Tumgik
#jason todd follows his big brother into being a vigilante
deadsetobsessions · 3 months
Text
Alley Drunk! Danny AU- Part 1
[Pt.2] [Pt.3] [Pt.4]
To not turn into a giant raging asshole hell bent on murdering people and destroying the world after everyone he loved died, Danny had ran from Amity with his chosen vice.
A bottle. That’s right. Even after Jazz’s talks about alcoholism as a poor coping mechanism as a form of self harm, he still chose alcohol. Or maybe that’s why he picked it, because it reminded him of her, right before the booze took the sting of grief off of her memory. He was never really all that good at listening to Jazz.
And now she’s gone, so it’s moot point. Danny really hated Nasty Burger.
Danny made it all the way to Gotham, bottle constantly glued to his hand. It’s better than Vlad’s creep-o-self looming over him all of the time. He bummed out on the streets, fitting into crime alley like a native. Danny learned to pickpocket. Not much, just enough for a bottle when his ran out. He stayed human. At first he tried to convince himself that it was because he didn’t want to be perceived as a meta in a city where Batman notoriously disliked metas. Then, as he sunk deeper, he admitted to himself in a shameful curl of a whisper that it was really because alcohol affected his human side much easier.
Ghosts need an ungodly amount of alcohol to even get slightly buzzed. Danny’s human side? Only one full bottle the shittiest tequila he could find could even hope to be more than buzzed. It sucked.
He’s spent two years being an alcoholic that didn’t actually get that drunk. Technically, underage drinking was a crime. But then again, so was being a vigilante ghost. So, whatever. He does what he can to dull the grief. Mostly, he slept on covered and hidden nooks on top of Crime Alley’s roofs. Gotham city had taken pity on him and cleared her smog clouds when he was awake at night. Stargazing helped, at least. It gave him a little hope. It gave him a little wish to change and better and live like he wants. But then the night ends and when the day comes, Jazz isn’t there. Sam isn’t there. Tucker isn’t there. His mom and dad are not there.
Danny always went back to the bottle, in the end. Not that it did much.
Which was why, when he saw three looming figures over a tiny child, Danny’s saving people thing flared with a vengeance and his surprised ectoplasm burned what little buzz he had achieved by downing most of the bottle away, leaving him stone cold sober and pissed.
Danny sighed, dumping the rest of the nasty tasting liquid out. There’s no point drinking that little.
He approached the trio, who were beating up an actual child. Ancients, he hated Crime Alley sometimes.
“Give me your shit, you little punk!” Asshole 1 decided to say like a typical mugger, raising his leg to kick the curled up kid below. Danny doesn’t let him land the kick, smashing the bottle on the asshole’s head before any of them clocked his presence. He pivots, pushing a bit of that extra strength he normally keeps on a tight leash into his hands, and punched the other two in a quick fashion, knocking them out.
With that taken care of, Danny turned back to the kid who was still curled up. Danny sighed again, the trembles in small shoulders plucking on his heartstrings.
“You okay, kid?”
The kid uncurls, and Danny stared. Holy shit, is he looking into a mirror? Blue eyes, black hair, and tanned skin. Holy shit, he’s even got similar jaws to Danny.
“Huh.”
The kid flinched.
“Y-y’er the drunk,” the kid flinched again, eyes darting to the broken bottle still clenched in Danny’s hand. “I- I ain’t got money, honest. Please-”
Danny blinked down at the kid, brain connecting the dots after so long without actual interaction. He’s panicking and staring at the bottle in Danny’s hand like it’ll kill him. Danny raised the bottle and the kid closed his mouth with a click, terror worming its way into the kid’s eyes.
“I wasn’t going to mug you myself, kid.”
“But- y’er the- the Alley drunk.”
Danny blinked. Did he get a reputation without knowing again? Goddammit.
“I guess. Am I famous or somethin’?”
“Nobody- nobody fucks wit’ ya.”
“I also don’t hurt kids.”
“…”
The kid stared at him dubiously and with a sinking feeling, Danny realized that maybe the kid already had some terrible experiences with a heavy drunken hand. He promptly chucks the bottle further into the alley.
“I drink, yes. But I’m also not the kind of scum that would lay hands on a kid, let alone anyone that didn’t provoke it first.”
“Oh.” The kid uncurled more, looking at Danny warily, more at ease now that the bottle has left the chat.
“Yeah. I’m Danny. Stone cold sober, right now.”
“…”
Danny waited.
“Peters.”
“Okay. Peters, do you wanna take their shit?” Danny pointed a thumb at the knocked out would-be-muggers behind him.
“Y… yeah, sure. What’s my cut?”
“All of it.”
Peters stared.
Danny shrugged and started looting.
"Y'er so fuckin' weird."
----
See, the thing is, Danny hadn't anticipated saving Peters- "'s actually Jason"- would result in having a duckling following him around. The kid, Jason, glared at everyone who even looked at them wrong. But that's not the problem, because Danny could take anyone who took issue with Jason's looks, it's more like there's a child following him around now and Danny doesn't want to be the reason Jason turns into an alcoholic. It's- well, it made him cut down on the drinking. He even got jobs- legitimate jobs that sucks out his his poor ectoplasmic soul.
Why? Because Jason's apparently homeless. While that's something Danny's okay with for himself, he can't ever condone that for an actual child. Jason's walking around in threadbare clothes and thin soled shoes in the middle of Fall, for Ancient's sake.
Danny grumbles as he piled a bunch of clothes into the shopping bag as he checked out. Gotham's Walmart is a different kind of hell, but Danny feels right at home.
Sure, the work might suck out his soul and he might hate being sober, but Jason's face every time he comes home to an actual place to live, warm clothes, and food was worth everything.
4K notes · View notes
k2ntoss · 2 months
Note
"“On your knees.” While their fingers thread through your hair, guiding you onto the floor." with Jason? 😳
guess who fell sick FROM A KFC CHICKEN PIECE!!! i'm dying but anyways first one of the nighty-night!!! omg i just love writing this stuff with jay it's just hehehe :3 here we go, my dear anon, thanks for your request. adding vigilante!reader here bc my head has ideas.
"on your knees." while their fingers thread through your hair, guiding you onto the floor.
it was usual for you to steal kisses from jason's lips whenever you walked past him and everyone around had grown used to it, soft pecks followed by a pretty smile as you carried your gear after a mission or when you walked around the training arena. it wasn't weird anymore not even for bruce because he knew that you needed each other.
this time wasn't much different besides the fact that tim and damian were fighting right in front of jason at the time you had to pass by his side, carrying a couple of knives you stood next to him and nudged his side softly, a silent sing for him to lean down so you could reach and kiss him and he did, lips softly touching yours in a sweet motion that made his younger sibblings grunt at the missing attention because they sworn they needed his opinion.
"i bet you have better things in mind to do rather than getting involved on a new discussion with them" you murmur against his lips, a small smirk when you noticed your tease working on him even if it wasn't meant to at first.
"and i bet you've never been told you speak way too much, haven't ya?" jason asks cockily, standing straight once again and looking at you with his arms crossed over his chest and you can't help but chuckle when his eyes linger for a little more on your lips before he looks back at his brothers.
"all i hear is you're in love with me, todd" your words bring a scowl to damian's face and drag a tired sigh from tim, probably a little too over the loverbirds shit you always manage to pull out of jason when you're close. of course he's not always so sweet with you but you've pulled onto his more human side and that had helped jason to feel more worthy of a lot of stuff, because you've been there to teach him that not being perfect wasn't bad.
"i hate it when you're right." he chuckles and shakes his head, leaning in to drap an arm over your shoulders and pressing a kiss to your temple, looking over you and taking in your figure, the way the gray suit hugged your curves before getting lost under the waist of your cargo pants made your body look even more desireable and he just smirked to himself "i wish there was a way to shut your mouth at least for a while."
if you didn't knew him you would have thought he was pissed off by your comments but the undertone of tease and mischief on his words was clear for you and you understood his intentions, even clearer when you noticed jason's eyes wandering around the cave to make sure it was just the two of you there.
"well, maybe there is" you say, as if wondering the answer but jason is quick to grab your hand and pull you upstairs and between chuckles he makes his way to the library as he looked into any other room to make sure there wasn't a chance of being caught like two horny highschoolers, but that was the fun in this all.
"yeah? what would that be?" he asks once he finds a nice spot. that chair he always picks in between all the spaces around the manor because it's comfortable and because it is the first place he kissed you "does it has anything to do with that pretty mouth of yours wrapped around my dick?"
it takes jason almost nothing to change the tone of his voice, he sits on the big chair and pulls you closer by the waist to place you on his lap just so he can capture you lips in a new kiss, this time hungrier and harsher. his hands grip onto your hips as yours claw softly on his chest, kissing him back and letting his tongue intrude into your mouth when he deepens the contact of your lips.
"here? in broad daylight?" you ask him teasingly but jason knows you couldn't care less when your hips push against his making your body grind against his "if we get caught you know we won't hear the end of it, jason." and your boyfriend knows that's true but there isn't too many people to find you both and he is 50% sure he just locked the door but that's just details.
"i don't really care and i'm sure you don't care either" he says in a low tone, looking up at you as his hands trace the outline of your figure until he squeezes your breast playfully and leans in to kiss your jaw, nibbling on the zone as if he was tasting you for the first time ever and he just got adicted to the feeling of your flushed skin.
it takes a few more heated kisses, your hips grinding against him and the sound of your heavy breathing mixed with the noise of your clothes until he pulls away with a predatory smirk as he pushes your body from his.
"on your knees." jason's voice sounds hoarse and it drives shivers down your spine because his hand touches you in a soft way as his fingers threat through your hair as his other hand pushes you by the waist to get you off his lap, the hand that is still on your head is now guiding you slowly to the floor and making you kneel between his legs.
it's not hard to do as he wants and it's even easier to lean in closer and press a playful kiss on the bulge that you can spot under his pants, the action itself makes jason's eyes darken as your fingers work undoing his belt and the buttons of his jeans, pulling down slightly with a hint of urge just to lift his shirt a little, exposing his lower abdomen and kissing a trail until your lips reach the waist of his boxers.
"you look so pretty like that, princess," he practically growls as his hand brushes your hair out of your face, a smirk playing on his lips when your eager hands pull down his underwear as your eyes remain fixed on his.
"i don't know what i'll do if you keep looking at me like that, jay" you purr and he chuckles but the sound stops as soon as it starts when you grab his hardened dick on your hand and give him the first slow stroke as you lean in to wrap your lips around the swollen tip and at the feeling of having him in your mouth you hum.
"i think i know what you'll do" jason teases, letting out a deep groan when you bob your head up and down with your tongue tracing his shaft but what drives him crazy is the way you look at him through doe eyes and the ghost of a smile on your expression as you start moving with him in your mouth.
"that's it, ma," he growls as his eyes close and his head drops back, his hand finding its way to the back of your head where it grabs a handful of your hair "feels so good to have that pretty mouth of yours taking me so damn well, such a good girl."
the sight is amazing, the way he frowns when a deep raspy sound escapes his throat when he starts pushing your head down his dick, making you gag a little when he hits the back of your throat and keeps you held there making it hard to breath, he enjoys it.
the way your hands hold onto his thighs and how you look up at him with teary eyes, your cheeks red and the sloppy sounds his cock makes as he fucks your mouth slowly but harshly makes him feel his ego grow at each helpless moan you let out.
"think i'll shut you up by fucking your throat more often," he says, voice completely low and hoarse now that he controls the movements of your head and sets the pace on his own, getting off with the way you look with your chin full of your drool and his precum, a few tear trails now painting your cheeks.
it's right then when he pulls you away from his dick, stroking himself needily as he looks at you with a wide grin that lets you know what he wants to; you sit on your knees and your eyes follow the movements of his hand around himself and you can't seem to notice when you start to bounce a little in expectation.
"just look at you, how eager you look, ma" he mumbles, his voice struggled between sighs and growls as his hand moves fast when he is about to reach his climax "bouncing like a pretty bunny... open your mouth, love."
the way he speaks and the sinful scene mixed with the sweet pet names he calls you makes everything better. as soon as you part your lips, tongue sticking out jason moves a bit closer and places the tip of his cock over your tongue and a few second later his load is being spilled inside your mouth, a little of it staining your chin when he pulls away panting.
jason is unable to take his gaze away from you as you swallow what you just got and the tension builds up again on his body just with the sight of it, he tries to hold it back and cleans your chin with his thumb in a sweet caress then moving to search for something he could use to clean himself and also you but stops as soon as you take his hand and suck his digit clean.
"what? haven't you been taught not to waste?" you ask him teasingly and his control vanishes completely at your words.
"fucking hell, you're gonna have to come here because there's no way i'll be letting you go right now"
306 notes · View notes
galaxymagitech · 4 months
Text
In Nightwing (1996) there’s a character named Tad Ryerstad who actually bears a startling amount of similarity to Jason Todd; it’s like DC took a crack at the Red Hood arc several years early. And I find it interesting, because I have very different opinions on the two characters but on the surface level, it’s really difficult to spot the difference.
Tad actually has two backstories. The first one given is that he was abandoned as a baby/young child and the kids in a group home named him Tadpole, which is where he got the Tad from. The second backstory is given in a later comic. He was raised in poverty and his father was abusive to his mother and possibly him. (Jason’s father is often portrayed as abusive in fanon). Tad’s father was a criminal. When Tad’s father was killed by a drug lord he betrayed, Tad’s mother was arrested and he was sent to foster care. (Willis Todd was a criminal killed by Two-Face, the guy he worked for. Jason was left orphaned at a young age.) He was possibly abused there and ran away and had difficulty surviving on the streets. (Jason Todd also ran away and was homeless.)
But Tad wasn’t picked up by Batman. Instead, he became a vigilante of a sort on his own. He beat up bad guys and then took their money for himself to survive. He started small, but eventually develops a superhero identity of “Nite-Wing” and starts going after the big fishes of Blüdhaven. He’s angry and hurt by his past. He thinks that superheroes are bleeding hearts and jail in Blüdhaven is a revolving door. So, convinced that they’re irredeemably evil, he kills the criminals he fights, putting him into conflict with Nightwing. Sound familiar?
Now here’s the thing. From Tad’s first appearance I hated him. Because very early on, he gets it wrong. He sees a Black guy following two white children and assumes that he’s a pervert attempting to kidnap them. He attacks and kills the man and leaves, without ever realizing that the guy is the kids’ uncle. That may have been racial profiling, but given Tad’s characterization it honestly may not have been, because he destroys a neonazi group and in a later comic, he sees a white guy waiting in the snow and randomly grills him about what he’s dealing. The guy insists that he’s not selling anything and is just waiting for his brother, but Tad thinks the guy’s trying to trick him. There is literally no reason for Tad to think the guy’s dealing anything just like he had no reason to think the guy with the kids was a pervert, but he kills him. After Tad leaves, the guy’s brother shows up. Now, Tad has a very simplistic mindset and doesn’t seem entirely sane. He assumes the worst of everyone because of his past. Tad genuinely doesn’t know that he’s making mistakes.
But I’m left wondering, is that all that separates him from Red Hood? The fact that Jason hasn’t gotten the wrong person but Tad has? Because their motivations are so similar: anger, a troubled past, hatred for people who do the wrong thing, disillusionment with people propped up as heroes (Batman for Jason and cops for Tad), and a belief that jail isn’t permanent enough. I don’t think one character being good and another character being evil can be separated by a mistake, right? Jason can’t be morally better because he’s smarter.
And yet, I like Jason Todd. Tad is pretty easy to hate; he could easily be an allegory for police violence if Dick wasn’t simultaneously training to become a cop. But I like Jason Todd and I can’t figure out what the huge difference is. Is it just that he’s more correct about identifying criminals? Or that he is snarkier? Or he just seems more interesting so I like him more? I think maybe this is why the Batman writers thought Jason would be hateable, because DC Batman-related comics pulled off “angry vigilante guy who kills criminals because jail isn’t secure and he doesn’t trust authority” as evil before and figured it would be easy to do it again.
I don’t know. Maybe Jason’s motivations are actually different and more complex. Or maybe I should actually hate both of them. I try to constantly question my perception of things and this really got me thinking.
12 notes · View notes
ddesertmoon · 1 year
Text
Batman Fic Recs Feat. Time Travel
My favorite time travel fics with the batfam. I’ll mention if there are any ships :)
-
The View From Jade by lowflyingfruit
“Being transported to the past is not the sort of thing one normally expects. But this having happened, and with no easy way back, Jason's determined to make the most of it. Though the Bat still stalks Gotham's streets, the city's crime is run by the mobs instead of the rogues. There's no Joker yet.
There's no Robin.
Maybe there shouldn't be.”
I love this one! It’s got a lot of interactions between young Dick and Jason and they’re just precious
-
Fairy Godbrother by envysparkler
“What are brothers for?
(Or: some minor dimensional travel, pseudo-kidnapping, and a whole lot of meddling.)”
(I think it’s technically dimensional travel because there are two separate timelines, but one of the dimensions is moving at a different pace so I’m counting it.) Great interactions between the batfam:)
-
The Rule Stands by Engineered
“‘I know what you’re going to say, Batman,’ Damian said, shrugging the hand off his shoulder. ‘You’re going to tell me that Nightwing is dead, and that people don’t come back from the dead. Well, clearly you are wrong, seeing that you were dead and I was dead and Red Hood was dead and even Superman was once dead-’
‘My parents are dead,’ Father interrupted. ‘Nightwing’s parents are dead. There have been a few notable exceptions in extenuating circumstances, Robin, but the rule stands. Everyone can die.’”
Damian and young Dick bond and Damian learns that his big brother wasn’t always the dependable hero he knew him as.
-
A Good Place by LemonadeGarden
“Damian Wayne is kidnapped and sent back years through time. Together, he and Father – who's only been Batman for a mere six months –must figure out how to return him to his own time.
Over the course of the next week, Damian discovers that Mexican gangsters do not mess around, that social workers find Bruce annoying, that Bruce might be a little messed up, and that crystal chandeliers create the fondest memories.
Oh. And Alfred has hair.”
Pre-children Bruce bonds with Damian, who is able to see how much becoming a father changed Bruce.
-
Two Dead Birds by InsaneTrollLogic
“There's some lunatic in a red helmet running through Jason's territory. He wants to think it's a copycat.
He's wrong.”
Jason Todd regretting his past decisions and trying to work with his family? Fuck yeah.
-
show me yesterday, for i can’t find today by indent
“Then: The year is 2013. Jason Todd is alive, fourteen years old, and about to follow Sheila Haywood, his birth mother, into the hands of the Joker. All he wants is to save her life.
Now: The year is 2018. Jason Todd was dead. But now he's a nineteen year old vigilante about to take down the latest C-Lister rogue. Unfortunately for him, its a rogue that specialises in time-travel technology. And what starts as an easy takedown...ends as a time travelling phenomenon.
The two Jasons swap places.”
A reconciliation fic with *jazz hands* time travel!!
-
Take It Back Now Y’all by TimTheToaster (tabletoptime)
“There was absolutely no way this sunshine was from Gotham in April.
Not possible.
Which meant, Tim was no longer in Gotham, in April.
(In which Tim finds himself in the past, and tries to do the right thing. It's more complicated than he'd like.)”
Incomplete
Tim goes back to Dick’s Robin days and fixes shit
-
What Would You Do (To Save a Life) by 12pt_timesnewromanfont
“Here lies Timothy Drake
He lived so others wouldn’t die.
He died so others would live.
Damian scowls at the smooth stone, at the carefully etched epitaph.
He can’t help the fury building inside, rising up and clawing at his insides.”
Major TW for suicide
Tim’s evil future self comes back in time. Really well written.
-
Displaced by CamsthiSky
"Bruce’s vision wavers, and only once he steadies himself does he look up to find—Dick. But not Dick. Because Dick is eleven years old, and this man is clearly only a few years younger than Bruce himself is. If that. But no. Bruce would know those bright blue eyes anywhere. This is Dick. This is his son."
Bruce, who recently adopted Dick Grayson, is switched w his older self… younger Bruce meeting all of his kids again does special things to my sad little heart
-
Mint Chocolate Chip by LemonadeGarden
“Summer vacations have been going on just long enough for Jason to start getting bored, when he gets an unexpected visitor.
From the future.”
The amount of fluff in here… insane. I love it
-
Days of Future Past by Speechless_since_1998
“‘Why are you doing this?’
Red Robin looked at him from above the Riddler, ‘What?’
‘Help us. You don't want to be here. We could help you get back to your time.’
‘No. I have to be here. One week to go.’
‘A week for what?’ he asked, in frustration.
‘You told us you're here to avoid the worst moment in Batman's life, the one that will almost drive him crazy and shit like that. You didn't tell us what it will be, though.’
‘You don't need to know.’
Jason snorted, ‘Don't need to know? We're talking about what will turn Batman from a semi-decent parenting figure into a total bastard. Of course, it is necessary.’
‘For your good, you better not know.’"
Kind of angsty, but really good. Tim goes back to save Jason.
137 notes · View notes
stxleslyds · 3 years
Note
Also, the writers' failure to understand, every crime Jason committed had a motive. Attack other criminals? Holy warrior destined to purify the world of evil. Attack Bruce? Joker's still alive. (Oh, Jason, it's much worse than that.) Attack Tim? A parody of what he once was. He wasn't just a "bad boy". He was dangerously insane.
Hi, Anon! Yup, there seems to be a lot of things that writers have gotten confused about Jason Todd/Red Hood and the biggest one is his motivations to kill certain criminals.
Let’s be honest, Judd Winick set a golden path for the upcoming Red Hood writers. But each and every writer that used Red Hood in their stories completely missed the point of Jason’s character. All of them. It’s so incredibly wild to me that every other writer read UtRH and came up with whichever version of Jason they came up with.
Let’s list the writers that completely missed the point.
Geoff Johns in Teen Titans vol.3 #29.
Geoff Johns was one of the first to completely mischaracterize Jason, why on earth would Jason go to the Titans Tower to beat up Tim? This is not me saying that Jason would never do that because Jason thinks of Tim as his brother or a friend or the person that he can trust the most from the Bat-Clan (can you believe Lobdell tried to sell us that one?), this is me saying that Jason wouldn’t have done that because he couldn’t have given less of a fuck about Tim’s existence.
When Jason found out that Bruce had another Robin he wasn’t bothered by his “replacement” he was mad at Bruce for having another child playing hero after he lost his life as a fifteen-year-old. Jason didn’t even think of Tim as his replacement as fandom likes to make us believe, Jason called Tim “pretender”. And that was that, but to go from minimal recognition to go out of his way to beat him up at Titans Tower is a massive mischaracterization.
Paul Dini in Countdown (to Final Crisis).
Paul Dini in Countdown did absolutely nothing with Jason, I am sorry but that’s all he did. Him writing Jason was like watching a dog trying to catch their own tail. He started with a pretty basic take on UtRH Jason, then he added a bit of Jason being an annoying man with Donna, then we had the jealousy arc because apparently, Jason had the hots for Donna but she didn’t want anything to do with him and he was all angsty when she paid attention to Kyle instead of him, and then, later on, he had that whole Red Robin bullshit (I am sorry about this, but I absolutely hated that, it was so dumb, I am so glad it didn’t last long because it was just too bad), and after all that mix of just not interesting stuff he went right back to the Jason that he had at the very start. It was a waste of time, but I guess that he had to be there because he was an anomaly and all that. I just think that was DC’s first try at making Jason Todd/Red Hood something more than just a street-level vigilante and they failed miserably.
Tony S. Daniel in Batman: Battle for the Cowl.
Even though the first two did make mistakes with Jason’s characterizations, this man was the first to just throw UtRH out of the window and make up his very own version of Jason Todd. And his version was horrendous, that Jason had no problem with attempting to kill children and innocent people, he also really wanted to be Batman because Gotham needed a Batman and he wanted to be the person to wear the Cowl and he was looking for a Robin for himself.
I know, the whole concept is the perfect opposite of what Jason Todd and Red Hood were in UtRH. Every aspect of BftC Jason is based on nothing.
Jason wanting to be Batman because Gotham needed Batman is just the beginning of what’s wrong in this book. Jason became the Red Hood (in part) because he believed that Batman and his ways weren’t what Gotham needed so he made a better version of Batman with Red Hood (according to him) because Red Hood did what Batman refused to do. Another thing that is just wrong is Jason wanting, Damian, Tim or Dick to be his Robin, there is just so much wrong with this, first of all, Jason wanted Batman to stop having Robin because child soldiers ran the risk of dying at a very young age and that’s exactly how he saw the whole thing because that was what had happened to him. Second, if Jason was mad at Bruce for getting another Robin why would he now want one of his own to team up with his Batman? Damian was a child, Tim was someone that apparently Jason hated (because Jason beating Tim was mentioned in this event), and then Jason actually asked Dick Grayson, Nightwing, to be his Robin? Listen, there is no way that was Jason, nothing about him makes sense, even taking into account that Jason had beaten Tim already in this event Jason actually tried to kill both Tim and Damian (it might have been just one of them but yeah, it still doesn’t make sense).
I just don’t think that Tony S. Daniel knew who Jason Todd was, maybe he got confused but the thing is, his “villainous” and deranged version of Jason Todd allowed a villainous and deranged version of Red Hood to happen with the next writer that I will be talking about.
Grant Morrison in Batman and Robin vol.1 #3-6.
This was the birth of the villainous, deranged and bloodthirsty Red Hood. There is absolutely no trace of UtRH Jason here, not even if we are looking at the opposite of things like we could do with Daniel’s Jason. Grant Morrison wanted Dick and Damian to have a villain to match their Batman and Robin and they decided to give us a red-haired-pill-headed-red hood. Everything from Morrison’s characterization of Jason is crazy, from the red hair (hello pre-crisis) to the awful Joker’s Red Hood looking suit, everything was just weird.
I still don’t believe that was Jason, to be honest, I would rather think that version of Jason was actually a rouge Skrull that came all the way from the Marvel Universe and lost his way in Gotham City. Maybe when he made the jump between universes, he got too much information and got confused and took the form of the wonkiest Jason Todd he could come up with.
This Jason was absolutely deranged, he knew exactly what he was doing and he didn’t care if innocents died. This Jason was the one that got locked up in Arkham. This is the Jason that Dick put in Arkham for Jason and everybody else’s safety.
Dick putting that Jason in Arkham wasn’t a bad thing or something that anyone can use to shit on Dick Grayson (not on this house). This Arkham was reformed and that Jason knew that if he stayed in that new Arkham he would stay away from trouble, but here is the thing, that Jason loved trouble, so he took all the tests to prove he wasn’t insane and asked to be transferred to Blackgate (where all the Red Hood’s enemies were). That Jason didn’t ask to be sent to Blackgate because the Joker was a cell away from his in Arkham, he did it so he could go on a killing spree in Blackgate (which he did when he got there).
Skrull Jason was just bloodthirsty and nothing like UtRH Jason, he had no motive other than just killing for fun or whatever. He didn’t want to protect Gotham and he couldn’t have cared less about the drug trade in Gotham. In Batman and Robin vol.1. Jason Todd was unrecognizable. And luckily, we never saw him again.
Scott Lobdell in Everything that he ever wrote about Red Hood.
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Lobdell was the king of overpowering Jason, he was the one that drove Red Hood farther and farther away from his street-level vigilante status. He continuously added more to him, he was a big deal because he was meant to take down Ra’s al Ghul, he was a big deal because he was the only human to train in the All-Castle and learned to summon the All-Blades.
This Red Hood’s morals and ideals were kind of gone, there just wasn’t any kind of interest in Jason to get rid of drugs or try to control its trade in Gotham, he just had no interest in street-level threats, everything was extraordinary in both New 52 and Rebirth. If he wasn’t in space he was in some mystical land. His friends and allies became even more and more powerful, his level of power was completely off compared to the others. His personality was ever-changing and quite honestly you could barely see the Jason that he once was.
This Jason also was very inconsistent in the way that he felt towards people (obviously because Lobdell is a shitty writer), he wanted to follow Batman’s rules and was shown as someone that still had fond memories of his life with Bruce before he died but was also willing to let those memories go, to move on? Maybe? I don’t know. But he changed his mind about Bruce and following his rules or not for a very long time. Jason was also a little bitch about Dick, and he was a little bitch because he (Lobdell) never gave the reader or anyone a concrete reason as to why he hated him so much and then in Rebirth he decided that Dick wasn’t that bad. Also, Jason went from “Willis Todd, abusive husband and father that deserved to die” to “Willis Todd abusive husband and father but he sent me letters when he was in prison and Penguin had him killed so now, I really want to avenge him”. Yeah, I don’t really know why that happened and like most of Lobdell’s arcs and stuff it was never really completed or well thought out.
Lobdell’s Jason characterization was a mess for ten years and that’s the prime reason why Jason is a character with no solid background, story or future.
James Tynion IV in Red Hood and the Outlaws.
Tynion’s Jason Todd was a hero, he was like a mini Tom King Batman. Everything he did was right and there was just no way that you could bamboozle him. This Jason was able to hold to Blades that drained his soul as well as hosting the Untitled in his body (that were able to drain his soul too) and on top of all that he completed his journey of the Chosen One by making those ancient martial arts moves that he learned before he was Robin even though Talia hadn’t been able to master it yet.
Scott Snyder, Tim Seeley in Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin Eternal.
A mess, this was pure New 52 levels of bullshit and they all just wanted to push the “Batfamily” and while Dick was gone, they were trying to make Jason fill the void that Dick left in Batman events. It didn’t work at all and all they did was mess around with Jason’s characterization more.
Geoff Johns in Three Jokers.
I have talked enough about Johns’ takes on Jason Todd and Red Hood, but let me tell you something real quick, if a writer thinks that the best they can do with a character is make them give up their morals/ideals for an unrequited love interest, then they can keep that idea for themselves. Geoff Johns wrote a book that was absolutely not needed and then proceeded to butcher every characterization that he could, Three Jokers was three issues long and he managed to add more trauma to Jason’s torture, push the narrative of Jason being at fault for his own murder and make Jason’s motivations to be the Red Hood weak enough to make him want to give up his work for a woman that he barely knows (and doesn’t like him at all).
Joshua Williamson in Future State: Red Hood and Robin #5.
Now, with Williamson I have issues only when he writes Jason, not because his stories are bad, don’t get me wrong, I would have completely enjoyed FS: Red Hood if it weren’t for the completely unnecessary Rose/Jason side plot he had going on. Jason was clearly working undercover for some people that he hated working with. He had to arrest or kill “masks” (vigilantes, just like he “used” to be) for the Magistrate.
His ideas were pretty solid, Jason did the job but he never killed the masks and actively didn’t trust the Magistrate but he was working there to tear them apart from within, and that’s amazing if Williamson had given us Jason Todd/Red Hood working undercover to dismantle an organization I would have been really happy.
But that’s not all he gave us, even if I just forget about his failed attempt at giving Jason a relationship, I can still see that Williamson is the kind of writer that wants (or is just following DC) to make the “Batfamily” happen no matter how dumb and out of place it looks in comics’ canon. So, I am a little bit weary, any writer that leans too much towards making Jason and Bruce work together and become a family makes me want to scream, but I do understand that is just me, many people want those two to be buddy-buddy, I, personally, would love to see Jason kick Bruce in the balls and tell him to lose his number.
Chip Zdarsky in Urban Legends: Cheer.
Ah, yes, I remember the days in which I thought that this could have been something good. Well, I was utterly wrong and I suffered all the way through this mini. I feel like now I can safely say that Zdarsky only wanted to write a Batman book but DC told him, “Hey you can write Batman but it has to be within a Red Hood story, but don’t worry, you don’t have to know much about the Hood guy, just come up with something and write Batman around that”.
I know that’s what happened because I read that story and all we got from it was horrible characterizations for pre-Robin Jason, Robin Jason, Jason Todd and Red Hood. I don’t know how he did it but yes, he managed to mess it all up.
From Jason not really wanting to be Robin and acting recklessly every step of the way, to secret desires of a perfect family with Bruce and so many other people that he couldn’t care about, Urban Legends: Cheer is the perfect book to avoid at all costs if you believe that the concept of “Batfamily” is the biggest lie, DC is trying to profit off this time around.
Zdarsky also nerfed Jason in ways that I thought DC only wanted to nerf Dick Grayson. But I was able to see that I was wrong. Zdarsky’s run also pushed some of the most disastrous narratives that DC really wants readers to believe like: Robin Jason wasn’t good at his job, he was too reckless and ultimately his death was his own fault. Yay! I want to cry!
I will give Zdarsky two points for at the very least showing that Red Hood wants to protect children and that he has a huge issue with how the drug trade is controlled and abused in Gotham City, it had been a while since we had seen that aspect of Jason’s Red Hood make an appearance.
-
It’s just too many writers completely missing the point of Red Hood’s character or simply writers agreeing to destroy Jason’s uniqueness in the DC Universe so DC (as the publisher) can further push the abomination that is the “Batfamily” in comics’ canon.
I do agree with you Anon when you say that Jason isn’t just a “bad boy” but I also don’t think that we can call UtRH Jason “dangerously insane”. Personally, I will only use that last description for BftC and Batman and Robin Jason, those two were dangerously insane indeed.
UtRH Jason was very meticulous in who he wanted dead and who got to live. He entered Gotham’s most dangerous world and he had to make a big entrance, he invited the eight most prosperous street dealers to a meeting, showed up with the decapitated heads of each of their right-hand men and an AK-47 and said:
“I am offering you a deal. I will be running the drug trade from now on. You will go about your business as usual. You will kick up forty percent to me. That is a much better deal than the Black Mask will give you. In return, you will have total protection from both the Black Mask and Batman. The catch? You stay away from kids and schoolyards. No dealing to children, got it? If you do, you’re dead.”
This was Red Hood! Red Hood wanted to control the drug trade in Gotham because he knew that Gotham is far too corrupt and filled with drug lords for him to just want to eradicate drugs from Gotham. If he had tried that he would have been a dumbass, but he wasn’t. He didn’t want to start a gang war and get innocent people killed because of it, he wanted to set the rules of his new Empire and he had to start with the street-level drug dealers, from there he grew until he became a major pain in Black Mask’s ass.
We went from Jason wanting to control the drug trade and take over Gotham’s underworld so people like Black mask couldn’t have people work for him (or being dependent on him) when they were still in high school or were in a vulnerable position, to Jason fighting a war for a mystic land because he was their “Chosen One”. DC really wanted to do something grand (yet boring) with Jason instead of sticking to a street-level vigilante that could have become a Drug Lord to control the drug trade of a city that is so filled with crime and corruption that it can’t be saved by anyone.
Batman doesn’t eradicate crime, he “controls” it, puts a blank it over it, lets it nap up until it wakes up once more to make more mess.
Red Hood had other plans, certain criminals didn’t get to nap, or, better said, they would get to nap forever.
So, no. I wouldn’t call that “dangerously insane”, I will call that “vigilante that believes himself judge, jury and executioner” of a city that is drowning in crime and corruption.
Anyway, I hope you have a really nice week Anon and thank you so much for sending me this ask!
150 notes · View notes
Text
batkids and their relationships with their siblings headcanons. under read more because this got fucking LONGGG
dick
dick is the eldest so he doesnt want to bog down his younger siblings with his problems, but if he DOES, he tends to talk to jason about it
dick and cass start to really begin to bond when Cass shows up to dicks gymnastics class for 3rd-6th graders and then cass shows up all the sixth graders and they get frozen yogurt after lmao
dick and tim are Very much thick as thieves. tim is very much like bruce on the Emotional Suppression scale, so dick just really wants to make sure his little brother is safe and happy ALL the time
Duke and Damian are the only two really permanently at the manor anymore, so when dick drops by he tries to do something with both of them. duke frantically zoom calls dick every other week to help him with his his trig homework. dick shows up to dukes high school graduation with literally the BIGGEST SIGN
everyone insists damian is dicks favorite but he does actually genuinely love all his siblings equally, his relationship with damian is just Very different from the others because of the age gap and being dami's primary caretaker for a year. dick babies dami every chance he gets
jason
would sell Dick to satan for One corn chip
him and cass don't have the greatest start to their relationship because cass is very much Against Killing so it takes a while for jason to warm up to her and earn her trust. now, though, jason is competing with steph by showing cass all the classic American Teenager things she missed out on. steph is currently winning but jason is like 98% positive a crunch wrap from taco bell is going to push him over the edge
tim and jason are currently competing over who can solve the most cases in a month. tim is winning. that won't last long.
jason Loves to Big Brother duke its so embarrassing. duke will get out of school and go to his car and jason is SITTING IN THE FRONT SEAT FRANTICALLY WAVING TO GET DUKES ATTENTION. JASON THAT IS MY CAR. signal has one (1) mission with arsenal and arsenal goes hey did you ask that girl to homecoming yet and duke is like I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU.
Damian is proof that Actually, Little Brothers are Pests. Jason fully believes that he was brought back from the dead PURELY to torment damian and he will fulfill this mission at any cost
cassandra
it actually really upset her when Dick didn't accept her at first. she knows her other siblings really adore dick so his lack of trust was really disheartening. it takes dick a while but once he Actually Accepts that cass is going to be a permanent part of their life and oh, wow, dick you really hurt her feelings he really hyperfocuses on bonding with cass for a couple of months which definitely improves their relationship
she really likes jason!! their relationship doesn't start well but because he's close with steph and tim who are cass's top two favorite people to exist ever, cass is like well i GUESS ill hang out with him more. jason is fun to talk to because he always tries his best to explain jokes and give context to what people are talking about (also tim took her to taco bell already but she didn't tell jason she just wanted to hang out)
cass LOVES tim. they just click okay. tim always seems to know when to give her space and when to push and come closer. Tim's "guest room" is just her room lets be real. tim and cass occasionally get mistaken for twins and Cass Loves it.
duke makes cass listen to metal once and cass loses. her. damn. mind. they bond over music a lot because they both Love Music to a degree the others in their family don't.
damian!! damian is her little brother!!! dami isn't As Hostile to cass at first because he is 100% aware cass has the edge in fighting and respects her. cass likes all of his instagram posts and they have a snapchat streak going
tim
tim Loves dick, dick was his first sibling!! he had Very strong hero worship when he first met dick but it mellowed out when tim got older because wow 17 is really not that cool and mature lol. tim has an open invitation to dick's apartment which he does occasionally take advantage of. tim has more than once scared the shit out of wally when wally comes over and wally is convinced they're being robbed (HA) for half a second. i mean. he's not wrong.
listen. tim understands that forgiving the guy who tried to kill you would be a Struggle for some people and it was! definitely! but also at least he can trust jason to, uh, be open about if he doesn't like tim. which is not an assurance he has with other people. so if the guy who tried to kill him tells him tim is cool now then like. maybe tim isn't that bad or annoying a person? also jason arrested a whole gang and won the cases competition but then it created a power vacuum that the whole batfam had to clean up the rest of the month. thanks, jason.
tim LOVES cass. you know how most of the time theres this empty feeling inside you and you just kind of ignore it because you don't know what will fix it or if you do, you know you can't fix it? cass makes that empty feeling feel a little less empty. they just click. tim always tries to travel with cass whenever she leaves gotham.
tim and duke. Tim is actually the sibling who duke goes to whenever he has questions he doesn't want to ask bruce or alfred about, like, life or vigilante-ing or school or college or whatever and Tim is always like yes!! i love Giving Advice and Solving Problems!! tim and duke and jason fill out their college applications together.
tim and damian. LMAO. ROUGH START THAT'S ALL ILL SAY. at some point alfred goes like fuck it. family therapy. and tim and dami are PISSED. tim and damian get along best when they have a common enemy to work against. their relationship gets much better when damian is older and they actually talk about their feelings like emotionally stunted bats. despite how bad their relationship was, tim will ALWAYS protect damian
duke
very much intimidated by dick at first. dick is so much older and has his own job and friends and life and is very much AN ADULT. dick likes to take duke out to do lots of cool stuff (paintball, lasertag, tech exhibitions, concerts, etc). also, dick PERSONALLY introduced duke to superman and is dating THE FLASH. 10/10 awesome big brother.
was intimidated by jason for 0.5 seconds before jason actually opened his mouth and started speaking. jason is literally. So Embarrassing. which is weird because nobody else really seems to feel that way about jason but duke knows he's 100% in the right here. like yeah jason is also An Adult and does Adult Stuff but he's also at the manor like every other weekend???? and he always complains about bruce but always seems to be in the same room bruce is in????? like okay jason. they bond over literature!! jason and duke and alfred will spend literal hours talking about books and duke loves it. duke is the only one who doesn't think jason is funny and jason gets so upset about it lmao.
cass has this one week where she gets really into photography and by virtue of being nearby (and also not nocturnal), duke becomes her victim subject. duke prints out all the pictures and hangs them up in his room (his favorite is one he took when he stole the camera and took a really bad selfie of them together).
tim is closest in age to duke so duke tends to hang around with him a lot. tim introduced duke to his young justice friends and duke is like yes!!! meta-friends!!!! tim really helps duke out with his powers because tim is always like wow i wonder if your powers would work if we did This? can you see farther than other people? is your visible spectrum of light different than other humans? Bruce does the same thing but bruce is boring about it lol.
damian and duke live in the same house and will be in the same room and just send each other social media posts back and forth. they follow each other on instagram and will, OCCASIONALLY, make tik toks together because they're tik tok fiends. each of his siblings have visited his parents once or twice but damian routinely comes with him.
damian
damian gets a special bullet point to say that it took him. forever to come around to the idea of having siblings. he very much believed that he was Bruce's Blood Son and everyone else were just tagalongs or allies. it took him ages to acknowledge that dick, jason, tim, and cass were his siblings, so when duke came and like a week later damian was like Ah, Yes, this is my brother Thomas everyone else was like dude wtf
listen. LISTEN. Obviously. Richard is very highly skilled. and also Father values him highly. and also Richard will listen to Damian complain about his schoolmates. and also Richard is much more patient with Damian than other members of his family. listen....,,, (all this to say damian kind of fucking adores dick lmaooooo this kid).
Todd is kind of unbearable but damian has been informed this is both a normal feeling when it comes to Todd and also big brothers. damian was an only child for ten years so yes, Father, if Todd attempts to tickle me I WILL break his fucking nose. yes i WILL put money in the swear jar but I want you to know i don't regret it. they always try to sneak up on each other but mostly fail.
DRAKE!!! but no lol once damian grows up and is like I Apologize for attempting to murder you it was wrong and you are just as much a son to Father as I am tim is like UGH i guess its cool since ur being so emotionally mature and all. also im 2 for 5 on siblings trying to murder me so im definitely going to win trauma bingo and damian is like i take it back you are insufferable. When Will My Older Siblings Stop Joking About Their Trauma.
CASS!!! listen. cass is cool. Cass Gets It. They have a special Bond. also damian really likes it whenever cass is home because 1) he gets to hang out and do something cool with cass and 2) he feels significantly safer with cass in the house because Nobody will be able to hurt any of their family if Cass is there. ALSO he tries to call her cain but everyone is like DONT DO THAT and he doesn't want to call her wayne bcus theyre ALL wayne (dick adds it on as a middle name but also Richard John Wayne West-Grayson is just. the lamest name ever so dick needs to reconsider it before his upcoming nuptials)((dick will not reconsider it except maybe whether grayson-west would work better)) and so he tries cassandra but cass is like :) call me cass and damian is like cassandra is more formal and respectful and cass is like :) and finally damian just has to give in.
Duke! him and duke actually live together so they get the Most Bonding Time and have a bunch of inside jokes as a result. (is it bad i wanted to laugh because inside jokes... joker... i'll see myself out). they're eating breakfast together (and also alfred sits with them IM NOT A MONSTER ALFIE'S LIKE 70 NOW OKAY) and duke laughs and bruce is like what are you laughing at, son? and duke is like oh damian just showed me this funny meme and then he shows the phone to bruce and bruce grabs it (both the boys groan) and after WAY TOO LONG is like "i don't get it" and so now duke and damian have to try and explain the comedic intricacy of bob's burgers
451 notes · View notes
ragingbookdragon · 3 years
Text
Tonight You're Gonna Go Down In Flames, Just Like Jesse James
A Jason Todd x Reader Story
Word Count: 7.9K Warnings: Explicit Language, Angst, Mentions of Blood and Violence
Author's Note: This is the series I did a week or so ago. I figured I'd combine it into one big document so no one had to go searching for all the parts. Enjoy! -Thorne
**********************************************************************
It was a horrible idea in the first place and yet, of all the bad decisions she’d made in her entire life, this one apparently was going to take first place. Of course, part of her told her to just chuck her feelings into the back of her mind and leave them there, but the longer she spent around him, the stronger they got. And regardless of how terrible her love life was—and to be completely honest, it was horrible—she was going to admit her feelings and accept whatever outcome came. What’s the worst he could say? No? No, she didn’t think he’d say that. He flirted with her all the time, called her doll, and complimented her on her reading habits—no one had ever done that.
***
She shifted the red roses into the crook of her elbow, free hand nervously smoothing down her pink sundress, discomfort running up and down her spine as she waited on the front porch of the imposing manor. She’d gone to his apartment earlier but after he hadn’t answered, she remembered that he’d once mentioned the manor as a secondary hangout, prompting her to go there after.
Inhaling sharply, she quickly took the flowers back into her hand when the door opened, and she smiled widely at the older man who stood before her. “Hello, you must be Mister Pennyworth.” she greeted warmly. “I’m (Y/N) (L/N), a friend of Jason’s. Is he here?” she raised the flowers and the gift box in her hand. “I’ve got something for him.”
The man smiled and stepped aside, letting her in. “Of course, Miss (Y/N), please allow me to fetch Master Jason.”
“Oh, you don’t have to call me—and he’s already gone,” she whispered. “Wow, he moves fast for an old man.” Her eyes drifted to the portrait above the hall table and she smiled at the faces of him and his brothers. They looked rather regal for the humorous stories he told her all the time. Footsteps drew her attention away and she turned, smiling at Jason as he walked towards her. He wore a surprised smile, but it was a smile, nonetheless.
“(Y/N)? What are you doing here?” he asked and when she opened her mouth all she managed was a dumb, ‘uh…’ then she shoved the flowers in his face.
“These are for you.” She replied, face heating up as his fingers brushed hers when he took them.
Jason brought the bouquet of roses to his nose and inhaled. “Wow, they’re beautiful, (Y/N).” He gave her that smile that had her stomach fluttering. “Thank you.”
She nodded and held the gift box up too, no longer than about nine inches and about eight wide. “This is for you too.”
“Thank you,” he said, tucking the flowers into his elbow while he unwound the twine rope and opened the box top. He shifted away the tissue paper and pulled out a small book, about the size of his hand and his eyes went wide. “Is this—”
(Y/N) nodded. “Yeah! You mentioned that you wanted a pocket booklet of Emily Dickinson’s poems…so I went scrounging some old bookstores and found one.” She smiled bashfully. “For you.”
He huffed a laugh of disbelief and pulled her in for a quick hug. She tried not to pass out in his arms as he breathed in her ear, “Thank you, (Y/N). Really, thank you, so much.”
“It was no big deal,” she brushed off, pulling away from him and he shook his head.
“Well, it is to me,” he retorted with a grin, then gestured to her. “But I don’t understand, what brought this on?” he nudged her in the side humorously quipping, “I didn’t forget a gift exchange, did I?”
(Y/N) laughed. “No, no you didn’t, it’s just…” she trailed off, falling quiet.
“It’s just…” he repeated, tone and eyes ever curious, and she swallowed thickly.
It’s now or never, (Y/N). Just tell him how you feel.
She motioned to the book. “Well…they say it’s easier to relay feelings when you give gifts.” Smiling, she confessed, “Jason, I…have feelings for you. Really, really strong feelings.” He went slack jawed, and though she felt a pang of embarrassment, she kept speaking. “And I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go out on a date with me tonight? There’s this really nice café uptown that has good soups…or maybe we could go to a bar and get a beer together?”
Clearing her throat, she added, with a flustered smile, “Whatever you wanna do of course. I’d be happy as long as you’re with me.”
He was silent. Jason was completely silent, and she wasn’t sure what was worse, his silence or the shock etched across his face, but she kept hoping for the best. That was until he said her name. And the tone he used…she knew instantly what was coming and all she wanted to do was shove her hand against his mouth and tell him to forget she ever said anything.
“(Y/N)…” he started sympathetically, recovering rather slowly. “I’m flattered,” he admitted, raising the flowers and book in his hands. “For the gifts, really I am…but…” Jason shook his head and gave her a pitied smile. “But I don’t feel the same way that you do…and I am sorry.”
For a moment she couldn’t remember how to breathe, simply gazing at the man she’d been friends with for the past seven months and trying to figure out how she interpreted every moment so horribly wrong. All the kind words and hugs. All the smiles and laughter. All of it.
“(Y/N)?” Jason worried. “Are you alright?”
She blinked, suddenly feeling a flush of coldness ebbing out through her stomach and down her limbs; she nodded, pursing her lips. “Yeah—I’m okay.” (Y/N) cleared her throat and pointed back towards the door. “I’m…I’m gonna go…”
She hadn’t even gotten a foot away when he caught the sleeve of her pink sweater and stopped her. “(Y/N), I’m really sorry. I don’t mean to hurt you like this.”
Sucking up all the embarrassment and heartbreak back in, she turned and let out a ‘pfft’, waving her hand as she lied, “What? No! I totally get it, Jason. Absolutely.”
He seemed unconvinced and she hated how he always knew something was off about her at every moment. “Are you sure?”
(Y/N) couldn’t fight the wobble in her lip as she nodded. “Mhm. Completely.” She tugged out of his grasp. “But I totally remembered that I have a thing to do. A very important thing not here.” She gestured to the door. “So I should go. Like now.”
This time, she didn’t wait when he called out to her and she yanked open the door and closed it behind her as fast as she could, hurrying down the steps to her car.
She climbed in, immediately gripped the steering wheel and pressed her forehead to the top of it, eyes starting to water as she tried to get her breathing under control. Her fingers fumbled with the keys and after the fourth missing of the ignition, she burst into tears and dropped her keys. Her lips wobbled and her sight was blinded as she reached for her keys in the floorboard and when she got them, she shoved them into the slot and twisted, barely hearing the engine roaring to life.
Wiping a hand across her face, she could’ve cared less about the makeup smearing across her skin and she put the car into drive, hoping that with every foot of distance she put between her car and the manor, she could leave a broken heart behind.
Because what was the worst thing he could’ve said?
No?
That was exactly it.
***Part Two***
Of all the bad decisions she’d ever made, this was probably the worst, and all she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and ride out every emotion that was coming onto her like a maelstrom. Every bad date, every failed notion of love just kept washing over her, but this one seemed like the nail in the coffin. She drove aimlessly for hours before she realized it was seven o’clock; a quick stop at her apartment and she fed her cat, also wiping the makeup and tear tracks off her skin before she wandered on foot with the direction of anywhere and nowhere.
***
Collapsing onto one of the benches that sat at the pier of Gotham Bay, she sighed heavily and gazed out at the water. It was calm compared to the storm inside and she propped her elbow on the railing, fist against her cheek, sighing again.
There was no way she could go to work and act like everything was okay. Kelly-Anne was going to drill her all about her “date” and she didn’t even go on one. She groaned. I never should’ve told her that I was going to ask Jason out. That’s going to be more embarrassing than being rejected by him. Another groan escaped her and she bent forward, burying her face in the floral dress pattern. I even wore a stupid dress and heels. Going slack, she let her feelings wash over her.
Something grabbed her shoulder. “Hey.”
“AHHHHH!” She yanked away, shooting up to see one of the masked vigilantes of Gotham city before her.
“Woah, woah!” they calmed, hands outstretched non-threateningly. “I’m not gonna hurt you!”
She pressed a hand to her chest and let out a sigh of relief, reclining on the bench as she heaved, “Oh my God, I thought—I don’t know what I thought you were.” A flighty laugh passed her lips. “You scared the hell out of me, Nightwing.”
He smiled and laughed. “Sorry. I saw you over here and thought I was going to find a new reason to call GCPD.”
“No, no,” she affirmed. “Just…dealing with things.”
Taking a seat beside her, he crossed his ankles and leaned back on the bench. “By groaning beside Gotham Bay at nine o’clock?”
She shot him a heat-less glare. “It was that or drown myself in cheap wine and Lewis Capaldi.”
He seemed to know what she was talking about, surmising, “Heartache?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” she muttered, lolling her head back on the bench, trying to ignore his steady gaze.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“(Y/N). (Y/N) (L/N).” She grinned. “What’s yours?”
Nightwing chuckled. “Afraid I can’t give that out or I’ll be in with the Big-Bat.” She giggled and he followed with, “Do you wanna talk about it?”
(Y/N) pursed her lips and shook her head. “Nah…you’ve got better things to do than help a girl nurse a broken heart.”
“Sometimes the better thing to do is talk with someone.” When she met his eyes, he smiled wholeheartedly. “Try me. I’m a good listener.”
Something ached in her chest and after a moment of staring at him, she swallowed thickly and sighed. “There’s this guy I’ve been friends with for a few months now. And he’s really kind and intelligent and super good looking and I—” she shrugged. “I fell in love with him. I mean, it was hard not too with how amazing of a man he is.”
Nightwing nodded. “What’s his name?”
“Jason Todd,” she said, and she couldn’t help the smile that came across her lips. “One of the first times we were hanging out, I told him that his first name meant healer in Greek…but he didn’t seem too keen on that definition.”
“How come?” he inquired, and she shrugged again.
“I don’t really know…Jason’s never been all that open about his past.” (Y/N) looked at him. “I think some bad things happened to him when he was younger and he just…doesn’t let people in easily.” She managed a smile. “I feel like all the times he did tell me about his life, it made me feel special, you know? Knowing he trusted me enough to tell me.”
“You really seem to love him,” Nightwing noted and she couldn’t help the tears that gathered in her eyes.
“I do…Jason’s the first guy that’s ever seen me for me.” (Y/N) pursed her lips. “I’m weird. I work in a library and books are my life and I can talk your ear off about how Raymond Carver single-handedly saved the short story genre.” she sighed. “And I’ve always been the nerdy girl in the friend groups who watched everyone else fall in love while she pined from a distance.” She huffed a pitiful laugh that made even his heart tighten. “I mean, I even went to prom alone.”
Her eyes found his. “But Jason made me feel special. He listened and didn’t get upset when I apologized for talking so much. He just smiled and asked me to keep going.” (Y/N) wiped at her eyes. “I thought that we were getting closer, but God I saw all the signs of him being a good friend as romantic.” She groaned and buried her face in her hands. “And it’s so embarrassing to admit that I’m so starved of love that I saw them as loving gestures.” Another groan escaped her. “And then I asked him out today and got rejected.”
He blinked in shock, wondering why his brother would let this girl go. Obviously, they were perfect for each other. He didn’t tell her that though, instead asking, “What happened?”
(Y/N) moaned. “I showed up at his house with flowers and a book he’d been talking about.” She smushed her cheeks and glared out at the water. “And he was really nice about letting me down easy and I wish I could be upset about that, but I can’t because he was respectful.”
She sat back up on the bench and they both gazed at the stars. “Please tell me that even cute superheroes like you have romantic problems.”
Nightwing chuckled and nodded. “Oh, you’d be totally surprised.”
“Yeah?” (Y/N) giggled and he hummed.
“Two of my exes are super-heroines and they’re really good friends.”
She blinked at him. “Okay, yeah, you win, Nightwing.”
He chuckled and turned his neck, falling silent a moment to gaze at her. “…It does get better, (Y/N).”
Her lips pursed. “I know…I just have to wait it out.” She stared into his eyes. “But I don’t think anyone will ever be as great as Jason is.” Her eyes fell to the water and she sighed, “Is it too much to ask though…that I find someone to hold my hand and love me?”
Nightwing took her hand and laced their fingers. “I can’t do the second thing, but I can do the first for a while…if you want?”
(Y/N)’s eyes watered, and she squeezed his hand. “Yeah…I’d like that.” She propped her head on his shoulder, feeling his cheek press against the top of her head.
“Tell me what your favorite poem is, (Y/N).”
“I’ll bore you to death, Nightwing. And I apologize…a lot.”
“Someone tell you that no one cares when you were younger?”
“More than I’m comfortable admitting,” she sniffed. “From a lot of people I respected too.”
Nightwing hummed. “Well…I’m not them. And I care about what your favorite poem is.” He thumbed the back of her hand. “Please tell me.”
She sighed heavily and murmured, “I will hold you with harbor arms. The lighthouse finding a ship against the lonely sea. A shelter as your legs give out under torrential rain. What I’m trying to tell you is, you are safe here.”
He was silent for a minute, then he whispered, “That’s beautiful, (Y/N).”
“I think about it a lot…about it and Jason,” she replied quietly. “I think he’s afraid of love—of loving someone. I’d give anything to let him know that I’m not afraid of whatever skeletons he’s got in his closet…that…that I’m not afraid of him or what he’s afraid he is.”
Tears gathered in her eyes and she turned her head, quietly sobbing into his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she cried. “I shouldn’t be—I shouldn’t—”
“Shhh,” he whispered, pulling his hand away from hers to curl around her shoulders, giving her a hug. “Let it out. I’m not here to judge you.” He wrapped his other arm around her, resting his chin on her head. “Let it all go, (Y/N).”
And she did. Every rejection throughout her life, from elementary school to high school to every college bar, she let out. Every “You’re not my type” and “I don’t date X girls” she let go of with every heart wrenching sob that tore her throat.
***
She didn’t know how long she cried, but when she was gone, Nightwing’s shoulder was completely soaked and (Y/N) had a raging headache to go with her heartache.
“Feel better?” he questioned when her sobs had subsided into sniffles every minute or two.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “A lot.”
Nightwing smiled. “Sometimes a good cry is all we need.”
“Mhm,” she agreed. “It’s cathartic.”
“Alright, Aristotle,” he chuckled and to her surprise, she found herself laughing. “And there’s the smile!” he cheered, letting her pull away to wipe her face.
“Sorry for boohooing on your shoulder,” (Y/N) apologized and he merely shook his head.
“Nah, don’t mention it.” He brushed off. “I hope someone like you would do the same for me if I needed it.”
She giggled. “Then we’ll meet here when we need good cries, huh, Nightwing?”
He held out his hand, watching her shake it. “Sounds like a good plan, (Y/N).” A siren went off in the distance and his face shifted instantaneously as he rose to his feet. “Rain check on the cry days.”
(Y/N) waved him off. “Don’t worry about it, go save the city.” As he started off, she called out, “Nightwing!”
He spun just for a moment. “Yeah?”
“Thank you,” she smiled.
“Anytime, (Y/N),” he winked and turned, sprinting off.
“Be careful!” she yelled and laughed when he waved a hand in the distance.
***Part Three***
She balanced the tin of cupcakes in one hand and opened the door with the other, already more than nervous as she stepped into GCPD. Some of the officers smiled and nodded at her while others merely watched as she walked up to the desk and cleared her throat.
“Excuse me,” she interrupted. “Is Commissioner Gordon here? I’d like to speak with him.”
The man’s eyes went from the cupcake tin to her face and he asked. “Can I ask what for?”
“Oh, yes, I just need to speak with him about something…involving Batman’s, uh…helpers?” she winced. “It’ll be quick, I promise.”
He cocked a brow, but shrugged and grabbed the phone, pushing a button. “Sir, you’ve got someone here to see you…no sir, she just said it dealt with Batman and the others…understood sir.” He hung the phone up. “He’ll over soon.”
“Thank you,” she smiled, and waited for the detective to arrive. When he did, she held her hand out, “Commissioner Gordon?”
He shook her hand. “Good evening, young lady. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I’m (Y/N) and um…it’s a bit complicated actually.”
“We live in a city with men and women who dress up in costumes and fight insane clowns.” He snorted. “We do complicated around here.”
(Y/N) huffed a laugh and nodded. “That’s fair, Commissioner Gordon.” She raised the tray of cupcakes in her hand. “This is going to be really weird, but I was wondering if I could use the spotlight to…call one of them.”
Gordon’s eyes drifted from the cupcakes to her, then back to the desserts. “You wanna use the Bat-Signal to get one of them…so you can give them cupcakes?”
Her mouth opened and closed, then she admitted, “Okay, that sounded a lot better in my head.” She sighed. “It’s not crazy, I swear but—”
“Why don’t you follow me to my office, and we can talk about this, hmm?” he asked, and she nodded.
“That sounds great, sir.” She followed close behind him to a closed-off room and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk, waiting for him to sit in his chair.
“So,” he started when he sat down. “Start from the beginning of why you wanna give Batman cupcakes.”
(Y/N)’s cheeks warmed, and she murmured, “Nightwing. I want to give them to Nightwing, actually.” He cocked a brow but said nothing and she cleared her throat. “So, the other week, Nightwing helped me out with something and to repay the debt, I made these.”
“What’d he help you with?” Gordon questioned and she played with the hem of her sweater.
“Uh, he…he, um, helped me with a um…a really embarrassing rejection.” She waved her hand. “And I sobbed like a baby on his shoulder and I just wanna give him these in return and tell him sorry for taking up his valuable time.” (Y/N)’s cheeks felt like they were on fire and she begged, “Please let me use the signal to call and I’ll leave. Promise, sir.”
Gordon watched her for a moment then he chuckled and rose from his desk. “I’ve been doing this for about forty years, and nothing has ever been this funny in my entire life.” She sighed, thinking a ‘no’ was coming and he stood beside her. “Come with me to the elevator and we’ll go up.”
(Y/N) blinked in disbelief. “Wait, what? You’re going to let me?”
“Of all the things I’ve ever had someone come in and ask for? Delivering cupcakes is a new one. And I pride myself on getting the new ones.” He smiled. “Come on.”
Not wanting to blow her chance, she hurried after him with a big smile on her face and soon she was standing next to the giant spotlight, watching it silhouette against the night sky. She waited for a moment, then asked, “So how long does this usually take?”
He grunted. “Takes longer when you ask how long it takes.”
“That makes sense,” she laughed, and someone cleared their throat behind them. Both her and Gordon startled, though his reaction was less noticeable than hers, whereas she jumped a foot in the air.
“Red Hood,” Gordon greeted, holding out a hand to shake. “Good to see you, son.”
“Good to see you as well, Commissioner Gordon.” Red Hood replied. “Big-Bat in charge sent me here to see what was going on. Is everything alright?”
“Yeah,” Gordon said, motioning to (Y/N). “You’ve got a visitor.”
The vigilante turned to her as if finally noticing her presence and he asked, “What’s wrong?”
(Y/N) held out the cupcake tin to him. “I was wondering if you could give these to Nightwing.”
Red Hood glanced down at the cupcakes. “Why’d you make cupcakes for that jerk-off?”
She was shocked to hear such an insult and she bit out, “Well maybe because I wanted to, jerk-off.” He was probably scowling at her from behind that mask, but she wasn’t going to back down. “Nightwing did me a favor last week and I always repay my debts.” (Y/N) held out the tin again. “Will you please give these to him and tell him thank you for his pep-talk?”
Red Hood took the tin from her, asking quietly, “What’d he help you with?”
“Oh my God, why does everyone wanna know?” she griped, then exhaled through her nose. “Fine, I got rejected by a guy I’m in love with, and I boohooed like a baby on a park bench with Nightwing holding my hand like a parent to a child and being super sympathetic.” (Y/N) glared, though she appeared flustered. “Are you happy now, Red Hood?”
“Be a lot happier if you weren’t giving my brother cupcakes,” he muttered under his breath and looked at her. “Do you want the Tupperware back?”
She nodded. “Just tell him that I’ll be back at the bench on Friday this week to pick it up. Same time as the other week.”
“I’ll tell him,” Red Hood said with a rather annoyed tone and started back towards the other side of the building.
“Red Hood!” she called out and he paused, glancing back at her. “Look…I know you’re busy with other things. So…thank you for doing this. Really, I appreciate it.”
He shook his head, murmuring softly, “Don’t worry about it, (Y/N).” And he was gone.
Gordon walked over to her and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Miss (Y/N)? Are you alright?”
She blinked and nodded, though she felt a great deal of confusion as she said, “He knew my name?”
***
Jason watched his brothers dig into the cupcakes, groaning about how good they were. He didn’t even need to eat the one he had in his hand because he knew. He knew she made the best baked goods he’d ever had, especially these ones which were her specialty. Double Dutch Chocolate Cupcakes with little pink, shimmering pearls. She put them on because she thought they were cute.
He glanced down at the cupcake in his hands, asking, “How do you know, (Y/N), Dick?”
The eldest brother paused mid-chew and stared at him with a dumbfounded expression. “Huh?”
“Cupcakes,” Jason said, gesturing to them. “She made them as a thanks to you. For last week.” He looked at his brother. “What for?”
Dick swallowed the bite he’d been chewing and nonchalantly replied, “Oh, nothing big. Just being friendly.” He shrugged. “How do you know her?”
Jason scowled. “Don’t do that shit. We both know how I know her.”
“Oh, right! The rejection after the flowers and book!” Dick exclaimed, taking another bite. “So, why’d you say no anyway? She seems like great girl.”
“She is,” he agreed. “The greatest.”
Tim elbowed Dick in the ribs, murmuring, “Is this Jason admitting he’s in love?”
“I don’t know,” Dick replied. “Jaybird, if you’re this pissed at me—”
“I’m not pissed,” he retorted, very much so pissed. “I just don’t want her getting involved with this.”
Dick’s mouth formed an ‘o’. “So that’s why you rejected her. You’re afraid of letting her know about everything.” He hummed knowingly. “See, she said that was probably it. That you’re scared.”
“What?” Jason’s eyes widened. “What’d she say to you?” He handed his younger brother a thumb drive. “What’s this?”
“Recording of the conversation I had with her last Friday,” he replied. “I was planning on giving it to you later tonight.” Dick laid a hand on Jason’s shoulder and murmured, “She’s not going to run away if you’re vulnerable with her Jason.” He nodded to the flash drive. “She’s stronger than you’re giving her credit for.” Dick patted his shoulder and took the cupcake from Jason’s other hand, biting into it. “Oh my God,” he groaned, walking off. “What does she put in these things? They’re addicting.”
***
I’m not afraid of him or what he’s afraid he is.
Jason put his forehead on the desk and stared at the floor, not really sure what was tightening worse, his chest or his throat, but something in the mix started hurting and he let out a shaky breath, vision blurring and he squeezed his eyes shut to keep the tears at bay. Rejecting her affections meant she forgot about him. She forgot that he existed, and she stayed safe. She stayed alive. Jason wanted that. He wanted (Y/N) to grow old with someone and have a family, not die an early death at the hands of some crazed villain or worse, a failure of his saving.
He let out a low groan and rubbed his forehead against the desk, wishing that it would solve all his problems. Mostly the ones in his broken heart. They had texted each other and video called constantly. Usually meeting up once a week to hang out somewhere or go get dinner. His entire life had changed in one conversation, and the only thing he regretted more than telling her he didn’t feel the same way and making her cry was watching her lie that she hadn’t been bothered when he knew deep down that her heart was shattered. He knew it because he watched her breakdown in her car through the manor window before she pulled out of the driveway.
Maybe Dick was right though…and that thought made him wanna vomit because younger-brother syndrome was a real thing and listening to your older brother wasn’t fun. But if she were that honest with Nightwing, that real with him, then maybe he could tell her the truth. All of it. About everything he was hiding from her. His past and most importantly his feelings for her. Maybe he could really keep her safe if he did.
Maybe Jason could be the one she grew old with. The one who held her hand and loved her.
***Part Four***
“I don’t wanna die,” she whimpered, grasping at his wrists that were digging into her side. “Please, I don’t wanna die now.” Tears slipped down her cheeks and she let out a sob. “I don’t wanna die.”
He cupped her cheek, brushing his thumb across her skin. “You’re not going to die.” He promised. “I’m not going to let you die here.”
Her eyes found his behind the domino mask and she whimpered again. “I’m scared, Red Hood.”
“I’m going to save you. I swear I will.” He ignored the blood that had smeared across her cheek and pressed his hand back to her bleeding abdomen, tears of his own gathering in his vision as he whispered, “I won’t lose you too.”
***
She couldn’t help but look to her wristwatch again, just to make sure she hadn’t been late. Of course, she’d gotten there fifteen minutes early, but still—time was a funny thing and sometimes she found herself late to things even if she’d arrived early. She should’ve just told Red Hood to let Nightwing keep the Tupperware, but that thing was like forty dollars and it was her favorite cupcake tin—she wasn’t letting that go.
Footsteps sounded through the traffic from her right and she looked up, smile faltering just slightly when she saw Red Hood coming her way instead of Nightwing. “Hey Red Hood!” she greeted with a tad of confusion and he waved.
“Hey (Y/N).” he raised the tin. “Sorry for being the one to drop this off but Nightwing was…busy.”
She snorted. “Don’t worry about it. Did he like—”
Red Hood dropped the tin, breaking into a sprint towards her. “(Y/N)! BEHIND YOU!”
“What?” (Y/N) spun and gasped when she came face to face with two masked men. “Oh fu—UHN!” one of them sunk their fist into her stomach and she bent over with a gag, knees going out below her as they grabbed her by her arms and yanked her forward.
She heard him screaming for her as they dragged her to the side of the road and shoved her into the back of a van. (Y/N) tried kicking at them but one of them picked something up and hit her across the head and the last thing she saw before everything went dark was Red Hood fading from view as the doors shut.
***
The tires screeched on the van as it hauled off and Jason had barely managed to grab the back handle as it did. He gripped the sides of his hood and cursed sharply, heart already beating wildly as he panted. “Fuck!” he screamed. “Motherfucker!”
He spun around, mind hopping from place to place as if he couldn’t figure out what to do first, and he punched a button on the side of his hood. “Nightwing, do you read me?” The line crackled a moment. “Nightwing! Come in!”
Jesus, I heard you the first time, Hood. What’s wrong? Break a nail?
“Dick,” he whispered. “It’s—it’s (Y/N).”
Something in Jason’s voice told him all he needed to know. What do you need me to do?
He turned in the direction that the van sped off in. “Two masked thugs grabbed her and took off with her in a van.”
License plate and van description?
“I31-FL4. White Chevy van, tinted windows.”
Alright, I’m away from a computer right now, but let me get Tim on the line. Another crackle. Hey Red, you busy?
At the moment. Why?
I need you to run a license plate for me on a white Chevy van.
Mmm, can it wait? I’m in the—oh shit—middle of something right now.
Tim, it’s urgent. (Y/N)’s been grabbed.
Number?
I31-FL4.
Your van just clocked four traffic cameras heading over the bridge past Chinatown into Founders and off to north of Port Adams. Scans are telling me that Cobblepot’s manor is that way.
“Cobblepot?” Jason repeated. “What the hell is he—” his sighed. “Shit, Dick, one of Penguin’s thugs probably saw you and (Y/N) the other night.”
And Penguin’s assumed that she knows who I am. Ugh, times like these I wish I hadn’t busted his gun running from Blüdhaven. Jason, I’m on my way.
Do you need backup, Hood? I’m about twenty out from your position.
“Don’t worry about it, Red.” He assured. “Nightwing and I got this.” Jason started towards the other side of the street, already pulling out his grapple. “You stay on whatever it is you’re doing.”
Aw man. But rescue missions are so fun.
“Tim. Fuck over the line and get off.”
***
Cold water splashed across her skin and she gasped, startling awake with violent shivers. Immediately she tried to get away but found herself bound to a chair; eyes searching wildly until they came to rest on the short and fat man walking towards her, wearing an eyeglass and smoking a cigar.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty.” He greeted. “Sleep well?”
Swallowing thickly, her eyes darted to the various armed thugs around her and she murmured, “What do you want with me, Mister Cobblepot?”
“Mister Cobblepot?” he cackled. “So polite.” He got in her face. “I want something you have.”
Her eyes found his. “I’m willing to part with whatever you need in return for my life.”
“I want Nightwing’s name,” Penguin said, and she blinked at him.
“Come again?”
His hand split across her face and she cried out in pain. “I don’t want to be drug around. His name. Now.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know Nightwing’s name.”
“Really?” he asked, then held out a hand and she watched someone put a phone in it and he shoved it in her face. “So that ain’t you sobbing on his shoulder like a whore with a heartache?”
Her eyes followed the picture and even from a distance, her and Nightwing’s faces could be seen, as well as their conjoined hands. “Okay,” she started. “I see what that looks like, but it’s not what it is. I swear.” Laughter echoed through the warehouse and she squirmed in her binds.
Penguin gazed at her for a moment, then he cracked his hand back across her face once more, and this time, he busted her lip. “I want his name.”
“I don’t know his name!” she spat the blood out of her mouth. “I was having a moment of weakness and he comforted me like a good person does. That’s it. He didn’t tell me his name.”
“I don’t believe you.” He hissed and she rolled her eyes.
“Look, it’s not my prerogative what you believe but that’s the truth. I don’t know who Nightwing is. Believe me, I asked, and he said he couldn’t tell me.” She leaned forward. “Hit me all you want but I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”
He shrugged. “Works for me.” And he punched her in the jaw, grinning proudly when her head lolled forward and she let out a low groan. “Who is he?”
“I. Don’t. Know.” She hissed through clenched teeth and he waved a hand.
“Someone bring me a knife. Maybe she’ll think better if she’s flowing.”
Her eyes widened and she started thrashing. “Okay! Wait! Let’s not be hasty!”
Penguin flicked open the knife and pointed it at her. “Name. Or I’m gonna slash you.”
“Mine? Mister Cobblepot, I’m disappointed that you don’t know the names of the women you kidnap.” She griped, voice turning into a shout of pain when he swiped the knife against her cheek. Blood flowed from the cut down her face, dripping onto her sweatshirt and she teared up, cheek stinging harshly.
“Want me to do the other side and make it match?” he asked, and she glared at him through her teary eyes.
“Go fuck yourself, oompa-loompa.” Glowering at the knife coming back down at her and she watched as something collided with it, causing sparks to jump as the knife practically jumped out of his hand.
Penguin cried out and spun in the direction of whatever had knocked the knife from him. “Red Hood!”
Someone dropped beside him and propped an elbow on the vigilante’s shoulder. “And Nightwing!” he glanced at her. “Sorry for getting you involved in this.”
She tried for a smile but still grimaced. “Say that after you get me out of this.”
He grinned and pulled out his escrima sticks, clicking the buttons. “That’s fair.”
“Well don’t just stand there!” Penguin yelled at the thugs. “Get them!”
It was a free for all. And even she was wincing with pity when a thug landed in front of her feet, blood streaming out of his nose as his eyes rolled back in his head. She figured since they were busy with fighting one another, she could use the time to get out of her binds—if at all possible.
She wriggled vigorously until there was slack in the ropes around her wrist and she started yanking her arms back, ignoring the way it broke her skin and rubbed it raw. Eventually she got one hand out and she let out a cheer, eyes scanning the ground for the knife.
It lay a few feet away and she grunted as she slouched in the chair, kicking her leg out as far as she could to toe it closer. Almost there! She strained against the bind and slammed her foot on the knife, dragging it to her. With a winning smile she picked it up and slashed the rest of the ropes on her wrist and stood up, immediately ducking as another thug flew over her head and she glared at Red Hood.
“Hey! Watch it!”
He stopped fighting, a gang-banger in a headlock. “How’d you get out of that?”
She put her hands on her hips. “I’m not some helpless damsel in distress, Hood.”
Chuckling, he slung the guy into the wall and pointed to the exit. “Get out and run as far as you can.”
“Right.” She spun and started towards the double doors when two thugs got in her way and she sighed. “Oh, fuck off.” Taking a step back, she turned on her heel when one grabbed her around the waist, and she yelped as he lifted her in the air. “Lemme go you big bastard!”
“(Y/N)!”
Someone shouted her name and she did the only thing she could do—she swung knife downwards, narrowly missing her own side as she stabbed the thug in the hip. He screamed, dropping her and she grunted when she hit the concrete. (Y/N) crawled along the ground when the same guy she stabbed, hauled her up by her belt.
“Oh, come on!” she yelled, and he threw her into the corner of the warehouse into some plywood boxes. They shattered under the force of the throw and her weight and she collapsed in a pile of hardboard, something in her side aching much more than anything else, like she’d been stabbed.
After a moment, the fighting seemed to die down and she managed to crawl to her knees, glancing down to find whatever kept poking her in skin and her eyes widened when she saw the jagged end of a piece of plywood sticking out of her stomach. And the second she saw it, the pain came, and she gasped sharply, holding it as she looked up them.
They were dealing with Penguin and she watched as Nightwing shoved the escrima stick to his neck and sent fifty-thousand volts into his body, watching as he jerked and passed out.
(Y/N) fell back on her knees and weakly called, “Guys?” they turned and gaped at her. “Help me.”
Red Hood was the first one to her and he dropped to his knees, pulling her against him. “(Y/N),” he breathed, one hand skimming over her face, the other pressing against the wound. She cried out and he said, “You’re going to be okay.” He looked at Nightwing. “Call a bus. Now.”
Nightwing knelt beside her and rested a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, (Y/N). We’re going to take care of you.”
She nodded, though she wasn’t too sure of her belief in them. “It hurts,” she whimpered and Red Hood looked down at her side, raising his gauntlet to it.
“The wood punctured your liver.” He said and she sighed in shock.
“Am…am I gonna die?” she asked quietly, and Red Hood yanked off his hood, pressing down tightly onto her side.
“No. You’re not going to die, (Y/N).”
Suddenly, tears were gathering in her eyes and she whimpered, “I don’t wanna die.” (Y/N) grasped at the wrist that was digging into her abdomen. “Please, I don’t wanna die now.” Tears slipped down her cheeks and she let out a sob. “I don’t wanna die here.”
He cupped her cheek, brushing his thumb across her skin. “You’re not going to die.” He promised. “I’m not going to let you die here.”
Her eyes found his behind the domino mask and she whimpered again. “I’m scared, Red Hood.”
“I’m going to save you. I swear I will.” He ignored the blood that had smeared across her cheek and pressed his hand back to her bleeding abdomen, tears of his own gathering in his vision as he whispered, “I won’t lose you too.”
(Y/N) pressed her head to his shoulder. “I have a cat at my home. If I don’t make it will you get him for me? Find him a good home?”
“Don’t talk like this. You’re going to make it, (Y/N).” He looked at Nightwing. “Where’s the bus?”
“Ten out,” he replied. “I’ll go open the doors.” He hurried off and left the two.
“Red Hood, my cat—”
“You’re going to see Matlock again, I promise,” he interrupted sternly, and she gaped at him.
“How do you know my cat’s name? How do you even know my name?” He met her eyes and slowly reached up, peeling the mask from his face and her jaw went slack. “J—Jason?”
He gave her a weak smile. “Surprised?”
(Y/N) could barely find the words and she huffed, “I called you a jerk-off last weekend.”
“Yeah, I kinda deserved that.” Jason laughed, putting the mask back into place. “Couldn’t help it though. You made cupcakes for my brother.”
“Jealous?” she teased, voice dropping into a groan when she shifted.
Jason cupped her cheek. “Like you wouldn’t believe.” He thumbed her skin as the paramedics entered the warehouse and he smiled. “You’re going to be okay, (Y/N).”
She gripped his hand. “Don’t leave me. Please, Jason, don’t leave me.”
“I’ll come to see you after they get you into the hospital. Okay?”
“Promise?” (Y/N) whispered and he nodded.
“I promise, doll.” He nodded his head and stepped back, letting the medics do their job. And when they had her in the back of the ambulance, he sighed heavily and watched the siren wail as the red lights disappeared down the boulevard.
Dick rested a hand on his shoulder. “Go. I’ll call GCPD.”
Jason turned and pulled his brother into a strong hug, squeezing him tightly. “Thank you, Dick. God, thank you so much.”
“Oh my God, are you willingly hugging me!” Dick screeched, and when Jason tried to pull away, he held on and buried his face in Jason’s shoulder. “My Little-wing!”
“Okay, get the fuck off me. This is embarrassing.” He scowled.
***
Her head felt heavy and she barely had the strength to open her eyes. Brightness flooded her vision and she shut them again, waiting a moment before trying to open them once more. This time, it wasn’t as bright, and she blearily glanced around the room before catching sight of Jason curled up uncomfortably in the hospital chair beside her bed.
She didn’t wake him at first, simply gazing at him. He looked tired. Tired and worn out, like he hadn’t slept in years. Which might’ve been the case if the rumors of Red Hood being the second Robin were true—murdered then revived later. She doubt he slept much at all.
As if he knew she was watching him, his eyes opened and he met hers, blinking the sleep away and then he was leaning forward, gently murmuring, “Hey, (Y/N). How do you feel?”
She sighed, resting on the pillow, the thumb brushing her forehead almost lulling her back into sleep. “…Tired,” she mumbled. “And sore.”
Jason huffed a laugh. “Yeah, getting stabbed will do that to you.” He glanced towards the door. “Let me go get the doctor real—”
“Stay,” she said, grabbing his arm and he stilled. “Please stay. Just for a moment.”
“Alright,” he agreed, sitting back in the chair. “I’ll stay,” he said, but his eyes became firm. “but in five minutes, I’m going to get Doctor Brown.”
(Y/N) stuck her tongue out at him, and they collapsed into laughter, though at one point she groaned, “Oh God, don’t make me laugh.” She rested her hand on her abdomen. “Everything in this general area hurts.”
Jason took her hand. “It will—quit prodding it,” he griped. “You don’t wanna open up your stitches.” He ran his calloused thumb over the back of her hand and met her eyes. “I was so scared when I saw you get taken.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and he shook his head.
“It’s my fault. I should’ve seen it coming earlier. I should’ve told you earlier, but I was so scared of letting you know everything.” Tears gathered in his eyes. “But I almost wasn’t fast enough tonight, and you got hurt and—”
(Y/N) brushed her fingers over his lips, shushing him. “Jason, it wasn’t your fault.”
He frowned behind her fingers. “But you—”
“I’m here.” She affirmed. “And I’m okay.” (Y/N) grabbed his chin. “You saved me.”
“What happens if I’m too late next time?” he asked, eyes searching hers and she smiled.
“We’re not going to let that happen.”
“But it—”
“It’s not going to happen again.” She brushed her thumb over his lip and smiled at him.
He cupped her hand to his face and bent over, pressing his lips to hers; Jason stayed there for a moment, merely resting his forehead to hers and he lamented, “I’m sorry I turned you down. I never meant to hurt you…I was just—”
“Keeping me safe,” she surmised. “I know, baby.” Jason froze, eyes wide. “Too early?”
He chuckled and kissed her again. “Say it again.”
“Mmm, say please, and I’ll throw in a ‘I love you’.” (Y/N) countered.
“Pretty please?”
She grinned. “I love you, babe.”
“I love you, doll.”
185 notes · View notes
Text
All Men Have Limits - XI
Character: Dick Grayson x Reader x Bruce Wayne
Summary: A certain bat believes that Y/N is in way over her head, that she’s too naive to act in her best interest. So, whether she wants it or not, the vigilante family is going to help and protect her before she gets herself killed.
Word Count: 3,700+
Warnings: Mentions of past abuse
Previously on…
Tumblr media
How did she let this happen?
Y/N had tried to push her short-lived romance with Bruce Wayne out of her mind for two years. And the moment she sees him again, for the first time since, it all went to hell. 
Why did she let him have her so easily? 
Why was he so hard to fight? 
His presence was difficult to ignore. And when he acted on their mutual feelings, Y/N knew she’d do just about anything for him.
But could two stubborn, emotionally distant, and nearly impossible people make it work?
But then Dick…Dick Grayson. 
Whenever Y/N thought of him, a warmth spread through her chest. He wasn’t scared of her. Instead of trying to break down her walls, he patiently waited for her to open a side door for him. He was patient and kind. Though he adopted Bruce’s flirtatious and charming ways, it was backed by substance in a way Bruce never bothered to follow up with.
Both men loved her differently.
But that didn’t mean one loved her more than the other either. 
–––––––––––
When Y/N reached the bottom of the cave, she found Dick training.
He was shirtless with a pair of shorts on, lifting himself up on the still rings.
She allowed herself to watch him for a moment. 
It was unreal the amount of strength he held to be able to move the way he was. He had clearly been modest when she asked if he could go to the olympics. 
Dick’s skin was shining, drenched in sweat.
How long had he been working out?
What she didn’t know was that Dick had been at it for hours, trying to work out his frustrations by making himself physically exhausted.
Finally Dick landed by doing an aerial dismount that consisted of so many twists and flips that Y/N just blinked in amazement. 
“Come to get your equipment?” Dick asked without looking at her. 
He was out of breath and clearly tired as he rubbed his face with a towel.
“Yeah,” she answered. “Jason’s bringing one of his cars to help me pack it up.”
She didn’t want to inconvenience anyone else in the family further. But she couldn’t exactly hire a TaskRabbit to help her pack up thousands of dollars worth of hacking equipment and ask them to drop it off at one of her many safe houses.
Plus, Jason owed her after the scene he cased at that infamous family dinner, and she made sure to tell him so.
Dick scoffed a bit. “So, you and Jason hang out now?”
Y/N smirked. “We started a club. We’re calling it The Club for the Parentally Abused and Recently Resurrected.”
Dick could help but let a smile slip.
“But I also came to talk to you.”
He walked past her now, and still hadn’t even looked at her since she arrived.
“You don’t owe me any explanation, Y/N. I got the message loud and clear.”
Y/N took in a deep breath. This was going to be hard. But she had to do it.
“When I was five years old, I left my stuffed animal at the park. I wouldn’t stop crying on the drive home. My parents started screaming at me to be quiet. Eventually they gave up, pulled over, and kicked me out of the car. It was 5 miles back to the apartment and it was 30 degrees out. Luckily, I knew my way home."
The story made Dick’s eyes snap up and he finally looked at her. And when he did, his expression was filled with rage and sympathy – rage towards her parents, but sympathy for Y/N. She should’ve never had to deal with such abuse.
Y/N shrugged. “And that’s one of the better moments.”
Dick took a step towards her. “Y/N…”
Her eyes were glued to the ground as she continued. “To this day, I jump anytime someone drops something. I can’t watch sports because the sound of men yelling causes panic attacks.” 
Then she finally found the courage to meet his gaze. 
“When I meet men, in my eyes, they’re all my father until they prove otherwise. And the reason I’m always waiting for the floor to drop out from underneath me... is because it always has.”
Dick waited. 
Y/N knew he was silently telling her he understood.
A couple tears managed to slip down her face, but she quickly wiped them away.
“Bruce was the first person I ever shared my past with. And now…now you’re the second.”
Dick still didn’t know what to say to her.
“I’m so sorry for hurting you, Dick. That was never ever my intention.”
Dick sighed, “I know.”
And he did. He did know.
Dick took in a deep breath, “I spent a big part of my life trying to stop myself from turning into him. I became terrified by the idea. I started disagreeing with his methods. He stopped looking like the perfect man to me. Eventually, I left Gotham because of it all.”
He shook his head in disappointment. “But I’m realizing those are the same things that make him the man that you love.”
His hand moved through his hair. “Now I’m starting to wonder…what if the only things you like about me is just everything that he made me be?”
Y/N couldn’t listen to any more of it. She couldn’t keep standing there and hear him tear himself down and compare himself to the man he had idolized for most of his life. Even if he saw Bruce as just human now, the man was still somewhat of a father figure to him.
“No,” she immediately stepped to Dick and clutched his face.
On instinct alone, he put his hands on top of hers, scared she’d stop touching him too quickly.
“Dick, listen to me. That’s not true. None of that’s true.”
“Don’t just tell me what you think I want to hear,” he begged.
“I’m not. I promise I’m not.”
Y/N took in a shaky breath.
By telling Dick what he needed to hear, Y/N was also exposing herself. It was scary for her. Talking to Dick about their complicated relationship was like speaking a different language compared to the way she used to communicate with Bruce. And she could admit that communication was often no communication at all.
“The things I love about you have nothing to do with Bruce,” her words were unafraid and sincere.
Dick blinked at the word ‘love.’
“You wear your heart on your sleeve, Dick. And I know you’re sometimes ashamed of it, because you’ve been convinced that you shouldn’t do that. But it’s…it’s so… different.”
She laughed lightly at herself, “Different than what I’m used to. Different than what I’ve ever expected from men.”
“I always know what’s going on in that heart of yours,” she continued. “There’s no guessing with you. I never doubt your feelings. Because you don’t hide anything.”
Y/N figured out what she was really trying to get at.
“Because you’re not scared.” She paused. “You’re not scared to love me, even when you think you don’t have a chance.”
“Do I have a chance?” He whispered.
Y/N finally dropped her hands from his face and stepped away from him. “I can’t – Dick, I can’t get between you two.”
He chuckled darkly. “It’s a little late for that.”
Y/N hid her face in her hands in desperation. “Please, don’t say that to me. Please.”
“He’s in love with you, too.” Dick declared.
“Dick, stop!”
“No, I won’t.” He snapped back. “Bruce is in love with you, Y/N. And you can’t keep lying and convincing yourself that he’s not.”
“It’s not that simple!”
But she could tell he was growing frustrated with her.
“Then tell me why you love him,” Dick surprised her by asking. “I need to know. I need to know why, because that’s the only way I’m going to be able to let you go.”
Y/N’s lips trembled as her eyes filled with tears again. She shook her head, “Please don’t make me.”
But when she looked up, his gaze was pleading.
So Y/N closed her eyes, the pressure of it made more tears escape and slide down her cheeks. She took in a deep breath, desperate for it to calm her down enough to even speak.
“That first night me and him shared...I hadn’t slept that soundly in years. And it was because I felt...safe. He’s always made me feel safe, like nothing could ever happen to me.” She shook her head and her eyes glazed over as she remembered the past. “I know I asked for this life. I’m always on the edge of being in danger, and I always have to be on the move. But it just felt like...like I could finally breathe.”
She gave Dick a sad smile. “And it’s been the same since I got here. I was just too stubborn to admit it.”
Then she shook her head. “I’m so tired of being scared. And I’m so tired of convincing myself that I don’t deserve to be loved.”
“Y/N,” Dick whispered her name as if he was begging. He moved to her and clutched her face and bowed until their foreheads touched. “I can keep you safe, too. I promise. I always will.”
“I know. Because you’re the only reason I’m alive right now.”  
“I love you, Y/N.” He murmured as if it was his most treasured secret. 
But they had both known that for awhile. 
“And I know you love Bruce…but I think you love me, too.”
Y/N hesitated before she whispered, “I do love you.”
Dick didn’t even try to stop himself from kissing her.
He pulled her hips to his, refusing to allow any space between their bodies. Her lips were wet with tears, but he didn’t care. This kiss needed to tell her everything he felt. This was his final statement. If his words couldn’t convince her, then maybe he could make her feel it all.
Jason Todd’s timing was like the rapture. 
His car screeched to a stop on the platform below them.
Except Dick didn’t give a damn if his brother saw them. He barely let Y/N pull away, but still tried to brush her tears away with his thumb as it grazed her cheek.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Jason yelled up with a cheeky grin.
Y/N still shifted out of Dick’s embrace.
To both the men’s surprise, she didn’t glare down at Jason.
“Come on. I’ll help you get all this into his truck,” Dick told her softly.
Their moment had ended.
And Dick couldn’t help but believe that he’d lost her.
———
Jason helped Y/N carry all her equipment in the storage unit she had directed him to.
The young man had the same strength as three professional movers and she was taking full advantage of it.
“Don’t you want all this crap with you?” Jason asked when he finally moved the final piece inside.
Y/N pulled down the garage door, slamming it closed, and activated multiple locks before facing him.
“Nope.”
Jason eyed her suspiciously. “Don’t tell me The Court traumatized you into retiring…”
“Of course not. But I am taking a break.”
He nodded, accepting the answer.
“Where to next?” He asked while nodding towards his truck.
“You don’t have to give me a ride. I think I want to walk.”
“Hell no. Bruce and Dick would kill me if I let you do that.”
Y/N rolled her eyes and slowly opened her jacket to show that she had one of her guns hidden away.
“You taught me well.”
Jason sighed heavily, “You wanna be alone. I get it.”
“Thank you for your help, Jason.”
He just shrugged, “I owed you.”
Y/N nodded and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket.
“You know what you’re doing?” Jason asked.
“Not really,” she admitted.
To her surprise, Jason's face was sympathetic. “Look, I know I give you a lot of shit. And none of it’s my business.”
He scratched the back of his neck.
“They both love you. OK? And I know they both go about showing it in completely different ways. But that’s just how they are. We’re all a fuckin’ mess.”
“I know,” Y/N mumbled as she looked at the ground, shoulders slumped.
“But I know what it’s like to be beaten down by life. So I just want to make sure you remember that you deserve it.”
“Deserve what?” Y/N asked, confused.
“To be loved.” Then his eyes turned the most serious she’d ever seen, and he pointed to her sternly. “Don’t let what happened in the past make you think otherwise.”
Jason already hated how preachy he sounded, so he gave a final nod and walked to the driver’s side of the truck.  
“Jason!” She called out.
He paused before he got into the driver’s seat.
“The same goes for you.” She smiled. “Remember, we’re in a club now.”
He smirked before giving her a final salute, and driving away.
———
Walking back to her safe house was therapeutic for Y/N.
Yeah, there were worse places than Wayne Manor to be kept on house arrest. But Y/N also couldn’t remember the last time she went on a walk like this. It did wonders to clear her head.
Though she was still paranoid and made sure to remain aware of her surroundings. And she probably looked over her shoulder too frequently to appear natural. But after everything she’d been through, her life still didn’t feel safe.
So, imagine Y/N’s panic when she walked into her safe house and immediately knew someone had been there.
She immediately pulled out her gun and started to do a perimeter check.
However, her panic slowly subsided when she saw a note on the kitchen counter.
Next to the note was what appeared to be a tracking device. Not as sophisticated as anything Y/N could make. But it was still rather advanced.
She walked closer to read it and instantly recognized Bruce’s handwriting.
“We had a deal,” was all he’d written.
When Y/N turned on the tracker, she quickly noted that the coordinates it gave matched the location of Wayne Manor.
A sad smile spread across her lips at the blinking light.
This was a strange way of expressing affection and trust, but that was Bruce.
There had been a part of her that didn’t believe Bruce Wayne would ever allow someone to always know where he was. But then again, he always found a way to surprise her.
Y/N looked around at her apartment.
It was cold and unwelcoming. The purpose was to provide a safe location and remain isolated. It was never meant to become a home – none of her safe houses were. Without her equipment humming, it felt even quieter than usual – unsettling even.
One thing was sure to Y/N…she couldn’t live this way anymore.
–––––––––––
Dick was fixing up his motorcycle in the garage at the manor.
He was planning on driving it across the country and wanted to make sure it was in good ship before he put that kind of mileage on it.
His attention shifted away from it when his phone lit up and vibrated from a message.
To Dick’s surprise, he read Jason’s name.
“You should talk to her. I think she’s really going through it right now,” was all his younger brother texted.
Dick sighed in frustration and tossed his phone away a little too roughly.
He rubbed his face. 
He’d been suffering from a headache every day since he last saw Y/N. 
Maybe it was his punishment for submitting so easily.
Dick stood up from kneeling next to his motorcycle.
No, he wasn’t going to talk to Y/N.
But he was going to talk to Bruce.
While Dick had been distracting himself with his upcoming escape back to the Titans, Bruce drowned himself in new cases. He’d extended his patrolling hours so long that he barely had time to sleep and eat. Half the time, he didn’t even bring Damian along with him. 
Dick knew he would find Bruce in the cave, seeing as he hadn’t left it in days.
Bruce didn’t turn away from his research even though he heard Dick’s entrance.
But that didn’t slow Dick down as he marched to him.
“Are you really going to do this?” Dick shot.
He didn’t need to elaborate, they both knew what he was talking about.  
“We’re not having this discussion,” Bruce tried to shut it down without even looking at him.
“Nope. That’s not going to work anymore.” Dick reached out and pressed a button, turning all of the screens blank. “We’re talking about this whether you want to or not!” Dick snapped.
Bruce was clearly irritated. Not only did he finally acknowledge Dick and meet his gaze, but he also stood from the chair and sized him up.
Dick’s jaw clenched before he began. “I know you’d protect her with your life. But are you going to protect her from Bruce Wayne?”
The question was brutal, but necessary.
Dick wasn’t holding back any longer.
“Because we didn’t have any choice. We changed our expectations and adapted. But Y/N? She shouldn’t have to do that. So you’re either all in or you need to let go.”
The ‘we’ was Dick and his brothers, but Bruce didn’t need him to clarify.
Dick never had any intention of being cruel. But he had to be blunt with Bruce. And Dick wasn’t going to watch as he put Y/N through what he and his brothers had to in the past. 
She would bend and fold herself for Bruce, lowering her expectations and latching onto what little he gave her, putting it all on a pedestal and giving it more meaning than it deserved.
“If you promise to actually commit to someone for the first time in your life and put them before Batman, I’ll walk away. I’ll do it for you. And I’ll do it for her.” The fire in his eyes was blazing. “But I can’t sit back and watch as you treat her like shit. She deserves better than that. And you know it.”
There wasn’t a single lie in what Dick said. 
Over the years, Dick was always the most frustrated with Bruce’s lack of emotional competence. Jason was angry at Bruce for far more than just that. Tim didn’t seem to have many thoughts on it. And Damian didn’t see it as a problem, which was an entirely different issue.
But if it weren’t for Dick, Bruce would be far worse – even though that seemed rather impossible.
“Do you love her?” Bruce asked Dick.
He blinked at the question, taken off guard by how intimate it felt coming from Bruce.
“Yes,” Dick answered, leaving no room for doubt.
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?” Dick glared at him.
But Dick still jumped right into it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Y/N is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life. She makes me laugh – even when I know her sarcasm and humor are hiding darkness. She’s selfless – more selfless than all of us. And she cares about everyone, even when they don’t deserve it. She dedicated her life to helping people and, until recently, she was fine doing it all by herself. ”
Bruce couldn’t help but smirk darkly at Dick’s list and crossed his arms, “You forgot to mention how beautiful she is.”
“Yeah. Well… anyone with eyes knows that,” Dick rumbled.
Bruce was quiet, clearly deep in thought.
What was going on in that head of his?
“She left Gotham,” Bruce finally stated.
Dick’s eyes widened. “Left?”
“Yesterday.”
“Yesterday? So...what? You don’t know where she is or you’re not going after her?” Dick snapped.
“I know where she is.”
Dick’s face dropped. “You’re not going after her,” he muttered in disbelief.
Bruce didn’t have to say anything to confirm Dick’s suspicions.
“You’re an asshole and a fool, Bruce.”
“I’m doing the best thing for her,” he countered.
“That’s what you think. But how will she feel?” Dick shook his head in disgust. “But you never ask yourself those questions, do you, Bruce? You never consider other people’s feelings.”
“I promised to always put Gotham first, Dick.”
“Oh, come on, Bruce!” Dick groaned. “You made that promise – what? – 20 years ago? Don’t try to tell me that things haven’t change.”
“You think she wants to stay in this mansion by herself, wondering if I’m going to come back alive?” Bruce finally fought back. “You think she deserves a man who will always put her second?”
“Then don’t, Bruce! Don’t put her second! She chose you! Don’t make her regret it!”
But Dick had enough and he also wanted the final word.
So with that, he stormed out of the cave, leaving Bruce alone again.
Dick was about to go to his room and finish packing up his things to leave when Alfred called his name.
“This arrived for you,” Alfred informed him politely as he offered him an envelope.
Dick’s heart beat faster as he grabbed the letter, somehow already knowing it was from Y/N.
He ripped it open without hesitation, not bothering to wait for the privacy of his room to read it.
Dick,
We both know I’m absolute shit at opening up. But I am hoping that maybe writing it all down will be easier. I figured it’s worth a try. 
I’m sorry for the way things happened. I hope you believe me when I say that I never meant to hurt the two of you.
It recently occurred to me that I haven’t experienced much of life.
I went from living in an abusive household, to living on the streets, to using all of my energy trying to bring down the corrupt. I’ve spent so much of my life either running or fighting that I realized I don’t actually know how to just simply…live.  
So...
By the time you get this, I will have left Gotham. I think it’s about time I stop running and start learning who I am when I stand still. 
I don’t expect you to forgive me for pushing and pulling you.
But I hope you believe me when I say I love you. I really do, Dick Grayson. 
And the truth is, you scared the shit out of me. But I also know you deserve someone more than just me. And the idea of you realizing that at any moment, only to leave me, was too heartbreaking to face.
I hope this isn’t goodbye forever. 
“When did this arrive?” Dick asked almost panicked.
“Just this morning, Master Dick.” Alfred answered.
“Thanks, Alfred.”
He took a few steps toward the stairs before Alfred called out, “Master Dick?”
“Yeah?”
“It feels rather important to emphasize that there was only one letter…”
Dick’s gaze flickered to where the cave entrance was, the place they both knew where Bruce was currently hiding. 
Then he looked back to Alfred, showing that he understood what he was trying to silently tell him.
Y/N didn’t write a letter to Bruce.
-------------------------------------
Part 12 – The End
I’m sorry to tell you that there is only one more part after this. 
So please please please let me know what you think. Write me a book report. Write me a novel. 
A/N: The scene between Bruce and Dick was inspired by two things:
This conversation from the comics. 
And this scene from Sabrina. Obviously this is a much more comical take, but I’ve seen this movie probably 100 times and it holds a similar meaning to this story. 
392 notes · View notes
batarangsoundsdumb · 3 years
Text
Tumblr media
guess fucking what? my inbox is so fucking full right now i'm unloading all of this shit in one post.
For the 11th gotham memes: gothamites react to bruce being jacked in a tiktok he made with kids, like super yoked, ripped as hell
fucking hilarious thanks. i think i did it in one meme post, but i genuinely don't remember which one
i dunno which of the batfam would do this but one time i was sleeping over at a friends house and ended up on the floor bc the bed was so very small and i just stayed there because the rug was soft
that's a drunk jason move i don't know what to tell you
tim and jason are "i listen to pop punk" solidarity. whenever jason highjacks the batmobile theyll go on long ass car rides blaring mcr and paramore and then never talk about it again
as they should!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tim: no jason it's my turn using the aux cord i gotta put on my jams jason: don't you dare put on weird shit tim: don't worry, you're gonna love this *plays fearless (taylor's version)
hear me out hear me out, red hood stans 🤝 nightwing stans t h i g h s
holy shit yes.
SNL au: Bruce breaks character when pretending to superman and says something like "I'm not superman! You've seen his gps!! It's from 2001!!!" @sabeanybabe
superman flies past the snl building the next day just to say 'actually it's from 2005, i'm not a heathen'
does your back hurt from carrying the batfam fandom
it hurts more from the exotic rock collection i keep in my backpack, but thanks for the concern.
I love your posts by why would you always leave the best parts in the tags?
as a treat for the people that check the tags ;) (and also because i'm committed to the short post aesthetic)
somehow your playlist was everything i never knew i needed. i mean it. this is my new favorite playlist.
and don't you dare get a new favourite playlist!
babe ur stoner tim playlist is exactly too perfect, earth is literally blessed by ur existence
babe thanks so much! i love my stoner tim playlist because it's just my usual playlist but people think it's an artistic choice that i put taylor swift and britney spears in there, when it's just what i unironically like listening to
JANDKSKDK BILLY RAY CYRUS ON THE STONER TIM PLAYLIST I LOVE IT IT
again it's not even an ironic choice, i know every single word and i genuinely like the song
The last chapter of Fundamentals of Casework has me crying at work. Thanks I love it @dudelookitsalesbian
oh babe, i'm sorry, but also, not sorry i love chapter 4 so much it's my lovechild with the 'mental illness' tag
soooo....stumbled on your tumblr by some stroke of fate??? read your DC fanfic first. which is PHENOMENAL btw. then found all the batmemes; the funniest thing EVER bc everyone forgets about regular old gothamites. kept scrolling and your blog pops up as recommended. clicked on the ao3 for shits and giggles and waddaya know?!?!? it's YOU!!! you're LEGEND!!!! ever seen that meme? it's a video of a cat that got into a baseball field and the two announcers get really invested in his escape attempt and start giving a play by play of the cat instead of the game. memeable moment: "GREAT stuff from the Cat!!!"
i seriously think about this ask every single day and it's so fucking funny to me that i've never seen the meme you're referencing, but i still find myself going 'GREAT stuff from the Cat!!!' whenever i see something funny. but wow i'm glad you liked this steaming pile of garbage
Fav dc character overall? And fav batfamily character?
don't ask me to pick between the loves of my life, but i can tell you i've cried about every single batfamily member and also wally west (my beloved)
What's your opinion on fans having a problem with batfam being "too big"? And some even claim that batfam is just "Bruce Alfred Dick Damian" and the rest of them are just "friends and allies" (source: reddit) Personally, I like batfam because of this reason but idk
stupid. a family can never be too big. i'm not that big a fan of like huge batfam stuff with everybody from every single universe, because as much as it's funny for bruce to have like 30 kids, it just feels a little too OOC for me.
This is the best tag I've seen involving the batfam, thanks for thinking of it
Tumblr media
This is canon now @nctxrejects
lmao yeah i think at that point alfred has had to sit through like at least a dozen coming out talks and just has a pride flag collection in the attic that he pulls out whenever a kid comes out
idk why batfam hits different as compared to any other superhero family
bc it's found family and usually the other superhero families are almost all genetically related in one way or another
I don't know if you watch the umbrella academy but I saw your last post about batcest and saw the similarities. But the thing is (although I think it's weird) in TUA, they addressed it by saying "they were raised as weapons, not siblings" or something along those lines, which is simply not the case with batfam.
yeah i watched tua but i also thought it was ridiculous and they still treated each other as siblings so i didn't like the luthor/allison thing, and am glad they stopped doing that shit bc it fucking sucked.
Hot take: Batcest shippers are the same people who believe adopted siblings are not actual siblings
smoking hot take: batcest shippers are the people who watch 'my sister got stuck in the washing machine' porn
Duke was adopted by Bruce?
not technically no, but do i, tumblr user batarangsoundsdumb, look like i care?
True story but I had to change my freaking name because it used to be "Damien" and most people would go "OH LIKE DAMIAN WAYNE" like please I'm just tryna live
true story, but i don't actually think of damian when i hear the name damian, literally the first thing that pops up is damian darkh like bruh what?
apparently dc comics company supported comic stores by giving out new titles and stuff during the beginning of the pandemic to help them run and I just think that's wholesome
ah yeah that's so fucking cool, still don't like dc, the company, because this world is a capitalist hellhole and we're all owned by warner brothers or disney with no in between.
ayo looking at tumblr head canons and finding out bruce is actually a terrible father is a punch in the gut
lmao yes, in like 50% of comics bruce is a terrible father and it gives me whiplash
oooh I just saw the jason todd vs winter soldier post and the real question is: batman vs iron man
while iron man has like hundreds of cases of armor, batman could throw out an emp and have the guy dropping out of the sky in 2 seconds.
dickfast = fastdick = quickdick = quickie
magnum hot take
hey bata(?) just thought I'd let you know I have copied the obnoxious emoji and Billy Ray post for use on simping men going forth
thank you 😘🌷 (@spacebarsidecar)
why would you do that to your followers???? i get why i did it, but why would you???
what is scarecrow made the nightwing funko pop himself, like those diy-ers that paint over other ones
oh god no, horrible take, horrible take, that's a disgusting thought oh no
I see your HC that Bruce and Oliver fucked and raise you this: Dick and Roy ALSO fucked
yes they did and it was a horrible moment for jason to find out dick has fucked both of his best friends
"at this rate bruce adds like 1 child to his family every decade or so" Duke is introduced in 2013, Damian as Damian, not as an unnamed child, in 2006. And he is already 14 years old, Robins rarely remain Robins after 16 😬 It looks like a new Robin and Batkid will appear in a couple of years
i mean i can't wait? but somebody will probably die first tho, we're due for another major character death. my money's on either cass or duke this time.
BRO you're so right all of your Bruce's ex headcanons are amazing but they aren't ships, that's kinda wild. Like I don't want any peeks into how their relationship was I just want to see everyone make fun of them
lmao YES it's just i love bruce being a slut, like good for him.
I am in love with your posts your honour thank you
omg thanks are we like,, gonna kiss now?
The justice league needs to have a meeting to discuss how many of their members/partners have slept with bruce. Because through a combination of cannon & fannon (if DC wasn’t homophobic) we have AT LEAST: 1) clark 2) lois 3) oliver 4) dinah 5) john
Thats not counting villains or random civilians @dudelookitsalesbian
yes yes yes, they'll have a yearly meeting about how many of their collective exes could be out for revenge and batman's list just keeps getting longer.
tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.
and what about it?
when steph's fighting livewire and she zaps her with lighting and nothing happens and then they both just. stand there awkwardly for a second and talk. yeah i couldn't stop laughing at that batgirl steph is the BEST
oh yeah that was fucking hilarious and i think it would be so cool and sexy of dc to give steph a little comic series,,, as a treat
Hi I absolutely adore all of yours "Bruce and Oliver very badly pretending they didn't fuck each other" memes
lmao i do too
I need you to know that “Bruce Wayne had frosted tips” is one of my favorite Bruce takes of all time it’s so galaxy brained. you’re right and you should say it
he also painted his hair blonde once when he was travelling and in conclusion, this is why he's being blackmailed by the gotham gazette.
you know my thing about gordon being branded as the only good cop in gotham is its a load of shit like arguably he's a good person and not working to screw people over or anything but the fact that he also works w. batman makes him a shit cop. like yea batman is better than the mob but its still illegal its still an abuse of power he just not making bank
babe, all cops are bad cops. (but yeah youre absolutely right, working with vigilantes makes you a shit cop, but also working against vigilantes just makes you an asshole cop yanno?)
ruh roh i think i’m about to add “so not yeehaw” every time i don’t like something
that's a very good vocabulary upgrade
somehow i feel like steph already knew. like babs obviously knew but i feel like bruce got high/drunk in front of steph and started telling his boarding school stories and steph was just like “oh you fucked up i’m never gonna forget this”
steph and bruce have weird uncle/rebellious niece dynamic and they just hang out sometimes and bruce will be like 'i once broke my arm when i tripped over a hedge when i was drunk so oliver drove me to the hospital on an electric scooter' and steph will just have to sit there with that knowledge in her head.
Hello I just wanted to tell you you are So right in all your steph opinions bc she is, in fact amazing and I think that's very sexy of you. Ps. Your Bruce/Oliver fic is hilarious
babe, thank you so much and yes steph is amazing and i love her and she deserves the world and she's the best member of the batfam hands down. also thanks
In Supersons we see a couple of kids that are implied to be Damian and Jon's children and the boy has laser eyes and can fly, so I asume he's not adopted. The girl, who calls Bruce grandpa, can also fly, btw. So it's canon (probably by accident) that Jon can have kids and he must have married one of Bruce's kids. (I'm hoping for Damian, mostly because any other of his children would be waaaaaaaaaaaaay too old.) @artemisa97
lmao that was probably an accident seeing as jon is a 17 year old superhero in the year 3000 (by the jonas brothers)
You know, I'm a die hard fan of your memes, but I gotta say one thing: if Gothamites actually took gas mask everywhere with them, then the Scarecrow would just be a weird dude in a weird costume, and not a villain oh so scary. DC really should just takes notes from you.
bold of you to assume there's no gothamite anti-maskers
How does it feel being the funniest person on this app?
horrible, next question.
I can't listen to Green Day or Billy Joel without thinking of your post about how Bruce got arrested at a Billy Joel concert @nightwings-kid
yeah that's your mistake, i on the other hand can't enjoy billy joel without thinking about the glee rendition of 'uptown girl'
I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.
superman: so what do you do in your free time? batman, thinking about the superman fanfiction he's writing on the batcomputer: i have no free time
bruce and oliver be like boyfriends to co-workers 401k (do the justice leagues get 401ks??? not that bruce and ollie would need them, but-)
lmao yes just 400 thousand words of bruce realising 'oh dip oliver is such a fucking dumbass' (also i don't know what a 401 k is but i assume they don't?)
Gothamites would totally boo superman as he saves Gotham while batman is out. @meenje
he's like 'okay think about that next time you want to be saved from an alien octopus'
I just took long break from dc comics and I come back to see ric grayson ??
i think it's very cool and sexy of dc to see dick and just think 'you know what? let's just give him a traumatic brain injury' and then didn't develop his character in any real way
SPEAKING OF RIC GRAYSON, gothamites making confused memes out of ric grayson is much needed
'dick grayson is my taxi driver? can anyone explain what the fuck happened he looks like an italian plumber?'
i hate to say it but batfam are def "marvel characters" in that sense they are characters who are human but become superheroes unlike most dc characters who are gods trying to be human maybe this is why I like batfam
fair enough
216 notes · View notes
catxsnow · 3 years
Text
FLIRTING GETS YOU NOWHERE J.T.
Request: Hey, can you please write a Jason Todd, Titans, where the reader is a badass fighter, a vigilante by the name of Spitfire that joins the Titans because Dick is like her older brother and she immediately builds this flirting relationship with Jason? He likes her a LOT and so does she and he feels like he doesn't deserve her and then after he and Dick have a fight the reader goes to console Jason and he tells her he loves her? With a little bit of smut?
Warning: implied smut, swearing, flashbacks of injury and near death, lil angst, lil fluff
A/N: My favourite thing about writing for Titans Jason is he’s still pre-trauma 😩😭 
Word count: 4.1k
Tumblr media
Dick had no intentions of bringing you into his life. He met you back when he was a Titan, before Jericho - before everything. Just a kid with no home and no future. Dick gave you a future, he gave you something worth living for. A purpose. The team adored you, Dawn pulled you in just as close as Dick had. 
They trained you, brought you up to speed on the skills they had been working on for years. Sure, they were mad for brining a kid into this life - but what other choice did he have? Dick couldn't just leave you to fend for yourself, not when there was something that he could do about it.
You picked up on it all rather quickly. Joining them in fights, getting your own suit and name. It wasn't a life that you thought you would ever be a part of... but damn did you love it. It was a thrill, all of it. Being a completely new person when wearing the mask and getting lost in it all.
And then Jericho happened. All of you using him to get closer to Slade. Failing more than you ever thought possible. Losing Garth, losing Jericho, nearly losing you. It broke everyone apart - literally. Donna went her own way, Hank and Dawn together. Dick so desperately tried to leave you to live a better life.
You couldn't leave him, not after everything he's done for you. Dick tried to leave you - he really did. You knew him better than that, following him wasn't hard and once you were knocking on his door in Detroit he couldn't say no. Everyone blamed him for Jericho - for you - but you couldn't. Dick felt guilt every time he looked at you.
Five years passed with him. Five long years of working yourself back up to the same person that you once were. Five years of surgeries, therapy, anything so you could go back to being a hero. Dick was with you through it all, supporting you every step of the way and apologizing even more.
And when Rachel found Dick, everything changed. Your whole five years of starting a new life away from the Titans and your past was snatched away before your eyes. Travelling the country with Dick and Rachel, finding Kori and Gar. Seeing your old friends for the first time since that night in the hospital.
New people, new name, new suit. Same old place that reminded you of the night Slade nearly killed you.
"You're gonna have to do better than that, Jay."
Jason Todd. Second Robin. Dick didn't like him, not a first. Maybe because he was still mad at Bruce - maybe because Jason took an instant liking towards you. How could he not? Jason flirted his way into your life and Dick hated that you flirted right back. Over your time together, you had truly become his little sister.
He didn't trust Jason - not with you.
You were too good for someone like Jason. A heart of gold and a smile to match. Dick failed to see the similarities in you, not because he couldn't see them but because he refused to accept it. You and Jason both took this whole vigilante life as a game. Something to do because you could do whatever you wanted under that mask.
With Slade, you learned quickly that this wasn't a game. People got hurt, they died. Being a hero was real and it was dangerous. After meeting Jason, how lively he was, you hoped he never had to meet the same fate as you - or worse. Years of knee braces and crutches. It was horrible - all because you took it as a game.
"I can show you better elsewhere, babe," Jason threw another punch towards you, a coy smile on his face as you both bounced around on the mats. He started his training with Bruce a couple years after you started with Dick. However, he had all the years in between to keep his training up - you had just stated again less than a year ago. He was well in advantage.
You tried to throw a cross at him but Jason seemed to already be expecting your move. He grabbed your wrist and in a split second pulled you so your back was flat against his chest. His breathing was heavy from your spar. Jason's breath caught in his throat as your fingers grazed over his thigh.
"Promise?" You teased. Before he could answer, you elbow jutted into his abs. He released his hold on you and was distracted long enough that you could easily bring him down. Before Jason could even realize what had happened, he was on the ground in a leg lock. "I thought you were better than this? The great Robin taken down so quickly."
"You got lucky this time, Spitfire."
You released Jason from your hold, popping up and giving him a hand. "I think I kicked you ass enough for one day." Sweat drenched your body and your muscles were already aching. It had been far longer than you thought that you were in the ring with Jason - time seemed to fly with him.
"Wanna join me in the shower?" Jason raised an eyebrow. He asked that nearly every time you trained with him. Most of the time he was only joking, the others you were sure that he was hoping you would actually say yes. He loved to flirt with you, he liked to flirt with everyone, but you? You were his favourite.
It came so easy to him when he was with you. Words of adoration and praise always filled his mind when thinking of you. Since the moment he met you it was easy.
"Is this a bad time?" Gar's green hair peaked through the entrance of the training room. He looked between you and Jason, only inches apart from on another. Your flirtatious relationship with Jason didn't go unknown to everyone else on the team. Dick hated it, Kori thought it was adorable, your old team members couldn't bother looking you in the eye long enough to have an opinion.
"We were just leaving," you looked back to Jason. The grin on his face widened as he thought that you agreed to his offer. It fell as you spoke again, "to our separate rooms, to shower separately."
"You'll say yes one day, babe."
><
Dick loved to tell you how much he didn't like you hanging out with Jason. He didn't like your late nights of sharing music in his room. Your hours of sparring that were a little too personal for the ring. He didn't like walking in to the living room of the tower to see you and Jason half-cuddled up on the couch watching a movie.
He tried to get Kori to agree with him, though she stayed out of it. Dick was several years older than you, but he still saw you as nothing but that little kid he picked up all those years ago. Jason was everything that he didn't want to see in you. He didn't want him to taint your life, not that he could stop it.
It lead to it's fights. Dick trying to control you life just like he always had. You being stubborn, yelling at him. There were a lot of times that you wondered if it would have been easier if you never met him, he was too much of a pain in the ass to bare sometimes. Yet you owed him everything.
Jason found you in the med bay. He'd been looking around for you all evening and couldn't find you anywhere. This was the last place he expected to see you. He stood at the door, watching you pull off the knee brace he saw you wear sometimes. It was obvious that you tried to hide it from everyone.
"What do you need, Jason?" You asked, back towards him but not needing to turn to see that it was him. Jason pushed himself off the frame of the door and leaned on the table across from you. His arms were crossed over his chest but he didn't hold his usual cocky smile. He looked concerned. "You can ask."
"Does it still hurt?" It wasn't the question that you were expecting. Dick never told anyone the full story about what happened between you and Slade. He felt it to be your story to tell, not his. Jason knew the bits and pieces, but he didn't know everything. If you wanted to tell him, you would.
"Only when I breathe," you tried to joke. Jason didn't laugh, instead he sat down on the bed next to you. "It's not a big deal, I've been living with it for nearly six years." It only occurred to him in that moment how young you were when this happened - you were just a kid who nearly couldn't get back up ever again.
He watched your eyes seal shut, trying to hide any noise of pain when standing up. Without a word, Jason swooped you up and carried you back to your room so you didn't have to put pressure back on your knee. "You didn't have to do that."
"Yeah, but I wanted to," Jason half smiled. He sprawled out on the end of your bed, staring up at your ceiling. Your legs rested across his, but you mimicked his position. "Do you think he's really dead?"
"If he's not, he will be if I ever see him again," you spoke. Jason leaned up on his elbows to look at you. He was shocked to hear you speak of such harsh words. However, he couldn't blame you for that. Slade took away years of your life - if you ever saw him again revenge almost felt necessary. "I'm not that same kid anymore."
"I know," Jason stated. "You need me, I'm there."
"I'll hold you too that," You finally peaked up at him. A smile rode his face and you couldn't help but join. Things were easier with Jason. He was always so easy to talk to. After everything that the both of you had been through, you got a new level understanding - one that you didn't get with Dick.
"I'll hold you against anything if you ask nicely," Jason winked. He laughed at your poor attempt to kick him off your bed. The movement struck pain through you and he quickly noticed your wince. His laughter diminished instantly. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, just... just not a good day apparently," you grimaced. Jason carefully propped your knee up on his laps. Ugly scars laid thick on your skin, your knee was visibly swollen. Training the day before you had gone harder than you should have. Jason's fingers were cold as he traced over the lines.
The pads of his thumbs pressed into your sore muscles, massaging them as if he had known pain like yours his whole life. Your head tilted back, eyes closed shut at the release of pain. His hands were like ice against your skin but god did it feel so good. The aching pain that never went away simmered with his motions.
"Feel good?" Jason asked. You nodded, enjoying the feeling of relaxation that hadn't seemed to come to you for a long time. "Can make you feel even better later if you want."
"You never stop, do you?" You chuckled.
"Not when it comes to you babe," Jason winked again as you peaked your eyes open. This time, you couldn't stop your smile. He was cute, you had to give him that. Just as he was about to speak again, a clearing of a throat caught your attention. Dick was standing at your door, arms crossed, lips pursed.
He saw the brace out again, he wanted to ask how you were feeling - but seeing you wish Jason only frustrated him. Luckily, he hadn't heard the comment that Jason had just made to you. He cleared his throat, catching both of your guys attention. "Came to check how you were feeling," He forced out. "Jason, a word?"
"He's fine, Dick," you looked up at him. You knew the look - the 'protective brother mode' look. It was the most annoying face he seemed to make - and he had a lot of those. Jason retracted his hands from your knee, though you missed his touch instantly. "I'm fine. Same as I am every day. Jason was just giving me a hand."
Dick’s eyes narrowed and he was evidently frustrated. Jason quickly picked up on the tension in the room and cleared his throat. He stood up from the bed, careful not to touch your knee at all. "I told Gar and Rachel I would teach them stuff anyways, it's fine," he assured you. 
Dick stared Jason down as he left your room. His glanced flashed over to you before looking down at your knee. Guilt filled him, just as it always did. 
"Rest up."
><
Whatever Dick talked to Jason about it must have stuck with him. Jason stopped being his usual flirty self. He lost his smile when he was around you, he changed. It had been weeks since you had your 'flirt battle' as Gar liked to call them and you missed it. Whatever was going on inside his head, it wasn't good.
Whenever you tried to bring it up with him, he promised he was okay. 'I'm tired' 'I'm just sore from yesterday' any excuse that tried to make up for his behavior. You knew him well enough to know it was a lie and that Dick had to have said something to him to make him this way. When you asked Dick, he promised that he said nothing to Jason to make him this way.
As much as he annoyed you, Dick didn't lie - not to you. Whatever Jason was thinking, it was completely on him. Which made you even more worried - when he got lost in his thoughts he was gone.
So, as days, weeks passed, you kept on by yourself. Jason kept his distance from you and by extension, the whole team. You were his biggest link to staying connected with everyone and now that was severed. Everyone noticed the shift in dynamic between the both of you and were left just as confused.
It wasn't just Jason's distance that everyone was noticing - it was his aggression. Jason going out on patrol just like he used to. You were at his side, though silence over took the both of you. He would ask if your knee was up to the task that night before leaving and after that he said nothing.
He was aggressive out there. Throwing punches that were harder and longer than needed. Relentless against some asshole that probably deserved it - but wasn't necessary. You were worried about him. So worried that you finally had to cave and go tell Dick the truth of what was going on when you were there with him.
As badly as you didn't want to make Jason even more upset at you, this path he was going down wasn't a good one. If there was something that you could do to help, then it was worth the risk. Unfortunately for you, Jason reacted exactly like you expected him to when Dick confronted him.
He was rash, harsh - yelling at Dick that he was fine and that you and him both should mind your own business. Neither of you wanted to get Bruce involved but if it needed to happen, you would go to that extent. Jason rushed off back to his room, slamming his door shut as he did so.
You peaked your head out from your own room. Dick was standing in the middle of the hall, defeat on his face from how poorly the conversation went. He looked at you, hoping that you'd have a solution to this growing problem. Neither of you wanted to see Jason like this - especially when you didn't know where it came from.
With a sigh, you stood in front of Jason's door and knocked. There was no answer, even so when you tried a second time. You looked over at Dick a final time before twisting the handle to let yourself in. To your surprise, the door wasn't locked. With final 'good luck' nod from Dick, you slipped into the room.
Jason was standing at his window, staring out of it and completely unaware of your presence. His shoulders were tense; he held himself as if the whole world was trying to tear him down piece by piece. As if everyone and everything were against him every second of the day without an escape.
You saw the same in Dick. They were more similar than either of them would ever like to admit. Both trying to fight against the world one handed while holding everyone up with the other. They didn't want help - not because they didn't think they needed it - but because sharing a burden like that was too painful.
"Jason."
He tensed at the sound of your voice. Refusing to look at you as if you were the last person he wanted to see. As if your time together these past several months meant absolutely nothing to him. God you hoped it wasn't true. Jason was everything to you, and these past few weeks without him made it so easy to realize that.
"Jay, please. You've been shutting me out for weeks," You stepped closer to him. "I just want to help, I want to know what's going on." Your fingers ghosted over his, debating whether or not to enclose his hand in yours. He answered it for you, retracting away from your touch like you were poison.
"You deserve someone better than me," Jason finally whispered out. You could barely hear him, the pain in his voice was so evident it hurt you. "I don't deserve to be around someone like you."
"Jason where did this come from?" You asked. Was this why he was so distant to you? Jason tricked himself into believe that he didn't deserve you at all. Dick hadn't meant to spark the thought within him, but it had happened. An offside comment about how good of a person you were and Jason realized just how right he was.
Jason was nothing but a darkness that tainted your light. He wanted to believe that, make it easier to push himself away from you so you could be better off in the grand scheme of things. It was far from the truth. Jason showed you a real happiness that you hadn't experienced since your time with the original Titans.
He showed you what it meant to live again without being held back by fear or pain. Jason showed you what it was like to feel loved for who you were, not who you used to be. He was there through the pain of your old wounds and ready to catch before you got new ones. You were the one who didn't deserve someone like him.
"Dick-"
"Doesn't know what he's talking about," you cut him off before he could try to reiterate what Dick had said to him. You didn't want to hear it because none of it was true. Dick always thought he knew what was best for you and he didn't. "I care about you, Jason. I've never cared for someone so much in such a short amount of time and it scares the hell out of me. But if there's one thing I'm certain about - it's that you're going to be by my side through it all."
Jason didn't say anything. You were scared that your words spooked him and that maybe he didn't care about you in the same way. Maybe all of his flirts were truly just harmless. You sighed, worried that all this was for null. Jason didn't want to be saved, he never did.
"I love you," he quietly muttered out as if he was scared to say it, scared to see what you had to say about it. Jason was scared that you were going to leave him just as everyone else in his life did. He was scared that he was going to disappoint you - or even worse - ruin you. He cleared his throat and spoke louder, "I'm in love with you."
"Then why walk away from me?" You grabbed his hands, forcing him to look at you fully since you had walked into his room. "Why assume that I never felt the same way? Or let Dick choose your path for you?"
"I thought you'd be better off."
"I'm better off with you."
Your hands trailed up his arms, his chest, until reaching his cheeks. He held a strong façade, but you knew what hid behind it. Fear, trauma, desperation for acceptance. Jason was a wall when he wanted to be, but with you, he felt like it could all crumble down and he would be better off in the end.
In less than a moment, Jason had grasped the back of your neck, pulling you so close towards him that no air could fir between. His lips rashly pushed against yours, desperate for you touch. The months worth of buildup to this moment were worth every second of waiting. This was what he needed.
The pounding in his chest was so profound you swore you could feel it against your own. You couldn't focus on the small breaths of air that you desperately needed between movements, only how addictive he was. The shaking in your knees at how divine he felt completely pressed against you was nothing compared to the unsteadiness of his hands.
Scared that this was a dream, scared that you would think this only to be a mistake because of a build up of guilt that she had. Jason couldn't let this be a one time thing, he couldn't.
"Is this what you want?" He asked, lips grazing over yours. His hand at the back of your neck fell to your waist.
"I want you Jason. I want to be with you," you assured. It was enough, those few words were enough for him to give himself up to you completely. His fingers squeezed into your waist, tugging you up so you'd jump into him. Legs wrapped around his waist as he walked you both to his bed.
He encased you on his bed, arms on either side of you. Jason's kisses became deeper as he grew more confident. A shudder went down his spine as your fingers trailed down his chest until reaching the him of his t-shirt. He pulled away for only a second to pull off the material before going straight back to your lips.
Your hips lifted off his bed, desperate to meet his. Jason groaned at the slightest brush of your jeans. His head fell into the crook of your neck as he pressed down to meet you. The tightness of his jeans was so evident. His lips planted along your neck, wet kisses left in his wake until reaching a small spot that made you breath hitch.
You could feel his grin against your skin before he paid more attention there. His hips ground into yours as he nipped and sucked. You reached for his buckle, needing more of this delicious sensation that he was providing you. Jason cried out as you grasped him through his underwear.
He helped you pull away his jeans as well as your own top. Clothes scattered across his floor, no longer caring about anything else besides you. "You're so damn beautiful," Jason trailed up with kisses as he undid your jeans.
"I thought you learned by now that flirting gets you nowhere," you teased. Your finger tipped his chin up, encouraging him to pull himself up to kiss you. His body fit so perfectly against yours, as if your curves were pieces of the same puzzle and he was the link you had always been missing. "Pretty boy."
"Flirting gets you nowhere," he mocked you.
"Got me here, didn't it?"
624 notes · View notes
maxdark158 · 3 years
Text
Wooo! Writing shoes are back on and i’m actually really happy that i’m finally able to write again. This chapter is a bit shorter than normal but the next two are heavy hitters so it’s alright
Angel in Gotham: Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5 ~ Part 6 ~ Ao3
Demon in Gotham: Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Ao3
Fanart for AiG: Riddler ~ Joker thank you @thegreysman
Please tag me in any fanart you draw for this guys ^^
oooOOOooo
Damian typically liked patrol.
Jumping from rooftop to rooftop under the cover of the night was always exhilarating. Parkour just wasn’t the same without a belt of weapons and a costume, it was always a good way to burn of excess energy and get his mind focused.
Sure, it was his job to protect Gotham so he couldn’t be joking around, but he had to admit he liked the physical activity. He took his job seriously but taking it seriously didn’t mean it had to be unenjoyable.
Patrols were a time when he didn’t feel constrained, didn’t have to play a part or meet expectations. Nothing could ruin the cool gotham city nights on the rooftops.
Well, almost nothing.
After all, Damian’s father had the insane habit of adopting shitty ass kids for his crime fighting ring. Which meant Damian had this awful sickness called siblings. And the only thing that could ruin his nice patrols were the chortling of the other costumed idiots.
The worst nights were when all his brothers went.
Every. Single. Brother.
And what made it worse on top of that?
When they had something they felt they could tease him about. And when they were all teasing him about the same thing at the same time.
He was going to snap and stab one of them. His father might be anti murder but he didn’t have to know…
Damian shook his head. Bad thoughts.
“Thinking of your Angel?” Drake seemed to have a death wish and Damian was all about granting fucking wishes right now.
“Why do you all insist on being here?” he grumbled to himself. Because really they didn’t have to be. No bat signal, probably a few minor purse snatching crimes that one or two could handle easily. Why were they all in costume? Take the night off, stop fucking bothering him.
Annoying Fuck #1 snorted next to him when he said that, clearly not planning to be reasonable. “What, don’t like us teasing you about your Angel, demon spawn?” Todd snorted.
Damian ignored him. “Batman, shouldn’t he not be allowed to patrol with us?” His father could at least tell Todd to go home. Then when his back was turned he wouldn’t witness what happened to Dra-
“C’mon, I haven’t killed anyone and I want to hang out with my little bro! It’s not every day that Robin gets his first crush!”
Annoying Fuck #2, Drake, nearly slipped and fell from laughter.
Damian’s face warmed under his mask. “I do not have a crush you-“
“Focus on the job,” As always, father was on his side. “You can make fun of Robin later when we aren’t patrolling,” the traitorous bastard added.
Damian didn’t want to be the fucking blood son anymore.
He glared at Batman, scoffing to himself. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take my own route.”
“I’ll go with you little bird!”
Fucking fuck fuck.
Because of fucking course Grayson suggested that. And of fucking course Damian momentarily forgot that Grayson was back and patrolling too, leaving him unprepared for the suggestion. Grayson’s uncharacteristic quietness was the worst thing at times.
Fucking hell why’d they all have to be here tonight?
Proving himself to truly be a traitor, his father nodded to Grayson’s suggestion. So Damian, previously wanting to get away with his brothers and dream of murdering them alone, now had a tagalong stopping such a fun activity.
At this rate he’d have frown lines at 23.
Damian went off, not waiting for Grayson. He knew he’d easily keep pace though, so the halfhearted dream of being fully alone wouldn’t happen.
“Robin, wait here a second.” Oh fuck no. That’s Grayson’s I want to talk voice. Too bad for him because Damian did not want to talk. At all. Especially about anything Grayson might want to talk about. Because Grayson wanted to talk about French Angels and Riddlers and Spars and-
“Robin, are you listening?”
“No, Nightwing, I’m not.” Damian stared at him and raised a brow. “What is there to talk about?”
Grayson huffed, annoyed. Good. Fucker deserves it after what he and the others put him through these last few days. “I was asking if you actually had a crush or not. They’re teasing you but I’ve been,” at WE all day, Damian knew, “busy all day. I can’t tell if they’re making something out of nothing and I’d rather hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”
There was a time when Damian would have said he wasn’t a horse. When he was younger, he didn’t know idioms and expressions that well. He considered saying it now, to try and change the subject, but he also knew Grayson didn’t let things go easily. Which wasn’t very good.
Because Damian wasn’t sure how to answer.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to answer it, even to himself. His weedkiller wouldn’t arrive for a few more fucking days, he wasn’t prepared for this.
Though maybe that in of itself showed the answer to Grayson’s question…
Fucking fuck fuck.
He shook himself from those thoughts. Grayson was waiting on an answer and he didn’t have time to get lost in thought about his Ang- Marinette. Marinette.
Damian settled for glaring at Grayson. “My private life is not any business of yours.”
Grayson snorted. “Suure little bird. She’s one of the French students, right?”
“Don’t say that right now,” he snapped. Not while they were in costume, not while they could be listened to. “Focus on the job, Nightwing.”
Grayson put his hands up in surrender. “Race you to Wayne Enterprises?”
Damian didn’t wait for an answer, jumping to the next roof and making his way as fast as he could. He was determined to beat his adopted brother’s sorry ass, not that he cared about winning. It wasn’t that he was competitive, he simply didn’t want to continue this discussion. That was all. That’s fucking it.
Grayson laughed behind him, and the race began.
-----
They were taking a break near the Batcave. No activity yet, but they stayed suited up incase that changed. The night was still young, after all.
Batman instructed them to meet there through the comms. Damian and Grayson, further from the cave, made it there last. Grayson luckily hadn’t brought up and other conversation during patrol, and Damian hoped that would hold ou-
The other two idiots were waiting like the fucking lunatics they are.
Fucking fuck fuck.
“Did the demon spawn tell you about his precious Angel?” Todd clearly decided that he would die in seven days by saying that, big dumb fucking grin on his face and hair messy from removing his dumbass helmet.
“What was her name again? Mary?” Drake knew her name and was just being a little bitch. Damian decided not to give him the fucking bait, going over to a place to sit-
“Marie something, French and I think with brown eyes?”
“They’re blue,” Damian bit out. Fuck, their stupidity had infected him, he spoke before thinking. Was there a cure? He doubted it as they were all still stupid and have been for years. Fucking fuck the last thing he needs is to be on their level of idiocy.
“Right, right,” Jason’s wolfish smug grin was showing exactly how much of a fucking bitch he planned to be. Damian wanted to kick his face in.
“Little bird was pretty tight lipped on patrol,” Grayson said lightly as if he didn’t just stab him in the back.
“It’d be rude to kiss and tell,” Damian was going to strangle Drake with his own two hands.
“I haven’t kissed her!” He snapped again. His face was very warm, did he get sunburned somehow?? “We’re friends you imbeciles!”
“Friends that hold hands,” Drake pointed out.
“And tour Gotham together, alone.” Todd shortened his life span even more.
“And invite each other over to their house, where they never invited anyone before, to eat lunch.”
“Look how red his face is!”
“Little bird probably even planned to buy her ice cream! That’s why they were there when the Riddler showed up!”
“I’ll bed demon spawn-“
Damian stormed out of the room. Blood was roaring in his ears and he needed to- he just. He fucking needed fucking out of here. Away from those fuckers. Or he’d actually follow through with his thinly veiled threats and he’d rather not get blood on his costume.
He hated siblings with a passion. If his father ever considered adopting again Damian would fill all of his shoes with centipedes and rip the third seam out of every pair of pants he owned.
I don’t have a crush on her. I don’t. She’s wonderful and amazing, an angel, but I don’t like Ang- Marinette like that. She’s a friend I made and that is all.
Damian grabbed some throwing knives for target practice. Not on his brothers this time. He wanted to clear his head without those fucks nearby.
He threw one. The aim was a bit off, and he frowned. His aim was impeccable, why was he off right now? Why is having a crush on Marinette a bad thing?
No. He shook his head. He didn’t want to think those fucking thoughts right now. He threw another, harder. It went deep into the target, still off by more than he was happy with. He growled lowly.
Ange- Marinette is pure and good and wonderful. I was raised by assassins and I can’t completely shake their ideals.
Another knife. Damian’s grip on them tightened. Why was he missing?
I’m a vigilante and Damian Wayne. I have blood on my hands and money to my name and she wants to make her fashion empire herself.
Damian got more knives. His frustration was growing with each thought. They kept coming back as he tried to dismiss them, kept distracting him from the target.
She’s a talented designer. She’s incredibly smart, knows how to fight. Beautiful, dark hair and freckles and blue eyes.
Another knife sailed through the air.
I’m not anything of note without my last name or costume. She’s amazing without needing either.
Damian walked over and began taking the knives off the targets. Maybe they were fucking with his aim. He should get rid of them. Focus on removing them. Stop thinking about her.
But no matter how many fucking times he tried to redirect his thoughts, they came back.
She doesn’t have to tolerate me.
She’s wonderful and innocent.
She doesn’t deserve to be dragged down.
I don’t want to hurt her.
Damian’s hands were on his face, pushing at his eyes and trying to stop the thoughts. His Ange- Marinette was wonderful he knew that, but he didn’t think the other things. Not constantly anyway, he helped people as Robin. He was his father’s blood son. He wasn’t unhappy with himself.
But that doesn’t mean I’m good enough for Marinette.
He grabbed a knife from the table he set them on and threw it blindly, as if throwing the thought itself out and away.
It hit the center perfectly.
Damian took a deep breath. Everything was fucking overwhelming right now, and he didn’t want to think about it anymore.
But it seemed he’d have to.
Fucking fuck fuck.
Okay, okay. He… He might have a crush on Marinette.
Admitting it, oddly, seemed to lift a weight off his shoulders. Damian took another deep breath.
He has a crush on Marinette. But he values her a friend very much. He isn’t going to do anything about his crush, because she deserves someone as amazing and angelic as her, and Damian isn’t that.
But that’s okay. Because he already loves being her friend. And his weedkiller isn’t too far away.
Damian calmed down. He threw some more knives. They were all on target.
She’ll always be my friend and Angel, if I have any say in it. I’ll make sure whoever she choses is worthy of her.
Damian had just thrown his third when his father spoke through their comms. “Poison Ivy sighting at Gotham Hotel.”
The six words turned Damian’s recently found peaceful mood onto its head. Ice water poured into his and filled his limbs with dread. His chest was tight, as if someone was grabbing at his lungs and they were closing. The weeds of worry were strangling him.
That’s my Angel’s hotel.
He had dropped her off there with Alfred just earlier that day. She was staying there with her class. They were supposed to be safe and protected, she was supposed to be safe and protected.
Damian’s knives hit the ground but his feet hit it faster as he ran through the cave to the exit. Ivy best not lay a finger on her or she would lose her entire arm.
His Angel wouldn’t get hurt, not if he could help it.
119 notes · View notes
imaginationjunkie · 3 years
Text
Say the word
Jason Todd x Reader
It’s kinda heartwarming
Tumblr media
I tried to control my fast breaths, lifting my head from the crook of Jason’s neck to give him a lazy kiss. Deliriousness coursed through our veins, minds hazy from the aftermath bliss of an intimate climax.
Being apart for weeks for his mission and my conference clearly had one gigantic perk- the mad intense I-missed-you-so-fucking-much sex.
It doesn’t matter if it was the first or the thousandth time, the feeling of his body against mine never failed to weaken my limbs to mush and warm my heart, like it’s soup being heated up on a stove.
A smile split my lips as I tried lifting my naked body up from his chest, and failing. The thick, muscular arms that were tightly wrapped around my waist stopped me from doing so. It made me smile wider and lean down to put my lips on Jason’s.
“You know you’re gonna have to stop doing that right?” I murmured, running my fingers through his dark raven locks. A chaste kiss was placed on my cheek by his smirking lips.
“Hmm? Doing what?”
I leaned down so that our bare chests pressed against each other, lips hovering over his. My whisper was naughty as I answered him.
“Why should I? We both seem to like it so very much,” Jason nuzzled his nose against mine with a mischievous smirk.
“Because if by any chance I get preggers before marriage, my parents will chase you to the ends of the earth and decapitate the crap out of you,” I whispered jokingly, but meant every word. “And then after they’re done with you, they’ll feed me to the demons.”
My ever-so-daring boyfriend’s reply was to lowly chuckle and simply kiss my shoulder. 
Affection came naturally to us now, especially since Jason had been touch starved practically since birth. The first few months of our relationship, I had to have a mental debate every time before touching him; how far I should go with the cuddling, to hold his hand or not, put my legs on his body while cuddling or not...
Unlike his brother Dick, who much to Jason’s irritation loved pulling me into a tight hug every time we met, Jason just wasn’t the affectionate type.
After a few months, I understood how badly he needed to be touched- to be loved, to be comforted. When he got the message that it’s okay to hold me as much as he wants, that there’s finally someone he can lose himself in, someone he can love, he found a way to touch me every spare moment we spent together. Kissing my neck, nuzzling his nose, holding my hips, putting his large hand on the small of my back or around my waist, constantly lifting me onto his lap- the list’s never ending.
“I’m serious, a child out of wedlock is beyond just a sinful taboo in my family,” I booped his nose, leaning my forearms on his chest to hold my upper body up.
Jason pretended to be lost in thought for a while before suddenly rolling our bodies over to our sides, the ridges and sinewy muscles of his defined chest flush against my back. He tucked the messy portion of my hair out of the way before kissing from my neck up to the back of my ear. 
“Well since marriage is out of the question, I’ve no option than to not make my pull out game weak,” his tongue darted out to lick my ear teasingly.
Ignoring the pang that hit my heart at his statement about marriage, I turned to swat his chest teasingly. My lips were unable to hold back a grin at his reference to WAP .
“What? You’re the one who keeps dancing to it every morning,” Jason grinned back at me.
“It’s 4 am, we should sleep,” I shook my head at him, turning to face forward again. Jason and my shared bedroom turned dark as he flicked the dim bedside lamp off, making the glow of moonlight our only source of light.
The warmth from having his arms encased around me brought a serene feeling, making me think about how impossible it’d be to live without Jason Todd. 
“I love you,” he murmured against my neck.
My eyes closed shut, senses overwhelmed with the depth of my feelings.
“I love you,” I whispered back.
I had an amazing life- loving and supporting, albeit sometimes overbearing, parents, a great job, a pretty apartment, and a man I’m certain I’d love and be loved by for the rest of my life. For the entirety of my existence, I’ve had the one thing Jason never did- stability. 
But when it’s meant to be, it’ll always be. 
God, fate or whatever higher force is up there looking over us made sure to let our souls find each other. Cherish each other. 
I knew Jason’s views on marriage and children. It was hard enough for him to indulge himself with something as normal as a committed relationship, that too for two and a half years; but it’d actually be impossible for him to be a husband, a father. He didn’t have a basic job in the least, and thus didn’t think tying the knot and being a family man would be suitable for him. 
Ever since I was a little girl, one of the things I’ve wanted greatly was to be married to the man I loved someday. But for Jason I could give it up. I could give up the hopes of having a ring on my finger and a baby on my belly, because he means more to me than anything ever will.
¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡
*2 months later, New Year’s eve night at the Wayne Manor backyard*
“Damian, those aren’t fireworks, they’re explosives!”
At my alarmed exclaim, Dick quickly snatched the big box from his younger brother’s hands, waddling his finger as if to say ‘no no’.
“They’re fireworks,”  Jason assured from behind. “The kid and I labelled it explosives so Dick doesn’t steal it,”
Dick’s face scrunched up in confusion, “”Why would I steal your fireworks? I’ve better things to do for fu-”
“Miss, the barbecue is ready. Would you like to add the last bit of sauce on top?” The always-polite and everyone’s favorite Alfred smartly interrupted Dick from saying the curse word.
Every time I practically forced my boyfriend, his brothers and father into having a family night, Alfred let me help with the food; and since I suck beyond words at cooking, he always gave me the easy tasks to do.
Now if you’re thinking that prevented me from considering myself as the world’s second Martha Stewart, you’re wrong.
I clapped my hands together in delight, “I’d love to!”
“No she wouldn’t,” Jason, Dick and Tim said at the same time.
I turned to them, perplexed at their concurrent interference. 
Taking note of the unusual shiftiness in the boys’ stances, I raised a brow- “And why is that?”
Out of the three suspicious-looking brothers, Dick replied- “Because there’s only 20 minutes till midnight and you have to help us set the fireworks off!”
Now both my eyebrows rose, and I crossed my arms against my chest.
“So you’re telling me,” I said in slow amusement, dragging the words sarcastically. “That three of the strongest night vigilantes of Gotham, one being a violent nutcase once,” a look was thrown in Jason’s direction, “Needs an ordinary girl to set off fireworks?”
This time Tim responded, “Well you see, we’ve never set them off. None of us has ever had the chance to have a normal new years with fireworks and a countdown,”
“Really?” I deadpanned, voice turning into a shrill by the end of the question, “So have I been planning and working my ass off every new year’s for the past three years to make robots happy?”
Tim realized his mistake, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head before trying to redeem himself. “But we’ve never had a family new years, y’know, with the barbecue and fireworks,”
“Also, you’re nowhere near ordinary,” Jason added in a low voice as he came to stand behind me and kissed my temple. I rolled my eyes at the cheesiness, wrapping an arm around the middle of both the boys’ backs.
Right then Damian piped in, surprising everyone. “Plus you’re not a girl, you’re a woman,” he emphasized on the last word, making Jason scoff with a smirk and everyone else laugh.
It didn’t take long for me to grow on Damian, making him accept and like me. From what I heard from his brothers and Alfred, he didn’t like most people and never went easy on newcomers. I was especially concerned about getting Jason’s family to like me, since he didn’t have much of a good relationship with them and I wanted to change that. In the end everyone ended up accepting me; and gradually even treating me as one of their own. Dick and I were practically best friends.
Despite what he used to say, I knew Jason loved them all like they were his own blood; so I knew that it meant a great deal to him to rekindle his relationships with them.
Bruce Wayne’s voice spoke for the first time that evening, “Good evening, my apologies for the delay,”
An awkward silence took over our so-far cozy night. All of the boys looked other directions, not acknowledging their dad who never bothered to show up to any family days on time. I tried my best to knit the boys together, help them get close and create a bond; and saying that I succeeded wouldn’t be a lie. But the fact that Bruce couldn’t even take one day off from his billionaire/ vigilante duties sort of upset me every time.
Jason scoffed, his mouth opening to say something undoubtedly snarky to his father. But before he had the chance to I stepped on his shoe and gripped his hand tightly, silencing him.
“It’s okay Bruce, at least you made it,” I smiled.
The excruciatingly tense atmosphere was cracked by Dick, “I still need help with the fireworks, anyone up for it?”
“I’ll come!” I was quick to squeak and walk towards him.
“Me too,” Damian grumbled, following me.
Tim was the last one. “Yeah, me as well.”
“Great, so you guys do the fireworks and Jaybird and I will be right back!” Dick clapped his hands together in perky delight, pushing Jason’s back forward as they walked into the manor. From the distance, I saw Jason shrug Dick’s hand off before glaring at him. Again, confusion filled me at their strange behavior tonight.
“What was that about?” I asked Tim.
He smiled, “Nothing, probably just vigilante stuff.”
As the minutes passed by, the new year came nearer and nearer. The three of us successfully managed to set off the first batch of fireworks, looking up at the sky and laughing freely. Even Bruce had a small smile as he took a sip of his drink, looking up and the lit up sky with a hand in his pocket.
When it was about 10 minutes to the clock ticking 12:00 am, worry started to cloud the excitement I was feeling; but Tim and Damian were quick to distract it.
“Now can we do the grand purple one?” Damian gave me a rare pleading look.
“Yeah we can, but where’re Jason and Dick? They’re gonna miss new year’s,” I voiced my concern. 
Right then, my phone started ringing. 
Incoming video call from mom.
I answered, knowing that my parents were calling to say Happy New Year like they did every year. What rendered me surprised after receiving the call was that almost my entire family was on the frame of my mom’ video- two of my aunts, uncles and all the cousins I’m close to. Which are a lot.
I’m a family person, if you couldn’t tell already.
“Hi baby!” My mom grinned.
I grinned back, glee taking over the initial confusion.“Hey y’all! Are you having a New Years party without me?”
One of my younger cousins replied, “Sort of, now show us!”
My brows furrowed, “Show you what?”
A string of ‘oh shit’s sounded from mom’s side, further increasing my confusion.
Out of the blue, Dick intervened from behind me, “The fireworks of course!”
A sudden bang! took us all by surprise, and I looked up to see the huge purple fireworks lighting the dark canvas of the sky up. A wide grin split my lips, along with all the other boys as they whooped at the different shades of purple. It happened to be my favorite color. 
I felt the familiar warmth of Jason’s body against my back before hearing or seeing him. The digital clock on the top corner of my phone read 11:55 pm. Not being able to contain my excitement, I subconsciously shoved my phone to Tim, who was beside me, while my family was still on video. I raised a hand to point at the sky.
“Jay look, it’s all so purple!”
And then something happened. Something I wouldn’t even dream of imagining.
Jason’s larger hand rose to the level of mine, which was still pointing up at the sky. He spread my fingers out so that my hand was displayed open. I turned to look at my boyfriend, not quite understanding his intentions.
His eyes were trained on mine, a golden and purple reflection from the fireworks and balcony lights visible on the glossy blue orbs. 
Our eyes stayed on each other’s as I felt something cold graze the top of my ring finger.
In the background I heard Dick harshly whisper, “Tim, the song!”
I wasn’t dumb. I knew what my boyfriend was holding on top of that finger.
Jason’s lips were an inch away from my ear as he spoke clearly, not a hint of hesitation in his voice, “Just say the word, and I’ll put a ring on you.” 
I couldn’t even look at it as I tried to get over the giant bucket of emotions that was thrown over me. Shock, flabbergast, sheer happiness, disbelief, excitement, a rush of adrenaline. My heart threatened to beat the crap out of my chest.
“Jason,” I whispered, my eyes fluttering shut as he put his chin on my shoulder, inches from mine. “What. Are. You. Doing??”
He bit his lip, smiling before cryptically answering. “I love you.”
“I thought you didn’t want to get married?” I questioned again. “Do you think I’m pregnant? Are you doing this cause-?” my voice was breathy.
Jason smirked, his unoccupied arm going round me from behind to rest on the other side of my waist. “No baby, I don’t. The twenty something negative pregnancy sticks on the bathroom trash sort of made it clear that you aren’t pregnant.”
I couldn’t hold back my own grin from his teasing. For the first time, I turned my head to look at our hands. The sky was phenomenal in the background of them, a swirl of blue, red and purple as Damian and Dick continued setting the fireworks off. Tim was holding my phone up to where Jason and I were standing, undoubtedly showing the scene to my family. Now I knew why they were all gathered together to call me.
“You asked my parents?”
Jay rubbed his nose on my cheek, his smart-assery coming to action as he quoted my words from that night two months ago- “Of course, wouldn’t wanna be chased to the end of the earth and be decapitated the crap out of now, would I?”
The boys all had blinding bright and hopeful grins on their faces; even Damian! Alfred’s expression could only be described with one adjective- delight, and Bruce had an odd smile as he saw the straight-out-of-a-movie scene unfold.
I turned my head to the side to look at Jason again, grin faltering to a small smile.
This time nervousness coated his expression and words as he asked once again, “Will you marry me?“
I heard my mom speak through the phone, “Oh come on, stop torturing the poor boy! Answer already!“
Taking a deep breath, I leaned my head even closer to Jason’s. His blue eyes pierced into mine with their intensity, and my lips touched his as I said the word softly. 
“Yes.”
334 notes · View notes
Text
My ideal YJ season 4, because SOMEONE can’t follow directions and stop making unnecessary time skips that no one wants
(This is written with enough salt to fill the fucking Pacific, I swear.)
First off, no time skips!!! Why, you ask? Because we don’t fucking need one, that’s why. I didn’t turn on Young Justice because I was hoping it would be about a bunch of thirty-year-old has-beens who aren’t even in the superhero game anymore because they can’t throw a punch without shattering their hip. For every year that this show skips, my patience thins just a little bit more.
HOWEVER!!! The introduction of the Legion of Superheroes means we’ll be getting some time travel shit, right?? Some good ol’ time fuckery?? Some timeline shenanigans?? Then how about we get some flashbacks between the past and the future?? Pretty please??? There is no better opportunity to bring back all of the phantoms (literal AND figurative) of the Team’s past than to do it in a season that is LITERALLY titled “Phantoms.” Show us big milestones from the five years between seasons one and two like Dick becoming Nightwing, Wally and Artemis quitting, when all of the freshmen joined up, etc. Have the season center on linked conflicts between the past, present, and future because this is seriously the PERFECT season to do that! Connect Jason’s death to his resurrection! Connect Wally and Artemis quitting the hero gig to Wally’s triumphant return! The possibilities are limitless! And if the writers don’t take this golden opportunity for whatever reason, then guess what!! They’re dumbasses who just missed a huge opportunity that we’ll probably never get again!!!
(Also, let me just say real quick that if Artemis is in a relationship when the season begins, I’m gonna lose my fucking mind. This is an opinion thing so you don’t have to agree, but if she is dating someone to try and “fill the void” after Wally which leads to a whole love triangle thing when he comes back, I will break things. Buildings will fall. Trees will be uprooted and yeeted across nations like goddamn Paul Bunyan. Don’t fucking do it.)
This one goes without saying by now, but Wally West is going to come back. That’s happening. That’s gonna be a thing. I’m almost positive about it, unless of course all of the hints at his return in season 3 were just Voltron-level baiting, which is highly probable at this point. Still, I’m sticking with my faith that Wally will be back before the season ends. Have him be stuck in the Speed Force. Have him be stuck in the Phantom Zone. I don’t care where he comes from, just bring him back home and reunite him with his friends and family, please. Maybe then I can finally rest. (Bonus points if he’s got boosted speed and/or a red and silver Rebirth-style suit!)
Bring in Inertia, AKA Bart’s clone Thad!! I know I had a super good reason for this when @damthosefandoms​ and I talked about it weeks ago, but I honestly forgot all of it. Regardless, I think it’s an excellent idea because Bart deserves the screen time, PLUS he’s already our resident time traveler so why not give him some spotlight in a season all about time travel? And while you’re at it, introduce a wonderfully crafted character who could make the season SO much more interesting, whether he takes Bart’s place in an echo of the mole plot from season one or just as a wild antagonist who is ACTUALLY a teenager like the rest of them. (Looking at you, Lex Luthor and Deathstroke and all of you bad guys who already have gray hair and aren’t remotely interesting anymore.) (Okay, that last part was a lie because they are pretty interesting, but still. Give us some younger villains.)
Also I would really like Bart and Ed to be official because. I mean, did you see their interactions in season four?? The whole “Virgil being a seventh wheel which implies that Bart and Ed are a couple” thing?? Come on, man.
The Phantom Zone!! It’s a thing!!! Use it!!!
This one is more wishful thinking than anything, but I would really dig a huge final battle on Apokolips in the season finale. As wild and shocking as the season three finale was, I was expecting a cool battle sequence between those who were under the influence of the anti-life equation and those who weren’t that never happened, which made the ending seem a bit...empty. What better setup for a battle sequence than the entire Justice League, Team, Outsiders, and Legion fighting together against Darkseid and his minions? It would be incredible.
JASON TODD!!! OUR FAVORITE PHANTOM WHO IS ALREADY REVEALED TO BE ALIVE!!! In my ideal “Under the Red Hood” arc, they would give us a ton of flashbacks (see??? it fits in perfectly with what I said earlier about bouncing between the past and future!!) to Jason’s death which probably happened during a Team mission instead of with Batman and Joker since it’s a Young Justice-centric show and all. Then we get to see the Red Hood operating with the Light as their secret weapon or maybe even their new enforcer until, after a whole season of watching the Batfam struggle to bring their wayward son and brother home, he switches sides and fights alongside them in the final battle. Fucking splendid you funky vigilante.
Additionally, a Red Hood arc gives perfect reasoning for some Batfamily content! Let us know what Cass is like and how she joined up as Orphan before season three. And while you’re at it, let Tim get some spotlight too?? Please?? Maybe even give us some Tim/Stephanie content because the writers wouldn’t drag out a whole boring breaking-up-but-not-really-because-nothing-actually-happens-there-and-they-get-barely-any-screen-time thing for Tim and Cassie if it wasn’t for a good reason. They could show Barbara training Steph to take over as Batgirl, or at the very least have her last scene in the season be of Steph opening a present from Barbara that turns out to be a purple suit with a bat symbol on the chest. It would be spectacular.
And lastly, this one isn’t really relevant even though it is, but. I am more than okay with Damian Wayne not being present in this season. It’s not that I don’t love him, which I do. But the kid was an infant last we saw him, and the only way he could become Robin anytime soon is if Dick were like thirty and I’m Not Here For That. Save Damian for future seasons when you actually need new characters, rather than cramming in a million easter eggs for no reason when you already have a perfectly good main cast right there.
Seriously, Grandon. I’m fucking begging you here.
Tumblr media
578 notes · View notes
imonthinice · 3 years
Text
The Criminal Psychology Majors, Jason Todd x Fem!Reader Part 12/?
Word Count: 4.4k
Author’s Note: Y/N - Your Name, A/N - Any Name (Your Best friend’s name)
God idk what i’m doing with this but i’m liking it lmao
next one might honestly be smut idk
Warnings: Violence, Swearing, Description of Blood, Gets heated, hints at trauma, no beta bitch we die like Jason Todd
(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8) (Part 9) (Part 10) (Part 11) (Part 12) (Part 13) (Part 14) (Part 15) (Part 16) (Part 17) (Part 18) (Part 19) (Part 20)
Y/N walked through the streets of Gotham, which were once bustling with people, but now were quiet with the occasional hooker, she had caught the city as an unlively hour, where it seemed to sleep the night away while the vigilantes of the area watched it like their lives depended on it. In some ways it did, the stories they would tell when being interviewed were horrific sometimes, but Y/N figured a decent amount of it was for dramatization, to keep the people of Gotham off of the streets to protect them all from it.
The question was always protect them from what, and they never answered. So, it never kept the people of Gotham at bay from the streets at night, and had Y/N’s car not been towed, she would have been driving home in the safe, secluded area of her car, not the vast wilderness of the streets of Gotham.
She looked up at the sky to see one of the virgate boys using a grappling hook to fly to the other building, which was such a sight to behold for someone who never witnessed a superhero beyond Superman at home. She wished and longed to know more about the vigilante, but didn’t dwell or dote on that man, because she didn’t need to.
Something told her that he was watching though, tracing every step she made to make sure she got home in one piece. She thought she was crazy, her life didnt matter more than anyone else in Gotham. He’s not following me, why would he? she thought, Even though I’m dating Jason Todd, they probably don’t know Jason, so my life doesn’t mean much more to them than any one of the hookers along this street. I’m overthinking it.
The walk home took two hours, she left Jason’s at 4am just to find herself back home at 6am, bright and early as the sun rose, ready to greet the day and all it had in store for everyone. But the things it had in store for Y/N was a class and if she was lucky, cuddling with Jason. Nothing more, nothing less.
She would open her front door, unscathed from the journey home, except maybe for a few callouses on her feet, it was the last time she wouldn't pay for more than a day of parking, that’s for sure. Heels were not the shoes you wanted for a two-hour walk home in the Autumn cold, but they were what she had.
She thought about what she was going to do next, and the first thought she had was to shower. Not because she needed to, but because she wanted to nurse the terrible headache she had and to think some things through. What she normally did in the shower.
She wanted so much more from so much of her life. the main offender of seemingly not being enough for her was Jason. Not because she didn’t want more, but because she craved more from him. He was injured, so she wouldn’t get much more rom him for the time being, and it stung a little for her. She just wanted him, maybe sexually, maybe in a more romantic setting or maybe just on her couch on a Thursday afternoon. It was all three of those options and she knew it.
She pulled out of the shower and looked at the time, 6:50am. Okay, she thought, little more time than I wanted to spend in the shower, but I guess the universe had different plans for me today. What else do you have for me, universe? And how much of you plan involves Jason?
She would open her phone after quickly getting dressed. While she still cared for her appearance, she didn’t want to dress like she owned a law firm every day, so she didn’t. Just black jeans and a black top and she felt like a million bucks. 
Just some quick outfit inspo. I like doing these a lot. I think fashion is funky :))
Tumblr media
Artemis had sent her a message asking where she was at around 4am, she wondered why the time, but she then remembered that Artemis’ boyfriend worked with Dick Grayson, who was Jason’s brother, who worked most nights until radical hours of the night. The chances that he saw her on her two-hour walk home was high, but the chances that that had also made it back to Jason was higher. She knew she was in for it.
Hey sorry, I was at Jason’s. Fell asleep in his arms the whole shebang. And yeah, that was me who screamed the yo momma joke at the press. It was super childish, I know, but I don’t care. Those fucks are sucking my life force out of me and harassing my boyfriend, even your boyfriend.
She would then look at the articles calling her a gold digger and worth-nothing childish insulter of the press. She laughed. If the press wanted a fight from her, she was more than willing to oblige and load the canons. 
She didn’t know how to fight back that well, since it was a mainly verbal fight, and she barely even knew how to  fight physically, hence all the running and non-confrontational arguments she had had to the press.
And like fucking clockwork, Jason texted her.
Did you walk home alone or are my brothers lying bastards?
I walked. I knew someone saw me, fuck.
Why did you walk home? I thought you drove here?
I did, but we spent more than 12 hours together Jason. I didn’t buy enough hours, suddenly my car was being towed.
You could have asked for a ride home from Alfred! He would have in a heartbeat.
I was going to! But  I got distracted and it all became a blur and suddenly I was part of the way home in the dark by myself!
What if you had gotten hurt?
Well, I saw one of the vigilantes of the city on the rooftops, I’m sure if I screamed they would have seen me. They always do see that stuff.
So, your car got towed huh?
Yeah, I don’t know when I’ll be able to pay it off. It’s not exactly like money my parents give me should go to my car getting towed because I got fucked over by seeing my boyfriend. 
You’ll figure it out. Sorry about the car, that’s got to suck fucking ass.
You think? I’m stuck taking the fuckin’ subway till I get my car back. I hate the subway, too many people. Far too many people. Too many eyes. It gets stressful really quickly. Might just walk every where honestly, I can’t deal with the eyes of strangers.
But you’re a C-list celebrity.
Internet is different. I can just block the bad eyes and move on with my life, you should see my block list now that some people are connecting my name to the girl who flipped off the press, thank god Twitter has a fuckin block feature.
You should really just meet my family so you don’t have to run away before they get home, would probably cause you a lot less financial stress, Y/N.
I’ll think about it.
You should think a little harder about it. I don’t want you to get your car impounded ‘cause you’re seeing me, why did you even park in pay-to-park?
Did you not see the massive mob trying to get to you? It was impossible for me to even try to pull into the driveway. Hence why I’m being insulted, you know, ‘cause I yelled at the press to get them to leave me alone. I fucking hate the press, you’re stabbed, severely injured last time they got information, and they’re harassing me, asking me what I like to do on the weekends.
Fucking vultures. Yeah, I’ve seen that. I’ve read the articles. But that’s the press for you, absolute trash and spitting bullshit in everyway.
Fucking hate the press, that’s for damn sure. Despise them. I won’t ever change that, even if, knock on wood, we break up.
Praying we don’t break up so I can see you lose your shit at the press when you’re bored.
She would get up to go make some coffee, since it was closer to 7:20am and if her roommate woke up, she could just tell her to get up anyway.
The press can suck my dick. she said.
You have a dick?
Oh yeah. Massive. 20ft long. It probably won’t even fit all the vultures.
Oh my god, that’s not as big as mine.
lmfao is it now?
Oh yeah.
Nice.
Anyway, my brothers are staying home from school today,  I think they’re making me play Resident Evil 8 with them? You know that game?
Of course. Everyone in that game is infinitely hot.
Are you bi? 
I don’t know. Haven't thought that far ahead to actually label myself. I just like people. Sometimes it’s men, sometimes it’s women. But you have to agree when you see them all. That game came out when I was still in  high school, so I’ve played the entire thing. My phone background is actually one of the characters.
Which one?
I’ll show you if I come over tonight.
My brothers might be in my room, though.
Okay, but, RE8 is an amazing game. So, worth it.
You won’t meet them normally but I pull out a game you love and you’re down?
I’m very easy to convince.
You still have notes to write when you come over though.
Oh yeah, I was probably going to have to come over both ways, just because I need those notes and you do too.
Do you not own a printer?
I barely even own a laptop, I’m waiting for my old one to come in the mail. 
How do you even manage?
With a whole lot of will and spite, anything is possible.
And that’s when her discord group chat @’ed her. She was on Do Not Disturb because she was Jason, and apparently they missed her.
Y/N! C’mere. One said.
Yes? Whatduhya want nerds?
We’ve decided to hold a fake internet wedding between you and Christopher. Another said.
A what.
We’re getting married!
Sometimes I wish I never left Metropolis and then I remember you fucks live there. Why are we doing this? You do know I have a boyfriend right? She asked them.
I don’t know, we’re bored and we miss you. We can have a bachelorette party in Gotham, if you want.
I’m this close to going back on DND.
The group chat was made way back when they had all first met in grade 9 and had been active ever since. They all had stayed in the city when they graduated though, but since Y/N received a scholarship, fully paid for, she took the opportunity and jumped.
They were some of her closest friends, even if they lived in a different city to her now, even if they were all busy with school, even if she was busy with school and a boyfriend, A lot of her life wouldn’t be complete without her crack friends in her hometown.
They had all ben partying like crazy while she was gone, and if she wasn’t so hung up in her own life, she’d probably be down there with them. 
Before you do, can you please explain why you’re screaming at the press, lmao.
Because fuck the press, dude. Why else? 
What did they do to you?
Have you seen the recent articles?
That’s true.
She laughed and finished her coffee. Jason had not responded yet, she assumed his brothers were either checking on him or they had started the game. It was around 8am when A/N finally left her room.
“I thought you were staying with Jason?”
“I was, but then I remembered he has like 9 siblings and I’m not about to meet them all. Then I walked home.”
“You walked?”
“Car got towed.”
“Fuck, can you afford the bill? I can’t.”
“Nope.”
“Guess we’re going to take the subway for a while, huh.”
She sighed and put her cup in the sink, “At least you don’t have school to go to and your lover comes to meet you, I have shit to do and places to be,” she frowned, “Inconvenient.”
“Could you borrow money from Jason’s dad?”
“I don’t borrow money from family, it’s hard enough for me to accept the money my parents send me.”
“I know it is, when’s your class?”
“3pm, I’ll be leaving at 12pm though, because the subway is unreliable.”
“This is going to be a hard hit for us.”
“Well, it’s not like it’s fucking your credit. Mine’s tanking.”
“You’ll pull through it.”
-------------------------------------------
She got onto the subway at 12:30pm. She really hated the way it was running. The people, the faces, the staring eyes of unwanted attention. People knew who she was and she hated it. She didn’t like the attention, she just liked the fucking with people. She wanted to get off the subway the minute she got on.
She eventually couldn’t take it and got off a few stops away, there was still a substantial walk towards the college, but she knew it would be. She even brought a leather jacket with her so that she could walk if she couldn’t take it anymore.
And there she was, in the busy streets of Gotham, walking to her college. Barely aware of the people who did stare at her, because she just kept walking, lost in her thought but aware of the people in her trail, the cross walks and the lights she was waiting for occasionally. She just kept walking until Artemis met up with her,
“Hey! I didn’t know you were walking to school today,” Artemis said.
“Oh! I didn’t want to, my car got towed though.”
“Your car got towed? That sucks so much. Well, we’re going the same way, so I’ve decided I’m going to walk with you, you get no say.”
“Of course. I was going to ask if you wanted to,” she laughed, “It’s more fun with a friend anyway, Art.”
“So, how are things with you and Jason, I’m legally obliged to ask as one of his friends.”
“Well, we made it official if that’s the kind of thing you want to hear,” she laughed again, “I’m sure it’s the answer Dick will eat up.”
“You’re right about that one. Dick’s a sucker for a romantic story, you should write one, since you write. He’d probably read it all.”
“Well, that would be fun, but I still don’t have my laptop.”
“You could use Jason’s?” Artemis suggested..
“Nah. It’ll be fine,” she said, “I’ll manage.”
“Aren’t you collecting notes for him for your psychology class?”
“I am, it’s not like he can go anywhere. I actually told him he’d need to walk eventually so that it’s not a learning curve when he’s healed.”
“That’s what all of us are telling him too, he’s a stubborn man, good luck with that one,” Artemis laughed, “He’s always been the stubborn friend. Worse than Will, actually, and Will is really bad with being stubborn.”
“It’s fine,” she laughed, “If you asked any of my Metropolis friends they’d say the same about me.”
“I bet you were quite the wild child in your heyday back in your city,” Artemis laughed, “I hate Metropolis.”
“Who doesn’t? It’s so crowded.”
“Uh, Clark doesn’t. He thrives there, no idea why, he grew up in Smallville. If anyone should be uncomfortable with Metropolis it should be the small-city country boy, but I guess it’s his thing.”
“I forget you know everyone.”
“We know a lot of people, are you’re slowly being let into our massive circle of very well-known people. Welcome to the group, I guess,” she laughed, “You'll either hate or love the fame that comes from this.”
“Well, if its paparazzi and press, I think I’ll hate it.”
“I can promise you right now that it’s not all paparazzi and press, we haven’t been bothered today, probably because we are on the move.”
“You shouldn’t say that, you’ll jinx it.”
“I know a lot about not jinxing it, but that’s a story for another time,” Y/N noticed that when Artemis said this her eyes glazed over and she looked upset.
“You don’t ever have to talk to me about something you’re not ready to talk about,” Y/N reassured her.
“Hey, the trauma makes me funny.”
“Two can play that game.”
They would ramble on for the rest of the walk to their college. Nothing really of substance, just getting to know each other further. She was glad she found a friend in Artemis, it would have sucked if the two of them didn’t get along, but with each word they exchanged, they had so much fun.
She even told Artemis about that time she played Katherine Howard in her school’s budget play of Six - The Musical. She was proud of the riffs she was able to do, but she didn’t talk about it often. She was never the type of brag about her achievements, no matter how amazing they were.
But Artemis and Y/N parted ways and Y/N went to her class and wrote the same, boring, scribbly and barely legible notes. She figured eventually she’d need nicer handwriting, but did she want to work on it? No.
When she finished, she saw Artemis and who she could only assume to be Wally, at Artemis’ class doors. She waved to Artemis, before Artemis called her over.
“Y/N! Hey, I would ask how class is, but this is Wally,” she gestured to the red-head boy beside her, and Y/N held out her hand to shake Wally’s.
“Hi, Wally.”
“Y/N. It’s nice to meet you since Jason can’t shut up about you and my girlfriend likes you a lot.”
“Well that's sweet of you Artemis. You’re just so in love with me,” Y/N joked.
“Girl. You know it,” Artemis joked back.
“You two already have a close bond? That’s impressive,” Wally said, “Never seen anyone win over any of my friends this quickly,” he muttered.
They joked for a little while longer, just getting to know Wally before she had to go, she had to get to Jason’s.
The walk was a while away, so she went and sat on a park bench for a minute to check her phone, Jason had texted her.
Hey baby, are you coming over?
I am, yes. I actually just met Wally.
You met Wally and I wasn’t there to see it? C’mon.
Artemis introduced us! Go yell at her.
Oh. Never mind. I won’t do that.
Ha! Scared of her?
Maybe a little, she can be scary, okay?
You can’t tell but I’m laughing at you.
Dhmu.
That’s fine, I’ll just go hang out with Alfred and not you. He seems like he would be spiteful like me.
That’s unfair.
I thought you said don’t hit me up?
Fuck.
Checkmate.
I am upset.
No you’re not.
No I’m not.
She would walk down the street further, maybe within a couple steps to reach the Manor, when a man dragged her into an alleyway. She yelped.
“Uh, hello? Can I help you?” she asked, pretending she wasn’t terrified.
“How much would Bruce give me for you?” the attacker mumbled before he tried to knock her to the ground, but she had another plan.
He grabbed her, put his face close to hers, and she head-butted him, he would stumble back, and she started running to the Manor.
“Come here you fucking bitch!” he screamed. She could feel her nose bleeding as she ran and ran, the security saw her and pulled her into the gateway before drawing their guns and urging her to run to the steps of the Manor.
And she ran. The security at the door saw her and let her in, and yelled for Alfred.
“What is this nonsense, oh,” Alfred paused when he saw the blood running out of Y/N’s nose, “Miss Y/N, what happened to you?” he asked before grabbing her hand and pulling her into the entry-way bathroom and opening a first-aid kit.
“Okay so, what happened was I was walking to the Manor because my car got towed right? And this fucking bastard dude pops out from an alleyway and pulls me into it, asks some bullshit about how much Bruce would pay for me, when he grabbed me and tried to knock me down, when I head-butted him and started running,” she said, completely unphased.
Alfred didn’t respond to her and started to stop the bleeding when Bruce called for him, “In the entry-way bathroom, Master Wayne!” he answered.
Bruce came around the corner and saw Alfred was already tending to Y/N, “Well, this is the event where I meet my son’s girlfriend, when she is bleeding and running from a strange man in an alleyway.”
“Heh, sorry,” she said and outstretched her hand to shake his, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Bruce.”
“I can tell you’re going to be quite the addition to this household,” he said as he took her hand and shook it, “As long as you’re okay.”
“I’m okay.”
“That’s good. I guess you can’t get mad at Jase for being a reckless man now.”
“I really can’t.”
“Alright, you should be good, Miss Y/N.”
“Thank you, Alfred. But you really didn’t have to.”
“I’ve been taking care of 5 boys and 3 girls since most of them were little, Miss Y/N. A little blood is really no big deal for me to handle.”
“That’s obvious.”
“You can go see the boys now, they’re going to ask you though,” Bruce said.
“I know.”
She walked to Jason’s room, hoping that he wouldn’t have all of his siblings in the room, he did though.
“Hey, Y/N- what the fuck happened to you?” Jason exclaimed when she opened the door.
“Oh great, all your siblings are here. Anyway, I guess,” she paused, taking in a big breath so she could run through the events quickly, “So I was walking here ‘cause my car got towed, right? When some fucking bastard man grabs me and yanks me into an alleyway and starts going off about how much Bruce will pay him to get me back or something,” she paused again, “And when he tried to knock me down by getting really close and personal to my face, like an idiot I should add, I head-butted him.”
“You did what?’
“I’m not done yet, met your dad when I actually had blood running out of my nose because that's just my fucking luck. Okay, now you can be disappointed in me,” she joked.
“I will say again, you did what?”
“Something stupid?” she said.
“You could say that again, my god, what went through your head?”
“Uh, nothing. Just survival. Fight or flight but I head-butted a man, and hi, everyone.”
“Hi, Y/N, I’m Dick,” Dick said, “You clearly are meant for Jason,” he joked, “That's something he would do.”
“Don’t encourage her, Dick!”
Stephanie got up and greeted her, “You know, Y/N, I always wanted a crazy sister,” she joked, “I’m Stephanie, the black-haired girl is Cass, and the red-head is Barbara.”
“Me too,” Cass hopped onto the joke.
“It’s something else when you meet the girl your brother is dating after she head-butted a man, apparently,” Y/N laughed, “I know it’s far-fetched-”
“Not really,” Tim cut her off, “You know Jason protected Will when they were attacked?”
“That’s Tim, by the way,” Dick said.
“So you can’t yell at me for head-butting a man!” Y/N joked at Jason while going to sit beside him, he slinged an arm around her shoulder and leant his head into her head.
“Well, you seem like a nice enough girl,” Barbara said, “Take away the reckless behavior, and you are lovely.”
“That is valid, to be honest. Not exactly the way you want to meet your brother’s girlfriend.”
“You think?” Jason asked, sarcastically.
“Ha ha.”
“See, she thinks I’m funny, why can’t you fucks?”
Y/N laughed and then asked Dick, who was playing RE8 at the time, staring at the photo of Donna Bentiveno, “She’s cute, isn’t she, Dick?”
“Have I been staring?”
“Let’s just say Angie is probably very pissed at you.”
“Oh! Whoops. There’s a point to this, I forgot.”
“I don’t blame you, I remember forgetting there was a point and the little bitch devil doll would attack you.”
“Language.”
“Oh no, you’re lame. Gross.”
“Excuse me?” Dick asked as the rest of the room erupted in laughter.
“Do you guys see why I like her now?” Jason asked.
“Uh no, she’s mean,” Dick said.
“You’re going to die if you don’t start paying attention, Dick,” Y/N said.
“Oh!” and he died.
“And that kids, is why we listen to the person who’s 100%’ed the game.”
------------------------------
Y/N and Jason would spend hours with his brothers and sisters until the sun started to set and they all scattered to their own rooms to  do their own things. you can’t keep a lot of kids in one room for so long.
Once everyone left, Y/N placed her hands on Jason and kissed him, she was actually able to be laid on his pillow, he was able to pin her to the bed. And they did just that. He was on top of her, using his one arm to prop himself up and using his other hand to touch her face.
Her hands found their way into his hair like they always did, she found a lot of joy in playing with his hair. Their tongues danced together, they never fought or anything, they just enjoyed each other when Jason let out a small moan and she let out a small laugh.
“Keep it in your pants, Tiger,” she joked, “You’re not fully healed.”
“You literally smashed your face into another man but I can’t moan when I kiss you?”
“Because I know you want more.”
“Hell yeah I do,” he said as he went back for more, actually using his strength to keep her to the bed, but she didn’t protest this time.
33 notes · View notes
peterxwade24 · 3 years
Text
"Little brother?"
For Maribat March 2021 day 17 Prompt Court of Owls.
For Maribat March 2021 day 18 Prompt Protect.
I hope you all like this monstrosity of a fic.
Ever since their parents died, Morjianna knew the Court of Owls would be after her little brother, because he is who they call the Gray Son. So, what does she do? Obviously she, with the help of Alfred Pennyworth and a street kid (that she ended up bringing back to Bruce's with her) named Jason Todd, faked not only her own death but also her little brother's in order to keep him safe. While she had been her father’s only daughter, Dick was her parents’ only child together and as such meant more to the Court of Owls and she had promised her Tata and her Ama that she would keep him safe even if it meant her own life was forfeited in the process.
Alfred Pennyworth had had new identities drawn up for them both, making sure to keep their relationship as siblings intact. Jason Todd supplied the names of a dead couple, Omar and Nadia Bitar, who were about the right age to have two children and had no living relations in the states. The two had lived a quiet life and had kept out of the public eye, meaning no one knew anything about them.
Morjianna and Richard became Harriet Marie and Dexter John Bitar, with their dark complexions and dark hair they could pass as Egyptian. She began wearing her hair in very tight braids to achieve whimsically wavy hair to help her fit into the role she was playing now. She spent the night researching all she could in Mr. Wayne’s library, enlisting the help of Jason Todd while her baby brother was preoccupied with helping Alfred Pennyworth in the kitchen.
Morjianna had taken to calling her baby brother Dex, while he called her Marie, and had asked Jason to call her Harriet or Harri. Richard had taken to being called Dexter like a fish to water, and had taken to calling his big sister Marie because Harriet was just too weird for him to call her. The siblings had quickly accepted Jason into their circle, knowing that they owed him more than they could ever repay him.
Alfred had taken to helping the three, giving them advice when they needed it. He had adopted the role of guardian and grandfather in a single breath when he saw the three looking at him with love in their eyes.
---
Harriet Marie, which is how she signed all of her assignments, sat in the Bat Cave idly watching the cameras when a flash of yellow eyes appeared in one of the cameras between Robinson Park and the Iceberg Lounge.
“Little Blue, Little Red. Parliament incoming. Between Toxicodendron and the Polar Ice Caps. You’re located closer to Toxicodendron than the Polar Ice Caps, please get there and alert me when you’ve arrived.”
Harriet Marie pulled on her domino mask before standing up. She pressed a kiss to Alfred’s cheek before going over to her locker and pulling out her suit. She muted her comm to let Alfred know what she was planning. “I’ve got to go and intercept some owls. Keep an eye on Dad, Dex and Jay for me.”
Harriet Marie pulled on her suit, a black suit with a blue bird across her chest with red finger stripes on either arm and a purple section where the blue and red mixed, before grabbing a pair of escrima sticks and their sheath. She slid the sheath on and shimmied until it was comfortable before sliding the escrima sticks into place. She quickly braided her hair back to keep it out of her face before unmuting her comm. “Kingfisher is heading out for the night.”
“Be careful.” The Bat’s tone was gruff but full of concern.
“Always.” Kingfisher chirped back with a smile on her face. She walked over to the rest of the vehicles stored in the Cave and threw her leg over a blacked out Dodge Tomahawk affectionately named Black Beauty. She threw a smile at Agent A before turning on the bike and zipping out of the Cave.
---
Marnie Kanté woke up one day and knew only that she had a little brother. She had woken up in a hospital in Nice, France with no memories of her life before that moment but she had a hand held in her hand. The hand was rough in the way that a programmer’s is but still soft in all of the ways that mattered, and it reminded her so much of her little brother’s (or was it brothers’) that those were the first words she spoke in that hospital room. “Little brother?”
She heard a gasp before a voice shouted for someone, she wasn’t sure who, and suddenly there was a swarm of people around her.
Marnie was grateful for the boy who held her hand, and for the boy’s parents. They had taken her in after she’d been released from the hospital with no memories of before she woke up. The Kantés had given her a family when she couldn’t remember her own and had treated her like their own. However, shortly after Marnie had officially been welcomed into the family, Mr. and Mrs. Kanté started fighting every night, and not too long after that they got a divorce and their family of four was a family of three again.
Marnie currently attended a middle school, they called it collège in France, in the same class as her little brother Max. Their main teacher was kind but she looked down on Marnie because Marnie wouldn’t bow down to the resident Queen Bee.
Marnie and Max were so focused on their work that they barely noticed when Mlle. Bustier handed out permission slips. The siblings exchanged a look before Max leaned over their desk to nudge Kim to ask him what it was about. “Hey, Kim, what’s this about?”
“We need parental permission to go on a field trip. Chloé’s Dad’s footing the bill because Chloé wants to go so we’re going.” Kim responded while stuffing the sheet into his bag.
“Where are we going?” Max asked, confused as to why they needed permission to go on a fieldtrip. All of their previous field trips they’d just stuck around France.
“Somewhere in America. I think it’s on the East Coast.” Kim shrugged dismissively and looked back to the front of the room, signalling the end of the conversation.
---
Marnie clutched Max’s hand tightly in her own, her bag in her other hand, as they followed the rest of their class to the hotel they’d be staying in while they were in Gotham. Marnie was glancing around anxiously, although some part of her deep inside was vibrating with happiness, as they walked across the parking lot.
“We’re okay Mar.” Max whispered as he squeezed her hand. “I’m right here next to you.”
Marnie nodded and let out a deep breath. “Thanks, Little Brother.”
The two walked into the hotel lobby and saw missing child posters. Plastered on the wall behind the reception desk were missing child posters, some new and some old although there was one that drew their attention. It was of a girl, named Harriet Marie Bitar, and the photo looked like it could be of Marnie, but the Kanté siblings knew that there were seven other people walking around with their faces at any given moment in time. Besides, Marnie had three horizontal scars across her throat and three nearly identical scars hiding within her mess of hair and the girl in the picture didn’t have them.
It totally didn’t mean anything, did it?
---
The Kanté siblings were standing in the middle of their class in the lobby of Wayne Enterprises when their tour guides appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Their tour guides were a pair of boys who couldn’t have been any older than thirteen and eleven with black hair and blue eyes. However, the older boy had darker tan skin and something in Marnie longed to wrap her arms around the boy.
While Marnie was looking at the boys and taking them in, they were taking her in in return. She just looked so similar to their big sister but they knew that the chances that she was Harriet Marie were slim.
Max could tell something was going to happen in Gotham but he wasn’t sure he wanted it to happen.
---
The tour guides had just led the class into the cafeteria and they had all just sat down to lunch when Marnie was suddenly back on her feet. She put herself between her little brother and the danger. Without Marnie knowing how, she caught a bolt which had shattered a nearby window and had alerted the rest of the staff to the danger. Her brown eyes hardened into an expression that Marnie had never worn before.
Their tour guides, brothers named Dexter and Jason, had disappeared the instant the bolt shattered the window, presumably to go and alert Mr. Wayne.
Masked vigilantes crashed through the window moments after two individuals with yellow eyes crashed through.
Marnie dropped the bolt she was still holding and fell to her knees at the sight of them although all she could say was “those dumb owls.” Marnie turned to look at Max, at her Little Brother, and smiled. “You wanna do me a favour and not tell Mom what I’m about to do?”
“Anything for you Mar.” Max had always looked up to his big sister and knew that what she was about to do was important.
Marnie nodded and turned back to the quartet fighting. She grinned a steely grin and let out a whistle. “Little Blue. Little Red. Go get the Bat. Those two are mine.” Marnie seemed to shake out of her skin and the two masked vigilantes knew they were looking at their big sister as she stood up. The two vigilantes nodded and distracted the Owls long enough for their big sister, their Marie, to sneak up behind them and take over.
Bluebird sent Robin to fetch the Bat, his eyes stuck on his sister. He had never stopped searching for her, not since she hadn’t responded after he’d gotten Jason and himself safely into the park. Bluebird kept his eyes on the fight, watching his big sister as she efficiently knocked out the Owls. He could barely stop the snarl from appearing on his face as he watched another boy wrap his big sister in his arms.
---
Harriet Marie looked up at the man who’d taken her in after her parents were killed, at the man who was her dad, and felt the tears well up in her eyes. “Dad.”
“Harri.” Bruce looked at his daughter and opened his arms.
Harriet Marie rushed into his arms and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t listen to you.”
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect you.” Bruce whispered it into his daughter’s hair.
Max looked at his big sister and was happy that she had found her family but was also sad because now she wouldn’t need him any more.
“Dad,” Harriet Marie pulled away from his chest and smiled at him, “you need to meet someone.” Harriet Marie looked at Max and motioned him over. “Dad. You need to marry his, our Mom, so that I don’t lose another little brother.”
Bruce laughed and shook his head. “You won’t lose him. I promise.”
---
Harriet Marnie, Dexter John, Jason, and Max watched as their parents got married. Harriet Marnie and Max stood in as their mom’s Maids of Honour while Dexter John and Jason stood in as their dad’s Best Men. They were overjoyed because instead of destroying one family to build another back up, they were creating something entirely new.
Harriet Marnie would always be thankful for her training coming in to protect her little brothers, but she would never forgive the Court of Owls for what they did, and the moment Max had the proper training under his belt she would do what had to be done to protect not only her little brothers but also her family.
43 notes · View notes
stxleslyds · 3 years
Note
Hard agree that Jason has no good reason to be in the Batfam. As much as DC and the fandom (including myself) want to see Jason in the Batfam, there is no logical reason for him to be. Bruce thinks it's always wrong to kill. Jason thinks it's sometimes right to kill. It's a dichotomy. There is no good reason for these characters to get along. To have Jason be in the Batfam would require erasing UtRH from continuity and rewriting Jason's entire reason for becoming Red Hood in the first place.
Hi!
I believe it does erase the end of UtRH, looking at it from Jason’s pov Bruce chose the Joker living over the probability of Jason surviving the blast of the explosion, so I honestly think that after that Jason would just cut ties with Bruce/Batman (imagine UtRH Jason slapping a bat symbol on his chest, he would never), but I also think that a bigger problem is fanon concepts/narratives being included in comics.
Fanon doesn’t belong in comics. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fanon a lot, mostly when it comes to art; Fanon gives fans the opportunity to mix things up and create their head canons and universes and I love that but fanon characterizations hurt comic characterizations when they are included in comics and when they are treated by fans as canon.
When you are first introduced to this fandom characterizations are very wild, you grow accustomed to fanon and when you start reading comics your world is suddenly turned upside down. The same happens when you are a comic reader first and then you join the fandom, I have experienced both of these situations and it’s confusing and can put you off from liking a character.
I am sorry that I am using your ask to rant but the subject of where Jason stands within the DC universe and the Batfamily is one that I love to explore.
I have said this before but I think that Under the Red Hood was something DC couldn’t handle, the characterization of Jason Todd as Red Hood was something quite unique and bold. Jason Todd who used to work with the guy that is completely against killing and using guns is back from the dead and is doing exactly that, killing people and using guns.
It was amazing! The more you read about the Red Hood (because Jason hadn’t unmasked himself yet) you were able to understand that he had this big problem with how the Bat handled things in Gotham and he had a HUGE problem with drugs and especially drugs being sold to children.
The concept was super interesting. This new guy was also incredibly good at what he did, not only did Batman praise him but so did Nightwing (if Nightwing praises your technic you are doing something very right). He was good at fighting; he was very quick to use his gadgets and seemed extremely prepared for everything that could probably happen. The Red Hood was able to give Batman a run for his money, and that was impressive. Nowadays you just can’t have someone that is as good or better than the Batman, that’s simply illegal.
Hood killed but he had a code and he warned people of his intentions, he showed up in a warehouse where the heads of drug selling families/gangs were reunited (because he invited them) and drops a duffel bag with eight decapitated heads of their right-hand men and gives out a very clear message "if you are going to sell drugs you may do so but selling to children is absolutely out of line"
It was hardcore, and DC couldn’t keep it up, giving Judd Winick a book to continue developing Jason after the events of UtRH seemed to not be an option. Nobody outside of Winick knew what to do with Jason, they just didn’t understand what Jason’s Red Hood was meant to be doing.
Red Hood should have been the character that finally gave Gotham’s vigilantes DUALITY. He could have pushed the narrative of “Batman doesn’t work perfectly for Gotham as a whole” (because he doesn’t), the Red Hood could have worked in Gotham’s underworld while Batman handled the weirdos.
Imagine Drug Lord Red Hood controlling the drug trading in Gotham and making sure that kids’ lives aren’t ruined by drugs, him protecting sex workers and making their work places better. Him having a stablished set of people working with him that make sure that whatever the Red Hood can’t see is working properly. So many stories could be developed, people being “double-agents”, new non-powered characters being introduced, Black Mask and Penguin being an annoyance to Red Hood, maybe the Red Hood could want to expand his operations to Bludhaven, I would kill for a Red Hood and Nightwing team up, a good one, please let's not repeat Brother in Blood, that was just...unnecessary.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is that the initial concept of the Red Hood in UtRH is something too complex and interesting for the bland and washed-out DC that we have now, so I imagine that my idea will be absolutely out of the question.
Jason Todd not following the Bat’s rules is something that DC refuses to give us, if you don’t stick to his rules, you disappear off of the map, unless they can use it to prop up the idea that Batman’s way is the best and only way to do things. No duality allowed in Gotham, only Batman.
Sorry for the rant once more but thank you for the ask and I hope you have an awesome week!
130 notes · View notes