#and he was still in the process of coming to terms with it when damian ended up in his life.

[starry-bi-sky]

Clone^2 danny headcanons and/or facts that i wanted to expand on but didn't have the motivation or inspiration to write a ficlet about. Ultimately most of these are ideas that already exist in canon clone^2 but are only now being expanded on/explored/stated specifically.

Because I'm procrasinating cfau and passively thinking about clone danny and damian again.

1 - As he's liminal, Danny generates his own ectoplasm. He generates it at a slower rate than the casual ghost but faster than the average liminal. It's what gives him an ecto-signature and results in him triggering his parents' weapons and ecto-sensors.

The ectoplasm he generates actually has a use, and he tends to burn through his supply while he's fighting because of all the physical energy he spends + the use of his scary eyes requires (albeit really minor amounts of) ectoplasm to use. It also has health benefits, as using his ectoplasm keeps his heartbeat steady and lessens the risk of his arrhythmia flaring up due to all of his physical activity and adrenaline.

It does happen occasionally that he uses up more ectoplasm than he can replace, and this has the expected negative effects on his health as all that adrenaline and stress catches up to his heart without a buffer to mitigate it. He carries a canteen full of diluted ectoplasm with him in order to give his system the boost it needs in order to stabilize itself, which he can usually tell when he needs due to excessive fatigue/chest pains/dizziness/other arrhythmia symptoms he gets that means he's low on ectoplasm.

2 - Danny's arrhythmia is a form of bradycardia (which is a slower heartbeat) -- what type? Unspecified / Unknown thanks to it being ectoplasmic in nature.

3 - In that same breath, Danny also has to burn that ectoplasm off in some form or another because if he doesn't it builds up and causes him the same issues as if he was too low. It also causes him to become more emotionally volatile, restless, irritable, overstimulated, etc, which the stress of that then makes his heart condition worsen. If too much ectoplasm builds up, it'll cause a physical electrical shock/shortage. This is rare however, and usually is the equivalent of giving someone a painful static shock. At best it makes the lights flicker or technology fritz out for a few seconds.

While it doesn't have much effect on the physical world, it does expend a good chunk of ectoplasm. Think like dumping out a heavy bucket of water that you've been carrying for a while, or getting into a hot shower after being outside in the cold for hours. It's emotionally draining but very relieving.

4 - Danny can replenish ectoplasm or generate ectoplasm faster by resting, eating, consuming other ectoplasm (fastest), fulfilling his interests / doing things that makes him happy, or by being exposed to high amounts of ectoplasm in the area. He can also rapidly generate it by being in a volatile emotional state, but that drains ectoplasm almost as quickly, and runs the risk of causing flare ups in his arrhythmia.

5 - this is actually canon to the au but I figured it wouldn't hurt to expand more on it / clarify / confirm, but Danny post-Damian has chronic pain in his hands from the nerve damage he sustained. He has daily physical therapy exercises he's supposed to do that he does in the mornings/evenings and whenever his hands hurt/feel stiff. He wears compression gloves in his day-to-day life and gets Sam and Tucker's help to brainstorm ideas about how to make compression gloves for Phantom that can include his knuckledusters. His grip and hand strength is weakened.

He has bad hand days where his hands hurt more than usual. This can happen at random, but is more common after he's overused/strained his hands either the day before or earlier in the day. His fingers stiffen up for similar reasons, and he gets tremors. It's happened before where (for example) he's braiding his hair and unbraiding it, only to need someone else to finish the braid because his fingers stiffened up and don't want to work like he wants them to.

Massages, heat, pressure, etc. helps soothe the pain, and since Danny's a fidgety person his friends and family can usually tell when he has a flare up because any hand movements he was doing prior ceased/slowed suddenly, or he starts massaging his hands / stretching out his fingers.

Damian very stubbornly insists on massaging his hands for him when this happens, he has a lot of intense guilt for being the reason for Danny's chronic pain so he wants to alleviate it in anyway he can.

6 - Danny has what I like to call "Bruce-isms", a word I came up with just now that means he has Bruce Wayne mannerisms that come from the fact that he's still Bruce's clone. A Nature vs. Nurture thing. His Bruce-isms include the Bruce Grunts Of Ambiguous Tonal Meaning ("hm", "hrm", "hn"), his workaholism, his paranoia (on a milder scale), etc. They're small, relatively non-defining things that are quirks but don't make up his personality.

He's got what Sam and Tucker like to call "Bruce Wayne Moments" which are essentially Bruce-isms but only ones that Danny and his friends are aware of considering they only know Bruce as Brucie Wayne and not Batman. "Bruce Wayne Moments" include Danny being clumsy, doing something air-headed, being oblivious, etc. It's not a common joke among the three of them since Tucker and Sam know that Danny's still pr sensitive to the whole clone thing. So they only bring it up when he's done something stupid but hilarious.

7 - while clone^2 focuses more on Danny and Damian's relationship and Danny helping Damian develop his identity beyond just "Damian Wayne's Clone", Danny still suffers from his own identity crises. He sometimes gets jealous of Ellie and Damian for being "lucky" that they always knew they were clones, rather than finding out later in life.

He's aware that this is not fair to think and that Damian and Ellie both have their own struggles as clones, but he can't help it sometimes.

He tries not to think about it too much, but when things get too quiet or when he's not busy, Danny can't help but wonder how much of himself is things he's learned on his own and come from him, and how much of it comes from being Bruce Wayne's clone. He has to stop and count how many things are unique about him specifically when he starts to emotionally spiral. It's not rational, but it's not supposed to be.

As a result Danny kinda, hm, clings to his identity as the Phantom, just a little bit? He thinks it's one of the few things that he has autonomous control over as "Danny Fenton", rather than it being a result of him being Bruce Wayne's clone. Because Bruce Wayne isn't a vigilante! Right? Right?

Consequently this becomes one of the reasons that Damian keeps mum about Bruce Wayne's identity. The original reasons were because Danny asked not to know much about the LoA beyond what Damian already told him, and Batman was technically "apart" of the LoA, and secondly because he just didn't want Danny to get involved with Batman and co and Danny knowing about Bruce Wayne's identity could potentially cause that.

But as time goes on Damian kinda notices like, just how being a clone is affecting Danny even if he hides it from Damian pretty well. He can't really comprehend what it was like for Danny to grow up thinking he was normal like everyone else only to find out he was a clone, but he does see the hurt it's causing his brother. And he does notice that Danny was holding onto being Phantom quite a bit, and figured that if he found out Bruce Wayne was also a vigilante, it would hurt him beyond belief.

8 - So Danny's creation has been kept relatively,,, mmm,,, vague? considering I've been struggling for a time how I could plausibly have his creation happen without Bruce finding out about it immediately. And my conclusion is that around the time Danny was created, Bruce met up with the Fenton parents again for some reason or another -- checking out their tech under the guise of wanting to catch up with them.

And I can imagine that, due to being close friends in college, the Fentons literally just outright told him, "Hey we wanna 'nother kid but don't want to go through the risk of pregnancy again, so we're gonna make a clone of one of us instead"

and in true Bruce fashion, he mentally went "wow i should learn Everything And Anything About This Thing Specifically. Just In Case." and outwardly went "woah cool! ahaha how does it work"

and since the Fentons consider Bruce a close friend and are also incapable of Not Talking About Science, turned and went "OH WE CAN SHOW YOU" and showed Bruce their entire cloning process up to and including how they (safely) extracted the DNA they were gonna use. of which they already had. they were gonna just extract Jack's DNA a second time as an example, but it was Bruce who said "hey you should try me instead" in order to gauge how exactly safe this was and if there were any symptoms he would need to recognize in cloning.

so with his consent they did, and then showed him how they were going to use the DNA to make a clone without actually going through the process. Without prompting from Bruce, the Fentons went "we're gonna throw your DNA away though since we don't want this lying around and because we have no use for it" and visibly showed him that they were disposing it.

Bruce came to the conclusion that the Fentons weren't planning anything nefarious, they just really wanted another kid, and (reluctantly) left afterwards. The mixup comes when Maddie, surprisingly, misplaces the cartridge with Jack's DNA in it and while they could have always gotten another sample, it was better and safer to just try and find the original before that.

Jack finds Bruce's in their disposable. In his excitement, he forgets that it was Bruce's DNA, and manages to get it out safely. Maddie wasn't looking when he found it, and in her excitement also forgot to ask where Jack found it. They used that cartridge instead.

When they found out they used the wrong DNA, Danny was already about year old and while Jack and Maddie are morally dubious, they're only morally dubious towards ghosts. Danny was their beloved human baby, they would never do anything to him.

That being said, they were still horrified when they found out, and really, they genuinely did consider reaching out to Bruce to tell him. They thought it was something he deserved to know since it was his DNA that got used instead, and they felt awfully guilty after he trusted them enough to let them draw DNA from him. The only reason they hadn't is because, at the time, Bruce had been really busy with something in his public life and they didn't want to bother him during such a stressful time.

So they were going to wait, and in Fenton-like fashion, forgot to tell him. When the subject came up again sometime later, they assumed they already told Bruce and went about their day.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc crossover #dpdc #clone^2 #danny fenton is a clone #bruce you getting cloned by accident is technically your fault man. you knew the fentons in college you know what they're like /j #i kept kinda vague about danny's chronic pain prior since i don't have it myself so i didn't want to portray it incorrectly. but i want to #confirm it now that danny has chronic pain in his hands. and also that his arrhythmia does affect him more than just “slow heartbeat” #and the ectoplasm he makes acts more like a weird pacemaker than an actual cure for his arrhythmia. #clone^2 au might be more about danny and damian and damian's issues but by god does danny have his own too that he just. shoves to the side #danny canonically has only known he was a clone for a year before he got damian. thats not a long time for something that substantial tbh #and he was still in the process of coming to terms with it when damian ended up in his life. #danny started carrying his canteen of ghost juice with him after he passed out one too many times after a fight when he was low on ectoplas #danny hinges a little too much of his identity on being Phantom because he thinks it's the only really major thing about him that isn't #a result of him being a clone. so uh -aha - him finding out bruce is a vigilante too is gonna be pretty ugly. #arrhythmia isn't always permanent but it CAN be and in danny's case it is

[noisilyscreechingsong]

As the (for a lack of a better word) god of balance and space, and being a halfa that is arguably immortal, Danny has the rare opportunity to reincarnate. Live again. Start over.

When Clockwork had originally told him he was immortal, he (understandably) assumed he meant he, Danny Fenton, could not die. He was wrong. As usual. Instead, it was that he, his soul, could not parish or cease to exist. Two very different things that he was forced to learn through experience when Danny Fenton died at the age of 64 from a car accident as mundane as that is, and ended up in the Ghost Zone to, presumably, ‘live’ the rest of his afterlife. It wasn’t until later when he fell asleep in his lair (first sign something was happening, ghosts don’t need to sleep) and woke up with his head fuzzy and body clumsy. He was a baby and it wasn’t until his mind was old enough to comprehend who he was that he understood he was living life again, this time as child in a different universe and different time.

And when he died again, this time very young from a sickness traveling through his village, he ended up in his lair again, as if he never left. The other ghosts understood after a brief explanation, but the process was still disorienting. Even if it happened again and again.

This time he was born into an odd place. He awoke from a large tube of green liquid. He had a mother named Talia and a Grandfather. He also had a father and older brother named Damian, but they lived in a different country and weren’t really on speaking terms it seemed. It also appeared he was born into a cult of some kind. Mother called it the League of Assassins and Grandfather called it his Legacy, the organization he built from the ground up. Oh and it all revolved around the green, bubbling pit below their home that had resurrection powers that may or may not make someone insane.

A connection to the dead in the basement, a family business, and a Frootloop with too much power. This was turning out to be a lot like his first life.

It’s the assassinations that bother him. He’s fine with killing to protect himself and to protect others. He’s even fine with mercy killings, but to kill someone who is unarmed and can’t even put up a fight is crossing a line.

Grandfather doesn’t like that. He doesn’t like a lot of what Danny does. He talks back too much, he doesn’t follow orders, he has too much of an imagination, he has a weak stomach and can’t see the big picture, he’s never good enough. He’s also compared to his big brother Damian a lot. He’s never even met the guy but knows he has a better fighting stance and climbed the mountain faster when he was Danny’s age. Danny doesn’t know if he wants to met Damian at all after hearing his name every time Grandfather criticizes him. The only thing Damian is to him is a standard to exceed.

And don’t get him started on his Father. Mother brags about him enough, but he’s obviously not here for a reason. He stole Damian from the family, Grandfather says, his golden heir. Danny is just the spare, filling in for his older brother who doesn’t want to come home. Of course, he takes everything with a grain of salt. Danny’s family also brainwashes and conditions people to follow them and die for them, it’s all twisted and manipulative. However, there’s bound to be some truth woven in there somewhere and it doesn’t look good for his biological father.

When Danny becomes the Demon’s Head, and with everything he’s been training for he WILL be the Head, the first thing he’s doing is cutting Grandfather’s head right off his shoulders and feeding it to the dogs. He’ll run this cult thing with actual morals and better management. Not too much change because then his position will be questioned, but over time he’ll bring about some good outcomes.

He does think his family believes they are doing things for the greater good, he just thinks they’ve lost sight of what’s important.

Danny’s not even bothered with not having a normal childhood. He’s lived it once or twice, it was quiet, nice, but ultimately boring. He enjoys the adventure and thrives on the action. He gets excited when he learns a new weapon and celebrates when he finally perfects that technique he’s been practicing. He’s proud when his mother compliments his precise aim in her own weird roundabout way of speaking and is awfully smug when Grandfather doesn’t say a word of criticism when he slaughters his opponents efficiently.

He has a crazy family, but it’s his. So it comes to no surprise that he feels a little unbalanced when his mother takes him to Gotham after some political tension between Grandfather and some group he’s not important enough to know.

He’s seven and has lived this entire life in Nanda Parbat, only visiting the other League locations a few times, where the weather is warm and the air is clean. Gotham is the opposite of his home. He remembers a life in Chicago, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the permanent smog covering the sky. Even if it was clear, the light pollution would hinder his view of the stars.

He already hated this place and was actively counting down the minutes until they could leave. Although he had a suspicion of why they were here. The tight lines beside his mother’s eyes gave away her reluctance, but her confident stance didn’t falter.

Danny watches as she meets with a man in a black superhero suit and what looks like a teenager in a different uniform. The pieces were finally coming together when Mother calls him to come out and he drops from the rafters to land on his feet like a cat.

Their two visitors stare hard at him and if he was in a different life he might have fidgeted under their intense attention. He does not.

“My son, this is your father and older brother.”

“Mother,” the teen- Danny’s brother, Damian, objects, “since when do I have a brother? Have you adopted like Father?”

In response, Danny pulls down the black mask to show the rest of his face and the clear resemblance between the two. Danny had more blue mixed with his green eyes to give a marbled effect and he had his mother’s jaw line but he still had his father’s lips and- actually that was all he could see, the cowl obstructing the rest of his features. Either way, there was no mistaking Danny and Damian as anything but brothers.

“Damian, meet your brother. I hope the two of you will get along and look out for one another.”

Like hell they will, Danny thinks bitterly. He’s spent pretty much this whole life being compared to the boy in front of him, there’s bound to be some resentment on his part.

“I thought he’d be taller,” he tells his mother, eyeing Damian up and down unimpressed.

Damian actually sputters.

“Talia,” his father says, demands, as if asking twenty questions in that one word.

“You will care for him while I’m away. It isn’t safe for him and I have work to do.”

Danny knew it was coming and yet he still felt the squeeze of panic and betrayal in his chest.

“Mother, don’t leave me here,” he almost whines but just manages to keep his voice steady. “I can stay in Switzerland or the Alps or somewhere else that is not here.”

Mother says his name with that amount of sharpness that lets him know she wasn’t changing her mind. He huffs angrily and glares at the two in front of him like it was their fault his was here in this disgusting city.

They don’t talk for much longer before Danny is following them back to a black suped-up car and Mother is nowhere in sight. The ride is silent, the others’ thoughts loud and leaving the vehicle suffocating.

Danny decides to make the process difficult for them, arguing when they ask for a blood sample to confirm, getting into things he clearly shouldn’t when he got bored, and being a little shit to anyone else that shows up in his path.

He knew nothing of this side of his family, his Mother only telling him how strong and honorable his father is and how proud she is of Damian despite his decision to not become the Demon’s Heir. This was his opportunity to watch and learn and maybe test their patience here and there. He didn’t want to be there, they didn’t want him there, so he was going to make this everyone’s problem and maybe formulate his own opinion of his father and brother in the meantime.

It doesn’t take much for him to tolerate the others Father has brought into his side of the family because he had no prior knowledge of them.

He respects Alfred, he can relate to Tim, Dick is a pun master that Danny can’t help but contribute, Jason is too cool not to like, Cass is kind, Steph is bubbly, Duke is probably the most normal, and Selina has a mischievousness to her that Danny can get behind.

Father is gruff. He always looks like he wants to say something but doesn’t. Danny isn’t used to that. Mother and Grandfather and even himself have the position of power to say what they want without much consequence. What’s stopping him?

It gets to a point where Danny snaps and demands he speak his mind or say what he’s feeling. It doesn’t go well but he thinks there might have been some progress in the days afterwards.

Damian is a different story. Danny doesn’t hate his brother, but he certainly doesn’t like him. He makes a point to show it through pranks on the older boy and trying to outplay him in competitions and bets the other sometimes doesn’t even agree to.

Danny can admire how passionate he is in his art and how devoted he is to caring for his animals, and even how much he reminds him of Sam from his first life, but it doesn’t erase the years of feeling less than the perfect first son.

This doesn’t really change until Damian comes back and goes directly to the medbay after a mission gone wrong. It takes Danny a moment to realize that he’s worried for his big brother. Damian is in pain and Danny does not like it. He wants to go out and kill the men who hurt his brother, make them pay for what they’ve done. He wants to be the one to stitch up his wounds and bring him soup.

It’s truly unfortunate that his obsession is protection, particularly around those he considers friends and family.

Danny tones down on the aggression towards Damian after that. He still pranks the teenager and teases him and challenges him to competitions and duels, but it’s more in a brotherly way than showing resentment. Damian definitely notices, but wisely doesn’t address it. Instead, Damian quietly talks about what he remembers and misses of Nanda Parbat when the two of them are alone, both of them actually having a conversation without raised voices or tense shoulders.

After a while Danny doesn’t even realize he isn’t counting the days anymore.

#dp x dc #dc x dp #dp x dc crossover #danny phantom #batman #story ideas #damian wayne #Danny and Damian are brothers #reincarnation #god of space and balance #family #league of assassins #dp x dc prompt #writing prompt #they start off rough but it slowly gets better #angst #danny is a little shit #bruce wayne #danny fenton #past lives #so many ideas #funny #thoughts #family bonding

[redsray]

i have recently been brainrotting about a batkids racing au. all of them have either shitty home-lives or have had their home-lives taken away and all turn to the concepts of semi-legal street racing as an outlet. in the process, they meet people perhaps in the same boat-- perhaps a family.

Dick

around 21, has been racing since he was 15

likes riding smaller cars. the tighter fit the better. if it's not sleek and swervy he doesn't want it.

had caring parents who he travelled the world with by car, but they died in a car crash when he was 11. due to lack of living relatives, he was in the foster system for 4 years before Barry (Allen) took him in. he never saw Barry as a father, however, and was never officially adopted. basically Wally's roommate and Bart's older brother figure in a way.

Wally introduced him to the street racing world, and despite being very very reluctant at first (car crash trauma), Wally showed him all the good parts of it and he's loved it ever since

experienced racer, everyone there loves him and he's well known as one of the top racers

Jason

20, been racing since 17

he generally prefers driving motorcycles but make no mistake he will shred you no matter what racing vehicle you give him (he's competitive.) in terms of street/car racing he will go for anything with powerful acceleration.

his dad was a mechanic and Jason would sometimes help him out with car repairs when he was younger, although his dad would sometimes drop a bit too much workload on him and not really care for his well-being

mom was a recovering drug addict, cared for Jay but couldn't be around much due to both rehab and hospital visits

his dad was later arrested for underground drug dealing, dying in prison and his mom died of overdose. at 13, he was in the foster system for more or less a year before he ran, living on the streets for 3 more years, doing odd jobs.

at 16, he met Roy, who later (at 17) introduced him to street racing. Jason always had a knack for cars and with his natural talent he won quite a few of his first races, earning money from the betting pools and has been basically splitting rent and crashing with Roy ever since.

absolute MENACE of a racer. showed up at some point and basically showed most people up. can and will judge your car model. might steal your tires for the funsies.

Tim

18, new to the racing scene (been racing since 17) but knows A LOT about it through his own love for motorsports (he definitely has car posters in his room)

will drive any car. literally. he will just love it if you give him a car. in fact, give him a broken one so that he can make it BETTER than everyone else's.

lovely and wealthy parents, but they aren't around much. they honestly try their best, but when you're an only child in a big house it can get boring and lonely. he loves his parents and his mom was the one who first showed him motorsports when she was working on a business deal with a motorsport company (Tim got his first free car poster that day)

definitely takes pictures of cool cars he sees

as soon as he found out about the street racing ring in Gotham he immediately snuck in (age 15)

he would come practically every night he could and made friends with the younger racers (bart, cassie, kon) (they 100% would go to him for geeky car tech tips)

one time bart was sick for a race and cassie and kon asked tim to step in for him on the team, tim did-- he performed so naturally well that he caught the attention of other racers, decided to stay with the YJ team permanently

commonly referred to as a rising star, a prodigy in the racing scene

Damian

15, literally raised into motorsports. god knows when he drove his first car. he started officially racing in the street ring only recently, but already has a reputation as one of the best

preference for aerodynamic cars. the sleeker the better for him.

commonly underestimated by new racers

bruce is still his bio dad, he literally funds most the betting pools and co-runs the street racing ring under the guise of a totally normal auto repair store

hella competitive, will do everything to outshine you especially if you look down on him

LOVES painting on his car. like everyone customises theirs to a certain point but Damian will sit there for hours just painting on it.

does NOT care for the betting pools, if he wins he will just put all the money right back in. he just wants to win and beat you LMAO

#tim drake #batfam #batman #dc comics #jason todd #damian wayne #dick grayson #rays racing bats au #hehe #they are SO COMPETITIVE in this one its insane #dick when he sees jay and tim mop the floor with everyone js like he did: #im keeping 'em. #jay seeing tim fix a car: #my apprentice now

[wildcardjoey]

Anita jean!

ANITAT JEAN!!!

Alright so the Little Wren AU is basically just 'Bruce manages to find Anita after she fakes her death' and she actually does become his first sidekick. She isn't a fighter, Bruce puts her under three layers of armor, and she basically fills a mage and healer role with first aid (mostly for civilians and criminals) and the virtual reality gas drug, the use of which allows batman to remain a cryptid for far longer.

Anita also takes longer to get the hang of grappling hooks because she's less coordinated than even Tim but she does get them probably not too long after Dick comes to the manner since the two can train together. Her inability to use grappling hooks when she first enters the field is why The Whirly-Bat was made, named The Hummingbird in this au because it's Anita's and was named before Dick was adopted into the family and took a bat-gimmick to every piece of equipment in the cave. Before he joined the team, Bruce and Anita were work shopping names for a lot of their stuff but hadn't come to decisions for most of them, so Dick still gets to do that, but not for Anita's Hummingbird.

Rather than the dynamic duo, this au has either a tritastic trio of Batman, Wren, and Robin, or the dynamic duo is seen as Wren and Robin, as Batman's sidekicks. When Tim ends up at the manner, Anita basically tells him he's too tactical to be Robin and gives him the Wren mantle, which she either had already left behind or was in the process of considering it. Steph ends ends up becoming his paired Robin, for much longer than Canon.

Steph initiating that plan that required Matches Malone probably still happens, but with Anita's help she's able to salvage it, but it opens up an entirely new set of problems because at that point Anita was already on the verge of discovering The Court of Owls (because their one give away was a nursery rhyme and she wanted to find out it's origin because it's her hobby) and now The Court sees the bat clan take control of the city basically in it's entirety so those two things combined make The Court release the elite talons. A temporary alliance with The League of Assassins and the timely first arrival of Cass in the city means they just barely manage to win. This is also the family's first introduction to Damian and a recently resurrected Jason is probably also there, but dressed like the rest of the assassins so he isn't recognized.

Anita herself, which is what this au is actually about, is going to be depicted as better adjusted due to not living her life since she was, like, eight alone and eventually dedicated to revenge. She has hyperfixations on birds, nursery rhymes, programming, and tech and is an excellent detective. I already mentioned she's less coordinated starting out but that doesn't mean she's weak, she'd probably be able to beat Dick in a fight when he first gets to the manor since he's at that point just a gymnast but she's been training as a martial artist for like six months at that point.

Speaking of Dick, I really look forward to writing their banter. They are going to be so sassy to each other but very protective of each other. Almost as much as they're both protective of every one younger siblings, which, and seeing some of your posts this may be disappointing, isn't going to be terribly long. Finding a way to fit every obscure batfam character in is for my other dc au, the same one that my ruleset for Claire's powers is for, but I do have Calvin, Charlie, and and Dana (Talon, Misfit, and Strike) as sure-shows for Little Wren.

Long-Term, the au's story-arc will focus on the eventual take down of The Parliament of Owls as the main antagonists, as it feels fitting for an Anita Jean focused story for previously stated Nursery Rhyme related reasons, although I do also plan for The League to be taken down due to Tim still having his globetrotting adventure and then the batfam actually capitalizing on it.

Edit for Addendum: the first paragraph makes it sound like Anita never fights, I should clarify that her role on the team does evolve as she gets older and Bruce becomes more lenient.

#little wren au #dc #anita jean #batfam #idk if i should tag everyone else but #bruce wayne #dick grayson #tim drake #jason todd #damian wayne #dana harlowe #calvin rose #charlotte gage radcliffe #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #the court of owls #the league of assassins

[roobylavender]

in terms of character deaths i know youve spoken about bruces death but who else do you think will also pass for a reason other than old age and how will they die? in my head everyone lives (except technically jason who then obv gets revived) in order to see bruce die because i want them to grapple with that <3 but thinking about a batkid dying early as well is too painful…. even though its definitely more realistic

i'm sure this is a severely unpopular opinion but if we're talking about the bats specifically i think for jason's death to have any kind of gravitas it has to be the only one of its nature. which is to say that it has to be the defining moment for bruce through which he realizes he can't prioritize the emotional whims of a child over their actual safety. and i think that's still something you can rationalize tim's subsequent indoctrination—for lack of a better word—within bc at the moment tim becomes robin it's not that bruce doesn’t recognize that tim is delusional—he does—but that everyone around him believes tim is rational in comparison. which is a bit silly bc anyone looks rational compared to bruce following jason’s death. he’s in a crazed state of grief letting himself get beat up all around town. and obv that situation changes over time and bruce processes his grief about jason and his own inability to save people, and that presumably sets him up to be.. somewhat more sensible. enough that he starts to visibly care about the impact of being robin on tim's personal life regardless of how the latter actually reacts to that interest (eg blowing up at bruce when he tells steph his secret identity). in an ideal world that leads to a tim retirement arc bc there really is no way to rationalize him being robin. he doesn't need to be robin. that's never been true. the takeaway from his 90s arc regardless of however chuck dixon (or anyone else) wants to rationalize it is unmistakably that entrusting robin to a kid as some kind of legacy deal that comes packaged with being batman is absolutely absurd and it has to end. permanently. that much i agree with starlin on albeit for obv wildly distinct reasons and to different ultimate effect

but to circle back to the original point. all of this is to say that i don't think tim should die, nor damian, nor cass, nor steph, nor anyone really. cass and steph i don't treat the same as robin bc there are very distinct reasons as to why they do what they do. spoiler is to steph the way robin is to dick in that they are distinct identities birthed of their own experiences (which is why i am personally neither a fan of steph being robin nor batgirl). cass is a legacy character in the truest sense of the word in that it's less about trying to stick someone into a mold where they won't fit (robin) and more about truly rising to the occasion of espousing the same principles and values as your predecessor bc of shared experiences and subsequently birthed ideology. there's not really a narrative purpose to killing either of them if that's understood about their characters

the idea of bruce dying an early death stems from the fact that he carries too much of the burden on his own shoulders and it is realistically not possible for him to do that forever. it’s likely denny o’neil understood as much when he posited the idea. but the kids’ circumstances should be different. in an ideal world where the purpose of the batman mythos isn’t to drive its every character into an inescapable prison of everlasting trauma, there's every reason that the kids should get to live in comparison. and if anything an early death for bruce should only emphasize on that further, bc they won’t make the same mistakes he did

#i will say outside the scope of the kids i do like the idea of talia dying. like with the romeo and juliet symbolism #but other than that i don't think it's really necessary for anyone #outbox

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Into the Unknown, Part 56

First

Previous

Bruce stared at the group of people gathered at his front door, unsure. “You know, when I said you could invite more people, I was expecting… Tim and Damian. Not…” he motioned vaguely to Worse!Tim (the future heir to his rival company), Bernard (a guy who had forgone introducing himself in favor of asking whether it was true that Bruce was dating renowned art thief Selina Kyle), and Steph (Steph).

Worse!Tim’s face flushed. “Ah, sorry to intrude, I just… didn’t have anywhere else to go. We can leave, though, it’ll be nice to have the house to ourselves –.”

Bruce, whose expression had been getting progressively softer the longer Worse!Tim went on, sighed and clapped a hand atop the boy’s head, ruffling his hair. “Don’t worry about it. We have more than enough food to go around.”

He glanced at Steph, quietly asking for her tragic backstory.

“I’m a college student,” she said.

Bruce seemed to decide that he should just accept this. He stepped aside so everyone could file in.

Everyone except for Tim. He waited until their group was properly inside so he could close the door behind them, leaving the two of them in the cold. But they wouldn’t be out there for long, no worries, Bruce only had one question for him: “Did you… bring one of the company rivals to make sure that Marinette and I couldn’t talk about business over this trip?”

“... no,” said Tim, who made a mental note of the strategy for later.

~

Marinette complained about her physics final at length, beating up dough to get her anger out. Alfred, ever the comforting presence, nodded along easily enough, giving occasional ‘hm’ and ‘oh wow’ sounds to say that he was still listening and also just as peeved as her. Damian sat on the counter, chubby little legs swinging, watching the pair bustle about, daydreaming about what designs he wanted to pipe onto the cookies Marinette was baking…

Not a creature was stirring (no, Alfred was not a creature, and he would prefer the term ‘whisking’), and there were definitely no mice around.

It was peaceful.

Until.

“I can help you with your homework,” Damian offered. “I know lots of things.”

Marinette paused, her hand resting over her heart. “Ye… yeah. Of course, Dami, I’d love your help.”

Damian lit up. He pointed to the chocolate chips on the counter. “Can I…?”

Marinette nodded easily enough, figuring that he was going to use them to visually show addition, subtraction… maybe even multiplication or division, if the kid had even advanced that far in his studies. He would count out the chocolate chips and put them in neat, orderly rows, and probably eat a few but it would be fine because it was Hanukkah and the kid would feel fulfilled in the fact that he had ‘helped’.

Damian grabbed a fistful of chocolate and shoved it into his mouth unceremoniously.

And then the kid started explaining quantum physics to her, still snacking away on chocolate chips.

~

They all almost dared to think that Alfred and Marinette had gotten over their mini rivalry. There had been no arguing sounds coming from the kitchen (only, strangely, the sound of learning), so there couldn’t have been any competition this time. This thought was only confirmed by the fact that no foods were presented to them with the question of ‘which is better’. They were in the clear.

But then.

Bernard squinted at Marinette. “You’re acting weird.”

She blinked. “Hm?”

“You’re… watching us eat.”

Marinette gave him a confused little frown, but Tim knew her well enough to know that when she was actually confused she was more liable to blink, her brain taking the moment where her eyes were closed to process what was throwing her off without any distractions.

“Code red,” Tim said.

Several forks clattered onto plates as everyone immediately abandoned their food. Except for Steph, who was looking at them all like they were crazy, a roll halfway to her mouth.

Marinette smirked at Alfred. “I win,” she said. Because, as one of the few people who weren’t aware of their rivalry, and the only newcomer wary enough of the fact that everyone had stopped eating to abandon their food as well, had chosen a bread roll she had made.

Alfred huffed. Which was basically his equivalent of screaming and cursing.

“... can someone fill me in?” Steph asked.

Bruce sighed, rubbing the space between his brows. “Anyone up for Asian takeout?”

Everyone raised their hands.

Steph only looked more confused by this, but then she seemed to realize that this would mean she got to keep all of the leftovers and immediately nodded along.

~

Damian looked up at Jason, almost offended. “Why are you small?”

Jason didn’t know how to respond to that. He leaned to whisper in Marinette’s ear. “Does he know what malnutrition is?”

“Absolutely not, and you’re not going to teach him about it, either,” she hissed right back.

Jason nodded slowly. He looked back at Damian. “I’m one of Santa’s elves.”

“Dad says that Santa isn’t real, but we’re not supposed to tell anyone,” Damian said. And then he gasped and slapped his hands over his mouth. “Oh no.”

~

“You guys really do look alike,” Jason mused. “I’m surprised Damian can tell you two apart.”

“Oh, he can’t, he just goes by our outfits and hair,” said Worse!Tim.

“Oh.”

“It’s better than Mari,” Tim said, grinning when she immediately turned red. “The only reason we found each other was because she mistook him for me. I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to kiss him on accident yet.”

“I’m going to divorce you.”

“Make that joke enough and I’ll actually start to believe it,” Tim pretended to sniffle, before leaning to press a kiss to her cheek.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

He returned the gesture.

“God, they’re gross,” Jason stage-whispered to Steph.

“They’re usually worse,” she sighed.

“I don’t think they’re that bad,” said Worse!Tim.

“That’s because you and Bernard are just as awful.”

Bernard sputtered. “Hey? Why am I getting dragged into this?”

~

Damian was the baby of the family. Quite literally, seeing as he was very young in comparison to everyone else, who was of college age or above.

And one might assume that he would be annoyed by this, his pride not allowing them to treat him in such a way, he was a big man after all! Six years old!

However, (during the holidays, at least) he welcomed the treatment with open arms. Because said open arms would be filled with presents.

Dick sighed. “You’re spoiling him.”

“You were literally raised by a billionaire,” said Marinette.

Dick huffed, but then it was revealed that he couldn’t really talk because he got Damian designer shoes.

“He’s going to ruin those so fast,” said Tim.

“I’ll buy him more, then.”

“But we’re spoiling him,” Marinette snarked.

“I’m the cool uncle!” Dick argued. “I’m supposed to spoil him.”

“... I’m the cool uncle,” Jason said.

“Excuse me?” said Bernard.

“You’re not married in,” Jason pointed out the distinct lack of a wedding ring on the man’s finger.

“And Marinette hasn’t allowed herself to be adopted, which means I’m the only uncle he has, therefore the cool one by default,” Jimothy pointed out.

“Boys,” Bruce cut in. “You can all be cool uncles.”

They were all quiet for a moment.

“No, they can’t,” Jimothy decided.

The argument started up again, but everyone was laughing, and even Bruce didn’t seem to mind it all, even as he was dragged into the debate over whether Jason or Dick was ‘the cooler one’.

Tim poked Damian’s shoulder. “You can fix this, you know. Just say you think they’re all cool.”

“No. Less presents that way,” Damian decided.

Tim cooed over his ‘manipulative little guy’, ruffling his hair and handing him yet another present.

The others were still debating over who was the best in the background, but whatever.

“Not going to jump in?” Marinette asked Steph.

“Please. I’m the wine aunt.”

“You don’t drink.”

“I do in spirit.”

Marinette squinted at her, wondering whether the pun had been intentional, before sighing and deciding that arguing the point wasn’t worth it.

~

As they lit the final candle, Tim found himself smiling. Not only because of the tradition itself, or even because he was surrounded by so many people he cared about, but because his plan was working. Bruce and Dick hadn’t genuinely fought once, too distracted by the sheer size of the group and their accompanying shenanigans. Jason seemed more relaxed, too, now that the holidays didn’t necessarily mean dealing with people yelling at each other over the table.

Mission success!

Tim needed a nap.

~

Marinette pressed against her boyfriend’s side, watching as Damian played tug-of-war with Frank. Frank was definitely going easy on him, but he didn’t need to know that.

“You know…”  she turned to bury her face in his neck. “I wouldn’t mind actually getting married one day…”

Tim’s breath stuttered. He dragged her head out of hiding to look her in the eyes. “Really?”

She glanced away, giggling nervously. “Uh, yeah, I mean obviously we have to wait until we can get our friends and family back home to come, so we have a lot of time to consider –.”

She was cut off when he tugged her in for a kiss.

She melted a little, her anxiety fading away when she realized that he was smiling against her lips.

“I would love to,” he breathed.

She flushed. “Well, I love you.”

He rolled his eyes just slightly at her immediate need to one-up him, but his chuckle was nothing but fond and the hands cupping her face were perfectly warm.

“I love you, too.”

~~~~~

Next

@unoriginalmess @hammalammadamdam @astrynyx @laurcad123 @927roses-and-stuff @toodaloo-kangaroo @queenz-z @imarivers8 @jeminiikrystal @adrestar @twsssmlmaa @literaryhiraeth @trippingovermyfeet @ev-cupcake @its-maemain

#a long awaited full fluff chapter for ur consideration #with only the barest mention of plot #ur welcome #into the unknown #maribat #timari #shutterbug #timmari #timinette #tim drake #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #red robin

[awhitehead17]

Whumptober 2022: Day 7 - The way you shake and shiver

Prompt: Silent Panic Attack

Summary: Dick struggles to cope when patrol takes an almost disastrous turn. 

Enjoy! :D

He couldn’t breathe.

What makes matters worse is that he knows what is happening, however he also knows that there isn’t anything he can do to stop it from doing so.

Every time his chest expands his lungs feel like they’re on fire. He’s already feeling faint and knows he would probably be curled up on the floor if it wasn’t for the death grip he’s got on the sink that’s helping to keep him upright, sadly the coldness of the ceramic does nothing to bring him away from the edge he's precariously balancing on at the moment. As he struggles to breathe, he could simultaneously hear and feel the rapid beating of his heart inside his chest.

Dick tries to calm himself down, mentally telling himself to control his breathing and get control of himself, however anytime he starts making progress his mind is instantly transported back to five hours ago and he’s forced to start the process all over again.

He almost lost his brother. His baby brother almost died that night and now can’t think of anything else. Tempting fate is sort of their thing, near deaths aren’t uncommon but that doesn’t mean when they occur that they’re easy to deal with, because they’re not.  

Tonight had been a close one. Too close. God, Dick can’t even digest the events of what happened  and it’s making him feel sick. Not only did they almost lose Damian but it’s the how they almost lost him.

They had been running through the streets of Gotham during a chase. Damian had been out in front close behind the twerp they were after however behind Damian were some of the twerp’s followers, then behind them was Dick and the others. It had been a bizarre chase as the people they were after knew the city just as well as they did. They knew where to dodge and duck between buildings to try and shake them off their tails, while it never worked it did make the chase more frustrating to run.

During the chase while grappling onto the next building, Damian’s line snapped. The kid started free falling towards the ground and if it weren’t for Cass’ quick reflexes Damian wouldn’t have made it. They don’t know what happened to Damian’s line, it’s something they’ll be looking into, but it’s enough of a shock to shake everyone to the core. Damian is fine thankfully, nothing actually happened that caused him any harm. The kid seems to have shrugged the whole thing off and is busily complaining about the mother-henning he’s receiving from the family.

Dick, on the other hand, isn’t fine. He hasn’t been able to shrug the whole thing off. In that moment, when he saw Damian falling, all he could picture was his parents and their deaths when he was at the ripe age of nine-years-old.

He had long accepted what happened, had come to terms with it, but it doesn’t mean that he’s no longer effected by what happened. Every now and again, memories, nightmares and flashbacks dominate his mind making it feel like he’s living that moment again.

Seeing Damian in that situation Dick’s mind has gone into overdrive and now he can’t think of anything else. He almost lost Damian in the same way he lost his parents. He had been helpless back then and this time he had been helpless again. Only this time it’s worse because Dick is bigger and stronger now, he has many tools at his disposal and yet he still had been useless in saving his baby brother from death as he fell.

A broken sob escapes past his lips and Dick instantly slaps a hand over his mouth to muffle any more sounds that might break free. The last thing he needs is someone coming in and checking on him. His breathing hitches once again as he struggles to take in the air his burning lungs obviously need.

Somehow, while he struggles not to completely breakdown, he hears footsteps approaching the bathroom he’s currently hiding in. He had retreated here as soon as he had the confirmation Damian was okay and will make a full recovery given time and lots of physio. The footsteps stop just outside of the door and Dick panics further when he releases that he may have forgotten to lock the door.

Dick presses his hand harder against his mouth and does his absolute best to stop any noises from escaping him, hopefully the person on the other side will simply walk away without entering, the last thing Dick needs right now is one of his siblings seeing him in this state, or worse Bruce seeing him like this.

The footsteps stop outside the door and don’t move for a while, it’s as if the person on the other side is debating about what to do. Much to Dick’s relief they eventually walk away leaving him alone inside the bathroom.

It’s only once the footsteps have retreated that Dick finally allows himself to crumple to the ground. His knees buckle and he falls limply to the floor, only his grip on the sink with one hand is enough to stop him from completely crashing down. Dick turns around and brings his knees up to his chest as he leans back against the bathtub, he raises both hands and covers his mouth with them again to stop any sound escaping, he still can’t breathe right and he could feel how shaky his limbs are.

He doesn’t know how long he spends in the bathroom curled up on the floor having a panic attack. It could be minutes or it could be hours. Eventually though he starts controlling his breathing, through his fingers he forces himself to breathe in before breathing out again.

He repeats the process until he feels himself calm down, his heart no longer feels like it’s going to burst from his chest and the shaking in his limbs has become almost non-existent. He removes his hands from his mouth and runs them through his hair, afterwards he lets them fall limp at his sides as he now feels completely wiped, exhausted from the day’s events and the onslaught of emotions he just experienced.

Knowing he couldn’t hide in the bathroom for the rest of eternity, he gradually forces himself to stand up, once again having to use the sink to support himself, and splashes cold water against his face. No one has to know he’s just had a breakdown in the bathroom. No one needs to know how weak he is, or unstable. He can just pass this night as a blur and try to forget it ever happened. Tomorrow he’ll wake up fresh, find everyone at the table for breakfast in the morning and continue as normal. No one needs to know…

#Whumptober 2022 #day seven #silent panic attack #panic attack #dick grayson #angst #near death experience #hyperventilating #shaking #this is text heavy #dc comics #nightwing #hurt #fanfiction

[marsrize]

Like Cat&Bird [Part 3 of 4]

Part 1: Here | Part 2: Here  | AO3 : Here.

Pairing : Adrien x Damian

Chapter 3: Feelings.

Damian was avoiding him. Jon was seriously getting tired of it, so he decided it was time to confront the fool who was his best friend.

Jon sat down next to Damian and waited until he put down his book before speaking. "Can we talk?"

Damian glanced at him, then went back to reading.

"About what?"

Jon sighed.

"You know what I'm talking about. You've been distant with me ever since Adrien joined us that one time. What's going on?"

Damian gritted his teeth.

"Nothing."

Jon raised an eyebrow.

"It doesn't seem like nothing.��

Damian rolled his eyes and resumed reading as if Jon didn't exist. Jon stared at Damian with a mix of concern and confusion. He had never seen his friend act this way before. It was like he was a completely different person.

"Look, man," Jon said, placing a hand on Damian's shoulder. "I don't know what's going on with you, but it's clearly bothering you. You can talk to me about it."

Damian looked up at Jon again. The young kryptonian could read uncertainty in them. Damian looked at his book again, but this time Jon could clearly tell he wasn't reading. It was more of a way to avoid his gaze.

"I don't know."

"What?"

"I don't know. I don't understand how I feel."

Jon furrowed his brow.

"What do you mean? What are you feeling?"

Damian hesitated before finally admitting.

" I feel strange when I am with him."

“What are you talking about?”

“Adrien”

Jon's eyes widened in surprise. He had never thought of Damian having feelings for anyone before. But now that he thought about it, it made sense. Damian had been acting strange around Adrien lately, and now it all clicked into place.

Jon took a deep breath and tried to choose his words carefully. He didn't want to push Damian too hard, but he knew he had to help his friend come to terms with his feelings.

"Damian, do you think you might have feelings for Adrien?"

Damian looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the question.

"I...I don't know. I never thought about it before."

Jon nodded sympathetically.

"It's okay, Damian. It's normal to feel confused about these things. But it's important to be honest with yourself about how you feel. If you do have feelings for Adrien, there's nothing wrong with that."

Damian still seemed hesitant, but Jon could tell he was at least considering the possibility. "You...you really think so?"

Jon smiled reassuringly.

"Of course. Love is love, Damian. It doesn't matter who it's between. And if Adrien is someone who makes you happy, then that's all that matters."

Damian nodded slowly, deep in thought. Jon gave him a moment to process everything before speaking again.

"So...what do you think you're going to do?"

Damian shrugged.

"I don't know yet. I need to think about it more."

Jon nodded understandingly.

"That's okay. Just remember, I'm here for you, no matter what."

Damian gave him a small smile, and Jon felt a sense of relief. He knew that helping Damian come to terms with his feelings would be a journey, but he was determined to support his friend every step of the way.

*******************************

Damian has been acting strangely lately. Adrien doesn't really know how to interpret it. Or rather he is afraid to misinterpret Damian's behavior. Adrien had been noticing that Damian had been distant with him lately, and he couldn't figure out why. It was almost as if Damian was avoiding him. Adrien tried to brush it off, thinking that maybe Damian was just going through a rough patch or had something on his mind, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that there might be something more going on.

Adrien and Damian had been close friends for a while now. They had bonded over their shared love of comics and action movies, and they had spent countless hours discussing their favorite characters and storylines. But now, it seemed like something had changed.

Adrien couldn't help but wonder if Damian's behavior had something to do with him. Had he said or done something to upset Damian? Was he not being a good friend? Adrien didn't know, but he was afraid to ask.

One day, while they were hanging out at the park, with Titus, Damian's dog. Adrien finally worked up the courage to confront Damian. He didn't want to make things awkward between them, but he also didn't want to continue feeling like there was something wrong.

"Hey, Damian," Adrien said, trying to keep his voice casual. "Is everything okay? You've been acting kind of strange lately."

Damian looked up from the manga he had been reading and frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it just seems like you're avoiding me or something."

Adrien said trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

Damian hesitated before speaking.

"I'm sorry, Adrien. It's not you. It's me."

Adrien frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know how to explain it."

Damian looked away, clearly avoiding his gaze. Adrien could see that Damian was hesitant, so he decided to take it easy and wait for his friend to speak.

"I just feel...strange lately."

"What do you mean by ‘strange’?"

"I don't know how to explain it."

Damian remained silent for a moment. Then he ran his hand through his hair. A moment of silence continued between them. Finally, Damian sighed.

“I don't know how to act around you anymore. I feel like I'm always on edge.”

Adrien's heart skipped a beat.

“What?”

Damian took a deep breath before continuing, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I think...I think I might have feelings for you, Adrien."

Adrien had the feeling that his brain had just short-circuited. He felt like his cheeks were on fire. Had he heard correctly? Damian had feelings for him?

Adrien had never thought of Damian in that way before, but now that he was considering the possibility, he couldn't deny that there might be something there. He didn't know if he was attracted to boys. He had never really thought about the possibility. Adrien took a moment to compose himself before responding. He didn't want to say anything that might hurt Damian or make things awkward between them. But, on the other hand, he wasn't opposed to the idea of having...something more.

"Damian, I don't know what to say," Adrien said, his voice slightly shaky. "I had no idea that you felt that way."

"I know," Damian said, his voice full of uncertainty. "And I don't expect you to feel the same way."

Adrien felt a pang of guilt. He had been so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't realized how much Damian was struggling. He took a deep breath and looked at Damian.

"I really appreciate you telling me this, Damian. I care about you a lot, and I don't want anything to change that. But I need time to think about all of this. Can we take some time to process our feelings and talk about this more when we both feel ready?"

Damian nodded. Adrien couldn't really read his expression.

It made his heart ache.

"I understand.”

Adrien smiled weakly, feeling a mix of emotions. He was confused, scared, and unsure about what the future held, but he was also grateful for the honesty that Damian had shown him.

They spent the rest of the afternoon in silence, both lost in their thoughts, but Adrien knew that they would have to talk about this again soon.

#maribat #maribat damian wayne #maribat adrien agreste #maribat adrienxdamian #adrienxdamian #adridami

[incorrectbatfam]

whats your opinion on tim adn bernard and also on jon being bi and what about dc making kon come out and also damian

I think this is a prime opportunity to take it up a notch.

When it comes to queer representation, people tend to want stories where couples are happily in love and absolutely nothing can get in the way. Don't get me wrong, those stories matter and it's important for young people to know that they can find joy and celebrate their identities.

The issue I have is... that's where a lot of representation ends. The characters get together and that's it. To me, it feels shallow.

Looking at Tim and Bernard—and now Jon and Jay—we get the internal struggle of coming to terms with sexuality, but there are still external factors to consider when telling their stories. The good thing is, though, we have a foot in the door. These developments are still very recent when you consider the scope of their franchises, meaning there's likely work still going down in the drawing room, so there's the opportunity for a richer and more complex narrative.

I am all for the idea of Kon and Damian coming out, but I don't want them to be simple. I want them to be representative.

How about a Kon whose story is not about coming to terms with his sexuality and finding a label? How about a Kon who was secure in his identity from the start, and instead his inner conflict grapples with the fact that his best friend—whom he's had feelings for for years—is dating someone else because he never had the guts to ask first? How about a Boy of Steel whose bravado is only a facade, who must learn to deal with the consequences of missed chances, for which he has no one to blame but himself? How about all this happening while Tim and Bernard are openly happy with each other?

How about Damian's character being the perfect chance to spark a discussion on intersectionality? How about a Damian who internalized homophobic sentiments as a result of his cultural diaspora who must now reconcile these two sides of himself? How about a storyline where Damian is out, but is treated differently from his brother or best friend because of the color of his skin? How about Damian asking Tim or Kate or the Row siblings for advice, but leaving unsatisfied because none of them understand him? How about Damian bonding with Jay Nakamura over struggles that Jon could never relate to?

Give us queer dynamics with as much tension as we see in countless straight ones.

Give us the inherent complexities that come with embracing multiple identities.

Give us love and happiness, yes, but also give us narratives showing that pride is a learning process, not an outcome.

#ask #anonymous #personal #tim drake #red robin #bernard dowd #conner kent #superboy #jon kent #jay nakamura #damian wayne #robin #superfamily #young justice #super sons #batfamily #batfam #batbros #batboys #batkids #batsiblings #batclan #batman family #dc comics #tw spoilers

[internalsealpanic]

Sealing the Deal part 1

Summary: Always, always be nice to sea creatures but never ever accept their pelt.

  A/n: A fic I’ve been meaning to write since forever. My contribution to mermay.

  warning: Disgusting fluff and bad decisions

Main Masterlist

part 2

You look like you're gonna die from boredom in your little fishing boat. 

 Dick rolls over to where Jason was sprawled and used his momentum to push the larger seal into the water. Jason gives an undignified squawk of outrage. Dick just preens and looks smug. 

 You cup your hand over your mouth as you begin to laugh. 

 Jason glares even harder at Dick. Dick... couldn't care even less if he tried. All he can focus on is the wrinkle in the corners of your eyes. They'd been gone for so long these past few months. It felt like the first ray of sun after a long storm.

 Dick claps his fins in excitement even as Jason snuffs and rolls his eyes. You clap in return but accidentally drop your fishing pole into the sea. Reaching for it, you fall into the water. Dick feels a little bad for laughing but you manage to get yourself back up into the boat safely.  You sigh in defeat as your fishing pole drifts away. Dick notices for the first time that your face has grown gaunt from the last few weeks. Are you eating enough? Are you even taking care of yourself? Dick swims over to your boat as it rocks back and forth on the waves. He hops in easily and plops onto your stomach. You laugh and pet his head. It was a weak laugh so he croons at you in question. 

 “Sorry pup, I don’t have any food for you today. I mean I don’t even have any for me.” Despite the sweet timbre of your voice, Dick can still taste the bitter hopelessness in the statement. 

He nuzzles his face into your chest. He can feel just how thin you’ve gotten. He has to do something about this. 

To say Dick had been afraid of humans would be a monumental understatement. It had been around 200 years since humans had left the island and the first thing they did when they came back was hunt down selkies. Dick's parents had been two of the unlucky few who'd been hunted down.

 So when Dick found himself stranded onshore because of a fin tangled in a fishing line, he thought he was a goner. And when he saw you approaching; well, he still thought he was fucked but he thought you'd at least be nicer than the adults.

 Maybe if he acts cute enough you'll spare him. 

 Dick whimpered and he gave you the big innocent look. 

 You shushed him harshly. Dick flinched then you flinched and muttered apologies.

 You approached him slowly. You looked around before crouching and fiddling with the line Dick had managed to get himself caught in. Carefully, you began to disentangle him. It hurt, especially when you took the hook out, but once he was free. He clapped and trilled before you shushed him again.

 Dick thought that it was all over and he could just roll back into the sea until you scoop him up and swaddle him in your shirt.

 After 10 minutes of your father screaming at you, he agreed to treat Dick who knew better than to snap at him. Your father was kind with gentle hands. He worked on Dick while you fed him fish. It wasn't the best fish but  Dick can't complain. 

 After an hour or so, Dick started to wriggle and you pull him closer to your chest. 

 "Dad, can we keep him for a few days? He might still be sick." You plead with big eyes. 

 Your father glared at you then sighed. "No more than two. His wounds just need to close up, understand?"

 You squealed a little. Hugging Dick tighter, you thanked your father before scampering off to find you a basin to put Dick in. You, thankfully, had the good sense to fill it with lukewarm water.

 Dick lived like a king in those two days. You fed him a lot of fish much to your dad's exasperation. You kept him warm. You even read to him and sang songs to him. 

 Dick wanted to stay but he missed Bruce, Alfred, Damian, and maybe that new kid Jason.

On the fourth day (one of the wounds was deeper than expected), Dick was released back into the sea but he never did manage to stay away after that

Dick sets the odd little trinket down in front of Jason's sleeping form. It was something you'd caught in your net days before along with the meager amount of fish you'd managed to net. You'd busied yourself with it for days before throwing it out. Dick wasn't sure what it was; all he knew was that it was something Jason would like. 

 He waits semi patiently for Jason to notice it, nudging it forward a little until it touches Jason's snout and the larger seal is forced to pay attention to Dick. 

 "I know when I'm being bribed, Dickface." Jason says, glaring. 

 Dick volleys it with a wide-eyed hopeful look. He nudges the little trinket forward again. This time, instead of ignoring him, Jason rises to his full height, teeth bared. This... does not faze Dick. 

 "C'mon Jaaaaaaay," Dick says as if the prolonging of syllables would whittle down Jason's irritation. Jason suspects if he were less inclined to tell Dick to fuck off, it would have worked. Probably. But as it stands, Dick is responsible for ruining a very good, very rare nap for Jason and so he's on the shit list and has lost any favor privileges until further notice. 

 "I said no. Go away or ask Bruce."

 "But Jaaaaaaay, it's just a teensy tiny favor. It won't even take an hour. Not with your skill at least."

 "That kind of flattery may work on Harper and it may even work on West but I'm not an idiot about to get involved with whatever shenanigans you have planned with the human."

Dick lets out a long-suffering sigh. Jason isn't stupid enough to think that Dick has actually given up. No, the stubborn little fuck is worse than a barnacle. "You've left me no choice-"

 "I have given you plenty of choices. Most of them involve minding your own goddamn business." Jason says with a little snuff. 

 "-I'm calling it in."

 Jason narrows his eyes at Dick.

 "Don't you dare. That was 5 years ago."

 Dick smiles, evilly. "Unless you want the rest of the family to know about-" 

 "Fine! What do you want?"

 Dick looks smug. Jason wants to bite his face off. 

 "I need you to help me catch fish."

 Jason looks at him, incredulous. "Did you hit your head or something?"

 "Not recently. Look, I just need you to help me catch fish for the human." Dick explains like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Contrary to what Dick seems to think, Jason really isn't concerned with the one human on the island. Most of the selkies on the island have barely even interacted with you outside of staring at you.

 "You're insane."

 "I think we reserve that term for Bruce." 

 Jason raises his head from the ground. "You're not wrong."

   You think you hear the light pitter-patter of raindrops. You sigh. You would be lying if you say you aren't the least bit thankful for the excuse to stay indoors today. You... don't exactly like foraging for food. You had avoided it for as long as you had food in the lighthouse. You thought it would at least last you 'til the ships came in but whatever is going on in the mainland has kept the ships from your shores. You don't mind. You never did find the sailors all that pleasant on the rare occasions that you did have to interact with them. 

 You like your island the way it is but... you're not exactly the most skilled at hunting... or fishing. You have no idea how your father did it. You chucked it up to the miracles of loaves and fishes. You miss him.

 You curl around your pillow in a vain attempt to chase the wakefulness away but the sun in your eyes was too bright. You flutter your eyes open. The sun had the audacity to be there. Still the splushing sound continued. 

 You strain your ears to listen, trying to make heads or tails of it. It was a squishy sound, the sound of putty hitting stone over and over again. You scramble to the front door. In hindsight, you probably should have grabbed a weapon before running towards the strange sound. 

 Opening the door, you're greeted with the sight of a familiar seal caught red-handed with a fish in his mouth.

 You stare at each other for a long moment before your eyes wander down to a pile of fish. A large amount of fish. Laughter rolls from your lips, musical and manic as you bury your face in your hands.

You think the seal furrows his brow at you, dropping the fish in its mouth before plopping towards you. Plop. Plop. Plop. He looks at you with big dark eyes. Your mouth twitches between curling down into a frown and a smile that spread across your face. On one hand, you are confused. On the other hand, you were gonna be able eat some meat. 

 A concerned croon comes from the pup and your face decides that it would rather smile at the moment. You throw your arms around him, not at all caring about the seawater getting on your nightclothes.

 "Thank you." You whisper and the seal answers with a happy trill.

 Dick is over the moon. 

 He can't even help how loud his trills get. It's ok you don't seem to mind either. He's just happy that you get to eat now.... but you don't. 

 Dick's a little frustrated when you don't immediately start digging in. Instead, you go back inside your home, swear, shout in delight then come back out with a basin and a jar of white powder. You then run around to fill the basin with seawater then add what Dick finds out is salt into the seawater. 

 Dick is... concerned. 

 You go back inside the house. When you come out again, you have a knife in your hand. Dick waddles back a bit. He knows you won't hurt him but it's a habit. You develop these kinds of habits around Bruce. 

 You settle yourself onto the ground cross-legged and grab a fish. Dick looks on with mild curiosity. You begin to dismember the fish by cutting off it's head, cutting it up in the middle then removing the bones and stomach. That kind of makes sense, Dick thinks. The bones are kind of annoying. Dick nods his head agreeably until you toss the fish into the basin.

 Dick looks on in utter confusion as you repeat the process with most of the fish he's brought you. 

 You turn to him looking equally befuddled before your eyes soften. You look sheepish. "Sorry pup, I can't eat all of this today so I'm salting them so I can eat them the next few..." You count the fish in the basin. "... weeks."

 Dick tilts his head but doesn't say anything. You really should just eat more. Dick can get you more if you need it. You just need to ask but you seem content with what you're doing. 

Dick is about to rest his head on your lap when you shoot up and scuttle back inside. You return with a line and a smile. Dick watches you string the fish up like laundry. He could probably help you but he has no clue if he should. Just eat the fish damn it.

Finally after what felt like forever, you start preparing the fish and actually eat. You offer Dick some and Dick has to admit cooking the fish does taste odd but not unpleasant. It's totally different from eating it raw (the better way) but it's not horrible. Or maybe it just tastes good because you've got the biggest grin on your face while eating.

Maybe.

 Probably, Dick thinks as he munches on his fish, pressed to your side.

___

 You sing at the top of your voice. It's a cheerful song but Dick can't quite make out the words. He knows it's human but he's not quite familiar with it. The tune is nice though. Dick rests his head on your lap closing his eyes.

 He croons happily when you being to pet him.

 You stop midway through the song dissolving into a fit, of what Dick can only describe as, giggles snorts. It was a despicably adorable sound that was engineered to make Dick feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

 He looks up at you with big curious black eyes. He's not complaining but he hasn't heard you laugh this much before and he may or may not want to know how to make you laugh like this again.

 When you don't answer his questioning gaze, Dick nudges against your chest. Your shoulders are still shaking but you manage to stop laughing for a moment. 

 "Sorry pup," you say wiping a tear from your eye, "I must look crazy to you. "

 A little but not as bad as Bruce, Dick thinks. Bruce thinks you humans still don't know there are selkies on the island. Dick snorts at the idea. Everyone knows that all you humans know about selkies. That's why those men keep coming here trying to trap them. 

 You squish his face affectionately with your hands. "My dad taught me that song and  I just realized..." Your mouth turns into a curved line of held back laughter. "...It's a sea shanty about missing being between a woman's legs." The last few words come out more as giggles than proper syllables but Dick can't enjoy that because he can feel his face warm up from the thought. He hides his face in his flippers. 

 You squeal, absolutely delighted with his mortification. Smiling down at him, you say: "Yanno pup, sometimes I think you understand me."

 Thought process-wise, no.

 Dick snuggles up to you again, blowing air out of his nose to voice his ascent. You can't just say things like that but again, you just simply seem amused by his suffering when you bend down to press a kiss to the top of his head. 

 Dick looks up when you pull away. No! Give him more!

 Dick stretches up to return the favor, having to partially climb on your lap but only managing to boop your nose with his snout. You nuzzle your nose against his and Dick makes the happiest noise in the back of his throat.

   Sometimes after wandering around you had a habit of falling asleep on the shore which Dick thought was fine until he found out that you couldn't swim. Dick being the only with brains in this duo always nudges you awake when the tide starts getting too close. Dick doubts the lapping water will wake you up before sweeping you away. After all, you managed to sleep through Tim, Kon, and Bart's rock piling contest on top of you. Dick shooed them away but even after cleaning up, you didn't wake up.

 Dick sees the sailors on the shore and nudges you. You... don't even blink. You hum, content to bask in the sun as you wrap your arms around Dick. Dick huffs. He likes this but he really would prefer it if you move. Dick considers slipping from your grip and grabbing a fish to slap you with like last time.

 Dick cranes his head to look at the ship again. It was far too close now, too close for you to get away without being seen by the sailors. 

 Dick turns you back over to your back and proceeds to body slam you with all his blubber. He winces when you make a choked noise. Dick can give you apology fish later. 

 "Pup, what the fuck?"

 You see the ship. Your eyes widen then flicker to his injured fin. Dick had injured it when he’d been swimming by the docks and got caught in one of the old traps. You’ve done your best to help it heal but you only know so much. You’re still reading up on herbs in case it happens again.  

 You try in vain to push him off but he's a big loveable sack of blubber and he refuses to move.  “C’mon pup, you need to move. They’ll try to catch you if they see you.” You grunt but the sack of blubber refuses to move. 

 You and Dick stay still as the ship draws near, neither of your chests rises or fall as the ship rocks back and forth.

The ship passes and you let your head fall back with a sigh. 

 Dick nuzzles his snout against your face, his whiskers tickling your face. You giggle and try to push him off. It’s useless so you let him stay there. 

 You both decide to take a nap on the shore with Dick huffing in your face once in a while as he snores. 

You curl up on the floor in front of the fire, watching the embers flicker, flash, and fade. It's the best thing you can do to calm your fraying nerves. The storm rages outside violently as if it was trying to tear the lighthouse down brick by brick. The whole building shakes with another boom of thunder. You close your eyes and burrow under the thick blanket. 

 In the back of your mind, your father is chuckling. The absence of a hand on your head is disconcerting. You remind yourself that it won't come, that you'll have to learn to weather the storm alone. You sigh then tighten the blanket around you.

Tok. Tok. Tok. 

 You blink. The fire was dying. When had you fallen asleep? 

 Tok, tok, tok. 

 Blinking, you rub the sleep from your eyes, but the haze doesn’t lift, only growing as you watch the firelight.  

 Tok tok tok. 

 You shoot up and barrel towards the door with the frantic knocking growing louder and louder as your feet pound against the stone floor.  

 You run into the door in your haste. The loud thud of your body against the door causes the frantic knocks to turn into muffled shouting.

 Prying yourself from the door, you open it and you don't know what you expected but this wasn't it.

 Standing in front of you was a man soaked like a wet rat. You blink in confusion before pulling him inside. You run to grab him a blanket. Wait. You should probably get him a towel. No, wait. You should have gotten his name first. Fuck. 

 You shuffle back into the room with a towel, spare clothes, and an extra blanket. You.. what can generously be called a heart attack. 

 For the first time, in the soft glow of the fire, you can fully admire your guest. Not see, admire because there was a lot to admire.

 The light of the fire flicking over the planes of his chest, with a light dusting of chest hair, the amber glow highlighting all the muscles of his body, framing the ripples of his toned figure. Swallowing any good sense you have, you watch the rainwater turn golden as it drips down his perfectly bronzed skin. The water cuts through valleys of muscle that could have only been handcrafted by gods. Your eyes follow the flow until... Oh.

 You flush furiously, your face glowing brighter than the fire. He's- He's- Oh my god, he's naked. 

 You reign your eyes in. Ok, you let it linger down there a bit. Not long enough for your guest to notice. You concentrate on his face which wasn't hard to do. The man pushes his raven hair out of his face letting you fully appreciate his face. In keeping with his body, his fine boned face looked like Pygmalion himself spent hours shaping it, not satisfied until he's made the perfect face. It's handsome in an adorable way. Not intimidating. It's the kind of face you'd like to pepper with kisses. You try not to focus on his lips in case of any sinful thoughts. You just met the man. The only thing you will note is that yes, his lips do look absolutely kissable and it aggravates you. 

 The most striking feature however are his deep blue eyes. The kind of deep that you feel like you could drown in. The kind of depth that looked too pretty to agonize over the fact that your lungs are burning. You stare, trying to carve a perfect replica of those eyes into your mind. Those eyes... that are currently staring at you... as he steps closer... at an alarming speed.

 You hold the stack of fabric in front of you like a shield. Your guest stops, looking at the stack. His face goes from concern to confusion to blinding enthusiasm. He was probably freezing.

 A smile spreads on his face, the cutest dimples you've ever seen forming on his cheeks, as he accepts the stack. He thanks you and your heart leaps from your chest. Whatever chill you were experiencing from the storm was completely gone. You turn away from him, rubbing the back of your neck and mumbling a halfway point between 'no problem' and 'you're welcome'. You hope it came out as 'no welcome' instead of  'your problem'.

 The man snorts and you are pretty sure which one came out. To save yourself the embarrassment, you walk to the kitchen and start preparing tea. The man thankfully occupies himself by looking at the assortment of knick-knacks you've hoarded gathered over the years. It gives you ample time to breathe.

 "Do you like sugar in your tea?"

 The man nods enthusiastically. You can't help but smile a little. 

 You sit next to him in front of the fireplace as you hand him his mug. He leans his head against your shoulder. You can feel his body radiating a comforting heat. 

 You two sit in silence, sipping tea and watching the fire flicker. You wanna scold him for slurping his tea. You're not exactly his mother. You don't even know his name. 

 You turn to him, face scrunched and about to ask him for his name when he surges forward. His lips brush against your lips as he nudges his nose against yours. You fall backward in shock and the stranger falls on top of you, his eyes still glowing bright and cool against the amber light.

 There's a thrill working up your spine or is it fear? You squeeze your eyes shut and throw your arms over your face. 

 "Please don't hurt me." You plead barely above a whisper. 

 You feel the body above you lower itself on top of you. He chuckles and shakes his head. "(Y/n), you're being silly."

 You open your eyes. The man is laying his body on top of you keeping you pinned down and he's... pouting at you?

 "I- I don't know who you are. You can take what you want but please don't hurt me."

 The pout deepens into a frown.

 "(Y/n), I'm not gonna hurt you. Don't you recognize me?" 

 You blink. You would definitely remember someone this eye-catching.  "You always sing that sea shanty to me. The one about the sailor who misses his wife's..." The stranger flushes and makes a hand gesture. Your face scrunches again. The only person you've sung that to aside from your dad is...

 "Pup?!"

 His frown morphs back into a pout. "I'm not even that little."

 You squish his face with your hands before you let your mind wander. You think back to the scars crisscrossing his limbs and chest.  "How is this possible?"

 He laughs, prying your hands from his face. "I'm a selkie," He says as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "My name is also Dick, not pup."

 You stare up at him wide-eyed and stupefied. Dick snuggles against you like he always does. Somehow snuggling you in this form is better. He can hold you closer like this. You run your hand through his hair, fingers lacing through the tangles in his hair. He lets out an excited trill. 

 Dick might just be in heaven right now. 

 "I dunno how but you're somehow even prettier when I look at you in this form," Dick breathes contently. "I'm so lucky to have such a pretty wife."

 You stiffen. Dick looks up at you and the confusion in your face wrenches a knife in his heart. He swallows. "That is what you meant with this, right?" Dick asks, tugging at the collar of his shirt.

Your mouth turns into various shapes trying to piece together a coherent response. It settles on the simplest one. "No."

 Dick looks stricken like you'd taken a club to his head. 

 You reel back. "I just- I- I thought you were cold and you-"

 Dick's heartaches. It's a dull ache. He thought this kind of thing would be sharp like having a hook pierce your heart.

 His insides twist as he peels of you. 

 Your stomach sinks as you feel the cold fill your body once more. You don’t want him to go. The thought of being alone right now makes your stomach curdle. Your hands grip his shirt without meaning to. The look on his face hurts but the idea of him leaving felt unbearable. You know it's selfish but here you are begging him not to leave. 

 "Dick, I'm sorry... I didn't know... I-" 

 Thunder booms. You squeak and bury your face in his chest. You can't stand storms.

 Dick smiles down at you softly. It's still pained but it's bearable.

 He lays on his side and pulls you closer. He slots your face into his neck. You're still shivering even when he uses his body to shield you from the rest of the world.

 You whisper another apology.

 Dick shushes you, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

The sunlight floods into the room like it does every morning but the room is still cold. Your mind works to understand what's wrong with this picture. Your hand pads beside you. The space next to you is empty save for the blanket left behind.

 You sniffle, gripping the sheet in your hand. You messed up, you think, pulling it to your face. For the first time in months, the tears come easily. You lay there all day because the tears won't stop.

   "If you sigh one more time, I am going to rip your throat out." Jason growls not bothering to open his eyes. Why would he? Dick has been flat and mopey for the past two weeks and Jason is really starting to miss his hyperactivity. 

 Dick lets out another mopey sigh. Jason. Is. Going. To. Scream. 

 "Can't you be depressing in Roy's direction? Or Bruce's?" 

 Dick sighs even louder at the mention of Bruce and Jason, for once, is considering murder or at least maiming. 

 "She doesn't love me back."Dick sniffles and Jason really should have known this had something to do with you. 

 He turns to Dick. "I'm going to regret asking but how do you know that?" The sooner he sorts Dick out, the sooner he gets to sleep. "Did she tell you to go away and never come back?"

 "Well no-"

 It's Jason's turn to sigh. "You fucking moron, What did she even say?"

 "She said she didn't know." Dick lowers his head to the sand and Jason wants to slap him with his tail. 

 Jason is now fully awake and very ready to throttle Dick. Or he's just cranky. "Are you telling me Bruce was right?! This day just keeps getting worse."

 Something seems to click in Dick's brain. "Oh, crap Bruce is right." He mutters stupidly. 

Jason will take whatever consolation he can get out of this. "She probably thought you were just some random pervert flashing her then." Jason snickers. It's petty and childish but so is interrupting a well-deserved nap.

 "What?"

 Jason lets out an exasperated huff through his snout. He twists his body to look at Dick with minimal effort to lift his head.  "Let's see, you turned up naked at her door and then you called her your wife and nearly kissed her in what?  The space of 15 minutes?"

 "I got confused." Dick sputters. 

"Geez, I thought West was bad but you're just a disaster," Jason chuckles, "Oh! And you made the brilliant decision to leave without explanation," Jason is having far too much fun rubbing salt in the wound.  "She probably feels terrible”.

 "Are you guilt-tripping me?"

 "Is it working?"

 "What-" Dick growls. "Well, what do you want me to do?"

 "Hmmmmm, have you tried talking? Yanno the thing Bruce never does. But seriously, I can’t believe you call her your wife and then abandon her." Jason shakes his head. "And you have the audacity to call yourself the smart one."

 Dick strips out of his skin and begins running towards the lighthouse... naked.

 Jason debates on letting him.... he probably shouldn't.

"Dickface!" Jason calls out. 

 Dick doesn't stop, face crumpled in determination and his little Richard swinging wildly as he walks. 

 Jason is gonna die of second-hand embarrassment. 

 "DICKFACE!"

 "What?!" Dick asks turning around his hands on his hips. Like usual, his hip tilts to the side and his foot taps as he waits expectantly for Jason to gather a mildly coherent response. 

 "Your little Richard..." Jason says pointing with his fin.

 Dick looks down and the look of mortification on his face is satisfactory. ".... Right. Shit."

 "Just steal some from her laundry."

  "But she'll be pissed."

 "Ok, so you would rather flash her then?"

 Dick sighs and this time Jason doesn't have the urge to throttle him only because Dick is already beating his own ego into a pulp. "I hate it when you make sense."

 Jason raises a brow, setting his head back down to the warm sand.  "I always make sense."

 Dick just cackles in response as he heads to the lighthouse.

Dick shifts his weight on the balls of his feet. He feels sick like he'd eaten one of those pickled fish you made him one time.  Maybe this was a bad idea. Why did he even listen to Jason? He flips onto his hands and begins to pace.  His stomach feels like it's being tossed violently by ocean currents. It feels like a shapeless lump sitting in the pit of his abdomen. Maybe you're out or maybe you never wanna see him again.

 Your face had been so blown wide with shock when he had called you wife that it looked almost foreign like the suggestion had been so audacious that your face had to reconstruct itself to accommodate the shock. 

 Dick puts a hand to his face trying to stem the flow of thought. He was such an idiot. Why did he assume you would love him like that and why did he just leave you? Dick closes his eyes and breathes. He'll knock just once more then leave if you don't answer.

 Tok.   Tok.   Tok. 

 The knocks register just above a whisper. He thinks you don't hear it. 

 He lets out a breath and walks away. This was stupid. He should never have come back. 

 Jason was right. Fuck. Dick buries his face as he walks away.

 Distantly, Dick hears the squeak of rusty hinges but it's lost in the tempest of thoughts plaguing his mind, in all the little hurts from that night. 

 "Pup?" The sound of your voice is followed by the pounding of your feet against stand. Dick's careening to the ground before he knows it as your body collides with his. 

  "Pup," you sniffle into his shirt, "it is you." 

 Dick twist in your grip so he's facing you. Your face is buried in his shirt. He strokes your hair, wrapping an arm around you, holding you tight. "Of course, it’s me. Who else would bug you at this hour?"

 Dick feels his shirt grow warm. You mumble an apology.

You look up to face Dick with half your face still buried in his shirt. You've clearly been crying based on how red and puffy your eyes are.  Dick's stomach churns at the dark circles under your eyes. He feels guilt stab him in the gut.  All of that combined with your generally disheveled appearance. Dick can just tell that you haven't slept well the last few days. 

 "Let's go inside and talk." You say, peeling yourself off of him. 

 Dick shakes his head, not loosening his grip on your midsection. "Let's walk around you look like you need some sun."

 You flushed and put a hand to your cheek. "Do I look that bad?" You ask absently, a shy smile creeping into your features. 

 Dick smiles at you and pushes your hair out of your face. "Never but the weather is sunny for once and we both need some air."

"So you really didn't know that the island was filled with selkies?" Dick asks, adjusting the infernal scarf you had forced him into. He insisted that he didn't need it. He could just cuddle up to you for warmth but you were equally stubborn about him wearing a coat and the wool monstrosity strangling him. 

 Your face scrunches up in confusion." I- I don't even know what that is."

 Dick stops.

 You slow down upon realizing he wasn't by your side anymore. "You... don't know what a selkie is?" He asks, his face the definition of dumbstruck. 

 You shrink into your coat." My dad wasn't interested in things like that," you shrug, "I dunno much about..." Your hand twists in a circle, reaching for the right words. 

 Dick tilts his head. That made sense. "You thought we were all just seals?"

 You nod slowly, looking like you wanna shrivel up. 

 Dick starts laughing and you look like you're a second away from throwing yourself into the water. 

 "I'm sorry," he says, flailing. He's screwing this up again. He breathes to collect himself. "I just thought it's funny that we all thought my dad was wrong about you guys not knowing."

 You rub the back of your neck. "Most of us mainlanders don't really believe in magic, yanno? It's just such a foreign concept. Kind of hard to wrap my head around it."

 "I get that." The smile on his face makes your gut twist. You fiddle with your hands. 

 "So what are selkies?"

 Dick tilts his head, not exactly sure of how to word it because how do you explain something that's been obvious to you since you can remember to someone who just found out about it a few weeks ago?

 "We're fae, I guess-" Your face twists in confusion.

 Dick needs to backtrack. "We're fae..." This is hard. "We have this human form and we have our seal forms. We switch between them using our pelt."

 Your brow knits in confusion. "Which one is your true form then?" 

 Dick wraps his arm around your waist and holds you closer as you walk along the cliff tops. He hums as he thinks. "Both?" 

 You look up at him with a weary smile. “That makes sense in a way.” You hum.  Swallowing thickly, you fiddle with your hands. "So what was with the... um..." You clear your throat. "What was with the wife thing?"

 Dick’s mouth dries.  “Well... when we want to ask someone to be our mate... we- we kind of give them our pelt and I thought it translated to human clothes…” He stammers out dumbly. 

 “Oh...oh!” Your eyes widen into a look of horror. You open and close your mouth trying to form words. “Dick, I didn’t realize , that must have - I’m sorry I hurt you.” 

 “Please don’t apologize,” Dick says and presses his lips to the top of your head.  His lips are warm and comforting. “I’ve spent so long in love with you my brain just didn’t...” Dick’s mouth twists. “It just didn’t do what it was supposed to.”

 You would definitely laugh at that last part but you’re still seeing stars from the startling confession he just hit you with. You snuggle tighter into his embrace as you look over the sea. You don’t know how to respond. You really don’t and it frustrates you. It was all just a lot to take in all at once like you’d been tossed into the sea and you’re flailing and grasping at water. 

 But if nothing else, you’re at least glad that Dick is still talking to you. 

 “If you don't mind…” Dick says carefully, the look in his eyes determined. “Would it be alright if I try and pursue you properly?” Dick braces for a no. He’s not dumb enough to be hopeful twice but he needs to ask. 

 Inevitably, you freeze. You pull his arm closer to your chest. Swallowing, you ask: “you mean like a human courtship?”

 He nods closing his eyes.  “Yes, I want to court you.” He coughs clearing his throat.

 You’re silent for what felt like the longest 30 seconds of Dick’s life. Dick cracks one eye to see you fiddling with your hair. “Uh Dick, there’s this one problem that might make that difficult…” Dick raises a brow. It wasn’t an outright rejection but it wasn’t an answer. 

 “I don't know how that works either.” You laugh nervously, burying your face in his arm. 

 “Good - then we don’t know if I’m doing it badly.” Dick beams with a blinding smile.

 You twist to look at him, the corners of your mouth twitching. “That sounds like cheating.”

 Dick snorts, “would you rather I court you the selkie way?”

 “I mean it depends. What's the selkie way?”

 “Fish.”

 Dick startles when you let out a loud bark of laughter. “Fish? You’ve already done that so many times.” You giggle.  Dick tries to wrangle his mind away from the fact that he can feel your lips through the thin fabric of the sweater. 

 “I thought it worked.” Dick sighs. He really did, but alas, miscommunication is a cruel mistress.  

 You lower your gaze trying to concentrate on the fraying needlework of his sweater. “Maybe it has.” You mumble low enough for a human not to hear. How unfortunate it is then that you’re dealing with a selkie. 

 Dick is beaming when you look up again. He nuzzles his face against yours. Dick is once again insanely, stupidly, incredibly happy. 

__________________________________________________________________________

Because neither of you knew what you were doing, Dick's attempts to court you ranged from ridiculous (a literal mountain of fish that you ended up drying, giving away to the other seals, and selling to passing ships.)  to ridiculously sweet (finding you handful of pearls).  Dick nudged a little shell overflowing with pearls and looked up at you with liquid eyes.  He could have gotten you pebbles and it would have been endearing.

 It wasn't always gifts though.

 Sometimes Dick would just sit quietly with you on the beach, snuggling against your leg as you scratched his stomach. You love the ways his squish vibrated as he purred. 

 When summer passed and it became unbearable to watch the stars outside, Dick sometimes spent nights in your lighthouse, wrapped up in your sheets or wrapped around you. It was nice having him around the house even if he was kind of a slob. You love him but he is a mess.

 You made the mistake of introducing him to tea cakes and got him addicted to November Cakes specifically. As it turns out, your cute pest has a sweet tooth and will nuzzle you into submission just for another bite.

 If you ever doubted that Dick was evil before, you now have proof.

 During the winter, Dick insisted on staying in the lighthouse to keep you warm. You wanted to point out that you had a fireplace for a reason but it was so hard to turn down hugs from him.

And because you hadn't had the heart to clean out your father's room yet and Dick clearly preferred it, you let Dick sleep next to you on your cot. You felt a bit bad but Dick was just so happy with the arrangement that you didn't want to make him go away. Besides, it was nice to wake up to his sleeping face in the morning, all sleep rumpled and drooling.

 __________________________________________________________________________

 "Hey Jay, do you have a book on selkies?" Dick asks, caterpillaring on the rock Jason is sunbathing on. 

 Jason takes the opportunity to roll down the rock and knock Dick into the sea before saying: "No." It shall be put on record that there are no drama queens in the Wayne family. 

 Dick shakes off the seawater, big puppy eyes staring at Jason. 

 Jason glares at him. He can't even let Jason have a second of smugness.  "Ask Selina."

 No one really knows where Selina came from or why she stayed (well, they had their suspicions), but if you need something you can't find easily, your best bet was to ask her and hope she doesn't ask you to do anything ridiculously hard.

 Dick hasn't had first hand experience but from what Bruce tells him, they're mostly silly things like recite poems or do a flip. He could do both those things. Well, depending on the poem. He gets tongue twisted sometimes. Hmmm, maybe he should ask if he can avoid tongue twisters so he won't bite his tongue.

 Sloughing off his coat, Dick walks towards the glowing cauldron. 

 "Still no clothes pup? You're going to give a poor girl a heart attack." Selina tsked, reappearing from one of the other cave entrances with a handful of things Dick can't recognize. 

 "Oh... I- I'm still not used to it." He says sheepishly. 

 Selina chuckles, dumping the handful of what Dick can assume is plant debris into the cauldron while before dusting her hands off.

 Dick stares at the thick vat. A bubble rises and bursts emitting what sounded like a human voice. "What is that? Should I be worried?"

 "Oh no, no, this? This is just a little soup for colds."

 "It screamed."

 "All soups scream."

 "I- anyway, I came here to ask if you have a book on selkies."

 Selina tilts her head to the side. "I believe I do-"

 "Great!"

 "Buuuut..."

 Of course, the price.

 "I brought pearls and some seashells." He says hopefully. 

 The angle of her head does not change. Though from the gleam in her eyes, she's clearly interested. 

 "Tell me why you need the book."

 Dick's thoughts halt. Should he tell Selina about you? His eyes dart to the boiling cauldron.  "... Why do you need to know?"

 Selina flourishes her hand. The book appears out of thin air."Do you want the book or not, pup?"

 Dick's nerves pinch. Why does everyone call him that? "I need it to teach someone Selkie customs." He manages.

 "Oh! The little lighthouse keeper!"

 "You know her?"

 Selina shrugs. "Do you really think I wouldn't know something going on about the islands nearby?" She pinches his cheek. "Oh little pup, I know about your little crush. You spend more time on land than you do in the sea these days. Dami's been all huffy about it."

 He has.

 "I've told you my reason." Dick says holding his hand out. 

 "Hnnnn, you have I suppose." Selina sighs.

 Dick takes the book, putting it into a waterproof pouch before gingerly putting his pelt back on. He happily caterpillars out of the cave with the pouch in his mouth. He really hopes you'll like this.

You really should just fix up another cot for Dick at this point and maybe buy him a set of clothes when you go to town. 

 "It's too cold to sleep outside." Dick whines, flattening himself against you on the bed. 

 You lift your book to look at him. Dick just gives you that wide-eyed look when he wants something. You roll your eyes,  letting him snuggle up to you.  "Dick, it is obviously summer and you're like 40% blubber." You snort. 

 Dick pouts.  "You're still gonna let me sleep here." 

 You scrunch your face up and sigh. "I can't exactly let you brace the summer cold, can I?" You say, running a hand through his hair. 

 "Eeeeeexactly." Dick says happily as snuggles into you tightly.  He nuzzles his face into your neck wrapping his arms around your waist. You hum helplessly, curling into his embrace.

 "See." Dick trills with a happy grin. 

 "Are you going to be smug about it all night?" You huff, throwing a blanket over the two of you.

 "No," he says,  "you assume I can't keep being smug 'til sunrise."

 "Dork," you snicker, setting the book down. It was a book on selkie traditions that Dick had gotten you a few days ago. You devoured it the same night but you're reading it again and subtly testing things while Dick was invading your house. You hum, running your hand through his hair, fingernails lightly scraping against his scalp. Dick purrs against your chest. "There was a one eyed seal on the beach the other day. He was a grumpy fellow but kind of cute. Seals really are a sleepy lot. The big lug started snoozing on my lap after like 5 minutes." 

 Dick tense under your touch. He looks up at you seriously.

 "That was a selkie." Dick deadpans. 

 You stop your rambling. "What?!"

 "That grumpy one-eyed seal was a selkie." He repeats carefully. 

 Your breath stutters. "Are all of the seals on this island selkies? ALL OF THEM?" Dick is pretty sure your eyes are mounting an escape.

 "All of them, darling." Dick nods. 

 "Oh." You are so screwed. "Do you guys all talk to each other?!" You shouldn't have told that seal about your little crush. You want the mattress to swallow you up. 

 "Yes? Should I be concerned?" Dick asks, lifting his head. 

 "No! No reason!" You squeal, shaking your head.

 Dick pouts at you with suspicion. It occurs to you with some amusement that Dick is actually glaring. You wisely decide to sidestep the conversation. 

 "You guys love taking naps on people, huh?" You say, absently twining your fingers into Dick's hair. He settles his head against your chest. "That's just cus we like you." He hums. 

 A snort rips out of you. "You're just biased."

 Dick looks up at you seriously again. "We selkies like pretty things like any fae." Dick says, wrapping his arms around you more tightly. He's being petty but Dick has always been protective of you and he isn't about to stop now. Besides... he doesn't want anyone stealing you away.

 You frown at him. "Dick, there are far prettier things on this island and sweet talking won’t magically make November cakes appear." You huff, kissing the top of his head before picking up the book and using it to hide the smile shaping your lips. 

 You feel Dick pick himself up off of you. You peek over your book to watch Dick. He scoots closer to your face until the only thing separating you is the far too thin book in your hands.

 "You don't believe me, do you?"

 "No." You say. You don't mean it but it's the easiest thing to conjure up when Dick is this close. Your lips prickle from imagining Dick's lips against yours. 

 You weren't paying attention. Dick has apparently been going on a two-minute diatribe on how pretty you are and in that two minutes, Dick has managed to scoot even closer. He gently takes the book out of your hands to make sure you're paying attention. He fails to take into account the fact that his face is in fact distracting. Your eyes zero in on his very plush and very kissable lips. If you just lean forward a fraction, you could...

 Your lips feel warm and soft against Dick's, the rest of his diatribe dying in the back of his throat as his eyes flutter shut. His mind might just be melting out of his ears because the only thing he can think about is how soft you are and how perfectly your lips fit against his. 

 "I'm sorry." You whisper shyly. You should be sorry, Dick thinks. Who told you to pull away?

 You touch your fingers to your lips. Fuck, what did you just do?

 "You can do it again." Please, he almost adds. 

 You lick your lips. Dick perks up and leans closer. His heart is going to leap out of his chest. You lean closer. Dick can feel his heart pounding against his rib cage. 

 You kiss Dick on the nose and pull away, hiding your lips behind your hand as you snicker. Dick scrunches his nose and blows air out of it. 

 "You know perfectly well what I meant." He huffs. 

 You lean back into your pillow, grinning at him. "I have absolutely no clue what you're on about." You say slowly, smug.

 "Let me remind you then,"A grin takes over his face. Dick leans in, pressing his lips against yours. You exchange breaths as you drink in the feeling of each other's lips. Dick caresses your sides. He feels you shiver and he smiles into your lips. "That ring any bells?"

 "Not really..." You say, flickering your eyes to him. "But if you try again... it might."

 "Oh sweetheart, I can keep reminding you all night." Dick chuckles, winking. 

 Covering your face, you attempt to hide your embarrassment. You hate how easily he flusters you. "You can't just say stuff like that." You whimper. 

 "Why not? I'm supposed to be courting you and that includes buttering you up," Dick says, nuzzling your cheek. You're just too cute.  Dick gently pries your hands away from your face. "Don't hide your face from me, Honey."

 "Oh god, you're making me regret letting you court me."

 "Never."

 ______________________________________________________________________

 Dick's eyes are struggling to remain open as he watches the fire.  He burrows further into the thick comforter you'd given him. It's not quite as warm as his pelt but the fabric is puffy and it has a sweet smell that makes his head swim. 

 Dick angles his head slightly to watch you. You've been toiling for hours and refuse to tell Dick what it is. Your back is still hunched over with your foot bouncing on the floor. Dick lets his eyes flutter shut, listening to the sound of your shuffling tools. 

 You glance down at the adorable mess dozing off on your sofa. You gently move his hair out of his face. He swats at you sleepily, face scrunched even as he sleeps. You sincerely wish you had Damian's talent for art or that you had one of those cameras. You really wish you could keep a picture of Dick's sleepy face. It's the cutest thing in the world.

 "Hey Dickie," you whisper.

 "Hmmmmm?" He groans.

 "Could you hand me your pelt?"

 "Sure," he moans, blindly padding around for it. You snort as he nearly falls off the sofa. After groping nearly every surface, he finally finds the pelt. "here you-"

 The fur brushes your fingertips before Dick stops. Dick shoots up, nearly clipping your nose with his forehead. He's looking at you fully awake, drool still hanging off the corner of his lips."Are you sure?!"

 "Hand it over coward." You smile gently at him. You try your best to fight off the excitement bubbling in your veins. 

 Dick is off the couch, his own excitement barely contained as his whole body vibrates with happiness. He sits up. You hold out your hand but instead of handing you his pelt, Dick drapes it over you like a wedding veil. It's thick and warm to the touch. You let your hands brush over the silken fur. You can feel magic thrumming from it. It feels like a minute current of electricity but it doesn't flow linearly. It ebbs and flows as it pleases, pulsing beneath your fingers. You burrow yourself in it. 

 Something warm spills in Dick's chest as he sees you wrapped up in his pelt. Dick kisses your nose. "You have now been wifed."

 You twitch your nose. "You missed."

 "Nope. Don't think so. Buuuuut if you show me where you want me to kiss you..."

 You roll your eyes and surge forward, pressing your lips to his.  Dick smiles into it, pulling you close and savoring the sensation of your lips melding together. He makes a happy trilling noise while you laugh against his lips. 

 "That clear enough, Dickie?"  You ask, pressing your forehead against his. 

 "Yeah, I think I got it, wifey."

__________________________________________________________

THANKS FOR READING

Tag list:  @batarella​, @anothertimdrakestan, @lucy-roo, @multifandomgirl-us, @idkmanicantenglish , @birdy-bat-writes​,  @boosyboo9206, @americasmarauders , @l-inkage, @arestorationofbalance , @cloudie-skay, @wunderstell   @hyp-oh-critical @glorified-red @ marshmallow12435 @vvipgot7be​ @jadedhillon​​

#dick grayson x reader #dick grayson imagine #dick grayson x you #dick grayson #dorks #seals #selkie x reader #selkie au

[flashflashhundredyarddash]

Also, here are some of my favorite fics I've found over the years! These are going to be DC/Batfam fic recs.

Running Headlong into My Arms by gleesquid

"Bruce doesn’t like to credit one thing for saving his life, but if he did, it would be Haly’s Circus that Friday night in September, just as summer was beginning to die.

(He'll always be a sucker for kids with sad eyes, no parents, and more fight than the world knows what to do with.)

Or: in a universe where superheroes don't exist, Bruce Wayne finds his family."

Been a while since I read this one, but I remember thinking it was pretty good!

It All Started Fairly Normally by @kazyre

"When Wally doesn't show up at the cave one day for training, Dick immediately knows something happened to his best friend. The League is called in to help once they do find him. As well as the entire speedster family."

Probably one of my favorite fanfics EVER. I still to this day routinely reread the whole series

Robins and Other Flightless Birds by @ionalottabookmarks

"It begins with another Bruce, looking around his cave and asking, “So where are the kids?”

Bruce has never thought about having a family before. But once the idea occurs to him, it's hard to think about anything else."

*puts head in hands* This fic is just. So good. Bruce clearly trying so hard but also failing over and over again so hard. I love this characterization of Bruce so much.

Quiescent by kira892

"Wally wakes up to an empty bed.

He mourns the absence of warmth at his back and the familiar comfort of heavy, sleep-slack limbs draped over and around him before his brain processes the soft whisper of music drifting in from the left, in the direction of his desk. He cracks his eyes open and takes a moment to stare because the sight that greets him is certainly one to be appreciated."

A quiet, intimate birdflash piece that I really enjoy.

you lost the starlight in your eyes by @novaviis

"So, Dick collapses.

It comes out of nowhere. They’re in the kitchen one rare morning that they both have off. Wally is trying to follow his dad’s old recipe for French Toast, and Dick is doing the laundry. There’s easy banter and flirting and tired kisses with too much stubble because neither of them have shaved yet. Wally jokes about growing out a beard. Dick says he’ll leave him first - and easy on the sugar, he’s watching his hips. Dick goes into the laundry room and Wally calls to him down the hall about grabbing his phone or something from the bedroom.

No answer.

Wally calls him again. Dick walks out of the laundry room in a bit of a daze. Wally asks him what’s wrong. Again, Dick doesn’t answer. He just looks up at Wally and... drops."

I started reading it and just couldn't stop. Novaviis does a great job at building up the tension and really writing a strong, committed relationship, and the whole fic is incredibly cathartic.

Life Happens by @cdelphiki

"While walking home from an event at Wayne Enterprises, Tim and Damian are kidnapped and sent to an alternate dimension. In a world where superheroes are merely comic book characters and the idea of the multiverse is only a theory found within the pages of science fiction, how are Tim and Damian going to return home? How long will they be stranded on this strange Earth? And will the boys murder each other before they figure it out?"

This is a fic with a very interesting premise that is executed beautifully and is very bittersweet. A fantastic development of a Tim and Damian relationship.

An Old Lullaby by @faramirsblessing

"Tim and Damian are injured in an accidental explosion that destroys Gotham High and Gotham Academy. Damian's injuries are more severe than Tim's, leaving his life hanging by a thread, and the Batfamily struggles to come to terms with his injuries. They must learn to rely on strangers to help their littlest member while coping with their own grief, confusion, and guilt."

This fic is a WIP and I'm loving every update.

Watch This by snackbaskets

"Hal and Barry are worried about Batman's new partner. Being around the Batman all the time can't be good for a kid, right?

Robin insists otherwise, and for $15.36 of betting money, is happy to demonstrate."

This fic makes me laugh every time I read it, it's hilarious.

This post got long so part 2 is here. I also have quite a number of Star Trek, Marvel, X-Men, Haikyuu, and MXTX fics, so if anybody's interested in those feel free to send me an ask! Again, this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the fics I'd recommend.

#birdflash #dc #batfam #batman #fic recs #fanfics #long post #the burd squawks

[soulmate-game]

Useful Part 2

fluff with a little hurt and comfort. If you want answers as to the lack of angst, look through my recent posts for an explanation. 

—* — * — * —* —* 

“Wait, you have a WHAT?” were the first words that the rest of the Gotham-based vigilantes heard when they finally were able to track down where Damian had gone. Dick looked over at Bruce, who was noticeably tense. No surprise there, the man had just found out that he had a second biological child. One who was apparently a superhero already, without his intervention, and also apparently had a tragic background in the League of fucking Assassin Assholes. Not to mention that Damian’s track record with meeting siblings wasn’t great, even if this one wasn’t actually new to him. Nobody had any real fear of Damian relapsing on his no-kill rule, they knew he had matured far too much to be at risk of killing for something as immature as sibling rivalry anymore. 

But there was still fear. Because this new Wayne was an Unknown Factor, and as a rule the Bats hated Unknown Factors. And they had no idea what the relationship between the two had been before they had been separated, or what it would become now. 

“That wasn’t Damian’s voice,” Dick helpfully pointed out the obvious. Bruce only frowned, doing his best (and failing) to hide his anxiety about what they would find. Silently, the group inched forward to the edge of the abandoned building they were on top of so that they could look over at what was happening. What they saw was a girl, presumably the same one who had been in a ladybug onesie and had fearlessly begun to ask them to leave Paris— until she had laid proper eyes on Robin and fled, that was. That girl was sitting down next to an unmasked Damian, who had his arm around her shoulders and let her lean into his side. He even smirked cheerfully at her question before continuing to speak to her. 

“A dragon-bat. I knew you’d love hearing about him, I’ll introduce you when you come visit the Batcave. His name is Goliath,” Damian admitted smugly. Despite the familiar attitude and pride behind his words though, his spying family couldn’t help but notice that he kept periodically rubbing the girl’s (they really needed to find out her name) shoulder in reassurance. None of them missed the tear tracks on both of their faces, or how red the girl’s eyes were. Clearly they had missed something big. 

But nobody wanted to try to figure that out yet. This scene was too precious, too breathtaking for them to interrupt just yet. They had never seen Damian this vulnerable around someone outside of their little circle before, someone from the Time Before Bruce, no less. Most of the time, only Nightwing was able to see this side to Damian. And usually the roles were reversed, with Damian being the one consoled. They had never seen him in the position of the comforter before. The pillar of support. 

It really cemented just how far he had come. 

So they watched silently as the girl flinched, pulling away a bit and hunching in on herself. The laugh she let out was small and overflowing with self-degradation. 

“You make it sound as if the rest of your family actually wants me to visit,” she replied sourly. Damian gently cuffed her over the head, frowning. 

“Two things,” he held up two fingers from his free hand. “One: They will. They accepted me, and I was— well, you remember how I used to be. Once they actually meet you, and process the fact that there’s another Wayne now, they will bombard you with more welcoming than you will know what to do with. Two: It’s Our family, Marinette. Not mine, ours.”

Well, at least they had a name now. But it seems like they had bigger issues now, like Marinette’s clearly damaged sense of self. Jason and Tim traded knowing glances; it wasn’t hard for them to guess where, or how, she might have been damaged enough to think so lowly of herself. 

They watched as Marinette shook her head. 

“I don’t know. It’s one thing to try to… to get to know you again. We used to be close before… everything,” she haltingly argued, voice small and frail and uncertain. But she never once looked away from Damian’s eyes, trying to convey as best as she could what she was feeling. “But they’re different. They don’t have any reason to trust or like me, Dami. And I’m bad at, well everything, but especially,” she waved her hands frantically as if indicating the whole situation they were in. “I mean, listen to me! I can barely articulate right now, and I’m talking to someone I’ve known my whole life! I’m a mess. Nobody wants a mess.” 

It was Damian’s turn to snort, and he pulled her right back into his side. “Please. If anything, that’s exactly the type of child Father goes looking for. We’re all a mess. Especially Father, trust me.” 

“You’re just trying to make me feel better,” she accused suspiciously, but sank into his sideways embrace anyway. Damian chuckled. 

“No, I’m being honest. He’s terrible at emotions, not that I really have much room to talk. We all are pretty bad with them. But he’s the most obvious when it comes to that issue,” Damian smirked over at his sister conspiratorially. “For example. He still tries to tell people that he works alone, and pushes people away because he has this intense desire to protect, but doesn’t know how to say “I don’t want you to get hurt, stop worrying me,” so instead he says “Go away, I don’t need you,” only for us to see through that nonsense and remind him that the amount of people in his team is in the double digits already. He doesn’t want to admit he cares about us and is vulnerable—”

“Sounds familiar,” Marinette teased with a watery grin, startling a short laugh from her twin. He nudged her a little roughly (but not to roughly) and playfully glared at her. Marinette just giggled.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he lied with a grin before waving his free hand in dismissal. “Anyway. Another example. He has no idea how to tell a stranger, “hey, I’m your father and I will not reject you. In fact, I’m completely willing to adopt you right this moment and whisk you away to Gotham and relative safety and hire an entire team of therapists to help you and buy you half the world if you asked for it,” so instead he and the rest of our emotionally constipated family just lurks on the edge of a building in broad daylight eavesdropping on us and expects us not to notice.” 

“Wait what,” Marinette’s gaze instantly whipped up towards the sky, taking only half a second to locate the aforementioned eavesdroppers. Everyone except Bruce at least had the courtesy to duck down and pretend not to be there when they noticed she had seen them, leaving Batman standing seemingly alone on the concrete roof. Marinette blinked once. Twice. Then turned to Damian. “I’m gonna blame the fact that I didn’t notice them on emotional turmoil, because there is no way I’ve gotten THAT rusty.” 

Damian smiled, but didn’t laugh. He knew that was a deflection to try and distract from Marinette’s quickly resurging self-consciousness. Her hands were already trembling again, and the fear from only minutes ago had resurfaced. The insecurity. He could practically see the words “I’m not good enough,” written in her irises. 

“You’ll be fine,” he whispered, standing up and pulling her with him. “If anyone has to worry here, it’s me.” 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Marinette whisper-hissed right back, eyes wide in disbelief and confusion. “You’re— You! Mister Perfect!” 

Damian rolled his eyes, and his self-deprecating smirk matched the laugh Marinette had given just a few minutes earlier. “For the League, maybe,” he shrugged. “Never the Wayne family. Which is why I know you’ll be fine. If they put up with everything I’ve done and still call me one of them, they’ll accept you with barely a second thought.” 

Marinette’s next argument was cut off by the sound of a dozen soft footfalls stirring up dirt not far ahead of them. The BatClan had landed from the rooftop. 

Marinette gulped. 

But if there was one thing— one thing she still remembered from her days as Marie Al-Ghul, it was how to fake pride and confidence. She straightened her shoulders automatically, lifted her chin, and pulled away from Damian’s supporting arm around her shoulder. Damian let her. 

A little bit of old resentment flared up in him as he saw Batman walk up close enough to comfortably talk with them. Resentment that he no longer held onto, but that had haunted him nearly every night of the first two years he spent with his dad. The realization that maybe his twin was the one that was meant to be a Wayne. Marie had the blue eyes, the compassion, the more specifically detective-oriented mind. The calm head. Sometimes. Marie was exactly who he imagined when he thought of a naturally born member of the BatClan. Stubborn, clever, morally just. She had risked immediate death just because she refused to fight him, for crying out loud. Because she didn’t want to hurt the boy who used to be her best friend. The only ally she had ever had, growing up. 

Meanwhile, he still had issues reigning in his anger sometimes. He had too much blood on his hands, he was more of a battlefield tactician than a long-term strategist. Still stubborn, but also completely unaware of the pain he brought others with his words or actions a lot of the time. He used to be such a rage fueled little demon, and thinking about how his sister fit the classic Wayne outline more thoroughly than he did had made him destroy more than a few practice dummies in frustration. 

But now, looking at Marinette trying so hard to appear strong and proud when he knew she was still so shattered inside, relief overpowered the old and dull resentment. This was what she needed, he could sense that easily. She, just like him all those years ago, needed Bruce and the others to start to heal her and reforge what the League had badly molded. 

“... Marinette, I suppose?” Damian nearly facepalmed at his father’s awkward attempt at a conversation starter. Marinette herself was clearly too keyed up and overthinking things to even register any amusement at the lame attempt, merely nodding with an overly serious expression on her face. 

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Monsieur Wayne. Or that’s my name nowadays, that is,” She stumbled a little in her response before clenching her fists and forcing herself to continue as calmly as she could muster up. “My birth name was Marie Al-Ghul.” 

Bruce’s eyebrows visibly furrowed underneath his cowl. “Was?” 

“I…” Marinette finally looked away, shame creeping back onto her face. “I was explicitly told that I was stripped of the Al-Ghul name and would be killed if I ever dared lay claim to it again. So I not-so-legally changed it. And I was later adopted.” 

Several sharp gasps or the hiss of breath through teeth bit through the quiet breeze. Nobody was necessarily surprised, Marinette could see it when she looked through her eyelashes and examined the winces and sympathy on the faces of the vigilantes before her. Batman’s shoulders were stiff, as if someone had paralyzed only his shoulder blades. 

“And the people who adopted you?” Batman pursued. Marinette couldn’t read his tone very well, but it sounded vaguely angry so she quickly raised her hands in a placating gesture and her eyes widened significantly. 

“They’ve been amazing! They don’t know anything about my past, or who raised me, but they are endlessly patient with me. I mean, honestly! Sabine caught me when I was trying to steal one of her gold bracelets in Hong Kong— and I know I’ve never been as good of a combatant as Dami, but I’ve always been better at sleight of hand and stealth so honestly that’s impressive— and she saw my dirty eight-year-old face and for some reason decided, ‘yeah I want this one as my daughter’ and roped Tom right into it and next thing I know they somehow tailed me to my hideout? I still don’t know how the hell they managed that, but Tom had a huge plate of steaming buns and I was so hungry and suddenly it’s two years later and I’m adopted and we’re on a plane to Paris—” Marinette threw up her hands. “I still don’t fully grasp what happened sometimes.” 

She belatedly seemed to realize that she had just gone on an entire breathless rant at the speed of sound, and slapped her hands over her mouth before lunging into a deep bow. “I apologize! I spoke horridly out of turn!” 

To her surprise though, she was met with a soft laugh instead of a scolding. She jerked in surprise, whipping her head up only to see Batman holding a hand over his chin to hide his large grin. It only took another second for the boys behind him to laugh a lot LESS softly. Nightwing strolled over casually and swung an arm around both her and Damian’s shoulders, playfully nudging her brother with his knee. 

“I think she fits right in, don’t you little D?” 

“Of course,” Damian scoffed, though his eyes were playful. “She is a Wayne by blood. She ‘fits in’ more than you strays.” 

“Dami!” Marinette whipped back to him and puffed out her cheeks. “That was uncalled for!” she barked. Damian held his hands up in surrender. 

“Relax,” he said as soothingly as he could manage. “They know I’m joking,” he dropped his hands and a knowing smirk took over his face. “And besides, now you’re relaxed so my plan worked,” Marinette could only blink at that. She… did feel more relaxed, actually. “Also. I told you you’d be accepted easily. They already consider you one of us.” 

“Wha— there’s no way—” she frantically looked at each of the older men around her, but each of them just shot her a smile or grin and a short nod. Her shoulders and jaw both fell, and it broke a little of everyone’s heart. 

Marinette looked so utterly shocked, bewildered to be accepted as if it was still something profoundly foreign to her. And there was that disbelief in her eyes, that distrust that screamed that she expected some sort of lie here. That told that she thought this would all crumble away at any second. If anyone had any reservations about bringing her into their inner circles, it vanished right that moment. She needed support, or she’d crumble away and they all knew it. 

“How about we start by talking about the situation with Hawkmoth?” Red Robin spoke up, walking forward to stand beside Batman. “I assume that’s a little more in your element?” 

Damian silently vowed to thank Tim later for that. In a silent, completely anonymous way of course. Couldn’t have Tim thinking they were friends or something now, could he? Marinette instantly straightened up and nodded, her confidence returning with a little more sincerity this time. 

“Yeah. Yeah, let me transform again. It’ll be easier to explain.” 

—*—*—*—*—*

It was three weeks later, on Marinette’s third now-weekly visit to the Batcave, when the question finally came up. Jason had asked to spar with Marinette for the first time, having seen her in action as Ladybug and wanting to test the girl when she didn’t have superpowers to rely on. Damian hadn’t been down in the cave to warn him, and the result was Jason’s gut sinking as Marinette scrambled as far away from him as she could, eyes wide and chest heaving in the beginnings of a panic attack. 

“Shit,” Jason muttered before he quickly knelt down and did his best to talk her down, to calm her until her breathing slowed and her pupils were back to normal. It wasn’t long afterwards that Marinette started hugging herself, refusing to look at him. But he wasn’t going to just back down, he wanted to solve this issue. If even the mere suggestion of a spar was enough to set her off, he needed to figure out why and fix it. 

So he carefully lowered himself so he was sitting only a foot away from her, resting his arms across his knees casually. 

“Sorry,” he apologized. “Didn’t think it would be a sore subject. That’s on me.” 

Marinette just shrugged, but didn’t answer him. She just buried her face in her arms and took a shaky breath. 

Jason let the silence linger for a while before trying again. “Does this have to do with certain Asshole Assassins?” 

That startled a slightly hysterical bark of laughter from her, and she had to wipe away a few tears when she raised her head and finally turned it in his direction slightly. Not enough for her to be looking at him,  but just a subtle turn to show that she was listening and speaking to him. “Yeah.” 

“You know, you never told us why you got disowned,” Jason tried to make his words as casual as possible, but wasn’t surprised when Marinette still stiffened and took a sharp breath. He didn’t push. The stage was set, and he’d wait until either she took the opportunity to open up or told him to leave well enough alone. Her tongue flicked out to wet her lips, and her foot tapped on the ground a bit. Clear signs of her anxiety around the subject, and Jason’s hopes vanished a little. He would probably have to wait longer for her to be ready to share.

But, to his pleasant surprise, he was wrong. She took another few minutes to gather her thoughts, but she did eventually open up to him. 

“I refused to fight Damian,” she admitted. “It was… We were seven. It wasn’t supposed to be a fight to the death, but it was a very important spar. We were using live weaponry, and we were told to fight until we couldn’t anymore. Whoever fell first would be relegated as a mere soldier, and have to fight for status like any other assassin in the League. The winner would officially be named as G— as Ra’s Heir. I didn’t want to fight, because I knew Damian would win but I also knew that it wouldn’t be as easy as Ra’s probably expected if I gave it my all like he wanted. I knew both Damian and I would be heavily injured if I did as he asked, and it wouldn’t be worth it. If I misjudged anything, any single hit, I could have accidentally injured Damian permanently and ruined his worth in Ra’s eyes, and that wasn’t an option. I didn’t care that throwing the fight was as good as giving up my life, because at least I could be sure that Damian kept his. I could make sure that he was treated well, or as well as anyone could hope for in the League anyway. I could, with only a few words, make sure he became indispensable. Ra’s and Talia never liked me as much as Damian anyway, I figured… I figured it was nobody’s loss,” She swallowed heavily, clenching her eyes shut. “I was always just the spare. The extra. Damian was their crown prince, the one with actual value. Even to me. I saw him, and I saw everything I wanted to be. I… I tossed down my weapons and let him stab me, because I figured I owed it to him for being such a failure in comparison to him. That I owed it to him to do everything I could to make things easier for him, since I was just an unnecessary obstacle—” strong arms wrapped around her, and she turned to sob into Jason’s chest as he just silently held her. 

“Idiot,” Damian whispered, making Marinette jump. Her twin sat only a few feet away, though only Jason would have known when exactly he had gotten there with them. He shook his head at her. “I never would have gotten as far as I did without you,” he whispered, looking up at the cave ceiling. “You were the only real rival I had. When you left, everything was either too easy or nearly impossible, nothing was the same as trying my best against someone who was just as good as me. And when I got here and met the others, I didn’t think any of them were worthy of taking your position, you know,” he scoffed a bit as he got lost in his memories. “That’s why I hated Tim for so long, I think. He reminded me of you so much that I wanted nothing more than to punch him for daring to replace you—”

“Heh, the Replacement twice over, huh?” Jason joked. Damian chuckled with a small eye roll. 

“Plus, he just has a really punchable face,” Damian added, trying to distract from the emotion behind everything he had just admitted. “Part of me thought you were dead. The other part refused to believe that. And seeing Tim and how some of his mannerisms were the same as yours,” Damian shrugged a little. “It stung. Especially that second year, when I started to regret that you never had the chance to come here and join them with me. Meet them with me.” 

Marinette sniffled. “... Who are you and what have you done with Dami? He’s never this sappy.” 

Damian flicked a pebble at her head with a good natured glare, successfully diffusing the serious air a little. Marinette wouldn’t ever be normal, and it would take a while before she was no longer fragile, but she could get there. Especially now that her bridges with her brother had been mended, and and a whole new family had cropped up to help support her. 

She was glad Damian had convinced her to try, again.  

#maribat #platonic daminette #sibling daminette #bio!dad au #bio!dad bruce wayne #ml x dc #mlb x dc #Useful

[redjaybathood]

I hate to be doing this to Talia, but this just wouldn't happen otherwise. So. Sometime when she organized Jason's murdertour, and was prepping Damian to leave for Gotham as soon as Jason was done with it... Ra's found out that she was still going against his explicit orders, both in regards to killing Jason and grooming Damian to become his heir. And he had her killed.

It pained Ra's deeply, you see. Talia was his favourite child. He blames two people: the Detective, who always had Talia looking after him, seeing a path in her life where she could have walked independent from her father. And Jason Todd, the final act of rebellion. So Ra's decides to use Jason against Bruce while he takes over Damian's education.

Talia's murder was meant to be a setup, meant to make Jason think that Bruce did it. But Jason just can't believe it. He wouldn't kill Joker, why would he kill Talia?

Ra's uses Damian as "proof", feeding him a bullshit story about rape and so on.

Jason hears s bullshit from a mile wide. It's not only that Bruce wouldn't kill anyone in revenge even for rape, it's not only that he wouldn't have left Damian behind even if he did that should he have a mental breakdown for example; but Talia? Raping anyone? Raping Bruce? And okay, Damian is a kinder surprise. But Jason would bet that more than anything, he's a child of love.

And, okay, he sees Ra's plotting. And Ra's plotting is the only reason Jason is even alive, seeing as the old crone just hates his guts. As though he heard a prophecy that Jason would burn his kingdom to the ground.

And Jason has to go along, for now, before he finds out what the plan is and why and where's Ra's weakest spot.

So he goes to Gotham. So he blows up Batmobile.

And then he gets attacked by a literal baby with sword in hand. Tis is Damian, who's avenging his parents, both of whom, Damian was told, are slain by Red Hood, former protege of them both.

Oh, the hate Damian bears in his heart for Jason. Oh, the loathing.

Well, up until someone takes out all the assassins who serve as Damian's back up. And this person, in dark cape and face mask, rumbles: Damian, I am your father.

Damian realizes that Red Hood never killed his father, the Batman, and he may have nothing to do with his Mother's death as well.

Three of them are going to the League, to find out what happened to Talia.

(Bruce is barely functioning here; it's not only that Jason came back but he's a murderer now; it's not that he has a secret son that was raised as someone capable of murder as well. It's that Talia is dead, and they never got closure, always hoped for a nebulous future when the things are going to be simpler, and it never came; never will).

Their investigation, where Jason leaves a blood trail - only figuratively speaking, he doesn't leave evidence, he doesn't want Ra's to know he's coming - and Bruce not even arguing, just looking the other way, because he's so. Broken. And to Jason's credit, he doesn't do it with every one, just the ones who could tell Ra's about them. And he never does it where Bruce or Damian could see.

It all culminates in them infiltrating Ra's stronghold. Ra's expecting them. Battle ensues. Ra's tells them all, a classic villain monologue. Jason is the one who takes Ra's head, even if Damian has more right to it, and it would ensure a smoother proceedings afterwards. But he doesn't want Damian to ever question himself or be haunted by this act. He spares him.

And, in a sort of Riddic's Chronicles, he becomes the regent to the next Demon's Head.

While Damian and Bruce go back to Gotham. They both have a lot to process in terms of grief from losing Talia. And, in part, from kinda losing Jason, too. For Bruce, current situation is almost worse than if Jason never came back at all. And for Damian, there's so much resentment, still, because Jason was the catalyst to his mother's death, but he also is the one who stopped his grandfather and let Damian leave the League. And every day since he had to be fighting against the tide that wanted him, an outsider and the killer of Ra's al Ghul, gone. And Jason won't ever be living his life anymore, he's dedicated to the League, he's living Damian's life.

He can't even go kill Joker. That's not exactly how League operates now. Jason is trying to wrestle them back to what's it supposed to be, since he can't just let them go on their merry assassin way.

To be clear, the initial image I had in mind was Damian being the Demon's Head and Jason his Shadow, his SiC. His knight, if you will. But I guess he still is, but they're also continents apart and won't ever see each other again.

#jason todd #damian wayne #fic idea

[the-witches-you-couldnt-burn]

When it all falls down

Hi guys! I was meant to post this earlier but life happens :(

I have so many fic ideas but not enough time to write & post them. The completion of this fic will be my priority tho!

(Edit) previously named ‘Life as a pawn within the Devil’s deal’

Ao3

Story Masterlist

—————————————————

CHAPTER THREE: Buried alive

Warnings: injuries, sexism, pre-panic attack symptoms, torture (not explicit) and mentions of child birth (and death caused from it), forced pregnancy & imprisonment.

The haunting voice of the king cut through the foreboding silence that coated the room. It bounced off of the decrepit stone pillars, and the ceiling crumpled under the reverberation.

Lady Talia dragged her towards the throne, her body screaming to get far away from this man. Marinette was pushed forward, forced to kneel before ‘her King’. His throne was made out of a rusted iron and withered thorns peaked through its cracks. The king, although hidden from the world, was adorned in every finery known to man. A deep emerald green tunic and pants were joined by a solid gold belt. Gemstones lined the clasps of his cape, connected by three gold chains of differing lengths. The crown that graced his salt & pepper coloured hair consisted of polished obsidian jewels embedded into the golden spires.

Mari’s eyebrows furrowed. She was taught that each of the royal family were only garbed in opals & obsidian (as they were the family’s signature gems) plus their birth jewel. But his majesty seemed to be wearing more jewels then she could name, none seemed more important than the rest.

“So this is the one you chose as Damian’s promised?” He glared down at her. The girl kneeling before him had nothing special about her in appearance other than expensive clothing. What enraged him was that she kept her head high, but her eyes never met his, they were locked on the wall behind him. His frown deepened, his wrinkled skin pulled and folded; suggesting that a frown was a popular expression he wore. “She doesn’t look like much.” His toxic green eyes shifted to his daughter, “Are you sure you got the correct girl?”

“Yes father I have not failed you. This is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, future head of the Miraculous Order. She is their best warrior and will be an asset to the continuation of our bloodline.”

The Mistress’ nails dug into the girl’s shoulder, the pinpricking pain caused her to grimace. She stifled any thought of correcting the hag. It had been years since she took guardian ship of the Order, or in their terms; that she actually the current head. Some of her friends even had dubbed her as their ‘princess’ and that spread around the camp like a wildfire.

His burning gaze scanned every inch of her face before his eyes traveled down her body. Under his stare she felt violated, his contempt and lechery felt like hands running over her skin. “Her only duty is to produce strong heirs, don’t let her be deluded into becoming a hero.”

He waited for either woman to challenge him, it would be a fruitless venture but some still tried. If only his wife had produced a suitable heir, but Melisande had given him a daughter instead. That wretched woman had died during Talia’s birth, escaping her duty of giving him a son. As he reminisced on her, he was only plagued by the thought of how he could have married someone so weak.

He refused to marry again after her, he didn’t want his legacy to be tainted further. And although his daughter was born from weakness she had redeemed herself by birthing a son. Her spouse, Lord Wayne, wouldn’t have been his first pick, but their affair bore a strong prince. His daughter learnt from her mother’s failures and (under his guidance) had become one of his few trusted associates.

“Well?” He boomed, Marinette flinched away. Another sign of weakness. He raised an eyebrow at her, enticing her to comment. “What do you have to say about all this?”

‘What do I have to say?’ She repeated, this surely was a trap, a test. One wrong word and she would be done for. She wanted to scream that she was a warrior not an incubator, and yell at him for deceiving the world.

But she didn’t. Damian’s words from earlier that morning caused her to metaphorically bleed like an open wound.

Her eyes met his, and she is reminded of Damian’s eyes, a stunning evergreen forest comes to mind. But Ra’s eyes weren’t like Damian’s or even Talia’s, his eyes held so much scorn that made them worse then toxic. His eyes held a nuclear explosion behind them and memories of the suffering that came after.

“If the last empire failed,” She paused, taking a breath to conceal her malice. “Why do you think your’s won’t?”

“Because whilst the previous empire thought they were immortal—“ he leaned forward, his face inches away from hers. “I know I am.”

‘Is that how he lived? That is to say if he died in the first place.’ Her body subconsciously moved away but Talia held her in place, his breath was hot and suffocating. She sent a silent prayer to Damian that she was sorry, but the only way she could hold her tongue was if she stitched her lips shut.

-x-

A figure stumbled into the young couple’s room, leaning against the now closed door gasping for breath. Their entry was preceded by rushed footsteps and proceeded by the slam of the dark oak door. Damian watched from the smaller room, the expanse of the appartments was coated by darkness. The shadowed individual walked closer to the lit lantern sat atop the bedside table. The flickering incandescent, cast an orange light upon the person, revealing Damian’s first assumption; his bride, Marinette.

A sob escaped her quivering lips, and the prince noticed her gleaming tears creating trails down her pale cheeks. She collapsed on her bed, crying. He internally debated about whether to invade her space when she was in such a vulnerable state or give her the illusion of privacy.

Looking down at his hands, he remembered the grit of dried blood that once collected underneath his nails. His childhood (if you could call it that) was one of bloodshed and pain. The room looked bigger now and his breathing became infrequent. The bassinet by the window was stripped bare and now became a microcosm of the imprisonment and restriction he faced within the palace walls.

Hands clenched tightly into fists, his nails tempting with the idea of breaking the skin of his palms. He desperately grasped an invisible rope, willing it to ground him. Tremors shook Damian’s body as her cries returned to muffled sobs. ‘Grandfather would be disgusted,’ when had he become so weak?

She had cast a spell over him, projected her despair onto him. What was she crying about anyways? Being sad was being feeble, and being feeble lead to disloyalty.

He stood up, the internal debate was over, all the mental diplomats were slaughtered by the strongest; pride. Rubbing his eyes he broke out of her theurgy. He walked to the bedside, picking up a blanket along the way. When he reached her, body still racking whilst she blubbered, he wrapped the large grey blanket around her shoulders.

Marinette flinched on contact. A cloud could touch her and she still would’ve shied away. Her hair was a mess and stuck to her sweat coated skin. Craning her neck she looked up at her offender, only to find her groom.

Damian’s eyes. They were so similar to... His Highness’s eyes were the last this she saw before the pain penetrated her skull. Her throat was rubbed raw from her screaming which had melted into cries. Is she not even safe in the place she was meant to sleep?

“Take this as a warning—“ pain all she felt was pain, her ears rung from the sound of flesh beating flesh. “Next time you’ll know not to question things above your position.”

CRACK

She screamed.

Damian scanned her face, her eyes were puffy and red. But that wasn’t it. Her left lid looked darker than it should and her bottom lip was busted.

“Who did this to you.” He struggled to keep his tone neutral as she stared into his wide eyes. His mothers statement from several years ago flashed into his mind, “Her position is determined by this marriage Damian, and through you, the Order has a secure future. This union gives us more power and provides them with protection.”

Protection. What use was this marriage if it couldn’t supply the one thing her kin wanted for her; safety.

He looked down upon her beaten face, her skin was tender as blackish-blue bruises waged war. All of a sudden it didn’t matter who committed this atrocity, nor did his thirst for revenge. A pit formed deep within his chest, he had a feeling he knew the answer to his own question.

He turned, rushing over to the closet, Marinette’s arm burned at the removal of his hand. She tilted her head, wiping her eyes as she peered over, watching what he was doing. He had grabbed multiple sets of dark clothes before hastily walking into the bathroom, he returned with the empty linen laundry hamper.

He stuff the items into the hamper before turning back to her, the prince looked almost frantic. He marched back up to her, kneeling, he held her hand between his. Locking eyes with her, her jaggedly cut hair falling similar to that of a curtain as she tilted her head down.

“We have to leave.”

“What?” As if it was a reflex she responded before she could process what he said. ‘Leave?’ This was his home, his kingdom. Why would he want to leave. Her head hung as self-deprecating comments caused her to spiral, ‘I have caused him so much trouble that he feels the need to leave, so that he’s legacy isn’t disgraced further.’

“I cannot ask you to do that.” All of the snark and jest was torn from her leaving her as a husk. “Please,” Her hoarse voice cracked. “I do not wish to cause any more havoc.”

“And I cannot allow for anyone to harm you,” he paused, her eyes shimmered underneath the glow of the lantern light. “You are my wife.”

She softly smiled at the acknowledgment of their status, he had never called her anything other than her name. The ‘my wife’ comment didn’t mean much due to the nature of their arrangement but it still meant something, no matter how minuscule.

“We can’t leave, bad things will happen if we do.”

"There is never going to be a perfect answer." He squeezed her hand, an act of reassurance to give her some form of comfort. “Sometimes the choices we must make have cons alongside their pros."

Taglist:

@thesunniestdays @jayjayspixiepop @toodaloo-kangaroo

#maribat #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #marinette x damian #damian x marinette #damian wayne x marinette dupain cheng #daminette #when it all falls down #arranged marriage au #royal au

[sickly-sweet-imagines]

Okay so I saw asks are open so I have a idea, maybe Scott from Monster Prom with a S/O who cosplayers and hasn't exactly told him yet, so one day he finds his S/o head to toe cosplay, and is like who are you, his S/O is like Scott it's me, and he's like mmm no my S/O doesn't look like you, and only finally realizes it when he gets like a smell of them? Cause with werewolf scent is important way of identifying someone? Or if not scott maybe Damian doing his S/Os cosplay makeup? I love these boys!

Oh my GOD that is,, so canon I love it absolutely I will write this

– – – – –

You blink several times to make sure your contacts are centered before looking at yourself in the mirror. Your wig was on right, none of your natural hair peeking through, your makeup was perfect with no missing details or smeary spots, and your outfit still looked just right with everything else combined with it. You smiled to yourself, basking in your success when you hear the door open. “Babe? I already forgot where I got it from but I’m holding a bag of raw meat. We can have it for dinner if you want!” You smile hearing Scott’s voice from the other room. Although you are a little bit concerned about why he has a bag of raw meat. And what kind of meat it is. “Babe? (Y/n) where-” When he reaches your door Scott stops in his tracks. You can feel his glare without even turning around. “Who are you?” “Wh-” “You don’t live here. Where’s (Y/n)? I thought I heard their voice-” You are not any less confused. Why is he not recognizing you? Oh, wait. It’s because you’re in the full cosplay get-up, isn’t it? “The room still smells like them what did you do.” Is he really- are you- is this- Well, to be fair the low braincell count is one of the reasons you fell so hard for him. “Scott, I am them.” He seems unconvinced. “Not possible, last time I checked they didn’t have weird colored eyes.” “I mean... That’s true, but still, it’s me, I know I’m me.” “You may sound like them and be about as tall as them but I know you aren’t (Y/n).” You pout, trying to think of something that could convince him that doesn’t involve taking off the hours of work you put into getting the costume on in the first place. “They’ve gotta be in here somewhere, it smells just like them. Did you hide them in the closet?” Oh, that’s an idea. “You really don’t believe it’s me?” He nods. “And you’re positive you can’t recognize me from my voice?” He nods again. “Okay, then why don’t you smell me? If I smell like me will that be enough proof?” He appears to mull it over for a few seconds (making some very cute faces as his brain obviously works very hard to think about it) before nodding a third time, agreeing to your terms. You stand still so he can come up and start sniffing you. It’s cute when you look past the weirdness. “...” Scott looks at you with puppy eyes. “(Y/n)! It is you! I thought you got kidnapped or something.” You laugh softly, strategically tilting your head when he hugs you so you don’t get your makeup messed up. “I know, I was the one you were accusing of kidnapping me.” “Right... Why do you look all weird?” You laugh again, wiggling out of his arms so you can grab your makeup, getting ready for the long process of explaining cosplay to him. You’re prepared for the hours worth of questions. You’re pretty sure you are at least.

And because I love him and cannot resist, here’s a little handful of headcanons for Damien helping you get ready:

He is very serious about the artistry of his craft and he will not tolerate you smudging the really fuckin’ good blush and freckles combo he’s giving you

“Stop fucking moving or you’ll mess it up.” “Stop making it tickle then.”

He cups your face very gently when he applies stuff. Like, you didn’t even think those hands could be that gentle

When he applies eyeliner it is extremely intimate

You two will be sitting in your room or in the dressing room of the school auditorium and he’ll be straddling you so he can get the lines sharp

If you mention the intimacy he’ll scoff and tell you it’s just to make sure it looks good

But he will not stop you if you grab his hips and pull him closer in your lap

Just don’t mess up that lipstick he spent like five minutes getting the corners perfect and no matter how good your makeout session is it will not make up for it

#Monster Prom #Scott Howl #Damien LaVey #Scott monster prom #damien monster prom #monster prom imagines #scott howl imagines #damien lavey imagines #monster prom x reader #scott howl x reader #damien lavey x reader #headcanons #shinyshimaagain

[maybeimamuppet]

it takes a village

hey hey little muppets!! happy wednesday!! this is a request fill for gracerailly on ao3 who requested the poly-stics babysitting cadnis' kids.

cw/tw for depression/depressive episodes

otherwise, enjoy!!

---

Cady wakes up to chattering coming through the baby monitor.

Which is unusual, because Janis usually wakes her up with their twins. But today, Janis is still in bed next to her and gives a quiet groan when she hears the noise.

“Jay?” Cady asks groggily. “What’s the matter?”

Janis groans again and flops onto her back, bringing her hands up to sign. That’s never good, Janis only uses sign language when things are especially bad for her.

“Can’t move,” she signs. “Feel… heavy. Slow. Dead.”

“Oh, my love,” Cady hums sadly, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Do you think you’re having a depressive episode?”

Janis nods slowly. Cady can tell she’s using a great deal of energy to bring her hands up again. “The girls.”

“I’ll get them up for today, don’t worry about it,” Cady says immediately. “You relax. Everything’s okay.”

Janis pouts but nods again, letting her hands drop back to her side. Cady pecks her nose gently before she goes to get their daughters up.

They’re both awake, standing up in their cribs and waiting for someone to come get them ready. Both of them look her way when Cady switches the light on, with their adorable frizzy curls and sleepy blue eyes.

“Good morning, my little loves!” She says happily, going to give them their morning kisses. “Did you have good dreams?” Both twins nod happily. “Good, that makes Mama so happy.”

“Where Mommy?” Layla asks, rubbing her eyes and holding onto her stuffed elephant. Cady pauses for a second. How does she explain this in terms they can understand?

For now, a white lie won’t hurt anything. “Mommy’s still asleep, Mama gets to get you ready today.”

Leo reaches out first, so Cady grabs her and carries her over to be changed before swapping her out with Layla to do the same.

“There we go, all clean! Let’s go have breakfast,” Cady says happily, scooping them both up and carrying them downstairs to the kitchen.

“Mama?” Layla pipes up. Cady smooches her chubby little cheek a few times.

“Yes, Ladybug?”

“We hab f’uit?” Layla asks. “P’ease?”

“Yeah, of course you can have fruit,” Cady says. “Good pleases, too, that’s a good girl. Bumblebee, do you want fruit too?”

Leo just nods. She’s less of a morning person than her twin. Cady sets them both in their high chairs and buckles them in for safety, then washes some blueberries for them to eat.

Leo picks at hers, resting her elbows on her tray and holding her head in her little hands.

“What’s the matter, Lolo?” Cady asks sadly while she gives the pets their own breakfast and prepares some quick cereal for herself.

“Miss Mommy,” Leo says with a precious little pout. “Want cuddle.”

“Aww, sweetheart,” Cady says. “Mommy’s still here, she’s just upstairs. And we can go see if she wants to cuddle after breakfast.”

Leo perks up a little bit at the reminder that her mommy is still there, just not at breakfast, and starts eating her blueberries with a bit more speed. She and Layla chatter away about their plans for the day while they eat. Cady can’t quite understand what they’re saying, but she grins at the interactions regardless.

“All done,” Layla says when her blueberries are finished. Leo shoves her last few in her mouth and chews them with a nod of agreement.

“Good job, girls! Okay, let’s wash our hands and then we can go see Mommy,” Cady says. She grabs each from her chair and helps them wash the berry juice off their tiny hands, then carries them back up to the main bedroom to find Janis. “Jay? You up for a cuddle?”

Janis rolls over and gives a weak grin when she sees her whole family there waiting for her. She nods and gestures them over with a hand, so Cady sets the twins down to run over to her.

“Be gentle, girls,” she says quietly, following after them. She scoops Leo up and helps her get on the bed since she was struggling to make it. Layla sits and cuddles in on top of Janis while Leo nuzzles into her side. They both can clearly tell something’s off.

“Mommy sick?” Layla asks. “Need med’cine?”

Janis chuckles weakly and brushes a hand through Layla’s messy hair. Cady can tell it’s taking nearly all of her energy just to cuddle their babies, but Janis forces herself to keep going.

“Kind of, but medicine won’t fix it this time,” Janis says quietly. “I just need cuddles and sleep.”

“Wha’s wrong?” Leo asks, unfortunately curious. How do you explain depression to some barely two year olds? Cady thinks for a second before she tries to explain.

“You girls know how Aunt Reggie is a doctor? And she talks to people who are sad or scared or mad a lot, to help them feel better?” Cady begins. Both twins look her way and nod. “Some of the people Aunt Reggie talks to have something called depression. That’s a tough word, can you say it?”

Both girls try, sounding closer to ‘press in’ than anything else.

“Yeah, good job! But Mommy has depression too. Sometimes it makes her sad, or sometimes angry, or scared. Today it’s just making her really tired. But she’ll feel better soon, and then she can play with you again.”

“I can fissit?” Layla asks, wanting her mommy to be better now.

“You can’t fix it this time, Ladybug,” Cady says sadly. “But we can help Mommy feel better by giving her cuddles and letting her rest. We love her bunches, huh?”

Both girls nod and cuddle in again, trying to squeeze every ounce of love for their mommy into the snuggles. Layla even leans in to leave a wet, but sweet kiss on her forehead. “Mmmmwah!”

“Thank you, girls,” Janis says with a weak chuckle. “What did you have for breakfast?”

Cady knows that the twins are going to talk for a while, which buys her some time to track down a babysitter. She pulls out her phone and is about to shoot off a text to Damian before she remembers that he’s out of town visiting family. Aaron went with him, so that just leaves the Plastics. Oh boy. It’s worth a shot.

spacecadet: Hey is there any way you guys could take the smalls for the day?? Janis is having a depressive episode and I need to be able to take care of her

georgewashington: Are you sure you want us to? What about Damian?

spacecadet: He’s out of town for the week. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate, I know you’re still sorta wary of them

georgewashington: I just don’t want to hurt them, or make you guys upset. Janis would never forgive me if something happened to them because of me.

spacecadet: Regina, you don’t have to worry about stuff like that. Unless it was something major we could never be mad. And Janis does trust you, she’s just protective

georgewashington: If you’re sure, we can take them. Gretchen’s working from home today, so we’ll all be here. What should I do?

spacecadet: Oh, thank you so much!! All they’ll really need from you guys is somewhere to nap and someone to play with. I’ll pack them some toys and things they’ll need and I can drop them off

spacecadet: Just maybe hide anything stainable, breakable, or expensive :/ they are toddlers

georgewashington: Okay, I’ll prep what I can. See you soon.

spacecadet: Thank you so much, Regina!!

Cady switches her phone back off and rolls out of the bed. Once she’s changed out of her pajamas, she goes to get her babies. “Okay girls, should we go get dressed?”

Layla crawls over when she reaches out, but Leo doesn’t want to leave Janis.

“Wha’bout Mommy?” She asks sadly.

“We can come see Mommy again for a little bit when you’re done, Mama will go fast,” Cady coaxes. Leo thinks for a second before she also comes to be picked up. “Yeah, there we go.”

Cady carries both babies back down the hall to their bedroom and sticks both in Leo’s crib to keep them contained.

“Do you want to match or dress different today, pumpkins?” She asks, rooting through their dresser for some outfits.

“Mash,” both twins say at the same time. Cady chuckles and pulls out two of everything she needs. Two green shirts, two pairs of soft black jeans, two pairs of socks. Layla reaches for her first this time, so she heads to scoop her out and rests her on the ground in front of her.

Layla giggles when Cady pops her shirt over her head and surprises her with a kiss on the other side. Cady smiles back until they reach the socks, which are always a struggle. Luckily for her, Layla cooperates and is quickly dressed and subbed out for Leo.

Cady repeats the process on her second daughter before she heads to their closet to grab the finishing touches. Two tiny pairs of white high top converse that match her own, and two of the jean jackets Janis painted to match her old ones. These have teddy bears on the back, which are absolutely adorable.

“Mommy painted these for you while you two were still in my tummy,” Cady says, resting them on the rail of Leo’s crib.

“In you tummy?” Leo asks interestedly. Cady nods and carries them both to see the pictures on their bulletin board. That’s a more recent addition to the room, and full of pictures of all the people important to the twins.

Cady points to one of her maternity photos, specifically at her belly. “You two were in here. That’s where you grew for a while.”

They both look curiously at the photo, then down at their own tummies. “How we come out?”

“Um… we can talk about that another day, let’s go do your hair,” Cady says quickly. Before the twins can say anything else she carries them into the bathroom and pops them down on the counter. She gives them each a comb to play with and then sprays them down with some detangling hairspray, brushing their dark curls out to a more manageable state.

She splits Leo’s down the middle and ties hers in space buns on top of her head, then gives Layla one ponytail so the Plastics can tell them apart more easily.

“I have a surprise for you, girls,” Cady says as she roots through the basket for some hair bows, per Leo’s request. They both perk up at the mention of a surprise and look to her interestedly. “You guys get to go to Aunt Reggie’s house today, isn’t that cool?”

“Aunt Weggie house?” Layla asks curiously. They’ve never been to Aunt Reggie’s house, Uncle D is their usual babysitter.

“Yeah! You get to go play with her and Aunt GG and Auntie Karen and Nutmeg,” Cady says, clipping the green bows to their hair ties.

“Wow,” Leo says excitedly. Cady laughs and picks them up again to carry them back to Janis.

“Mommy,” Layla calls happily, running back to Janis’ side of the bed. Janis helps her back up for another round of cuddles. “We go Aunt Weggie house!”

Leo wriggles her way up again as well, and Janis grabs her for snuggles too. Once she has her babies safely back in her hold, she raises a suspicious eyebrow at her wife.

“Just for the day, they’ll be fine,” Cady groans. “Damian’s still out of town and I want to be able to give you my full attention.”

Janis shrugs and brings her daughters up for some kisses, making them both giggle in delight. Cady takes the time to go pack some supplies for the girls while Janis has them occupied.

She packs enough diapers to last them each a week, some extra clothes in case of disaster, a few of their favorite small toys and activities, their pacifiers, and their stuffies. They already have sippy cups and other dishes there, since Damian insisted on buying everyone some just in case there was ever an emergency and they had to babysit. Turns out it was a great idea.

When Cady brings the jackets, backpacks, and shoes back into the bedroom to finish getting her daughters ready, she finds Leo carefully stroking her little hands through Janis’ hair, while Layla sits on Janis’ belly and is thoroughly explaining all the things she wants to do at her aunts’ house.

She chuckles at the precious sight before she enters the room and snatches Layla up for tickles and kisses. Layla shrieks in surprise, but quickly starts laughing and trying to push her away. Cady carefully rests her down and gets her tiny shoes on, and Janis grins when she sees the cute jacket Cady tugs onto Layla’s arms.

Leo goes next, giggling anxiously and curling into Janis for protection as Cady looms ominously overhead. She squeals when she’s snatched up by the mama claw and brought in for her round of kisses and tickles. Once her shoes and jacket are on, it’s time for them to go.

“Okay girls, give Mommy hugs, we gotta go,” she says quietly. Janis grunts slightly as both twins jump on top of her for one last cuddle before they head off.

“Bye girls,” Janis whispers. “I love you.”

“Luh you, Mommy!” Both twins call at the same time. Janis chuckles and kisses them one last time before Cady scoops them up and rests them on the ground.

“Get some rest, love,” Cady murmurs, bending down to kiss her wife. “I’ll be back soon, text me if you need anything.”

Janis nods and curls back into bed. Cady flips the light off on their way out and follows the twins to the car.

—————-

“Whoa,” both twins say when they see the apartment building. Cady realizes she probably should have explained that their aunties don’t live in the whole thing.

“Big house,” Leo says slightly anxiously. Cady chuckles and picks them both up to carry them in.

“Your aunties live here with other people,” Cady explains. “There’s a bunch of little houses in the building that other families live in.”

Cady carries them past the main desk and to the elevators. Leo gets to push the button to call it, and then Layla pushes the button to get up to the right floor.

“Can you knock?” Cady asks, since both her hands are full. Both of them helpfully rap their little fists against the door. “Good job. There’s Auntie Karen!”

“Hey!” Karen says happily. “Come in!”

Cady enters and sets the twins down. Layla toddles off immediately, making a beeline for Nutmeg.

“Dog, dog, dog,” she says happily on her way. “Doggy! I pet, p’ease?”

“Yes, you can pet her,” Karen chuckles. “Hi Leo.”

“Hi,” Leo replies quietly, pressing against Cady’s leg with a heartbreaking pout. Leo’s always been her anxious one, and is clearly frightened at the prospect of facing a new environment all alone.

Cady crouches down to comfort her, stroking some stray hairs away from her baby’s face. “You’re gonna be okay, Bee. Aunt Reggie and Aunt GG and Aunt Karen are gonna play with you, Mama put all your toys in your backpack. And you have Georgie in there too, he’ll give you cuddles if you get scared. And then you get to take your nap, and probably have lunch.”

“Wha’ lunch?” Leo asks.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to see what they have for you, but I bet it’ll be so yummy,” Cady says. “But you’re gonna be safe, little love. Your aunties will protect you, and they can call or text me on my phone if you need me. And I’ll be back to get you in a while, okay?”

“Okay Mama,” Leo says.

“That’s my brave girl,” Cady says happily, pecking her forehead and standing up. “Oh, there’s Aunt GG!”

Leo runs over immediately for a hug. She and Gretchen have a special bond, which Cady is always happy to see. Regina pops out of the kitchen too, upon hearing the commotion that the twins bring everywhere they go.

“Aww,” she coos when she sees Leo cuddled up with her girlfriend. She comes over to Cady to urgently ask, “Which one is that?”

“Leo,” Cady chuckles. “She has space buns, Layla has a ponytail.”

“Got it,” Regina says. She looks down when she feels something tug on her pant leg. “Oh, hi Layla.”

“Hi!” Layla says excitedly. Regina just looks at her for a second, not totally sure what to do. Layla reaches to be picked up, so Regina bends down and scoops her off the floor.

“I should get back to Janis soon,” Cady says. “I’ll have my phone, you can text or call if anything comes up.”

“Sounds good,” Gretchen says, still holding Leo. She sets her down for a second and says, “Go say bye to your mama.”

Regina sets Layla down too, and both twins run to give Cady a goodbye hug and kiss.

“Mwah. I love you, girls. Be good, I’ll be back to get you later,” Cady says, kissing both of their foreheads and holding them close before releasing them back. “Have fun!”

—-

Regina notices Leo hunch in on herself a little bit and look around anxiously when Cady leaves. Layla is fine and very occupied trying to play with a lazy Nutmeg. Regina still doesn’t quite know how to handle the twins, but Leo is clearly frightened. She knows how to deal with that.

She heads over and crouches down in front of her, but leaves some distance so Leo doesn’t feel crowded. “Hi, honey. Can you show me what you have in your backpack?”

Leo nods and sits down across from her, removing her little backpack and resting it on the ground in front of her. “Help p’ease?”

“Okay,” Regina says, undoing the zipper for her. “What do you have there?” Leo reaches in and carefully pulls out her stuffed giraffe. “Who’s that?”

“Georgie,” Leo says quietly. “He gi’affe.”

“That’s so cool,” Regina says. “Should we show Georgie around so he knows where everything is?”

Leo nods, so Regina stands and picks up the baby to give her a little tour. Leo holds tightly to her stuffed friend and looks around curiously.

“This is the kitchen,” Regina says. She lets Leo look around at all the things on the walls, giving her time to adjust. When Leo looks back to her, they move on. “And this is the living room.” Leo’s seen this, it’s where the entryway leads to and where Layla is currently playing with Karen and Gretchen. She looks around for a short while before she’s ready to move on. “And this is the office, this is where we do our work, and over there is the bathroom.”

“Where sleep?” Leo asks, so Regina shows her the two bedrooms.

“This is where Aunt GG and Aunt Karen and I sleep, and then this is the bedroom for when we have people come sleep over,” Regina says. Leo looks around curiously before giving a nod. “What do you think?”

“Big,” Leo says. Regina chuckles and nods.

“It is pretty big. Oh, do you want to see something fun?”

Leo nods interestedly, so Regina carries her to see the axolotls in the tank in their bedroom.

“Fishy!” Leo says excitedly, pointing to the tank. “Ooh.”

“They’re called axolotls,” Regina explains. Leo tries to say it, but it just sounds more like ‘blelele’. “Yeah, close enough!”

“Name?” Leo asks, looking curiously at the strange creatures. Regina holds her at a different angle so she can see better and points to each one.

“This one is named Versace, and this is Gucci,” she says. “And then waaaaay back here is Louboutin The Second.”

Leo giggles. “Silly name.”

“They are, just a little,” Regina agrees. “Okay, let’s go find your sister, hm?” Leo nods, so they head back to the living room. Layla has finally been satisfied with the amount of doggy cuddles she’s been given and left the poor creature alone. She’s now busy explaining her toys to Gretchen and Karen.

Gretchen looks up when they come back, and smiles when she sees Leo cuddled into Regina’s shoulder. “Do you wanna come play?”

Leo nods, so Regina sets her down and lets her run over to her twin and their toys. Regina jumps a little when she feels an arm slide gently around her waist to rub that one spot on her lower back, and a sweet peck pressed to her neck.

“You’re really good with her,” Gretchen whispers. “It’s cute.”

Regina shakes her head and pulls her closer. “I’m not. I just know how to calm people down. I don’t even know how to play with them.”

“Just try,” Gretchen says quietly, kissing her cheek gently and heading back over. Regina watches as Karen and Gretchen play legos with the twins, building masterpieces and then taking them apart to make new ones. Gretchen makes it sound so simple, just try. But Regina wouldn’t even know where to begin.

So she just watches. Leo sits on Karen’s lap and builds her creations, and Layla stands in between the couch and the coffee table in order to make hers. Regina takes a sneaky picture of Leo explaining her tower to Karen.

“Aww,” she coos quietly when she sees how it came out.

“Send that to Janis, she’d like that,” Gretchen chuckles.

Layla looks over at her curiously. “Aunt GG?”

“Yeah?”

“Who… um… Janis?” Layla asks, lisping the end but managing to get the sound out.

“Janis is your mommy, that’s her name,” Gretchen explains.

“No,” Leo says with a head shake, joining their discussion.

“No?”

“Mommy name… uhm… love,” Leo explains. The Plastics all fight to contain a coo, looking at each other.

“Mommy’s name is love?” Karen asks. Both twins nod. “And what’s your mama’s name?”

Janis tends to switch between nicknames for Cady more often, so they’re curious to see what her ‘name’ is.

“Baby,” Layla says.

“No,” Leo disagrees. “Mama Bullaf’y.”

“I don’t know.” Layla says eventually.

“That’s okay,” Regina chuckles. “You’ll learn it soon.”

—————

“Hey, Jay, how you feeling?” Cady asks gently as she heads back into her bedroom. Janis groans quietly when she flips the light on. “You know it gets worse if you just sit here in the dark all day. You need light. You’re like a plant.”

Janis pouts at her. Cady kicks off her shoes and crawls back in next to her for a snuggle.

“The girls are fine, the Plastics seemed really excited,” she says quietly. “It’s kind of nice, isn’t it? Just us for a day.”

Janis nods. They both love their daughters more than the world, but it is nice to have a break from time to time. Even if the circumstances surrounding it are less than ideal.

Cady’s phone dings in her pocket, so she fishes it out to see who’s messaging her.

“Speak of the devil. Aww,” she chuckles, holding it so Janis can see.

reginald: Sent a picture: Play time

reginald: Also, just thought we’d let you know, they don’t know your names.

spacecadet: Really?

reginald: They can’t decide if yours is baby or butterfly, and they think Janis’ name is love.

spacecadet: Oh my goodness

reginald: It’s actually really cute. Gretch said to send that picture to Janis and Layla didn’t know who that was.

spacecadet: At least they don’t think our names are mama and mommy anymore. Are you guys still good?

reginald: Yeah, everything’s good. Leo just needed a little tour and now she’s all settled in. And Layla and Nutmeg are best buds.

spacecadet: Haha, poor pooch. She’s always after Daffy and Ellie too

reginald: Oh, Nutmeg loves it. She just gets to lay there and be cuddled, it’s her dream come true.

spacecadet: Well you guys can have the twins anytime so she can get her snuggle seshes in

reginald: Sounds like a plan, I’ll let Nutmeg know. We’ll probably keep sending you stuff, too.

spacecadet: Please do, you guys are so good with them. Thanks again <3

reginald: Of course.

Janis chuckles as she reads over their conversation too. Cady cuddles her closer and pecks her forehead.

“Did you eat?” She asks. Janis shakes her head. “Okay. I’m gonna go get you something, I’ll be right back.”

Janis pouts again, so Cady leans down to kiss her a few times before she leaves. Janis grins contently and settles deeper in under the covers.

——————

Karen continues playing with the twins for a few hours, and Regina stays to watch. Gretchen has some new designs to work on and heads into the office for some quiet.

Regina’s making progress with the twins, eventually even coloring a picture with them once they pull out some crayons and paper. They both eagerly compliment her drawing of a rabbit.

It’s almost relaxing, in a strange way. Karen makes conversation with everyone as she draws a duck, and the twins seem to be warming up even more to the environment.

Relaxing until Layla suddenly snatches the same crayon Leo wanted to add another beautiful scribble to her page. Leo whines a, “Hey!” and scrambles to take it back. Layla shrieks and holds it out of her reach, and suddenly they’re both in tears.

Karen and Regina look to each other in concern at the two little tantrum tornados they now have to deal with, and each gently pick up a twin so they can’t reach each other. Karen looks very anxious as Leo thrashes in her hold and releases a shriek that so loud they can’t quite figure out how such a small person managed it. Apparently quiet little Leo is actually the screamer of the two.

Layla seems to be more physical, wriggling to be put down so she can get back at her sister. Regina refuses to let her down, knowing it’ll only get worse if she does. Time for some desperate measures.

She manages to carry a wiggling and screaming toddler into the kitchen in one arm, doing a strange sort of fireman’s carry. It works well enough. She grabs two of the sippy cups they have and fills them with some cold water.

Karen is now holding Leo as far away as she possibly can, trying desperately to keep her grip as Leo kicks and shrieks like a banshee in her hold.

“Good lord,” Regina murmurs under her breath. “Hey!”

Her tone isn’t mean, or harsh, just loud. Both twins briefly stop their antics to look at her, knowing they might be in some serious trouble here.

She hands Karen one of the cups to give to Leo. “I need both of you to take some big drinks for me, okay? You’re gonna run out of tears to cry, we have to give you more.”

They both take their cups with a very serious look in their eye and drink a good bit of their water. They don’t want to run out of tears, that would be bad.

“Good job,” Regina congratulates when they pull away with a gasp. It’s a trick she was taught in college, that actually regulates their breathing and helps calm people down in intense moments. “Now you’re gonna take a nap. And we can have a talk when you wake up.”

For safety, they decide to keep them apart. Layla gets set up for her nap in the master bedroom, and Leo in the guest room. They make little barriers with pillows so they don’t fall out of bed and give them the best blankets, then leave them with their stuffed animals, pacifiers, and cups of water to rest.

“Fucking hell,” Regina breathes when she shuts the door to where Leo is resting. “Where do they get the energy for that?”

“Revenge is a big deal for toddlers,” Karen shrugs. “They don’t like when things aren’t fair.”

“Christ,” Regina sighs, sitting down and rubbing her temples. Karen sits down as well. “They’re so sweet, usually, what-what happened?”

“I know what you’re thinking, and no it’s not,” Karen responds. Regina looks at her in shock, wondering how she could’ve possibly known. “It’s not your fault, and you’re not a bad aunt. Do you know how impressive what you just did is? You got two toddlers to stop having a tantrum. That’s, like, really special.”

“But they only started getting upset when I started playing with them. All I can do is… stop them crying or whatever,” Regina grumbles. “I don’t know how to interact with them, or-or play with them.”

“They were upset because they were overtired,” Karen hushes, letting Regina lean onto her shoulder. “We just should’ve had them nap sooner, that’s all. But you’re really special, you know.”

“Hmm?”

“You treat them like people,” Karen says quietly. “That’s, like, super rare. You showed Leo around when she got here instead of just making her go play, and you helped them calm down instead of yelling at them for being too loud or whatever. That’s what’ll help them the most.”

Regina gives a noncommittal hum and accepts the comfort offered by her girlfriend.

“And even if you don’t really play with them that much, they still like you,” Karen continues. “You still talk to them, and give them cool stuff. Playing isn’t the only way to interact with them.”

“I guess,” Regina agrees. “You’re good with them too.”

“They’re easy!” Karen says happily. “But I’m still a kid at heart, I guess. They’re easy for me to relate to, or whatever.”

Regina chuckles. “I can see that. You’ve always been the fun one.”

“Thanks,” Karen laughs back. “You okay now?”

“Yeah. Thank you, honey,” Regina says quietly, leaning in for a quick kiss. “I love you.”

Karen beams, it’s quite rare that Regina says ‘I love you’ first. “I love you too.”

——————

Leo wakes up from her nap first. Gretchen had been hiding in the study throughout the crayon debacle, leaving it to her girlfriends to handle. But the office is closer to the bedrooms, so she decides to be the one to go comfort Leo as she hears her start to cry.

“Hey, Leo lady, good morning,” she says gently. Leo scrambles down off the big bed she’s on and runs in for some comfort. “What happened?”

“Dark,” Leo whimpers, sniffling into Gretchen’s shoulder. “‘N big. Scared.”

“Aww, I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Gretchen hushes. “You don’t need to be scared, nothing here can hurt you. See?”

Leo nods in relief when she flips the light back on. “T’ank you.”

“Of course, honey. I think Karen is making lunch, are you hungry?” Gretchen asks, shutting the light back off and carrying her back into the kitchen. Leo nods and rubs her eyes blearily. She’s not quite awake yet.

“Hey, Leo,” Regina says quietly. “Good morning.”

“Hi,” Leo yawns. Regina chuckles gently.

“Do you feel better?”

Leo nods again. “Wha’ lunch?”

“I don’t know, we have a lot of things here,” Regina answers. “What would you like?”

Leo shrugs, so Gretchen carries her in to see her lunch options. Karen looks up from her sandwich when she hears them come in. “Hey, kiddo! Did you have a good nap?”

Leo nods with a little smile. “Auntie Kawen lunch?”

“Yeah! I’m having a sandwich, do you want one?” Karen asks. Leo nods. “Okay, what kind?”

Leo wiggles a little bit, so Gretchen sets her down to go look at the options. She and Karen both chuckle as Leo picks a large jar of peanut butter out of the cabinet and hands it to Karen.

“Dis p’ease,” she says. Karen takes it from her and unscrews the lid.

“Okay, do you want jelly in it too?”

“No t’ank you.”

“Okay, good job! I’ll bring it to you in a second,” Karen says. Leo runs back to Gretchen to spend some time together while they wait on lunch.

When they head back to the living room, Regina is gone. Leo looks around in confusion until she comes back with her twin. Regina beckons her over, so Leo lets go of Gretchen’s hand and heads over to her other aunt.

Regina sets Layla down next to her. “Do you two feel better now?” They both nod. “Good. Being angry like that is no fun, huh?” They both shake their heads. “Say sorry for fighting, then we can go play again.”

“Sorry Leo,” Layla says sheepishly.

“Sorry Lala,” Leo replies, wrapping her twin in a hug. Layla hugs her back for a second, popping up on her tippy toes to squeeze her sister.

“Sorry Aunt Weggie,” Layla adds. “Fer sc’eaming.” Leo nods to agree.

“Thank you for your apology, girls. Layla, let’s go pick your lunch and then you can play some more,” Regina says, picking them both back up and carrying them to the kitchen.

“There they are,” Gretchen says when they return. “Leo, your sandwich is ready, do you want something to drink with it?”

Leo nods and heads over to see what they have in the fridge, while Layla goes to Karen to pick her meal. She also just picks a sandwich and is quickly released to go pick her own beverage. Leo chooses apple juice, and Layla picks milk.

-

Surprisingly, each twin finishes about half of her sandwich. Karen helps them down off their chairs and releases them back to the living room for more playing. Leo dives right in and pulls out a small puzzle she brought, pulling out all the animals and trying to work out where they go again. Layla does her own for a while, but gets bored pretty quickly.

So she decides to go on a short adventure. Her Aunt GG disappeared into a room a while ago, so Layla heads off to find her.

-

Gretchen turns when she hears noises at the glass door to the office, spinning around in her chair to find Layla on her tippy toes trying to reach the doorknob. It takes a few tries, but she manages to open it and toddles into the room victoriously.

“Hi GG!” She chirps happily. Gretchen laughs and beckons her over.

“Hi Layla. What are you up to?” She chuckles, pulling her into her lap and re-doing Layla’s ponytail since it got messed up during her nap. Layla seems delighted to be sitting at the big desk where her aunties do their work.

“Lolo do puzzle,” Layla explains. “Don’t wan’ to.”

“Aww. That’s okay, do you wanna help me with a few things?” Gretchen replies. Layla nods eagerly, so Gretchen wheels them closer to the desk and pulls over a design she’s working on for a client.

“Ooh,” Layla says. “P’etty.”

“Thank you,” Gretchen chuckles. “I have to draw it first, and then I make it a real dress people can wear later.” Layla looks at her in awe. “I know, right? Here, help me with this. What color should I make these flowers here?”

Layla suddenly feels a massive amount of responsibility weigh on her two year old shoulders. This is very important. “Uhm… uh… lellow.”

“Yellow?” Gretchen asks. “That would be really pretty, actually, good job! Yellow would look nice with the blue here. Good pick!”

Layla gives a happy little wiggle on her lap, and watches eagerly as Gretchen sketches the flowers in with a yellow pencil.

“Aunt GG?” Layla pipes up as Gretchen moves onto another area.

“Yeah?”

“Me too?” Layla says. “P’ease?”

Gretchen chuckles. “You want a dress?” Layla nods. “Okay, we can try that. Here.”

She sketches out another model, with about the same proportions as Layla.

“Here, stand up, that’ll make this easier. How long should we make the skirt?” Gretchen asks, popping Layla onto her feet and crouching down in front of her. She points to her ankle, just below her knee, and just above her knee. “Which one?”

Layla looks at her legs for a long moment before she points above her knee. Gretchen smiles and nods.

“That’s what I would have picked too. And should it go out big or be closer to your body?” Gretchen asks, demonstrating where each type would fall. Layla picks a big poofy skirt. “Oh, yeah. You got some good style, chica. Now the sleeves, where should they go?”

Layla watches as Gretchen points to her wrist, just above her elbow, and her shoulder. She points to her shoulder when Gretchen takes her hand away and giggles as Gretchen tickles her.

“Okay, come see,” Gretchen says, picking her back up and resting her on her lap again. Layla smiles happily when she sees the form of the dress. “Now we get to pick what colors and patterns it has. What’s your favorite color?”

“Uhm… g’een,” Layla replies, pointing to her t-shirt. Gretchen grabs two different greens that would look good with a dress this shape, one closer to an emerald and the other a lighter fern sort of shade.

“Which green?” She asks, holding them in front of Layla. Layla picks the lighter one. “Ooh, yeah.” Gretchen carefully makes the skirt green, a plan for fabrics already starting to come together in her mind. “Now what should we do with the top bit?”

“Uh…” Layla says. “Sparkledy.”

“Sparkly? I didn’t even think of that,” Gretchen hums. She pencils it in the same color and adds marks to make sure she knows the bodice should be sequined. “You could be a designer too, Lala, look at this cool dress we drew!”

Layla giggles and looks proudly at the drawing. “Now make it?”

“I can’t make it right now, but yeah, soon! All my stuff to make it is at my work,” Gretchen explains. “Here, let’s take a picture to show your moms, they’re gonna be so proud of you.”

Layla smiles when Gretchen holds her phone up for a selfie, and laughs as her auntie kisses her cheek with an exaggerated smooch sound. “Cheeeese.”

————-

Cady reaches an arm out of the bath she’s dragged her wife into taking when her phone pings with a text. She carefully unlocks it to find a few messages from Gretchen.

fetchen: Sent a picture: i have a new assistant!

spacecadet: Aww! She looks so happy <3

fetchen: Sent a picture: no, seriously, she designed this dress basically herself

fetchen: are you open to having the girls as models at some point?? i’m kind of thinking i should start a children’s line

“No,” Janis pipes up quietly, having read through the conversation as well.

“Not even for Gretchen? It’s not like it’s a huge company. And how cute would they be in outfits like that?” Cady pleads. She’s wary of the idea as well, but knows Gretchen would handle everything safely.

Janis considers this aspect, and has to admit her daughters would make excellent models. Maybe she can make an exception for Gretchen. “Fine.”

spacecadet: You should, we’ll buy all your designs

spacecadet: And if they’re into the idea I don’t see why they couldn’t model for you. Layla loves a camera

fetchen: haha i’ll have to get Gina to take some pics of her then! she’s been looking for a way to connect with them anyway

spacecadet: Aww, how sweet. They love all of you

fetchen: that’s what I keep trying to tell her! anyway, I should probably get back to work with Lala. tell Janis I say hi!!

spacecadet: Of course!! Thank you <3

Janis nuzzles into her neck as she flicks the phone back off and sighs, in a mix of exhaustion and contentment.

“Layla must take after you,” Cady murmurs. “Little artist.”

Janis grins gently against her. “We’ll see.”

—————

“There you are,” Regina says as she enters the office to find Layla with Gretchen. “What are you two up to?”

“GG make d’esses!” Layla says happily. “I helpin’.”

“Oh, you’re the best helper,” Regina responds. Layla beams at her. “What did you do?”

Gretchen smiles too as Regina tips her head up and kisses her forehead, then starts gently looking through the designs. Gretchen pulls out the one she designed with Layla’s help and shows it to her.

“She did this pretty much herself,” she says. “And now I kind of want to start a children’s line.”

“You should,” Regina says. “You could make little matching ones of the adult designs you do. Have, like, a mommy and me line. I’d buy that and we don’t even have kids.”

“That’s a good idea,” Gretchen hums. “I’ll think about it more later. We’ve done enough work for today, let’s go play!”

Regina chuckles as Layla runs out of the room when Gretchen sets her down, her little ponytail bouncing behind her.

“You two are cute together,” she murmurs. “You’d make a good mom.”

“So would you,” Gretchen says, wrapping her arms around her waist. Regina shakes her head and tries to move away, but Gretchen refuses to let her go. “No, look at me.” She gently cups Regina’s chin and makes her look into her eyes. “If you wanted to, you would make a wonderful mother. You’re not your dad. You’ve made so much progress, sweetheart.”

Regina flushes at the pet name and buries her face in the crook of Gretchen’s neck. “We’ll talk about it?”

“Yeah,” Gretchen agrees quietly. “Always. Whenever you want, we’ll talk about it. You know you can always talk to us?”

Regina nods. “You know too?”

“Yeah,” Gretchen murmurs. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Regina whispers, unfortunately having to pull away from one of her favorite places, since her spine is beginning to ache at being hunched over to cuddle her smaller girlfriend. “We should probably go save Karen.”

Gretchen laughs and takes her hand, leading her back out to the living room.

—-

A short while later, Regina half-watches Karen giving the twins ‘airplane rides’ around the apartment, weaving around the furniture and in and and out of rooms. She’s also half-watching her Tiktok feed for the day. Hmm.

She brings up her text thread with Cady to ask a very important question.

-

Cady peeks at her phone when it chimes, picking it up from the bathroom counter to see the message. She laughs when she sees what it is, and heads back to the living room where Janis is lethargically sprawled on the couch.

“Regina wants to know if she can put the babies on Tiktok,” she giggles.

“Absolutely not,” Janis grumbles.

“Oh come on, grumpy pants,” Cady coaxes, turning their show back on and dimming the lights a bit. “Some of them are cute, and Gretchen says she’s having a hard time connecting with them. She said she’d send them to me for us to check before she posts them. Please?”

Janis does kind of want to see how her daughters react to a few of the trends she’s seen, and knows she’s wary of the idea simply because she still has a hard time trusting Regina. So, begrudgingly, “Maybe.”

Cady grins and kisses her hair, and they wait for the videos to come in.

They only have to wait a few minutes before the first one comes through. Cady pauses their show again and waits for Janis to turn onto her back on top of her, then brings up the video so they can both see.

Layla and Leo sit side by side on a very nice couch, their little socked feet not even making it to the end of the cushion. Regina hands each one a little gift bag, and they both tear in to see what present they’ve gotten. Layla gasps excitedly when she pulls out a banana.

“A ‘nana!” She says happily. Leo pulls out one of her own and looks at it in confusion. “Leo, we got ‘nanas! Aunt Weggie, open p’ease?”

Leo’s eyes go wide and and she gives an excited gasp when she realizes she actually has one of her favorite fruits in her hand, and asks for hers to be opened in sign language. Regina laughs and peels both bananas. Each girl takes theirs back and munches happily on it while the video closes. Just before it cuts, they both say a muffled, “T’ank you!” around their bites.

Cady and Janis both laugh, and Cady sends back a message to explain that they usually give them their bananas pre-peeled, so that’s why Leo didn’t recognize it.

The next video comes through a few minutes later. Leo and Layla have finished their bananas and are still on the couch. Regina enters the room filming, rests her phone on the coffee table, and leaves the room.

It takes a second for them to notice, but Layla clocks the phone first. She rolls onto her tummy and slides off the couch before going to pick it up. She sees herself on the screen and pauses for a second to smile at her reflection before she goes running to find her auntie in the kitchen. The background moves wildly as Layla pokes her little tongue out in her concentration, and the rhythmic little thumps of her footsteps can be heard.

“Aunt Weggie!” She calls happily when she finds her. “You left you phone!”

“I left my phone?” Regina says in fake shock. Layla toddles over and gives it back. “Oh, thank you! You’re very responsible.”

The camera flips around to show Layla wrapped around Regina’s legs, giving a wide smile up at her just before it cuts.

“Aww,” Cady coos. “We’ve trained them well.”

“She’s so cute,” Janis chuckles, tapping the video to play it again.

The next one features Leo, sitting on Regina’s lap in the kitchen. Regina explains that Leo had asked for a drink and they’re going to see how well she can pour it herself. A small glass is put in front of the toddler, and she’s offered a bottle of almond milk.

Leo takes the bottle carefully and tips it over the glass, slowly pouring some into the cup. She has the right motions, but quickly gets carried away and fills the cup too much. It spills over onto the counter, and Regina quickly grabs the bottle to stop it. Both Leo and Regina pull the same face, wide eyes and lips pressed into a thin line as they look into the camera.

“Oh no,” Leo says. “Needa towel, p’ease.”

Someone else, most probably Gretchen, hands over some paper towels, and Leo carefully swipes it over the counter to clean up her mess.

“There we go,” she says, sounding more like ‘dairy doe’.

“Good job!” Regina congratulates as Leo ever so carefully picks up her very full cup of milk and takes a sip. Regina helps her get down off her lap, and a ‘T’ank you!’ can be faintly heard. “You’re welcome!”

“Oh goodness,” Cady laughs. “At least she cleaned up after herself. Poor Regina.”

“And she’s polite,” Janis chuckles quietly. “Her sweet little voice.”

“We’re doing a good job,” Cady says quietly. “With them.”

Janis nods in agreement and scrolls back up to the video with the bananas.

-

It takes a long while for the next video to come through, and Regina explains that they’d taken a break to eat dinner (alfredo pasta) and then to clean said dinner off the twins. Layla had apparently taken a special liking to the meal and managed to get it in her hair, so that took some extra time.

But a video of two clean babies comes through. Regina is sitting on the ground wrapped in a fitted sheet so just her face is visible. Karen seems to be filming this time, and encourages the girls to go get their auntie. Leo seems a little concerned, but they both run over to Regina.

When they just make it, Regina suddenly opens the sheet and snatches both inside like a venus flytrap. They both scream in surprise, but their adorable giggles are quickly heard. The video cuts, and they both run into the trap again, and again, and again.

Another one comes through, and this time Gretchen is the one in the sheet. The twins don’t stop laughing the whole time, their giggles making a precious audio for the video. Just before it cuts, Gretchen is looking exhausted, but Leo calls a delighted “‘Gain!”

So, another one comes through with Karen in the sheet. The twins’ hair is frizzy and their cheeks are pink by this point. Cady is just glad they’re getting some energy out before bedtime.

Janis laughs gently at each video, wondering how she hasn’t thought of this. Apparently her daughters are easily entertained. “I miss them.”

“I miss them too,” Cady sighs. “I’ll need to go get them soon, though, it’s getting late.” An alert suddenly comes through her phone then, letting them know a thunderstorm is approaching. “Uh oh.”

“Maybe not,” Janis chuckles. “You shouldn’t drive in that.”

“But they freak out during storms,” Cady says anxiously. “Especially Leo. But I can’t get there before it hits.”

“She’ll be fine,” Janis comforts. “Regina can handle that.”

“I hope so.”

—————

Regina grins happily as she reads the comments for the videos she’s posted so far, everyone delighting in her precious nieces. She’s reading one that seems nearly distraught at how polite they are when a text comes through from Cady.

spacecadet: Hey, I just saw that a storm is coming. Jay doesn’t want me to drive in it but both of the girls get really scared

Regina checks her weather app and sees that a small but strong storm is rapidly approaching. She peeks out the window to find that the sky is already grey with dark clouds.

reginald: Yeah, you definitely shouldn’t drive. I think we can make it, you come when it stops.

spacecadet: Are you sure?? I know they’ll be fine but you shouldn’t have to deal with both of them screaming

reginald: Oh, it’s fine, we already have. There was a little incident before naptime. And scared babies are easy, we’ll be fine.

spacecadet: Incident?

reginald: Bad word choice. Both had a tantrum, they were tired and wanted the same crayon.

spacecadet: Oh goodness, I’m sorry

reginald: Cady, they’re two, it’s fine. We dealt with it and they’re fine. Is there anything you usually do with them during storms?

spacecadet: If you say so. If we know they’re coming we usually warn them, and if it’s really bad we hide in the basement so the noise is muffled. But you can do whatever you need to

reginald: Sounds like a plan. See you whenever it passes.

spacecadet: Thanks, Regina :)

“Girls!” Regina calls gently as she clicks her phone off. Leo and Layla come barreling down the hallway to her when they hear her call, and Gretchen and Karen quickly follow. Regina crouches down to the smalls’ height to explain the situation. “There’s a thunderstorm coming, but you don’t need to be scared. We can all have a storm party!”

“A pawty?” Leo says anxiously. She instinctively reaches for Layla’s hand, nervous at the prospect of a storm. Especially without Mama or Mommy there to comfort them.

“Yeah!” Regina says excitedly. “Come on, let’s get ready.”

Gretchen and Karen seem confused, but follow along with Regina’s plan. They open the curtains on one of the floor-to-ceiling windows so they can see out, and the twins helpfully grab all the couch cushions and pillows they can carry. Regina gets blankets, and they build a little fort in front of the window, held up by a lamp.

Regina, Gretchen, and Karen head inside, and the twins sit in between them to wait.

After a few minutes, the first flash of lightning lights up the dark sky. Both twins let out a whimper of fright and scream when a crack of thunder follows.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Gretchen comforts as they both bury their faces in her chest.

“Loud,” Leo whimpers.

“I know,” Gretchen hushes. “The storm can’t hurt you, it’s just a scary noise.”

“Let’s play a game,” Regina coaxes. Both twins peek their little faces out to see her. “Come here.” Anxiously, they both crawl into her lap and look out the window. “Let’s count.”

“Count?” Layla asks anxiously, jumping and letting out a squeak of fright at the next lightning.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Regina says, coaxing them to look. “One… two… three… four… five… oh, there’s the thunder!”

“Why count?” Leo asks, poking her face out when the booms stop.

“If we can count high that means the storm is far away,” Regina explains. “It’s gonna get closer, and then it’ll move away and be done. And we’re safe in here.”

She smiles as she sees the twins take some deep breaths to calm down and cuddle closer into her. They still jump when the lightning goes by, but this time they count with her.

“One… two… free… four… fibe,” they say anxiously. This time, they giggle when the thunder hits. Layla says, “I did it!”

“Did you make it thunder?” Regina chuckles. Both girls nod. “Good job. Oh, here we go, do it again!”

They only make it to three this time.

“Get close?” Leo asks curiously, looking to her aunties.

“Uhhuh,” Regina confirms. Karen and Gretchen switch to be on either side of her and cuddle in close with everyone. “It’s getting closer and then it’ll go away.”

A few more rounds go by where they get as high as three, and then they start only making it to one or two. Luckily, they don’t seem scared anymore. They look excited to be tracking the storm and making the thunder happen.

“Oh, we can count higher now, the storm is leaving,” Regina says happily. “You’re doing so good!”

Gradually, the rain slows and the storm dissipates. Leo and Layla look curiously out the window the whole time, and make no effort to leave Regina’s lap once the sun gently peeks out from the horizon, beginning to set for the day. Strangely, Regina finds herself not wanting to let them go, either.

Gretchen and Karen gently exit their little tent to get all the twins’ things packed back up, and find their shoes and jackets once again. Gretchen is just tying on the last little shoe when they hear a knock at the door.

“Who could that be, girls?” Karen says excitedly, also trying to stop Nutmeg from barking at it too much. “Go see!”

Both twins eagerly run down the hallway to the front door, and Leo stands on her tippy toes to open it.

“Mama!” They both call happily, wrapping each of their little bodies around one of her legs.

“Hi, sweet girls!” Cady says happily, bending to pick each of them up and kiss all over their little faces. “Oh, I missed you so much! What did you do today?”

Both girls immediately launch into a story, explaining in as much detail as they can the exciting events that happened with their aunties. Cady enters and shuts the door behind her as they rattle off their favorite parts.

“Really? Did you have so much fun?” Cady asks when they finally have explained everything they wanted to. They both nod eagerly. “Good. We have to go home now, can you go say thank you?”

Both twins wiggle to be set down and run back to their aunties, giving hugs and saying thank you for a fun day. Cady follows suit too, and grins as her daughters seem to linger for just a while longer with Regina.

“Thank you so much,” Cady says gratefully. “You guys are so good with them, thank you.”

“Anytime!” Karen says happily. “Bye girls!”

Both girls wave goodbye and call a, “Bye-bye!” over their mama’s shoulder as they’re carried out of the apartment and down to go home. Cady chuckles and kisses each forehead gently as she buckles them into their car seats.

——————

“Mommy, Mommy!” Both girls call happily when Cady unlocks the front door to let them in, toddling full speed down the hall and over to Janis on the couch. Cady stays behind for a second and gives a small grin at the wide smile her wife gets upon seeing their children.

“Hi, girls!” Janis says happily, sounding like she already has a bit of energy back. It usually takes her a minimum of a few days to recover from an episode, but she’s already making good progress through this one. “I missed you.”

“Miss Mommy too,” the twins say at the same time. Janis grins contently as they both worm their way up on top of her for a snuggle.

“Aww, my sweet girls,” Janis coos. “Did you have fun with your aunties?”

Cady rolls her eyes lovingly, knowing Janis just opened a whole can of worms for herself. At least she has enough time to go get the twins’ bedtime things ready for them while they explain their whole day to their mommy.

-

The twins apparently gave Janis an abridged version of the story, because when Cady comes back she finds them all silent. Both twins are cuddled into Janis’ chest, one little head on each of her shoulders. Janis has a hand resting on each of their backs, holding them close to her. Her eyes are closed contently, and she looks the most at peace Cady thinks she’s ever seen from her. She’s glad to see it.

She sneakily snaps a few pictures of her perfect little family before she does unfortunately have to break up the little cuddle party. “Alright, munchkins, it’s bedtime.”

“I can get them down,” Janis says quietly, opening her eyes when Cady kisses her forehead.

“If you want, of course,” Cady agrees. “I got their jammies ready and everything.”

Janis nods and picks up both of their sleepy girls, standing carefully and carrying them upstairs. Cady flops onto their bed and listens down the hall as Janis gets them into their pajamas, brushes their teeth and hair, and reads them some bedtime stories.

The end of story time is her cue, and she hauls herself up to go to the nursery to kiss their babies goodnight. Janis is hunched over and pressed against Leo’s little face, giving her her goodnight kisses and having their little nightly chat. Cady goes to Layla first.

“Did you have a good day today?” She whispers. Layla nods. “Good! What was your favorite part?”

“Uh… doggy,” Layla responds.

“You liked playing with Nutmeg?” Cady chuckles. “I bet she liked you too. What part did you not like?”

“Fundersto’m,” Layla says.

“I know, that must’ve been scary,” Cady replies. “But you made it through the whole thing even though you were scared! You were so brave, Ladybug.” Layla beams at her, and Cady smiles back. “Are we gonna have our best day tomorrow?” Layla nods again. “Good, get some good sleep so you’re ready for it.”

Cady leans down to kiss her forehead and down her little nose.

“Goodnight, my sweet little pumpkin, have sweet dreams,” Cady whispers. “I love you so much.”

“Luh you, Mama,” Layla says quietly, followed by a yawn.

Cady and Janis switch twins then, repeating their process on the other girl before turning on the white noise machine and nightlight, and leaving them to sleep.

—————

Across town, all three Plastics flop into bed early, exhausted after a very, very long day. It’s Regina’s turn in the middle, her favorite nights. She’d never admit it, but she loves having each of her girlfriends cuddled up on either side of her all night.

“We did good,” Gretchen yawns. Her girlfriends nod in agreement. “We… we should have a chat tomorrow.”

“Stop yawning, you’re making me yawn,” Regina grumbles. Gretchen chuckles and leans in for a kiss. Regina suddenly forgets her complaints and kisses her back.

“Ahem,” Karen coughs. Regina rolls her eyes lovingly, but flips over to give Karen some affection too. “Thank you.”

“I love you,” Regina whispers, kissing both of her girlfriends and cuddling in under the duvet.

“I love you too,” Gretchen murmurs, also kissing both of them before cuddling in on Regina’s right side.

“I love you three,” Karen says, getting her kisses in and settling in on Regina’s left. They say this every night, and still always giggle at ‘I love you three.’

They drift off tangled in each other, completely exhausted but completely content.

It takes a village.

---

hope you enjoyed!!

i’m still undecided on whether to give the plastics kids, which is why i left the ending sort of intentionally vague in that regard :))) so let me know!! if you guys want i can totally do a kid fic for them, or just give them a kid and not write about it. or not give them a kid!!! up to you guys!

im hoping to have requests re-opened by next week! I'm just finishing up some last little things here and there and then they should FINALLY be reopened bc its been forever omg. anyway!

thank you all so much for reading and have a lovely day!

lots of love,

ezzy

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