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rainbowfoxes · 3 years

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I can normally deal with people not reading the comics, because not everyone has the means to or even the desire to, and that's okay! The cartoons and a lot of the shows are great, and I can typically adjust to the different continuities being referenced quick enough.

But the one thing that gets me every time in fics written by people who aren't familiar with the comics is the timeline. It is always incredibly wonky and all over the place and just. Incorrect. Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me 🙃, and others I have to leave right now immediately.

So in the interest of saving myself (and perhaps others) a ???? reaction in the future, here is a (very) rough and non-exhaustive order of events for the Bat Clan. The time between these events are variable, but this is the general order of things.

Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered

Bruce goes on his training trip

Bruce comes back and begins his whole I Am The Night shtick

The Grayson family is murdered

Bruce fosters Dick

Dick debuts as Robin

Justice League/ Super Friends/ whatever group is formed

Dick forms the Teen Titans with Donna, Garth, Roy, and Wally.

Dick leaves Gotham (either for college, or because of an argument with Bruce)

Sometimes more Titans things happen. They also break up at some point

Raven forms the second iteration of the Teen Titans to fight her father. The team is comprised of Dick, Raven, Donna, Wally, Kori, Gar, and Vic.

Jason steals the tires off the Batmobile, thwarts his own grandmother's attempts at robbing a museum, and is adopted by Bruce. He is also made Robin - Note that oftentimes Dick is still Robin at this time as well.

Babs gets shot by the Joker for her dad and Bruce's man pain. She becomes Oracle as a result.

Jason and Bruce have a fight, and Jason goes to find his biological mother.

Jason is betrayed by his supposed mother and murdered by the Joker.

Tim shows up and does his "Batman needs Robin" Thing.

Jason crawls himself out of his grave and promptly gets hit by a car. Don't worry, we'll check in with him later.

Tim's mom is murdered and his father left in a coma that he eventually recovers from.

Knightfall happens - Bane breaks Bruce's back, Jean-Paul Valley is Batman for a minute and so is Dick.

Contagion happens - some dumbass releases a super plague on the city but it's okay because they make a vaccine that everyone gets because it's 1996 and no one has given Jenny McCarthy the opportunity to start the Anti-Vax movement yet.

Legacy happens - It's break through cases this time but don't worry, they fix it because this is comic books and people have two braincells to rub together.

Dick goes to Blüdhaven!!! This is the big one for me tbh. Please stop putting him in the Blüd while Jason is alive, I beg of you. You're killing me.

Cataclysm happens - a massive earthquake hits Gotham, and it is Very Bad. The US government decides to abandon the city and kill anyone trying to leave or enter after a certain date. Because that's an entirely reasonable thing to do. This leads to.....

No Mans Land - the approximate year that the city was cut off from the rest of the country. Lots of shit happens during this time - Cassandra Cain debuts, Stephanie Brown has her baby, Tim goes to boarding school, Sarah Essen-Gordon dies. If there is the only one comic book arc you read, please let it be this one.

Bruce is framed for the murder of Vesper Fairchild - not really important in the grand scheme of things but I love Vesper and you should too.

Hush happens - basically Tommy Elliot has Problems and also Jason shows up but not really but yest really (hi thank you retcons). It's a thing. Read the wikipedia page it's actually very helpful.

Tim's dad finds out that he's Robin and forces him to retire.

The next couple of things happen right on top of each other so - Blockbuster sets fire to Haly's circus and blows up Dick's apartment building and a bunch of other bad things. Tarantula kills Blockbuster and rapes Dick while he's in shock.

Immediately afterwards War Games starts - Steph starts a gang war to prove her worth to Bruce, gets murdered but not really by Black Mask, it's a whole thing.

Side bar - why did no one warn me about Black Mask killing Orpheus - a Black vigilante - and then impersonating him with full Blackface? Everyone talks about what he did to Steph but I really think we need to talk about what he did to Orpheus. Also if you haven't read War Games yet, here are some accurate trigger warnings for it: blackface, sexualized murder of a teenaged girl, a school shooting where a child dies.

Tim comes back as Robin.

Under the Red Hood happens - Jason comes back to Gotham, kills some guys, tries to kill Tim, does his whole Thing. You've probably seen the movie but I also recommend you read the comics it's v good and every time I read Jason's final speech I start crying.

Damian shows up

Final Crisis happens and Bruce "dies" aka gets lost in time, so the boys duke it out over who gets to be Batman. Tim goes on his murder mystery tour. Jason goes to prison but not before adopting a weird little girl named Sasha. Dick is left with Batman.

Oops turns out Steph isn't dead she's back and she's Batgirl now and low-key co-parenting Damian with Dick. It's very cute.

Cass is off being Black Bat in Hong Kong and I miss her.

Bruce comes back, Tim is Vindicated, Jason escapes prison and rides off into the sunset with Sasha to go Cause Problems on Purpose. Dick steps down from Batman. Damian continues to be a murder baby and I love him.

And that's not nearly everything but close enough for fic writing purposes up until Flashpoint. I definitely missed things, so feel free to add on. I also again beg you - please stop putting Dick in the Blüd when Jason is still alive, it makes my blood pressure spike every time I see it. You're killing me guys. Pls.

#dc comics #batfam #bat clan #meta #batman #i'm not tagging anyone else because I'm drunk and lazy

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marauderundercover · 3 years

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Taking Chances Ch. 28: Summer Changes (School)

AO3

A week after the Disney movie marathon, Marinette was finally back on patrol. No thanks to her dad though. If it was up to him, she’d probably never patrol again. Luckily for her, (unluckily for him) her brothers were adamant on her coming back to the field. Which led to her current problem. Hanging upside down from a gargoyle near Wayne Enterprises.

“Ukht, what have you done?” Damian asks, and though she can’t see his face, she can tell by his voice that he’s exasperated. Join the club, she thinks, at least you’re not upside down.

“Why do you automatically think I did something?” She asks, trying desperately to turn around so that she can talk to him. It was really awkward talking to someone when you couldn’t see them but you knew they were near you.

“Because you are the one hanging upside down,” Damian says flatly. She huffs.

“It’s not like I want to be, Robin. It just kind of happened,” She says.

“And how exactly did it happen? I have never seen your yoyo betray you like that before. Not even in the videos when you were still very new.” Damian says, and she swears he’s smirking. He’s definitely laughing at her on the inside, and as much as she wants to be frustrated, she can’t. It wasn’t easy amusing her little brother (unless you were an animal) so she wasn’t about to ruin it.

“Hood made a bet relating to this exact gargoyle and I’d never been this way before and I just, I don’t know. Somehow I misjudged where my yoyo was going and next thing I know, I’m tied up and Hood is gone.” She says, sighing.

“Where did he go?” Damian asks.

“Over here so I could record the dumbass trying to untie herself.” Jason says with a snort, she manages to turn just enough so she can see him and stick her tongue out at him. He chuckles. “You’re the one who somehow tied herself up with a magic string, I’m just getting the proof so I can show Wonder Woman.” He says and Marinette’s jaw drops.

“You wouldn’t dare!” She screams, struggling against her yoyo, finally able to get the string to loosen slightly.

“Oh, I’d dare.” Jason says and Marinette just knows he has a huge smirk underneath his stupid helmet.

“But Wonder Woman is the coolest person ever and she can’t see me like this!” Marinette complains, trying not to grin when she feels the string start to move the way she needs it to. She ignores Jason’s next remark, instead focusing on the string and- yes! She free falls for a moment, laughing at her brothers’ panic before she swoops up and jerks Jason’s phone away from him.

“You little shit!” He calls after her, starting to chase her.

“You’ll get it back once I delete the videos!” She calls back, laughing as she continues swinging through Gotham, a warm feeling in her chest as she looks over the city that has quickly become her second home.

---

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” A voice screams, making Marinette jump out of bed with a yelp. She clutches her hand over her heart, glaring at her oldest brother.

“Are you trying to make sure I don’t make it past my fifteenth birthday?” She asks with a huff. Dick just grins.

“Happy birthday kiddo! I can’t believe you’re already fifteen!” He exclaims, picking her up in a giant hug. She wants to complain, ask him to let her down, but it’s nice, so instead she returns the hug the best she can. Until she glances out the window.

“Richard Grayson.” She says in a tone she usually reserves for enemies. She feels him stiffen, the hug turning into more of a restraint than a cuddle.

“Yes?” He says.

“Did you honestly wake me up, before the sun, because it’s my birthday?” She asks.

“Yes?” He says, his voice cracking slightly. She purses her lips and lets out a long sigh.

“Dad has a no killing rule.” She says, and suddenly she’s back on the ground.

“Oh would you look at the time, Mar’i needs another bedtime story loveyousomuchgottagobye.” Dick rushes out, practically sprinting out of her room. She just smiles and shakes her head. She’d learned intimidation tactics from Jason and Damian, who both claimed her size made her an easy target against bad guys. They were right, of course, so she was fine with a few extra lessons. Seems they were working. Deciding to call her Maman and Papa since she’s already awake, she frowns as it goes straight to voicemail. It would be nearly eleven in Paris, so the bakery shouldn’t be too busy. She quickly checks the Akuma Alert App to make sure she hadn’t missed anything while she slept. Nothing. So why weren’t they answering? She had assumed they would be waiting for her call since it was the first birthday she’d spent without them. Sighing, she lays back down on her bed, closing her eyes and trying to fall back asleep.

As she lays there, she frowns as a realization hits her. This was the anniversary of her birth mother’s death. Her mood instantly sours and her stomach churns. It was the first year that she could do something about it, the first year she could visit her grave. Quickly making a decision, Marinette throws on a pair of black leggings and an oversized black hoodie. Hopefully no one would spot her.

“Kaalki.” Marinette calls out quietly, not wanting to wake Tikki (who had somehow slept through Dick’s intrusion).

“Oooo, Guardian, are we sneaking out?” They ask, an amused smile on their face. Marinette frowns.

“Yes, but it’s for a good reason.” She says, and Kaalki snorts.

“Whatever the reason, I’m happy to be of assistance.” They reassure her. Marinette smiles and calls the transformation, opening a portal in the cemetery where her birth mother is buried. Her Maman had taken her once, right after telling her she was adopted. It was extremely hard to avoid being akumatized that day, and Marinette steels herself before dropping Kaalki’s transformation. Today would probably be even harder. Pulling the hood over her head to try and hide her identity, she glances around the cemetery, unsurprised to see the small place empty. Despite its small size, it was well taken care of, with beautiful trees adding shade and creating a melancholy feeling. Taking a deep breath, she walks over to the tombstone in the far corner, underneath the Willow tree. Bridgette Le. Died July 9th. Marinette barely notices the tears that start to form as she sits down, tucking her knees into her chest.

“Hi Mama. I-I’m sorry I haven’t really been by to see you much. Did you know I’ve been spending the summer with Dad? Sometimes, I wonder if you would’ve been okay with that. None of us really know why you left, why you didn’t tell him. I’m not blaming you, I just wonder if you would’ve been okay with me knowing him.” She talks, though she knows she’ll never hear a response. And she tries to pretend that fact doesn’t hurt her. “I have brothers. Four of them. They’re all great in their own ways, but they all also make me want to rip my hair out. Three of them are older, Damian’s younger than me. He kinda acts like a big brother at times though. And I have a big sister, Cass. She doesn’t say much, but she’s awesome. She’s in Hong Kong right now, so most of our conversations have been video calls. I have a niece, too.” Marinette stops, wiping furiously at her eyes. She didn't want to cry. At all. But knowing her birth mother would never be able to be part of her life, would never know any of these people like she did- it was hard.

“Guardian, please breathe.” Kaalki says, floating up to sit in front of Marinette’s face. Marinette blinks at the Kwami before listening to them. If they were worried, then Marinette was more lost in her head than she originally thought.

“And today’s my birthday. I was excited at first, and then I remembered the other thing that this day was. Remembered that it’s also the day you-” Marinette pauses, and grits her teeth. “I am so sorry, Mama. I am so sorry that I caused your death.” She chokes out, dropping her head onto her knees, trying to suppress the sobs threatening to break out of her chest.

“We need to go. Marinette, we need to go.” Kaalki urges, patting her cheek urgently. Marinette calls the transformation and falls through a portal, closing it quickly to keep the butterfly that was surely after her from following. She definitely didn’t need to test how far the victim had to be to be akumatized. The second she lands, she lets the transformation drop and the sobs break out.

“Shit Pixie.” Jason curses, and suddenly she’s wrapped in a warm hug, sobs tearing through her as she continues to apologize.

---

Jason Todd had been through a lot of weird shit. Waking up in a pool of green water after being fucking murdered by the Joker, was weird. Emotional baby sister falling through a portal into the room and sobbing? Also weird. But also heartbreaking. He grabs onto her and just holds her, desperately trying to give her some type of comfort.

“Shhhh, it’s okay Pix. I got you.” He mumbles, holding her close. Damian rushes in, sword drawn, face scrunched up when he sees them. Jason shakes his head, this wasn’t something that they could fix with a sword. He wasn’t exactly sure why his baby sister was crying so hard, but he had caught a couple of muffled apologies, so whatever it was, he didn’t think it was something that he (or Damian) could kill. Or, rather, maim, since she was against murdering people that were against her for some reason.

“Has anyone seen Mars, she’s not in her room-” Replacement starts, freezing as he walks into the room.

“Excellent situational awareness, Drake.” Damian mutters, glaring at him. Jason shoots both of them a glare, now was not the time to be fighting. Especially since the kid’s other parents were on their way to celebrate her birthday. If they showed up and she was sobbing, they’d take her home and never let them see her again. And Jason was NOT going to let that happen.

“Anyone know if M’s decided to not kill me yet?” Dick asks, walking into the room with a huge grin that falls the second he sees what’s happening. Jason resists the urge to roll his eyes. Apparently none of his brothers could read a fucking room. Instead of staying at the edge of the room like Damian and Tim, Dick walks over.

“Hey kiddo, it’s okay. We’re here.” He says softly. The kid pulls away from him, though he can tell it’s a little reluctantly, before launching herself at Dick, her sobs starting to die down. Jason lets out a short huff, running his fingers through his hair as he tries to think of what could have set her off. There were no akuma alarms, but she fell out of a portal. Which means she was out of the manor when she got upset. He watches as Dick pats her hair gently and whispers to her. God, he’s such a dad. Then again, he’s been mother henning him and their other brothers for years, so it’s not really a surprise.

“I’m sorry guys.” Marinette says suddenly, her voice small as she stays hidden in Dick’s arms.

“No need to apologize, Pixie Pop.” Jason reassures her. She finally pulls away from Dick and Jason’s heart, honest to god breaks at the broken look on her face.

“She died in childbirth, you know.” She whispers, and suddenly it makes sense. Why she was sitting there sobbing on her birthday, why she’d fallen out of a portal.

“That is not your fault.” Damian says firmly, walking over and standing face to face with Marinette, something Jason knew annoyed the girl. Damian was two years younger, but a little taller than her. She didn’t seem to mind now, though.

“But it was. If I hadn’t been born-” She starts and Jason frowns at the thought.

“The world would be a much shittier place.” He says with finality, not leaving room for her to argue. “Pix, you’re amazing, and the world would really suck without you. Never be sorry you were born.” Jason says firmly, stumbling slightly when she launches herself at him, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

“Thank you Jay.” She mumbles, and he can tell she’s crying again, but this time it’s not sobs, so he thinks it’s fine.

“Come on, let’s all watch a movie.” Repla- Tim suggests and Jason raises an eyebrow at the idea, briefly wondering what kind of movie he’d pick. They all pile on the giant sectional that Bruce had bought specifically for impromptu movie nights as Tim sticks the DVD in. Jason just snorts as the title card for “The Addams Family” comes on, settling back in the couch, ready to watch one of the greatest movies ever.

---

“Thank you again for flying us out here for her birthday.” Sabine says, smiling at him. Bruce returns the smile and nods.

“Of course, thank you for letting her spend the summer here. I know she’s appreciated the break from her classmates.” He says, his smile quickly fading at the confused look on both Sabine and Tom’s faces.

“What do you mean?” Tom asks.

“Marinette hasn’t told you?” Bruce asks, suddenly regretting bringing it up. Why hadn’t she said anything? They were her parents too. Sure, she’d made it clear they couldn’t know about Ladybug, but her class wasn’t a hero problem. They were a civilian problem.

“We knew that she wasn’t hanging out with them as often, and that she didn’t talk about her class as much as she used to. We just assumed that she was busy.” Sabine says, her face a mixture of sadness and anger.

“My apologies, I assumed she’d talked to you.” Bruce says, feeling as if he had crossed a line. Would they be mad at him, for her telling him something she hadn’t told them?

“She’s always looking out for others first,” Tom finally sighs, a tired smile on his face. “She probably thought she was saving us from being akumatized.” Bruce’ jaw clenches. Had Marinette really suffered in silence to avoid being forced to fight her parents?

“We can continue this conversation later, right now we should focus on her birthday.” Sabine says, placing a hand on Tom’s arm. He nods and Bruce makes a note to talk to the two about the possibility of her switching schools.

“She’s probably in her room.” Bruce says, leading the two towards the stairs.

“Actually, Master Bruce, the children are all in the informal sitting room. I believe they snuck down to have a movie night after Master Dick woke Miss Marinette to wish her a happy birthday.” Alfred says, Bruce watches his face and knows that’s not all, but doesn’t press. It had to be something that he couldn’t talk about in front of the Dupain Cheng’s.

“Of course they did. Thank you, Alfred. Alfred, this is Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain, Marinette’s parents. Tom, Sabine, this is Alfred Pennyworth. He’s the man who raised me.” Bruce says, smiling at him. The three exchange pleasantries and soon Bruce is leading the two to the sitting room. He pushes the door open gently, careful not to let it slam. He spots a sword on the floor near Damian and quickly grabs it, moving it away. If he was woken up suddenly, he would still panic and attempt to fight his way out.

“She looks so peaceful.” Sabine whispers, and Bruce smiles, a genuine smile, he didn’t have to fake a smile when most of his children were together and safe and happy. Or, quiet, at least. It was rare.

“I’ve found them like this several times.” Bruce admits, pulling out his phone to show the two all of the pictures he’d taken of the kids piled together sleeping. Sabine and Tom smile widely at the pictures and Bruce quickly sends them their favorites.

“B, I swear to god, I can sense you in here. Let us sleep.” Jason mumbles grumpily.

“Sorry Jason, Marinette’s parents are here so it’s time to get up.” Bruce says, amused at the way his son’s hair was attempting to defy gravity. Jason looked around sleepily, waved lazily at Sabine and Tom, and then collapsed back on the couch. Bruce sighs. “Would the two of you like to have a cup of coffee while we give them a few more minutes to sleep?” He offers.

“That would be lovely.” Sabine says, and Bruce leads the two to the kitchen, hoping Tim (who had sat straight up after Jason flopped down) would take the hint and wake up the others.

---

Marinette sighs happily as everyone sits down at the table for dinner. The day had been amazing, despite the rough start. And her Dad had even flown her Maman and Papa out to spend the day with her. They couldn’t stay for long, they had the bakery to run after all, but it was still nice to see them. Marinette glances at the end of the table where a place was set, but no one sat.

“What’s with the extra plate?” Jason asks, turning to Alfred who was sitting in the chair next to it instead of his regular seat.

“It is for Miss Le.” He says, and she can almost feel everyone freeze. Her throat tightens, but she still smiles at him with watery eyes.

“Thank you, Alfred.” She says quietly. He nods.

“You are quite welcome, Miss.” He says. She clears her throat and looks back at her Maman, noticing that her smile was also a little sad. It had been all day, but Marinette was certain it wasn’t anything to worry about. Bridgette had been close with her Maman, surely she was just mourning her today, openly for the first time in a long time.

---

Marinette groans at whoever is trying to wake her up.

“Five more minutes.” She mutters, burrowing deeper under the covers. It was summer break, why wouldn’t anyone let her sleep?

“Come on sweetheart, your Papa and I want to talk to you and Bruce.” Her Maman says, and she immediately sits up. Was she in trouble? Had her Maman figured out the whole Batman thing? Had she figured out the Ladybug thing?

“Uh, okay.” She says, sliding out of bed and stepping into slippers. She wasn’t sure how serious the conversation was, but since her Maman didn’t stop her from walking out of the room in her pajamas, she relaxed slightly. It couldn’t be that serious, right? She follows her Maman into her Dad’s study, glancing wearily at the clock in the corner. Her Maman was often too observant. Hopefully she didn’t notice anything odd about the clock. They all sit in silence for an entire minute until Marinette can’t handle it anymore.

“Am I in trouble?” She asks hesitantly, looking between her parents’ faces.

“Of course not, we just- We noticed how different you are.” Her Maman says and Marientte frowns, furrowing her eyebrows. Different? She was different?

“How?” She asks.

“You’re happier than I’ve seen you in months honey. Your smile reaches your eyes, you talk freely, you seem peaceful.” Her Maman says softly, and Marinette blinks in surprise. Had she really been so easy to read in Paris? Had her parents really been able to tell? She’d wanted to hide it from them, not let them see how everything was piling on her, crushing her. She didn’t want to worry them.

“What do you- how-” She stumbles over her words, trying to figure out where she messed up.

“We didn’t know why until we talked to Bruce.” Her Papa says and she turns to glare at her Dad, feeling a little betrayed. He holds up his hands in surrender.

“Marinette, you didn’t tell me not to tell them about your class.” He reminds her, and she huffs.

“Guess we can cross mind reader off the list of things you can do.” She mumbles, making her Papa snort.

“It wasn’t just that though. We’d seen how restrained you had become, how you never went out with friends and you stopped talking about them.” Her Maman says softly. Marinette grits her teeth, hugging herself to try and hold herself together.

“I didn’t want to worry you.” She says, her voice barely audible. That wasn’t the main reason though. She didn’t want to fight her parents, and if they knew everything going on with Lila, they’d definitely be akumatized. She couldn’t fight them. Not if she could help it.

“What would you say about transferring schools?” Her Maman asks suddenly, and Marinette jerks her head up, looking at her with wide eyes. Transfer schools? It would be great, amazing, fantastic, but- but her classmates would still come to the bakery. Still give her the same odd looks they’d been giving her since they found out that she’s a Wayne.

“What school?” She asks, because yes, that makes a difference. Chloe had transferred schools not long ago, and Marinette did not want to trade Lila for Chloe. She’d rather not deal with either of them, if she was being honest.

“Gotham Academy.” Her Maman says, and Marinette feels lucky that she wasn’t drinking anything, because she would have definitely done a spit take. Gotham Academy? As in, live in Gotham year round? What-

“Are you giving me up?” She asks, suddenly hurt. Her Maman’s eyes widen and her Papa pulls her into a giant hug.

“Of course not honey.” He says, rubbing her back gently and squeezing her lightly.

“We asked Bruce if he thought Gotham Academy would be a good school for you. He offered to let you fly home some weekends, and any of the breaks you want. Or to fly us out here if you have time off school. You don’t have to say yes, and you don’t have to make a decision right now.” Her Maman reassures her as her Papa lets her go. Marinette turns to look at her Dad, his face unreadable.

“Would you really be okay with that?” She asks, and he nods.

“We all just want you to be happy, Marinette. Wherever that may be. And we’re all willing to work together to do that.” He says and she smiles, letting out a soft sigh.

“I- I’d need to think about it a little more,” She says, running through the idea in her head. It seemed perfect, besides the whole ‘bouncing back to Paris for attacks’ thing. But she’d been doing it all summer, it had been fine so far. And maybe, maybe, Hawkmoth would even be defeated by the end of summer. No matter what, things were changing and Marinette was trying her best to keep up.

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sohotthateveryonedied · 3 years

Note

Hiii!! I really love your tumblr posts and I'm pretty new to the Batfam (meaning I have only read fics and textposts about them, no comics) and I wanted to ask about the year Bruce/Batman gets "lost in time". I know general things of what the kids have been doing–Dick became batman and fired Tim from robin, giving it to Damian, everyone thinking Tim was crazy for believing Bruce was alive, (don't really know what Jason was up to though, was he still murderous towards Tim? Does the pit still affect him? Also I have no idea about Cass and Duke, were they introduced at this point??) Anyways, my real question was why was Bruce lost in time, what villain put him there? And how did he get out? And how long was he "dead"? Was Bruce in another reality or like just asleep the whole time? Oh! And how soon did this happen after Damian got introduced to the family–a couple months?

I'm so sorry this is so long, but I hope you answer and thank you!!

(I’m going to try and cover all my bases here by going into how exactly Bruce “died,” what went down during the Battle For the Cowl, what the Batkids did while Bruce was gone, and how Bruce came back. Hopefully it all makes sense?? We’ll see how it goes lmao.)

Part 1 - What Happened to Bruce:

So there was this event called Final Crisis (which I won’t go completely into since it would make this post a million times longer than it already is), but the bottom line is that Darkseid wants to overthrow reality and release his Anti-Life Equation, which would overthrow the whole planet and turn everyone into slaves. (If you’re interested in knowing more about the storyline, here’s a Reddit thread that explains it WAY better than I could.)

What I CAN tell you is that during his final confrontation with Darkseid, Bruce is hit by an Omega Beam and turned into a burnt chicken nugget killed. Poor guy.

Final Crisis #6

Clark and Diana bring the body back to the Batcave and break the news to the Batfamily. Batman #687 covers a good portion of the aftermath such as Bruce’s funeral, the Batfamily grieving, and Dick coming to terms with his new responsibility of becoming Batman.

Batman #687

Part 2 - Battle For the Cowl:

Musical chairs time, fellas! After word gets out that Batman is gone, Gotham erupts into chaos. Dick doesn’t want to take over the mantle, Tim needs Dick to take over the mantle, and Jason says “fuck it” and takes over the mantle himself because somebody around here has to. He becomes this murderous psychopathic Batman and starts taking out criminals with deadly force because someone’s gotta do the job, so it might as well be him.

Batman: Battle For the Cowl #1

(Okay honestly, this series had some pretty bad characterization overall, which sucks since it’s such an important storyline. Jason is portrayed as this violent psychopath, which...okay, he was kind of insane after the Pit and all, but not to this degree. Personally, I choose to owe the bad characterization to Bruce’s death because as much as Jason resents Bruce for all he’s done, he does still love him and losing him would be devastating, which would exacerbate his already fragile mental health. As for Damian, this happens roughly three years after his first appearance, so we can assume it’s been a few months since he first joined the family. He’s still relatively new at this point, so nobody knows how to write him yet. He ends up being depicted as if his main two personality traits are Bratty and Assassin-Child and that’s it. It’s all just a mess.)

Anyway, Tim tells Dick to become Batman and stop Jason’s reign of terror. Dick says no, so Tim follows Jason’s lead by saying “fuck it” and putting on the cowl himself. He goes to confront Jason, which ends in Jason beating the crap out of him (again) and leaving him for dead after Tim declines his offer to become Jason’s Robin. Dick goes to save Tim and ends up fighting Jason.

Battle For the Cowl #3

Dick wins, Jason disappears, Tim is fine, and Dick finally gets his head out of his ass and becomes Batman.

Part 3 - What Happens to Each Batkid While Bruce is “Dead”?:

Dick:

As I said, Dick becomes the new Batman a month after Bruce’s death. He’s got big shoes to fill, and it takes some time for him to get used to his new role. He and Damian end up flipping around the classic Batman and Robin dynamic, with Batman now as the fun counterpart to Robin’s edginess. Dick, Damian, and Alfred relocate to the penthouse above the Wayne Foundation building, operating out of a secret Bat-Bunker in the basement.

Batman #688

Jason:

After Battle For the Cowl, Jason is still batshit insane and determined to make Dick’s already stressful life even harder by becoming a supervillain with an ugly costume and an even uglier hairstyle. (I know it’s just because the artist sucked, but still. Jason is horrifying to look at during this time.) He mostly just gets on Dick’s nerves by running around Gotham with his new sidekick Scarlet and killing criminals as Batman and Robin wannabes. Eventually, Dick has Jason committed to Arkham Asylum and he hangs out there until Bruce returns.

Batman and Robin (2009) #5

Tim:

Tim...doesn’t do great after Bruce’s death, mentally. Dick makes Damian Robin, his reasoning being that Robin is more of a sidekick and he sees Tim as his equal. By making Damian Robin, Dick hopes that it will give him the stability he needs to keep him from straying back toward the “bad” side. (It’s the right move ultimately, although his execution was pretty messed up since he didn’t discuss it with Tim beforehand, but he’s allowed to make mistakes. Dick’s father just died and now he’s in charge of picking up the pieces of their broken family. It’s a lot to handle.)

Long story short, Tim has a breakdown, realizes that Bruce is alive, dons the Red Robin identity, and cuts ties with his family to travel the world in search of proof. It’s a rough time.

Red Robin #1

Damian:

Our little guy becomes Robin! So proud of him! As I explained earlier, Dick makes Damian his Robin with the assumption that it will keep him out of trouble, and he’s right on that account. He mentors Damian, teaching him how to channel his violent instincts into something productive, and it works! Slowly but surely, Damian makes the transition from bratty assassin to actual hero!

Batman and Robin (2009) #22

Cass:

Duke sadly was not introduced at this point in time, so he missed out on all the pandemonium. Cass, however, has been Batgirl for years by now, but she got kind of pushed aside by the writers after Bruce’s death. Bruce disappears shortly after adopting Cass, but once he was “dead,” the writers sort of moved Cass around for a while, not quite knowing what to do with her. First she was with the Outsiders. Then they got disbanded and Cass tried forming a new network of heroes to take over for Batman if needed. Then she helped out in said network during Battle for the Cowl, taking care of a newly ravaged Gotham. Then Cass gave the Batgirl mantle to Stephanie Brown after she became disillusioned with the role, thanks to the loss of her father and mentor. Then Cass picked up and moved to Hong Kong to “follow Bruce’s plans” by continuing whatever work he had set up for her there. It was all very vague and confusing, and Cass more or less got swept under the rug during this time. Thanks, writers.

Batgirl (2009) #1

Part 4 - How Bruce Came Back:

When the Blackest Night storyline happens, the Justice League realizes that the corpse buried under Bruce’s grave is apparently not the real one and that he’s actually alive out there somewhere! How wild is that! This is further proven by Dick after he places Bruce’s body in a Lazarus Pit to revive, which has the same result because it’s very clearly Not Bruce and they should have listened to Tim from the start.

Batman and Robin (2009) #9

Anyway, what actually happened is that the Omega Beams that Darkseid shot at Bruce didn’t kill him, but rather blasted him back through time to the prehistoric era with his memories wiped. The Omega Energy inside of Bruce ends up catapulting him through various time periods, which is all part of Darkseid’s plan. With each time-hop, Bruce builds up more Omega Energy in his body which, when he gets back to his original time period, will be unleashed and destroy everything.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5

It’s been a little under two years since Final Crisis, though in-universe it’s uncertain exactly how long Bruce has been “dead.” We can assume it’s been a year, give or take. The way he comes back is too scientific and complicated for me to understand, so uhhhh the bottom line is that Tim and a few Leaguers save Bruce at the Vanishing Point and the day is saved! Hooray!

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6

(If you want to read about how it actually goes down, then I seriously recommend reading Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. It’s only six issues, so it’s a quick read and it explains the situation far better than I ever could.)

Bruce eventually reunites with his family after spying on them for a period of time as Insider to see what has changed in his absence:

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

After that, things quickly settle back into their new normal. Dick and Damian stay on as Batman and Robin. Bruce goes back to being Batman as well, with him handling Batman Incorporated business and Dick continuing as Gotham’s defender. Tim keeps the Red Robin outfit, Steph stays on as Batgirl, and Cass becomes Black Bat. Jason stays in Arkham for a while before filing an appeal to be moved to a regular prison. He kills 82 inmates in less than a week and gets transferred back to Arkham, which he promptly escapes from. It’s a ride, I tell ya.

Aaaaand that’s about it! I hope this answered all of your questions!

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autisticcassandracain · 3 years

Text

I have many thoughts on the weird phenomena in the DC fandom and the Batfam fandom specifically where probably the majority of people just straight up. haven’t interacted with the source material. and almost all of those thoughts can be summarized as ‘lmao that’s weird and mildly concerning’.

and because I’m annoying I will list them all here right now <3

1. To preface this post, I mean, obviously, comics are inaccessible as all hell, both in the disability kind of way and the ‘you need to understand the concept of hypertime to fully comprehend the DC timeline’ kind of way. Because of this, even if you don’t have a disability that prevents you from reading comics, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to look at the amount of comics you need to read to have even a base understanding of a character and go ‘no thanks <3′ and just enjoy fanart and fanfic in a vacuum. Ultimately, this is fandom, this is supposed to be fun, it doesn’t really matter.

2. That said, it’s VERY weird to me that the majority of this fandom just straight up hasn’t interacted with the source material, and moreover, that it’s considered rude to tell people that they should do so. It’s especially weird considering the amount of fanon-only fans I’ve seen who straight up have a superiority complex over canon. The idea that it’s gatekeeping to tell fans of something to actually interact with canon is just. so weird, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘gatekeeping’ actually entails.

3. But honestly I’m less interested in discussing the ways in which canon and fanon fans should interact with each other (personally, I think it would be helpful to create separate tags of some kind, but that’d require quite a big overhaul of the current fandom state) than in figuring out how this actually happened in the first place. On the one hand, it’s obvious; long-running superhero comics the way DC writes them have made themselves so thoroughly inaccessible that most people are simply too daunted to even try. Most media has a cohesive beginning and end (or at least, a planned end somewhere). Comics just... don’t.

But I do think it says something that, even among people who are clearly interested in the characters (since they have, you know, entire blogs about them), the effort to get into comics just seems to be too much to even bother. This really doesn’t bode well for the future of DC Comics. Obviously, I am no expert on anything at all ever, but I’d personally be surprised if DC survives beyond the few decades, at least in its current form/without a big overhaul.

4. But on the other hand, I don’t think the confusing state of DC Comics is the only thing to blame here. Fandom has a well-known problem with reducing any character down to archetypes to more easily ship and write fic/make content with. This problem is particularly prominent in fanfic, which, if you read enough of it, you’ll eventually start seeing not just the same tropes and trends, but essentially the same fics over and over again. And not just within the same fandom; everywhere, or every large fandom, at least.

Fanon Batfam is entirely built on a bunch of those tropes; insecure/depressed sadboy Tim, team mom with optional hidden trauma/emotional problems Dick, bad boy with a heart of gold + sadboy combo Jason, abused sadboy Damian/angry easily-villified-for-fic-reasons monster Damian, good dad Bruce for found family fic and bad dad Bruce for angst fic, etc. This all culminates in a found family dynamic that’s generic and malleable to whatever fic the writer wants to write.

(This isn’t getting into the ship fic, which I avoid like the plague because the vast majority of it is incest, but I’d bet real actual money that the tropes in those fics fall under what is often preferred by the Migratory Slash Fandom.)

By having a decent excuse not to get into canon (the inaccessibility of comics) and a, by now, well-established fanon fandom, many fans feel free to use the batfam fandom as essentially an excuse to write whatever fic with reduced archetypes and tropes they personally feel the itch to write, without having to bother with even consuming a canon. This is compounded by the fact that canon itself is often contradictory and frankly bad, meaning that whatever interpretation of a character you want/need to go for your fic is at least theoretically backed up by canon (for example, you can just as easily cast Bruce as an abusive shithole dad who his kids need to get away from as a loving father figure who cares deeply for his children), which you can always use as a defense if people question your characterization.

5. This focus on fandom trends and tropes over actual creativity or care for the characters is also visible in the way bigotry manifests in this fandom; namely, in literally the exact way you’d expect. The female characters and characters of colour are shuffled to the side, non-existent, vilified, and/or reduced to harmful stereotypes.

Barbara is probably the one I saw the most often in fanfic, but usually just as ‘Dick’s girlfriend’, and even then, she was often vilified for Dick angst (especially in fics about examining Dick’s trauma from his canon sexual assault; Kori also often gets the short end of the stick in those). After that, probably Stephanie, who fanon fans don’t really seem to know what to do with, so she’s basically just there as comic relief waffle girl, most of the time, though sometimes she can be used to either further Tim angst or further vilify Tim, whatever the fic calls for. Cass has gotten included more in batfam fics as of late, likely in response to critiques of fandom racism for leaving her out, but again, it’s clear people don’t actually know what to do with her. She’s often reduced to a racist stereotype of a quite, stoic therapist for whatever guy du jour needs it. That, or she’s in Hong Kong and just not there. Duke especially gets left in the dust in fandom, usually just being non-existent, but when he’s there, he’s almost always nothing more than the straight man for the actual fun characters to play off of. Talia probably has it the worst, though, and almost universally gets vilified by fanon stans in order to write sadboy Damian.

All of this is extremely predictable behaviour and falls entirely in line with general fandom misogyny and racism; ignoring or vilifying women and characters of colour, or using them as very minor characters at best. The only two characters of colour who aren’t regularly left out of fic are Dick and Damian, who are both also conveniently the two characters most often drawn and written in a whitewashed manner. In addition, there’s a real trend of demonizing Damian in fanon fics where he isn’t written as an abused sadboy, which I’d argue is in no small part due to fandom racism, considering Damian’s behaviour is in no way as bad as Jason’s, who doesn’t get anywhere close to the same demonization and gets woobiefied instead. I also find it convenient that Damian is probably the batboy who receives the most vilification in fic, when he’s the most obviously non-white of the batboys they’re willing to acknowledge.

Fandom often cries for more diversity in canon, only to ignore the diversity already there and focus on the same generic white guys. The batfam fandom is a brilliant example of this.

Which is not to say that fandom racism and misogyny isn’t present in the canon parts of the fandom (and canon itself); it absolutely 100% is. But I’ve found that canon fans are also more likely to like and care about at least one of the characters I’ve listed as ignored/vilified, and are willing to create and consume content for them, whereas fanon fans... aren’t, really. I’ve never seen a fan of fanon Cass the way I’ve seen fans of fanon Dick, for example. Obviously, this could just be by coincidence, or I’ve just surrounded myself with people like that, but it’s been a trend I noticed. Racism and misogyny is present in every part of this fandom and should be addressed as such, but I feel like it manifests the most blatantly in the fanon parts of this fandom.

(I’d also recommend the articles Migratory Slash Fandom’s Focus and Beige Blank Slates, which expand more on the type of fandom racism I think is especially prominent in the batfam fandom, as well as literally every article in the What Fandom Racism Looks Like series.)

6. All this leads me to conclude that the majority of fanon fans don’t actually like the characters all that much; they’re convenient excuses for them to participate in fandom. Which I also think is, in no small part, a reason why so many of them react so negatively to being told to pick up a comic; they came to this fandom specifically to consume it as a fandom, because they wanted the fandom experience without having to consume a canon.

This is not a phenomena unique to the batfam fandom (again, see the Migratory Slash Fandom), but it does fascinate me. While fandom is often said to be an experience focusing on transformative art, I think it’s also safe to say that, especially as fandom has become more mainstream, an increasing amount of people are looking to it less as a way to engage with their favourite pieces of media, and more as a type of media in and of itself. I think the reasons for this are similar to the reasons mass media entertainment like the MCU are so popular; you gain a lot of enjoyment out of it with very little risk involved.

By consuming the same fics of the same characters (or the same archetypes) over and over again, you are rarely at risk of being challenged or even disappointed. It’s often very clear right from the start whether or not a fic will appeal to you, and if it isn’t, it’s easy to just look for another one. It requires less emotional investment than most other types of media, even ‘popcorn media’ like the MCU - or, yes, DC Comics. It’s safe, it’s enjoyable, it’s comforting, like McDonalds, but just like McDonalds, it’s ultimately bland and unsubstantial.

7, TL;DR. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s like, wrong to enjoy the fanon version of the batfam without wanting to engage with canon, and I certainly don’t think it’s okay to harrass people over it. But I do think it’s in large part based on a desire to interact with fandom rather than other pieces of media because people are scared of being let down by those pieces of media (or worse, just uninterested in actually thinking), which is mildly concerning.

#long post #my posts #infodumping #btw i say this as someone who also has trouble consuming much more than popcorn media/fanfic due to emotional exhaustion #but it's not a healthy habit and it's something people can and should try to break out of #also obviously this isn't about EVERY fanon fan specifically so if this doesn't apply to you specifically great then move on

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mickylikesstuff · 3 years

Text

Status: Online: Chapter 1: Midori no Akuma

Masterlist

AO3

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

Tokyo, Japan

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

Steam is released after a man exits the shower, He is clad in a black turtleneck and high-end sweat pants with a towel on his head drying off his dark hair.

Damian Wayne gazes to the horizon from the top floor. The young man gazes at the tall buildings and busy streets filled with cars and hurried people. They are staying at Tokyo’s top apartments with windows looking at the clean bustling city.

His intoxicating green eyes drifted towards the gaming set up where the updated Nerve Gear is all wired and installed.

The only thing left is for him to log on to the reset beta testing account that he used before the full release of the game.

He was only worried about his Physical body since he will be left abandon and vulnerable. He is at ease though since Cassandra was with him for his first day. Her trips in Hong-Kong are done now that she is handling Japan. She was in the living room watching a ballet in the living room giving him a couple of orange slices. She can communicate now at best in the most efficient way possible.

“Are you worried?”

Damian nodded. Before his sister arrived, Father’s other associates in the Justice League of Japan arrived to assist him in the Beta-testing centers. Observing and taking notes on the technologies Nerve Gear and Cardinal System that is used.

Months ago, The Waynes are invited to be part of an investment in a gaming system that differs from the VR systems and promotes the game to them. The Nerve Gear technologies are used in the Japanese and US armies training but it is insufficient to train and exercise for muscle memory. After a friendly competition, Damian-who-never-loses, wins naturally for the reason to be wielding the katana all his life. Damian Wayne is offered to be part of the Closed Beta-testers before releasing the game.

He finished chatting with his family. Grayson’s Spawns, Mari and Jake are excited to see him logging on the game, they are very attentive students and knows how to deal with Damian’s pets. Todd, Thomas, and Drake have their greeting and congratulations on getting the game. Grayson still mothering him even after having two spawns, as always reminding him to eat and sleep after all the work in the nerve gear. Father is supporting him to have his work in the beta-testing in research purposes for the W.E. It's Grayson’s reaction that worries concern him since both he and Father announced that Damian has allowed getting in the game Grayson excused himself to talk to Bruce.

After their own talk, Richard invites Damian to his room to have a conversation. Richard has experienced in some way end himself with his Team in the same situation years ago, He warns Damian to be cautious about his thoughts and memories. Damian argues that things have changed since then, technology is now improving and that is the reason for him to go to make sure that the game is safe. And still, Grayson wishes him to understand that killing within the Game has its own moral issues after the death of his own team without even knowing that it was not real. He wishes Daman to be safe and he will not get in the way of his baby brother’s decisions.

Now that 3 months of Bug reporting, suggestions, and adjustments and also reports to the company and his family. He has the chance to see the world of Aincard again.

NCP glitching, Mobs spawning in random locations, Incomplete buildings. He felt like a spectator that helps out a god to correct its task.

Booting things up upon his computer, which is connected to the Nerve Gear on his bed.

Cass is right beside him, the woman now with one hand holding his hand while the other is holding a phone that is now on video chat with the whole family in it. With their screams and incoherent shouting. Todd even dared to speak of finding a special someone in the game. He will get back at him later. Once he logs off of course.

Lying down with the helmet situated in his head, He relaxed his muscles and closed his eyes. The last thing he needed to do is the voice activation code to the Starting program.

“Link Start!”

Damian declared as his consciousness has entered the Game.

Flashes of colors flying upon him and General Booting systems are prepared and online.

<Touch> … (OK)

<Sight>… (OK)

<Hearing>… (OK)

Loading … 100%

Loading…

Complete

SWORD ART ONLINE

In the Blue customization room, he entered the codes and password.

He will not admit but he did miss the world of Aincrad. With all its glory and beauty that comes with it. He is welcomed first in the Character Creation Center. The USB that is connected now in the system contains his old account that is reset back to level one but the settings and customizations are the same as before for his preferences.

As before he chooses his Avatar to be alike as what a mixture of Thomas, Todd, Grayson, and Drake is. Stern Blue eyes, Long Black Hair, a scar on his left cheek, and a large yet slender body built (The Wayne Traits). His language settings are in Japanese and English combined.

And the last thing he needs to do is to have a good Username. Now that Dick’s warning is ingrained in him. He has to give himself a proper name. Green Dragon is a good one that he used before. Annoyance came through him when it was declared was taken both in Japanese and English. Then he just typed again without a thought. Akuma.

Damian paused; his eyes furrowed as the name reminds him of the terrorist attacks that happened in France years ago. A shiver came down to his body as the memory of a demonic-looking butterfly came after him, luckily it was captured in a magical jar by a French Catwoman look-alike. She was … enchanting to say the least.

Her green lenses covered her cat-eye slits wears a green and black costume all the while she wields a multi-purpose baton. The Family ends up assisting the heroine since her partner’s identity is compromised by the terrorist. His brothers teased him endlessly for having his own Catwoman. Don’t blame him for admiring a woman (Ahem-a crush-Ahem).

Damian types again…

Midori no Akuma.

In the memory of the retired heroine, he uses it. Just to have a little confidence. Damian watches with his breath hitched hoping that name is accepted.

Midori no Akuma

…

Username Accepted

Proceed (O) (X)

[O]

A Flash of Blinding White light washed over him as he seems to be floating off the blue room.

His Avatar is now welcomed to the Teleportation Plaza. Where people filled the streets in Town of the Beginning Players like him, 10,000 people wandering around and talking to their peers and forming squads. It is overwhelming to see a sea of people from the previous 500 beta-testers that played the game.

His light green shirt and pants have now appeared in a sea of red, blue, yellow, and other greens.

He tested out his senses. His sight and hearing are alright. Flexing his hands and arms are satisfactory. He can even feel the texture of the clothes he is wearing now. The heat of the sun and the morning breeze brush against his skin. The pavement he walked is made of stone and the sound of his footsteps is heading towards his location.

Akuma is heading to his favorite tower to climb upon and perch to look to its viewpoint. Years being Robin does make things easy for him in terms of mapping and planning about the [Origin Planes]. The ex-assassin also takes note of the areas of the [Frenzy Boars], [Stinging Bees], and newly introduced spawns [Feral Wolves] and [Wild Horses]. It became his ideal to add animals that are capable of transport to gain a [Beast Tamer] title. And no, it is not because of him being home-sick from all his pets.

Back to business.

In the beta-testing, five other fellow beta-testers are provided their account numbers for him to memorize and invite them all to a group chat. It was ideal for them to gain information about new updates and announcements. They all agreed on it, and Akuma is fond of his new allies. They gain his trust in such a small amount of time and now they are forming a team alliance.

“Hn, it seems I have to complete the group chat now.”

He immediately types to the friend list all the beta testers that he hung out associate with. The likes of Kirito, Argo, Lavender, Coper, and Diavel. they all accept the invitations except Kirito.

“Hm, It seems the kid is busy in his errands.” Akuma thought as the first message pops up.

{Beta-Chat is Now Online}

Lavender: Um Guys, who is Akuma-san?

Coper: Eh? Hello

Lavender: Hi Coper! You are the guy from the Beta-test, right?

Coper: Yeah, So?

Lavender: It's Me! Lavender!

Diavel: Hahaha so we are all beta testers here in the Chat?

Argo: It seems so.

Argo: If my guess is right then Akuma- kun was previously Dragon.

Argo: Am I right?

Midori no Akuma: Correct as always Argo.

Coper: wait a sec. You’re Dragon!?

Lavender: HI! Dragon-kun, oh wait Akuma-san.

Lavender: Hi! Argo

Lavender: Hi! Diavel

Midori no Akuma: I Was Dragon, call me Akuma from now on. Since someone took MY last username.

Midori no Akuma: Call me Akuma instead.

Midori no Akuma: Hello to you too Lavender

Diavel: hello 2 u 2, my fellow demon~ : D

Diavel: hehe~

Coper: Whoa someone stole your name! Not cool dude!

Argo: Yes Coper, it is unappropriated if it is a beta-tester who took it, but if it is a newbie. Well, what are the chances of having such a common name to be used anyway?

Lavender: I Agree with Argo, it’s a good thing I got to keep mine though. Whew!

Diavel: Meh. Devil was taken in the Beta-testing so I changed the spelling instead. Lol

Coper: Mood, well minus the “O”.

Agro: Oy cud yah change the stupid name! Akuma!

[Midori no Akuma Change Chat name to Akuma]

Akuma: Satisfied?

Argo: Very

Coper: Mu~, why does he always get the Badass usernames?

Kirito: Hello?

Argo: Kirito, it’s about time you got here

Kirito: Sorry, I was training some newbies and showing them around.

Diavel: that’s fine it's not that urgent though.

Coper: Mu~, Who’s the lucky student?

Kirito: Some guy Klein, a Hardcore player, waited 3 days in line to get the game with his squad.

Lavender: OMG! 3 Days!

Kirito: Yep… and he got himself hit in the nuts by a Frenzy Boar

Coper: Pft!Hahahahaha

Diavel: Hahahaha

Argo: Hehe.

Lavender: Uff. That gotta hurt.

Akuma: Amusing, I assume that this Klein is a Newbie?

Kirito: Yes, and an aspiring Katana weapon user too.

Akuma: Your warning is now heeded.

Coper: Guys I OTG, Level grinding, and stuff. Chat with yah later!

Lavender: Me to I invited a friend with me gonna show her around. Maybe I’ll introduce you to her soon. See yah!

Diavel: Nice to see you again Kirito, Good Luck with Klein. TTFN.

Argo: If you need help, You Know Where to find me

Akuma: Not everyone knows where to find you

Kirito: Exactly

Argo: :)

Kirito: Hey Drago Akuma-sensei? I just want to thank you. Yeah, know about everything.

Akuma: …

Akuma: You earned it. Now go on you have a nutjob to teach.

Kirito: Yes Sir! Bye!

Akuma smiled from the tower he climbed while chatting with the BT. Loving the view and finishing mapping out the [Origin Plains] and across him. He can see a Red and a Blue figure that seems to be Kirito in the Frenzy Boar fields. Akuma hummed in satisfaction and excitement.

"Well, here we go, "

Damian Midori no Akuma launches himself off the tower and begins to hunt down the hidden loots he remembers. And off he is at a good start, on one sunny day in Aincrad. Soaring down like a Fallen Angel.

Masterlist AO3 Next

#maribat #marinette x damian #damian x marinette #maridami #damimari #daminette #mlb x batman #mlb x dc #mlb x batman x sao #ml × dc #SAOPlayer!Damian #Beta-tester Damian #Midori no Akuma #SAO: A&V series #SAO AU #SAOPlayer!Marinette

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verymuchimmortalcat · 3 years

Text

Maribat March Day 14: Death

ao3

part 2, part 3

@maribatmarch-2k21

Marinette stands in the same spot Tim had probably been however long ago, and starts talking.

“I'm sorry I didn't come earlier, but I just heard.” She let out a bitter chuckle, “They called me halfway through my first class and said that my grandfather was on the phone and that there was a family emergency. It took me a second to realise they were talking about Alfred, even though we all think of him that way, he would never introduce himself as such. Not unless it meant they wouldn’t let him speak to me otherwise. That probably should have been the first of many indicators that something was wrong. And then I actually spoke to Alfred and I don't really think I registered what he said at first.” She smiled sadly, " how could I? I still don't know if it was that I didn't want to believe him or genuinely didn't think there was a possibility he was speaking the truth. "

She fell silent then, a lone tear slowly making its way down her cheek, “when I walked into the cave, I was expecting Cass, Dick and Tim to be preparing for patrol, not Dick lecturing a little kid in a Robin suit. Were you even planning on telling me I had a little brother or were you waiting for one of the others to tell me first?”

She's crying she realises dimly as tears trace their way down her face.

“Who’s apparently Talia al Ghul’s son. He launched himself at me with his katana, screaming, “there’s an intruder in the cave Grayson,” she makes a crying laughing sound, “under any other circumstances it would have probably been funny, but I just stared at Dick in horror and Dick had to grab Damian back by the cape. Said something to him and he stormed off. I just continued to stare. Dick in the Bat suit, was not something I thought I’d ever see again. He’s gonna break y’know, with you gone. The whole family has fallen apart, Cass left for Hong Kong, handing the mantle of Batgirl to Stephanie, I don’t even know what’s going on with Jay, Alfred’s keeping it together but that’s just Alfred, Babs is probably the most level headed right now and Tim-”

She broke off into a sigh, “well, I’m worried about him. Apparently, I witnessed the after effects of Dick giving the Robin mantle to Damian without telling him. That clearly didn’t go well. I have no idea what he was thinking doing that without talking to Tim beforehand, I get his reasoning, I really do but that was a shitty thing to do. I can’t even begin to imagine how he feels-”

She breaks off again a sob escaping her, “Dick sorta caught me up on the things I missed, and I looked through the cave footage, and I’m not the least shocked about Tim’s reaction. I had to call Cassie Sandsmark and Steph to have some idea of what happened, it’s still very vague but it’s all I know. But, the two of them were clear on one thing, he’s leaving to continue his search. Because Dick didn’t believe him, told him they’d put him in Arkham. Honestly, I’m not even sure how it devolved into this mess.”

She sits down facing the grave and after a considerable pause continues, “I’m staying. Mr. Bug can take care of Paris. Dick’s going to need help. They’ve moved out of the Manor, using the penthouse instead. Probably too many painful memories for Alfred and Dick. And I don’t know about Damian. Dick’s signed himself up for a lot with him. I can’t leave him to take care of both Damian and Gotham alone. You might’ve managed it but you’re not exactly a model of mental health either. Maybe me being here will help with Damian’s mindset of being the Batman’s sole heir since he’s the blood son. Doubt Talia told him about the biological daughter. Afterall he had no idea who I was.”

She curls in on herself, sobbing freely, “It isn’t fair. I know Death isn’t fair not that Life is either but I can’t help but feel angry by the unfairness of it all. We still need you. Every single one of us, even if we might never get the chance to tell it to your face.”

"I still need you," she whispers, her voice breaking.

She stops, perhaps her father’s allergy to processing emotions was genetic, “I read Tim’s research or whatever little he had. I think he’s right. I hope he’s right. However, I doubt that he knows for sure either. But I need him to be right. I need you to be back. I need whatever corpse that has been buried in the ground here to be a fake or a clone or, or something,” her voice getting more desperate as she continues, “You can’t be dead. I need my dad.”

She sits there for a little longer, letting out all the tears. Eventually she stands up, pulling herself together and wiping away her tears. Leaving the cemetery hoping her brother’s right and her father’s lost in time.

#maribatmarch2021 #maribat #bio dad bruce wayne #angst #my writing

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peppersonironi · 4 years

Text

How I Picture a Batfam Age Reversal

I’m going to write this as a fic (And I want to go on into a young justice world where dick forms the team and his siblings are protective) but here is the outline in bullet points in case anyone is interested. Please note this is VERY first draft.

Ages (At end) & Order:

Damian- 24

Duke- 21

Stephanie- 20

Tim- 21

Cassandra- 19

Jason- 19

Barbara- 15

Dick- 13

Damian is Ten when he is sent to live w/ his father. Bruce is 30.

They don’t really work well together at first. But Selina, Alfred, and Clark somehow get it through Bruce’s thick skull that he has to care for this child.

Damian keeps sneaking out on patrol, against B’s wishes. Eventually, he let’s Damian join and tells him to choose a name (Not what we meant, Bruce!)

Damian wants to go for something like Shadow, or Demon, but Bruce puts his foot down. He says that Damian shouldn’t try to be darkness.

Damian is pouting in the gardens when he finds a wounded robin. It’s wing is broken. He demands that the animal should be taken to a shelter, and carries it in his hand the whole way there.

The bird makes it, and Damian demands to be called Robin. He designs his suit, going slightly more colorful. “I might be called Robin, but I am NOT wearing brown, Pennyworth.”

Bruce introduces him to Superboy (Jon, note: less age dif) and the pair are close friends.

He is Robin for a little over seven years before he begins to fight with Bruce about being allowed to patrol alone, and being his own hero. (basically what happened w/ Dick).

Damian leaves Gotham, opting to claim Bludhaven. Jon joins him. He suggests they call each other Nightwing and Flamebird. Damian thinks it’s a bit childish, but he can’t say no to Jon. They’re costumes are here. (done by @hyperactive-lectiophile! Fantastic job!)

They eventually realize they’re in love w/ each other, all while trying to figure their lives out. Damian briefly tries to join the police. He hates it. Eventually, he enrolls in BH college for a major in Art and a minor in business.

Later in Gotham, the We Are Robin/Robin War stuff happens. Long story short, Duke is adopted.

Damian is angry to find out he has a new brother, goes to Gotham to yell at Bruce, but then meets Duke. They bond, and are close siblings. Damian makes his father promise to not adopt any more strays.

Stephanie Brown wants to stop her Father, so she sews up a costume and goes out as Batgirl. Bruce is apprehensive at first, but his family basically yells at him to train the poor girl before she gets hurt.

He does, and after Steph meets Damian, who she absolutely adores (He loves her too. The way she pisses his father off is legendary), Stephanie decides she wants to be Robin. Batgirl was good for dealing with her father, but she wants to belong to this new family, and, w/ Damian’s blessing, she makes a new costume.

Unfortunately, after a while, Stephanie is killed by Black Mask (her death is faked, like in the comics, but the Fam doesn’t know)

Enter Tim Drake. Batman has been going crazy over grief, and not even Nightwing, Catwoman (this is SOOOO batcat, btw) or The Signal can calm him down. Tim steps right up, and demands to be robin.

Damian and Bruce fight over this. Surprisingly, Damian is the one who thinks Tim should be given a chance. He sees how his father has been acting. Damian knows that Tim must be brilliant to figure out their identities, and thinks that should count for something. Duke takes his side, knowing that it takes guts to talk to batman, and be willing to join him. Bruce, meanwhile, is a constant chant of “no more dead robins”. After a while, and lots of arguing, Tim takes his place as Robin. They redesign the suit, and he takes his place as robin.

It’s little while after this that Stephanie comes back. Tim offers Robin back, but Stephanie declines. They talk and grow closer. At one point they talk about Stephanie’s new moniker. She says she doesn’t want to be Batgirl either. She wants something new. Tim suggests Spoiler (Bad pun turned brilliant idea?).

Cassandra Cain arrives on the scene next. She saves the commissioner’s life (like No Man’s Land, minus No Man’s Land), and Stephanie immediately imprints on this tiny assassin child (So do the rest of the family, but Steph claims the fourteen-year old first. She and Bruce fight over custody.). She offers Cass Batgirl. Gotham gained a new vigilante, and Bruce Wayne adopted a new child. (Faster than the comics, I KNOW. But Cass deserves happiness)

Everyone loves their new sister, and everyone spoils her. Duke is the one to take her to a ballet the first time. She immediately begs to be put into lessons.

Somewhere in here Tim’s mom dies and his dad is in a coma. Bruce takes him in.

Eventually, Bruce decides to offer Tim Red Robin, hoping to avoid the strife he had with Damian. (Like in the comics, Bruce was going to give Jason Red Robin)

Tim is unsure of this, and puts off deciding. Then little Jason Peter Todd decides to jack the tires of the batmobile and is immediately taken in.

Everyone is captivated by the tiniest addition to their family, but it's also at this time that Jack Drake finds out about Robin and forces Tim to quit. Tim gives Jason his blessing to become Robin.

Everyone pitches in on helping train the newest Robin. Damian teaches the kid things he learned from the league (non-lethal things, since Damian loves this kid), Duke teaches him escrima fighting, Stephanie (Much to Bruce’s dismay) has a full seminar of the delicacies of glitter bomb making. Tim teaches the kid hacking, when he can get away from his dad.

Unfortunately, when Jason has been Robin for almost a year, he is killed by the Joker.

The family is torn apart by greif. But this time around, Bruce has a much larger support system. All of them lean on each other.

The only time that Damian ever broke his no-kill rule while living with his father was to kill the Joker. He hunted and murdered the clown, sparing Harley. He had been friends with Quinzel since he was Robin, and knew how the Joker treated her. Harley became the batfam’s honorary aunt after this.

Bruce was too emotionally tired to fight with Damian over his actions, so no one said anything. Eventually, Bruce and Damian did argue. Damian refused to apologize,, though he did promise his father to never kill again. Their relationship was strained for a while, but they worked through it.

Less than a year later, Jack Drake dies, and Tim comes back onto the vigilante scene. He refuses to become Robin, however, choosing to take Bruce up on his offer and become Red Robin. He designs his own suit, and the world seems to slowly become normal. Or some semblance of it.

One night, the circus is in town and the whole family (except Alfred) is home. Duke, Tim, and Steph drag Bruce, Cass, and Damian to go see it.

It is on this night that Dick Grayson’s parents fall to their death. Dick is sent to live in juvi, meanwhile Bruce tries to adopt Dick. He succeeds, and the manor once again has a bright young child running through it’s halls.

Dick figures out the secret identities of his family and instantly demands to be allowed out. He wants to take down Zucko, and won’t settle for every single member hunting for him. Dick wants to take down his parent’s murdered himself. He tries to sneak out multiple times, but is always stopped.

Damian talks to Dick (They are extremely close) and explains the origins of Robin. He says that the mantle was born out of a want to distance himself from the revenge and violence of the league. Dick cries when he learns this and says that his own parents used to call him Robin. He suggests that the mantle is more than a personal need. Robin is Family.

Damian almost immediately demands that Dick be trained and help catch Zucko. Bruce is confused, as before, Damian was strongly against letting a nine-year-old fight crime. Damian explains (after much cajoling. He might be more emotionally open and healthy than when he first arrived in the manor, but the kid is still constipated) what Dick had said, and that Damian understands the kid’s need for direction. “When I first came here, I needed Robin. I might not have known it, but I did. Richard needs Robin now, as well.”

The family took sides on the issue, but eventually Dick (with the aid of his puppy-dog-eyes™) won everyone over. He got his own Robin costume, and they caught Zucko.

Dick refused to stop being Robin, and so Gotham gained a new bird.

Dick was Robin for almost two years when The Red Hood made his appearance in Gotham. No one knew what he wanted, as he didn’t seem to do much beyond killing criminals. They thought he was a vigilante at first, but then he began to take over the criminal underbelly of Gotham, regulating crime. On top of that, Red Hood targeted Robin. Attacking the boy wonder when no one else was around. After the red helmeted rogue let loose a few hints about the league of shadows, Damian interrogated his mother, who explained the identity of The Red Hood, and how she had set him on Gotham.

As soon as the family figured out the newcomer’s identity, and the reason he was alive Damian tracked him down. He knew how to deal with pit rage from his childhood, and brought the lost bird back to the nest.

The family was whole for the first time in years. Jason was still angry and resentful, but he had his family back. Jason was grateful for Damian taking revenge for him, and they were once again close.

Slowly, Jason let everyone back in, including Bruce. Dick is wary at first of this new older brother, but the little chicken nugget quickly warms up to Jason, and even convinces him to teach him how to shoot a gun (In secret, of course, Dami and Bruce would blow a gasket). Jason couldn’t resist the kid. It was physically impossible.

A year later, Cass decides to pursue dance as her career. She gets a job with the Hong Kong Ballet company. She moves there, and decides to take a new moniker: Black Bat. Her family is so proud of her, but they miss her dearly. Duke visits often, bringing new back to the family.

The absence of Batgirl is filled after a while by Barbara Gordan. She makes her own costume and starts going out. Once again, Stephanie Brown adopts a smol bean (Well, not legally. The commissioner is still alive) and outfits her with a more Gotham-friendly suit and weaponry (I.e. heavy kevlar and leather)

Babs is taken whole-heartedly into the fold, and is made an honorary sister.

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writingblock101 · 4 years

Text

Teasing (Jason Todd x Reader)

You know, I meant to write this sooner, then I found a really good fic series that I’m going to be posting the link for.

Request for anon: Jason and Funny 1 (”What do I look like? A knight in shining armor?”) and Fluff 6 (”Do you have any fucking clue what you do to me?”)

Warnings: it’s a bit sexual so do with that what you will

Tags: @idkmanicantenglish @mayahoelland2013

Word Count: 1,700 words

Jason pins you against the wall, his warm hands sliding under your shirt as you knot your fingers into his hair, sucking a dark hickey under his jaw. He groans, one hand pulling you flush against him while the other braces itself against the wall. You smirk to yourself, feeling his fingers twitch against your side as he lets out a sigh. Right under Jason’s jaw has always been one of his sensitive spots which you are always sure to utilize.

He pulls you into a searing kiss then breaks away for a moment to pull your shirt over your head and shower the newly exposed skin with kisses, love bites, and hickeys. You tilt your head back resting it against the wall with a blissful sigh and wrap both of your arms around Jason’s neck. He hikes one of your legs up against his waist and is about to pick you up when a knock at the door interrupts your activities.

Jason barely acknowledges the knock, fully picking you up and bracing you against the wall, but you pause, opening your eyes and looking toward the door.

“Jay, were we expecting anyone today?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jason mumbles against your skin, grinding his hips against yours. “They’ll come back,” He promises, kissing you again.

You give in, melting into the kiss as Jason’s hands slide up your thighs. You run your hands down his defined shoulders. Someone knocks at the door again. This time, you both ignore it, until you hear a familiar voice.

“Jase? Y/N?” Dick calls.

“Oh shit,” You curse, breaking away from Jason. “What’s today?”

Jason frowns but shifts his hands holding you to glance at his watch.

“The 17th?” Realization dawns on him. “Oh fuck, I completely forgot we invited him over. We could--”

“We can’t blow him off,” You roll your eyes. “That would be the third time you’ve canceled these plans.”

“I had valid reasons!” Jason argues.

“You did,” You admit. “Pop up missions with the Outlaws are valid. Sex isn’t.”

“I beg to differ,” Jason grinds against you again, showing he is very hard.

“Wow, sounds like your life is pretty hard,” You grin.

Jason groans with an eye roll.

“A dick joke? In a time like this? You wound me.”

“I don’t see a better time for one,” You grin, giving Jason a quick kiss. “Now, let me down before your brother bothers our neighbors.”

Jason groans again, mumbling something about Dick being a cockblock, but lets you down so you can put your shirt on.

“You answer the door,” He grumbles. “I gotta go fix this,” He gestures to his crotch. “Since apparently you won’t help me in my time of need.”

You roll your eyes with a grin, adjusting your shirt.

“What do I look like? A knight in shining armor?”

“No,” Jason murmurs to you, wrapping his arms around you from behind. He presses a kiss against your ear, making you shiver. “You look like--”

Dick knocks at the door again.

“Guys?” He calls hesitantly, interrupting Jason’s last chance to talk dirty to you.

“Oh, cockblocked again,” You wince with a grin. “Go take care of your friend, horndog. I’ll talk to your brother.”

Jason grumbles again, smacks your ass then heads back to the bedroom. You open the door to see a very puzzled looking Dick, frowning at his phone.

“Hey, Dick,” You greet. “Sorry, we didn’t hear you. I was in the bedroom and Jason’s in the shower.”

“It’s all good,” Dick grins. “I was worried I knocked on the wrong door.”

“Come in,” You step aside, allowing Dick in. “How are you?”

Dick shrugs, tossing his jacket on the couch.

“Just got back from the Manor. I wanted to check on Damian and Duke.”

“I’m sure they appreciate that, especially Duke.”

While you haven’t gotten a chance to meet Duke personally, Jason speaks very highly of him.

“Yeah, I’m not worried about him,” Dick sits on the couch opposite of you. “He’s smart and he’s not looking for Bruce to be his dad which I think will save him from a lot of problems. I’m more worried about Damian.”

“What’s going on?” You frown.

Dick sighs, running his hand through his hair.

“Bruce has been stressed lately so he’s been really throwing himself into being Batman which is leaving Damian in the dust. He’s not being a parent to Damian and I’m afraid Dames is going to do something reckless.”

“Did you try talking to Bruce?” You try, despite probably knowing the answer.

Dick chuckles.

“Went about as well as you think it did.”

“Huge blow out argument?” You wince.

“Not quiet that bad, but enough for me to storm out of the Cave. I might take Dames back to Blud with me for a few days so Bruce can get his shit together.”

“He’s going to need a lot longer than a few days to do that,” Jason says as he walks into the living room, his hair wet.

You notice Dick eyeing the hickey you left under Jason’s jaw, but he doesn’t say anything, probably connecting the dots on the real reason you and Jason didn’t answer the door.

Dick chuckles.

“Fair. You heard from Cass recently?”

Jason shrugs, sitting next to you, his arm stretched across the back of the couch.

“She sends me selfies. She seems to be enjoying Hong Kong, but I think she misses us.”

Dick smiles fondly.

“Yeah, I miss her too, but I’m sure she and Steph are living it up.”

“Of course they are,” Jason rolls his eyes. “How could they not?”

The three of you continue catching up, Dick telling you about the craziness in Bludhaven while Jason tells Dick about the Outlaws. Eventually, Dick produces the original reason he and Jason made plans-- Dick was outraged to learn that Jason has never seen Fight Club. Once getting some movie snacks and resettling on the couch, you start the movie, curled up against Jason’s side.

While you enjoy Fight Club, you’ve seen this movie before and instead get distracted by another idea. You casually spread a blanket over your and Jason’s laps, and glance over at Dick who’s on the opposite couch, engrossed in the movie. Perfect.

You shift against Jason’s chest, your arm casually laying on his thigh, your hand dangling in dangerous territory. He doesn’t seem to notice, or mind. Instead, he curls his arm tighter around your shoulders, pulling you close. It’s when you causally brush your hand over his crotch that Jason tense for a moment. He relaxes again, probably chalking it up to an accident.

You move again, this time, pressing against him with more purpose, but keeping it brief. Jason quirks an eyebrow, looking down to give you a look, but you smile innocently, and redirect your attention to the movie. You wait a minute, then reach under the blanket and cup Jason through his sweatpants, rubbing your palm against his hardening dick.

Jason grabs your wrist under the blanket.

“You are in very dangerous territory,” He murmurs lowly to you, sending chills down your spine.

You grin mischievously then lean up and press a soft kiss to Jason’s jaw. His grip on your wrist and shoulder momentarily tighten then he shifts his hand so that he’s holding your hand, stopping you from your teasing antics.

You smile victoriously to yourself, leaning against Jason again. While it’s fun to tease Jason, with Dick being here, it’s a very fine line of teasing Jason versus making him uncomfortable. Some couples might go for the full-on hand-job under the blankets with a relative in the room; however, just as you wouldn’t be okay with Jason doing anything too risky with someone else in the room, you’re not going to give him a hand-job with his brother is sitting on the opposite couch. All your teasing stays above the clothes.

A few more minutes of the movie goes by before you decide you to try your luck in a different form. You shift against Jason again, this time, wiggling your way into his lap. He adapts easily, wrapping his arms around your waist, and rests his chin on your shoulder.

You lay back against him, happy to let him hold you. In this position, you’re getting the ultimate double whammy. While you are very happy to be close to Jason and shower him with affection, you know every time you shift, you press against his dick, and you know your efforts are not going unnoticed.

You turn, pressing a kiss to his cheek and lightly scrape your nails up and down his arms. As you shift, Jason’s arms tighten around your waist momentarily. You continue your antics throughout the movie, occasionally moving to kiss Jason’s cheek or neck, or shifting down against him. By the end of the movie, you can feel that he is fully hard.

“Did you like it?” Dick asks, glancing over at you two once the movie credits start rolling.

He hasn’t seemed to notice you doing anything unusual which was your intent.

“It was good,” Jason nods. “I really liked it.”

Dick grins then stands up, stretching dramatically.

“Well, I’ve gotta get back to Bludhaven and I’m sure you two want to resume your previous activity from before I got here,” He grins at you and Jason, who’s gone very red.

“W-what?!” He sputters.

Dick points at his own neck.

“Yeah, the hickey isn’t discrete there, dude.”

Jason glares at you who laughs with a shrug.

“Sorry, babe,” You grin, not sounding sorry at all.

“Your shower story wasn’t very plausible either,” Dick shrugs while Jason looks like he wants to sink through the couch.

“Can we talk about something else?” He groans, making Dick laugh.

“I won’t torture you anymore, Little Wing,” Dick ruffles Jason’s hair who swats at him. “Thanks for letting me hang out. Bye guys!”

“Bye Dick!” You call to him, then right as the door shuts, Jason has you on your back, pinned to the couch with your hands trapped above your head.

He hovers above you, using his hips to hold yours in place.

“Do you have any fucking clue what you do to me?” He murmurs, grinding against you.

“I can take I guess, but I’d prefer you to show me,” You grin.

“Gladly,” Jason promises, then dips his head for a long kiss.

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greytoiletpaper · 4 years

Text

Out on Allen Street, it’s 7 in the Morning

Set in the same-ish street-siblings universe as First Contact by @cryptids-and-muses and @a-sketchy-character @streetsiblings (they’re still awesome). Now, the pieces start falling into place or smth lmao :))

Drizzle | Deluge | AO3

Chapter 3: Squall

Did they get rid of her?

He dreads to think of it, but there’s nothing else he seems to be able to pick out from what information he gathers. Three years after he died, Cass (who hated killing, would never do it even for the worst of the worst) had nearly murdered the Joker. She almost finished the job until Batman saved the madman and subdued her. After that,

Nothing.

Not a single report on Batgirl. Nor a photo of Cassandra Todd. Only two traces he could find. One a significantly sullen Wonder Woman (he and Cass had liked her, and she, them). The other an interview of Bruce, repeating that she’d gone to ‘travel the world’.

Jason knows a lie when he hears one.

“It’s – It’s like she just disappeared,” He’s gripping his head, rocking back and forth while Rose smooths out his hair. “He cut her out of the family and then what?”

He remembers a promise, a vow Bruce had made with him. It had meant the world to Jason.

Bruce had broken that vow. Torn it apart and stomped all over it.

Rose watches him as he breaks down with no judgement in her gaze, just holds him close as his world crumbles around him again.

There’s a child in Nandra Parbat, and Jason has to train him.

“This is my son, Damian,” Talia had said to him, showing him some new kid as if he hadn’t just killed three assassins in the space of a minute. He would have said as much if she didn’t immediately order him to be the kid’s new teacher.

Looking at him now, all Jason can see is a small girl with a crooked smile mouthing his name. He blinks, and he’s met with a scowl and sapphire eyes (eyes just like Br-).

“Mother has requested you to be my instructor,” The kid repeats and lord, his voice is nasal. Jason chooses to stare at the kid, who fidgets. If he looks close enough, he could swear Damian’s scowl looks almost precisely like-.

“Is he mute, Mother? I do not see how an invalid could assist me,” He can tell by the way Rose’s head shoots up and glares at Damian whose side she would choose if this escalates. A flare of anger rises in Jason’s chest; his eyes start to flash a sharp emerald. Still, he pushes it down and diverts it to strengthening his stare, dominating the room.

He can’t read people the same way Cass can, but Jason could swear that the kid’s composure cracks at his uncertainty.

“Wanna repeat that for me?” Jason’s voice is low and even. He can tell the kid recognises the threat in his tone. To his credit, Damian hesitates before he honest to god tts, like every single other haughty, uptight rich boy.

“Regardless, habibi, you will treat your new instructors with respect,” Talia speaks, gesturing to him and Rose. “The quality of your instructors was incredibly subpar, and you have them to blame for killing the previous masters beforehand.”

“I do not think that a lowly thug and his harlot-,” Jason’s arm shoots out in an instant, clasping his hand over Damian’s mouth and clenching. Indignant fury flares in the boy’s eyes as Damian tries to slap Jason away. It does nothing, unsurprisingly.

“So long as you are under my tutelage, you will never speak that way to any woman. That is no way to speak to anyone, regardless of what they do for a living,” Somehow, the kid actually listens, the flinty look in his eye lessening somewhat. “I bet your own mother had to pull a fuck ton of strings just to make sure this meeting even happened in the first place.”

Jason glances up to Talia, expecting a reprimand. What surprises him is how genuine the approval she emits is. It hits him that he has literally confirmed to training Damian. He coughs.

“You should know,” Talia pipes up. “His full name is Damian Wayne-Al Ghul.”

Jason stares at the ceiling and curses the rain as it tap-dances with the universe, mocking him.

“All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”

Cassandra shakes herself from the nerves and rings the doorbell. The last time she had been here, she had kissed Alfred on the cheek and let him drive her all the way to the airport. That was only two months ago. Two months away from Gotham, away from Batgirl, away from-.

Bruce. He’s standing in the foyer, his gaze cold, but his body… his body seems unsure. She doesn’t know what to make of it. She half expects him to turn her away, but he moves to the side. He opens his mouth.

“Cassandra!” Steph darts from behind Bruce’s body, all flailing limbs and mismatched socks. “You’re here!”

“Yes.”

The girl grins, periwinkle eyes dazzling (They’re from the same cloth, just not the proper stitching) as she drags Cassandra away.

“So… how’s life in Hong Kong?”

“Peachy,” Cass answers honestly.

“Think of any names for your new identity?” Steph gesticulates to nothing, but her body language is focused on questions. So, she doesn’t give the girl any. They walk a little more until Steph decides to fill in the silence again.

“Tim’s dad found out about the vigilante business,” Cass nods as Steph talks. “Wants him to quit being Robin and Bruce doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.”

“His problem.”

“Well, duh. It’s just that….” Steph rubs her arm shyly, the same way she always does when she’s afraid of what she will say next. “When I was growing up, with my villain dad and addict Mom, I always imagined that Batman and Robin would save me. I’m here now, and….”

“You want to be Robin.” Cassandra deadpans, even as Steph whirls to gape at her. Really, it’s not like she wasn’t obvious. “Why not go for it?”

Silence for a moment. “Because I’m afraid.”

Cassandra looks at the blonde sharply. Stephanie Brown? Intimidated-by-Batman-and-joined-vigilantism-anyway Stephanie Brown was afraid? She doesn’t know what to think. That is until the dots connect in her head.

“You’re afraid that you won’t be able to help as much as you want to,” Steph scuffs the carpet glumly.

“With Mr. Anal-retentiveness-to-the-9’s? Yeah, that’d probably happen,” Steph sound so defeated and desperate that Cass curses because apparently, fate chose now to be when Steph is truly like Jason.

“Then don’t wear it,” Steph’s scuffing gets a little stronger. “I, for one, think you’d be a really good Batgirl.”

Steph makes an incredible impression as a fish and stares at Cass, barely wheezing as she gawks. “But Bruce -.”

“Bruce doesn’t have autonomy over Batgirl,” Cass smiles sweetly, echoing Barbara. “It’s your uniform now, and no one can take that from you but yourself.”

Her friend squeals loudly and squeezes Cass, gushing her gratitude over and over. Cass hugs her back, pretending it’s Jay she’s holding in her arms, giving the assurance of family she failed to keep.

He’s only trained with Damian for a few months, yet he’s seen more than he really should from the boy. His younger brother (the kid’s only a child, it doesn’t matter what Jason’s previous misgivings are) has been raised in the League of Assassins since birth. He can already use a sword with deadly efficiency at eleven years old. His attitude's as ruthless and condescending as every other assassin in the compound.

However, what is an exploitable weakness for Damian is the fact he’s only just started puberty. Most easily demonstrated when Rose makes a suggestive pose before tackling the boy and pinning him in place. Jason whistles because he’s fond of her, an asshole like that. Rose flips the bird at Jason and sticks out her tongue, now lounging casually on Damian’s squirming body.

It’s cute, the scene, but Jason knows how wrong it is. As long as Damian is with the League of Assassins, he won’t live normally. To find his own love, his own family. Even as the child wrestles with Rose and yells at him to help, it won’t ever be enough.

He’s not projecting.

He’s not.

He’s going to concoct a plan.

Ravi, Damian’s caretaker, has that air about him that Jason has only ever seen come from Alfred. So, he guesses trusting Ravi with this is more than okay. The man may be blind, but with him, they manage to smuggle Damian through the channels of the League, avoiding everyone who could threaten their goal.

“If I may ask, Mister Todd,” Ravi says as they reach the last legs. Jason nods. “Why are you doing this? To what gain is rescuing this child for you?”

“I don’t do this because I want to gain something,” Jason replies immediately. “No child deserves to grow up in this place. He deserves to have as good a childhood as he can get.”

Ravi stares patiently, hearing what’s unsaid.

“Sound reasoning,” Talia’s voice echoes around them. Everyone tenses. The woman steps out from behind the pillar ahead of them, alone. “And where, may a mother ask, are you taking my son?”

The woman’s voice lacks her usual veneer, sounding so genuinely earnest that he can’t help but blurt out: “Gotham.”

“Gotham,” Talia repeats, her forehead pinched. “With him?” With Batman? Jason bristles. “Might I remind you; he left your death unavenged and replaced you in mere months.”

“Fuck that,” Jason snarls. Ever since he came out of the Pit, madness clings to the edges of his mind whenever he thinks of how Bruce replaced him. This time, it only flickers. “What I want doesn’t matter when Damian needs his father figure. I’m – I’m not stopping him from having that.”

“So, you no longer wish to kill him,” Talia states. He sighs.

“I guess not,” Jason frowns, considering her presence. “Want to take him to Bruce?”

If Talia is surprised, she doesn’t show it, only beckoning for Damian to follow her. As the kid moves, Jason realises this might be the last time he’ll see Damian on the same side of the fence. He grabs the kid’s shoulder, who oddly doesn’t resist.

“Look, Damian,” Jason starts as his younger brother stares up at him. “Doing right is right, and wrong is wrong. A body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.

“Living with your father, it’s rules like that he follows like gospel. He’ll love you; I know he will, but with him it’s always on the condition that you adhere to his principles. Can you promise something for me?”

Damian nods, soaking every word in.

“I need you to keep an open mind with what he says, but I don’t want you to follow them like gospel the way he does. You’re more than his soldier, you’re my brother, you’re his son.”

The kid nods again, shifting on his feet.

“And – And look after yourself, okay? And -,” The words that come out of his mouth feel like hot coals, but he has to say them. “And if somehow Cass is there, can you look after her too? For me?”

“Of course,” Damian answers softly before throwing his arms around Jason’s waist. “I will find your ukht, ahki, and make sure she is well cared for.”

Jason smiles. It's a broken, weary-looking thing.

“And Todd?” Jason raises his eyebrows. “You should confess to Wilson about your ridiculous affection. It is sickening to watch you two dancing around one another every lesson.”

Jason can’t help it; he laughs and lets his little brother go, his tears like raindrops.

Cass leaves the fresh hydrangeas on the headstone. It stares back at her, its date (four years) seeming to mock her from beyond the grave. Literally, Jay says in her head, which has her biting back the laugh that builds in her throat.

Bruce’s son had come in a few days ago, obviously an assassin child, yet he’s still… subdued, somehow. She knows the boy is there, at her brother’s grave, and that he follows her all the way to the manor. Even then, Cassandra lets it go. He probably took all his cues from Bruce anyway.

It’s when she’s sitting at the new memorial for Jason, a small statue of an apple with a plaque underneath, that Damian approaches her.

“Cain.”

“It’s Todd.”

Something crosses the boy’s face. She can’t tell what it is.

“Todd,” Damian says, his eyebrows pinching like a mini Bruce. “What is this?”

“It’s Jason’s memorial,” Cassandra traces the words on the plaque, a quote, one whose meaning she had struggled with a lifetime ago. She gestures to the book in her hands. “I read to it, every time I’m here.”

Damian looks like he’s about to say something about that, but he withholds it. Instead, he sits down with her, his head upturned, not unlike a bird.

“What was he like?” The boy asks, the words seeming to grit out his teeth.

“He was amazing, and we loved him so much,” Dick speaks up, out of nowhere, cutting Cass off before she can even begin. “I had a few issues with him, but I promise that I’ll be as good a brother to you as he was to us.”

Cassandra snorts, and Dick’s smile falls off his face.

“Cassandra, come on, I was just-.”

“You weren’t even a good brother to me or – or him.” She says quietly, because why is he even speaking now? “Why are you trying now? Why not before?”

“Like I said, I had a lot of issues with -.”

“I don’t care, Dickface.” Does it hurt to say Jason’s old nickname for the boy? Yes. Does she draw satisfaction at how much he flinches? Also, yes.

Barbara chooses then to speak up.

“I don’t think that’s fair for you to say, Cass.”

She freezes. The fact that even Damian, who hardly knows her, does the same with the others means they know how huge an error they’ve made.

“Don’t call me that,” Cassandra snaps, voice desolate and lethal, thoughts squalling and refusing to calm down even as she buries her head in the book in her hands.

Barbara sighs and calls Dick away to discuss the mysterious hacker that’s been pulling information from them. Damian, seeming to recognise her desire to be alone, follows him. Good. Cassandra’s mind falls in and out of a lull as her eyes try to refocus. So, she caresses the edge of the apple reverently. In its reflection, tears run down her cheeks. She can’t feel them.

“The information breaches just keep searching for Batgirl,” Barbara says, snapping Cassandra from her stupor. She pulls up a list; every entry confirms Barbara’s statements. Every entry, that is, except for one that catches her eye. The text flashes brightly, making her head spin, and she can’t look away because printed in the bright neon text is-.

There’s a memory, one she’s locked in the far recesses of her mind, where things like the Joker and David and all her other demons live. She remembers Faizul asking who her mother is.

David smirks, a savage thing he does whenever he’s about to order her to do something (murder, as it turned out, then) and says:

Sandra Wu-San | Lady Shiva

The words blare in her mind, bouncing round and round and blocking out all sounds in the cave. It certainly explains a lot; only Shiva can read the body like a novel. Plus, Cassandra isn’t sure that assassin skills are genetic but having two master assassins as biological parents should factor somewhere. It also opens a new avenue of thought. Why? Why did she give her up and never look back? Why did she leave her with her monster of a father? Cassandra craves needs answers, and she needs them now.

Staring up at the name printed on the screen, Jason once asked himself the same questions.

While the others discuss what to do, Cassandra has already listed Shiva’s last known locations and activities. They don’t notice she’s going to leave until she revs the engine of her bike. She sees them open their mouths, but over the sound of the motor, their voices fail to reach her.

All except, somehow, for Alfred and if there is anyone in this family Cass will listen to; it’s the one Jay loved the most.

“If you do pursue her, Miss Cassandra,” The butler has never been unkind to her, yet she can’t help but feel like he’s trying to keep her in place. “I am not sure if you will find what you are looking for.”

She leaves anyway, soaring underneath the tresses of Gotham as they settle around her, the mist obscuring everything but her path forward.

“Damian probably landed in Gotham last week,” Rose says casually. Too casually, she realises. Jace side-eyes her and snorts in response. Damn him and his ability to pick apart what she’s asking. Four years constantly in one another’s presence would do that to people with his life experience. Yet, as much as Jason can read her, she can’t say she can do the same for him.

Something about him seems fragile, like plaster covering a beautiful and distracting collage. Rose wants to dig past that plaster, through the collage and see the mind that is Jason Todd.

She has seen him at his highest and lowest points and always makes sure to stay by his side, as she does now. He’s her best friend; he might not know it, but he’s kept her sane (reassurances her father will not find her come to mind) just as much as she’s done for him.

“What do you think of the new Batgirl?” This time, she means to be conversational. When they stumbled across the profile of Cass’ successor, Jace had shaken his head and laid out half-heartedly into a punching bag.

“I don’t hate her, if that’s what you’re thinking,” That response was… not unexpected. But, when she raises her hickory eyes, Jason has his head raised to the sky. “I looked into her, and – and she’s like us.”

Oh.

“Girl’s from the Narrows. Didn’t live on the streets, but from her background, her home life definitely wasn’t that great growing up either.”

His hand is trembling, so Rose grabs it and tries to keep him steady with all the power in her.

“She’s going to do Batgirl proud,” Jason says shakily. “I think you’d agree.”

They stand there, leaning on each other, tranquillity settling around them as Jace lets his tears flow. It occurs to Rose that she never let his hand go. She doesn’t plan to. The feeling makes her feel warm inside, and as much as she wants to go further, she also doesn’t want to push her best friend away.

In the distance, the outline of a jet approaches the runway they’re on. It is time.

“You ready?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I said yes.”

“Fair enough.”

“Hey,” Rose looks up at him, waiting for him to continue. “If anything goes wrong, I want you to stay out of sight of the others and get away from Gotham.”

Rose growls. “No way, there is no fucking way I’d leave you alone with them.” She steps closer, jabbing her finger on his chest. “I didn’t train with you for the past four years for it all to be thrown away just because Batman is an asshole. My dad’s just as bad, remember?

“You’re stuck with me no matter what Jace. Deal with it.”

He gives her a wry smirk that has her heart fluttering as much as her returning grin is sharp. Even as the plane touches down, she realises that he hasn't let her hand go, and neither has she.

In the next week, Red Hood and Ravager will carve their way through the deeper bowels of Gotham’s stomach, a bag of heads linking their iron fists.

For now, Rose breathes in the moist air as a drizzle begins.

Mad Dog, Cassandra muses, is a morbid reminder of what she might have become if she stayed with David. He doesn’t have her abilities, but he has more physical strength in spades; his movements are so strange, so unpredictable, that it’s not like it matters.

A deft swipe narrowly misses her throat, and Cassandra cuffs the man in the jaw with her knee, knocking him back.

She had definitely found Shiva. Tracked her all the way to some subset of the League of Assassins. The woman had only gazed coolly at her and set Mad Dog on her.

True to his name, the assassin growls and leaps at her, fury behind each of his strikes. Cassandra dodges one of these, the fist cratering the cement wall, and gets socked in the chest for her trouble. The force of the impact sends her flying metres away.

Getting up from the blow is a chore, and she can feel the agony her body is in, feels the blood run down her mouth as she rises. Her fist is shaking; her stance is uneven. Mad Dog notices, and he grins like David, drawing a jagged sword from his sheath and charges.

Cassandra darts past the assassin. She knows she can win this. Even though his movements are swift and deadly, she manages to outpace him. His sword strikes aim to draw blood as he swipes at her, but she’s still managed to weave her way around them, causing sparks to fly into the air. When he tries to hit her, she still uses his momentum against him and knocks him down.

Yet, Cassandra can feel herself getting slower now; her arms are still shaking. She dodges another strike, but it’s a feint, and Mad Dog grabs her by the hair and slams her onto the ground. Hazily, she watches his wicked grin widen as the assassin raises his arms and prepares his blade.

As Mad Dog is about to drive it into Cass’ chest, she thinks (This is it. It’s all over. It is time.) of a boy in an alleyway, an apple in his hand and a smile on his lips.

She closes her eyes and listens to the sprinkling outside.

“Do you think we were unfair to them?” Dick seems to ask to open air, but Bruce knows when his sons want a genuine response. “Like, that we didn’t give them enough credit for what they could do. And because of that, they’ve never had anyone but each other?”

Dick slumps. It looks so wrong on him that Bruce wraps his arms around him, especially careful (As a real father would. An insidious voice in his brain sneers). “Do you think, that if maybe we treated them so much better...” His boy is crying now, usually joyous lapis eyes cold and red-rimmed. “That they’d still be here?”

Bruce only grunts because not one of his answers is what Dick wants to hear.

On a slab of stone, the petals on the hydrangeas wilt, droplets dappling their edges.

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hasegawasosise · 4 years

Text

In Numbers We Trust

Summary:

Prompt master: @outoftheframework

I like the concept of each of the kids having a number or having a thing where they count off. Not in a demeaning or dehumanizing way at all, just more so to use in dangerous situations. For example, a bomb goes off on patrol, and to quickly see if everyone is okay, the kids (including Steph and Babs) automatically start counting one at a time. Bruce can breathe again once the count reaches eight. This tradition begins to carry over to civilian life when the kids yell numbers across a crowded gala after the power goes out.

Beta Agenthandler

Bruce never planned on starting a family. He made a vow to live for justice. He would be the force Gotham needed. He would be the forever bachelor. Justice was his Lady Love.

But 90% of life’s plan was just that—a plan. Bruce would never have guessed he'd end up taking in a boy who called himself Dick Grayson. Technically his ward, but Bruce suffered a mid-life crisis every day from thereon, wondering whether it was the right choice for him to adopt a kid—or why anyone sane would let Bruce Wayne adopt any kid in the first place. It was a testament to Dick’s own awesomeness that he grew up to be a mostly functional adult—Bruce definitely wasn’t.

After Dick, he recruited an amazing girl named Barbara Gordon as another sidekick. She was not officially his adopted daughter, but by day two of working together Bruce registered her in his little hind brain as “my kid.”

Then another. Jason Todd not only stole the Batmobile’s tires but also Batman’s heart. The little boy taught Bruce more about street-smarts and how to be a better person right until his death. His realized depth of parental love made him wonder why he ever adopted anyone in the first place—and ended up losing them that way.

After what he thought was the last, another one came into his life without invitation. Timothy Drake was a genius detective. Out of his first four—yes, Bruce could still count—Tim was the most similar to Bruce. They had the same kind of upbringing amidst the Gotham Elite, they were both highly focused and detail oriented individuals. Tim was even smarter than Bruce, and he was the sole reason Bruce could continue functioning after Jason’s death. Tim was also the only one to believe he was still alive and brought Bruce back from when he was lost in time.

After Time was Stephanie Brown. A cheerful ray of sunshine that had her own worries, but could function the best out of all his children. She had the kind of light sarcastic humor to brighten up Bruce’s darker days. He gained a third daughter, Cassandra Cain, the most accomplished amongst his children in terms of stealth and combat, also his one darling princess.

Then Bruce was introduced to his—one and only—blood son, a little baby assassin who had the unfortunate tendency to stab first ask later. By this time, Bruce had a better handle on raising children highly susceptible to raising hell and violence (read: still an incompetent parent, but he knew how to tune out their nagging) and had no choice but to assign Dick with Damian’s education on humanities and socialization.

He also had Helena, Terry, Matt, Duke, and Harper.

Bruce lost count.

It was the ultimate testament to Bruce’s parenting skill. He sometimes couldn’t remember how many kids he had. He could lose them in a Walmart and forget he was missing one. But thankfully, he had a secret weapon.

Since Jason, he assigned them all numbers. Dick was one, Barbara was two, Jason three, Timothy four, Stephanie five, Cass six, Damian seven—although he always said he was the first—Duke was eight, Harper nine, Terry ten, Matt eleven, and little Helena was twelve.

Imagine that. Bruce had twelve kids. What was his vow again? Lady Love Justice? Don’t know her.

It became sort of a tradition. When the kids entered the Wayne manor, each of them wrote their number on the info board down in the changing room. They were also listed on a desktop note of the BatComputer. It became a ritual in which the last child would add their newest sibling into the list, so they knew who the next number was supposed to be, and that next child would be who they were responsible for. Well, except Dick who accepted all of them as his baby chicks. The number also became a little part of their identity—each of them would put their numbers on everything they owned from their doors to their batarangs to the containers in the fridge.

Bruce, most importantly, used the numbering system to check in on them. It started when Penguin detonated a bank and his robins were scattered fighting all the hundred thugs Penguin hired to keep Batman busy. The blast stopped the fight and Bruce’s heart dropped when he realized his coms were damaged and he immediately couldn’t keep sight of them. He immediately tried to think what he could do, and when he did, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“KID COUNT!”

“One!” Nightwing shouted from the top of the next building. Apparently he flew off the bank’s roof when he realised it was going to burst.

Oracle was two but he knew she was safe in the clock tower.

“Three,” Red Hood drawled. Bruce wondered why he joined in, but was thankful nonetheless.

“Four,” Red Robin shouted from the opposite direction, because he was the sensible one who directed the civilians and police to safety.

“Five!” Spoiler laughed and flew to his side. “That was a doozy!”

“Six,” Black Bat said as she appeared beside Spoiler where they shared a hi-five.

“Seven,” Robin pulled out his swords from a thug’s leg. “Father, I need to clean my sword immediately.”

“No stabbing, please.” “Too late.” Bruce groaned.

“...Eight?” Signal. He was still new to the numbering system.

Batman let go a deep relieved sigh.

The police and civilians who were fortunate to witness the scene, collectively said ‘Oh’. It became a trending twitter before Tim deleted the topic as much as he could.

********

The counting continued though. Citizens who have lots of children (such as parents, teachers, sometimes even the Police teams), realised it was a quick method to ensure update of their progeny/students/teams condition. So they The counting became sort of a Gotham Trend and eventually enlisted into Gotham’s Emergency SOP. Imagine that, having too many kids to count gave birth to a crucial disaster first-aid first responder procedure.

In all actually, maybe that was one of the top major contributions Batman has given to his city.

********

The kids themselves slowly embraced the importance and fun of the numbers. It created a sort of camaraderie-- even when the numbers didn’t correlate with their height. It used to be a nice isoquant curve when they stood side by side. But after Jason’s growth spurt and Tim naught growth spurt, Steph finding high heels and Cass love for Anti-flood Boots, the nice isoquant curve just became a jagged line not unlike a heartbeat rate.

That aside, the numbering also slowly bled into their civilian lives:

All of them counted before they entered the GothMart -- Alfred was there too, and suddenly Bruce became number 0. He was there to help Alfred because herding the kids was a massive job.

Dick was back for the weekend to spend time with his “babies” and refused to stay at home, because he wanted to sneak in his grocery list (gummy bears and cereals) into Bruce’s list so he could bring it back to Bludhaven and not spend a dime on it.

Jason was there because Alfred asked him for help--he was the only one out of the brood with cooking talent and generally all responsible in the kitchen, i.e. Alfred could trust Jason to use his kitchen without blowing it up (shoutout to Tim and Duke who blew the kitchen for the fifth time this year).

Barbara stayed at home, watching over their base, but she was ready with her surveillance just in case they lost one of the broods.

Tim was half dragged, because he had spent the last 30 hours awake doing Bruce-knew-what, and only agreed to be dragged with the promise of sweet, abominable GothMart coffee with pink glitter (a cheap imitation of Starbucks, really) because Tim was fabulous especially after thirty hours of no sleep. And the surprisingly awesome coffee was a dollar--what kind of frugal millionaire didn’t appreciate a dollar of drinkable coffee?

Steph was the one who dragged Tim, with the help of Cass who just returned from Hong Kong for the weekend. Steph wanted to buy some new bras for Cass, something cool and sexy she could enjoy immensely. Bruce was not privy in this knowledge.

Damian was there to ensure his embarrassment of siblings didn’t kill themselves or humiliate the family. Wayne was his legacy afterall, and all of them reflected on his legacy, whether he liked it or not. Duke, the only one whom he could tolerate outside Cassandra (Grayson was mother) just poked his cheek and grinned. Duke might be tolerable, but it didn’t mean Damian didn’t want to stab him sometimes (Drake, on the other hand, looked like a nice pincushion to stab his sword into).

They counted 0 to 8 before they entered, orchestrated by Alfred.

When they were ready for the checkout, 4, 5, and 6 were missing. Bruce finally found them at the children section, where Tim was busy defending his virginity from a Superboy Plushie, while Steph convulsed with laughter on the floor and Cass video-ed the entire thing.

Bruce refused to buy the cereals (Dick) / sexy lingerie (nope, nope, nope) / kitchen knife collection in black (Damian, as they didn’t need another stabby collection). But Bruce ended up buying the superboy plushie because it had been tainted (the store manager glared at him the whole check out time). At least Tim looked ashamed enough when he was handed the superboy plushie.

The gala was in full swing, full of important people and not-so important moochies. Bruce was entertaining a group of usual donors (important and fun people!) while he saw Tim seriously discussing the stock exchange trends with several old, serious men. Dick was charming the usual group of ladies and young men, while Cass seemed to be hiding behind the potted plan.

Then, just like usual in Gotham, the lights went off. The room suddenly became dark and people started to scream.

“KID COUNT!” Bruce shouted. “Zero,” he added because of habit.

“One!” “Three!” “Four!” “Five and Six!” “Seven.” “Eight” “Nine.”

Wait, did he bring Harper with him? Harper was allergic to this kind of gala--and that was why he never fully adopted her into his Wayne name.

Oh well. The more number he got, the better.

Justice Lady love who?

#bat family #batman #bruce being a good dad #bruce is a bad dad #bruce is a bat dad #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #timothy drake #damian wayne #cass Wayne #harper #barbara gordon #prompt by @outoftheframework #prompt fill #numbering system #Alfred is the leader #bruce is one of the kids too

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zayray030 · 4 years

Text

Why can't you understand? I didn't want this.

Summary: Bruce wanted to cry. Or die. Whichever came first really. He was just so tired. Why couldn't anyone understand that he didn't want his kids to have this life? Why couldn't his own kids understand that?

Bruce wanted to cry. Or die. Whichever came first really because he really wanted to get out of the cave.

The reason why he didn't want to be in the cave was because of his kids.

Now, he loves his kids. He never wants anything bad to happen. He never wants to see them cry or get hurt. He just wants to see them happy and living happy normal lives. And if he actually had a say in it, then they would have normal lives. But they were all dumbasses. Lovable dumbasses, but dumbasses non the less.

Currently they were all ganging up on him for taking them into this life.

It had all started when Bruce was typing in the report for the night. He had the costume off and the place was silent. Normally meaning that it was going to be interrupted one way or another and one of his kids will storm away from him or in tears and shouting at him. Well he got the first one right, just not the last one. He would be the one in tears shouting at them.

“Hey, Bruce!” exclaimed his oldest son as he walked into the cave, while Barbara wheeled along with him she gave him a small smile before going back talking to Dick.

Bruce just gave a small nod of acknowledgement and continued typing on the batcomputer. Soon, all the other others began joining in and they were all huddled around Barbara and Dick. Normally such behaviour would have worried Bruce, considering the fact that a fight would have broken out now, but he didn't pay attention to it. He really needed to finish his report to get some rest for tomorrow.

How naive could he be to hope it would be that simple?

“Hey Bruce? I have a question.” said Tim as he walked over to him, the others following suit behind him, their faces holding anything but innocence.

“I'm sure it can wait, Tim. I have to finish this report and-” started to say Bruce before he was cut off by Jason.

“Nah it can't wait, actually old man.” snapped his second oldest son as he crossed his arms and glared at Bruce. So it was going to be one of those nights. Bruce really didn't want to get onto a fight with his son, especially after they've been doing so well.

“I just need to finish this report. I'm sure he can ask one of you.” replied Bruce, still focusing his attention on the screen and trying to remain calm. However, it was proving harder than he thought. Maybe he should have listened to Alfred when he said to go and sleep earlier.

“He can't exactly ask us on why you insist on having child soldiers.” Dick replied, slightly peaceful. He was clearly trying to be the meditator while also making it obvious on whose side he was on. However Bruce could really care less right now. He was just trying to stop himself from crying as the question was asked again.

Why can't they see he didn't want this life for any of them? Why can't they understand it wasn't completely his fault?

“Grayson. Say it nicer.” snapped Damian. Even his own son thought he had child soldiers. He would have at least thought he would be on his side, but no such luck.

Bruce fully turned from the computer, his report half finished. He would continue it later when everyone storms out after he accidentally says something emotionally constipated.

“We are not going to have this conversation right-” tried to say Bruce but he was cut off again, this time by Barbara. She looked slightly guilty by what she was going to say, but it was also obvious that she had wanted to say it for a long time.

“I'm sorry Bruce, but we need to have this conversation right now. It's not safe for you to put a child in a costume and force them to go out and save Gotham. It's not sane either.” she added. That little…

“I-” he tried to say something, anything, to defend himself, but he was interrupted yet again. This time by Cassandra. Even her? She thought he would willingly put children in harm's way? His heart started breaking even more.

“I love dad, but dad hurt others.” she said with the limited words she had learnt. Bruce had to hold back a sob at the fact his daughter said she loved him but had yet again thought that he would harm a child.

“If you let-” tried to explain Bruce. He just wanted to explain that he hadn't wanted all of them to go through this shit. He had wanted them to stay happy and love others as much as he loved them. Why couldn't they see that?

“Let you what? Kill another child in your regime. It's bad enough it happened to me, but it also happened to others because you forced them into this shit show.” snarled Jason, looking at Bruce like he was worse that the scum that he fought nightly. Bruce felt his heart crack even more at the look but he kept his face stoic.

“Would you ju-” tried Bruce again, his temper rising. But instead of steam wanting to come out, it was tears. However he was interrupted by Duke. Why did they have to turn Duke? Duke and him were finally connecting. He may never be able to replace his parents, but he could at least be a good guardian.

“Sorry boss, but why? Like yeah, I get it's hard to navigate life at night, but they were just kids.” he asked, looking at him in disappointment. Bruce felt his heart cracking even further but he just continued to remain stoic.

“Can I just-” he tried to snap but Stephanie cut him off. Poor, sweet Stephanie. The one who had the most horrible relationship with him when she was Robin.

“No, you don't get to be pissed with us when it's your fault for starting this fuckery.” snapped Stephanie. Bruce wanted to cry or hit something, say it wasn't his fault, but he just took it. That's at least until Dick’s comment.

“I mean, you had to weaponize my childhood to start this ridiculous thing-” but Bruce cut him off. If they where going to demand for answers then they would fucking receive.

“Excuse me!?!” he snapped at his oldest,causing a look of surprise to be etched on his face. “I didn't even allow you to go out at night.” when it looked like he was going to get interrupted, he just raised his voice. “You were the dumbass to put on a bright red tunic, green panties and a neon yellow cape on. You decided to go out there and try to find your parents killer and kill him. You decided, without any sort of training, to go out there and find a mob boss, who has more experience than you. I told you multiple times not to. However you wouldn't fucking listen so I decided to make sure you didn't die in the fucking process!!” he yelled at Dick, who just stood there, shocked and if he looked just slightly longer he would have noticed the guilt, but he was already moving on to Barbara.

“You decided after solving one fucking mystery at a fucking Halloween party, while dressed in a ridiculous costume, that you would start fighting crime. You continued trying to fight crime, even after I told you not to. You continued even after I threatened to tell your father. I just fucking decide to make sure that you didn't die, giving the commissioner major heartbreak, so be fucking grateful.” be snarled at Barbara. The normally quick witted woman had nothing to say, just stared at Bruce guiltily. He could barely give a shit as he turned to Jason.

“You decided to steal the tires of the fucking batmobile when you saw it, instead of turning around and going somewhere else. You decided to hit me with a tire iron, instead of just giving me my fucking tires back.” he practically screamed at Jason. Jason was looking at Bruce in horror and that's when he realised that tears were running down his face. Fuck, he hadn't even felt it. “I tried teaching you how to put your size to your advantage by using speed, but you fucking insisted just to punch the villains.”

He then turned to Tim, on a roll now. “I told you to fucking go home! I told you not go out there on the streets of Gotham and fight crime. But NO!! You had to fucking take pictures of me and insist that you be my partner even though you had a good life going for you. You had no fucking training prior and since you were obviously not going to fucking listen to me, I decided that the next best thing was to fucking teach you how to defend yourself.” he screamed at Tim. The coffee addict had the sense to look down guilty and look ashamed of himself. But he didn't care. They asked and he would fucking deliver.

“You decided to instead of turning your father to cops, when finding out he was a supervillian, to dress up in a purple costume and fucking fight crime, even after I told you to fucking go home. Even after I was a dick to you, you decided to stay and not take a fucking hint!” shouted Bruce at Stephanie as he turned to her, not caring at the fact that he was crying openly now. Stephanie just stared at him, horror growing in her eyes.

“I told you not to go to Shiva, but you didn't listen to me! I told you not to insert yourself into dangerous situations but you fucking decided to ignore me and go out to Hong Kong!” he yelled at Cassandra. He didn't bother lowering his voice. He was upset and he wanted his mother telling him that he was doing good and he wanted his dad telling him that he'll protect him.

Cass looked at him with wide eyes but Bruce didn't have it in him to care. He just wanted to go to sleep. He quickly turned to his blood son and softened just the tiniest bits.

“I benched you multiple times after I found out your mother had put a hit on you but you decided to change your name to Red Bird and continue to fight crime! Even after I benched you multiple times and explained to you the dangers of going out there. I told you to stay in the cave and away from the evil zombies invading Gotham but you didn't fucking listen! And that's not even scratching the surface!” he yelled at his son. Damian wasn't crying, but he was frowning and looking mighty guilty but Bruce didn't care. He wanted his own dad and he wanted him now.

“You decided to challenge the riddler when you were barely even in the double digits!” he snapped, turning to the newest member of the family and Duke had the sense to look ashamed of himself as he rubbed the back of his neck. “You continued to fight crime, even after I told you to leave it to the professionals and not to get involved with his shit! But you wouldn't listen, so I had to turn you into a professional!”

“I may not have been the best fucking parent out there, but I damn well tried to make sure you lot didn't die! Was I the best at it? No! But I fucking tried to stop you! So don't you fucking dare say I put you in that costume willingly!” he finally screamed. “I just wanted to be a normal dad! I just wanted to give you guys the experience I never had! I tried my hardest to be a good dad to you all, like my parents were to me.”

Slowly he was trailing off, mostly just half sobs and barely even standing, already on the floor, face in his hands as he cried.

Suddenly he felt small arms wrap around him and he didn't have to be the World's Greatest Detective to know it was Damian.

“I apologise to have caused you such great distress, father.” mumbled Damian into his chest. Bruce didn't care, he just cried into his son's hair.

Slowly, other arms wrapped around his shaking figure and there were a multitude of sorrys coming, but he couldn't pinpoint who said what, he was just so, so, so tired.

Later on he woke up on his bed, but he felt a small weight on his chest. Looking down, he saw Damian and when he looked around he saw the rest of his children. Even Barbara was on the bed.

Looking around, he saw Alfred walking in and suddenly everything that had happened last night hit him like a train. Alfred just looked at him in sadness and handed him a cookie.

“I see you have decided to join the land of the living, Master Bruce.” said Alfred, the butler not breaking out of his stoic tone and the only way to know that he was actually worried was if you knew him personally.

He just hummed slightly. “Shit, Alfred I had a meeting and-” Bruce began as he tried to discreetly move Damian, however the child was not budging whatsoever.

“Don't worry, Master Bruce. Everything has been taken care of already. You have no work to do for a week and the children have decided, for their own punishment, to take care of everything for you.” replied Alfred already pushing the man down. Bruce just grumbled and ate his cookie.

“What am I supposed to say Alfred? Nothing I say is going to take back how awf-” began Bruce as sudden guilt began to consume him.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Master Bruce. If anything, the children and I have to give our apologies for berating you for so long.” Alfred said, cutting him off. Alfred had a slightly guilty look at the confession and Bruce wanted to soothe him but he was tired and wanted to go to sleep.

“Sleep some more, Master Bruce. I will inform you if you need to worry about anything.” said Alfred. The old butler walked out but cast one last mournful look behind his back.

“He's right you know.” said a muted voice to his right. Bruce turned around and his eyes caught Jason's blue green eyes, which were swimming with guilt.

Bruce didn't say anything, just draped an arm around Jason and brought him closer to him. He felt his jumper wetten a bit but he didn't care. He just let his son cry on his shoulder. Soon all of his other siblings started to wake up and when they all turned to look at Bruce, he could see the immense guilt in their faces.

There were a lot of sorrys going around and when finally he heard Damian say sorry he spoke.

“We all said hurtful things last night. And it might take a while for us all to get back to where we were, but I forgive you all.”said Bruce. He could still feel their guilt but they'd deal with it. Like a family this time.

“Get some sleep old man.” Dick finally said.

“Yeah! I've already taken care of WE.” said Tim.

“Just get some sleep Bruce.” said Stephanie.

"Sleep, father." said his son nuzzling into him.

Soon he was lulled by his children's quiet voices and his world was consumed in darkness

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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How do you think the major DC/Batfam events would of happened if editorial hadn't stopped the DicKory wedding and they've just been a couple this whole time?

Oh god.

I don’t even know. But now I desperately WANT to know, and like, why has nobody ever written this story lmao nm we all know why.

But for starters, none of the stuff with Blockbuster, Tarantula, etc would have played out at ALL the same...assuming Dick was ever even IN Bludhaven, like, if he and Kory had married, why would they have left the Titans and not still been in New York, y’know? (Bonus! Dick never ever ever ever ever became a cop!)

But then too there’s the stuff that happened with Kory’s homeworld and her responsibilities to her people when they were refugees......no matter how much Dick had tying him to Earth at the time, this is not even just his girlfriend anymore, this is his WIFE, dealing with the potential end of her entire people....there’s NO way he’s gonna wait at home and expect her to go off and deal with that all on her own, he’s like no, I’m going with you, this is our ‘in sickness and health,’ let’s not argue about this when we could be using that time to travel instead, your people need us.

Jason’s return would have played out dramatically differently IMO, because as long as Dick was around and present in any capacity at the time, I think Dick would be in a LOT better place, a lot more centered here....and no matter how paranoid or pessimistic Bruce might have been about Jason at times, Dick would have had Kory there to counter that, and point out and remind him of all the things he loved about Jason, all the ways he KNEW Jason, no matter how much they both had changed....because Kory would remember that sweet kid who was so eager to go help the Titans save his big brother and she’d have just enough emotional distance and objectivity from her in-laws’ issues to be able to keep THAT image of him front and center and make sure to remind Dick of it too.

Ma’ri would likely have been born by the time Damian came along, assuming her birth happened around the same time most of the other OG Titans became parents, with Cerdian and the twins as well, and Lian already being a toddler....maybe even Jake might have been born by now too....

Which would have created a whole different dynamic as Damian would have been raised that year Bruce was gone by both Dick AND Kory, had a father figure AND a mother figure to compare not just his later relationship to Bruce to, but his relationship with Talia too as well.....not feeling as lacking or insecure by whatever choices Talia made in regards to him, assuming that most of the rest of DC events and choices other than Dick and Kory stay relatively the same and DC sucks at writing her. Its likely Damian never dies.

Before that point, again during the year Bruce was gone....things could have gone dramatically differently, smoother for the entire family just by virtue of Dick having Kory’s support and could bounce things off her as a sounding board the way he didn’t have anyone at the time.....the transition of Robin to Red Robin could have gone a lot smoother and with less resentment, Dick might have had the mental and emotional SPACE and presence of mind to be a lot more understanding of Tim’s insistence Bruce was alive instead of just focused on the pain he’d feel if he gave into temptation and believed Tim only to have those hopes crushed later down the line. Again, in this AU I’d posit that due to Dick and Kory never breaking up, Dick never grows distant from the Titans period, which makes it all the more likely they’d have remained a constant presence in his life at this time and he’d have been more willing and trusting about relying on them to help out in Gotham, because the way he did things wasn’t the way Bruce did things and that was always a strength in the past, they’re different men, they have different approaches and trying to do things the way the other did was NEVER going to work for Dick or be to his advantage.

All of which means Dick had help and OPTIONS for dealing with Jason and getting through to him, that is, if he wasn’t already closer because of how differently his initial return had gone down. Cass likely wouldn’t be in Hong Kong, because she’d have more reason to be around if it wasn’t just her and her brothers and Babs (who wasn’t even IN Gotham by that point). I’ve always headcanoned though that Cass and Kory would get along GREAT, and be really close, and again, if Ma’ri and potentially Jake are already born by that point, no way Aunt Cass is leaving her niece and nephew behind in this trying time in particular.

And then again, maybe Steph never died or was believed dead either, because War Games didn’t play out the same with Dick not in Bludhaven and with Kory’s potential intervention.

(Of course, by that line of thinking, its possible Tim was never fired as Robin and Jack Drake was never murdered and we’re just gonna gloss right over this here, see, because despite my frequent Tim Ire, he IS a part of this family, dammit, and no second rate sperm donor is gonna stand in the way of that, so whoops, in this AU Jack Drake tripped and fell down the stairs and like. He still died. Oh no, very sad, much regrets, Siri plz send flowers, end tweet.)

And then of course, eventually you get the next generation old enough that Ma’ri, Jake, Cerdian, Lian, the twins and a Robert Long from a parallel Earth who just dropped out of the sky one day because Who Cares and never left, like....are all bursting at the seams to start their own team and go out and have their own adventures, and Ma’ri turns on the Grayson charm to be like “Pleeeeease, Uncle Dami, enable us, please, it’ll piss off Grandpa Batty, and you know you love making him do the scrunchy face of doom, c’mooooooon, we just wanna borrow the Batplane for a little trip and we’ll bring it right back and wash it and everything, NOBODY HAS TO KNOW.”

Kory, from the other room: I already know.

Ma’ri: Curses! Foiled by my lack of an indoor voice yet again.

Uncle Dami just winks at his niece though, in that way of his that isn’t actually a wink cuz he’s still Damian, and he doesn’t Do That, but he does twitch his eyebrow in a downward direction at least, and that’s basically the same thing, it totally counts: Don’t worry, Little Star. You had me at enable.

And just. Yeah. More of that. All of that. Selina and Bruce probably actually walk down the aisle at some point too, by the power invested in me Cuz I Said So.

In conclusion:

This would be amazing and excellent and DC sucketh for denying us it, The End, roll credits, and SCENE.

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thattimdrakeguy · 4 years

Note

Tim fought to get Cass back during the EvilCass saga, he's the one who cured her of her brainwashing, he defended her when Dick was being a dick to her, he's the one who went to Hong Kong to bring her back to Gotham and was the one who helped convince her to say in Gotham. Bruce, Steph and even kinda Babs very much abandoned her, and Dick was just written to be a mad man in some of these awful stories despite the two previously having been close, but Tim was always there. Fuck Post-2006 BatFam.

It really bothers me how genuinely really great and cool the Bat-Family used to be before writers and editorials just started botching everything up.

They used to be so close-knit, every crossover they had was a total blast. They had such sweet dynamic, and unique personalities. That it was just so charming and lovable.

It’s the only time I think the Bat-Family was actually like a family was in the 90s, because they just had that vibe.

I mean, Dick kissed and flirted with Helena and Babs, and Timmy views all three of those people like big older siblings, but they aren’t all in a real adopted family. So not all the dynamics are like a family, and it’s mostly Tim being almost everyone’s baby brother, son, or grand-son, but still.

Bruce was the stubborn, emotionally distant but still caring dad

Alfred the dude who has to raise his own kid’s children for him, because Bruce isn’t naturally cut out for this sort of thing.

Dick the rebellious big brother

Even Helena although I don’t have a clue what her relationship is like with Bruce has rebellious older sibling vibes

Babs is the “good” sister.

Cass is the long lost middle sister who they’re all helping get adjusted.

And Timmy was pure A-Grade baby brother

I don’t know enough about Jean-Paul to say for him, my guess is distant cousin who started coming over more lately but doesn’t really know them that well

The fact that DC broke up what they had really freaking bothers me, because they occasionally seem aware that people really liked it, but any attempt they make at doing it again but with the current fam is just awful.

I genuinely think that Bat-Burger scene sucked, because they forced almost every single one of those characters to be what they’re not to make it work, because they don’t have what the 90s incarnation of the Bat-Family had. A few them almost entirely the opposite of who they are, because what they did, they wouldn’t do.

Like Damian is no one’s little brother above adoption. As in, he doesn’t have a little brother relationship with anyone. Like I have a brother I never met, I do not have a brotherly relationship with him despite being his brother. I even have an older sister who I have met, but I don’t have a sibling relationship with her either, because it’s not like I know her that well.

Damian will not logically have a family relationship with almost any of the Bat-Family members because he constantly abuses them and treats them like garbage.

Logically that Bat-Burger scene would never have happened with the current Bat-Family.

Not that long ago I read ALL of pre-New 52 Batman and Robin, and honestly? Dick and Damian’s relationship isn’t hardly at all what people think it is. It was more of a mentor and student relationship above all. I’m pretty sure Dick even smacked Damian in the back of the head and often sort of ignored the guy. Besides bonding a bit by the end, they didn’t scream “sibling-like” to me in anyway. For a good chunk of it, I honestly don’t think Dick even cared about Damian above obligation.

Also I’m supposed to ignore the bad blood Jason had with the rest of them? Why would they just act like they aren’t gonna be pissy with each other. More than once Damian made it his literal mission to just beat the crap out of Jason without even a semblance of a good reason.

Like that Bat-Burger scene is so out of character and awful, but ya know what?

The 90s Bat-Family could’ve done that, and it would’ve been entirely believable, because they would be 100% in-character for it.

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heartless-error · 4 years

Text

Broken, not perfect, but together. - Chapter 9

Fandom: DC comics, Batman

Pairings: Jonathan Kent x Damian Wayne (JonDami) & Jason Todd x Timothy Drake (JayTim)

Rating: Family feels, hurt/comfort, mental health issues, running away

Other(s) links: AO3

Broken.

The Batfamily was broken.

It was six years ago, and they had barely stood together since then, trying to stand up despite guilt and regret.

Damian was sure there was nothing to save, not after losing something that he didn’t know he cared about. But when a new opportunity to get back what they had lost appeared, he cannot help to doubt as his past decisions haunt him again.

If you love somebody, set them free. But you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

Chapter Summary: Cass knew a lot of things, always did. But she's human after all, she can fail, feel and miss her family. Sometimes she wishes she had been there, but now the only thing she had is the knolwedge of whatever they planned to do, it will be harsh.

Chapter 9

Now

Cass knew a lot of things.

She always did, it wasn’t new to anyone. His father, David Cain, had deprived her and taken away many things throughout her life, like her childhood, stability, a normal home, innocence, or her voice along the ability to use it. In return, he had turned her into what he longer desired, in a warrior, the perfect, deadly, silent killing machine, capable of reading the enemy and their movements in one way that very few could.

He took away her voice but allowed her to read and understand people far beyond. Many would consider it a blessing, others a curse, to her it was nothing more than her small but familiar and comfy personal hell.

Despite this, she was also aware that knowing something didn’t give her the full right to reveal it, she knew the limits, after all she also had secrets, everyone did. So, she could tell when someone was hiding something, but she also couldn’t guess or reveal it. She could also tell when someone was sad or stressed but knowing why it was beyond her abilities and intervening depended not only on her but on the other person’s will. From what Barbara Gordon taught her, it was best to act when she considered necessary, and if she had permission or words to do so.

From the beginning, Cassandra knew Red Hood and Red Robin were in love, maybe even before they did. It was neither unexpected nor surprising, they complemented the other well enough. In addition, both were very easy to read, since Jason was passionate, effusive and motivated by his emotions, expressive even in the way he breathed; and Tim, despite appearing the opposite, his eyes always said too much, and was very close to her, he couldn’t escape her scrutiny.

Timothy was also the first person she called “brother”, who taught her what was like to be a family, loving and being loved despite the pain, the trauma. That’s why, when he began to love someone else in a different way, she soon realized it as well as the fact that he was strongly requited.

Of course, she realized later that they did everything to hide it, both their feelings for each other when they began to emerge, and their relationship when it was consolidated. She understood, it shouldn’t have been easy. It was obvious why they did; it was nobody else’s business. And seeing the reaction when the whole thing was finally revealed, they did well.

If someone had asked Cass, she would have been sincere (within all she could express, of course). She would have tried to explain how happy she was for them and how she considered it good news. She would have said how Tim’s constant weariness and sadness has dissipated a bit after being with Jason, as well as the other’s blind anger and constant tension; How nice it was to see that uncertainty and uneasiness about whether those feelings were right or reciprocated, being replaced by tender smiles and sneaky soft touches. Cass would have said to leave them alone, because they were happy and safe, and that made her happy too because that kind of happiness was something they had to grab and not let go off considering how their lives were.

But nobody asked her. She couldn’t say anything. She also couldn’t have found the words to do it correctly, but at least she would have tried if given the chance. Which they didn’t do.

Black Bat was involved in a case which lead her from Hong Kong to the edge of the Xinjiang desert itself, where coverage was a bit bad and her infiltration mission could be compromised. As much as she reported her location and plans, getting an answer and being in touch to know what was happening in Gotham was a bit difficult. So, find out after that her brothers had deserted and disappeared during those weeks in which she had been uncommunicated wasn’t funny.

Now, years after receiving that news while hiding from the cold in a cabin in Tibet, she was going down the stairs towards to the cave with the text Dick had sent repeating in her head, the one that said they had found the missing Robins and she had to go to the manor quickly.

Sometimes, she wishes she had been there. In the moment they found out the Red’s relationship, in the discussion afterwards, in the other fights that followed. Because she could have said so much, she could have changed so much. But she wasn’t, she couldn’t. And now they have to deal with the consequences.

Stephanie, with whom now she lived, had sat in the driver’s seat after parked the car at the manor’s entrance, in silence and begging for a moment to be alone, to prepare herself mentally. Then, Alfred had allowed her to hug him tightly, even if that distracted him from his chores in the kitchen. She hadn’t seen the others yet, but she was sure they were in the cave. Even so, she knew that what was coming wasn’t going to be great, whatever they decided to do were going to be difficult to face or assimilated and that, surely, would led them to relive fights and discussions that they had for years. The difference this time is that she planned to intervene.

Indeed, when she arrived the cave, she witnessed the fragility in which the dynamics of the bats were currently, seeing how Dick and Damian -those who least should be fighting- argued strongly in front of the batcomputer.

Blending into the shadows, she approached them, stealthy and watchful, carefully with her surroundings and listening the discussion going on. Dick wanted to go after his brothers, Damian refused to do it.

The photos of the missing Robins on the screen shook her heart, making her smile. They seemed happy, satisfied, more than when they had to hide, and that made her so happy. She wouldn’t lie and say things like she never thought they wouldn’t be able to run away, indeed, she knew if the smallest but adequate circumstances were given at the right time, they would. And it happened, to the chagrin of some and the relief of others they clung to that happiness that Cass knew they had and didn’t let it escape, even having to leave them (her) behind.

However, looking at Dick, his older brother, she could say he thought otherwise. He denied it fiercely, he didn’t want to give in. He never thought they would leave everything, leave him behind, whatever the reason was. He wanted to believe they would figure things out before they had to run away, and now, that hasn’t been the case, he was just sad and desperate. Every word that came from his lips, every gesture his body made showed how helpless he felt, how much he needed to do what he was begging to Damian, to fly to Florida just to see the other two. He would do anything, he would fight with whoever, he had no limits, he seemed so defeated and angry at the same time.

When he turned his head, so he didn’t have to look at Damian after his harsh words, he was aware of her presence. His indigo eyes fixed on her for those brief seconds of silence to then turn around again and continue the fight. It was long enough for Cass to be aware of how the weight of guilt was sinking her brother down, making him obsessed with finding the others and going back to be the “family” they were before.

That wasn’t possible, not matter how hard he tried. It couldn’t happen. She knew it and so did Bruce, who without being seen also watched the development of the discussion from the other part of the cave, surely collecting information from it to confirm certain suspicions.

Suspicions that focused on Damian.

Her little brother was suspect since the start. At least for her, since she didn’t need to look at him twice when she returned to Gotham to realize there was something weird with him. It was evident in his posture, his attitude, in his way of avoiding everyone, in his resentful gaze and constant tension around them. He knew more than he was saying, and had done something, she didn’t know what, but somehow, he had a key role in the whole thing which didn’t exempt him of guilt. Didn’t matter how much the others wanted to believe that guilt was due to Damian’s past with his now disappeared brothers, with the murder attempts and constant disputes, no. It was recent, it had to do with this, because his rejection towards the others was genuine, and how she explains Jonathan then?

Superboy could barely look any of them in the eye without falling apart, his relationship with his father was battered and if Damian’s attitude were suspicious, his had neon signs placed around him.

Now, with his whole body screaming contradictions and anger, leaving slips behind him, Damian strongly refused at the decision to see the other two, stating specific reasons, but at the same time suspicious. That angered and intrigued Dick, who in the end had decided to get the truth out of him by breaking his temper, making Cass prepare to intervene.

When Conner Kent approached her one year ago, asking her if she knew what their little brothers were hiding, her answer was simple and concise: No.

She didn’t know, she couldn’t. She can read bodies and gestures, not minds. She’s not a meta, she has no powers. She’s human and also fails, also feels, also want to see his brothers because misses them, also want to know what Jon and Damian hide, because knows it’s consuming them more and more.

But she had never been in a position to ask, to know (does she wants to know?) Except today because things have changed. So, she slipped her foot to warn Dick he was missing something, he had to keep pushing. She didn’t move when Damian’s patience ended when his emotions took over. She held her breath when she knew he was going to say something he was going to regret.

“Because who do you think helped them to escape?!” Damian shouted. “It was me! Idiot! Open your fucking eyes! It was me! Me!”

Oh.

She knew it.

There was silence, Dick and Bruce stood completely still, assimilating that, and understanding everything as quickly as possible. She knew everything fell into place for them when realization mixed with anger flooded their bodies, and by the time Dick throw the first punch she was already running towards them.

She let Damian strike back and punch Dick only because she knew he had been holding back for a long time, but she didn’t allow anything more. In a blink of an eye, before everything could escalate, she grabbed Dick by the back, kicked Damian off, and knocked them to the ground as she stood between them, ending the fight instantly.

“No.” She sentenced seriously and glaring at them, challenging them to dare to contradict her.

They wouldn’t, because even outraged they were smarter than that. Furthermore, Bruce was also approaching them and starting a fist fight now was not the best idea, neither was going to allow them to go that far and it wasn’t the moment.

They stood up, wounded, furious, on guard and looking at each other with rancor.

“You knew!” Dick reproached, angrier than before. “You’ve always knew where they were!”

Damian jerked at that accusation, clenching his teeth tightly, as if he were holding himself back from punching him again. Everything said he really wanted to do it if were not for her presence and his father, now in front of them, watching the scene quiet like a heavy and judicious shadow that made them nervous.

“I haven’t said that!” The last Robin denied quickly.

“How could you?! How could you do this to us?!”

“Learn to fucking listen, asshole!” He yelled back. “I’ve never knew where they were!”

“Why would I believe you?! You’ve been lying us for years!” Dick accused him again.

Damian was ready to fight back before Bruce’s firm, analytical voice cut him off.

“He didn’t know it.” Bruce said firmly. “He’s saying the truth.”

He was right in that statement, he wasn’t. If Damian had known where Tim and Jason were all this time it would have been very different. Even in his confession, in his reactions, you could tell it was information he didn’t have before.

His father saying this as if he were psychoanalyzing him like any villain made Damian give him the most hatred, offensive and reproachful look he had seen him make over the years.

“Speak.” Bruce asked the younger, in that tone he use during interrogations, as if something like that was going to work and Damian would magically confess.

“Fuck you.” He insulted his father quickly without vacillation.

If Alfred were here, he would have scold him, might even have put in the order she couldn’t quite establish. But her grandfather was upstairs, cooking compulsively and sad, so sad.

“Damian, if you don’t speak, I swear to god-”

Dick started to say that taking a few steps closer, his anger dominating him again before she gave him a warning look to step back. The she looked at Damian, hoping to make him nervous with her stare. She also wants answers.

“What do you want for me?!” He asked, looking surrounded. “I helped them to leave, not hide!”

It made sense. Not knowing their location once they were out of sight was easier and safer after all, once they were gone, he couldn’t track them down anymore and it didn’t matter how much they’d regret it, it was too late. The best way to avoid betray them was not knowing where they were going, it was the smartest decision.

“But why? Why did you do something like that?!” Dick asked, seemed to feel betrayed.

Damian chuckled, sarcastic, looking at Grayson and then at his father, as if he found funny that they were wondering something like that when the answer was pretty obvious.

“Look at you. Look around.” He pointed at them, with anger and aversion. “It was killing them; you were killing them! This life, everyone! They couldn’t take it anymore!”

“It’s not- ”

“Drake was on the verge of suicide!” He exclaimed, now frantic. “And you couldn’t even look at Todd! The only good thing they had was the other and you wanted to destroy that!”

The burning shine in his eyes had returned, Damian seemed to have so many things to say, so much kept within himself. Looking at him now was similar to seeing a balloon deflate, expelling everything inside him after so long, without barriers, without caring about the consequences at last.

“It was dangerous.” Bruce justified.

“That’s bullshit and you know it!” He growled at his father again. “You have the proof on the fucking screen!”

“That’s-”

“The truth! It’s the truth!” He yelled furiously, without hesitation. “You wanted to shatter them further, I couldn’t allow it! I owed that to them.”

“We only wanted to protect them…” Dick muttered, stunned.

“From what?” Asked the younger. “The only danger was you; you still are.”

A brief silence followed that statement, in which Dick shrugged himself and Bruce tried his best to hide a shake, which was useless to her.

“Not an hour has passed since you found out where they are, and you already want to drag them back.” He kept scolding them. “For what? To use them as before?”

“That was not what was happening.” Bruce denied this time.

“Oh, no? I wonder why they ran away then.” The other answered sarcastically. “I’m sure it wasn’t because of the kindness and acceptance you get around here.”

“I can’t believe you really helped them…” Dick muttered, he still seemed to have trouble assimilating it. “You’ve hidden it, all this time.”

“I would do it again.”

Dick shook his head, almost at the edge of tears. The fact that two of his brothers abandoned him and the rest hated him was one thing, but it turned out that Damian himself was the one who helped them to run away from him, and that made things a thousand times worse. Cass wanted to hug him, tell him it was okay to feel that way, but he didn’t avoid the fact that she also knew they were hiding something and shut it up, she didn’t know if Dick would see this as another betrayal or not, she didn’t know if anything she had to say would fix something now.

“How?” Bruce ended up asking, wanting to continue the interrogation.

That was something Cass also wanted to know, since she didn’t even know yet how they had found them after years of absolute silence. But whatever Damian did to hide them in such a way had to be great.

“I have contacts.” The brunette replied stiffly, after a brief hesitation.

Bruce stared at him thoughtfully, then frowned in disgust.

“Talia.” He said coldly.

The League of Assassins, or at least the faction that was faithful to Damian’s mother. It wasn’t unknown the woman was trying to get out of the yoke of demon’s head, trying to gain the throne’s power, even if it meant killing her own son on the way. She and her group had been trying to gain ground within the criminal world for a long time, creating their own dark web and using resources Ra was still trying to familiarize himself with. They had enough material and personal to hide someone from the bats if they wanted to. And Damian, being of her blood, it wouldn’t have cost him to get a favor from her, anything, if they put aside the great disappointment that had been for her over the years.

“Damian, what have you done?”

Dick asked that as if the younger had made a deal with the devil itself, which was true. Now, if he had obtained this from Talia as a mere mother-son favor or by giving something in return, it was something they couldn’t know. They wouldn’t, judging by how the boy didn’t even move a muscle at the accusations and seemed to answer Dick’s question with a gaze that seemed to say, “Nothing you can prove.”

“It doesn’t make sense…” Dick thought aloud, still devastated but trying to find logic in everything. “Even if it was the league, why also metas couldn’t…”

That question asked out loud made Damian’s breath catch for a second, his muscles ready to fight imperceptibly. Cass was sure she was the only one to notice it, but it didn’t say anything good. It was a good question after all, since that had been another of the unknowns and problems that had arisen as a result of the disappearance, because not a single meta could locate Tim and Jason, not even the kryptonians. Whatever method or power they used was useless, it was as if something or someone would have been blocked them.

Cass didn’t have to think long to know who it was, but Dick’s eyes widened with surprise halfway through the question, realizing.

“Jon…” He whispered stunned.

Damian went from being slightly tense to being defensive and aggressive in less than a second. Just one more provocation and she’d have to grab him directly so he wouldn’t kill someone.

“Don’t drag him into this!” He ordered, which was already useless.

“He’s already in.” The other replied, stunned, almost trembling, suffering another betrayal. “It was because of him, right?”

“Leave him alone!”

“H-He did something to block metas, lied to us too…”

“Leave. Him!”

“I can’t!” Dick exclaimed, shaking his head. “Do you realize the reason we couldn’t find them is because of him?! It his fault!”

That statement, cruel as it sounded, was true. Technology could fail, couldn’t not doing well the job, but metas were certain and they had the best at their disposal, they could have found them in seconds. Having the kryptonians on their side was in their favor too, but if one of them was against them and had decided to annul the others, the result was years of searching without result.

Jon’s influence had been vital but being pointed out by Dick caused Damian to lose patience again, trying to attack Grayson in blind anger ready to beat him up. Hopefully for Nightwing, she was there to stand in his way, grab his shoulders tightly, and push him away. For this time, she wanted to avoid the physical fight, but with everything she was witnessing, she didn’t know if she would do it again.

“Fuck off! The only ones guilty of all this are you!”

She had to push Damian again and keep Dick under surveillance, because they were getting pissed off and provoking each other again, they didn’t seem to want to give in until they were punching each other. She was considering the option of knocking them out to calm down when Bruce raised his voice authoritatively.

“Damian, give me your phone.” He ordered approaching them and extending his hand. “Your comms too.”

The younger remained tense under her touch, clenching his jaw and now looking at his father with anger. It was clear why he was doing this, now that Jonathan had been confirmed as an accomplice and they both were firmly against their trip to Florida, he was cutting all forms of communication between them to prevent them from doing anything about it. Jon or any contact who Damian could use against them, like the league, for example.

“Do you think that shit is going to work?” Damian asked resentfully. “Jonathan can hear me anyway.”

“Do you think you’re the only one with a Super on his side?” Bruce answered. “Phone. Comms. Now.”

Damian growled loudly again, shoving her away as he took out his things. Bruce’s statement had been clear and concise, as much as his son dated a Kent, he hadn’t been the first one to be friendly with one. It seems that Bruce had personally commissioned himself, maybe with a simple whisper that Clark would have been waiting, that Jonathan wouldn’t interfere with them and their plans. So, it was going to happen anyway, they planned to go for Tim and Jason whatever the price.

“You are making a big mistake.” Damian said to his father as he tossed his comms to him angrily.

“Your opinion is no longer valid.” He replied, grasping the objects with precision. “You are clearly not objective.”

“As if you were.”

Bruce didn’t answer, or at least didn’t want to. Cass could tell he had something else to say, right on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t dare to do it. Dick did it instead.

“You lied to us…” He said. “We can’t trust you.”

Damian looked at Dick thoughtful, then his father. He shrugged.

“You never did.”

Richard lowered his head; Bruce remained silent. Cass remember the words from the security camera video of that night, that one Bruce tried so hard to delete but Barbara rescued and let her watch, the one where they tell Jason they couldn’t trust him, because he was a murderer after all.

Like her, like Damian.

Bruce turned around and started walking away from them, ready to do whatever would distract him after all the revelations, like secure the comms he had took away from his son as if he was 14 years old again to prevent him from ruining his plans . Dick, still looking at the ground, was about to do the same, until Damian caught his attention again ready to throw the last punch.

“When you see them, what are you going to do? Shoot them?”

Dick said nothing and left, surely to burst into tears where they couldn’t see him. Cassandra, if she could, would have too.

#myfic #dc #dc comics #batman comics #tim drake #jason todd #damian wayne #jon kent #jonathan kent #jaytim #timjay #jondami #damijon #red robin #red hood #robin #superboy #supersons #batman

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awhitehead17 · 5 years

Text

Special Students

TimKon, Undercover, High School, Angst, Humour, Arguments, Fluff, Tension, Awkwardness.

Summary: Tim ends up dragging Conner into an undercover mission where they go to high school so they can try and deal with a growing drug problem. The mission seemed simple enough but Kon had no idea on how much it would affect his friendship with Tim.

A/N: There are references to teenagers drinking and using drugs, if that makes you feel uncomfortable please do not read.

Enjoy! :D

You want us to do what?”

“We need to go undercover in a school in Bludhaven.”

“I got that part, but why?”

“Dick and I have reasons to believe that the drug cartel we’ve been following over in Blud is making use of kids from the school. We believe that they’re selling to the kids and then the kids are using it as well as spreading it around to everyone else. We want to try and infiltrate from within, get our information from the kids, work out where the drugs are being kept and produced and then shut it down.”

Kon blinks at Tim as he explains his mission plan. He can’t get over what Tim is asking him right now. Granted it’s not the weirdest thing that Tim’s asked him to do but it is certainly is up near the top of that list.

He rubs a hand over his face trying to digest it all.

“So…” he’s now going to try and attempt to summarise it all once again. “You want us - that being me and you - to go back to high school just so we can try and find out who’s dealing the drugs, where they’re getting the drugs, then trace that information back to whatever kind of creepy address that it leads too, then that’s when we can take down the drug cartel that you and your brother have been following.”

Tim, the little handsome bastard, beams at him, “Yup! That about sums it up.”

This time Kon pinches his nose and takes a deep breath before letting it out. He glances at Tim’s smug looking face and Kon just knows he’s screwed. “But why me, can’t you take the demon spawn with you? I don’t want to go back to school! I hated the place, I don’t want to go back.”

Tim raises an eyebrow, “You think I want to go back? I’d really rather not, there’s a reason why I dropped out in the first place you know. And no I can’t take Damian, Bruce wouldn’t allow it plus there’s no way I’d be able to put up with him for the duration that it’ll take to complete this mission. Bart is too impulsive, Cassie wouldn’t have the patience, Dick is too old, Jason is an absolute no, Steph and Cass are currently in Hong Kong, Duke currently has a lot on his plate so I don’t want to bother him with this. Either way you were my first choice and believe it or not the best option.”

Kon thinks that through and he figures that Tim has a point. He looks at his best friend to find him looking at Kon with wide questioning eyes. It’s almost as if Tim’s giving him a puppy dog look in his own way and Kon knows he’s screwed. How can he say no to that beautiful face?

With his mind made up, he cocks an eye at Tim, “You’re not going to take no for an answer are you?”

“Of course not.” Tim grins.

Kon shakes his head, letting out a huffed laugh as he does so. “Typical. Anyway, what’s the time duration you’re looking at.”

“We’re looking at a good two months or so. We need time to build up friendships with the students and then to gain their trust. After that we need to get offered the drug, be able to work out where they got it and so on.”

Kon groans. What had he signed himself up for?

Tim leans towards him, a knowing smile taking over his face as if he knows that he’s won Kon over without him actually saying it. “So…” He drags out. Kon has a sudden urge to hit him then. He doesn’t because you know, he’s polite, but the temptation was there.

“Fuck you dude. I bet you’ve got all the paperwork with my name on it already filled out and everything.”

Tim lets out a laugh and stands up, he spins around and starts to head out of the kitchen. “Of course I’ve got it all done already!” He shouts over his shoulder. “I knew you’d agree that’s why!”

Kon’s unable to stop the grin taking over his face. The whole situation is ridiculous. “I don’t know why I put up with your crap!” He calls back.

When Tim next speaks, his voice comes somewhere further in the apartment. “It’s because you love me!”

“Yeah I do…” His admission is soft and quiet so Tim wouldn’t hear it.

It’s not as bad as he thought it was going to be. Well. Certain parts of it weren’t, other areas however were just as bad as he expected it to be.

School’s school. So there was homework, shitty assignments, crappy teachers, early mornings and petty students.

The only thing that really made it bearable was that he was with Tim. They weren’t in the same classes or anything but being able to see him throughout the day so during breaks and lunch, then after school made it possible for Kon to cope.

It’s been about 6 weeks since they started the mission now. They have both more or less settled into the school, of course they had gotten some funny looks but no one really thought anything of it. It’s not like they’re actually that much older than the kids in the school, it’s only like a year or two in it. Tim had made sure to cover all of their details within his paperwork when he enrolled them into the school at the start.

He had moved to Bludhaven within that time, so he’s currently sharing Dick’s apartment with Tim and Dick whenever he was in the city. It’s not Metropolis or Smallville by any means so Kon’s just glad he’s got the ability to fly so he could get away from the city at the weekends, it gave him a break at least.

He had made a few ‘friends’ within school. He happened to get onto the school football team and has made a few acquaintances from the guys on the team. Tim on the other hand has gone to the nerdy side of things and has been able to make a few friends himself. When Kon had pointed out the differences, Tim had laughed and told him that it was a good thing because it meant that they could cover more ground and find out how far the drugs are being passed around the school.

Funnily enough Kon didn’t catch wind of the drugs until the weekend of the 6th week. It was Friday after school and he was in the locker room getting changed out of his football kit and into normal clothes, debating whether he could convince Tim to put Wendy on that night, when a voice speaks out near him.

“Hey Match!”

Kon had to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the nickname he happened to adopt while being at school. Of course going undercover meant having a different name, and boy didn’t he punch Tim hard when he found out what his undercover was. Carl Matches. He was not amused. As well as being insulting, it sounded so fake, it was probably worse than Tim’s Alvin Draper nonsense (a name which he thankfully wasn’t using for this mission.)

Much to his dismay, he ended up adopting the nickname Match when he first joined the football team in the second week of the mission. It’s stuck since.

“What’s up Brad?” He turns to his so called teammate and eyes him up. Brad was captain of the team, the lady lover of the grade and very hot headed. It’s only his self-restraint that’s stopped him from ripping Brad’s head off.

“You free tomorrow night?”

Kon thinks about it for a moment. He and Tim had no plans other than going out on patrol as it was a Saturday, but it’s not like he could tell him that. Instead he shakes his head, “Not at the moment. What’s going on?”

“Still being new and all I wasn’t sure if you heard, but the biggest party of the year is happening over at OB’s house. Interested?”

“I hadn’t heard about that no, but sure…” No. He was not interested, like at all. Maybe when he was a bit younger he would have loved to gone to an all classic high school party but now not so much. But for the sake of the mission and to avoid Tim’s grumpy face he puts on a smile and forces the words out. “What time?”

“Whenever man. People start turning up at like three in the afternoon, it’ll go on right through the night. See you there then!”

He claps Kon on the shoulder and walks away. Kon stares after him for a moment, baffled at what just happened before finishing in getting changed and making his way back to Dick’s apartment.

“You hear about the party tomorrow night?” Kon asks Tim as they were sat having their dinner. They were chilling on the sofa, sat next to each other and eating take out.

Tim nods and swallows a mouth full before speaking, “Yeah I got invited by Sarah today actually. I assume you got invited too then?”

Kon hums, placing a bit of chicken into his mouth and chews.

“Okay that’s good, at least we’ll both be there. It’s the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. The biggest party of the year, lots of drunk teenagers, an uncontrollable environment with no adults around. It’s perfect.”

Kon nods, “Exactly. We find who’s doing the drugs, try and find out their buyer, trace it back to them then bam, mission complete.”

Tim laughs at that, “Something like that. There’s a lot of details missing there Kon, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Kon glances over at him and grins, at least they’re getting somewhere with this mission now. Tim smiles back and they stare at one another for a while. Kon takes in Tim’s frame, watches the way the light from the TV in front of them illuminates his features making them seem more sharp than before. He glances at Tim’s casual outfit, a large loose t-shirt and some old grey sweatpants and fluffy batman socks. He looks perfect. He seems so relaxed that it draws Kon into him.

He so busy looking at his best friend that he failed to even realise that Tim was looking at him back. Before he knows it, Kon’s starting to lean in close to Tim, just as Tim appears to leaning towards him as well.

“Hey guys what’s up!”

They spring apart like they had been electrocuted and sit stiffy on opposite ends of the couch as Dick walks into the front room. He’s grinning away dressed up in his cop uniform. When he sees them he freezes on the spot and eyes them up, clearly recognising their sudden odd behaviour. Thankfully he doesn’t question it and carries on through the room towards the kitchen.

“I hope you guys have leftovers for me. It smells amazing!”

Kon and Tim don’t look at each other for the rest of the night.

The next day was awkward. As normal, they went about the next day doing things as they normally would, so doing some training, completing some homework and playing a few video games until it was time to get ready for the party, but even doing all of that it didn’t make the tension go away.

It suddenly seemed like they couldn’t be together without there being some form of tension between them. It was so thick it wasn’t like they could ignore even though they certainly tried too.

Kon replays the previous night over and over again in his mind. Tim had definitely leaned in to kiss him as well, that was clear, so they both play a part in this awkwardness that’s come between them. But maybe that’s why it’s so heavy? Because they both went to kiss each other before Dick came in? Because there’s definitely some sort of mutual attraction between them that neither one of them is willing to acknowledge.

When the evening finally came Kon tried to not think about it as he got ready for the party. Between them they decided to go when it was reaching the evening, believing that’s the best time as they think the drugs will appear once everyone seems to be too wasted to care.

Kon dresses up in some jeans, a plain t-shirt and puts a shirt over the top of it. Basically dressed in his usual attire. Tim on the other hand was dressed up in some tight black jeans and a smart button up red shirt. It makes Kon do a double take because Tim looks good, he somehow doesn’t look over dressed but manages to pull off the confidence that he know he looks good at the same time.

Tim catches Kon looking and Kon quickly looks away, feeling his cheeks go hot at being caught. There’s a pause between them, once that fills the air with more of that thick tension. Kon scowls as he stares at the floor, hating the moment, because when did they become so awkward around one another? They’re supposed to be best friends, not some awkward teenagers like they once were.

Tim breaks the silence by clearing his throat. “So we ready?” He shuffles on the spot, fidgeting with the cuffs of his shirt.

Kon glances up at him before turning away again. “Uh yeah.”

Tim drives them to the party and being in that car for no more than 10 minutes was worse than being with Tim the entire day. It must be because they’re confined in a small space but thankfully the radio was on and filled the silence with old 90’s music.

They get to the party and walk in and freeze in the doorway. It was chaos. Music was being blasted from high tech speakers, drunk teenagers were everywhere, hundreds of red cups could be seen around. They glance at each and Kon sees Tim pull a face, he snickers at that. Parties have never really Tim’s thing, at least not these kind of parties. Kon wasn’t a fan himself, the music was already making his head hurt but they’re there on a mission, the sooner they get that done and get it out of the way the sooner they can go home.

They go separate ways and Kon’s kinda glad about that because at least it gives him some space away from Tim and it gives him an opportunity to stop thinking about the weird tension between them.

He goes about looking for signs of the football team. Trying to find any of them in the mass crowd of teenagers was a nightmare. It takes him a good twenty minutes until he finds most of them all stood outside in the back garden huddled in a group.

One of them notices him coming and they beam, “Match! There you are buddy!” It was Brad and Kon could tell that he was tipsy. He was gesturing widely for Kon to go over and when he does Brad throws an arm over his shoulders. “We were wondering when you were gonna show up.”

Kon forces a smile, “Sorry, I just lost track of time.” Brad lets out a laugh as if he just told a really funny joke. At that point Kon notices that most of the teens in the group were smoking. He glances at Brad, “What are you guys doing out here?”

Brad’s laughter dies down as he asks the question and the teenager sends him a suspicious look before glancing around at everyone else with a questioning look. He turns back to Kon and pokes his chest with a finger. “Hey Match, can you keep a secret?”

Kon studies him for a moment, his voice had dropped down to a serious quiet, whisper and his eyes had narrowed almost threateningly. Kon raises an eyebrow and nods. “Of course.” Only if they really knew.

It seems to be a satisfactory response for the captain because he’s then grinning widely and gesturing to one of the others. Within seconds Brad is grabbing his hand and shoving several small blue and pink pills into his hand. Kon stares at them wide-eyed and shoots Brad a look.

Brad carries on grinning. “Take them.” He says simply.

“What are they?” Kon asks cautiously. He can easily guess of course but he’s got to play the part.

“We don’t actually know. All we know is that it’s called Frenzy and man is it some good shit. Once it hits ya, that’s it you’re gone. All of your stresses, thoughts, worries, everything just disappears and leaves you pretty chilled and contented.”

Bingo. That’s the drug they were after.

“Where did you get it from?” He tries to make the question as causal as possible, just so he doesn’t seem suspicious. He’s not sure how well he does but none of the teenagers seem to notice his behaviour, most of them to drunk or high to really care by the looks of it.

Very much to his surprise Brad tells him the name who had sold it too him and even the address to where they apparently make it. Kon makes a mental note of the names and address for later. Now that he’s got the information he’s gotta find Tim so they can go and shut it down.

“So come on man! What are you waiting for?” Brad loudly says in his face. He grabs Kon’s hand still holding the pills and moves to his mouth so he’s forced to take the pills into his mouth. Of course Kon could have stopped him but he’s got a role to play if he doesn’t want to act suspicious.

He won’t swallow them, he’s not stupid. There’s a trick that he does where he hides the pills around his mouth and under his tongue just so he doesn’t have to swallow them, Tim had originally taught him the trick.

Once it seemed like he had taken the pills he smiles at Brad who grins back. The teen smacks him twice on the chest before letting him go, “Atta boy! Just give it ten minutes or so and experience the magical wonder of Frenzy. In the meantime go get yourself a drink.”

Kon nods and uses that as his escape. He heads back into the house, finds a bathroom and empties his mouth into the sink. he takes a deep breath, washes his mouth out with water before popping the pills into his pocket. It’s gross but that’s a matter for the future. What he needs to do now is find Tim.

It doesn’t take very long to find Tim. Kon ends up finding him inside the house in a very crowded room. Kon stops short at the doorway when he sees Tim dancing in the centre of the room with a girl. They were pressed together, her back to his chest, their arms were outstretched and their fingers were laced together, their bodies were grinding together in time with the music being blasted out.

Kon watches with wide eyes as their hips roll together, hers were rolling back against Tim’s while his were grinding forward. Kon wouldn’t call that dancing, that basically seemed like they were having sex in the middle of the room.

All of the sudden he felt pissed. He was angry at Tim for being doing that. They were here on a mission to bust up a drug cartel, not on a mission to get laid. (Don’t get him wrong any other time he would be very impressed with his best friend but now wasn’t the time for that.)

Deciding that he’s seen enough he makes his way over to him and slaps him on the arm to get his attention. Tim immediately turns and faces him, his eyebrows raised in question.

Kon leans in close, speaking into his ear. “I’ve got we need, we can go.”

Tim pulls away and makes a face. “That’s good but we can’t go yet.”

Kon scowls as Tim turns back to the girl grinding up against him. Was he being serious! Kon slaps him again, “We. Can. Go.”

Tim narrows his eyes at him, “Not yet Kon.”

He has to grit his teeth to stop himself from lashing out at his best friend. He waits a couple of seconds to see if Tim will change his mind but when it’s clear that he won’t be changing his mind Kon grabs his arm and forcefully drags Tim away from the girl. He doesn’t let go of him until they were outside away from everyone else.

Tim is immediately on him once they’ve stopped moving. “What the fuck Kon?”

“Are you being serious Tim? What the hell do you think! We’ve come here on a mission to gather information to do with the drugs. I happen to get the information and then I find that you’re dancing, or more accurately grinding, with a girl while I do the work!”

He didn’t realise he was yelling until he finished speaking. He quickly glances around and thankfully finds no one paying attention to them.

Tim gapes at him for a moment and Kon could feel himself seething in anger at his best mate. However that anger quickly turns into shock when Tim snaps at him. “You have got to be joking! I was working Kon. The girl I was with happened to be deep in that circle, her brother is one of the producers! I made a deal that if I danced with her she’d give me more details about the whole cartel. I’ve got names and I’ve got the main address.”

Kon recoils as Tim finishes speaking. It’s like he’s just been slapped in the face. He stands there not knowing what to say to that and is feeling like a complete twat. He had wrongly assumed that Tim was slacking off when in fact he wasn’t. Kon realises now that he really should have thought before he spoke, he should have known that there was a plan behind Tim’s actions (this was Tim after all.)

There’s a tense silence as they look at one another. Tim was glaring at him and Kon had a guilt written all over his face. Tim’s the first one to make a move, he takes a deep breath in and lets it out, letting his body posture relax from when he had tensed up. “Right, well we both have the information we need so lets compare and get started. The sooner we end this the better.”

That night they tracked down all of the dealers of the drugs. The names they had had been the same and from there it was finding that guy who gave them all of the names of all the other dealers. The next night, with help from Nightwing, they took down the producers of the drug and shut down the entire cartel.

After clearing everything up and making sure that it was all over, Kon moved back to Kanas. He wasn’t sad to leave Blud because he had missed the farm and all of it’s fresh air, the only thing he was disappointed with was leaving Tim. Despite the last couple of days working together when everything suddenly turned tense and awkward, they had a great several of weeks together. At least Kon had enjoyed it.

It’s been a week since Kon had moved back to the farm and not once had he spoken to Tim since Sunday night when they had closed the drug cartel. He had no idea on what he would say to his best friend. Were they still best friends after all that? The argument Saturday night had left them not talking on that Sunday, they only spoke to each other regarding the mission and nothing else. It had been quiet and awkward in a way it never has been before and it left Kon feeling terrible.

He missed him.

He missed when they could just easily joke about, have a laugh, touch without it being weird. But since they almost kissed, everything had changed. It had changed for the worst.

It was on Sunday night, an exact week since they completed the mission that he next sees Tim again. He was in the kitchen at the counter making some dough for that evening’s dessert when the front door knocks. Before he could move Ma was there answering it.

“Oh Tim dear, it’s nice to see you! Please come in.”

Kon freezes on the spot. He’s slightly annoyed at Ma because why did she let him in, she knows what had happened between them yet she’s letting him in. On the other hand he was confused to why Tim was there in the first place. Why come to Kanas?

“Thanks Mrs. Kent. Is Conner around?”

“Yes dear, he’s just in the kitchen. Could let him know that I’ll be in the front room if he needs me please.”

“Will do, thank you.”

Kon stays standing at the counter as he listens to Tim walk towards the kitchen. He doesn’t turn around as Tim stands in the doorway behind him because he wasn’t ready to face his best friend yet.

“Your Ma’s in the front room if you need her.” He tells him.

Kon nods and swallows thickly. “I know, I heard. Thanks.”

There’s a moment of silence between them and it reminds Kon just of what happened a week ago.

“So how are you? What are you making there?”

Kon frowns at Tim’s attempts of small talk. It’s typical of him to dance around the real reason of him being there. Deciding to get it over and done with Kon turns and faces him. With narrowed eyes he stares at his best friend, “Why are you here Tim? Why come to Kanas?”

Tim nods to himself like he had been expecting that reaction before answering him. He walks into the kitchen and takes a seat at the table. “Because I wanted to talk.”

“You could have phoned.” Kon says bluntly.

“Would you have answered?” Tim shoots back.

Kon had nothing to say to that.

“That’s what I thought.” Tim responds to his silence. “I came out here in person because we need to talk.”

“What is there to talk about Tim?” Kon questions walking towards the table to stand opposite him. “The fact that we haven’t spoken in a week? The fact that there is something between us but neither of us is willing to acknowledge it? The fact that we had an argument? What is there to talk about?”

“All of it!” Tim snaps at him. he stands up and glares at him. “All of it Kon. There is something between us, what it is exactly I don’t know, but I hate the way it’s making us be like this.”

“That night Tim… that night we almost… you know.” Kon looks away from him unable to finish off the sentence.

“That night when we almost kissed?” He turns to Tim at the words to find his best friend looking at him with wide eyes and a look of understanding. His voice has gone soft now, losing any of the hard bite it had to it just a moment ago.

Kon swallows and nods. He looks away yet again as Tim walks around the table towards him. He fights the urge to back away when Tim stops directly in front of him. He feels Tim’s hand cup the side of his face and as he pulls his face around so they were looking at each other once again.

“Kon, I know that things have been tense between us since that night. I don’t know why it suddenly became like that but it did and… and I want to make it right.”

Kon places his hand over Tim and holds it. Looking into his eyes he asks, “Do you feel the same way I do?” He didn’t mean for it too, but the question came out as a whisper. He carries on staring at Tim, trying to find the truth in his eyes.

Tim lets out a chuckle, “Kon you have no idea on how much I feel for you. I can’t live without you in my life. You’re my clone boy.”

Kon didn’t even think about his actions then, he leaned down and captured Tim’s lips in a kiss. Tim’s response was instant because his lips were moving along with Kon’s as they press together for the first time. Kon pours everything he was feeling into that kiss, letting Tim know through the action how much he meant to him.

They kiss for who knows how long but when they part Kon feels lighter. Like everything that had been weighing down on him was suddenly lifted. The space between them was now clear and it made Kon happy, they were going to be okay.

He presses his forehead against Tim’s smiling widely. “And you’ll always be my Robin.”

#tim drake #Kon-El #TimKon #TimKon Week 2019 #fanfiction #undercover #High School #fluff #angst #tension #tw: drugs #awkward moments

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