#spoiler: bruce was actually trying to ask jason to hang out with him | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

why-this-kolaveri-machi · 3 years

Text

it wasn’t power i coveted; it was acceptance.

Titans 3.06

y’know, i was just thinking the other day that 1.06/1.07 and 2.06/2.07 were the best episodes of their respective seasons, so i have great hopes going in to this one. fingers crossed!

as always, typing this up as i see the episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. oh! um... that was a Cold Open, all right. *nudges* get it? cold? because it’s snowing? and two people got murdered in cold blood? eh?

... oh, i’ve just started.

1.5. i wonder if “i want to be sipping pina coladas on a beach with you” is the new “i’m just one day away from retiring.” i was so on edge after that--i kept expecting that car to explode. even so, the way they died wasn’t an anticlimax: brutal, and quick.

1.75. so i’m assuming that’s the titular lady vic! this show better bring up why this doll was important or why these two cops needed to be killed, and not leave it to the ether like jericho’s little mindscape jaunt in 2.08 (i’m still dying to know what that was about???)

i love how deliberately unappealing wayne manor is.

(sorry for the pic quality. i don’t have hbo max! ssshhh.)

2.3. i love the many references to “home” and “our house” when they’ve been here for less than a week and saw one of their friends get blown into pieces. i mean, i unironically love it: home is where family is, after all!

2.5. i’d like to say that kom is playing some sort of long game here, especially given the build-up we had last season and some of the more niggling details this season: why did kom choose now to use her bond to lure kory when she’s been on earth for months? why did justin call kory now, just around the time that she started getting kom’s visions? and what about kom’s ability to exactly imitate other people? hmmm.

2.75. the reason i wrote i’d like to say is that i’ve made the mistake of assuming plot complexity where there is none; i was so invested in the jason todd orchestrated his own death theory for instance, when it turns out that oops! ra’s al ghul just happened to leave a little lazarus puddle in gotham, and oh yeah! scarecrow just happens to have a network of henchmen working for him on the outside and a fully functional laboratory and a weapons cache fit for a new supervillain in the basement of the high security psychiatric unit/prison that he’s in!

(no i’m not bitter, why do you ask)

2.8. iiiii don’t know what to say about the implications of sex slavery being a thing on tamaran, so i’m not going to say anything at all. for now.

3. gotham, six years ago... wasn’t it five years before s2 that jericho died and the titans disbanded? and when was the flashback from 1.06 where dick let zucco die? i think it was after the events of 2.08: jericho? i can’t seem to find any transcripts or reliable information online, so i’m going to have to rewatch 1.06 at some point.

(i love the old-fashioned batman music in this heist scene)

3.5. “security is a joke... it’s my way of keeping my dad on his toes”. what you’re an ethical thief now, like an ethical hacker? i don’t think that excuse is going to sell, barbara, on the day you do encounter a decent security system and your father is forced to arrest you.

(then again, gotham’s security is piss-poor. did you know that you could just walk into arkham asylum without any official clearance, ply one of its most dangerous inhabitants with contraband, and said inmate could get away with having an entire laboratory and weapons cache--NO I’M NOT GOING TO LET THIS GO)

3.8 so that flashback between dick and barbara was really cute! and also illuminating:

a) dick sounds so light, so... um. look. i have some apologies to tender to mr thwaites, because while i’ve always thought he does a fine job as dick grayson, i’ve never been terribly fond of his cadence as he delivers dialogue. it’s often monotonous, i thought, but then again, he’s usually delivering exposition or dealing with one soul-crushing crisis or the other. so i was pleasantly surprised to hear dick sound so carefree and alive in his conversation with barbara, laughing frequently, his emotions so bare and bubbling to the surface. it’s really a fantastic contrast to the traumatised and world-weary dick grayson that we see now, even more so than the costume department just bunging a backwards-baseball cap on mr thwaites’ head and hoping that will convince us of his relative youth.

b) and god, when he wakes up from that memory, all alone in his bed, bleeding from bullet holes in his shoulder (bullet holes that are--in a somewhat convoluted way--barbara’s fault)? yikes. it’s great. you have my apologies, mr thwaites!

c) can you imagine dick just... crawling back to wayne manor, trying not to be seen by anybody, shedding his suit and just... collapsing onto his bed without even tending to his wound? the sheer emotional and physical exhaustion of it?

d) it’s so interesting to see how barbara and dick approach the idea of legacy--a big theme on the show!--in this flashback. barbara is the one bucking the idea that she should follow in her father’s footsteps, while dick seems pretty content with the batman-and-robin setup, and even tries to get barbara to join their team (robin-girl. pfffft). obviously after this several traumatic things happen wherein dick ends up questioning and then resenting his role as robin, his relationship with batman or even returning as a vigilante at all. and barbara... ends up replacing her father as commissioner. it’s tragic, really.

e) the dynamic between dick and barbara in the flashback reminds me of how it was between dick and donna in 1.08 and even between kory and dick in early s1. it’s like having an older, strong-willed woman by his side means he gives over the steering wheel for a while and lets himself... unspool, a little bit. it’s kinda endearing.

also:

*pinches his cheeks*

3. you know, we talk about dick and Eldest Daughter Syndrome, and that’s definitely valid, but here gar seems to me the embodiment of it, with all the emotional gardening and firefighting that he’s expected to do. he’s kind of the guy expected to keep his shit together and take care of everyone else while they are falling completely to pieces, unable to carve out time to process his own trauma. he’s also picked up dick’s and kory’s tendencies to bottle up their struggles and shun appearing vulnerable, and he’s struggling in the shadow of both dick and kory undergoing acute crises, his best friend (and frequent confidante) on the other side of the world, and seeing hank die, utterly helpless to stop it.

i’m glad that he got a chance to tell dick even a smidgeon of what he really feels, and i hope this is at least a semblance of a wake up call for dick to actually sit down and work with the people he repeatedly calls family.

3.5. it’s heartening to see that dick immediately makes it his priority to go talk to gar. but don’t blow off kory in the process, man!

4. i’m really loving this dynamic between kom and conner--i get the idea that both of them consider each other as Unknowns, alien two times over. but conner’s only ever known the titans, who embrace being different, and kom’s only ever known... well.

anyway, kory is Really Stressed, and honestly? #relatable.

when you’re forced to bring an estranged family member to hang out with your friends...

4.5. i love that the titans are spending so much time in the kitchen. a real family!

5. jonathan crane is a creep and i absolutely cannot stand him.

5.25. how did he get a whole lab setup (in the basement of a hospital...?) with a bunch of whitecoats to work for him? how did he just waltz into the viewing room of an operation theatre when he’s one of the most wanted men in gotham right now? why is jason wandering around maskless when--presumably--as the adopted son of the most famous person in gotham he’d be a tad more recognisable than your average joe?

why do i expect this show to answer anything anymore?

5.5. that’s not necessarily a criticism, mind; i’ve said since season 1 that titans is very comics-like in this aspect, all about the Aesthetic and the splash-page splendour rather than the niggling unimportant details of how or when the characters got to said location. like. the camera gliding over the operation being set-up, lady vic bursting in and doing her murder dance (imagine the luck of the poor intern who chose this day and this surgery to assist) and jason, shocked and slack-jawed, framed by blood.

5.75. it’s a sobering reminder for jason that, though he chose this path in order to gain control over a world that seemed like it was rapidly spinning out of his grip, he’s only succeeded in handing over even more control to a man with an agenda that is very clearly not aligned with his own. he’s in too far to stop now, though.

5.9. i have a lot more thoughts about jason! saving it up for the end of this recap, though.

6. more kitchen time! i better see dick do some cooking soon...

(”our kitchen”! it still delights me! kitchens are So Important)

6.25. so much of dick’s issues have revolved around his relationship with bruce, so it’s completely understandable that in the wake of a huge crisis where bruce literally asks dick to replace him and be a “better” him, dick would default to all the worst things he learned from the man. and i’m glad kory’s having none of it, but come on, guys. the woman’s literally fetched her fratricidal sister out of a hole in the ground with no idea what said sister is going to do next and experiencing a burgeoning sense of guilt far, far beyond her history with the titans, and dick’s too far into his autocolonoscopy that he can’t see that she needs help.

6.5. “he services your urges”--well, as far as we know, kory is the last person he had sex with...

7. “i hope [gar] isn’t angry with me...” SIR! i thought you’d already spoken to him! smh, as the kids say. kory wouldn’t be needing to reassure you if you just took the effort to build two way emotional relationships with the rest of the team. @superohclair was taking about dick’s relatively low emotional intelligence? i agree.

7.5. “i got my own problems [...] you and barbara? fix it.” YOU TELL HIM, KORY

8. man i really like this weird, sad tension between dick and barbara--this sense that both of them are approaching the other based on how they remember them and are ultimately disappointed by the truth. barbara thought she could trust dick to... well, be a better batman, but dick has not only failed at that in her eyes, but repeatedly undermined her while exploiting the authority that she gave him. in dick’s eyes, this is nothing like the barbara that he knew, rebellious and ready to do whatever it takes to find something.

like. this show sometimes really hits me in the chest about the ways it shows kids grow into adults and into caretakers, and the way it’s stop-start, the ways nothing can happen at all for a long time and then it’s Crisis Central all at once and there’s no space to breathe. the weird sort of sadness that comes with nostalgia.

8.5. oracle name drop! i agree with barbara, any system that can just randomly tap into gotham phonelines is a monster.

8.7. (i don’t know if it’s my imagination, but is dick holding himself... differently in this episode? like that wound is definitely bothering him, and he’s running on fumes)

9. man, that was a really sweet scene between kom and conner. “feeling alien in your own world”... “not quite here nor there”

honestly this team runs on conner and gar’s faith in their value as a family, and it’s a sign of conner’s generous heart that he extends that opportunity to blackfire. this arc of maturation for him, where he’s now able to consciously choose which parts of himself he can use to do the thing he wants to so--save people--has been so fulfilling to recognise. this baby’s grown with the titans! and what he’s learnt is that people can get fucked up, but the titans is a place where they can be fucked up, and grow.

MY MAN CONNER

10. oh man i’m drinking in the gar-dick interaction in this episode like i’m three days into the desert and it’s the only source of water for miles around!

a) gar is absolutely not dealing with dick’s bullshit this episode and I LOVE IT. it’s such a far cry from the man who was idolising dick/robin back in s1 and expecting him to solve all their problems. dick is fallible, dick is fucked up, but he Tries His Best and that’s ok.

b) dick, huffing and puffing through that vent, unable to put any pressure on his left shoulder, trying to have a heart to heart with gar... fuck i love this asshole.

c) bruce took in a kid who was suffering... “and made him into a weapon”. well. i absolutely agree with dick that it was bruce who put these kids into these horrible situations with him and they came away with a bucketload of trauma to add to the one that they already had. but we know that bruce was really trying with jason, and at the end of s2, dick was coming to acknowledge that bruce had offered him something that wasn’t just darkness. jason’s death and bruce’s reaction to that shattered that fragile progress.

d) “gotham got to me too.” i feel more sympathetic towards dick running off on his own than most, and it’s not just because i’m an unapologetic stan. we’ve seen before that dick... devolves when overwhelmed, and he lashes out and makes ill thought out decisions and just Does Not Deal. it happened after hearing the news that deathstroke had returned in s2, and it didn’t help that everyone around him was reeling at the news, either. this time, however, he has his salvation in his family, and despite some stupid decisions like running off and kidnapping supervillains without telling his team, he’s been really on the ball this season. thinking clearly and logically, holding it together and working on a plan, thinking two steps ahead of the villains... yes.

e) gar needing to believe that jason isn’t beyond redemption... there’s a lot of blood on his hands, too, from when he was manipulated by cadmus last season. it makes sense why he’d relate to jason’s predicament, and i hope dick picked up on that.

f) my head just added a plaintive ow after dick jumped feet first into the storage room

i need, crave gifs of this scene!

11. *sits on hands* i’m going to talk more about red hood, i promise!

12. more gar and dick! is it my birthday??!!

(actually, according to the tamil calendar, it is my birthday! my “star” birthday)

12.5. excellent. dick using some implausible training that bruce taught him to solve a mystery? passing some of that knowledge onto gar? that proud smile when he sees gar perfectly execute moves that he taught him? MY HEART IS EXPLODING

13. aw, i love flashback!dick and barbara, they’re so cute <3

13.25. why does it not surprise me that the way he proposes a relationship to barbara is by saying “we make sense”? this guy can deduce exactly who was present where and what weapon they were holding from a garbled audio recording but other times he’s utterly clueless, and that’s a consistent character beat right from s1

13.5. so.... that’s why lady vic has it out for... barbara....? i don’t get it. it’s flimsy. but hey! the fun thing about titans is that i don’t have to get it. the payoff has nothing to do with the plot.

14. i can’t believe that barbara fell for that, but at least that wheelchair fight looked awesome, so.

15. oh yeah, i forgot that red hood bullied the mob into helping him and scarecrow... at least that explains the whitecoats and the elaborate set-up.

15.5. honestly i love how this dynamic between kory and kom is developing, though i wish more of the team would pay attention to it. time to call justin, i think!

16. i wonder what happened after that second flashback where barbara got hurt during that heist. did she give up on doing any more (maybe jim caught her)? was it because dick was called away by bruce and then the titans and got caught up in his own issues? maybe barbara froze him out because she wasn’t looking for the relationship that he was looking for? maybe the idea of doing that with someone turning into batman-lite was just... unappealing? scary?

whatever it is, it doesn’t look like dick ever processed the end of that relationship. it’s very intriguing to see where their dynamic goes next.

17. so.... what, did vic deliver some fear toxin to barbara? i... what?

17.5. and i TOLD YOU that they would never explain that doll or why vic attacked those two cops at the beginning! oh, titans. never change.

18. did jason just randomly have tim’s restaurant burgled? god, i’m feeling a bit nauseous... are they going to kill tim’s father?

18.25. i feel like the rest of the season is going to wrestle with jason’s culpability in the horrible stuff he’s doing and i’m already seeing that prospect divide fans. on one hand, his story is taking a lot of oxygen away from other equally interesting story arcs, and he’s done some truly awful things, like indiscriminate murder, threatening to kill children, blowing up hank, and potentially killing tim’s parents.

there’s something to be said for the kind of hold that crane has over him, and the so-called ‘anti-fear’ drug that he keeps plying jason with--he’s alone, drugged almost constantly (to the level of dependence), fresh from the trauma of being bludgeoned to death. he hasn’t conquered fear; he’s ruled by it. on the other hand, given that he’s the one character on the show given an obvious and identifiable ‘mental illness’ arc (maaaaybe dick too), one can argue that it’s irresponsible to show this progress into such violence: jason was vulnerable because he was struggling, and that left him vulnerable, but it took only a push before he became a fucking serial killer.

but that could mean we underestimate the degree of that vulnerability, and the mechanics of this universe where he fell into the clutches of the one supervillain perfectly designed to exploit that vulnerability. that helpless spiral into further and further self-destruction is all too real. it’s valuable to know that someone who has sunk that low can still seek help--actual help--and get it.

18.5. i don’t know. it’s not a question i’m going to resolve at the end of an overlong recap at 1 in the morning. i don’t believe it’s even a question that titans can resolve. but i am interested in where they’re going next with jason.

19. this episode was genuinely great! i’m pumped for the rest of the season!

#titans #titans spoilers #meta #dick grayson #koriand'r #barbara gordon #garfield logan #conner kent #komand'r #jason todd #jonathan crane #a byronic cupcake #badass strawberry truffle #manic pixie pop tart #a tragic jalebi #this is a 3k+ MONSTER yikes

49 notes · View notes

themandylion · 3 years

Text

[fic] With Head, Not Heart

For FREE DAY of JayTim Week 2021, have some backstory for The Robin & the Bat AU.

(AO3)

"Soooo."

"So?" Red Robin didn't glance up from his surveillance as his partner dropped down to sit beside him on the roof.

"So, we should probably talk about the elephant in the room."

"There's no elephant."

"There kinda is. Nightwing seemed pretty pissed with you the other night. Madder than I've ever seen him, even when I told him he should come back and be Robin again."

Geez. Red Robin still couldn't believe this little twerp had the balls to pull something like that. "There's bad blood between us. He doesn't agree with my methods."

"If you mean the killing people thing, I get that. Only you really don't do that anymore? Heck, not sure if you ever did."

Red Robin hunched his shoulders, tried to keep his focus on the apartment they were supposed to be watching. Batkid didn't know everything he did, between Ethiopia and now. He didn't— "Some things can't be forgiven."

"You mean like that time Nightwing freaked out and killed the Joker because he thought the guy had killed Spoiler, only then Batman brought him back because oooh nooo, killing is baaad?"

"Wait, what?"

"It was a thing. Batgirl told me. Plus, me and Spoiler dated for a hot second at one point," Batkid said, waving a hand like he hadn't just broken Red Robin's brain. "Though, honestly, I thought the time he hung up the fingerstripes and ran off to be Deathstroke's apprentice or whatever was way worse."

"How do you even know this stuff?"

"Like I said, Batgirl told me. She thinks it's stupid for you guys to have your heads up your butts about this kind of stuff when you honestly would get a lot out of just talking it out."

"Batgirl doesn't talk."

"She has very expressive eyebrows."

"You can't see her eyebrows."

"We hang outside the mask. Oracle's cool about it. She likes me."

Babs would. Red Robin sighed. "So the golden boy's had a few screw ups. It happens. It's not the same."

"It's totally the same," Batkid insisted, poking him hard in the shoulder. Ow. The kid must be finally building some real muscle, that had actually hurt. "You have your deep angsty death-resurrection-chemical slurry backstory—seriously, Batgirl knows everything—Nightwing has anger-management problems and an inability to maintain a healthy balance in his life… You both have so many unresolved daddy issues. You're practically the same person sometimes, it's stupid to fight."

"I am not taking therapy advice from a child."

"First—I'm fifteen, not a child. Second—just because I'm younger than you doesn't mean what I say isn't valid. Isn't the whole point of my being here, wearing this," he gestured down, hand lingering on the bat on his chest, "to help keep you grounded in the real world? Part of that's making sure you think with your head, not your heart."

Ugh, he hated it when the kid made sense like this. "There's… other stuff, too. Beyond the killing thing and… all of that," he explains. Was he really doing this? He pretty much had to, if he wanted to get the kid off his back. "I'm the reason Batman's dead."

"Wrong."

"You can't declare something wrong just because you don't want to hear it. It's the truth, and Nightwing knows it."

"If Nightwing thinks it's the truth, then that's just a sign of how much therapy he needs, which, spoiler, is a lot."

"I set things up to get Joker out of Arkham, I put him and Batman in the same room together, forced that confrontation and—and Batman didn't make it out." Joker didn't either, but only because everything had gone green as soon as Bruce fell. Jason hadn't really known anything for a long time after that. Until some twerp had asked him to stop.

"By that logic, Nightwing's responsible for Batman's death, because he didn't stop him from bringing back Joker. Heck, by that logic, Batman's responsible for his own death since he's the reason Joker was alive to kill him." Batkid leaned over, knocking Red Robin's knee with his own. "Look, all of us are pretty screwed up in the head—we have to be, to do what we do. Don't go making things worse by blaming yourself for the wrong things."

Under the cowl, Red Robin blinked several times, trying to clear his vision. "Thanks, I guess. Gonna tell Nightwing the same thing?"

"Oh, heck no. I've got my hands full just dealing with your issues, I'm not about to try and tackle his. Besides." Batkid smirked, slow and evil-like. "He's talking to Batgirl."

Shit. "Between you and me, I definitely got the better part of that deal."

"I know, right? Now, about this name thing—"

"You're not calling yourself Batman," Red Robin snapped at him.

"Wow, harsh."

#JayTim #jaytimweek #jaytimweek2021 #The Robin and the Bat #themandylion writes #(Cass is Batgirl and all the Batboys are terrified of her in case that wasn't clear)#(I mean except for Tim because they're bros but Dick and Jason are DEFINITELY terrified)

51 notes · View notes

marisandini-chu-blog · 3 years

Text

Bruce Wayne is a Simp for Bad Bitch

OmG I can’t believe I’m writing the obvious but the idea is in my head and I need a place to word vomit.

Okay, so it occurred to me that Bruce has a more serious and intense relationship canonically with three women, as far as I know; Andrea Beaumont, Talia Al’ghul, and Selina Kyle. All of whom are the epitome of Bad Bitch with the capital B. (Yes, I’m ignoring Rachel Dawes from Nolanverse. The only thing I like about it is the Iconic Joker. No batman movie is good enough without the Batfam.)

Why do I raise this point, you might ask? Well, that’s because I want to rant that Bruce, my boy, my man, my childhood comfort character is actually a SIMP?!?!

Like... I’m just... urgh.... okay... I am very vocal for a healthy relationship with commitment and based on mutual love and respect. So the fact that Bruce has only bad, iffy, or casual relationships really want to tear my hair out. And why my heart don’t want to ship with any of them, even though BatCat is one of my favorite pairing!

I am a WonderBat shipper because I love watching them in JLAU as a kid and even though I’m not slash shipper unless it’s canon, SuperBat made much more sense to me. Heck even a threesome with the Trinity would have been healthier relationship rather than whatever Bruce had with the three of them and here’s why:

You might not have heard of Andrea, but she’s canon from the Timmverse movie called Batman and the Mask of Phantasm which is A REALLY GREAT MOVIE. Totally recommend. One of the best Batman movie at all times (Yes, I say Batman movies not Batman Animated movies). Has great plot twist and good pacing. so Spoiler Alert! Andrea was Bruce’s fiancé, making her possibly Bruce’s first love, before his journey and possibly could have stop him from becoming Batman (I would say he’s a simp in this case, but he would have had a much more happier, healthy household so it’s not bad thing) if she hadn’t disappear for being a Mob Boss’ Daughter!!!

I repeat, a mob boss’ daughter.

And she came back only to be a mask avenging assassin that went toe-to-toe with Batman.

And she could have choose to stay with Bruce but she didn’t because she choose vengeance over him. Like.... Bats, you should stop with the “I am Vengeance” routine you’ve got going on because she does it better than you ngl.

So she left and I cried at the end of that movie because trauma wasn’t enough, you put heartbreak after heartbreak to my boy. Thanks DC.

Then there’s Fucking Talia Al’ghul which is a no brainer why she’s not Bad but BAD. Like, Talia groom Jason, supervise Damian’s harsh, brutal, and abusive training, control Damian through the implant spine to kill Dick, orders Damian execution before regretting it, DRUG BRUCE when CONCEIVING DAMIAN!!! And that’s only the top of my head.

And if you want to blame it on Morrison’s writing, THAT’S FINE. We’ve bitched about Tom King’s writing enough to know it’s valid.

But, BUT, bUt... it needs to be address that even before Morrison, Talia CHOOSE to stay in the League of Assassin. People can tell me that she’s a complex character that’s loyal to her father but love Bruce and that her upbringing makes her complicated or whatever. Nuh-uh. You don’t get to make Talia helpless when it suited you. Talia is a fucking Bad Bitch (TM). She’s been taught to do whatever the fuck she wants according to her belief and ideal. At some point, Talia knew she wanted to be in position of power in the League rather than staying with Bruce.

But it’s canon that Talia, if I remember correctly, doesn’t like Gotham or Bruce’s mission. She thinks being a hero is beneath them or whatever. And doesn’t understand why Gotham is special to Bruce. So yeah, you might not agree how Morrisons write her. But do not fucking tell me she’s not a character who will not be willing to do what she thinks it’s necessary to get what she wants, including training her son as an assassin. I mean, she likes being the Demon’s Daughter in the league. She may not agree with her father but Talia wants to give Damien what she wants. Power.

Talia loves Bruce. That’s a fact. He’s probably the only person that makes her feel like she’s a person instead of the Demon’s Daughter. Bruce has a knack for that. To make people want to be better, even just a little. Talia could have chosen him, if she wanted to. The fact that she helps him so much when fighting against her father numerous times is proof enough.

I'm highly suspecting the reason she stays is because she knows Bruce would always forgive her (SIMP ALERT) unlike her father who would straight up stab her if she ever betrays him.

I’m not saying there’s no love for her son, I’m just saying if she even looks at the batfam funny than I will raise my flamethrower on that bitch’s face. Because you can’t rely on Bruce on that. That man would give bullshit excuse for her or want to handle her himself because your “history” with her makes you entitled.

Aaaah, don’t you just love it when there’s a great villain you can hate on so much?

I'm not saying she can't be a good person. Pre-morisson made Talia more of an anti-hero. But I do like Talia "I'mma cut a bitch" al'ghul. It's just... I like ruthless Bad Bitch like her. Though preferably she could have balance it with more of her maternal side through Damian.

Okay, I’m getting off tangent. Now comes to my favorite girl. Catwoman. Selina Kyle. The famous ship of all Bruce’s relationship sans SuperBat.

I... am conflicted the most about this.

See, Selina is one of the few people who understands Bruce. Who was there when he needed a shoulder to rely on. Someone who doesn’t take Bruce’s shit, and one of the constant person in Bruce’s life.

But not... constant enough. Which is a theme of her, even in her fursona... I, I mean PERSONA, PERSONA!!!

Anyway, I love seeing these two broken people. One handles it with violence and vigilantism, the other through thieving with a Robinhood-esque thing going on. So of course they get each other. It always helps that they try to make each other better. Selina taught Bruce to be okay of being selfish of wanting to be happy, and Bruce believed there’s good in her that makes her feel she’s not a hopeless case, y’know? It’s even canon that in one universe, they’re married and have daughter, Helena Wayne. So... yeah? Happy end! (Until they died but that’s non issue here at the moment.)

Then Tom King (Urgh, him again) wrote Bat proposing to Cat, and by the time they’re about to be married. Selina left him at the altar.

So yeah.

But then they get metaphysically? Figuratively? married after the Flashpoint which they turn Thomas Wayne into a villain (At least make him from alternate universe instead of timeline!!!) and kill Alfred (WhYYYYYY?! Bruce suffered enough why do you go kill both his fathers dammit!!! Let the goddamn butler rest in peace). And basically Selina and Bruce promise each other forever. Which is sweet. BatCat Forever, am I right???

Yeah, here’s the problem. (And I’m just nitpicking here, okay). For all Tom King’s character assassination of Bruce, he did Selina right in one thing. Which is the fact she doesn’t like being tied down by anything.

If Talia puts importance in power. Selina puts importance in freedom and her self-independence.

I remember as a kid watching BTAS, that Selina didn’t want a relationship with batman if it meant changing who she is. So when Selina left the altar, I wasn’t surprise at the news. Then she actually agreed to marry him, only this time, she didn��t need a judge or a paper to make the marriage legit, y’know. And I thought, yeah that’s so her.

But the thing is Bruce. Accepts. Her. Every. Single. Time.

Without a single thought. She asked, “Do you still want to get married?” and he asked “When?”

Even though it’s not the first that Cat leaves him hanging.

Tell me he’s not a simp for that.

It’s great that he accepts her for everything she is. But I’m conflicted because Selina stays static. She stays with the cat theme in the fact she doesn’t want to held back by anything. She takes what she wants. She loves who she loves. And no one was gonna change her. But then where’s the character growth?

Is it regressive of me to think Selina should be ‘tied down’ or express commitment when she never has been tied down before even though she loves Bruce?

Is it not-feminist of me to think Selina has to change herself for a man?

I just don’t like the fact Bruce and Selina enables their masked persona. Their relationship is strongly base on their cat-and-mouse chase. They nicknamed each other “Bat” and “Cat” for God’s sake. Even though yes, it’s canon that “Batman” and “Catwoman” is their real selves and their civilian life is their masks. Heck, she didn’t go for the altar because she believed (though manipulated) that making Bruce happy would make Batman insufficient, or losing him entirely (Thank Tom King for that).

That would be true, and stay true if not for one thing. Which is some thing what Bruce has that Selina doesn’t:

The Batfam.

Bruce’s real identity isn’t just the Batman anymore. He has to be a single father with growing children he never plan to adopt but did anyway because they needed each other. He can’t use his batman persona to be a father at his house, but he will when training them to be his partner. His family became the strength to Bruce’s fight for Justice.

Bruce is the Batman, but he’s not everything who he is. Selina is supposed to be part of the batfamily yet sadly, I haven’t read or watch anything that has her interact with them in a positive way or actually bond with them. Heck, when Alfred inform the proposal to the batfam they were shocked and thought it was a bad idea even (And they’ve known her for almost half their life by the way.)

The fact that Tom King implied Bruce was never happy or wasn’t happy enough without marrying Cat when his Batfam should be the source of his pride and joy?! Apparently family means nothing to Batman. Woah DC, what a great message you’re sending here.

I guess that’s why, I was a bit iffy when Selina “marriage” with Bruce isn’t official. Because she commits to the man but she doesn’t say she’ll commit to the family (though I suppose it could be imply or I just forget stuff). The batkids are grown up enough that they don’t really need a maternal figure, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need more emotionally available people in the family. And that I haven’t seen much of her taking effort to bond with the people that’s the most important to Bruce.

It just makes her want to commit to Batman instead of Bruce Wayne, in my eyes I guess.

So yeah, that’s why Wonderbat and Superbat makes more sense to me. Because they’ll make an effort to be THERE for the family and they’ll be just generally be a healthier relationships because, again, emotionally available so they might talk when they have a problem instead of running off the altar when you think a Happy Batman is Bad Batman. But no, DC have to make Bruce is a simp and his life edgy.

Anyway, I might be wrong in some things because, you know. Canon becomes a blur to me after a while.

107 notes · View notes

kandoesfanfics-writes · 4 years

Text

Maribat Secret Santa 2019

@eve-valution, here’s your gift!!! I really hope you enjoy it! :)

Warning: There is a scene of physical assault later in the fic.

Marinette could feel her heart thudding against her chest as her anxiety began to claw at her throat. She knew that objectively that she looked perfect. Her dress had no noticeable flaws. Her makeup was on point, including her waterproof mascara and eyeliner. There wasn't a hair out of place. Her mask was flawless. Her hotel mirror didn’t lie. There wasn’t a single thing out of place with her outfit

So why did she feel so on edge?

It couldn't be because of her class.

While it was true that they would be attending the Wayne Christmas Gala, thanks to Bruce Wayne himself, Marinette wouldn’t be going with the class. She was going with Jagged Stone as his special guest and personal designer. No one in the class had seen her dress or her mask (as it was a masquerade theme with a midnight reveal) beforehand, so she should be unrecognizable. She would be able to enjoy the party without having to dodge her would-be tormentors.

"Calm down, Marinette! You look gorgeous. I'm sure you'll have fun at the gala. You're sure to turn heads!" a cheerful voice gently reminded her charge.

The little red and black Kwami was gently patting her cheek, trying not to smear her makeup. Tikki just knew Marinette would have an excellent time at the gala. She couldn't tell exactly why, but the Goddess of Creation learned a long time ago that she could trust her gut. Marinette would have a wonderful time with or without her class. Preferably without...

"Thanks, Tikki," Marinette sighed. "It’s just...tonight’s a big night. Uncle Jagged’s officially introducing me to the world. People will know I’m his designer...and it’s a lot.”

Tikki nodded sagely. She knew what her chosen meant. While Marinette felt very honored, and in Tikki’s opinion had rightfully earned everything, she still felt nervous about facing the rest of the world. Marinette knew there would be critics, there always were, but this was something entirely new. The unknown was frightening, and Tikki felt proud of Marinette for deciding to jump headfirst into this.

Marinette adjusted the silky black gloves on her arms again before looking at her heart. The little pink heart smiled at Marinette before floating over to sit on her shoulder. It was still cracked quite badly, but it had regained some color thanks to her platonic soulmates. She was nervous to have her heart come along with her, but she’d been reassured by Tikki several times that everything would be perfectly fine. Her little heart would be happier staying with Marinette rather than sitting back in the hotel room. Marinette would be happier too.

Tikki knew that humans could be separated from their hearts, but that it wasn’t healthy for them. Their hearts were the representation of their souls. To lock one’s heart away or be separated from it had potentially devastating consequences. While she knew Marinette would be okay away from her heart for a few hours, Marinette’s mood would surely tank the longer she was separated from her heart. Tikki wanted to make sure that Marinette had the best time at this gala.

Marinette looked at the clock before rushing to put on her black heels and grab her black clutch. Jagged and Penny would be there soon. Marinette looked at her phone to see Penny had texted her that they were almost at the hotel and to meet them in the lobby. Marinette’s class wouldn’t be leaving for another hour and were currently at dinner. There should be no one to see her sneak out.

There should have been no one to see her sneak out.

Unfortunately for her, there was one classmate that was not at dinner.

Adrien hadn’t felt like having Lila draped all over him during dinner, so he’d lied to Ms. Bustier. He told the redheaded woman that he wasn’t feeling well, and she’d let him go without a fight. The blond had seen Marinette leaving the hotel, eyes glued to her as long as she was in sight. He felt his heart pound as he wrestled internally.

“I don’t love Marinette! I love Ladybug, and only Ladybug...but Marinette sure looked amazing in that dress. Maybe Kagami was right though… maybe it's time I change my target.”

The blond knew their friendship had been rocky since the whole Lila thing, but if there was one thing Adrien knew, it was that Marinette was the most kind person he'd every ever met. She'd surely forgive him once he explained everything! And who knows… maybe she could be his soulmate. Ladybug was supposed to be his other half, but Adrien knew that there were more than one type of soulmate. Perhaps Ladybug wasn’t his romantic soulmate after all.

Adrien had never touched Marinette's heart before. He had been expressly forbidden by his father to touch other people's hearts because 'it could complicate or sour business relations'. Adrien had broken that rule only a few times.

Chloe and Nino were the only two people aside from his family whose hearts he'd come into contact with. Nino was silver, defining him as a platonic soulmate. Chloe's bond had been a metallic blue, signaling her as a sibling bond. Had because Adrien wasn't sure if it had remained the same. He hadn't touched Chloe's heart since Lila joined their class.

Who knows?

Maybe Marinette was destined to be his golden match.

If there was one thing Damian Wayne despised, it was these vapid charity galas his father forced him to attend.

There was nothing enjoyable about standing around while rich people faked basic social skills. It happened every year without fail. Bruce would show up with select members of his brood. Ladies would flaunt their jewelry, dresses, and wealth at them, trying to flirt. Women would surround Bruce, and he’d be lost until one of his investors or someone else came to speak with him. Women would also come and gather around the Wayne boys, and if Cass showed up, there would be some men too.

This year Jason and Cass were on patrol along with Stephanie and Kate. Red Hood, Black Bat, Spoiler, and Batwoman would be on the move throughout Gotham. This would leave Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Damian to attend the gala. Dick was going to be the only one safe from the clutches of the rich socialites. He was attending the gala with his wife and husband. No one would DARE hit on Dick while Kor’i and Wally were nearby…well so long as Kor'i was nearby.

Tim was flying solo for now. Time would only tell if Conner would show up to see him. However, Damian also knew that Tim would be more than preoccupied with the investors and other people inquiring about the company. Women would still throw themselves at Tim, but it wouldn’t be the same. Tim would easily be able to divert his attention to the business aspect while he would have to suffer like his father.

Since Damian was only sixteen, and had no real stake in the company just yet, there wasn’t much to talk about aside from his classes at Gotham Academy. The girls wouldn’t care about his schooling, so they would coo and clamor for his attention. They would tell him all about them and ask if he was dating anyone. It made Damian want to vomit.

He looked in irritation at his father before Damian demanded to know if he could go on patrol as well. Bruce shook his head before saying, “You know the deal, Damian. It’s your turn this year. Besides, you might have fun. Jared’s coming with his wife and his new designer. Apparently, his designer is a young lady your age.”

Damian rolled his eyes at that. Sure, he’d have a great time with some snooty designer. He wasn’t expecting her to be any different than the designers he’d met before. He was almost positive she would be full of herself, brag about her many accomplishments, and try to woo her way into the family. Just like all the others before her, this girl would get on Damian’s last nerve. He’d then be in trouble for insulting a lady’s sensitivities, and Bruce would pretend to apologize.

“I saw that, Damian. Jared, or as he’s now known Jagged, doesn’t hang around just anyone. He’s the only one allowed to be a primadonna, so the people around him are usually very down to earth,” Bruce said. “Give her a chance, please? Jagged said she’s never been to an event like this before. Besides, with masks on, no one should know who we are until midnight. Then you only have about an hour or two of the ladies trying to woo you.”

The youngest Wayne gave a deep sigh before telling his father he’d give the girl a chance. If she’d never been to one of these events before, perhaps there was still hope for her yet. Maybe if Damian kept her all to himself, she might be a bearable gala partner. He pulled on his overcoat before walking to the limo with his brothers, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law.

There was no getting around it, so Damian might as well try and have fun. Besides, Bruce had a point. Since this year’s theme was a masquerade, perhaps he could avoid the annoying ladies until the end of the party. He could walk around incognito to everyone but his family, and perhaps he could actually enjoy himself for once.

Well, Damian thought, what could it hurt to hope? ———————————————————————— The second Penny saw her, the pink haired woman cooed over Marinette.

“Oh, my little star! Look how gorgeous you are! I love the design! Jagged, isn’t she just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Jagged smiled widely at Marinette before giving her a thumbs up.

“Rockin’ outfit, Nettie! They’re sure to go wild for it!” Jagged said with a grin. “I’m lovin’ that mask.”

Marinette smiled before looking over Penny and Jagged.

“Everything fits, right? No one had any wardrobe malfunctions?” she asked, tense in her seat.

Penny laughed before telling her everything was perfect. Her mask was white with black around the eyes, decorated with pink lightning bolts made of rhinestones. Her dress was a mermaid style with ombre fabric. It started off at pink at the top that faded into black at the bottom. She was wearing the pink diamond necklace Jagged had gotten her as along with the pink diamond ring when he proposed to her. She had iridescent music notes sewn into her dress with translucent thread.

Jagged’s suit was an ombre as well except for instead of pink, it was purple that faded into black. His suit had similar music note designs. His mask was solid black with flames on it. Jagged wanted him and Penny to have similar designs as this would be the first event they would be attending as husband and wife. He was holding Penny close as he smiled brightly at Marinette.

“When we get there I’ll introduce you to my old pal, Bruce Wayne,” Jagged told her. “We went to school together when we were boys, and he was really the only one who thought me being a musician was a perfect fit for me. I’m positive he’ll commission you the second he sees your amazing work.”

“It’s really-”

“Now, little star,” Penny began, her tone warning. “We’ve talked about this; no more talking yourself down! You’re brilliant, Marinette. You’ve earned your place here with your amazing designs.”

Their hearts nodded eagerly from their spots on the couple’s shoulder. Jagged’s royal purple heart was holding onto Penny’s raspberry pink heart. Both were smiling at Marinette, reflecting their owners pride and affection for the young lady.

“Okay,” Marinette responded softly. “It is amazing...but do you really think Bruce Wayne will like it?”

“Of course, Nettie! Little star, that man can be surprisingly rock ‘n roll for a bigshot,” Jagged said with a grin. “Besides, you’re way too awesome for him not to like!”

The driver chose then to let them know they had arrived. Marinette looked out at the crowd as her anxiety skyrocketed. That was a lot of people...and a lot of cameras. She felt her heart burrow into the safety of her dress. She touched her face anxiously to make sure that her mask was still firmly in place. Reassured that it was, Marinette followed Jagged and Penny out of the car.

Only for her to be swept away by the lights and cameras. ——————————————————————— The press was there and were making a nuisance of themselves.

Fantastic.

Damian forgot how much he hated the press until there were cameras being shoved in his face. Even with his green cat shaped mask, most of the press immediately parted to let him through. He figured it was what Jason called his ‘murderous aura’ that made people move away from him, even though they had no way of knowing he was Damian Wayne. He had almost reached the door when his heart tugged his hair, making him look to his left. He spotted someone shaking in terror as microphones were shoved in her face.

She looked to be only about five foot, maybe five foot one in her heels. She was wearing a gorgeous sleeveless qipao that reached just above her ankles. It was black with the most intricate embroidery that Damian had ever seen. The bright red thread swirled into delicate flowers...and what appeared to be ladybugs on closer inspection. Her hair was in a bun with two delicate gold hair sticks as her accessory.

Damian could tell she was freezing, clearly not being prepared to be outside with the press for as long as she’d been. She had her arms crossed, rubbing her gloved hands against her bare skin. She was trying to answer one question until another reporter asked her something else, distracting and overwhelming her.

His jade green heart kept tugging aggressively on his hair, eventually flitting down to his sleeve. It tugged and tugged until Damian began walking towards her. His heart flew back under his suit coat the closer he got to the cameras. He took off his coat, strolling over casually to the young woman. He gently draped his coat over her shoulders, before smiling stiffly at the press.

“Enough with your rudeness,” Damian said as politely as possible. “Miss, why don’t I escort you inside? And please, keep the jacket until you warm up.”

The young lady looked up at him in shock, and Damian nearly felt his throat close. True, he couldn’t see half her face, but what he could see were two absolutely breathtaking blue eyes. Her mask was solid black, much like her dress, embroidered with the same red thread and design as her dress. She looked at him timidly as he gently guided her into the building.

“Are you all right, Miss? The press can be animals,” he said, arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. “Are you here with anyone? Maybe I can help you find-”

Damian paused as his heart peeked out from behind his suit jacket. His green eyes widened as his cracked and bruised heart gently pressed against the young lady’s bare cheek. His throat went dry as his heart shimmered gold. He saw her blue eyes go wide as well as she reached up to cradle the heart in her silk covered hands.

“Oh..OH!” she said in clear shock.

Her heart peeked out from inside her clutch, still trembling. Damian figured her heart was probably still stressed from the previous situation with the press. He gently held out his hand and watched as the pale pink heart warily floated into his hand. The moment it touched Damian’s fingers, it shimmered gold as well.

“Hello there,” Damian said softly. “It’s very nice to meet you, my golden match.” —————————————————————— Marinette felt like she was going to panic.

Jagged and Penny were nowhere in sight. They’d gotten separated when the paparazzi started swarming around her. She had cameras shoved in her face as people asked her a million questions at once. She could feel her heart trembling in her clutch as she tried to navigate the cameras and questions.

She could barely hear what they were asking her over the pounding of her heart. How in Kwami’s name was this supposed to be fun?! Marinette was freezing now since she couldn’t get inside. The camera crews were blocking her path, and she was struggling to make her way through. Marinette started to shake as she became overwhelmed and nauseous.

Then she felt a weight on her shoulders and felt warmth surround her. She looked up just in time to watch a handsome young man tell the press off. He had dark black hair that was spiked up and beautiful jade eyes. His mask was a dark green color, cat shaped with pale gold thread making a beautiful looping design on it. He had a strong jaw, and gorgeously tanned skin. He was built, and Marinette felt much safer with his arm around her protectively. He led her into the building without hesitation, taking her away from the flashes of the cameras.

She felt her heartbeat in her throat as the man told her to keep the jacket until she was warm. Marinette couldn’t help but feel touched when the man asked her if she was okay. He genuinely seemed concerned for her and was about to offer his assistance until a gorgeous jade color heart popped out of his suit jacket. Marinette nearly bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at the heart.

It was badly cracked and bruised, much like her own heart. Marinette felt it press gently against her cheek and watched the young man’s green eyes widen. Why were his eyes widening? Unless...unless his heart was reacting to her? Was it? Could they be soulmates?!

Marinette’s eyes widened as she reached up to touch the heart. She looked down at the heart, still a brilliant gold color, resting in her hands.

“Oh...OH!” she said shocked.

She watched her own heart peek out from her clutch. The little pink heart was still trembling, though Marinette couldn’t blame it. She was still rather shaken up after the whole incident with the press. The only thing keeping her grounded was the golden heart in her hands, and the arm that anchored her to the present.

She watched as the man held out his free hand towards her heart. Marinette was surprised to see her heart actually float towards him. It was watching him warily, but the second it touched his fingers, it turned a brilliant gold. She looked up at him, only feel her knees go weak at the expression on his face.

Those green eyes were locked onto her with the gentlest expression Marinette had ever seen. He was smiling at her broadly before saying, “Hello there. It’s nice to meet you, my golden match.”

Marinette flushed a brilliant red color before looking down at her shoes. Why was he looking at her like that?! He didn’t know anything about her! So what if they were romantic soulmates? That didn’t mean she’d fall in love with a complete stranger just like that! She looked back up at him to see he was looking at her with concern.

“I-I-I’m not go-go-going to fal-fall for you just be-be-because we’re golden hearts!” Marinette stammered, her accent coming in thick. “I-I don’t kn-know you!”

She braced herself for the anger that would come with her response. Chat Noir had always gotten angry at Ladybug for telling him that she would not fall in love with him. He would scream at her that they were meant to be and that she did really love him. He would grab her wrists and shake her, telling her to stop being so stubborn and accept fate. Chat had also gotten very cross with her for not letting him see her heart.

She’d told him several times that if she showed him her heart, then he’d be able to figure out her civilian identity. Chat had told her he didn’t care. They were Ladybug and Chat Noir, two halves of a whole, destined to be together for the rest of their lives. Marinette had responded that she barely knew Chat, and she couldn’t fall in love with a stranger.

“...Miss! Miss! Are you okay? You’re shaking,” a voice broke through. “Do you want me to leave?”

Marinette’s world snapped back into focus. She noticed that know her golden heartmate’s hands were resting on her upper arms. He was leaning over to look her in the eye. The worry was clear in his expression. He smiled at her reassuringly before saying, “It’s okay. That’s perfectly understandable. I’m a complete stranger to you, soulmate or not. If you’d be comfortable, would you like to accompany me? We could talk during the party, but if you’re not comfortable, I’ll take my leave.”

Marinette couldn’t help the look of shock that appeared on her face. He...he didn’t mind? He didn’t mind that Marinette wasn’t in love with him on sight? He-he wanted to talk with her? He wanted to get to know her? He would leave if she asked? Was he really that concerned about her comfort?

“I...could...you really aren’t angry?”

She watched her heartmate’s expression shift into shock.

“Red...why would I be angry? We’re both complete strangers to one another. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted me to leave, or at the very least, wanted me to take off my mask so you can see my face,” he said. “You’re my golden match, but if we aren’t meant to be together at this moment, than I can wait a little longer for you. Besides, not all golden soulmates end up together. Some choose to love others outside their bond...just because we’re golden doesn’t mean we’re trapped in a relationship.”

Marinette almost began to cry in relief. Her eyes watered as she realized this guy wasn’t going to be like Chat. He was giving her a choice. He didn’t look like he wanted to leave her, but he was giving her the chance to walk away. If she said she didn’t want to talk to him, he told her he’d leave. For whatever reason, Marinette believed him when he said it too. There was just a strong feeling in her gut that told her he wasn’t lying to her.

“...would...would you mind escorting me around?” Marinette asked timidly. “I lost the people I came with.”

“Of course, Red,” he replied, holding out his arm. “This way.” ——————————————��————— Damian was very concerned about his golden heartmate.

She was terrified after telling him that she wasn’t going to fall in love with him just because they were golden heartmates. She had zoned out after that, her blue eyes staring off into empty space. She had gone extremely pale, and her eyes were haunted. She had even begun to tremble, leading him to grip her upper arms and try to get her attention.

She was clearly thinking of something extremely distressing or trapped in an unpleasant memory. He called to her until she came back to him, distress clear in her body language. He tried to smile reassuringly at her while comforting her. Damian reassured her that he didn’t expect her to fall in love with him on the spot, and that if she wanted him too, he’d leave her alone.

Damian really wanted to get to know his golden heartmate, but clearly she’d been badly hurt by someone. He wouldn’t push her to accompany him around the gala if it was going to hurt her further. He didn’t want to hurt her...not her. He was sorely tempted to grab his katana and run through whoever made her so terrified of establishing boundaries with people.

Just because she was his soulmate didn’t mean she owed him shit! She was her own woman. She was free to do what she wished, with or without him. Damian would very much like it to be with him, but once again, he didn’t own her. If she didn’t wish to, she didn’t have to be with him.

His heart looked sadly at the girl when she asked Damian if he was angry. Damian looked down at her heart, which was holding itself and looking up at him with such trepidation. It made him sad, and his heart reflected that, looking up at her with such sorrow.

Who had hurt her like this?

Damian told her exactly how he felt about everything. They were strangers. He wasn't expecting her to swoon upon seeing him. He'd wait for her. He'd be willing to give her up should that be what she desired. He didn't own her, soulmate or not, and Damian wanted his soulmate to make the choice to be with him.

He'd called her Red on instinct, feeling it would not be wise to ask her name at the present moment. If they decided to separate now, the odds of them knowing who the other was and finding them again would be slim. As much as it hurt, Damian was prepared to leave in order to show his respect for her feelings.

Then she asked if he would take her around, and Damian felt a spark of hope.

“Of course, Red,” he replied, holding out his arm. “This way.”

Red took his arm timidly, but had a firm grip on him. She was looking around anxiously until they stepped into the ballroom. Then Damian watched as Red's eyes went wide, a smile breaking out on her face. She almost immediately released his arm to pull a small sketchbook out of her clutch.

Damian watched as Red flipped to a blank page, noticing the book was full of clothing designs.

"The architecture is very beautiful," Damian said, looking around. "The Waynes have their Christmas Gala here every year. It was a tradition Bruce Wayne's parents started."

"I can see why!" Red said enthusiastically. "It's absolutely gorgeous."

"Getting any good ideas, Red?"

"Oh, I'm getting plenty, Green. I apologize, but if I don't at least write the details out, I'll completely forget what I was thinking."

Damian raised an eyebrow at the nickname. Green? Oh well, Damian figured there were worse things she could call him. At least she was talking to him without fear…

And what a beautiful sight it was.

Red was much more animated now. She was smiling brightly as she sketched away in her little book. She even started to talk about herself a little. She mentioned she was a designer here as someone's special guest. She told him that she'd designed their outfits as well as her own… though admitting that seemed to bring back some anxiety.

"You are very talented," Damian said with a gentle tone. "That qipao looks absolutely divine. You did the embroidery by yourself?"

Red flushed beautifully at his words. Her big blue eyes looked at him with surprise before responding that yes, she had done everything herself. She then asked how on earth he knew it was a qipao.

"My mother," Damian replied with a shrug. "I haven't quite found a passion like you have, Red. I will probably go into business like my father before me."

"Your father's a businessman?" Red asked, slowing her furious pencil strokes.

"Yes, and so is my one brother."

"What about your mother?"

"...we don't talk anymore. She wasn't… she tried, but she wasn't the best mother."

Red looked sad at that before quietly apologizing for asking.

"Red, don't apologize. Believe it or not, that's the nicest way anyone's ever asked about my mother," Damian tried to reassure her.

That seemed to set something off in Red.

"What do you mean? That's the nicest way?! Just what were these people asking?" she demanded, her adorable accent getting thicker.

Damian laughed before quickly trying to change the topic. Red seemed to dislike that until he told her if he gave her an answer, she would be able to figure out who he was easy. Damian pointed out that if she wanted to know the real him, Red would need to talk to him without knowing his name. She seemed confused, so Damian explained.

"Not everyone gets to be themselves in their day to day lives. Celebrities, for example, have an image they need to uphold at all times or it could ruin their careers and damage their reputation. Some people you hear their name and have an immediate idea of who they should be based off their media coverage. Just because that's how you think it should be doesn't make it right."

Red seemed to ponder that for a moment before saying, "No names, no identifying information, but everything else is fair game."

"Sounds reasonable. What does your family do?" Damian asked.

"My parents are bakers. I think Papa was hoping I'd carry on the family business, and I do love baking, but fashion is where my heart is. I don't have any siblings."

"Want some of mine? I have four officially adopted siblings and a gaggle of people who might as well be my siblings. They're around our house often enough."

Red laughed before saying the house must be busy. Damian rolled his eyes and told her she had no idea. He nearly melted at her genuine laughter, finding her rather adorable when she was smiling.

They continued to ask each other questions, and Damian found himself utterly fascinated by the young lady beside him. She was Chinese-French. She was from Paris, and her class was here on a trip. She was sixteen, and in the French equivalent of high school. She had already won a fashion contest and designed for famous individuals. She was an only child, but babysat frequently. She wanted a hamster for a pet but loved other animals as well. She was very excited when Damian told her he had a pet cow.

He had also learned that she was being bullied. She admitted there was a girl in her class who was constantly lying, and despite that, everyone believed her and liked her. This girl had turned their entire class against Red. She’d almost gotten Red expelled, and that was merely the tip of the iceberg. Red continued to tell him about all the nasty things this girl had done to her, and how only one classmate knew the girl was lying and had done nothing to stop her. Red admitted that it was nice to finally be able to vent about the situation, since her class wouldn’t believe her and told him about Hawkmoth as well.

Damian quietly made a mental note to check the Justice League’s database to see if they’d been aware of the situation. If not, he would quickly rectify this mistake. After all, there was a super villain that needed to be stopped.

In return he told her that he wasn't originally from Gotham, but had been living there for the last six years with his father. He told her he was sixteen as well and attended high school. He told her about his pets, especially Batcow upon seeing her excitement. He told her about his day-to-day life, and they made their way over to the food spread.

Damian took turns eating with Red after asking the other a question. He found himself having fun with the young lady beside him. She was very sweet and funny. She took her time answering his question and asked him very thoughtful ones about himself. Red really seemed to want to get to know him, and she really paid attention to Damian’s answers. The fact she looked adorable in his coat didn’t hurt either. She still had it over her shoulders, occasionally pulling it closed like a security blanket.

Their hearts seemed to be content together as well. They had started the evening on one another’s shoulders, but eventually, Red’s pink heart decided to hold hands with Damian’s own jade heart. Damian secretly hoped that Red’s heart trusting his meant that Red was starting to trust him as well.

They were discussing what they’d like to do for college when someone screamed Red’s name. ———————————————————————— Marinette felt a chill creep down her spine as she heard her name.

"Marinette! Marinette! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you. Why'd you leave so early?"

Adrien.

How did he know it was her? He shouldn't know. How did he know? He. Shouldn't. Know. She didn't show anyone else her gown or her mask. She was wearing Green’s coat! How in God’s name did he know it was her?!

Marinette turned around slowly, pulling Green’s coat closed as her heart darted underneath it. She took several deep breaths before turning to look at the blond boy coming up from behind her. He was wearing a mask similar to Green’s. It was a cat-like mask, but in black. The threading on it made a more geometric pattern and was made with silver threading. His green eyes swept over her body, narrowing once he spotted the coat. His expression at first had been friendly, but it quickly turned into something more sour.

Adrien was followed by the majority of their class. Some of them looked confused, as if they didn’t know she was here, while others looked at her with disdain and scorn. Alya, still recognizable even with her cheap looking orange mask, was the next person to come up to her.

“Funny, I thought we left your worthless ass back at the hotel,” Alya hissed. “You shouldn’t have come, Marinette. You’re just going to ruin this for everyone.”

Marinette’s eyes drifted up and down Alya’s form, taking in the cheap taffeta dress she was wearing. It was a formless dress that really didn’t do her any favors, in Marinette’ opinion, that was a shade of orange. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she was wearing orange flats.

“Funny, I thought your outfit would have ruined the night,” she said calmly. “It really doesn’t look like it belongs in such a fancy party as this.”

“That’s because you refused to make our dresses! You’ve always made our dresses! Just because you don’t like Lila, doesn’t mean you get to be a bitch about it!” Alya snapped.

Several of the other girls nodded, glaring at her. Now that Marinette could see her classmates, it appeared as if they’d all bought their dresses from the same store. They were all wearing cheap-looking taffeta dresses in different colors with matching flats. Their masks were all rather plain looking, clearly made at the last minute. Marinette almost burst out laughing at how terrible they all looked.

The boys faired only slightly better. Their suits were cheap-looking, but not as terrible as the dresses. They had ties and masks that matched their dates (if they had one), but at least all their shoes were black. They looked uncomfortable with everything, not even really looking at Marinette.

The only one that looked fine was Chloe, who wore a beautiful mermaid style dress that was a pastel yellow. She had her blonde hair down for once and was wearing a diamond necklace and bracelet. Her mask was a pale gold color with the gold becoming darker above her eyes. It was edged with intricate black lace. Clearly her father had given her the outfit (or she’d bought it with his money).

Lila looked downright livid upon seeing Marinette. She was wearing the same thing as Alya, just in a darker shade of orange. She tried to grab Adrien’s arm, but he pulled away from her. Her sickly green eyes glared daggers at Marinette as Adrien walked up to her.

“Marinette...who’s this?” he asked, his expression sour. “It’s not safe to hang around strangers. You should come be with your friends. I even wanted to ask you if you’d like to dance. There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“This is my friend,” Marinette said flatly. “We were having a good time talking before you showed up. I do not want to dance.”

“As if! You’re just saying that!” Alya sneered. “You’ve been in love with Adrien for years. Tell him Marinette! Tell him how you’re the one who made him all those gifts, like the scarf he thought was from his dad! How it was always you who wanted him to go to stuff. How you were always trying to get together with him!”

Adrien looked shocked as he glanced at Marinette. She had made him that scarf? She was the one who was always trying to arrange things so he could go? She was the one remembering all these important dates? Had Marinette always done things like this, or had he been special? Did she really love him? Did he really have a chance-?

“Not anymore. I used to have a crush on Adrien. It’s true I did a lot for Adrien to get him to notice me. Then I realized that Adrien wasn’t worth it. He was never worth it.”

Marinette had a steely expression as she spoke, holding her head high.

“Lila’s a liar, and Adrien’s been hiding the truth from you. Adrien knows that she lies about things, but he told me not to rock the boat. He told me to ignore Lila in hopes that she’d just go away. When you all told me I was a terrible person, a bully, a freak...when you told me I should...I should just disappear, Adrien did nothing. True friends don��t stand by when their friends need them,” she sighed before holding her hand up to Adrien. “And don’t try to apologize. I won’t accept it. You can have fun with Lila. You two deserve each other.”

Marinette turned back towards Green, not noticing the darkening expression on Adrien’s face.

The boy couldn’t understand why she’d say such terrible things. Why wouldn’t Marinette let him apologize? He wanted to apologize! Adrien felt terrible that Marinette felt so neglected. If she’d just give him a chance, then he could prove himself! He could prove that he could be a good friend to Marinette. He just needed to touch her heart! Surely if he touched her heart, then Marinette would see that they were meant to be together in some way!

Adrien shook off Lila again, grabbing Marinette by the arm.

“Show me your heart!” Adrien demanded, his grip tight despite the coat adding extra cushion. “Show it to me, and I’ll prove to you that we’re meant to be at least friends! I can’t lose you, and Ladybug! Ladybug will never love me, but Marinette could, and I demand to have a chance!”

“No. Let me go!” she hissed. “Let go of my arm, Adrien!”

“Let her go!” Lila pretended to sob. “Adrien, she’s not worth it! Can’t you see that she was just a whore playing with your affections? Please, Adrien! I love you too much to let you go through with this!”

“Yeah, she’s nothing!” Alya joined in. “C’mon, Adrien. It’s almost midnight! That’s when all the masks come off, and Jagged Stone will be unveiling his new designer!”

“Don’t you want to see Jagged’s designer?” Lila said, still pretending to cry. “I worked so hard to help them get there! I need to go see Jagged unveil my creation to the world! Besides, that designer is one of my best friends! I promised I would be there to show my support!”

Adrien just gripped Marinette’s arm harder, causing the black haired girl to let out a whine of pain. Marinette tried freeing herself from his grasp, smacking his arm, and trying to pry his hand off of her. Adrien responded by gripping harder and began to shake her. As Marinette struggled to free herself, Adrien began shouting at her that she needed to let him apologize so they could start over.

When Marinette refused, Adrien swept his leg under hers, causing her to fall to the floor.

They were now drawing attention from the other party-goers, some who rushed to get security and others who watched the whole thing go down.

Adrien tried to get a hold on Marinette again, but got frustrated with her struggling and grabbed her by the hair, ripping her bun out. Marinette struggled to her feet before punching him in the gut. Adrien lashed out, catching Marinette across her right cheek with a loud thud.

Before any of the French teenagers could blink, Adrien was on the floor, his nose profusely bleeding. —————————————————————————————— The punch was the last straw.

Damian didn’t even hesitate before punching the annoying blond in the face, most likely breaking his nose. He had a bad feeling this was who had hurt his soulmate so deeply that she was afraid of Damian’s reaction to her saying she wasn’t in love with him. This pathetic boy had demanded his chance from his golden heartmate as if it was something he was owed! Not only that, but he had hurt Marinette!

Marinette, Damian thought, such a pretty name that fit such a pretty girl.

He thought he’d been pissed off before when the girl, Marinette had called her Alya, was insulting his golden heartmate. The only reason Damian hadn’t stepped in was simply because it appeared like Marinette had had it handled. He didn’t want to fight her battles for her, not when she was clearly able to do so herself. More than likely, Marinette would have just found that insulting as he’d gathered from their talks that she was rather independent.

So, he’d swallowed his rage and allowed her to defend herself. At least until the stupid boy— Adrien— had hit her. Once Adrien was on the floor, he put himself directly in front of Marinette. He glared at the other French teens, daring one of them to try and take him on.

“What the fuck was that for!” Alya screeched. “You broke his nose!”

“He hurt Marinette,” Damian replied, hearing Marinette gasp in shock.

She had probably thought Damian couldn’t understand French One look at her class told him that the others were of a similar mind. They looked at him with shock and fear. Adrien was the only one who didn’t look shocked, just pissed off. The blond got to his feet before snarling, “Who the fuck do you think you are!? Why are you getting in between me and my princess?!”

“Because you brain dead imbecile, Marinette doesn’t belong to you! She doesn’t belong to anyone! Marinette is her own person, and if she doesn’t want to hear your sorry apology, then she doesn’t need to hear it! She doesn’t need to do shit for you!” Damian snarled. “You put your hands on her. You assaulted her. You hurt her. I simply thought it was time for me to step in.”

“So you stepped in after I hit her?” Adrien questioned.

“I stepped in after it was clear that the situation was no longer under control,” Damian responded. “Marinette was handling herself just fine until you hit her. She’s not weak, and she’s most certainly not defenseless. I did not believe she wished for me to fight her battles, so I didn’t.”

Damian could hear security approaching as well as a woman shouting something in French. The red haired woman rushed over to Adrien and began looking over him. She also tried to get the others under control, as they’d all started screaming and yelling at one another. Damian responded to security by yanking his mask off, revealing who he was.

“The blond in the black cat mask with the bloody nose assaulted the young lady behind me,” he said curtly. “I’d like him removed from the gala, and I need to find my father. He’ll be barred from any future Wayne Galas as well.”

“You can’t do that!” Adrien hissed.

“I can,” Damian responded, turning to look at Marinette.

Marinette was shaking again, all the previous courage she had gone. Her mask was off now, having been knocked off during the struggle. Her blue eyes were wide, framed by beautiful black lashes. She had a cute button nose that was splashed with now visible freckles. Her right cheek was already bruising, and her hair was a mess.

Damian knelt down and gently picked up her gold hair sticks from the floor. He held them out to her slowly, not wanting to frighten her, as he stood back up.

“Marinette, do you need my help?” he asked gently.

He waited for the dark haired girl to decide patiently. He knew she probably wasn’t okay, but he also wasn’t sure if she’d want him to touch her. She’d just been assaulted, so perhaps he should find a woman that could be trusted to help Marinette fix herself up. He was relieved when Marinette took the golden sticks from his hands. He was even more relieved when she moved closer to him.

Marinette rested her left cheek on his right shoulder, trying to hide her face in his shoulder. Damian could hear her start to sniffle and wrapped his arms around her. He gently rubbed her back, allowing her to cry while shielding her face. Marinette shook in his arms, and he felt the rage come back...until he felt Marinette’s heart began to nuzzle against his neck and her face, searching for comfort. The rage faded, and Damian focused his thoughts on making sure Adrien couldn’t touch Marinette again.

Damian spotted his father walking towards him, followed by Dick, Kor’i, Wally, and two other people he hadn’t met yet. They were talking with the security guards, and Damian would bet that Tim was probably going over the security footage. His father walked up to him with a serious expression.

“Damian, could you please explain why you punched one of the students from the visiting French class?” he asked sternly.

“He assaulted his classmate,” he said. “He grabbed her and tried to get her to come with him. When she refused, he swept her legs out from under her. He tried to get a grip on her, but got mad and pulled her hair. She got up and punched him in the stomach so he’d let go. Then he punched her, and that’s when I punched him. Show him your face, Marinette.”

Damian gently touched Marinette’s head. She lifted her head up to look at him, and he watched his father’s expression darken. Bruce may have been mad at Damian for possibly starting an international incident, but he knew that his father wouldn’t hold it against him for defending someone else. He noted that several bystanders had come up to defend him, telling Bruce what had transpired before security arrived.

A strange man with black and purple hair rushed over to him, followed by a pink haired woman. Both looked horrified and concerned. The woman actually pulled Marinette from Damian’s hold, but seeing how Marinette immediately latched onto her, he swallowed his displeasure. The woman held Marinette tightly, rocking a little, as she asked what had happened and if Marinette was going to be alright.

Dick chose this time to come in, tapping the man with the purple and black hair on the shoulder.

“Jagged Stone, this is my youngest brother and Bruce’s only biological child, Damian Wayne. Damian, this is Jared “Jagged” Stone. He’s Bruce’s old friend. The woman with the pink hair is his wife, Penny Stone,” Dick said.

“While it’s nice to meet you, Damian, I want to know what the hell happened to Marinette!” Jagged said, glaring at Damian. “We got separated by the paparazzi when we arrived and weren’t able to find her since!”

“She was with me, though I didn’t know who she was,” Damian responded honestly. “I saw her getting harassed by the reporters and stepped in. We’ve spent the last few hours talking to one another until that Adrien boy found us. He tried getting Marinette to come with him, and he didn’t seem too pleased that I was here. He hurt her when she refused to go with him, so I punched him.”

“What?! That little bastard punched my niece! Where is he? I’ll take his damn head off!” Jagged growled, surprising both Dick and Damian with the ferocity behind it. “Penny, watch after our little star! I’ve got a boy to skin.”

“Follow Father. He’ll be the only one with the bloody nose,” Damian supplied helpfully.

Jagged stalked off with Dick behind him as Kor’i and Wally stepped up to the group. Kor’i immediately went to the other two women and asked if Marinette would like to clean up in the bathroom. Penny had looked towards Marinette, and the dark haired girl simply nodded. Kor’i led the way towards the ladies room while Wally stood beside Damian.

“Well this is a mess,” Wally tried to joke.

Damian nodded sullenly. Instead of continuing to try and talk to the boy, Wally settled for watching Bruce and Jagged rip into the boy, his teacher, and the class for trying to defend his actions. Damian felt his anger reach the boiling point when her classmates called her a liar and a bully. He also felt angry when the teacher tried to excuse it away as “teenager stuff”. He almost laughed out loud when Bruce responded that he had raised four teenage boys and that none of them would have thought this was acceptable behavior. Her teacher had almost wilted at that.

But nothing was quite as sweet as when Jagged brought the liar to her knees in front of the class that revered her.

“I can’t believe you people! You’re standing here trying to tell me that my favorite little designer, my little niece is a bully and a liar?! Not rock’n’roll at all! Marinette is the sweetest, most creative little star I’ve ever met. She gets my jagged style, and she’s an extremely hard worker. Marinette didn’t get to be my designer based on lies. She got to be my designer based on her own hard work and skills,” Jagged snapped at the class. “Besides, no one deserves to be assaulted!”

“That’s not true! Lila was the one who set Marinette up with you. If it hadn’t been for Lila, she wouldn’t be your designer at all,” Alya argued. “She was just being an ungrateful bitch!”

“...but Marinette doesn’t like Lila...and Lila said the designer was one of her best friends,” a red haired boy quietly pointed out. “How could Lila have done what she said if Jagged’s telling us that Marinette is his designer?”

“Marinette is my designer! And who is this Lila? Why is she telling lies about my little star?” Jagged demanded to know.

“But Lila saved your kitten! Remember? It was on the runway of the airport! You wrote a song about her too! It’s all over my blog!” Alya asked desperately, not wanting to believe Lila had been lying to her this whole time.

“One, I’ve never owned a cat. Fang’s been my only pet for twenty years. Two, I would never write a song about an underage girl. Three, the only girl I’ve ever written a song for is the superhero known as Ladybug. These are all things any competent reporter would know,” Jagged said.

Damian watched as Alya turned on the brunette with sausage hair and terrible dark orange ensemble. Alya started screaming at her, demanding to know if she was lying about everything else as well. This got Marinette’s whole class involved, as well as Jagged. The class was torn between yelling at Lila and being horrified to find out she was lying. Jagged was busy yelling about how Lila would be hearing from his lawyers for defamation of character.

The Lila girl began crying again, and Damian turned away from them. His instead chose to scan the crowd, waiting for Marinette to return. ————————————————————————————— Marinette was in shock to say the least.

She had expected Adrien to be angry with her. She had expected him to argue with her. She hadn’t been expecting Adrien to put his hands on her though. She honestly never thought that he would hit her like he did. She was frightened to know now that Adrien was not above using force to get what he wanted.

Penny had been fussing over her for since the agent got her hands on Marinette. The beautiful red-headed woman, who led them to the bathroom, stood silently next to the door. She had introduced herself as Kor’i Grayson, wife of Richard and Wally Grayson, and daughter-in-law of Bruce Wayne. She offered to stand guard by the door and ensure that no one else came in while Penny was helping Marinette clean up.

“Marinette, sweetheart, what happened?” Penny asked, gently wiping away the tears from Marinette’s eyes.

“The press...they surrounded me and started asking all these questions. I didn’t even notice you and Uncle Jagged were gone until I looked around. They kept pressing me for answers until Green— I mean Damian— stepped in. He gave me his coat because I was cold and led me inside. He offered to keep me company until I was able to find you and Uncle Jagged,” Marinette began.

“Green?” Kor’i asked with amusement.

“His mask was green. He called me Red first, and then said he wanted to talk to me without names and expectations. He was really nice to me, Penny. I was so scared, but he was nice about it. I didn’t even realize how close to midnight it was, I was having so much fun with him. We were eating when Adrien found us...I don’t know how he knew it was me, Penny. I didn’t show anyone my dress or my mask, so he shouldn’t have known it was me—”

“Breathe, Marinette. It’s okay. He won’t put another hand on you, I swear it!” Penny said, gently rubbing Marinette’s arm.

Marinette took a few deep breaths before continuing.

“Adrien wanted me to go with him. I think he wanted to apologize to me and ask me on a date,” she said, her voice cracking. “I told him no. I didn’t want to hear his apology, and I’m no longer in love with him. He didn’t like that answer. He grabbed my arm. I fought him. He swept my feet out from under me and grabbed my hair. I managed to get up and punched him in the stomach so he’d let go. That was when he punched me...and then Damian punched him back harder.”

Marinette took a few more deep breaths.

“I thought I had it under control. I thought I could handle him without help. Even when he knocked me over...I wasn’t expecting him to punch me. I’m glad Damian punched him...if Adrien had tried to hit me again, I don’t know if I would have been able to fight him off…”

What she didn’t want to admit was that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to shake off the shock quick enough. Marinette knew that she could fight Adrien. She was Ladybug after all, and Adrien hadn’t been akumatized. That was also the other thing she couldn’t admit— being Ladybug. She could have passed it off as self-defense lessons, but Marinette knew it still would have been suspicious.

Marinette chose to tune out Kor’i and Penny as she fixed her hair. She pulled it back into a bun before putting the golden sticks back into her hair. Marinette allowed Penny to fix her makeup, though not much could be done about the bruising on her cheek. At this point, she was just settling for looking like she hadn’t been crying after being assaulted.

Once she was cleaned up, Marinette hugged Penny tightly before asking if they could postpone her reveal. Penny told her that they would of course postpone her reveal. Kor’i promised not to tell anyone that Marinette was Jagged’s designer, but she did congratulate Marinette on her achievement. Marinette had smiled and thanked her in response.

Oddly enough...Marinette wanted to go back to Damian. He had been polite, kind, and absolutely fun to be around all night. He’d reassured her when she was scared. He’d waited for her to come to him after Adrien attacked. He’d held her while she cried until Penny showed up. Marinette didn’t want to label it as love, especially since they were golden heartmates, but she would admit that she wouldn’t mind going on a date with Damian. Perhaps she might follow fate’s lead and fall in love with Damian.

Only time would tell, and Marinette felt safer establishing boundaries with Damian than she did anyone else. He had not tried to push or argue with her about her boundaries. Instead he had respected them without question, something Marinette was immensely grateful for. Thinking about how he’d acted the whole night, Marinette didn’t think falling in love with him would be such a bad thing.

She was smiling as she left the bathroom with Kor’i and Penny. Marinette continued smiling when she noticed Damian looking for her in the crowd. She felt happy when Damian’s face lit up upon seeing her. She hugged him tightly once she was within reach before looking at the chaos that was her class. She raised an eyebrow before Jagged broke in, demanding to know if Marinette knew that the Lila girl was spreading all sorts of nasty lies about them.

“Cat’s out of the bag,” Damian said smugly. “Now they’re all trying to pick up what little dignity they have left.”

Marinette laughed at that, feeling joy in the fact that Lila had finally been revealed. However, she chose to ignore her classmates arguing and pleas for forgiveness to hold out her hand to Damian.

“Let’s try this again. Hi, my name’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she said with a grin. “I had a lot of fun with you, and I would very much like to go on a date so I can get to know my golden heartmate better.”

A wide smile appeared across Damian’s face as he shook her hand.

“Hello, my name is Damian Wayne. I also had a very good time with you and would love to take you on a date,” he responded.

Marinette giggled as his heart darted out to nuzzle her cheek, just barely catching the gasps from the people around her as the heart flashed gold. Her own heart had zipped over to Damian and began nuzzling his cheek as well, also turning gold.

“Would you like to leave now, Marinette?” he asked. “I could have our driver drop you off at your hotel if you’d like. You probably should ice that bruise.”

Marinette looked at both Jagged and Penny to see what they thought. Both of them were smiling at her and nodding, so she turned back towards Damian.

“Thank you, that would be very nice,” she replied.

Damian held out his arm towards her again, and this time, Marinette took it without hesitation. Looking at the handsome, dark haired boy with kind green eyes, she decided there were worse people she could have as her golden heartmate. When he kissed her hand upon dropping her off at the hotel, Marinette made another decision.

She stood on her tiptoes, gently pressing a quick kiss to his lips. Marinette giggled as he flushed, his eyes wide and clearly surprised. Yes, she thought, perhaps having him as a romantic soulmate wouldn’t be the end of the world. Perhaps...perhaps loving him could be the best thing that happened to her.

Little did she know that Damian agreed.

#maribat secret santa #daminette #eve-valuation #maribat #marinette x damian #damian x marinette #im not nice to adrien here #so if you're not here for that don't read #there's some salt here #im not nice to the class either #tiny bit of alya bashing here #soulmate au #soulmate hearts au #i really hope you like it #im sorry it's so long #long post

2K notes · View notes

writer-room · 3 years

Text

Siblings: Chapter Four

AO3

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Summary: The Bats reflect on how their thoughts about siblings have changed over the years. Some opinions stayed, others didn't.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tim didn’t know how to feel about being an only child.

He didn’t think about it all that often, there weren’t many kids he talked to at school who mentioned their siblings all that frequently. And, in some parts, he didn’t mind it so much.

The kids who did talk about siblings complained, whether their siblings were older or younger. There were those who said their sibling took up more of their parents attention, which was something Tim was already lacking in. Some said that they never had any time to themselves, something that Tim had an overabundance in, but still cherished. Others said that the accomplishments, and failures, of their siblings reflected onto them, making their parents expect more or less of them. Tim couldn’t afford that either. His parents already didn’t think much of him, he didn’t need it to be any less. And if they wanted more, he worried he wouldn’t be able to meet their expectations.

And yet…

Sometimes he liked the idea of someone else in that empty mansion. Someone to talk to when the rooms felt too large, when the loneliness was suffocating him. He liked the thought of sharing his recent theories, photos, and the like with someone. Wondered if he could go on for as long as he wanted without being interrupted.

Maybe they’d be someone who didn’t call him by a name that wasn’t his, then feign forgetting. Who didn’t treat his binders like they were assaulting their eyes. Who didn’t scrutinize his every movement for faking.

That’d be nice, he thinks.

But there were pros and cons, he reasons. And for all he knows, if he had a sibling, they could’ve been just like his parents. Or they could’ve been kinder. Not like he’d ever know.

He had more important things to worry about than hypotheticals and wishes.

“Before you scold me, know that I took a five hour nap earlier today and I’m only getting a snack.”

Steph and Duke blinked at him from the doorway to the kitchen, their expressions a sharp contrast between exasperated and concerned, respectively.

“Wow, five hours?” Steph snarked. “That’s a new record. Are you dying?”

“Not yet,” Tim said, opening the fridge. “Give it a few weeks and I’m sure you’ll see rumors of my tragic defeat at the hands of, I dunno, Flamingo.”

“There’s a supervillain named Flamingo?” Duke exclaimed, staring at Steph incredulously.

“Oh, yeah, it’s a whole thing.” She nodded. “He had a scuffle with Jay and his kid a while back.”

“Jason has a kid?”

“Why are you up, anyway?” Tim talked right over him. “Duke I understand, he’s the disgraced child of the sun. But you patrol at the same time as every other nocturnal person in this house.”

“Hey-”

“I actually had to pretend to have a normal sleep schedule, my mom was getting worried and I didn’t want her finding me sneaking in with my full Spoiler getup on.” Steph explained tiredly. “I’m still trying to recover.”

“Tragic,” Tim hummed, pulling out a container holding a ham sandwich.

“The only thing that's tragic is your outfit.” Steph snorted, looking him up and down.

Tim blinked, looking down at himself. His outfit consisted of a pair of knockoff Batman shorts, knee-high pastel dinosaur socks, and a long red robe that absolutely did not belong to him hanging loosely off him, exposing countless scars littering his body.

“I look awesome,” Tim said, popping the lid off the container.

“Damian’s gonna start asking what battles you got your scars from again,” Steph tutted, striding further into the kitchen with a confused Duke following her. “Know that I will not be on your side when Dick notices and gets worried.”

“I’m more worried about Dami seeing this one,” He said, brushing the robe back slightly to reveal a poorly stitched surgical scar on his upper abdomen. “Because then he’s going to ask what happened, and then I’m gonna have to tell him that's where my spleen used to be, and then he's going to be reminded that oh, yeah, his brother has a missing spleen, and then he’s going to be treating everything like its diseased-”

“Does...he keep forgetting you lost your spleen?” Duke blinked, concerned. “I feel like that’d be something you were kinda always aware of…”

“Eh, everyone's worried about a different scar whenever they see ‘em.” He shrugged, glancing down as he traced over one of the surgery scars along his chest. “Which is frankly a little rude. I earned this right to be shirt free.”

“Hell yeah you did,” Steph grinned before her eyes dropped to the sandwich Tim was attempting to eat. “Isn’t that Cullen’s?”

“He didn’t label it, therefore it’s mine.” Tim said simply.

“Harper’s gonna kill you,” Duke warned warily.

“Only if she catches me,” He said, taking a bite of the sandwich. “Why’re you guys here, anyway? Grabbing a snack?”

“Lookin’ for Babs,” Steph said, hands in her pockets. “Someone on Twitter started a war about which Batgirl was better, and Babs will probably get a kick out of being remembered as the ‘missing Batgirl.’”

“Oh she’ll be pissed about being remembered that way.” Tim agreed, shoving the rest of the sandwich in his mouth. “Babs will see it in five minutes or less, though. Swear she has a sixth sense for whenever someone mildly associated with the Bats is mentioned.” He mumbled.

“You wanna hijack the thread before she finds it?” He suggested.

“Hijack it?” Duke echoed.

“We’re gonna yell about random stuff that doesn’t contribute to the conversation until all hell breaks loose.” Steph explained, already pulling out her phone. “Tim?”

“How do you feel about discussing why the sun lightens hair, but darkens skin?” Tim suggested, leaving the container on the counter as he brushed by Steph.

“You just want to piss off someone from Metropolis.”

“It’s law as a Bat that I have to torment Superman whenever I possibly can.” Tim shrugged.

“Does that include me?” Duke blinked. “Because I personally think tormenting Superman is a bad idea.”

“Clark wouldn’t hurt a fly,”

“Yeah, but he’ll give me the face of disappointment and I don’t think I can live with that.” Duke protested.

“He can barely even manage--where are you going?” Steph looked up, only now realizing Tim was leaving the kitchen.

“I’m starting the mayhem on the big screens.” Tim grinned, looking back over his shoulder.

“Please don’t tell me he’s going to use Twitter on the bat computer,” Duke sighed.

“He’s totally going to use the bat computer,” Steph smiled, following after him. “C’mon! It’s initiation time.”

“Do you guys just call every weird thing you do initiation?” Duke called, hurrying behind them. “Because I’ve been told I’m part of an initiation five times in the last week.”

“You’re stuck in initiation until this becomes the norm,” Steph said cheerfully.

“Of course,” Duke muttered.

Tim’s robe billowed behind him like an amateur cape as he wandered towards the door leading towards the steps into the Batcave. He threw open the door, the sound of it slamming echoing and startling the bats on the ceiling.

“Jesus!”

Harper jumped from the swivel chair in front of the computer, wide-eyed as she blinked up at the trio at the top of the stairs.

“Hey, Harps,” Steph greeted, hopping onto the stairs railing and sliding down. “We’re here to cause problems on Twitter.”

“Oh, well, in that case, by all means.” Harper snarked, getting up and grandly gesturing to the countless screens. “Not like I was using it for actual work.”

“Were you using it?” Tim asked, pointedly glaring at Steph to keep his recent adventure to the kitchen quiet.

“...looking for tasers to modify count as work, right?” She said after a moment.

“Technically,” Tim nodded, ignoring Steph’s smug look that absolutely signified she was going to blackmail him later. “But you can just use Dick’s old escrima sticks. He goes through a pair every two or three weeks, but most still work pretty well, he’s just too lazy to fix them.”

“Sweet,” Harper grinned. She then paused, taking in Tim’s appearance as he slid into the seat she was previously occupying.

“Why do you look like you’re auditioning to be the pretty girl who dies in a low-budget slasher?”

“First of all, how dare you assume I wouldn’t be the first one to die for representation points,” Tim said, pointing an accusatory finger at her. “Second of all, it’s called having fashion, and also being allowed to do whatever I want.”

“You have terrible fashion sense,” Harper snorted, crossing her arms as Steph and Duke came up beside her. “But fair, I can respect that.”

“See?” Tim said, looking at Steph. “Some people can afford to not be rude.”

“Keep talking and I’ll lose more blackmail material,” Steph calmly threatened.

Harper glanced between the two, to which Tim quietly, and quickly, turned back to the screen and ignored the both of them. Harper raised a brow but didn’t comment. Tim made a mental note to sneak into one of Jason’s unused safe houses after this was over. Steph couldn’t keep quiet for the life of her.

“What are you starting, anyway?” Harper asked, crossing her arms and leaning on the back of Tim’s chair. “A sob story about the Opportunity rover?”

“Another day,” Tim promised, opening up Twitter on the countless screens. He opened another one on the other half of the computer, which Steph quickly stood at and got her own Twitter set up. “Right now, we’re questioning how the sun makes hair lighter, but skin darker. And we’re dragging Clark into it.”

“If anyone asks, I had no part in this.” Duke said, watching the two typing with a frown. “Initiation doesn't include learning how to taunt Superman, right?”

“Eh, we can settle for you becoming close with a Kryptonian,” Steph shrugged. “Dick and Bruce share Clark, Jay’s got Bizarro, Cass and I got Kara, Babs I think counts with her, too, Damian’s got Jon, and Tim has Kon.” She listed off. “Harper and Cullen took the ‘bully Superman’ route without befriending any of his family, which is a coward's way out, so you can take, I dunno, does Chris still exist in this timeline?”

“I can call in a favor from Bart to reset the timeline again so he exists.” Tim said with a casual shrug, pulling up the thread arguing about the Batgirls.

“I’m sorry, what--”

“Finding Kryptonians who aren’t already taken is hard!” Harper protested, talking over Duke. “And Clark likes you guys being friends with his family. The only issue he has is Damian getting testy and Tim making heart eyes at Kon every five minutes.”

“I do not!” Tim squawked, whirling around in the chair to glare at the traitors he dared call family. In his head. Family in his head.

“You do,” Steph and Harper chorused.

“I’ve met Kon for less than twenty minutes and even I know.” Harper added. “I’m sure Duke knew.”

“I...yeah…” Duke coughed into his fist and turned away. “But in my defense, the gossip around here is practically shouted down the halls twice a week.”

“You were subjected to Dick having another crisis about Jay dating Kory for two months, weren’t you?” Steph said, trying to hide a snicker.

“There were so many things I didn’t want to know,” Duke whispered, face horror-stricken.

“Eh, at least Jay hasn’t brought up Talia around Dami yet.” Tim shrugged. “At that point, it’s better to just vacate the premises.”

“Wait--”

“Point is, you either befriend the Kryptonian or you torment them. That’s the rules.” Tim talked over him again, scrolling down the thread and boredly looking over the arguments. “You ready, Steph?”

“As I’ll ever be,” She grinned, giving a thumbs up. “How long till Babs notices and takes this whole thing down?”

“Few more minutes, tops.” Tim shrugged, already typing. “You two wanna give any input?” He asked, glancing behind him to Harper and Duke.

“Ask if Kryptonian skin can be used as extreme sunscreen,” Harper suggested. “That’ll rile him up.”

“Now I’m just curious if it can,” Tim said, but obediently began making his comment.

“You could just...ask?” Duke tried, clearly not taking in any of what was happening.

“Nah, Kon’s half human, I don’t think it works the exact same.” Tim shook his head, not looking back. “Kara would destroy me if I tried, Bizarro has the same problem, Jon wouldn’t know, and Clark would start telling Bruce he’s worried I’m deranged again.”

“Aren’t you?” Duke raised a brow.

“Only if I feel like it,”

“And when he forgets to sleep for ninety-eight hours.” Steph spoke up.

Tim rolled his eyes, tuning out his siblings as they continued to talk. He posted his comment before sparing a peek back at them, currently throwing off ideas to their hijacking plan like it was an everyday occurrence. Well, to Steph and Harper at least. But, to Duke’s credit, he appeared to be getting more used to it on prodding from his...sisters? Hard to tell, Steph was her own classification of family member. They were some weird choices for family, at least.

Tim watched them for a moment before turning back to making another comment on the logistics of sunscreen, a smile on his face.

He couldn’t find it in him to complain. Too much, at least.

35 notes · View notes

cannotgiveafuck · 4 years

Text

HEY SORRY ITS BEEN A FEW MONTHS HAVE A SHORT BBATTOWLB SNIPPET.

I put it up on AO3, though it may not be completely compliant in verse, but hey whatever.

Billy's identity has been revealed and he's dealing with the not quite immediate fallout.

(Spoilers for post BBATTOWLB main story line.)

The first time Marvel tried to leave Fawcett City, J'onn was there to stop him.

"I cannot allow you to pass city limits, Captain." He said, and moved to push Marvel back every time.

The second time Marvel tried to leave, Green Lantern was there.

Just lounging about in a hammock from his ring, looking at his phone like he was enjoying a relaxing day out.

"Sorry, bud," he said, only glancing up with a shrug. "You know the rules."

The third time Marvel was actually able to leave, because there was nobody around to stop him. Because they were all out at Metropolis fighting an army that didn't really exist because, well. Illusion magic.

Marvel really felt they could use a hand from the Champion of Magic himself.

Apparently, the others did not feel the same.

From the moment he showed up, those that noticed told him to stay aside, that they could handle it, that he could get hurt, that he should leave it to them.

"This isn't your fight, kiddo."

"Go back home, champ."

"Watch your back, kid."

Yeah. Well. This kid just saved their collective magic inept butts, so...

Superman did not see it that way. The second the fight was over, he was right there, back straight and shoulders broad and brows furrowed.

"That was reckless, Billy. You were not called in to join the fight, and if you had misstepped in the slightest someone could have seriously been hurt."

But he didn't misstep. This was a magic fight and hello, did they forget what he's good at? They could suspend him all they want, they couldn't keep him away from where he needed to be, they couldn't freaking ground him.

Something hot and uncomfortable unfurled in his chest. He felt his fists curl at his side, involuntary sparks of electricity snapped around them. On the inside, Billy felt like screaming. On the outside, Marvel felt his jaw clench.

"I understand that, but--"

"Do you?" Superman interrupted. He didn't believe him. "Do you really understand how much damage was done? How much more could have been done? This is why you're on suspension, Billy. You can't just go around getting into every fight--"

"Marvel."

"What?"

"My name is Marvel," he ground out with surprising calm. "And every fight that needs me is my fight, Superman."

Superman crossed his arms and stared him down, like Marvel wasn't as tall as him, as broad and muscled and powerful as he was. Like Marvel hadn't just saved their asses.

Marvel kept his chin up and eyes forward. He would not back down. Not even from his hero.

"Go home, Captain."

With the threat neutralized, the team watching, and civilians and news reporters starting to venture back out, Captain Marvel knew there was nothing else left for him there.

A bolt of lightning struck him.

Rather dramatic, as exits went. But like hell he was going home, where he was sure another Leaguer would come patrol, where he was being commanded to stay - so the Rock of Eternity it was.

He didn't try to leave Fawcett City for awhile after that. (At least, not in any way that they would notice).

There were no missions, no patrols, no monitor duties, no cafeteria hang outs or briefings or alerts. His communicator was forfeited, his access to the Watchtower denied, his place on the Justice League all but officially revoked.

However, with how often one of the other heroes showed up to assist him with his own city's emergencies, Marvel felt like he was seeing the League a lot more than he had before his suspension.

Since they couldn't really stop him, they interfered as much as possible.

The Flash would stop by and want to grab food, always ready to take Billy somewhere to eat, and sometimes he’d drag Hal with to mess around at an arcade, and well, would you look at that, there's a bank robbery taking place, lemme get that for you.

Green Arrow and Black Canary came to town during the week, asking him about his home life and family and schooling and what he wanted to do, as if there was anything besides being Captain Marvel, and they tried very hard to be very nice and very friendly and very nosy.

Kori frequently came blazing by. She would greet him with a hug and be excited to see him. Like she actually wanted to. Every time, she would excuse the lack of Roy and Jason, stating that they wanted to give him space. She would ask him if her presence was a burden, was unwanted. And every time Billy would say no and hold her hand just a bit tighter. There were never questions about his memory loss, about what he came to remember, as if she understood the precipice he was balancing on and only wanted to remind him she was there. Billy appreciated that a lot.

Even Doctor Fate showed up. Suddenly next to him in the middle of the night as he glided through the sky. Not saying much of anything, though Marvel could feel his stare, feel his assessment. There were questions he wanted to ask, answers he wanted known, but still he didn't push. He just floated alongside Marvel until he vanished again. It was creepy, but it could've been worse.

Very rarely, in the corner of his eye, he would spot Batman or Nightwing, just on the edge of a building's shadow. A few times during the day, Billy caught sight of Bruce or one of the other batfamily. They would be strolling through the streets like it was a normal occurrence for them to be in Fawcett, and every time, Billy ran the other way. The thought of meeting them like this, as himself, as street rat Billy Batson made his heart race and head dizzy. He couldn't do it. Not now, not yet.

Captain Marvel could hardly go on patrol without another hero showing up at some point, all of them seemingly taking shifts to watch him, to baby sit him in his own city. Like he couldn't be trusted any more. Like he couldn't be the hero he had been this whole time.

Billy couldn't sleep at night. Couldn't lie on his bare mattress in his apartment without jumping at the slightest of sounds. As if the others would barge in and take him as he slept. The wards that were put up awhile ago did not help soothe this fear. Tawny's reassurances that they would not let anyone take him only comforted him in so much that he did not want his Familiar harmed, either. Not for him, not because of him.

He spent a lot of time sleeping at the Rock, where at least he felt safe.

Superman never stopped by. Aside from that first confrontation in Metropolis, Marvel hadn't seen him. No lectures, no orders, no commands, not even static silence. Nothing. Word from Hal was he had originally wanted to actually ground Billy. Keep him at the Watchtower where he could be easily monitored and cared for. But the idea was shot down and he'd been a little miffed about it. Still, that didn't stop the spike of paranoia Billy felt upon learning it.

Diana never contacted him, either, surprisingly. And that hurt more than he thought it would. Marvel remembered the look of sadness on her face, the hidden anger in her voice, and the passion she gave as she tried to defend him, as he stood before the League and confessed to his deceit, to his lying. She looked like he betrayed her. Even if she showed up, Billy had no idea what he could possibly say to apologize, to make it better.

Victor's position in the League was on the line, too, and Billy hadn't heard any more from him except that he'd be out of touch for a bit while he was essentially grounded. For him, that meant staying at his Detroit home with supervision whilst on duty at the Watchtower. The curdling feeling of guilt that he had brought this onto his friend sent Billy into such distress he didn't leave the Rock for the whole day.

Constantine thought the whole thing was bollocks. Said they had no right to control him, to stop him. He also said a few curses about them and the Wizard, but Billy let it slide. It felt nice to have someone truly in his corner. When John offered to whisk him on a vacation for awhile, see the other side of the pond, Billy regretfully declined. He felt like that was running away from his problems and he hated that notion most of all. Still, he thanked John for talking to him, even if it was just through the mirror. It helped elevate the ache in his chest.

Billy hadn't felt this way - this distant, disconnected, and closed off way - in a very long time.

"You keep returning here, young Tháv̱ma."

Don't look at him, don't talk to him, don't listen to him.

"Over and over again, you grace these stone halls."

He's goading you. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it!

"Tell me, do you miss the cold throne and all the power it holds so much?"

Don't fall for it! Don't listen! Don't--

"Or are you here for something else?"

Don't react! Don't--

"Perhaps you wish to find the echoes of the old Wizard's ghost haunting this Rock?"

Don't cry, don't cry, don't--

"Or perhaps... perhaps you wish to find solace in a familiar presence?"

Don't cry, don't--

"Tell me, how heavy is the burden of being both Wizard and Champion?"

Don't--

"You seem lonely, young Tháv̱ma."

I am.

Billy was so, so lonely.

"I know loneliness, and all its dark corners, very well."

Really?

"Oh, yes. Spent thousands of years trapped and alone."

Of course, Teth Adam would understand.

"I am here."

Please.

"I will listen."

Please.

"Talk to me, young Tháv̱ma."

Billy didn't want to be alone anymore.

#Billy batson #captain marvel #shazam #justice league #fanfic writing #dont comment if you're just gonna say some shit about how u think characters should act #gettin real tired of folks tellin me how to write my own fic #anyway. billys trust is correlated with his support system. and they are both in shambles around him #he has no idea where to turn. who to turn to. bc hes avoiding everyone in JL.#they know who he really is. and hes being treated like a kid. and he hates it. and its makin him real vulnerable #so he feels like he cant go to any of em except constantine. but. well. even he knows thats not the best choice for support #but then again. being coaxed by black adam is also Not Good At All.#theres a lot for the JL to debate when considering billy and marvel and his position in the league #like. this is not a decision they can make lightly or quickly. especially when they barely comprehend HOW marvel even works #and especially when marvel is not going to stop. but also he is bound to a great position within the mystic community #they cant stop that. they cant interfere with that. that is a whole other can of worms and they dont even know how to fish

148 notes · View notes

fuckingdeadbutroyal · 4 years

Text

Jasonette July- Soulmate AU- Part 5

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 -

“The fuck"

That was NOT what Chat was expecting to happen. Yeah sure he has never experienced a First Meeting before, but he was certain that they didn't usually go down like this.

Chat really wanted to laugh about how they were in fact, literally going down, but thought it to be funnier if the endangered couple would be actually concious to hear it. That's how he found himself, a cat may I add, diving for two sleeping heroes. It was only thanks to his superstrength, that he could lift the gigantic man of a soulmate back to the surface and heave him over one of the upside down boat benches, hoping for it not to break under his and Ladybugs combined weight. Not that the girls weight was of any significance in that equation, with her currently looking as fragile and weak as a corpse. Usually Adrien would never even think of comparing her to anything but beautiful and gracious. Right then and there though, she did not look delicate and fit, did not seem like her outer appearance was just a bluff meant to hide her true skill and strength. No, the heroine looked completely worn out. Chat was debating over taking her to an akuma-shelter and asking for help. If that’s what she looked like with Tikkis’ protection, what would happen if she were to detransform? Chat made sure she was laying down safely before turning his attention to his other rescuee.

The man next to Ladybug looked much healthier in comparison. Somehow he even seemed familiar. Adrien swam around him, trying to decipher who it was he had just saved. He noticed heavy combat boots, a red hood with cut outs on eye-level, a utility belt and several guns. The man's hair was incredibly dark, the blackness only enhanced by the bright grey patch of hair right above his forehead and the cold water dripping down from it. His eyes were closed, an eyebrow slit by a clean white scar and his lips tugged into a small and serene smile.

Adrien had to admit he was pretty good looking. Apart from that, the Cat was weirdly relieved to find him armed. That meant he was capable of protecting his lady instead of Chat. The boy knew that she was capable of protecting herself but he needed that reassurance. His best friend had to be safe, especially in situations as dire as the one they were currently facing.

A few moments had passed with Adrien deep in thought about what to do next and how to act out their plan in case she didn’t wake up in time. The city was quiet, with everyone hiding in their shelters (or simply dead). The akuma was waiting. Everyone felt it’s presence and no one dared disturb it’s silence . Another quiet before the storm. Only it wasn’t actually quiet, not silent at least. Adrien noticed a tiny voice coming from the sleeping mans ear, firmly demanding attention.

---------------------------

“Red Hood are you there?”

“Red Hood I’m sending Batman to get you.”

“Red Hood your heart rate is very low, are you asleep?”

“Batman is almost there, hang o-” “What do you mean “Batman”?!”

Tim jumped. Alfred, who was standing next to him and worriedly observing Jasons unmoving red dot on the screen, only blinked in surprise.

“Who are you? What happened to Red Hood?”, Tims voice was firm, but Alfred saw the hidden fear in his posture. Tim loved his brother dearly and was understandably worried about him. The CEO of Wayne Enterprises didn’t like letting his emotions seep into his work, but he really couldn’t help it, It was a scary situation.

“I am Chat Noir, hero of Paris. I am currently protecting Red Hood and Ladybug. Who am I talking to?”

“Red Robin, from Gotham. Batman is coming to help you. Any precautions he should know about?”

Chat told him everything they knew about the akuma and explained their situation. Tim transfered it to Batman who immediatly ordered every member of the family to move to a shelter each. He claimed for it to be necessary so they could protect the civilians in case of an emergency. Everyone knew though, that he was mostly worried about his childrens safety.

“Chat Noir, are you aware of a place near you, where we could place them to let them recover?”

Chat didn’t like his idea. It was disturbing to say the least and made his skin crawl with unease. But it was close, and it has already paid the price for helping them.

“Yes, but we’ll need a distraction.”

“On it.”

---------------------

Stephanie didn’t like following orders. Especially not such uneffective orders as Batmans. To explain the following operation, there are a few things you need to know: Her bond to Tim constisted of two parts. For one, there was the literal, string like, red bond connecting their hearts. For the other, she could hear everything he heard, only if he happened to keep the link open, of course.

They needed a distraction and were currently coming up with something loud and ultra visible. Stephanie Browns father was a literal villain, so she knew how to think like one and was fairly certain that neither Hawkmoth nor the akuma would fall for the improvised bullshit Dick and Damian were about to pull off. No, Spoiler did not want to be seen. Aside from scanning the streets for any lost victims, she tried to seek cover in the debris all around them. Steph had a plan. Tim did not approve of it and Batsy hasn’t even heard about it but she honestly just did not give a damn. Stephanie has been handling things on her own for a while now. She was not about to start following orders today, not if she did not agree to their necessity.

Her plan? It was risky, very much so. She could not depend on succeeding, but for once she could allow herself to take the risk without fearing the consequences. If it were to come to the worst case, she could always just hope for the miraculous cure to bring her back to life. Now, when she tried to “not be seen”, that did not apply to the villain they were currently chasing. She had a tracker on herself and was connected to Red Robin but she knew that for once, hiding in plain sight would have worked. “Plain sight” was the akumas weakness. If the Dustybitch were to see her baiting him while walking down the streets, he wouldn’t even spare her a second glance. While she’s “hiding” in it’s dirty habitat though? While she’s pretending to be all alone and vulnerable? If Hawkmoth and the akuma believe that keeping the “tiny blonde girl” hostage could be benefitial and she just walks right into their arms?

It had to work, she had to get closer to the Dirtmonster and gain his attention, even if just for a bit. If she could figure out it’s weakness, get it’s akumatized object to Ladybug or at least inform her about it’s whereabouts while doing so? She’s all for it. They could fix this...no, they would.

-------------------------

A large flying shadow emerged from between the debris. Bruce somehow wished for a mask similar to Jasons. Red Hoods red hood at least covered his mouth and therefore made it easier to breath in the dust. But even as he came out to the river, he still couldn’t allow himself to breathe freely. His son was asleep on the battlefield, with whom Chat Noir claims to be his soulmate being the cause of his situation. Bruce knew Jason had one, a soulmate that is, but he for sure did not expect them to be a french heroine in a red spotted suit.

“Red Robin, is the distraction ready?”

“She... Yes. Wait for my signal.”

-------------------------

Tim was so, so done. The “game” he had formerly enjoyed in his overcaffeinated state, has just taken an unpleasant turn. “Why are you so stubborn? Your plan is foolish, you will die!” “No I won’t.” “Stephanie! Plea-” “Just make sure I don’t sacrifice myself in vain, will you? I am doing the right thing. I can feel it. Trust me.” “It already is in vain! There are other options-”

“I love you.”

And with that she stepped into the abandoned ruin of a building, eyes wide and innocent, voice loud and echoing, calling for Ladybug and Chat Noir. She knew they were on the other end of Paris, the akuma did too. But damn, Hawkmoth could not pass out on such an opportunity. A weak hero as a hostage?

“Let’s end this battle for good.”

-------------------------

Tim was listening in horror. His hand was trembling and even Alfred throwing a blanket over his shoulders did not help. That didn’t stop him from doing his job, though.

He heard the akuma by using Stephanies ears, recognizing him even before she did.

“Now.”

With that, Batman jumped onto the boats, running towards the one he noticed moving, not knowing that his daughters life was depending solely on his success.

A second message went out to Chat Noir. Upon hearing it he grabbed the sleeping beauties and tugged them under water. There he positioned them on his shoulders and used his hands to hold on to his baton so he could use it as a jumpstarter. It expanded both up- and downwards, hitting the ground and catapulting the trio out of the water. While in the air, Chat caught side of the big bat, who was kind of comically standing on a red-spotted boat. “Catch!” he called while locking eyes with him and dropping Ladybug in his arms. Adrien knew that giving him the man was not an option, no matter how strong Batman was. The Cat knew it’s physics and could not trust the vigilante to withstand the impact of catching a body of the same mass as his own, while literally standing on water, without toppling over.

Instead of toppling over from the weight of his son, Bruce caught the petite girl, followed the flying cat back to the shore and into one of the destroyed buildings, a former bakery, it seemed.

----------------------------------

Meanwhile, Stephanie was standing in a cloud of dust, caughing and trying to cover her eyes to stop the dirt from blinding her. She had expected the akuma to attack, but did not think he’d drop to such low methods. He didn’t give her a chance of fighting back, did not face her. Instead he started another earthquake right beneath her feet, just weakened her to near suffocation.

Tim, with his one hand on his soulmatebond and his eyes on the rescuing mission, listened as the villain grabbed her. “Red, there’s a violet light, he’s still connected”, his soulmate whispered. After that she went completely silent, having finally given in to the akumas torture and lost conciousness.

----------------------------------

Chat really wanted to close his eyes. Even more so, he really did not want to be in the room of his recently deceased friend Marinette, especially after having been the cause of her and her parents death. They were upstairs when it happened, right where the dustsnakes attack was the most powerful. ‘All because of me’, Adrien thought, ‘all because I called for them from above. I shouldn’t have let them come up the stairs, I should have joined them down in their basement.’

That’s where they were in that moment. In the Dupain-Cheng-Bakeries’ basement. It was a dark, dry and surprisingly clean place. It’s walls were covered in shelves full of cheese, wine and flour, with the middle kept empty. The empty space was being used by four sleepingbags and several full bottles of water laying on the floor. They were probably meant for each one of the family members and a possible plus one. Marinettes soulmate, maybe? One of the sleeping bags was surprisingly big, though it did make sense if you knew about Tom Dupains size. Chat reluctantly placed the man from his shoulder into the sleeping bag, which turned out to be far more difficult than he had expected it to be.

While he was at it, Batman managed to place Ladybug into the one next to his son, and contact Red Robin for an update. Chat detransformed, completely disregarding the fact that his identity was no longer secret and let Plagg fly off to recharge on the endless supply of cheese. Adrien himself chugged down a bottle of water and crawled into the fourth sleeping bag, smelling Marinettes home, curling up into a ball and silently crying himself into an exhausted sleep.

Bruce, who was for once thankful to be the only concious person in the room, slid down the door he had previously barricaded, not holding back his tears. Tim had just told him about Stephanies sacrifice. Sure, she wasn’t dead yet, but she might as well be. Bruce was so tired of loosing his Robins, so tired of losing his family. He couldn’t be tired now, though. He had people to protect and lives to safe. Currently that meant staying in this basement and keeping an eye on those broken heroes.

Chat Noir was laying there in front of him and Bruce was afraid. Afraid for him, afraid of the past he had to live through and afraid of what the future held for him. He was 17, maybe 18. So young, too young to carry such a burden. Bruce Wayne did not understand how two single heroes have managed to deal with this on their own. He knew he that if he were in their place, he would have succumbed to it a long time ago. Though who said they haven’t lost to it aswell?

They really did look broken, Ladybug especially. Bruce noticed her and Jason shivering in unison. Slowly he stood up and walked over to them, carefully lifting the girl and placing her in Jasons much to wide sleeping bag. They immediatly stopped shivering, laying there with the Red Lady safe and secure in Red Hoods arms. He even proceeded to hug her closer, with a smile gracing both their lips.

“Welcome to the family”, Bruce whispered. She was going to fit right in.

---------------------------------

Marinette was in a tower, standing in front of a gigantic panorama window. The city in front of her was all black and blue, shining, illuminating the dark as if it were full of aquamarine stars. But no stars were visible. “How sad”, she thought to herself. “All that sky, all those people, all these lights. But no one sees their home.”

“We build our own home, here on earth.”, a voice behind her made it’s appearance. She wasn’t surprised. He should be here, in her dimension, her world. It felt right. “How could we build a new home with our ancestry staring us down?”, she asked looking down at the city beneath their feet. The cloud they were standing on felt like a cold shower, light and unbinding, but firm.

“Those are my favourite clouds”

“Cumulonimbus?”

“The mightiest of them all.”

Jason looked up at the stars. “Do you fear them?”

“I use their power.”

Black and blue filled his vision. Her soft skin was white as marble, with bruises forming colorful paintings of history, present, past and future.

She stood next to a little boy, looking up at him. Her summerdress was so very pink, his hands were so very red, the wheels of the Batmobil were so very black. He lifted the wheel into the air and began soundlessly rolling it away. A black figure illuminated by blue light was watching him. “Hey! What are you looking at, weirdo?”, her tiny voice spoke, filling the air like thunder. Metall flashed behind the tall figures head, hitting and breaking him. He dissolved into bits and pieces of stone, onyx and sapphire glistening in the dark. The boy took her hand and they ran, giggles and huffs filling the silent streets.

Jason sat with his eyes closed and his back leaning on Marinettes. She was leaning on his back, too. Each others weight was crushing their partner. “They aren’t staring at you.” “Our ancestors?” “They are staring at the ones who tried to hurt you.” Their weight found a balance, he was holding her heart in his hands, lifting her off the ground she was afraid of sinking in.

Eyes opened, sapphire blue met aquamarine cyan.

“The stars never left.”

Black and Blue and White.

Bruises and Scars.

Silk hair, Vibrant eyes and Shining hope.

Black. Sleep. Night.

---------------------------------

Jason awoke in the middle of the night. He felt weirdly serene, comfortable. He needed a moment to remember where he was. The memories were coming back slowly, his mind took it’s time emerging from the fog it has been swimming in. The sound of two voices talking next to him startled him, reminding him of every danger he had endured in the past 24 hours. His senses sharpened, he suddenly recognized that the body laying next to him was not his own. It felt weird, he could sense everything she was sensing, after all. Jasons breathing was unusually calm, her breath was a bit too fast for someone who was in deep sleep. They were completly synced. He should be feeling creeped out, like his personal space was being invaded. Jason didn’t though. He liked it. It felt... safe.

The voices, one of which he now recognized as his fathers, while the other was unusually high, startled him out of his thoughts. Wanting to find the source of the second voice, he reluctantly let the girl next to him go, though they never really lost contact. He sat up, immediatly sensing the seperation and already regretting his decision. She didn’t move in the slightest, as he stood up and walked over to the man who sat there with his back foolishly turned towards the sleeping heroes. Jason didn’t silent his steps, wanting Bruce to hear him. He could’ve used the moment to mess with him, but he didn’t want to wake the parisians behind him, so he painfully discarded the urge. The high voice stopped in it’s speech. Jason still couldn’t see where it was coming from, but Bruce was calm so he trusted it to be safe. His father turned his head, looking up at his son from his seating position, before standing up and pulling him into a firm embrace. Jason was not at all used to physical contact from his father so hee stiffened for a few moments, but when the young adult realised that the man was not about to let go, he relaxed and returned the hug. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”, he heard the gruff Batman voice, though he was quite certain it wasn’t intentional, probably just a result of stress and exhaustion.

“Yes, I’m good. What about you?”

He knew he wasn’t, he could tell just by looking at the unmasked face with those deep bags under his eyes. This man needed some rest.

“Ah, I guess I’m getting old. Time to retire soon, don’t you think?”

A chuckle escaped Jasons throat. Yeah, maybe he should retire too.

“I won’t be able to stay much longer. I need to get back to the team and follow Barbaras traces. She said that Hawkmoth has to be someone from the upper class, since they are the only ones who aren’t hiding in the shelters. And with Spoilers and Reds inside-information we-” “Wait, hold on. How did they get inside?”

Bruce winced. It was a ridiculously miniscule movement, but Jason still noticed. He waited for the other man to tell him in his own pace. Such patience was unusual for the Red Hood, but he saw how it comforted the older man so he was grateful for his new personality trait. It wasn’t patience per se, he’d rather call it empathy. Something he has almost forgotten since his resurrection in the Lazarus Pits.

“Spoiler she... she offered herself as a distraction so we could get you, Ladybug and Chat Noir to safety. She... baited the akuma and is now being held hostage. Tim can hear what the akuma is doing, now that Stephanie is back to conciousness and keeping us updated.” Batman voice was even, which either meant he was collected or he was in rage. Jason bet it was the second option.

Instead of adressing it though, Red Hood just nodded. He was worried for Stephanie and sorry for Tim, but unlike his father he wasn’t mad. He knew that if he were in her place, he would’ve done the same.

Speaking of the devil, Tim chose that very moment to contact the both of them: “Hood! Glad to see you’re awake, please go back to sleep. Batsy, Orakel is waiting for you. She has coffee, so rise and shine and good luck! I’ve sent you your route. Check those mansions and make sure to download the local roomplans, I’m certain some of them have hidden rooms and dungeons full of dragons they haven’t mentioned in their tax-reports.”

“Red, when was the last time you slept?”

“What, you want me to go to bed? Let Alfred handle the situation? I mean he can do that but who will take care of your fucking Wayne Enterprises while he’s keeping y’all company? Fucking Catwoman? Harley?? The Joker?!? No? Now get your ass up and drink your coffee, we’ve got work to do.”

With that the line went silent.

Bruce let out a huff, glancing at Jason and the parisian duo.

“He’s right you know, go back to sleep. Ladybug needs your strength just as much as you need hers. Tikki here, promised to keep an eye on you and wake you in case of an emergency.” Before Jason could even ask who he was talking about he noticed a tiny red creature float up from behind his back, munching on a cookie twice her size. They were peering into his very soul with eyes way to terrifying for someone of their mass. The man couldn’t help but compare them to Damian, though the boys deathglare wasn’t even coming close to the sheer power of the creatures gaze.

Suddenly a second, similar creature joined the first ones side. Jason vaguely recognized it looking slightly catlike, which led to the information he was currently bombarded with finally making sense: “You are Ladybugs and Chat Noirs metas.”, he stated, recognition clear in his voice.

“Kwamis, actually, but yes, c’est nous.”, answered the cat-creature, “allow me to introduce myself. My name is Plagg, I am the God of Chaos and Destruction and this-” he lifted his tiny, finlike limb in the direction of the ladybug-themed Kwami, “-is Tikki, the Godess of Luck and Creation.”

Jason nodded, for whatever reason not feeling surprised, feeling just like Marinette did whenever she picked up a new book and already new it’s contents. Their partner has already implanted the information into the other ones head, all that was left was to refreshen it. “My name is Jason Todd. I am a vigilante from Gotham. I work under the name of Red Hood. We came to help you deal with Hawkmoth, though I’m sure Batman has already told you as much.”, speaking of his boss he turned to look at him. The men wordlessly bid their good-byes. A “please be careful”, was hanging in the air for both to hear. No need for voicing it. As Batman was leaving, Jason turned his gaze back to the two flying creatures in front him. His gaze landed on Tikki specifically. “I’m also sure you already know that as well, but I am Ladybugs soulmate.”

This was the first time he said it out loud. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, letting himself feel the impact of those words. It felt like... vulnerability. But as he opened his eyes again and met the azure eyes of the godess, that feeling shifted into something different. Something better. He felt empowered.

A moment passed, a connection between the two was forming and no-one dared complain (apart from Plagg, who was quietly grumbling about being left out.) Then, the godess’ demeanor changed completely, a smile now visible and a softness Jason wouldn’t have thought were possible redesigning her whole appearance. She flew up to him and, much to Jasons surprise, softly landed in his hair. “I approve.”

Jason let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Now go back to sleep, my chosen is still unstable and you have to help her get back on track. Go, go!”

The man did not dare argue, didn’t even want to, really. So he just made sure the door was properly barricaded, gulped down a bottle of water and layed down next to his soulmate. She immediatly nuzzled herself closer into his embrace, a smile now gracing their lips, again.

“I could get used to that...”, Jason thought as he drifted back off to sleep.

---------------------------------

The other vigilantes had spent their nights in the shelters and were ready to go out the next day, on their way to handling more damage control.

The last earthquake has moved the debris a bit, but it hasn’t destroyed any new buildings. The city now consisted of ruins, with only the Eiffeltower, the lower levels of “Le Grand Paris” and a few high security mansions still standing. Only a few of the rich houses, who’s owners could afford the most secure stability precautions for earthquakes the world had to offer, were offering to share with the refugees who had lost their homes. Adrien was ashamed to see that his fathers home did not belong to the chosen few.

One way or another, Chat Noir was about to find out. Having waken up before the others, he decided to use the little time before the realization of Ladybugs plan to make sure there was enough space for every surviver, which mostly meant breaking and entering into the homes of the rich, if they didn’t open the gates after his first time asking. His fathers home he had saved for the end, not certain what to expect and definetly not wanting to deal with possible emotional effects. Adrien didn’t actually know what he was hoping for: for his father to be dead, which would explain that “decision” or for him to be alive and well, which would simply mean that his family was safe and sound.

“I’m coming home...coming home, tell the world I’m coming home...”, his quiet voice echoed through the derserted streets of the City he once loved so dearly.

No tune and not a single lullaby could have prepared him for what he was about to find.

-------------------------

Hey!

So todays chapter is literaly twice as long as the last one, but I could not divide it into two seperate chapters because of the Jasonette percentage the chapter legally has to fullfill. Writing my world down took so long but it was so fun and now i have the build up I wanted “on paper” so I am mostly happy with the outcome. I honestly feared their relationship would be moving too fast but I guess my real life commitment issues did the trick, so HERE WE GOoooo...

Talking about commitment: THANK YOU DEAR MESSAGE LEAVERS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH if it weren’t for you, I probably would have given in to my doubts and stopped writing. You know, fun anxiety stuff. But you make my anxietini evaporini and I (as always) just can’t stress enough how much it means to me.

Also, my taglist has grown! Your existance fills my heart with joy. If you want to be added to that fabulous group of names you are about to read, feel free to message me in any way. I’ll be happy to add you to the circle of the constantly updated \o/

(Also if you want to be removed from the list, please don’t be afraid to ask me, I will not bite and I pinky promise not to cry~ )

Tag List ^^:

@maribat-is-lifeblood @lokilex @amayakans @readingismyoxygen @zalladane @sunspritethedestroyer @toodaloo-kangaroo @purplesundaze @yeet-this-bitch @ratherbereading125

Thanks for reading ^^

177 notes · View notes

anothertimdrakestan · 4 years

Text

Set In Stone - Choose Your Own Love Story Prologue (Tim Drake or Bart Allen x Reader)

Words: 2k

~ AH!!! Welcome to my newest multi chapter fic! Except there’s a twist! It’s up to you dear reader. I’ll be writing two different stories about each path, like a choose your own adventure, except you choose how your love story progresses to the eventual end! There will be a private masterlist specifically for this series where you can choose the way your personal love story unfolds. Just know that the future is never cemented, meaning you can always go back and try again! Think of this as the prologue to the actual event, but your first decision drops tomorrow, meet Bart or dig deeper into Tim? Hope you enjoy! ~

Seeing teenage heroes was really something else. They were your age, and they weren’t grumpy and old like the Justice League. “Okay well this is fun and all but I wanna hang with people my age!” you groaned following J'onn down the never ending corridors of the Watchtower. “You know your powers are not fit for the type of missions the Young Justice team attempt, you are arguably weaker than the regular human” he reminded you. That was rude. “Am not! I’m an asset! I can’t get hit cuz I know where they’re gonna swing so who cares if I have a mental breakdown every once and while!” J'onn knew you weren’t wrong, you taking a hit was a rare occurrence, but the Justice League refused to risk you even taking one hit, you’d protected thousands by scanning the infinite number of different possible futures.

“Everything you need is here” you replied “I knew you were gonna say that, like I literally knew it” you also knew you had to prod J'onn just for about two more minutes until you met Nightwing. “Oh my god Nightwing fancy seeing you here!” you grinned at J'onn who now understood your goal. “Hello, I didn’t know the YJ team had a new member?” Dick glanced at J'onn who shrugged. “Do not blame me Nightwing, Flash found her and the team agreed she stays with us” you rolled your eyes before starting with Dick Grayson, but he didn’t know you knew that yet.

“Hi! Y/N, no last name. Flash found me when he ran into the future and I was totally feeling the mode because I got these powers [ you tapped your head as Dick smirked ] and I can like see different parts of future when I’m super focussed, so like short time is kinda easy but far away and hard and I don’t remember anything from my past. I’m like a future only kinda girl.” you sighed, hoping you’d made sense. Dick’s eyes lit up. “So you don’t have a family, and they’re just keeping you here?” you nodded, crossing your arms to try to look more emotionally secure.

“Dibs” and something sparked in your head, this was a new future. It hurt. You sunk to the ground clutching your head as a new future bounced around your consciousness. Trying to shake out of it you realized you’d been carried to a med bay, Dick and J'onn stood above you looking concerned. Pushing them off you as you got up you explained “sometimes people make big decisions that change the future, I’m guessing you calling ‘dibs’ on me changed something, but I’m a little too tired to check if that’s okay, also what does dibs even mean?” and Dick smiled, “you’ll have to come find out!” and against J'onn’s protests he pulled you towards the Zeta Tubes.

Flash zipped in front of you and Dick. “No.” and Dick waved him off. “I’m taking her to the manor, get her to meet the family maybe I’ll get a sister if Bruce is in a mood” he waggled an eyebrow at Flash who was focussed now on you knowing he couldn’t get in Dick’s way. “I know you don’t know him yet but if Jason Todd asks you to do anything that seems dangerous say no. And watch out for Damian’s swords. I guess just look for Tim Drake, he’s a good one” and he patted you on the shoulder. “Go feel the mode kid” and you face palmed. “Flash you mean crash the mode oh god don’t even try to be cool” you groaned. “You totally have to meet Bart” Dick mumbled before he cleared you for zeta tube access.

You appeared in what can only be described as a man cave. There was a giant computer where a tiny boy sat covered in leather typing. There was a teenager looking about your age punching dummies while another boy was shooting literally guns at the dummies. “Welcome to the batcave!” Dick announced loud enough for the three boys heads to turn. The smallest boy stopped typing and stalked over to you. “A little young for you Grayson, stolen her from the baby justice team?” you knew this was Damian Wayne, and you couldn’t contain yourself.

“OH MY GOD BATMAN HI!” you screeched pulling him into your chest. “You’re totally crash like so cool but you’re so little right now! Last time I saw you, you were like super tall but you totally got moded or something - oh I wasn’t supposed to say that don’t worry!” Dick nudged you “this is Robin, Batman, Bruce Wayne, is in his office” and you slapped a hand over your mouth. “Right, no spoilers” and Damian stood still, processing his own future. “Moving on, Tim and Jason!” the two older boys had come down to get a closer look.

“Hood, Drake, this is totally cool!” you exclaimed, shaking their hands. “Why is he Red Hood and I’m Drake? Not Red Robin?” Tim looked puzzled. Best not ruin his life like that, this was one of the few things you planned on changing. “Because I know you’re Tim Drake! So does the world, Drake is a good LAST NAME right? Red Robin is totally crash for a hero name!” and Tim looked a little confused, but brushed it off. “What the demon said, she new?” and you shook your head, explaining your story again.

“20 bucks says adoption papers” “50 says she gets a room” “75 on a new animal persona” the boys started screaming bets as soon as they heard the “family trauma emotional instability” part. “Why can’t she be in Young Justice? Or the Outsiders? She’s still a teenager” Tim looked confused. “I dunno man, she’s been with the JL for a while because she’s apparently delicate which is bullshit” Dick explained and you strongly agreed. “None of you could even land a hit on me” you puffed out your chest. “Care to defend that claim?” Damian unsheathed a sword. “No! J'onn sai-” you cut Dick off. “Absolutely ”.

Now you were dodging and ducking Damian’s advances. You’d swung a couple punches but it means undoing some focus which allows Damian to get his own shots in, so you mostly stayed on defense, letting him get frustrated and tired. “I think you’ll get better with practice baby Batman” you teased him. Next was Jason, bullets were hard to avoid because you didn’t have lightning fast reflexes, although that would be nice. But Jason wasn’t as calculated as Damian so you could play a little dirtier. Knocking his guns out of his hands you let up, “this is boring I’m done” you raised from the ground where you and Jason had tumbled down on.

“So you really have powers. Your moves are all the most probable choice mathematically, you can’t be running the numbers in your head that quick!” Tim was toying with a tablet, shocked at your prediction abilities. “That’s right Boy Wonder, that was fun but I’m feeling kinda diz-” and then you realized you’d overworked yourself a little bit, and it all faded to black.

You woke up to fully aged Batman. “Oh god no I’m back. How am I back! Damian you were just a kid like ten minutes ago! How long have I been out?” you began to throw blankets off yourself, blankets? You were in a bed in someone’s room. “Calm down, Y/N, Y/N! It’s okay!” and the Older-Damian just enveloped you in a hug. You couldn’t remember the last hug you’d had. Literally couldn’t remember. And it was a welcomed comfort. Pulling away you got a closer look, and it wasn’t Damian Wayne, but Bruce.

“Bruce right? Current Batman?” you whispered, trying to wrap your mind around what had just happened. “That’s me, I see you’ve met my son, at multiple ages too” his eyes were smiling but his mouth wasn’t, it showed concern. “Yes, I did, I’m sorry for being a nuisance, it’s a pleasure to meet you but clearly I’m a bit moded so I should head back to the tower” you explain beginning to get up. “Actually that’s something I wanted to talk to you about, if you feel alright? [ you nodded, your powers were still a little too weak to peek ahead at what he was going to say ] Well, as you can see, I’ve got a couple of children, and you haven’t even met all of them. And I take them under my protection and I train them, and it seems to me you want training. Now you’re not ready for field work but you can start with me and my team, and maybe do a couple visits with the Young Justice team when Tim heads over. I think I can help you, and give you a family, would that be something you want?”

A family, you had one of those. And you knew the word brought you warmth, that had to be a good thing. “I think I’d like that a lot, but I’m kinda already with the Justice League ya know? Their personal magic 8 ball.” and Bruce shook his head. “They won’t be a problem for me, you’ll fit right in with my family” and you felt a smile spread over your face. “Then it’s a deal!” and you stuck out a hand, Bruce clasped it, pulling you in for another hug.

“We’ll talk later about what this means logistically, but there’s someone really excited you’re here.” and Tim Drake came bursting through the door, holding cookies. “Welcome to the team Y/N! You don’t know Alfred yet but he made these! I’m so glad you’re here!” he was beaming with excitement. And blushing? “Hi Tim, I’m glad to be here!” you chirped. Bruce mumbled something about paperwork and left the room as Tim continued. “This is totally cool, if you want I can call Bart I think he’d totally want to meet you! Or, you and I could hangout just the two of us!” there was that blush again. “Yeah! Can I just sit and think for a minute before I catch up with you?” this was a decision you wanted to read into, it felt important.

Tim left, and you sat back into the plush bed, diving into the future. And it was something you hadn’t seen you. There were two futures, still fuzzy from the infinite decisions to be made securing the future, but it was clear enough to see that it was your wedding day. Down one path you saw a beautiful wedding with someone you haven’t met yet, and you looked beyond happy. You heard yourself whisper “if only Tim were here to see this” wiping a tear away in the arms of your lover. Recoiling back you knew this future wouldn’t do, not at Tim’s expense. So you went towards the other. Same set up, but this time it was Tim that you were marrying, but the same tear slid down your cheek “if only Bart could be here” you recognized the name. Bart, the guy you’re supposed to be meeting.

And you were stuck in the middle no matter what. Like yin and yang you couldn’t find a future where you didn’t end up in the arms of one at the other’s grave. Or worse, in the futures where you tried to pick them over yourself both lost their lives saving you. So how you do pick? Who gets to be your future and who has to perish to secure it?

“Y/N you ready yet?” Tim called from down stairs. It was years out, but you knew every decision you made from now on was one step closer to the loss of a hero. And there was nothing you could do about it.

First Decision:

Get To Know Tim Drake First

Meet Bart Allen

~ I really hope you’re excited to make your own fic! The masterlist with the choices goes up with the actual start tomorrow! I can’t wait!!! ~

132 notes · View notes

chickenmuffinsoup · 3 years

Text

baby talon dick au

or, the au where dick and damian are the same age and dick was taken by the court of owls

“Ugh,” Damian grunted as he slammed onto the rooftop. He shoved himself up, and just barely caught the light thud of his opponent dropping gracefully in front of him. One hand clutched at the wound in his side, the other groped his boot, looking for the knife he was praying he hadn’t lost. His katana was several rooftops away by now, kicked out of his hands fairly early into the fight. His comm had also been smashed early on, something Damian suspected was intentional. He’d sent out a distress signal, of course, once it became apparent this child would actually be a formidable opponent. Because it was a child; even though Damian couldn’t see its face, it was the same height as him, and its build was slight and lithe with the underdeveloped-ness of youth. Except, it wasn’t only a child. Damian could have handled that. This thing was different. Damian cut it, and it didn’t bleed. He dislocated its shoulder, and it shoved it back into place without a second’s hesitation. And now, staring into the impassive goggles of the cowl that covered the child’s face, Damian’s blood on the sickle-like knives it held, he knew that he couldn’t beat it.

But that wasn’t any reason to stop trying.

Damian lunged forward, refusing to allow the child-the thing-to have the offensive. The child accepted the attack easily, backpedaling and blocking blows with an almost acrobatic lightness of feet. Damian backed it all the way to the edge of the roof before it ducked, leaving Damian off-balance after his blow aimed directly at the creature’s golden goggles. Something solid slammed into Damian from behind, and he felt himself teetering towards the edge. Without conscious thought, his knife fell from his hands, clambering down to the street below and his arms windmilled at his sides in a desperate attempt to find his balance and prevent his body from following his weapon. Then, something yanked on the back of Damian’s collar sending him sprawling back onto the rooftop. Damian rolled, every part of him sore, lightheaded from blood-loss. This time, he could only manage to push himself up to his knees.

He looked up to see his own reflection in that same pair of goggles, far too close to his face. A gloved hand reached out, impervious to Damian’s meager attempts to shove it away. Clawed fingertips dug underneath his mask and pulled it up. After a brief inspection, the child tossed it to the side. Damian spit a mixture of saliva and blood as close to the thing’s face as he could. He missed by several feet.

“Go on and do it,” Damian ground out. He didn’t mean it. Damian didn’t want to die, but he knew how to act when faced with death. He screwed his face into the closest approximation of Todd’s as he could, and prepared to go down kicking and screaming.

The child’s hands twitched forwards, and Damian thought for certain he had only seconds before those golden knives plunged into his flesh—only, they didn’t. They clattered to the ground. The creature reached up, and with one hand, pulled off the black, impersonal cowl to reveal a boy, no older than Damian.

Damian blinked. Golden eyes blinked back at him. The boy’s head tilted, birdlike, to the side.

“What do you want?” Damian asked, unable to maintain a completely combative tone, so surprised by the turn of events.

“You’re not a Robin,” the boy said, his tone a mixture of confusion and question.

“Of course I’m Robin,” Damian snapped.

“No, you’re not. Talon’s meant to kill Robin, but you’re not Robin.”

Damian bristled at that. He took the mantle of Robin very seriously. He knew the story of the first Robin, the one who’s mantle he’d inherited. The boy from the circus, the only one of his Father’s strays that Damian would accept to be Batman’s son. Richard Grayson had created the title of Robin from dust, built a legacy that would live on after him. He saved Father’s life, losing his own in the process. Todd, Drake, Brown; they were just pretenders. Damian was the true heir, to Batman and to Robin. Only the blood son was worthy to accept the mantle of the son who’d given his blood for Batman.

That said, Damian wasn’t stupid. If the boy was out to kill Robin, it wouldn’t do to convince him that Damian was Robin. Even if he definitely was.

“And what are you then?” Damian asked instead. “You’re certainly not human.”

“I’m Talon. What are you?”

“I’m…” Damian groaned. Partly so he didn’t have to come up with a response, and partly because the stinging in his side was only growing worse, his fingers now saturated in blood. The boy’s—Talon’s—luminescent eyes flickered to Damian’s wound. Slowly, he pulled off a glove, and reached out with his bare hand. His fingertips barely grazed the wound before he whipped his hand back, inspecting the splash of red against tan skin.

“You’re…bleeding,” Talon said, like he was tasting the words on his tongue.

“All thanks to you,” he growled.

Talon focused back on Damian and leaned forward from his crouch so he was kneeling in front of Damian. He squinted, leaning his face closer, like he was searching for something. “You are familiar,” Talon stated, matter-of-fact.

Damian had half a dozen smart-ass responses he could have given to try and deflect the strangeness of that statement that he didn’t give. “Why did you want to kill Robin?” Damian asked instead. He just needed to buy himself some time, he may as well gather information in that time.

“Talon didn’t want to kill Robin. Talon was meant to.” Talon straightened his back and puffed up his chest, and Damian got the distinct impression he was quoting someone when he said, “’Talon must kill Robin. It is Talon’s final transformation. Talon must kill Talon’s past.’” His posture relaxed. “But you’re wrong. You’re not Robin.”

“If I’m not Robin, then who is?”

Talon shrugged, a strangely mechanical motion compared to the gracefulness of all his other movements.

“If I’m not Robin, then what are you still doing here?”

Talon froze. At first, Damian thought it was because of his question, but then Damian heard it too, the familiar pounding of several sets of boots on rooftops. Talon whipped around in the direction of the sound, snatching his knives up as he went. He positioned himself in front of Damian, and if he and Talon hadn’t just spend all night trying to kill each other, he might’ve thought it was a protective stance.

When Damian caught sight of a distinctive black outline against the light-polluted sky, he sagged in relief, forgetting, for a moment, all his training, and calling out, “Father!”

“Robin!” came Batman’s gravelly voice, and before Damian knew it he was swept up in his father’s arms. “What happened?”

“Uh, Batman?” Todd’s modified voice said, startling Damian, who hadn’t registered anybody else on the rooftop besides he father. Now that he looked, Red Hood and Spoiler were there too, along with Talon, staring warily at the new arrivals with his knives hanging limp at his sides. “Bruce?” Todd said again, this time with something that sounded like a crack in his voice. “You’re gonna wanna see this.”

Damian felt his father’s arms go slack around him, and Damian had to cling to his shoulders to keep from falling. Father corrected his mistake, now clinging to Damian just as tightly.

“Impossible,” his father breathed, and if Damian weren’t in his arms he might not have heard him say it. Then, louder, but only by barely, “He looks just like-“

“Dick,” Todd said, dropping to his knees in front of Talon. Spoiler stood at the ready behind him. To Damian’s utter surprise, Todd ripped off his helmet, tossing it to the side. “How are you…”

Talon took a couple cautious steps towards Todd. With his ungloved hand, he pulled off Todd’s mask in the same manner he’d pulled of Damian’s, except this time looked perhaps more gentle, almost, caring? He left a swatch mark of blood on Todd’s cheek. Talon stared at Todd with eerie, unswerving eyes.

“You’re meant to be shorter,” he said abruptly. Jason’s laugh was sudden and hysterical as he grabbed Talon and pulled him into his arms. Damian’s mind swam in confusion as the world went black around him, even as he tried to focus on Jason’s desperate embrace of Damian’s would-be killer.

When the world came back into color, Damian was lying in the medical bed down in the cave, staring up at the bat-covered ceiling. He pushed himself into a sitting position, biting back a moan at the aches in his body. A flicker of movement in his peripheral vision made him jerk his head to the side. Perched haphazardly on a nearby chair, eyes gleaming in the low-light, was Talon.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” Talon said, voice chipper. He held out an arm, stick-straight. “I’m Dick Grayson, nice to meet you.”

#damian&dick #uhhh no slash #talon au #dick grayson #damian wayne #robin #batfam #batman #jason todd #jason knows dick because I said so #(◡‿◡✿)

31 notes · View notes

herecomesnaya · 3 years

Note

Oh here I am, I think I'll take a bottle of: Roman’s abusive tactics have worn down Jason 2020, if you don't mind, thank you very much 🤲

yes indeedy! let’s see what I got here...

so, in the beginning, Jason was a lot different than he is now in terms of attitude. snarkier. more willing to fight back. his internal monologue less doubtful and uncertain of himself. able to spit Roman’s cum into his wine glass and walk away without a second thought. says no out loud more often, implies Roman is the crazy one.

but then, slowly, it changes around. it’s (I hope) subtle at first. Roman’s first tactic to start breaking Jason down isn’t to tear him down, but to build him up. he calls him a good boy. praises him for taking it so well. shows the barest modicum of care at some points, which feels like a hell of a lot to Jason, considering 1) it’s Black Mask and 2) Jason doesn’t ever particularly feel like he’s worthy of praise, so it leaves more of an impact when it happens.

starting in chapter 4, Roman begins to change Jason’s line of thinking from what he wants to what Roman wants. it starts off most evidently during sex, so Jason doesn’t realize what’s happening, just thinks of it in the context of it being a play scene. but the reason Roman broke him down until Jason told him to do whatever he wanted to him is because he was trying to prime Jason to carry that belief with him outside of the bedroom.

by chapter 5, he’s managed to convince Jason slowly over the course of the fic that what Roman wants, though, is actually what Jason wants. Jason may not entirely believe it yet, but Roman consistently reinforces this narrative:

“I-I— I'm sorry, okay?” he says, hoping that'll be the end of it. “I was wrong. You were right. Could you stop being weird now?”

“Oh, but I'm only giving you what you want,” Roman says, his voice like silk over ice. “Let's try things your way. What do you say, boys? Hm? Should we give Red Hood's methods a chance?”

the purpose is to make Jason doubt himself. to gaslight him into thinking that he practically asked to be treated like shit. because he comes when they have sex, and Roman treats him like shit while they fuck, so clearly that means Jason’s desires = being treated like shit, right?

chapter 6 is probably Jason’s last big defiant action before he gets, well, not completely complacent, but pretty damn close. fucking Chain is something he’d never have done at the beginning of the fic, but by this point, his psyche has already been re-shaped a bit by Roman’s tactics. sex is at the forefront of his mind where it wouldn’t have been before. sex is a tactic to get what you want from someone: he learned that from Roman.

by the end of the chapter, he’s gone through subspace (not for the first time in the fic, but more on that in my subspace meta), and while he’s still in that state, Roman does one of his little tactics to get Jason to trust him more: he takes off his mask while they’re in bed together, although he doesn’t let Jason see.

in chapter 7, we get more of Roman undermining Jason’s intelligence:

“Oh, Red,” Roman says with a shake of his head. “Still tragically incompetent with words, as always. You're lucky I know you well enough to realize you've got more going in there than you let on.” He accompanies this with a tap to his temple, and Jason at least has the good sense to feel offended.

he constantly reinforces the narrative that Jason has more brawns than brain, and needs someone like Roman to get him to “think clearly.” this is meant to make Jason doubt himself, wonder if he’s really thinking straight when Roman isn’t in his head.

in chapter 7, Jason also asks for one of the things he’s consistently been denied: boundaries. and Roman’s response?

“I admit I was a bit overzealous. I apologize,” Roman says, not sounding very contrite. “But that's exactly what I'm talking about. You need to trust that whatever I do to you, it'll work out in your favor. Do you think you can do that for me?”

Roman asks for obedience, not thought. trust, not mutual understanding. it’s about what he wants, and Jason, more and more, is starting to go along with it.

and what happens when Jason trusts Roman? well, he gets one of the best fucks of his life...

but also, a bunch of people die. whoops?

Jason’s guilt over this incident is so strong, and Dick comes into the story at exactly the perfect time to exacerbate that. in chapter 8, here’s where things really take a turn for the worse.

Jason is put in a position where he has to justify his attraction to Roman, and defend himself against actions that he feels personally responsible for. and what happens when he does that? it reinforces the until now unspoken belief that he really does want Roman to do whatever he wants to him.

because now there’s another party involved. now Dick knows he didn’t fight back like he “could” have, like he “should” have. now Jason, in his mind, has outside confirmation that he’s a willing party in this, and even goes so far as to wish he’s being raped to avoid having any culpability in it.

(the irony here being that Jason is being raped, because Roman consistently pushes past his boundaries when he says a clear “no.” he just doesn’t realize that it still counts as rape even if you come. he’d realize this if it were someone else in his position, but because it’s him, because he’s Jason Todd, because he’s stupid, because he doesn’t know how to admit what he wants, it can’t be rape. it can’t be. right?)

so he ends up leaving the confrontation with Dick feeling more isolated from his family, his only possible support system. feeling on edge, terrified that Dick will tell Bruce, and that he’ll be ousted from the family again, the black sheep that no one likes.

it’s this guilt and doubt and pain and terror that brings him into Roman’s arms, where he does arguably the most extreme session of the fic to that point. and that’s exactly where Roman wants him.

the next day, Roman really ramps things up. he sets up a fake situation where it appears that he’s been worriedly tending to Jason’s wounds all night. author’s note: he hasn’t. he’s full of fucking shit.

this line right here?

“I knew it,” he says a moment later, shoulders sagging under the tailored sleeves of his suit. “I knew you'd wake up as soon as I left.”

this is a little writer’s trick we in the biz like to call “a lie.” Roman can say that line literally whenever he comes into Jason’s room, and it’s like, oops, he only just stepped out for a minute! teehee! when in reality, he’s left Jason alone the entire night. Jason never receives proper aftercare, this is intentional.

but it still works. Roman manages to convince Jason, in his despair, to part with the knowledge that he used to be Robin. Jason is so alone at this point, he just wants someone to know that he’s in pain. and Roman has gotten him into subspace and “taken away the pain” often enough that Jason relies on him for it now. it’s like a drug to him.

and then comes the present. a simple gesture, and an easy one when you’re as rich as Roman Sionis. just a couple books. but to Jason, they mean so much more. they’re a “confirmation” that Roman listened to him speak about more than just business and sex. a “confirmation” that he does care, at least a little bit.

spoilers: he doesn’t. he doesn’t at all. it’s just a cheap way to endear Jason to him further, and Jason is in such an emotionally wrecked state that it actually works.

and then what does Roman do right when Jason has that realization?

he buys a bunch of hookers and spends all night paying attention to one.

give Jason attention, take it away. make him jealous. make it so that Jason is the one who wants Roman’s attention, not the other way around. and it works.

and when Jason gets upset and expresses that to Roman, his feelings are again downplayed and minimized.

“...I already told you what this means. Did you see a collar on her?”

It takes a second for Jason to realize Roman’s let up on his throat enough for him to speak. When he does, it’s hesitant and raspy.

“...No.” Roman lifts him by the neck, smacks his head pointedly back against the concrete. Jason corrects himself. “No, sir.”

Again, his airway gets cut off. “That’s right. Just because I’ve got some bimbo hanging off my arm doesn’t mean I give a damn about her one way or the other. This was supposed to boost morale, after everything that’s happened.”

Jason winces. He wonders if “everything” means his illness, or if it stretches all the way back to the former lieutenants now headless and chained to the bottom of Gotham Harbor. Either way, it’s his fault. That much is clear.

so now, once again, Jason feels responsible for his own anguish, even when it’s Roman’s fault, specifically building him up and tearing him down again. gaslighting him more to make him feel crazy. like he can’t trust his own emotions. like he needs Roman to make sense of them for him.

so Jason gets drunk to deal with the pain. and Roman eventually relents and gives him the attention he wants.

how does Jason respond?

a drunken love confession. Jason is now so broken down that he mistakes Roman’s token affection for love. he wants it to be love. he needs it to be, because that would make everything make sense. the way he feels. the way Roman is acting. everything.

and then, once Jason confesses, we get another sharp slap to the face by Roman: his “punishment” for being driven to drink, being cuckolded by Ms. Li. Roman knows at this point that Jason loves him. he’s using that against him by forcing Jason to watch him with someone else.

but he also throws him a bone: the knowledge that there’s a shipment coming in. he knows Jason wants to know about it. knows why he’s there. he needs to keep Jason tethered to him, keep him feeling like he’s getting what he wants when he’s actually doing exactly what Roman wants.

we can also see Roman continuing to subtly tear down Jason’s confidence in himself:

“Son, please,” Roman sighs, lifting a hand to cut him off. “Quite the contrary. It wasn’t an accident that I let you overhear that last night. That was your reward for complying so well, if anything.”

Immediately, Jason feels like his outburst was overblown. He shrinks back into his seat, looking down at the scraps of food on his plate.

Jason isn’t allowed to question Roman. if he does, it’s only because he’s an overdramatic brat. his feelings are constantly minimized, replaced by whatever feelings Roman deems it appropriate for him to have.

and then we get to the most recent chapter, with Roman manipulating Jason into having a conversation with Batman. Jason is given a week to prepare what he wants to say. and what does Roman do?

he doesn’t give Jason a second alone to think. constantly on him, fucking him, hurting him, giving him pleasure, distracting him. he doesn’t want Jason to be prepared. he wants him to be caught off-guard and thinking only of what Roman wants. then, only then, will he be the perfect little soldier to stand in front of Batman and pledge his allegience to Black Mask properly.

and that’s where we left off! there’s going to be even more delicious, horrible manipulation in the newest chapter, so I hope you guys are excited! can’t wait to publish it!

#ask #fic chatter #Blurry #daddy tag #tw rape #tw abuse #elidebrey

15 notes · View notes

oceanera12 · 3 years

Text

Knight Fall

So... this AU popped into my head because of a Descendants 3 Song. No, I am not joking and no, I will not apologize because I cannot make animatics.

We need to establish a few things:

First: the world this happens in is going to be very similar to Young Justice with a few changes. Ras and his loyal followers have been kicked out of the League and are keeping a low profile. Just kind of ignore most of the main plot of Season 3 minus Nightwing finding out about their apparent loss of control/banishment.

Second: Jason has been “dead” for about three years. Two and a half of those years have been spent with the League (Resurrection stuff and such has happened and he does suffer from a bit of memory loss).

Third: Damian is seven years old. He’s a brat, he is trained, and he and Hood have the “best” relationship out of the Al Gaul bunch because Hood doesn’t force him to train 24/7 or punish him for failing. So Talia is not a good Mom in this story.

The characters of this story are either on Team Bats or Team Al Ghul (at least at the beginning).

Team Bats consists of Batman/Bruce Wayne, Nightwing/Dick Grayson, Robin/Tim Drake, Agent A/Alfred Pennyworth, Spoiler/Stephanie Brown, and Oracle/Barbara Gordon.

Team Al Gaul consists of Ras Al Ghul, Talia Al Gaul, Ubu, Senseii, Red Hood/Jason Todd, and Damian Wayne-Al Ghul.

With all of that out of the way, let’s begin:

Starts in Gotham with the emergence of the Court of Owls. The Court wants Dick Grayson as their Talon and they are not happy that he’s slipped a bit out of their reach.

They get rumors about the Al Ghul’s falling out of favor/losing control of the League and are interested in recruiting the displaced group.

Yeah, the Al Ghul’s don’t appreciate that very much and send back the head of their messenger as a warning. Of course, the Court isn’t happy about that and find out about Damian.

Their thought process consists of basically “Well, we lost our previous Talon. This one is younger and easier to change. Let’s take him.”

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem for the Al Ghul’s. But it is only the small group of Assassins vs Undead Army of Talons that get killed, get their bodies picked up, revived, then turned back on the Al Ghul’s.

So very long story short, they flea very reluctantly to the only person who will be able to help: Aka CALLING ON THE BAT.

Red Hood has to wear his mask at all times and is not allowed to speak. Similar situation for Damian, but he’s just in a cute little ninja costume with only his eyes showing. Neither Ras or Talia mentions that Damian is related to Bruce and make an excuse of adopting him as a servant/assassin (which Damian is a bit confused and annoyed about but he is not going to question his Mother or Grandfather).

Bruce is not happy about the situation but the Court has become frustrated because they are trying to kidnap Dick now so he reluctantly agrees to a team-up with the insane assassins.

Since I do not want to plan out every little plot detail, I’m just gonna hit the highlights

Bruce and Ras argue constantly on how to deal with the Court. Bruce wants to take out the Talons (they are already dead so he’s fine with chopping them to pieces) and arrest the leaders, but Ras want to find the actually living members and kill every last one of them. At the same time, the two of them work together on planning the attack on the Court’s headquarters.

Talia just kind of chills in the background. Sometimes she trains Damian, sometimes she helps her father and Bruce with planning the attack, and sometimes she just sits and watches.

Ubu and Sensi train Damian. They are also sent out every once in a while to spy on the Court. None of the Bats interact with either of them for longer then necessary and vice versa.

Hood does not have all of his memories at this point but he really does not like looking at the “memorial case” for what appears to have been the previous Robin. Most of his days consist of people watching because these people are really familiar and why the heck did he know “Agent A” was someone named Alfie? He also does not like the current Robin for no particular reason. ... The Robin grows on him. Very slowly.

Alfred has also decided he likes the Red Hood for no particular reason. He does not understand why the man does not take off his mask, but Hood is more polite to the butler then the rest of the Assassin’s combined. And he doesn’t even speak! He has also decided the smallest assassin with the Al Ghul’s is trouble, but not evil. He insists on treating the boy’s wounds after his “training” (which all of the Bats have spoken about the cruelty of it but there is not much they can do at the moment). Hood helps him most days patch up the young master.

Damian wants to hate the Bats (Grandfather and Mother both warned him not to grow attached to them as they are their enemies-- respected enemies, but enemies. This situation is an exception). He really does. But there is something about them that he is just drawn to. Grayson is a respectable fighter who had decided to teach him the basics of gymnastics. Drake had excellent skills in deducing and technology, offering to upgrade Damian’s arsenal with a few... non-lethal options (the batarangs were too good to say no to, but Damian made sure to hide them from his Mother and Grandfather). Brown was a bit weak, but what she lacked in skill she made up for in determination. Miss Gordon was one of the best Intelligence officers Damian had seen. Pennyworth is an excellent servant that the others treated with the same respect as everyone else. That was a new concept. And then there was Batman. Something about Batman made Damian feel... safe, was the best word for it.

Tim decides he is going to befriend the tiny assassin. Don’t ask him why, he couldn’t tell you. (It might have had something to do with the well hidden looks the tiny assassin shot at Thalia and Ras. It was a look of wanting praise and wanting to please. The Al Ghul’s either hadn’t noticed or ignored it. Either way, Tim understood that situation more than he would care to admit). So Tim and the tiny assassin are on “friendly terms” is the best way to describe it. He also talks a lot to the Red Hood guy. Hood never responds but he also hasn’t pulled a gun on him so he takes that as a good sign.

Stephanie and Barbra hang together and keep an eye on all the assassin’s to make sure no one dies. They also spy on the Court whenever Ubu and Senseii are not. That’s really about it.

Very, very long story short, everyone goes and attacks the Court. They manage to take down most of the Talon’s and Ras goes to kill the leaders and Bruce tries to stop him.

Fragile alliance falls apart and it’s now a free-for-all with the Bats vs. the Al Ghuls vs. The Court. Cheers.

At some point Jason loses his mask which cause a completely different kind of “falling apart” and Hood is really confused because “Who’s Jason?”

The Court escapes, Al Ghul’s leave (with Jason), and the Bats are ticked/sad/confused/angry. Lots of emotions.

Jason had been getting more of his memories back while with the Bats. He gets more of them back over the course of the next few months and while he is angry that Bruce replaced him, he also knows that Damian was MUCH happier with them.

So when the Court comes for Damian again, Jason snatches the kid up in the confusion and takes him back to Gotham because I NEED PROTECTIVE BIG BROTHER JASON. Damian hesitantly goes with Hood but is not as resistant to the idea as he might have been a few weeks back (his mother is NOT a good mother, kay?)

Ras get’s ticked at the world, kills most of the Court members because he thinks Damian got snatched by them (and maybe Hood?). Later finds out Jason was the one to take Damian and tries to kill him, but Damian won’t have that, no siree.

Damian and Jason end up gaining their freedom through combat and head off to Gotham. They get there just before Batman and Co. launch a full blown rescue mission to get Jason back so there’s some saved resources, I suppose.

Also: “Bruce, meet Damian. He’s Talia and your demon spawn.” “... what?” “My father is Batman???”

18 notes · View notes

why-this-kolaveri-machi · 3 years

Text

chin fucking up, amigo.

Titans 3.02

... eh?

SPOILERS ahead.

1. you know that music video for billie jean where michael jackson would dance along the pavement and the tiles would light up under his feet in different colours? yeah? me too.

titans hasn’t met a table top or a support arch that it doesn’t want to light up in a headache-inducing blue like the world’s most boring nightlight. i mean, i’m not an expert on lighting or cinematography or just... colour by any means, and the quality of the video i’m watching is poor given that i can’t access hbo max, but all the orange and teal and neon is making it very difficult to really differentiate between say, the batcave and the gotham police department and hell, the titans tower. i feel like there’s oftentimes a gap between idea and execution with titans, with gotham being this almost otherwordly hellscape with an aesthetic pulled from a gothic horror novel, but the colours and design just... leave it flat and dark and dull.

1.5. like what really frustrates me is that titans has a delightful mix of tones--the fights often remind me of schumacher-era batman camp, with the contrived quips and the start-stop rhythm and krypto just sallying in and ending the fight with a fucking SuperBark (tm) but in the same episode you have red hood just casually pulling out severed heads out of a duffle bag and desperate people blackmailed into killing themselves out of drug overdoses. I MEAN. it’s wonderful! but it looks all the same. it sounds Absolutely Bonkers on paper but on screen both Quip and Murder happen in the same washed-out blue and i wanted to be excited about the batcave, dammit!

2. things re: red hood have happened at such a breakneck speed that it feels like there’s so much that’s happened off-screen that we’re not privy to. a real proper mystery!

things that are intriguing about the red hood arc so far:

a) what was that chemical he huffed just before going to fight the joker? is it a regular old performance/adrenaline booster or is it something more lazarus-juice adjacent? if it’s the latter, i can’t imagine he got that much information from a lone chemistry textbook. and where is he getting the resources to set up his little chemistry lab? is somebody else orchestrating things behind the scenes?

b) the red hood persona, costume and mask, plus the elaborate plan he’s putting in place to both string along gotham’s rogues and enact his revenge against the titans seems too... fully-formed and elaborate to have been concocted in just a few days. how long do you think jason’s been planning this? just... stewing in resentment and building rage, dismissed and passed around and underestimated and realising that the power he thought he would get by being robin is no power, no protection at all, but something that’s left him even more vulnerable than before?

c) do we think that the scarecrow is at least partly behind this transformation? because yes, it was batman that set up this whole hannibal lecter-esque situation with him, and he would be irresponsible enough to have jason-as-robin go talk to him regularly regarding “~profiling~” criminals. it’s not too far of a leap to assume that scarecrow could’ve been manipulating jason at a very vulnerable time, and that he could’ve passed along some of his chemistry know-how, too.

d) ... or fuck, i wouldn’t put it past titans to introduce ra’s al ghul in a fucking ten second aside

e) anyway, the thing that won’t leave me alone is jason seeking out the joker not necessarily to fight him, but to orchestrate his own death. the whole thing has to have been part of a bigger plan. he broke batman with it, after all. and he’s starting to break the titans, too.

f) i love it! i mean, it does re-tread some of the storybeats we had with deathstroke last season (turning the titans against each other as revenge, etc) but it’s... tighter, this time, and at least for now seems better-executed. and as a red hood story it’s different enough to be really interesting, and i appreciate the ways in which its reframed the revenge story to focus on the titans rather than just the batman. like fuck everything up, i say! turn it on its head! slash the innards out of that sacred cow and strew it like garlands in the path of the Story You Want To Tell!

(and yes i am fully aware that by the time i post this review, there will be a whole lot more information out but if i come across like a fool then goddammit i will be a fool!)

2. i love how every season of titans starts off with, ‘oh dick, you thought you were settling into a role and a life and a pattern of relationships? well fuck you, here’s a terrible and traumatic thing, tons more responsibility, and circumstances that will lead you to uproot your entire life and move somewhere else.’ and dick’s just like, ‘well, ok. fuck you, but all right’.

can you imagine? the man was just settling into leading a team in sf and smiling for the first time in years, and now he has to deal with jason’s death, bruce experiencing a full fledged breakdown, coming back to a city that represents more bad memories than good, red hood, and a frightening new case that seems to be targeting him and his team. it’s a testament to dick’s growth that he’s not reacting to this stress like he did last year, shutting everybody out, making irrational decisions and experiencing sharp, short bursts of anger. (not to mention a full fledged psychotic episode.)

2.5. but i’ve also talked about dick performing a fair amount of unwarranted emotional labour for his team(s) in that he just lets them take out their frustrations on him and... does nothing. be it his team exploding at him for jericho (both in flashback and present-day) or donna and hank needling him for handling deathstroke poorly or barbara berating him for not handling the bank situation as well as she thought batman would though just the previous episode she had talked about how fucked up it was that bruce just expected dick to step up and replace him in gotham without any real notice. i mean it’s all perfectly understandable and sympathetic from their end--and i’m not trying to bash them here!--but hank, my man, the same chin you’re asking your amigo to keep up is the one that you punched last year and never apologised for. just sayin’.

2.75. @superohclair did a wonderful breakdown of what the ‘fear’ contract could imply here and there’s not too much i could add to that. it’s just really interesting that fear ended up being such a defining feature of their lives, albeit it’s the fear of seeming less than invincible in the face of bigger, more tangible fears. am i making sense? dick feared loss, and abandonment, and the more existential concept of turning into something that he didn’t want to. bruce so feared being alone that he’s scouting kids to replace robin within days of jason dying.

it also goes some way in explaining the tense sort of... restraint that bruce and dick show in the wake of loss and tragedy, like anything less than complete control of your emotions can lead to tragedy. it’s conditioning that dick couldn’t shake off when he was at his lowest in detroit, hating his legacy but unable to let it go either.

2.775. but i definitely appreciate the softness that dick displays with his team now, checking on them after a mission-gone-bad, welcoming back old members with no caveats or resentments (and kory’s delight in seeing hank back! hank and dick hanging out together and hank trying to prop dick up!), and appreciating their teamwork in solving cases. that’s always been the essence of dick as a person, and the beating heart of this show: flawed and traumatised people coming together to a place that will always be open to them, where they can be their worst and be supported still, allowed to make mistakes and grow from them. that’s family.

2.8. coming back to bruce for just a sec, it’s interesting how that gotham rogue was so certain when he said that ‘batman doesn’t kill’ but it’s not a rule that either jason or dick put much store by when they were robins. the ‘no-killing’ rule clearly didn’t mitigate dick’s fears about turning into batman and jason’s never been seeing giving two shits about it. it seems to me of a piece with bruce’s distant, second-hand sort of parenting that we see in dick’s flashbacks from s1 where the fear was never about personally disappointing batman, but taking lessons from him on finding a place in gotham’s hellish ecosystem and surviving.

3. kory having waking flashbacks! i don’t buy the bullshit parasomnia episode explanation from fake!HPG (because c’mon, justin has to be some sort of tamaranean ruse) because for one, you have to be actually asleep for that diagnosis.

(and here i was, hoping against hope that HPG would actually end up as the team’s therapist)

curiouser and curiouser! i wonder if these flashbacks are from the time between kory landing on earth and the beginning of season 1, when she was completely amnesiac? it’d be cool if the show was considering repercussions from that time, and if kory hasn’t gained all her memories back.

4. i just love the vibes between gar and conner and kory. gar Having Things To Do is only one part of my wishlist for him, however: other parts include having an actual story arc, and actually bonding with members who are not conner and kory. (dick! dick! hank! dick!)

anyway. time to move on to watching ep3 and seeing this family bond and nothing terrible and tragic happening at all, nope, nosiree.

#titans #titans spoilers #meta #dick grayson #jason todd #red hood #koriand'r #garfield logan #bruce wayne #his name is justin.#a byronic cupcake #a tragic jalebi #badass strawberry truffle #manic pixie pop tart

12 notes · View notes

jinmukangwrites · 3 years

Text

Whumptober Day 28

Mugged

Ao3

Summary: It's a simple get together, and for once everything was fine.

Warnings: GRAPHIC MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH AND GRAPHIC INJURY. DO NOT READ IF THIS KIND OF VIOLENCE BOTHERS YOU, WHETHER ITS DIRECTED TO A CHILD OR AN ADULT. SPOILERS FOR DEATH IS IN TAGS.

-o-o-o-o-

"You have something on your face," Dick teases, smiling and leaning his elbows forward onto the 24 hour diner table. In the booth across from him, Damian scowls and wipes a smidge of strawberry ice cream from his cheek then elbows to his side to hit the laughing Tim straight into his gut.

Jason snorts and takes a spoonful of his own ice cream, which is raspberry flavored with little chocolate chips.

The time outside is very late. So late that when the four of them walked inside the diner after a long, team up for patrol, one of the workers actually glared at them. Which is valid. If Jason worked at one of these places when it was reaching the buttcrack of dawn, then watched as four annoyingly loud and too awake people barged in, he'd probably glare too.

Maybe they should have came inside in their costumes instead of getting dressed first into their normal clothes. One of the waitresses literally has a Nightwing pin on her vest. They could have probably gotten the ice cream and fries for free.

Oh well. The ice cream here is worth a little glaring and a few bucks.

"So I was thinking-" Dick says through a mouthful of ice cream. He's already dipping another fry into his chocolate mint shake, so Jason gets the feeling that whatever Dick says for the next twenty minutes will be through food- "that after this, we can go to a Redbox and pick up a movie."

"What movie?" Tim asks.

Dick hums. "One that Cass hasn't seen yet."

Jason scoffs. "She hasn't seen a lot of movies. You're going to have to be more specific."

"Then what about a movie Duke hasn't seen," Tim asks, scraping the bottom of his shake with his spoon. "That way we can kill two birds with one stone."

"I hate that metaphor," Jason stands up from the booth with his empty shake cup and equally empty bag of fries.

Dick glares at him with a face that says yes Jason, we all know you died.

Jason smirks and throws his trash away.

As they all walk out of the diner, Jason hears one of the workers mumble finally, and he's not even that mad about it. He hopes their shifts end soon and they can go home and watch anime or something. Working night shifts like that in Gotham isn't something to scoff at.

Dick pulls out his phone while Tim runs ahead to take the lead. Jason walks behind the group as Damian falls into step besides Dick and looks over at his phone screen to see what he's typing. "Where's the closest Redbox?" Dick mumbles to himself and Jason rolls his eyes.

He's serious about the Redbox thing? "You do know we can just buy whatever movie we want with B's card. We don't need a Redbox."

"It's for the experience, Jay," Dick argues back, scrolling on his phone through Google. "Everyone goes to Redbox to get random movies they don't actually want to own."

"Alright, alright," Jason huffs, smirking a little.

And okay, he'll admit it. Tonight has actually been… a little fun. Even if Dick had to threaten to go skiing without him next winter if he didn't join them for patrol. And while yes, Jason could just go skiing alone or force Roy to come along… and while yes, Dick would have gone skiing with him regardless of the threat and if Jason went through with it… he still found it enjoyable to just pretend to be a family with these idiots for the night. He almost wishes the others could have joined, but with Duke and Cass being busy on their own sibling bonding mission for the night where no one else were allowed they were forced to be just the four of them tonight.

Dick will have to work with Cass to better schedule sibling get togethers'. Just imagining the shenanigans and trash taking about Bruce they could be doing if it were all six of them has him staunching down a grin.

Even better if Steph joined as well.

Jason follows along as Dick picks up speed to pass Tim—whos balancing on the curb of the street like an actual five year old—and lead them towards the nearest Redbox.

"We should get Princess Bride," Tim suggests as they walk past an alleyway. "I don't think Duke's seen that."

"He has no excuse to have not seen Princess Bride," Damian huffs. "It was one of the first movies Richard showed me."

"And one of the first I showed Cass, too," Dick adds, turning to flash a lopsided grin. "So we need to think of another one."

"What about that new movie?" Tim suggests.

Jason lifts an eyebrow. "What new movie?"

"You know," Tim replies, "the- the new movie. With that guy from Voltron. Where they go on the bridges and fight the monkeys?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"It's-" Tim growls, sounding frustrated with himself. Jason finds him amusing. "You know. That one movie."

"Timothy has no idea what he's talking about."

"I'm sorry I don't spend all day watching movies all the time. Oh! Dwayne the Rock Johnson was there!"

"… Are you talking about Jumanji 2?" Dick asks and Tim snaps his fingers.

"Jumanji 2!"

They turn a corner, then immediately all stop when they spot the entire road blocked off by orange coned and giant signs telling you to detour. In the middle of the blocked off road is a giant, dangerous looking hole in the ground leading towards the sewers.

Huh. Jason's almost forgotten one of Two-Face's thugs had thrown a very powerful grenade of some sort last night.

"Damn. Google hasn't updated this?" Dick sighs and begins tapping on his phone.

"Crap like this happens all the time in Gotham," Tim sighs while stuffing his hands in his pockets, "you really think they're gonna catch everything?"

Dick's mouth turns into a frown, then he looks up at the building rooftops around them as if wondering how difficult it would be to climb up and parkour towards the nearest Redbox in civilian attire. He sighs, probably settling on it not being difficult, but potentially compromising of their identities ifanyone saw.

He looks back at the phone. Then turns towards the alleyway they have just passed.

"… We can cut through the alley," he suggests.

Jason immediately scoffs while Tim walks towards them, shaking his head.

"Um no? We shouldn't? Have you forgot what city we're in?"

Dick gives an unimpressed look at Tim before sighing. "We'll have to go all the way around the block to get to the Redbox. That's like, another twenty minutes. Besides, we just finished patrol. Gotham's at its safest around now."

"We're going to get in there and then get shanked by some rando," Tim argues.

Damian watches the two of them argue with narrowed eyes. When Damian opens his mouth, Jason decides it's his turn to step in. He grabs Dick by the back of his jacket and then behind to walk towards the mouth of the alleyway. He has his guns on him still, concealed under the belt of his jeans. If anyone is stupid enough to try and try to assult them in the alleyway, all Jason needs to do is pull out his guns and they'll go running for the hills.

Gotham isn't filled with fighters. Gotham is filled with rats that only prey on those with smaller claws than them.

"I'm not spendin' another hour out here to get a monkey bridge movie," Jason huffs, stopping in front of the mouth of the alleyway. "Now let's go."

"Fine," Tim mumbles, following behind as Dick takes the lead inside the alley. "But if we all get killed don't blame me."

"Dying isn't that bad, actually," Jason says, and Dick turns around and shoots that glare again.

Damian huffs and trails behind Dick, but he watches the shadows like how a kid shouldn't. Thirteen years old and he's already seen the worst the world has to offer. Jason, once again, takes the back, fully aware of the weight hanging off his hip. The alleyway is long, and dark, and definitely not as surveillanced as it should be, but they continue anyways. So far, all there is to see is closed doors here and there that would lead into various shops and such if they weren't boarded up. Trash cans, litter, bags, and boxes of various contents dot the entirety of the alleyway.

Otherwise, it looks pretty empty.

Jason sighs. It should be fine. Gotham is always quiet around these early morning hours after Batman and his army of sidekicks have just combed through its streets. Criminals are back in there nests, shivering and praying they're not found tonight. Hours like these are usually the safest to go out for a after midnight stroll, or a very early morning jog. It's like a limbo. Where Gotham can actually feel like a normal city for once.

Of course, it's right when Jason let's his guard down that something goes wrong.

Because something always goes wrong.

Because some criminals are rats. But there's others who are like moths, too dumb to go back inside and persistent enough to jump at anything shiny enough to catch their attention.

A man, practically rags, skin, and bones jumps our from behind a dumpster, his hands already lifted in front of him with a gun in his grasp. Immediately, everyone pauses in their tracks. Jason goes to grab his own gun like he planned, but the man points his weapon at Jason with shaking, obviously trigger happy hands.

"No one move!" The man shouts, trembling like a nervous mut. Jason holds off grabbing his guns for the moment, knowing that if he makes any sudden or threatening moves the man will fire.

Dick, like the idiot he is, immediately steps in front of Damian. Damian growls, but doesn't make a move to fight that show of protection yet. Dick slowly raises his hands in surrender. "Take whatever you want," he says slowly. Evenly.

Tim shifts behind Dick and glances at Jason, questioning in his eyes.

"Give me your money- all of it," the man demands, and Jason can practically hear the body of his weapon tremble in his shaking hands. "No one will get hurt if ya give me all your money."

"Okay, okay," Dick says gently. Like he's soothing the mugger. Dick carefully lowers his arms to his pockets and uses smooth motions to bring out his wallet, which is probably only filled a debit card he can easily cancel, his driver's license which is definitely expired, and not even four dollars of cash. Jason only knows what's in Dick's wallet because Dick's his main victim for him to practice pickpocketing on. He holds out his Superman patterned wallet but the man keep his gun up and trained.

"All of you," he wheezes. "All of you, give me your fuckin' money."

Tim snaps into movement with shaking hands, pulling out his wallet while Damian makes to do the same. Why the kid has a wallet with actual cash, Jason will never know. Something about Bruce wanting Damian to feel independent… like how he bought a lock for Jason's bedroom door that only Jason had the key for, just to make him feel like he had control while small and scared and barely eleven years old.

The gun moves back to Jason, and Jason realizes he's been focusing too much on the wrong things. He lifts his hands and clears his throat.

"I don't have anything," he says, because it's true. He doesn't carry his wallet while on patrol, nor does he stash personal belongings with his changes of clothes after patrol. Then, there's also the added fact that this guy is definitely one more nerve shot from firing his weapon. Him seeing a glock on Jason's belt might be the thing that pushes him over the edge.

"I don't believe you," the man growls, taking a step forward and aiming directly at Jason now.

And of course this is happening. Of course Jason's being mugged when he doesn't have any change on him.

"Jason…" Tim hissed and Jason throws him a sideways glare.

"I'm telling you, man, I don't have anything."

"Show me," the man snarls, jerking his pistol dangerously. "Show me your pockets."

And shit. This is what Jason was worried about.

"Okay," he says, softening his voice, "alright. Just... I'm carrying okay? But I'm not gonna-"

"YOU HAVE A GUN?!" The man screeches, and Jason winces. Great. He was trying to warn the guy. There's no way Jason can show all of his pockets and his gun go unnoticed. It's grip is hanging out of his jeans waistband, black as night and clear as day.

Jason lifts his hands immediately in surrender, watching the man wearily as his already panicked breaths become more labored. The tendons in his paper thin wrists are twitching.

Jason's record for drawing and shooting a gun with accuracy is a little less than two seconds. Even with his hands up like this.

But this man already has the gun aimed and finger on the trigger.

"Let's calm down," Dick tries, "we have money, just take it and we can all-"

"You have a gun-" the man practically froths.

And that is when Jason knew the sound of gunfire will be heard in this alleyway tonight. Jason can see the resolution in the man's eyes to shoot a moment before it happens. Jason doesn't have time to dodge or pull his own weapons. He will try to anyway.

He goes to dodge, drops his hands to his waistline, and the enemies gun explodes.

There's normally a moment of nothing between the time you've been shot and the time you realize you've been shot. But it doesn't happen this time.

What happens is that Jason suddenly blinks on the grimy floor, his gun having skid across the cement from the force of his fall.

He… he was pushed.

"RICHARD!"

Jason looks up just in time to watch Damian run for the collapsing Dick Grayson… just to be violently knocked to the side by the sound of another bullet launching from the chamber.

Jason doesn't watch or look anymore. He just scrambles to his gun, turns, aims, and fires.

The man chokes on blood as the bullet rips through his chest.

And Jason thinks that this should be the end of it. This should be when he can get to his feet and look his brother's all in the eye one at a time. And- and he doesn't know. Go home? Call Gordon? Plead self defense?

However, when he stands up, he finds only Tim standing, his hands leaving his face from protecting himself moments before.

Dick's on the ground writhing from pooling red in the center of his gut.

Damian… Damian…

Jason thinks he's going to get sick.

The damage a 9mil can do to a head at this close of range…

He doesn't look. He can't look. Not yet. He rushes towards Dick and ignored Damian's b- he-

He ignores Damian. He ignores Damian and slams his hands down onto Dick's stomach.

Guilt twists in his gut like something he's never felt before. Rage. Helplessness. Disbelief. It's all he can do to force his limbs to press down as Dick jolts from agony beneath him. "Stay- stay still-" Jason snarls. His chest hurts so badly. His ears are ringing.

His fault his fault his fault his fault-

"D-" Dick babbles, blood coating his teeth and dripping from the corners of his mouth. "No- n-"

Dick's not paying attention to anything. It's then, Jason realizes he's not struggling because of his own pain.

He's struggling because his kid is laying across from him in a puddle of blood, a hole in his skull.

"No-" Dick twitches. Practically sobs. "M'suh- sorry- D'mi…"

"It's okay, just-" it's not okay, but Jason continues- "just focus on me, kay? Just- Tim, hospital?"

"Working on it."

Jason presses harder onto Dick's stomach. Dick sobs and his eyelashes flutter.

He almost wants to tell Tim to stop.

The ambulance isn't going to make it in time.

He knows this because he can hear Dick's protests begin to die down. He knows because he can see Dick's hand twitching towards Damian's limp one. He knows because he can feel the final shudder through his frame before his normally clear blue eyes cloud over.

Jason… doesn't know what to do now. It's like his entire world just… stops.

And he wants to scream. He wants to throw something. He wants to go back in time and shake Dick by the shoulders until he fixes this.

He can't... he can't go back to a world where Dick and Damian aren't apart of it.

Especially not if it's all. His. Fucking. Fault.

"-we need help- my brother's been shot-"

And Jason clutches his fists in Dick's sopping wet, blood-soaked shirt and turns to find Tim kneeling against Damian, blood painting his fingertips.

He wants to scream that there's no use of an ambulance. There's no point.

But then Tim meets his eyes, tears trailing down in tracks, then looks down at Damian.

It takes a second for Jason to see it. But Damian's chest moves.

Damian's still alive.

He's still alive.

Jason forces himself to leave Dick so he can scramble over to Damian and get a closer, desperate look. Tim rattles off the details of their location the the details of the mugging while Jason just... Hovers. Holding his red stained hands above his- his baby brother.

He doesn't want to touch Damian. He doesn't want to break him more.

So he sits there and counts every breath the kid stubbornly makes even with a bullet in his skull.

He sits there until Tim hangs up the call and sits besides him. He sits there until a loud ambulance accompanied by at least three cop cars pull up and then a shock blanket is wrapped around his shoulders. He stays there until Damian is loaded into a gurney. Until he's left there, kneeling, not even realizing he's holding Tim's hand, until a female cop with sad brown eyes kneels down in front of him and tells him Bruce is on his way with Cass and Duke.

He nods, and stands up, keeping Tim besides him even though he's caused this.

He looks to his side to see Dick already covered by by a tarp. He can see red bleeding out from under it.

Slender arms wrap around his waste, and it takes him a moment to realize Tim is clutching to him.

Jason's... The big brother again. The big brother.

He- he should…

He wraps his arms around Tim and let's his own tears finally fall.

20 notes · View notes