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#beta robin
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It is hard to deal
“Sanji!” “Sanji!”
Sanji looked at the Usopp and Chopper duo calling out to him.
"Yes?" “We craved dessert.” “Yes, Sanji.” "Okay you go I'll make some and it's weird." "What?" "You're talking about food, but Luffy isn't around." “Oh him, Nami, and Robin are talking.” "Yes. I think it's something serious." “Something serious?” "I think." "What could it be?" "I don't know and Sanji?" "Yes?" “Can you come by when you're done? There are things I want to check.” “Oh… Okay…”
Usopp did not know what to do in such situations. Everyone in the crew was affected by something. Especially Sanji… He hoped that Chopper could heal his heart too.
*** Meanwhile, Zoro was on the deck watching the sea. It was strange behavior for him. Zoro used to do four things a day. Eating, training, sleeping, and drinking. Realizing this, Franky sat down next to him.
"Do you mind, Zoro-bro?" "No." “Are you okay?” “Wounds heal.” “I didn't mean them. Cook-bro is shaken. Does he know something we don't know?" “I don't know what you're talking about.” "Anyways. It's okay if you don't want to tell me, but if you want, I'm here. We are the pack.” "I know. What happened with Robin?" “I told her I loved her.” "How?" “With my mouth.” "How did you know that you love her?" “Hmmm… looking at her, I feel more supeeer than ever before.” "It doesn't make sense." "It does. You'll see when the time comes." "Are you not afraid?" “From what?” “Humans are actually pretty weak creatures. Even if you are a genius child swordmaster, you can die by falling down a ladder. Losing someone who means so much to you… is hard…” “Didn't we take that risk as a pack?” “Even that is a big gamble, but it's worth it for Luffy. It's all worth it for Luffy." “I'll be devastated if I lose her one day, but if I can still love her the way I want, it's worth the gamble. As it was worth it for Luffy. Well worth it for Cook-bro.” "Why did you mention him?" "I don't know." “You are weird.” “Like everyone else in this crew.” “Yeah…”
*** “So he said he was in love with you?” “Yeah…” “What is the problem?” “Gosh, Luffy… You never understand love right?” “What are you talking about? Love is simple. İf you love him say yes, if you don’t say no.” “It is more complicated than that.” “It is not though. My brother once told me when you are in love you feel butterflies in your stomach, the World would become brighter for you. You would miss them more than anyone else. Actually, my other brother said this is bullshit but I don’t think so. It seems like a good thing. I want to fall in love one day.”
Nami actually thought Luffy wouldn’t know anything about this kind of topic but guess she was wrong.
“Yeah… You are actually right… Woah… But the emotions are hard to handle Luffy. It is a big risk.” “Say, Robin?” “Yes?” “Let’s assume you love Franky. He is supeeer for you. When would you regret it? When you say yes to him or no?” “I don’t know… I…” “You are no Miss All Sunday anymore or demon child. You are Robin. Our Robin.” “Luffy is right Robin. You deserve everything.” “Then if I say no to him.” “Okay. Do you love him?” “I don’t know… Maybe… He is different. More different than everyone else.” “More different?” “You all are. We are such a unique crew but he is more.” “I feel like you love him, Robin. Why don’t you take your chance? What possibly can go wrong?” “Yeah… You can learn to love someone, after starting too and we are strong Robin. If you guys ever break up we will sport you and make sure you both will move on.” “I can do that?” “Yes.” “Yes.” “Thanks guys. I will think about it.” “If you need us…” “I know.”
*** After Franky left Zoro's side, Chopper arrived. He had some papers and a pen in his hand.
“Zoro?” "Yes?" “As a doctor, I need to do some tests for you.” “Okay. Take my blood.” “Not that kind of test. You have to answer my questions okay?” “Okay…” “How are you sleeping? Any trouble?” “No.” “Are you sure? Like, waking up during sleep more than usual?” “You watched me?” “I am a doctor Zoro. Please... Be honest with me.”
Zoro sighed.
“Then yes.” “Any reminder brought back feelings about the event?” “What event?” “I don't know. Like what happened at thriller bark or something in the past. Bad thing.” “Sometimes stairs are scary.” “Oh…” “My friend… Died… Falling.” “Oh… I am sorry for your loss Zoro.” “It was a long time ago.” “I understand but pain-“ "Just let's get over with the test." “Okay. What about the other thing?” “Cook…” “Sanji?” “Yeah. You should do this to him.” “I will. After you.” “How do you feel about Thriller Bark.” “Nothing happened. Numb.” “Other than?” “…” “Zoro please...” “Scared.” “For Sanji or Luffy or yourself.” “Not for myself. Mostly them but for all of you. I wanna protect everyone. I don't want to see either of you get hurt. I wanna be strong.” “You are strong Zoro but sometimes bad things happen and it is not our fault.” “Talk to the cook. Tell him I am alive.” “In this situation. Can we say you care most for Sanji?” “No. Just tell him. We don't need another cook. We need him.” “Oh… He said that?” “…” “I see. Thank you, Zoro. I will check you a few more times okay?” “Whatever. Do your job.” “Thanks.”
*** “Chopper-san?” “Oh Brook. Sorry I didn't see you." “No problem. Are you okay?” “Yes but worried.” “About?” "Our crew's mental health." “Wanna talk about it?” “But for privacy…” "We don't need details." “Okay then.”
They sell together. Chopper opened his file.
“Zoro and Sanji probably have Ptsd from the last event but they don't tell me what happened? I don't know how to help them.” “Maybe we should just watch them Chopper-san. If things go wrong we can do something.” “I would rather nothing goes wrong but with this, we will do that.” “Is there anything else?” “Where should I even start?” “Let's go from member to member. Luffy-san?” “He went through some terrible things at Water 7 and he has some childhood trauma. He is kind of abused too but he doesn't realize or probably he will never realize it. He was neglected. Fear of being alone. A phobia. He lost someone who was so important to him and now he wants to be strong so he can protect everyone he loves.” “This is a hard load to carry.” “Yeah. He probably has adhd too but I need a professional for that.” “I hope we can find someone to help us.” “Even if we did how we will get help? I mean this kind of help needs time.” “Maybe they can travel with us.” “I don't know but we will look about it. We need to. This is serious.” “Nami-san?” “Identity crisis. Losing a mother, trust issues, abuse, neglect, childhood trauma, self-worth issues…” “For a child… Gosh…” “Yeah. Usopp… Lost his mother too. His father was always away. Neglect, childhood trauma, constantly lying due to trauma response, self-worth issues, anxiety…” “Poor children. Zoro-san?” “He isn’t opening up to me. I don’t know much. He has PTSD probably from both thriller bark and from losing childhood trauma and maybe from water 7 too. Like Luffy, he wants to get strong so he wouldn’t lose anyone else and-“ “And.” “You know what Brook. I remembered I needed to talk to Sanji. Thank you for listening to me.”
Before Brook could react Chopper was gone. Robin came after him.
“Did you hear us Robin-san?” “I did. I talked all about this with him before.” “I wanted to talk about him but-“ “Yeah me too. He is so young. They all are.” “Because of that, we should take care of them.” “Oh… Franky-san.” “We have a young pack.” “Very young.” “Yeah…"
Three adults were so worried about the youngers. They hoped they would get every help they needed.
***
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zipsunz · 4 months
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a comic i made for hero's birthday 🍳 ✨
(art by me, script by @sunkitty143!)
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jinjeriffic · 3 months
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DCxDP Prophecy Universe Part 5
Part 4
After collecting their bags from the library lockers Jazz led him down the hallway until she found a small, unlocked, empty classroom. The room was barren except for desks and a whiteboard. I guess they don’t bother locking it if there’s nothing worth stealing.
Jazz sat her messenger bag down on the teacher’s desk and pulled a whiteboard marker out of a side pocket.
“Right,” Jazz began, “I don’t know how much you know about ecto-entities and since, as you said, the reports on them tend to be pretty biased, I’m just going to start from scratch. Sounds good?” she rambled.
Tim hopped up onto the front row desk and tried his best to look like an attentive teacher’s pet.
“Yes, Ms Fenton,” he said cheekily.
Jazz gave him an amused look.
“Careful Mr Taylor, or you’ll end up in detention,” she said lightly. She turned to the whiteboard and gathered her thoughts for a moment, then wrote ECTO-ENTITIES in large block letters, “Many people refer to all ecto-entities as ghosts, but this is actually a misnomer. Ghosts as most people think of them, i.e. the restless spirits of the dead, are only a small subset of the ectoplasmic population. There’s plenty of them that were never human to begin with,” higher up on the board, she wrote INFINITE REALMS, “Ecto-entities originate from a parallel dimension to ours, which is called the Infinite Realms by its inhabitants. Though my parents refer to it as the Ghost Zone, that name is woefully inadequate.” Jazz paused and glanced at him.
“Kinda like foreigners renaming places instead of using the one in the native language, gotcha,” Tim nodded. They had dealt with alternate realities before, so this wasn’t completely out of left field. He would go along with it for now. Jazz gave him a small smile.
“That’s right!” she said and tapped the whiteboard, “Now, the Infinite Realms and our dimension are closely interconnected, like two sides of the same coin. Large scale damage to one would cause similar devastation on the opposite side and vice versa,” she gave him a serious look.
“Which makes the hostile attitude of the paranormal research community rather worrying,” Tim mused, “If someone did something stupid the blowback would hit us too,” If he wasn’t trained to read people he would have missed the slight tightening around Jazz’s eyes.
“That’s the theory anyway. And it’s not like the US government ever dropped bombs on people just to see what would happen,” she chirped with false cheeriness.
There’s a story there, Tim thought, and not the kind you would find in a history book. What the hell has been going on?
“I’m guessing getting access to the Infinite Realms isn’t as easy as calling an Uber though,” he joked.
“You’d be surprised,” Jazz said wryly, receiving a raised eyebrow in response, “there are places where the barrier between worlds is naturally thin, allowing temporary rifts to form more easily, but they can pop up pretty much anywhere in the world. It’s what allows ecto-entities to enter our dimension. It’s also not unheard of for humans to stumble into the Realms either, though they’re lucky to return at all,” she twirled the marker between her fingers, “Time doesn’t seem to work the same way in the Realms as it does here. Just in case you ever come across one, make sure to leave through the same portal you entered. Otherwise you might find yourself stranded in the Middle Ages, or far in the future with everyone you know and love long dead.”
Tim had to fight to keep down a wince. The whole Bruce Lost In Time Debacle was still an emotional scar for the family, they really didn’t need a repeat performance.
“Duly noted.”
“Some entities are able to open and close rifts at will,” Jazz continued, unfazed by Tim’s dry tone, ”though that ability seems to be pretty rare. It probably requires an unusual level of power or incursions would be much more common.”
“That would explain the little disappearing trick Damian’s delivery guy pulled,” Jason murmured through Tim’s earpiece, “But does that mean we’re dealing with a fucking super ghost?”
Tim gave a thoughtful hum and drummed his fingers against the edge of the desk.
“Do you think humans could open a portal to the Realms?”
Jazz gave him a wry smile.
“You just summed up the bulk of my parents’ research over the last two decades. They managed to build a functioning portal about two years ago.”
Tim choked. Jason swore.
“What?! But that’s-! How is that not all over the news?!” Tim sputtered. Jazz just sighed.
“My parents have been ranting about ghosts since they were in college,” she said wearily, ”Most of the scientific community had written them off as crackpots years ago. It doesn’t help that large concentrations of ectoplasm generate some kind of interference that messes with recording equipment. Short of kidnapping the naysayers and shoving them bodily through the Fenton Ghost Portal it’s hard to prove anything. And thankfully even my parents aren’t that crazy,” she finished with an eye roll.
Tim buried his face in his hands. An interdimensional portal. What the fuck. He thought back on everything Jazz had told him so far.
“What’s ectoplasm?”
“You’ve been paying attention!” she smiled and added some notes to the whiteboard, “Ectoplasm is the basic building block of everything in the Infinite Realms, and by extension ecto-entities. Hence the name. It’s the equivalent of matter in our dimension; atoms, protons, quarks, etcetera. I’m not a physicist, so I can’t tell you exactly how it works, but that’s why ecto-entities are able to interact with our physical world in such fascinating ways. Flight, intangibility and invisibility are all common abilities for them.”
“Wow, what a fucking security nightmare. B is gonna freak,” Jason groused. Tim tuned him out to focus on Jazz’s continued explanation.
“My parents have been experimenting with using ectoplasm for power generation, but it’s proven extremely volatile. It seems like it’s affected by things like belief and emotion which is absolutely fascinating,” she said with a gleam in her eye, “not to mention its effects on organic tissue. Have you ever had your dinner come to life and try to eat you?”
Tim had a sudden, horrible suspicion.
“Can’t say that I have,” he managed to squeeze out past the lump in his throat, “Um… Jazz, what does ectoplasm look like?”
“Well that depends on what it’s been affected and shaped by but in its raw form it looks like a bright green, glowing liquid,” she tilted her head, “Why do you ask?”
Over the comms, Jason made a sound like someone had kicked him in the crotch.
“Lazarus water?! Is she talking about the fucking pits?!” he choked out.
Tim made a valiant effort to keep his own reaction in check.
“Oh, just wondering how I’ll recognize a ghost- er, ecto-entity when I see one,” he lied with fake casualness, “You mentioned something about powers?”
“Yes! All the entities we’ve encountered so far have exhibited powers which are common to their species, as well as additional powers that seem to depend on the individual core. I’ve theorized that powers develop as a response to stress related to either their Obsession or death trauma…” Jazz trailed off, “aaaaaand I’ve lost you.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, I know I have a tendency to ramble,” she said sheepishly and considered the bullet points she had written so far, “Let me backtrack a bit. Not all ecto-entities are ghosts. There’s personifications of concepts, which I theorize are formed through the collective consciousness of living beings. They are entities which represent Hope or Justice or-”
“Time?” Tim interjected. Jazz gave him a calculating look.
“...sure. They are among the most powerful entities and have powers related to what they represent. I suspect they may have even been worshipped as gods at some point. You definitely wouldn’t want to mess with them,” at Tim’s nod, she continued, “There’s also the Neverborn, which are formed when ecto-entities choose to reproduce. They are entirely of the Infinite Realms, and thus were never ‘born’ into our world.”
“Ghosts can have children?” he said, surprised.
“Yes, although I’ve never been able to get the details on how it works. They don’t like to discuss it with outsiders. And considering they can look like dragons or disembodied floating eyeballs I’m not sure I’d want to know the exact mechanics,” she joked.
“I’m sure there’s plenty of people who’d disagree with you on that,” Tim muttered, then paused. “Wait, dragons?”
Jazz waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. The point is that there’s way more to the other side than most people realize. There’s probably lots of things I’ve never even heard of. It’s quite exciting, really!”
Tim worried about it. A lot. Jason had also gone suspiciously quiet.
“So, ghosts are just the tip of the iceberg?” Tim hedged.
“Exactly. What sets them apart from other ecto-entities is that they are usually created upon the death of someone or something from our dimension, which gives them motivation to come back here,” Jazz added more notes and arrows to the whiteboard. “All entities have something they call a core; think of it as their central organ or brain. It houses their consciousness, and its nature affects what powers they get. There’s all kinds of elemental cores like fire and water, but also more esoteric ones like shadow or technology. An ecto-entity’s body is composed of ectoplasm and moulded by their core. Their physical form is malleable and heavily based on their self-perception. With experience they can change shape to suit their needs.”
Tim mentally added shapeshifting to the growing list of powers to worry about. So far it sounded a lot like a Martian’s.
“So can ecto-entities grow and age?”
“It depends. The Neverborn usually do, but a lot of ghosts have a bit of a Peter Pan thing going on where they don’t want to. They are often ‘stuck’ at the age they were when they died, physically and mentally. Though there’s always exceptions.”
Tim hummed thoughtfully. Something had been bothering him since ghosts had first entered the equation.
“Jazz, if ghosts don’t age or die, why aren’t they all over the place? Even if rifts are rare, shouldn’t there be hundreds of thousands of years worth of dead folks wandering the Earth?”
She gave him a sad smile.
“I never said ghosts couldn’t die, Adam,” she said carefully, ”And not everyone who dies comes back as a ghost. The ones who do typically have some unfinished business holding them back. Like an obsession they never got to fulfill, or a loved one they are watching over. Once they are done, they are free to move on to whatever Afterlife awaits them,” she sighed and crossed her arms, “It also takes a lot of energy for a ghost to do anything in our world. I think a majority of them never hit that level, or can’t keep it up for any significant amount of time. It’s also part of the reason my parents are so biased against them.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Think about it. Most ecto-entities are just like regular people, going about their business and keeping their heads down. The ones who are both motivated to cross into our world, powerful enough to manifest and tend to make themselves known are the troublemakers. It would be like an alien looking at the population of Belle Reve and concluding that the majority of humans must be super villains! It’s sample bias.”
Tim bit his lip. This all sounded worryingly plausible, which would mean a literal world of trouble about to come down on their heads. Fuck, just what we needed.
“You mentioned that ghosts can die. I assume you don’t mean from old age, right?” he queried. Jazz looked at him wearily.
“You’d be right. If an ecto-entity’s core is too badly damaged, they will cease to exist,” she said cautiously, “It doesn’t help that ghosts tend to maintain a strength based social hierarchy and are fiercely protective of their territory. Ecto-entities usually have a lair within the Infinite Realms, and those who cross over to our dimension often establish a haunt to call their own. Any intruders would be met with violence,” she sighed and rubbed her forehead, “My parents have also been developing weapons to fight ghosts with… varying degrees of success. A lot of their tech runs on ectoplasm which makes it pretty temperamental.”
Seeing Jazz’s obvious discomfort with the topic, Tim decided to switch tracks.
“Is there any way to tell for sure if my brother came back as a ghost?”
Relieved at the change, Jazz made a see-sawing motion with her hand.
“Kind of? My parents tried for ages to build a ghost detector but they never got it to work quite right. Too much ambient ectoplasm in Amity I guess,” she shrugged as if that statement wasn’t extremely worrying. “You could always grab a ouija board or something and try asking. Just… don’t ask a ghost about their death. It’s a major trauma for most of them and there’s no better way to send them into a frothing rage. If they volunteer the information that’s one thing, but to ask about it is like the social faux pas among ecto-entities.”
Tim nodded and made a mental note to get his hands on some Fenton tech. He had a feeling it was going to be a long week for him.
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Jason and Tim didn’t speak until they were safely back in the car. Tim was mentally composing the report they would have to make to Bruce. He was not looking forward to his reaction.
“So,” Jason began with fake casualness, “an interdimensional portal in Illinois.”
“Yep.”
“Creatures made of fucking Lazarus Water.”
“Sounds like it.”
“And we still don’t know if our mystery meta is Bruce’s dead kid or not.”
Tim groaned.
“It all adds up though, doesn’t it? The camera glitching, the powers, the portal…”
“And that damned prophecy. The personification of Time, huh?”
Tim pinched his nose to stave off the growing headache. They contemplated the fucked up situation they had stumbled into in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Jason sighed and started up the engine.
“Rock-paper-scissors for who has to tell B?”
Part 6
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minty364 · 14 days
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DPXDC Prompt #58 Part 4
The living room and kitchen were deserted, neither Danny nor Jazz expected anyone as it was normal for their parents to essentially live in the basement only coming up for meals once or twice a month to ‘eat as a family’, these would consist mostly of fast food as no one trusted anything cooked in their kitchen.
They shared a glance as they opened the basement door and headed down. The dimly lit basement held the giant hole in the wall, the so-called portal, a massive metal spectacle with wires and interconnected circuitry met together to create an unholy abomination of science. Or at least that’s what Jazz called it once when they were in her room venting about the situation. 
“JAZZ!! DANNY!!” their overzealous father yelled as he bounded over.
Their mom walked over too, seeming to be happy for their return, “your father and I could barely contain our excitement all day!! Go on put on your hazmat suits.” their mom gestured over to the lockers that held the suits. Both of their parents' lockers tended to be quite empty since they practically lived in them, to the point where they had several copies of the same suits that they’d wash and reuse. Danny and Jazz only had the ones, Jazz had a nice dark violet color with black gloves and boots. Danny had black gloves and boots too but his was white to make it look like he was an astronaut, something that he had mixed feelings on. Both of these used to have a giant picture of Jack’s head on it but it was quickly removed by both siblings. 
They quickly put the suits on over their uniforms and joined their parents behind some glass near the portal. It wasn’t closed off or anything and Danny didn’t think it would be able to prevent something like an explosion from charing all of them but it’s hard to have faith in parents who've missed so much because of the stupid portal, or at least that’s how Danny felt. 
Jazz and Danny huddled together behind their parents as their mom did some final checks on a clipboard, “alrighty we should be all good, Hun you ready to throw the switch?” their mom asked their dad. “As ready as I’ll ever be!” Jack yelled as he threw down the switch.
A few sparks erupted from the portal but other than that nothing happened. 
Their dad, frustrated at this angrily tried turning it off and on again but nothing but another smaller spark and then truly nothing. 
Another low frustrated growl left their dad as he and mom walked back up the steps, “alright I’m taking a break.” Jack said, almost defeated, sounding, “I’m sorry but I really thought we had it this time.”
“Oh come on, Jack, let’s go out, I’m sure the kids were probably going over to the Wayne’s again anyways. Let’s go out and have a fun night then sleep on it.” their mom said, patting dad on the shoulder. They shared a fond look and then went upstairs probably to get ready. 
Danny and Jazz stood at the bottom of the stairs and shared a look.
“They gave up too fast again…” Jazz noted.
“I guess, what do we do now?” Danny asked.
“I’m still a little curious about the portal but I don’t want to keep Damian, Tim or Alfred waiting,” Jazz said with a hand on her cheek.
“We could invite them in, I know we haven’t before but maybe Tim would know how to get it working, he is pretty good with technology.” Danny reasoned. Neither of them really wanted to involve the Wayne’s in their family’s shenanigans but at this point they were all friends and Damian and Tim were bound to find out how weird their family was at some point anyways.
Jazz stood there seeming to think things over before she nodded, “alright I trust your judgment but we’ll have to be careful okay?” 
Danny smiled at her, “of course, what’s the worst that could happen?” 
This is what led to the four of them standing at the bottom of the stairs. Their parents had left about an hour ago. Danny and Jazz were still in their suits with Tim without one and made to sit with Jazz behind the glass and Damian and Danny planning to explore the actual tube.
“I don’t want to chance you getting hurt,” he said to her as he made her stand next to Tim.
Damian and Danny shared a look and nodded before heading into the tube. 
They looked around for a while but didn’t see much besides the interconnected wires on the floor of the lab. Damian took the right side while Danny took the left. They worked their way up and down the tube. Damian was a little ahead of Danny on their way out. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.
When they were almost out Danny lost his footing, his hand flying out in front of him. A soft click was heard and time seemed to crawl to a stand still.
Danny couldn’t stand the thought of his friend getting hurt because of him and he felt a rush of adrenaline. He ran as he felt a swirl of energy and electricity surround his body. 
“DANNY!! DAMIAN!!” he heard both Tim and Jazz shout as he reached Damian who was at the mouth of the portal.
A quick shove was all it took to get Damian, who had turned towards him at the sound of the shout, out of the portal. 
“DANIEL!!” he heard Damian shout as the portal activated on top of him, surrounding his body with swirling green.
Blinding pain shot through Danny, feeling as if he was being torn apart and put back together again and again.
He figured he was dying but at least he could protect those he cared about. He was able to shove Damian out of the portal in time, and Tim and Jazz were safely behind the blast glass.
He wouldn’t ever be able to fly among the stars as an astronaut but he was able to protect. His family and friends were safe and that’s all that mattered. 
He could allow himself to succumb to the darkness as the electricity and pain consumed him whole.
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wolfram-but-art · 8 months
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i may or may not have made full designs for mercs in an rp i'm doing...
rb > likes or smth
misc + og designs under cut :thumbs up:
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here's them before i started colouring
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most of these are pretty gimmicky on purpose, also i changed a cuple of stuff here and there
for the sake of the rp i designed these kill feeds (more or less inspired by those chat devices someone made for dsmp that one time) (it's a little primitive, but it only has to be functional)
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there is a v.2 which has the form of a watch (you can see it on sniper, spy and engie) (it also has a mode where instead of sending notifications it vibrates, thought it would be fun for sneaking) (maybe it even has a walke talkie function, yk, for team comms) (i didn't draw but it's all fictional anyway)
i kept some on my hcs in these ddesigns too, like engi's and Pyro's special goggles and tails and
i also removed Medic's lab coat because... well... he doesn't have it on...
i removed Sniper's facial hair too because i ended up hating it hfsgfe
there's also this uh,, thing i made
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(yes, i made spy look and pose like that on prpose lmao)
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dreamofbecoming · 8 months
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ok fuck it context now on ao3
“I’m freaking out, man!”
“You’re what? Why? This is like, what you’ve been waiting for, isn’t it?”
“I mean, yeah, dude, but now it’s here, it’s happening, and tomorrow it’ll be done and I can’t take it back!”
“Do you want to take it back? Because I think that’s a terrible idea, but if it’s really what you want, I’ll sneak you out the back right now.”
Dustin deflates a little, slumping into the plush chair this weird little church greenroom was nice enough to provide. “No, I don’t want to leave. Of course I don’t.”
Steve puts his hands on Dustin’s shoulders, not massaging, just resting. He doesn’t want to smear too much of his scent onto him before the ceremony, but old habits die hard. Steve suspects he’s always going to want to scent the kids for comfort, even though they’re literally all grown and starting families of their own and don’t need their old omega babysitter anymore.
Case in point, Dustin’s wedding is meant to start in, oh, looks like about 25 minutes, so Steve has to smooth this crisis over double time.
“What’s really bothering you, Dust? You were over the moon yesterday, and the day before that, and every day since you and Susie proposed to each other. Hell, every day since you met! What’s going on now?”
There’s a pause, which is always unsettling coming from Dustin, who hasn’t shut up for more than twelve consecutive minutes in the decade plus Steve has known him, but then he sighs.
“She wants kids.”
Steve’s brow furrows. “And you…don’t?”
Dustin huffs, frustration rising in his scent. “It’s not that I don’t, it’s that I don’t know if it’s a good idea, you know?”
“And you guys haven’t talked about this before now? You’ve been together for like eleven years, dude!”
“We have, of course we have! I’m just thinking about the risks, Steve! I’m a beta, I can’t carry her pups, and pregnancies are dicey for alpha females! What if something happens?”
“First of all don’t call women females, it’s weird. Erica or Nance will definitely smack you for that, and you don’t need a black eye in your wedding photos.” Dustin nods, cringing a little.
“Second, pregnancy isn’t the only option, man, and also it’s her decision. If she wants to carry them, that’s a discussion you need to have with her, but you can’t just shut her down about it. She knew you were a beta when she decided to marry you. She picked you because she loves you, don’t go deciding for her she’s better off with someone else. And besides, if you decide it doesn’t feel right for both of you, you can talk about adoption, or surrogacy, or…I don’t know what all the options are, but I bet there’s tons! Hell, I’d carry for you guys, if you wanted.”
“You would?” Dustin’s eyes get big and shiny almost immediately, and shit, Steve’s gotta shut this down now. The groom can’t be going out there with red eyes and tear stains, Susie will murder Steve on principle.
But he can’t lie to Dustin. Swore he never would, not when it mattered. “Course I would, man, what’s family for? Aw hell, kid, don’t cry, your mate will run me over with her car if your photos are fucked up because of me.”
“I just- I can’t believe you’d do that for me! You don’t even know if I’ll be any good at it!”
Ah, so that’s what this is really about.
“Of course you’ll be good at it, Henderson. You’d be an incredible dad, any kid would be lucky to have you. I mean, your kids are gonna turn out to be nerd city, but that was always a given.”
Dustin gives him a bitchy little eye roll, which was of course Steve’s aim. He still smells anxious, though.
“How can you be sure, though? It’s not like I have any idea what a dad is supposed to be like, you know? It’s why I kept latching onto older male figures, no offense to you and Eddie.”
Little shit. “You should be so lucky, you little twerp.”
Dustin shoves him away, but he’s grinning now, and his scent is slowly returning to the lemon-bright joy that colors it so often Steve just associates it with Dustin’s base scent at this point, so he’ll take the win.
“You really wanna know how I know you’ll make a great dad, Dustybun?”
“Don’t fucking call me that, today’s supposed to be my day!”
“I’m your best man, I’ll call you whatever I want. Seriously though, I have a story for you.”
“A story, huh? I don’t know, Eddie’s more the storyteller in your relationship…”
“I’m gonna go out there and tell your bride to delay the ceremony because you shat your slacks and need new ones, you menace.”
“Okay, okay!” Dustin laughs. “Tell your story.”
“I was gonna put this in my speech later, but I think you need to hear it now, and honestly it might be more about me than you, and I don’t want to steal the spotlight or anything.”
“Not worried about that, but I’m intrigued.”
“You know how when you’re a kid, you learn how to pick out emotion scents by context clues, from like your family and stuff?”
Dustin lifts an unimpressed eyebrow. “Yes, Steve, I’m aware of one of the foundational tenets of our society, which we all personally experienced.”
“Almost fifteen years I’ve known you, and your attitude hasn’t improved one bit, you know that?”
Dustin waves imperiously for him to continue. Steve glares at him, but they really are running short on time.
“You ever know a kid who had like, a gap? Some feeling they had never run into before, so they didn’t know what the smell meant?” Dustin shakes his head, looking curious.
“There was this girl in my class when we were like, seven? Eight? Something like that. Anyway, she borrowed Tommy’s favorite eraser, one of those animal-shaped ones with the faces printed on? He loved that thing. The girl, Cassie, she broke it, by accident. Tommy lost his shit. I’d never seen him so angry. And like, you know how little kids emotions don’t really come through that strong? He smelled like, grown-up angry. Filled the whole room. Freaked the teacher out, too. Everyone’s backing the hell up out of Tommy’s way, even me. But Cassie was just confused. Because no adult in her life had ever been truly angry around her, so she hadn’t learned what it smelled like yet.”
Dustin is listening avidly, looking gratifyingly similar to how he does when Eddie DMs.
“Anyway, Tommy slapped her so hard it left a bruise, got his dumb ass suspended. But I just remember being so jealous, you know? Can you imagine? Eight years old and never knew what anger smelled like. Hell, at that point anger was just what home smelled like to me.”
Aw shit, now Dustin just smells sad.
“Do you remember when I drove you to the Snow Ball?”
Dustin’s got his thinking face on now, trying to figure out why Steve keeps jumping all over the place. Sue him, he’s no Eddie.
He nods anyway.
“Before you got out of the car, when I told you I’d come back to pick you up, you gave me this huge smile, and the car filled up with something I’d never smelled before. Not really, anyway. Maybe like, in passing, you know? Like in the hallway at school, but always faint and never towards me, so I never focused on it.”
Dustin’s eyebrows are totally scrunched up now, little genius brain whirring away. Goddamn brat never had any patience.
“I didn’t ask about it, because I wasn’t sure it was important, and also a little because I felt like enough of a caveman around you little rocket scientist dweebs I didn’t need you explaining feelings to me too, but I kept smelling it from you after that. And from El, and a little from Lucas and Max and even once from your mom, but it was just confusing, you know? I couldn’t figure out what was causing it, so I had no context clues to figure out what it meant.
“And then at Starcourt, after Robin and I went to go puke up those Russian drugs—”
“Ditched me and Erica who were very responsibly trying to wrangle you, you mean.”
“Tomato, tomahto, kid. Anyway, I told her I had a crush on her and she panicked and came out to me, so I switched to making fun of her crush so she would know I was okay with it, and suddenly there was that smell again. First time I ever smelled it coming from her. So after everything was done, I asked her.”
“Oh, so you’ll ask her, but not me? Hurtful, Steve.”
Steve rolls his eyes. “Yeah, shithead, because Robbie already knew I was a moron, and she was never gonna want to go out with me, so I didn’t need to impress her. I could look stupid to Rob back then, but I still wanted you guys to think I was cool.”
“Steve, buddy, my brother, my best friend, my favorite jock please don’t tell Lucas I said that, we literally never thought you were cool.”
“Now who’s being hurtful?”
“Just the truth, Munson. I tell it like it is.”
“Ugh, whatever. The point is, I asked Bobbie what she felt for me in that bathroom, and she told me that’s when she realized she would love me forever. That we were going to be best friends.”
Dustin looks stricken.
“That’s what I was smelling all that time. Honey. That’s what I smelled in the car in the Hawkins Middle parking lot. You loved me. You were literally the first person in my whole life who ever did.”
“Steve—”
“This isn’t—look, I know it’s kind of sad and pathetic for kid Steve, but this isn’t about that. It’s not about me, okay? It’s about how my whole life turned around the day Dustin Henderson decided he loved me, because he never stopped. Not for a single second of the last thirteen years, and because you loved me then, I have a platonic soulmate and a horde of little siblings and a mate I adore and more friends than I can count on all my fingers and toes! You’re the one who encouraged me to go to cosmetology school, you’re the one who introduced me to Eddie, you’re the one who stood by me and let me crash on your mom’s couch when my parents kicked me out. My life is full of love, and joy, and purpose, and it all started with you, Dustin. I’m here because you loved me, and because once you started loving me you never stopped. I have smelled honey on you every single day since the 1984 Snow Ball, and that’s how I know you’ll be an incredible father. Because if you have all that love for a washed up ex-jock omega nobody had ever loved before? You’ll have all that and more times a million for any kid lucky enough to call you Dad.”
They’re both crying by now. Susie is gonna kill them for sure, but as Dustin buries himself in Steve’s arms like he’s still six inches shorter, Steve decides it doesn’t matter. This is worth it.
There’s a knock at the door, just in time it seems.
“Dingus, baby Dingus, you in there? T minus 5 minutes, boys, stick those feet in the oven if you gotta!”
“Yeah, Bobs, I hear you! We’ll be out in a sec, no cold feet in sight.”
“Roger that, bubba! I’ll inform the bride!” He can hear her racing off, probably dancing with pre-wedding excitement. For a cynical lesbian who has a new girlfriend every month and swears marriage is an archaic institution built on misogyny and omegaphobia, she sure does love weddings.
“You ready, kid?”
Dustin has taken the brief interlude as an opportunity to splash his face with water from the sink in the corner, so he doesn’t look like he’s been crying to into Steve’s shoulder, but Steve makes sure to straighten his tie and finger comb his curls back into place.
“Yeah, I think I’m ready.” He looks at Steve for a long moment, then throws his arms around him one last time. “I’m really glad you’re my brother, Steve.”
Steve squeezes him tighter for a moment, breathing in the familiar scent of lemon and cut grass and honey. Of family. Of love.
“Yeah, kid. Me too.”
486 notes · View notes
@steddiemas Day 13 -  Snow Day
uh...yeah.. this got way away from me but...here's day 13! (a day late and 4k words more than normal???)
pairing: steddie | word count: 5,201 | rated: T
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The following Thursday finds Eddie and the entire Hellfire Club literally and metaphorically clamoring over each other and his large dining room table while their campaign (Eddie had helpfully told him) continues on.
Luckily, Robin had agreed to spend their night off work from the video store with him.
“So, when are you going to do something about your hopeless Eddie crush?”
“SSshh! Not so loud, Rob!”
She rolls her eyes at him, “Sorry to tell you this Dingus, but I don’t think he’s paying you a single modicum of attention.”
Steve looks over at the table from his spot on the couch; Robin’s right, of course, Eddie’s already halfway onto the tabletop, his arms stretched wide and the rest of him hunched low to the wood.
He’s deep into his story and his voice is dropped low, only the tone of it reaching Steve’s ears.
“He’s such a dork.” Steve sighs, shaking his head.
“Yeah, but you loooove him!” Robin teases, poking one foot that had been with her other on Steve’s lap into his side instead.
Steve rolls his eyes at her, “Hand me another slice of cheese.”
She reaches over to one of the leftover boxes of pizza on the coffee table and fishes out a slice for him, “So what are you gonna do about it?” She asks, handing it to him.
“About what?” he asks, taking down half the slice in one bite.
“Don’t play dumb Steve,”
He sighs, “I don’t know Rob; he hasn’t made a move either! He kissed me first, remember? Right over there!” Steve points to the offending doorway, “Because of you, by the way.” he snarfs down the other half of the slice two big bites.
“I remember.” She nods.
“I honestly don’t know what to do Bob, I want to corner him and kiss him all over his fuckin’ body but how’m I supposed to know if he’d be okay with that? Does he want that?”
“Oh he wants that, believe me.”
Steve narrows his eyes at her. She only quirked a brow at him in return. “What do you know, Buckley?”
Robin snorts out a laugh, “I would say to just go for it, but I feel like he’d freak if you did that out of the blue.”
“So, what, I just say ‘Hey, I really really like you, maybe already halfway love you, and I want to know if you’d like to kiss about it maybe?’?”
“Who’s Steve kissing?”
Steve jumps at Dustin’s voice, suddenly beside him. He knew his hearing was going on his left..Robin told him he was just imagining it.
“OOh, Steve’s kissing someone?” This time it was Lucas, his voice teasing as he passes behind Dustin through the door under the stairs with his arms full of pop cans.
“I’m not kissing anyone,”
“He just wants to.” 
Damn you, Robin. Steve glances quickly to the table, Eddie has his back turned to them.
“Who is it?”
“Uh, it’s…” Steve pauses for a half a second, “None of your business. You guys done for the night?”
“Yeah.. about that..”
Oh no–
“Can we stay the night here? We have to start planning out our characters for the next campaign!”
“You guys are done done?” “Not quite,” Steve turns his head to the right, the older kid Frank is standing in the other doorway from the living room to the hall closest to the front door. “We have one more session then I’m DM-ing the next campaign.”
Steve nods along with Robin (whose head is hanging backward over the arm of the couch closest to Frank). “So you…six? Seven? Want to stay the night?” He's already skimming through the house in his head to where the extra blankets and pillows are stashed. He should have enough.
“No, just us.” Mike confirms, plopping down onto the carpet between the coffee table and fireplace across from the couch. “Me, Lucas, Will, and Dustin.”
Dustin nods, adding “And Eddie was going to stay a little longer to plan his own character, since he’s gonna be able to play in the next one.”
Steve turns back to Frank and the other older kid…Jeff…?, who’s now leaning around the doorway too. “You guys aren’t staying?”
“Nah man, we don’t wanna impose, thanks for having us though.” Maybe Jeff said.
“Yeah, of course,” Steve lifts Robin’s legs off his lap and stands, moving to see the three older Hellfire members off at the door. The Harringtons are polite hosts first and foremost. “Thanks for coming, guys.” What was he thanking them for? It wasn’t like they were here for him.
Jeff’s polite smile seemed to echo Steve’s thoughts, “Of course man, thanks for having us over.” “And for the pizza.” the shortest of the three says to the agreement of the others.
Jeff shakes Steve’s hand, the shortest one (Garby? George? It was something with a ‘G’) smiles again after pulling on his coat before heading out to Frank’s truck.
One of Frank’s solid hands lands on Steve’s shoulder in a friendly pat, and it’s almost enough to miss Eddie slipping out the door behind him into the slow fall of fat snowflakes outside. He was surprised to see a swath of snow had blanketed his front yard since the boys had been here.
Steve almost says something, but hears the guys exchanging their own farewells through the cracked door, so he turns back to the steps. 
Will is already coming back down them, arms full of blankets and pillows, Lucas following behind him.
“I was about to go grab those myself–wait, did any of you dipshits call and ask your parents if you can stay? It’s a school night!” Steve follows the two into the living room.
The four of them immediately look cowed.
“OOohh you better get moving guys,” Robin teases.
“All of you up, you’re calling home.” Steve waves his arm as if to shove them all through the hall into the kitchen. “And no complaints, otherwise you’ll all be piling into the beemer before you can say demogorgon.”
Three of the four boys grumble their complaints as they pass him, “Hey, you’re lucky I’m even letting you stay. Seeing as how I’m the one that’s gonna have to drive you all to school in the morning.”
“You’ll already be driving Robin!” Mike complains
“Yeah but I have pretty privilege.” Robin calls from her spot on the couch.
Steve hears the door click closed, and looks over to see Eddie coming back in.
“Hey–” Eddie disappears down the hall and past the steps, only to reappear in the dining area through the other doorway under the steps. He immediately goes back to whatever papers he’s got on the table.
Steve looks down at Robin, who looks up at him at the same time, his confusion is reflected on her face.
He’s about to go talk to Eddie when Dustin calls for him from the kitchen.
-x-
“Steve! Mom wants to talk to you!”
Eddie hears Dustin call from the kitchen, and he stacks his pile of notes together, finally closing them up into his spiral notebook.
He pauses then. Just staring down at the disheveled wire binding. 
He should go. No need to torture himself further, the kids will understand right? He’ll just make up something about his Uncle needing him home right away tomorrow morning or something. 
Yeah. That should work, it’s not like anyone would call Wayn—
“So. You’re down in the dumps.”
Eddie’s shoulders crowd up against his ears at Robin’s arrival.
“I’m fine.”
“Uh huh.” She doesn’t believe him, of course.
He can hear the sound of Steve’s cheery voice from the kitchen, the tone he takes whenever he’s talking to one of the kids’ parents, and Eddie can feel his face screw up in pain.
“Ah hah!”
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.” “You didn’t have to,” he bites out, “It’s not like you’re the one having to listen to your crush wax poetic about some girl he wants to kiss stupid.”
He turns to look at her. Robin’s face is blank for a moment, then a barely-there smug smirk appears on her lips.
Eddie’s vision goes scarlet. “You don’t get to be a shithead about it, Buckley. This is all your fuckin’ fault.” he spits out in a low whisper.
“My fault?” she echoes in the same tone, the smile falling from her face. “What’s my fault??”
“You’re the one who made me think I had a chance, weren’t you? The one who put up that fuckin’ mistletoe? Your fault.” He pokes her shoulder accusingly. His volume was getting higher, so he adjusts before continuing. “I should have known there was no chance; he’s the one who said ‘Now we’re even.’ after he kissed me in Melvald’s!”
“He said tha—”
Eddie was practically hissing at this point, just a steady stream of steam escaping him like a cartoon character. “He just felt bad, Robin! He just felt like he owed me something, there’s no goddamn feelings there!”
“Eddi–”
“I gotta go.”
He scoops up his notebook in one hand and snatches up his bag with the other, slinging it over his shoulder.
“Eddie, don’t go–”
He stalks down the hall past the steps away from her voice. He’s almost to his escape when Dustin cuts off his path from the kitchen doorway closest to the front door.
“Eddie, you’re leaving?”
“Sorry kid, gotta go.” He steps around him, “I forgot Wayne needs me home right away tomorrow morning.”
“But you were going to–”
“I’ll help you later, Dustin.” it wasn’t supposed to come out like that.
“Don’t be an ass, Eddie.”
“You know what? Bite me, Mike.” He really shouldn’t be taking his feelings out on the goblins.
“Fuck you, man.”
“Hey! Hey, what is happening right now?” Steve comes out into the hall then, making eye contact with Eddie for a fraction of a second before Eddie focuses on lacing his boots onto his feet.
“Eddie’s leaving,”
“...Okay? And?”
Alright, ouch.
He yanks his laces even tighter.
“And he said he would help us, and now he’s leaving.”
“Oh come off it Dustin, you heard what he said.” Lucas says, an eyeroll in his voice.
“What’d he say?” Eddie’s head told him that Steve’s voice sounded hurt, but best not to believe his head right now. “He said,” Eddie cuts in, “That his uncle needs him home in the morning.”
Steve’s soft “Oh.” was barely audible over the other three arguing back at him.
He yanks the last lace tight to his calf and stands sharply.
“Yeah, so, thanks for having us over, Harrington, I’ll see ya around.” he purposely doesn’t look up at Steve’s face as he says this, focusing on his notebook and bag.
His hand just reaches the doorknob when Robin’s voice calls out from the living room. “Don’t think you’re going anywhere anytime soon, Eddie.”
Because his arm was already in motion when she started talking, the door opens in front of him just as she finishes. 
The slow fat flakes from only, what, 10 minutes earlier? are now flying harsh and sideways across the light escaping Steve’s front door. It’s piling up out there, and fast. Bessie has braved many a winter in Hawkins, but he knows he’d get snowed in by time they got across town to the park. 
Honestly though? Getting snowed in on the side of the road is seeming much more preferable than staying here after his little hissy fit.
“Eddie? Just stay here, man.” Steve sounds much closer than before, “I don’t want something to happen to you–” What Eddie can only assume is Steve’s hand falls to his shoulder, and he immediately turns away from it, closing the front door and letting his bag fall down his arm to the floor in the same motion as he turns into the kitchen without making eye contact with anyone.
The phone is still warm in his palm when he lifts it to his ear, punching Frank’s number into the buttons on the cradle. 
In the handful of rings it takes for him to pick up, Eddie can hear the others whispering to each other, no doubt things like “What’s Eddie’s problem?”, “Why’s he being mean to Steve?”, “Why can’t he control his big gay feelings for his obviously straight friend?”.
Okay, maybe that last one was a bit much for a bunch of sophomores.
“Hello?”
“Frank, you’re home?”
“Uh. Yeah. You called me at home.”
“Well it’s snowin’ like shit outside now, I wanted to make sure you guys got back safe.”
“Oh. Yeah, yeah, I just got in when I heard the phone. Everyone’s home safe.”
“Alright good, I’m gonna stay here at Harrington’s; talk to you later man, I gotta call Wayne.
“Okay Ed, see ya’.”
Eddie jabs his finger into the phone’s switch to end the call, then starts to dial the trailer. Wayne should be just about to leave for work.
“Y’ello?”
“Hey Wayne, it’s me.” Eddie says, turning his face away automatically when someone shuffles into the kitchen.
“Ed, where’ya at?”
“I’m still at Steve’s. It really started to come down so I don’t want to risk driving home tonight.”
“Good. You stay righ’ there, son.”
“Are you still going in?”
Wayne hums in agreement, “Got to.”
Eddie’s stomach sinks, “Wayne–”
“Now don’ you worry ‘bout me boy, I woke up early enough to get the chains on the truck.”
“Fine, fine. Be careful, old man.”
“You got it kid. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”
He hangs the phone back into it’s cradle on the wall feeling much looser now; he’d almost forgotten why he was so wound up, but seized up again as soon as he turned.
Steve was standing at the stove, stirring something that was obscured by his torso. “You want some hot chocolate too, Eds?” he asks, not turning from the stove.
Eddie gives him a short “No.” and goes back out into the hall to unlace his boots once again.
He wanders back into the living room with his bag and plops down in the recliner, pulling out his monster manual and his smaller, less pulverized notebook, the one with the basics of his next character fleshed out in it.
A tiefling bard, one he had imagined as having such thick skin on him that no matter what snide remarks, insults, and bashes to his character were thrown at him, he’d only shrug them off. Something real Eddie’d love to do. A charming, charismatic bard that got all who heard his songs to overlook his hellish appearance.
Wouldn’t that be something.
While he’s mulling over what name to give his bard (he’s waffling between Zarlech and Erron), Robin appears, settling in on the corner seat of the couch beside him.
He tenses up again, thinking she’s going to try talking to him about the too-good-for-this-world man in the yellow sweater in the next room, but she doesn’t. She only sits down and starts back in on the thick Vogue magazine she’d been swiping though since he and his troupe arrived.
Steve comes in with two mugs of cocoa not long after, walking to Eddie first with a soft smile.
“I told you I didn’t want any.”
He regrets his tone as soon as the words pass his lips; Steve looks stunned, the boys’ idle chatter from the coffee table dies off immediately.
Eddie’s face burns in embarrassment, but before he can even open his mouth, Robin says “I’ll take his,” and reaches for the steaming pale yellow mug. 
He passes it over, and stands there for a moment with the other mug before turning and handing it over to Will, the closest to him of the four on the floor.
Steve pinches the bridge of his nose briefly, then turns out of the room. Robin’s up and out of the room not a moment later, saying, “I’ll go help him with you threes’.”
There’s a beat of silence, then: “What. In the actual fuck. Is your problem, man?”
Eddie turns to face the voice; all four teens are staring at him, each one with a different level of incredulousness on their faces. Mike’s is the worst, looking at Eddie like he just killed his dog.  And he’s about to get revenge for it.
“Who do you think you are to talk to him like that, huh?” Mike seethes at him, “This is his fucking house, and you’re gonna sit here and be rude as all hell just because he doesn’t like you back?”
What the fuck?
“What the fuck?” Eddie hears his voice echo his thoughts. “How do you—”
“Steve puts up with enough shit from us as it is, he doesn’t need it from you too.”
There’s surprise on the other threes’ faces, but Eddie’s got an inkling it’s surprise at this coming from Mike and not from the content of the outburst.
“Uh..”
“Mike’s right, Eddie. You’re our friend, but Steve’s our…” Lucas trails off.
“He’s our Steve.” Will says resolutely. 
“He’s our Steve.” Lucas agrees, “And we won’t hesitate to drop you like a dead fish over him.”
Eddie turns his gaze to Dustin, not looking forward to what he might see in his closest butthead’s expression.
Dustin’s face is set in determined lines, and he meets Eddie’s gaze solidly. “I love you both as brothers, man. Don’t make me choose between you two…Though I will choose Steve.”
Robin returns before Eddie can formulate any sort of response to..all that.., pressing a steaming mug of cocoa into each of the boys’ waiting hands.
She came in with four though, and brings the last one to Eddie. “Leave him be for a minute. I’m sure he will be fine, but he’s upset.” He takes the mug from her and she squashes back down into her abandoned seat with a sigh. “Which usually means he’s going to be doing laundry until I make him go to sleep.” 
Eddie spends the next 25 minutes trying to think about what he’s going to say to Steve, what he’s going to tell him was the reason for his bullshit attitude.
For a solid three, he seriously thinks about telling Steve the truth, that he got all pissy at the thought of him sucking face with whoever it is he’s got a crush on, but that’s really not fair to Steve..or to this mystery girl.
At 30, Robin nudges his arm with her bony elbow, so he leaves his book and still-unnamed character on the chair and goes to find Steve.
He follows the sound of music coming from off the kitchen, stopping just outside the door when the low sound of Steve singing along to ‘The First Nöel’ playing softly through the radio.
It had to be that damn song, didn’t it?
…Okay, maybe it’s not so bad if Steve’s the one singing it..
He steps into the narrow room once the radio host comes back on. It’s small, but there’s more than enough room for the machine’s doors to open and to manuver a basket around in here, and there’s a side door out to the yard at the end of the room; there’s neat-ish piles of clothes in front of the washer and overflowing a basket under the dryer door, a few loose dust bunnies and used dryer sheets litter the corners.
Steve’s standing at the dryer, pawing through a seemingly freshly cleaned pile of towels on its top.
He glances up at him briefly when he enters, going back to the pile immediately, “Eddie, hey, sorry for sulking off like that. I just..got into my head a bit.” Even Steve sounded like he didn’t believe what he was saying. “I’ll be back out in a minute, just gotta take care of this load..”
“Hey, it’s alright man. It’s not all on you, you know.” Steve’s hands stop when he looks over, dropping themselves and a half-folded towel back onto the pile. “Look, I’m sorry Steve. My brain is weird sometimes too; I had some of my own shit pop back up for no fuckin’ reason at all and it just..really threw me. I didn’t mean to take it out on you like that, I swear.” 
The truth. For the most part at least. He really didn’t mean to snap at Steve like that over fuckin’ hot chocolate.
“Really, it’s okay Eddie. You did say that you didn’t want any.”
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t give me the right to be an ass to you.” Eddie ducks his head in embarrassment.
“Thank you,” Steve finally says. “I appreciate it, Eds.”
Relief floods through him at the nickname, he meets Steve’s gaze again. “Do you uhm, need help or anything?”
Steve smiles softly, “No, I really do just need to take care of this last load and I’ll be back out there.”
A low howl of wind from outside the side door cuts him off before he can reply.
Eddie groans, “Well that sounds like it’ll be fun…”
All in all, it was fun.
After going back to the living room and confirming with the others that he did, in fact, apologize to their Steve, Eddie sat back down with his notebook and got back to work.
He was slowly absorbed into the boys’ huddle and by time Steve comes back in, all five of them are heavily debating what alignment Zardok the bard should be.
Not 30 minutes later, the lights flicker off above them.
“Aw hell.” Steve mutters from the sofa.
“I’ll start running the tub.” Eddie sighs, pushing himself off the floor and waving his arms in front of him so he doesn’t run into any walls on his way.
“Why would you run the tub?” Dustin asks, incredulous.
“You fill the tub with water in case the pipes freeze while the power’s out. That way you still have water to flush the toilets and get clean and stuff.”
“Thank you Will, exactly.” Eddie says. Smart kid. 
Damn. Why doesn’t he carry a mini flashlight again?
“That’s a thing?” Robin asks, then clicks on a flashlight. Where in the hell’d she get that?
“You don’t need to do that, Eds. The place is plenty well insulated.” Steve assures, stopping him from leaving, “The pipes won’t freeze, I promise.”
“....Lucky bastard.”
Dustin goes to the opposite end of Robin’s couch and fishes another light from between the cushions.
He and the other three make quick work of arranging their blankets and pillows there in the living room, Dustin’s light only going so far as to help continue their brainstorming.
Steve and Robin leave them to it, and lead Eddie upstairs with their light. 
One round of fighting off nightmares later, he’s dragged into wakefulness with the smell of cinnamon.
He re-cinches Steve’s lended sweats around his hips and trudges down the stairs.
There are snores still reverberating from the living room, and Steve is standing in front of the stove flipping something.
A square glass pan with an inch of some sort of mixture in it was sitting on the island across from him along with an open bag of bread and half a dozen eggs still in their carton.
The floor under his feet squeaks when he stops in the doorway, alerting Steve to his presence.
He glances over his shoulder at him, then goes back to the stove to flip something again. “Hey Eds, just makin’ some breakfast, you want something?” He turns to him fully then, leaning his elbows onto a clear patch of the island countertop.
Steve must take his sleepy silence as confusion.
“Oh! The power came back on last night. Well, er..” he looks back at the stove’s clock, blinking 5:08 out at them, “Early this morning, actually.”
Huh. Guess it was confusion.
“Anyway, you want some french toast?” That explains the cinnamon. “Or I can whip you up some eggs…?”
“No, no, french toast is great.” his voice comes out scratchy with disuse. “Thanks Stevie.”
Steve smiles and turns back to the stove, “The coffee machine is on, if you want a cup; I’ll have a plate ready for you in just a couple minutes.”
Eddie wakes up slowly with his coffee, watching as Steve resets the clock on the oven to his watch.
“It’s 8:30 already? Shouldn’t we get the kids up for school?” Holy shit. Who knew Eddie Munson would ever sound so much like a mom.
“Nah,” Steve waves him off, “I was up with my alarm to get them up and ready, but when I got down here, Claudia called. The school called a snow day.”
Steve passes him a plate of toast, already smothered with syrup. “You want powdered sugar?”
“Ooh fancy, fancy,” Eddie laughs, adding a haughty accent to his next words, “Bring me my powdered confectionary Steeves, I wish to dust it upon my imported french breakfast.”
Steve rolls his eyes at him, but passes over a short ceramic container of the stuff.
Lucas is the one up next, going to the coffee machine before acknowledging either of them.
He sips on his cup without adding anything to it, the heathen. Eddie’s own cup was nearly drowned out with milk and sugar.
Slowly but surely, the rest of the house wakes up and wanders to the kitchen, each getting a plate stacked high with sweet cinnamon-y goodness.
Dustin, Mike, and Will are sitting at the little breakfast nook table in the kitchen’s front window, getting steadily louder about their plans for the near eight inches of snow that’s blanketed across Steve’s front yard.
“You’re going to help me shovel it out so I can get you free-loaders home as soon as possible. That’s what you’re going to do.” Steve insists, pushing a plate of toast in front of Robin, the last to get up.
So that’s what originally got them all outside, but two shovels can only get two of them so far with the driveway before any of the other five start fucking around.
The first blow comes from Mike, a well thrown snowball hitting dead center on the back of Will’s head.
Then Lucas lobbed one aimed for Dustin but hit Mike right on the nose.
Will’s shovel was abandoned, teams were made, and Steve was left shoveling alone when the snowballs really started flying.
Robin, Lucas, and Will booked it for the bushes on one side of the yard, immediately packing snow up between them and into gaps in the branches to protect them from the flurry.
And of course, the only other good cover on the other end of the yard from them was Steve’s beemer, so Eddie, Mike, and Dustin dove behind the newly uncovered tires, frantically packing snowballs from the untouched drift under Steve’s car.
“Really?” The three of them look up at the sound of Steve’s voice.
Fuck, he looks so adorable all bundled up like this. Nose and cheeks bitten red with the cold and with the exertion of shoveling, scarf tucked around his neck and into his jacket, the dark blue mittens, one on his hip and one over the handle of the shovel, the matching knit cap—even as he glares disapprovingly at them.
“So you’re not gonna help me, and also subject my baby to enemy fire? Not cool, guys.”
Mike lobs a ball across the yard.
“Join us then! Help us defeat those heathens and we’ll help you with the driveway.”
A snowball smacks into the back passenger side window of the car
“No.”, Steve says with finality and goes back to shoveling.
Another ball soars over the roof of the car and splats across the cleared-ish pavement behind them.
“Awe, you’re no fun Stevie.” Eddie complains, though he’s definitely not complaining about the view he’s got right now.
Dustin sends one back, mumbling out a “Damn! So close..” soon after.
“Bite me.”
Not 10 seconds later, a blast of snow smacks the back of Steve’s head.
Everyone freezes.
-x-
He turns slowly back around to face the three snow-covered idiots crouched behind his car.
All three stare wide-eyed at him, faces flushed with cold.
Mike and Dustin's hands raise at the exact same time, both pointing at Eddie.
He can tell from Dustin’s face that it was definitely him that threw the thing at his head, but the panicked, adorable, wide-eyed look Eddie has at the accusation is worth playing along for.
“What?! You traitors!” He scrambles up and back, glancing over and managing to duck a snowball aimed for his head by Robin, “Stevie, sweetheart, darling, you know I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Do I?” He growls out playfully, advancing on the doe-eyed menace.
“Yes! You know I love you, Steve, I would never betray you like that.” 
The words, even said teasingly as they are, make Steve’s stomach swoop heavily. He’s lucky his face was already red from the wind.
“I don’t know, Eds,” He holds out one mittened hand to Mike as he passes between the two boys. He drops one into his palm. “Sounds like something you would do.”
He raises the snowball and yells out, chasing Eddie around the front of his car to the hoots and hollers of the others jeering him on.
Eddie is not a good runner, and his Reeboks slip and slide as they try to carve a path through the fresh snow in the yard.
He’s quick though, and doges out of Steve’s reach when he almost catches the back of his borrowed puffer coat, launching off toward the side of the house instead.
Oh no.
“Wait, Eddie! There’s a—” Eddie’s dark head of curls disappears under his feet as he slips off over the side of the hill. “Hill—shit!”
Steve spoke too soon even for himself, unable to stop his momentum before he slips down the hill too.
Snow pushes itself under the back of his jacket down the first half of his slide, then one of his feet gets stuck up under him and he tumbles ass-over-tea kettle the rest of the way.
“OOF—” he lands on something much more solid than snow at the bottom.
Eddie’s cackling laughter bursts out from under him, his chest heaving with it under Steve’s own.
“Eddie, you okay, man?”
Steve pushes up on his hands, one on either side of Eddie’s torso, to look down at him properly.
He lost the red hat he’d grabbed when they came outside earlier, gone to the snow somewhere, and his hair is fanned in an almost perfect halo around his head.
The red spots on his face show off the flakes that fall onto them briefly before they melt under the heat of his skin, his mouth open wide and his eyes crinkled shut in laughter.
Steve was already head over fuckin’ heels for this man, but…oh.
Oh.
Eddie has laugh lines.
They’re so deep already, crinkled up at the corners of his eyes, but for a split second, Steve can’t help but wonder how much more they’d be in 10, 15, 20 years in the future. 
And he realizes in that instant that wants so badly to be there to watch them grow longer.
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look out, it's noelle coming in hot with the Oh. Oh. moment!
other parts! Pt. 1 (Day 1) | Pt. 2 (Day 2) | Pt. 3 (Day 5) | Pt. 4 (Day 6) | Pt. 5 (Day 7) | Pt. 6 (Day 11) | Pt. 7 (Day 13) [YOU ARE HERE] | Pt. 8 (Day 18) | Pt. 9 (Day 21) | Pt. 10 (Day 25) also on AO3! this year
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puppetmaster13u · 5 months
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<- A/B/O Anon
HI- *coughs* well, they aren’t exactly headcanons, just ideas I have that I wanna chat about.
I’m on a big Omega!Bruce kick so here they are. (these can or can’t be connected but I do love the idea of them being connected)
1. Brucie Wayne is a known Omega, one that flits from date to date. The thing is, Batman is known as an omega too. This time he’s the embodiment of an Omegan Mom protecting their nest Territory from all threats. Like Omegas used to do in the Olden Times™️, feral behavior and scenting is common >:3
2. A/B/O Dynamics don’t actually exist outside Gotham. Sure, some Gothamites have moved out so A/B/O is known, but isn’t seen outside Gothamites.
So when Dick Grayson came to Gotham he was very confused and didn’t really understand what was going on.
When Bruce eventually scoops him up and brings him home, Dick is even more confused. Atleast in Juvie the A/B/O behaviors were stifled except for posturing, but now outside of Juvie? In the home of an Omega? He’s gonna get the full brunt of Bruce both fussing over him and trying his best to not cross the line of Bruce being his Pack Guardian and not Pack Omega. (Either way, for Dick it’s very much smothering)
It doesn’t click for Bruce or Alfred until Bruce comes sulking to Alfred about his pup being broken and not even accepting being scented! Doesn’t Dick want to feel safe??? No one’s going to touch Dick if he’s smothered in Wayne Scent!!! (Maybe eventually Dick gets startled when he starts to instinctively responding as a pup would/is able to smell scents/feel pack bonds)
3. When Jason gets tossed into the Lazarus pit, it actually repairs his pack bonds. Sure, it’s not perfect, Jason can’t actually reach out through the bonds to respond- but he can feel his Pack’s love, not to mention their desperation to get him back as soon as they realize Jay’s bonds are back. (Talia, meanwhile, is still trying to convince Jay that Bruce doesn’t love him and how he replaced him, but that doesn’t quite work as Jason can feel his Pack’s love- not to mention the absolute adoration coming from the newest, weakest, and youngest link in the pack)
4. And finally four- One of the Robins vanish from the Teen Titans for quite a bit- and when they come back, they’re questioned on where they went. Robin sighs and just says Batman was being broody again, and the Teen Titans just think that Batman was brooding.
In actuality, the Robin had to deal with Bruce being broody in the chicken sense. AKA, “You Are My Child And I Will Keep You In My Nest And Focus Entirely On You And Your Well-being. ..What do you mean taking care of myself? I have to take care of my PUP!”
I absolutely adore all of this. Love the idea of it being a Gotham thing because Gotham is just Like That. Like there's so many curses and magic and who knows how many chemicals that they're like, still human but also just built different.
Gosh, if heats are a thing I like to think they're more platonic. Just, fussing over pack members and being the Broodiest Thing Ever with every family member and will get Upset if one tries to leave the Nest where they are Safe and can be Taken Care Of.
Pfft, the poor Justice League are not prepared for Batman to get broody on a mission and force them all to take care of themselves with no context. They're not his pack, but well, they have fought together and they're sort-of friends, depending on the timeline.
Poor Damian is going to get smothered, Bruce is going to get Very broody the moment Jason returns, and with Another Pup. Tim & Dick get yoinked back from the Titans Tower to be smothered and snuggled and absolutely covered in the family's scent.
Absolutely love the idea of them learning how to be a pup and pack together and am vibrating in utter glee at all of this.
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ghost-bxrd · 2 months
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hi!!! I love your writings so much, especially the fic, “morality disgrace us now (entertain and take a bow)” I love reading platonic omega Jason and I love love loveeee how you did Bruce and Dick in this fic. At the bottom you wrote about Jason meeting Tim and immediately taking a liking to him. I was perhaps wondering if you could go more into detail? Jason being dragged by the scruff back home because “he’s fine obviously!!” And then meets Tim and just immediately goes “Pup!” And perhaps a little drabble about how dick and bruce refuse to leave him out of their sight and his growing annoyance to just want to cuddle with Tim. All platonic haha ? I love the omega Jason troupe where he just wants to live his life but he has his whole family on his ass all the time just trying to show their love. Just a thought, sorry for rambling !
Here‘s a little scene for that 💚💚💚
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queenie-ofthe-void · 3 months
Text
Immortal Vampire Eddie Munson (bittersweet)
Inspired by a Steddie post by @steviewashere where Eddie is an immortal vampire and Steve is just a normal regular guy. This pushed me out of my writer's block so THANK YOU!!
Find the hurt/no comfort version of this fic here!
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Steve's there to help Eddie through every death, starting with Wayne and ending with El. Each one is as hard as the last. Every funeral, Eddie notices just a few more wrinkles on Steve's face: crows feet and laugh lines, the furrow between his eyebrows.
But as he continues on, and his loved ones leave him, he's always reminded he's not alone. Over the years, the Party's gotten bigger. Dustin and Suzie alone had 5 kids, plus Mike and El's twin girls, Nancy and Jonathan's son, Will and Gareth are working on another adoption. Eddie's family has grown larger than he could've imagined. He's going to have nieces and nephews through generations.
Their watchful protector, their Gandalf. But it still won't be Steve.
The Party are celebrating Robin's 38th birthday when Vickie pulls Eddie into the kitchen where Robin and Steve are waiting. They hand Eddie a printout. He doesn't know what he's looking at.
He understands what a sonogram is, but why is Steve the one giving it to him? Why is Robin crying? They're hugging him and everyone's crying except Eddie because he won't let himself believe what they're desperately trying to explain.
Steve knows he can't be with Eddie forever. He's always wanted to be a father, and who could ever be a better mother to his children than his soulmate. They had the doctor's appointment months ago. Vickie was practically bursting at the seams to tell Eddie, but the three decided to wait just to make sure. 
It hits him like a train.
Steve and Robin are having a baby. Steve and Robin and Vickie and... and a baby.
Because now it won't just be descendants of The Party. It'll be Birdie and Steve. His Stevie and their child and grandchildren and great grandchildren. The man he loves has given him the gift of life, his own piece of immortality. Now he'll never be alone, living through the ages surrounded by love.
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tim-drake-scholar · 7 days
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help i wrote 15k of a bernard x tim fic that takes places after TD:R and it's probably gonna be 30k when im done omg what have i done
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Text
When It Comes to Love, Everybody is Stupid
Notes:
I used the owl house audio and liked it so much. anyway, it is just a short chapter with canon influence and I published Ace's story beginning. Don't know how it will go but anyway. Young Soul Struggling to Be Loved. Give Ace lots of love and also there is this venting thing. talking with my kinnies. don't know what you should do with that but hear at least. gosh ı am being embarrassing but whatever good reading
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“Oh, you surprised me. Are you better now?" "Yes. I slept a little too much.” "That…" “A dead sword. Yubashiri... Please allow me to commemorate him as well.” "Hey…" "Hmm?" “Oh… N-nothing. I have officially joined the crew.” “He… I see. Sorry for your bad luck.” “EH?” “This crew is crazy. got even more maniacal after formed a pack. You'll join too." “Yohohoho. It seems so. That's why I'll try until I die. Oh though I'm already dead. YOhohohoho."
*** “Alright! Now that Zoro is better, let's go to the sea! To our next adventure!” "OK!" “Zoro, you took off your bandages again, right?!” "Yes. It is very difficult to act with them.” “They're already there to make sure it doesn't move!” “You are really diligent. Are you leaving right now?" “You guys can use Brook's ship. I repaired." "Thanks. You really help us all the way. No matter how much I thank you, it won't be enough. Will you marry me?" “You are unique, but it's a shame. It's useless because I'm so super and I have someone in mind."
*** "Lola, have you been to the New World?" “We didn't go. We were born in the New World. My mother is also a pirate. Really… that was my mother's vivre card. You can take." "Paper?" "This is great! Captain Lola's mother is a terrific pirate. Keep it well! Then it will definitely come in handy for you!” “This is no ordinary paper. It will not be damaged whether you wet it or burn it. It is custom-made for you. This is called a vivre card. You tear off a piece of it and you give it to your friends or family members before you separate the ways.” "Then?" "Look at this." “It moved!” “This card allows us to meet wherever we are in the world. It doesn't say the distance though. Since I will sign this paper, my mother will help you if anything happens. If that happens, will you tell her I'm fine?" “Thanks, Lola.” “I think I have one of those.” “I was thinking the same thing.” “So that's it. Huh? It burns a little and shrinks?” "Stop! Show me that! This is definitely the vivre card, but I didn't tell you that it represents the life force of the person being made. Doesn't this belong to someone important to you?" "Yes. My brother!" “Lola?” “Sorry to say this, but this person is running out of time.”
*** "See you!"
They sailed again.
“Luffy?” "Hmm?" “Is it really okay?” “Oh… isn't it Ace's paper? No problem. Do not worry." “Luffy-san, I wouldn't mind if we changed course.” “Luffy, if you want to change course, we'll all agree!” “Yes! Yes!!” "Yes. Let's go see your brother!” “N-no. It's really no problem. And even if he was in trouble, he wouldn't want me to worry about him. Ace hates appearing weak the most. If we had gone to help he would have just been frustrated. If we meet, we will be enemy pirates. Ace has his own adventure." “Not only does the vivre card shrink when you are in danger, it also grows back when you are well, right?” "Yes. I want to meet him when he's in full power. That's why Ace gave me this, right? Really, Zoro, you missed it because you slept and got better.” “Then let's do it again for Zoro. To celebrate the joining of our new crewmate, our musician Brook! Cheers!" "Cheers!"
*** Zoro watched as the others were having fun. He finally saw Sanji go to the kitchen alone and followed him.
"Aren't you going to apologize for making me dirty because you threw the sake at me?" “Huh? I don't know what you're talking about, marimo." “Listen curly. Even if you are unhappy, we are both crew and pack members. You can't ignore me forever. You've been avoiding me for two days. Stop! And back to normal again. Fight me!” “I am not ignoring you.” "You're!" “So what? You deserved that!” “Huh? How?!” “Well, I don't know. By nearly dying?!” “You were the fucking same!” “Shhhh!! Lower your voice! You don't want them to know right?!” “You are shouting too! Dammit!”
Sanji stopped and took a breath. So does Zoro.
“Listen, cook. I… I…” “You should have let me do that.” “You were ready to be replaced, cook. I wouldn't let that. There is no way.” "Like you weren't thinking like that." “I wasn't. You can never replace me.” “Whatever.” “It is not a whatever cook. It is serious. You are not aware of how lucky we are to have you.” “Huh? Funny joke.” “Cook. I think you should-" “Do you know what you should do?” “Huh?” “Shut up! I am so angry with you Zoro! And you are trying to distract me from being angry with you!” "I don't." “Yes, you do! Do you have any idea what I have been going through while you were in a coma?! Do you have any idea how scared I was?! Do you have any idea I can still smell your blood on me even if it was nearly two weeks ago?! Do you have any idea I can't go sleep without pills because I am still fucking scared?!”
Sanji was trembling. Zoro noticed.
“Cook. Calm down.” “Why? Why should I be calm?! I have a right to be upset!”
Zoro hugged him.
“Shhh… Calm down. Calm down. Everything is gonna be all right. Here.”
Zoro took his hand and placed it on his heart.
“Feel my heartbeat cook. It's still there. listen. Boom boom.” “Boom boom?” “Shut up I don't know how heartbeats work.” “You are stupid.” “Yeah. yeah. Whatever. Are you feeling it?” “Yeah.” “Good. Now can we continue?” “I am still-“ “I know but nothing happened right?” “I don't know how to stop feeling like this. You fucked me up Zoro.” “I am sorry. It is probably the only time you will hear this from me.” “You won't do it again?” “Can't promise. You can't either.” “Yeah.” “But we are living.” “Yeah.” “Now can we?” “Yeah. What do you want for dinner?” “You asking me?” “Just because you are injured.” “Then onigiri.” “Okay.” “Cool.” “Cool.”
***
Both of them didn't know Robin listened to the whole conversation.
“Why are you smiling Nico Robin?” “Oh… Franky. It is… love is beautiful.” “It sure is.” “Yeah.” “Zoro-bro and Cook-bro?” “Yeah. They are stupid.” “Everbody is stupid when it comes to love.” “I think you are right. I heard you rejected a marriage proposal.” “Yeah. Someone already has my heart.” “Oh… From Water 7? They must be so lucky.” “No. Not from Water 7. It is you.”
Robin must be imagining hearing stupidly nice things.
“You are not imagining. I said it was you.” “Is it... me?” “Yeah. Now deal with it. think. And when you make up your mind. Find me.”
What the hell just happened?
Next
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Starting
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eddie4bat-president · 10 months
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I'm not a writer but i had this thought so- bear with me, yeah?
For months Eddie hears all about how cool and badass Steve Harrington is, yeah, but you know what he also hears about? How Steve and Robin are made for each other and how cool and pretty Robin is and how stupid it is that they're not a couple for some dumb reason, like Steve not wanting to be with a band geek and still clinging to high school hierarchy. And in all of the things Dustin says about Steeeve Harrington, that last part is the only thing that fits into the Munson Doctrine, so obviously everything else Henderson is saying is what's skewed in his little shrimp world view.
Steve Harrington thinks he's better than a band geek and that's why we won't look twice at a girl that would be perfect for him (according to Dustin Henderson, so... still questionably trustworthy information). Eddie probably assumes Dustin is talking up how close Steve and Robin actually are, just how he's exaggerating how close Dustin himself is to Harrington (like that would impress Eddie and the rest of Hellfire??? He really doesn't know how to get through to the little sheep that his worship of Hawkins' most notorious square is a detriment to his character and not something Eddie would find impressive. If it was real. Which it obviously isn't. Anyway-)
Turns out? Steve Harrington? Actually a cool dude. Not cool as in popular but cool as in "holy shit did he just bite that thing's head off???? Oh and he's not even gonna brag about that, it's just nbd, yeah sure, cool cool cool be fucking cool Eddie, oh god he's talking to me why is he talking to me" and just, chill to hang out with. After the whole shit show went down. Who would have fucking thought, huh? (except for Dustin Henderson, yeah yeah yeah, shut up)
So now Eddie has to reevaluate some other assumptions he made. Maybe Dustin was right and Steve actually is cool and badass, and he and Buckley actually are as close as he had said (and they really fucking are! He has seen them give Keith eerily matching bitchy looks for trying to schedule them on opposing shifts and basically bully the guy into changing the schedule around so they can spend as much time as possible in each other's presence. It's enough to make a guy question his own friendships when sometimes a few hours of band practice are enough to make him want to never see any of those chucklefucks again. Of course, that feeling abates but seriously, how are those two never sick of each other??)
So if they're as close as advertised but not a couple (and after meeting everyone Steve cares about and they're basically all nerds so the "Harrington thinks he's too good for a band geek" thing can't actually hold true-) what is the hold-up? Why aren't they a couple? And somehow, somehow Eddie comes to the conclusion that Steve is in love with Robin. Steve is a serial romantic (emphasis on romantic) and while his love life isn't the talk of the town post-earthquakes as it would have been before, people do still talk about the fact that he hasn't taken out a girl since it happened.
Which brings us to a day in summer, maybe fall, after Eddie has seen Steve look wistfully at a young couple with a baby, that he shows up at Robin's door step.
"Eddie? Hey what's up?"
"Good, good, how are you? Uhh can I... can I come in?" There's a nervous energy around him that is immediately infectious and she leads him to the living room where he immediately starts walking back and forth in front of the couch. She watches him for a moment, hands fluttering through different motions trying to find one that might calm him down before giving up on that. Instead Robin swerves around him, clambering onto the couch and wrapping her arms around her right leg, putting her head on her knee. She follows Eddie's path with her eyes and decides to wait before quickly realizing that she can't, actually.
"As riveting as it is watching you walk a groove into my parents' rug, do you maybe want to say something? I mean I can definitely talk enough for the both if us if that's what you want it's just that I have the slight suspicion you've got something you need to get off your chest" Eddie stopped walking halfway through her monologue and starts nodding.
"Yeah. Yeah yeah yes you're right it's just- I haven't a hundred percent made up my mind about saying something", Eddie has one arm wrapped around himself and uses the other to alternately play with his hair and gesticulate at her, "because on the one hand it's a little bit driving me crazy, maybe, but on the other hand this is none of my fucking business" And Robin who was worried at first just because Eddie is nervous, then for a second because she was scared he was going to confess to a very ill-advised crush on her, is stumped. What the fuck is this about and why did it bring him to her of all people?
"Just say it you weirdo", is what decides to comes out of her mouth but it doesn't even matter because half of her sentence is layered with his "Are you aware Steve is in love with you?"
[here we're facing the issue of me not actually being a writer and pretty much running out of steam but we also haven't reached the part that sparked this whole thing yet, which is wild - let's just pretend I wrote a very funny dialogue between those two in which Eddie confronts Robin for stringing poor Steve along ]
There's a moment when they're both silent and there's a moment when they're both talking and then there are steps coming down the stairs. They make a smirk grow on Robin's face that is starting to worry Eddie when not a parental figure but Steve Harrington steps through the doorway. He's wearing sweatpants and a shirt that might be Robin's and there's a headband pushing his hair away from his face.
"Don't yell at me for coming downstairs, you took forever and the first layer... is... dry....", he stops in his tracks the moment he looks up from his bare toes and sees Eddie. Then he very quickly rips off the headband and slings it somewhere to his right into the unknown of the hallway.
"Hi Eddie. What's... up" Eddie is going to sink into the floor and never come up for air again.
In the meantime Robin stood up on the couch to sit cross-legged on the back of it for a better vantage point and is steepling her fingers in front of her face. Eddie is getting the distinct impression he's missing some crucial information here.
"Stevie, babe, platonic love of my life-", Steve nods for her to go on, "you know how we decided I get a veto on your romantic life because we realized droves of suboptimal dates actually make you miserable so we're going for quality over quanity for the first time in your small-town Casanova life?" Steve has that cute little crease between his eyebrows while he's looking back and forth between Eddie and Robin, trying to figure out what's going on but he rolls his eyes at the end of her sentence, back in familiar territory. "Yes, Robin-"
She interrupts: "And you know how I also reserved the right to give a shovel slash molotov cocktail talk to anyone we deemed worthy of being a potential future partner?" Steve's face somehow shows an emotion that can only be encapsulated by "?!" as he glances to Eddie before shifting back to Robin with just the "?" remaining.
"First I have to say I'm personally very pro, I loved this experience; Eddie here really made a fool of himself, very worried for your delicate sensibilities and how I'm breaking your sweet little heart." "...what...?"
"So: what's the verdict on a potential future partner giving me the shovel talk?"
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jinjeriffic · 3 months
Text
DCxDP Prophecy Universe Part 6
Part 5
Most of the time, being the son of Batman was a point of pride for Damian. Today, it was an exercise in frustration. Not only had Father deemed him too emotionally compromised to participate in the investigation of his so-called brother. Not only was he benched from patrol until Batman returned from abroad. He also had to continue attending school as if nothing had happened! He could probably teach most of the classes better than the adults! Oh, but ‘socializing with his peers’ was deemed too important to miss out on.
No wonder Damian was in a foul mood when he returned home. It had been the last school day before fall break, and a week ago he had been looking forward to the opportunity to patrol without having to worry about getting up early in the morning. Then that damned apparition had dropped the bombshell that had upended all of Damian’s carefully laid plans. Now half of the family was off chasing leads and he was stuck at home cooling his heels. It wasn’t fair!
After doing his customary check on his pets, he had changed into training gear as soon as possible and was now in the process of running through the latest combat program Father had designed. The flow of dodge-weave-counter-strike was helping him vent his frustration and clear his head. And if the training bots ended up more damaged than usual, well that just served Father right. He wasn’t some hapless child to be grounded!
Spin. Strike. Jump. Slash. He was moving on instinct, letting his training take over. A symphony of violence the background track to his churning thoughts, the questions that had been plaguing him all week.
Brother of blood. What did that mean? A full brother? A half brother? The result of some ill-advised dalliance of his Father? Unlikely. The letter had been addressed to Damian Al Ghul, not Damian Wayne. A deliberate choice of words, most likely. A child of his Mother then. He couldn’t imagine Mother would sully herself with another man’s touch. Even after everything, she still loved Father in her own twisted way. Unless Grandfather had ordered her… Stop it!
Stab. Crouch. Roll. Slice.
Never buried but already mourned. Not a lab grown creation then, to be discarded casually. Mourning meant caring. Love. Did Father know something? The haunted look that had appeared in his eyes spoke of old grief. The same grief that still plagued him when memories of Todd or Damian’s death were close to the surface. But he had never spoken of another child. Would he even bother to tell them?
Strike. Throw. Close distance. Disarm.
Lightning and ice. Defibrillation? Some horror movie style reanimation? Cryofreeze? The entity had meta abilities, could it harness lightning and ice as well? A better son, a more powerful Demon’s Heir… No!
Side-step. Kick. Twist. Leg-sweep.
Strike down the Demon’s Head. Did that mean Grandfather? Or Damian himself if the old man died first? It would be just like Grandfather to arrange for Damian to be killed and replaced by a brother. To get revenge for Damian choosing Batman’s legacy over the League’s while hurting their family in the most intimate way possible. Killed by a brother he should have loved, who should have loved him… Fool!
Damian stopped as the gong sounded to mark the end of the program. Around him, the training bots returned to their starting positions, now significantly worse for wear. A few of them were disabled to the point of uselessness.
Damian sheathed his weapons and forced his breathing to slow as he started his cool down stretches. It wouldn’t do to be careless because of some emotional episode. He was more disciplined than that.
What could Death earn anyway? Death brought nothing but nightmares and pain and torment.
Damian shivered. He didn’t like thinking about his Death.
Shoving the memories firmly aside, he returned his training weapons to their respective places before heading over to the Batcomputer. He needed a distraction. Maybe he should call up Jon and see if he had any plans for fall break. Since Damian was benched he would need something constructive to do with his time. Surely with the two of them working together they would find some kind of criminal enterprise to topple in a Kansas cornfield.
Damian compiled the search strings for any unusual activity in the area and set it to run. Now it was a waiting game to see if anything of note turned up. Leaning back, he idly kicked the console, sending his chair into a lazy spin. If nothing turned up in Kansas, maybe he would widen his search to the surrounding states. If they flew Air Superboy, distance would hardly be an issue. Hell, if Jon was busy maybe he could go visit Richard. Bludhaven was never lacking in crime, and Father wouldn’t be able to complain about a lack of appropriate supervision during patrol. With Drake and Todd having left on a ‘roadtrip’ for at least a day…
Damian stopped his spinning and frowned. Now that he thought about it, it was highly unusual for his two older brothers to have left Gotham together and in their civilian identities. Especially with the Bats already shorthanded due to Father’s absence and Robin’s benching. He had been too distracted by the upcoming school day to make the connection when his brothers had mentioned their plans at breakfast that morning. And Drake had been investigating League activity… Damian’s fingers flew across the keyboard, bypassing Drake’s security protocols with ease. If his brother had uncovered a League connection he had a right to know!
What he found among Drake’s recent search history was not what he expected. Some crackpot scientists from Illinois? That’s what had drawn his attention? Certainly, the older Robin had flagged some suspicious transactions and marked the Fentons as potential threats based on their inventions, but there were heroes closer to Amity Park that they could have foisted the investigation off on.
Damian drummed his fingers against his armrest. Something wasn’t adding up here. Pulling up everything he could find about the Fenton parents, he started looking through medical records, school records, articles… Suddenly, Damian’s heart slammed against his ribs. There, on the cover of a two year old magazine, was the face that had haunted him all week. With trembling fingers, he zoomed in on the image. It only took a few minutes to alter the hair and eye colour. It was unmistakably him. The boy who bore an uncanny resemblance to Damian himself, if slightly older and paler.
Swallowing hard, Damian scrolled through the magazine’s online archive to find the article mentioned on the title page. An almost extinct gorilla species. A chance discovery by then fourteen year old Daniel Fenton.
“Daniel,” Damian rolled the name around his mouth. A fairly common Western name. “Daniel. Danyal?” If he was Talia’s son, surely she would have used the Arabic version… no! He was jumping to conclusions!
Now having a name to go on, Damian dug deeper than Drake had bothered to. The birth certificate named a small town in Utah, but there were no records of a hospital admission. A home birth? There were no records of the Fentons having a residence in that state. No medical records of prenatal care either, though there were for the birth of the older sibling. Had the pregnancy gone unnoticed? Possible, if unlikely. There had been a vehicle registration for a motorhome during that time period though. Had the Fentons been living on the road when their son was born? Or had they acquired the child some other way? If he was an Al Ghul who would have spirited him away to the USA?
The Fentons had settled down in Amity Park about six months after Daniel’s birth, purchasing the residence they apparently used to this day. From there, his records were fairly standard and unremarkable, though there were a higher than average number of doctor’s visits for minor household accidents. Not enough to get flagged by CPS, but certainly worrying if potential mad science was involved. Daniel’s school records showed average grades, with higher scores in Maths and Science. At age fourteen however, his academic performance took a sharp dip, with an uneven performance on tests and numerous unexcused absences. His teachers noted frequent inattentiveness in class or Daniel outright falling asleep. Someone had submitted reports of bullying and suspicious bruises, but the case was dropped and never followed up on. His grades had evened out since then, but the unexcused absences persisted.
Damian knew enough about the trials and tribulations of teenage superheroics to recognize a pattern. And it certainly looked like Daniel fit the bill. If he had acquired meta abilities two years ago it probably took some time to get a handle on them and find a balance between his legal and illegal activities.
Damian steepled his fingers together. There was only so much his digital investigation could reveal. It was time for some fieldwork.
Part 7
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ty-the-trainwreck · 7 months
Text
Kiss.
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Ronancetober, day 4.
Robin had made a stupid mistake.
An extremely stupid mistake. 
A mistake that not even god himself, not like Robin was religious, would forgive. 
If the world knew of what Robin did, she would be hunted down and scrutinized as a public threat. Eddie had been a prime example of what people did to somebody that didn't fit in, to people like Robin. They were the puzzle pieces that could never just slot in next to the others. 
The reason?
Robin had kissed Nancy.
Robin didn't mean to! It was just that...the dim orange light from the lamp on Nancy's bedside had made her already breathtakingly beautiful eyes into ones of a goddess. She had a piece of hair stuck to her glossy lips, the fluffy curls looking even softer than usual. Nancy's jawline shifted everytime she would scrunch her nose or pout. and Robin was weak.
Nancy had looked up from her textbook upon feeling Robin's gaze. The former smiled, placing her pink gel pen down and shifting so that she was facing Robin completely. "You're distracted, y'know." Her soft voice was teasing, and Robin could feel her resolve weaken. 
"It's not my fault I hate calculus, it's like watching Grease but they cut out all the music." Robin thanked her experience in doing highschool theater, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to improvise that so quickly. Nancy raised her eyebrows, an amused look on her face. "You don't even like Grease." 
Robin snapped her fingers and pointed at Nancy like she was a teenage boy trying to act smooth. "Hence why I don't like calculus." Nancy rolled her eyes fondly and tossed her textbook to the foot of the bed. Robin's eyes widened, but she followed in Nancy's footsteps and closed her textbook as well. "Are you ditching studying, Wheeler?" Robin quirked one of her eyebrows up. Nancy crossed her arms and rested her chin on her elbow, her eyes looking like they were peering into Robin’s poor gay soul. 
“I think we deserve a break.” Nancy hummed, drumming her fingers on her arm. Robin nodded, and she watched as Nancy closed her eyes and quietly hummed a song. Robin watched as Nancy sat there peacefully, completely oblivious to the mushy feelings Robin had directed towards her in silence.
Robin chewed on her lip, her eyes trained on Nancy’s movements. Everything was perfect, Nancy was perfect, this moment was perfect.
But of course, Robin had to go and mess it all up.
Robin leaned down and pressed her chapped lips against Nancy’s. She could feel Nancy’s gentle humming stop and her movements ceased the moment Robin kissed her. When Robin felt Nancy’s body go rigid, she pulled back so quickly that she swore she popped something in her neck. 
She regretted looking at Nancy so much afterwards. The girl in front of her was stunned, her eyes were blank and seemed to be trying to catch up to what just happened. Her hands were frozen in place, and she looked up at Robin with a look that could only mean one thing.
Why did you kiss me?
She felt dirty.
She felt predatory. 
Robin shot up from the bed, spewing apologies as she grabbed her backpack. She didn’t even pick up her textbook, all her brain was focused on was that she just kissed Nancy fucking Wheeler. 
“I’m so sorry! I don’t– I don’t know why I did that! Well, I do know why I did but I just– oh my god!” Robin fought back the fiery tears that brimmed the corners of her eyes.
 “I’m so sorry…I…” 
Robin was never able to keep friends for long, especially girl ones. She supposes that’s because all along she was no better than a man, no matter how much she told herself that she wasn’t. Robin was disgusting, and she couldn’t bear to see Nancy look at her like she was Vecna himself.
She couldn’t bear to see Nancy look at her like she was a monster. 
Because Robin was already looking at herself that way, and she was already repeating the word over and over again.
Monster.
Monster.
Monster.
It thudded against the walls of Robin’s brain and it was joined with the familiar symphony of Robin’s family and friends calling her a freak. She couldn’t hear anything over the shrilling cacophony of the harsh words she usually called herself in their familiar voices.
The loudest, was Nancy’s.
Robin hated that she did this to Nancy.
She hated that she felt something positive when she kissed Nancy.
She hated that she kissed Nancy in the first place.
“I’m sorry for kissing you.” 
Robin rushed out the absurdly pink bedroom and down the stairs. She didn’t even say goodbye to anybody in her panic to get the hell away from Nancy. 
Robin could still feel the sticky residue Nancy’s cherry lip gloss had left on her lips when she had pulled back. Robin could still taste her, and oh how Robin hated that she loved it.
Robin gasped for air every few seconds as she sprinted in the direction of her house, her legs burned but she couldn’t care anymore. 
Nancy was never supposed to know that Robin liked her like that.
Nancy was supposed to be Robin’s friend forever.
Nancy was supposed to marry a boy that she would meet in her second year of college.
Nancy was supposed to grow old in a nice house.
Nancy was supposed to live her life normally.
She would still have the chance to live it all, even if Robin wasn’t by her side. Even if Robin had kissed her one night in her childhood bedroom while they were studying for their calculus test. Robin had voluntarily ripped herself from Nancy’s future the second she pressed her lips against hers. Robin was never meant to be Nancy’s, and Nancy was never meant to be Robin’s. Robin knew that this was true, but the fact that she enforced it herself was never going to stop haunting her for as long as she lived.
“Robin!”
There it was.
That soft, tender voice.
Robin skidded to a stop, her shoulders tense as she slowly turned.
Nancy was running down the street, just as frantic and urgent as Robin. Although Robin must’ve looked insane from an outside perspective while Nancy looked like she had barely broken a sweat. 
The curly haired girl launched herself into Robin, her tiny arms wrapping around Robin’s lanky form and bringing them both down and into the wet blades of grass. Robin let out a grunt as she hit the ground, letting out a groan as she looked up at Nancy.
“What the hell?!” She croaked out, utterly confused at why Nancy just tackled her like they were playing football.
Nancy got up, hovering over Robin as she stared down at her with eyes full of meaning.
“Why did you run away from me?”
“Nancy, I kissed you, don’t you remember?” Robin was slightly convinced that the tackle had made Nancy lose her memory. Nancy shook her head, mumbling obscenities into the crisp night air. 
All that could be heard was the amused chirps of the crickets in the forest. Robin slowly adjusted to the feeling of having Nancy on top of her, but remained a little stiff.
Robin noticed green stains on Nancy’s clothes, and it must’ve been from when they tumbled into the ground. Nancy’s face also had a little bit of dirt on it, and Robin wanted to reach out and wipe it away with her thumb.
“Robin, you didn’t even give me a chance to tell you how I felt.” Nancy sighed. Wait, what?
“I’ve been wanting to kiss you ever since we escaped the upside down, you were the only person that I wanted to hold me after Vecna threatened me. Your arms are the only ones that I want to lay in. Your lips are the only ones I want to feel against mine.
I want to be able to love you so much that our friends make fun of us for it. I want to love you with all the air in my lungs, and I want to kiss you until it’s dangerous for us to keep going. Robin Buckley, I am in love with you.” Holy shit, Nancy Wheeler’s in love with me.
Nancy laughed, leaning onto her elbows so that she could be closer to Robin. 
“Yeah, I am.” Fuck, did I say that out loud?
“Robin, yes, you did.”
Robin blushed, her gaze flickering down to Nancy’s lips.
She took in a deep breath of air, and pressed her lips against Nancy’s.
And this time, it wasn’t an accident.
117 notes · View notes
sylvemooniet · 7 months
Text
Dead Little Bird
Word count: 4,078 words
Centric: Bruce Wayne & Jason Todd (father/son relation)
Trigger warnings: canon typical violence, canon typical death
Summary: which Bruce isn't Batman, but his children are still Robins.
Bruce was familiar with the "Robin" codename so many kids used to fight crime on their own. He already has met Dick Grayson, the little acrobatic orphan, so determined to protect the kids from bullies.
Dick was sometimes aggressive, Bruce couldn't say the contrary. He was surprised by how violently Robin beat the Wayne's kidnappers. Bruce couldn't blame him, that kid was an orphan, he needed to unleash his anger on something.
Many people didn't know how the famous billionaire playboy had soft spots for kids, especially orphans. After all, he was an orphan himself.
No one suspected a thing when the great Philanthropist adopted such a "poor helpless kid" like the little Grayson. It was funny how people theorized that the new Wayne was actually dating the mysterious Robin.
And still no one suspected when a new vigilante appeared on Bludhaven the same time the young Wayne moved away. Bruce was "alone" again. Even if he had Alfred, he missed his little Robin, but he was still proud of his Nightwing.
Then, there was a new kid. A new Robin. Such a bright smile and a great attitude, along with a fighting style obviously coming from the streets. The first time they met, he said to Bruce:
"Am I your new bodyguard now, old man?"
Wayne's memory of that day was clear as crystal, he remembers the boy headbutted one of the billionaire's kidnappers when saying that. That kid had a spark on his eyes, the spark Bruce already saw, on himself.
When the new Robin appeared in Bruce's life, the media joked about the philanthropist being a magnet to the vigilante children. And well, they weren't exactly wrong.
Besides Dick quickly revealing his identity to Bruce, it wasn't the same situation with the new kid. He even asked Alfred to do a research in all Gotham City's orphanages to find out more about the boy, but there was nothing, there was no one who looked like the new Robin. Bruce forgot the kid wasn't like Grayson, maybe he had parents, but would they really let a twelve-years-old fight crime?
Wayne offered the boy a decent Robin uniform, hence the kid's one was just dirty and fragile clothes that wouldn't help him fight crime. But the kid refused without thinking twice.
"I don't need your charity, old man. I know how to take care of myself."
The various scars on the kid's body proved he was lying. Even with the optimistic attitude and strength, there was still a truth: no Robin lasts too long.
Grayson was quite lucky, he became popular, he had support, he had Bruce. Dick was one of the only Robins who could grow up to be a better hero. It wasn't rare to see in the news about the police finding a body of a kid wearing red and green with a poorly sewed R brand.
And Bruce didn't want to see such a determined kid dead. But one night, he was just leaving a party, when he saw the kid fighting some thugs like always, but the boy obviously didn't have any advantage. Wayne's bodyguards got into action as he ordered, helping the little boy to win the fight.
But he was already unconscious. His small body was completely bruised, a reminder of a child who's already a soldier. It was unfair of a kid fighting against grown adults.
"Sir, he's still breathing."
So Bruce brought him home. It surprised Alfred to see him carrying a child in his arms again, he hadn't seen a scene like that since Dick had grown up.
When Grayson paid a visit in the next morning, he didn't expect to see a new Robin kid at the Wayne Manor. The butler told him about the last night, about how Bruce found him barely alive.
And the little boy was surprised when he woke up in a strange bed, in a strange room, with the billionaire old man he liked to provoke.
"Uhh, do you collect children or something?"
It was the first thing he said to Bruce when he woke up. He was still wearing his bloody clothes, but there was Dick's old clothes on the nightstand for him.
"Wasn't I supposed to be your bodyguard, old man? Not the contrary."
He tried to get off of the bed, but even after Alfred taking care of his wounds, it still hurt. Then, he just leaned back with his arms crossed over his chest. His temper was obviously different from Dick's, and he was way more stubborn.
"What's your name, kid?"
Bruce asked once again, even if everytime the answer was the same.
"None of your business."
And the boy wouldn't change his reply so easily.
"Listen to me, I really need your name, and your parents' phone number, they must be worried about you."
For some reason, that made the kid chuckle like it was a really bad joke.
"I'm Jason. Jason Todd. And my parents aren't exactly available, y'know?"
"... What do you mean?"
Bruce already expected an answer coming from Jason. But if he really was an orphan, why Alfred didn't find anything about him while searching?
"Well, old man, my parents are pretty much dead."
"But, but… I made searches about you, you aren't in any orphanage or foster system. Is there anyone who's taking care of you?"
"As I said before, I can take care of myself, old man."
"But you're a child."
"Wrong, I'm a Robin."
Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose, not even Grayson was that stubborn, but still, he wasn't Grayson, he was Todd.
"Why were you fighting so many people? They were double your size and clearly on advantage against you."
"They were stopping me from reaching my goal."
"And what is it?"
For a moment, Jason looked at him like what he truly was, a lost kid. Then, he looked away, almost like he was holding his tears, hiding them from Bruce and himself. He needed to be strong, like a real Robin.
"It doesn't matter, alright? Thanks for saving me or whatever, but I can just go now."
"Where do you live?"
"What are you? A stalker?"
Jason replied quickly, being extremely defensive.
"Jason, you said your parents are dead, where do you live? And with who?"
"Nowhere, and with no one. I'm no one's son."
"You're a kid, you can't just live on the streets."
Bruce said, his voice getting more soft as he tried to gain Jason's trust.
"Am I your new charity project, old man? Will you adopt me just like you did with the other Robin?"
Dick was spying the conversation through the slightly open door, but he backed away when Jason mentioned him. The boy was smart enough to connect the dots between Dick Grayson-Wayne and the acrobatic boy wonder.
"Listen to me, Jason. You at least need a place to live, and I need to compensate for the times you saved me."
"I don't need your help."
Jason tried to get out of the bed once again, but his body was shaking, still weak. He looked like a helpless kid, and he hated that.
"Jason, please, at least let me pay you a place to live. I know being Robin doesn't pay you."
"... Fine. But remember, you're not my father, and I'm not your trophy son."
==========
Kids were supposed to be easy to deal with. But as Jason stated various times, he wasn't a kid, he was a Robin, and being Robin gave him magic.
Both Alfred and Dick were surprised when Bruce told them he bought an apartment for a "random kid". Jason wasn't a random kid to him… Even if they weren't actually close to each other.
There was a kind of new routine in the Wayne Manor, at least once a week the little Robin came to ask Alfred to help him with the worst wounds he got and couldn't patch them himself. And sometimes he also came to return Bruce back to safety after another attempt of criminals to kidnap Bruce.
"You need to learn how to take care of yourself, old man."
Jason joked, wiping the blood out of his nose, he smiled, even after being hurt because of another fight. He was used to it, and not for just being Robin. But it wasn't a problem anymore, he had his Robin's magic.
And if Bruce was lucky enough, the little Todd would come by for dinner. He was hard to convince, but he still enjoyed being with Bruce, Alfred and sometimes, Dick.
And in an "unfortunate night", according to Jason, Grayson made up a nickname for him, and never stopped using it. "Little Wing", it was how he called the boy.
"When I get older, I'll be taller than you. You'll see who's the little one!"
That just made Dick laugh at him, he said Jason looked cute when he tried to threaten someone, and Alfred hid the knives just to guarantee the boy wouldn't take extreme measures.
Bruce thought of Dick as a reflection of himself, but Jason was unique. The boy wasn't like any of the Waynes, he was in fact a Todd, he was not part of the family.
Grayson and him were Robins, but they were different. Even when Dick was violent, it doesn't compare to how bruised the pimps Jason fought were. The news said this Boy Wonder was crazy, aggressive, the worst Robin Gotham City ever had.
"I can't wait to find this kid dead in a dark alley."
It was what Jason overheard from a cop another day. Once the policeman and the young vigilante met again, the man had an "accident" during work that broke his arm.
Alfred noticed the little boy was smiling a lot during dinner that day, even more than usual. And the butler knew that smile, a smile of a child who just did a mischievous thing.
"Master Jason, did you have a lot of fun today?"
"A lot, Alfred."
One day, a body was found under a balcony, it was presumed the man was pushed to his death. And on that balcony, there was Robin, the possible culprit. And people accused a child of murder.
"I didn't kill him! And what if I did? He literally violated a woman!"
Jason tried to justify himself to Bruce, who was worried about the boy, as he was needing to hide himself, afraid of getting arrested.
"Jason, you can trust me, have you done it?"
Wayne asked him with a soft tone, trying to comfort the little boy. He tried to reach his hand to touch Jason's shoulder, but he stepped back.
"Bruce, do you really think I'm a murderer!?"
The man didn't answer, and Jason felt his heart breaking, the boy thought he could finally trust someone. But he was still seen as a criminal, even to the person he thought… The person he thought could be a new father to him.
"Jason… I…"
Bruce stopped himself, as he noticed something. The Robin was crying, and he was actually being a child, not a hero. A child in despair to be trusted.
"Jason… I'm…"
He didn't let Wayne finish, he just ran away out of the manor. And Bruce didn't stop him. He broke the boy's trust, and he didn't deserve to say anything to him.
Bruce tried to be the father of a no one's son. And nobody is surprised he failed. The Wayne Manor isn't supposed to be a place for kids like Jason, who fought fate itself to survive.
But, a week later, the investigation stopped, Robin was no longer a suspect. It was very sudden, but the detectives with a new big quantity of money in their pockets wouldn't justify it.
And in the same night the investigations stopped. In the same rainy night, the window of the Wayne Manor was opened by an "intruder", who noticed the great Philanthropist on the couch, like he was waiting for someone.
The little "intruder" sat down with him, his head leaned on his shoulder. Bruce caressed the boy's soaked hair, which startled him a little bit, but he slowly gave in.
"I'm sorry, Jason."
Despite Bruce's morals, his codes, the laws. He would do anything for his sons, no matter what. And Jason knew that, and he finally felt safe.
==========
Jason spent his fourteenth and fifteenth birthday with the Waynes, and even if he didn't say it, he wanted to spend all his birthdays with them.
It didn't matter if the boy wasn't in the charity galas like Dick was. It didn't matter if he didn't show himself publicly as a Wayne. Bruce saw Jason as his little bird, as his son.
And Bruce was really proud of his son. Like Grayson, he was a hero. He watched how Todd was growing up, how he was growing better, and he was a hero Bruce could never be.
The Robin was always around in the manor, even if he wouldn't easily admit, he felt at home. All the dinners, the sleepovers, the movie nights, it felt like home. He finally had a home to come back to by the end of the day.
Bruce would make a surprise for Jason, finally getting the paperwork to adopt the little bird, to finally call him "son". It would be a surprise gift, right after him coming back from patrol as Robin.
Wayne waited excited, he knew Todd would be equally happy. He was so proud of what he became, and will be more proud when he finally can call this hero his son.
It was already late, and he still didn't come back. He tried calling him, hoping he just went directly to his apartment that night, it would be understandable, but nobody picked up the phone.
Bruce turned on the television, maybe Jason was late because he was in the middle of a big situation. It already happened sometimes, so it wouldn't be different from those times. But all that he heard was nothing about one of the Robins.
But Jason, he only heard the sound of his ribs breaking after yet another hit with that crowbar. His vision was completely blurry, and it was so hard to breathe. He looked over the woman that smoked while he was in pain.
Jason never told Bruce about how he was searching for his biological mother, just Alfred was helping him secretly, and he made the butler promise he wouldn't tell anyone.
But the little Robin didn't expect his mother to be a backstabber, and in that exact moment, the metal hit his back, breaking even more ribs. Then, he heard laughter.
The laughter of a maniac clown, the one who was enjoying so much causing pain to him. Sometimes he even joked about it, like it was the most funny thing to watch.
"Uh oh, the little bird got a broken wing, maybe your mommy could help you… Oops!"
Then, more laughter followed by another hit that made his eyes water again. Jason was feeling so weak, feeling the cold floor and his own blood accumulating under him.
"D-dad…"
Jason cried out, his voice hoarse and weak. That brought his mother's attention, she knew Willis Todd was dead. But that wasn't the father her son was calling for. He was calling for Bruce, even if he wasn't a vigilante like him, even if he couldn't fight anyone.
Jason just wanted to be in his father's arms again, even if he's dying. He just wanted to be home again.
"Awn, look! Little bird is calling for daddy. What a pity!"
He sobbed in silence, he couldn't give that clown the happiness for breaking him. Jason was broken, very broken, but still, he shouldn't cry, Bruce would probably be disappointed at him.
If his biological mother betrayed him, backstabbed him without thinking twice, Bruce would never save him, even if he knew about his current situation.
The boy's mind became foggy, probably because of so many times his head got hit by that fucking crowbar. The psychopath clown wasn't there anymore, but his mother was tied up. His only memories were of untying her, and a ticking sound, then, nothing.
Bruce found himself awake until very late, even if his mind felt asleep, it woke up, and unfortunately, to the sound of Vicki Vale's voice.
"... A sudden explosion occurred in a warehouse in Gotham City's south area. The GCPD is investigating what might have caused it."
The camera showed a lot of rubble, and various policemen around the area, searching for clues and possible bodies. And they found it.
"Attention! The police just found the body of a child!"
Bruce became startled, his heart was getting tight on his chest, and the tears were ready to come. And when the camera zoomed to a very familiar boy's body, he felt broken.
He didn't get any time for any other type of reaction, his emotions were taking total control of him, Bruce was no longer acting rational. Minutes later, he was exiting the car right in front of the crime scene.
"I can't believe it, Mister Wayne! What are you doing here!?"
And similar reactions were heard by him, but completely ignored as he walked towards his son's body, which was being taken by the police.
"Mister Wayne, you shouldn't come closer, this is a crime scene."
They tried to stop Wayne, but they failed, as he got Jason's limp body in his arms. The boy was already so cold, his eyes still open, all the blue going away. The blood was still wet, staining Bruce's clothes, but he didn't care.
His little bird was dead. His son was dead. Bruce thought the pain of his parents' death was unbearable, but he never thought he would have his son's body in his arms, so cold, so lifeless.
Bruce carefully closed the corpse's eyes, so it looked like the boy was just sleeping, but he knew he wasn't. He held his son tighter to his chest, and screamed. His screams were so painful, as his heart was completely shattered.
Alfred made sure the police and the media wouldn't talk about that moment. And the butler also made sure the boy would be buried with the Waynes, as he should be.
Jason wasn't as lucky as Dick, he wasn't an exception. His end was just like the other Robins. Dead, found brutally killed.
Grayson really wanted to see Jason grow up to prove he wasn't his Little Wing anymore. Grayson wished he could call his little brother his Big Wing.
Alfred really wanted to see Jason's mischievous smile once again. Alfred wished he could bake Jason's sixteenth birthday cake.
Bruce really wished he could have saved Jason. Bruce really wished he could see Jason's smile again. Bruce really wished to hear Jason calling him old man again.
Bruce wanted his little bird back.
==========
Both the media and the GCPD didn't want to admit it, but Gotham got worse after Jason's death. He was one of the best Robins the city ever had.
Dick spent more time in Gotham since that, to act both as Nightwing and comfort Bruce. Wayne needed his son to be with him, and even if Grayson wasn't the son he wanted, he wanted to make his father happy.
They just didn't expect to find Bruce's neighbor inside of the manor, wearing a Robin costume, while having the worst dark bags under his eyes.
Somehow, the little boy knew about the relation Bruce had with the Robins, he knew about Dick and also knew about Jason. The Waynes started to think that kid was a stalker.
The boy was Timothy Drake, who was clearly obsessed with the Robin concept, and the fact the most important Robins of the city were his neighbors, it made him very excited. Even if one was gone.
"C'mon, Bruce, could you resist this kid puppy's eyes?"
Somehow, Dick convinced the philanthropist to not report the kid to his parents, or even to the police. And Tim's parents didn't seem to care about his safety, since he was just running around as Robin without them worrying about him.
And the story repeated itself, with Bruce having another Robin under his wing. He expected the story would go differently, and he wouldn't need to hold his son's body again.
The years were going through, and still, every single day Bruce had visited Jason's grave, but still, he wasn't in the moment his son dug out of his own grave.
It wasn't a surprise when the philanthropist was once again kidnapped, criminals really liked abducting rich people. But he wasn't in panic, it was just like another Saturday, and he was just waiting for Tim to show up.
But it wasn't a Robin who showed up. A person with a red helmet entered the room, and even if Bruce nor the criminals could see his face, they knew he was pissed.
"You idiots can't do a thing right, I told you to not get him. You should give me a reason to not explode your heads right now."
The mysterious man said, and Bruce could feel some familiarity in his voice. The criminals didn't even dare to blink in the wrong moment, obviously scared by their leader.
"You should all go, and if any of you try eavesdropping, I'll cut your ears off."
They all exited immediately, even Wayne was scared by his attitude. And for some reason, he was freeing him from the restraints. That was a very different kind of mob boss.
"Sorry for the inconvenience, old man. I don't hurt you and you don't call those pigs, are we good?"
Bruce looked at him suspiciously, everything was so familiar, but he couldn't point it out.
"Also, don't call your bird boys, do you hear me?"
"You mean the Robins?"
"Exactly, old man. You keep collecting them, apparently. So, just leave, call your butler to take you or whatever."
"Why are you just letting me go?"
"Damn, how ungrateful of you. It's because you're not a bad rich person, if you were some like, I don't know, Lex Luthor, you'd be already dead."
"... Thanks."
"Just go already."
And when Bruce left the building, he almost immediately found Tim, who was in his Robin uniform. If Jason was alive, he would feel replaced.
Days later, the news was just about the infamous Red Hood, who was cleaning up the streets from crime, while staining them with blood.
And still, somehow, the Red Hood and Bruce kept meeting, as criminals still tried to steal from him. And for some reason, a mob boss was determined to protect him.
"Am I your new bodyguard now, old man?"
That phrase, those exact words, they were so familiar, it reminded him of his son. But if Jason was alive, he would think he was forgotten.
"Do I… Do I know you?"
Bruce asked, searching for eye contact even if the man hid his face behind that helmet.
"I saved your ass sometimes. Geez, old man, have you already forgotten? Most of the time, people don't forget about a man with a red helmet."
"No, it's not it. I feel like we've met before. Before all this."
If Jason was alive, he would think his father just moved on after his death.
"What if we did meet? Does something change?"
"You… You remind me of my son."
"Your… Son?"
If Jason was alive, he would have thought his death was meaningless to Bruce, or to anyone.
"My son, Jason."
And he was alive. The Red Hood removed his helmet, revealing the face Bruce missed seeing. Jason was older, but it was still him, even if he was changed. It was still his son.
Bruce was in complete shock as he tried to process the information his son was alive. Jason thought his father would back down, run away from the pain, he must have done the same when he was dead, right?
But Bruce's arms were wrapped around him, hugging him tightly, like he was afraid he would lose his son again. Jason gasped in surprise, but returned the hug. He thought his dad forgot about him, but he didn't.
Wayne cried on his shoulder, and he noticed how tall his son got. He was his little bird, but he was so big now, completely grown up.
"Bruce…"
"I missed you, little bird, I missed you so much."
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