#because 'bruce tries to mess with other people's minds to protect them' is a much more in-character way for him to break bad | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wolfsrainrules · 1 month

Text

Me, Staring into the Night: Oh No

Discussed with @deepwithintheabyss on discord, and as a result:

I'm just Saying. I have been contemplating a Jurassic World in DC verse (with the understanding that I have not actually READ nor SEEN much DC content and am working off fandom.)

Jurassic World, as in, a JW that has done the work to hide and defend their island from super villains and various heroes poking their heads in. The full nine yards, everything they could possibly stop- and all that focus on "outside" threats? It's what allows the internal issues that result in the mess that is JW.

The thing though? Jurassic World still needs sponsors and Batfam has still been trying to get a look into that- because it should not be left unchecked. Legally they can't send a hero in. But Timothy Drake-Wayne, CEO of WE and potential sponsor and good word on JW? That they would allow. So if he gets a VIP access tour to 'tempt him into sponsoring Jurassic World" that's supposed to last a week or two...

They've already got the park operating on front of house, and they have a camp with six kids who got sent in. What's one more VIP who could get them a ton of money, and may sponsor their work and expand what they're doing? Thing is- VIP access means that technically, Tim isn't supposed to have any tech that operates inside without proper access. He knows it CAN be gotten, because there's a kid here- Brooklyn?- that is a very popular vlogger who is allowed to record and post things. He's also not here as a Bat, but as Timothy Drake-Wayne and that comes with some handicaps to what he's able to do int he open.

So he has to look like he doesn't have access to anything, can't be caught snooping around, and also is instinctively keeping an eye on the kids when he's in the same areas they are.

And then. And then the park goes down. Assets are out of containment. And we have this really shitty time, where Tim has to figure out how the hell to get them all off, when the protections from outside 'interference' mean that the heroes cannot set foot on Jurassic World, Jurassic Park, or anything within without causing a hell of an issue. Interference also means Tim can't get the emergency signal out. The only thing allowed out of JW is what's done on it's own network. He needs to find a way to hook into it, when the power is shot. Would it stop them? No. Especially not when people are dying, and definitely not the BatFam when Tim is on the island.

Problem? By all rights, the island was evacuated of all survivors. So far as anyone can determine, the others are dead, and the island is overrun with assets that got loose.

Tim didn't make it off.

And Tim doesn't have a functioning access to internet OR signal to get a call out, the white noise machines and everything else are blocking him from just yelling for evac. He technically doesn't have any BAT- grade tech or supplies for himself- this was Timothy Drake-Wayne that went in after all. He didn't bring anything big while he snooped. He had some things, yes, but not for this level of FUBAR.

The BatFam are losing their minds. The world is saying Tim died on the island, since he didn't get off. Tim is struggling to find a way to get a message out. BatFam refuses to accept that Tim is dead until it can be confirmed.

And then.

And then the kids and Tim get the generators back on. And everything has gone to hell, but the power means Tim has a way to get something out. A way to hook into the network finally

It's not perfect. It involves him making trips to the faculty, and a LOT of tech-work so he can get these things routed properly, that he's not even sure are WORKING. And he can't leave the kids either- this island has tried to kill them all over and over again, he's not willing to let them wander around alone.

So he sends something like video diaries out, careful to maintain that he is a civilian trying to reach his dad, with six other kids surviving with him.

Bruce absolutely FLIPS when he gets the first video. Tim is front and center, looking like literal hell, blood smeared on his face, dirt and mud, a ruined set of dress pants, a stolen set of boots (because Timothy would have been in dress shoes for something like this, so he hadn't had his good shoes with him) an absolutely stained, ripped, and ruined dress shirt, smeared face, just- looking like he's survived dinos, and kept kids alive doing it.

Bruce cries. That's his boy. He's not dead. He's not dead. Oh God.

So Bruce gets an update, Tim talking about what happened, that he's not dead, he's surviving with six kids- who all pop into frame and frantically try to cram as much "NOT DEAD HI MOM AND DAD AND SIBLINGS" into the video while Tim is still trying to update everything.

And then the video ends with Tim's head- and six children's as well- all snapping to the side while there's a large echoing clank and the shadow of a dino. And the last image is Tim reaching forward to send the video out, hoping it gets through.

He takes a tablet hooked intot he system, and uses that to film various updates around the park while surviving. A sneaky update on what exactly the park has done, as well as continuous updates on their survival for their families. He has to trek back to the generator room to actually post these out but he's sending them.

The systems aren't great. Sometimes the videos go through a little glitchy, sometimes they get sent out of order. The uploading speed is shit, and occasionally corrupted videos go out due to a sudden need to stop or a flicker in power or any other number of factors.

But Bruce recognizing the chance to use the videos as proof that his kid is still alive- as are six other family's children, and he can bring this forward to get to the island quicker and by leagal means.

It's a huge thing in Gotham, Bruce Wayne's kid on this island surviving, These six kids he's helping. Their families all coming to Gotham to back Bruce on their crusade to get their kids out. Public pressure building as more and more videos go out, more and more people watch what they're going through.

They don't have to get themselves off the island. Bruce Wayne, their families, and public pressure all combine to get a rescue sent out to them. And sure it takes a little bit to get put together, but Bruce Wayne is funding it, and he will not rest until his son is home, until all of these kids are home.

The families all bond over the trauma of their children being on a death trap of an island. And the work to get them off of it. The relief they're ALIVE. The horror of what they'd gone through. The terror of not knowing if they're STILL alive. The fear-terror-hope of waiting for the next video update, hoping it's one that actually WORKS, that isn't corrupted or cut off cause of some disaster. The trauma of seeing their children on these videos, seeing the changes, and the rough surviving, of thinking your kids were dead only to find out NOPE they're in a historical horror of predator species that would eat them instead.

And Bruce knows Tim is capable. He knows he is. He also knows Tim would do whatever was necessary to get the kids home alive and whole.

And that? That's terrifying for Bruce. Because he knows Tim would jump in front of those kids to save them. His mind is running every worse case scenario through. He knows the (official) list of dinos that are in the park. He can imagine exactly how wrong an encounter could go. And then he gets the video updates of Tim and the kids explaining hybrids and the horror of THAT. So he's not even sure what the hell the kids are running into, and THEY don't even know, because they're could absolutely be more, so many more and-

And then you have Tim's brothers. His brothers who get the news he's presumed dead after the park goes wild and there's late videos and all kinds of things going live as survivors get off the island and into range of posting again, without access to JW's network. His brothers who all wait, all scared, all worried, for him to step off a ferry. Only he doesnt. Only he's one of many names presumed dead. And oh they aren't willing to leave it at that. The hero community is pushing for their ability to look into the park and what went wrong, but by all accounts- Tim is supposed to be dead.

And while they keep hoping, thinking, not without a body, and even still- there's every chance there ISNT one on an island full of dinosaurs. There's plenty of videos from those who escaped of paradactyls flying off with people, of various dinosaurs outside containment and the chaos and panic of it. Of deaths caught on camera and everything else. They're trying. But they're not even sure if-

And then Bruce gets the video. And they are right there with him in using the proof to get to the island faster, to save him, and the kids he's with, and just-

And there's HOPE and horror. Because he's alive! He is. But he's lost weight, and he's so obviously working to keep these six other children alive, and surviving and all the horror of that, and just-

It's such a mess.

But they are all there, every family, when they go and get the survivors.

There's tears and fierce hugs. And every kid has to introduce themselves to everyone's families. And every parent has to thank Tim for being there for their kids, for saving them, for not abandoning them for FIGHTING for them- because they all have stories.

And Tim did his level best to be there for these kids, to lead, to save, to keep safe. His very, very best. And the parents are so so thankful for it.

And if Tim meets each of his kids parents from the arms of a different family member (Alfred, Bruce, Dick, Damian, Jason, Cass, Duke, Steph, Babs...) the kids are happy to see Tim getting the support they couldn't give him, no matter how much they tried.

#crossover fun #Jurassic World #Batman #DC #camp cretaceous #Tim Drake #Jurassic Park #fic idea #wolf talks #wolfsrainrules #Batfam #long post #kind of rambling

69 notes · View notes

soleminisanction · 5 months

Text

The thing I keep coming back to, now that I've wrapped up the first part of "Batgirl, Repentant" and am starting to outline the second, is how much the book's hyper-focus on Steph hamstrings the story I think they're trying to tell.

I say I think because obviously I can't read the writers' minds so for all I know they taped the random lip service about hope and justice and fighting for the little guys onto the Stephanie-love-fest in a half-assed response to criticism, but I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that when the first arc ends with:

And that gets followed up two issues later with Steph telling Damian:

I want to take them at their word that that's what they're going for. But it's not the story they tell at all because, for all the lip service paid, there's not a single plot point that actually backs those themes up. Every single narrative element is instead 100% oriented around Stephanie, her feelings, her desires, and her ambitions, none of which involve helping or protecting other people.

Batgirl's first appearance in issue 1 isn't about bringing hope or protecting anybody, it's about, "Ooooh, who is this mysterious new Batgirl who's such a badass but looked down on by The Man for being a little chaotic? Ta-da, it's Stephanie Brown!!"

When she talks about promises being made to her mom (by which of course I mean lies, she's just lying to her mother) or the supposed "promise" she didn't actually make to Tim Drake, it's all framed as unreasonable expectations that other people are piling onto Steph's shoulders, without so much as a second thought for how the person she supposedly made these promises to might feel.

When Cass leaves her the Batgirl costume, it's not with requests to carry on the legacy or protect Gotham in her absence or even to look out for Barbara, it's all about Cass's relationship with Bruce (as though that was ever her motivation!) and then "Now the fight is yours, Stephanie" while she vanishes into the rain in her underwear. Like Batgirl is a toy she's letting Steph have her fair turn with now that she doesn't want to play anymore.

When Steph thinks about the symbolism of the Bat and of Batgirl, it's not about how it can be a symbol of hope and protection in the darkness of Gotham, it's about how it makes her feel powerful. Even when she worries about messing up it's framed as, "Nothing I do ever ends well" and "It's just a matter of time before I get caught," not concerns about the harm her previous attempts that "didn't end well" wound up doing to other people.

And despite the fact that there's a riot going on in the next few pages, she's not inspired to go out and help with that, but to assist a single dumbass cop who got in over his head.

And then again when Babs shows up to chew her out in the next issue, it's all about Steph and her safety. "You already died" this and "You have a death wish" that. Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, only gets to talk about the symbolism of Batgirl as it relates to Stephanie Brown -- "Wearing that Bat on your chest might scare off the smaller thugs, but you're literally asking, no, begging for attention from more dangerous criminals. You're a mark for anyone who wants to make theirs."

Again, even the fact that she fucked up in the past and hurt people is framed around Steph -- "The last time you tried being helpful, you accidentally brought Gotham to its knees." And while Steph pays lip service to "doing this instead of sleeping" because she "thinks it's right," she doesn't ever elaborate on what exactly is "the right thing" she thinks she's doing, and it's not like she's gone out to protect people. You can't even argue, like you maybe could with the street race, that she's doing a flashy display to show ordinary people there's someone on their side -- she's beating up random goons in an isolated chop-shop.

Then of course there's the fact that nothing about Scarecrow's whole Thrill plot makes any sense because he's not being written with any kind of coherent villain motivation, it's all just being done to set up moments for Steph. Why do some of his goons decide to spike the punch at a random college party and then run away at just the right moment to make themselves look as suspicious as possible? Because Stephanie's going to be there and they need to hook her into that plot.

And when Steph argues with Babs later about why they should work together to solve this case, does she express concern about her classmates or her university, or even point out that Barbara isn't working with an on-the-street agent like she has in the past and hey, maybe you'd be a little less stressed if you had someone to share the load?

Nope. It's just "I'm just as much a part of it now as you are!"

To say nothing of my eternal, teeth-grinding frustration over Barbara's characterization. "I'm only being so hard on her because I'm jealous that she's Batgirl and I'm not anymore." Fuck all the way off, Bryan Q. Miller.

This whole thing is so bad that when you get to the climax of this arc -- when they've tracked Scarecrow and his goons to their creepy hospital lair -- the stakes aren't that anyone is in danger, or that there's any chance that Scarecrow might be able to escape in the next five minutes before the police arrive. In fact, if Steph's actual motivation was to make sure Scarecrow saw justice, it would've been a better strategy for her to stay outside watching the exits so she could jump him if he tried to make a run for it.

But she doesn't do that. Because the actual stakes for the climax of the first arc are that if she doesn't swing in and beat the shit out of Scarecrow right the fuck now, the police will beat her to it and then Stephanie won't get the credit for saving the day.

They even try to clumsily raise the stakes by implying that Scarecrow works for Black Mask, a plot point that goes absolutely nowhere because -- whoopsie -- Black Mask is dead at this point and has been since before Steph came back to life. He only ever showed up again as a Black Lantern in Blackest Night, at which point Ivy fed him to a plant.

(They did not fix this in the trade paperback version BTW, I checked)

There's some effort to turn Steph's fight with Scarecrow into something more by having him spout some weird nonsense about how he's controlling people with drugs because, "Nobody truly has a choice little girl" while she represents free will fighting back against attempts to take it away, but that's seriously hamstrung by the fact that writing is all over the place.

Like, at the start of Steph's big dramatic speech, she's all but arguing against the concept of free will, echoing an earlier classroom discussion I've bitched about before, saying that people (by which of course she actually means herself) stay when things get tough "Because we don't know how to do anything else."

But on the very next page she poses the question again and answers it with... frankly complete nonsense.

Because the point isn't actually 'control vs. free will', the whole thing -- all of the forced, misunderstood philosophy that fills out this entire arc -- is actually just repeating the same question Babs was asking earlier, this time in metaphor -- why does Stephanie keep throwing herself into danger, why doesn't she just quit?

And her answers, apparently, are, "because this is who I want to be" and "because I don't know how do anything else." Neither of which spare even a passing thought for anyone but herself, which is kind of a problem if you're trying to present Batgirl's mission statement as bringing hope to the people around her.

Then there's the bit about "facing your worst self," which refers to slightly before this, when Scarecrow drugs Steph with Thrill (a move that makes no sense in-universe because again, Scarecrow is only here to set up set pieces for Stephanie and has zero internal logic of his own). What Steph sees during that sequence is her ex-boyfriend and previous identity tearing her down and telling her that she's not good enough to be a superhero, which implies that her 'worst self' is self-doubt, or possibly "letting other people make you doubt yourself." Again -- all about her, with other people framed as nothing but obstacles to her happiness.

And just to remind you-- she has no actual reason to be here. She's not "saving the city," the city is not under threat. She's not doing anything heroic by throwing herself into this fight. She's only doing this because she wanted the credit for saving the day. That's the only stake the story ever establishes.

It's like there's this standing assumption that she must obviously want to be superhero for selfless reasons, therefore they don't need to bring that up ever and can just focus on how much she wants to be one and how noble it is that she's willing to fight through pain and hardship to be one.

But that's just not how it works? Maybe if you were still writing for the Golden Age when the storytelling was simpler and characterization was optional, but not in 2009. Part of the purpose of a solo book's first arc is to establish/re-establish the core hero's motivation and, if it's changed, explain how and why.

Just as a contemporary example -- Red Robin sends Tim Drake off on what's literally a personal quest and spends its first arc establishing how he's darker and more alone than he's ever been before... but it still opens with him rescuing a kidnapping victim, reaffirming that, whatever he's going through and whatever he has to do to accomplish his goal, he's still, at heart, a hero who will put his own needs aside to protect an innocent. That's also the role that Tam Fox essentially plays in the second arc, giving him someone to protect even when he's isolated from the normal push and pull of the DCU.

Whether you're approaching Batgirl (2009) as a new reader who's never met Steph before in your life, or as someone who read her previous material, there is nothing in this first arc, or those that follow, that establishes her motivation beyond, "I want to be Batgirl and I won't let anyone tell me no." She'll occasionally say she's being selfless and heroic, but it's not backed up by her actions or her thoughts.

Perhaps the most blatant self-contained example of this "It's all about Stephanie and obviously she's a perfectly selfless hero so we don't need to bother establishing it," mindset comes in the denouncement of the first arc. They recreate the vow in the dark -- not the most iconic scene in Batman history but still one that's well-known, a moment that goes all the way back to the first appearance of Robin, when Dick and Bruce vowed an "undying oath" to fight together against crime and corruption and never to swerve from the path of righteousness, symbolically committing themselves to act as a light in the darkness and protectors of the innocent.

Batgirl (2009) recreates this scene... by having Barbara vow to support Stephanie Brown and only Stephanie Brown in everything that she does "for as long as she wants it" so she "won't go out alone" and end up in a chair like Babs did. Meanwhile, Steph's response boils down to, "Oh yeah totes me too," because, according to the book, she doesn't need to take an oath, it's just completely self-evident that she's already made her right choice and will obviously continue to do the same forever and ever, no doubt about it.

Two extra little details scattered throughout:

Through the entire series, Steph is constantly doing this obnoxious humble-brag thing of, "I'm Stephanie Brown, and I'm just a normal girl tee-hee" over images of her doing badass Batgirl things that are obviously supposed to be ironic, and she always uses her full name. The trade paperback version is literally called, "Batgirl: Stephanie Brown" because there's nothing else to say about this story. Tim Drake: Robin didn't use his full name this much and it was actually in the title.

And that's not even getting into how often they waste entire pages on splash images of just... Stephanie. Not Stephanie doing anything special, just, Stephanie, and we're supposed to be very awed and impressed by her because she's Stephanie Brown and she's Batgirl now wowie wow wow.

That one tiny little caption box in the upper-left corner of the last page of the storyline? That's literally the first and only time that the concept of "Batgirl makes sure everyone gets home to see tomorrow" is ever mentioned.

This his is all just the first storyline. This same pattern continues on into the rest of the book, only getting worse as they add in other Batfamily member guest-stars for Steph to show up and prove wrong, and stock civilians who do nothing but shower her with praise and adoration. The tiny little sprinkles they offer up of, "Oh yeah I'm doing this to bring hope to the people of Gotham!!" just don't compare to deluge of "Steph gets to be Batgirl because she wants to be Batgirl, that makes her the coolest motherfucker on the planet, and if you disagree you must be sexist."

---

TL;DR (and sorry this got so long) -- Bryan Q. Miller et. al seem to be either under the impression (or want to give the impression) that they're telling the story of Stephanie Brown, the plucky young girl who never gave up on her dream of being a superhero no matter the haters or setbacks she faced, and how seeing her succeed despite being so average and relatable inspires other average people to have hope and fight for a better tomorrow.

But the story they actually tell is of Stephanie Brown, a teenage girl utterly obsessed with becoming a superhero to the exclusion of all else, including her own well-being, future, and relationships with her friends and family, apparently just because she likes the way it makes her feel, has no self-control and can't imagine herself doing anything else, who is applauded and cheered for this by everyone she meets, save for a small handful of haters who are just there to be proven wrong, beaten up, or both.

The first could've been a good-ish story -- ish, because it doesn't actually engage with Steph's previous characterization, but that's a different post -- but it's just not the story they told.

#stephanie brown #batgirl #batgirl 2009 #batgirls #dc comics #dc #batman #meta #comics meta #barbara gordon #cassandra cain #hmmmm I wound up spending all day on this whoops #ah well it was a sick day and I needed to get it out of my head #there are worse reasons not to move for eight hours

66 notes · View notes

lily-drake · 3 years

Text

Gifts

Any holiday or day where gifts were given was taken with utmost seriousness in the Wayne household. Or in other words, it was a competition to one up each other’s gifts. It all started when Jason came to the house and Dick had come back to visit for the holidays. Marinette hadn’t really understood what was happening when she happily opened Dick’s present, which was a new knitting kit with so many different materials. She ran over to him and hugged him tightly as Alfred took photos. Dick had glanced over at Jason and smirked at him, but Jay-Jay only rolled his eyes with his arms crossed. She still hadn’t opened his after all, and he was around her more now than Dick was, which meant he had a higher advantage of knowing her new interests and endeavors. So he watched as she pulled out a thick book of fashion design and her own embroidery set. Her eyes practically glowed as stared at the set. Jason hadn’t even seen her move because next thing he knew strong arms were wrapped around him. The 7-year-old had definitely been taught by Dick on how to hug people.

Bruce gazed lovingly at his children, but he knew about their competition, and he would not be outdone by his sons.

“Daddy, Daddy, look what Birdy and Jay-Jay gave me! They’re so nice! Feel the material Birdy got me, I can make so many things now!”

“That sounds amazing, Bluebell.”

Marinette smiled brightly as she showed Bruce the gifts that she got.

“Do you want to see what I got you?”

He asked amusedly. Marinette began to hop on her toes in excitement, because daddy’s always had the best gifts!

“Yes please!”

Bruce smiled and pointed out a small, thin, rectangular box under the tree. She leaped over to it and when she opened it her mouth dropped open and she squealed.

“You got me tickets to Sophie Theallet’s fashion show?!”

She was jumping with joy as she stared at the five tickets in her hand. Bruce looked over at and smirked at the boys. He won, again. They groaned and sulked in annoyance. Why did he always win?

________

Marinette was 9 when she finally figured out what her family was doing, and she knew that she would be the one to give the absolute best gifts to her family! Her family deserved something super special, so she went to work. Her Birdy was part of the circus and they had a lot of equipment he often used. But what could she do that would be super special and make her win the competition? Then it hit her, she knew exactly what she would do! She would need to ask Alfred for help, but it would be worth it!

Next was Jay-Jay. She didn’t know much about his past as he always told her that she had to wait till she was older, but she knew about him now. Jay-Jay loved to read and would often read to her, he really liked hoodies and comfy things, and he liked to bake with Alfred and her. So maybe…….yea! She would do that, it shouldn’t be that hard to do.

Daddy always got her such nice gifts, how could she ever beat him? There had to be something she could do to outdo him. He was Batman, he worked with the Justice League, he loved all of them, and sometimes if he finished his work early would watch movies with them! But he was always so good and knew exactly what to get. She would try though, she had an idea and she hoped it would work.

Alfred, he deserved the best gift because of everything he did for them! She already knew the perfect gift for her grandpa Alffie!

________

Christmas arrived and she stared out the window as the snowflakes fell onto the covered yard. Maybe they could go sledding today, that would be so much fun! She was so transfixed in the snow, and thinking of how pretty a dress would be with the same color and different designs, that she hadn’t noticed her brothers sneaking up on her. A squeal left her lips as she was lifted into the air and twirled around wrapped in the warm embrace of her Birdy. She giggled as he spun and squeaked as she was gently thrown into the air, only to land on the couch.

“Good morning Blueberry.”

Dick chirped happily. She giggled again and leaned into Jay-Jay’s hand as he ruffled her hair.

“Morning Pixie-pop. Sleep well?”

“Morning Birdy and Jay-Jay. I slept great, thank you. Did either of you?”

Jason shrugged with a small smirk,

“I slept fine, though I wouldn’t have minded sleeping a little longer. You missed Dick’s hallway caroling this morning.”

“I sounded amazing, thank you very much. And I was too excited to fully sleep. I’m going to win this year.”

Dick said pridefully.

“No way, I’m totally going to beat you.”

Jason deffied puffing out his chest slightly. Marinette giggled and called out,

“No, I’m going to beat all of you! I will be the champion gift giver this year.”

They looked at her and smirked.

“Only in your dreams Pix.”

“You’ll see,”

She replied, crossing her arms and lifting her nose in the air like she had seen some of the people at the galas do.

“Then you’ll have to agree with me!”

They all gave each other sceptical looks before laughing and continued to talk until daddy came down. When he finally did, the competition commenced. The first person to open presents was her, obviously, as she was the youngest. Dick had given her a really nice and fancy art kit, and she loved it! Jay-Jay had given her tickets and backstage passes to the theater for The Nutcracker, she had been wanting to see it for a while now. Alfred had told her that he would teach her how to make a super secret recipe, and she would be able to help him with dinner today too! Daddy, he was too clever, too cunning. He had given her a pet hamster, and it was beautiful! She couldn’t beat him now, her gift was nothing compared to-to this! She tries though, and maybe she could win second? Yea, she would be ok with second, if she got this adorable baby creature. She couldn’t even be mad or disappointed, because look at its cute little feet and adorable eyes!

Next was Jay-Jay. The others had given him some really nice things, but she felt that hers was the best! So when he opened it and his eyes shined, she knew she made the right thing! It had taken her hours to find it, and she had to ask Dad if she could get it since she wasn’t allowed to use the card without permission. It was one of the first books of Pride and Prejudice ever published, she even got him a fancy ink and quill set so he could better embrace his Harry Potter nerdom.

“This is amazing, thank you Pixie, I guess I do owe you an apology, this is amazing.”

She smiled up at him while gently petting the top of her new hamster's head as it laid on her lap.

“Told you!”

For Dick she had knitted him a collection of stuffed animals that he talked about from the circus. Alfred had helped her find the material and helped her when she made a mistake or needed help on a particularly tricky part. She thought she saw Dick’s eyes water for a second. The next thing she knew she was being tightly hugged, but he left enough room to not squish her furry child.

“Thank you Blueberry, it’s amazing.”

“Of course it is, I made them!”

He chuckled as he pulled away and ruffled her already messed up hair.

She had made Daddy a picture book and had decorated it with black and yellow glitter, bats, and different birds. Throughout the book were all of the pictures that she was able to get her hands on dated and labeled in order from oldest photo to most recent. He had a soft smile as he looked through the book and when he finally looked back up to his slightly nervous daughter he pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead.

“I think you won this year.”

“Nuh ah! You gave me a hamster! There’s no way I could have won!”

“Well, I think all the others would agree that you thought of and made some very amazing gifts.”

She turned to look at the others as they gave gentle nods and thumbs up. Her cheeks felt really warm and she smiled at them all.

“Thank you. Now Grandpa Alffie needs to open his presents!”

Alfred smiled at the small child and opened the gifts he had received from the others. Marinette had made and embroidered a new handkerchief for him. He seemed to like it as he immediately placed it in his pocket. She was the victor of this year's Christmas gift exchange, but she still felt that Daddy beat her.

________

As years passed and her family grew so did the competition. Sadly, it would be harder to her her family their most desired gifts as she had decided to study abroad in Paris that year, but she would be da*ed if she didn’t try her hardest. She had gotten better with her skills for making things over the years, and so much had happened. Jason had died and come back, that was the hardest time of her life. They had new people adopted into the family, and she even had a little brother! She was going to meet him this year when she went to visit for the winter break. She would have the glasses with her at all times in case there was an attack so she could quickly come back here and take care of it.

When she arrived at the Gotham Airport and saw her large family standing and holding a sign as they looked for her she ran up to them as quickly as she could.

“Pixie!”

Jason called out, catching the small girl and twirling her around. She laughed and when she was put down created the rest of her family just as happily. When she finally came face to face with her little brother she held out her hand. Her family said he was more formal and was very against physical touch that he did not agree to or initiate. He eyed her hand suspiciously before shaking it and giving her a nod.

“Damian Al Ghul-Wayne.”

“Marinette Wayne. It’s nice to finally meet you Damian.”

They both let go after a firm shake. She already had a gift for him, and Kagami helped her find the perfect one. It was a nice blade, the blade was completely black, but had a red tint to it and red gains that delicately ran through it. The hilt was of fine golden metal and a strong leather grip. She had made the sheath for the blade. With strong leather and an inner layer of Kevlar so the sword would be protected. She had carved in Arabic symbols to spell out “Son of Bat” and had sewn a few almost unnoticeable small robins along the bottom and top of the inky black material.

For Tim, she had gotten him the best coffee beans in all of Paris and she had made him new lounge clothes that identified with his hero persona of Red Robin that had many hidden pockets and two large to-go coffee cups, one on each sleeve.

For Jason she had made him a new leather Jacket with book quotes embroidered all over the inside of the inner material. There were lots of different pockets, and a few tailor made to fit his guns. She had put a few Jagged Stone concert tickets in one of the pockets too.

For Stephanie, she had made purple silk pajamas that had waffles all over it. She had even made sure that there was a hood connected to the pj shirt.

For Cass, just like Jason had done for her, gotten tickets for The Nutcracker. She had also gotten her ballerina shoes, the best one and most highly recommended ones from the Paris Ballet.

For Dick she had made him an elephant onesie. Why you may ask, well because for her birthday he had given her a mouse one. So was it spite for being called short, or was it her trying to match, nobody needs to know.

She had made Alfred a new apron with the words “Don’t try anything, I already know.” Neatly sewed in cursive into it.

She had gotten Babs a new eskrima stick infused with a bit of her luck in it so no one would underestimate her in battle as she would always have luck on her side giving her the upper hand. She may be disabled, but that doesn’t stop her from kicking butt.

Finally, her gift for her dad. This one was hard, because she wasn’t around to know what had caught his eye this year, and her siblings refused to tell her. It was fine though, because she would figure it out. And she did, or at least she had tried. She ended up making him a bee suit jacket with everybody’s names sewed into the inner lining, multiple pockets for convenience, and black bats that would only be shown in the right lighting. She would win this year, she would! Sadly, Dick had won last year, but she would regain her crown again this year! She would be the best gift giver of her whole family!!!

Taglist:

@queenz-z @aespades @fandomsaremylifeline @stainedglassm @toodaloo-kangaroo @prettylittlebutterflie @trippingovermyfeet @liquid-luck-00 @unoriginalmess

#Maribat #BDMWM2021 #bio!dad bruce wayne #marinette dupain cheng #marinette wayne #sibling au #sibling timinette #sibling dickinette #sibling jasonette #sibling daminette #gift giving is serious #to give or be given #mlb x dc #mlb x batman #dc x mlb #day 7 #fluff #maribat

194 notes · View notes

idy-ll-ique · 3 years

Text

a manny and a pedi

pairing: steve rogers x f!reader

genre: fluff, mild angst

warnings: lil bit of violence

requested: by @maximeevansblog

Its almost mine birthday so, a one with Steve, it is the readers birtday and steve is taking the reader to the hair and nail salon, and that night he has a suprise party for the reader and he is nervous that she wont like his gift but she loves his gift

word count: ~1.3k

summary: it was supposed to be "y/n y/l/n, will you marry me?" it was supposed to be romantic. why, then, did it become "that's my fiancée, you fucking asshole!" "your... your what?"

author's note: hiya peeps! okay firstly, happy birthday @maximeevansblog ! hope you have a wonderful birthday! also, im sorry if i changed your prompt a tiny bit, i hope you still like it. enjoy!

masterlist

---

"Hey lover boy, what—"

"Oh Jesus Christ, Barnes!" Steve exclaimed, startled. Bucky laughed and clapped him on the back once. "What are you doing here, are you spying?" he teased his best friend, peeking past him to look into the room outside which he found Steve standing. Y/N was inside the room, talking to a guy while holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

"Y/N?! Your own girlfriend, Rogers?" Bucky admonished harshly in a whisper, pulling Steve away from the door. "It's not— I trust her completely, honest! It's the guy she's talking to, Manny. I swear to God he's trying to steal her from me—"

"Nobody is stealing me, Rogers, Manny's just a friend! No ulterior motives, he has already promised like a thousand times," Steve heard behind him and whirled around to see Y/N standing there with a smirk, an eyebrow raised. "You taking snooping lessons from Barnes now?" he muttered, "I know babe, I just—"

"Just nothing, Stevie, be happy! It's my birthday!" she laughed and gave him a tight hug, burrowing into his arms. To be honest, Y/N knew about Manny's intentions and Steve was right to worry; he flirted with her all the time, even when she insisted she was dating the ex-Captain America. But she knew better than to worry Steve.

He soothingly rubbed her back, swatting Bucky's hand away when he tried to run his fingers through her hair. "Stop it, that's my girlfriend," he pouted and both Bucky and Y/N burst out laughing. "She's like a sister; jeez, Rogers, tone it down a little bit," Bucky sighed and waved at the couple, walking away.

Steve and Y/N decided to go back to their room. They had been in a relationship for around 4 years now, and they weren't planning on stopping, ever. The only time Y/N would become Steve's ex-girlfriend was when she became his wife. Which he hoped she'd become soon, since he had a special birthday planned for her.

First, he was going to take her to a hair salon, then a manicure and pedicure, and finally, a picnic under the stars. There, he was finally going to pop the question: Y/N, will you marry me? After his retirement, that was all he wanted. A stable life; a wife, kids, maybe some pets. He was even ready to be a trophy husband, as Y/N was still in the Avengers Initiative.

"Steve? Steve!" He snapped out of his thoughts and gave Y/N a sheepish smile. "Sorry, pumpkin, lost in thoughts. So, uh, the flowers look nice," he stammered, looking everywhere but at the flowers which Y/N was putting in a vase. "Oh hush Rogers, you don't have to pretend to like them for me, I get it. I was just like that with you, you know?"

It was true, in the beginning of their relationship Y/N was what Steve was now. Jealous, overprotective, obsessed… somewhere along the line the roles were reversed. "I know, honey, I'm sorry… they're a birthday gift, I should be happy for you." He walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her from behind, pressing a kiss to her neck.

"It's fine. So, I've received everyone's gift but yours, where is it?" she grinned coyly, reaching up to cup his cheek. Steve smirked against her skin and spun her around, bringing them back chest to chest. "In my pants," he whispered seductively. A few seconds passed and both of them burst out laughing.

"I swear to God, Stevie, if that's your only gift I'm gonna be really disappointed." Steve pouted and leaned forward to give her a sweet kiss. "First of all, ouch," he began, "And second, no that's not the only gift. I have a really fun day planned for us, you up for it?" Y/N's eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly, jumping into his arms. "Aw, Steve, I love you so much!"

"I love you too, princess. Now for the first gift—"

"Ste— oh…"

---

"I. Look. Freaking. Amazing!"

Steve smiled softly as Y/N admired herself in the mirror. They had just returned from the mani-pedi session, and Y/N was feeling the most refreshed she had in years. She had also gotten a fantastic new hairstyle, complete with a different hair colour. Y/N was feeling like a new person, all thanks to Steve. She turned to him with a huge smile.

"Words cannot express how much I love you," she began, giving him a tight hug, "But numbers can. 1 million out of 10!" Steve laughed at her excitement, gently playing with her hair as he held her close. "But the best part awaits: the picnic! We still have a few hours to go, maybe I can go some for training?"

"Sure, and I'm going to take some pictures and post them to all my social media sites! Oh my God, this is fantastic—" Steve laughed at Y/N's squeals and left the room, feeling giddier and happier than he was in the morning. You see, Steve was kind of nervous the whole day. First, it was because of Manny, second, he was worried she wouldn't like his gifts and third, will she say yes?

Two out of the three concerns were gone. It was the pesky last one that ran through his mind the whole time he was in the gym. After an hour, Steve decided to go back to their room to relax for a while under the Air Conditioner; he didn't want to be a smelly, sweaty mess on the most important night of his life.

As he was walking towards their room, though, Steve happened to bump into Y/N. And… Manny. Manny took one step forward, Y/N took a step back. One step forward, one step back as Y/N held her hands out in front of her, protecting herself. Without even bothering to know the full story, Steve rushed over and punched Manny straight on the nose.

He fell back with a groan as Y/N gasped, covering her mouth. "That's my fiancée, you fucking asshole! Have some respect for other people's relationships, she said no, no means no!" he yelled, so loud that a few others came over to check on them. Bucky, Sam, Peter, Tony, Wanda, Vision, Bruce and Natasha, all stood a few feet away, watching with wide eyes.

Y/N's head snapped towards Steve when he called her his fiancée. "Your… your what?" she whispered, and Steve finally realized what he had blurted out. Shit. "I… I was going to ask you tonight at the picnic— it was supposed to be romantic, damn it Manny, you ruined—" His speech was cut short as Y/N immediately took him in her arms, kissing him deeply.

"Yes, Steve, I will marry you," she mumbled with a small, teary smile that Steve mimicked as he brought her in for another kiss. They only stopped when they heard the massive applause coming from the others. "Congratulations, you guys, this is brilliant news! Who's the best man?" Sam hollered.

Steve hugged Y/N closer, wiping his tears off with a chuckle. "Well, I was thinking—"

"I'll be honored," Sam grinned, scowling when Bucky smacked him across the head. "He was going to ask me," Bucky sneered and Steve rolled his eyes. "If you keep bickering like that, I'll ask Bruce," he snarked and Bruce laughed as both Bucky and Sam quieted instantly. "Where's the fucking ring, Rogers, there's no proposal without a ring!"

"The ring is in the bedroom, I was training and that's no place for a precious jewel," Steve answered and Y/N smiled into his arms, burrowing her face further into his chest.

"Yes, the hair salon was great. The mani and pedi— not that Manny, Steve— was also great. But this, by far, was the best birthday present I got today," she whispered to him. "What about the sex? Am I becoming an old man now—" Y/N pushed Steve with a disgusted look on her face as everyone else gagged and groaned. "Rogers, it was a sweet moment!"

"Sorry, sorry, couldn't help myself, it just came— there it is again!"

"Blergh, fuck you, man!"

"I deserved it."

---

a/n: thanks for reading, leave a like if you liked it!

160 notes · View notes

stxleslyds · 3 years

Note

Also, the writers' failure to understand, every crime Jason committed had a motive. Attack other criminals? Holy warrior destined to purify the world of evil. Attack Bruce? Joker's still alive. (Oh, Jason, it's much worse than that.) Attack Tim? A parody of what he once was. He wasn't just a "bad boy". He was dangerously insane.

Hi, Anon! Yup, there seems to be a lot of things that writers have gotten confused about Jason Todd/Red Hood and the biggest one is his motivations to kill certain criminals.

Let’s be honest, Judd Winick set a golden path for the upcoming Red Hood writers. But each and every writer that used Red Hood in their stories completely missed the point of Jason’s character. All of them. It’s so incredibly wild to me that every other writer read UtRH and came up with whichever version of Jason they came up with.

Let’s list the writers that completely missed the point.

Geoff Johns in Teen Titans vol.3 #29.

Geoff Johns was one of the first to completely mischaracterize Jason, why on earth would Jason go to the Titans Tower to beat up Tim? This is not me saying that Jason would never do that because Jason thinks of Tim as his brother or a friend or the person that he can trust the most from the Bat-Clan (can you believe Lobdell tried to sell us that one?), this is me saying that Jason wouldn’t have done that because he couldn’t have given less of a fuck about Tim’s existence.

When Jason found out that Bruce had another Robin he wasn’t bothered by his “replacement” he was mad at Bruce for having another child playing hero after he lost his life as a fifteen-year-old. Jason didn’t even think of Tim as his replacement as fandom likes to make us believe, Jason called Tim “pretender”. And that was that, but to go from minimal recognition to go out of his way to beat him up at Titans Tower is a massive mischaracterization.

Paul Dini in Countdown (to Final Crisis).

Paul Dini in Countdown did absolutely nothing with Jason, I am sorry but that’s all he did. Him writing Jason was like watching a dog trying to catch their own tail. He started with a pretty basic take on UtRH Jason, then he added a bit of Jason being an annoying man with Donna, then we had the jealousy arc because apparently, Jason had the hots for Donna but she didn’t want anything to do with him and he was all angsty when she paid attention to Kyle instead of him, and then, later on, he had that whole Red Robin bullshit (I am sorry about this, but I absolutely hated that, it was so dumb, I am so glad it didn’t last long because it was just too bad), and after all that mix of just not interesting stuff he went right back to the Jason that he had at the very start. It was a waste of time, but I guess that he had to be there because he was an anomaly and all that. I just think that was DC’s first try at making Jason Todd/Red Hood something more than just a street-level vigilante and they failed miserably.

Tony S. Daniel in Batman: Battle for the Cowl.

Even though the first two did make mistakes with Jason’s characterizations, this man was the first to just throw UtRH out of the window and make up his very own version of Jason Todd. And his version was horrendous, that Jason had no problem with attempting to kill children and innocent people, he also really wanted to be Batman because Gotham needed a Batman and he wanted to be the person to wear the Cowl and he was looking for a Robin for himself.

I know, the whole concept is the perfect opposite of what Jason Todd and Red Hood were in UtRH. Every aspect of BftC Jason is based on nothing.

Jason wanting to be Batman because Gotham needed Batman is just the beginning of what’s wrong in this book. Jason became the Red Hood (in part) because he believed that Batman and his ways weren’t what Gotham needed so he made a better version of Batman with Red Hood (according to him) because Red Hood did what Batman refused to do. Another thing that is just wrong is Jason wanting, Damian, Tim or Dick to be his Robin, there is just so much wrong with this, first of all, Jason wanted Batman to stop having Robin because child soldiers ran the risk of dying at a very young age and that’s exactly how he saw the whole thing because that was what had happened to him. Second, if Jason was mad at Bruce for getting another Robin why would he now want one of his own to team up with his Batman? Damian was a child, Tim was someone that apparently Jason hated (because Jason beating Tim was mentioned in this event), and then Jason actually asked Dick Grayson, Nightwing, to be his Robin? Listen, there is no way that was Jason, nothing about him makes sense, even taking into account that Jason had beaten Tim already in this event Jason actually tried to kill both Tim and Damian (it might have been just one of them but yeah, it still doesn’t make sense).

I just don’t think that Tony S. Daniel knew who Jason Todd was, maybe he got confused but the thing is, his “villainous” and deranged version of Jason Todd allowed a villainous and deranged version of Red Hood to happen with the next writer that I will be talking about.

Grant Morrison in Batman and Robin vol.1 #3-6.

This was the birth of the villainous, deranged and bloodthirsty Red Hood. There is absolutely no trace of UtRH Jason here, not even if we are looking at the opposite of things like we could do with Daniel’s Jason. Grant Morrison wanted Dick and Damian to have a villain to match their Batman and Robin and they decided to give us a red-haired-pill-headed-red hood. Everything from Morrison’s characterization of Jason is crazy, from the red hair (hello pre-crisis) to the awful Joker’s Red Hood looking suit, everything was just weird.

I still don’t believe that was Jason, to be honest, I would rather think that version of Jason was actually a rouge Skrull that came all the way from the Marvel Universe and lost his way in Gotham City. Maybe when he made the jump between universes, he got too much information and got confused and took the form of the wonkiest Jason Todd he could come up with.

This Jason was absolutely deranged, he knew exactly what he was doing and he didn’t care if innocents died. This Jason was the one that got locked up in Arkham. This is the Jason that Dick put in Arkham for Jason and everybody else’s safety.

Dick putting that Jason in Arkham wasn’t a bad thing or something that anyone can use to shit on Dick Grayson (not on this house). This Arkham was reformed and that Jason knew that if he stayed in that new Arkham he would stay away from trouble, but here is the thing, that Jason loved trouble, so he took all the tests to prove he wasn’t insane and asked to be transferred to Blackgate (where all the Red Hood’s enemies were). That Jason didn’t ask to be sent to Blackgate because the Joker was a cell away from his in Arkham, he did it so he could go on a killing spree in Blackgate (which he did when he got there).

Skrull Jason was just bloodthirsty and nothing like UtRH Jason, he had no motive other than just killing for fun or whatever. He didn’t want to protect Gotham and he couldn’t have cared less about the drug trade in Gotham. In Batman and Robin vol.1. Jason Todd was unrecognizable. And luckily, we never saw him again.

Scott Lobdell in Everything that he ever wrote about Red Hood.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Lobdell was the king of overpowering Jason, he was the one that drove Red Hood farther and farther away from his street-level vigilante status. He continuously added more to him, he was a big deal because he was meant to take down Ra’s al Ghul, he was a big deal because he was the only human to train in the All-Castle and learned to summon the All-Blades.

This Red Hood’s morals and ideals were kind of gone, there just wasn’t any kind of interest in Jason to get rid of drugs or try to control its trade in Gotham, he just had no interest in street-level threats, everything was extraordinary in both New 52 and Rebirth. If he wasn’t in space he was in some mystical land. His friends and allies became even more and more powerful, his level of power was completely off compared to the others. His personality was ever-changing and quite honestly you could barely see the Jason that he once was.

This Jason also was very inconsistent in the way that he felt towards people (obviously because Lobdell is a shitty writer), he wanted to follow Batman’s rules and was shown as someone that still had fond memories of his life with Bruce before he died but was also willing to let those memories go, to move on? Maybe? I don’t know. But he changed his mind about Bruce and following his rules or not for a very long time. Jason was also a little bitch about Dick, and he was a little bitch because he (Lobdell) never gave the reader or anyone a concrete reason as to why he hated him so much and then in Rebirth he decided that Dick wasn’t that bad. Also, Jason went from “Willis Todd, abusive husband and father that deserved to die” to “Willis Todd abusive husband and father but he sent me letters when he was in prison and Penguin had him killed so now, I really want to avenge him”. Yeah, I don’t really know why that happened and like most of Lobdell’s arcs and stuff it was never really completed or well thought out.

Lobdell’s Jason characterization was a mess for ten years and that’s the prime reason why Jason is a character with no solid background, story or future.

James Tynion IV in Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Tynion’s Jason Todd was a hero, he was like a mini Tom King Batman. Everything he did was right and there was just no way that you could bamboozle him. This Jason was able to hold to Blades that drained his soul as well as hosting the Untitled in his body (that were able to drain his soul too) and on top of all that he completed his journey of the Chosen One by making those ancient martial arts moves that he learned before he was Robin even though Talia hadn’t been able to master it yet.

Scott Snyder, Tim Seeley in Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin Eternal.

A mess, this was pure New 52 levels of bullshit and they all just wanted to push the “Batfamily” and while Dick was gone, they were trying to make Jason fill the void that Dick left in Batman events. It didn’t work at all and all they did was mess around with Jason’s characterization more.

Geoff Johns in Three Jokers.

I have talked enough about Johns’ takes on Jason Todd and Red Hood, but let me tell you something real quick, if a writer thinks that the best they can do with a character is make them give up their morals/ideals for an unrequited love interest, then they can keep that idea for themselves. Geoff Johns wrote a book that was absolutely not needed and then proceeded to butcher every characterization that he could, Three Jokers was three issues long and he managed to add more trauma to Jason’s torture, push the narrative of Jason being at fault for his own murder and make Jason’s motivations to be the Red Hood weak enough to make him want to give up his work for a woman that he barely knows (and doesn’t like him at all).

Joshua Williamson in Future State: Red Hood and Robin #5.

Now, with Williamson I have issues only when he writes Jason, not because his stories are bad, don’t get me wrong, I would have completely enjoyed FS: Red Hood if it weren’t for the completely unnecessary Rose/Jason side plot he had going on. Jason was clearly working undercover for some people that he hated working with. He had to arrest or kill “masks” (vigilantes, just like he “used” to be) for the Magistrate.

His ideas were pretty solid, Jason did the job but he never killed the masks and actively didn’t trust the Magistrate but he was working there to tear them apart from within, and that’s amazing if Williamson had given us Jason Todd/Red Hood working undercover to dismantle an organization I would have been really happy.

But that’s not all he gave us, even if I just forget about his failed attempt at giving Jason a relationship, I can still see that Williamson is the kind of writer that wants (or is just following DC) to make the “Batfamily” happen no matter how dumb and out of place it looks in comics’ canon. So, I am a little bit weary, any writer that leans too much towards making Jason and Bruce work together and become a family makes me want to scream, but I do understand that is just me, many people want those two to be buddy-buddy, I, personally, would love to see Jason kick Bruce in the balls and tell him to lose his number.

Chip Zdarsky in Urban Legends: Cheer.

Ah, yes, I remember the days in which I thought that this could have been something good. Well, I was utterly wrong and I suffered all the way through this mini. I feel like now I can safely say that Zdarsky only wanted to write a Batman book but DC told him, “Hey you can write Batman but it has to be within a Red Hood story, but don’t worry, you don’t have to know much about the Hood guy, just come up with something and write Batman around that”.

I know that’s what happened because I read that story and all we got from it was horrible characterizations for pre-Robin Jason, Robin Jason, Jason Todd and Red Hood. I don’t know how he did it but yes, he managed to mess it all up.

From Jason not really wanting to be Robin and acting recklessly every step of the way, to secret desires of a perfect family with Bruce and so many other people that he couldn’t care about, Urban Legends: Cheer is the perfect book to avoid at all costs if you believe that the concept of “Batfamily” is the biggest lie, DC is trying to profit off this time around.

Zdarsky also nerfed Jason in ways that I thought DC only wanted to nerf Dick Grayson. But I was able to see that I was wrong. Zdarsky’s run also pushed some of the most disastrous narratives that DC really wants readers to believe like: Robin Jason wasn’t good at his job, he was too reckless and ultimately his death was his own fault. Yay! I want to cry!

I will give Zdarsky two points for at the very least showing that Red Hood wants to protect children and that he has a huge issue with how the drug trade is controlled and abused in Gotham City, it had been a while since we had seen that aspect of Jason’s Red Hood make an appearance.

It’s just too many writers completely missing the point of Red Hood’s character or simply writers agreeing to destroy Jason’s uniqueness in the DC Universe so DC (as the publisher) can further push the abomination that is the “Batfamily” in comics’ canon.

I do agree with you Anon when you say that Jason isn’t just a “bad boy” but I also don’t think that we can call UtRH Jason “dangerously insane”. Personally, I will only use that last description for BftC and Batman and Robin Jason, those two were dangerously insane indeed.

UtRH Jason was very meticulous in who he wanted dead and who got to live. He entered Gotham’s most dangerous world and he had to make a big entrance, he invited the eight most prosperous street dealers to a meeting, showed up with the decapitated heads of each of their right-hand men and an AK-47 and said:

“I am offering you a deal. I will be running the drug trade from now on. You will go about your business as usual. You will kick up forty percent to me. That is a much better deal than the Black Mask will give you. In return, you will have total protection from both the Black Mask and Batman. The catch? You stay away from kids and schoolyards. No dealing to children, got it? If you do, you’re dead.”

This was Red Hood! Red Hood wanted to control the drug trade in Gotham because he knew that Gotham is far too corrupt and filled with drug lords for him to just want to eradicate drugs from Gotham. If he had tried that he would have been a dumbass, but he wasn’t. He didn’t want to start a gang war and get innocent people killed because of it, he wanted to set the rules of his new Empire and he had to start with the street-level drug dealers, from there he grew until he became a major pain in Black Mask’s ass.

We went from Jason wanting to control the drug trade and take over Gotham’s underworld so people like Black mask couldn’t have people work for him (or being dependent on him) when they were still in high school or were in a vulnerable position, to Jason fighting a war for a mystic land because he was their “Chosen One”. DC really wanted to do something grand (yet boring) with Jason instead of sticking to a street-level vigilante that could have become a Drug Lord to control the drug trade of a city that is so filled with crime and corruption that it can’t be saved by anyone.

Batman doesn’t eradicate crime, he “controls” it, puts a blank it over it, lets it nap up until it wakes up once more to make more mess.

Red Hood had other plans, certain criminals didn’t get to nap, or, better said, they would get to nap forever.

So, no. I wouldn’t call that “dangerously insane”, I will call that “vigilante that believes himself judge, jury and executioner” of a city that is drowning in crime and corruption.

Anyway, I hope you have a really nice week Anon and thank you so much for sending me this ask!

#jason todd #red hood #under the red hood #red hood and the outlaws #dc comics #future state red hood #three jokers #bftc #asksss

151 notes · View notes

invisibleanonymousmonsters · 3 years

Text

All Men Have Limits - XII

Character: Dick Grayson x Reader x Bruce Wayne

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

Word Count: 6,600+

Warnings: Mentions of past abuse

Previously on…

6 MONTHS LATER...

Dick threw his small duffle over his shoulder as he looked around at his surroundings.

It sure was beautiful.

The complicated and long journey to get there was definitely worth it.

Dick figured out his surroundings before starting to walk.

There weren’t many people he passed, even when he got close to the town. But ones he did, they all stared, immediately recognizing him as a tourist. The place was too isolated for people to be passing through frequently.

Dick used that infamous Wayne charm to give polite smiles and nods to the townsfolk who gawked at him.

An hour later, Dick was at the bottom of a small hill, outside the fence of a bright yellow house. On the other side of him was water – the Norwegian sea.

The air was crisp and fresh, and Dick’s lungs seemed to thank him every time he took in a deep breath.

He was lost in the scenery when she appeared at the top of the hill.

Dick noticed her before she noticed him.

But when she was just a few yards from her house, she finally raised her head and spotted him.

Y/N froze for a moment, convinced she was seeing things.

But then her face broke into the brightest smile and she was running to him.

Dick caught her in his arms and spun her around, laughing at her excitement.

“What are you doing here?” She asked after he let her go.

“What do you think?” He chuckled.

Her smile faded slowly, and it was replaced with a contemplative look.

“Come inside,” she told him quietly.

Dick watched as she moved around the small kitchen and made them coffee.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“I’m surprised it took you so long to find me,” Y/N admitted shyly as she grabbed two bright red mugs from a cabinet.

“Well, it didn’t,” he looked a little bashful at the confession. “I found your location a couple days after I got your letter.”

Y/N stopped moving for a second.

“Oh,” she slipped out in surprise. “Did Bruce tell you?”

Dick shook his head. “No. I didn’t ask and he didn’t offer up that info.” He took in a deep breath. “I think he wanted to make sure I worked for it.”

Y/N nodded slowly.

But it was clear that the mentioning of Bruce wasn’t making her feel all that great.

“I’m sorry he never came,” Dick told her softly.

“Why?” She challenged.

After all, wasn’t Bruce his competition?

“I waited to come find you because I didn’t want to mess up what you were trying to make here,” Dick admitted.

“You could never mess anything up, Dick.” Y/N poured coffee into both of the mugs and sat across from him at the tiny kitchen table. “I was the one always messing everything up.”

“That’s not true.”

But from her face, Dick could tell she was unconvinced.

“Why Norway?” He asked, trying to change the subject.

Y/N shrugged with a little smirk as she looked out the window that showed the sea just outside her door.

“I always wanted to visit. Just never got around to it.”

“What have you been doing?” He asked, surprised to see not even so much as a laptop sitting around.

It was strange to imagine her living without a dozen computer screens surrounding her.

“I work at the preschool. And I help on one of the farms nearby on the weekends sometimes.”

Dick smiled at the thought.

“What?” She pressed.

“Nothing. Just the world’s smartest and most badass hacker working on a farm.”

Y/N shrugged and laughed. “It’s relaxing.”

“I’m sure.”

“I’ve made friends.”

“Friends?” Dick repeated melodramatically to tease her.

“Shut up,” she laughed as she punched his shoulder. “Yes, I have friends. And get this…I go to therapy now.”

Dick smiled proudly at her. “Therapy, huh?”

“Yep. I talk about my feelings and everything,” she laughed.

His smile dropped a bit and he cleared his throat. “I’m proud of you, Y/N. Really. I am.”

Y/N winced at his sincerity a bit. She was never one to take compliments well.

And before she could stop herself or hesitate, she stood from her chair and moved to Dick’s lap, hugging him.

“I’ve missed you, Dick.” She mumbled into his neck as he held her tightly and rubbed her back.

“I’ve missed you more,” he muttered.

Y/N pulled back to look at him. “Not possible.”

A single tear had escaped from her left eye.

Dick gently wiped it away.

“Hey, none of that,” he whispered.

“How long are you staying?” She asked him.

“Just two days.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s it? You traveled all this way just for two days?”

Dick Grayson was a romantic.

His face turned serious. “I was serious about not wanting to mess up what you have going on here. I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright.”

“I’m doing great,” she clarified.

He smiled. “I know. I can see that.”

“OK. Well…want to go to the pub with me tonight? You can meet my friends and get to see the town.”

Dick didn’t know why she bothered to phrase it as a question. Surely she knew by now that he was going to go anywhere she would.

But he nodded anyway.

——

Dick sat back and watched Y/N interact with the locals. They seemed to have taken her in as their own. He couldn’t help but wonder how they’d react if she were to ever leave. Surely she didn’t intend on staying here forever. Or maybe she did.

But he was surprised when she introduced him to a few of her new friends and their eyes widened with joy at hearing his name.

“Oh, you are Dick? We’ve heard so much about you!”

“We didn’t know you were coming to visit!”

“Come! Come! Let us buy you a drink!”

Dick tried not to blush when they all seemed to know who he was already.

Y/N sang along to songs with them and danced with anyone who asked her.

Dick had never seen her like this. She seemed to be glowing.

“Come on, Dick!” Y/N suddenly grabbed his attention. “Come dance with me!”

He laughed as he did as she requested, and let her spin him in too many circles.

A couple hours later, they were walking home.

They were both happily buzzed, but were by no means drunk.

Y/N wrapped her arm around Dick and leaned into him the whole walk.

When they were just outside her house’s gate, Y/N stopped them.

“Look how bright the stars are here!” She exclaimed quietly as she tilted her head up to look at the sky.

Dick was instantly thrown back to that night, laying on the ground of Wayne Manor and looking at the smoggy sky of Gotham. The stars seemed so bright to her then and now she was amazed at how bright the Norwegian sky was.

Y/N realized Dick hadn’t tilted his head back.

“You’re not looking!” She accused before shifting her gaze to him.

When she did, she found that he was staring at her.

“What?” She whispered.

“I wasn’t completely honest about why I came here,” Dick confessed.

She tilted her head questioningly.

“I mean, yes, I did want to check on you. But there’s more to it than that...”

Y/N had untangled herself from him now and turned to look at him.

“I know things have always been…complicated. And I know you loved – or love Bruce. I don’t know. But I just…I needed to tell you this.”

Dick took in a deep breath. “I’m gonna wait for you.”

“Dick…” Y/N exhaled in surprise.

“Wait. Please…let me finish.”

She did.

“I’m gonna wait for you. And you take as long as you need. I mean it. I know you think that I don’t know how to be alone…but I’ll wait for you as long as I have to.”

Y/N stayed quiet.

“Unless it’s Bruce. Then I’ll–”

“It’s not Bruce,” she quickly cut him off.

Y/N stepped forward and softly captured Dick’s face in her hands.

“It’s you, Dick.”

And before he could ask her if she was messing with him, her lips collided with his. It took him a second to react and kiss her back. But when he finally did, it was with everything he possibly had.

When Y/N pulled away, she stared into his eyes and took his hand, guiding him into the house.

As soon as the door shut behind them, she started kissing him again.

She tugged at his belt and became frustrated with the amount of buttons on his flannel. Dick would’ve been more helpful if he wasn’t so preoccupied with taking off her clothes. He seemed to be doing much better than she was.

Once they were both in their undergarments, Y/N dragged Dick to her bedroom, giggling when he tripped over the edge of her couch on the way.

It wasn’t until Y/N’s thumbs slipped under the elastic of his boxer briefs that Dick stopped them.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he breathed as he paused their kissing and grabbed her wrists.

“What?” Y/N gasped, worried that she’d read all of this wrong.

“I just…Are you sure?” Dick asked quietly.

Y/N couldn’t help herself, but she started giggling.

“Oh, come on,” Dick groaned in embarrassment, pressing his forehead into her shoulder.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry,” Y/N said as she controlled her amusement. “It’s just…you’re too sweet for this world, Richard Grayson.”

He rolled his eyes.

But Y/N’s smile softened as she stared into his eyes. “I love you. You love me. And that’s all I care about right now.”

Dick just stared at her in awe.

“OK?” She asked.

Dick nodded quickly, so desperate not to mess this up.

“OK,” he agreed before kissing her again.

——————

It was the dinging of the buoy bells and the sound of soft waves that woke Dick up.

Maybe it was the unusual soundscape. He was so used to the sounds of cities that this was triggered as unusual in his mind.

Dick opened his eyes and his mind slowly reminded him where he was.

Y/N was asleep on his chest, held in his arms.

He smiled at the feeling of her naked skin against his.

It was going to be harder to leave than he original anticipated.

Dick tried to untangle their bodies, waking Y/N up in the process.

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered to her. “I’m going to make us some coffee and breakfast.”

“Don’t bother,” Y/N mumbled sleepily. “I don’t have any food.”

“Stay,” she added in a whine. “You’re so warm.”

Dick chuckled. “I know you have coffee, Y/N.”

“I do,” she hummed with a mischievous smile, eyes still closed. “But I want you to stay in bed.”

“I promise I’ll be right back,” he whispered to her before kissing the top of her head.

She finally allowed him to leave.

Dick quickly put on his underwear and got to the kitchen, trying to be quiet as he shuffled around to find everything to make coffee.

When he returned to bed it was with two filled mugs.

Y/N had rolled onto her stomach, her face buried in Dick’s pillow.

Her shoulders and upper back were exposed as she slept.

Dick paused and allowed himself to take in the scene before him.

He’d spent so much time dreaming of having such bliss. And now it sat before him as a reality. It felt too good to be true.

He sat on the very edge of the bed, putting both mugs on the nightstand beside him.

Dick bent down to place a trail of kisses up Y/N’s spine and then to her shoulder.

She hummed at the feeling.

“Come on. Wake up,” Dick whispered in her ear.

Y/N slowly woke up, and pulled the sheet to her chest as she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

“You know…you’re very adorable when you first wake up,” Dick told her with a smirk.

“Oh, shut it,” Y/N warned him as she grabbed for one of the mugs.

Dick allowed her one sip before he pressed his lips to hers.

“Morning,” Y/N smiled after.

“Good morning,” he huffed a laugh.

She sighed. “What would you like to do today, Mr. Grayson?”

“I really don’t care,” Dick admitted.

He wanted to say, ‘As long as I’m with you, it doesn’t matter.’ But he knew it would come out cheesy and she’d only laugh at him. So he saved the thought for himself.

“How about a hike?” She offered.

“A hike sounds perfect.”

She tilted her head. “Maybe a shower first?”

“Shower first,” he confirmed. “Would be even better if it was together.”

Y/N threw her head back in a laugh. “I’ll allow it.”

A hike did turn out to be perfect.

Y/N pointed out landmarks or the property of friends.

And then she’d ask Dick about his life back home. And she asked about his brothers – to which he gave great detail about each.

But it didn’t go past Dick that she hadn’t asked about Bruce.

They’d finally reached the top of their goal peak.

They were both breathing heavily. It was by no means an easy hike.

“Do you miss him?” Dick finally had the courage to ask.

Y/N shrugged, but wouldn’t look at him. “Of course I do.”

“Be honest. Were you expecting him to find you?”

“No,” she answered truly. “I knew he wouldn’t.”

Dick didn’t know how to respond to that.

“But I think the worst part was that I was so okay with that,” Y/N admitted.

Then she sighed.

“Obviously I’ve had a lot of time to think about…everything. Me and him…we would be terrible for each other, Dick. I don’t know how to read his mind. And he doesn’t know how to talk to me. We’re both so stubborn and so bad at communicating. We would’ve just grown to resent one another.”

Y/N took in a shaky breath and exhaled. “And once I realized that, I was terrified that I’d completely fucked things up with you – and that I’d hurt your relationship with him.”

“You didn’t, Y/N.” Dick tried to reassure her.

“Things would be so bad between him and me. Then there would be one single moment of good…and I’d hold onto it for dear life,” Y/N added. “And I realized that would be our whole relationship.”

Dick nodded in understanding.

He knew she was absolutely right, and it had been his biggest fear for them.

“I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized. “I shouldn’t talk about him with you like this.”

“Don’t apologize.”

Dick wrapped his arm around her as they looked at the view together.

“Come on,” he told her. “We should get back soon. I have to catch a boat.”

She nodded.

——

The walk to the boat went by far too quickly for both of them. And their goodbye had arrived too soon.

Dick held Y/N in his arms on the dock.

When they pulled away he saw that Y/N’s eyes had filled with tears.

“Why do you have to go?” She muttered, clearly trying not to cry.

“You know all I want is to stay with you. But you said it yourself: you gotta figure stuff out. And I don’t want to be the one that gets in the way of that.”

He kissed her slowly.

“I wasn’t lying when I promised that I’d wait as long as I needed to, Y/N.”

“I know.”

“You take as long as you need, hear me?”

She nodded quickly.

“But I gotta go now.”

Dick gave one final and abrupt kiss before rushing away and jumping onto the boat.

He knew if he lingered, even a second, he might not be able to leave her.

He wouldn’t even let himself look back at her as the boat started to drift away. Because even then he was at risk of jumping off and swimming back to her.

——————————

9 MONTHS LATER…

“Seriously, Jaybird?” Dick asked as he held his cellphone to one hear and the steering wheel with the other.

He turned to Y/N, who sat in the passenger seat. “He says he’s not coming.”

“Gimme,” she muttered impatiently as she held out her hand.

Dick passed her the phone.

“What the fuck has you so busy that you can’t have a family dinner?”

Dick chuckled at his girlfriend’s sass.

“Jason, I haven’t seen you in over a year! Please? For me?”

Dick immediately heard the tone in her voice that always brought him to his knees – and she already had him wrapped around her finger. He wondered if Jason was immune to it.

But when he saw Y/N start smiling widely, he knew his brother was no stronger than him.

“Can’t wait to see you!” Y/N sang before hanging up.

The car went silent then. The only sound being the commercials on the radio.

“Is this going to be weird?” Y/N suddenly asked quietly as she stared out the passenger window.

“No,” Dick answered confidently.

She turned to look at him. “Sure?”

“No one is better than Bruce Wayne when it comes to pretending everything is alright. Trust me.” Then he sighed sadly. “Plus, Damian texted earlier and said there was last minute Justice League business. I doubt he’ll be back by dinner.”

“Sorry,” Y/N told him softly as she grabbed his right hand and placed a kiss on his knuckles. “I know you’ve missed him.”

Dick had been jumping from place to place for the past year and a half that even when he was in Gotham, he barely had time to see Bruce. It was always in passing.

“It’s fine.”

When they pulled up to Wayne Manor, Dick barely closed the car door before Damian was tackling him into a hug.

“Hey, Damian,” Dick chuckled softly at the boy.

Y/N smiled at the interaction and walked to the door to find Alfred waiting patiently with a smile.

“Hello, Alfred.”

“Ms. Y/L/N,” he bowed his head slightly.

“Alfred, we’ve been over this…” she warned playfully.

“A hard habit to break, Y/N.” He answered with a wink. “Welcome back.”

“Jason will be late,” she told him before hugging him hello.

“Master Wayne had another engagement,” Alfred said to Dick as he walked up with Damian glued to his side.

“Damian gave me the heads up,” Dick answered before hugging Alfred, too.

Damian gave a rushed side hug to Y/N as if he was embarrassed to show her any sort of affection and then ran away.

Dick and Y/N laughed at the gesture.

“Mr. Clark and Ms. Brown are here, as well.” Alfred informed them.

Y/N gave Dick a questioning look.

“Superman’s son and Tim’s girlfriend,” he explained.

“Ahh.”

Jason did end up coming to dinner – late as usual.

But he made up for it by wrapping Y/N in a giant bear hug and lifting her off her feet.

“Easy, punk!” Dick warned protectively as he heard his girlfriend shriek in surprise.

“Oh, fuck off,” Jason shooed.

This particular meal went off rather differently than Y/N’s first Wayne family dinner.

It probably helped that Damian was distracted with his best friend, Jonathan – who was the sweetest little boy Y/N had ever met. And Tim kept having a quiet conversation with his girlfriend, Stephanie – who was a social butterfly and asked Y/N about a million questions before dessert.

Jason claimed to only have come for a free meal and to ask Y/N why she was dating such a loser.

After dinner, Y/N convinced everyone to have a game night in the family room. Jason blasted some music. And everyone – to no surprise – got way too competitive with each other.

Y/N found it amusing to see Dick’s brother interacting with their own friends or significant others. Tim looked absolutely love stricken every time he looked at Stephanie. And even though Jon and Damian seemed like total opposites, Y/N could see that Damian really did enjoy the boy’s company.

“How did you not get The Searchers?” Jon groaned at Damian, but he clearly wasn’t actually mad or upset at the loss.

Y/N laughed at the boy. “Jon, how the hell do you even know that movie? It’s form the ‘50s.”

“Me and my dad watch westerns every Friday night,” he beamed proudly.

“I have better things to do than watch movies all the time,” Damian mumbled.

Y/N turned to Dick, who had her locked onto his lap with his arms.

“You gotta let me go,” she muttered to him with amusement. “It’s our turn.”

Dick did as she asked, but not before giving her a quick kiss.

“Eww!” Damian screamed.

“They’re in love! Leave them alone,” Stephanie reprimanded Damian, and looked at the couple – almost with admiration.

“Damian and Jon only got three in their round,” Jason announced just before he started the timer. “You two idiots ready?”

Y/N nodded and bounced on her feet in excitement.

Her and Dick ended up doing better than the younger boys. But they only got 5 right in the time limit and that was not good enough for Y/N.

“Can you please watch more movies?” Y/N moaned. “Or I’m going to partner with Jason next time.”

“Who knew pop culture was gonna be the thing that broke the two of you up…” Jason snickered.

Dick punched him in the arm before he pulled Y/N back down onto his lap against her will.

“You sure you wanna threaten me?” Dick asked before tickling her.

“I’m a winner. And you are becoming our weakest link!” Y/N managed to say through her laughter.

Even with the room filled with nothing but joyful chaos, a thought was nagging away at Y/N’s mind the whole night. She couldn’t ignore the disappointment of Bruce being absent. Dick knew she missed him – and he couldn’t acknowledge that without also feeling jealous.

Y/N just wanted to know how Bruce was doing.

But she also wanted to make sure there was no water under the bridge.

Yes, Bruce could go on living without ever clearing the air between the two of them. But Y/N couldn’t. She wasn’t that person anymore.

She was dating Dick now, who was basically his son – no matter how much they all tried to ignore that.

Just went Jason was about to partner with Stephanie, there was a throat clearing in the doorway of the family room.

Y/N looked up to see not only Bruce, but also Clark Kent standing in the doorway, watching all of them.

Or should she say Superman? Because he was still in his uniform.

“Hi, dad!” Jon smiled.

Clark smiled at the chaos before him. “I see you’re having fun with the Waynes.”

“Dad, can I sleep over tonight? Pretty please?” Jon whined.

“Yes, father. May he?” Damian urged to Bruce.

Clark and Bruce shared a look.

Y/N had to hide her amusement at the tired-dad role she was seeing Bruce fill. It never failed to surprise her.

Clark sighed, clearly sad he was about to disappoint his son. “I promised your mom that I’d bring you home tonight. Another time, alright?”

Jon’s head lowered in disappointment. But he didn’t fight his father on the decision.

He got up to walk to him.

“What do you say?” Clark asked.

Jon turned to Bruce. “Thank you for having me over, Mr. Wayne.”

Bruce smirked at the boy. “You’re welcome any time, Jonathan.”

Jon turned to wave bye to the rest of them. But then his eyes widened when he got to Y/N.

“Oh!” The boy practically yelped and skipped to where Y/N sat on the couch.

She was taken by surprise when the boy wrapped her into a hug.

“It was nice to meet you, Y/N.” Jon hummed with a smile. Then he turned to his father. “Dad! This is Y/N.”

She stood up when Clark walked to her. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”

Clark reached his hand out. Clearly Jonathan got his manners from his father.

“Clark,” he introduced. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Y/N. It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”

Y/N turned to eye Dick for that.

“Oh, not from that one,” Clark clarified with a smile and then nudged his head in Bruce’s direction, who was still standing in the doorway.

Y/N blinked in surprise, but recovered quickly.

“I hope they weren’t too much to handle,” Clark commented with a wince, knowing that Dick and her were probably supervising the kids the most.

“Not at all,” Y/N said. “Jonathan is better behaved than any of these monsters…”

“Hey!” Dick and Jason called out in unison.

Clark chuckled.

Then he looked down at his son. “Come on, Jonathan. Time to go.”

Y/N peaked through a window as the two of them walked outside and took off into the sky.

A second later, she heard the sonic boom.

When she turned back to the room, no one seemed to have watched their exit like she had. They hardly noticed people’s inhuman abilities anymore.

“You guys are way too used to that…” Y/N mumbled.

Jason laughed lightly at her amazement. “You should ask Bruce about the first time Dick met Clark.”

“Absolutely not,” Dick immediately shut down.

But when Y/N looked up to ask Bruce to elaborate, he had already disappeared from the room.

Maybe her being here wasn’t as easy for him as she had expected. But that was so hard for Y/N to believe.

“He was his biggest fan,” Jason continued as Dick tried to tackle him into silence. “He asked for his autograph like a fuckin’ nerd.”

Y/N shook her head at the two of them. “Aww…cute little baby Richard.”

Before she could ask more questions, Damian tugged on her hand and pulled her out of the room.

Dick didn’t call after them, too relieved to get away from his past childhood obsession with Superman.

“Where are we going?” She asked Damian with a laugh.

The boy tugged her harder, clearly annoyed by how slow she was moving.

“I wish to show you something.” Then he hesitated before adding, “It’s a secret.”

When they got to his room, Damian double checked the hallway before closing his bedroom door behind them.

He walked to his giant, walk-in closet.

When he opened the door, Y/N knew exactly what he was hiding.

There was a litter of kittens and their mother in a large cardboard that had food, water, and toys for them.

“Damian…” Y/N cooed at the sight of them.

“I found them on patrol a week ago. It was raining and they were freezing cold. Father and Pennyworth don’t know.”

She arched an eyebrow. There was no chance that they didn’t know. Bruce was aware of everything that happened in this household.

“You can hold them,” Damian offered as he held a kitten up to her.

It warmed her heart. And she took the kitten out of his grip.

She watched as Damian played with them and their mother, who seemed to be alright with this new human touching her babies.

“How’s your father doing, Damian?” Y/N asked carefully after awhile.

He shrugged. “Fine, I suppose. Though I think he was rather sad when you left.”

Y/N hummed.

She was surprised that such a thing could be perceived by Damian. It had to have been rather obvious for him to notice.

But this was most likely all she’d get from the boy.

“I see Grayson is quite happy,” Damian added.

“Think so?”

He nodded.

“I liked Jon. He’s a little cutie.”

“Yuck. He’s my friend.”

Y/N laughed. “You know, I think you’re a little cutie, too. But I would never tell anyone that. I know you’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

Damian glared at her.

But the look just caused Y/N to laugh more.

“Maybe I can convince them to let you keep all of ‘em,” she told him.

His head whipped up to from the kittens to her, surprised by her offer.

“You would do that?” He asked.

“Yeah. I just don’t know how much power I have...”

“More than you think…” Damian mumbled.

“What?”

“I think he still loves you,” the boy said as he looked down at the kittens.

“I’m not so sure. After all, he didn’t seem to even want to talk to me.”

“He doesn’t know how to behave around you and Grayson. He’s scared to get in between the two of you.”

Her brow furrowed. “How do you know that?”

“A couple nights ago, I overheard father and Pennyworth talking about you visiting. Father thought it was best to keep his distance.”

“Overheard or eavesdropped?” She challenged.

Damian smirked mischievously.

“We should probably get back before everyone get’s suspicious. I don’t want to expose your secret,” Y/N finally told him.

The boy nodded in agreement.

“Thank you for sharing it with me.”

“Mhmm,” he hummed back.

——————

Dick and Y/N had already planned to stay the night at the manor.

The two of them stayed in Dick’s bedroom, which only got Y/N to make a dozen jokes about sleeping together in his childhood room.

But the fun ended there.

While Dick quickly fell asleep, Y/N laid wide awake.

She went over her conversation with Damian again and again.

Was Bruce really that worried about her visiting?

After failing at going to sleep for hours, Y/N finally gave up.

She started getting out of bed.

“You OK?” Dick mumbled, her movement instantly waking him up.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just gonna go get some water from the kitchen,” she told him quietly. “Go back to sleep,” she urged before kissing his cheek.

It was a bit of a white lie.

Y/N was going to find Bruce.

However, she expected to have to trek all the way down to the cave.

Imagine her surprise when there was a slit of light leaking from the office.

Y/N froze, realizing her moment of confrontation was coming much sooner than she’d expected.

Her inhale was shaky the second before she slipped into the room.

Bruce immediately sensed a new presence and looked up from the computer.

“Hey,” Y/N greeted quietly.

Her body language screamed how uncomfortable she was.

But Y/N knew she had to stop running away from the hard questions.

What was the point of going to therapy if she wasn’t going to use the resources and advice to improve her life?

Bruce straightened in his seat, almost as if he’d been caught.

“Hi,” he replied softly.

His eyes held a smile that didn’t reach his lips.

“Couldn’t sleep?” He asked her.

Y/N nodded and crossed her arms.

But she couldn’t stop herself from blurting out, “I’m sorry if it’s hard – me being here, I mean.”

Then she blinked and her eyes widened, fully processing what she just said.

“Or maybe it’s not hard at all and I’m completely projecting,” she added quickly.

Y/N cringed at her mess of a mind and inability to actually communicate what she wanted to say.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Bruce assured her before she could panic any further.

He slowly stood from his desk and walked out from behind it.

Y/N was a bit caught off guard by how close he stood to her, arms crossed and radiating poise.

She was so used to him keeping a distance – literally and figuratively.

“I’m glad you and Dick came to visit,” Bruce shared.

Y/N nodded.

Of course he would say that. It was the polite thing to do. And Bruce Wayne was raised to be polite, if nothing else.

An awkward silence settled.

“It is hard, you being here,” Bruce finally confessed.

Y/N was caught off guard by the honesty.

“I shouldn’t have kept the two of you apart,” he told her tenderly.

“It wasn’t just you, Bruce. I kept pushing him away,” she tried to defend.

Bruce shook his head. “But you wouldn’t have done that if it were not for me.”

Y/N took in a deep breath. “I’m glad you didn’t come find me.”

It was like they could both feel the gravity of the conversation drop.

“I needed time and space to see our relationship without,” she hesitated, “without being distracted by wanting you to want me.”

She shook her head at her own racing thoughts. “We would’ve been terrible for each other, Bruce.”

His instinct was to tell her that he disagreed.

But that was only because she saw the truth before him, and it made a part of him bitter – bitter that she wasn’t scared of it the same way he clearly was.

So Bruce’s silence said more than any words.

“I finally understood that the issue was never you not being able to find the right person. It was you never finding the person who would make you give up everything else.” Her head bowed in defeat. “And it just…it fucking sucked to realize that wasn’t going to be me. But I had to realize it at some point.”

Bruce cleared his throat. It was more to hold back his emotions than anything else.

“After everything, does it even mean anything when I say that I will always be sorry for what I did to you?” He asked her faintly.

She gave him a sad smile and bowed her head, “It does.”

Her smile brightened.

“Bruce, I really love him,” she whispered.

It was desperate and almost frightened, like she was scared saying it aloud would ruin the whole thing and Dick would disappear.

“I promise…he loves you even more.”

Once again, Y/N was taken aback by Bruce’s words.

But it was the truth.

From the short time Bruce had been in the room with Clark, he was hit with the absolute infatuation Dick had for her. Bruce noticed the way Dick looked at her, how his body was always facing her direction, and the love-sick sparkle in his eyes.

It had made Bruce wonder, ‘Could I have ever loved her that way?’

And he knew it was the what Y/N deserved.

“I won’t allow my mistakes to be the thing that keeps you two away,” Bruce finally disclosed. “I want the two of you to be happy.”

“Thank you,” Y/N whispered, trying to stop her voice from shaking.

Y/N faltered before she asked, “Are you gonna be OK, Bruce?”

He nodded. “Always am.”

She laughed lightly at his answer. “No, you aren’t. You’re just way too good at hiding it. And that’s why I worry.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, Y/N.”

“Well, I’m going to.”

Bruce gave her a shy smirk. “I will be fine.”

Y/N gave a stiff nod. That was as good as she was going to get.

“I should try to get some sleep,” she told him with a shrug.

He nodded. “Goodnight, Y/N.”

With that, she walked slowly out of the office and left him.

Tiptoeing back into the bedroom, Y/N got back into bed and nuzzled close to Dick.

He pulled her into his arms without opening his eyes.

“Hi,” he mumbled sleepily.

“Hi,” she whispered back.

She brushed some hair off his face and took in the sight of him sleeping.

They had officially been together as a couple for the past six months, bouncing around the country together.

Dick had done what he promised and gave Y/N her space.

She ended up staying in Norway for a year, spending 6 more months there after Dick had visited.

It was a real testament to Dick’s self control, the way he stopped himself from texting and calling her every day. He managed to keep it to a single text, once a week. He’d always kept it light, using it more as a check-in to make sure she was doing OK and staying safe.

Now Y/N looked at him as her boyfriend.

Someone she’d never had in her life before.

It was definitely a learning curve for her. But Dick was patient. More patient than Y/N believed she deserved. But that was something she had to work on still, too.

Dick was nothing but loving and gentle with Y/N. He made her laugh and smile – sometimes at his own expense. He taught Y/N that relationships could be filled with fun and jokes. They didn’t always have to be weighed down by tension and uncertainty.

And even though Y/N didn’t understand it or agree, Dick still saw himself as the lucky one.

“I love you, Dick,” she finally breathed as she brushed his cheekbone with his thumb.

“I love you, too.” He mumbled back.

And she had no idea if he was talking in his sleep or not.

Regardless, it was absolutely adorable.

————

Dick was a product of Bruce’s bad habits, often waking up early even when he was disturbingly sleep deprived.

When he walked into the manor’s kitchen the next morning, only Bruce was occupying the room. Alfred was probably working in the gardens.

“Morning,” Dick greeted as he poured himself coffee.

“Heading out early?” Bruce asked.

Dick shook his head. “Y/N didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. So I wanted to let her sleep in as much as she wants. Then we’ll probably head out.”

“Where to?”

Dick shrugged, “San Francisco.”

Bruce just nodded in interest.

“I can feel a lecture coming on…” Dick pointed out before he quirked an eyebrow and took a sip of coffee.

Bruce moved in his seat. “Don’t ruin this, Dick.”

Dick couldn’t help but smirk. “You do understand how ironic that is coming from you, right?”

Bruce sighed, but it was his equivalent of rolling one’s eyes.

“She talk to you last night?” Dick asked.

As soon as Y/N had come back to bed, he knew that’s where she’d been.

“She did,” Bruce confirmed.

Dick shifted his weight.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Bruce said with a smirk. His amusement only earned him a glare from Dick. “She chose you, Dick. And I’m not going to do anything to hurt either of you.”

Dick knew there was nothing but sincerity behind Bruce’s words.

But he also spent most of his life comparing himself to Bruce. This was the first time he’d ever done so with women or love or even sex. It would take a bit more effort to get over it like he had with his other insecurities.

“I know,” Dick finally said quietly.

———————

A few hours later, Y/N had woken up, showered, and gotten her things together.

Dick and her had said their goodbyes to the boys and Alfred.

Just as they were at the door, Y/N noticed Bruce leaning against the wall, watching them leave.

“Go,” Dick urged her quietly when he saw her hesitate. “I’ve already said my goodbyes.”

Y/N’s fingers fidgeted as she slowly walked to Bruce.

“Guess this is goodbye,” she laughed awkwardly.

“Guess so,” he offered with a sad smile.

‘Fuck it,’ she thought before wrapping him in a hug.

“Keep in touch with him, please. He misses you more than you think,” she whispered into his shoulder.

“You let me know if he gives you trouble,” he answered seriously.

But Y/N pulled away with a laugh. “We both know he would never.”

She took a step back. “Bye, Bruce.”

“Goodbye, Y/N.”

And then she was gone.

Bruce watched them leave through the windows.

When Y/N got into the car, Dick reached over with his hand and gave her a sympathetic look. “You OK?”

“Mhmm,” she hummed before kissing him.

“We got a long drive ahead of us,” Dick sighed.

Y/N smiled. “Yeah, but it’ll be fun.”

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

THE END

I just wanted to thank everyone who commented or messaged me about this story. I don’t know if I’ve ever written a story this quickly before. And it was honestly because I felt like people were reading it and they cared. I haven’t had that experience for quite some time. So thank you.

Let me know how you’re feeling and what you thought!!!

If you’ve been reading this and not commenting/messaging me, or you’ve waited until I finished writing the whole series so you can read it in on sitting and not engage at all... we’re not friends.

LOL.

#all men have limits #all men have limits part 12 #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson reader insert #bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne reader insert #bruce wayne x reader x dick grayson #dick grayson x reader x bruce wayne #batfam #batboys #nightwing x reader #batman x reader

484 notes · View notes

sky-berrie · 3 years

Note

How would the batboys react to a female SO with Paranoid Personality Disorder?

Hi there!

Thanks so much for the ask. I hope this is okay :)

-Sky

Bruce

As a person living with paranoid personality disorder, you might be terrified that people are out to harm you. Your place of residence, Gotham city, does nothing but exacerbate your paranoid thought patterns, since criminals run rampant through the streets. It’s hard to distinguish between paranoid thoughts and substantiated concerns. Is that sketchy person with the full face covering one of Black Mask’s False Face Society members sent to abduct you, or are they just a conscientious citizen taking extra precautions to avoid contracting or transmitting the COVID virus? Being in a state of constant fear prevents you from living your life to the fullest. Luckily, your S/O happens to be Batman in his free time.

Bruce eases your mind just with his presence. He’s probably the smartest, strongest, and most resourceful person you know and being with him makes you feel safe. Bruce is the kind of person who you’d blindly listen to during an emergency – if he told you to jump out of a burning plane, you’d do it without a second thought because he’s never let you down in the past and you’re confident that he never will in the future. If you’re feeling fearful in public, Bruce will grab your hand or put an arm around you securely and soothingly whisper in your ear that he’s right here and there’s nothing to worry about. Having paranoid thoughts means that it’s difficult to reason with you, so you probably aren’t convinced that there is no threat, but you do experience some relief from his soft touch and gentle words. He’ll ask if you want to leave and he’ll take you to your safe space. If you’re feeling fearful in private, Bruce will hold you close and rub your back to reduce your anxiety. If you’re by yourself and start to have those racing, panicked paranoid thoughts, you can always call Bruce. He’ll drop whatever he is doing and come take care of you.

Bruce will teach you self defense to help you feel more comfortable around people. He won’t arm you with any dangerous weapons because he doesn’t want an innocent person to get hurt if you get spooked. Bruce will ask if you want to move into the manor since it has strong security and comes with several vigilantes. If you would rather stay at your own place, Bruce will install a variety of safety systems to make you feel protected. He’ll even spend most nights at your place so you can sleep peacefully. Overall, Bruce is like your lifeline. He’ll know just what to do to help you through your difficult thoughts.

Dick

Dick is a social butterfly who’s had his fair share of romantic partners in the past so it’s natural for you to feel jealous when he spends time with other people. Dick will adamantly declare that he’s with you and only you. At first you might try to ignore the prickly feeling of jealousy because you don’t want to come off as a possessive S/O, but the clues accumulate and suggest that he’s cheating on you. For example, he’ll rarely spend the night with you. You’ll catch him sneaking into bed at ungodly hours of the morning. When confronted, he’ll make up an excuse that he just went to get a drink of water or use the bathroom. You’ll spot bruises scattered over his chest knowing you definitely did not leave those there. He’ll play it off as a gym injury.

When you raise your suspicions, Dick is hesitant to explain. You take this as confirmation of infidelity and you’re ready to walk out. At that point, he has no choice but to come clean about his secret identity as Nightwing. That sounds farfetched and you likely think he’s a pathological liar. Finally, Dick proves it to you and explains that he didn’t want you to be dragged into his dangerous nightlife. While you accept that as the truth, you’ll always wonder if he’s hiding more secrets. Furthermore, you’re probably pissed that he was gaslighting you. Dick will do everything he can to make it up to you. He’ll apologize profusely and in extravagant ways, be more transparent, and shower you with excessive love and affection. It might take a long time, but eventually Dick will worm his way back into your good graces.

It doesn’t take long for the green-eyed monster to rear its’ ugly head again. Now that you’re in the know, you’re hyperaware of the attractive vigilantes that Dick works with and it’s emotionally draining to be jealous all the time. You don’t want to be the type of person who tries to control their partner’s life, but when the suffering becomes too much to bear, you might ask him to stop seeing certain people. Dick will calmly assure you that there isn’t anything going on with any of his vigilante friends. If that doesn’t appease you, he’ll suggest that you hang out with the team and get to know them. He hopes that you’ll see that there aren’t any romantic feelings between them. Whatever you do, please don’t force him to choose between you and his hero life. It will tear him apart.

Jason

Trust is very important to Jason. He doesn’t trust many people as it is and needs a S/O who he can trust wholeheartedly and who will trust him in return. He believes that this relationship will fail if you don’t have confidence in each other. He’ll take it personally if you distrust him. Jason will get defensive and frustrated if you accuse him of being unfaithful, especially if you don’t have a shred of evidence to support your claims. He’ll be offended and deeply hurt that you think so negatively of him but once he’s had some time to cool off, he’ll be able to process everything more objectively. He’ll accept that you can’t control the way you feel. You’d explained it to him once that you do trust him, but there’s a separate voice in your head that tells you otherwise. Jason won’t give up on you though. He’ll come up with a proposition - he’ll agree to install a tracking app on his phone so you can monitor his whereabouts if you’ll promise to work on learning to trust him, whether it be via professional psychotherapy or reading self-help books.

On the other hand, if Jason is one of the only people you trust, he’ll be elated to know that you two have built such a strong connection. It’ll be easy to confide in him because he’ll gladly listen to your worried thoughts with no judgement. At first, he’ll reassure you that nothing bad is going to happen to you – he’s Red Hood and nobody is going to pull anything on you if they value their life. Eventually he’ll realize that trying to reason with you isn’t helpful so he’ll stick to active listening when you’re experiencing paranoid thoughts.

However, if Jason is fresh out of the pit and emotionally unstable, you two will probably bond over your mutual distrust and cynicism about the world. Although you and Jason will get along exceptionally well, it’s possible that your irrational thoughts may feed each other’s paranoia and exacerbate the feelings of mistrust and suspicion. If you find yourself unable to let things go, feel free to vent away when you’re with Jason. He is the king of holding grudges, so he’ll probably support you and even join in on trash talking that person with you when you’re angry. Learning to forgive and forget is something you and Jason can work on together. In a way, it brings you two closer together since you understand each other on a level that others can’t begin to comprehend.

Tim

Tim very compassionate and patient; however, he’s afraid of triggering you so he’s often walking on eggshells around you. He just wants to be the perfect supportive S/O for you and doesn’t want to mess up the relationship. His worst offense (in your eyes) is using ambiguous language that lends to multiple interpretations. For example, he might innocently compliment your clothes/hair/makeup and you might assume that he only likes you for your appearance or that he’s implying that you’re vain for wanting to look nice. The moment you shoot him daggers, he’s realized his mistake and starts to furiously backpedal. He tries to explain himself, but he usually ends up digging himself a deeper hole. Eventually, he gets better at expressing his thoughts carefully so that they can’t be misconstrued.

Tim diligently tries to learn your other triggers and how to help. When you’re stuck in a cycle of paranoid thoughts, Tim will get you to focus on what’s real instead of trying to make you see sense. He’ll help you relax by walking you through breathing exercises, playing soothing music, or whatever strategies you find helpful.

Tim isn’t proud of this, but he’s resorted to deceiving you when necessary. For instance, if you’re experiencing paranoid thought patterns and want to be alone, Tim will hesitantly leave, but he’ll probably secretly monitor you only because he’s worried about your safety. If you’re afraid that others are reading your mind, he might pretend that he invented an anti-mindreading helmet to ease your suspicions. He knows you would feel betrayed if you ever found out about his dishonesty, but he reasons that your safety and comfort are more important in the moment.

Damian

Arguments with Damian are brutal. No matter how insignificant the disagreement is, Damian refuses to back down when he believes he’s right. Paired with your own stubbornness and contentiousness, these quarrels generally result in an impasse. Eventually your anger subsides and the depression sinks in. You might assume that Damian doesn’t love you anymore and that fight was the end of your relationship. Maybe you start packing your belongings to move out right away. Damian comes up behind you and asks what you’re doing. When you tell him that you’re leaving because he doesn’t want you anymore, he’s instantly remorseful. He takes your bags out of your hands and proceeds to pull you in close as he tells you how much he loves you. He assures you that two people can disagree and still love each other.

Damian doesn’t want to argue with you and he certainly doesn’t want to see you upset so he’ll always excuse himself before the argument becomes too heated. He hopes that some time apart will allow you both to calm down and come to a compromise, but it’s never that simple. Most of the time, you’ll need a third-party mediator, like a therapist, to resolve your dispute. The act of seeking out a therapist will be a huge accomplishment for your relationship. Damian likes his privacy and doesn’t want someone else in his business and you might be afraid to share intimate information with a stranger in fear that it will be used against you. Nevertheless, you both want to make this relationship work, so you’ll continue to seek help.

Damian has a habit of being blunt. He doesn’t mean to criticize or insult you – in his mind, he is only stating the facts or his opinion for the purpose of helping you improve. Despite his goodhearted intentions, it’s easy for you to take his comments the wrong way and perceive it as a personal attack. If he sees that his remarks have upset you, he’ll acknowledge all the positive aspects of your performance. Still, you might cling to the disparaging comments and ignore the praise. Going forward, Damian will try to be more encouraging and constructive and will only express feedback if you invite him to do so.

#batfam headcanons #batfam x y/n #batfam x reader #batboys headcanons #batboys x reader #batboys x y/n #bruce wayne headcanon #dick grayson headcanon #jason todd headcanon #tim drake headcanon #batfamily headcanons #batfamily x y/n #batfamily x reader #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #time drake #Damian Wayne #robinchicklets

191 notes · View notes

soulmate-game · 3 years

Text

Useful Part 2

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

—* — * — * —* —*

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

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

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

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

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

It really cemented just how far he had come.

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

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

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

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

They watched as Marinette shook her head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marinette gulped.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—*—*—*—*—*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

564 notes · View notes

wolfish-trickster · 3 years

Note

I HATE YOUR FICS.YOU WRITE LOKI AS SOME SWEET UWU BABY WHO DID NOTHING WRONG. HE TRIED TO KILL THOR! HE TRIED TO KILL HIS DAD AND MOM! HE TRIED TO DESTROY EARTH! HE TOOK OVER ASGUARD! HE DOESNT HAVE HEART ONLY BLACK WHOLE IN HIS CHEST! HE'S EVIL AN DEAD ANYWAYS. HE WAS NEVER A GOOD PERSON! GO LIVE IN YOUR LIES BUT DON'T WRITE LOKI SOFT!!!!!!!!!!!

All caps huh? This will be fun...

I love arguing with people especially when I know I'm right.

First: I never said he did nothing wrong. All I ever said was I understand why he did what he did. He did a lot of wrong things, but so did the 'heroes' aka Avengers. Bruce is out of control everytime he hulks out, Tony was selling bombs and explosives, Steve fought in WW2 where he wasn't exactly a gentle fighter, Clint shoots arrows (and he never misses his targets), Thor tried to commit a genocide on Jotunheim all because he got called princess and Natasha literally set a hospital on fire. None of them are saint. All of them killed. But all of them were forgiven because they are the heroes™. Loki wasn't because he's the scapegoat of the MCU. Plus it's canon he was mindcontrolled when he invaded Earth but I'll get to it later.

Second: When exactly did he try to kill Thor? If you're gonna tell me that horrible snake story I'm gonna yeet you out of the window because that's the most ooc thing for Loki to do. In 2011 he tried to fight Thor on the bridge, but not to the point of killing him. His emotions were a mess, he was a mess, he was crying the whole time. To top it all off he was willing to kill his entire race (Jotuns) in order to be the 'worthy son' in Odin's eyes. The next time that comes to my mind is when they're on the Avengers tower and Loki stabs him with that teeny tiny push dagger that's practically a toothpick to Thor. He could've used any other knife but he chose the smallest he had instead.

(Plus notice how small part of the blade is bloody meaning Loki struck it deep enough to cause pain but no serious damage, but then again that could be just the lighting of the scene)

Third: He never tried to kill his dad. He lead Laufey to him when he was in Odinsleep but he killed his own biological dad so Odin could see him as worthy son. That's all he ever wanted from him. And for Frigga: yes, he did tell Kurse to take the stairs to the left (or right I can't remember which one atm) but did he know Frigga will be there? I don't think so. Frigga died protecting Jane, not because Loki send the monster after her. Besides, he was raging when he found out she died, that's not a propriate reaction for someone who tried to 'kill his mom'.

Fourth: He never said he wants to destroy Earth. He only ever said he wants to rule us. That's a difference. Plus it's canon the mind stone in his scepter was influencing him too and on top of that The Other was threatening to kill him (torturing him even) if he fails.

Fifth: He didn't take over Asgard. With Thor in exile and Odin in Odinsleep Loki was next in line, Frigga gave him the Gungnir (that big golden spear) and made him king in deleted scene. He never took the throne, he accepted it. He even said so himself:

Sixth: About the heart thing: he does have one. He can't just have empty chest cavity now, can he? How else would all the blood get pumped into different parts of his body?

Seventh: He's evil? Bitch where? When he saved Thor and Warriors 3/4 from Jotunheim in first Thor movie? When he saved Jane when he didn't have to and could escape in TDW? When he saved Thor in the same movie? When he returned to Asgard with that bigass ship for everyone to escape in in Ragnarok? (I don't like that movie that much but at least they got something of Loki's character correct)

He was a good person. He still is, he just has very tall walls around him and acts cold to protect himself. And you can bet your ass I'm going to write soft Loki as much as I can because that's how I like to write him. Everyone gets soft from moment to moment, even such a hurt and complex character like Loki. He deserves some softness in his life.

#ask #not so nice one #but defending Loki was fun #in defense of Loki #meta kind of?

176 notes · View notes

lucianalight · 3 years

Note

How would you improve movies :Infinity War and Endgame?

Ngl this was a hard question. And as I was thinking about it, I realized how even TR was much better than these two movies. I've written a post before about how I would change TR and honestly that didn't need a lot of thinking. With some small changes it could be a good movie. But the plot, retcons, time travel rules, story arcs for each character is a mess to fix in IW and EG.

If I wanted to write IW and EG, I would have written it very differently but since I'm working on a TR, IW, EG rewrite(I'm still figuring out the plot details. Nothing is ready), I won't include that version. One thing I'm definitely changing in my rewrite is how Thanos is written. He will be mostly evil and in love with death.

To answer this ask, I'm going to use movies' premise and canon with some small changes. I'll use their same retcon that infinity stones can be destroyed for the time travel in EG to be possible. This version is not perfect but neither are the movies :D

Infinity War changes:

1. Opening scene with Thor and Loki: Let's go with Classic Loki version that he used a very good illusion that fooled Thanos. But before he could go to Thor and assure him that he is alive, their ship explodes. Guardians find Thor but Loki drifts into space until he finds a planet. He doesn't know where Thor is. Whether he survived or not. But he knows his people would go to Earth, so would Thor if he has survived and also Thanos. So he tries to find a secret path to go to Earth.

2. I would change the rule for retrieving soul stone to sacrificing a soul that causes you the most grief. The message of the movie is harmful that an abuser kills his victim and the narrative portrays the abuser's emotions as "real love". Grief on the other hand can happen even when you lose a dear property or tool. Which is how Thanos sees his "children". I would also portray Thanos as more evil and less caring about killing Gamora. Because how the narrative tries to portray him as caring about her makes me nauseous.

3. The heroes in battling with Thanos, try to cut off his arm and thrown back by an explosion of protective magic that stops it from happening. Thanos wakes up and tells them that's a spell casted by Maw and they can't take the gauntlet from him. The battle continues like how it happened in the movie.

4. Loki reaches Earth, offers his help to Avengers. Bruce vouches for him. Loki, Shuri and Bruce work on a way to retrieve the mind stone from Vision.

5. The battle in Wakanda happens with Loki joining the Avengers. Thor reaches Earth. The brothers share a brief happiness over reuniting again.

6. Thanos arrives, Thor attacks him but still Thanos manages to snap his fingers. Loki would be one the people dying in the snap.

Endgame changes:

1. Thor's depression is treated with compassion by the narrative. No fat shaming. He also doesn't act irresponsible toward his people. He is shown helping them and building Asgard but he is also really hopeless and depressed. During the time heist he looks at Loki in prison with sadness and it's shown or expressed that he misses his brother.

2. In 2014, Gamora secretly escapes Thanos before he travels to future, either because she sees what Thanos does to her in the future or the fact that she didn't want him to win and even then she wanted to double cross him after getting the orb.

3. Clint is the one who sacrifices himself in Vormir. Because I hate the trope of fridging women and it would be Clint's way of redeeming himself for murdering people since IW.

4. After Hulk snaps people back to life, Loki joins the fight the final and we get Thor and Loki fighting side by side. Loki with full use of his magic and Thor with lightning. Their eyes shine with the light of their powers. It would be terrifying and beautiful when they join forces.

5. Gamora and Clint also come back to life since their soul were pulled into soul stone(yes, I made it up. If the writers can retcon and make up so many things, so can I), and the snap brings back everyone whose life was taken by the infinity stones. Also I didn't like that the narrative treated women like they're interchangeable if they look the same. So no 2014 Gamora in future and Peter Quill and Gamora who has come so far together, will reunite.

6. Gamora and Nebula manage to get through to 2014 Nebula and get her on their side, but when Thanos sees her fighting against him, he kills her. Because I hated that a female abuse victim was killed by another version of herself.

7. Gamora, Nebula and Loki manage to subdue Thanos together and take the gauntlet from him. Because they deserve their revenge against the person who tortured them.

8. Thor is the one who kills Thanos and his army with a snap. He is as strong as Hulk. Or even stronger and he too deserves to get revenge for everything Thanos took from him.

9. Steve won't stay in the past with Peggy. She had told him to move on with his life and Steve in AoU says he is home. So he would stay with Bucky and help him deal with his trauma.

10. Loki, Shuri, Bruce, Wanda and Tony manage to bring back Vision to life by combining their science and magic.

11. Thor and Loki stay in New Asgard and together built it into a developed magical society.

Everything is OK and everyone is fine.

Yes, I love happy endings.

#thor ragnarok au #infinity war au #endgame au #anti thor ragnarok #anti infinity war #anti endgame #anon #messages

87 notes · View notes

codenamed-queenie · 4 years

Text

#BatsInQuarantine

I am going insane. So I poured my restlessness into one long and very detailed post and got super into it. Please enjoy this hot mess.

The Justice League, being the well-meaning virus-proof Super Friends that they are, took one good look at the news, one good look at their non-powered friends Ollie, Bruce, and their families, and collectively decided that these normal humans must be Protected At All Costs.

Now, keep in mind, Bruce is never one to roll over when it comes to being benched.

However, he understands the importance of social distancing. He knows he needs to set a good example for his kids, and keep up appearances as Gotham’s Most Responsible Multi-Billionaire.

So. Quarantine it is.

But how are his kids handling it?

Dick -

100% on board in the beginning. Gotta do the Responsible Thing. Gotta set a Good Example. Besides, guys, this is gonna be Fun. Quality Family Time is always a Must.

He lasted 2 days.

Then he started to get twitchy.

And as everyone knows? A Trapped Dick Grayson is a Feral Dick Grayson.

He bounces off the walls.

Literally.

“I have to climb.”

“Dick, no.”

“I have to climb everything.”

Has scaled the manor 16 times already. Has climbed the chandelier. The banister. Bruce. The roof. The Cave. Anything in the house that’s been bolted down and especially anything that hasn’t.

Duke found him clinging to the wall 10 ft off the ground like Spiderman and screamed so loud it shattered glass.

Desperate for news of the outside.

He thrives off of it like a starving man.

Was the one to suggest he and Barbara take a break to Social Distance from each other (”Sorry, babe, kissing spreads germs”) and experienced Instant Regret(TM) approximately 5 minutes after.

The Family has labelled him a Flight Risk Level 1 (Most likely to say f**k it and make a break for the outside world)

Jason -

Accidentally got trapped inside the manor with the others when Bruce called Shutdown. If he had his way, he’d be chilling in his favorite safe-house right now, binging The Witcher with Roy and Artemis, and not worrying about finding a stray brother in his sock drawer.

But he’s nothing if not an opportunist.

The way he sees it, Jason has 3 options:

Self Improvement

Self Isolation (See Duke, Cass, and Damian)

Descension Into Madness (See Dick and Steph)

And, well, he always wanted to try a few things. Now he’s got the free time to do it.

So he settles on baking.

Alfred’s got enough food and raw ingredients stored up to feed an army. (Not because he’s a Panic-Buying-Hoarder in times like these. But because he’s a Panic-Buying-Hoarder all the time. Just try feeding 11+ teenagers sometime.)

Uses recipes he finds off Google.

His first few attempts are, in a word, ‘tragic’.

Alfred slips him a few of his recipe cards, and Jason suddenly starts seeing Results.

Turns out he’s pretty good at this baking thing once he gets the hang of it.

Hope everyone’s okay eating nothing but pie, macaroons, biscuits, and whatever else Jason whips up.

Cause that’s gonna be the only food left by the time he’s done.

Barbara -

Self-quarantined with her dad.

They’ve been binge-watching classic black and white movies together.

It’s a fun time, but she’s started to get a little antsy. Loving her dad and wanting to be around him 24/7 are, understandably, mutually exclusive.

Calls the manor to video-chat every day.

For her sanity just as much as theirs.

Gives everyone little challenges to film on their phones and send in. She makes compilations of everyone’s submissions so they can all watch and laugh together.

Bonus points for Creativity

One comp shows the family trying to drop Mentos into coke bottles.

Dick did a handstand, and dropped his Mento from the second story balcony.

Tim did it wearing the Batman cowl. The soda exploded into his face, and the rest of the video is just Bruce’s Shrieking.

Stephanie tried it, but the bottle tipped. Everyone on camera screamed as the bottle rocketed through the front window.

She spends most of her calls having one-on-one convos with Dick.

They’ve come up with little code phrases so they can be Cheesy even with family members lurking in the background.

She thinks the way he clings to the monitor is cute.

Almost like he’s giving her a hug through the screen.

(It’s easier than letting herself worry about his mental state, at least)

Tim -

Oh this boy.

Freaked out for the first five minutes before he decided ‘hey wait, Bruce is letting me stay in my pajamas all day? Noice.’

Now he’s just vibing.

The rest of his family is Low-Key shielding him.

He Has No Spleen, you see.

Steph: “Someone could cough on him and he could die!”

He just goes about his day, playing Animal Crossing like there’s no tomorrow, tinkering on projects, taking naps, etc. Living his best life.

Meanwhile there’s always someone lurking behind him, keeping watch, keeping him safe.

Dick sneezed within 5 feet of Tim once (the fact that he was on top of the dusty bookshelf Tim was perusing is irrelevant)

Jason still full-body tackled him the second Tim’s back was turned.

No one with any symptoms--

Like, any symptoms. They don’t even have to be Corona-related.

--is allowed within 10 feet of Tim.

Tim has been wandering the manor for weeks, now, without seeing another human being.

(He sees Dick on the ceiling sometimes, but that doesn’t really count)

He’s been trying increasingly drastic pranks and shenanigans to draw someone, anyone, out.

But it doesn’t matter how many times he steals Damian’s sword, or sets fire to Jason’s brownie bites.

Nobody wants to risk it.

Cass -

No one has seen her since quarantine started.

Everyone is approximately 87% sure she’s somewhere in the manor though

Because she does eat the meals Alfred leaves out for her.

Or at least someone does, at any rate.

(Jason and Santa top the running suspects list)

Santa was Steph’s suggestion. For some reason it snowballed.

It’s assumed that Cass misunderstood the meaning of ‘social distancing’ and took it too far.

But no one knows for sure.

She is Tim’s Guardian Angel.

People who so much as clear their throats a little too loudly anywhere near him suddenly wake up on a different floor of the house four hours later.

Duke came closest to spotting her while he was up in the attic.

Either that, or there’s another Creepy Sister everyone forgot to tell him about living up there.

She is silent, and watchful, sticking to the shadows, but she does leave the occasional note out to brighten her siblings’ day.

Things like ‘helo i love u’ and ‘hop u ar ok’ mostly.

She is bound and determined to protect her family from this invisible threat, no matter the cost.

Steph -

Like Dick, she was Super Pumped at first.

(Just kind of showed up at Wayne Manor before quarantine was enacted. The original purpose of her visit is unclear, but regardless, she’s Trapped.)

Also Like Dick, her descent into madness was swift.

She is impossible to pin down.

Not like Cass or Damian, who’ve stayed off the grid, and are therefore Untraceable.

No. She’s impossible to pin down, because she never stops moving.

Switches seamlessly between Zumba on top of the Giant Dinosaur in the Batcave, and furiously knitting Alfred (the Cat) a sweater with a pair of Tim’s used chopsticks.

Braided everyone’s hair while they were asleep.

Even Bruce’s.

She tried to do Tim’s, but somehow blacked out and regained consciousness in the attic.

When she woke up with a scream and a furiously twitching eye, she startled Duke out of his Makeshift Fort he built out of old cardboard boxes and antique furniture. He’s had to resort to finding a new hiding place.

Sometimes, on the rare occasions she does sit still, staring off into the distance, she’ll suddenly start laughing hysterically. This may last between thirty seconds and thirty minutes, depending entirely on how long it’s been since she’s knitted a cat sweater or done cartwheels through every room in the house.

Blew up the greenhouse out back, somehow.

Everyone has agreed not to talk about it.

Some people were built to handle prolonged time inside their homes.

Stephanie Brown is not that way.

Damian -

Damian Wayne Cannot Be Contained.

At least not inside the house.

He took off thirty-six hours into quarantine.

Thanks to the security equipment around the borders of the Wayne Estate, he can’t escape the grounds.

(He’s tried and failed multiple times. Jason and Bruce have a running bet on how many times the perimeter alarms will go off per day.)

(Jason is winning.)

He wanders the grounds with Titus as his only companion.

The two of them run laps, practice drills, and find ways to occupy their time.

No one’s entirely sure what those ways are.

In fact, nobody knows exactly where Damian is at any given time.

Only that he is Out There.

And he’s the best security system Wayne Manor’s ever had.

So far, he’s stopped five groups of civilians scaling the perimeter walls before the lasers and electric nets even have a chance to deploy.

They were trying to break in and steal supplies.

(Even ones they already had in surplus. Like Toilet Paper.)

He’s also stopped Dick from escaping twelve (12) times.

Drags him back by his shirt collar and deposits him on the welcome mat.

Usually with a note for Alfred/Jason, requesting more fruit tarts.

Duke -

Did not leave the attic for two weeks.

Then Steph discovered his hiding spot (read: was dumped there by Cassandra) which forced him to relocate to the basement.

Yes, it turns out Wayne Manor does have a basement.

This was a surprise to Duke, who always thought that the Batcave was Bruce Wayne’s basement.

Alfred keeps him supplied with all the necessities:

i.e. food, magazines, assorted pastries from Jason’s latest batch, usually straight out of the oven.

Duke also snagged the Manor’s Alexa.

She has become a sort of ‘Wilson’ to Duke’s ‘Chuck Noland’.

She is his only comfort. His only ally.

He’s determined to wait out this quarantine, doing his best to avoid the others.

Duke has seen these people under pressure.

He knows exactly what he’s dealing with.

Duke: “Alexa is the only motherf****r in this madhouse I ever respected.”

*offended butler noises from the other room*

Duke: “And also Alfred.”

4K notes · View notes

writing-blog-iguess · 3 years

Note

Do you have any headcanons about the insecurities fic you wrote about? I can't help but headcanon a lot, like:

both Harley & Ivy enjoys watching reader finishing her food, they also call her their mom since reader has been making them food since their first meet (Harley loves her egg sandwich, while Ivy was the baked potatoes bread)

Alfred always bakes matcha swiss roll with red bean paste or pastries that's easy too shallow with reader (so that she could shallow without feeling like choking and needs to drink a lot of water) whenever she stops by and keeps giving him hugs which he gladly return it everytime, the Alferd&Y/N's hug, is what everyone comments it

Dicks showing pictures he took of seven years old (a journey of Y/N's growing he calls) and then reader to all his teammates and the league as soon as he learnt the engagement's finally announce 'Look at this! Can't you imagine?! She's my little sister! This is when she seven years old! It's very heartwarming right blah blah blah... " and that's how the other superheros and older Teen Titans and Barbara knows how much Dick adore his future little sister-in-law who's s cinnamon roll

Sassy and baddass way to talk for so people won't dare mess up with her confidence (Jason help her built up, after he met her and quick into adoption of her, siblings!) Not that he would ever admit, Jason will sent glares to whoever who diss Y/N's like to children picture books (for example, The Guardians of Childhood aka inspiration of Rise of the Guardians movie) come on, his little sister had great taste in books!

Tim forbid her drinking coffee when they first met and even after (since he nearly caused a seven-years-old gone missing in the manor after the reader can't fall asleep decided to have a exploration situation) but will make it for her sometimes later after she used to it, made account for art websites she wants to register that so she can admire arts but underage back when childhoods, so he used it under his own only name (defiantly annoymus, and no, it's not illegal website) and every then and how

Makeover and dress-up with Barbara, Stephanie and Cassandra after they learnt of her (which they give Damian few lessons of 'how to treat the girl you like' with Dick who's extremely enjoy it, Jason and Tim who's enjoy the show all day), in the end, all heads to movie since it's sister bond time and apparently, the ideas of XL caramel popcorns and coke are the best choice!

Bruce pat or ruffle her hair softly everytime they met, a habit since the day he had ten years ago when she's seven, a touch of 'my daughter is growing up' feel will seldom appears in his heart

Damian from straightly ingored to slowly falls in love with reader after everytime he saw her sincere smile whenever she enjoyed Alfred's food heartily (like this, but a more faintly heartwarming one haha, at the very last pic, not sure if you could see it, so here's another link you could try out☺☺ )

Innocent, 'naive girl playing tough' charm whenever she and Damian together alone (first kiss, cuddling, hair massaging, teasing, which he finds not annoying because it's how really she is, and he enjoys keep on trailing and turn on her wildness)

How reader slowly felt left out though it didn't really occur me, just the thought of Batfam night activity and how we're isolating from each other slowly and inoccasionally when growing up just made me feel that way, you know, the feelings of it's not the same like it used to anymore😞😞

And once again, thank you so much for accepting my request at the beginning, I've been having this thought in my mind but I just couldn't write it, I'm so glad you accepted it and it's totally the way I want☺☺ (And about part 2 Talia which you accepted it too, I hope my words didn't scare you out lol... I'm too exciting that day...) Hope you have a very good day ahead, author!

Tumblr really needs to let me know when I have something in my inbox, I swear.

Of course! I loved writing it, and I’m glad you enjoyed it. No, your words didn’t scare me lol, I’m just outlining part 2 and I hope you love it just as much. With that said, and you don’t mind the wait, send in your ideas! I love reading them.

Okay, onto the headcanons! I love these! I put mine under the readmore, there's a bit;

Y/N didn’t have the best home life. Like I’m not saying abusive, just her parents neglected her a little. And it didn’t help that her whole life was planned for. So when she met Harley and Ivy, they basically went, you’re mine now no take backsies. And y/n just rolls with it, because through them, she finds out what it feels to be loved by someone who cares about you. This of course, she keeps from her parents and the day she turned eighteen, she moved out and it was a lot easier to hang out with those two.

Ever since knowing Harley and Ivy, y/n’s been slowly getting out of her shell. When she starts to hang out with Jason, she becomes more confident. She has Jason wrapped around her finger without even knowing

The girls love her, everyone loves her and Damian’s just, why

She loves cooking, and she even swaps recipes with Alfred. (even from the beginning of the whole arrangement) she became fast friends with Alfred first before everyone else.

y/n has known Damian since his first day of school. But I’m not going to lie, y/n was kind of scared Damian.

She got so offended when Tim took away her coffee when she wanted to try it. And when she became a regular coffee drinker, they would talk about different coffees they had tried and compare notes.

When the arranged marriage was first brought up in conversation, there was a lot of protests. Especially from Dick and Damian, but Bruce just shrugged saying that it was a good match. And if they don’t get married in the end, than that’s fine. Everyone was very confused but stopped bringing it up

They have theories though about the whole thing, the most popular one in the manor is that Bruce is looking for the next Robin when Damian hangs up the Robin cape to be someone else

When Bruce announced that, everyone did their own research about y/n. Everyone but Damian agreed but she must be protected, though it kind of blows up when they kind of cast her aside when she started hanging out with them at the manor, (but that’s not until later)

She and Damian have lunch together everyday at school, much to Damian’s displeasure. And he’s mean to her at the beginning, ignoring her and whatnot. She doesn’t do anything cuz she hates this setup just as much

But slowly, she starts to catch feels but keeps it to herself.

As you said, Damian takes longer to fall in love with her. And its one of those moments when she looks at peace within his family and it just hits him like ‘oh. Oh no I’m in love and I can’t tell anyone this’ and he doesn’t. So up until they confess to each other, their just pinning after each other and people who aren’t family sees that their in love but no know says anything

However, they do get more cuddly when they’re alone. Like, they don’t kiss or anything. But when they have movie nights, y/n’s curled up on the end of the couch with Damian’s head on her lap. And she’s always plays with his hair, of runs her fingers through it and Damian has discovered that it feels nice and helps him to de-stress

She knows when he’s stressed about something, so her just pats her lap and he grumbles about it but is secretly happy (they have been caught on multiple occasions by his brothers and they chooses to ignore them

She’s been so use to feeling alone, that being with people who care feels foreign to her

When she starts to feel like she’s alone again, she doesn’t see it until it’s too late

It starts off slowly, the fam is to busy with missions and saving the world that they kind of forget they she doesn’t know, and when she comes over, their not there or just brushes her off when she is. And she’s tried to talk to them, cuz she’s spend years being a part of their family but then one day it stopped.

But they just brush her off and she’s reminded about her parents so she stops pushing and then altogether stops going to the manor.

No one really realizes at first, only Alfred, and when they do, y/n had already broken off the engagement.

#damian wayne x reader #damian wayne x fem!reader #batman #arranged marriage au #headcanons #robin #damian wanye #i answered a thing #anonymous

66 notes · View notes

lovecinnatwist · 3 years

Note

How would you go about writing omega Jason with Alpha Dick?

Man oh man- Omega!Jason with Alpha!Dick is always such a bop.

It depends really! I see so many fics with insecure Jason thinking Dick is too good for him which is nice and definitely in character- but sometimes it makes me crave the other end of the spectrum?

Like a confident, sexy Jason who teases Dick with his scent and body until the alpha wants to implode? I also like the idea of Jason being raised by an Omeganist!Alfred and Omega!Talia to be badass, sassy and sensual. Bras? Suppressants? Painful heats?

Not for Jason Todd!

He embraces his Omega-ninity and it wreaks havoc on Dick's hormones. Dick being a more conservative alpha would definitely find himself overwhelmed but enamored!

Here's something playful with a clumsy Alpha!Dick and confident pack Omega!Jason!

Tiddies Out - JayDick

Tags: Omegaverse, AlphaDick, OmegaJason, Pining, Crack treated Seriously, Lactating, Heat Cycles, Omega Tim, Alpha Bruce, Pup Damian- Just Dick being an obvious pining idiot and Jason enjoying his reactions-

Jason doesn’t mind being an omega. How could he when it’s one of the superior options? While Alpha’s often lost themselves to aggression during rutting season and beta’s scrambled to placate them- Omega’s got to sit back and watch the show.

Being the object of an alpha’s fascination has many perks. First off? The gifts. Lavish offerings make their way to him with little to no effort. Weaponry from Talia, Expensive silks and poisons from Ras, The latest tech from Tim and Bruce. It's an endless parade really. One of the few things that make this more bearable to put up with.

He’s a heavy milker. Always has been.

Maybe it’s from growing up in an abusive household. Perhaps it's in response to being closer to the pack’s pups or hell, maybe his body is just gearing up for the imaginary children it wants to have. Regardless of the reason Jason’s tits are aching.

They seem extra tender tonight. The cold dingy air does little to ease the tension under his armor. He shifts and the way his pads squish under bullet proof chest plates is a pain. He curses and tries to ignore it. Something that’s getting harder as the cotton under his clothing reaches its limit. Tsk- 4 hours his ass. It’s barely been 2 and he’s about to make a mess of his gear.

As annoying as it is. He reluctantly reaches into his kit to get two fresh napkins to change. Other omega’s might be shy to do this in public but Jason has always been more practical about it. Breasts are breasts, no reason to get all crazy about it.

Though it probably didn’t hurt that Jason himself had a nice rack. He knows what the other heroes say about him behind his back. His figure has never been more appreciated than now in his prime. The dip in the pit did wonders at helping him bulk up. Thighs thick, emphasising his trim waist. In the throws of season his ample chest gives him an illusion of an hourglass figure. While some people would say omega’s should be small and dainty, he has yet to meet an alpha or beta who can resist him.

Not to be vain but he is nothing else if not attractive.

He’s got his top half way off when the sound of a near violent thud echoes out in the darkness. The hiss of pain gives away the alpha before his scent can. Jason doesn’t even turn in his direction. Instead he keeps his attention on the sopping pads under the compression shirt. He hisses as the gentle adhesive pulls from his throbbing mamories.

“ You alright over there goldie? “

He gets a groan for an answer. A nicer person would have maybe let the other man know about his current state of undress. Too bad that Jason isn’t exactly known for being ‘nice’. He carefully wraps up one cotton cloth. Once he’s clean and dry, he applies another. It’s quick and easy work. The slight chill does wonders against his flush skin.

The worn form of Nightwing crawls from the side of the building. There’s a pretty good bruise on his cheek Jason is 90% sure that the acrobat had a less than graceful landing. He’s always been weird about nudity. Even back when they mostly had the same parts. He rolls his eyes as the man pointedly tries not to look at him. He can’t help scoffing at the false modesty.

“ Hood. You shouldn’t do this out in the open like this. Anyone could see you. “

Everyone knows Jason is an omega, by extension that means Red Hood. It’s one of the reasons why his territory is so well protected. No one wants to cross an omega. While the fangs in their mouths were now more for scruffing kits, no one had forgotten the days when they were for hunting prey and tearing out throats.

He would flash his at Dick but he’s wearing his helmet and would probably just looks stupid. He manages to get the other pad off. It’s absolutely drenched. His left teet is definitely working harder than the right. The sheer weight of the cotton makes a loud squelch as it hits the little plastic bag at his feet.

He snorts. “ And you know what they’d say N? Best tits in Gotham. “

The alpha’s face is anything but amused. The furrow of his brow and spike in his scent is territorial and aggressive. It’s laughable really considering the fact that between the two of them, Jason is actually the one in charge of protecting the pack. It’s all a part of being the lead omega.

Whether Bruce or Dick want to accept it or not.

“ Stop objectifying yourself like that. “

Jason enjoys the feeling of being clean and dry as he gets the other cotton adhesive on. It’s a welcome sensation. Especially when he straightens his armor and it’s a little less chafing and tight.

“ It’s only objectication if I say I’m only a nice pair of tits Wing. Luckily I’ve got a nice set of thighs too.“

He pays Dick no mind as he stands and packs away his used pads to be thrown away later. He might have to call it an early night at the rate. With the way fall is quickly approaching his heat is just dying to make an appearance. Perhaps he could get away with offering himself to the foster system. With the amount of milk he’s making now it would be better for the pups who need it to benefit instead of it all going to the trash.

“ Hood! “ The sound is a scandalized growl. It’s funny enough that Jason throws his head back and laughs free and clear. With the voice modulator it’s mean and menacing. Amusement bubbles in his chest. He can’t help taking off his helmet so that Dick can take in just how wide his smile is.

“ Sorry Wing. I’m a pretty girl. What can I say? “

Talia is nothing but progressive. While many omega’s in the west suffer from low self esteem. Jason learned his worth quickly. Confidence is beauty. The more one loves themselves, adores them selves and takes time to know themselves the more they blossom. It’s a deep healing that not everyone gets to understand. A privilege for a few chosen omegas. He cocks his head and smiles and see’s the exact moment Dick starts losing his footing in the conversation.

The alpha is tongue tied.

“ That’s not what I mean and you know it Hood. “

Jason shrugs. Once he’s got his stuff away he’s ready to run roofs and actually get some work done.

“ Sorry Goldie. It’s 2021 and haven’t you heard? Red Hood says free the tiddies. “

He doesn’t wait for a response as he makes a running start towards the edge of the building. It’s always such a thrill. He tucks a bit to clear the gap. The moment his legs touch the concrete the sound is silent despite the bulk of his frame. Dick calls after him but he loses the words in the wind. Laughter bubbles up in his throat. He wouldn’t be a prude just because his family wanted to be sexually repressed more than they wanted to be happy.

Dick doesn’t try to catch up with him and Jason finishes the night patrolling with Tim and Stephanie.

He manages to get an entire three hours out of the next set of pads. Instead of changing out in the open he accepts Alfred’s invitation back at the manor for a warm bath and cookies. Tim stares at his chest while Jason gets himself decent.

Tim is a gorgeous omega, with a slender petite frame and porcelain doll-like features. He always seems to get shy in the presence of Jason’s more unconventional curves.

Jason knows what low self esteem looks like. The younger omega wears it no matter how much bravo he tries to exude. Jason brushes against him briefly and lightly. His usual fragrance is marshmellowy from the sweetness of milk that clings to it.

There’s an immediate blush as Tim ducks away. Clearly he’s embarrassed from being caught. Though in reality where is the shame in a little boob appreciation amongst omegas?

“ You know Timmy, you gotta stop wearing bras. Maybe if you show a glimpse of those pretty pink nips Kon would take the hint. “

Tim goes red from his ears to his chest. Jason can practically see the steam coming from his ears. He slaps his hands over his petite breast quick enough to hurt. Jason wants to let him scamper off but instead he presses into his space even more. Long gone is the perfume of pup, now that Tim has come fully into his omega hood. Every day his scent leans more and more towards caramel and sugar.

“ Uhg you’re such a jerk. “

Tim tries to dodge out of his hold but Jason gets him anyway. The omega yelps and Jason ducks him right between each swollen peck. They are red and tender from patrol. He hasn’t put on new pads yet so some milk beads at his nipples. The little shriek Tim lets out is hilarious.

“ You’re going to get milk in my hair! Jason stop- God you suck- “

The omega fights and Jason lets him go before the two actually get into it. It’s light and playful. Well for the most part. Tim gets some milk on his face and the teen honest to God looks terrified. He curses all the way to the shower stall to take another quick bath all while Jason cackles at his misfortune.

“ I swear to God, when I start milking I'm going to get you back Ten fold! “

Jason rolls his eyes. As if.The last thing Jason’s afraid of is milk. It’s a natural thing. God everyone in this pack is repressed.

“ We’ll see about that Timberella! “

The omega hisses and Jason has to hold back a laugh as he leaves the shower. He’s so light and high from the interaction that he completely for gos a shirt. Not that he really wants to wear one. Not with how milk heavy and tender his chest is. Alfred’s always been pretty cool about it too. Being from the 60’s and all that jazz.

Jason maybe gets half way through the cave before the sound of metal crashing draws his attention. Dick walks cleanly into one of the metal tables in the middle of the lab space, knocking over tools and gadgets.

Bruce is thoroughly unimpressed from where he’s helping Damian stretch before bed. He’s in half of his costume, suppressors and scent blockers gone. The sheer disappointment in Damian’s gaze is astonishing.

“ Richard, please control yourself. “

The alpha looks like a deer caught in headlights, his mortification absolutely palpable in the air.

Jason does catch his eyes on his chest though. He smirks and sees the moment horror grows in those bright blue eyes. Instead of heading towards the stairs he decides to circle back towards the group.

Bruce chuffs from his position on the floor. He doesn’t stop what he’s doing but does tilt towards him in reverence. It’s been the biggest change in their dynamic. Bruce finally learning to respect Jason as not only a pack mate, but the pack omega. He greets him with a scenting.

Unlike Dick the alpha seems to pay little attention to his milking.

Damian’s puppy nose twitches as he leans towards him. It makes his heart flutter really. While Damian would never ask, Jason has thought of offering his breast many times. While Technically too old for it, they’ve all done their fair share of growing up too quickly. Something that Jason Laments as well as appreciates.

He scents Damian more thoroughly than Bruce, making him bristle. The boy tries to move out of his hold, hands swatting him away.

“ Todd cease your pestering immediately! If I smell of milk my peers will assume I still breastfeed. “

Jason snorts and pulls back from the prickly pup. Bruce gets a stupid fond look on his face and for a brief moment he feels it echoing on his lips.

“ And what’s wrong with that? If your pack omega is milking of course as a pup you’re welcome to it. “

Damian’s green eyes widen a fraction. His mouth opens in disbelief. Clearly, Damian in fact did not know that. Bruce stares as well, his scent turning into a sweet blend of ‘love-admiration-awe’. It draws a shiver up Jason’s spine. The tender mix of affection from his pack blankets over him like a net of spun sugar.

Jason doesn’t know why he feels drawn to look at Dick. The alpha hasn’t said anything in the past minute. He cuts his gaze to the stone still alpha and his heart flutters in excitement. The looks of jealousy and want is so strong that his intentions sparkle clear like aquamarine in shallow ocean waters.

The alpha is so much more honest when he thinks Jason isn’t looking.

He grins at Dick.

The alpha immediately shrinks in shame and embarrassment.

“ And of course any alpha spending my heat with me. “

#cinnatalks #Alpha!Dick #Omega!Jason #Omegaverse #Answer #Ficlets #Tiddies out #jaydick

50 notes · View notes

daringyounggrayson · 3 years

Note

Could you do 25 or 30 for Bruce and Dick? I’d really like for you to make Bruce say those words to his son!

I think we would all like to see that! oh, and for this one, I’m mixing things up: Bruce took Dick in as his ward but never went on to adopt him.

25: “You know I love you, right?”

30: “I love you, okay? I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it.”

AO3

"Mr. Wayne!” a photographer calls, waving his arm toward their small group as they try to make their way inside. “A picture of you and your sons, if you wouldn’t mind?”

“Sure!”

On cue, the four of them turn toward the camera with easy smiles.

“Oh, sorry sir.” The photographer directs this at Dick. “Could I just get his sons for this shot?”

Dick doesn’t blame the reporter, honestly. He was probably assigned to get pictures of the Waynes, and when you google the Waynes, Dick’s name doesn’t pop-up—at least, not under family. And it makes sense; he was never adopted, so he’s legally not part of the Wayne family. Dick’s relation is just a small, unimportant detail. And to outsiders, especially people outside of Gotham or people who simply don’t keep up with Wayne Family News, Dick looks like more of a family friend, if anything.

It’s an honest mistake, and Dick doesn’t take it personally. Unfortunately, that doesn't make it any less awkward.

Dick glances at Bruce, trying to decide what to do. This evening will be long enough as it is, and if Bruce would rather let it go and get through the photos as quickly as possible, Dick wouldn't blame him. And it’s not like Dick needs his face on another magazine.

Bruce tightens his hold on Dick’s shoulder, decision made.

“If you don’t mind,” Bruce pipes up with a charming voice, “I would like Richard to be in the photo. I did raise him for a decade, after all.” Bruce laughs to ease the tension, and Dick joins him to tell the photographer it’s okay.

The photographer’s eyes go wide, face going slightly pink. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize. I, er, here—” he holds the camera up “—smile!” The camera flashes twice. “Perfect. Have a nice evening!” And then the photographer is gone.

“I think I’m going to run ahead,” Dick says. “Find me when you can.”

“Dick, you don't—”

“It’s fine, B. Seriously.” Dick grins.

Bruce frowns.

Dick shrugs and ducks away from his group, heading toward the building. He ignores the flashing of cameras and calls from the various photographers, and he ignores the three pairs of eyes that dig into his back as he goes.

oOo

All in all, the party was uneventful and the four of them excused themselves early after receiving an alert that Scarecrow had been spotted on the other side of town. If Scarecrow hadn’t been spotted terrorizing civilians with fear gas, Dick might’ve been able to enjoy the free ticket out of the gala.

“Shit,” Tim mutters.

“What?” Dick asks, not taking his eyes off of Scarecrow.

“Forgot to grab a new rebreather. I still have the busted one from the other night.”

Dick pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a breath before grabbing his own rebreather. “Here.”

Tim pushes it back toward him, shaking his head. “It’s fine. I messed up; I can deal with the consequences.”

“I’m offering you the solution,” Dick insists, pushing back. “We don’t have time to argue. Take the rebreather so we can move in.”

“I’m not a kid anymore, I don’t need you to protect me like I’m,” Tim looks away, down, “like I’m Robin. Besides, I think we both know that I’ll be able to handle fear gas better than you.”

Dick clenches his jaw, then relaxes it. Not the time. “Maybe, but I’m in charge right now. So: take the rebreather or you’re playing look-out for the rest of the night.”

Tim’s head shoots up, eyes scanning Dick to see how serious he is. Tim takes the rebreather, shoving it into his belt. “Happy?”

“Thrilled. Let’s go.”

oOo

If anyone had to get gassed, Dick’s glad it was him. Even though he has an objectively bad reaction and treatment isn’t always effective, he has more experience and can deal with it better than his siblings. During and after. On top of that, Tim was and continues to be his responsibility; his top priority was getting Tim home safe. From those perspectives, it was logical for Dick to take the lungful of fear toxin.

Then there’s the selfish, probably more powerful perspective: Dick can’t stand seeing Tim on fear gas. The screaming, the tears, the things he says, the inability to comfort him and take the pain away. It’s awful to see once, and Dick’s seen it countless times, in real life and in nightmares. He’d do anything to avoid it—for Tim’s sake and, when Dick’s being honest, his own. He knows his family probably feels the same way about him, but that just means they’d act out of selfishness too.

Tonight, Dick had more say, so Tim got the rebreather and Dick got more than a lungful of gas.

“Sorry again,” Tim mumbles, passing Dick a fresh ice pack. “About the rebreather.”

Dick takes the ice pack and presses it against his right shoulder, which he agitated at some point during their fight with Scarecrow. “’S fine. Knowing you, you’ll triple check next time to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“No kidding,” Tim mumbles, running a hand through his hair. He stifles a yawn. “Need anything else?”

“Nah.” Dick starts reciting pi in his head, trying to drown out the voices he knows aren’t real. “Get some sleep. And good work tonight.”

Even with the gassing, he and Tim were able to take down Scarecrow fairly easily. It’s nice to know that the two of them can still work well together, even when the circumstances aren’t entirely ideal.

“Thanks, you too.” Tim bounces on the balls of his feet and fails to stifle another yawn. This time, Dick yawns too. “You don’t want company or anything?”

“I’m good. Besides, I’ll probably just try to sleep until Alfred is happy with the blood work.”

Tim shrugs and takes a few steps backward. “If you change your mind.”

“Night, Timmers.”

“Night.” Tim turns around and makes his exit.

Dick throws his good arm over his eyes and tries to sleep.

oOo

Unconsciousness comes in waves, broken by adrenaline spikes and Alfred or Bruce checking on him. But no matter his consciousness status, Dick’s reality is shadowed and manipulated by voices and figures, hallucinations and lies that feel like absolute truths. It’s hard to tell the difference between sleep and wakefulness, but the shaking is a good tell. He doesn’t usually shake in his nightmares.

He's in his room, lying in his bed and shaking. He doesn’t remember coming here, but that doesn’t say much. He’d been having a dream, something that felt real, but wrong. Something adjacent to reality.

A camera kept flashing in his face, the photographer morphing into something less and less human. And Bruce, Bruce had been there. Yelling at him, telling him to—

No. That hadn’t happened, and now that he’s awake, Dick can barely remember the lies.

Dick kicks at his sheets, trying to reach the cool air above them. At first it’s a relief, but soon it’s not enough because he’s hot and sweaty and something keeps telling him to run. He glances out the window, trying to figure out if he could survive the fall—

No. He’s fine. He’s fine.

Dick pushes himself upright, takes some deep breaths, tries to recite pi.

He jumps at the knock on his door.

“Dick?” the door creaks open to reveal Bruce, who enters the room before Dick can answer. “What are you still doing here?”

“I—” Dick feels hot, his palms are sweating again and he can feel his heart pounding against his chest, trying to escape. He blinks, twists the skin on his forearm until it hurts.

Bruce is in front of him, sitting down on the bed. “I trained you to be a detective. Can’t you piece together the clues? You’re not wanted. Get out of my house and stay away from my family.”

Dick shakes his head, fists his hair. The room feels like it’s getting smaller, twisted and darker. Louder. Wrong. This is a sign, but Dick can’t remember for what. “But you—no. You trusted me with Damian, you said—”

What had Bruce said? He’s a master manipulator when he wants to be, needs to be. He might’ve trusted him with Damian, or maybe, just maybe, he was only trying to protect Alfred in case Damian had been given orders to assassinate them. He’d already attacked Tim, after all, and keeping that fact in mind, Bruce would have needed to consider safety and who he’d be willing to lose in order to protect someone else. Dick’s death and its repercussions would have felt minuscule if it meant Alfred would be saved.

Hands tug at his wrists. It’s three fourteen. The voice is lying.

“Shh. Take a breath.” Dick tries, but it’s like his chest has stalled. “Tell me how many posters are in your room.”

“There’s—”

“Take them and go. I don’t want any trace of you left in this house.”

“Dick, you’re alright. Take a breath.” Hands are on Dick’s shoulders, trying to restrain him. He brushes them off, tries to get to the window. “I’m out of patience. I won’t be subtle any longer—I’ve regretted taking you in from the moment you moved in. Go!”

His fingers barely brush against the window’s lock before he’s slammed into the ground. His shoulder pops, making him grunt.

“You’re not thinking clearly. Focus. Wait it out.”

Dick struggles against the weight on top of him, but it doesn’t give, not even when he resorts to biting. The hands simply shift from his chest to his stomach, and his attacker doesn’t even make a sound.

The voices in his head build up. There are millions, all shouting conspiracies at him, all of them sounding too true. His heart pounds so hard that it must be bruising his chest, and he’s so hot that his brain must be about to melt. And, and—he can’t breathe. He can’t breathe. He’s going to die. This is it—he’s going to die.

A hand forces his head down, and it’s not until then that he realizes he’s been slamming it against the ground in an attempt to silence the voices.

“Shh, shh. You’re alright. I’ve got you.”

“Leave! Jump out the window, you’d be doing everyone a favor!”

Dick tries to lift his head again, but the hold is firm. There’s not enough room to hit it against the ground, there’s not enough room to shut the voices out.

“No one will miss you!”

The familiar feeling of a needle slides into his arm.

“Shh.”

Something happens. The room shifts, he shifts, and he realizes that he’s no longer shaking. It’s a sign.

The hallucinations shift into a nightmare that feels too real.

oOo

Dick wakes up to nausea and a headache. He tries to move his hand to rub at his head only to find that he’s been restrained. Bad night then.

He opens his eyes and turns his head. There’s an empty chair by his bed and the bedroom door is cracked open.

“Bruce,” he calls.

Damian steps into view, pushing the door open a little wider. The quick response tells Dick that Damian has been listening from the hallway. “Father is answering a call from Kent. Would you like me to collect him?”

"It can wait.”

Damian still hasn’t entered the room, and it makes Dick wonder how much he’d heard last night, how much last night has to do with the distance, the hesitance. He doesn’t remember seeing Damian at all, but he probably came back when Dick was still in the Cave. And even if they hadn’t seen each other, it’s not like Dick’s bedroom is soundproof.

“Everything okay, kiddo?” He can remember Bruce having a handful of especially bad reactions to fear gas from when Dick was a kid—they’d been terrifying, seeing Bruce like that had made them terrifying.

“Of course. You are the one who was incapacitated.” Damian tugs on the sleeve of his sweatshirt, pulling it halfway down his hand. “But you are alright now?”

Dick quirks his lips into a smile. “I’m fine.”

“Good. I imagine last night was quite difficult,” Damian begins. “Titus woke up several times.” Damian tugs on his sleeve again, he looks like he wants to ask something.

Damian’s head turns abruptly, and whatever he sees causes him to take a step back. Into the hallway, he says, “Richard is awake.”

Now that he’s paying attention, Dick can hear Bruce’s footsteps. Bruce pauses outside of Dick’s bedroom, and he and Damian exchange words in quiet voices that Dick can’t understand. Then Bruce steps inside and closes the door behind him.

“How are you feeling?” Bruce asks.

“Lucid,” Dick starts. Bruce tilts his head, expectant. “Not great overall, and I still feel a little on edge, but I think the worst of it is over.”

“Hnn.” Bruce looks him over for a moment, trying to confirm Dick’s self-evaluation. He must pass because soon Bruce is taking off the restraints.

“Did I . . .” Dick tries to think back to last night and work out what was nightmare and what was hallucination and what was reality. “Did I try to jump out a window last night?”

“Yes. I had to hold you down until a sedative was administered. After that, we decided it would be safer to use restraints until the toxin wore off.”

Dick sits up as the last of the restraints are removed. He stretches his ankles and wrists. “Did the antidote not work or something?”

“It either wore off early or the toxin was stronger than usual. Possibly both, considering how you reacted to additional doses,” Bruce explains.

Dick frowns. “How many doses did you give me?”

“Three. You probably won’t need a fourth, but we’ll check your blood in a few hours to make sure that the traces still in your system are gone, or at least decreasing.”

Dick groans and slides back down against his pillow, draping his arms over his face. The fear toxin antidote, while helpful, isn’t without side-effects. With three doses, those effects will stick around for days.

Bruce, the bastard, has the audacity to chuckle at him. Dick blindly throws a pillow at him, smiling when he hears it meet its target.

Then, “Are you hungry?”

“Not even a little.”

Bruce runs a hand through Dick’s hair. “Sleep.”

He doesn’t have to be told twice.

oOo

Dick wakes up alone again, but this time the chair is gone and the door is completely shut. It’s a good sign, and since Dick isn’t currently disoriented, very much preferred.

It’s much later in the day now, a little past noon, but he knows he could very easily close his eyes and sleep for another few hours. Possibly until the next morning. But to his misfortune, his stomach growls in protest.

With a dramatic sigh that no one can hear, he gets out of bed, quickly showers and dresses, and goes downstairs to find something to eat.

"I was just about to check on you," Alfred says when he spots him entering the kitchen. "How are you feeling?"

Dick shrugs. “Tired.” It’s a side-effect of the antidote, but the nightmares probably hadn’t helped. “Did you guys have lunch already?”

“It would seem that everyone has gotten a rather late start to the day. We were just about to settle in for a brunch of sorts.”

“Do you need help?” Dick asks.

Alfred points toward a tray of what looks like buckwheat pancakes. “If you could bring that tray into the dining room, please.”

Dick hums and grabs the tray, carrying it into the dining room with Alfred behind him. He’s just setting the tray down when Titus storms in, running into his legs with a force that threatens to knock him over.

He takes a step back with a small laugh, reaching down to pet Titus. His tail thumps against the ground as he takes a seat on top of Dick’s feet.

“Master Damian!” Alfred shouts, setting a bowl of fruit down on the table.

“What’s up with you, buddy?” Dick asks the dog as he bends down to pet him better. Titus doesn’t usually tackle him, especially not when they just saw each other the day before. “What’s goin’ on?”

Alfred tsks to the room at large.

“Yes, Pennyworth?” Damian asks when he eventually reaches the room.

“What have I told you about animals in the dining room, especially during meal times?”

Damian rolls his eyes, prompting another “Master Damian!” from Alfred. Dick almost laughs, but the adult in him tells him to stand up and keep his mouth shut.

“Titus, come,” Damian says.

Titus whines.

“Titus, come,” Damian repeats.

Titus obeys, tail low as Damian leads him out of the room.

“And please gather the others before returning.”

Damian mumbles something under his breath that Alfred claims to have heard. Despite the resistance, Tim comes into the room a minute later, so Damian must’ve done as Alfred asked.

“Morning,” Tim says. He juts his thumb toward the hall. “What’s Damian mad about?”

“Oh.” Dick huffs a small laugh. “Titus ran in here and Alfred kind of went off on him.”

“Ugh, and I missed it? Bummer.” Tim takes a seat next to him and steals a piece of fruit from the bowl. “Feeling any better? Bruce said you had a rough night.”

Sometimes a little fear toxin exposure can be so mundane and minuscule that it isn’t mentioned the following morning. Dick wishes this was one of those times.

“Yup.” Dick taps his fingers on the table. “What happened to your ankle? You didn’t report it last night.”

Tim looks down at the ACE bandage wrapped around his left foot. “Oh. Just an old injury that started acting up this morning. I can still kick your ass at sparring later, though.”

Dick snorts and grabs one of the buckwheat pancakes, deciding he can’t wait any longer. “You wish.”

oOo

Breakfast is uneventful, aside from Dick literally falling asleep on the table. Bruce shakes him awake after everyone’s finished eating and then drags Dick down to the Cave to check his blood levels. Titus joins them, pressing himself against Dick’s legs and nearly tripping him as they make their way down the Cave’s stairs.

One blood test later and they learn that the toxin levels haven’t budged. Bruce decides to give him another dose of the antidote.

“Fourth time’s the charm, right?” Dick says.

“Hnn.”

Bruce sets a timer on his phone, just like he used to do in the early days. Draw blood, antidote, set a timer, draw more blood. That had been the routine for so much of his life.

Although, Dick supposes, they hadn’t really had antidotes back then; they’d had attempts at treatments. Desperate attempts to manage symptoms. There was no testing to guarantee their effectiveness or safety, and their chemical makeup had been based purely on theory and desperation. It was better than nothing, but it was risky, so they took precautions: monitoring each other not only for effectiveness but also for the inevitable side effects.

Dick will never forget the time an “antidote” caused his throat to swell up and chest to stall. The timer had only had a minute left, too—they’d increased the time after that, and Dick hadn’t complained about having to wait the whole time for almost a year.

These days, monitoring isn’t always part of the routine, and when it is, it’s mostly to check for effectiveness. But since this is Dick’s fourth dose in a relatively short timeframe, his risk for adverse effects is higher and he needs to be monitored to make sure he doesn’t keel over. Bruce will probably force him to stay at the manor until all side effects of the treatment subside, longer if new side effects arise.

“Have you been able to get any restful sleep?”

Dick jerks as he’s pulled from his thoughts. “Uh,” he starts, needing a second to process what Bruce just said. “No. Not really, no.”

“Someone can patrol in Bludhaven while you recover.”

It’s an offer, Bruce trying to be helpful. Dick knows that, but something makes it feel like an order, proof that Bruce thinks he’s incompetent.

“I’m fine on my own.”

Funny how Dick’s still trying to prove that, after all these years. He remembers when he was eight and first moved in with Bruce, how he’d been adamant about not needing a parent, not needing Bruce, but he became attached anyway. He’d told himself Bruce was a want, not a need, but that hadn’t been true, not in the early days.

Then things shifted. He grew up and no longer needed Bruce, but he’d wanted him. Dick had lied to himself again, telling himself that Bruce was the last person he wanted. The lie was easier to believe on some days than on others, but it had been even harder to convince himself that Bruce felt the same way. That even if Bruce didn’t need Dick, he wanted him.

That feeling of uncertainty, insecurity, had been with Dick since he was a kid, and it had persisted and worsened as he’d gotten older. It had been exacerbated after Two-Face nearly killed him and Bruce promptly fired him from being Robin. He was twelve and lost back then, and in what he now knows was just his twisted, hurt kid-brain, he’d convinced himself that Bruce didn’t need nor want him, as Robin or anything else.

Back then, he’d been certain that pity and guilt were the only things stopping Bruce from tossing Dick out onto the streets. He’d felt like a burden, and he’d hated everything about his life in those moments. So, he’d done the only thing he could think of—he ran.

And Bruce—Bruce didn’t chase him.

That was—maybe is—the important bit, the part that Dick still thinks about. Not the initial rejection, not being fired—that Bruce didn’t come after him.

After all, that’s what he’d wanted, wasn’t it? For Bruce to prove him wrong, for Bruce to chase after him, fight for him. To want him.

Bruce fought for Jason, then for Tim and, eventually, Damian. It’s clear that they are and always will be wanted, and Dick knows it’s stupid, but he doesn’t always know if that’s true for himself. At the end of the day, his brothers all have Bruce’s name, and all Dick has is a man who stopped being his legal guardian when he turned eighteen.

Dick is useful, even needed on the rare occasion, but he’s not always sure that he’s wanted. And he desperately needs to be wanted.

“Something’s . . . bothering you.” Bruce’s brows are furrowed, searching Dick’s face and trying to find the clues that will tell him what went wrong and where.

Dick scratches behind Titus’s ears, looking at him instead of Bruce. “Just the toxin.”

“Hnn.” Bruce sits down next to Dick, grunting slightly as he settles. “I imagine that the photographer’s comments last night didn’t help.”

Sometimes Dick hates how well Bruce knows him.

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Maybe. But fear toxin twists things, and it’s been known to draw on recent events, especially the latest versions.”

Dick says nothing, just nods in acknowledgment as he attends to Titus.

“Dick, you are my family, in every sense of the word. And I . . . I was bothered by the comment last night that implied otherwise.”

Bruce reaches over and squeezes Dick’s knee, and Dick wonders how much he’d said last night when the fear toxin was in control.

“You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just—” Dick sighs, leans his head against Bruce’s shoulder, squeezes his eyes shut. “Sometimes I don’t.”

Bruce shifts. He cups the back of Dick’s head and pulls him toward his chest, pressing a kiss into his hair. “I love you, okay? And you are wanted here. So, so wanted.” Bruce holds him in a tight hug and traces circles into his hair. “I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it.”

Dick hugs him back and nods into his chest. It doesn’t fix everything, but it makes it better. And sometimes that’s all anyone needs.

#dick grayson #bruce wayne #tim drake #damian wayne #nightwing #batman #red robin #robin #batfamily #fear toxin #elizabeth writes

198 notes · View notes

boizandgurlzinthehouse · 4 years

Text

𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 ♡

⤷𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴: 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘧𝘧, 𝘭𝘰𝘬𝘪 𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘧𝘦𝘺𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘣𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴, 𝘵'𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘬𝘶, 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦

[maladaptive daydreaming: psychiatric condition, causes intense daydreaming that distracts a person from their real life –but in a good, protecting way.]

𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙭𝙞𝙢𝙤𝙛𝙛: at first, he thought that you are just simply bored from him, looking into the infinite distance (or arcoss the wall above his shoulder, or out on the window, lingering your eyes on the cute birds on the pylon). but then, we you told him your thingy thing, he got more protective of you, mainly when the two of you took long trips even at night on the metro or one of tony’s super machines back from a fight.

leaning on his shoulder, your hand slipping out from his grasp –he pats your head, waiting for your response, but when you let out a little sigh, he knows that you’re in your little world. looking around, pietro wraps his arm around you, kissing your head, even try to cover your ears if the noise is too loud –don’t even minding carrying you by your waist or in bridal style. when your daydreams disappears, you hold his hand, feeling comfortable around him. “i daydreamed again... sorry.” sitting down, he kneels before you, brushing through your hand too, slowly raising up to kiss you softly, not wanting to rush out from your haze because of the after-effects.

“don’t worry, baby”, he mutters, helping you up to go ahead. “let’s get you home and nap, hm?”

𝙡𝙤𝙠𝙞 𝙡𝙖𝙪𝙛𝙚𝙮𝙨𝙤𝙣: he reads your mind immediately when you doze off, seeing nothing but tender, soft pictures about your imagination. brushing your shoulder, when you just blink up to him, waking up from the dream, wiggling and gasping a little bit. “loki, i-i... i have to tell you something. it is too bad, but i have these daily beddings, sometimes persistent, sometimes not, and when i’m not paying attention to you, i’m just–” you babble, but loki only touches your forehead with the pads of his fingers, brushing down on your eyes to close it.

“i know, my queen.” manipulating your fantasy, he shows you the most beautiful, most marvellous things he had ever seen, stroking your soul –seeing your musing, faint smile, he ends slowly, in case if he’s leaving a too big space in your head. “you liked it, sweet queen?” “yes, of course, this is so wonderful, ethereal...”

“just like you.” flashing his glorious smile, placing a kiss on the crown of your head.

after that, he tells to every slave that if you’re in your dream-state, don’t them dare to disturb you. loki even speaks with frigga, trying to decode your dreams. when some mindless freak tries to harm you because of this, he will fight them with your manner: sneaking into his head, tearing them apart to leave you alone. he tries to protect your little world with everything he has, i promise you.

𝙗𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙮 𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙨: in the beginning, bucky thought your dreams are bad dreams, or bad memories, just like his –when he saw that your glazy eyes, neutral features, bucky tried to ‘wake you up’, and this little action kinda ended in your freak-out, shaking a little bit, babbling something like –“i’m fine, bucky, sweetheart, don’t worry...” seeing that you’re a little fright, shaken up from your deepest fantasies, he tries to make it up to you.

“sorry, doll... i just thought that you have some bad stuff too, and i don’t want you to suffer. but shaking is not the best option, i know.” you giggled at his words, grabbing with both of your hands his mechanic one.

“don’t worry, it happens very often with me. these times i wander to my little universe, filled up with people, with things i like... with you.” seeing his shy smile, you look up at him. at night, with you in his arms, he thought about your talent all day –“what do you think, can i grow my own world too?” he asks, curling a lock behind your ear as you place your head on his chest.

“of course, buck. everybody can do this, i’m just... pro about this thing. just try to think on only good places, people or memories you have, and let your mind bury yourself under it.”

“it sounds a little bit scary, doll, you sure you’re alright with doing this?” you hum, placing a kiss to the place where his collarbone met his shoulder, poking out a little bit. while you drive off into fairly dreams, he tries to think on the things you told him –mostly on you. like here, laying with him in the peace of the night, your silky hair touching his skin.

pulling up the blanket to cover you, he maybe began to like this little world-thing with you.

𝙩'𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙖 𝙪𝙙𝙖𝙠𝙪: t’challa knows the importance of the healthy soul and the poise of the mind –but still a little bit surprised about your almost die-hard self-discovery. when the two of you first met, you were with natasha (i think on the congress of the sokovian pact –even if you don’t sign it), you zone out a little bit, only shaking back to the earth when your friend asks you. he find himself impressed with you very fast, despite that sometimes you get lost in your thoughts, you have a very bright mind, and your personality is really interesting for him. but he’s still find your daydreaming a little bit worrisome –t’challa respects you rather than asking you something inconvenient, so he asks his sister, who’s also one of your best friends.

“so, y/n”, shuri starts when she parts from her microscope, rolling with her chair to another desk, grabbing some tissues and test tubes –“what about your tiredness? do you get enough sleep these days?”

you lolled your legs on the high counter, snapping your head to her side, nodding a little bit.

“yeah, i’m fine. i’m perfectly fine, i’m just... a daydreamer, i guess.” you told her about the facts, and narrated a little about the plots you had in your mind.

“that’s cool, i mean– i just asked because t’challa cares about you... i mean, i am too! he just mentioned that he want you to feel yourself in behavior.”

and on the other day, tomorrow, when he comes to you to offer you a breakfast, you just know that he really cares about you.

𝙨��𝙚𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚: stephen would see your problems with his realistic mentality, and he thinks at first that you’re just frenzied, giddy, and can’t stay in the entity without being hypnotized. although, his worst kind of scenario is that you’re catatonic –but when you tell him, he’s very understanding, even if the rest of his friends think that stephen’s just a bit narcissitic. he would be overprotective if someone’s messed in you, even if you’re not there with him.

“how’s life, doc?” tony asked, turning to the half-broken or simply medium height pile, ignoring all bruce’s, wong’s and his worries about the enemy of the entire world.

“it’s strange.” he responds coldly, wanting to continue the talk with bruce about thanos, but tony in his irritating way, still interrupt it. “my life is substantially okay, but that’s not why we’re here.”

“what’s up with your weird friend... girlfriend? does she still get woozy, or it’s just when you’re around her?”

that was the time when stephen’s cape slapped down his leg, much to his astonishment but not to stephen. “what the heck was that, doc?”

“an expostulation. once, you keep cut off our converse, even if the world’s doom depends on it. secondly, my life is exactly not your business. and thirdly, you never can disregard or underrate my loved ones.” or loved one, he adds, ut only in his mind.

“woah, okay, easy doc. i just asked. i didn’t knew that you have feelings like normal people.”

stephen stares up, a laconic quip growling in his mind, but he don’t let it out. yeah, maybe he have feelings too. but only for you, for your freaky-dizzy self.

.*ೃ✧₊˚.❁ ↷

𝘪'𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦ᵘʷᵘ

340 notes · View notes