinette still hadn’t moved his head from her lap. If anything, her free hand was working its way through his dark locks of hair. He smiled, letting himself be lulled to sleep by the simple yet kind gesture. “Serves me right,” he yawned, “getting drunk with a fairy princess.”

Marinette turned her attention back to the last of her wine, “there he goes again, making silly jokes like that.” she thought. “Especially with one as pretty as you,” he laughed. Marinette was about to get up at that moment, now he was just being ridiculous. “I like you...” were the last words he said before letting sleep take him.

It was everything Marinette could do not to drop her wine class on the floor in shock. Marinette thought she heard wrong. She shook her head, what did it matter? I mean, she had called her friends pretty loads of times before, it’s not like he said he loved her or anything. These were things that you said to friends all the time, right? At that moment, there was a knock on the door, Alfred came in and saw Jason asleep in Marinette’s lap. “I was just about to leave could you maybe help Jason get back to his room? That would be great thanks Alfred.” she quickly spluttered before dashing out of the lounge and down the hallway in search of an empty guest room to sleep in.

Jason tragically awoke the next morning with a hangover and a vague memory of what had happened the night before. He thought this was probably the very reason why Bruce did not drink. Alfred came in with a tray of chilli dogs and water, to nurse the hangover. “Thanks Alfred,” Jason groaned, “do I even wanna know what happened last night?”

“If you must know Master Todd, you won second place in last night’s drinking competition.” He explained, Jason sighed, Marinette wasn’t going to let him live that down. He still had to admit he was impressed with her. “Miss Dupain-Cheng seemed rather flustered after you compared the experience to ‘getting drunk with a fairy princess’ and confessed your admiration and affection for her.” It was all coming back to him now, and he was about to be sick. He told her that he thought she was pretty and that he liked her. He wasn’t wrong, but it probably didn’t sound as romantic coming from someone who was probably very drunk. He reached for the chilli dog, hoping that he would be able to keep it down. “In vino veritas indeed, or in birro veritas in your case”, Alfred quoted. Jason took a sip of water, still too stunned to speak. “If you still hold such affection for Miss Dupain-Cheng, might I suggest telling her when you’ve sobered up?” he suggested, giving Jason a slight sympathetic smile.

“I’ll try, thanks Alfred” he replied as Alfred left the room, leaving him to his thoughts.

A couple of days later, Marinette was sitting in her studio, drinking a warm mug of hot chocolate. Jason hadn’t called her or spoken to her since the party, and she had hoped that he had just drunkenly forgotten his little drunken confession. It wasn’t that Marinette didn’t reciprocate his feelings, it just felt like there was no point in putting stock in something he said while he was so very drunk. It almost made Marinette laugh a little at the thought. Her phone buzzed, it was a message from Jason: “Hey, you busy today? I’ve got something to tell you. Sober, this time”. Marinette smiled, maybe this time there was truth in the foul tasting American beer.

BONUS: The next morning in the Batcave... Tim: That tasted like actual vomit. Dick: It's an acquired taste, Baby Bird. Tim: Which is to say you were peer pressured into liking it.

#jasonette #jasonettejuly2021 #ml x dc #maribat

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kidshadow · 3 years

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Reverse batfam au headcanon :

- when damian first came to live with bruce he was still learning that he wasn't in the league anymore so was still a bit stab first , ask questions later

- this meant he had to be homeschooled

- now being in the league meant he had some of the best tutors to learn and has an above average knowledge of most school subjects like math, physics, etc.

- after a while when he adapted a bit to living in the manor bruce takes him to work one day because it was take your child to work day

- Bruce leaves him in one of the conference rooms that aren't being used because he has to sort out a few things before he gives dami the tour and asks him to help this other kid that was stuck there with his homework ( the child's parent was a business partner )

- so then this kids takes out their math homework and dami thinks they're making fun of him because he did these types of sums when he was 5 ( the kid was doing 8th grade math ) so he obviously tells them this to their face

- he then procedes to walk out straight to bruces office where he rants about said kid until bruce stops him and explains that most kids aren't as advanced as he is and then makes hime apologize to the kid ( he was not happy about it but agreed once he was promised a new toy for ace)

____________________________________________________________________________________

Okay so timeskip to a few years later after tim becomes the new robin and damians nightwing

- after he got somewhat over tim becoming robin he started noticing that the homework tim did was a bit advanced for his age and tim being tim had a passion for learning especially physics and math

- so when he saw tim struggling with said homework he offered to help which tim begrudgingly agreed to ( it was only cause he had a test the next day that he really needed to pass )

- it went surprisingly well ( a few raised voices but no blood was drawn thankfully ) and tim even asked if he could help him again next time

- dami says yes but after he came back from a trip he had planned

- so fast forward a week or 2 and both parties are anticipating the next study session

- dami goes out of his way to buy these super expensive study guides and proper science kits for tim and he actually can't wait to go give them to Tim, dami even started making little notes in the textbook so tim could have an easier tim understanding everything ( hes writes something like this " remember to use net force here and not Enet cause we both know only you would switch them up" )

- but then jokers comes in and turns tim into joker jr ,and tim fights jokers brainwashing and shoots joker and then he shoots himself because he thinks he's too messed up to be saved

- dami comes back a few days later cause bruce called to tell him something happened, and he goes straight to bruces office ,slamming the door open and sees everyone sitting there in despair except tim ( its steph, duke, cass, bruce and Alfred )

- he is in full denial now and asks bruce where tim is acting like his usual demanding self trying to mask his fear

- Bruce just stares straight at damian with the most heartbroken look

- its not till duke wraps him in a hug does he realize he had started crying

- he sobs openly now asking what happened and how

- joker thats all duke says and dami just crumbles to the ground clutching on to duke mourning the loss of the rival he was just starting to become brothers with

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Another timeskip to after tims been revived by the Lazarus pit and has gotten over bruce replacing him and is now almost willing to hang around the batfam

- tim had stayed over one night at the manor when he got a bit badly injured and Alfred forced him to

- tims didn't sleep that well in his old room because it kept bringing back memories he thought he had long ago gotten rid of

- its 6am when he decides he's had enough and justs gets out of bed and starts roaming the manor

- he stops at the library and just starts browsing through all the new books that he noticed were added

- his hands stop to rest on an all too familiar one, his ap physics textbook that everyone thought was too advanced for him, only damian had believed he was advanced enough for it he thought as a wave of sadness and longing washed over him

- glaring at the book he swiftly turned around and headed down to the kitchen

- it was 7 30am now he'd been wandering for quite a bit of time

- not surprisingly alfred was already there and preparing breakfast, he told tim that it'd be done in a few minutes and that he should go wake up the others in the mean time

- by others he meant damian and duke ( bruce took the steph, cass and Jason to an overseas meeting so that they could have a mini vacation for jasons school holidays)

- he went to wake damian first mostly cause his room was closer and because he wanted damian to feel miserable like he was feeling even though he knew how petty he was being

- after all it was all damians fault he didn't get any sleep last night

- honestly he'd gotten over being replaced as robin but even after all this time has passed he still mourned the big brother that damian had just started becoming to him and the close brotherhood they could've had

- tim had always wanted a sibling when he was younger

- he would always lay in bed and fantasize how it would feel to not be lonely anymore

- knocking on damians door he received no answer so he let himself in only to see the bed empty and the bathroom light glow from under its door

- realizing he had never actually had a chance to look around damians room in the past and that he'd never get another opportunity like this he started looking around

- the room was decorated rather moderately with a few of damians paintings framing the walls and one or two of his pets toys left on the floor

- walking past damians nightstand he accidentally knocks something to the floor and it rolls under the bed

- going down to pick it up he notices this box under the bed the bed so he pulls it out and puts it on the bed

- the box has these advanced study guides that look like they've been used quite recently

- he opens them up and finds all these highlighted words and page tabs and even little notes written in the corner and he doesn't know which is more shocking that they look damians handwriting or that they're addressed at him

- tim hears his name being called but can't seem to look away from the book in his hand

- it was duke calling him

- duke was asking him what he was doing

- tearing his eyes away from the book he stares at duke

- his voice hoarse as he whispers "did you know...?"

- duke only stares back at him sadly

- he asks again "did you know" anger seeping into his words

- the bathroom door is pushed open and damians there too now going from surprised at seeing two of his siblings in his room to solemn after his eyes land on the study guide he was holding

- feeling furious now at not being answered he turns towards damians and shouts now asking why he didn't tell tim about the book and why they won't say anything

- and then he's full on sobbing as damian wraps his arms around him and tells him everything about the book and the notes and how excited he was to give them to Tim before he died

- duke leaves to give them some privacy and to tell Alfred that the two of them would be late for breakfast

- tims chest feels like its about to burst because the person he thought he had missed his chance to be family with already thought of tim as his little brother

- he had his big brother here this whole time and he never even realized it

- tim cries were ugly and loud and desperate , his fingers tightly gripping damians shirts like he would disappear if he ever let go but damian wasn't bothered all he could think of was that he finally had his little brother back

#damian wayne #batfam #dc #robin #tim drake #batman #batfamily #reverse batfam au #duke thomas #alfred pennyworth #reverse robins

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mochegato · 4 years

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Giving Up On You

For the Jasonette July Pit Madness prompt. This is the first idea for a fic I ever had and the first I started writing. Not the first finished by any means, but definitely the first started.

Looking at pictures on the wall of her cozy apartment felt like a warm embrace. In the center was the picture Adrien had taken after her first fashion show. Jason had picked her up and twirled her around as he hugged her in triumph. Her eyes were shinning as she smiled staring into his eyes. They hadn’t even started dating yet. She was so happy and he was so proud of her. It was right before their first kiss. Next to it was the picture Tim snuck of them at the manor one day as they relaxed in the library. Marinette was focused on her sketching while he read, his head in her lap. His free hand rested on her knee, subconsciously seeking as much contact with her as possible. On the other side was the picture Dick took of them at a picnic in the park. Marinette and Duke had managed to convince Tim, Cass, Dick, who convinced Damian, and, of course, him to go for a picnic. They were all so happy that day, almost like a real family. Marinette was seated between his legs with his arms wrapped around her waist and his chin on her shoulder. Her head was thrown back in laughter as he beamed in pride at having made her laugh so hard. The pictures were a testament to how strong and happy their relationship was.

It wasn’t right. It didn’t match. The happy couple in the pictures on the wall didn’t match the despondent voice in front of him now.

“Jason, I… I love you. You… I… you make me feel…” Marinette started quietly, her voice broken. She looked down for a second before looking back up to his eyes that she knew she wouldn’t meet. “…like we make each other better and can trust each other, like we have each other’s backs. You make me feel like I can do so much more than I thought I could because you won’t let me fall. You make me feel… No, that’s it,” she gave a small, sullen smile staring at her hands, “You make me feel. And I thought I did the same for you.”

He turned and looked at her, looking down before they could actually make eye contact. He’d been avoiding eye contact for weeks now, rarely meeting her gorgeous blue eyes anymore. If he looked her in the eyes, she would notice how his were changing, how they’d lost their blue hue, slowly turning green. And he was desperate to save her from that, to preserve her image of him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her trembling and straining against it. Trying to hold herself up, not let him see how hard this was on her. He did this.

Steeling herself she continued, “But, I… something changed and I don’t know what. You won’t tell me. It feels like you shut me out. And I don’t know what happened.” She tried to hold in a small sobbing breath, “Did something happen? You can tell me, Jay. I want to help. I want to be the one there for you, if you want me to, if you’ll let me. Like you have always been for me.”

She searched for the right words to say. She didn’t want to make him feel guilty. She didn’t want a relationship built on guilt. But she didn’t want to hide anything either. She didn’t want to walk away and leave things unsaid. She had done the not telling the other person how you feel thing and she was determined never to make that mistake again. This was too important. Jason was too important. She had to try to save their relationship, if there was anything left to save. She looked away, examining the pictures Jason had looked at earlier for a clue to the right words but they gave her no more information than she had before.

One last bit of heart wrenching honesty then. “You’re not… It feels like you gave up on me… on us.” She whispered, finally looking at him again. She was close enough to brush her thumb across his cheek but felt so, so far away, “It hurts…and I’m starting to give up on us, too.”

Her eyes were pleading, looking for any response from him. Anything. A word or a movement. Anything to show she was getting through to him. She looked at him for any sign of what he was thinking. No, that’s not it. She was looking for a sign that she was wrong, that he wasn’t giving up on them, that he hadn’t walked away already in all but body.

But he gave no reaction except for furrowing his brows a bit more. He refused to make eye contact with her, just like each of the few times they’d been together for the past few weeks. She couldn’t remember when the last time she had looked in his eyes was. God, she missed looking into his eyes. Now he wasn’t even talking to her. She wasn’t getting through. Shouldn’t she be able to? Isn’t that what you do when you’re in love? Figure out how to connect to the person you love. They had been in love, hadn’t they?

“Jay, say something,” she begged, a few stray tears breaking through and falling down her cheeks. “…please,” she tried one last time, desperate to get to him the way he had always been able to get to her. He brought her back from the edge when anxiety made her start spiraling. When she doubted herself, he gave her confidence. He gave her the world but what did she give him? He was so angry and on edge when she was around him. He was so unhappy and nothing she did made it better. Everything she tried only seemed to make him more upset. He knew exactly what to do to make everything better for her and she couldn’t help him at all. She only made things worse. She looked down at her hands, gaining some resolve to do what she needed to, for him. She couldn’t make things better for him, but she could take this one burden from him, give him one less thing to worry about.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye, broken and shaking, trying not to collapse. ‘It hurts’ that’s what she said, looking so incredibly small. That sentence and the way she looked saying it played on repeat in his head as his brows furrowed, anger starting to rise. He did that to her. He made her feel that way, doubt herself. She was strong and brave and kind. She was bright like the sun. She could blind you if you stared too long, but she helped everything around her grow, get better, made him grow and get better. She made him feel like the hero he knew he wasn’t. She made him feel like he deserved her, but he didn’t. He knew he didn’t. All he did was hurt the people he loved. Sooner or later it was always going to end like this. Maybe it was better it happened now before he lost control completely and truly hurt her. He’d been trying to protect her from this. To keep her at a distance so she wouldn’t get hurt in the fallout. But it hadn’t worked. She was still crying. She still got hurt. He had still hurt her. But, she could now walk away. She could now be happy, safe, away from him.

“So this is it then,” she said almost inaudibly, looking toward him, her eyes glistening with more unshed tears she was barely keeping in, “I know something is going on, Jay. I wish I could help you. I wish… I’m sorry I couldn’t reach you. I’m sorry I couldn’t love you the way you needed. I hope you find someone who can. You deserve that. You’re a good man, Jay. You deserve so many good things. I hope you get them.” She reached out to touch his face as he turned his face slightly toward her. She stopped her hand midway to him and withdrew it, no longer feeling like she had the right to touch him.

He noted the recoiled hand, like a flinch. She had flinched at him. He made her flinch. He made her feel the need to flinch away from him. He made her afraid. He nodded as he stood up and turned to the door, coming to a resolution of his own. He needed to leave before the anger and self-loathing turned to rage, before he did something he couldn’t ever forgive himself for. He couldn’t look at her as he walked away. He couldn’t bear to see what he did to her, but he heard her hit the floor and start sobbing as soon as the door closed behind him. He squeezed his eyes shut, his hands curling into white knuckled fists.

Guilt fed the anger he started feeling since he saw what he had done to her. Anger turned to rage and the rage started to overcome him, his eyes turning a toxic green. He stalked away, barreling into people, elbowing them out of the way as he searched for an outlet for the rage that had started to control him. He missed the narrowed, masked eyes watching him from above.

Jason woke up and looked around with hazy eyes. He was in his old room at Wayne Manor. “Fuck” he said sitting up and holding his aching head. He stumbled around the manor looking for someone to tell him how badly he screwed things up this time while he was out of it.

He found Dick eating cereal in the kitchen, feet propped up on the table. Alfred must not be around then, he thought continuing toward the coffee maker. Dick looked up surprised and dropped his feet off the table. “Hey, how’re you feeling?”

Jason moved past him, ignoring the question. He couldn’t give Dick an answer he didn’t have. “So how much damage did I do this time,” he asked instead, pouring himself a large cup of coffee.

“Beyond breaking up with Mari, you mean? Nope, that’s the worst you did,” Dick said shaking his head and giving him a sympathetic look.

Jason stared into his cup. That was not a conversation he was ready to have. “How did I get back here?”

“Tim found you barreling your way away from Mari’s place in full pit mode, eyes glowing green so brightly he could see it from the rooftop. He brought you back so you could ride it out here.”

“Ah,” he said quietly.

“Do you want to talk about it,” Dick asked gently, walking over to Jason.

“Nope,” he said popping the p, refusing to look up from his cup.

“Okay, but if you change your mind, I’m here for you, Little Wing.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said convincing nobody but effectively ending the conversation.

Dick looked at him for a few moments. “Yeah, okay. I’m still here if you need me,” he said walking away. “…when you stop being a masochistic dumbass,” he said quietly but loudly enough for Jason to hear him.

After a few more days cooped up in the Manor, Jason had recovered enough to go back on patrol. Even if he wasn’t fully recovered physically, mentally he needed to be back on patrol. He needed to be back out where he could get in a few fights, take a few hits, feel pain because of something other than his own screw ups. Fortunately, it was a pretty quiet night to ease him back into the routine. Unfortunately, that meant he had nothing to get his aggression out on until a particularly nasty gang fight requiring backup popped up. With Red Robin’s help, they had taken down the members and turned them over to the police. Even under the mask, he could feel Red Robin’s glare the entire time. After they returned to the Batcave, Jason turned to Tim to thank him for the assist when he felt a strong, sharp pain in his jaw almost knocking him down.

“Feel better?” He asked grabbing his jaw and tenderly moving it from side to side to assess the damage from the punch Tim had just thrown.

“Oh look, he can talk. Who knew?” Tim snarled at him angrily.

“Get over it. It’s done. Move on,” Jason said looking away. “I have.”

“Well yippee for you. You’re the only one that has.” He waited for Jason to say anything else but he appeared to have no interest in defending himself. But Tim wasn’t done. Jason didn’t get to get off that easily. Mari would never let him know the damage he had done, but Tim had absolutely no qualms about it. “You made her feel like she was nothing to you. You left her without even saying a word, like she wasn’t worth the effort. You made walking away look easy for you, like she was easy to walk away from.” Tim yelled.

“None of this was easy,” Jason grunted pushing past him to walk toward the stairs. “She’s better off. She’s safer.”

Tim scoffed as he looked away, “whatever helps you sleep better at night, asshole.”

Jason sighed and ran his hand through his hair moving to sit on a stair, shoulders slumping slightly, “She was afraid of me.” He said looking down. “I never wanted to give her a reason to be afraid of me. I wanted her to feel safe with me, but I failed. I scared her.”

“What?” Tim growled incredulously. That did not match the description Marinette had given him. Granted she didn’t give him many details from that night, but being afraid of Jason would have been something she mentioned. “She wasn’t afraid of you.”

“You didn’t see the way she flinched from me right before I left,” Jason said lifting his eyes a bit.

“Mari has never been afraid of you,” Tim assured him gruffly, coming closer.

“She should have been,” Jason huffed out.

“Maybe,” Tim nodded, not denying the claim. He’d seen some of the damage Jason had done in the grip of the Madness and the thought made him shudder. “But she wasn’t.”

Jason focused on his hands and furrowed his brows in frustration. “I can’t hurt her, Tim. I couldn’t live with myself if I did and we both know I can’t always control myself. I would eventually. I can’t drag her into that. She deserves better. She is so amazing, so… she is such a good person, like truly a good person with a good, bright heart. Not like us.” He finally lifted his eyes up to stare at the cave ceiling. “Her smile makes me feel like the world isn’t so bad, you know, like there is hope out there? The only thing I can give her is pain. I can only drag her down to my level in the shadows.”

Tim paused before continuing. Pep talks were not his area and considering he had just punched him and was still ready to do it again, was he really the best person for this? Where was Dick when you needed him? Still out on patrol. The bastard. He sighed sitting down next to Jason. “Yeah, her smiles are amazing, but that brilliant smile you mentioned? You gave her that smile. That concentrated sunshine smile, the one that makes the world brighter for you, that didn’t show up until a few weeks after I introduced you two and you ‘just happened to’ end up wherever we were working, constantly. Dude, you weren’t subtle.” Tim shook his head remembering the jokes in the family about having to implement countermeasures in order to hang out with Mari without Jason crashing it. The plots rarely worked. Jason always knew how to find Marinette, always.

“And she gave it to you, too. A bright… carefree smile. I’ve never seen you with a carefree smile. You were happier than I’ve seen you in… ever. And I’ve been watching you since you were Robin. Hmm, that sounded creepy. Ignore that last part,” Tim said quirking his lips to the side. “You two were #relationshipGoals,” he snickered as Jason glared at him. That made the comment worth it. “Until you got into your own head and decided you didn’t deserve her and decided to sabotage everything. Now both of you are in pain. Such a much better result.” He playfully pushed Jason’s head down.

He took a deep breath before continuing. “Look, I don’t know if you deserve her. I probably don’t deserve to be her friend either considering the very real risk of her getting dragged into helping. But, she isn’t naïve. She knows what the risks are just as much as we do and she thinks you are worth the risk. The question is do you think she is worth the risk, too.” Tim paused considering his next words. When did this become his job? He was in no way qualified to give love life advice or pep talks, especially to his family.

“Ultimately, what she deserves is happiness and you gave her that,” He smiled lightly at Jason. “You deserve it too; to be happy. You know that, right?” He watched Jason process what he said for a few seconds before Jason shook his head, refusing to think about that right now.

“You need coffee, Replacement. You’re starting to sound like Dick.”

“Oh fuck… we need to end that real quick before I start acting nice to Damian,” he said giving an exaggerated shudder.

Jason gave a small chuckle, “or start sleeping with every willing woman you come across. I am not interested in that drama again.”

“Yeah, Kon might object to that,” Tim smiled lightly.

Jason snickered quietly with small smile on his lips. “See, that there, that’s the old smile, the Before Marinette smile. I like the other one on you better.” Tim said patting him on the back and standing up, leaving Jason to think.

Jason spent the next few hours thinking about what Tim said, weighing the risks. After a few hours of tossing and turning in bed, not getting any rest, he decided to give up on sleep. It would not be coming to him any time soon anyway. He decided he needed a walk to clear his head. He walked out of the manor doors shortly after sunrise with no destination in mind.

He wandered around the city for hours. Was he willing to risk never seeing Marinette again? Would it really keep her safe if he did? If he was with her, he had a better chance of protecting her. But he didn’t need to be with her to protect her, right? But would he be able to see her and not be with her. What would he do if, no when, when she started dating? He didn’t want her waiting around for him if he wasn’t able to be with her. He wanted her to be happy. That was the entire point of this, wasn’t it? For her to be happy and safe. And if he was hanging around as Red Hood, there was a higher chance of someone noticing and connecting the two. So, it was better for everyone if he stayed away completely.

But, would he be able to stay away? He hadn’t been able to stay away from her for more than a day or two since they had first met. No matter what he had done, he had always found his way back to her. Without even trying, he always found her. It was like his heart sought her out. She owned his heart. Totally, completely, all of it. It belonged to her. He belonged to her. He wasn’t exactly sure when that happened. No, he did remember. It was the first time he made her laugh, really, truly laugh. The sound of her laugh made his heart skip a beat and race at the same time. He loved her so deeply, so completely it scared him. The thought of losing her though, or hurting her….

He made his decision. He knew who he was, what he had to do and what he needed to say. He stopped to look around and figure out where exactly he had ended up. He found himself outside Marinette’s apartment building. Of course he did, he realized. He would always find his way back to her. It was where he belonged.

He made his way up to her apartment door but hesitated to knock. He had messed up so badly. He had hurt her so badly. Would she forgive him? Did he deserve her forgiveness? Did he really have the right to even ask? He stared at the door, brow furrowed hands clenched.

Before he could work up his courage, he heard a gasp behind him. He had been so focused on his internal spiral he missed the sounds of Marinette returning home. The decision had been made for him. Life was not going to let him chicken out.

He turned face her and met her eyes. He opened his mouth to tell her all the things he had been thinking and the decisions he had come to, but seeing her dazzling eyes for the first time in weeks only to see them filled with confusion, apprehension, and pain made his knees weak. God, he had missed her eyes. He didn’t realize how much until then. It shook his courage. He had done that to her eyes. He put those emotions there. He could no longer find his voice. He didn’t know the words to use to make her understand how thoroughly he knew he had screwed up. How he promised to never hurt her like this again. How he vowed to make sure she knew how deeply he loved her. How he had pledged his heart to her. He snapped his mouth shut.

There was too much. The knot in his throat was too large. Tears started to form. The more he tried to talk, the harder it was to talk, the more the tears fell. She reached her hand out to wipe away the tears but hesitated midway to his face unsure whether it would be welcome. She started to lower it instead but Jason reached out to gently grasp her hand and pulled it toward himself to bring her closer to him, forceful enough to let her know it was intentional but not so much that she couldn’t easily break away if she wanted to. He squeezed his eyes shut again and dropped his head in frustration. Too much he wanted to say. Too much he wanted her to understand. Too many words and none of them right. She stepped closer to him and cupped her hands on the sides of his jaw looking up at his closed eyes.

“Jason?” She questioned timidly.

He lowered his head more to gently touch his forehead to hers. And opened his eyes to look into her eyes again, the eyes that had always given him hope, the eyes that still shone with love, the eyes that made him want to believe in himself and in them. “Don’t give up on me,” he said in a broken, desperate voice grasping the cloth at her waist in his fists, “please.”

“I won’t,” she whispered moving so there was no longer any space between them and wrapping her arms around his neck. She let out a raspy, relieved breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding since he left. “Never on you,” she murmured as she laid a gentle kiss on his lips that he desperately returned.

Tag:

@fsketchart @jasonette-july-2k20

#maribat #jasonette #Jasonette July #jasonette july 2k20

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choco-glow · 3 years

Text

Day of the Dead (Robin)

April 27th.

The bed shifted, creaked as Bruce dragged himself up out of the comfort of his way too expensive (and totally worth it) mattress, followed reluctantly by an equally exhausted Selina. He insisted she use the bathroom first, taking that time to rub his face and scalp, forcing himself into an alertness that he didn’t feel…and Bruce ignored his constantly buzzing phone. He could hear Alfred puttering around in his own room down the hall, Damian’s near silent footsteps alongside his dog’s as the youngest Wayne limped down to let Titus out. Tim…Bruce sighed, knowing that Tim one of two places; passed out in the chair in front of the computer down in the cave, or passed out on the couch in the library, his laptop on the floor.

Either way, he was sleeping, most likely, and Bruce was going to take advantage of that.

“Hey.” He glanced up, and the smile on his lips was small, but real; she looked so good leaning against the doorway in nothing but her underwear and one of his old band tees, tousled hair sticking to her forehead from her shower, a sweet smile on her face, those familiar green-blue eyes always so dark in the morning. Bruce dragged himself upright to wrap her up in his arms, hugging her tight, and Selina melted against him, nuzzling his cheek. “Bruce…”

“Thank you for staying…” He murmured, gratitude thick in his voice, and she patted his bicep, popping up on her tiptoes to kiss his nose.

“Of course, sweetheart. Go wash up and get dressed, I’ll head down and help Alfred with breakfast?”

“Selina, you don’t have to…” She shook her head, chuckling, and he chuckled back, ignoring his impulse to just turn away and go brood. Brooding wouldn’t help today…

“I want to. I know what today is…and why it’s so hard.” He ducked his head, swallowing his next word, and she cupped his cheek. “Bruce. I mean it. Jason…” He lifted his head, blue eyes tired but crinkled from a weary smile.

“I miss him.”

“I do too. Go on. We’ll be waiting for you.” He nodded, and after a lingering kiss, despite Cat’s aversion to morning breath, Bruce let her go. The shower was hot enough to wash away some of the pain from his shoulder and upper back, and after washing up, he carefully redressed the bandage on his thigh, then pulled on a pair of old jeans and a tee shirt. It was Saturday, thankfully, so Bruce didn’t have to worry about a suit, and making his way down the stairs, he was glad to see visitors…especially these visitors.

Four years…four years, he’s been gone now. His heart twinged, but Bruce didn’t have to hold up a mask around Dick, who hugged him tight as soon as his first Robin saw him, nor around Barb, who he knelt to hug as well. Steph looked a little lost, a little nervous to be here, and Bruce hugged her too, whispering thanks to her as he’d done to the rest, and if Steph hugged his waist a little harder, her voice a little thick…well, Bruce wasn’t going to tell.

“Father, Alfred the cat is most worried about you.” Bruce paused as he set Steph back on her feet, turning to face Damian, who was holding his purring tuxedo cat and looking concerned…and Bruce couldn’t help the tiny, choked sob, because Damian looked so much like Jason at that age, his whole being focused on “comfort father”.

“So I see. May I hold him?” Damian nodded, and Bruce gently took the cat, smiling as Alfred bumped noses with him and settled on his shoulder, purring deeper still. “Thank you, Damian…”

“This is an auspicious day; we need all the comfort we can receive…” He murmured, and Bruce hugged his youngest tight, tears spilling over now…and Damian hugged him back, clinging to him tight.

“That’s…that’s true…c’mon everyone, we better get into the kitchen before Alfred the butler and Selina yell at us.” He murmured, and Dick chuckled while Barb smiled and took the lead. Damian pulled away from the hug, but not from Bruce, and they walked in hand in hand, taking comfort from one another. Jason’s photo, the last one taken two weeks before he died, was sitting on the counter, as always, with a candle lit…and the new addition of a tin can with the label meticulously soaked off, full of dandelions, and Bruce paused by it, lips twitching up in a fond smile.

“Master Bruce, I hope you don’t mind…I wanted…well…I remember Jason making those bouquets for us when he was a child…” Alfred murmured, and Bruce just pulled him into a hug, tears running hot down his cheeks now.

“I can’t think of a better thing…It’s perfect. Best bunch of flowers that’s ever entered this house.” They all shared a laugh at that, though Selina, Steph, and Damian looked a little confused, and it was Dick who explained, his voice warm and fond as he remembered all the times Jason would prowl the Wayne grounds, plucking dandelions and purple clovers, filling an old coffee can or tin can full to the brim and bringing them back to the house to share, his smile bright and happy.

“…At first, we offered him the flowers from the garden, and Jason just shook his head, looking scared, and said that he got in trouble for pulling those. No one cared about the wildflowers.”

“Oh, what a sweetheart…” Selina breathed, and Bruce and Alfred settled at the table at last, which prompted Dick to pass them the plate of pancakes and motion to fill up.

“He really was…c’mon, let’s eat, best way to remember our boy.”

“Here here! And whatever we do, avoid Buzzfeed today.” Barb raised her OJ in a toast, and Bruce closed his eyes with a sigh.

“God, I hate Buzzfeed…”

“Same here, old man. Same here.”

—-

Six months I’ve been back, and not a Bat to bother me. Jason settled in for a quiet Saturday morning, and ignored cable for a change; he knew what was going to be all over the news today, and he, for one, didn’t want to hear yet another poignant portrayal of his death. At least Bruce wouldn’t be out in public today; he’d learned that from running through the old news stories from the last few years, and frankly, Jason was grateful for it. It…meant that Bruce at least care enough to mourn him. Even if the goddamn Joker is still alive…

He sighed, and pushed away the anger he still felt at that fact, and pulled out his guns, then pulled up YouTube on his TV. He scrolled through his usual recommended list, feeling…restless and a little out of his element; it was the first death day he’d spent back in Gotham, and his normal goofy favorites just…weren’t going to cut it. Then he saw the one video he didn’t expect to see.

Buzzfeed Unsolved: Jason Todd, Wayne or Robin?

A grin split his face.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

—-

“Welcome to Buzzfeed Unsolved. I’m Ryan Bergera, and this is Shane Madej. Today, we are covering the mysterious deaths of two important people in the deadly metropolis that is Gotham City…or are we?”

“Wait, what?”

“Jason Todd Wayne, the adopted son of billionaire Bruce Wayne, and the second Boy Wonder, Robin, both of whom disappeared the same day, April 27th…and have never been heard from again.”

“Ryan, you said it was one murder!”

“And therein lays our mystery, because the more you hear details of the case, the more you wonder if these two boys were really the same person.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…I smell a conspiracy!”

“Shane, you smell lunch.”

“And a conspiracy! C’mon, out with details, gimme something, Bergera.”

“Hold your freakin’ horses, dude, lemme go over things…” Jason watched with unconcealed delight as he disassembled his pistol, cleaning each part as Ryan laid out the admittedly sparse facts of the case; of course, Jason knew the truth, but he was frankly somewhat impressed with the story that Bruce and Alfred had concocted. Of course, they couldn’t say the Joker beat him to death with a crowbar and blew up a building on him ( and even Bruce couldn’t have guessed that Talia al Ghul had stolen his corpse from the morgue, gave them an equally beaten dead kid to bury, and dumped his ass in the Lazarus Pit). But the story of Jason being killed as a hit out on the Wayne family was all too likely.

Batman had a lot of enemies.

Bruce Wayne had a lot more.

“No one was ever charged for Jason’s murder…here’s the last video of the press conference where Bruce explains things.”

“…Jesus, he’s barely keeping it together…I know he’s a billionaire, but he’s got a lot of heart…poor guy…”

“Yeah…I know we tend to fuck around on this channel, but…this kid died. Pretty badly, from what the evidence shows.”

“Man…so, you said there were theories, right?”

“Yeah, and they only get worse from here.”

“Well, we started the program with a dead kid; can’t get any worse than that.” Jason paused the video and just…stared at Bruce’s face, the tears on his cheeks, his exhausted appearance…and sighed a little.

“Sorry Dad…”

—-

“Theory number one: Dick Grayson killed Jason Todd out of jealousy. It was rumored that the brothers didn't get along and Dick and his father didn't have a good relationship when Jason came to the household.” Jason’s eyes narrowed at that one; whoever thought up that crock of shit had another thing coming. Sure, he and Dick had bickered like brothers, but at the end of the day, Dick was his brother from another mother. Even now, even with everything that had happened…Jason missed those hugs something fierce.

“I mean, that’s a pretty cut and dry one…”

“So it would seem…but if you look at the interviews, there’s nothing in Dick’s demeanor that shows any resentment or anger. And both Jason and Dick were orphaned at early ages and adopted by Bruce, so…”

“Yeah, I dunno. It’s cut and dry, but…at the same time, it doesn’t really make sense.”

“Especially given that Dick every year celebrates Jason’s birthday; I mean, killers can be weird, we know that from the last several seasons, but…I dunno. It doesn’t really fit.”

“Probably some asshole detective looking to close it up.”

“Probably…”

“On to number two!”

—-

“Bruce Wayne killed Jason Todd. This was, actually, the first big conspiracy theory to hit the web. Thankfully, it quickly died when people saw just how devastated Bruce was for months after his death, but apparently there are still some trolls on public forums who accuse Bruce Wayne of killing his son.”

“…That’s utter bullshit. Fuckers.”

“Right there with ya, buddy. Right there with ya. Onto three?”

“Please.”

—-

“Jason isn't dead, because of sightings of a homeless boy who wandered all around Crime Alley and looked exactly like Jason Todd. He was completely battered and bruised and suddenly disappeared after a year in the streets, likely due to a trafficking ring.” Jason raised an eyebrow at that, and turned his AK, Shane and Ryan’s incredulousness a comfort. He wasn’t sure why he was still watching this, but…it was kinda nice. Nice to have people be pissed off for his sake.

“Jesus Christ, Gotham, y’all are so dark.”

“May be why their superhero is Batman, dude.”

“STILL. Could this one have some merit, though, since he was an orphan?”

“This one is one of the strongest theories to date, because Jason was from a place called the Narrows, not far from Crime Alley, and according to Wayne Enterprises official documentation in their family museum, Jason had had issues with drugs and abuse, though to what extent, only the family knows. It’s a pretty ugly idea, but…it’s possible.”

“I think I’d rather be dead, Ryan, than go through that.”

“Same. Same…”

—

“Now. We move onto the disappearance of the second Robin, who vanished the same day that Jason Todd supposedly died. Possible theories of the disappearance of the second boy wonder—”

“Ryan. Ryan. Buddy. Champ. Are you implying, really, that Jason and Robin are the same kid?!”

“I’m just reading the script!”

“You wrote the script!”

“…I may be implying that they’re the same, yes.”

“I KNEW IT.”

“You don’t know shit.” Jason started laughing, and paused to get himself a fresh beer, ordering pizza while he was at it. Alright, this wasn’t so bad after all…

—

“He is hiding. Some say he hid from Batman, and some say Batman is hiding him from others. They don't know what, though. Some even say he quit the job.”

“Alright, I’ll bite, who’s ‘some’.”

“Paparazzi, conspiracy theorists, Alex Jones, etc…”

“Ah yes. The enlightened crowd.”

“Pftt…This is the weakest one, so we’ll go ahead and lay out the second theory while we’re at it. The second Robin died. After Robin stopped appearing with batman for an entire year, the same time Jason Todd died. This used to be a widely spread theory, until people realized maybe talking about the death of a boy in a terrorist attack for a conspiracy theory after his father broke down in public isn't the nicest thing to do.”

“And this is your theory.”

“This…is the strongest one I think, and the one that has the most emotional punch. But let’s be real; if the second Robin was indeed Jason Todd, then his Batman HAS to be Bruce Wayne. And c’mon. We’ve all seen the nightmare surrounding THAT theory.”

“Uh, yeah. No thanks, I do not ever need to write another “But the butts don’t match” article ever again in my life.” Jason snorted at that, cracking up laughing, and when he googled “The Butts don’t match”, he had to pause his boys because the ensuing hyena laugh had him flat on his back for ten minutes, absolutely losing his shit.

“Oh Christ, I love the internet…”

—-

“Next theory. He’s a kid, he took a break from vigilante-ing to do something else.”

“Now see, I like this one; that’s like, the most wholesome version. I hope this is the real one, but…”

“I know, man. I know.”

“Sigh.”

—-

“Almost there. Some people believe the second and the third Robin are the same, although many people disagree, considering witness reports that they looked very different, and the Robins were very distinctive in their fighting style and personalities.” Jason snorted at that, shoveling a slice of pizza into his gullet, and even the boys were looking a bit annoyed at that theory, Shane more than Ryan.

“Question.”

“Yes?”

“How the hell do they know about fighting styles?!”

“Gotham City Police.”

“Oh. Well, that makes sense now.”

“Also, apparently Commissioner Gordon likes the third Robin more, which tells me they’re definitely not the same.”

“Yeah, if anyone other than Batman would know, he would. What’s next?”

“This one is kinda great, but also a bit outrageous.”

“Ooooh, juicy. Spill the beans, Bergera!”

—-

“Some even believe that the second Robin is now the infamous Red Hood. Gothamites have been known to try to stalk the dude but it's never successful, and supposedly, even the Batfam won’t bother him.”

“I mean, that’s a cool story, but how true is it?”

“Considering the guy wears a red freakin’ helmet with eyeholes and no mouth, who knows how true it is?”

“Still a nicer story than the butts. And hey, Red Hood is pretty chill, man, I think he’s probably the best thing to hit Gotham in years.”

“You’re a Hoodie!”

“The fuck is a ‘Hoodie?”

“Red Hood groupie.”

“Uh, hell no, I just think he’s cool.”

“Uh huh…Well, folks, that ties up our deep dive into the murder of Jason Todd, and the disappearance of the second Robin. To date, this case remains…Unsolved.” As the quiet music that ushered in the ending screen and credits, Jason sat back, working his second slice of pizza, and chuckled a little to himself. If only they knew…well. His people knew who he was; old man Falcone figured it out the second day Jason had been home. The Narrows had welcomed their boy back…And they weren’t gonna tell anyone. They didn’t trust Gothamites, they didn’t trust the Bats…which was why Jason had carved out his place here again, with gunfire and brutal justice. They trusted him.

He turned YouTube over to something mindless, and padded over to the window, feeling the sunshine, weak though it was, break through the clouds and warm his skin. Jason leaned against the familiar brick, and opened the window, letting in a rush of cool air, reminiscent of spring.

It was good to be home.

#deathinthefamily #jason todd #red hood #batman #bruce wayne #selina kyle #damian wayne #dick grayson #barbara gordon #buzzfeed:unsolved #ryan bergera #shane madej #this is feels and crack #why do I write this

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