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maccreadysbaby · 7 months

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A Hundred Days to Become a Wayne

batfamily + oc insert

tw: none

wanna start from chapter one or read more? here’s the table of contents!

this chapter is short and sweet! get ready to meet lots more wayne’s next chapter!

part six

❝ HOME SWEET HOME ❞

SATURDAY — 10:47AM

BENTLEY ONLY WOKE UP ONCE IN THE NIGHT. The first time, he glanced over at Nightwing to find that he had fallen asleep in the recliner. The book he’d been reading was resting on his chest. The sun was rising dimly out the window, and the sudden change in brightness made Bentley’s headache worse, so he put the blanket over his head and went back to sleep.

The second time, however, the sun was fully shining through the windows, turning the safe-house gold, and a few smells and quiet music that Bentley didn’t recognize were emanating from the kitchen.

He pushed himself upright, blinking at the sunlight that stung his eyes. His head definitely felt better than it had earlier. But now his stomach was practically eating itself from the inside out, since he hadn’t eaten or drank anything in a solid two days.

The recliner Nightwing had been inhabiting was empty. The child slowly realized that, when Dick Grayson wasn’t saving the city as Nightwing, he probably had a job. And he was currently missing it to take care of him.

That only made Bentley feel more guilty about this whole thing than he already did. He pushed his deep red hair out of his eyes, glancing back through the doorway of the kitchen. “…Nightwing?”

A mere second after the word escaped his lips, Nightwing’s head poked from the kitchen into the living room with a large smile. “Hey there, sleepyhead!”

Bentley smiled faintly back, and let it fade as soon as the vigilante disappeared back into the kitchen. He was still in his (albeit faded) bloody Nightwing suit, and that made Bentley feel even more guilty.

“Your stomach seemed to be protesting your lack of food in your sleep, so I thought I’d get up and make us something,”

Bentley cringed, and he was glad Nightwing wasn’t in there to see his face turn beet red.

“I hope you like pancakes! It’s just about the only thing I can make that isn’t microwaveable. If you don’t I’ll be more than happy to make something else, though. Or… try,”

Bentley, once he recovered from his terrible embarrassment, decided he should get off the couch for once. He pushed himself up and, fighting off a slight wave of vertigo, walked up to the threshold of the kitchen and peered inside.

The vigilante was working over the stove, so focused his tongue was sticking out the side of his mouth. He had a plate next to him full of what looked like chocolate chip pancakes, and a few more on a large pan. His black hair was wet, like he’d taken a shower, which made Bentley feel a little better about keeping him in his Nightwing costume for so long. The kitchen was elongated and thin, with an island in the middle and a little two person dining table in a small space off to the left.

What did I tell you about invading my privacy?!

Bentley began to retreat back to the couch, already formulating an apology for peeking in at him, but Nightwing spoke before he even made it out of the doorway.

“How are you feeling?” The vigilante asked, glancing backwards at the child momentarily before focusing back on the food. Bentley blinked. Nightwing’s hands were too preoccupied with the pan and the batter to hurt him, unless he just chucked the entire pan at his face. He might be able to dodge projectiles if he stayed in the doorway. So he stayed.

“Better,” He muttered. He hadn’t even realized the sunlight wasn’t bothering him that much anymore. “My… head doesn’t hurt so bad.”

“That’s good. You bounce back fast. You should’ve seen me the first time I had a concussion. I was on bed rest for like, a whole week. Throwing up and everything.”

Bentley smiled faintly. It was strange — having someone just, speak to him. It wasn’t often at home that the silence was filled. Only during meetings, when mindless banter and boring chatter echoed through the halls. Extended silence was a good indicator that his father was angry at him. But Nightwing seemed to be a master at filling silence. He’d done it in the alley, and when he was fixing up Bentley’s face, and now. And the kid wasn’t going to lie and say he didn’t enjoy it just a little bit.

“I fell off the bleachers at school right on my head. Someone challenged me to do a one-arm handstand on them,” He tutted, flipping a pancake on the pan. “Gym floors aren’t very good for the head.”

Bentley’s smile grew a little less fake when he imagined a young Dick Grayson falling off of some bleachers.

The vigilante fiddled with the last pancake before flipping it onto the impressive pile of identical ones teetering on a plate. He turned the oven off and moved the pan to the sink.

“I don’t know what you like on pancakes, but there’s some syrup and whipped cream here. And like, four tubs of chocolate frosting in the pantry, if you’re into that,”

Bentley shrugged lightly, not moving from his spot in the doorway. “I’ve… never had pancakes before.”

The realization that oh yeah this kid said he was homeless only flashed across Nightwing’s face for a split second before he saved with a shrug: “Guess we’ll just have to try them all, then.”

Bentley watched silently as Nightwing moved the food to the table, gathering things from the fridge and the pantry. He eyed the child, who didn’t seem keen to move.

“You can come sit at the table if you want to. Or not. You can eat wherever.”

Bentley nodded, taking a few hesitant steps toward the little dining table. He sat in the chair closest to him and pulled his knees up.

It took a while for Bentley to convince himself to eat. Not that he didn’t want to, but food had always been something his father held over his head for control. When he was obedient, he got food, and when he wasn’t, he didn’t. And it took him about fifteen minutes to convince himself Nightwing wasn’t going to do that.

The hero told him more ridiculous stories from the other side of the table — some from his time as a hero, some from before, all the while skillfully keeping his identity as Dick Grayson hidden. He never mentioned anything about Bentley eating, but the kid did notice his smile get a little bigger when he started to.

He listened to him talk for a long time, and really enjoyed it. It came so naturally to him — Nightwing could probably talk for hours on end. Bentley found it… impressive. For a superhero. Words were something that were so easy to twist and use as ammunition that he thought vigilantes would be on the quiet side, for the sake of their identities. Words had been haunting Bentley since he was tiny, and he wasn’t even close to being a hero. Saying the wrong thing got him hurt. Admitting something made him weak. Speaking out of turn often went punished. He thought that would all be magnified for a superhero — but Nightwing spoke without reproach about everything and nothing, and didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it.

Bentley loved listening to him.

Once they’d succeeded at spending way too long at the table, and Bentley realized chocolate milk was the single best thing anyone had ever created, Nightwing put the dishes in the sink and started cleaning up.

“I have something I want to ask you,” He started, while putting all their strange condiments back in the fridge. Bentley didn’t like the way that sounded. He pulled his knees back up (he’d put them down when he was comfortable enough listening to Nightwing.) and wrapped his arms around them.

The hero made his way back to the table, returning to his previous seat. He still had a small smile, but it was more serious this time, like he was about to ask something really important. He put his hands on the table and Bentley eyed them coldly.

“I want you to be completely honest, that’s why I’m asking. Alright?” Nightwing stated, watching the child across the table, who nodded hesitantly. “If I were to find you a good place to stay, would you give it a try?”

Bentley knew this was going to happen soon. Just when he’d started to get a bit comfortable with the vigilante, nonetheless.

But he also knew Nightwing wouldn’t dare give him to a stranger. He was talking about the Wayne’s, he had to be. Who else would he know off the top of his head to take in a kid? Going to Wayne Manor was the whole point of his father’s plan. He had to.

But. He didn’t. Like. Want to?

“I… can’t just stay with you?” Bentley questioned, diverting his gaze from the vigilante’s face and focusing on the tabletop instead. Watching the man’s hands.

Nightwing snickered faintly. “Aw, kiddo, I’d love for you to stay with me. But…” He shrugged. “I… don’t think I’d be able to give you what you deserve. What you need.”

Bentley knew that was nonsense. He’d lived with his father for ten years, on half as much care and gentleness as Nightwing had given him in one night, and he was still alive. Why on earth did Nightwing think he wasn’t good enough? He was better than good enough.

“It’s a nice place with a good family, where you’ll be safe,” He continued, rapping the table with his fingertips. “I trust them completely, and… wouldn’t offer if I didn’t think it was the best option for you. There’s… not very many choices in a situation like this, kiddo.”

Bentley knew exactly what that meant. Social services. Foster care. And that would be one disaster of a mess.

“I’ll even come check on you during patrols, if you want me to,” Nightwing added, shifting slightly in his chair.

Bentley rested his chin on his knees. It was kind of ridiculous to be comforted by that, since Dick Grayson already spent a lot of time in that house — and Nightwing literally was Dick Grayson — but Bentley found himself asking anyways: “You would?”

“Definitely,” Nightwing nodded. Dick Grayson. Whatever.

As nerve-wracking as heading into a new household right after he’d gotten a little used to this one sounded, he knew he had to. The other option was foster care or jumping out a window. Neither of which would end well. He had to get into the Wayne’s because it’s what his father told him to do.

He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out. “Do you promise?”

“I promise. I’ll even memorize what window is yours,” Nightwing smiled faintly. “Hopefully I won’t fall on my head again trying to get to it.”

Bentley smiled just a little bit, but it was enough to make Nightwing’s face brighten.

“Okay,” The child muttered, fiddling with the hem on the bottom of the sweatpants. “I’ll go.”

“Great,” Nightwing stated, smiling. “You’re so brave, Bentley. Maybe one of the bravest kids I’ve ever met. You know that?”

What in the world about this situation made him brave?

Bentley said nothing, but shrugged instead. Doing everything his father said because he was scared of getting hurt didn’t seem very brave.

But Nightwing seemed convinced. So Bentley went along with it, trying to figure out what in the world made a superhero call him brave.

—

dedicated to @sassenashsworld 💛

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hornithology · 1 year

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I really like Dick origin stories that have him wind up in juvie before going home with Bruce because I love angst and seeing how awful Gotham's system is.

and usually I think of it as "the foster system was so backed up and fucked that the only bed for Dick was in juvie."

but now I am contemplating... what if Dick ended up in juvie because he was a little child delinquent? tiny Dick Grayson parkouring across Gotham to find Tony Zucco and fuck up his operations. vandalism, theft, just harassing this mobster who is not being prosecuted for his parents' murder. and even if Dick wanted to kill him in revenge, he can't because he's fucking 8 years old or whatever.

so he's in juvie for crimes. and in juvie itself, of course he stands up against any injustice he sees. so he's definitely a troublemaker. keeps escaping juvie too.

Bruce/Batman is incapable of stopping this child from doing vigilantism so he's like: do it next to me so you don't get yourself killed I guess!! ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ ͠⁠°⁠ ͟⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠°͠⁠ ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

(I don't want to make his origin too similar to Jason's but I think it's like. Jason has completely slipped through the cracks of the system, and Dick has been subjected to the system.)

((I think this could also possibly address the problem of Bruce *not* fostering or adopting Dick but a secret Third Thing. something something sponsoring Dick as an alumn of the boys correctional boarding school idk still figuring it out.))

I just really want my Gotham stories to show that social workers and social services largely fucking suck ass, and of course they would be HORRENDOUS in Gotham.

#dick grayson #meta

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nintendouniverse2023 · 8 months

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The following progressive of My Batman AU resembles some new origin stories and new accomplishments between the DC Universe.

Bio: Barbra Gordon was the first born to Jim Gordon. She dreams about being apart of the cop but unforantally, Her forbid her to become a cop, saying how dangerous Police work is.

One day Gilliam Lobe had enough of James Gordon going against the vigilante law and decided to send Dr Death *already at his breaking point* to the home of Captain Gordon, where he starts with the murder of the Captians Wife, Sara Gordon. James Gordon Distraught as he sees his wife’s corps and blood on Hellferns hands. The two of them began to fight, swinging their fist and kicks straight at another. During the fight when getting punched at reminding Karl Hellfern about many years as a child when he was mentally abused by his parents. This caused Karl to become more angry as he got the upper hand on Jim. In angry tears, holds one of Death's guns demanding to let her father go. James asks Barbara to put the gun down but Death offers to only let him go to kill him. After a minute of talking about the normal child’s society that abandoned him making the way he is, begins to shoot but is stopped by Batman in time. Dr Death tries to attack but doesn't know The Dark Knights master combat has outnumbered Death. Death did punch Batman, only to have his hand in pain. Standing in their places, He rambled to Batman that they were not so different living in a society that makes them so bad that their egos had come to them. Batman says that he uses his ego for justice right before beating him with no mercy as Dr Death continues to goad him. Batman was able to bring down Dr Death who admits that Commissioner Lobe sent her to kill Jim and his Family and recorded it too. The GCPD came and arrested Karl Hellfren for his crimes for almost 5 years, it’s gonna take time for Barbara Gordon to recover from the trauma.

Barbara continued her life as normal, and got a job in a school library. While there she learned how to quickly gather information, but she still wasn't happy. She wanted to make a difference. One day, she was invited to a costume party and she decided to be a bit creative and made a Bat-Girl costume. on the way to the party however, "Killer Moth" and gang shows up to the party and started to commit robberies after Batgirl takes down the gang Killer Moth attempts to escape by dropping the hostage from up high, but Batgirl saved the hostage and disappeared as Batman arrived at the scene and caught the escaping Killer Moth. As Batgirl made her escape from the scene, she was interrupted by Batman who congratulated her on her efforts but asked her not to repeat it. Batman then inferred that he knew who she was and warns he this type of stick will get her into trouble. After a few weeks or months, Bruce agrees to let him join alongside him and Get into a friendly rivalry with Dick Grayson/Robin. Eventually when Bruce started out the Justice League and Dick started out the Teen Titans, She decided to have her own team of Super Heroes Girls. She continues to assist Batman and his allies as well as keeping up her ranks and as well as expressing her feelings for a another girl, who was Lucius Fox’s daughter, Tiffany Fox.

Appearance: Her Batsuit was like Batman’s but purple and yellow, Her hair is red and Half African American

Voice Actor: Tara Strong

Age: 17

Height: 5.6 incs

Weight: 164 ibs

Personality: Too Stubborn, Sassy, Silly, Sometimes Hyper, Smart and Detrend

Favorite Foods: Burritos

Family: James Gordon *Father* and Sara Gordon *Deceased*

Allies: Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne/Batman, Dick Grayson/Robin, Lucius Fox, Dr Lesile Tomkins, The GCPD, The Justice League, Some of the Titans, Tiffany Fox *Crush* and Selina Kyle/Catwoman *Sometimes*

Enemies: Batman's Rouges Gallery *Mostly Firefly, Killer Moth and Poison Ivy.*

Likes: Instagram, Dance Breaks, Video Games, Kicking butt, Out Smasrting foes, Teasing Reading Magazens and Books

Dislikes: Impossiable Hacks, The fear of her father founding out, The Batman Rouges runining everything and The horrors she have to deal with Dr Death in Batman’s first year.

Note: In my AU, Barbara is Bisexulla and has a crush on Tiffany Fox. Nobody knows, except for Bruce.

#dc comics #dc comics batman #my batman au #batman au #barbara gordon #batgirl

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ao3feed-crimeboys · 8 months

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The Unfair Life of Theseus

by Racoon_Millie

Tommy also known as Theseus, is a famous vigilante in district 11.

He lives with his best friends after escaping his foster home.

They are struggling to pay the rent for their apartment, no available jobs were open and no job= no money. Until Tubbo had found a job, a very important job but he knew they had to try, or they'd be homeless in no time. Tubbo has tech to work on so he can't do the job, Ranboo is Ranboo so neither can him. Tommy was the only only option

Oh yeah, this job was for the new assistant of the sbi, the most famous hero group forgot to mention that.

How could he cope like this? Working for the heroes while being a vigilante?

Or,

Tommy is a vigilante, working for the heroes in the day time. What can go wrong?

Words: 1328, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Dream SMP, Video Blogging RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: Gen

Characters: TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot, Phil Watson | Philza, Niki | Nihachu, Jack Manifold, Toby Smith | Tubbo, Alexis | Quackity, Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Antfrost (Video Blogging RPF), Cara | CaptainPuffy, Darryl Noveschosch | BadBoyHalo, Zak Ahmed | Skeppy, Charlie Dalgleish | Slimecicle, Sam | Awesamdude, Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Fundy (Video Blogging RPF), Grayson | Purpled (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs

Relationships: Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & Phil Watson | Philza, Ranboo/Toby Smith | Tubbo, Alexis | Quackity & TommyInnit, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & Tommyinnit, Jack Manifold & Niki | Nihachu, Darryl Noveschosch | BadBoyHalo & TommyInnit, Zak Ahmed | Skeppy & Antfrost & Darryl Noveschosch | BadBoyHalo, Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)

Additional Tags: Winged TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Winged Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Wilbur Soot, Protective Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Protective Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Fluff and Angst, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Broken Bones, Hero Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Hero Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Hero Wilbur Soot, Villain Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Villain GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Traumatized TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), BAMF TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Vigilante TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Piglin Hybrid Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Siren Hybrid Wilbur Soot, Secret Identity, Identity Reveal, How Do I Tag, Past Child Abuse, Torture

#ao3feed #wilbur soot #tommyinnit #crimeboys #crime boys #crimebois #crime bois #mcyt #This is an automated process #If you see any fic that breaks boundaries #or the fic is yours and you don't want it shared send an ask #it will be looked at and removed if need be

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thrushforreal · 1 year

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It all happened so fast, the Joker escaped from Arkham, Barbara Gordon was shot damaging her spine - effectively putting Batgirl out of commission - the Joker gone in the wind not to soon after. The twins nightly rooftops jaunts left them with more violent pictures of Robin in action. And as the days go on the more violent and uncontrollable Robin becomes in his anger, until one night Robin wasn’t out.

Only a few days after did Bruce Wayne leave on a trip with his son Jason to Ethiopia, a trip that would last only a couple weeks and end in tragedy. Gotham mourned two deaths, or what they thought were two deaths, their own Robin, and Jason Todd-Wayne. Both caught up in an explosion set by the Joker, who was the reason that Batman and Robin were in Ethiopia.

The days and weeks that followed made it clear just how deeply this had affected not only Bruce but Batman as well. Withdrawing from his company and going out more as Batman. Trace has lost track of the number of times the two of them had to call an ambulance for common thiefs that he would catch.

This continued for three months until Tim couldn't do it anymore. He had already stopped taking pictures of the masked vigilante.

Trace decided to stay home to keep an eye on the Bat during his patrol, as Tim got a bus to Bludhaven. Richard Grayson had been hanging out around Halys Circus, so that's where Tim was going.

Tim basically ambushed Grayson at the circus, appearing after he heard something about a mystery that needed to be solved. He helped Richard, "Dick, just call me Dick," with his problem and was able to make his case.

"Batman needs help. He needs a Robin."

"I can't be Robin again, kid. I can't go back to being a sidekick."

"But he's getting harsher! Sending more people to the hospital! If he doesn't have Robin, he's going to cross a line he can't come back from!"

"I agree that he needs help, and I will help. As Nightwing, not Robin."

"You don-"

"Go home." And as Dick said that, he turned and left. Tim, while not completely failing, he hadn't exactly done what he set out to do. So home he went.

In the following months, things did improve slightly. Trace was happy to report back to Tim that the number of times they called 911 had dropped. Tim was refusing to go out, couldn't get good pictures of your heros if they weren't really acting like heros.

He did go out once with Trace, and despite his twin whisper yelling at him not to let the Bat see him, he went straight up to him. He confronted him on his actions the past months and told him that he needed a Robin because that was what kept him alive. Batman refused. He wouldn't be responsible for putting another child in that costume. For another child dying on his watch. Especially one that reminded him so much of Jason.

Then, six months after Jason's death came something the twins had worried about. Two-face had launched an attack on Gotham City and, in doing so, had somehow managed to trap both Batman and Nightwing.

Because of their nightly activities, the twins had been able to figure out where they were being held, but they were unable to contact the police about it before their doorbell rang. Trace got up and opened it to show that it was Mr. Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne's Butler. "Ah, Mx. Trace, I do believe that you and your brother can help me with a dilemma." And first of all, how did he know that Trace used Mx instead of Ms? Was he psychic?? And second, Trace definitely knew what was in that suitcase he held. So they let him in and watched as he gave Tim a Robin suit.

"You'll have to forgive me for giving you an old suit, yours is still being made."

"Old suit... wait, mine? What do you mean by that?"

"I don't think that we have time for this chat Mr. Timothy, Masters Bruce and Dick are in need of help." That got Tim moving, putting the suit on and racing out to save the two. "Now Mx. Trace, if you would come with me. I am going to need help preparing the medical bay in the Cave"

"Absolutely!"

Trace helped set up but left back to Drake Manor before the others got back. Only one teenaged vigilante needed to be chewed out tonight. A couple week later, two suitcases appeared on their doorstep, one with Tim's new Robin uniform and the other containing one that was identical on most everything expect color scheme, a bandana, and a red cross where the R was on the Robin suit. That night, Gotham welcomed another Vigilante to go with Batman and Robin.

The Vigilante Thrush.

#batman oc #trace drake #trace drake-wayne #tim drake #tim drake-wayne #dick grayson #batman #batman and robin #bruce wayne #nightwing #alfred pennyworth #thrush #this got kinda bad at the end but eh #c'est la vie

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invisibleanonymousmonsters · 3 years

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All Men Have Limits - VIII

Character: Dick Grayson x Reader x Bruce Wayne

Summary: A certain bat believes that Y/N is in way over her head, that she’s too naive to act in her best interest. So, whether she wants it or not, the vigilante family is going to help and protect her before she gets herself killed.

Word Count: 3,600+

Warning: Mention of sexual assault

Previously on…

“Going along with this plan seems rather unlike you,” Tim finally pointed out to Bruce.

It was the two younger boys and Bruce sitting in the cave.

“Without her help, we would have never been able to get the evidence we need to take down The Court of Owls,” Bruce sighed as he looked up at the screens.

“Yeah, but like you said before, we never use our own as bait,” Tim countered.

“Y/N knows what she’s doing.”

Tim and Damian shared a look.

“Are you certain things have not gone too personal, father?” Damian finally asked.

The personal question finally forced Bruce to tear his eyes away from the screens and look at his son.

His gaze shifted between Tim and Damian. From their looks alone, Bruce realized that his feelings towards Y/N were not as subtle and secret as he wanted.

But Bruce knew better than to answer Damian.

The boy had never been invested in his father’s personal relationships before. Why did he have to start now? And with Y/N?

“What happens if things go south?” Tim challenged.

But Damian answered for his father. “You know he has a plan B and C, Drake. He always does, even if he doesn’t share it.”

Bruce was not about to have a conversation about his love and sex life with his two youngest sons. So, he thought of something to escape and he thought of it fast.

He stood up quickly and faced them. “Mandatory family dinner. Tonight.”

“What!?” Damian screamed in outrage.

“I don’t want to,” Tim whined like a baby, even though he was very much a young man standing at the ripe age of 19.

“Mandatory,” Bruce repeated solidly before leaving the cave.

Damian and Tim shared a look.

“This is your fault,” Tim accused.

“How is it my fault?”

“You couldn’t keep your mouth shut about the sexual tension we’re all choking on in this damn mansion!”

“But you don’t disagree. You’ve noticed it as well.”

“I was a little late to the game, but yes,” Tim admitted.

“She’s not like the other ones,” Damian muttered so quietly that Tim almost missed it.

“No, she’s not,” Tim confirmed.

——————

Bruce was slightly surprised to find Y/N sitting at the outdoor pool, reading a book.

She wasn’t in a bathing suit – just shorts and a t-shirt.

Bruce walked over with his hands in the pocket of his slacks.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think that you’re starting to like it here.”

She looked up from her book with a smirk. “For the record, I still think we should ‘eat the rich.’”

Bruce smirked. “Right. Of course.”

Y/N eyed him. “Did you need something?”

“Are you sure about this?”

Of course he was coming to try and talk her out of the plan once again.

“Bruce, I’m not changing my mind.”

“Figured you would say that.”

Y/N could see his mind racing. It was obvious he hadn’t stopped thinking about everything that could wrong with. Bruce needed control. And even if he was going into an inevitably dangerous situation, he always had multiple plans to get out alive. Y/N’s involvement made it harder for him to do that.

“Careful,” she warned him playfully, “It’s starting to look like you’re worried about me.”

“I am,” he retorted.

Her amusement vanished. “I didn’t think you worried. Or got scared.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “I thought you had realized by now that both of those things happen when you’re involved.”

She didn’t know how to respond that. She really didn’t.

“I also came out here to tell you we’re having a family dinner tonight.” Yes, Dick and Tim were basically living at the manor while they handled this specific case. But it was rare that the whole family ate together. All the boys would come back from patrol at different times. Alfred usually made something and put each of their meals in the oven or fridge for when they got back.

But Bruce made a habit of having mandatory family dinners. They weren’t frequent. And the boys often viewed them as some sort of punishment. But Bruce saw it as a way to remind them all that they were a family. A chaotic and a strange one, but they were still a family.

“It would be nice if you could join us,” Bruce added politely.

Y/N smiled at how obvious it was that he was choosing his words carefully. “It was really hard for you to not me tell what to do, wasn’t it?”

He narrowed his gaze at her from being caught.

She never seemed to miss an opportunity to tease him.

“Yes. I’ll join you.”

Bruce nodded, clearly pleased with her answer.

“Will you miss it?” Bruce surprised her by asking as he looked around at the exterior of the manor, looking almost lost in thought.

“It’s a home,” Y/N sighed. “And even with all the secrets and dark pasts, it’s still filled with happy memories, too. And a family.”

Then she smirked. “Even if it’s a highly dysfunctional one,” she added teasingly.

“Not sure all the boys would agree with you on that.”

“Are you sure about that?” Y/N challenged.

———————

Y/N walked out of her bedroom right as Dick was dragging Damian down the hallway.

“Come on. It’s never as bad as you think it’s gonna be,” Dick tried to tell the boy.

“Why did Todd come? He never comes to family dinner. He doesn’t even see us as his family.”

Dick smirked. “You and I both know that’s not true, no matter how many times he tries to convince everyone – even himself.”

Then both of them noticed Y/N’s presence in the hallway.

“You look pretty,” Dick complimented.

Y/N looked down at her outfit and shrugged. “Figured I could make a bit more of an effort.”

“Let’s get this over with,” Damian huffed before leaving the two of them behind.

Y/N and Dick both laughed lightly at his attitude.

“I’ve never told you how good you are with him,” she thought aloud.

“I don’t know about that…”

Y/N turned to him with an insistent look. “You are. Sometimes I think he listens to you more than Bruce. He looks up to you. I think it’s because…” her words die out.

“What? What you were going to say?”

Y/N still hesitated, but told him anyway. “I think it’s because you’re more available to him…emotionally, I mean.”

“Sometimes I feel like I have to talk to him the same way I do with Bruce. He’s a younger carbon copy of the guy. Just brattier.” Dick sighed. “Deep down, Damian has a good heart and he cares deeply about the people in his life. He’ll just never admit it.”

Y/N nodded.

It did sound like Bruce.

But Y/N never considered Dick would have a similar impact on Bruce that he also had with Damian. She wondered what Bruce would be like today if he had never taken in an orphaned Richard Grayson.

Sometimes Y/N believed Bruce would be completely devoid of any and all emotions if it hadn’t been for an adolescent Dick. His needs and wants as a child had prevented Bruce from turning completely into a callous vigilante with nothing tying him to his own humanity and life.

Y/N was about to continue her walk to the dining room, but Dick softly grabbed her arm.

“Hey, before we walking into the chaos…” Dick cleared his throat. “I just wanted to make sure we’re okay after the other night.” He shifted his weight and looked at the ground. “If I was too forward or I misread something or–”

“Dick?” Y/N interrupted with a smug look.

His head shot up to look at her. “Yeah?”

She had a wicked gleam in her eyes.

Then she moved into Dick’s space, closing the distance between their bodies and did not stop until they could feel each other’s body heat.

Y/N tipped her head as if she was about to kiss him.

But her lips stopped just a centimeter or two from his.

Dick’s eyes turned menacing once he realized she was messing with him.

“Yes,” Y/N whispered seductively, “we’re okay.”

Then she slipped away quickly and started walking away without him.

“That was cruel!” Dick called after her.

But her only response was her laugher from down the hall.

Dick shook his head, but couldn’t stop his smiling.

Maybe it was avoidance or a distraction from the reality of their relationship. But Y/N couldn’t deny that it was also fun.

—

Dinner was in the formal dining room of the manor. This was the first time Y/N had even stepped foot in the room. The fireplace was even lit. Even when Wayne Manor was hardly trying, it reminded Y/N how out of place she was. “If I have to sit through this bullshit, you’re sitting next to me,” Jason said from behind Y/N, making her jump.

To her horror, Jason pulled out a seat at the head of the table. Two at each end and then two chairs in the middle on both sides.

“Oh, I don’t think–” Y/N stuttered out in panic.

“You’re the guest,” Jason cut her off and gently pushed in the chair when he finally got her to sit.

Damian was already sitting to the right, closer to the other head of the table– probably to be closer to his father.

Jason sat down to the left of Y/N. And when Dick finally caught up to her, he didn’t question Y/N sitting at the head and sat to the right of her.

“Perfect. You’re like our future step mom,” Jason declared.

Damian snickered, despite hating to laugh at Jason’s joke.

But Y/N looked horrified. She was about to jump up and take the remaining middle seat on the other side of Jason. But Tim’s timing was absolutely horrendous.

“Please switch spots with me,” Y/N leaned forward and hissed at Dick.

He smirked. “Absolutely not.”

When he saw her obvious panic, he leaned forward as well and whispered, “That’s payback for earlier.”

Y/N glared at him and huffed.

“Oh, I’m so glad I came,” Jason sighed.

Bruce walked into the room with his head held high. “Tim, no phones. You know better.”

Tim sighed in annoyance but slipped his phone into his back pocket.

Dick leaned to Y/N. “Bruce has a strict ‘no electronics’ rule for family dinners. Phones are forbidden.”

Y/N nodded, even though she would never be so rude as to bring a phone to dinner, especially when she was a guest and this was a literal “manor.”

Somehow Jason had pulled a bottle of red wine from nowhere. Or maybe it had been sitting on the table and Y/N had just missed it.

And Jason had already grabbed Y/N’s glass and gave her a heavy pour. “But drinking is highly encouraged,” he added with a crooked smile.

Y/N barely let him finish pouring before she grabbed the wine and chugged.

When she put the glass back down, Bruce was watching her carefully. She at least had enough shame to sink lower in her chair and give him an apologetic look.

But Bruce was amused more than anything.

He’d never brought a woman to a family dinner like this. And though the situation was not that straightforward, it was still causing him a weird amount of anxiety.

“How are your lessons going, Damian?” Bruce broke the tension with the question.

Damian muttered off what sounded like rehearsed and generic statements about his personal studies.

“I didn’t even know he went to school,” Y/N muttered to Dick as Damian and Bruce talked.

“He doesn’t. He’s technically homeschooled,” Jason answered first. “Which is total bullshit seeing as all of us were forced to go to Gotham Academy with all the spoiled brats of the city.”

“As if it mattered, you died before you were forced to graduate from the stupid establishment,” Damian commented darkly.

Jason beamed and laughed lightly at the comment.

But Dick, Tim, and Y/N all froze and looked to Bruce.

They all knew it was a sensitive topic.

Bruce was clearly trying his hardest not to scold them all night. So he just took in a deep, shaky breath.

“Why get your GED or drop out of high school when you can just get murdered?” Jason offered with enthusiasm.

“Jason,” Y/N warned lowly when she saw the pained look on Bruce’s face that he was trying so hard to hide.

Jason’s death still haunted Bruce and riddled him with guilt – despite the miracle of him being resurrected. Y/N probably knew that more than any of the boys. Maybe only Dick really shared that understanding.

“You’re right,” Jason agreed. “Tonight’s not about me. You’re the guest, Y/N. Why don’t you tell us about yourself?”

Y/N opened her mouth to protest, but the words got caught in her throat when she felt everyone’s eyes on her.

This was not how she imagined tonight going.

But Alfred – her savior – interrupted with the first course of soup and salad.

Everyone was momentarily distracted with the food.

Y/N hoped it stayed that way.

“Who taught you how to hack?” Damian piped up.

Y/N relaxed at that particular question. “No one. I taught myself.”

“Where’s your family?” Tim asked innocently.

Y/N flipped through all the possible lies she could tell, deciding to go with the one that would lead to the least amount of follow-up questions. And it wasn’t a lie at all.

“We’re estranged,” Y/N mumbled without looking up from her food.

“Parents are overrated,” Jason commented with a smirk.

Dick and Bruce glared at him.

However, Y/N couldn’t help but laugh along with Jason.

Little did she know that Jason could relate to her upbringing far more than anyone else at the table. Their childhood’s were parallel. Ones neither of them deserved.

Tim instantly felt guilty for asking an uncomfortable question without realizing it.

“Y/N is not here to be interrogated,” Bruce warned the table.

“Well, why don’t you tell us about her, B?” Jason answered. “How exactly did you two meet again?”

Bruce narrowed his gaze. He knew what game this was. The more emotion and reaction he showed, the more it would encourage Jason to continue with such antics. “We worked on a case together a couple years ago,” was all Bruce supplied.

“More like she threatened you into working with her,” Dick mumbled as he tried to hide his smirk by licking his lips.

Y/N kicked him under the table.

“So, Y/N, have you always had a thing for older men?” Jason asked.

She gave him a death glare.

“Jason, come on.” Dick cautioned.

“I mean, you of all people should be curious, Dickie.”

Everyone went quiet.

Jason rolled his eyes and looked around the table. “Oh. Are we all pretending there’s not a weird love triangle going on?”

“I didn’t realize my sex life was up for discussion tonight,” Y/N mumbled.

But it wasn’t just sex was it?

“Why don’t we all go around the table and share!?” Jason suggested loudly. “Dick, you first. What’s your number?”

“Jason that is enough.” Bruce grunted.

But Y/N had it with Jason’s pot stirring and she wasn’t going to let Bruce fight her battles for her.

She snapped her head in Jason’s direction. “I hope you don’t have a sex tape laying around, because I will sell that shit to PornHub faster than you can jerk off,” she threatened.

The words slipped out of Y/N’s mouth so quickly that she had momentarily forgotten that a literal child was also sitting at the dinner table.

Her hand slammed over her mouth and her eyes widened in shock.

Jason threw his head back with laughter. This was exactly the chaos he was trying to start.

Her eyes whipped to Damian with horror as she blurted out, “I am so sorry!"

“Please, I know what fornication is,” Damian rolled his eyes. “I’m not so innocent. After all, I was conceived from my mother drugging my father and forcing coitus onto him.”

“I also slept with said mother,” Jason chimed in.

Tim made a disgusted gag noise.

Dick rubbed his face in exhaustion. Y/N’s jaw dropped at this new information.

But when she looked to Bruce, he wouldn’t meet her stare, only further proving it was all true.

This was no laughing matter.

Yet the whole family seemed desensitized by the subject.

Y/N was processing that Bruce had gone through such an assault – and by the mother of his only biological son, nonetheless. “Can Jonathan come over soon for a sleepover, father?” Damian suddenly asked.

The subject change was like whiplash on the entire table.

Y/N couldn’t keep up. She couldn’t just move past what she found out like that.

“I don’t see why not,” Bruce answered.

Clearly he was grateful for his son’s short attention span and his inability to read the room and realize he’d said something entirely inappropriate for the situation.

But Y/N could also see the subtle happiness in Bruce’s eyes from his son asking him such a question. And for that split second, this felt like a normal family.

“Who’s Jonathan?” Y/N asked Dick quietly.

She was trying to follow Bruce’s lead and move on.

“Superman’s son,” Dick provided.

“And literally Damian’s only friend,” Jason added.

“I heard that!” Damian shouted.

“I meant you to!”

“Put that knife down, Damian.” Bruce warned. “What have I told you?”

Damian lowered his head in shame. “The knives at the dinner table are for eating, and are not to be used as weapons under any circumstance.”

The table suddenly erupted into various conversations. Tim started talking Wayne Enterprises business with Bruce. Damian and Jason were shooting insults at each other. Alfred brought in another course.

Dick and Y/N shared a moment.

She sighed, realizing that the worst of it was probably over now.

‘Sorry,’ Dick mouthed to her.

‘It’s OK,’ she mouthed back.

The dinner continue with filet mignon, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, mushroom bordelaise, and – thankfully – more wine.

Maybe Jason had helped them all in a way by airing out all their dirty laundry immediately and getting it over with so they could move on.

But as Y/N looked around the table, listening to the boys and Bruce talk, she realized that maybe – just maybe – she didn’t want to leave.

—

Alfred put all the boys to work cleaning the dishes after dinner.

But he refused to allow Y/N to help. Once a guest always a guest.

Alfred handed Y/N a fresh glass of wine and told her to wait in the drawing room and that he’d bring dessert within the hour.

Y/N knew better than to argue with him and did as she was told.

There was a roaring fire in the room, pulling her to it.

“Please don’t take anything Jason said personally,” Bruce said from behind her.

Y/N let out a breathy laugh and shook her head. “He loves to start drama. That’s for fucking sure.”

“He’s constantly trying to get back at me. You weren’t his target. I was. But I apologize that you were caught in the crossfire.”

She turned away from the fireplace to face him.

Her eyes were heartbroken and worried.

“You never told me about…” she hesitated, “about Damian’s mother. I-I had no idea.”

“I try not to speak of it. No matter what happened in the past, Talia is still Damian’s mother.”

“But she still–”

“I’m fine,” Bruce cut her off. “Really, Y/N. I came to terms with it long ago.”

He was irritated, but too preoccupied with comforting Y/N to face the dark truth of how Damian was conceived.

“Well, if you need to ta–”

“I know, Y/N. Thank you.”

Their moment was interrupted by the boys trampling in the drawing room.

Dick had Damian thrown over his shoulder as the boy screamed insults at both Tim and Jason. Clearly Dick was preventing a full-on brawl from errupting.

The bickering and teasing continued but wasn’t anywhere near as awkward or stressful as it was at dinner. Perhaps all the glasses of wine Y/N had were helping with that. She decided to simply sit back and watch the Wayne family.

Eventually it hit Damian’s bed time. Bruce insisted on tucking his son into bed.

Jason took their leave as his cue to leave the manor.

Tim went up to his own room. Except they all knew it wasn’t to sleep, but to get back to work and not stop until he was utterly exhausted.

The drawing room turned relaxing as Dick and Y/N were the only two who remained.

“You survived,” Dick pointed out with a chuckle.

“I did,” Y/N answered with a light laugh.

Dick let a moment pass before he asked, “Why didn’t you ever tell me about your parents?”

She sighed, knowing Dick was going to bring this up at some point.

“Because I don’t tell anyone about them.”

“You told Bruce,” he countered.

Her brow furrowed. “And how do you know that?”

Dick at least looked guilty for answering, “He told me.”

She glared at him. “So is that what you two do now? You talk about me with each other? Swap notes?”

“Course not. But don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical getting mad about it?”

“Hypocritical?” She shot back.

“Yeah, hypocritical. You did a background check on every single member of this family. You know my entire past. You know every woman I’ve been connected to in my life. But the moment I know something about you, it’s not OK?”

“As if you wouldn’t offer that info freely if I asked…”

“That’s exactly my point, Y/N.” Dick sounded exasperated. “I’m trying to get to know you. I’m really trying. But now I know you’ve done it before. So I’m asking you to trust me enough to do it again.”

“It’s not that simple,” Y/N mumbled before walking out of the room.

Dick let out a groan of frustration and rubbed his face.

That definitely could’ve gone better.

But Y/N’s night wasn’t free of the Wayne men yet.

Just before reaching her bedroom door, Bruce crossed her path.

“Hey!” She snapped at him. “My past isn’t something for you to announce to whoever the fuck you want.”

“Y/N, that’s–”

“Save it,” Y/N snapped before he could get a word in. “Whatever broody and cryptic bullshit you’re about to spew…just…save it, k?”

And with that, Y/N slammed her bedroom door shut.

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

Part 9

A/N: I know a lot of people really hate the Talia/Bruce sexual assualt storyline. But that was the version of Damian’s conception that I was most familiar with. I didn’t want to make light of it, because we all know male victims of sexual assault are not taken seriously – and that’s fucked up. But I also didn’t want to linger on it too long since it’s such a disliked plot point

Let me know what you thought of this chapter!!! Pretty, pretty please. 😔

#all men have limits #all men have limits part 8 #bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne reader insert #bruce wayne x reader x dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson reader insert #dick Grayson x reader x Bruce Wayne #batfam #batboys #batman x reader #nightwing x reader

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jinmukangwrites · 3 years

Text

Whumptober2021 - October 4th - Taken Hostage | Pushed

Gift fic to @fidothefinch <3

Fandom: Nightwing, Batman - All Media Types

AO3

Warnings: Near death experience, hostage situations, implies Bruce as a shitty dad but I don't go into detail on it.

---

If there’s anything in the world that Dick hates more than being restrained, it’s being held hostage. Especially if he’s being held hostage as a threat against Bruce or Batman. One thing they don’t tell you in the foster system is that if you’re adopted by a rich and famous to the Kardashian level man, is that you’re often the target of criminals who think snatching a kid on their way home from school is a surefire way to make a million bucks. It’s no better in the vigilante business either, because often any hero in Gotham is only seen as a stepping stool to getting to Batman.

Honestly, at this point Dick’s used to it. It doesn’t mean he enjoys it, though. Not so much because of the initial kidnapping part, but because he’s worked hard to become his own person, his own man with his own life. He moved to Blüdhaven to be anything other than the son of Bruce Wayne; to be his own hero that villains learn to fear. And then the second he sets foot back in Gotham, for whatever reason, suddenly it’s all about the reclusive eldest Wayne child returning home! Suddenly, when villains see him at night, it isn’t “Oh shit, it’s Nightwing!”, it’s “Shit, it’s a Sidekick! Where’s the Bat?!”

Anyway, long story short, Dick came back to Gotham for one weekend to visit family, and now he’s dressed as Nightwing, standing on a roof with duct-tape keeping his wrists together behind his back and a knife to his throat belonging to a shady businessman who’s finally caught the attention of Gotham’s heroes.

And it’s sorta pathetic how Dick ended up in this situation. It wasn’t like this was going to be a particularly difficult mission. Just sneak into the building, grab the evidence he needed to get this bastard behind bars, and then get out. Unfortunately, someone tipped the man off without Bruce knowing about it. When he went into the main office, he was met with a very strong guard hiding behind the doors, and after a hefty blow to the head and a few concerning minutes of blacking out, Dick opened his eyes—thankfully still masked—to find himself kneeling on the rough cement of a skyscraper’s roof, completely stripped of any of his useful tools. He has a small knife in one of his gauntlets, but it’s not exactly in an easy to reach position. It would take time to grab at it, and that’s not counting the high probability he’ll be spotted by Jerome McCoy--Gotham’s latest shady businessman--or any of his goons.

Besides, Tim is already up here listening to their demands to get Batman up here or Dick dies. It shouldn’t be long before Bruce gets here and kicks his ass. That’s not even accounting for the facts that Jason, Steph, Duke, Dami, and Cass are all in town.

These idiots have no clue how close they are with dealing with close to every single bat if something bad happens to Dick tonight.

And everything was going fine until Tim suddenly stopped mid sentence in reminding McCoy that Batman was on his way and brought his hand to his communicator in his ear. When Tim paled ever so slightly, Dick knew something had gone exactly NOT according to plan.

“What is it?!” McCoy demands, pressing the knife against Dick’s neck with worrying pressure. Dick leans his head back slightly to lessen the risk of his neck being cut and meets Tim in the eyes through their masks.

Tim swallows. “Batman is being held up-”

Dick resists sighing in both disappointment and lack-of-surprise as McCoy practically explodes.

“What?!

“Only for a few hours,” Tim rushes to explain. He’s lifted his hands in a placid manner and softened his voice, which can’t be good. “He’s… met an unexpected complication along the way that he cannot ignore. Please, just tell me what you want, and I can take my partner and be out of-”

“I don’t have a few hours,” McCoy practically screeches. “Either Batman makes it his priority to get here, or Nightwing gets it!” to make a point, McCoy lifts the knife from Dick’s neck and waves it in front of him. Dick slides his eyes over to the other goons on the roof; there’s only a few. Maybe… if Dick plays his cards right… “That was the deal!”

“I understand-”

“Tell Batman to get here now, or Nightwing’s blood is on his hands!”

“He’s busy- I can’t just-”

Dick slams his body back, pointing his elbow the furthest he can with the way his arms are bound and jamming it into McCoy’s stomach. McCoy lets out a startled, breathless gasp as Dick uses his surprise to escape from his grasp and jump to his feet.

“’Wing!” Tim yells at the same time McCoy wheezes “Get that fucker!”

Dick has just a second to notice Tim’s shock at Dick’s sudden attack before Dick’s having to defend himself with his hands literally tied behind his back. Sorry, kid, Dick thinks, ducking around a pair of beefy arms, but we’re out of options.

It was going well until it wasn’t. Tim was even about to step in. However, while waking up from his lovely whack to the head, Dick failed to assess just where he was on the roof.

All it took was for the back of his heel to tough nothing but air for his heart to jump to his throat. Instinctively, he tried to wave his arms to catch his balance, but was quickly reminded of his predicament when the tape tugged against his wrists. For a moment, pure panic filled his entire body, here, wobbling backwards off the edge of a roof dozens of stories above the ground. He could feel his heart pound, hands shake, breath catch, hair rustle in the wind, but he couldn’t do a thing to stop himself from falling backwards. He’s pretty sure he hears Tim scream his codename, but he’s not totally focused on anything other than his pending doom right now-

A heavy hand wraps around his upper-bicep, stopping his almost-promised journey to pancake town. Everything is silent on the roof for a solid moment, as Dick practically hangs over the ledge of the roof with his feet just barely still on solid ground, a goon holding him juuuuuust enough to make sure he doesn’t fall. Tim looks even paler than before, looking like he really did watch Dick go over the edge. McCoy looks a constipating mixture of smug and outraged while the other goons stand nearby like useless props.

Then, McCoy speaks with anger as heavy and level as stone. “Tell Batman I want him here in ten minutes.”

Tim meets Dick’s eyes, and Dick sees everything that he needs to. Whatever is holding Bruce up, it’s more important than Dick, and Tim knows it’s useless to even try.

“Please,” Tim says, voice wobbly. He’s a detective. He knows what’s about to happen. “Just give us more time-”

McCoy snaps a finger, and that’s that.

The hand on his arm pushes Dick away and opens it’s grasp. It doesn’t matter anymore that Dick had his feet on the roof, because the rest of his body is falling.

Falling.

Dick’s completely off the roof in a blink of an eye and he’s falling.

The air is rushing past his ears and through his hair, so loud he can barely think. That’s if he’s thinking at all, as story after story passes him by. He’s falling, and for the first time in a long time, he’s afraid of falling, because this time there’s nothing he can do to stop it. He doesn’t have any tools… he doesn’t even have his hands, nor enough time to even try and get his hands free. He’s falling, rushing to the ground. He can already see in vivid detail what his body will look like when it hits the pavement.

He’s falling. He’s standing at the top of a beam, watching his mama and papa fall. He’s falling. He’s screaming as the sound of their bodies landing and snapping reaches his ears. He’s falling and he’s going to die in the most Grayson way possible.

He’s going to die the same way his parents did, a way that he’s worked hard to not be afraid of ever since he first moved in with Bruce, but was always secretly terrified.

He closes his eyes. He doesn’t want to watch. He’s afraid, and Tim will watch from above and blame himself and he never wanted any of his siblings to blame themselves for his death like how he blamed himself for his parent’s for decades and-

And the wind is knocked out of him, but not from his body slamming on the ground. A strong arm wraps painfully around his stomach, and suddenly the world turns sideways and his eyes shoot open in shock.

“Fuck,” Jason grunts, holding Dick with one arm and the other wrapped tightly in a grappling line. “Fucking hell.”

And Dick… doesn’t know what to do. He feels muted, like a YouTube video playing at 144p and buffering still. The adrenaline is pumping so loudly through his entire body that the fact that Jason’s caught him doesn’t register until Jason’s landing roughly on the ground and lowering Dick to the asphalt.

“Started heading over the second that bastard said he wasn’t coming,” Jason explains. Dick nods numbly, his eyes locked on the oil covered road below him, his mind still trying to process. “Said he ran into some bastard working for Two-Face holding some rich family hostage. Said we could handle it. I can’t believe I got here just in time. Fucking fuck-face fucker.”

There’s a splash of two feet landing on the permanently puddled street beside them, and Dick can hardly contain his flinching at the sound, but thankfully Jason doesn’t notice. He just stands up and faces where Tim has landed quite suddenly from where he must have grappled down from the roof. Dick continues to look at the ground, wringing his knitting together in front of him. He… hasn’t noticed Jason undid the bindings.

“What happened to McCoy?” Jason demands, and Tim takes a gasping breath and shakes his head.

“They ran into the building while I… jumped after N.”

Jason growls, taking a step forward but Tim stops him. “Orphan said she’ll handle it, she sounded pissed.”

Jason backs off, but anger still curls in his stomach like an old friend. His fists clench to his side. “Once I see B, I’m gonna punch his teeth up to his brain.”

And it must be proof of how shaken Tim is, because he doesn’t argue.

Then, like a pin hitting tile, a small sound catches Jason’s ears. He looks down to where Dick is still sitting in the grime of Gotham’s street. His heart sinks to his gut.

“N?” he asks, and Dick doesn’t respond. “Nightwing, you’re… crying.”

That directs Tim’s attention down where tears are certainly streaming down Dick’s cheeks from under his mask. His lips are wobbling, and the second Jason kneels down to put his hand on Dick’s shoulder, a wounded sound escapes his lips.

“Dick?” Jason asks, his voice sounding shocked and unsure.

Dick looks up at Tim, looking one breath of the wind from falling apart. “You jumped after me?” His voice is small and brittle. When Tim nods slowly, Dick whimpers, dropping his head into his hands and letting out a sob. “You almost watched me die,” is all he says before he finally breaks down into mournful cries.

Jason looks up from where Dick’s now shaking and gasping into his hands and meets Tim’s eyes. Neither of them… has ever seen Dick get like this before. It feels wrong, like something in the world has shattered and can never be replaced.

“Lets… get him home,” Jason says, breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” is all Tim can smartly bring to his lips while Jason scoops Dick into his arms and stands up.

Dick’s so out of it with his sobbing that he hardly reacts, just curls against Jason and continues to cry.

“You know,” Jason says quietly, “the scariest way to die, for me, is to overdose.”

And Tim understands.

“I… see.”

Jason nods, swallowing hard. “Yeah. So let’s just call it a night, get him some Alfred cookies, and just… let him take this at his own pace, okay?”

Tim nods, knowing that after years of Dick always going out of his way to help them with their trauma, their issues, and never asking for anything in return… it’s now their turn to return the favor. Dick looks so much smaller than Tim swears he’s ever seen him, curled up in Jason’s arms, trembling and sobbing. He silently promises to himself that he will do whatever it takes to make sure Dick gets through this, just like what he’d do for them, always. And Tim’s positive the rest of Dick’s siblings will do the same.

#dick grayson #nightwing #batman #whumptober2021 #no.4 #taken hostage #pushed #near death tw #fanfiction #jin writes

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years

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Another One?!, Part 6

First > Previous > Epilogue

Adrien tensed when he walked into the living room and saw Cass struggling to wipe a red stain (fruit punch, maybe?) off the couch.

“Uh…?”

She looked up and her face paled a little bit. She did a quick sign for help, which was just the letter H in sign language for them, and he hesitated. He wanted to, he really did, but if Marinette caught him being an accomplice…

He turned on his heel and walked back the way he came.

Big mistake.

A few hours later, Marinette walked down and cursed.

“Sweeties! And Chaton!”

Everyone scrambled to the living room and found her standing by the couch, her arms crossed over her chest as she regarded each of them with a barely concealed glare.

“Whatever happened, it wasn’t me,” said Jason. Everyone nodded that they, too, were not at fault.

She clicked her tongue and uncrossed her arms to sign along with her words. “Well, it was one of you! So, if no one wants to fess up then everyone has to help clean.”

“What? That’s not fair!” Complained Dick. “If we didn’t do it then we shouldn’t have to help!”

“Then maybe the person should fess up. It’s not like I can just figure out who’s lyi -- wait, I absolutely can. Cass!”

Cass slowly shifted out of the group and then walked over to his wife. She fixed her gaze on each of the guys in turn and then signed the letter ‘A’.

Everyone looked at Adrien, who was rapidly paling. Ah. Not good.

“Wait wait wait! It wasn’t me! It was Cass, I saw her cleaning it up!”

Cass sniffled and started wiping her eyes.

Marinette clicked her tongue again. “Wow, Chaton, I can’t believe you’d not only lie about it but also pin it on Cass. I’m disappointed in you,” she said. She leaned down and picked up Cass like she weighed nothing and hugged her as she took her from the room.

Marinette didn’t see the nasty grin Cass sent him over her shoulder.

But Adrien and the boys did.

Tim waited until Marinette was out of the room to laugh, and Jason and Dick both joined him almost instantly.

“You know, I’d feel bad but you probably deserve it,” said Dick.

Adrien sighed and shook his head. “I don’t.”

“Please, Cass hardly ever does anything mean. You messed up,” said Jason through peals of laughter.

“Shut up,” said Adrien bitterly as he made his way to the closet for cleaning supplies.

Marinette grinned as she made her way along the power line as quickly as she could without making a misstep.

Jason was doing his hardest to get her to fall. Because he’s a good son like that.

“Mom! Look! A person’s getting robbed!”

She flipped him off without looking up and then came to a stop when her phone buzzed.

Weird. She hadn’t thought anyone else was out on patrols…

She pulled out her phone and saw Jason doing the same out of the corner of her eyes.

ChatoNoir: I’ve found another kid. Can we adopt him? He looks so sad...

“Fuck!” Said Jason.

Marinette snickered.

Buginette: ok

HelmetRights: Fuck, I’ve lost the only other person who was on my side

Oracle: Youre not mad?

Buginette: ive come to accept random adoptions as a part of life so its ok as long as he tells me before he does it

ChatoNoir: Yay!

ChatoNoir: Right, I’m opening up a room for him. Be on the lookout for hellportals or whatever. Get a buddy, everyone, in case it tries to take you this time.

She glanced at Jason and they both shrugged before jumping to the street and hooking their arms through each other’s.

HelmetRights: We’re good over here

ChatoNoir: And everyone’s good here. Right. I’ll do it now.

There was a beat where nothing happened…

And then a bright white light stretched beside them.

Marinette blinked. She shared a look with Jason. It hadn’t been trying to take one of them? That wasn’t normal --.

“ROBIN ON YOUR LEFT!” Yelled a deep voice from the other side, pulling both of their attentions back to the portal.

She squinted to see through the portal and a strangled yelp escaped her throat when a blur of yellow, green, and red flew towards them.

There was a flash of color and Marinette was bowled over.

She groaned and stumbled to catch her footing, pushing the weird item away from her, only for her hand to touch something that was definitely soft enough to be skin. She was so startled by this revelation that she actually fell.

Her head hit the pavement and she murmured a curse, only to curse louder when an elbow slammed into her stomach.

She felt the person roll off of her and blinked the lights from her eyes to look at them.

It was a child, she was pretty sure. After all, no one over the age of ten would willingly wear that combination of colors.

Holy shit, wait a minute, the child had a sword.

That got her moving, scrambling on the floor to get away from a very distressed kid with a fucking SWORD WHAT THE FUCK --.

“Holy shit holy shit holy shit --,” Jason practically chanted as he, too, apparently realized the very unfortunate fact that this kid had a weapon out and they definitely didn’t. There was a flash of light as he created a shield around himself and his mother.

Good timing, the kid had started to swing it in their direction. It collided with the forcefield and the kid was thrown back a few steps. This only seemed to anger him, though, because the kid started hacking at the forcefield.

Jason and Marinette exchanged confused looks for the second time that night, but came to the silent agreement that they could just wait until the kid tired out.

Marinette plopped down in the bubble and held out a hand. Jason whined a little but reached into one of the many hidden pockets of his outfit and pulled out a snack at random.

Then he sat down next to her with one of his own and they nibbled at their food as the kid attempted to slash at them.

But, eventually, the person came to the realization that this really wasn’t working at all and they dropped down to sit as well.

Marinette pulled her yoyo off of her belt and started toying with it idly. Jason cocked his gun.

They dropped the forcefield.

The kid eyed them warily and they shared the sentiment…

But Marinette ended up just yawning and asking “Who’re your parents?”

This made the kid frown. “You don’t know who I am?”

She glanced at Jason, who shrugged, and then looked back at the kid. “Are we supposed to?”

“… I’m Robin.”

Jason raised his eyebrows. “We heard. Nice name, by the way, were you named after the vigilante?”

“I bet he was. Kwami, he’s never going to let us live this down.”

“We don’t have to tell him,” said Jason.

“True --.”

The stranger clicked his tongue to pulled their attention back to him. “Wait, I’m the vigilante Robin. So you do know who I am, you’ve just… never seen me or the outfit?”

Marinette understood, now, she thought. “Oh. You’re from another dimension.”

Then her and Jason paled a little bit. Oh kwami. He was from another dimension. They’d thought the portals were just portals to different places like Tim’s, but this was a way bigger problem. They didn’t really have a reliable way to take this kid back home that they knew of, there was no proof that it opened up to the same reality every time.

“Find me Batman, then, or Nightwing. Nightwing is a constant in every reality I’ve heard of.”

Jason and Marinette exchanged confused looks.

“Batman? Is he one of ours? He’s got the lack of creativity that you and dad have,” said Jason.

Marinette shrugged. “Maybe he’s the kid Chaton just adopted?”

Alternate-Robin looked confused and angry. “No! Batman! And Nightwing!”

“Yeah, kid, we heard you,” said Jason with a strained smile. “We’re trying to figure out who that is. Do you want to call the Justice League and see if he’s a new member?”

Marinette swallowed back bile. “Do I want… no?”

“Mom --.”

“Fine, fine.” She pulled out her phone and, after a few quick calls, came to the conclusion that neither of them existed in this reality. “Sorry, sweetie, it looks like they aren’t people here. Do you have any normal people we can try and take you to?”

Alternate-Robin glared at them. “Why would I tell you something that would lead to you figuring out my identity?”

“Because we already have a Robin, which means you probably don’t even have an identity here…”

They thought about this for a minute before groaning. “Fine. Find me Bruce Wayne… please.”

Bruce Wayne? Where had she heard the name before --?

Jason gave a laugh. “Wayne? The dead kid?”

Marinette reached out and gave his arm a tiny smack, because wow look at that now the Alternate-Robin (who she really needed to learn a new name for because I’m tired of writing that) looked like he was going to cry.

“Bruce Wayne is dead?”

“Uh… yes, sweetie, he died a long time ago,” she said gently. “I’m sorry, is there anyone else we might be able to take you to?”

Alternate-Robin thought for a minute before clicking his tongue. “I guess you can take me to Dick Grayson.”

Marinette and Jason were not prepared. Jason had been eating Trail Mix so he would have an excuse not to talk and was now choking, Marinette felt like the air had been sapped from her lungs. She was now very quickly doing math to try and figure out exactly how old this kid would have to be for it to be okay that Dick had a kid because she was extremely concerned --.

“Is he dead here, too?” Asked Alternate-Robin, who was definitely on the verge of tears now fuck --.

“No, he’s alive,” said Jason, who had managed to dislodge the M&M in his throat enough to speak. “It’s just…”

He looked at Marinette to try and figure out what to do, and she bit her lip anxiously as she thought it through...

“Okay. We’ll take you to him.”

HelmetRights: Okay, so, good news and bad news

Adrien cringed. That wasn’t exactly what you want to hear when you possibly shatter a dimension while creating a room for your newest.

ChatoNoir: Good news first.

HelmetRights: Good news is mom and I are okay

He breathed a sigh of relief and fell back on the couch. Great. At least that was fine. He could deal with any other problem.

HelmetRights: Bad news is there’s a kid from another dimension here asking for Dick Grayson claiming that HE is the ‘Robin’ of the other dimension where Bruce Wayne is alive and apparently ‘Batman’ is a thing

… Except for that. What the heck?

Pegasus: That’s one heck of a run on sentence…

HelmetRights: I know where you live

Buginette: we might be adopting him to because i dont know if he even exists here or how were going to get him home

HelmetRights: *Too

Buginette: i will help you murder helmet if you want pegasus

Pegasus: Thanks…

HelmetRights: You guys are the worst

HelmetRights: Anyways, we’re bringing him to see Dick because he apparently knows/likes him so everyone be nice

The house went still as the message came in, and then there was a string of cursing from multiple people and kwamis.

Adrien grabbed Plagg and stuffed him in the pocket of his jeans and then started ushering kwamis into their owner’s rooms.

Dick ran to his room, likely to grab a set of fake teeth to hide how sharp his teeth had become since taking the fox miraculous.

Tim started stashing all of his tech under floorboards.

Cass quickly pulled on her gloves so she wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally poisoning him if her nails grazed him.

Steph and Barbara met eyes and then apparently decided they didn’t care enough to get up from their spot, instead just continuing to watch TV.

Duke, who was new and therefore had the least to hide, just started tidying.

Only a few minutes later, the doorbell rang. He smiled as he went to open it, hoping against hope that whoever this weird Other-Robin was they were stupid enough to not notice the fact that everyone was more than a little out of breath.

He opened the door and fought the urge to squeal. The kid was so TINY.

The kid looked up at him and for a moment he could see the way surprise made its way across their expression before he turned around to look at Marinette. “Wait, you’re the original Ladybug?”

Marinette blinked a few times and then laughed awkwardly. “Yeah…?”

“Because that’s the original Chat Noir,” said Other-Robin, jerking his head towards Adrien.

The entire house froze up, unsure how to process this. Were their identities all well-known in this other dimension?

“Wait, is Paris still around in this reality?”

Marinette and Adrien paled a little bit. It seemed like in whatever reality this kid was from they hadn’t made the wish. This was really not how they wanted the kids to find out about all of that. In fact, they were hoping that this never would have come up at all…

Adrien flashed his brightest smile. “Mhmm. Anyways, since the jig is up, I guess you two can detransform…”

Marinette and Jason glanced at each other and shrugged before detransforming.

The kid’s eyes widened. “Todd?!”

Jason frowned and sunk into his hoodie a little bit. “Agreste, now, actually…”

The kid was hardly listening as he pushed past Adrien to get into the house. He took one look at the people gathered there and then turned back to the people at the door with a confused look.

“Are you doing this on purpose?”

They all exchanged frowns.

“Doing what on purpose?” Said Adrien.

Other-Robin examined all of their faces for a few minutes before shaking his head. “Okay… so, in this dimension, Bruce Wayne is dead, but you’re somehow all together here, too… there’s still, at least, a Robin but no Batman… and, apparently, Chat Noir and Ladybug didn’t fail here...” He pressed his hands to his temples. “Give me a minute, please, I need to process…”

The house seemed at a loss for what to do about the kid, because Other-Robin seemed like he was going to cry. Eventually Dick, who was the only one of them they knew had a good relationship with him, got off the couch and walked over to him.

“Hey… it’s a lot, yeah. Do you want some cookies? Mari made them and I think they’re really good. C’mon…” He gently rested a hand on the kid’s shoulder and steered him to the kitchen.

Marinette and Adrien met eyes again before pulling out their phones frantically. This was beginning to sound suspiciously like this was their fault and they didn’t like it...

He saw the day of the headline declaring the Waynes dead and bile built in the back of his throat.

The same day Emilie had died.

Ah. So that’s what the wish did.

He felt Marinette’s hand lock around his wrist and squeeze. He nodded his understanding.

They needed to get this kid as far away from here as possible before someone figured out what had happened.

“Who wants to take a trip to Paris?”

Everyone looked up instantly, their eyes wide. Fair enough, Marinette had never even considered going back before. Sure, she loved the idea of Paris, loved the idea of seeing her parents and visiting the sights, loved the idea of going back to the place she and Adrien had met…

But idealism had never been her friend. She knew that she would be miserable if she was back.

After all, everything there was just a reminder of what she couldn’t save.

(More importantly, knowing her luck she could be there for one hour and she’d still find a way to run into Lila. She was not about to start punching civilians no matter how awful they were.)

But, really, they needed to find Bunnix.

There wasn’t anyone that they knew of that could open dimensions reliably.

Sure, both she and Adrien knew how to scratch some runes on the wall and open portals to pocket dimensions. However, opening a random pocket dimension is completely different from choosing a specific dimension out of the millions of different realities that existed.

And Bunnix had time powers so… maybe there was a chance?

Yes, it was a stretch, but they had to try it.

“Damian, you have to come, but everyone else…?” She said, pointing to the computer on her lap. “Make your decision within the next five minutes, please, I need to buy plane tickets.”

Dick smiled. “Can we see your parents?”

Jason nodded and pointed at him. “Good point, no reason to go if we don’t get grandma’s cookies.”

“... you do realize that my dad is the one that does most of the -- nevermind.” Marinette clicked her tongue. “Yes, we can visit my parents. Who’s coming?”

Everyone raised their hand.

And that’s how they ended up on her parent’s doorstep with apologetic smiles and eight kids.

“Maman! Pere! Coucou!” She said, with an awkward smile and jazz hands to match.

Sabine took the kids in for a long time before looking at Marinette and Adrien pointedly. “I thought you were kidding when you said you had this many. You have a problem.”

Adrien sighed and looked at the ground. “I know…”

She broke into a smile and stepped aside so they could all file in. “Good. Now, everyone inside. It’s cold out and I’m sure you all want something warm to eat.”

The kids’ eyes all lit up and they rushed to the display cases. Tom Dupain smiled at them all as he helped serve the kids.

Marinette felt like joining them, but then her mother’s hands grabbed both her and her husband’s wrists.

“I need to know all of their names. And why is the little one wearing that outfit?”

She cringed mentally. She’d hoped that her parents would get so disoriented by all the kids that they wouldn’t really notice Damian, but really she should have known that was too much to ask. The kid was wearing the world’s worst color combination and was easily the most angry looking of all of them. He stood out.

She glanced at Adrien, who quickly started pointing out kids.

Marientte was left to try to think of an excuse. Eventually, when Adrien had listed off the last name, she said “He wanted to be an original vigilante for Halloween and he hasn’t taken the costume off since.”

Her mom looked a little skeptical for a second, but they were quickly distracted:

“HEY CAN I SEE MOM’S CHILDHOOD BEDROOM?” Yelled Jason.

“NO!” Said Marinette.

Tom, however, gave the kids the directions and she was left to watch in horror as they all started rushing upstairs to go get joke material.

She pursed her lips tightly. “It’s just one night. Just one night. Just one night…”

She felt Adrien press a kiss to her temple and gave him a weak smile.

It felt weird travelling with a young child and not carrying them the entire way.

After all, it would definitely go much faster if Damian just allowed him to pick him up, but apparently he had experience running across rooftops.

Part of him was concerned by this, the other part of him thought that he wasn’t able to criticize much about this ‘Batman’ guy’s particular parenting style. It wasn’t like he or Marinette were particularly against allowing kids to be vigilantes anymore, and he assumed Batman was the same way.

Either way, now the entire family and Damian all made their way along rooftops.

He glanced to the side and saw Marinette smiling behind her mask. He felt the same, honestly, there was an odd sense of nostalgia to it. They hadn’t done this since they were teens…

Speaking of blasts from the past, though, they came to a stop just outside of Alix’s house. It was a cute one-room apartment, which isn’t all that impressive until you consider the fact that it was facing the Eiffel Tower.

“Wow, Alix must be doing well for herself,” said Adrien absently as they slowly lowered themselves down to her window.

Marinette hummed lightly and tipped her head as they considered the fact that there was no one home.

He frowned. They’d been expecting her to be home, that was kind of annoying. Well, now she’d just think they were very loud burglars.

Whatever.

He glanced at Tim. “Pegasus, can we have an in?”

Tim opened a portal for them and there was a series of dull thuds as they all hit the carpet in Alix’s room.

Duke turned on the light for them and they all blinked a bit to get used to the light now spread through the room thanks to a lantern fastened to the ceiling.

And then… they had to wait.

Marinette and Adrien spent most of the time waiting by keeping their kids out of Alix’s stuff. They didn’t really like or dislike the woman, they were pretty neutral about most of their old classmates at this point, but they figured it would be best if they didn’t start off what was (to Alix’s knowledge) their first/only meeting by seeming like snooping pricks.

Speaking of snooping pricks…

Adrien extended his baton and hit the Dick across the room that was minding his own business on his phone and sighed when he disappeared into a puff of smoke. Man, he hated when he was right.

“Everyone, arms out, we need to find Robin.”

There was a collective groan of annoyance as everyone began reaching around --.

And then there was a loud snapping sound and they were all thrown into darkness. This only lasted a few seconds before the darkness seemed to part and creep into the dark edges of the room.

It seemed that Dick had, in a desperate attempt to not get touched and have his position get revealed, jumped onto the lantern that had been previously used as light. The lantern, in turn, had snapped under his weight…

Alix was going to hate them. Great.

Marinette frowned. “Wait, who did that? There’s no miraculi that can shift light...”

Duke raised his hand. “I’m a meta, actually. I have a few light-based powers. Like photokinetic vision and umbrakinesis.”

“Oh… cool,” said Marinette, who definitely didn’t know what those words meant. She quickly brushed past this, though: “The people underneath us are going to hate her.”

She grabbed Dick by the back of his outfit and pulled him to his feet.

Damian clicked his tongue. “You’re all children.”

“You’re… ten, max,” said Jason.

“Thirteen!”

“Really? But you’re so tiny…” said Tim, reaching out a hand to touch the baby fat still present on Damian’s cheeks.

Damian scowled and batted his hand away. “Don’t touch me, Drake.”

“Agreste,” said Tim absently.

This made him pause momentarily. “You took the Agreste name?”

“... yeah, why wouldn’t I?”

Damian opened his mouth, and then slowly looked around. “Did everyone take the Agreste name here?”

Dick shrugged and shook his head. “Duke and I kept our names to honor our birth parents, but everyone else did.”

Whatever the kid was going to say next was cut off when Alix entered her apartment and screamed at the sight of all the vigilantes just casually walking around.

Adrien and Dick cringed and brought their hands up to cover their ears and only relaxed again when Alix finally stopped. Now Alix had just frozen up and Adrien almost felt bad about interrupting her internal freakout…

But they really needed to get a move on, so...

“Sal --!” Wait, no, Alix had never worked with them in this reality, that was too informal. “Je suis désolé. Bonjour, Madame!”

“What are you doing in my house?”

“Well…” Began Marinette. “We need some help from Bunnix.”

Alix hesitated momentarily and, before she could say something along the lines of ‘I don’t know how to help you’, Adrien cut in:

“Please, this will go so much faster if you don’t lie. We just need help and then we’ll be on our way.”

She frowned a little bit and then nodded, mumbling to transform.

In seconds a blue portal not unlike Tim’s stretched in the middle of the room and she waved for them to come inside.

There was a moment’s hesitation and then Adrien sighed. “Right, we’re going to do this as quickly as possible so… everyone except for Ladybug, Other-Robin, and me are going to stay here. Sound good?”

Everyone grumbled a little bit about being left out, especially Dick and Jason, but they all agreed with a nod.

The three stepped through after Alnix. Adrien rolled his eyes when he glanced back and saw all the kids crowded around the portal, faces pressed as close to it as they could without technically going through and breaking the rules.

“You know, your French is really good for Americans,” said Alix awkwardly.

Adrien tried not to sound too offended when he said, “You think we’re Americans?”

“... yeah. You patrol in America.”

Marinette also looked a little put out, but she gave Adrien a pointed look that he was pretty sure meant ‘Don’t tell her we’re French we have secret identities for a reason’. He pouted a little bit but let the subject drop.

They walked until they were in the center and Adrien fought the urge to vomit into a random time period. The place was… trippy. It was both spherical and endless, bright colors spiraled in every portal but all that he could see was white, a high-pitched whine filled his ears and yet he was sure he heard nothing.

He glanced down at Damian and saw the kid looking around wildly, his jaw open in a mix of shock and horror. He reached over and covered his mask gently.

“Okay, what’s the problem?” Said Alix.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged frowns.

“Right, so… this is Damian Wayne. He’s Bruce Wayne’s kid.”

“Bruce Wayne’s dead.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Exactly. He’s from another dimension, one where Bruce Wayne didn’t die.”

Alix frowned. “That’s not my thing, sorry.”

Adrien sighed. “Yeah, we thought so…” He discreetly slid a hand down to cover Damian’s mouth. “... but, say we brought back Bruce Wayne. Because I’m pretty sure that’s the only real difference, so… what would happen?”

“Probably something catastrophic,” said Alix. “Even if he was just some random guy there would be huge problems, but this is a billionaire. There’s no way that wouldn’t mess things up.”

Adrien opened his mouth, but she shook her head.

“We aren’t going to be doing that. If that’s all, I’d suggest you go,” she said coldly.

He glanced at his wife and frowned. It looked like she was going to argue, her face red, and then her skin suddenly drained of color. Adrien glanced at where she was looking and saw why: three portals were glitching. One alternated between a kid crying over two bodies in an alley and a scene of three dead socialites. The other two started with the same scene, of four people watching a fire, but then quickly flicked back to what they knew to be Adrien and Marinette in their rooms.

He quickly turned around. “Fine, we know when to give up. Let’s go,” he said.

The portal closed behind them and he fought the urge to wince. Hopefully Alix would never notice that was off…

He looked around and saw the kids standing there, arms crossed over their chests.

“It looks like we can’t fix it…” said Adrien awkwardly. “So, everyone, say hi to your new little brother, Damian.”

He had pulled his hands from Damian’s face now that they were out of The Burrow, but now he wanted to put them back on. He didn’t know what to do with them and had to settle for just putting them on his hips.

“You’re hiding something,” Dick said. “Spill.”

He met Marinette’s eyes and she bit her lip nervously.

He sighed. “Fine. Let’s head back to the hotel. We’ll tell you on the way.”

Tim opened a portal for them and they began running along the rooftops again.

“So, our story starts on September 19, 30 years ago… the day my mother died...”

Marinette bit her lip. The family hadn’t said anything since they had told them the story, and the longer they were silent the more her anxiety increased.

Now, they were standing in an alley, detransformed, a block away from their hotel. They could all move -- should, probably, it was kind of cold out and if they didn’t get inside soon Tim would definitely catch something -- but no one seemed particularly eager to.

She shrugged off one of her jackets and handed it to Tim. The movement seemed to startle everyone back into reality.

“So, what you’re saying is… the reason why my dad and I don’t exist here is because you two made a reckless, selfish wish?” Said Damian, his voice soft.

Marinette winced. Part of her was tempted to say that it wasn’t selfish, that a bunch of people were now alive, but she knew that wasn’t true. After all, she and Adrien had definitely been concerned that something would happen that would kill a bunch of people in the place of those they had resurrected.

“Yes, and I’m really sorry,” she said.

“And we’ve suspected that things were going a specific way because the timeline was trying to right itself for a while, we just…” Adrien sighed. “... we never thought that we would ever actually get confirmation on it.”

Another silence stretched through the alley, and then Jason turned to Damian.

“Am I dead in your reality?”

Damian blinked a few times and then nodded. “You died when you were fifteen and then were brought back thanks to the League of Assassins…”

“That explains the ‘legally dead’ thing. Always thought that was weird.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Damn, I can’t even drive because other-me’s dumbass died.”

Dick raised his hand like a kid in school. “I have a question: do they like my puns over there, at least?”

“No. Everyone hates them.”

He pouted. “Man…”

The family started clamoring for answers as to what their alternate versions were doing, and Marinette exchanged looks with her husband. This was… definitely not the response they'd been expecting.

Marinette frowned. “Um… shouldn’t you guys be more… concerned? Disgusted? We let a bunch of people die…”

She got a bunch of shrugs.

Tim grinned. “You brought them back, didn’t you? Besides, over there I don’t have powers. This is way better.”

“Bet our trust funds are bigger over there, though,” said Steph thoughtfully. Then she shrugged. “Eh, still okay here, I guess.”

Barbara shrugged. “And, really, I don’t like the idea of being paralyzed by a clown of all things. Though I wish he was still alive so I could --.”

“THERE IS A CHILD PRESENT,” interrupted Dick, reaching out to cover Damian’s ears.

(The kid nearly chopped off his hands for attempting to do so, but Dick didn’t seem all that concerned as he dodged and stuffed them in his pockets.)

“I like being alive,” Jason chimed in. “Way cooler this way.”

Duke shrugged. “And it seems like Gotham is a little bit safer with you guys in charge. Less outright evil people with stupid gimmicks.”

Cass beamed and waved for Damian’s attention so she could sign: “Speaking of, how is Uncle Nygma doing in the other world?”

Damian stared at her like she was insane. “You’ve… you made The Riddler your uncle?!”

They nodded.

“He’s like… the cool uncle that teaches you how to avoid your taxes!” Explained Jason.

Adrien and Marinette hoped that they were just talking about the vibe that their ‘uncle’ gave off and not something that Nygma had actually done. They didn’t need any government agencies on their asses.

Speaking of government agencies…

Marinette pulled Tim aside. “Hey, I need you to make some documentation for Damian. I think we can pass him off as a biological child, he looks close enough to a mix of us, but… yeah, we need him to ‘exist’.”

Tim nodded. “I’ll do it when I get to our hotel room.”

She smiled.

Adrien eventually managed to coax all the kids inside.

Marinette and Barbara had spent some time on the plane ride attempting to make a sleeping arrangement that took into account a bunch of factors including sleeping patterns and compatibility, but they hadn’t even made it inside their rooms before the kids decided that they would take it into their own hands.

It started with Dick and Jason grabbing Tim and Marinette before they could disappear into their room so they wouldn’t be able to stay up.

(“At least let me get my computer!” “NO!”)

And then Cass, Duke, and Adrien all decided that they were bored and made their way to the room.

And then Damian, who had been feeling left out, ended up coming by as well.

The only person left out was Barbara, who had decided that she actually wanted to sleep that night.

Let me tell you, beds are not made for ten people to sleep on them. By the time Cass had gotten on they had heard the bed creak a little too loudly and decided that, hey, the floor isn’t THAT uncomfortable.

So they’d pushed the bed to the side and grabbed all the blankets from every room they’d paid for for a slumber party.

Adrien and Marinette were currently being crushed underneath their kids, but otherwise it was going great.

Damian was sitting the furthest away, pouting. Marinette had finally convinced (forced) him to change out of the Other-Robin costume and now he was wearing some of Cass and Tim’s old clothes.

Now, listen, when Adrien sees kids in oversized clothes pouting in a corner away from everyone, his first instinct is to go help. However, his instincts were kind of overruled right now because he couldn’t get up if he tried. Jason was sitting on his legs and Steph was attempting to braid his hair.

He had to settle for a smile and a “Damian… want to join us?”

“No. You all are… grossly affectionate.”

Adrien laughed a little bit, then realized he was being serious. “We’re… cuddling. It’s a normal thing.”

“It’s gross.”

He frowned a little bit and scrutinized Damian’s face. Did he not do this with his family?

The kid cleared his throat and looked away. “My father will come for me eventually and it is best if I do not attach myself to any of you.”

“Aren’t you already attached to us, though?” Said Dick, who had trapped Tim in his sweater so he couldn’t get up for extra coffee.

“None of you are exactly the same as you are in my world.”

Jason shrugged and flipped the page in his book. “Obviously not, we were raised by different people. It’s simple behaviorism.”

“Nerd,” said Tim, who had the least ability to criticize out of all of them.

“Shut up, Timbo.”

Marinette muttered something that might have been “Kwami the nicknames are getting worse” from where she was currently being crushed by Cass and Duke, who were using her stomach as a flat surface for a card game.

(“Got any sevens?” “I thought we were playing speed…?”)

“Either way, we probably all have the same general traits,” said Dick, who was apparently deciding to ignore all his siblings. Smart.

Adrien shrugged as much as he could without disturbing his kids. “And we don’t know when your dad will get here, humans need socialization to survive. Right, Mr. Psych Major?”

Jason hesitated and then made a ‘sort of’ motion with his hand. “It’s more like you need socialization to remain physically and mentally healthy but for the most part you wouldn’t die you’d just wither away --.”

“NERD.”

Jason pushed himself to his feet and oh wow so that’s what breathing was like Adrien had almost forgotten but wait no fighting is bad.

Dick quickly realized the problem with holding onto Tim while Jason was mad at him and abandoned ship, releasing the kid from the confines of his sweater and rushing away to cling to Damian instead.

Then Tim and Jason relaxed.

“Thanks, Jay.”

“Hm. You owe me twenty.”

“Gotcha.” Tim glanced at Marinette. “Want some coffee while I’m up?”

Marinette wheezed. They just assumed she meant yes.

Dick gasped as he watched Tim hop through a portal provided by Kaalki to get coffee. “I’ve been tricked!”

“Yes, clearly, Grayson. Now get off of me!”

Dick pouted and continued to cling to the child. “No. Tim is rude. I need comfort.”

“Unhand me!”

“Aw, come on, you love the other me it’s only a matter of time until you eventually love me, too!”

“MARINETTE! TELL HIM TO STOP TOUCHING ME!”

“MARIIIIII ALL THE YOUNG ONES ARE BEING RUDE.”

The person in question just wheezed again.

Damian was forced to resign himself to his fate.

Adrien rolled his eyes and sunk back into Steph’s lap.

He had almost managed to get to sleep but then Jason sat himself down on his chest again and dang it he’d just gotten used to oxygen again this sucks…

But at least everyone was relaxing for once.

What was the most upsetting thing about learning about the other version of herself?

The other version got a hamster! SHE couldn’t get a hamster.

Well…

Actually, she’s a grown adult. She can do what she wants.

But she was going to ask Barbara first…

She poked her head into Dick and Barbara’s shared room and was surprised to see Damian was also there. Huh. Apparently attachments do transfer over, whether or not Damian wanted to admit it.

Whatever. She’d had a mission.

She looked at the woman currently typing away at her computer. “Hey, I’m getting a hamster at the store.”

“Cool.”

Marinette pumped her fist in the air in victory and then turned to leave, only to hear Damian’s voice:

“Can I visit the pet store, too?”

She hesitated, then shrugged. “Yeah, don’t see why not. You dressed?”

“I am.”

She grinned and pulled her keys from her pocket and twirled them around her finger. “Let’s go, then.”

Despite having thought this would be just a her thing, she was okay with bringing Damian along. After all, she’d only have him for a little while and…

Actually, maybe bonding with a kid who was going to be gone in an indeterminate amount of time was a bad thing…

Ah, crap. Too late.

She brushed this thought from her mind and started on her way downstairs, only to quickly find herself joined by multiple kids: Jason had decided she wasn’t allowed to bond with anyone if he wasn’t there, Duke had wanted to see the animals, Steph had just been bored…

She realized that maybe it was time to get a bigger car as they reached the max capacity. There was still six other kids...

Also her husband. Him too.

Whatever, at least they had enough seats for this specific trip.

The moment she got there, Damian was gone in a blur of red. She blinked a few times and then muttered a curse. Great. She lost a kid. Already.

Well, at least she had everyone else, still --.

Nope. Only Jason had remained with her.

Does getting leashes for children count as child abuse? She didn’t know.

Jason grinned. “I’m the best kid,” he said.

She clicked her tongue. “You’re the best behaved kid at this exact moment.”

“I’ll take it.”

She gave his shoulder a tiny shove. “Whatever. Help me find them.”

“Dad is gonna be pissed when we show up with a hamster, y’know,” he said.

“What’s he going to say? ‘It’s a lot of responsibility?’ ‘You should have talked to me first?’”

“Fair enough.”

She found Duke looking at the fish and grabbed him by the back of his jacket and started pulling him along. “Besides, if he let Alternate-Me have one then he probably won’t be that mad.”

“We don’t know how mad he was,” muttered Duke as he was dragged along the floors.

Jason picked up Steph as they walked past her in the dog section. “Not divorce mad, at least.”

Steph whined and kicked her legs against Jason’s chest. “I want a divorce from this family!”

“Not at all how that works,” said Jason.

“You need a job to be emancipated,” said Duke.

“I’m concerned that you know --,” Marinette cut herself off mid sentence and then made a quiet sound in the back of her throat that she was pretty sure was a squeal.

Damian was currently being swarmed by about twenty cats. He looked somewhat distressed, though only because he was having trouble petting them all with his two hands. His red hoodie was now covered in multicolored cat hair.

“Can we please get them?” Asked Damian when he had finally spotted them.

Hm…

“We can get one of them --.”

“Each,” said Steph, who had managed to squirm out of Jason’s grip and run to the cat pile.

Marinette hesitated. Man, she was weak. There was four kids all giving her the cutest pouts and she wasn’t able to say no to that.

She clicked her tongue and looked away. “Well, I guess Adrien still would be happier with a bunch of cats than a hamster…”

“NICE!”

“I still get to name one JJ, though, and teach it to run around in a hamster ball,” she muttered as she walked over and started sifting through the animals.

When she got home she was almost tempted to pull an Adrien and see how long she could hide all the cats for, but she was 99% sure he could talk to cats (Jason had once had an in-depth conversation with a turtle, she wasn’t eager to replicate the feat with a beetle). They’d probably snitch on her.

So she went and found him in their room, the four kids trailing behind them.

Then she glanced at Damian. “Hey, sweetie, you should go through first and just say that you weren’t allowed cats in the other dimension and you wanted to get them while you still could.”

Damian frowned. “But that’s lying.”

“Think of it as doing what you need to.”

His face hardened and then softened into the world’s cutest pout as he slowly opened the door and stepped inside, his cat (Pennyworth) held close to him.

“Uh…”

“We got cats!”

“Uh…”

“Please, can I keep them? My father wouldn’t let me have them and…”

Four hours later, she sat with her husband on the bed in one of the few moments of alone time they were ever allowed.

But, also, she had JJ with her and she wasn’t intending on letting him go anytime soon.

“I know you allowed them all to get cats without even trying to convince them otherwise. Pennyworth ratted you out.”

“Listen, you should have seen Damian. He was so cute, you wouldn’t have been able to resist, either.”

Adrien sighed and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. “I’m beginning to think we should have gone with that manor my dad offered to buy all those years ago.”

“Is it still open?”

“What’s the point? We’ll have to move in a few years anyways.”

She groaned. “Fuck, I forgot about that.”

He gave a tiny laugh and buried his face in her neck. “Yeah, I don’t know how much longer we can get away with ‘model skincare routines are just like that’.”

She clicked her tongue, letting her fingers glide through his hair.

“... what if Damian’s dad can’t get here in time?”

“Finders keepers?”

She couldn’t see it but she knew Adrien was rolling his eyes.

“He’ll just have to get here in time,” said Marinette. She bit her lip and added a: “I’m sure he will.”

Despite being sure that Batman had to be trying his hardest to get here, years passed.

After all, dimension hopping is hard even when you know exactly where you’re going. Adrien and Marinette hadn’t even thought it really possible. Sure, they knew there were other dimensions and that it was possible to go between them, but targeting specific dimensions to travel to…?

So they weren’t exactly surprised when no guy named Bruce Wayne or Batman showed up to claim the kid.

That was fine. They could take care of a kid. (They’d done it before and, even if this one had a lot of social problems, this was nothing compared to taking care of a young Dick Grayson. At least this one stayed on the floor.)

What wasn’t fine that the kid was definitely not handling the fact that his father hadn’t found him yet well.

When they saw how distressed Damian was, they tried to fix the problem themselves.

Adrien had opened a pocket dimension and when, predictably, a portal opened to swallow Tim up they’d asked the people on the other side if they were missing a Robin. The people on the other side had looked at him weird and then pointed at a kid in an equally ghastly outfit as the one Damian had shown up in. So that was out of the question, it was opening new realities every time.

Marinette had asked all the kwamis, but it seemed that even gods are limited to their own realities. Something about upsetting a balance or whatever.

They had even granted immunity to any criminal that could get them to another reality, but if there were any they weren’t eager to make themselves known.

… so, yeah, that hadn’t worked the way they’d wanted it to.

They were at a loss of what to do.

They had to move soon, the questions about their appearance were becoming more and more common. People were beginning to speculate on how Adrien and Marinette had some weird inability to age, and were beginning to note that all the other people in their family had also seemingly stopped aging at around twenty. Could any skincare routine really be that good?

(No. Adrien knew for a fact that the answer was no. Any model knew the answer was no.)

And it wasn’t like they could just leave this child alone in the city. Sure, the kid knew self-defense, but there was a high chance of them asking for a social security number if he applied for a job…

After an unfortunate loss in a game of rock-paper-scissors, it was made Adrien’s job to break the news.

Adrien sighed and gently knocked on the wall next to the portal to Damian’s room.

“You may come in.”

He poked his head around carefully and sent an awkward wave to the kid.

Damian had been working out, it seemed, punching a punching bag. Adrien didn’t think that boded well for him, if he was being honest. Maybe he should come back another time --.

“What do you need?”

He winced internally and slowly crossed the room to sit on the bed. He patted the space behind him.

Damian clicked his tongue but did end up sitting down beside him.

“We need to talk about your options.”

“What options?”

“Whether you want to continue waiting for your dad to come get you or if you want to be part of our family…”

Damian frowned. “Why aren’t you going to stay?”

Adrien cringed a little bit. He might as well be blunt about it to make sure he got the point across. “Alright. Look at me.”

Damian nodded and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m almost fifty.”

The kid was not prepared if the way he reeled back in surprise was any indication.

“But you -- you --!”

“I know, that’s the problem. We can’t stay much longer before our secret identities aren’t as much of a secret anymore. We’re still planning to help Gotham, obviously, Tim can open portals to get us here, but… we all need to essentially go off the grid until everyone forgets what we look like...”

He got a frown. “But…”

“We won’t stop you from staying here. You’d need a job so we can emancipate you. We’ll still send you money and stuff when we can, of course, but that’s your option for staying here. We didn’t give you a miraculous, you age normally. You can live a normal life here until your dad picks you up…”

Damian nodded slowly. “And what’s the other option?”

“You move away with us. You can have a miraculous, if you want, and if not then that’s also fine but we won’t let you join in vigilantism unless you have one. If you don’t want to be a vigilante then we’ll pay for everything you need and support you in whatever you choose to do.”

“But I’d have to give up hoping that Batman would find me.”

Adrien winced and nodded.

Damian closed his eyes and rested his head on Adrien’s shoulder. “Why hasn’t he come yet?” He whispered, so quiet that he’d almost thought he’d imagined it.

“I’m sure he’s trying, Dami, it’s just not an easy thing to do.”

“Do you think he’ll ever get here?”

He sighed and shook his head. “I think if he was going to then he would have done it already.”

He felt a face bury itself in his shoulder and frowned when his shirtsleeve wettened. He hesitated. Did Damian want him to acknowledge it? Would it be bad for a temporary father figure to hug a child over the likely loss of their original father? He didn’t know.

“I’m sorry, Dami,” he murmured. “Do you want me to call Dick in here?”

“No…”

“Want me to leave?”

“No…”

He nodded slightly and drew the kid into a hug, resting his chin on top of Damian’s head. “Okay.”

“What if he doesn’t want me?” Damian sniffled.

Adrien closed his eyes. “Then, frankly, he’s stupid.”

He heard the kid laugh a little bit. “Yeah, he is a bit stupid.”

He didn’t answer, just pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

Marinette clicked her tongue and pointed at the whiteboard labelled ‘what to do about the crime thing’.

“More murder?” Offered Steph.

She rolled her eyes but wrote it down.

“More inconsistent patrols,” offered Duke. “So they have a harder time telling when we’ll catch them.”

She nodded thoughtfully and wrote it down.

Dick raised his hand. “Fix the court system.”

“Too much work,” she said, not even bothering to write it. “Not enough time.”

Tim didn’t even look up from his computer. “Get the social security numbers of every crime lord in Gotham and release them to the public. See what happens.”

She mumbled a “Alright, someone is losing computer privileges for the week…” She wrote down a reminder to do that in the corner.

“What if we…” Jason shrugged. “... become the major crime lords, rule over everyone, and shoot everyone who doesn’t fall in line. We wouldn’t be able to stop crime entirely but at least we’d get to choose what they’re doing.”

“That’s a lot of ground to cover.”

“Then we split into factions publicly. Give west side to Dad and Dickwad, Cass and Duke get the south, you and I can take the area around crime alley, and so on…”

Everyone looked at each other and then shrugged. Yeah. They’d tried everything else, why not?

~~~

Guess who wrote a finale at a normal time for once~

Taglist

@i-am-ironic @nathleigh @mialuvscats @golden-promises @sassakitty @deathwishy @toodaloo-kangaroo @ladythugs @moonlightstar64 @dahjokester @jjmjjktth

#another one?!#adrienette #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #dick grayson #nightwing #red hood #jason todd #red robin #tim drake #orphan #cassandra cain #damian wayne #robin #maribat

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just-an-aussie-fandom-hermit · 4 years

Note

( 2/2 ) i mean if i recall correctly didn't bruce take them in to provide homes for them after they lost their parents & often tried to talk them out of crime fighting even though a lot of them would go off & fight crime on their own accord ( whether he allowed it or not) ?

Anon you’re absolutely right!

(This is a long one so be warned).

He didn’t adopt/mentor the kids with the sole purpose of turning them into child soldiers or abusing them at all. His abusive and neglectful behaviour stands in stark contrast to his personality and moral code; most of these kids came from horrific backgrounds, so he would make himself as welcoming as possible to allow these kids to be kids, like they deserve to be. Vigilantism is their way of taking their life into their own hands and making change. His behaviour is nothing short of contradictory and I despise the various writers who made him that way.

I don’t have any sources/comic panels prepared but I want to answer this anyway:

Dick Grayson had just seen his parents die, and was filled with vengeance — he would have gone after Tony Zucco anyway, better to do it on Bruce’s terms. Also, he had spent several nights in a juvenile centre after his parents died (that’s where he ended up) and was beaten up brutally on basically his first night there. Bruce knew he wouldn’t survive, let alone thrive in the system, so he took him in. Robin was initially meant to be a temporary thing, to take down Zucco as well as his coworkers/superiors in the mob. After an encounter with the Joker in which Dick is bedridden, Bruce fires Dick from being Robin for his own safety. He later becomes Nightwing after going through a personality crisis and wondering who he was without Robin.

Barbara Gordon? She was going to be a crime fighter anyway — like Stephanie (we’ll get back to her) she made her own suit and went out on her own accord. Her dad is the police comissioner, but she recognised that the system wasn’t working — because of the mob, political corruption, police inadequacy and criminal conduct (which was/is the norm anyway), all that wonderful stuff — and felt that she had to do something. Bruce is vehemently against this but after a while he realises “oh god, she’s not going to stop,” and decides that, like Dick, it’s better for Babs to do the vigilante thing on his terms, because he’d spent years training for this, and Barbara was a child/teen.

Jason Todd lived on the streets after he stopped living with his abusive father (Willis) and his deceased, drug addicted mother (Catherine). He just saw a kid who had it extremely rough (homeless, formerly abused), and thought “I already have one child under my care, I can care for another, that’s reasonable.” Making him Robin was not only a constructive outlet for his anger, but also not Bruce’s intention at all. He may have met Jason as Batman, but he did not force the mantle of Robin onto him.

Tim Drake had already been BatWatch for years and had figured out who the Bats actually were. After Jason died, Tim saw how broken, angry and violent Bruce had become and he knew it was only a matter of time before something gave. He literally blackmailed his way into becoming Robin (via Dick, now Nightwing) because “Batman needs a Robin,” and he decided “I might as well be that Robin.” Bruce was incredibly resistant, because his son had just been murdered, and he doesn’t want that to happen to any other child — and he brushes Tim off for a while. When he does become Robin, it’s reluctant. He takes him in not just to him Robin but also because his parents are horribly neglectful (hence why he had so much free time as a child to be BatWatch and such) and only ever showed serious interest in his life while they were grooming him to be CEO of their company or when they felt Bruce was a threat to their parental authority (rightfully so.)

Stephanie Brown’s dad is Cluemaster, a minor villain who thought himself the nemesis of the Riddler (Nigma paid this guy no mind,) and left clues at his crime scenes in a similar manner to Riddler. As such her home life was tumultuous if not outright abusive and neglectful. Her mother (Crystal) is a drug user so she doesn’t spend a lot of time in the house. She created her own identity (Spoiler) to “spoil” her father’s plans and clues so Batman could take him and his buddies down. She comes into contact with Tim (ie. throws a brick at him) and works with the Bats so she wouldn’t get herself killed doing it alone.

Cassandra Cain is the daughter of two of the greatest assassins in the world (David Cain and Lady Shiva) and was never taught any form of spoken or written language. Instead, she learned to read body language and micro-expressions, all so she could become the best possible bodyguard for Ra’s al Ghul (head of the League of Shadows) and an excellent assassin. This backfired, and she ran away after witnessing/committing her first assassination and saw the pain and terror in her target — she spent several years on the run before Bruce found her and took her in. Fighting was all she knew, and she wanted to do the “good” fighting (vigilantism/working with the Justice League) instead of being an assassin. It was a way to reclaim her childhood and to help her create an identity of her own, separate from the League of Shadows.

Duke Thomas? He joined and later lead the We Are Robin movement to defend Gotham in Bruce’s abscence (‘Batman: Endgame’ I think is the storyline). I’m not as familiar with his story but he creates his own vigilante identity, The Signal, after his parents went insane (thanks Joker). He went into foster care while police search for his parents, and did generally did not have a Good Time. At this time, Bruce’s memory of being Batman had been erased, and it was Duke’s sense of justice and need to help others that set him on the course to become Batman again. He was never a Robin, and he works mostly in the daytimes, but Duke Thomas became a Bat of his own accord. Bruce simply brought The Signal under the cape and gave him a support network just as he had done for Babs and Steph (the other self-made vigelantes).

Damian Wayne. Biological son of Bruce and Talia al Ghul. In the current continuity he’s the product of a sexual assault, but either way, his purpose is to become the heir to the League of Assassins and their international criminal empire and shadow governments — he’s a manufactured soldier (hence why you might come across a lot of “test-tube baby” jokes, because he was grown mostly in an artificial womb.) Talia drops him off in Gotham in order to help Damian escape from Ra’s, and Bruce makes him Robin to give him an outlet for his anger and violence — in a non-homicidal fashion. Like Cass, all he knew was fighting and violence, but becoming Robin was a way for him to not only reclaim his lost childhood but also create an identity other than the killing machine he was intended to be.

Harper Row is another child from an abusive household — emancipating herself and her brother Colin from their father, Harper’s skill with engineering gives her the means to become a vigilante (Taser Girl?? I believe). Bluebird is her vigilante alias under Batman (her hair is a magnificent shade of blue) but is currently inactive, focusing on her career and education. Again i’m not super familiar with her character, but that’s the gist.

The important take-away is that these kids chose to become who they are — Bruce didn’t just pick them off the street like “you’re a Robin now have fun sweetie :)”, making them a Bat/Robin was simply a means to help these kids.

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batcowmaster · 2 years

Text

About Damian

Name: Damian Bruce Al Ghul Wayne

Age: Default 13/14, 15+ for any threads with Jon Kent. No sexual content ever. NSFW things such as violence, etc, will be present. Willing to write under age 13 as well if you have a specific thread in mind.

Birthday: August 9th

Father: Bruce Wayne

Mother: Talia Al Ghul

I write with the version of canon where Ras is of Chinese descent but settled in the Middle East and Talia’s mother was of mixed Chinese-Arabic descent thereby making her more Chinese than anything. He can speak Mandarin, Cantonese and Arabic fluently but spoke more Mandarin with his mother and grandfather. You are welcome to not like or agree with my interpretation of the canon and there’s been many retcons and different canon writing of the Al Ghuls but that is what I write for my Damian.

Siblings: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain

Allies: Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, Duke Thomas, Jon Kent, Colin Wilkes, Alfred Pennyworth

Background:

Damian is born into the League of Assassins with his mother, Talia Al Ghul. Unbeknownst to him for most of his life his mother actually manipulated his genetics to create the ‘perfect child’ and would go on to clone him repeatedly.

He was raised on a harsh regime of assassin training, various languages, classic reading, violin, art, global politics and history, economics, among other things. He got several degrees before the age of 10 being a complete prodigy and genius. This achievement would be overshadowed by his consistently brutal training.

His father, Bruce Wayne, didn’t know about his existence until he was ten years old.

Before his tenth birthday he would win a challenge with his mother in which she finally saw fit to introduce him to his father.

Their brief meeting would end with him returning home with his mother only for his grandfather to try and use his body and Damian to escape and ultimately leave the League for good, instead trying to seek refuge with his father. Bruce, unfortunately, was ‘dead’ (lost in time) and Damian instead became the Robin to Dick Grayson’s Batman. They would bond and become very close.

Bruce would return from his adventures through time and take Damian on. There’s some tension and mistrust at first but they grow to bond and find common ground. A deep affection grows and Damian knows for the first time what it’s like having a consistently loving parent.

He also becomes very close with Alfred Pennyworth.

Damian would demonstrate his enormous heart by always protecting children, and his clear devotion to animals, even becoming a vegetarian. He not only gets a dog given to him by Bruce (called Titus) but also adopts a cow from a slaugherhouse (named Batcow) and a cat rescued by Pennyworth (thus baptised Alfred).

He also meets Colin Wilkes around this time. Colin is a superpowered vigilante orphan who works out that Damian is Robin and they grow a good friendship. [Colin is erased from continuity later but I love him so I’m going to keep him.]

At around age 11 or 12 his mother places a bounty on his head for refusing to come home and submit to her. Assassins search for him far and wide and then his mother clones him. The clone is hyper aged to adulthood to be a willing servant only he goes rogue and impales Damian on a sword. Talia doesn’t stop Damian’s death and he cannot be rescued by any of the Bat family. His death rocks the entire family and Bruce is inconsolable. He decides he needs to bring Damian back and eventually, after Damian’s body is kidnapped, he’s brought back to life on Apocalypse. For a brief period of a few days the powers that bring him back also give him super powers (such as flight, super strength and laser eyes).

Damian suffers from extreme nightmares after being brought back. This never fully goes away.

At age 13 he kidnaps Jon Kent because he believes the child super poses a threat to humanity but this leads into his father and Jon’s father (Superman) deciding that they need to work together. Thus begins the Super Son team. Jon becomes Damian’s best friend. Damian spends some time leading the Teen Titans but this team up isn’t particularly healthy for him.

Alfred’s death and Jon’s disappearance lead Damian into a very dark place. He disappears off the map and goes to fight in a suicidal fight club. He stops his great-grandmother from razing the world to the ground and reconnects with his mother and grandfather. He decides to give them a chance to redeem themselves and fix the hurt and damage they caused him. Ras is then brutally murdered, body destroyed, by someone pretending to be Deathstroke. His mother wants revenge. [CURRENT COMIC CANON]

Key traits: loves animals, fierce protector of child rights, massive PTSD and trauma including childhood which leaves some dissociative marks when it comes to his use of the Robin mantle, vegetarian

Verses

BATFAM FROM BIRTH VERSE

Skills [not including his obvious Robin and assassin skills]:

Damian is an artist, both in graphite pencil drawings and actual painting.

Damian can mimic voices with perfect accuracy.

Damian knows archery.

Before his ninth birthday Damian was trained to PhD level economics. He uses this knowledge to straighten out Wayne Enterprises finances while his father is ‘dead’. And he also finds embezzlement within the firm, traces it, and fires those responsible while attending board meetings at age ten.

At age ten he rebuilt the Batmobile and could understand his father’s blueprints.

Damian can learn a language in eleven days or less.

He can jig ancient tech and tap into mind control within 2 minutes.

Damian can fight blindfolded, in pitch darkness, without any sense of direction. He completely refutes Dick’s comments about him having a hood being problematic because it can become a blindfold.

Damian knows seven languages fluently including Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin and English.

History:

Talia fought Damian to the death every year on his birthday.

Damian has significant trauma from being made to fight for hours on end to the brink of death and then being put in healing chambers and worked upon. He’s ‘repaired’ like a machine. This gets even worse when he’s almost eleven and breaks his spine. He’s sent to get a new spine implanted/repaired but his mother puts in mechanisms to control him like a robot. x x x

There’s some suggestion that the only reason Talia had Damian was for him to be bred to submit to orders and maybe one day become a host for Ras.

After Damian initially met Bruce he ends up in a situation where Talia asks him to choose between her and Bruce. It’s such a toxic position for Damian to be in – choose between the father he’s always wanted to know and the only parent he’s ever had.

Damian’s alias is Ibn al Xu'ffasch which is ‘Son of the Bat’ in Arabic.

Damian was raised with mostly British teachers and British influences, which didn’t stop when he came to the Manor and had Alfred looking after him. As such he sometimes uses British words or slang ‘Mum’ and ‘Bugger’ are some that come to mind.

Talia once told Damian that Bruce would never love him.

Personality and how he sees the world:

Within his first few hours with being with Bruce he not only kills and decapitates someone because he thinks he needs to to prove to his father that he belongs, and he deserves respect “fighting crime” because that’s all Bruce has really talked about - not only doing that but believing so heavily in the creed of the league of assassins. that they killed ANYONE who got in their way. what must that have felt like to grow up with as a kid? if you were an inconvenience or got in their way or too much trouble you were under threat of death?

Damian not only has such an emphasis on bloodlines when he first arrives with the Bats but the fact that he doesn’t think you automatically deserve a space within a family, that you have to earn it through respect, proving yourself, and having a blood tie to your parent.

Damian has literally said ‘people trying to kill me, finally something that makes sense.’ He’s ten.

Damian thinks the only way to get respect when he first meets Bruce is to get him to fight him.

When Damian first arrived with Dick he started venting his history of violence into ‘murder drawings’ depicting gruesome violent acts and deaths.

When Damian moves in with Dick he believes it’s very easy to be replaced. So by the time Bruce comes back he’s very worried about what will happen. He thinks Dick will move on without him and Damian will be left out in the cold, maybe forced to go back to Talia. That maybe Bruce won’t want him and instead replace him with someone else. Bruce coming back and Dick leaving the Batman mantle has a huge impact on Damian and it worries him for months leading up to it. x x

During both his tenure with Dick and his early years with Bruce, Damian really struggled with his identity. He didn’t know who he was or what he wanted. All he knew was that he wanted to be part of a family and he wanted, desperately, to be trusted, loved and respected.

Damian goes to the same school as Jon. He likes making everyone at school scared of him. It’s a reaction to suddenly being thrust into school after being home schooled his entire life. He’s probably scared himself of the reaction of other ‘normal’ kids to him, as it’s never gone well in the past. To date he’s only ever managed to become friends with, and relate to, other vigilante or superhero kids. He doesn’t feel comfortable in the hallways of a school and feels more at ease in the back alleyways of Gotham. Since arriving at school he corrects all the teachers and finds classes boring, leading to most of his teachers treating him like shit and hating having him in class.

To prove to Bruce that he cared about more than just himself, especially that he cared about his father, Damian searched the sewers for months to find a single pearl from his grandmother’s necklace and gift it to Bruce.

Damian may be an assassin and doesn’t blink at murder but he is also highly protective of people. He will stand up and protect them no matter what.

Damian is WILDLY protective of children, especially from abuse or violence. x x

Damian’s response to being on a hit list by Tim. He says that he’s ‘done all that’s been asked of me, I control aspects of my upbringing that neither of you could begin to understand and I am dismissed by him as a threat to be monitored for some hidden agenda! It isn’t fair.’ I think this says a lot to how much Damian has to keep control of himself and how much he feels he needs to suppress on a daily basis.

Alfred once described Damian as ‘the inheritor of his father’s courage, his determination, his desire to do what is right.’

Damian puts a LOT of pressure on himself to not only be perfect but to NEVER fail. This was probably cultivated by Talia but he so wants to make Bruce happy that he continues it as Robin.

Damian can come off bratty sometimes, probably due to being an only child for most of his upbringing, but he’s also a genuinely generous kid.

Damian has said of being Robin to Talia: Being Robin is the best thing I’ve ever done, Mother. And even if Father does return, this is the life I’ve chosen to lead. I don’t need you to save me.

Relationships:

Damian has asked Talia to love him for who he is not what she wants him to be. Her response was that it wasn’t in her nature, she’s too much of a perfectionist and to continue with her cloning enterprise.

After Talia placed a bounty on his head Damian gave up on having a relationship with her. She was ‘dead to him’ and that only increased after she let him die. From then on she went from ‘Mother’ to just ‘Talia’. (And when he was little she was Talia before she insisted on being Mother, simply because he barely spent any time with her until about the age of three or four.) He’s also said Talia was barely there for him, that running a criminal empire didn’t leave much time for bonding. He’s also said that he saw her rarely during his upbringing and knows her by reputation alone. Damian turns on Talia at the first opportunity.

She also told Damian that he was no longer wanted in her home.

When Damian breaks his back his mother tries to manipulate him. She says ‘I cared for you when there was no one else. I believed in you. And I know what’s best for you Damian. To see you squander your future on a delusion, well… that’s what breaks my heart.’ … ‘Do you honestly believe these crimefighters trust you? Or accept you? Damian, their plan is to tame and brainwash you until nothing is left but a spineless puppet.’

Upon their last meeting before the Robin (2021) series Talia called Damian an immense disappointment.

Damian will, and has, risked life and limb to save Jon and keep him safe.

Damian once asked Bruce to never give up on him, and he’s since expressed to Bruce that he will NEVER give up on him.

The comics have proven time and time again that despite their rough start as a team, Bruce not only LOVES Damian, he’s both proud of Damian and trusts him whole-heartedly.

Dick was the first person to believe in Damian, and often tag teamed with Alfred to help Damian believe in himself and see what kind of better person he could be.

Damian will always stan strong female heroes – think Cassandra Cain, Wonder Woman, Donna Troy, Artemis.

I think Tim, Steph and Jason all know if they want to poke at Damian’s weak spot they suggest that Bruce doesn’t trust him and neither will anyone else.

Damian absolutely thinks Tim hates him. He also thinks Tim thinks he’s better than him, that he doesn’t want him around, doesn’t trust him, refuses to accept him, is jealous of him and more than likely wishes he’d never come to Gotham. Or existed in the first place.

Tidbits:

After rescuing Batcow from a slaughterhouse Damian became a vegetarian. As a show of solidarity Bruce will eat a vegetarian meal once a week with Damian.

Damian listens to music to go to sleep, can often find him with earbuds in before he wakes up.

Damian gets horrific nightmares after coming back to life.

At age 11 Damian still has baby teeth.

When Damian first arrived to meet Bruce at age nine, almost ten, he swore quite a bit. Out of respect to Alfred since moving in with Dick, he barely swears.

Damian’s future Batman look is a tribute to both Dick and Bruce – his two Batmans.

In an alternate timeline, even as an adult, he’s still comparing himself to Dick and Bruce.

Damian has a tiny ‘R’ on the sole of his Robin boots.

Damian sleeps on a single oddly shaped pillow and a single mattress with no blankets.

Damian loves bouncing castles. He was introduced to them by Steph after a mission together where she helped him feel more like a kid.

Damian sits through old movies with Bruce to make him happy.

When Damian moved in with Dick they left the manor and started living in a tower (like in The Batman).

Because Dick was a Robin he knew how to come up with intricate team moves where he calls out a request and Damian reacts. These stunts served them well in fights.

Damian is one of those annoying brats who eats the last of everything in the house and doesn’t ask if anyone wants anything because he was brought up as an only child for so long.

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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Dick Grayson Juvie Headcanons (Leading Into Any Form of Not-A-Cop AUs, they don’t make a ton of sense for a version of Dick who ever grows up to be a cop, but y’know, that origin story is why that career for Dick never made any sense to me anyway, so its all one and the same to me, lol. Just clarifying).

1) Bruce Wayne’s greatest regret with Dick is that he realized too late, years later, that in his eagerness to bond with Dick over their shared experiences and the experiences they shared as Batman and Robin, he’d underestimated the potency of their divergent experiences, and he’d fallen for the Dick Grayson performer mask as much as anyone whenever Dick assured him that month in juvie was only thirty days and he was well past it and had no real issues or lingering trauma stemming from it. How could he not though, Bruce ultimately admitted to himself years later. Dick was just a kid who had just lost his parents and done literally nothing wrong, and it wasn’t just thirty days. It was thirty whole days.

2) Dick spent his entire first year at Wayne Manor secretly convinced that if he did anything wrong, he was going back to juvie. It didn’t make sense to him, but being there in the first place didn’t really make a lot of sense either, so better to err on the side of caution, and just be perfect instead. He got a little more relaxed as time went on, but it was a slow curve. By the time he ran away at the end of Robin: Year One, which was actually more like the end of his second year at Wayne Manor since he’d trained a lot before officially debuting as Robin....by that time, Dick didn’t THINK Bruce would send him back to juvie just because he’d fired him as Robin and was clearly done with him now.

He wanted to believe after everything they’d been through this past year alone, Bruce would at least make sure he ended up in a good foster home, which Dick by now knew at least existed, and that juvie wasn’t actually the only inevitable destination for orphaned kids who weren’t perfect.....but again...he didn’t THINK Bruce would do that. But Dick didn’t KNOW, not for sure, and he couldn’t afford to lose both Robin and his belief in who Bruce really was and what their time together had meant to Bruce as well as Dick, so Dick decided to err on the side of caution and run away instead. That way, at least, he’d never have to find out if he was wrong.

3) Dick’s first real friend at school was actually a boy who started a fight with him, a few months before Dick debuted as Robin. When they were both sent to the principal’s office together, Dick pulled his antagonist of ten minutes ago down a side hallway with him and hastily engineered an escape plan off the grounds where Dick called Bruce and assured the bewildered other boy he could help him. When Bruce arrived and asked Dick what he was doing, Dick told him the other boy had started their fight, but Dick didn’t think what he’d done had been that bad really, and it was definitely nothing he should go to jail for and he wanted Bruce to intercede on his behalf and make sure he didn’t end up there by doing whatever he’d done to get Dick pulled out of there in the first place.

As Dick didn’t like talking about that time much, and Bruce didn’t like making Dick talk about things he didn’t like to talk about, this was the first real inkling Bruce had of how much that experience had skewed Dick’s perception of ‘how things work’ and he assured him that wasn’t going to happen here. It also contributed to the reasons Bruce was stockpiling for actually letting Dick go out as Robin instead of just training him to appease him and hope he grew out of wanting to: among other things, Bruce felt that letting Dick be a part of what he did as Batman and get another viewpoint from which to view the system and what it really did and didn’t do, would help Dick get past his lingering issues with the system and his time in it and thus eventually grow into a more healthy, broader view of it rather than one defined solely by his terrible experiences with it as a child.

4) Bruce’s miscalculation in this regard was that he was so focused on getting Dick to view the system from Bruce’s perspective, and thus come to similar conclusions and views of it on his own....he failed to ever properly attempt the reverse, putting himself in Dick’s shoes and trying to view all of that from his perspective and thus perhaps come to similar conclusions and views of it on HIS end. This divide ended up diverging their viewpoints on all things criminal and justice more and more as the years went by, with Bruce lost for what he was doing wrong, because he was too centered in his own view of himself as the adult, the one who had to teach and guide and HELP Dick, his child......it simply didn’t occur to him there was any possibility he was trying to teach Dick to view things from a vantage point that was just as skewed in its own way as Bruce felt Dick’s was skewed. That he wasn’t actually anymore impartial on the subject than Dick was, its just while Dick’s ‘bias’ was born of an actively negative experience with the system-as-antagonist, Bruce’s was born of a complete and total lack of negative experiences with the system-as-antagonist.

Because ultimately, the divide that put them more and more often at odds, was that at the end of the day, Bruce believed that the system worked. He believed that his place, his role as Batman, was to supplement the times when the system failed to work as it was supposed to. To fortress it and weed out corruption and clean out the muck gumming up the gears, and let it do what it was supposed to do.....which was give more kids lives and opportunities like Bruce had before his parents were murdered.

And that simply wasn’t Dick’s experience, not just initially, but given more and more evidence as he grew. He just didn’t know how to get Bruce to see it from his POV, get him to consider that the things Bruce was basing his own view of it all from were not as universal as he’d convinced himself they were. Because Dick became increasingly aware, between his own experiences, his time at juvie, that time he ran away, things he saw at school and things he saw as Robin....they were not the same, not even while living in the same house and being chauffered around in the same car. He saw evidence of it every time he tried to confide in Bruce about the things people said about him, and Bruce tried to relate by sharing his own experiences with people saying nasty things about his parents’ death and the way he acted after that.

Dick knew how hard it was for Bruce to share personal details like that and was appreciative of the effort, so he passed up opportunities to try and impress upon Bruce that those stories, while tragic in their own way, were not the same thing as what he was talking about......those kids had been making fun of Bruce because of something terrible that had happened to him, and yeah that sucked.....but these kids were making fun of Dick because of something that he was. They weren’t interchangeable. ‘Taking the high road’ and letting what people said bounce off of him might have been one thing when you knew the thing they were mocking was just a tragic situation that could have befallen anyone. But when the thing they were mocking was who and what you were, and how you weren’t just anyone, and never would be, how they were always going to point out first and foremost the ways you were different and always would be.....’taking the high road’ sounded a lot more like ‘just accept that people are always going to say these things and you’re not allowed to fight back.’

And as time went on, their differences in experiences seemed more and more prevalent than their shared ones.....but because Dick didn’t know how to explain this, was still just a kid who lived with a genius who was always right and needed just the right words if he was going to be convinced otherwise, and Dick just didn’t have those words, didn’t know what they were, not just yet.....Dick stayed silent through too many of these times when Bruce saw things one way and Dick the exact opposite. Until the time when he couldn’t stay silent anymore, and so he just erupted with his voice full of all the frustration of not just that one occasion, but all the other ones before it that he’d held back on countering Bruce’s view with his own. Making Bruce instantly defensive and unsure where all of this was coming from, not understanding or being aware of just how long all of this had simmered under Dick’s surface, unvoiced but not unpresent.

And so they began to fight more and more about the criminals they turned in and the ones that they didn’t.....Dick of the opinion that if they were already breaking the law by being vigilantes, it shouldn’t matter if it was breaking the law to let a criminal go free if they were as much convinced they deserved a second chance as they were that the city needed Batman and Robin. And because Dick still didn’t quite know how to put what he felt and thought into words, and because Bruce had considered that just thirty days in juvie long behind them and something Dick was past and thus certainly nothing that might be present in this argument, in Dick’s thoughts here and now.....Bruce tended to think this was just youthful optimism overriding common sense. That Dick was just too eager to see the best in people, to hope anyone could turn things around if given the opportunity, that he wasn’t willing to let the system do its job.

Except, see, the thing is that Bruce, for whom the system worked when it was allowed to, who always viewed it through the lens of his own optimism that it was the right path, the best option, so long as it was just used properly.....in Bruce’s eyes, the system was meant to be used for rehabilitation.

In Dick’s eyes - and experience - the system was only ever useful for punishment.

For things done wrong, and even worse sometimes, all too often....for when the only thing a person did wrong was not being born a boy TRULY like Bruce once was before his parents died. A boy who had the life and all the opportunities that only other boys just like him were ever guaranteed.

Because those just thirty days had been thirty whole days, Dick’s first introduction to Gotham was a lot more thorough than Bruce ever realized, and a lot more of an honest view of Gotham than Bruce could ever really admit.

Juvie, in Dick’s experience, wasn’t just a place of rehabilitation - could never be a place of rehabilitation - not for a kid like him, who had no need to be rehabilitated. And Dick couldn’t just pretend it was one mistake, one person’s bigotry, one office’s corruption, that led to him being there, to him being the only person who was there when he shouldn’t have been there......when Dick’s just thirty days were really thirty whole days where he didn’t see a single moment of rehabilitation for anyone there.

When it was all just pain and suffering and violence. Kids being awful to each other to distract themselves from how awful they felt, and the guards doing nothing to stop it because they were too busy laughing like it was entertainment. There was nobody being made better by being there, just everyone being made worse before they left. To this day, Dick honestly couldn’t say if he’d have been as eager to go after Zucco with the initial intention of KILLING him to avenge his parents, if he’d gotten the chance without ever going to juvie first....if the Dick he’d been before those thirty days would have been as eager to repay violence with violence, as hungry to share his pain. Those thirty whole days had left their mark, had been so full of the promise of spreading around the hurt to lessen the hurt inside of you, been so full of the evidence that justice was meaningless in a place that also said justice was punishing the victims of a crime as often as the perpetrators.....Dick’s honestly not sure if before all of that, without all of that, if it would have been enough for him to just seek out Zucco with the intention of turning him in and trusting the police to take him to where he belonged to get what he deserved.

All he knows is those thirty days did happen, and by the time he did get out, did get his shot at hunting down Zucco, he knew all he needed to know that trusting the police wasn’t the be all and end all Batman kept trying to convince him it was.....not when trusting the police had led them to taking Dick to where he never belonged to get what no one ever deserved.

All he knows is he’ll never confess to Bruce that he’s not sure if the real reason he spared Zucco’s life was because Bruce got through to him, convinced him it was the right thing to do and what his parents would want....or if it was just because he was too afraid that if he did kill Zucco, Bruce would believe the right thing to do was take him back to juvie, and this time, he would belong there.

The ironic thing about Bruce and Dick, Dick often thinks, is that everyone looks at the pair of them and sees Bruce as the eternal cynic, the one who sees the world through pain-colored glasses , the one always quicker to assume the worst. In Dick’s personal experience, its Bruce who’s the one who thinks the world is a little brighter, a little more honest, a little BETTER than Dick knows it to be.

Dick doesn’t offer up the optimistic views as often as he does because they’re what spring most naturally to his mind.

They’re not.

They’re just the ones he’s fighting for, to see them made real, to turn them from just hopes he voices to outcomes he’s championed.

So they end up fighting and clashing more and more because Dick doesn’t know how to say all of that, doesn’t know how to rewrite Bruce’s view of Dick’s own childhood and early years in Gotham with the reality of how things looked and still look from his end.

How to tell him with the surety of only someone who’s actually BEEN in those shoes, LIVED those thirty whole days, someone who KNOWS.....there is no rehabilitation to be found in a jail for children. Just punishment for crimes both warranted and unwarranted alike. There was no hope anywhere in there, for second chances, for turning lives around. Just the pain they brought with them, the pain they found there, and the pain promised if they ever returned.

There’s not much incentive to make a change when the end result is always going to remain the same.

If rehabilitation is the point, Dick wants to say but never quite figures out how, if the goal is for the punishment to fit the crime.....then how can a year in juvie be a just punishment for some crime, when nobody ever mentions the additional punishments that year will inevitably contain? The near daily beatings from other inmates and sometimes the guards? The loneliness of being separated not just from family and friends, but any kind soul who might give that kid reason to think not everyone is like everyone you see around you, there are people who are better, people who give you REASON to be better? The feelings of worthlessness brought about by being fed gruel and given ratty clothes and forced to sleep on bunks not much better than the floor and told “this is what you deserve, this is ALL you deserve, whether you’re violent or deceitful or just misguisded or just hurting - you’re no different to us than the kid who pushed his burning cigarette into his foster brother’s arm, and thus there’s no reason you should see yourself as any different from him either. No reason you should be. No reason to try.’

What about the punishment of going that whole year without hearing a single kind word, seeing a single smile that wasn’t tinged with cruelty, taught a single lesson that was meant to give you tools for the future rather than tools to pass the time or make someone else’s time more miserable than yours? Or the punishment of being guarded by adults more sadistic than your fellow inmates, at least until they inspired kids to up their own sadism and try harder? Of being spit on, laughed at, looked at as those you’re an animal in a cage, the dirt beneath someone’s feet, the inevitable disappointment that was apparently all a kid like you was ever going to turn out to be.....

And all the while told by the police, by the guards, by the other kids, ultimately even by yourself.....

All of this is what you deserve, what you earned, where you belong. This is who and what you are and all you’ll ever be. Don’t waste your time trying harder to be something you’re not....just use it to make the most of your time here for as long as you’re here, until you end up here again.

How can the punishment EVER fit the crime, Dick wants to ask Bruce, Commissioner Gordon, everyone who tells him he’s too young to know what he’s talking about even though he apparently wasn’t too young to deserve to go to jail for the crime of being orphaned in the wrong city....how can the punishment fit the crime when whether the crime is property damage or vandalism or possession of an illegal substance or assault and battery and grand theft auto and soliciation....whether the crime was what you did or who you were or what someone else said you did or just you doing what you had to just to stay alive.....when the crime is always different but the punishment is almost always the same, when the punishment doesn’t CARE, when the punishment is anything and EVERYTHING everyone in the places ‘where bad people go’ is to make each day as miserable for everyone else as they can manage, all in the hopes of making their day just a little bit less so.....

How can you possibly say ‘let the punishment fit the crime’ and honestly believe that its TRUE? How can you say its where you take bad people go to try and make them better, when time and time again you just see them come back out even worse? How can your conclusion always be a certainty that its just them, its just ALL those people, with ALL those different crimes, ALL those reasons why, and just ONE place, ONE punishment-fits-all, ONE penalty meted out in words but with a hundred unspoken add-ons tacked on in the fine print.....its never that ONE place that might be the reason, might be the problem....might be why a thousand misguided souls go into a rehabilitation center and a thousand hardened hearts are all it spits out on the other side, no change, no real difference, no variation between people all now united by one singular truth:

“No matter what we did to end up here, its all the same in the end, and when in the end this is all anybody will ever see when they look at us now, all anybody will ever believe is where we’re destined to end up, no matter how hard we try....what’s the point in going against the grain? Standing out in a place where nothing’s more dangerous than that? Why BE BETTER, when the only rewards are for being worse?”

All of this and more is what Dick wants to ask Bruce, demand an answer for in the form of something other than “you’ll understand better when you’re older” - because Dick understood all he needed to understand from his very first week there, and age hasn’t lessened that any. Just cemented it. Made it firm.

How can you be so sure you’re right, be so sure that I’m wrong, when I’m the one that’s been there and you think the fact that I was so young when I was is proof I can’t be right when I say “THE SYSTEM YOU BELIEVE IN DOESN’T WORK THE WAY YOU THINK IT DOES” when the fact I was ever there at all is literally just proof I’m not wrong?

“How can you tell yourself I’m wrong to want to give the kid we caught in the criminal act of defacing public property a second chance, that it might have more of a positive effect on them than any number of nights in jail ever will.....when probably the only reason I’m here at your side right now instead of the one being put in handcuffs, is you saw an escaped criminal and thought ‘they deserve a chance’ instead of ‘they belong in jail?’“

“You weren’t an escaped criminal - “ Dick always imagines would likely be the first protest out of Bruce’s mouth, a missing of the mark that’s sadly all too predictable and all too much of the reason why Dick’s never pressed the button on this particular conversation.

“But I was!” He’d try to point out next. “At least according to any and all information that matters! I was sent to juvie, I was wearing the clothing of an inmate, I was on the roof of a building across the street from the detention center I’d just literally escaped from....when you came across me that night, that’s EXACTLY what I was! At least to anyone that mattered! If you’d escorted me back to the center yourself, that’s all anyone would have told you, the guards, the warden, the other kids, that’s all I was ever told myself: that’s where I belonged. That was where I was supposed to be. If it had been someone OTHER than you that I ran into that night, if it’d been any cop whatsoever, even one of the ‘good cops,’ even one of the honest cops who plays by the book and believes in the law and doing what’s right.....even they would have taken one look at me and seen a kid escaping from juvie and said to themselves IM DOING THE RIGHT THING TAKING HIM BACK TO THE FACILITY HE ESCAPED FROM, THAT’S WHAT THE LAW SAYS I SHOULD DO HERE AND NOW......and would they have been wrong? Technically? By the book? Would they have been upholding the law, escorting a kid who never did a damn thing wrong in his life at that point, back to the jail where he was being PUNISHED for watching his parents get murdered in front of him?”

He likes to think Bruce wouldn’t have an answer to that, at least. Its better than the alternatives.

But you didn’t send me back and just abandon me there because you KNEW better, Dick argues in his head. Wants to believe. Whether it was because you recognized me from that night at the circus or because you just couldn’t believe that in thirty days I could possibly have done something that warranted a kid like me being in a place like that, couldn’t have done something that justified the bruise you saw beneath my eye or the fact that I was so desperate to get away I was barefoot on a freezing rooftop at 2 in the morning.....you KNEW the law wasn’t right, the system was WRONG, and that there was no justice to be served in serving me back up on a platter to people who SIMPLY DIDN’T CARE.

And as the years go by, he adds to it in conviction and evidence, but still no closer to the words and still just as far from Bruce as ever......”And what about Jason? Jason literally WAS a criminal, by any technical letter of the law, the night you met him. He was stealing your tires. He was committing a theft. Not because he was bad, not because he didn’t know any better, but because HE WAS TRYING TO EAT. His only crime was he was a kid who WANTED TO NOT DIE, but that was still a crime, wasn’t it? As the system tells us? If he really wanted to eat that bad, he should have done it the right way, like by going to a shelter - that would have turned him into foster care - where he would have been safe - unless he’d already had bad experiences in foster care that were the literal reason he felt he’d be safer starving on the streets instead - come on, what punishment would have fit the crime if you’d taken Jason to be locked up in juvie that night instead of taking him home?

What’s the appropriate sentence for being a kid stealing so he could get food he didn’t trust to get safely anywhere else? A week in juvie, maybe, two weeks? Does that include all the unwritten extras that go with that? All the beatings bigger kids would dish out just because they could? All the nights he couldn’t sleep because he was afraid of the way the guards looked at him and didn’t think he’d be safe if he did? All the times he ended up going hungry anyway because nobody cares if you can’t stomach the slop they dump in front of you, it’ll just go to someone else? Is all of that what Jason deserved for wanting to eat while having the nerve not to be born a Bruce Wayne or one of his peers?

Because if any cop had come along and arrested Jason that night, before you got to him first, even the ‘good cops,’ even the ‘by the book I’m just doing this because the law says I have to and I trust the law, that’s my excuse’ cops....if you never got EITHER of your first two sons, because GOOD HONEST COPS JUST DOING THEIR JOBS THE RIGHT WAY sent them both to jail like the law says they belonged for the crimes of stealing (even just to eat) and escaping a reform facility (even if they were never supposed to be there in the first place)......if that had been our fates.....does it matter to you that you wouldn’t even know any better, that you’d have NO CLUE if five years later, you arrested one of us for something as simple as defacing public property, because we just had so much fucking RAGE and PAIN in us that ironically we didn’t have before we ended up in juvie but damn sure had before they finally let us out....

Would you have batted an eye, or felt even a second of doubt or guilty for handcuffing us and dropping us off in front of the police precinct to be processed, would you spend even a single day wondering what would happen to us now, or happened to us since, would you be able to justify doing anything the thoughts you have right now about me or Jason suffering because of those good, honest cops starting that chain of events, could you actually make a case for going after those hypothetical cops, ‘avenging’ those versions of us on cops who aren’t corrupt, didn’t hurt kids or put them in harm’s way because they WANTED to but just because being supposed to mattered more than looking at us and seeing a reason not to? Would none of that suffering we might have endured in the system matter, would none of it be objectionable, would none of it be a fucking CRIME because the system works, and if that’s what the system says we deserved for our crime and if nobody ever says anything about the ‘extras’ packaged in with each sentence then obviously they’re not worth mentioning, let alone worrying about?

“Why am I here, instead of there?” Dick wants to ask Bruce one night, two nights, a thousand nights. “Why am I a superhero instead of just another nameless thug? What was different? Was it just because you recognized me that night? If I’d been just a little more bruised, a little more unrecognizable, would you have sent me back anyway? Was it just because you saw a kindred spirit in me, you saw too much of yourself in the kid who’d lost his parents the same way you did, that you couldn’t bear to see hurt more when you were sure you could help him instead? Help him BE more?”

“Cuz if its the latter.....why doesn’t it matter more than ‘your years of experience, your book learning, your faith in a system that’s never hurt you except by letting you down’....why doesn’t it have more credibility with you that I see so much of myself in so many of THEM, more even than I see of myself in YOU? Why do you dismiss it as naive optimism in total strangers when I tell you night after night there’s no WAY that every single one of these kids, these specific criminals, all deserve the violence and fear they’re inevitably going to face in jail? That there’s no WAY they’re all going to be rehabilitated, because most of them I bet already KNOW what they did was ‘wrong’ and the fact that they did it anyway isn’t because they need to be taught otherwise or needed behavioral correction....its because they didn’t have a choice! And yes before you say it, I KNOW there’s always another choice, but that doesn’t mean all the other choices don’t suck just as much if not MORE, and that’s what you never get! There’s not a mansion at the end of the road every time someone turns away from the ‘wrong path’ and gets on the right one. Its not a matter of just making better choices when your only choice is steal and eat or don’t steal and don’t eat. What rehabilitation is there for kids who were like me and never belonged there in the first place? What lesson were we supposed to learn there? “Don’t exist?” Jason knew stealing was wrong, he didn’t need to go to PRISON to teach him that.....what was he ever going to learn from going to juvie if a cop sent him there instead? “Don’t steal just because you don’t have money, starve instead?”

That’s what you never seem to get, Dick wants to say, to scream, to ignite the fucking atmosphere with his words so the people who matter, who need to hear him, are at least forced to SEE. You look at them and just see criminals, but I look at them and see ME. I see Jason. I see who we were. I see who we might have become. And then I see us standing in our costumes like the pair of actual superheroes we are, fighting the Joker with you, the likes of the Penguin, and Black Mask and all kinds of people who ACTUALLY hurt people, who RUIN lives just because they can, not because they have to, I see us SAVING lives each night thanks to you, thanks to you taking a chance on us when others might not have, even people who are supposed to be good and just, I see what we became just because someone with the right skills and the right resources was in the right place to offer us an alternative, one more to our liking, one we ended up devoting our whole LIVES to.....

And I think.....

How many of those kids sent to prison instead of an ACTUAL safe and loving home, how many of those kids who will go to sleep tonight hearing adults backed by the law tell them they’re worthless and that’s all they’ll ever be, instead of being told they’re loved and believed in....how many kids who could have done more for the world if only they’d been given a second chance than has cost the world because they were given no chances instead....

How many of them are actually superheroes the world will never get to be saved by, because the world gave up on them when they were still just kids and never imagined they could be anything more? How many of them are the sons that foster and adoptive parents will never have, SHOULD have had, if the people responsible for shaping those kids’ futures had invested as much time and energy and resources in FINDING better homes, loving homes, SAFER homes, as they did in locking those kids up every time they lashed out because the better environment they were promised happened to be with a pedophile who looks good on paper?

“If I didn’t have to end up like them, if my fate didn’t have to be a life of crime - why does theirs? Why aren’t they just as likely to end up like me instead....the only variable that’s missing is they need a BRUCE standing in their corner more than society needs a BATMAN standing there in judgment?”

“Bruce, you took in two separate kids who both came from nothing and were headed nowhere, as far as everyone involved with ‘the system’ said and believed,” Dick says to himself, practicing in the mirror for when he finally says what he needs to say, with the right words, the ones that might be HEARD instead of dismissed. The ones that might actually make a difference and change things. “And you raised both of those kids to become superheroes instead. Both of whom have saved more lives than we can count. Done more good than can probably ever be listed.

“What more proof do you need that the system you value so much doesn’t know shit? How can you say you value it, you value its role in society, when its only role in my life has been to constantly invalidate my value? How can you turn around and in the same breath assure me that you DO actually value my life anyway, and always would have? Because my life actually has more in common with most common criminals than it does with yours, and if the only thing that gives my life real value is the fact that at the right place and the right time, it coincided with yours in just the right way for you to see you had something in common with me.....”

“That doesn’t speak highly for how much you value any parts of me that you don’t see yourself in. Maybe that’s why I’m driven so hard to make myself as different from you as I can, as distinct as a hero. Make an identity that’s all my own, that you’re only a part of instead of the other way around. Maybe its so I can finally ask you, would you still love me if you couldn’t recognize me anymore? If there was nothing that looked like me when you look in the mirror? Was my life still worth saving, still giving a second chance....if my life isn’t actually what you say it is?”

And then Dick closes his mouth, turns away from the mirror, and boxes his questions up for another day.

One where maybe, finally, he’s ready to hear the answer.

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wisdom-walks-alone · 4 years

Text

let’s be sinners (to be saints)

Jonathan Kent/Damian Wayne. Damian centric. Hurt/Comfort. Hurt Damian Wayne. Damian Wayne Feels. 2k words.

Shoutout to my babe @darlinglissa for betaing!

read it on ao3!

Damian Wayne is a sinner in a world full of saints. That is a fact that is abundantly clear, and Damian is privy never to forget it.

He was brought into this world as a weapon, a tool to use against the world, and that is something he will never escape.

“You were made to conquer the world,” his mother used to say. But the world was not his to conquer. He knows that now. He knows that fact so well it hurts.

He will never be a hero—not really. He knows this, and he’s come to terms with it. He will never be a Superman or a Green Lantern. At this point he doesn’t even think he’ll be a Batman. And that’s okay, because he could never be a hero anyway.

Because when it boils down to it, Damian Wayne is a weapon and that is all he will ever be. And so he does what a weapon does best.

He fights.

Damian has always been an all or nothing kind of person. And where he comes from, nothing is never an option.

And so he gives it all he’s got, in everything he does. First in his training with the league, then with his father, and then with Grayson. And now? Now he gives his all to the mission.

What else can he do? He saves people. But no amount of lives he saves can wash away the horrors of his past, the pleas for mercy made with a last breath, the lives he’s taken. Though sometimes it is nice to pretend.

So he saves everyone, everyone he can. And even then it doesn’t feel like enough. But that does not stop him from trying.

It doesn’t erase what’s happened, it doesn’t erase what he’s done. But if for every thousand lives he saves it makes up for a fraction of one that he’s taken, then, well, that’s a start.

They say they love him. They say they care for him, his family. And they must; on a base level, Damian knows this is true. They brought him back from Apokalips, didn't they?

But they're afraid of him, he can see it in their eyes. Not of him as an adversary, that he knows, but of what he might do.

They all know what he’s capable of. He’d made sure to make that clear when he first arrived. They say that they know he’s changed, that what happened in the past wasn’t his fault. But everyday he toes the line and he sees it, he can see it, on every one of their faces, that they’re just waiting for him to cross it. And maybe one day he will, again.

He knows what they think. And he knows that they’re right. He’s nothing but a monster.

Every time he wonders what the point is, every time he feels like giving up, Damian has to remind himself of why he’s doing this in the first place. When the world is so dark that it doesn’t seem like there will ever be light, he reminds himself of where he came from.

Damian comes from darkness. And every day he has to beat that darkness back with a stick. He will not let it take him, he will not let it consume him. And he will not let it consume anyone else.

In the end Damian knows that no matter how much good he does, the good will never outweigh the bad. But maybe he can tip the scale.

If Damian is darkness then Jonathan Kent is the sky on a clear, sunny day.

He knows it the second he lays eyes on him, with the sun in his smile and the sky in his eyes, that Jonathan Kent will be a hero. Shaky and unsure of himself, sure, but he’ll get there, Damian knows it. Because Jon is good. Jon is a hero.

Damian looks at Jon and he sees everything he could never be.

Damian knows that his version of Robin is different from Grayson’s Robin or Todd’s Robin or even Drake’s Robin. They’ve each brought a part of themselves to the role, always making it their own.

But at the same time, Damian can’t help but be aware of the differences between himself and his brothers. Robin has always been a spirit of joy, a symbol of happiness, a childlike excitement next to Batman’s brutal force. Robin is what keeps him from going off the deep end.

Robin is the light to Batman’s darkness.

Damian can be better. He has to be better. He’s Robin, after all.

Hero or not, sometimes Damian has to take a step back and realize just how young Jon is.

Not that his twelve is that much younger than Damian’s thirteen, but Damian has never been a child.

There was a casualty on a mission, a family found dead in their home. What was left of it, anyway. They didn’t have time to count their losses, though, because the big bad was already on their way to their next stop. They had to keep moving if they were to prevent what was to come.

But Jon didn't want to leave them.

“Come on, Superboy,” Damian had pleaded. “We don’t have time for this.”

“No!” Jon had screamed, on the verge of tears. “No, we can’t—They’re dead, Damian! They’re dead!”

“No names in the field,” Damian tried to warn, voice a low growl.

“It doesn’t matter!” Jon yelled. “They’re dead, and we didn’t save them! We have to call our dads, Damian. This is bigger than us now. People are dead.”

“This is our mission, Superboy,” Damian reminded him sharply. “We don’t need any help from our fathers.”

“But people are dead! They died and—”

“And so we need to keep moving, to make sure no one else does.” Jon turned his tear-filled gaze back to the broken bodies, but Damian reached out to tilt his gaze back to him. “Don’t look at them. We have to keep going, Superboy. More people will die if we don’t.”

Jon kept his eyes locked on Damian’s, wide and glassy and so, so blue, and Damian stared back through his domino, retracting the lenses so that Jon could see his own eyes. “How can you be so calm about this?” he whispered. Damian broke their eye contact and re-deployed his lenses, turning away and starting to walk.

“I have to be,” he said quietly, not looking back to see if Jon was following him.

Because since the moment he was born, Damian has never been a child.

Damian has been to Hell. And he knows he’ll go there again.

He’s come to terms with that. He knows he’s a bad person, but that’s okay because as long as he’s doing good on Earth then at least he’s being productive.

It’s all he can do, help people, while he’s here. He helps as many as he can before he has to go back. And if he’s careful, that won’t be for a long time.

He doesn’t want to go back there, but he knows it’s inevitable. The good he does now won’t undo what he did then. Once a sinner, always a sinner.

And all sinners go to Hell.

With Jon, Damian feels like he’s finally the kid he never got to be. He’s not an assassin, he’s not a vigilante, he’s just Damian. And Damian rather likes it that way.

It’s nighttime, the two of them having a sleepover at the manor. They played a new video game that Jon had been raving about wanting to try and Damian had bought just to get him to shut up about it. Their banter was easy and they played straight into the night, the world growing dark around them. Damian hasn’t bothered to get up to turn the light on yet, so the only light in the room is the soft glow of the end credits as they scroll across the tv screen.

It was a good game. It was fun. Damian understands why Jon was so looking forward to playing it. They’ll have to go back and see what other endings they can get, but it’s getting late now so that’s something to do tomorrow. Today? It might be early morning by now.

They shouldn’t make a habit of staying up so late, but with their nightly activities it was inevitable. Even so, Damian will be starting high school when summer ends, and his father has made it very clear that school comes first.

Jon starts giggling about something, and Damian finds himself giggling too. “What? What’s so funny?”

Jon looks at him, eyes crinkled in the corners. “Nothing, just—That was a lot of fun.”

Damian returns the smile easily, taking in the happiness in Jon’s face. “Yeah, it was. I’m glad I got to play it with you.”

“I’m glad I was able to convince you to get it.”

Damian rolls his eyes good naturedly. “There is a difference between convincing and annoying.”

“It did the trick, didn’t it?” Jon asks, and Damian hits him with his pillow. Soon they’re rolling around on the bed, pillows as their mighty weapons, trying to reign in their laughter so as to not wake up the rest of the manor. When they settle down again, breathing heavily, Jon looks up at Damian through his lashes.

Then he does something Damian never expects.

He surges forward and kisses Damian, who takes in a sharp breath of surprise before he registers what’s happening. And once he does, he let’s him, his eyes fluttering closed for just a moment.

But then he comes to his senses, pulling away and scrambling off the bed in a hurry.

Jon blinks up at him from the bed, confused. “Damian?” he asks, concern etched in his voice.

“This isn’t a good idea,” Damian says in a rush, trying so hard to control his heartbeat because he knows Jon can hear it. “Your parents would have my head for this.”

“What? No they wouldn’t, they’re not homophobic or anything.”

“Not for being gay, Jon, because I’m me.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Damian?”

Damian squeezes his eyes shut, turning away from his best friend. “I’m not a good person, Jon. I’m not good for you.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Jon says, and he means it, because Jon never swears unless he really means it.

“I’m serious, Jon,” Damian insists. “I’m a horrible person. You deserve someone so much better than me.”

“You don't know what you're talking about.”

“I’ve been to Hell, Jon,” Damian hisses. “I’m a bad person. Bad people end up in Hell, that’s how this works. The things I’ve seen, the things I’ve done…”

Suddenly Jon is up off the bed. “But that’s not you! I don’t know what made anyone send you to Hell, but they’re wrong, Damian. You didn’t deserve it, not then, and definitely not now.”

Damian finds himself backed up against his desk, and his hands grip it behind him as it presses into his back. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Everyone I care about gets hurt, it’s a side effect of being around me.”

“It’s a side effect of being a hero.”

Damian looks away again, unable to meet Jon’s eyes. “I’m no hero.”

“You can’t seriously mean that.” Jon is so close Damian can feel his breath on his face, but he doesn’t dare look up. “Damian, you can’t mean that! You're one of the best people I know, Damian, you’re a hero, you’re—you’re my hero.”

Damian finally looks up at that, and Jon holds his gaze. He swipes a thumb across Damian’s cheek, and it’s then that Damian realizes he’s been crying.

“I have looked up to you since the day I met you,” Jon pushed on. “I thought, ‘That is what a hero is like. I’m going to be just like Robin.’ You don’t know how amazing you are.”

He takes Damian’s face in his hands, forces him to look him in the eyes. Even in the dark, they’re so, so blue.

“They’re not going to send you to Hell again, Damian, I won’t let them.”

And looking into those blue, blue eyes, Damian believes him.

All the warmth and comfort of the sun lives in Jon’s lips. And if the sun lives in Jon’s lips, then maybe there can be light.

#my fics #dc fic #batman fic #superman fic #super sons #supersons #jondami #damijon #damian wayne #jonathan kent #jon kent #dc #dc comics #batman #robin #superman #superboy #jay writes

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redjaybathood · 4 years

Text

Bruce/Selina/Talia plotbunny

A proposal for yet another DC reboot. Or, if you will, Batman-focused line of comics, like White Knight universe. Only it starts with year one Batman who just returned to Gotham from his travels, training with the League of Assassins, starts his vigilante career, and - the tragedy of Flying Graysons happens.

Bruce takes Dick in but - plot twists - does not allow him on the streets as Robin. It’s just Batman adventures in catching criminals and raising a kid.

Then, another plot twist! Talia, heavily pregnant, comes to Gotham too. She decided that she won’t raise her child under Ra’s guidance because, let’s be honest, Ra’s is fucked up, and he fucked her up, and her siblings, so - she doesn’t want that for her child.

She seeks Bruce out for help because being pregnant makes it difficult fighting off the assassins, and she stays. Damian is born, Dick is adopted. Talia and Bruce are not getting back together (yet) because they both are emotionally constipated in different ways (Talia is still hurt because Bruce left the League left her, and she is certain he lets her stay only because a) their son and b) Ra’s is after her; Bruce is still hurt that Talia didn’t leave with him, and he’s sure she came to him only because of a) their son and b) Ra’s is after her). And, cue Selina!

Talia is not a stay at home mom though. As soon as she gives birth and recovers from it, she begins to work on rooting the League out of Gotham. She also accidentally discovers the Court of Owls (or maybe they go after her because they don’t like Ra’s - view him as their competition) and they have to go, too.

But it’s not like Talia is leaving kids untended, or only with Alfred (which was what Bruce did before she came along) - instead as they have joint custody, they switch.

They both meet Cawoman, separately: Batman one night tries to stop a robbery in a museum. Talia saves Catwoman from getting caught in a crossfire with some Assassins. Catwoman has no idea Batman and Talia (I don’t have a good secret identity name for her, sorry; maybe Muse?) know each other, and the same with Bruce and Talia. Selina flirts with both of them, more genuine on her end in Talia’s case, more playful in Bruce’s case. They both fall in love with her.

Meanwhile, Dick is introduced to other superkids, Roy, Wally, Donna, Garth. No one among them is actually allowed to be a vigilante! Instead, they form a team of kid/teenager detectives and have, like, age-appropriate adventures and help other kids, animals and adults. During these adventures, they find, help and befriend Kory, Raven, Vic, Gar, and oh god, all the Wilson kids. They call themselves Teen Titans and have a “base of operation”/”secret hideout” bankrolled by Bruce, Ollie, maybe Diana and Arthur too. Still, nodoby is in the suits! If, say, Trigon goes after Raven, or Slade tries to kidnap his kids back before finishing his parenting classes, they call adults and hold them off before the cavalry is there. If they ever have to face “evil” kids, like, I don’t know, from HIVE Academy, or Terra, they actually help them escape the adults who make them do those things, and so Titans grow. In the end, there are so many of them, Bruce has no choice but transform Titans Tower into Titans Academy for gifted kids or something like that. Every kid gets to have safe space to live, and also education. First time Dick and his friends ever suit up for real is when they are 18 or so, freshly graduated, and supervillains attack the city the school is in. It’s much higher stakes than anything they fought off before, and waiting for Justice League is not an option. Still, younger kids are not suited up, only the oldest.

After that, OG Titans become heroes but also stay young adults with things like college and jobs and stuff. Younger Titans become kid/teenage detectives, and they call in OG Titans when they get over their heads.

Meanwhile! Bruce meets Jason who tries to steal the tires off the Batmobile. Oh no, a child! He can't adopt him though because it's something that needs to be discussed first with Talia and Alfred and Dick and Damian who is like seven already.

He can't take him to Titans either because most of the kids there are metas or magic or super-related. Also, except for OG Titans, everyone there was found by Titans themselves.

So it's Ma Gunn school for him. Only of course after finding out what is going on there, he runs away and seeks out Muse (who everyone knows has a soft spot for children, and dealing with anyone who abuses kids much more definitely than Batman, so even if Batman wasn’t the one who left Jason there, Jason would still trust Muse more; AND, they met before, when Catherine was still alive - and an Untitled came to Gotham. So they worked together before! Talia even said to him to find her in a few years, when he gets older, to train - she seemed certain he had a talent for fighting evil things). Talia sees Jason and - okay, first, she apprehends Ma Gunn, second, she makes Batman investigate Gotham’s Social Services and Bruce - to donate money to fund foster programs and such. But the third thing she does is bring Jason to the manor. She talked about this with Bruce when she explained why he needed to do something about Social Services, explained things to Dick and Damian so they know that adults weren’t replacing them or love them any less but rather they had so much love around that they decided to take in another kid, and made sure Alfred was okay with caring for another child too. If anyone wasn’t okay with that, she supposed she would have to get her own place, and work out visitation for Damian and Dick. It wouldn’t have been great but she couldn’t just leave Jason. It was like fate.

Thankfully, it did not come to that. But Jason coming to live at Manor is not without the difficulties. First of all, Talia can’t just adopt him. Bruce had a lot of influence in Gotham to be allowed to adopt Dick, and also everyone thought that he’s going to marry Talia, the mother of his other child, pretty soon, but that did not happen. And for Talia, who is unmarried, and has a day job but it’s at her son’s father company, and does not have her own place to live, things are slightly more difficult. And Bruce and Talia both can’t adopt Jason as they are not married. So, they have to foster Jason for now, but they got a hint from Jason’s case worker that they could actually have a better chance at adopting Jason if they are married to each other. Both of them are like: oh no.

Thing is, they are still pining for each other, even if they also repress it with all their soul as they also love each other more than just romantically - they are family that raises two kids together. They don’t want to mess it up! And, also, both of them are pretty much in love with Catwoman, secretly, or so they think, Because at this point they know that the other one is in love with Catwoman, and so they both refuse to date her out of misplaced sense of loyalty and certainty that Selina will be happier with the other one. Selina is this close to calling their bullshit out but then, Jason comes along. And Bruce and Talia have to get fake-married. Which is in truth a real marriage, and was so for years, only without sex, mostly, because they think the other one does not love them anymore.

While adults are being dumbasses with love triangle and ignoring the simple answer of poly relationships with Selina, things are not that much better with Jason, Dick, and Damian.

Look, Jason is half-feral child who thinks the only reason Muse wants to adopt him is that she wants him to become her student and eventually, help her with getting Gotham rid of magical threats like the Untitled. Of course, she doesn’t want him as her son, she has two already and it seems like she can’t bear the idea of them fighting evil with magical punches and swords, so Jason is an expandable street rat. Damian, however, is mad jelly because mother did not ever teach him any magical punches. And everyone in this family treats him like a child! While Todd gets much more freedom. Thus, the resentment grows.

Dick, however, is just put off by Jason’s brash nature. He is more used to half-feral or full-feral kids being nicer to him (because usually he and his team are the ones that rescue them), so Jason, in his opinion, is a little asshole, who doesn’t know what is good. Also, he also jealous? Talia didn’t allow him to fight side by side with her, ever.

And Dick’s friends basically don’t like Jason either out of solidarity with him. Except for Eddie. Eddie thinks Jason is cool and a hero already.

Sorry, Tim is not going to figure out Batman’s identity, because Richard Grayson was never Robin, and Nightwing does not operate in Gotham, so Tim, even when he eventually saw Nightwing on TV, was much older at the time and forgot about the quadruple somersault and did not put two and two together.

However! After a fight with his siblings, Jason runs away from Manor, and meets Tim Drake who takes pictures of Batman, and Spoiler, who spoils Cluemaster’s plans, and Batgirl, who doesn’t talk and lives at an old clock tower that is secretly a base of operation for benevolent hacker Oracle - who is actually Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara. And thing is, neither of them wants to go home - Jason, to the Manor where nobody really wants him in (or so he thinks); Tim, to the empty house; Spoiler, to her parents’ flat where her dad lives and mother sometimes remembers about her, in between highs and withdrawl; Cass has nowhere to go, actually. And Barbara doesn’t really know how to help any of them legally and not to make it worse, so she lets them all stay.

They: gather evidence and put Cluemaster behind bars; make a succesful trap for David Cain, the assassin, and he was supposed to go to the Blackgate but nobody heard of him since (because Muse found Jason very fast, actually, but was hesitant to interfere as it’s the first Jason made friends with kids his age after coming to Manor - but when she found out what Cain did to his daughter, well...); sue for Tim Drake’s emancipation; help to gather evidence that would allow for Joker’s extradiction to a state with capital punishment.

They all live at Clock Tower now. Safe, sound, not in costumes (anymore, if we’re talking about Spoiler and Batgirl).

Talia bites the bullet and asks Bruce to marry her, just so they could adopt not one but four additional kids instead. He agrees in a hearbeat (it’s for the kids! sure, Bruce).

Though, Stephanie ends up not being adopted because she does not want to part with her mom. She lives at the Manor for some time while her mom is in the rehab though.

And then, when Damian is ten, he realises that all of his siblings have a team of their own (Jason’s calling the team he is in, the Outlaws, because he’s dramatic like that, and well, technically, all of them did a lot of illegal stuff before the adoption - stealing, stalkering, fighting, hacking).

That’s when he meets Jon, and they run away together (supervised by Jon’s older borther Kon though) to find the truth about Damian’s mother’s past - they find the League, they found out that there are kids in the League like Mara al Ghul, Maya Ducard. They return to Gotham with them. In Gotham they meet and rescue Colin Wilkes. (all the adventures must be age appropriate though, no killing and no one seriously trying to kill them either).

And get their hides tanned by Wayne/Head and Kent/Lane household.

Duke Thomas, seeing how his parents weren’t Jokerized - Joker was tried and found guilty and got death penalty - still manages to find his way to the Batfam. Only this time, it’s because he’s a meta who helped to bring down the Riddler - though, not with his meta abilities but with his smarts. He is not adopted into the family, his parents are alive and well and not abusive. Instead, he is offered to join Titans Academy where all the batkids go to at this point of time. After they graduate, he and Cass form their own team, the Outsiders. Tim, Young Justuce. Jason stays with the Outlaws name though the people on the team change: Cass and Tim - obvious, Steph - joins Young Justice (because she feels it would be wierd to be on the same team as her girlfriend). Duela Dent joins Outlaws, as does Eddie Bloomberg, Grant Wilson (hey, someone needs to superwise the kids, he has experience with his younger siblings, he volunteered).

Tl;dr: Bruce adopts everyone he legally able to adopt, Talia is a good mom, every batkid has their team, nobody is allowed to be on a team until they either 18 or graduated school. Minor acts of heroics, detective work and age-appropriate adventures are fine before that, but if things become R-rated or more, kids have to call adults. Nobody dies. Everyone is happy and gets along (eventually).

#fic ideas #bruce wayne #talia al ghul #selina kyle #dick grayson #damian wayne #jason todd #tim drake #cassandra cain #stephanie brown #duke thomas #titans #outsiders #outlaws #young justice #Bruce/Selina/Talia AU

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onlyfireandphoenix · 4 years

Text

The Golden Rules (from the Golden Boy Himself)

Summary: Dick tries to teach Tim how to be a good brother (as well as a semi-normal human) through love and affection

Dick had called an emergency meeting of Robins, which meant that it was just him and Tim sitting in the living room with a tray of Alfred’s cookies.

“Tim, we need to talk,” Dick was surprisingly serious, which was not comforting coming from the person who never learned to be serious outside of his masked life. Tim knew that something bad must have happened. What had he done this time? Was he going to get kicked out of the Robin mantle?

Dick looked at him, and frowned, “Tim we have a problem.” Oh no, he knew it. He was getting kicked out of the mantle and he didn’t even know what he did. “You are way too serious.” Wait… what? Tim glanced at Dick trying to puzzle out what he heard. Surely he must have heard wrong.

“Tim, you are like what? Ten?”

“Twelve,” Tim said indignantly.

Dick plowed right through like he hadn’t heard. “No ten year old should be as serious or reserved as you. It’s not healthy.”

Sooo…. Tim wasn’t getting kicked out? This was only an intervention! He couldn’t believe that Dick would call an emergency meeting to tell him that he needed to be less serious.

“So, I thought that I will teach you how to be less serious.” Because he was the perfect example of less serious of course. Still out of respect for Dick and not wanting to hurt his feelings, Tim stayed.

“Great! Now, lesson number is one everyone always needs a hug. You can never give too many hugs.”

Tim frowned at Dick. He knew that Boy Wonder was much more knowledgeable in the area of physical contact, but he clearly remembered Batman’s face last time Dick tried to hug him. “Are you sure about this? Bruce never seems to like it when you hug him.”

Dick pouted at Tim. “Tim… you don’t trust me?”

And there were those stupid puppy dog eyes. Why did Dick always pull those puppy dog eyes on him? Any why did they work every single time? Tim sighed, and Dick gave a gleeful squeal and hugged Tim as if to prove his point.

After few weeks of not so subtly drilling this lesson into Tim’s head, Dick watched from a distance as after a long patrol, a exhausted Tim Drake shuffled over to where Batman was sitting in the cave and gave him a hug that might have been more of a collapse than a hug, but still, it was progress.

The first time Tim had tried Dick’s advice, Dick remembered watching Bruce stiffen like a board under the tiny boy’s embrace. It took a week and much encouragement from Dick for Tim to try it again. Dick might or might not have given many lectures to an emotionally constipated bat behind the scenes, but Tim did try again, and this time Batman did not stiffen. From then on it was smoother sailing. And Tim had begun hugging people on a much regular basis. Now even the emotionally constipated bat was getting use to the idea that it was not only Dick that gave hugs and that maybe normal people hugged each other more than just on their birthdays.

Now that stage one was completed, Dick decided that it was time to move on to step two.

Tim sighed as Dick called another emergency meeting. He wondered if this one was an actually emergency. Knowing Dick he doubted it, but he still went anyway, if only to humor Dick.

“It is time for lesson two,” Dick said in all seriousness. So no, it was not an actual emergency. Figures. “You need to know how to cuddle.” Was he serious? But knowing Dick, yes, unfortunately he was completely serious. “Cuddling on the couch is important in everyone’s life, so you need to get acquainted with it.” Dick decided to work on cuddling while watching Lilo and Stitch, which if Tim was honest, he wasn’t opposed to.

Dick felt a surge on glee as one night after he had convinced Tim to watch another movie with him, Tim plopped right down next to him and curled up like a kitten next to Dick. The child was finally learning!

Soon even Batman started noticing that Tim was becoming more like Dick, but at first he saw nothing wrong with it. The problems started when he found Tim dangling from a light fixture eating a bowl of cereal. That is when he called in Dick to reign in these ‘lessons’.

“Oh come on B, don’t you like having a more friendly, slightly more normal child around instead on a miniature version of you?”

“I do not mind that you are teaching Tim to be more socially interactive, but I do not want to see you teaching him your unhealthy addiction to cereal or to risk his neck my dangling from places that are not meant to be dangled from.” Dick sensing that he was not going to get anywhere by arguing, agreed. However, Bruce never said anything about discontinuing the lessons…

That is how Bruce got stuck with another, smaller Dick Grayson.

Tim had heard that Jason was back. He had heard that something was very wrong inside his head, but he still hoped that maybe now, he could finally meet his predecessor, and brother that he never had. Of course he had been warned to stay away, and he would never break Batman’s order, so he didn’t try to go hunting for Jason, but if he happened to patrol a little later than normal or stray closer to Crime Alley than he did before, who could stop him?

This strategy of ‘avoiding’ Jason finally paid off when three shots came whizzing past Robin on one of his slightly longer patrols.

“Greetings from the dead, Replacement!” IT WAS JASON! Tim would recognize that voice anywhere, even though it was slightly distorted through the red mask Jason was wearing.

“JASON!” Tim squealed before launching himself at the vigilante. Jason who was not expecting this, took a moment to shake off the child that was… hugging...him?

“Get off me, you rat!” Tim only clung on harder and climbed further onto him with Dick-like agility.

“Ican’tbelieveitisreallyyou!” The miniature Dick rambled. “I have wanted to meet you since forever, and now you are here, and alive, and RIGHT HERE! I can’t wait until you get to go back to being Robin! You will kick so much bad guy derriere!” Who was this kid, and what had Dick done to him? This kid should not be allowed next to any sugar. Jason would make sure to warn Alfred, but knowing Alfred, he already knew and had locked all of the sugar in a bat-proof safe.

“Look Replacement, I don’t do all of the hugging and touchy feely things, okay?” He peeled the kid off of him and pinned the boy’s cape to a nearby wall.”

“Nightwing says that everyone always needs a hug. It is rule number one.” Even behind his domino mask, Jason could tell the kid’s eyes were unnaturally bright. And of course it was Dick’s number one rule. Jason would make him pay for corrupting this child.

The child suddenly changed the subject. “Are you aware of the breakout at Arkham?” And before waiting for a reply, he plowed on. “There were no major ones that escaped but a few of the lower ones did and I am trying to track them. I was wondering if you could help me?”

Jason knew exactly what the little vermin was doing. Nightwing had already tried this tactic on him MULTIPLE times. “Why isn’t the big old bat helping you?”

“I think that he is away in a JL mission and Nightwing is away at Bludhaven.”

“So they left you here to deal with it alone?” Jason couldn’t tell if he was impressed by the kid’s guts or furious at the bats for abandoning one of their own? Maybe a little of both? But no, he was not going to be roped into helping any of the bats.

Then the rat delivered his final blow. “Okay that is fine. But could you get me another cup of coffee? I haven’t been able to get enough sleep since the breakout.”

He would strangle Dick if he ever got his hands on him again. No remorse. In fact he was thrilled about the fact. Him and his manipulative little clone.

“Replacement,” Jason growled in warning. He was not going to be manipulated into helping this accursed family. “Go home.”

“I really shouldn’t. Who knows what these villains might do while they are loose?” He gave a tired smile and was about to leap away, when Jason grabbed his arm.

“Fine, Replacement, I will help! But don’t think I don’t know what you are doing!” The little rat would be the death of him.

Tim grinned as he watched his predecessor kick some bad guy derriere. It was nice to have Jason back home, and Tim would make sure that he comes home permanently. Maybe then Dick would have someone else besides him to teach his rules.

Jason had finished with the bad guys now, and with a sidelong look at Tim, he silently agreed to just truss them up for the police to handle.

“Now Replacement, go get some sleep and leave me alone.” Tim grinned again and let himself sag to the floor. He really was tired and Jason had never brought him that coffee. “Aww, I didn’t mean here!” Jason said plucking Tim up from the ground, but Tim was already on his way to dreamland. The thought of maybe this is what Dick’s rules were really supposed to be used for, flitted through his head before the sleep took over. The last thing he heard was Jason grumbling about having to drop him off, and with one last smirk, he was asleep.

He woke up a few hours later back inside the mansion with a slightly puzzled Dick hovering over him. “What happened out there last night?”

Tim smiled up at his big brother and replied, “I used rule number one.” Then he scooted off the makeshift bed and walked out of the room, leaving a still very confused Dick behind.

It wasn’t like Jason came over any more than normal, but if the bats got into some trouble, there was always someone who would miraculously save their bacon right in the nick of time. Now who this guardian angel was, who could guess….

……….

Then along came Damian, the demon spawn. He was the one that really challenged Dick’s rules. Maybe this was the one person that truly did not like being hugged. But that couldn’t be true because he let Dick hug him. What was up with that? Tim frowned at his little brother who was sitting across the cave. If the rules worked for Jason, surely they would work for this child, so with a deep breath, he walked towards the demon child.

“What are you doing, Drake?”

“Just coming to say hi, you know like a good brother would do.”

“We are not brothers, Drake,” the little brat was sure not making it easy.

“Okay, but will you be willing to come watch a movie with Dick and I?” Tim felt sure he could rope Dick into watching a movie. He loved stuff like that.

“Tt, I assume Dick is going to force me to do it if I refuse.”

Knowing Dick, he probably would. “Yes…”

“Fine, Drake, I will meet you up there.” Tim looked at Damian warily. Well that just happened. Tim assumed that it had been a victory for him, but one could never tell with Damian. After all, the assassin child could be plotting his murder at that moment. After a moment’s hesitation, Tim retreated to find Dick.

…

“Hey Dick,” Tim poked his head into Dick’s room. “Would you mind watching a movie with Damian and I?”

“Oh sorry Timmy, you know how much I would love to, but B has me working on this case, and I don’t think I can take any time off. You know how he is.” Dick did look apologetic, but all Tim could think of was how dead he was going to be once Damian found out. This time there would be no stopping it. He was going to die, and knowing Damian, it would not be pleasant. But maybe he could turn this situation in his favor. Yes, he had been meaning to get some sleep sometime, and dying in your sleep was always better than being tortured. And if he didn’t die, there was always the benefit of getting more than two hours of sleep at one time. Maybe Dick’s rules could come in handy after all...

...

When Damian showed up to watch the movie with Grayson and Drake, he found Drake sitting all alone on the couch. Of course Damian knew right away that this meant that Grayson could not have come to this ‘bonding’ session, but for some reason that completely escaped him, he walked over and sat down anyway.

After a long moment of silence, Damian broke the silence. Just out of curiosity of what Drake would say he asked, “When is Grayson arriving?”

Drake visibly gulped and replied without looking, “Soon, but let us go ahead and start the movie.” It was said way too quickly. Drake might be an expert at lying when he was under the mask, but in familial situations like this he was less than competent. Still, Grayson would prefer it if Damian participated in this ‘brotherly bonding’, so he pretended to be blind to Drake’s obvious lie.

“Do you want to watch Star Wars?” Tim asked as he held out the whole collection with a pride that was something to be ashamed of.

“What would Grayson want to watch?” Damian couldn’t help himself. It was quite amusing to watch Drake squirm as he tried to figure out a way to justify a decision that Grayson would clearly dislike.

“Well…… he isn’t here right now, and I would prefer to have a movie marathon right now.”

Damian didn’t care one way or another what they watched, so he gave his consent. Though he did vaguely wonder why Drake would want to watch a marathon. Usually he did not want to hang out with Damian if he could help it.

However, it did not take him long to figure out why Drake was so keen on the marathon because not even five minutes into the film, he was sound asleep. Wrapped around a very stiff Damian.

That sly little manipulator, Damian could almost not help but be impressed with Drake’s skill at masterminding this entire scenario just so he could get some sleep. Drake must know that Grayson would never allow Father to take Drake away from a “bonding” experience with his brother. He also knew that Grayson would never forgive Damian for waking Drake once he was finally getting some sleep, so Damian was stuck with an unconscious brother for 9 hours.

Drake would pay for this later, but Damian admitted that he needed the sleep, so he waited out the movie.

When Dick finally managed to take a break from the case, he was surprised to still hear noise coming from the living room. He quietly peeked his head and and laid eyes of something that he had only dared wish for in dreams. Not only was Timmy finally asleep, but he was asleep on Damian. And Damian wasn’t trying to kill him! The worst thing about this scene was Damian’s scowl, but there was not blood or knives, so Dick didn’t worry too much.

There was no way he was going to interrupt this progress, so he quietly stole some of Alfred’s cookies and headed back to the cave.

Tim awoke to find that he wasn’t dead. That was good at least. Damian was no longer in the room, but Dick sat on edge of the couch.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” he grinned. Catching Tim’s questioning look around, he said, “Damian had to go to school. You know, we have to keep up the appearance of a semi-normal family.” Tim gave a small, sleepy nod, and rolled out of bed.

“I am really glad you taught me those rules.” Dick didn’t bother to think about Tim’s sleepy ramblings, so he just grinned and caught Tim when he tripped over a stray blanket.

……….

This time Tim didn’t even mean to use the rules. It wasn’t even his fault. He was just tired and had a bit too much work to do. The rest of his family shouldn’t have even noticed, but somehow they managed to catch wind of his perpetual exhaustion decided to do something about it.

Dick suggested that they hold an intervention because those had worked in the past. Jason suggested they knocked him over the head and carry him to bed. Bruce wasn’t there as usual. No one would let Damian give his suggestion because no one wanted another dead Robin (except Jason at times, but those were becoming more rare).

This meant that the bat brothers spent the afternoon arguing about whose idea was better.

Damian rolled his eyes at Grayson and Todd. Sometimes his predecessors were fools. If Damian wanted Drake dead, the whole world would know, and that mechanical fraud would already be dead by now. However, Drake was an asset to the team, as long as he didn’t kill himself through exhaustion.

His brothers were obviously incompetent to handle the situation, he snuck out of the room to handle it himself.

Now where would a sleep deprived Drake be? He wouldn’t be in the cave because Father had banned him after Drake had collapsed mid lecture from Batman for lack of personal care. Probably then Drake would be holed up in his room. Sure enough, Damian could hear low moans coming from said room that could possibly resemble some form of language. The locked door was only a small inconvenience, and within seconds, Damian had the door opened.

“Demon Spawn?” a slurred voice asked hidden under a canopy of covers. “What ‘re you doin’ ‘ere?”

Damian pulled the covers away to find a haggard Drake surrounded by piles of papers. “Tt Drake, I am here to make sure you survive the next few hours.”

“I’m survivin’ great,” the slurred, slightly delirious voice responded.

“Grayson says that we need to have some ‘brotherly bonding’ time. He says that we need to watch a movie called The Guardians, and he has sacrificed some of his favorite chocolate milk for this.”

“But… I need to finish this for Bruce…” Drake stared blankly at the papers surrounding him.

Curse Drake and his stupid lack of self preservation instincts. But Damian needed to convince Drake to go along with this, not force him because Drake would only dig his heels in if he thought this might be some kind of trick. “Do you want to disappoint Grayson, Drake?”

“Well...no…”

“Then we need to have this ‘brotherly bonding’.”

Drake looked suspiciously at Damian. “Why ‘re you insistin’ on this? ‘Re you gonna kill me again?”

Damian replied as gently as a former assassin could. “No, I just want to assuage Grayson’s constant naggings.” Apparently that was enough to convince the sleep deprived Drake of his sincerity because Drake shoved some of his papers aside to make room for Damian on the bed. Damian quickly set up the movie and moved nest to Drake on the bed. “Here is Grayson’s chocolate milk.” He handed Drake a mug of the milk he had swiped for this occasion. Grayson would not mind his donation once he found out what it was for.

Drake clung to the milk and gulped it all down in only a few seconds. Damian was almost impressed with how he didn’t choke. Once the movie had started, Tim curled up against Damian, and within five minutes he was sound asleep.

Damian quickly scooted off the bed and collected the stray papers. He then gathered the discarded mug and made his escape.

Damian then went down to where his predecessors were still arguing. “The matter has been dealt with.” He said matter of factly as he interrupted their heated discussion. The both turned towards him with identical looks of horification. “I did not kill him, if that is what you are thinking.” Again, both faces sagged with relief.

“Then, what did you do?” Grayson asked hesitantly.

“I tampered with his chocolate milk.”

“Chocolate milk!” Grayson exclaimed. “My chocolate milk?!?” Todd promptly hit him in the head for being an idiot. “Okay fine, I guess that is okay.” Grayson grumbled.

“Drake will be asleep for at least 24 hours,” Damian reported.

“Good work,” Todd said, almost sounding surprised and possibly a bit relieved.

“Tt, of course, Todd. Unlike you two, I was able to get the job accomplished.” Damian took that opportunity to escape before things could get sentimental.

#Tim Drake #Dick Grayson #Damian Wayne #Jason Todd #Fix-it #Small Tim Drake #Jason Comes Home #damian needs a hug #Tim needs sleep #Protective Tim Drake #Protective Damian Wayne

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