#Jay is still equally as annoying years later

[knifepervert]

Wrestle Kingdom 13 Press Conference: November 5, 2018 → Wrestle Kingdom 17 Press Conference: January 3, 2023

[kittydemon9000]

Okay so I was thinking about ToE and had ideas to add for my Not Today Destiny AU(tl:dr, Kai keeps Lloyd’s Green Ninja status secret from everyone and how canon is affected from there)

Also, before we get into it, because there was no Overlord messing with tech, THERE IS NO LOVE TRIANGLE! I am fully subscribed to the theory that the Overlord messed with it in order to split the team up, and it’s stupid that it worked. So no Love Triangle and no Jay Cole Fight. That’s important later.

ANYWAY, with Zane not dead they’d be a bit less desperate to go to the island, and without that incentive of keeping quiet they’d probably immediately go talk to Wu about this weird invite and the fact that other Elemental Masters existed.

Wu would fill them in, explain how Chen was definitely up to something, which has them all go in the first place, and Nya and Wu agree to stay behind to watch Lloyd and defend against Garmadon.

How does this exactly tie into this AU? Well, there were two extra letters sent, one to Kai and Lloyd respectively.

Lloyd’s letter explained how he was also being invited, and if he won he would be awarded some info about his mom. Lloyd knows the ninja would never let him go, so he opts to sneak there and then explain. Better to ask apologies than permission. But don’t worry, he left a note for Nya and Wu

Meanwhile, Kai’s explains how they have found knowledge of who the Green Ninja is, and if he wins he’ll get that info and can do whatever he wants with it.

These two are connected and also important later.

They go to the boat, Nya gets them some hidden trackers to be safe, Kai is secretly freaking out since “How the heck does Chen know???” and then Lloyd sneaks on too. Now, at first everyone just thinks Lloyd is just really short and keeps to himself. It’s not until they land and get to the main room that it finally clicks to Kai that it’s Lloyd when Chen points him out as the Master of Energy.

He of course, is very not happy that Lloyd is here and makes that very well known. The other ninja are equally unhappy while the rest of the EM’s are given a slight Moral Dilemma since yes they want to win, but that means there’s a chance of them fighting a literal child(it’s been….almost a year since they first met Lloyd so he’s about 10 right now).

Lloyd’s room is next to Kai’s, just on the other side so he still shares a balcony space with Skylor. Maybe one of the other EM’s finds Lloyd desperately looking for a Jade Blade and “accidentally” drops it so he can pass.

Later when Karlof is dropped through the floor more than a few cast a glance over to Lloyd, each silently dreading who will have to go against him. Nobody comments when Kai holds Lloyd close and if anyone saw Lloyd sneaking into Kai’s room that night, they didn’t say anything.

It’s that night when Lloyd explains why he came, which makes Kai panic even more. On one hand, he cannot let anyone else find out about Lloyd’s Destiny. But on the other….Lloyd could finally get answers for what happened to his mom unlike Kai who has no idea what happened to his parents

So yeah. Not a fun time.

But it only gets worse from there.

You see, at first each of the ninja let out a silent sigh of relief when they learned they wouldn’t have to fight Lloyd.

Wellllllllll since there’s no Love Triangle and no fighting between Cole and Jay, Chen has no reason to pit them against each other to further split up the ninja.

What he does instead? Changes things so instead it’s Kai vs Lloyd

Now, it’s plainly obvious to everyone that those two are very close, so they’re not looking froward to this next fight at all. Camille honestly isn’t sure if this is better or worse than if she had to go against him

At first, their fight is mostly a verbal one, trying to get the other to take the Jade Blade, with only the occasionally very wide shot to try and herd the other toward the Blade. At some point Kai ends up physically picking up Lloyd and trying to carry him over to the Jade Blade, yelling about how Lloyd has a chance to find his mom and he shouldn’t that up, but Lloyd is fighting him and immediately yells back that he doesn’t want to find her at the cost of his Big Brother and god if that isn’t a knife in the heart of the other EMs.

But Chen, being the bastard he is, decides this is boring because it’s going no where and release the bikes like canon, and then these two fight like a well oiled machine. 

But ofc, we can’t have nice things and the arena starts falling apart.

And Kai….as much as he’s terrified of Lloyd’s Destiny, he even more terrified of loosing Lloyd.

So with a bright smile and a good luck wish, he jumps.

That night when Chen takes away their rooms as punishment, none of them can be mad. They don’t comment either when the remaining ninja drag two of the bunk beds together a curl up around Lloyd. Instead of splitting them apart, it only lets them know that Chen is not their friend. He sees all of this as a game, going as far as to lure a child here with promises of finding his mother and making him fight the family he has left. 

This actually makes their Elemental Alliance work out better this time.

(Also this time Jay fought Ash, then Cole fought Camille(I’m also 99% sure the skating thing was just another attempt to split them up, so again it’s kinda useless here).

Meanwhile Kai does not have a fun time. Clouse is upset since 1) the plan was for Lloyd to be the one to loose, either by Kai winning or making Lloyd fall, since because he’s the green ninja he’s bound to be powerful and 2) because Skylor got attached to this stranger and Chen ordered him to make Kai useful to them. So now he’s trying to keep a very annoying, very loud prisoner while waiting from the Master of Mind to be captured so he can use those powers to make Kai more docile.

Unfortunately, a side affect of Kai being as loud and obnoxious as possible means he spends a lot of his time knocked out, so he has no idea how long he’s been stuck under or if any of his family are stuck under here too. At the very least he shares a wall with Karlof who tries his best to fill him in(when he learns who Kai was made to fight he also gets pretty pissed).

Later when they’re all dropped from the plane, all of them are quick to make sure Lloyd has a parachute. This time the objective is to a “Safe Zone,” but there’s only enough for four of them. However, the Safe Zones are, unsurprisingly, traps and there’s enough for everyone. Once you step in one, it descends, then vengestone cuffs fly out and trap the Master inside.

Skylor ends up finding Lloyd and offers to help him look for one. They end up talking and joking, Lloyd saying how Kai has an enormous crush on her and kept trying to impress her, but Lloyd thought she was good and would like Kai if they didn’t need to fight each other, which accidentally slams her with guilt. 

Some how she ends up slipping, maybe by accidentally revealing how she knows the locations/number of traps and Lloyd realizes she’s the spy which crushes him. He tries to fight her but she just pushed him onto the trap.

Going to the small cult area below, the remaining EMs are brought together. They try their best to keep Lloyd protected but he’s brought to the front anyway. Lloyd asks if they even knew about his mom, to which Chen reminisces about a woman they meet a few years ago who was stealing from them and how they stole some of her things, but they were mostly worthless. They honestly have no idea where she is, which just makes Lloyd mad.

Mad these people tricked him. Mad these people had the audacity to pretend to know his mom. Mad these people made Kai sacrifice himself for him.

However, they weren’t lying About having met Misako. That’s actually how they found out about the whole “Lloyd Being The Green Ninja” thing

But anyway. Chen steals their powers, Skylor is having a moral dilemma, and they start getting ready to Make Trouble in the Noodle Factory

Only this time when they go to steal the staff, they now have to fight Kai.

Only this time for real.

This is the replacement for the Staff Scene. Because of his affect under the Staff Kai…..isn’t really there. Like, he’s just a blank puppet. There’s the tiniest amount of emotion, but his eyes look empty.

At some point the staff goes flying and it turns into a mental tug of war between Clouse commanding Kai and Lloyd and the others trying to get through to him. Lloyd is luckily able to get to Kai enough for him to smash the jewel, releasing the EM powers and the control on him. It gives him the worst headache though.

And from there, canon is mostly the same for a while. The whole time this has been going on Zane has been having dreams/nightmares about an Ice Dragon and finally makes the connection to unlock it. Skylor is still captured, Chen still escapes but now Clouse is still around, Pythor is captured, TIME FOR THE END

This time around, the EMs are able to follow Chen to their base of operations and have the final battle there. They fight, and even though they’re only partially Anacondrai, they’re still hard to fight.

Clouse tries to do the whole “Banish You To the Departed Realm” thing, but accidentally summons the Anacondrai Generals as well, who are very not happy over what these humans are doing.

And yeah. That’s what I got.

I might do more in depth posts for some of the other seasons, not sure. But feel free to ask or submit ideas of your own

[octalove]

Back Then

(Batsis/Jason Todd/Dick Grayson)

Description: Reader’s little brother is having some trouble adjusting to his new life. Sad toward the end.

The sun was bashfully hiding behind some thin gray clouds, not unusual for any given afternoon. Leaning against my still-warm black Maybach 57, I tried not to grow impatient. “Maybe he joined an after school activity.” Dick mumbled through the Twix bar I’d picked up for him at the vending machine during lunch. He was sitting in the front seat, with the window rolled down, listening to Adele. I rolled my eyes, knowing full well that Jason Peter Todd would rather be skinned than join an after school activity. Still, though, Gotham Preparatory School for Boys had let out eleven minutes ago, and most of the other boys had gotten into their parent’s cars and sped away to their uptown abodes. Dick and I had come straight from Gotham Academy, punctual as usual, so as to avoid a folly of disapproving glares from dad and Alfred at dinner tonight. Where the hell was that kid?

“Maybe he ran away. Joined the circus.” Dick tried again. “Maybe I’m gonna put you in a circus.” “Back in a circus.” He corrected with a grin. Finally, at 4:15, Jason emerged from the school’s artfully carved wooden doors. His head was bowed, dark hair sticking up in all different directions, brow furrowed. He looked small in his school uniform, plaid socks and disheveled blazer. He hugged a book to his chest. A leathery hand lay on his shoulder, attached to a spindly man in his late 50’s, with receding salt and pepper hair, and golden oval glasses perched on his beak-like nose. I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms, and upon spotting me, the man turned pale as a ghost, just as Jason looked up to reveal a purple bruise under his eye. He snapped his gaze back down. Dick quickly assessed the situation as well, and hopped out of the car, standing equal to me at a solid 5’8, but with all the toned muscle of a gymnast since walking age. We were about to play good cop bad cop- me, the polite, sophisticated elder sister who didn’t want to involve her egregiously powerful father, unless provoked by lack of cooperation, and Dick, the ill-tempered 15-year-old brother ready to raise hell if he didn’t get a good idea of what the fuck happened.

“Headmaster Ellison.” I said tersely, smoothing out my Gotham Academy uniform. I was thoroughly familiar with him from Dick’s days at the prep school- he’d called him Headmaster Hellison, and had a catalogue of grievances as long as his list of unfinished assignments.

“Ah, Miss Wayne. You look lovely today.” I had to steel my face into something vaguely agreeable, because even though it appeared he was the one afraid of me, I was 17 and in a schoolgirl skirt, and something about getting complimented by old men always skeeved me.

“What happened?” I cut right to the point, deciding small talk might soften my resolve, and I was in the mood for this to piss me off.

“Well, you see, we had a small incident today-“

“It’s okay! Can we go home?” Jason piped up abruptly and nervously, eyes pleading with me to let it go. Unfortunately, Waynes skewed toward long grudges.

“Come here, let me see.” I said more softly. Stiffly, Jason trudged across the neatly cut grass, still avoiding my eye. The bruise itself wasn’t bad, but I could tell it had just begun to bloom.

The Headmaster cleared his throat. “Jason has been encountering some problems with some of the other boys. This wouldn’t be the first incident, but it did escalate this time-“

“Not the first incident?” I clipped.

“It never got physical before, just some small verbal altercations that we easily handled.”

“Obviously they weren’t handled.” It was Dick’s turn to interrupt. It always struck me how he could make his voice go from lazily playful to stark and authoritative, biting off words almost as effectively as dad. Who needed Batman and Robin when Y/N Wayne and Dick Grayson were on the case?

“Please, can we just go? I’m okay, honest.” Jason begged, grabbing my hand and tugging just a little. His bronzed face was all swollen and puffy- not just from the fight. I could tell his eyes were rimmed with red. But he looked at me with all the determination and bravado of a street rat from Gotham, and my heart always bled for him in that regard. I sighed.

“Well, I have violin practice here shortly, Headmaster Ellison, so I’m going to take my brother home,” I bit off the brother part with a special zeal to emphasize that Jason Todd, no matter his name or background, was a Wayne, and I was his reminder. “And my father will be calling this evening to handle it once he gets off work.” Work that includes being able to liquidize this whole school right into his bank account in the time it takes to send an email.

“Get in, Jason.” I said. He did.

After a silent ride home, in which Dick tried to coax the full story out of an increasingly moody Jason, we arrived back at the manor whereupon I briefed Alfred, concerned, supportive, and called dad, exasperated, quiet. I let my little brother stew in his room until later that night, when I finally got tired of waiting him out and knocked on the door.

“Jaybird.” I cooed softly.

“…”

“Jay. If I open this door and you’re not there, I will set up the largest manhunt this city has ever witnessed.”

“I’m okay.” A quiet voice called back, sounding annoyed.

“May I come in?” I asked.

“…”

“…”

“Ok.”

I cracked the door open. He was balled up in his window nook, engrossed in a book. The room was dark, and he was reading with a flashlight, which was really unnecessary because he had about a dozen lamps, including a really cool lava lamp that Dick had gotten him. He’d changed out of his uniform and into pants and a hoodie, his hood pulled over with the strings pulled taut. He glanced down at the keys in my hand, narrowing his eyes.

“Come on.” I said.

“Where?”

“You haven’t eaten since you got home, kiddo.” His gaze fell askance. When it came to Jason, food was the way to ensure the answer was yes, whatever the question was.

“Can you bring me back something?” He grumbled quietly after a moment. I shook my head.

“I’m going to Sherman’s. Dine in only. One time offer.” I said with a smile. He frowned.

“I don’t wanna talk to Bruce.”

“Bruce isn’t coming. Just you and me. And we don’t even have to talk.” After some consideration, he pulled himself from his nook and brushed past me on his way out. I grinned to myself. Too easy.

Sherman’s Diner was the finest restaurant experience in Gotham City. The reflection of the neon lights skewed across puddles which danced with the drizzling rain. Fuchsia, cyan, lime green, red. Cracked white tiles and a sign with Sherman himself; a little plump chef man who, despite his jovial countenance and enthusiastic smile, appeared to be weeping tears of rust. Inside, the floor was unswept, the tables a bit sticky from all the no-show teenage staff of the payroll, and one of the lights above a lonely booth flickered. Jason loved it. The waitresses loved him.

“Come on in and sit down, hun, we’ll get ya some coffee!” A blonde woman called from behind the counter. One thing about Gothamites and Diners, black coffee was a 24/7 ordeal; 9pm on a school night was no exception. I let Jason pick the booth- he usually went for the same one, creature of habit that he was. We slid into the cool, torn red leather and neither of us needed to look at the menu. We sipped our coffees quietly for a while- Jason pretending to like it because it was the worldly thing to do. He’d never admit that he only started after he saw that dad and I always passed on sugar and cream.

It seemed our little evening standoff was going to bleed into the night. I took it as an opportunity to show him how patient I could be when necessary. The waitress- Darcy- set down a small slice of Oreo cake on the table. For him. Finally, he sighed, taking a bite of it.

“I hate school.” He mumbled.

“The school? Or the kids?” He didn’t answer. “What happened, Jay? Last week you loved school.”

“I like English.” He offered.

“Jason.” I said, leaning forward and folding my hands on the table. Food hadn’t worked. Patience was out the window. It was time to apply pressure. “If you don’t tell me who hit you, I, on my honor as a Wayne, am obligated to track down every snotty little boy who ever set foot in Gotham Prep and hit their snotty little faces to see how they like it.”

Jason’s lips tugged into a smile, which he fought, and eventually lost. So he hid it behind his cake. But after a minute, his smile fell. Something else crossed his face and he looked out the window.

“I hit first.” He said quietly. Solemnly. I blinked at him, surprised.

“You did?”

“Yeah. Jared Mullins. I hit him first.”

“Why?”

He sniffed, furrowing his brow to try and fool me into believing he was something tougher than a ten year old boy. Maybe he was. Tougher than the likes of whoever the hell Jared Mullins was. “He said…”

I waited.

“He said I was poor. Said I don’t belong at the school. That Bruce only took me in cause he felt sorry for me.”

“Sounds like he deserved to get hit.” I sipped my coffee. He didn’t smile again. A beat passed in its place.

“I don’t know why I hit him.”

“Because it was a stupid thing to say.” He shook his head.

“That’s not it. He was right.”

My heart fluttered in my chest. “Jason! The fuck he was. You know that’s not true.” Alfred would’ve been appalled to have me cuss in front of him, as if it wasn’t a large majority of his vocabulary since before he came to the manor.

“You don’t get it.” He said, eyes glued to the rain on the window. “You’re his daughter. His real daughter.”

“And Dick isn’t his real son?” Dick was usually the one to advise him when his legitimacy came into question, not me. Because in truth, I didn’t understand. Jason didn’t answer the question. A plate of chicken tenders and fries appeared, but they went untouched.

“Look at me please.” He did.

“It doesn’t matter that you’re not dad’s real son. And it definitely doesn’t matter that Jared whoever the hell thinks so or not. Dad took you in because of who you are, and everything you’re going to be. You belong in this family and wherever else you go, because you’re worthy of everything Gotham has to offer- and more.”

Jason’s face crumpled a little before he composed himself, blinking fast and wrestling with the emotion. He didn’t say thanks, but that was thanks enough.

“Hey. Did you see how scared Headmaster Hellison was?” I asked smugly.

A small smile. “Yeah.”

“That’s because you’re one of us. And we scare the piss out of people like him and Jared Mullins. Cause we’re a damn good family.”

Jason smiled at me. “Yeah. I guess we are.”

*

People like us

I watched- all I could do was watch. There was no way in hell I could stop him. The Jason that stood before me was 6’3 and impenetrable. Even if I thought I could get the gun from his hand, I wasn’t going to save anyone. The only thing about himself he kept when he drug himself out of the grave was his stubborn conviction. Anyone he wanted dead would wind up that way.

Scare the piss out of people like him.

The man let out a guttural, desperate noise as he tried to crawl away, pale as a ghost as Jason stood over him. He was a criminal, to be sure, but not one willing to die for his trade. Evidently, that wasn’t enough.

Cause we’re a damn good family.

“Red Hood! Stand down, now.” Batman’s voice snarled, echoing off of the concrete walls and floor. I flinched. Jason didn’t. A single shot, blood spatter, all the rest. His red monochrome helmet was on the ground, black hair all mussed and disheveled from the fight. A bruise was blooming under his eye.

His gaze flicked up, landing on me. Any trace, any remnant of my brother was gone. The man who came back was a dejected, solemn thing, who carried this dark look in his eye and looked like he could eat me whole. I tried to convey something to him with my eyes. It didn’t appear to take effect.

“You’re late to the party.” His voice rumbled in his chest, and he turned his attention to Batman.

I tried not to let my voice shake as I stepped forward.

“We’re here now.” I said.

His jaw clenched at the sound of my voice. Something grim passed his features.

“Yeah. I guess we are.”

[dovewingz]

moonkitti bramblesquirrel video: summary notes

please keep in mind that because i wanted to keep things shorter and, well, summarized, i included close to no quotes. moon uses a lot of quotes, so if you want evidence from within the text i would suggest skimming through the video. secondly, i didn’t include any of my personal opinions for obvious reasons.

link to video. content warning for discussions of abuse.

BRIEF SUMMARY: to say that bramblesquirrel are both entirely in the wrong is completely ignoring the consistent signs of an abuser that bramblestar exhibits, just as squirrelflight behaves like a victim of abuse. there is a clear power imbalance between them that has been present since the beginning of their relationship.

NOTES: about a 10 minute read

INTRO > the fandom has brought about a belief/take that squirrelflight and bramblestar are equally bad to each other. this is a compromise; a way to excuse bramblestar’s poor behaviour & find reason for him to treat squirrelflight poorly.

> the fandom consistently brings up reasons for him to treat her cruelly (victim blaming), as though someone being annoying is any reason to treat them badly.

> the fandom also jumps between using cat morals (the warrior code) and human morals to back up their opinions. when squirrelflight helped the sisters, she disobeyed her leader (against the code), but it was for a morally good reason. she was doing the right thing.

> there is a clear power imbalance between bramblestar and squirrelflight. more on that later.

THE NEW PROPHECY > squirrelflight doesn’t trust hawkfrost, and neither does leafpool based on previous experience. when she confronts brambleclaw about this, he believes that this is because of who hawkfrost’s father is. squirrelflight insists that that is not why.

> brambleclaw continues to work with hawkfrost, training in the dark forest with tigerstar (the one thing that he is upset with squirrelflight for accusing him of). he believes that hawkfrost is a good person, even when mudclaw reveals that he and hawkfrost were working together.

> brambleclaw doesn’t listen to squirrelflight’s concerns or take her seriously. they do not trust each other.

> throughout their hawkfrost-disagreement, brambleclaw continues to find excuses to punish/scold her. squirrelflight defends herself, acting aggressive/defensive. she’s growing closer with ashfur, trusting him and preferring how he treats her. >>> “that’s what you want, is it? a loyal warrior to follow after you and smooth all the thorns out of your pelt?” brambleclaw mocks her for wanting someone who will treat her kindly.

> brambleclaw continues to get more controlling and aggressive, while ashfur is overprotective and also controlling/babies her. brambleclaw is very cold and passive-aggressive towards squirrelflight & her relationship with ashfur. it is unclear whether ashsquirrel are mates or not, but they are likely in the middle phase (on the path to becoming mates but not officially mates yet).

> squirrelflight eventually realizes she still has feelings for brambleclaw (for some reason) and breaks it off with ashfur. leafpool receives a vision from starclan which confirms that they are bramblesquirrel shippers too! wow thanks starclan.

> to conclude: brambleclaw was projecting his insecurities about tigerstar onto squirrelflight (while also training in the DF with tiger). he pushes her away when she attempts to talk with him, and goes out of his way to boss her around/control her. squirrelflight was not intentionally trying to upset him.

LEAFPOOL’S WISH > brambleclaw isn’t treating squirrelflight like an equal. >>> “brambleclaw wants me to fetch soaked moss for the nursery, even though it’s an apprentice task. he hasn’t stopped giving out orders since firestar made him deputy!” /// “...treating me like i’m still wet behind the ears.”

> squirrelflight is having issues only a month into the (new, romantic) relationship. she feels patronized. there has almost always been a power imbalance in their relationship (apprentice/warrior and now warrior/deputy).

> when it comes to the three, squirrelflight states multiple times that she doesn’t want to lie to brambleclaw. she doesn’t change her mind until she finds out that she is barren and will never have biological children. starclan themselves tell her this, pressuring her into taking the kits.

POWER OF THE THREE and OMEN OF THE STARS > their relationship is solid until hollyleaf reveals the truth about her parents at the gathering. brambleclaw breaks up with squirrelflight on the spot, not understanding why she didn’t trust him enough to tell him.

> the question is, can we trust brambleclaw? he trained in the dark forest and never told her, he held a grudge against squirrelflight for months, etc. of course he had every right to break up with her, but squirrelflight rightfully had worries.

> after their break up, brambleclaw avoids, ignores and acts very passive-aggressively towards her. in forth apprentice, it is mentioned that they hadn’t spoken in months. their only communication was squirrelflight watching him longingly & sadly.

> before the tribe quest, squirrelflight asks brambleclaw if he has a message for the tribe. jayfeather detects something else in her voice, and he realizes that she wants brambleclaw to show her any kind of sign that he still cares about her.

> after finding out about the three’s powers, brambleclaw accuses her of lying, intentionally trying to hurt him, etc. they fight several times. then, suddenly, near the end of the last hope, they are on good terms. this is a pattern in their relationship: brambleclaw only treating squirrelflight fairly during/after a huge crisis has occurred. this time, it’s the last hope battle. after the battle, he trusts her and makes her deputy.

> why does brambleclaw suddenly trust her after treating her so passive-aggressively for a whole year? he manipulated and controlled her, punished her for hurting him, and there was still a power imbalance. he’s not just her mate, he’s now her leader.

> while brambleclaw gave her the cold-shoulder, squirrelflight acted very submissive and sad. she’s typically headstrong, independent and active. brambleclaw makes her act scared.

BRAMBLESTAR’S STORM > bramblesquirrel are not together and their relationship seems to work best this way.

> bramblestar chose squirrelflight as deputy because she has her own ideas and will challenge him. he’s glad she’s deputy and thinks she’s good at her job, believing that he would be “lost without her.”

> scenes with jessy are trying to show us that squirrelflight is jealous. during a couple of scenes, squirrelflight does act unreasonably and snaps at bramblestar, where jessy defends him. >>> “wow, is she always like this?” “yeah, pretty much.” - bramblestar and jessy > later, bramblestar and jessy go out together. when they get back, bramblestar forgets to tell anybody that he saw windclan trespassing for, like, 10 minutes. squirrelflight is frustrated, but even after he gets injured, she doesn’t scold him.

> after they help shadowclan, bramblestar understands why squirrelflight lied to him. she was protecting leafpool, which he gets because he would also do anything for his sister. he says he respects her and her courage. they also acknowledge that lion, jay and holly are their real kids. >>> “squirrelflight and i share a bond that cannot be broken” - inner monologue from bramblestar 

A VISION OF SHADOWS > squirrelflight is pregnant, proving that starclan lied to her about being barren. bramblesquirrel have some casual scenes, although squirrelflight is a bit “toned down” / not as independent. this may just be because she’s not a pov character or because she’s getting older.

thats literally it

SQUIRRELFLIGHT’S HOPE this one is like 50% of the video!

> squirrelflight likes the idea of having another litter of kits and bramblestar gives her a vague response. it is important to note that she didn’t ask anything, she just mentioned the idea.

> she changes the subject, wanting to feel like they’re young again! bramblestar is serious and talks about the gathering. it is implied that they haven’t had fun in a while and that he isn’t giving her much attention.

> they discuss the skyclan territory dispute at the gathering. bramblestar doesn’t want thunderclan or skyclan to give away territory. squirrelflight gives her own solution, that there is territory above thunder and shadow. she believes that this is an open discussion for different ideas.

> after the gathering, he is furious at her for giving her own idea without discussing it with him first, and that skyclan will have to move again. he also mentions that the territory she’s talking about could have dangerous animals, and that warriors could die because of her idea.

> because this is a discussion over territory, squirrelflight mentions that the clans are getting bigger + that there will be new kits by new-leaf. throughout the entire talk, he had been growling and lashing his tail.

> bramblestar deflects and brings up something that she had already dropped: having more kits. he is scolding her, attempting to trivialize her feelings. he runs away, and squirrelflight follows him, trying to continue the discussion. >>> then he guilt-trips her, “isn’t being deputy enough?” he is accusatory and it is clear that he doesn’t want to have this discussion. > squirrelflight explains that she’s worried because she knows she’s getting older and wants another littler before it’s too late. to herself, she worries that because bramblestar has nine lives, he will live longer than her and eventually replace her. >>> “don’t you love me anymore?” she asks. could be a guilt-trip, could be a genuine question because squirrelflight feels unloved.

> afterwards, bramblestar apologies. he admits that he brought up the kits out of anger because he felt like she wasn’t on his side at the meeting. he says that he would love to have another litter with her, but squirrelflight can Tell that he doesn’t, he’s just saying it because she wants kits. she never brings up the topic of kits again.

> moon super briefly goes over the cycle of abuse: tension between the abuser and the abused (abused feels anxious), abuser lashes out, then afterwards feels bad/apologizes + there’s a brief “peace” period. this happens multiple times in the bramblesquirrel relationship, with hawkfrost, with the three, etc. something else to note is that every time they reconcile, they have a litter of kits, so it wouldn’t be hard to say that squirrelflight associates the “peace” period with motherhood.

> squirrelflight feels very guilty, like she’s replaceable, and blames herself. she goes over the argument in her head again. eventually, she and leafstar go explore the territory beyond thunderclan. squirrelflight feels bad about lying to bramblestar, but doesn’t tell him even when given the opportunity (running into sparkpelt). she believes that she is doing the morally right thing but knows that bramblestar wouldnt agree with her.

> while she’s with the sisters, she only grows more anxious, feels bad for the trouble she’s causing thunderclan, and worries about bramblestar’s anger.

> when thunderclan find her and bring her back to camp, bramblestar puts a restriction on her. if she’s “going to act like an apprentice,” then she must run every decision by him. no more going off on her own, no more “arguing” at the gathering. he is using his power as leader to control her. he threatens to replace her as deputy, causing squirrelflight to panic about how he no longer trusts her.

> later, bramblestar micromanages her. he orders squirrelflight to tell him how she’s organizing the dawn patrol and blatantly insults her methods. bramblestar is using a “trust exercise” to express his anger and lash out. squirrelflight defends herself, saying that she loves him & her clan. >>> “bramblestar was supposed to be her mate. why couldn’t he talk to her instead of trying to make her feel small?”

> after sparkpelt reveals that she’s pregnant and bramblestar mentions having kits to squirrelflight, squirrelflight snaps at him. she feels guilty about it. she also feels bad about not being happier for sparkpelt, feeling selfish, guilty for wanting something that bramblestar doesn’t, and scared that she’s never going to be happy again. she feels as though she’s making all the wrong choices.

> squirrelflight finds sunrise (a sister) injured and brings her to camp, knowing that bramblestar will be angry (as does the rest of the clan), but wanting to do the right thing. bramblestar refuses to help sunrise until he gets starclan’s approval, but it’s clear that he is acting out of anger towards squirrelflight.

> the message from starclan is incredibly vague, and bramblesquirrel disagree over it. squirrelflight insists on helping sunrise no matter bramblestar’s feelings, and bramblestar worries that helping sunrise will cause tension between the clans.

> when leafpool goes to help sunrise, bramblestar stands in front of her as a way to physically threaten her to step back. squirrelflight worries that bramblestar will fight leafpool just to stop her, so she jumps in front of leafpool to protect her. while this is happening, sunrise is dying. >>> “we can’t keep doing this. if you keep undermining my authority, you could destroy the whole clan” despite bramblestar’s words, squirrelflight wants to do what she knows is right. she believes that thunderclan is stronger than any leader/deputy disputes. >>> “why are you doing this to me? you’re my deputy. you’re my mate. you’re supposed to support me” /// “thanks to you, there’s not even unity in thunderclan anymore.” bramblestar guilt-trips her, unable to physically intimidate anyone into stopping. squirrelflight isn’t trying to hurt him, she’s trying to do what’s right.

> later on, bramblestar suddenly forgives her, but implies that he is willing to put the sisters in danger for what was previously squirrelflight’s plan. he wants to drive the sisters out by force. > tension between the clans grow, which sparkpelt blames bramblestar for. squirrelflight jumps to his defense. >>> “why are you sticking up for him? he’s hardly spoken to you in days. he’s been treating you like an apprentice. and you’re defending him! why are you being such a mouseheart?” sparkpelt says, making it clear that other cats are aware of bramblesquirrel’s toxicity. > bramblestar does not see squirrelflight as an equal. when he’s upset with her, he treats her as such, talking down to her, giving her apprentice-jobs, etc.

> bramblesquirrel haven’t properly made-up. squirrelflight is too anxious to talk to him, worried that she’ll make things worse or that he’ll lash out at her. she believes that bramblestar blames her for everything that’s wrong. as bramblestar plans the patrol to attack the sisters, squirrelflight hides away. he questions her about it, and she says that she doesn’t agree with what he’s doing, while bramblestar expects her to back him up no matter what.

> squirrelflight feels like he believes borders/battles are the only thing he cares about + bramblestar feels like the sisters are the only thing she cares about. he believes that he’s following the will of starclan. after that, squirrelflight apologizes to bramblestar and they say that they love each other. she supports him in front of the clan, despite the fact that she does not agree with what he’s doing.

> that night, she has a dream about kits dying in battle, and knows it was a prophetic warning. she talks to leafpool about this and they realize it was moonlight’s kits. they run ahead of the patrol, bramblesquirrel argue, they decide to attack then they don’t... it eventually results in squirrelflight’s death.

> [ moon skipped the starclan trial ]

> much like in other times, such as during the new prophecy and the last hope’s final battle, it takes a huge crisis for bramblestar to realize that he needs to treat squirrelflight fairly & apologize. he apologizes while she’s Dead, and once she wakes up he’s super worried about her. >>> “...don’t be sorry. don’t be sorry for anything. i was so worried. i love you so much. we should never have let things get so bad. i’ll never let it happen again.” even here, bramblestar is being manipulative, not fully taking the blame (”we”) and acting as though they are both equally at fault.

> from here, bramblestar is extra loving and supportive, defending her at the gathering. squirrelflight decides that she no longer wants another litter, she can be content with helping sparkpelt’s + the clan’s kits, plus she has bramblestar’s affection.

OUTRO/CONCLUSION my notes were getting less detailed by the end, but moon just reinstates some point she’s already made (as expected)

> bramblesquirrel follow the same patterns as the cycle of abuse. bramblestar consistently finds reasons to put her down and does things out of anger (even admitting to that). squirrelflight is constantly thinking about his anger and how he’ll lash out at her.

> there is a severe power imbalance in their relationship and there has been since the beginning. bramblestar does not treat her as though she’s on the same level as him.

> particularly in squirrelflight’s hope, the text presents squirrelflight as being in the right. she does what she believes is morally just, and bramblestar is shown as the antagonist. she constantly feels guilty and never even thinks of placing her wants/needs over his.

> it does not matter how many flaws squirrelflight has, it does not matter if she is annoying or entitled (she’s not) or bratty, she does not deserve to be abused. she is a victim of bramblestar’s abuse.

[literallythebiggestfuckingsimp]

Twenty-four days of hell

jj maybank x reader

( GIF CREDIT: @rudypankows )

Twenty-four days. It’s been twenty-four days since you last spoke to JJ, and it’s killing you. Your heart feels heavier and heavier with each day passing, and the fight won’t stop replaying itself in your head. It’s torture for you, and as hard as you will for it to just stop, it won’t.

“Well, maybe I don’t want to be just friends!” you screamed, and his eyebrows furrowed.

“The fuck you mean, just friends!?” he had yelled back, equally as angry.

You shook your head. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t think I do!” JJ yelled, taking a step closer.

You scoffed. “I’m not gonna keep playing this game with you, Jay. I’m not gonna keep letting you fuck with my head, it’s not fair.”

“I’m not playing a fucking game, Y/N! So let’s just stop this shit and pretend it didn’t happen, alright!”

“No,” you said. You watched as JJ’s jaw clenched. “No, I’m not gonna keep pretending like everything’s okay. Like you’re not with me every morning and running back to her every night. I’m not fucking doing it, JJ.”

“I’m not—“ he paused, sucking in a breath. “I’m not fucking around with you, okay? I promise, I’m not.”

You shook your head, disbelieving. “I’m done.” You turned your back, walking away, only for his hand to grip onto your wrist. You spun around to face him.

“You’re done, are you? You’re just gonna— just gonna walk away like I don’t even fucking exist to you anymore.”

You pushed him back and he stumbled, his jaw slack and tears in his eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

That was the last time you had seen him.

That moment twenty-four days ago on the beach was the last time you had heard his voice, seen his face, touched his skin, and you were lost without him. You don’t think you realised how much that stupid little fight would affect you, but you just couldn’t keep doing it.

You couldn’t keep pretending like you were okay when you saw her hand in his, when you saw her lips crashing against his, their bodies a jumble of limbs between each other. Not when it was your hand in his only a few hours ago, your lips on his, your bodies intertwined.

It was breaking you. Slowly but surely, it was shattering you to pieces.

You didn’t think it would be this hard when you agreed to it at first. When JJ had kissed you that night, and you had kissed him back, not caring that he had a girlfriend, only focused on the feeling of his lips on your skin.

It was stupid. And for the first time, you think you remember why you and Kie had come up with the ‘no pogue on pogue macking’ rule. Because all it takes is two, and the whole group comes crashing down with you. And then, well, then you’re lost.

You don’t know if Cheryl knows what you had been doing with JJ for a good month or two now, and you tell yourself that you don’t care, but that’s not true. You care too much, if anything.

If he hadn’t told her, so what? He doesn’t care about you, you know that. He doesn’t give a shit, and neither should you. But, god, you can’t help it. You can’t help that you’re helplessly in— not in love, no. It wasn’t love, not yet, but it could be ... You’re helplessly in .. like with him. It sounds stupid, but you don’t know how else to describe your infatuation.

You’re lying on the soft grass, picking it with your fingers, staring up into the sky, thinking about him. This is where you had met JJ first, at your 7th birthday party. Unbeknownst to you, your mum had invited practically the whole neighbourhood. You weren’t rich, so it was only a small party with jugs of squash, a few bowls of crisps and a huge cake your mum and little sister had baked for you.

It was nice.

At first, you were shocked when all these random kids showed up, because you didn’t know these people. You’d seen a few of them at school, sure, but you really had no idea who they were. You got scared and hid yourself away in your room, sure that no one would come into the house.

That was until someone did.

A small blond headed boy with shining blue eyes opened the door, looking behind him to make sure no one was following him. You stayed silent, confused as to what he was doing. He shut the door quietly, sneaking over to your desk and taking your favourite pen.

Clearly, he had not seen you sat in the corner of the room, looking at him annoyed.

“Can I help you?” you spoke up, eyes narrowed and glaring. He jumped when he head your voice, turning around at the speed of lightning to face you.

“Uh, yeah, I was just, uhhh,” he said, panicked, “looking for the bathroom.”

“Rightttt,” you stretched out, standing up and brushing off your legs. “And that’s why you took my pen?”

His eyes widened slightly, and he laughed it off. “Ohhh, this?” he asked, holding the pen up. It was pink and sparkly, you weren’t sure why he’d want it. “Nice pen. Very sparkly.”

You just glared at him, hands crossed over our chest. “Yeah, and it’s mine. Why are you in here, anyway?”

“Told you, bathroom.” He shrugged, looking at you curiously. “Why are you here? Isn’t this, I dunno, your party?”

You huffed and rolled your eyes. “Yeah, but I don’t know like anyone here,” you admit.

“Im JJ,” he said, holding out his hand to shake your hand. You eye it suspiciously at first, but eventually give in and shake it.

“Y/N,” you nod. He grinned, and you forgot about how he had tried to steal your pen.

You didn’t know it then, but you had made a forever friend. You didn’t know that you would fall in love with him then, that you would later come to get your heart broken by him.

You didn’t know that he would keep the pen, and although you both know it’s stupid, he still has it, tucked away in his dresser as a ‘emblem of your friendship.’ You won’t ever admit it, but you love that he still has it. In fact, you think it’s adorable.

Oh, how much you want to go back to then, when everything was so much simpler.

Your thoughts are broken by the familiar ding of your phone, indicating a new message. You know that it’s probably just another text from Kie, John B, or Pope, but you check anyway, just to be sure.

JB🖕🏻

get ur ass to mine. mandatory

pogue meeting.

Y/N

mandatory? that’s a big word,

surprised you know it

JB🖕🏻

ha. ha.

JB🖕🏻

just get here

Y/N

i’m good, thanks

JB🖕🏻

u can’t just keep ignoring him,

we haven’t seen u in ages

Y/N

watch me.

With that, you switch off your phone, turning it on silent and continuing to lounge on the grass, looking up at the sky.

—

“Ugh, dude,” John B groans, putting his phone on the counter. “She says she’s not coming. Can’t you just go and talk to her already?”

JJ glares at him. “Hell no.”

“Come on, JJ,” Kiara whines. “It’s not fair that none of us get to see her anymore.”

“She’s right, you fucked up. Big time. And we’re paying the consequences,” Pope adds.

JJ rolls his eyes, taking a large swig of his beer. “You’re just agreeing with her ‘cause she got you pussy whipped.”

“I do not,” Kiara says, glaring at him. Pope stays quiet, eyes slightly wide with the confrontation.

“Whatever, man, just talk to her,” says John B, plopping himself down on the sofa.

“Fine,” JJ spits, grabbing his beer and sauntering out of John B’s house.

“You better not fuck up again!” Kie calls out behind him. JJ grumbles under his breath on his way to yours. He knows the way by muscle memory, and at first he really isn’t going to go — he’s just gonna pretend he did and say you didn’t want to talk. But then he gets closer to your house, and he starts to think about how much he’s missed you. How much he wants you back in his life, so he takes a chance.

—

Your peace is disrupted as you hear the soft pads of feet against the gravelly pavement, walking onto the grass and over towards you.

You know who it is, and you hate that you do, because you’ve memorised him down to the weight of his footsteps. JJ.

You make no move to recognise the fact that he’s there, but you both know you know he is. Your eyes glisten with tears, and he gulps, because he did that to you. Him, who would never dream of hurting you, not in a thousand years, has. And it nearly breaks him inside.

Eventually, he comes to lay beside you. Neither of you speak, and a tense silence fills the air. It’s not a comfortable silence, rather filled with unsaid words and the heavy weight of hurt and guilt instead.

“I broke up with Cheryl yesterday,” he says, after a long silence. You don’t answer him, just continuing to stare up at the sky, but your heart gives a small lurch of joy.

Maybe he does care, after all ...

Your words fail you, and all you can say is, “Okay.” This is the moment you’ve been dreading for those full twenty-four days, actually having to talk it out with him, face even more rejection than you already have.

You don’t think he likes you any more than a friend. You don’t think he likes you the way you like him. But you’re wrong.

“Okay?” he asks incredulously. “Okay? Is that all you’re gonna say to me?”

You sigh. “I don’t know what else there is to say.”

“A lot, Y/N. A whole damn lot,” he says, and he sounds like he doesn’t want to talk about the ‘a lot’, and you understand that, because you don’t either.

“We ... ” you start, but you trail off. “We don’t have to talk about it now. Y’know, take it slow kind of thing.”

JJ smiles. You can’t see him, because you’re looking up at the sky, but you know that he smiles because you know him.

“Okay,” he says.

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

JJ reaches out to intertwine his fingers with yours, and you let him, squeezing his hand in return. He squeezes back.

There’s a comfortable silence, and you both lay on the soft grass, looking up at the sky, holding hands, grinning like love-crazed fools — which, you suppose, you are.

The silence doesn’t just mean silence at this point. It means all the months of going back and forth meant something more. It means, in so many more ways than words can say, hope. Hope for the future and hope for each other.

So you keep the silence, and you bask in that hope, because the twenty-four days of hell and all that happened before doesn’t matter anymore.

All that matters is you and him, and the hopeful silence you lay in, touching in such a simple but intimate way with so many unspoken words between you that the silence seems to sum out.

Twenty-four days of hell and it was worth it.

A/N: hi :)

also oops there’s a little fault in our stars reference there by accident

[sinagrace]

Iceman’s been back on my mind lately. It started with the internet rumor that Shia Labeouf was being considered to play the role of Bobby Drake in a Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the X-Men. My DMs and @Mentions on social media were a mixture of intense reaction and then asking my take on who would make a great Bobby Drake (for the record: in my head I always saw him as a younger Antoni Porowski with a theater background, ‘cuz playing the funny guy with a vulnerable streak requires serious acting shops). My mind went back to the time of BC, when I was doing a lot of touring, and answering this very question because of my work on the Iceman book at Marvel. One thing led to another, and I decided to take a trip further down memory lane to look at my favorite volume of the series: Amazing Friends. Now, I know I’ve spent equal amounts of time publicly stating what a gift working on Iceman was, while also calling out the challenges that came with the experience, but the third volume really was a pure blessing. I was able to take every valuable lesson I learned as a writer, and apply it to telling a story that would be interesting to one person: Me. I’ve been a lifelong X-Men fan, I live and breathe comics, so my own expectations for a return to the series seemed like the only ones to really worry about meeting/ surpassing. The first two volumes had been so bogged down by rotating editors, complex continuity, company-wide events, multiple artists… The third volume was my chance to focus on what an Iceman series was outside of so much context. All that mattered was challenging myself to do an X-Men story that focused on the aspects of the franchise I felt were valuable and relevant, meaning: excuses to have Emma Frost be an asshole and finding an opportunity to make fun of Kitty Pryde’s haircut. Before moving on from Marvel, Axel Alonso made time to call me for a pep talk about the series. I wanted to get the series extended, and he wanted to help me succeed with the ten issues he could commit to. First, he offered an eleventh issue to give me more time on the stands. He took a look at everything I had planned, and basically told me to restructure with an eye for ramping up the pace. My writing background comes from prose and essays/ think pieces… both of which are methodical and provide some allowance from the reader to really take your time and set up the world before diving into the meat. That’s not the case with comics. You gotta work fast. Especially in today’s market, there is less and less room for a retailer to say, “give it two volumes, because shit starts really coming together by the third trade.” That was literally my speech for hooking people on such iconic series as Invincible, Fables, and Strangers in Paradise. Nowadays, every single issue is not a brick to be laid down as foundation so much as a bullet in your gun. Conflicting imagery, but that’s the point. Axel told me to think about the Big Moments in my life and sort out how to inject the mutant metaphor into it and make the most compelling comic book story I could. This was epic advice that I took with me into the new arc, but I struggled a bit with what could be bigger than the “coming out” storyline in volume one. Love was off the table because I wanted to keep Bobby single and ready to mingle. Death was off the table too, because my editor felt like we’d done enough with Bobby’s parents in the first two volumes. Upon looking at my own life, and considering the stuff me and my friends were dealing with, I landed on something a bit more reflective than LIFE or DEATH. I wanted to focus on that moment when a gay guy looks outside of himself and realizes the folks around him may not have it so easy. After everything we’ve been dealing with this summer, Iceman’s “big issue” of the arc feels oddly prescient. Bobby Drake had to reconcile his accidental complicit role in keeping the Morlocks down, and he has to investigate new approaches to being a better ally to those who don’t want to or can’t live under the protection of the X-Men. I used the Morlocks to allegorically speak to the issues that the trans/ NB community face today. Considering that trans folks are facing higher rates of homelessness and murder than other members of the LGBTQIA+ community, all I needed to do was find a perfect villain to treat the Morlocks as “lesser-than.” Cue Mister Sinister, who I wrote as particularly Darwinist with a major flair for interactive theater. While Amazing Friends definitely is the most fun I’ve had working on the book, it was also full of the heaviest shit I’ve written about. I’m so grateful that my editor let me use Emma Frost for a story about the trauma of gay conversion therapy with her brother Christian, but I’m still annoyed he wouldn’t let me put her in a sickening Givenchy outfit for her reveal. Similarly, creating the Madin character required that I chat with several mental healthcare professionals and members of the NB community to respectfully portray them as a resilient and fleshed out hero. I included personal lessons that I learned from years of the therapy (the sandcastle / sea image, a Jay Edidin fave moment). My editor and I weren’t always aligned, but we definitely were on each other’s side. He understood what I was trying to do and asked questions when something flew over his head, and he even had the good instincts to stop me from going too heavy handed with the ending. My original idea for the arc’s finale was to have Bobby become permanently scarred in his fight with Sinister, where he’d have a cool ice gash running across his face or something, a la Squall from Final Fantasy 8. The goal was to show Iceman stripping himself of his ability to pass as non-mutant to save the Morlocks, but the Mutant Pride fight scene being a stand-in for the Stonewall Riots kind of already made enough of a statement. Plus, no one in editorial wanted to deal with remembering to track his scar in other books. At first I tried to balk at his point of view, but when I looked over my original notes for the series, the point was to focus on optimism and hope. Giving Bobby a permanent scar and emphasizing the notion of sacrifice was too bleak a message for a series wherein the hero carbo-loads hoagies while riding an ice scooter and mutant drag queens emcee local festivals. Of course, the crowning achievement of the series… my mutant drag queen :) I’ve witnessed a lot when it comes to the world of pop culture and myth-making, and I 100% believe that you can’t plan the success of something. I’ve seen bands forced into breaking up because labels spend six figures failing at making listeners connect with an album. I witnessed firsthand how The Walking Dead was built from relatively humble beginnings as a buzzy cable drama into a literal international phenomenon over the course of its first three seasons. Everyone hopes for the best, but you never know how something will land with audiences. When the Shade character took off, I was truly astounded. Things I posted on Instagram while half-asleep became official quotes on major news sites. Queens and cosplayers were interpreting her like Margot Robbie had unveiled a new Harley Quinn lewk. The impact was so legit and immediate that we had to jump in and give Shade a proper Marvel hero alias, to truly welcome her into the X-Men canon. Hence the name change to Darkveil. (Funny story: I tried to fight hard for Madame X as an alias, but CB didn’t want another Agent X / “X-Name” character. Three months later, Madonna announced the Madame X album. Phew!) There was a time where I felt uncertain that the folks in charge at Marvel would bring Darkveil into any stories outside of the ones I wrote. My understanding was that Hickman was like the Cylons and had A Plan-- one that didn’t include her character. I made peace with my contribution to the Marvel Universe being contained, but then someone on social media pointed out that Darkveil showed up in an issue of Marvel Voices. After breaking down and reading Hickman’s House of X, I saw that his Plan was one of endless possibilities, and that he was moving EVERY character into new and dynamic places. I have hope now that he sees the possibilities with Darkveil, and takes advantage of her and all of her many body pouches. Amazing Friends really is my favorite thing I’ve done for the Big Two. I made a lifelong friend out of artist Nate Stockman (DC, please hire us for a Plasticman book), and I got to run a victory lap with the most encouraging and supportive readers out there. It was worth every dreadful conversation, every shitty thing a person said to me online, and all of the fun nonsense that goes into being creative for a living. Being stuck at home in quarantine has given me a lot of time to reflect on the gift that my career to date has been, and I feel so grateful to be where I am today. Other people may groan when they have to talk about something they’ve moved on from, but not me. I made people happier, I got to work with my favorite characters at Marvel, and and I'll say it again: it’s a frickin’ gift to make people move from your work. So, I will engage every tweet or message asking me my thoughts about who should play Bobby Drake in the Marvel Cinematic Universe… I’ll just never have a good answer.

[kgraces]

Famine

A follow-up to Tire Iron and Surprise Siblings. Also available on Ao3!

Tim’s life used to be silent. He moved around his own house—not a home, never a home—like a ghost. That house was more of a mausoleum than a place for living, breathing people to occupy. Tim always felt like just another relic his parents had dug up somewhere and left behind on a shelf to gather dust. He grew up alone, and the most affection he’d ever received as a young child was a pat on the head when he behaved himself at a high-society function. 

Dick Grayson had been the exception. He gave Tim his first hug, and then Tim watched as the boy’s life fell, fell, fell apart before his eyes. And then Batman swooped in, and Tim’s life changed, just a little. He spent the next few years scouring the news for any reports on either of them, and years later, when six-year-old Tim Drake met Dick Grayson again at a gala—a framed picture wrapped neatly in cheery Christmas colors tucked tightly in his grip—he was surprised to be remembered. Dick had given him a hug that night, too. His second hug ever. 

When he was nine, he found out Robin’s secret identity, and he kept quiet. He would never want to put Dick Grayson at risk. The older boy was just so nice, and Tim idolized both the acrobat and the vigilante. He snuck out at night—not that anyone was ever there to notice, anyways—and followed Batman and Robin’s adventures. Sometimes, feeling more like a ghost than a person had its benefits, and being able to follow his heroes around without being noticed was definitely one of his favorites. He was a silent little shadow, a whisper in the night breeze, a lonely little boy who went four more years after that gala without a third hug. 

Then, Tim met Jason, and his life stopped being silent. For the first time ever, he had people who cared about him—people who weren’t half a world away. It was strange and new, but it was wonderful. Dick and Jason became his older brothers, and Tim loved them fiercely. Dick and Jason seemed to love him fiercely back, and it was so different from anything Tim had ever experienced before. 

Dick was visiting again; he’d been coming back to Gotham more and more often since he met Tim and Jason. He immediately scooped Tim into a hug when he got back to the manor, sweeping him up into his arms so Tim’s toes didn’t even touch the ground. A laugh bubbled up from Tim’s chest, and he leaned into the hug, excited to see his oldest brother. Dick didn’t even bother to set him down, he just moved Tim into a piggyback carry, so he could walk and let Tim cling to him at the same time. 

“Hey Alf, I’m home!” He called out, making his way into the kitchen. Jason sat at the counter, working on homework, and he glanced up at the sound of Dick’s voice. He flashed a grin at Tim and Dick before turning his attention back to algebra. Alfred glanced over his shoulder, elbow-deep in dishwater, and offered the boys a warm welcome. Tim’s arms were still looped around Dick’s neck, his face buried in his older brother’s shoulder. 

“How’s your homework going, Jay?” Tim asked softly. He still wasn’t used to needing to speak loud enough for other people to hear him, but he was working on it. Jason smiled up at Tim, who was peeking over Dick’s shoulder, his pale blue eyes wide and curious.

“It’s going fine, Timbit,” he said. “But it’d go a lot faster if my genius little brother would help me out.” He stuck his tongue out, and Tim laughed. 

“You’re really smart,” he said cheerfully. “You can do it!” 

“Yeah,” Dick said, ruffling Jason’s hair and snagging a few cookies from the plate Alfred left on the counter. “And after you finish up here, you can join us for a movie marathon. How does that sound?” Jason’s eyes lit up, and he nodded, turning back to his homework with renewed vigor. Dick snorted, sending a conspiratorial look to Tim. 

They made their way to the theater room, and Dick dropped Tim on one of the huge couches, taking the space next to him a moment later. Tim immediately curled into Dick’s side, leeching off his warmth and the feeling of having someone nearby. Dick’s arm wrapped around his shoulders, drawing him closer. 

“I’m glad you’re with us, Timmy,” Dick said. His voice was full of affection and sadness, and the oddness of the tone made Tim glance up at him, confused. Dick caught his look and offered him a small smile. “I just wish we’d found you sooner, is all.” 

“Because of my parents?” Tim asked, already seeing the answer in Dick’s eyes. It wasn’t a surprise when Dick nodded in response, but it made Tim frown, all the same. “Jason is the one who deserved better parents. Mine provided for me, right?”

“Not completely,” Dick said, brushing a hand through Tim’s hair. The sadness still didn’t creep out of his eyes. “They left you alone, Timmy, and no kid deserves to be left all alone. Kids—especially you and Jason—deserve lots of love.” 

Tim bit his lip. He wasn’t sure he completely agreed with Dick. Of course Jason needed them, but he wasn’t sure how he fit into that picture. He’d been fine on his own—been loved by his parents, even at a distance. His needs were met, but somehow, Bruce had won custody over him. Tim knew about neglect, from an academic standpoint, but he didn’t understand why his parents needed to be there with him when he could take care of himself just fine. It didn’t make sense to him. Dick must have sensed his churning thoughts, because he pulled Tim into his lap. 

“Tim,” he said, expression serious but still brimming with affection. “Material needs and emotional needs are equally important.” He watched as Tim melted into the hold, and he had to fight back the urge to squeeze him tight and never let go. “Like hugs, for example,” he said. “People need physical affection, or they run the risk of suffering from touch starvation.”

Tim’s eyes flashed with understanding. He looked down at his hands, twisting his fingers together. The puzzle pieces began to settle into place, forming the bigger picture for him to see and understand. 

“Oh,” he said quietly. He hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not he should put a voice to his thoughts. “Did you know that, until I moved in, you were the only person who’d ever hugged me?” 

Dick’s heart broke, shattered into a million pieces in his chest. He made a soft, wounded sound and pulled his baby brother closer. He didn’t bother trying to stop the tears from falling onto the top of Tim’s head.

“I’m so sorry, Timmy,” he crooned. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Tim said, voice almost too quiet to be heard, even with their closeness. “I went from being able to count on one hand—with fingers left over—how many hugs I’ve ever gotten to getting more than that every single day.” He patted Dick’s arm, wanting to offer some small comfort to his big brother. “I’m really glad I’ve got you guys now.” He paused for a moment. “Is that why you and Jason are always giving me hugs?”

“Absolutely,” Jason’s voice replied from the doorway. “Finally figured us out?” He asked, moving to join them on the couch. He curled up as close as he could to Dick and Tim. Tim reached out a hand, which Jason took. He was shaking a little, but he trusted his older brothers to keep him steady.

“I’m not used to it,” Tim admitted. “But, it’s really nice. My parents didn’t like it when I asked for comfort, even when I was little. I started having really bad nightmares after that night at the circus, and I think I annoyed them by constantly asking to sleep in their bed or for a hug. They took a six month trip a week after.”

Jason gritted his teeth, anger sparking to life in his eyes. It died as soon as he met Tim’s steady gaze, and his shoulders slumped. He hated Tim’s parents for treating him like he was little more than a shiny bauble to show off when they needed to impress people. They didn’t see Tim, the brilliant, dorky kid who loves Alfred’s scones and Star Wars, the kid who can talk circles around Jason about the most random, specific topics. Jason didn’t think he could ever forgive Tim’s parents for starving Tim of the love he deserved. He knew Dick and Tim felt the same about his own parents, and he and Tim hurt for Dick’s loss, too. 

Jason thought that’s the way a family should be, even if he never had it for himself until he stumbled his way into the Waynes’ lives. Tim didn’t seem to fully understand it yet, but they were working on it. Tim had been starved his whole life, and it was up to Jason and Dick to show him just how much he deserved. Tim’s grip on his hand wavered a little, fingers trembling, and Jason sent him a reassuring smile in response to the unasked question. No, he wasn’t going to let go. Tim smiled back, relaxing back against Dick’s chest. 

“Can we stay like this for a little while?” Tim asked, a warble of hesitation in his voice. Dick and Jason exchanged a pained look. Tim was still so uncertain, but he was trying. 

“Of course we can, Timmy,” Dick said. He threaded his fingers through Tim’s hair, smoothing out the tangles. 

“Thank you,” Tim said, and the sincerity in his tone was painful to hear.

“Anytime, Timbit,” Jason said, drawing himself as close to his little brother as he could. Ordinarily, he’d shy away from so much close contact; years living with Willis Todd had taught him to avoid being within fist’s reach, but they both needed to learn how to give and accept what most people took for granted: hugs and hair-ruffles and having other people there for them. Tim, perceptive as ever, seemed to catch onto Jason’s line of thinking and squeezed his hand. 

They fell quiet, and it wasn’t quite contentment, but it was something inching closer to it, little by little. For Tim, it was enough. It was more than he’d ever dared hope for, and it was something incredibly new and precious. Having other people around him, not walking around in his own home like a shadow or a forgotten relic, wasn’t something he was used to, yet. But he was learning. He was getting used to being able to rely on other people, for other people to rely on him. 

He wasn’t like Dick or Jay. He still technically had parents, but now he had a family. His mom and dad had given him anything but their time. Dick and Jay were there for him, and even when they were busy, they always made him feel noticed and appreciated. He settled in Dick’s hold, one hand still tightly clinging to Jason’s. He drank in the touch and the warmth like he was dying of thirst.

He had brothers—brothers he loved with all his heart. And as difficult as it was to really let himself believe it, he knew they loved him back.

[mischiefandspirits]

Colony of Gotham (7/7)

The Colony of Gotham is an urban legend that is whispered about in the dangerous city. It’s said the Colony is a family of demons and spirits that stalk the night, hunting for the souls of the guilty.

When Bruce became Batman, he’d never intended to be mistaken for a demon. He was happy to lean into it, though, and as he gained his partners – as his family grew – they all followed suit.

First Part ~ Previous Part

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once Tigress had escorted Flash and Young Justice to the Watchtower and had calmed everyone down, she explained that the Colony was not, in fact, malevolent.

She told them that the family was simply territorial of the area they protected. Their actions had just been them making their point in their typical chaotic and playful way. She and Flash had encountered some of the Colony the night before and after assuring them they would continue to keep their business out of the city, the bats and birds had agreed to a truce. The Flash's kidnapping was just Flash wanting to get in on the joke. He was meant to show up that night with a figurative olive branch from the Colony, but then Young Justice had rushed in and the Colony reacted in kind by capturing them. They then informed Flash so he and Tigress could return them. The team was reprimanded for rushing in without backup and Flash was given extra monitor duty as punishment for his trick. He accepted it graciously, having expected it.

When they made it back to Gotham, Dick explained Damian’s past to Artemis and Wally. The latter was not pleased to discover the young boy he’d been teasing and calling cute for years was an assassin.

“He might be a former assassin, but he’s still adorable.”

“No, Dick, you don’t call people who can and will slit your throat if you upset them adorable. You could have warned me! I nearly died!”

“A lot,” Jason added from off to the side where the rest of Dick’s siblings were watching the show with popcorn.

“Damian wouldn't have actually killed you,” Dick argued.

“Maybe just maimed you a little. But hey, you heal fast.”

“Not helping Tiny Jay,” Dick hissed as Wally pointed at Tim and nodded.

“Maimed! I could have been maimed! Just because I heal fast doesn’t mean getting maimed doesn’t hurt!”

“Dami never meant to kill. Dami only meant to maim or seriously injure,” Carrie croaked from right behind the speedster, causing him to jump with a shriek.

“No voice filters in the manor,” Dick huffed at her before turning to his siblings as a whole. “Guys, please stop traumatizing my partners!”

Artemis, who until this point had been pinching the bridge of her nose, looked up with a murderous expression. “YOU STARTED IT!”

When Bruce and Selina returned from their honeymoon, the kids explained what had happened.

Bruce would never admit it, but he was proud of how the kids handled the situation. They ensured the other teams wouldn’t interfere in Gotham and limited the amount of information that got out about them to people who were already trusted. That said, he would have preferred they had taken the situation more seriously, which he made sure they knew.

No matter how amusing the recordings Barbara had shown him of the heroes’ reactions were.

He also would have preferred no information got out about them, but he knew it was only a matter of time for those who did find out. Young Justice was just a little too invested in Tim’s wellbeing, not that he was complaining, so they were sure to notice something eventually. As for Wally and Artemis, he’d been waiting for this since they’d found out the family’s other secret.

Selina had bet the engagement announcement would happen first, but he knew Dick wouldn’t have agreed without all secrets coming to light first.

He was a little less forgiving of the rest of the kids taking this as permission to tell their friends.

He wasn’t too annoyed with Damian as Jon had already suspected there was something different about the family (he was too much like his mother) and he mostly excused Stephanie and Bette seeing as Cassie already knew, which meant they were more likely to mess up in the group chat. He didn’t say anything to Barbara, partly because she wasn’t really his (no matter how much he cared for her) and partly because she’d somehow managed to convince Hank and Dawn she was still a demon.

He did have talks with Dick, Jason, and Carrie though. Kory might have been a friend of the family for longer than Jason had been a member (as Dick had been quick to point out in his defense), but they hadn’t been as close since the breakup. Artemis Grace tended to be a wild card in regards to her loyalties and her team had a looser grasp on the law then most others in their business (Jason took offense to this, of course, even if he didn’t object). As for Traci, they simply didn’t know her (No, Carrie, a two day round trip does not give you plenty of time to know a person. No, I don’t care if you managed to convince her you were a demon. Barbara’s situation is different!).

There was a bright side to this, though. The mix of information that the heroes had ended up causing a few amusing situations.

One such situation came up a few months later when Tim, Stephanie, and Bette were hanging out with their friends at Mount Justice. Bette offhandedly mentioned to Cissie that Damian’s mother was part of “the League” right before the three Gothamites got called away. This resulted in Cissie, who thought the Robins were human, gossiping with Roy, who thought Robin was a demon, about how “Batman totally knocked up someone in the JL and Robin’s the result.” This resulted in Oliver, who’d been eavesdropping, ending a League meeting by asking if anyone knew who’d spawned the Bloody Robin. The information reached anyone even remotely connected to the League within twenty-four hours.

The Colony just sat back and watched the accidental chaos, obviously.

The most common theory was Wonder Woman, though no one was willing to suggest it anywhere she might hear. One of Hawkgirl’s past lives was also a popular theory, and she was horrified when she realized she couldn’t be sure it wasn’t true.

It came to a head when the Titans decided to have a get together of current and former Titans and Teen Titans. Guests were allowed, so Kory and Roy invited Artemis Grace and Bizarro. Assuming the event would be boring and wanting to either have someone who would lighten it up or be bored with her, Artemis only agreed to come if Red Hood came too. To the horror of everyone not in the know, Kory not only agreed, but decided to extend the invite to all the younger members of the Colony.

Nightwing and Robin arrived first with Tigress and Flash, the older bird arm in arm with Tigress while the younger was sitting on Flash’s shoulders. Both gave too wide grins as they waved at the Titans and Teen Titans who were already gathered. Robin dropped limply off Flash’s shoulders and hit the ground in a roll before running off to drape herself over Thirteen.

Batgirl, Hawkfire, and Lark arrived next with Cassie and Donna, to the latter’s obvious discomfort. They were quickly joined by Cissie and Kara as Donna went off to greet her friends. Batgirl took great joy in disappearing and reappearing around the room, while Lark took great joy in selling her out every chance he got since he could always see where she was. Hawkfire was equally thrilled to use the voices of anyone who got near, having made sure to study up on as many people who’d be at the party as possible so she could mimic their voices.

The rest of Young Justice arrived shortly later with Superboy, Corvid, and Robin. The last surprised most of the people who’d already been there, until they realized Robin was no longer at Thirteen’s side despite many being sure she’d been there only a second before. Throughout the party Robin seemed to disappear from Thirteen’s side, only to reappear across the room at Superboy’s within a second. Some even swore they’d seen Robin in two places at once, but no one was ever sure. Meanwhile Corvid’s speech pattern had him sticking close to a member of the Colony or Kory so they could translate for him.

No one was exactly sure when Black Bat and Bluebird arrived. They were simply there, hovering around some of the others or hidden off in a corner. No one ever seemed to notice Black Bat come or go between groups either. She always seemed to just be there.

Pythia had been there from the beginning, but she mostly just kept to herself, watching and listening through the cameras, until Hawk and Dove arrived. Then she whispered at them through the nearest speaker. This meant the two mostly stayed off to the side on their own, but neither felt any need to complain.

Roy, Artemis, Bizarro, and Red Hood arrived after the party was already in full swing with no reason for being late other than a joke from Roy about being fashionable. Red Hood had a similar experience to Corvid, though Kory could not translate for him while Artemis and Bizarro could. Artemis had placed a comm into her ear for the occasion, but not even the Colony could explain how Bizarro managed to always know what Red Hood was saying.

Despite the Colony’s eccentricities, the party went smoothly.

Until someone brought up Robin’s heritage, at least.

The Robin with Thirteen snickered when she heard and disappeared into the shadows. Corvid, who had also been near, shook his head and let her slip under his cape as he headed towards where Kon and Lark were talking.

The debate began to spread until Beast Boy huffed and turned to Bluebird. “So who popped out the demon spawn?”

The room fell silent and a few people gave him terrified expressions before glancing at the Colony. The shapeshifter squirmed, not having meant for his voice to be as loud as it was.

The thing was, every Robin had been referred to as a demon spawn at multiple points in their lives, and Black Bat had had the title thrown at her a few times too. As such the group couldn’t help themselves.

With eerie synchrony, Dick, Stephanie, Bette, Duke, Damian, and Carrie all answered, “My mom.”

Most noticed that Jason, Tim, and Cass had all answered as well in growls, trills, and sign language respectively, which only added to the confusion or horror everyone in the room was feeling.

Those who knew the group to be the Wayne family and associates were confused about why they had all answered, and why answer like that as they had thought their friends had separate mothers. Didn’t they? Those who knew they were not actually demons were also thrown by how the group had managed to speak as one.

Meanwhile those who knew nothing were terrified as they came to the incorrect conclusion that a member of the Justice League had somehow managed to spawn most of the Colony without anyone finding out.

The Colony refused to say any names, but otherwise most of them were happy to answer questions about their mother. This really only managed to confuse people more, however. Especially when people would get conflicting answers. That was near always, really, as Nightwing was describing his mother; Red Hood was describing Catherine Todd; Corvid was switching between his mother and Selina; Batgirl was switching between her mother, Kate, Selina, and Talia (the middle two purely for the amusement and the last for the looks she’d get from Robin whenever he caught her at it); Hawkfire was describing her mother; Black Bat was just gesturing for Bluebird to describe her own mother; Lark was describing his mother; and both Robins were describing Selina (though Damian would later state it was purely for the consistency with his fellow Robin).

It was only after the party when the Colony, Young Justice, Tigress, Flash, Starfire, Artemis, Arrowette, Supergirl, Superboy, and Thirteen retreated to the cave that anyone got a real answer.

“Oh, Dami’s mother is from the League of Assassins, not the Justice League. There must have been a mix up somewhere.”

Surprisingly, this did not bring relief to anyone. Especially when they found out his mother was none other than Talia al Ghul.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One calm day, Artemis dragged her partners down to the cave’s sparring mats so she could see what Dick could do firsthand. He did not disappoint as he quickly pinned Wally.

“Well, this explains why Jade seems to like him so much,” the speedster muttered from his place facedown on the mat.

Artemis frowned as Dick sat next to their boyfriend, patting his back. “Wait… Oh my God, Dick! You sa-Is tea code for getting your butt kicked by my sister?”

Dick looked up with a sheepish grin. “No, tea is code for kicking your sister's butt.”

“You…”

He shrugged. “In her defense, she wasn’t expecting someone with my level of training. The fight would have been much closer if she had been.”

Wally looked up with wide eyes. “Hold on, she actually tried to kill you then?”

Dick gave Artemis a look. “You probably should have told her we were together. She thought Wally had cheated on or dumped you. I thought it was actually kind of sweet, really, but Bruce was ticked when he found out and I think Jason was considering hunting her down.”

Artemis threw her hands in the air and marched off. She dug her phone out of her pocket.

“‘Ello?” Jade’s sleepy voice answered.

“You tried to kill my boyfriend!”

“Oh, you found out about that?”

“Why didn't you tell me he could fight? And well enough to defeat you.”

“You didn’t know? Why did you think I approved? I don’t approve of the speedster and he has powers. He really needs to learn how to fight without relying on them.”

Artemis could admit she had a point on both fronts, but wouldn’t admit it. “Dick’s sweet and charming. I swear if he had a superpower it would be making friends. I just thought he’d made you like him.”

“Yes. By being a competent fighter. Although if he’s going around bragging about defeating me I might need to teach him a lesson, being brothers with an al Ghul or not.”

“Wait, you knew about his brother being Ra’s al Ghul’s grandson too?” Artemis choked.

“You really need to pay more attention to who you’re dating.”

“Who’s dating the brother of an al Ghul?”

Artemis blushed. “Is that Roy? Are you two still together?”

“It’s complicated. And before you freak out, we were just sleeping when you called. Actually sleeping.” Quieter, likely from holding the phone away, she heard Jade say, “Artemis is. Her little Gotham squeeze has league connections.”

“Jade,” Artemis hissed.

“League. You mean Damian? Of course he’s… Hold on!” There was some static and then Roy was talking directly into the phone. “I’m coming to Gotham.”

“No.”

He came to Gotham. He showed up right on the porch of Wayne Manor hours later looking more excited than she’d seen him in years.

“Please tell me Damian Wayne is who I think he is,” he said as soon as she marched up to where he was waiting outside. “Please tell me he is because I need to know if everyone has been freaking out thinking Robin’s the kid of Wonder Woman when he’s actually Talia al Ghul’s spawn.”

“Please tell me you didn’t ditch my sister to come here,” she shot back, glancing around to be sure her sister wasn’t hiding in any shadows.

“She took off after we had morn-”

“Nope. Shut up.”

“So is he?”

Artemis glanced over her shoulder to see Wally and Dick watching. Dick shrugged and she sighed. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I’m not ruining it. So Jason is Hood.”

“Yes.”

“And Dick is -”

“Yes.”

“This is amazing.”

“If you get yourself shot don’t come crying to me.”

“I’d die happy. You haven’t heard the things Ollie and Dinah have been saying. This is the best inside joke I’ve ever heard and I hate you for keeping it from me.”

“I only found out after the Titan party last week.”

“That’s an entire week where you kept me out of the loop.”

“You want to come in for food or are you going to go track down my brother?” Dick called.

Roy shrugged and they started for the door before his eyes widened and he glanced between the three. “So that stuff about Flamebird?”

“He was just messing around to tease Wally and freak out the League. Just like everything he and his family have done since Zatanna dragged them into the spotlight. That’s how I realized he was Nightwing. They are exactly the same level of troll.”

“I love everything about this.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Are you sure?” Dick asked.

“Absolutely not,” Wally said, but grabbed the blood bar Dick was holding out anyway.

“If you don-

“We’re fine,” Artemis said, grabbing her own bar. “Wally’s just whining like usual.”

“I’m just saying, we have no idea how this will affect me.”

“Duke’s a meta and he was fine.”

“He’s not connected to the Speed Force.”

Dick reached forward to grab Wally’s bar. “You don’t have to -

“I want to,” Wally said, jerking the bar away, grabbing Dick’s hand with his free one. “I do. I’m just nervous.”

“As per usual,” Artemis teased and kissed the speedster's cheek. Dick stepped closer and she kissed him as well before pulling the wrapper off her bar. She met their eyes, then took a bite.

She began to sway as she finished it so Dick helped her over to the bed. All the while Wally tossed his bar between his hands. He pulled it open and frowned down at it.

Dick pulled him to the bed once Artemis was settled. “It’s alright if you want to back out. Neither of us would blame you.”

Wally shook his head and sat down. “I want this, I do. I just can’t stop thinking about what could go wrong. Like, what if my body already burned through whatever it is that’s supposed to turn me.”

Dick cocked his head and slipped into his lap. He leaned down to nuzzle Wally’s neck, earning a sharp intake. “I can bite you while you eat it. Then your body won’t have time.”

The speedster shivered and swallowed. His free hand came up to card through Dick’s hair as he gave a quick nod.

Smiling, Dick peppered a few teasing kisses across his jugular before biting down.

Wally shivered again and melted into Dick for a moment before bringing the bar up and taking a bite. He finished it off quickly as Dick pulled away.

“It doesn’t taste like blood,” he said with a frown, tossing aside the wrapper as he licked his lips. “I don’t know what it tastes like, but it isn’t blood.”

“That means it’s working,” Dick said.

“Really?”

“You think Stephanie would have downed an entire bottle of blood by accident if she could taste it the same way a human does?” Dick pressed a kiss to the corner of Wally’s mouth. “Blood has a special flavor to us unlike anything else.”

Wally hummed and kissed Dick until his mind started to fog up. Dick helped him lay back then covered him up when the fever took him.

The bird took a moment to just stare down at the two, his thumb brushing the band on his left ring finger.

It was made from strips of black and gold titanium twisted together with rubies peaking through the cracks. It matched the one on Artemis’s hand, gifts from their wonderful fiancé.

Dick gave both a quick peck then left them to rest.

Things were sure to get crazy soon enough, especially once the announcements went out, but for now, Dick would revel in the calm and the feeling of family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vampires’ animal forms:

Artemis: North American cougar

Wally: Vizsla dog

[brindaneer]

Finally, its time for some magic! Or may be we should say 'Jadoo'.

We remember hearing first about Koi Mil.Gaya when Mr. Rakesh Roshan announced it, possibly during the Zee Cine Awards ceremony of 2001 (the year when Hrithik swept up all awards for KNPH). By the time it released, a few years had passed which was natural considering the grandeur and scale of the film. Mr. Rakesh Roshan astutely conceived of a novel idea in the form of ET meeting Forrest Gump and gave us something Hindi cinema had never seen. Let us take a moment to deeply acknowledge this man, whose razor sharp mind not only engendered such a unique concept but also gave him the vision and stamina to actually turn it into reality.

Koi Mil Gaya was undoubtedly going to be one of the most ambitious projects Bollywood had seen till then, and the greatest challenge the Roshans had yet embarked upon. It would have been no trivial feat if they had managed to be even moderately successful in such a difficult venture. Instead, they broke box office records, and passed with flying colours.

The fact that Hrithik Roshan is one of those rare actors in bollywood who has a terrific following among kids is widely acknowledged at present. However, it was probably John Abraham, who first pointed it out, some time after Koi Mil Gaya. He said that a 'Superstar' was someone who could attract children, thereby pulling entire families into the theatre and in his opinion Hrithik was the only one like that in his generation. More than a decade later, his statement still holds true. And 'Koi Mil Gaya' was where it all actually began. Although KNPH had catapulted him into stardom literally overnight, KMG was the film that began endearing Hrithik to kids. This frenzy reached a peak after Kkrish but more on that later. Hrithik literally played a child in the movie, and he did it with such perfection that kids immediately considered him as their best friend. Last time the Indian audience had seen a similar performance was years ago when the wonderful Sri Devi ji (May she rest in peace) had played the role of Reshmi in the splendid 'Sadma'. Not surprisingly, critics compared Hrithik's performance in the film with hers, and every one of them unanimously agreed that both performances were flawless.

Hrithik changed his voice, his way of speaking, his looks and his body language so much that he actually looked like a little boy. He was optimally sweet, innocent, and annoying, just like you would expect a naughty child to be. Some of his best scenes were with the ever glorious Rekha ji who played his mother in the film. Rekha Ji has often claimed that if she ever had a son, he would be like Hrithik. Offscreen, they actually share a similar relationship and probably that fuelled their amazing mother-son chemistry on screen. The other fantastic partnership in the film was between Hrithik and Preity Zinta. Rohit and Nisha were one of the most unconventional couples of Bollywood. And also, one of the cutest! ☺☺

Nonetheless, the best pair in the film was undoubtedly Rohit and Jadoo. Hindi cinema has been responsible for presenting us with a number of iconic friendship duos over the years. Mohan-Ashok, Anand-Bhaskar, Somu-Vicky, Vijay-Sher Khan, Jai-Veeru, Vijay-Ravi, Kishan-Bishan, Ram and Rahim, Amar-Prem, Munna-Cirquit constitute quite an elite club and Rohit -Jadoo definitely made it to the list.

The kids who played Rohit's mates also deserve a mention here. Hrithik surely must have had a gala time while shooting scenes with them.

However, it was the script and direction that really binded the film together. We have often seen films fail dismally despite having a stellar cast, and the reason for such failure is almost always a lacklustre script or uninspiring direction. Fortunately, Koi Mil Gaya was perfect in both these departments, as a result of which Hrithik could literally soar above every other performer that year.

A few words need to be mentioned about the music of the film although it needs no introduction. The songs were a rage then; they are equally hummable now. Sadly, present bollywood rarely makes such melodious music anymore! The good old days...Ah! But let us not lament. Instead, why do we not just relive those moments for a while? Hrithik dancing in Rohit’s character remains one of the best bits of acting he has done in his life.

Coming to the scenes! Yes, the most exciting part 😉! It is really difficult to choose favourites from a film like Koi Mil Gaya. Even so, we decided to give it a shot. Lets start with the moment when Rohit discovered that he had not been promoted with his friends. Didn't the sudden disappointment on Rohit's previously excited face make you want to go and give him a cuddle? 🥺 Also, don't even try to tell us that you did not cry when the goons broke his scooter and later hit him with the basket ball leaving him battered and bruised or when he pleaded to Lord Krishna for more strength ('Thodi shakti mujhe de do Bhagwan) 😟🥺😭😭.

And what about the scene in which he was angry and upset about Nisha not being his 'girlfriend'? Hrithik and Rejha ji in intense emotional scenes are always a treat to watch. The scene where Jadoo met Rohit and Nisha for the first time and healed Rohit's scars with his touch after that iconic hand extension moment attracted silent awe from the audience in theatres then and remains goosebump- inducing even now. No discussion about Koi Mil Gaya can ever be complete without mentioning Rohit's splendid transition. We got the Greek God on screen for a few scenes in which he generated hysteria among the audience that had been viewing him as a son or younger brother for most part of the film. What an actor! The ending was bittersweet for many. After all, Rohit did revert back to his childish self as a price for saving Jadoo's life. But, Jadoo gave him his powers back! And thank God for that. How else would he go to Singapore and meet Dr. Siddhant Arya later in his life? Our Superhero Kkrish would not have a villain to kill in his debut film! My God, worse could have happened. Kkrish would have never become a superhero if Jadoo had not given Rohit his powers back! So well done Jadoo 🤗🤗

OMG! This blog has been running over pages! Excuse us for the length 😁. But one of us did watch KMG from the first row, all the while straining neck on the first day of its release. The other one watched it comfortably the first time ( tickets were prebooked, of course) but got a sore neck after watching it from the front row a second time, and also gave the same to the entire family. However, no one complained. So, now you know what this film means to us. Thank you for your love, encouragement and support. They keep us going. Adios Amigos till the next one 😉😊

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 4x07-- The Gang Discovers Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein

What a weird episode. 

This episode is something else. The writers REALLY overestimated how much the audience (or at least the fandom) liked the pee tape and Melania divorce episodes if they thought this was a good idea.

My recollection of those episodes is that because everything was fake-but-real, the stakes wound up feeling lower and I stopped caring, and when I’m not on board with the plot, the surreal shit and the whimsy feel more annoying than innovative. This episode might fare slightly better in my opinion than the other two because of its central device (more on that later) but it’s (somehow!!!) even more audacious and wild than the episodes that came before. Not my favorite look for the show. 

I DO like the tributes to musicians we’ve lost to COVID-19 that play over the credits.My one quibble is that they could’ve used a little card to inform viewers what’s going on and why. Last week I caught the artist in the captions but this week I missed it (or it wasn’t there), though I figured out pretty quickly it was John Prine.

Starting off an episode with Liz is always a good choice. 

Liz and Marissa are, for reasons we’ll discover later, in New York and investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s “suicide.” 

It drives me INSANE that Marissa consistently has the sound on her phone on. I think we’d know she was taking pictures without it. 

Liz’s old boss, Wilbur Dincon, has tasked Liz to independently investigate what happened. If this case goes well, RBL will get more business from the DOJ.

I’m sorry, did you just say “S-H-U” instead of pronouncing it like “shoe”? I mean, I’m an expert on prisons because I watched Orange is the New Black so I know it should be said like “shoe.” (tbh i have no idea if one is more correct than the other)

This case has lots of details but it’s really only the thematic points that matter, so I likely won’t discuss any plot points… just what they’re going for. 

Good to know Liz was ahead of the curve on knowing Epstein was a dangerous creep. 

Liz is promised she can investigate anyone she wants and think outside the box. Sure. I believe this as much as I believe Diane is in charge of pro-bono stuff because STR Laurie has great intentions.

“Synergy” is such a great bullshit word. Has everyone ever said it for a reason other than the following three: (1) To mock the word synergy (2) as a euphemism for cost-cutting measures that will fuck over employees (3) because they think it sounds professional and want to cover up the fact they don’t know what they’re talking about?

In this case, “synergy” means that RBL needs to cut their payroll by 20%. Fun times.

Diane and Adrian (Liz is downstairs) are not happy about this, even when Mr. Firth reminds them it’s more money for them. They’d rather have less money personally but happier employees since they’re not soulless.

Mr. Firth says they have to do the layoffs. But if it’s any consolation, they get to hand pick who to lay off!

The dogs are still being walked through RBL, in case it wasn’t clear enough that STRL sucks.

The whole firm gets to work on sorting through the Epstein evidence. Liz tries to keep things organized-- murder evidence on one side, suicide evidence on the other.

Associates, however, immediately begin interpreting the word “evidence” loosely. Is there a photo of Epstein with someone they’d like to suspect of murder? Then it’s “evidence of murder”. Ok, Leah. 

As expected, this immediately turns into bickering over politics. Sorry Liz-- it’s going to be tough to keep your staff on target with this one. 

“No! No conspiracy theories. No insane charges. Everything we do, we need evidence, so let’s start here.” Ah, if only everyone could think like Liz.

The room focuses on evidence for about two minutes. Then they find a way to make it about conspiracies again. Go team! 

Also everyone at RBL thinks they have better knowledge than professional medical examiners of the marks left on someone’s neck after they hang themselves. They also all believe that pretending to strangle themselves is the best way to prove their point. It’s a hilarious sight for Diane and Adrian to happen upon.

Adrian and Diane immediately start seeing their employees as numbers and imagining the cost savings of laying them off. Marissa is making $89,000 a year with three years of experience. Jay is making $89,000/year with eight years. Damn, that is so unfair to Jay. (I could see it if Marissa is more vocal about wanting higher pay or if they’re more concerned with losing her… but being vocal about money is probably closely related to Marissa’s privilege and there is zero evidence Marissa is any better, more efficient, or more hardworking than Jay!)  I can’t remember how this plot ended last year, but I thought Jay ended up making more than Marissa after he complained?

Adrian seems to see Jay as the more disposable of the investigators, which is quite sad, especially since from what we see, Marissa and Jay seem to be equally skilled. 

I wish we got to see the salaries, rather than just billable hours, of the other associates. But I’m glad they finally get last names! 

Kevin Walker has been at the firm 7 years and has 2643 billable hours.

Diane imagines the red X over Marissa. I can’t tell if the Xs are to demonstrate who they think they should cut or just to show deliberations. 

Lucca has been at the firm for 4 years and has 2788. Her title is “associate” but shouldn’t it be “Head of Family Law”? 

Leah Davis has been at the firm for 3 years and has 2657 billable hours.

Jancie Muncy has been at the firm 11 years with 2456 hours; Micah Carroll has been there 5 with 2582 hours. John Danzette with 6 years and 2074 hours; Rosalyn Brock with 4 years and 1991 hours (we learn later she was on medical leave for part of the year). Josh Withers with 11 years and 2162. Linda Keller with 2 years and 2389; Mike Roberts with 3 years and 2147. So what I’m getting is that Lucca has the most billable hours of everyone? 

I wish it told us their salaries. How much do the billable hours matter if we don’t know how much $ each hour is worth?

I really like this device. It’s a good way of showing how tough this decision is and how dehumanizing the process becomes. 

Adrian jumps into the conversation and tries to convince everyone Epstein’s suicide isn’t a conspiracy-- it’s just incompetence. Apparently he has a sink that breaks every week and no plumber can fix it because they are all incompetent. I understand this analogy-- no one does their job perfectly 100% of the time-- but I am really concerned about Adrian’s sink. This sounds like a bigger issue than incompetence.

“People do just enough work to get by,” is a very true statement though. I have often thought that it’s kind of incredible the world is as functional as it is. 

If you have 4 or 5 conveniently incompetent breakdowns at once, though, I’m not sure I believe it’s purely incompetence. Feels a bit convenient. 

Diane jumps in and makes a case for why the conspiracy is also likely. This strikes me as counterproductive since what REALLY needs to happen here is for the associates to dig through the evidence. Why not go back to Liz’s original system where they look through the evidence and see where it leads them? 

Lots of news footage and photographs in this one.

Diane’s larger point seems to tie back into Memo 618: “We all have to obey the law. I mean, if we’re told we have to check into with the police every 90 days, we do it. But certain people don’t have to. They’re given special treatment.” Diane claims this is America-- “a special fucking off-ramp for the well-connected.” 

Isn’t it possible both are true? That there’s a lot of incompetence and also systems in place that protect the rich and powerful? Also none of this is evidence!!! 

(I do like this scene for showing Adrian’s POV (cynical about human nature) vs Diane’s (fed up with the government and the treatment of the ultra wealthy). And the show can’t really dig into evidence they don’t actually possess. But evidence-free speeches don’t seem productive!)

Liz is like, okay then… and splits the room into three groups to look at evidence. I am glad Diane and Adrian helped her so much.

Liz is NOT happy about the layoffs when Diane and Adrian loop her in. She’s opposed to cutting anyone. Diane says she could lose Kevin, but Liz sees Kevin as someone newer employees look up to. Adrian suggests Lucy (who?) and Liz says that Lucy actually should get a raise. Diane points out this will look bad to the clients. All good points. This seems like an impossible decision.

Case stuff happens. Lucca knows a “hairdresser to the stars” through Bianca.

And now for some scenes where Diane and Julius try to report Memo 618 to the government and do the right thing! The Kings have said these were intended for episode 8, and while they don’t really feel that out of place since there’s clearly a thematic link between 618 and Epstein’s connections, this bit of info explains two things: (1) Why this ep is 53 minutes long when it feels like it could make its point in less time and (2) why the Julius stuff that happens later in the episode feels a bit anticlimactic because so much else is also happening. My guess is in an episode where it’s more of the focal point it would feel like a much bigger deal.

Do you ever just see a shot of Diane and think, “Damn, Taylor Swift does really look like a young Diane?” Because I do. All the time.

Lucca visits the famous hairdresser and he makes time for her right away. And he gives her a letter from Epstein that he (a) has in his possession and (b) has in an unlocked drawer in his salon. Whatever. 

Lucca convinces him to let her have it, and RBL makes a video to establish chain of custody. I’m shocked we’ve never seen them do this before.

“It is Thursday, May 21st, 2020” Liz says. Nah. You’re in an office. It is not. 

The envelope contains a key, a secret code, and a letter that says “If I’m dead, watch out for BUD”. Welp, there goes any hope of this not turning into RBL chasing conspiracies! 

Rumors about layoffs (40%! Just paralegals! Everyone!) have spread, in case there wasn’t enough chaos. 

The partners are indeed discussing who to fire, and they can’t decide on anyone. So they decide it’s time to get out from under STRL and buy themselves out. It’ll take 20 million, but they can pull that together. 

This would play better if we knew why they decided to sell to STRL in the first place. Who WOULDN’T have seen this coming? 

Liz tells Adrian not to make any promises he can’t keep and he is like, this is like our marriage. Diane is still in the room which is awkward and funny.

Marissa finds “BUD” on a blueprint. A clue! Meanwhile, Lucca and Jay (really, Jay) figure out the code. 

This is the portion of the episode where I can leave the show playing on my phone and go check Twitter instead of writing any commentary. 

Julius gets arrested for speaking out about Memo 618! It feels less impactful than it should when it’s sandwiched between a bunch of scenes following the conspiracy. (Also I am a little surprised they didn’t have Julius and Diane go to the press before the government.)

The conference room squabbles again and Liz asks, again, to tone down the conspiracy theories. They instead begin fighting about even more conspiracy theories.

Unless there’s another conference room scene later, I think this was the moment I understood what the Kings were doing and started to like the episode more. As soon as I realized “BUD” was a Citizen Kane reference, I burst out laughing. This episode plays way better when you know the point they’re trying to make is that this is a lot of fuss that will ultimately be futile (though Marissa and Jay DO come close to finding BUD) than when you’re supposed to be riveted by watching people debate fake evidence. 

Why does Eli Gold have a cheerleader friend? Who knows! Who cares! 

Adrian suggests that he, Diane, and Liz involve their own homes in the scheme to getting 20 million dollars. Liz objects since she’s a single mom-- very fair. Adrian argues that they’ve done well in the past so they’ll get it back. Liz and Diane attack that idea before I can-- if that were really true, they never would have sold to STRL. 

Liz mentions losing ChumHum and the fallout from her dad’s scandal and then says “let us not forget why we joined STRL in the first place.” I feel like that line would work better if the “let us not forget…” came before the “we lost ChumHum”. Because we don’t actually KNOW why they joined STRL. And, as I said in a previous recap, I can roll with it for the sake of plot, but I can’t take lines like “let us not forget why we joined STRL” seriously when there was LITERALLY NO ON SCREEN DELIBERATION about it. 

Adrian says STRL doesn’t value them, their employees, their history, or their culture. To which I say, DUH. Why would you think they did?  

The only important thing about this cheerleader is that she’s played by the amazing Donna Lynne Champlin. Kind of sad she’s in this silly, non-recurring role. She’s so good. (Also she was totally on TGW playing a different role, shhhh). (Go watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, everyone!)

CONSPIRACY THEORIES! It’s another conference room scene. Maybe this is where I realized it was a Citizen Kane reference? But I think it was the earlier one.

Hey, it’s another Julius scene. Watching these and knowing they were meant for a different episode, I can’t help but notice that they do feel like pieces of the A plot of a different episode. The whole system is rigged, Julius and Diane realize.

Adrian, Liz, and Diane tell Mr. Firth they want out. Mr. Firth tells them they need to cobble together an impossible 80 million, not 20 million, because not all of the partners have been bringing in more revenue more than they used to. You see, Diane hasn’t been bringing in any money because she’s been in charge of the pro bono department. Ah.There’s the catch. 

I’m shocked they went up to Mr. Firth without reading every inch of that contract. Aren’t you guys partners at a law firm? I’m shocked Diane went ahead with taking charge of pro bono without looking for a catch. This sucks for the character and all, but how are these name partners at a liberal firm that’s seen more than its fair share of drama this naive about big corporations!? This plot twist is devastating… until I start to think about all the things they had to believe to get to this point. 

Still, it’s satisfying to hear Diane hiss “you fucker!” at Mr. Firth. 

Mr. Firth turns into a villain quite nicely. I wonder if we’ll see more of him next year. My guess is the remaining three episodes were going to tie together the corporate overlords plot and Memo 618 and wrap everything up more or less with a bow so they could do a new concept next year. I feel like they’ll either move on completely and tell us what happened, or do an episode like 2x02 (the one that wraps up all the Maia/Rindell Fund stuff in one go so it doesn’t hang over s2).

Dincon drops by unexpectedly and isn’t impressed with what Liz and the team have done, since all they’ve done is collect conspiracy theories (and possibly travel all over the country? Jay and Marissa go to the Virgin Islands; it is unclear if the architect and key maker and lawyer and everyone else were in Chicago…

In Dincon’s defense these conspiracy theories sound like complete nonsense. 

Dincon shuts the RBL team down, but Marissa and Jay are still off adventuring.

Diane asks Dincon what Memo 618 is because Epstein’s life was built on it. “Then you have your answer,” Dincon replies. This scene is another tell that those Julius scenes weren’t meant for 4x07. 

Aaaaand now we get the direct parallels to Citizen Kane, with some shot-for-shot remakes and even a sled (ha!).

There’s a secret door! Marissa and Jay are excited to investigate! Marissa references Parasite, which I haven’t seen yet because I’m awful at watching movies.

Marissa and Jay find nothing and leave. “I think we lost track of the real story: the underage girls,” Marissa realizes. Yup. That is the takeaway. Looking at all these conspiracies is fun but useless, and the most important truth has already been uncovered. 

After Marissa and Jay leave, we get to see what was in the secret room… BUD is Epstein’s penis. And… that’s a wrap on season 4? What a fucking weird way to end a season. 

[bluboothalassophile]

Raven and Duke go out street dancing and she surprises him and the audience by knowing how to do Hip Hop dances to like Saweetie or something. Just something I thought would be different, I love your stories by the way and really enjoy your JayRae one-shots. Thx :)

Hello,

I do hope you enjoy this, I love how the Duke and Rae friendship develope in the HfaB universe so I gave a spoiler to the way later release in the Series: Missing a Six

Know now I know nothing about hip-hop other than trying out Saweetie just now.

Daily Bugle...

This universe was so bizarre, and so similar and cool to his own, Duke was a bit miffed. He was walking through New York City with Rachel. There was surprisingly no Gotham, which had annoyed him a bit because according to Rachel they couldn’t reach out to their normal groups. Instead of the Times there was this news outlet called the Daily Bugle, which sounded like a nightmare. There were hundreds of things which were odd here, Spidey-O’s rather than Cheerios, IYugo cars, Mr. Tomato Head, IL Gionale, RedEx, Backrub, and other things, they were different from his universe. Which was how he knew he wasn’t on his earth, other than the distinct missing of his home. They were so not home.

There was also a distinct racial issue between ‘humans’ and ‘mutants’ which was unusual in his mind.

Back home, when metas and aliens were coming around as a common thing. Metas were just, metas, people didn’t have as many issues with them, and still were very racists, homophobic, and theophobia, metas weren’t a massive concern really. Schools and communities had merely adapted to having metas appear, and with people like Flash as the face for S.T.A.R. Labs, it was very easy to keep a positive face going. Plus the hero community wasn’t just heroes, it was often that; outside of the Bats; that other hero families did public talks, talked to the schools and communities and held lessons for meta kids who needed to learn their powers. Plus, Bats were normal humans so it wasn’t like the normal humans feared not being able to fight a meta. Okay, his family wasn’t the poster for the ‘normal human vigilantes’, the Arrows were, but the point stood they had a way to stand equal with the ‘Gods’ that were their heroes and hold their own. It brought a lot of respect between humans and metas.

Rae and he had made it to Harlem now, which was very different from his earth’s Harlem.

They were looking for Jason and Damian, who ahd been through the portal with them when Rachel’s Uncle Balthazar came running into the Manor and threw them through a portal to god knows where. Duke was a bit surprise Jason hadn’t somehow gotten here with Rachel, since Rachel had returned his big brother wasn’t very good about letting Rae out of his sight, or not knowing where she was. If Jay was not with Rae he was texting her, and if they weren’t doing that, they were probably together, and when Jason was extremely agitated he would call her. Not that Duke could really blame Jay for this reaction, if it had been Naomi who died Duke was pretty sure he’d have a hard time coping or letting her out of his sight if she resurrected.

Rae stopped and Duke did too, there were guys in a crowd dancing to some sick beats, he could admit they had skills, and the courts were in use. Life here was a bit different, everyone seemed defiantly tense like they were expecting trouble to come tearing through any minute.

“They’re good,” Rae said as she clapped after one guy spun out of performance and another girl spun in. Duke chuckled as he slung an arm around Rae’s shoulders, so she didn’t get pushed away from him. Rae just accept these actions, but he had noticed she only ever leaned into Jay when he did this with her.

“See in Gotham when they did this it was always cool, and the artist’s gets to put out their beats with people dancing, it shows how good they are as an artist.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, purpose of this kind of music is to speak, body, mind and soul, you touch those three and get people moving with the beats, you’re a success,” Duke said.

“And how about you? Can you dance?” she asked, a wry smile on her lips.

“You been spending way too much time with Jay,” he stated. She smiled like his elder brother did, and it was that unnerving smile just before they did something no one would expect of them. Rae moved away from him, tossing her jacket; which was actually Jason’s he noted before she joined the street performers.

Duke’s jaw dropped.

Personally he had always thought Rae to be like Cass and the ballerina type, but as he watched her move with the music he had had to admit she had skills. Her hips swiveled, her steps were paced, she did a thing with her hands and arms and she seemed to bewitch everyone in the crowd.

Rachel or Raven were always so elegant, so commanding and graceful, she was never out of place or nor was she ever klutzy. Rae was subconsciously elegant, and with how she moved with the street dancers was bewitching, and commanding and somehow, seductive. If Jay was here, Duke would bet his brother would be a useless puddle of goo; despite whatever he’d claim; watching Rae. Duke smiled when she held her hand out, and he took it, spinning her before he joined the dance with her.

Careful with his hands he enjoyed it, he hadn’t street danced in YEARS, Rae laughed as she skipped out, and he continued to enjoy the rhythm and music before he slid out of the performance.

“Where’d you learn to dance like that?” he asked with a laugh as she tossed him his own jacket.

“Vic actually used to take me to all sorts of street events, street dancing, court basket ball, field baseball, give me the normal earth experience,” she chuckled.

“Damn,” he whistled.

“It was a lot of fun, I haven’t done it for years, he and I usually would go,” she mused as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

“You ever show Jay your moves?” he asked.

“No,” Rae shrugged.

“You’d totally get him if you did.”

“I’m not after him, now gimme that Daily Bugle, I need to figure out where the hell Balthazar blasted us!” she said.

“We still need to find Jay and Dami,” he sighed.

“Jason and Damian will be fine, they’re perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, and we’ll find them eventually.”

[mai-fanblog]

Review/Opinion of Angry Birds Movie 2

Warning!

Contains spoilers (but is to highlight some points)

The Good

Angry Birds Movie 2 in narrative themes is more structured in terms of story, is well posed and goes straight to the issue without so many detours unlike the previous one, in the main story is centered and does not lose its goal, which is well done.

The first and second acts are fine, but the best thing about the film was the plot twist of the third act that left me surprised.

The humour is good, the gags are good and there are some jokes better than others, but I'll specify it later; but I liked those tributes to the Looney Toons' humour.

The direction and the animation are good, has the added visual gags giving some personality and dynamism to the film doing something entertaining. The animation is good, nothing from another world, it is conventional, but effective.

The acting is quite good (mostly, there are some exceptions).

There are 3 important characters who shone brighter than others:

 First Red, who sees the most arrogant and proud side of himself, but who has a good justification for his attitude and seeing his greatest fear throughout the film, however his development was more than well learning to be humble and not be afraid to lose something that makes you feel good, because in the first if he was rejected by everyone for being an orphan until becoming the hero, in this expands that feeling of no longer being useful and execute well.

Zeta, the villain interpreted by Leslie Jones, steals the reflectors like a cynical villain, extravagant, thirsty for revenge and intelligently dangerous, giving an entertaining personality and enjoyable to see, giving quite funny and interesting scenes; if Leonard in the first cause chaos by stealing eggs, Zeta takes destruction and chaos to a new level that I quite like, and if that means killing birds and pigs that have nothing to do with her motives, she will do so without hesitation; giving to a good villain who has a good development at the end.

And surprisingly Mighty Eagle was also an important piece for this film, he let it be a joke to be someone who has an issue to resolve; in the third act this shows very well and leaves anyone satisfied. And having a direct relationship with Zeta further strengthened his participation and surpassed his expectations of these two.

Other characters that stood out the most were Glenn played by Eugenio Derbez who shines very well in both English and Latin Spanish and Debbie who has a very important role until the end of the story and is the most empathetic character in the film. And why not Axel...good dance there, and also Jerry and Carl as the bird version of Jasper and Horace (reference).

THE BAD

However, not everything is perfect, like everything, but I will say that some exaggerated some parts of the film.

Its strong point is its humour as several people have said, it is almost the same as the first, reducing the double-meaning humour and adult jokes, which is not bad, but it becomes childish; although it is a children's film, it does not mean that they should reduce some jokes and make them simple. Like the first is very over-saturated and only relies on the same humor several times. It's funny, but it gets tired after a few minutes.

There are characters that were very untapped; like Matilda and The Blues that if they had kept their original version, especially Jay (I don't say it as an offense, but it seemed very forced to me, only to be interpreted by JoJo Siwa and they changed their parents apart, what happened there?) would have been more useful for the mission.

(I don't like the reduction of Matilda's role from being the woman on the team who wants peace and helping the flock become Terence's "wife," but that's something personal that won't affect my opinion.)

Chuck and Bomb were reduced to just being jokes every time that they appear, although they still support Red, unfortunately they didn't develop it as much as the first one; Leonard still retains its charm, but also turned him into a joke even though he was a threat in the first movie almost finished with birds.

Courtney and Garry are very good characters, but unfortunately they didn't have much time on screen.

And characters like Pinky, Ella, and a few others had nothing memorable about them.

 Here it comes

Now the crux of the matter... "Silver", is intelligent and nothing more, offers nothing beyond solving the problem, if Zeta is also intelligent minimum showed something more than that quality. "Silver" is the "Mary Sue" and often contradicts Red, her attitude towards him at first was inappropriate, that is to say, he was also rude, but there was minimal context and if she was intelligent she would have let him go on the speed date without doing anything instead of criticizing him in front of everyone; she has nothing interesting in her being Chuck's sister and nothing more to tell about there. Her original version, being a falcon bred by pigs would have been more interesting and giving a much more powerful message.

Apart from that, "female empowerment" is very weak in execution and not very credible and makes the rest of the team act like fools, only Red questions her and agrees with her at the end and "toxic masculinity" doesn't convince me, as Red had a quite justifiable context in the first film.(if the latter, Rachel Bloom who plays her in the film, commented it in the premiere) Also that of "gender equality" which is highlighted every minute she appears is annoying, in the first where Matilda and Stella are thrown into the castle they simply do it and are not criticized for their gender.

(and I say that as a woman)

And the relationship between her and Red, already presided over it and I don't like it, as it fell into the cliché of the protagonist and the "empowered" woman end up together (even Zeta mocks that in a scene) and was also forced, if they didn't like each other at first and then suddenly like each other they're not convincing; "Silver" is the female character that helps Red (if we completely ignore that Matilda wanted to help him as in the first and it didn't work out for him), but she also criticized Red as well as the rest as the first , making her a hypocrite. If Red was also indifferent to her too, minimum there was context from the first film and it was understandable, different from "Silver" which only acts as the "intelligent".

In other words, with "Silver" is a character that only highlights a quality with nothing else to offer and that I do not generate any sympathy, it can be " cute " (apart from the fact that I didn't like the design, but that's personal), but it doesn't deliver anything new and that doesn't have a development in the story. If she had been a new and different character I believe her there (although I wouldn't have liked her too), but that wasn't the case and she changed to a character that was already established 4 years ago.

(I finally let off steam!!!!)

The story of the Hatchlings, obviously is funny, just like Scart of ice age, which only serves to make you laugh and then you have only one major participation in the end (like ice age 2), however it is unnecessary and I generate nothing, until only in the third act are useful.

Another thing that I don't like about the film is the reduction of the conflict between birds and pigs to a simple war of pranks; which bothers me a little bit, since the pigs tried to eat the eggs and reduce their subject matter which is a bit dark if one thinks about it to a rather ridiculous war of pranks, that doesn't concern the essence of the game, it's as if stealing and eating the unborn children of their enemies were in the background nothing important.

And their teamwork that presented us as something awkward for both sides, in the film they don't show us that, which is contradicted in the film's advertisements.

 CONCLUSION

Angry Birds Movie 2 is an enjoyable movie, but it doesn't have an essence of the game itself. It's fun, colorful and good gags, yet there's nothing extraordinary about it.

The director did a good job to get the film flowing.

Red, Zeta, Mighty Eagle, Debbie and Glenn steal the movie and the others are background noise.

It's a little higher than its predecessor, but only in the main story points and animation with good visuals.

Personally I don't consider it as the best movie based on a video game, but it's close to being one of the good ones, but it still has some notable flaws (since the best movies based on a video game are Street Fighter II: The Animeted Movie and Detective Pikachu, those are the ones that kept an interesting story and respect the essence of the game)

It is advisable, if you want to take the children to have a good time, as a fan of the franchise may be something bipolar, as there may be things that do not fit you.

[holylulusworld]

My crazy girl

Request: Hi ur writing is amazing I love the emotions in it and its not fake very realistic lol💓 if ur still taking requests can u write a Jensen x reader were the reader is a very popular pop singer but very dif like she has a whole bunch of tats and likes to die her hair different colors and she younger than him like her earlier 20s and everyone finds out their dating and goes crazy asking questions and he’s at a con and they ask him a lot of questions and she surprises him 2 part I love ur writing thank u

Pairing: Jensen x Singer!Reader, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, Robert Speight Jr.

Warnings: angst (a hint), fluff

There will be a second part soon...

 Looking at the pictures of you on his phone Jensen smiles. Your hair is dyed in green and pink this time.

The next picture shows you new tattoo. Dedicated to his show you got an anti-possession tattoo at your hip.

The night you showed him the tattoo he couldn’t keep his hands to himself. Licking his lips he waits to go on stage, still thinking of you.

Jared is coming closer, watching his friend smiling. Since he met you last year he seems to be so happy.

At first, Jensen was worried as you're almost 15 years younger, but now he doesn’t care any longer. He loves your crazy side. Your hair, your tattoos, and your wonderful voice.

The moment he heard you singing “Carry on my wayward son” at the last Con (as Kansas couldn’t make it this time) he was done for.

Now he's head over heels, hopeless in love with you. Jensen asked you to sing with him during the con this time but you couldn't make it. Also, you were worried that the fandom and the press will go rampant.

Still a bit disappointed Jensen looks at today's schedule. He will sing “Carry on my wayward son” later to end the first day of the con. He just wished he could sing it with you.

“Ready, Jay?” Jared asks.

“Sure. Ready as always.”

“So Y/N couldn’t make it?”

“No, she has a benefit concert for children with cancer in Boston.” Jensen sighs. He knows how important this concert is for you. When you were younger your little sister died of cancer. Still, he's missing you.

“Are we all ready?” Misha asks.

“Jensen and I are ready. You?”

“Sure. But no pranks this time.” Misha warns.

“I would never prank you, Mish,” Jared says grinning.

“Alright, Jare, Jay, Mish we are ready,” Robert calls out.

Walking on stage the cast greets their fans. Squealing and calling their names the fans greet Jensen, Jared, Misha, and Richard.

Jensen loves his fans, loves doing cons but today he would rather be by your side at the concert. Waiting for you. He knows that this is hard for you. It will remind you of your deceased little sister.

After taking place on their chairs all waiting for the fans to ask questions about the show or anything else.

“I have a question for Jensen,” a girl says.

“Go ahead,” Jared rumbles.

“Is it true that you’re dating Y/N/N?” She asks and Jensen flushed red. Squirming in his seat he tries to hide his nervous state.

You and he agreed to not be too public with your relationship. Well, the the press found out some weeks ago but he had hoped no one would ask him today.

“Jensen?” Misha says.

"Huh? Uh…yeah, we're dating for over a year now," Jensen finally admits.

“Isn’t she a bit young?” A guy asks.

“You are never too old to fall in love with a beautiful woman. Yes, she’s 25 and I turned 40 but doesn’t matter for us.” Jensen grunts annoyed.

“Do you want to marry her?” Another fan asks.

“We haven’t talked about that theme yet. But I wouldn’t say ‘no’.”

“Well any questions for Misha, Richard or me?” Jared asks to help his friend out.

“Do you like her tattoo’s?” Another girl asks.

"They are all beautiful," Jensen answers smiling.

"And her crazy hair color?" The girl wants to know.

“I like crazy.” He chuckles now.

"Maybe you should dye your hair in blue, Jay," Jared says laughing.

“I could do that but I don’t think Eric would like it. Dean doesn’t do blue…”

“Except he’s drunk,” Misha chuckles.

“Exactly,” Richard adds.

“I have another question for Jensen,” A young guy says.

“Yeah. Bring it.” Richard says grinning.

“Do you want children with her? I mean you’re 40. Time is ticking.”

Jared looks at the angry face of his friend. Knowing he will explode every moment he jumps in to save the day.

"I think that are enough question about Jensen and Y/N. How about asking Misha and Richard or me some questions. This is an SPN con so how about asking things about the show or if Castiel will finally get a new trench coat?"

Finally, the fans stopped asking questions about you and him. Taking a deep breath Jensen listens to his friends answering questions about the show. About their characters or the Impala.

“He still hasn’t answered my question about children!” The guy from before grunts.

Jensen is beyond annoyed and angry but he remains calm. Smiling he answers the guy's question.

“With Y/N I can imagine everything. Children, marriage or robbing a bank!”

At that the audience starts clapping their hands and the guy turns crimson.

Around half an hour later it's time to sing the song and end the first day of the con.The band is ready, just like Jensen.

Taking the microphone he wants to sing the first lines but then he hears a voice singing…

 Carry on my wayward son For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more

Smiling he looks into your direction to start singing his lines.

Once I rose above the noise and confusion Just to get a glimpse beyond the illusion I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man Though my mind could think I still was a mad man I hear the voices when I'm dreamin', I can hear them say

Walking toward Jensen you can hear the fans call your and Jensen’s name. Singing along you smile at your boyfriend.

Carry on my wayward son For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more

 Jensen holds out his hand while singing his part.

Masquerading as a man with a reason My charade is the event of the season And if I claim to be a wise man, it surely means that I don't know On a stormy sea of moving emotion Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean I set a course for winds of fortune, but I hear the voices say

Your hand squeezes his. His eyes are focussed on you while you sing your next part.

Carry on my wayward son For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more

At this Jensen moves one arm around your back to bring you closer to him. A smile crosses your lips before you continue singing.

Carry on, you will always remember Carry on, nothing equals the splendor Now your life's no longer empty Surely heaven waits for you

Carry on my wayward son For there'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest

After you sang your last line Jensen drops the microphone to cup your face with his hands. His lips find yours to kiss you softly. When he finally releases your lips you both sing the missing line.

Don't you cry no more…

Forever Tags

@donnaintx, @screechingartisancashbailiff, @fallen-wolf22 , @curly-haired-disaster, @sister-winchesters99, @mogaruke, @the-is13, @helloitsmeamie203, @strayrosesbloom , @thewinchesterco , @hobby27, @kittycatlover18,   @gh0stgurl , @marvelfansworld , @sandlee44, @hawaiianohana15, @unlikelysamwinchesteronahunt​, @katpatrova17​, @notyourtypicalrose , @heyitscam99, @onethingthatkeepsmealive, @natura1phenomenon​, @flamencodiva, @echoesofpassion, @cocklesbelli, @anushay1998

Dean/Jensen Forever Tags

@spnfamily-thewinchesters​, @love-my-not-natural-babies​, @supernatural-bellawinchester​, @butifulsoul125​, @lyinginthegingerlocks​, @mirandaaustin93​, @hawaiianohana15​, @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester, @20gayneen, @thefaithfulwriter, @x2closebut2farx

[squiddybeifong]

could you write a Jason/raven with a jealous jason?

Green

–

They had started a schedule of sorts for when and where they met.  

Mainly on Wednesdays (they both got so angsty on Wednesdays), always on the rooftops as far from the Tower’s vantage point as possible, and never in civilian clothes. It was more than ridiculous (and risky, and dangerous), but it worked for them.

Raven was casually sitting in the shadows when he teleported in front of her, his boots landing on the gravel as silently as the demoness’ magic curled the darkness all around her. She looked up, her amethyst eyes blank as Red X languidly plopped down on the ground next to her.

The shadows shifted, covering him too. Once the dark properly shielded them both he yanked off his mask, not bothering to spare a look her way as he roughly rolled his shoulders. He was injured, but nothing too bad. She’d heal him before they split ways.

Nodding to herself the empath took a deep breath, feeling the harsh press of his emotions. His anger was prominent and pulsing; it had been there since his last fight with the rest of her team at the museum. It was an odd addition compared to his usual teasing whenever he stole in their city, one that Robin merely wrote off to the unexpected sixth Titan that joined them that day. But there was something else…

An emotion Raven knew, but didn’t want to acknowledge just yet. Not when she didn’t even know why she had allowed this… acquaintanceship between them to blossom as it had.

Instead, the demon merely reached up to unclasp the pendant around her shoulders, silently spreading her cloak out like a blanket. The roof was rough on her knees as she laid the material down, not letting anything touch Jason as she let a splattering of the city’s lights fall onto her. Most was from the hint of streetlights and the pitiful glow of the stars past the light pollution, but at least the half moon shone bright as ever. The hero laid on her back on the right side of the blanket, aiming her gaze to the sky, rarely free of clouds.

She didn’t speak, not even when he pulled off his cape and scooted next to her, the aesthetically tattered material falling in the small space between them and brushing her legs. Jason let out a sigh as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his belt, resting his elbow on his knee as the girl’s gaze fell on him. “Don’t,” He warned.

The feeling of her eyes left him and the sound of his lighter opening filled the air. She turned back to the sky, her lips quirking down at the sight of an abandoned crow’s nest a few buildings away, “Smoking’s bound to slow you down, but that’s an advantage to me so…” Raven shrugged one shoulder, letting him be.

They sat in silence for a few long minutes, hearing the clamor of the nighttime traffic and the shrieks of horns honking. Raven’s lips curled in a smirk and Jason snorted as tires squealed to a stop and an indignant “Watch it, dipshit!” filled the air.

Red X tilted his head back and let out a puff of smoke, not-quite-glaring up at the same stars she fondly observed. He turned to look at her as she shifted, bringing her knees up as she got used to the feel of the pebbles that littered the roof and hid under her cloak. Pale thumbs rubbed together and Jason waited for her to speak.

Raven swallowed the air in her throat, her mind going back to their interaction at the museum. Her cheeks still smelled of the adhesive that his X was plastered with and the mage’s nose scrunched up in thought. She knew that Jason knew what her mind was on, how he had stumbled when a certain archer had caught her in his arms and easily flirted with her as they resumed their Titan duties.

She had felt his anger then and that same tension was growing now as he waited for her to broach the subject. Amethyst eyes closed and Raven got comfortable on her cloak, not knowing how this conversation would go.

“You know,” She drawled out a few seconds later, her fingers brushing aside a fly and then immediately lacing above her stomach, “What with the eyes and the scaly panties, I would’ve thought green would be your color.”

He ignored the implication of her words, “Guess not.”

Jason’s hands motioned to the X on his chest, “I prefer red.” He roughly tapped the cross above his heart as if he thought she was slipping up if she couldn’t notice, his mocking smirk not holding its usual bite.

She merely blinked at him, her attention briefly going back to the sky as a plane flew past the moon, only lit up by its outside lights. Jason looked to where she did and Raven turned back to him, silently taking everything in about the fallen Robin.

His chin was set with the jumble of emotions that rolled off him and the empath tried her hardest to not recognize how positively gorgeous he looked. Unfortunately, Jason was as arrogant as he was perceptive; he’d notice if she let her mind wander too much. But still, she wondered what his hands looked like. He had alluded to the damage caused by scratching his way out of his own grave once in the now numerous times they had met over this past year, but she’d yet to see anything but his face.

She wondered if he had an autopsy scar, if his concealing uniform hid all the other evidence of what the Joker did to him. She thought about what he did when he wasn’t committing crimes; when they’d first met and he was still Robin, he’d been so interested in her books that scattered her bookshelves and random desks throughout the Tower alike. He still was if their prior talks meant anything, but she’d never gotten a chance to know what his old favorites were.

Raven’s face was stoic as ever as her gaze deepened, her pupils wide as she tried to figure out all that she could with what he was giving her. Red X wasn’t nearly as obnoxiously open as Robin had been and she didn’t know if she preferred that or not. He shot her a look but her stare continued, even as his attention went to the bustling city below.

That jealousy was still there, but it lessened with the attention she was giving him now. If they hadn’t been on opposite sides of the law, she might’ve actually allowed herself to ponder why that was. As it stood, the mystic figured he at least deserved an explanation, “He’s an old friend of Robin’s, you know. Used to be Green Arrow’s sidekick but he’s part of Titans East now. Just came down for a visit.”

Jason’s lips tried to smirk, but from her angle it looked more like a sneer, “Good to know.”

A tongue darted out to wet her lips. She didn’t take her gaze off of him, noting what she could about his body language, so much more closed off from their other visits. A breath escaped Raven, then, “We may not be friends, but you can always just say that you’re jealous.”

A harsh bark of laughter rumbled out of him. That messy mix of emotions hit her empathy again, intensifying to the point that she had to squeeze her eyes shut as he turned to look at her, “Did you hit your head with that last X? I’m never jealous.”

She raised up on an elbow, biting the inside of her cheek as she thought her actions over. They could both teleport at a moment’s notice and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to press him too hard, lest he leave until she was equally ready to ignore the issue. Ironic, coming from her of all people.

But Raven sat up regardless, adjusting herself until she was cross-legged. Their knees brushed and she looked down into her lap, her lips curling at the sight in her periphery of some apartment windows going dark with the late hour. She noted but didn’t comment as he crushed one cigarette and replaced it with another, visibly annoyed when she didn’t speak.

After a pause, Raven made up her mind. She turned to him but he didn’t look in her direction. Instead he was haughty, “Ready to admit you were wrong?”

She ran a tongue over her teeth, “Come on, Jay.”

He bristled at the name, snapping his head towards and narrowing his eyes at her. Raven didn’t react to the hostility in his face or in his emotions, her own face as stoic as usual. Although the way he stared made her wish they weren’t sitting on her cloak; the shadows from the taller buildings around them helped but it wasn’t the same.

“You never–” He rubbed at a rough scar on his jaw, turning back to the scene beyond them. The cigarette’s end crinkled in his gloved fingers and he forced out, “I prefer when you call me Jason.”

He immediately caught himself, “Or Red X. Hell, even just X. But not that.”

Raven’s rebuttal was instant, “And I prefer when you can actually admit that you’re jealous of Speedy.”

He rolled his eyes and his shoulders, annoyance and frustration mingling with worry and concern. Then a wave of anger as he remembered she could feel all of what he did. “Seems you must not be as smart as I pegged you for,” He muttered, more to himself than to her.

Both her brows raised at him, the move as mocking as their unsteady companionship would allow, “I must be, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” He frowned and the mage left it at that, her attention taken by the sound of two cars nearly colliding the next intersection over.

The agitated honking faded away and they fell into another silence, comfortable enough for enemies but tense compared to before.

Raven didn’t move, hardly even breathed as she took in the swirl of his emotions. She particularly focused on the ones he had shoved down, so unaware of how close they were to rising to the surface. A smile threatened her lips; what a Bat thing to do.

But he wasn’t a Bat anymore and the demoness let out a breath, unsurprised when Jason’s words hastily filled the air. They were rushed, as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to speak them but equally worried about where they would stand if he didn’t. Still, he was uncharacteristically monotone, “He kept flirting with you during the fight.”

She shrugged, “You always flirt with Star when we fight.”

“But that’s just to piss off Dick, not to–” The anti-hero cut himself off, frustrated as he put out his cigarette on the roof’s dirty tiles. He turned his head to one of the buildings, glaring as he waved aside the smoke.

Raven raised her chin, not willing to let him try to delude himself. How much of that was for his sake or hers, the Titan really didn’t want to think about. She leaned forward until he couldn’t deny seeing her in his field of vision, throwing a pointed look into his face as she commanded, “Say the J word.”

He grunted and rested his weight on one palm behind him, refusing to acknowledge how close their fingers were to touching. Mossy eyes met hers, defiant but not denying that her assumption was correct, “You do it first.”

“Sorry, Jay,” For a stoic, she could be absolutely infuriating when she wanted to be. She paused, her jaw twitching as she scooted the tiniest half-inch closer. Neither reacted when their fingertips met but her eyes hardened, willing and unwilling to put a name to their situation this very night, “But I asked first, I get to hear you say you’re jealous first.”

He sneered at her, “I’m not jealous.”

“Of course you’re not Jealous. You’re Jay.”

A groan escaped and he tore his gaze away from her. He huffed once, twice, then ran a hand over his face, “You’re a real pain in my ass, Little Bird. Hope you know that.”

Raven didn’t respond to that non-answer. Instead, she took a quiet breath through her nose and jerked her hand away.

Jason’s face snapped to hers as she did and the mage let impulse lead her. She surged forward and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down to quickly peck a scar on the corner of his mouth. He went still underneath her as she levitated closer and straightened her back, her eyes narrowing down at him.

She abruptly let him go and leaned back on her haunches as if nothing was amiss, although she positively savored the feeling of his surprise against her empathy. If anything, it drowned out the mix of horror and happiness that knotted in her stomach for actually doing such an act. Next to her gloved fingers twitched, wanting nothing more than to pull her back but he hesitated.

Raven crossed her arms over her chest, forcing herself to push forward while she didn’t harbor the same reluctance that he did, “Why were you jealous of Speedy?”

She watched his eyes roam her face and felt as that unusual indecision filled him again. A melody of feelings flew out of him: anger and surprise, lust and melancholy, hope and worry. The empath nearly buckled under the force and Red X sighed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

“Raven,” He started, saying her name slowly as if gauging whether or not she was okay with that. Jason bit his lip and watched as she watched the move, “You know exactly why I’m jealous.”

The hero silently looked him over, her eyes flicking up to where his eyes were usually hidden behind his mask. She chanted her mantra in her mind and forced herself to breath, turning her face back towards the old buildings around them.

He didn’t talk for once, all his attention on how she sat back down next to him, her fingers falling effortlessly in the spaces between his. Jason’s gaze was intense on her and she murmured quietly, “You know, I see why you don’t like green all that much, Jason.”

Amethyst eyes flicked from his face to his chest and back. A sigh escaped her, “Red’s more your color.”

“I dunno,” Jason shrugged, his confidence rearing its head again as he pressed their shoulders together, albeit not nearly as pompous as before, “I’m really getting used to purple, to be honest.”

[ariahearthockey]

Love Me, If You Will - Chapter 1

Prologue

_/_/_/_/

Fandom: Men’s Hockey RPF

Pairing: Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin

Tags: 2017 NHL Playoffs, Concussion, Memory Loss, Medical Inaccuracies, Unexplained Medical Conditions, Alternate Reality, Time Travel (sort of), Pining, Fluff, Porn With Feelings, Happy Ending (sort of)

Soundtrack: Dancing On My Own - Calum Scott

_/_/_/_/

Chapter 1

Sidney wakes up with a weird feeling churning in his gut. His head is pounding, the room is spinning and the air is unseasonably cool for summer. The sky outside is still quite dark, sans the burst of deep orange brimming low on the horizon. He rolls over to his side and squints at the clock on the nightstand, and it confirms his suspicion. It is a little more than an hour before his alarm is supposed to go off and he groans in annoyance.

There is no way he can go back to sleep in the state he is in—with the nagging headache and all—but the idea of leaving the warmth of his bed seems really unappealing. He tries to recall if he has done anything stupid the night before like drinking his own weight in champagne to merit him such dire consequences, but he knew the answer is 'no'. The action can be justified easily since he has just won the Stanley Cup two years in a row, but he dislikes hangovers more than anything. So, like a petulant child, he buries his head deep in his pillow and pulls the cover over his head as an effort to will the pounding in his head to subside.

Then, he hears it. The noise of someone snoring, low and deep. It goes on for a little while before the bed moves, and a hand sneaks up around his waist and tugs him backwards. His back collides against a flat, sturdy chest and the warmth from it almost made him forget the one big question in his head. Has he brought someone home yesterday and totally forgot about it? Say it isn't so because no matter how many times he has done this, he still dreads the awkward morning after that is almost guaranteed when they are both much awake later, especially when he doesn't remember a thing about it.

He doesn't think he was that drunk, even if so, he is usually more careful about bringing his hookups back home. One blabber mouth could mean scandal and it is unlike him to have total blackout like that. But before he has the time to contemplate his actions or that of his alcohol tolerance, he is distracted by the bursts of warm breath against the back of his neck, soothing him and arousing him all at the same time. The sudden rush of blood in his body eases his headache a little and he hums quietly when he feels the soft press of lips against his nape, sucking and licking lazily until his skin feels tender.

And then there lies the most difficult dilemma. He contemplates if there should be a repeat of what he’s had yesterday—call it a refresh of memory or whatnot—or there should be some kind of resistance on his part before things get even more awkward. On one hand it seems like the right thing to do, not taking any more advantage of whoever that is in bed with him right now, because duh, he was raised to be a gentlemen. But on the other hand—where even the most chivalrous of a man would have a difficult time to resist—is the evident hard bulge that is currently digging into the crease of his ass. It feels huge to say the least, and he shudders just thinking about how delicious it will feel if he gets to ride it until he comes.

And then a groan comes from behind—all low and breathy—and it all but sends his blood rushing towards his own dick. His breathing picks up when the hand on his waist slips underneath the waistband of his sweats, and plays with the coarse hair near his crotch. His body grows hot and wired, and any thoughts of not wanting another go with this stranger is conveniently tossed out the window, together with his dignity as he spreads his thighs wider. The stranger seems to like it, and he groans that deep, throaty groan again. He has to bite down his own lips just so he doesn't make any more noise that could embarrassed himself further and relents himself to the soft touch of the very skilled fingers. But then, like sticking a stick into a spinning wheel, something in that voice makes his eyes shoot wide open, and when he realises why the voice sounded so familiar, he is more awake than being doused by a barrel of icy water.

"Mmm, Sid.."

A million warning alarms start to go off in his head at the same time. He knows that voice, he knows that accent and he knows it far too well for it to be real or for it to be moaning his name like that. He bounces away from the bed so quickly, it is an awe he doesn't trip over his own feet and fall flat on his face. Instead, he stands a few feet away from the bed, feeling absolutely flabbergasted and confused as hell.

"What the fuck! What are you do—uh—"

The rest of his sentence dies in his throat as he takes in the picture in front of him. Geno, naked as a jay bird, is stretched out on his bed, with a wonderfully tousled bed hair and a sleep-warm face. The lack of light in the room hides absolutely nothing at all and honestly, he isn't sure where to look, or if he should look. It is not to say that he has never seen Geno naked before, quite the contrary actually. With them being on the same team for a little more than a decade, he has had his fair share of Geno's nakedness in the locker room. But, to be perfectly fair, never has he thought he would be seeing it in a setting quite like this.

"Sid? Baby, why you leave? Is cold. Come back and I'm make you warm."

With that, he is officially more confused than he has ever been. He is almost 99.9% certain that he is in some kind of a dream. It would have been one hell of an elaborated dream, but only that will explain why Geno is calling him by sweet endearments or touching him intimately or fucking grinding his hard dick against his ass.

"G—Geno. What—what are you doing in—in my bed?" Sidney sputters through his line of question.

As baffled as he feels at the moment, he can't deny that Geno looks exceptionally good in his bed. When Geno raises his arms above his head and gives his body a good stretch, it makes his throat dry all of a sudden. There is so much of Geno on display—the long stretch of his pale body, the dark hair decorating his chest that trickles down to his abdomen and all those prominent lines when his muscles flex underneath the taut skin. And then there is the very impressive package that he felt against his ass not too long ago.

"I'm sleep. Of course I'm in bed." Geno says it like it is the most obvious thing in the world. And it is, except that it isn't.

"Well, yeah. But what are you doing sleeping in my bed? And why are you uh—," Sidney questions again with his hands waving frantically in the air, "—naked?"

"Huh? I'm always sleep naked. I'm tell you, is more comfortable and easy if want fuck." Geno replies with a confidence that will normally make him laugh but right then it just made him want to pull out his hair.

"Wh—what? Okay, Geno. Listen to me. You're in my bed, naked, and with me in it. And you and I uh—we almost—" Sidney is too embarrassed to finish that sentence but judging by the sly grin adorning Geno's face, he doesn't have to.

"Yeah, I'm know, baby. And if you come back, we continue. I'm blow you, then I'm fuck you."

Sidney feels his body going through a tornado of emotions because he is simultaneously shocked and turned on by what Geno said. He shifts on his feet, trying to hide his hardening dick tenting in his sweats. "Oh my god, Geno. How much have you got to drink yesterday?"

"Drink? No drink, Sid. You know I'm never drink before game day."

"What game day? We just won the cup, G. There is no more game until the summer's over or did you forget?

Geno seems to catch on onto the confusion now as he sits up on the bed and looks at Sidney, concern written all over his face. Sidney feels his cheeks heating when he catches himself tracking Geno's every movement—because Geno in his birthday suit is fucking too hard to ignore. He has neither the self control nor the time to chide himself for not able to tear his gaze away right now.

"Sid, you okay? Head hurt? Come lie down, take rest."

Sitting down sounds really good to him at that moment. After all he has gone through since he woke up, he really need to sit and give himself some time to gather his thoughts a little bit. But then, "I would but you're still very naked."

Geno holds up his hands in surrender before he pulls the sheets up to his waist (as if that will help) and pats his hand on the space beside him on the bed. Sidney resigns and goes to him, sitting himself just a few inches away from Geno. He doesn't make any more movement once he is seated, because he doesn't want to accidentally strip Geno of his cover or something equally as mortifying.

"Sid, you feel not good? Head okay?"

Sidney shrugs. "Yeah, no. It's fine. It hurts a little when I woke up, but it's fine now."

"Sid sure? 'Cause Vyas said keep watch for symptom."

Vyas, the head of their medical team, is one hell of an annoying bugger. "Yes, I'm sure, Geno. I have gone more than a month without any symptoms now. I'm fine."

Something in Geno's face tells him that he might have said something wrong—which he really isn't expecting at all. He basically just told Geno that he is symptom free for quite a long amount of time but Geno is looking at him as if that is a terrible news. Like, okay—his head still hurts a little but that is just the champagne's doing. Otherwise, he feels perfectly fine.

"Sid, Nisky crosscheck two days ago. Vyas say is concussion so maybe Sid confuse." Geno explains gently like he is afraid to startle a wounded animal.

"What? What are you talking about, G? We've beaten the Caps a while ago, eh? And we just won the fucking Cup."

"Sid." Geno begins as he scoots closer to Sidney and cups his hands to Sidney's face. "Sid, is okay. I'm know maybe you forget and Vyas say sometimes is normal. But Sid, we not finish round two yet."

Then the confusion starts to really set in because that is just not possible. Sidney remembers clearly that they were well pass his minor concussion and went on to defeat the Caps, then the Sens, and then fucking hoisted the Stanley Cup in Nashville after they shut the Preds out in game six. "Geno, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Today is game four, Sid. Sully say you take rest and then be ready for game five, remember?"

He knows that if he is smart, he should say 'yes' just so he won't attract more unnecessary attention that will surely leads to more unnecessary tests. But then, "No, Geno. We already took out the Caps and then we move on to play the Sens and beat them in double overtime and then the—wait. Geno, are you pranking me? Is this a prank? Shit, did Flower put you up to this? Oh my god, of course he did. I can't believe I actually fell for that. Good job, G. You got me. Ugh, Vegas's gonna have to choose some other goalie because I'm gonna fucking kill Flower!"

"Sid, wait. Okay, calm down. I'm promise is no prank. I'm kill Flower for you if he prank."

"What do you mean it's not—of course it's a prank. If this whole thing isn't a prank, then why do you keep telling me that we're playing the Caps today and more importantly, you waking up in my bed naked?"

"Um, because I'm live here?"

"Oh, right. That's real funny, G. Ha-ha."

"Wait, Sid. You really not remember?"

"What don't I remember?"

The silence that stretches on after that makes him really uncomfortable. It is like the inevitable moment when the blood starts ringing in the ears just before someone is about to receive a monumentally bizarre news.

"Sid, we married. We married for five years."

_/_/_/_/

[holy-fate-worse-than-death]

Red has a new chapter!

Chapter 13 is here! That’s right, it’s the Jaydick fluff chapter you’ve all been waiting for! (No? Just me? Okay...)

As always, you can read the whole fic here, but I feel like this chapter can be read as a standalone bit of Jaydick fluff (with some Superbat mentions), so I’ll post it below the cut.

Word count: 3966 because I’m a long-winded bitch who likes describing Dick Grayson’s face a whole lot

Content Warnings: Swearing, mentions of death, mentions of sex, mentions of canon-typical violence

He was waiting until Bruce got back, Jason told himself. But his fingers, tapping impatiently against the steering wheel in front of him, told a different story. Maybe it was this damn car, a silver Porsche 911 that was older than Jason was. It was small, sleek and low to the ground; not the sort of car Jason would usually drive, but he’d picked it from the garage that morning because he remembered that it was the one Dick had taken his first joyride in. It had seemed appropriate, given that he was driving to Blüdhaven and back. The plan that was slowly coming to life in his head, unfurling like blueprints across the Batcave’s conference table, was fuelled by the type of sheer ego that only Bruce Wayne could pull off. Bruce Wayne and all his shiny cars, and even shinier gadgets.

Jason sighed, reaching out and flicking off the radio with a short, frustrated noise. As if the lasts few days hadn’t been enough to wind him up, every radio DJ in Gotham had seemingly forgotten what taste was while he was gone.

He fished his phone out from the centre console and jammed it into the mount on the dash. It connected to the car’s radio automatically. Jason was planning to play some of his own music, but when his fingers touched the phone he found himself calling Dick’s number instead.

I was going to surprise him, he thought as he set the call to speaker.

It took a few rings for Dick to pick up, and Jason found his heart skipping with each one. A knot formed under his diaphragm and it seemed to siphon off some of his air, leaving him not-quite breathless.

“Jay?” Dick asked mildly, a hint of surprise in his voice.

See the thing is, Jason never calls first. He isn’t – has never been – the one to initiate these things. It was always a one-word text from Dick to Jason’s cell; just the word ‘now’ or an address. Jason never replied to them, but he always showed up. But then that night had happened- and god, Jason couldn’t think about it without wanting to scream or cry or something. How had he gone from ramming Dick’s ass once or twice a month to I hate you for making me fall in love with you, all in one night?

“You driving?” Dick asked after a while, when Jason didn’t say anything.

In retrospect, he probably could have at least said ‘hello’. But there was blood rushing in his ears and someone had just cut him off on the highway. He hummed in affirmation, wondering if Dick could even hear him through the speaker.

Dick’s voice dropped lower then, more serious. Jason pictured him sitting down, tensing his shoulders and worrying at the hem of his sleeve like he always did when he was nervous.

“How’s Damian?” he breathed.

Jason smiled then, despite Dick’s sombre tone. Perhaps he should have been worried, but truth be told the kid was bouncing back like a champ. He’d even had the Kent kid over yesterday. They’d squabbled over ice-cream flavours like real kids, and Jason’s chest had been full to bursting. The Kent kid – Jon – had helped Damian feed all his animals, even his cow and the two-dozen battery hens that now roamed Wayne Manor’s hedge maze (and Jesus, Jason would have to ask Dick later how the fuck that had come to be). It had been weird, seeing these two miniature versions of Bruce and Clark chase each other around the Manor, but it had also felt so spine-tinglingly right.

“He looks like his mom when he smiles,” Jason murmured, not realising he’d spoken out loud until the words were already hanging like a warm cloud in the air.

“How well did you know her?” Dick enquired.

Dick was always so inquisitive, so full of questions. For a long time, it had annoyed Jason, pissed him off to the point where he’d yelled at his older counterpart about it a time or two. But these days he’d just resigned himself to it; understood that it was the natural companion for Jason’s (no doubt equally as infuriating) brevity.

As if to hammer that point home, Jason replied with a single word: “Well.”

Dick hmmed at him then, just as Jason turned onto the Blüdhaven off-ramp. Now or never, he thought to himself.

“You at home?” he asked gruffly.

“Yeah,” Dick replied easily, a smile creeping into his voice, “Night off.”

“I’m coming over,” Jason told him, not bothering to phrase it as a question.

Dick’s breath hitched on the other end of the line and Jason chewed on his lip, wondering if he’d pushed his luck too far.

“Okay,” Dick eventually breathed, letting out a long, shaky breath that Jason wasn’t sure he was meant to hear.

Jason smirked to himself, relieved that he could still take the guy’s breath away when he wanted to. Emboldened, he asked, “So… what are you wearing?”

He’d figured the question – which was the sort of thing only straight men in their forties ever asked their dates – would have earned him a laugh from his jovial older counterpart. Instead, silence tore a schism between them, and Jason was left feeling like all the air had been sucked from inside the car.

When Dick finally spoke, he wasn’t even angry, he just sounded sad: “Jay, please don’t make fun of this.”

Jason’s stomach sank so far that he could feel it in his knees. In his mind’s eye he was seeing Clark, in that abandoned hospital on the outskirts of Smallville, flinching at Jason’s joke and trying desperately to hide it. That moment had already broken Jason’s heart, and somehow this one was so much worse.

He wanted to grab Dick’s sweet, scared face in his hands and kiss him until he forgot every stupid thing Jason had ever said; until he could feel Jason’s feelings pulsating between them. He wanted to breathe new life into this tired, terrified boy who’d been the only one brave enough to call this what it was. The one who’d been brave enough to call Jason’s name since the very first night they were together. The one who’d kept letting him in, piece by piece, knowing that the Red Hood would almost certainly break him; run him through and pierce his heart like he’d done to so many men before him. Admittedly, those men had been criminals, not lovers, but sometimes Jason felt like his whole being existed to cater to criminals.

“I’ll be over in fifteen,” Jay croaked, fumbling to hang up the phone before Dick could protest.

He looked at himself in the rear-view mirror; eyes downturned and sad under a grey-white fringe that had been neatly combed to one side. His eyeliner was smoky, and a little too thick, because he’d applied it in the car to avoid having that conversation with Damian. Not that he was ashamed, it just seemed like something that his brother didn’t need to be thinking about right now, especially with the way the Kent kid made him blush. Jeez, he thought, they really are their father’s sons.

Jason had pulled a crisp white tee from Bruce’s closet (all of Jason’s were stained or torn) and paired it with his tightest black jeans, throwing his usual jacket and boots on with it. Somehow the shirt was enough to clean up his whole look, and he was glad; he wanted Dick to know he’d put in a little effort.

For fucking once, Jason thought bitterly, glaring at his own reflection.

Dick’s loft in Blüdhaven was an intimidatingly light and airy place, with none of the Gotham gothic style Jason was used to. Even in the various short-term rentals Jason had lived in over the years (including a few here in Blüdhaven), Jason had maintained the greyscale colour palette of Wayne Manor and The Penthouse. Here, everything was shades of warm brown; wood-panelled walls and unpolished floorboards, with a modest chipboard kitchen and huge windows with lace curtains that danced in the afternoon breeze.

Dick’s clothing was draped over everything; a salmon-pink button-down over the back of the couch alongside a half-inside-out pair of pale blue jeans, a denim jacket hung over the back of one of the breakfast bar’s stools, a pair of discarded boxers on the living room floor. Everything smelled so much like him, and Jason spied some black-and-red Kevlar mesh poking out from between the couch cushions. Jason snorted at the discarded uniform and sauntered towards the bedroom where he’d heard footsteps. Better than a glass case, he thought.

Come in! It’s open! Dick had called at him when he’d knocked, so Jason did.

Jason swung the bedroom door open and dropped his shoulder against the doorframe. It was darker in here, and Jason spied the rubber-backed curtains on the window that blocked out the sunlight. He smirked at them, the contrast between these curtains and the ones in the living room serving as a reminder that Dick was still the antisocial little cave-dweller they all were.

His eyes fell to Dick then, soft hair curtaining his face as he desperately tried to yank on a pair of jeans that were entirely too tight. Jason was familiar with his plight and had to stifle a laugh as Dick desperately tried to force the offending denim over his ass. His back was turned, and Jason could see the way all the muscles in his shoulders tensed as he hopped up and down, fingers hooked through his belt loops.

“Take it easy, D,” Jason chortled.

He pushed off the doorframe as Dick spun around to face him, a half-hearted glare sent in Jason’s direction. Jason figured he probably deserved it, but he ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach.

Instead, he barrelled into Dick, gripping the back of the acrobat’s waistband and yanking his jeans up over his ass easily, inadvertently lifting Dick into the air in the process. Without thinking it through (and gee, there was a surprise) Jason snaked his hands around to the front of Dick’s jeans to do up his fly for him. There was a joke in there somewhere about the irony of Jason helping him put on his jeans instead of taking them off, but Jason left it unsaid.

Dick’s hands had fallen limp to his sides as Jason manhandled him, and now he rolled his eyes.

“Thanks mom,” he said, shoving Jason away playfully so he could bend over and retrieve his socks from the floor.

Dick sat down on the edge of his unmade bed to put them on, and Jason stood over him, grinning like a maniac. He looked good like that, still shirtless and leaning backwards onto the bed, one leg in the air as he tugged a bat-symbol-branded sock over his foot.

“You still wear the matchin’ panties too?” Jason asked, inching just a little closer to Dick as he began to tug on the other sock.

Dick blushed then, and Jason’s smirk got even wider. He’d just seen Dick putting on his pants, so he knew the answer was yes. But it reminded Jason of so many other times – and the first time, where he’d cracked some lame joke about daddy issues and then torn them off with his teeth.

But this wasn’t about sex, and it wasn’t just about Jason distracting himself from the ludicrous plan he was setting in motion in Bruce’s absence, either. This was meant to be about something else, so Jason sank into Dick’s lap, startling his older counterpart, and pressed his lips gently against Dick’s.

Jason had never kissed like this before. Usually when he kissed somebody it was a jaws-clashing, teeth-gnashing, go-until-you’ve-got-spit-on-your-chin affair. And Jason loved that, of course, but this was something else.

Dick’s lips were soft and pliant under his, tentative and quivering just a little. Unlike last time, neither of them was crying now, and Jason had all the time in the world to work Dick’s mouth open and explore it tenderly with his tongue. He wrapped his arms around Dick’s neck like a girl might and pulled back playfully so that Dick had to chase his mouth to continue the kiss – which Dick did eagerly. Their lips made that sound that happened when people kissed in movies and Dick weaved a hand between them and up to Jason’s face, cupping his jaw and rubbing circles on Jason’s cheek with his thumb.

The kiss never deepened, but when they pulled back to rest their foreheads together they were breathing as though it had. Even so, there was a stillness in the room, a comfortable silence that embraced them as they embraced each other.

Jason opened his eyes first, Dick’s relaxed, gently-smiling face coming into focus. Dick’s dark eyelashes dusted his cheekbones, and his lips were red and shiny now, pulled up into the ghost of a smile and still parted slightly. Jason settled properly onto the bed, knees still bracketing Dick’s thighs, and wondered if he could stay like this forever.

The soft afternoon light filtered in through the bedroom door over Jason’s shoulder, casting the perfect shadows over Dick’s face. His jaw was strong and square, his cheekbones high and angular, but set into an exquisitely masculine shape. His nose was wide at the nostrils, the bridge of it sunken back into his face and crooked from at least a half-dozen broken noses. The first hint of a beard peppered his chin and Jason had to resist the urge to nuzzle his own face against it.

Eventually, Dick’s eyes opened and he sighed contentedly, wriggling with lazy pleasure as he wrapped his arms more firmly around Jason’s waist. Jason thought that it was nice to be held like this (though he’d never say it out loud). He was still tense with the knowledge of what was coming next, but for once he felt safe in someone’s embrace.

It reminded him, perhaps perversely, of the first time Bruce had ever held him; sheltering Jason from the storm he’d been weathering on his own for so many years. And it reminded him of how he’d held Damian and Tim over the past few days, though he’d been in Dick’s role during those moments. Is it supposed to feel like this all the time? he wondered.

Dick was staring up into his eyes now, their haziness disappearing as he scrutinised his younger counterpart. Jason knew what he was looking at, and he wondered if Dick – or anyone in the family – had ever seen him with makeup on before. Jason squirmed, somewhat despite himself, but Dick’s lazy little smile never faltered.

“So,” Dick began carefully, “What’s the plan.”

Jason chewed on his lip as he contemplated how best to answer that. Jason hadn’t come here with an explicit plan, but somewhere between the Gotham on-ramp and the Blüdhaven off-ramp, Jason had come to know exactly where he’d take Dick. It had seemed silly at that point, to drive all the way out here to pick up Dick, only to drive right back to Gotham, but somehow it had seemed right. Old fashioned, he thought to himself. But it had seemed like the type of thing that Clark Kent would do, and so Jason had done it.

“There’s this old Italian place down by Amusement Mile,” Jason started, climbing out of Dick’s lap to sit next to him on the bed.

He swivelled his head to face Dick, giving his older counterpart a look that hopefully conveyed his seriousness. Instinctively, Jason reached out and took Dick’s hand in his, giving it a little squeeze. Dick didn’t respond, but he didn’t jerk his hand away either – though he was looking at Jason with a calculated sort of confusion; brows knitting together as his eyes flew across Jason’s features, trying to read him.

“They have the best ossobuco in the city,” Jason continued, swallowing down the ache that came from how much he sounded like his Sicilian mother whenever he said anything more Italian than ‘pizza’.

Jason had never been to this Italian place himself, but a long time ago Dick had told him about it. More specifically, he’d told Jason that it was the last place he’d eaten with his parents before their deaths.

Dick had stopped breathing now, and Jason pre-emptively flinched, ready for Dick to wrench his hand away and throw Jason out of the apartment. Which was why Jason nearly choked when Dick squeezed his hand instead.

“Have you ever been back?” Jason asked softly, knowing that Dick had caught on to his plan now.

“No,” Dick whispered, turning his face away from Jason’s to scrunch his toes in the carpet.

Dick took several long, steadying breaths before he spoke again. Jason waited patiently, never loosening his grip on Dick’s hand. He’d wait for Dick Grayson for as long as it took. Had been waiting, he realised, maybe since before his death.

“Is this a date?” Dick asked after a while, eyes flickering over to Jason briefly before returning to the carpet.

“Yes,” Jason answered firmly, utterly determined not to give Dick any cowardly cop-outs this time – not this time, and never again if he could help it.

Dick’s breathing had gone shallow again, but Jason felt suddenly emboldened to press on. Maybe it was the candour with which Clark had apologised to him back in Smallville that inspired him. After all, when Clark had done it, it had earned more of Jason’s respect than anything else could have. He figured he owed Dick at least that.

“But it’s also an apology,” he said, perhaps not as confidently as Clark would have, though he imagined Clark had had far more practice at this during his time as Superman (and during his time dating Bruce Wayne).

Dick turned to him, like he was about to ask, ‘for what?’ but Jason was already answering him.

“For… everything.”

Dick’s tears this time are gentle and quiet. They roll down his face like rain on a windowpane, and it takes a beat before Jason even spots them. When he does, his eyes begin to prick as well, and he reaches out automatically to cup Dick’s face in his hand and turn the older man towards him. Dick’s eyes are wet and glistening, but the hopelessness that Jason had seen in them that night outside Damian’s room is (mercifully) no longer there.

Licking a tear off his lips, Jason smiled weakly and asked, “How do you do this?”

He was half-asking how Dick could stand to cry so often when Jason usually cried about three times a year on average, and half-asking something else, which he voiced as best as he could:

“It’s like every time you cry, I have to cry too.”

Dick laughed at him then; a wet, sunny little laugh that ended in a sniffle.

“That’s called love,” he said easily, his tone as breezy and incredulous as if he was explaining to an alien what a toaster was.

“Well,” Jason said, wiping his tears away and laying back on the bed with a sigh.

He pillowed one of his arms behind his head, using his free hand (which was still in Dick’s) to tug his older counterpart down with him. Dick complied, rolling onto his side and resting his head on his elbow. From his vantage, he stared down at Jason while Jason stared thoughtfully up at the ceiling.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Jason said after a while, finishing the thought he’d left hanging in the air.

Dick’s tears were gone now, and he’d perked up considerably. The amicability between them was unlike anything either of them had had together since before Jason had died, and if Jason had been asked to describe it, he might have called it freeing.

Dick certainly seemed free, as he asked, “You’ve never been in love before?” as unabashedly as a middle schooler might.

Jason chewed on Dick’s words for a while. The question ought to have made him anxious, but he felt nothing but an honest fascination that mirrored Dick’s. Never really thought about it before, he said to himself, deciding that wouldn’t be a good enough answer to satisfy Dick’s insatiable curiosity.

“Once,” Jason finally settled on, letting the story flow out of him before he was even sure where it was going. “He was hot,” he stated matter-of-factly.

He turned his head to give Dick a gratuitous look that said, ‘he was very hot’.

“And smart,” Jason added, “and sweet, and caring.” Jason scrubbed a hand over his face idly. “He was everything I wanted to be back then.”

Jason let out a puff of air from deep in his tightening chest, turning his head back to the ceiling so that he didn’t have to deal with all the emotions muddying Dick’s perfect face.

“This guy inspired me,” Jason continued, quieter now. “He made me want to be a better person.”

Jason smiled, memories that he hadn’t allowed in since his resurrection flooding his mind. But for once they weren’t flashbacks, they were like a warm breeze blown across his face, and he was heady with the sensation of it.

“This was before I died,” Jason clarified, for once not feeling torn apart by the mention of his own death. “How I felt about him changed everything. It made me who I am.”

Jason’s head lolled to the side, still resting on his arm, and he smiled easily at Dick; a smile that reached his eyes, because Jason felt like he was really looking at him for the first time ever.

“I wanted to be good enough for him,” Jason said. “And in the end, you know, I think I almost was.”

Jason sighed wistfully, and Dick shifted on the bed beside him with what might have been discomfort. He was faintly aware that Dick should be uncomfortable, surprised by Jason’s sudden candour, maybe even a little jealous. But he felt good, for once. His chest was light, and he felt like he could take the weight of the world. Or, at least, the weight of Dick and his brothers.

“Did I mention hot?” Jason asked with a laugh.

There was silence after that for a while, as Dick processed, and Jason continued to revel in old memories.

Memories of soaring through the air, and refitting the Robin suit, and eating McDonalds on the corner of Cornerstone Court and Third Avenue at the end of a patrol. Memories of stupid puns and witty one-liners; of aborted jokes, and stories that always got cut off by the blaring of an ambulance siren or the chatter of a police scanner. Memories of pillow forts in Wayne Manor, and ice-cream sundaes made hastily behind Alfred’s back. Memories of raucous laughter and boyhood. Memories of his childhood best friend.

Memories of Dick Grayson.

“You should tell him,” Dick said firmly after a while.

At some point his hand had slipped out of Jason’s, and now Jason felt the ache of its absence.

“Whatever is between us,” Dick continued slowly, holding Jason’s gaze, “You should tell him that he was loved.”

Jason’s smile unfurled alongside the great python in his chest that had been constricting his heart since that night all those months ago, when he’d caught Dick’s eye across the floor of The Black Cat. His grin was untameable, taking over his whole face until his eyes crinkled and his cheeks were sore.

He rolled up onto his side, pushing Dick down onto the bed so that they were a mirroring their previous positions. He tried to wrangle his smile and hold Dick’s gaze with some amount of seriousness, but he failed outstandingly.

“I think I just did.”