#Bruce: you could also become my son while your here

[whydoyoucare866]

Moonlight

PAIRINGS:

Titans!Jason todd x reader

SUMMARY:

Bruce has taken in Jason Todd as his youngest son and the new robin some months ago, Bruce’s goddaughter also came back to Gotham after being away for a year.

Some months after meeting Jason she starts a friends with benefits relationship with him, suddenly Jason has to move to the Titans tower and two weeks later Bruce sends her too, but, why is Jason ignoring her and acting like he doesn’t know her and why does it get worse when Rose Wilson arrives to the tower??

A/N: in this story Dick and Jason will not have such a big age gap as they do in the show, Dick will be 23 while Jason will be 19, but for the sake of the plot it will, also ignore that there’s already a dc character called moonlight, also the powers I made up for her make no sense at all but we’ll have to deal with it.

TWS: slow burn, angst, blood, canon violence, mentions of death, anxiety, jealousy, friends to friends with benefits to enemies to lovers?, maybe death of a main character (haven’t decided yet) change of plot

Keep in mind that English is not my first language, I also know nothing about guns, human anatomy or fighting in the language so I'm sorry if I make a lot of mistakes

Story Masterlist / Main Masterlist

Superman by Eminem was playing as the car Bruce sent to get you from the airport approached the gothic styled manor you hadn't seen in a year or so, the way everything looked the same brought you a sense of comfort, you knew Dick wasn’t Robin anymore, you were really close to Dick and he had told you all about how Bruce was a bad father and how he didn’t want to become him, you understood him, although you couldn’t help but feel bad for Bruce, you knew he was trying his best and he may not have been the best father, but he was a great godfather, it probably was because he wasn’t 100% responsible of you, he didn’t have to teach you about emotions, life, problems, or shit like that, he just had to spoil you and talk to you, so it was probably easier for him.

As you grew closer to the manor you noticed that Bruce and Alfred were already waiting for you by the door with some guy, he looked a little bit younger than you, but not too much, you couldn’t see him very well from the distance, but he seemed to be in casual clothes so you assumed he lived here, he was probably another stray that Bruce took in after Dick left so you paid it no mind. Eventually you arrived to the mansion and you could cry, it had been a year since you had last seen Bruce and Alfred, it had been a year since your dad had died, he was the only parent you ever knew, your mom wasn’t a deadbeat who abandoned you or anything like that, but she wasn’t “normal” she had special abilities (which you also have) that you didn’t know were special until you showed them to a boy in kindergarten and made him cry out of fear, at that moment you didn’t get why the boy had cried when you just tried to show him how your hands could glow, you then got a long talk from your mom about how most people don’t have the same abilities as you, therefore you have to keep them a secret, otherwise people would be scared or even worse it would put you at risk because there were bad people who wanted those abilities for themselves. You learned to take the talk seriously when your mom got killed by some scientist who wanted to have her powers and it was all thanks to not hiding them too well, leaving your dad and yourself on your own.

The sound of the car’s door opening pulled you out of your thoughts, and you immediately started getting off the car, you started walking towards the entrance of the Manor and all of the memories came flooding back making you emotional, you approached Bruce and just crashed into him with a hug, he became stiff, but he tried to comfort you as you cried in his arms, you hadn’t seen him ever since your dad had died, you had ran away from your problems and went to Europe for a year thinking it would help, but it didn’t, you were completely alone at Europe, at least here in Gotham you had Bruce and Dick and Alfred, you weren’t completely alone, but over there you were, and it just made you realize how much you missed and appreciated them.

When you calmed down, you moved on to Alfred who looked just as neat as always and also hugged him tight, after all Alfred reminded you of a loving grandfather and always gave you comfort, Alfred pulled away and excused himself to bake your favorite desserts, just like he always did whenever you were sad, it all felt so familiar that you felt comfort for the first time in a year. After hugging Bruce and Alfred and breaking down you realized there was still a boy who probably didn’t know who you were and had to witness you being a mess as his first impression of you, poor boy probably would be really uncomfortable after seeing a stranger come into his house and break down while he just stood there, the thought of it made you feel embarrassed making the atmosphere really awkward as you just stood staring at each other not knowing what to do, or say, Bruce took on the tense atmosphere and started introducing you to each other in hopes that the tension would fade away. You learned that his name was Jason Todd and he had just gotten taken in a year ago, some months after you left for Europe, Bruce also told you about how he found him and how he was now the new Robin, Jason have you a short nod as his way of saying hi and then Bruce started telling him about you, he told Jason about your abilities and how you were the vigilante known as moonlight which made Jason look excited, Bruce seeing Jason’s reaction told you how he was a fan of Robin and Moonlight and it sparked a bit of pride inside of you, but then made you feel embarrassed as you realized you had probably disappointed the boy by showing him how weak you actually were.

After the introductions finished, Alfred came out telling you all to get inside and to let you go to your room and accommodate, which you thanked him, You loved Bruce and Jason seemed nice, but you were exhausted after flying and you just wanted to get some rest, Alfred guided you to your room as if you hadn’t bern there a thousand times and insisted on carrying your luggage for you even though you said you could handle it.

“Here we are Miss (Y/N), you already know where Master Bruce’s and my rooms are in case you need anything, and if you ever need Master Jason his room is the one that’s right in front of yours in Master Dick’s old room .”

You thanked Alfred who excused himself and went to the kitchen and you decided you were too tired to unpack and that you would do it tomorrow, so you took the book you were reading and your headphones out of your bag and laid down to read a bit, you were really tired and after some pages your eyes started to get really heavy and you felt yourself drifting off to sleep.

taglist:

@fairyeoll @singitoutgirl26

[fenricken]

You Keep Slipping From My Grasp 4/7

AO3

Ship: Spirit Halloween

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The rain fell heavily, washing the blood on the ground away as he stepped toward the woman. She was hunched over, sobbing, clutching her dead son to her chest. She glanced up at him as he approached, mouthing silent prayers.

“What happened here?” he asked, carefully ignoring the dead bodies around.

“They came… for a box my family has guarded for a long time. They killed my husband and my son, and they’ve taken my Catherine… They’ll torture her to make her speak its secrets. Please! Please, help her!”

She reached out a hand to him, imploringly. He crouched down to take it.

“I will.”

————

Danny stood before Clockwork, adjusting his new cowboy hat. Maddie and Jack stood behind Clockwork tinkering on the Fenton Omega Siphoner, and arguing over the aesthetics of the machine.

“I have already sent Dani out to help the Justice League locate Batman’s cape. Hopefully we should receive word on her success soon.” Clockwork began, “In the meantime, we do still need someone to make sure Batman doesn’t rush forward too quickly, lest he build up too much energy before we can stop him. Are you ready?”

“Always ready for bat-sitting duty. I’d hope he’s doing something  a bit calmer this time, but I suppose there’s no chance of that happening.” Danny responded, pointing to his hat.

Clockwork just gave his usual cryptic smile before opening a portal for Danny to step through.

————

“Roooooobin. Rooooooooobin.”

Tim whirled around, searching for the source of the noise.

“Oooh, new fit?” Poltergeist asked, stepping out of the shadows. “Ugly cowl, but I like the rest of it.”

Tim lowered his bo staff at her, readying himself for whatever chaotic ‘game’ she tried to rope him into this time.

“Your city’s on fire. You bats trying out some new defense mechanism or something? Like, you think no rogue would want to take over Gotham if it’s a pile of rubble and ash?” She turned in a circle, surveying the chaos Gotham was under.

“What do you want, Poltergeist?”

“Well, so like, Batman’s stuck in time, right? And-”

“How do you know that?!” Red Robin cut in. He had been struggling to convince everyone that Batman was still alive ever since he found those paintings on the walls of the Batcave. Suddenly, here was Poltergeist who seemed to know something about it, but he couldn’t trust her. She was unpredictable, and running into her could mean leaving with anything as benign yet uncomfortable as soaked socks or as irritating and hindering as being cursed to only speak dead languages for the next 3 days.

And things only got worse if she was tagging along with Klarion. Fortunately, he wasn’t in sight, so it's unlikely he was here with her.

“What do you want?”

She smiled slightly at him. “Oh! I want to get Batman back where he belongs before he dies or explodes everything.”

Explodes everything?

“I mean, Gotham’s got a grumpy quota and since you’re his mini-me I figured you’d start trying to take it on and that’d be so boring.” She raised her pointer fingers to the side of her head, imitating Batman’s cowl and adopted a nasally voice. “I don’t have time to play, Poltergeist. Gotham needs me. I have to go stalk Penguin, and then I need to go brood on my favorite gargoyle.”

“So you want to help me find Batman so that I will… be able to play with you?”

“Well, that, but also if he makes his way to the present day on his own, he’ll have built up enough of something called Omega Energy to make all of reality go ka-blooey, and I actually really like this universe. Top 10, easily.”

Tim held up his hand to stop the oncoming ramble while he compartmentalized.

First, Poltergeist knew Bruce was lost in the time stream and seemed to want to help.

Second, Bruce was making his way back to the present, and by doing so was becoming a living bomb

Third, Poltergeist is a multiversal being???

That last one can probably be ignored for now.

“If I were to let you help me find Batman, where do you suggest we start? I’ve been tracking down artifacts I think he’s left behind  to try and convince the Justice League to help us-”

“Psh. Justice League Shmustice League. My dad and my Nana and Pops are already working on it. We just need to find the cape he was sent back in time with for them. Besides, I can probably convince Wonder Woman to help us get the Justice Dorks to help out once we get the cape if we really need to.”

What.

“What?”

“My grandparents are building a thingy-thing to suck all the Omega Energy out of Batman so he’s not a bomb. My dad’s hanging out with him to keep him from dying or something, and we’re supposed to find his cape so we can safely yoink him out of the time stream.”

“I didn’t know you had parents??? What do they do while you’re here breaking things???”

Poltergeist shrugged “King things I guess. And I only have a dad.”

“King things???”

She rolled her eyes, “Anyway, Dad said he last saw Batman’s cape in the Batcave.”

“You didn’t answer my question, and I’m not taking you to the Batcave.”

Poltergeist landed on her feet, and stared at him with wide eyes. He stared back, caught in her gaze for what felt like an eternity, as he felt invisible fingers trickle up his spine. Whispers started low in his ears, building to a crescendo. It was getting too much to bear, until he broke eye contact and looked away. All of a sudden, it stopped. Tim heaved a big sigh.

“I’m… kinda fighting with the current Batman, so we’ll have to sneak in.”

She punched both arms into the air, “YES!”

Tim turned, flicking his cape and walking off, not waiting to see if she’d follow.

“Poltergeist, when this is over you are going to be answering my questions.”

He heard her blow a raspberry at his back, but kept walking.

————

He followed their trail easily enough, the rain trailing after him. As he reached his destination, men came out to fight him, readying pistols, but he made short work of them easily enough.

With his memory having returned in bits and pieces, it had been easy to fashion metal into bat shapes aerodynamic enough to hit true when thrown, and it was these he’d used to disarm the men.

These memories were useful. The ones of children with blurry faces less so, haunting him as they stayed just out of his complete grasp. A constant reminder of how lost and alone he was.

He steadily made his way to the headquarters, where he figured they were keeping Catherine. He whirled around, sensing someone approaching from behind. It was the man with white hair, again.

“Seems you’ve got this well enough in hand, but I hope you don’t mind if I’d tag along all the same.”

“Why?”

The white haired man smiled slightly. “Will you not believe that I just want to help you?”

He stared, unblinking and quiet. Memories from before had proven this a good method to get more information.

His target stared back, also quiet and unblinking. It wasn’t long before he started shifting, and not much longer before he finally spoke again. Under his breath, almost too quiet to hear, he muttered “Just like Dani, I swear…”

Louder, the man said, “I’ve not known you to be the kind of man to ever be on the wrong side of a cause. Whatever you’re up to, I just want to help.”

He squinted at the man, trying to find any evidence of a lie, but the man just appeared open and honest.

“No guns,” he says, before turning back around and leading the white haired man on towards the headquarters.

As they got closer, they noticed two men standing guard. He deployed smoke bombs to cover their approach, sneaking closer with his companion close behind. They were spotted, but the smoke did its work, scaring the two guards and allowing him and his companion to disappear from view again.

“How you gonna tell me there’s no such things as ghosts now???” One of them whimpered, apparently to his white-haired friend’s delight, as he broke out in giggles.

As the smoke continued to grow, he and his friend snuck around the two, tricking them into fighting each other.

He broke through into the offices in the back. They were unfortunately empty.

“Already gone!” He said, slamming a hand on the desk. His companion stood at the window.

“Not long though, look!”

When he spotted their carriage speeding away through the window, he knew he had to act quickly. He launched himself out of the window, and onto the tarp covering the wagon.

An explosion sounded behind him, but he focused on the task ahead of him. His friend always seemed to find his way back, so he’d have to trust he’d do it again.

The ensuing fight was nothing pretty, little more than mad scrambling as he fought to hold his balance, dodge bullets, and wrestle the men actually in the cart so he could get away with the Catherine and her family’s box.

Looking ahead, he saw they were quickly approaching the dock, and a man who was walking down it. Thinking quickly, he swung his body-weight around, tipping the wagon over and sending everyone sprawling. 

The man who had been at the dock had acted quickly, grabbing the young woman and holding her protectively behind him. He stood up, adding to the obstacles that stood protecting Catherine from her kidnappers. Only 3 men remained. From the snippets he heard as two of them fought, he figures the two fighting must’ve been the masterminds behind the plot and the third still in the distance was a gun-for-hire. Taking out his weapons of choice, he quickly dispatched the two men.

Catherine tugged on his cloak. He turned to face her, seeing that she had opened up the box, and was showing him what was inside.

It was Jack Valor’s journal.

He wanted to reach out–to see what Jack had added since they parted, but the gun-for-hire had caught up to them by then.

“My employers may have been dealt with, but I still have a reputation to uphold. Draw.”

He stood up straight, reaching for more of his weapon of choice. Over the shoulder of the gun-for-hire, he saw another man approaching quickly, white-haired. His friend.

A loud bang echoed, and he felt pain in his side. He stumbled, too close to the edge of the dock, and as he fell over he heard one last cry of ‘BAT–’.

And everything went dark.

————

Shit.

Shit. Shit. SHIT.

As if Batman stumbling towards the present through who-knows-when wasn’t bad enough, now he’s SHOT???

Danny quickly ripped a portal back to Clockwork’s lair.

“Please tell me you’ve almost got the machine ready.” Danny said after confirming his parents were in the room.

“Almost! Just one problem, sweetie…” His mom said, looking over at her husband so he’d finish.

“Batman needs to die. Or at least be very close to death!” Jack said, ending with a laugh.

“Basically, we can get this machine to suck out the Omega Energy, but it’s tightly bonded with Batman’s life energy, so it’s extremely risky unless we can find a way to diminish his life energy.”

Danny groaned, putting his face in his hands. “It’s just one thing after another! He’s just been shot. Would that bring him close enough?”

His dad tilted his head back and forth, considering. “Likely not, unless he was in a pretty bad way. In any case, we asked Sam and Tucker to take a look into it!”

“We’ve already found something, actually.” Sam said, having entered the room. Tucker followed behind her.

“There’s an herb that I was able to locate, which should slow his heart down to extreme levels, to the point his heartbeat would be pretty undetectable. Only problem is that his heart would have to be jump-started afterward by a great shock.”

“Clockwork let me take a closer look at his monitors into Batman’s original time and place, and I was able to determine that they have defibrillator technology that can administer an electrical shock needed to get his heart pumping again, as well as adrenaline injections in case we’d need the extra boost.” Tucker continued.

Maddie clapped her hands together. “Excellent! If we can get the Justice League to set up the anchor point on the Watchtower, we can pull Batman to that point and perform everything there! It’d probably work best to do it in his original time as well, to avoid any potential effects that could crop up from being in the wrong time when we remove the Omega Energy and try to stabilize his system.”

“Great, some good news.” Danny said, tension leaving his body. He turned to Clockwork, who had been quiet thus far. “How’s Dani’s work coming along? Will we be ready to proceed soon?”

“Dani and Red Robin have recovered Batman’s cape, and have moved it to the Watchtower. I believe Dani was able to recruit Wonder Woman’s help into getting the rest of the Justice League in line to receive Batman.”

 ————

“Red Robin! Did you seriously bring Poltergeist into the cave??? What were you thinking?”

Before Tim could reply, Poltergeist raised a hand to point at Dick-as-Batman.

“AAH! It’s the cops! Run!”

Poltergeist placed her hand on Tim’s shoulder, pulling him and the cape through the ceiling of the batcave and up in the open air of Gotham. As Tim caught sight of Wayne Manor his head whipped towards Poltergeist, hoping she wouldn’t make any connections.

She was staring at him, lips pressed together, looking a bit like a frog.

He was quiet, waiting for her to say something.

She blew a breath of air out, letting her lips buzz.

“Listen, you keep my secret, and I won’t tell anyone Batman’s secret id is some rich fruitloop.”

“...What secret?”

She pivoted them somewhere Southeast.

“That sometimes I can be responsible. Let’s go see Wonder Woman.”

AN:

It's definitely been longer than I had planned since the last update, rip.

Not going to lie, this is like my second ever fic and I definitely thought it'd be a bit easier to get back into the habit of writing. Thought I was making it easier on my self by strongly sticking to the plot of an existing story, but I think that's been an obstacle in and of itself.

Always a little worried that the language is a bit stuffy or things aren't being clear.

[bookwormlover10]

So au idea Jason doesn't get adopted by Bruce Wayne but he does get adopted by A Batman....a tomorrow knight.....

So my idea is that somehow Terry mcginnis finds himself in the past of Gotham ( yes I'm going by Dcau continuity so it after after batman the animated series but before the new batman adventures is the time I'm thinking of this time misplaced.) So anyway Terry somehow find himself in crime Ally were he stumbled upon a young Jason Todd is trouble ( can't think if he's getting beat up or chase. You decide of the conflict) Terry being the hero that he is, no matter what time he's in, saves the little punk.

" you ok little guy?" Terry asked after the rescue. Young Jason is obviously ( and reasonably) scared out of his mind. Sure he has heard of the batman on the streets, even seen some photos of him in the newspapers. But batman looked like he was a demon from hell. Young Jason mind was quick change when the not batman gaved him his first real meal is week when he notices Jason stomach growled. ( How did Terry get the food might you ask ? Cause he's batman duh.)

With miraculously avoiding the young batman of the time, Terry does find a way back to his time, But a little someone tags along " come back with a souvenir, I see." The elderly Bruce Wayne says. This confused Terry so he says " what souvenir?" Then the elder Batman point his cane to Terrys leg so were young Jason Todd is hanging off of.

( it a good thing to mention that this is a little after return of the joker so old Timmy todd is here.) everyone is obviously freaking out. A literal child from 40 ish in the past is in their present. Tim recognized Jason Todd as they grew up together in crime Ally and the fact both their dad's worked for two face back in the day. Tim remembers Jason disappearing two weeks after Jasons dad got arrested and a year before he became Robin.

This is bad that means that Jason was ment to be here and if they send him back it could cause a time paradox. The question was now was what to do with the little punk. Tim thinks that Jason should go with him given their history. He's pretty sure that his wife wouldn't mind having an other kid around the house. Barbara even volunteers giving that her and Sam never had kids of their own. But Jason has already got attached to Terry and with won't let go of him, no matter how the other have try. He has already has chosen him emotional support batman. So Terry makes a decision....

Later Dana gets a call from Terry to meet up her at some place. When Dana gets there Terry says " I should of told you this a while ago but I'm batman." And before Dana has time to process this Terry then says " and I've recently become an teen father." Then he pulls out Jason from nowhere. " This is Jason my adoption son." ( "Dana meet our adopted son Jason." Terry probably.) Dana then also adopted Jason seeing that the little guy is so cute. It was also weird when Terry went home to explain to his mom and brother that they were now a grandma and uncle. ( Even when the child was around Matt's age.) max was also surprised with she Heard the story

Bruce legally has custody of Jason,until Terry turn 18 in a couple of months. Bruce is now Jason grandpa in this au and with tim and Barbara are his aunt's and uncles. ( I haven't decided if Jason becomes Terry Robin or not. It's your decision really. But hay at least the joker is already dead if he does)

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

*bonus*

Tim: I always thought that Terry brother was going be his first robin. Not I owe dick 50 creds.

Barbara: you make a bet with your brother. Wait dick has never met Terry how does he know that he has a brother.

Tim: he's Nightwing duh

Barbara: of course he is ( facepalm)

Bruce:( is dialing someone)

Barbara: and who are you calling ?

Bruce : Wally West cause now I owe him 100 creds cause me and him make a bet if Terry was ever getting a Robin.

Barbara: ugh ( facepalm again.)

[sansypansy]

"You'd miss me too much."

Robin landed on the building right on Batman's heels, his bo staff at the ready as they faced the fierce and deadly Talia al Ghul with her loyal son.

"The League has no business here in Gotham, Talia," Bruce grunted.

"How else can I get your attention, Beloved?" Talia's smirk was beautiful, but sharp. She drew her sword as Bruce lunged. Damian had his own blade unsheathed as well and intercepted Tim immediately. The two pairs broke off into their own fights and with little chases and flips, the teens found themselves on another rooftop entirely.

"So uh," Tim began with a small hopeful grin, "haven't heard from you in a while. Think you can block out a date on your busy assassin calendar for me?"

A quick counter with his staff clashed harshly against Damian's sword.

"You must believe to be so charming, Robin." Damian's face was impassive, but his pretty green eyes reflected a different story. Tim could see, especially when they were this up close.

"Maybe." He shrugged, then flipped to dodge Damian's kick. "I just like to take my chances with a beautiful assassin prince like you."

A smirk painted Damian's lips. Tim swore he saw those long black eyelashes flutter. "Flattery will get you everywhere, Detective."

The vigilante narrowly dodged the sword thrusting for his abdomen.

"Alas, I do not think you would want a repeat of last time," Damian purred seductively.

How could Tim forget? He had to do the walk of shame when he'd woken up clotheless, walletless with his laptop containing all secret files stolen. Bruce had been insufferable that day.

It'd been so, so worth it. He would do just about anything to have a taste of the little prince again.

"Not that I didn't enjoy it. I'd like to see you try pulling a honeypot on me again. Might just tie you down," Tim grinned wolfishly as he lunged and swept Damian's feet with his staff. The latter leaped, trapping Tim's head between his thighs and flipped him over on his back.

Tim's mouth fell open as the breath was forced out of him due to the impact. And also the fact he just had a full face of Damian's crotch.

Fuck, not now Timmy Junior™!

Damian held his torso down with one foot pressed to his chest and a sword at his neck. "One day, your infatuation shall be the death of you, Robin."

Tim exhaled in awe as the subtle scent of royal jasmine flooded his nose, his eyes becoming smitten.

"Wouldn't be the worst way to go, honestly." His smile was loop-sided. "Besides, you'd miss me too much."

He noticed the slight falter in the blade aimed at his throat, and Tim took that momentum to swipe at the assassin's leg and rolled a few inches away. He moved to a low crouch just Talia suddenly dropped down next to her son.

"We are leaving, Damian," she ordered curtly before disappearing over the edge the building like a silent shadow.

Damian sheathed his sword without any questions, pulled up his hood and prepared to follow his mother. However, Tim didn't miss how he gave him a secretive smile before falling backwards into the alley below. Tim rushed forward and looked down, but there was no human trace.

It was then that Batman commed him to return to base as he'd already dismantled the League's mission. Tim sulked about Damian seemingly rejecting his offer until a few hours later, he received a cryptic, anonymous text on his phone with a single date and a meeting location.

'Do not be late, Detective.♡' the second text read simply. Tim let out the loudest whoop and fist pumped the air.

[mintacle]

Also regarding fanon Tim it is really pity that a lot of fans and even writers regard Tim as a mini-Bruce when i feel he should be opposite especially when it comes to their social circle. Like Tim is fascinating to me because he looked at the dark and gloom and isolation of both Gotham and Bruce and went, "It deserves to be saved. I will save it and i'll do it without it destroying me" (he failed but he tried, god did he try).

If Bruce Wayne is a mask for Batman then Robin is a mask for Tim Drake.

If Bruce is actively isolating himself then Tim is actively seeking people out (even if it sometimes means slight stalking and casual breaking and entering, which, Tim, buddy).

When his parents died Bruce buried the child he was and dedicated his life to make sure something like this would never happen to anyone else and when Jason he almost went and broke his one rule. When everyone in Tim's life was dead or dying he tried to held onto every little thing that could bring that normalcy back from before everything went to shit, whether it be cloning, trying to find Bruce, or even lazarus pit.

It is why Tim becoming batman always ends horribly, not because Tim is secretly a deranged guy but because becoming batman means affectively killing what makes him Tim Drake. It is also why i think the best ending for him would be retirement, the boy who chose to take up the robin mantle grows up to be the man who chose to give up the mantle (naturally this would take a lot of development since i feel Tim is rather addicted to it but also i think it would be good. I also feel he would still do hero work on side but as a consultant or support)

(I alse feel isolation is a major struggle for both of them. However Bruce embraces it, becomes a part of it, while Tim rejects it, loses to it. A Lonely Place of Dying indeed)

(i am so sorry i feel like i have more generalized both the characters and could be wrong about them since i am still newer to the comics but these are my thoughts from what i have seen so far)

Nah, anon, you're valid. I'm not crazy into Tim and haven't read anything with him yet (though @benbamboozled has convinced me to read Young Justice 98), from what I know of the canon version of Tim, he is very critical of Batman, which you kind of have to be if your goal is to help them (as opposed to enabling someone)

Here we have Tim on Bruce's approach to paranoia and work colleagues:

which will for me always be core part of Tim's characterization. He's very far from the boy who will blindly follow Bruce to get his approval. I think of all the Robins Tim might be the least interested in Bruce's approval. (Modern era Dick is weirdly open about wanting Bruce's approval which I don't like. Nightwing is for me ideally in extreme denial about his and Bruce's interdependance.)

Tim is far too aware of Batman's problems to want to become him. This is the kid that became Robin at Batman's lowest low. He didn't become the sidekick/ward/son of a vigilante who was larger than life, he became the support of a broken down man. It makes sense to have Dick and Jason involuntarily idolize the man, because the Batman they knew was amazing, but the Batman Tim knew? That was a spiralling man.

Which might also be why it bothers so many people that Tim isn't allowed to grow out of the Robin mantle, it feels extremely natural for him to be getting over his original mantle and connection to Batman.

[morgansunflower]

I saw your story about male Talia and Bruce's sister, I just loved it. If your requests are open I would like to ask for Ra's Al Ghul and Bruce's older sister (or any of Bruce's family members)

Would You Even Dare

Ra's al Ghul X Wayne! Reader

Bruce Wayne X Aunt! Reader

Warnings:suggestive content, explicit language, angst, guns, child kidnapping, and injury

Words:1492

Arthur's notes! Hardly anything canon about Ra's is true in the story. Ra's didn't try to kill Tim. Ra's is a good father/grandfather. He doesn't lead the league of assassin's.. At least not anymore. Older Reader 50s to early 60s. She is Thomas Wayne's sister!.. Also Athanasia is in the story. Quote from Mentalist show.

Y/N reunites with a old friend hoping he will help her.

In all the many centuries Ra's had lived through. He did not wish to live another 100 years, nor even a day without her beside him. He for the first time considered letting age take his life, with her right beside him.

Deep inside he was infected with a wound deep within his heart that not even the Lazarus could heal. What pains the former assassin, was that he truly ached to be with her. Though it was better that he be alone.. As those who are close to him are the ones who become hurt.

Ra's left the league of assassin's to his only son Dusan much to his son's shock. He would have a long time ago if only for the reason to not allow such a heavy burden.

Thousands of miles away Y/N Wayne was thinking of her precious grandniece whom had disappeared 3 years ago.

Y/N closes her eyes remembering being taken by Slade. While there she saw, a young girl with him. She looked to be the age as her niece would be by now. Her face was concealed but her voice.. Her hair.. It was a Wayne trait. It was her father's hair.. Y/N's nephews hair.

She was ruthless but it seemed by Slade's orders as she could see the young girl did harbor sympathy for her. Slade did not allow them much time together if at all.

Perhaps it was a, young girl he found and chose to use her for his bidding. Though her heart seemed to say it was indeed her.

She still was afraid it was her heart hoping too much but what if it is? Slade is certainly capable of doing such a terrible thing. Especially if it brought torture unto the al Ghul's and the Wayne's.

Using a yacht she sits in the drivers seat programing it to Ra'sh al Ghul's location. He had only told Talia and Y/N only for the reason for emergency. She sits on the seat thinking back to a, old memory as the anticipation to see him was consuming her.

~

Y/N hadn't heard from her nephew in over 3 months. She was growing worried. She left Gotham to investigate where her nephew had gone. She knew he was planning to make major changes to Gotham. For that reason she was truly terrified he would meet the same fate as her brother and his wife.....

Eventually she found evidence he went to a hidden place within the vast wilderness. In a ancient city located in the Himalayas. She knew of whom was there...

Y/N entered into the fortress courtesy of the assassin's after she said the coded word, Ra's told her many years prior. Ra's al Ghul stepped forth to see his dear friend.

His eyes saw her beauty but his heart went to many years ago to her saving his own life after a bombing from an attack. One of his many enemies found his safe house and tried to kill him. Y/N was with a, team of spies investigating the, same enemies as the ones who attempted to kill Ra's. They assisted in finding survivors. All were dead but miraculously she found the wounded assassin and nursed him back to health.

"Ms Wayne" he greets

"Ra's al Ghul" she greeted to the widower "you know why I'm here"

"your nephew came to me. Given his relation to you. I thought it wise not to confine my knowledge to ensure he is not another Wayne to be buried"

She softly smiled "I suppose we are even now"

"never are, we to be even Ms Wayne"

She sweetly smiled "I suppose I should leave before he sees me. Please don't tell him I was here"

"I will utter no such thing of your concern for him. Safe travels my friend" he gently smiled

~

"we need to talk" she first said to Ra's who was standing in the sand

"what do you want?" he coldly said though his heart was, warm to have her in his presence, however.. He could not allow her inside...

"I deserve better than that Ra's!" she accused him

She truly did and it was tournament not treating her with the kindness she deserves. He grunted stepping to her, her arms folded glaring up to him. She was still so beautiful when she was angry at him. He then steps to his hut. She quickly followed after him.

"that's it?! You're not going to say anything? You're not at all curious nor care as to why I've come?"

The two step inside as she slammed the door behind her.

"you are waisting your time if you believe there is anything to flourish between us" he said with his heart breaking

"this isn't about us Ra's.." she snapped back

"then why?" he asked now realizing that she was truly worried.

"it's about Athanasia"

"tell me everything"

.....

Ra's and Y/N left with their gear. The two resided in a safe-house nearest to the place of which she was captured. The two barely spoke to each other unless it was regarding Athanasia.

"we should lay low and start fresh tomorrow. I can sleep on the couch. You may have the bed" he said in a blunt tone

"the great Ra's al Ghul sleeping on a couch that is sight I'd never thought I'd see" she chuckled, to which he rolled his eyes. She tried to hold her words inside but fails "why didn't you stay?"

He sighed "I believed it was for the best"

"it wasn't.." she sighed stuttering unable to hold her emotions inside especially in his presence that made her feel safe enough to "you weren't there Ra's! I'm so angry at you! I'm angry you left me and I... I wanted, needed you"

He only remains silent in his guilt Y/N turned away to hide her tears. Ra's stepped softly touching her shoulders. He only moved forward because she leaned into his touch. He kisses her neck snacking his arm across her folded arms with his other across her waist.

"my intentions were to keep you safe from my enemies. I did not intend to hurt you. I blamed myself for your pain. I was.. Frightened Y/N. If for all of my many years of living had made any purpose. It was you. You have made each century worth living.. I have only fallen more deeply and fondly for you"

.....

Ra's dealt with Slade as Y/N departs to look for Athanasia. Y/N senses a presence. She turned in a cautioned manner. She sees her.

"give me a good reason why I should not shoot you!!" she threatened her gun aiming to the older woman.

"Athanasia" she calmly said now seeing her face.. It was truly her.

"that's not who I am! Stop moving!!"

"you are safe, you are loved-" she stammered as a, heart wrenching shout from her niece came back

"stop it!" she shouts her hand shaking with the gun in her hand

She steps close to the young girl "and you are wise"

"get away from me!" her voice shouted but her heart took control as she drops the gun.

Athanasia let out a heartbroken cry as she is embraced.. She was free from the mind-controlling poison Slade had taken from Ivy. She clings to her tightly sobbing. All her past memories she believed were comforting illusions.. She knew were real.

With Slade taken care of. Ra's hears familiar crying from his granddaughter. He runs to find her in embrace. He softly smiled to them.

"let's go home" he said as they part.

"grandfather?" she mumbled taken aback

"hello my dear" he greets

Athanasia was welcomed with warm and tearful hugs by her, family. Ra's held Y/N's hand standing from afar. He feels comfort, he feels peace.

"I think I may consider a early retirement" she casually said

"would you consider residing with me?" he offered

"is that a, proposal Ra'sy?" she asked intrigued

"would you dare even consider?" he smiled softly to her.

"would you even dare ask?"

3 years later....

In the late night. On the eve of Mrs al-Ghul's birthday. A group of vigilantes sneak onto the couples private island.

"shhh you'll break our cover!" Damian accused Stephanie has she had just tripped over a log.

"little brother is right. This is a covert operation" Athanasia said in her pink pajamas while her baby brother wore his green pajamas.

"sorry" she whispers, wishing her purple bunny slippers had more protection.

"it's a sleepover guys not a, stake out" Jason scoffed, holding his pillow "besides Gramps already knows we're coming"

"still she raised Batman himself" Dick added in defense to the twins, in his bright blue pajamas.

"quiet" Bruce grunts wearing his own pajamas and robe.

Ra's kisses his sleeping wife's lips. He hears soft footsteps in their living room inside their home and smiles to himself. They're all here.

[fleur-de-violette]

Robins, titmice, and other spring birds

AO3

Summary:

There are a lot of things Jason doesn’t understand in the dynamic of the Wayne manor, despite being here for nine months. Maybe a rescue turning a little more dangerous than it should have been for Robin will help him see things clearly? Prompt: Adoption

Note:

Hey! Second bingo fic! So just to be clear, this is set in an alternate universe where Jason was taken in by Bruce before Dick stopped being Robin. Warning for (magical) hypothermia, grief, and near-death experience. I hope you’ll enjoy the story. Many thanks to @ohmytoddhewitt for beta reading !

There are things within the Wayne Manor family dynamics that Jason still has a hard time grasping, despite having lived there for about nine months now.

Dick and Bruce’s relationship is one of them. The two of them could look like a typical teenager and adult relationship at first glance (not that Jason knows much about typical teenager and adult relationships), but there is something more.

They are Batman and Robin, for starters. The news had taken him aback. When Batman had brought him to the cave after that weird night that changed his life, and had removed his cowl, Bruce Wayne had been the very last person Jason expected to find under it.

So, they are Batman and Robin. Heroes of Gotham. And yet, out of masks - sometimes even in masks when no one is looking - they act like a teenager and his parent.

Jason will also, one day, become a hero of Gotham. He had started training as soon as he had regained enough weight to do exercise. Maybe he will be Robin. Maybe he will be something else. But he could stay. In the manor.

Bruce had presented him with the adoption papers about a month ago. Something to link them permanently, to make him his son. Jason still doesn’t know how to feel about that. When he had tried to talk about it with Dick, the older teen had made a weird face and deflected the conversation.

But Jason doesn’t feel as if Dick doesn’t want to be his brother. Despite his rocky relationship with Bruce, he’s always nice and friendly with Jason. He just doesn’t understand why he’s been so dismissive of the adoption thing.  

“The fast-food place in front of the academy is looking for staff,” Dick says carefully, pulling Jason from his thoughts as they eat dinner.

Bruce makes a sound, not a word, and that’s also something Jason has learned to get used to. How Bruce rarely responds with actual words.

Dick doesn’t seem to mind. “I was thinking of applying.”

Alfred gives him a disapproving look. His opinion on fast food is a secret to no one.

“Why?” Bruce asks, and that’s a word, but a lone one, straight to the point. Jason is kind of asking himself the same question.

“I was just thinking it was more than time I started making my own money, that’s all.”

Bruce let out a long sigh that makes Jason think maybe it isn’t the first time they have had this conversation.

“You already have enough things to do with your studies and our nightly activities. If you want to buy something, you can ask Alfred or myself for money. You know we have enough in this household.”

And that’s final. Dick doesn’t bother fighting, just goes back to his meal. Alfred tries to keep the conversation going by asking Jason questions about school, and Jason is happy to indulge.

He had started school in September, two months after meeting Bruce. While he was a bit of a late bloomer compared to his classmates in the beginning, he’s been catching up to them during the last few months. Barbara, Dick, and of course Alfred have helped him with homework when he struggled. By now, he was the first to answer in science class more often than not, and his English teacher had complimented him on his poems.   

Alfred asks the same things to Dick. Jason knows he has a big math test tomorrow afternoon, something he studied a lot for in the last few weeks. But he just skims past it, not letting show the importance Jason knows the test has for him.

Jason can guess why. Test or not, Robin is needed tonight, and Jason can understand that Dick would hate being benched over something as silly as needing rest for a test. Especially since Jason had heard the night before that the Riddler had escaped and was planning something. He knew he wouldn’t want to miss a fight with the Riddler if he was Robin.

But he isn’t, not yet; he needs more training first. So, as soon as the dinner is finished, he jumps in the cave and puts on the training costume Alfred had made him. He wishes Batman and Robin good luck, and Dick ruffles his hair in a way that annoys Jason as much as it makes him feel all warm before jumping into the Batmobile.

A few hours in, and Jason wonders how long Dick trained for before being allowed to go out. Surely, he will be able to fly in the streets of Gotham with them soon. He isn’t a trained acrobat, but he handles himself well, he thinks, smiling as a Batarang falls right into the center of the target.

But then, there is the issue of the hero’s name. Batman had said maybe he could be Robin, but then there would be two Robins, and that would be confusing. He needs another name. Something close to Robin, but not Robin. How about Red Robin? He likes Red, but that’s the name of a burger place, so huge no. Dick calls him Little Wing, something that annoys Jason, but maybe he could make something out of it. He would be the Wings of the Night or something, and… no, that’s ridiculous.

Maybe he should pick a totally different bird name? The Eagle - but no, that’s a rock band. Or The Falcon maybe? It does have more style than Robin. But also, Dick had explained to him that the name isn’t meant to scare people, or inspire respect, but to bring hope, to symbolize spring and colors.

Well, he can say anything he wants, Jason isn’t calling himself Titmouse.

“Master Jason, don’t you think it’s time to go to bed?” Alfred interrupts him, standing behind the training mats. This is something that took Jason some time getting used to, too. Being called “Master”; he told Alfred he could just call him Jason, but the butler firmly refused.  

“I would like to wait until they are back,” Jason says. He knows the idea of Bruce and Dick fighting the Riddler will prevent him from sleeping, anyway.

Alfred gives him a frozen smile, the face he makes then things aren’t going the way he wants them to, but he has to accept them anyway. “Very well,” he says. “But I do not want to hear you complain tomorrow morning when you’ll have to get up to go to school.”

Jason gives him his brightest smile. “I won’t complain. Promise. Thank you, Alfred.”

He keeps training for a bit after that, but they don’t have to wait long before they can hear the familiar roar of the Batmobile engine. And just as the car stops, Jason can feel the tension bleeding from it. Bad night, then.

“What do you want from me?” Dick asks as he steps out, soaking wet with a mixture of water and something that glows pale blue in the artificial light of the cave. “That I apologize for saving those girls? I won’t.”

“It was reckless; you could have drowned, and them with you,” Bruce replies in the same tone.

“But I didn’t! You will have to understand one day that I’m not eight anymore, and-”

“Here, Master Dick,” Alfred interrupts, giving him a towel. “It is quite cold in the cave.” He doesn’t say that it’s quite cold outside of it, too, but everyone is thinking it. “And Master Bruce, why don’t you go change while I take care of warming him up.”

His eyes are like daggers, and Bruce doesn’t talk back, even though Jason feels that he wants to. He just walks toward the changing rooms. When he passes next to Jason, he looks at him for a second before saying, “Jason. You should be in bed.”

He sounds tired, but Jason still has one more thing to do before going to bed. He runs quickly to where Dick and Alfred are and asks, “Are you really ok? Is there something I can do?”

“Nothing beside getting yourself to bed,” Alfred replies. “I’ll just make sure Master Dick here is not hypothermic or poisoned.”

Dick gives him a smile that Robin gives to citizens. It’s bright, reassuring, and fake. “I’m ok, Little Wing. See you tomorrow morning.”

So, with nothing better to do, Jason goes to his room, showers, changes, and goes to bed. Despite thinking that worry will keep him awake, he’s out cold before he can think more about the night.

-

He doesn’t complain the next morning when Alfred wakes him up. He wants to, but he doesn’t. He promised, after all.

Instead, he gets himself dressed and goes down to get breakfast. Dick is already at the table when he comes in. “Good morning,” he says as Jason sits down, and his voice cracks a little on the words.

“What happened to your voice?” Jason asks as he takes some tea and a piece of toast, thanking Alfred.

“I slept with my hair wet yesterday. It’s nothing. It will pass.”

Jason hums. The manor is warmer than some of the places he lived in, but it’s still old and there is only so much isulation work one can do on a stone structure. It can get cold on February nights.

Alfred looks like he wants to say something more, maybe a comment on how this wouldn’t happen if Dick had shorter hair. It goes down his neck, nearing his shoulders now, and he stubbornly refuses to cut it. This has been one more cause of disagreement in the manor.

But he refrains from saying anything, and just drives them to the school without a word.

-

Jason goes through his morning classes as usual, trying not to fall asleep during the boring parts of the lessons. It’s only when he’s at his locker to get his lunch that everything goes wrong.

“Hey, street rat!”

He turns to see Augustus Wright. He sighs. Turns out there’s only so much anti-bullying presentations can do, and so much here means nothing. The boy is in his grade, a bit tall for his age, and had chosen him as his victim since the beginning of the school year. 

“What do you want?” he asks sharply. He doesn’t call him “September” like he did last time, because he’d rather not get punched in the face again.

“Do you know what my father says about you?”

Jason doesn’t look at him, and focuses on getting his lunch out of the locker instead. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. Your father is an idiot who has an addiction to bad financial investments.” Or at least that’s what Bruce says. But he has the feeling the comment will not help him in his quest of not getting punched in the face.

As expected, Augustus’ hand flies toward him. But he doesn’t hit Jason, like he had expected him to. Instead, he hits the lunch box, and to Jason’s dismay, it flies out of his hands and falls down on the floor, the content of Alfred’s carefully prepared food spilling everywhere.

This is spoiled food. The one thing Jason can’t stand.

He clenches his fist. Bruce might be angry at him later, but that won’t stop him. That kid is going to regret it.

“What’s going on here?”

Jason turns toward the sounds, only to see Dick leaning nonchalantly on the lockers. His voice is deeper and lower than usual, so much that Jason barely recognizes it. It makes him look even more impressive, cold and collected.

Augustus seems a bit scared, which makes Jason smile. He might be taller than Jason, but Dick is taller and stronger than both of them. “You’re not supposed to be outside the high school building,” the bully says.

“Yeah?” Dick asks. “And what do you want to do? Call someone? And then you can explain why my-” his voice cracks a little - “little brother’s lunch is on the floor?”

Augustus looks like he wants to sink into the floor. “He’s not your real brother anyway. My father will hear about this!”

Dick tilts his head. “So he can talk about it with Bruce? I would like to see that.” He takes Jason’s arm. “We’re leaving,” he says, and they walk a little before conveniently running into the school janitor, who is talking with the superintendent. Did Dick plan that? “Excuse me, sirs?” he says, “Augustus seems to have made a mess in the corridor, would it be possible to help him find the materials required to clean it up?”

He gives them his best smile, the one that gets people doing whatever he wants, and with that, they’re gone. Because he has that kind of power, the superintendent doesn’t even question why he was in the middle school building.

“I had it handled,” Jason says when they’re out of hearing range, in a small corridor that runs between the two buildings.

“What, you were gonna beat up that kid?”

Jason doesn’t answer that.

“Jay, you know why Bruce trains us. It’s not for-” he coughs in his hand when his voice cracks again, and starts over. “It’s not for this.”

“He tossed my lunch to the ground,” Jason objects.

“I know,” Dick says as they sit down. “Do you want mine?”

“What about you?”

“I’m not that hungry,” Dick replies, handing him his lunch box. Jason opens it and splits the food in two, but true to his word, Dick barely eats his share.

“What, is the math stuff stressing you out that much?”

Dick shrugs. “Maybe,” he says. Jason doesn’t understand why it would be. Dick had always been excellent at math; he and Barbara have helped him more than once and Jason knows for a fact that Dick can do college level problems without struggling. He’s always at the top of his classes, if not the top of the school. The only thing he can maybe be worried about is being the second best and not the best, which seems like overkill.

Unless he’s aiming for a scholarship, like the one Barbara has. But that makes no sense. While the Gordons aren’t exactly poor, having her studies fully funded because she was at the top of the school in several subjects still makes things way easier for them. But he doesn’t get why Dick would need it: Bruce would gladly pay for whatever college Dick wants to go to.     

“Or maybe you’re actually getting sick,” Jason says. “What even happened last night?”

 Dick sighs and looks around to make sure no one can hear them; his voice barely audible, he says “Riddler had two girls in glass containers under a pool of some sort. There was something in the water, a chemical we think he got from Freeze - we still don’t know how. Anyway, a powder was slowly falling into a bowl that would pour it into the water once full. Then the two products would react, and the water would freeze, breaking the glass container with the increased pressure and killing or at least badly injuring the girls. B wouldn’t have solved the riddle in time. There was only a small opening on the pool, just for the powder to go in, Batman couldn’t fit; but I could. And so could the girls once I freed them.”

Jason doesn’t miss a word. “That is so cool,” he says.

“Well, B didn’t seem to think so. But yeah, I stand by my choices.” He coughs into his fist again. “Even if if I do end up being sick, B will never let me hear the end of it.”

Jason smiles a little at that. There is something nagging in the back of his mind - how easily a cold could turn into something worse when he was on the streets - but he doesn’t say it. Dick is talking about this so nonchalantly, he guesses this is how things happen in Wayne Manor: you get sick, you rest for a few days, and that’s it.

Dick looks at his phone and says, “Well, time for me to go, I guess. I need to do some last minute studying.”

Jason sighs. “What do you still have to learn? And what about your food?”

“Keep it,” Dick says. And with that, he’s gone.

-

Jason is in the middle of his biology class when he opens his phone under the desk to see two missed calls from Bruce.

“What’s going on?” he texts back. “I can’t answer a call, I’m in class.”

He immediately sees Bruce typing back, “Have you seen Dick?”

“Just about one hour ago, at lunch. Why?”

“Find him and get him back to the manor. Alfred is on his way to pick you up.”

No more information than that. But, given what Bruce and Dick do, this might be a life or death situation. Jason raises his hand.

“Excuse me,” he says. “I don’t feel well, could I go to the infirmary?”

The teacher gives him a suspicious look before saying. “Of course. Joshua, go walk him.”

When he leaves, he hears Augustus laugh a little, but that is the last thing on his mind. Joshua is a small kid with round glasses. He’s friendly to Jason because Jason took his place as Augustus’ favorite target. He’s been less friendly to him since Jason’s grades have started to threaten to take his place as best student in the class. But right now, he’s content with just walking with him in silence to the infirmary. 

For a second, Jason thinks he could run. Joshua has asthma, he would never catch up to him. But then, how would he explain that? People would be looking for him, and that would be a mess. No, he has to be more subtle. He waits until they reach the infirmary and Joshua goes back to class. Then, he politely asks the nurse if he could rest a bit in one of the beds. Again, he gets a suspicious look for his trouble, but he lets him lay on a bed.

He waits a little, just long enough so he can see the nurse on his phone, not paying attention to him, before getting up and silently making his way out of the infirmary. Step one of his plan is a success.

Jason walks into the high school building, fast and silent. He moves into another corridor whenever he hears someone coming his way. He knows which room Dick is supposed to be taking his math test in as of now. If he’s not here after all he said about this, Jason is going to kick his ass.

But, thankfully, Dick is in the room when Jason looks through the window. He’s focused on the sheet in front of him. When he sees him raise his head, Jason makes huge signs through the window. He distinctly sees Dick mouth, “What the fuck?” before the older teen gets up, says something to the teacher, and leaves the room.

“This had better be important,” he says as soon as he sees Jason. If anything, his voice is worse than it was in the morning. 

“I guess it is, or else Bruce wouldn’t have asked me to come get you. Alfred is waiting for us outside. Come on, let’s go.”

He takes Dick’s wrist to lead him out of the school, and is immediately taken aback by the fact that there seems to be is no heat radiating off his skin.

“You’re cold!” he exclaims.

“What can I say? It’s cold out. We’re not here to talk about my shitty circulation,” Dick replies, twisting his wrist out of Jason’s hand as he walks next to him.

“Alfred,” Dick says as soon as they see the butler outside. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know anymore than you do,” Alfred replies. “I got a call from Master Bruce asking me to come and pick you up while he was getting back to the manor by his own means. Are you quite alright, Master Dick? You look-”

“I’m fine, Alfred,” Dick says as he sits in the back seat. Jason takes it as his clue to sit in the front, next to Alfred.

The short drive from the school to the manor is silent. When he looks in the rear-view mirror, Jason can see Dick has his arms around himself, and his eyes closed. He must be really upset at the interruption of his test. Not that Jason can blame him, but he’s sure Bruce has a good reason to call them back.

“What is this about?” Dick asks as soon as they walk in the manor. From where he’s standing behind him, Jason can see his shoulders shaking with rage.

“The two girls you saved yesterday were hospitalized this morning. We think the compounds all three of you have been in contact with is the cause.”

Whatever Jason had been expecting, that wasn’t it. Apparently, the same goes for Dick because he just croaks, “What?”

“Apparently, it can be absorbed into the skin, slowly decreasing the body’s temperature. Have you felt any symptoms that make you think of that?”

Jason holds a breath. Dick’s wrist had been cold to the touch, earlier. And he’s not shaking with rage, Jason realizes. He’s shivering.   

“I… I guess I’ve been cold, but nothing-” his voice breaks toward the end of the sentence and he coughs loudly.

“Dick,” Bruce asks slowly. “Did you swallow some of that water?”

Dick nods, his eyes toward the floor. “Just after saving the second girl, there wasn’t time to get both of us out before my air ran out. But I didn’t drown. I spat that water out almost immediately.”

There is a second of silence, where Jason thinks maybe Bruce is going to yell, before Dick asks in a very small voice, “These girls… they are in the hospital because of me, no need to sugarcoat it. Are they going to be okay?”

“They will,” Batman, not Bruce, says as he takes Dick’s arm. “And so will you.” 

Jason follows them anxiously to the living room, where Alfred is already waiting for them. Jason hadn’t even realized he left. “I saw your instructions regarding the care currently given to the two young ladies. There is nothing being done for them at Gotham General that we can’t do here,” he says to Bruce.

Sure enough, the couch has several blankets and heat packs, and Jason can hear tea being made in the kitchen. There is also an IV pole.

“Isn’t that overkill?” Dick asks. “I told you, I feel cold, but nothing too bad, I can-”

“The girls are physically smaller than you, but you were exposed for longer, not to mention you had some of the product in your throat,” says Bruce, not leaving room for protest.

“We just don’t want severe hypothermia to set in,” Alfred explains gently. “It’s better to start administering warm fluids now than to take any risks.”  

Dick lets out a long-suffering sigh as he falls onto the couch, pushing his sleeve up and presenting his arm, a silent agreement to the IV. Alfred gets to work; without any other word, Bruce leaves the room.

Once they’re both gone, Jason slowly moves next to Dick on the couch. The older teen is still shivering, but he’s stubbornly on top of the covers.

“I’m sorry about the math test. I know it was important to you,” Jason says tentatively.

Dick doesn’t reply, just gives him a look. “If it helps,” Jason continues, “you’ve been having great grades all year and you will continue to do so. I’m sure this won’t stop you from getting the scholarship if that’s what you’re after.”

Dick blinks. “Thanks, Little Wing,” he says slowly. “It was stupid anyway.”

He doesn’t elaborate more than that.

After a while, Jason asks, “Do you want to watch TV or something?”

“You don’t have to stay,” is the answer he gets for his troubles.

“Yeah, but I want to. And we’re watching something,” Jason decides, taking the remote and turning on a crime show. When he turns back to Dick a few episodes in, he finds him completely rolled in the blankets and still shivering, cold apparently having won over stubbornness.

“I’m okay,” Dick tells him, his voice not much more than an airy murmur. “Stop looking at me like that.”

Jason quickly looks away, unaware he was looking at him in a certain way.

“I don’t-” Dick coughs. “I don’t regret it. We don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t saved them,” he says.

Jason doesn’t say anything to that. “I hope they will be okay,” Dick adds.

Jason nods. “Yeah.” He doesn’t like that. He doesn’t like Dick who is cool and who saves him from bullies and who is Robin being reduced to a shivering mess, curled up under the covers despite the fact that the heat packs are enough to make Jason hot from the other side of the couch.

There is a knock on the door – a useless measure, the door is always open – and Bruce comes in, something in his hands.

“Alfred made soup,” he says, carefully. “If you want some.”

Dick doesn’t move from where he’s buried under the covers, doesn’t look at Bruce. “I’m not really hungry,” he says through chattering teeth. And when Bruce doesn’t seem satisfied with that, he adds, “I ate well for lunch.”

“No, you didn’t,” Jason interrupts.

If looks could kill, the one that Dick shoots him would have sent him straight to the grave.

Bruce puts the bowl on the coffee table and squats down. “I know you’re not hungry. But your body is fighting an unknown, and you have to get all the strength and warmth you can have. Can you at least try?”

Dick still doesn’t look at him. “I don’t think I can eat,” he says.

Bruce tilts his head. “Nausea?”

Dick shakes his head. “No, I…” he gets one of his hands from below the blanket. His shaking fingers are pale and barely twitch. “I don’t think I can eat,” he repeats before pulling his hand back under the covers.

Bruce’s expression breaks in a way Jason hadn’t seen before. It’s not pity, or even worry, though there is some worry in there. It’s just utter sadness. “Chum-” he starts.

“I can help,” Jason interrupts again. “I can help you. I won’t make it awkward. I promise.”

He did it several times with his mother, when she couldn’t lift her hands or was shaking too much to hold a spoon. “I can help,” he repeats. He’s been feeling so useless since this whole thing started. He can do this.

“Ok,” Bruce says slowly. “Ok, Jaylad, I trust you.” And with that, he’s gone. He’s not good with seeing someone in pain or weakened. Jason had noticed how Bruce wouldn’t look at him when he removed his shirt for medical exams, in the weeks after he’d been brought to the manor.

Jason sits on the table and takes the soup in his hands. “Okay,” he says. “How do you want to do it?”

Dick closes his eyes slowly. “You don’t have to do this,” he says.

“I kinda do. Since you can’t hold the spoon.” When he sees Dick’s face, he adds, “I’m not judging you, or seeing you any differently because of this. I just want this dinner to happen the best way possible for both of us.”

Dick opens his eyes. “You’re right. We can do this like you want.”

Jason nods. He slowly puts a bit of soup in the spoon and moves it toward Dick’s face, making sure the oldest sees all his movements. When he reaches his mouth, he makes sure to be as gentle as possible. Dick, to his relief, doesn’t say anything and just lets him feed him. It’s only when the soup is about half finished that he mutters, “Sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“Thank you, then.”

“Yeah, that you can say.”

“Thank you, Jason. You’re a good kid.”

You’re a good kid. How many times had he heard this from his mother? Thank you, Jason, you’re a good kid. I don’t deserve you, Jason. I’m sorry, Jason.

He would never hear it again. He would never feed her like this and, as terrible as it was, he finds himself wishing he could. He wants to forget about that one morning where he woke up to find her cold, colder than Dick currently is, and pretends he’s still taking care of her.

An icy cold finger gently goes to wipe his face, removing a tear he didn’t know was there.

“What’s going on, Little Wing?”

Jason wipes his eyes quickly. He’s the one who should be taking care of Dick, not the other way around. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

Dick tilts his head, keeping his mouth stubbornly shut when Jason tries to feed him more soup. “That doesn’t look like nothing.”

“I miss my mom, that’s all,” he says honestly.

Dick hums in understanding. “I miss mine too, a lot. I miss both my parents. Especially in times like this.” He looks everywhere but at Jason when he says, “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if they were still there. If I was still at the circus with them.”

Jason hums. “Being with Bruce is probably better for me,” he says, because objectively, it is. Unlike Dick, and unlike most people he sees at school, Jason never had a proper childhood. He doesn’t even remember a time when he didn’t feel like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.    

“Probably,” Dick says. “I’m sorry, Jason.”

“I told you; you have nothing to apologize for.”

“We should have found you sooner.”

Jason doesn’t know what to say to that. He’s not the only Crime Alley kid in need of saving, and no matter how much Batman and Robin try, they can’t save everyone.

“It’s okay,” Jason says. “You found me.”

Dick closes his eyes. “Yeah,” he says. “Bruce did.”

They don’t talk much more after that. Alfred brings dinner for Jason, smiling in approval when he retrieves the empty soup bowl. They watch some more TV, only interrupted by the regular sound of Dick coughing, and Jason can feel himself falling asleep when Bruce enters the room again.

“I have a lead on where the Riddler could have gotten the compound,” he says without so much of a hello. “I’m going there tonight, to find more about it, and hopefully a cure. We’re going to save the girls, and we’re going to save you.”

Dick makes a sound of approval from where he’s even more buried under the covers. It’s clear that he’s not in any state to be Robin tonight.

“I can help,” Jason says, standing quickly. “I can help you. I’ve been training, I could be Robin!”

“No,” Bruce says, and that’s final. “I am not endangering you. Stay here with Dick.”

“I’m okay,” Dick says, still not moving, and definitely not okay. “He’s right, you shouldn’t be alone. Jason is capable, and-”

“No,” Bruce repeats. Before Jason or Dick can add anything else, he’s gone.

“Alfred is on the comms,” Jason says, both for Dick and for himself. “He will call me if I’m needed.” To be honest, he’s not really ready to leave Dick alone while Bruce, Alfred and probably Barbara are racing to find a cure. He still feels like everything can go south so fast. And to think just a few hours before they were joking over lunch.  

“He’s going to find something,” Jason adds. “And you will be better in no time.”

Dick doesn’t say anything.

And so, they wait. Jason puts the TV back on, but Dick isn’t really watching anymore, completely curled up on himself around the heat packs. Jason feels himself getting lulled to sleep, and Alfred is too busy to tell him to go to his actual bed. So, he lets himself drift on the couch.

-

Jason wakes up to a sound he doesn’t recognize and what feels like a block of ice hitting his shoulder. He blinks and turns toward Dick.

He immediately feels blood rushing to his body, pumping into his ears. Dick’s face is ashy gray, his lips turning blue. But it’s the sound that comes from him that freezes Jason in fear. He’d only heard one person breathe like this; an older homeless man who had developed pneumonia. Things didn’t end well for him.

Dick’s lips move to form the word help but no sound comes out of his mouth. He coughs, and something falls down his chin. It’s not blood, but it’s not spit either.

It’s ice, Jason realizes with horror. Thankfully, it melts quickly, but Dick is coughing up ice.

That, more than anything else, gets Jason to move. He jumps on his feet and runs toward the cave. He doesn’t have any breath left to explain the situation to Alfred, but the old man seems to understand, hurrying upstairs with him. Dick is still in the same state when they reach the living room, and Jason blindly follows the orders Alfred gives him, knowing he probably won’t remember much of it later. Together, they get a portable oxygen machine to push warm air into Dick’s lungs, hoping it will ease his breathing.

Dick is looking at them with wide eyes the entire time, but, thankfully, he seems to relax a few minutes after they put on the mask.

“Take care of him, Master Jason,” Alfred says. “Master Bruce should be back shortly.”

So, Jason stays there and watches Dick like a hawk. But eventually, as Dick is resting, his breathing once again regular, he finds himself pulled once more into unconsciousness.

-

“B?”

Jason wakes up with a start. Dick is awake, his eyes big as he calls.

“B?”

Jason quickly moves next to him. “He’s not here. He’s looking for a cure.”

Dick blinks, like he doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Maybe he doesn’t, Jason thinks. He’s suffering from severe hypothermia and breathing difficulties. Jason wouldn’t be surprised if he was confused or delirious.

“He’s not here?” he asks, a little sad.

“No, but not because he doesn’t want to be.” To be fair, Jason isn’t sure if Bruce would want to be here, but he decides to humor Dick. “He’s trying to save you. He can’t lose you.”

There is something strange that passes into Dick’s eyes, something that reminds Jason of that day one month ago when they talked about the adoption, something that is not confused at all, and he says, “He can. He will.”

Jason feels very cold, like he’s the one who’s been in contact with the dangerous chemical. “No,” he says. “He will be back, he’s going to save you, and-”

“In a month,” Dick continues. “I will turn eighteen. And I will be no one to Bruce.”

Jason blinks. This wasn’t about giving up, then. “What are you talking about?” he asks. What does turning eighteen have to do with all of that?

“Foster care ends at eighteen.”

And suddenly, everything makes sense. Dick’s behavior around the adoption papers. Working at the fast-food place. The scholarship.

“You’re not adopted.” It’s not a question. And Dick just thinks Bruce is going to give him up after he turns eighteen? “Why?”

Dick doesn’t look at him. “I don’t know,” he says, and Jason doesn’t push it.

“But even then,” Jason argues. “You’re much more to him than his foster kid.” Has Dick not seen the way Bruce looks at him? Has he not heard the way he talks about him to Jason? Has he not seen him breaking in front of his suffering, earlier? “You’re Batman and Robin,” Jason says, a desperate attempt to make sense of what he wants to say.

Dick let out a small laugh, a sad, quiet sound. “Not for much longer. He will find another, better Robin.”

“What?” Jason’s voice breaks a little. That doesn’t make any sense. “No, that’s not-”

“You said it yourself. You can be Robin.”

Jason’s hands instinctively go to cover his mouth, letting out a choked sound. He said it, but he didn’t think it would have such an impact on Dick. He didn’t mean it in a way that meant he could be a better Robin, just that he’d been training to help them in the fight.

“No, no. No, I don’t-”

“I know,” Dick says. “You’re a good kid,” and there are these words again, Jason is a good kid. He’s a good kid, but he’d been unable to save his mom. He’s a good kid, but he’s been unable to not hurt Dick with his careless words. “I couldn’t hate you if I tried. And that’s the thing: it would have been so much easier if I could just hate you and think everything is your fault. But you really don’t like to make things easy, do you?”

He stops a bit, to take his breath, and Jason doesn’t know what to say, he doesn’t know how to make things better. He doesn’t know how to make Dick see how much Bruce loves him, and he just recalls how many times Bruce had told him how proud he was of Dick, yet all he ever heard between Dick and Bruce is technical talk or arguments.

“It’s okay, Little Wing.” And Jason wants to scream, because nothing is okay. “Don’t cry.” Jason wants to reply that he’s not crying, but he’s not sure about that. “I understand. You will be a good Robin. And you will be a good son. You deserve it.”

Jason wants to yell, he wants to say that there is no such thing as deserving to be a son or deserving to be a parent, it’s either something that you are or aren’t, and that a lot of people, people like Augustus Wright, probably think his mother didn’t deserve to be a parent and maybe she doesn’t but she was there. She was there. But what comes out of his mouth is, “I don’t have to be Robin. I don’t want to be Robin if I have to become Robin like this. I can be something else! I can be Titmouse.”

Dick raises an eyebrow. “Titmouse?”

“I… whatever!” Jason angrily wipes his eyes and turns out he is crying. “I can be another spring bird! I can bring warmth to Gotham’s winter.”

Dick smiles, and it doesn’t fully reach his eyes, but it’s something. “I would like some of that warmth, if that’s not asking for too much,” he says. “I’m so cold.” One of his hands sluggishly goes on Jason’s face, removing a tear. Despite himself, Jason shivers at the contact, but he doesn’t move away.

“I can-” he says. “I will-”

“I know,” Dick replies to what hadn’t been spoken. “You’re a good kid,” he repeats, and Jason lets out a sob. “Even if it was a lie, I’ve been happy to call you my brother.”

The hand that had been on Jason’s face falls back on the couch, and Dick’s eyes slowly flutter shut. Jason’s heart misses a bit. “No.” He moves so he’s practically on top of Dick. “No, no no no. Don’t fall asleep.” He can’t handle this. Not again. And even if Dick was right and Bruce was ready to lose him, Jason really, really isn’t. “Don’t leave me alone. Please don’t leave me alone.” He’s whining, he knows he’s whining, but he can’t help it. He’s never been a child, but the last nine months had been the closest thing he had to a childhood. So now, he feels like a child, and a child is whining. “Don’t leave me alone.” Is he really that powerless? Is there really so little he can do to keep what he loves?

A hand moves him, takes him away from Dick, and he wants to fight, but his limbs feel like jelly, and he watches in a dazed state as Bruce introduces something into Dick’s IV line.

And then, as Bruce moves his hands away from the IV to discard the syringe, everything that just happened washes over him. How Dick thought Bruce was ready to leave him. How these kinds of feelings aren’t born overnight. How he never heard Bruce tell Dick anything nice, and that probably means he hadn’t said any at all during the last nine months, probably more. It rushes over him, and he needs to do something about it.

And, like that night in Crime Alley nine months ago, his first reflex is to lash out.

“It’s your fault!” he screams, punching Bruce. His fists aren’t hurting him, he doesn’t even put any strength on them. “It’s your fault!” he repeats, and he melts into Bruce’s arms when Bruce holds him. “I know,” he says, and Jason blinks because how could he possibly know? “I just didn’t know what else to do. I won’t force you to be Robin if you don’t want to.”

And he just moves away from the couch, leaving Jason on the floor to ask himself what on earth was he talking about?

“Master Jason,” Jason blinks and Alfred is here. He apparently did some arrangements around Dick, and Jason lost some time. “I think it’s time for you to rest in a real bed.”

Jason blinks again. He wants to protest, but he’s bone tired. “I’m not leaving Dick,” he says.

“Very well,” Alfred says, and he makes a sign to Bruce to carry Dick to his room.

As they make their way upstairs, Jason almost regrets his lashing out. Because Bruce is so careful, so loving, so fatherly with Dick that there is no doubt about his feelings. But then, why the adoption thing? Why did he offer Jason, but not Dick?

That’s a question for tomorrow morning, he thinks as he falls into the bed. For now, Dick is safe, saved by Batman, and he can fall asleep knowing he will still have time to untangle everything that just happened later.

-

Jason wakes up next to a furnace. He checks the heat packs, only to find them long cold. The heat produced in the bed isn’t anything artificial. He turns toward Dick, who is still asleep, and the heat the older boy radiates is a nice change from everything that happened the night before. Though, Jason thinks as he studies Dick’s flushed face and his labored breathing, maybe that’s even too much heat.  

Jason quickly gets out of the bed, and dashes toward the corridor. He stumbles upon Bruce, who is walking quickly toward the room.

“I just got news from the hospital-” Bruce starts.

“Let me guess, the girls had an immune response to the cure?” Jason finishes for him and Bruce nods.

With Alfred, all three of them move into Dick’s room, who blinks and groans when he sees them, apparently waking up. Bloodshot blue eyes land on Jason, and he feels like he’s under a microscope.

“You’re okay?” is the first thing he asks Jason, and Jason nods. He wonders if Dick remembers the last night, or if he’s just asking this out of habit. He takes the safer route. “Yes. You’re not contagious, it’s an effect from the cure.”

Dick blinks again, and Alfred hands him a glass of water with a pill that he looks at for a few seconds before asking, “The cure?” And then, as if everything comes back to him, he turns toward Bruce and asks, “Are the girls okay?”

Bruce sighs. “More or less like you, except for the fact that they didn’t go into respiratory distress.” Dick looks away in shame at that. “There is no way to tell for sure, since this is very experimental, but the doctors expect the fever to last a few days, and then break on its own.”  

Dick finally takes the pill and some of the water Alfred gave him before falling back into the bed. “Okay,” he says. “Good.”

Bruce looks like he wants to add something more, but Alfred clears his throat. “You should probably sleep it off then, Master Dick,” he says, but it’s clear he’s talking more to Bruce than to Dick.

Bruce seems to accept that now is not the time to talk and puts one of his hands on Jason’s shoulder. “Come on, Jaylad. Let’s give him space.”

Just before leaving, Jason takes a step toward Dick’s bed and kneels down. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he says, both because it’s true and because no one else said it.

Then, he follows Bruce and Alfred to the living room. Alfred had cleaned up all traces of the night Jason and Dick spent on the couch and even prepared dinner. Jason wonders how he does all that. Alfred, he decides, is probably not human. That is the best explanation.

“B,” Jason starts once Alfred is out of hearing range, probably going up to try to get some food into Dick. “What I said yesterday-”

“No, you were right. I brought you into this life, but that doesn’t mean you have to be part of it. When I first took Dick in, he was angry and reckless. He would go out every night on his own. At that time, we created Robin. It was the best thing both him and I could find. But,” Bruce’s fingers tighten on his fork as he eats, “that was naïve and reckless on my end to think I could keep him safe out there. What you saw yesterday… It wasn’t the first time something like this happened. Dick knows it, and he made his choices. Still, Robin isn’t suiting him anymore, and he doesn’t want to keep working in the way we currently do. This is why, when you showed interest in vigilantism, I offered you to be Robin. But, if with after what you saw yesterday you don’t want to do this anymore, I can understand. You can keep training for self-defense, and you will always have a home in this house.”

Jason has to keep himself from murmuring a “Whoa.” This is the first time he heard Bruce talk that much since the speech he had when he arrived, he thinks. But there are several things that bothers him with what had just been said.

“No, I… I want to help. I know it’s dangerous, and I know danger. But these girls, they wouldn’t have been saved without Dick, would they?”

Bruce stays silent for a moment, not looking at Jason. “I don’t know,” he finally says.

“Okay.” Jason doesn’t push. “Okay.”

“But,” Bruce continues, “there have been situations where he undeniably saved people, so I guess your point still stands. Though, if you don’t want to-”

“You said Robin didn’t suit Dick anymore,” Jason cuts him, not wanting to go back on his involvement, fearful Bruce would change his mind about letting him go with them. “Did he tell you that?” Because this doesn’t make sense at all, given the conversation he had with Dick last night.  

“No,” Bruce says, “He didn’t need to. His behavior has made it clear he needs a change, even if he might not see it yet.”

Jason blinks. Well, that was… a very Bruce thing to think. He doesn’t ask about the adoption thing. Part of him wants to ask, wants to know what made the difference between him and Dick, but part of him is afraid Bruce will backtrack if he asks too many questions, like he almost did for vigilantism.

Neither Bruce nor Alfred had said anything about school, so Jason assumes he’s allowed to skip today. He’s glad. He doesn’t hate school, but he doesn’t think he can handle it today, especially if Augustus or his friends start to pick on him. Especially without Dick. When he goes to see the older teen, he finds that Alfred had closed the door. The butler tells him to let Dick rest for now.

So, here Jason is. Not really knowing what to do and still full of adrenaline. He offers Alfred some help with the housework but, as usual, the old man firmly pushes him off after a few tasks. Bruce takes his computer and starts working on something in the living room, so he takes it as his clue to get a book and read.  

They stay like this for a while, all three of them in silence. Jason regularly raises his head toward either Bruce or Alfred, and sometimes toward the stairs to check if he hears anything from Dick. But he’s totally absorbed into his reading when he hears, “What time is it?”

Jason raises his head quickly, not having heard Dick going down the stairs. It looks like the Robin stealth isn’t hindered by a fever.

Bruce, as expected, isn’t phased by the sudden apparition. “We’re just before midday,” he says, without even looking up from the thing he’s working on.

“I need to go to class,” Dick says and that has Bruce look up in an exasperated way. Jason is also kinda exasperated; he was hoping Dick wouldn’t remind Bruce and Alfred about school.

 “I think not,” Alfred says, turning back sharply from whatever he’s doing. “You are still feverish, and, I would think, exhausted from the ordeal your body went through just last night. Go sit on that couch with Master Jason while I go fetch some lunch for the lot of you.”

Dick looks like he wants to argue, but he knows Alfred is right, and there is no way to argue with him anyway. So, instead, he just sighs, thanks him, and goes sit next to Jason.

“Are you okay?” Jason asks.

Dick looks steadily in front of him. “Yeah,” he says.

“You’re an excellent student, missing a day or two won’t hurt your grades.”

“Yeah.”

“And it’s not as if you could follow class properly with a fever anyway.”

Dick turns toward him. “You’re probably right,” he says. And then he smiles. “Looks like you gave me a bit too much warmth, right, spring bird?”

Jason immediately feels his cheeks heating up. “So, you remember what happened last night?”

Dick turns back to look at the wall. “Yes. Look, I was… I wasn’t in my normal state. What I said-”

“No, you were right. I mean, I’m glad you said it. I still want to help, but it doesn’t have to be by being Robin. I can be something else.”  

Dick turns back to him with a smirk. “Titmouse?” he asks and his voice is still not back to normal but the gentle teasing heals something inside Jason’s heart he didn’t know needed healing.

“Shut up,” he says.

They stay in silence for a while before Jason dares ask, “Do you want to be adopted.”

Dick let out a long breath that makes Jason wish he hadn’t asked before saying “I don’t know.”

Jason doesn’t push it. He doesn’t know how to respond to that, anyways. After a time, Dick talks again. “But what I said is true. For however long it lasts, I’m proud to call you my brother.” His knuckles move to hit Jason’s head gently. “And if it’s still your choice, I would be happy to be your partner in the streets of Gotham.” 

[boyfridged]

Hello, sorry to bother you. I saw your post about 80s Batman comics compared to today's and i wanted to ask you if you know if there's a good starting point to begin reading Batman and Detective Comics from that era. My mind inmediately goes to post crisis but I felt i needed to ask, thanks and sorry if im bothering.

you're not a bother, no worries!

i don't think there's one good answer to it. post-crisis is a good starting point if you want to get background on the contemporary lore as a whole, but my commentary regarding it was not limited to it. there's at least a couple of pre-crisis stories that are very much worth checking out, for example:

detective comics #457 which is the first appearance of leslie (i'm cheating here because it's a story from 1978 but leslie becomes relevant again only in the 80s),

detective comics 501 - 502 which is an intro of julia remarque,

batman special #1 (1984): a storyline about wrath which was specifically mentioned by me in the post you're talking about.

i am also tempted to be a bit cheeky and to say to just read through the silver age, because while not my favourite, there is plenty that conway has to offer. and i definitely do recommend moench's run who has written both dc and batman since 1983 to 1986, wherein the first incarnation of jason appears. and don't listen to anyone who says that he's just a copy of dick – it's a fantastic and ironic story wherein all similarities are purposeful. moench's writing might lack the political and social depth that for instance that of barr does, but i think this is the era that really gets into the meaning of legacy and family in batman, and if you want to get an idea of what bruce realistically could be like as a father also to post-crisis jason (given we don't actually get to see that much), this is perfect background to post-crisis. and speaking of pre-crisis, batman and the outsiders (1983) is also quite good!

when reading post-crisis, keep in mind the office politics of the time, but first of all do not forget to read the absolutely riveting barr's detective comics run starting with dc #569. detective comics #574 (this story actually starts with #573) is a reference to dc #457 and batman special #1, both mentioned above. it's also probably my favourite batman story ever. and while for whatever reason a lot of people don't like it, batman year 2 is phenomenal too. since we're already covering barr, batman: son of the demon is one of the best batman books as well.

don't forget about annuals during that read-through either (starting with #11 for post-crisis). there are also some other series (and mini-series) that you might want to read, like legends or the cult. (<- although neither of these two are my top picks. but they do exist) oh, and the batgirl special from 1988.

in case you don't know, dick does not belong to the batman office at the time, so he sparsely appears in these comics. but the titans titles of the era are pretty straightforward so i don't think you need guidance in this matter (also, jason for example actually does get borrowed by them too.)

catwoman (1989) is another must-read and a scene from it was mentioned in the post of mine as well.

i'm probably forgetting about something...? i'm not big on strict reading guides (i think the fun of it is to just dive into it by yourself), but these are a couple of my recs. i'd say you can just start with post-crisis batman (#401!)/dc (#569, already mentioned) and later 'read around' with these titles as further points of reference.

[awhitehead17]

Protecting the flock

Batkids, Protective Dick, Bad Parent Bruce, Hurt Damian, Sibling Relationships, Angst, Injury.

Summary: When Bruce puts his rules before his family’s welfare, Dick knows he needs to act before things get out of hand more than it already has done. If Bruce isn’t willing to compromise then he doesn’t deserve to have any of them around. Dick will make sure his siblings are safe if it’s the last thing he does.

A/N: This is done for my 'A House Divided' square on my @badthingshappenbingo card.

Also on AO3

Enjoy! :D

Dick storms his way inside of the Batcave and over to where Bruce is currently hunched in his chair in front of the batcomputer. He stops just short of a couple feet away from the man and glares at him, feeling the pent up rage waiting to burst out of him, miraculously he manages to restrain himself and somewhat calmly speaks his words.

“Are you being serious right now? For the love of god tell me the message I received less than an hour ago isn’t true.”

Bruce doesn’t even turn towards him which only adds to his anger.

“You shouldn’t be on your feet. What are you doing up?”

“Cut the crap Bruce.” Dick snaps, folding his arms over his chest. He ignores how his leg throbs from the weight he’s putting on it, a new injury being aggravated and further proving Bruce’s point, however he has something much more important to deal with than that right now. “Why have you pulled Damian from being Robin? He’s done nothing wrong.”

A quiet huff comes from Bruce and while the man still doesn't turn towards him, Dick sees the tension throughout his body by the way his back straightens and his fists clench tightly.

“Of course he would cry to you.” He mutters this under his breath and before Dick could retaliate at the words Bruce is finally turning to face him, the man stands up to his full height and practically looms over Dick. It would be intimidating if Dick hadn’t of had years to get used to it.

As Bruce faces him Dick is partially aware of more people gathering in the cave, standing a safe enough distance away but close are enough to hear and watch what is about to become a full blown argument between the man and his eldest son. Dick ignores them. He’s here for one reason.

“Damian has proven tonight he cannot be trusted in the field. He disobeyed my orders and ignored the one main rule we have in this family. He crossed a line and I will not accept that. He cannot be trusted.”

By the time Bruce has finished speaking Dick is clenching his jaw so hard that his face begins to hurt, his hands are now clenched into fists at his sides. His whole body is trembling from the repressed anger he is struggling to keep at bay and he forces himself to take a deep breath in order to stop himself from swinging at the man. He glares hard at Bruce, both surprised and yet not by what he was hearing.

“Damian saved my life tonight. He doesn’t deserve the punishment you’re giving him.”

This clearly infuriates the man. As he talks his voice grows louder and more tempered with each word. “He killed someone Dick! That is an act I cannot forgive. He knows our rules. He’s been part of this family long enough to understand what he is doing and the difference between right and wrong.”

“He saved my life!” Dick exclaims, his own voice raising to match the man’s before him. “It wasn't his intention, he didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“Intention or not it did.”

Dick’s eyes widen and he throws up his hand dramatically, unbelieving of the man in front of him.

“You’re punishing him for saving my life. Would you rather me be dead or rather some unknown assailant attacking us? One which who was working for Ra’s by the way���”

Silence follows his words and Dick couldn’t believe it when Bruce says nothing.

He scoffs. “Oh of course, you’d rather one of us be dead then break one of your precious rules like you've never broken it yourself- intentional or not.”

“Watch what you are saying Richard Grayson. I will not be disrespected. We have rules for a reason and Damian failed to oblige by them tonight.”

Dick isn’t at all intimated. Even when the man pulls out the full name card, it doesn’t bother him, Dick is a grown ass man and by now it takes a whole lot more to shake him than that. After all he was raised by Bruce wasn’t he?

“Quite frankly if anyone was in the wrong tonight it would be me. I put Damian in an awkward spot, I’m the one with the experience and Damian reacted to a circumstance which I put him in. He does not deserve to be punished Bruce. Overturn your punishment and we’ll talk something through between us, Damian stays out if this.”

Wordlessly Bruce steps up to him but rather than taking a step back Dick tilts his head up and meets his gaze head on. He returns Bruce’s hard glare with his own.

“You forget who is in charge here Dick.” He says lowly, his voice dropping an octave and sounding more threatening than before. “I am Damian’s mentor and more so I am his father, I choose what happens to my son. Not you. He is pulled from Robin indefinitely until I trust him again which is unlikely to ever happen again, he’s lucky to even still be part of the family, I will not hesitate to disown him and remove Wayne from his name.”

Dick clenches his teeth and his heart lurches at the man’s words. Just when he thought it couldn’t get worse, it most definitely did.

A small scuffle on the other side of the cave grabs their attention. If it had been anything else but the deathly silence that’s encased the cave after Bruce’s words they wouldn’t have even heard it, but the silence surrounding them meant they could have heard a pin drop, this small scuffle sounded out a hundred times louder than it normally would have.

They look over and Dick sucks in a breath when he spots Damian staring at them looking shocked. An unusual expression to see on the young teenager. Damian’s quiet question, “what?” echoes loudly in the otherwise silent cave.

From his other side a whispered “oh shit” is said and Dick knows it’s one of his siblings, Jason most likely, but he pays it no mind.

“Damian…” he calls out but the teenager is already shaking his head and taking a step back. Before Dick could react further Damian is turning on his heels and sprinting up the staircase, back the way he came.

Feeling heavy despair Dick knew what he had to do. He had the idea already formed in his mind even before he approached Bruce but he had naively hoped he could convince the man otherwise. Clearly he needs to go through with his original plan.

Turning to the group gathered on the opposite side of the cave, he eyes them all up before landing on the person he needs. “Cass, would you be able to find Damian and get him to my car, it’s out the front. We’ll be leaving shortly. You’re more than welcome to join us.”

Cass nods once in understanding, from the start Dick knew where Cass would fall in this argument with Bruce. As she walks by them she steps up to Bruce, also completely unaffected by his intimating height, and sends him a scowl.

“Family first. We protect one another above all else.”

With that statement, and before Bruce could react, she wanders off towards the staircase in the hunt for the youngest of their family. If anyone could relate to Damian’s situation, it would be Cass.

Dick turns back to Bruce, bracing himself he crosses his arms over his chest and stands up tall. “I’ll be taking Damian back with me to Bludhaven. Do not contact us. I don’t want to hear from you, not after this. Cass will also be coming with me.”

Dick doesn't want any of his siblings to be around Bruce right now. He’s the oldest he’ll do whatever he can to make sure they’re safe and if that means getting them away from Bruce then so be it. He can’t make them come with him of course, they’re all old enough to make their own decisions, however he’ll appropriately adjust what he needs to depending on whatever their decisions will be.

“Jason,” Dick turns to the man in question and unsurprisingly he’s greeted with a cocky grin, one which tells him that Jason is strongly enjoying this whole situation.

“Oh don’t worry about me Dickie, I’m on your side. The old man has never accepted me once I came back from the dead a changed man. I’ll be right here with you… y’know, just in case.”

Dick understands immediately. Jason will remain here with him acting as back up. Just in case Bruce decides to do anything that may prevent them from either leaving or something else. He nods once to his brother in appreciation. He also knew what side Jason would be on, it doesn't take a genius to work out the reason behind why.

“Tim.”

Dick turns to his second youngest brother who jumps at the sudden attention on him. Dick hates the way a skeptical expression appears on his face. Out of all his siblings, Tim is the one he’s most unsure on what his decision will be. Tim’s always had his reservations on Damian and wasn't afraid to show it, he even went as far as adding Damian to his villain hit list or whatever it was. Dick is honestly unsure on what side Tim is on right now.

Tim shakes his head looking almost scared. “Please don’t bring me into this…”

That doesn't help to give Dick his answer. Giving his brother a look, hopefully one which shows his support no matter what he decides (although Dick would certainly prefer one choice over the other) Dick tells him, “It’s up to you what you want to do. But for now please go upstairs and let me know shortly.”

Tim doesn't say anything and doesn’t move for several beats. His eyes flicker between the rest of the men in the room, taking them in one by one. It’s only when Jason nudges him that he finally gets a move on. He scurries past them in order to get to the staircase and just as he’s about to ascend Bruce’s voice calls out freezing him in place.

“You go with him Timothy, don’t expect to be allowed to return…” His threat hangs in the air and it clearly shocks Tim to stands at the bottom of the staircase gaping at the man.

Dick feels the anger surge in him again and his protective instincts flare up. “You won’t touch him.” He warns Bruce with a cold look. “If you even think about cutting Tim off, or any of us, you’ll have another thing coming for you Bruce. Don’t try it.”

Turning back to Tim, Dick this time tells him, “get a bag and go to my car. We’ll talk about it later on.” His intention had been to give Tim a choice, but after Bruce’s threat he’s definitely not leaving Tim behind. The kid can look after himself, sure but Dick will feel better knowing he isn’t near Bruce. Now a visibly trembling Tim hurries up the staircase without looking back.

Jason comes to stand beside him and the two of them face Bruce together in a rare moment of unity. They were shortly raised together by this man until life ripped them apart. And now, after years of miscommunication, misunderstandings, they stand together in front of someone who threatens their own family and their younger siblings.

“We’ll be leaving and you will not contact us. I’ll be in touch when we’re ready and not before. If you even think about trying to take legal action against us be prepared for a fight because I will rip you to shreds and ruin everything about you. Your lawyers are nothing compared to mine, so I highly recommend not going down that route.”

Bruce stares at him, his face hardened, his jaw is clenched and his hands are in tight fists at his sides, his eyes glare daggers at Dick. He’s not happy, not by a long shot but Dick knows Bruce knows he doesn't have a foot to stand on in this situation. He knows Dick is not bluffing.

When the man says nothing Dick finally moves away from him. He begins heading for the staircase, but after only a couple steps he looks over his shoulder one last time he says, “Bye Bruce.”

Along with Jason Dick climbs the stairs and out of the cave for what seems like the very last time. Once he’s at the top his leg finally gives way, the adrenaline fading away making it now impossible to ignore the injury in his leg, he no longer needs to stand off to Bruce so he lets himself fall but instead of hitting the ground arms wrap around him and haul him back up right.

Jason is there supporting his weight and Dick leans on him without any protest.

“C’mon Dick, you've done the hard part and now let’s get the kids away from here.”

Dick hums in response and lets Jason lead them to the foyer where their siblings are anxiously waiting for them. Life will be different for them from here on out but it’s going to be okay because they’ll get through together. Bruce made his decision to put his rules before family, Damian made a decision which saved Dick’s life, and if Bruce can’t accept that then he doesn’t deserve to have any of them around.

Dick will make sure his siblings are safe and cared for if it’s the last thing he does.

[spite-and-waffles]

I feel like neither the pro-Talia Al Ghul camp or the anti-Talia camp really care to delve deeply into the fact that she has been abused and used by her father her whole life, and is as tragic a character as Jason. Her fixating on a man as emotionally distant and obsessed with his mission as Ra's, knowing full well that he will never choose her or his children over it, is a completely accurate showcasing of the way people perpetuate their own trauma cycles.

And while I hope more people refuse to take anything Grant Morrison wrote about Talia to account, making her a good mother in reaction to it also just does not make sense. Just like Bruce, she's an example of someone who loves her child fiercely but is too traumatized and emotionally stunted to express it in healthy ways. Unlike Bruce she grew up in a literal terrorist cult and raised Damian in it as well. Her being exacting and teaching Damian to be ruthless and trust no one were all incredibly damaging and abusive, but it's also the only fucking way he could have survived the League or Ra's. Yes, she could have sent Damian to his father and keeping him by her side was selfish, but this woman, who had been starved of love and had never been anyone's priority since her mother died, finally had a person to be hers and only hers. It's horribly, tragically human to guard that love jealously and possessively.

The Tiger Mom as a trope is racist, but the emotional effects on women made to prove their worth as humans via motherhood is very much a reality that women of colour can relate to, and one not confined to just Asians. I'm only going to speak for my own people here, but the way Asian mothers make their sons their whole reason for being stems directly from the oppressively patriarchal cultures we grow up in, where a woman's worth is predicated on being a wife and mother and the highest honour she can aspire to is having a son. Ra's is the original patriarch who drilled into his daughters that they could never inherit his legacy no matter how much they proved their love, and that they owed him male heirs. Damian's very existence is tied up with Talia's idea of her own personhood and worth and achievement, which is why she piles on so many contradicting expectations on him - that he's fiercely independent but also stays by her side, become his father's perfect heir but take only her values, never be a pawn like she was, but align with her own wishes.

However you want to negotiate the racism of the way Talia is written is up to you obviously, but I feel that there's no realistic way that Talia can be a good mother (even in Son of the Demon she acted in Bruce's best interests, deceived him and abandoned her child, which actually might have been kinder than attempting to raise him in the LoA). I feel that making her one is an extremely simplistic way of dealing with the racialized misogyny her character is subjected to, and a disservice to real-life children of mothers like her, who love their children fiercely but perpetuate abuse cycles because of that very love.

For me, deconstructing and reaching past the misogyny and racism means humanising her and not making her value and sympathy as a character contingent on how good of a mother she is to Damian and Jason. Trauma and abuse slows or arrests your emotional development and makes it difficult to regulate your emotions and impulses, which is why it's a requirement for traumatized people to cognitively work on themselves in order to be good parents to their own children. Talia cannot. There's absolutely no therapist she can trust, the last time she felt close to someone she was decieved, tortured and brainwashed by her, and not only can't she get away from her father but she received a harsh object lesson from her sister on what happens when you try. This woman is a goddamn victim in every possible way, even more than Jason. It's also one of the reasons I don't buy that she allowed herself to be close to Jason, maternal feelings notwithstanding.

(Also her sleeping with him was pretty gross and unnecessary of Winick, whose writing is far from unproblematic when it comes to WoC, but it makes for a fascinating character deconstruction because afaik it happened right after Nyssa tortured her until she was brainwashed against Ra's and Bruce. So at that point in time she was basically in tatters and locked in the same self-destructive spiral as Jason, and maybe she wanted to nuke her sense of maternal care towards him in a bid to feel less emotionally vulnerable. I love this kind of psychological yarn balls in fiction.)

Absolutely none of this should absolve her choices. None of this means she's a good anything or that she should be seen as a purely sympathetic and wronged character. She's obscenely rich and powerful, ruthless, cunning and manipulative. She's one of the most dangerous people in the world. She's not fit to raise anyone. But if you can't accept all of that and square it with a fiercely loving heart and find a deeply human character then I really can't relate to you.

Let female characters of colour be human, morally grey and complex. Let fictional mothers be traumatized and deeply damaging without demonizing them. And stop moralizing female characters, I am begging you. We're far past Victorian England. Making them be on their best behaviour all the time to be sympathetic is oppressive as hell and not what storytelling is for.

[waremyth]

Marinette Kent(prob cringy)

(so Marinette is not from krypton, but she is a dormant meta, she was abused by the Dupin Chéngs since she was small when she went on a trip to metropolis with her class she met Jon Kent on that trip the two got along well together, and acted like they were siblings, Clark and Lois saw this and were happy that the two got along but after the 3 weeks were up they were upset she was leaving so they swapped phone number, one day they did a video call and noticed bruises on her and were worried she said it was just some bullies,  after a few more weeks they got the truth out because she was showing up with bruises, cuts, black eyes, they were pissed and arrested her parents for child abuse, after that the Kents adopted her and later on found out she was a meta(her powers are like ivy's but more powerful), Jon introduced Mari to Damien and they hit it off, after about 4 months they started dating, a month after that she met Bruce and his siblings, oh and she already knew about there hero identities, she decided to go and continue school in Paris, after Lila came she started getting bullied for pointing out her lies, they just called her names till the 3 year they started to get physical, Damien had started to realize make up covering some spots so him and the bats hacked into the schools cameras and Kent was there to they found out that she was being bullied(also Chloe's nice now))

Marinette P.O.V. 

i was in the back of the class talking to Chloe as she was doing a case I presume, then the door had sung open getting everyone's attention, when I looked up I saw non other than my brother Jon at the door looking worried.

"Mari!" Jon yelled

"Jon, what's wrong?" I asked in a worried tone, as soon as I said that I heard another person running.

"Angel, why didn't you tell us you were getting bullied!?" Damien said, also looking worried.

Alya had gotten up yelling "She's not getting bullied, She is the bully!"

 "I know my sister, and she wouldn't hurt a fly" Jon said "And who are you!?" "I am Jon Kent, son of Lois lane and Clark Kent, and brother of Marinette Kent" "Liar!, they only have two kids both boys!" Alya yelled out, Lois and Clark walk in" if you had researched us then you would know we have adopted her" Alya stood there with her mouth wide open while Damien came over to me and hugged me, Lila also went pale as a ghost since someone she lied about was here.

 "Eeeeck, you guys are the ones who inspired me to become a journalist!Do you like my ladyblog?Will I ever work with you?" Alya said completely forgetting what is going on, Damien looked at me like 'is she for real?' i just nod in response. Lois just glares at her and says,"Mrs. Césaire your blog is filled with false information along with many lies, I will not work with a wanna be reporter who does not fact check especially one who bullies one of my kids, and you have done both." when she was done Alya had tears in her eyes, then lila got up and told alya something that made her mad "Mari-Slut how could you do this i thought we were friends!?" she yelled at me the class just glared at me after that "Cesaire you did this to yourself, Do not blame this on my girlfriend!" Damien glares at her.

"I cant believe you Marinette did you pay them or lie to them to side with you?" Lila screeches out, I got mad at this then Damien intervenes "Rossi, you should shut up before I make you, she did not pay me or anyone, I love her and she loves me, I am in the family you had decided to lie about, my name is Damien Wayne the blood son of Bruce Wayne, and boyfriend of Marinette Kent" Lila went pale once more along with a good chunk of the class.

Adrien decided to open his mouth and said "Mari you don't want to date him he's a cocky spoiled brat" i was Pissed at that comment

I decided to speak up "Adrian Agreste, you cannot speak, he loves me and will stick up for me, you on the other hand do not care for me and would not at least help me when they hurt me, and you are also a spineless cowered who always takes the 'High road' when something happens (veins start coming out of the ground and wrapping Adrien's legs) so your the cocky brat here Agreste!" at this point everyone was shacked except the Kents, Wayne, and Chloe.

"Angel, calm down" Damien said as he hugs me, i hug back with tears in my eyes {Drama Lover!}

"Done!" Chloe said with a smirk, while everyone looks at her, she starts handing out papers to everyone in the class and put the rest on the teacher's desk. everyone looks at the papers in the class.

"Your suing us!?" the class asks

"yup" Chloe says while popping the P

"You cant do that!" Mylen yells

Buce had just walked in "actually we can, we will see you in court, Lila Rossi and Alya Cesaire you will be going to jail for you actions, now Marinette and Chloe you will be coming with us and finishing school in Gathom" we just nodded and left.

[fantasyinvader]

So, Telltale Batman.

It definitely made me feel like I was having to make hard decisions, fully aware that certain actions would alienate Bruce from people he viewed as friends. Like given the choice to save Harvey or Catwoman, driving away the one I didn't save. And in that respect, the game works so very well with how people react to you being a response to your actions… somewhat. I definitely felt that if I really were Batman, I could have done both, and sometimes character just won't like you. Bruse can try to be nice to Vicky and Oswald, but at the end of the day no matter what Bruce does they will still be damning him as a rich kid who profitted off their suffering and while that's realistic it also makes it feel like some of my choices don't really matter. I can prevent Harvey from becoming deformed, but not from being drugged and becoming Two-Face. I know this gets addressed in the sequel with Joker, but I'm just talking about the first season here.

Minor point: I love how they actually addressed Bruce going to see a movie from the 40's with his parents the night they were killed. I mean, I have that film myself, but it's not something you would still see in theaters. Martha having the theater show it just for Bruce is a nice touch, foreshadowing how she wanted to do the right thing and bring Thomas to justice.

As for Thomas Wayne being a gangster, I can't say anything other than how it hit. It establishes that this continuity is different from others, and how different moral choices can play out. This Thomas Wayne wasn't the paragon we're usually presented with, and Bruce suffers because of it. It's something that really makes you question what you want your Batman to be, is Bruce his father's son using violence to get what he wants or something better?

Aside from the game calling me out on nearly killing someone I handled non-violently and one time when the texture on Batman's chest didn't load, the whole thing felt really well put together. This felt not just like a Batman story, but a damn good one as well even if I was leaning more into being like Adam West. Can't wait to start season 2.

[wesavegotham]

if you were a dc writer and had complete freedom to do whatever you wanted with Damian would you make damian leave robin's cloak but without destroying development so he becomes an independent hero without being a red hood 2.0?

The thing is, I know sooner or later DC will give Bruce another Robin even though it keeps getting harder and harder to find a character archetype that isn't yet part of the batfamily and they also already have enough problems explaining how Bruce raised all these sidekicks without being too old to be Batman. But before that day comes I want to see DC just letting Damian be Robin. Like Dick, Jason (at least for a few years) and Tim got to be. With Damian it feels like his role is never secure.

It started with him being Robin to Dick's Batman and of course that didn't last long. After one year DC demanded that they bring back Bruce and the only reason Damian got to stay on as Robin was probably because Grant Morrison had always planned to kill him off anyway. There were also a bunch of comics in which characters told Tim he's better and their Robin, despite Damian being the official Robin.

Then Grant Morrison killed Damian off and it looked like Snyder would replace Damian with Duke or Harper as Robin. DC did decide to bring Damian back in the end, but Snyder gave Bruce amnesia and Tomasi's Batman and Robin book had to end. They gave Damian the Robin: Son of Batman solo book, which is an excellent book, but it was shortlived because of DC Rebirth. DC Rebirth seemed pretty determined to keep Damian away from Batman by putting him in two awful Teen Titans teams while they put Tim back in the Robin suit, only slapping a second R on it. Tynion made it pretty clear that it was his goal to make Tim Robin again.

Teen Titans by Adam Glass had the explicit goal to kick Damian out of the mantle in the most dishonorable way and Bendis made Tim call himself just Robin again. Since then they gave Damian a Robin solo, but after only 17 issues they cancelled it (according to Williamson not because of sales) and gave Tim a Robin solo instead. Damian has also been excluded from batfamily events for ages.

Like...can we just get Damian being Robin without anyone trying to take it from him for a few years? Letting him actually build relationships with the batfamily? He barely has one with Bruce, his own father, and most of his interactions with Dick are "remember when I was Batman and you were my Robin" nostalgia bait. His relationships with the others were either erased by the New 52 reboot (Steph), barely developed (Tim, Jason) or were never fleshed out in the first place (Cass, Kate, Barbara, Duke).

So to answer your question, if I had complete freedom I wouldn't force Damian to take a new mantle yet. I would tell the writers to stop sabotaging him because of their nostalgia or desire to make money by being the creator of the next Robin.

Damian is still too young, DC has barely used his story potential and his relationships with the other bats (and the wider DC universe) are underdeveloped. If they kicked him out of the prestigious Robin mantle for good right now I fear that DC will never fix their mistakes. DC will put out a Batman and Robin ongoing, they won't put out a Batman and "insert Damian's new mantle here" comic. We also aren't in the 90s anymore when even a new character like Azrael could hold a solo title for over a 100 issues. I genuinly believe that kicking Damian out of the mantle would just end with him getting sidelined even more.

[twinhood-2dot0]

A Shallow Dive into: The Batfam

Welcome to another episode of Alia-rants-about-stuff-she’s-passionate-about. Today, we’re exploring the Batfamily. You already know that this cast of characters is near and dear to my heart, but why exactly? That’s what you’re going to be seeing today. I wrote a post about the entire history of DC but it got too long and boring so I switched topics :P

Meet The Cast

Batman - The most iconic and second ever comic book superhero ever. Bruce Wayne was your typical rich kid, until one day while returning home from watching The Mask Of Zorro (most adaptations skip this detail but I’m pretty sure it’s canon in the comics), Thomas Wayne decided to take a shortcut FROM CRIME ALLEY, WHY DIDN’T THAT MAKE YOU RECONSIDER??? And a guy gunned down both his parents while trying to mug them but got jumpy. He vowed to war on crime and went around the world to learn literally everything he could that could help him. He returns, tries to stop a crime, gets almost killed, returns home and is sitting in a chair when a bat accidentally flew into his manor, and he took it as a sign to dress as a bat. In some versions (there are a lot of versions to this simple story somehow) Bruce had a fear of bats which also compelled him to turn his fear into criminals’ fear.

His superpowers? 

And he’s extremely smart, trained in every martial art, mastery of every weapon, even an expert marksman even though he refuses to use guns, because parents (like everything about him). In Detective Comics #1000 we see him melt down the gun that Joe Chill used to kill his parents and use it to make the symbol on his suit. He has degrees in forensic fields and engineering and computer science and probably other sciences too. He’s at peak human capabilities. I could list everything he can do but I’ll shorten it to he’s the best at everything a human is capable of doing. If you do wanna know everything, I don’t know why you would but you can check it out here.

Robin - Robin is a mantle donned by several characters. His name came from Robin Hood. I don’t know why else a Bat would have a bird sidekick. 5 characters have taken up the mantle in main continuity, namely, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and the latest, Damian Wayne.

Dick Grayson - Son of the Flying Graysons, trapeze artists famous for their circus appearances where they would perform without a net. Their lives came to a tragic end when Anthony Zucco tampered with the trapezes resulting in them falling to their deaths. Bruce Wayne happened to be in the audience, and took Dick in, because he didn’t want him to turn into what he did and help him find justice.

        He’s a founding member of the Teen Titans, starting the trend. He’s the comedic contrast to Batman, as made apparent by his costume choice. He eventually grows out of Batman’s shadow and becomes a hero in his own right, Nightwing. 

Jason Todd - Considered by many as the most interesting Robin, he did not start out so popular. After Dick left Batman’s side, Batman picked up a juvenile delinquent who attempted to steal the Batmobile’s tires as his next Robin. Fans did not like him, presumably because they felt he was usurping Dick. So, DC decided to kill him off. They published the highly influential story of “A Death In The Family” at the end of which there was a phone number fans could call and vote whether to kill him or not. Yeah, the fans really did not like him, as he was voted to die.

He later came back in “Batman: Hush”, but it was Clayface (a Batman villain with a clay body and ability to change into people), in a ploy to psychologically break Batman by Hush. Nevertheless, it was revealed that Jason’s grave was empty, in a lead up to “Under The Red Hood”, in which it was revealed that Jason was resurrected and claimed the identity of Red Hood, his killer Joker’s identity before an accident turned him into Joker. He became a murderous vigilante which did not sit right with Batman. After Batman’s death in Final Crisis, he creates an armoured Batsuit and becomes a, again, murderous Batman. Murderous is a recurring theme until recently. Dick defeats him and is forced to take up the mantle. A while after Dick became Batman, he resurfaces and goes on a very public murderous rampage leaving notes saying “Let the punishment fit the crime”. He is defeated yet again and arrested this time.

He becomes an ally of Batman following the New 52 reboot and stops killing in an effort to gain Batman’s respect. Sorry this got so long, you can see why he’s so loved now though.

Tim Drake - Tim Drake was just a normal high school kid, but he was an exceptional detective and deduced the identity of Batman and Robin, and following Jason’s death, he approached Batman to become Robin as he felt Batman was a little unhinged without Jason. Tim may not be as strong or a great fighter like Nightwing and Red Hood. He is ummm… I don’t know much about him, except that he was replaced by Damian when Dick became Batman and has other identities of Red Robin and Talon and has gone back to Robin in Rebirth??? Yeah, it’s weird.

Stephanie Brown - A Robin not many talk about. She was the girlfriend of Tim and the daughter of Cluemaster, a super-villain. When Tim’s identity was uncovered by his dad he’s forced to hang up the cape, and Steph offered to fill in for him. She became Batgirl later on along with Cassandra Cain who I’ll talk about later. She was Spoiler before she became Robin. I don’t know much again, but she is kinda rebellious.

Damian Wayne - He’s the sometimes consensual, sometimes not son of Bruce and Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s al Ghul. He was trained from birth to be an assassin then just given to Bruce I think. Then Bruce died and he became Dick’s Robin. I love their sibling dynamic though, I love seeing Dick act like an older brother.

Batgirl - The first Batgirl was Barbara Gordon, my personal favourite batfam member, the daughter of Commissioner Jim Gordon, one of the few not incorruptible cop in the GCPD. On a Halloween she dressed up in a Batman costume and fought off Killer Moth, attracting the attention of Batman. While at first not appreciative he slowly warmed up to her. She works as a librarian and is a computer genius. When crippled waist down by the Joker, she assumed the role of Oracle, an information broker to help in the batfam’s crusades.

Cassandra Cain - Cassandra is the second Batgirl. I have yet to read the very influential “No Man’s Land” event, but her first appearance was in that event. She is the daughter of David Cain, a skillful assassin. He raised her only to kill. She wasn’t even taught spoken language so that the language processing part of the brain could read body language so she could react to every action before it happens. This made her second best if not best martial artist on the planet. However a mind reading metahuman rewired her brain so she could speak, and she lost her abilities and she had to ask Lady Shiva to help her regain her abilities. 

Batwoman - Katherine Kane is the maternal cousin of Bruce Wayne raised by a Colonel. She is probably the most influential LGBTQ+ comic book superhero, being lesbian. She was in the army until she was booted for being lesbian. She was attacked by a mugger in Gotham and fends him off but Batman still arrives and inspires her. 

Azrael - Jean Paul Valley was brainwashed by “The Sacred Order of Saint Dumas” as their vengeance enacter. He crosses paths with Batman who helped him break out of his conditioning. He then helps Batman in his crime fighting endeavour. He is famous for taking up the mantle of Batman when he had his back broken by Bane in the “Knightfall” storyline. He becomes a brutal version of Batman and had to be defeated after Bruce recovered.

Alfred - Arguably the most important member of the Batfamily, he’s the Wayne family butler who practically raised Batman and his wards. He’s the man in Batpeople’s ears feeding them information and quips

Alex, I'll see you on Thursday.

-Alia

[hollandorks]

Shelby bestie, here we go. My first official essay of SITN

First off…those poor bats. They’ve finally relaxed after her return and then Bruce comes roaring in. How inconsiderate of them to not let these bats rest. If I was a bat I’d be pissed.

I know Bruce said that he could hear her nervously chewing, but I feel like he just knew that she’s nervous. Hell, he probably knew she was nervous before even arriving in the Batcave. Bruce has spent a lot of time studying her. He definitely knows what she’s feeling before she does sometimes. Love is funny like that.

Also fun fact—There are some studies that show the longer a couple has been together the more they begin to act like each other. Idk if shared trauma, like these two have, makes the process faster or some shit. Either way, poor Alfred.

I love that she dubbed his playlist “moody writing.” I wonder if he knows that. If he does he definitely have a small chuckle while affectionately rolling his eyes. It makes sense that part of the process to becoming Bruce again is engaging in things that shape a person—like music. I love her commentary while watching his night back. “You’re so dramatic.” Girl, you’ve got that right.

The news casting. Oofta. Her and Bruce were definitely not expecting it to mention his parents. I love that they reacted in the same way—them both freezing (chefs kiss). They were both thinking about different things. I imagine she was feeling anger (for bringing up Bruce’s tragedy) and concern for Bruce. Bruce…in this situation it’s hard for me to get into his mind. He’s thinking and feeling a million different things at once. I’d imagine it’s hard for him to pinpoint any single emotion, feeling, or thought.

I just feel for Bruce. He’s definitely going through retraumaization at the mention of his parents on the news—and he definitely went through it earlier at night with the mention of the son discovering his father, and then with him seeing the son himself. I just wanna wrap him up in a nice fuzzy blanket and protect him.

Side note—people being retraumatized because of media coverage is something I’m incredibly interested in learning more about.

Alfred! My man! I love him and his little juice. I know he feels bad about not bringing her juice. I can feel it in my bones. I love the description of her looking at the juice suspiciously. I too sometimes look at food and beverages suspiciously.

I love that she’s trying to lighten Bruce’s mood while they’re going through the footage after the mention of his parents. It may have gotten him out of his head a for a bit, the comment of “nerd” and I’m sure he appreciates that.

Skipping a bit ahead to another classic Alfred and Bruce fight. Them fighting just breaks my heart. With Alfred’s comment to Bruce of it “not being long until he has nothing left” I feel like he was, in a way, thinking about her. Alfred knows she loves Bruce and is in it for the long haul, but he’s seen what her not being in his life temporarily did to him. He doesn’t want to risk that happening again—in any way—like her leaving. Which Alfred knows she would never do. Also him being like “I don’t care what happens to me.” Bruce, my guy, you little fucker, you gotta start caring. You’re getting married. You really want to make her a widow? I love the small interaction her and Alfred had after Bruce left. She’s trying to look out for Alfred by making sure Bruce apologizes and I love that.

Skipping ahead again because I took a sleeping pill that’s kicking in. Bruce standing up for her against Wayne Enterprises? Chefs kiss! I know Alfred, in his head, was being like “you tell them Bruce! Stand up for your girl!” While simultaneously panicking because “Bruce wtf are you doing? That’s impolite!” Bruce knows she’s not with him for his money, but these morons don’t. I love that Bruce just wants to give her Wayne Enterprises. Chefs kiss! A small part of it is because he doesn’t care about it, and he doesn’t want to deal with it. A much larger part trusts her with it more than he trusts himself. He knows his family’s enterprise would be in good, trusted, safe hands with her.  I love that Bruce wants to spite them. I too, try to do things out of spite.

The ending scene? CHEFS KISS! I love that he’s like “you need to sleep.” That’s definitely the pot calling the kettle black. She knows it, and he definitely knows it. I’m glad he agrees to also get some sleep. I wonder what she would’ve threatened him with if he was like “nah, I’ll stay awake.”

Do I have any predications? Not currently unfortunately. Maybe I’ll dream some up. If I do I’ll drop an ask and let you know.

Side notes: I feel like Alfred definitely knew she did not eat at the restaurant. I love that she went to bed after drinking coffee. Sometimes I nap for hours after drinking it, and I’m like “I got you to wake me up a bit, not to put me to sleep.” I feel like I’ve mentioned that before but I can’t remember.

Chapter 3 was a delight and I’m glad I got to write an essay for it. It feels weird writing an essay again. Much love!

🦇

also I start my new job on Sunday!!!!

Finally answering this (after posting the next chapter OOPS)

First, how has the new job been?? You've been there almost a week! I know you said you were familiar with things already so that's good! Are you getting enough sleep or still pounding the caffeine?

Yeah the poor bats though....They really need to relocate. I'm sure Bruce alone puts them through it, nevermind everything the reader and Alfred do too.

Also, as someone who has been with their significant other for almost twelve years, we 100% act like each other. Sometimes we joke that we groomed each other (even though we're the same age, it's funnier in context than it sounds I swear) because we're so similar! So of course Bruce and y/n are spending tons of time together now that they're actually together and they can pick up on each other's moods etc way better! Even poor, emotionally stunted Bruce can!

You're right though, the idea of media coverage and trauma would be such an interesting study. Someone needs to do this!

But yes, the whole movie to me is about Bruce having his past drudged up and being re-traumatized and spiralling out of control. So obviously, I'm trying to play to that angle along with the added trauma of the events of MOTN!

Alfred. My guy. Poor Alfred and his rejected juice just trying to do the right thing by Bruce! I had to make her say something, because Bruce was being a dick--at least after MOTN he's in a bit of a healthier headspace than he canonically is in the actual movie! So I had to include a little scene where he admits to being wrong!

The meeting with the accountants was immediately something I wanted to include when I decided to do the sequel. In my mind I was like, what would make the accountants in my MOTN universe freak out? Naturally, the idea of a prenup, protecting the comapny and its shares, etc came to mind. As someone who also does things out of spite (if you ever tell me to stop something I'll do it at least once more out of spite), this scene wasn't really hard! It felt natural to have Bruce be 1) self-sacrificial in a way with his money/ company and 2) looking for a fight over y/n

I loved seeing the essay format again!! But I definitely understand if I don't get anymore, you're busier now! So don't feel any pressure to send them!

Hope you enjoy ch 4!