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spacedace · 1 year

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Lian Harper has an imaginary friend. Roy thinks her new friend is imaginary at least. Dani is very much not imaginary as he soon finds out.

Okay, so I don't know much at all about Roy & Lian, so I did some very fast searching to try and get an idea about them for this. Sorry if Roy is out of character!

Have some spooky very slightly eldritch Dani/Elle being a very polite unwanted house guest/imaginary friend:

When Roy had first noticed Lian idly chatting with thin air beside her, he hadn’t thought much of it.

She’d been playing with the latest batch of stuff animals Jason had brought with him last he’d visited, joyfully arranging her plushy hoard just how she wanted them in her overly full room - they were going to have to do another toy purge soon, it was starting to get hard picking a path through to the bed again - and happily talking as she did. It wasn’t anything exactly uncommon. She liked to introduce new plushies to the older ones, make sure everyone knew each other’s names and got along, the way that little kids did. He noticed she seemed to be holding each plush out as if showing it to someone beside her, which was a little odd, but still nothing of concern.

It wasn’t until the tea party - knees bent up to his ears as he curled over the tiny, brightly colored table Kori had gotten her a couple months back - that he was formally introduced to her imaginary friend and put some pieces together.

“Do you want some tea, Dani?” Lian asked, holding out the bright red child-sized tea pot to the one seat at the table that was not occupied by one of his daughter’s favorite plushies or Roy. He watched as she paused, head tilted to listen carefully, before giving a bright smile and pouring a healthy amount of imaginary tea into the cup in front of the seat.

“Well, I don’t think I’ve met Dani yet.” He said, offering out the tiny cup she’d put down in front of him for his own healthy pour of non-existent tea. “Is she a new friend?”

Lian smiled brightly, gap tooth smile bright as she launched into telling him all about her new friend Dani - with an I, Danny with a Y is her big brother! - who fell out of a hole in space right into Lian’s room and who was a ghost princess with superpowers who beat up evil ghosts with her big brother. There are surprisingly few elements from any of the shows she watches or books he’s read to her, and he’s delighted by how vivid an imagination she has in her creation.

It’s easy to roll with imaginary friend Dani. Lian’s friend Marcus had an imaginary friend last year and Roy had learned enough from Marcus’ mother’s exhausted research dive into the topic over play dates to know that Lian making a friend of her own was perfectly healthy. She had plenty of friends, was doing well in school, no bullies or isolation, just a bright creative streak and a boundless enthusiasm for make believe. In a few months to a year Dani the ghost warrior princess from space - green space! There aren’t any floors and everyone flies and there are floating islands and - would be set aside in favor of other forms of entertainment. Just a fond memory for him to recount when she was a little older.

But then things got…strange.

Things in Lian’s room shifted just out of place where they usually were. Then around the house - common areas only though, never his room. Small lost objects appearing on the kitchen counter where they hadn’t been before. A blanket that had been folded on the back of the armchair draped over him when he woke up after falling asleep on the couch. Lian munching on little healthy snacks - a peeled orange, her favorite rice crackers, carrot slices - that no one had made her and that she couldn’t have possible gotten herself. Glow in the dark stars that he had not bought pressed onto her ceiling in the shape of accurate constellations.

That last one had not been the last straw, exactly, but it had been noticed about the same time all the rest of the very concerning little things had been. Talking with Lian about them all only had her explaining that Dani was doing it.

“She said wants to help.” Lian explained, little legs kicking as she focused on her drawing. “She’s stuck here til her brother comes and gets her. She said she wanted to be a good guest while she crashes with us.”

There’s something about that specific phrasing coming from his five year old daughter - crashes with us, not a term Lian’s used before and that he’s pretty sure no one else has ever had reason to use in front of her - that makes the hair on the back of his neck prickle. Lian doesn’t notice his apprehension, little tongue poking out in concentration as she adds more green to the paper. He doesn’t much care for the strange shape of the spectral figure his daughter depicts, hovering over her squiggly rendition of herself in her bed, the ghost creature being shown holding a green star up to a field of others in what Roy realizes is meant to show Lian’s bedroom ceiling.

Lian pauses suddenly in her drawing, head coming up and tilting as if listening, eyes drifting to look at a point close to the ceiling. “Oh.” Lian says, turning to look back at him with a frown. “Dani says there are bad people coming.” Another glance towards the spot near the ceiling. “She says she’s gonna make em go away if that’s okay with you.”

His stomach cramps with anxiety at the declaration just as he catches a dark figure shifting on the roof of the neighbor’s house, a flash of metal in the yellow glow of the street lights. There’s something cold on his shoulder suddenly, almost feeling like a small hand, the vague impression of something not altogether human at the corner of his vision.

Fuck it. He decides. If Lian’s maybe-not-so-imaginary friend wanted to deal with the people that he was just now aware of surrounding his home and putting his daughter in danger, then he wasn’t going to stop her.

Roy barely has the word yes out of his mouth as he darts up to grab Lian and run her to safety before all the lights in the house - hell, the neighborhood - begin to flicker and he catches a flash of bright, glowing green eyes turning towards the people outside. Distantly he heard a cut off scream and wet crunch and pressed Lian’s face to his chest as he ran for the safe room.

He was going to have to call the League about this one.

#spaced asks and ace answers #dc x dp prompt #dpxdc #dc x dp #dp x dc #roy harper #lian harper #dcu #danielle phantom #danny phantom #eldritch dani #dani fenton #danielle fenton

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disco-troy · 1 year

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I feel like people who don't watch titans don't understand what its like to watch titans. like "its bad" no you don't understand

Jason kills a man and then roleplays with prostitutes to apologize

amazing ms anne diop STEALS THE SHOW

You get to a scene where you're expecting a big final confrontation and then Dick's just hit by a car. end scene. he spends 5 minutes in the hospital, moving on -

made me sad about HANK FUCKING HALL dying not ONCE BUT TWICE!! HANK HALL!!

raven leaves for an ENTIRE season to bring Donna back to life, has an episode where she comes to term with Donna death THE B-PLOT OF THE SAME EPISODE IS DONNA DECIDING TO COME BACK TO LIFE

The reason Donna decides to go back to life is that Tim's mad his death wasn't cool enough he wants to try again

Tim proceeds to spend every other fight scene curled up in a corner or hiding behind a strong woman preferably both

The have the literal most comic accurate Joey I've seen in my life in an adaptation an extremely relatable version of Kom that is super sympathetic to her, they work with themes like family and shared trauma and change things to make parallels between characters

Gar turns into a bat and dunks Dicks body into the lazurus pit

superboy mpreg

The cutest possible DickKory and THE BEST GAR I LOVE U SO MUCH

15 year old pretending to be the red hood and its funny but its also so sad

we interrupt this show to tell you that DICK IS A BOTTOM WHO WAS IN A MASOCHISTIC DOM/SUB RELATIONSHIP WITH JINX. okay u can continue

Babs and Joey are played by disabled actors

Donna dies by an electrical cable falls on her. Amazonian strength? never heard of her

They hype up trigon for all of season one and then spend 5 dollars on his CGI

Deathstroke comes back as a zombie and gets decapitated ❤️🥰🥰. Proceeds to stick his head back on 👎👎

Dick's legal name is Dick. Richard? never heard of her

an incredibility nuanced view of Kom and Kory's relationship in a way that pulls from the comics and changes a lot while keeping much of the same themes in a way that makes this show act like an excellent foil that enriches the original source material, especially in relation to their parents and mirroring countless side plots

at some point scarecrow gets jason high and dances an u just... watch i guess

Gar can only turn into a tiger for 3 seasons but then the show feels bad so he turns into a virus

There is no god or coherency in titans, the quality fluctuates widely from seconds of the show, its the best adaptation of the titans that has ever come out they tease a road trip EVERY SEASON and we have not had A SINGLE ROAD TRIP EPISODE

AND PEOPLE SAY ITS A BAD SHOW????? HOW CAN YOU CALL THIS BAD U DONT UNDERSTAND U DONT UNDERSTAND

#titans #titans 2018 #dick grayson #kory #starfire #i love my trash show 🥰🥰🥰#garfield logan #rachel roth #dc titans #titans hbo

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tickletastic · 5 months

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Do u have any tickle hcs about the bat boys?

yes yes yes yes yes do i ever

under the cut, my love <3

Dick

absolutely just devastatingly ticklish everywhere, but i also think he is weirdly good at hiding it for a little bit, and sometimes the ler trying to tickle him will just eventually give up (big brother powers? zatanna magic?)

his thighs and tummy are his worst spots, and both just absolutely destroy him

he can and will attempt to acrobat his way out of tickling

he 100% once tried to front flip away from Tim when he was trying to tickle dick and jason ended up catching him upside down in the air (and tim totally took advantage)

absolutely the family tickle monster because it is his oldest brother duty

the only sibling that damian actually lets tickle him (because he kind of loves tolerates dick)

Duke

Absolutely the type to accidentally hurt you when you tickle him

If you get his neck? he's karate chopping you. his ribs? he'll elbow you

i hc that jason and duke are close because i think duke would be really into literature too (i think he'd be a big poe fan!!) and they would bond over spending hours in the Wayne manor library

as a result, i think jason tickles duke the most, but i think damian has been indexing moments that he witnesses so he can "accidentally" tickle duke later (bc, despite what he would say, he is a softie and wants to make sure that duke feels like he's a part of the family as much as everyone else is)

i think his worst spots are his ribs and his thighs, but he gets really panicked and giggly when someone tries to go for his neck

i think he's a really timid and considerate ler, and that he's probably stopping every minute or so to make sure the lee is alright (which his siblings find INCREDIBLY flustering)

Damian

he is just a tiny little dude, just an angry tiny guy

he is, like most twelve year olds, ticklish everywhere, but he only ever lets dick or bruce tickle him, and SOMETIMES, jason

his laugh is so cute, and he snorts pretty much the entire time

it embarrasses him incredibly, but he physically cannot fight back when he's tickled, he just kind of lays there and giggles

he does in fact use tickling to his advantage in the manor, and has been known to tickle tim to tears

like steph, i think he secretly knows exactly where everyone is ticklish (except for jason, who, as usualy, remains elusive)

Tim

my sleepy boy, top of my kin list, i am such a tim stannie

99% of the time that he's tickled it's because he is refusing to sleep after 24+ hours working

he's horrendously ticklish pretty much everywhere but his ribs are the absolute worst

he tries really hard to fight back, and he's definitely a flailer, but ultimately he never gets very far and eventually just slumps and tries to curl up

dick, steph, and jason tickle him the most, but bruce puts in his fair share too

when someone tries to tease him he tries to scream through his laughter so he doesn't have to hear it, but ultimately, he is forced to listen

he's not much of a ler, but he will strike every once in a while

Jason

best bat? best bat

i hc that the lazarus pit made him more sensitive, but only bruce, dick, kori, roy, and leslie thompkins know about it, and he has sworn them all to secrecy

the same group are pretty much the only people who know where he's ticklish

actually really ticklish if you can get him pinned, but otherwise he is definitely successfully fighting off any tickle attacks

dick has one method from when they were kids where he'll get jason up against a wall, whether he be on a bed or trapped in on the couch, because the tickling will make jason too weak to try to vault over him (and it's MUCH easier than trying to pin his ass down)

he is definitely the most vicious ler of the house, and his teases absolutely mortify his siblings

his signature move is grabbing both wrists of an unsuspecting family member, hauling them over their head, and tickling them to tears with his free hand

#i put dick duke damian in that order because i just love the illiteration #duke thomas #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #damian al ghul #damian wayne #dc #headcanons #anon #ask

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002yb · 11 months

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They don't call Jason their Little Wing, but the redheaded Outlaws sometimes call him baby. It started with Kori and Roy, who remember itty-bitty teeny tiny Robin Jason, but Artemis overheard them and thought it was the perfect term for when Jason's acting especially bratty. Dick suddenly understands how mass murderers begin killing

Kory & Roy

Innocent as the 'baby' endearment is, Dick is flummoxed by it. The betrayal he feels over it would be so profound because Jason is his. Hence: relationship with Kory - over; friendship with Roy - ended.

Just kidding they’re all still close. Kory and Roy are very Σ( •‿•lll) once they come to realize how intense Dick’s brother complex is though. They keep it very hush hush that they’ve both fucked his little wing, together and separate ahhhhhhahahaha.

Artemis

Pffft, Dick gets defensive over the derogatory baby name-calling and Artemis is immediately calling Dick a baby, too. Jason really did learn from the best. Dick is so fussy, is he hungry? She’ll find him a teet to suckle. Then she promptly calls Jason and Dick is !!! ∑(ﾟﾛﾟ〃) because he's been outplayed. Just the thought of those hot toddy milkers has him curled up on the ground, flustered like he’s never been before.

#jaydick #dickjay #dick grayson #this is all crack and very little substance ahahaha #dick having the most intense brother complex is just so good though

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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 4 months

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Some Grayson kid headcanons I just got:

Mar'i's favorite animals are monkeys, cause she thinks they're super cute and loves how wildly fun they are

Jake would used to always take his Nightwing and Starfire plushies with him everywhere he goes whenever Dick and Kory aren't around him, since he feels comforted by them and also a sense of warm familiar safety with them wrapped up in his arms

Mar'i gatekeeps all her snacks from Jake, since that boy will literally eat it all up if left alone with him. She even hides them in her own room sometimes if she has to. This is especially done whenever it's mainly about Starfire's very famous zorkaberry tarts and Jake KNOWS that Mar'i has some left, which are usually the last ones after him and everyone else finishes theirs quicker

Mar'i has a spider plushie and will throw it at Jake to scare him away for fun or whenever he's purposely being annoying to her and she wants him to stop. It always gets him to scream loudly, yelling "NO!" and fall back to the floor and immediately run to Dick and Kory or just straight to his bedroom so that she won't chase him with it

Me likey…..Me Likey A LOT

@spider-jaysart

If I may….(clears throat)

- The two have a tally counter, white it be a whiteboard or in the StarCave’s main computer, of the amount of times they’ve rescued each other from being captured by villains and rouges or from immediate danger on the field. So far, Mar’i leads ahead by two rescues. The latest in which had her burst into the hideout’s walls as Lion Tamer (an OC supervillain whose a street orphan turned to ex Lion Tamer at a circus, hence his name around the siblings’ age range) was interrogating Skybird for information about the secret codes to Bludhaven Central Bank’s vaults via his pet lions, a peanut butter like substance they can smell and taste and finally some stocks meant to keep his ankles in place while he was also handcuffed with power dampening cuffs. Jake still fumes when he’s reminded of that since now his sensitivity that’s meant in being a family secret (with the exceptions of sone of their closest friends) is known by one of his frienemies.

- Due to the two of them being descended from feline ancestors as per their Tamaranean halves, Mar’i and Jake instinctively sometimes follow both rodents including mice and rats and also bright laser pointers. Though Jake is only one known to purr when very comfy like their mother can

- Speaking of their mother, Kory often times helps them maintain their hair as to prevent them from becoming unbearable for them in one form or another. She has quite the experience with her own follicles needing to strike a happy balance between smooth enough (whether it has fiery curls or it’s silky smooth) to comb while maintaining its massive length throughout the years. Despite Jake usually keeping his hair short, had it grown as large as his mother and sister’s, his would be no exception

#mari grayson #jake grayson #dick grayson #koriand'r #sfw #headcanon

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curlybookwriter0294 · 4 months

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Pushing Each Other’s Buttons

Summary: They are new at this. They are new to this whole dating thing but everything’s going well. However, during a workout session on training day after a small chat with Kori, Raven wonders if she could push each others buttons to progress things even further between them. Will it work?

AN: as always I don’t own anything from the TT universe or the DC universe! Just the plot of the story and you might hate me later lol. Happy reading! :)

It all started at the gym.

It was a typical training day at the Titans Tower, and each member of the team was at their own stations doing their own workout at the gym. Raven Roth looked around as she was doing her sit ups with Kori being her spotter as per usual.

She took in the smells of sweat and each presence of her team doing their best to make their bodies stronger and fuller for the next time they are out fighting villains. Thankfully, the alarms have not gone off so far as of yet which gives them plenty of time to do other things to pass the time until it does.

“Come on friend Raven, we are almost done! We are down to thirty sit ups now.” The alien was saying, drawing the indigo titan back into focus of her task at hand which was to complete at least forty sit ups requested by the titans leader Dick Grayson. “Just a few more then we switch!”

“Right.” The empath muttered, counting in her head the last few numbers that she had to do before getting off the mat so the Tamaranean could do her set. “Ready?” She asked her firmly, placing her hands on each of Kori’s shoes to keep her steady. Kori nodded her head and placed her hands behind her back, waiting for Raven to say the word. “Start.”

“So,” Kori said, catching her breath before going back down to her sit up, eyeing her quiet friend who was counting her sets. “You never did tell me how it’s going friend Raven.”

“Don’t know what you mean,”Raven said, hoping that Kori would drop it and just focus on her sit ups.

“Oh come now,” Kori said, chuckling at how Raven was avoiding her green eyed stare when she came up from her sit up. “You know what I mean.”

Raven knows exactly what she means because she’s been trying her best not to look over near the corner where the green shifter was doing his own set of workouts with Cyborg helping. She tried her best to ignore the fact that he was working out shirtless while he was grunting as he picked up a dumbbell easily with one hand. “It’s in progress. You know this already.” Raven whispered, turning her eyes over back towards Kori.

“29,” Kori counted and giggled at her. “I know that silly. Didn’t you two went on a date recently? What happened there? I’m dying to know!”

Raven shushed at her, briefly looking around to make sure that their conversations wasn’t behind overheard from the others. “It was nice.” She said quietly with a sigh. “Perfect even.”

“And? What else? There’s gotta be more than that!” Kori said excitedly, catching her breath once she was done with her sit ups and the two hero’s got up to do some stretches.

“We kissed.” Raven said finally, causing the alien woman to giggle with happiness. “It’s just a kiss.” She explained to her.

“Oh it’s not just a kiss friend Raven. Has it gone further than that?” Kori asked kindly, rolling her shoulders back when she did another stretch with her arms. She raised an brow at her when Raven made a face at her. “Would you want it to?”

“It’s only been three dates Kori. Isn’t that too soon?” Raven questioned her Tamaranean friend who shook her head at her, making her orange curls bounce around her shoulders. Raven sighed when she thought about a question to ask her. “How long did it take for you and boy wonder to—“ she stuttered at the question and she was thankful that Kori picked up on her question right away.

“After the third date.” Kori answered with a Cheshire grin, making Raven shiver. “But you and friend Garfield are different take all the time you need!” Kori reassured her when she noticed Raven’s face. Kori hummed. “If you wished to progress things further you just need to buttons of push each other.” She advised.

Raven blinked at Kori’s choice of words. “You mean push each others buttons?” She suggested.

Kori nodded as she walked over towards the bench to drink her bottle of water that was sitting there. “My thoughts exactly friend Raven. Also it looks like he’s already doing it.”

“What do you mean by that?” Raven asked, glancing over at the changeling that moved over to do push ups with Cyborg next to him. “He looks somewhat normal to me.” She said with a smirk.

“Friend Garfield has never taken off his shirt while working out. Have you not noticed?” Kori asked with a smile.

Raven snuck a glance over towards Garfield Logan and noticed that Kori was right, he had never taken off his shirt for his workouts until today. She noticed how tight and full his muscles and biceps were probably from working out and from getting stronger now that he’s older. He’s taller now and not lanky anymore. She would be a fool not to admit that it was nice to see him without a shirt, but was he doing it to put on a show for her?

“See what I mean friend Raven?” Kori asked, making Raven tear her eyes away from the green shifter and focus on Kori’s green ones instead. “He’s doing the buttons of the push. Now it’s your turn.”

“How will I pull that off then?” Raven whispered, walking over towards Kori as they took a breather from their workout. “I’m not exactly—“ she trailed off as she looked up and down Kori’s revealing workout attire. “You.”

The orange-haired alien smiled and before Raven could do anything to stop her, she pulled off Raven’s workout shirt, exposing her sports bra that she hiding underneath. “There we go!”

“Kori are you serious right now?!” Raven hissed at her, quickly trying to grab back her shirt from Kori but she was taller than her so she kept it at arms length. “Give it back!”

Garfield’s pointy ears twitched at the sound of Raven’s voice in the far corner of the gym, breaking his concentration of his sit ups. Luckily he was at his one hundredth goal and paused at his stance to look over at her. “What the—“ he trailed off when he saw Raven in a black and purple sports bra and Kori holding her shirt at arms length. “Holy—“

“Hey grass stain! Focus man!”

Garfield begrudgingly looked away from a rare sight and turned to focus on Cyborg instead. “Sorry my dude! I was just—“

“Focus on me and not your girlfriend dude!” Cyborg called out, making Garfield blush at the term that he was not used to.

“Right focus.” Garfield muttered to himself, stealing a glance once more at the sibyl that was working out with Kori who was still trying to get her shirt back, all the while trying to conceal herself with an arm.

“Give it back Kori. Please.” Raven pleaded in a whisper, trying for another attempt to get her shirt back. “I need my—“ a flash of green caught her attention and she paused from trying to get her shirt back.

Violet eyes meet green eyes that lasted longer than necessary and before Raven could change her mind, she uncovered her chest, sighing when she gave up trying to get her shirt back from the tall Tamaranean. She could literally see the gulp that Garfield had made when he had took in her appearance. Sure, Raven had exposed her body before but only her legs, but her upper body was a different story in which she’s slowly working on.

“See,” Kori whispered in her ear, walking beside Raven with a hand on her shoulder. “Told you.”

“Alright guys!” Dick said, making Raven to look away from the shocked shifter. “That’s enough for today. Good job everyone!”

“Do the buttons of the push friend Raven. It’ll work. Trust me,” Kori said to her before flying over towards the leader, kissing him lightly on the lips before walking out of the gym with him hand in hand.

“Push each others buttons huh?” Raven muttered to herself, wondering if it was worth a try.

The night was clear and warm in Jump City, the Titans are doing their own thing. Dick and Kori are in Gotham City for a night out, Cyborg is currently out on a date with Jinx in Central City, which leaves Garfield and Raven alone in the Titans Tower or more precisely alone on the roof.

Garfield had a big blanket for them as well as take out from a new vegan restaurant that he wanted to try. They were laid out on the blanket, sitting in complete comfortable silence as the two look out into the sky. Raven secretly wished that she could see the brightness of the stars instead of lights of buildings, but she doesn’t mind the thoughtfulness of their date.

“Next time,” Garfield started to say, breaking into Raven’s thoughts and she turned on her side to look at him as he stared out into the sky.” I want to take you somewhere where we can actually see the stars. The moon is huge and neat but I miss seeing stars.”

Raven gnawed her lower lip as she moved over to get closer to the changeling. “That’ll be nice Gar.”

Garfield chuckled at her and turned over to his side, using his arm to support himself. “Let’s make it a date then yea?” He asked, moving even closer to where they were nose to nose.

Raven could feel her face heat up at the closeness of their bodies and she had to remind herself to stay in control of her emotions. “Y-yes.”

“Neat.” The shifter whispered before closing the gap between them and leaned in for a gentle kiss on Raven’s lips.

It was slow, innocent something that Raven was getting used to. When they first started kissing, it was just a peck outside her door after their first date, same with the second date. This time, their kiss lingered a bit longer and it made Raven want to try something different with their kiss.

She opened her mouth to allow Garfield more access into the kiss and she heard him hum in question when she did that. She nibbled his lower lip which caused him to moan into her mouth.

“Rae—“ Garfield said once they part, catching their breath. He used a hand to brush back a couple of dark strands of her hair out of her face. “What brought this on?” He asked, furrowing his brows.

“You weren’t wearing a shirt at the gym today,” Raven confessed to him softly, noticing the way his face soften with her answer.

“Oh!” Garfield said once realization had kicked in and he chuckled. “Well I could say the same about you Rae-Rae.” He told her, wiggling his brows.

Raven flicked his forehead with a finger, rolling her eyes at him. “That wasn’t intentional.”

“I know my shirt thing was but you on the other hand.” He trailed off, studying her and laughed when Raven gave him a death stare. “It was Kori’s doing I know.”

“You should umm—“ Raven trailed off, using a finger to trace down Garfield’s front clothed torso slowly. “Not wear a shirt at the gym?” She said even though the way it sounded like a question.

“Will never wear a shirt at the gym again.” Garfield told her, leaning in closer to her. “Is this alright?” He asked with hesitation, bringing Raven even closer to him in a way that made their bodies touching.

Raven’s breath became heavier when Garfield lifted her chin closer to him. “Yes.” She whispered, closing her eyes when she felt Garfield’s lips back on hers again.

She opened her mouth when she felt the shifter’s tongue on her bottom lip, asking her access. She gasped when she she felt his tongue on hers, making their kiss deeper than it was before and it made Raven’s whole body feel warmer.

Raven heard Garfield making an oof sound in her mouth when he got on top of her, making sure that he wasn’t crushing her by prompting himself up with his arms. She used her arms to wrap around his neck to bring him even closer to her, making both of them moan.

Raven used her legs to wrapped around his waist, which caused her to feel something that was pressing against her. “Shit,” Garfield muttered against her neck, breaking the kiss. “I’m sorry let me just—“

“It’s fine Gar.” Raven reassured him, reaching up to play with one of his ears. “Aren’t we just pushing each others buttons a little?”

Garfield blinked at her and laughed before leaning back down against her neck, kissing against her earlobe gently. “Yea definitely pushing each other’s buttons alright.” He muttered, cursing himself. “But still— we don’t have to continue if you feel uncomfortable o-or anything.” He tells her, stuttering with his sentence.

“I want us to push each other’s buttons.” Raven told him truthfully, using a hand to run her fingers through his green spiky green hair. “And it seems like I’m already pushing yours.” She whispered to him quietly.

“My buttons are definitely being pushed right now.” Garfield hissed out, biting his lower lip. “I-I—“ he started, clearing his throat as he looked down at her violet eyes.

The two of them groan when a loud alarm stopped what Garfield was about to say, causing both of them to detangle themselves from each other to grab their communicators from their pockets.

“Right now??” Garfield complained. “Buzz kill!”

Raven sat up on the blanket, opening her communicator and watching the news alert that popped up, using a hand to push back her violet hair out of her face. “It’s Gizmo attacking downtown Jump City. The others are still away.” She told him. “I can portal us there.” She said firmly, standing up, reaching out a hand towards him to grab.

“Right. Let’s do this!” Garfield yelled, grabbing her hand and it held it tightly. “To be continued?” He asked, lifting a brow at the empath.

Raven squeezed his hand. “I want to see how much I can push your buttons.” She responded with a small smile. “To be continued.”

#raven roth #bbrae fanfiction #raven x beast boy #short fiction #bbrae #fluff #romance #teen titans fanfiction

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acourtofidiots · 1 year

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Love of My Life (Don’t Take It Away from Me)

poly!dickkory x reader (dick grayson x koriand’r x reader)

1.1k words

warnings: angst angst angst baBYYYYY, titans s4 spoilers, heartbreak, sacrificing of oneself to save the day, but there’s a happy ending!

a/n: i was inspired by the s4 series finale of titans and the ending few scenes that I decided to flip it into my poly!dickkory verse. i’m still not ok that we won’t get more of them ever again. but that’s ok, i can still fantasize about them in my head :,)

title is from love of my life by Queen

minors dni // please don’t spam like my posts // i will block you

“No.”

Dick pauses, body hunched down next to Sebastian’s body. You shoot Kory a confused look. Your thoughts twist themselves together as anxiety starts to bubble to the surface.

“Kory, what do you mean?” A sad smile graces her face as she reaches up and cups your cheek, fingers tracing gently across your face before placing it on her heart.

“I’ve come to accept my fate. I can’t push it off any longer.” Tears bubble up in your eyes as you look at Dick. It was like he was frozen in time, body stiff and unmoving as he processed Kory’s words. “what if he comes back? Stronger?”

The last word snaps Dick out of his trance, and he steps toward the two of you. “no, Kory, you can’t. We’ll come back stronger, too,” he nods toward you, and you give him a half smile. “All three of us.”

Kory sighs as she pulls you to stand next to Dick, the vigilante automatically curling an arm around you. but you couldn’t focus on the gesture that generally would have you snuggling up to him and kissing his jaw, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights. your heart was pounding, a race against the anxiety bubbling in your veins. You couldn’t lose Kory, not everything that has happened.

“There’s a flame inside me. one that I can’t simply put out and restart it. I-I’m sorry but,” a voice crack interrupts her, and you can see how much her words affect her. “But it’s time...there’s always an end.”

You didn’t know how it was possible, but your heart broke even further seeing the pained expression on Dick’s face. “I don’t know how to do that. we,” he pauses and looks at you, “don’t know how to do that.”

Kory smiles sadly and places a hand on your lover’s cheek. “I know,” she whispers, and Dick leans into the gesture before sighing.

“I can’t.” You squeeze his hand gently.

“Neither can i,” you add, and Kory gives the both of you a sad smile.

“Me neither,” she agrees. “But let’s just wing it.”

Your little moment was interrupted by a resounding ‘NO’ behind you. Turning around, your eyes widen in horror as Sebastian gets up on shaky legs, fury rippling across his face.

“This is my story,” he snarls, and you automatically shield Dick and Kory behind you. “You don’t get to be the fucking heroes!”

You glance at Kory, who gives you a slight nod before her eyes turn green, and blue light emits from her body. Dick yanks you back as Kory darts forward, grasping Sebastian by the arm and shooting upward, blasting a hole through the laboratory’s roof. You shield yourself from falling debris before looking at the gaping hole your lover left.

“Kory!” You shout, and you sprint towards the exit. Your stomach churned at what could possibly happen to Kory. The person who always made you feel loved, protected, safe. The one who made you realize that it wasn’t just her that had half of your heart. But Nightwing as well.

You tripped through the numerous dead bodies littering the ground of S.T.A.R labs, not caring if you left the rest of the team behind. Kory, Kory, Kory.

bursting out of the front door, you watched as a bright light soared upwards, high into the atmosphere, and you could only wonder if Kory knew what she was doing.

“Y/n! Wait--” Rachel shouted before gasping at the sight of the blue light exploding into a supernova of colors.

it was too late.

Everything felt like you were drowning in a tub of molasses. Your body felt heavier and sluggish as you fell to your knees, glassy eyes unblinking at the spectacle in the sky. No, no, no-

Rachel pulls you into a tight hug as Tim, Gar, and Conner stay behind. You could hear Gars sniffles, knowing how close he and the Tameranean were. She was practically a mother to him, nurturing him and raising him to be a fine gentleman.

Time slows down as you let out a devastating scream. Rachel hugs you tighter as you sob into her arms. You could do nothing to get half of your heart that belonged to Kory. Your princess. Your chest started to rise and fall unsteadily, breaths running ragged as grief covered your body like a blanket. You refused to believe she was gone; it was just a figment of your imagination.

“Look!”

Tim raises his hand toward the sky, seeing an orange light fall from where Kory was. You sniffle, eying the ball of flame suspiciously as you pull from Rachel to stand next to Dick. You take his hand in yours, and he gives you a watery smile before focusing on the bright light coming down in front of you.

you could feel your heart skip a beat at the sight of Kory, flying, miraculously still alive. She gives you a warm smile when she lands. “Hi,” she chuckles, and you tear yourself from Dick to fling into her arms. You grip her tightly, tucking your head into your neck and inhaling her scent. the notes of smoke and cinnamon greet you, and you thank your lucky stars for bringing her back to you.

And Dick.

Dick, frozen to the spot when you left his arms, slowly approached the two of you. You pull back from the Tameranean, giving the vigilante a big grin as he takes her into his arms and cups one cheek. they stare at each other before he whispers, “I thought I lost you.”

“Me too,” she chuckles. She looks at you again, absolute adoration on her face. “Both of you.”

Dick leans to slot her lips against hers, and your heart flutters, happy to be reunited with the people you found yourself thinking about all the time. They break away, still grinning, before Kory turns toward you and kisses you. you eagerly meet her lips with your own, whining a bit before she pulls away before Dick takes her place.

You pull away and sigh, leaning into Dick’s arms as Kory moves to greet the rest of the team.

“I’m thankful for you, you know,” you say, glancing up at Dick. he hums in acknowledgment, eyes not once leaving the group before him. “I know it might be hard for me to express myself, but truly, Dick, you two make me the happiest person alive.” He looks at you, a warm smile on his face.

“I know,” he whispers before kissing your head. You close your eyes, relishing the feeling of his lips on your skin.

“Now, let’s go. I’m ready for a nice long shower and a mandatory cuddle session. It’s been way too long, and I don’t know how long I can sleep by myself.”

#dick grayson x reader #koriand'r x reader #dickkory x reader #poly!dickkory #poly!dickkory x reader #dc titans spoilers #dick grayson angst #koriand'r angst #dick grayson fluff #koriand'r fluff #julia.writes #i really wanted to use a gif from the final scene of theme two but it would be very spoiler-y so I decided against it #but god they're so hot #i love them so much

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yellowocaballero · 1 year

Text

Is Dick Grayson a Good Person? Slade Wilson's Opinion Fails To Count.

“You realize that this frees you.”

“Gotham’s not a chain!” Dick snapped, before he even had the opportunity to control himself. “I put half my life into that city and I won’t abandon it just because everybody else in your stupid country has! It is a starving child, it is not a burden.”

Slade’s lip curled upwards. Dick wondered if he had fallen into a rhetorical trap. “Defensive. I was referring to your obligations towards the Batman.”

“Batman isn’t dead,” Dick said coldly. “You won’t get that lucky.”

“But you are far out of his reach.” Slade folded his arms on the table, eyes glinting. “As you said, there’s not much work you can do for him now. You’ve always found the task distasteful. The lying. Prioritizing Batman’s mission over the greater good. You can remove the mask you wear. However necessary the subterfuge was in the past, it’s hardly necessary now. You can do what you like. And you’ve never liked your job. You’re free.”

So I did that thing I always do when writing a bugfuck huge story and wrote a smaller story off it for fun. Normally I'd save this for much later, but this time I thought I'd be fun to post it before the main story and have it be a teaser. I think this very short slice of the universe must be really fun to read if you have no idea what the hell's going on!

I think by the end of it you can get a good idea of what's happening. This will be more difficult if you aren't familiar with certain Batman plotlines. This one requires some basic Teen Titans know-how to fully get, but I can offer a Cliff's Notes if requested.

Very short 5k mystery under the cut.

He was standing in the gift shop.

Just standing. He wasn’t scrolling on his phone or pretending to browse or doing anything that would keep him remotely invisible in the crowd of children. He stood in front of the back door to the gift shop that led into the main Tower building, hands in his pockets and aimlessly looking around. Zero fucking shame.

“Why didn’t he just call?” Gar hissed. “That’s why we have a phone. That is the purpose of phones! What’s his purpose? Annoying us to death?” He glanced back at Joey, who was looking thoughtfully at the screen. “Uh. No offense.”

“For the last time, please do not censor your words for my benefit,” Joey signed, eyes crinkling in faint amusement. “He’s a difficult person. Nightwing, I’ll go down and speak with him.”

Dick was too tired for this.

He hadn’t been sleeping well, or at all. Gigantic fucking surprise, that one. It was worrying Kori. She was looking at him now, with her eyebrows furrowed in that increasingly familiar way. She barely looked at him normally anymore.

For the five millionth time, Dick thought that he ought to break up with her. For five millionth time, he decided it wouldn’t be worth it. Maybe next time.

He adopted a Leaderly Thinking Pose anyway, rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip. It was his genuine body language while he was solving a problem on the ground as Nightwing, but he had to force it now. He really just wanted to stare blankly into space now. “If he wanted to speak to you, Joey, he would have randomly showed up on your balcony.”

“He also never wants to speak to you!” Danny piped up. Pantha flicked him on the temple. “Ow! Child abuse again!”

Vic’s eye twitched. “No horseplay in my security booth, guys.”

“Oh, but horseplay literally everywhere else is fine?” Donna asked archly.

Gar grinned. “Horseplay? You call that horseplay? I can show you -”

“Do it and you’re dead, little man!”

“But I could be a little horse! Just a little one! Shetland pony!”

Dick was way, way, way too tired for this.

“If he had actually wanted to speak with us, he’d just show up.” Dick resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Standing in our darn gift shop’s a message. A ‘come out and play’ thing. It’s a…”

“Power play,” Donna sighed. “The Slade Wilson special.”

“Which means he wants to talk to me,” Dick agreed. He stepped away from the console, waving the sweaty young adults out of his way as they tried to make room in the overstuffed security booth. “I’ll be back.”

An awkward silence fell over the assembled group. Dick forced his way back into the hallway, leaving the others to trip over their feet and follow after him, but the sound didn’t obscure Panthera whispering a question in Gar’s ear.

“Uh,” Gar said, furry green ear flicking, “I’ll tell you later, yeah?”

“Oh! I know this one! I got it!” Danny thrust his hand in the air, ignoring Panthera grabbed him by his collar and physically towing him along. “Slade Wilson kidnapped Nightwing from the circus when he was twelve and taught him how to be a super-badass bounty hunter mercenary! But then Nightwing was like - no way, Jose, no mercenary looks this good in Spandex. Lookit my toned butt. So Nightwing made a break for it and decided to use his ill-gained skills in pursuit of heroism and justice and making me clean my room -”

“So if I look inside your room, it’ll be clean?” Donna asked mildly, and Danny froze. “If I go in there right now, it’ll be sparkling? Just like you said it was? Because if you lied, I’ll have to take you off -”

“Give me ten!”

That successfully got rid of Danny. Panthera obviously had a billion more questions, but after Gar whispered something back she nodded and peeled down the hallway in the opposite direction. Dick finally made it to their cavernous living space, stuffed full of couches and empty soda cans and video game systems. The familiarity and safety didn’t make him feel any less claustrophobic.

The Tower had been his home since he was eighteen. He had never moved out or gotten his own place, choosing to live on site like their more vagrant members. Nowadays he spent most of his time at Kori’s place, to the point where he might as well be moved in already - but the Tower was still Nightwing’s home. The Titans were still Nightwing’s family.

“Love, please wait,” Kori said, and because it was her he stopped.

He turned around to see his friends in front of him, and realized for the first time that they all looked worried. Kori, Donna, Gar - old and familiar expressions on their faces.

“I really hate that guy,” Gar muttered, glaring at the floor as his tail lashed. “How does someone get worse the less evil they are?”

“Somebody may be a ‘good guy’ and a bad person. Or somebody may be a ‘bad guy’ and a good person. Evil or good - I believe it has little to do with your character.” Kori turned to Dick, and Dick forced himself to meet her eyes. “Nightwing, you do not have to meet with him.”

“Kori, he’s not going to leave until I -”

Kori grinned. Like Gar baring his teeth was a grin. “I would enjoy the opportunity to remove him myself.”

“There’s no need for violence.” As much as he loved to see it in Kori, he would like to avoid traumatizing schoolchildren. “God knows I’ve talked to him enough times, one more won’t kill me. It’s the fastest way to make him go away.”

“That’s not the point,” Donna said sharply, crossing her arms. “You shouldn’t have to be left alone with the man who kidnapped and abused you as a child.” Dick flinched hard. “We’re your family, Dick. Let us protect you from him.”

Her words made Dick sick. He let them see it. They’d misattribute the emotion. They’d attribute anything to anything they wanted. And it wouldn’t matter if Dick had never said a word. That wasn’t what they would remember.

“If I have to hear the word ‘apprentice’ from his gross yellow teeth one more time, I swear I’m going to turn into a horse and bite him.”

Kori turned to Donna. “Please let me kill him.”

“Dick already said no.”

“We can all outvote him.”

“Joey would make that kind of weird, Kori.”

“Joey will live.”

“And Slade won’t!” Gar said cheerfully.

There was something Dick didn’t know how to admit. Thankfully, he didn’t have to. “He didn’t kidnap me and he didn’t abuse me,” Dick said evenly. Frustration flashed in everybody, even Kori, but the denials were important. The denials wouldn’t make them forgive him, but they would keep him out of any potentially illegal waters. Dick knew the value of a technicality. “I wish you guys wouldn’t make those assumptions.”

“Assumptions are all we have!” Gar protested, throwing out his arms. “You still haven’t told us anything! Like, you don’t have to, really, but - all we have are the weird scraps you drop, and the picture is super worrying. Everything you have told us is scary as hell. If we’re misunderstanding, then why can’t you just -”

Scary? Scary? They’d said it a hundred times, and he’d never disagreed - out of context, the way everything slipped out, he knew what it looked like, but even Dick wasn’t perfect and even that was too much to say. They’d said it a hundred times and it had never bothered him before, but today - now -

“Thank you for worrying, Gar.” Dick smiled, warm and sincere. “But I can handle one old friend. I’ll be back soon.”

“Love, I don’t -”

Dick cut her off by kissing her, and he left to get changed with no more fanfare. There would be no need to go downstairs and talk with Slade, or to coordinate a meeting place. They knew each other too well for that.

He didn’t relax until he was out of the tower in his civvies, the clothes that felt almost alien on him. The suit had felt alien on him for weeks. Everything was alien on him. Everything was alien - even his home, even his family. His world, shifted irrevocably to the right. The United States of America, two million people short.

Dick piloted the boat back to the mainland in silence. The boat had a video camera in it too, so he did nothing but stare at the waves.

The reserved room was under the last name ‘House’. Ha, ha. Never let it be said the man didn’t have a sense of humor. Dick was proof enough of that.

The Japanese restaurant was upscale, but it was their regular haunt. Slade was in Japan for business frequently, Dick had spent a vaguely traumatic but extremely educational summer studying under a master there, and Jump’s very sizeable Japanese population had resulted in some authentic restaurants with private back rooms for business deals.

Slade was already waiting, which was a surprise. Maybe he already had gotten in his power plays for the day. Unlikely. Normally he liked to make Dick wait twenty minutes. Maybe he had picked today to be unusually kind and considerate. Even more unlikely.

Without looking up from his phone - undoubtedly working, the man never stopped - he said, “The sake’s poisoned.”

Dick glanced at the innocuous bottle on the table and the two stacked bowls next to it. “My enemy or yours?”

“Mine. Don’t worry, they don’t know you’re here. I’ll resolve this after we’re done here.” He put his phone face down on the table, looking up at Dick for the first time. “You look quite well. Funny.”

“Let me guess,” Dick said wryly, sliding into the seat across from him, “you’re about to congratulate me on my lying skills again?”

“I’m hardly effusive with praise.” Slade reached into his jacket and pulled out his own flask, taking a bowl and sloshing a dark amber liquid onto the porcelain. “And I thought the term was ‘performance’?”

“Performance is the word for you this morning.” Slade held out the bowl to Dick, who held up a hand. Slade shrugged - your loss. “Was embarrassing me in front of the entire team really necessary?”

“Was it fun?”

“Are you an asshole?”

“It was a favor,” Slade said archly. He tipped the bowl into his mouth before setting it aside. “Which is why you’re here. Because you recognize the favors you owe me.”

“And you recognize the blackmail I have on you,” Dick said sweetly. Slade’s mouth twitched backwards a little. “I think last time we established quite well that we are at a standstill, Slade. What did you call it - an impasse?”

“If we are at an impasse, then why did you come?” Slade twisted the cap back onto his flask. Dick was silent. “Joey well?”

“Very. Talia?”

“Unhappy.”

“Unsurprising.”

“She asked me to check in on you,” Slade said lightly. “See how you were doing.”

Dick snorted. “Is that why you came?”

“Yes.”

Dick stopped short.

Slade half-smiled. Point to him.

Then there was a knock on the door, and when the waiter walked in Dick expected to be asked for his order or given a menu. He wasn’t expecting the waiter to bring the entire meal, including Dick’s order. Mapo tofu extra spicy. His favorite. That explains the power play. If it wasn’t obvious, then it was hidden. No situation in which there wasn’t a power play. Fantastic.

“Okay,” Dick said sourly, picking up his spoon. “So why are you actually here?”

“Don’t worry about the check, son. It’s on me today.”

“You are so divorced.”

“And you stink of orphan. Let’s move on from the obvious.” To Dick’s shock, Slade pushed away his own bowl of tonkatsu ramen - a working class dish for the high class man - and folded his arms on the table. He gave Dick his full attention, so heavy it could squeeze the breath from him. He almost never did that. Not outside of a fight, anyway. “How are you doing?”

Dick ate his tofu.

“There’s nobody else you can speak to about this besides me.”

Barbara. Who was even more distraught than Dick, and who Dick had been focusing on supporting instead of dumping onto. Who still believed in the police. In her father.

Alfred. Who was suffering enough.

“I’m not stupid enough to bare my neck to you,” Dick said quietly.

Slade leaned back, crossing his arms. “Vulnerability? You were flayed open to me many years ago, Dick. I have seen parts of you that even you have not seen.” Dick snorted softly. “Like will always recognize like. What’s a few words of frustration between an apprentice and his old master?”

Dick put his spoon down. Dick breathed. In one. Out two. In one.

“You don’t have to hold your temper, Dick.”

“I shouldn’t have come.”

“You knew you had to come,” Slade pressed. “You aren’t perfect. Nobody can hold all of this within themselves. You came because you needed to talk to somebody, and I am the only person in the United States of America that you can be honest with.”

“It’s ridiculous of you to act as if a lie entitles you to honesty.”

“I’m just trying to do you a favor, Dick. I’m the only person left who wants to help you.”

Dick breathed.

The first unexpected thing of the night happened. Slade sighed, rubbing his forehead in an exact mirror of Joey’s expression from earlier that day. “I’m here when you’re ready.”

Then he picked up his chopsticks and began eating. Dick and Slade ate together in complete silence. Somehow it wasn’t even that awkward. The food was good, and if you were in a room with Slade the ideal environment was silence.

He wasn’t halfway through his meal when he noticed that his hand was trembling. Dick watched it, detached and half-interested. That didn’t normally happen. He wasn’t feeling much. Certainly nothing intense enough to make his hand shake like this.

Slade definitely saw it, but he politely didn’t say anything.

He was halfway through his meal when he noticed that his careful breathing had gone off the rails. His breaths were coming in too hard, too fast. He was lightheaded. He needed to get out of this room. This claustrophobic back room in a Japanese restaurant under the name House, a grim fucking parody of his real home and family, eviscerated and dead.

Dick dropped his spoon. “I should go.”

He didn’t stand up. Slade ate his noodles.

“You did this after Jason.” Exactly this. He had done the exact same thing, down to the same restaurant. Dick hadn’t even registered. He didn’t remember the month after Jason too well. “You - you sat me down and told me that I could talk to you about it. You did, didn’t you?”

“Goodness, Dick, I wasn’t hiding it.” Slade blew on his spoon. “I remember finding it interesting. You and Joey couldn’t be more different. When Grant died, Joey only - well. Of course Joey didn’t say much. But I remember he just lay there in that hospital bed. Just staring out the window. I didn’t really know what to do. Let his mother take care of it.” Big-ass fucking shock, that one. “You, however - you, I knew what to do with. And you look exactly the same now as you did back then. Do you know who you look like, Dick?”

Dick didn’t say anything.

“You look like a man angry enough to strangle the world.”

Dick bit his tongue.

Slade looked back down at his bowl, sipping his broth. “Tell me about it.”

Bruce would be so fucking disappointed in him. But it wasn’t as if Bruce could know.

“I’m not like you, Slade,” Dick said. He forced himself to keep staring at the man instead of looking at the woodgrain like he wanted. Do not forget who you’re speaking to. Don’t let him win. Was this letting him win? Were there some battles he wanted to lose? “But I’m not like them either. They’re honest people. Their lives have been messy, and they aren’t always nice, and sometimes they don’t always do the right thing. But they are honest people. They’re guarded, but none of them are pretending to be something they’re not.”

“Are you?” Slade asked mildly. “You’re a hero. There’s no doubt about that. I believed that was the only qualification for membership into that club. Certainly not talent.”

“Yeah, I’m a hero. I’m a good person. I’m a leader, I’m a boyfriend. A son and a brother.” He would always be a brother. Jason could be dead for fifty years and Dick would still be his fucking brother. And Tim… “But I’m a soldier too. At the end of the line I’m a soldier. Which is why I’m out here playing video games and eating ramen instead of where I’m needed.”

“Batman needed his spy?”

Dick winced. He hated that word. Accurate as it was. “The world needed Nightwing. That’s what he said. I’m not much good as a spy right now.”

“You were always a very good spy,” Slade said lightly. “I couldn’t even get Terra past you.”

God. Terra. Dick had almost forgotten about that. Maybe in self-defense. “Terra was a rank amateur and a little girl. You’re disgusting, by the way.” Slade shrugged. Dick didn’t know what part of leading a gullible teenage girl into believing that you might fall in love with her if she did everything you said warranted a shrug. “So unless you have any more Terras or Amanda Waller has any more ideas, Gotham needs me more than the Titans do.”

“And yet here you are,” Slade said. “A soldier following his final order. No wonder you’re distressed. The only thing keeping you with the Titans are orders you don’t want to follow.”

“I was raised family uber alles,” Dick said lightly. His hand wasn’t shaking anymore, so he carefully picked his spoon up and started tucking into the tofu again. “Congratulations. You got what you wanted. Are we done here?”

“Are we?”

“I’m two seconds away from that sake.”

“Don’t stop on my account.”

“Oh, you wish.”

“We’re both well aware that I prefer you alive, Dick.” Great, that old power play - you’re alive only by my will! Just because it was true doesn’t mean he should lord it over him. Everybody Dick knew was alive because he wanted them alive, it wasn’t really something to brag about. “You realize that this frees you.”

Slade’s lip curled upwards. Dick wondered if he had fallen into a rhetorical trap. “Defensive. I was referring to your obligations towards the Batman.”

“Batman isn’t dead,” Dick said coldly. “You won’t get that lucky.”

Dick’s hand clenched so hard his knuckles turned white. He turned his attention back to his breathing again. In one, out two. Slade watched, amused.

It all flashed through his mind. The news coverage. Bruce’s face in that D.C. hotel room. The gossiping, the smiles. The Titans. The scorn.

They had been sympathetic. They were good people. Danny said a lot of callous shit, obviously. That kid needed therapy badly. Donna had tsk’d over it, Kori had solemnly proclaimed that it was the decision of a weak leader.

“That place is so scary,” Gar had said, shivering. “Gotham bad guys are bad guys on steroids. I can’t imagine being trapped in a city full of them.”

“And they aren’t even letting us do anything about it!” Wally had announced. That was what had really galled him - Wally hated inactivity. “Is this really the end of it? It’s so unfair.”

“There was no other outcome,” Vic had said shortly. He was the ‘cold hard reality’ one. “That plague could have swept the US. Shitty how we aren’t even trying to make a vaccine, but quarantining the place is the only thing that kept everybody else safe.”

“But to just abandon it!” Kori had said. “It’s too unfair.”

“Yeah, it’s fucked.”

“Well,” Wally had said, “nothing to do.”

“Nothing we can do,” Donna said.

“Gotta say,” Gar said, “kinda glad it’s not my problem?”

“With you there,” Vic said.

Raven had said nothing. Dick didn’t remember what he had said. He only knew that she had stared at him the whole time, and that he had to eventually force himself not to care. Raven had his number. She knew what a liar he was. She never told anybody. She’d kept every secret so far - she’d keep this one too.

Everybody had jumped to conclusions. Nightwing never said a word about why he had the skills and drive he had, why he chose their strange and unsettled life. The first person they see who really seems to know him is Slade Motherfucking Wilson, who won’t stop going on about their fated master-apprentice destiny. Who wouldn’t assume that they had a history? And wasn’t that a pretty fantasy too convenient to destroy?

Dick hadn’t lied about that. Slade had. Completely out of his ass, with full abandon. Gleefully. Called it a favor to him. Dick could do without his favors. Sometimes Dick wondered if he believed his own lies.

Dick didn’t have to say it. Slade knew. Slade knew full well, and he had only said it to make Dick see it too.

The mission was worth it now. It was worth it. The lying, the masks, the betrayal, their fake history - it was worth it and more. He couldn’t imagine wanting to do anything else.

“You can say it, Dick.”

Dick dropped his spoon, letting his fists clench in his lap.

“I already know. You can say it.”

Dick’s teeth grit together.

“I want to hear you say it. Admit it, Dick.”

Maybe Dick had been kidnapped by this man one too many times. Maybe hearing that tone of voice, a tone he only used when he had Dick at his complete mercy, ground against his mind at just the right angle and produced a spark. Or maybe Dick was just weak without Bruce - weak, when he was alone in the world - and he just wanted to say it.

“I want them to pay for this.”

Slade was polite enough not to gloat. God only knew he’d worked hard enough over the past five years to try and squeeze something half as cold out of him. “And you have to stay undercover to do so. Even now, when it’ll be more difficult than ever.” Dick nodded. “Revenge, then. What will that look like?” Dick shrugged. “You haven’t figured it out yet? Unlike you.”

“Hard to figure out something you don’t like admitting,” Dick said lowly.

“Sounds like I’m doing you another favor, then.”

“Sounds like you need to watch your mouth.”

Slade barked a laugh, making Dick roll his eyes. “Let me guess - you’ll rather die than accept my help?” Dick flipped him off, and he laughed again. “So be it, then. That’s a pity. I would have liked to know what your revenge would look like.”

“I can do it on my own,” Dick snapped, a second before he realized what that sounded like. “Christ, Slade, I’m not taking revenge on the United States. That’s supervillain behavior. I’m just -”

“Fantasizing about it?” Slade asked archly. “Thinking, dreaming, wanting? Not doing? It’s unlike you. You’ve always taken what you wanted.”

“Are you seriously trying to convince me to go supervillain right now?”

“Just trying to help.”

“Your help’s sh - not welcome, thanks.”

A dim, sunken light shone in Slade’s eye, and Dick looked away. He hadn’t allowed Dick to curse at him for those long two months. Knowing that shit from so long ago still stuck probably got him off. Asshole. Bastard. Fucker.

“It’s here if you want it,” Slade said. “It’s always been here. Just because you’ve ungratefully rejected it, thrown it back in my face, doesn’t mean it’s no longer here. For what it’s worth, I think you’re more than capable of the revenge you seek. If you’re actually willing to take it.” Slade angled his head down, one watery blue eye piercing straight through Dick. “Are you willing?”

Dick couldn’t breathe.

“My little brother is twelve,” Dick whispered hoarsely, and for once in his life Slade fell silent. “He is a little boy. And he is trapped in that city fighting Bruce’s crusade. If it doesn’t kill him it’s going to break him. And I’ll have lost two brothers in two years. Two kids. Because there’s ‘nothing we can do’. Or because ‘there’s only criminals left in there anyway’. Because of the greater good. Because some asshole in charge decided my family wasn’t worth a couple of bucks. Again.” Dick’s breath was coming hard and fast, and it took all he had not to fall. “I almost killed the man who did it. Bruce had to pry me off him and rip the knife from my hands. I can’t kill the people who did this. I would not do it. I can’t kill everybody who isn’t lifting a finger to help. That’d be - that’d be everybody. And I wouldn’t want to hurt them either.

“I keep on trying to think of a way to make sure that they wouldn’t get away with it. That the people who trapped Tim and ground Jason into poverty experience the consequences of their actions. But I can’t think of it. I don’t know how.”

Short of air-dropping them into Gotham. But that would just be murder. What with the rampant plague and everything. On top of the earthquake. And the riots. Jesus.

“You can’t,” Slade said simply, and Dick didn’t know why the words were crushing. Maybe it was just hearing them from Slade, of all people. “Those people pressed a few buttons and took a few bribes and ruined millions of lives. They will never face ramifications for that. You cannot bring justice for Gotham. The best you have now is payback. The best you can do is revenge. Is that good enough for you, Dick?”

Dick was silent.

And Slade just shrugged. He pushed his bowl away - when had he finished it? - and stood up. He reached over the table and picked up the small poisoned sake bottle with two fingers, tilting it gently back and forth. He put his hand in his pocket, angling his arm back just enough to flash his concealed gun.

“The person who ordered me the poisoned sake is sitting in a business meeting with his fellow executives. They’ve stiffed me on a payment and are trying to get away with it. Of course, nobody stiffs me and walks away. My life exists on a permanently balanced system. Everything in my life is fair. You should give it a shot. It’s quite pleasant.”

“I have better things to do with my time,” Dick said cooly.

“Ah, yes. We all best return to our lives. And you to your friends.” Slade walked past him, pausing only to rest his hand on Dick’s shoulder and bend down. His breath was hot on Dick’s ear, and Dick found himself freezing still. Another ancient reaction, persistently clinging. “Word of advice, Dick. Don’t tip your hand to your friends just yet. Your fight will only grow more complex from here. You’ll need as many allies as you can.”

Dick turned to look at him. His skin crawled at the smile on Slade’s face, at that familiar bristly stubble. Thank god Joey was identical to his mother. “Every ally I have?”

“Every one.”

They stared at each other, heavy and sour, and for the first time in a long time -

“Then I guess I’ll need all the help I can get,” Dick said softly.

Slade straightened, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Attaboy. Now, if you excuse me. Wait until the gunshots stop to come out.”

“You’re always taking care of me, Slade.”

“I told you I would,” Slade said loftily. “Have I ever lied to you?”

“No,” Dick said, “we’ve never lied to each other.”

Dick stayed seated in that room long after Slade left. He stayed seated through the murmur of voices, the first screen. They’d need to find a new meeting point.

A hail of gunshots descended over the restaurant, far away and close, and Dick finally broke into tears. Nobody could hear them over the sound of the shots, and nobody could see him in here, and nobody had to know.

He cried as long as the gunshots lasted and no longer. After ten minutes, he wiped his face and exited the room. Better hurry home. It was getting late.

They’d be expecting him.

#man sounds like tim might be in some trouble! hope he's okay ha ha ha #well we'll never know!#my writing #batfam #dick grayson #slade wilson #teen titans #I'm almost done with this bugfuck huge story #and I'm kinda worried cuz I still have to post the MK thing after Steph too #uhh yall gonna have scheduled Caballero fic every week for. a while. lmfao

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