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#at some point bruce tells jason he needs to calm down the public so jason just goes on live just to say 'yo im alive chill'
gangrenados · 10 months
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naughty questions about our boys time!!! (all the batboys+bruce+clark+titans boys+whoever you want lmao) which of our boys 1) would swallow during oral, 2) would get a dick piercing, 3) would get a tongue piercing and a vibe tongue ring specifically for their partner's pleasure, 4) sleeps nude, 5) would masturbate in public, 6) would eat ass, 7) would do sexual things with an unknown partner (eg: glory holes), 8) would suck/play with titties in public?
Imma do 2 characters per question :D
1) who swallows during oral?
Dick, he's gonna slurp you up like a slushie. He's all for slutting out and, to him at least, the act can't finish without the adding a little else. He doesn't do this for everyone, just those he deems especial.
I think Jason would do it too, but not in the theatrical way Dick's does it. In Jason case is more of a reflex, he doesn't show off as much. After that you can catch him whipping his mouth with his forearm before getting to the next thing.
Honestly I feel like Bruce would do too, he's a little freak underneath all that stoic exterior lol.
2)Would get a dick piercing?
COMICS!CONNER. lmao I don't have anything to say to explain why, but I just know. Trust me.
Honestly I feel like titans!Jason might consider it, maybe even do it, but he would end up regretting it and getting it removed.
3) Would get a tongue piercing.
Roy Harper and no one can convince me otherwise. He would be smug about it, saying the only thing he needs to make you see stars it's his tongue.
There's something about Gar that tells me that he would get a tongue piercing at some point and he's gonna rock your world with it lmao. But unlike Roy whose all smug and cocky about it, Gar found out about this particular ability by accident, a funny little surprise if you will.
Again, comics!Conner lol, I think he would get every part of his body pierced tbh.
4)Sleeps nude.
Clark, I feel like he runs insanely hot at night and that might help him to cool off a bit.
Dick, he needs to feel free from the constriction of his clothes and suit (can you blame him? That thing it's skintight). Sometimes he's so tired that after a shower he just likes down in bed and falls asleep without giving a fuck about a pijama, not even a boxer.
5) masturbates in public
Roy, but he's subtle about it. He just wanna get it done, honestly I feel like he has done this during missions lmao.
The other one I can see doing this is Constantine lmao, the rest (like Dick, Hank and even Jason) wouldn't jack off in public, but they surely would be down to have a quickly in public.
6) would eat ass
My options for this one are:
Honestly I feel like Clark would be down to try.
-Tim
-Bruce.
7) Would do sexual things with an unknown partner
Hank definitely has done this, usually happens when he's in a low point in his life. He doesn't care about feelings, he just wanna feel something,
8) Would suck/play with titties in public
Gar, I think he might if he transforms into something, he doesn't wanna be that obvious lol
I'm a believer that Jason loves sucking titties to calm down lmao, but I don't think he would ever do it in public. So this one is for Hank.
I think he's the type who would play with your titties to mess around with you.
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fanaticalthings · 2 years
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I've always wondered how Jason would be publicly integrated back into the family without it seeming suspicious as fuck (because let's be real, legally reviving your son who turns out to not actually be dead is gonna be real hard to explain to the public)
So instead of going through all the hassle of paperwork and a cover story, what if Jason just sorta...popped back into the family without any explanation whatsoever?
But instead of explaining his reappearance, Jason just doesn't fucking say anything and acts like the once dead Wayne kid suddenly being alive isn't the biggest fucking deal in Gotham right now
and when someone tries to approach him he just looks at them wide-eyed and says in his most startled voice "...you can SEE me?"
and then the second the person takes their eyes off him he just ✨disappears✨ (because bat powers obviously) and it freaks everyone the fuck out
and when the other batkids get interviewed they just put up their best act of pretending they have no idea what anyone's talking about
Reporter: Mr. Drake, what do you have to say about the impossible return of your late brother?"
Tim: Who?
Reporter: ...
their performances range from straight up ignorance to dramatically bursting into tears whenever someone brings up the topic
Reporter: Do you have anything to say about the recent events surrounding Jason Todd?"
[Cue Dick letting out the most obnoxious wail possible and crying all over the reporter]
Reporter: Oh-I didn't mean to upse-
Dick: I just wish I was there for him more when he was alive, yknow?
Reporter: Ah, well-
Dick: And sometimes I wonder what he would've been like now...All grown up and going to college...[more sobbing]
Reporter whispering under their breath: What the fuck is going on
everyone stopped asking Dick after that.
these shenanigans get so ridiculous to the point where Jason's even started standing RIGHT NEXT to his siblings whenever they're in public and they just pretend like he isn't even fucking there
it's come to the point where ghost!Jason (?) even has his own wiki page where people just talk about his weird ass appearances and the possibilities of him being a cryptid
and oh yeah this all happens during the span of one week while Bruce is (conveniently) off world
when he comes back he's just met with half of Gotham in hysterics over his dead son and theorizing if the Waynes are being haunted and he has absolutely zero clue about what the HELL is going on
he first finds out from an interviewer asking him how he feels about his ghost son and how any of this is even possible
but I imagine that Bruce's brain kinda short circuits and the only thing he's processing right now is that Jason is back in the family and he just starts tearing up like, "My son is back in the family? He loves me? 🥺"
and everyone in Gotham is like Mr. Wayne did you miss the fucking part where your DEAD son is just ALIVE again and just chilling around the city??
anyways you CANNOT tell me Jason wouldn't use this opportunity to pull the biggest prank in Gotham history like that boy LIVES for drama
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hintofelation99 · 3 years
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The Justice League Hangs out with Duke
Bruce: Duke, it's time we had the talk.
Duke: Uh... nope. No thank you. I'm not getting the sex talk from Batman.
Bruce: What? No! The Robin talk.
Duke: But, I'm- I'm the Signal now? Isn't it a bit late for a Robin talk?
Bruce: Son, it's never too late, not for this.
Duke: Um. Ok.
Bruce: When Dick, Jason, and Tim first started as Robins they created a tradition. A tradition that continued with Stephanie, Damian, and now you.
Duke: And that tradition is?
Bruce: Taking down the Justice League. By being annoying and slightly terrifying.
Duke: OHHHHHH. Is that why no one from the Justice League talks to me?
Bruce: Yes, yes it is. But don't worry. I made an arrangement that will allow you time alone with league members to continue the tradition. You have a week to prepare.
——————
Duke: Cass, what do I do?
Cass raises an eyebrow at Duke.
Duke: For the Robin tradition thing. I have to take down the entire Justice League in a night using creative, outlandish, and original methods. But it's already been done by Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, and Steph. So what do I do? How can I be better than all of them.
Cass smirks: Take them down too.
Duke looking at Cass like she's crazy: What?
Cass: Take. Them. Down.
Duke: Holy shit, you are terrifying.
Cass just smiles and leaves.
-> One Week Later <-
Wonder Woman, Superman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, and Steph gather in the Watchtower.
Duke: Hey guys, Batman just wanted to go through some training exercises with everyone. He'll be a little late. Harley and Ivy escaped Arkham and are trying to grow penis shaped shrubs in all the public parks. But, don't worry he asked me to go ahead and start with out him.
Green Lantern: Why are you leading this meeting?
Duke: Batman is running late and he wants me to practice leading meetings.
Green Lantern, glaring suspiciously at Duke: Are you about to do that stupid Robin tradition where you torture all of us?
Duke: What Robin tradition? Also, I'm not even a Robin? I'm the Signal.
Green Lantern continues to glare at him.
Superman: Calm down Green Lantern, the Robins never do this in front of each other.
Every League member seems to relax at this.
Duke acting confused: Uhhh, yeah. Ok, we have a few housekeeping things to do according to the list Batman left. So, I'll have everyone pair up for sparring while I handle these individually.
------
Everyone is in the training room working out or sparring. Duke approaches Tim.
Duke: Hey Tim, Bruce wanted you to look in to that Bludhaven case. Is that ok with you?
Tim: Yeah, why wouldn't it be?
Duke: Oh, I just thought it might be difficult considering what Dick did.
Tim: ...What did he do?
Duke: Wait, you haven't noticed? Oh no, I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything.
Tim: Duke. Tell me what he did.
Duke: Well, Jason said that he replaced all your coffee with decaf.
Tim: THAT BASTARD. No wonder I've been feeling so tired! I'm going to kill him!
Duke: Wait, just stop! I heard that he hid all of it in Green Lantern's room.
Tim: Wait, why there?
Duke: Something about you being afraid of him.
Tim: WHAT?! I'm not afraid of the Green Nightlight! I'm gonna find that coffee then make Dick pay.
Duke: Oh, well cool, good luck!
------
Green Lantern: Um, what are you doing in my room?
Tim: Where is it?
Green Lantern: Where's what?
Tim: You know what I want. Give up now or face the consequences.
Green Lantern: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Tim: Fine. Consequences.
------
Steph, sparring with Duke: So, what's it like being the first meta bat?
Duke: Not too bad, but I could do with out the whole 'predict the future' thing.
Steph, laughing: What? You can not see the future.
Duke: I bet you $50 I can
Steph: Your on.
Duke, makes everything around him light up and uses a weird voice: In the next thirty minutes Green Lantern will flee the Watchtower in fear. Soon after Dick will be attacked by Tim.
Steph, snorts in obvious disbelief.
Steph: That was so fake-
Green Lantern runs out of the tower looking terrified.
Steph: No way.
Tim tackles Dick and they start fighting like three year old's on the floor.
Steph, handing Duke $50: Holy shit Magic Man.
Duke makes things light up and does the voice again: Oh my god.
Steph, looking excited: What?!
Duke: The- the sushi. The sushi you brought today, it's made from-
Duke pretends to choke back a sob.
Duke: It's made from the fish who was the maid of honor at Aquaman's wedding.
Steph: HOLY SHIT.
------
Steph and Aquaman sit beside each other for lunch, she pulls out her sushi and looks at Aquaman sadly.
Steph: I am so, so sorry for your loss. But just know that her sacrifice is not in vain.
Aquaman, looks confused for a second then sees the sushi: NOPE. Not this again! I'm leaving.
Steph: Wait! I'm sorry!
Aquaman leaves as Steph tries to chase him down.
------
Jason is laughing and filming as Dick and Tim fight.
Duke, whistles: Man, imagine if that video went on YouTube.
Jason, looking confused: What?
Duke: I'm just saying if the video of Red Robin and Nightwing fighting like kids ever got on YouTube, it'd go viral. Oh and they would be so pissed!
Jason, laughs: Too bad B would kill me if I uploaded this.
Duke: Yeah, I guess so. And you can't upload it here because then Superman would get in trouble.
Jason: Why would the boy scout get in trouble?
Duke: Cause he always uses his YouTube account on the Justice League computer. So it'd look like he uploaded it and B would find out that Superman watches cat videos while he's on monitor duty.
Jason, smirking: Huh, so you're saying if I upload this on the League computer I'd piss off Bruce, Tim, and Dick and get Supes in trouble?
Duke, acting innocent: Huh, I guess so.
-> A Few Minutes Later <-
A call from Bruce comes up on the main computer.
Superman: Hey Batman, what can I do for you?
Bruce: You, Red Hood, cave now.
Jason: What? Why me?
Bruce: Because I saw that little home video you uploaded of your brothers.
Jason: What, that wasn't me!
Bruce: I could hear you laughing while you filmed.
Jason: Dammit.
Jason and Clark leave for the cave pouting like kids.
------
Duke: Hey, Black Canary?
Black Canary: Yes Duke?
Duke: I'm sorry to do this on such short notice, but I'm very worried about Dick and Tim.
Black Canary: Why?
Duke: Well, Tim keeps claiming that Dick is out to get him. Something about Dick messing with his coffee? And Dick feels like he's just being attacked for no reason and is worried about Tim's health. Is there anyway you could intervene?
Black Canary, looking sighing and looking exhausted: Usually I have three days of preparation before dealing with bats.
Duke: I know it's just-
Duke gestures to Tim and Dick rolling on the floor fighting.
Duke: They really need help.
Black Canary: Alright, I'll see what I can do.
Black Canary attempts to intervene only to get pulled into the fight. Now the three of them are tangled in a huge, confusing fight, that's filled with yelling and hair pulling.
------
Duke: Damian! Quick!
Damian: What is it Thomas.
Duke: I think somethings wrong with Dick and Tim and maybe even Black Canary. They're all fighting and won't stop! Can you help me contain them so that we can figure out what's going on?
Damian: Fine. I shall help.
Duke: Ok, just try to herd them into this containment cell.
Damian joins the fight managing to get everyone, including himself, into the containment cell. As Damian is trying to leave Duke closes the cell. Damian angrily yells and bangs on the sound proof walls.
Duke: What? Sorry, can't hear you! My hand slipped!
------
Wonder Woman: Very well done Signal.
Duke, acting innocent: Hm?
Wonder Woman: You tricked Red Robin into scaring Green Lantern away, then into fighting Nightwing. Once that fight broke out you tricked Red Hood into uploading a video to the internet using the Superman's credentials. By uploading that video he caused both himself and Superman to face Batman's wrath. You also used the fight to trick Stephanie into annoying Aquaman to the point of leaving. Then you involved Black Canary in the fight, which was her downfall. And, as a final touch, you managed to get Robin into the fight and trapped all in a containment cell. You successfully eliminated 9 foes with one trick.
Duke: You mean 11.
Wonder Woman: What?
Duke: 11. You see, I didn't trick Red Robin, I tricked Nightwing. I had a week to prepare. In that week I convinced Dick that Tim needed to cut back on the caffeine and that Dick should help by switching all of Tim's coffee with decaf. I also convinced him to hide that coffee in the watchtower, in Green Lantern's room. So that was all true.
Wonder Woman: But, that still does not make 11?
Duke: It does. Because This morning I moved the coffee. I replaced the Flashes decaf with Tim's ultra caffeinated coffee. You see Tim has it specially manufactured to increase the caffeine levels. And, while Flash doesn't usually drink his coffee in the morning, he's always running late and forgets, he does drink coffee during training breaks. Which is now. So in about five minutes we will have an incredibly caffeinated speedster in the Watchtower. And since you're the only one around right now with a chance of catching him, that's your problem.
Right as Duke finishes Flash runs by, majorly hyped up on caffeine.
Duke: Checkmate.
------
Martian Manhunter: It appears that I am the last remaining League member.
Duke: Yeah, I don't really understand this tradition but apparently every Robin ends it by picking a favorite league member.
Martian Manhunter: Out of all the League members, why have you chosen me?
Duke: Your smart and have a lot of cool powers. Also, I dunno, I hear you sometimes feel like an outsider with the league. Cause, the whole martian thing. And I know it's not the same but, sometimes I feel like an outsider with the bats, being the only meta and all.
Martian Manhunter: You have chosen me so that we may bond over our lack of connections?
Duke: Uhhhh, yeah?
Martian Manhunter: Hm. Very well, I assume that this is your “Robin Weakness”. Apparently every Robin has one.
---------------------------------------------------
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marauderundercover · 3 years
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Taking Chances Chapter Five: Paris Revealed (Stories/Memories)
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AO3
Marinette flinches back as the room erupts in shouting. The younger boy, who was definitely younger than her and yet almost (if not definitely) taller than her, was fiercely glaring while he screamed at Mr. Wayne in….was that Arabic? The man that walked in with him was waving around the knife in his hand while Dick yelled at Mr. Wayne, his face filled with confusion instead of fury. Glancing around for a way out, Marinette makes eye contact with Alfred who nods behind him. Sneaking away from the group of angry men, Marinette follows Alfred into the kitchen and instantly feels at home. And much calmer.
“I’m sorry.” She mumbles, breathing deeply to avoid spiraling again. Alfred simply hands her a cookie before turning around and putting water in a kettle.
“There is no need to apologize, Miss Marinette. It seems Master Bruce has forgotten all sense today and is instead insistent on acting like a fool. It was wrong of him to announce you like that, without preparing you or the boys beforehand. I do hope that his atrocious display of proper manners doesn’t make you want to leave.” Alfred says, and Marinette’s eyebrows shoot upwards. Was he? Was Alfred actually blaming this situation on Mr. Wayne? Was it Mr. Wayne’s fault? Did he not actually hate her? Did he just make a mistake?
“I- what?” Marinette says, unsure of herself.
“You, my dear, are not at fault. Your father didn’t tell any of his sons that you were coming to the manor today, or that you existed in general. And judging by your face, you weren’t prepared for the boys to be here either.” Alfred clarifies.
“Oh. No, I wasn’t. Mr. Wayne just said that he wanted to get to know me, and he knew I wanted to get to know him. I- my birth mother passed away. But my Maman knew her, so I can find out from her how I’m similar to Bridgette. But neither of my parents knew Mr. Wayne, and I just wanted to know if I was like him, I guess. I didn’t even know who he was until two days ago.” Marinette admits.
“As in you found out Bruce Wayne was your birth father two days ago or-” Alfred trails off, waiting for her to clarify.
“Oh no. I found out the name of my birth father awhile ago. It’s just- I really don’t pay attention to celebrities. The only ones I really know are designers. So I didn’t put two and two together, and I didn’t even know about Bruce Wayne and Wayne Enterprises until a few days ago. My friend Adrien made me google him and that’s when I found out about...the boys.” She says, stopping herself from saying her brothers as she was still unsure if Mr. Wayne actually wanted her like he wanted the others.
“Well I’m certain that things will start to calm down shortly. In the meantime, would you care for some tea?” Alfred asks, holding up the kettle. Marinette nods gratefully, trying hard to stop her inner spiral from drowning her.
---
“What do you mean daughter?” Damian snarls, finally switching to English. Bruce blinks at the boy before sighing.
“I mean, you have a biological sister.” He says, tired and wishing he had been able to convince Marinette to go somewhere else. Not that he didn’t want her to meet her siblings. But it definitely wasn’t the laid back first meeting that he wanted.
“You mean half-sister.” Damian spits out, crossing his arms and sticking his nose into the air.
“Shut up, Demon Spawn. She’s our sister, get over it. Where’d the kid come from? Her mom drop her off?” Jason asks, obviously trying to actually understand the situation.
“No. I first met her at the Museum and had my suspicions. She’s in Gotham on a class trip, and before you ask, yes. We had a DNA test done and yes, I am her father.” Bruce says, frowning when he sees Dick’s hurt expression morph into one of excitement.
“Wait, wait, wait! Was she the girl who was sassing the Joker?” He asks quietly, practically buzzing with excitement. When Bruce nods, Dick cheers and runs from the room. Okay then.
“Wait, she met the Joker?” Jason asks, his expression turning dark. Bruce watches his son’s face morph into one of disgust when he puts it together. “She’s the French kid he had at gunpoint, isn’t she?”
“Yes. Which is one of the reasons why we both thought the manor would be a more appropriate meeting place rather than somewhere public.” Bruce says, sighing as Damian once again starts screaming. This was not what he had planned.
---
After just a few minutes with Alfred, Marinette already felt calmer. Calm enough to giggle at another story about something that one of the boys- one of her brothers- did. Calm enough to let her guard down. And mess up.
“If you wanna see something ridiculous, you should look up the 26th time Monsieur Ramier was akumatized into Monsieur Pigeon. He made all the buildings turn into bird cages and all the food turned into bird seed. Luckily it didn’t last long, but seeing the Mayor of Paris stuck inside a giant bird cage was kind of hilarious.” Marinette rambles, giggling at the memory. It was definitely a needed akuma, situated right between two super destructive akumas. Monsieur Pigeon was, while a nuisance, always a breath of fresh air. His akumatized form was brought on by his fierce protectiveness of the pigeons, which luckily never led to death for civilians.
“Pardon me, Miss Marinette, but could I ask what you mean by ‘akumatized’?” Alfred asks, his posture suddenly stiff. Marinette’s eyes widen as she realizes what she just did. She told someone outside of Paris about the situation happening in Paris. Well crap. Normal Parisians didn’t know about the media block that she had set up with the help of the Mayor and Max. But after her calls to the Justice League were ignored, and she realized how disastrous it would be for a member of the League to be akumatized, the media block was the best choice. Time to act clueless.
“Akumatized, as in, a person is possessed by an akuma? Surely you’ve heard of it. It’s been happening in Paris for almost two years.” She says, hoping he doesn’t ask to see any evidence. This isn’t good, this is awful, this-
“And what is an akuma?” Alfred asks. Okay, this isn’t too bad.
“It’s an evil butterfly sent out by the villain, Hawkmoth.” Marinette says, giving out more information than she’s really comfortable with. Okay, time to change the subject, no more questions about heroes or villains or-
“Marinette!” A new voice calls, sliding into the kitchen, almost immediately falling over.
“Master Dick, have you forgotten about your ban on the kitchen?” Alfred asks, his lips quirking up in amusement.
“Awww, Alfred, I just wanted to talk to Marinette. I feel bad for all of us overwhelming her back there.” Dick says with a pout that somehow doesn’t look ridiculous on him. Despite obviously being at least ten years older than her.
“Don’t feel bad. It was just...a lot all at once.” Marinette says with a small smile.
“So I have to ask, are you the one who sassed the Joker at the Museum the other day?” He asks, a wide grin on his face as he sits on one of the stools. Marinette’s eyes widen and she blinks. How?
“Oh, uh, yeah, I guess. It wasn’t a big deal though. He thought I was a Wayne- well, I guess he figured it out before I did- but I think he just wanted to scare my class.” She says, waving her hand to brush off the topic. She really didn’t want to talk about the Joker. Because she was sure it would turn into-
“I apologize for asking, but have you been caught up in the villain attacks in Paris before?” Alfred asks, Marinette instantly panicking. Sure, she’d been caught up in almost every single akuma battle as Ladybug. But there were a few on record where she was targeted as Marinette, and even a few battles that she assisted as Marinette. And then there was Kwami Buster…
“Well, a few. But basically everyone in Paris has dealt with it at some point. That’s just what happens when there’s an attack so often, you know? And my school seems to be a hotspot but that makes sense because teenagers are full of negative emotions and-” Marinette cuts off her rambling, cursing herself on the inside. Great job, Mari. Now they’re going to be worried or they’re going to think you’re a freak or-
“What do you mean negative emotions? Why would that matter?” Dick asks, his previous cheerful smile replaced with a look that clearly meant business.
“That’s how the villain chooses his targets. Negative emotion. If someone is having a bad enough day, he can take control of them and give them powers and basically destroy the city trying to get to Ladybug and Chat Noir, who are our heroes. I only know what’s been posted on official sites like the Ladyblog or miraculousparis.org.” Marinette says, smiling apologetically and hoping that this conversation can be over.
“Have you ever been akumatized?” Dick asks, tension suddenly filling the room.
“No, thankfully. I’ve found ways to manage my negative emotions so that they can’t take me over. I don’t blame anyone who has been akumatized, it’s hard not to be. But, I also don’t think I’d be able to forgive myself if I was akumatized.” Because then her family would be a target. Because Hawkmoth would know her identity. And if Hawkmoth’s insistence on her being akumatized was anything to go on, she’d be a devastating akuma. And if Ladybug wasn’t fighting in the battle….would the cure even work?
“That is a lot of pressure, Miss Marinette.” Alfred says softly after a moment of tense silence. Marinette grins brightly.
“I can handle it, don’t worry!” She says, hoping no one can tell how hard it actually is. How hard it is constantly being strong. Never truly feeling a negative emotion.
---
Bruce winces at the faux cheerfulness in his daughter’s voice. He had only found out about the Paris situation a few days ago, but he was determined to fix it. Find a solution. Do something to help the city and by extension, his daughter. She’d be going back there soon. Back to a city that was being held hostage by an emotional terrorist. Bruce would fix this. He had to.
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dilfwaynes · 3 years
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hi!! can i request a hc of the batfam reaction of their eastasian!reader gf  experiencing racism? thank you <33
just a reminder if you took place in any involvement of asian hate block me rn bitch :)
a/n: i hope you enjoyed this anon, i tried to make it accurate without stepping over any boundaries since im not asian myself. if anyone finds any sort of this offensive pls dm me !!
warning ; racism, batfam beating hoes, mention of blood
parings : bruce wayne x asian!reader, jason tood x asian!reader, dick grayson x asian!reader, stephanie brown x asian!reader, tim drake x asian!reader, damian wayne x asian!reader
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BRUCE WAYNE:
it’ll honestly take a minute for bruce to realize what happened
when first entering the store he took notice of the man glaring but brushed it off thinking it was directed towards him as bruce wayne
you however didnt really pay attention to the dirty looks being thrown at you
with bruce excusing himself to the restroom and makes a promise of a quick return, you wander around the area by yourself
it was all fine until a man approaches you, giving a fast glance at him before turning away. there was definitely something up with him
“you don’t belong here”
your head shot up at his words, looking around you to make sure he was talking to you
“excuse me?” you lift an eyebrow at him, knowing what he was hinting at
“you fucking heard me, you don’t belong here. go back to your country.”
you inch away as he steps closer,”you better back the fuck away..”
he simply gives a smug face only coming closer,”or what?” you tighten your jaw when he loosely lets out a slur, your fists clenched.
“or i dislocate your arm.”bruce’s voice rings out, deep in anger as his eyes flicker to you and scanning to see if you were ok physically.
the ugly bitch’s face pales when he realizes who’s your boyfriend. without hesitation bruce yanks him away from you, slamming him to the wall
demanding for a first and last name,  squeezing his neck when the guy stays quiet
shaking he gives in and tells, flinching when bruce slams him against the wall one last time before dropping him
“i guaranteed whatever poor status you do contain i’ll tear it completely, say goodbye to your job.” he grabs for your hand and brings you into him as you both walk away.
“i’m sorry i shouldn’t have left you alone, my fault,”he presses a kiss to your temple.”and please don’t think any worth of that garbage’s words.”
you shake your head,”he was just some lowlife, not worth thinking about.” you reply leaning into him.
he looked at you and could tell no matter what those words still hurt somewhat and it angered him to no end
no one deserved to hear that disgusting shit, especially not his girlfriend.
his eyes hardens but doesn’t push further to make you anymore uncomfortable than you probably already are
giving another kiss to the side of your head he makes a quiet promise to himself not to leave you alone anymore in public with disgusting people like that around
jason todd:
as soon as the slur leaves the guy’s lips jason’s fist collides to his jaw, no doubt   shattering it
you and jason were grabbing lunch at some restaurant slash bar since it was the first time in a few days jason was free
everything was okay until you got up to go to the bathroom and some guy bumped into you
jason watched with hardening eyes as you apologize instead of the guy who slammed into you
“watch where the fuck you’re going at.”
you fall shock at the word, staying in place
while jason is on his feet in no time, swinging to the asshole’s face
screams were heard as well as the sound of bones breaking from his fist impact, the guy stumbling to the floor
“you racist fucking prick that’s my girlfriend you ugly fuck,”lifting him by his shirt he grabs his face and turns him to you.”apologize to her before i break your fucking face.”
he quickly rambles apologizes, crying in fear or pain. most likely a mix of both
jaaon lets him go and gives him another punch, this time to the nose. finding satisfaction at the pool of blood now seeping out
jason grabs your hand and starts to lead you outside,”let’s go eat somewhere else and forget about this shithole.”
you barely had time to give a reaction to anything as everything happened so fast
“hey look at me, don’t listen to that worthless fuck and his fucked up mindset. i dont know what to say to comfort you since i never experienced anything like this.” he stops at the car, placing his hands onto your shoulders
you nod sighing lightly, you only wanted a simple lunch with your boyfriend but instead got hate crime for simply  breathing.
“it’s nothing i haven’t gone through before,”he shakes his head blue eyes filling up with rage.
“no one’s gonna be doing that anymore, or at least getting away with it while i’m around
DICK GRAYSON:
he was completely taken by surmise at the slur being thrown at you, as well as the fault of you being the root of the covid 19
but before he had any time to react you were already on your feet glaring,”the fuck you just called me you piece shit.”
before he could reply you already kneed him and punched him between the eyes, dick laughing at the cries of pain
“you want me to take over or you wanna handle it babe?”
even how badly he wanted to beat the shit out of the pos the choice was yours
you denied and wanted to handle this on your own
but everytime the guy tried to get up dick would just shake his head and tell him to stay down, or simply push him back down
eventually if you start going too far richards would pull you away and tell you hes not worth it
he understands your anger but he doesn’t want you to past a line you won’t recover from bc of some worthless grime
“c’mon, he’s not worth anymore of our time. lets go eat pizza.”
DAMIAN WAYNE:
swing first talk later
he’ll just look at guy for a few seconds with a blank face
then he’s literally knocking them out
will probably kick him into the wall or ground
u dont know if you wanna pull him away because you already the tabloids, or if you wanna let him continue to beating the guy
damian probably wouldn’t realize how much he beat the guy to a pulp until you’re tugging him away
nudging his neck with to your nose to try and calm him down
he’ll end the fight with spitting on him tbh
your face reddens with anger when your eyes met the racist bitch, enjoying the view of his blood on the floor
“racist piece of shit,” he hisses before finally turning his back brow still frowning with anger
unlike the others (mentioned) he also knows and experienced racism and understands your point view way more
and know bow to comfort you better tbh
afterwards he’ll talk to you and comfort you, as well as opening up about his racist encounters, as well as his mothers.
if you’re still upset about what happened some hours later he 100% offers to beat up the guy again
you laugh it off cos hes serious about doing detective work, finding the guy and beating him to a pulp
you thank him but deny his offer and settle to confiding into him and just telling him how your feelings
STEPHANIE BROWN:
“are you fucking serious right now bitch?”
steph deadpans staring at the girl who called you the slur with ease, going on about how you were the cause of corona and to go back to your country
shocked at the words, hearing all of this before but it still doesn’t fail everytime you hear them
turning to you and seeing the hurt on your face from the word, she quickly turns to seeing red
without a second thought she grabs the collar of the woman’s shirt
“you’re gonna fucking apologize to my girlfriend right now or i’m gonna slam your face into the floor and break it
you stay still, pleased at watching the girl shake in fear under steph as she chokes out a mesh of a shit rushed apologizes
stephanie throws her down to the ground after her third apologize
“are you okay?” she knew you weren’t but asking the question would lead into the stage of comforting you
you nod but go on to tell her that this isn’t the first or last time this will happen, but it still never fails to shock you
she frowns at your experiences and doesn’t quite know what to do to help since she never went thru anything like that
she offers to take you to your favorite restaurant and end the day in wayne manor watching whatever you wanted
smiling when you accept, pulling you in her and pressing a kiss on-top of your head
“dont worry i’ll beat any jackass that pulls any racist shit.”
TIM DRAKE:
i think he’ll be the less  violent one out of everyone
he would honestly be so disgusted and gross out at humanity and how the woman thinks shes superior just because she’s white
if it was a guy saying what was said, then he would probably hit them ngl
but he takes the higher road with the woman, belittling and ending her with his vocabulary
and you’re pretty sure that his words hurt her more than an actual punch would 
you laugh when he compares her built to a buffalo
he then goes on to a more education lean, explaining how skin tone has nothing to do with a person, and she should adapt to modern times and stop being a racist cunt
after he ends it he goes on to find out who she is and email/call her workplace to inform what kind of employee they have
probably also goes on to make sure she wont be hired anywhere else
comforts you alot and and will get you anything you want
prob gets you both milkshakes as you vent to him about today and other racist things said to you
hates how you have to go thru any of this for simply existing
the  incident opens his eyes and he starts talking to bruce about opening a charity for ‘stop asian hate’
would shy away from the press and say you both came up with the fund
u’ll dismiss that rq and tell everyone it was all tim’s idea
all the money goes people got assaulted and paying for any hospital bills or anything needed
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odos-bucket · 3 years
Text
Bruce Being Super Protective of His Kids in Their Out-Of-Costume Lives Pt. 2 Re-Write
Basically this story with a little bit of extra angst injected in
Jason isn’t particularly well adapted to the kinds of social gatherings that Bruce’s position within the city demands they participate in. He attends his first event a few months into his stay at Wayne manor. He goes in fully expecting it to be terrible, and is not disappointed.
The old ladies trying to pinch his cheeks were something that Dick had warned him about. His tone had been light, like maybe it was something that he thought was funny, or was trying to think of as funny. But Jason doesn’t like to be touched, not by people he doesn’t know. He's only just starting to feel okay about casual physical affection from his new family. He doesn’t think Dick was trying to scare him exactly, but he accomplishes it anyway.
From the time the shindig begins he’s wound so tight he’s practically vibrating. He has no idea how he’s supposed to act at something like this. Things he’s never thought about before are suddenly tormenting him. He can’t figure out how to stand, or what he should be doing with his hands. He’s never been self conscious, but now he’s in this stupid room, wearing this stupid suit, surrounded by these stupid people, and it’s making him feel awkward.
The first time somebody tries to touch him he flinches away violently. He doesn’t mean to; it’s just what happens. It earns him a series of incredulous looks, from the man who had made the mistake of putting a hand on his shoulder, and a few other people in the vicinity.
Jason relocates himself quickly, not that one corner of the large room is really any better than any other.
 The next time someone tries to touch him, it’s his face. He had already decided that he didn’t like the woman in question before it happened. Her voice is an annoying pitch. Her words are all condescending. And even before reaching out for him she had been standing way too close.
If the proximity hadn’t been enough to put him on high alert the patronizing way she spoke to him certainly would have done it.
When her fingers come to press against his chin- as if she wants to turn his head to examine him- he pushes her away. Again, he doesn’t mean to do it exactly. It’s an instinctive reaction (and a pretty reasonable one, he thinks).
This time, however, he gets more than a few suspicious stares. The movement itself had been subtle enough not to draw any attention he didn’t already have. But the woman replies with an outraged squawk, that suddenly brings dozens of eyes onto them, and sets Jason’s heart racing at a panicked pace.
 He freezes. Being stared at had been pretty high on his list of things to avoid tonight. And now people are talking too.
 “Why you little-“
“What happened?”
“Wayne’s little rat-“
“Did you just hit her?”
“Delinquent-“
“Did he just hit her?!”
The woman he shoved looks like she might be about to slap him, but he’s honestly less concerned about that than he is about the mix of curious and indignant bystanders drawing closer. They’re not surrounding him really, but it sure as hell feels like they’re trying to, and Jason’s had enough experiences being surrounded to know that it never leads to anything good. At the moment he’s having a hard time processing anything beyond the terrified impulse to lash out again, not to hurt anyone, just to get them away, so that maybe he can get away.
“What the hell is going on here?”
Oh god, Bruce. Jason’s not surprised the scene got his attention, but he’s a little startled to hear a much darker tone than his regular civilian voice.
Every muscle in his body that wasn't already tense tightens up, and heat flares at the back of his neck. He doesn't want to be in trouble. He doesn't even really know what being in trouble means in this new life yet, and he's been hoping to put off finding out as long as possible.
Bruce forces his way through the crowd. Some of the onlookers redirect their attention away as he approaches. A handful of voices from different directions make overlapping attempts to answer his question. Jason hears something about how he’s, “not as well behaved as your last stray,” but isn’t looking up in time to see how the comment makes Bruce bristle, and just feels the warm shame that he wishes it didn’t ignite in him.
Bruce reaches them in seconds, takes in the woman’s body language, and immediately drags her several feet back from Jason. When he speaks, he manages to sound like Batman (at least to Jason’s knowing ears), even without the voice modulator.
"You will never put your hands on my child again.”
Jason's not sure what he had been expecting Bruce to say, but that wasn't it, and hearing it gives him whiplash, makes his heart that had already been beating in his throat stutter to a halt.
“I didn-“ the woman begins. “Your urchin-“
“Did you touch him?” Bruce's voice is deceptively calm.
“I was only-“
“Yes or no.”
“I didn’t hurt him,” she scoffs.
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Jason wants to say that it doesn't matter, that it isn't a big deal, because really it shouldn't be. He shouldn't be afraid to be touched; it's just one more thing about him that so glaringly doesn't belong. But he's still not sure whether or not he's in trouble, and if he is then he's learned from experience that it's better to keep his mouth shut.
“Mr. Wayne, the kid attacked her. All she did was touch him.” One of the few onlookers who isn’t pretending not to be paying attention pipes in.
 Bruce’s jaw grinds, as he looks slowly between the man who had spoken, and the woman.
“So you did touch him?”
“This is ridiculous!”
It's somehow the worst thing she could have possibly said. Jason already knows he's ridiculous. He can feel it with every fiber of his being, and the confirmation that everyone else can apparently see it too sparks a stinging sensation at the back of his throat.
“On that we’re agreed.” Bruce slips further into his regular public persona as he speaks, and Jason flinches slightly at his words.
Bruce looks over the remains of the audience they’d acquired, making pointed eye contact, silently subduing any conflict before it can arise. By the time he turns back to where the woman had been standing, she’s hurried away. The sparse handful of people still shooting them scandalized glares are at least a little easier to ignore.
Bruce approaches Jason, who forces himself to keep his eyes open and his gaze up.
He's getting ready to apologize. He hadn't wanted to embarrass Bruce, or to get him in trouble with whoever the hell those people had been- with his luck probably someone important. He doesn't want to be in trouble either, but he recognizes that that ship has probably sailed already. He just wishes he knew what kind of punishment to expect; he hasn't been here that long, and adult behavior is hard to predict.
“Are you okay?”
Jason blinks, and apparently it takes him longer than he thinks to process and respond to the question, because Bruce asks it again.
This time he nods, figuring it’d be pretty stupid for him not to be okay.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Bruce asks.
Jason knows that it's not really a question; he's already done enough damage for the night after all. He nods his head. He’s not totally sure how to get back to the manor from here- he still doesn’t know this part of town very well- but he’s sure he’ll be able to figure it out before Bruce wraps up here.
“Let’s get our coats.”
Jason looks up in surprise, but Bruce is already walking away.
Right. He guesses it makes more sense that they’d be leaving together. He's noticed that rich families like to keep any shows of conflict private. One of the consequences of which being that he still doesn’t know how the hell these people discipline their children.
He nods again, cheeks still burning with embarrassment.
-
They leave the party without further incident, catching a cab back to the manor.
Bruce observes Jason’s defensive body language as they slide into the backseat.
“Are you sure you’re okay, lad?” He asks slowly.
He receives a tight nod in reply, and sighs.
“Do you want to help me get a better picture of what happened in there?”
Because what he’s looking at isn’t okay. He’s seen his witty, outgoing child shut down like this before, and it usually means he’s scared. Bruce needs to know if he was spooked by something innocuous, or if he’s going to need to hurt someone.
Jason turns from being seemingly caught off guard by the question, to apparently desperate to answer it in the span of a second.
“I swear I didn’t hit her! It was just that she-“ He shakes his head, apparently deciding against whatever he’d been about to say. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? You’re not in trouble, Jason, not unless I’m really missing something here.”
That earns him a long suspicious look.
“I don’t like to be touched,” Jason grumbles after a minute.
“And people shouldn’t feel entitled to touch you.”
He learned pretty quickly when he first became a parent not to assume that adults would always respect children’s boundaries. And he knows that Jason has been hurt. He’s not sure exactly how, or by who, but the signs are all there. And he shouldn’t have to deal with being forcibly reminded of that by the carelessness of others; he’s a kid for god’s sake!
“Is that all-“ He stops himself from finishing the question. “People shouldn’t feel entitled to touch you,” he reiterates. “Can you tell me if anything else happened? If anyone hurt you, or threatened you?”
Jason starts to shake his head, but stops with his neck angled slightly toward Bruce.
“I thought she was gonna hit me,” he admits.
Bruce’s body tenses up. He had noticed that himself when he’d first entered the scene, and what he had read in her body language had made him see red.
“And then there were so many other people,” Jason continues. “And they were talking, and staring at me. It had me feeling kind of boxed in.”
“I’m so sorry, son.”
Jason looks a little startled up at him.
“Just to be clear,” he says slowly. “I’m not in trouble?”
“You’re not in trouble,” Bruce confirms. “I promise I will always do whatever I can to protect you from people like that.”
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boldlyanxious · 3 years
Text
Still Trusting
Jasonette July 17: crime boss
Follow up to Tenuous Trust
My masterlist
Jason saw her not long after he entered. He had been invited as an olive branch after he gave up his plans of vengeance. He didn't know she would be here but the idea of seeing her would have helped him make his decision on whether or not to show up. Probably not the best reasoning for decision making but he wasn't exactly known for his good choices.
He didn't approach her though. To most she would seem carefree and happy but he could see her stance was tense and her eyes constantly checked for ways to escape. Instead he headed towards the drink table to get himself something to make the night easier. He wasn't ready to approach his family yet. It was probably the night he met her that gave his family hope that the Jason they once loved was still in there somewhere.
He wasn't ready to decide if that was true. It had been a long road from his days when he thought becoming Robin was the best day of his life. His thoughts on that varied. He was better off than he would have been on the street but the cost had been paid on his own blood. He was already committing pretty theft and then some before he met Batman but now he had been the man in charge. He spotted Tim first but neither of them were ready for that meeting so Jason turned and walked away while Tim glaced around for anyone else to greet.
Jason hadn't meant to approach Marinette but there she was nervously adjusting the straw in her drink while a man in a suit proved he wasn't as slick as he thought he was. She stepped back away from his hand reaching out for her arm. Jason couldn't hear her words from where he was but her polite rejection was clear as Jason continued approaching.
"Come on Sweetheart. Just one dance." He heard.
Marinette didn't quite step back quick enough to avoid his hand on her forearm. The man stepped between her and the rest of the crowd. Jason sped up when he saw her wild eyes, clearly darting around trying to find a way out of the situation. Jason arrived and addressed Marinette as if they already knew each other. They did in a sense, but she wouldn’t know that and he didn’t want to bring up their meeting. He took her hand and tugged it away from the grip of the other man.
“There you are; wait until you see who is here,” he said loud enough for others to hear before dropping his voice to a volume only loud enough for her. “Which way do you need to go? Is there someone you trust who could help you calm down?”
Marinette looked back up at him in shock. He let go of her hand as soon as she was walking with him and she used it to point in the direction he had seen Tim go. He might be seeing his little brother sooner than either of them had planned. It would be okay in public though. Tim would not want to cause a scene and Jason didn’t want that either. He was accepting the offer of peace but he didn’t know if he was ready to be a part of the family again so soon.
He wasn’t surprised when they arrived at the other side of the room and Dick and Tim were there already trying to talk about the boring things society people were bound to talk about at such events. Jason managed to keep his groan internal but he looked around for the best way to acquire another drink. Dick saw him first.
“Jason! And Marinette!” His eyebrows shot up along with his voice’s inquisitive tone. “Did you guys just get here?”
“I got here a few minutes ago. But I ended up talking to someone over by the drink table before this man offered to help me find you,” Marinette said.
Jason wasn’t sure whether he should mention the other man’s behavior. She seemed to be more worried about causing a scene than her own comfort. But if anyone would understand why she was on edge it would be the people right here and Bruce and Alfred, possibly a few others if she had talked about her experiences.
“He seemed like he was a little too insistent for your boundaries. I was happy to help and removing you from the situation seemed more helpful than hitting him.” Jason said. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“You haven’t even had an actual conversation yet. Don’t run off.” Dick said, then pointed. “Look, there is a drink tray. That is probably what you were leaving for anyway.”
Jason conceded with a nod. Dick turned around and officially introduced Marinette. They spent a few moments talking about her recent work with Wayne Enterprises and their plans for continued work together. Jason had intended most of the night to be him forcing himself to appear interested, but he suddenly found the need to try not to appear overly interested in everything about Marinette.
He couldn’t deny he was very interested in her but he doubted that they could be involved without it getting very complicated. He already knew about a dark period in her life that she likely rarely talked about and he should keep his past hidden from her. He watched her try to cover her blushing face when Dick and Tim continued to sing her praises. There is no way she would be interested in a crime boss or a reformed one after what she had been through..
Jason looked up as Bruce walked up. Dick and Tim had turned back to their earlier conversations and Marinette turned to greet Bruce. Jason really couldn’t get away without the awkward interaction that was about to happen, it felt oddly reminiscent of that night on the rooftop with the 3 of them. He wondered if Bruce felt the same way. Whatever he felt was quickly covered by his public mask. Jason was happy to see that Marinette seemed to have calmed down after her interaction. He shocked himself and everyone else at the next break in conversation by asking her to dance.
He hadn’t danced in many years but he always had some skill. He wouldn’t be able to tell her that his most recent experience was from the League of Assassins as a necessary deception and reconnaissance skill but she still seemed to be enjoying herself. He should be talking but he couldn’t think of what to say. He could feel her pressed against him and moving to the music and he lost all ability to make conversation. She didn’t seem to mind. Her face was completely serene and she didn’t seem to even realize he nor anyone else was there so he just let her have her moment.
After returning her to the group, he excused himself. It had been several years since he had been inside Wayne Manor. He couldn’t bring himself to wander through all the rooms he had known growing up. He might like to see Alfred in the kitchen but he would prefer not to pass by all the memories that haunted him. He chose instead to go to the garden. The air was much cooler out here than the warmth in the ballroom and there was a pleasant breeze. He passed by the benches and found a tree that he used to climb.
It had changed and was taller and wider now, much like him. He found some comfort in that. He sat and leaned against it and sighed as he closed his eyes. It was a few minutes before he heard someone approaching. He had expected someone to follow him out but he was surprised when she spoke after standing silent for a few minutes. He would have guessed Dick or that Bruce would send Alfred. He wondered if she had come to find him or if she had been sent as an emissary.
“It’s a nice night.” she said softly.
“It is. Shame the event is indoors.”
“I’m not sure it would be as nice if everyone was out here. I like the quiet.”
“True. Did you enjoy the party anyway?”
“Mostly. I don’t seem to have as much energy to be social for the whole night.”
“I feel the same. I always like to take a break and go back when everyone has enjoyed the party too much so I can laugh at them.”
He loved her laugh and that she felt relaxed enough to laugh.
“I’ve not seen you at any of the other events. I’ve been to several over the past few months.”
“I missed a few. But I think I might be at more of them in the future.”
“Since you’re not busy being a crime boss anymore.”
He looked up at her and she met his eyes and held his gaze. When he looked down she sat down against a different tree facing him.
“Did someone tell you or were you able to figure it out.”
“No one told me. ‘Jason’ was always talked about in hushed tones and there was always a long story that no one wanted to tell. But I recognized you. It took time for the things to connect. The look you had on your face when you helped me get away from the man earlier. But mostly I recognized your voice.”
“Usually that would be distorted. I wonder if Batman has that problem.”
“He would never admit it. But I wouldn’t do anything to give you or him away. You saved my life and he helped me stay safe after. I saw enough to know that the threats were very real.”
“They are both dead now and not a threat to you.”
She nodded rather than responding and then they sat in silence again for several minutes before she spoke again.
“How did it happen?” she asked. “The story no one wants to tell. Will you tell me?”
He paused before responding. But then he started from the beginning and told her the whole story from his initial meeting with Batman as a child to his death and resurrection and finally his time as a crime boss. She listened mostly in silence except for a few reactions and utterances to help him. He hadn’t even realized she had moved so close to him. She was holding his hand when he finished. He looked back into her eyes and she was looking at him with such understanding. He used his other hand to brush her wisps of hair away from her temple. He was surprised when she responded by leaning forward and kissing him.
He didn’t want to question whether that was the right response or why she had done it. He just leaned into her and enjoyed it when she didn’t stop with the simple brush of their lips. He hoped she wouldn't regret the impulse and wished it could continue longer but they could hear someone approaching so they pulled away. Jason stood and held out his hand to help her to her feet and he was surprised she didn’t immediately pull her hand back. So they walked back into the ballroom with Dick and got their opportunity to laugh at all the people who had dissolved their inhibitions with too much champagne. She was laughing beside him and he was happy that it was with him.
Taglist
@jasonette-july-event | @theymakeupfairies | @emjrabbitwolf | @vixen-uchiha | @trythisagainlove | @trippingovermyfeet | @tbehartoo | @adrestar | @zynna
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kindaangelic · 4 years
Text
Meeting The Robins
Batman is a notoriously private individual, even to his closest of allies in the Justice League. Barry Allen thinks that Batman is a spirit. Hawkgirl still thinks that Batman is half actual bat. Hal Jordan knows nothing.
So what happens when they meet the Robins?
……………………
Batman does not want his colleagues in the Batcave. He might add well just invite them into his bed and be done with it. However, the watchtower is being fixed up, and they need to meet somewhere, and no one wants to go to Clark's stupid ice castle, and no men are allowed on Diana's stupid island, so the Batcave it was.
Twenty minutes into the meeting and Bruce wants them to leave, when he hears the sound of the cave doors opening, and the Batmobile veering in. The car stops, and Nightwing steps out, carrying a tiny Robin, who is clawing at something in his sleep.
Everyone just stops, because these are Batman's kids, and no one is allowed to talk about them, know about them, or talk to them, no matter how juicy Nightwing looks that night, or Batman will throw a fit.
Nightwing smiles and swans over to Bruce, offering him Damian, who frowns in his sleep. Bruce stares at his tetchy little son and reaches out to take him, and cuddles him against his chest.
“I'll be right back with his night clothes,” Dick smiles. “Hi guys, nice to see you!” He says gaily, before loping upstairs. Bruce sees Hal Jordan's awful eyes, he sees the way they zoom in on his son's butt, and he wants to poke Hal's eyes out.
The meeting continues, and scarcely ten minutes later, a hush falls over the room. Bruce looks up from his report to see the cause and is slightly jarred to see the Red Hood emerge from the shadows.
Everyone has gone visibly still, not knowing what the famed anti-hero is here for. Jason cares not for them, and approaches Bruce, who is still holding Damian. Bruce stills, as Jason removes his helmet and looks at a sleeping Damian. He bends down and very deliberately blows into his baby brother's ear.
He scampers away, delighted, as Damian begins to rouse, like a growly polar bear. “Who dares to blow thusly into my ear? Oh, what ho, Father, why are you holding me?”
Bruce clears his throat. “Dick went upstairs to get your night clothes.”
“Ah. And who breathed on me?”
“Jason,” Bruce says, seeing no reason to spare his second son.
Damian begins to plot his revenge, and falls back into a fitful sleep.
Clark is looking at Damian tenderly, and Bruce's leg is falling asleep from Damian's weight, so he hands his son over to Clark, who cuddles his tiny, spiny, sea urchin nephew.
The less familiar members of the League are still put out that the Red Hood had just walked past them. “Er, Batman-”
“Yes.”
“Are you just going to let the Red Hood-”
“Yes.”
“But he-”
“Shut up, Hal.”
“He tried to collect a bounty on me!” Green Arrow squeaked.
“Did he succeed?”
“Yes! But I managed to escape my captor by the skin if my nose! I saw him buying ice lollies for some kids with the bounty money!”
“Good for him.”
Seeing that Bruce was not about to be swayed, Green Arrow fell silent again.
A few minutes later, there is a breath that passes them by. Its soft, but chilling. One that makes the hairs on their arm rise up. Bruce pauses, smiles, and continues.
No one saw the Bat's daughter.
The meeting continues, but the air remains oppressive, not that Batman notices. Hal Jordan does, and elbows the Flash. Barry nods nervously, acknowledging that preternatural feeling that you got when someone is watching you.
Oliver Queen sniffs discreetly, taking note of the bitter tang to the air. He looks behind him, just in time to see a pair of owlish, pale blue eyes staring from the shadows. He blinks, and they are gone.
Barry Allen sees the same thing. The orb-like, dead gaze of his nightmares, accompanied by a soft humming.
“Hal.”
“Yeah?” Hal whispers back.
“Are you humming 'Mm whatcha say'?”
Hal gulps. “You hear it too?”
Bruce looks up from his report, and the eyes appear in the shadowy corner behind him, and Hal can't take it any more.
“I hate you, I hate you!” Hal cries, pointing at Batman. “I hate your creepy cave and your stupid secret kids, and that dead ghost thing in the corner!” He sobs.
Bruce continues to stare impassively for a second, watching Diana and Clark calm a hysterical Hal down. Then he turns to look behind his shoulder. “Tim, go to sleep son.”
“I was watching your meeting,” Tim's soft, lilting voice replies, and he steps out of the shadows.
Hal screams louder, because the “ghost” is apparently a little twink in an oversized hoodie, with eyes that don't belong on a living face. It is holding a mug of steaming coffee.
“Go to sleep or I won't let you meet Superboy for your dinner tomorrow night,” Batman says.
Tim concedes and shuffles upstairs, leaving Bruce to stare disdainfully at his shaken colleagues. “What is wrong with you people, screaming at my children like that? Surely you knew that I had kids.”
Barry is still trying to find his calm, and Superman is ushering a confused Damian upstairs.
“Bruce, you didn't exactly tell anyone else outright,” Clark says gently.
“Its a matter of public record that I have kids.”
“Yeah, but not like...this!” Barry exploded. “Especially not weird ghost kid!”
“Red Robin is not a ghost,” Bruce frowns.
“And...Red Hood!”
Bruce's expression shutters off dangerously. “What about him.”
“N-nothing,” Hal stutters.
Batman looks at his colleagues with grim finality. “Good. Now is we can get back to work…”
The cave remains tense until the meeting is over and the not-Clark members of the League run away. Batman sits back and looks at Clark. “You know about my kids.”
“Yes, because I live in the neighboring city and watched them grow up, and Tim is dating my brother and will most likely marry him,” Clark says calmly.
Bruce flinches at the thought of the future. “Maybe I should bring my kids to the Watchtower.”
“Maybe,” Clark grins. “It'd be good for the Leauge to get to know them properly. They're great kids.”
Bruce smiles. “Yeah. They are.”
………………
1K notes · View notes
awhitehead17 · 3 years
Text
Universal Signs
Epilogue / Previous Chapter
A/N: This is the final chapter and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has read this story, who has stuck by it from the start and to everyone who interacted with the story. It's all greatly appreciated, so thank you.
Also on AO3
Enjoy! :D
After slapping a sticky note on the fridge Tim heads out into the gardens of Wayne Manor. He feels the need to be alone and plus he wants some fresh air, the garden is a great place that provides him with both of those things. The note just happens to be letting everyone know where he’s gone off to. It wouldn’t be the first time its happened so they know to leave him be.
Tim walks through the grass and heads into the cluster of trees at the back of the property. Over the last few months, this area has become his escape for solitude. It’s peaceful, hidden away from the manor and no one else goes there. There’s a small gap in the grove, it’s big enough for him to settle on the ground, the tree roots emerging from the ground provide a good support to lean on and the grass there keeps it somewhat comfortable.
He comes here when he needs a break and today is no different. Being inside the manor is suffocating him and Tim just needed to get out, he needed to get away from the same walls in attempts to try and clear his mind.
Settling down on the ground Tim lets out a sigh and takes a moment to observe the nature around him. The leaves on the trees are slowly beginning to turn into a mixture of reds, oranges and browns, a clear sign that autumn is on the way. There are birds chirping away in the trees. There’s an occasional rustling of leaves where there are squirrels hurrying along the branches above him.
After a while he closes his eyes and leans back against the tree root he’s come to favour over time and lets his mind wonder.
It’s been six months since he’s returned home from being in space. At this point he’s somewhat adjusted to being back however there are plenty of times when he struggles with it. There are as many good days as there are bad days, they seem to balance one another out with how often they each occur.
The first month had been the hardest. His emotions were all over the place, everyone was on high alert, there were so many things Tim needed to catch up on like events in the world and even just his family relationships. Tim’s mental health went downhill, not alarmingly so considering what had happened but it was still a cause of concern for his family. He was constantly hit with anxiety, paranoia, disorientation, nightmares and insomnia.
Tim absolutely refused to go to therapy. No matter how much his family tried to convince he just outright refused, even straight up walking out of the room when the word was mentioned. He knows it would be good for him, however what the fuck was he supposed to say? How would he describe about being kidnapped by aliens? They would think he's insane and would probably try to lock him up in an asylum! The easiest way to avoid that is to simply avoid therapy.
He did find though once he told Dick and Jason what happened things became a little easier. A weight disappeared from his shoulders and he could be open with his brothers. Not about everything that occurred but most things and that alone made a difference.
Things stayed rocky throughout the second month and it wasn’t until the third month that things started to improve. Tim started to handle his mental health better, it took some time but he came across a variety of resources online and used those as guidance. While he didn’t magically heal overnight and still had problems, they slowly became less severe and easier to handle.
When the fourth month came around they let the public see Tim for the first time since he returned. That had been a mistake. The Wayne’s are well known in Gotham City (and somewhat the world) so there had been spotlights on them from the moment it got declared Tim was missing. While the spotlight lessened over the course of the two years Tim had been gone, once Tim’s return made it to the news the family were instantly highlighted once again.
Bruce and his team kept Tim out of the way, they kept statements and quotes pretty vague and anonymous. Of course there were lots of conspiracies on what had happened to Tim, where he had been that entire time and how he had managed to return home. If Tim was being honest some of the theories were pretty hilarious, though not one of them even came close to the truth.
The time they decided to get Tim out in public was during the annual charity event that took place in city hall. Majority of his family were attending meaning Tim wouldn’t be alone, the spotlight would theoretically only be on him for a few moments until the next celebrity showed up. Tim had been reluctant at first but after reassurances from his family he said yes. After all if he made an appearance the media may calm down and leave them alone.
The moment Tim stepped out of the limo they arrived in he had been bombarded and it didn’t let up the entire night. Even with his family there and the bodyguards no one really left him alone. The press were savages hunting for food.
Before getting kidnapped Tim could handle the press well, he knew how to play the game, how to avoid and deflect questions and answers, but this time he couldn’t. It was all too overwhelming, his emotions and mind went into overdrive and panic. He couldn’t help the panic attack no matter what, fortunately his family caught on to what was happening and managed to get him away somewhere private by the time the attack happened. They supported him through it and then called it a night. He hasn’t been in public since.
The fifth month had been a mixture of month two and three. Tim had his ups and downs but he was handling it the best he could. His family were always there to support him no matter what.
During the fifth month Tim decided to tell Bruce what had happened. He sat down with his adoptive father, Alfred too, in his office and Tim told him everything that had happened. Tim had been a nervous wreck and it took encouragement from Dick and Jason for him to finally do it.
Both Bruce and Alfred seemed to take it in stride. At first they seemed like they didn’t believe him but after a couple of days thinking about it they said to him they believed him, why would Tim make up something like that? On the other hand his story seemed to only encourage Bruce to try and get him a therapist even more and once again Tim blatantly refused. He argued he was handling it and so on. With reluctance Bruce dropped the topic but Tim knows it’ll come up again soon enough.
Now though, at six months, Tim thinks he’s doing okay (besides the obvious). He would like to believe he’s doing okay. There’s not a day that goes by where he doesn’t think about the aliens that saved him, or some of the events and adventures that had happened when he had been with them.
If there’s anything positive that’s come from his experience it’s that he's decided on a career change. Before getting kidnapped Tim had been working at Wayne Enterprises in the offices doing a mixture of roles. At the time he had been looking into the future of helping Bruce to run the company, he was well on his way to do it too despite his age. However his trip has opened his eyes up and he’s decided a career change seems suitable. He’s now going into astrophysics. A job in the sciences and looking at space, time and the universe.
Tim has only recently started up online courses because he needs to work on getting a degree in the field before moving onto getting an actual job in the area. He’s smart enough for it, and now that he has the interest and even first-hand experience in the area its all the more interesting. He finds it particularly fun when the question “is there life on other planets?” come up.
Apart from the online classes Tim’s time is spent catching up with things and generally chilling around the house unless he's dragged into something by one of his siblings.
Oh, doesn’t that make him think of another major adjustment he’s had to come to terms with. Damian. Bruce’s biological son. Tim knows his story of arriving to the Manor but he doesn’t fully know the details of his past. There was tension between them but they were civil to one another any time they cross paths. It certainly took time, and still is taking time, to get used to that he has a younger sibling. On the bright side at least he’s not the youngest anymore!
It was also thanks to Damian that Tim learnt that his universal translator works on Earth too. Upon his arrival back home, Tim had completely forgotten about the little device installed in his teeth and the remote that came with it. His mind had been on other things after all but it wasn’t until Damian spoke in his native tongue, Arabic, that Tim realised the translator is still implanted in him and it works with Earth languages too.
After that discovery Tim spent a good five hours on YouTube watching a range of videos in a variety of languages. It blew his mind that he could understand every single one of them. However, even though he can understand them, he can’t speak the languages nor can he write or read them. It had been an interesting discovery, now any time Damian speaks Arabic and Tim hears him, he can’t help but snicker at the teen’s language and the kinds of names he calls their siblings.
He sighs again, feeling oddly unsettled. His life seems almost rather dull now in a way. If anyone heard him say that after knowing everything he went through they would call him insane, but it’s like his “space life” had always been one adventure after another, always something to do, or a danger to be aware of. Now that he's back on Earth where there’s not so much of that it feels strange.
With that pleasant thought in his mind Tim opens his eyes up and starts to make a move to leave. He usually comes out to this forestry area to clear his mind but unfortunately today that doesn’t seem to be the case, his mind doesn’t seem to want to shut up. Tim trudges back to the Manor through the gardens as the sun begins to lower signalling the approach of the evening.
The next few days seem to repeat themselves until the weekend rolls around. It’s Saturday when Dick decides he wants to take Tim shopping. It’s a risk going out into public like that, as Tim pointed out to him, but Dick argues it’ll do him good to leave the Manor and how it’ll make a change of scenery for him.
Tim only agreed in the end when they compromised they’ll only be out for no more than three hours. Dick wanted more and Tim would prefer less, three seemed to be a good balance for them. Apparently his brother wanted to get himself some new clothes and there was the fact he needed to get Barbara something for her birthday that’s quickly approaching.
Together they go to the closet mall and Dick drags him into about five different clothing shops. The man gets himself a variety of new autumn clothes and even grabs Tim a fluffy sweater and a new jacket. Tim really did have to stop him when he tried to by an elephant onesie though, Dick may like the damn things but that didn’t mean Tim did.
After clothes shopping Dick decided to duck inside a jeweller’s shop on the way out of the mall. While Dick is inside buying who knows what, Tim choses to wait for him outside the shop. He stands  by the door, leaning against the frame and people-watched as they walked by.
No one paid him much attention as they went about their days. Each person, family, couples all absorbed in whatever activity they were doing or what shop they wanted to get to. It still was bizarre to Tim, even after six months, that everyone here just goes about their days without the slightest bit of clue to what’s out there above and beyond. It makes him wonder what and where he would be if he never got kidnapped.
Tim shifts his position against the frame, propping his back up against it more as he continues to look around. He freezes however when something catches his eyes at the other end of the mall. There’s a small group of people who were stood off to the side by the wall out of the way from everyone that catches his attention. Their heads were ducked together as they spoke to one another and they all had their backs to Tim so he couldn’t see their faces. Tim doesn’t look away though because there’s something about them that seems familiar.
He’s not sure how long he stares at the group of three but they don’t move from their position in that time at all. He doesn’t think they’re up to anything as they don’t seem suspicious but there’s a tugging feeling inside of Tim that’s telling him there’s more to the group.
When one of them turns their head around to observe the surroundings as if trying to find something, Tim gasps. Surely that can’t be…
“Tim!”
Tim blinks and looks away from the group to find Dick standing next to him looking at him curiously.
“What’s gotten into you? You okay, I was calling your name for ages.”
Tim blinks at him again before looking back over the group, he sucks in a breath when he finally sees all three faces of the group. He watches with wide eyes as they start to move from their position and Tim knows he needs to go after them.
Without saying anything he pushes off the door frame and heads in that direction as the group starts walking in the opposite way. If Tim doesn’t catch up to them now then he’ll lose them and that isn’t an option.
However he doesn’t get more than a couple steps away before he's stopped as his arm is caught in a tight grip by his older brother. Tim tugs his arm roughly as he tries to get Dick to let him go. He frantically looks between his brother and the slowly retreating group.
“Dick, please, let me go… I need to go.” Tim begs. He could feel the desperate need to go and approach that group, he could feel his heart pounding and even some excitement stirring inside of him.
Dick’s grip only tightens. “What the hell you on about Tim?” His words are stern but Tim could hear how they’re said with an anxious tone.
Tim tugs his arm again, this time reaching out with his other to shove Dick away. “I’ll explain, I promise, just let me go…”
“No, not until you tell me what you’ve seen.”
When Tim looks over the group was now almost out of sight and Tim could feel his heart dropping. This was his last chance just to make sure he hadn’t been seeing things. Knowing Dick wasn’t going to let him go, Tim shoves him hard and yells at him.
“Let me go!”
In either shock or panic, Dick lets him go and Tim couldn’t be more relieved. As soon as his brother’s hand is off his arm Tim is shoots off in an instant, he ignores all the eyes now staring at him as he runs by them in the direction the group had disappeared from.
Miraculously he manages to catch up to the retreating group. He spots the three familiar figures manoeuvring their way through the crowd heading towards the other end of the mall where an exit is. Tim rushes forward, not caring about how manic he looks as he passes by strangers, and as soon as he’s in hearing range he shouts to try and get their attention.
“Kon! Kon, Cassie! Guys. Bart!”
The shouts get him a few more weird looks but he continues to be oblivious to them as he’s tunnel visioned on the three people in front of him. Thankfully his shouting gets the attention of the right people because the group stop and turn around in their place.
Suddenly Tim couldn’t breathe. There in front of him were the aliens who he thought he would never see again, the aliens who saved his life numerous of times and the ones who returned him home.
Kon, Cassie and Bart stand in front of him staring back seeming just as shocked as he is. For a long time none of them move as they all take in that they’re actually seeing one another again. If Tim weren’t so surprised by their appearance he would be questioning it, but he’s too elevated to give it much thought in that moment.
Without realising it Tim is moving and so were they. They meet in the middle and Tim finds himself wrapped up in a group hug. He breathes deeply, wondering why the action feels so familiar, and even safe, when he hasn’t seen them in six months.
He pulls back and looks wildly between the three of them. He can’t believe they’re here. Could this be a dream?
“Tim! We were just looking for you!” Bart grins brightly.
Tim shoots him a look, then glances at the other two. “Looking for me? Why what’s going on? Wait, wait, wait, how are you guys here? Why are you here?”
Bart’s smile falters a little at Tim’s rapid questions. “Because we wanted to find you.”
Tim shakes his head, feeling a little guilty that his questions came across wrongly. “No, I didn’t mean it like that, I’m just completely surprised to see you that’s all. This is totally unexpected.”
“Tim, as wonderful as it is to see you, do you know a place we can talk privately and not in the middle of… this place.” Cassie says glancing around cautiously.
Tim copies her and he finally realises how many people are looking at them funnily as well as giving them a wide berth as they pass by. Tim nods his head in understanding, this isn’t the kind of topic a group of people can discuss in the middle of the mall.
Just as Tim was thinking of a place they could go for privacy a shout gets his attention.
“Tim what the hell!” He turns around and is met with a furious Dick marching up to him. “What the fuck were you thinking running off like that?”
Tim huffs and rolls his eyes, he gets why Dick is worried but at the end of the day he is in fact an adult and not a toddler. “Dick it’s fine, I’m sorry but this is important.”
Dick studies him for a moment before his eyes flicker over to the three aliens standing opposite them looking awkward at the sudden appearance of his brother.
“Right so, Dick, this is Kon, Cassie and Bart,” he points to each alien in turn, “guys, this is my oldest brother Dick.”
There is a pause between them all and while the aliens look confused he could see the wheels turning inside of Dick’s mind. As if it’s clicked, Dick turns to Tim with wide eyes, “Are these the ones that saved your life?”
Tim smiles, feeling pleased that his brother has remembered his story and those involved. “Yeah that’s right.
“What are they doing here?”
Tim shrugs and turns to the others. “What are you guys doing here, beside looking for me?”
“Can we go somewhere else first Tim. Like away from all the eyes.” Cassie says pointedly.
Next to him Dick looks confused. “Tim what did she say? Wait, how do you understand them? That isn’t any language I’ve heard of.”
Tim blinks trying to comprehend everything going on. The aliens that saved his life are on Earth and he doesn’t know why, his brother is clearly confused and the others are looking at him expectantly. Tim is starting to feel pretty overwhelmed by it all.
In attempts to control his thoughts and emotions Tim takes a deep breath. “Right lets go somewhere else. Then everything can be explained.”
The private place they end up going happens to be a nearby park. It’s a large open space, where people are scattered over the place, it’s private in the sense that no one is paying them any attention and unless someone walks directly next to them, no one can hear their conversation.
The five of them settle down on the grass in a circle, the aliens and even Dick all look a little apprehensive for the choice of location but it’s not like there’s many others. It’s not like Tim and Dick can return home with the aliens in tow and expect Bruce to be okay with it.
“Right,” Tim says getting everyone’s attention. He glances at his friends, while still feeling  completely gobsmacked by the fact they’re here, and gets down to business. Tim needs to find out what’s going on.
Now they’re all sat down Tim blurts out his questions without restraint. “How are you guys here? Why are you here? I thought you were all being punished or put on probation? Did you complete it, did it end and now you’re free to do as you please once again?”
None of them respond to his rapid questioning, they each look at him blankly like they couldn’t understand what he’s saying. When the silence drags out for too long Tim is about to repeat them when Kon speaks up for the group.
The Kryptonian sends him an empathetic look and with patience says, “Let us just explain what’s happened that’s brought us here, hopefully the story will answer your questions.”
Tim has to retrain himself from firing out the questions again. He wants answers! He can’t believe they’re here, he thought he would never see them again but here they are!
Next to him Dick lightly smacks his shoulder to get his attention. “Tim what are they saying? What’s going on?”
His brother is looking awfully confused and concerned. Tim can’t exactly blame him. He’s dragged Dick with him to sit down with practically three strangers and is now witnessing a one-sided conversation because he can’t understand the other three.
“They’re about to explain why they’re on Earth. I honestly thought I would never see them again, I’m just as confused as you are.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea Tim. What if it’s some sort of… trap or something?”
A surge of anger rises inside of Tim at the accusation. He understands Dick’s worries but this isn’t a trap and he knows it. They wouldn’t do that to him, not after everything they went through together.
“Dick shut up for a moment.” Tim snaps at him after a pause once he’s got his emotions under control. “Also they can understand you too, so watch what you say. If you don’t like it, go away and I’ll come find you later, or sit here and be quiet, it’s your choice.”
Dick stares at him, clearly taken back by the aggression of his words. But Tim isn’t relenting. He narrows his eyes at his brother, daring him to say something. In the end Dick raises his hands up in surrender and stays where he is. Once he’s delt with Tim turns back to the aliens.
“Sorry about him, there’s just a little misunderstanding. Please tell me what happened and how you’re here.”
Kon launches into the explanation of what happened after they took Tim home. Apparently they returned back to Krypton before finishing off their collection job, what they had originally been doing when they first met Tim. Once they completed that they were put on probation and were kept under watchful eyes for a long time. They weren’t allowed on any missions, they had to go back to the basic training skills and from there build the trust back up with their so called leaders.
Once some trust was established they were allowed on missions but only with other older members of their squadron, they described it like someone was babysitting them. They also had to report back on anything and everything during the mission. Because of good behaviour from the each of them, they were then allowed out on missions independently as a team some time later.
After more trust had been built, after they had once again proven themselves apparently Kal approached them for a very specific mission that would suit their abilities and past experiences.
Kal had given the three of them the mission of doing recon and observing humans on planet Earth. Apparently their files and databases don’t have enough accurate information on humans and after the fiasco with Tim, it’s about time they start taking human beings into consideration and start learning about them properly.
The three of them were to stay on Earth for an extended period of time to gather the data they need and to regularly report back to the leaders with their findings. They didn’t go into detail on what it is they need to do or what they need to observe but Tim can easily overlook it because at the end of the day they are in fact here on Earth and with him.
“So Kal sent you here on Earth to ‘observe’ humans because of you guys knowing me?” Tim asks just so he’s clear on it all.
The three of them grin and nod in response. Amused, Tim snorts softly. He settles back on the grass, using his elbows to keep him propped up. “Surely he knows that as soon as you land you would try and find me. By the way, how did you find me? I thought I was unable to be tracked?”
“We parked the ship where we dropped you off. We’ve hidden the ship from anyone seeing it or anything detecting it. Once we’ve found a more suitable place we’ll move the ship.” Cassie explains waving her hand around subconsciously as she talks. “Knowing that the city next to it is the one you said you lived in, we took a chance and started looking for you. As you pointed out, we can’t track you, so we’ve been relying on nothing but hope and chance in bumping into you.”
Tim shakes his head in disbelief. So it had been by pure chance that they happened to be in the same part of the city, in the same mall, at the exact same time as Tim.
“I’ve always wanted to come to Earth, especially after meeting you Tim. It’s strange, different from other planets we’ve visited before. Also why are the days so short? Everything is bright because the sun is out and you’d practically blink and it would suddenly be dark, but after that you’d blink another time and it’s light once again.” Bart starts rambling from his position in between Tim and Kon. He looks around curiously, taking in everything and Tim could see him shaking in place, it’s like it’s taking all of Bart’s self-restraint to not go speeding off into the city in his excitement.
Tim laughs at his comments, Bart is just the same as he remembers. They all are really and it fills Tim with a warmth he can’t describe.
“How have you been since you’ve been back? Is everything alright, run into any trouble?” Kon asks him sounding concerned. Tim notices the way his eyes drift over to Dick who is currently on his phone not paying them much attention. Tim gets the feeling Kon may be feeling a bit protective of him, especially after seeing how Dick had unintentionally treated him earlier.
Tim shrugs, pulling a face as he looks around the park. “No more than what was expected to be honest.” He looks back at the alien. “So far, and touch wood, I haven’t run into or even seen any League members. There’s been my own personal stuff I’ve had to deal with but nothing like what you’re thinking of really.”
Cassie sits up straighter, she’s also eyeing Dick like he could be a threat of some kind. “And him there?”
Tim rolls his eyes in response. When will everyone stop treating him like a kid that constantly needs to be protected? “He’s fine. He gets a little over-protective and after not seeing me for a couple years, especially after what happened, he wants to make sure I’m fine. He’s not a threat.”
Both Cassie and Kon don’t seem satisfied with his answer but they let it go. Tim lets out a long breath. “So what now? You guys are here, what did you have in mind once you found me? How are you planning on completing your mission?”
“We were hoping you would be able to show us things about the human life.” Bart says looking at him hopefully. “After all, you know what you’d be talking about, there’s also the matter of fact no one can understand us except you because of the translator.”
“Yeah okay, I think I’d be able to help you. After all, it’s the least I can do since you saved my life several times. However I won’t be able to be with you all hours of the day, I have commitments to deal with as well.” Tim points out. He would love to help them out but he can’t just drop his life to do so, not that there’s really much going on but that’s not the point.
The three of them nod in unison, clearly understanding what Tim meant. “Any help would be great Tim, thank you.”
They get talking about a few other bits, like what they have discovered since being on Earth for themselves. During that conversation there were a lot of snarky comments made about how underdeveloped humans were, surprisingly those comments no longer annoy Tim, he simply rolls his eyes and moves onto the next thing.
Tim’s broken out of the conversation after Dick nudges him to get his attention. Tim blinks at him, completely forgetting he was even there to begin with. “Tim it’s getting late, we should probably get heading home.”
Tim glances at the clock on his own phone and is surprised to see the time. They’ve spent hours talking and catching up.
After a brief conversation about where they could meet up the next day, they settle on a time and place before parting ways. Once they were out of hearing range Dick puts his attention on Tim. “So they were the aliens who saved you? I didn’t expect to meet them, they don’t look like what I expected them to.”
Tim rolls his eyes. “I have described to you before what they look like Dick, not all aliens are huge and green with tentacles, antennas and multiple eyes.” He certainly isn’t going to tell Dick that there are in fact aliens that look exactly like that.
Dick laughs at his sarcasm. “You know that’s not what I meant. They each have a different language yet you spoke to the three of them with no problems.”
“Yeah that’s because of the universal translator I have planted in my teeth. Its one of the first things they did when they found me. Once it was implanted I was able to understand everything they said, it’s how they all communicate out there.”
The two of them finally reach the car and climb inside.
“So what are they doing here on Earth?” Dick asks as he starts the car up and begins driving them home.
“They’re here because they’ve been sent to do recon on humans, they need to report back their findings to their leaders. While being here they decided to come and find me, they have also asked if I could help them out. Since they saved my life, agreeing to help them isn’t an issue, it’s the least I could do.”
Dick asks him a few more questions about what they discussed, his brother is still put off by the fact they all have different languages and yet they can all understand one another, but on the most part he seems okay with them.
It makes Tim wonder if he should let his family officially meet the aliens, if he did how would it all play out? Communication will obviously be an issue, Tim will have to be their translator but it may be worth considering in the long run. The aliens showing their powers to the family would certainly be interesting and with how private Wayne Manor is, they could get away with it and not be spotted.
Those thoughts remain in Tim’s mind for the rest of the day, into the night and stay with him until the next day when he meets the aliens again. Tim makes sure to keep them all away from too crowded areas (they ended up in the park again) and makes sure he’s prepared for anything that may go wrong. It’s one of the first times he’s left the grounds on his own since returning home and he’s nervous. His anxiety does calm down a little when he finally meets with his friends but he stays alert just in case.
They have a brilliant day together. Tim answers as many questions as he can when they each ask him stuff, he also shows them what he could, stuff that really helps humans in their day to day lives, for example his mobile phone. Alongside that Tim introduces them to the internet. Witnessing them using google for the first time was as amusing as it was painful to watch.
Don’t even get him started about when Bart tried to talk to Siri.
When their day starts drawing to close, Tim’s earlier thoughts come back to the fore front of his mind. In the end he decides to bite the bullet and turns to the aliens.
“How would you all like to meet my family?”
There's a pregnant pause between them and before anyone could reply Tim starts rambling on. “I know that communication may be an issue but we can get around that. I think it would be good for you to meet the ones I spend most of my time with. Not only that, I can then also show you what human family life is like, how homes operate and what gardens can be like. It may be worth considering?”
When there’s more silence Tim winces, curing himself for his eagerness. It’s stupid, of course they wouldn’t like the idea. Why would they –
“Yeah okay. That sounds interesting, of course only if you’re sure about it.” Kon says eventually looking thoughtful.
Tim whips his head around and stares at him. “Really? You want to?”
Kon shares a look with the other two, who nod in response, and turns back to Tim. “Like I said, if you’re sure about it, yeah.”
“Okay, okay…” Tim mumbles now getting equally excited and nervous about this happening. After they agreed Tim called Alfred up and asked the butler to come and pick them up. While on the phone Tim explained to Alfred the situation and how he’ll have company with him. God bless his soul, Alfred took it all in stride. While he seemed dubious about it, he agreed to let them come back to the manor.
Once Alfred arrived Tim took the others to the car and guided them inside. He greets Alfred before diving into an explanation on how cars work.
The journey back to the Manor is a short one and Tim has the fantastic opportunity to watch the awe expression cross his friends faces as they see the manor for the first time. Despite how many places they have travelled to, it seems like this really captures their attention, something that’s truly impressed them and Tim couldn’t help but feel slightly proud of that.
Once they’ve parked up, Alfred goes ahead first, probably with the main intentions of warning everyone what’s about to happen. Tim hovers behind for a while as he lets his friends stare at his home and the surrounding gardens. When more time than necessary has passed, Tim gently nudges them up towards the stairs, saying he’ll take them on a tour later on.
When they enter the manor they’re greeted with the sight of Alfred, Bruce Jason and Cass standing in the hallway watching them come in. Once they were all in Tim closes the door behind them and moves so he’s standing in front of his friends and faces his family.
Tim shuffles uncomfortably in his place, he’s feeling the apprehension of this meeting now more than ever. Taking a deep breath he addresses those in the room. “Everyone I would like you to meet Kon-el of Krypton, Cassandra of Themyscira and Bartholomew of Keystone. These three are the ones who saved my life while I was gone, without them I would have died long ago and never would have returned home. I owe them everything.”
Tim stares at each family member in turn, observing their reactions. Alfred of course is aware of them already and seems pretty neutral, Jason narrows his eyes at the aliens in distrust but doesn’t comment, Cass looks at his friends with curiosity which seems to be on the more positive side of things and finally Bruce seems stoic as ever, Tim couldn’t really tell what he’s thinking.
Eventually the thick atmosphere in the air is broken when Bruce steps forward, eyeing each alien carefully until a smile takes over his face and he relaxes his posture, letting go of what Tim could describe as the ‘alpha’ persona (the one where Bruce tries to make it clear he’s the one in charge and has all the dominance in the room).
“Thank you for helping my son and bringing him home. If I could ever repay you please let me know.”
Of course the aliens could understand Bruce but if they spoke then he wouldn’t understand them. In return to Bruce’s words, they each smile appreciatively and duck their heads. Bruce doesn’t seem bothered by the lack of verbal response, he resumes on as normal.
“Since we have guests how about something to eat. Tim, I’m sure your friends would be interested in trying some of our food?”
Tim glances at the trio, raising an eyebrow in question. They each look back at him and shrug nonchalantly, clearly not bothered either way, or at least that’s Kon and Cassie, Bart on the other hand looks as eager as ever to try food.
Tim turns back to Bruce. “Yeah they’ll eat. I hope you have a lot because Bart will literally eat everything in  the house. He’s a Speedster and naturally eats more than the average person.” Tim laughs letting his adoptive father, and even Alfred, know in advance.
“There’ll be plenty Timothy, no need to worry about that. Now if you would like to follow me, I’ll show you where we will be eating.”
Without waiting Alfred turns around and heads into the depths of the manor. After sending a glare at each of their guests, Jason is quick to follow Alfred. Cass smiles politely and trails behind Jason with Bruce behind her.
The trio glance at Tim, clearly waiting for his cue before doing anything. Tim rolls his eyes and gestures on ahead, “Go, it’s going to be fine. Plus you’re going to absolutely love Alfred’s food, it’s the best.”
“If you say so…” Cassie mutters walking ahead.
Bart is about to speed off down the corridor but Kon catches his arm just in time to stop him from doing so. “Bart. Be careful, this isn’t somewhere you can easily run around in.”
“After we’ve eaten I can show you the gardens Bart, its plenty big enough outside for you to have free reign.” Tim says, knowing the Speedster’s way of dealing with his energy. Bart rapidly nods in response and starts after Cassie, not in a run but certainly a quick walk.
Then it’s just Kon and Tim left. They share a knowing smile. “It’s good to see you again Tim and it’s great to know that you’re still safe.”
Tim grins, feeling warmth rise up inside of him. Before saying anything he gestures for them to get walking, as they do he speaks up. “I missed you guys too. While I don’t particularly miss space and everything out there, I miss being with you three on the ship. I certainly wasn’t expecting to ever see you again.”
Kon shrugs, a sheepish smile playing on his lips. “Well we, or rather I, planned to visit you from the moment our probation was mentioned. I knew as soon as we had free reign again, we were going to come and visit you.”
Tim’s eyes widen at that. So even before they parted ways, Kon and the others had wanted to continue seeing him. “Well I’m glad you’re here, and that you’ll be here for an extended amount of time too.”
When they reach the dining room, they stop just short of the door. From inside loud sounds where being made and Tim dreads what kind of chaos he's about to walk into. It’s just another usual family dinner at this stage, there’s always some kind of drama going on. He turns to Kon with a thought, before he enters the room he shoots him a sly look, unable to help himself. The Kryptonian has no idea what he’s about to be in for.
“I’ve experienced your life Kon, now you get to experience mine. It’s probably going to be the wildest adventure you’ve had yet and that’s truly saying something, I hope you’re prepared.”
As he walks into the dining room, Tim leaves behind a bewildered looking Kon. For the first time since everything had happened, Tim is actually forward to what the future will bring. He knows that ups and downs will happen but he’s also excited to see what’ll occur with his new friends by his side as they learn about his way of life. It’s certainly going to be an experience.
23 notes · View notes
soulmate-game · 4 years
Text
IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT YOU GUYS HAVE ADOPTED ME. THIS IS MY REBELLION (thanks)
Now, a proper introduction to this story:
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—*—*—*—*—*
“I do not see why we all had to come,” Damian groused, hands shoved into his pockets. Bruce had decided to set up a new branch of Wayne Enterprises in Paris, and apparently that required him and all his sons to come with him on a weeklong trip to scout out the perfect location from a set of possibilities and start networking. Selina and the girls had decided to allow all the boys the much needed vacation, taking over Gotham-sitting in their absence. There were the Zeta Tubes in Paris if all else failed anyway.
(The girls only made this deal with the agreement that they would get their own, twice as long vacation to some tropical island once they got back).
Bruce straightened out his suit. “This trip serves two purposes at once, Damian,” he started to tell his youngest in what all his sons dubbed the Lecture Voice. “Obviously, the public reason is setting up WE’s new headquarters here. The real reason, however, is that Diana is bad at keeping secrets for long periods of time.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jason asked, hands shoved in his jean pockets as he still had absolutely no idea how he managed to get roped into this shit. He didn’t want to be in Paris, let alone on a trip alone with his ‘family.’
Bruce hummed for a moment, looking around to make sure nobody was listening to the foreigners speaking in soft English. Nobody was. They continued walking down the street, but Bruce was careful to keep his voice low regardless. “Clark mentioned something about Lois wanting to visit a reporter friend of hers here in Paris, and Diana immediately changed the subject. What with her having worked at the Louvre in the past, Clark had wanted her feedback on the best places to take Lois to eat. Diana nearly exploded from how badly she was trying to steer the conversation as far away from Paris as possible.”
“You think she’s hiding something from the League?” Tim asked, eyebrows furrowed. He was the least upset about this whole thing, since he would have been forced to come on the trip anyway as WE’s COO. “That doesn’t seem like her thing.”
“It isn’t,” Bruce agreed. “Unless she felt honor bound to keep a secret. And if Diana of all people feels honor bound to keep a secret…”
“Then it’s big,” Dick finished with a nod. “She probably has a contact or friend here who convinced her to keep something away from the League. So you brought us all here to figure it out, then?”
“I had Barbara look into things on the Computer, but she didn’t turn up as much as we expected. Apparently something is messing with the electronic signals leaving Paris, hardly any information leaves this city on any electronic waves at all unless it’s specifically meant to, like business emails or political business. Local shows and news, any small time websites or blogs, all of those sorts of things are suddenly mysteriously inaccessible anywhere outside of city limits. Even social media posts.”
Tim frowned. That wasn’t… good.
Their conversation was interrupted by an explosion, followed by the collapse of the Eiffel Tower and the ringing of alarm bells.
“AKUMA ALERT. AKUMA ALERT. EVACUATE TO DESIGNATED SHELTERS. AKUMA ALERT.”
The group of civilian-dressed heroes tensed, looking around to see that the majority of locals seemed rather calm about the whole thing. They were brisk and efficient in evacuating, but not overly panicked. Bruce decided that was a good enough reason to tap a native’s shoulder and ask what was going on. Luckily, he and all his sons were fluent in French so none of them would be left confused.
The citizen they had pulled aside, a blond that Bruce belatedly realized was the mayor’s daughter, blinked up at them as if surprised to be interrupted. Then realization came over her face, making her relax slightly.
“Oh! You are the Waynes, correct? Daddy told me you all would be visiting from Gotham this week,” she turned her head over her shoulder to survey the chaos around them. “This is an Akuma attack. It’s the result of Paris’s own resident nut job super villain. Since you will all be here for the next few days, it’s important for you to know,” she put her hands on her hips and stared the group down as if all of them weren’t half a foot taller than her and much more well built, and ignoring the fact that everyone else around them was fleeing to safety. “Keep your emotions in check. HawkMoth, the villain behind this whole disaster, takes advantage of people’s negative emotions to turn them into temporary super powered villains called Akumas. If you get too angry or sad or even scared, you’re vulnerable to him.”
“Attacks like this happen almost every day, at this point. It’s been going on for three years now. But you shouldn’t have to worry— right on time,” Chloè Bourgeois suddenly smiled smugly as a red and black figure could be seen running across rooftops in a blur. “That’s our primary superhero, Ladybug. Her partner Chat Noir shouldn’t be far behind. As long as we go to a shelter, everything should be fine. The closest one is this way,” she told them, starting to lead the group away.
“Are you not at all worried about the Eiffel Tower?” Dick asked, disbelief clear in his tone even as he and his family followed the teenager. “Isn’t that a massive source of tourism for this place?”
Chloè snorted, waving her hand dismissively. “Please. The Eiffel Tower gets destroyed every Tuesday, practically. The news station gets ransacked almost every Thursday, and for some reason the Louvre only gets attacked every other Saturday or so. The Seine gets decent action too. Everything will go back to normal as soon as the Akuma is defeated.”
“Normal?” Jason interjected, eyebrows furrowed. “How can the Eiffel Tower suddenly come back from being rubble?”
Chloé laughed, very out of place considering the emptying streets. “That’s because of Ladybug. Her power reverses all the damage from an Akuma attack, as if it never happened in the first place. If we’re caught outside and flattened by a thrown car or giant falling rock? Poof, brought back to life without any injuries once Ladybug beats the Akuma. Drown during an attack? Poof, brought back. Beheaded by a maniac Akuma after revenge? Poof, head back on,” the heiress explained rather crassly.
Her examples were making the men behind her grimmer and grimmer. They came to the girl far too easily to just be made up scenarios.
“Watch out!” An unfamiliar voice called out, a red figure suddenly landing right in front of them before a resounding explosion rocked the whole street. Chloé shrieked, covering her head with her hands. The Waynes braced themselves and did their best to stay upright, getting right back up as quickly as possible when that failed.
When the dust cleared, it revealed the woman they had briefly caught a glimpse at before. Ladybug. True to form, she was dressed in red with black spots, though it looked as if her skin tight uniform wouldn’t offer much protection. In front of her was a slightly transparent pink shield which—oh. Nope. That was a shield she made by swinging a yo-yo.
An honest-to-Batman YO-YO was her main weapon, and it apparently could create magical shields to deflect explosives.
“Chloe! What have I told you about getting to a shelter as soon as possible?” The heroine shouted at the blonde heiress, who just pointed at the men she had been leading.
“I was! But I ran into tourists who had no idea what to do, I was trying to get all of us to a shelter!” The blond defended herself, before her eyes widened and her pointing finger moved. “Behind you!”
Ladybug turned a bit, but didn’t seem surprised at all when a black blur came out of seemingly nowhere and knocked into the floating villain dressed in gaudy oranges and yellows, knocking the Akuma’s aim off track. The explosion that the villain had meant for Ladybug and the civilians she was protecting hit the side of the road instead, hurting nothing but concrete.
“You were almost late, Chaton,” Ladybug called to the figure dressed in black, her voice teasing and eyes amused. The figure batted the Akuma away on buy time before jogging over, revealing a blond boy in a distressingly leather costume that was far too similar to Catwoman’s for any of the Gotham males to be comfortable with.
“Not my fault you took off ahead of me, Milady!” He shot right back, just as teasingly.
“Graaaaaah!” The Akuma, Explosion, pushed himself back up to his feet and glared at the heroes. “Die, die, die! You want to laugh at me, you want to say how I’ve ‘blown up,’ I’ll blow YOU up! See how you like it!”
“Their dialogue never gets any better,” Chaton, who the Gotham boys guessed was the Chat Noir that Chloé has mentioned, quipped as he spun a bo staff in his hands lazily. “Milady?”
Ladybug nodded. “The Akuma is in their belt. We’re gonna have to get up close for this one,” she remarked, getting her yo-yo ready to call on Lucky Charm. But, before she got a chance to, a blur ran out from behind her and tackled the super villain. “No!”
Ladybug immediately ran over, not caring that the green eyed boy was an amazing fighter and managed to grapple the Akuma to the ground in seconds. Power flowed into the Akuma’s gloved hands, and Ladybug was barely able to pull the civilian away before he got blasted.
“Don’t tackle a magically powered villain, what are you thinking?!” She yelled at him, grabbing the boy into a princess hold and jumping back as Explosion tried to hit them. She ignored the boy’s protests and attempts to escape her grip, dodging around every punch and kick. Her eyes strayed to the side, and the heroine suddenly smirked.
“Chat noir! Now!”
Her partner lunged, using Explosion’s distraction to use Cataclysm on the guy’s belt. Ladybug released Damian’s legs so she could purify the butterfly, one-handedly swinging her yo-yo with barely any effort. After a few seconds the cure was cast, and the damage reversed. The red clad heroine looked over at her partner and Chloé, her mouth straightening into a frown.
“Chloé, can you get the victim to calm down and try to sort out the whole issue surrounding the video that was posted without his consent? Chat, go ahead and go. I got this sorted out.”
Ladybug didn’t wait for a response, turning her head to lock gazes with Bruce, who was clearly the oldest of her group of tourists and the one in charge. “Follow me, monsieur,” she said curtly, turning and half-dragging Damian with her by the arm. She waited until they reached an alleyway that would keep any of them from being easily noticed. She didn’t want anyone to catch this confrontation on camera.
“I understand you are new to Paris,” she said softly, her voice hard as she released her hold on the teen and swept her eyes over everyone he was with. “But this is not a game. You do not tackle an Akuma unless you have a nearly indestructible suit on and the powers to combat one, do you understand me?”
“I thought you could bring the dead back to life?” Another male said, his blue eyes sharp her his fluffy black hair. “Tim Drake, by the way.”
Ladybug nodded. “I can. But that doesn’t mean I want anyone injured or dead if I can help it. X-rays have shown that even the Cure leaves a few residual marks. If someone drowns and is brought back, their lungs are weaker than before. If someone was smashed by rubble, their x-rays show evidence of the breaks even if they are healed far better than normal time and medical procedures can accomplish. Phantom pains, aches, the damage done by death doesn’t go away just because magic fixed it. Little things remain, even if your memory of the death doesn’t,” she explained sharply. She turned to the green-eyed boy again, making mutual eye contact for the first time.
“Paris is my city. I don’t care how good you are at fighting, you cannot run into a battle like that again. I asked for heroes and vigilantes to be distracted or entirely sent away from coming here to avoid this exact situation and having to fight Akumas I might not be able to handle, and I am not above using my influence to get you deported for the same reasons. Am I understood?”
The boy opened his mouth, but couldn’t get a word out before him and Ladybug’s worlds shifted. Their eye contact sparked something, sending electricity through their bodies and making both of them blink and gasp.
Their point of view was cut in half. Damian found himself staring at Ladybug, but he could also see what could only be Ladybug’s point of view as she stared right back at him.
He raised one eyebrow slowly. Figures his soulmate would be a hero. He couldn’t see how a relationship with a civilian would work for him, though he hardly gave thought to relationships in general. From both her lecture and the way she handled the fight, he knew her to be experienced and professional. The way she held herself alone was enough to garner a spark of respect from him. The fact that the Wayne name didn’t seem to mean much of anything to her also helped.
And not just anybody could grab hold of him that easily and tote him around as he tried to escape their grip.
With a smirk, he held out his hand. Ladybug clearly had no idea that he was a vigilante as well, and he was going to have fun with that.
“My name is Damian Wayne, and apparently Paris is going to become an important city for me as well if you’re my soulmate. I promise not to interfere without your permission from here on.”
Ladybug just swallowed, her eyes wide and… scared? She took a deep breath, closing her eyes.
If she didn’t already know that running away would mean he would find out her identity, she would have. But since they could see from each other’s point of view, that was not a good idea.
A few beeps sounded from her earrings, making Ladybug bite her lip.
“Okay. Here’s what’s gonna happen,” she said, ignoring the incredulous stares they were getting from Damian’s family. “I’m gonna go on the other side of this door,” she pointed to the door that she knew was unlocked and a safe place to detransform. “And then we are going to meditate until we can find a way to undo… this,” she gestured to her eyes, indicating the point of view issue.
“And then we can meet on the rooftops tonight, right?” Damian tried, his eyes sparkling with mischief. Ladybug glared at him, knowing what he was doing. He could obviously read that she was going to run away the moment she got the chance, her concern over her identity overruling her desire to know her soulmate. He was trying to make sure she didn’t.
“Fine,” she bit out reluctantly, opening the door in the alleyway and entering the fire exit it led to. She shut the door, allowing herself to detransform. Tikki remained dutifully out of eyeshot. “Meditate. Now,” she barked to the other side of the door.
Kwami, what is my luck?
—*—*—*—*—*
“I hate you so much,” Marinette growled, pouting as she buried her face into Damian’s shoulder. Her boyfriend, her soulmate, just chuckled as he returned her hug. “You were Robin this whole time?”
“Yes, Habibiti,” he said with amusement lacing his tone. It had taken two months and a Wayne-funded weekend trip to Gotham City (for only Marinette) for the girl to put together her boyfriend’s identity.
He had figured out her’s after two weeks.
“In my defense, I didn’t meet Robin until last night and I figured out it was you as soon as I got some sleep,” she defended herself.
“Maybe you would have put it together immediately if you hadn’t stayed up for the past thirty-six hours on a commission,” Damian gently scolded, earning a snort from his girlfriend.
“I’ll sleep when I die. Speaking of die. You owe me a lot of fabric and good food to apologize for keeping this secret before I kill you. I know you only did it to mess with me.”
Damian just laughed, unrepentant. It was true.
“I’ll ask Pennyworth to make your favorites.”
“You better.”
—*—*—*—*—*
596 notes · View notes
pl-panda · 4 years
Text
Damienette arranged marriage part 4
Credits: Miraculous Ladybug team for the elements I take from MLB show. DC for their characters, @ozmav for the AU, @maribat-archive for giving me access to so many different stories to have take inspirations from, @thyladyanput for idea for Chat Damian and me for the plot.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
NEXT
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"Oh god! Oh god! I got to meet MDC! Can I get your authograph?" He was suddenly next to her, holding a copy of the her first album cover she made for Jagged.
"Sure." She signed it and handed it back. It read: 'Good luck TD, MDC'
Tim Fainted.
Marinette was befuddled. She never saw anyone react like that. Sure Adrien once asked her for an autograph, but this was new.
"Forgive Drake. He first got into what he calls 'music' when he saw the new glasses Jagged Stone wore in Paris." Damian said, looking almost bored with his brother's antics.
"Really?"
"You should have seen him. He also wanted to figure out MDC identity. After three nights he had nothing. We had to cut the cord from coffee machine in the batcave and force him to go to bed." Dick was laughing at the unconscious brother. Tim was often such a nerd that it was miracle he got Steph to date him. But then again, Demon Spawn just got married.
"Tt. As much as I love to embarrass Drake, it's less fun when he is unconscious and we have other matters to discuss."
"Agreed" Bruce nodded. "Do you know what will you tell your parents miss?"
"Not really... They don't know about this." She gestured around. "If they knew I got married, they would ground me for life. Maman and Papa can get a bit overprotective. Last time I brought a boy home Papa got akumatized and placed me in giant prison of thorns."
"Brr... And I thought that having to duel Tamaranian general to be able to marry Kor'i was bad." Dick chuckled.
"Suckers!" Jason shouted before taking a large swing of the whiskey. "I never had such problems."
"Maybe because you never dated anyone, Flappy Bird" Dick grinned maliciously.
"That's enough! I am trying to have a civilized conversation with my daughter-in-law! If you two idiots don't shut up, I will ground you and give you the Watchtower duty at least until christmas!" Bruce was slowly getting done with this bickering.
"Fine/He started it!" Dick/Jason shouted.
"I don't care. Get out if you wish to continue." Bruce cut them off before they got into another argument and turned to Marinette. "No friends that would cover for you? Or a partner?"
"No..." Every member of the batfam (bar the unconscious Tim) immediately noticed the darker note behind this. "My identity is... was the best kept secret in the world. There were exactly two humans who knew. Me and Master Fu. But he lost all his memories." She hummed for a moment. "Well, now I guess you know too. And the League of Assassins. And Order of the Guardians. Oh Tikki I am an awful Ladybug..."
"You are great Ladybug Marinette. The best one out there." The Kwami reassured her. "Nobody in Paris would do a better job!"
Marinette smiled and calmed down a bit. She was still shaking. Jason gave her one look and tried to handle her a glass of whiskey, but one glare from Damian was enough to make him back away from this idea.
"I have a better question." Dick joined the discussion after he was done with Jason. "What about you and Damian."
"Nobody asked you Grayson." Damian huffed. If it was up to him, he would delay this questioning session to next year. Or decade.
"But he did make a very good point Demon Spawn." Jason supported his older brother.
"I... I don't know. That woman, Talia, said that if we broke this marriage, there would be another war. Who was she?"
"Talia Al Ghul, my mother. She is the current leader of the League of Assassins" Damian explained.
Tim, who nobody noticed woke up, was now sitting back in the computer chair. His face was still pretty much pure bliss, but he was typing like a madman. "There must be some way out of this. It would be easier if we knew the specifics of the marriage contract."
"That's not how it works with the League Drake." Damian scowled. "It's not paperwork. When the ceremony is done, the two people are bound. There is no marriage certificate, there is no marriage license, it's the act that counts." His face was in usual frown.
"So basically the marriage is as well as nonexistent. That's good." Tim grinned, but seeing Damian's face he sensed there was more to it.
"No. That's bad. There is no such thing as divorce in the league, except for killing the spouse."
This caused Marinette to let out a fearful yelp and cuddle to Tikki. But at the same time, Bats noticed that she tensed and prepared to fight. Damian internally cursed himself. He did not want to scarry this girl.
"Don't worry, Miss. Nobody would even consider this." Bruce tried to calm her down.
"We wouldn't, but if the League consider that we are not upholding the marriage, they might go after her." Damian wanted to go and butcher the League. He could do it. Well, everyone but his mother. The young Wayne was unsure if he would be able to do it. For all her faults, he still cared about her.
"Let them try!" Tikki shouted in her squeaky voice. "I will get Plagg to cataclysm this pathetic base of their! Nobody messes with my Marinette!" She protectively flew in front of Marinette, ready to fight anyone who threatened her chosen.
"Maybe let's try to refrain from genocide yet?" Dick asked, half amused, half scared about this. While he was leaning toward believing the threat, the idea that someone so small and cute could take on the whole league was just too damn funny. He then looked at Damian and noticed that the boy had same kind of murderous look. Oh this is too good. He is actually falling for her. He grinned, but decided to at least now don't tease him.
"So there is no way that the two of you just stayed on different continents and acted like this never happened?" Tim asked with resignation.
"It is expected of us to stay together." Damian answered shortly. Marinette felt air leave her lungs like someone just punched her. Her whole life was shattered in the span of a week. What will she tell her parents? And what about school? "I am sorry, Du... Marinette." Damian was tempted to walk to her and comfort her, but he stopped himself. She needed space.
The rest of the Wayne family was stunned. Damian rarely referred to anyone by their first name, much less to strangers. Yet, he was acting very protective and even some dare to say affectionate toward this girl. Tim was starting to think someone did drug him, but rest just smiled. Demon Spawn finally got a crush, and on his wife of all people.
"Wait! There might be a way to deal with it." Tim suddenly brightened. "Or at least delay this."
"Just spit it, Replacement." Damian tried to frown, but he couldn't deny the hope. At the same time, there was this small tingle where his heart should be. He was happy that maybe Marinette would have a chance at normality, but at the same time he wanted to stay with her. To get to know her. Just what in hell is going on with me?
"First of all, rude." Tim started. "And secondly, we could file for her to get a formal underage marriage."
"And how exactly does it help?" Marinette asked.
"The state of Gotham allows underage marriage from the age of fourteen with court permission, provided the certain age-gap is retained. The procedure is very lengthy though."
"So how does it help Drake. I am very curious what is going in this few brain cells of your." Damian was getting impatient.
"The League should respect that you try to validate the marriage in the eyes of law. So until the court proceeding is finished, you two could stay separate and go about your lives. And with a bit of work, it could last for up to two years before the judge agreed."
"To even file for this, we would need a solid basis." Dick spoke before anyone got hope. Tim pressed some buttons on the keyboard and displayed the copy of the underage marriage act.
"One of the listed reasons is cultural specifications. And most people know that Damian was raised by his mother outside of the States. With a bit of work, I can draft a betrothal deal signed when he and Marinette were still babies."
"So basically we put this in court and then delay this into oblivion?" Jason grinned. "I like this."
"I am impressed Drake. For once you've actually proven to be useful." Damian commented.
"So I would be able to stay here in peace?" Marinette asked shyly.
"For some time, yes. The League should not go against you then, because it's not your fault you can't legally live with Damian yet." Bruce assured her.
"But what about vultures in the media?" Dick asked.
"Simple: classified proceeding. Public won't know anything is even in motion." Drake was getting more and more confident in this plan.
"I would be able to finish my school here." Marinette smiled.
"Yes, you would. I will make sure there will be no complications." Bruce smiled. "But there are two more problems that still needs to be dealt with. Hawkmoth and your parents."
"I will deal with talking with my parents on my own." Marinette reassured them. "But I don't don't know about Hawkmoth. He went silent after the last stunt, but it won't be over until I take away his miraculous."
"Drake will stay here and help you solve this case. He is the most level-headed in this room, so the risk of him falling under Akuma is the smallest." Bruce declared and others nodded.
"Thank you! thank you! thank you!" Ladybug jumped from the chair and hugged Tikki, then Bruce, then Tim.
"It's no problem Miss. I am sorry League ignored your plea for help. It's the least I could do."
"For your daughter-in-law you mean?" Jason grinned. Oh he would not let this die so easily. Demon Spawn would get it this time.
"Nobody asked you, Todd." Damian scowled.
"Please don't fight because of me. I think it's time for me to go face my parents."
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Marinette arrived at her parent's bakery around 10 PM. The lights were still on. She stopped before walking in, taking one more breath to calm herself. She hated lying. She knew that there was no such thing as white lie, not really. Every lie hurt in some way, just not always instantly. She gathered all the courage she could muster and pushed the door, walking in.
"Maman! Papa! I am home!" She called them and there was instantly a commotion on the first floor. "Here we go Tikki. I hope my detention ends before I graduate..." She whispered to her Kwami and prepared to face her parents.
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" Her mother barged into the room. "You better explain yourself this instant!" This surprised the girl. She expected her mother to be angry, but also to show some worry. An alarm bell rang in her head. Something was not right.
"How could you?!" Her father was also angry. She could only hope Hawkmoth was still licking his wounds.
"What's going on? Maman? Papa?" She asked in confusion.
"Don't play dumb with us young lady! Alya told us how you decided to run away and try to join Audrey Bourgeois in America!" Her father shouted at her.
"What!? I never did such thing. My mandarin teacher, Master Fu, had an accident. He lost his memory and I was escorting him to the train station for him to meet his friend who would take care of him. You remember master Fu?" She received a nod and continued to bombard her parents with information. It was an advice from Damian. The more she babble the less time they have to actually think this over. "So I handed him over to his friend and they walked into train station, but then I realized I was still holding his luggage and I tried to chase after them. Then, I thought I saw them enter the train, so I followed them, but it turned out this was the wrong train and then it left the station and I was still inside. I panicked and looked for the conductor to sort this out, but he said that they couldn't stop. So I tried to find Master Fu, but he was not there and I immediately got out on the next train station, but I left my purse in the train so I didn't have a phone on me and I had to somehow figure out where I was and then I entered another train, because they said it was going to Paris, but it was misunderstanding and it was coming from Paris and I got even further away, but then I finally got out in some different city, still carrying only Master Fu's luggage and I had to somehow get back to Paris and it took me so long to actually get there and I am sorry that I didn't call but I didn't have any money to pay for a stationary phone and I lost my purse and it would be wrong to go through Master's luggage to get money so I had to sort this out with the train station officials and they helped me get here and I even managed to send the luggage through mail, but only now I got here..." She took a deep breath. Her heart was beating super fast and she was sweating a little bit. Anyone proficient in lies detection could tell this was all bullshit, but luckily her parents wanted to believe her. "What I wanted to say is... I am sorry I didn't call you. I guess I panicked a little."
They hugged her tightly, all three crying a little (her father much). Once they broke apart, she smiled. "Can I go to my room and get some sleep now?"
"Yes. Our little grown up girl." Marinette smiled and was about to run, but she heard her mother continue speaking. "But you are still grounded for two weeks."
"Mom!" She shouted, but smiled and went back to her room.
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currentfandomkick · 3 years
Text
Marinette did not sign up for this part 10: Mari plots plotting
So long time no post. I live. Ish. Also finally figured out readmore on mobile, so yay. Will take forever to edit posts now though. Explanation at the bottom First part here previous part here. Ao3 here
Marinette wanted to go on record that Mandeliev did not, in fact, give her an extra day or so to study for the test. Why? Instead, she was told she may do a paper on the application of physics in gymnastics and principles of evasion in urban areas and how to combine the two to maximize one’s ability to run away from akumas and other dangers.
Or as Nino put it: “I am tormenting you into running better, the eight page essay.”
Alya dubbed it the “Run Better Paper.”
Aurore said it should include more formulas when Marinette showed her the draft. (as Adrien would complain about lack of theories and how she should have used this advanced formula she’d never heard of instead and then Marinette would have to forcibly stop him from taking over her paper. Again.)
Kim had taken to keeping her in his hoodie, escorting her to the bakery and didn’t leave her alone until Adrien said it was his “Marinette Anxiety Watch” shift.
Which she would like to go on record, is just plain mean to say. She has Liar 100% under control when world ending things and metaphorical bomb drops aren’t happening to her constantly.
—-
Bruce tried to contact Diana and Arthur again. Hal was off world, and therefore useless.
Why?
As his missing son hadn’t contacted them yet. Was still in the Miraculous team’s custody. And he saw the footage of Robin—Damian—being hunted by a lving shadow, an element casting swordswoman, and a strategist that seemed to know exactly what to do to keep Robin cornered in battle. The living shadows—Chat Noir—tried to kill his son with Cataclysm.
That was when they were in public, and had Hal watching over them.
He didn’t want to think about what the kids might do unsupervised to someone that tried to kill Ladybug, openly stalked her civilian self, and apparently tried stalk her again, in broad daylight. And possibly may have revealed her secret identity…
From the comments, it seemed that the Parisians hadn’t connected his sons aliases to the pair, writing it off as “Copy-cat Vigilantes” thankfully. And none of them were revealing more than “so the Fashion Disaster tried to go after Chat and Ryuko’s civvie… Not A Smart CopyBird” was the most he was able to get.
His children, on the other hand…
——
“I Fucking KNEW IT!” Tim yelled. “I knew it was her!”
“But,” Jason smirked. “You didn’t tell us.”
“Soup girl, baby bat!” Cass said gleefully.
“Wait, we both talked to her—and you didn’t say you thought it was her either Cass!”
“So what I’m hearing, if my ears don’t deceive me,” Jason continued. “Is that you all lost too.”
“What—“
“Wait a minute!”
“No way—”
Cass shrugged. She was the least invested in winning. She got to meet soup girl, who is very nice and her parents are safe for Baby Bat.
“We don’t have proof,” Dick pointed out. “Didn’t you say something about her being a mouse?”
“I—”
“Well—”
“Yes.” Cass cut through Tim and Stephanie’s waffling. “She is.”
Dick rubbed his forehead. “How many secrets can one kid have?”
“Five?” Jason said without much thought. “Limit is definitely five.”
—-
“Let me get this straight,” Miss Sting began, watching Ladybug very, very carefully. Rena and Carapace were busy that night and couldn’t act as the team’s Common Sense Filter in person. and texts only went so far.
So the job fell to Aurore. To talk (probably Marinette) Ladybug out of a Very, Stupendously, Inconceivably Bad Idea.
“You want to trust Robin—the kid who tried to kill you—to contact his mother—an assassin—to talk strategy about how to take down Hawkmoth’s civilian life’s business, not kill him, and trust that they won’t kill you?”
“…I’m bringing Chat with me.”
“Ladybug.”
“What, do you want me to use a Lucky Charm to prove this is our best bet?”
“You know what?” Miss Sting threw her hands up. “Yes, yes I do.”
“Fine.” Ladybug threw her yoyo skyward. “Lucky Charm!”
A red, spotted ball with an 8 on it came down.
“… you have got to be kidding me.”
Ladybug shrugged. “Uh, Magic Eightball, is it okay to trust Robin with this?”
One shake later and the floating die window read “Without a Doubt.”
“Give me that.” Miss Sting scowled, shaking as she asked. “Should she bring someone besides Chat and Robin—like someone from our team or Wonder Woman or Aquaman?”
The ball answered “Outlook not so good.”
Miss Sting glared at the magic eight ball. “I can’t believe this!”
Ladybug shrugged. “Lucky Charms are Lucky Charms—and I gotta go.”
Miss Sting checked her beeping spinning top. Someone was just akumatized.
“Re-charge first!” Miss Sting yelled before swinging ahead.
—-
“Oh, hey, when’s Demon Spawn going to contact us?” Jason asked as other bats calmed down.
“He’s not answering his communicator.” Bruce growled. “Hal took it earlier.”
The bats paused at that.
“Well then. Trackers?”
“Disabled—what? We didn’t need anyone crashing the apology and he ran off before I could stop him,” Dick defended. He is not Damian’s keeper. Just his Batman (as yes Bruce, he is Damian’s Batman and Damian is his Robin. Current masks not-withstanding).
“Then how are we supposed to find him?” Stephanie asked as the room grew uneasy.
No one answered that.
“How’s this,” Tim began. “Me, Steph and Cass agreed on who Hawkmoth probably is, each of us has a different set of evidence for it—and I’m counting breaking into his evil Liar and the cameras catching him mid-act a few minutes ago as absolute proof.”
“I’m sorry, you did what!” Stephanie leaned over Tim’s shoulder to see. “Oh shit. Isn’t that guy—”
“One of her friends? According to their private Instagram accounts, more like partner in crime and possible Chat Noir. I mean, he’s the one that calls her his “everyday Ladybug” and voices Chat Noir in everything." Tim answered idly. “My money’s on him not knowing at all.”
Bruce twitched. Then began to add ‘stalking social media feeds’ to his to-do list tonight.
“So,” Tim stepped forward. “I suggest we send this to the Wonder Woman and ask for Robin’s comm to be returned, and failing that, I bugged the video so anything they play it on, we get access to its IP and can find where they are.”
“Have Oracle go over the bug, just in case,” Bruce told them. “In the mean time, the rest of you suit up for the night. Gotham needs its vigilantes.”
—-
Marinette wanted to go on the record that her plan (to keep the bats away) was going well. Deciding what to do with Mu—R—Damian. Damian. Damian and his offer, was a challenge.
For obvious reasons, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Aquaman were against her asking a bunch of assassins for their help. Chat has more than a few reservations. Carapace, Rena and Miss Sting gave her looks for that plan.
But.
But it would work. She needs more information on how to make the plan burning in the back of her mind work. It’s a lot of chaos (and she may thrive in chaotic battles but this wasn’t her usual battlefield, and her team didn’t know who they were going up against for once). And Marinette? She needs to know its not just her doing this when its so out of her depths.
So despite literally everyone and their disagreements she had Chat on her right side with Damian on her left, meeting up with his Crazy, Semi-Immortal mother. And possibly his Immortal, former Black Cat candidate, grandfather.
Why?
As Marinette isn’t trusting the likely cult that makes up the Gotham Ghost Gang (Batfam if you like them) when she can get real advice and vague directions to immortal and allied (loyal and terrifying) assassins.
And yes, she wasn’t sure if Liar was wrong or right when they said it was a bad idea too.
But fuckit she’s already got Kaalki at her shoulder, looking a bit bored at the deserted rooftop that Kaalki chose for their meeting.
“داميان*,” the woman smiled at her son. “It’s good to see you.”
“Mother,” Robin greeted. “This is Ladybug and Chat Noir. Ladybug wished to speak to you about potential strategies to take down an enemy outside of battle without violence,” Damian stressed.
“I am well-aware of the Kwami and their Chosen, اِبْن.**” The woman spoke calmly. “The League of Assassins formed to act as the Black Cat to restore the world to balance and un-burden the Order with its maintenance.” The woman offer Ladybug her hand. “I am Talia al Ghul, and I am at your service, with or without violence Ladybug.”
Marinette took her hand. “Thank you Talia. Our target being directly exposed like I planned would have…” Ladybug trailed off, thinking over the ramifications not only to Adrien, but to the whole of Gabriel’s brand, workers and all that worked with them. “Some intense ramifications I’d rather avoid.”
Talia nodded her head, waiting for more information.
“I believe its possible to topple them without affecting their employees by uncoupling them from their business, but doing so is, well, stocks and economics isn’t my strongest point.” Ladybug admitted a bit sheepishly.
“I would suggest,” Talia began, “to create a bit of chaos in the stock market. Perhaps a rumor here and there, let investors pull out and grab the abandoned stocks quickly. Consolidate them under one owner and become the company’s owner.”
Marinette twitched a bit at that. “That… sounds complicated.”
“Oh, but it isn’t. My son knows just how to that, or did you forget our lessons?” Talia asked coolly.
Damian twitched at Marinette’s side. “I did not.”
“You know,” Chat chimed in. “I do know a few things about those things. If its general chaos, well…” Chat’s face twisted in a way Marinette forgot he could do after that Chat Blanc episode.
“… I will take that into consideration.”
“Anything else?” Talia asked, watching Ladybug and her son. Specifically, how her son seemed glued to the girl’s side. “I am certain my son is able to take out your target, if all else fails.”
Damian scowled at Marinette’s side.
“However, I do believe that whatever is happening, whatever has you active, might require a more… experience hand.”
Damian brushed against her side. Code for ‘Possible Danger.’
“Thank you for the offer,” Chat moved in front of Marinette. “But mi’lady and the Guardians have that much handled.”
Talia’s eyes shifted from Chat to Ladybug, staying on her. “Is that so?”
“Yes. I merely needed more information on how to execute this type of plan, that’s all!” Ladybug almost, almost slipped into Marinette while Liar, while silenced for the moment, prodded the back of her mind. “I want to minimize collateral damage as much as I can, to everyone. The kwami already said they get to chose the target’s punishment.”
“Ah, I see.” Talia relaxed then. “You are following the kwami’s wishes. I will respect their wishes as well, Chosen.”
Marinette categorized this interaction as one of the “not too horrible, but will avoid a repeat” once they left.
*Damian in arabic
**son
so we have Talia now as a Player, sort of. she plays by her word pretty well so hopefully its a cameo more than anything else.
any ideas on how JL will handle the video, and if Miraculous Team should see it and freak out or only LB and keep on the dl while JL assissts in her Chaos Plot?
End of update. Will have to repost from ao3 on my phone now as desktop tumblr is being exceptionally rude. Tags always open, just takes me a bit to do—sorry to vixen for vanishing from tags
TAGS:  @heldtogetherbysafetypins @laurcad123 @raisuke06 @chaosace @jeminiikrystal @toodaloo-kangaroo @kris-pines04 @bisha43rbs @izang @dreamykitty25 @emu-lumberjack @vixen-uchiha
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yummyyume · 4 years
Text
In which Ladybug and Chat Noir are true Heroes
I’ve been sitting on it for a few weeks now. It wasn’t supposed to really be a fic, but it turns out okay, so I decided to finish it and post it anyway. The end is kind of rush, but I wanted to be done with it so, yeah.
Hope you all like it!
I apologize for any spelling and grammars errors, English is not my first language. I hope it’s still intelligible. 
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.
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Marinette is doing a better job at superheroing than she ever thought she would. Still, contacting real professionals sounds like a good idea. Chat is a bit reticent at first, because being Chat Noir is the only freedom he has and he doesn’t want it to end, but after she points out all the people who are suffering, he shamefully agrees to call the Justice League with her.
They don’t receive any answer, and no one shows up.
Chat is sure that it’s because there’s a world ending threat they have to take care of first, and they’ll answer as soon as they can. After the fifth’s plea for help, he doesn’t seem to really believe it either. Still, they continue to call every month.
When Chat becomes too pushy with his flirting, she sits him down, taking a day off from patrolling, and shows him a video about sexual harassment. He watches the entire thing, horrified. And then he apologizes and swears to never flirt again and he’s so, so sorry, but he really doesn’t know how to do social things or how to deal with his crush in a non-anime way, he only ever had one friend before starting school and she wasn’t the best at social interactions either and can Ladybug ever forgive him?
So, Marinette calms him down and tells him it’s alright. Everyone makes mistakes, even more so when they don’t know about the issue. And maybe he can ask his new friends about ethics and social issues. And of course, she’ll be there to answer any of his questions. We’re partner, chaton.
So, the next day, at school, Adrien takes Nino aside so they can have a private talk. He tells him about the crush he developed on this girl he works him, about the flirting and how she showed him a video on sexual harassment, and he didn’t know. So can Nino, please, helps him learn this sort of things? Anything Gabriel wouldn’t have thought Adrien needed to be taught, because those were society thing that everyone learnt eventually. Except, apparently, Adrien.
Nino is horrified. He’s so going to kick Gabriel Agreste’s ass! This is what happen when you isolate your kid!
But Nino is also really proud of his bro for accepting that he was in the wrong and trying to educate himself.
They start by learning more about sexism together. Then Nino ropes Max, Kim, Marinette and Alya into teaching him about racism. And then, Juleka pipes up about ableism. Soon enough the whole class is involved and they’re all learning about all kind of harassments and world problems. They’re all learning things. Chloé gets involved more and more as Ladybug’s influence gets stronger. They have debates and everyone try to stay nice and not talk over each other. It doesn’t always work, but at least they stay respectful.
(And Adrien realizes that maybe he can say no too. Maybe sexual harassment is not something that only women have to deal with. And maybe child labor laws have merit. Maybe what his father is doing is really abuse. Maybe he can do something about it. He has his friends to support him and they won’t let his father just take him out of school because he disagrees with Adrien. Maybe he can be really free.)
A few weeks after the video, Chat Noir excitedly tells Ladybug about what he’s been learning with his friends, and Marinette hides a wince at the confirmation of her suspicions. Because it was definitely suspicious when Adrien asks Nino about ethics the following day of their talk about sexual harassment. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it and she didn’t tell Tikki, because the moment she thought about telling her kwami, she remembered with sharp clarity Chat Noir telling her “I can only be myself when I’m Chat Noir” And Marinette can’t take that away from Adrien. He’s her partner and, no matter the lack of romantic feelings, she loves him.
It also puts her crush on Adrien in question, because if she’s in love with Adrien, but not Chat Noir, then she doesn’t love Adrien in his entirety. And since Adrien is not really himself in public, then that means she’s in love with the image he’s portraying to the world, not the real him. She has a good cry, it’s her first heartbreak, but then it’s easier to let go of her crush and focus on being his friend. And Adrien looks like Christmas has come early when they have a full conversation without her stammering. The fact that he thought she didn’t like him and didn’t want to be his friend breaks her heart a little.
(She may or may not tell him she knows his identity and also shares hers, but only when they’re already transformed so their kwamis don’t know they know. Maybe.)
Fast forward a few months, Ladybug and Chat Noir are a very efficient team and the students of Miss Bustier’s class are closer than ever.
(Volpina happened and then Lila ‘leaves for Achuu’. Mrs. Rossi may be busy, but she doesn’t want her daughter’s education to fall behind  and so she calls the school to know if the State will help pay for tutors while the Akuma situation is being handled and that’s how she learns that her daughter is lying to her. Again. Lila is shipped back to Italy to attend a strict boarding school.)
The Justice League still hasn’t answered.
And then Syren happens and two million people died.
It doesn’t matter that Ladybug brought them back with her cure, they still died! And they remember drowning! She read the comments on the Ladyblog, people are scared! She was aware that people died in Akuma attacks, but none have been as deadly as Syren. (And she’s so, so relieved that Ondine doesn’t remember the damage she did. She’s a teenage girl, she doesn’t need this sort of trauma to drag her down. Marinette knows from Kim that she’s already feeling enough guilt when she heard about it after everything was back to normal.)
This time, Ladybug doesn’t just call the League. She ropes Alya into helping her and she rants for a good five minutes about what is happening in Paris and two million people died, don’t you care?! Aren’t you supposed to be heroes?! Alya posts it to the Ladyblog and sends it to the JLA.
That how the Parisians learn that Ladybug and Chat Noir have been trying to contact the League for months and they’re all pretty angry at the dismissal. Everyone who can, send an email or call. They’re going to be heard, dammit!
.
The Justice League’s mailbox gets so suddenly flooded that all the heroes receive an alert about an emergency and they all immediately zeta-beam to the Watchtower. Diana has to finish her mission on Themyscira before she can meet everyone, but she has full faith in her teammates to hold on until she gets there.
The heroes are then confronted with the video of a rating teenager about the flooding of Paris and all her followers.
“Paris is not flooded!” Superman seethes, looking at the monitor. “And the heat signatures are roughly the same number as yesterday!”
Some more poking and they find the Ladyblog run by a teenager with shaky videos about her classmates somehow becoming supervillain. The CGI is pretty great but it’s so cliché, it’s hilarious.
(Diana receives a ‘false alert’ message and rolls her eyes. Men.)
“We don’t know if she did it on purpose or not, but it can’t happen again.” Batman says.
Heroes start to zeta-beam back to their city, grumbling.  
“Someone should go put the fear of God in the kid.” Red Hood jokes, rolling his eyes (not that anyone could see).
“Thank you, Red Hood, for volunteering,” Batman replies very seriously, but Jason knows that Bruce is laughing at him. Dammit!
So Red Hood zeta-beams to Paris (he doesn’t even pack a bag, it’s going to take like five minutes). Batman has sent him the address of the school the creator of the Ladyblog attends. It’ll be a good start to find the polka-dot kid.
Except that halfway to his goal, he has to stop on a rooftop because there’s a giant woman raging and fighting two really acrobatic people. One of them is the red polka-dot girl, the other is a black leather clad guy who can’t be much older than her.
“Batman, we’ve got a problem.” He coms.
“Red Hood?” and he can hear the worry in Bruce’s voice, and he feels even more shitty.
“The girl and her partner are fighting a 15 feet woman made of diamond. Half the Champs-Elysées are in rumbles. I really don’t think it’s a scam.”
And then he sees the Miraculous Cure, watches as the Champs-Elysées are restored, sees people coming back to life and understands. Jason feels sick. Because the girl in the video was a teenager and if everything she said is true then she’s been dealing with this whole shit for months and even as Robin he had Batman he could lean on.
As the two heroes jumps away, Jason races to catch up with them. Ladybug and Chat Noir are definitely teenagers and they look suspiciously at him, but he manages to convince them that he came from the JLA and can they please talk?
The Parisian heroes accept, but they were in the middle of something first so they can meet up latter at the Eiffel Tower. And then they swing away without waiting for an answer. Red Hood doesn’t chase them down. He tells everything he just saw to Batman and asks for someone to comb through the Ladyblog and give him some damn intel before it’s time to meet the kids.
Half an hour later, Jason is in jeans and playing the clueless tourist, asking what the hell is going on here.
It’s early evening when Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived at the Eiffel Tower in one long graceful jump. Jason is a bit jealous because he definitely had to use his grapping-hook to get there, but those kids can do it without assistance.
Chat Noir is super exited to meet him now that they have time to talk. Ladybug is more cautious, but she looks just as relieved.
“Are you here alone? Why did it take so long before someone came?” She asks softly.
Looking at the kids, Jason doesn’t want to tell them that no one took them seriously. They look so relieved to see him here. Obviously, the girl’s rant was powered by fear and helplessness, not any hate against the JLA. Now that he’s facing her, he thinks she looks really small in her red polka-dot suit.
Dammit Bruce! This weird serial adopting nonsense wasn’t supposed to be inheritable!
He owes them the truth, though. His com is transmitting live so he knows that B is listening at least, but he doesn’t really care for protocols right now.
“The JLA receive a lot of requests for assistance every day, so we have civilian workers that sort out which requests are genuine, which ones would benefit from a JLA intervention and which ones are scam.”
“And our requests were classified as scam because there’s no proof left after I cast the Cure.” She looks tired and resigned, like she had already come to this conclusion months ago. Red Hood can’t fault her that. The preliminary report he received from Red Robin showed him how smart she was. She’s also not one to suffer delusions and they’ve been fighting for months. It would have jaded anyone.
“But we send a new request for assistance every month,” Chat said, quiet and solemn beside his teammate. “It should have raised red flags that the same person sends the same request every month.”
“It should. We’ll look into it.”  
“Can you control your negative emotion?” Ladybug eventually asks. “Because we need help. Chat and I, we’re not detectives. We don’t know where to look or how to cross patterns or whatever else we would need to do in order to find Hawkmoth. We don’t have a helpful mentor to show us the way. But we’re also been fighting for months and Paris is ours. We’ll accept help gladly, but only from people who know how to control their negative emotions. We don’t want to face an akumatised hero, we have enough trouble with some civilians.”
And shit, but Jason hadn’t thought of that. From the curses in his ears, he isn’t the only one. Fuck magic, it makes everything more complicated.
“Maybe they could lend assistance from a distance?” Chat proposes, looking at Ladybug. “We could send them our data so they can look for Hawkmoth from a safe distance while we continue to take care of Akuma. And once we have a name or a location, we’ll finally put at end to it.”
“That’s a good idea, Chaton.” She raises an eyebrow in Red Hood’s direction.
“Works for me,” he shrugs. There’s a sharp ‘Red Hood’ in his ear, but Jason ignores it. The kids are right and Jason, at least, doesn’t want to know what an akumatised Red Hood could do. “Here.” He throws an extra com at Ladybug who catches it effortlessly. “I’ll be on my way, but we’re staying in contact. And send any data you can to the JLA so we can start working on your case.”
“Thank you.”
Ladybug smiles softly, but Chat waves exuberantly before Red Hood throws his grapping-hook to the nearest building. He hopes they can catch Hawkmoth quickly, and that they’ll both continue to hold on and that they’ll both be there to see their city free. They deserve it.
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.
And I’m going to stop there, before the plot bunnies can try to make me write more and lose interest.
The idea came when the sentence ‘This weird serial adopting nonsense wasn’t supposed to be inheritable!’ popped into my head and wouldn’t leave me alone. And then I wanted to address Chat’s attitude and Marinette’s crush, because while I like Adrien salt and Lukanette is my OTP, I like Adrinette too and Chat’s attitude, no matter what, is not okay.
I didn’t write it with a pairing in mind, though, so feel free to think of it as pre-Adrinette, Lukanette, Daminette or any other pairing you want. Or keep it gen if that’s your thing too. 
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blackberrydothings · 4 years
Text
Duke Thomas vs the non-verbal vocabulary
Duke Week (but like a week later) of @duketectivecomics day 6: All in the Batfamily.
Summary: When Duke joined the family he knew he would have to learn lots of things, including survival skills and where Alfred hides the cookies. He never thought that he would need to master the unspoken language that lies under every action of the bats.
Or
Duke finds himself trying to understand his new family’s ways of communication, until he starts doing the same.
Notes: sorry for being late!  wanted to make this fic without dialogue but gave up at the first try. If u see any mistake, u can go ahead and tell me, my English is far from perfect. Well, that’s all, thanks for reading! (I don’t own any of these characters, they belong to dc comics and that stuff)
….
The sun is setting when Duke arrives at the cave after a long but quiet day, his body aching for a nap or one of Alfred’s meals, whatever comes first. 
If it weren’t for the blue light coming from the computer and the sound of typing he would have thought that the place was empty. But Duke can distinguish Bruce profile from where he stands, taking off his helmet. The older man is sitting without his cowl, his posture the one of someone who is trying not to fall asleep. The bags under his eyes a confirmation that Duke does not need. 
“Long day in Wayne Enterprises?” He tries as an attempt at small conversation. As usual, it does not work. Bruce gives him a side glance and murmurs something to himself, not bothering to clarify what it was. Even so, he notices the man relaxing a little in his presence, which Duke counts as a win. 
He knows that he can’t fool anyone (much less the Batman) but he takes longer to put his things aside, pretending that he has to stay in the cave a little more time than necessary. When there is not any excuse left, he heads towards the exit. Bruce has not spoken or abandoned his position in front of the computer yet, an open case in front of his eyes. 
“Have you ever thought about going on patrols during the day? You know, for a better sleep schedule.” Duke asks, fully aware of the answer and when Bruce gives him a grunt, he has to suppress a laugh.
He is too far away to listen when in a low voice, the man answers: “It would ruin the aesthetic.”
….
Alfred, as the omnipotent force that Duke has started to think that he is, is there when someone from the family needs him. But even so, he is always surprised to find the man in the kitchen making him breakfast. 
Duke is usually already on his senses at six in the morning, and a few minutes later he is going downstairs, more often than not passing by one of the other bats, still dressed up and yawning. When he arrives at his destination, Alfred is there with a relaxed pose, like waiting for him. 
“Morning, Alf” Duke says while offering his help, just for the man to deny it. It takes a few seconds to be ready but then Duke is drinking his hot chocolate with a smile on his face. 
“Did you sleep well, Master Duke?” Alfred asks while sitting down at his side. It is a rare sight, given the fact that the man is always doing something, and Duke is secretly proud to be able to see him like that, when there are no immediate worries or tasks. 
“As good as one can ask for.” Duke shrugs and then adds “Eight full hours tho.”
“Four more than the average in this house.” The man says, and Duke is not sure if it is the morning or the words itselves, but he laughs. 
The silence that follows is comfortable, and neither of them has a wish to interrupt it. They keep each other company until Duke finishes his breakfast, and when he has to go, Alfred stands up offering a warm smile, before he also starts with his day. 
….
Duke hates nightmares. 
Yes, he fights criminals on a daily basis, he knows pretty well how to manage Two-Face or the Penguin, but nightmares are another type of monster all together. And he hates them. 
They often start as good dreams, the kind of dreams that makes you want to stay asleep, but also the kind of ones where you do not want to realise it is not real. And that does not help Duke when they transform into madness and chaos. When the images of a happy childhood become the picture of a broken family, and the laughs coming from his parents stop fitting them. 
But there is something that Duke hates more than nightmares: waking up from them. Waking up, alone in a bed that is not the one from his home, is just a reminder that there is nothing untrue about his dreams. That he has his parents, but that their minds had gone far away. 
He adjusts in his bed while trying to suppress a sob when he realises that he is not alone this time. Duke should be surprised that Dick is laying on top of his mattress like it is his own, but he is not. In fact, it is more of a common occurrence around the Manor to find more than one bat sleeping in a single space (yes, that includes Bruce); but them appearing in the middle of the night to Duke’s, well, that’s not as common. 
“Couldn’t sleep, yours was closer, I hope you don’t mind” Dick’s eyes remain closed but he speaks in a voice that is too clear to be sleepy. Duke knows he is lying, his rooms are not even on the same floor, but decides not to comment on it. 
“Sure” he answers, and something in the back of his mind relaxes. He might not know if Dick really wanted company or if he has some older-brother-sense that warns him when someone needs him, but he is not complaining. 
Duke’s nightmares won’t go, but he has a family. He is not alone.  
….
Wayne Manor has a library big enough to entertain yourself for months, and Duke has spent several hours on its quietness. But there are days, just like this one, when he prefers to go to the public one, where the things do not seem so immaculate and he is not afraid of stepping on something. 
As almost everything in Gotham, the public library is old, with high ceilings and large corridors that Duke is pretty sure could lead to the underground if he gets too distracted. Dirt gathers on top of the shelves with books never touched, and the light coming from the large windows gives an ethereal aura to the place. 
Duke has been looking for something to read for the last hour, four books placed on one of the tables near his bag, but none of them caught his attention for more than a few minutes. He is already sitting down with a fifth on his hand when he notices a movement at his right. A figure that Duke recognizes appears with their own books and takes a place next to him. 
Jason looks extremely calm when he nods towards Duke as a greeting, like he belongs in the library and its silence more than anywhere else. It is an interesting sight to contrast with his usual booming and alert self.
They stay like that a few more moments, until Duke groans tiredly when the fifth book ends up being as boring as the other four. He is ready to get up once more when he hears a soft laugh coming from Jason. As soon as Duke looks at him he realises that his brother is offering him a book from his pile, a face that might say “I dare you”. Duke is not someone who would back out from an unspoken dare, so he takes it. 
It is apparently an old collection of poems, the cover is worn out and some of the pages have notes in a neat handwriting that must be Jason’s. If it weren’t because he was the one who offered it, Duke would feel like he is intruding. He starts reading. 
Duke spends the rest of the afternoon in the library, with a silent companion. 
….
It is three in the afternoon and the cave is empty. 
Duke has been looking at the ceiling for the last half an hour while trying to tie up the loose ends of a case that had gone cold a week ago. He got it yesterday morning when the Police Department desisted from keeping an investigation, probably remembering that they could send it to one of the bats. 
He has the feeling that helping in cold cases happened more often in the daytime than in the night, where the Police Department (and Gordon) were already used to having the extra help, or were already resigned to it. There are a limited number of times of the Batman appearing in the middle of a crime scene before you get used to it, after all. 
At least three other files were gathered beside him in the pile of “solved”, and its results were already sent to the Police Department (and to the batcomputer record). It was the fourth case that was starting to give him a headache. A young man had been found dead in his home by heart attack, no history of any heart disease in his family. The only clue is a combination of substances that were not part of any known drug. 
Duke hears the steps of someone coming down to the cave, and by the way they move he can bet it is Tim. He looks towards the sound and confirms his suspicions, he catches the grunt that comes from his brother as a greeting before he sits down in front of the computer. He is ready to focus again on his task when Tim speaks, on a tired yet alert voice. 
“Why did you upload this to the computer?” Tim is pointing at the list of substances that Duke looked for just a few minutes ago. Without result.
“A cold case.” 
Tim mutters something under his breath and starts typing with quick movements. The silence seems to be filled with it for the next minutes, while Duke keeps an interested eye on his file. Confusion is shown on his face when, with his powers help, he identifies something flying towards him. He catches the pencil that Tim sends his way with his right hand, and watches it intensely.  
“You know, if you wanted my attention you could have just said something.” Duke comments when he does not find any other reason why Tim would throw him a pencil. His brother, once more, mutters something while asking for Duke to get closer with a movement of his hand. 
When he does it, Duke notices that three files are open on the computer: Duke’s current case, the components of a pill that he does not identify and a new tab in which Tim seems to be working on. He also notes that some of the substances of his case appear on the other two. 
“Okay, I am getting it, but how did you…?”
“Last night patrol, some new drug in town. Apparently it is getting popular between university students that want to keep awake for finals.” Tim answers with a shrug, and before he gets to drink more of the coffee he has on the table, Duke takes it. “Hey, I am helping you.”
“Well, I am returning the favor. Go to sleep, Tim.”
Tim complains about betrayal and annoying members of his family. Duke does not care, he has time to insist, his case is solved after all. 
….
Duke likes Steph. 
When he joined the family, she was the easiest to get along. The majority of them acted nice, but they were also pretty much disinterested, not even batting an eye towards him. It took Duke a long time to realise that sometimes the bats were just like that: silent. Steph, on the other hand, always had something to say, and for Duke that was the little bit of normalcy that he needed. 
He might never admit it, but he suspects that the other reason they got along from the beginning was because neither of them was sure of their places in the family. Yes, for sure they belonged to it, but for completely different reasons they were at the edge of it. 
So, already gotten used to her randomness, it was not even weird when she offered to go on a daytime patrol with him. Duke liked the company, so he accepted, and every once in a while since then he finds himself with the voice of a purple vigilante on his coms. 
“No, don’t take the avenue. It is going to be crowded.” Duke warns when Steph informs him of an armed robbery on Gotham City Bank. 
“Crowded? Of what?” her voice comes muffled by her mask and the white noise. 
“Of people? And their vehicles?” Duke says in his most obvious voice, and then he realises. Without even trying to suppress the smile, he clarifies “You know, people are outside now, going to work and stuff, it is the middle of the day.” Steph does not answer. 
When the day is getting over they sit on a rooftop enjoying the view of a safer Gotham, even when they both know that the night will be as dangerous as always. Steph has been complaining about how impossible it is to hide in the daytime, and Duke has been trying to explain to her how that is kind of the point. 
Duke likes Steph, and loves listening to her speak, but as any other bat, the things that she does not fully say are the one that he appreciates the most. 
….
The sun has setted a few minutes ago and not many people are still in the Manor. Duke has been moving from doing his homework and watching the movie that is being played on the TV. Now that he thinks about it, he should turn off the thing.
He gets startled when Cass appears from the darkness itself and sits down next to him. He has been getting used to her sudden entrances since they started working together more often with the Outsiders, but he was pretty sure that she was not even in the house. 
“How…? Weren’t you on patrol?”
“Changed day with Tim” she says, without further explanation, looking at the papers in his hand and then at the movie, she keeps silent while the screen shows the image of a vast space “What is that?”
“Hmn, that’s Star Trek. This is my math homework.” 
“Star Trek?” she asks while spelling the words with her hands, then just using sign language adds “A space travel documentary?”
“No, no. It’s a movie, a really impressive one. It’s about a futuristic society where…” Duke starts explaining but thinks better of it “But not as impressive now that we have a Superman. You never watched it?”
Cass denies it with her head, and Duke starts telling her the basics while she gets comfortable by his side. She seems confused by some of the things he enthusiastically describes, but she listens nonetheless. A few minutes later they are both watching the movie, homework forgotten. At some given moment Cass nudges him. 
“Other day, you dance. With me.”
Duke smiles, he would like that. 
….
Silence fills his room and Duke is ready to turn off the light and call it a day when he hears the knocks on his door. Damian does not even wait for his response and opens it. 
“Thomas” he says, and his voice sounds mildly annoyed “I am in need of your assistance.”
Duke gives him a questioning look. Damian is not dressed for patrol, and if Duke is not wrong, this has to be his free night. So saying he is surprised by the request is an understatement. But the kid does not explain, instead he turns around and goes back to the corridor. Duke gets up and follows him.
Damian is already going downstairs when Duke gets to him. It must be a weird sight, he thinks, a child all formally dressed at ten in the evening, while the teenager is in his pajamas trying to suppress a yawn. But Duke does not have time to share his thoughts when they arrive at their destination. 
Damian opens the door to one of the many rooms of the Manor, and waits for Duke to enter. If it weren’t because he is pretty sure that the kid at least estimates him, he would be worried. The only two things in the room are an easel and a stool. Damian gets closer to them, and Duke once more follows. 
Now that he sees the easel better, he can discern a pencil drawing on a white canvas. It looks extremely similar to the outside of the Manor. Damian seems relaxed by his side but he can tell that the kid is nervous. Of what, Duke is not sure. 
“Did you draw it? Because it looks amazing.” Damian unsurprisingly does not answer, but he looks to truly relax this time, and Duke is tempted to assure him once more, even when he knows that the kid would dismiss him. Dick older brother’s vibes must be getting to him. 
“It is not finished. I still have to paint it.” Damian clarifies, then, like it hurts him like hell, adds “Your help with the lighting would be… appreciated.” 
It is not a request, more of an obligation, but Duke still acts surprised for a few seconds. He looks again at the painting, he is not sure of being able to tell how the lights actually work, but Damian still looks interested in his opinion. So he explains, he shows all the points where it can come, and how that would affect the whole picture. Duke must admit that he feels pretty dumb doing it, he might have light related powers but he has no idea how to paint, but still, he finishes his overview. 
Damian seems to be in deep thinking for a few seconds, then he nods towards Duke and gives a glance to the door. Of course.
“Your presence is not required anymore” the younger one says. 
“Yeah, almost didn’t notice” Duke murmurs while heading to the door, but thinks that he was able to catch the shadow of a smile on the kid’s face. That will have to be enough. 
….
It was half past six in the morning and Duke was tired. No, he was exhausted. 
Yesterday was a long day, without even counting the meta that has been trying to destroy the Gotham City Museum. Duke has been falling behind with his schoolwork, and the attack has not helped him. Besides, he did not remember about the delivery of an essay for his literature class until midnight, when he started to write it. Not being able to fall asleep before five in the morning was what Duke would put in the cons of being a vigilante. Having to wake up early on the morning was a con of being a daytime vigilante. Both of those things happening on the same day was what he would call a fucking bad day. 
Duke is yawning while he goes downstairs, already suited up and hoping that all of Gotham’s rogues had a night as long as his and won’t be going around the city. For the first time in weeks he is considering drinking coffee instead of his usual chocolate, maybe Alfred actually knows a way of making it tastier. 
He is arriving at the kitchen when he feels it, not because of some bat-sense, but because he hears the loud voices. He opens the door and knows it: Duke lied, the bats are not silent. They can be difficult to read, they might not be good at explaining their feelings, but silent can’t be a word to describe them when they are together. They are loud and dramatic. Duke loves it, but not when he had a long night. Just like today. 
They are all here, still suited up and with sleep deprived faces. Jason’s helmet is on the floor near the door, and the man himself has one arm up in the air grasping a mobile phone, the other holding Dick back, who seems to be trying to get his device again. Both of them are mocking the other with high pitched voices that do not really fit them. Duke is pretty sure that they would have tackled one another if it weren’t for Bruce, standing in the middle of the pair, each hand on their shoulders, but not really doing something to help any side. He has a small but genuine smile on his face. 
Cass is suppressing a yawn while she eats pancakes, she is listening attentively to Steph, who is doing wide gestures to tell a story about an old lady that tried to convince her to date  her nephew. Steph has bags under her eyes and a band-aid on her jaw that seems to be from last night, but still explains the story as it is the most interesting thing of the week. Duke makes a reminder of asking later. 
Damian is sitting in front of Cass with a similar expression. He has Alfred (the cat) on his lap, and Duke can see that he is still wearing his suit pants under a two sizes bigger hoodie that probably belongs to Jason. His cape and domino mask are on a pile at his feet painted with a weird substance that Duke prefers not to know. He looks half annoyed and half amused. 
Duke notices that for the first time Tim looks to be drinking an orange juice instead of a coffee, being the only one not suited nor ready to fall asleep. Tim, of all people. Behind him Alfred is making something (Duke bets that more pancakes), and seems to be the only one to spot him on the door. They exchange a smile (well, the old man gives a smile, Duke a panicked expression), before he resolves that he can get breakfast in some place in the city. Having had a long day and night means that he does not have to put up with all his family this early in the morning, he decides. Duke is going backwards when he hears Damian’s voice.
“Thomas is here” he announces. Damn kid. 
They all stop mid-action and look at him. Bruce clears his throat and gives a step back, probably wanting to come back to his professional persona and failing when he almost trips with his cape. That gets a snicker from all of them, except for Jason who laughs freely. Bruce, with his most poker face, pretends nothing happened. Duke is tempted to remind him that he already knows his not Batman self.  
“You must start your patrol on Gotham Harbor” he reports “We got information that a new drug shipment will arrive in less than an hour, Black Mask henchmen will be there. They will not expect someone in broad daylight.” 
“We found some clues leading to a recently abandoned Scarecrow’s hideout, he might attack before sunset.” Steph adds, pointing at her and Dick with her finger. 
“Poison Ivy is trying some new substance” Damian warns while giving a side glance to his cape. “Might want to prove it.”
Duke looks at them with his most deadpan expression, his body is aching for a rest that he will not get. Well, there it goes his quiet day without rogues. He groans in frustration. 
Everyone understands. 
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watchtower-feed · 4 years
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Death Do We Part (Part 13)
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SSA Spin-off ✧ Jason Todd ✧ Physical Link  ✧ 1 ✧ 2 ✧ 3 ✧ 4 ✧ 5 ✧ 6 ✧ 7 ✧ 8 ✧ 9 ✧ 10 ✧ 11 ✧ 12 ✧ 13 ✧ 14 ✧ 15 ✧ Words: 4,300+
     Jason kisses you again, holding on to your face, and then grudgingly lets you go. He lies on the couch with his hand draped over his eyes as you gather your clothes and get dressed. You kneel beside his head and say his name.
     “I can’t, Y/N-- If I see you, I won’t have it in me to let you walk out of here.”
     So you kiss his cheeks with quivering lips and your tears warm his skin before you leave the Todds’ old apartment.
     Jason’s whole body flinches at the sound of the door closing. He lets his own tears mix with the ones you left. Then he harshly rubs them away as he sits up to face the sun that’s slowly peeking over the cityscape from his window.
     He takes in three deep breaths before he finally gets up and puts on his clothes, leaving the stench of Gotham on his skin along with the scent of you. It’s armor he tells himself. With you on his side he knows he can’t fail.
     He takes out his phone and dials. He puts it on speaker and places it on the counter to pack his gear. The moment the ringing stops, he speaks first, “I want everybody in the bunker. Now.”
     There’s a slight groan and hint of annoyance from the other side, “You can’t be--”
     “Don’t make me wait.”
     Jason hangs up. When its lights turn off, he can see his reflection on the black screen of his phone. His white bangs are hanging down, half covering his glowing green eyes. He touches the skin under them and wonders if you noticed. Did it scare you? As he looks into his mutated eyes watching himself, he snarls.
     “Focus!”
     There’s far too much at stake tonight to be daydreaming now. The sooner he finishes this mission, the sooner you can leave this town. Jason takes one last look at his phone before he leaves their old apartment.
     He’s the first one at the bunker in the Arkham district and proceeds to check on the armory in the backroom. He puts on his domino mask and then his helmet. Then breathes in to give his mind and body time to adjust to his other role, his other identity.
     When he gets back to the main room, there’s a couple of thugs spread out on the floor and some of the big players sitting at the big table in the middle.
     “What’s the big idea calling us in so early in the morning? Most of us work nights you know!” Penguin’s nasally voice is already giving Jason a headache.
     I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here!
     Jason clams his mouth shut inside his helmet and walks up to the table.
     “Are you listening to me-- or is that blasted thing on mute--”
     He slams his hands on the table and waits for the echo to stop, making sure all eyes are on him. “We’re doing it tonight.”
     He watches as the big crime lords of Gotham widen their eyes and turn to each other like shoolchildren.
     “Tonight? Are you fucking kidding me?” Black Mask is standing now and circling the table to act like a menace but always making sure there’s somebody else between him and the Red Hood.
     “Are your men not ready?” Jason asks.
     Black Masks flinches and the sides of his nose twitch. “Of-of course they are--”
     “Good. Because we’re taking out Batman and the Joker tonight. If you’re not ready then you’re out of the deal.”
     The deal. The deal Jason’s been waving around at the noses of these dredges of Gotham City. One night. One final night to get both Batman and the Joker out of their lives.
     It’s not surprising a lot of them want to get rid of the Joker. The maniac’s a loose canon that’s not fit for any alliance and if you tick him off, you won’t know what to expect.
     “Have you figured out how to get the lunatic out of the asylum?” Dent speaks up from the wall he’s been leaning against. “The new vault is Wayne tech but they outsourced it from an anonymous--”
     “Oh, I never said anything about me breaking him out.” Jason cuts him off because he already knows this. He doesn’t like it when people repeat shit he already knows. It was never like this when he worked with Batman. “Don’t you worry your pretty faces over it. I’ve already got the perfect girl doing the dirty work for me.”
     “Right,” Penguin snorts, “Because you don’t actually do any work--”
     “When do we get to kill the Bat?” Bane’s menacing voice vibrates within the room, even terrifying Jason behind his mask.
     “Now that’s what I like to hear,” he yells out almost shakily, but your scent on him is trapped inside his helmet and it’s helping him keep calm, keep up appearances. “You, Killer Croc, and Clayface will come with me to the bridge.”
     “How do you know he’ll show?” Bane interrupts and Jason wants to show them a smile that says ‘leave it to me’. Instead he keeps quiet with his eyes on Bane who only narrows his eyes with scrutiny.
     “Right. Right. Of course,” Black Mask groans as he walks around more freely. “You’ve got another slutty little streetrat doing the work--”
     There’s a loud bang. Everyone in the room watches as Black Mask falls to the floor with a smoking hole in his head. Jason is heaving heavy breaths under his helmet and his eyes are wide and trained on the dead man who just said shit about you, while his hand is holding the gun.
     Once his composure is under control, he turns to Dent, talking to him with the gun slanted to the side. “Congratulations. His men are now yours.”
     Dent stares at the crazy bastard in front of him before he grins.
     As soon as the meeting is over, Jason is the first one to leave. He heads off to a small diner in the central business district, one of those small eateries at the heart of the city that are slowly dying.
     Happy to have the helmet off of him, he eats his food quietly while staring at his arm that’s propped up on the table. His last words looking back at him. “What did she do-- tattoo it on her skin?” he teases as he pokes it with a fork, smiling at the thought of you reading it over and over again.
     Someone slips into his booth. It’s enough to alarm Jason because he should’ve noticed anyone walking toward him. When he looks up, he finds his replacement in front of him.
     “Dick rewrites it every day with industrial-strength markers.”
     Jason’s other hand reaches for another weapon concealed in his jacket. Tim sits upright in front of him with both of his hands under the table. Jason only guesses he’s pointing something at him, too. They stare at each other for a while before Tim finally speaks up.
     “Fuck you.”
     The corner of Jason’s lips twitch. He almost wants to laugh. Heck, he does laugh. “Fucking rude--”
     “You slept with Y/N and then you sent her back to Bruce to ask him to let you kill the Joker.”
     Jason’s eyes widen. What were you thinking? Jason knew you were going to tell Bruce his plan that’s why they had to do it tonight. But he never asked you to stand up for him. He doesn’t want you to be involved in this. Why would you go and do that?
     Tim clenches his teeth as Jason continues to stare dumbly at him. “What kind of sick joke are you playing at? She’s in love you with you and you’re--”
     “Hey.” Jason’s voice is low and he’s staring into Tim’s eyes, blue like his, almost like his used to be. Did you gaze into them before you kissed him? Did they remind you of him? “You should learn to mind your own fucking business, kid.”
     “You--”
     “Thanks though.”
     Tim eyes Jason curiously, wondering what he means. Then he feels it, the kick of a tranquilizer rapidly invading the nerves of his body. Before his head hits the table, Jason is already by his side and placing his head on his shoulder.
     “You should’ve waited for the party but I guess you just saved me a lot of time.” Jason nods his head to the waitress walking by. Then he takes out his phone and calls Penguin.
     “What is it now, Hood?”
     “You should be happy to know that I just did some dirty work ahead of schedule.” Jason relishes the angry snort Penguin gives him before he continues. “So I’ll be helping you with the bombs later this afternoon.”
     There’s a long silence on the line before Penguin finally replies, nervous. “Are you sure this will work?”
     “Trust me. After tonight, when those bombs go off, you’ll be the only kingpin left in this city. No more Falcone or Dent.”
     After Jason hangs up, he pays the bill for his food and drapes his jacket over Tim, making sure his face is hidden as he hauls his body over to Arkham district.
     Finally, night came. Tim is tied up. The bombs are in place. The Joker is being broken out. And Batman is driving over the bridge. Jason is fighting every urge to tap his foot on the ground, or clench his fist, or rub his arm where his last words are written.
     All day he’s had to fight the urge to write to you, something you haven’t done in almost a year. But the fact that you haven’t written anything to him made it easier. You understand that everything is going down tonight and you’re giving him space.
     Now all he has to do is focus. Everything will go according to plan. It’s time for the theatrics, just like Batman taught him.
     “Sorry, Batman! This part of the city’s closed for the day! Public execution and all!” Jason is surrounded by cheering thugs finally rejoicing at the thought of a Bat and Joker-free city. Everything will be theirs for the taking.
     Jason watches his temporary alliance follow through with the plan. He whistles as Bane lands on the bridge. “You sure know how to make an entrance.”
     “Time for your exit, boy,” Killer Croc hisses as he passes by Jason.
     Jason sees no point in talking back. He presses the button for the EMP and waits for the lights of the batmobile to go out. Then he nods to Croc and Clayface and disappears into the crowd. Once out of the frontline’s range, he uses his grappling gun to reach higher ground.
     “Still bait. Need to make sure they see me.”
     Jason hides among the shadows to watch Bruce and Dick work. Bane’s the first one to go down. “Taking down the biggest threat first. Efficient and predictable, Bruce.”
     “Hoody! You double crossing son of a bitch!” One of the most annoying voices Jason has ever heard screeches into the comm in his ear. But it’s not really Harley he hates, it’s the other guy that always comes with her presence.
     “What? Code didn’t work?”
     “Oh it worked alright, you smarty shit helmet. I finally got mista J out of that stinkin place but guess who was waiting for us, huh? Guess!”
     “You don’t know, do you?”
     “You--” 
     Jason hangs up on Harley because he knows. He asked his friends from Eth Alth'eban for a couple of last favors until they can finally call it even. “Good. The appetizer’s already at the club-- Oh! Time to go.”
     Nightwing had spotted him and now Batman is in pursuit. Jason leaps from one rooftop to another, making sure Batman can still see him as he turns at each corner.
     Clayface and Croc never were much of a threat in an open space, away from their element. Dick could handle them with his eyes closed. But Jason busted some of his ribs so dealing with those two should keep him occupied all night.
     The sound of Bruce’s grappling gun hisses in the air and Jason waits for it to wrap around his legs. Before it tauts, Jason turns mid-air and cuts the line before he free falls to the road. He lands on his feet and rolls over to lessen the impact. He whispers a small apology to you in case your body couldn’t handle it.
     Bruce watches Jason run through the streets and follows from above. Jason can see his swift shadow casted by the foggy moonlight. He suddenly can’t help the stupid grin growing on his face. “Feels like old times, old man!”
     When Bruce sees another bridge, he already knows which building the Red Hood is headed for. Batman perches a block away and tries to contact Nightwing.
     “Status report.”
     Dick nervously laughs. Bruce can hear the exhaustion in his voice. “Seriously dandy. Croc and Clayface almost can’t keep up.”
     Bruce can’t see it but you can. Dick is barely standing on his own two legs, busted knees, exhaustion, and you know he’s emotionally overwhelmed. You’ve monitored enough of their videos to know that Dick isn’t at his best. You suddenly can’t help intervening. 
     “Bruce, turn back. You have to help Dick.”
     “I’m fine,” Dick interjects. “Just get Jason.”
     “Jason’s not the one in trouble right now, Dick--”
     “Y/N.” Dick’s voice has suddenly gotten sharp. “Batman needs to make it this time.”
     Your eyes widen as you watch Dick throw himself back into the fight. He’s exhausted but his opponents are in worse shape. Finally resigned, Alfred wraps his arms around your shoulder, bracing yourselves for what’s next.
     As soon as Jason walks into Black Mask’s new club, he’s met with absolutely no one. He quickly prioritizes before he panics and checks the two large boxes on the dance floor.
     A phone starts ringing loudly inside the deserted club, distracting him from the cape that flies in from the overhead window. Jason answers it and he hears Penguin’s unmistakeable nasally voice.
     “Hello, Hood.”
     Jason grits his teeth. Something isn’t right. “Where are you and Dent?” 
     “Sorry, Hood,” he snorts and chuckles. “We knew something was up. Found the bombs you snuck into my place. So you’re on your own.” He can hear boisterous laughter in the background and loud music. They’re celebrating prematurely at Penguin’s club. “But hey, if you manage to take the Joker and Batman to hell with you, good for us!”
     The dial tone fills up the empty club and it feels like it’s getting louder inside Jason’s head. He yells in frustration and throws the phone against the wall.
     “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
     Jason is bent over, hands on his knees and hyperventilating. The helmet is suddenly suffocating. He takes it off and throws it across the dance floor. Batman stops it with his foot, making Jason look up and glare at him.
     “Looks like you’ve run out of criminals to do the dirty work for you.” Batman’s voice brings Jason’s focus back to his own breathing. Things are not going according to plan but just the thought of putting this off for another day, makes his hands tremble. He wants to leave. He wants to run to you and leave this godforsaken city.
      Bruce looks at his son with nothing but worry. He extends a hand to him. “Jason, it’s time to stop.”
     Jason winces. He takes in one loud inhale and then lets it out in the form of boooming laughter. “Oh, but it’s just begun, and we’re so close to the climax already.”
     Like a child lashing out when everything has gone wrong, Jason runs and jumps at Bruce, a fist aimed at the side of his father’s head. It’s sloppy. Easy enough for Bruce to block and secure Jason in front of him.
     “Let’s go home,” he urges.
     Bruce watches the trembling scowl on Jason’s face. Jason kicks off of Bruce’s chest. When he lands on his feet, he runs at him again to kick his side.
     Bruce catches his leg and firmly holds it against his body using both of his hands. He glares at him, “Jason, stop!”
     Jason snarls and punches the side of Bruce’s face. Then another one against the tip of his nose. Bruce immediately lets go of him, holding his nose while ringing permeated in his eardrums.
     When he brings his hands down, there’s blood. “Jason, I don’t want to hurt you.”
     “That’s too bad, pops.”
     You have been too mesmerized by the one-sided battle between Bruce and Jason, that you forgot to watch Nightwing’s feed. When Alfred and your face are kissed by a bright glow coming from the other side of the screen, your eyes widen and your lips tremble.
     “B-Bruce!” your voice echoes in his earpiece and he can already hear the panic. “The br-bridge! Dick was on the bridge and it just blew up!”
     Jason notices the slight change in Bruce’s demeanor. He watches cautiously when his father clenches his fist and looks at Jason with a snarl. He starts walking toward Jason, letting him hear his every word.
     “Forgive me, Y/N.” 
     And you brace yourself for the onslaught of pain that’s sure to come. You close your eyes and bury your head in Alfred’s embrace. He holds you tightly, both of you dreading and waiting. But the pain never comes.
     You open your eyes and turn back to the monitor. Bruce is standing still in front of Jason with a fist just inches away from his son’s face. Jason’s eyes slowly open.
     “I can’t,” Bruce confesses in a trembling voice. 
     Jason frowns as he watches the resignation on his father’s face. But it’s quickly replaced by a scowl as he remembers, remembers why they’re here. “I should be so flattered,” his voice hits Bruce like a blow to the chest. “Too bad you extend this same mercy to your enemies.”
     Jason walks away from Bruce to stop in front of one of the boxes. He kicks it in and then he drags out a tied up orange clown into the middle of the club.
     “To scumbags like him!”
     The Joker shakes his head, trying to get rid of the sudden disorientation. He had been hearing their family drama from within the crate. But when his eyes settle on the black cowl and pointy ears, he grins and rises to his feet. He takes a quick look at Jason and recognizes him immediately.
     “Oh! Is this my welcome back party? I’m underdressed.” The Joker looks down at his clothes from Arkham and winces. “Orange really isn’t my color. Blegh!”
     His care-free attitude is only making Jason angrier. Everything has gone wrong. He has thrown himself against Bruce and almost got you hurt. And now, now the clown is treating all of this like a fucking party.
     Jason kicks the Joker onto the floor and keeps his foot on his back. He keeps his head down as he snarls at the maniac beneath him.
     “I don’t know what clouded your judgment worse…” His foot presses harder on the clown’s back before he looks at Bruce, glaring. “Your guilt or antiquated sense of morality.” 
     You watch with your hand over your mouth. Jason’s breathing has been labored this whole time and you don’t know if it’s because of all the running or the emotional toll of it all.
    Jason looks at Bruce and he sounds broken, “I forgive you for not saving me--”
    The Joker scoffs and nonchalantly interrupts Jason, “He couldn’t have saved you, boy. The timer was a dud. The warehouse was only rigged to explode once Batman stepped onto the property.”
    Batman’s eyes widen with guilt but Jason already knew that. He knew that Bruce had come for him with 10 seconds to spare on the timer. More than enough time to get him and his mother out of there safely. To save you, too.
    The Joker’s eyes widen with glee as he watches the taut lines on Batman’s exposed jaw. “You didn’t know, Batsy? My my!”
    Jason almost feels sorry for Bruce as he desperately looks at his son’s eyes and then to his hands, thinking he was the one who had killed him. Jason puts more pressure on the Joker’s back and shouts, “Do you see?”
     Jason takes off his mask to stare Bruce in the face, to look him in the eye when he finally asks the one question that has been eating at him alive. “So why! Why on god’s earth is this psychotic filth still alive?”
     Jason’s outrage and their father-son confrontation is only making the Joker laugh in amusement, splintering his lips against the hardwood. “Gotta give the boy points! He came all the way back from the dead--” 
      Jason harshly turns him over and slaps a gag into his mouth, pushing it down and ties it until the Joker is choking.
      More aggravated now, he’s heaving in breaths like he’s running out of air. Jason turns back to Bruce, gritting his teeth. “Ignoring what he’s done in the past. Blindly stupidly disregarding the entire graveyards he’s filled. The thousands who have suffered. The friends he’s crippled--!”
     Jason watches as Bruce’s jaw clenches. They never talked about that. After that night, even when Barbara was released from the hospital, the family completely turned their backs on her, willing that the incidents never happened.
     The memory only makes Jason’s blood boil and his heart clench in his chest. It’s so strong that you can feel it.
     “I thought… I thought I’d be the last person you’ll ever let him hurt. If it had been you that he beat to a bloody pulp. If he had taken you from this world--” Jason pauses, surprised at the tear falling from his eye. He knows it’s not his but this has never happened before. You’ve never shared tears before.
     Jason clenches his fist and yells at Bruce again, “I would have done nothing but search the planet for this pathetic pile of evil death-worshipping garbage and sent him off to hell!”
     Bruce’s head is spinning. He sees the man he despises the most in this world and the boy he’s failed, both in life and in death.
     “Jason... All I’ve ever wanted to do is kill him. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t think about subjecting him to every horrendous torture he’s dealt out to others. And then… end him.”
     Bruce’s confession doesn’t appease anything in Jason. It only confuses him more.
     “So why--”
     “But if I do that…” Bruce gently interjects, “If I allow myself to go down into that place… I’ll never come back.” He takes a few steps forward and extends his hand to Jason with his palm facing up. “You’ll never come back, son.”
     Jason stares at the hand extended to him before he finally snarls at his father. “Why?” he sounds like a child, broken and betrayed, “I’m not talking about killing Penguin or Scarecrow or Dent. I’m talking about him. Just him and doing it because… because he took me away from you.”
     Bruce watches as Jason harshly wipes away the tears that keep coming. Jason doesn’t get mad at you. He doesn’t blame you. If he wanted to, he would let out everything as well. He almost wishes he could when Bruce finally answers him.
     “I can’t, Jason. I’m sorry.”
     You feel Jason’s nails dig into his palms. You watch as he narrows his eyes at Bruce and points the gun at the Joker.
     “Well you won’t have a choice.”
     Jason shoots the Joker in the head. The sound echoes in the silent club while Bruce stands still as the Joker’s body goes limp on the floor.
     You watch as the mad clown who terrorized your dreams for over a year lies on the ground, unmoving and staining the floor with his blood. Dead. But you don’t feel a single drop of satisfaction from it as you follow the trail of smoke coming out of Jason’s gun.
    “You don’t understand, Bruce,” he finally says. “I don’t think you’ll ever understand until someone spells it out plain and simple for you.”
     Bruce takes a step forward with his hands up but Jason’s points the gun at him next. “You can’t protect us-- much like you can’t protect this city from every disgusting dredge that lurks at its every corner. Ra’s and your failure taught me one thing true about this world: it’s better to grab evil by the tendrils and burn it before it settles its roots.”
     It feels like a hammering is slamming down on Jason’s chest. The exhaustion. The emotions. Finally everything is so close to its breaking point. You can feel it.
     “This is what all this has been about, Bruce. This scum,” he kicks the Joker’s body, making it skid away, leaving a trail of his blood. Then he points the gun at Bruce and places his free hand on his chest. “You. Me. And him!”
     Jason kicks open the other box in the club and harshly rips out a struggling Robin. Tim is tightly gagged and his eyes are wide open.
     “Tim!”
     You don’t know who shouted. You or Bruce. You watch as he struggles against Jason’s grip. He tightens his hold on Tim and presses him against one side of his body to prop him up for Bruce to see him in full view.
      “Now is the time you decide.” 
      Jason throws the gun to Bruce, the one he used on the Joker. “If you won’t, I’ll kill him. If you want to stop me, you’re going to have to kill me.”
     Bruce stares at Tim’s wide eyes and then at the gun in his hands. Tim is fiercely struggling against the Red Hood’s hold. The Red Hood. Jason. He looks at his once dead son and sees unfamiliar green eyes looking back at him. His answer comes softly with regret.
     “You know I won’t--”
     This only makes Jason angrier. He takes out another gun and points it at Tim’s temple, startling all of you.
     “It’s him or me--”
     “Stop!” You shout from the safehouse, suddenly standing and urgently looking for anything to write with, not wanting to watch anymore. But you can still hear him.
     “You have to decide--”
     Your soulmate.
     “Think about Y/N!” Bruce shouts, making you stop and stare at your hands, a pen hovering over Jason’s last words.
     Jason’s grip falters. Of course, he’s thinking of you. Every single minute of every single day, all he’s done is think of you. All of the things he’s done is for you. You and him. That’s why he has to do this.
     His voice comes out like a low growl. “Decide now... Do it.”
     Bruce is shaking his head and holding the gun with both of his hands, shaking. Jason glares at him and pushes the barrel of the gun harder against Tim’s temple.
     “Him or me! Decide!”
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goldandbluesmiles · 4 years
Text
Joker’s Killer
Chapter 2: A Father’s Rage and it’s aftermath
Summary: In the end, it’s not Batman that kills the Joker. It’s Bruce Wayne.
May 29, 1:19: Bruce Wayne walked into Arkham undetected by any security cameras or guards
May 29, 1:25: Bruce Wayne entered Joker's cell.
May 29, 1:35: A guard realized that the hysterical laughter and gurgling from the clown's cell weren't just for show.
May 29, 1:37: Bruce Wayne was found standing over Joker's body with a steel bar in his hand, Joker's head bashed in.
XXX
Note: This is an A/B/O fic though the only tropes that are focused on are the protective omega parent and bonding.
TW: Non-consensual bonding (It’s an a/b/o fic)
Ao3
Chapter 1
XXX
Joker bit Jason.
Joker bit his boy, his pup.
That monster hurt his son. Again.
Red Rage rose up inside of him.
The monster will never hurt his baby again. The Omega would make sure of it.
His baby would be safe from now on.
The drive took twenty-one minutes and forty-three seconds.
The omega knew how to get around the cameras and guards. Enter from the supply chute, count the seconds between the camera rotations, walk when the guards turn the corner.
The cell was easy enough to get into, he knew the code after all. Make sure the alarms didn't go off. Make sure they click back into place.
The monster greeted him with a smile and a laugh, the pale face twisting in unnatural ways.
The Omega took out the steel bar he had in his sleeve. The joker look at it and laughed mockingly. The omega picked it up and broke the monster's hands first and then his legs. He then moved on to the jaw. The monster was still laughing, the sound coming out in gurgles and gasps.
The monster's head was bashed in next, the blood and bone flying all over the place, the sound of laughing finally started to die down as the door of the cell opened. There were arms holding the Omega back and keeping him down, but he didn't care.
The Red Rage subsided and was replaced with an empty calm.
The monster was gone.
His baby was would be safe now.
XXX
May 29, 1:19: Bruce Wayne walked into Arkham undetected by any security cameras or guards
May 29, 1:25: Bruce Wayne entered Joker's cell.
May 29, 1:35: A guard realized that the hysterical laughter and gurgling from the clown's cell weren't just for show.
May 29, 1:37: Bruce Wayne was found standing over Joker's body with a steel bar in his hand, Joker's head bashed in.
XXX
Detective J. Morales and E. Rosario were the ones to go down and get the report on Bruce Wayne's bloodwork.
"So what's the verdict doc?" asked Julia, "What drove our dear billionaire bonkers?"
"Please, Julia," sighed Estella, older and a little more polite than her younger partner
"What? I'm just saying," said Julia
The ME, Ethan, turned to them with a grim smile.
"There were no drugs," said Ethan, "His hormones spiked first and then stayed that way for a while but then they came down when-"
"And this is where we remind you that not all of us went to med school," said Julia
Ethan smiled, "Right. Uh...it's a little unprecedented. You know the two defences of when omegas take the defence of themselves or their pack?"
"Sure," said Estela, "The first one is where they go 'up' and they go into a rage protecting their pups and sometimes packs, constitutes as temporary insanity,"
"I mean it would make sense," said Julia, "We all know what happened with the Joker and Jason the first time,"
At that, the mood in the room dimmed even more. Jason Todd's disappearance and return might not be the hot topic of the headlines anymore but any person with a half a mind knew that the consequences of it would stay with the family. And with the realization that Joker had hurt Jason again, bitten him, well...who could blame a parent?
"The other one is when they 'retreat' into themselves," said Ethan, "Don't really realize what they're doing and go on autopilot, It's less common but it happens,"
"I've seen it before," said Estella, "Woman got a year's probation and mandatory therapy for running over a guy while driving away from an abusive partner. She was taking the fastest route on autopilot to her mom's house. Poor thing just wanted the baby in the backseat safe,"
"So which one is it here?" asked Julia
"That's where it gets weird," said Ethan, "His hormones are very low now, dangerously low, indicating that he's not all there-"
"So the second one," said Julia
"That's the thing," said Ethan, "We have other indicators that show if someone was recently in a charged state and they're all there,"
"So...?" said Estella
"As we know, the Joker but Jason and Bruce didn't find out until about half-an-hour before he killed the Joker. My assumption is that he got charged, did the deed, once he realized that his pup was 'safe', he retreated into himself,"
"Why?" wondered Julia
"I can't be sure but there are so many things different from the usual cases. For one Jason is an adult but on the other hand, we know what kind of life that kid had so it's pretty understandable that his parent jumped into defence mode. As for the 'retreat', Bruce is a public figure, this might be his mind's way of protecting his pack from the vultures but again that's just speculation,"
"There's no point in assuming things," said Estella, "What do you have to say that we can relay?"
"Officially, this man does not have the capacity to stand trial from a biological standpoint, you should ask a psychologist but I believe they will say the same thing. This man also needs medical care,"
"You said officially," said Julia, "What about unofficially?"
Ethan took a deep breath, "It would be a little early for me to say it and might interfere with the case but this man might need long-term care. Gotham might have to say goodbye to her oldest hero,"
A dark stillness settled in the room. While Gotham's public might speculate, among the police force, the justice system and everybody in between, the identities of Gotham's vigilante family were an open secret.
"May they rest," murmured Julia. She didn't say who, nobody ever said it out loud but the idea, the thought, was there.
May they rest, Gotham's original legend.
XXX
The press conference was held at 10:00 AM the second day after Joker's death.
The day before had been spent by the Wayne siblings, along with Jason's pack, huddled in their nest, barely leaving, eating, sleeping and cuddling under the mountain of blankets. Their pack, the ones less affected, and their friends had taken up their mantles for two nights. Superman had been called in, a few of the arrows, the birds of prey had taken the night and Bluebird had also stayed out, giving Bruce's kids the time they needed. Barbara made sure to coordinate them efficiently. Martha Kent and Diana watched over the family, making sure Alfred spent time with his grandchildren, and not working himself to the bone in the kitchen.
Early on the day of the press conference, Alfred took his second grandchild aside and quietly spoken with him.
"You don't have to do this, my boy," he told Jason, "No one will blame you for waiting to do this or not doing it at all. Someone else can handle it. We could even do a private interview with friends in the profession if you are really intent on telling your story,"
"No," whispered Jason, "They will still speculate. I want this to be done as open as possible and then put a cork in it. This way they can't come up with their own ideas,"
"If you're sure," said Alfred
Jason nodded and Alfred gently hugged him close, wishing with everything inside of him that his own son was here to comfort his child. Instead, he was lying in a hospital bed under guard, waiting for the courts to decide his fate.
The press conference was held in a room on the WE building to be able to keep some control over the event and to keep Jason at ease. The commissioner was also present to carry on the conference once the siblings were done.
Dick was the one who went up first, introducing them as his five siblings, Kate, Selina and Alfred stood behind him.
"We are here today, not to talk about the incident but to give you context as to what lead to the incident happening. We want to clear any misconceptions and make sure the public knows that the Wayne family is handling this situation with the utmost decorum,"
"That said, most of this story will be told by my brother Jason, and it will be a difficult experience. If you could please listen first and keep your questions until the end,"
Dick backed away and gave Jason's shoulder a squeeze as the other man stepped up.
"Good Morning Gotham," said Jason, "As you know, due to previous stories, that I was kept from my family for some time during my teen years and that the fault was with the Joker. That story had been told many times, and I will not repeat it. I would instead like to talk about what happened three weeks ago, the last time Joker escaped,"
"The Joker captured me along with 16 other hostages that were in that store with me when he came in. We do not know if he had found me by chance or if e was looking to trap me somewhere and plays some more. About ten minutes into the situation, he took me to the backroom and-
Jason stuttered there, a lump forming in his throat. Still, he swallowed and continued.
"He-um- he took me to- to the back room and told me he was going to...that he was going to-to bite me."
There was a murmur around the room but died again as Jason continued.
"After giving me the bite, he insisted that I," deep breath, "that I bite him too,"
This time when Jason stopped the silence was deafening, no one had the heart or the presence of mind to say anything.
"A you can imagine, my first reaction was to refuse but he threatened the other hostages and to prove a point, went out and shot one of the women in the leg. He also kept physically assaulting me as he told me what he would do to the rest of the hostages if I refused. I finally agreed to the bite and Batman came around five minutes later. I was able to go home to a private doctor and due to confidentiality was able to keep the bite from my family. On the day of the Joker's death, I was having lunch with my father when he spotted it. One thing led to another, and I ended up telling him where it came from. He got quiet and left me at the table. Not understanding what had happened, I let him go and went back to my place where one of my friends was also keeping me company. I didn't know about Joker's death until I saw the news that evening,"
Jason took a small breath after that.
"And now we are here," said Jason, "Are there any questions? Yes?"
"Why did you not tell your family immediately?"
"As you can imagine I was in shock and felt violated and since they could not do anything about it, I didn't think it necessary to let them know. Next? Yes?"
"Why not follow your father after he left you at lunch? Did you not think his behaviour was a little odd?"
"It is not odd for my father to walk away from a conversation, when upset, to calm down. I really didn't think anything so drastic would happen. I just wanted to get home,"
"Can you comment on anything pertaining to the investigation? About the mental state of the accused?"
Commissioner Gordon could see Jason's composure slipping and stepped up.
"Due to the time available, I think it is time that I took over. I can answer any questions you have on the investigation this far,"
No longer finding any reason to hold back due to the fragile mental state of one of Gotham's prominent omegas, the crowd of reporters burst forth with questions.
Jason didn't pay them any mind. Instead, he let Dick and Alfred lead him out of there as his siblings followed. Through the back of the room, Roy and Kori were waiting and they instantly took him in their arms.
"You okay, Jaybird?" murmured Roy
Jason just pressed his face into his shoulder and whimpered.
"Let's get you home," said Dick, laying a hand on his back
Yes. Home. That sounded nice.
He nodded and they carefully started to move away to the exit.
Behind them, Gordon was still talking to the press, explaining to them what he could. In the coming days, there would be more of these as Gordon gave more to the waiting public but Jason wasn't going to have anything to do with those.
Slowly, his family would help him heal from these scars too. And they would heal from the aftermath of them.
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