#Or would they be distrustful of a Powerful Meta in Gotham?

[bet-on-me-13]

Bank Security Guard Danny AU

So, the People of Gotham are extremely desensitized to Rouge Attacks at this point. It got to the point that whenever a person gets a job at the Bank, they have a whole 1 Hour Training Video on how to deal with a Rouge Attack right.

So, when they hire a New Security Guard from a lesser known Security Company, they don't even bother showing him the Training Video. They assume that he'll either Die or Drop them within a Week.

Danny, for the record, did not know how bad the Rouge problem truly was. All he knew was that some random guy in a Ski Mask had just walked into the bank like he owned the place and started showing off a Gun telling everybody to get on the ground.

Danny did the sensible thing and Knocked him the Fuck Out.

Then, the same thing happened the very next day, but this time it was an entire group of people. Danny had them dealt with before the first person had gotten to the floor.

Then the same thing happened the Same Day!

By the end of the week he had become a Legend among the Citizens of Gotham. There was only a single Bank in all of Gotham that had avoided being robbed for a Whole Week, and it was all because of this one Security Guard who was freakishly good at his Job.

By the end of the Month, most criminals don't even bother trying that Bank anymore. It got worse when he got loaned out as Security for another Bank, and the same thing happened again.

Eventually, he ends up rotating shifts in Every Bank in Gotham, and it becomes a Game for the Criminals to see if the Bank they try to Rob is the one Danny is in that night. And they can't even reasonably predict his next location, since he always moves around at Random!

No matter what Bank he is in, he always manages to beat the Crooks trying to Rob the Bank.

Then it gets weird. Due to a scheduling Mix Up, Danny ends up being scheduled for 2 different Banks on the same day, each across the city from the other.

One Bank reports that Danny stopped a gang from Robbing them at 6:00 PM, which really confuses the other Bank because Danny did the same thing in their Bank at the same time. Security Footage proves it, Danny was somehow in 2 places at once.

They decide not to confront him about it, but they do test a theory. They intentionally hire him at multiple different Banks at the same time for a week. He shows up to work every time without fail.

By now they have basically confirmed that he must be a Meta, but they don't really care anyways. Now he can protect multiple Banks at once with his usual perfect Efficiency, and he'll be payed accordingly as well. The Banks get protected well, and he gets payed Extreme Overtime by the Banks, everybody wins!

Well...except for the Crime Bosses of Gotham.

Before this, it was a Game for them to try and beat Danny. They didn't really care since a single Uber Competent Security Guard was still perfectly fine for business, sure they would fail a Job once in a while if they ran into him, but he could only be in 1 place at a time. It wasn't a Huge Loss.

But now it was too much. They needed to take care of him.

Assassination Attempts didn't work. He was just as competent Off the job as he was On it, so they could never get to him.

They tried attacking his Bosses, but then they hired themselves to protect...themselves. It was hard to kill his Bosses when he was constantly Bodyguarding all of them at once.

Attempts to get to him through his Family were...let's not talk about that...

It continued on like this for a while.

...

Soooo...I don't know how to end this one.

Go ahead and put your own spin on this Prompt! The basic idea is that Danny is using his Duplication Power to get to every shift on Time, and he is really annoying the Local Crime Bosses.

What do you think?

[internalsealpanic]

Dick Grayson x Mercenary Reader HCs Part 1

a/n: This is basically a Dick Grayson/ Reader thingy that has been stuck in my head for months but I haven’t plotted out an actual fic for. Basically, I have the relationship mapped out in my head but I have no scenarios. I was hoping someone could suggest a plot I can play with. This part is mostly platonic with hints of a future relationship. This is pretty much in a weird version of canon running around in my head. 

masterlist

You’re Deathstroke’s apprentice. (This version is the version from the Knights and Dragons movie so he isn't a complete and utter asshole. Look, I just really like that version.) Let's just say you had more moxie than self preservation. It also helps that you’re a meta with a pretty unique power. Anything drawn on your skin turns into a physical object. (You basically have a bunch of permanent markers on you in addition to your usual equipment.)

Dick doesn't like you because of your profession but has a grudging respect for your skill. You think Dick is annoying for getting in the way but you understand that he's just trying to do his best to help the city in his own useless way.

YOU LORDING YOUR HEIGHT OVER DICK WHEN YOU'RE KIDS AND YOU QUIETLY CURSING WHEN YOU STOP GROWING.

You and Dick never set out to be friends. You honestly had no clue when this even started. Maybe it was because you keep accidentally saving each other or maybe because you two have a lot to bond over such as murdered parents and emotionally inept mentors. 

When it actually started: You, in full  costume, recognize your least favourite bird and see that he's crying and that he not only has an ugly bruise in his face but also a bunch of other injuries. you simply sit with him and throw your arms around him letting your muscles relax as if to tell him ‘it's ok and that you’ve got him’. You let him cry into your shoulder. You understand that you have a little more in common than he's willing to admit. You use one of your motion tattoo wings as a cover from the rain and the other to keep Dick warm. When Dick finally calms down enough to think, he's jarred by how nice you are acting. your general demeanor loosened at this point you let your offense show and the very petulant look on your face draws a tired laugh out of Dick. your angry look melts to give way to something resembling relief. You stay there for a while not speaking before Dick decides he needs to leave. Without a fuss you let him go.

After that, instead of fighting each other during encounters, you two kind of just sit together and start talking about what happened since your last encounter. Or you two play rock, paper, scissors to see who ‘won’. 

Dick realizes that your personality is hilariously incompatible with your chosen profession. You rant about how Slade lectures you about learning how to lie better and when they tested how bad you were at it Dick was sure Alfred would politely word it as wooden. you had good control over your body language but you had a look caught between pain and annoyance etched on your face. 

Mini scenario: 

Dick is really stressed out with school and vigilanteing and with Bruce that he just starts wandering around Gotham. 

It was a bad idea. Wandering around Gotham is generally a bad idea especially if your head isn't on straight but there is something relaxing about just wandering around. 

Dick ends up at one of Gotham's old movie theatres. One of those businesses that you're pretty sure is a front for something because you can't wrap your head around how they could possibly still be in business. 

Then there you were a foot from the ticketing windows. His mind instantly recognizes you. You, in turn, recognize him instantly. 

When neither of you launch into an attack, you decide to watch a movie together. After bickering for 15 minutes about what movie you should watch, you decide on a coin toss. Because you won, Dick was subjected to your love of terrible movies. 

You go out for burgers afterwards and joke about the movie. You complain about the bad acting and the ridiculous story line. You even come up with how they should have done it.

Your lunch was spent outside in the parking lot of the burger joint. 

You walk around some more after you explain that you haven't been to this part of Gotham and Dick gives you a mini tour. 

You talk about a mix of mundane teenager things and some complaints about their occupations.

You check your watch and explain that you need to go to the grocery store for ingredients. 

Dick goes with you just because. He won't admit that he's having a lot of fun.

Being teenagers they fuck around. Being exceptionally athletic and intelligent teenagers you fuck around entertainingly. 

At first, you play 'the price is right' because Dick wants to prove he isn't a spoiled rich kid. He doesn't prove jack. You don't do much better but it's on the opposite end. 

You get bored and frustrated so you start a scavenger hunt much to the terror of the other customers. How would you feel about 2 terrors zooming around screaming about butter and backflipping over you?

Dick is busy gloating about his victory when the store gets robbed. Dick can't do anything because right now he is a rich boy extraordinaire and should not be capable of fighting. you on the other hand is sore from losing and just yeets a can into one of the robbers faces. 

Everyone's attention pans to your as you ready to lob another can at them. The robbers run leaving their unconscious friend on the floor bleeding. 

You still pay for the can but ask Dick to get another one. 

 Walking down the street, Dick notices how many take out places are on the way and asks why you don't just eat from there. you simply tell him you like home cooking more. He notes that for next time. 

You exchange phone numbers so you can plan a next time. 

The next time they hang out you both bring homemade snacks to sneak into the theater.

They start hanging out in civvies and do really mundane civilian stuff you want to try and that Dick doesn't get to do enough. 

You become a sort of hub of normality for Dick. He can talk to you about all the weird stuff without worrying about your not getting it or your judging him while also doing the most mind numbingly human things. 

What do they usually talk about:

Casual nerdy stuff

Weird history shit you reads about

Vigilante stuff

Funny henchman stories from the perspective of a vigilante and a higher level henchman

Sometimes they talk about trauma but they only vaguely mention it

They debate over dumb things like whether there's too much variety in cereal. Guess who's on which side. 

Sometimes they discuss fighting techniques. 

Dick teaches you Romani and about the Romani culture

You sometimes explains various myths and superstitions from your own culture

Dick sometimes talks about school and galas and you end up making fun of weird rich people. They also end up making fun of the various rich people who hire you.

You'll talk about almost everything with each other

You bring him to one of your safe houses for a home cooked meal after he tells you how he lives off of cereal. You were horrified. 

The Titans, Batman, and Alfred get really suspicious about Dick's new civilian friend. 

Slade gets suspicious of you frequently visiting certain cities. 

Somehow they figure out that you are the wraith. 

They all lecture Dick about it. 

Slade just finds the whole thing amusing and debates on whether he can actually convince you to give up some of Grayson's secrets. 

I just love the image of them casually hanging out in civvies with Batman questioning Dick's life decisions and what your has been influenced by his relationship with Catwoman while Deathstroke and Wintergreen are just quietly amused by the situation at some point they were worried about you discussing merc stuff but neither talk about current business unless it's safe to. 

Wintergreen isn't particularly worried since Grayson is a good kid. Wintergreen once joked that you should convince him to join their side. You said that Dick didn't have the right personality to be a merc. The irony of this was completely lost on your. 

You spending a ton of your hard earned mercenary money to win a stuffed toy that you think little Rose would want. Dick making fun of you for not getting it then he ends up spending too much money but he eventually gets it. You and Dick pass by a shop and you see the exact same stuffed toy in the shop window for a sixteenth of the fortune you spent at the arcade. Good news though, Rose still has the stuffed toy. 

 Both of you being petty at dance dance revolution. 

When you rant to each other in less than private areas, you rapidly switch languages.

Unbeknownst to Slade, Dick actually knows a bunch of his safe houses and unbeknownst to Dick, those are Deathstroke's safe houses.  You are technically not lying when you say it's yours. 

You have a silent pact not to blow each other's covers unless they deem it completely necessary (when people's lives are at stake). The only person who knows this pact is Jason and they have bought his silence. 

You will both go out of their way to help each other out of a bind. 

Sometimes when Bruce and Alfred are out of town and the stars align to have you visiting for a job, you end up helping Dick babysit. Jason gets confused and defensive at first. You have dealt with distrustful youngins. Neither Rose nor Joey wanted anything to do with you at first. You, however, grew up wanting siblings so you tried your darndest to look after them and it is really fucking hard to not let this munchkin grown on you. 

When you're old enough to hit the club they often go drinking together. You once tried to have you wingman for Dick. Using the ‘fantastic’ negotiating skills you got from mercenary work, you ended up getting the number for yourself. You once told Rose and Joey about it and both of them made lighthearted jokes about it. 

Dick gets confronted by Slade at sword point and asks what his intentions are with his kid (He honestly isn't at all serious but he likes how scared Dick got because the man is terrifying.)

Dick also gets interrogated by Joey and Rose because, you know, this is their big sister. 

You often insist on family dinners at least once every 2 weeks with your siblings, sometimes with their mom (Adeline is kind of not ok with you and Rose being present but is trying her best for Joey's sake), sometimes with their dad, occasionally with their uncle Wintergreen. 

You usually just casually call Slade 'pops'  and you drawls 'dad' when you’re pissed and 'papa' when you’re emotional. You try your damndest to only call him Slade or Deathstroke on the field but sometimes you slip up and calls him pops in the field

You have batnapped each batkid at least once. Batnapping meaning seeing a baby bat and throwing them over your shoulder when you’re pretty sure they’re going to get killed. This isn’t limited to kids. You still do this when they’re adults. The image of you throwing Dick over your shoulder when you two were tiny gives me life but you throwing Dick and/or Jason over your shoulder when they’re huge has me cackling.  

You basically accidentally become a de facto big sister/ mom friend to the batkids purely through your friendship with Dick.

Images from this scenario I can’t get out of my head:

Stargazing

Teaching Dick how to cook. He just ends up going to your place for a meal though. 

Running around during a rain storm huddled under a jacket with Dick because neither of you checked the weather

Casual affection you two share because you’re both tactile people. Casual affection as in just sitting on the couch in each other’s space, bumping shoulders to communicate, leaning on each other, hugging each other when greeting each other, and all that good stuff. 

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Thanks for reading! I’m really sorry for the grammar and disorganization. 

If you guys are interested in the more bickering dialogue heavy part 2 either comment here or send an ask or pm me. *shrugs* This is just really self indulgent on my part. 

taglist: 

@idkmanicantenglish

@birdy-bat-writes (I will stop tagging you when you run out of good ideas for me.)

[bigskydreaming]

Part of the reason I lean so hard into the juvie origin for Dick in particular, as well as why his cop storyline pisses me off so much in light of that (given they were both the work of the same writer and wtf, why would a kid who got screwed so massively by the system ever grow up wanting to become PART of it? even to ‘fix it’ given that would require still working in service to it at least part of the time, in order to move up the ladder to positions of power within it in the first place? BUT I DIGRESS).

Where was I? Oh yeah. So part of the reason for that is because I view each of the Batkids as having their own specific metaphorical niche, based on their origins.

What I mean by that is like: the true villain of Jason’s origin and backstory is poverty as a whole. The impoverished status of his parents and his surrounding community are definitive stressors that lead directly into all the most critical elements of Jason’s origin: his father working as a henchman for various crime lords, which pretty directly loops back and into his alcoholism and abuse of his wife and son....his mother’s spiral into addiction after turning to drugs as a means of self-medicating for all the stress and shit in her own life which she needed an escape from....Jason’s own lack of options as a child seeking to support himself on the street and with petty crimes, as well as his unwillingness to put his faith in foster care or any adults in general, given how they as a whole tended to look at him, specifically due to his impoverished background and thus making assumptions about his intellect, potential, and overall ‘value’ to society.....

Jason is who he is as a character for a variety of reasons, but none moreso or more directly than the poverty that acts as a direct anthropomorphized antagonist for him....and thus, is the focal point of where Jason directs his attention and his own antagonism as an adult. When Jason seeks to take control of crime in Gotham, when he targets drug dealers, etc....its really the deliberately inflicted and perpetuated impoverished state of Gotham’s lower class that he’s combating. And that works perfectly for Jason as a metaphor and a character direction, and gives him a clearly defined niche in the Batfamily.

Then we have Tim, who I would argue has an origin and backstory defined by the apathy of the upper class as an antagonist, and thus, the perfect metaphor for him and his character direction. The self-centered tendencies of his parents, his history of neglect and the necessitated self-reliance and independence it instilled in him from a very early age - which could have very easily turned him into a copy of his parents, with that self-sufficiency turning into a mirror of their self-centeredness and repeating the cycle if he hadn’t actively broken the mold with his actions by seeking out Batman and picking him as someone, ANYONE to try and help, rather than focus entirely on himself and his own needs....and in near adulthood, Tim has become someone whose chosen focus tends to be on trying to repurpose his wealth and resources for the good of all of Gotham...essentially, the very people that for so long his parents and fellow upper class ignored and exploited.

Of course, Tim is still a product of his background as much as he’s aware of the flaws in it, much like Bruce himself, so similar to Bruce, Tim will always look at his wealth/resources in terms of the good he feels he can do with it, which he sees as more than any good that would come from just directly giving it away. In contrast to Jason and Dick, who come from entirely different backgrounds and have always prioritized their own more modest or otherwise-gained means of income or resources, even when investing in projects intended to help others - they look at things in terms of the good they feel they can do WITHOUT needing money, or as much money. Its the result of coming into resources from entirely different directions....which are sustained even as they then continue their trajectories in those opposite directions but now with added resources under their belts.

Cass and Damian are the two Batkids I would love to see explored more in juxtaposition and contrast to each other, because I feel they occupy very similar but opposite niches, the same as Jason and Tim represent the stresses of poverty vs the apathy of excess. Because Cass and Damian represent the two flip sides of parental expectations....BUT in their case, they start out on the same page. What I mean by that is the metaphorical antagonist of both of their origins and backstories IS the bogeyman of parental expectations taken to the absolute extreme. They both exist in at least one of their parents’ eyes to essentially be what their parent wants or expects them to be. An end result of carefully planned and executed molding of a next generation, with no real consideration for what that next generation wants for themselves.

They simply diverge in how they both break free of those expectations and the limitations built into them, and where they go from there. Damian finds his niche (or comes closest to it IMO, since I feel a lot of writers, at least lately, have regressed him from the considerable progress he made in this regard, and where and when he was his most fully...DAMIAN).....essentially, Damian is most fundamentally Damian, I feel, when he’s able to put aside what he thinks Talia and Bruce want or expect him to be...and instead simply prioritizes figuring out what HE wants to be and what that looks like, even if it ends up having no connection to the League or even Batman at all. Or at least not in the ways he always expected those connections to look like, as a result of the expectations that were drilled into him from an early age. Damian’s metaphor is pushing back against selfish parental expectations by saying I no longer care what your expectations are, they have nothing to do with me.

In contrast, Cassandra finds her niche in the fulfillment of not the expectations precisely, but the HOPES of a NEW parental figure, aka Bruce. Cassandra, out of all the Batkids, most fully CHOSE Bruce and everything he represented and offered, as much as Bruce chose her. She was the oldest of all the Batkids - except for perhaps Duke - when she met Bruce in the various continuities, and she had the maturity and life experiences to at least be able to recognize the different life path Bruce stood for and offered, as a contrast to the one David Cain had laid out for her and forced upon her from birth. So Cassandra differs from Damian in that while Damian grows the more he breaks away from the mold of Batman, Cassandra finds herself the closer she gets to what Bruce has always wanted Batman TO be, in the example he puts forth and holds up to show her that there’s more to life, to her, to what she can be, than simply what David told her existed.

Its no coincidence that she’s so often cited both in universe and out of it as one of the, if not the, ideal successor to the cowl.....not just because of how much she embodies the specific ideals and yes, expectations, that the cowl holds....but because she CHOSE that, with INTENT. Unlike even Dick, who Bruce has at times said is what he always wanted Batman to be....Cass is this as well, but Cass is this deliberately, because Bruce found her, and then he held up these ideals and convictions and said ‘this is what I prioritize, this is what I think is important’ and Cass looked at those and said yes, good, I like those, I like what they stand for, I want to BE those.....and she found fulfillment in fulfilling Bruce’s hopes for a next generation even without either of them FORCING that fulfillment on her, unlike what David did or tried to do. And that’s what makes all the difference in the world in Cassandra’s situation and in her and Bruce’s dynamic....and is a large part of the reason, IMO, that they have one of the strongest and healthiest dynamics of any that exist between Bruce and one of his kids.

Duke is a very unique niche as well. In short, the true villain of Duke’s origin is an ACTUAL supervillain....which coincides thematically with the direction of Duke’s character as a meta with superpowers himself, something that historically is pretty unprecedented within the Bat franchise, at least as far as Batman’s allies and direct family go. Bruce’s distrust of meta’s, or at least discomfort with them, is well established and longterm, so Duke represents an extreme break in tradition for Bruce, as well as having hallmarks to the sphere of thought that Batman and other vigilantes, by their very existence, bring about the existence of supervillains like the Joker and the Riddler. I’m still working out the kinks in this metaphor, tbh, in part because of how relatively new Duke is, he doesn’t have even the decade worth of content and story direction that Damian has by this point, to point to how some directions serve a character better than others....but overall, I see the most potential in Duke as a metaphor and niche in the Batfamily as like....as the Signal, he’s the embodiment of potential, once allowed to be REALIZED, rather than shied away from because of pre-existing beliefs or perspectives. Of course, the fact that Duke is black can’t be disconnected from this, which is part of things here as well....I’m not at all the best person to explore this particular metaphor to its fullest, so anyone who wants to take it and run with it more thoroughly if they see any validity in it at all, I’d very much like to see your thoughts if you ever write them out.

Which brings me back to Dick’s metaphor and niche in the Batfamily and franchise, and why the juvie origin works best for him IMO.....because the specter of Dick’s origin and backstory, the true villain even moreso than Tony Zucco himself, is the system as a whole. The way it is built and structured to exploit less advantaged members of society to the benefit of the upper class...such as the Court of Owls. Everything about Dick’s individual character direction falls pretty neatly into this chain of thinking, IMO....Tony Zucco murdered Dick’s parents, yes, but it was the system that took Dick away from his extended family, his planned life direction as an entertainer, everything he was familiar and comfortable with...and said it was for his own good, they knew best, he was better off this way. It was the system that ‘lost’ him in juvie when it was just more convenient than figuring out what to do with him, or just plain didn’t care, or due to the actions of a single racist case worker perhaps, or maybe even done at the behest of the Court of Owls in an attempt to wear away at the morality and resistance their future Talon might have to their plans for him. Bottom line is, everything about how Dick ended up where he was and on the course he ended up taking through life, is a direct result of the system’s manipulations of him in service not to HIM and what was best for him, as a member of society himself, but entirely at the whims or discretion of others.

Which is why Dick’s choice to become a cop both works and doesn’t work....I can see how at eighteen he might have briefly entertained the idea of trying to change the system from the inside...BUT it only works if the stories that result from that make no attempt to glorify or romanticize the work or character of any of his colleagues, and instead simply make him realize that he can’t change the system by becoming a cog in its flawed machinery, no matter his intentions...and that’s why he’s best served operating outside of it, as a vigilante. Bruce is a vigilante because he feels he exists to pick up the slack where the system fails, or is broken, because Bruce is someone who the system actually is meant to work FOR, and thus the times it doesn’t work that way, such as with the deaths of his parents....IS a result of a failure on the system’s part. In contrast, Dick, for all the superficial similarities in their origins, is someone who the system was never meant to work for, and IMO, Dick is best served as a character at the times and points when he’s allowed to RECOGNIZE this....and thus Dick is a vigilante for the sole reason that he’s someone who puts his faith in individuals rather than institutions. He’d much rather trust in the morality of singular people that he KNOWS and VALUES, rather than the morality of an uncaring system of bureaucracies and red tape.

And again, IMO Dick works best as both a metaphor and a character with a clearly defined niche and purpose when he targets the system directly with his actions. Whether its fighting their embodiment as the Court of Owls and their attempts to exploit him, or pouring his own time, energy and resources into trying to buy and renovate the former entertainment district of Gotham and turn it into a sanctuary for impoverished Gothamites to visit cheaply as a break from their stressors (I’ve talked a lot about how similar I view Jason and Dick being, at their core, so its no surprise that I see their metaphors and niches as being so closely linked, even if not entirely the same). And of course, even if you hate Dick as a cop as much as I do, his focus there still fits what I’m laying out here, for the same reasons, its just the actuality of it that doesn’t work as intended, for the reasons I already mentioned.

So yeah. That’s my post. That was a post. This post is concluded. Man I suck at denoument.

[awhitehead17]

A Different Perspective

TimKon, BillyTeddy, Crossover, Humour, Fluff, Tim’s in denial, Pining, Getting Together.

Summary: Tim is seriously put off by the couple of teenagers that claim they're from another universe, what makes matters worse is that apparently in their universe Tim and his family are all comic book characters.

A/N: This was done for 'Crossover Fic' on my Batfam Bingo card.

Also on AO3

Enjoy! :D

“Things like this never mean something good.”

“I don’t know, sometimes they can turn out to be good things.”

“Dude, when has an anomaly that’s randomly appeared in the centre of Gotham ever turned out to be a good thing?”

Tim goes silent for a moment before reluctantly admitting, “Yeah, okay. You may have a point.”

Kon lets out a laugh, “Of course I do.” 

Tim doesn’t give him an answer after that. He simply focuses on swinging and landing safely on the rooftops he’s traveling over while Kon flies next to him. They’re traveling to the centre of Gotham to where Oracle had picked up a spike of abnormal readings, being the closet to the location both Tim and Kon were sent on their way.

They arrive moments later, stopping on top of a rooftop above the alley where the readings where coming from. Kon lands beside him and together they make their way down the building to stand at the alley entrance hidden from sight.

“This is it,” Tim mutters quietly to the meta hovering over his shoulder.

“Any idea on what it could be?”

“None. Oracle’s tech apparently couldn’t pick anything up so this will be fun. Prepare for anything.”

As they get ready to move a couple of voices then could be heard, both heroes freeze at hearing them. Tim makes out two male voices, young, maybe teens, American and they’re apparently arguing.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Well you clearly did something Billy! This is not the lair.”

“Well I don’t know. You know that my powers are currently going crazy T! I didn’t mean for us to end up ….. wherever we are. I didn’t mean to!”

The one called ‘Billy’ sounds like he’s on the verge of crying. The other one, ‘T’, lets out a long sigh like he’s used this kind of thing and his voice is soft when he next speaks.

“Hey it’s okay. I know you’re still learning and that it’s not easy, but right now this is not a good thing. We need to work out where we are, you need to get your strength back and then we can try and get home.”

“I’m really tired T.”

“I know, that’s why you’re going to rest and then we’ll work this mess out.”

The guys continue to mutter, ‘Billy’ carries on blaming himself for something while ‘T’ tries and consoles him. Tim looks over his shoulder at Kon who looks back at him with raised eyebrows and a shrug. Tim frowns, the names don’t ring a bell and what they’ve said doesn’t give a lot of indication to what they’re up to or what the anomaly readings were all about, though he has a feeling that ‘Billy’s’ so called powers may have something to do with that.

Tim makes a gesture with his hand and Kon nods in understanding. Together they move into the alley way, however they stop short at the sight that greets them. Tucked to the side of the alley, against the wall, there were two figures. One large one that was mostly green and had blonde hair, the other was smaller and looked more human. The green figure was curled around the smaller one protectively.

Tim grabs out his bo staff and stands defensively while Kon tenses up next to him.

“Who are you?” Tim speaks out loud and clear, successfully gaining their attentions.

Normally if it was criminals fighting, they’d be able to simply drop down in the middle of the fight and beat the shit out of them, but with this it’s different. They have no idea what these two are capable of or where they even come from.

The two figures jump at the sound of his voice. They freeze on the spot and watch him and Kon with wide eyes as they slowly approach. Now he’s got a clearer view of them. They’re wearing costumes, not the store brought kind, but proper, professionally made looking costumes, Tim figures they must be vigilantes of sorts, but whether they’re heroes or villains remain unanswered. He hasn’t seen either of these two before, it’s nerve-wracking and putting him on edge.

The large green figure speaks first, though it was a more of a shocked gasp. “Oh my god.”

Tim shoots Kon a baffled look, his best friend simply mimics the look.

The green figure turns back to his smaller companion, (it doesn’t go unnoticed on how the smaller one is clutching the green’s one shirt and how the green one has his large hands on his friend’s shoulder’s) “Are you seeing what I’m seeing right now?”

The smaller one was looking at them with his mouth open agape like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “If you’re currently on about how Red Robin and Superboy are walking towards us, looking like they’re about to kill us, then yes I can see that.”

Tim and Kon continue forward until they’re a few feet away from the duo. Both of their stances are defensive and they’re ready for anything. The two other were still crouched on the floor looking at them with wide, shocked eyes.

At the mention of their names however Tim raises an unexpected eyebrow. How do these two know who they are while they don’t know them? It’s frustrating and Tim hates being at a disadvantage.

“I’m going to ask you again.” Tim forces out. “Who are you?”

Much to his annoyance they ignore him.

The green one starts yelling at his companion. “What have you done? You’ve brought comic book characters to life now?!”

The smaller one immediately gets defensive. “I don’t know! I don’t think so. Hey, you know how my powers have been going whacky lately, give me a break!”

Now hearing them properly again, Tim recognises the voices of them. He puts together that the green figure was ‘T’ and the smaller one was ‘Billy’. Though that information wasn’t a lot of help to work out who they really were or what they were doing.

“Comic book characters?” Kon questions from next to him. “What the hell you on about?”

‘T’ seems startled at that. He looks at Billy before looking at them again. Even though his facial structure was different to a human’s the look of shock and dread were easy to make out. “Wait, where are we?”

Tim has a bad feeling about this now. He answers T sceptically, “Gotham City.”

The dread deepens further on T’s face. He turns back to billy, “So you didn’t make them come to life. Instead, you actually transported us to their universe! How?”

Billy practically whimpers, “I don’t know! Give me five minutes and I can try and get us home okay. I’m exhausted right now T.”

T’s face softens up, “Sorry, I know, I’m sorry. It’s just…” He turns back to Tim and Kon with a sigh. “You’re not going to maim us are you?”

Tim instinctively tightens his grip on his bo, “Not unless we have to…”

He isn’t fooled. These two may be attempting to lure them into a false sense of security. Tim wasn’t falling for that trap.

T lets out a nod and a sigh in relief. He’s then moving away from Billy and standing up to his full height, he towers over both him and Kon, maybe looking around Jason’s and Bruce’s height really, possibly even taller. That doesn’t matter though, they’ve faced bigger in battle before if it comes down to that. T raises his hands in front of him in a placating gesture.

“Please don’t freak out.”

He says it in a condescending tone that Tim finds slightly offensive. Before he could retort however, T’s whole form was shifting. Simultaneously his green skin was fading away and his whole body structure was getting smaller up until there was an average looking human in front of them.

The large green figure was now a blonde teenage boy, no more built than Kon and was the same height. Shape shifter then.

Tim doesn’t loosen his hold on his bo. “Who are you?” He asks for a third time.

T takes a deep breath and looks down at Billy who gives a jerky nod, as if permission. T looks back at them, with his hands still out in front of him, and says, “Look this is going to be hard to believe but we’re from another universe.”

20 minutes later, after some rough and slightly confusing explanations, Tim and Kon were tucked away in the corner talking privately while the other two were chatting between themselves also.

“Do you believe them?” Kon asks looking doubtful.

Tim thinks for a moment. Everything they’ve said sounds believable, the way they’re acting is correlating with the situation, however Tim’s usual level of distrust is playing a part and making it hard for him to easily believe the two apparent dimension travellers.

“Partly.” He answers in the end.

“What do you want to do?”

“I’m not too sure yet. I want to leave them be, especially if Billy can get them home, but I don’t want to leave them alone in case something happens.”

“But apparently Billy isn’t up for making another spell yet despite what he says. Would it be worth taking them somewhere?”

“Like where? The Tower? The Cave?”

“Could do! They already know us dude. They said that. We’re comic book characters in their universe?”

“Could be a coincidence.” Kon gives him a deadpan look at that comment. It was his best friend’s ‘you’re being an over-paranoid bat freak again’ look. Tim pouts at him. “I’m just being cautious! I guess when you mention that, we should take them with us. They could spill out valuable information that needs to be kept private. We’ll take them to the cave and work something out from there.”

Kon nods like he approves of the plan.

They walk back over to their current guests, T (whose name they learned was Teddy) now had Billy up on his feet but had a hand on his waist and an arm over his shoulders in support.

“I want to take you to the cave. You’ll be safe there and then we can try and work out a way for you to get home that doesn’t involve exhausting Billy here further.”

Both of them light up at the news. “Really! You’re taking us to the Batcave? That’s awesome!”

Tim shoots them an odd look before informing that he’s going to contact Oracle. That response just had Teddy getting more excited instead.

Minutes later, after answering very few questions about what was going on, he lets them all know that a car is coming to pick them up and will arrive in about 20 minutes. That instantly gets excitement from Billy.

“Wait is that the Batmobile? We’re going to get to ride in the Batmobile?”

Instead of supplying that question with an answer he asks his own, “Just how much stuff about us do you know? You’ve told us we’re comic book characters in your universe and how you pretty much know our entire lives but how much is that exactly? How is that even possible?”

Teddy shrugs, “I don’t know. To be honest at this point I try to not ask any more. I still can’t get over the fact that you two are standing right in front of us alive and breathing.”

Tim takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose. That wasn’t the answer he was looking for. “I get that. Trust me I do, but how much of our lives do you know? How much is documented in those comics of yours. Where in are we currently in your time line, do we have to worry about any future spoilers?”

Tim was getting stressed, every question he asked came out more aggressive than the last. This was important information, if someone was to come from that universe and come to theirs they could easily spill all of his family’s secrets (along with other heroes identities). It could be catastrophic.

A hand on his shoulder draws his attention away from the two dimension travellers. He turns to find Kon glowering at him. Tim glares back. Kon simply puts harder pressure on his shoulder, “Rob, I know you want answers but perhaps the interrogation can wait until we’re at the cave away from any potential listeners yeah?”

Kon’s currently giving him that ‘don’t be stupid’ look. Tim studies his friend for a moment, trying to work out when did he become mature and actually started to use his brain for once. Right now Kon’s blue eyes were staring at him, clearly trying to get his message across to Tim, it was his eyes that made Tim relent and give in. There’s just something about them that speak a lot of words without actually doing so.

There was also that pressure on his shoulder, warm, reassuring and even restraining. It was the support he needed.

“No way…” a gasp came from behind them and they both turn around to find the two teens staring at them wide eyed.

Tim sharpens his gaze on them. “What?”

“Wait, are you two-” Teddy started to speak but Billy unsubtly elbows him.

“Shush!”

That raises an alert inside of Tim. “What is it?” He asks. He glances at Kon before looking at them again. “Us two what?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Billy quickly replies back, too quickly. Now Tim knows that their hiding something and it’s going to get on his nerves until he knows what it is.

“You know, your cowl looks way more different in real life than what I thought it would.” Teddy comments looking at him judgingly.

Tim scowls at that, next to him Kon laughs. “I think he looks stupid.”

Teddy raises an eyebrow, smiling as he does so. “Because t-shirt and jeans are so much better?”

“Hey!”

This time Tim snickers and elbows Kon’s side playfully. “I’ve been saying that you need to get an actual costume. Clearly they agree.”

Kon shoves him slightly and Tim pushes back. Before they could get into any fighting, a loud rumble of an engine could be heard. They break apart and Tim watches as both Billy and Teddy’s faces light up with anticipation and excitement as the batmobile comes into view.

It is mind blowing when seeing the vehicle for the first time, especially up close so he understands their fan-boying (Tim used to be like it to until he got his Red Bird) so he lets them off. Kon whistles appreciatively.

Tim smirks as it stops in front of them and heads for the driver’s side. He looks at the others, “Come on, get in,” before getting in himself.

“Oh my god Teddy look at it. Look at it! It’s so much cooler than I ever thought it was going to be!”

“This is freaking insane!”

Tim sends Kon, who climbs into shotgun, a knowing smirk. Once everyone was in Tim starts it up and puts it on auto pilot for the cave. Behind him in the back seats Billy and Teddy were still freaking out over it. Tim ignores them until they say something that makes him freeze.

“This is crazy, I wouldn’t even know what button to touch. Why did you let Bart drive this thing back in your Young Justice days?”

His mouth opens in shock as he spins around to stare at Billy who asked the question. Teddy was also looking curious for the answer. Kon, the unhelpful bastard that he is, just simply crosses his arms and says, “You know, I’ve always wandered the same thing.”

Tim scowls at him before giving their guests a hopeless look and shrug, “I don’t know! I just thought it was a good idea at the time okay. Trust me, it’ll never happen again.”

“Only because Batman won’t let it happen again.” Teddy retorts.

Tim wants to argue that point but he really can’t because it was true. Instead he stays silent, ignoring Kon’s snickers, and watches the scenery go by as they get to the cave.

Somehow, Billy and Teddy’s fanboying quadruples when they get to the cave. The two of them look around in awe and start pointing everything out like they’re at a museum. It would be amusing to watch if it wasn’t so concerning on how much they already knew.

“No way, that’s the dinosaur!”

“They actually do have the giant penny!”

“Is that, no way, they’re the original costumes! God they look so weird in person.”

“I can’t believe both Dick and Jason wore that costume as Robin, their legs must have been freezing!”

“Thank god for Tim bringing pants to the Robin costume.”

Tim shoots them a look at that. It really was unsettling on how much they knew. Just how detailed were those so called comics in their universe?

“Boy Wonder number three, care to explain what’s going on?”

Tim looks up at the next level of the cave where the computers where based to see Babs looking down at them. He pushes his cowl back tiredly and starts trudging up the stairs to get to her, Kon follows close behind him while their guests continue to freak out about things around the cave.

“Yeah those anomaly’s you picked up, turned out to be two dimensional traveling teenagers. I don’t think your tech picked them up fully because of Billy’s magical powers.”

She raises an unamused eyebrow, completely unsurprised by that information. “Huh, that’s strange. And Billy is…”

Gesturing down below, Tim comments, “Currently fan-boying about the cave.”

“Apparently we’re all comic book characters in their universe,” Kon pipes up, “They know everything about you guys and the cave, even Young Justice.”

Babs leans back in her chair, a look of curiosity crossing her features. “Well that’s not entirely unexpected but it is different. How much do they know?”

Tim shrugs, “I tried asking but they wouldn’t give a straight answer. They’re currently freaking out in their own way. From what I can gather, them being here was an accident on Billy’s part.”

“Why’s that.”

“He has magical, reality warping powers I believe, again they didn’t really tell us anything. Teddy on the other hand is a shape shifter.”

“Okay, well I’ll make some notes on this, will this Billy be able to get them back home or no?”

Tim shrugs, “I think he needs to recharge or something, he was complaining he was tired earlier.”

“I don’t see why they can’t stay here for now, ask Alfred if he’s willing to prepare rooms for them. How many others know that they’re even here?”

“No one else as far as I know.”

“Okay, well we’ll let them rest here for tonight, I’ll make a call to Zatanna to see if she can help tomorrow. How does that sound?”

Tim nods, “That’s good. Sounds like a plan, if Bruce has a problem with it then tough.”

Babs returns back to the computer and Tim starts to go towards the changing rooms, he glances over his shoulder at his best friend, “Hey you still going to stay? I know this weekend was supposed to be just us hanging out but we can wait until these two go home if you want.”

Kon quickens his pace and then chucks an arm over his shoulder. Tim tries incredibly hard to not melt into the embrace his friend provides he can’t let Kon know how good and comforting that really feels.

“I’ll stay dude, just because we have some guests doesn’t mean I don’t want to hang out with you. This might even be interesting.”

They get down to the second floor, both Billy and Teddy were still freaking out over a variety of things. “Hey!” He calls out to them. They jump like they’ve just been caught stealing candy. “Let’s go and get changed, you’ll be sleeping here tonight and then we’ll look at sending you back home tomorrow.”

They both rapidly nod in agreement and start making their way over to Tim and Kon. It’s only now that Tim is realising what their costumes are like. Billy’s is all spandex, black with grey sides, a red cape that’s heavy on one side and what appears to have is a hood. Teddy was in a black and brown vest with black pants. It was the same clothing he was wearing when he was big and green.

“We need to get you into some normal clothes,” Tim comments, “Follow me to the changing rooms!”

Teddy and Billy continue their fan-boying the entire time they were getting changed. Billy borrowed some of Tim’s clothes while Teddy borrowed some of Dick’s. Their excitement made Tim wonder how they haven’t passed out yet, from either being overwhelmed or from tiredness.

He starts getting his answer as they make their way up the stairs to the Manor. They become progressively quieter and when Tim looks behind him he sees Billy nearly asleep on Teddy and Teddy himself starting to move sluggishly. Tim figures it’s probably best to get them to a bedroom first and then make a plan in the morning when they wake up.

He voices this to them and they tiredly agree, both not really with it anymore. With Kon’s help, they set up one of the spare rooms they have which was close to Tim’s own. They offered them separate rooms but apparently the teenagers were happy sharing. They bid their goodnights and close off for the night.

Tim and Kon head back to his own, both of them lowly talking about their new guests.

“Do you think they’re together?” Tim questions shutting the door.

Kon goes over the bed and flops down onto it face first for a moment before rolling over onto his side so he was looking at Tim. The meta shrugs, “I think so yeah, but then again they could just be really close bros.”

“I suppose so yeah, not the vibe I get from them though.”

“Then again Tim, if you’re in another world and only had one person you knew, you would stick by them too wouldn’t you? They’re probably still getting their heads wrapped around what’s happened. Give them a break.”

Tim slumps on the bed next to his best friend, finally feeling the day and night catch up to him. “True.”

Next to him Kon grins, “Also, the same could be said for us. We’re close, people probably have presumed that we’re together.”

Tim tries really hard to ignore how his heart jumps at hearing that and how much he’s thought about that being a real thing. “Yeah I guess…” he says slowly. He can’t let Kon know of his crush. Before they could get any further on the topic Tim changes the subject. “You staying the night or heading off now?”

Next to him Kon yawns and rubs a hand over his face, “What time is it?”

Tim looks at his digital clock on his bedside table, “It’s nearly 4am. You’re welcome to stay, I’ll deal with Bruce in the morning.” He knows Kon knows this but it doesn’t hurt to remind his friend.

“If that’s cool man, I mean I said I’d stay anyway, plus I can’t be bothered to fly back now.”

Tim nods in understanding. After a moment he forces himself up from the bed to get himself ready for bed, when he comes back Kon is passed out on the bed, his back facing Tim. Tim rolls his eyes but smiles, in an attempt to not wake his best friend he climbs into the empty space and allows himself to fall asleep.

When Tim wakes up in the morning, he’s extremely comfortable, warm and really tempted to just stay in bed. It was when last night’s events repeat in his mind that he knows he needs to get out of bed. He needs to work out what he’s going to be doing with Billy and Teddy that day while they wait to hear back from Zatanna.

As he begins to wake up fully he starts to notice more things, like how his head isn’t resting on his pillow but is on something relatively soft or how there’s something pressed up against his back which he knows is definitely not the wall.

He shifts and looks over his shoulder to find Kon pressed right up against him, his best friend’s head was pressed against his shoulder, Tim’s head was actually resting against his bicep while the other hand is wrapped around his waist in a loose embrace while he slept.

Tim’s breathing catches in his throat. He’s suddenly more awake than before and tenses up. Shit, shit, shit, not good! When had they gotten into this position? Why did it have to be so comfortable? Tim determines the best way to get out of this situation without waking Kon, which was difficult because the meta felt warm and pleasant behind him but Tim didn’t really want to be dealing with any morning wood at that moment.

He gently removes the arm from around his waist before slowly rolling himself away. He’s grateful that he easily slips out of bed without getting snagged by Kon’s TTK (which has happened before). He shakes himself off, watches with amusement as Kon pouts at the loss of heat and as he turns back over to continue sleeping.

Getting himself ready for the day, he plans on getting a cup of coffee, maybe some breakfast and then working out how to help their current guests and their predicament. He was walking out of his room when he spots Teddy coming out into the hallway. Shutting the door behind him he greets the other teenager.

“Morning. How did you sleep?”

Teddy lets out an awkward laugh and walks up to him, he rubs a hand against his neck and looks around in awe. “Still can’t get over the fact that this wasn’t a dream. I barely remember getting into bed last night but I certainly do remember yesterday’s events. I slept well considering though. Billy’s still asleep, probably will be for a while, he normally sleeps like a good half of the day when his powers go wild.”

“That’s fine,” Tim tells him earnestly, “We have no plans for today and to help the two of you we have called one our magicians to come and help you out if they’re not busy.”

Teddy raises his eyebrows, “Who? And are you sure? Once Billy’s awake he’ll be fine to get us back.”

Tim doesn’t miss the quietly added ‘hopefully’ at the end of that sentence. He lets it go and waves a hand around, “Nah it’s fine. And Zatanna if you want to know.”

Together they start walking to the kitchen. Tim watches Teddy with amusement as he takes everything in. It still concerns him about how much they know about their lives, but there’s not a lot he can do about it so he sucks it up and tries to ignore that particular fact.

As they near the kitchen they hear multiple voices and Tim groans. He didn’t want to be dealing with his family this morning. Especially with both his dimension travelling guests and Kon here. Next to him Teddy gasps.

“Is that your family? Am I about to meet the Bat family?”

Tim shoots him an odd look, “Uh yeah, unfortunately. They do live here after all.”

“Oh my god!”

Tim shakes his head in disbelief before leading them into the kitchen. He still needs his coffee despite the situation. The blonde teenager follows him and abruptly stops in the door way at the sight of his family gathered around the table having breakfast.

Bruce was sat there, a paper in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Dick was munching on some cereal beside him. Alfred was at the stove. Okay, it wasn’t as bad as Tim thought, thank god Damian or Jason wasn’t there.

Noticing that Teddy had frozen at the doorway he goes back, grabs his wrist and drags him into the kitchen, “Guys, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” All of their heads turn their way and he immediately feels Teddy tense up.

Bruce was the first to react, before Tim couldn’t even introduce was Teddy was. His adoptive father stands up and heads towards them, his bulking frame looming over them almost in a menacing way.

“So this is our guest, or one of them. Theodore I assume?”

Teddy swallows and jerkily nods, “Uh yeah – yes sir. Though Teddy is fine.”

Bruce, “Okay, nice to meet you Teddy, I would introduce myself but I hear that you already know who I am don’t you?”

Tim rolls his eyes, he can’t believe Bruce is interrogating him. Poor kid. Then again he did the same thing didn’t he?

“Uh yes sir, you’re Bruce Wayne and you’re a lot bigger than I imagined you would be in real life.”

That gets Teddy some odd looks. To save him from any more embarrassment Tim jumps in and explains, “Teddy is from a different world, in his world we’re all comic book characters. He knows everything Bruce.”

It goes silent for a moment as everyone digests that information. Bruce looks stoic, clearly working out all of the implications of that means. Dick and Alfred both simply look interested.

“Huh, that’s new.” Dick comments from the table. His brother gets up and walks over to them, pushing Bruce to the side as he does so. He sticks a hand out to Teddy. “It’s nice to meet you Teddy.”

It was amusing to watch the almost scared look from Teddy’s face melt away into awe and disbelief. It takes him a moment but eventually he shakes Dick’s hand. “It’s an honour.”

“So if you’re from a different world, how did you end up in ours? Is that what the anomaly was yesterday?”

“Perhaps the young man would like some food first, then he can go about answering your questions Master Dick.” Alfred pipes up from the stove.

Dick has the decency to look a little bit guilty. “Sorry Alf, what do you want for breakfast Teddy?”

Teddy looks put out by the question, “Uh… cereal will be fine if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine!”

They get settled at the table, Teddy with a bowl of cereal and Tim with his coffee and French toast. Kon joins them about 10 minutes later and Alfred sets him up with a bacon sandwich. Tim very pointedly ignores the look Dick shoots him when Kon sits down next to him.

After they’ve all finished eating they get talking. Or it’s more like an interrogation, Tim feels really bad for Teddy but the other teen seems to be taking it in stride now he’s gotten over his bewilderment that the man who is Batman was there in front of his eyes for real.

“Billy’s powers can be temperamental. He’s still learning how to control them, while he’s a lot better than what he was a year or two back when they first manifested, there’s still a few bumps. It’s not the first time we’ve travelled to another world but it is the first time we’ve travelled to one where it’s a comic book in our world.”

“Last night Kon and I found them in the alley where the anomaly was located.” Tim inputs. “With the knowledge they have of us, and with Billy’s powers being a bit temperamental, we thought it was best to bring them here where it’s safe and where they can get the right help.”

He looks at both Bruce and Dick, expecting them to say something, or at least he’s expecting Bruce too. The man surprises him and stays quiet for a moment, clearly taking it all in and trying to decide what the next move will be. His brother stays quiet, but Tim doesn’t miss the way he keeps on glancing between him and Kon. Damn him for knowing his secret, for him getting Tim so drunk to the point where a filter was non-existent.

“Where’s Billy now?” Bruce finally speaks up.

“He’s, uh, he’s still sleeping. Sometimes using his powers really exhaust him.”

“And he’s the one that brought the both of you here?”

“By accident.” Teddy snaps defensively.

Bruce wasn’t fazed by the attitude, he turns to Tim, calling his name to get his attention. “Tim, what’s your plan with dealing with this?”

After glaring at Dick, Tim moves his attention to Bruce. “Well I was speaking with Babs last night, she’s calling Zatanna for us, hopefully she’ll be able to come by soon and help get these two back to where they came from. While Billy could send them back himself, it’s probably best if we get someone with more… control to do it this time.”

He glances at Teddy to see if he’d accidently set the other teen off but the blonde seems fine now, just a little tense. It’s obvious he cares deeply about Billy and will fight whoever says anything bad about him.

“Okay, you seem to have a good handle on the situation so you can deal with this. I’ll be at WE all day today. If you need me, just call.”

With that Bruce gets up from the table, finishes his drink in one, and disappears. Tim blinks at his retreating form, trying to work out if that just happened. He turns to Kon to see that his best friend is just as confused, “You saw and heard what I did right?”

He nods, “Uh huh. That’s weird.”

Opposite them Dick snorts, “He trusts ya Timmy, take it while you can.” He gets up from the table also, he does a couple of stretches before heading for the door, “Catch you guys later!”

Once his brother had disappeared, Tim turns to Teddy to see him staring ahead. “You okay Teddy?”

The blonde snaps too and sends him a smile, “Yeah, it’s just a lot to take in I guess. Dick Grayson is way more handsome than I’d ever thought he would be, Bruce Wayne is a lot larger than I thought, Alfred seems to be just as awesome as I assumed, this whole place is beyond mind blowing.”

“A lot to take in huh?” Kon sympathises with him. Teddy nods silently.

“Anyway,” Tim starts, “I was thinking that you and Billy can spend the day here, we all could go out and eat if you wanted just until I hear back from Babs about Zatanna.”

“Sounds good, could we wait a couple hours though, just so Billy can have some more rest?”

Tim nods, “Yeah, that’s no problem.”

It was mid-afternoon when the four of them all head out. The few hours since Breakfast Tim had filled the time up by doing some paperwork and a light workout routine. Kon had popped back to the farm to do some chores and had come back in civilian clothing, Tim had tried very hard to not stare at the way the plaid shirt stretches nicely across Kon’s broad back.

Teddy had spent the time in his and Billy’s room. Once Billy had woken up, got himself orientated with what’s going on, they had come to Tim’s room and then the four of them decided to go out taking one of the less flashy cars in Bruce’s collection.

Tim was taking them into the city for a late lunch. He still hadn’t heard from Babs about Zatanna yet, also this seemed like a good idea into getting to know the two dimension travellers and trying to see how much they knew about their world.

He pulls up to one of his and Kon’s favourite places to eat. Kon grins at him knowingly and Tim smiles back. Once he’s parked, they head inside and the familiar waitress sits them down at his and Kon’s normal table, it was near the back out of the way from everyone, the best place for privacy.

Tim and Kon sit on one side while Billy and Teddy take the other. They spend the time looking at what to order, or at least Billy and Teddy do, Tim and Kon already know what they’re having. They have the same every time they come here. After the waitress takes their orders they get talking.

“Would it be unfair to ask about how detailed those comics of yours are?” Tim asks, he may as well get straight to the point.

Both guests laugh, “Most likely? Probably something to do with a time line continuum somewhere? Plus we wouldn’t want to spoil anything for you guys.” Teddy answers lightly.

Kon leans forward looking at him, “Like?”

Teddy gives him a deadpan look, “Well I’m obviously not going to tell you know am I? That’s the whole point of a spoiler.”

Kon pouts, which Tim finds cute, “Fine.”

Billy laughs, “I still can’t believe you guys are real! This whole world is real! I didn’t mean for us to come here but recently my powers have been all over the place this is certainly a new level though. Tommy keeps having a go at me for it.”

“Who’s tommy?” Tim questions.

“His twin brother,” Teddy supplies, “He’s a speedster.”

“Oh right cool, what about you Teddy, any relatives?”

“No, I haven’t got any, but our team’s practically family so that counts I guess.”

Tim watches as Billy reaches over and takes his hand, they lace their fingers together. They share a look and smile between them. That definitely confirms that they’re together. At the actions he glances at Kon beside him to see the meta looking directly back at him, he offers a small smile before quickly looking away suddenly feeling hot.

Thankfully to save anything else from happening their food arrives and the four of them all tuck in.

Kon is instantly groaning around a mouth full of food, “Oh my god, this is so good!”

Tim rolls his eyes and smacks him on the arm, “Don’t talk with our mouth full!”

Kon narrows his eyes at Tim and starts obscenely chewing his food. Tim hits him again but can’t keep the smile off of his face at the childish display. “Conner!”

Conner eventually stops and goes back to eating like a normal human being once again. When Tim turns back he finds Billy and Teddy wearing matching amused expressions. Feeling slightly put off, Tim tries to ignore them and dives into his own meal.

“So how long have you guys been together?” Kon asks, this time his mouth free of any food.

Teddy and Billy shrug at the same time, “Couple years now.”

“Too long if you ask me.” Teddy says with a wink. Billy pouts and pinches him in retaliation.

“Were you together when you started heroics or got together afterwards? You mentioned a team, who does that consist of?” Tim questions curiously. He wonders how different their team is too his own.  

“No, we were together before we started. We started dating around the time Billy’s powers started showing up.” Teddy answers.

Billy laughs, “God knows how long we spent in my room with those goddamn self-help books. Teddy played a real big part in helping me get some of the control I have over them.”

Tim opens his mouth to ask about their team again but Kon gets in there first and asks, “So if we’re all comic book characters, who’s your favourite.”

Tim rolls his eyes in exasperation, “Of course you would want to know that.” He turns to the others, “Please don’t say it’s him. He doesn’t need his ego boosted any more than what it already is.”

He gets a couple of chuckles and a protest at that. Teddy and Billy go silent for a while as if thinking it over.

“It’s hard to say. There are favourites for different things. Do you mean like who’s our favourite looking? Who has our favourite power? Who’s our favourite villain or hero?”

Kon shrugs, “Any? All of them? Just give us something!”

“Well you guys are more relatable, teen heroes trying to fight the bad, being part of a team and going through teenage problems.”

“But Batman’s pretty awesome.”

“See I don’t know, Superman is up there. No wait Wonder Woman! Gotta love the badassness there!”

The two of them then get engrossed about what heroes are cool and who they prefer. They seem to forget that Kon and Tim were sat there. Tim leans over to Kon, “Look at what you’ve done now.”

Kon gives him a look, “Well sorry! How was I supposed to know they’d go off on one, excitedly talking about those we work with.”

Tim tunes back in Teddy and Billy’s conversation but has no idea on who they’re now talking about.

“They just need to admit their feelings! They’ve been pining for one another for years!”

“You tell me that like I don’t know. We can’t tell them that they like one another now can we?”

“I just want to see them together! The comics won’t do it so we have to!”

“How do you expect us to do that then? We can’t force them together, they’ve got to get together naturally.”

“This is them we’re talking about Teddy, they don’t do anything naturally.”

“Very true, what about-”

“What on earth are you guys on about?” Tim interjects having had enough of completely being lost.

The two of them look like deer’s caught in headlights and they instantly blush.

“Nothing!” Billy quickly says

Because that was discrete. Tim raises an unamused eyebrow. “Who were you on about? What two people have been pining over one another and that aren’t together in your comic books? They actually might be a couple here, the timeline may be off.”

Both teenagers give him a look like he’s stupid. It makes him feel like he’s missing something really obvious but he can’t tell what it is. He glances at Kon who had a look of concentration on his face, his eyebrows were drawn in together and his lips were pressed tightly together. He looked good. When Kon looks like that it reminds him of how much the meta has matured and grown over the recent years. It’s such a change from when he was his bratty, cocky younger self.

“What do you guys-” He starts asking them but was cut off by a beeping sound coming from his pocket. He grits his teeth and digs out his phone, glancing at the screen which shows him a message sent from Babs.

Zatanna will pop by the cave before patrol, make sure you’re ready for her.

He shoots here a quick text back confirming it before turning to the two dimension travellers. “Well, looks like your time in our universe will be a short one. Zatanna will be by tonight and hopefully will be able to send you home.”

A mixture of emotions cross each boys face, happiness, sadness, shock and relief but the main one seemed to excitement, especially from Billy.

“We’re going to meet Zatanna! Oh my god!”

Teddy laughs at his boyfriend, “Calm down B.”

Billy turns in his seat and plants his hands on the blonde’s shoulder’s, “Don’t tell me to calm down! We’re going to be meeting the most powerful magician in the DC universe Ted! I can’t believe it.”

“What’s DC Universe mean?” Kon asks next to him. Predictably he’s ignored by Billy fanboying and Teddy watching him with amused, love filled eyes.

Kon leans over to him, close enough that Tim could feel his breath against his cheek, “Now look at what you’ve done.”

Tim turns to him and smacks him. Kon, the jerk, just laughs. Tim leaves the three of them there at the table as he goes and hunts down the waitress to pay their bill. It doesn’t go unnoticed as the waitress glances at his group before looking at him with a smile. “I hope you all had fun on your double date. It’s nice to see boys out together in this day and age.

Tim freezes in his spot, feeling his whole face go hot in embarrassment and ends up stuttering, “Uh… we’re not… it’s not…” In the end he gives up, he gives her a tight smile and heads back to his table. As he approaches Kon looks at him funny.

“You okay dude, seem kinda flushed.”

“Fine.” Tim snaps at him. “Ready to go?”

The three of them all get up and together they head for the door, Tim makes sure to stay as far away from Kon as he can while they leave the café fully aware of the waitress watching them go by.

They climb into the car and have an easy journey back to the Manor. As they ascend up the stairs Kon announces that he needs to get back to the farm as Ma had texted him. Tim deflates at hearing that but gives his best friend an easy smile, he knows what it’s like.

Kon turns to Billy and Teddy, he gives them each a hand shake, “It was nice meeting you guys. Take care of yourselves and get back safe.”

The two guests smile and return the comment. Kon lets them go and wanders over to Tim, flinging his arm around his shoulders in a hug, “And Tim, dude, I’ll see you later on okay. Or whenever really.”

Tim gives him a quick hug back before letting go as Kon jumps into the air. He gives them all a mock salute and then like that he was gone. Tim hadn’t realised he was staring out into the open until a throat gets cleared behind him. He turns to find Billy and Teddy giving him that look again.

Having had enough he crosses his arms over his chest and glares at them. “What? Why do you guys keep looking at me like that? You’ve been doing it since we met last night!”

They glance at each other, having a silent conversation between them before they turn back to Tim. “Because you guys are so obvious yet you’re both completely oblivious.” Teddy states.

“Obvious about what? Oblivious about what?” With Kon gone Tim now kind of has an idea what they’re on about but he’s not willing to acknowledge it, yet.

“Tim, come on. Anyone can see it.” Billy says sounding exasperated.

Tim turns away from them, heading for the doors, “I don’t know what you’re on about.”

They follow behind him as they enter the Manor and head for his room. “You’re in denial Tim. You always have been, you’re scared of what’ll happen to your friendship with him.”

They get to his bedroom and once that door shuts Tim spins at them and snaps. “Yes I am scared! Yes I am in denial! How the fuck am I supposed to admit my feelings for my best friend? We have years of friendship behind us, if I let him know it’ll ruin all of that. Once my feelings are out there, it’ll ruin whatever we have now.”

To his annoyance both Billy and Teddy look sympathetic and understanding. “We understand that Tim, but you’re so wrapped up in yourself that you don’t realise or see that Kon feels the same way about you. I guarantee that he has the same worries as you do. You need to tell him, you need to talk to him.”

Tim feels the brief anger seep out of him and he slumps down onto his bed, suddenly feeling exhausted. He rubs a hand across his face, “I can’t do it. I can’t lose him again.”

He feels one of them sit next to him, a hand appears on his shoulder and squeezes reassuringly. “It’ll be okay. You just have to be honest and trusting.”

Tim snorts disbelievingly and then they lap into silence. Tim thinks it all through, he can’t tell Kon, he can’t. His best friend will look at him with such disgust and sudden hatred that Tim has no idea what he’d do after Kon walks away from him.

“Are we together in your comics? Is that what you’ve been hiding since arriving? It was us you were talking about in the café wasn’t it?” He asks them, hoping for an answer. What answer he doesn’t know, just something.

“No, you’re not, but you should be. Most people agree as well. We certainly think you should be. You make one another happy, you care about him in more ways than one. You almost gave your soul for him Tim when he died and you tried to clone him back. It’s just so obvious about how much you guys should be together.”

Tim cringes at the reminder of that dark time. He feels embarrassed and ashamed at hearing someone else say that, it’s worse that it’s come from someone from another dimension.

He shakes his head in refusal, “I can’t do it. Sorry guys but it’s not happening.”

The hand on his shoulder squeezes once more before it lets go, “Well just think about it.”

Tim nods, despite fully knowing he wouldn’t.

After that they move away from the topic of Kon and get into talking movies and video games, they get into comparing what film similarities there between their worlds and how ridiculous some of the old movies were. It was light-hearted and fun, it took Tim’s mind off of everything else.

They keep at it until Alfred calls them down for dinner where they join the rest of the family to eat. It wasn’t exactly awkward but it wasn’t really comfortable either. Dick kept up his usual chatter, Jason occasional added his own comments in, Bruce just eyed Billy and Teddy critically the entire time and Damian wasn’t interested. As they were doing that, Billy and Teddy just sat there mostly gawking at them all and occasionally answering the questions being fired their way.

That evening they were all down in the cave when Zatanna arrives. It was as weird as it was amusing watching Billy freak out over meeting Zatanna, Teddy was just as excited but unlike his partner he managed to contain it.

Zatanna allowed a few minutes of Billy being an excitable fanboy before getting down to business, she asks them a few questions on their origins and about Billy’s powers. It seems straightforward enough because 5 minutes later the magician announces she’d be able to send them home. 10 minutes later she had the spell ready to be casted.

That’s when they say their goodbyes. Tim smiles as both Billy and Teddy freak out when Dick and Alfred gives them a hug each and as Jason gives them a handshake, he laughs when they awkwardly wave bye to Bruce and Damian.

Finally it was his turn, he gives them a hug before pulling away. “Take care of yourselves.” He tells them, it was weird because he felt sad to see them go despite hardly knowing them.

Billy grins, “We will, or well as best as we can. No promises though.”

Tim huffs out a laugh and rolls his eyes, “Well that’s something so I’ll take it.”

“Thanks for having us,” Teddy says smiling, “We really appreciate it.”

“It’s no problem, it’s been fun.” Tim replies back.

“Boys you ready?” A voice behind them calls. Nodding their conformation they start to head over to where Zatanna was waiting.

Just before she casts the spell the two teenagers make eye contact with him one more time. “Just remember to talk to him! Be honest!”

Tim rolls his eyes, “Maybe! Maybe not!” He shouts just as they disappear from view. Where they were is now just an empty space once again, it was like Billy and Teddy never even existed. Zatanna soon disappears and they all start filtering out of the cave or start to get ready for patrol, however before he could make his own escape Dick appears next to him.

“What did they mean? Who do you have to speak to?”

Tim shrugs him off, heading for the changing rooms, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. It’s just them suggesting things about their own comics from their universe.” He makes it quick to disappear so Dick couldn’t ask any more questions.

The thought of Kon bugged him the entire night he was on patrol. He couldn’t get what Billy and Teddy had said to him out of his head and he couldn’t get rid of the variety of images he had of Kon in his mind. It was frustrating. Thankfully he had plenty of petty criminals to take his anger and frustrations out on but it didn’t do much to get rid of those thoughts once he was back at the cave.

It turns out that he didn’t need to think about it much longer because a little bit later, once he was in his room climbing into bed, Kon was there at his window tapping lightly on the glass. Tim gets out of bed and lets his best friend in, though he did debate whether that was a good idea or not for a minute.

Kon floats in and smiles brightly at him as he closes the window. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“So how was patrol?”

Tim waves his hand around uselessly and heads for his bed, “Oh you know, same old same old.” He plonks himself down on the mattress and watches as Kon sits down opposite him. “We sent Billy and Teddy back earlier by the way. Zatanna did it so they’re now back in their own universe.”

“That’s good to hear. They were different weren’t they? Makes you wonder what kind of world they live in.”

Tim shrugs, having not really thought about it. “I guess? I just can’t believe that there’s a world where we’re comic book characters.”

“Ha! That is pretty bizarre.”

They fall into silence and Tim flops down on his back, throwing his arm over his face to cover his eyes. It was late and he was tired. “Anyway Kon, what’s up? Why’d you fly all the way here?”

He feels Kon shift on the bed, “Nothing’s wrong man, I kinda just left pretty abruptly you know. I felt bad so I thought I’d come back over and tell ya that. Though I didn’t think about how late it was dude, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Tim mumbles. If it’s Kon it’ll always be okay.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but did you ever work out what they were hiding at all? They acted so secretive sometimes that it was suspicious. I get they couldn’t tell us everything but I feel like that there’s something more to it.”

Tim tenses up at hearing that. He’d forgotten how perceptive Kon has gotten recently. He swallows thickly, grateful that most of his face was covered to hide the blush that’s made it’s way onto his cheeks.

Be honest. Talk to him. Be trusting. Be honest. Honesty.

The words float around in his head right there in the front of his mind. He was so busy thinking about what the dimension travellers had said to him that he realises to late at what he had said out loud.

“I like you.”

The room falls into silence at that. Not a comfortable, relaxing silence but one with tension and heaviness in it.

Tim curses himself. Stupid. Stupid idiot. You dumbass stupid moron of an idiot-

“What?”

“I like you.” He repeats. “I mean I like, like, you. They were hiding the fact that it was apparently so blatantly obvious.”

“Really…” Kon had gone quiet which makes Tim peek from underneath his arm in curiosity. Kon was staring back at him with intense eyes and Tim feels himself heat up at the attention.

Kon licks his lips, “And what if I said that I like you back?”

Tim blinks disbelievingly, his mouth drops in shock, “Wha-”

That’s when Kon was leaning over, grabbing his arm and yanking him up into a sitting position so they were face to face. Tim couldn’t help but look down at his lips and back up to his blue eyes. Kon’s own eyes flicker down before they bounce back up.

He’s not sure who made the first move but they were then kissing. Lips pressing lightly against one another as they both seem hesitant but when Tim opens his mouth just slightly Kon presses against him little harder and they fall into an easy rhythm. As Kon presses against him, Tim brings his hands up and runs them over Kon’s hair and across his shoulders, he feels Kon’s own hands pet his sides and his back.

When they pull apart after what seems like forever they’re both panting slightly. Kon grins and rests his forehead against Tim’s.

“So?”

“So?” Tim repeats smiling.

“I like you too dude.”

“I got that.”

He gets a pinch in retaliation for that. “Hey Tim.”

“Yeah Kon?”

“Be my boyfriend?”

In reply Tim kisses him even harder than before and drags him down with him on the bed. Kon takes that as his answer and goes with his movements, not once breaking contact as they adjust to the new position. Turns out Billy and Teddy were right after all, though why did it take them meeting some other teenagers from a different universe to get together? Not that Tim was complaining of course, it was just strange that’s all.

[ravensroundofrobins]

Since most of y'all Don't seem to Know her.... Let’s DO THIS BRIEF HISTORY OF ROBIN!STEPH BUCKLE TF UP BITCHES

(Note: For the most part, Steph’s time as Robin is included in the War Games TPB, especially because it serves as a catalyst for said event. Highly recommended the read, but mind, like, everything about it) ((also also tumblr only allows 10 pics, so I'm cherry picking my fav panels/most important ones. + offering a bit of meta. take this with a grain of salt and Please read War Games and draw your own conclusions blah blah))

So to start with, a little Context to Steph’s Start as Robin:

Tim’s dad found out about his Robining & made him hang up the cape+mask. As any Concerned and Reasonable parent would. Steph is still operating as Spoiler at the time, despite many attempts by many members of the batfam (but especially Batman) to dissuade her from crime-fighting.

Due to a gross misunderstanding (as these things tend go in comics *sigh*) Steph, who is dating Tim at the time, sees a girl who was interested in him make a move & thinks that Tim is cheating on her. She channels this grief/mourning/anger into making her own homemade Robin costume and convinces Batman to take her under his wing (he sets the conditions that she must follow every order, with a ‘one strike, you’re out’ kind of policy). She undergoes an unspecified training period to get in Proper Shape For Crime Fighting and Batman starts taking her on various patrols and investigations.

During this time, she also teams up with Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) on more than one occasion (one of my fav panels below, just bc its so stylized lmao. its Cute)

During this time, in true Robin Tradition, Steph builds up quite the rapport with Batman, providing a lighter/comedic side and being a general breath of fresh air and foil to the Dark Knight. (just LOOK at this banter & Bargaining for the batmobile!!! a TRUE ROBIN)

There’s a couple cases that I won't get too far into (but one i want to briefly mention involves Zsasz and Steph going almost a bit too far when trying to subdue him. its a very clear parallel to Jason & serves as foreshadowing for how War Games will play out i.e., Steph’s fate) 

Now during this time, there’s an assassin/merc who is killing off teens who were suspected to be Robin (Tim Drake), which Batman catches wind of and the Dynamic Duo moves in to put an End to. (look at this smug lil robin, catching the Bad Guy™ off guard. ADORABLE)

Another thing to note now, is how Eager Robin is to jump onto the case and into the fray. and how carefully she toes the line when following/questioning batman’s orders. this is touched on many times often either with her able to juuuuust reason with the caped crusader enough to Bend his own orders or even to change his mind on occasion.

(a thing i want to note here with this panel and with this particular time in Steph’s career as Robin is that the writer had her referring to Batman as ‘Boss’. whether this was intentional or not, it most closely resembles, to me, Carrie Kelley’s mannerisms as Robin. i.e. another Robin that the writers may have been using as inspo/to parallel. Carrie’s time as Robin is also defined by Batman’s grief from losing Jason, and is given a very similar probationary status that Steph is given during her time as Robin. coincidence? maybe. but i think not.)

While they lose track of the villain initially, Steph’s quick thinking to place trackers on her is what saves the mission. at the Moment at least. Batman makes a decision to bring Robin along when tracking their prey, but orders her to stay behind in the batplane & ‘not touch anything’ unless ordered to do so. which is where we get the Defining Moment:

When Steph, against orders, jumps into the fray. its something to be admired, and very Typical Robin Behavior (bc where would they be if they weren't impulsive and, well, KIDS, amirite?) but unfortunately, her decision costs them the chance of apprehending the villain, and Batman stays true to his word...

and she's Fired (g o d I'm not the biggest fan of damion scott’s art but this look BROKE MY HEART. i can practically HEAR those choked back tears and see that quivering lip like... G O D BRUCE NO. GIVE HER ANOTHER CHANCE. ANYTHING ELSE THAN WHATS GONNA HAPPEN)

here’s where I'm gonna TL;DR War Games for y’all bc.... holy shit its a LOT. and Steph’s involvement really only begins it, and essentially ends it. (literally lmao. she's featured a little throughout but like. its a Crossover Event™ for a reason. everyone gets a little bit of the spotlight, which means a bit of shuffling around ofc) but Anyways

tl;dr - steph takes one of Batman’s contingency plans on her way out of the cave & implements it w/out being aware of a few Key Details. all out War breaks amongst the different gangs of gotham, with Batman & company trying to regain control of the city & maintain order. Black Mask resurfaces, catches and tortures Steph to learn details about the plan and makes his own grab for power (fun fact, for those of you paying attention to the Big Picture: this essentially sets up for his position later on in Under The (Red) Hood when Jason starts wrestling that control away from him) Steph manages to escape, Batman takes her to Dr. Thompkins clinic, and Leslie reveals that her condition is critical. bruce makes it back in time to be by steph’s side for this:

and then she dies ;-;

BUT THIS IS COMICS- so its revealed initially that Leslie withheld treatment to save Steph’s life to Make A Point and try to dissuade Gotham Youth from following Steph’s path. BUT-BUT WAIT THERES MORE BC THIS IS ~*C O M I C S*~ so its ALSO revealed later on that steph DIDNT die. Leslie helped fake her death and blah blah blah, Steph comes back, gets to be spoiler again, then batgirl and the rest as they say is history

anyways. STRAIGHT FROM THE BAT’S MOUTH THANKS. Steph WAS really™ a Robin™ and as much as DC wants to pry that from my gay goblin hands they WONT be able to. and anyways... She Earned It. okay. give this girl the Respect she deserves. 

(now since I'm a Shipping Blog™, ima add some thoughts regarding her parallel to other robins and how Theoretically a relationship with raven might work out)

Again, the biggest parallel that DEFINES War Games and Steph’s time as Robin, is that to Jason Todd. (fun fact/sidenote: they’re both Leos, so like. Another Connection btwn the two lmao) They’re both impulsive and eager to prove themselves, and follow Batman with unwavering faith and loyalty (up to a Certain Breaking Point that is). They’ve got especially cheeky attitude and flair for drama, and hey. Narratively speaking, writers seem to have a penchant for drawing a few connecting lines between them (again, by starting the WG TPB off with Bruce mourning on Jason’s bday & setting a Tone for the overall event. and then again, by having a major character for UtRH be the very same villain that killed our former girl wonder) 

Now with those lines drawn, and with an understanding of how Jason has interacted with Raven in-canon (with mostly cordial interactions and for the most part respectful analysis of each other’s abilities & strengths), & no known connection between Steph & Rae as of yet, we can really only assume a few things:

-like most of the batboys, Raven is very likely to get along with Steph and to respect her abilities given that Steph respects her in turn.

-Steph’s bright, extroverted personality could again work as a good foil/compliment to Raven’s more introverted/muted one.

-theyve got what i like to call the Bad Dad™ connection (with Steph’s being a former Gotham Rogue™, and Raven’s... well.. y'all Know) Steph’s already shown great Morbid Humor regarding this part of her life (shown in her interactions with Cass) and is very willing to bond with others over Sucky Parents

-while stephanie has a canonical Love™ of Waffles, and raven (at least in regards to her Most Popular fanon from the 03 cartoon) has a fanonical love of them as well. Hence, they ARE the Waffle Queens (embrace the ridiculousness, guys. DO IT)

-Since steph is not an Adopted member of Bruce’s family (& again, more often than not they have attempted to dissuade her from vigilantism) and similarly, due to Batmans Dislike of meta-humans/outsiders messing with Affairs in His City, as well as some of his canonical Distrust™ for Raven due to her mysterious background/nature. this could be another minor/potential bonding point between the two

-likely more??? its getting late, and not much else I can think of off the top of my head, but i might add more to this later. 

as a ship StephRae has as much potential as any other, and since there’s not a lot of canon to really go off, fans can really take it.... wherever and i think thats beautiful

[cearamorran]

If you could tell me more about Ivy!Jason and Gardeninghoe!Tim please.

@absolutely-flabbergasted

ah, yes, the famous gardeninghoe!tim AU ahahafirst of all thank you for asking cause i’m dying to rant about this, and also sorry this is so long but i think way too much about this AU and have talked about it with a lot of cool people who gave me even more ideas so I have a lot to say;

i thought about a ton of ways of how Jason could have gotten his powers, but my most developed one was that it could be Poison Ivy‘s doing. Like she could have found him while he was brain dead and wandering gotham, and didn’t have the heart to leave him to himself so she took him in for a while and tried to help him using her own powers.A lot of it didn’t work so she finally resolved to using more drastic measures, thinking that it wasn’t as if anything she could do could make it worse. That ended up not working either, but Jason gained some of her powers and she didn’t know about it until he came back to her after the League took him from her and tossed him in the Pit.

He started planning his revenge on Bruce and discovered by accident that he had powers and since they were plant related he went to her to get answers. She was just as surprised as him and they talked and bonded and sorta became plant-bros, like at first he was kinda mad at her but soon realized she was only trying to help this kid she found on the street and didn’t mean to make him a meta at all.

They’re mostly friendly after he’s done with all the Bruce drama; he doesn’t stop her and she doesn’t get in his way, they even hang out sometimes with Selina or maybe even Harley (though that’s a whole new can of worms. They could totally bond over their clown related issues after Jason gets over his immediate distrust for her, with Ivy acting as a mediator between them at first?)He mostly doesn’t use his powers unless it’s a life or death situation or it could really help him with one of his cases, and also maybe if he used them too intensely he could go full Ivy and stay greenish for a extended period of time?? He wouldn’t be able to turn back and his eyes would keep glowing and he’d have the green veins 24/7, and that wouldn’t do since he doesn’t want the Batfam to know for a number of reasons.

Then, one time when he’s working a case with Tim, he uses his powers to get some info or smth, thinking that Tim’s busy fighting goons elsewhere or whatever, but he’s not and Tim sees him. So Tim being Tim he wants to know all about it, of course, and even though Jason’s reluctant at first he starts to open up, and Tim’s so enthusiastic it’s hard to act all broody so he soon warms up to him. They bond over that shared secret and he even starts using his powers in front of him more regularly, even for stupid things, and he gets mad at Tim when he goes to his apartment and sees all his plants are almost dead because he’s a human disaster and always forgets to water them.

Then there would be some scenario that i’m too dumb to elaborate perfectly, but the idea is that Poison Ivy would start acting up, and Bruce would just think she’s being the usual villain but Jason would know she’s being weird, like he hasn’t heard from her for a while and when he went to see her she tried to attack him, so he knows there’s something wrong and either he goes to Tim for help or Tim goes to him when he understands that Ivy’s acting weird too, and they team up to discover what’s going on and help her get back to her usual self. That would eventually lead to the whole Batfam finding out about Jason’s powers (and to him and Tim fuckin realizing their feelings for each other if you want, cause this AU could be shippy or not it doesn’t matter, I just want Jason going to a sleepover with Pam, Selina and Harley tbh ahaha)

[wellthatjusthappend]

Witchboy AU

Just more Jason things.

It’s always the damn birds.

Jason has been able to hear them since he was little. It was known, but not commonly thought about, that birds carried spirits of the dead that couldn’t move on. Most people thought it was a superstitious joke. Jason figured his life was a joke anyway so that made sense in a twisted way. He used to curl up in the closet and cover up his ears to cover up the sound of the birds on the windows.

It was just chirping to most people, but to him-

“I gave you my wallet, I don’t understand why-”

“Harry just has a bit of temper, see? He wouldn’t really hurt me-”

“Mommy, mommy, come back! I’ll be good! I swear I’ll be good-”

“Where am I going to find that kind of money? I don’t care what kind of hot shot psycho he thinks he is, you can’t just-”

“All my tax dollars for this? These roads are so dangerous-”

“It’s not my fault!”

“I just want to go home…”

“Help!”

“Someone help!”

Over and over and over again a million different ways.

He tried telling people about it - especially when it sounded like the ghost had been murdered- but everyone thought he was just a kid with a wild imagination or looking for attention. He eventually realized that he should keep what he heard to himself or people would think he was crazy and lock him up in Arkham when he was older.

He wanted to help though. Wanted to get justice for all the people he heard in the birds everyday. Wanted to make it so the people responsible were caught so there weren’t so many new ghosts turning up everyday.

He got his chance when Batman took him in.

One of the best things about crime fighting at night was the fact that sparrows weren’t nocturnal. He could kick ass all over the city and not have to be anxious about the listening to another horrible victim he wasn’t able to save. Though it was Gotham: there was still plenty of horrible to be seen with his eyes. But at least Batman could also see that shit.

Plants also responded to him.

His mother used to joke that he had a green thumb. She’d get little plants for their windowsill from the store that were going to be thrown away because they were almost dead. A week or so under Jason’s care and they’d be thriving. Alfred also commented when he had moved into the Manor that the gardens had never been so lush. The whole grounds at Wayne Manor was bursting with life while he was there.

Now Jason was pretty sure he wasn’t a Meta. Afterall, Meta’s had power. Jason didn’t really think he had power. The spirits were always in the birds, he could just hear them. He wasn’t like Poison Ivy, he couldn’t control plants, they just grew better when he existed in their vicinity. And the other things, the shadows that sometimes only he could see, the streets in lower Gotham that only sometimes existed, the alleyways that looked perfectly harmless but Jason could sort sense were distinctly… other. But none of that was Jason.

The only things that sometimes made him wonder sometimes were the occasions that he really thought had killed him but just… apparently didn’t. Being stuck outside in the winter in Gotham and being so cold, lying in an alleyway and watching everything slowly fade to black while a light snowfall covered him- and then waking up in the morgue at Gotham City Hospital (he’d booked it out of there so fast, scared the shit out of a couple of nurses). Falling into the bay by accident when he couldn’t swim, struggling and struggling to get the surface and just not being able to- and then waking up on the banks perfectly fine a week later.

That shit was weird and scared the fuck out of him. He generally tried not to think about it.

But Jason still  was sure he wasn’t a Meta.

He didn’t tell Bruce about any of it though when he came to live with him because, well, at first he wasn’t sure he’d believe him. Didn’t want Batman to think he was crazy and take away Robin. Then… well, it wasn’t a secret how much Bruce distrusted Meta’s and Magic users. He didn’t even let them in Gotham. And Jason agreed, they were dangerous and always wrecked the city.

But even though Jason wasn’t a Meta (he wasn’t, he wasn’t!) he was terrified of Bruce not seeing it that way. Would he still be allowed to be Boy Wonder if it was known he could hear ghosts? Would Bruce send him away? Would he lose his home?

Not worth the risk.

So he pretended not to hear the ghosts, ignored the shadows, stayed away from the garden, and gave everything to being Robin.

Sometimes though, the things the ghosts said were just too much for Jason to ignore. He’d make up some contact he had on the street- a “birdy” he sometimes joked, no one needed to know how literal that was- and tell Bruce about whatever fucker was making so many sparrows lurk around his window.

The only person who had looked like maybe they might know for one fraction of a second was Poison Ivy. The look on her face when one of the vines she’d tied him up with had suddenly burst into bloom… Jason had immediately known in his gut she hadn’t been the one to do that. Before she could get any twisted ideas he’d broken free and set fire to a bunch of her plants and then she was simply too mad to care that the Green liked Robin more than it should.

Jason wondered sometimes if he should’ve told Bruce anyways about all of it. He thought about it briefly when he’d woken up in his coffin six feet under delirious and clawing his way out. Would Bruce have buried Jason so deep if he’d known there was a chance Jason might just wake back up?

He died again when he’d stumbled out of the graveyard and immediately got hit by a car.

All the ghosts were louder when he woke up yet again in another morgue. The shadows much sharper than they should be the veil between the human world and all that other way to thin. Talia had picked him up and he’d been either completely unresponsive because of how overwhelming everything was or babbling about the things he was seeing. She’d thought he was crazy, that perhaps not all of him had come back from the dead, and had pushed him into a Lazarus Pit.

The birds fled from his presence, the plants now more likely to die, the shadows to shy away cautiously.

Because the Lazarus Pit had been the start of a whole new kind of madness.