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void-of-unparalled-chaos · 3 months

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Here's Where You'll Stay

"As John stared at the door preparing to get his face mauled, he couldn’t help but incredulously complain that this was not how he wanted his weekend to go. He had plans! He supposes that he would be willing to put them on hold for Phantom’s sake, but he wasn’t agreeable to the incoming face mauling. "

When Phantom comes down with Core Sickness it's up to John Constantine to save the ghost from fading.

This was originally based on a prompt from @nerdpoe but the story got so far from the original premise that I only ended up using dialogue. I put it under its own post instead of clogging up the notes for the prompt.

The title was taken from Today Has Been Okay by Sleeping at Last.

AO3 link

As John stared at the door preparing to get his face mauled, he couldn’t help but incredulously complain that this was not how he wanted his weekend to go. He had plans! Plans to hole himself up in the House of Mystery with a bottle of scotch as he wallows in misery but still, plans!

He supposes that he would be willing to put them on hold for Phantom’s sake, but he wasn’t agreeable to the incoming face mauling.

The little ghost had imprinted on them like a stray cat. He had just sorta… wandered (phased) in one day when the door (the wall) was open (he phased his head through the fucking wall!!!) and space is cold! No one was just going to kick him back out the door! They aren’t monsters! Next thing you know the cat is eating your food and hovering over you in the medbay and then suddenly the Justice League is having the collective realization that they may have unconsciously adopted a ghost kid.

They already had two aliens, an Amazon, a king, the fastest man alive, a Robin Hood wannabe, a traumatized furry, and an entire department dedicated to magic and the occult. What was a protection spirit added to the mix? Besides, they were already attached.

So the Justice League was understandably distressed when the kid suddenly collapsed, claws leaving long scratches in the floor as he yelped in pain. Phantom was transferred to one of his favored rooms with Martian Manhunter remaining to babysit the ghost. The other leaguers on-site wasted no time in calling a meeting.

If John had rushed a little faster to the Watchtower then that was between He, Him, and Himself.

Having sat silently through an hour of yapping, John was beginning to get frustrated. Figures that the idiots would call up the occult specialists and then not let the only two people who may have any idea as to what was going on get a word in edgewise. Usually, John preferred that they left him to his own devices, but if you were going to call up a consultant then you should probably fucking consult them! Regardless, he could say with a solid ninety-nine percent confidence he knew what was wrong with their resident spirit.

“It’s core sickness.”

“It’s what?”

“Core sickness. Do none of you listen?” he tried his best to blow his cigarette smoke directly into Superman’s face. Clark squinted at him, scrunching his nose in distaste.

Diana, ever the model of patience, merely waved the foul scent away. She folded her hands on the table, fingers interlocking. “I don’t believe I’ve heard the term.”

John leaned back in his chair, propping his feet on the table with two thunks. He grunted around his cigarette, waving at Batman to explain while he took another inhale.

Batman quietly glared at John’s feet as if he could shove them off the table by willpower alone. When the bat remained silent, John gestured at him again in a wordless 'go ahead'.

"I am…" Batman gritted his teeth as if what he was about to say was physically painful, "unfamiliar with the term as well.

"Holy shit, did Spooky just admit to not knowing something? Am I dreaming? Quick, Barry, pinch me!" Hal yelped, rubbing his arm. Barry settled back into his chair so quickly it was as if he had never moved, the only evidence being the red mark on the Green Lantern's skin.

"Seriously bats? Isn't one of your boys undead? Shouldn't you know this?"

Batman's glare sharpened. "That's none of your concern."

"Wow. No wonder your revenant is so bloody pissed all the time. You can't even be bothered to learn about his medical needs. I wouldn't be holding out for Father of the Year if I were you."

"Now now, boys. You're both pretty." Zatanna clapped, breaking the practically solid tension in the room. John huffed and chewed the stub of paper in his mouth, leaving Zatanna to explain.

"All ghosts and most undead have a core. It's… hard to describe." Zatanna hummed, tapping her finger to her chin for a moment, "Imagine if you only had one organ. It functions as your brain your heart and your digestive system all in one, but it's also the essence of your very soul. Core sickness is when the core is injured and fails to build itself back up. Kind of like breaking your leg but instead of healing the break just continues to grind together. It might still be usable for a bit, but then the bone keeps grinding and the edges start to crumble. It just keeps getting worse and worse until eventually your whole leg is shattered."

There's a sharp inhale of breath as the league processes the information.

"So what happens once the bone shatters?" Arthur eventually asks.

"The core is exactly what it sounds like, it's the very core of a ghost. Ghosts are nearly indestructible, but their core..." Zatanna trails off.

"If the core shatters, so does the ghost." Batman nods, looking none too pleased.

"Well, we can't just let the kid shatter! How do we help set the break?"

Zatanna shrugs, "I'm not sure… Constantine?"

"Do I look like a ghost doctor?"

"You're the most knowledgeable among us on supernatural beings," Batman growled out. The usually stoic shadow almost seemed panicked, or at least as panicked as they had ever seen him.

John sighed and flicked ash from his fingers, "Pretty sure you gotta fix whatever shite caused the core sickness in the first place. Problem is we dunno what caused it."

"So why don't we ask? Surely Phantom would know the cause of such an extreme ailment." Arthur drummed his fingers nervously on the armrest of his chair.

Zatanna grimaced, “Ghosts can be…”

“Aggressive?" John interrupted, "Destructive? More likely to rip your sorry face off than give you answers?”

“I was going to say touchy.”

John snorted, “That’s certainly a word for it.”

Zatanna ignores him. "Whatever caused the core sickness is likely something personal. Asking certain questions of a ghost is considered taboo and often met with hostility."

"Casper just might flay you like a fish."

"So if we ask him we might get the snot beaten out of us, but if we don't Phantom dies? Or… dies again?"

"Fades." John nods to Hal.

“Constantine should ask.”

“I should what? ” John straightens in his chair, staring wide-eyed at Batman, “I know I was being a tosser earlier but I don’t think it constitutes murder. Are ya bloody mad?”

“Phantom likes you the most. He may be less inclined to fight you than a different leaguer, and in the event that it becomes a fight, you’re better equipped to handle it.”

And that’s how John Constantine ended up on the other side of the door from an ill ghost, cursing up a storm as he prepared himself to poke a bear with a stick. A sick bear, but a bear nonetheless. He has half a mind to portal straight out of the watch tower but much like the others, the kid has grown on him. Like a tumor. Or mold.

A hissed sound of pain is enough to push John into the room. He raps gently on the door as he opens it. The kid is curled in J’onn’s lap, tail phased halfway through the floor as he shakes. The Martian is humming something as he runs a hand through Phantom’s hair.

John comes to a crouch at Phantom’s side, nodding J’onn towards the door as he gently disentangles the ghost's hands from the Martian’s cape. A single hazy green eye opens to a thin slit.

“Hey, kid.”

Phantom makes a strangled, warbling chirp but allows himself to be transferred over to John as the Martian leaves the room. The ghost’s claws poke through his shirt to prickle his skin as he clutches onto the fabric.

“Not feeling too hot are ya, Casper?”

Another shiver runs through Phantom’s body.

“Listen, kid, I know you might not wanna talk about it, but it’s important. I need to know what brought this mess on.”

Phantom growled. John could feel the threatening scrape of fanged teeth against his hand. Sucking in a breath, John prepared himself for a nasty bite. Only it never came. He should probably just stop while he was ahead, but Constantine was never known to stop pushing.

“I know, kid, but we can’t fix this if we don’t know the cause. Gotta know what we need to fix before we can fix it, and none of us wanna see ya fade, yeah?”

Silence from the ghost, and then a nod.

John let out a sigh of relief, “Alright, Casper. You’ve walked in on me drunk off my arse with a belt around my head. I reckon we’re close enough that you can tell me your issues.”

Silence.

“How about this? I’ll start listing some ideas off and you tap my hand. One tap for yes, Two taps for no. Sound easier?”

One tap.

“Alright. Did your core sustain any direct physical damage?” With John’s luck he might as well assume the worst.

Two taps. Thank Christ.

“Did you lose your haunt?”

Two taps.

“Unable to fulfill your obsession?”

Two taps.

“Was your grave disrupted?”

Nothing. Phantom’s finger hesitated, hovering over John’s palm. It started to lower as if he were about to tap but retreated once more. Another shiver of pain wracked through the ghost.

John ran his fingers through Phantom’s hair like J’onn had been doing when he walked in.

“Am I close, Casper?”

One tap.

“Did you…” John hesitated. He didn’t want to say it. Didn’t even want to even think about it. Not with the implications that the idea held, especially not with a kid, “Do you have a grave?”

Two taps.

Constantine makes a strangled sound. Bollocks. Fucking hell. Is Phantom a murder victim? He’s just going to compartmentalize that for now. He’ll drink about it later. For now, he’s got a kid to help. A potentially murdered kid, Christ…

“Is that what’s causing the core sickness?” Compartmentalise it, you plonker.

One tap.

Great. So now John has to track down a murdered kid’s body and make him a grave. Wonderful.

“Alright, kid. Here’s what's gonna happen. I’m going to make you the best damn grave you’ve ever seen. I’ll put it wherever ya want. ”

Phantom’s eye opens again in interest, “Wherever?”

“Wherever. Hell, I’ll put it on the bloody moon if that’s where ya want it!”

“It doesn’t have to be on the moon but… I’d like to see the stars?”

“I’ll make sure you can see the stars all the damn time, but first we gotta do the hard part. You know where your body is, kid?”

Phantom gives a weak chuckle and mutters something into John’s shirt

“Gonna have to speak up a bit, Casper.”

When Phantom turns to look at John once more the haze is gone, but so is that tiny glimmer of hope and enthusiasm. The eyes that meet John’s own are dead. They look clouded over and sunken, empty of that natural ectoplasmic glow. They look like the eyes of a carcass. The fanged grin that stretches across his face is stiff and just as dead as his eyes.

“I said if you want to find my body, you’re going to have to redefine your definition of a corpse.”

Ah. Alright. What the fuck is that supposed to mean.

Phantom drops his grin, eyes closing as he hisses in pain again. “You don’t need to worry about that part. An empty grave is better than none.”

No, actually, John feels like he does need to worry about that. He’s not entirely sure that he has a choice in the matter after that horrifying statement. He’ll compartmentalize it and get drunk about that later too. Right now he’s got a grave to make and a ghost to save.

____🥀____

To be fair, John’s not entirely sure what he’s doing. All he knows is that he has to make a damn good grave for a damn good kid if he doesn’t want said kid to painfully fade from existence. He doesn’t know the first thing about headstones but he will bloody learn and pick the best- Granite? Marble? Whatever.- there is!

He already has a spot picked out, he just needs to get a headstone. But for some reason, this feels way more stressful than it needs to be! He’s tempted to ignore the no smoking sign, fingers fidgeting with the cigarette box in his pocket. This is the fourth place he’s looked, and it’s hard to find anyone willing to make a headstone on such short notice. The backlog of orders has been surprisingly long.

John doesn’t have the time to wait. Phantom doesn’t have the time.

So far it's all been the same boring, drab, grey rock with intermittent white marble. None of it is good enough. None of it fits the kid. It has to be perfect. He’s about to move on to the next place when- oh. Oh, that will do nicely!

____🥀____

Constantine swings open the door without warning. Oliver startles out of his story with a yelp. Phantom giggles, fangs flashing. He covers his mouth with a hand and feigns innocence when Oliver glares at him good-naturedly. Oliver, a dad himself, is no match for the sick-child-murder victim-ghost energy the kid is wielding. His glare quickly crumbles, replaced with a fond expression and gentle hair ruffle.

Even with weakness weighing his limbs down, Phantom still tries to bat the hand away with a playful growl. He seemed a tad more lively than when John had last seen him. The updates he had been receiving from the league were mainly neutral. The League, or the Rotating Cycle of Babysitters as John liked to call them, had not noticed any further deterioration but had yet to report any improvement either. It was a pleasant surprise to see the ghost this active.

John allowed his mouth to tick up just a smidge, “Ready to go, kid?”

“Already?” Phantom attention shifted to John, “It hasn’t been that long… has it?”

“Nah. Only ‘bout two days or so.”

“That was fast.” Phantom grunted as Oliver picked him up. Oliver whispered a quiet sorry to him as he carried Phantom to pass over to John.

“I’ve been running myself ragged to get it all set up. Haven’t had a drink in hours.”

It really shouldn’t surprise John how light the kid was. He’d bet the ghost wouldn’t even weigh ten pounds soaking wet. Before the ghost could protest, he was slipping a blindfold over his eyes.

“I may have done some bribery here and there to move things along.”

“Constantine, you didn’t…” Oliver sounded disappointed but not surprised.

John didn’t deign him with a response, instead shifting to hold Phantom with one arm and open a portal with the other. Stepping through to the surprisingly large backyard of the House of Mystery, he quickly closed it behind them before off-brand Robin Hood got any ideas and began the short trek to the gravesite.

"Can I take this off now?" His hand raised shakily without waiting for an answer.

John gently slapped his wrist back down, "Quit messing with the blindfold. I just put the damn thing on!"

Phantom groaned, his head dramatically falling back over John's arm, "Oh come on! What's a dying ghost gotta do around here to get his last wish fulfilled?"

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you're already dead. And 'sides, I'm not letting you fade after all those goddamn hours I've put into teaching you portals. You're going to be haunting the Justice League for a while yet." If John held him a little tighter no one needed to know.

"Whoever said that you could rest when you're dead lied ."

"You've been a right thorn in my side between stealing my booze and hiding my cigs. I figure it's about time that I make myself your problem. It's called karma, Casper."

Phantom snorted, leaning his head to rest against John's shoulder. The rest of the walk continued in silence aside from the occasional whimper of pain from Phantom and John's attempts at comforting platitudes.

It wasn't long before John finally made it up the small hill, grinning as he approached the grave marker. The stone slab sat on the highest point of his lot, as close to the stars as possible. He had been so meticulous about its placement that he was almost certain he had every inch of the garden memorized until his eyesight blurred, surprisingly without the aid of alcohol.

"Alright, Phantom. Remember to take it easy," John lifted the blindfold.

Phantom's chest hitched in the mimicry of a gasp, stilling in the older's hold.

The headstone was made of black granite with golden flecks. The man at the shop had called it Galaxy Granite. It was a rather fitting name. The headstone looked like it had been cut from the night sky itself, the stars sparkling even under sunlight. An etching of Ursa Minor sat above the inscription, Polaris bigger than the rest of the constellation. Dainty white letters ran across the stone. Phantom floated over as if in a trance to run his fingers over it.

In Loving Memory Of

Danny Fenton

12 February 1989

12 February 2003

Beloved Son, Brother, Hero

Phantom leaned his head against the stone. John left him to have his moment, retreating into the House of Mystery to grab the final touch. The bouquet was sort of garish. The colors of the forget-me-nots, beardtongue, zinnias, star grass, poppies, and lewisias clashed together, but the aesthetic appeal wasn’t why he had chosen these particular flowers. He remerged with purpose, gently carrying the bouquet to ensure the flowers remained intact. Phantom hadn’t moved.

John crouched next to the kid, gently laying the flowers down against the headstone, “You oka-”

John made a noise of surprise as he was tugged forward. The momentum caused him to collapse from his heels onto his knees. The ghost burrowed underneath his chin, keeping him from falling forward anymore. Phantom’s arms tightened around him.

“Thank you.” His voice already sounded stronger than it had the day before.

“Yeah,” John snaked an arm around the ghost’s shoulders, holding him close even as his shirt dampened, “Don’t mention it, kid.”

#dpxdc #Here's Where You'll Stay #my writing #dpxdc fanfic

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lacrimosathedark · 2 years

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Someone who knows about Lanterns: please tell me about them.

I know next to nothing about the Lanterns.

Here’s the almost full extent of my knowledge:

I know Hal’s an asshole, but also is kinda all over the place about it? He’s genderfluid, or at least some kind of genderqueer, pansexual, and probably poly. And is really close with Ollie and Dinah, and also Barry Allen I think? He was also evil for a bit? And then he became the Spectre for a bit?

I know Guy’s an asshole but he’s loud about it. That’s it. WAIT EDIT I remembered that Batman Saitama-ed him once. Like One Punch knocked his lights out. I only know this because of thepandaredd.

I know John Stewart has a deep authoritative voice. And he was in the military.

I know Kyle is an artist, speaks Spanish, is bisexual af with a major thing for Ace King Conner Hawke, and his girlfriend was the origin of the term “women in refrigerators”. And he’s pretty. And possibly awkward?

I know there’s another guy, I think his name is Simon Baz? I literally know nothing about him. He looks kinda like a wrestler to me with that full face mask.

I apparently mix up Jo Mullein and Jessica Cruz (thank you @supericelight for the correction because I forgot Jessica!) I think Jo is the one with Anime Shades and Jessica is the one who’s agoraphobic. And I think Batman almost adopted Jessica Like He Does. And Jo is queer! I know literally nothing else about them.

I know Keli Quintela isn’t technically a Lantern but idk wtf is up with her glove. Everything I know about her is from the Young Justice comics.

I know there’s another kid who’s Asian (I think Chinese or Vietnamese?) that I know absolutely nothing about.

There’s too much honestly and I can’t focus. I’m a Batfam person, and I’m just being pulled into Arrowfam because of Roy Harper. Looking into all the goddamn Lanterns is too much for my brain right now.

So, tell me about them! Share your favorite scenes or their funniest lines or anything you like about these characters! I want to know them.

#Green Lantern #Hal Jordan #Guy Gardner #John Stewart #Simon Baz #Jo Mullein #Keli Quintela #Kyle Rayner #Jessica Cruz

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megamindsupremacy · 2 years

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Misc DC fic recs (part 2)

The trouble it might drag you down by remrose

Duke peeked around the door dangerously, just in time to get a glimpse of Bruce's face as he lifted an orange tie embroidered with the words 'WHERE'S THE BEEF?'.

(It's Bruce's birthday. Jason schemes. Duke wonders about family dynamics. Some neck-ties are received.)

Macushla by hinn-raven

Stephanie Brown is nine years old when her world falls to pieces. Whisked away from everything she's ever known, she finds herself in the court of Talia al Ghul, training to be an assassin. And when she ends up as Damian al Ghul's bodyguard, well her life just gets stranger from there.

Playacting by nex_et_nox

“So,” Jim said, “are you one of Wayne’s new kids?” Because only siblings acted that way toward each other, and it seemed like every time Gotham turned around, Bruce Wayne was adopting more kids. It was a reasonable question.

“What?” Jay asked. “No, I’m—” He paused. Very slowly, his head tilted as he looked over Jim’s shoulder in the most obvious way he possibly could.

Jim Gordon accidentally meets the "newest" member of the Wayne family.

Watch this by snackbaskets

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

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

The last of the real ones by lurkinglurkerwholurks

[series summary]Oneshots featuring Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. Some fic stand completely alone, while others will show one POV and the following will show the other. I personally don't ship them, BUT do firmly believe that these are two men who love each other, so whether you're into deep platonic, fraternal love or love of a more romantic nature, I think these fics will work for you, because the foundational love and respect is the same.

[summary on first fic] Bruce was conscious of the power seething beneath Clark’s skin, but it always set him back to see it in action. To see the quiet, self-effacing man he knew become something else. Someone else. It was what made Clark’s facile disguise convincing, the way he changed to face a threat. Bruce was glad, as he always was, that Superman had chosen their side to fight on, but that didn’t make the raw power on display any less breathtaking.

Minimum height requirement by Drag0nst0rm

Somewhere in the multiverse, there's a universe where letting his children dress up in capes and follow him into vigilantism seems like a good idea.

Bruce is determined that it isn't going to be this one . . . Despite his children's repeated attempts to convince him otherwise.

(Or: "When you're eighteen, you can do what you want. Until then, no capes.")

Schrodinger's Robin by heartslogos

"Of course I'm a genius." Tim smiles to empty air. "I'm certified."

Sweet child o’ mine by nokomis

Steph said cheerfully, “Bruce, from now on, consider yourself in possession of one Steph-mom.”

“Absolutely not,” Bruce said.

Steph took a bite of her cake, undeterred.

Starlight raining over me by charcoal_moon

[That’s when something strange happens.

A shooting star falls from the sky and comes to a stop two inches from his nose. With a cry of alarm, Dick backs away from the brightly glowing object.

It’s green.

RICHARD GRAYSON OF EARTH, says the emerald star. YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO OVERCOME GREAT FEAR. WELCOME TO THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS.

“What the fuck,” Dick says blankly.]

The Flying Graysons fall in Coast City instead of Gotham, and Dick Grayson's path to heroism involves a hell of a lot more faith, trust, and alien tech than anyone ever expected.

#mads posts #dc fic recs #dc fic rec list #fic recs #fic rec list #as always tell me if I fucked up a link or description or whatever #misc dc fic recs part 2 #misc dc fic recs

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batcassed · 3 years

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I loveeeee Bruce the Fish. I think we need another family member. Grayson the sugar glider maybe. Or Tim the Rat. Jason the Rabbit. Whatever peeks your interest.

(Hi tysm for the prompt!! I hope you don’t mind that it ended up being more like a few more family members... the batkids are serial adopters just like Bruce what can I say)

The Batfamily and the Batpets

After Bruce the fish takes over the household the rest of the batkids want their own pets

Bruce can’t really say no but he wants them to just each pick fish because it’s easier

The second the batkids hear this, well of course they go and find extremely exotic pets out of spite

Jason gets a boa constrictor and names it Dames

He won’t admit it but he fell in love with it immediately when it tried to strangle Tim when they got him

Jason: ‘his name is Dames because he tries to kill Tim, just like Damian’

Damian takes this as a compliment

Jason remakes the small guest room in his apartment to house the snake’s habitat and uses his rarely-touched trust fund money to go all out for his enormous tank

Jason, feeding the snake rats: ‘so this rat is named joker, and this rat is also named joker, and this-’

Jason: ‘HEY DO BOAS EAT BATS’

Steph and Cass decide to co-parent a parakeet and want to name it Dick because of his bright colors but Bruce immediately vetoes the name because without context it sounds like his kids are naming their pets after genitals

So they name him Ric :)

Dick: ‘can you please just let it go’

Steph: ‘never’

Tim adopts a baby turtle and keeps it in a tank in his apartment

He names it ‘Turtle’ because he’s BORING -steph

Steph starts calling the turtle ‘tiny tim’ and the name catches on to the rest of the family

Tiny Tim will snip at everyone’s fingers- except for Jason, a fact that makes Tim very disgruntled

Dick already has Haley the puppy so he doesn’t get another pet but he does get a small succulent that he names Cactus

Dick: ‘get it? Because it’s not a cactus so it’s ironic’

Damian: ‘we get it Grayson, you’re misgendering your aloe plant’

Dick:

Duke gets a red and black leopard gecko that he names Harley

Of course Harley gets wind of this and randomly pops in at 2 am in the morning to say hi to lil’ Harles

Despite the gecko living in Duke’s room, Duke doesn’t know she’s doing this until the fifth time she visits and he’s doing late night studying

Duke: ‘oh my GOD you’ve been coming to my room in the middle of the night just to say hi to my gecko???’

Harley: ‘she’s named after me so I get parental rights :D’

Duke: ‘...no??’

He lets her visit anyway but only during the day

One day Harley sits at the kitchen counter in her full costume and bunny slippers and casually sips tea from a wine glass while talking to Duke about how geckos mate

Bruce walks in to see this and just... backs away

They all fight over whose pet is superior

Damian scoffs and says of course the best pet is Batcow

Everyone agrees

Damian gives Alfred a trio of male guppies to keep in his room because they’re extremely pretty

Alfred lets the batkids name them so after an hour of arguing they finally agree to name them Barry, Clark and Hal

Ric the Parakeet gets an instagram at @pariceet and gets over a thousand followers within a day

the first post is a video of him bouncing along to tiktok music

Jason comments ‘CRINGE’ and Steph blocks him

So within a week the batfamily grows to include Dames the snake, Ric the parakeet, Cactus the aloe plant, Tiny Tim the turtle, Clark, Hal and Barry the guppies, and Harley the gecko, which is an add-on to Batcow, Titus, Ace, Haley, Bruce the fish and Alfred the cat

Bruce the human is. so tired.

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americankimchi · 2 years

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okay so i just recently got into dc (okay correction it's mostly just batman/batfam/batcat) after being like vaguely interested for years and enjoying all the memes and stuff you reblog and i was wondering if you knew any good batfam or batcat fics? bit of a long shot but i'm struggling to find any on my own lol

RUBS MY HANDS TOGETHER OHOHO ANON YOU HAVE COME 2 THE RIGHT PLACE

listen im a dick grayson stan first and batfam stan second. so this reclist is gonna reflect that sjskjsk

anyways here are some of my favorites xoxo

The world where Bruce went to therapy by shanahane

this one is a No Capes AU (means they are civilians not superheroes) where bruce goes "perhaps,,, i will seek professional help,,," and does not end up punching criminals in the throat at night. instead he is metaphorically punching criminals in the throat by focusing 100% of his attention on the civilian sphere (instead of 50% bc bruce still does that in canon... just not as much as he dropkicks in the name of justice sjkjskksj)

i love it bc it's SO good,,, so Healing,,,,,, he still adopts all his kids except they are ALSO well-adjusted kids who. stay kids instead of vigilantes. please read this series if u want family-friendly fun that is wholesome and cute <3

Earth 27 by Anonymous

in dc, universes are given tags to denote which continuity it follows in the multiverse. in this fic it deals with two universes, earth 27 and earth 32. earth 27's dick grayson is dead. earth 32's dick grayson was kidnapped to make up for the loss. this fic deals with grief and the ugly ways you deal with it when you have the ability to hop universes to "fix" things

detective stories by prismatical

i have read every fic in this series MULTIPLE times. they're all casefics and they're all complete except for the third one in the series which hasn't been updated since 2020 😭

most of them have dick getting his ass sent to the horse plinko while the rest of the batfam are desperately trying to save him before he hits the fire but the POINT is that it's all very good batfam fun. i recently reread "fun and games" and oughhh baby it's 👌👌👌

upside down and inside out by danishsweethearts

reverse robins au which basically means that the batkids have their ages flipped so damian's the oldest and dick's the youngest. has that rare quality in a reverse robins au where the author doesn't make the older batkids use the robin moniker. truly one of my dealbreakers for reverse robins aus since it absolutely doesn't make any sense for robin to exist before dick joins the family since that was his mother's name for him

actually i recommend everything danishsweethearts has written. a goldmine of fics 👍

Watch This by snackbaskets

baby dick grayson grifts barry and hal and uses it as an excuse to give everyone in the justice league a heart attack. also to be very cute with batdad :')

The Titans never really stopped being teens within by mielipieli

okay granted this one's not a batfam fic rec it's more a titans fic rec but i have to give it a shoutout as one of my favorite titans series on ao3 PLEASE GIVE IT A TRY there are SO few fab five fics on ao3

Roadtrip Vigilantes by Beabaseball

basically bruce stays with the league of assassins instead of returning to gotham to become batman. he still manages to find and adopt a robin. this one is an absolute masterpiece :)

i do have some more fic recs but they're unfinished ones with only one chapter out right now or on hiatus or unfortunately abandoned. also i know you asked for batfam/batcat fanfics but i,,,,,, truly only read fics with my boy in them. which is why i also didn’t put the fics that were primarily focused on dick and had little to no mention of the batfam sjksjdk

i think i had some bruce-centric fics i really liked but those were on ff.net and i don't remember my login info so my favorites list is unfortunately lost to time 😔😔😔

i hope u get a kick outta these anyways tho anon 👌

#fic recs #rec list #anon #ask #the favoritism just JUMPED out

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nightwings-circus · 2 years

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Batfam headcanons

some random batfam headcanons cause I love the robins.

Dick Grayson-

* He's the second shortest of the robin's. for a long time Damian was shorter but he hit a growth spurt, leaving Tim and Dick as the munchkins of the group.

*Insanely protective. do not touch his family and friends or you're fucked.

*on days where he doesn't suit up, he's a softy. a major sweetheart, and huge simp.

*on days he DOES suit up though oh boy. the adrenaline turns him into grumpy/hyper/horny bastard. he's a lot more harsh and his personality is a bit darker.

*you can tell he grew up around Bruce as Bruce and Dick, not just as batman and Robin. they are both very suave, and insanely charming. Dick has that rich son playboy smirk and the others point it out a lot.

*always smells like expensive cologne.

*actually kind of still likes clowns, and is slightly annoyed that the joker uses it as his ~thing~.

*climbs everything.

*because of this he ends up with a lot of fractures.

*Everyone sees him as the responsible one but he's more of a tired older brother then anything.

*he is kind of the leader of the boys though, because he's been there the longest.

*has a lot of one liners. him and jay have roasting and sarcasm battles constantly.

*normally the one sparring with the others as training

*loves candy

*he's the reason everything is named with bat. he started calling them the batcomputer and batmobile, Bruce ran with it and smiles every time one of the JL members makes fun of him for it.

Jason Todd~

*Thrifts literally everything.

*drinks a shit ton of coffee. and energy drinks. not because he needs it but because he wants to.

*"seriously jay your heart is gonna stop" "did I fuckin ask"

*swears alot. he's the reason the "refrain from swearing" rule became a thing, specifically after a pretty vulgar string of words after he fell down the stairs.

*Dick never let him live it down.

*will randomly stop responding to his name for days at a time, and will only answer to very specific nicknames just to mess with everyone.

*once went a whole week only responding to "the king of Gotham, Jason fucking Todd, the most handsome robin" and Dami ignored him the entire time.

*plays a lot of videogames. like ALOT.

*prefers PC games but plays using a controller.

*hates most candy but will eat anything sour. he loves sour candy.

*secretly scared of spiders.

*can only wear specific things to sleep otherwise he has really bad nightmares.

* "did you die though? no? point made."

*takes a lot of candid photos of everyone and turns them into memes that he prints out and tapes up in the manor.

*names basically everything. once called his favorite cup jerry for a month.

*isn't allowed to talk to journalists and paparazzi's anymore because he couldn't stop making death jokes that nobody else understood. also would swear and flip them off too much.

*makes a lot of "you're adopted" jokes.

*keeps Roy in the loop of the dumbest shit he can think of. once texted him at 3 am to show him a time lapse of Damian blinking "like a freak".

Tim Drake

*literally never stops fighting with Jason

*seriously they argue about fucking everything

*also drinks a lot of coffee, but its because he just doesn't sleep.

*has been told on multiple occasions he isn't allowed on patrol or on a mission because he hadn't slept and was a danger to himself.

*watches a lot of buzzfeed unsolved.

*one time Bruce caught him watching it on the batcomputer and jay never shut up about it.

*always shaking. probably a mix of an anxiety tremor and the absurd amount of caffeine in his system.

*started the batfam groupchat.

*scares the shit out of himself with horror movies.

*fangirled the fuck out when he met Selina for the first time. she just stood there and awkwardly smiled and tried to crack a few jokes to get him to stop talking.

*uses a lot of weird metaphors

*regularly gets called by one of his other brother's names. one time he retaliated by switching between calling Bruce Oliver, Hal, Barry, and even Diana at one point. Ollie and Hal thought it was fucking hilarious.

*frequently found passed out in really weird positions. Roy and Jay once found him passed out ass up in the air under the kitchen table. it was the screensaver on the batcomputer for a solid week before oracle changed it.

*really likes pickles

Damian Wayne~

*gets along with Jason the best surprisingly.

*that's not saying much though.

*him and dick are civil, but he secretly looks up to him

*plays multiple instruments. frequently plays at gala's and party's.

*is pretty confused at first by all the others.

*only ever calls Bruce father. never dad.

*when he's really upset he slips back into Arabic, and when he's really really upset he goes into his other languages too. most of the time no one can understand him because he slips into so many different languages in one rant it makes it impossible.

*volunteers at animal shelters around Gotham. he spends a lot of time helping to renovate or clean them, as well as spending times with the animals.

*busts a lot of dog fighting rings. one time he was interrupted in the middle of one of the busts by Harley and Ivy also trying to shut it down. they just gave each other a silent nod and didn't throw a single hit at one another, it was never spoken of to anyone especially Bruce.

*gets really flustered around Raven. it's the only time he really stutters or trips on his words.

*any time jay makes an adoption joke Damian just smirks and goes "wellll" and Jason just glares and says "you shut the fuck up."

*rarely drinks coffee. he thinks it tastes weird.

*listens to a lot of classical music when he gets homesick.

*hates Jason and Tim's music tastes.

*tallest of all the batkids

#batfam #dick grayson #dc comics #jason todd #dc headcanon #tim drake #damian al ghul #damian wayne #jason #tim #dc #damian #nightwing #dc fanfic

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flashflashhundredyarddash · 3 years

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birdflash and the batfamily

did bruce ever suspect when he set up a playdate meeting for robin and kid flash he was going to gain a future son-in-law? No.

dick and wally Officially get together in their teens

when dick runs off hes gone for like a year and bruce is like. lowkey super concerned dick is going to try and elope with wally

when jason first shows up he Does Not have the highest opinion of dick so he thinks wally is like. dicks bum boyfriend lmao. when he actually gets introduced to wally hes like hmm wally is okay i guess. also wally actually goes to college so jason always asks him questions about it

tim thinks wally is Super cool but is also jealous sometimes because wally takes up SO MUCH of dicks time. tim gets the Most time with wally because tim is also friends with bart so they just all hang out a lot.

all of dicks siblings HATE pda. they have a whole list of rules for what is acceptable when a sibling is within 100 feet. dick disregards it lol he WILL hold wallys hand and kiss his boyfriend while his brothers and sister groan in the background

cass is very happy because wally makes dick happy! wally is one of the few outside of the batfam who can actually hold a conversation with cass and doesnt act All Fucking Weird because she doesn't speak english well

when duke gets adopted dick and wally are already engaged so like three months after hes adopted he gets to go to their wedding and dick puts him in the wedding party duke is like :') the wedding is fun all their super friends are there and bruce is very obviously Trying Not to Cry

when damian shows up dick and wally decided to live separately while dick Deals With the Situation so now damian has "i have fucked up my primary caretakers years long relationship" insecurity THIS POOR KID LMAO. damian gets to be the Ringbearer at the wedding!! It is a Great Honor. also the west-allens arent the worst family to be related to they are very formidable allies (damians list of the flash fam from most threatening to least threatening: iris, joan, wally, bart, jay, the twins, barry).

so. many. wedding photos.

it takes ages for dick and wally to get married because uh. gay marriage was kind of illegal for a while there. even before its legal they have that talk of well i love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you

once it IS legal they put it off because they are always dealing with SO much shit but duke getting adopted was kind of the catalyst for dick to be like holy shit all our family is here and safe LETS GET MARRIED and wally is like what right now im washing dishes

bruce panics and buys them a coffeemaker for their wedding lmaooooo

ONE FUCKING TIME. oh my god. obvs bruce calls his kids by the wrong names all the time but one time he was OUT IN THE FIELD AS BATMAN and he calls up tim on the comms and hes like "Kid Flash, did you read the toxicology report I sent you yesterday." and theres a second of silence before everyone LOSES THEIR SHIT. KID FLASH. BRUCE WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT.

steph and wally get along like a house on fire. a house that is crashing and burning but by god you cant look away

wally is. a little intimidated and jealous of babs because he KNOWS dick had a maybe-crush on babs back when they were kids and wally still hasnt gotten over it a decade later like WALLY DICKS MARRYING YOU I THINK YOURE GOOD LMAO.

kate tries to be a Gay Mentor to dick and wally because when they first came out she was their ONLY GAY RELATIVE who was semi competent (bruce is bi but hes a bad gay mentor lol. barry is bi but kind of struggles with it sometimes)

side note that hal has been around the whole time wally knew him ever since wally was a kid and hes like wow i love that uncle barry and uncle hal are such good friends and then they have to break the news that iris and barry have an open relationship shebnrcnene.

#birdflash #dc #dick grayson #wally west #batfam #the burd squawks #long post #THE HALBARRY WAS UNEXPECTED WHWHE #i may do the flash fam and birdflash next idk #i should be napping

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ragingbookdragon · 3 years

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Raise Hell And High-Waters

Lanternfamily x Reader One-Shot

Word Count: 1.2K Warnings: Explicit Language

Author's Note: Based on the ask about Batman trying to adopt the little scrappy Lanternkid! Enjoy! -Thorne

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

Hal set the kid down on the couch in the lounge, setting their Justice League backpack beside them. They immediately busied themselves pulling out the game console, switching it on as they cocked their legs up on the cushions, slinking down until their chin was in their chest, head bent up against the arm of the sofa.

“You gonna be okay right here?” he inquired.

“Mhm,” they hummed, pressing the buttons until the music flowed through the speakers.

Hal nodded, then reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet; he flicked it open and tugged out some money, setting it in the cup holder of their backpack. “Here’s ten ones, okay? The vending machines are over there, get a snack and a drink if you want it.”

“Can I get a soda?”

“No sodas after eight.” He announced, like a parent, hands even cocked on his hips.

“Loser,” they griped, then looked at him. “Do they have flavored waters?”

“Any kind you can dream of kid,” he reached down and ruffled their hair. “Look, the meeting was last minute, and I wouldn’t’ve brought you if I could’ve found a babysitter in time.” He smiled halfheartedly. “I should only be gone an hour and a half, okay?”

They smiled. “Can we go to the movies after this?”

Hal’s face pinched. “Jesus kid, you really wanna see that midnight showing, don’t you?”

“Well, the child actor in the movie is like me,” they theorized. “Super smart way above their classmates’ levels.” Shooting them a bored stare, they said, “If you weren’t home-schooling me, I’d be a college graduate by now.”

He rolled his eyes and ruffled their hair again. “I gotta go. Don’t move,” he warned. “I’m serious. Stay right here.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He gave them one last look, then hurried off down the hallway.

***

It’d been an hour or so before they’d heard any movement, but when they did, it was above their head, brushing over the back of the couch. Hal had told them the Watchtower was completely safe, so they didn’t immediately panic. Whoever or whatever it was, was friendly.

“What are you playing?” The person—a man by the low gravel of their voice—asked.

“The new Pokémon game,” they murmured. “It’s easy compared to the other games.”

“How far back through them have you played?”

They pursed their lips, thinking for a moment. “Uncle Barry had his Game Boy and the original Red and Blue still in their cases.” Holding up the console, they said, “Hal bought me the Switch and Pokémon Sword and Shield the other weekend.”

“How do you like the newest games compared to the oldest ones?”

“They’re easier, built for a fun rather than a competitive, skilled mode.” They grinned as they caught a Lucario. “I haven’t lost a single battle since I started playing last week. Honestly, the last Pokémon games that actually made me try were HeartGold and SoulSilver.” Letting out a bored, ‘pfft’, they added, “Every game after that is all about building up a dream team and completely obliterating every opponent.”

“What’s your dream team?” they asked.

“Aurorus, Charizard, Gardevoir, Greninja, Lapras, and Lucario.” They shrugged. “I substitute Lapras out for Talonflame or Yveltal from time to time.”

“How do you play?”

“Offensively. I build up my teams stats then just take things head on.”

“No moves that boost defense?”

“Players that focus on stat moves are losers. Play hard to win or don’t play at all,” they griped, finally turning to look at the mystery man. “You’re Batman.”

He peered at them through his white cowl. “I am.”

“Why do you know so much about Pokémon?” they inquired. “You’re awfully knowledgeable for a grown man who takes down supervillains.”

Nodding, he replied, “My third son loves the games. He’d probably get the crap knocked out of his team by yours.”

They grinned. “Lemme guess, he focuses on stat moves?”

“Mhm.”

“Loser,” they snorted.

Suddenly, Batman looked rather serious. “Why are you out here all alone?”

“Hal had a meeting and couldn’t find a babysitter. The other guys were busy too.”

“They take care of you as well?”

“Yeah. I stay with Hal or John when they’re on earth, Hal mostly. Kyle and Guy keep an eye on my when I’m on Oa.”

“You’ve been to Oa?”

“A few times. Weird place. Weirder aliens and people.”

“What about school?”

“Hal home-schools me.”

“How come?” he questioned, watching them trample another player.

“I’m really smart. Like Einstein genius smart.” They shrugged. “Hal said it’d be easier to avoid attention if we home-school me.”

“Do you like it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not growing up around kids your own age. You’re by yourself a lot.”

“I was on the streets before Kyle found me,” they retorted. “I’m used to being on my own. And besides, kids my age are annoying. They’re still stuck in the play stage of development and I’m in the ask really inquisitive questions and solve impossible physics problems stage.”

Batman chuckled. “You’re pretty smart then, yeah?”

“Yeah.” They shut off their Switch and shoved it in their backpack. “Hal and the others can’t keep up.”

Getting off the sofa, they wandered over to the vending machines, sure that Batman was following them. They tried to reach the number pad, but couldn’t, frowning as they turned to him and held their arms up.

“Help me.”

He bent down and lifted them, letting them press the buttons; when they were finished, he didn’t set them down, merely carried them as they opened the chip bag and snacked. They were apparently content to lean onto his shoulder, head tucked under his chin. Batman gently rocked them, as he walked around, and soon they felt their eyelids falling shut.

***

“—ere are they!”

They awoke to shouting, startled by the sound of Hal’s panicked and scared voice. Batman’s hand touched their side. “It’s okay.”

“Hal’s worried,” they murmured, eyes droopy, tone sleep laced.

“Kid!” Hal’s voice was close now, then they were being yanked out of Batman’s arms and into the Green Lantern’s, life practically squeezed out of them. “Holy shit, you scared the hell out of me.”

“They were fine,” Batman sighed. “I had them.”

“I’m not talking to you!” Hal griped. “You okay?”

“Can’t—breathe—” they gasped and immediately his arms loosened, letting them inhale deeply. “‘M fine.”

“Come on, I’ve got your backpack. Let’s go home.”

As they walked off, Batman’s voice reached them. “You need to enroll them in a school that’ll let them grow and mature with other kids their age.”

Hal spun, fire in his voice as he snapped, “Don’t tell me how to raise my kid.”

When they turned the corner and walked to the Zeta tubes, they asked, “Do you mean that?”

“Mean what?” Hal asked.

“That I’m your kid?”

Their voice sounded so far, so lost, so…afraid. Afraid of hope, afraid of love, afraid of another parent leaving them on the streets, turning their back on them like all the rest did before.

Hal pulled back so he could stare at them, and he took their small chin in his hand, affirming, “Absolutely.” His eyes were serious but still warm. “You’re my kid and you always will be. And if anyone, and I mean anyone, tried to take you from me…I’d raise hell and so would your uncles to keep you with us.”

Tears flooded their eyes and they sniffed, burying their face in Hal’s neck.

He smiled, gently petting the back of their head. “I love you, kid.”

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lacrimosathedark · 2 years

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I am sick of DC killing off their heroes

I'm also sick of them keeping the same heroes and having them in like stasis age. It's annoying, especially as new characters are created.

You know what I want instead?

Let them retire.

Let Bruce hang up his cowl and hand the mantle to Cassandra, and maybe Terry later. His boys are already taking after him in other ways; Dick's become a wealthy philanthropist, Jason's probably gonna be the one to adopt 50 kids just by who he is as a person (Tyler, Bao, my personal headcanon for Shoes/Lian), and Tim is the world's greatest detective. Damian is...Damian. But he's finding his way. Let Bruce's children take an aspect of his and surpass him in it. Let him grow old with Selina!!! Also GIVE THEM HELENA!!!!

Speaking of Selina, let one of the Strays or eventually Helena take up her mantle. Maybe Lian can take her mantle, considering Emiko is Red Arrow and Roy is active...sorta. Just more cool cat ladies who aren't freakin Jade Nguyen please (no offense to any fans I just don't like her).

Let Clark be a guide and a guardian for Kon and Jon but sit back and be a person with a family unless there's a crisis. Let him just be a dorky reporter/farmboy with a loving wife looking after his aging parent(s? Is his dad alive? Continuity is weird) and being with his son and actually treating his other son like a son. Because Kon deserves it.

Let Diana stay in Themyscira or make a home on Earth. Or both! Let Donna take up the Wonder Woman mantle! Heck, let there be more than one! Nubia is a cool WW. And imagine Artemis! Maybe Cassie one day!

Fucking retire Hal Jordan. There are like 10 other earthbound Green Lanterns. John Stewart and Guy Gardner and even Kyle Rayner have had a shine in the limelight (heh limelight). Let people like Jessica Cruz and Jo Mullein and Keli Quintela get a little spotlight!

Let Arthur be a fucking king-dad. Let him just live a happy, mostly peaceful life with Mera. Let him have weird father-son bonding with Garth and Jackson. Let him raise Andy! Let him have Jr.!

Ollie will be a stubborn bitch until he fuckin dies, but put him on grandpa duty once this whole "Shoes has amnesia" thing is sorted out! He loved that when Lian was little and it was so fuckin cute. Imagine him teaching her how to shoot and she continually one-ups him because she's definitely Jade and Roy's kid, well-trained by Selina, and constantly reminds Ollie he's getting old. Once Connor's shit gets sorted, let him take up the mantle of Green Arrow again! Heck, he could do it just to prove he's better than Ollie and it'd be great.

Let. Dinah. Have. A. CHILD. She is such a good mom to Roy and to Connor even when she and Ollie are at odds, let her have her own child, even just by weird science! Give her a kiddo that can scream just like her, BAM new Canary. Bonus points if it's a boy or otherwise generally masculine kid and they still wear the fishnets as an adult. Power move.

Can Barry Allen have a break? Please? Heck, give Wally a break too, just for a bit! They've been through so much, let them chill with their wives (and maybe a boyfriend in Wally's case, I see those Nightwing crossovers) and kids and have normal-ish lives. There's so many cool speedsters! Don and Dawn Allen! Bart Allen! Wallace West! Jai and Irey West! Our enby Jesse Chambers! And that's not even all of them, there are so many fuckin speedsters.

I admittedly know next to nothing about J'onn J'onzz, but like, he's been through some shit too. M'gann can take over she seems pretty badass.

Like, just let the old heroes grow old. They don't even have to die, they can be weird wizened mentors with a running gag of 'how the fuck are you still alive?' and they just yknow, stick around. Like Alfred. (Fuck you he'll be back)

The new blood can shine without obliterating what came before.

#DC Comics #Batman #Catwoman #Superman #Wonder Woman #Aquaman #Green Lantern #Green Arrow #Black Canary #Flash #Martian Manhunter #Batfam #Superfam #Arrowfam #Flashfam #Aquafam #Amazons #Alleytown Strays

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tickle-bugs · 3 years

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Justice League Headcanons

So...yeah. Blame @fickle-tiction and @fanficsandfluff but I can’t get JL out of my head. I know next to nothing in terms of canon and I only enjoy a handful of DC movies, so this is the beginning of what I am calling the BEU (Bug Extended Universe).

Essentially, in the words of Nick Fury, ‘I recognize your canon, but seeing as it’s a stupid-ass canon, I have elected to ignore it :)’. A mish-mash of everything I’ve learned about DC through osmosis and my own personal vibe checks :)

This is absurdly long so everything is under the cut:

Clark Kent

- Superman? NO, Superdork.

- He’s extremely clumsy. If he wasn’t as fast as a speeding bullet he’d get his ass handed to him ten times over. He has two left feet.

- He has a sweet tooth like no one’s business. Lois once found him perched on the kitchen counter at 3 am eating the donuts she brought home from work.

- Super playful and affectionate! King of bear hugs! Country boy I love youuuuuuu

- Curses like a sailor. Do you really think Clark ‘Smallville, Kansas’ Kent is wholesome? He stubbed his toe once and yelled FUCK so loud that the windows vibrated. Everyone who isn’t in the league thinks he’s a boyscout but the league knows the truth.

- Forgets about his powers a lot. He has been known to run through walls/take doors off their hinges when he’s excited.

- Goblin. He loves messing with Bruce and roping Barry into his schemes.

- Clark being ticklish is actually smth that can be so personal? His laugh is so loud and he always goes ‘sorry’ and tries to be quieter but it does NOT work. He has flight instincts more than fight instincts so he often starts unconsciously floating away when he’s tickled it’s so cute. He giggles a lot and he’s not particularly embarrassed by it.

- Do NOT get me started on ler Clark I could write a dissertation. He is SO playful and teasy but also sweet? He definitely is the type to laugh along with his lee. He definitely allows any sort of retaliation/fighting back like,,, if you manage to crawl away it’s because he let you, and if he wants too, he can be very mean and immovable.

- Bruce and Barry are his favorite targets. He doesn’t go after Diana because, frankly, he doesn’t have a death wish. He loves to cause problems on purpose by squeezing Arthur’s side and then blaming it on Barry. (Hal Jordan isn’t in the DCEU Justice League but I wish he was...they’d be partners in crime <3)

Bruce Wayne

- Okay let’s clarify some things: he’s not actually an asshole. He can be abrasive and snarky but he’s more towards the sarcastic gruff side vs straight-up mean.

- A lot of people think he’s genuinely an asshole/disconnected rich guy because he has a terrible habit of zoning out/interrupting people? Bruce actually just has intense ADHD that he refuses to get diagnosed, no matter how much Alfred pushes him. He doesn’t care what people think about him and he’s mostly learned how to manage it, so he leaves it alone.

- That being said, his friendship with Barry has me :’) Yes, he thinks Barry’s a pest (affectionate), but they share a few science-related hyperfixations (robotics, chemical engineering, etc). They can frequently be found holed up in the Batcave with a week’s worth of food and caffeine, and they’re just....tinkering. Watching them at work is amazing because as much as they annoy each other, they respect each other :)

- He’s 100% a cat person. He doesn’t have a problem with dogs, he just prefers cats. He feeds the strays that hang out around the Manor all the time...

-...which Alfred begs him not to do, because Bruce is severely allergic. He thinks he can power through the allergies until one of the stray cats does the face-headbump thing and he’s incapacitated emotionally and physically for the rest of the day.

- He severely restrains his emotions but like...catch him on a good day or in a good mood and he’ll smile and laugh, especially in friendly company. He just generally believes in maintaining a poker face so no one can read him.

- Not to be disrespectful but...thighs. I am Looking.

- Bruce has a wonderful laugh. He’s not much of a giggler tbh but he has this open, clear, slightly scratchy kinda laugh (his voice is permanently hoarse from the Batman Voice). It’s so lovely. He has a habit of covering his mouth bc he’s embarrassed of his smile but if he finds something very funny he’ll laugh openly.

- Thee Batman is ticklish and he...doesn’t hate it? Like of course he protests ten ways from Sunday but he more minds the ‘guys stop you’re ruining my dark and brooding facade’ bit. He hates being teased though and he will throw hands.

- Circling back to the emotions thing, he’s very good at controlling his reactions, which means he has thoroughly convinced everyone he’s not ticklish. Except Clark, stupidly perceptive Clark, because he can hear Bruce’s heartbeat and see the way he clenches his jaw to avoid smiling.

Diana Prince

- WIFEY!!!!!

- Diana is hilarious okay? She’s just...so fucking funny. Her jokes never miss. You wouldn’t think she’s the quippy type, but she is, and she’s damn good at it. In a distant alternate universe, Peter Parker senses a rival.

- Loves fresh fruit, but especially strawberries? She makes frequent trips to the local farmer’s market.

- She also has a raging sweet tooth. She and Clark work together to steal sweets and buy snacks.

- Will not back down from a challenge, ever. It’s kinda a problem.

- She has such a sweet laugh :’) It’s so bouncy and melodic and she scrunches her nose. She WILL snort and it’s the cutest thing ever. Yes she’s ticklish, but no one gets more than five seconds of laughter out of her before she turns the tables.

- World’s meanest ler. Not only is she frequently on the prowl, she is near-ruthless, especially if she’s been baited. Once she sets her sights on someone, she won’t rest until she’s heard their laugh.

- Diana is very mischievous and loves hearing her friends laugh. It’s impossible to be in her vicinity for more than five minutes without at LEAST a few pokes. She is not above just,,, random tickles either.

- Nails. That is all.

Arthur Curry

- Why are his tiddies always out? Someone please explain.

- The most targeted for pranks ever. Diana especially. Something about him just attracts goblinism.

- He’s coming for Clark’s bear hugger crown. He picks people up so often that they’re just used to it now.

- Playfighting and roughhousing is his love language. He absolutely loves wrestling with anyone who’ll humor him. He and Diana frequently tussle because they’re both good sports about it (Bruce is a little bit of a sore loser. Just a smidge).

- Thinks he can get away with anything, which is decidedly not true. He just nopes his way out of the room and everyone’s like D:< get back here and atone for your sins!!! But Arthur’s already in the Pacific Ocean.

- I like to think he’s ticklish, just not super ticklish y’know? He probably has a couple hidden spots that make him lose it though. Like he’ll definitely laugh and fall over, but he can and will fight back. Oh boy, will he fight back.

- Batman: No fear.

Diana and Arthur sneaking up behind him:

Batman: One fear.

- Y’know that picture of Jason Momoa sneaking up behind Henry Cavill on the red carpet? That is extremely relevant. Arthur loves to sneak up behind people and just...take them down.

- Thinks Barry is annoying (affectionate) and the two of them are constantly chasing each other around. Barry is fast but Arthur’s strong (and wayy less ticklish than Barry)

- Physical affection!! He always has his arms around someone’s shoulders or something. He’s just a touchy kind of guy :)

Barry Allen

- Speedy boy! ADHD king! Sometimes his thoughts are also at superspeed, which means he talks way too fast and no one can understand him? But Bruce speaks fluent Barry and he translates often (though not without a labored sigh beforehand).

- Physically affectionate but casual about it? He likes to play with people’s hands while he’s talking, bump shoulders with whoever he’s next to, etc. He doesn’t really realize he does it either. It’s not uncommon for him to be talking to Clark or Diana and they just...unconsciously give him their hand before he reaches for it.

- Okay so y’know how Bruce feeds the strays? Who do you think lets them in the first place? Barry has tried to adopt every stray he comes across, and when Alfred inevitably says no, Barry runs them to the shelter himself :’)

- Gifting is his love language!!! If he sees anything that remotely reminds him of his friends, he brings it to them.

- He likes to hang out with Victor because he’s quiet, but doesn’t mind when Barry rambles, which he tends to do quite often. Barry will catch himself rambling and trail off, but Victor will encourage him to keep going, because he’s listening.

- Thee Pillsbury Doughboy. Just these high-pitched, bouncy, frantic giggles that only get worse and eventually morph into cackles. He hiccups a lot too :’)

- Okay so he’s not a flailer but he’s super squirmy. Barry will cling onto his ler’s arms just to hold onto something. He kicks his legs too (he does this when he’s not being tickled either, if he laughs and he’s sitting somewhere he kicks). He also just constantly tries to crawl away. If he isn’t pinned down he will drag himself to safety. He also has a habit of curling up :’)

- Absolutely invented the speed-tickle. He actually doesn’t often use his powers (unless he’s chasing down Clark, because Clark isn’t above breaking the sound barrier to escape). He’s just got incredible hand-eye coordination and precision. His hands will be absolutely everywhere and he is so teasy about it.

- Tries not to start fights he can’t finish, but he always gets roped into Clark’s mischief and gets targeted with revenge tickles.

- He has tickled Clark once. It was incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular. Literally his crowning achievement. Did Clark absolutely destroy him afterwards? Yes, but it was so worth it.

Victor Stone

- Quiet and stoic, but he’s always preferred listening and interjecting with a joke or two.

- Closest with Barry and Diana, but he’s making an effort to bond with everyone.

- Unfortunately not ticklish :( I like to think soft touches on his face will make him smile and lean away, but it’s not going to get a laugh from him.

- Doesn’t often get involved in tickly shenanigans, but when he does, he surprises everyone with how much fun he has. A different, warmer side of him comes out when he’s among his friends.

- He’s a hugger! Definitely awkward about it, but he loves hugs and just...holding his friends.

- He collects hoodies. He can’t really feel them when he’s wearing them, but he likes them and the idea of it. Barry seems to slip him a new hoodie every week. Victor has no idea where he gets them from but he’s not complaining.

- He is an enabler. He will look at Bruce like :| “no, I don’t know where Barry and Clark are, nor do I no what they’re planning” But they’re literally right behind Bruce, about to squeeze his sides.

- That being said, he won’t do that with Diana. If she asks where they are, he’ll subtly nod his head in their direction. Even in jest, he will never lie to her. Which makes him Thee person to avoid when Diana’s on her mischievous streaks.

#my headcanons #this is an academic paper #you can see me get more scatterbrained as I go on it's great #anyways welcome to the BEU #dc #justice league #...bugstice league?#(nice)#ticklish!bruce wayne #ticklish!clark #ticklish!diana #ticklish!arthur curry #ticklish!barry #bruce wayne #clark kent #Diana Prince #arthur curry #barry allen #victor stone

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ellana-ravenwood · 4 years

Text

“You...have kids ? AND A WIFE ?!” - Fem!Reader (Batmom) x Bruce Wayne x Justice League

Synopsis : No one in the Justice League would’ve ever guessed that the stoic Batman had kids nor that he was...married ?!

Just a lighthearted shorter fic (I know, must be surprising, haven’t posted one of those in ages hahaha) because I need it. Slowly getting back into a regular writing funk. And ya know I’m here to write the League interact with Batmom and co haha. Hope you’ll like it :

My master list blog : @ella-ravenwood-archives

__________________________________________________

The Big Bad Bat that never smiles.

That’s the picture Barry had in his head when thinking of him...

It had been a few months now, since this “Justice League” had become an actual thing. And Flash was still not sure if it was reality or just a fever dream.

Of course, before they truly decided to gather all together to protect this Earth, Barry knew about his “colleagues”. Duh. Who, in America, never heard about the mighty Superman ? The Goddess of Truth Wonder Woman ? The fearless, and fear inducing Batman ?

And here he was, amongst those legends. Was it making him a legend too, to have been selected to be one of the founder of this “little” team ?

Barry just couldn’t admit that. What he could admit, though, was that it felt very nice to be part of something like this initiative !

It also felt nice that he wasn’t alone anymore. He had the support of people who were like him. “Different”, and with a purpose to make the world a better and safer place !

Well, up until now Barry was mainly focusing on Central City, but hey, some of his colleagues only had one city too !

And now, they took it further, leveled up in the protective business, and became, Barry would like to say, kind of like a family !

Ok, maybe not just yet, but at least they were all good friends.

Well, “all”. Not quite.

There was one who still refused to partake in their gaming nights for example, or in any discussions that weren’t work related. There was one whom Barry never saw smile, not even a little twitch at the corner of his mouth ! One who, it seemed, had no intention to bond with his new partners.

Yes. Batman kept himself guarded from everyone else, which was odd to Barry because he heard that the bat sort of was the one who had the idea for this little world saving team.

Flash just couldn’t figure out what was the deal with that man ! And Batman wasn’t letting him come close at all. Not reacting to his jokes or anything. While they were hilarious ! The only time Batman seemed to care about what Barry had to say, was when he was starting to speak forensics.

There was one person though, who seemed closer to the bat than all the others. Well, actually make that two. Two persons.

Superman, and Wonder Woman.

Almost as if they knew who Batman really was. Maybe they did ? After all, they’re really the one that started this little hero club.

And so one day, Flash, sitting in the common room of their brand new space headquarters, was staring at Batman (who was making himself a cup of coffee) and without giving much context, he turned to Clark and Diana (who were...arm wrestling ?) and asked :

"Have you ever seen him, ya know, smile ?"

“Huh ?”

Superman turned his head toward Barry, and this two second loss of focus allowed Diana to throw him down.

Quite literally. For a split moment, unfocused because Flash addressed him and his Ma’ always told him that ignoring people was impolite, Clark released a little pressure in his arm, and of course Diana took advantage of this to strategically put all her force in, and slam the mighty Superman down.

Barry gave a worried look towards Batman. The last thing he wanted, was for him to come over and see what the ruckus was about. But, still at the coffee station, he just looked at both meta humans, frowned, shook his head, and left the room, visibly grumbling something under his breath.

With a sigh of relief, Barry turned back towards them, and as Clark was getting back up, giving an annoyed (and slightly vexed) look at Diana, who was showing him her most beautiful smug expression, he asked again :

“I was wondering, have you ever seen him smile ?”

Massaging his wrist, still a little sour about his defeat, Clark asked, a little absentmindedly :

“Who ?”

Flash, looking around, lowered his voice and said :

“You know...his name rhymes with cancan ?”

There was a short pause, before Diana says :

“...A lot of our names rhyme with Cancan.”

“But only one of you never smiles !”

“Oooooh, you’re talking about Batman ?”

Flash shook his head positively, looking around nervously one more time to make sure said Batman wasn’t there. Diana smiled widely (not a rare occurence in her case) and turned to look at Clark knowingly. And Superman laughed heartily, of his clear and a little childish laugh, and said :

“No. No I don’t think I ever did...Wait, actually, there was that one time when-"

"Wonder Woman. Superman. Flash. Hello."

The big bad Bat himself was right next to them, and Barry couldn’t help but wonder how the hell did he arrive so fast ?!

Bruce was looking straight at Clark, staring intently at him, and why was he ? It made the man of steel uncomfortable, especially when- Oh. Oh but of course. That one time Clark saw Batman smile was when...

After a short awkward silence, Clark spoke up again :

“No. No I never saw what, um, what you asked me I saw. Diana ?”

“Nope, never.”

Batman nodded, which mortified Barry as he realized that he knew what they were talking about, and left once again. And from this day on, The Flash couldn’t help but wonder...What was it, that made the Batman smile ?

Because given the “trinity”’s reaction, it was clear both meta-humans saw him do that once...His curiosity intensely piqued, Barry kept this info about Clark and Diana knowing in the corner of his mind.

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

Of course, no one would expect such a thing from the Batman. Who, in their right mind, could guess that the stoic, always so serious and harsh hero had a...

Yes.

Even now, faced with the fact this was reality, Barry couldn’t quite believe his eyes ! It was just so surreal ! And he had a costume, too !!

Out of nowhere, the man he had tried to make laugh or smile for years came out of the zeta tube with a little boy, who couldn’t be more than nine years old, and acted as if nothing happened !!

Understandingly so, everyone but Superman and Wonder Woman, stopped what they were doing and stared at them.

Green Lantern is the one that said what everyone was thinking but didn’t dare to ask :

“What the...Who’s that, Batman ?!”

The sudden exclamation didn’t seem to phase Bruce much, but the little boy stiffened and sort of hid behind Batman’s cape, looking shyly at everyone from behind it. They were all staring at them. It was a little scary.

Bruce turned to Hal, and calmly and matter of factly said :

“My son. D-Robin.”

Which made everyone but Clark and Diana unable to stop their : “WHAT ?!”. And to little Dick, it was quite something to witness all his favorite heroes freak out like that, and looking in total shock.

That’s when Bruce, clearly annoyed, and a little mad as he noticed his usual extroverted boy looking unsure and shy, and hiding behind him (and no one made his kiddo feel like that without repercussions !), said :

“Get a grip, everyone. You’re making him think you’re all completely nuts. It’s embarrassing, I brought him up here because he was excited to meet all of you, and now you’re acting like mad men.”

The big bad bat then squatted down to put himself at the boy’s level and asked, his voice taking a complete different tone, one that Barry never heard him have.

“Are you ok, buddy ?"

No one was quite sure what was the most shocking. That Batman had a kid, or that he just took the softest voice ever to talk to said kid, and showed an entirely different persona ?

The young boy nodded, and Bruce turned back towards everyone, putting a reassuring hand on his son’s shoulder.

“Please, handle yourself better in his presence. You’re intimidating him.”

Barry had a thought about how odd it was, that this kid was intimidated by him and his friends, while apparently totally ok with Batman. Because in his eyes, Batman was the most intimidating guy he ever met ! Yet that boy seemed to cling to his cape for dear life, as everyone kept staring at him.

The worry in the boy’s look, and the “mama goose” stance Batman suddenly took, made Barry snap out of it first and, smiling, he said :

“Well, welcome to the Justice League of America’s headquarters, Robin ! Want a tour of it ?”

And this warm feeling that irradiated from Flash seemed to unlock something in the boy, and, smiling widely, he shook his head yes enthusiastically and slowly walked out of his father’s shadow.

That’s when the zeta tube emitted the sound it does when someone comes through, and someone nobody saw before came from it. She was wearing an unknown costume, and her sudden appearance and the fact she was a stranger made everyone take a fighting stance ! Everyone, but Batman and his son.

“Hey mom ! Flash is gonna show me around ! It’s Flash !! The real one !”

Wait...”mom” ? Did that...mean...SOMEONE ACTUALLY MARRIED THE BATMAN ?!

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

It was quit a shock, the day everyone discovered that Bruce had a family.

Granted, it was all fairly recent as he only met you a few years back, and Dick had been adopted only a little bit more than a year ago (he only recently started to call you mom, after certain events happening (you can read about it in this story : clickclickclick), and wasn’t quite yet calling Bruce “dad” but it was just a matter of time, really. In Bruce’s eyes, the boy was most definitely his son, now).

But what was the most shocking of all, was how whenever you or the boy would be around, it felt like they were discovering another Batman !

Whenever Dick said something smart, he would praise him. Whenever his look would cross yours, his expression would become incredibly soft (”lovesick puppy” was not words Barry thought he’d ever associate with “Batman”). It wasn’t particularly a noticeable difference for the untrained eyes, but it was most definitely there.

His “soft” expressions were all very fleeting. But someone like Flash ? He definitely saw them.

The Batman was still this serious, stoic and unwavering man, but as soon as they all discovered he had a family, he became a little more human.

His “legend” wasn’t broken by the fact he could feel emotions, on the contrary. Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Green ARrow, Black Canary...Everyone. They just realized what Superman and Wonder Woman discovered a while ago now.

There was two Batman.

The working one, the superhero, the unforgiving one, who was strategic and pragmatic.

And the family man.

And as he observed those two Batmen, Barry realized more and more that they weren’t actually two different persons like it could seem to certain people. They were just different facets of the same man. Two sides of the same coin.

Of course, Flash should’ve known. Just like in his day time work, just like in forensics and such...Things weren’t always that simple. People, weren’t that simple. Real people weren’t “one dimensional”.

His theory was confirmed one day when you said that Batman could most definitely be a total jerk towards you or your son (or Alfred), in his “dark moments”. And that you fully accepted it, because you did not love him conditionally.

Because you understood him, and that in your opinion, nobody was perfect. Hell, you admitted, with a little laugh, that you could be very obnoxious at times...And if he could forgive your bitchy moments, then you could most definitely forgive his dark ones.

Especially when you knew why he was like that.

Sometimes, Barry felt jealous, that Batman found such an understanding and loving wife. But then he just had to take one look at how said Batman was looking at you, and he realized that both of you were lucky.

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

It turned out that Dick wasn’t a shy kid at all. He just got a little overwhelmed at first, to be stared at by Earth’s mightiest hero. But as soon as he relaxed himself and finally opened up, he was a rather talkative little dude.

Full of energy. And all of a sudden, Barry truly understood why Batman could look so fondly at his boy, or at you.

The kid clearly was a little ray of sunshine. Although, if we believed you and Bruce, he could sometimes throw terrible fits of anger and...Well, once again, people were more complicated that they can first appear to be. It’s not because you have mostly a joyful nature, that you’re always that way. And Barry could see this whenever Dick would partake in missions.

The boy was serious too, and resembled his father a lot in those moments.

However, he was still mostly very extroverted and curious while at the League’s headquarter, and Barry could see how the arrival of such a burst of light in Batman’s life could brighten him indeed.

It was difficult, to look at you and Dick and not smile.

Barry wondered, if neither you nor Dick came into his life, how Batman would be now. Probably still cold and seeming unemotional. Maybe even worst than what they experienced so far ?

There actually wasn’t a doubt in Barry’s mind, that you and your son’s presence in the Big Bad Bat’s life radically changed him.

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

Flash could see there was something wrong with Bruce when he came up the League’s headquarter that day.

He was much grumpier than usual. And when Barry joked :

“Gee, where’s your boy, I think you need to cheer up.”

Batman gave him the most murderous look he ever saw, stood up, and quietly left the room, leaving behind him a very cold and scary atmosphere.

You got up from the zeta tube barely two minutes later, looking both distressed and annoyed, and ask Flash where Bruce was.

Still sort of in shock, Barry gave a timid gesture towards where the Bat went, and watched as you went there in a hurry.

Later on, Barry would learn that Bruce and his son got in a fight, which resulted in his beloved boy leaving to join the Teen Titans, and ah, all of a sudden, everything made sense to The Flash.

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

Jason’s first introduction to the League was quite different from his older brother’s. The Leaguers were less surprised, and therefor more welcoming immediately.

Jason was a shy kid, who would often whisper things in his dad’s ear before doing it.

Like for example, the boy didn’t dare, at first, asking Flash how fast he could truly run. So he went to Bruce, and asked him, murmuring in his ear and hiding his mouth. Which made Batman, THE Batman, stand up from the computer on which he worked on, and walk with his son towards Barry.

“Go ahead, ask him, don’t worry, I’m here.”

He said, pushing Jason a little forward. And the boy was playing with his hands nervously, before he dared to ask :

“Howfastcanyoureallygo?”

And the fond smile Batman had as he stood there, behind his son, silently encouraging him, made Barry feel like he was understanding him more and more. Smiling, The Flash answered :

“Well, what’s sure is that I’m not going as fast as you asked this question !”

Which made little Jay widely smile and chuckle. Just like Bruce discovered, Jason could be a little “wild” yet “reserved” at first, but it only took a little push for him to become an overly enthusiastic little boy, eager to please and to learn.

It was obvious Jason had a tough childhood, which make him afraid to bother people and be in their way. Which sometimes made him want to be fiercely independent. It was obvious that Jason didn’t have an easy life up until now...

And that he was embracing fully this new chance at being happy and having a family. He’d follow Bruce like he was his shadow. He’d cling to you often. He’d talk about his older brother Dick regularly.

Little Jason was home with you all, and it was a heartfelt thing to witness for each members of the League.

It was yet another proof that Batman most definitely had a heart.

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

Years passed, and nothing much changed.

Batman was still good old himself, with that softer change when you or his sons were around (fortunately, things with the first Robin, or “Nightwing” now, as he called himself, greatly improved, and although Dick stayed with the Teens Titans still, him and Bruce were speaking again. Of course they were).

He was still that man who had difficulties to say “thank you” (yet he improved on that front), who was strategic and pragmatic, but now, the members of the League knew better than to judge him just for that.

His children came from times to times to the League’s headquarter, mainly to hang out with their dad, as it was extremely rare they’d take part in League’s mission (Batman was surprisingly protective of his children).

You’d come up too, a little more often, actively participating in monitoring the universe. And you and the Leaguers became fast friends (he’d never admit it, but the Bat surely wasn’t always happy about that).

And whenever you or/and your kids were present, Batman most definitely seemed to be in a better mood.

And things seemed to go normally, albeit for, you know, the moments they had to save the World and sometimes almost died during so !

But yes. Everything as more or less normal up until...

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

For months, the League didn’t see much of neither you nor Bruce.

When Bruce came back up, the news he lost youngest his son was known by all of them, but of course, they knew better than to mention it.

Barry knew he wouldn’t smile again in a long time, if he could ever even smile again.

You and Dick were still there. But you lost a son too. Dick lost his little brother. And if the only people that could always turn Batman’s frown upside down were sad and hurt too, how could he get out of that dark pit ?

It didn’t feel right, to not see your nor Dick ever smiling either.

It felt, when Jason died, that this nice and warm new family Bruce build for himself, that his new chance at being happy, sort of crumbled.

Yes. You, him and Dick were still here and alive. Were still supporting each others. But there was nothing worst than to lose a child. A brother.

Once again, it became clear to Barry that the Batman moods truly became tied to his family. And it didn’t surprise Flash when the man threw himself, mind and body, into his vigilante activities even more...

For a long time, they did not see you, nor Bruce.

And when Bruce finally came back to League’s affair, it didn’t seem like you’d ever come up again...Or like he would smile ever again.

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

And then one day, a while after Jason’s disappearance, Batman came up accompanied once more.

It was neither you nor Dick, but someone they never saw before.

A little boy, who claimed to be “Robin”. One more that the Batman adopted.

And once again, Barry could see a slow shift in Bruce’s mood.

Ever since Jason died, it felt like something irreparable broke in the man. It felt like he was regretting ever coming close to people again, putting you, his children, in danger.

As if he thought he was cursed to lose everything he loved...

Ever since Jason died, things have been very difficult, in your family. You and Bruce had each others, but the pain was often too grand to handle and it was difficult to mourn your lost son...

Bruce felt it was his fault, you felt it was your fault, neither of you blamed the other...It was a vicious circle. In those years, you almost broke up because of how everything was tough.

But in the end, your love got only stronger, and you realized that without the other, you could’ve never come back from this dark times.

The arrival of a new kid most definitely helped, too.

The first that came out of this sad funk that surrounded everything was Dick. Nightwing. Barry noticed, he went back to be a little more cheerful again, and didn’t fully turn like Batman was.

It was thanks to Tim. Thanks to being a big brother again, and having to set an example. Something he didn’t quite do in the beginning, with Jason, as he felt jealous at times...One of his greatest regret. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

The first time Tim came up the tower, he ran into it and started to ramble about everything, asking questions faster than anyone could answer, and touching everything on his way !

“Wooooow look at that it’s the best telescope I’ve ever seen !! Hey Green Lantern is it true my dad beat you multiple time and that without your ring you’re nothing ? It’s what he said...OH HEY ! Uncle Superman, how are you today ? WOOOOOW you guys have cookies here ?! -bites into a cookie- Mm, not as good as Alfred’s...AH WHAT’S THAT ?! Hey hey, Black Canary, how high can your voice get ? Oh wow what is that, what does it do ? OH HI AUNT DIANA !! Can you breathe in space ? If I went in space without a spacesuit I would freeze and all my blood vessels would explose. Sounds like a painful death right ? Woooow daaaad look at that !!”

And that was it. Right there. The first smile Flash saw the Batman have in a very long time, as the man looked at his son running everywhere and be excited about everything.

It was very easy to understand that this new Robin, little Tim, was an extremely smart child. Curious of everything in a way his brothers weren’t, as he needed detailed explanations about stuffs, not just a simple answer.

It appeared as he was understanding even complicated notions, and would even give his opinion in the matters !

Later on, Flash would learn that at first, Bruce refused to take Tim as the new Robin. Because he still had parents (albeit shitty ones), because he didn’t want another Jason to happen, because...Because he couldn’t have his broken once more.

But the boy was persistant. And he crawled his way in in Dick’s heart first. Then yours. And finally Bruce’s, who just couldn’t resist. Especially when the boy lost his biological parents too...

When Tim was on the Space Station, you’d be most often there too. It seemed like ever since you lost Jason, you became even more protective of your sons. Like you had difficulties letting them out of your sight.

Tim didn’t seem to mind. His parents never cared enough about him...So it felt nice, to be loved in that way.

Quickly, this new little Robin brought back a certain balance to his new family. Of course, no one would ever forget Jason. That’s one of the reason why there was a glass case filled with his costume throning in the midle of the Batcave.

Jason was unforgettable. The love you all had for him, even now that he was gone, would never die. But the mourning was finally reaching its last step.

Acceptance.

And in big part, it was because of that young and smart new Robin, whom the League immediately loved. And were quite thankful for.

After all, they were Batman’s friends. His pain and struggles, over the years, reached them too. They could understand the pain of losing a loved one. Martian Manhunter, who lost his family, for example, truly was empathetic.

And slowly, without realizing, all of them sort of got used to dark, cold and harsh Batman being soft around his family ! It didn’t feel right, that he would only be dark, cold and harsh...

That day, that first day Tim got up the Headquarter and got overly excited about everything. That day Batman was again seen with a small smile on his face. A smile he couldn’t hush or hide...

It felt right again.

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

Cassandra emerged from the zeta tube, getting a piggy back ride from her older brother Dick, a calm day at the League’s headquarter.

She wasn’t very talkative, but she had an aura that was both impressive and sweet. Just like Jason, Barry could see that this young child went through a lot...But it didn’t seem to dim her light.

It didn’t take a genius to know she went through years of abuse. That her life most definitely hadn't been easy. Maybe even worst than young Jason’s...

Later, Barry would indeed discover the reason why she didn’t speak much, and would be heartbroken for her...Except.

Except he slowly witnessed her evolution.

How having a family, a loving and caring and protective one, made her bloom.

From that first time she came through the zeta tube, on the back of her brother, who then proceeded to give her a piggy back ride all across the Headquarter, to now...

Flash slowly witnessed her change.

She was quiet at first, but interested in everything. She would listen to whatever ramblings her brothers would tell her, or to her father explaining things.

She was probably the one that they sheltered all the most, even you, who were usually a rather chill mother. It felt like you all tried to catch up for the lost years where all she felt was pain, mental and physical, and fear.

“You. Flash.”

She once said to Barry, and it was the first time he heard her spoke, so he got a little excited and exclaimed :

“Yes I am !”

Before going on on rambles about things, of which Cass’ reply was pointing at him, laughing, and saying :

“Funny.”

When her father came to tell her it was time to leave, Cass pointed at Flash again and repeated “funny”, which made Bruce...Laugh ?!

Sure, Barry saw him smile and he thought that once, he heard him chuckle at a joke you made (but he wasn’t certain), but to hear him full on laugh like so ?

Once more, Flash was faced with the fact that Batman really was a man. Whose family would uncover the best part of him. The kind and warm part. Barry would only wish though, that this confirmation in his feelings wouldn’t be at his depend.

Because clearly, Batman was mocking him, right now. But at the same time, the Big Bad Bat turned to him, smiled at him, and...winked ?

That day, Barry felt that Bruce truly was warming up to him. That maybe, just maybe, he was letting more than just his family in.

And when he ruffled his daughter’s hair, and confirmed Flash was one of the only funny one, it took Barry a while to come back from it.

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

Cass made incredible progress in her speech, helped by her family. She loved to come up the tower and often asked anyone who was up there too to tell her stories of their missions.

She loved stories.

She’d listen and give them detailed feedbacks about their way of telling stories, and every single time, it’d warm everyone’s heart. But the heart her presence warmed the most was definitely the Batman’s.

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

One day, a man wearing a red helmet and a leather jacket came up with Batman. He walked in, looked around as people were sort of staring at him, wondering if Batman had adopted yet another kid (who was grown ass man..), and he said :

“Wow, didn’t change one bit. Lame.”

When he took his helmet off, he still had a mask under, and...

“Jason ?”

Clark is the first one that recognized him. And as Barry turned around, looking curiously at this person he thought to be a stranger, he realized...It was most definitely little Jason Todd ! Except, he wasn’t so little anymore.

Actually, he was taller than his older brother, Dick.

Barry recognized that slightly mischievous spark Jason always had in his eyes, as if he knew something you didn’t (Jason was the one most similar to you, always quick to have a sassy come back and make clever jokes).

“I’m back bitches.”

The shift in Jason’s personality was quite an obvious one, but somehow, Barry knew it was all for show. That deep down, the man was still that little boy full of enthusiasm and curiosity that worshipped his father and mother.

In fact, Barry quickly understood that Jason’s reason for this so called shift in his personality, was how much he loved his parents, how much he trusted them, and how Bruce not killing the Joker felt like a betrayal. How much it hurt him.

Yet. Yet “Red Hood” was back in his family now.

Barry couldn’t help but think about how incredibly strong that boy (man) was. Able to overcome such pain and feeling of betrayal, to forgive his father. To try and understand his point of view, and why he did what he did.

The Flash was certain that you were for something in this new recovery Jason went through, but also the Bat himself...It was clear Bruce had lived years feeling guilty and regretful. And now he had another chance, and he wouldn’t let it go.

His persistance in showing what Jason meant is what brought him back. The love you gave him, is what brought him back.

Jason was finally home again.

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

When Damian first came up the Justice League’s watchtower, he seemed unimpressed and like he did not care about whatever was happening.

But Barry hung out with Batman long enough to now “feel” when someone was protecting themselves behind a shield of arrogance.

And that little boy ? That little boy clearly took this trait after his father. And Barry wasn’t fooled anymore, by this icy sort of exterior.

Behind Damian’s eyes, he could see curiosity, and wanting to ask many questions, but not asking in fear of appearing too childish. Behind Damian’s eyes, eyes that clearly already saw too much for their age, Flash could still see the kid he wanted to be.

Barry’s first impression of Damian was right. As confirmed when you emerged from the zeta tube, and the boy rushed to you to give you a hug, and then excitedly tell you everything he saw on the Space Station.

When Damian took your hand and made you run along with him because he wanted to show you something, which triggered this small and fleeting smile Batman would have whenever his family would be around, Barry knew.

He knew that there was more to Damian than that pesky arrogant child who acted like nothing touched him personally. And he was right.

Damian had an odd and painful childhood, raised by people who warped his vision of the World. But with yours and Bruce’s love, with the protection and love his siblings gave him, he “healed”. There was, often, a glimpse at the child he was supposed to be.

And just like with his father, this “glimpse” would only be triggered by him being with his family.

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

Barry’s suspicions where confirmed the day Superman brought his son, Jon, up with him. Here was another proof Damian was, in the end, just a kid.

He first took a smug look because he came up there first, but then excitedly showed his friend around, and the two boys went off and had typical kids’ conversations.

Like wether the mega-computer could play video games, or who was the strongest in the League (at first they didn’t agree, both saying it was their fathers...until they settled on “Aunt Diana” being the best).

Damian could still, sometimes, be a little arrogant and such (just like his father), but there was a clear shift when he was surrounded by his loving family.

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

Barry might’ve never realize how you were truly the corner stone of the family up until tragedy took you away from them (in this quite old story : clickclickclick).

Batman quitted the League, and your children were lost.

It’s only when you disappeared, that he could truly have a grasp of the importance you had in this family. Without you, things could be drastically different for sure. And your loss was felt by everyone.

The League’s members were your friends.

Diana, Clark, Hal, Barry himself, J’onn, Dinah, Oliver...

They all felt the loss.

You had also became a vital member of the League.

And when you were gone.....

Barry felt his heart regain color, when he heard about what your sons’ went through to get you back. And when you came up to the Headquarters, a warm welcome is what greeted you.

Batman didn’t even try to hide his smile, or, for the first time since everyone discovered he was married, didn’t shy away from PDA.

Flash does not think that there was one moment when Bruce didn’t at least hold your hand. And when at least one of your children would cling to you. No matter how old.

Yes. It became truly apparent that day, that you were the center of it all. The sun around which they all gravitated. But without them, you also had no purpose but to burn out all alone. You were all linked, forever.

There was no you without them, and them without you.

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

It was clear Duke wasn’t quite used yet to all the craziness that came with becoming a vigilante.

When he arrived at the League’s headquarters, he was rather shy and reserved, and Barry saw his “what the fuck ?” face often as Damian and Cass showed him around headquarters.

Both Damian and Cassandra were born in a specific environment which made it easy for them to assimilate how everything was absolutely nuts. It was the same with Dick, Tim and Jason. From a very early age they were thrown into that world !

But Duke ? Sure, he was used to all the shenanigans that happened in Gotham. But he had a pretty normal childhood. So things could often appear completely crazy or him ! He really tried though, to slowly get used to it.

It was actually quite adorable, to see both Cass and Damian explaining things carefully to a Duke who was trying to assimilate everything. Their bond was obviously strong, it didn’t take a genius to realize that.

Bruce had brought Duke up for a particular reason, which was : getting to know other meta-humans and talk to people who went through the same things he did.

His talks with Superman and Flash himself seemed to help the boy a lot, to grasp and understand his feelings. It wasn’t easy, to suddenly discover you were different. To suddenly have to control abilities you never had before.

From afar, you and Bruce kept a close eye on what was happening, making sure Duke was alright and comfortable. And clearly, the boy was actually having a really good time here, finally able to talk with people who truly understood the struggle and loneliness that could come with being a meta human.

It seemed to Barry, that this newest member of “who manages to make Batman smiles without trying or realizing it” club was on the right track to become quite the hero.

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

Sometimes, Barry would notice that, when he wasn’t doing something “work” related, Batman’s face would suddenly soften and relax, and a small smirk would appear.

The big bad bat, in moments of calm, not working on the computer or anything, for example as he made himself a cup of coffee, would suddenly let go of that icy marble-carved expression, and give place for a brief expression full of fondness. Of course, it would always be very fleeting, but it was definitely there.

Barry liked to think that in those short moments, Bruce was thinking of his family. That he would catch a glimpse of the loving and sensitive man hid under the scary costume.

And Barry was right.

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

The big bad Bat that never smiles (unless with family).

That’s the picture Barry has now when he thinks of him.

As he was looking at the baby Batman was holding in his arms, and proudly showing the League members, Flash was reminisced of his first impression of the man, years and years ago.

Cold, harsh, arrogant, “need no help and doesn’t say thank you”. How Barry was almost sure that “The Batman” wasn’t actually a real man at all. He never showed emotions, never showed weakness or anything, was entirely focused on his work.

But the truth was, and it was clear at the expression of his face was one full of fondness and love as the baby cooed at him, that Bruce was actually like any other man.

It’s just that, in the League’s early days, he didn’t have another chance at having a family yet. In the League’s early days, he was wary of making strong connections, new friends and what not, afraid to lose them and feel the pain to continue on leaving without a loved one.

However, as the years’ went by, Flash saw the changes. Thanks to you, to his children. How he trusted his friends of the League’s more. To the point of bringing up his one month old son to present him to them.

When there was a time Bruce used to scold little Dick for using his real name at times, it was difficult to imagine what things would become.

Yes. Over the years, Barry realize he greatly misjudge the Batman.

He was not that cold, unfeeling and unemotional man. He was the opposite. It just took him taking a chance at being happy again to show it. It just took a loving family once more, for him to smile.

Of course, when they weren’t there, Batman still had that scary persona. But now. Now Barry new better. Because he saw the fondness and love on his face.

The softness that even the Bat himself, didn’t realize was painting his every feature.

The End.

__________________________________________________

Here we are, a new story haha. Sorry if it’s meh, I’m really slowly getting in a new writing rhythm, and writing about the Bats again. I hope you still liked it ! :) I honestly have no idea why I ended up going with writing mostly in sort-of Barry’s POV ! But I hope you liked that...Haha I posted it RIGHT in time, it’s 11:53 pm, I said I’d post it at the latest on Monday, pfffeew what a ride.

As usual, feedbacks and reblogs are extremely welcomed. Like, really beyond appreciated. Thanks in advance, and see you soon with a new story <3.

PS : In case you’re wondering, the baby mentioned at the end of the story is the one appearing in those fics : The Great Mall adventure, Master of Diaper, Shaky steps and bad teaching, Polichinelle, “Go away, you’re confusing my baby”, How do you make babies ?, What it means to be a big brother, Wild Child 2, “We want them back” and After Batmom’s death

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