Tumgik
#she’s so pissed when it gets reversed when she detransforms
starlooove · 2 years
Text
Afro Latina flora is actually so near and dear to my heart
5 notes · View notes
ultimatetornshipper · 3 years
Text
To bee or not to bee - a Jasonette fic
@moonlitceleste I almost let this die, I honestly really wanted it dead but alas it was clearly meant to bee 
(WARNING: contains puns, angst, crack and fluff. You have been warned)
If you don’t want to read my sarcastic/funny/fangirl commentary, skip the brackets
I have another bee movie au, i didn't plan it ("I don't claim to be proud. But my head won't be hung in shame. I didn't plan it. But the light turned red, and I ran it. And I'm still standing. It's not what I wanted, but now that it's right here. I understand it. A story written by my own hand" as quoted from Waitress), it just happened and i just couldn't resist. I'm not sorry
So what if instead of dying Joker turned Jason into a bee. Because Harley convinced him and told him that people were talking shit about him because he's named the Joker and they don't think he's funny. It surprisingly works. (Obviously Harley was the one who made the plan and did the magic I mean really what do u expect of Joker?)
Ok so now Jason’s a bee right? And he’s like 15 because .~:°*plot*°:~.
They look for him and Jason’s like flying around like, “Guys! Guys I’m right here!” Poor kid. (I mean I would make it funny but like angst)
Obviously they don’t understand him because he’s a fucking bee and Joker cackles madly and Harley laughs too but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes and it's kinda that laugh u do when ur supes overwhelmed and sound maniacal but like soft (I’m a simp for Harley being portrayed as the complex and beautiful character she id leave me be)
Jason is very sad. And also quite pissed
Not knowing what else to do he follows Batman home, he listens to them trying to find him, watches Dick freak out and Alfred wipe a tear the rest of the family doesn’t see.
Jason tries to approach Alfred, hoping he somehow recognizes what happened
He doesn’t, Alfred closes him in a glass and paper and takes him outside.
He sneaks back into the manor and sleeps in one of the flowers (it's a red tulip because aesthetic) next to his bed. He cries himself to sleep. (Can bees cry? Is this possible? Is this like a thing??? I don't need sleep i need answers)
The thing is even tho he's now a bee, he still has the durability of a human, so even stepping on him won’t crush him and he still has a human lifespan
Because Harley isn’t a monster and what Puddin didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. (Simping for Harley Quinn strike 2)
After a while at the manor and following them he decides he can’t stand it anymore. Alfred has thrown him out three times and Dick freaks out each time he sees him as he’s a tad allergic (read: he would die if stung)
Which is how Jason found out that getting hit with a newspaper wouldn’t kill him.
He leaves.
He’s a bee and it’s not like he knows about a way to reverse it.
But there was someone who might.
He goes to Arkham.
Luckily, Harley was still there. (YAY we get to see mah gurl)
He flies into her cell and she just watches him, then she seems to click. She gives him a small smile, “Hi birdie,” (she puns, honestly would make for a better clown of Gotham and I saw an idea for that once where she steals Joker’s title once and I’ve been yearning for it ever since)
She holds out a finger and he lands on it, she laughs but tears come to her eyes,” Hey at least you’re not dead. That was his original plan you know? To kill you with a crowbar. I convinced him this would be a cruller fate. I guess maybe it is, but at least this way... Ugh how the hell did I get here,” (Harley angst, honestly it’s all just self service at this point)
He simply stared at her as she cried, and he felt his heart clench. From here she looked so sad... not crazy, just broken.
She took a deep breath and looked at him seriously, “Look kid, there’s a way to get you back to normal, you just need to find someone, they’re called the Guardian of the Miraculous. They can help, I don’t know who or where they are, just follow your instincts. And come say hi when you get back, yeah? I could do with the... healthier company. And remember, I bee-lieve in you,” (Gasp what a shock, you mean to tell me Miraculous magic is gonna be involved in this Maribat au. Well I never what a shock. Also puns. Oh and she’s so nice to him. We love Harley in this house)
He sat there and studied her for a while more, there was more to her than it seemed. Than what he’d assumed.
But for now, he had his own problems to deal with.
She gave him a small wave as he left. (Adorable)
He left and started considering his options, as a bee, it would probably be safest to stay inside, away from birds and things that would view him as a snack.
Staying in Arkham seemed like his best option, as bad an option as it was.
Most of the prisoners wouldn’t have a second thought about trying to crush him.
A strong scent of flowers and plants suddenly came to his attention.
Of course! Poison Ivy. (Round 2 of me simping for beautiful, complex, badass women. Too bad Catwoman ain’t here.)
He followed the smell to her cell and saw her staring out of her small window. He was still taking a chance, but she loved plants and flowers and bees were important to those, weren’t they?
He flew to the window bars and sat on one. The moment she spotted him she smiled widely, in a soft way he hadn’t seen on her before. (Ahhhhh my darling plant redhead. I love writing the Sirens as soft badasses. Also has anyone noticed how rare brunettes are in superhero worlds? Like both in Marvel and DC but like irl brown is like a pretty damn common)
She held out her finger, “Hey there, little guy. A little far from home, aren’t we?”
She had no idea.
He landed on her fingertip and watched in awe as a flower and a few leaves formed on her hand. She let the flower grow itself around one of her window bars and held her finger next to one of the petals.
“There you go, it’s all I can manage with my power dampers. I haven’t had company in a while,” she said softly as he crawled into the flower. He made himself comfortable.
She laughed to herself and he saw her shaking her head, “Talking to a bee, well, I guess stranger things have happened,” (yeah ur crush is dating a green haired murderous psychopath and you get beat up by a billionaire in a batsuit on like a biweekly basis)
The flower was soft and warm and felt safer than he expected it to. He found that he could move between the petals but decided to curl up in the middle. (It's a pink rose this time because fuck yeah flowers)
He slept better than he had in days.
The next morning he took his leave, stopping only at the manor to say a mental goodbye.
Then he headed off.
Jason flew a lot the first few months, our boy was smart at least, travelling with a cruise ship on its way to Europe.
It was Spring in the Northern Hemisphere so he had until Autumn until it was in his best interest to head south to avoid the snow. He decided to head towards Africa when summer started coming to an end. (I have no reasoning for this, just that I want to)
His first spot would be the United Kingdom. Then he'd go through the rest of Europe following his instincts.
At least it was Spring.
Jason diligently searched through England, Scotland and Ireland but found nothing.
By the time he was done he realized it was time to start heading South. He’d decided to take another cruise to South-Africa, where it would be summer, he searched through the country until April. He would admit that he didn’t feel drawn to anything in any of their 9 provinces so his search wasn’t as diligent as in England. He didn’t feel anymore drawn to the neighbouring countries like Namibia or Botswana either.
(Once again no reasoning for why I picked these countries, I mean the French Hugonotes went there when they were fleeing from the French Catholics who wanted them dead so I guess I could make up some bullshit about Mari having an ancestor in common with someone there or maybe it was just the ship he could easiest get access I don’t know, you make something up)
Which was why he decided to go back to Europe as soon as April hit.
He hitched another ride on a cruise headed for France.
It’s been a year since he got turned into a damn bee.
He was sixteen now and while he’d seen some amazing things all through South-Africa (a place that proves that humans really do have a weirdly obvious way of naming things I mean the Amazon river and Chad Lake are just more examples really) as well as the United Kingdom, all he really wanted was to go back home, to be human again.
When he gets there he diligently makes his way through France, eventually arriving in Paris.
He lands on the tip top of the Eiffel Tower. As in the point of the antenna because why not.
During his year he realized that birds and other animals tended to avoid him, sensing his strangeness so that was at least one positive.
He stared out over the city. Well, the one good thing about this was definitely the views he’s been allowed to see.
That was until a massive explosion hit.
“What the fuck?” he said out loud, searching for the source. No one understood him, human or bee, but talking to himself reminded him of his humanity.
He found the source of the explosion but just as he started flying to its general direction, a blinding white light shone followed by a horde of ladybugs that were fixing everything that was wrong. (Imagine how scary this would lowkey be irl tho? Just a shit ton of Ladybugs descending on Paris my dude)
He decided that he needed a night’s sleep before he could even begin an attempt at deciphering what had just happened. He flew lower, finding a nice little balcony right above a bakery. And it had flowers. (I’ll give u five seconds to guess who this balcony belongs to)
He flew down, exploring.
He turned around when he heard a loud thump from behind him. What appeared to be a super heroine in red spandex with black spots had landed on the balcony.
She detransformed and started to talking to a floating bug- fairy thing. Strange. Though it wasn’t like he could judge, as an ex superhero sidekick who was thought to be dead but was actually a bee.
She disappeared down her trapdoor and he made himself comfortable in one of her flowers.
He slept soundly until somewhere during a night another thump woke him. He looked out of his sleeping spot to see a cat superhero stand on her balcony. He leaned down and knocked on her small trapdoor.
Ah, a teammate of hers, they were probably meeting about something, he thought as he heard her open up.
It didn’t take him long to realize that even though they were teammates, the cat, Chat Noir he later learned, was not aware of this fact.
Oh this was rich.
He couldn’t bee-lieve his eyes. (ok so Jason used self-referential puns but can you really blame him? It’s really just me and my pun problem so don’t blame the kid)
He was going on and on about his feelings for Ladybug, the girl’s hero form, that were clashing with his feelings for another girl he fenced with, while she listened, clearly fed up with it.
He also claimed that he thought that maybe they were one and the same. Which, to Jason, was hilarious as he was literally saying this to the actual Ladybug’s face.
Marinette- he learned from the Cat’s ongoing blabbering, he was a real blab-bee mouth, - was clearly tired, nodding half asleep, probably having heard it all before.
When he finally left Jason went to sleep again, incredibly amused and even more thankful that he was fluent in French. ( u think this is plot convenience? Just u wait mah dude iz about to get worse)
The next morning he decided to follow her to school. Which was how he learned of her huge crush on a boy named Adrien Agreste.
After learning the boy could fence thanks to Marinette’s obsession interest in him, he got suspicious.
Could it really bee? (not a typo)
After seeing the boy transform a month or two later for patrol he laughed like he hadn’t for over a year. It very much was. He'd spent the time staying on Marinette's balcony and decided to stay another week before moving on and continuing his search, after all, he couldn't stop now that he finally felt like he was getting close.
The next day she got home crying, claiming that Adrien had started dating someone else.
Kagami, she called the girl. Probably the fencer if he had to place a bet.
“I’m sorry, Marinette,” Tikki told the girl.
“That boy's an idiot,” he said, speaking his mind, another thing he’d gotten use to being allowed to do without consequence.
Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin, she looked around and he realized that she could hear him. He hadn’t really spoken too much before, at least not when she was around. He was usually content with watching her do whatever she was doing that day.
“Tikki, did you hear that?” she asked, Tikki nodded, her eyes landing on him.
“Oh,” the kwami said softly, flying over to him, “Oh, you poor thing, who did this to you?” (Tikki is the first ever mom friend and u can fight me on this)
He stared up at her, flying so that they were eye level.
Marinette gaped at them, heartbreak seemingly forgotten, “Tik- Tikki, are- who are you talking- are you talking to a – Tikki is that a bee?!” she finally spluttered out.
“No,” Tikki said, studying him, he felt his heart twist in hope and his stomach roll in surprise. Did she know?
“I mean yes, but no. He’s a boy whose been turned into a bee,” Tikki explained, turning back to Marinette.
“Oh,” Marinette said softly, turning to him. She held her hand out and after some hesitation he landed on her finger. She looked at him then back to Tikki.
How did they know? Would he really be that lucky? Was this real?
“Uhm, how?” she said, staring at him in disbelief. He tried shrugging but realized he couldn’t anymore- beecause of his- well if you haven’t caught on to the fact that he’s a bee by now you should really start from the beginning of this story.
“I don’t know, but Joker and Harley Quinn were involved,” he said.
Marinette stared at him in disbelief, blinking a few times. She sat in shock a few moments longer. (Our darling is an awkward lil bean, and while in media awkward is portrayed as cute, irl it isn’t, it’s just well… awkward. And we’re writing a serious and realistic fic about this sidekick of guy who wears a batsuit/billionaire's ward getting turned into a bee and falling in love with a magical girl fighting a butterfly man- none of this unrealistic nonsense)
Tikki flew over and sat on Marinette’s shoulder while her holder processed the information, the kwami stared at him sweetly, “What’s your name?”
He swallowed, he hadn’t said his name in ages, it stirred up something (emotion, it’s called emotion, Jason, you know? The thing Batman can’t process??) in him, “Jason Todd,”
Marinette seemed to finally snap out of her daze, “That sounds American. Are you American? Wait if Joker and Harley are involved then you’re probably from Gotham. Are you? Wait I’ve seen the name Jason Todd somewhere. Weren’t you some rich guy’s ward? It was all over the news last year, Alya wouldn’t stop talking about it for a month, she had a million theories. He was – you were announced dead two months after Robin was taken captive by Joker, everyone thought he was – you were killed. Joker made outrageous claims as they arrested him... saying that they’d never find Robin... that he’d all but disappeared in thin air... that he wouldn’t be the only one wearing stripes... I remember because he put a really weird emphasis on the words be and stripes and...,” her eyes widened and she gasped as she looked at him in what could only be described as pure shock. (Yes this happens, people can talk for this long and since I personally know headcannon that Marinette is ADHD this long ass paragraph is just another Tuesday bud)
He sat there, surprised that she figured it all out so quickly. (yeah bub it’s called plot convenience and it’s because of me, the writer, I don’t wanna focus on secret ID shenanigans, I got other plans for yall, also Mari is smart, don’t underestimate her)
“You’re Robin,” she breathed, “they turned you into a bee. Wait- How the hell did they turn you into a bee?!”
He chuckled, “Bee-lieve me I’ve been asking myself that question for more than a year,”
She bit her lip, seemingly contemplating his words and ignoring his pun, “Tikki do you know anything that could help? Do you think Miraculous magic-,”
He felt his heart stop, he flew up to her face, flying at eye level, “Wait, did you just say Miraculous? Harley said if I could find the Guardian of the miraculous, they could help me, do you know where they are? I’ve been looking for so long,” (‘°;~*.plot convenience.*~;°’)
Marinette blinked at him and Tikki's face dawned with realization.
“I’m the guardian of the miraculous,” Marinette said softly, “Tikki, that means I can help him, right?”
Tikki nodded and he had to dial down the hope in his heart because the look on her face told him there was a Kim Kardashian sized butt on the way.
“We can help him, but we’re gonna have to wait. (don’t look at me like that, do u want them to have time to bond or not?) You’re not trained enough to pull it off yet. If you were to do it now, all three of us would be out of commission for far too long, especially with Hawkmoth on the prowl,” Tikki said.
They must’ve been able to sense his sadness because they were staring at him with an incredible amount of pity. The amount was quite unsettling actually and he suddenly felt a primal like urge to pun. (An extract from my book: “My unhealthy coping mechanisms and how to use them,” specifically Chapter 8: “Humor hides the pain”)
Suddenly Tikki’s face lit up, the whiplash of her expression change throwing any notion of punning out the window.
“Well, there’s one thing we could do,” she said, excitedly, zipping buzzing around “If he wears a miraculous, he'll return back to human form while transformed,”
Marinette perked up at the idea, but confusion soon overtook her features, “But Tikki, most of the miraculous are bigger than he is,”
Tikki waved her away,” It’s fine it’ll work,”
“Ok,” Marinette said after a bit of thought. She stood and he followed while she started climbing down her skylight,” I’m thinking you can try each of them out for different patrols and then we’ll see which one matches you best. This could be fun, having some fun sized company while figuring out how to defeat Hawkmoth,”
He laughed, flying near her ear, “Fun sized, huh? I’ll have you know I’m considered tall in human form, unlike some of us,”
She laughed and rolled her still tear stained eyes, and so, the beginning of a bee-autiful friendship bloomed.
Marinette walked to her closet and Jason took in her room. It was very pink, but in a well-balanced way - it wasn’t completely overbearing. His eye caught on a few pictures of Adrien Agreste on her wall but figured now wouldn’t be a great time to bring it up. (Look he’s already more emotionally aware, #foreshadowing of character development)
She removed a big box from her closet. She opened it and it was filled with what appeared to be a bunch of scrap materials. At the bottom she removed a bigger bundle of black and red fabric and he flew closer.
She put it in her lap and Jason had to do a double take when he realized that her hands were glowing and what the actual fuck- it was a box now -fuck fuck fuck- why was it a box? How? What- Jason was pretty sure he did not sign up for this.
She put the box down in front of her and to his relief she opened her mouth to speak as she lifted the lid, so he’d understand everyth- and its jewellery.
The box contained jewellery. Animal themed jewellery by the looks of things.
He then realized that these were probably the other miraculous.
She looked over each artefact before handing him the yellow and black hairclip.
Out of all of them, she picked the bee miraculous.
“Hilarious,” he replied dryly, giving her a look, he realized too late she wouldn’t be able to register- on account of, well you know… (if u don’t know by now, you don’t get to find out anymore)
She gave him a grin and replied, “I certainly think it is,”
Her teasing expression turned into one of worry, “I mean we could switch it out if it makes you uncomfortable-,” (being a sassy people pleaser with no filters really do be like this tho)
He laughed, “Don’t worry, I’m only teasing. What do I do?”
Marinette opened her mouth to answer before obviously realizing that she didn’t have an answer. She turned to Tikki and the kwami had a fond smile on her face before turning to Jason. (Just Tikki casually mentor- moming Mari because Fu is useless)
“Just step on the miraculous, it’ll sense that you’re human,” the creature replied.
When he stepped onto the bee miraculous, its kwami appeared.
Pollen stared at him for a few seconds before she realized what was happening.
After an explanation about her power set and what exactly he could do in suit, he transformed.
He felt his human body appearing. He was taller and more built than he remembered being. His flying clearly had physical consequences then, not that he was complaining.
His suit included a pair of bee wings. His hair was longer than he remembered it being too.
He had a black leather jacket and combat boots. With it was a pair of practical black leggings and a yellow t-shirt with three thick black stripes. (The three stripes represent each one of his families, the Todds, the Waynes and The Dupain-Chengs, because I can) He also had a pair of black gloves. His boots had yellow laces. On his face was a black and yellow striped domino mask. The top sat on his hip. The bee miraculous sat on the middle of his chest in the form of a broach.
He all but sprinted to the mirror. He stared at his face, his blue eyes and his nose that never healed quite right after breaking it that one time. His black hair was messy and stuck up every which way, his cheekbones were as high as always, and he had a little bit of stubble and it was so familiar and so new all at once.
He touched his face, barely registering the tears flowing down his cheeks and laughed in relief. He was human again. This was real! He could- he was closer to normal than he ever thought he’d get to be.
He turned to Marinette who was staring up at him in shock. He picked her up and spun her around, laughing in joy. And after a moment she joined in. He put her down and put his hands on her shoulders, smiling widely, “Thank you. Thank you so much,”
She smiled up at him, a slightly sad look on her face, “I’m sorry, it’s not permanent,”
“Don’t be sorry. For the first time I have hope. It will be permanent eventually, and till then, I have you with me, right?” he squeezed her shoulder, still high on the feeling of hope and warmth and familiarity.
When he was overcome with the sudden urge to pull her into a hug, he didn’t resist.
He held her close, resting his chin on her head, “Damn, I missed this. Hugging, I mean. I haven’t... it’s been so long,” (not that he got all that many hugs from Bruce “emotionally constipated” Wayne)
She wrapped her arms around him, “I can imagine,”
They stood there a while before the time for patrol came along. She transformed and they made their way to the Eiffel tower, where they met Chat.
The cat themed hero rose his brow questioningly, “I thought we didn’t recruit new heroes unless it was an emergency?”
Ladybug smiled nonchalantly, “It’s Guardian business, he’s gonna be a permanent fixture in our team for at least a few months so we might as well get used to working as a team,”
Chat Noir eyed him wearily and he stepped forward, sticking his hand out, “Hi, I’m Blackback, nice to meet you,”
Chat Noir shook his hand and gave Ladybug a sceptical look, “An American? Really?”
“Please Chat, he's not American, it’s just the glamour hiding his actual accent,” she replied simply, shooting Jason a worried look.
He couldn’t give away his identity, but he was also technically a bee, he didn’t really have an identity to give away. So, her behaviour was strange. Unless she wanted to give him an identity somehow?
He couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of patrol.
When they got home Marinette revealed that she wanted to give him the fox miraculous. If they asked Trixx she would be able to design the costume in a way that allowed him to look like a normal civilian, without the mask.
Trixx's glamour was also stronger than the rest so his true identity as Jason Todd would be protected.
And she could help him fake an accent.
Since Marinette was a year younger than him he could just pick up where he left off school wise.
She convinced her parents that he was an exchange student in desperate need of a place to stay because the person he would’ve stayed with backed out last minute.
They agreed easily and Jason decided to not question it.
It was his third family. His second if you only counted non abusive ones. First if you wanted one with a healthy family dynamic.
They got him a fake birth certificate and name. He went with the alias Thomas Grayson. He thought it was kind of funny, and it paid homage to both Bruce and Dick. It gave him something from home to hold on to. (Jason isn’t really salty about not being avenged in this au, he didn’t die and Talia and the pit madness wasn’t there to egg on his anger. But maybe if I ever get back to this au we could do a thing with it… guess we’ll have to wait and see ;-) no promises tho)
He built himself another home with Marinette and her family. And before he knew it, he was happy again. He felt secure.
Through the weeks, he ingrained himself into Marinette's life. In a blink of an eye, they were best friends, and he couldn’t imagine life without her.
He loved living with her family as she trained to be strong enough to turn him back to normal.
He grew close to Marinette’s friends and was her shoulder to cry on about Adrien. He and Adrien got along pretty well, and he and Marc and Rose traded Literature jokes. Max would join in when it involved Shakespeare.
Then Lila happened. (She’s a staple in Maribat fiction. U can’t have Maribat without Lila. Or well u can but that’s usually a very specific au)
Her lies started out simple enough. Then she started manipulating everyone and he, Marinette, Chloe and Adrien were one scheme away from being ostracized. They sat in the back row.
They ignored her sneers and let her lie to her heart’s content. Then one day she said something that made both Marinette and Jason freeze.
“You know, I was childhood friends with Jason Todd (I know she usually gets the names wrong but like her knowing the name just makes this next bit better) You know, Bruce Wayne’s ward who died a while ago? It was just so sad. He grew up in a nice family but his parents both died in a car accident and Brucie took pity on him. He even let us keep in contact afterwards, since our parents were such good friends. We all miss them dearly of course. We were neighbours the year we lived in Gotham, you know? We'd play every day-,” she started fake crying, “Oh it just gets too much sometimes,”
But to Jason’s shock Alya didn’t move to console Lila, in fact, she was staring at the brunette in shock.
He turned his gaze to Marinette to see the girl wearing the biggest, coldest, most satisfied smirk. She rested her chin on her hands and grinned at Lila in a way that made shivers go down his spine.
He turned back, this ought to be good.
And it was.
Alya absolutely lost it.
She ripped Lila a new one and frankly? Jason was impressed. (Alya has a temper and she’s a fangirl, and we all know how we get when someone gets something wrong about one of our hyperfixations, even if it’s an old one so like yall can imagine how bad Lila had fucked up)
When an akuma flew in towards Lila, Alya grabbed it, staring the girl down with a fury he didn’t know she could possess, “Don’t you dare! Do you think I’m blind? I’ve seen how easily you get akumatized and this time I’m not letting it happen!”
Of course, Alya then got akumatized but hey it beat another version of Lila.
Everyone made up but they weren’t quite as close as before. Their group tended to consist mostly out of him, Marinette, Chloe, Adrien, Kagami and Luka.
Other than that incident and akuma attacks, life was pretty good.
In fact, it was great.
He and Marinette would spend nights on her balcony, laughing and slow dancing. They star gazed and went on patrols. He helped her when she got nightmares and she returned the favour. They went on long walks and spent the holidays together. They crammed for tests and he played model for her designs. They worked in the bakery and hung out with their friends both in and out of suit. They’d joke about his technical bee-ness and he and Chat drove her mad with puns. In retaliation she’d introduce him as her bee friend to people or only give him honey and bee themed things. (ok this sentence sounds weird but I mean like when she brings them sweets from the bakery to snack on while working and stuff.)
And one laugh, memory and fight at a time, he started to fall. (I just want good things for Jason, and really can you blame me?)
Through the months, he kept up to date on the news about Bruce Wayne and Marinette held his hand each time a new kid joined his brood. She reminded him that no child could be replaced and reassured him that of course Bruce would want him back when they figured everything out.
And if he didn’t, she’d kick his ass into space, and he’d stay with her family in Paris- a family she made sure he knew he was a part of.
He helped Sabine in the kitchen and was the only one who came closest to beating Marinette’s Ultimate Mega Strike 3 record. Tom taught him to shave and bake. He was integrated into their family and they treated him as part of the family.
But even if they were giving him everything they were, he missed Bruce. And Dick. And Alfred. And Barbara. And Gotham. He missed them all so much. He missed home.
So, 14 months later, when Marinette told him they had a meeting with the Justice League about the Hawkmoth situation, Jason felt his heart skip a beat.
“What?” he asked softly, his eyes brimming with tears (Marinette taught him how to emotion, you see. So Jason is emotionally stable-ish enough to cry without feeling embarrassed about it), “I get to see him again?”
Marinette nodded and hugged him from behind, “I’m planning on telling him what happened. Is there anything you can tell him to verify who you are?”
Memories from a million years ago entered his mind, “Yes,”
She took his hand and took a step back, “And I think I can fix you before we go, I’m strong enough. But I’d still like your help in the final battle, I mean I know you’re going home but...,”
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled, “Of course, Pixie. I’ll always be there for you when you need me,”
He pressed a kiss against her forehead, a movement so familiar it was practically a part of him. He pulled her close and cried into her hair.
“What if he doesn’t believe me?” he asked softly, after a while, resting his chin on top of her head.
“He will,” she replied, tightening her grip around his waist.
They both knew she had no guarantee of that. That she had no way of knowing for sure. Neither of them did.  And it scared him more than he wanted to admit.
The next day they do the magic turning back thing. It freaks him out quite a bit but not as much as her revealing the miraculous freaked him out the first time, you get kinda used to the magic shenaniganary. They’re both passed out for an hour afterwards and when they wake up, he holds her, crying, because he was finally, finally back to normal and this was real and permanent, and it was over.
She cried with him and held him, and they then went out and he wore a shirt she made for him, and they got ice cream the next day. They celebrated some more and went to the park with the squad and they had a picnic.
It was better than he ever could've imagined.
While the sun was setting, they stood back on her balcony, where they first spoke all those months ago, slow dancing. He pulled away and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled at her as the orange light of the sunset shone on them. (So aesthetic)
“Thank you, Marinette, for everything,” he says as he rubs his thumb across her cheek. His hand holding her face. She puts her hand over his and closes her eyes, savouring the moment.
She opened her eyes again and smiled, “I’d do it again and more, if it meant I’d get to be with you,”
He started leaning down, “If I lost you, I’d fly all over the world just to find you again,”
She raised to her tip toes, faces millimetres from one another, blue bells meeting ice, “So it was all worth it in the end?”
He moves closer, eyes searching hers. “Definitely,” he breathes.
She closes the distance, and he picks her up and spins her around. They break apart and their laughter fills the air.
(now that’s enough fluff, allow me to drown you in angst)
The next day they stood on the Eiffel tower. She took his hand, “Let’s recap. I go in, we have our Hawkmoth meeting, then I ask if I can speak to Batman and Nightwing alone. Then I tell them I found you, then I give them – are you sure it’s necessary for me to give them your blood, hair and a cheek swab? Isn’t that overkill?” (Batman is serious about his no kill rule, but he’s also serious about his there’s no such thing as overkill rule)
He shook his head and she sighed, “Okay. Then I give him means to contact me and I come back. Now remember they might take a while to process and they won’t necessarily call immediately-,”
“What if they never call?” he asked, gripping her hand tightly.
She ran her finger softly through his hair, “Then you have us to help you get through it,”
He nodded, she kissed his cheek and stepped through the portal with Queen Bee, Chat Noir and Viperion. He and Ryuuko stayed behind as backup, he wielded the Fox miraculous these days, but kept the name Blackback, always wearing a black leather jacket no matter the transformation.
He and Ryuko discussed fighting styles, she was kindly trying to distract him, and if it had been anything else he needed distracting from, it would’ve worked.
So passed the slowest forty-five minutes of his life. Chat Noir and Queen Bee exit a portal and so the wait for Marinette and Luka began.
She and Bruce were talking now. Bruce would know he was alive. This was make or break for him. Luka was nearby to act as back up worst-case scenario.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, followed by someone taking and rubbing circles on his back. He looked down to see Ryuuko on his one side and saw Chat Noir on his other.
“We’ve got you,” Chloe said standing in front of him, hand on his unoccupied shoulder.
He swallowed and nodded. She squeezed his upper arm and met his gaze, “Breathe, you’re safe, honey,”
So, 30 more minutes pass. They sit down and somewhere along the line Chat goes and grabs a dozen croissants from the bakery.
In another situation he might’ve laughed. He’d baked this morning’s batch and now he got to eat some of it for free, of course, technically he could get others for free too but-
The portal opened behind them and Ladybug and Viperion stepped out. He noted that she didn’t have the bag of his DNA with her anymore.
She smiled softly at him, “Now we wait,”
And wait they did.
They waited two weeks.
And then the burner phone that's number they'd given Bruce rang.
Jason froze, Marinette jumped up and ran to get it.
He couldn't move as she walked over and put the phone on speaker, she grabbed his hand and he held onto her for dear life.
"We can both hear you now, Nightwing," she said.
There was a beat of silence on the other side of the line, "Can he- If you're- can I speak to him? In- um- private?"
Marinette looked at him, and he nodded. She took the phone off speaker and handed it to him.
He held it up to his ear and squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the circles Marinette were drawing on his hand with her thumb.
"He- hey Dick," he said. He heard his brother's breathing hitch, followed by a few seconds of silence.
"When did Batman find you?"
"25th May 2017,"
"Who's your favourite author?"
"Mary Shelley tied with Jane Austin,” he replied.
Dick stayed silent for too long and before he could stop himself the words fell from his mouth, desperation clinging to each syllable,” My favourite- my favourite playwright is Shakespeare, and my favourite school subject is English. If I could pick any day job it would be being a writer. My favourite colour is blue. Alfred has a secret fear of dolphins. You have had a ridiculously huge crush on Barbara for years and she had no idea, and I found a picture you drew under your old room's bedside table of you two getting married. I folded the picture up and hid it in a small box of memories I kept in the farthest corner of my closet under clothes I never wore. I have a round scar on the lower left side of my back where Willis Todd burned me with a cigarette when I was 5 that you don’t know I know you know about. My first Christmas at the manor you found me in the rose garden cutting a few off to take to my mother's grave and I was terrified that you would yell at me but instead you drove me to the graveyard and that was the day I decided to give you a real chance. I despise carrots but I eat them when Alfred makes them because I don't want to be a burden. And I-," he choked on a sob- when had he started crying?
He took a shuddering breath, and swallowed some of his tears, trying to make sure the words got out right, "I've missed you guys for every single second that I've been gone,"
His stomach tied itself up in a million knots as the silence stretched on. He could hear Dick moving the phone.
"Can I speak to Ladybug again please?" A female voice he didn't recognize said.
He handed the phone to Marinette and pressed his hand over his mouth to try to contain the sobs. He felt like a knife was twisting his stomach. He couldn't even hear what Marinette was saying. (I’m going through something irl and as a result u guys get to read angst by the bucketloads and I regret nothing)
Dick didn't want to talk to him. He should've just answered the question, he shouldn't have given all the extra information. Now they were never going to believe that it's really him and he would never see them again. Maybe they knew it was him and they just didn't want him-
"Jason, breathe with me," he heard Marinette's voice. His eyes latched onto hers like a lifeline, he became aware of her hands holding his.
She took his face in her hands and rested her forehead against his, in a motion so familiar that it came as easy as breathing. Well as easy as it usually was to breathe, right now excluded.
After he calmed down, she explained to him what they discussed. They would go to Gotham and meet and discuss things from there.
They wanted to meet him, but they still didn’t completely believe that it was him. He knew this for a fact because they had organized for M’gann to be there to confirm what he was saying. (Yassss M'gann my darling girl, I adore out lil Martian)
Marinette had suggested that they meet in the Batcave in an hour. Everyone had agreed. He assumed she had a plan as to why she wanted to wait. And he trusted her, so he waited for her to explain.
“I want to take the team, as backup. If you’re not comfortable with it, I want to at least take Luka. I would suggest just letting one of us wield is miraculous, but his Second Chance Timer limit is an hour so it would be most beneficial,” she said, gesturing with the hand that wasn’t holding his.
He nodded, sitting up straighter, but not releasing his grip on her hand, “We can bring the team, it’s smart to have backup. Besides if things go haywire, we have Luka to stop us.”
“Then let’s go get our team, love,”
(oh, I should probably mention that only he and LB knows everyone’s Identities. Or well rather no one knows like officially. Like everyone lowkey knows everyone's and a few of them have officially revealed themselves to each other, but not everyone is officially revealed to everyone and Mari and Jason are the only ones who aren’t officially revealed to anyone else, it’s kinda like the vibes of knowing your best friend is queer but not saying anything because they haven’t officially come out yet but like you know because they ain’t nearly as subtle as they think. Like that aesthetic.)
Anyway, 50 minutes later, they’re all gathered on the Eiffel Tower. Jason saw Marinette give Luka a nod to reset his timer. Suddenly he was enveloped in a light with a scratch that wasn’t there a few seconds before on his cheek, his expression quite annoyed.
Marinette immediately furrowed her brows, “How many times?”
Viperion shook his head, “Don’t worry, only one so far, but they try to restrain us. We’re gonna have to try plan b this time,” Everyone nodded, they waited two minutes before the agreed upon time and Mari opened a portal, but instead of appearing out in the opened, they hid in the shadowy parts of the cave.
Jason used his illusion to hide them from any observant eyes and they spread out a bit. He and Mari stayed together, Cloe flew to get a higher perspective and hide Viperion on one of the cave’s many ledges while Chat just moved a few feet away to have a slightly different hiding spot. Kagami dropped into her wind form and was flying above them to eavesdrop, she’d go to Luka if she heard anything of importance so he could go restart again.
They’d be one step ahead of the Bats no matter what they pulled, after all, they had all the time in the world.
They watched them all get into position as time neared. Jason didn’t know all the kids but recognized them from the news.
Dick, Bruce and M’gann stood near the bat computer with Barbara – who was in a wheelchair but that was a realization to deal with later- and Alfred.
The minute they were supposed to appear Jason cast another illusion to make it appear as though they had arrived. As expected, weapons and restraints immediately swarmed on them, each kid going for a different miraculous member. Too bad the images turned into orange dust as soon as they touched them.
The tiny one in the Robin uniform was red in the face and immediately started throwing a tantrum, “Father! They’ve tricked us-,”
Before he could get another word out, Chloe mass-venomed the horde of kids that we’re sent to attack them. He counted Black bat, Red Robin, Batgirl, Signal and Robin. They were all frozen in the middle of the room and before the others near the computer could move, Kagami trapped them in a (rather large) ring of fire. They had enough space to move around comfortably but if they tried approaching the edge the flames would grow larger.
Batman growled and his eyes searched through the cave, but he wouldn’t see them, no matter how hard he searched.
Jason stared at them. Dick was also searching the cave, but he seemed to look more hopeful than angry. Alfred seemed his usual calm self and Barbara was glancing around the cave more subtly. He didn’t bother looking at the rest of the batkids because M’gann was staring right at him, staying right where she was despite her ability to fly.
“Hi, Jason,” she softly spoke into his mind, he felt emotion overwhelm him, she’d known him before everything, and she knew it was him and it was a lot.
He knew she wasn’t probing around his brain for information like he was sure Bruce had asked her to, she didn’t have to, she knew it was him.
“Can you please tell me why we’re surrounded by fire?” she asked.
“We have a time traveller,” he replied.
“Ah, not a fan of Bruce’s restrain and question method, then? Can’t say I blame you, though I do think you’ve proven your point,”
“You really think it’s a good idea to release all of them?” he asked sceptically.
“… Good point. Maybe leave the brood in the middle in whatever frozen state they’re in and just let us in the fire out. They really just think it’s too good to be true… Jason, I won’t let them hurt you,”
“Okay,” he agreed softly. He turned to Marinette and gave her a slight nod. She returned with one of her own.
They walked over to Kagami’s ring of fire and he held their illusion until they were right in front of it. He held on to it for a bit to make sure everyone else would be able to stay in position. Chloe would keep the cavalry venomized and Chat and Viperion would stick to the shadows, unless necessary.
Jason dropped the illusion and watched four heads snap to him. M'gann simply gave him a soft smile and a nod of encouragement.
Kagami moved herself to stand next to Marinette and turned back into her human form, glaring at them with a silent warning.
Their attention was elsewhere, though. For a long time they just stood there and stared at one another in silence. They studied every part of one another they could see.
His eyes caught on Barbara’s wheelchair and he felt ready to destroy whatever put her there. She met his eyes and he held her gaze. She must’ve seen something there because she gave a small smile as she allowed a few tears to escape her eyes.
“Miss Martian?” Batman broke the silence like a cheap dinner plate, shattering it in a matter of seconds.
“It’s him,” M’gann answered without a hint of hesitation.
It was Alfred that moved first. He took a few hesitant steps towards him and before Jason knew it the man was in front of him. Alfred reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, desperately studying him for a moment before pulling him into a hug only Alfred could give.
It took Jason a moment to respond but when he did he returned it wholeheartedly.
After a few minutes they pulled apart and it took him a moment to realize that they’d both started crying. When he looked up Dick was only a few feet away. The moment Alfred stepped away Dick pulled him close.
“I thought you were dead, kid. I thought I’d never see you again, I thought I lost even more family. You were too young, too innocent. Fuck Jason,” Dick whispered, tightening his grip, “I’m so glad you’re alive,”
Jason held on to his brother and that night they cried about terrible endings and broken beginnings. They cried about lost time and found family.
It wasn’t the end yet, Hawkmoth was still terrorizing Paris and he had no idea what Bruce thought yet. There were all his other kids, his brothers and sisters. There were his teammates and the incredible story of how he’d been turned into a bee of all things.
They had a lot of catching up to do.
But just for a moment, a strand of a singular moment, he had his brother in his arms again and he was back home. His first real home.
Things weren’t perfect, as things rarely are but it didn’t matter. Because part of the beauty of life is how it builds and breaks us in a cycle of love and loss.
And that night they laughed with a lightness and joy none of them had fully been able to hold onto in years.
 I hope you guys enjoyed!
This is lowkey totally gonna be the au I go to when I don’t know what to write lol, maybe write a bit of what happens afterwards or a part of everything during the year he lived with Mari them or just y’know shenanigans
97 notes · View notes
lilietsblog · 6 years
Photo
Tumblr media
when I said I was going to go do that did yall think I was joking because I wasn’t
I know almost nothing about precure (which is what the character creator is apparently based on) but IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY COOL NEW MAGICAL GIRL OCS ANYWAY
left to right, these are Hana, Kira and Nika
Hana wields the element of Darkness: dampening others’ powers, literally shutting out light (she can still see / sense things herself) and occasionally influencing / dampening people’s thoughts / emotions. Calming people down, derailing trains of thought, up to and including actual memory wipes. Her power has pretty much no offensive element, but she’s a support powerhouse and can literally handle a fight by herself by slowly winding it down to the end
Kira wields the element of Fire: literally setting things on fire, raising temperature of an area or an object, manipulating existing fires; on an emotional level, distracting people and pissing them off (specifically as a power effect, essentially drawing aggro); and finally, speeding herself up and resistance to heat which  extends to her post-transformation outfit. Her power is very strongly offensive but her only defense (other than ‘offense is the best defense’) is mobility, so she still needs others’ support to be safe in a fight.
Nika wields the element of Ice: creating ice out of thin air, lowering temperature of objects and areas, resistance to cold; on a more abstract level, she can ‘freeze herself out of reality’, which has a number of effects which she can turn up and down to a degree: - lowering the impact others’ powers have on her, while her own power remains at the same strength if a bit more difficult to control; - making herself harder to both notice and remember, ‘fading’ out of reality on perception level; - reducing the impact of physical interactions with the world, up to being able to literally pass through solid objects. Her power is versatile both offense and defense wise, but has a number of drawbacks that make it her strong preference to not fight alone.
Their powers have interactions, intuitively obvious for Nika and Kira together (manipulating temperatures of anything freely in any direction, creating water) (Kira herself cannot put out fires she starts, only move them around, and Nika cannot reduce the amount of ice she’s already created) and significantly more abstract for Hana. The intertwine of her power and Kira’s enables them to heal people, and the intertwine of her power and Nika’s enables them to mend objects - and on the other end of the spectrum, she can make both Kira’s flames and Nika’s ice more deadly/injurious/destructive, basically reducing resistances living creatures and objects have to them.
Their powers ‘wind up’ as they use them, and the longer the fight, the bigger guns they’re able to pull, often surprising themselves (and occasionally putting themselves in danger). All three of them have a connection to a ‘plane’ of their element, and can fly by forging a ‘path’ through the air that brings in some of that plane into the real world, enabling them to move through it freely. Hana uses this ability most freely, in no small part due to essential harmlessness of her element: she can practice with impunity, without worrying about either killing something with frost or setting anything on fire. Kira makes up for lack of practice with enthusiasm, counting on the interaction of her power and Nika’s to cancel out her ‘heat trail’, and Nika prefers to stay on the ground or make ice ‘platforms’ to run/jump across (their inherent connection to their plane prevents her from slipping or losing her balance)
After a bit of practice with transformation, all three of them are capable of using their powers while detransformed; however, as far as the ‘winding up’ effect goes, they start at a very, very low level of strength - transformation essentially jump starts it, along with giving them stylish looks. There’s more to it, however: the mechanism by which it does that is by making them less human and closer to an ‘elemental’ of their element, which can have a number of drawbacks,which grow as their power winds up. This is particularly noticable for Nika, who is not a fan of the effect ‘fading out’ has on her despite appreciating its utility. The most immediate and noticable effect is on their emotions. Ironically, to a degree, this is most harmless for Hana, who simply becomes more tranquil and less capable of focus as a counterbalance to her perception expanding otherwise, and she actually likes this state. Kira’s expanding connection to her element makes her more reckless, prone to tunnel vision and less empathetic; she makes sure to focus on listening to her teammates’ directions as her power grows. The effect on Nika is weaker than the other two if she doesn’t ‘fade out’ and stronger if she does, leaving her more consciously aware of it: it dissolves her attachments and strong emotions, figuratively freezing her heart. For all three of them, going too far into this state can lead to losing themselves, their identities and memories, and while detransforming restores them to a baseline human state, it’s still a traumatic experience. As their control over their power grows, they’re able to access higher levels of strength with less emotional blowback, and control the speed at which their power ‘winds up’, allowing them to possibly spend days at a time at a just-post-transformation baseline or wind up to the highest safe tier within minutes.
Their transformation trinkets take shape of friendship bracelets, which change their design with time based on their growth / emotional states. Originally they were actual friendship bracelets the three made together. They were not very close friends, but their shared affinity for magic brought them together until they made a physical embodiment of this connection, which then became a physical embodiment of their connection to magic, too.
As far as interpersonal dynamics go, Nika is kind of the ‘center’ of the team in that she’s the person both Kira and Hana are unambiguously friends with. She’s sweet, nice and non-confrontational, and cares about harmony between the three of them more than anything. Kira has aspirations of a leader, coming up with plans and pushing the group to be more proactive, while Hana acts as a check on her overflowing initiative, holding her back and serving as a voice of reason, which frequently leads to tension between the two of them. Their respect for each other grows with time, but they still occasionally have difficulty overcoming their stubborn natures and communicating properly without Nika to serve as a mediator.
(without Kira, Hana and Nika tend to sit on their hands and wait for ideas/fights/initiative to come to them, and have to deliberately and determinedly collaborate to actually come up with a proactive plan)
(without Hana, Kira pulls pliant Nika along into all kinds of explosive trouble, that they coincidentally cannot easily mend side effects of without Hana’s powers, and have to go through a lot of trouble to at least mitigate)
Their transformation does not affect their facial features and body shapes (other than giving them animal attributes) but it significantly alters both their hairstyle and manner of dressing. Kira’s style is actually most similar to her post-transformation one, as she likes wearing girly but practical clothes, with cute wide skirts with modesty shorts underneath as a staple; but her hair is cut short, without bangs, which makes her look significantly enough different to be just short of unrecognizable from a distance. Hana’s hair is usually up in elaborate ‘dos, similar to Nika’s post-transformation one, and her parents tend to dress her in overly feminine (to her taste) jewel-toned clothes that look nothing like her post-transformation outfit. Nika simply has no sense of style / fashion sense / ability to dress herself, and usually wears jeans & cartoon t-shirts with her hair in a simple braid and her bangs clipped back. For all three girls, their post-transformation outfits are essentially how they’d like to dress if neither practicality nor other people’s opinions were a concern.
Their animal attributes do have significance beyond making them even cuter, and symbolize their connection to specific presiding deities. This connection is independent of their element and is in fact specifically the thing that allows them to control it, transform back and forth and not succumb instantly to all their personality and memories dissolving in it (which is what tends to happen to people forcibly connected to an element without an additional tether like that, sometimes reversibly and sometimes not). Nika and Kira are both in the domain of the Fox, while Hana is in the domain of the Rabbit. Fox is more proactive and generally benevolent, but can get them in trouble that requires Hana, backed by her more passive and disinterested (less helpful but also less obstructive) patron, to pull them out of.
Fox is the one that manifests as their ‘mentor’ at the very beginning, although she loses interest / forgets about them / gets distracted fairly frequently, so they still have to find their own path for the most part. It actually takes a lot of time before the girls even learn that Rabbit exists, much less has any kind of connection to their team (Fox neglects to explain that, along with many other things she deems irrelevant / inconvenient / funnier if they don’t know).
Yes, Kira’s hair really IS that color. People tend to assume she dyes it (yes, she’s like 12, but it just fits really naturally as an assumption about her that she would), but actually she doesn’t, it’s just a severe case of Protagonist Syndrome (no thanks to Fox’s sense of humor). Even though she’s, uh, not the actual protagonist, that’d be Nika XD
The setting is a fictional world in which magic / deities and spirits are marginally more known about, but the girls still maintain secret identities. Part of the reason is that the very first fight ends with their opponent promising to track them down and make their lives hell; part is that they aren’t crazy about the idea of taking responsibility for all the collateral damage (sure, they eventually get the hang of minimizing and mending it, but not immediately, and there’s always still some left). Hana’s powers are definitely immediately helpful with the secret identities, yes. Nevertheless, their parents figure it out fairly fast, but as they’re literally backed/guided by deities, don’t try to stop them. Hana’s pretend nothing is happening, Kira’s just take it in stride like ‘we always knew something like this was going to happen, she’s Just Like That’, and Nika’s try their best to be supportive and helpful, even if they take their time revealing that actually yeah they do know about her big secret).
5 notes · View notes